3 important things / week no. 2

Taking a cue from the whitehot truth, here let me focus on 3 important things to accomplish this week:

1. Complete the button order for The Africa Project
2. Ask questions and send in that paperwork
3. Pull out the ol' encaustics!!!

That's it.  Focus on those things and the rest is gravy.





(Oh, and let me just get it out and show you all that I have to lay aside, it'd be quite a miracle if I just focused on three things and didn't get overwhelmed by this list.  This 3-things-only is tough!
embroider, knit, sew, purge and shred papers, move supplies around, move two desk tops, fold laundry, wash dishes, put away camping gear, pull everything out of that closet, take photos of all vintage items to sell, paint all found/make items, detail clean the found typewriter, make gluten-free pancakes, paint other half of bedroom walls, find external hard drive, watch hulu, take 30 minute walks, wash linens, compost stuff from fridge, tally 1,001 Squared:  The Abundance Project statuses, take recordings off v/m, get new songs onto iphone, find drum sheets and practice reading, get rid of stuff off that shelf, scrub the bathroom, and the kitchen floor...  See, way too much.  But that felt good to get it all out.  At least there's a record of what I can do over the next several weeks.)

Aaaah.

here's to blogging one more time in 2011!

It's been a great year. A challenging year, but a good year of perseverance and patience that I've made it through. In February I picked up on the Power Year idea and choose a representational animal (the walrus - my own addition, not part of the official Power Year agenda) and set about choosing SMART goals for myself.

I did go from having a short-term part-time job, to having no job, to having a full-time job with benies. That was great in addressing my survival mode outlook. I finally could look at what would be best use of my creative time and talents, my health, and my social needs and no longer do what ever it took to make cash. It was at the end of the year, settling into a regular income, that I made tons of progress and, again, though challenging, got to see a very clear picture of my life and priorities.

I now understand I super-value my time. This is something many people with competing interests, commitments, jobs, families... can understand. Yet, add to it a body that has limitations and isn't always available to meet even my basic needs. I had to get really good at letting things go and living in limbo, in the in-between time. Which is actually an awesome lesson as we are all in limbo and in-between time. Nothing is guaranteed to us, nothing is certain. But what I'm practicing to make certain is that I'll always do the next right thing to take care of my health and well-being.

I can get through *tough* when I have faith and hope. And I'm grateful those didn't falter throughout the year. The thoughts of "this too shall pass" and "when you're going through something tough, keep going!" come to mind. I kept chipping away and making any progress I could. I also had patience when it felt like I was just standing still. With stillness comes insight. (Add more meditation to my list!)


Here are a couple of sites that I've read over in preparing for 2012.  I'll be sharing more of my outcome in the next few days.

Nicole Is Better
She shares how to celebrate this year and prepare for the next year.  There's even a download to plotting out 27 action items per month!

A Beautiful Mess
Elsie shares how to make and keep resolutions.

When I Grow Up Coach
Some links Michelle shares to closing up the year.

I'm excited for 2012 and look forward to sharing the year with creative and courageous people!

Until then... xoxo!

{video love} supakitch & koralie

I've just finished up my online class, Get Your Paint On, and am keyed in to all this inspiration on the interwebs.  Now that I've gone through the slowed down process of making my own big painting, I love seeing the process other artists go through.

This hubby and wife collaboration by Supakitch & Koralie is really facinating to watch as their vision is reavealed across a large wall.

My favorite hubby and wife artists!  Euphorie.

my rendition of black friday

I met up with the sister again today and she let me in on the idea of Black-Out Friday, which really charmed me, and we did get to some wine/raspberry drinkies, but below is my tribute to *literal* Black Friday, finally being posted after shopping for organizing stuff all day.  And dim sum.

Inspired by this black crocheted blanket, I'm off on an all-black interwebs collection of beauty.

via Remodelista

via Ladies & Gentlemen

via ArchetypeZ

 via FFFFound

via FFFFound

 via FFFFound

 via Monicaj

via Sweetpea & Willow

And then we saw The Muppets.  It seems pretty autobiographical when I learned from my sister that Jason Segel wrote it and had grown up a big Muppets fan.  It was even forshadowed in his movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall.  Then I scored me-points when I called it that a Flight of the Conchords had to be involved in the composing of a couple of the musical numbers.  Bret McKenzie.  Point.


Good night lovelies, mmm.

thanksgiving with arlo guthrie

It's about to start!  KFOG playing Alice's Restaurant by Arlo Guthrie.  One of my favorite Thanksgiving traditions.

Happy Turkey Day, y'all!

Listen streaming online here

And if you missed it, they'll play it again at 6pm, PST.  Or find it on Spotify!



xoxo

how arty does art have to be?

I was just realizing I'm confused about art now.  Last week I finished watching the first season of Work of Art and was really connecting with the idea that art must mean something; must make a statement.   Yeah, on Work of Art the artists are given challenges based on themes and materials so there's more of a context in which to make a statement.  But I felt myself pulling away from art that was just pretty.  I still liked it, but I was aware of it having less purpose, and that I was missing something by not seeking out more meaningful art.  I was loosing recognizing art for art's sake. 

And I'm just finishing up Get Your Paint On, an online painting class with Lisa Congdon and Mati McDonough, where I've been working on a painting of a necktie.  I had conceded that I wasn't making a statement and acknowledged I was *just* working on technique; how I push paint around on a canvas so that my strokes could be intentional when I was really working on something to say.

There's someone at work I plan on asking.  I'll post the quandry on the private online art class forum.  But for now I did a search for "art" at the TEDTalks on Hulu.

Here's what I came up with.  Nothing that solves my riddle above.  But something that makes the study more accessible.  And showcases how coding can move people across continents.

I can't wait to curate my own Artwork Collection.

jumping in, in july

Well, first of all, an update:  done! I did it!

June's Power Year Goal ACCOMPLISHED!!! 

Now to jump in for July.  I haven't gotten any inspiring goals message from the Power Year moderator for July yet, but that's just fine as I haven't finished started my personal statement from May.


This morning as I lay in bed, cuddling with my iPhone, I got into Anna's Door Sixteen blog, especially her to-do lists.  Though I've followed her on Twitter mucho, I hadn't spent more than a minute on her blog.  So, it was nice to see her Pee-Wee post putting all her Pee-Wee tweets into context.

Since my day assignment has been cancelled, I've got some time to jump into the blog and jump into productivity.  And do like Anna does and make me a to-do list!

Here goes:

TODAY:

• ugh, find my 2010 IRS filing 
• finish washing the last of my dishes!
• new (bigger clothes) laundry
• goodwill pile out front
• right room (learned from flylady = relocate stuff first, detailed cleaning second)
• some work from home work on the work laptop
• meet that guy to give him the old furniture
• costco return? (nope, not today)
• then there's all the standard self-care available on my teuxdeux list... i try the *meditate* right now... 
• *
  

TOMORROW:

• rest

What's on your list?

*Um, this just in:  
apply to Craigslist ads needing female drummer playing Bonham, and another indie band that sounds cool.  Check.

sometimes i feel like this

{power year} may/june

If April was wrap-up month, May was rest-up month.  Except I didn't rest, I worked-worked-worked.  It's an intermediary role of having to make some cash; spent all my time doing that and getting/getting over the flu.  Do you know the flu isn't just big cold?  I had no idea.  It hits hard.

So, following my Power Year rules, what do I do? 

Rule No. 5 - jump in where I am.  I'm right here.  I'll start with Rule No. 2 and do something productive for 15 minutes per day.  I've had to take it real easy cuz the flu leaves behind a lot of fatigue and I already have a higher share of that than most.  But I can start getting focused again.  Having my ess in order now allows for more options later.

And from Rule No. 4, I'd like to start my 11 minute morning meditations again.

Time is opening up.  No more flu, less fatigue, one more vocal class left, time off from one job this month, and a new support tool to help it all fit together, yay!

June.  Yes, moving on to June. 

My goal for June is to mail my give-a-way from March!!!  I know.  Super bummed I wasn't on that.  I went against Rule No. 1 and instead of working towards 80% of a task, I piled on more and more expectations until I paralyzed myself.  It's because my supplies are still not super-accessible.  I wanted to add a goodie to the winning notebook, but instead delayed even getting that out.  I suck.  And that's why my June goal, and my only June goal, is to deliver that notebook to the winner!

Well, this felt good to get back on the blog.  Thanks for being there.  And let's RAWK this month!!!

xoxo,
z

here i am