Top 10 Things That Make Me Happy

While in El Paso, I watched a show with my mom where two celebrities listed the top 10 things that make them happy. Friends, family and health are givens. Here's my list followed by some explanations. What makes you happy?

1. Traveling
2. Having a great book to read
3. Writing
4. Game nights
5. Teaching
6. Someone singing to me
7. The smell of rain
8. Fountains
9. PJs
10. Crafting

Traveling - There is just something about leaving your life behind (not forgetting it, mind you) and seeing some place new. It's the adventure of being out of your own element and in someone else's. Nothing compares to being able to travel and experience something new you would have never been able to if you had stayed in one place.




Having a Great Book to Read - The next best thing to traveling will always be having a great book to read. Done well, great writing transports the reader to amazing places, real or not. I've been given some flack for reading mostly fiction or humorous non-fiction; told that it is second best to reading to learn. I whole heartedly object to the idea that reading fiction is not reading to learn. Fiction teaches the human condition.




Writing - Though I've lost touch with much more than blog writing lately, it still makes me very happy. It's like watching TV (which I don't do much of at all) or reading a great book, but with the ability to control where the story goes. I can create all sorts of adventures and choose where they go and how they get there. It's better than dreaming.




Game Nights - Growing up, my family played board and card games together. We are all competitive by nature. I love getting together with my friends or family for games. The games are really secondary to the laughter and fun of being around great people.




Teaching - I'm probably the only teacher on the planet who hates summer vacation. True, I get to travel. There is that, and I'm grateful for having the time to travel. However, I miss the kids. I miss bringing new ideas to them in fun and interesting ways and seeing them respond. They're also just dang fun to be around. It's truly the kids I loved about working at Disney. It's awesome I get to recreate that magic in a classroom.




Someone Singing to Me - It can be any song, even sung badly. Singing solo or along with the radio, making that connection lyrically, possibly emotionally (depending on the song) just makes me smile. It's like having my own personal rock star, performing just for me. Love it.




The Smell of Rain - It's the smell of the rain hitting the hot pavement (or sand in the desert) which hits you before the rain actually begins to fall that I love the most. The smell of the rain once it starts to fall isn't quite the same.




Fountains - No idea where I picked up my love for fountains. Even the most basic fountains draw me in. The more elaborate fountains absolutely enthrall me. I'm compelled to get in all of them... It's a serious battle of willpower not to.




PJs - I'm not talking about sexy nighties. I'm talking about super soft to the touch pants and matching tops, often with polka dots or absurd prints. At the end of the day, it's fantastic to slip into a pair of PJs and relax. My mother used to buy me PJs every time I was sick. They always brought me comfort and made me happy.




Crafting - It's about the challenge, not necessisarily the finished product. Trying new crafts, gluing, twisting, sewing, hammering things together to create something new is always something I'm willing to do. I'll see something and think, "I can make that." It's the process of trying to figure out how to do it, then actually doing it that I like most about crafting.

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I Cooked, and Other Summer Projects

When asked, I typically say I don't cook.  For the most part, it's true.  Dan does all of the cooking or we go out.  The truth of the matter is that I can cook, I just don't like to cook.  Every now and then, I get bored enough to really cook.  I meant to take pictures of the "garbage" I cooked that turned into amazing Thai chicken and noodles in awesome sauce, but, alas, I used my energy on cooking the stuff.  Anyway, I did manage to get a picture of the Thai chicken and coconut-red curry soup I made today.  It was accompanied by Thai iced tea.  

When I went to go upload the picture, I remembered another picture I had taken and not shared.  My curiosity, sweet tooth, and self-hating love of wine (damned allergies), were all killing me.  I don't know where I got the willpower, but I didn't end up buying either one of these. 

While sitting around the house this summer, bored out of my mind, watching garbage such as "Toddlers in Tiaras" and endless cake shows, I've been trying to expand my craft repetiore.  (A side note - anyone who can sit at home, awake from 8 am until 4 pm, without children to take care of during those hours, I don't know how you do it.  My brain would be soup.)

I started to knit.  I failed to check to see how much yarn was needed for a scarf.  Thus, I ran out of yarn and have a "scarf" about 10 inches wide by 18 inches long.  

After finding the idea on the net, I made that book page-flower wreath.  That went well (I posted pictures in my last blog post).  However, I don't believe I'll be making paper flowers out of streamers and gluing them to styrofoam balls any time soon.  It takes WAY to long to make those flower things and I'd need WAY too many.

So, I went back to making jewelry.  I found some neat glass animal beads to make rings out of and fried some marbles to make into pendants.  

I've since made more of the pendants.  However, you'll have to go check them out in my Etsy shop (or via my shop's Facebook page - since you're there anyway, you may as well "Like" the page, too) later this evening when I post those pictures.

Long-winded Projects

After several weeks and many serious burns from my dollar store hot glue gun (I figured out why it was only a dollar), I have finally completed my book page-flower wreath.

When I first saw this craft online at Under the Table and Dreaming, I thought, "Wow! I have got to make one of those.  It looks so easy."  While not any one part of this craft project was particularly complicated or hard, it took forever.

While endlessly cutting swirls out of book pages (I used Anne Lamott's "Hard Laughter" and Rick Riordan's "Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief"), I realized that this project had become a metaphor for my time in college.

I started both very excited and ambitious, thinking it would be fun and easy to do.  While not wrong about the easy part, I was very wrong about the fun part.  Sure, it started out fun.  I even had a few drinks and listened to a lot of good music while working.  I eventually started to look for any sort of distraction I could find while working.  This caused me to slow down my work and dragged the whole process on.  Finally, disgusted that everything had taken so long, I was determined to just finish.  I powered through to the end.  At last, I was left with something to be proud of: a college degree/wreath.

(Hanging from black and shimmery, sheer scroll ribbon)

(Close- up detail)