Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Monday thoughts...posted on Tuesday late night.

My recent thoughts about planning/organizing time.   Well not really organized, I'm pretty organized with my projects and most of my things have a place.  I think what I'm doing is fine tuning things.  As I write this I can't even find the words to explain what I'm doing, ha ha.  Since I've retired I don't have a schedule like I did when I was working.  I find I can do whatever I need to do or want to do any day of the week.  This is almost too flexible, yet, I'm not willing to commit to anything in particular.  So, what I'm doing is setting space in my time to work on photos, to write, to research, to work on inspiration board, project time/deadlines, etc.  Right now it seems like I'm all over the place.  So I'm working on a planner where Mondays will be take care of business day, Tuesday will be all about photos, Wednesdays can be in the studio only days, Thursday can be blog article writing day, Friday will be free day to do what needs to be done.   Now, doesn't all this sound so easy to master..... well not on "jobi time" .  Because I'm so flexible = change my mind of what I want to do on a Monday!  So then that falls into that lack of commitment thing I got going on....see my problem?  With a job, job I was committed to getting my job, job done.  Here in my world it's not like that.  Plus I also now have this other part of my daily routine called "housework".... a bad word in my vocabulary.  Oh yeah, add the great weather we have going on around here...who wants to be inside???  Then there's friends to visit with and places to go.   What's the point to a having a day planner if I'm not gonna follow it? 
This would probably explain why my blog has been neglected.  It's not for the lack of things going on around here.  Have been doing lots of fun projects one after another and I have photos to prove it...but then when am I schedule to deal with photos?   Tuesdays, oh dang didn't get to it today, now it's Wednesday, which means I need to be in the studio.  Actually, I need to get to shut down the laptop and go to bed.... Thanks for listening....

Sunday, January 19, 2014

Funny when that happens.....

The other day I was not feeling so so so, you know when you can't find anything to wear because nothing fits right, when your makeup looks like war paint, you smudge your nail polish because you're in a hurry, can't find your keys & eyeglasses and they're in you other hand & on top of your head, and you have no gas in Miss MINI Lula.  You take a deep breathe and head to the gas station.  Of course gas station was busy and I finally find an open pump.  I decided it was best to pay attention getting my gas, didn't want to make my day more complicated.  Back in Miss Lula and I check my mirror to make sure the gas nozzle is not in my car.  At this point a man at the opposite pump asks me if I'm enjoying the beautiful day...btw it was sunny and 70 degrees out.  I said yeah I guess it was a nice day out.  He continued to ask me a variety of questions and at the end of the conversation he said something about me looking great and I look like a woman who knows that.  I drove away but really wanted to go back and let him know how much his words meant to me at that moment.  All the doubt I had of myself that morning disappeared.  Just so weird how this happened so randomly, but then again, in my world random is never really random.

Taking an E-course!

The name of the class is "Studying Under The Masters, (becoming an apprentice)".  The class is offered by Jeanne Oliver.  I was intrigue by it since one of my favorite artist, Stephanie Lee was part of the class.  It's a nine week class with a different artist each week.  The artists choose a master artist to study under.  I really wasn't sure what that meant.  It's been the first week and I love it.  I've never taken an art class thus I know nothing about art in the since of theory or the history of art.  What Jeanne says in her introduction to the class was exactly what I needed to hear.  It's about becoming an apprentice, practicing, copying, learning and finally, finding my own way in my art.  I'm so excited I can hardly stand it!!  I love feeding my creative soul!

 jeanneoliverdesigns.com

Friday, January 10, 2014

Cupcakes, that's what's going on around here

I'm co-hosting a baby shower and one of my duties is to make the cupcakes.  I know I could of just bought a couple of box cake mixes but I really don't like box cakes and I've used them in the past and added stuff to make them taste homemade.  This time I decided to make them from scratch.  But to keep is simple, I'm doing chocolate and  vanilla cupcakes.  I'm using a cake recipe I've used for years and it's moist and not over chocolate.  I haven't ever used it for cupcakes, though.  I think the thing is baking time, so while I write this blog post I'm also watching the time they're in the oven.  Cross your fingers they come out nice.  Otherwise, I told Tom he'll be eating cupcakes all weekend.  I wanted to make a simple vanilla cupcake and searched the internet to find a recipe.  Boy are there ton's of them.  I'm impressed with all the baking bloggers who do such a great job sharing recipes and photos.  I picked a recipe from www.bakehappy.net, it's called Perfectly Moist Vanilla Cupcake.  I'll let you know how the cupcakes turn out.  My plan is to top them off with the chocolate cupcakes with chocolate buttercream and vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream...simple flavors is the theme.
I have to make some crescent moons out of white chocolate to top them off ....  the timer is going off..brb.  Oh my, they came out perfect looking.  I'll be posting photos once I get them all finished... wish me luck.  I will also be posting about all the cute "love you to the moon and back" stuff made for the shower.  I'm not big on baby showers and this is the first one I've been involved with but all I can say it's a lot of things to think about and do starting from the invite to the food, from the mailing list to the decorations, from number of table & chairs to the theme, from table cloths to paper products, etc.  All & all I think it's going to be adorable and fun for the new momma, Kerry.  By the way, it's a boy!