Oh Boy!

Ever have one of those days where you wish you could crawl back in bed and put the covers over your head?  Or that you could pack a suitcase and run away to an island and be alone?  How about reinventing yourself, starting a new life in every aspect?  Yep, I have had one of those days!  Seems like it has been one of those weeks and it is only Wednesday, today was the worse though.

Having a hard time with this staying positive thing, am so on edge.  Angry, verge of crying the whole ball of wax.  I need to fight it and look inward, be positive and grateful, not look at the negatives but the positives.  My grateful items are; I have a comfortable home to live in, a job that I enjoy and I have a fantastic kid. OK, so now for the positives (self); I have been very good at taking Dash the Wonder Dog out for walks, until this week I have been good at not being negative (some improvement there) and I have thought ahead and had dinner prepared (love my crockpot).  Whew, not as hard as I thought :)

Dash the Wonder Dog is doing really well.  He now rings the bell when he wants outside, we just had to make the cord the bell is one shorter and away he went.  Granted he does ring it to go outside and then just sniff around or eat ice..............he liked getting a treat to ring the bell so figured it out.  He is also only in his crate when we are not home and will go in there when we say 'bed' as he knows he will get a 'cookie' and be told how awesome he is.  So me who wasn't going to let the dog on the furniture is presently curled up on an afghan next to me on the couch.  He is also sleeping at the end of my bed, lol.  

Trying to take pictures of general everyday things and even include a picture of me........not into this selfie thing, hard to get used to.  So here are a few snapshots from last week.

Almost the End of the Year

Today is the 30th of December, tomorrow is the end of 2013 and I am in a bit of a reflective mood.  As I look back on the past 12 months I wonder, 'did I move forward?', 'have I made any changes?', 'am I in a better place?' and to be honest I must answer, 'yes' and 'no'.  I think I have made some movement but as is me I have also taken steps back.

There is always improvement and I am definitely a work in progress, but progress seems to be where I am stuck.  I want to make better choices and improve on myself but I lack the knowledge in how to do it. Stuck in a rut and while not happy with doing nothing it is safer and protected.  Yes my life is passing me by and I know I will look back with regret on what I didn't do, accomplish or try.

I have never tried the 'one little word' but this year I am going to give it a whirl.  My goal is choose a word and do my utmost best to make that word a part of my life.  Maybe if I write it all down here then I will feel that sense of accomplishment (and follow through) that I so desperately want to feel.  So my word of the year is 'self'.  This word can be encompassed in so many aspects of daily life; self-worth, self-esteem, self-regulation, self-talk (positive of course), self-reliance, inner-self, self-improvement and more that just escape me at the moment. There we have it, my word and my goal of creating a journal based on 'self' and let's see where this journey takes me.........

While I am talking about end of the year, here are the last 4 art journal/mixed media pages I have created.  These pages use digital products from the following designers; Captivated Visions, ViVa Artistry, Tangie Baxter, Jopke Designs, Heather T and Bren Boone. Some products used in the fourth page (cat) are retired while the other three use current product.

Looking forward to creating more pages in 2014 and trying new techniques.