Some Crafts and Gifts of Summertime

Well hello!

Again I've noticed it has been a while since a post, and since I still have no job there is really not a good excuse I can use for lack of updating. Funny though, how even without a job and with husband on vacation, we seem to be so incredibly busy! I suppose summer can get that way really fast, and in some ways I'm glad I don't have to be cooped up somewhere during the best hours of the beautiful weather we're having, but this lack of paycheck thing is getting stressful. I now know what it feels like to be amongst the depressed unemployed-and-looking. I don't recommend it. It's exhausting.

Scouring Craigslist and my profession's state association classifieds, responding to anything advertised within 60 miles, networking LIKE A BOSS (but apparently not well enough...??), cold calls, dozens (literally) of inquiries into posted positions with not even a "thanks for your interest and we'll get back to you soon..." even after I've sent follow-up emails...it's all very overwhelming and at the end of the day, depressing. It sucks. All I want is to take care of people, improve their quality of life, provide impeccable service and care, and be able to pay my bills. Please?

So obviously I've had plenty of free time on my hands. After sending email responses to classifieds for jobs posted, after driving around with three supply reps to all of their clients, and after making new cold calls almost every day...there's still so much time for everything else that summer has to offer. So, I've filled up that time with crafts, catching up with old friends, cleaning and settling into our new place (still after two months, I know...), and pretending to be tourists in our old/new hometown. If not for lack of income, I'd be having SO MUCH more fun, but I'm really trying to make the best of having free time and still trying to be thrifty as well...

Anyway, down to business! Here's a little project I did to help spruce up our place:

I bought two plain wooden crates from JoAnn with my coupons, and stained and finished them. It took a couple of days to allow time for everything to dry sufficiently. They aren't all that large, the bottoms are about the dimensions of a small TV tray, which is actually perfect for our place. When we moved, we got rid of our entire living room furniture set, and have not replaced it. This has nothing to do with money, it is actually 100% due to the fact that our place is small. So instead of living room furniture, we have several floor pillows, a blanket, and two of these crates. 

We also don't have a television, so instead we use Netflix and Hulu, and have a large flat screen monitor to hook up to our computer and watch movies and Top Gear and British sit-coms. We have five wall shelves, one of which is mounted about 18 inches off the floor, and the monitor sits there. Then we relax on the floor for some movies and cuddles, and we also usually eat dinner during a Top Gear episode or something, on the floor. So the crates come in handy to store some of the pillows, and also to use as little dinner tables. Floor living has been pretty nice so far, except it does make me feel like I don't have a space to use as an "office" or craft area. That is a little tough. But in such a small space, there's not really a ton of room for anything like that anyway.

Moving on...friends of ours had a party for the baptism of one and the birthdays of both of their children, and I wanted to make something they could enjoy as a family in addition to the little books we got the kids for their birthdays. I found the tutorial for the following project at Grow Creative (click for tutorial...) It ended up being pretty easy and turned out great. 

So, a few things I should share about this project. 

1) Yellow is too light...unless your pencil tracing is already super light, you will NOT be able to erase the outline after you've painted with watercolors over it. So, I darkened up the yellow one to more of a golden/light orange and the remaining pencil marks all but disappeared. The other colors weren't as big of an issue, although I would definitely recommend tracing as lightly as possible so that whatever color you choose will cover up the lines completely.

2) The frame I had was 12x12, and since I wanted four images they were each 6x6. I cut my watercolor paper into 6x6 squares, and when I was done painting each one I definitely made sure to use my heavy duty scrapbooking tape runner to then arrange them on and stick them to a 12x12 scrapbook page. Then I trimmed the purple strips to frame each image.

3) Overall I was really happy with this project. One thing the original tutorial on Grow Creative mentions is to pick a photo that has a good balance of shaded and lit areas...but that's actually kind of hard to do. Until you upload the photo into the online editor, it's really hard to tell exactly how it's going to turn out. And I won't lie, I didn't do *exactly* what the tutorial said to do. For her image, she posterized the photo to have only two colors. Well, three of the four photos I was working with didn't turn out that well with just black and white, so I posterized them with three colors, and used a faded version of my main color when I painted. Does that make sense? Just a watered down version of the darker color.

4) I kept small scrap strip of my cropped watercolor paper nearby so that I could test out the saturation of my color before I added it to my image. Helpful.

I think that's it for tips and notes about that...it was a fun project and, especially for photos of kids and pets, is an awesome addition to a home. It made a pretty great gift as well, I think.

Another great gift I put together this summer was a "Just in case..." bag with all sorts of great event-specific-emergency items. I gave it to my lovely bride-to-be friend as a bridal shower gift, and I actually got the idea from a great gift I got from my own bridesmaid for my wedding! I collected the same or similar items that I had received, and then added a few more things that were specific to this lovely's and my friendship together. I found a super cute cosmetics bag, made a cute tag, and just put everything inside! And my lovely bride-to-be loved it :) Oh, and I also made a card with my collection of cardstock, a little snippet of ribbon, lace, and tulle. I made a similar card (with slightly different patterns of how I put the tulle on, and a gray "belt" instead of the white ribbon) for another friend who is also getting married at the end of this summer. I really liked making them, and they were definitely unique; plus I didn't buy them for $6 each :P

Now, I wish I had kept an actual list of all the stuff I put inside. You can see some of it, but that's not even close to all of it! So, I'll list what I can remember:

Travel sized toothbrush, floss, toothpaste, and those little Wisp things.

5-Hour Energy shots

Eyedrops

Travel tissue

Travel Tide stain remover stick

Ibuprofen/Tylenol/Aspirin

A tampon

Lip balm

Bobby pins

Safety pins

Granola/snack bar

Q-Tips

Mini box of Altoids

Travel sized deodorant

...

Gosh, I feel like there was more but I just cannot remember what...! Here are some ideas that you could add also:

An airplane shot of her favorite liquor

Starbucks VIA or other instant or premade coffee drink

Travel sized hairspray

Moist towelettes/hand sanitizer

Sample/travel size of her favorite perfume

Little rubber earring backs

...

I think that's all the additional ideas I've got off the top of my head right now, but you're creative so you get the point. One thing I appreciated SO much from one of my own lovely bridesmaids was that she brought a PBnJ sandwich and a bottle of water, and she fed me a few bites and sips just before the ceremony as we were hiding from all the guests taking their seats in the chapel. We also had some bagels and cream cheese in our dressing area, but the bagels were really dense; a little hard to chew real quick and get it swallowed before we had to go! Everyone getting ready was able to enjoy a few bites though. Delicious. I then popped a mint, and we were ready to go. It was awesome because it wasn't even something I had thought of - needing a little bit of food between the VERY early breakfast that morning and the hors d'oeuvres at the reception at 2:30 that afternoon. 

Well, I think that's all for now! There will be another post soon about being tourists in our own city, since I've been trying to live up my unemployment time...

Thanks for reading, mates! Until next time, make someone a gift. It feels wonderful to share your creativity, or even just share the fact that you've been thinking about someone in your life.

Update Since Moving Across the Country

Hello! So, I've been pretty bad at keeping this thing updated. I was really hoping that this would be something I could stick to, on a regular basis, but so far that has not been the case. I promise I'm trying to get better at this! (for you three readers out there actually reading my rambles...ha)

Since my last post, we moved across the country from a 950 sq ft apartment with a garage to a 624 sq ft apartment with a parking spot. I knew we had a lot of stuff, but seriously...it's been a real eye-opener to have to get rid of THIS MUCH STUFF. Five (I think) trips with a full car to Goodwill before we even left our old place, a couple trips since we've been back, and selling/giving away about half of our furniture. Wow, we had a lot of stuff - and the thing is, we literally don't miss anything that's gone. It's pretty nice to start minimizing.

One thing I am having a hard time with, though, is cutting down on my artsy fartsy supplies. I have so many projects I want to do and I actually do use a lot of my supplies fairly often (I don't buy greeting cards, I make them all; I use ribbons and rubber stamps to dress up gifts wrapped in brown craft paper; etc.) that I just can't bear to part with the majority of it. I did go through before we moved and got rid of a couple boxes worth of craft stuff that I had held onto for years and never used - you know, that stuff you look at and think, "oh this would be great for this particular project," and then one day you realize, "I'm never going to do THAT specific project, and if I did, I would want to get rid of it anyway."

So, a month later we're almost organized...there are a few more boxes of artsy fartsy things that won't fit into the hall closet and at this time I don't have a place for them...so they're sitting under the windows in the main room. I have to say it is driving me nuts that things still aren't all the way put away, but we are waiting on a storage unit inside our building to open up - right now we have things like camping gear and a few boxes of artsy fartsy stuff and some other randoms in a 4x4 cage in a room that's off the underground parking garage. Not easy access, and not organized well enough to be very functional. Also, Husband has some random stuff laying about that will go to his work, and I have a box and a couple cases of items that will go to my office someday...hopefully someday soon...anyway, that's that.

Despite the few straggling boxes, I do LOVE where we live now; we face west on the fifth floor of our building, one of the tallest in our neighborhood. We look at the peninsula, Puget Sound, and some small islands in the Sound. We can watch amazing sunsets with a water view. I'm pretty sure apartment living in our neighborhood could only be better if we were on the top floor, the seventh, but seeing as how we're only two floors below that, it's still really freaking awesome. The rooftop garden and fire pit is awesome, 360 degree views of the best Western Washington has to offer: Puget Sound, both mountain ranges, Mt. Rainier, and downtown. So, my mantra lately has pretty much been: "I win." Because this is really freaking amazing.

In addition, we are a block away from great public transportation, walking distance to Trader Joe's, the ongoing neighborhood produce stand, and the weekly farmer's market. Oh, and a bunch of great restaurants and bars, a couple of parks, the hardware store, SIX (maybe more...) coffee shops that AREN'T Starbucks (!!!), great little gift boutiques, our family jeweler, and pretty much everything else we could need or want. Did I mention life is pretty amazing right now?

Except for the fact that I have yet to find a job. It's kind of depressing, actually. And getting worse. However, I do have a lead for an Air Force Medical Dental Group recruiter, I'm going on a ride along with a supply rep to his client offices tomorrow and then with another rep next week, I've been offered a part time hygiene opportunity in a family friend's office (not terrible but definitely not ideal - hey, at least it would be a paycheck! If my license ever arrives, that is). So ya, I did mention my license hasn't arrive yet, right? I won't even go into how I feel about THAT (although I think it's quite obvious). So...trying SO hard to stay positive and keep on chugging!!

We have found some great places and things to do on a regular basis, so I'm excited to start getting more involved in the community! We visited a gym yesterday that we're going to start going to - my initial assessment/consult is in an hour and a half actually. They have a couple different practices of martial arts, boxing, and a thing called Warrior Woman which I'm going to do. I guess it's basically circuit and strength training bootcamp, so I'm really excited to try it out. I'm kind of intimidated that other women are going to have way more of a head start in this than me, but I'm super excited to get back to a community gym where is small enough to be personalized but not nearly as expensive as personal training, and provides a good community of fellow athletes.

Also, yesterday I went to a book group at the local library. I've been wanting to join one for a while, and wasn't really sure how to start my own - making sure everyone gets the book in time to have it finished by the next meeting was what I was having trouble figuring out...oh, and the fact that NO ONE in my building responded to my post in our online portal about wanting to start a book club! RUDE. Haha. Anyway, I went to the one at the library yesterday and it seems like a really good group of ladies. Of course they're all older than me, by at least 8 or 10 years, and some could be my grandmas, but it was a good time! I'm pretty sure they're all bleeding hearts, too, which is kind of unfortunate but at least one seems at least open to the fact that someone might think differently and that what makes the world go round is all kinds of kinds, not just one kind of thinking...at any rate, the only reason that all came up anyway was because the book they had just finished reading was Mornings on Horseback, the David McCullough biography of Theodore Roosevelt, so there was some political banter but mostly in good fun anyway. The book apparently didn't go into a lot of political detail, mostly his upbringing and career, and how he got into political service - not so much his actual presidency or what he did during it. The general consensus was that the ladies didn't particularly enjoy David McCullough's writing as a historian, wouldn't recommend other biographies written by him, and most of the ladies didn't even read the whole book because they didn't like it. It's hard to tell yet if the reason they didn't like the historian's book was because he actually writes in a manner that's hard for most people to read, or if it's because they might be reading at a much younger level - which is actually really common, unfortunately. Apparently most adults in the US read at about an 8th-9th grade level, so that definitely wouldn't cut it to read a book by an extremely popular PhD historian and political biographer. I mean, the man has written several biographies and has sold tons of copies of all of them...so I may just need to read one for myself and decide.

Anyway, I think that should be about all for now. Sorry I rambled a bit in that last paragraph, I'm super excited to have found a book club that seems great so far! Now we're reading East of the Mountains, by David Guterson. So far it's pretty good.

Okay seriously now, I'm done. Thanks for reading, as always, if you got this far :) Until next time, friends!

Washington State Map Art

So, hello everyone! This is going to be a new type of post for me, because it's going to include photos AND a tutorial/description of a project I just finished. Not only did I finish it today, I only started it less than two hours ago. Yes, it's true, I started AND finished a project in less than an entire afternoon. Which is awesome, because now I have time for another project! Keep reading for photos and the tutorial!

We had been over to our friends' house a couple months ago for the husband's birthday party, and it was not the first time we'd been there. However, because they only moved into that house about six months ago, they were still working on getting all of their decor in place, so this was the first time I'd seen this amazing piece of art - a framed state map cutout of Michigan (where the husband is from) with colorful strips of collage in the background, with about a half inch between the background and the cutout so there was sort of a shadow effect. Amazed at this idea, I asked where they had gotten it, and the wife said a friend of theirs made it for them. Of course, a great project idea! I examined the piece of art and it's been on my mind ever since. For once, NOT something inspired by Pinterest (those tutorials usually lie anyway and the caption will say "super easy, only a couple hours, less than an afternoon, etc." Not true. But I've posted about that before, and I digress...

On to the photos and tutorial!

Materials needed:
Magazines
Paper cutter/rotary cutter
Exacto knife
Cutting mat
Printer
Two pages of white cardstock
Glue stick
Wall frame

1. Collect magazine pages that have little or no writing and people on them.
I used a bunch of cool full-page photos from my husband's Scientific American magazines, plus some advertisements in regular magazines like More, Real Simple, and my seasonal Nordstrom catalog. Some of the pages I only used half of, because I was looking for a certain color scheme as well - blues and greens. I have to admit, the pages from the Scientific American mags ended up being the best, because I could use almost, if not all of, the entire page, and there were some really abstract photos like microscope photos blown up to be the whole page, different types of maps, and stuff like that. Other magazines that would be good for this would be National Geographic and probably travel magazines.

2. Use a paper cutter or rotary cutter to slice the magazine pages into lots of quarter-inch wide strips.
THIS STEP IS THE LONGEST, I HAD DONE THIS PRIOR TO STARTING THE REST OF THE PROJECT...
For this, I wanted the images to be unidentifiable and in case an awesome page had like one word on it, I didn't want it to be obvious what it was. So my strips were about a quarter inch wide - it sounds kind of big, but then when you actually start slicing the page, it seems like it takes forever! This was probably the most time-consuming part of the project, and I had done this last week while I was home and in between packing boxes for our imminent move across country. I guess technically, if you did this step the same day as your project, the whole thing would take a lot longer, about twice as long depending on how many magazines you decide to go through and if you can find good pages.
So, cut enough that you have lots of photos and color combinations to choose from for your project. I went through about five magazines including two Scientific Americans (lots of pages from both of those!), for a total of maybe 15 or 20 pages - but for a lot of the More and Real Simple pages, I couldn't use the whole page because part of it was plain white or because of big words or peoples' faces, etc.

All my strips of magazine pages cut into quarter-inch wide pieces. I found an old elementary school pencil box to store them in so they wouldn't get all twisted or crumpled!

3. Search online for a state map outline for whatever state you want.
I Googled "Washington state map outline" and ultimately found the image I used at this website, and there are lots of other states too! Click "Printable version," save PDF if necessary, print to use up the entirety of your 8.5x11in page, and viola, you've got your map.

My Washington state map.

4. Trace your map onto one of the pages of white cardstock.

I happened to have 8.5x11in cardstock in white, but if you have larger cardstock for i.e. 12x12 scrapbooking, you may need to trim yours. You're crafty, so you know how to take care of that. The reason I didn't print my map directly onto my cardstock, which is totally possible, is because I didn't want to turn the PDF into the mirror image of itself - I needed a pencil tracing of my map on my cardstock so that if there were pencil marks around the edge of my map, I could erase them. If you print directly onto your cardstock, make the map a mirror image of itself first so that when you cut the image out, you can turn the page over so you won't see any of the printed edges you left behind. Does that make sense? 

I paperclipped my cardstock to the front of my map page, held it up to a window, and traced in pencil.

5. Use your exacto knife to cut along the edges of your tracing on your cardstock. Obviously do this on top of your cutting mat...

This was WAY easier than I thought it would be. My husband had a couple of awesome knives he uses for building replica models of like cars and airplanes and stuff, so those worked really well. Again, you're crafty so you probably already have awesome knives with which to do this.

Erase any pencil marks that remain at the edges of your map, and set the whole thing aside.

Sorry this is sideways, iPhoto doesn't like some edits sometimes for whatever reason. Cutting around the edges of my map was way faster than I thought it would be, about 10 minutes total, even with all those little islands! I saved my cut-out pieces for another project, yet I'm not sure what that'll be.

5. Glue your magazine strips to your un-cut piece of 8.5x11 white cardstock.

I guess technically it doesn't have to be white. So, what I did for this part is I used the cut-out piece of Washington to sort of mark where my "window" would be on the full 8.5x11 paper, so I would sort of know where my colors would show through and which part of the strip would just be too close to the edge or the middle for my liking. I hope that makes sense. I wanted a general idea of what would show of the strips when I was all done, so indicating the general dimensions of my cutout on my background page was helpful.

I used a glue stick so my pieces didn't wrinkle too much. The final product actually has a large wrinkle on the FRONT page (the one I cut out my map from! Booooo!) from the glue stick, but I was being careless...I guess if you were up to the challenge and mess, you could use mod podge or regular Elmer's with a bit of water and a paintbrush, but glue stick was WAY easy and WAY less messy than other options.

Start in the middle of your page with the first strip. I wanted to make sure my strips would all be straight up and down, and that I wouldn't end up with really awesome strips only half showing because they were on the edges of the cutout or something. I just found it easier than the right or left edge, because obviously you won't need to put strips all along there since those edges won't show!

It looked strange as I was assembling the whole thing; I wasn't sure I liked the order I chose for my strips, and I actually pulled one from the very center, didn't use it at all, and replaced it with a different one. Another advantage of using a glue stick - if you truly hate where you placed something, you don't have to wrestle much with it to change it! I was seriously doubting the outcome of the whole project when I was about halfway through gluing my strips to my page. But, I kept on, and I'm glad I did!

6. Place your cardstock with the map cut out from it over your background piece to see how you like it.

At this point, I realized I did need one more strip on the left side as you could see a little blank area through the cut out. And, the reality of how it would look really was much more awesome than how the strips looked just glued to the page - at this point, I was inspired to actually share this project with you and post a tutorial on the blog and everything. Maybe this will be just the beginning of many more tutorials!

I put a little circle of glue stick on the wider areas of my cut-out piece and pressed it onto my background page, because the frame I used had a pre-cut mat that was just barely big enough to fit the 8.5x11 paper in, and I didn't want all the pieces of it to move around. This will give me freedom later on, since I used the glue stick, to separate the cut out front and the background pieces to fit into a shadow frame if and when we ever get one. Held together, but still with flexibility!

When I put the circles of glue stick on the front piece, I wasn't careful enough with the thickness of the glue and the fact that I was just rubbing it on there - I ended up with a wrinkled circle in the bottom right corner. Hopefully the heat here will pull it out like it does with wrinkles after mod podge-ing, but we will see. Humph.

7. Put the final product in your chosen frame!

I just love how this turned out. Although I wish we had a frame that would allow for the shadow effect between the front and back pieces, I am still loving this. The thing about the frames that allow for shadow effects like that is that they are really expensive. With the move coming up, also, why would I want to buy another frame to pack? We already had this one that has been in its original wrapper from Ikea since before we even moved to Arizona, so it was about time it was used for something...sheesh!

Love it!! I have to admit, I'm a little bit impressed with myself... And I just can't wait to move home!!

Well, thanks for reading today mates! I know this tutorial probably exists all over the Internets and Pinterest already, but hey, I did this without someone else's tutorial with only the inspiration I received from a work of art at a friend's house, so I guess this is just one more tutorial to add to the bunch! Enjoy! 

Things People Say to Reassure You

"Everything happens for a reason."
"Don't sweat the small stuff" (and for some reason they'll add "and it's all small stuff.")
"If it's meant to be, it will be."

Yes, everything does happen for a reason - because someone made a choice, whether that person was me or you or someone else. Whatever happened is a direct result of someone making a choice and performing an action. It's not a mystery, it's not comforting to say there's some supernatural reason for things to have happened...because there isn't. The reason is that a human performed an action or spoke chosen words or made some other choice. Or there was some natural disaster.

It's not all small stuff. In fact, most of it is pretty big stuff. If it's truly not a big thing, someone wouldn't feel the need to reassure me. Instead, they should say "get a grip, it's not a big thing, get over it" or something of the like. There could be some explanation as to why said thing is not a big thing, or a question directed at me as to why such a thing is a big thing, and it may turn out to actually be a very small thing after all. In which case, get a grip. Otherwise, it's a big thing and it's something worth stressing over and working hard for in order to gain the desired outcome.

Nothing is "meant" to be. You don't just sit back and count on the things to happen that are "meant" to be. You make those things happen. You choose to act or not to act. If you think you ended up so lucky to have had something amazing just happen to you, think back to past choices you've made - the people you choose to associate yourself with, the job you choose, the location you chose to be in at a given time, etc. Everything else is a result of the choices of other people.

I know that at this point, you're probably thinking "wow, how cynical, how can she ever be happy with that attitude, etc etc etc..." I'm just not reassured when people say any of those above examples to me when something happens. Let's be honest - there are some things that have happened or not happened that I wish I could say "it happened (or didn't happen) for a reason." But that's not actually my opinion at all, so lying to myself about it to try to make myself feel better sure doesn't work. Being honest, making modifications to my actions and choices, trying again, trying differently, putting some sort of WORK into it usually results in the desired (or at least an acceptable) outcome, or at least puts me onto the right path towards the desired outcome.

And sometimes, you just have to know when to freaking quit already. And it's okay to quit. To choose to lose touch with "friends" you don't feel are such good friends anymore, or maybe never were but you didn't realize it until now. To choose to try another career path, to choose to walk away from a project that truly is a small thing but somehow was made into a big thing much earlier and now has drained an incredible amount of productivity that could have been put toward something that actually was a big thing. It's okay to ask for help, to seek more information, to change my opinion about something when it's warranted. Quitting, asking for help, etc - none of that means admitting defeat. It means prioritizing and moving forward.

I could probably keep going on about this and get onto lots of different tangents, but I tried to avoid that this time. I just wanted to share general thoughts on some comments I've heard over and over and over in the past 9 days that, as well-intentioned as their speakers may be, have not been helpful. Of course, except for the fact that I then reflected on those comments and why they were not helpful or reassuring to me.

Anyway, thanks for reading y'all, and until next time...goodnight!

Labels, Doing It Wrong, and Judgment

Disclaimer: I probably do some of the things I complain about in the rest of this post, but know that I consciously and actively try to not behave this way. The following is going to be sort of rant-y, but I'll try to keep it more informative and eye-opening rather than simply complaining about things. I'll try not to be on too tall of a soap-box, but I'm also not going to beat around the bush.

It seems to me that these days when someone asks a question, it's not because they're truly curious and actually care about the answer. It seems like most of the reason people ask is so they can apply a judgment to you without all of the information, and then talk about it to other people. Somehow putting others into categories with specific labels makes us all feel better, as if our brains can only handle so many different varieties of people and so we just put everyone into certain well-defined groups and everyone in those groups is the same and the mainstream stereotypes applied to those groups are necessarily applied to every individual in each group. This seems to be completely normal, is socially acceptable, and we see it in all topics across social interaction. We see it with regard to visible differences in people such as race and religion and sexuality (sometimes these differences aren't as readily visible), and relatively invisible differences in people such as family lifestyle and philosophy.

When asked about our lifestyle, we frequently receive smirks, raised eyebrows, and sometimes even outright scoffs. Immediately, there is judgment, without asking about any details of learning more about it. We're put into the category people have heard of, the mainstream term "paleo." With that categorization, there are mainstream stereotypes that absolutely must apply to all people who are shoved into this category. There are also certain criticisms that, of course, must be expressed to everyone who might fall into this specific category. Because all of us in this category are exactly the same and we need to be alerted to the fact that we're doing it wrong, we're hurting ourselves and our children (if applicable), etc, etc, etc...

Well, here is where I'm going to say that it's ridiculous. 

There was a Ted Talk from Christina Warinner recently called "Debunking the Paleo Diet." If you peruse the Internets at all, you've probably seen people talking about it and maybe even watched it yourself. If you haven't seen it, you can watch it here. Basically, she uses half- or less-than-half truths (sometimes even blatant lies) to insult this "fad diet," and then spends the last ten minutes spouting off information that's actually supporting said "fad diet," without realizing that's what she's doing. To be honest, it was almost laughable how little correct information she had that supported her attempted point. For a breakdown of her whole talk, I recommend Robb Wolf's assessment of the whole thing. Perhaps even better is his podcast discussion of the Ted Talk. He does get pretty fired up in this episode, and rightfully so - Warinner is off the mark on a lot of things and clearly picks and chooses her homework, and not very well. I personally enjoy Robb Wolf's podcasts because not only is he super duper smart and nerdy over science things, he doesn't say anything unless he's got a LOT to say to back it up, including references to scientific studies he has carefully analyzed for validity. He is quite possibly one of the most objective scientists I've heard talk. (Another would be Chris Kresser, so check his blog out as well (to the right).)

So, just had to throw that out there. Robb makes some really great points about research in the field of nutrition, and also how food and health policies are put into effect at the government level. That's a whole other rant in itself, and makes me sick just thinking about it.

At any rate, I just want to clear up some things and just state that everyone chooses their own lifestyle, including what they eat, and as much as Primal Toad can sometimes get so excited about things that it's annoying, he makes a really good point that maybe there shouldn't be titles to these kinds of things. Because titles and labels lead to the specific stereotypes and assumptions to apply blanket-style to anyone who might fall under these labels, and then all of a sudden, everyone who's been labeled is "doing it wrong" because they're all doing it differently. SHEESH. 

To answer all the questions I've been asked, and all the ones I know people are thinking of but keep to themselves and make judgments about instead, I thought I would just clarify what we choose to eat and what we attempt to avoid. I should mention that in situations where we are out to eat with friends, traveling, or at a large social gathering where there is food present, there are only certain things we can control. In those situations, we make the best choices we know how to make, knowing that they aren't always ideal. And that's ok - but not to those who judge without any information about us, apparently. Get over it, I guess. So, here goes:

We try as hard as we can to eat the following: lots of produce, organic when available and reasonable; homemade sauces, dressings, and dips; grass-fed and free-range animal products including dairy, eggs, and organ meats, among other meats; nuts and seeds. We aim for unprocessed (or as minimally-processed as we can find) food, and really try to get as much local food as we can. Being in Arizona, it's proven to be kind of difficult because the farmer's markets are quite small, when we can find them, and Arizona isn't exactly known for its wide selection of local produce. We have found a farm from whom we like to buy our meat, and we have found some local eggs, but those do tend to be sold out by the time that farm gets to our local farmer's market on Wednesday evenings. We do our best given where we live and our budget constraints. We have re-prioritized some things in life so that we can make quality whole foods a top priority.

We try as hard as we can to avoid the following: anything processed. Let's be clear here: anything that's processed is going to contain canola oil, soy products, wheat products, corn products, or any combination of any of those ingredients. Wheat products are used as preservatives, even if the item isn't a pasta or bread or something else that's obviously made from wheat. Bread and pasta and the like are processed food products. Canola and soybean oils are literally in just about everything that comes in a box or bag or bottle and is not in the refrigerated isle of the store. Corn products...don't even get me started. What doesn't have high fructose corn syrup in it will still likely have corn syrup as the sweetener (although not concentrated), corn meal, or some other form of corn product or by-product. So, we avoid wheat products, corn products, soy products, and canola oil.

Really, it's about eating unprocessed whole foods, nutrient-dense foods, local foods. I'm not sure that sounds so radical, now that I put it that way. Cutting out the vast majority of processed foods effectively cuts out almost all canola oil, soy products, wheat products, and corn products. So, really, it's not much more of a stretch to pay attention to the tiny list of ingredients in certain things we do buy from the middle of the grocery store in order to avoid those ingredients as much as we can. 

It comes down to just feeling and knowing that we are healthier than we were before, and for some reason some other people don't like that. Is it jealousy, self-consciousness, denial, or plain immaturity? I don't know. And frankly, I don't really care about the reason behind the smirk or scoff. If you're curious, be truly curious. If you want to try it after you find out more information, I'm willing to help if you want it. I'm willing to share my knowledge and resources and tips and tricks and recipes. 

If you want to judge, why bother asking in the first place? Keep it to yourself.

I know that may not have been very well organized and I could have added more information, but thanks for reading; I hope you enjoy a little bit of a rant on occasion :) Haha. I promise next time I won't be so soap-boxy.

Interview

Hello! So, some sort of big news since my last post - earlier this week I went back home to interview for a job. It was a three-day long, in-office interview and meet-and-greet with the doc, his wife, and the entire staff including the current associate. Talk about a stresser! 

But, it was completely awesome. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it, and I really hope the whole office did as well. It will still be a couple of weeks until I find out whether this is it or not, but I sure hope it's sooner rather than later. I did allude to the fact that we've been scouting the area for places to live, and that my better half has already planned out his work commute to make sure it will be do-able, which should actually not be as bad as we thought it might when I first started pursuing this job.

The community in which we'd live is pretty great, too. I drove around a little bit and saw the historic downtown areas of the adjacent towns, there's a train station right in the middle of town, an amazing farmer's market 6 months out of the year, lots of mom-and-pop holes in the wall, antique shops, tea shops, all the stuff I just love to death. The office is in the area where these two towns meet, and it's pretty separate from the more mall-and-car-dealership areas of the larger of the two towns, so that's nice.

The doc and his staff are incredibly impressive. Talk about careers to be proud of - they are a well-oiled machine, and it is obvious their level of integrity, professionalism, and career satisfaction is just off the charts all around. If that isn't a place you'd like to work, I don't know what is. I expressed my amazement and desire to work in such an environment, and I feel like I got along with everyone really well in the two days I spent with them - which I realize is not a whole lot of time - so I truly hope I have the opportunity to join this amazing practice.

For now, I am trying SO HARD not to just replay everything in my brain and pick out little things that could possibly be the reason they don't want me. Just little things, not bad things, and not things that I would have changed - because I truly couldn't change anything I said, I was completely honest and real with them. I could have asked more questions about it all, I suppose, but I really felt like all of my questions were answered with the exception of things that would be written in the contract that aren't appropriate for asking just yet. And here I am, picking it all apart again, haha! Relax...breathe...

...And wait a couple weeks with my fingers crossed SO TIGHT that I hear good news. 

Now, it is time for bed. Short entry this time, for a change ;) Hope you enjoyed reading, and if you're out there and made it this far to the end, please think happy thoughts for me. Until next time...thanks y'all!

Long Overdue Update

Wow, has it ever been a while since a post! Since I'm pretty sure there are only three people who might (or might not) read this blog in the first place, so I doubt I've been missed. But I've been needing a place to expend some energy and thoughts lately, so this is probably a good place for it.

Great news, first of all - ALL BOARDS PASSED! Written and clinical, no retakes, no extra stress of finding more patients or more teeth or anything like that. All done. I can't wait to graduate and get home! 43 more days! And my family arrives in 40 days, woohoo! My brother hasn't visited at all these last four years, so that will be particularly special.

So, in the spirit of being able to see the light at the end of this tunnel, shining quite brightly and getting bigger and brighter each day, I've been reflecting on the last four years a lot lately. Maybe I'm getting a little nostalgic about leaving Arizona (I mean, the weather hasn't quite officially gotten hot, and spring time here is pretty darn comfortable), maybe I'm going to miss my friends (the few I've actually made here), maybe I'm going to miss being in school since I've been in school for almost 25 years...or maybe I'm just reminiscing about all of it and looking forward to what the still-uncertain future will bring! Either way, these are some things I've been thinking about and have learned over the last four years...(and actually, even some reflection back to middle school...)

Thoughts On Gratitude

I have been so, so fortunate to have lived the life I have lived thus far. I freaking got into dental school. I'm about to be a stinking dentist! Sure, I have $400k+ in student loans at an average of about 8% interest, but I GOT IN, and I'm literally going to be a dentist in 43 days. This is what I have wanted to do with my life since I was old enough to know what I wanted to do with my life. I'm not financially successful, I haven't been part of ground-breaking research or developing new methods or new procedures or materials, and I still have A LOT to learn. But I am where I have wanted to be for 14 years, and I'm about to leap off this cliff and trust that the net is there at the bottom - because it is.

One thing I must emphasize, and definitely have recognized over the last 16 years, is that I did not get where I am by doing it alone. I have never been afraid to ask for help along the way, and boy, have I had some AMAZING mentors. Somehow I was able to build a fantastic support network without even realizing it - actually, more than likely it was with the help of my parents, both in the form of their amazing network of friends and coworkers and by way of their encouraging me to keep in contact with great people and stay involved in my community.

Not only did I have fantastic mentors in my teen years, I managed to find great mentors in undergrad and then in dental school as well. AND, what amazing patients I've had in my past two years of clinical experience. Building relationships with my mentors and patients has taught me what dentistry is really all about - helping people improve their quality of life.

I must note here that most people I have encountered in dental school are less than grateful. One of the things I am looking forward to most about going home is returning to my "tribe," members of which are grateful for the experiences they've had (whether hardship or fulfilling), the opportunities they've been given, the support they've received - or the lack of all these things that has made them the strong, resourceful, independent people they are today. Being grateful doesn't mean you have to be privileged or have opportunities handed to you - to the contrary, most of those I've met who have had it all handed to them on a silver platter are truly ungrateful and entitled and not genuine or loyal.

Last thing about gratitude: to me, it's not enough to just feel it. I think we need to SHARE it. Tell the important people in my life that they are important. Thank them for opportunities they've helped me find, or that they have directly presented to me. Show appreciation for the work they do so that it makes my day/work/efforts run that much more smoothly. Make sure their supervisors know of their efforts, where applicable. Thank my patients for the learning experiences they provided for me. Visit past teachers and show them the difference they've made in my life.

Thoughts On Adulthood

So I guess technically I'm not quite to "adulthood" yet since I'm still in school for a few more weeks. But, one of the things I thought would be awesome about professional school is that we're all supposed to be adults...at least in age. Unfortunately, I came to the harsh realization that most people in most stressful situations still act like 13 year old girls. Whether they managed to get into any professional program or whether they're in the working world and are established in their career or job - the drama is still there for some reason, and very few people can be tactful 100% of the time. Some of my mentors from back in high school were literally shunned at their places of work, for being dedicated and devoted to their profession, for going the extra mile and being exceptional at their jobs, or for simply having a different opinion about any given topic no matter how minute.

We have recently read an article in the Scientific American MIND magazine that talks about how we as a society have made adolescence a self-fulfilling prophecy. Basically, because we "accept" that adolescents are irrational, irresponsible, self-absorbed, rebellious, disrespectful, etc...we allow that to perpetuate rather than strive to be better role models for children to become responsible and productive adults. Sure, the adolescent brain is changing just as much as the brain of a rapidly-learning toddler, this has been demonstrated in study after study - but that is no excuse to NOT be a good example of what they should strive to become as adults. The SciAm MIND article compares homeschooled kids to kids at huge schools throughout their educations, and also compares different cultures regarding how children are raised and nurtured and taught. The discussion leads to the fact that we are fostering a society of 20-somethings who return home (or stay at home if they never went to college) and try to "find themselves" rather than grow up. If you want, I think you can access the article by clicking here.

Thoughts On Pleasing People

I'm over it. Actually, I'm not entirely sure I was ever that interested in pleasing people in the first place. For the record, this is completely different than taking care of a patient by providing a service they've asked for, or know they need, in order to improve their quality of life. Pleasing people is bending over backwards, or even being willing to help when asked, when I know there is no possible long-term benefit for myself. That probably sounds selfish, but I'm simply just not here to be taken advantage of.

Sometimes I am pretty naive. (If anyone knows the keyboard shortcut for the two dots above the i, please share...haha). Most of the time, I assume the best of people, and I've been burned by that many times. But I'd rather learn along the way than assume the worst of people and never be happy. I do, however, have quite low expectations and mostly try to have no expectations at all because I'm pretty sure the vast majority of the general population is deeply, deeply stupid. Which is why I'd rather start out assuming the best in people. I enjoy the expression of this idea in Hanlon's Razor: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." Stupidity, as I interpret it from this quote, could either be deliberate ignorance or simply the lack of experience or knowledge. If there is something that someone can learn, and is willing to learn in order to be better, their behavior should not necessarily be attributed to malice. I think most people have a sort of innate understanding of the importance of taking care of each other, in the sense that it's actually a rather selfish idea - if we are loyal to someone, we expect loyalty in return, and we need a tribe we can trust. Now, understanding that idea and practicing it are very separate things entirely.

Wrapping It Up

As I've been working on this post for a few days now, and had to update how many days are left until graduation, I think I'll wrap this up. After all, I don't even know if anyone actually reads this or not. So, until next time friends, thanks for reading (if you did), and hopefully see you soon.