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Showing posts from 2019

Top 5 Be's - How Will You Be?

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Be...  Finish that statement.  How will you "Be"?  Go ahead.  I'll wait (insert Jeopardy music here).  In all seriousness when was the last time, you thought about that?  How do you want to be? How we act, react and treat our family, friends and those around us is always changing and growing.  Especially as we ourselves change and grow through our experiences.  The ever disconnecting way we interact with the world is lessening the human contact, well before and beyond the realm of social media.  We've been pressing "1 for English" most of my adult life and I remember when "self-check" became a thing.  As of late, I'm been really thinking about how I've been reacting to things and how others are reacting to me.  I'm working to change my own disconnected attitude.  In breaking my thoughts down, I hope to provide you with some food for thought and with something to consider the next time you act or react. Here are the FIVE things I w

Lived in or Messy?

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Housekeeping is such a relative perspective, isn't it?  No really.  Think about that one person's hot mess is a lived in house.  One person's clean house is another person's worst nightmare.  I'm the lived in house that finds overly clean houses to be a nightmare.  There is nothing that makes me more self-conscious than visiting someone who has one of those "everything in its place homes." We have two cats and a dog, can you say hair?  I'm a creative, so I'd rather be creating than cleaning any day of the week.  If you came to see how clean my house is then you came for the wrong reasons.  Our house is lived in.  It's not dirty.  It's not disgusting.  It's lived in. You don't have to take your shoes off when you come here and you'll go home with dirty socks if you do.  My animals live here, so don't sit if you don't want to go home with some sort of hair somewhere on you.  You'll often find dirty dishes in the

Let's Be Candid Shall We?

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can·did ˈkandəd/ adjective 1 . truthful and straightforward; frank. synonyms: frank, outspoken, forthright, blunt, open, honest, truthful, sincere, direct, plain-spoken, straightforward, ingenious, bluff; Being brave.  Following my path.  Following my calling.  Following my detour.  Whatever you want to call it.  I'm doing it one step at a time.  The other part of this journey is I'm finding my tribe, surrounding myself with like-minded people. Find it on Amazon I'm seven chapters into Lindsay McKenzie's book Follow Your Detour , about the halfway mark of the book.  I'm no speed reader, and I'm reading about 20 minutes a day while I walk on the elliptical.  Lindsay is very open and raw with how they got to be the fulltime RVers they are today, but it's about more than that.  It's about the pain, the fear, the healing and the leep of faith they had to take to follow their detour. This read came along at just the

Wandering & Wondering

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I go through these phases once or twice a year.  I wander through my thoughts and wonder what I'm doing, how could I be doing it better, if I should be doing something different.  I run off with wild abandon on a creative journey, sure that this will be the right one, the one that will set me free.  Only to find burned out at the end of each venture because I don't know how to pace myself or take the right steps to make it work and grow. I've found myself exploring many things.  Some of the paths I've ventured down include: Cookbook writing (wrote and self-published two books) Food Blogger (wrote for 7 years and then removed it from the internet) Handmade Gift Shop on Etsy (three years of thinking sewing would set me free) Photography Blog (goes in fits and starts, still posting, but not consistent) Card Blogger (I've learned I'm not a DIY, step by step blogger) Handmade Card Artist (still doing this but in a bit of a creative slump) Life Blog (you&#

Reflections: Summer 2019

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Where has my summer gone?  Summer in Alaska always goes so fast.  Three months of 24 hours of light seems to fly by at the speed of light. I always lose the month of June to long hours at work while we put on a Heavy Equipment Academy, in which I spend many days wearing this ensemble. We did a little extended getaway over the 4th of July weekend and made our first trip to Anchorage.  Forrest fires in the area made it a really smokey trip, but we were there the day the state broke a temp record and it hit 90 degrees. Had some good food, did some shopping and looked for a fifth wheel.  Ate at the "famous" Moose's Tooth Pizza. And on our way home we held out to eat at our favorite place in Denali, aka Glitter Gultch, Moose-AKas. Seriously, they have the best crepes we've ever eaten. I got a bit of rhubarb from our friends and processed it all into freezer bags for us to enjoy over the winter.  By some rhubarb, I mean 45 cups of rhubarb.

Sick & Tired of Being Sick & Tired

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I've been down with a nasty Spring cold for somewhere in the ballpark of eight days.  I actually think this is worse than the bronchitis I had while we were on vacation over the Christmas Holidays.  I took nearly an entire week off work and I still feel exhausted and rung out.  I still have the stuffy nose and congestion.  It's getting better, but this one is a hanger-on.  Hubby had it first, he was kind enough to bring it home from work.  He's a week father into this crud than I am, but he's still has a bit of a cough and is rundown.  We're both on the mend, but this one really took it out of us.  We're noticing the older we get the harder it is to get over these things. We're both pretty good about staying home when we're sick, but not everyone uses their sick time as they should.  Seriously, that's what it's for and the rest of us would totally appreciate it if you'd use it rather than bringing your cud to the office to share it. 

Reflections: February 2019

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What did February look like... We had a little mini getaway to Fairbanks.  It's how we battle cabin fever.  This is our favorite french dip and cheese fries from Friar Tucks. I've been trying to use a planner for my creative work, including blog posts. Nails for Valentine's Day. The sun is back!  I started wearing my shades to work again because it's finally light enough again. It was in the upper 20's and low 30's most of February. I made an old favorite - Toasted Ravioli aka Fried Ravioli. I painted our kitchen.  Before... After... I have a bit of a notebook fetish. My little alter of creativity in my studio. Artwork at a Starbucks. We also had a trip home to Wyoming.

Traveling Home February 2019

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We spent the last week traveling home.  This was more whirlwind duty trip than pleasure, but it's always good to see family and friends. I always over pack.  I need to work harder on packing less, way less. Drinks in the airport bar before departing is kind of a tradition. We ate at one of our old favorites when we made it to Fort Collins, CO.  Love the Charco Broiler. Could skip the peanut butter pie. I've always loved this statue that is outside the front door. Had our obligatory Taco Johns stop in Rawlins, WY. We saw more snow in Wyoming than we've seen in Alaska all winter. We drove on some slushy slick roads with some blowing snow. The sunrise at my Mom's house is always so stunning. Spent a bit of time sketching while we were gone. Journaling on the go. One of the bronze statues in our hometown. Second lunch. Second Taco John's meal.  Ate it in the car.  Don't judge. One more dink in the ho