The Gypsy on Adventure

Happy Birthday Grandma Mary!

Today she turned 93 years old! I sent her a beautiful bouquet of fleurs and Godiva chocolate! She loved them! They will send me photos when they can...

Its hard to believe she is 93! She is having a hard time talking too long because she gets so excited talking to me, she starts to loose her breathe!  So I promised to call more often so she doesn't have to go over so much with me...

Apparently she is still stubborn, keeps getting herself in and out of her normal bed, without waiting for my dad in the morning, so she pulled a muscel in her back before xmas...she refused to go in because she WAS going to attend her xmas party! :)  I am glad she got to go! Its important the few times during the year that she gets to get out and see family! 

She was born at 10 minutes to Midnight on the 31st of December and my daughter was born 4:07 a.m. on New Years...I almost had her on time...but the damn doctor wouldn't give me a c-section...breach is not a fun way to have a baby! 

Good Bye 2011

Its always good to reflect on the last year, which wasn't one of my favorites, to see if you accomplihsed what you set out to do or not. Most of the time I have no plan on what the hell I am doing all year. So I then just feel like I am sailing on a turbulant sea without a good sense direction...  It was that way this entire year too.

I feel like I have to be a lot more disciplined in my life this coming year, and really accomplish some good things. I have to stop making excuses for myself and live the life I was meant to. If that has to have flying in it, then I have to embrace that thought and go with it, fear or not. There are things I really want to do.

I need to clean my house up, because once that is done I would LOVE to get some new furniture in here. That includes some recylers and a rocking chair. So in order to do that I think I need to do a few yard sales...and get rid of some stuff! I am packed in clutter right now and I am not doing good in it. And since I can't rely on other people coming to help me, I just have to do it.

But in all honesty its hard, I spent all week looking at this shit and only got a 1/4 of what I wanted done while I was off work. It just makes me so heavy and depressed looking at it! For instance I am looking over at my end table next to my couch in my family room and I told myself I was going to dust the damn thing a week ago...and yet 6 months of dust is sitting on the damn thing! Gross I know...but its true...sad to say. My studio and family room is so bad I keep loosing stuff I really need, like the cord to my DSL camera to charge the friggin battery! REALLY?  So all week I was off no taking photos for me! Some day I will learn that I need to put things away when I am done and quit acting like I did as a teenager...  

Also, I wanted to take some knitting classes last year, and I didn't get around to it. Nor did I clean up the Lucy Spinning wheel, because every time I went to clean it up I cried. So I decided this coming month I am going to contact the yarn shop that has the replacement pieces I paid for and pay THEM to clean and fix it so I will get on with actually spinning yarn on it this year! And that would fulfill two! Spinning classes = knitting classes it is related!

This is the year I am going to start to look into doing art classes in my area...meaning I am going to try to bring in some great teachers and do mini classes and see if this is a possiblity for me to go into when I retire from where I am now! Income for me that will match what I am making now at least so I can stay living in this area...AND enjoy art too!  A friend of mine has some space that we can work if it is not too messy and it is close by...so we will do more talking about this option soon.

I did not nearly spend enough time with my friends this year, another thing I need to change! I want to do a lot more art with my favorite peeps! They get me so inspired! And another reason to have my house clean to HAVE them over here to play as well! Open door policy would be good! 

So some of this is going to be purging my art supplies, I just have to figure out if I am going to send these treasures to Raft or just throw it away and be done with it...or box and ship to a friend! LOL

I need to be a better friend this year. And BE THERE for my friends. This last year had me hanging my head in shame for a few of my friends, I had one great friend go through surgery and I couldn't be there because I was going to an art retreat...but I still felt bad that I didn't see her when I got back.

Life just seemed to snowball me all 2011 and found myself more and more in depression over things I had no control over at all. And I am finally digging myself out of the depression, because really I could not have changed anything that caused it...it was ALL out of my personal control.   I cannot allow other people to have that kind of hold over my moods.  

For instance I have been wanting to go and see Pallie in Oregon for YEARS now and I haven't made it back. 2012 is going to be different IF I can get my ass on a plane it would get me there quicker than the driving does and I could spend more time with her verses driving...AND I want to meet Corinne! A friend online for YEARS now and she lives in Medford Oregon! I could drive and see her from Pallie and on the way see the Bennetts! Now it is just going to have to get over my NERVES for flying and do it!

I also would love to go to San Diego and see Sharla, and help her clean her studio up! We talked about this, so if I get some of mine done to where I wouldn't be embarrassed she could come and help me organize what I have left! LOL 

I want to take more road trips too...WGB and I are talking about going through Northern California, the Oregon coast and Washington on a hunt for possibilities of where to retire...unless I can bring in good income in retirement from where I am we will have to move...the cost of living here is too pricey! I have even been considering buying a mobile home just to stay in the area...instead of having to move away...I love my home city! But I have to be realistic too...

And I am going to be SERIOUS about loosing 4 dress sizes too! I am done with this weight! Gah Sick of it! So I have a lot to do this New Year!

I love this! Gratitude and kindness pointed right at you!

I revisited my favorite temple of sweetness and wrote what have become my secrets to getting back in shape.

1) Be feminine. 

Treat myself like a loving, doting, proud mother would. Relish in all the accomplishments and steps to improvement. None are too small for this Mama: “That’s so wonderful that you only ate one chocolate covered strawberry! I know you wanted more. I’m so proud of my baby girl!”

2) Avoid the masculine. 

Don’t punish myself with extreme cleanses, diets or exercise routines. I will feel deprived, judge myself mercilessly and likely fail quickly. End result: I will not feel good.

3) Make it pleasurable. 

I enjoyed the journey that got me out of shape, but not all things I enjoy are fattening and unhealthy. I wrote down all the things I liked: dancing, favorite dance moves (shimmies, snake hips), favorite songs, wearing costumes, wearing jewelry and sparkly things. I will put these things into my health and fitness routine so that I enjoy the journey.

4) Easy does it. 

I can’t emphasize this one enough: Girlfriend, check yourself before your wreck yourself! I took 6 months to get out of shape. I cannot start where I left off. It’s perfectly ok to dance for only 3 minutes to my favorite song and consider that my entire workout for the week.

5) Be positive.

Focus on the things I am doing and not the things I am not. Whatever I feed grows and I choose to feed positivity and gratitude.

6) Make the re-connection. 

I know the power and euphoria that comes with the mind-body connection. When the time is right, I will feel it again. I trust that I will look forward to dancing once I have made this re-connection. I believe that I will want to put healthy food into my body once I have made this re-connection.

Two months after I wrote the above list, I have happily returned to my full fitness routine and I still eat a cupcake for breakfast from time to time. To read the entire post from The Goddess Life go here!

“I would like to think that everybody that got on a subway and saw some old lady sitting across from them, that they would imagine that a whole huge life lay behind all those wrinkles, and that seemingly nondescript, forgettable [face]. I mean, there is almost nothing less interesting in our consumerist society than an old lady. Um … dismissed. We don’t make movies for her. We don’t give a damn. You can’t sell her anything, she doesn’t buy anything. But just the idea that everything — the whole panoply of human experience, births, deaths, struggles, joy — everything’s in there. And just to imagine that. That’s what I would hope.”

-Meryl Streep (on what she’d like people to take away from the film Iron Lady)

 

Friends help you heal

It's been a rough week a REALLY rough week, and being able to get together with my girls made my spirit heal a bit...we spent some time at Miramar and had a nice brunch and shared Christmas gifts with each other, while we watched the ocean! I love this space.  Then they let us go into a side room where we exchanged the gifts and had coffee and talked.

We took a walk on the beach, about an hour, and found beach treasure and reminded eachother NOT to turn our backs on the ocean! Unless you want to walk in soggy shoes the rest of the day! haha!!! Which we did! And I saw the winged goddess house for the first time! I love that studio space! I dream of having a studio space as magical!

A visit to the Ocean always cheers me up! Half Moon Bay

   

Some days it doesn't pay to wake up and join the work force...days like this I just wish I was retired and on to the next stage of my life. Sigh. I am depressed!

There are some days at work where I just want to retire! Today was one of them!

Headache free!

I started working on a new hat for a friends Christmas gift, and worked in my journal...WGB and I went to breakfast at that little place in Cupertino we like...and the day just sped by!

It has been a good day...no headache...just a tinge...and I am a little sad that Fall is going away and signs of Winter is here...my tree's are getting bare.