thought you might wanna know...

My mom is giving away this cook book on her blog.

The neat thing about it, is it's going to be signed by the artist--Melissa Peck. I've mentioned her art before. It's so unique and I love how bold and brave her style is. You can read more about the cookbook and enter to win it here.

we're gonna miss you, T-baby

I've been thinking about art lately

I went to an art show in Park City at the Coda Gallery. It's been more than a week and I still find myself thinking about what I saw--paintings like this one--"The Heart's Timing." I am blown away by Melissa Peck's detail and uniqueness of her work. There was a mystery and somehow some relatable quality to every one of her paintings at the show. Being an artist is so risky. I admire you all, and thank you for sharing so much of yourself with little old me.

p.s.

unfortunately (or maybe not) I find myself relating most to those gnomes/clowns...anyone else?

The Napkin Lady

It's April--which means The Napkin Lady is out!  Isn't she amazing?  My mom blogged about her first...and I highly recommend her thoughts.  This antique napkin holder was my great, great grandmother's. My mother displays the napkin lady every April, the birth month of my grandmother...but really, I wish she was out all the time, don't you?

Ann, can I be like you when I grow up?

I found a new hero on Thursday listening to Ann Cannon (Deseret News columnist and author) talk about the art of loving yourself.  Who doesn't need a reminder about that every now and then (or even more often than that).  

The given topic was art in everyday life, and instead of talking about dancing, painting, writing, and everything else cliche, she decided to talk about how we are works of art and how we should appreciate ourselves--and be comfortable in our own skin--something Ann has certainly mastered.

When Ann explained her philosophy of "everything is humorous in retrospect" it was everything I could do from jumping up and yelling "amen."  I don't think I'll ever forget that. Humor, at least for me, is very important in appreciating myself (I have to laugh off a lot of uh-oh's and oopsie-daisies). It reminds me of a favorite quote, "He who laughs at himself will never cease to be amazed." And Ann reminded me that we should all be amazed with ourselves.

Amidst talking about creativity, humor, Dr. Pepper mishaps, real life family blunders, and her/our list of "I will be happy when..." she suggested we can do appreciation audits  (as Dan Baker mentions in What Happy People Know). 

An appreciation audit is exactly what it sounds like---take time to be grateful for what you have...some do it by making lists or journaling, others simply meditate. Doing this helps us be satisfied with what we have right now, and helps us love ourselves right now, rather than wishing or worrying about what we might become. 

I have taken this challenge on and created my own appreciation audit blog. I don't know what it will turn into, or how often I'll remember to do it, but I do know that it makes sense that I should do it often. Anyone care to join me?

I thought this was totally worthy.

As posted on my happy little life

"i just imagine myself being a new mother, bringing home my baby in a newspaper, having nothing to diaper or swaddle her in and i get tears in my eyes. then i imagine being able to wash and wrap my baby and cradle her close and keep her warm and it makes me really want to do something, even if it's a small, humble effort."

She just turned 31, and she's decided to give 31 receiving kits to the LDS humanatian center this year so that 31 babies can have a happier birth day. Isn't that cool? She calls it Project 31. If anyone is interested in helping...check it out here. 

Call me Lois

I started an internship at Utah Business Magazine and I really like it so far.

I always pictured journalists as people with extreme ideas or a lot of nerdy habits—two personality traits young Candace never wanted to deal with. On the other hand, I pictured them as adventurists, you know, solving crimes, interviewing important people, maybe even falling in love with a super hero. Such a romanticized view is probably what kept my head up when declaring my journalism major at USU (go Aggies) however many years ago.

But guess what—everything just mentioned applies to me. Extreme ideas (oh no, I'm not opinionated at all) nerdy habits (if you haven't noticed any--great), solving crimes (like who wrote my name down on the “expecting list” in church), interviewing important people (aren’t we all important? Everyone changes the world and it doesn’t matter how many other people know about it), and of course, falling in love with the super hero is pretty self explanatory.

I also realize, now, that being a journalist (because I’m totally experienced after two weeks on the job) just means you write stuff--and research a lot. So, here is to more google-searching, more thumbing through the AP Stylebook, and more midnight flights around Metropolis.