Feb 10, 2013--Pleasant Surprises

Mid-February and mid-fifties!  Are you kidding me?  I want winter weather.  I want at least one, really good snow day when we’re all forced to stay home in our PJs, watch movies and bake cookies.  You know you want one, too.

Instead I’m watching in dismay as my daffodils bloom and my winter urn arrangements appear incongruent in this tropical oasis.  (Slight exaggeration, but it helps to emphasize my point.)  As I sit typing my fingers to the bone (more emphasis), the 10 day forecast is predicting more of the same.  I see no snow days in my near future.

I do see, however, some baking in my very near future.  This week I will bake my first King Cake for Fat Tuesday.  We don’t really make a big deal about Mardi Gras around the King Kompound—it usually means Pancake Supper at Trinity Episcopal and that’s about it.  This year, however, I promised my patrons some King Cake, so I better get busy!

Last year we went to celebrate Mardi Gras with my sister and brother-in-law in Northern Virginia.  They host a grande fête each February and one of their guests brought a couple dozen cupcakes, each embellished with a plastic baby figure—like the one found inside a proper King Cake.  I absconded with at least half-a-dozen, so I am set in that regard.  What I need to find, though, is a recipe.  I’ll also be making Pralines for the first time.  I’m actually looking forward to it and will let you know how I make-out.

As we’re going to run headlong into Valentine’s Day, too, I’ve worked-out some plans for that, too.  I really want to go see “Always . . . Patsy Cline” at The Roxy, but we are a going to have to wait until next week for that.  Rather than fight the crowds to dine-out (rest assured, we do our fair share of that), I think I’ll make a nice, romantic dinner for the three of us (you will remember we still have one bird in the nest).  I’m going to make Coq au Vin—it was the first “fancy” dish I ever made for Darren.  I don’t think, to be honest, it was the hook that caught him, but I remember the excitement of preparing such a special meal very fondly!

Does cooking do that for you?  Do you hold onto those memories like I do?  I can tell you the first time I made a lot of meals.  For instance, the first time I made Stromboli I failed to remove the paper casing from the salami, so with every bite, Darren was discreetly pulling the casing out from between pursed lips.  (That one was after we were married, so he gave me the appropriately hard time!)

I really enjoy planning and preparing meals, which is another aspect of my creativity that has been thwarted over the past few years.  Every now a then I have bursts of culinary creativity, but they are far too infrequent.  When we were trying to figure out what to do with some leftover ham the other night, I told Darren that I would use it to prepare Spaghetti a la Carbonara.  His response, “But I didn’t pick-up any of that at the commissary.” 

“Harumph!” said I.

So, last Wednesday, I came home from work and immediately set-about  browning the onions and mixing the half-and-half with some egg yolks.  Thirty minutes later, he was pleasantly surprised that I was not only still able to cook from scratch, but that the results were rather tasty.  (Added bonus, I used a lot of leftovers and we needed nothing additional from the commissary!)  I think I need to surprise him, as well as myself, a little more frequently!

I hope this week holds pleasant surprises for you.

Jan 27, 2013--Creativity Is Its Own Reward

Caption:  A few of the vignettes filling the Christmas void.

Happy to report:  I have made good on my commitment to dedicate more time to my creative endeavors; this has been the case for TWO whole weeks now.  That makes it a habit, right?  It’s my understanding that experts say it takes two weeks for a new behavior to become a habit.  Well, we’ll see about that.

I’ve been known to defeat the law of averages quite soundly in numerous tête-à-tête with the universe.  Albeit, most have been self-prophesized, which experts would likely identify as self-defeating, but who listens to those “experts” anyway?

This venture into my dormant creative self is much needed.  I’ve forced it to take a back seat to many others aspects of my life and it’s beginning to be difficult to conjure.  I fear if I allow it to climb any further into the back seat, it may end-up trapped in the trunk!  I am trying to revive it and already feel better for my efforts.

Last week I wrote about my journal-style calendar, which is a large part of my artistic re-entry.  I often discuss this subject with my friend, Kimberly Santiago.  Kimberly is a local artist who has—conveniently for me—set-up her studio on the second floor of our building.  She has on numerous occasions encouraged me to further explore my creativity.  She is very supportive, however, as I berate myself for my lack of inventive adventures, she will chide me to remember that what I do via my shop requires a fair degree of originality and imagination; she is my art “therapist.”

We are our own worst critics.  (I’m not just saying that for my benefit—I’m saying it for your benefit, as well.)  We expect so much of ourselves, but find it so easy to notice the achievements and successes of our friends.  I will leave that topic open for my next session with my art therapist, but in the meantime, I will take pride in my minor creative successes.

This past week I took time to arrange a few vignettes around the house—things that take the place of the holiday decorations which have made their way into my newly reorganized storage space.  (Hey—I’d like to just take a moment to give myself a pat on the back for that monumental feat of ingenious displacement packing.  How I fit that much stuff into the same space AND made it look more organized is beyond me!)  Back to the new “old” stuff . . .

This time of year, I pull out the silver stuff; not that it ever really goes away, but I pull it front-and-center during the colder months.  When I disassembled the holiday décor on our the mantel in our living room, I left almost everything silver and brown, added a few tan and brown books, as well as a few bare branches to tie the theme of winter together. 

In the kitchen, I’ve arranged a tray of vintage pewter mugs with their white porcelain insert cups, a collection of crisp white linen napkins and transferred our huge container of hot chocolate mix into a vintage style jar.  I also have a jar of the mini marshmallows at the ready.

In the dining room, I’ve begun preparation for Valentine’s Day.  I’m not a fan of hearts being used in my decoration, but the proper amount of vintage influence allows for exceptions.  I employed decoupage techniques to upcycle empty bottles into decorative accents for the impending lovers’ holiday.

So, there you have my journal entries for the past week.  I have carved-out some time for nurturing my creativity and I feel so much better for it.

Jan 20, 2013--Creative, Inspiring Year Ahead

Caption:  My resourceful endeavor to plan and record my anticipated creatively inspired year ahead

One of the best features of a passing into a new year is a new calendar.  I love calendars; so much so that I have a minimum of three—no, wait—four, running simultaneously.  There is the Microsoft® Outlook calendar which is my most dependable, especially since it syncs with my iPhone® calendar, then there is my wall calendar which hangs in the kitchen and lets the family know what is happening.  The fourth calendar, however, is my favorite; it is the one I carry with me pretty much everywhere.  It is the one that ends-up holding more than just my schedule; it is where I stuff receipts, coupons, agendas and more.  This “favorite” calendar has seen many incarnations—from a very corporate-style Day Runner® in a black portfolio to the pocket-style family agenda in a wipe clean plastic cover. 

My favorite, however, has been found.  It is a journal style calendar.  There is plenty of room to write my scheduled activities, as well as some notes about the day or week.  As it seems I have reached maximum capacity in my “grey matter” storage unit, I’ve found it necessary to not only write down where I am supposed to be going, but also where I’ve been and what I did! 

A few years ago, I found the perfect journal-style calendar for my needs.  It was actually designed to resemble a ledger book—like those kept by business folks for their record keeping.  I remember liking that feature immediately.  Then, upon closer examination, I realized it was also appealing because of the design lay-out of its content.  Each week shared a two-page spread, so there was a generous amount of room for my notes.  I liked it so much; I placed an order for the shop.  When November rolled-around and I hadn’t received them, I called the vendor and was told they lost the contract and wouldn’t be wholesaling them after-all.  Rats!

I went into research mode, to no avail, trying to locate the publisher and deal with them directly.  Finally, I found it online through a boutique similar to mine, but located in Ohio.  I contacted the owner and asked her to share the name of the vendor, but she wouldn’t tell me!  I was shocked, but undaunted.  I continued my research and found the journal at our local Borders—the same day I received the negative response from Ohio.

Well, long-story-longer, I was able to scavenge the calendar for only two years.  In that time, I tried desperately to contact the publishers, but the information just led me to a non-working number.

That’s when I decided I need to make my own, using a real ledger book I found at an office supply store.  I worked with my friend, Märtha, and sister, Kendall, and we created our own, but I just couldn’t finish it.  As luck would have it, Patty found one more of the published calendars, which saw me through last year.  Unfortunately, 2013 hasn’t materialized; therefore, I decided to get creative and made my own.  Unlike the last time, however, I am not waiting until it is finished to use it.  I figure, for it to be a truly creative journal, it needs to develop throughout the year.

I will be writing my notes, jotting down ideas and memories and using a glue stick to attach ephemera and other inspirational findings.  This is going to be a creative, inspiring year and I’m going to capture as much as I can in my journal calendar. 

Jan 13, 2013--Displacement Cleaning

Two trees down, two to go . . . plus the mantel(s), staircase and kitchen décor.  Anyone else feeling overwhelmed by the post-Christmas un-decorating process?

I’ve been using the fact that my husband was gone during the holidays to justify my leisurely approach to returning the house to its pre-Christmas blah-ness, but (if you’ve been a faithful reader) you know this is my perennial lament.  I really like my house decorated for the holidays.  I like the glow of the lights from the trees and staircase.  In fact, as I write this I am sitting in an otherwise dark room—the only illumination being my computer screen and our Christmas tree.  I love it and hate to see it go, but go it must, because I am also disconcerted by the furnishings and art work the Christmas paraphernalia displaces.

I’m ready to return my treasured art, created by local artist Billy Renkl, to its place of prominence on the wall which is currently blocked by a 9 foot artificial tree.  I am ready to have the table, which belongs in the same general area, back in place—to reload it with the “moments in time” we have captured and framed; to slide the vintage chest into place and re-stack my collection of magazines.  And that is just one 3 square foot area!

So, you see, it is not as though I will be de-cluttering the house in order to return it to some minimalist domicile; nope—never been accused of being a minimalist.  What I actually do is displacement cleaning and arranging.  By “displacement” I am referring to the physics definition; in the end, there will be the same amount of stuff, it’ll just be redistributed. 

Now, wait a minute, didn’t I just write a column about celebrating my minor successes?  Indeed I did.  I need to give myself some credit for off-loading at least a year’s worth of magazines (just one title—kept the other three, of course).  I’ve even allowed two of my subscriptions to lapse; the counter balance to this effort is, however, the fact that I’ve subscribed to a new magazine.  I will end up with a net of -1, which is, in this case, desirable.   

Regardless, by the time you read this, I hope to have packed away the family tree ornaments, but as I am still in the planning stages of this action, I need to let you know something—that way I’m more likely to do it.  This year, I am packing all of the ornaments the kids have been given over the years, into their own boxes, where they will stay until they have trees of their own.  I decided that this is the year to do it because I am starting to forget which ornament belongs to whom.  (We’re talking about a lot of ornaments—collectively, a minimum of 52—that’s allowing for gifts from relatives.)  I feel awful if/when they break.  I’d rather go ahead and put them away now, so they can break them on their own in their future homes.  So, with some help identifying each designated ornament, they will go into boxes, marked with their names, until they claim them for their own holiday celebrations.

You realize, of course, this means I’ll need more ornaments for next Christmas.

Jan 5, 2013--Celebrating Minor Successes

As we move into day 6 of the year twenty-thirteen, many of us are considering what we can do to improve our situation.  We may be thinking about personal improvements, such as learning a new language or finding a new job; we may be planning to make physical improvements, such as improving our eating habits or level of activity; or we may just want to make changes in our surroundings, such as improvements to our home or perhaps purchasing a new home.  Whatever you have decided to take on or give up this year, I wish you luck, but more I wish you dedication. 

Dedication pushes us through otherwise insurmountable odds.  It is what tells you to keep going, when everyone around you is failing.  Dedication moves forward with every success and resets the backstop.  If you have this type of commitment you will succeed, even if you don’t achieve your intended goal.  Commitment to a goal is bound to realize some level of accomplishment and with varying levels of achievement come personal growth.

What do you think?  Are you buying what I am selling? 

Too be honest, it’s kind of strange to write these words, as they are usually coming from the mouths of friends and family as they try to convince me of my own success; or from my own mouth as I encourage those around me.  Why is it so difficult to see our own success?

Well, I am determined to improve my own outlook.  I will attempt to find my own minor successes in attempts my former self would have viewed as failures.

For instance, my numerous attempts to clear our “back porch” in order to find a creative space will no longer be viewed as failures, but partial successes.  While I have not been able to claim it as an inspired work space, my repeated efforts to do so have reduced the piles of discarded sports equipment and categorized tools and garden equipment. So far, the producers of that reality show about hoarders have not yet knocked on my door.  Success!

My inability to stay on top of my social media marketing for the shop—especially my blog—has been a constant source of self-admonition this year.  Instead of berating myself for not doing better, I will congratulate myself for not distracting my loyal Facebook fans, Twitter followers and blog readers with a barrage of my ramblings.  Success!

My efforts to re-establish a workout routine have not emerged, but I do take my dog on long-ish brisk walks each morning.  Of course, this is more in an effort to break her spirit and hope for a few moments of inactivity, than to keep the size of my thighs in check, but it’s something.  Oh yeah, for the past two months, I also managed to squeeze several days of “power yoga” each week.  So, cheers to my better than nothing fitness efforts!

I just decided to take a look back at what I promised to do better last year and was delighted to find that I made no resolutions last year—other than to get past the misery of 2011.  So kudos to me on that stroke of brilliance—no goals means “no failures.” 

Wow—I am on a roll!

So, whatever you decide to put your mind to in 2013, I hope you do attack it with dogged determination, but, if you are only able to lose 13 lbs. instead of the full 20 lbs. or if your to-be-filed pile remains, even though you resolved to be more organized, I hope you are able to find your minor successes and celebrate them!  If you need a cheerleading section, give me a call.