Insights

I'm such a blogging failure right now. I suppose I've been waiting until I had something interesting to blog about, like new art to show or exciting events in my life to report. Since nothing like that is going on, there has been no blogging! Also, I'm mainly using my laptop now, since my desktop has become extremely slow for some reason I've not been able to determine. Almost all of my art scans are on my desktop, so no quick access to any of those pics.

Actually, I have worked on the collage series I'm doing for Thomas. Previously I posted about the turtle picture and have now finished the one of a cute little spotted elephant. Now there just remains the alligator collage and I'll be done with those. Will try to post a photo of the elephant collage soon. Maybe I'll have all of them done by then anyway.

As for life, the new job is going much better. I'm about to get over the learning curve part, so the stress level is going down. Since this is such a new company, improvements and additions to the testing process are constant so there will not be a time for awhile, I don't think, where I can totally relax, but at least the main initial stress of learning an almost totally new set of job skills is over. I'm not finding the 1 hour drive to be as bad as I worried it might be, partly due to the fact that I'm carpooling a week at a time with a friend and coworker.

We did get to keep Thomas last weekend from Friday night until Sunday afternoon. I had to work on Saturday, so Kerry had him by himself most of the day. He did go to his Mom's for a visit, but other than that cared for Thomas, including feedng him lunch and changing diapers! We stayed on the go almost the entire time, taking Thomas to see Mom on Saturday evening and then taking Thomas to church with us on Sunday morning before having to drive back to meet Emily and Craig in Birmingham to give Thomas back. It was fun to get to see how he interacts with the world now and how he is changing. I could go into great detail with all that, as a grandmother, but I'll spare you all!

Tomorrow starts the OWOH giveway that I've participated in the last couple of years. I've been trying to decide whether to do it again this year. Obviously if I do enter it I will be late, but we'll see if I can get a prize together. I feel guilty entering to win prizes, if I don't offer one myself. I enjoy giving something away as much as I do having a chance to win. I really need to finish Thomas' pictures and then I have a fabric cuff swap to do for my dear friend, Beth. Also a 3/3 atc swap to finish(almost done with that) and then a deco book to work in. Besides those obligations, I want to start playing around in the art room again. I'll be trying to get my act together for the OWOH event, but check it out anyway. Lots of wonderful blogs and art to discover out there.

There are so many things I want to try. I want to get back into journaling again. That is so rewarding, but I've gotten away from making time for it. I look back on some of the pages I've done and read things I've written and never regret them, just regret not doing it more. Sometimes there are entries about life struggles and I can now see how God led me through them. Other times my writings will be about my thought processes or observations regarding my life. When rereading what I've written I am often surprised at my insight or what I wrote about my feelings. I'll think, "wow, did I write that?". Not that I'm a great writer or anything, far from it, but when you write from the heart without holding back, it can be amazing to see what comes out even from an ordinary person like me. That is the way art is too for me. When I just make art from the heart without overthinking it too much, these pieces often turn out to be my favorites. I send a lot of my art out into the world to others, since they will be for swaps that I've signed up for, so it's no longer here for me to see, but I usually scan or take pics. I'll look back at them, be amazed, and wonder where it came from. My point being, especially with journaling, that you should try to take the time for it. Write, draw, collage, or whatever you want to do from the your heart and you won't regret it.

My Mom has taken the time to journal throughout the years. Often she is just recording daily events. She collected some of her early journal entries and presented them to us several years ago for Christmas, These chronicle our early years with tidbits about what we were up to as little kids, how much Christmas from "Santa" cost and what we received, what was going in in our family life, etc. I took this out right after Christmas this year to read. I can see as time goes by, how much it means to have these memories to look over. My Mom's father was a very meticulous recorder of where his pennies went. He was a German born immigrant, coming to America with his family when he was just a little boy around 1900. His journal entries of the family's spending include side notes about floods, sicknesses, births, and in and of themselves a fascinating picture of how my Mother and her family were raised during often very hard times on a farm in the South. So even if your style of journaling is just to record what is going on in your life, these examples from my family show me that this will not be time wasted either.

Maybe I'm saying all this to remind MYSELF of how important a journal can be for various reasons so that I WILL get back into this valuable habit again.

Christmas shots around our house 2009

As I get all the Christmas taken down and put away, here are a few shots of what little Christmas decorating was done around here. Above, Tiny Tim was the only tree that got decorated since he's so small and I hated to not have a tree up at all. The Wooly Mammoth(Kerry's 9 ft tree that he insisted on) was gotten out of the box and set up because I had told Kerry I refused to do it all alone. Alas, Kerry never volunteered to assist me in getting lights on this monstrosity so all it has on it right now are the 2 cute ornaments Holly made and gave us for Christmas. I really must go take a pic of that to record it for posterity as it is a very sad sight indeed. A huge, flocked beautiful tree sitting unadorned, no lights, except for those 2 ornaments. There was so little free time left in the weeks before Christmas, that I was hard-pressed to get my shopping done, much less decorate. Had to work late several nights and then there just always seemed to be other engagements on the other evenings and off days.


Above and below are the spots above my kitchen cabinets. I decided to decorate these this time, since I finally had gotten the tin ceiling varnished, although please excuse the spots on the wall. I'm not through with the wall treatments and will be covering these up with either trim and/or wallpaper border or repainting. Used the white and green pottery pieces that I have with a little red thrown it. Fronted that with some of the vintage Christmas pieces I've acquired over the years. The Christmas stuff will be coming down as well as the green and then I think I'm going to mix back in some pink for Valentine's day. This is the first year I've tried doing this, so not sure how I'll like it or if I will find it too time-consuming to fool with.




The mantel I've propped up in the dining room got a few quick vintage Christmas items to brighten it up and then I set up a tablescape of houses and Christmas trees. This is the entry room of the house and where Tiny Tim is also. Those are the 2 shots below.



And then best of all, a picture of my favorite little guy:


For those with whom I'm friends on Facebook, my apologies since you've already seen this picture. Emily took it earlier this week so that I could see what his hair looks like first thing in the morning. He has a section across the top that never came out and is longer than all the rest of the peach fuzz covering his head. It's one of my favorite shots of him so far(hhhmm, wonder how many times I'll say that!?!) so I'm going to post it again here. He has the sweetest expression on his face, although I know I am a totally prejudiced grandmother.