Over one, Under one

I must have made my mother crazy when I was a child. I remember spending hours with her fabric scraps, carefully pulling each yarn out of each piece to discover how it was made, or simply to feel the hand of the fabric and wile away the time. The end result was, as you can imagine, a pile of threads that could only be effectivly cleaned up with a vacuum cleaner.

To this day I walk up to people wearing clothing made of interesting fabric and ask if I can feel it. --NO, I leave the yarns safely woven on their bodies, I promise!!
A brief volunteer job at a This is the Place Heritage Park helped me discover a penchant for spinning wool. Alas, a lonely spinning wheel sits in my dining room waiting for me to give it some attention.

I've taken two or three weaving classes and attended textile workshops in Logan on several occasions. While I love going to the classes, none of it has stuck. Perhaps because it take so much time to settle into --and complete-- a project.

Who knows, but this week I found it. :D

This beautiful little loom showed up in my latest issue of Martha Stewart Living, and I'm just drooling over it. It is small enough that I could weave a square here and there as I watch a television show or need a break from my studies.

hee hee hee.. i guess this spoils Christmas! xoxoxo

Pick a color, any color!!

Crayon Box Color Picker
Flicker color Picker

This is amazing.. click on the color in the color wheel and it brings you a selection of pictures.

I chose pink and it showed me a beautiful shot of a daisy. Shame though, you can't save them..

I think flickr is worth a second look for my photos. :)

enjoy!

What's the Big Idea?

When you're worried and you can't sleep
Count your blessings instead of sheep.

When your focus is on every day, menial tasks, it is easy to get overwhelmed and restless. Taking the time to refocus on your personal mission, vision and goals will recenter your thoughts and efforts and make the menial tasks meaningful again.

Yesterday I got stuck in the menial. I was working feverishly to build a course for an instructor, very much involved on an application level to create documents and upload files and construct an attractive look and feel. On occasion, this is refreshing, yesterday it was exhausting.

I only felt refreshed when my boss began discussing the mission, vision and goals of our department, and creating a big picture of my purpose in the organization again. :D He didn't know he was doing this. He was just working on some of his own work projects, but by including me in his thought processes and asking my feedback, it expanded my view from the everyday menial tasks to that of the bigger picture.

A good friend helped me learn this concept. We used to work together, and one or the other of us would get restless, and we'd go for a walk. Just spending a few minutes looking at the mountains or a large building-- anything with space, would help to bring the focus back to my work so that I could get those things done that were imperitive to the success of my work.

Funny how I have to get "stuck" to remember the concept and put it into practice.

Driving in Cars... All by myself

My brake lights burned out.

I learned this as I was driving down the canyon from a BEAUTIFUL afternoon of skiing. The car behind me signaled for me to pull over, at which point a cute little ski bunny poked her head out the window and said in a slightly annoyed manner "Your brake lights don't work!"

I had my brother in law check them out for me shortly there after, and sure enough: gone, all except the small light in the rear window.

I recognize FULLY that brake lights in the canyon are pretty important for everyone's safety... but I'm a bit boggled about how I'm supposed to proactivly know that those lights are going to go out. Even if I did a daily car safety check, I can't be sitting in the car pushing on the brakes and looking at the brake lights at the same time.

So, I added that item to my list of things to do, with the gracious offer of help from my brother in law and father.

Before that item got to the "done" list, a highway patrolman decided that he needed to let me know that my brake lights were out. At this point it was starting to cause me quite a bit of stress. I had too much to do, and figuring out how to change those light bulbs out, and the anxiety of a deeper maintenance issue was making me crazy.

I turned the task over completely to my dad, who was having a busy day as well. He found the replacement lights, and I was going to meet him late last night to figure out how to put them in.

Talk about feeling foolish: when I started poking around in the trunk, the access to the lights was a VELCRO DOOR and simply pulling the old bulb out and putting the new one in. The current must have been blocked by the burned out bulb, which caused all of the tail lights to stop working. Once the new bulbs were in, everything worked beautifully!

I was so caught up in the small "have to get this done" issue of the lights, that it overwhelmed me.

The Space Between

I love the reactions I get when I tell people that I've attended a relationship seminar. The spectrum goes from groans of disgust, to polite disinterestedness, to polite nosiness, to sincere curiosity.

My church has been sponsoring these seminars on a monthly basis for any singles in the area who would like to attend. The presenter is Matt Townsend who owns a marriage coaching business here in Salt Lake. It's called Marriage Matters.Go check out the website, it's pretty slick! While he usually coaches married couples who are struggling in their relationships, he has consented to present his ideas to single people so that they might find a good partner to begin with.

The basic premise of his coaching is that relationships suffer because the are STARVED or lacking one of the following elements:

Safety
Trust
Appreciation
Respect
Validation
Encouragment
Dedication

Tonight he discussed the concept of space in a relationship. The ideal relationship works on the concept of syngergism or the concept of 1+1=3. He taught us about an Islamic concept that explains how this equation can be true. The element of the equation that makes the sum larger than the it's two parts is the relationship that exists between the two parts or the "+" sign. This can be interpreted many ways. In my religion-- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints we believe that God plays a significant role in the success of a marriage relationship. Other ideas included the mere energy created when two people "draft" or pull and push one another along, similar to the way race cars work on the track.

I loved this concept because I've been fascinated of late about the power I have as an individual to interact with others and ease their burdens, or encourage them to behave a certain way, without blatantly stating what I want. I learn to interact with them through the language I use or the energy I percieve from them to meet their needs or draw out of them the responses I desire.

Tonight I gained clarity on the "space" that I'm cultivating to grow the relationships and happiness and peace I desire in my life.

Graduation

I'm on the homestretch for graduation from my Masters program at Utah State University. The last sememster went into full swing last Wednesday. I have one class and a project to complete.




It's been interesting to see my reactions to this particular class. The whole program is done using distance mediums. The program originates out of Logan, Utah, which is a 2 hour drive for me. Only 5-6 students even live in close proximity to Logan, so the courses are taught using EDNET or on the Internet. Most of our EDNET courses had the instructor in Logan, and I was at a recieve site, which meant if I had a question or comment, I had to make my instructor aware of my presence and comment using a microphone. This semester I have the pleasure of being at the "live" site and being able to respond to my instructor without the use of a microphone. I only have to use it if I want the rest of my classmates to hear what I'm saying.

Through the whole program, I've been strong and stubborn to say that i'm learning as well and am equally engaged in my coursework without the direct influence of a teacher. While this might be true, I can say that my motivation is increased when I have a live body who is concerned for my progress and understanding.

My next question, that needs to be answered rather quickly, is what to do for my final project. My boss suggested that Distance Education at Salt Lake Community College are in dire need of a student orientation piece of some sort. We might produce a CD or DVD. We might create it as a course in WebCT. We might do a live orientation that we take on the road. There are many options. It's kind of a big project though, so my dilemma is whether I want to do something that large. Time will make the decision for me if I don't make my own decision soon.

Goodness, blogging is a huge relief.. I can think of a million other topics I'd like to write about, but I will save it for another day...

The Beach Bug

Does everyone have one of these? It seems when life gets even the slightest bit monotonous and the weather outside just a little bit cold, that little bug comes to invite me to the beach.

Now, this would seem normal for someone who had lived by the beach and was well acquainted with it's allure. I've heard of this phenomoenon for those who have grown up in our beautiful Salt Lake Valley and moved away. They have the mountain bug.

Alas, I have never lived in close proximity to the beach. I have memories of visiting Santa Cruz, just long enough to get our feet wet and then covered with sand. That was the point that we were beckoned back to the van so that our feet could be lashed with a towel to remove the sticky sand so it wouldn't deposit itself in the vehicle.

It was only in the last few years that I've discovered how easy it is to appease the beach bug. A mere 10 hour drive will find me on Laguna Beach, listening to the rush of the surf on the sand and taking pictures of my toes in the water as evidence of the persistence of the Beach Bug, reguardless of the weather. February isn't exactly the time people expect to see a few bathing beauties frolicking in the waves.

A short 3 hour flight will find me on Coronado Beach, hunting for seashells, or in Oceanside jogging on the wide expanse of the promenade. All in response to the beach bug who knew that work was going kill me if I didn't escape soon for some rest and relaxation.

The most aggressive Beach Bug of all took me all the way to the other side of the world to wade at Bondi Beach in the moonlight-- in the middle of June. Unthinkable to most who reside near those shores.

I suppose I'll have to appease my most current bug with pictures and memories until the stars align to make a mad dash to the shore.