Entries Tagged as: laughter
Wellness Wednesday – Be Silly
October 24th, 2007, Comments (19)
Oooh, combo post. I get to show the whimsical drawings I mentioned earlier and do a post for Wellness Wednesday at the same time. Woohoo! I'm big on multi-tasking.
So, I'm a big proponent of silliness. I encourage it. I need it. Heck, I even inserted some silliness into my wedding. Our wedding vows were a perfect combination of sweet, heartfelt words and silliness that made us and our guests laugh out loud. Among the things we promised to each other were to love and support each other's dreams and goals, to encourage and honor our unique beings, and to accept (among other things) an abundance of cat hair. 
Those weren't the exact words, but you get the idea. Actually the part about the cat hair was word for word.
I think laughter and general goofiness is essential to wellness. And this post was inspired by standing up on my coffee table to take a picture of these lighthearted drawings.
So, the drawings already had a a sense of playfulness, but when I looked back at this picture, that I snapped quickly and randomly by standing on the coffee table, I was struck by the silliness of it and decided to post the picture with my feet in it instead of cropping them out. Sometimes you just need to stand on your coffee table, preferably while watching the Stephen Colbert Show.
It's important while being silly to not care what anyone else (including your critic...even for just a moment) thinks. This comes in particularly helpful when making art. I included a doodle on a paper bag (from tonight's sushi takeout) to illustrate this.
I think sometimes it's easy to take art too seriously, like it all has to be a masterpiece or something incredible or why bother? Well, if we wait for this masterpiece to arrive, it's quite likely we'll make nothing at all. It's important to play, to let loose, to allow yourself to be silly even when making something so serious as art. Hehe. So many ideas will spill out while mindlessly doodling. Try it and see. It's a wonderful release and if you decide to draw in your sketchbook or on a paper bag or the back of your junk mail or wherever, you'll find the ideas start to flow. Sort of like stream of consciousness writing, doodling will show you where your mind is at. As you can see by the two ladies in flowing dresses, my head is still in wedding land.
I was starting to feel a little sad earlier. I'm not exactly feeling that whole wedding let down that can happen after the event, but looking over the pictures I got this sense of reaching a certain life milestone and feeling that sense of my own mortality. And then the pictures of my parents, who looked wonderful, but also looked sort of like...grandparents. When my mom was my age, she had three kids under the age of 6.
Yikes. So, I talked about all this with the hubster tonight and talked about how we're going to do holidays now that we're married (how we'll split the holidays between our families) and we've been talking about starting our own family. O my. And once we talked about all that, that which was there in my brain, but I hadn't quite put words to it yet, I felt a release and I decided not to focus on sadness any longer, but on all the good, and then the hubster ate my toes and I laughed and we snuggled up until he fell asleep. Feeling better, I doodled, took the picture with my toes showing, watched some silly t.v., and laughed at my cats' antics.
So, in summary, my wellness tips for the week:
1. Be silly.
2. Make paper bag art.
3. Ignore your inner critic.
4. Stand on furniture to change your perspective.
5. Laugh loudly and often.
6. Doodle.
Wedding Veil Ordered – Check!, Crazy Relatives – Check!, Wedding Mania – Check!
September 13th, 2007, Comments (10)
Oh, I'm so off! I feel completely discombobulated. This cold is kicking my butt. I'm so over you, cold! Take a hike! I've got one of those racking coughs goin on that makes my brain hurt and sleep difficult. Despite that, I'm attempting to find my rhythm again.
Saw a great movie last night with the fiansor. If you need a good hearty laugh and you have a silly sense of humor (and you don't mind a little bit of over the top violence...there is a bit of gore in it, but it's not scary at all, it's all in the name of comedy), you might just love this movie, "Hot Fuzz." It's from the makers of "Shaun of the Dead" which I found to be funny, but also scary and I think it did give me nightmares. "Hot Fuzz" didn't give me any bad dreams. It wasn't scary, just ridiculous. It starts out a little slow, with silly British humor and then all the sudden it shifts into complete mayhem. I don't want to spoil the story, so you'll just have to go rent it yourself.
Had some more wedding discussions with the fiansor last night. Trying to figure out the shape of our ceremony, which is a little stressful and then all these little pieces like where we're having a rehearsal dinner (there's not enough space for that in our apartment), do we need a limo to pick up parents and grandparents?, and why won't the coordinator at our venue call us back?? (grr) Too many details to keep in my head and this is just the tip of the wedding iceberg. I always found the image of a Bridezilla to be a truly ridiculous image and even though I definitely haven't gone to that level of nuttiness, I am beginning to sympathize with women who lose it momentarily. Because when that woman flips out about place cards, it's so not about the place cards...it's about their cousins who won't tell them what food choice they want before the venue's deadline, and their parents bugging them about what tie color they should wear when she couldn't care less, and the friend who insists on bringing their baby even though it's an adults only reception, and the coordinator who hasn't been returning her phone calls in a month, and their mother is flipping out because they didn't see every single fitting and choice made in person, and some relative who is upset because they heard there will be bacon in one of the appetizers, etc...So, when she starts crying and yelling about place cards, you just have to give the girl a hug and not tell her that the place cards don't matter because she knows that and she's just super overwhelmed. I mean, getting married and saying your vows is a big enough life event to have to deal with and then having to plan this huge monster of a party on top of that is enough to make any girl, except maybe the martha stewarts among us, a bit batty. And oh boy, do I wish I had more Martha Stewart in me right about now. However, after chatting and laughing with the fiansor last night, we both know that the day itself will be perfectly imperfect and fun and romantic and a whirlwind. My brother is getting married next weekend and then there will be only 3 weeks til my wedding. O.my.god. And so, posting may be erratic to say the least. Bear with me.
And how bout some fun links before I head off to my mom's for a make-up trial? Sure.
-Thursday, September 27, Marisa of Creative Thursday is having a one-day Creative Thursday event where she's encouraging anyone who is interested to do something creative. Read more about that here!
-I was telling all the girls in Maine about where I got my fantastic purse. I picked out the fabric and purse design at a purse party/bachelorette party last year for my best friend. A rep from the company who makes them, called 1154 LILL Studio came out to the house with bags of fabric and purse styles and we got to spread them all out and play and design a purse (which was then made in Chicago and sent back to us.) It was so much fun and I use that purse nearly every day. You can go on their website and design your own purse online or go to one of their stores and do it in person. Much fun. And today I got an email from them saying that they're now selling their fabric alone which could be great fun for making curtains or a pillow or your own style of purse. The name of the company is from the address where they started out in Chicago and it was all started by a woman with a great idea. Their fabrics are great and if you've got one of their stores near you, I'd definitely check it out.
-This website for a cat cam invention absolutely cracked me up. Apparently, the camera attaches to the cat's collar and then takes pictures at regular intervals. On the site you can see examples of the inventor's cat, Mr. Lee's, travels. I love the pics of him coming upon a cat friend and then the various adventures they go on. Too cute!
-Anthropologie just opened a store nearby and now I can much more easily spend time browsing their super fun way of arranging a store. There stuff is expensive, but every once in a while, I do enjoy shopping there for a special occasion dress or fun knick knack. I happened to get many tea pots and accessories for my bridal shower from friends and family and I am just loving my new collection of tea pots and cups. I need to get some shelves to display them I think. I decided I had to have this cup and saucer for my collection since it is the one featured in the painting I bought from Jessie! And I bought one new fall outfit including this adorable sweater which I'm loving to pieces.
Ok, that's all for now folks. Have a wonderful evening!
LOLZ
August 5th, 2007, Comments (5)
Ok, I have a ridiculous sense of humor. If you do too, you may enjoy this parody of the latest Harry Potter book. It's an overview of the entire book, so if you haven't read it and plan to, do not go there! However, if you have read it and are in need of a good laugh, do go check it out. It's super long, but so worth it. Many side-splitting laughs and great references to everything from Lord of the Rings to the Fresh Prince of Bel Aire to Transformers. O my. I'm still giggling. I think my favorite line was the one about the Big Mac. I won't spoil it for you though, go forth and laugh.
Oh wait, and from the same blog...I saw this awhile back, but it's too funny. And there are no spoilers here:
