The Gypsy on Adventure

More Gratitude

<sub>This morning I am just grateful for my best friend that happens to be my boyfriend. I woke up crying and upset...and he pointed out it is not just because I am upset for my children...but that I was probably grieving too... 

He is trying to put himself in my place with his ex-wife and what it would feel like with his two kids...

I am just so heartbroken for my kids and what they have to go through this next coming week...I think it just finally hit me today and I can't seem to turn off the tears. 

I am so lucky to have WGB, he knows what my kids are going through, losing his mom and the conflicted feelings that brings up. He doesn't do well talking or dealing with death and he has been VERY supportive and loving...I know this is bringing up a lot of issues for him as we feel our way through this.... He told me that he can see it is bringing up a lot of emotions in me...having to relive some things I may not have wanted to visit ever again...along with the good. Another reason why I love him...he get's me.</sub>

A day of Reflection...

Today is my day for reflection that I take every year. To honor the woman who raised me in all her flaws, she loved me, gave me the courage to be myself, odd and arty. She was a powerhouse of 4'11, wore what ever the hell she wanted and loved her high heel shoes all in size 4!!! Styling and silly...old and child-like. 

Then I read this article today...just confirmed all the reasons why I take the time every year to reflect and ask myself that question..."Am I connecting with people?" "Do people KNOW that I love them?" Because conventional success has never been in the cards for me...but loving people has! 

I have the best friends! Big Big SMOOCHES! ♥ It arrived and it is LOVELY I adore it! And I adore you Mizz Corinne Stubson!!! I so needed your love and kindness!

You always know how to make me feel special...and I LOVE this hat!!! Its a great beach hat! Corinne was nice enough to crochet this for me since I still don't know what I am doing when it comes to crochet!

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!

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!

Breathe...embrace...love

Well, today I took HALF a day off and met up with my girlfriend Sue who is retired...I haven't really been able to talk to her since her mom passed away, and I miss her SO much at work! I miss her telling me "Your and IDIOT!" when I do some thing silly...or singing...or just talking about things we grew up with. I miss her giggle... 

I couldn't talk about work...I teared up...so we didn't! LOL We met up at Country Gourmet, where I swear each meal is made for 3 people!

So today we got to have lunch together, of course I think it went by WAY too fast! But I was so happy to talk about her mom...and the process. I had just been talking to some one about how we don't even take care of our loved ones bodies anymore...that our culture doesn't understand death, and so we fear it...her sisters and her took care of her mom, cleaned her up, and dressed her and even put beautiful earrings on her before she left them...I think that ritual is so hard, but so important!

I am so lucky she shared those moments with me...it really warmed my heart that she was brave enough to do that. Her and her mom were so close, and I always longed for a realtionship like that, but not all of us can have good parents.  But I am grateful for those that do!

The rest of the day I have spent in my studio making beautiful art in my 50th journal!

Mini Mars Surprise!

Whew! That is a heck of a drive for one day turn around! Had a flipping blast!!! My Mizz Lindsay Waltman-Ostrom pulled off the biggest surprise ever!!!! She worked with Mizz Rena Veerkamp Askey to also come with Mizz Vicci Henderson to have a meet up with me at the before MARS party!!!

I have wanted to meet these two for YEARS!!!! I cried like a howling baby!!! Screams of delight!!!!! AND lots of jumping up and down!!!! Literally the ugly cry!  I think WGB saw how crazy I really am!!! I could NOT believe they kept it all a secret!!!! I felt like Ophra with a surprise headache!!!! It was flipping awesome!!! Photos and a hella funny video to follow! What a fantastic day!!!!! ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Most importantly each one of these fantastic artist women friends means the world to me. They feed my soul, they understand me, they love me and I love them!

We didn't know that WGB was taping us! Check this out! LOL Yup we are all nuts!

 

Artzy Gurls Retreat

I was lucky enough to attend the first Artzy Gurls Retreat in Idaho...what a great time! It took two days of driving where I saw the most beautiful sights of our vast country...and which made me wonder HOW some people eeek out a living on our land...some places were very remote.

It was a whirlwind retreat! If I had to say anything bad about the retreat, could you believe too much art! We started at 9 am and went to 9 pm...so that left no time for playing on the beautiful lake or venturing out to any boardering cities...I think we would have done better at 2 classes a day verses the 3, just for sanity.

BUT saying that I have to tell you I loved every minute of the art! AND trying new things as well, like working with Gourds! Gourds! Me! Can you believe I even tried using the wood burner for the first time and didn't hurt myself with it!? It was awesome with all the things we did.

I wasn't too thrilled with making art for some one else, although I totally understand why we had the exercise. My personality is such that I get high anxiety for making things for others....and when you don't know some one the pressure is on! I had a mini melt down and cried in my room for a bit and then got back to work. I enjoyed learning about my awesome person, but I didn't like the anxiety of the exercise!

I will upload photos to the photo album titled Artzy Gurls Retreat and you can see the photos there! 

It took us two days to drive home, but we went the quickest route through NV, which during the day is a rather boring trip, however, I enjoyed seeing all the colors come out at dusk, the purples and pinks, the blues of the dessert! It has its own beauty...that day was hard on the body we didn't stop much...so I was a bit dehydrated from not drinking anything for fear of NO BATHROOMS in NV! So by the time we got to Winnemucca at 830ish my body was swollen and I tired and hungry and THIRSTY! woooosh we made good time! From Worley Idaho at 8ish am  to Winnemucca at 830ish pm.

The next day was a mere 4 hrs to get to Chris's house! Then we mostly relaxed after splitting our new paints...and having a treat at the local yogert shop! YUMMO! Chris made an awesome dinner and I fell into bed early to get home by 11ish today! Whirl wind fun! 

I love spending that much time on art with like minded people, meeting new life long friends and sharing my life with Chris! I really do enjoy her!

On the way home my son texted me that my daughter has had a stroke or an aneurysm in Texas where she moved...that is not an easy thing to learn while on the road...especially when there is nothing you can do about it...

Birthday Weeks are fun!

Well me and some art girls ran away to Arnold and laughed, ate, played art. The views from the house were amazing! The drive way is the drive way from hell! I had panic attacks! I couldn't live there! But what a beautiful house!

Then we went on a wild toad right to visited some friends in Sonora at their great quilt shop! Laughed so much there! I miss Larry and Nancy! We even did some clothes shopping! LOL Like I need one more thing! Not!

The time went by way too fast! We played a card game NINES, and Mexican Train Dominoes! We seriously laughed so hard and had some great food. The time went by way too fast...I had such a great time! Thanks to all my friends, those that went on the journey and those that couldn't...I had an amazing time!

Its good to be home...

   

Off to Arnold CA for my Birthday Celebration!