Hold Dear

saturday.

Well, blimey! I know I haven't been doing much bloggin' lately. Life, she be busy. This week is just kickin' my butt! Work has been intense and then next Tuesday, a large project is due in Graphic Design and seems every moment has been spent either thinkin' about it, buyin' stuff for it, or workin' on it! Oy!

In Drawing class today, we got to do our own thing, provided it we did it in color. I forgot my pastels so I decided on a palette and then found magazines pages in those colors and cut them up. I was totally inspired by a painting I saw of Van Gogh's where he intentionally limited his palette to blue hues. Oddly, when you do that, it can be very liberating!  I'm sure my friend Jana (who is a fabulous pastelist!) can attest to that. Once I found my five values, it all pretty much fell into place. I really enjoyed this process and I'm actually pleased with how it turned out!

So last night we had a "family evening." Glen, Miranda, and I went to dinner and a movie. We went to a place called Miso Hapi for din din over on 21st Avenue in Northwest. VERY good. Afterwards, we went to Cinema 21 and watched Al Franken's "God Spoke." Pretty funny.

Even though there's lots to do around here, tonight, I am taking some time to relax. I'll be working all day tomorrow on my school project, so tonight I'm takin' 'er easy! So I'm sittin' here, listening to the Beatles, drinking a Mike's Hard Crisp Apple. I was listening to some Crowded House that I borrowed from the library and later, I plan on listening to my first unofficial birthday present that I bought for myself last night at Music Milennium. Los Lonely Boys. I am SO in love with their song, "Heaven." It really reaches me. Plus I love the Spanish music feel to it.

Okay, I'm gonna go watch Glen re-string his guitar, maybe open up another Mike's (hey, I'm not goin' anywhere!) and will then either put a fire on and plop down on the couch or go play in my little art room. Who knows? It's a mystery! :-)

See ya later, folks!

dentist.

I made an unscheduled trip to the dentist this afternoon. I suspected something was going on with my teeth because I was getting sharp pain whenever I tried to chew on the right side of my mouth followed by throbbing. Lovely. Plus, when I flossed, there was a brand new "snag." I probably would have put off going to the dentist but yesterday, as I was sitting in a meeting, I non-chalantly put a piece of gum in my mouth and started chewing. HO BOY there was pain in the mouth part of my face! I excused myself, went to my desk and called the dentist right then and there. In my opinion, when you have issues with your teeth, it's best to visit a dentist as soon as possible. :-)

So after some drillin' and fillin' (preceeded by a shot, OF COURSE!), I am now home, ready to snuggle up with the new issue of Somerset magazine, purchased on the way home from the dentist to console myself. The right side of my jaw is sore and feels so much better if I don't move it so I'm not sure what I'm going to do for dinner. I had a smoothie for breakfast and soup for lunch. Guess I'll just have more soup! :-)

SO thankful I had already made the decision NOT to work on my Design class homework tonight. Did I mention that this class is another buttkicker???! In-tense! I'm learnin' lots but the challenge is it's always in front of the class. We do class critiques and it seems it's DURING these sessions when I usually "get" a the concept. I just want to grab my stuff and run off and do it over!! Thankfully, though, about 3/4 of the class have dropped out and so the 9 of us that remain are supportive, honest, and encouraging with each other.

Okay...gonna go put a fire in the fireplace, grab a cup of tea and my magazine, and settle in for the evening. Miranda is off somewhere with her homies and Glen went to a Trailblazer game with his brother. So it's just me, Atticus, and the rain!

See ya!

sweet DJ purse.

Hi there! So guess what? As a way to console myself last night with my family gone and the house quiet, I finished the purse I started in the DJ Pettitt class "To Have and To Hold" I took at Art and Soul. I'm very happy with it EVEN though I made a few boo boos. I learned LOTS in doing this and will definitely make more more more!!! While Simone was here, we got her started on one but between a night of it not working (turns out I had threaded it wrong!) and lack of time, she didn't finish it. But we'll get it done one of these days Sis!!!

Here's my purse...

Long shot of it. I adore how the handles turned out! I doubled up a length of material and zigzag stitched it. SO cute!

I was even motivated enough to attempt a pocket on the inside. A home for my cell phone and sunglasses! Please ignore the little bits of thread. I was so excited that I forgot to do the clean up before I took these photos!

I would like to point out that that sweet button sewn onto the tab is one from the collection of genuine family buttons that my wonderful Momma sent me. I was SO amazed by the assortment of beautiful bits! Buttons from our clothing over the years, a couple of my beloved wooden spools of thread, old lace, and some other sweet charms. Joy!

Thank you thank you SO much Momma!!!

so happy.

So it's just the three of us. Glen, Miranda, and I. The house is quiet again. All of my family has come and gone. Time to shift back into the regular routine. School tomorrow. There's bills to pay. Laundry to do. Sigh.

Oh what an amazing wonderful time. I LOVED how full my house was. So full of love. So full of laughter. So much going on. Ryan played the guitar for us a lot. He is so talented. There was almost always something going on in the kitchen. All kinds of good noises. Did I mention laughter? My family is just flippin' hilarious! Non-stop happiness and laughter. I absolutely LOVE my family. And I just couldn't be happier seeing my two sisters happy. Their lives are going in good directions. They seem happy. And that makes me happy. :-)

We didn't really do too much as far as touristy things. We went into Portand two times to take pictures and do some shopping and eating. We went to the Hay Maze on Sauvie Island. We sat around a lot and visited. That's the best! But the most important event by far was that we interned my Daddy on Thursday at the Willamette National Cemetery. That was absolutely wonderful. Talk about closure! Wow. I feel renewed. It just felt so good and I was SO happy that the Renee, Simone, and I could do it together. We talked so much about Daddy and retold all our stories and also found we had some new stories to share! I really wished my Mom would have been able to make it, but in retrospect, I think it worked out because the time I spent with Renee and Simone while they were here, in my opinion, took our "sister" status to another level. The bond has been strengthened. Mom, thank you for making such wonderful sisters for me! :-)

Also, I am SO excited about the words we came up with to go on Daddy's grave marker. We had so many ideas but it was a real challenge because we were only allowed 22 characters! After lots of brainstorming and throwing around TONS of ideas, we decided to go with an expression that we felt our Daddy would have loved. He was a cement truck driver. You know those big trucks with the enormous revolving drum? My Daddy drove one of those and he was VERY proud of that! He had a CB radio and just loved listening to the drivers in the big rigs, even though to us girls, it ALL sounded like static!!!

So tonight, dear friends, I'll leave you with the sweet words that totally honors my Father, will always fill me with love and will always put a smile on my face every time I visit his gravesite...

KEEP ON TRUCKIN DADDY

And I hope you are. xo

first day of november.

The first day of November. So you know what that means? It's the first day of my birthday month!!!! Wheee! My birthday is Nov 23, which just happens to fall on Thanksgiving this year! That happens every six years and I absolutely love it! I'm sure it has to do with the fact that when I was little, I was made to feel special when this happened! The last time it happened (six years ago!) my mom sent me a spray of red roses and a Turkey beany baby! The time before that, Glen got me some roses and it had a little plastic toy turkey stuck in amongst them.

So what the heck is the turkey and roses connection you may ask? Well, one year when I was little (8 or 9?), my birthday fell on Thanksgiving. I remember my mom telling me we could get a cake for my birthday and I could have anything I wanted on it! Wow! This was a very special treat! I thought for a moment and then said I wanted a birthday cake with a turkey and roses. The turkey was for Thanksgiving and the roses were because I was so in love with those big fluffy bakery roses made out of frosting that I wanted to have a whole cake full of 'em! I still recall my mom telling us that when she placed the call to order the cake, she asked for the turkey and roses and the man on the phone asked her to hang on a second. She heard him yell out, "Hey Joe, can you make a turkey?" She could then hear way off in the distance someone answer back "Yep." Then the man came back on the line and said, "Okay lady, we can do that." LOL!!! So that is why when my birthday falls on Thanksgiving, a turkey and roses shows up somewhere.

I hope you have a wonderful day and if it's YOUR birthday month too, let me know!!!! :-)