just be (or 10 ways to build a better body image)

i'm normally not one for the positive-you-can-do-it-if-you-just-believe messages that get slapped on pretty images and sent through the pinterest-universe. but, something about this image grabbed my attention. maybe it's the simple design, the calming colors or heck, the message but either way, i wanted to share. 

10 ways to build a better body image

• BE BALANCED -
  be good to your body by getting enough sleep, eating nutritious foods and being physically active.
• BE POSITIVE -
  focus on all the amazing things your body can do, not how it looks.
• BE DIVERSE -
  recognize that people naturally come in different shapes and sizes - embrace what makes your unique.
• BE STYLISH -
  wear clothes that make you look and feel good - no matter what your size.
• BE PROUD -
  make a list of your positive qualities that aren't related to your body or appearance.
• BE SAVVY -
  read books and magazines with positive messages that make you feel good about  yourself.
• BE SPECIAL -
  take time to pamper yourself. you deserve it!
• BE KIND -
  avoid body-bashing. focus conversations on the positive traits of yourself and others.
• BE ACCEPTING -
  challenge negative thoughts about your body. try to be less judgmental and more positive.
• BE INSPIRED -
  think about the people you admire. have they impacted you because of their looks or their accomplishments?

thanks to the park nicollet melrose center for the image ... and the be well magazine for popping in my mailbox yesterday. the melrose center is working on a 'be you' initiative to spread the power of positive body image with the hopes of preventing eating disorders through education, conversation and action.

cheers to that!

thankful - an experience (aka ... an overseas adventure)

well, i wasn't planning on writing for The Thankful Project today but remembering that the prompt was "an experience" i thought i'd take a creativity break over lunch and jot something down. i know i fall into the realm of blessed when i say that there are many moments in my life to be thankful for. i could talk about the experience of getting married - the family that survived my anti-bridzillaness (trust me, worse than being a bridezilla!), the friends that drove 12 hours to surprise me on my wedding day, the glorious weather and the whole marrying lucas bit ;0) i could remember the travels i've been able to take - trips to new zealand with my family, cross-country road trips with friends, yearly vacations to the family cabin ... but today, i think i'll focus on my four-month study abroad experience.

before which college to attend was even a thought in my mind, i knew i would study abroad. i don't remember my dad spending much time talking about his travel experiences in college, but what i do remember i remember well. there was the rambling around germany and the "made-up" class in jamaica. it was always  a given that i would do something of the same. when i started the college hunt, "what's your study abroad program like" was always in my top five questions asked.

fast forward to sophomore year - where-oh-where would i go. i knew i wanted to be out of my comfort zone. i wanted to go somewhere where i wouldn't speak the language but still be somewhat in my element. i don't claim to be adventurous. i like my creature comforts - my bed, my shower, my various modes of communications. as my plus and minus list grew, i had narrowed down to somewhere in europe. so, i did what any person making a possible life-altering decision would do ... i closed my eyes and pointed. prague. czech republic. done.

so january 2006 i packed my giant suitcase and jetted off to praha. i spent about two hours half-assed listening to a "learn czech" tape on the plane, touched down just outside of prague, plastered on a smile and in the words of the newsies, seized the day.

it was awesome. it was uncomfortable. it was hot. it was cold. it was confusing. it was tiring. it was long. it was too short. it was hilarious. it was somber. it was delicious. it was drunken. and yes, for the sake of school credit, it was educational. but as it goes with any study abroad program, you're not going over there to learn calculus or poetry or physics. you might pick up a trick or two in the process but you're going over there to learn about you. what you can do. what you can't. when you crack and fold and how you crawl back out. you get lost. you get scared. you get lonely. and then suddenly, you get out. you get up. you get going and those first panic-filled moments become just a gray haze that now, help push you on to what you really meant to do.

i'm trying something new this month - i love me a good challenge - and joining Chasing Happy for The Thankful Project. while i can't promise a post-a-day, maybe i'll get close? today's prompt - an experience.

i wish my life was like ...

on the way home from dinner the other night i had a thought. i know it's not the first time this wish has rumbled around in my mind ... i wish my life was like a musical from the 50s ... all doris day, guys and dolls, hills are alive kind of musical. there would be singing ... there would be dancing ... there would be awkward language from bygone days ... ohhhh, how i want it!

this is the probably why i spent my younger years making music videos. why i enjoy just dance on the wii a wee bit too much and find myself sing-speaking on an almost daily basis. my brother also happens to be an avid sing-speaker. it's not good when we spend long periods of time together. there's so much terrible singing ...

so ... since i can't go back to the 50s and i doubt i'll wake up with an amazing voice overnight, and friends would flock for the hills if i demanded they dance for their food ... i'm going to have to come up with a new plan for recreating musicals from the 50s into my daily life. for now, i'll settle for watching far too many of these delightful films

doris day pretty much set the stage for these romantic, goofy musicals. my personal favorite - the pajama game. you'd be slightly surprised (and worried) how often songs from this soundtrack apply to my daily life. and any movie with a song centered on "steam heat" is a win in my book. my original grand plan was to watch all the doris day movies. according to imdb, there's a lot. so then i said, just the musicals ... there's still a lot. so, i've settled on doris day musicals from the 50s. 

whew.

young man with a horn (1950)

tea for two (1950)

the west point story (1950)

lullaby of broadway (1951)

on moonlight bay (1951)

i'll see you in my dreams (1951)

starlift (1951)

april in paris (1952)

by the light of the silvery moon (1953)

calamity jane (1953)

lucky me (1954)

young at heart (1954)

love me or leave me (1955)

the pajama game (1957)

a frosted pomegranate

today, i spent the afternoon at menards looking at paint samples. not for the color but for the names. i wonder how often someone ends up with a color on their walls based on the name and not the actual color. frosted pomegranate may be, possibly, the best name i have stumbled on. but do i want a crazy, vivid red room? not particularly.

molly and i are on a quest to update crosstown creativity. our first step - new name. but, deciding on the.perfect.name is turning out to be a wee bit harder than we thought. there's so much riding on a name. it has to encompass everything but limit just enough. it has to be welcoming. but distinct. emotional but solid. 

so while we ponder over names and clumps of names and combinations of names ... here's some of the more interesting paint samples i picked up today. you'll have to use your imagination on deciding what each color is ...

purple pencil skirt

brownberry path

cerise

scribble pad

little leaf

lined with silver

honey toast

golden cricket

sonic boom

artful orange

frosted pomegranate

an indulgence

an indulgence ... or perhaps a want ... or something way too expensive but way to cool not to own! so i might do, as in the fine words of donna and tom, a treat yo self day ... ... ...

and buy ....

THIS!

in the world of ipads, nooks, kindles, and all sorts of other square-light-up-shiny-objects it is almost a novelty to think there's still a select number of us that rely on paper ... the thought of me without my notebook ... gasp! it's part journal, part day planner, part notebook, part list-keeper, part stress reliever, part brain. and the fine folks at rickshaw bags came up with a one of the snazzy notebook add-ons i've seen. an organizer for my organizer?! 

can't take the awesomeness.

which is why i'm going to have a treat yo self moment ... and spend a crazy amount of money on something that i could probably live without ... and, fair warning, with the b-day in t minus one month, there will be plenty of treat yo self moments in the coming weeks. birthdays.are.the.best.

fall is

pretty

hunter vs. sort-of hunter

last night we had our neighbors over and, as it goes with meeting any new folks, you skirt around the issues of politics, race, social status, student loans ... all those scary big-people issues. after they left, lou mentions something gun related and i reply with a "well, i am a hunter ... or, sort-of hunter .... well, new hunter." so all day i've been thinking about just that. when do i get to call myself a hunter? am i a turkey hunter if i've never shot a turkey? am i a prairie dog hunter ... since that was the thing to do on weekends in wyoming? i wanna be a pheasant hunter but does one (okay, maybe two) times out in the field count?

i get around the college friends and start throwing out tidbits like why i like my 20 gauge better than lou's 12. why i had to go with a full choke on my benelli for turkey hunting as opposed to getting a turkey choke.

but, then i realize i'm just talking myself up. i don't own a single piece of blaze orange ... how un-hunter of me. my top trap score was a twelve and even that was mostly beginners luck. i've never shot anything bigger than a goat and as much as a i want to go deer hunting, i don't know if i could actually go through with it. my shoulder gets bruised after two rounds of trap and more often than not, lou has to remind me what the heck the difference is between a size four shot and a size eight.

so, sometimes i feel like a badass lady hunter ...

and, sometimes i feel like i'm a kid sitting at the adult table when i shouldn't be ...

i guess the word here is patience. and practice. and that it all comes with time.

in which i do something ... a little bit creepy

and it was creepy ... super creepy.

three days

one van

five bags of candy

one-half working cell phone

nine geocaches

four state parks

seven relatives

one last minute (stolen) campsite

two delicious breakfasts

seven gun shots

one fingee in the door

zero bowls of booya

three ice-creamless hours

...

countless memories

i do believe our #freecandyvan adventure was a smashing success

so where'd we go:

• lake maria state park
• zoomski's midtown cafe
• charles a. lindbergh state park
• mille lacs kathio state park
• father hennepin state park
• czech booya festival

rain clouds vs. roses

alright ... i'm just gonna throw this out there. it's been a pretty weird week for me. pretty weird as in pretty awesome. my little cloud-filled mind is not sure what to do about this. it's been one of those weeks where every day (read that - every day) i've caught myself joyfully ... burstingly ... happy. enough to force me to a standstill mid-walk. enough to get me to do the shady-eye snake stare waiting for the ha-ha moment and the clouds to open up with a booming "suckaaaaa". what the hell is going on? i can't decide if i should be more concerned with the abnormal amount of wonderful in my life right now or the fact that one wonderful week gets me all hot and bothered.

so i'll leave you with this thought by dear 'ole ethel ... and hope i didn't just jix the shizz outta my week.

to my laptop

how do you say goodbye to

a faithful

friend

of 10 years?

the gray hairs and wrinkles

mirror

the warning lights and scratches

we've survived

the

word docs

the

jpegs

the

.mp3 s

to

mp4 s

the

refresh

the

refresh

the

refresh

alt . control . delete

only

two hard drives

two continents

two computer support boyfriends

photoshop

netflix

itunes

...

i could push

and

you'd hold

we work

wait ...

we worked

claire loves laptop

artsy stuff and shizz

i have so many blogs floating around my life lately. i'm spending work wracking my brain for ideas for parks & trails ... what do outdoorsy people wanna read about?  then, i'm wracking my brain for ideas for crosstown creativity ... what do these creative-folk wanna read about? then ....... i get to this blog and i'm spent! but i am gonna give myself a pat on the back for my latest creation - take art quotes, find a "fun" photo, jazz it up on picmonkey and bam ... some artsy looking thing for crosstown! one may say this is the slacker way of creating new content ... or, one may say i'm cleverly using my resources.  either way, i wanna share the three i worked on tonight.

hazzah!

and yes, i totally took these photos myself ...

a thought: mr. winter

it's april 17th and yes, those are my snow boots ... still there ... 

Okay, alright ... it's happening. This weather ... this winter ... is finally getting to me. I was doing so good and then these past couple of days started to hit ... Willie has been all a tizzle, couped up in the house. We can't go more than a hour without him running into the bedroom and ripping his bed apart. There's blankets and stuffing and fleece in almost every room. Lou mentioned the other day that he's sinking into his bleak-zone. He's in the basement all day chugging away at work and coming upstairs to blankly stare out the window with Willie ... watching the snowflakes or turning bleary-eyed from the rain. The "sickness" is traveling around work again ... cube after cube sitting empty ... empty chairs spinning in sad, slow circles as the coughs of coworkers bounce around the flimsy walls. My space heater is back ... humming away in the mornings while I bounce outta the shower and try not to think what the temperature is outside. I thought about my homemade salsa I had elaborate plans for creating this spring and realized I'm mighty fair from any sort of planting. I'm too much of a baby for running in the rain so my continuous excuse of it being to cold outside for exercise holds on ... as well as those 10 pounds ... And it's gray. The concert ground matches the muddy slush that still gets to be called snow. The tree branches have taken on the same hue as the grass ... and the sky ... and the never ending cloud cover.

And to top it all off ... read this ... look at the date ... Yup, October 5th, 2012. Minnesota's first big snowfall of the season was over ... 7 ... months ... ago ... and ... there's more to come tomorrow ...

I told Lou we needed a heat lamp. He laughed ... but I'm oh-so-serious ...

a thought: a dear little deer

Oh man, this was a nice video to watch on a dreary Monday morning. A coworker passed this little gem along and yes ... I do believe it was just what I needed. If a deer can take a moment outta their busy eating-and-scavenging-and-not-getting-shot-/-hit-by-a-car day to jump in a mud puddle ... then by geeze, I better be able to take a minute outta my day to well, not jump in a mud puddle but do something equally fun.

a conundrum

a conundrum - you know, like an eyeless dog eating the eyes off a stuffed frog ... like that

I'm having a conundrum-filled sort of week ... and it all stems back to this good 'ole blog. My current job is having me look into the ever-witty land of "social media" ... My current project (this) is putting me right in the middle of the time-sucking pit that is the twitter-pinterest-blogger-facebook land. Now, I love it all. I love exploring the endless options that are out there when it comes to creating a social media / social business presence. It's a blast. Yes ... but ... it leaves the question - what am I doing on this thing?! It seems I'm still dancing around trying to get my footing all straightened out and next thing I know, it's mid-April and I'm still 'a dancing. I feel a bit of a cheat ... telling work we can get a blog up and going and that it's no sweat ... telling the CC folks I'd be happy to take over the "web duties" thing ... and all the while, lacking the cred to back it all up. This is supposed to be my practice pad, my blank slate to work out the kinks ... and I'm totally not taking advantage of it ... 

A conundrum.

sleep

Maybe it's the full moon but there's some funny business about. I think it's a sign. I went to bed sleepy last night, woke up just as sleepy this morning, and on the way to work listened to the radio tell me why I needed to get more sleep. You'll be healthier. You'll be prettier. You'll be smarter. Alright, I get it. I'll get more sleep ... and then I lay awake, staring at the ceiling and feeling the minutes slip by until it's 3am and the dog is wondering why I'm wandering around the house. So I do some research and find super depressing infographics telling me that yes, I'm not getting the recommended amount of sleep. And if I shut off my cell phone, I'll sleep better ... if I drink tea, I'll sleep better ... if I read, I'll sleep better ... if I lay on my left with my hands above my head, I'll sleep better (okay, not really ... but I guess you never know). I wanna know how to shut off. How to stop thinking. How to stop.

So that's what I'm working on this week. Until I figure it out ... I've found, through extensive testing over the years, singing 'Everyone Likes Ice Cream' on loop to myself has a somewhat, calming-like effect ...

in the span of five minutes ...

this guy thought to hang out in the right lane ... "pimping me in" (as my mother would say)
while i patiently waited to turn right ...

i open the garage door and what do i see in my parking spot ... yup ... 

i think it's time to call it a day ... 

just a thought: wedding rings

Some days, when I get up in the morning and see my wedding rings sitting on the bedside table, I think - maybe today will be my single day! Leave the rings at home! And then I pick 'em up, put 'em on, and head to work. It's just a thought after all, you know ...