Time For Some Organization

 

When I was in high school I remember being very organized. I always showed up on time, I kept track of my daily schedule and obligations... somewhere along the line I lost those skills. I suppose as you grow up life gets more complicated and its harder to keep track of, but I am always running late and much as I try I can't keep myself organized to save my life!

I am a list maker. I constantly have lists going for various things that I need to keep track of. The problem is there are so many different categories of information that I can never remember what is on which list and maybe even where I put that list five minutes ago when I was writing it. So I graduated to keeping different notebooks for different topics. I have my daily task notebook, my planner, (yes I am still a paper planner type of person) my massage business notebook, my pottery business notebook, my keep track of my spending notebook, and more. While this feeds my love of cute little books, it also keeps my bag very heavy and I still have notes scattered between different books if I write things down in a hurry. And then do you think I can find them when I need them? Not so much.

So my exciting news of the day is that Justin found something that I think is going to solve my problem! It's called bullet journaling. At first it seemed a little overwhelming. A lot of little things to remember to make it all work, but at a closer look I've decided that it's brilliant and am a little upset with myself that I wasn't able to come up with it on my own. Essentially, it's a way to organize and KEEP TRACK OF all of the little things you write down for yourself. The brilliance lies in keeping the first page (or pages) as an index. Every time you add an entry, you give it a title and on the index page write down what page that topic is on. If you add another entry 23 pages later, you just add that page number to the topic. For example:

Brilliant! The website suggests a graph paper notebook, but being my artist self I bought a beautiful handmade notebook from Purple Bean Bindery without lines assuming that I could figure out how to function on blank pages. Now every little passing thought, task list, sketch of a new design idea, can be written down and easily found afterwards!

I still have a couple of  books that I use for different things, but I have just this one book that I can carry with me and keep daily reminders and lists in that is nice and organized! Hopefully this is going to keep my head free of worrying about remembering things so that I can be more productive and efficient with my time and cross those tasks off the list!

Rockland Weekend

This weekend I had the Maine Boats Homes and Harbors show with my pots in Rockland… a weekend that financially turned out not so well but a few good things came from it. First I got to spend three awesome nights with my sweet friends the Eichenlaubs, which is always a treat, and second, I got my work in a gallery called Michael Good Gallery in Rockland.

This show was nice, but long and very slow this year, which adds to the unfortunate part of doing shows, which is just that you can never know how they are going to go until you try them. And even then, a show could be great one year and not the next. So it was worth a go, but I’m not sure I will do it again.

In the end the highlight was staying with Jake, Iris, and Sylvan, (Jonas was away at “nerd” camp) and I was so grateful for them as always. So many yummy meals, laughs and good visiting!


And here is Iris’s sweet handwritten recipe of rosemary infused homemade lemonade that is to die for. Check out her blog http://craftingmamalibrarian.wordpress.com/ she is amazing and always shares great things! Yum!

my new love

So my very dear friend Amanda and her sweet husband Adam created the most amazing human being this past year, and I am so in love. Lots and lots of my friends have had babies and they all have been amazing in their own little ways. Aiden was my first baby love, when I was still in college. He was the first of our group to come along and he was my little buddy, and in the 13 years since then there have been many sweet little beings born.

This year however, this baby, is different. He’s AMANDA’s. Amanda, who has known me longer than almost anyone. Amanda, who I met at 6 years old, grew up with on Peaks Island, went through high school with, worked at the ice cream store with, shared so many pieces of my life with that when I look at her, I see myself. Literally. It’s weird. I am incredibly grateful everyday that our friendship is still a strong, no questions relationship that has lasted so many years.

Emmett's arrival completely shifted my world, he is the closest to feeling like my child of any children I know, if that makes any sense, coming from Amanda who feels like an extension of me. I have spent so much time with them, and also he is just an amazing little man. He is complete joy, his face, his smile, is just contagious and enlightening and he just makes you happy. I venture to say that even non children people would think this child is amazing. I’ve honestly doubted whether I will love my own children as much as I do Emmett. (I’m sure I will, but THAT is the kind of love I have for this baby!)

So I might just straight up post series of photos of this amazing child, because he is a huge part of my world now. Don’t think I have had a baby, there will be a HUGE announcement before that happens, and yes we talk about it and yes we will get there someday, but not today. Today we will enjoy Emmett and the other littles around us!

House Reminds Me, And I Don’t Mind

I came home this evening and turned on the TV to find the show House. For some strange reason I find this show comforting. It flashes me back in time, 11:00 ish, a little more than four years ago in Atlanta. Every night my sister and I would hunker down on our fold out bed after being kicked out of the hospital, and we would watch at least an hour of House. After a full day of watching and waiting on and for Cruise, surviving on hospital food, and hope that the situation would get better, because it had to, why we chose to watch a hospital show, I’m not sure I can answer. Maybe it’s because it was familiar. Maybe because it is based on severe health situations and at the end, there was always an answer. They always got better. Made up, medical, consciously or not, maybe it gave me hope.

Never have I ever lived my life so in the moment. I left home having no idea what spinal cord injury really meant, or even that SCI was what we were facing. For six months, I lived in the moment, never knowing what was next. And while those days were scary, sad, devastating at moments, they were also some of the best days of my life. Do I wish I could change it all for Cruise, yes. Of course. Do I wish I could change it for my parents? All of his friends who witnessed his injury and endure it with him? Everyone that the ripple effect of this injury effects? Yes. But when you can’t go back, you have to go forward. I am so grateful that we are a family of humor and strength. I laughed more in those first three months in the hospital than I had in years. I felt in a way that I never have. Pain, love, helplessness, hope. I learned, and laughed and loved like never before.
I live far away from my family. I don’t live this injury anymore on a daily basis. I forget sometimes, not that the situation exists, but what it feels like every moment of everyday. I know they are tired, scared, sad, and overwhelmed, as well as hopeful. And that I have the luxury of living my physical life free of their reality. They all handle it amazingly well, considering, but life with spinal cord injury is hard, and there is no understanding until you are living it. So I visit when I can, help when I can, and try to remain grateful for everything in my life. One foot in front of the other. It’s been four years, and I am so proud of how far Cruise has come. It can’t be expressed in words. From this:

to this:

Cruise’s 2012 interview with www.ambitiondaily.com

I love you man. You’ve come a long way.

Tuned in or tuned out?

Today I am traveling to see my family for the holidays. In the aftermath of yesterday’s horrifying event in a Connecticut elementary school, I am feeling muted and heavy, not my usual travelling self. I have been so incredibly busy that I am already exhausted, a little grumpy and not myself these days. I am looking forward to some time off to get back to myself, more compassionate, patient and loving than I have been lately.
On my layover in New York, I am in a small wing of the airport that is filled with bar like desks set up with iPad after iPad free for passengers waiting for their flights. I’ve never seen anything like it. I got a snack and settled in with my laptop to watch a movie during my long layover, acutely aware that this isn’t my usual choice of activity but I am too tired to think too much so I plug in. Like so many people around me. During a heartfelt moment in my movie, I looked around me and paused it, noticing how usually spend my airport time people watching and reflecting on myself and the world around me. Who are all of these people? Where are they going and what is happening for them in this moment? Are the heading to see a loved one? Going to a funeral? For some reason airports invoke this kind of though process for me, I have time to just watch the world go ‘round and consider the humanness of the people around me.
I stopped my movie to talk with my sister and then shut everything down to wait out the last half an hour before boarding. I sat at the high top to wait, an iPad in front of me flashing “Stay Connected, surf the web on us!” As I glanced around me I took notice of the majority of the people plugged into some sort of device. In front of an iPad, laptop, on a phone or Kindle. In some ways these people are staying connected to friends, family and the world around them, and yet at the same time we are disconnecting from the immediate world around us. No one is talking to strangers about their trip. No one is sharing in a mutual experience. We are staying safely in the digital world, private and individual within the masses of people in the airport. We are staying busy and engaged in a strange disconnected world. Where is the time to reflect, disengage, connect to ourselves and the actual PEOPLE around us?
I am fully part of this movement. I have my laptop with me, which I didn’t even own a couple of years ago. I have my iPhone next to me. I spend more time on them than I realize, because it’s easy to be engaged with them and forget what life was like before they were a priority or even existed. But every once in a while I think about what I am missing by devoting myself so fully to “staying connected.” Am I being true to myself, the person that I think I am by rarely disengaging to interact with my surroundings?

The horrifying death of so many children and adults yesterday invokes many thoughts and arguments. I’m not sure sometimes which of them are “right” or “wrong.” But I find myself in the end, being discouraged by all of the chatter and the lack of action. We ask a lot of questions, but do we really have any perspective on how to change this world we have created? How do we really connect with each other to stop such horrible events?
As I type this, I hear a small child singing the ABC’s. I listen and look up to notice other people around me doing the same. Two women who I think are together and a man who seems to be on his own sit near me. When the child is finished one of the women claps and we all look at each other and smile. We make eye contact. And share a real, endearing, human moment. Maybe despite recent tragedy, there is still hope. There is still connection.

Last minute visit

Last Sunday I got a very last minute visit from my other half! Not my partner, love of my life other half, but my genetic, part of my soul other half… she looks like this and is almost always either sleeping or eating as shown below.
    
For those of you who don’t have siblings, or who don’t get along with theirs, it is very difficult to explain, but all I can say is that true love and soul mates aren’t just about romance and romantic partners. My sister and I have a connection that I can’t even put into words… every great once in a while I feel like I understand what it is like to have a twin. Not because we are so much alike but because we understand each other in a very intuitive sort of way, and love each other unconditionally no matter what. I never laugh so hard or feel so comfortable in my own skin as I do when I’m with my sister. With my brother it’s a different kind of connection, still that part of my being, some things are just intuitively understood, unconditional love connection (lucky for him!) but he’s a boy so it’s a little different. He does make me laugh more than anyone I know!
We had an awesome few days, speckled with me having to work a little which I was not very happy about! It ended with an afternoon on the island, one of our favorite places!

and I almost got her to stay…

but alas, she had to go home! I love you little sister!

Lola Arts

This year I am putting real effort into making my pottery and crafty things into a business. I have done small craft shows here and there for years, but now I am a bit more focused. I have a website and I’m doing some bigger shows this year! You can find my work at www.lolaarts.com. Custom orders are more than welcome and you can get an idea of what I do from my shop!
Here are a few of my favorite creations this year, new designs, new shapes and loads of cuteness!
    
      My new favorite… Butterdishes!                         The Littles. Tiny bud vases
    
               Shallow salad bowl                                        Large covered dish
    
                        Mugs                                                            Bowls
    
Vases, cups, plates and more! Check out my Lola Arts website to find out where I will be this summer! Thanks for visiting!