June 2012 – Individual Empowerment

Be a Pro

June 28, 2012 Impower You

Be Pro-peace, Pro-organic food, Pro-education, Pro-community involvement, Pro-knowledge, Pro-love, Pro-acceptance, Pro-tolerance, Pro-individual choice, Pro-civil rights, Pro-gay rights, Pro-women’s rights, Pro-animal rights, Pro-equality, Pro-freedom. What is missing from this list? Add it in a comment below.

Be whatever you want to be. Stand FOR everything that will make the world a better place. Let go of being AGAINST hate and be FOR peace instead. You don’t need to have any negativity in your life at all. If someone is destroying the environment where you live, be proactive and make a positive change in a cleaner direction. If someone is physically hurting you, be proactive and leave. If someone is threatening you, figure out how to turn the tables and stop them from making that threat a reality.

It won’t be easy, but I challenge you to find at least one thing that you are against and find a way to be pro the results you want.

WHAT KIND OF PRO WILL YOU BE?

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Book Reviews

Supporting Other Authors Makes Me Smile

June 27, 2012June 28, 2012 Impower You

Supporting other authors makes my day. I am proud to be a small dollar philanthropist.

Lachrista Greco is an author and recent grad student in Chicago and is publishing an anthology of Italian American Women writers. I know how hard it is to self publish a book, so I donated $5 to her campaign. Please check it out and consider supporting her with $1 or donate services.

http://lachristagreco.com/2012/06/25/please-donate/

“My IndieGoGo campaign went live today! As you may know, I am trying to finish and publish an anthology of Italian American women writers on feminism, activism, body image, culture/ethnicity, sex and sexuality.

If this project speaks to you in any way (or if you think it will to someone else), please contribute what you can!

http://www.indiegogo.com/olivegrrrls?c=home&a=701934“

Empowering Discussions

What If It Costs The Same?

June 26, 2012June 25, 2012 Impower You

If you can’t convince people to eat healthy, make junk food expensive. That is the idea behind soda tax. Why not? If it is true as this article from Mother Jones states that 21% of medical expenses are from obesity than I say tax away the fat.

Would you be more likely to buy a healthy drink (with little or no sugar and no additives and no food coloring and no corn syrup) OR a soda if they cost the same?

For me it is an easy choice. I had a root canal years ago and decided to stop drinking soda and to cut back on my sugar intake. I can’t say for sure that my teeth are okay now because of that decision, but the rest of my body sure feels great. It wasn’t easy, but I don’t miss all those sugary sweet drinks. Actually, my cravings for sweets has diminished a lot since I cut back on sugar and went cold turkey on soda.

Art

Art Wednesday: String

June 20, 2012June 18, 2012 Impower You

After seeing some wonderful art made with the embellishment of string on Artsy Forager, I decided to make some of my own. This was drawn on thick paper with ink and colored pencil. I then used embroidery floss to add extra oomph! For my first try it turned out wonderfully. It also took a long time of sitting still. One to two hours a day for 4 days and voila!

LoveBirds — “LOVEBIRDS” by Leah Oviedo 2012

If you try string on paper be aware that putting the holes too near each other will result in one giant hole. I used a needle with a wide head so the string would fit. You could use a finer thread to make smaller holes and get a different effect.

My goal is to try a new art medium each month this summer. It’s kind of like art camp. I got the idea from Hot Pink Underwear.

Social Action

Violence Against Women Equals a Fat Paycheck

June 19, 2012June 18, 2012 Impower You

I saw this article and wanted to throw my computer out the window. It’s just so offensive to me. It’s promoting a ignorant view of women as weaklings who need to be sexual before we become real people. What the heck is wrong with people? Do the men who create video games think that women are not worthy of our attention until a man has tried to break us or rape us? Should we just die if we cannot fend off a rapist?

Were they just sitting around discussing how to boost sales and some ignoramus said, “Let’s make Lara seem like a real person by sexually assaulting and objectifying her.”? Was there a round of applause for such a genius idea? Score one for men. They know that violence against women sells. Someone is getting a bonus.

This is the point in the article where my aggravation level hit a all new high. “She literally goes from zero to hero… we’re sort of building her up and just when she gets confident, we break her down again. . . She is literally turned into a cornered animal. It’s a huge step in her evolution: she’s forced to either fight back or die.” -Ron Rosenberg the executive producer of the Tombraider video game.

Hey Ron, you are an ignorant person who needs to take a course on the reality of domestic violence and sexual assault.

http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/media/2012/06/hey-lets-evolve-lara-croft-having-people-try-rape-her

I feel like everyday of my life I have to stand up and tell someone to stop putting me down or stop taking away my rights. It is exhausting being a female.

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT MARKETING VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN TO BOOST SALES?

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Book Reviews

Book Review: Up; A Mother and Daughter’s Peakbagging Adventure

June 14, 2012June 13, 2012 Impower You

I could barely put down”Up; A Mother and Daughters Peakbagging Adventure” By Patricia Ellis Herr. Fresh mountain air filled my lungs, morning sun warmed my skin, leaves of trees brushed against my skin and gave me shade when it was hot. I could smell the flowers, dirt, sweat, and rain. Birds chirped and lizards scurried away as the thrill of this oh so enjoyable exercise that only hiking out in nature gives me. Vicariously of course.

Peakbagging is the term for climbing a group of peaks/mountains. This wonderful story is of a mother and daughter who climbed all 48 of New Hampshire’s highest mountains. The kicker is the young girl was only 5 when they started. Her mother noticed the seemingly endless amount of energy her daughter possessed. So they went hiking, the young girl loved it and they continued. It’s a short book, but interesting enough to hold my attention so that I could barely put it down. I was a bit sad when it ended, not due to some tragic plot twist, but because I was enjoying the hikes with them so much. Since birth, my life has been a back and forth between tiny mountain towns and bustling cities so that I always want both worlds simultaneously. For the past several years I have lived in a large city and often wish to be out in the wilderness more than I find myself there. I give this book 5 stars and recommend it to anyone who loves the stories of other adventure seekers.

UP_Hiking_Book — Up; A Mother and Daughters Peakbagging Adventure. By Patricia Ellis Herr

Find UP online or at your local library. What is a favorite books of yours?

Art

Art Wednesday: It’s all about the hair

June 13, 2012 Impower You

It’s all about the hair. What can I say, but when I was younger I always had to have some weird hair style or colors. Nothing quite as fun as these, so that is probably why I LOVE drawing crazy hair portraits.

Empowering Discussions

Beautiful Bloggers

June 7, 2012June 5, 2012 Impower You

I was given the Beauiful Blogger award by The Unpredictable Life. Visit their BLOG.

The nominated recipients are asked to:

~ Thank and Link-back to your nominator;

~ Nominate 7, 6, or fewer (or more) other blogs that you enjoy to receive this award as well;

~ Post a comment on each of your nominees blogs with a link to your page for the details;

~ Paste the Award image somewhere on your blog, if so desired;

~ And, continue blogging all your beautiful thoughts, suggestions, and musings. More readers are coming!

Here are my choices for the top 7 beautiful blogs. I encourage you to check each one out. Bookmark this page and come back to it later if you can’t sit still that long.

Lifestyle 30, http://lifestyle30.wordpress.com/

Totsymae, http://totsymae.com/

Artsy Forager, http://artsyforager.wordpress.com/

Helping Women Helps the World, http://hwhtw.wordpress.com/

Fierce Buddhist, http://fiercebuddhist.org/

Somkritya, http://somkritya.wordpress.com/

Kimberly Harding, http://kimberlyharding.wordpress.com/

(PS, if you copy the URL of this photo above, you can than add it to the sidebar of your site so readers know you were given this award)