a turtle and a frog go for a walk

Ok, So, while I was in FL this past week, I went to Cracker Barrel for some french toast because that's just what you do when you want some french toast! And you know Cracker Barrel, so many tempting things to look at in their store. Well, this time, I found this little treasure. And I just HAD to add it to my turtle collection.

I call this one my Mother's Day turtle. Kaitlyn's favorite animal has been a frog ever since she got over that bat phase. And, I've had a thing for turtles for at least that long. I thought this was a fun little addition in light of what it stands for in my family. 

I really don't know why they had to make the turtle look all scaly though. Turtles usually have smooth skin, thus the need for the shell. Oh well, it doesn't have to be perfect to be adorable. 

and a very happy birthday to me!!

I always splurge a little on myself around my birthday. This year I was planning to get this amazing embroidery book, but THEN I saw the amazon deal of the day and completely changed my mind!

Instead, I got this little beauty.




A Singer sewing machine with 17 (SEVENTEEN) attachments and 299 (that's almost 300 people!) stitch options. I was actually in Florida at the time it went on sale and I've been super busy since I got back. It is out of the box, sitting on my sewing table, just patiently waiting for me to make the time to sit and joyfully sew. Yes, sewing is quite joyful. And I'm excited to finish a couple of projects. Come on universe!! Make it happen!

a birthday is just an excuse

Sometimes a birthday is just the perfect excuse to go to lunch with dear friends, brighten your home with beautiful flowers,

and make a fresh batch of peanut butter, oatmeal, chocolate chip cookies....with extra chips of course.

ready, set, goal! - UPDATE

March was a hard month. I didn't feel like I made much progress on my goals. I actually felt like everything just stayed neutral. I didn't go forward but I didn't go backwards either. I did make some progress in a couple of areas, but for the most part it was neutral. So far in April, I'm back to making progress but feel like I'm rowing upstream. It's a challenge. I'm having a hard time juggling everything. I keep getting discouraged and distracted and tired and then I just shut down. I am determined to get back on track!! Here's to an amazing second half of April and May!!


Spiritual:

• Gain an intimate relationship with my Savior. Still ongoing. I feel so inspired as I teach my lesson every week. I get so much insight to ways to improve myself. I love it. 
• Spend time in the temple every month, not just go - spend time there. So far, so good. Planning April for this week/weekend to meet this goal. 

Family: 

• Work on family history, specifically the Wells side. Went to a class but have not worked on them at all. I am dropping my indexing goals so I can focus on these sheets. Setting goal to verify all information on two every month. 
• Write meaningful emails to my missionaries. Still progressing. 
• Bring my missionaries home and get them settled in the next chapter of their lives. T-minus 5 weeks!! 
• Finish 2014 yearbook, Ireland vacation book, Paris/Germany vacation book, and Italy vacation book. Started Ireland but haven't worked on it for several weeks. Goal is to finish by end of June. 
• Write in my journal and blog weekly. Was better in Feb but crashed in Mar. Back at it in April 

Health: 

• Keep track of my net calories every day. Completely quit doing it for about two weeks now. 
• Move every day. Besides doing Ruthless workouts, I'm doing 7-minute workouts and starting to plan walks/bike rides now that the weather is amazing. 
• Lose 30 pounds. Minus 9 pounds. Making progress in April.  

Financial: 

• Pass the PMP exam
• Pay off all credit cards and other loans. AMEX is paid off!! Going to tackle my student loan next (less than $3,000) and then K's student loan). 
• Kickstart my retirement. Nothing yet. 
• Become Elite with doTERRA. Still don't have a solid plan. I did an event in Jacksonville, FL and met some amazing people who are interested in the business and the oils. Will be going back next week to see if I can get them going strong. 

SCA: 

• Learn trapunto and make largess items
• Drawn thread towels won Baroness choice at Defender's Tourney!!! 
• Promised Baroness Adina some calligraphy thank you cards. Need to get them done before the next business meeting. 
• Make a lefkara veil for my Laurel. Still working on this one. Will be for the next 8 weeks or so. Learned how to do the edging so it is really up to me to finish at this point. I have so much work to do but will get it done...not sure how but it WILL happen. :) 
• Enter Kingdom Atlantia Persona Pentathlon in 2016. 
• Went to Kingdom Arts & Science Festival and loved it! Put up a display and got lots of compliments. I will talk to Bronwyn during Uprising and make a plan on what to do for the Pentathlon. No work to be expected to start until Aug. Just sayin'

just put up the out of order sign

This is my after a crazy month, two trips to FL working two full-time jobs, and still trying to have some fun. I'm exhausted. I need to find a better balance. I need help. :)

Here's what has been going on. In March, Pam talking me into going to Jacksonville, FL to help with a doTERRA booth at their Natural Life Festival. It was a beautiful day and we made a lot of great contacts. Two ladies came to our follow up class and are interested in doing the business. They got their kits but I have had a hard time connecting with them to make any further progress. I am going back down next week to spend time with them and host some classes and hopefully get more people interested. I'm excited about growing my doTERRA business and extremely nervous at the same time! It is a lot of work and doing it on top of all the work I have at Xerox is hard to manage sometimes.

Xerox work is picking up and keeps me busy most of the day every day. I even went to FL for a work trip! Yup, going to FL three times in about 6 weeks is just crazy. I might as well move there. There are still moments when I'm not running crazy and I try to squeeze in some personal activities and doTERRA activities in those moments. It is all hard to juggle. I haven't done nearly as much on the veil as I need. Doing projects like wedding invites has sucked up any extra time I had, cuz they just took so much longer to do that expected.

I am in the process of re-evaluating my goals - not my annual goals cuz they still stand - but how I accomplish my weekly goals and how to cut out the extra little things that creep in and steal my time.

Yup, my new goal is to truly simplify my life. Get back to basics. Do only those tasks that are important. Live intentionally. Guess that is not a new goal after all. :)

the art of writing eggs

I am just learning to love so much about the Slavic region of the world and their rich heritage. The more I study about it, the more I just love their traditions and embroidery and everything else! Sometime last year, I discovered pysanky eggs - the traditional Ukranian Easter Egg. These eggs are beautiful!!! I have wanted to learn how to do them for as long as I discovered they existed! I was planning a trip to NYC to the Ukranian museum and their pysanky workshop but wasn't feeling great about it. Then I found out that a local church was having their own workshop and I signed up! Yesterday was a crazy day with church in the morning and pysanky in the afternoon but it was worth it.

Here are some pics to what pysanky (piss-un-kee) is supposed to look like!





There are some pretty complex designs and some simpler ones (as shown in the pics above) but all of them are just stunning. Here's my attempt at this ancient art.

First you start with a clean white egg. One that has been cleaned with water and vinegar. Then, you decide what pattern you want to create and apply wax where you want white lines to appear.

Then, you dip it in your first, next lightest color. In my case, I wanted it to be yellow. 

Next, you put wax everywhere you want the yellow to stay. See the pattern here? Like watercolor, you work from light to dark. Next you dip it in your next darkest color. In this case red. I didn't let it sit as long as I should have and it turned out more pinkish than I wanted but it still a good color. 

Then, you apply wax to all the spots that you want to stay red. If you are doing this correctly, most of the egg should be covered in wax by now. Finally, I dipped it in black as my final color. In the picture below you can see the egg all dyed but still covered in wax. It looks messy. And it is! 

Next, you melt the wax off the egg and then drain it (something I still need to do) and enjoy! I didn't do a great job on this egg...hey it's my first!!  

I didn't get the division correct or the lines around the middle straight or any number of things, but I had a blast doing it and I now know how to do it correctly. I also got all the tools and dyes I need to do this at home! I am hoping to do a bunch of eggs prior to Uprising so I can show them off as part of my display and give them away. That gives me until mid June to have some fun! 

I did buy an 18-count carton of eggs today in hopes that I can find some time this week to do another, simpler egg. Here's to optimism!! :) 

living my persona

I don't know if I have ever announced it on this blog, but I LOVE Medieval Reenactment. I walked into this game with an exit strategy and have ended up staying for the past three years. I plan to stay for a bit longer. It is so much fun! I love the pagentry, the quirky people, and the fellow geeks, especially the fellow geeks. I love that I can walk into a room and find someone with similar interests that actually know what I'm talking about and can appreciate "how long it takes" to do something. I have found life-long friends that I would have never met in any other circumstance. I am blessed to be part of this game.

My persona is Romani (gypsy). I've said since I was much, much younger that I think I had gypsy blood in my somewhere as I love to travel and experience new things. When I finally made my decision (about two months in) that I wanted to ditch my exit strategy and truly play this game, it was easy to pick my persona...well, at least the persona I wanted to be. I've had a harder time getting a correct name, finding my "region" and getting my garb figured out. It will all come. I don't need to be perfect from day one!

This past weekend, I traveled a whopping 7-hours each way to attend the Kingdom Arts & Sciences Festival in Wallace, NC. It was only supposed to be a 5-hr trip, but living in VA has its not so amazing perks. I had taken a basketful of stuffs to display just in case. I hadn't decided if I wanted to or not but got there and decided I really did want to show off! So, I set up a little display of some of my embroidery pieces and had a blast meeting new people.

So, here I am. Meet Vadoma, Romani who travels Eastern Europe. Lover of all things embroidery but especially open or cut work. Who also dabbles in calligraphy and illumination.