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Showing posts from 2017

The Extroverted Introvert

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That's me, and extroverted introvert.  Left in the wild I will seek out one-on-one conversations, avoid large groups and get hives at a sign of a big crowd.  I will avoid public speaking at all costs. The flip side of that coin is I have a job that is very public and very much a people-oriented game.  I get hurled into large groups of strangers and which often leads to the public speaking opportunities I loathe.  I'm a program cordinator...I've got no choice.  It just comes with the territory. I'm loud and often funny, maybe even a bit quirky.  Most people mistake me for an extrovert that loves the wild world of entertaining.  I'm a good jokester in the right company and I enjoy a good round of teasing.  Left to my own devices though, I'll choose to alone.   I often decline party invites, especially if it's a party where I know very few people. The other part of my personality that is often misunderstood and misjudged is the public withdrawal.  After

Perceptions

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How much of your life is based on someone else's perception of you?  No really, think about that a minute.  Home much of what you do and how you act is based on the thoughts you perceive others to have about you?  Go ahead, mull that over.  I'll wait. Are you a little shell-shocked?  It really does put a little perspective into your life when you think about it and actually, consider some of the more mundane things we do. Do you wear make-up?   Why?  To hide your imperfections.  To enhance your natural beauty.  To highlight you check bones.  To make your eyes pop.  I really could go on and on with all the lines we're fed in our daily lives through advertising and social media. Why do you hate your body?  You don't feel you're thin enough.  You don't feel you're swimsuit ready.  You don't feel your boobs are big enough.  You feel your butt is too (insert descriptor here).  Again, society has influenced these thoughts. All of these things are bas

Excuses Are Like...

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Excuses are like ass holes, everyone has one and they all stink.  Yep, I sure did.  I just said it.  I put it out there for everyone to know.  I have the vocabulary of a well-educated sailor, but in all seriousness is anyone ever interested in someone's excuse? When is it that we learn the behavior of blaming others for our shortcomings and failures?  No seriously.  When?  When is this taught to us?  Grade school?  Middle school?  High school?  Or do we learn it as young adults? I've learned in my nearly 40 years, that's it's just better to man up and take the blame for the misstep and move forward.  That's not to say that the perfectionist in me doesn't beat me up for a few days after the misgivings of the failure, but if everyone survives without injury it's all good.    Yes.  I am still learning to let it go, but I do accept blame for the missteps I take.   What I'm wondering is why is this so hard to do?  Do we hold ourselves so highly,

Life Snapshots June 2017

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I took Friday off last week and gave myself a long three-day weekend to rest, relax and reflect.  The 2017 year has been a bit tense and I needed some time to just chill.  I'll spare all the details, but I can say I definitely needed this weekend to unwind and recharge. Day 1 : I enjoyed an iced coffee and a good book after running a few errands in the morning.   Snapped a pic of the honey bees that are enjoying the dandelion field where my garden usually is.   Sat on the grass and supervised Hubby repairing our garage roof. Day 2 : Enjoyed a homemade waffle for breakfast while doing a bit of journaling. Spent some time hanging out in the yard with the pups, enjoying a large glass of iced tea. Did a bit of reading about Nature Journaling. Grilled some chicken and bacon for dinner. Which I turned into a delicious spin on a cob salad, to go with my red wine and Sunset magazine. Took an evening stroll around our property.  I

What if I was never meant to fit into the idea of "ideal"?

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I don't want a busy life.  I'm not interested in what's referred to as "the hustle."  I hate hearing the phrase "you know how it is." The answer is NO!  No, I don't.  I've never understood the feeling that you constantly have to be on the go and always doing.  I physically can't and mentally won't.  When life gets too busy I reach a saturation point and will withdrawal from everything!  I become angry and less tolerant of people, noise, and places.  Busy isn't good for me and what's more is I find it maddening when I ask someone how they are and I get the pat answer "busy" or my other favorite "crazy busy."  Either of which is followed by "you know how it is."  No.  I don't.  I've made the choice not to live like that. To be quite honest, when you tell me about your "saturated" or "busy" life, it all sounds like complaining.  It sounds like you're letting your lif

On Writing

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I've been writing for years, like my entire life years, or at least since junior high.  I've written in starts and spurts.  I've had long dry spells, and I've had those moments of scribbling on any piece of paper I could find in my bag. For me, writing isn't about scribbling out the next great American novel.  It's about getting all the thoughts and ideas out of my head and onto paper.  If something creative comes from all the nonsense, then that's a bonus. I was never much of a journal keeper until a couple of years ago.  I took it on as a challenge for myself.  Somewhere to just get random stuff out of my head.  Looking back I wish I'd developed this habit years ago, but hindsight is always 20/20. The type of journal I keep could be referred to as a "commonplace book" or a "brain dump book" or even an "everything book."  I'm not a "dear diary" kind of person, those kinds of restrictions make me hyperv

From My Collection of Quotes & Poems

For Rent The baby came with the house. As we walked up the sidewalk, I saw him through the window lying in a crib. Summer wind breezed the yellow curtains, billowing them against railing sides. He lay watching the flow of the tapestry as it breathed in and out of the window and he reached to grasp the edge as it was inhaled against the wooden window frame, his expectant eyes peering at me  through the glass from inside the empty room. That was why I cried,  knowing we would never come again. You see, the baby came with the house.   ~ by Roxanne Fehlaicer I've had this in my collection for years, and unfortunately, I can't tell you where it came from.  I know it was a Wyoming Anthology of sorts, published quarterly and that I picked up an issue at a library book sale when I lived in Laramie years ago.  That's where the info stops.  I didn't write down the book name when I copied down the poem and I no longer have the book.

Craving Travel

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Torn.  There are so many days that I would like to run away and live in a Winabego, on the open road, thumbing my nose at the world.  That's the point where hubby reminds me we're just too responsible to really do that.  I nod my head and go on with my daydream. Then there are the other days, the days where thinking about giving it all up gives me anxiety and can't cope with the thoughts of how much we'd have to give up to travel full time. I still have wanderlust and will probably suffer for life.  I like having a house, but honestly the older I get the more I want to travel and what better way to do it than in a moveable house - be it travel trailer, RV or converted bus. I have a romance in my head of living a traveling life, writing and creating art wherever we go.  Most days I know this a  crazy pipe dream, but days like yesterday I don't care!!!  Days like yesterday make me want to be free and live a life of creating, writing and photographing my journey

From My Journal - February 2015

Start again.   Find your path.   Look beyond the now.   Learn to grow.   Trust your inner self.   Find courage.   Step away from comfortable.   Seek your own peace.   Be your own light.   Move past the fear.   Accept the compliments.   Be confident in your own skin.   Accept yourself.   Seek your heart's truth.  Find creative peace.   Build the path one stone at a time, remember Rome wasn't built in a day.   Who said that anyway?   Stop being someone's afterthought.   Build the success you desire.   Open your own doors.   Use your passion.   Learn to satisfy your personality.

Spring Refresh

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Good morning.  Are you sitting down?  Do you have a good cup of coffee?  I hope so because this is gonna be a little long and maybe a little deep. I know it's been months since I wrote a post, and I'll be honest, I'm not gonna apologize.  I've been working on some personal growth. At the beginning of the year, I did something I've never done, I picked a phrase to lead me through the year - "Inward Acceptance."  When I picked this phrase I really didn't think it would impact my life that much.  I was wrong.  It's five months later and I'm in such a different place.  I've been exploring a lot of things, so of which are a bit more personal than I want to share here, but good things have happened and are continuing to happen. I dropped a lot of things and opened myself to my own talents and started telling the world I'm an artist.  This was a HUGE step for me.  I've spent several months drawing, painting and working on things,

Reflecting on January

January is drawing to a close, and I'm reflecting.  Reflecting on the direction I'd like to take all three of my blogs.  Reflecting on where I want to take my creativity.  Reflecting on my journaling journey. Three blogs, it's a lot, but it is what it is.  I needed separation with this new blogging journey.  In the past, it was all dumped in one place and in the end, it just didn't work.   Here on The Porch Postscript , I've built a place for me to purge random thoughts and ideas about my life.  Things will wax and wane here, some spurts being longer than others.  You might also notice there are times of crickets here.  Not all my thoughts need to be public.  Trust me! Stacy Petersen Photography is just what it says it is.  It's my photography portfolio.  The words are limited here.  I share photo title and the place and date taken.  I haven't put anything new up in a while, but I'll get back to it when the weather gets nice again.  I'm

Creating

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It's been a while since I wrote, and some of you might be wondering why.  The answer is simple - I've been holed up in my studio creating, which is by far my most loved thing in the world.  When the desire to create hits, the desire to do much else disappears.  I love making things, and while I have dozens of crafty options, paper is my first love. Over the weekend I listened to a few episodes of Crafty Chat on YouTube.  There were a couple of episodes with the CEO of Hero Arts that I really enjoyed, probably because it took me down memory lane.  Back to the days of mail order rubber stamp catalogs, before the big scrapbooking trend and way before mixed media was a thing.  It dawned on me, I've been doing this for a really long time, nearly three decades, a quarter of a century. I wandered down this path when I was in high school when a rubber stamping store opened in my hometown.  Rocky Mountain Impressions was a tiny little shop, lined with wood mounted stamps.  It

Explore Creativity

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I don't think people realize how healing creativity is.  No.  Really.  I've been creative my whole life and as I have gotten older and struggled through rough spots in life I've realized that my art and creativity help me get through those bumps in life.  It rebuilds my momentum and fills up the spots in my soul that stress and daily life drain out and empty. I've spent the quite a bit of time in my studio creating and working on new cards, the last few days.  Trying new techniques and looking for myself in the lost chaos of the daily grind.  While I have a day job that I love, but it's taxing on my mind and sometimes my emotions, often times stressful.  Being creative helps refill all those places.  It gives me time to let my mind wander and be free.   Right now I'm focused on exploring mixed media and learning new techniques to stash in my mental closet of card making skills.  This is where you picture that hall closet that is stuffed to the max and

Where Have All the Manners Gone?

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Are you ready for another round from the well of my deep thoughts?  Yes?  Well ready or not, here we go, down the rabbit hole of Stacy's wandering mind. The past couple of days I've really begun to wonder where have all the manners gone?  No.  Seriously.  Do you know?  When did we become such a rude, self-obsessed, self-serving bunch of knotheads? In the past few days, as in since Monday, I've been called names, hung up on, and yelled at for things I can't and don't control.  I've had people just walk in and interrupt meetings, without even a blink or apology for the interruption.  Again I ask when did we become so rude? When did it become acceptable to talk on the phone while mailing a package, ordering food or doing business at the bank?  When did it become acceptable to talk back to the customer in a demeaning tone?  When did rudeness become the norm? I was taught - You give the janitor the same respect as the president of the company .  In high sch

Societal Failure

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Are you a societal failure?  WOW!  Did I just opened a big can of worms, didn't I?  Yep.  Get your coffee and let's talk about this. I'm a societal failure!  I don't fit the mold on so many levels.  What's more, I'm proud of it!  How have I failed in the eyes of society?  I don't have a degree, I got married later, I don't have kids and I'm an artist. Let's start with NO COLLEGE DEGREE.  That's right, I don't have a degree.  What's more, I don't want one.  Now, let's put things on the table right now.  I'm not against college.  I work with college-bound students five days a week.  However, college isn't for everyone and it shouldn't be forced on anyone, let alone someone who is still trying to figure out what they're interests are. We start asking children what they want to be when they grow up once they're  old enough to talk.  They tout things that don't always fit in the box society has built

Routines

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Good Morning.  Have you started to settle back into your daily routines?  Or are you still sorting it all out? I'm happily getting back into my everyday groove.  Loved being on vacation and celebrating the holidays, but I'm a creature of habit.  Having a routine helps me stay grounded.  There's a quote I pulled out of something I read a while back that is so very fitting of my nature. Highly sensitive people, having daily rituals in their lives can help them feel at one with their world, instead of just being overwhelmed by it most of the time.   I love my mornings.  They are slow and filled with daily rituals, or habits if you will.  I read blogs, sip coffee, post on Facebook & Instagram, write, enjoy breakfast with my Hubby and work through a yoga routine.  I'm blessed with a part-time job that allows me these luxuries. This year I'm considering adding an art journal to my mornings.  I've been thinking about this for quite a while and late last

Inward Acceptance

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Happy New Year!  It's time to get back to reality.  Are you ready?  I'm not sure I am, but I have to go there anyway.  Back to work, time to start the Spring Semester.  Working for an educational consortium comes with so many perks and rewards, but starting a new semester isn't one of them.  Things will be a little bit of a madhouse for the next couple of weeks, but I digress.  Today's post isn't about going back to work, and quite honestly is a little raw and may not be a read for everyone. I started my morning with this yoga video , let's just say I'm a bit off my game.  I let my daily practice laps a bit over the last three weeks.  It's time to get back to it.  Yoga has helped me in so many ways.  The movement and stretching are what it's about for me.  I don't follow a yoga practice for spiritual or meditational guidance.  This practice started as a way to heal my back, and increase movement in my very sedentary lifestyle.  Where am I going