3/30/12 Bucket List day 8

Hello all,

todays bucket list question is “What experiences do you want to have or feel?”

For me this is an interesting one, working through some of the things I have worked through the past couple of years I know that I have the important things in life.  I am healthy, I have people around me who love me no matter what, I have contact with the future generations in the family.  What experiences do I want to have or feel?  hmmm I would like to experience being a grandmother someday.  I know my son has not even decided yet if he wants to be with a woman or a man.  in the end it does not matter to me so long as they love him as much as I do and treat him right.  I hope that no matter what he chooses to do with his personal life, he will at some point decide to raise a family and I will get to have the great experience of being a grandmother and spoiling his child as much as my mom spoiled mine

until tomorrow,

peace and luv to all,

laura

3/29/12 Bucket List day 7

Hello all,

Can you believe we are starting a new week with our bucket lists?  Today’s question is “What achievements do you want to have?”

I think the achievements I want to have are to be self sufficient and live on my own again.  I also would like to travel (duh).  But I want to prove to myself as well as my family that even though I had a serious breakdown a few years ago that I am fine again now.  I am so ready to rejoin the working world and have all the things I had before – all the things that I deserve for myself.  all the things that most adults have for themselves.  an apartment, paying my bills, going forward with life.  it may not seem like a lot to most people, but to me it is everything.

until tomorrow,

peace and luv to all

laura

3/28/12 Bucket List day 6

Hello all, today’s question is “What do you want to see in person?”

I would like to see so many things.  I think the one that I would not forgive myself for missing before I kick the bucket is the Grand Canyon.  to see something so awe inspiring and huge in person – I can only imagine the delight it will create within me.  I would also like to see the cathedrals in Europe that were built hundreds of years ago.  And Stonehenge. 

anyway, I know this was kind of a short one,

until tomorrow,

peace and luv to all,

laura

3/27/12 Bucket List day 5

Hello everyone, todays question is “What are your biggest goals and dreams?”

I think my biggest goals and dreams are to be able to work from home – meaning wherever I happen to be at that time.  I would love to travel and still be able to make a living from either my writing and office skills of from my crafts.  I do everything from cross stitch and embroidery to digital scrapbooking to bead work to making journals.  It would be an amazing way to make a living while traveling in my dream RV all over. 

What is your biggest goal or dream?

until tomorrow,

peace and luv

laura

3/26/12 Bucket List day 4

hello all, hope you are enjoying the bucket list series.  Todays question is “Any countries, places or locations you want to visit?”  Yay, again with the traveling!!

I would love to visit Italy.  I have always been drawn there for whatever reason.  I can remember my great aunt telling me about going to Italy and the places she got to see and promising her (at 10 years old) that I would go to Venice someday and walk along the canals in a red dress.  And so I will, someday.  I also want to visit Scotland, Ireland, France, Germany, England, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Africa……. well probably I would love to see the whole world!!

Where would you like to visit?

until tomorrow,

peace and luv

laura

3/25/12 Bucket List day 3

Hello all, welcome to day three of out thought provoking bucket list questions.  Todays question is “What would you do if you had unlimited time, money and resources?”

Ok, now we are back to day one – Travel!!  I would totally hire a driver (I don’t drive at all) and get a top of the line RV and off I would go.  I would see everything in the US I have ever wanted to see.  Everything from the grand canyon to mt rushmore to the worlds biggest ball of twine.  I would totally travel all of route 66.  I would stay in kitchy places like the poconos.  I would take the months it takes and hike the Apalacian trail.  (But I would totally have my driver and RV meet me wherever they could so I could shower and stuff).  I would explore cemeteries in every state.  I would take a year and live in and explore and learn about Kentucky where my family on both sides has been since the 1700’s.  I would go to Sturgis during bike week.  I would watch the sun come up (and go down) from the continental divide.  I would also take at different points all my nieces and nephews to explore with me.  And of course my sister and probably my son if he wanted to go.  He is not as big on traveling as I am. 

What would you do???

until tomorrow,

peace and luv to all

laura

3/24/12 Bucket List day 2

Hello all, and welcome to day 2 of our bucket list questions.  Todays question is “What have you always wanted to do but have not done yet?”

For me this would be hang gliding.  I have always wanted to try hang gliding.  It seems to me it would be amazing to soar like an eagle (I am not so sure about landing though since stopping has always been my weak point in sports).  Things that have kept me from trying this – my weight, my self confidence, my perfectionist thoughts.  I have used my weight as an excuse – when I hit xxx weight then I can look into it.  I have used my self confidence as an excuse – I just don’t know if I can do it at all.  I have used my perfectionist thoughts as an excuse – I don’t want to try it until I know I can do it like a pro.  If I cannot do it right and perfectly the first time, I should not even try.

Yes, these are things about myself that only I can overcome.  I have been working on these three things all my life and will probably continue to work on them the rest of my life.  But in seeing them and admitting to them in a public place, perhaps it will help me to start overcoming them.

until tomorrow,

peace and luv,

laura

3/23/12 Bucket List day 1

hello all, today I am going to start a series of questions that can help you shape your own personal bucket list.  I also need to apologize for being MIA for a week.  Life threw a curve ball (again) and I am job hunting and unfortunately that takes priority over pretty much all my fun things in life.  So today I am preblogging this whole series so that I can stay caught up (hopefully).

Todays thought provoking question is “What if you were to die tomorrow? What would you wish you could do before you die?”

I wish I could travel.  I have done so much soul searching the past few years since losing my mother and one thing that I miss most about her is the adventures.  We would just get in the car and head out.  I honestly don’t think she ever knew where we would end up.  But maybe she did.  I guess I will really never know.  But I remember the fun – we pull up to an intersection and it would be “who’s turn is it?” and someone would pick a direction.  When we ended up in a small town (or a big city) it then became a game of learning what we could about where we were.  *Hint – always look for a visitors center.  I would like to continue this fun way of learning about places but on a much grander scale.  First I want to explore the entire US then conquer the rest of the world.

What would you do?

until tomorrow,

peace and luv to all

laura

3/15/12 life story

tell about your kindergarten experience

Ok let me start by saying that I love this prompt!!  I have some very vivid and fun memories of kindergarten.  I went to kindergarten at “the clown nose school” in seattle.  I don’t know what the actual name of it was – it was in a building in downtown seattle just off Yesler.  It had this giant clown face painted on the outside with a 3D clown nose.  Yeah, I just wasted another 20 minutes trying to figure it out via google again.  anyway, the daycare/preschool/kindergarten was in a downtown building with the playground area up on the roof with a high fence around it.  it was run by two hippie ladies.  I know that during naptime, if I couldn’t sleep the teacher let me get up and she taught me from all subjects through the 2nd grade.  I was a sponge and just loved it.  I know that I got caught kissing Chris King under the playground equipment there.  I know my little brother used to used to charge a nickel for the other preschoolers to watch him pee off the roof into the alley.  We used to play with parachutes and sing and dance like leaves or rain or sun.  Every memory I have of going here is surrounded by light and happiness.  I had no clue that there were things going on in seattle in 1973 that would cause my mom to pick up in the middle of the night and move us to live with my grandparents in california.  I am glad to have gotten the experience of going to this daycare/school while I did.  I believe it really shaped my thoughts on art and how we as humans should act.

until tomorrow,

peace and luv

laura

3/14/12 family heritage

what were the names of your mother’s and father’s parents?  when and where were they born?

My mother’s parents were Jessie Jane Burns born 5 Mar 1912 in Illinois and David Claiborne Whitehouse born 11 Feb 1914 in Jefferson County, Kentucky.  My father’s parents were Dorothy Louise Hoffmann born 25 Apr 1917 in Louisville, Kentucky and James Edward Johnson born 22 Mar 1915 in Calhoun, Kentucky.

I am loving learning about my family and how long both sides have been living in Kentucky.

Just getting this information is a great start to learning about your family history.

until tomorrow,

peace and luv,

laura

3/13/12 Elementary Age

Write down one thing you would like to learn this year

I really think everyone can benefit from this prompt.  I for one would like to learn a lot more about marketing myself and my art.  I would also like to learn more about Kentucky history since my mother’s and father’s families have been there forever.  What little or big things would you really like to learn this year? 

Peace and luv to all,

laura

3/12/2012 Teen or Young Adult

if I was a character in my own book, I would……

So yeah I know I don’t really qualify as a teen or even a young adult, but I am still posting these and I am going to try my best to write a journal entry for them too.  so, that being said, if I was a character in my own book, I would be this intensely brave heroin who has long flaming red hair and beautiful alabaster skin.  It would probably be set in the middle ages, where as a woman I should be home having babies and keeping house, but instead I am living on my own in the forest near a village and I would probably be an eccentric healer.. Her name is Brynn. When the King suddenly decides that he is giving the village to the evil Lord So and So the villagers don’t know what to do.  They have heard stories of how evil their new Lord has been to other villages that he owns. Brynn will gather the village together and organize them so that when the evil Lord So and So gets there they let him know that yes he now owns this land and technically the people on it, but he will never own their will or their souls.  They fight against his tryanny by not planting any crops or doing any work.  He finally realizes the error of his ways and treats his new villagers with the respect he owes them and they start working the land for him again.  They all live happily ever after – because that is how all great stories should end

Hope you all have a great Monday,

peace and luv to all,

laura  

3/11/2012 Native American

Indian Blessing

Let us walk softly on the Earth

with all living beings great and small

remembering as we go, that one God

kind and wise created all.

For Native American instead of prompts I decided to go with prayers, blessings and quotes.  I love this blessing as it reminds us that we are all created to live on this earth together and that we need to respect even the smallest of creatures.  It pains me to see how we as humans encroach into nature and then punish the animals for coming into populated areas.  it would be different if they still had the territory that they need to survive but we have taken that away from them.  I cannot wait for the day when I can go hang out in nature again and just be one with everything around me.  I also cannot wait to share this majestic part of life with william as he gets older.

hope everyone has a great Sunday,

peace and luv to all,

laura

3/10/2012 Journal Prompt of the Day - Wiccan

why be a pagan anyway?

This one is interesting for me since I am Christian, but I can see the benefits of other religions as well.  Paganism to me represents that wonderful hippie/native american side of me where if you remember to treat the earth right she will in turn treat you right.  I can remember growing up with the commercial with the Native American being so sad about all the litter and destruction being done to the earth.  It really hit home with me even though I was little.  Yes I am a Christian, but in being so I know that it is up to me to help take care of the earth as it is just on loan to us not really ours.  so to me being Pagan at one time was a choice I made as I could not get past the hypocrisy that is in most Christian churches.  I believe that all religion seems to be based on the same principles… love God (or your higher power), love others, feel genuinely bad about doing wrong and ask forgiveness for it.  so that is what I base my life/religion on – and yes I take a little from just about every religion as it all makes sense to me.  I think in the beginning it was all one combined religion, and through the centuries that the religions seperating was part of the punishment of being banned from the Garden of Eden. 

Anyway, I hope everyone had a great week.  Happy Friday to all.

peace and luv to all

laura

3/9/2012 Journal Prompt of the Day–Christian

 

if I could IM Jesus, it would probably go something like this…

Me – hey dude whatcha up to today?

Jesus – nothin just hangin around – get it hangin around and I was crucified and all?? LMAO

Me – yeah you are not nearly as funny as you think you are but I love you anyway

Jesus – I totally love you too – btw can you talk to your friends about me?  I am kinda feeling unloved lately

Me – K – anything in particular you want me to talk about with them?  Or just remember to bring you up in general?

Jesus – just in general – you know however it seems to fit in with the topic of the moment. 

Me – K – well I gotta go for now – peace and luv – talk to you later

Jesus – sweet – peace and luv  2u 2

so yeah this is how conversations with Jesus and/or God go in my head.  I was always taught that you just talk to them just like anyone else in your life.

I would love to see what your IM’s with Jesus sound like so share in the comments

peace and luv to all

laura

3/8/2012 Journaling Prompt of the Day–Travel

Travel awakens curiosity. Now that you’re someplace new, what are you curious about? Even if you don’t know the answers, the questions themselves are interesting.

I honestly love the idea of traveling all over the world.  I am always planning some trip or another – including my dream trip all over the USA and my dream trip all over the world  Not only do I choose destinations, but I research them so that I will know (should I ever really get there) where I want to go, what I must see and what I want to learn while I am there.  Mostly my trips consist of day trips around Western Washington and Oregon, and that is fine by me as there is still so much to see and learn about here.  Maybe someday I will find that right person who will think it is a great idea to live in an RV or Gypsy caravan and just go from place to place.  I can remember being young and listening to my Auntie Nano (her name was really Laura and I was named for her)  tell me stories about the traveling she and her husband had done.  To this day I still have all the post cards that were hers when she passed away.  I promised her and myself that someday I would go to Venice Italy and walk along the canals in a red dress.  And someday I will.  But while I am there I also want to learn about Venice and the history that is there.  I want to wander and find out why people love it so much.  I want to see the architecture and photograph it.  I want to see the cemeteries and see the beautiful art that the Italians put in them.  But for now, I think my next big travel adventure is probably going to be Mt St Helens.  I have not been there since like 1982 and it will be amazing to see all the growth where before it was all devistation. 

on that note, I will leave you and go dream about more traveling,

peace and luv to all,

laura

3/7/2012 Journal of the Day - Self Esteem

Hello all and welcome to Wednesday.  I hope your day is going to be wonderful.  Todays prompt is from the Self Esteem collection.  This collection is very close to my heart as I have been a battered teen/woman and it really does take work to learn to love yourself again after all is said and done.  

Here we go: I am not good at this activity, but I like it.  For me this would be pretty much all sports.  I have depth perception issues with my eyes so sports - not so great.  But I love Nascar, Hockey, X-Games, Dew Tour, Baseball, Football, Roller Derby, Bowling, yeah I like a lot of sports.  I dont let it bother me that I dont know all the rules or that most of the time i cannot see the ball/puck whatever while watching.  I just roll with it and enjoy it all.  Now I am not a "screaming fan" like my sister.  I mostly just hang out and take photos and talk to people (which is a new thing for me).  It has been a great experience these past 5 years learning who i am and that whoever it is that i am is completely good enough and those who dont think so, arent worth my time anymore. 

anyway, i hope that this prompt encourages you to realize that you are worthwhile and lovely,

until tomorrow,

peace and luv to all

laura

3/6/2012 Art Journal

Welcome to Tuesday everyone.  todays prompt is for an art journal.  I love doing art journals. 

find a beautiful picture in a magazine, cut it out, and make it the center of your art journal page. 

I need to do this one in my own journal and then take a photo and post it on here.  Please forgive me for not having it done

until tomorrow,

peace and luv to all

laura

3/5/12 Relationship Building

Relationship Building – what this means to me is questions or prompts that will make you not only think about your relationship but discuss these things with your significant other.  We need to remember as humans that relationships are not just the romantic ones we choose to have, but every person we deal with on a regular basis has some sort of relationship with us even if it is someone we dislike.  We as people of the human race on the planet earth need to know how to deal with all the relationships in our lives.  While a lot of these prompts will seem to be more for a romantic relationship, you can adjust them to fit your situation that you are working on.

todays prompt is:

Finish this sentence about yourself, I am strong…….

I am strong not only because of what I have lived through, but because of my strong beliefs about life in general.  I am not going to get into what I have lived through here, it is personal and for me to choose who to share it with, but it was not pretty.  However, I survived it all and it helped me to be the person I am today so in that little way I can actually be grateful for the bad things that happened in my life.  I am also strong in my beliefs – they are mostly Christian based and by that I mean followers of Christ and following in the way he lived.  I love God above all else, and trust that He has a plan for me even when I cannot see the outcome.  I love my neighbor (meaning everyone else on the planet) as I would like to be loved myself, and I repent truly and honestly of my sins.  I am not perfect and that is fine by me.  If I was perfect I could not play with play doh with the child I watch, I could not color just because it makes me feel better, I could not splash in the mud puddles in the rain just because.  I think more people need to remember how happy they were at 5 and the things that made them happy.  happy people means more peace and less war in the world. 

anyway, thanks for learning something about me, feel free to share something about yourself in the comments,

peace and luv to all

laura

3/4/2012 Life Story Journaling Prompt

Hello everyone and welcome to All the Fine Details blog where I will be posting journaling prompts.  If you visit my Etsy store you can purchase both altered journals with prompts as well as just a pdf of prompts for many different themes – teen or young adult, young elementary age, tweens, relationship building, family heritage, life story, self esteem, travel, art journal, Christian, Wiccan and Native American are the categories I have so far and will be adding more as they come to me a few I am thinking of are Muslim, Irish Blessings, Quotes, and Relationship Building for the Single Person (a Christian view). 

On to today’s prompt which is geared towards writing your own life story. 

Are there any teachers or subjects in school you particularly liked or disliked?

For me today, I would like to share about my 6th grade teacher Mr. Wright at Tiffany Park Elementary School in Renton, WA.  I adored him – not like school girl crush on a teacher because I think he was in his 60’s but just because he totally got me.  In grade school I never really felt like I was a complete part of the class I was in since I left daily for math since I was a grade ahead of my class, and reading where I was three or four grades ahead of my class.  I also couldn’t participate in recess and phys ed a lot of the time due to severe allergies and asthma.  I also had Attention Deficit Disorder but in the 1970’s we were just labeled as daydreamers, and our report cards ALWAYS said “does not perform to potential” and Mr. Wright was the first teacher who understood all that about me as well as the best way to really teach me.  I had a cubicle style desk that sat in the common area just out side of my classroom so I could still hear what was going on in class and participate if I was really interested – he gave me my weeks assignments on monday mornings and I did self study mostly.  I totally was in class with everyone for films, story time, art projects but when it was time to just study I went out to the common area or sometimes to the library and worked on my weeks worth of assignments and when they were done (usually by tuesday afternoon) I would read or draw or Mr. Wright would give me extra assignments to keep me busy.  I never felt like an outsider in 6th grade.  I actually excelled in most of my subjects that year.  I also got to TA for Mr. Wright and Mrs. Weglege (?) by correcting papers and running the ditto machine for that weeks handouts..  I got to help prep all the stuff for art projects.  It was an amazing year and thanks to Mr. Wright, I have continued to learn to this day and love working with not only preschoolers but with troubled teens as well.

well that is my journaling for today,

hope you all enjoy these prompts,

peace and luv to all,

laura