Chocolate frosting covered memories....

of the way we were.......(it's a me and Patrice thing)

I was picking up and rearranging some things in my home office when I came across a leather journal. I used to write a ton and have a bunch of half filled journals, but I couldn't remember what was in that particular one so I opened it up to see what was in it.

When I went to field camp in 2003, I was shopping with some of the other girls and we saw these leather bound journals. We thought it might be fun to buy them and have people write in them, sort of like year books at the end of the school year.

What I found in my little leather bound journal was a snap shot of the end of field camp, after spending 6 weeks with the same 17 people out in the wilderness. As I read through each entry I was temporarily transported back 5.5 years. I could hear the voice and laughter of each author in my head.

The whole experience was intensly nostalgic. I miss camping with my geology buddies! Besides field camp, I went on many a field trip and camping trip with the people who also went to my field camp. I miss going to random road out crops and finding great rocks. I miss the days where going on a 5 day camping trip was required.

I've been camping twice in the past 1.75 years. I don't know any other geologists in Colorado. I worked so much last summer that when I was home, I was too tired to do anything.

My life is going in more directions than I ever thought possible. I don't regret the dicisions I made and the actions I took to get where I am now.
What I am realizing though is that I need to sit down and really evaluate the things I want in my life, and what priority those things will take. By nature I try to do everything, which is cool because I have done and tried a bunch of different things. I don't know if I will ever stop trying to everything, but I think I need to allow myself to take time for things like camping that I'd like to do a lot more of.

It's funny that just reading through that journal allowed me to totally change my perspective on my life in such a short time.

I'm thinking too much at the moment to write coherently...thanks for reading!

Quick lunch blog

I feel icky today. My boss muscle tested me...we think it's parasites. Perhaps the parasites are on all the broccoli I have been eating. I don't really know.

In other news, I am set to make the first official sale of jewelry for my company tomorrow. At 8 in the morning.

I am going rock climbing tonight. It will be the 1 year anniversary of the day I started climbing.

I'm feeling restless and have been for the past few days. No me gusta.

I like tea. I am going to go heat up some water before my break is over (it is the detox yogi tea, incase you were wondering...I heart Yogi tea.)

Piper, my bosses dog, just walked into my office. She is awesome, and so are all of you, dear readers.

Now, go forth and let us all heat water together! It shall be a wonderful and glorious moment when we will all drink tea as one and feel the healing tea energy wash over us.

Yes, I am feeling goofy. You like it. Alot.

Coconut Bliss

Coconut bliss is a creamy fabulous soy and dairy free frozen pint of heaven.

I am addicted.

Things for me to remember

I'm noticeing that I cycle through feelings of confidence and being overwhelmed when it comes to my business.
When I start to feel overwhelmed (like right now) I repeat certain phrases like mantras so I dont freak out.

I thought maybe if I wrote these phrases down...well, I don't know exactly what it's going to do, but at least all my phrases will be in one place.

-Not every thing has to be done RIGHT NOW

-Nothing is written in stone, I get to change my mind

-I can change my products to fit selling trends and the needs of clients

-I have a ton of people supporting this venture

-In the past few months, people have enthusiastically liked jewelry I have made for them

-I don't have to get all of my information out of books...my intuition works pretty well when I let it

-I will not be executed or publically embarrased if I happen to make a mistake on City, State, or Federal tax forms

-I can ask for help when filing City, State, and Federal tax forms

-Colorado has excellent small business resources that I should and will take advantage of

-Not everything has to be done RIGHT NOW (I do have a full time job and other responsibilities, I can't work on Spirited Creation tasks all the time) (I know I repeated this one...I say it more than the others)

-It's ok to relax every once in a while

-In this life, Spirited Creations is likely something I was meant to create. For this reason opportunites will come easily and obstacles will be minimal.


The word well is empty now. I am sufficently calmed enough to make it through the rest of my work day.

I hope you all are having a lovely day!

I did it

Spirited Creations, LLC is now registered with the State of Colorado!
I have an EIN number!
I feel a little nauseous....

There are some other forms I have to fill out and send off, but I think I can take care of those tomorrow.

Holy crap.

Ramblings on Eczema and Candida and self-healing

For the past 2 1/2 years, I thought I had psoriasis. I've been seeing a new holistic doctor and I was showing him my 'psoriasis' spots and he told me they looked more like eczema spots. I was told by a dermatologist in Nacogdoches that psoriasis is what I had.
The main difference in the two skin conditions is that eczema occurs on the insides of joints like elbows and knees, and in skin folds. Psoriasis occurs mostly on the outside of the joints and is more scaly.
Anyway, I figured out a while back the eating dairy exacerbates my skin condition so I pretty much stopped eating it. I also discovered not drinking enough water will also exacerbate my skin condition.

Recently, I switched from rice milk to soy milk, and my skin condition got worse. I confirmed with my holistic doctor that I was allergic to soy and have not had much soy for about a week. Normally, this would be enough time for my little red spots to start fading, but this is not the case.

I know from several gyno visits that I normally have some amount of yeast 'down there', and the gyno keeps telling me it's normal.

(There is a point coming I promise)

My boss is prone to Candida overgrowth and follows a special diet to combat the overgrowth, we've talked about it a few times.

So last night, I originally started researching Candida overgrowth to see what sypmtoms there were. During my research I found out that Candida overgrowth and skin conditions like eczema and psoiasis are related.

I have been eating more sugars and carbs lately, which is what candida thrives on. I'm assuming this is the reason why my spots aren't going away.

In order to kill off the excess Candida (you do need some in your intestines!) I need stop eating carbs and sugars and dairy. Dairy wont be a problem, I do that anyway. Sugar wont be so much of a problem, I try not to eat too much sugar because of my hypoglycemia anyway. Carbs will be a problem. I pretty much don't eat bread anymore, but I really like rice and pasta and cereal and oatmeal.

I know that you can be addicted to carbs and sugar, and I know that if I dont eat carbs or sugar for about a week I'll be fine and I probably wont have strong cravings anymore.

After the excess Candida is killed off, you can start reintroducing small amounts of carbs back into your diet, which I'm excited about.


After all that rambling, the point is that I found a connection between my Eczema and Candida overgrowth, and that I can treat myself by eating better. I will not put a 'band-aid' on my condition and use steroid creams or other icky drugs. I can heal myself naturally!

A new path

I decided to start a side business last Tuesday, which was election day.
I will be making and selling jewelry and natural loition bars. I will probably also be making soap and soy candles.
I already have a place to sell my products, so all I need to do is set up the administrative side of the business and get my tax ID number. I'm hoping to have this done by the end of the month.
I'm thinking about converting my home 'office' into a workshop. My kitchen is pretty tiny, and I think if I got some hot plates and tables I could probably work in the office with no problem.


At this point your probably wondering what my business will be called.....

I decided to go with Spirited Creations.
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In other news, I just got my plane tickets today for when I go home for Christmas. I'm flying into Dallas on Saturday the 20th and flying back Saturday the 27th. I will be making a trip to Nacogdoches while I'm in the Texas- probably Mon. the 22nd and Tues. the 23rd.

That's about it for now. I need to make a trip to a craft store and buy soy wax!