Last Post of the Year

So I had to get one last post in before 2010 is officially over. So 2010 has been a tough year. I spent the first part of the year in a fog. Dealing with the loss of a loved one consumes you and your every waking thought. It was hard coming to terms with the loss of my mother. I had to go through the holidays and birthdays without her. There were times I honestly wasn't sure how in the world I was going to survive it all. I also felt like my whole world had changed and I felt so out of place. It's hard to describe grief to someone that hasn't ever gone through it themselves.

I actually just moments ago finished reading the book "My Sister's Keeper". I was warned by Cassie that it is a tear-jerker. I thought I was doing so good until the end where everything changed and I almost felt blindsided. So I inevitably had a good cry over it. There is one part that in the book that talks about grief that I love how they phrase it...


"See, as much as you want to hold on to the bitter sore memory that someone has left this world, you are still in it. And the very act of living is a tide; at first it seems to make no difference at all, and then one day you look down and see how much pain has eroded."


I was so consumed in grief and felt like I would never start to heal. Then one day I came to the realization that I was finally living life again. I had switched out of survival mode back into living. It's almost like I was so consumed with the overwhelming grief, that I did not realize that I had slowly been starting to heal. This is a quote that I just love and had hanging in my cubicle at work for a long time...

"You don't think you'll live past it and you don't really. The person you were is gone. But the half of you that's still alive wakes up one day and takes over again. -Barbara Kingsolver

Anyways... I have high hopes that I will do more living in 2011. I have a lot of neat opportunities that I will be participating in, ranging from my car restoration to some volunteer work. I am so grateful that I have my family for support, and I am really looking forward to the new adventures I am about to embark in. So even though last year I didn't want to say it because I was angry about New Years... this year I will say it and mean it... Happy New Years everyone!!

The last rock

So I finished the rock I did for Mike for Christmas... so I gave it to him early. I more or less didn't feel like trying to wrap it... so I figure giving it to him early wouldn't be a big deal. So I had a really hard time getting a good picture. The camera was determined it would not get a good picture. The white part of it is way too bright in the picture, but oh well. I am glad to be done with my rock projects now. I enjoyed the painting, but it was kinda stressful having so many of them to do at one time. So anyways here it is...

So my families Christmas Party was yesterday. It was fun but very chaotic. We left for a bit and went to the Luminary services at the cemetery. Its always so neat seeing the rows and lights. Its like a sea of lights. Its neat. It was nice to escape the chaos for a few. The party was lots of fun though, just very loud with all the kids.

Today I went over to Linda's and played nuts with her and Kari. I love how competitive we can get playing nuts. It was fun. I managed to win by a landslide. It was just my lucky day I guess. It was fun getting together with them for awhile today. I am glad we can have so much fun playing nuts.

Another Rock down... one more to go

Mikes sister Holly asked me to paint a rock to look like their dog Hannah, that they can give to their kids for Christmas. So I just got it finished tonight. This was my attempt. It honestly doesn't look much like their dog... but it is still a cute rock. I think I have learned that I am not very good at painting rocks to look like peoples pets. Oh well.... I tried. So now I just have one more rock to finish up which wont be posted until after Christmas, seeing as it is Mikes Christmas gift from me. I have rather enjoyed all the rock painting lately and think I want to keep it up. Its kinda fun!

I am now officially a paid Artist :-)

So my friend/coworker asked me if I would paint an owl that she can give as a Christmas gift to a friend. I am all about painting rocks lately and have had a few rocks to do before Christmas. The best part of the deal, she was willing to pay me for it. No one has ever paid me for a rock before. I had someone try to pay but my dear, sweet husband told them we couldn't accept the money. It really isn't even about the money. In fact, I feel really bad taking her money, but I really just want to be able to say someone has bought my artwork.

I have a few rocks I am painting for people for Christmas, and plan on having those done hopefully soon. I will post pictures of them as I get them done. The owl didn't take too long. I would say it took maybe 5 hours, which is much quicker then most of the rocks take. I am very pleased with how this rock turned out. In fact.... I like it much better than the owl we have in our tree. I think its because the eyes turned out so good. Anyways.... enough rambling.... here is the finished product. Oh, and I painted a cardboard container thing trying to make it look like a tree stump. This is the best I could do... but I figure it doesn't matter since the rock is really the important part, right??

Wreathes

I decided last year that I was going to make it a tradition to make a wreathe for my mom out of our tree trimmings. Luckily we had enough tree trimmings to make two wreathes so I did one for my mom, and one for Mikes Grandma (who just passed away) and his Grandpa. So I spent the better part of the day making these wreathes, while Mike worked on putting in a new faucet which was quite an adventure which I will talk more about in a minute. Anyways, I think the wreathes turned out fairly good. I am excited to go put them on graves tomorrow. It will be nice.
This first one is for Mikes Grandparents. His Grandma LOVED red. This one I made with more of a messy look than the one for my mom. I almost think I like the messy look better. It makes it look fuller.

This one I did for my mom. I figured since last year I did more of a Christmas themed one... this year it would be more of a winter theme with blues and whites. I am still not sure how I like this one compared to last year, but it works. My dad is thinking about buying solar powered LED lights to put on the wreathe. That would be neat!

Now back to Mike's adventure. Our faucet in the kitchen was old, and sucked. It was to the point where it leaked every time we turned it on so water would end up all over the counters. So we finally decided to give in and buy a new Faucet. We are not really big fans of white, but we have a white sink so it only seemed natural to get a white faucet. Besides the one we liked only came in white. Just as a side note, if I ever build a house.... it WILL NOT have white sinks. I cant stand white sinks!!

Anyways... so Mike spends a couple hours getting the new faucet installed. The process was going fairly smoothly except for a few minor glitches with a few cuss words involved. He gets it all installed and the water turned back on... and turns on the faucet. Nothing comes out. He messes with it and still cant get water to come out. He then took the spout part off (since the spout pulls out and turns into a sprayer) and the water is coming out fine. So there is a problem with the spout. He had commented when putting that part on, that it looked used. So anyways.... off to home depot we go with the spout and our receipt. Luckily they were nice and swapped out the spout for us. Mike did NOT want to take the entire faucet back off again. So we got the new one on.... and it works!! Yay! It would have been horrible to have to take off the entire thing again... so I was glad Home Depot was fine about swapping out the spout. So now we have a nice faucet that doesn't leak all over the counters!! So all in all... it has been a very productive day!