2008 Reading List

Changes that Heal, by Henry Cloud
It's not my Fault! by Henry Cloud & John Townsend
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey
Loose it for Life by Stephen Arterburn & Linda Mintle
Boundaries: When to Say Yes, How to Say No to Take Control of Your Life by Henry Cloud & John Townsend

The Old Red Barn Quilt Giveaway and a rainy edition of Lunchcapades

I wonder if a bribe would do any good?
I keep checking back at the Old Red Barn Quilt Giveaway. The youtube videos are fantastic! At first I was completely against the notion of doing a video about why I want to win the quilt, but my creative juices got going and I think I could manage something! The only problem is I'd need my hubby's help with the camera because there's no way I can do a sock puppet interview and hold the camera too!
Today at lunch we had a bit of rain. Or should I say a "splash" of rain. I sat in a parking lot waiting to go into a store for 5 minutes then gave up, put my hair up and made a run for it! Normally a little rain wouldn't bother me, but it was the kind of downpour that makes cars pull over on the side of the road, that when you have your winshield wipers on full blast, it's still kindof hard to see...really coming down!
Come to find out...the store didn't even have what I was looking for! Rrrrrr...




And I have to vent a little about the loss of the best antique shop I've EVER been to! They tore it down to put up this...



They completely cleared the tall old pine trees and leveled the two long barns that had been converted into the store. Yes, you heard right...two of them! All of this landscaping is new, the traffic light is new...at least they kept the one hardwood tree! Now don't get me wrong, I'm totally excited about the new Michael's they're putting in and I'm sure there's a strong market for the new Circuit City, but did they have to put it THERE?!
I stopped at another antique shop though. Not nearly as big, not nearly as much charm, but still a great place to find antiques. I found these treasures:



A pack of red vintage seed beads for $2 and an amber and gold bangle for $3. Not sure of the age. It has a tag with a "Rick's" logo. Either way, I love it.



Fieldbook of Natural History, 1949 for $1.60.




Girl Scout Handbook for $4. I don't recall the age off the top of my head.





And this treasury of beads for $5!


Many of the beads I'm not crazy about, but these two blue and white ones really caught my eye! Plus there's a whole strand of smokey grey ones that didn't photograph well that I completely adore as well.

Included in the box were these pieces...a blush cameo, rose and bow pins.

All in all, I'd say it was another successfull lunchcapades!

Setting Boundaries

I've decided to use an organza type material for the tie-backs on my previously dubbed "interview shirt," but that would require another trip to the craft store. What to do, what to do.

I may limit myself to going with my hubby. He's good at standing there and saying "what are you going to use that for? do you really need that? are you sure you need that much?"

I know it will be a bit of a sacrifice for him, but maybe I can make it up to him by going to the Hobby shop with him afterwards!

I've been reading Boundaries lately. In a very teeny tiny nutshell, it's about setting healthy parameters on your relationships. Like saying "I love you Mom, but right now's not a good time to visit. Thanks for dropping by, let's get together tomorrow." Instead of allowing her to just drop in for an unannounced visit while you are trying to clean the house and bake brownies for the PTA meeting and get those birthday party invitations ready before the mail carrier comes.

I'm on the chapter dealing with setting limits on your personal behavior, like your relationship with food and shopping! It's quite interesting to be doing all of this when I come to this chapter. Interesting and revealing! I highly recommend the book.

Obsession

Okay, so I have a tendency to get a little...well...obsessive.

Take beading, for example. A couple years ago, I got this idea that I could make beautiful and unique jewelry by learning how to bead. I didn't take classes, I simply got all the materials and tools (and I mean ALL) and a few how-to books (sound familiar?) and taught myself the basics.

I spent ALL my free time (and then some, stealing time from housekeeping, etc) learning to bead and making admitedly awefull stuff!

Then I lost interest. I think because I wasn't seeing progress fast enough.

Then I found a great fiction author, and then another, until I was reading ALL the time!

And these are not two isolated examples. I tend to get obsessive when I find something I enjoy. Now it's yard sales. I'm going away for the weekend coming up and I'm incredibly dissapointed that I won't be able to go to any yard sales! Even to the point that I wondered if there was a way to see if there were yard sales in the area we're going to (because Saturday morning will be pretty much free time).

Enough!! Wow. Seriously. So hubby and I talked and I have to be carefull about how much stuff I get, even if it's free (did I mention my addiction to craigslist and freecycle?). So this weekend away will be good for me.

Another thing I'm obsessive about is clothes. I clothes shop a lot. Even if it's cheap stuff, it's still money spent and it adds up quick! So I'm taking a good hard look at what I've got, what I've ignored, what I can maybe alter. Growing up in a wicked*rural part of the western US, (over a hundred miles to the nearest large city), my mom made a lot of clothes and I became familiar with the concept. (picture is of the road out to Lowel Point in Seward, AK where I was born and raised until age 8. Note the pale green/blue of the water - that's no photo trick! It really is that color!!)

Except. Our sewing machine was always breaking down and very touchy and I was too impatient to deal with it, so I learned to handsew everything. I know...turns a couple-hour project into a couple-day project, but that's what I was comfortable with.

Well I got obsessed about sewing a couple years ago and now have a brand-spankin-new sewing machine...that I have not used since. Now that I'm determined to change my shopping ways, I'm getting excited again about sewing and doubly determined to "make friends" with my machine. I may take a class instead of following along my old pattern of teach-yourself-until-you-get-bored-or-frustrated-then-quit.

So I suppose the game plan is to be aware of my obsessions and to not jump into new things without really thinking about time, expense, etc.

Wish me luck!


*wicked is New England slang for communicating an extreme, like it was so cold, or the movie was incredibly funny.