Wishcasting Wednesday

So, again it's been a long time since I posted. But I keep thinking about blogging, so I figure I probably should blog now and then.

Jamie's prompt today for Wishcasting Wednesday is, "What do you wish to invite in?"

As always - my response to a question like this one is creativity. I often forget that I NEED to let my creativity in so that I can let it out. (Does that make sense?) I so often don't let my creativity shine. And I want to. It's easy to get lulled into a sense of complacency and not do the things that make you feel good, make you feel alive and happy.

Now, don't get me wrong. Overall, I'm very happy. I love living on the Oregon coast, and life with my husband is good. But it could be better! So, I am wishing to let the creativity in... and then to let it all out and express myself!

What are you wishing to invite in? And to all of you in the US, Happy Thanksgiving. What are you thankful for this year?

Happy Friday!

I don't know how months can go by without posting anything, but that's what has happened!

Lots has happened, but suffice it to say, things are good here in Oregon! We are LOVING summer here - the temperatures remain quite cool (only gotten above 70 a few times!) The farmer's markets are just now finally starting to get yummy veggies in since it has been so cool. But, oh the berries!! We are loving the fresh berries. We've moved from strawberries (my last post) to fresh blueberries now. I'm turning into quite the baker with this fresh fruit around! (A blueberry galette below)

We've had a few visitors and enjoyed the time with them. We have another friend arriving this coming Monday! We love being able to show off our new area. In just one week, we will have been here one full year! Amazing!

I also wanted to share with you a friend's success and new venture! My blogging friend Tanaya has opened a new etsy store! You can go take a look here, and also see her blogging or on Facebook! It's amazingly creative, and I love seeing a friend take off on a creative venture! Good luck!

Hope you're all doing well and enjoying life!

Circe's Circle

It's been a while since I posted! I forgot. That's all.

This week - making me happy is Jamie's Circe's Circle being opened up for new participants. I took part in last years circle, and it was a truly amazing experience. I learned a ton about myself, got some ideas lined out for my own business, and made amazing friends.

My project for Circe's Circle was thinking about my own business doing web design. During the class, I had a lot of stress and personal things going on (You'll remember - Mike's stressful job, my health, our decision to move to Oregon... all during Circe's Circle!) I put my business ideas on the back burner during the circle, and focused on myself. But those ideas were there, and now they have actually started happening! Amazing!

I am an independent web designer now. I have a business called Off-Center Studio (taken directly from the circle and ideas we floated then!) I am in process of designing my own business website. www.off-centerstudio.com. And hoping to take on new design clients soon!

That is a lot of success in one year's time. And I can really attribute much of it to the time I spent on the calls and "homework" in Circe's Circle. Thanks Jamie!!! You rock.

If you're interested, take a look at Jamie's website. She is offering a preview call and I will be part of that. yay! It is a life changing experience.

Happy Friday (times two)

Well, I forgot to post for Friday happy last week! I had happiness to share, but just forgot about writing it out! (see more happiness here).

So - today, I'll share two happy things!

First off, I'm so excited to have a new printer/scanner combo! I have many old photos that I have wanted to get onto my computer, and now I can do that!! YAY! The scanner is also a color photo printer, so I can make prints of photos as I go along! I had initially ordered just a scanner, but it didn't work. I was so frustrated, but in the end, it worked out better. For just a few dollars more, I got this combo, and it is working just great!! (It is an HP Photosmart, All-in-one C4780 for anyone who wants to know!)

I am working on a fun project (which I'll keep secret for now) and this new equipment is going to help that along! I've had fun this week scanning in old photos! I'll share some of them later.

For my second bit of happiness, my husband showed up at home yesterday after running some errands with flowers for me!! I love flowers! He doesn't bring them home often, but when he does, I love it!! yay! The bouquet was big, and I didn't have a vase big enough for it, so I split the flowers into two batches! So pretty!


What made you happy this week?

Taxes

It's Friday and that means time for my happy for the week. (See the Happy Book here.)

Yep. This week taxes actually made me happy.

I have been fretting about our taxes this year. Normally, they have been quite easy and uncomplicated. Enough so, that I've been able to do them on my own. Even the year we got married, I did them with no trouble.

This year, however, we moved to Oregon. I became self-employed, and Mike became unemployed. It got complicated! I hired an accountant, and boy am I glad I did! Living part year in one state, part in another is hard enough, but throw the self-employed bit in there too. Pshew! Too much for me.

I got word earlier in the week that our paperwork was ready for filing. We are getting a refund from Colorado, and we owe Oregon - that pretty much washes each other out. We will also get a decent sized federal refund! YAY! And my estimated returns for the rest of the year are ready too! Pshew!

Talk about a load of worry off of my mind!

Now, we can have a free and clear weekend. Tomorrow, we are heading for Multnomah Falls. It is about three hours away from us. And there is an amazing Mexican restaurant that we know near there, so we're looking forward to that as well!

What are your weekend plans? What made you happy this week?

My Happy Book experience

I got the Happy Book in the mail a week ago today. I pretty much added my contributions that day and the next! I was excited to get my input down into the book! :) (The book is now on the way to CA and the next participant!)

It was super fun to read through and see what the previous people had said and added. There is already some amazing art work, and some inspiring words in this book!

I added my own art work. (The curlicues are my favorite thing to draw. The ATC is from a while back, and I thought adding it to the book was a great idea!)

I also added a page where I pasted in samples of some of my favorite paper. Yes, paper makes me happy! I have scads of pieces of cool paper! When I went through stuff before we moved, I got rid of a lot of things, but my paper... I couldn't part with it! :)

I added a photo of myself on the page for favorite pics of yourself! It's actually my husband and I on our wedding day. We are both laughing and I love it! The picture makes me happy. (No one else has added a photo there yet! I hope more of you will!)

I loved getting to participate in this project, and I can't wait to see posts from others as the book makes its way all over the place!!

The Happy Book Happy Friday!!

The Happy Book arrived on my doorstep in Oregon yesterday!!! I'm the third person to have the Glee circle copy, and I'm SO excited!

I will share next Friday some of the pieces of the books that I have filled in with my own versions of happy. But for today, I have some pictures of the book and of me with the book. I enlisted my husband's help and got a couple pictures at my favorite spot near where we live - Fishing Rock.

I am happy to have the book, and to see what the other ladies shared too. I think we'll all wish we could see the book at the end of its journey and ALL of the contributions! It's really fun!!!

I will send the book on its way later this next week. It will journey to 26 total participants and each of us can add as many or as few entries as we'd like. Jamie is our inspiration and you can read all about the Next Chapter/Happy book over at the blog!

Henry's feature

Henry is the featured kitty of the day over at Vet Wisdom Café. Go meet my Henry boy!

http://www.vetwisdomcafe.com/vetwisdomcafe/2010/02/henry-penry.html

Vet Wisdom Cafe blog

As part of my duties as webmaster for World by the Tail, I manage and write for their blog, Vet Wisdom Café.

The post there today is about Oscar, my grumpy grey kitty. I've written posts that will be scheduled in the coming days about Henry and Ben as well.

Here is Oscar's feature:

http://www.vetwisdomcafe.com/vetwisdomcafe/2010/02/oscar-the-grumpy-grey.html

It's Friday... time for happy!

Simple this week! The Lorax is my very favorite Dr. Seuss book. This van lives around us somewhere. I've seen it a couple times, and this time - I captured a photo!! It totally makes me happy! (If you haven't - take the time to read The Lorax. The other Seuss that is my favorite is The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins.)

The Happy Book

I'm a little behind in posting about this, but only a week or so! :)

I'm very excited to be participating in The Happy Book Mail-Around. The amazing, wonderful Jamie is sponsoring this as part of her "The Next Chapter" book club. This is a bit different in that there are four groups of about 26 people and one copy of this fun book is being mailed around from person to person in the groups! We will each get the book for one week to add our own personal touches, and then we pass it along to the next person.

For this, you didn't have to buy a copy of the book as we're passing along just one copy within each group, but I wanted my own! So, it arrived in the mail last week. Wow, is it ever fun?! I haven't played yet, but just in leafing through - there are so many ideas, ways to express what makes you happy!

Each Friday, I'm going to try and post something here that makes me happy. I missed Friday last week, so there will be TWO this week (I hope!) :)

This week is a no brainer. It's simply - THE OCEAN. It never fails to make me happy when we make the trip to the beach, whether it is the 1/2 mile walk, or a drive to one of our favorite spots. I love living by the water. We've been here for six months, and I know it was the right move for us. That draw to the ocean is still there - it's just easier to get to the ocean now!

Blogging?

I think about writing a blog post often... but, obviously, I don't get it done!

I have lots to share. So, I'm going to see how I do in the new year and try blogging a little bit more regularly!

We love it here in Oregon! The winter weather is interesting - we love that we are not in the icebox like Colorado, and NO snow! I visited Colorado in early December for a week (to catch up with friends, and work in my office there). It was negative zero degrees all week! Yikes! It felt downright balmy in Portland when Mike picked me up!

The rain all the time is wonderful to both of us. We haven't been affected by any problems with being depressed because of the grey (at least not so far). Some of the storms have been quite impressive. The wind is actually pretty scary during a big storm! We've lost power a couple times, but not for any length of time. We really enjoy seeing the waves after a big storm passes through! It's truly stunning how big they get! (Photos below are from a storm in early November - our first big storm - we spent hours watching the ocean! You can see all of my photos at my Flickr page.)

We celebrated our first Christmas in Oregon with Mike's brother, Jeff and his wife, Geeta. They stayed with us for about a week. We drove all over the coast and saw the sights with them. It was a little cramped in our tiny place, but overall a good visit. (I got sick on Christmas day, so they went around without me after that. I missed out on some pretty cool coastline that Mike will bring me back to see soon!) They are vegetarians (Mike and I are not) so I was a bit worried about the food situation. They took over and did quite a bit of cooking while they were here! Geeta made saag paneer for us, which was wonderful!

Mike is still looking for a job - and we're doing OK on just my salary. We're hoping he can find something nearby in the next six months. If not, we'll have to reevaluate before we sign another lease on our apartment. We may have to move into a larger town for him to find something. Our little Lincoln City doesn't have much in the way of jobs to offer, but we sure do love it! I'm hoping something will come through so we can stay here. I don't want to leave our coast if we don't have to. Salem would be the closest big town, and it's about 2 hours away - inland. Blah!

That's what has been happening in our little world! :)

Return to blogging

Maybe... some days I feel like blogging, and other days I don't. Many days I miss the interaction I have had with you all! (If anyone even stops by here anymore!)

Our transition to Oregon has gone really well. We really love our little town and the Oregon coast. The weather is turning to winter grey, but we still love it - if possible, even more than sun. We're hearing from locals that we'll be running into more grumpiness out and about because a lot of people really hate the constant grey. Both Mike and I really like it so far.

We've LOVED the farmer's market this summer - we went every Saturday morning until this last week. It is over until next spring :( The tomatoes have been amazing - and huge bunches of fresh basil! Yum. I've been experimenting with squash to find ones Mike will eat. He has liked the spaghetti squash and the butternut. Not so much the acorn or the delicata. (I love them all!)

We found an amazing organic farm nearby called Barking Dog. We love the place - the produce is awesome and the owners are super-friendly and fun! Again, we're sad to see them close for the winter...

We LOVED the Kite Festival on the beach near us. It was so fun - we spent about 8 hours down on the sand that day. Took lots of photos and videos. We'll definitely look forward to going to the spring festival as well! We're also discovering some amazing local restaurants! We love trying new places. (Favorites so far include Riptide BBQ, Beach Dog, and J's Fish and Chips. Mike is eating fish! Can you believe it?!)

As always, I have taken tons of ocean pictures. I'll share a few, but you can go to my flickr page and see them all if you're interested.


We love our little apartment and our amazing view. Lots of sunrise pictures too - taken from our balcony looking over the lake.


Our cats have transitioned well too. They like being able to go out on the balcony - almost outside!

I'm starting to work on my own website - Off-Center Studio (http://www.off-centerstudio.com/ - coming soon!) so that I can take on some new clients and build some new websites! It's a bit daunting to design my own, but I'm getting excited to do it! I'm also looking forward to taking a couple classes at the culinary center here in Lincoln City!

I'm featured!

The amazing Jamie of Jamie Ridler Studios has featured me on her website. I participated in her Circe's Circle earlier this year, and it was an awesome experience!

Go check out my feature and the rest of Jamie's awesome website!

Back to the Blog World

I'm back! I don't know if anyone missed me, but I've finally decided I want to blog again! I am starting over with a whole new blog. My previous home is still in existence at Mimmsical Creations. Since getting married a little more than six (!) months ago, I have felt I needed and wanted to change the name of my blog. I kind of needed a writing break too, so that all combined to my absence.

My new home (here!) is a fresh start, and a branching out, all in one. My blog name is Off Center Studio. Over the past couple of months, I participated in Circe's Circle with the amazing Jamie and Suzie. We worked on projects, and ideas, for ourselves. My initial project/idea was to have my own website design business. I work for a company doing their website currently. I love that job very much. But, I also have an interest in branching out and doing design for others. We worked through some of my thoughts, brainstorms, etc. I came up (with Jamie and Suzie's great help!) my name of Off Center Studio. It fits! I'm going to take that name right now and go with it.

My project morphed, stalled, and changed during our 12 weeks of Circe's Circle. I put it on hold when we had some major things happen in our life. But, I have held onto all of the information about what I want to do, and I'm going to see where it takes me, or where I take it! I am starting Off Center Studio with this blog!

My plan for this space (as of right now anyway) is to share a lot of things. I have a lot of photographs that I want to have a place to share. I love to cook, and I want to share my process, recipes, successes, and failures. I am also going to join in The Next Chapter bookclub, and will share about that process here as well. As things change in my life, I'm sure this blog will change too!

A lot of things have happened since I last posted. The biggest thing is that I was diagnosed with Diabetes (Type II - and very borderline.) That news hit me quite hard, as you can imagine, and I had to really relax into the idea of needing to make some major changes! Since learning this, about 10 weeks ago now, I have begun making changes in my diet and life. My doctor told me, and here is the really good news, that if I could lose about 50 pounds, she thinks I can reverse the diagnosis! Well... I took that very seriously, and I have lost 19 pounds (as of this morning) so far! I have changed my eating habits by eliminating all obvious sugar. I also eat smaller portions, and more frequent small meals. I have limited carbohydrate intake and am careful to choose foods that have a low glycemic index. Mike has, of course, been totally supportive! Even while on our honeymoon two weeks ago, I did pretty well with the new eating habits and maintained my weight loss!

On our honeymoon, Mike and I realized that we NEED to follow our dream of moving to Oregon. We spent the week in Yachats, Oregon, and we absolutely fell in love with the area. It is the spot for us! We have already started planning what it will take for us to move out there, even if Mike doesn't have a job there! We've been wanting to move for quite some time, but haven't taken the leap. Well, we are both ready to leap now! The ocean is calling us! We're going to listen! It may take a while to be prepared, but we're planning and I just know it will happen!!