let's just be thankful because ...

photo by rosemary jordan

I sat down to finish up my Manifesting for Makers series because I know everyone is desperate to start manifesting ... , well something, something hopefully
worth the 15 minutes it takes to read that series,

(although you are best to never assume I know what the hell I am talking about and read everything I offer up at your own risk)

but so many things are in such flux right now and with a holiday week before us I think I will just offer up a little bit of thankfulness and disappear into my studio for a few long days to catch up with my own manifesting.

The first few things that pop into my hurricane scattered brain are:

1. I did not drive a Buick Roadster
(this may get my vote for most boring car ever and I have photographic proof that hubs used to drive one) - but I did drive an AMC Hornet (I bet this is not even googleable) and a Mercury Capri (although that was my first car - brown with a black vinyl top and totally awesome - I would probably still have it if my sister hadn't ran it out of gas and abandoned it somewhere near the beach where last we saw it a guy named Larry had moved in, rigged a cable line from a neighboring house for his tellie and started receiving mail and company)

and now that I google these cars they look like muscle cars and I don't remember driving muscle cars, but it kind of makes sense for me since I have very nice calf muscles or used to have very nice calf muscles or once fell down the stairs at the beach checking out hub's (before he was hubs) very nice calf muscles, so much for subtlety, but I did get a good look when I rolled past them as he clung to the railing in horror- I think this is how I won his heart - take notes girls.

2. My eyes (and hair) have returned to (sort of) normal after being swollen and irritated for several days after using an eye mask someone had given me to help me sleep (I think it was scented with lavender and pollen) which made my eyes the size of the "insert coin" slots at the laundromat causing me to mistake hair conditioner for shampoo 2 days in a row.

3. I no longer have to be jealous of my friends beautiful floors (because they are all underwater now) and the fact that they live in homes where 'refinishing the floor' doesn't mean 'buying a Dora the Explorer blankie to throw over that place in the carpet the cat clawed up 10 years ago'. Seeing all the beautiful homes turned into homes like mine and the people determined to rebuild them did make me realize I live at the equivalent of Baltic Avenue though  - I am going to have to work on this ...

4. We all survived the hurricane and will survive the aftermath - everything lost can be replaced, rebuilt or released - I vote for released with most things.

Wishing everyone a very thankful holiday. I will be back later in the week for finish up that series and offer up my shop's holiday announcements! xo to everyone

I LOVE LUCY - Upcycled Holiday Gift Countdown - Week # 6 - Best Friend Name Tag Necklaces

When I stumbled on this collection of vintage name tags last summer at Tess Home in Point Pleasant Beach I had to grab them up!

I was going to use them as name tags for a party - since they include the best names evah, (Bertha, Olga, Alice, Francis!)

but when I saw I had the names Lucille and Ethel I knew these 2 would make an amazing pair of best friend necklaces!

Now you may not stumble across tags like these, but this may get you thinking of a new way to make a special necklace set for you and your BFF this season.

There is no one way to do this and it will depend on what kind of attachments and doodads you have on hand. I measured and marked my center holes for drilling the tags - riveted on some industrial grommets (you could definitely just add your jump rings to the holes), added some jump rings,

used some fabric strips for cording (you can tie on additional strips to make chains longer, knots just add to the character of these pieces) and added some industrial hardware to some fabric beads for the final voila!

(now I just need a BFF - not sure I can convince hubs to wear an Ethel necklace - but I'm not parting with Lucy)

Manifesting for Makers - Part II - your message matters

fabric on wood, original artwork by shellie artist

I am going to go off-topic for a minute here for all my ascension 2012 focused peeps who are emailing me about Hurricane Sandy and the end of the world

(or the end of the world as we know it).

To alot of us here this is bringing up memories of September 11th and probably even more distant memories of loss (soul and/or body) are being activated.

The truth of the 2012 energy - which isn't actually about just this one year, but the vibrational intensity of so many people thinking these changes are specifically connecting to this one year can definitely manifest bigger things this year

(in the same way our emergency call 911 energy definitely added to the energy of 9/11)

the truth of this that we have all been sensing - some of us for many years, some of us more recently - is the feeling that something big is happening here or about to happen, that time has speeded up, that the things and people we used to turn to are not there for us anymore, that much has drifted away from us - the truth is that all our karmas are being played out all at once.

Dramas are unfolding so quickly that it sometimes seems like it is the end of everything. We are birthing something new and labor pains are ... well, painful, but no woman even remembers them once she has that baby in her arms (for more than ... oh, a year or two anyway or at least it goes away for awhile and then comes back when they are teenagers).

We are the mother and the baby now.

This isn't something that is happening to us, if we are on this planet right now, we chose to be here for these amazing times and it is a gift.

******

So, last post we talked about releasing our attachment to an outcome by getting to the vibration of what it is we are really seeking, finding our way into that vibration through a back door and sitting in that.

(doing this during a time of tension really moves our energy into another space - nothing magical has ever been created from the space of fear and tension; expanding from this space only brings us to more fear and tension - that place where we get what we want and then don't want it anymore - which is ok, of course because it's part of this deal called life sometimes and this helps us to define what we do want, but if we are doing this over and over again we probably want to break this pattern)

When we attach ourselves to an outcome it is much, much harder to stay in integrity. The word integrity is related to the roots of words like “integrate”  and “entire”.

Integrity is the state of being complete, undivided, intact and unbroken.

This place of wholeness is an important place to be hanging out if we want to manifest anything real - this is the place where the message of our makings has some really fertile soil. The makings that come from this place are the ones that can change the world - and yes, I totally believe those makings can be sweaters and paintings and earrings and turkey platters.

The world is moved by honesty. The world is shifted by people doing what they love.

It can't not move. 

When we release our attachment to the outcome and trust that what is truly ours will come to us

 - there is no need for jealousy when someone else achieves some kind of success because we know they get what is already theirs - if it was ours we would have it -

we begin to work from a space of wholeness (holiness) - the place in all of us that is connected.

This is why the story and message of our maker business is so important, the reason we do what we do and most especially the part of the reason that is not about ourselves.

Next Up - Manifesting for Makers Part III - Connection or the other part of this involving other people

revive. recover. rebuild - or what's a jersey girl do with dirty hair anyway

I can't really write about this yet. It is too raw and unsettled

(and cold and dark here)

but just wanted to post that we are OK.

The pictures on the television do not really do it justice - if you remember the book/movie The Road - that is kind of what does it justice

(except of course happening here in NJ, we all have much cooler hair ... even when it is dirty and tied back with things that resemble bungie cords - yes, we can even rock those).

I grew up at the Jersey Shore and have lived in New Jersey my entire life

(except folks that live here don't call it that - we just call it the beach)

and so has hubs. We were flooded out and evacuated more times than we can remember as kids. George lost an uncle and two cousins when their fishing boat capsized during a storm; his aunt bought cold cuts, swept sand from her floors and had a funeral on her front porch.

She cried later.

Maybe just being in the proximity of an ocean so strong and so powerful can't help but rub off on the people here

(maybe it is our proximity to New York, people there are pretty tough, too)

although I suspect people are people wherever you find them.

We aren't nice. We talk fast. We walk fast. We drive like maniacs. We will beep at you in 1.5 seconds if the light turns green and your car is not moving through the intersection. We have roads called circles where the only rule is there is no rule and whoever doesn't stop has the right of way.

We curse. If you bring your kids to a Jersey diner for breakfast they will most likely learn some words you will not want them repeating at the dinner table (from our kids probably).

But we are kind. We work together. We will give you the shirt off our back and yes, our backs often have tattoos and tan lines (and muscles ... we work hard).

We do what we have to do.

We are mostly all from here or from New York because who the hell would want to move here, so we have roots; the kind of roots that go back generations - roots that can withstand 80 MPH winds actually.

We've heard all the jokes about how classless we are, how funny we talk, about turnpike exits and polluted air and we laugh right along with everyone because the less anyone knows about how freakin' beautiful it really is here, the more likely we are to have this place all to ourselves. 

That's all I have to say today - I am making myself ferklemped and here in Jersey we cry later. If you are from these parts you know what this is. If you don't, you might if you watch Chris's video:



(the freestanding house in this video used to be a block in from the beach on a road that doesn't exist anymore - the houses on the beach side are ... gone)

NOTE - Maybe one (of many) good things that can come from this is that we can finally get over any need we have to glamorize and dramatize turbulence, the end of the world, death and destruction - ala vampires and zombies and survivalists - let's not focus on this crap anymore - it sucks.

xo everyone - a big thank you to Vinnie and Maribeth for the lentil soup, Harry Potter, offer of a hot shower and internet use to keep Olive biting, Chris for this video, lanterns and the generator and Kella for the barbecue turkey chili and Halloween candy.