Things that Drive Me Nuts!

I'm in a great mood now and most all the time....I've never been depressed. 99% of the time I'm just happy with life in general. But there are things that drive me nuts....we all have our pet peeves and some of your's may be on my list too. Here are just a few things that make me nuts or CAN make me nuts if I've had a bit of a stressful day.

:: Music. Yes. Music can make me nuts! At the end of my day I often need dead air since I've been surrounded by little people who need all of my attention and typically they are not quiet. I need to drive home in complete silence to re calibrate my head. Music is wonderful but it also has the power to bug the heck out of me.
:: Meetings. Sooo many meetings are just plain pointless. With technology today you'd think that meetings could better utilize our busy work schedules by being on the computer or skyped. But there we sit. Meetings that are either silly or don't directly impact us. Makes me nuts.
:: People who mind the business of others. Why? I've got enough on my plate that I don't need a scoop of someones elses crap to worry about or compare my life to.
:: Okay this one relates to the first one....children singing badly or playing an instrument badly. I know we all start somewhere and you have to practice and be encouraged but please.........my ears! So glad no one in my house plays an instrument.

Note to self:: I'm sound sensitive apparently.

:: People who don't acknowledge or give credit where credit is due. I've learned to live with this one but it still shocks me when someone can't just say, "thanks to so and so, I'm doing this" or "wow, so and so had a great idea" or "I admire how so and so does this, so I thought I'd give it a try".......come on people.
:: People who don't say "Good Morning" back when your out on a walk. Whats up with that?
:: The empty can of dog food sitting on my counter left from this morning from someone who lives here.....it wasn't me!
:: Looking forward to a few chips and then discovering someone ate them all!
:: Loud people. Wow. I am sound sensitive! I find this type of person completely and totally bothersome. Hard to really get to know this type of person cause they are so loud and attention seeking that they suck the air out of the room.
:: The Smart Car. I HATE this car. It could provoke me to hit it a few times with a baseball bat. Why in the world would someone by this death wagon is beyond me.

Okay. Did any of these ring true for you??

Whack the Side of Your Head Wednesday's

Aaaahhh, I haven't done this in a bit so I'm bringing it back. Really, I think I need some of this creative insight myself so I figured I'd share too.

The creative Whack Pack is one of my favorite tools to stimulate creative thinking. I've had my pack for years and I recently learned there is now a Whack Pack app! I'll be checking that out for sure.

Today I am taking something from the Whack Pack creator's blog.....here is the post for this Wednesday:

THINK LIKE A FOOL!

Carrying the strategy of "looking at things differently" to extremes brings us to the realm of the Wise Fool, the being for whom everyday ways of understanding have little meaning.

It's the wise fool's job to extol the trivial, trifle with the exalted, and parody the common perception of a situation. In doing so, the fool makes us conscious of the habits we take for granted and rarely question. A good fool needs to be part actor and part poet, partphilosopher and part psychologist.

And throughout history, the wise fool has been consulted by Egyptian pharaohs and Babylonian kings, Chinese emperors, Greeks tyrants, and Hopi Indian chiefs.

The wise fool will reverse our standard assumptions. He'll say, "If a man is sitting on a horse facing the rear, why do we assume that it is the man who is backwards, and not the horse?"

The wise fool notices things that other people overlook. He might ask, "Why do people who pour cream into their coffee do so after the coffee is already in the cup, rather than pouring the cream in first and saving themselves the trouble of stirring?"

The wise fool can also be irreverent. He'll pose riddles such as,

"What does a rich man put in his pocket that the poor man throws away?" When he answers, "Snot," he forces us to re-examine the sanctity of our everyday rituals.

The wise fool can be cryptic. He'll say the best way to see something is with your ears. Initially, this may seem weird, but after you've thought about it, you might agree that listening to a story conjures up more images than watching television.

The wise fool can be absurd. Having lost his donkey, a fool got down on his knees and began thanking God. A passerby saw him and asked, "Your donkey is missing; why are you thanking God?" The fool replied, "I'm thanking Him for seeing to it that I wasn't riding him at the time. Otherwise, I would be missing as well."

The wise fool will take the contrary position in most conversations. Whereas many people would agree that, "If a thing is worth doing, it's worth doing well," The fool might say,

"You don't have to do things well! Indeed, it's okay to do them poorly; otherwise you'll never let yourself be a beginner at a new activity."

The great benefit of the wise fool's antics and observations is that they stimulate our thinking. They jolt us in the same way that a splash of cold water awakens us when we are drowsy.

Question: Where has "thinking like a wise fool" helped you look at a problem in a helpful way?

Sand Pail List

With summer approaching and vacation time just weeks away, I thought I'd sit and compose a "Bucket List" for the summer....actually a "Sand Pail" list. I saw this term in this months issue of Better Homes and Garden and immediately loved it! So, here it goes, my Sail Pail list for the summer~

:: plant a vegetable garden
:: walk each morning...its okay to miss one or two due to rainy weather.
:: sit on the beach and watch the sunrise one morning.
:: paint a large canvas for our living room that is colorful and spontaneous!
:: create a number of paintings for a fall exhibit (I'm having a show of my paintings!!)
:: take  yoga classes
:: take a long bicycle ride with Pete.....I'm thinking a day long bicycle trip.
:: make ice cream!
:: make pickles! Pete loves the bread and butter pickles I make.
:: get more pedicures. Or, give myself a pedicure more often! I love painted toe nails and pedicures are just so darn relaxing.
:: learn more about aromatherapy and make my own household cleaning products, beauty care and scents! I'm actually doing this now but figured to just keep going with it over the summer.
:: start that quilt thats on my bucket list! I'm a random kinda girl so I think I'm just going to create a simple quilt...queen size.....I love fabric and sewing but I don't do enough of it to call myself good at it.
:: give my sewing machine a workout this summer and make stuff.
:: create art journals based on our two vacations this summer........cape cod and british colombia/ seattle.
:: finish some of my knitting projects that I seem to loose interest in after awhile :)

Aaaahhhhh.....hump day!

Today, Wednesday, is really like my Thursday this week! Thursday then being my Friday...confused?! I have off Friday to take a class and am looking forward to it!

Not much to report ....still in my blogging slump. I know once the school year ends I will get myself back together. Its been a turbulent year at school with lots of things happening....things that have stressed our building. I think that has really been my reason for lack of posts.

I have been working on new creations however and will be excited to show them at an Open House I'm planning.

Hope you enjoy the sunny weather today!

3 Beautiful Things

:: Green smoothy for dinner. Consists of 3 cups spinach, vanilla yogurt, banana and 1 cup almond milk.  Spinach is so good for you and this drink is loaded with good stuff. Beautiful.
:: A call from a friend. My sweet friend called as I was driving home from work and we planned our morning tomorrow of farmers market shopping, a brisk walk and coffee. Beautiful.
:: Silence. I adore silence. Just being more aware of my surroundings. Listening closely. Paying attention to my thoughts. Silence is most definitely a beautiful thing.....especially after a day filled with busy children :)

3 Beautiful Things

:: Sunshine. Just the brightness and warmth of the day can really turn a frown upside down!
:: Students working so quietly on their art that you can hear the art sticks moving back and forth as they work.
:: An evening walk with my husband after a long and busy week.

Mandala

Just a few things to show to prove I really have been working...Mandala's 

Simple is good. Please visit my Etsy Shop to purchase.