Monday, April 30, 2018
How To Dress Like Tasha Tudor {Victorian Style}
Tuesday, April 24, 2018
2 Ways How Having An Alcoholic Parent Teaches You To Thrive {While Swimming In Dangerous Water}
Hello Mermaid Junkies,
How are you? I hope you're doing well.
Not the kind of post you want to read? I get it, sincerely I do. I lay awake at night thinking that most of my readers want the pretty artsy posts. The sweet ones that bring happiness to their heart. I love those too, but as I have been changing throughout these last two years, I promised myself through this blog (especially if its to be my mothership for bringing in an income for the gardener and me) I have to really be out there. I promised myself that I'm going to talk about the things sometimes that are hard to read. I think that if the reader wants a great story, a sense of humor and some good take-home value, my blog is the one for you.
I became a writer as a young child because that was the way I was able to express myself. I would write journals upon journals expressing my emotions, feelings and all the in-betweens. I would even write and dream about that someday in the future of how someones going to find my writings and read them like a novel. Yeah, even as a little-freckled fox I thought I was no one to mess with.
I know I've been forever interested in that kind of thing and I somehow believe there are others out there just like me. I still have those boxes and boxes of journals. It makes me wonder what they say after 30 plus years of writing.
So back to the writing about my unpleasant childhood and having a father that was alcoholic. As I've grown up, I have realized so many things about this particular subject. It does not often get spoken of and if it is, it's seen as a very hush-hush and one from the perspective of the survivors in the family to not talk about it. How often do we see this in families?
So before I get ahead of myself let me lay the foundation first. My story probably isn't going to be much different than most if you've experienced having an alcoholic parent. I grew up with a father that was very unavailable. He still is unavailable to this day. He grew up with a father that I tend to think he didn't much care for, and in hind site, he turned out very similar. Drinking daily, unavailable, emotionally detached, selfish, arrogant, destructive, egotistical, chauvinistic, and abusive. Let me preface something here before I proceed. I am in no way angry with my father. If anything I'm empathetic, understanding and accepting. I share this as my truth and in some small way attempt to help others along their own personal journey. If I kept all this shit bottled up inside It'd be like that saying." You're only as sick as your secrets." So all in all, I no longer hold any distasteful feelings for my father I just want to be very transparent here as I'm speaking about my journey. I think it'd be wrong of me to only say the pretty flowery things.
Families hold all sorts of secrets. And honestly, that's why I write this blog because I know what alcoholism does to a child. I have worked endlessly as an adult to heal, and I thought for a long time I had healed all of those aspects of myself. I haven't and that's okay. Things take time, and I am finally at a place of self-love and acceptance that I'm okay with that. Even when you leave that type of environment, you realize like I did that it takes on different forms. The alcoholic may not drink alcohol but they replace that behavior with another to fill the need. Unless, like I said before, they constantly work at healing themselves and trying to understand the ramifications.
Everyone must take responsibility for the alcoholism, and I've found that not many want to. Once again the thread is that everyone's a victim. I am in complete disagreement with this. I get that I was literally not the one to drink, but after everything is said and done, most survivors want to push the addiction under the rug and never speak of it again. "That's in the past, why do you keep dragging that up?" I drag it up IF I have a life event that has occurred and I am trying to understand why I do certain things. I don't drag up the past to blame another, make them relive their hurt or anything like that. I do it because it's my absolute right to and I want to heal and not continually pass those traditions onto my children. And I'll be darn if I didn't do that anyway in my last marriage. I have found that people want to be victims because to be a victim gives you an excuse for why you are the way you are presently.
I will never be a victim. I take full accountability for my actions and for all that has happened. Now that may strike some people oddly, like oh, she still has that victim mindset. Nope, actually, I am attempting to own my personal experience. That should be held highly that I have the courage to actually write about a subject that many don't like to touch because It makes people uncomfortable.
My father was always and still to this day a hard worker. I think the time period that he grew up, they all learned to be hard workers. They also did some hard living. So, because I think of this as a learning tool let's dive deep into the internal aspect of WHY.
I have said this in my youtube videos a million times and I'll keep saying it, people don't drink alcohol for the yummy taste of it, at least not initially anyway. The main reason a person drinks is for the feeling they get. It takes them to the path of least resistance. I'm speaking Law of Attraction here.
The reasons for people drinking are mostly because they either watched someone doing it as a child, or they have enormously deep internal pain that they can't rid themselves of. If people only knew, that what I teach, to women especially, is that with self-love and self-worthiness they can heal themselves of those internal wounds.
It takes 3 days, yep... three days to stop drinking altogether, but it takes a little longer for you to get your cells to stop desiring the sensations of inebriation.
It's all a mind thing you guys. It always has been and it always will be.
1. You become a master housekeeper.
Now, I'm not sure about you, but I knew from an early age that in order for people to not know the exact goings on in our home (I'm sure it partly has to do with being a southerner) that meant you became a very detailed fabulous housekeeper. I lived chaos in my mind, so all of the controlling was happening on the outside/externally. I couldn't control my insides but I could control my environment; the house. I know how to clean a house exceptionally well, like magazine kind of well. In a rapid fire amount of time too. Oh, someones coming to the door, or your dad is coming home from work, "Get this house perfect, NOW RAQUEL!" Let's just say you learn to see for everyone. Nothing can ever be out of place. The deeper reason for this is because as someone living in a conditioned unhealthy environment, we think what people see on the outside is all that matters. Forget the fact that what's going on inside of us is torturous, especially as a little child. The chaos becomes normal, it becomes the only way you know. I acclimated to it. The noise, the screaming, the abuse, the fear, it all becomes normal. It actually becomes so normal that if it's not happening, you think somethings off or you get scared that something really bad is about to happen. That sounds messed up, doesn't it?
As a 30 plus-year-old adult, I had this friend back in Utah and I learned from her that I had even more ramifications of growing up in an alcoholic home. It's like a freaking onion, with a shit load of layers. She was the kind of person that had grown up in a household where there was never any drinking. And one day she said to me, "How can you handle all the kids wanting to go in different directions, and then you can paint a bedroom, and then go and do and do and do almost at the same time and you aren't stressed at all. You just fly by the seat of your pants. I could never ever do that." When she said that I realized I was so used to living in the chaos that was how I was able to thrive. I could do fifty things at once and not ruffle a feather, babies screaming, one needing a diaper change, two wanting a snack, and the other getting into a cupboard. I was on top of it. I have learned to use this quality as an asset. It's once again what a successful healthy minded individual does. I could and can handle chaos like its no one's business. I'm sure some of those qualities are still inside of me and would arise if I were to be put into a situation like that, but nowadays I thrive on pure silence.
2. You Become a master at coverup.
My home was immaculate, organized and extremely clean. That meant clean everywhere. You could open the inside of the cabinets, dresser drawers, pantry, garage, linen closet... you name it, if it was my home it was perfection. Because here's the thing... Remember I was telling you that in order to maintain sanity as a child in an alcoholic home, you become a master at a cover-up. The reason this occurs is that in the mind of a child, we are always trying to stay one step ahead. So if the alcoholic were to look into the fridge, the closet, the bathroom cabinet, and things were a mess, that would give them a reason to either hit, go get more drunk or act out his frustrations (and in my case) on my mother. So you think that by having an immaculate home and space it'd keep him from getting triggered. It's like living in a land mine, and you always worry you're gonna hit a trip wire. Keeping a clean home was an absolute must for my mother. I later married into that same situation. I repeated my childhood history. I married an alcoholic, and I would come to realize this decades later because he was a closet alcoholic. It's the mirror reflection philosophy.
I remember the day I realized my childhood tendencies came back to the forefront and I went to my bedroom closet (you find places to hide even as an adult) hid behind the clothes and bawled like a 2-year-old. The trigger was when I saw my daughters face and how she reacted to a fight about a sandwich that happened between the ex and me. It was 2011 and I was living in Orlando, Florida. My ex-had asked me to go to Subway and get him a sub. He specified that he hated mayo on his sub and that I needed to make sure It had NO mayo (now mind you, I had always had them put mayo on his sub and hide it. He always loved the taste but I never told him the sub had mayo). Well, that day, the hidden mayo came out the side and he went ballistic. He started screaming at me profanities, throwing stuff everywhere and then threw the entire sub sandwich against the wall above the china hutch and it basically stuck there. A wall of lettuce strands, mayo, mustard and the whole sandwich fell behind the cabinet.
(At this point in our relationship, all hell was breaking loose on a daily basis. Two years prior I had an emotional affair with his best friend at the time, and I was already 3 years into wanting to leave the relationship anyway. He had been cheating on me for decades at this point and I was becoming more and more detached. I had built a fortress around my heart at this point. I was breaking down more and more every day.)
So when the sandwich throwing and screaming match started, I noticed immediately that Zoë Kennedy began shuffling around, trying to fix things, running to the drawer for a dishcloth, saying how eagerly she could clean it up. Now when that happened, my survival instinct to protect my child reared up and I became unglued. I went freaking insane. Have you ever gotten a redhead really super angry? I started screaming at him, saying "that I was gonna let the damn thing rot there, I was not cleaning it up and neither was Zoë Kennedy. That he should've been humiliated that he has created an environment like this as the provider and patriarch of our home. I told him he was an embarrassment as a father and husband. This was the last time I was cleaning up his messes to save face. I was done!." When I saw ZK immediately running to get something to clean up the sub I forbid her to do it, and he demanded that she better clean it, and that then became a whole other fight with the ex. I realized at that moment I had taught my daughter to clean up his messes and to cover up for him just as my mother had taught me.
Needless to say, the ex-cleaned up the sub and not another word was said about it. I don't even know when he did it, because I never saw him. It had stayed on the wall for a whole day. My take away is that we must have a backbone, we must only work at saving ourselves. It's not my job to save anyone, but my own. We have to start, even if it's little by little. That's what builds and gives us more and more strength. Don't be hard on yourself, but don't sit passively back and just allow things to happen. The Universe/God is allowing these contrasting experiences to occur to inspire us to take back our lives, to love ourselves unconditionally.
I share this message with you as a way for us to grow in our friendship, and for you to not feel alone if you've experienced something of this kind or if you are experiencing it now. I also wanted to leave you with something valuable from this post so that it can be a teachable moment.
I learned that to cover up for others is a complete disservice to myself. I have had to unlearn all of those traits by removing the costume to reveal the truly authentic Mermaid within. I now stand in my truth and keep that space open for others to stand in theirs and that feels really wonderful. I have also learned that alcoholism taught me how to keep a clean home, and I very much appreciate that quality, regardless of how it was taught. I have taken the good of a not so good circumstance. That makes me a winner through and through. So, in essence, I've realized I'm forever and always trying to paint you a picture and that's what makes me a great artist as well, don't you think?
Saturday, April 21, 2018
My Love For Beatrix Potter
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| My cover for The Tale Of MerryMaid Scarlette Rose |
Hello Mermaid Junkies,
How are you? I hope you're doing well.
I wanted to begin an eensy series about my book "The Tale Of MerryMaid Scarlette Rose ©®".
As I've been swimming my way, it's amazing how the universe is leading me on little adventures to continually take me on my voyage of the neverending love of Beatrix Potter. She's actually one of my spirit guides.Let's talk about Beatrix Potter, shall we?
If you've ever read my about page you know that I have forever been enthralled with the wonderful woman that was Beatrix Potter ever since my teens.
I got pregnant with my first son at the ripe ol' age of nineteen. I have always cared and adored the old fashioned life. Let me share a little back story before we get into the Beatrix Potter part of this post.
I was born in the beautiful ol' state of Georgia. I grew up in the country. One of the only ways to escape my unpleasant childhood was to strike a lucky day of outings with my mom if she happened to get the family vehicle for the day. All growing up, my mother never had a vehicle, and we lived out in the sticks so the only time I could visit the public town library was either on a Saturday or a day my mom needed to run errands. I was in luck. So when that rarity happened, I'd select the maximum of books, and even then I'd ask my brothers (I have 3) to check out extra on their card so I'd have enough reading material to last my insatiable appetite.
I would regularly check out Laura Ingalls Wilder, Beatrix Potter, Strawberry Girl and Little Women. Those were my regulars and I'd read and reread them all through my childhood.
That may sound bizarre to the many people reading this if they came from an idyllic childhood, but to the others that can understand what happens in a destructive child's home, it's the way you survive. In order to survive, you create an escape. Now after living the Law of Attraction, it's also a beautiful testament to the ability of a child to figure out a way to create joy. Either way, It's something I think many can relate to me on.
As the decades passed my love for these women continued.
Heres a picture of my firstborn son in some clothing I made for him, with little oxford English saddled shoes and a stick wooden sign I made that reminded me of Beatrix. I would constantly play the Beatrix Potter movies on VHS for my children and even read the books to them on a regular basis. They will still watch those movies to this day. I think it reminds them of their happy childhood.
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| Beatrix Potter & Benjamin Bunny on the left. Me and Oliver TwistyTop on the right. |
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| Me and Oliver TwistyTop dressed up for Halloween like Beatrix Potter and Benjamin Bunny. |
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| I sewed this whole outfit for Halloween. |
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| More homemade clothes I have sewn. |
That's the beautiful thing about a transformational journey/voyage, it brings you back to all you've ever loved originally and authentically.
So now let's talk about my process of writing a children's storybook, why I did it and how it came about.
As a young girl, I would constantly play in my fort. I would practically live in it. It was peaceful, I always found fun things to do, make and create. I would take my art books, paints, notebook paper and practice my penmanship or paint.
So the desire for me to write a book, and paint has always been there. But you won't have to guess why many people give up those notions and dreams of becoming a writer or an artist. We start listening to others around us. We take on their conditioned beliefs that certain things can't be done. We slowly disregard our inner compass. That's exactly what I did.
In 2014 I was living in California, and my oldest son had been serving a two-year mission for our church. He has always drawn, since he was about six years old, and I've never discouraged him from that.
He would send home boxes of extra things from his mission, as they had a two suitcase limit. That meant all his drawing books had to be shipped out. I had received another box from him and not thinking much about it, I set it on the dining room table. It sat there for over two weeks. At that particular time, I was extremely ill, and in complete pain and agony for 11 days. As I began to feel better, I looked over at the dining table and was curious as to what was in the box. I opened it up and there were over fifty spiral notebooks of drawings.
I couldn't believe this! Something sparked inside of me looking at those books. I had long told my children all through their growing years that I was such a terrible artist that I couldn't even draw a stick figure. That shows you how much I had forgotten the woman/girl that I was.
All of those memories started to flood my mind. The endless nights I'd sit up and paint, all the art classes I took. The four-year art scholarship I received after graduation, that I ended up turning down for my then husband. I literally fell down on the couch and I think I cried a good solid half hour. That was the day I changed or actually began to transform back into who I was.
P.S. Now the mermaid metaphor makes much more sense to you, right? {hehh}
I had spent decades listening to other people tell me things such as, (in this video pay close attention to how conditioned away from my truth I was) "I was weird, embarrassing to be with because I dressed like Laura Ingalls Wilder, say they couldn't be seen with me in public if I was gonna dress that way, or that I needed to do something about my old-fashioned taste." I did for many many years. I caved and put on my pretty appropriate clothes like a mermaid would do. I put on my costume and played pretend for people. You learn to acclimate when you have pinched your inner being off for so long. You become someone else or at least you attempt to.
After that experience, a day later I went to the craft store and got a little palette of watercolors and some index cards. I opened an Etsy shop account and below are my first little paintings that sold for $4.00 each.
Yours til my next swim, Raquel
Do you have a favorite hero? Do you like Beatrix Potter?
Monday, April 9, 2018
A Mermaid's Meditation Practice
I hope you're doing well.
As many of you that are my super darling devoted tribe, know that as I began practicing the Law of Attraction {Abraham Hicks}several years ago, I also began a practice of meditating.
Meditating when you first hear of it, I bet it pretty much sounds like some crazy woohoo stuff. I was never quite familiar with meditation the way that Abraham Hick's teaches. I've gone to her Workshops in Orlando, Florida and they are wonderful. If you would ever like to know what it feels like to understand the feeling of speaking face to face with God, that's pretty much what it is. It's the best feeling you could ever experience.
When you habitually practice meditation, that's the same feeling you'll get, right in the comforts of your own home. You will feel and recognize the mastery of direct connection with Source/God/Universe.
I wanted to share my Meditation practice with you, in case you'd like to take on the challenge or begin incorporating the practice of Meditation into your own life.
Today I'm super excited to explain the scales/steps of meditation to you. For those of you that would rather watch my video, here's that on my YouTube channel video link.
So let's begin.
What is Meditation?
Meditation takes us back to the core vibration that is unchallenged by the beliefs keeping us from what we want.
There are many forms of meditation out in the Universe. Some gurus say you should meditate for a long time, or no longer than a few minutes. I'm going to use this post to break down MEDITATION incrementally through the practices of Abraham Hicks Teachings.
I only practice what I preach. I have been meditating the way Abraham Hicks recommends for over four years and in my opinion, it's the perfect formula.
One of the main things I hear women say when considering meditation is that they find it tough to sit still and be quiet. They get antsy, fidgety, or restless. Basically, they can't shut down their mind.
It's very true in the beginning. Just even the intention to meditate and sit still has resistance.
We want to quiet our conscious minds enough so that the non~physical mind is purely focused on all that we've become and the wholeness of who we are. If we can find a way to tune into it. The vibrations will begin to turn into thoughts and when those thoughts come, you will feel and understand, the pleasure and satisfaction of thought.
Not to be distracted by reality, but to experience the whole of our vibrational reality.
Whats in our VORTEX will come through our non~contradicted minds.
Our minds have been trained to be responsive to our conditions around us, that's why initially it's difficult to meditate.
We must focus on quieter.
MERMAID MEDITATION:
🙏Quiet your surroundings.
🙏Use an App with the sound of waves or a water drop from a faucet.
🙏Gather your notebook for your writing Art Of Appreciation {Etsy Shop} after meditation ends.
🙏Apply dōTerra essential oils on your reflexology points{Behind your neckline, thumbs, and earlobes} I use Balance, Frankincense, Intune, Geranium, and Lavender. I have some beautifully blended meditation notes {Mermaid Junkie Meditation Alchemy}in roller balls that I sell in my Etsy shop.
🙏Gather your crystals. I decide on what crystals I'm feeling drawn to on that day, so the crystal selections vary for me.
🙏Set a timer for 15 minutes. You never need to meditate longer than 15 minutes. Actually, Abraham recommends that you don't stretch it further than that.
🙏After you start your timer, begin listening to the sound coming from your app. Really focus on the sound. Take 3 breaths in and five breaths out. Keep doing this and you'll begin to feel yourself transition into a meditative state. Your head may even begin to move in a circular motion. You're in pure alignment.
🙏If you start to think thoughts other than the sound of the waves or the sound of the dripping faucet, which you will, just keep bringing yourself back to the sound. Each time your thoughts wander, keep the focus by bringing yourself back each and every time.
🙏After your timer ends, what source will do, is lead you to the first impressions from pure alignment.
🙏Don't be surprised if what Source guides you to, even if it seems odd. Abraham talks candidly in many of her videos about after her meditation once, she was led to move furniture around in her California home. If you want to listen to Abraham Hick's Youtube video here, this one is of her speaking of that particular meditation.
I just know that if you try it, you will LOVE the practice.
Yours til my next swim, Raquel
Tuesday, April 3, 2018
A Mermaid's Work Ethic
Hello Mermaid Junkies,
I hope you're doing well.
I have a little confession to make to you. Apparently, from another's viewpoint, I really used to struggle with a work ethic. Not in the sense of doing what I love, because that to me isn't considered work really. I had always hated the idea of having to go out into the workforce and do something that I couldn't stand.
Right before I moved from Oklahoma, I was feeling the pressure of going out and getting a "real job" as someone told me.
So I decided to comply{once again doing what someone else wanted me too} and get a "real job." I decided that if I HAD to get a freaking job, I'd go to Anthropologie because at least there I would get a discount and I have loved Anthro since forever.
Here's where the situation gets dicey. I want to explain the backstory about this. So let me back up a bit. I get going midbrain thought and tend to get ahead of myself. You know me.
When the decision was made without me, we had to leave my greatest love, California to move to where the work was. Never mind the fact that I wanted to stay in California forever.
So I was already deeply wounded and resentful towards my ex, at the time.
He had been fired from his television job in San Diego, and the only job he could get was a tv job from an old boss that used to be in Salt Lake, that was now in Oklahoma. Let's just say, the pay was almost nonexistent in comparison to how we used to live.
So in order to be in a "decent home (quote by my ex) and the kids in a good school system," I was going to have to make at least 300 dollars a month to add to the household income and make the rent.
I was like, that's totally fine. I know how to make money. I could sell stuff that I make, paint little pictures, do some design jobs on the side, or my all time favorite... have some cool yard sales. That was my thought.
Well, that wasn't good enough apparently. I made almost 500 dollars in one weekend on my first garage sale.
But here's the thing. When there is a communication gap in a marriage that is on its way to splitsville as it is, no one is hearing anyone.
Ya know what I mean. In order for me to technically support the household, I was expected to get a job like every other person because that's the way he did it.
Too often, people put their mindset and rules onto another.
That's what causes people to become disconnected. Because look, I was making up the difference, but because it wasn't me going to a place, clocking in and spending my time there, it wasn't good enough.
P.S. Side note, when someone is miserable in their own life you can never bend over backwards enough. They will always find a way to make it about you and blame you. Just saying that you should know from my lips to your ears. You will never be enough. Oh and also I lasted at Anthropologie for a sum total of two weeks and my paycheck for all those hours was $109.00. I freaking HATED IT!!! So I quit!
I am a freedom seeker, and I was suffocating ya'll. In more ways than one, I might add.
So now here we are in the present day, over three years later. I am still one to hate going to a 9~5 job, can't stand it and I will not do it. I'm working on this dream. I'm working hard. And I won't quit until I've achieved it.
Come to find out, I've learned a few things about lil' ol' me, Raquel. Heres what I've learned and it has been a beautiful gift.
I actually am a hard hard hard worker! I have a killer work ethic and I have been working my ass off day in and day out since before even Jeffrey and I met. Now, I don't clock into a job and work my day's wages, but I work hard none the less. I work at home, writing this blog, creating YouTube content, creating podcast content, work in my little cottage by doing projects, sell my little paintings on Etsy, sell things on Offer Up... and the list goes on.
I am just like many women, probably just like you reading this. I am a mother that ran a whole household, kept a beautiful well working schedule, taught my children to work by instilling in them responsibility, self-awareness, and independence. Still managed to create a lovely little underwater world for them. Kept them shielded from the awfulness that was a fraudulent marriage. And yes, if I had to do it again, all over from scratch I sure the hell would. But do not ever say I don't have a good work ethic. I am the epitome of work ethic. Women nowadays... hell, even forever do not get the credit for raising great children. Being a stay at home mother is a thankless job. We are the dream makers. We are the ones that will change the world. So don't ever listen to someone spouting off at the mouth that you don't have a work ethic, or that you don't like to work. My ass...
It has made me stronger than ever. I am an all out BADASS Entrepreneur! I am actually proud of that ya'll.
I can bet that you resonate with my story and that you are a badass too. Own that badassery ladies. You deserve it. I have faith and trust in you. I truly believe there is NOTHING, NOTTA, ZILCH that we as women can not do.
I know in the midst of me creating a business, that its tough as shit. I'm not gonna lie. Any sane person would have given up by now. I work 14 plus hours, long into the night trying to understand dumb shit like Instagram stories, and how to get traffic to my blog, try to figure out why the hell my little paintings aren't selling on Etsy. No damn money coming in, and whats that telling me internally? I know it's my mindset, and I'm figuring that out. I still have some money beliefs that I must work on. But today I am happy that I have you to talk with. To go through this process together, and for you to see that I go through shit just like ya'll do. I want to go on this voyage/journey together. That we as a community can learn.
Because if there's one thing that bites my ass in irritability, is when women don't share their life story. They always act like they have things figured out. That to me is clear as day BULLSHIT. Just be real people, is what I wanna say to their faces. ya feel me?
This is the stuff that keeps me up at 2 am in the morning ya'll.
So this post is a reminder to listen to your own heart, follow your own path and never listen to anyone except yourself. My motto for this year is a quote from Michael Phelps.
"Stay in your own lane. keep swimming forward and don't worry about what everyone else is doing. Don't look over at other lanes." ~Michael Phelps
Meaning, don't look and compare yourself to other women! Period, don't do it. Because if you do, you'll soon be drowning in lack, feeling shitty and none of its true. So knock that crap out. muawhhhh...I'll see you beautiful Mersisters tomorrow.
Yours til my next swim, Raquel
Sunday, April 1, 2018
Happy Easter And A DIY Tribal Bunny Hutch
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| I painted the crate and stand bronzed gold from Home Depot and the little rug is from Five Below. |
On this Sunday evening of Easter, I am doing what I love. It's crazy that even though I'm an empty nester, I still enjoy those traditions that I created for my children when they were young, it seems like a million years ago. I spent today doing a few DIY projects and coloring eggs with seaweed.
Today I also spent my day working on blocking out my time with the week's work schedule. Do you organize, or keep a planner? I'm so excited to present you with my Mermaid Junkie Planner Logbook. It's like nothing you've ever seen or used for planner productivity, I promise. Stay tuned...
Tonight, I just wanted to swim by and show you what I spent half of the day doing.
Making a tribal {that's what I call it} type rabbit hutch for Oliver.
Heres' the thing. Oliver roams the cottage every day, but only in the kitchen with me if I decide to work mostly curating projects or writing for the blog. Most of the time, I spend my days in my "Treasure Room" aka. my office.
If I want Oliver out and about, but need him confined so he doesn't hurt himself on cords chewed, I like to keep him in the same room with me. The reason for this is that I think it's essential to spend loads of time with our animals. The more comfortable and social we are with them, the less likely they are to get skittish and return to their natures basic instinct.
I had a dog crate {the black ugly kind} that was given to me for free by my neighbors that were moving. I never knew what to do with it, but couldn't throw it away, as I knew at some point the creativity bug would strike me. As I was cleaning out the garage at the cottage when I moved in, I found an old stand that was for a keyboard that Jeffrey said I could use for something if I wanted to.
So today as I was trying to figure out how to make a cute pleasing to the eye pen for Oliver, it struck me.
SPRAY PAINT. EVERYTHINGS LOVELY, FRESH AND NEW WITH SPRAY PAINT.
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| Mermaid Sandy Sugar Cookies with gold sprinkles. It's a Martha Stewart sugar cookie recipe. |
I love to bake from scratch, can my own food from my very own homegrown food. I have always sewn my own clothes, my children's clothes and even love french sewing/smocking and embroidery, and loads of crafts, to name a few.
I had her mixer, extra large copper cookie cutters, baking kits, and recipe kits. Anytime I ever had a party, even though she had the finer things, I loved to make her holiday menus for parties.
Always a smash hit. Do you like Martha Stewart?
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| This cup isn't quite my style but I thought at $3.00 a pop wasn't a bad idea at all. Mermaid Vibes all the way! |
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| My breakfast almost every single day. |
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| Heres the funny thing, try dying eggs that are naturally brown from your chickens and see what turns out. It's definitely gonna be a surprise. |
I hope your weekend was swimmingly Fin'tastic! I'll see you darling souls, tomorrow.
Yours til my next swim, Raquel
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