MOD MIX MONDAY

http://www.flor.com/room-type.html
is happening over at Nita's at Mod Vintage Life.
I LOVE mixing Old and New, MODERN and VINTAGE.
I just sit and stare at my "FLOR" catalog and just drool. I love the styles and I want some FLOR tiles!
Someday, I hope to be able to order a "rug". It's not really expensive but it is to me right now.
What's so cool about them is that they are so durable and if there's an accident, you can just pick up that "square" and rinse it off! My animal friendly lifestyle really needs something like that! LOL!
But right now I mainly just use their catalog for INSPIRATION. Like the photo above. I want my kitchen floor to look like that dining room. I love the black and white on a diagonal. I love the Modern look of the room with the Retro chairs! I just adore it!
So I'm linking up to her Mod Mix (hopefully I will do it right! Ha!)
So stop over and see the other mixes.

I"M READY FOR A VACATION!

Oh wait, I just got back from one!?

Yep, one week, That's all it took to get back to square one.

My vacation started on a real roll. I cleared my side yard and filled 15 tall leaf bags FULL of limbs and yard waste and TWO van fulls of branches.

I sorted through all my STUFF and got rid of SO MUCH of it.

I pitched furniture and doors and old bikes and that little trampoline!

(Don't worry! Most of it was carted away by pickers!)

I worked in my garden transplanting my daisies and catmint that is now growing EVERYWHERE.
And I gathered together my art supplies and got them closer to my work space where I can begin to CREATE. I felt HAPPY and SURE about how I wanted to LIVE my LIFE. I would not let my Day Job cause me stress any longer. I would put in my time and FOCUS on my time at HOME.
I felt at PEACE.

Then I went back to work.
After several months of everyone covering for people who were gone on maternity leave, working various hours and overtime in a team effort for the good of the clinic we have been told that our hours will be cut from 40 hours to 35.

That's 10 hours off of every paycheck. Most of us work paycheck to paycheck. Those 10 hours is what pays for gas and groceries.
Oh well, I wanted to lose weight and
I wanted to have more time to work on my PASSIONS.

So......
I have to remember that "when one door closes, a window opens"  (Is that right?! or is it another door? Hmmm, anyway....)
I wish that window wasn't so damn high.

I'm a little bit ANGRY.

I just spent ALL evening trying to get into my blog.
Every time I would enter my blog address I would get redirected to a message that said :
URL Too Large 414 error.
So I typed in some of my favorite blog addresses and when I tried to comment I got:
URL Too Large 414 error
After whining about it in a phone call to a friend (who had no answer) and after HOURS of trying to figure it out, I walked away.
Then came back and finally after much Googling, found an answer from someone who had the same problem.
This is what you do: Tools, Internet Options, then - Delete Cookies.
So Simple, So Easy, So Quick.......So Maddening!

IT REALLY HIT ME....

when my alarm went off this morning.
I stumbled to the bathroom mirror and realized....

My vacation is over and I must go back to work.

GONE FISHING

Well. not really "Gone Fishing". UGH! I mean I could never eat something I've killed.

Nope, I'm a big hypocrite when I comes to THAT.
But I'm on vacation now and...
I have so much to do!

Cleaning, sorting, throwing out and painting some room(s).
Hopefully cutting trees and clearing the bottom of my yard where it drops off...without cutting off one of my OWN limbs! LOL!
and
Work on creating. Hopefully listing some things and
THINKING about my priorities.
Or maybe just having some beverages and not thinking at all!

Maybe pumping up the tires and going for a bike ride!

So I'll be back here on the 16th...maybe
(it will be SO HARD for me to stay away that long!)

READING BETWEEN THE LINES.

Sometimes I almost forget that this blog is here for all the world to see.
I finally have tried to post a few things on Facebook and it's so odd. I guess that only people that I have "friended" can read what I write but I find it strange. I am now friends with people that actually live in my town, or near it and yet these are not people who would pick up a phone to "chat".
It goes both ways, I don't try to reach out either.
Someone was talking about gathering eggs and I thought "What? does she live in the country now?" but I guess it's a game about farming.....
Yet here on my blog I receive comments and in turn leave comments to "friends" that I have never met, yet who I feel really know me. People I admire and respect and who take time out of their day to visit me here. I will ramble on and on and not give it a thought to who might be reading. But I must remember that I should not post anything that can come back and haunt me. So I find myself with something I would like to share but realize that I can not, not really. 

So instead I will just say that to me, some of the most important things in life is for a person to have honor and compassion. To follow their conscience and do the right thing. So many times the noise of life can roar above the voice in our heads and our hearts. I think it's easy to make excuses or to listen to other people or to be motivated by greed or ego but if a person is quiet and really listens to their heart...they know what is right. It's like when someone makes an anonymous gift. They give it because they see the need, they know that someone or something needs help and they are able to help, so they do. Not to brag about it or to have a tax write-off but because they follow their heart.  So many times we ask others what to do about things but if we just take a moment to be still, we know.
Or maybe not. Maybe some people don't have that voice in their head or God or wherever they feel those words come from.

My Dad, who was NOT religious, always said to just treat people like you want to be treated and try to stay true to that and you should live a honorable life.
There have been times in my life when I have let myself be talked into something and felt that it was wrong but gave into peer pressure and I had such a heavy heart.  As I've gotten older, I find myself no longer really caring what others think I should do or not do. I just want to be able to go to sleep peacefully at night.

I know that I can not change other people and that are so many selfish heartless people in the world

and there's nothing that I can really do about them except to try to avoid them as much as possible. But unfortunately sometimes I am not able to  and I feel like their poison is spilling out and trying to contaminate me. I must step carefully.

It is my nature to back away from that negativity, turn and run.

But after much thought I think that it would be better to stay. Stay and hold up a mirror so that hopefully the reflection will bring shame and guilt. Stay and be strong.

Strong for those who are unable to defend themselves.

I feel like everywhere I turn lately there are signs, messages trying to guide me on the right path. A book I was reading that other day was talking about having passion for something in our lives. The kind of passion that makes us lose ourselves and all track of time. The author said that most of us discovered it when we were young, but we have forgotten it while being so busy dealing with our daily lives. Or maybe someone told us that it was silly or stupid and we decided to do what we were expected to do or what everyone else was doing. The book was talking about getting older and retiring and it stressed that instead of retiring, to try re-"firing". To work towards that passion again. I have many years before I can retire but I can start now to listening to my inner voice and onto the road to my passion, my happiness and away from people motivated by greed or evil or sheer laziness. 

I've been thinking quite a bit about my health lately and the effect of "aging" is having on me. I realize that I must eat better and exercise more but I think that stress plays a big factor. I think that if I could process stress differently, handled it differently, that I would feel better physically.  I will try to remember to make sure to "be quiet" and listen to my inner voice, be strong and were true to myself.

So, that's what I'm thinking about....handling stress better, dealing with mean people better, and following my passions and not backing away.

MY HAPPY PLACE

Sometimes when life seems extra hard, when people disappoint me, when they are heartless and selfish, when I just want to run and hide.....I go to my HaPpY place,

even if it's only in my mind.
Where's your HaPpY place?