The Great American Smokeout

 Loyal readers of this blog know John Morgan, author of Grasshopper Notes and my boss and friend since 2007. Since retiring, he's published Grasshopper Notes Journal, and has most recently started posting all his recordings for FREE on his new YouTube channel,  Inside Out.  These recordings were previously only available at our seminars or for purchase via the seminar website. 

This Thursday, November 19th, is “The Great American Smokeout." In honour of that, he's just posted his Stop Smoking Forever seminar.  Every year in cities all over the country, thousands of people flocked to attend John Morgan seminars. It's why he's known as "America's Best Known Hypnotist" as he criss-crossed the continent to help people stop smoking or lose weight.

The video is the length of a movie, except you close your eyes for part of it and at the end of it, you are on your way to being smoke free. When smokers couldn't get to Kansas City or Nashville or our other seminar cities, they could watch this hour and 45 minute video. They were astonished that a video of his seminar worked! 

2020, amiright?  It has been a year we’ll all remember. A lot of people are home anyway. If you're a smoker, give up the cute cat videos and bread-making tutorials, forget the pandemic and political noise for a bit, and pick a time to watch this video uninterrupted. Make 2020 memorable for yourself for a different reason: the year you decided to Stop Smoking Forever.  Not a smoker?  Check out his other videos. And if you're a regular on YouTube, you may want to subscribe to his channel for inspiration, relaxing meditations, and even a few laughs with his Grasshopper Notes Podcast.

New Virtual Massage Video

 John Morgan, my friend and former boss, put together this video so that I could offer my recording of Virtual Massage on YouTube. YAY!  Click on the video below to hear it. 

Here's the back story of how I came to write and record Virtual Massage:

My friend Lena was my first massage client here in my new home when I lived at the River House. After she left, I was on the phone to John Morgan, my boss of John Morgan Seminars fame and I said, "I wish I had another body to work on." And he said his shoulder was bothering him and what would I do to alleviate the pain. I told him I'd start with his traps and work into levator...and being the auditory person he is, he said, Tell me as if you're giving a massage in real time. So I did, without the anatomical nerd-talk. At the end of it, he said he felt better and said, "I think you have something here. Write a script." He came up with the name Virtual Massage AND did the post-production (he made my voice sound like velvet!) AND designed the CD for me. John was my willing guinea pig as we worked through the script together and he gave me advice on how to make it even better. On the final reading, he fell asleep (the ultimate success!) and I hung up the phone after I was finished. He phoned ten minutes later saying, "I think you're ready to go into the studio." High praise coming from "America's-Best-Known-Hypnotherapist."

I also wanted feedback from a fellow massage therapist, so I read it to my friend Bess. She said, "That was fantastic! I feel like I've just had a massage and a half!" High praise coming from my favourite massage therapist! The night before I went into the studio, I read it for XM Radio Guy, who has been a client for years. And he said, "That was amazing." THANK YOU!!!

I also have background music on this recording. And not just any music, but my favourite music when I'm giving a massage: Chesapeake Bay: Reflections of Beauty, by Mike Zampi. He let me use the whole CD just like I would in a massage session. So, it's been 13 years and things have changed!  But the recording still sounds fantastic. Thanks, John!

Bone Boxes

 One of my summer projects has been helping my sister Ruthie in the A&P (Anatomy & Physiology) lab at the local university.  Here are a few shots of the lab:

This was her project last summer; getting organized!  Mission accomplished.

Key tenants of getting organized: Sorting like items with like items. Also, everything is labeled for easy access and communication amongst professors as well as students.

We have been getting bone boxes together for student lab practicals. The bone boxes are decades old and were in desperate need of repair, not to mention basic cleaning. Ruth scrubbed the boxes, vacuumed out bone dust, and repaired them with wood putty, glue, and those teeny-tiny nails from the hardware store.    

Cleaned, repaired, and ready for Part 2.

On to the bones!  There were 2 kinds: plastic and real. The plastic ones were grimy and looked like they'd never been cleaned. Ruthie soaked them in the sink and then scrubbed each one. Here's a batch drying on the rack: 

The "drying rack" is actually a shelf unit she McGyvered in The Great A&P Lab Organization of 2019.

Lookit how CLEAN and new the bones look!

The real bones were a bit more problematic with chipping & missing pieces, like this femur:

Ruth repaired with a kind of modeling clay that she molded and let harden:

Then she had to sand and smooth where she repaired:

Meanwhile, I worked on the boxes: 

I created a template and cut out different coloured felt for each box, so that we could keep the bones organized and put in their right boxes: 

I call this colour Nuclear Yellow.

Lemme just say that the felt was difficult to work with in all its 100% polyester gloriousness; very fiddley and difficult to cut. Also, it was ordered for us by some non-creative dude, whose Kindergarten colour choices included the aforementioned nuclear yellow, as well as nuclear orange.  He also thought white would be a suitable colour.  WHITE.  (OK, artsy-snobbery rant over). 

This was the first box before I changed the templates to cover over the divider bits:

Foam cushions on bottom. The royal blue felt is really beautiful and adds a pop of colour!

Bottom of box covered with a cushion; felt glued to all sides, as well as over divider parts.

A later box:

Same felt, horrible, fluorescent lighting.

After using up 3 whole bottles of Fabri-Tac, I found this at the hardware store:

I don't know how acid-free or "archival" Titebond is, but does polyester require that level of detail?  I think not.  It worked GREAT!

Ta-da!

I don't know if you can tell, but I switched to batting for the bottom cushions, which was a bit more cushiony.

"Hullo!  I'm ORANGE!"

Candid shot in the middle of it all:

After I finished the boxes, and Ruthie had repaired all the real bones, I painted them with 3 coats of paint.And here we are, boxes all together with bones, ready to put back in the cabinet:

In the middle of the project, former boss and friend, John Morgan, sent me a proper lab coat for my work in the Bone Lab. You'll note the embroidery of Temperance on there, because of the show Bones that Mum and I used to watch.  :-)

You'll also note I'm doing "hover hands" over the shoulder of the (plastic) skeleton. Also, those are Theraspec migraine glasses I'm wearing; protection against fluorescent lighting, which is like kryptonite to my brain.  

The only thing we didn't get done was to put colour-coordinated paint on each bone, so that a blue-dotted bone doesn't end up in the nuclear yellow box, etc. We're also going to add bony landmarks, insertions and origins, etc. But that can be done in Part 86 of this process. For now, we are done and done!

Video walk-through:

New DIY Traveler's Notebook Courses

The Upcycled Traveler's Notebook: Purses, Books, Planners & Leather

Chatty Vlog

Sunrise Symphony

I'm about a month away from moving, and so I am savoring these times of tranquility.  :-)

The Effects of Migraine

This was really informative for anyone who knows someone who gets migraines. 

How To Doll Up a Notebook

Fake Wax Seals

Wax seals give a great, finished, old-timey look to add to letters, journals, etc.  Here is the first method I did with polymer clay:

This is how to do it with hot glue:



Nik The Booksmith very kindly answered my plea of Polymer clay conundrums!

Big Magic: Favourite Quotes from Liz Gilbert

I was writing this book recommendation for Big Magic to a fellow artist and writer and thought I'd include it in a blogpost for my sorely neglected blog.  So, here you go:

The treasures that are hidden inside you are hoping you will say YES. She tells a wonderful story about how she got an idea and when she lost interest, it found Ann Patchett. The similarities between the plot lines were astounding!

Whatever you do, try not to dwell too long on your failures. You don't need to conduct autopsies on your disasters.   I think the point is not to wallow and flog oneself.  Take off the hair shirt and do something else.

Done is better than good. (Liz's mother)  VASTLY different from Mum: 

If you cahn't do a proper job, don't do it all! 

So I repeat Liz's mother to myself whenever I think that I don't have time to do something or all the right materials, etc. etc.. Do something; it doesn't need to be perfect or up to "Queen Anne" standards. Growing up, "Proper job" meant perfect, and her way, and it never was. Coupled with the criticism from teachers, it paralyzed me into procrastination for important projects. As an adult, I create deadlines for myself so that I feel a sense of urgency and that it's more important to get it done than to be perfect. It's prolly why I'm such a planner nut. 

Conversely--and in addition:  You might think it's procrastination, but--with the right intention--it isn't; it's motion. And any motion whatsoever beats inertia, because inspiration will always be drawn to motion.  

If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you don't bring forth what is within you, what you don't bring forth will destroy you. ~Gospel of Thomas

People don't do this kind of thing because they have all kinds of extra time and energy for it; they do this kind of thing because their creativity matters to them enough that they are willing to make all kinds of extra sacrifices for it.

Anyhow, what else are you going to do with your time here on earth--NOT make things? Not do interesting stuff? Not follow your love and curiosity?

OK, off to create . . . something.   :-)