Christmas in July... ugh

Okay so when I first heard the term “Christmas in July” I thought that it was BS and another way to shove Christmas further up the year’s butt, to put it bluntly. I mean, is the goings on of the rest of the year not important enough that everything has to be “Christmas! Christmas! Christmas!” really?  Is this for people who have no other enjoyment in their lives other than the Holiday season?  And if businesses don’t want to get all bummy about poor sales in the holiday season, then stop trying to force people to buy stuff for Christmas so early in the year. Am I just a cold, evil person who wants to take the little bit of joy out of some people’s lives just because I‘m a premature curmudgeon? (I’m not really. If you like it, go ahead and get all cracked-out with it if that’s your bag, just don‘t expect me to squee about it.)

Well, now I’ve found a way that Christmas in July can benefit me (read: keep me sane) and it will only need one day, two at the most (depending on how elaborate I get with this project). Usually, once December rears it’s ugly head, I try to make handmade cards or get pre-made cards even, and expect to get them sent out before it’s too late only to not even get half of them done and then give up with a dejected look on my face. I figured that this year (and subsequent years if it works out) I can take a couple days out of July to make cards (or write really nice notes in pre-made cards… or something)  so that I can get them over with and not drive myself crazy in December. Don’t think my distaste for “Christmas in July” will result in some jankity thrown together cards. My crafty gene will kick in and recipients will be WOWed!

Now if you know you’re on the card list and you don’t get one this year, just know that this project somehow went horribly wrong and that’s all I’m gonna say about that…

A poem I wrote today

(This was originally a note I added to my personal facebook page but I figured it would make a good blog post as well) So I was writing down some thoughts and stuff today and here's a little something that spewed forth from my noggin:

Oubliette

I feel like I've been thrown off course...
Led away by my willingness
to throw myself listlessly
into the nearest hole
and languidly wallow in the murky darkness
of idle time-wasting.

It calls to me like a siren and
I, the drunken sailor,
follow and fall,
mindless.

I make it my bed,
wrap the darkness about me
like a blanket.
I rest my head on a fluffy pillow
of empty thoughts

This isn't the darkness of chaos
from which all things spring from
It's the thick black stillness
into which things are thrown to be
forgotten.

An oubliette
that calls my name;
the only thing it never forgets.

epilogue:

So this wasn't a poem when I started writing it, but by the time I finished it, it sounded like one to me. I've made the most minimal changes to what I wrote straight out of my head and into my morning pages. The only real difference is the poetic formatting I put it into here as opposed to it just looking like a paragraph on the page as I first wrote it. I thought about ending this on a happy note, but it just didn't feel right to do so.

Leo Carillo Beach

My husband and I visited Leo Carillo Beach a couple of weeks ago and I'm just getting around to sharing some of the pictures.


It's a really beautiful beach

  

The beach has gorgeous rock formations.



It was a beautiful day but very cold, which is why Rob is dressed that way



The cave. One of Rob's favorite things about the beach.
That and that there's camping nearby

  

If I could swim, I'd totally try that!



Before we went to the beach, Rob and I drove around the campsite to check out which sites looked pretty nice. We hope to camp there next year. Apparently, this year is all booked up. Hopefully we'll get a good spot when we go. It would be fun to get some friends to join us as well.

Despite the cold, it was a fun day at the beach. I wish we could go more often.

On commission...

Can you believe what they are doing with watermelons these days?

There is a pair of watermelon hairsticks that I've had a hard time finishing because I'm not quite feeling the color  combination and I'm itching to start new color combos that I've been wanting to try, also, I couldn't find my thread. Despite those feelings, I will still complete them with care and make them of the same fine quality as all the others. The funny thing is, I'm sitting here thinking that they might turn out to be the first hairsticks that I sell. There's this person out there who will love them and right now, and from the time I started them, they have been thinking, "I would LOVE some watermelon colored hairsticks and YOU, April Bell, you will make them for me! I don't know you but the universe has put you in charge of making my hairsticks! Do it now!" I really feel like that, or something similar must be the case. Why else would I keep working on them when I'm really not that into them and ensuring that they are made just as well as all the others? (I have a policy of not making things that I wouldn't wear myself)

I've decided that I will take this attitude with everything I make from now on; that there is someone out there who will LOVE what I am making and the universe has put me in charge of making it for that person. From now on, I'm not just making jewelry because it is a sublime joy for me to make it, though that is a great reason in itself, but now I will also work as if I am being commissioned by the universe. Sounds a bit grandiose? Well, it's the universe so of course it's grandiose.


I now see my course laid before me and I am confident that I can do what I need to do. The way I see it is, the universe likes to get its way and that being said, why would it contract someone who couldn't get the job done? I just need to stop fighting it and get out of my own way.