blissmonger.com

little man portrait

new bliss bling

Before

After

New bliss bling at my etsy site. This set was a complete joy to usher into existence--but they all are. This one commemorated getting back in touch with some friends from another lifetime, and it was a lovely experience, full of great food, little ones, and appreciating what I've got in my life. Click on the link and take a look. Take some bling home with you.

signs, signs, everywhere a sign

Follow your gut.

That phrase used to bewilder me, since I had no clue what type of communication my gut was giving me.

Now that I've managed to rediscover how to tune in to that frequency, I do my best to honor the guidance it has in store. Even if that means stepping on someone else's toes, upsetting an apple cart, rocking the boat. I've sunk my own boat often enough by not listening to this guidance that it's too costly not to, in the end.

Maintaining boundaries, or not, with people teaches them, and you, how you want to be treated. Take a look at this area in your life and see the results all around you and erupting inside you if you don't feel so great.

Of course there's a way to let people know what you require, what you expect, what you prefer, and there's outright animosity and finger-pointing. I would highly recommend developing a sensitively delivered form of the former rather than the latter. Because if I'm coming from a place of feeling exploited, then I didn't do the due diligence of communicating what was on my mind in the first place. My bad.

This also enters the arena of bargaining with yourself about who you really are and what isn't acceptable in terms of behavior and esteem, or lack of it, from others. Hearing out loud coming from your own mouth what it is that you want is a powerful experience. And it gets easier with practice.

It's not about accusation. It's about clarification. And when you know on a cellular level something just isn't right, then it's time to say so, and go.

Before a decade goes by and your life isn't exactly what you thought it would be.

~*~*~

The comment function isn't working for me, so I'll include mine here:

Thanks, Linda!!

This awareness of mine has been a long time coming, Matt. Lots of opportunities to practice a different way to look at something. Lots of people conspiring to help me practice. And lots of decisions in baby step form to get to the critical mass that being "right" just isn't the nirvana it's cracked up to be.

Cuz it ain't.

funky buddha

Funky Buddha. Didn't make it there in my foray into the wilds of Chicago recently. So many places to check out. But I'll be back.

Just saw this go over the Twitter wire: "Don't waste your time believing you can't."

A few things out of whack with that statement. If you do waste your time believing that you can't do something, you probably aren't aware that that belief is unfounded.

If the concept of believing you can do something is so foreign to you that you haven't felt the slightest bit of relief that thought might offer you in a very long time, this advice is equally a waste of time.

Perhaps a better reframe might be, "You know that belief you keep thinking-- 'I can't' ?  It's possible that it's not true."

Living in doubt and fear leaves you open to only a certain bandwidth of sense. Someone in that place might be able to hear this more appropriately-stated-for-them message.

 

graffiti with redeeming qualities

I walked around this part of the city, taking in the reclaimed aura of the buildings and the streets, mixing in with the people who live and work there now: babies in strollers, babushkas inspecting their neighborhoods, and every age and status in between, and the undeniable presence of those who first lived here a century and a half ago. They watch us, wondering what we'll do with our choices, our time, our talents, our dreams.

that still small voice is your sanity talkin'

I discovered yet another layer to the adage that that still small voice inside your head, it's your sanity talkin'. Many times over the last five or six days I've hit the sides of this pinball game called life that I'm in and sacheted off the bumpers, glad for the warning that the thoughts I was thinking were about to send me down to that end-of-the-game hole at the bottom if I wasn't going to pay attention. And frantically flayling with the flipper mechanisms at that point is just a waste of time. Much better to catch it in the early stages when the lights and buzzers are participating in your favor.

 

Me, taken with the help of the reflective sides of The Bean in Millennium Park in downtown Chi-town.

Cutie patootie on her way to get soaked at the spitting wall. Photos of that event later. Time to nap and recuperate from the drive.

lush yumminess

This is the result of a design commission from a new friend who gave me this to work with: "I got this hot pink sweater from my mom, and since then have gotten a few other articles of clothing the same color, with nothing to wear with it. Maybe throw in some orange, too."

 

eye

new bliss bling

New bliss bling available. Let the spiral energy vortex be with you :-)

self portrait

sweet magnolia

Spring break. Good times. Left five inches of snow behind and found magnolia blossoms swelling from the branches. There's something about those petals that makes me want to eat them like tempura. Still groovin' on a friend's new place and feel the awesome energy that will surely conspire to inspire her to new heights--truly gorgeous surroundings. Picked up a copy of Attracting Perfect Customers and started weaving the connections from previous work with what they consolidate in one place. Sorry marathons with Little Man and grandparents. Excellent finds at Goodwill in NE Portland.

Now to unpack and reconfigure for the perfect situation that is on its way with perfect timing and amazing fit. Bring it.

shiney and new

Met up with a friend who is starting a brand new chapter in her life in the most beautiful space, surrounding herself with what she wants in it. This has been a long time coming, and it's all manifesting so beautifully. Quite a sight to behold. Great inspiration here, on many levels.

a little bit of this and a little bit of that

I'll be off having a little bit of this and a little bit of that aforementioned above stuff this week so postings will be minimal during break time. Enjoy!

nurture your life

This cat befriended me in a shop the other day--put out her paw to let me know that I should keep petting her. At one point she was on a table that had some collage material on it, words and images from magazines--she rolled around in them, and the one that stuck to her fur and was my message was: nurture your life.

OK.

i've got my eyes on you

bracelets

birthday

This was the best damn birthday cake I've ever tasted. Whipped cream frosting, yummy chocolate and vanilla swirl cake, and ribbon to decorate. I may just get one for myself.

frog

Blisseye fob and foblette

New products in my Etsy shop: the Blisseye fob and foblette. I've been looking at a fob on my key chain lately, and will try hanging it from my rear-view mirror next--the perfect places a reminder to reach for better feeling thoughts blend in with subtle power. Everyone could use more of that.

Follow the yellow brick road

jack frost

So yeah, Jack Frost is beautiful and all, but really, enough is enough. When it takes more time to scrape the frost from my car than it does to drink coffee in the morning, something is terribly wrong.

potential vortex jammers

I have a few potential vortex jammers, sure, don't we all--but I'm not going to give them air time in my head long enough to get them onto the screen to even mention them. SO not worth it. Those situations are temporary, and they are not good enough reasons for me to shake my vibe.

What are you using as your excuse not to feel good today?

rooster

I didn't read the placard next to this display case so I have no idea what it has to do with the T-Rex skeleton next to it, except for the theory that dinosaurs and birds have much of their structural structure in common. I just thought it was cool with the light coming up from underneath it.

museum l

healing

miles to go to hell

boy scout

hoops

window

 

yarn super hero

 

On display at Cranbook Art Museum

inside, outside

Met some cool new people tonight who are into Abraham. Hoping to get to know them better and see what kind of fun we get into together.

candid camera

Little Man and I on candid camera at the drug store pharmacy counter.

vortex of experience

Through the magic of the internet, I spent time today in the space of at least four distinct thought systems that do not overlap--at all. Astounding, really, the ability we have to encounter such vastly different frameworks, partake of them as we will and broaden our horizons so abundantly. Blows me away. A definite expansion on Oh, The Places You'll Go! theme. As I navigate through this new livelihood pliant place I find myself in, the perspectives and ranges of experience are truly feeding me to take me to the next level.   

arrow boy

trains

how easy is it

doom dimension

don't try this at home

I have this thing for popcorn. The pans I choose to do that in I use as weapons of mass destruction. They melt things that I don't intend to melt. Like deck material that's really plastic and not wood. And cutting boards.

Don't try this at home, folks.

mint set

The latest of my jewelry creation commissions. Truly, so much fun.

tes tnim

 

F eht tahW .sdrawkcab ni depyt ereh pu gniwohs era sdrow ym ,mU

Translation--"Um, my words are showing up here typed in backwards. WTF?!?" Haven't experienced that keyboard phenomenon before. How bizarre....

I pulled this Osho card last night, first time ever, and it tickled me to no end. Here's what is listed in the companion book:

"Being "in the gap" can be disorienting and even scary. Nothing to hold on to, no sense of direction, not even a hint of what choices and possibilities might lie ahead. But it was just this state of pure potential that existed before the universe was created. All you can do now is to relax into this nothingness...fall into this silence between the words...watch this gap between the outgoing and incoming breath. And treasure each empty moment of the experience. Something sacred is about to be born."

~*~*~

"Buddha has chosen one of the really very potential words - shunyata. The English word, the English equivalent, "nothingness', is not such a beautiful word.

"That's why I would like to make it "no-thingness' -- because the nothing is not just nothing, it is all. It is vibrant with all possibilities. It is potential, absolute potential. It is unmanifest yet, but it contains all. In the beginning is nature, in the end isnature, so why in the middle do you make so much fuss? Why, in the middle, becoming so worried, so anxious, so ambitious--why create such despair?

Nothingness to nothingness is the whole journey."

I htink this is the first time in my life I'm really able to go around the block with that concept. And still know where I'm going with it.

universe

The bliss eye meets the spinning universe! Isn't it amazing what you can do with clay...and how different opaque objects show up as oppsed to translucent ones on a white background? Gotta get tha sorted out before I post these on Etsy.

up close and personal

Those are not gang signs

more awakening

 

 

 

hide and seek

Retreat

what a great idea

While I didn't appreciate so much the built-in tv screens on the backs of the headrests on one of the airplanes I flew in this weekend, I did so appreciate the art installed all over the airport in Atlanta--everywhere, of all kinds, even in the tunnels between terminals. Thank you so much for the eye candy and feast for the soul, you progressive thinker, you, whoever you are.

Rainbow

 

Tucson

dive in

Well, well, well. Yesterday was indeed historic. And what an immense portal for change gets created through that gesture en mass.

Who's going to walk through that door now that might not have a few weeks or months or years ago?

Watch for tiny baby steps all over the place, and be amazed.