Trees Aren't Pink. Are They?

Hi. Remember how I said I was bursting with creativity this weekend? After all of the baking, cooking, cat-petting, napping, reading, nail-clipping and collage-making of this that went on, I was still ready for more! (If you don't think all of those previously mentioned items are creative, you're not doing them right.)

A couple of years ago I started experimenting with polymer clay, I love how you can mix the colors and use your hands and get really involved with the art. Plus there's no erase holes in the paper from messing up and starting over too many times. I used to make patterned boxes out of the clay, you bake what you make and it hardens into...something hard. I suddenly had the idea on Sunday to make a crazy landscape out of it and this is what I created:

This morning, oddly, I also felt inspired to create and I made this smaller piece:

I'm into trees, in case you haven't noticed.

How did I have time to make this before work today? Normally I get up early to work out, but this morning I decided to do a shortened workout. Yesterday I did both an hour of yoga before work and then, after work, an hour of spinning which Amy also participated in. Neither of us had ever taken a spinning class before, but we loved it. I'm lying. I loved it. Amy hated it. I'm going to wager a guess that because my butt is so much more generously padded than hers my ride was a bit more comfortable. Also she is a wuss. She actually said, more than once, that she'd rather be in our Tuesday marketing meeting than at class. But back to my point, this morning I did a shorter workout because I felt like making more art! So at 6:30 in the morning there I was in my kitchen, molding and mixing polymer clay.

When I was in college and learned to weave in a crafts class I used to say "I'm going to move to the Swiss Alps and weave and braid my mountain goat's hair all day." Now I'm thinking "I'm going to quit my job and make sculpture art and write and braid my cat's fur all day."

Which reminds me...I've made an appointment to talk to a life/career coach on Thursday during my lunch break, hopefully she'll say something along the lines of "I think a good move for you would be to quit your job, make sculpture art and write and braid your cat's fur all day long."

We're All Going to Die!

I had a great weekend. A fantastic weekend, even. I was creative in the kitchen, creative in the whatever room it is you make art in, there was creativity flying all over the place. But what really made my weekend great? Realizing that we're all going to die.

I spent some time both Saturday and Sunday with my mom, and on Saturday she shared with me some info from a book she's reading now...and I wish I could tell you the author and title of that book, but I can't at the moment. It was written by a doctor who says something along the lines of: "We're all going to die. Probably by around 85. You may very well get a disease. You don't need 900 zillion medications and medical tests, you're going to die eventually anyways."

It's not the over-medicating and over-testing stuff that struck me. Instead, it was that we're all going to die!!! It's such a relief to know that no matter what I do in this life, I'm still going to die. Eat an extra chocolate chip cookie? Dying anyways, don't sweat it. Spent longer than I should have reading instead of sleeping last night? I still only have 57 years left. Quit my job while wearing my underwear on my head? Funny and will not change the length of my life.

Why should I spend this time I have on this earth being miserable? Don't get me wrong, I love to exercise and eat a generally healthy diet, I want to feel good until I die, but why am I wasting so much time being miserable and worrying about things that I don't really have to do, just because I want to live up to some standard society has set for me when we're all going to die anyways???

This thought process also seemed to make my mom really happy, and on Sunday she invited me over for an art project. It's another self-portrait collage, similar to what I did a couple of weeks ago, and this time the assignment was to use things you like to make up your face and features and write why you chose the things you did. Here is my mom's, the pic was taken on my cell phone so it's a little blurry:
She hadn't finished hers, but I'd like to point out that on the top of her head there are flames. I think she wrote above it something about her putting flames in her self-portrait because she felt like her brain was on fire...I laughed, perhaps I should be seeking help for her.

Here's mine:

I'd like to point out that both my mom and I, without consulting each other, used windows, actually from the same house (we had doubles of one of the magazines we were using to cut images from), to make our eyes. I thought that was funny. You can't really read the writing, but I described why I picked what I did and then at the bottom wrote about the words I noticed I used over and over again: "Wild, Crazy, Happy". Hmm, I think I need to add more wild and crazy into my current job situation to increase my happiness. Nola thought I needed to add more cat hair:
In case you aren't already horribly impressed, this is what I made in the kitchen this weekend in addition to my artistic explosion:

• Pumpkin and Honey Muffins (we were supposed to meet a friend but he bailed, Mom and Joe got the brunt of the pumpkin-honey love in this case)
• Pumpkin Pie (I cooked it longer than the suggested time and it still didn't completely set up. We are eating it anyways, with spoons if we have to)
• Turkey Meatballs & Tomato Sauce (Anthony loved them and he's Italian. Nuff Said)
• Veggie Meatballs & Tomato Sauce (why should he have all the fun?)
• Sunflower & Pumpkin Seed Whole Grain Bread (Haven't gotten into it yet, but the last loaf I made was delicious)

Phew, I'm tired just thinking about it! But my weekend was full of stuff I love and I need to do more of it!

Seminars, Help!, Lists

Yesterday I was a "Keys to Excellence" seminar. And here I thought I was already excellent. I learned that for work/business I should be striving for Leadership Excellence, Employee Excellence, Customer Satisfaction, and Financial Results. Hmmm, guess what, I'm not feelin' it. In fact, in our workbook one question was: "How do you translate the corporate vision, within your circle of influence, to create meaning and purpose for your team?" Wow. I stared at the page for looonnnng time on that one. Finally I wrote "I don't think I do that :(" Yes, I really drew non-smiley face. My "circle of influence"? I have three employees under me and I doubt I influence them to do much. I would say my cats were under my circle of influence, but only when they are hungry. I drove home from the seminar depressed because my enthusiasm for the job I'm in now is not going to grow, it's just not a good fit for me. Which leads me to today's office supply art: You know the paper doll chains you used to make when you were a kid? It's a "HELP!" chain, highlighted to accentuate the words.

Amy asked me why I don't just quit. She asked what my reasons were for continuing to stay. As I was spouting them off she wrote them down. I had 18 of them. She's currently looking at the list and writing why each reason is stupid. Since I don't have the list to read from, I'll try my best to remember what some of the reasons were:

1. My boss will be mad at me
2. It's a "good" job with good pay and benefits
3. It's a Friday
4. I had chili for lunch
5. I'm afraid
6. My cats will be disappointed in me
7. I don't know what else I'd do
8. People will think I'm crazy
9. My resume will be spotty
10. I should wait until I've been here longer
11. Things could get better
12. My underwear aren't a good fit
13. Pizza tastes good
14. I'll never get another job ever again
15. I'll be poor
16. My boss will try to get me to stay
17. I could learn to like this job
18. My hair is brown

Okay, some of those aren't the exact reasons I wrote down, but really all of my reasons to stay are equally foolish as saying I'm not going to quit because I had chili for lunch. They just don't make sense. But I am still afraid.

So I don't end this on a totally uninspiring and miserable note, here is a picture of a rose I took last night while I was walking around the lake by my house. The roses will be gone for the winter soon (they have a house in Cancun) but for now they're still beautiful.

Have a good weekend!

Worries

You know how the US economy is falling to pieces and the president of Iran is re-starting their nuclear weapons program and in the area where I live, Western North Carolina, there is a huge gas shortage causing price hikes, long lines, and sometimes police intervention at area gas stations?

Well, those are not my top worries at this exact moment.

First of all, I made this new logo thing for my blog:

Professional as always, right? I actually dragged Amy into this and made her take a photo of it with a decent camera because I couldn't scan it and my cell phone wouldn't take a good enough picture. I wanted to put it on the header of my blog but I'm having ISSUES!!! Maybe over the weekend I can get things sorted out.

Other topic on my mind: Why the heck haven't I heard from Ten Speed Publishing??? I am not supposed to hear for another two months from Chronicle books, so no biggy, but we're pushing ten weeks with Ten Speed and it's supposed to take only about six to eight weeks to hear from them. Of course my very overly-imaginative mind is coming up with all sorts of scenarios:

• They never received my submission and some feral cats are now nesting (do cats nest?) in both the manilla envelope and the scattered, torn pages of my chapters
• I wrote the address wrong on the envelope and forgot to write my return address on it so it's now sitting in some US Postal warehouse
• The postal worker opened it, realized what a hilarious and priceless idea it was and submitted it under their name instead
• The rejection letter made it to my mailbox but a neighborhood kid took it because he thought maybe it was Miley Cyrus answering his fan mail
• The letter made it to my mailbox but my 83 year old neighbor who is mad at me for not keeping my lower lot mowed to her specifications has stolen it to punish me
• A happy letter, asking for the complete manuscript arrived but my employer stole it from my mailbox because they do not want me to be happy
• The president and his crack team intercepted it somewhere on the way to or from California because I'm on the terrorist watch list
• Nobody loves me

Tomorrow I'm going to a seminar for work and will be unable to blog during my lunch hour, but I'll see if I find something to post ahead of time. Probably a picture of my butt. Oh, which reminds me, yesterday Leslie from the Weighting Game commented on my blog yesterday that her perfect day would include (among other things) peanut butter. I can't believe I forgot to put peanut butter on my perfect day drawing! Thanks for reminding me.

Perfect Days

What would your perfect day look like? Would there be money? Fame? Chocolate? Jazzercizing Elephants in pink leotards?

In sort-of-sometimes-weekly tradition yesterday I left Amy a quiz while she covered my post for lunch. My post is that boring that I feel the need to leave the gracious person who allows me to eat, blog, occasionally go to Target or get gas, or start driving my car towards Mexico with thoughts of never coming back during my lunch hour something wonderful to occupy their time. Yesterday's "survey" included things like:

What is your favorite type of restaurant?

1. Mexican
2. Italian
3. One with Good Looking Waiters
4. Pizza
5. Sandwiches
6. Greasy
7. Sushi
8. One Where I Don't Get Food Poisoning

and What kind of music do you like?

• Music that sucks
• Awesome music
• Rock
• Roll
• Rhythm
• Blues
• Rhythm is Hard to Spell

I added a bonus as well, it was to draw a picture of your perfect day on the back of the survey. This is what Amy drew:

First of all she said she really, really enjoyed this project and said, "See, I created something and it made me happy, just like you always say." I am not sure what her exact words, but that was somewhere in the ballpark. So you should all create your own perfect day and email it to me at officesupplyart@gmail.com, too.

Okay, a summary of her drawing of her Perfect Day:

• There will be a GIANT cup of coffee in it, so large that it looks as though it may crush the cafe that it is next to. Or maybe she didn't mean that literally, I'm not sure.
• See how the cafe has a table and it's empty? She said that's to signify that she is alone, as apparently her perfect day would be spent by herself. Not me, my perfect day would be spent with John McCain and Sarah Palin. Oh, and Sarah's husband, too.
• Amy's perfect day also has very dark clouds in it. Yes, this freak of nature that I call a friend absolutely loves dark and cloudy and rainy days.
• From the dark clouds a plate of Mexican food shall appear, containing a beef burrito, Mexican rice, guacamole and sour cream.
• In the competition to destroy the cafe the giant coffee cup has some competition...the giant guitar. Really, this represents her spending part of her day playing her music.
• To the right of the guitar is a bowl of ice cream in a bowl that says "ice cream". She didn't say what flavor it is, but if I know her it's super peanut butter chunk with concord grapes.
• Bottom left is a trail or road with some mountains, I can't remember exactly what it is, but it's something to do with two large mounds.
• There is a book or journal, I think that's her writing more music.
• Below the journal is a diorama of how the West Was Won. I stand corrected, it's a drawing of any empty theater, again indicating that she's ALONE. Since she ate all that Mexican food and ice cream earlier, it's probably best that she stays that way.
• Lastly there is some wine, a bunch of grapes and some cheese. She wanted me to point out that first of all there isn't a glass for the wine because she's drinking straight from the bottle and that there is an entire crate of wine available to her.

I can say with 100% certainty that today isn't Amy's perfect day. I do not see a drawing of our place of employment, her behind my desk or her writing a news release about a subject that is about as interesting as watching this year's Emmys, and those are all things she has had to do today.

Her drawing inspired me (so did I really inspire myself?) to draw my own perfect day:

My perfect day contains:

• A sunset or sunrise or something. We all know how much I love those, maybe in my perfect day I see both.
• To the right of that are a stack of pancakes and a frying pan. I love making breakfast, so making and eating the pancakes would be equally pleasurable. Cleaning the dishes is not in my perfect day, as you can see.
• On the right of that sketch is a circle surrounded by dark. It could be a full moon, but it also represents a quite space in my mind, my perfect day would definitely involve some silent, contemplative time. And not pictured, chocolate.
• What perfect day would be complete without some one-legged-up-hill hiking? I was just too lazy to try to draw a second hiking boot, but yes, my day would involve some physical activity, like a hike to the top of a mountain with a beautiful view.
• I put a sleeping kitty in my picture because my wonderful girls always make me feel happy (except when I get too close to Coconut and have to smell her breath) and my day wouldn't be perfect without spending some time with them.
• When Amy saw what I drew next to the cat she said "Your perfect day involves you sleeping alone?" Not exactly, it's me taking a nap. Mmmm, I love naps.
• In the center is a road going through some fall colors, I used to live in Vermont and other areas in New England and I love watching the leaves change. Of course, if I was there watching the leaves change the cats would either have to stay home or I'd have to give them kitty Valium, they aren't much for car rides.
• The book could be me reading, me writing, or me looking my own published book (hey, it's my perfect day!) Office Supply Art: How to Not Die of Boredom and Lack of Creativity at Your Lame 9 to 5.
• Bottom left is me holding hands with someone special (Amy thinks it's her, but she's wrong: John McCain again) and drinking a glass of wine.
• The explosion thing? That's my microwave exploding after I put tinfoil in it again. Okay, really it's the only way I could think to illustrate that feeling of spontaneous creativity that I sometimes get, I wish I could feel that every day!
• A cloudless blue sky.

So, that's it. Our perfect days. I realized when I drew this that many of the things I want in a perfect day happen to me with some regularity, so I'm a lucky girl.

Friday-Weekend-Monday

Do you know what occurred to me this morning? Besides I really need to learn to spell "occurred" without needing to use the spell check? That Monday and Friday are equally close to the weekend. It's just that Monday is on the wrong damn side of it.

This should be a good week though, my boss is gone for three days at a conference which means I can get the frozen daiquiri machine up and running in my office. Thursday I am at a conference off site which means free lunch - always a mixed bag since I'm a vegetarian. Could be great, like some vegetarian bean and veggie soup with stone ground corn bread muffins and a green salad. Or it could be boiled-to-the-point-of-death vegetables over some soggy, covered in butter pasta. But still, I'm not at work-work, so it should be good.

Today started out quite well for a Monday, because when I went to Amy's office this morning to...talk about an upcoming work-related project I'm working on...she gave me this:


I'd love to say that I made this in a burst of creative fervor, but I'd be lying. Her Office Supply Art did inspire me though, I weaved this at my desk:

Okay, Okay, lies are not becoming, I know. This is my new purse. I finally broke down and bought a new one this weekend because my old one malfunctioned. The zipper came off and then it spontaneously burst into flames. Or that's what I remember, anyways.

Isn't it nice? It's so fall-like and it really does make me want to create something. The only thing is that it still has that odd odor that the hippie clothing store where I bought it had. You know, some sort of combination of unwashed dreadlocks, patchouli and mold? I am sure the smell will fade and be replaced by the scents from my home: Chili in the slow cooker, peppermint shampoo, and used kitty litter box.

I promise tomorrow I will actually make something to post here, instead of stealing the hard work of others.

Mixed Blog

Welcome to the Mixed Blog, where I put a bunch of random paragraphs about different topics together for my own amusement.

1. Beach Finds.
Remember how last week I was on a glorious, sun and sand filled five-day vacation? When I was there I found two pieces of Nature's Office Supply Art:

This type of shell was all over the place on the beach, but this one was broken in an interesting way and posed for this nude photograph for me on the carpet of the rental apartment where I stayed.

I'm not sure what this is. When I brought it back from the beach to show Anthony he said he thought it looked like lava. I reminded him that we're not in Hawaii this time and hopefully it wasn't lava rock, because I wanted to take the rock home and we all know what happens when you remove lava rock from the place where you found it. (If you don't know what happens then you need to watch more Brady Bunch reruns.)

2. Classy Joint

The apartment where we stayed in Wrightsville Beach was an older place, there since way before any of the crazy development that's popped up all over down there.

Multiple choice question:

Which things did I like the most about the rental?

A.How close we were to the beach

B.The two large roaches I saw in the bathroom one morning

C.The proximity to the little downtown of Wrightsville Beach

D.The very, very classy flatware with the faux-wood handles

3. Jobby Job Job

There is no more exciting time of the month for me at work than when I receive my issue of the trade magazine I'm subscribed to. Thank goodness I got my issue this week after I got back from the beach, I needed a pick me up. Actual paragraph from said magazine:

Avidyne Corp reports that an FAA Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) for "Compatibility Mode" on its TWX670 Tactical Lightning Detection system is imminent. STC will allow the TWX670 to interface with a large number of displays produced by other manufacturers including many popular MFDs, GPSs, and EHSIs.

I don't know about you, but I think I just wet myself.

4. Ten Speed, Nine Weeks

Nothing. I sent my stuff nine weeks ago. I hope this is a good sign...