The Happy Book: Happy Feet

Here is a picture of my favorite pair of shoes:

NOT!!!!

For someone who is ordinarily fashion un-conscious, I spend a lot of time picking out and trying on shoes. For one thing, I am in and out of people's homes to work with their children on a daily basis. I usually take off my shoes to be polite. So, my shoes have to be easy-on, easy-off. Secondly, Comfort is King.  If my feet hurt, the rest of my body hurts. If my body hurts, I am grouchy and unhappy. If I'm not happy, ain't nobody happy!

Here's a real picture of shoes I actually own and wear: 

Today's Happy Book assignment is a part of The Next Chapter book blogging group, led by Jamie Ridler. Here are some happy questions to ponder about shoes:

• where did you get your favorite pair of shoes?
• what do your shoes say about you?
• love or hate shoe shopping?
• how long have you had your favorite pair of shoes?

The Happy Book: Star Gazing

"For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream." 

 Vincent van Gogh

I am running about a week behind on my Happy Book projects, but it's getting to be that busy time of the year again... school meetings, hayrides, and costume preparation have been taking up a lot of my evenings, so my blog (among other things) has been suffering a little. I'm ok with that. Go with the flow, or get stressed out? I've decided to lower my expectations of myself in the name of sanity!

This week's Happy Book assignment, as led by Jamie Ridler, was to fill our book pages with stars, and "collect them for wishing". I chose to cut and paste the astrological signs of my kids, my husband, and myself. It was fun getting out the glue stick and colored pens!

What's your sign? Do you think the characteristics associated with that sign fit your personality?

Guerrilla Happiness

Image by 1D110 via Flickr

This week's Happy Book assignment, led by Jamie Ridler, was to write down things that make you happy and post them in random places like the grocery store or a bathroom stall. I decided to turn my assignment into a FaceBook experiment! For the past several days I have used my status update to let others know what has made me happy, and I invited them to list theirs as well. I knew it would make me even happier to see what others wrote, but what surprised me was the number of "thanks" I got. The experiment proved to spread happiness, and as one commenter wrote, "posting these on FB.. makes me really consider what is important in life!!!"

Here are my posts and a sample of replies from this week:

Sunday- this makes me happy: sunshine, my dishwasher, football, and pie. Your turn!

• clean van
• hubby home from work
• homemade costumes, hayrides

Monday- this makes me happy: getting off work at noon, 50% off coupon for Michael's, House and Castle on TV tonight. Your turn!

• paid holiday
• talking with neighbors over the fence
• craft time
• freshly bathed children
• brownies in the oven

Tuesday- this makes me happy: sleeping with the windows open, beautiful pink and orange sunrise, new blinds deleivered. Your turn!

• soccer practice
• good dinner
• fall colors
• kids singing in the tub

Wednesday- this makes me happy: hearing my girls shout "I love you!" when I dropped them off at school this morning, the Chilean miners being rescued, breakfast for dinner. Your turn!

• seeing friends online
• sweet potatoes
• going out to dinner
• cooler weather
• hump day

Thursday- this makes me happy: blasting Billy Idol on the stereo with the windows down, seeing a kid I work with do something for the first time, dinner with my grandparents. Your turn!

• my husband
• driving through leaves
• laughing with co-workers

What made you happy this week?

Related articles

• Autumn Happiness (greenandcleanmom.org)
• Camp Hope in Chile: What you can learn about hope from the Chilean miners (psychologytoday.com)
• Why Facebook is Making You Happier (psychologytoday.com)

The Happy Book: Time Machine

Time Machine: Where am I right now? This question was posed as today’s Happy Book assignment. So here’s the run-down on my life today:

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Sunny and 70’s, perfect fall weather!

Today I’m wearing jeans, a v-neck brown t-shirt, and brown Sketchers. It’s a pony-tail kinda day. The girls both wore cute skirts to school today.

Tonight I get to watch two of my favorite TV shows, Bones and Fringe.

Justin is still recovering from his accident at work, but he can get around on crutches and drive a little!

I am working a half day at Warren County Board of Developmental Disabilities, Early Intervention division.

My co-worker and friend, Kristine, and I just made plans to go shopping and out for drinks tomorrow night.

I am packing up for an all-weekend crop retreat next weekend!

Waiting on three packages- new blinds for the front window, my monthly kit from Scrap-Tastic, and the products I ordered from scrapbook.com for my Week in the Life album. I LOVE getting packages!

Speaking of Week in the Life, this week I have been snapping pics of anything and everything in my life, collecting receipts, emails, etc., and documenting our day to day activities. Actually, this Happy Book assignment finally gave me the nudge I needed to get this project underway!

I did two loads of laundry before work today.

Grabbing a fountain Coke on my way into work made me happy.

What’s in my car CD player: Dave Matthews Band- Big Whisky and the GrooGrux King.

Drinking hot tea in the evenings.

Eating like crap- Poptarts and coffee for breakfast; Goldfish crackers, Coke and dried fruit for lunch.

A friend brought us an awesome dinner of pasta, garlic-oregano flatbread, and cherry pie!

The rest of the assignment is to place these little nuggets of info somewhere safe and read them at a later date, like writing yourself a letter and not opening it for 5 years. A glimpse into the past. Wouldn't you just love to find something like this your great-grandmother had written?

Happy Dance Tracks

I am continuing along the journey of The Happy Book, led by Jamie Ridler. This week's assignment was to create a playlist of songs that just make you wanna dance! My whole family joined in this week. Hubs helped me think of songs, and we tested their "danceability" factor on the girls. Here's what made the list:

These are just silly, dance-like-crazy-when-nobody's-watching songs. Everybody has at least one! What's yours?

Related articles by Zemanta

• Wishcasting Wednesday #4 - Where do you wish to make a fresh start? (jennhicks.blogspot.com)
• CF Weekend Playlist - Sunny Day Songs (collegefashion.net)
• CF Weekend Playlist: Dancing Queen (collegefashion.net)

Rita, the Happy Mascot

What a fun week I have had with Rita! Oh, who is Rita? She is the mascot I chose for this week's Happy Book assignment. I picked her because of her affiliation with Creative Memories, my first introduction to my life-changing hobby, scrapbooking. Here is a peek at our week:

In no particular order...

1. at my kid's school

2. after a trip to the pharmacy for cold medicine :(

3. in line at McDonald's for a Coke!

4. um, yet another coke from the gas station (it helps my sore throat!)

5. playing marbles in the living room

6. my desk at work

7. the library return drop-box

8. waterpark

9. self check-out lane at the grocery

10. the bus stop!

This was a really fun project, not only because it was plain silly, but for the memories it revived...memories of Freshman year at college, pledging my sorority. Pledge night- one of our tasks was to run all over town with the Pink Panther (our mascot) and take pictures in certain places...a scavenger hunt of sorts...the penny horse at Meijer, grabbing tons of packets of ketchup at McDonald's, a particular frat house, the playground, the old cemetery on campus...oh what a fun night! And this little assignment brought it all right back!

This coming week's assignment, coincidentally, is to go on a photo scavenger hunt. Here are the items to look for: circle, tree, smile, sparkle, heart, clean, treasure, red, fresh, sky, yum, toes, morning, home. Sounds like fun!

The Happy Book Project

I have been lurking around Jamie Ridler Studios for a while now, and let me tell you, this lady is full of inspiration! I have joined up with her book club, The Next Chapter, and we are currently experiencing The Happy Book. I am coming in on the middle of the project, so from what I understand, we are going to take a page a week and use that to inspire us. The assignment for this coming week is to choose a personal mascot and take pictures of it everywhere we travel. Sounds like silly fun! I have already chosen my mascot (you'll have to wait to see!) and am thinking up creative photo ops.

For today, I will share what has been making me happy and joyful this week...our beautiful weather! After weeks of outrageous heat and humidity, we are finally blessed with blue skies and comfortable temperatures. I have loved sitting on my front porch in the evenings, watching people walk by and chatting with the hubs. I have slept better and had more energy. A trip to the park did not seem like torture. I am getting little sparks of excitement just thinking that fall really is around the corner! I hope things have been pleasant where you are!