Hilary

Beating Back the Blues

Quite a bit of time has passed since I last posted, which surprises me because in the thick of the winter festivities, I was throwing up all kinds of posts with a steady regularity.

I think I’ve got the winter doldrums. I’ve lost my groove, can’t find my mojo, forgotten how to get to my happy place. I’ve just been feeling out of sorts lately. If I were a child, it would be classified as cranky. Too bad I’ve got no one to hand me a snack trap of my favorite snacks and then put me down for a nap.

Part of me thinks this funk-tastic attitude may have to do with my New Year’s Resolution. It takes work to be nice to yourself! You’ve got to stop the negative self-talk, stop the self-deprecation and re-direct your behaviors. It so much easier to correct someone else! Believe me, I’m a pro at that, just ask Mo and Co.

I’m trying to spend less time on the computer and more time being engaged in activities I like and people I enjoy. I took this phenomenal photography workshop through Virginia Photo Safari earlier in the month. While I’m not quite ready to hang out my shingle as a portrait artist, I have a better understanding how my camera works and how I can get the shots that I want, when I want them. It is going to involve springing for a new lens, but in the interim, I like being able to truly “get” what those buttons and knobs on the camera do. I’ve got two willing subjects in Mo and Co, which means practicing the techniques is a great week-end activity. I gave the girls their flashlights, I slowed the shutter speed, and I turned out the lights.

Pretty cool.

I’ve been wanting to craft more, too. I made some more cards. I’ve been checking out different websites on how to repurpose things that you already have into things you’d like to have. For example, there is this scarf that I saw online that I would really love, but it’s sold out indefinitely. I didn’t want to buy any ol’ scarf in the interim, so I found a site that shows you how to take a t-shirt and make a scarf out of it.

source

Mine doesn’t quite look like that. It looks like a cut up t-shirt, but I think the secret is in how to you twist it. Practice, practice, practice.

I’ve also been wanting a cool looking jewelry tree so that I can actually know what I’ve got and wear it. Back to the ‘net and look at these two cool DIY projects.

source

I’ve got to hit up the thrift stores to see if I can score some frames and trays to make this happen. Now that I see I don’t need a circular saw, vise grips or table clamps, both of these are way more do-able.

Instead of burning up my lap with the Mac while I watch TV, I broke out my knitting, or rather, my rows of knits and pearls. I doubt I’ll ever make anything, but I like seeing the rows emerge from where there wasn’t anything before. I have a great aunt, who at 100 years of age, still knits. She can cast on while the opening theme of the Price is Right is blaring in the background and by the time, Bob Barker was reminding us all to spay and neuter our pets, she’d hand you a sweater. Or a hat and gloves. Or an afghan (or is that crocheting?).

I’m in two book clubs and recently hosted one at our house. I enjoy entertaining, really, but I just don’t do it as often as I’d like. Book club was a great way for me to try out some recipes I’d been eyeing for a while and to break out my party plates and wine glasses. The menu planning, the prepping, the cooking and the plating! I loved every minute of it. The cleaning up with a serious buzz afterwards? Not so much, but c’est la vie.

So you see, I’ve been doing plenty. I’m happy when I’m doing it, but when it’s time to clean up or get back to the tasks of parenthood, that’s when my lip starts poking out. I think I’m regressing. You know how they say that people that live together for a long time start to look like one another? Or people start looking like their pets after a while? All this quality time with the girls has me acting like them — “What are we going to do next? What are we doing after that?” — except that I’d gladly welcome a nap.

Wake me up when it’s spring.

IN: ON: January 16, 2011 TAGS: activities, thoughts, winter BY: Hilary

Resolved

As I finish up saying my good-byes to 2010 and to the first decade of the millennium, I’m left with one burning question. Did anyone else think we’d have flying cars by now?

I’m just saying. . .

So here we are, on the eve of another new year. It’s a true sign of getting older when you wake up on New Year’s Eve and think, “Really? Wait, what just happened?” A whole whopping 365 days have flown by in record time. Last year, I resolved to keep my expectations lo and maintain the status quo. So much easier than trying to lose that last five to fifteen, or stop cussin’ or whatever other over-inflated promise I made to myself.

This year, though, I have one resolution: Be nicer to myself.

image

No, probably not.

I’m such a bully to Me sometimes. I gossip about Me to others. I don’t give Myself enough credit. I rush Myself through things and then berate Myself for not enjoying things. I ask Myself what happened to the girl I used to be instead of loving Myself for the woman I have become.

Talk about time and energy better spent.

I may not stay up to watch the ball drop.
I may not get up to work-out in the morning.
But, whatever I choose to do — today, tomorrow and the days ahead — I’ll think of Me and play nice.

IN: ON: December 31, 2010 TAGS: honesty, sharing, thoughts BY: Hilary

But Mom Said it was Okay

For the sake of understanding shutter speeds and apertures, of course.

Ready.

Steady.

Jump

Coming atcha!

Morgan doing Egyptian Arms.

Laughing too hard to jump.

IN: ON: December 29, 2010 TAGS: feel good, my girls, photos BY: Hilary

Feeling Crafty

When we first moved to Norfolk, I joined a stamp club with some of the moms from Morgan’s play group. Once a month, we would get together with our craft supplies, rubber stamps, ink pads and assorted photos to try out new stamp techniques and tricks. I can chart the improvement in my skill level by comparing Morgan’s first year scrapbook to Coever’s. It’s amazing how some glue dots, a paper cutter and a rubber stamp can transform a page into something visually interesting.

The playgroup and the stamp group dissolved over time, but not before I had accumulated a rolling suitcase and several totes of stamping and scrapping gear. There are times when I feel like making something — I know, me, who loathes arts and crafts — but the thought of hauling all of that stuff out is really unappealing. Over the summer, I told myself I needed to get back into it, maybe even make my own Christmas cards this year. I went onto eBay and order up some pre-folded card stock. Once it arrived, I tucked it into my paper cache and promptly forgot about it.

The other day, I reached into my desk for a nice card to jot off a thank-you and came up empty-handed. I checked in my pile of office supplies in the closet. Nada. In the back of my mind, I knew I had some blank cardstock, just waiting to be transformed into lovingly stamped assorted notecards. The thought of stamping, gluing and running interference between the girls and my collection of craft scissors was a real turn off. The note went unwritten.

Today, day 2 of the great blizzard thaw, we aren’t up to much. The girls have a little friend over, DH is working on whatever DH is working on and I thought I would bang out that note once and for all. Then I remembered, I still didn’t have any notes. I started to clean up a bit in the kitchen and came across some of Morgan’s artwork. Talk about an “aha!” moment.

Blank cardstock + homemade artwork+ glue dots = Assorted Notecards!

The hardest part was trying to decide which of her pictures I could sacrifice for my cause. It turn out, you can get quite a card fronts out of one 8.5 X 11 drawing. After my first few cards, I started to get fancy and added a backing before mounting. I threw in a few clever titles, Morgan’s name and the date. Ta-da!

How easy was that? I could kick myself because throughout the year when I had to send notes in to school, I would just fold a piece of the girls’ scribbles in half and write my message on the clean side. I think the cabin fever had slowed my brain function to an all time low.

Anyway, I got my thank you notes done and have few extra ones ready for when the need arises. I may have to have Morgan create several series of cards. Maybe a 5 pack of her interpretation of storybook characters or a series of her own self-portraits. I wonder how long it takes to get an Etsy shop set-up. . .

IN: ON: December 29, 2010 TAGS: arts and craps, coloring, winter BY: Hilary

C’mon, Get Happy!

That seems to be the theme for 2011. Pick up any magazine on the newsstands today; everything from Real Simple and Oprah to Success and the Rob Report. There are tips and tricks, lists to follow and exercises to try. There are ways to streamline your daily routine and ways to help you identify and attain your goals. There are rules to happiness, definitions of happiness, in case you don’t know. So much happiness overload! Do all of these things and you, too, can be happy!

image

I balk at these kinds of things.

The media would have you believe that no matter who you are, where you are and what you do, you’re unhappy. I would much rather think that there are a handful of people out there trying to make a better situation out what they currently experience, but that most of us are doing just fine. You pick up these magazines and what it boils down to is people telling you to make changes and voila! — Happiness abounds.

Call me cynical, but I don’t think it works that way. Aristotle said that happiness depends upon ourselves. When I think of my happiest times, it’s been when I’ve chosen to simply be in the moment as it unfolds in front of me. I’m laughing over sushi with my brother. I’m watching my girls streak through my parents’ house in nothing but head bands and smiles. My husband cups my cheek in his hand, kissing me as though it’s the only thing he’s allowed to do.

That’s when I’m happy, no tips or tricks required.

IN: ON: December 27, 2010 TAGS: feel good, honesty BY: Hilary