Don't Blink

Watch this video.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=p4ySSg4QG8g

Yes, I am forcing you. You may have seen/heard it already but if you have, watch it again. Johno (my dad) sent it to me a couple of weeks ago. We all know it, we all say it...enjoy every day and every moment, but we forget. I forget. It's not a secret that living in the now is sooooo very much easier than living in what happened yesterday or what may happen tomorrow.

Give love, give respect and don't blink.

Thanks Dad, for the reminder.

*The photo is of my brother and I when I was 5. That was 27 years ago and it seems like it was the other day.

One small step

So in a comment she wrote on one of my blog posts where I was once again daydreaming of owning my own studio/business, Kal said,

"Seriously, dude. Just quit your job and live the life you dream of. It's reachable."

I thought about it, and she's right. She rules! I am, for the first time, not terrified of the concept of working on my own. Of course, I mean there's all the scary things, like where's the business gonna come from? How do I effectively beat clients for money they owe me? Blah, blah, blah....too scary, don't want to think about that right now.

So, I thought I should create some kind of identity and at least a logo and business card. So, here is the very small first step toward the life I dream of.

Introducing, Bean Graphic Design.
Why Bean? Who is Bean? Beans are good?

I was struggling a bit to find a great name that meant something to me and that was, at the same time, still a good business name. Bean is the nickname my Dad calls me. Like when he calls he'll say "Hey Bean, whassup?". After doing the logo and card design, I finally asked my mom why he calls me bean. Her response? First they called me Kid....then Kidney....then came Kidney Bean...and finally dad just settled on.....Bean. The funny thing is, my Dad's name is John, so my brother and I call him Johno (a term of endearment, not a lack of respect in anyway). So, he started calling me Beano...nice, an anti-gas product. Maybe it's because I am full of hot air? Maybe I diffuse gaseous situations? Hmmm.... I digress....

Bean also reminded me of that experiment you do in school where you plant the tiny bean in a plastic cup and watch it sprout, send roots down, grab hold and grow like crazy. It was one of the coolest things I remembered as a kid, and it made me happy.

At any rate, I took my first step and Bean Graphic Design was born. Now, a million more little steps and I will be living the dream!

Here....we....go!

Watch out 2008! I am ready to ATTACK!!!!

So far, the first three days of the New Year have been pretty good. Nothing bad, nothing great and that's fine with me. It's been a simple and even-tempered start to what I know will be a crazy and busy year. But, I AM READY!!!

It seems–as I talk to more and more people–that it's a good thing 2007 is over. As far as I am concerned, good riddance and see-ya-later! It's not that is was a terrible year, there were good things. There were all the firsts with Mikey - first New Years, first Valentine's, first Birthday, first vacation..the list goes on. Then, there were a couple of GREAT things - the PUGGIES!!!! It was just the not-so-good things that made me wish for a "life fast-forward" button just to get through the bad to get to the good. But, I dove in and got'er done.

Those few good things made the year more than bearable, and I am thankful for that. It was the other eight-hundered-thousand not so good things that make me glad it is a new year!!! Welcome 2008!

Should be an interesting year. I am willing it to be a good year. I am shaking of the 2007 blahs and starting fresh and new. I already have freelance work coming out of my ears...which may sound stressful, but it is a really good thing. Maybe someday I will work out of my house on projects I love doing - something I only ever dreamed about, but could possibly become a reality. It's funny how I kept hoping and wishing for a "normal" life - a life without stress, chaos and craziness. Then, the other day, I came across the perfect quote:

"Normal is just a setting on a dryer."

Couldn't have said it better. There isn't a "normal". I can't be "normal" and I don't want to be "normal". Normal is just boring. Say it enough times...normal.....normal....normal....is doesn't even SOUND good. So, instead of striving for normal, I will stay different and a little off and strive for happiness and contentment, love and passion, and most of all a life that feeds my soul.

If I will it, it will come.

Happy New Year!!!

Hmmmm.....

When I was younger, I'd hang upside down from the couch and sing, "I am so bored –bored, bored, bored. I am so bored –bored, bored, bored." I'd drive my Mom nuts. I'd wander from room to room looking for something to do. There wasn't one thing to do in my room which was filled with toys, music, art supplies, dress-up clothes and books. There wasn't one thing to do with my brother, who was always bugging me to play. There wasn't one thing to do outside where my bike, sandbox and the park across the street were. Everything was boring. Bored. Bored. Bored.

So now, at 31, when I seem to be constantly busy and running around like a crazy person, how can I possibly feel bored? I find myself wandering from room to room, the Puggies following close behind. Guess what song is in my head! "I am so bored –bored, bored, bored. I am so bored –bored, bored, bored." How the heck on earth can I be bored?!

The Puggies have stopped following me. They are perfectly content to lay on the living room floor, chew their tug ropes and hack up a brightly colored mass of string every five minutes or so. Mikey is gone to hockey. The house is quiet, the TV is mine, I have paints and canvases, I have phone calls to return and emails to answer, Christmas baking to do, presents to buy, a new digital camera to figure out and most of all two loveable Puggies to play with. And I am bored? More like insane...

I don't know if this is a case of boredom, or more a case of "What should I do?". Maybe it's the weather, maybe it's some weird energy sucking parasite that is feeding on me....or.....maybe I am just being LAZY!!!!! I don't know. All I know is that I have about ten friends who would kill (okay, not really commit a homicide, but they might be tempted) to have a free hour, never mind a whole evening.

I don't feel like thinking about it. That's boring. I think I'll go sit on the couch and wait for something interesting to happen.

Comfort Food

Soft pillows of happiness. It's that time of year again when I turn out two or three batches of perogies in preparation for the Holiday Eating Frenzie my family calls Christmas. Mikey was home sick yesterday so I came home in the afternoon to keep an eye on him and thought it would be the perfect opportunity for perogy batch #1. I pulled out Mom's dough recipe (it's one of those passed down for three or four generations) and went to work. 10 cups of flour, eight pounds of potatoes, a huge block of Old Cheddar, blood, sweat and tears. I made 15 dozen and they are super-wicked-awesome-tasty. Of course Mikey and I had to try a couple for dinner last night....quality testing and control don'cha know. I would like to say they cured his illness, but alas, comfort food isn't a cure-all...it's just that - COMFORT. Yummy, hot, cheesy pillows of comfort.

Mikey's got bronchitis. Hack, hack, hack....sniff.....blow....hack....yuck. Poor thing. He's been sick for over a week now. Everyone is sick at work too. I managed to fight thorough the week without catching the horrible cold...until now. STUPID, STUPID aaaaaaaand STUPID! While cleaning up the kitchen last night, I started to feel that little tickle in the back of my throat. Oh, no! I crawled in to bed with flannel PJ's, a long sleeve shirt, a sweatshirt and two extremely hot little furnaces - The Puggies - in hopes of sweating it out before it fully arrived. Guess what? I woke up this morning aaaaaand............I have a cold. CRAP!!!! Double CRAP!!!! Double CRAP ON A STICK!!!!

So, my plan for the day is to lay on the couch and watch a movie with my puggies and my perogies.

Feed a cold? I think that's what it is.

Baby it's cold outside!

I can't believe how cold it is...okay, wait, I can't believe how cold it feels. I hate that transition from later fall to winter. The first day it hits the -10ºc mark and everyone starts running around digging out their mitts, hats and scarves...that's when you know there is no hope and winter is on it's way.

But, the upside is that there is snow. I do like snow. It makes everything look so clean and peaceful. I love being outside at night after a fresh snowfall when it is crisp and the moon is bright. It is silent. It is the silence that is perfect, refreshing and calming. It is the cold that you see your breath in. It is the crispness and the cool blue that falls over everything that makes me like winter.

The Puggies, on the other hand, aren't too happy with the outside lately. This is Stella's first winter and I don't think she knew what to do when I opened the door at 7:00 the other morning. She bounded down the stairs to the door and promptly stopped...well, her front end did anyway. When her back end caught up to her front she did a kind of summer salt out the door in to the snow, jumped up, turned tail and headed back to the door. Guinness on the other hand sniffed...sniiiiiiffffed....sniffed, sneezed and decided it was okay to proceed. When they finally made it to the back yard, it was a Puggy Winter Wonderland Free for All and they chased each other, rolled in the fluffy white that had covered the ground and then both came in looking like wet rats.

I guess that's what it's like for us all...a few sniffs, a quick adjustment to the icy chill and then back to living in the deep freeze for the next few months. Everything still, everything silent, everything calm.

Pug-o-ween

Days late, but finally here are the Puggy Halloween pics. Guinness the Lobster and Stella the Lizard. It was a total struggle to get the costumes on them, and an even bigger fight to keep them on. After a bit Guinness didn't really care as he had a new, green, moving Lizard toy to play with. Poor Stella...Ginny thought she was a new toy he could wrestle with.

And how did they really REALLY feel about the costumes?

They were quite happy once they had torn them off and conquered them!

The pumpkins at the top of the pictures were mine. I love carving pumpkins, but by the time I got around to it this year, I was soo tired I kept messing them up, cutting off pieces that weren't supposed to be cut off and eventually having to carve something simple on the opposite side. LAME!!! At any rate, they turned out okay...nothing special like I usually do, but okay.