Happy Friday Everyone!

Still feeling a bit under the weather and have a fever now for some reason, but I wanted to pop in and announce the winner for the Jessica Alpern giveaway from last week and update my meditation series.

The winner is (chosen by random.org):
True Random Number Generator
Min: 1
Max: 310
Result:
301

Karina! Congrats Karina and thanks to everyone who took the time to enter!

I realized when rereading my meditation 'leaflet' last night that the only change in week 3 is the addition of 3 deep cleansing breaths after meditation - so for week 3 we will continue our week 2 practice of stilling our thoughts and add 3 deep cleansing breaths when our 15-30 minute practice is completed (I like to step outdoors for this ... and really inhale that pollen!).

Next week we add some intentions for our practice (the fun part) and you may be relaxing with the meditation so much by now that you want to add a second meditation at night - I know finding the time is a challenge - so just do what you are feeling drawn to and I will be back next week with the week 4 visualization exercises that you may or may not want to use to set some intentions for your meditation.

Wishing everyone a weekend of madness ....

xo

*print available at cheeseboy products

Whining Wednesday - send the kids to their rooms folks, this is going to get gross

So ... I haven't actually had the head cold I was pretending to have - I actually had

(drumroll please)

an exploded ovarian cyst.

KAPOW Batman!

Yes, it sounds gross and it is gross and in fact when I hear the word cyst I can't help but think about fluid filled things hanging off people's necks and arms and other places too unmentionable to mention.

Apparently your body can grow all kinds of things that you are not aware of

(well, maybe you are a tiny bit aware of - in the form of symptoms that you ignore, but it is hard to tell if you are bloated from an about-to-explode ovarian cyst or just too much guacamole at Chipotle's, especially when your stomach's normal state is a wee bit, uhm, slack, sorry stomach muscles I promise to give you some attention ... soon)

until you are suddenly curled into a ball, wincing in pain and asking Jesus, Buddha and Allah to carry you home.

(not that I did this)

I am actually pretty good with pain ...

(I was planning to have my daughter without any meds and when I finally gave in and asked for something - the doctor told me it was too soon; that I wasn't far enough along - ack - I realized every child-bearing woman on the planet had gotten farther than I did -

of course I was only 6 months pregnant at the time ...

I have also been known to pass out after stubbing my toe - but only once ... maybe twice)

The doctor asked me if I had been carrying anything heavy and I had carried alot of heavy whatnots at the Brimfield Flea Market a few days earlier and I had carried alot of heavy stuff to and from the Art Star craft show hours before.

(although their wonderful staff did help me carry things in and Noelle from Xenotees did help me carry stuff out, but I will still find a way to somehow blame hubby for not going with me to help haul things and a little hubby guilt can go a long way when someone has something exploded inside them and needs to be waited on hand and foot for a couple days month or two)

I have been still getting my orders made and mailed - yes, I know I am amazing - but during high pain periods

(these exploding cysts hurt for a few days while your body absorbs the blood - this is straight from the doctor folks although he used the word ruptured - I prefer "exploded", you can't make this kind of stuff up and yes, I know it is gross, I warned you - please don't hate me)

I have been watching Court TV - the Casey Anthony trial's jury selection which is very interesting. I would love to be on a jury in a high profile case -

but only if I get to stand up and shout "You Can't Handle The Truth!" or something Elle Woods said in Legally Blonde and only if the lawyer looks like Matthew McConaughey.

I actually was on a jury once - I was actually the jury foreman forewoman

(because I was seated in seat number 1; the judge asked me a couple questions to make sure I could put a proper sentence together and wasn't a complete nitwit and pronounced me the foreman)

and I will confess that during jury deliberations -

the case was about a guy who had run from the police by driving his car on the sidewalk and we had to decide if he had endangered other people by doing this -

I brought up the fact that I had been at that very intersection many times and it was always very busy with pedestrians -

something that I can see from watching the Casey Anthony trial jury selection I should never have said - being evidence not introduced during the trial and all -

I hope that poor guy isn't still in jail.

Well, I am back to bed now with my Nook, hubby is being wonderful and is downstairs cooking us all eggs, so even though I am only feeling a bit bloated and sore at the moment ... I am going to see how long I can run with this breakfast/dinner in bed thing ...

xo all
(hoping there are no little time bombs in any of you, but maybe get any symptoms checked out with your doctor - yes, you I'm talking to you)

pain in the ---

home sick ... back in a bit ... have a great day all!

xo

*adorable cold print by Stephan Britt

GIVEAWAY - Whimsy and Ink - Mustache Flask for Father's Day!

CLOSED - Winner will be announced on Friday!

Whimsy and Ink is the adorable little flask shop of partners Lisa Rios and Jon Cherry.

Lisa and Jon subscribe to the idea that a handmade life leads to a much simpler, more fulfilled existence.

They are dedicated to bringing their customers innovative and original flask designs, amazing service and are the home of the original Beard Love, Mustache Love and Wanderlust Map series of flasks.

I thought one of their mustache flasks personalized with any monogram would make a perfect gift for Father's Day!

WHAT YOU GET:

One lucky winner will receive this mustache flask with any monogram from Whimsy and Ink!

HOW TO WIN:

It's easy, peasy - just leave your contact information below!

For additional entries:

(5) Twitter this post
(5) Blog about this contest; linking to this post
(5) Follow my blog
(5) Facebook this post

Let me know if you have done these things so I can give you additional entries. This contest is open to everyone.

DRAWING:
Enter by midnight, Sunday, May 29th! Good Luck!

Blogger Trouble - is this Friday the 13th or April Fool's?

It looks like my last 2 posts have been eaten by Blogger's latest fiasco - hopefully they will pop back up here - AARGH!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone- I will be at Penn's Landing in Philadelphia for Art Star - stop by Booth 119 if you are in town!

xo all

Meditation - week 2 practice

After a week of the consistent practice of stilling your body - you should/may be able to sit still without twitching or itching for 15-30 minutes.

(if you can't do this yet my old teacher would have recommended another week of the week 1 practice shown HERE)

This week the practice is somewhat similar but with the added work of stilling our thoughts.

Our subconscious mind is what we are using when we do all those rote things that our conscious mind isn't thinking about - it never sleeps, it never rests - everything from our heart beating to our breathing to playing the piano and operating a typewriter are all subconscious processes. Our subconscious inspires us and warns us and pulls names and facts and pictures from our memory. You can see how there is great value in being able to work with your body's subconscious processes by working with your conscious ones (thoughts).

The conscious mind decides what is true for us - the subconsious just accepts - it is instinctive and the result of past reasoning and it connects us to everything - so by controlling the conscious mind - our own thoughts - we can work on controlling

(and 'control' is the wrong word here, but I am going blank on the right word - I think my subconscious memory storehouse doors are getting rusty these days - another reason I am meditating again)

our subconscious processes.

The following is the week 2 practice and I should say this part comes from an old paper I got from the YMCA camp - it has no authorship and is just a photocopy that I somehow managed to hang onto all these years.

Maybe your local YMCA has a class with a similar course, maybe not, the instructor was way out there in outer space and totally amazing. She was the only person at our Y I connected with at the time.

(I was once about to sign my daughter up for their daycare summer program when a cute little boy came up to the woman showing me around and asked him a question - I don't remember if she answered him or not - but I do remember her announcing loudly to me and the rest of the class, "his father is a lawyer that's why he asks alot of questions" -

my mind flashed ahead to my daughter's summer where this same woman would be announcing to the group - "her father is a truck mechanic that's why she has dirty fingernails".

We found another daycamp).

Week 2 Practice : select a room where you can be alone and a time when you will not be disturbed, sit erect, be comfortable but not too comfortable, sit perfectly still - start with 15 minutes and work up to a half hour (do this everyday at the same time) - clear your mind and just breathe - when a thought comes up, see it, but don't give it your focus, just let it float away from you and separate from you - work up to 30 minutes of being able to sit still and breathe without intruding thoughts (next week's exercise gets more interesting, but you have to master this one first - I shouldn't say master because of course, this is a process, but the YMCA says 'master' and I like the idea of mastering something with this practice, so we'll leave the word in here).

xo

*calm waters print by elgarbo Art

Brimfield Flea Market 2011 - overwhelm, blisters, mac & cheese and morris

Brimfield Flea Market in Brimfield, MA is one of the largest fleas in the U.S. with over 5000 dealers (is that possible?). Kella & I decided at the last minute to drive the 200 miles to be there for Tuesday's opening day. We are both busy this week and only had one day to spare so tried to make the most of it.

(I would definitely recommend two days; more if you are a serious flea market shopper)

We -

(I should say she - thank you Kella for driving through our GPS nightmare - we heard RECALCULATING at least 50 times over the two days ..)

wandered the grounds from 7am to around 3pm. Brimfield has about a dozen, I think, different fields of sellers (not all were open on Tuesday).

PLUSES - what we liked - the Mac & Cheese food truck - super yummy, Morris the metalworker (more on him later), lots of industrial vintage, a guy carrying a 6 foot dragonfly around the fields all day - not sure what to make of that, easy cheap parking (maybe we got lucky), crowds but not super squishy annoying crowds, lots of stuff for sale, no pushy salespeople

MINUSES - hardly anything was priced - at least 90% of the stuff had no prices (we hate that), the sellers basically ignored us - which we are usually ok with, but without prices it was annoying to not be able to find the seller or get their attention, the size of the show meant that we ended up so far from our car that even with a cart and little red wagon it definitely discouraged us from buying heavy stuff and everything we liked was heavy stuff, very little clothing, very few vintage linens, too much of everything else - it was kind of just too much - like when Ebay came along and I realized I could get every Trixie Belden book I ever wanted if I was willing to pay for it - it took some of the fun out of it.

OUR FAVORITE - Our vote for best seller at Brimfield was 13 year old metalworker Morris from Cleveland who works in his dad's studio and created these amazing peace signs (we bought two) from his dad's scrap pieces.

(they are super awesome and very heavy duty - I have the sore shoulders to prove it - they will last forever)

He was one of the only sellers who approached us, he cut us a deal on the price (yay), he was super-friendly and went out of his way for us - I am certain he sold out and we will all know his name one day - you read about him here first, folks - have you heard of Etsy, Morris - you need your own shop!

Now, I am back in the studio getting ready for Art Star in Phillie this weekend (and Kella is shooting a wedding on Long Island) - both of us are crossing our fingers for sunny skies!

xo