A Day In My Life

To Be Honest

I am NOT going to be honest with you:)

 
 part of using my 2011 word HEALTHY...is the weighty side of things.  and though i admire people who can announce to the world what they weigh...I am NOT going to tell you how much I weigh.  Suffice it to say, I weigh plenty!

As so many New Years, I am choosing my food wisely right now and trying to be active as part of the year of HEALTHY.  What I am focusing on though is that HEALTHY is not just about weight.  That is important, as many of you know my cholesterol is up, my fibromyalgia is bothering me and my asthma is wacky...all things that feel better when I exercise and lose weight.  So, yeas it IS important...but it is not my only focus.  I really am trying to be well-rounded (no pun intended), focusing on pieces of HEALTHY that will make a whole.

Biggest Loser is on tonight and that always helps my motivation (however on the other station, at the same time is the new dance show:(

I have had a good, focused day...and some fun with my teenage boy and his pal, as we laughed all the way home from guitar lessons.  It has been a busy day, I spent a good part of it putting tutu's, fairy wings and princess crowns up on Etsy...you can read about it here: www.dancinglydenise.typepad.com/mepursenalities and you can see all the new tutus and such at www.dancinglydenise.etsy.com

Here is a sneak peek:

 
Have a great rest of your Tuesday!

Dancingly, Denise

Happy New Year!

 It's that time of year again, when I make all kinds of LIFE GOALS (resolutions)...and like  most years I have done it again.

Today I want to share my One Little Word 2011 | Ali Edwards for the year.  Each year I choose a word that may help me focus on goals throughout the year.  My word for 2010 was CREATE and it really helped me refocus after the appendicitis problems I had in March!

This year my word is HEALTHY.  The darn word is so obvious...It kept showing up in the last few weeks, and I kept trying to find a different, more "fancy" word.  BUT there is was HEALTHY.  I have plans to be healthy in several areas.  Physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually and financially to name a few.

How am I going to achive this?  Hmmm...I hate to state the obvious, but I have to because I need to hear it over and over again... ONE DAY AT A TIME.  I will share my ideas a long the way and hope that you will share yours with me and my other readers.

A long the way, I want to continue to build my business www.dancinglydenise.typepad.com/mepursenalitiesand I hope you will join me.  In the next week I will be adding more items to my etsy shop www.dancinglydenise.etsy.com fairy jars,tutus and purses.

I will also be doing a giveaway over at www.dancinglydenise.typepad.com/mepursenalities for a "MICE WITH A MESSAGE" my mice carry a message and the one I will be giving away will be personalized to fit the winners word of the year or One Little Word.  Keep checking back for that as I will announce it in the next few days.

 

Beyond that...we had a great New Years Eve, staying in with the kids watching movies and eating Chinese food!  I will share pictures of that tomorrow.

I want to go back to an old post from last year that includes the goals I had for 2010 and see how far I got with my goals so i will share that soon too.

HEALTHY is how I want my 2011 to go.  2010 started out with bronchitis, walking pneumonia,colitis and appendicitis (and that was just ME).  I really want to explore healthy ways to do all kinds of things this year.  Right now, I unfortunately have bronchitis...BUT I am slowing down, trying to take care of it and myself. and THAT is already different from last year!

I can't wait to show you some of my art projects I have planned, as well as other projects.

Stay tuned for a great 2011!

Happy New Year and thanks for reading...

Dancingly, Denise

Row YOUR Boat

A friend of mine loaned me a set of CD's by Dr. Wayne Dyer to listen to while I am driving around.  I LOVE to listen to books on tape and cd while driving so I was thrilled. Plus I like Wayne Dyer, although I haven't read anything recent of his.  Today he talked about the little song "Row Row Row your boat gently down the stream, merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily Life is but a dream". 

He talked about how he and his daughter would sing it when they were out swimming.  He found it a great metaphor for life and I absolutely LOVE it.  Although I can't remember his exact words, here is my take on it:

Row YOUR boat {Not your husbands, or your best friends, or your kids, or your neighbors...but YOUR boat) "Steer YOUR life"  (don't row a boat someone else wants you to row either)

GENTLY (be kind to yourself and others on your journey)

DOWN the stream (don't go upstream...too hard)

MERRILY {With JOY} {and not too seriously}

Life is but a dream. {this was up to several interpretations...but I say DREAM BIG}

I really loved this interpretation and just in the last few hours since I have listened to it I have repeated it several times.  We have an alcoholic in our family and it is so easy for me to TRY to row THEIR boat.  This made such a difference to me just tonight.  And I like many people have to forever remind myself to be GENTLE with myself.  And yup, I try to make things harder than they need to be, and I have been known to "suck the joy" out of things:) 

Definitely something I needed to hear and will be repeating on a regular basis!

Goodnight

Dancingly, Denise
 

Vertigo...

That is what I have been suffering with since Friday night, yesterday it had me down for the count, and today has pretty much been a wasted day of taking a med that makes me tired.  Tonight I am feeling okay, still feeling slightly oozy...but I want CHICKEN so that is a good sign.  I always want chicken when I start to feel better, so I have some defrosting to cook on the grill!

I wanted to show you this:

It is so hard to get a picture of my boy, so I was thrilled when this "just happened" the other day.  he wasn't paying attention to me so I snapped it quick!  I think it's my favorite right now.

Since i didn't feel great yesterday, I lost a day of my Ultimate Blog Challenge, but they tell me that i can make more than one blog post in a day to make up for missed ones, so watch out, that is what i will have to do.

For today, my brain is foggy and my head still a little spinney so I have little to say, I will be back tomorrow.

Have a good rest of your weekend!

Dancingly, Denise 

I'll start tomorrow...

Ah, my famous last words...literally almost every night that it what I say to myself as I drift off to sleep.  For me it is regards to my weight loss, or lack there of.

What is the thing that you will "start tomorrow"?  Or do you say "I'll quite tomorrow"?  Either way it boils down to tomorrow never coming.  Why is that?

I go to weight watchers and have been trying to stay for the meetings.  I am really hoping that it will start to sink in.  A woman there, has been going the same amount of time as me...we started the same night...she has lost 45 pounds.  When i talked to her tonight and asked her what she was doing...she simply said "I write EVERYTHING down...EVERYTHING".

Another woman I talked to said "I woke up one morning and said 'Is eating THAT as important to me as losing weight".

What is your solution to "I'll start tomorrow"?  I know, I know quit whining and JUST DO IT...but what do you tell yourself that makes that shift for you.

I am going to divide my attention tonight between the finale of SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE and Project Runway!

Goodnight

Dancingly, Denise

What are YOU reading?

Since I need to write a blog post everyday this month for the blog challenge, and I am trying to increase traffic flow to my blog AND I would love to have people comment...i thought I would ask you what YOU are reading and share with you what I have been reading this summer.  Books and magazines alike!

BUT first... I am not sure if everyone knows how to comment on a blog?  Seriously, someone asked me the other day where you go to comment and I realized maybe it isn't that easy...and the other thing is the comment section  has changed positions and is a little harder to see.  So...you finish reading this post and at the bottome of it you see something like this:

Three photos of other post you might like

and then:

Posted at 09:14 PM in Art Projects, blog party fun, Family Life, Healthy Living, knitting, Life and other {STUFF}, Living Artfully, Maine PURSEnalities and more, Maine's Forgotten Fairies, Mice With A Message @2010, Organizing | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

You see where it says "comments (3)" ?  if you click on that it takes you to the comments section of that particular post.  If there are already comments you need to scroll down through them and you will see a box and it says "post a Comment"  It has a place for website, but if you don't have one you don't have to fill that in.  Once you are done, hit POST and voila!  Hope that helps, but if it doesn't...just email me at magicalmemories2@aol.com

So, back to books:

I just read... Fat Chance by Julie Hadden

It was pretty good, sort of inspiring.  She was one of the finalist on the Biggest Loser.

I am working my way through this magazine, which I ALWAYS absolutely LOVE ... Where Women Create

I am waiting for the fourth book in this series to come out on newstands:

The Bride Quartet By Nora Roberts

And I am starting to read:

Jillian Michaels Master Your Metabolism

It's the whole "balancing your hormones" that caught my attention!

So you see, I read like I live my life!  I gotta have a few things going at once:)

I also have the newest Stephanie Plum book sitting here waiting for me...that always makes me laugh so I may start that very soon!

SO...WHAT are YOU reading?  I would love to know!

Dancingly,Denise

Three photos of other post you might like

and then:

A Business Plan

Maybe it is the time of year, or the lack of energy and motivation I have, or the fact that we now have another vehicle payment, but I have been  giving my business...or lack of...a great deal of thought.  Today I started outlining a "business plan" but then I realized it is more a "plan of action". I wasn't really focusing on money in money out sort of details.  I am focusing on...what the heck am I doing and where am I going with it.  I started by listing all the "jobs" I have...or want in fairly broad categories.  What I realized is, some of them I am not doing at all, others i am doing in a mediocre way.  Not one of them am I putting my entire heart and soul into.  My list so far:

Household Chores

Household bills

Garage declutter

OLD THINGS

Household declutter

Knit and felted purses

recycled denim purses

MICE WITH A MESSAGE

FORGOTTEN FAIRIES

and the list goes on.  All of these things...except for the Household stuff is my "business" and it simply isn't going anywhere near as fast as I would like.  I am frustrated at my lack of energy and get up and go and when I have energy I hate the inconsistency of it...it is so fleeting.  So, honestly I am not whining...I am just stating the facts.

It has helped me to write the list out today and think about how to schedule things, but I haven't come up with any clear actions.  It has not slipped by me, that I am 47, and possibly the way I feel physically might have something to do with that.  Without giving TOO MUCH INFO, things are changing and things are different.  It could be a part of the tiredness and lack of energy and motivation BUT I hate to use things as an excuse.

Anyone else out there feeling a lack of 'get up and go"?

Dancingly, Denise

Hoarders...

It has been said, that this Field's family is a tad bit of a "packrat" type family.  I come by it naturally, as my Mom has always been a 'collector" and we discovered after my Dad died, that he was quite a collector also.  Scott also comes by it naturally as his mom is a "collector".  Now what we treasure and collect is as different for each one of us, as we are different from each other.

My husband is a collector of BIG stuff (cars, lawn mowers) stuff that I would think is JUNK!

Nate is a collector of all things sentimental, as well as Musical instruments.

Lauren...well her clothes and shoes and purses are a tad bit out of hand.

And me?  I like to collect supplies for projects!  And Like my husband (Scott) I also collect things that "we might need sometime)

So, what is the point of all this?  Our GARAGE!  It is three bays and hasn't seen a car since the first year we moved in...ten years ago.  We moved quickly and so 15 years of dance studio "stuff" went into the garage, mostly in cardboard boxes.  And then things just snowballed from there.  We have three bays of floor to ceiling boxes...with just a thin path around the outskirts.  I have made it my goal to "fix" this problem this summer...before the critters move in again.  Every week for the last two months I have spent a morning or two out there, with little to know appearance of success.  I go through boxes, throw away anything that the mice and squirrels have been in, take stuff to Goodwill, put stuff that will be sold at OLD THINGS into bins to be cleaned and tagged, and take stuff to the dump.  BUT I am not kidding when I say, it was floor to ceiling.

I came to a stand still last week and desperately needed the help of my husband in order to reach more boxes.  Today was the day...we went in at 9:30 and we worked until 1:30.  he moved the plywood and peg board out of my way and then I threw every empty box out into the driveway.  YUP we collect empty boxes too...any electronic or gift that came in the box, we probably have {had} the box.  Nate spent the morning opening and flattening the boxes, we took an entire van full of flattened boxes to the dump. (I had already taken two trips to the dump with empty boxes a couple of weeks ago.)

They came back from the dump, and spent another 1/2 hour filling up the van with anything I could find that was def. trash...no questions from any of us.

How does the garage look now?  All the boxes I need to go through from bay 1 and part of bay 2 are all piled together and there is a tad bit of room IN the garage for me to work (I have been pulling things out into the heat and going through them.)  BUT the garage still looks like Hoarders live there...

I am completely overwhelmed, but I feel really good about what we got done today.  I took a bunch of stuff to OLD THINGS after we were done...Here's the problem there... I have two booths now, and they are FULL.  I am making it a goal to go next week and spend a day there cleaning up and consolidating to make more room for everything. Really?  I could have my own OLD THINGS if I wanted to find a building and put all the stuff in it and be there everyday...BUT I don't want to do it!

So, that is my story for the day.  I have some pictures of the BEFORE in the garage but I am just to embarrassed to post them, so you KNOW they must be bad.  Two years ago, I posted tons of pictures of my very cluttered house as I went through and cleaned things up and out...but the garage is so much worse!

It's been a busy, crazy day...garage cleaning, Old Things, buying more yarn, grocery shopping.  I am off to watch PROJECT RUNWAY and rest my foot!

Thanks for reading...I would love to hear your stories of decluttering, organizing or hoarding!

Dancingly, Denise

Welcome August!

I don't like to wish the summer away...but I do like the cooler nights that August usually brings.  I have tried hard to no complain about the heat this summer,cuz i know all to well that the COLD will make me downright fussy!  Today is the first day of the ULTIMATE BLOG CHALLENGE! www.ultimateblogchallenge.com and I want to kick it off with a BANG.

As many of you know, I have been in a creative slump...basically since March when the ole' appendix decided to cause havoc and mayhem!  Oh, I have created a thing or two IN MY HEAD!  But I just can't seem to get moving...so my goal was to finish up a couple of things and show them here today.  I'll show them over on my business blog too...which has been gravely neglected!  Maine PURSEnalities(and more) 

I have spent the day, finishing up and working on several felted purses.  They are not all quite done, but some are now ready to add to my etsy store www.dancinglydenise.etsy.com.  What is AMAZING to me, is that they have all been "almost done" since FEBRUARY...but I just truly got stuck.  I am hoping that TODAY is the start of my creative unstuckness (is that even a word?)  Unfortunately, other than making sure the teen boys in the house got fed, I have done absolutely nothing else, but work on these purses.  The dishes are piled, the laundry needs folding, I need to iron a bunch of costumes so I can change out the window at OLD THINGS tomorrow and NOW I have to clean up all the wool I got out to needlefelt the purses, and all the yarn I got out to sew them up...and all the doodads and thing-ma-bobs I got out...that is the part of creativity I haven't found a way to enjoy...CLEANING UP!

It still amazes me how I can knit something like this:

or this:

 and with a bit of sewing and alot of hot water they become these:

 

those have been sitting in my kniting bag for over a month now...the white one I am going to try my hand at dyeing...and the pink and brown one need a magnetic closure and maybe a flower?

This one also needs a magnetic closure and maybe a flower or a big button...

 These two I have had all done, just looking very plain janish and needing some needle felting...so i added a juggling snowman and some pom poms to this one:

 and then this one I added a little sheep to both sides.  This is what I call a grab and go purse...just throw your keys, cell phone and some lip gloss in it...oh and don't forget some money:)  and GO!

and here they all are together...a days worth of work...but I feel so good!  Oh, the little green one I added a couple of needle felted flowers to today...but it is in desperate need of a button!  I think I need to go shopping:)

Now my goal is to get one of these up on etsy each day this week...here's hoping!

See you tomorrow and thanks for looking!

Dancingly, Denise

Soaking up Summer

I have been thinking alot about summer, ever since Lauren posted on Facebook that summer was half over for her:(  It made me panic at first, and then I thought "Let's make sure to get a piece of summer everyday".  How to do that?  I mean,sometimes. like today life gets so busy there is just no time to take in the summer.  But maybe there is...maybe it is just something simple like a summer afternoon nap, or staying up later than usual cuz I don't have to get the kids to school in the morning...or, for today, i found these on my little plants out on the deck:

Or how about the blueberry pie in the oven right now?  YUMMY

So, I have been trying to find a little piece of summer every day...Thursday we went to Sandy Point Beach...I have such fond memories of the beach, and don't know why I don't take the kids more often...I remember beachcombing with my Mimi...small cooking fires with my mom and dad and siblings...dad swimming WAY out and getting a cramp cuz the water was so cold...going into the water with no fear of it's coldness (now I am a wimp):

 
Nate dove in and then came up with his chest all bloody and scraped...he hit a rock...it was sort of shallow!

Joe did a bunch of combing for crabs...he found a few:

 
and me?  I just sat and read a book, enjoyed the sun and took pictures!

so that was a day full of summer!  Than there have been days where a soak of summer has been tough. The weather has been too hot and humid and has caused my fibromyalgia to act up.  One day, I simply made the choice to barbecue rather than to cook supper inside:

I have two recipes to share and will try to do it in the next couple of days.

How do you soak up your summer?

Dancingly, denise