Do what you love.

Posted by random olio

It always brings a smile to my face when someone is doing something they love. It is different for everyone. Someone I work with loves to cook, and you see a smile spread across their face as they describe their art in the kitchen. Someone else, might love to go for a run each day, it clears their head and grounds them. For another it might be getting dirt under their fingernails in their garden, or curling up in the bath or bed with a good book.

We are not moving but Chris still loves checking out the new houses that are on the market. Redfin is one of the websites he frequents. Sometimes it is to find out that another home that is smaller and older is selling for more than we purchased ours for, meaning good news to our property values. Other times he finds an idea we can use for our house, by exploring the photos from a house that is for sale. It could be the way someone has landscaped their yard, or decorated a room, or the finishing touches with paint or fixtures that gets him inspired. I love his excitement and interest, especially when we have decided we are not moving for a long time.

We all have things we love, and some are out in the open and some might be secret. I cleared it with Chris so he is okay that I have shared his Redfin addiction. I have a list of things (outside of work of course) that I love. A good hard run (with a good book), a good cup of coffee (with a good book), exploring new places and the trickle effect of new inspiration that is the result of new ideas. So many things that I love. Being there for a good friend, breakthrough moments, amazing food that is good for you (versus crap food that is bad for you). Snuggles in a bed that you never want to leave.

Chris has other things he loves, but I often see a grin form on his face and a “Hey, I want to show you this house.” We geek out, we think about house prices, and we explore how a cool room could transpose in our place. House nerds? Maybe. But, we love it. Chris is a foodie, a design buff, and is looking at the latest growler, the newest Kickstarter hip campaign, or the latest “Uncrate” find. We like new things, we love amazing food, and we always want to try something different (well most of the time).

What are those normal, or maybe strange things you do, that make you happy each day?

Softness

Posted by random olio

Softness. It is a word I have not thought about extensively. Growing up I saw my mom as the quieter type, my dad often rolled right over her, I am not sure he listened to her. In college I eventually found my voice, and then I resolved to make sure my voice stayed strong. I never wanted to be walked all over. However, recently I have been thinking about taking a step away from that strong voice. Not that I will lose the strength, but that I will be more aware of the volume, and the frequency.

I often think that thoughts and ideas come to us when we are ready to hear them. I am gradually (while reading other books) getting near the end of Kristin Armstrong’s “Work in Progress,” which I wrote about in the blog post: “The grace that grounded me.” I came across this quote on softness. It was an aha moment for me.

“Softness is sweeter and more direct route to resolution, every time. Please note that by softness I do not mean wimpiness. Softness is not some puny form of compliance. It is speaking your truth without malice or apology. It is staking a claim without fanfare or unnecessary noise. It gets the job done with elegance.” page 50-51

How many times have you been on the phone with your insurance company, or bank and are so incredibly frustrated that you get nasty? I am definitely one to raise my hand here. Chris is such a great example to me of what I would call a quiet strength. He is not rude or wimpy, but he is gentle and kind with those that he interacts with in these situations. I lose my patience easily and get frustrated. Take just yesterday, I had to call my insurance company back. I had spoken to them on March 31, and their fix to my claim was supposed to take 5-7 days, and then they were going to call me back. It has been 21 days and still no resolution. The response I received when I called is that my claim is getting reprocessed and it will take another 5-10 days for one aspect and then another 10 days for a different part. Seriously? So I think it should be resolved by the middle of May. As annoyed as I was I chose softness. I was kind and not frustrated with the customer service representative. Although I did tell her I did not have much confidence in hearing from them since I did not receive any communication in the first 5-7 days like I was originally told.

Why am I sharing this with you? I took the route of softness. I did not get nasty with them. I have a short amount of patience with companies that say they will do one thing and do not follow through with their promise. Additionally I have a small amount of patience for individuals that say they will do one thing and then do not do it. And, at the end of the day, it is not the fault of the customer service representative that I spoke with that her company has such extensive processing times. Why ruin her day?

I know there are other areas of my life where I could be softer. Firm, yes. Strong, yes. Yet, still bring softness to the situation. So often frustration gets in the way and our words are lost amidst anger and impatience. What if we lead with a softer side? I am going to try to focus more on flexing my softer side.

Let’s make softness cool again.

Think Dirty

Posted by random olio

I have a newfound interest in the products that I put on my body. Are they worth touching my skin? What are their ingredients? Would I eat what I put on my hair or skin? With my recent venture into “no poo” I have continued to explore other natural options for skin care and even found something the other day for brushing your teeth with coconut oil. (I have not tried it, but will let you know how it works out).

Have you ever thought about the fact that your skin is the largest organ on your body, and yet we feed it with harmful chemicals every day? Between your hair shampoo, conditioner, shaving cream, and styling products, to your body wash, lotion, your toothpaste, and, if you are a woman, the makeup you put on your face, you are potentially adding chemicals to your body and you might not even know it.

Bring on “Think Dirty.” An app I found last weekend that allows you to scan a product in your bathroom, at the store, your friend’s house, what have you and find out from their “Dirty Meter” how toxic the product is for you. I love this idea. I am always trying to remember which sulfates are bad (most are horrible) and which are okay. Sulfates. Parabens. The list goes on for all the ingredients you should watch for when purchasing a product. What I find more complex is that so often the ingredient list can only be understood if you can decipher the periodic table of elements. They are in another language, with names so long it is hard to really know what is good and what is bad for you.

Think Dirty is free and even has a modern and sleek interface. Just scan the barcode on the product with the scanner within the app. You can then save products to a “Dirty List” or a “Clean List” so you can remember where specific products fall when you go back to the store. There is even some wit within the app. To get you to sign up, they say, “Is your bathroom Kardashian-filthy?” Clever. I spent a bit of time scanning my products, and even my Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s “organic” products resulted in 8-10 (7-10 is considered Dirty) on their Dirty Meter. Yikes.

Be safe, clean yourself responsibly, and take the pulse of what you put on your body.

Want to laugh today?

Posted by random olio

Oh man. I am cracking up. This would be so fun. A Facebook friend shared this video for: “Bubble Football.” It is where soccer players play inside inflatable bouncy suits. Watch a bit of the video and you will be laughing so hard. I want to try it! It looks like it would be so freeing and fun to move around in a bubble (isn’t that what so many folks do anyway)? HA! After a few Internet searches, I was not able to find any local facilities that allow me to embark on such fun! It looks like it is mostly available in the UK and Europe. Maybe this will be a side venture at World Cup this summer?

Seriously, it was like watching a video of a baby that cannot stop laughing. Each time I watch them chase the ball, and then knock into each other, I giggled a bit, and thought I WANT TO DO THAT!

Someone bring Bubble Football to Portland please!

A little dabble in wax…

Posted by random olio

Over the weekend I took an encaustic art class. It was my first time playing with wax, a heat gun, and my desire to deep dive into this art medium. I have been interested for years, follow a few local artists, and finally took the plunge to dabble in something that has inspired me for quite some time. I learned a lot, have even more of a desire to purchase my own supplies and whittle away the hours in my own little creative world.

You may remember a post from almost a year ago on the encaustic piece that Chris and I purchased at the Lake Oswego Festival of the Arts. It is the second piece we have hanging from local encaustic artist Karl Kaiser. I love the modern look of his work, the clean, smooth look of the wax resin, and I have to say after spending 2.5 hours playing with this art medium, what he does takes incredible patience. Here are the two pieces I semi completed during the class. You should feel honored and lucky that I am sharing my unfinished artwork.

As soon as I have a spare moment (life has been busy what can I say), I am going to do some research to find out what it will cost me to purchase a heat gun, pancake griddle, metal warming pots, resin, wax, medium, encaustic paint, boards, etc. While it sounds like a lot, I think I can do it fairly inexpensively to start with to ensure that it really is something I want to do long-term. As I write this I have visions for different paintings I would like to try, and I can see it begin to become a bit of an addiction. I can only imagine that there are things to do at home, the house is interestingly quiet, and Chris tracks me down knowing that he’ll find me in the studio (aka baby room, aka dog room, if only we could decide), wasting a Saturday away playing with wax. Is that really so bad? There have to be worse addictions. There was something soothing about manipulating the wax and in some ways having no control over it.

I asked the instructor if I could play with hardware washers. I ended up only having the time to put one into my piece, but I can see where I would like to explore metal and wax, sort of a juxtaposition on organic and industrial in one piece. I think I am already addicted.