Live Granades » In Misty’s Head

Where Life Takes You

Misty — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 18:49:31 +0000

I have been absent from this site for some time. The short explanation is, I’ve been incubating.

Here’s the slightly longer explanation: Two years ago I attended the Global Women Summit in Austin, TX. Since that experience, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about what sort of contribution I can make to the world. There’s a lot of need out there and since I have been blessed with abundance, I want to share. So how to do that?

That’s been the sticking point for a while. I’ve tried several projects and none of them fit quite right. They were worthy things. Good things. Life giving things. But not the right combination of what Frederick Buechner calls where my “deep gladness” and the “world’s deep hunger” meet.

Just after the first of the year, a friend asked me if I’d be interested in a project she was going to be working on. (I’d convinced her to attend the Summit in October and she’d caught the same bug as me.) She started explaining that she wanted to sell crafts to raise money for and awareness of the worldwide water crisis. Now I have interest, organizational ability and a bit energy but Hallie has vision and drive and all that magic stuff that makes things start to happen. I immediately said yes!

Since January, I have been saying that my friends and I accidentally started a non-profit organization. And I say it sort of jokingly. But it’s starting to be the real deal. In the very near future we are going to need an accountant and lawyer to get it set up. Right now we are working out of our church and our own pockets.

But now! This is the exciting part! I get to share it with everyone! Visit The Water Glass to see where I’ve been spending my time. There are lots of pictures and links, so feel free to poke around a bit.

And check out this video. It’s an excellent overview of the water crisis in under four minutes.

Needs more yarn

Misty — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 21:24:53 +0000

Pretty much everyone who reads this blog knows that in the past year I’ve become rather crazy about crochet. It has pretty well consumed my free time. And I mean it when I say “consumed.” If I’m sitting, I have a hook, yarn, pattern or all three in my hands. My current tally in my ravelry.com projects list is 108. That number is actually a bit low because I made a lots of hats for charity before Thanksgiving last year. So in reality my completed projects number is closer to 200.

And charity is the reason for this post. So far, I’ve made hats for Arkansas Children’s Hospital, toys for foster children, bears for Mother Bear Project, booties for pregnancy support services, hats for the homeless, and a few adult hats for a friend of a friend who is headed for brain surgery sometime soon. I have loved every minute of it but all of this takes yarn, lots and lots of yarn.

This is where you come in! I need yarn. So I’m asking if you are a crafter, to clean out your stash. Ask your friends and relatives if they want to clean out their yarn closets. If you already watch Freecycle in your area, keep your eye out for yarn and snag it if it comes available.

New yarn is best for donating to hospital situations and worsted weight works best for the kinds of project I do. But if you have older yarn or different weights, I’ll take those as well and make it work. I got an excellent windfall last year from Freecycle via Danielle of baby weight yarn and that’s what at least half of the hospital hats were made from.

My goal is to continue to turn out hats, scarves, shawls and toys for disadvantaged folks. If I can use up some yarn that needs a home, even better! Email me if you have yarn or other thoughts and ideas.

Addendum: I should have given a shout out to my yarn store of choice: Knit Unto Others in Arkadelphia, AR. Stephen’s mom spends most of her days there with the owner, Claire. The shop is fantastic! Full of lovely yarn and lovelier people and as the name claims, they are all about keeping people warm and snugly.

Weekend with LanaBob

Misty — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 23:16:20 +0000

Alana has been visiting us this weekend and we’ve had some big fun. Friday we went to Build-a-Bear to celebrate 50 years of Sanrio.

From left to right: Alana’s new Yorkie, Rooney, My Hello Kitty, Eli’s Keroppi, Liza’s Tropical Kitty, Liza and Eli. Notice Eli’s band-aid on his forehead, that’s where the stitches are.

Having LanaBob here when Eli smashed his head was invaluable. She cleaned up dinner (since we had just finished eating when it happened) and stayed with Liza while Stephen and I took him to the Urgent Care on the corner. Thanks, LanaBob!

This is dip night. When Alana visits, we always make at least one dip. This time we decided to have a whole dinner of dips. Clockwise from top left: pizza dip, spinach dip, salmon spread, cheese dip and spinach artichoke dip. It is all awesome and I’m going back to eat some now!

Me and My Healthy Lifestyle

Misty — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 15:27:33 +0000

The honeymoon is definitely over between me and my new “healthy lifestyle.” During the first six months and 30 pounds and four pants sizes we got along great but now the bickering has started.

This past week, I sorta gave it a rest. I didn’t exercise much. I ate a bunch of crap and guess what? I gained three pounds.

It was depressing to really realize that this is something that has to be different for the rest of my life. I’ve hated my metabolism this week with a passion I usually reserve for the love of my favorite crafts and sports team. I’ve hated the fact that I can’t totally give up food. The thought has crossed my mind that maybe an eating disorder for 6-8 months would solve all my problems.

But the truth is I think I kinda already have an eating disorder at the other end of the spectrum. I’m an emotional eater.

I eat when I’m happy. I eat when I’m sad. I eat for entertainment. I eat to celebrate with friends. I eat when I need something to do with my hands. I eat because it tastes good. I eat because I like food. I eat. I eat. I eat…I eat too much.

Add that to a spectacularly slow metabolism, a lifestyle that doesn’t provide much exercise and here I am: massively overweight.

This is something I started to realize back in January. It was in the mix of what got me started with getting into shape. The first couple of months I was really good about questioning myself every time I went for something to eat:

Asking all those questions before every trip to the kitchen is exhausting. Especially since I live in the kitchen with two kids needing meals and snacks and more snacks and oh, wait it’s supper time already? So over the past few months I’ve lost that question and answer session before sitting down to eat. I was still doing pretty well because of the amount of exercise I was putting in but this past week I decided I just didn’t care any more. And it showed in how I felt about exercise, how I felt about eating, and how I felt about my body. And so I gained weight.

I have hesitated to call this a problem for more than 10 years. While we lived in North Carolina I had a good friend who was a binge eater. She attended Overeaters Anonymous and often urged me to go. I declined on the grounds that I “just liked food,” not that I had a problem. I know, classic denial. Just because I studied psychology, doesn’t mean I can’t still miss the giant cheesecake sitting on my plate.

All of this has been swirling around me in the past six months. Several friends have also come out to me about their struggles with weight issues recently as well. So I wanted to get this all down here. To rededicate myself to my relationship with my health lifestyle. To remind myself that it’s a continual process and that there are other ways to cope. To let others know that talking about it always helps and that it’s always a good day to walk a few miles.

Some resources:
Emotional Eating
Binge Eating
Overeaters Anonymous
Are you a food addict? Yeah, some of these questions made me cringe a little bit.

Smaller Pants

Misty — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 13:57:43 +0000

I got a wake up call right after the first of the year.

I went to the doctor for a sinus infection and my blood pressure was high. So high in fact, that my nurse practitioner was afraid I would have a stroke. She ripped open a sample box of BP meds and stood and watched while I took the first one. That doctor visit was the first day of my current life.

I had been toying with giving something up for Lent. I had never done a Lenten practice before, so I decided to combine that with something my body needed very badly. I gave up dessert sugar, sugared drinks and fast food.

The first week was bad. Withdrawal craving kind of bad. Several times I would wake up and crave sugar so badly I thought I’d cave and get something. But I didn’t. I made it through that first week and moved on to the second. Each week was easier until at this point, I don’t even think about sugar much. I do have it now but it’s a once or twice a week thing, instead of everyday, twice a day.

I started exercising. Every day. Not when I wanted to or felt like it. I did it everyday.

I lost 20 pounds so quickly if felt like magic.

I bought some new clothes to take on our trip to England.

Shortly before we left on our trip, I hurt my knee. I don’t know what I did to it but it was so very painful. I took a bit of rest the few days before we left and missed my trip goal weight by 1 pound. I was a bit sad but I consoled myself with the fact that I would still be getting plenty of exercise on the trip.

My knee was the singular down note on our whole trip. I had to baby it pretty much every day and the day we were in Edinburgh I didn’t climb Holyrood to see Authur’s Seat because I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to walk at all the next day.

When we got home I had my chiropractor adjust it and since then it has steadily gotten better but I haven’t been exercising everyday. After the trip, I took the whole week off from working out. I’ve slowly been adding the daily workouts back to my schedule but I’ve been really careful about it.

Yesterday I went to the store nab a pair of shorts because I gave away all the ones that were too big. I picked up a pair that were the size I bought just before our trip. They were too big. I thought maybe it was a mis-size, so I got another pair. They were too big as well. I tried on the smaller size and they fit! Sometime in the past month, even though I haven’t lost any more weight, I lost a pants size.

I am not too proud to admit that I did a little dance of glee in the dressing room while wearing smaller pants.

In a lifetime of always, ALWAYS, buying the next size up, I bought the size smaller yesterday.

I wanted to come home and start my marathon training. Seriously, it crossed my mind to take up running.

So how’s my blood pressure? It’s better. I’m still taking meds but it is lower than when I started at the first of the year. The second half is that even though I’ve massively overhauled my diet and I’ve taken up exercise, I still had to start taking cholesterol meds. I’m not sure that this is a function of my weight at this point. I think I might be fighting age and genetics. And I’m getting to the point of being ok with that.

It’s hard to be mad at taking my medicine while I’m wearing smaller pants.

Fear of Banking

Misty — Sun, 23 May 2010 12:40:49 +0000

This past week I went to the bank to pick up our passports from the safety deposit box for our upcoming trip to the UK.

This is where I am going to confess my irrational fear of banks. I hate going inside the bank because, wait for it, I’m afraid there will be a robbery.

It’s completely stupid, I know. The chances of something like that happening in the 15 minutes I am inside the bank are incredibly low. I know it and yet, I think about it every time I have to go to the safety deposit box. I actually plan my inside bank visits for when I know I won’t have the kids with me. Again, completely irrational. I think this must be why the drive-thru was invented.

Anyone else have fears they know are completely ridiculous and aren’t afraid to share?

Thankful

Misty — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 00:51:00 +0000

I’ve not said much here lately. I’ve had a lot going on in my head. I think I needed a bit of time to catch my breath and think about a few things. I guess I’ve had a season of personal growth but I’m not sure how to put it all into words. My take away is that: Life is Big. I know, profound, huh? I’ve spent the last few weeks feeling so incredibly blessed by the people around me and the life I am so fortunate to get to lead.

Tuesday night we learned that one of our fellow crafter’s children has a terminal genetic problem. It is sharp blow for us in the group and all of us are searching for the right way to support our friend. Watching Becky deal with this and talk about it is so far beyond inspirational I think she might has single-handedly created a whole new category for mother bravery. If these are the times we learn what we are made of, Becky is made of amazing stuff indeed.

Spring is starting to happen. Finally. The Bradford pear trees have exploded into solid white overnight. Liza has asked twice a day for a week when we will hunt Easter eggs. Sunday is Easter, ending my first ever Lenten practice. I never thought I would undertake Lent and certain not give up what I gave up but I am so glad that I did. It has made my days richer and fuller in ways I haven’t completely processed yet. But I know that I am thankful. So thankful.

An everything update in one post!

Misty — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 16:59:08 +0000

As Stephen posted earlier today: Life! it is busy! We have a wounded hot water heater that we’re dealing with. I have a root canal scheduled for Tuesday. My blood pressure has been crazy high and I’m dealing with that. And in and around all these other things, we’re trying to get Eli’s birthday party plans worked out and still carry on the day to day business of life. I’ve remarked a few times that I have no idea how I’d hold down a full time job what with all the work I do and this is definitely one of the busy times.

But we’ve still had some fun lately. Behold: The nearly six year old spoon boy!

And his crime fighting buddy: Orange Girl!

If that’s not enough to scare the evil pants off of the bad dudes, here is the even scarier formation: Tower of Granades! to get the bad guys attention. Stephen is welding the pickle-pult for full defensive action.

How do I fight crime, you ask? Well, I bore them to death with tales of organizing my office and photos of cross stitch projects. See below!

Here is The Fortunate Traveler as I packed it up this past week. I’m moving on to a new stitching project so I wanted to show off the progress I made over the past four months.

This is the box of thread I worked out of for Traveler. I remember when I organized this box I thought it was the largest project I’d ever undertake. I was so very wrong.

My next project is Starry Night as reproduced by Golden Kite. This is one of my favorite pieces of art and I’ve wanted to work on it for a while. Several companies have done a repro but none of them get it right like Golden Kite. I got the pattern for Christmas.

The box on the left is thread I had to purchase for this project. The box on the right is thread I already had. I also had to purchase another box like the one on the right to hold all the thread.

The second box I purchased holds about 1/3 of the regular colors and then 2/3s of the box is blended colors. What is a blended color? Take two colors, separate the individual six strands of each and them combine one strand out of each two. Makes for a beautiful color set. Starry Night has 88 blended threads. I know, because I’ve numbered the cards for easy reorganization. Getting the thread wound took three separate nights of work.

Previously, I’ve kept track of my blended threads on the symbol card by sticking the needle through the card next to the symbol. It makes for a very messy symbol chart! The needles then fall out and I end up trashing thread because I don’t know what the colors on the needle are. So blending the threads on their own cards before I start stitching is a new method for me. I can already tell it will, at the very least, be neater than my earlier setup.

Fabric! I bought a slightly undersized piece of linen to use. It was 40% off and I decided that if I ever actually got the piece finished it would have to have fabric sewn to it so it could be stretched anyway. I stitched about 30 stitches and realized two things: I needed to stop and pre-blend all the thread AND I desperately needed Aida fabric.

I’ve not used Aida much in the past few years. It’s the fabric you use when you start stitching. It’s heavier, starchier, and even the best quality Aida doesn’t look as good as the lowest quality linen. However, for this project, I realized that it would go much faster if I wasn’t counting holes in the linen to get the stitches right. Also, since the finished piece is solid stitches the fabric wasn’t going to show anyway.

That ruler? Inside the frame in the center of the fabric? It’s seven inches long. That piece of fabric is 36 inches by 31 inches. The finished piece will be 29 1/2 inches wide by 24 inches high.

I got it all stretched on the frame last night and almost, almost got the 30 stitches done I’d made earlier in the week on the linen.

Are you dead yet? A couple of photos of the office since it looks so amazing right now.

The monument to paper! Notice I have labeled all the drawers!

New boxes! New books! New labels! I might be able to actually find things! Crazy talk!

I’m practicing saying, “I am an artist.”

Misty — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 12:05:31 +0000

I think a lot about other people’s artistic styles–about how I wished I’d thought of what they’ve created. Or maybe I wish my stuff were as cool as I perceive theirs to be. Maybe my work is cool and maybe it isn’t. I’m not writing this down to garner praises or sneers for what I do. At this particular minute, I’m not even sure what it means for my stuff to be cool.

As with different kinds of style, it seems that craft work can be a bit faddish. Things look nifty and everybody wants to jump on the bandwagon. Looking at artist’s magazines really emphasizes this. I love them and look forward to my monthly trip to B&N to sit and troll the mags while Liza plays with the trains. I even buy one occasionally. What I’ve discovered from looking those over for the past year and cruising 100+ blogs a day is that there a whole lot of people doing very similar things. I’m not saying that what they are working on is bad, I’m just saying I’m starting to see the cycle. And oh boy, does the internet feed that beast.

Here’s the thing: when I look at what’s swirling around out there, I realize that my stuff doesn’t look like that.

A few weeks ago I found a set of videos of a well known artist journaler explaining her process step by step. (Incidentally this is the same blog where I first found out about artist journaling.) I was really excited to see how Teesha made her own notebooks out of sheets of watercolor paper. That bit of info solved a problem about my own journal that I’d been working on for a while.

I immediately got a sheet of watercolor paper and, just for kicks, decided to follow her process. Wow, was that hard! Staying inside of her lines was nearly impossible for me. And what I ended up with only bears a passing resemblance to what she does. As a copy of her work it stinks. But what a learning experience it was for me! And hard! So much harder for me than my own process. So I came away armed with a solution to a problem and also a bit of security in what I do on my own.

So my angst comes down to this: I want to grow as an artist. I want to find my own style and be more comfortable with it, be willing and able to claim that style. I want to proclaim, “I am an artist!” And I never feel as if I’m quite ready to do that. How can I call myself an artist when I don’t have a body of work? I can’t stay focused on one thing. I want to try every little thing that catches my eye. (Maybe that’s where my contribution to the fad kicks in.) One week, I’m all about ATCs. The next week, I’m all about artist journaling. I make notebooks and cross-stitch. I want to try traditional bookmaking and printmaking. I want to do better graphic design. I want to start drawing again like I did in college. I want to figure out how to combine some of this stuff and cook up something awesome. I’ve got so many irons in the fire, I don’t know which one is hot.

After the holidays, I’m gonna sit down and come up with a plan. Christmas has depleted my Etsy store stock. I’ve been making custom-order notebooks for a couple of people for Christmas and also making a few personal gifts. I want to get my store up and running ASAP after the first of the year, and then carve out some time to start working on all this other stuff.

Maybe all of this is just part of what an artist experiences. The desire to figure our our artistic selves. The search for the idea that opens up our life’s work. The time spent working on every little thing until the big thing grabs our attention and doesn’t let go. Maybe I’m more of an artist than I’ve ever given myself credit for before.

Craft Update

Misty — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 21:27:04 +0000

I started this Teresa Wentzler before Liza was born. I stopped to cross stitch something for Liza’s room and then just never picked this piece back up. After I finished the lighthouses, I asked the Craft Night Ladies what I should work on next and they all unanimously said, “THAT!” when I showed it to them. I’ve nearly got the main panel completed and will start on the border for it and then there’s another huge section of text and more border after that. I don’t see it being completed anytime soon and I’m likely to put it down and work on something else for a while to take a break. But for now it’s pretty satisfying.

This past summer I started an art journal and I’ve worked in it as I’ve had ideas and wanted to try different things. This is my latest page from this week. I always think the one I just finished is my favorite and this one is no exception. I’m sure I’ll love the next one just as much.

I bought new lampshades because the old ones were so bent and mangled that it was starting to be embarrassing. I was just going to throw the old shades away but decided to see what the kids would do if I let them play. They spent a solid 30 minutes walking around like this and all they did was cackle like fiends and run into things. And I wonder how the lampshades got bent in the first place?

I traded my friend Janelle a notebook for these awesome slippers. Liza walks around saying, “Oink!” endlessly.

Speaking of notebooks, I have 12 to the point where I can take photos and start posting them. I’m hoping to get that done this week after I return from Atlanta and seeing U2.

Yeah, I said it. U2 for my birthday.

It’s the second time I’ve gotten to see U2 and both times it’s been in October. So I’m a lucky girl. Doubly lucky because Stephen is taking off of work to stay home with the kids while I go hang out with friends and go to the concert. I’ll have much to post about when I get back.