Figuring It Out

I think I may have figured out where I want to take my career; I just need to figure out how to do it. I've been thinking for some time now, I would like to use my love of food, natural living, creativity, and natural health in my profession as a social worker. I would love to work with people and teach them how living a natural life can benefit them. I love to share how creativity can be a form of meditation, a way to actively meditate. For the first time, I share my dream out loud. I have shared bits and pieces of my dream with others, but this weekend, I finally told my husband my full dream. I told him how I wanted to do something with gardening, creativity, and natural health, or maybe even work with others who have the same belief system that I have. I was even telling him how I'd love to work with people who have lower incomes and teach them how to shop and cook healthy and natural on a budget. I need to research more, but there is information out there about how the microbes in dirt actually help with depression. Imagine having a garden that you can go out to and get your own food, and make your own meals. You don't need to go to the grocery store. You know what was planted and how it was grown. Imagine how much more inexpensive would it be to grow your own food and how healthy it would be. I really believe that being creative is very important, however you define being creative. I do like the idea of knitting, sewing, drawing, coloring, but I also believe that being creative in the kitchen is a great creative outlet as well as a way to keep healthy eating from getting boring. I love the process of creating, but sometimes I love the end product, especially when you are creating something that you can use. Creating clothing, quilts, hats, scarves, etc is a way to put love into something that is useful. I am thinking that since I shared my full dream with my husband, this is something that I should really start to research. I wish there was some place that I could work and get some experience, before actually doing it on my own. The other thing I would love, is to find my "tribe", people who share my vision and my passion. Its time to start moving toward my real dream and passion instead of just working to make money. Here's to healthy living and sharing that belief with others! Amy

Summer Life

It's officially the first week of summer. The kids are finally out of school, while at least for a week. July 6th, the kids go back to school 4 days a week for 6 weeks. I'm really happy that they get to have summer school at such a young age to help them maintain what they have learned through their year in school. I think it will help them have a better start to the school year in the fall. That being said, summer is a time to have fun and enjoy some time away from the hectic pace of the school year. Unfortunately, I have to continue to work, but I am going to continue to work part time so that we can have some family fun. I am hoping that we can take some time and enjoy some time hiking and spending time outside with family and friends. I am also hopeful that we can get to the beach and enjoy the water. I think this may be the summer that we get the kids out kayaking. I want to make sure that we expose our kids to spending time outside in nature and enjoy everything that our earth has given us. This winter, we started taking the kids snowshoeing. We all had fun and got outside in one of the worst winters we have seen in a while. Now it's time to share our summer activities, even though we have started taking them hiking and camping a couple of years ago and plan to continue that for the years to come. With summer hopefully in full swing, we have started planting our garden. We have most of our tomato plants and our pepper plants in the garden. We have what seems like a good growth of salad, and we had a good start to our peas, but they got eaten by bunnies. My husband took time and fixed our fence that got damaged this winter, so hopefully that will help us keep the animals out and our veggies in. We have also planted seeds for cucumbers and luffa plants. I just bought a container blueberry and raspberry plant. I am looking forward to being able to go out and pick berries as we need or want them. I need to get back to the local nursery and pick up a couple of eggplant plants as well as some potato plants (I have purple potato seeds prepared for planting) and get our squash and kale/Swiss chard plants going. I really want to get away from eating predominantly meat and start eating a lot more green veggies. I really want to start following through with my diet goals and my creative goals in life. I need to start eating clean and spending time being creative. I need to continue to get my life organized and get rid of things that I don't need. The sad thing is, I know what I need to do, I just need to get motivated to do it. I am hoping that eating a clean diet with less processed foods, less starchy carbs, more green leafy veggies and lean protein (including beans), and way less sugar. In our society, it is so difficult to eat clean and healthy. There are so many reasons and justifications to make you feel better about eating processed junk food. I truly believe, once you get your body free of processed foods, you will succeed in living a clean natural life. Its not easy to rid your body of these foods, but it is something that I continue to try to work on. I also want to work on my goal of learning about herbs, natural medicine, and essential oils. I am hoping to share some of my challenges and hopefully more success as I go along. This is something that I continue to work tirelessly on and something that I will always work on. Here's to living a handmade and natural life and enjoying the process of getting there. Amy

Handmade and Natural Health

As I've written often, I continue to seek out my true way in life. I continue to want to focus on living a handmade and natural life, but it has not been easy. I continue to love being creative, sewing and other fiber arts as well as paper crafts and photography. I continue to want to learn about herbs, aromatherapy, and natural remedies. I want to have a life that is more natural and healthy. My lifestyle, currently, is no where near where I want to be. I have a crazy amount of stuff that I really need to get rid of or find a place for. I'm thinking that my lack of organization is big part of why I am not living the life I want. I am hoping to get more organized then attempt to get more focused on my goals in life. That being said, I am going to work on getting more organized. I am going to get back to basics (as I have often said) and start working on living life the way I want to. I am going to get my garden going. I am going to work on having a suburban homestead, where I can hopefully start living off my land within my means. I don't and won't have animals anytime soon, but I have a nice large garden and want to make sure I use it appropriately. I have plenty of crafts supplies to be able to continue being creative. One thing I have forgotten about for a long time, is my love of natural health and remedies. I really want to learn about herbs and essential oils. I want to grow my own herbal medicine garden. I want a herbal garden to be a huge part of my suburban homestead. I want to have a real suburban homestead. I want to eat healthy, natural foods. I want to be creative and sew and knit, and crochet. I need to take some time away from the web, from Facebook, and unplug. Life is too short to be addicted to technology and TV. Summer is here and I want and need to spend good quality outside fun with my family and continue to do even when the weather gets cold. I will continue to blog about my experience in suburban homesteading and what I learn while doing so. I am hopeful that I can get back to following my beliefs and my passions as I live my life. I am hoping that some day, I'll find my way and figure out how to be happy living my life. I have so much happiness already, I just need to make sure that I am following my passions and dreams while being with and loving my family and loving life. Love, Amy

Sugar Detox

So, here it is, day 4 of my 21 day sugar detox and I have had some huge ups and some huge downs. Day 1 was easy and I thought, I can do this no problem. Well, then came day 2, and that did not go as well. I was angry, and had a headache as well as no patience. All I wanted was some starchy carbs and sugar. I persisted and didn't give in. I did try to make some approved biscuits, and yes it did help but they were not really what I wanted. Day 3 came and went but I did give in and I had a bagel and a Hershey kiss. Not happy that I gave in, but I did get right back on track and ate what I was supposed to for the rest of the day. On to today, day 4, and I've done really well. I've lost a little weight, probably 3-4 pounds since I first started and maybe 10 pounds from my highest weight. I still need to lose a good amount of weight, but I want to do it the right way and maintain what I lose. I want to continue to make lifestyle changes and not just changes to lose weight. Another positive to this diet change and maybe even weight loss is my nightly breathing. My husband has mentioned, especially when I was pregnant, that my snoring was awful and I would have issues with sleep apnea. Now I am overweight but not crazy overweight. I think it's more the foods I'm eating or should I saw not eating that is making the difference. He said that things have been much better. I am heading out tonight to buy a bought from deliciously organic. I think I am going to plan on staying mostly grain-free. I have heard from a lot of people that being grain free is very beneficial. I am seeing a lot of benefits, just in the last few days, which makes me want to continue. I also want to live a healthy lifestyle with clean eating, less processed foods, and local foods (preferably from my backyard). I still want to include creativity in my life, including crafts, gardening, as well as cooking. I'll be trying out a new recipe for bread with coconut flour as well as almond flour. Trying new recipes is always fun and creative. Like I said in my last post, with spring coming, I want to clean out stuff and get more organized. I am hoping that this diet change is going to help with my energy and clear headedness, which will help me with getting organized. I am hopeful, that with an organized life, I will have more time to be creative and also add some exercise into my life. Wish me luck on continuing my new way of life! Amy Sprouts and microgreens Latest mandala Curry turkey meatballs from paleomg.com

Thoughts

For the last few weeks, even months, I keep thinking about food, diet, nutrition as well as creativity, gardening, and other alternative/complementary health practices. With regards to my diet and my philosophy regarding diets, I think the biggest thing that I want to follow is clean eating. I plan to work at following the Palo diet, but I really want to eat clean. I am not against eating beans and grains, and even some dairy. I am also not against eating junk food once in a while. What I am against is beating myself up and judging myself when I don't follow my beliefs to the exact letter of the law. I am involved in a Facebook group about eating real food, and recently, there was a post about moderation and how moderation is not something that they would even think of. They were talking about how there is no such thing as eating healthy most of the time, but eating junk in moderation. Well, for me, that is not even something I could or would ever consider except for a short time. I would consider being extremely serious and focused if I were to do an elimination diet, or maybe a detox diet. With regards to my diet, I would be in a horrible position if I were to never eat anything bad for me. I think, at least for me, if I never had anything "bad" for me I would end up binge eating junk instead of allowing myself to eat a small amount and enjoy it, but then get back to eating healthy. I think, especially as women, we tend to beat ourselves up and have all sorts of negatives voices in our heads when we think we have done something wrong. I think its time to stop beating ourselves up when we "stray" and start enjoying life. It's important to be healthy and eat good nutrition foods, but it's also important to be good to yourself and enjoy life. Eating healthy and eating a good diet is important, but so is keeping your mind and spirit healthy too. I certainly need to focus more on keeping my mind and spirit healthy as well as my body. More recently, I have been looking and thinking, and talking about my diet, but I've kind of forgotten about my other passions. With the crazy winter we've had, I've somewhat forgotten about how I love to be in the dirt in my garden. I can't wait to get out there and get growing again. That will certainly help with my eating as well saw my budget. I also haven't been sewing or crafting or drawing like I want to. I also want to start meditating or even doing yoga as well as exercising with cardio and strength training. I am going to continue to work on my diet and continue to try to eat healthy. I am going to start making time to be creative. I need to make a point to be active and exercise. I also want to make a point to get outside and enjoy being outside and not stuck in the house. I know that I will make small changes and probably need to take one step forward and sometimes take 2 back, but I will continue to move forward without beating myself up. I chose to make this for dinner tonight. It was curry turkey meatballs from paleomg.com. It was so good and really easy.

My last creative project

These are my goals and my plans! Amy

Looking Forward

I made an appointment with a friend to talk to her and pick her brain about health coaching.  I have decided.that I really need a break from the medical field and I need to follow my passion regarding more natural health and natural medicine. I just can't continue to work with people who blindly follow the medical field without questioning it. There is a time and place for a highly medical team, and I am truly grateful to live so close to Boston hospitals.  I am also grateful that I live where alternative and natural medicine is practiced.

My goal and passion continues to be natural health, living a natural lifestyle, and making sure creativity is a part of my life and others lives. I need to find a way to make this dream a reality and not just a dream. I'm thinking a vision board is one of the next projects that I need to work on!

Here's to moving towards your dreams, goals, and passions,

Amy

Happy New Year!!!

Good-bye 2014, and welcome 2015! Thankfully, unlike some of my friends, 2014 wasn't a bad year. My big accomplishment was testing and passing my LICSW test. This was a huge accomplishment and one of my major goals that I had set for myself. Another thing that I started was the 100 mandala challenge. I am loving creating these different mandalas. I finally learned what the zentangle method is. Since starting this blog more than 5 years ago, I have been trying to live a healthier, more natural, handmade life. I have had some ups and downs while I've been working on that. As much as I hate to admit it, there have been more downs than ups, but that is going to change this year. With the start of 2015, I am planning on putting forward my intentions for the new year and beyond. I am not going to make resolutions. I think using the word intention sets you in a better frame of mind and is a more positive way to embrace change. Within the 100 mandala challenge, I am also choosing a word of the year. I am hoping that my word/s of the year will help me with my intentions. Without further ado, here are my intentions for 2015: 1.) My word/s of the year are balance and passion: I intend to figure out my passions and how to follow them both personally and professionally. I think I know what they are and I will write more further down, I also want to have balance in my life, again, both personally and professionally. 2.) I intend to continue to create mandalas and go beyond 100. Creating these mandalas is my form of meditation. Along with creating my own mandalas, I want to learn more about the practice of mandalas. 3.) I have decided to join a 100 days of real food challenge. I intend to get rid of the processed foods that I still have in my life. One of the goals that I had when I started this blog was to eat healthier and more natural foods. I have had some great moments and some really not great moments. I intend to learn more about how foods affect out mind/body/spirit as well as taste good and also how our food and how its gown/raised affects our environment. I want to see if there is a way to use food in my professional career as a social worker. 4.) I intend to treat my body the way it deserves to be treated. I intend to start looking at my body as a whole and look at it from the mind/body/spirit connection. 5.) I intend to make being creative a priority. One of my friends started a Facebook group called "make art everyday" and asked me to join in it. I intend to make time every day to be creative and make something handmade. My intentions for 2015 follow along with my intentions of this blog. I am hoping that I 2015 will be the year that I start making changes and start following through with what I see as my life goals and dreams. I plan to share what I learn about food, mandalas, creativity and the mind/body/spirit connection, and my journey through this year. Amy

Clean Eating

I have been wanting to change my diet for some time now. Recently, on Facebook, one of my friends (http://collagediva.typepad.com) mentioned how she went cold turkey and started. She dealt with the headaches and the detox symptoms, and she has done it. She said she feels great. I want to follow in her footsteps, but I am not going to go cold turkey. Yesterday, my first day back from vacation, I stopped at the grocery store on my way to work instead of stopping at dunkin donuts or my local muffin store. I ended up getting salad, yogurt, trail mix and things like that to take to work so that I didn't eat junk. I passed up candy and ordering out, which was a pretty big step for me. I did however go home and order take out. I had 2 good meals and 1 so not good meal. This morning, to help clear out my fridge, I made some bread with some dough that I had leftover. Again not the best, but the best part about eating it was that it didn't give me that same feeling that I usually have when I eat bread, you know, that feeling like I can't stop at just one piece and I have to eat the whole loaf. Was it good? Yes, but was is fantastically good? No. Again, I just got home from vacation and I need to go shopping. My husband has a broken foot, so I feel bad leaving him longer than my work day with the kids and I just get lazy once they go to bed. My lunch today should be interesting. I have a couple of carrot sticks, celery sticks and broccoli. Tonight will be chicken and greens and potatoes from the garden. I need to look into what I can eat on a clean diet. I want to ultimate3ly give up sugar, gluten, dairy, and caffeine. That means no more morning caffeinated coffee, no more bread, no more of many of the things I love. I am hoping that by giving up all these foods, I am going to gain some much more as is my family. If anyone has some resources to pass on, I would love you to share. I have some of my own from the past that I will share as I go along on this journey. This is definitely going to be a journey with small steps taken and I'm sure a few set backs. I know that I am of the mind set now that I want to do this, I just need to make the change and I know I will feel better. I'm hoping that I can learn enough over time to start using food and creativity in my professional career to deal with mood issues. I am hoping to do some research into how food, creativity, gardening, etch can play a role in our mood and behavior. I know that there are people out there that have done the research, and I need to read up on the research and learn more! Hope you all can join me on my journey to living a more balanced natural and creative life! Amy

Now What!

I did it! I passed! I am now a LICSW, a licensed independent clinical social worker. I have now completed so many goals and dreams in life.  I am married to a great man, have 3 great children, a masters degree now with my LICSW (which I have wanted ever since I was in undergrad social work school), a house, a career, and so much more. It is now time to work on new goals, new dreams, new passions.

What are my passions, dreams, and goals? Where do I go from here?  I actually do like being a social worker, and maybe it's just me being overly optimistic, but I think there are so many avenues that I can go down with my social work degree and now my LICSW, I just need to figure out what!

Sometimes, I think I want to do something with health and wellness.  I'm thinking something on the idea of how food affects you: body, mind, and spirit. I would love to do something with growing food, choosing foods, cooking foods, and how it all impacts so many parts of ours lives.

I want to talk about exercise and food choices and how that can affect how we act, how we think, how we feel. I want to talk about how growing our own food is healthy not only to eat, but just being out in nature and being part of our own destiny when it comes to food choices. Destiny is not a great word, but it somewhat conveys what I want to. There is something about being outside and "playing" in dirt, taking something from seed or a small plant and being able to nourish ourselves. That being said, I need to take my own advice and make better choices.

Another thing that is a passion, is creativity and how being creative can impact us; mind. body, and spirit.  I love the idea of old fashioned hand crafts, and doing these "crafts" by hand, the way they did before there were machines.  Not that there is anything wrong with using a sewing machine, a table saw, a slow cooker for soap, but there is something satisfying about creating something that doesn't need anything special for equipment.

I love creating! I love being able to take some material and something for warmth, and create a quilt. I love, for example, that a quilt, that can start out as old clothes, old bed sheets, or very expensive material can then become something new and something comforting, something nourishing for the giver and the receiver. I love that , what basically starts out as a piece of string, can become a sweater, an afghan, a hat, something to keep you warm and comfortable, and by extension (hopefully) feeling safe.

I love being able to provide for myself and my family with out always relying on stores to provide all our food and all our clothing and bedding.  There is nothing wrong with buying things at the store, I do so more often than I would like, but it is nice to know that I can grow my own food (at least some of it) and create clothing or items to keep us warm.

I think it is a lost art, one that is hopefully returning, to know how to do simple cooking, sewing, and other fix it type things.  I have the conversation with my husband (more than he would like I'm sure) that Home Ec and Shop are two classes that should be back in the curriculum.  I think everyone should now how to do simple sewing, hemming or sewing a button on.  I think everyone should have a basic comfort level in the kitchen. I think it is important to know how to use tools.

I just heard about makerspaces and the maker movement, and am going to do more research about it. I'm hoping my next post can be more about that.  I'm thinking that maybe an area that I can get into and maybe use my social work degree and experience.  I would love to see a makerspace in Wakefield. Maybe that can be my new goal.

Amy Fratto, MSW, LICSW (I love seeing my name like this!)

Life

I'm still trying to figure out what I want to do with my life.  I am hoping that I can test for my LICSW sooner than later.  That would mean that I would have so many more options with in my career as a social worker.  I am trying to stay positive about remaining a nursing home social worker, at least part time, so that I can make money and then maybe do something with my love over creating and natural foods part time.

I have figured out that I do like to being a social worker, but I want to pursue a career in fiber arts and maybe even nutrition.  I know that I need to get some more education for both of these to be a career.  My 3 kids will all be in school all day in the fall, and since my husband is a teacher, I hopefully will be able to go back to work during the day starting in July.

I am hoping that when I go back to work during the day I'll have more time to work on things that are hobbies now and then maybe they will be more than hobbies.  I need to have a focus, and I need to get some more education on how to use my hobbies in a professional way, especially within my social work career.

I do know that I need to be better at following through with things in my personal life.  I  have been better at eating more naturally and less processed, but I really need to do more.  Today is the last day of winter, not that it means much in New England, but I am hoping that warmer weather is on its way with the Springtime.  I am hoping that with the warmer weather and starting our garden, I will be able to keep eating more naturally and be even less processed!

Welcome Spring!

Crocus from my garden!

Creativity and Careers and Life

In my last post, I wrote how I was going to move out of my comfort zone, by joining a local artist group.  Well, I joined, but I haven't sent any pictures of things that I have worked on.  I still haven't allowed myself to call myself and artist.  I am still having a hard time thinking of myself as an artist versus a hand crafter.  While I consider hand-crafter's in general to be artists, I haven't thought of myself in that manner.

I started a new blog, http://reids-design-corner.blogspot.com, to document more of my creation as an "artist".  I am still trying to figure out my artistic point of view.  On one level, I just plain and simple, love to create.  On the other hand, I want to take my creating to a more significant level than just hobby.  I would love to find a way to make money doing something creative.

I have thought about going back to school for art therapy, but then I'm not sure that I really want to do therapy and art in the same job, maybe.  More recently, I have thought about going back to school and starting  whole new career.  I am thinking about getting a degree in fibers and textiles.  I could still be a social worker, but I could maybe teach or do something else in the fiber and textile field.  I live so close to the mill town and a quilt museum, that I could maybe do something there.

Life is still up in the air regarding careers, but I am trying to make a point of being creative.  unfortunately, I am so exhausted, that I don't always get to it.  One of these days, I am hoping to teach a class at a local craft studio.  I think once i got over my anxiety, I would love it.  I just need to get over my anxiety of failure.

Amy

Stepping Out of My Comfort Zone

A friend I met on Facebook, who owns a creative arts studio, has been asking me to teach some classes.  I haven't summoned up my courage to teach a class yet, but hopefully will summon the courage soon.  She also wants me to join the Art Collaborative of Wakefield, a group of locally based artisans.  I have put it off for some time, but am now, really considering joining.  I am hopefully going to meet a bunch of people who are part of the collaborative on Saturday.

I am still nervous that I am not enough of an "artist".  If anything, I consider myself a handcraft artisan. But, in reality, I don't know that I feel like an artist or an artisan.  I wonder if I am still just thinking that this is a hobby but I want it to be more.  I want to make it more of a central part of my life.

With that being said, I think a large part of my issue is time.  I have 3 kids, a husband, a house, a part time social work job, and making handcrafted items.  I spend way too much time on the computer and not enough time doing what I should be doing.  I plan to unplug for a little bit.  I am only join to use Facebook for when I need to communicate with others and that is my only means.  I have enough projects that I can work on, I don't need to look for more.  I plan to quickly blog, but no spend too much time reading blogs.  I plan to limit myself to maybe an hour a day and that is a lot.  The internet is a wonderful thing, but it can be too addicting.  no more spending hours on pinterest and pinning things that I never actually work on.  I will still go on pinterest, but will again limit my time.

My hope is that if I spend more time creating and less time pretending to create (by being on the computer looking for things to create), I will start to feel more like an artisan and not just a hobby crafter!  Maybe then I won't feel like I don't belong in the collaborative.

Amy

Creativity

It took some time, but I have decided that I don't want to limit myself to one creative medium.  At one point, I was thinking that I need to focus on one area and become totally proficient and perfect at it, but I don't think that is what I want or need to do.  There are too many creative avenues that I want to experience and I can't imagine limiting myself to only one.

I do need to spend time getting proficient in each area that I like, but I don't have to only, for example, make quilts.  I can make paper, scrapbook, quill, make jewelry, create with clay, create with class.  I just need to spend time doing each of the things I like and learn how to get good at it.

There are some things that I am comfortable with my level of proficiency, but there are other areas that I need to learn more.  Some of it is just practice, and some of it I really need to learn more.  I am pretty proficient at making jewelry.  I'm sure there are a lot of things to learn but I know the basics.  I know the basics of quilting, but I could practice more.  I know the basics of hand sewing and embroidery but can practice more.  I know little to nothing about glass and want to learn more.  I feel very comfortable with making soap.  I feel pretty comfortable with most paper crafts, but I know that there is more that I want to learn.

When I thought of not creating with a certain medium or only creating with a specific medium, I just really got sad.  I love creating so much that I can't imagine limiting myself.  On the other hand, I also know that there are things that I don't enjoy as much.  Taking a painting class is ok, but it's not what makes me smile.  Playing with finer makes me smile.  Glass makes me smile.  Paper crafting, in all forms, makes me smile.  Clay makes me smile.  Photography makes me smile. And, finally, making jewelry makes me smile.

I like smiling!  Smiling is good for all of us!  I think we all need to figure out what makes us smile and then do it!  Now I just need to figure out how to do what makes me smile for a career!

Amy

Buying New Crafting Tools

I could buy new craft supplies and tools every day.  My newest want is a Silhouette Cameo.  I have a feeling that I will end up buying a Silhouette portrait, which is just a smaller version of the cameo.  Unfortunately a Cameo is just not in  my budget right now.  The nice thing is that I have beard that I can make most things on the Portrait that I could on the Cameo, just not things that are as large as things that I could make on the cameo

I can only just begin to imagine the things that I could make with a cameo or a portrait.  I love that it is not limited to paper crafting or fabric crafting or just one medium.  I could make stencils for painting or even glass etching.  I could cut out fabric for appliqué.  I could make paper templates for english paper piecing.  I could make paper cut outs for scrapbooking or card making.  I could even make vinyl decals for my walls.  There are just so many possibilities!

I recently found out that Ginger Snap Crafts, over at http://www.gingersnapcrafts.com/2013/08/easy-wedding-gift-with-silhouette-vinyl.html, is doing a give away for the Cameo machine.  I figured I would try to enter and see if I could potentially win one.  How awesome would it be to win a Cameo.  I could then use the money I planned to spend on the Portrait buying supplies for the Cameo.  I am really excited about this.  Because of this give away, I found a new creative blog to read!  I love reading blogs and now I have another one to get inspired by!

Go over to http://gingersnapcrafts.com and take a look and see what creative projects she has as well as check out the give away!

Amy

Finding My Creative Style

Tuscan Style

I've been doing a lot of thinking about being creative and what it means to be creative.  I've also been thinking about what my design style is.  I haven't really decided what my style in general is, never mind my creative style.  I starting to come to terms with the fact that like in my professional career, in general and in being creative, I am more eclectic than anything else.

Bohemian Design

Sometimes, I think I am Bohemian.  Sometimes, I think I am Classic or Vintage or Traditional.  Sometimes, I think Country, Tuscan, or even French Provençal is really what I like.  Then there is the whole shabby chic style that I love too.  Other times, less often, I think I am modern.  As I think about it, I honestly think it is how I am feeling in the moment.

French Provencal

When you don't have a style, it makes it very difficult to design your house or your creative projects.  Then again, it can be fun to have eclectic tastes.  It isn't boring, but is makes it difficult to to be cohesive when decorating or trying to decide what colors and patterns to use when making something.

Modern Fabric

So not only do I have a hard time figuring out colors and style, I have a hard time figuring out what it is that I love to do, what I love to create.  I love to quilt, I love to do needlework, I love paper crafts, and I love making jewelry, I love clay work.  It's not a problem that I love all of these things.  The problem is that I am not proficient in any one area.  I also don't know where I'd like to focus to get proficient.  I guess, making jewelry is something that I do well and am somewhat proficient.  I actually feel pretty proficient in English Paper Piecing.  I would also say that I can knit pretty proficiently.  Now I just need to find the time to get more proficient in all the other things that I love!

One of these days, I'll figure out how to combine all the things I love and learn all the things that I want to.

Amy

My Latest Projects

I've been trying to make time to create. I've been doing pretty good at making time, just not actually finishing projects yet. I've been working on hand sewing my daughter's quilt. I have 4  blocks completed so far. 

I've also been working on an angry birds quilt for my oldest son. I should be able to finish it by the end if the week. 

I'm looking forward to buying some more quilting books soon. I think they are going to be English paper piecing and hand quilting related. Right now I am loving seeing and quilting. 

A friend has asked me to teach classes at her new studio. If I can get the confidence and the time, I'm going to do it. She also told me I should join the art consortium in town. I'm not sure I'm good enough but I may join any way. 

I've also been making soap and loving it. No new pictures but I am loving my latest coconut, olive, and cocoa butter creation. I can't wait to play more. 

Amy

What I've Been Up To

Life here has been a little crazy, as always.  Recently, I decided to really attempt to go gluten free and joined in with a 6 month challenge.  I am joining in with thedailydietribe.com for the challenge.  For the next 6 months, I will be gluten free.  I will get to talk with a health coach every other week, and I have to write a blog post at thedailydietribe.com 3 weeks out of the month.  It's been one month so far and I have had a few aha moments.  I've been working with Mia Davis at Blissful Chicks and she has been great.  She has been supportive and resourceful giving me recipes to try.

One of the recipes was plain yogurt sweetened with honey.  I bought some plain yogurt this week and was not really looking forward to trying it (not one of my favorite foods), but I actually let my son try it since he tends to like any yogurt.  I added some liquid chocolate stevia from NuNaturals for some sweetness.   I also gave his twin sister some to try.  He didn't like it, but his sister did.  I ended up eating his and was pleasantly surprised at how good it tasted.  I now feel like I can get plain yogurt and control the sweetness and use a sweetener that I like.  NuNaturals has had a few products that I have tried and been happy with.  I will say that NuNaturals did provide the products for free, but I will definitely be buying certain products that I love, like the liquid lemon stevia, liquid chocolate stevia, and the fast dissolving tablets.

I've also been trying to make time to be creative.  I have been trying to teach myself how to hand piece quilts.  I have made a couple of blocks so far and plan to make a whole quilt with hand piecing and hand quilting.  I have been working on a hexagon quilt as you go quilt.  I am trying to use flannel blankets from when my kids were little as well as some scraps of fleece and flannel.  I am trying to use up my stash since I don't really have room to keep a stash.

fabric for the hand pieced quilt

I am also working on a english paper piecing project where we complete 1 EPP block a month.  I have completed 2 so far with the 3rd one in process.  The 3rd one is made up of 81 1/2 inch hexagons and I just can't seem to bring myself to work on it much.  I will start the next month's block when we get it and work on June's block a little at a time.

1st month's block in process

I also took a class from my Facebook friend who is opening a craft studio/gallery.  We made floating lanterns and I had a blast.  I am contemplating teaching a quilting class as well as a knitting class.  She is actually doing my dream and if I can be part of it, I really want to take the opportunity.  

I am also practicing playing with fabric dyeing.  I have tried some tie dyeing, with the goal to get it to be less tie dye looking and more batik looking.  I'm not sure how to really get there, but it will be a fun thing to practice.  I am also thinking about trying some more art quilting and maybe even modern quilting to branch out.  I ultimately love traditional quilting, but I want to open my mind and learn a little more of what it out there!

Summer has just begun.  The kids will start summer school and I will start, hopefully, working during the day.  It will be interesting to see what the summer brings.  We have started our garden and started going to our local farmer's market.  I am really excited to start getting things out of our garden and using them to cook with.  I hope that I can keep up with my creative time.  It may be hard, but I plan to be really conscientious about maintaining creativity through the summer and beyond!

Amy

Wishcasting Wednesday

"What Do You Wish To Do One Day?", ask Jamie at http://jamieridlerstudios.ca.  Such a good question and so many answers.  One thing I know I wish to do, travel cross country with my children and my husband.  I did this with my husband about 10 years ago and loved every second and can't wait to do it again but with better planning to make sure I get to experience all that I want to.

Another answer would be to have a career in something I love.  This is one area that is going to be difficult!  Mainly it's going to be difficult because I need to future out what it is that I truly want to do with my career.  I have thoughts about going back to school for art therapy, natural health, aromatherapy, herbs, or for nutrition training. I have crazy thoughts about opening my own studio with a healthy cafe and shoppe.  I think about doing more with flowers and gardening.  Then I think about just being a social worker.  I know that I will be going back to work sooner than I expect.  My twins will be in school within the next couple of years, and at that time, I hope that I can actually get back into the work force and love what I do.  I am trying to use this time that I am not working to figure out what I want to do with my life and hope that answering questions like this will help guide me to my love and passion!

"What Do You Wish To Do One Day?"

Amy

Wishcasting Wednesday

It's Wednesday once again and once again I am joining in with with Jamie riddler at http://jamieridlerstudios.ca where she asks; "What do you wish to learn?"

This is an both easy and a difficult question to answer.  My broad answer is any and all creative thing I can learn.  I want to learn more about holistic health, aromatherapy, herbs, bath and body products, as well as more crafting creative ideas.  I currently am looking to learn about batik dying so that I can dye my own fabric to use in my sewing projects.  I want to learn to dye my own yarn.  I want to learn more about art and crafting as a therapeutic tool (for my professional career), I want to learn more about all the creative things that I already know and  do.    I could go on and on.  The reason that this question is difficult to answer is that there are so many specific things that I want to learn.  I guess, on some level, the most important thing for me to learn will be how to use art and crafting as a creative tool so that I can use it in my professional career.

As an aside, I am officially the chapter leader for Massachusetts for "Enchanted Makeovers".  I am the go to person for MA for people who want to donate dolls, pillowcases, and/or capes for children who are living in shelters.  This is my first way of introducing creativity and community involvement into my life.  Hopefully in time, I will be able to do more of this and branch out on my own with community involvement and crafting. Over the next couple of weeks, I will be posting more about Enchanted Makeovers and what I will be doing in the state of Massachusetts!

I recently went to an art therapy conference and it definitely made me want to do more with the arts and crafts with my social work practice!

Amy

Decisions

I finally made my decision.  I needed to take some time this week and think and pray and come to a decision about wanting to be the chapter leader for Enchanted Makeovers for Massachusetts.  I've decided that I want to be a part of this organization.  I want to do more for my community.  I've decided that I want to use my love of creating to help others.  I am hoping that Terry Grahl is interested in having me part of her organization.

After spending about forty five minutes on the phone with her, I was even more interested in being a part of her organization.  She told me stories that made me tear up and cry, stories that made me feel even stronger that this was something I wanted to do.  I was scared of failing at being the chapter leader, and still am, but I am trying to get over my fear of failure and trying to be more positive about things that I want to do!

My goal is to spend some more time reading the website for Enchanted Makeovers.  You can check out the website for yourself at http://www.enchantedmakeovers.org/.  I plan to spend some more time talking with other chapter leaders.  I have gotten a lot a great positive feedback from the other chapter leaders and I'm sure they will be a great source of support and help if I am the chapter leader for MA.

I am looking forward to starting this new chapter in my life, that is if I become the chapter leader.  As time goes on, I will be posting more about this wonderful organization, even if I am not the chapter leader.  I believe in the mission and look forward to telling more people about it.

Amy