Rosie Made a Thing – via The Hippies were Right via Stephanie Youmans Wilson
Category Archives: Favorite Quotes
Something to Think About
Albert Einstein-sayingimages.com
Filed under Attitude, Challenges, Changes, Encouragement, Favorite Quotes
Where are You Putting YOUR Energy?
Doreen Virtue via Cathy Ruggiero
I’ve spent much of my life working to avoid my fears – deluding myself that I really had CONTROL. I’ve gotten halfway there now. I’ve admitted that a lot of the things I fear I CAN’T control. I haven’t been able to shut off the worry, but at least the acknowledgment allows me to put much of my energy elsewhere. I’m also doing better at living in the moment. Before my husband and I finally married (49 years ago now), I would wish away the present because I was waiting for his next leave from the Marines. I was waiting to finish college. I was waiting – wishing away much of what should have been an enjoyable time. I was ‘there,’ but didn’t really appreciate a lot of people and things I should have.
I’m doing better at living NOW. Appreciating what I have. Trying to show the people in my life how very much they mean to me in every way I can. I’m trying to do what I can on a daily basis to get healthier – getting the lard off gradually and exercising. I’m trying to pull my husband in on this so that we can squeeze out all life has to offer – together. I’m sticking my neck out and trying to learn new things. It’s all a work in progress, but by the time I kick the bucket I should have things figured out. :0)
Filed under Encouragement, Favorite Quotes
Choices
Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter, via Lisa Bearnes Richey
As I get older – and older – I see that this quote is true. It IS our choices that shape our lives.
- Do you choose to expand your life – try new things – learn something new?
- Do you choose to actively try to get healthier?
- Do you choose to reach out to a loved friend who needs you?
- Do you choose to tell – and show – people you love how much they mean to you?
- Do you choose to try to make each day count?
- Do you choose to look at life in a happier frame of mind?
- Do you choose look for ways to make others happier?
I’ve had several friends over the years seemingly make a conscious choice to allow their lives to implode. They resist change, refuse to learn new things, allowing their lives to get smaller and more insular until they’re gone. It’s a pattern I don’t want to follow. I’m choosing to live each day to the fullest. What choices are YOU making?
Filed under Attitude, Challenges, Changes, Encouragement, Favorite Quotes
I HOPE So!
Thinking People via Melissa A Eastman
Filed under Favorite Quotes, Reading is FUNdamental
Practicing!
Kurt Vonnegut via GrowingBolder.com via Cathy Ruggiero
My friend Debbye Hughes, who was dying of recurrent metastatic breast cancer, got angry with me because I was afraid to even try to draw, paint, or do anything artistic. She looked at me, sitting in her bed, paintbrush in hand, and said, “Who CARES if your work never gets off your own refrigerator door? Who CARES if others don’t like it? JUST DO IT!!!!!”
That was in 2000, and I started painting, crafting, trying to draw, experimenting with all kinds of things that gave me joy. I started a website with the wonderful help of my son who designed my website to show my own stuff and then expanded it for me so that I could add the work of others. He helped with the the business, end, too, and I enjoyed 17 years of association with some of the most creative, talented people from all over the world I’ve ever known. I made friends long distance. I worked my heart out trying to do all I could with the tiny budget I had to promote all of our work. I wouldn’t give up the opportunity I had for anything. I shut down my website, Creative Artworks, last year, and put my stuff on ArtFire and Etsy.
I love playing in my art room. The problem is that I have to set an alarm now so I don’t lose all track of time! I just love experimenting with color, texture, and different techniques. I’m like a little kid with finger paints taking joy in the process. Most of the time I make a mess. It just doesn’t turn out the way I envisioned it. That doesn’t matter, though. I’m doing something I love. I’m practicing!
Filed under doing what you love, Favorite Quotes, Hobbies
How to be Happy?
polyvore.com
“Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” – Marcel Proust
“Happiness is a by-product of an effort to make someone else happy.” ~ Gretta Brooker Palmer
Leo Tolstoy -sayingimages.com
Filed under Attitude, Encouragement, Favorite Quotes, Good Thoughts
“A Joke is a Very Serious Thing” – Winston Churchill
ardea.comviawww.dailymail.co.uk
“A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs. It’s jolted by every pebble on the road.”
Henry Ward Beecher
“A sense of humor is a major defense against minor troubles.”
Mignon McLaughlin
blazepress.com
“A sense of humor is the ability to understand a joke – and that the joke is oneself.”
Clifton Paul Fadiman
“A sense of humor… is needed armor. Joy in one’s heart and some laughter on one’s lips is a sign that the person down deep has a pretty good grasp of life.”
Hugh Sidey
“A taste for irony has kept more hearts from breaking than a sense of humor, for it takes irony to appreciate the joke which is on oneself.”
Jessamyn West
“A well-developed sense of humor is the pole that adds balance to your steps as you walk the tightrope of life.”
William A. Ward
incrediblecuteness.com
“Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog. Few people are interested and the frog dies of it. “
E. B. White
“Comedy has to be based on truth. You take the truth and you put a little curlicue at the end.”
Sid Caesar
“Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious.”
Peter Ustinov
“Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing.”
William James
“Humor is just another defense against the universe.”
Mel Brooks
“I think the next best thing to solving a problem is finding some humor in it.”
Frank Howard Clark
“One doesn’t have a sense of humor. It has you.”
Larry Gelbart
Filed under Favorite Quotes, Funny Signs - Humor
Inside Plans for the Day
ABSTRACTS by Sabina via Cathy Ruggiero
I’ve been fighting with my to-do list – it seems like for weeks now – not making much headway. Since today isn’t a good day to spend outside in my veggie garden, weeding my flower planters, or weed-whacking, I think I’ll take at least a bit of time this afternoon and play in my art room!
Filed under doing what you love, Favorite Quotes, Hobbies
Thoughts as Summer Begins
“A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, the birds are singing, and the lawn mower is broken.” — James Dent
forums.spacebattles.com
“The perfect summer day is with friends & flip flops.” – unknown
“Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability.” ~Sam Keen
pastorchrisjordan.wordpress.com
“Dirty hands, iced tea, garden fragrances thick in the air and a blanket of color before me,
who could ask for more?” – Bev Adams
Filed under Favorite Quotes, holidays, Mother Nature
Salute to the Day
Nanea Hoffman – Sweatpants and Coffee via Stephanie Youmans Wilson
Filed under Favorite Quotes
The Best Psychiatrist
Ben Williams via email from Bill Lites
Filed under Amazing Animals, Favorite Quotes
Feeling Lucky
The Fresh Quotes
Thinking of you today, John.
(And you, Sweet Murray – ((((HUGS))))) )
Filed under Family, Favorite Quotes, Friendship
Overwhelmed
“Gritting My Teeth” – Michelle Cazares
I love this picture. I identify with it, and yet the sweet little thing makes me smile. Wonderful photography!
Brian Tracy via recitethis.com via http://www.pinterest.com
I just gritted my teeth, writing down a quick list of what I would like to accomplish today. I didn’t even write down all of it, and I stopped – overwhelmed yet again by the number of things I ‘should’ be doing. And it doesn’t include the fun things I would like to do, like get up to my art room and play. :0(
This reminder by Brian Tracy is going on the side of my file cabinet close to my computer. I’m going to try choosing something I feel is the most important for the day and let that be IT as far as things I ‘should’ do. If I accomplish that one thing, I’ll treat myself to some FUN or RELAXING time. If there is time or energy left after that, it’s gravy.
(At least I’ll TRY to do this.)
Filed under Attitude, Favorite Quotes
Best Deal Ever Made
M. Facklamemail via Facebook/FortheLoveoftheDog via email from Bill Lites
Filed under Amazing Animals, Family, Favorite Quotes
Toast
Nanea Hoffman – SweatpantsandCoffee – via Lisa Bearnes Richey
Filed under Encouragement, Favorite Quotes
In Training
Corey Ford via email from Bill Lites
Filed under Amazing Animals, Favorite Quotes, Friendship
The Best Teacher
Facebook.com/ForTheLoveoftheDog via email from Bill Lites
Filed under Amazing Animals, Favorite Quotes
Sing Your Heart Out!
Emory Austin via Zen to Zany via Cathy Ruggiero
Filed under Attitude, Encouragement, Favorite Quotes
Laughing
Source Unknown
My dad had a great sense of humor and he was kind enough to give it to me in a lot of different forms – stories, jokes, puns, sarcasm. He taught me to stand back and look at things as if it were a movie. Many times, when you do this, you are able to see the humor in the situation.
He also used laughter as a defense. When he was 3, he fell off a horse, breaking his arm so badly that the doctors barely saved it. The result was a left arm much shorter than his right and a curled up, essentially useless hand. When kids at school bullied him, he made them laugh. They decided they liked him and wanted to be around him, so the bullying stopped. This ability served him well his whole life, allowing him to get married, have two kids, provide for everyone using his humor and talent to create radio commercials for his clients. He won an Addy Award for lifetime achievement in Tulsa. When he died, he scrawled on a piece of paper, “Remember me laughing.”
He gave us love and a priceless tool for handling many of the tough things in life. I can’t count the number of times that being able to see and share the humor in a situation has helped me – plus those dealing with me.
This morning is a good example of how being able to see the humor has saved my husband and our marriage! We were upstairs trying to program our ‘smart’ thermostat to cool down in the evening before we go to bed, keep it cool while we sleep, and then turn off during the day. The idea is that you set the time and day of the week, then start with day 1, setting heat and cool for each ‘period’ of the day – morn, day, afternoon, and evening with temp for heat and then for cool. When you finish one day’s programming, you can then copy it to all the other days and then get out of programming mode, setting it to ‘cool’ or ‘heat.’
We have just tried to do this four times, laboriously going through the long list of directions. When we finish, we get out of the programming mode, putting it to ‘cool.’ And it immediately turns on the a/c and starts to cool it down. WRONG! Plus – the ‘prog’ mode indicator is flashing. We don’t know if the thermostat is messed up or we’re having a serious case of user stupidity or what. We started getting really frustrated and angry, and then I was able to stand back and look at the two senior citizens – frustrated and angry – arguing over the thermostat being smarter than we were, and I started to laugh. When my husband asked, ‘what the hell are you laughing about?” I laughed even harder. Finally, he started to laugh, too. It diffused the situation – even though it’s still true that the thermostat is smarter than we are. We have now called and left a message with our go-to guy on heat and cooling…
Filed under Attitude, Challenges, Favorite Quotes, Funny Signs - Humor
Growing
lifehack.org-via-EmilyQuotes.com-via Evie Zimmerman
I tend to live in my comfort zone. I feel sure of myself and I like feeling that I’m in ‘control,’ even though I ‘realize’ that is delusion.
I feel good about myself when I step out of it, though – when I learn something new that is empowering.
Example: Since my husband is really good on computers and is finishing getting my new computer to work the way I want it to, I tend to be lazy and ask him how to do things, rather than figure it out for myself ( a VERY time-consuming, frustrating thing for someone the complete opposite of a computer/electronics nerd.) My husband tries to be patient when I ask him something, but it’s hard for both of us. He wants me to be specific, telling him exactly what I need in the proper terminology. (If I knew the proper terminology for my problem, I probably wouldn’t have the problem!)
I was trying to find some files on my computer. I tried to explain what I needed. The more I tried, the worse it got. Finally, we were totally frustrated with each other and gave up.
THAT’s when I stepped out of my comfort zone and actually started learning. After a LOT of flailing around, grinding of teeth, and more than a few bad words and tears, I managed to FIND the information I needed for my insurance detailing project – both the information that is on what I’m now calling the ‘old DVD’ and the spreadsheet on which I’ve started detailing what we own, what we paid, making sure we have a pic, etc. (including our first grade report card, thumb print, and….
When we talked about it later, I calmly told him I had found what I needed and had relocated them so I wouldn’t have trouble next time. He tried not to show it, but I THINK he was a bit disappointed that I didn’t need help on this anymore.
I stepped out of my comfort zone and now feel empowered – until the next time.
quotesgram.com
Filed under Attitude, empowerment, Encouragement, Favorite Quotes
creativeartworksblog 