Transitioned from Being Stressed to Excited about Possibilities
Gotta quit letting little things stress me out.
Lately, I find myself feeling stressed way too much. Not my normal way of dealing with the World. But then my world has been a bit more chaotic than normal.
Thankfully I do remember to breathe, step back to look at the situation and figure out what I can do, rather than getting caught up in what is stressing me and making it worse.
After hearing that not enough items have shown up for the Commonwheel Gallery show “Display It Again” opening tomorrow night, I called my friend who is hanging it. I asked him if a huge framed piece that was left behind by a tenant would be appropriate for the show. At first he thought it was too big, then reconsidered and said he could move just one piece and it would fit.
Since it is too awkward and heavy for me to pick up myself, I asked if he could stop by and help me get it in my car and then into the gallery. Plus, that would confirm that it would be appropriate for the show. And the frame had some nicks which he thought he could fix also.
He and I are the two longest “surviving” members of the Co-op which began in late 1974. He beats me by about a year and a half. I didn’t move here until 1976, so missed the very beginning of Commonwheel. We have been good friends since we first met. I do appreciate him for all he has done for the Co-op these many years. We are working together on the Gallery show in late April that will Celebrate the 40 years that Commonwheel has been here.
While waiting for him, I tried to update a membership and pay for an event happening this evening. Updating my membership did not work. At first said I didn’t exist. Then when tried to do a new membership, told me my user name was already in use. Which to me, meant I was a member, as no one would use that user name but me. I was able to pay for the event, so decided I would just bring a check to the event and let them sort it out and hope I would only be in the system as one person.
He had said he’d be here in a half hour, but more than an hour passed and he hadn’t arrived. I had to get to an appointment across town where I had never been before, and was watching the time tick away. Just as I was about to call him again, he showed up.
We took that and a couple of other pieces I thought might need new homes to the Commonwheel Gallery. At the last minute, I remembered that I wanted to pick up the albums in the basement that the flood had damaged and were very muddy. Another past member had offered to look at them and see what could be salvaged.
Got to my Hearing Test appointment a little early. Realized I had forgotten the paperwork, but was able to fill it out there. Then the audiologist determined one of my ears had too much wax in it that was very deep and didn’t want to do the test. I don’t have a GP, so need to find one to help with that health challenge and then come back for the hearing test.
Could really feel the weather changing. Continued on to do my Costco shopping and headed home for a webinar.
Found an email from our new treasurer and saw that the figures for 2012 Art Festival’s financial picture was really off in a bad way. She had a comparison of the past two years, and it had me upset that we were using wrong figures to show the whole membership. She has just taken over from the member I constantly had a disagreement with for how he was reporting different information than what I was seeing from the Accountant. Emailed her with a copy of the information I had gotten from the accountant at the end of both years. She won’t fix 2012, at least not right now, and feels the membership really wants to see the 2013 figures, and she did update the Festival year end figure to be more accurate. One can only do so much, so am letting this go for now.
This took up the time I had allocated for writing on my blogs and doing some other web site work. So it goes . . .
Had a webinar that ended early, which meant I could leave my house sooner and get to the Green Cities Coalition 6th annual Celebration and a speaker I really wanted to hear. There was a “Stone Soup” and salad dinner with apple cider and cookies for desert. I hadn’t eaten very well today, so that was really a wonderful dinner for me. I walked to the venue, I figure it would take me about 7 minutes longer walking than driving, as I would need to warm up the car and find parking. Its about a half mile walk, so good exercise. It was a bit icy on the way home, so just took it very slowly and carefully.
The speaker, Brian Potts, was very inspirational. As he talked about the challenges we are facing regarding healthy food and water, he presented many solutions and ideas that our community could implement to help turn things around. He has just put up a web site that will have many of the studies and ideas he talked about tonight. I look forward to checking out his web site often in the future.
I was able to talk to three people, including Brian Potts, about Structured Water Filters, and two are interested to learn more. The other had been using a portable version of this that the person who turned me onto it and we decided there were many reasons she and I needed to talk. Both of us had “fired” our doctors whose prognosis for us was a health challenge we had would only get worse and they had no help for us.
We both turned our health around doing many different things, but we both credit using essential oils as being very helpful in finding increased health rather than decreasing health as the doctors predicted would happen.
I am always looking for stories like this, as I have begun writing a book last year about “firing” my doctor and using alternative health practices to find my optimum health.
Took a Day OFF in a New Hiking Area
I had no Idea How Really Badly I Needed This!
Usually when I do my weekly hike, I work for as many hours the same day.
Been a long time that most of a day was spent in a fun way.
Got up this morning and was stressing a bit about how and where to do my weekly hike for my Spirit Renewing Hikes blog and my commitment to myself for health and writing. The snow on the ground seemed a bit daunting, but the sun was coming out, and kn0wing there was a cold front on the way, I thought about some options.
Option 1: Just do my errands in town on foot. Go to the Post Office to mail a FantaFaces mask and then continue on to City Hall where I need to pay for some Festival permits. I thought about exploring the creek walks that start at City Hall and go past the Chamber. An urban trail that I have never been on yet.
Option 2: Get in my car and go to a nearby Park and hike in the sunshine alone. But I know I will be doing some of the close hikes in the future when the area is prettier, or if the weather is really bad for a full week.
Option 3: Call my hiking buddy and see if she was up for a hike somewhere today.
No answer, but I did leave a message with why I had called and time deadline to call me back. Moments later my phone rang and she was really ready to go for a hike today. She had actually asked in her mediation for spirit to just show up and take her somewhere beautiful today.
After considering a few options, some I had considered for my alone hike. I suggested we go to Cheyenne Mountain State Park and check it out. Neither us had ever been there, partially we hate paying a fee to hike. But she was excited by the adventure and we were pretty sure it would have some sunny trails.
I decided I needed to mail the FantaFaces Mask before I went, so dashed to the Post Office and did that. It was a good thing too, because we got done with the hike too late for me to have done it afterwards.
We met up and took just one car and headed south on Nevada Ave. and found the park. A beautiful Visitor Center with a very helpful person working there was a good beginning. They had a free map that showed many trails and she explained there were markers and maps all along the trails to guide us.
Many of you know of Cheyenne Mountain as it is where NORAD is housed and recently they tracked Santa Claus on his Christmas journey.
The sun hid most of the day. But it was still quite warm. We each removed one layer of jackets even before starting out on the trails.
The only part of the hike we didn’t enjoy too much was that we could hear the gunfire from soldiers training at Fort Carson most of the time. And some of the trail faced the highway so had traffic noise on those sections. Still we found places to stand or sit and just BE.
Some places were icy and snowy and others were very muddy and our hiking boots gained about 5 pounds, or so it felt, as we slogged through those areas.
The clouds today were very fun. So many different shapes and forms presented themselves above us. Blue sky would peek out or take charge of the sky at different times during the hike. Yet at times it was the perfect grey cast for taking some wonderful photos.
Other than that, it was wonderful hike and we want to come back and do some of the other trails when it is springtime and summer when flowers are blooming and trees are covered in leaves.
When I got home, fixed some salmon I had defrosted and a baked potato for dinner, with a bit of Tequila to relax with into the evening.
Yes, I checked emails and am writing my two posts. But otherwise have done very little other than enjoy my time in Nature with a great hiking companion and plan on going to get to bed early. And I have to admit playing with my photos and writing is also fun, so not really working even now.
As I hiked today, I had no sense of wanting to hurry at all. I just wanted to be in the present moment and enjoy a day far from my computer. And see the world with my “camera eye” to capture the beauty surrounding me.
I mean most people take weekends off! Somehow I have gotten into the habit of working 7 days a week which is not really a healthy approach to life. I really needed a day off to just play and relax, and am scheming how to do more in the coming weeks. And my hiking companion today is all up for adventures, so discussed some ideas on our way back to my car and she was excited about them all.
I’ll just have to catch up with my business in the morning . . . after a good night sleep . . .
Solution Suggested and Accepted for Gallery Marketing Team
No one wants to be the Point Person for the Marketing Team for Commonwheel’s Gallery.
Our Marketing person is on an extended leave of absence for health challenges. And that means many of us in the Co-op are taking up her job tasks. But it is a very disjointed effort.
So today, as I was going through many emails and figuring out who needed what information I had, I came up with what I hope is a brilliant solution. Use a DropBox Folder where we all put information and have a task sheet that we can check off what we get done.
One member of the team jumped on the idea and created the DropBox folder, invited us all, and put lots of different files in it. Yeah! Hopefully that will let us all use our time more efficiently and not have to wonder who is doing, or has done which of the many tasks involved in advertising our Gallery over the next month or so. And make it easy for us to help our staff with things as she slowly comes back to work in what we hope is the near future.
When I went out to bring in the recycling and trash containers, and to shovel the snow off my public sidewalk I was in awe of the winter wonderland I saw.
Too many wires to make a really good photo, but you get the idea of the beauty of freshly fallen snow on a mountain I get to view every day.
The stripe down it is called the Manitou Incline, which has recently been made a legal training trail after years of runners using it illegally.
It is only 1 mile but climbs 2,000 vertical feet.
No, I never intend to hike on that. Straight up, and very challenging, not my type of hike!
I moved on to working on all of my web sites. Removing their names from the old host, and seeing that there was just one not moved to my new host. I wanted to get a Static IP to work on my FantaFaces web site. But had a rude surprise when I saw it was down – not sure for how long it has not been up. Not good! So I called my new hosting company and made sure I could just put up a new site there with no odd consequences. There was a little wrinkle, but I worked it out, and FantaFaces.com is up, just a skeleton of its former self, but up. And that feels good!
Slowly, but surely, I am getting my web sites back up as starter web sites. Next I will begin to add more content when I am comfortable with them being back up and live again.
I discovered that I was almost out of storage space, so had to up my hosting program. But I knew that was coming, and I had quite a few months at a bargain rate, so that was a good way to start with a new host.
I had a meeting scheduled with a Festival Committee member who is also part of the marketing team, but her appointments in town went long, and she couldn’t get here until it was almost time for my Tony Laidig Expert Media Show Tuesday evening webinar. So we talked on the phone before she headed up the snowy pass to home.
Fixed dinner in time to listen to the very uplifting State of the Union Address by President Obama. What a challenging 2nd term he has had. Not that the first was much easier. What I really liked is how he talked of the positive things about our country and innovative ideas for the future rather than dwelling on what did not get done, or place blame on any party for what did not get accomplished.
I took advantage of the time to trim up some newspaper articles and put them in a filing box in the proper files for ideas to use on my other web sites. I have stacks of cut out articles, and it felt good to start putting them somewhere I could actually find ones related to subjects that my other web sites are about.
Now I need to do some work on the 40th Annual Old Spokes Show, begin to write up a sponsorship proposal for the Art Festival and one more blog post.
A Snowy Monday
So glad I took a hike in the sunshine yesterday!
It snowed pretty much all day today. Not sure when it will quit, or how I will get in another hike this week. But will see what Wednesday brings, as it is predicted to be sunny . . .
It wasn’t really very cold, and the white landscape was beautiful.
Yet I have become such a wimp when it comes to snow. You would never guess I grew up in Northern Illinois.
Colorado has certainly spoiled me. And I am spoiled in another way that got challenged today.
I used to be able to walk to all of my Commonwheel meetings or host them at my home. But no longer. After the basement was flooded last summer, our Board meetings have been held at a home, not too far from Manitou, but way too far to walk. Luckily, the general meetings have been held in Manitou Springs and I can walk to them. And I still host the Festival meetings in my home. Yep, spoiled.
I had planned on walking my FantaFaces masks and hair clips to the Gallery earlier today and stopping at the Post Office for Festival mail. Instead, I ended up working on advertising pieces for “Display It Again” show that is opening in the Gallery this Friday night. That took all morning and into the afternoon, so didn’t want to walk anywhere when I knew I had to leave for the Board meeting shortly.
When I was getting ready for the Board meeting, I left early enough to stop and take them there then. Got caught up in the final day of the Pots By The Pound, half price sale. Found some sweet jewelry and ornaments for my niece and sister-in-law for Christmas next year. I had planned on stopping at the Dollar Store, but a sudden rush of customers had me helping the Sales person, and it got to late to do that.
I picked up a pink stained glass butterfly and considered getting it for my roommate, she loves pink and butterflies. I put it back down to think about it, and the artist creator was there, and told me to just take it as a gift. One less thing she would have to pack to take home. Sweet gesture. I am sure it will cheer up my roommate, when I give it to her, perhaps for Valentine’s day.
Then the sales person asked me since I wasn’t leaving on time to do my errand, would I take some of the trash and recyclables to the dumpsters out back. After being gifted by another person, how could I refuse. I walked down the slippery street, only to realize when I got there, that I needed a key! Carefully walked back up, got the key and another batch of recyclables. Now it was very cold and my fingers were frigid by the time I got the locks off and the chains off and back on. Couldn’t do that with gloves on my hands. And the key is on a paperclip, not a real key ring. Didn’t want to chance dropping that in the snow and dark!
What I had forgotten about was why I wanted to get to the shop in daylight was I had planned on being there when it was a bit lighter and packing up some scrapbooks that got damaged by the flooding that are still in the basement. A past Commonwheeler offered to look at them to see if they were in any way salvageable. Didn’t want to go down there when it was really cold and totally dark outside with the little bit of lighting that is working down there now. A task for some other day.
The snow was really fluffy snow, but the roads were a bit icy. Not too bad, and I got to the Board meeting easily.
So many things we need to discuss relating to our future and just staying on track for now. Looking at a new POS system, our scheduled Retreat, advertising challenges, and so much more. Then there is a big discussion about what our landlord is doing and not doing to make our space safe. He did lower our rent for the year. That will be a big help as last year was a year in the red for us due to the many times the town, Hwy 24 and our Gallery had to close due to flooding. And the loss of our basement office and all the equipment and supplies kept down there.
I have a real dispute with the past year’s treasurer who keeps showing the Festival having a loss, when the numbers I got from the account showed a very slight profit, but not a huge loss as he was reporting. And the whole Gallery report was way different from what the new treasurer had from our accountant. I suggested that he not share his report with the general membership, but let the new treasurer and our accountant create a year end report that is based on the final spreadsheets she had with her tonight
Came out to a winter wonderland. At least the 4 inches of snow were easy to dust off, no scraping required, to get in my car to head home. It was really a beautiful scene.
It is still snowing gently. Will see how much snow is on the ground in the morning, as I will need to shovel my walk early before it becomes too packed down.
Someone is trying to access some of my web sites. Luckily there is a program that shuts them out after 4 unsuccessful tries, then shuts access down for 24 hours if they do it for more times in a row. But I think I need to take a couple down that are barely up, and then change the Administrator Name and password again to make sure they don’t get in. Though I had thought I did not have any set up with the Administrator named Admin. Will have to check that out tomorrow also.
Tomorrow I really need to focus on some of my business needs and catch up on a webinar I missed.
But also need to pay attention to the 40th Anniversary Old Spokes Gallery show and a Festival committee member is stopping by to talk about Sponsorship and how she can work on a bit of the advertising that no one has shown her how to do.
Bronco Fever Strikes In FantaFaces Studio
Bronco Fever struck me in my FantaFaces studio last night.
I didn’t think I had a good orange or blue that really worked for Bronco’s colors.
But when I looked around, I discovered there was enough of an old dye batch of orange feathers, and a really good blue strand of feathers.
So I just had to make a mask and hair clip with the Bronco colors.
I will take them both down to the Commonwheel Gallery tomorrow.
May make a couple of other hair clips if I can get back in my studio in the next couple of days.
I have to admit, it was very fun playing with those two colors together and wishing our Denver Bronco football team the best of luck this Sunday!
I also got another 7 masks and 6 hair clips made yesterday. But it took much more time than it used to for me to make that many feathery items.
The feathers I get now are just not as easy to work with. Not as fluffy and wide ad the used to be. Though I think the Orange ones I used are from a strand from long ago, as they were great to work with for this mask.
Plus on the strands that are suppose to go from 4″ to 6″ in length, yet in every section there are feathers of all different lengths. There are many more short ones than long ones, which makes it a bit frustrating.
I am considering raising my prices to compensate for the extra time and cost of feathers. Yet, right now, with my sales on ETSY being really good, not quite ready to do that.
But may inch them up a dollar of two there and at Commonwheel.
And as mentioned in yesterday’s post, there were reasons for me to be at home yesterday.
I had been tempted to go to Denver to the Orchid show at the Botanical Gardens and spiritual movie. But I resisted the temptation, and was glad I did.
Seeing that the Orchid show will be there through most of February, if my friend didn’t make there, I may entice her to do that before it is over.
When the Henry Moore Sculptures were there, I walked through them with a couple of friends a few years ago. It was magical. And the orchids inside were a colorful highlight to that trip.
I had gone to Stargazers on Friday night and had a great time. Danced the night away.
But my right knee was feeling funky by the end and it really felt bad in the morning.
I was sound asleep! Really in a deep, deep sleep.
Grabbed the phone and it was the tree trimmer who wanted to know if he could come do my job today in less than 2 hours.
I groggily agreed.
And as mentioned in my last post, the tree surgeon took care of many dead branches hanging over a neighbors parking area and my little cottage.
They left some very dry small logs for firewood, that I will pass on to one of my hiking partners who has a fireplace.
Each of noting at different times that it would have been smart to have had a hiking stick or YakTracks on our shoes.
Tree Trimming and A Day in My FantaFaces Studio
I really, really love trees.
It is very hard for me to cut down a tree.
Yet, the elms that are growing all over my property sometimes are more dangerous that valuable.
My neighbor cut down two recently.
One was between the two houses and one was behind her home, but leaning on my roof.
Many a time I have had to trim these trees to protect my roof from being damaged.
And racoons and squirrels used them to get on my roof and sometimes cause a bit of damage also. And it was a favorite mating place for the raccoons. What a surprise they will have this spring to not have access to that space.
Winter is a very dangerous time for dead branches crashing down with the weight of a heavy snow.
And occasionally, a branch has fallen and just missed doing damage to the vehicles in my parking area in front of my house.
I will never forget the time I had gotten in my car, backed up a bit, remembered something I needed to take with me and gone into the house.
When I came back out, there was a huge, about 12′ branch sticking straight up with its tip deep in the ground, right where my car had just been. WHEW!!!
Took a few really deep breaths. How lucky I had moved my car.
Sent out Blessings to all the Spirits who had guided me to move my car before that branch fell.
Another time, during a heavy Spring Snowstorm, I looked out at about 18″ of snow and a fallen ancient apple tree.
I had no idea just how dead it really was until that moment.
It fell just in front of the bridge and fence on the bridge, but totally blocking anyone’s exiting the parking area.
All the tenants and I grabbed hand saws or snow shovels.
We took turns sawing and hauling away the branches and trunk or shoveling snow to make the job easier and clear a path for cars to move to leave the driveway later.
In a few hours, we had the bridge cleared and celebrated how lucky it was no car was parked in that area and the bridge and fence were undamaged.
Years ago, when my retaining wall in the creek crumbled due to raging waters in the creek, I realized that one of the elm’s roots had weakened the wall. The roots had cracked it so badly that the swift moving water was able to dislodge that area of the retaining wall, which then led to more of the wall collapsing into the creek. A story for another time.
Last summer, when power line workers told me they needed to trim a couple of elms that were enmeshed in the wires, they asked I would allow them to just cut down the whole tree, as they had trimmed this one many times.
This tree had roots along side the same creek retaining wall. I thought hard, and decided that it was time for that tree to be cut down. Especially, since it would not cost me anything, the Utility company would pay for it.
But I had them just trim a Black Walnut tree that was also enmeshed in the wires, but had some life left in it. Pretty silly looking tree now, but still alive.
So today, I had tree cutters trim many dead branches on a huge elm tree behind my cottage.
One could see a few cracks in dead limbs, and some large dead limbs were hanging over the neighbors parking area with a couple of cars below.
I had been concerned about these branches last summer, but never had time to call for an estimate.
When my favorite Tree “Surgeon” was working on the property next door, I asked him to give me a price. I couldn’t quite afford that cost. So I asked him what he could do for what I could afford and he said they could take care of the most threatening branches. And that is what they did today.
Looks much safer now and I am imagining it not causing any problems during future snow storms.
Most of the day, I spent in my FantaFaces studio. Much slower progress working with feathers than in the past. Each year the quality of the feathers I purchase gets a little less fun to work with. I am really considering that I need to raise the prices just a little bit this year.
Been having good sales recently on ETSY, but seeing that it takes longer to create them is a balancing act to figure out how much to raise them so I don’t lose sales, but am better compensated for my time.
Will post some photos tomorrow.
Did a really unusual one for me, but with the Broncos going to the Super Bowl, couldn’t resist using their colors.
Frustrated When Trying to Work with Partial Information
Commonwheel Artists Co-op Advertising Tasks Began My Day.
I had partial files to work with and a printer that is running out of color ink.
After trying to print a flyer using the original file image, and not being able to make it print as Black and White, gave up and created a new image.
That worked!
Should have just done that from the start. But didn’t realize it was going to be so difficult to print . . .
Packed up 3 FantaFaces masks to be shipped to two different people.
Really getting inspired to be in my studio for many hours tomorrow.
Will do some repeats of masks that sell well, then play around a bit for Carnivale in Manitou Springs coming the FIRST Weekend of March.
Plus I should do some dyed flower hair clips, as those have been selling at the Commonwheel Gallery recently.
Shared the replay link of the replay of the Comic Book Creation webinar that Tony Laidig taught yesterday with a couple of friends I think might find it interesting.
Just too much on my learning plate for me to take that class right now. Though it was really intriguing and gave me many ideas . . .
Had a comment from a trainer who saw one of my views of Pikes Peak on my Spirit Renewing Hikes blog and he is building a house with a view of that mountain.
This image that he commented upon has a rock formation that I feel a female spirit emanating joy and dancing in front of Pikes Peak.
That was fun to see on FaceBook. Maybe we will meet someday, as he lives close to me.
Ran some errands. Would have preferred to walk to the Gallery and Post Office today, but also had to go to my bank, which is too far to walk, so drove my errands.
The person working the Gallery and I had a few things to discuss for the coming Old Spokes 40th Anniversary show. So that was good timing.
He was also willing to redo the labels on the t-shirts that were mis-labeled. I really appreciated him helping with that, so they could get put out for sale again.
Voo Doo Hawks are playing at Stargazers in Colorado Springs.
Can’t remember if I have ever danced to the VooDoo Hawks before, after listening to a couple of songs on their myspace site, I know they will be fun.
Actually sound a little like my brother’s band, Parish Gap, that is far away in Oregon.
Now it is time for me to start getting ready to go out and dance tonight.
Inspired in Many Ways Today
Inspiration came in many forms all day long.
Woke up to a beautiful blanket of white snow this morning. Even though I don’t enjoy the cold, I am always grateful for the moisture that is brought by snow in our arid climate. And it was just enough, without being a huge challenge as they are experiencing in many states to the East and North of us.
As the day progressed, I watched two webinars and then went to our local theater that does totally new and innovative shows.
I had wanted to watch a webinar last week about how to be more profitable using WordPress, but kept forgetting to sign up. Then totally couldn’t find the email about the replay, so gave up on it.
Yesterday, an email came promoting what sounded like a similar product from a different group presenting, but from one of the people who had promoted the other webinar. I was Wowed! by the presentation. So I signed up for it.
It turns out that these two sets of internet marketers had been working on the very same project, but from different approaches. When they discovered this over a Mexican dinner in a city far from all of their homes, instead of being upset, they worked on a plan to make an even better offer to both of their lists. Cooperation instead of jealousy in the business world is rarely seen in such an amazingly positive spirit as these two groups expressed today.
I bought the package. And I will be sharing more about this as I go through the trainings. I had wanted to go to NAMS this year, but time and finances were not in alignment. So, I am going to set aside some solid time for doing these trainings instead of traveling to attend NAMS to I can get financially set to attend that next year and meet some of the trainers in person that I have listened to webinars from these last few years.
The second training inspired me more to share that information with a couple of friends when the replay is up. It gave me some ideas I would like to try, but I think I have enough on my plate right now. So I did not purchase that program, but I learned a lot from it.
Millibo Art Theatre had a show called Inspired. And the performances all were inspirational for me. Brought up so many emotions from sad to joyous. A very abstract picture of two clowns was the inspiration for all the performances.
The dance performance “On the Verge” was spellbinding and I almost felt I was inside her movements I was so very drawn into her performance. And some of it made me see/feel the images that the words in the book I had just helped get published on CreateSpace. What a powerful performance that was tonight.
A young girl who combined the concept of we are all many things also held us spellbound as she switched from a professor into an artist. “There is only place, and you are in it.” was a focus of Aine’s Healing Circle yesterday, and I found that thought coming into my mind as it related to this piece in many ways.
The Manitou Springs Arts Council president and his wife sat behind me. We got to catch up on some business relating to MSAC, as I had missed the last meeting. And they shared a picture of the rescue dog they had adopted and was taking their full attention lately.
Earlier in the day, I had gotten the minutes for the Festival meeting finished and sent out to the committee members. Reminders of tasks and meetings we needed to finalize scheduling were part of those minutes, and didn’t want to procrastinate any longer and give anyone an excuse for not remembering what they had committed to do.
I also wrote some concerns to many people in the Manitou Springs government and city employees. Had an interesting response, that I responded to by explaining more about my concerns. Will see where that goes next.
And I had a delightful surprise of three masks selling on Etsy today. I have scheduled time in my FantaFaces studio for most of Saturday. Was tempted by a friend to take a day off, but I am more inspired to be in my studio and allow some creative juices flow in my own studio. And Carnivale is coming to Manitou Springs soon, so need to get a bit playful with wild and crazy mask that come from using up feathers that I just have a few of . . . very fun.
Inspiration can be found from so many sources. One always needs to be open to new ideas and allow the beauty of what others offer inspire you to achieve your goals and shape new ones.
In the ending photo, the beautiful twisted dead cedar seems to be saluting and celebrating the still living cedar tree behind it. Both are attractive in their own way. Both are an inspiration to rejoicing in your own contribution to the world in ways that seem totally opposite, but come together beautifully.
Many Accomplishments Today and so Much More To Do
As many things as I get accomplished in a day, my To Do List still seems endless as the evening comes to a close.
Yesterday,I had found favorite quotes from Winnie the Pooh, that I shared with my roommate. That led to me finding the perfectly named stuffed bear and an extra Young Living Thieves Essential Oils Blend to give to her for her birthday today.
We had a lovely dinner planned, and I had decided to try my Chili Relleño Casserole with Rice Cheese and gluten free flour for her tonight. Sadly, she kept feeling worse and worse with the symptoms of cold that finally became full-blown and sent her to bed all day.
The casserole was in the oven when she finally succumbed to admitting she was really sick and the dinner was canceled. It came out looking very different from the normal recipe, but the piece I had tasted fine, just a little different, but very edible. Hopefully she can eat some tomorrow.
Got up early this morning, well, early for me, and printed up many items that needed to be copied for the Commonwheel Gallery and Festival.
Had a FantaFaces mask that was ordered from my Etsy Site that I needed to pack and ship. So packed the mask and headed over to the Post Office and then down to Commonwheel. I was really happy for this sale, as I had made the mask with different accents around the eyes than normal for someone who sounded like that was what they were looking for, but it wasn’t. So just put it on Etsy to see if it could attack a person who would love it. And it did!
It was still pretty nice weather out for this sunny walk. But by the end of the day, tiny snowflakes were floating down and it was very cold.
My neighbor is looking to sell or rent out the house next to me that she inherited from her uncle. I heard the sound of someone cutting down a tree between our houses. Went out and it was my favorite tree trimmer. Asked him what it would cost to chip some branches in my back yard. When we went to look at that pile of branches, I decide to ask him to look at a very large tree with dead branches hanging over my cottage. He quoted me a price out of my budget, then asked what I could afford. I told him, and he agreed to do the most threatening branches for that price. And we discussed the new starts from a tree he cut down years ago, and I was trying to rid myself of, but hadn’t progressed to far. He said he’d remove them again, and poison the stump once more at the same time. It really should not have come back after what he did last time. And of course, chip the pile of branches in the backyard then also.
Almost missed a training call. I hadn’t been able to attend last weeks call and was going to listen to it tonight. But saw an email for another training from this coach, and when I went to sign up saw it was the same time as when I thought tomorrow’s training was. How could Tony Laidig be on calls for two different trainings at exactly the same time? Not possible. So then noticed I had a confirmation for a training for today for my paid for class. That explained that, and I didn’t miss it. Still need to listen to Module 2, and attend the new training tomorrow.
The transferring of the School of Inner Health domain from Yahoo! is being even more difficult than ever. And now I have been on hold for over 30 minutes for a “not more than 20 minute wait” the robot told me. And it keeps trying to have me hang up and use the new service. But looking on the web site, this is the message seen there: “Let Us Call You (Sorry, our call-scheduling system is currently unavailable.)” So hanging out on hold until someone does answer, though I am beginning to think no one will . . .
I had a glitch with transferring one of my domains from my old service. I called there, and got technical help within 5 minutes who resolved the problem very quickly and cheerfully, even though she knew I was leaving that hosting company. While we were talking discovered I was about to be charged for two more services I won’t be needing, and she cancelled those billings. I did love the tech help at this company, but the security issues I had that they could not help me with are the reasons I am moving to Springs Hosting.
Did a few more changes my brother wanted on his Parish Gap band’s web site. Hope this makes him happy now and it works for him better.
Got one of my web sites almost totally back up. Looking for some time tomorrow to focus on them a bit more. But do have Festival tasks to attend to in the morning as always. And I would really like to attend the Millibo Art Theatre performance of Inspired tomorrow night after the webinar.
Beautiful Hike and a Web Site Scare
A beautiful blue sky day for a wonderful hike in the sunshine.
The sky was so blue today, it took my breath away many times when I would look out at the formations in the Garden of the Gods on my midday hike.
The blue, blue sky was the perfect background for Pikes Peak with a little bit of snow on it.
I felt joy emanating from this rock formation in front of our beautiful Pikes Peak.
And how can one not feel joy when able to enjoy this scenery every day.
I take my days off in the middle of the week.
This is one of the best bonuses of working for oneself.
This way I can hike on trails with very few people and less traffic when going into the mountain areas.
And I can often chose the best weather day for hiking rather than having to take off on a weekend date.
We were going to do a different hike. But when I was in the Healing Circle of Prayer I participate in every other Tuesday morning by phone, I got that we should hike in the Garden of the Gods instead.
When we turned a corner up high on the trail, I realized why this was the better hike for the day.
Sharing Inner Health wants a picture of Pikes Peak on her web site header, so I took advantage of this beautiful blue sky hike to take numerous photos of that mountain in hopes that one will work for her. Posted them all on my other site www.spiritrenewinghikes.com so she can see them there.
I had a good news email when I got home from one of the authors I helped get her book set-up for CreateSpace. She had a positive review from CreateSpace and ordered a proof copy.
Getting excited for her to be published soon and will share the link to that book when it is on CreateSpace.
Took care of some things I had should have done late last year, but between having that debilitating cold, and trying to keep up with my business when I had energy and time, they just slipped through the cracks. Numerous phone calls made and these tasks are done now.
Came home and saw an email from the person trying to get the new web site up for School of Inner Health, and the domain had refused to transfer to the new host.
So went in and saw a couple of reasons that might be a challenge, and made some changes to resolve those issues. Hopefully it will behave and transfer over to him.
After my webinar and dinner with my roommate, I came back to a very big glitch in my computer world.
NONE of my web sites would open! Gave me a really bad scare!
I emailed support, and moments later they were back up.
After all my sites were hacked on when they were hosted on another server last year, I had a moment of frightening flashbacks of losing all my sites again.
Not sure what happened, but they did assure that they were backed up on a different server nightly, so all my data was saved in more than one place. Whew!
Feeling a bit tired tonight, so might be a good night to get to bed early.