Live Laugh Love

We had LLL Club today. This month’s theme was generosity. Some of the reading material struck me as interesting. It said that just giving something away because it no longer fits or no longer suits your purpose isn’t truly generous. True generosity would be giving away something you love because you knew another person needed it more or could benefit from it more. Huh. That really hit home with several of us in the group, because I think that’s what we all kind of tend to do – get rid of things that we no longer use and then feel good about giving them to Goodwill. Which of course is still a good thing, too, but really isn’t much of a sacrifice on our part, is it? In fact, it’s helping US out, because we’re getting rid of clutter in our homes that way. So I guess what I would challenge each of you to do, and what I’ll be trying to do with my own family, is think about ways that we can be more intentionally generous with our things (and with our time) rather than just being “generous” when it’s convenient for us. I truly am not sure how I’m going to do that yet, but I suppose like with anything that is worth doing, it’s not something that will come easy.

Dream Board

I have started making a dream board. For those that don’t know what that is, I got the idea initially off a blog post from Jenn and then started reading more about it on various sites on the web. It seemed like a cool idea, and right up my alley. I chose to do mine on a bulletin board and use thumb-tacks to hold the words and pictures in place. I am not done with it, so no pics to post yet, though. If you've read the book The Secret, then you'll likely be familiar with the concept. I think that book opened a lot of people up to the idea of the power of positive thinking. I believe that there is truth to that concept, that if you think about and want something enough, you can cause it to manifest. My dh thinks that is all a bunch of new age mumbo jumbo, but then he's a much more "grounded in reality" type of person than I am. Always has been. In any case, I don't see what it would hurt, so I'll continue working on my dream board and we'll see where it takes me.

Art?

I am always looking for new ways to decorate and accessorize my home. Some of my ideas come from magazines, some from displays in stores, and some are more of a brainstorming session with myself or others. I often have people ask to see what I've come up with lately, and rather than email out pics, I guess from now on I will post them here from time to time.

This piece is one that I have hanging in my family room. The idea was come up with by my friend Jason and myself over sushi one day. He was talking about wanting to paint a wall of his house with circles, and I said rather than doing a whole wall, what about doing canvases so that when you wanted to change them out it would be easier. So I decided to do that for my family room as a focal point on one wall after Ravi and I repainted the room.

This was done with three pieces of blank artist's canvas from Michael's, about 11.75 inches x 34 inches each. All three canvases were painted off white and then laid out on the floor about an inch apart. To make the circles, I got three each of three different sized circular quilter's rings, and three shades of green paint. Each ring was painted and then pressed onto the canvas. I had created a mock-up design in Photoshop first, so I had a pretty good idea of where I wanted the circles placed before I got started. I'm happy with how it came out, though I wish I had gone bigger. There is always the possibility that I'll go back later and add additional canvases, but for now it makes a decent conversation piece in my home.

Wax On, Wax Off

Let me preface this by saying that I’ve been getting bikini waxes for a good long time now, without incident. I don’t even particularly think they hurt. Now, before you waxing virgins go thinking it’s a good idea to run out and get waxed, you should know it DOES hurt, at first. The first two or three times you get waxed it hurts in a shriek out loud, tears in your eyes kinda way. But once you’ve suffered through those first few trips to hell, it’s not bad at all. I’m at the point where I can easily carry on a phone conversation while being waxed (and now those of you who I speak to on the phone regularly can wonder if I’m having hair ripped from my body while we’re talking. You’re welcome for the visual.)

Today, however, was an adventure in waxing unlike no other I’ve ever experienced. I was at my usual salon, with my usual woman. And I should note that I do NOT go Brazilian. That scares that crap out of even ME. But I do let the tech pretty much dictate how much she’s going to take off. I’m not terribly picky in that way. As long as I don’t look like Sasquatch in my bathing suit we’re all good. So today my girl went a bit lower on the top edge than usual. Which was fine, not really a biggie, just odd cause she’s pretty predictable. But then she came father in on the sides than usual, too. Now…girls…these are sensitive parts down there that frankly aren’t really meant to be man-handled in this manner. But still, all good, a little bit of “ouch” but survivable. Until what should have been her last application and tear strip. I’m not even sure what happened, exactly. She put the wax on and I guess it cooled too quickly or something, but it got…stuck. In the longer part just off center. Not cool. Not. Flippin. Cool. Partially my fault I guess, because I didn’t “mow the lawn” before having her do the edging. Not a mistake I will make again. Bottom line is I spent about 20 minutes with her cutting this wax off me and picking it out with tweezers. That is a 20 minutes that will feel like an ETERNITY, in case you were wondering.

9 Things You Should Know About Me

• I’m a huge procrastinator. I make list upon list of things that I should do. Most of it doesn’t get done, but to be fair, most of it probably never warranted making the list to begin with.
  
• I love to plan parties. My girlfriend Ravi and I are party planner extraordinaires. Most notably for our annual summer luau and our Christmas parties. All must involve jello shots, color coordinated to our décor, natch.
  
• I’m a huge TV junkie. Biggest faves are LOST, Big Brother, Grey’s Anatomy and Deadliest Catch (I heart Captain John!). But those are really just the tip of the iceburg.
  
• I’m a list person. I have lists of stuff to do, stuff to clean, stuff to buy, stuff to remember, emails to answer…It’s insane. It doesn’t all get done (see point 1), so I stress over it.
  
• I can’t sit still, like EVER. I am incapable of just doing nothing, because I feel like I should be doing something productive. I am a very antsy person like that. DH, not so much. He’s quite content to lay on the couch, until I come bouncing in and entreat him to “entertain me.” He doesn’t often care to do so, btw.
  
• I love to shop. I would probably go so far as to say I’m a shopping addict. It just makes me so happy. Ravi challenged me once not long ago to go a week without shopping. I am pretty sure I caved day one. Though I did pretty well at restraining myself to internet purchases, if that counts at all (she said it didn’t.)
  
• I’m extremely indecisive. In most cases, I would much rather have someone tell me what to do, than to actually make a decision for myself. I think I always worry that I’ll make the wrong choice (think restaurant choices, plans for the evening, etc.)
  
• I’m a huge geek when it comes to numbers. I literally adore running numbers, stats, budgets, future earnings projections, etc. Something about looking at all the what if scenarios really entices me. I’m hooked on YNAB and Dave Ramsey.
  
• I chew pen caps, big time. At work, at home, sometimes even in the car. It’s gross and silly, but I love it. Oral fixation issues I guess.

Alright, let's get this party started

I am, apparently, the only person on the planet not blogging. I've tried to blog. I have. Way back before everyone was doing it, but inevitably I get distracted by life and forget about it, and then don't post for months and months. So I just abandon that blog and go without for a year or more until I get the blogging bug again and sign up somewhere new. So here we are. It would seem that blogger is the place to be, so we'll give this one a shot and (fingers crossed) maybe I'll get past the first few posts and not give up. :)

About me - I'm 33, married, mom to two, and live in Tampa, FL. My son Owen is almost seven, and is into sports. He's insanely smart and I'm sure that will somehow spell trouble for me down the road. My daughter Nicole is five and into cheerleading and gymnastics. Right now we're in football/cheerleading season so life is even more hectic than usual between all their practices and games. Busy but fun, and they both are loving it. My husband Perry will be 41 next week, and is working on getting his private pilot license (lessons were a gift from me for his last birthday). You can reach his main blog here, if you're interested.

I work full time as a user interface designer for a healthcare company, Gentiva, but my main passion is my side business, Once Upon a Family. You've likely not heard of us yet, but we sell traditions products, products to help teach family values (think responsibility, respect, courage, etc.) and heirloom quality memories products. I describe the products as "stuff that makes you want to be a better mom". lol. I've also recently launched a local chapter of a nationwide women's networking group, The Heart Link Network.

What else you should know about me - I'm an avid scrapbooker, though I don't have a lot of time for scrapbooking lately, with all of the other stuff above. I'm a huge animal person - I have two dogs, two cats, two turtles, and assorted fish. The dogs are Rico, a 1 year old Great Dane mix, and Jasper, an 11 year old German Shepherd/Chow mix. The cats are Sherbert and Lily. All four animals are rescues and I love them to bits.

Alright, so that's pretty much the basics on me. I guess I'll go figure out how to post this and I'll be back (soon?) with another post...