Smile! Especially on the bad days.

Happiness Trigger #2 is SMILE! 

"A Cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones." Proverbs 17:22

"Happy feelings don't just bring a smile to your face.  A smile on your face brings happy feelings.  There is a feedback loop between your face and your feelings." Valorie Burton in "Happy Women Feel Better".  Valorie shares a bit of the science of happy hormones in Chapter 2.  So today, huddling inside due to church being cancelled and dangerous wind chills outside..... I'm going to SMILE at my mom and my dear husband, whether I feel like it or not.... Maybe I'll end up feeling it! 

Happiness Trigger #1 Anticipation

The first chapter in the book by Valorie Burton is about finding ways to enjoy anticipation, which was one of my lower scores.  I'm really not good at planning for future events.  So I put numbers on my calendar to count the days until our trip to PA to visit our daughters in April.  75 days and counting! ..... How to you enjoy anticipation - positive expectation?   

Happy Plan

We moved to Maine in 2012, and we knew that SNOW was a part of the deal.  And really, I do love the brilliant white with the sun reflecting brightly off it.... It really looks cheery to me.   But then, I detect a bit of the Cabin Fever creeping in.
Noticed, too that my attitude toward the people I see every day can sometimes get unjustifiably cranky.... Where's that sense of humor I need so very much!?

Add to that, the fact that I really, really, really want to lose weight and get back into the clothes that have gotten too tight..... and it's been dawning on me..... am I happy?  Well, it started when I considered why am I not losing weight?  I'm eating carefully, exercising more, and -nothing-.  Thinking about those people on the TV show, "Biggest Loser".... pretty much every single one of them has some despair or such trigger that was keeping them from losing.  How 'bout instead of going on a food diet, I focus on a Happy Plan? 

Then!  Focus on the Family interviewed Valorie Burton yesterday... she wrote the book "Happy Women Live Better".  I knew right away that reading that book had to be part of my Happy Plan.
In the introduction, she leads the reader to her Happy Woman Test .... learned that my Personal Triggers are Flow, Purpose, Savoring, Movement..... and my Power Triggers are Play, Winning Words, Service and Financial Savvy......   to be continued.....

Spinning.....

Over the past year I've really enjoyed getting together with some spinners in my area and gleaning from them.  Hatie and Liz and Dorothy have taught me so much, just by letting me be near them!  This week J&B Atlantic, a local store, invited us to come and sit and spin in their store, and meet people.  We met Dayana, an accomplished knitter new to the area, and look forward to meeting many more knitters and spinners in the coming weeks.  Hatie's handspun yarns and my hat kits are for sale at J&B, along with more and more "fiber-y finds"! 

Art: "This is how I see it."

When I was growing up, my brother Nathan was the family artist.  (If anything, I was the family talker.)  Flowers, frilly dresses, all pretty things delighted me.  Crayons and paints were among my favorite toys....but I was not the family artist.  Sometimes I asked to color the pictures Nate drew, but he wouldn't let me defile his pencil drawings for fear I'd obliterate his art.  So I stuck with the coloring books.....
Eventually I was taught all sorts of needle arts - embroidery of various kinds, sewing, as well as knitting and crocheting.  Thread began to replace crayons as I found I could make useful things to give as gifts or sell at the bazar to benefit the volunteer fire house..... but this was never seen as art.

But NOW!  Now, at last, my work is recognized as art!  The designs that take their shapes on my graph paper and then in knitted garments are expressions of my appreciation for the fascinating world around me.  Sometimes its nature, but also, often man-made beautiful creations draw my attention.

Supreme Court Tam 

My knitted designs show you, "this is how I see it."  That's art. 

Hats for Sale!

Lupine Meadow Tam

We are working on making labels for the finished wool hats we have for sale.  How incredibly complicated can a little label be!?  We are told people like information, and we're happy to share it with them.... but how much info can be expected to be on a garment tag?  A logo, care instructions, individual design inspiration and my biography... the price for the hat, the fact that our business qualifies for the "Maine Made" logo, room to punch a hole... wow!  It all adds up.  But soon, very soon, with all Stan's computer expertise and patience and my fussy critique, we will have labels to put on the hats that go into shops for sale.  If you visit Maine, look for Mrs Knitter Designs hand-knit hats in gift and artisan shops along the coast.  For more specific details on which shops, visit  Mrs Knitter Designs.

February Cheer

There's a lovey-dovey hat coming!