Kate Heyhoe - Five More Minutes With

Five More Minutes With Goes Inside My Skull for Halloween and Dia de los Muertos

Written by Braiden Rex-Johnson on October 28, 2013

In honor of Halloween on October 31, and Dia de los Muertos, which spans October 31 to All Saint’s Day on November 2, this week Five More Minutes With once again highlights our long-time friend and talented colleague, Kate Heyhoe.

The very first contributor to the Five More Minutes With website, Kate Heyhoe makes sugar skulls very much in the Dia de los Muertos zeitgeist.

Recently, she posted a YouTube video.

The video features not only her and her skulls, but her cat, Tamale.

It’s a fascinating peek into Kate’s fantasy world, which I highly endorse since I was one of the very first people to commission one of Kate’s full-size skulls (see my gorgeous, girly skull, above).

Won’t you consider working with Kate to go inside your own skull by creating your very own, custom-designed sugar skull?

More stories from: Featured Story,With Myself,With You

Comments and Praise

Be Amazing, Inspiring, and Pivot!

Written by Braiden Rex-Johnson

My long-time literary agent and friend, Lisa Ekus, is a woman of amazing talents, with a super-warm and generous heart and an always-upbeat attitude.

Way back in January of 2011, she sent along an email that I found particularly interesting, so much so that I’ve saved it all these years.

With a subject line of “Pursue Possibilities,” Lisa’s email urged me and other clients to BE AMAZING!

Here is the body of the email:

*Excuses bring an overall sense of being a victim:

*I don’t have time to work out (I am victim of my schedule, my family, my boss).

*I don’t have anyone to go with (I am victim of my singleness or my spouse’s schedule).

*Blaming others or a situation for how you feel and what is happening may make you feel “right,” but it isn’t going to make you feel better. When we take the role of victim, we take on an attitude of defeat and powerlessness without realizing it.

*Blaming makes us feel right when often we are not…there are few situations where we do not have some responsibility for the outcome, even if it is an outcome we did not want. The sooner we own our part in a negative situation, the sooner we are released from its negative hold (resentment, bitterness, blame) and can move on to the life and business we want.

*Blaming without owning your contributions to a negative situation can make you feel “right,” but it robs you of self-esteem and creativity. Don’t sacrifice the life you want in order to be “right.”

*You cannot hold on to a negative past situation and pursue all positive possibilities available to you.

*As you turn the negatives into neutrals, you will experience a new peace and world of possibilities!

*When you blame others, you give up your power to change.

-Dr. Robert Anthony

To conclude, Lisa urged us to have a FUN and PRODUCTIVE day!

***

I responded to Lisa’s email with the following:

In addition to “being amazing,” I also try to be “INSPIRING”. . .my new word for 2011.

***

Lisa’s client and our mutual dear friend, Kate Heyhoe, a prolific writer and artist who submitted the very first story, Alma’s Grace and Style, for this website, chimed in with yet another angle to the “Pursue Possibilities” theme:

I would add an action I try to take: PIVOT.

Pivot out of the situation or mood or situation that’s not working. Don’t think about it, just turn on your heels, pivot and mentally move in a different direction. Done. Onward…towards the amazing and inspiring.

***

Are you PURSUING POSSIBILITIES in your own life, being AMAZING and INSPIRING?

When things aren’t going your way, do you have the courage to PIVOT and move on?

Comments and Praise

Alma’s Grace and Style

Written by Kate Heyhoe on October 10, 2011

This was the very first story ever published on the Five More Minutes With website, written by my friend and fellow cookbook author and food writer (turned artist), Kate Heyhoe.

To the Momster!

I’ve only got 5 minutes, so I’ve got to talk fast: You already know, I hope, how much I love you. Thank you for being my best friend and such an extraordinary person. You really got the fact that in this life, love means everything.

Dying doesn’t look easy. We were amazed how such a tiny person could last a full seven days and nights without food or water. But then again, you were never less than super-hero strong in character. Still, it wasn’t until both your children were in your room at the same time did you finally release and let go. We believe you were waiting for that very moment, with each of us holding your beautiful hands, to remind us to go on together as family. Your last breath was your exclamation mark.

I wish I had known better how to tell what your thrashing really meant, whether you were in agony or just seeing something that the living can’t. Were those “Oh, mama!” moans of extreme pain, or expressions of awe and wonder as you touched the next plane of consciousness?

The hospice nurses explained what each drug did, but they didn’t really prepare me for the rest of the details, the ones that drugs can’t fix. I figured it was okay to ramp up the morphine. But comforting a person transitioning through death just doesn’t seem to work the same way as cozying a person with a cold or the flu. Wish I could have done better. And I’m sorry we encouraged you to try cancer treatments; they bought a couple of years, but you may have been happier without them.

I think about you every day, and try to make those thoughts of joy now, rather than sorrow. Not always successful; I miss you so much. You are my muse, and as I work at your old oak drawing table, I feel your presence. You were and still are so inspiring, something I wish I had told you more often. And you were such a good person, going out of your way to bring a smile to everyone’s day just through a little comment or action. I think you were scared going into death, but I hope you’ve found a bright new phase of being, plump with joy and peace and all things good.

Until we play together again…
Lovey doveys,
Kate

Comments and Praise

Let’s Go Inside My Skull

Written by Braiden on September 30, 2010

Kate Heyhoe, the very first person who contributed a story to Five More Minutes With, is a talented food writer and a dear personal friend. In the past several months, disillusioned by the state of publishing (as so many of us old timers who’ve published books, started Web sites, and written newspaper and magazine articles for a living are), she’s trying her hand at an entirely new career.

At her studio in the woods of the Hill Country outside of Austin, Texas, she crafts “Dreams of the Dead” skulls–miniature to full-size skulls spun from sugar–and sells them on her Web site. The site is glorious, complete with a slide show of the skulls available for purchase from $20 to $300 depending on size and complexity.

Kate and I stay in touch, and she reports her new business is doing quite well.

In fact, a few weeks ago, she e-mailed to tell me, “I’ve already got two galleries in Austin that have agreed to sell my skulls. One of them is the Mexic-Arte Museum, the other Authenticity Gallery. Please revisit InsideMySkull.com to see the newest skulls. Some are near human-size nightlights.”

In mid-September, she e-mailed, “Authenticity Gallery sold my first skull today — it was a mini, but any sale validates my work.”

Kate and I still marvel, and chuckle, that it took the crisis in the publishing world to push us both simultaneously toward new and, in some ways similar, creative career paths.

Congrats, Kate, and brava!

Kate Heyhoe makes sugar skulls of all sizes–from mini to human-size nightlights