What I'm up to these days

Well, my days are pretty full, they start out early usually around 5:30 or 6:00 with  the dogs, I have to go on 2 separate walks because everyone cannot go together.  Tessie and Dira have to be separated as do Dira and Sadie, so Dira goes last with me and Lucy.  Lucy gets to go with both groups as she gets along with everyone and has more energy than all of us combined.  I'll post dog pictures in a separate entry.  After the walks, breakfast and a shower, I usually head down to my gem table to study although I don't want to give the impression that I am disciplined enough to actually get going right away, there are many distractions that can derail me as you will see in a minute.  This is my gem table where I am learning through online courses at the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) how to identify colored stones.

One of the places I get sidetracked to is my craft table.  This is how the journaling side of it usually looks.  I do clean and organize it but when I'm working, it gets pretty bad as I'm always pulling stuff out to use or just so I can see it and not forget it.  Journaling is new to me and not something I really know how to just jump in and do, so it has been good to learn a new creative  part of me and since it takes so long for me to do a page, I have a lot of time to think and think and think.

For the last couple of months I have been working on a project through Brave Girls Club called Soul Restoration.  If you are not signed on to bravegirlsclub.com and getting the daily email messages, you really should be.  They are so uplifting to your soul and usually they come right when I need them most.  Anyway, I signed up for this class, not realizing the work involved, but I am so glad that I did.  I work on my journal almost everyday and enjoy every minute of it.  I am not finished and I do believe this will be an ongoing project as it is all about making good decisions and setting goals.  Very introspective.  I am already signed up to do an Art Technique class later this Fall.  Anyway, here is one of my pages.

One of the assignments centered around excuses or reasons we don't do the things that we really want to or that we know will take us towards living the life we want to live.   The concept is that there are self imposed landmines we have waiting for us at every step.  So this is my landmine map.  Mine got to be pretty big as I get distracted easily.  It's hard to really look at yourself and put into words and pictures the things that are really holding you back and then to come up with a plan so you don't step on the mines.  One thing that has been helpful for me is the 5 minute distraction when I am feeling lazy or I'm headed toward a landmine, I commit to do something for just 5 minutes, like cleaning a drawer, pulling some weeds, hanging up the stuff on my closet floor.  Usually it turns into more than 5 minutes, but I do feel a sense of accomplishment instead of beating myself up for just being a bump on a log or something.  My landmine map:

One of the other parts of this course is personal goals and decision making.  That is the part I have been working on the longest.  Sometimes you have to let go of a goal you have had for a long time simply because it has expired and is no longer valid.  This made me dig a little deeper for those things that are most important to me.  I realized that some of the stuff I've had on my goal list forever is there and shouldn't be anymore simply because I am never going to do it, I just don't want to or it should have never been there in the first place.  I just haven't thought to take it off the list until now, so it has been a source of stress as a goal that is never realized.

Let me just say that before taking this class, I didn't know what decoupage was nor had I been introduced properly to the multiple uses for Modge Podge, I'm either going to have to buy it by the gallon or learn to make it....

My other distraction is Polymer clay.  I took a class through the Rocky Mountain Bead Society, which I joined to meet people who make jewelry like me.  I had no idea what I was doing or how the stuff even worked.  Well, after the 2 day class I am hooked, I love working with the clay.  You actually condition it and put together things called canes.  The clay doesn't harden until it is cooked so these canes can last for like 25 years.  So I have been building my wardrobe of canes, I can use these to decorate items or make beads with them, or whatever I decide to do.  Right now I am having fun working with the colors and shapes and trying to figure out how to do some of the cool stuff I see in the books.  Like I needed another hobby, but it kind of fits in with everything else.  Soon I will need a whole separate building to house all of my crafting addictions!  But if you ever come out to visit me, you can certainly get lost in my craft area and make stuff until your heart is content.  Next up...I gotta start selling some of this stuff!

Canes

More canes

My clay table