Perspective + Stories + ExperienceThese stories and experiences are my own and mine alone. The opinions and truths stated do not reflect any company that employs me for my skills. I hope my thoughts and ideas inspire more people to come up with their own individual thoughts and share them too. Truth wins and there's a freeing feeling when you can create your own voice to inspire laughs, joy and internal discovery.

Heather

a Little Diddy about Suds in Buckets

If you enjoy country music like I do, you’re probably familiar with a song that just turned 20 years old by Sara Evans Called Suds in the Bucket. It went to #1 back then in top played song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06o-EYH9svs I heard it on the way to Costco this morning, after staying up last night with the hubs because we agreed neither of us remember seeing St. Elmo’s Fire as kids so let’s see what we recall and if it holds up. (Foreshadowing hint, it didn’t :/)  The song and movie connect and add flavor to my week of positive reflection. I can sing along to Suds in a Bucket just like I can get me some Fancy and Walkaway Joe…
Heather
June 29, 2024
Heather

There’s no wrong way to eat a turkey.

Ahhhhhhhh Happy Thanksgiving to every American in every way! I was thinking. I can't recall the last time I was at my home on Thanksgiving. This has to be the first time. Now, I know there's been years I woke up in my bed on Thanksgiving, put a dish or two together and headed out to another invited gathering of cool people I want to break bread with. I'm waiting for my kids to read this and remind me of that one time.... pretty sure not though. Yet this year, it's here. We aren't going anywhere and are making the core of the meal. The gathering will be six of us with four stopping in after on their dinner trek…
Heather
November 23, 2023
Heather

The Grace Collection – Jesus Art

The journey to spreading love and joy to others in artful repurposed ways continues for me. You're welcome. haha. All kidding aside, I reflect alot on what I'm drawn to and what I create to understand myself better. Similar to painting Sasquatch fun paintings and dissecting that, I truly enjoy making prayer candles out of thrifted shot glasses and making Jesus mirrors and wall out out of really cool frames and mirrors I find while on the shot glass hunt. It all came together for me! The Grace Collection. Over the years I've played with frames and mirrors for glass art, when it hit me that tying in the message of shot glasses could bring them to another level. Plus…
Heather
October 7, 2023
Heather

Sorry Virginia, there’s no Santa Claus.

About ten years ago, with Christmas quickly ahead of us, my husband made the decision that Santa was not getting the credit for big ticket items any more. He simply decided he didn't care what other people think. We worked really hard to be able to afford that our two sons received their biggest wish of all - A Nintendo DS - and doggone it, they're going to be from us. He went on to explain that all the little stuff and stockings and what not can be from some guy named Santa but he wanted them to know we provided those Nintendo DS's. Yikes. I was nervous about his ask yet open to a further discussion. I agreed with…
Heather
August 20, 2023
DiningHeather

Michigan, who knew?

Apparently most of the people in my life, that's who. Rough outline of the journey up Now. We get it. Pretty cool up north. You gotta see it yourself. Pictures don't explain that this is really what clear water can look like. I've seen similar in Cozumel but not that calm, and I wasn't dozens of feet above it in a boat still seeing the clear bottom. My goodness. The awakened me of course says, please dear God don't let us eff this one up with pollution too. If we haven't already. Please. What beauty. We heard and verified online that Lake Superior is so full of natural water for the globe, that if you spilled it out, it would…
Heather
June 23, 2023
Food for thoughtHeatherPandemic Thoughts

You think we should rethink?

I am not sure if I had any type of epiphany, but the thinking within myself propelled me to put down my paintbrush and start writing it down before it escapes my ever fleeting brain streaming. Had to hard save it I guess. I was thinking of activism and the cultural laws we follow as a society. Perhaps its at that core of the issue that we indeed find a way for majority care is some of the most disparate, horrific and tucked away behaviors that lead and have led to generations of inhumane torture of the mind, soul and body. Could this be it?! Let me roll. At first, I was going to dive in by showing pictures of…
Heather
May 28, 2023
HeatherPandemic Thoughts

Giving Prayer a Shot

About a year or more ago, I realized I wasn’t showing gratitude to God as well as I was for a while and that perhaps that was the reason I was so miserable at work and regressing back into stress health issues. It hit me square in the face like, duh! I bought a traditional prayer candle and kept it front and center in my kitchen, which is open to the living room and where I spend most of my home time. It reminded me every time I was home that I needed to light it and say something. Anything. It made a difference. It brought me back into a regular, casual relationship with God that I thought I already…
Heather
April 30, 2023
HeatherPandemic Thoughts

Finding new connections

Oh imagine the irony of it all. I had lunch with someone and she was so delightful and we get along so well and she gave me all these advanced, intelligent suggestions on how to leverage my art and let more people see my fun. Top of the list I wanted to check out further was this online place called Spatial and it's a virtual art gallery that people then can enter and see all of your art in one place and I thought that is phenomenal! It's neat! It's a new way of storing your art and displaying it! How fun you know it gets into deeper stuff like all the NFT's and what not. So yeah. Worth a…
Heather
April 2, 2023
Heather

Picking Our Poisons

I can't shake the dread in my heart and mind for what has happened to us all because of the explosion and burn pit epicenter that's called East Palestine. I'm sick of plastic. Why do we need so much of it? If there's anything those Greta children and Bernie hippies should consider, it's not natural resources killing us and our planet. It's the chemical laboratories using carcinogens to us and earth in the name of progress and profit. Sure, I won't argue that some plastic inventions save lives. Got it. Check. I'm saying do we really need it in every single facet of our lives and what society says we need to have successful lives? It's fricking everywhere. It's not…
Heather
March 5, 2023
Heather

Signing Employment Contracts

I've been reflecting somewhat on all my past employee contracts I’ve signed over the years. When you sign employment agreements, they can really start to get technical. Seems the more complex the title they want to give you while under the contract brings with it more contractual understandings in the form of policies and termination grounds if the contract isn’t fulfilled. One of my favorite things that come with title descriptions when applying for employment contracts is “And other duties as assigned by employer” I think about that. When you agree to an employment contract that comes packed with dress codes, pay schedules, behavior policies, social expectations, and a list of what your expectations are going to be, there’s that…
Heather
January 29, 2023
Heather

Turns out I love Jesus and birds

I just realized something about myself that made me stop and laugh out loud with the epiphany. Y special career spidey-skill tends to be connecting dots to identify trends to build patterns to influence the behavior to sway in the way of the company. I promise, it’s always authentic and true – if I know we can’t fulfill a brand promise I don’t say it. I am rather proud that I pretty much navigated out of the media side of all my years and passion for that very reason and challenged myself to apply it to other value propositions instead. So I write plans and work with teams to figure stuff out and get the plans implemented versus doing so…
Heather
January 20, 2023
Heather

A Truck Full of Monkeys

I remember when I saw this headline last summer, my first thought was, "Why isn't anyone talking about the fact that there was a truck trailer of 100 monkeys? Monkeys that you would only maybe see a handful of at a zoo you paid to view?" a HUNDRED Monkeys. On a truck trailer. Just cruising down the Pennsylvania turnpike. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYFYxcGTc5g First reason that is way odd to me is there's this thing called the AZA. The Association of Zoos and Aquariums. AZA is the independent accrediting organization for the best zoos and the best aquariums in America and the world, assuring the public that when they visit an AZA-accredited facility, it meets the highest standards for animal care and welfare.…
Heather
January 16, 2023
Heather

Imperfect Sunglass Art

I like to make things. By 'Things' I mean that. Things. I'd like to hope they're defined as artful things. Maybe it's glue or nails or paint or paper and sometimes all the above. I like to try new things to make new things from old things. I read about a Japanese belief called Kintsugi. 'Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by mending the areas of breakage with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum. As a philosophy, it treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise. It is similar to the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi, an embracing of the flawed or imperfect.' It wasn't…
Heather
December 27, 2022
HeatherPandemic Thoughts

Getting my words in order

Alot of the words I write don't ever go past drafts. Sometimes I just type and go and see what happens and then when I go back to it I realize it's done it again. It went there. I get it. I got this weird knack for adding a long tail to the kite. Sometimes when I see how things connect to each other, it lights up for me and I guess it can throw people off cause it's not obvious. I don't know why. I spent a long time denying it was anything more than luck. I'm not always right either. But gosh darn it, it's pretty flipping good. When I learned what batting averages meant and how high…
Heather
October 14, 2022
Heather

The West Virginia Travel Adventure

Six days, five nights and several breathtaking scenic places worth a visit. Kicking off in order of views, I'll cover the stories and interesting facts of our vacation through the mountains on a Harley Davidson for our 20th Anniversary. Evening 1 – Wellsburg, WV We got off work at 3 that Friday and just had to load the bike and go over anything else we can think of that we might be forgetting. We then took the scenic route to start at home and stay at my Dad’s place. Plus he’s seen most of the places we’re talking about wanting to see and added some we didn’t know about, like the Beckley Coal Miner tour. Anyway, it turns out the…
Heather
July 13, 2022
Heather

It’s a CATastrophe out there.

I’ve been thinking a lot about cats. I feel they are a symbolic analogy to our current elitism plot to destroy America and all the working class within it. It starts with feral abandoned cats in my yard. So here we go. I have a cat problem. A rather daily one, actually. It’s been approximately four years of ongoing irritations as whether you like to admit it or not – cats reproduce at an alarming rate. Especially homeless ones. You see, it all begins when people abandon their pets. They think they’re a good idea until they have to fulfill the responsibility it takes and then decide to peace out and let them go. In some pockets of the country,…
Heather
July 1, 2022
HeatherPandemic Thoughts

I am Woman, No Riots Necessary.

I wanted to put solid information out there for some calm thoughts to process during this wild storm of destruction. I believe this division is engineered and here's why. I agree a man can want to become a woman. I agree a woman can want to become a man. I agree a man can sometimes want to be a woman and sometimes not. I agree a woman can want to be a man sometimes and other times return to being a woman. I agree a man can want to be a man and prefer sex with other men. I agree a woman can want to be a woman and prefer sex with other women. I think that about covers the…
Heather
June 26, 2022
Heather

Hoping for Hope

I see it. I feel it. I read it. I experience it. So why not talk about it. Now that the lights have been turned on in the theater and we are all able to see what’s behind some of the stage and production at hand, It becomes a lot to process. Especially when we’re still adjusting our eyes to this new truth while more and more of it is buried, modified or just plain destroyed. Seeking truth – and nothing else – has become rather exhaustive when you no longer know what or whom to believe. What is showing clear, especially on this beautiful Easter morning is that the goal of every attack we are under is to destroy…
Heather
April 21, 2022
HeatherPandemic Thoughts

I think. Therefore I am. 46 today.

I think that within the bellies of the whales that we call US government and places like the Vatican, only then will we really know truth. We’ve been purposely left in the dark for generations now. For instance, it’s taken more than 50 years to get some answers about JFK’s murder plot and it’s still only based on people who dedicated their time to dig and dig and dig. We still don’t know what exactly went down with how Europeans got here, whether Native tribes really hunted against one another or not, why JFK, MLK, RFK were assassinated, John Lennon, Manson’s LSD CIA experiments in San Francisco, and what Marilyn must’ve known. Princess Diana, Bay of Pigs, 9/11…I can go…
Heather
April 5, 2022