Mandala Journal day 2

I finished the cover on the Mandala Journal and worked on two pages today. The cover is brown paper painted with acrylics. The Heal my Heart page is scrapbook papers and a heart doily. The Heal my Mind page is a scan of a Leonardo da Vinci anatomical drawings book someone graciously gave me. The writing is sharpie ultra fine and then colored pencils.
The heart page came as an inspiration and I would like to try it again with different colored papers.

And now for a really funny joke about consultants, which pretty much seems impossible:

A cowboy named Bud was overseeing his herd in a remote mountainous pasture in California when suddenly a brand-new BMW 7 Series advanced out of a dust cloud towards him.

The driver, a young man in a Brioni suit, Gucci shoes, Cartier sunglasses and YSL tie, leans out the window and asks the cowboy, 'If I tell you exactly how many cows and calves you have in your herd, Will you give me a calf?'

Bud looks at the man, obviously a yuppie, then looks at his peacefully grazing herd and calmly answers, 'Sure, Why not?'

The yuppie parks his car, whips out his HP notebook computer, connects it to his Nokia N95 cell phone, and surfs to a NASA page on the Internet, where he calls up a GPS satellite to get an exact fix on his location which he then feeds to another NASA satellite that scans the area in an ultra-high-resolution photo.

The young man then opens the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop and exports it to an image processing facility in Hamburg , Germany...

Within seconds, he receives an email on his Palm Pilot that the image has been processed and the data stored. He then accesses a MS-SQL database through an ODBC connected Excel spreadsheet with email on his Blackberry and, after a few minutes, receives a response.

Finally, he prints out a full-color, 150-page report on his hi-Tech Miniaturized HP LaserJet printer and finally turns to the cowboy and says, 'You have exactly 1,586 cows and calves.'

'That's right. Well, I guess you can take one of my calves,' says Bud.

He watches the young man select one of the animals and looks on amused as the young man stuffs it into the trunk of his car.

Then the Bud says to the young man, 'Hey, if I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my calf?'

The young man thinks about it for a second and then says, 'Okay, why not?'

'You're an IT Consultant', says Bud.

'Wow! That's correct,' says the yuppie, 'but how did you guess that?'

'No guessing required.' answered the cowboy. 'You showed up here even though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew,to a question I never asked. You tried to show me how much smarter than me you are; and you don't know a thing about cows...this is a herd of
sheep...'

''Now give me back my dog''.

New Art Journal

Every summer I make an art journal. I have more time in the summer and I like having a way to document my ideas for other projects. This summer I am making a Mandala journal. All the entries will be mandalas--at least that's the plan today! As usual, I rescued a book from the trash. This was the Richard Scarry Best Word Book Ever, which was my children's favorite book when they were little. It was in bad shape and sometimes I use the pages, but in this instance, I tore them out. Then I made two signatures of watercolor paper and sewed them together. I taped the pages inside the journal using transparent duct tape. The cover is not decorated yet, because I wanted to get started inside first. I will cover the cover (!) with fabric, I think and then paint a mandala on.
The first entry is a healing mandala I constructed.
I am looking forward to making more entries in this journal!

Saturday--or is it??

When one is retired, every day is Saturday, really. I have this whole routine for Saturdays that involves running around and getting a lot done so that I can rest (a little) on Sunday before I have to go back to work. But that's not the case anymore! So i was at odds today. I kept thinking I need to hurry, hurry, hurry and then I would remind myself that I did not have to go to work on Monday. Finally, I gave in to my confusion and took a half hour nap. When I woke up, I folded laundry (casually) and managed to go slowly through the rest of the day. I think it bothered Stanley as well. I am not sure if he is used to me being home so much! My mind and body need to get this retirement thing together!

Gratitude

Today I spent a lot of time trying to get organized. There is so much paper work in my life, and I really haven't been on top of it. So i used a lot of time to organize the various things I need to keep current on. I have a binder for bills and a binder for my investments. And I made a binder for my health/retirement benefits. I already have a binder for my "life." This took me forever! So when I was finished, I ran out to send the invitations for the party.
No trip out is complete without a trip to a thrift store. I needed to buy towels and I went to the Lutheran High School Thrift store and found some for $1.50. (The towels are for the party, since we are doing a spa thing.) Then I went to Goodwill in Glendora and got a "Kate Spade" purse (again!). This is gray flannel and adorable. I might give it to my sister for her birthday.
On the way back, I decided to make chicken salad for dinner. I was going to barbeque chicken breasts and then I would make Ina Garten's chicken salad recipe from the Food Network. As I was driving down Foothill (Route 66) a family was soliciting donations for a funeral. I cannot imagine what it would be like to have to beg on the corner to pay for a funeral for a loved one. Luckily I actually had money and gave some. I was so touched by the sadness in that whole thing. There was a little boy on another corner and he was soliciting too. Good Grief! How sad!

art work

Behold! The scanner is connected and I have scanned some work I did. Not the greatest, but still productivity! The red flower is the front of a Thank You card. The purple flower is another card. I did the text in Photoshop. I am hoping that spending four hours a day practice will reap rewards. It does keep me off the streets and I am not knitting so much! Both good things!

Church and Tea

Today I went to church at 10 am. I have always wanted to go to church during the week, and Holy Trinity has a 10 am service every Wednesday. The Rector, Mother Judy, will be on vacation in a couple of weeks, but I can still go next week. There were only 5 people--all women--there. And Mother Judy gave another great sermon. She is very inspirational! The building itself is so beautiful!
From there I went shopping for some things for the gift bags for the party. i have to decide tonight what I want to have for refreshments and then call tomorrow and finalize. I also have to call Jessica and tell her about the change in venue.
At 1 Amy and I had an appointment for tea at "Two a Tea." We got the full tea and it was delicious! We had soup, salad, scones, sandwiches and dessert. I had strawberry/apple tea. It was so relaxing! I want to go again--maybe after school starts.
Then I was exhausted and went home and took a nap. Tina had called to tell me some school news (gossip). So I had to tell all my friends, and so on, and so on, and so on.
Now I need to get to work. My art awaits!

I am a Super Woman!

Okay, maybe not. But I did put together this BOOKCASE that I bought at Walmart about two months ago! Yes! I used tools: a hammer and a philips and a flathead (!) and I hardly used any curse words! Whoa! And I did it in One hour and 20 minutes. This bookcase is in my office and will hold the scanner and some notebooks and office supplies in bins. I am slowly getting organized so that I can develop my art.
I was in a real panic this morning since the venue I had tentatively booked for my party was not being cooperative. I woke up at 2:30 this morning wondering where I would have the party. But I am back on track with a new venue and a really nice plan. I am waiting for the new venue to get back to me on the details. I hope everyone likes what I've planned!
Yesterday, Matt, Greg and I went out to Round Table and Matt showed me his Monk and Psych bobble head doll apps. I had to have them. When you press areas of Monk's body, he says stuff. The Psych app includes Gus and both say things--as well as bobble.
And tomorrow I am going to tea with Amy. She gave me a gift certificate to a tea shop in Glendora. I remember the tea at the Fairmont in Victoria. What a treat! I am looking forward to this as well.
Now I have to clean up the mess I made putting the bookcase together. If the art thing doesn't pan out I guess I could always help people put together furniture!
Hahahahahahahaha!