Rose-Colored Glasses

Yesterday I started 21 Days of No Complaining. I found out about it on Facebook from someone I know online from a now defunct bead co-op. The idea appealed to me because there is so much negativity in the world right now and believe I totally and completely that the Universe gives back to you whatever it is you give your attention to. I can say that because I have given it a try and have seen it work. I can also say that my nay-saying husband believes in it not because I tried to make him (because I tried and it didn't work) but because I showed him through my example (which is how some of the best teachers teach).

Some may say I am just viewing the world through rose-colored glasses. I say SO WHAT. It works for me and my family and I are much happier for it. I have my rose-colored glasses on for that little girl in the upper left corner (she has rose-colored glasses on because they are Dora the Explorer glasses). Have you ever looked through rose-colored glasses? Try it, you might like it.

I am not participating in the 21 days to the extent of one of my friends. You are encouraged to journal about your feelings and experiences during the week, but I am doing good just writing here. Her participation just serves as a reminder to use these 21 days to clean up my mind a bit. No matter where you are in life, your mind could always use a little bit of cleaning up.

There's always some negative tape recording playing up there and those recordings often have little physical evidence to support, but we often let that tape beat us into submission. Sometimes there is evidence to support that recording, but that's where the rose-colored glasses come in handy. If we know something doesn't taste good, we don't put it in our mouth, yet how often do we allow ourselves to look at or listen to things that don't make us feel good? You think your thoughts, no one else is thinking them for you, so why think the thoughts that make you feel bad about yourself, someone else, the country, anything?

Things have been going my way lately and I have have been trying to give those things much more attention. I am visiting news.google.com a lot less and ignoring political news much more. My awareness does nothing to change the situation other than give it more energy and attention. I can't change anything and those that are trying to change things seem to be more focused on what they don't want then what they do want. I rather fight for a cause than against one.

With that said, I want to ackowledge and give some attention to the things going right in my corner of the world.


Finances
So many people are struggling with money these days. We have our own struggles, but I am so happy to say they are manageable and no different than they were before everyone went all gloom and doom. Our refinance fell through because someone failed to lock in our rate. Turns out it was a blessing in disguise and a Bank of America employee was able to explain to me that lowering my interest rate wasn't going to save me money in the long run, it was just going to add $8000 and 4.5 years onto the current mortgage. What kind of bank employee tells a customer that??? In addition, this nice man asked if he could keep my number on hand for a time when he needed a pick-me-up because he was impressed with my attitude and how well I handled a crappy situation. I am working a little more these days and will be working a bit more come fall. I am selling jewelry at the farmer's market (more on that in a bit) and so there is extra money coming from that. When it really comes down to it, we could make more sacrifices to save money (internet, digital cable, just not budgeting, etc.), but we haven't had to so we haven't. It's just REALLY nice to be in a feeling of getting ahead as opposed to just getting by and I hope to maintain that.

Jewelry
I started selling at the Bozeman Farmer's Market this summer. I knew it was the best way to ease myself back into the jewelry-making mode I slipped out of after Piper went mobile. It is turning out exactly how I wanted. I haven't had money-making days like my friend Heidi that does screen printing, but I think I have done pretty well considering there are at least another dozen jewelry makes there. It's been nice to get compliments and feedback that my work is different than anyone else they've seen. That really helps me to not worry so much about the competition. I also hoped that some shop owner would see my jewelry there and ask to sell it instead of me putting myself "out there" and approaching them cold. Wishful thinking you say? Well, it happened and I am meeting with them tomorrow morning to work out the details. I have someone else that is one of the directors of Montana Outdoor Science School that may commission me to make some silver aspen leaf jewelry for her. I had no idea who she was when I was babbling on about how I can use metal clay, but it looks like my babbling had a fortunate timing for once. One of the nice things about selling jewelry is that it creates inspiration to make more. It's so much more natural to create out of inspiration as opposed to force. One last thing that I have really appreciated is talking to the people at the market. I forgot about how much I really enjoyed meeting other artists and talking to people in the community I don't know.

Life A.B.C. (after birth control)
continued sometime soon.