Reflection and Resolution

I sit and reflect on the year past. Though only the outdoor lights and wreath upon the door are left to remind that Christmas has just passed. My children and I still work on a few of there Christmas vacation to-do lists, such as long lasting mini gingerbread houses, and lounging in our PJ's.

 I am reminded how blessed I am with three adorable angels that I have, and how (though I have to constantly complain about listening, doing what they are told, and cleaning up their room) I have wonderful children. Not to brag, but these are children that I do not have to worry about when they are staying at a friends house because I know without doubt they are well mannered and behave. These are also the children that when Mommy is sick, tuck the blanket back under her feet as she tries to watch them and is falling asleep on the couch from medication. I am blessed with the most wonderful husband who is quite simply a genius in the kitchen. He could more than likely make a PB and J fit for royalty in a matter of seconds.

Some days it can be very hard to remember all of these blessings, and the many more I have been given which leads me to Resolutions for the New Year.

For myself it will be becoming a more organized in attempts to better multitask as well as getting back in shape. People often think how nice it must be to be an artist and writer...Well in way's it is, we get to do the things we love, but if we aren't careful, we end up with fat pudgy waistlines that won't let us fit in our favorite jeans. (lol) So I browsed through my spirituality and well being Pinterest board and decided I would use a couple of neat finds to attempt my own version of weight watchers as well as share with you in case you also have get in shape bulleted on your own Resolution list.

So a quick breakdown for New Years resolutions:

• Become organized
• There are a multitude of places that have helpful advice on becoming organized. One I particularly love is A Bowl Full of Lemons which is over all home organization.
• Simple Dimples has a neat binder organization system that I love and think would be fab.
• The Complete Guide to Imperfect Homemaking also has a great weekly planners for general as well as food planning available for free download.

• Get fit
• As I said before I will be trying to get into some sort of fitness routine, starting with changing how I eat. I spoke with my husband and he said he had had good weight loss on weight watchers before, but in these times, who can afford to pay to loose weight? Perhaps I'm being a cheapskate, but my favorite word as of late is FREE!
• So I found a great tracker/log over at Freckleberryfinds both a weekly meal tracker and a fitness tracker. This will help with monitoring food intake and daily point balance.
• Calculators: Points calculator , Activity calculator
• I have also located a really neat site called Fatsecret which allows you to find the nutritional values of the foods you eat if it is not available on the package.
• No one program is right for everyone, so find your own if this doesn't work for you.But please feel free to use any and all of the enclosed links. And let them know who sent you. ;)

• Become accountable
• If your a stay at home mommy like me accountability can be a difficult task. I am accountable for my own actions, but this proves tricky as I tend to let myself slack.
• Since I know without deadlines I dally, I will be making myself accountable through the use of a weekly binder system with check-offs, such as the above fitness and food log, but also creating one to ensure that I allow myself time to do the things I love such as scheduling in play time with the children, and personal craft time for myself.
• I already belong to a writing group Blooming Late which meets bi-weekly in my area, and have to tell my writing progress which helps ensure I am actually writing, but I will also be joining one on Google+ which is a specific accountability group for writers in order to accomplish my writing goals for this year.

• Complete a journal and write
• Personal journal as well as a spiritual journal
• This is for posterity's sake. I want my children to know what I was like as well as what they were like. So my intent is to write at least once a week, and jot funny happenings or sayings down as they occur to compile in a hardbound printed book for each child at the beginning of the next year.
• A spiritual journal is one for personal use. It is a way for me to become more enlightened though scriptural study as well as personal reflection.
• Write on my novels at least once a week and have one finished before the end of the year.

• Be Magical
• Remember to do fun just because activities that make me smile.
• Encorage others to remember that kid-like happiness and innocence
• Blowing bubbles outside on a sunny day
• Blowing bubbles with Strawberry Bazooka Bubblegum if its raining outside
• Watching dandelion seedpods blow in the breeze and looking for fairies dancing between them
• Wish upon falling stars and talk to the man in the moon

I apologize for the rather lengthy post. I'll try to have a shorter one next time. :D Please feel free to use the above links, and ideas for your own journey into 2013. Don't forget to be kid-like at least once a week and let the magic flow.

Tuesday Tutorial - A Pinspired Project

So I promised a tutorial on how to make your own little Christmas Dragon, or an anytime dragon for that matter. As the title says this is a Pinspired Project, so my inspiration comes from Pintrest and some simple yet cute gator/crocodile clothes pins. I saw them and instantly thought of dragons so this is my take on them and I hope the tutorial is fairly simple to follow. As you can see above, my daughters (8 and 9) made a fleet or army of dragons if you will in about 2 hours.

Step 1: Gather your supplies

~ wooden clothes pins
~ acrylic paint your choice of colors we used plain and metallic (The metallic turns out very dragon-esque without adding scales)
~Googly eyes (I used the smallest I could find)
~Craft foam
~Newspaper
~Thin point permanent pen
~Glue
~*extra materials for your decorating pleasure*
        ribbons, beads, ultra fine glitter, fabric paint, stamps, 
        feathers, etc.






Step 2: Prepare work area

~ lay down newspaper to protect surfaces

Step 3: Paint clothes pins with acrylic paint

~This will take a couple of coats 2-3 depending on how much paint you use on each coat






Step 4: Dragon wings and Tails

~ Cut out and trace the dragon wing

template, or design your own wings

Step 5: Affix Dragon wings and googly

eyes with your choice of fixative

Step 6: Decorate your dragons wings with

wing marks ( I used glue and ultra fine

glitter), or feathers. Draw scales, or add

beads. Allow your dragon to speak to

you on how he/she should be bedazzled.

Step 7: Allow to dry then enjoy. Use your dragon as an ornament, or added to a package in place of a bow and as a double duty gift, or add a ribbon and have him/her be the Guardian of the Cards.

                                                                         

                                                                                          

Grinchmas, bringing the wonder back to Christmas time

I'll be the first to admit that I have become anything but "enchanted" by the season this year. The public pushing of plastic toys by and before Halloween has even passed seems to kill the magic that Christmastime should bring.

 

However as I drove to a Christmas party "with much dismay" to my Grinch-like heart my daughter began to sing in a small voice in the back seat. The tiny voice like a heater slowly began to thaw the ice of my heart. Then we were there, and since I am a shy person at best I tucked my way off in a corner and watched. The children giggled, and wrestled on the floor and piano music was being played in the background. It was there that I realized with my over analyzing adult brain, that the wonderment of Christmas was there in those tiny little souls, and that once you become an adult... well sometimes magic has to be made it doesn't just happen.

Magic is very similar in nature to writing, drawing, and crafting/art of any magnitude when you feel the blah's sneak in you have to counter-act them. With the above mentioned block if you will can be countered by almost anything:

• Taking a nap
• Taking a walk
• Visiting a gallery
• Talking with other people (some of us like to hobbit away in our holes, but we really do need human interaction)

Christmas time is no different, so when you feel a case of the Bah-Humbugs creeping up make the magic happen:

• Take a drive and look at Christmas lights
• Sing a silly Christmas song
• Make salt dough or felt ornaments
• **Remember what it was like to be a CHILD at Christmas**

That last one is important! once you remember what Christmas was like as a child, embrace it because that's where the magic is. Always listen to your inner child. If your walking by a snowbank, and your inner child says "Hey, lets make a snow angel!" listen, just do it. Make that snow angel and not care what anyone thinks.

When we were children we didn't care what anyone though of how we sung, or what we drew. Our sole purpose in life was to be happy, and make others that way as well. So my daughter sang in her off key voice, and like a couple of kids ourselves, my husband, daughters, and I chimed in with her and were happy.

No matter what happens where this Christmas season finds you, I ask you to please find the wonderment and magic and become happy.

Spend time with the ones you love and find Peace within your Heart. The magic lives within...



 

 Rekindle it's flame and burn brightly.

 

 

image courtesy of: http://www.theletter4.com/2011/12/christmas-printables.html

Re-vamping

Again! I know, I know... when am I ever going to get with the program and stick to something. Hahaha, well eventually. Over the next week or two (as nothing ever seems to go as I plan it) I will be making some changes to the blog. I will be re-vamping the extra pages, and I think adding the intro's up to some of my work's in progress. I am also changing the content of my blog posts. I've finally figured out exactly what I want to write to you all about that is just as meaning-full and important to me as it will hopefully be for you. Instead of the jumping around I tend to do now, I will be walking the path with you through my Nevermoore. Or a journey together on how to keep the fantasy and "child like wonder" that we had in our youth alive and well on into our adult hood.

While I was growing up, at least as a small child I was constantly told that I could be anything I wanted to be. I'm sure this is true for everyone, but what changes between that time of child-like awe that we have and those teenage years? Something changes and everyone forgets that the true happiness is found in those small things. The wonder of the leaves changing colors or a grasshopper jumping on your foot. Once we become teenagers it seems as if the focus changes from being happy to what do we need to do to make money. Well in short, remain happy! How many times have we been told that the most successful people are the ones who find a job or career that they are happiest doing? So why is it when an artist or a writer say's that's what I want to do with my life that we are met with the most resistance? To be honest, I don't know the answer to this question. I can tell you this DO NOT become so engrossed with trying to make others happy that you forget to make yourself happy.

I have done a bit of soul searching, and realized that as a child what I most wanted to do with my life was be taken away by fairies and see how they lived. I wanted to run with elves in trees and fly with Peter Pan to Neverland. Through that soul searching I found that that hasn't changed. I still hope that Peter Pan will fly to my window and knock, or that the Doctor will run into me in the middle of the street and say "Run for your life the Dalek's are coming!" and then give me a key to the Tardis when we save the Earth together. But sometimes we have to make that happen, it isn't just happen-stance. This is why I opened the doorway to Nevermoore so that I could go anywhere I wanted in my adorable gypsy wagon. I can be whomever I choose when I go, and bring whomever I like. So in my own way I am a bit of a Doctor myself with a touch of Peter Pan in that ageless childlike state. Though there is no room for us "adults" in Neverland there is room in Nevermoore for you all. Just focus your eyes on the first star to the right, walk through the veil and return with your own tale to tell.

Back in the Habit

So I have been away from my blog for far far too long. I am so sorry that I have left you to wander in Nevermoore without a guide. Moving in the human world can be a nightmare which I'm sure most of you know. I am still unpacking boxes and trying to arrange just to probably turn around and do it again in the next couple of years. So again, I apologize I feel I have betrayed you.

I will be posting a couple of tutorials soon though. I made a summer bucket list for my kiddo's for this summer. Some adorable little garden fey came and joined us for tea recently and I will be showing you how to call forth your own little sprite friends. So look for the upcoming posts soon, and I promise not to be gone so long again.