Holy Cow!

Are you on Pinterest yet? I am. In fact, I am on Pinterest way, way too much. It is getting in the way of my blogging and other stuff cause that is one addicting place/activity. I love it so much.

Oh my, I do love it.

If you’re not on it yet, take my advice and don’t do it!! If you do, you’ll be like me and go for days without washing your hair, taking a shower or even getting out of your jammies. It takes over your mind and your whole life! All you can think about is what you might be missing on there; all those glorious finds you could be pinning.

I’m only half kidding here.

Seriously, I am warning you…be careful…Pinterest is like the heroin of the internet.

In other news, It has been one of my goals to start doing more videos for my YouTube channel and I was all ready to do some new ones with the journal pages I’ve been working on, like that one over there <—. Bad part was that I couldn’t find my Flip video camera. I tore my studio apart looking for it and, after 3-4 days of searching high and love, I reasoned that it must have fallen into my big trash can and been thrown out. *Huge sigh*

Know what I found this afternoon? Yep, my Flip…in my nightstand! I have no clue how it got there but it did. I’m just glad to have found it. It was killing me to think I had thrown it away, even if it was accidentally.

So, it looks like I can actually work on doing some videos, like I had planned in the first place. YAY!  That is if I can keep up with my video camera.

I also need to get back into my groove and start posting on Art Journaling II, again. Funny how you can be so into something one day and you find you’ve lost all interest in that same thing the very next day. I think it must be my depression/SAD that does that to me. I really hate it but I’m going to work hard to push past it.

Some good news on the creativity front…I do feel like I’ve pulled myself out of my funk cause I have been an art journaling fool lately. Once again I can spend literally hours in my studio, paint flinging like mad. WOW!!! I had no idea how much I had been missing this feeling.

In fact, I think I’ll head back in there for a while before bed. *snicker*

Peace & Love,
~Barb~

Three Days

Hola, my dear friends.

I’ve sure missed y’all but life has been busy in one way or another continuously for the past week.

I had some really major dental surgery on December 1st and had to have some follow up surgery this week. I really hate the dentist, too. So when I haven’t been completely high on Lortabs or trying to spend time with Richie, I’ve been trying to do some full on creating and art journaling…you can tell by the disaster I call my desk. lol

I have managed to complete two journals and I need to do flip-throughs of both of them…maybe tomorrow or Saturday. I should have plenty of time since I have the next three full days with nothing on tap for me while my hubby is gone to a Managers conference in Nashville, Tennessee.

This will probably make me sound like a 15 y/o girl but he and I seldom spend time apart. In fact other than these yearly conferences and once when I stayed with my sister when she had surgery…we’ve never been apart. Actually, that’s the way we like it. Sappy as it sounds, there is no one I’d rather be around. I realize that I am a very lucky woman.

Isn’t it great when life works out that way?

It’s good to know that so  many of you agree with me on Paula Deen’s products being so blasted high priced. It’s just a shame that someone like her has either forgotten where she came from or, more likely, is having her name plastered on these over-priced items in order to get those crazy high prices.

Either way, I think it sucks.

Okay, I need to sign off for now and curl up next to Richie since 3:30am is going to come mighty early in the morning.

Back soon.

Peace & Love,
~Barb~

Thanks!

Before I say anything else, I really want to tell you guys how much your recent comments and kind words have meant to me. Some of you are commenting for the first time just to let me know you are reading and that thrills me so much. So, thank you, thank you, thank you! I appreciate you all more than you can imagine. It helps this soul of mine just beam.

I’ve been busy in my art journal and hope to have some more photos besides the one over <---- to share with you over the weekend, if we don’t get busy while Richie is off.

His work is stressing about his work and our finances so much right now. I hope to get him out of the house over the weekend and go to the beach…it really works wonders on his stress. It’s like all that tension just floats away and he is a new man after that, completely.

In other news, I thought I would make a little list to clue y’all in on a few things, some strange, I bet you didn’t know about me…

1. I absolutely swoon for a man in a seersucker suit. It must be some odd Matlock fetish or something. lol
2. I collect quotations…thousands…and have notebooks full of them.
3. Even though I have a horrible fear of heights and of flying, I really want to skydive. Badly.
4. If I had my life to live over again, I would leave for Europe the day after I graduated high school to backpack, cliché as it might sound. Then I would come back to the states and do college then law school. If only.
5. I have taken lessons for: tennis, guitar, clarinet, swimming, calligraphy…the only ones that stuck with me are swimming & calligraphy. The others were not my things, I guess.
6. I have had very short hair since I was a kid but I’m finally letting it grow…so I can get dreadlocks! (I’m doing it at the end of the month. YAY!)
7. Other than a few things from Wal-Mart, I have no clothing that haven’t come from thrift or consignment stores or garage sales.
8. I’m giving serious consideration to changing my name. I’m not sure what I want to change it to, though. I just know I don’t feel like a Barbara or Barb.
9. I have voted in every election since I turned 18.
10. I am disgusted enough with our country that I would leave the US for good if I thought we could make it financially.
11. I could eat Mexican food three meals a day, for the rest of my life. OMG, I love it so unbelievably much. Nom! lol

I suppose that is enough drivel for now. I think that I am just wanting to open up a bit more and find lists are an easy way to do it.

Do me a favor, won’t you? Leave a comment (anonymously, if you want) and tell me something about yourself that most people don’t know…kind of like a post secret of sorts.

C’mon…you can' tell me.

Peace & Love,
~Barb~

Paula Ain’t Right

Can someone explain to me what is up with Paula Deen? 

I mean, I am the first to pledge my undying love for her Gooey Butter Cake, I could eat my weight in the food from her restaurant, and I agree with her belief that butter makes everything better.

My problem with her is that she has forgotten where she came from.  Once upon a time she was long suffering single m,other with agoraphobia (fear of open spaces), stuck in her little Savannah apartment with a terrible fear of going outside. She still had to make a living and that’s how Paula Deen began her cooking empire. She made sack lunches and the boys, her sons, would deliver these lunches all over downtown. Then she made pies for the holidays, and on and on it went.

She was poor as a church mouse back in those days…but now she’s wealthy beyond belief. So why is it with her background that a simple set of measuring cups, pretty as they are, from her website store cost $179.95?!?!?!? Here they are, so tell me…would you pay $179.95 for these?

Are there really that many people out there with more money than sense that will spend these outrageous prices to buy this kind of thing? If so, I am in the wrong business! Well, figuratively speaking, of course, since I’m really in no business. You get what I’m saying.

*hushing now*.

Just something that struck me today.

Peace & Love,
Barb

Shrink and Hide

I have done so much thinking while I’ve been away from blogging. You would think that when my mind is so full that I would be overflowing with things to talk about here, but that certainly the way it has worked.

I’ve been trying to figure out where my mojo goes when it leaves me (like it has done for the past few weeks…uh, months,) and just this morning, I think I have figured part of it out. Back when I first began blogging, I did it just for fun and to show the crafts and art that I was creating. As time progressed and I turned more toward art and less toward craft, I found myself overwhelmed by comparing myself to others. In the world of art journaling, there are some awesome artists out there, and it’s hard not to compare yourself to some of them. In bathing myself in the work of others and doing these comparisons, I’ve done more damage to myself than I have good.

I guess what that does to my mojo is to make it shrink and hide in the shadows, fearful of failing. I’m well aware that the only way to succeed is to risk failure…but I also feel like this uninspired feeling isn’t something I have chosen. What I know I have to do is to stop with the comparison, stop scouring the internet for inspiration…most of all, I must trust myself and stop being afraid of putting myself out there; to stop being so safe.

I’m not sure how I’m going to accomplish these things, I just know I have to try. That’s what 2012 is going to be about for me, my struggles to let go, to find my voice, to simplify…to IMPROVE (my word for the year!)

Thank you to everyone that commented on my last entry. Although I know I need to stop all of my dependency on acknowledgement from others, it still feels good to know I am noticed. I love each of you…truly I do.

It’s going to be a good year…I can just feel it.

Peace & Love,
Barb