Can't we all just get along?

Politics....  (shudder)  Why has this become such a nasty and negative thing?  It has for me at least.  I don't even care which side you are on.  Lately you can tell which side someone is on not based on what candidate they support, but by their hatred of the opposing candidate.  What happened to "United we stand, Divided we fall"?  You think that might be why even after the elections are over we still can't seem to rally together and get anything done?  The rift between the two opposing parties has grown into such a gaping chasm that seems if you attempt to bridge it you risk a grisly death.  Death by vicious villainous rhetoric at least.  Why does it have to be so mean and vile and negative?  Seriously.  I'm all for supporting and endorsing a candidate, but why can't it stop there, instead of feeling compelled then to eschew hatred and all things evil towards the other party?  Seriously, one of these guys is going to win, and we need to be able to work together to fix this mess of a country.  Instead of pointing fingers at who's fault it is.  How can we fix it if we are so divided from the elections we have no time to heal in between.  What happened to compromise?  When did the idea that a politician who compromises is seen as weak?  What happened to the ideals that we learned in Kindergarten, huh?  If you don't have anything nice to say then don't say anything at all.  Working together to find a solution that everyone can be happy with.  Everyone learning to share, be nice, and follow the golden rule.  I believe that people generally are trying their best to be good and do what is right according to them.  I like to hope that includes politicians (from both sides).  So, even if we disagree on some issues we can still learn to work together for the greater good.  BUT NOT IF WE KEEP POLARIZING ISSUES!!!  AND CALLING NAMES AND MUDSLINGING AND IN GENERAL JUST BEING MEAN!!  We need to as a country just freaking grow up and learn to work together and play nicely.  Quit throwing sand in the sandbox already.  It just makes everyone uncomfortable and irritated and in reality just ends up exposing all of the hidden cat poop.

On productivity and my general lack of it.

complete with personal neurosis

In yet another desperate attempt to be a better taskmaster for myself (ie. real grown-up) I have come up with again, another solution.  (Because I've certainly never addressed that issue on my blog before, ever...)  I need to be more accountable and organized and stuff, so I can be productive.  I don't really want to use (and thus use up, as it is almost full) my current planner, because then I'd have to make a new one... and I'm so crazy overwhelmed with creative projects right now I just cannot even fathom the thought of having to make a new one (even though I have already planned on what paper I want to make my new one with).  Therefore I re-adjusted the planner page I previously designed to a single page printout that I can just print off whenever I'd like, hang on the fridge, and throw away and such when I am done.  (as opposed to binding it all together in a beautiful, yet time consuming planner).  And I'm using it differently than I have my beautiful red planner.  It is basically a glorified "to do" list.  But without as much guilt... maybe.   ...hopefully.  I list things that need to be done on the right side and things that I DO on the left side.  (even if I list them retroactively)  Then I can both cross things off as I accomplish them and feel productive anyway with things I did that weren't on the list.  And whatever isn't done, if it deems itself worthy it can be moved to the next weeks list.  Or not, so as to not feel overly bogged down by OLD goals.  (I have weird mental tricks..) Who wants to do an old guilt laden thing, when there are bright and shiny new ideas to chase?  Which couldn't possibly be the reason for my creative buildup, right?

Also works for when you happen to decide you must go bunny shopping instead of everything else on your "to do" list

I may have ADD.. or clinically: ADHD-I, the sort with the inattentive subtype, but who really speaks that language ;).  Remember how I might be a mental hypochondriac?  Yeah... so who knows really.  I do know that I beat myself up for being lazy and am a massive procrastinator and I get crazy distracted by so many useless things ALL THE STUPID TIME!  And how I currently have no less than 26 uncompleted drafts of blog posts that I have started, but not finished.  And countless sewing projects that have been abandoned in various stages of completion.  And how I have been working on illustrating the children's book I wrote for going on something like 6 years.  And how sometimes the only time I get anything done is when I'm avoiding doing something else.  I should be able to get so much more done (even with kids.)  So, maybe I do have ADD.   But I'm thinking/hoping it isn't bad enough to warrant medication.. (what I have actually tried, it didn't help and I hated it)  This is my current way to fight back.  We'll see how well it works...

The glimmer of hope is that sometimes I have fantastic productivity surges and I am able to accomplish nearly everything I want to, until reality crashes the party.   Then I get caught in guilt and shame spirals where I beat myself up and it only makes it harder to do anything because I feel so crappy and I feel helpless against my unreasonable un-productivity.  I'll give you an example.  I really don't like doing dishes.  Normally I just do them anyway, and push through and pretend I'm a real and responsible grown-up.  (Or I totally jam out to loud music to make it fun.)  But sometimes, such as some unspecified three days last week, they unsuspectingly pile up to incomprehensible levels that may or may not contain every single bowl and utensil in my entire house and it becomes so awful and overwhelming that I will mean to do them, and constantly try to start, and feel completely awful that I haven't, but I'm never actually able to do it.  For three days people!  That is just super gross.  This is an extreme case, yes.. but sometimes the worse the problem, the harder it is to face.  But the more I actually do get done, when I finally break do break out of my stupor, is fantastic and encouraging.  The hope is that productivity is contagious.  So maybe it is possible to slowly turn my weaknesses into strengths.  Eventually.

And since I already re-formatted this goal/"to do"/productivity-planner/page/list/thingie for myself, why not share, if it could be useful to others.  So here you are.  Just click on the image and save it to your computer, and then you can print it out with whatever program you have that prints .jpg files.  So if you happen have my particular brand of crazy, you are welcome to make use of it.*  Or alternately you can use it like a regular planner, if you are normal and your grown-up-ness isn't broken.  You're welcome.  I make no guarantees as to its efficacy.  That part is up to you.

*Just don't be mean and try and sell it or things made from it, ok.  But that is just common sense and decency, right?

Book Review, King Hugo's Huge Ego by Chris Van Dusen

Not only are the pictures beautiful, but I even laughed out loud at the hilarity illustrated in one of the pictures.  His expression, the total ridiculousness of the situation, it was comic genius.  As for the rhyming text, well, I am actually usually not a big fan of rhyming verse in children's books.  It is just hard to do well and most of the time it becomes quite tedious, and I find myself just paraphrasing.  Quite surprisingly that is NOT the case with this book.  Which is quite the feat in my eyes.  Very few people can pull of rhyming text and make it work.  The pace is good, and not tedious and the storyline is exciting, funny and not repetitive.  And the illustrations are wonderful!  The colors throughout the book are vibrant and the compositions have just the right amount of detail.  We checked it out from the library, but now it is on our "to get" list.  Because it is a hit for both parents and kids in our house.

Have you read it?  What do you think about it?

Brain Vomit: or the post where I get overly deep and all psychoanalytical and even (gasp) religious

I just so happen to be an occasional mental hypochondriac.  I do not think I am alone in this as it happens to be quite the trendy thing to do to claim to have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder or Bi-Polar Personality Disorder or Attention Deficit Disorder.  Some times though our issues are big enough to have severely mucked up the chemistry in our brain.  But sometimes we are just self diagnosed wikipedia psychiatrists who borrow a convenient mental illness to blame our problems on.  The real point is we all have issues; big ones as well as small ones.  It is human nature to sympathize with others diagnoses and problems.  It is how we relate to others.  Diagnosed mental illnesses (professionally or not) are good and helpful and all, but they can become crippling and lead to feeling trapped by your own label.  And while medication is good and very helpful and all and totally needed in tons of circumstances.  But the underlying caveat is: it alone will not fix you.  YOU NEED TO FIX YOU (working with the medicine, if necessary and/or a REAL psychiatrist).  But the desire and willingness to change has to come from YOU.  (you know and/or help with God.)  Whether you believe in Him or not.  Even if you do (believe) He can't help you if YOU'RE not trying.  Its not like faith is magic.*  So it is still up to YOU.  God doesn't force anybody to do anything.  EVER.  (which is WHY evil things happen, by the way)

*unless you ask my son, who has said, and I quote: "Everyone is a muggle, except for Jesus."

God loves us no matter what we do or believe or anything.  He is going to love and try to help out atheists, or hardened criminals or overly religions judgmental and hypocritical zealots alike. Whether they are going to recognize it or not.  Seriously, and this shouldn't be a novel concept.  Cause He loves everyone.  Fo' reals.  And following eternal truths leads to happiness which is what he wants for everyone.  And one eternal truth is trying to become a better person.  Which most everyone is trying to do.  Because they have love (to some degree or another) for those around them.  And love makes us want to be better people.  Thus, you know the whole two great commandments.  (love God, love your neighbor).  Whether you cite the Bible or cite the Beatles (all you need is love), it is still truth.  And when you live your life for the love of others (as opposed to being the center of your own narcissistic universe) it makes you happy.

And yes while we sympathize with others we also do the polar opposite; we judge.  Which is really stupid.  I am not saying I do not do this (I totally do, and it is dumb).  'Cause everybody does.  That is the part where we think we're better.  And sure, sometimes we all have different truths that we have figured out better than other people.  BUT JUST KNOWING TRUE THINGS DOESN'T MAKE YOU A BETTER PERSON.  We can all learn from each others strengths and knowledge and experience.  No matter what they look like, no matter what religion (or lack thereof) they are, no matter their social class or geographical location, or political affiliation or mental illness or physical deformity or gender or race or shape (or the lack thereof), or beauty or sexual orientation or even age.  That is the hard part.  We can't figure it all out on our own.  Of course you have to filter out all the crap wrong things too... its not like it is easy.  Whatever resonates with you.   And holds true.   (which if you ARE religious, is the Spirit: but truth is true whether you believe it or not) And sometimes our own personal truths evolve as we are ready to learn it on a deeper level.  And sometimes we are dead wrong.  But there is usually a grain of truth in everything.

So find truth and then LIVE it.  I don't care where you find it.  I happen to be a Mormon, but I realize you can find pieces of truth everywhere.  There are also misconceptions and crap everywhere too, including in the culture of the LDS Church.  (And for heavens sake, I don't need them pointed out to me, mmm-k!)  Because nobody is perfect.  One of my very favorite scriptures of all time, and don't totally zone out... is in the Book of Mormon Mormon9:31, written by Mormon's son Moroni... and he basically says that neither he nor his father (or any of the many other prophets that wrote in the book) are perfect, and we shouldn't condemn them, but learn from their weaknesses that we may learn to be MORE perfect than they have been.  So when we see other people's mistakes, we shouldn't judge them, but learn from them.

The best thing (in my own personal opinion) that the LDS church teaches is that we can and should search truth for yourself.  Between you and God.  Or you and your own conscience, whatever you believe.   Truth does nobody any good whatsoever if you just talk about it.  Actually BE nice to people, even (or especially) when they don't deserve it.  Control your own emotions and destiny.  Decide to be happy and look for good things in situations and people and life.  And that is what you will see, and live.  Your life is what you focus on.  Another favorite quote of mine by Abraham Lincoln is: "Most people are about as happy as they want to be".  There is good and bad in everyone, and inherent strengths and weaknesses in everyone.  The difference is that you get to choose which parts of you to focus and act on.  Your choice.  You are the instigator of your own life and not the victim.

So I am venting, brain spew, and being all preachy.  (And it is all sorts of disorganized.)  Call it what you want, take it how you will.  You certainly don't have to agree with me.  I know that I certainly don't know everything and I'm screwed up just like everybody else. 

But I've decided to be more open, even if that means I make my mistakes out in public.  I generally like to hide, and be safe in obscurity.  But I have things to say.  I am going to endeavor to get my opinions out of my head.  I am not going to hide anymore (probably).  I'm going to say them, and they just might be controversial.  And later I might think I'm stupid and disagree with myself... but I'm putting myself out there anyway.  Even though it is scary.  And people aren't going to agree with me and that is totally fine.  Just don't be a prick about it.  Disagree respectfully please.

Book Review, Beegu by Alexis Deacon

I have discovered so many wonderful books from other reviews on blogs and such, I thought I'd blog about my favorites.  And perhaps it would give me more incentive to blog.  Besides, yay for sharing book love!

see, book love!

and sharing

sort of.

Look close though.

This is Sohvi. Not Lucy.

I discovered Beegu when I was first researching authoring/illustration of kids books.  So embarrassingly long ago I am ashamed to admit how little progress I have made since then.  My own personal book making journey has been (and will continue to be) a very long process.  I am not what you would call ambitious.  But I do have a stubborn streak.  It is pretty selective, and though often buried, is fierce.  Anyway, back to Beegu.  Fell in love with the book, as did Sohvi and so I bought her the book and made up a quirky pattern to make her a stuffed Beegu for her birthday that year.  She loved (and still does, years later) both of them.

It is a delightful, and very charming book about a little three eyed alien who is accidentally stranded here and she is lonely.  I love that the heroine is female but perfectly relate-able/accessible to everyone.  Most "neutral" characters just always seem to be boys.  The pictures are expressive and beautiful and communicate the perfect mood and feel for the book.  Though alien in form, her body language is amazingly communicative whether it be in expressing forlorn or delight.  The text is concise and evocative.  I love that I don't have to paraphrase it for impatient little kids who just want to turn the page and see the next picture already.  It is a total favorite with both the kids and adults in this house.  We absolutely adore this book.

Have you read it?  What do you think about it?

So its done then..

 You know, that book.  The book I've been whining about and working on and stressing about for far longer than I thought I would.  It is finally for sale in my etsy shop.  

I am also crazily having a coupon for 50% off for its introduction.  But the coupon isn't going to last long..  So, if you want it at the ridiculously low price of $6 (plus shipping, unless you are local..) then you should hop on it, because I doubt I'll ever go that low again.

Coupon code is FRIEND2012.

Tutorial: Pacifier Clips

I imagine that there are probably half a million of these tutorials out there..   But I thought I'd share this one because it uses fabric and not ribbon, and snaps and not velcro.  I needed something for my baby boy Liam, and since the ribbon I keep on hand isn't masculine, I came up with this.  It also uses up tiny scraps of fabric, of which I am a fan of.  Which means you can match it to baby stuff you've already made.  The clips are suspender or mitten clips, and the snaps are going to be close to them in the notions section of a fabric or craft store.  So, here you go.

You can use this to make pacifier clips however you'd like (personal and commercial) but if you use my pictures link back here or otherwise give me credit.  Enjoy!