One Little Word

Playing catch up ... here's some random pages from my One Little Word album which I managed to bring up-to-date during National Scrapbooking Day.

February

I'm definitely in a better frame of mind than I was last time I posted. Nothing has changed except my own mindset. I still have no income and Jay is still on furlough. 

Yet, somehow I know it is all going to be okay.

Rather than fuss about things over which I have no control, I'm putting all my effort into building the foundation of my new business. When the world starts up again, I plan to be ready to go!

If any of you have advice on building a website, creating a logo, branding, etc. I'm all ears! I'm in over my head here...

March

One Little Word

I never got around to posting my OLW January pages.  Confession:  I didn't even finish them until the beginning of February!  Pretty self-explanatory, so I'll just leave you to peruse!

One Little Word 2020 | RISE

The process of choosing my One Little Word…

As I've mentioned previously, my position of 16 years has been eliminated. Losing my job threatened to pull me under. The panic, loss of control, fear of the unknown, was a black abyss I was falling into head first.  The “position elimination” although not unexpected, was still a shock when it came, a real punch to the gut.

Rather than be angry, I tried very hard to be the consummate professional.  I went into temporary hyper-drive, doing all I could to transfer knowledge so those I was leaving behind were set up for success… if they chose to take it and run with it.  If not, I kept telling myself, it’s not my problem any longer. This is not my circus; these are not my monkeys.  Do you have any idea how easily that can become a daily mantra???  Not my monkeys, not my monkeys, not my…

With each task I relinquished, I felt a little relief. I had been, for the past three years, trying to run a department with no clear understanding of what was expected of me.  It’s exhausting trying to aim for an undefined target and never knowing if you are even close to hitting the mark.  Despite the lighter feeling that comes with letting go, I suffered way too many sleepless nights last month.

That time of spinning my wheels is now behind me and I’m working out how to best approach 2020.

Complete.  Before I found out I was losing my job, I thought my word would be “complete” – as in finally getting around to finishing a lot of tasks, projects, classes, challenges, ideas that had been started but not finished, or on my to-do list since forever without ever being started.  But with the prospect of a full year job search and a lot of rejection ahead of me, that word no longer held any spark.  

Transform. Having rejected “complete,” my first thought for a word to guide me in 2020 was “transform” – as in change into the person I am meant to be, like a caterpillar transforms into a butterfly … in fact, butterfly was a perfect symbol for transform… but when I looked up the definition of transform it was described as “change completely” – it felt like a step too far.  I’m not in need of a complete overhaul, just some program and user interface tweaks.  Cheri 5.8 transitioning into Cheri 5.9. 

Create.  “Create” also came to mind.  As in create a new version of me.  It also tied into all those unfinished projects…. If during my job search time, I could allow myself time to create in the art world too. I got excited about it. Briefly. Create is honestly a fantastic word with so much possibility.  It just didn’t feel strong enough, bold enough, tough enough for what I know lies ahead of me.

I wanted a word that gave me a feeling of courage or bravery, a call to arms if you will, without actually using the words courage or brave.  

I saw on Facebook that someone was using the word “Phoenix” – I like the imagery and symbolism that goes with Phoenix.  But I didn’t want to use the actual word.  It felt like using the word “butterfly” would if your intention was “transform”.  But it had a pull.  I looked up phoenix imagery.  I looked up quotes about rising from the ashes.  And then I became excited.

 

RISE feels like a real touchstone.  A word that can remind me to be brave, be strong, keep trying when I get kicked down – rise up, rise above, rise to the challenge, rise again, rise and shine.  It feels like the perfect antidote to being "eliminated."  It feels like precisely the call to action for which I was searching.

Welcoming 2019 - Time to Get HEALTHY!

Saying goodbye to 2018 took me some time.  I'm still working on getting myself fully organized for 2019.

2018 was my year to PLAY - for six months I mostly kept up with LifeBook 2018 and enjoyed the new art ideas to which I was being exposed.  Then I joined a Creative Team whose designer passed away from cancer two months after I signed on, joined three other creative teams from her shop only to have the shop close, and followed those designers to new shops.  All of which completely distracted me from LifeBook.  I was still PLAYing - albeit it digitally - so I considered my word and my involvement with it to be a success.

This year I'd like to get back to the LifeBook version of art-ing.  I've signed on for LifeBook 2019, but so far I haven't even managed to get through the first lesson.

Totally aside from PLAY, during the first six months of 2018 I focused on my health - my weight and my physical condition.  I joined WW and lost some weight; unfortunately gained the majority of it back during the second half of 2018 - between trips to the Jersey shore and Kauai, travel for work, and the holidays.  Honestly, I will probably always struggle with my weight.  Bad combination of insatiable appetite and slow metabolism.

So... 2019.... knowing that I really want to get HEALTHY so that I can enjoy and actively participate in the rest of my life - rather than merely surviving it or suffering through it - I decided to make HEALTHY my word for the year.  My primary focus is on my physical health and I have some goals in that regard.

 I am participating in Ali Edwards One Little Word class this year, but probably won't be doing many of the album prompts this year because I'm adding this to my daily planner rather than keeping a separate album.  I want everything together where I see it all the time.

I'm also thinking about my mental, emotional, and spiritual health - as well as having a healthy home, healthy marriage, healthy relationships... you get the idea - healthy can truly encompass the entirety of your life and being!

I've started classes at a local gym (began in December) and I've signed up for the Whole Life Challenge that starts this coming Saturday, the 19th.  Check it out HERE and think about joining me - I'd love to have some of my blog friends on my team!

This challenge ties in so neatly with everything that I'm trying to do this year, and the price was quite reasonable, so I couldn't not give it a shot!

To keep myself accountable and be fully transparent about what I'm doing, here is my "before" picture, complete with belly.  Ugh.

I've also joined Cathy Zielski's FIT class again, but that's mostly for her monthly inspirational audio.  I'll be tracking my stats in my daily planner:

I really like that this keeps everything together - how well I slept, how many steps I took (which for the winter months isn't as important to me as getting in some exercise classes), how much water I drank. The facing page tracks my weight and measurements, my monthly goal, and how I did.  Not quite ready to share that.  I'm also writing in a page each month of daily gratitude entries.

So those are the plans... and here are some of the goals for the year:

Created with Tami Miller's "Love Life" kit which released today at Scrap Girls.

What are your goals for 2019?

May Wrap Up

Better late than never, right?

 May was a pretty good month.  I stuck to tracking with Weight Watchers most weekdays... not so much on the weekend because I'm not usually sitting at my computer and I'm just not that great with the app.  I exercised more than usual, even if it wasn't 5 times a week.  I hit my 5000 steps goal 17 out of 31 days.  And I did some decluttering around the house.  Creative time suffered a bit.  But then, there are only so many hours in a day!  So while far from perfect, this is still progress.  And I'm good with it.

 Our May assignment for FIT was to track the "Good" in our day.  Which for me was pretty much the same as my gratitude journal, but I kept it both ways for the month.  And of course, there is always a LOT to be grateful for!

As you can see from my May fitness tracker, I had three days this month where I went over 10,000 steps in a day! That is a LOT for me, so that was exciting.

 One of the highlights of May was a family trip to New York City - one overnight - to see the 911 Museum, the Statue of Liberty (up close and inside!), and Ellis Island.  It was a great little mini trip, but I didn't manage to take a single photo (well, to be fair, it was raining most of the time!) and I haven't yet pestered my daughters to send me their photos.  Need to get on that!

How do you feel about not taking photos on a vacation?  Ever done it?

April Wrap-Up

I'm definitely sensing a pattern here... each prior month's wrap-up and review seems to be getting done in the middle of the following month.  Which at least means I'm posting monthly, so I'm going to call that a good thing!

Spring has finally arrived in full force in my neck of the woods:

These photos were taken May 3, 2018 when the Kwansan Cherry tree was in full bloom.  Normally this tree is the late bloomer for Spring, following about a month behind everything else.  But this year nothing bloomed in normal succession... usually we would get the early flowers (daffodils and crocuses) along with the forsythia, followed a week later by Bradford pear trees, the the dogwoods, plums, etc.  And finally the cherry trees. And the whole process would take a good month or more.  But this year... everything bloomed in ONE WEEK.  It was kinda nuts.  Last week I read a newspaper headline that said "Particularly Chilly April Brings Extreme Pollen" - yes, extreme because last week my house, my car, everything around here was covered in yellow/green pollen dust!  When you see this happen you have to wonder about the perhaps-less-enlightened people who believe that climate change is a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese.

April's assignment for One Little Word was a sticky note exercise to explore what our word means to us.  I have to admit, I didn't "play" along.

The FIT class creative prompt was a vision board.  I was ahead of the curve on this one and had created and shared mine in March.  You can see it here.

Between work travel and a particularly bad fibro flare at the end of the month, April was not a stellar month for me.  I didn't get in nearly as much exercise OR play as I would have liked.  That said, there was still a lot of good in the month and a lot to be grateful for.

Let me close with a couple of playful intuitive vision boards that I made just for fun:

 

Happy St. Patty's Day!

March has been a little nuts in my neck of the woods - not one, not two, but THREE Nor'easter storms rolled through here in the space of eleven days.  And the weather forecasters got anticipated accumulation wrong for my home town in each instance.  Winter Storm Riley on March 2nd caught us quite by surprise.  We were supposed to get a couple of inches starting AFTER the evening commute.  Instead it started around eleven a.m. and  was coming down at the rate of 2 inches per hour.  Plus very high winds. So the area surrounding my home town experienced ice, covered by slush, covered by heavy wet snow, lots of downed wires and trees, and cars and school buses full of children stuck everywhere.  I had been at the office for a meeting.  Left before 2 p.m. and it took me two hours to get home and this is how that trip ended:

Stuck at the bottom of my own driveway!  Jay left the same area 20 minutes after me and it took him three hours to get home.  I had the driveway cleared and my car moved by the time he arrived.

The storm also knocked over our back yard neighbor's fence.  We're hoping he decides to just take it down.

In total about 8" of wet heavy snow.

 The next two storms brought LESS than was forecast for our area - Winter Storm Quinn on the 7th gave us about 6" (originally forecast to be in the 10-16" band).   Luckily, we had some warning this time and all stayed home to ride it out.  Followed by Winter Storm Skylar on the 12th which only left about 2" and instead skirted to the east and north and pounded Boston.  Now that we are days away from officially being Spring, I'm hoping this nonsense will slow down!

The weather hasn't stopped me from traveling for work, or from living my word PLAY while attempting to keep up with Life Book, FIT, and One Little Word.  My most recent creative efforts:

All watercolor, except the face.  I chose excerpts from the Desiderata for the writing exercise.  Tried to use drawing gum and a calligraphy nib as a resist technique (that was the lesson).  Failed miserably, but at least I tried!  Ended up having to go over it with a white paint pen to make it legible.

I tried to make the proportions on this face a little more realistic than my first (which were not meant to be proportional but whimsical) The eyes are still huge, but I like it for the expression.

Another Life Book exercise - my Quirky Bird - designed to showcase my own unique quirks and weirdness - like how much I enjoy singing in the car, loudly, and badly, but with complete abandon because there is nobody to hear me, shush me, or squelch my joy. - and how I am naturally clumsy and have two left feet (this poor bird's awkward feet were not an accident) - and how I have a tendency to wear my heart on my sleeve...

A 6x8" mini vision board for my FIT journey.  No explanation needed.

I joined Susannah Conway's "Your Soul Speaks" class about tuning in to your intuition.  The most recent exercise was to create a vision board of what your soul looks like right now.  This is what came out for me.

And finally, another Life Book lesson - this time an intuitive abstract painting with watercolors and acrylic.  Finished with a botanical image.  The artist teaching this lesson had beautifully drawn leaves in ink.  I practiced on scratch paper and found my freehand ink skills were akin to a toddler drawing, so went with a Posca paint pen to complete this.  I used a photo of a sunset in California as my inspiration... feel like I maybe ended up with a sunset on Mars????  So entirely different from anything I would normally do!

I'm loving the time I'm spending being creative just for me.  None of these are art works, they won't be for sale, they won't end up framed or shared anywhere but here and in the classrooms.  And yet they make me so happy.

What is making you happy these days?  How are you making time to PLAY?

Hello 2018! Let's PLAY!

It has not escaped me that we are already 2 1/2 weeks into 2018.  But it has taken me a little longer to really wrap my arms about what I want and expect from this year, what my goals and dreams are and how I want to approach the year.  I'm starting to feel a little organized... not all the way yet... but getting there!

One Little Word - PLAY.  
What I know for sure is that I don't want this year to be all about work like last year was.  I'm still going to be traveling at least once a month for work, but I don't want to feel all-consumed by it. So I'm committed to MAKE time to play.  I joined Ali Edwards' One Little Word course again this year - turns out I really missed it last year although I doubt I'd have had time to keep  up anyway!
These are my initial pages for my One Little Word/ FIT album for 2018.  Not much in the way of art or decoration - I was trying to keep it simple and just get it done!

 

I also joined in Cathy Zielski's 2018 version of FIT again.  I'm carrying my theme of PLAY through the FIT exercises as well.  I want to approach fitness / wellness this year with a more lighthearted playful manner - just moving my body in ways that brings me joy and making healthy choices in what I feed my body and my soul!

I took photos and measurements but I'm keeping that private for now.  It's not about the numbers - it is all about how I FEEL this year!  Of course, I no sooner started tracking steps again and hitting my goal of 6000 steps per day than I somehow injured my foot and ended up with posterior tibial tendonitis.  But it is a temporary setback!  I'm still in a brace and probably won't get back to walking for a couple of weeks.  But I'm not letting that get me down.

In order to keep motivated to PLAY, I also joined Tamara Laporte's Life Book 2018 class.  Life Book is a year long mixed media art class that also incorporates bits of yoga, aromatherapy, mindfulness, and other wellness activities.  So far I'm thrilled with this course!  Here's a bit of what I've been making:

 This was our "warm up" exercise.  Which honestly took me an entire week because I wanted to do it justice.

This one was a week two "bonus" exercise.  Created while I was in Rockville for work.  I had only brought some neocolor II watercolor crayons and a couple of gel pens with me as supplies.  I bought the stamp and a super cheap black stamp pad at a craft store.  I used a coffee cup sleeve from my hotel room to stamp the texture.

This "compassion bear" was also a week two "bonus" exercise and created at the hotel room with very limited supplies.  I think I'd like a second go at this guy, but he'll have to do for now because I'm determined to keep up with the class!!!

What I really want to cultivate this year is a sense of lightheartedness, joy, freedom, space, and adventure.  I want to laugh more, move more, create more, and feel gratitude for all of life's little pleasures. I want to nurture my body, my soul, and my relationships.

I've chosen the hummingbird as my symbol for the year.  It is said to represent enjoyment of life and lightness of being.  That seems to sum up what I'm hoping for and working towards in 2018!

One Little Word - "SIMPLE" Vision Boards

The One Little Word assignment for March is to create a Vision Board for your word.  This is probably my favorite prompt of the year and this year was no exception.

Initially, I went straight to making a digital version.  My Pinterest Boards and a few bits of digi-scrapbook stash allowed me to create this version.  And I was pretty happy with it.

But I still wanted to try my hand at a cut and paste and get messy version.  That required a trip to the thrift store to pick up some magazines.  By choosing only the ones that had blue tickets (blue tickets were 75% off that day), I was able to snag eight different magazines (Oprah, Real Simple, Fitness, Martha Stewart Living, Family Circle, and Everyday with Rachel Ray) for the princely sum of fifty three cents!  One evening of clipping in front of the television and a week of play later....

I've got layered images and words, a little bit of play with paints and textures, a couple of rub-ons, and some dimensional butterflies sprinkled around. All based on a 14 x 18" canvas board which I am going to hang in my office. I love the bright happy colors I was able to incorporate and all the positive words and messages.

What surprised me about this exercise is that for a gal whose word is "SIMPLE", my creations ended up being anything but!  In fact, I think both feel a little chaotic and wild, but in a good way, if that makes any sense. Maybe just a reflection of how my life feels right now. Seeing them together, do you see any themes jumping out at you to which I should be paying attention? Do you prefer one over the other? Why?

FIT & OLW Update

It occurs to me that I haven't really updated on my FIT and OLW (SIMPLE) journey since I posted some ridiculously embarassing numbers at the beginning of the year.  Here is what has been happening:

I closed out January with this mini layout. Just because I loved the meme when it popped up on Facebook!

My starting numbers and plan for February. Change is happening excruciatingly slowly, but it is happening!

I upped my daily step goal to 5500 steps.

 And I tried to keep the FIT mantra in mind as I was checking (or not checking as the case may be) boxes ... strive for PROGRESS, not perfection!

By the end of February, I had met my step goals 20 out of 29 days. That is roughly 66% which wasn't enough to convince me to push the goal to the next level just yet. But in the process, I've gone from rarely working out to going regularly to a Fitness Class, Tai Chi, and visiting a gym with my friend Rachel where we get to talk while hitting the treadmill for a half hour. That has been a HUGE change for me!

The prompt for One Little Word for February was "Practice" something for 30 days and chart it. I decided to "practice" making sure to log my food everyday. I managed 25 out of 29 days.  I have found being out and about on the weekends makes it harder to track. It may be time to download an app to my phone and stop making excuses.  Wanting to add that little enamel dot every day really helped keep me honest.  And keeping honest led to this:

My numbers for March 1st.  I am down a total of 6 pounds and 6 1/2" from the beginning of the year.  It is slow, but it is all in the right direction. I'm somewhat amazed at how much WORK it takes to get rid of a single pound and I'm hoping to keep my attitude and my work ethic strong so I can accomplish my goals.  I have had a few days (hmmm, maybe more than a few) where my inner critic has strongly suggested that I throw in the towel and eat the cookies. I've succumbed a few times, but I am finding it is getting a little easier to resist that nasty little voice in my head!

The March prompt for One Little Work is to create a vision board of our word.  I had so much fun playing with a digi version:

I uploaded this one in a slightly larger format, so you should be able to click on it and make it bigger to read all the smaller items.  Although my vision board doesn't seem all that focused on the concept of "SIMPLE", it is clearly focused on the things I am working on right now.  And I plan to make a cut and paste version too, but need to source some magazines first.  I'm also reusing February's prompt and will be practicing decluttering for the month of March.  Seriously hoping to fill that card!!!

Even if you aren't in these classes, are you practicing anything specific in March?