A Twelve Step Plan for Restless Creatives #8

Common wisdom says, “Mind over matter.”

Now exactly what is that supposed mean when we are talking about artful living, the goal of the next step of the Twelve Step Plan for Restless Creatives?

How do you live artfully?  If your brain is artful, does that make your body artful too?  What does that look like?

So glad you are asking such fei cheong (Cantonese for extremely) fabelhaft (German for fabulous) questions.  There is absolutely an art to living well and the key to that is creating a healthy lifestyle mindset.  Without the right attitude and behavior, diet and exercise are a dreary duo to live with.  If you feel like you’re running on empty energywise and inspirationwise, here are some simple ways to follow:

8 Live artfully

- the next step in the plan.

Drink water in style

Toast your day with a glass of water in the morning.  Continue throughout the day to prevent dehydration which causes fatigue.  I like to drink water in a fancy glass with ice and a slice of lemon.  It creates the illusion that I am having a cocktail and it fools my system into thinking it is full.

Imbibe an infusion

Fancy schmancy way to say “drink tea”.  However, it is a well known fact that chamomile will soothe you, jasmine increases beta waves, which make you more awake and alert and peppermint will aid in digestion.  There are many herbal teas with a multitude of benefits.    Enjoy a cup after a meal and before going to sleep.

Embrace exercise

Burn calories!  Daily exercise, whether you are running 5 miles a day like yours truly,  taking the stairs whenever you can or walking, increases your muscle tone, diminishes your appetite and brings a tremendous sense of accomplishment.  You try getting out of bed at some unGodly hour to be out running by 5:00 am and see if you don’t feel like you’ve done something.  Trust me, your body will love you for it.

Listen to your food

Stick to foods that are good for you, eat reasonable portions, finish eating dinner early.  Balance your food intake so that your body does not have to work so hard to break it down especially later in the day.  If you feel your creative energy ebbing away, especially between three and five when most people feel a need for a doughnut and coffee, go for popcorn or a piece of fruit.  Remember what they say about databases is true for diets;  garbage in, garbage out.

OK, all of you Restless Creatives who are jumping on board, here are the steps you missed:

1 Get over yourself

2 Get off the grid

3 Get local

4 Bring on color

5 Avoid vampires

6 Read like a writer

7 Stop the frenzy

And for the rest of you, just remember, today is the first day of the rest of your body.

Get more Wow!

If you want style notes and more for people who change the world, please check out:

Getting to Wow! to feel good, do good and look good

Nonprofit Knitwear for all things knit and nonprofit

Style Notes from me, your artspy

Hoong Yee

– Subscribe and get a little Wow! every day

– Forward the link to someone you think would be interested

– Link to a post on Twitter (follow me @hylkrakauer)

– Put a link to the blog in your Facebook status update

Thanks so much! I really appreciate your help.

Word of mouth is the best way to share, don’t you agree?

– Subscribe and get a little Wow! every day

– Forward the link to someone you think would be interested

– Link to a post on Twitter (follow me @hylkrakauer)

– Put a link to the blog in your Facebook status update

Thanks so much! I really appreciate your help.

Word of mouth is the best way to share, don’t you agree?

Twice as Much in Half the Time

a notions store on 39th Street

These last few summer days are kite-tailing into September with cool backhanded breezes and I am tangled in my lists of summer reading, new marinades to concoct, my next knitting project.  Letting me loose in the garment district with time on my hands can only mean more stuff, less closet space for Seth, and even more designs for artful living.  But as I headed home, I began feeling that there is so much more on my list that I haven’t done.

Did I have a full summer experience? When am I going to take surfing lessons? There’s still so much sunblock!

What about you? Are you angsting over your late summer goals? I hope it isn’t just me.

I wrote a post a while ago about doing less with more, something I believe in deeply. You can check out my video on the art of doing less, too. While this may seem at odds with me frantically waving a fistful of lists, it really isn’t. Doing less of what is not important and doing only what is always results in a short list. Now if you do things in a way that yields double results, you really win! Here are a few examples from my not so short list:

Lose weight, gain closet space.
Clean closets, gain space.
Write 2 posts instead of one.
Say no, hear yes.
Hear no, see opportunity.
Accept the invite, write the thank you.
Write when you’re up, rote when you’re down.

Adapt excellent design, become adept.

Speaking of getting things done, here is Gideon Shalwick in a video about productivity that I like very much for his way of simplifying priorities for multiple projects without freaking out about having the perfect shiny tools to do so.

I read a great opening line for a recipe remake by Amanda Hesser.  Can’t remember what the recipe was for but here’s what she wrote, more or less:

“Trends arise not from inspiration but from indignation.”

For me, the following adaption really nails it:

“Artful living arises not from inspiration but from indignation”

Is that great or what?  I find myself in a state of indignation most of the time, when it comes to well thought out life design.

Are you indignant, inspired?  If so, I am asking for your suggestions to add to my short list.  Do you have a creative way to live artfully?

Please let me know!

Get more Wow!

If you want style notes and more for people who change the world, please check out:

Getting to Wow! to feel good, do good and look good

Nonprofit Knitwear for all things knit and nonprofit

Style Notes from me, your artspy

Hoong Yee

– Subscribe and get a little Wow! every day

– Forward the link to someone you think would be interested

– Link to a post on Twitter (follow me @hylkrakauer)

– Put a link to the blog in your Facebook status update

Thanks so much! I really appreciate your help.

Word of mouth is the best way to share, don’t you agree?

How to Be One of the Boys

I squish your head I squish your head

In the current reincarnation of my life, I am surrounded by boys.

Seth, my husband, Remy and Sky, my sons, their friends, and all the contractors and repair guys that come to fix everything that my boys try their hand at doing.  Just because Jesus was a carpenter doesn’t mean that all Jewish guys can build stuff.  Especially in my family.  Me, I can run a nonprofit.  Running pipe and wire is not in my skill set.  Most of the time, I am odd man out.

One day last summer, on an island near Seattle, there was a sound that instantly transformed me for one glorious moment into one of the boys.

It was a soft, crackly sound followed by a delighted giggle.  You hear it when a basketful of peanuts is being passed around the table and the shells are tossed on the sawdust floors of a barbeque shack known for its ribs, rowdy music and down home decor.

“You mean, I can just throw the shells on the floor?”  Sky asked excitedly, his arm ready to sweep the pile of peanut shells on to the floor.  Remy and I ate our way through the basket of peanuts laughing as we flung fistfuls of shells at our feet.  Seth caught all of the action on his Flip video.  ”This place is great!”

Was it the museums, the cultural events, the marketplace that my boys remember about Seattle? Not really.  Was it the fun we had spitting shells on the floor.  Absolutely.  We still talk about the ferry ride over to this island barbeque place with its unique menu and peanut shell policy.   For me, it was a precious point in our trip where we were all just boys, me too!  having a great time with each other.

As we were driving Remy out to Stonybrook, I thought about a day this summer that we were all together again, travelling around Queens, and I wondered if they remembered that day.  We settled into a local restaurant Remy and I discovered earlier this summer and ordered lunch.  Suddenly, all of us – Seth, Sky, Remy and I were laughing again as we ordered all kinds of combinations of bread, cheese and pasta.  Everything a lactose intolerant Asian like me should not be eating but hey, the foccacia was fabulous!  So good we ordered two.

Now I don’t pretend to understand how the universe of boys works, what makes them think one thing is stupid and another thing is legit, primo, fly, ill, wavy or crunk (Impressed?  I just learned that stuff means “cool”).

Note to self:  If you even think you know what is cool, they will cut you down to size and squish your head.

the boys – Sky, Remy & Seth

When such a moment arrives in your life, enjoy it.  I am forever grateful they let me in their world as one of the boys once in a while so we can share a few laughs and a lot of carbs together.

Get more Wow!

If you want style notes and more for people who change the world, please check out:

Getting to Wow! to feel good, do good and look good

Nonprofit Knitwear for all things knit and nonprofit

Style Notes from me, your artspy

Hoong Yee

– Subscribe and get a little Wow! every day

– Forward the link to someone you think would be interested

– Link to a post on Twitter (follow me @hylkrakauer)

– Put a link to the blog in your Facebook status update

Thanks so much! I really appreciate your help.

Word of mouth is the best way to share, don’t you agree?

My American Name

Hoong Yee Lee Krakauer & Hoong Wei Lee Speicher

The only little girl I knew who had a name as odd as mine was my sister, Hoong Wei Lee.

Believe you me there were not too many other kids in P.S. 179, the Lewis Carroll School in Fresh Meadows, Queens with names that barely fit on the attendance cards, those long dry, skinny boxed things where a name like Lori (there were two in my class) or Fern would sit prettily like a blue curl.

The article in the New York Times today noted that the practice of adopting names that sounded more American to “speed assimilation, avoid detection, deter discrimination” has almost disappeared.  Ethnic identity has acquired cachet, a potential asset and cultivated pride within the cultural community.

I doubt any of this crossed my parents’ minds the day they found themselves wandering the streets of Flushing looking for a fortune teller.

“You are the Number One Daughter and you are the Number One Son of your families.  That is very very lucky.”  the fortune teller looked at my mother and father and smiled,  “Your firstborn child in America will be a healthy baby boy.”

My mother and father gasped with joy.

The fortune teller looked closely at my mother’s palm and said,  “How interesting!  This baby will be born on your birthday, under the sign of the ram and in the year of the ram.  A double good fortune!”

At this point, I am sure my mother was eager to start knitting blue baby things,  my father’s mind engineering a red egg party to celebrate.  But wait, the fortune teller was busting to share another fax from the future.

“This baby who is twice blessed to be your Number One Son born in America and on your birthday,”  he waited for his words to fall upon their ears,  ” – is destined to do great and wonderful things.  Choose his name wisely.”

Several months later, sometime in the evening on her birthday, my mother told my father,  “It’s time.”   Minutes past midnight, I was born.  A girl, arriving late, and named forever after some famous dead warlord general.

Change my name and mainstream?  Become more American?  What is more American than that?

OK, I admit there were many times I wished for a name like Suzy Wong, something short and somewhat familiar to people instead of trying to explain how I got my name.  Things did not get easier for me when I married Seth and became Mrs. Krakauer.

“Mrs. Krakauer?  You’re not Mrs. Krakauer, you’re just trying to cut the line.”  Little old ladies waiting for the butcher to slice their brisket in Rockaway would glare at me.  I may not have looked like Mildred, my Jewish mother-in-law but brisket or no brisket, I was  Mrs. Krakauer.

I think names are magical and powerful.

They are spells that evoke a sensory image of a person that begins once you say their name.  Or, in subtle ways, they can challenge you to fulfill the destiny of that name.  I struggled with my name and my desire to mainstream and become like the rest of the kids I grew up with.  In doing so I believe I weakened the power of my name by not honoring it, whispering it and hoping I would not have to repeat and spell it for someone.  Not so anymore when I see names like YoYo Ma, Rene Zellweger and Arnold Schwarzenegger.  Did any of them think about changing their name?  I don’t think so.

I love my big, long twist turn blink name. It is exuberant. Unapologetic. Hintfully mysterious. Hard to ignore. Unmistakeable. Me.

Now, can I really live up to the fortune teller’s prophecy?  Outside of the studded armor and great riding boots which I would love to stomp around in, I am not sure how to live like a warlord general but I try everyday to live up to the story of my name and who I am.

Mrs. Krakauer.

What comes to mind when you see that name?  Of course, I think of Mrs. Irvin Krakauer (Seth’s mother, Mildred) and I think of Mrs. Samuel Krakauer (Seth’s grandmother, Anna).

Now I am Mrs. Krakauer, too (married to Seth, a nice Jewish boy from Rockaway).  But you can call me Hoong Yee.

Get more Wow!

If you want style notes and more for people who change the world, please check out:

Getting to Wow! to feel good, do good and look good

Nonprofit Knitwear for all things knit and nonprofit

Style Notes from me, your artspy

Hoong Yee

– Subscribe and get a little Wow! every day

– Forward the link to someone you think would be interested

– Link to a post on Twitter (follow me @hylkrakauer)

– Put a link to the blog in your Facebook status update

Thanks so much! I really appreciate your help.

Word of mouth is the best way to share, don’t you agree?

Hooked: Rockaway Beach Booties

The next time someone tells you they are expecting a baby, here’s something fabulous for you to knit that will keep little feet warm.  These baby booties are done in a simple garter stitch with a ribbed cuff to keep the booties on snugly.  Snugly?  Is that a word?  You know what I mean.

The best part about this project is that it has been designed for all of you busy people who would love to make beautiful handmade gifts quickly and easily.   And the funny thing about  these booties is that once you know how to make them, suddenly everyone is having babies!

Tip: I like knitting on circular needles because I usually find myself knitting while I’m waiting for a meeting, sitting on a plane or taking a break between doing everything else I’m supposed to be doing. You can tie up the needles quickly and never drop a stitch. If you are planning to knit on a plane make sure your needles don’t set off the metal detectors. Indulge yourself and get yourself some bamboo or polished wooden needles.

Can’t wait to get started?    There are baby feet to be bootied.  Grab those knitting needles and get going!

Here’s the pattern in a power point presentation.

Get more Wow!

If you want style notes and more for people who change the world, please check out:

Getting to Wow! to feel good, do good and look good

Nonprofit Knitwear for all things knit and nonprofit

Style Notes from me, your artspy

Hoong Yee

– Subscribe and get a little Wow! every day

– Forward the link to someone you think would be interested

– Link to a post on Twitter (follow me @hylkrakauer)

– Put a link to the blog in your Facebook status update

Thanks so much! I really appreciate your help.

Word of mouth is the best way to share, don’t you agree?