My Current Favorite Daily Truth

I subscribe to the awesome Daily Truth emails from Brave Girls Club. Right now they are asking what your favorite Daily Truth is and giving away spots in their super cool Soul Restoration class.
Well, I have a new favorite every few days and I star those before I archive them.
I looked through the ones that were starred... and so many of them seemed like my favorite, but today, RIGHT NOW, this one means a lot to me.
It's from June 10th.

Dear Beautiful Girl, 

It is important to remember that no one has the right or the power to take away your choices, your thoughts, or the essence of who you are. 

Lots of things in life can be taken from us, but most of the things that are most valuable cannot. The things that matter most cannot be seen and really CAN be protected fiercely by our own selves so that they are not violated or crushed in any way. No person and no situation can make us feel bad or small or stuck unless we allow it to. It is our choice.  

Be careful with your dreams. Be kind to them. Protect your choices and your ability to make them. Make good choices so that you are not chained by the consequences of poor ones. Watch your thoughts and make sure that what you want most is what you are thinking most. Stand up for what you believe in and don't settle for anything else. 

We can decide what kind of life we want to have, and we are the ONLY ones who can decide. We can't wait around for things to happen. We must take action to make them happen. No more excuses, baby. Let's do this. 

You are phenomenal, courageous, and wonderful. 

xoxo

Today I need this because someone said something to me that I felt was totally demeaning.
I know that somehow I have the option to not be hurt by this situation, but this is not a skill that I have learned yet. I feel pain.

I also think of Eleanor Roosevelt's statement:

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.

I have a history of being bullied - that's a whole other set of posts I will write some day - but there are emotional skills that I am only just learning and dealing with now, and so far I don't know how to not feel like there is something wrong with me when someone says something that hurts.
I also don't know when to say 'You know what? That was NOT COOL' or when to just let it go because what other people say shouldn't matter.
That's another part of the bullying thing: no one stood up for me - how do I know when to stand up for myself or when to practice not feeling hurt by something?
I certainly don't have the answers.
So I read this Daily Truth over and over again, until maybe I start to believe it.
I hope.

we interrupt my dollar store crafting...

I have to post this doll who I have finally completed after at least three years. I had made her parts but I couldn't seem to position her head and arms correctly, and she sat in a box until this week. 

She is mostly a pattern that I can't remember the author of and need to look up online... but her head is my original creation.

Her name is Indigo... but she is also Oshun, the Yoruba goddess of fresh water, who is also related to Erzulie, the Haitian goddess of love.

She's in an inner tube, which is a representation of a dream I once had:

A street in the town I grew up was instead a river that flowed down a steep hill. It was night, there was a full moon, and I was tubing down the river alone.
At the end of the dream, I had this realization that it was a Friday night and I was alone, and that this was the best thing that I could have done for myself.




And now that she is finally complete... maybe she will help me do further creating.

More pics - a closer-up, and one with my cat Yeti for size comparison.

................................

Rambling about blogger code:
aaaaaaaand... I'm still being driven crazy by this blog formatting! I know how to get rid of these black frames around the images, but not in an easy way, and I can't find what it is in the coding that's causing them, and the biggest annoyance is why on a post with no images, the writing has a different amount of space between each line. I've done lots of css, and html, and whywhywhy can't I figure this out? I feel so frustrated!
I guess I have to go back to my css studies. Blah.
And then I'll have to check it out in other browsers and on a PC as well as my Mac... I just want it set up right so I don't have to mess with it anymore! I'm making a list of everything weird that I can't understand in the posts. For instance, right now, there seems to be a space before the beginning of my first paragraph - for no reason!

(And I know that currently this blog has maybe two readers - someday when I'm a famous craft/art blogger, someone will look through my archives and be able to see what's in the code that I'm missing.)

have some (just a little) angst with my Dollar Store Crafts

So I won this box of stuff from Dollar Store Crafts. (this picture is from them.)
See that package in the center with the black-and-white thing? That's mine, mine, mine... mwah-hah-hah!

(It was the weirdest thing - as I was filling out the entry thing, I knew that I was going to win... I didn't know there would be over 600 entries(!) but I just knew.)

And now I get to play with things!

The b-and-w thing is a miniature rug. Of course my immediate idea was to make a bag, but I'm not sure I'll do that. Unless I can make an Incredibly Cool one, I don't want to just do something totally obvious with it. There are some zippers so I could add pockets and things... I'll have to think more.

There is a package of cardboard stars in an odd color. Those have to become a garland. But I'm going to spray paint them a different color first.

There are some yellow leaf-shaped doilies. Some of them will go into my art journal, glued in or stenciled over, but then...?

There is pink lace that I want to put on the bottom of a skirt.

I'm of two minds here: (ok, I'm of many minds, all the time, but two for now) to try to combine as many of the things into one project as I can, or to make as many different projects as possible. The second one seems slightly more likely because there is so much variety... but the first one would be more of a challenge!

Here is a preview of the first project I've started. It seems to be coming out a little too Easter-y for my tastes, when I was hoping for Indian-sari-style - and I'm hoping it won't end up being a total Craft Fail.

I guess I'll get busy on it... it's a totally unpleasant weather day here in New England and I'm wishing I had a fireplace to curl up next to with my crafting. I thought of a tray of candles instead but I'm pretty sure my cat would have something to say about that - I'm going to have enough problems keeping cat hair out of my gel medium.

On an unrelated note, I'm having issues with my blog formatting... I can't figure out why it's making some images have a frame, and some posts with different spacing between the lines... I did some coding but I can't see where all of it is and it's driving me crazy! I think I might be too much of a perfectionist to do these things!