Confession 42 - Get your Painting On

Hi there! As promised, I'm bringing your more posts and trying to confess more these last couple months of 2013.  Today I'm confessing about one of my all time favorite whimsical self taught painters, Timree Gold.  I've been following stalking Timree for nearly 10 years now.  I first learned about her through a mutual friend and saw her amazing mural work, you can check it out here.   The pictures on her site are amazing, but seeing her murals in person are breathtaking.  So much detail and personal touches! She has painted for many celebrities and famous people and even had an appearance on the OC Housewives show.

This past Sunday, my good friend Diana and I visited her studio to paint.  This is the 3rd painting I have done at Timree's studio, and each time I'm amazed at how well I do. I start out nervous and unsure if I'm going to be able to complete the project, but in the end, I succeed with flying colors.  Painting at Timree's Studio offers me a creative outlet and let's me put something on the calendar that is just for me!

When you arrive at Tiimree's studio in Newport Beach there is a place setting of a palate of paint, a photo copy of the Timree "original" painting you will be painting and a blank white canvas on an easel.  She equips you with 4 brushes, in her technical Timree terms, 1. The Fatty 2. The Medium 3. The Tween and 4. The Baby.  It's her own vocabulary and made up terms for her painting technique that puts you at ease and allows you to relax to become creative and paint.

It's definitely a must for anyone to try once, twice or many times (some of my friends are addicts, I'm not mentioning any names).

Check out some of my pics...

London Calling Portrait

Easter Painting in the Spring

My First Class!  A Gift for my birthday from my BFF! 

Pretty professional looking huh? I know, she's a genius!   So hurry up and stop by Timree's site and sign up for a class and get your Painting On!  Make it a Mommy & Me session, a Girls Night Out or just a creative moment for yourself!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you liked my latest confession!

Confession 38 - Fist Bumps are OK and Emily Post

I'm finally getting back to writing. I know, it's been forever! What was I thinking when I thought summer would allow me to think deeply and write more ... NOT! It's been a constant struggle with finding things for the Little B's to do, attending social events and taking the liberties to stay out late and have fun during these long summer nights.

Today I'm confessing about my obsession with Emily Post and striving to have good manners, something we all struggle with young and old.  Many of you youngins may not even know who she is. My obsession started way back when I was younger. Living in a household where my parents were immigrants, it was always hard for me to judge whether I was doing something appropriate or insanely tacky. I had a good friend that I spent countless hours with who lived in a household of "prim and proper" and I always looked at them to set the bar and inadvertently learned the dos and don'ts. Things like, how to set a proper table, when to use please and thank you and when you have overstayed your welcome and should go home (sometimes I still get that wrong). As I got older and discovered Emily Post, I would read about what to do and research the heck out a of a topic.  Like, do you always send a thank you card after a dinner? Even if you said thank you while leaving and called and said thank you the next day.  Ya, I'm a little insane like that.  If you come to my house, you will see Etiquette by Emily Post prominently displayed on my book shelf, not because I'm the "manner queen" or crack that baby open all the time, but it's a reminder to me, to try to instill the best manners and etiquette within my family. Nowadays, that book rarely gets cracked and is merely dusted, I find it easier to Google the subject or go to the Emily Post website.

If you don't know much about Emily Post, you can read a brief biography here.

And from the Emily Post website, I love how they have changed the tune of etiquette and formalities. I find our world and definitely the newer generations, are becoming more and more casual. But, the basics of etiquette and manners still hold true, check it out below:

About The Institute

The Emily Post Institute, Inc., is one of America's most unique family businesses. From social networking to social graces, the name Emily Post has been the definitive source on etiquette for generations of Americans. Spanning five generations, this family business maintains and evolves the standards of etiquette that Emily Post established with her seminal book Etiquette in 1922. According the the Posts, though times have changed, the principles of good manners remain constant. Above all, manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. Being considerate, respectful, and honest is more important than knowing which fork to use. Whether it's a handshake or a fist bump, it's the underlying sincerity and good intentions of the action that matter most.

I'm so glad to know that the fist bump suffices as a welcoming and acknowledging gesture! I really like how the company has taken Emily's vision and made things current over the years.  You can go to the site to read up on etiquette in the digital world and  even everyday manners. Two sections I frequent often.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not perfect and I'm sure I'm lacking in many of these areas (especially probably in the technology manners area), but I'm always intrigued to find out the thought process behind certain gestures and a reassurance I'm doing the right thing.

I know many of you may think this is a weird confession and most wouldn't care what others think, but remember, etiquette and manners are not defined by that. It just shows that you are a caring thoughtful individual. What's so wrong with that? So next time you are wondering whether or not you should regift that Christmas gift, manners for Facebook or if it's okay to wear white after Labor Day, peruse the Emily Post site and get your manners and etiquette in check!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you liked my latest confession!

Confession 34 - Your Worst Mommy Moment

Today I'm confessing about being a "real" mom, yes, the kind that loves her kids but makes many mistakes. Yup, I said it, I'm not the perfect mom (shocking right?). Well, when I came across Meagan's post from The Happiest Home, it hit a nerve.

I mean, I was just siting at the baseball field yesterday with my friend watching her son play the last game of the season and my daughter comes up to me on the bleachers screaming in rage. You guessed it... She ran to me during the optimal time, the time when the ball is not moving on the field and the batter is just getting into position waiting for the ball to be pitched, yes the quietest time on the field! As she comes over to me I can visually see she is not hurt and that she is crying for attention, mubbling something about what her sister did and trying to get her way (ie, fighting with Big B). Typical of Little B. I take one look at her and tell her to stop, this of course makes her scream louder and now she starts to solicit looks from other moms. Oh great, I know, most of you have been there, at least the "perfect" moms like me :-). Then, what I do next, is merely out of instinct to get her to quiet down and stop screaming. I place my hand on her mouth, and in doing so squeeze her cheeks, and tell her to stop crying NOW! I try to be curt but not overly loud, I didn't need any other mom's turning to look. This got her to calm down a bit and phew she eventually stopped.  It wasn't my best parenting moment, and I'm sure I could have handled things better. But hey, I'm human, and well, Little B was on my last nerve! Luckily, this "mommy moment" wasn't photographed and I can probably say wasn't the worst (yes, I've had worse, and that is for another post).

So check out Meagan's post, you'll see that she is the "perfect" mom just like all of us.  Her moment, carrying her then 3 year old son in a football hold away from a wedding photo shoot, was documented in a picture that she then posted 10 years later on her Facebook Page. She reflects back in her post about how different her son is now, nearly 10 years later and that all things, like this type of toddler misbehavior will eventually pass. Meagan writes:

 “Speaking of hard parenting moments, I wanted to share this picture I ran across in a box recently. It’s me, at a family wedding, largely pregnant, carrying my completely-freaking-out three-year-old away from the professional photo session. He was a real handful back then, but he is now 13 and a more lovely young man you could not imagine. I just want to take my old self from this picture, give her a big hug and tell her everything really WILL be OK.”

She had an outpouring of supporters and commenters on her site. All positive and reflective mostly on how it was nice to hear from another mom, that things will pass.

Her post solicited so much spur, that she approached the Huffignton Post on writing an essay.
There she writes:

I do know that I can no more take total credit for the way Isaac is today, than I can take all the blame for the way he was then. I didn't do everything right, nor did I do everything wrong. I wasn't always consistent and I didn't always follow through. I was as firm and loving as I could be while sometimes buckling under the weight of parenting a challenging child.

Man, I can so relate to Meagan! She totally gets it? Then, I find out she is a mom of 5 and, well, it all makes sense. You see, parenting and being a mom has more to do with experience than anything.

She goes on to write:

But maybe most of all, because it [the picture] serves as an important reminder that as parents, we never can be sure of how our kids will turn out, nor exactly what our role and influence might be in the outcome. We try our best, we make mistakes, and we hope for the best.

I guess that's what this photo represents most to me. Hope. Hope that my worst days of parenting will be followed by some kind of sweet reward, even if I can't imagine it right now.

Yes, Rock on Meagan, you are so right, try our best, make mistakes and hope for the best! So, yes, the sweet reward! I'm waiting patiently for that one. I'm in the midst of it I feel with Little B, she is so hard to parent and quite exhausting. But then, I thought that of Big B when she was 3 and look at her now at 9.  So yes, all things will pass and there is Hope!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you liked my latest confession!

Confession 33 - SquareHub App Social Networking for your family

Today I'm pre-confessing (is that even a word) about an app that was just released today, SquareHub.  Ironically, there is nothing "square" about this app and it seems to me to be one of the coolest, most awesome apps that I have seen released in a long time.  I mean, I think the last time I was this over the moon, was when I stumbled on Orchestra, I remember my giddy feeling, all happy and blissful! Well, this morning when I found out about SquareHub, I felt the same exact way.

So what is it? It's a new app that basically lets you have a private network with your family.  So let me paint the picture. We have close family friends that have 5 children, 1 away at college, 1 soon to be and 3 still at home. At any given time, both parents are on their phones texting away to their children, talking about what's for dinner, who can pick  up who, who will be home to feed the dog, etc. Group texts can get hairy and rather cumbersome to respond to, so most of the time, the parents and the kids are sending individual texts. See the issue? See the huge "black whole of time"? What if there was a way to have private communication for your whole family to see?

Introducing SquareHub, a private social network for your family that allows you to communicate in real time with your whole family, taking away the cumbersome, clunky way texting, calling and emailing are. Take a look at the screen shots below... Literally I'm {swooning} and so AppHappy!

You can check in to places just like on Facebook, so parents will know when your kid reached the movie theater or Suzy's house. You can also share pictures, that can be adorned with stickers, filters and star rewards. The app is also equipped with emoticons for when you are too busy to respond with a "I like that", or "bummer", you can just hit the face icon! Genius right?

The app is cleverly equipped with a To Do List feature where you can assign tasks to any family memeber and any or all family members can have visibility.  No more from your teenager "mom never told me to do that", oh yay buddy, that's not what the To do List says! Genius! (I know think of a new word Creative Junkie)

So go and check out this app and download it, it's FREE and get some time freed up to do some things that matter, instead of sending texts and emails!  I'm sorry to say that this app is only available for iPhones at the moment, an Android version is currently in development.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you liked my latest confession!

Confession 27 - Preggers? No not me!

Today I'm confessing about secretly still wanting another baby. I know, my husband says the shop is closed, and my 40th Birthday is closely approaching. Not to mention, my girls are at an age right now that is so nice, no diapers, no bottles, no tantrums, no throw your self on the floor, (a Momma can dream right?) no stroller at Disneyland, no huge carseats..... But I miss the smell of a new born baby, and kissing one, and dressing one and goo goo gooing at one. So when I saw this photo shoot on BuzzFeed, it got me all tingly.  I wish I was this creative years ago. Anyone out there preggers and can use one of these ideas?

And OMG, if you are overwhelmed this week like me and need a good LOL - LMFAO (especially my peeps behind the gates here with minimum day all week) it's a must to check these pics out! An awesome quick brain break and pick me up!

I can live vicariously through you!

Check them out.  My favorite is the "Prego" Pasta Sauce... Classic!

29 Ways to Tell Everyone your Preggers

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you like my latest confession!

Confession 19 - Embracing what Matters

Today I am confessing about my journey to let go, to become free and plug out more times in the day than not, especially around my family.  With the loss of my dear friend Sue, and the challenging cancer diagnosis for my friend Sara, this profound change in the way I was living my life has evolved and is still evolving.  I wanted to become more present in my daily life with my children, my husband and with my close friends.  I began to look at my commitments, friends and my surroundings in a whole new way. Was I really doing the things in my life that mattered the most? I knew there needed to be changes. A change in my friends, my activities and how I managed my daily life. At first it was hard to let go, thinking I was "missing out" or losing. But I quickly came to realize that I was actually winning.

Don't get me wrong, unplugging is hard and  there are many days that are very difficult to do this. But I try to each and every day to make a point to leave my phone and other distractions aside for just awhile so I can connect and be present, especially with my kids. My greatest fear is 10-15 years from now regretting that I didn't get to be with and know my girls.

I'm sharing a very cool blog site that has given me much inspiration on my journey. Take a peak and mingle around. I find something inspiring to read about in almost every single one of her blog posts.  I know you will too!  Check out Rachel and her inspiring journey to becoming "Hands Free" here.

We can never get these days back again. Go do something that matters in your life that will connect you with the people that matter most!

When I ran across this subway art piece, it was so fitting for this post. I had to share it with you.

 Thanks for stopping by and I hope you liked my latest confession!

Confession Three - Creative Parenting vs. Invasion of Privacy

Today I'm confessing that I am a parent that loves creative parenting strategies. Especially this one that comes from a mom, Janell Hofmann, from Massachusetts who has her 13 year old son sign an 18 Point Cell Phone Contract for his iPhone.

Here's Janell's Contract from her personal blog post: 

Dear Gregory

Merry Christmas!  You are now the proud owner of an iPhone.  Hot Damn!  You are a good & responsible 13 year old boy and you deserve this gift.  But with the acceptance of this present comes rules and regulations.  Please read through the following contract.  I hope that you understand it is my job to raise you into a well rounded, healthy young man that can function in the world and coexist with technology, not be ruled by it.  Failure to comply with the following list will result in termination of your iPhone ownership.

 I love you madly & look forward to sharing several million text messages with you in the days to come.

 1. It is my phone.  I bought it.  I pay for it.  I am loaning it to you.  Aren’t I the greatest?

 2.  I will always know the password.

 3.   If it rings, answer it.  It is a phone.  Say hello, use your manners.  Do not ever ignore a phone call if the screen reads “Mom” or “Dad”.  Not ever.

 4.  Hand the phone to one of your parents promptly at 7:30pm every school night & every weekend night at 9:00pm.  It will be shut off for the night and turned on again at 7:30am.  If you would not make a call to someone’s land line, wherein their parents may answer first, then do not call or text.  Listen to those instincts and respect other families like we would like to be respected. 

5.  It does not go to school with you.  Have a conversation with the people you text in person.  It’s a life skill.  *Half days, field trips and after school activities will require special consideration.

6.  If it falls into the toilet, smashes on the ground, or vanishes into thin air, you are responsible for the replacement costs or repairs.  Mow a lawn, babysit, stash some birthday money.  It will happen, you should be prepared.

7.  Do not use this technology to lie, fool, or deceive another human being.  Do not involve yourself in conversations that are hurtful to others.  Be a good friend first or stay the hell out of the crossfire. 

8.  Do not text, email, or say anything through this device you would not say in person.

9.  Do not text, email, or say anything to someone that you would not say out loud with their parents in the room.  Censor yourself.

10.  No porn.  Search the web for information you would openly share with me.  If you have a question about anything, ask a person – preferably me or your father. 

11.  Turn it off, silence it, put it away in public.  Especially in a restaurant, at the movies, or while speaking with another human being.  You are not a rude person; do not allow the iPhone to change that.

12.  Do not send or receive pictures of your private parts or anyone else’s private parts.  Don’t laugh.  Someday you will be tempted to do this despite your high intelligence.  It is risky and could ruin your teenage/college/adult life.  It is always a bad idea.  Cyberspace is vast and more powerful than you.  And it is hard to make anything of this magnitude disappear – including a bad reputation.

13.  Don’t take a zillion pictures and videos.  There is no need to document everything.  Live your experiences.  They will be stored in your memory for eternity.

14.  Leave your phone home sometimes and feel safe and secure in that decision.  It is not alive or an extension of you.  Learn to live without it.  Be bigger and more powerful than FOMO – fear of missing out. 

15.  Download music that is new or classic or different than the millions of your peers that listen to the same exact stuff.  Your generation has access to music like never before in history.  Take advantage of that gift.  Expand your horizons.

16.  Play a game with words or puzzles or brain teasers every now and then.

17.  Keep your eyes up.  See the world happening around you.  Stare out a window.  Listen to the birds.  Take a walk.  Talk to a stranger.  Wonder without googling. 

18.  You will mess up.  I will take away your phone.  We will sit down and talk about it.  We will start over again.  You & I, we are always learning.  I am on your team.  We are in this together.

It is my hope that you can agree to these terms.  Most of the lessons listed here do not just apply to the iPhone, but to life.  You are growing up in a fast and ever changing world.  It is exciting and enticing. Keep it simple every chance you get.  Trust your powerful mind and giant heart above any machine.  I love you.  I hope you enjoy your awesome new iPhone.  Merry Christmas!

 xoxoxo

Mom

Invasion of privacy? I think not! This kid is only 13 years old! What are your thoughts about this? If you are paying for your child's cell phone, would you institute this type of contract? I'd love to hear your thoughts about this subject. Agree or Disagree? 

What are my thoughts?

Hot Diggity! I'm {{swooning}} right now over this contract and I will be all over doing something like this when my minions grow up old enough to get a cell phone. As the rule stands in our home right now, a cell phone is not needed till the girls drive. I know, this sounds so archaic and old school, but I'm trying to hold out on this one as long as I can!

Thanks again for stopping by and I hope you liked my latest confession!

Back to School - Post #3 School Lunches

So my dear friend Sue and I had many obsessions together but one that stands out is our love for cute lunches. Sue and I spent countless hours reading blogs, buying supplies, hunting down just the right type of food items and chatting about it.  And I'll have to say, I just swoon when I make a lunch that is cheery and cute! Here are some things that I try to do with every lunch:

1. Write a sweet lunch note. Just another opportunity to tell our kids that they are special and mean the world to us. My older daughter likes to collect the notes, that is why you see 2 in the picture below. We have many plastered on her box by the end of the week.
2. A balanced meal. I try to give a vegetable, protein and a fruit in every meal. As my 8 year old becomes more and more picky with how she will eat vegetables, I have to become more and more creative. Lately, I've been doing vegetables in the form of a V8 Fusion Drink. She thinks it's a treat!
3. Organize the lunch in a fun way. I add stickers and you'll see with other posts, sometimes I organize by color or by theme like a holiday.

Lately, my BFF convinced me into making the lunches at night. This is working out well as I have more time to "embellish" the lunch!  I hope you enjoy making lunches for the kids a little more.
If you have a neat tip, comment and let me know!

Until Later.... !