Raige Creations

As I head off to work today..... A few staff home self isolating, some have to stay home with their kids because school is closed, gotta work on getting staff access to work from home, notify public about our limited services, etc, etc, etc, etc. Did I mention last week also included a massive dump fire that halted traffic for an afternoon spewing toxic smoke across the island? Yeah, there was that last week too. We can do this, it can't get much worse...either that or it will get worse before it gets better....either way....the show must go on.... Happy Monday.

Motivation. It is hard, yo. Especially to get out the door, and drive to have a swimming workout. from teespring.com It is not uncommon for me to have major motivational problems to do this. Especially when my coach (hubby) says he is not up for going with me. I sit and battle with myself that I really SHOULD go, but don't want to ~ it takes so much preparation to go. Both physically and mentally. These help, a little gift I got myself - I LOVE these goggles. He usually says, after I whine about the struggle to him, ' Just go if you're gonna go !'  His way of motivating. Gee, thanks coach . I guess it is somewhat effective. I have this struggle nearly every time I plan to go for a swim workout, so I often go to Pinterest for motivation, as one does. Usually, it works: his words in my head and reading all the motivational things I find.  This made me think about the whole process that makes it so hard to do. To get ready: put in contacts. put on sui...

This is a song that has been playing in the background of my mind ever since hubby got me on this Collective Soul kick. A beautifully written song, musically and lyrically. The meaning, the general consensus writes, is about the shallowness of life. After doing everything, buying everything, life has no meaning. Do I have a long way to run - to find the meaning of life. Read more interpretations here. I guess we are continually searching for meaning, for satisfaction, for happiness. Society would like us to be continually consuming to find these things. However, is that where we will find it? I think not. Admittedly it has taken a long time to come to this conclusion. I guess I have been running' for years. I am not saying I have solved this by any means, but certainly I am not 'running' like I used to. I am more content nowadays with what I have, and try to enjoy each moment and the little things. I am now sauntering along quite happy. Maybe too heavy for a ...

From The Tattooed Buddha via FB The weekend started good. Early, on Friday, as it was a public holiday here. I chilled. I ate, and chilled and ate and chilled. It was a lovely relaxing day, even if I felt a little guilty for it. Source - Purple Clover via FB Then Saturday, yesterday, started out similar. Chill, but I did have to get some groceries, so knew I had to go to town. I struggled a bit with the decision to skip the beach workout, but ultimately the logic of avoiding hoards of campers won. Yes, camping on the beach Easter weekend is a big thing here. No beach workout. So just grocery store. Easy-peasey. I had to get in before lunch, as I knew it would be crowded. So that is what I did. As usual on an island the store was missing a few things on the list, but I knew I could get at the other store near my house. So after recovering from the morning chaos shopping, aka took Saturday's Chill Pill, I headed out in my old car. I had just had the a/c fixed in th...

It was a long work week this week. After the emotional  last few weeks, I had to be knee deep in year end reports. Ah the financial world. Though there is some satisfaction when the spreadsheets balance, it is often a long road to that point. Add to that, there has been no exercise for the last 3 WEEKS! Yes, that is correct. 3 friggin weeks. And it wasn't like I was eating carefully either. It seems when one goes out the window, the other follows. My lame and completely wrong justification,  "Well I am not working out anyways....so why not have those fries, and yes I may as well have another cookie while I am at it!" It was thus proved I have NO willpower. At all. None. And I was feeling really crappy about it. The evidence is, I ate 2 boxes of my favorite Girl Scout Cookies in 2 weeks. No willpower. At all. Had them for dinner one night. Feeling like big fat crap. My kryptonite, I don't care if they are called Caramel DeLites or Samoas , I am too weak to...

I can be friendly and outgoing. I sometimes thoroughly enjoy conversations with strangers. Sometimes I keep my head down and try to avoid any conversations with strangers at all. I have even been known to be frowning in the grocery store to avoid someone saying something to me. Other women seem to regularly strike up conversations with me in the grocery store...I think the place I live is just filled with friendly people, or do other people regularly strike up conversations with strangers about what is on the shelves in the grocery store? Or it could be that they are interpreting me talking to myself as me trying to strike up conversation with them. That could be it. But many a conversation has happened, about beans, ground lamb, chips, produce the most. from brooklybackroom.com buy here Another time, we actually had someone ask my hubby if he was Mormon in a home improvment store. We were chatting about gardening and garden lights, and she was very nice, but you could t...

Seriously - the only reason I picked this one is the last line in the song. It totally took me off guard, as I was enjoying some great old music Friday afternnoon , because I took off from work and was doing some much needed 'chilling'. It is a nice background song. I was just scrolling the internet, with this on in the backgroung, and enjoying the peace and relaxation of no work on a Friday afternoon. And of couse I was blogging too. And well, I hear the the last line, and it stopped me and I even said out loud 'did he really just say that'?  So enjoy this song, sit back, relax, go about your business with it playing.  And then hear what I would have told anyone of the  hovering office space invaders and paper pushers   if they approached me if I was working Friday afternoon. Here are the lyrics if you would like to see it, and use it as well.

After a very active morning (a few weeks ago now...) - a 3 mile mostly walk with little jogs mixed in, 15 minute morning yoga routine, and a 30 minute yoga workshop (to help me step through Down Dog , which I can't do very well) - I sat there on my yoga mat deeply thinking. Thinking, " I am calm, it is a beautiful day really, and oh - a donut hole would be good!" and then I shared my desire for doughnut holes after all that good-for-me activity. I was struck first that I wanted to share such a thing. With whom, exactly, do I want to share these accomplishments mixed with signs of weakness? Facebook?? Really??? No, not really. I realized. I have purged my Facebook friends to mostly real friends and famlily (even if it is distant cousins I haven't seen since I was a kid and friends of whom some I haven't seen since High School, and creative friends that I have not met in person but feel a closeness with via venues like Facebook {which initself is quite stra...

I first started this in January, asking ' And now almost half of January? ' But now it is MARCH! Time sure does fly. And I try to write, and am plagued by ' Where do I even start? ' Then I start, and never quite finish. So, time flies but have I been having fun? A bit, yes. That and a bit of a piled on work load at the 9-5. Work load over full, the lead up to the holidays flew by, and suddenly our house was full. Kids were home from College and they got me to play a bit. I even miraculously got some time off from work! And I even managed to get the whole family up before sunrise Christmas Day to watch the sunrise together. Best present ever! Christmas Day 2016 Sunrise via  Raige Creations But suddenly the holidays were over, and I was back to work and they were back to school. The house was again so quiet. In January, I though maybe, just maybe I can get back to more writing and creating. I tried to make it higher on my priorities this year. (Not th...

No, not the new Adele song , I have yet to hear that believe it or not. But at least I am not out of the loop enough to know there is a new Hello song that isn't Lionel Ritchie.... Yes, it would appear I have been MIA for quite a while. And in some ways I have been. It has been almost an entire year since I have posted a blog. I have some drafts, but also almost an entire year ago. But I have been around. Just distracted by real life (which honestly has been wonderful). I gave up my smart phone, and do scroll around Facebook and Pinterest, but writing has taken a back seat to actual life and work. So, now I wonder if there is anyone out there that still would like Raige's thoughts of life, motivation, and creation? Yes, the Floyd song does fit here. Is there anybody in there?  Just nod if you can hear me. (But since it is not Monday, no music today.) I will still try to write, because as I realized something: I often wrote thinking I was helping others, but as I ...

Wow,  I don't even want to think about how long it has been since I blogged. I don't even want to go through all the trials and tribulations we have gone through to get us to this point in our lives. (Let me tell you, when I sit and think about it, I am amazed at all the crap I have gone through, all the hard work I have done, and so many, many failures, difficulties, and frikin crazy bitch people I have had to deal with!) I am actually quite amazed we have made it here . Here , being a place where I wake up and am so thankful for the beauty around me. Here , being a place where stress is so much less than it was a mere year ago. Here , being a place where I can actually understand that I would not be here unless I went through all that crap. (well, and also wouldn't be here without the help of family and friends to get me through all that crap) All those here's are a state of mind, really.  A state of mind knowing all the hard work and pa...

Photo courtesy of Buttercup (my daughter) Raige Creations A photo from many weeks ago. It was a cloudy, rainy day. My daughter and I were going in to check on our booth at the antique mall . She was snapping pictures for an art class project. When we saw this, we were kinda speechless. All I could say was, 'Look at all those tiny birds on the wire!' So original. I could say that I was the one driving, and therefore could not give the attention necessary. But my daughter couldn't think of anything either.   So I leave it to you to caption, comment, say what you think. Give us a new way to look at this photo.  What is YOUR perspective on a photo like this?  Give us a new way to see it.

Yesterday, This is how my day went. Started with this. source: iMapMyRun Wearing this. source: Raige Creations It was awesome! Then I managed to finally do some of this. source And I felt like this. source Then this happened. source: Pinterest I wanted to say this. source: Sawdust City I was a little like this. source: Bforbel.com And started getting like this. source: Etsy Then I was like this. source: Pinterest I didn't even answer the phone anymore. source: Pinterest I just ended the day like this. source: Skreened Have you ever had a day like that?