REDONDOWRITER'S SACRED ORDINARY

Are the Blog and I in a Bad Marriage?

The blog and I need to go to couples counseling, I think. I'm resisting spending time with her and resisting even more the Friends of the Library blog I am responsible for at the Palos Verdes Library. Right now I'm in the avoidance phase which happens to me when relationships are nearing the end of their run or when a habit pattern has run its course and it's time for change. 

Five and a half years is a good run, however, and I'm not saying I'm giving up. Not yet, anyway. But, we are doing a little dance and if I would stop reading fiction and watching DVD after DVD in my spare time, I would analyze why I'm so resistant. I am definitely in a "I don't want to think" mode. I'm willing to entertain the thought of resurrection but only briefly.

But, I just finished "The Maldonado Miracle" (loved it) and I'm back to another book I'm enjoying, "Somebody Else's Daughter" by Elizabeth Brundage. I'm spending little time on the computer in general. I've neglected my listservs, my blog walking, and surfing the Internet unless it is for specific research. My art projects are all on the back-burner. I'm also resisting planning my vacation which will be to Washington state in July. I've committed to work part-time in August this year; I usually have the whole summer off so I have to cut to the chase soon. I dread expending the energy on airports, car rentals, long hours of driving in places I don't know--and leaving Cookie. If I were younger and had a companion, I'd pile Cookie in the car and drive to Washington, but---

I hope these feelings are not indicative of old age, but merely resting up and waiting for what comes next. I'm not isolating, but I definitely am embracing distraction. 

Does this happen to you, too?  

25 Things About Me

Now that I'm using Facebook occasionally, I quickly got tagged for the 25 things meme recently. Here is what I answered. 

Where is your cell phone? -- purse

Your hair? -- short

Your father? -- dead

Your favorite thing? -- reading

Your dream last night? -- can't remember

Your favorite drink? -- lemonade with splashes of TJ's peach juice and 7-up.

Your dream/goal? --staying alive at least 30 more years.

The room you are in? -- studio/office

Your fear? -- Debilitating illness

Where do you want to be in 6 years? -- here

Muffins? -- raisin bran.

One of your wish list items? -- health

Where you grew up? -- Sunland, Tujunga, CA

The last thing you did? -- Combined PDFs of my Mac Users Group newsletters in prep for the printer.

What are you wearing? - Work clothes--skirt, sweater, jacket, boots

Your TV? - Which one? I have five but only two on cable. 

Your pets? -- Cookie, love of my life.

Your computer? -- iMac G5 (work), MacBook, Mac Mini (at home)

Your life? -- contented

Your mood? -- Optimistic, at least today.

Missing someone? -- My mom who has been dead since 1968.

Your car? -- 2001 Honda Civic Ex

Favorite store? -- Coldwater Creek

Your summer? -- I no longer work in the summers, yippee.

Your favorite color? -- blue

When is the last time you laughed? -- A few minutes ago when Cookie gave me her woeful more food look.

Last time you cried? -- During President Obama's inauguration speech.

Three of my favorite foods? -- Mexican, Chinese, tuna casserole

Three places I would rather be right now? -- I'm happy right here.

Three people I think will respond? -- Probably nobody. I know I rarely respond when tagged.

I can't believe that I've become an Internet social networker: blogs, Facebook, Twitter. I'm counting on you to tell me how to waste more time. I was once resistant to having an answering machine in my more "liberal" days and now I have a cell phone and I'm strongly considering an iPhone, an iPod and a blue tooth. I sure won't be walking around the mall with the thing in my ear, however. So tacky! Fortunately, my friend Lorna at Lorna in Wonderland, recently explained a Wii to me. Will that be next? The world is moving so fast! 

 

 

 

 

Indexing a Plethora of Rubber Stamps

I have hundreds of rubber stamps, most mounted, and a huge notebook of unmounted which are cut out and ready to use. As part of my Creative Every Day project, I'm making image books so I can see what I really have. I was delighted to find that a Sassy Stampers group is meeting once a month near where I live and it is my plan to join this group. I found out about it on Kelly Kilmer's Art Gang L.A. list. I know all the basics of rubber stamping, but I am simply not utilizing the investment I've made and I need the stimulation of a group. Here's a mandala stamp I really, really like but have never used until now. I've scanned the blank image and have done test prints on various kinds of stock. This copy is on heavy card stock and colored with Prismacolor pencils. I adore Prismacolor pencils! But, I want to play with other mediums, too. And I think this would make a good head on a body in a collage. What do you think? 

I also scanned some of my favorite collage images tonight in preparation for later art preparation. 

The reality is that I return to work tomorrow on my three day week schedule, but I always do better in organizing my time when I am busy. Are any of you like that, too?

For those of you who have lots of rubber stamps, how do you index them? 

 

Vision Board 2009 Creation Continues

Are you game to make a 2009 Vision Board? On September 25, I wrote a post called Vision Board Bloggers Project suggested by my friend Roz at Autumn Cottage Diary. Although I’ve done a variation of these boards many times, usually toward the end of one year in preparation for the incoming year, I decided I would do it again to usher in 2009. I used Elmers Display Board, 48” x 36”, and hung it vertically on my bedroom wall where I would see it each day. This time I started months early.

I went like gang busters the first few weeks but until the last few days, I haven’t added much. What I found out very quickly, unlike some years when I envisioned a new camera or computer as well as abstract concepts to enhance creativity, body, mind and spirit, I have no desire for any tangible goods this time. (Well, maybe art supplies.) I do want to take some specific art, computer and photography classes and I hope to do some travel in the summer but I don’t know where.

 

You can click to make the photo larger. The major themes this time are: home, creative projects, spirituality, dreams and plans, body and mind, and a list of potential people, places—and yes, things. But so far there are no things I’ve written down. I put up 8 1/2 x 11” paper to jot things down on as I think of them.

Instead of trying to create this year’s vision board by Jan. 1, I’ve decided it will be an ongoing project. Just thought I’d share this in case anyone else wants to make a vision board for the new year. Most people, by the way, use poster board not the display board like I have.

I do know this: I’m cherishing these last few days of 2008 with extreme gratefulness and want to add a specific sheet to this board for gratitude. Cookie has had a few very good days so I know we will be ushering in the new years together. 

 

 

 

 

True Blue, Blue Suede Shoes, Blue Moon, Blue California

Don't you just want to change things sometimes, but you don't know how, or why or even how to get started? I love blue and have many blue accessories in my home. I wear blue jeans and jeans jackets, navy blue sweaters and shirts, and the blue ocean and the blue sky always bring me to center when I get anxious about stuff over which I have no control. I can rattle off sayings and song titles with blue.

 

Today I decided that I could make a pretty quick change to at least one thing in my life: the nameplate and design of my blog on Typepad. They have several new templates and I haven't yet figured out how to customize a template. So--this new blue look--is temporary and I put it up quickly, but I like it! I'm inclined to design with dark blues, reds or greens, and their meanings are significantly different. 

At a site called Color Wheel that desk top publishers use, I found the following characteristics of the color blue. 

Blue is the color of the sky and sea. It is often associated with depth and stability. It symbolizes trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, truth, and heaven.

Blue is considered beneficial to the mind and body. It slows human metabolism and produces a calming effect. Blue is strongly associated with tranquility and calmness. In heraldry, blue is used to symbolize piety and sincerity.

You can use blue to promote products and services related to cleanliness (water purification filters, cleaning liquids, vodka), air and sky (airlines, airports, air conditioners), water and sea (sea voyages, mineral water). As opposed to emotionally warm colors like red, orange, and yellow; blue is linked to consciousness and intellect. Use blue to suggest precision when promoting high-tech products.

Blue is a masculine color; according to studies, it is highly accepted among males. Dark blue is associated with depth, expertise, and stability; it is a preferred color for corporate America. 

Avoid using blue when promoting food and cooking, because blue suppresses appetite. When used together with warm colors like yellow or red, blue can create high-impact, vibrant designs; for example, blue-yellow-red is a perfect color scheme for a super hero.

Light blue is associated with health, healing, tranquility, understanding, and softness.

Dark blue represents knowledge, power, integrity, and seriousness.

I collect cobalt blue glass but I've really never given a thought as to why except I like it. What are your favorite colors? 

 

Make This Christmas Memorable: Adopt a Rescue Animal

Dogs and cats seeking people! As many of you know, one of my volunteer jobs is at the Peninsula Library District’s Friends of the Library Book Sales. In addition to working at the monthly sale at the Malaga Cove Branch, I am also the communications person for the Peninsula Friends of the Library Board. That means that I keep the blog for the group which you can read at Peninsula Friends of the Library. 

This is a kind of cross-post between the two blogs today. One of the things I love is meeting all our regular customers and getting to know them and meeting new people, too.  We have become a library family of sorts.

Every sale I hear lots of people’s stories and share my own, but today I met someone really special: Junior, an 8-year old Cocker Spaniel and his foster mom Paula, one of our regular customers. 

Come to find out, Junior is up for adoption through Rover Rescue, an animal rescue non-profit organization. I realize that people around the world visit this blog and can’t come to the South Bay area of Los Angeles to adopt a dog, but look at this face, will you? What do you think those eyes are saying? 

Paula recently lost her 17-year-old Cocker Spaniel but still has another one. She is very fond of this breed. She has been fostering Junior for almost three months now and what an incredible gift this seasoned dog would make for just the right family. I was enchanted but my dog Cookie, who is 13, is too set in her ways to have a companion but as I've told you ad nauseum, Cookie is a rescue dog, too. 

Junior is housebroken, very friendly, is neutered and micro-chipped, and has all his shots. He just needs a home. 

Paula is a regular volunteer for Rover Rescue. She had just come from an adoption day event at a local pet store, but Junior's perfect match didn't take him today. Are you his match? Or do you have a feeling there is a pet out there who needs you for a mom or dad? Here's your Marley and Me moment.

You can read about how the adoption procedure works at Rover Rescue's Adoption link. My friends Kathy and Allen got their dog Scruffy about five years ago from Rover Rescue and he has enriched their lives immensely. 

By the way, Junior is unique. As you can see, he is very comfortable  around books and with book lovers. This holiday season, won’t you consider adopting a pet from one of the rescue non-profits in your own area? 

Creative Every Day Creative Challenge for 2009

First of all, remember, everyone is an artist, even someone like me who has had to be convinced that I am. It’s that time of year when I begin to wrap up the current year and get organized for the next. One thing I want to be is more consistently creative in 2009 without making a big deal about it or spending tons of time on projects. When I read about Leah Piken Kolidis’s Every Day Challenge for 2009 on Kathryn Petro Harper’s blog A Mindful Life, I checked it out and decided to participate. Leah started this challenge (and others) in 2008. Here are the basics, but if you click on the link, she gives you lots of information about the challenge in 2008. Leah’s Creative Every Day blog has so much information and wonderful graphics. You’re going to love it.

Here are Leah's basics, but read in depth at her blog. She says:

     . I started Creative Every Day Challenge in 2008 to help infuse my life and lives of others with daily creativity.

     . Creativity is meant in the broadest sense, so it doesn't have to be something art related. Your creative acts could be in cooking, taking pictures, knitting, doodling, writing, dancing, decorating, singing, playing with your kids, brainstorming ideas, gardening, or making art in the form of collage, paint, or clay...or whatever!

     . You do not have to post every day! I know for myself that having to post every day for a year would be too much. You can post about your creativity in whatever form you like, whether that be once a day, a few times a week, once a week, or once a month. Do what works for you!

     . This is a low pressure challenge, with the idea of bringing more creativity into our lives. I will not be the creativity police. I hope that we can all find ways simple and grand to express our creative selves. Have fun with it!

     . If you'd like to join in, leave a comment on this blog post or email me (email link is in the top left sidebar) and I'll add your name to the list of participants which will reside in the sidebar of my blog.

     . If you find this challenge after the 1st of January, you can still join in!

     . There's info below on how to post the CED button to your blog.

What's new in 2009:

     . In 2009, I'm going to try out a couple new things. For one, I will be doing a monthly theme. The themes will be purely for inspirational purposes and to give some focus to anyone who needs it. You can use the monthly theme to help spur you on or ignore it. It's entirely up to you!

     . I'm also going to be posting interviews with people about their creative habits, so if you have any suggestions of people you'd like to hear from, let me know!

How to Participate:

     . There are a variety of ways to participate. These ways are here for you to enjoy, not to pressure you, so use any or all of them as you see fit. You can post on your blog about your creative activities, you can post images on flickr, you can comment on my weekly CED blog posts with what you're up to, or use the Mr. Linky widget to share a link to a specific blog post or image.

     . Participate in any way that makes sense for you. I think it's helpful to share with the community what you're up to as it can be incredibly fun and inspirational. But don't let it stress you out. Make it doable for you. 

     . There's a flickr group for this project where you can share images of your creativity (it's not required, just another way to share and see what others are doing.) You can sign up for the flickr group for free here.

     . You can post about your creativity in whatever form feels best for you. You can post about it on your blog daily, weekly, monthly or however feels best. A blog isn't even required to participate! If you don't have a blog, you can share what you're up to in the comments on my blog or on the flickr group.

I will also be posting a weekly Creative Every Day Challenge post where you can use the Mr. Linky widget to post the url of your blog posts or links to images for the week. I post this every Monday.

So, are any of you up to the challenge? Check Leah's blog and thanks, Kathryn, for the heads-up.

Memiary: The Weightless Pocket Diary

Thanks to Elaine at Five Acres With a View for sharing the site for Memiary: The Weightless Pocket Diary.  Even though I keep a five year diary right before I go to bed, I'm finding this site helpful for helping me record things I've done throughout the day. It's like getting a gold star for being a "human doing," because something external acknowledges my doings. By my age you would think I wouldn't need gold stars, but when you live alone, you get very few, believe me. But--there are some of you who would say that you live with others and you don't get gold stars either.

Happy Fifth Birthday to Sacred Ordinary

Happy birthday to Sacred Ordinary! This blog will be five-years-old tomorrow. My sincere thanks to my host, Typepad, who celebrated their own fifth year a few months earlier. I can't recommend them enough. My first tenuous post was on November 11, 2003. I was unsure when I started what Sacred Ordinary would be except that I wanted to chart my life, I guess, and use the blog to prove to myself that every day life has all kinds of sacred moments. I also stated the intention of making the blog part of my daily writing practice. I have not written daily, but I do write often.

Since 2003 I have written 1,588 posts  and 4,982 comments have been logged that I have approved. Though I’m a pretty mainstream author, now and then someone will say something mean-spirited or ignorant about what I’ve written or attack someone who has commented. I don’t make those comments live. I have periodically taken the author controls off, but then I get a lot more cranky people commenting. 

Since I put up the Site Meter widget in 2007 there have been 56,650 visits with about 249 visits per day this past week.  Total page views since then have been 80,820 and people tend to spend about 1.4 minutes when they visit.

But, I’ll admit that I rarely check my stats and referrers so I’m amazed to tally things for this post. Feedjit is my widget for referrers and their locations world-wide which I actually display in the left sidebar.

I have written in a diary since I learned to write my alphabet and have seriously kept journals since my 20s. I have taught journal keeping for the past 25 years and the blog just seemed like a natural evolution of yet another way to write. It has also been a powerful way to be part of yet another community and to make new friends (and a few enemies). I have met at least a half dozen of you who read here often.

Sometimes I get in the doldrums and wonder if I will continue Sacred Ordinary, but then I'll get a creative burst and I hang in there. I think I am ready for a new design, however. 

Tonight we are belatedly celebrating my grandson’s 20^th birthday and I went to one of my favorite bakeries today to get his cake. King’s Hawaiian in Torrance has a Paradise cake consisting of layers of tropical fruit flavored cake and whipping cream. I will take one piece home tonight so Sacred Ordinary and I can celebrate our fifth year of companionship while "we" write tomorrow's Veterans Day post.

Thanks to all of you who read here and to those of you who take the time to comment sometimes. I deeply appreciate your visits and hope a little wisdom has seeped out now and then. 

How Much is Your Blog Worth?

My blog is worth $15,807.12.
How much is your blog worth?

Tonight I'm writing and editing the newsletter for my Mac Users Group and I'm hunting for a generator graphic to fill in a hole. One of my favorite "wasting time" sites, which is also so darned much fun, is Generator Blog.

When I saw this tag about blog worth, I expected my worth to come out to maybe $1.00 because lately I've been boring as hell and struggling to be creative. So, $15,807.12 seems pretty darned good, especially in our current economy. So, what is your blog worth?