Women Who Take the Cake

Good morning, Highlowaha!

A special thanks to our Cruise Director who took the time yesterday to share a story about her Aunt Cynthia. Following the post yesterday, in the comment section, some of you began to share stories of women in your life who had a tremendous impact on you. Today we want to hear from more of you about these women! We want to hear about the woman who you feel "takes the cake"....

Introducing the "Woman Who Takes the Cake" Award

This is a new award here at Highlowaha that we are introducing as part of Women's History month. In the same way that we will be using Wednesdays to introduce each of you to a woman who has creative impact on our lives, we'd like you to take this opportunity to introduce us to a woman in your life. This woman can be anyone who you feel has impacted you in such a way that you have benefited from your relationship with them. This impact can be evident in a number of aspects: a neighbor who organizes community watch program, the woman from church who organizes the weekly trip to the soup kitchen, the friend who does a great job of balancing the roles of mom and a working woman, and many other examples of women you interact with each day. The important part is that you feel she "takes the cake" in whatever it is that you admire about her!

Here are the specific details that you need to know:

• Choose a woman whom you would like to honor for "taking the cake"
  
• Email a 200 word or less nomination of this woman including a photograph and the reasons you feel she "takes the cake" to highlowaha218@gmail.com
• Submit this nomination by Wednesday, March 18 at 5 pm
  
• Then, we will choose the top 3 women that we feel "take the cake" based on your nominations
• On Friday, March 20, we will post the photos and nominations of the 3 women. At this time, the Highlowaha community will vote and choose the winner of the first annual Woman Who Takes the Cake Award.
• The woman chosen by our community as the winner of this award will have a cake delivered to her as recognition of the impact she is making in the lives of others.
  

We look forward to hearing from many of you about the important women who have impacted your lives!

Announcement:

Recipe Book: Thanks to Tera's generosity with her time we are pulling together the first highlowaha cookbook, but we need your help. Please send Tera all of your fabulous creative recipes for inclusion. The deadline to submit is March 18 so we have time to roll out for Mother's Day. Send them to Tera Johnson 2590 N. Moreland, Apt E22, Shaker Heights, OH, 44120 or email it to Tera at tmichalski05@jcu.edu.

Signing off until tomorrow...

Wednesday's Creative Women Who Inspire Us

Say that three times really fast!

Since you've been through orientation now, I bet you were thinking you were going to be tuning into Wacky Wednesday and whacking a cool idea today. Oh! But wait, the team throws you a curve ball and for March where each Wednesday will be used to tell you about a woman who has influenced us creatively. I immediately began pondering the women in my past and current life. I thought about it in the shower, while I was driving and while doing the dishes. I wrote a piece about a girl who influenced me but I decided it didn’t fit the Highlowaha spirit and it wasn't that she inspired me creatively as much as she just inspired me. So, I pondered some more, shifted gears and today I am proud to tell you about my aunt, Cynthia.

Cynthia is a Speech Pathologist, wife to Richard, mother to Kimberly and new grandmother to Tyrian. She’s great with kids. They know their boundaries with her. She’s all about having fun but she doesn’t take any attitude. She says what she means and means what she says. She always has a fun alternative to offer without caving into a complaining child. I have never seen her nerves ruffled by a child. She is someone to model after, for sure. She recognizes peoples strengths and encourages them to work at them.

Cynthia is the social butterfly of my mom’s family. The glue. She calls each of her siblings every weekend to make sure everyone is doing well. I think they even have a conference call now so all 6 of them can chat at once. She also coordinates our annual family reunion in Wimberley, Texas where my family gathers to enjoy the river, play games, catch up and just work on any project that does not include TV or Internet.

At one of the annual family reunions, I was drawing with pencils and some graphic markers. Actually, I was drawing my fish lips! I was complaining about how the markers dried up quickly. She told me about Tria Letraset pens. They have 3 tips verses the two tips I had on my markers and are able to be refilled. They are what I use today to draw Ray. They're not cheap but if you are looking for a good pen, Letraset is the way to go. You don't have to toss them, you just refill them. You can find them online or at your favorite art supply store. I stress art store because your local Michael's or Hobby Lobby probably will not carry them.

She is a member of a stamping group and she makes the cutest greeting cards ever. She was busy getting ready for her daughters baby shower this year so the boys didn’t get a custom made card for their birthdays and it didn’t go unnoticed but we understand. They're the cards I don't throw away. Who am I kidding. I don't throw away a lot of cards but hers definitely do not go near the trash pile. Last week, one of her stamping buddies held a class on a topic called Zentangles and Cynthia sent me some links along with this youtube video.

Pretty cool, huh?

My memory isn’t what it used to be but it seemed like she always had some craft project going whether it was the rug hooking or cross stitching. Per my request, she made me this cross stitch piece when I graduated with my Bachelors of Art degree in Art. It will eventually find a place of honor when I get my junk room organized into my art studio because I need the reminder!

I love that she is technologically savvy. She’s always trying out the newest gadgets. Do you remember way back in the 80’s when Apple first introduce the personal Mac. She had one and she wasn't afraid to let the kids play with it showing us how to use the paint software and such. Technology has come a long way since then, right? When the iPhone came out, she got one. And she knows how to use it, too. She's always pulling something up on the Internet or showing someone else how to use the camera feature on their own phone. I was thinking I HAD to have one so I could blog from anywhere but realized right away that typing a whole blog on it was not going to be an easy task and I saved my money. She also has the Flip camera though I haven’t seen any movies from it.

So you can see why I chose my Aunt Cynthia as a creative influence on my life. It's her knowledge of new and fun products and tips and her willingness to share them with me and others that is so much fun. Her infectious laugh doesn't hurt either.

Here's my attempt at Zentangles. I didn't get to finish because I have that whole fitness contest going on right now so I ran out of time. I think anyone can do this. Maybe even you!

Signing off until tomorrow...