I Love Productive Days

Lets see... photography, beads, dinner, school play, Jr High dance, and last minute cupcakes for a school friend. Yep with the help of all the family we got it all done. Yea!
So, I bought a book the other day on photography, and with the weathers help, I had a chance to do some of the exercises in it. I think it has already started helping me. Even after my photography class I am still having problems with all of the bells and whistles on a manual camera. I swear there is an obscure button pushed somewhere that is causing blurry photos. (There is NO WAY it could be me shaking) :) So here are a few of my practice photos. This weekend we are going camping at a beautiful location and I want to get some great shots this time.(Typically I take about 200 pictures just to weed out the half of them.)

Now, my beads. These are not really my style, but they are based on an artist that I love.http://www.sorsdahl.com/#ecwid:category=0&entryPage=Y&mode=category&offset=0&sort=normal Remember these are my very 1st attempt. I am not trying to make his paintings on beads, I just want the same feel as the paintings. I think they came out pretty good for my 1st try. I do have ideas to improve them next time, but I am happy with them.

I still need to figure out how to take pictures of them. Errr :{

My son's school has a Patriotic Play every year and I always love it. They do the same skits every year, but the thing I love is the songs they sing. The fact that a public school in California sings Lee Greenwood's God Bless The USA makes me smile. The other song they do I don't know the name of ,but they have a screen behind them that shows images of the United States and mixed in are photos military family members of the students and teachers. It is a very touching performance and I it reminds me how lucky we are.

Alright I have a ton of things to do to get ready for this camping trip. Be ready for tons of photos in my next post.

How Can Pink Make Me So Sad

Last night I finally had/made time to make some beads. I was inspired by Juicy Couture and worked in their color palate of pink and brown. I should have known better. Pink glass is hard to come by because the glass companies just don't make it. They offer 40 different shades of blue and only 16 shades of pink. So in the particular brand of glass I use the only "true" opaque pink they make looks just like white, so I encased the beads in transparent pink and forgot that pink + pink = PEACH. I have nothing against peach but I love and want a beautiful soft bubble gum pink. There are other brands that have different shades of pink that I guess I soon will be trying, but as of this morning I was so sad for my little peach beads.

My photo skills didn't brighten up my day either.

This bead is pink and encased with clear. The roses are made with a special pink that I am not even going to get into right now

Same colors, only encased in pink.

Well, tonight I am going in a different direction. I have two different color palates that I'm thinking about, and we will see what happens in the morning.

Weekend of Painting

I have been so busy lately. First I still am having issues with my unknown allergic swelling. I have been having it one day each weekend, which is really slowing me down. So to trick my swelling I decide to take a Friday off of work to redecorate my daughters room and make up for the day I will miss over the weekend due to the swelling. Well, of coarse on Friday my leg was so swollen it bruised and wouldn't even fit in a pair of jeans. It's so aggravating, but the show must go on.

The redecorating turned out to be a major project. The room started out as my son's Gotham City room, with dark blue walls and ceiling, and a gray city scape along the walls. Three coats of primmer later Gotham was finally gone. Mikal Anne (my daughter) choose a paint color of Tiffany Blue, so we decorated around that color. Here are some before photos, I will update later when I finish the room.

Before

Her old room

My son's room that she moved into My Great Uncle's nightstand

During

New Years Resolution

I hate New Years Resolutions. It is such a gimmick. For the first month you hear people talking about what they are going to do differently get more organized, stop procrastinating, etc. The commercials on TV are weight loss groups, weight loss videos, and gyms. People are out in droves walking in the freezing cold. Then February comes and all is back to normal. Well this year I am making a New Years Resolution. (I am actually cheating because I have been doing for the last few months.) I have been living in the future for a long time now and missing what is happening in the now. I try to fit so much in my life and my families lives and want everything to be perfect for them, that I am not getting to enjoy any of it myself. I honestly lived months in advance.(I have brought travel guides on planes, not for the vacation we are on but to plan our next vacation.) Slowly I have been changing without even knowing. So here is my official New Years Resolution....I'm going to relax and enjoy life. So now I am off to play board games with the family.

Starting Off A Great New Year

My exciting New Year started off with severe swelling of my hand,(Which made it look like I had a lobster claw.) and swelling of both feet (Which made me lay on the couch and hobble around only when necessary.) Even with these irritating set backs we had a great New Year as a family. After my hand returned to usable size, we had a 4 player New Supper Mario Bro marathon. (We beat the game.)
Creativity wise, I was inspired this weekend by two thing. The first being another class I am taking in February. The second my daughter. She loves different art mediums just as much as I do, and this weekend she was sewing handbags. They turned out so cute and she did them completely on her own. She now wants to make more and sell them on etsy. Well if she can do it so can I. I went to the torch and made several beads based on clothing I got for Christmas. They all turned out pretty good but even better was I had so much fun.

Finally Free Time

I have been busy, just like everyone else this time of year. Christmas was fun. I love the decorating, shopping and baking. Of course there was no time for beads, nor did I get or ask for anything bead related this Christmas.(I did get great stuff from Etsy.) But I will be at the torch soon enough. So here is a photo recap of my past few weeks.