I love fall

I finally made it out to take some fall photos yesterday. Here are a couple of my favorites. There is this great open space park between our house and Denver. I felt a little guilty not having the dogs, but it's a little challenging to take good photos and manage two dogs at the same time. The trail runs along the creek and then climbs up a bit into the canyon. I love the colors of the leaves and the contrast between the bark, leaves and water. In the midst of all of the traditional colors of fall,

I came across these precious purple flowers. It's almost as if they're the last piece of summer holding on for as long as they can to remind us that even though winter is coming summer will come again.


One of the many reasons I love fall is that it is a feast for the senses. Leaves and color changing for the eyes.



For taste, it's time for one of my favorite treats... Caramel Apples. Yumm-O. I like to make them myself...whenever I buy them at the store the apples always seem to be mushy and I like my apples crisp, plus you can sneak a couple of caramels during the unwrapping process. I made a few for a special treat the other night and this was the only one left today so I had to rescue it from it's loneliness.




Finally a little something for the sense of smell, nothing says fall like Pumpkin and I'm a sucker for a good pumpkin spice candle. Funny because I'm really not of pumpkin pie but I love the way this candle smells, it just makes me feel warm and cozy.










Tomorrow is a big day...the Colorado 2 Peas circle crop is finally here. I have been looking forward to meeting other Co scrappers and it's been a month in planning. I have everything packed up and ready to spend an evening scrapping tom. The challenge is to complete 12 2 page mini layouts in about 9 hours, basically a half hour per layout. Since I'm a super slow scrapper, I'm a little worried about the time crunch, but excited at the thought of coming home with a completed album. Of course that's what they said about CKU and I just finished my last project this week...but this time other's are doing the work for my book. We had a fun set of questions/quizzes to start the thought process. I'll post the finished project on Monday.

News...

It's a crazy world, the latest evidence is the shooting and hostage situation in Bailey. The now famous Bailey Colorado is about 15 miles south of where we live and we just passed this school on our scenic drive on Sunday --- it's a beautiful school, but it is in the middle of nowhere, it's a good 5 miles south of town and surrounded by farm land and foothills. What possesses a person to go into a school and start shooting. After Columbine and others I know that lots of research and funding has gone into anti-bullying efforts. Which is great...but leaves me thinking what else can be done. There is part of me that hopes this man was high on something although from reports it doesn't sound that way. Why do I wish he was high? at least then there would be some reason and under the influence would exclude rational thought. The polly-anna in me just doesn't want to believe that a rational thinking individual could do something like this. For those of you that know me, you know that polly only exists in my mind. In reality, I am a risk management guru all about keeping kids safe...designing lockdown drills, researching pedophiles, preparing staff and youth for other crisis situations. But these kind of situations rock my world, because I know that despite all of our best intentions and practices we can't prevent a situation like this, only take precautions to minimize the impact and live with the consequences. The living with will surely be hard for the survivors of this tragedy.

Switching to good news...MY CAR IS HERE!!! YAY...
I am no longer bound to my sister's travel schedule or good heart to let me borrow her car. So where did I head first, why Costco of course, having no job and limited funds I don't have many options. Not that Costco is cheap, but I have become really good at just buying needed food items --- and in a fit of domesticity I divided everything up into individual freezer bags and pre-chopped veggies. Maybe all my Rachael Ray watching is finally wearing off. On the downside of having a car, it's time to start following through with my plans to temp until I find a full-time job. Wish me luck.

The List Part 1

This week's challenge is to list 20 things that you enjoy doing and note the last time you did these things. Funny, I used to do this as part of my 'Avoiding Burnout' workshop, but don't think I've ever done it for myself. I used to say if you can't come up with 20 you're in danger. At this point I know I'm deeply burned and it will be a struggle to personally get to 20, but here goes...no particular order

1. Go Dancing.................................. September 05
2. Take dogs to dog park.................. August 06
3. Bake cookies.................................December 05
4. Read a cheesy romance................ Last Week
5. Visit used book store..................... Last month
6. Have coffee w/friends.................. Last month
7. Agility class w/dog........................ 18 months
8. Swim ........................................... ???
9. Scrapbook.................................... Yesterday
10. Paint........................................... ???
11. Horseback riding......................... 3 years
12. See a movie................................. July 06
13. Scenic drives............................... Sunday
14. Go to a pro-sporting event............ ???
15. Get a mani/petti.......................... 2 months
16. Knit............................................. Sunday
17. Lift weights.................................. Too long
18. Take a bubble bath...................... 6 months
19. Go to a concert ............................ 4 years
20.

Seems silly that I can't come up with one more thing, but the last 10 or so were really a stretch so I'll leave the last one and let something come to me. The next part of the challenge is to pick 2 to do in the next week. The easy way out would be to pick scrapbooking and knitting since I know those will happen and don't depend on a car or someone else. I think I'll also add bubble bath to the list for this week. Definitely doable. Some of the things on this list I wonder if I'll ever do again.

aha......

20. Ice Skate..........................10 min last winter
{How could I forget, I love to skate. Unfortunately make excess weight makes it really painful to skate right now. One more motivation to lose weight. I really need to write down those motivations at some point, maybe tattoo them to my hand so when I am tempted to pound down jelly beans or Cheetos I'll remember.}

I don't know why I say I might never do things again, it must be the depression talking. I just can't see myself swimming or riding a horse or even dancing right now. So I'll need to find joy in the things I can do.

****Affirmation Time****

1. Show up at the page. Use the page to rest, to dream, to try. Will make a CK HOF journal by the end of the week to start noting ideas for entry.
2. Fill the well by caring for my artist.
3. Set small goals and meet them. One project per day. One submission per week. Yesterday I finished the last of my CKU projects and started a new mini album w/Imagination Project goodies
4. Remember that it is far harder and more painful to be a blockeed artist than it is to do the work.
5. Choose companions who encourage me to do the work.
6. Remember that it is my job to do the work, not judge the work.

Happy Monday

Weekend Good Things...

The Broncos won in a definitive fashion, finally scoring a touch down after what seemed an eternity. I've been a Broncos fan for as long as I can remember and it's so nice to be back among the faithful. This season has been off to a rocky start so it was refreshing to see the Broncos knock out the Pats 17-7. Can you say DEFENSE? This years 'D' is fricken awesome. The 4Q last night was the first time they allowed a touch down all season, 11 quarters, the last time a team did that was 1942. Sadly my favorite player on D the great and mighty Al

Wilson was hurt last night so he didn't see as much action as normal the rest of the crew totally stepped up. And for the first time this season the O came to play, a refreshing change from the first two games.

Go Broncos!

My college team the 'once mighty' CU Buffs almost beat Georgia on Saturday. Why is a loss a good thing? well it's the closet we've been to a win all season and Ga. was ranked 9th so maybe new coach Dan Hawkins and the crew have it figured out as we go into the Big 12 season. Maybe...

We took a scenic drive into the high country yesterday hoping to catch the Aspens in their full glory, but we were too late. Most at the higher elevations lost their leaves already, probably in last week's storm. The trees at mid level are just starting to change. Nothing made me say stop the car I want to take a pic, but I'm not yet totally comfortable with my sister and BIL on these kind of trips. If I were by myself I probably would have taken several. Hopefully my car will get here this week and I can go back out. On our drive we visited the famous 'South Park' really known as Fairplay, Co. No Cartman or Kenny sightings sorry.

Sadly we took too long on our drive and the roast my sister had in the oven burned and shrunk to the size of a nice T-Bone by the time we finally got home, an hour later than planned. I felt bad for her as it's the one thing she feels confident to cook and she was so sad. On a sweet note my BIL said he would eat it anyway. How's that for love or guilt, either way pretty sweet. No one ended up eating the roast, I made burgers instead.

In my last post I mentioned the rules of the road for artists...again from the Artist's Way. There are a few interesting thoughts that go along with the daily affirmations. I've been trying to focus on a few of my favorites.

1. Show up at the page. Use the page to rest, to dream, to try. I think I have become a little more successful at this and trying to do something 'creative' each day. Both days this weekend the dogs woke me up early and I used the time to organize my tools and just play with a few new things.

2. Set small and gentle goals and meet them. I have set the goal of submitting at least one thing to a call per week and spending at least 30 minutes/day working on my stuff.

3.Remember that it is far harder and more painful to be a blocked artist than it is to do the work. I want to say Amen to this, but I also know that I can easily fall into this trap and know how depressed I get when I stop. All motivation to try just gets zapped away.

4. Choose companions who encourage me to do the work...Thanks Charlene and 2 peas ladies

5. Remember that it is my job to do the work NOT judge the work. This is one of the toughies for me I'm such a critic of my own work. It's sort of sad in a way of all I should be the one that believes in it the most, but no matter how many times I hear praise I just don't believe it.

Funny I'm more comfortable with 'rules' than with affirmations. My Diversity prof would say that's my strong Germanic roots coming through. Oh well, off to create more...

SNOW!

Yes snow --- September 23 and there was a light covering of snow here in Evergreen, welcome to Colorado high country. Although at 7500 feet it's really 'medium high'. While I was initially bummed to see the snow, within a couple of hours I was reminded of the wonderful difference between CO snow and AK snow --- IT MELTS. Yes I know all snow melts at some point but here it melts the same day or some time in the next couple of days. In Alaska...it melts in May.

Fall colors are at their peak and I am hoping to get out and enjoy them in the really high country sometime in the next couple of days.

It's been a busy couple of days...On Thursday I rented a U-Haul and picked up my stuff from the shipping dock and moved it into storage. After three weeks I forgot how much stuff I had, it was really tempting to bring it all home, but there is just not enough space. So instead I tried to arrange it so I could get to it easily and every time I was tempted to go shopping for scrapbook supplies or clothes I would 'shop' in the storage unit first. Yeah right, we'll see how long that lasts, although my savings for jobless living is just about gone and no job in site so that may help me stick to my savings plan a bit better.

Speaking of no jobs, I did have an interview yesterday for an Asst. Manager at an Archiver's store in the area. While it was significantly less pay than previous positions I was/am willing to take a pay cut to get my foot in the door. I thought it was a great interview, in fact I know it was. Sadly at the end of the interview the manager admitted that they had already started the hiring process with another candidate and would I maybe be interested in a part time supervisor position. I was soooooooooo bummed and I think she may have been to that she jumped the gun just a bit. So we'll see on that note.

Also yesterday... our darling baby Kinley, went in for his 'boy' dog surgery yesterday. Poor thing was really drugged up when we picked him up yesterday. He's back to himself and ready to play today, but he's really not allowed to play at full speed for two weeks, I don't know how we're ever going to keep him calm.

I was able to finish a quick scrapping project yesterday. While it's definitely not perfect, I am reasonably happy with the end result and know what to do different next time. I saw a composition book turned into a purse at Archiver's and decided to try it myself.

This project involves major power tools and my first time using a miter saw. After the initial fear of cutting my hand wore off, it was actually kind of fun. I struggled with getting the right angles and completely destroyed one book trying to get it right. This was my second attempt and it worked much better. So now I have a cute little notebook for my purse.

**** Affirmation Time ****

(yes I am typing these out each time -- no cutting and pasting here)

1. I am a channel for God's creativity, and my work comes to good.

2. My dreams come from God and God has the power to accomplish them.

3. As I create and listen, I will be led.

4. Creativity is the creator's will for me.

5. My creativity heals myself and others.

6. I am allowed to nurture my artist

7. Through the use of a few simple tools, my creativity will flourish

8. My creativity always leads me to truth and love

9. My creativity leads me to forgiveness and self-forgiveness

10. There is a divine plan of goodness for me

11. There is a divine plan of goodness for my work

12. As I listen to the creator within I am led

13. As I listen to my creativity I am led to my creator

14. I am willing to create

16. I am willing to let myself learn to create

17. I am willing to let God create through me

18. I am willing to be of service through my creativity

19. I am willing to experience my creative energy

20. I am willing to use my creative talents.

Next post...The rules of the road: Remember that it is my job to create the work, NOT judge the work and more from The Artist's Way.

Affirmations

A you can see from my blog description and previous posts I am between jobs at the moment. Mostly by choice (we'll save the 'mostly' for another blog). I have never been one for self help books and their seemingly endless lists of affirmations. When I think of affirmations I can't help but think of Stuart Smally from SNL --- ' I'm good enough, I'm smart enough and gosh darn't people like me' I tried to find a video clip on the net to remind all of the classic skit --- alas no luck and back to the topic at hand. Now that I have all of this free time on my hands(more than I was hoping for to tell the truth) I have wanted to spend some time developing my skills in a couple of areas.

1. Creativity --- especially with my scrapbooking I am really hoping to be published in a magazine this year.

2. Job Skills --- specifically finding a job I love and gaining my PHR certification.

So I do what all people do with lots of time on their hands I march my self down to the nearby Barnes and Noble --- Danger!--- and buy a few books.
To address goal #1 I picked up the highly popular and recommended Artist's Way by Julia Cameron and of course it has a series of affirmations to repeat to myself on a daily basis. I once heard that affirmations are like a foreign language that you just need to keep concentrating and repeating and eventually you will be fluent. (Not that it really worked all that well w/high school french) But after a year of being in a deep black hole in this area I am willing to try anything.

So here goes...the daily affirmations:
1. I am a channel for God's creativity, and my work comes to good.
2. My dreams come from God and God has the power to accomplish the,
3. A I create and listen I will be lead.
4. Creativity is the creator's will for me
5. My creativity heals myself and others
6.I am allowed to nurture my artist
7.Through the use of a few simple tools my creativity will flourish
8. My creativity always leads me to truth and love
9. My creativity leads me to forgiveness and self-forgiveness
10. There is a divine plan of goodness for me
11. There is a divine plan of goodness for my work
12. I am willing to create
13. I am willing to learn to let myself create
14. I am willing to let God create through me
15. I am willing to be of service through my creativity
16. I am willing to experience my creative energy
17. I am willing to use my creative talents.

There it is in my print so now I've got to believe, right?. The book is big on writing morning pages and you're supposed to do them in long hand but I figured I'd just post to the blog most of the time as it's a place for random thoughts as well, and at this point very limited readership.

It is my plan to balance my days with job searching, scrapping/creating and studying for the test.

Yesterday I spent more time creating than anything else, but I was very happy with the finished project.

This is a simple paper mache box that I painted brown (not as easy as it sounds as I didn't have any brown paint). I used Heidi Swapp masks for the lid, my first time using these and I was really happy with the way the lid turned out. Sides and inside cut outs are Scenic Route, my all time fav patterned paper. I'm thinking that I might add some small ball feet to give it extra oomph. I'm so happy with it I'm considering using it as my altered item for the 'Making Memories Idol' contest.

Speaking of altered items --- I scored at Target today...composition books for .12! I am trying to figure out how to cut them on the miter saw to get the right angles to make it look like a purse...after destroying 2 books I'll ask my brother in law to help. Asking for help is a big deal for me so we'll see if it happens.

More good news...my stuff is here from Alaska. I just need to figure out how to pick it up --- 3 palettes worth --- and where to store it until I find my own place.

Gone to the Dogs

At no other time in my life has 'gone to the dogs' been more true. I moved to Colorado three weeks ago and am crashing at my sisters house until I find a job and get my own place. Sounds great, right? And it is, but as someone who has worked with only a few vacation days since high school being home is driving me a little batty. My car is still in route from Alaska so I'm pretty stuck.

Enter my companions...

Tanner, my crazy Border Collie Mix
Kinley, the 80 pd Golden baby








Lindy, the cutest Cairn Terrier around

Abby, my all round mutt with superior soccer playing skills.

Aren't they cute? Unfortunately Abby and Lindy had a run in that resulted in Lindy needing stitched my second day here and now have to be separated at all times. So I spend my day letting some dogs in and others out. I have even more respect for the folks that run doggy daycares.

I have been watching a lot of the Dog Whisperer http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/dogwhisperer/ trying to pick up any tips I can. I think I am the pack leader but wonder what Cesear would say. He has also helped me remember that they are dogs --- not people!--- and their feelings are no where near as deep and complex as I give them credit for.

On Hold!

I don't know what it is about about being on hold that sets my heartbeat racing and my inner bitch ready to come out.

It really should be a peaceful experience --- there's nice music sometimes I even get in the grove and start singing along (admit it you have done the same) and hopefully I'll have some resolution to the problem by the end of the call.

But the wait it just kills me--- I know it's probably another 'patience' lesson from a higher power and when I finally get it there will be no need for these tests. In the meantime, I am failing miserably. Pitty the person who gets my call.

Plus I really hate to get angry at the inital service agent. I fell so bad afterward. I have gotten better at starting with a disclaimer when I am really angry something like "I know this is not your fault, but I want to warn you that I am very frustrated and could lose it at any moment" I find this endears the service agent and is sometimes a faster route to a supervisor --- which admit is really who we all want to talk to in the first place. Unfortunetly, the situation I was trying to deal with while writing this blog is going no where and I have to wait 4-6 weeks to get my money back. GRRR...