Saturday, August 31, 2013

Sacred Objects, Sacred Spaces


 My mind is still...........


 Listening.......... waiting ...... resting..............


 Spiritual healing with my two great friends this morning, sharing coffee and pastries and travel stories and ideas and family and thoughts and dreams and inspiration and a quiet walk through town.
 I am truly blessed to have such friends.


 Susan's bookmaking from Haystack ......... inspiring........ definitely sacred objects, exquisite little books, beautifully and lovingly crafted.


 Contemplation of objects and why I love them, what makes them sacred to me .......


 Sacred spaces...... what brings me comfort and peace?



 Mind ........ body ........... spirit.............. healing.......... doors opening and closing.


 Quiet ........... rest .............. wait....... anticipate.


Consider the objects we make with our hands ........... these are things we love and keep for ourselves or pass on to others to cherish ...... they are sacred objects, thanks to my friends for reminding me of this.


An open gate and a well traveled path, nice metaphor for today.


I watched a daughter say goodbye to her dad yesterday, we shared our love and respect for him, we all laughed and celebrated the life that touched so many.

I drove home down Old 86 today after a much needed visit with my friends, feeling hopeful and inspired and grateful that I have such great people in my life.

I put in a Lucinda Williams CD, listening to Drunken Angel, that familiar dark warm wave washed over me, thoughts of my daddy, and I cried for him, cried for every single day that I miss him since he left  20 years ago. I cried for all I didn't say to him, I cried for the last time I saw him and barely said goodbye. I cried for the time Wesley never got to spend with him.

There was a time cocaine and tequila would have soothed all the pain from living with a drunken angel, but today, I just let the memories come and be what they are to me, a constant companion that shapes who I am...........

My art making has stalled, I care absolutely nothing about making anything for the sake of selling it.
 I want to make things that matter, things that comfort, things that have a connection for the person that buys something I make. My work has been like that in the past, but the making for selling aspect has me burned out.

I'm resting........

Grateful for those who are there to share this life

peace ya'll
xo

Friday, August 30, 2013

Me and my Shadow


When Wesley was younger,  I called her my little shadow, because she followed me and went with me everywhere. We were almost always together. When I started Weight Watchers in July, she started walking with me every evening. Our shadows were funny. Her little tiny stick figure and my more rounded not stick figure, walking together. Since she went back to school I have started walking alone, early in the morning, around 7:30, since I don't have to wait for her to get up and the mornings are much cooler. This morning I noticed my shadow. I guess the sun is changing locations and my shadow was always either in front of me, to the right or to the left. I noticed it was more stick like today, close to the size of Wesley's shadow. It was funny to have my shadow there. It felt oddly like there was someone walking with me. There is a crow up the road from us that sits in the tree each morning and cheers me on, and there is the little family of deer that are always in someone's yard grazing. They stop and watch me as I walk by and sometimes start walking along with me. I have started increasing the time I walk. I started at 30 minutes, then went to 40 minutes and now I am walking for almost an hour. I have come to look forward to this walk, this time of quiet contemplation and time spent outside, listening to the birds, looking at the clouds, watching the animals, amazed at nature in general. It's a nice replacement for mind numbing computer time. I don't facebook, tweet, pin, tumble, google or surf. I check the blogs I like, check my email, then I am out the door to check on Mother Nature.......... my mind has never felt more still.

Weigh in today and I have lost 9 pounds. I have been asked by the WW leader to give a presentation at the meeting in two weeks on the topic "Believe and Succeed". I totally believe in this program, at least for me. It's exactly the kind of head game that makes me succeed. Positive results and positive reinforcement, without competition or judgement or comparison to others. Just me and my head and the best reward, seeing the scale drop each week. Not to mention how much better I feel. Hopefully next week I will celebrate a 10 pound loss! and then I am halfway to my goal.

Today we will go and celebrate the life of our friend John Page, and say our goodbyes. I hope for a joyful celebration of his life instead of a sad grieving for the loss. That's how he would have wanted it..

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Mentor and friend leaves us


Gerry's long time friend and mentor John Page passed away yesterday. It was a very sad day for both of us. Here is a great story the News and Record ran about John and his long career as a photojournalist. Take a moment to enjoy the life and times of one of the great photographers. Not many of these guys left anymore. Journalism seems to be dying along with all of these greats......


Photographer John Page dies, but his legacy remains

GREENSBORO — He joined the Greensboro Daily News and the Greensboro Record in 1963, and logged his last assignment Oct. 29, 1997.
He saw photography go from the 4x5 Speed Graphic to 35 mm to digital cameras.
He videotaped the Woolworth sit-ins in 1960 for WFMY-TV, and the Klan-Nazi shootings for the Daily News in 1979.
And he schooled a whole generation of photographers with gruff encouragement and a big hearty laugh.
John Page, who spent a lifetime capturing images of Greensboro life, died Monday morning. He was 75. Forbis & Dick Funeral Home on West Friendly Avenue is handling the arrangements, which are incomplete.
Page’s most famous photo was of the McCrary twins, who also wrestled under the name, the McGuire twins. They were immortalized as the World’s Heaviest Twins, weighing 750 and 720 pounds. On a tour promoting Honda motorcycles, Page shot a photo of the twins riding away that was reprinted in Life magazine and served as the back cover of the Guinness Book of World Records for years.
“I remember him telling me about making that picture,” said Gerry Broome, a former News & Record photographer who now works for the Associated Press in Raleigh. “He’d shot a bunch of pictures, but none of them felt right. It wasn’t until the moment they drove away that he realized, that’s the picture, right there.”
It represents one of many lessons he learned from Page — never give up.
Page was never intimidated by the young sharpshooters who came to the paper as many of his colleagues left or retired, and he was generous in sharing his knowledge.
“He got along great with everybody,” said News & Record photographer Joe Rodriguez. “I was one of the first young guys to come in (to join the staff), and he was very welcoming.”
When Broome joined the staff, Page offered to share his darkroom with him.
“John was like my father away from home,” Broome said. “He gave me more real-life lessons than any one person in this world. Whether it was a technical question or life question, John always had an answer.”
Many of those lessons were imparted over lunch at Your House, his favorite restaurant.
“The first order of the day was deciding when to go Code One — which meant going to lunch,” recalls Rob Brown, News & Record director of photography. “He’d say, ‘Come on, let’s go to the House.’ But he never ate anything. He’d just smoke and have a cup of coffee.”
In an era when restaurants asked, “Smoking or nonsmoking,” he’d reply, “Heavy smoking.”
Page loved shooting photos of children, but he hated shooting sports, said his daughter, Honour Jump.
“When I used to cover soccer, I remember how he complained the whole time he was there,” says former News & Record reporter Elizabeth House. “But he turned in some of the best soccer pictures we ever had.”
He gave all his colleagues nicknames. Rob Brown became “Rog,” Lynn Hey was “Hey Lynda,” and Scott Hoffmann was Herb. He also nicknamed every photo intern, and that would be the only name they were called all summer long.
At work, he was always talking about Ernie (his wife, Ernestine) and Honour, his only child. At home, he shared stories about his fellow photographers, Jump said.
“Daddy loved the guys, he really did,” she said.
He was also the best dad a girl ever had, she says.
She was proud to say her father was a photographer for the newspaper, and she loved being his subject when he needed a picture of a kid on a swing, or to photograph a school class.
“He was so easygoing,” Jump said. “He never did anything bad to anyone in his whole life. He was great fun, a great guy, and he spoiled me rotten. Rotten.”
Jump remembers overhearing him tell her mother he was going to shoot a protest march, and was worried about the possibility of people bringing guns. Jump was at Four Seasons Mall when they announced over the loudspeaker that there had been a shooting at a downtown protest. She went home in tears, worried that her father might be hurt.
Page had chosen to photograph what became known as the Klan-Nazi shooting from the top of a parking garage, and was unhurt.
“His level of experience — there weren’t many situations he hadn’t been in,” Broome said. “He really ran the gamut of our business during his career.”
Rodriguez was most impressed by how easily Page made the transition to digital photography, which even the younger generation was resisting.
“He embraced it quickly and fully,” Rodriguez said. “And he made me look at it in a different way. Film certainly had better quality, but he pointed out all the things digital gave us the ability to do — like shoot a picture and transmit it from our car.”
After he retired, Page cared for his wife, who became ill and died in 2005. He only used a camera to shoot family photos of Honour, her husband and the grandbabies, she said. A coin and gun collector, he read a lot of books about U.S. history, and was learning how to speak fluent Spanish in his last years.
He died, Jump says, of stubbornness.
“He was so worried about inconveniencing me that he refused to come live with us,” she said Monday afternoon. “He was fiercely independent, but he needed to be watched.”
He fell, as she had long feared, and couldn’t get to the phone. In the seven hours before a neighbor found him, he had a heart attack. He had also been suffering from pneumonia, and COPD from a lifetime of smoking.
“He had a living will, and refused any kind of treatment,” she said. “He didn’t want to fight, and I respect him for that.”
He already had everything planned for his funeral and money set aside.
Before he became unable to talk, he said, “Now now, Honour, you better not be sad. You know I miss your momma, and I want to be with her again. I’ve also had a very long, very good life.”
“He made it so easy for me,” Jump said. “It was a blessing that I had him for as long as I had him, and he made it as easy as he could for me.”
His second family, the fellowship of photographers, feel the same way.
“When the big man upstairs made old John Page, he threw away the mold,” said Gerry Broome. “He meant the world to me.”

Saturday, August 24, 2013

Mindful eating


 I have just finished week seven of Weight Watchers, still going to the meetings every Friday morning at 10:30. Yesterday I celebrated my first goal. I have now lost 5% of my body weight. I feel so much better just having 8 less pounds. I can walk the hills in our neighborhood at a good pace without feeling like I am going to pass out. I was starting to have problems with acid reflux, gone now. My knees don't hurt, joints don't hurt, and I have a lot more energy. Also, my old favorite clothes fit again and my arms don't look like an old lady! Eight more to go!

Yesterday at the meeting, the leader was talking about quick meals and as everyone mentioned their tricks for quick meals, I realized I don't do quick meals anymore. Others talked about their Lean Cuisines and their Wendy's drive through salad, and the frozen steamed veggies. All the while I was thinking about the fresh cantaloupe and tomatoes I stopped and picked up at a roadside stand last week, thought about the beautiful red and yellow and green peppers I picked up at the farmers market last week. I sliced all of them up and put them in a clear container and reached for them all week for snacking and for use in stirfry, along with all the other fruits and veggies I picked up.

I think frozen meals are really misleading. I used to buy them for nights when I was here alone, but then I started looking at what I was really eating, and thought, "what? I can make this with fresh ingredients quicker than I can thaw this out in the microwave", which by the way, zaps all the enzymes so you lose all nutritious value to that food. Last year we got rid of the microwave and I have not missed it one bit.
I can take a few minutes on a Saturday or a Sunday, prep all of my veggies and fruits and they are there and ready for me to enjoy all week. I don't like to buy the pre chopped vegetables and fruits at the grocery store, because then I am stuck with the plastic containers and recycling them. I actually enjoy the time I spend washing all the beautiful things I get at the farmers market and cutting them up. I enjoy the smell of a fresh cantaloupe, the redness of a fresh tomato, the juice of a ripe watermelon. Having direct contact with the food that will fuel and nourish my body reminds me of how important eating good food really is. This time I spend preparing meals is a mindful process for me and one I have not always considered. I used to dread fixing meals, and I was bad about just shoving something in to sustain me, not even really considering if it was doing me any good. But then I realized, I am very lucky to have access to good food and I should be grateful and more respectful to the food I eat that sustains me and my family. Another bonus, is that Wesley has formed good eating habits at a young age. Just as I was typing this post, I got a text from her saying she was heading to the farmers market at Old Salem. Talk about mindful eating. Old Salem is such a beautiful place, what a great way to spend a Saturday morning. Instead of waking up with a hangover from a Friday night college party, my girl is heading to the market to buy fresh food! I am smiling as I write this, and so proud of her!

Since I started WW, I have not been through a single fast food establishment, except Subway, where I got a chopped salad, which was delicious. I have had three soft drinks, and have finally realized I don't even like sodas. I like the fizz, so I have started buying seltzer water, and that satisfies my fizzy craving. I have had two light beers, don't even really miss those. I have cut out sugar, except for an occasional oatmeal raisin cookie that I baked myself and chocolate, never ever will give up my chocolate! But that's the great thing with WW, you don't have to deprive yourself of anything, just watch the portions!
And I walk every day. Another time for contemplation and quiet.
My body is thanking me for all of this.


If you bite it, write it! I write down every single thing I eat. I am surprised some days at the amount of food I have consumed and fear that I will not move the scale at my Friday weigh in, but every week I drop at least a pound.  If I have to write it down, I think about what I am getting ready to put in my mouth. Writing down a soda and oatmeal cookie for breakfast does not look that good on paper, but having a healthy veggie wrap and fresh fruit looks great. Tracking my food has been the greatest contributor to my weight loss by far. I can look back and see why one week I lose almost two pounds and then one week the scale is creeping back up. I have discovered there is a ton of sodium in restaurant food, and it definitely shows on the scale. So I am much more aware of sodium now than I ever was. And sugar. Sooo much SUGAR in the foods we eat. The last issue of National Geographic had a great story about how toxic sugar is for us. A great read!


Today the scale said 152! My 10% goal is 144, but I would like my final weight to be 140. That is a weight I am very happy at and look best. I'm not interested in looking anorexic, but I was getting a couple of additional chins and a really fat ass. Not to mention health issues and feeling like shit.
This is working and it's easy!


Most of my week has been filled with trips out of town picking up props for the upcoming show I'm working on. The set will be a live radio show. I was able to get this old sound board for free, thanks to a hook up from my pal Laura's husband Bob! That's what I love about prop work, it's like a treasure hunt. I call someone and they hook me up with another person, and then they hook me up with someone, and before long, I have met a bunch of new people, usually some very eccentric person that I would have never run across otherwise. It's always interesting and fun and I love it!


I needed student chairs for the art installation portion of this show and found these on Craigslist in Kinston, NC, which is a two hour drive from here. It was a beautiful day, and I was needing a long drive fix anyway, so I drove down to pick these up. They were in an old abandoned elementary school, this place was full of office furniture and school furniture. Desks, chairs, file cabinets, projectors, carts, soooo much stuff! It makes my head swell to think of all the unused stuff out there, and the empty buildings, and yet, we just keep manufacturing more and building more. Why do we need more stuff!?!?!? It's crazy and I notice it more and more when I am out looking for props. I can't get my head around this at all.

So right now I am a prop girl. No weaving, no clay, just shopping and searching for the things we need for a show. My phoney baloney life, haha! It's all good though. In the end, this show will raise awareness concerning the pitiful state of our educational system, the state of our prisons with regard to young people and the deplorable conditions in which our teachers have to work. I am happy to be a part of this, it feels good to be working on such an important issue.

It's been a good week. Wesley is settling in to her new home, cooking with her room mates, yesterday they planted a fall garden. I feel really good about where she is. I'm sorting out what I'm doing right now, still feeling like I am in some sort of transition, but it all feels right and I'm not too worried about where my head is. Gerry is about to go into full sports shooting mode. I guess lucky for us this country is obsessed with sports, there is not a lack of need for sports photography, but still..... really?!
I am just waiting for a time when this world can get it's priorities straight. Will it ever come?????

Monday, August 19, 2013

Year Three


You would think this business of taking your kid to college would get easier by year three, but nay, it does not....
I woke up with a lump in my throat at 4am, the dog pissed in the hall at 5am just to distract us, Gerry was not pleased with him, so the whole house was good and awake by 7am. We just all got the hell up and went down to Franklin St. for breakfast, why not! All packed up the day before, so we got to the school by noon and got her all settled in to her new house. Whew!

Here is a building in the film village. The movie poster third from the left is from the screenplay Wesley wrote last year. These are posters of the fourth year films that were produced in 2012. The first year we came to UNCSA for a tour to check out the school I said to Wesley, just think, you could have a poster up there in your fourth year. Little did I know she would have one up by second year,  She wrote the screenplay for a fourth year producer and the faculty picked it.




There is her name all up on the big wall, wooohooo! So proud, I just had to ride by today and look at it


Obligatory going to school photos with dad and mom, sorry Wes, we have to do this! I have a very cute husband, we make a good team :-)


Mom and daughter, looking all sassy with our new haircuts, haha! Hair is eight inches shorter for me and I'm eight pounds lighter. First time I have fit into these jeans in over a year!!! Big WHOOP! I seem to be shrinking in height too... hmmmm......

So, it's over. We have her moved back to school, there is a big old empty hole in the space she occupied all summer. But she is in the coolest house, with some great roommates that were so happy to see her. She is loved, she is all cozied in her room, all is well with the world today.
The sky cried all day, so I didn't have to.......

Teach your children what you believe in.
Make a world that we can live in.



Sunday, August 18, 2013

Sunday




Wesley finally finished the edit of the sand mandala video project she did this summer. She sent it to the Dharma center and got a wonderful response from the director of the monk tour, including a request to do more work for them. I think she did a fantastic job on her first video after two years of film school.
So fitting to post this today. This was the beginning of Wesley's summer break and we are packing up today to move her back to school tomorrow. A nice way to end the summer......Enjoy!

Friday, August 16, 2013

Sorting out who I really am.....


 I seem to be drifting further and further from clay these days. My time has been filled lately with getting Wesley ready to go back to college. Furniture shopping and trips back and forth to her house.
This week we treated ourselves to new haircuts on one trip. My favorite stylist ever works in Winston Salem where her school is, how convenient! My hair was totally our of control, so I got quite a bit of it chopped off.

My summer has been spent being a mom. Time spent working on furniture projects, some weaving, some travel, shopping, art projects, cooking. I  haven't touched clay since March. I just don't feel that passion and obsession I used to feel. Maybe now that it's cooler and I'll have more alone time, I can get back to my studio. Right now, it is in need of a good cleaning. The spiders moved in and made webs all summer and a carpenter bee has left a nice pile of sawdust on my slab roller. I am filled with weaving inspiration, but zero clay thoughts. I think just getting in my studio and cleaning will be a spark, who knows. I have a lot of negative thoughts about clay these days. Waiting for all of that to subside. As this crazy theatre director once said to me when I brought in yet another chair for his approval,
"I don't love it, but I don't hate it...."!


One thing I know I do love is shopping for props, making them, and designing sets. I remember when I finished up the set for Walt, I stood there alone on the stage and looked around in the dim lights of the theater, let out a big sigh, and realized that was where I loved to be. On the stage surrounded by all the stuff I found for the show. I have never quite felt that for clay. I'm always happy when a kiln firing turns out really great, happy when someone buys a piece of my work and loves it, but it's not the same feeling I get when I am doing theatre work. I feel more genuine with my theater work, more like that is who I am. With clay, it was the learning, the experience, the discovery. That part went away with the marketing and the selling and growing a business,  I find that part very distasteful.

As a designer, I am so confident. I never have any doubts. I have a vision for what something should be, I know when it's right and I am very good at what I do. With clay, there are always doubts, always failures, always questions. I have grown tired of all of that. I love going to a production meeting, planning a show, getting handed a check and delivering the goods. I don't have to spend money to make money. I do the work, I get paid. Simple as that! What a concept.

It's interesting to see this written down in words. I haven't really expressed these thoughts to anyone until just this minute. My house is filled with people with their own thing going on and no one seems that interested in being still long enough to hear me ramble about the world in my head. I realized last night at the dinner table, where we have lots of discussions, that we never discuss anything about me. It's about everything but...... ahhh...... momhood, ugh!


 I do love being this child's mom! Slowly getting things moved in to her new house. Her room is tiny tiny, but so sweet and cozy. It is on the second floor in the back of the house, so it will be the most private. It gets beautiful light and the wall color is the gray color of Maine. I love her little room, hopefully lots of amazing writing will get done in here! The house has such good energy and she is living with amazing kids. All talented, smart and beautiful, inside and out. Love Wesley's new haircut!


These days I am working on two plays and one art installation. I'm working on one show called None of the Above with Hidden Voices. It is about the connection between school and prison. Did you know that in one year in this country, 3800 kindergarten children were suspended from school?!?! WTF is up with our school system!?!?! I worked on part of the art installation yesterday. We are painting and adding collage to school desks and yesterday I started work on the teacher's desk. We got this desk at the UNC Surplus store for $20. What a deal! If you need filing cabinets or chairs, desks, computers, etc. this is a great place to shop. I got Wesley a great turquoise leather desk chair for $10, in perfect condition.


I blocked off the top of the desk in Mondrian fashion and then added collage items to the top. Of course at the end of the day I forgot to take photos. I'll get some next week when I go back to finish.

The set will be a live radio show. If anyone knows where I can get live radio show looking props, I would love to know. Looking for mics, sound board looking things, an "on air" sign, and stuff like that... oh boy! I may have to build this stuff.


Wesley is helping us out with the tech part. We will have "live Twitter" feeds projected on a screen during the show with people responding to issues the actors present, and Wes is creating a powerpoint for us. She is of course brilliant and finished the computer part in half an hour, so she sat out on the porch and read with the porch cat.


I'm doing this work out in Cedar Grove, at my friend Lynden's place. She is the director of Hidden Voices and lives on a little slice of heaven, out on a 500 acre farm. Also forgot to take pics of the little donkeys and goats...


I love going out here, it's really my dream home.... sigh.... one day......

So, I'm just going with the flow. A little weaving, a little clay and lots of theater work that actually pays. It's nice to be able to contribute to to college bills with work I get paid for. Much better than spending money trying to make money. I do not love that! Next year there will be minimal shows for me, no entry fees for gallery exhibits, and much less time wasted sitting in a show tent all day. Been there done that. Time to move on! Still trying to figure out who I am, haha!

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Summer crafts, not for galleries


I watched a video last night that pretty much summed up why I am not making pottery right now. It was pretentious and absurd and elitist and I actually couldn't even finish it. I just kept saying to myself, who put them up on that ceramics throne? This is the problem I have with pottery right now. Potters around here started out working on dirt floors in their denim overalls and they had no visions of pots going into a gallery in NY or LA. They just made pots for people to use. I really dislike where ceramics is right now, this elitist potter status is so far beyond my realm of where I want to be in life, I just don't even want to touch clay because of it all. I will never be invited into that club and I will never work hard enough to get there anyway. Don't get me wrong, I am very happy for the potters that have reached this pinnacle of success, they deserve every bit of it. And there is that competitive, driven soul deep inside me that knows how this game is played and sometimes considers playing it, but man, it wears me out to even think of going down that road!
The pretentious "scholars" make me want to barf up my dinner, and then I am reminded why I am not playing this game.....

Oh well, good thing I am a damn fine prop master! I have a prop gig every month from now until May, whoop!

Today I was a crafter, and I enjoyed the hell out of it! and this project will never end up in a gallery, ha!


I made a recipe journal for Wesley to take to school. She will have her own house this year and no meal plan, just a kitchen where she will have to prepare her own meals. So I thought I would help her out with some menu ideas. I kept them simple with ingredients she can easily shop for and prep.
Here's what I did:

 
I bought a cheap photo album at the local thrift store. It doesn't have to be pretty, it will be covered up.


I cut the back off of it, so it is able to stand. I covered it up with some pretty hand made papers.
Drilled holes in the top for the rings to go through.


Got out my markers and my water colors and wrote down a few ideas for her on bristol board.
We can add more cards as we think of things. She can add her own drawings and ideas.



Ta Da! Here it is finished. When you move the front cover to the back, it acts as an easel so if Wes is reading a recipe, it can stand on the counter.


Happy recipient. Happy crafter. Don't look for me in a NY gallery any time soon, haha!
I am what I am.....
weigh in tomorrow, I hope to be 8 pounds lighter!

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Teddy Grahams in a sake cup!


On My Porch Today.......


I have been so diligent with my portion control for the past four weeks, since that was my biggest issue with food. I have a huge appetite, love food and I can eat A LOT! The one thing I really like about Weight Watchers is the encouragement to measure out your portions. It WORKS! I have been using my collection of sake cups/shot glasses to measure out portions, I have these little cups sitting around with the correct portion, then I can just grab a few when I pass by. When the cup is empty, I'm done snacking. Left and back tray: Barbara McKenzie, Right: Whynot Pottery

My snack allotment in the afternoon when I have a sweet or salty snack attack is usually 24 almonds, or 12 tortilla chips or my found again love for Teddy Grahams, I can have 24 of them, and that is a plenty. I used to pack these in Wesley's lunch box, haven't had them in years and then I saw them the other day at the store while trying to come up with some healthy (sort of) snack alternatives to carrot and cucumber. I'm still doing the veggies, but a girl's gotta have something sweet or salty every now and then! Teddy Grahams and a new sippy cup, reverting to childhood here :~)


It's much more fun to eat my Teddy Grahams from a Barbara McKenzie shino sake cup.
 Sorry, Barbara, you must be rolling your eyes about now, ha!


Summer reading............. the words in this book......... sigh................

Monday, August 5, 2013

Second breakfast


If you are familiar with the Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit, you will know that the Hobbits have second breakfast. This was our second breakfast today. I was hungry before lunchtime, so I made us some guacamole and a gazpacho salad and it was so nice and cool outside we went out on the deck and ate. I loved how this all looked on my Natalie Lete plates and the mats I made, so I thought I would post it for you. Pretty, isn't it?

The other day in my Weight Watchers meeting, one of the more elderly women spoke up and said that she really needed to eat a lot of food because she was always hungry, comparing herself to the Hobbits, and said she always had second breakfast, like the Hobbits.

First of all, I love that this woman actually knew this fact about hobbits, she really didn't look like someone that would even know what a hobbit was, just goes to show, you cannot judge people on appearance alone!
Second of all, it is a brilliant idea! Since I started WW four weeks ago, I have only been hungry one day, and that was when I had a brain malfunction and drank a jumbo sweet tea and ate a chocolate bar for breakfast! No, no, no! By the way, I weighed in last Friday and got a gold star for losing my first 5 pounds and also two extra pounds. Today I weighed 8 pounds less and pants zipped up that did not fit me four weeks ago. Loving how I feel right now! I am staying right within my target points, eating mostly fruits and veggies, one to two dairy portions, one whole grain, 6 eight ounce glasses of water, and one lean protein a day, all in smaller portions than I used to eat. This is easy easy easy to do!


This is my new adult sippy cup. When Wes was little she had the coolest sippy cups, why didn't I think to have one as well?! Have you seen these cups around? I love my ceramic cups, and you know that, but for the car and outside, this is my new friend. I make sure it is full all day long and I get all the water I need. I carry it around with me just like Wesley used to do with her cups.


And Wesley has one too. Couldn't convince Gerry, haha! Check out the Harry Potter book on the table. It's so funny, every summer before Wesley goes back to school she reads her complete HP collection. She read the first one in kindergarten, read the Goblet of Fire by herself in second grade. I'm sure these books heavily influenced her writing, just like they have for many kids. I loved reading these books...
Were you ever a Harry Potter fan?


These two little babies came for a visit this morning. We have been watching them grow up this summer. The first time we spotted them, they looked like a couple of large rabbits running through the yard. They come by with mom and dad, and sometimes some aunts and uncles, nearly every day.  Hard to get a good photo of them through the window and they would not be still, a bee was torturing them, but they were so sweet to watch in our yard, munching on the clover, and all of my plant material..... oh deer, why do you need to eat all of my flowers!?

Saturday, August 3, 2013

New Old Desk


Wesley and I finished up her desk today. We bought these drawer pulls at Hobby Lobby on sale for $2 a piece! I had looked at the ones at Anthropoligie but they were $10-$20 each, out of my budget for this project, and these were half price. What a deal! They are sooooo cool. Each drawer got a different one.



The color was hard to photograph correctly, but it's pretty much a Chinese red. Wes suggested the gold leaf around the edge and it was the cherry on top. Perfect! I distressed the edges and put an antiquing glaze on it, then waxed it. It's hard to tell there are three layers of colors here.






We lined the drawers with some nice papers that my pal Laura gave us a while back for crafts. Perfect, again. I bought the desk for $40, spent $20 on the pulls, used old paint and gifted paper, in total, for a really cool desk, I have spent $60. Not bad. Makes me consider going into the furniture re-making business...... hmmmmm.


Happy girl with her new desk. There will be many screenplays and stories written at this desk in the coming years. Who knows, maybe the next best selling novel. That's what I'm talking about!
Now we have to find the perfect chair......