It's TIME to Erode!!

It's time to make another BUNDLE!! Last year, I took part in Seth Apter's Disco Project. I was really excited to find that one of the gals who participated last year decided to host another project this year!! Josh and I made a bundled piece of art, and hung it out. This year, instead of assembling everything in advance, we gathered goodies to bundle, and we'll work on the assembling later.


I have a roll of burlap covered in oil... no idea what it's called. I found it at an estate sale... I used that to contain our bundle, and it will also allow our goodies to collaborate with the elements really well. I bound the bundle to a vintage wooden pants hanger I found at the thrift store...

Hop over the the Erosion Bundle blog!! I can't wait to see what everyone ELSE is doing!! Official Posting starts tomorrow!!
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Meet Me. In the Ladies Room

I got my copy of THE BOOK during the hustle and bustle of Christmas, and hadn't had a chance to SHARE with you!!

There are 68 of us!!
So I counted. Counted the pages between me and the gals I've MET, know on line, or that I know by name (ie: they're FAMOUS!) lol
38 pages from Sara Kamin
6 pages from Dusti Ohland of Kiss Kill right here in Oregon with me!
12 pages from Jan Arden
19 pages from Maria Hammon
28 pages from Michelle Blau also of Kiss Kill
29 pages from Carrie Jackson who has one of my FAVORITE pictures
32 pages from Jen Foster
2 pages from Kendra Rossi
7 pages from Kathleen Tennant
17 pages from Rosie O'Donnell
21 pages from Pam Detlor
24 pages from SHeDAISY
27 pages from Amanda Ferryman another photo FAVE
35 pages from Emily Dinino Linda's niece and Karen's daughter
36 pages from the ladies that made this happen.
If you are a lady in the book and don't mind me linking to you, please leave a comment here! I'd love to "meet" more of you!!
There's still time to get a TEN DOLLAR discount on your book if you buy before the end of the year!!
At checkout enter codes:
Orders from the US & Canada (using US $): GREATGIFT
Orders from UK (using UK £): GREATGIFT2
Orders from EU (using EU €): GREATGIFT3
Orders from AU (using AUD $): GREATGIFT
Added as they comment
35 pages from Ngaire B (who I forgot I already knew!!)
SAME PAGE (she's my other half!) as Annette!! (aka Loony)
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Not All Bah Bug and Hum

Sitting with my marshmallows melting in my hot chocolate this morning.
It's a perfect post holiday drink.
Just enough really HOT chocolate to melt the two handfulls of marshmallows.
Yep.
Perfect.

Somehow, this year has gone by the fastest of any past year.
I mean,
I know they go by faster as you get older.
I'm relatively OK with that.
BUT
This year was REALLY FAST.
Nothing went slowly, and it seems
TRULY
like we JUST STARTED.
And I was pretty Bah Humbug this year.
Especially when I found out I'd be the grown up in charge of getting ready to move over the next few months.
It wasn't the work of getting it all out, as it was that if I left it all in...
it would already be PACKED.
And by left it all in,
I
mean
ALL.
No tree
No lights
No cards (and I'm really sorry about that. I promise I'll send SOME form of mail soon)
No advent
No baking
NOTHING.
I didn't even do STOCKINGS.
We spend Christmas with our families, so the kids still got STOCKINGS. They just didn't have them at our house.
I didn't have time to make anything for family, so I bought stuff. And to me, that never seems as neat or personal...
Sheeeze.
I really sound grinch.
In proof that our holiday wasn't
TOTALLY RUINED
by myself:
Twelve Photos of Christmas

1. Macs using his stocking as a hat.
2. Travis and Josh "smiling" for the camera
3. Flowers in a coffee pot made special for me by My MOM.
4. Josh being himself.
5. Take TWO of number 2.
   
6. My try at Bokeh photography like Maria does.
7. Our custom family game of monoploly that I bought a couple years ago at Joann's on line. Full of inside jokes and places. It's our version of oral family history, because everyone always shares the stories each year. It takes forever to play, but it's never NOT been played since Travis made it. :) Makes me smile in my heart every time I see it.
8. MigMogopoly money.
9. Self portrait in front of my mom's tree.
10. An ornament made by my hubby when he was a little boy... hanging on his mom's tree.
11. Josh and my mom's Christmas tree... I love this photo.
12. My first born. I can't believe he's not a little boy anymore... This photo is HIM.

Other highlights...
Uncle's Math

Two five dollar bills to equal $55 dollars.
Encouragement to buy a Ducks hoody given to a Beaver fan.
It's the kinda humor Travis family excels at. The hilarity was not lost on Josh. :)
Cousins

Macs with one of his cousins... I love that they are years apart, and play so well together. Just like their daddies did when they were kids.
Made with LOVE...

Close up of the flowers my mom made me. I love them.
So see? This year really WASN'T all bah bug and hum. Looking over the photos of the time we spent with family, I really can see that Christmas really ISN'T about presents and getting stuff.
Still.
I plan to be more prepared NEXT year.
:::blink:::
is it next year yet?
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The List

Photo used by Creative Commons license taken by Temari
This year I turned 34.
HOLY SHIT I turned 34.
and I had an even bigger HOLY SHIT when I realized that 34 is EXACTLY twice as old as one of the girls I work with.
HOLE
EEEe
SHIT
ETA: I should mention I'm totally and 100% cool with my age. I like it!! It's just SUPER weird to realize out of the blue that you're twice as old as someone you pretty much considered an equal.
A couple of my blogging friends (whose lists weren't as long as mine) have done what is I think, blogging tradition.
They made a list of goals.
One for every year of their lives.
Tara's was one of my favorites.
I may even thieve a couple from her.
I love her intention to live her new year intentionally. It's something I intend to do too.
I'm older. I can do what I want. :) I put the ones I stole from here in gray. :)

1. Write a book
2. Teach Art
3. Take more pictures
4. Make more dolls
5. Advocate more for children in public places
6. Visit more museums
7. Visit more Zoos
8. Move to the country
9. Plant a garden
10. Only shop small and local (I will try to do this MORE.)
11. Learn Spanish
12. Make/Recycle gifts next year
13. Learn to crochet
14. Cook with my kids
15. Leave messages or gifts of love in random places
16. Make TIME for my home life
17. Be present in the little moments
18. Create art with my kids
19. Let go of what others want me to be and Just Be Me
20. Say No more often
21. Say Yes with intention
22. List the TON of things I've bought "for etsy"
23. Breath first and then speak from my heart
24. Cultivate friendships. Whether I've MET that friend or not
25. Go camping
26. Visit the river
27. Have tea with my mom at least once a month
28. Eat naturally
29. Holy SHIT I'm almost DONE!!
30. Go watch College Theater again
31. Take more on line classes
32. READ
33. Show my gratitude for life each day
34. Go for a walk by the light of the moon

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Bigger than ME

Two years ago, I read a book.
The book was called Journal Revolution.
Two amazing and FREAKING AWESOME women who also happened to be seesters wrote it.
It was at about the same time that I was finishing up my year long adventure with Emily Falconbridge.
I was just realizing that I was allowed to claim the artist inside me.
I was meeting amazing women on line.
When I started commenting on Linda and Karen's Blog, THEY COMMENTED BACK!!
Then I went to CHA and they were there, signing their book.

And I got to MEET them!!
Like, I got to TOUCH them!!
I got to smell their hair...
lol no.
I didn't go THAT far.
Eventually,
A few emails, and SO MUCH amazing encouragement and FREAKING AWESOME women later, I got an email from Linda asking if I would be interested in being part of THIS STORY.
Um.
HELLO!?
Be part of something BIG!?
Be part of something with THE seesters!?
HELL YEAH.
I wanted to be part of that.
(and that was before my BIG GIRL camera.)
Seriously. You have to visit that link.

There are AMAZING women in this book! CLICK HERE and follow the link THE LADIES.
Look at that LIST!! I'm ON that list!!
If you visit Linda and Karen's blog HERE, you can get a ten dollar discount on Meeting In The Ladies Room: Reflections Of Women In A Room Of Their Own available for purchase through Blurb.com until 12.31.09!!
I'm so excited to have been part of something that is SO MUCH bigger than me.
I'm so excited to say my FIRST printed publication is with such AMAZING women.
GO!!
Grab your copy today!! Mine will be here around CHRISTMAS!!
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It's Official

It's official!! Travis will be transferring from the Sheriff's annex here on the coast! When he first started with the county, it was our plan to head back to the office near our families. He'll be heading back inland after Christmas.
I'm excited.
I'm also stressed.
Trav will be staying inland and coming home on his weekends. It's all too similar to our year and a half's time spent living in separate states when he was in the Army. I'm having a tough time not allowing myself to revert back to those feelings and emotions.
I'm looking forward to getting back to family, and moving to the country.
I am.

I just don't like the thought of being without my best friend. Separation brings the reality that I'm lucky he comes home every night. In his profession, that's not a given.
Give me a few days and I'll be more excited.
Funny how timing works.
I just need to trust it.
Moving is the SUCK, but hopefully we'll be done for a long time. lol Here's to getting our house sold, and family moved!!
Hopefully before summer. That's what I hope for. That this whole deal lasts a short time.
Anyone looking for a house on the Oregon Coast? :P
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Another Year

This year has flown by entirely too quickly. I feel like I'm spinning and I can't stop. I'm in a place of blech at the moment, and I need to find a way out. I need to sleep for a week. I need to do nothing for a month. Things are always around me pushing and pulling and tugging... and the things that matter the most to me get pushed under the rug. Maybe there IS something to being a hermit.

photo by motumboe

Yes.
I think maybe there is...
I'll squirrel away, and live in the mountains. It would be glorious until I needed a Slurpee at 2am. Then we'd have issues.
So I guess I'm going to have to trim out some of my life fat. Get back to the juicy goodness of saying NO when I need to and YES to the things I love. I know this is the formula to creating success in the things I want to do... but it's not easy to follow through on.
Here's to more of the things I LOVE in the next couple months.
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