Creativity Corner for 5/8-5/14/11

I consider myself a frustrated artist. "Frustrated" in that I haven't shown any real discernible talent in any accepted media that I have attempted up to this point. Likewise, the term "artist" is being used quite loosely here, perhaps more in spirit than reality.

This, however, doesn't keep me from trying, and I have found somewhat acceptable proficiency in cake decorating and some jewelry design. Last week I found myself wrapped (trapped?) in cake and jewelry ideas, which also led to my lack of blogging on either of my blogs. Due to my obsessive nature it is probably best to assume I will repeat this behavior in the future, and maybe the best way to make up for my neglect (even if it is just largely making up to myself) by periodically having a recap ..a Creativity Corner...for the previous week.

So, time for show and tell! This week I:

1). Made earrings. Not the cute rhinos my eldest gave to me, but the green circles. They are actually hand painted 1.5 inch metal washers. I painted them with acrylics and sealed them with a crystal glaze to make them all shiny. This was actually a week long project because there was supposed to be a second circle above the larger one, but it turned out that trying to paint and seal smaller washers was an exercise in futility for me. After much angst, I abandoned that part of the project. YOu can see some of my various "art" in my etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/Carli613





2.) Made a birthday cake for my sister. Yes, that is a cow, and no, this is
not some sort of commentary on my feelings toward her. She requested a cow. Specifically, a strawberry cow with cream cheese icing. She was delicious. The cow cake that is, not my sister.






And 3) Made my best friend's wedding cake spread.

This is the completed "project" Congrats Mary and Dave!

The brides cake was an orange cake with honey orange butter cream. I drizzled the top with creamed honey. Those sweet peas, I found growing on the side of a hill while collecting the honeysuckle! How lucky was that? I loved them! And I thought the "honey comb" around the cake in white chocolate was pure genius. I wish I had thought of it! You can see where I stole the idea from here http://pleasesirblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/unique-wedding-cake.html

The brides cake

The grooms cake was pretty simple: Cinnamon cake with chocolate fudge icing. Originally, there wasn't one, but as I started on the brides cake i decided that was a crime given the grooms love of cake!

Grooms cake. All weddings should have some chocolate!

And then finally the cupcakes. They were flavored like the brides cake. I also drizzled those, but apparently they got too warm and the honey melted to a glaze on the cupcakes.

Melty, but delicious cupcakes! Yum!

Stashed between the jewelry and cake making extravaganza, I helped work an all day Arbonne spa party. This is when I discovered that I not only forgot to have lunch before leaving for the party, but I also neglected to shave my legs before having to bare them to soak my feet in a foot bath with clients. Seriously, who wants to discuss beauty products with a wookie?

This was, fortunately, only a minor set back and probably one that existed only in my mind. All in all...a pretty crazy, but mostly successful week last week! I hope the same for you all...crazy fun success :-)

Focus

I have been having issues focusing here lately. I am not sure whether it is a result of too much in my head and too little time to execute it all or simply of having too many bad ideas that are wasting my productive time.

I do know, however, that it is at least somewhat the by product of a good thing gone bad. Not very long ago it came to my attention that opportunity is everywhere.

Literally.

This is a good thing. However, I have become bombarded with ideas of varying merit. As a firm believer that merit can really only be measured after actually trying, I have spent a lot of time trying with very little results. Jack of all trades, master of none?

So I need to find focus on one or two worthwhile things, and quit trying to juggle Cat in the Hat style, with the same results, excited cries of "Look what I can do!" followed by the inevitable crash. How does one find balance and focus and still feed their desire for growth and curiosity?

Your Thoughts Are Belong to Me

My three year old at breakfast:
"Mommy?"
"Ella?"
"Mommy, I asked you for a mermaid costume, and you said 'yes'."
Momentary silence, while Ella munches toast and I contemplate whether this conversation actually ever took place.
"Um, no, I don't think so" I reply.
"Yes, you did, my friend Jasmine heard you."

She raises her eyes to meet mine. Our eyes lock, and she is unflinching. Unwavering. Oh, the poise! The conviction!

What if this worked for adults? First thing I would do is show up at the utility company, bill in hand.
"I told you I wasn't going to pay this bill and you said 'OK'."
"Ma'am, I don't think so."
"Yes, you did. My daughter Ella heard you."
This is the part where I really think you have to master the eye lock. You have to look firm, yet innocent. Being three wouldn't hurt.
"Oh, OK, then, into the shredder it goes!"
Best. Superpower. Ever.

This really just substantiates to me that three year olds are the most amazing, peculiar creatures. And they obviously possess mind control. It is one of the reasons we don't tend to eat our young, as well as why I am doing a web search for mermaid costumes in size 4 at 9 am in May.

A Night Devoid of Stars

Recently, we received the news of the demise of Osama Bin Laden. I don't think it would be unwarranted to say that most Americans would consider this a victory, though there seems to be some debate on whether the victory is a political or military one. Suffice it to say a weight of some measure has been taken off the shoulders of America.

What I don't get, however, if some of the responses I am seeing. The gleefully venomous responses of those on Facebook, Internet, and even in person. Don't get me wrong, I do not feel that it shouldn't have been done, however, I see it as a necessary evil, rather than a celebratory event. Since when is the loss of human life cause for celebration? As Americans, we were appalled when we saw the Muslim celebratory reaction to 9/11.

But it doesn't look much different from this, does it?



No? Really? Huh.

Thankfully, I was not the only one who felt strangely unthrilled by a Osama's death. In response to this, a quote spread across Facebook like wildfire:

"I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that." -- Martin Luther King, Jr

Then, it was quickly pointed out that this was an incorrect quotation, as though that invalidated the legitimacy of the sentiment. (What's that on my face? Egg? Strange..) That's fine, I am a stickler for correctness. Turns out the quote originated here:
http://i.imgur.com/cqtjw.jpg
and the first sentence was not part of the MLK quote, but touching words by the poster, Jessica Dovey, who is, no doubt, having her FB account blown up with friend requests. The rest of the quote, is, indeed MLK, and appeared in his 1963 Strength to Love.

Are we as Americans no better than the very people we labeled as barbaric savages? Perhaps "justice" is subjective...but as human being maybe we should be looking at the type of people, the kind of country we want to be. Just my $.02. I'll try again tomorrow to regain my faith in humanity.

I would like to thank Steve Hollier for his article that I found this morning on my search for pictures. I took the two that I used from his blog on Wordpress. You should really check it out!
http://stevehollier.wordpress.com/

Prove Them Wrong

This morning I woke up at started working on my business blog. I went to YouTube to insert the Arbonne Opportunity video and made the mistake of reading comments. Now, I am pretty determined to keep my business separate from my personal, so I won't be talking Arbonne much here...but in this case, Wow! I was really blown away by all the negativity. I got curious and looked up similar companies (ie, MLM direct sales) like Avon, Thirty-One and Stella and Dot, somewhat expecting to see the same sort of responses. I kept thinking of the Bloom County Mary Kay Commandos, remember that?

I adore the garters on the pink combat boots!

Strangely enough, the hecklers seem to be centered predominantly on Arbonne. Somehow Arbonne has been lumped with pyramid scams more than legitimate direct marketing. Honestly, at first I was confused and mad. Then I quit taking myself so seriously, started thinking about Arbots (you know, those overzealous company reps that descend upon you like vultures trying to convince you to start a business you have no interest in while regurgitating memorized trite verbiage) and saw perhaps where it is coming from.

Frankly, you can make extra pocket money with Arbonne on the occasional party and retail sales alone. I am living proof of that. But to make it your actual occupation, you have to recruit and work a lot of parties. Both these things require you to actively pursue. And those in the pursuit often reek of desperation. When this is sensed by those being pursued, they feel like prey..and prey runs.

This doesn't make Arbonne a bad company, any more than that annoying sales guy at Sears who would only speak to my husband even though I was the one purchasing makes Sears a bad company. However, consultants serve as the face of Arbonne, while Sears has a branded name and building to lend a sense of respectability.

Arbonne products are not cheap. But does anyone get mad or call Lancôme a scam because of the cost of their $100 night cream? Of course not. It helps that the sales person doesn't depend on you for her paycheck. Perhaps she gets a commission, but she also gets a check whether you buy or not. Not so with direct sales. Hence the desperate air of some.

Then there are those who tried Arbonne and failed. Well, that obviously makes it a scam right away! Fact is, there is not a single business on this earth with a 100% success rate..and if anyone tells you that you will succeed with Arbonne, they are a liar. Some people won't work hard enough. Some people just won't be good at it. Some people won't like it. Some people just wont like the actual products. I think they are wonderful, or I wouldn't sell them, but nothing is for everyone, and some people expect miracles. I have horrible skin when off my Clear Advantage...but I don't just toss it in the garbage if I wake up with a small pimple on my forehead. I think 99% improvement is pretty damned acceptable.

I saw "pyramid scam" thrown around quite a few time...and the fact is, a pyramid scam relies solely on recruiting and offers no product or service in return while promising huge dividends, which are derived from the recruiting, so that only those on the top profit. If a company is offering a product or service it is not a pyramid scam. Period. Multi-level does not automatically equate pyramid scam.

 

I found these pyramids at Tim Sales' site and thought they explained the situation perfectly.
http://www.firstclassmlmtools.com/MLMSuccessTips/index.php/2007/06/so-your-prospect-thinks-mlm-is-a-pyramid/

So I'm not mad anymore. I had a moment where I even doubted myself and my choices. I certainly had many of those same thoughts before I got involved on my own. Then I realized that this is my opportunity to prove them wrong. To show others that people in MLM are not always pushy or desperate, but we are just people doing something we enjoy and trying to live our own lives without time clocks and bosses. Today I am going out into the world with a renewed determination to be kind to others while expecting nothing in return. Today I am going to make my business calls and really make sure I listen to what my clients have to say and avoid trying to encourage them to say what I want to hear.

If you are interested in hearing more about Arbonne or MLM direct sales, you can check out my business blog
www.sensationalskincaretn.blogspot.com
where I will talk more about why I chose direct sales and the advantages of Arbonne, etc.
and my sales site
www.carliclark.myarbonne.com
where anyone can buy their own products, sign up as a consultant, or contact me about my business.

What is chasing you?

I ran my first 5K yesterday. I neither died, nor came in last, both of which were valid concerns for me. I'm not very fast, I haven't been running for very long, and I didn't train much of the month due to a recent appendectomy and a respiratory viral infection. My husband actually attempted to discourage me from the race in light of my lingering hacking cough, but I had said when I signed up that I would run "no matter what" and illness is a "what", right?

So I ran anyway. I crossed the finish line in just under 35 minutes, and 11.12 minute mile putting me in 377th place out of 511 participants.  So I didn't blow any one's doors off. But I ran. I did it, which proves pretty much anyone can, as I have never been what anyone would consider athletic.

Afterward, we celebrated with brunch, and there were a lot of runners where we ended up, and I heard an overweight lady saying "I would only run if something was chasing me!" and felt like replying "I am being chased...by thunder thighs and a fat ass. By high cholesterol, diabetes, and heart disease. If I slow down, they might catch me as at least a few seem to have caught you!". But I have found that many people who already have a problem much prefer for you to either overlook or commiserate than to suggest how they might resolve. The average person really doesn't want to take action and possess a million reasons why they shouldn't try, or why they tried, but quit because it "didn't work". I have done it, too, until I realized if I spent half the time doing something about my problems that I spent complaining about and rationalizing why I am doing nothing about them, then I could probably resolves them all. Even knowing this, I still have to occasionally remind myself.

So, I stayed silent, as I was pretty sure my comment would not be construed as helpful.

Perhaps some day someone will run across this blog and become angry, feeling that I am picking on overweight people. This is not my intention. I have given birth to three children and possess a lower body that expands at the drop of a twinkie. I understand how difficult it is. But it is very rarely, if ever, truly impossible. So my question would be, what is chasing you? Extra weight? Self-doubt? Fear? What are you doing to not get caught? Do you do nothing because you are lazy (let's face it, we are all kinda lazy) or that you fear failure? Are either of those thing worth wasting you life being unhappy about something that you can change? Change is hard. But change is an amazing entity..sometimes it happens to you against your will, and you get drug kicking and screaming into it, but at the same time, you always get to choose change. Always. Any second of any day you can decide "I am going to change this" and set about doing just that. This type of change often takes time and patience, and this is where people often lose it...its too hard, it takes too long. Is your life not worth it? Mine damn sure is. Absolutely.

I highly suggest reading or listening to the teaching of Jim Rohn. He talks about how anyone can totally turn around their lives  and do a major life altering overhaul in 2-5 years. That may sound like a long time, but what is 5 years when you compare it to a life of unfulfillment and unhappiness? A drop in the water. You can have success, whatever that means to you personally...anyone can. I am not saying that someone who can't sing can become a famous professional singer, but I do believe that one who has a clear view of their strengths and weakness can find things they enjoy and are at least acceptable at and can make these things into something that benefits their life, as well as pinpoint flaws to determine the ones that can be worked on and do two very important things...quit beating themselves up over them, and change them.

Yesterday, I triumphed over my fear of failure while at the same time doing something that was healthy and good for me. Yesterday, I ran.

Maybe you would like to run, too. Couch to 5k is a great program to get you started.
http://www.fromcouchto5k.com/articles/training/the-couch-to-5k-training-plan/

The definition of success

My husband is one of those people who always seemed to have a plan and to know who he was and where he was going. He saw himself as an adult with house, wife, and kids one day...he saw himself as generally successful. He also never remembers his dreams and has no idea if he dreams in color or black and white, so I'm pretty sure he is kinda weird, anyway. I can't imagine what it must be like to become the person you thought you would be.

Is it wisdom, or lack of imagination? Is it validating to look back and say "Yeah, this is who I thought I was" or do you regret not taking the side paths, even if they caused you to lag behind in your life's journey? He seems happy, and he seems to feel as though he has succeeded in life. I, myself, find that I am happy...but not so sure about successful. I mean, I know I want to always be moving forward, and I don't want to become stagnant, but at the same time, when one feels successful, do you suddenly feel as though you have "arrived" and everything else is icing?

Honestly, I have had to seriously question where I belong, and if I am missing something. Life is so short and I want to squeeze everything joyful and thought provoking out of it. I want to mainline information and ideas directly into my veins in a constant stream of consciousness. I want to feel it, see it, experience it, becore I run out of days to do it in. I want to be happy, competent, successful in my own mind, regardless of what anyone else thinks.

Don't you have to know what "successful" means to you, personally, to accomplish this? I want to be a well loved mother, a lucrative entrepreneur, and wife that my husband is proud of...and I want to look amazing and be inspiring to others while doing it! Do I have too many criteria, do I expect too much or myself? Or am I limiting myself and stunting my potential abilities by accepting less? They say not to expect too much...but why not? So I don't get disappointed? But maybe what I receive correlates to what I expect and I am holding myself back. I wonder if those who have achieved greatness expected more than what I have expected in the past?

That is my new challenge. Expect more! Of myself, of my family, of my life! And if I don't get more from it, perhaps I should think about what I can do to change that. I think many of us don't think of ourselves in terms of "greatness"...thats for "other" people...famous people, rich people, lucky people. But why? We were all given the same number of hours each day, and while some of us may have started out a handicapped (physically, emotionally, fiscally, whatever), maybe ALL of us receive a handicap and those that win are those that overcome and see their own greatness and quit comparing themselves to others.

“The same wind blows on us all; the winds of disaster, opportunity and change. The same wind blows on us all. Therefore, it is not the blowing of the wind, but the setting of the sails that will determine our direction in life.”
~Jim Rohn

So it begins....

I have threatened to start a blog many times. My kids say or do something hysterical, and I think "I should be writing this stuff down!", or maybe I just want to vent or think, and the quiet in my head is not near as satisfactory as the clicking of the keyboard.

But mostly, I feel the urge when I look at my life, and think, "WOW...how did I get here?". "Here" is not normally a bad place...actually, it can often be the most wonderful, glorious place I have ever been, but it is normally somewhere that I never would have dreamed that I would ever be. 

Once upon a time I pictured myself as an adult, with tattoos and body piercing, owning some sort of questionable pet like a pit bull or an anaconda, working a deliciously questionable job, like my owning my own tattoo parlor or something exciting, like an undercover cop, working both sides of the law, just like you would see on A&E. Then I married my first husband and sobered up. Oh, if only I had done the latter first! Then my first child came, the inevitable divorce, and then a decade of self discovery and, hopefully, improvement.

So back to the blog. I almost started on a couple years ago when I realize how funny and clever my children were..I don't ever want to forget! Then a second urge came when I started my own Arbonne business...I wanted to be able to store product reviews and maybe help others in their own business endeavors. But the final straw came when I bought the minivan.

Yes, the minivan. I actually received condolences from some of my friends. It was my grand admission to parenthood, adulthood, and responsibility...and one item I swore I would never own, right next to Mom Jeans and those little stickers people have in their car windows denoting their kids, which I have always wondered might be serial killer fodder...I mean, if there's some nut ball running around who likes to kill families of 5, why should I advertise?

But I digress. I now own my first minivan. And something happened. I didn't suddenly gain 15 pounds and start asking my children if they were wearing clean underwear. I did, however, pop in Violent Femmes, and transported all three children, a husband, and several dishes to my mother's house for Easter dinner. And the eldest didn't even have to climb over the top of the middle child to get to the back row and my husband didn't have to hold the cake in the passenger seat. That's when it truly, for the first time in my life, occurred to me that maybe, just maybe I could have it all. I could still be me and be wife and mom without compromise or having to give up pieces of myself. Maybe compromise didn't mean loss, but a mutualistic symbiosis. And I suddenly felt like a minivan crusader, the Masked Mom, who could Be and Do it all.

So I sit at the keyboard, thinking about all the things I could do with a blog. I can express myself, laugh at myself (and my kids, of course), and vent, as well as store business and product information and, hopefully, inspiration. Because, really, it all works together, my life has become full through all of it, not just a part. And I really loved the background design, that blurry vision as it all rushes past going, going, going....somewhere. But where? So it begins. Let's see where it goes.

"A suburban mother's role is to deliver children obstetrically once, and by car forever after. "
~Peter De Vries