Amanda Vander Kelen

 I came back from my social media hiatus and posted a YouTube short that gained over 1.2k views. This is by far the most views I have had on my channel (by like, 1,000). I left YouTube alone since the post because I have been focusing on job applications and interviews. I did, however, do something I had been purposefully avoiding for years. I created my first TikTok account. I have said ad nauseam that that I have never seen a "TikTok" and all it references for me is that Ke$ha song and Return To Oz with Fairuza Balk. I can no longer say this. I am officially part of the TikTok world, and honestly, I am kind of loving it. I have found BookTok, which is a really perfect way to advertise my book, once it is ready to publish. I have already reached out to a few book reviews in my genre that said they would read my book once it is out and post a TikTok review. I literally just found free advertising for my book, and its not even finished yet. Obviously, I am pretty confident in ...

 It has been a while since my last post, and a lot has been happening. Some of it has been good, and some of it has been difficult. I have been doing a lot of writing lately, and I am in the fairly early stages of writing my first fiction novel. I think the audience for this is young adult, but it could also turn out to be a children's story. Since starting this blog, I have realized that my love of creative writing is growing, and I wanted to do something with this. The majority of my writing has been academic over the last decade, so this new genre really hits my artistic spark. What I have come to notice while putting this together is that it is so different from academic writing. I hadn't realized how different it actually was until I sat down and began to write. The mindset when sitting down to put words onto paper is the right/left brain distinction. I had the wonderful opportunity to begin discussing this process with a librarian, who has been so helpful in my process. I...

 I have been out of work for about two months now, and I have been resting my knee for about 3-4 weeks after I managed to pull one hell of a sprain. Ouch. Still. However, I am coming out of the physical pain and wondering what to do next as I practice patience, and do my best not to push my body too hard and re-injure.  A summer or two ago I was starting to design furniture. Just thoughts, really. How things could look, how to put them together, etc. My great-grandfather owned a furniture company downtown and I am seriously considering what it would take for me to take this over and start to create my own designs. Perhaps it could be a joint-family effort, where we all own it and I have my own line of furniture. These are preliminary working thoughts.  Next comes the designing part. And I can only do so much 'planning' without ever working with the materials.  This. is. going. to. be. awesome. Mindfully, ~Amanda ___________________________________ Amanda Vander Kelen...

 Tell me a story  Tell me a story of a time long ago.  Tell me a story about where flies the crow. Tell me a tale of days since past Tell me a tale of a life in fast lanes and lines of order and grace to hide the chaos that comes from running with fate A history unwritten, a life never ends as the patterns produce  a means to an end. ___________________________________ Amanda Vander Kelen, MA is a geographer/GIS Specialist and now blogger. She creates a work/life balance by using her creativity in both making maps and writing blogs. Taking a mindful approach to life, she hopes you can utilize her writing to help create a peaceful space of your own. To show support for this blog, would you consider donating?  Donate here.

 The year is coming to a close, and I have so many things to gush about. I have been running around a lot lately, and noticed I was starting to stray from retaining my mindful strategy. I had a wonderful and gentle reminder of this from a good friend of mine (thank you, Nancy) and it was just enough to bring me back to center and continue to do things from a place of being mindful. For instance, I have been crafting my own stretch routine to get my body back in dance mode. I have not danced consistently for about ten years now, so this is a big deal for my now 36 year old body. I used to take and teach dance class 5/6 days a week at the height of my dancing. It is such a special piece of who I am and how I walk through this world, I never thought I would have stopped for so long. But, other career things were happening and there just finally came a pointe where I had to give it up in my schedule for a while. But now, my career is progressing, graduate school is over, and I can star...

 If you have been following along my blog updates, I have recently started a brand new schedule filled with so many good-for-my-soul things. All of these things are really fulfilling, so I can honestly say I enjoy that a lot of my time is otherwise occupied. I posted a new YouTube short of some snippets of my friend Julie and I getting together over the weekend. So normal - just my friend and I hanging out and catching up. It was one of those gal-pal afternoons. I hennaed my hair again this weekend as well, and this batch turned out especially well. I added a key ingredient I didn't have the last time - essential oil. It literally is essential to this process. Managed to get a fair stain on my hands, which you can see if you go on over to my Instagram where I am proudly showing off my mehndi hands and hair. So no, I did not go to a Middle Eastern wedding - that's all from my hair process. I think giving it the title Mandie's Mehndi is catchy. I dig it.  I was able to film ...