Author: handicraftsowl

My Dream Job

We all have our own definition of what a dream job is. For some, it’s making gobs of money, for others, it’s being famous, and for others still, it’s about doing something meaningful. My dream job is doing something that is meaningful and fulfilling to me that brings joy to others, and if I can do all that while making gobs of money, all the better!

For me, that job is HootOwl Handicrafts. I am still working full-time for the Veterans Administration, so handicrafting is more like a hobby right now, but I will be retiring from my federal job in the near future and want to make HootOwl Handicrafts my full-time career. I want to create all kinds of things that others will enjoy, and also share my tips and techniques with others, either on this blog, or teaching in-person classes.

Besides handicrafting and creating art, I love to teach others to create. According to TollFreeForwarding.com, being a teacher and an artist are in the top ten of dream jobs. I would be combining two of the Top 10! So far, I have taught people to crochet, paint pictures, and to sew. I really enjoy teaching others, and love to see their faces when they realize that they are now artists or handicrafters, too.

During my long career with the VA, I have seen what our returning heroes go through as they try to readjust to civilian life. They are often dealing with disabilities, either mental or physical (and sometimes both), and veterans make up about 11% of our homeless population. It is my passion to help where I can, and as a veteran who comes from a long line of veterans, that is where I will be placing my focus. I will also be making art or handicrafting items that will benefit charitable causes. I will either be donating a percentage of the proceeds from certain items, or will be donating useful items, such as quilts, blanket rolls, hats, gloves, etc., directly to veteran organizations.

Creating beautiful and useful things makes me happy, and I plan to be doing much more of it in the very near future!

Jobs I Have Done

I have worked just about my entire adult life minus three short years that I was married and was able to be a stay at home mom.  The rest of the time, I have been a single working mom, and now a single working grandma.

US Navy – Data Systems Technician (AKA IT Tech)

AAA Travel – Travel Agent

Irving Oil Corporation – Human Resources Specialist

Federation of State Medical Boards – Credentials Specialist

For the Veterans Health Administration at several VA Hospitals – Medical Clerk, Medical Eligibility Advisor, Human Resources Assistant, and Advanced Medical Support Assistant (13 years total)

For the Veterans Benefits Administration at the VA Regional Office – Veterans Service Representative (7 years and counting)

Founder and CEO of HootOwl Handicrafts

Dream Vacation

My dream vacation would be a Grand Tour of Europe. I want to spend at least a month and visit all the iconic monuments and landmarks. The Eiffel Tower, Big Ben, the Colosseum, the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

I also would like to visit all the famous castles and chateaux in Europe. I spent a summer in France while I was in college and was able to visit several of the chateaux in the Loire River Valley and they are amazing! I would love to see castles in other countries as well, but I especially want to visit Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria and Versailles in France.

Most importantly, I want to visit the countries where my ancestors came from, including England, Ireland, Scotland, and France. I would like to visit the cities where they lived and maybe visit where they are buried. I know there is a plaque honoring one of my ancestors in La Poterie, France. Nicolas Paquin in one of the early French pioneers to travel to New France and is the ancestor to virtually all Paquins in North America.

Places I Have Lived

As I said on Day 3, I was born and raised in California but have lived in a total of 8 states and 2 foreign countries.  The other states I have lived in are Arizona, Maine, North Carolina, Oregon, Virginia, Texas, and Washington.  I have also lived in France and Germany.

What I didn’t say is why I moved around so much. I guess I come from a family of rolling stones. My parents met in the military, and after they were both discharged, they moved to San Bernardino, California. I was born in Riverside, but by the time my brother was born, only 2 years later, we had moved to Vancouver, Washington. We stayed there awhile, but due to my father’s lung condition, the wet weather forced us to move to Phoenix, Arizona where my younger sister was later born.

It wasn’t too long before we moved back to California. My father was then involved in a motorcycle accident and passed away there. My mom remarried a couple years later, but then she and my step-father were in a car accident that killed both of them. My grandmother became our guardian and we moved to Oregon with her, where we lived until I graduated from high school and got married.

My husband joined the Army shortly after we got married. He went to AIT (Advanced Individual Training) at Fort Eustis, Virginia, where he trained to repair Apache Helicopters. Our son was born while he was stationed there. Next, he was transferred to Germany, and after a short stay in Oregon, we joined him there.

After my divorce, I went back to Oregon for a while and then I joined the Navy. I was stationed in California for a couple years and had my daughter there before being transferred to the Emory S. Land in Norfolk, Virginia. It’s a sub-tender that rarely left the pier while I was on it. “Join the Navy, See the World”, my foot. Our ship was literally stuck in the mud every low tide.

After I was discharged, I went to travel school and moved to Raleigh, North Carolina to be a travel agent. A couple years later, my daughter’s grandpa convinced me to move to Bangor, Maine, where I live for about 3 years. I hated the cold, and we moved back to Oregon again, and I decided to work on my degree. This is when I went to France, and I lived there for a summer while in a language immersion program. While going to college, I did work-study at a VA healthcare facility and eventually left school when I got hired there full-time. My ex was also in Southern Oregon, trying to wreak havoc on my life, and my sister talked me into moving near her in North Texas where I continued to work for the VA. After putting up with Texas heat and humidity for 11 years, I was able to transfer to another VA Hospital back in California again.

I have been working for the VA for over 20 years now. I have enough federal service to qualify for retirement, but I’m not quite old enough yet. My kids are grown and I have one grandson, who was born here in California. I have been doing art and handicrafting for a long time and it is something that I love to do. I am currently building Hootowl Handicrafts into my full-time job and working on gathering some long awaited moss.

My Favorite Quote and What it Means to Me

We are the sum total of all our experiences, good and bad. Every experience that we’ve had has shaped us into the person that we are. Every decision we make sends us down a different path and towards different experiences.

As I look back through time, I also realized that every decision my ancestors made lead to my very existence. If just one of them had made a different decision, or had not had a particular experience, I would not even be here. One of my ancestors is the second wife of a widower. What if his first wife hadn’t died? He would never have married his second wife and I would not be here. Nor would all the children born from that marriage, and their descendants. This is mind boggling! You could seriously go crazy thinking of every decision you’ve made and wondering, “What if…”

Of course, I don’t love everything that I’ve done or that has happened to me, but I like who I am. I am not perfect, but I’m a good, caring, compassionate person. I make mistakes, but I strive to learn from them and not make too many of them. I love me for me.

My Hobbies

As you may know, I love to create things, but that’s not all I do. Below are a few of my favorite hobbies and past times.

GENEALOGY – My parents had both passed away by the time I was ten, and they had not been very close to their extended family. As I got older and started my own family, it became more important to me to learn more about my own roots. When I started researching my family tree, I only knew the names of my parents, my paternal grandparents, two sets of aunts and uncles, and 5 total cousins. It took me over 20 years (and counting), but my tree now has over 2500 people in it. Obviously not all of them are direct ancestors, but researching the collateral lines can often help you break through brick walls.

But I don’t do genealogy to just collect the names and dates. Through my research, I have found Pioneers and Patriots, Carpenters and Quakers, Fishermen and Farmers, Shoemakers and Barrel Makers, and even a Salem Witch! This is what makes it your Family History and really fleshes out your family tree. I am fascinated by any stories I am able to find out about how my ancestors lived.

KARAOKE – I am definitely not Mariah Carey and will never be on American Idol. But I do love to sing Karaoke. I even have my own karaoke machine and quite a few karaoke cd’s, though it is just as easy to pull up the karaoke videos on YouTube on my Smart-TV and sing along.

I’m an eighties girl, so most of the songs I sing are from that decade, but I sing some country, too. Some of the songs I like to sing are: You Keep Me Hangin’ On by Kim Wilde, Metro by Berlin, White Flag by Dido, Don’t Know Why by Norah Jones, Everytime by Britney Spears, Addicted by Kelly Clarkson, and even some country songs with When You Say Nothing at All by Alison Krauss, Take Me As I Am by Faith Hill, and No One Needs to Know by Shania Twain.

STUFFED TOYS – I have a young grandson and I love to make him stuffed toys. I made him a rag doll that he named Jack, and I made clothing and a sleeping bag for him. Jack has brown hair and blue eyes like his “daddy”. I made a stuffed alien named Axel, and I also made a doll for my friend’s little girl that she named Betty.

EXERCISE MY BRAIN – Another hobby I have is exercising my brain. I love to learn new things and am a voracious reader. I also watch educational shows and take classes outside of college. One way to prevent cognitive decline as we age is to use our brains. I like to do cross-word puzzles, play games, and solve mysteries. And I am also studying French to increase my fluency as I prepare for my trip to the Olympic Games in France in 2024.

My Talents

A talent is just a natural aptitude or skill.  Everyone has a talent.  That does not mean we are all Einstein, Michelangelo, Edison, or Oprah.  We don’t have to be a child prodigy or wunderkind.  We are all good at something, even if we don’t find out about it until later in life.  Laura Ingalls Wilder was 65 when she first published Little House in the Big Woods.  Henry Ford was 45 when he created the Model T.  Vera Wang didn’t design her first dress until she was 40.  And the famous Grandma Moses began her painting career at 78.

If you’ve read some of my other posts, you will know that I am a creative geek.  I’m kind of a Jill of All Trades.  I was a computer programmer and technician, and I play clarinet and ukulele.  My passion, though, is creating things with my hands.  I remember making my first clay sculpture in 3^rd grade and I was hooked.  It was a little monster that was basically a pinch pot bowl turned upside-down with feet glued on and beady little eyes.  In 7^th grade, I took woodshop and made the obligatory cutting board, but I also made a 3-tiered plant stand, and a planter box shaped like a reindeer.  All throughout junior high and high school, I took whatever arts and crafts related classes they had. 

After I got out of the Navy, I worked for a while in a craft store.  I didn’t make much money, so I couldn’t afford to buy lots of supplies, but I worked out a deal with the owner to make display samples.  He would provide all the supplies and then he got to display in his store whatever I made.  This way I got my craft fix and it didn’t cost me a thing.  I didn’t get to keep the things I made, but I got to see them every day at the store.  My favorite was a dream catcher that I made from this huge grapevine wreath.  It was as big as a hula hoop!  I also took my first oil painting class.  It was from a Bob Ross trained instructor and was held at the YMCA.

Later, I went back to college to get my BFA in Art with the intention of teaching art.  I took sculpting, basket weaving, graphic design and painting.  Once I started working for the VA, I continued taking classes at Joanne’s or Michaels.  I even went to several of those Painting with a Twist classes and took a class on jewelry making. 

Confucius said, “Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life.”  I love making art and handicrafts.  Once I retire from the VA, I will be taking my part-time business and making it my full-time life.

My Bucket List

Well, there are lots of things I would like to do, places I’d like to visit, but this list is a start.  It is in no particular order. And I think they are realistic things that I could actually see myself checking off this list.

1 – Finish my Bachelor’s Degree in Innovation and Leadership.  I am currently a senior at Southern Oregon University, but I work full-time and so I am only taking one class at a time, so at this rate, I should graduate in 2022.

2 – Pay off my house.  I am in the process of refinancing my house, and my lender tells me that if I continue to make the same payments that I do now, I will have my house paid off in 12 years, instead of the full 30 years.

3 – Complete the documentation for membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution.  The DAR is a lineage-based service organization for women who are directly descended from a person involved in the United States’ efforts towards independence.  It was founded in 1890 and is dedicated to promoting historic preservation, education, and patriotism.  I have 3 known ancestors that served in the American Revolution and I need to get the documented proof that at least one of them is my ancestor.  This includes Birth, Marriage, and Death Certificates showing the line of descent.

4 – Attend the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. 

5 – Fly in a hot air balloon over Napa Valley. 

6 – Take a helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon. 

7 – Swim with the manatees.

8 – Take a gondola ride in Venice. 

9 – Visit the Colosseum in Rome. 

10 – Watch every Pixar movie with my grandson.

11 – Write in a journal every day for a year.  It might be an art journal, a smash book, or just writing from my journal jar prompts.

12 – Write my memoirs.  The title I have chosen is, “Memoirs of a Should-Be Madwoman”.  I have overcome some tragedies in my life and sometimes wonder why I haven’t gone stark-raving mad.

An Accomplishment I am Proud of

I studied French for a year in 11th grade and fell in love with the language. I didn’t even know at the time that I am of French descent. I took a national French test, Le Grand Concours, and scored 7th in the nation!! I was so proud of myself.

Then, in the Fall Term of my Freshman Year at Oregon State University, I took French again, but it was basically a review of the year of high school French I had already taken. I didn’t study French again for 11 years. In 1996, I had the chance to study abroad during the summer between my Sophomore and Junior years at Southern Oregon University. I went to CIDEF in Angers, France for a two-month immersion program. You take a placement test first and I couldn’t believe I placed in the second year! I didn’t even finish my first year at the college level, and I had not studied French for 11 years!!

How did I do it, you might ask? Well, to get prepared, I went to the library and checked out all the travel cassettes and videos they had in French. I also checked out any children’s books and music they had that were in French. Children learn language by singing all those silly songs, like “Alouette” and “Frère Jacques”, so I thought it was worth a shot. It really improved my listening comprehension and helped refresh my memory before I left.

Within about 2 weeks of immersion, I was starting to think and even dream in French! One time, when I called home, I spoke to my Mom in French without even realizing it. By the time the summer was over, I had completed the equivalent of my whole second year of French, and got Straight A’s to boot.

But the best part was when I went shopping in downtown Angers and the store clerk that was helping me mistook me for a native! I am a talker, and I had been just jabbering away with him for a good fifteen minutes when I must have made some kind of gaffe. Up until that point, he told me, he assumed that I lived in Angers. That, I think, really is an accomplishment to be proud of.

My Earliest Memory

When I was little, about 5 years old, my brother and I had one of those little inflatable pools.  Well, they are not the sturdiest things to start with, so it eventually got a hole in it and sprung a leak. We were living in Phoenix, Arizona at the time, and it gets as hot as Satan’s armpit there in the summer. 

In our front yard, we had this huge agave plant and on the tip of their very long leaves is a needle.  My mom was very crafty and I had seen her sew things dozens of times, so I got the bright idea that I could fix the hole in our pool by sewing it with that agave needle.  My mom came out and asked what the heck I thought I was doing and I told her I was trying to sew up the hole.  She just about died laughing.  Needless to say, it didn’t work, and we were stuck running in the sprinkler after that.