Month: January 2015

MindFULL Upcycle

drviewIt’s 64 degrees in Denver, which makes us forget it’s January and lulls us into thinking it’s March. With the sun shining in, I feel motivated and a bit utsy. Much to my husband’s chagrin, that means wanting to do a house project. There are a few more big things I’d like to do, but can’t right now. So I have to find small ones.

One of the things I have been keeping an eye out for is a plant stand for my dining room; I’ve been having trouble finding one. After watching too many episodes of Flea Market Flip, I decided to make one. Downstairs, buried under a tarp, was my Bobie’s old nightstand. “Hmmm” I thought.

bstand

The fun part of this project was that it cost less than $10!

At first I was going to wallpaper the piece, but wallpaper is not inexpensive and contact paper looked cheap. So, I went to a paper store and simply bought some beautiful paper ($5.99 a sheet). I also bought a small jar of ModgePodge and a sample size of dark brown paint. The nightstand had already been painted white years ago, so the hard part was behind me.

All I did was decoupage the paper onto the sides and wash with ModgePodge. On the top I crumbled up tissue paper and used the ModgePodge to make a textured top. When it dried, I painted it brown. Viola!

papermpodNow I have a surface to put a live plant in my dining room (good Feng Shui) and all I have to do is to remember to water it.

standWhat have you recently MindFULLY “ up-cycled”? Let us know!

Stop! In The Name of (self) Love

LittleLevys

Recently, my cousin sent me this picture. I love it. It’s of me, and my two cousins (brother and sister) when we were around 4, 5 and 6, I think. It is one of my favorites and the timing reminds me of one of the best learnings I have come to this past year – learning to laugh at myself.

I am going to send it to the website Awkward Family Photos www.awkwardfamilyphotos.com. I love to look at the pics on the site. I think it shows us that all families have good intentions, and still, they can go terribly wrong. And I laugh out loud.

Such is also one of the lessons I hope to take into this New Year. I don’t always “do family” as well as I’d like. It’s complicated and managing it all can sometimes be challenging for me. With a lot of hard work, I’ve come to realize that we all “picture” our families, and lives, in a certain way. The picture is made up of moments – “snapshots in time”. The moments stick with us and we can choose to metaphorically caption them any way we want. We can also change the caption. I had several “captions” for this photo in my mind. My cousin had a different one. I loved hearing his. It opened me up to possibilities outside of my limited, and sometimes hard on myself, observations.

Maybe that’s what makes sites like Facebook and Instagram so appealing (and appalling). We have an opportunity to put out the best picture/caption possible and to believe in it.

So, I have put this old, dear picture where I can see it and like the little girl on the right, I vow to raise my hand more often and say, “Stop”! Stop and consider other perspectives. Stop and lighten up. Stop and be grateful for the friends and family who laugh with me. Stop and love ALL this moment has to offer. After all, it’s only a moment. And moments are all we have.

Do you have a picture that MindFULLY makes you laugh at yourself ?

Let us know!