My brain needs Choline

With 9 days to go until we have our little girl, I have to say I’ve been more than a little nuts. I, literally, feel brain dead and am seeming to screw up the easiest of tasks.

I cannot remember where I put my car keys. I’ve left my purse in the Walmart shopping cart twice in the past month, I walk down the hallway to go get the towels out of the dryer and forget why I’m even walking in that direction in the first place.

I’ve been doing my job as the new media manager for objects and elements by faithfully following the list that I wrote more than a month ago of the editorial calendar I’ve set for the blog. All was going well and then….ZAP! I messed up this morning with our big reader vote by leaving someone out.

Of course, the technological monsters reared their ugly heads and made the simple 5 minute job of re-coding a new voting poll and getting it put up quickly into a 90-minute job with computer freezes and error codes and the like. Arughhhhh!

I jumped onto my email after finally fixing the frustration and read this from the What To Expect When You’re Expecting daily updates I joined during my second trimester. Apparently, I’m not getting enough Choline in my diet and its causing  brain freeze. Well, that an my brain is literally shrinking. (Go on, read it..)

What is Choline? (Ok, I admit it. I first read this as CHLORINE, as in the pool chemical to keep algae from growing. Couldn’t figure out a first why a pregnant woman would want to ingest chlorine, but….I digress).

Choline is apparently the building block of memory-forming brain chemical called acetylcholine. I need more milk, egg yolks, soybeans, wheat germ, nuts and citrus fruits.

Gotta be honest here, I have haven’t had a lot of cravings for wheat germ. I am eating nuts — but it’s more likely to be in my butter pecan ice cream that I seem to somehow need a big bowl of every night by 9 p.m. sharp.

Thank goodness for the Internet (technical frustrations and all) for letting me know what the heck is wrong with me.

This is a shout out to all my friends and family and other poor people who must be around me for the next 9 days. I’m sorry if I say or do or think or forget something stupid. Apparently, it’s not really me. It’s my diet.

It’s my turn

It’s my turn to be featured on the objects and elements blog. Take a look at my Q&A and see if there’s anything new there to learn about me.

Usually, my life’s a pretty open book, but when putting together the questionnaire for the blog feature, I tried to come up with some non-artsy questions that provided a glimpse into people’s personalities.

My hubby tells people I’ve never met a question I didn’t like.  Luckily, he only says this to friends of ours because I doubt that total strangers would fail to see anything clever in his pun.

In addition to the profile is a picture of a necklace I created as part of my monthly art submission using objects and elements products.

When I saw this little cork bottle at the store, I was fascinated by it and wanted to find an interesting way of making it a focal pendant in a piece of jewelry. Susan’s cold-join trapeze attachment was the perfect technique to use.

Also, I truly love the Recycled Silk Sari sold in the store. The colors are so lush, and it has such range for all types of mixed-media projects. I’ve used it in jewelry, book making, college and assemblage work.

Baby shower!

My girls planned, organized and threw me the most amazing baby shower Friday afternoon. They ran with my nursery decorating theme of pink and chocolate to create the most beautiful table, cake, invitations and decorations. I have never felt like such a princess in my life as I did surrounded by my female friends and family.

I’ve always thought that even though I love the small town we moved to six years ago, that I’ve never really found my tribe here. Looking around all those faces and seeing nothing but an outpouring of love and friendship, and pure excitement about our impending baby girl’s birth, I realized I have more of a tribe now than I ever have. 

I also realized how privileged we are to raise our son and daughter here in the woods where its easy to step outside each day and be given undeniable proof of nature’s awesomeness. That we are connected to each other, to the animals to the land and the world as a whole. A concept that’s so easily forgotten in cities filled with shopping malls and freeways.

Here are a couple of photos from the party. The most surprising is the picture of me at 36 weeks pregnant. I truly had no idea what I look like, as I keep my mirror time from the shoulders up. With 3 weeks left to go, my belly is big!

 

A Goose in My Armpit

Life’s been busy (again!) these past few weeks with my son on summer vacation and us getting closer and closer to the big day when our daughter is born. Sometimes I feel like the white rabbit rushing about in Alice of Wonderland.

In light of this, I have a little story: This past weekend, we combined my weekly doctor’s appointments with four days of visiting family so our son could play with his younger cousins and swim until he grew fins. 

Over the weekend, I booked a massage from my sister. Patti’s been a licensed massage therapist for over two decades and specializes in Intuitive Cranio-Sacral therapy. My sister has an amazing gift of symbolic sight that flows freely when she’s doing massage. Working with her spirit guides/angels, and those of her clients, she often receives intuitive messages though imagery while doing bodywork.

She never gets “scary” information, and she’s learned when she’s supposed to share and when she’s not. I know it sounds a little wonky, but my sister and I are very close and I have many years of proof that her psychic gifts are real.

Anyhoo…with only a month left before baby girl comes into the world, my belly’s gotten big and I have all the typical symptoms — forgetfulness, constant need to use the restroom, heartburn, trouble getting comfortable at night, etc.

Patti was doing Cranio-Sacral to help relieve some of these symptoms when she blurts out, “They’re showing me a goose in your armpit.”

“”That’s interesting,” I say. “What’s it mean?”

“Dunno. Let’s look it up in Steven Farmer’s cards after the massage,” she replies.

We go on talking and forget about the goose until later that night. We decide to do a double-date night with our guys at a fab sushi restaurant and Patti remembers to pack Dr. Farmer’s Messages from your Animal Spirit Guides Oracle Cards.

The meaning was interesting. The cards talked about how geese have a long migration each year that takes all their instinct and strength to accomplish. Once they get to their destination, they know its time to rest and rejuvenate.

“Who knew,” I say to Patti, “That a goose in my armpit means its time to rest?”

We look at each other and burst out laughing. Not at the message, but at the absurdity of the statement. Again, when you are dealing with out-of-the-ordinary events that become common place, you often find yourself uttering odd things. 

I bet you’re wondering the point of this story, right? I’m only human. The goose reminds me that even though my pregnancy is in the home stretch, I still have to gather my strength to see it through. Also, I’m not in this alone. Like the geese that migrate in groups and share flight rotation for the benefit of the clan, my husband, son, family and friends are there to lean on.

How cool is that?

Color (in) Theory

In between moving my studio to a larger room in our home, figuring out a summer schedule to keep my son busy and trying to eat right and rest enough to keep the pregnancy on a healthy track, I’ve been designing the baby’s room.

I’m not doing a nursery this time. I did that with my son. I bartered with an artist friend for a mural of 18th century hot air balloons on his wall. (It was cool!) The second time around, I’m keeping life simple. Or, at least, trying to.

I picked a light pink for the walls and two accent colors for the room; chocolate and a touch of dusty pink. I sent hubby off to Home Depot with color swatches so the paint is ready to go when I finally get the room clear.

Unfortunately, two of the three color swatches I picked were Ralph Lauren paint. I forgot designer paint colors are copyrighted and you must use their paint. Since we’re on a budget, fancy paint would mean cutting corners elsewhere. Hubby did the next best thing and attempted to match my colors as closely as possible.

Bless his heart, he tried. He even did good. The poor man is married to a woman who’s had the privilege of taking an intensive hands-on workshop from friends that teach color theory at the Scottsdale Artist’s School.

He shows me my swatches and then shows me the Behr color swatches he matched. His face falls as he sees my mouth turn to a frown. This turns into a mini lecture on my intense dislike of pastels, particularly frou-frou, girlie girl ones.  I kept it brief because I know how much he’s trying to please me. 

For fun, I thought I’d share a small part of the conversation.

Me: You did good on the chocolate. But the pink for the walls has too much white in it, making it a pastel pink. See the swatch? It’s pink with a little brown in it which makes the color richer.

Him: Blank stare.

Me: Look at the pink I choose. It’s more like a nipple. Pink with a little bit of brown.

Him:  This (holding the swatch) looks like a nipple? (looks closer and furrows brows).

Me: Yeah. Imagine a pretty pink nipple.

Him: I can easily do that, but I’m still not seeing it in the color swatch.

Me: Never mind. I thought maybe you’d see the brown if  gave you an analogy.

Him: Look at the other pink. That’s close right?

Me: Blank stare.

Him: Sorry, babe. I tried. If you’re going to be picky, you need to do it yourself.

He’s right. I should have taken the time to run to town. But it really doesn’t matter. Who is going to know or care? In theory, it’s only color.

***

Note: I scanned in the color swatches, but it didn’t translate as well. The top pale pinkis the color of the walls my DH bought. It’s not that light. And if you held the darker pink color swatches, you’d definitely see a difference. Sometimes technology is not all its cracked up to be.

Warning: Rant

I tend to keep topics on my blog positive. Not because life is perfect. It isn’t.

I just think people don’t really want to read about the mundane annoyances that happen in my life. I try to deal with them like a blip on the screen — shake my head, breathe in an out and then move forward.  Dwelling on the negative makes me crabby.

But, today, I gotta rant. I am so done with incompetent people. Is it me, or does it really seem like to world is getting dumber and the masses are following suit?

Example: I have doctors appointments twice a week now to keep tabs on the baby. Since I live 2 hours from my OB/Gyn, I get one set of tests done at the nearest hospital 20 minutes away. The nursing staff is wonderful and I have no complaints with the hospital.

What bugs me is the “efficiency system” they have in place where the exact same questions must be asked and inputed in the computer week after week. Forgive me, but isn’t the SAVE feature one of the most brilliant software inventions of the 20th century? (Forget 21st. We’ve moved so far beyond basic word processing it isn’t even worth mentioning).

Then, the hospital bills my insurance $16 for paperwork, of which the HMO pays 16 cents.  (For real). Please feel free to point out any efficiencies I’m missing here.

Talking to a friend of mine yesterday who lets me rave (and who thinks its only my inconsistent hormones), I’ve decided that I’ve reached a point in my life where I do not have time for stupidity.

They’re people I meet that I now call Speed Bumps. Yeah, the kind thing to do is love all my fellow man. But the reality is that, sometimes, I need to mow these people down and keep on moving.

Unfortunately, there’s nothing I can do about the hospital’s policy regarding their computer system. I can, however, take a deep breath and settle in for as long as my weekly appointments take.

I can also adjust my attitude and be grateful for good insurance and medical care. When it gets rough, I take out my sketchbook/journal and start drawing speedbumps with crazy little monsters in the margins.

Another social networking spot

I was hanging out on my Facebook page the other day trying to update my profile picture and add new photos of my latest ultrasound, when I ran across Tammy Kushnir’s status message that said had joined MMCA, or the Mixed Media College Artists group.

I wish I knew Tammy in person, but, alas I only know of her work. I also like her creativity — I mean, what’s not to like about a person who named her blog The Frou Frou Frog. There’s a story there…

Tammy and I also have lots of Facebook friends in common, which is how you build this amazing network of peers on FB. If you’ve not joined the craze yet, consider it. Yup, it can sometimes be a total time suck and there is a small learning curve, but it’s just plain fun and you can find out so many interesting new things, like MMCA, for example.

I had the nicest message in my email this morning from Debbie Overton, the group’s founder. What a sweet person! I completely support her idea for an online community of mixed media artists. She created it using Ning, which is another interesting platform where you can build your own social network or connect with others who share your passions and interests. Again, more time suck, but something that has the potential to be infinitely satisfying if you find the right place to land.

Since I’m a MMCA newbie, there’s not much more to tell you. However, since mixed media is such a growing field in both the fine art and crafting worlds, I wanted to take a quick moment to point out this online avenue to make some new friends.

Have a fab hump day! The long Memorial Day weekend is just around the corner. Here’s to an extra day of family time or art making.

CraftGossip publicity

Barbe Saint John is one of our amazing Design Team members for Objects and Elements. She’s also the jewelry editor of the CraftGossip blog, and she did a really wonderful write up on our announcement.

Just in case you’ve never read CraftGossip, I wanted to take a moment to point you in their direction. Some fun stuff and great project ideas on the site!

Happy Monday everyone!

A new job and a change in direction

Susan and me last summer in Paris. Linda was kind enough to shoot this candid picture. We had a few days of sightseeing in the city before heading to the South of France where Susan taught her metalsmithing workshop.

I’ve been hinting around for months now that something wonderful has happened in my professional life and that I would soon share my big news. Well, the day is finally here! I have a new job that I’m over-the-moon excited about.

I’d like to formally intoduce you to the new me – Jen Cushman, New Media Manager and Design Team Coordinator for Objects and Elements, an online jewelry supply store and so much more.

Objects and Elements is owned by two incredibly smart and wickedly talented women: Susan Lenart Kazmer and Linda Larsen. I’m blessed to count them amongst my dear friends, and I was thrilled when we started talking about my possible involvement in their amazing company. This position allows me to utilize my talents — a  20-year media career, combined with an expertise in marketing, a love for the written word and a passion for creating mixed media art. What can I say? Life is good!

Part of my job has been getting the new Objects and Elements blog designed and ready. Please check out our blog and its official debut today! You will see another big announcement — the creation of our first-ever Design Team.

It’s been my sincere pleasure and honor to work with some of the most wonderfully talented mixed media artists. Design Team members are myself, Deryn Mentock, Kristen Robinson, Barbe Saint John and Jane Salley. Please take a look at these ladies’ blogs to see more of their beautiful work.

Each artist has busily been creating some unique jewelry projects utilizing unique elements from the store. We’ll be featuring the individual artists over the next few weeks so you can get to know them and their work a little better.

On that note, I’ll be starting a new personal blog soon. So much has happened over the past two years since I began Get Real Scrapbooking, which was based on my idea of encouraging others to create real memory art pages about the good, the bad, the beautiful and the ugly. It’s time to once again move forward, to change and grow and see what’s next on the journey.

GrafixArts & NAMTA

While I’m not physically in Louisville, Kentucky this week attending the NAMTA fine art trade convention, I’m thrilled that a piece of my creativity is part of the show.

Grafix Arts asked if I would be interested in doing some art jewelry and college samples for their NAMTA booth. I use a lot of transparencies in my work, and Computer Grafix InkJet transparencies are my amongst my favorite art materials.

They print beautifully, are the perfect weight to work with and the adhesive-backed transparencies are gorgeous for paper arts projects (no telltale glue marks). As long as you’re slightly patient and don’t immediately handle your printed transparency, the ink won’t smear and doesn’t even need a quick heat set when being used with ICEResin. If anyone reading this works with transparencies and resin, you know how difficult it is to find an art product that won’t drip or smear.

I’ve been following NAMTA on Twitter and checking in with their blog.  While talking about the opening day ceremonies, the blog mentioned an interesting quote from one of the keynote speakers. Movie Director Ridley Scott said, “While the 20th Century is known as the century of the written word, the 21st Century will be known as the century of the image.”

Being a writer and artist, I found Ridley’squote fascinating. While I completely agree with his observation, my personal opinion is that its not either/or. I see a trend evolving where there’s a seemless coalescence of image and word in art and life. I believe the ability to think creatitvely, to see visually and to communicate eloquently are key skills for success in the 21st century.

What do you think?

My college for GrafixArts titled Roots & Wings. The back is dedicated to the little life growing in me right now. I tell her that as her Mom, I wish to give her Roots and Wings. Family roots of home and love and security to provide the foundation of her confidence and self-esteem so she can live the life of her dreams.

The paint is Earth Safe Finishes Shimmer paints, which are so fun to work with and ecosafe. (I’ve been watching my chemical use with paints and glues this pregnancy). The “canvas” is actually Grafix Black Chipboard, as is the die cut tree. The title is Grafix Rub-onz, which allows you to print your own rub on designs and words on your ink jet printer. The gorgeous copper glitter is from Sparkle N Sprinkle, and the vintage baby college is my own digitally-created image.