little bliss list

Celebrating joyous, blissful, happy occurrences this week (hosted by Liv at Liv Lane):

Memorial Day weekend was filled with wonderful, happy-making times: played cards with friends Friday night, had a lazy, relaxing day Saturday (those are in short supply sometimes) and we enjoyed a little Seattle sunbathing!, friends over Sunday for brunch and to watch the Indy 500 (my hubby is from Indianapolis so this is an annual event) and then Monday was another quiet, restful, peaceful day.  That's a whole week of pleasure right there!  Rested.


I went to the little farmer's market in my community and picked up some stunning peonies (mine are barely out of the ground) and some fragrant, delicious, all natural, homemade fogoza bread for dinner.  Yummy.

at the farmers market

I'm excited about a new site started by Karen to swap mail art and other paper art (Mail Me Some Art) - I adore people who have the inclination to organize the rest of us and give us an outlet for sharing our art. Go ahead, sign up.  Excited.

My best friend arrives today to spend the weekend.  We have a morning of thrifty shopping and an evening of stamping and making cards planned.  Anticipation.

My house is clean and tidy (cuz I cleaned it up for my friend's visit) and I love it when it's all sparkly clean!  Ready.


Share your bliss, your pleasures, just what makes you happy....share the good in your life.

bliss day

Briefly sharing my happy moments this week:

Took on some new tasks at work - always love to learn something new.  Challenging.

Rearranged and cleaned out my art room.  It SO needed it and now my work desk takes advantage of the natural light and I added more storage and countertop space.  I got lots of time to work in my journal this week.  Happy.  (see upcoming before/after shots)

Sent out my postcards for the IA swap and can't wait to start getting mine in return.  Creative.

Seeing plants I planted for summer flowers start to bud.  Anticipation.

(these aren't in my yard)

Join others at Liv Lane's and share your bliss.

bliss list & flowers #11

I'm once again staying in touch with things that make me happy and this week I'm acknowledging this:

1 - Mail art definitely makes me happy and after being away for the weekend, I came home to a mailbox with several pieces of arty mail.  Smile.

2 - Two days spent with my best friend - talking and shopping and planning and talking some more.  Love.

3 - Bowling for charity - my gosh, I haven't bowled in years and years, but this was for a good cause.  Fun.


4 - A week without rain, in the spring, in Seattle - totally amazing and so enjoyable to be able to go out for walks, take some spring-time photos, be warm.  Contentment.

5 - I read a GREAT book and for the readers among you, I definitely recommend this.  Winterdance by Gary Paulsen is an interesting, well-written true story about a man's first run in the Iditarod.  Engrossing.

The hostess of this great idea is Liv over at Liv Lane, so if you'd like to share a few things that made you blissful this week, link in - we'd love to share your joy.

FLOWERS, day 11:

Yesterday Lori Moon showed the advantages of taking photos of flowers from different perspectives, like from underneath or lying on the ground shooting up to the sky.  Last summer I tried the same experiment and though I didn't lay on the ground, I just held the camera away from me, down amongst the iris stems to see what would happen.  I got some cool images.....

So, get down at bug level, or stand on a chair and get a birds eye view - change it up and see what happens!

bliss list

It's Friday and I'm sharing a few things that quietly made me happy, content, pleased, joyous this week:

1 - Had a long phone conversation with my oldest son.  That's definitely noteworthy because he is notorious for not answering calls and for keeping conversations brief.  But I must have caught him at a generous moment because we chatted and chatted.  I love my sons!
Then:

Now:

(they don't ever read this blog, so they don't know when I talk about them :))

2 - Got some pretty spring flowers planted on my deck so now when I look out the kitchen window I have color and flowers and pretty things to catch my eye.

3 - I'm leaving this afternoon for a weekend with my best friend and we're going to sit and talk and talk and talk and maybe do a little crafting and then talk some more.  Best friends are the greatest!

4 - I'll be teaching my first art class this month.  I'm offering a small two hour art journaling workshop and am so excited to be sharing what I've learned and am still learning.

5 - My scales continue to show a slow and steady weight loss (I've lost 22 pounds since January 1) and I'm so pleased that the progress continues even with an occasional relapse.  I have about 5 pounds to go! :)

My bliss list Friday is inspired and hosted by Liv at Liv Lane - join in, won't you?  We can all use a little shared joy!

bliss list

I forgot to do this last week (it's not a habit yet), but following Liv's lead, here are my bliss items this week.  I love this exercise because it forces me to pay attention.  Pay attention to the small, every day, totally wonderful things that happen but usually go unnoticed.  This week I noticed these things that made me happy!  {ed: this was scheduled but for some reason blogger didn't publish it, so I'm overriding it and sending it out into the universe now}

1 - Last Sunday was in the low 70s, 16 degrees warmer than usual for that day....it's unheard of to be that warm in Seattle in April.  We loved it; sat out on the deck, bar-b-qued with friends, soaked up the sun. Heaven!

2 - Took the bull by the horns, bit the bullet, embraced the challenge, signed up for 21 Secrets.  I'm so excited to get started.  Did you know you get 21 individual classes complete with videos, PDFs, etc. for only $60 - that's only $3/lesson - a real steal!!






3 - I got my most recent Amazon order in the mail - a parallel pen to work on my lettering through Joanne's Artful Alphabets class, a lettering book Modern Calligraphy and Hand Lettering by Lisa Engelbrecht and the
book that says it's okay to be messy and artful, Mess: The Manual of Accidents and Mistakes by Keri Smith.

4 - I have the day off today and so will go have lunch with my hubby, always a favorite break in my day.  I might even wander over to the nearby garden center and see what they have that my garden can't do without.

5 - I just finished such an inspirational book filled with insightful thoughts for all creative types.  Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott is ostensibly for aspiring writers, but I found page after page, quote after quote that is totally applicable to art as well.  As I browse the wealth of art/creative/crafting blogs, there are a few common issues that arise again and again:  how to find a lost resting muse, how to move an art piece forward, whether we're "good enough", etc.  She addresses all of these with encouragement but based in reality.  I highly recommend this book!