45 in 45

I turned 45 in last month. Shocking. I'm not sure where the last ten years went, and worse yet, people older than me says that time will only speed up!! Yikes, I'd better get busy.

This year I've decided to do 45 new things in my 45th year. Yes, that is a lot, I'm well aware. But I've always been kind of a "tried and true" girl. I go to the same restaurants and order the same dishes. I rarely venture out and do new things; I think its because I hate to be disappointed. Yeah yeah, I know that no one likes to be disappointed. But I seem to avoid it like the plague. So I figure it's about time to risk disappointment and shake things up.

I'm still working on my 45 in 45 list, and am open to suggestions. Please make them things that will NOT have a good chance causing death (I'm damn sure not going to jump out of an airplane!), are very affordable (unless you're buying...lol) and are in the Denver area, or a quick road-trip away (again, if someone wants to buy me a plane ticket...). These can be as easy as trying a new restaurant or a new dish. This is NOT a bucket list, or about conquering fears (although those may overlap). This is just about doing NEW things.

So far here is what I have on my list of possibilities (in no particular order):

  1. High speed go carts
  2. Snow Sculpture Championships in Breckenridge
  3. LaCross or soccer game (spectator)
  4. Snowmobiling
  5. Go to a wine tasting
  6. Volunteer at a shelter
  7. Teach Children's Hospital kids to paint
  8. Go to a parade
  9. Visit a museum that I haven't visited
  10. Horse-drawn carriage
  11. Ride on a Harley
  12. Colorado winery tour
  13. Hay ride
  14. Needle felting class
  15. Read a book of poetry
  16. Visit a wildlife sanctuary
  17. Singing bowl - or gong healing
  18. DPL Fresh City Life class  Done!
  19. Participate in a flash mob
  20. WWF
  21. Vegas
  22. Cirque show
  23. tattoo
  24. Sing at Dazzle friday lunch
  25. Go to a show at Lannie's Clocktower
  26. Check out that hotdog place on Colfax
  27. Oktoberfest Done!

  28. Sleigh ride
  29. Corn maze
  30. Parade of Homes
  31. Give blood
  32. Coors brewery tour
  33. Cave of the Winds
  34. Butterfly Pavillion
  35. Aquarium
  36. Denver Mint tour
  37. Visit a wildlife sanctuary
  38. Chamberlin Observatory 
  39. ???

New things that I have done so far in my 45th year:

1. Dinner at Sweet Ginger
2. Took a Shamanic Journey
3. Drinks at the Front Porch
4. Karaoke at Benders
5. Lunch at Five Guys Burgers and Fries
6. Drinks at Jazz at Jacks
7. Dinner at Annie's  
8. Pretended to be married with kids to get away from a crystal salesman
9. Went to Oktoberfest
10. Took a Fresh City Life class at DPL
11. Happy Hour with Duggio
12. Tried the sweet potato fries at Smash Burger instead of the regular Smash Fries - that was a mistake. But at least I tried, eh?

Making Music from Machines, Trees or Whatever is Handy

This one falls under the "music" section of "art, music and other shiny objects"... or does it fall under the "art" section? While music itself is an art form, it's easier to recognize the art in some music rather than others. (Did I just say that??)

I found this NPR piece on Diego Stocco today through stumbleupon.com. (If you're not familiar with stumbleupon.com, I suggest you check it out. But fair warning: you may get sucked into a vortex of groovy, fascinating, funny or informative websites. It's pretty dangerous.)

In a nutshell, Diego Stocco makes music from things that you wouldn't normally think of as instruments; sand, trees... a dry cleaner. Oh - and he also cuts up traditional instruments and Frankenstiens them with others to make something entirely different. It's some cool stuff, I must say.

What really caught my interest was the dry cleaners music, because I like to listen the rhythms of machines; like my dishwasher, or even the tapping of fingers on a computer keyboard. (I do miss old fashioned typewriters: tap tap tap-tap-tap ding zip!)

Check out Music From a Dry Cleaner:
And... Music From a Bonsai:
You can check out the full NPR article here, including an interview with Stocco.

Where does the city meet Mother Nature? In art, of course!

"Chicago" Tabetha Landt Hastings 30"x40"

Sometimes I feel torn between my love for cities, and my love nature. Between the grandeur of tall buildings mixed with the urban vibe, and the serene beauty of the forest. My art tends to be either/or... I've got my nature paintings (which mainly tend to be trees) and my city buildings.

Well, a few days ago I decided to let those worlds collide. Partially because I got a new canvas in a size that I've never painted on before. It's long and narrow (I'm guessing it must be 48"x12"), and I'm finding that changing up the canvas size can really shake you out of a routine.

"Forest for the Trees" Tabetha Landt Hastings

My new painting is still in it's first stages, and therefore a bit camera shy. It's been trying to decide whether it was the city taking over nature, or nature reclaiming her ground. The struggle is in me of course, because I want them to coexist.

As luck would have it, I came across an artist today who combines city and nature so beautifully, that I just had to share. Also, I'm wild about her technique - she doesn't use paintbrushes, but instead she squeezes the paint out of bottles, and tips the canvas to get the paint where she wants it. Her name is Amy Shackleton, and you can check out her work here.

Below is a time lapse video of Amy in action. It's pretty amazing to watch! I finally noticed that there were words on the screen in my third time watching it!

The Prosperity Game: Day 3

I've been quite busy this week with First Friday prep, and have slacked off in the Prosperity Game. That is no good. I must say that I'm only consistent in my inconsistency. But I get there eventually.


For day three I've decided to get some bills paid off, after which I had $560 to spend. So I bought my mom a Kindle and some accessories ($193.98) a gift card so she can download books ($75) and a snappy pair of boots for me ($284.94.)

That left me with $6.08 to spend on lunch.

Tomorrow I'll work on spending $4,000. Man it's nice to dream, but this is getting to be work!