Gratified Friday: A Happy Mess

I have lately found a new favorite quote while working away in the shop, listening to Leonard Cohen's The Future.  (I love Leonard Cohen, did you know that he became a monk at one point in his life??)

"Love is the only engine of survival"

It's true.  I've had a blurry couple of weeks, between lots of back pain, pain medicine that makes me loopy, physical therapy, and trying to function regardless.  

Of course I have been working in the shop all the same.

Matt and the kiddos have been more than sweet and helpful.  I feel so loved.  All there is to do is surrender to this strange phase, and wait for it to be better.  It will be eventually.  And meanwhile, let my sweet family take good care of me and be grateful for that.

I've been taking a lot of black and white photos lately.  I am loving the contrast.  Like the contrast of feeling so in love with my life, and being in so much pain at the same time.  Strange.

I'm a mess.  

But a happy mess.  

Gratified Fridays: Dream Workspace Realized

<<Before...>>

<<After...>>

Feeling really really good about this fantastic workspace!  The new house came already equipped with a room just ready for me to claim as my own Tarnished & True headquarters.  All I had to do was unpack, paint, and arrange my stuff.  

I love spending time in this space!  

You can see a big map up on the wall; a birthday gift from Matt.  It is for keeping a record of all my sales.  I still need to get the world map up and the pins out and start pinning!  It is really amazing to think about all of the places I have mailed jewelry to.  Only missing three states out of the whole US, and have touched quite a few international destinations, such as the Netherlands, France, Italy, Canada, China, the UK, and Australia.

I also found time to re-photograph the last photo found in all of my listings, of the beautiful packaging I send out with my jewelry.  Matt makes such pretty boxes!

It feels so good to see things coming together, and to be settling into this new workspace.  So grateful for such a nice place to work!

“To be creative means to be in love with life. You can be creative only if you love life enough that you want to enhance its beauty, you want to bring a little more music to it, a little more poetry to it, a little more dance to it.” 

–Osho

Happy weekend!

Gratified Friday: Friendship

Watching my two kids together, I see a closeness between them that is uncommon between siblings.  At least, it seems uncommon to me.  Until these two, I thought siblings were all about rivalry, and competition.  But not for them.  They are true friends.  I have seen them stand up for each other in times where that was the hardest thing to do.  I watch them share moments between them that only they can share.  They have their fall outs but never for too long, because they aren't mean to each other, or vindictive.  The bond between them is meaningful, and I feel so grateful to watch it continue to deepen, as their friendship grows.

Practicing gratitude is one path to happiness.

Did you post something that made you happy this week?  Feel free to share.

Be a follower of my blog and link back!

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Gratified Fridays: Summery Fun and Shortbread Cookies With Fancy Frosting

Here is a simple shortbread cookie recipe straight from Betty Crocker's cookbook.  You know they're going to be good when the main ingredient is butter!

Shortbread Wedges And Fancy Frosting

>>>To make the shortbread:

1/2 Cup Butter (softened)
2 Cups Flour
2 Tbsp Sugar

Mix the flour and sugar.  Gradually add the butter until the mix is crumbly.  Knead it into two balls.  Flatten each one onto a non greased cookie sheet to make an 8 inch circle.  With a knife slice the circles into 6 pieces each.  Bake at 350 degrees until light golden brown on the bottom.  Let cool 5 minutes and re-slice the wedges.  Cool.

>>>Make the frosting:

Powdered Sugar
Milk
Lemon Juice
Food Coloring

This is my go to frosting concoction because it is so simple and delicious and not too overpowering.  Pick out how many colors you want to use making sure to pick out some contrasting colors.  Mix mostly powdered sugar and just enough milk to make your frosting the consistency of yogurt.  Add a drop of lemon juice for flavor.  Now have fun adding your food coloring!

To create neat feathery designs like we did, first frost the bottom of the cookie in one color.  Now add stripes of another color.  Use a toothpick or butter knife and drag this through the icing the opposite direction of your stripes.  You can also alternate direction for an even more detailed result.

Enjoy!













Loving this summer vacation for nature walks with the family, and cookie making.  Having the kids home gives me reason to dream up these small adventures, in attack against the summer boredom that so easily sets in for them.  So grateful for these little moments.

Link up here with a post about what made you happy this week!  Be a follower, link with my button or link to my blog!

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Gratified Fridays: House Hunt and The Beach

Who doesn't dream of living on the beach?  It is easy to imagine myself starting the day with a jog on that long sandy beach, all salty hair and bare feet.  Or perhaps a dinner picnic, with the sun setting beautifully around me.


In our search to buy the best house for us, Matt and I keep finding ourselves clicking on homes for sale near the coast.  So yesterday, when we found one that we really liked, only five minutes from the beach, we packed the family up and headed over to check it out.


The house was beautifully quaint, cabin meets modern kitchen type of thing on a half acre.  I could just see us there, sitting in an adirondack chair, sipping coffee (that's me, Matt would be sipping cocoa), and the kids playing in the creek that runs through the property.


That house was a dream.  It was also an hour drive from Matt's work.  We lay on the beach together and talked out the pros and cons, but ultimately, we know that neither of us wants to lose two hours a day to a commute when we could be spending those hours together.


It is funny how one thing I thought I really wanted uncovered something else that I want more.


Which brings me to gratitude.  I am so happy to have a husband and family that can pick up on a whim and enjoy a perfect day at the beach.  I am so grateful to love them so intently that the rest just falls away in comparison.

“We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.” 

— Thornton Wilder

Practicing gratitude is said to be one of the key ingredients to happiness.  I practice this every Friday (unless, like today, I was too busy finding gratitude and post on Saturday).  

Join in and add a post about anything that made you happy over the last week or so.  Use my button, link to me or use my button, and please be a follower of my blog.

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Gratified Fridays: Good Endings

It is that time of year when good things come to an end.  The kids are ending their forth and sixth years of school (yes!! there will be a middle school kid here next year, unbelievable!).

Pottery class is over and we are patiently waiting for MyGirl's Hippo sculpture and MyBoy's Axolotl sculpture to be fired and ready for exhibition.

House hunting means we will finally be saying goodbye to this in between house and moving on to the next real home.  With all the house hunting keeping me busy, there has been a need for trucker coffee stops and quick homemade mac and cheese dinners.

And finally, Matt's favorite coworker retired from the tower this week.  She threw a raucous party and we all celebrated her next chapter in life, youthful and happy, retirement will be a beautiful thing for her!

Without and end, there is no beginning.

I am watching my husband vacuum the furniture, balancing the machine precariously on our desk.  It looks like he may need my help.

Link up with a post from your week that made you happy or grateful!

Be a follower of my blog or please feel free to use my button.

 

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Gratified Fridays: Nature's Beauty

It's been impossible not to be grateful for all of the gorgeous weather we have had lately!  The park down the street has finally gotten its little pond and stream filled.  It was so nice soaking our feet, and listening to the trickling water.  MyBoy sang as he put his hands in the water, thinking no one could really hear, but I could, and it was the sweetest sound.

This week, Matt and I resumed our house hunt, and as we drove out farther into the countryside, we saw clover fields, burgundy pink, rolling color across the land.  Beautiful.  I can't wait to find that perfect special place for us...I have so many plans...and I just can't wait to add remodeling, gardening, and interior decorating to the topics of this blog!

What are you grateful for lately?  Link a post about anything that made you happy this week!

I hope you will share in this link up, to spread gratitude, and ultimately happiness through this online world...Link back to me with my button or a link and be a follower of my blog, thanks!

He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has." 

- Epictetus

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Gratified Fridays: Link Up!

It's Friday again!  I like to use today to look back on my week and find things that I am grateful for.  And this week, I invite you to do the same, with a linky party!

Why gratitude?  You know what they say, that "gratitude is the best attitude", and it definitely breeds happiness.  Being able to look at your life with a dose of gratitude and positivity really helps put things into perspective, even when that grey cloud sneaks overhead.

But it isn't easy to remember to be grateful for the little things, so I like to make a practice of it every week here on my blog.  It also a helpful reminder to be grateful when, throughout the week, I find myself looking for things to put in Friday's post.  I've been doing it for quite a while, and I thought it might be nice to share the practice; to spread some positivity through the blogosphere.

Mini vacations with Matt are so special to me.  This week, we escaped to downtown Portland and had brunch at Mothers, best breakfast, ever!  We also managed to squeeze in a date night at our local McMenamins.  We dreamed about the future, buying a house, building me a backyard studio, gardening...and enjoyed some solid one on one.

And...Big News.....I made the dean's list again this semester with a 3.75 GPA.  I have to admit thought that I am more grateful to have it all over with than for the GPA, haha.

>>>Now it's your turn!

Link up with a positive post, something, anything that made you happy this week and share it here, there is never too much gratitude to go around!  Please be a follower of my blog or use my pretty button, thanks!

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Gratified Fridays: Time For Simple Things

Still LOVING being done with school!  So much time for these things:

>>>Mother's Day Breakfast in Bed (organic waffles, fresh berries, fair trade coffee, turkey bacon)
>>>Relaxing Kiddie Pool Side with Pups and Kids
>>>Day's End Sunsets and Grilling
>>>Making Myself jewelry

If this keeps up, I might start reading a novel, just because I can (there are a few on my nightstand just begging for attention).

Happy Friday everyone!

Gratified Fridays: Working Girl

It has officially been a year since I opened my Etsy shop, Tarnished & True, and things have only grown more and more steady.

So... happy birthday to my shop, and the fruition of an idea, and a little homegrown business that is all my own.

And Thank You------>

A big thanks to all of my wonderful customers for showing me that my jewelry is beautiful enough to buy.

All of my readers, thank you for the encouragement and feedback on my work, that has been priceless.

Thanks you especially to Matt for all of those beautiful little wooden crates you have made (over 200) that make my shop super special.

And to the kids, thanks for giving up your mom to her work bench even when you want so badly to play Nintendo with her, or watch bad sci-fi TV shows.

Love to you all.

<3

Now I am back to the workbench to kick out all of those Mother's Day orders that are keeping me from doing my homework. :)

Gratified Fridays: A Passat and Shorts

Some good things from this week to be happy about:

Wearing shorts---->

Driving home the new (to us) Passat----->

Working in the shop----->

My favorite wine mug---->

We finally got a second car after over a year of being a one car family.  We sold the other car when we moved because the Uhaul and the Touareg were enough to worry about driving.  When we got here, we didn't really need two cars, so we have just been doing the one car thing...until now.

This opens up a whole new world of possibilities, like....what?!?!...I can go to the store (any store) while Matt is at work and not because I walked there.  :)  And we won't have to coordinate our schedules all week around where the car will be.

We checked out a few sleazy car lots, and were told we couldn't get a Passat for what we wanted to spend.  We even test drove one that was so sketchy, the steering column wouldn't respond, and they wanted seven GRAND!  I laughed really hard.

Of course, we found the sweetest lady who sold us her Passat for way under our budget, and because we drove all the way out to her quaint town of less than ten thousand people, we got to spend the rest of the afternoon antiquing and enjoying the town's adorable little shops.

I bought some patchouli oil, a stone hippo for MyGirl, a second hand rose colored dress, and some incense.

What happened in your week that you are grateful for?