Success makes up for failure, right?

So I shopped.  Big whoop! I'm making up for it this week and then some!

Keep on reading if you want to find out how I got the following feedback this week:

"I love that you have samples of what they wood look like inside the home!!!! How very cool. I don't know how you did that."

"Guess what?  Got my first order.  $30 already received.  BOOM!" 

Not surprised! Congrats!!!

"I'm so impressed with you! LOVING the creative get in done attitude! 

"Impressive! Nice work babe, I love this determined organized side of you.  " 

All of my life, I’ve been in to art and the creation of anything and everything. In Art courses growing up, I found my mind in a happy place and my teachers agreed.  Every other class, I got in trouble.  I blame the boredom. The teachers blamed me and simply sent me to the principal’s office day after day.  Not in Art class.  That’s where everything started coming together for me and being the competitive person that I am, I flourished with the responses I got.  To this day, you can still find some of my early Jr. High art on my teacher’s website.

What I do still have, is A.D.D.!

I danced in paints, mostly oil paints.  I think I chose oil because it’s moveable, and mistakes are easily covered.  It could have been the scent too.  I graduated from sniffing rubber cement to enjoying the comfort of the scent oil paints so naturally emit.

Anyway, my new found solace in all things artistic lead me to an education (partial) in graphic design.  I took a random course to get there by being coerced into a degree in technology from DeVry University in Phoenix.  How I got coaxed into their sales pitch, I’ll never know, but I’m glad I did because I wouldn’t be where I am today without wasting thousands upon thousands of dollars at DeVry.  Across the street from DeVry in Phoenix, AZ, the lovely Art Institute begged me to enroll day after day.  I finally gave in.  After a quick conversation about the responsibility of financial aid, I was enrolled and ever anxious for classes to begin!  I immediately fell in love with this school. Instantly I had that same special feeling I discovered as a kid.  My professors were amazing and they took a liking to me.  Except for Mr. Kirshenbaum.  He taught Typography.  He was engaging, imaginative, and intense.  I was stoked to take his class.  That was until he gave me a “C” on my first assignment.  Lindsay doesn’t get C’s.  I was pissed off because my first Type project was clearly the best in the class.  He pulled me aside after our projects were returned most likely because he knew I’d be upset. I asked:
“How did you give me a “C?” My project is obviously the best on the wall!” Yes, I was 19 and that was an appropriate response and probably verbatim.

“How long did this take you to put together?” He politely asked, ignoring my ignorance.

“I don’t know, a couple hours, I did it last night.” I spouted proudly, disregarding his humbling tone.

“Everyone else spent many hours over many days working on theirs.”

“Okay, mine’s still better.” Duh, I think.  I’m not getting the point here…

 “I agree that that quality and originality of yours is superior.  However, a ‘few hours’ isn’t sufficient for the type of work you should be producing.  Lindsay, you have talent. I expect nothing but the best from you and that means at least doubling the time you spend on your assignments for my class.  When it’s evident you took the time to care about what you are delivering, only then will I give you an A.”

Imagine 19 year old Lindsay standing there flabbergasted.  This is long before my years of refinement that have made me into the upstanding and highly professional citizen you know today.  ;)

That night as I removed my sweater from the over air-conditioned building and packed it into my JansPort red backpack to enter into the 90 degree heat wave, I began to think.  Lets just say it didn’t take me forever to finally realize what he was saying.  Now to fast forward to the part where I was able to recognize him giving me a C as a compliment and not an incredible idiotic oversight, we’d have to skip a week or two of frustration.  Eventually I accepted his challenge and began to focus deeply into each assignment.  How he was willing and able to recognize immediately what many of my teachers early in life blamed on insubordination  and disregard of authority I’ll never know, but I will forever be grateful for his intuition and frank approach.  It’s exactly what I needed to help me develop my talents beyond the surface level.  That just because I exuded more natural talent, I wasn’t exempt from giving my all.  I’m competitive, and he challenged me in a way  no one ever had before. 

Now, I still compare myself to other people, but I also learned to challenge myself.  I’ve also recently discovered that I don’t need anyone to hold me accountable…that I can offer that service to myself.  Whodda thunk it?

So anyway, with my newfound self challengment, I wanted to keep the edge of being unique, I translated a lot of my oil painting talent into digital art.  I had to borrow the school camera to make this happen.  One assignment from Mr. Hero Kirshenbaum was to photograph close-ups of easily recognizable everyday items and make them into art.  This assignment fostered the beginning of a long courtship between me and film.  I fell in love with the world through the lens of a camera.  Growing up, I didn’t have a lot of photos documenting my development.    Prior to the age of 15, there are a little more than a dozen photos of me; probably because I was the 5^th kid out of 6.  By that point, capturing ‘moment’s’ probably lost its appeal. After 14ish, there are a million and one photos of me all from disposable cameras developed at Bi-Low or something similar.  I could wallpaper my entire house with self portraits and random-unimportant moments of my Jr. High + High School days.  

I went through crappy pocket camera after crappy pocket camera, always losing or breaking them.  My Lumix got stolen 4 Halloween’s ago. It wasn’t until I was saved by the grace of Trevor Dean LaRowe that I stopped living paycheck to paycheck and began to actually save money like a responsible adult.  I saved up for my first real DSLR camera.  A Nikon D60.  I’ve had it for a few years, I still don’t know how to use any of the special features, but somehow It captures nature more perfectly than my natural eye.  I keep saying I’m going to take a class, and I’ve even had offers by some incredibly talented colleagues, but have yet to learn more than a few things about the functionality of the amazing machine.  Add that to my leap list: take an intermediate digital photography class.  My A.D.D. is really kicking in right now.  Hail to the queen of non-sequitor thoughts!

Ooooh, so I started this to talk about my accomplishments this week!  I’m so proud of myself.  I FINALLY began the process to do something to spread my art with the potential of making money.  I listed it on Etsy!  You can see the right side of my brain by clicking here: http://lilastore.etsy.com .

Let me know what you think.  I didn’t do a whole lot of research about how much to charge for photography, so if you have any thoughts about the best way to get them printed/delivered, please please please, let me know!!!

Also, I’ll give anyone the blog discount of 20% off!  Let me know what, if anything, you’re interested in!  My goal is to have my original art up on etsy in the near future.  I have an entire Harry Potter room full of art, photography, and paintings new and old that I need to get up and get selling!

And now it’s time for:

Final Thoughts by Lindsay!

To find true happiness: love your friends, love your wife, love your family, love your husband.  Do all of this by first: loving yourself!



Fern Gully Alive!




Home Away From Home




Pink Butterfly: Bougainvillea Fluttery Oasis




Rainbow Magic




Waterfall fall fall fall





ESCAPE...to the Beach



Made it through January…February is a different story…

So maybe shopping with my $300 limit at Last Chance wasn’t the best idea.  It seems I was an enabler for myself.  Since then, I purchased 3 items from Costco: A pair of fleece lined football/kickball cold weather attire pants and matching three-quarter zip up top.  Also, a pair of puma warm-ups that I took home, tried on, and hated.  So I returned them yesterday and got $20 and some change.  Then, at the Superbowl party at Bryn’s, I couldn’t help but fall in love with these amazing green earrings.  So I bought them.  So all in all, 3 ‘slips.’

       3 Costco items

-         1  returned item

+     1  Bryncollection earring set

        3 No shopping slips.

If you play sports in the NW in the winter outdoors, you understand the necessity and not over-buying of warm workout attire.  That’s my rationalization for the warm wear. The Jewelry, well, if you take a look at her handywork, you’ll understand, all precious Gemstones: http://shop.bryncollectionjewelry.com/

Bryn has a gorgeous collection and she also does custom orders, bridal and bridesmaid matching sets all of which are handmade beauties! She also has an outlet on Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/shop/BrynCollectionOutlet?page=1

If anyone wants to buy me the Secret Garden Earrings, I wouldn’t object! HINT HINT Trevor! Valentine’s day is coming up! J

I also totally love the Seaside Charm Necklace:

And the black onyx/Mother of Pearl Tiara Necklace:

So all of this talking/typing got me motivated to take after Bryn.  She took the leap to make a business out of what she already loves doing.  I’m following the bandwagon and I created my own Etsy Shop. 

I will post all the details sometime soon!

Also, that's my last shopping slip!  No more, it's not worth it!  I'm going to make it through 2012, I just thought it important to be up front and honest with everyone!

“[Lindsay] and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day”

Do you ever just have a BAD day?  Yesterday was unmistakable the worst day I’ve had in many moons.  I was so excited to come home from my 10 day trip to spend time with my husband.  Unfortunately Sunday and Monday flew by tantamount to the Holiday season and I didn’t get the much anticipated time I needed. I woke up yesterday irritated. I got ready in a hurry, and headed to work.  I left my purse at home, the garage door wouldn’t open, there were too many cars to make my travel light, and every time I had a passing opportunity, a vacuous driver cut me off.  The music on the radio was vastly vacant, and the rain had no end in sight. At work, it didn’t get any better.  I left my yogurt in the car, I smushed my banana, looked in the mirror realizing I didn’t put on mascara, and my hair was a frizzy mess. My participants in class were welcoming and I was happy to see familiar faces full of anticipatory smiles on my behalf.  I was hoping that would change my outlook, but unfortunately it wasn’t enough to cut through it.  Instead, my boss walked into my messy office, and scrupulously scrutinized my lack of 2012 time off request ability. My understanding of basic classroom etiquette was also questioned.  Now, I’m an intuitive person and I maximize opportunities and time and in my opinion, I’m unique in my ability to be aware of my surroundings and the retention of the knowledge we are packaging up like a banana split.  It’s challenging to be an adult in a classroom for 8 hours as a learner, and even more difficult to continue for four weeks without any humor or activities involved.  So when someone accuses me of playing too many games or wasting valuable time, I struggle to respect the concern.  

Lunch sucked, I over-boiled my TV dinner, burnt my hand, and splattered all over the microwave.

During lunch break, my Angry Time decided an unexpected visit.  I supposed with fate’s help, I idoneously chose to wear red pants.  I tried as hard as I could to wash off the evidence, but the ladies room paper towels just pilled up and made the spot more noticeable.  So in my angst to fix, I resorted to the Adam Sandler approach of covering it up.  I re-tied my shirt so that it graciously covered the necessary spots.  Still, I had to finish the day as a leader in the classroom.  Joyous!

Part of my lack of enthusiasm for the last day of January was faulted to my lengthy To-Do list. 

1. Two parking tickets to deal with
2. Overdraft Protection fee to negotiate the removal of
3. Auto Quest-get my plates, get my car washed, the cigarette charger-mabober is broken, the rear-view directionaler-teller is broken, They are requesting an additional $122 for Licensing + Registration= $322 to register a vehicle?!?! It makes absolutely no sense!
4. Mortgage Pre-qualifcation meeting
5. Finalize Sun-River trip
6. Look into Europe trip for PTO requests
7. Add weddings/wedding events to my calendar
8. Details of home auction
9. Are we going to Mexico?
10. Shoedazzle return
11. Expense report
12. Thank you card

Ugh! I never have such heavy task lists.  I hate tasks anyway, so to have this many and of this magnitude is irritating!

At least I started the day off looking semi-decent.

In my attempt to resolve my day, I began planning my PTO by calling my husband.  This didn't get very far because it's hard to match our schedules.  I rarely cry.  If I get on the verge of tears, to avoid the embarrassment especially in the office, I just stop the conversation.  So if I'm on the phone, that person could continue talking without noticing my absence for a while.  My husband HATES this, so he's previously requested that I at least notify him.  So, I feel the anger/frustration/sadness welling up from things not going my way, and I simply say "I'm hanging up." no response.  “Hey, did you hear me?” as I think, oh man, I waited too long.  One more word and looking up to stop gravity won’t work.

“Babe,” he says, “we can work this out, lets do it tonight. We’ll work through your task list and I’ll give you a massage.  We have a lot of planning to do.”

Now for most people, this would probably be a joyous moment.  For me, it was the inevitable onslaught of unavoidable tears.  Tears of gratitude for offering help, tears of irritation and frustration.  Tears of too much time since the last time I let them go. After I hang up, I immediately look straight up in the air and think to myself. Please, no one come in here right now.  Please don’t call back. Gravity, work!  Don’t well over, don’t well over, dooooooooon’t do it!’  It was too late.  I let them out. Two cute little tears took a stroll down my flushed cheeks.  With a quick change of subject, I avoided smeared make up. Mission accomplished, yet not perfectly.

At the end of my day when I finally left the office, I drove to the car dealership to pick up the license plates for the car I purchased mid-December.  Yep, it took over 6 weeks, and I’m sure on the err of the temp pass expiring, they finally decided to take care of business.  Which, to my surprise, is costing me an additional $122 on top of the $200 already left in designation of title and licensing.  I was promised a phone call/voicemail by 5:00 explaining the excess of expectant fees, and to my dismay and in concert with my day, I still have not received the promised follow up.  Upon my entrance into the dealership, a man I do not know asked me if I was Lindsay and told me that Joey left me a message.  The no she didn’t, yes she did, no she didn’t, yeah, she said she did game got old really quick.  So they put on my plates very nicely after I paid the $122 with the promise they’d follow up today.  We’ll it’s nearing the end of today and I STILL have no itemization or explanation as to the increased and very out-of-pattern fee.  Not even the Washington Department of Licensing has a clue why my plates were so much more expensive.   How in the world can it cost $322 to License a vehicle in Washington? How much did yours cost? Perhaps they’re made of gold!

After a quick trip to Costco surreptitiously only spending $12.45 I drove home and curled up on the couch to finish “Heart of the Matter.”

MP: Whenever I get into a really good book, I start thinking about my day to day life as if I were narrating it in first person:  I smile as I look up wondering, how do I get out of this awkward silence.  What does he expect me to say?  Can he tell that I’m not paying attention? Goodness, I’d like to be anywhere but here at this very moment!

Does anyone else do this?  Or am I alone?

The book I just read was “Heart of the Matter” by Emily Giffin. 

She’s written a few other similarly tasted “love” stories that keep you turning the page.  For those of you that are judging my choice of literature, big deal.  I’ll listen to the type of music I want to listen to and read the type of books that end happily.  While I’m confessing, I also love any sappy love story: real, true, movie, book, short story…I love them all!  Especially the depiction of that first kiss.  My stomach grows flutter babies at those tender moments.  Has always ever since I can remember, and I don’t foresee my taste changing.  So there’s that. ßNatalie Portman, Garden State.  I also am in absolute love with Nicholas Sparks books.  I crave the release of each and every new novel and sink my body into the couch under a cozy blanket and read for hours on end.  I hope there’s no harm in welcoming myself into fictitious characters lives’ to live vicariously through their heartwarming tales of love.  Sap Sap Sap-a-licious!

Trevor came home, we ate scrumdidly-umptious costco chicken, and instead of tackling a single task, we snuggled on the couch and fell asleep until 1:00 AM.  This is a task I would normally avoid, yet under the circumstances of a glass of wine and a massage from my husband, I was perfectly content falling asleep in his arms.

And now it's time for: 

Final Thoughts by Lindsay:

"I think I’ll move to Australia!"

Not really, but the thought did cross my mind a few times yesterday.  I read this book to my nieces and nephews a lot last week (a gift from my bookshelf instead of the store, in honor of shop free 2012) and they laughed out loud everytime Alexander says wants to move to Australia.  Kids are so free spirited! I'm envious at times! ...Funny how fate intervenes at the perfect moment! 

Cheers to a better tomorrow! :)