The good times...

I have a little bad habit of focusing on the rough things in life. I started this blog as a focus on the positives in my life, and lately every time I get the urge to blog, I just want to vent about junk. Hence the reason there hasn't been a lot of blogging going on around here. 

There has been a decent amount of junk lately, but I won't give in. Instead, I'm going to share some of my favorite things from the past few weeks.

Jamie at our campsite

Orangeleaf!!!

Valentine's Day Dinner at the Melting Pot.

Jamie stuffing his face with Orangeleaf. =)

My Dress for my sister's wedding!!!! So excited!

Qdoba with my love.

My beautiful flowering bush in front of my house. =)

Bazbeaux pizza!!!

Best camping dinner EVER.

(P.S. I originally posted this from my iPhone app, so I had to go add the captions later.  And that's why they are strangely out of order.)

♥

Feeling good...

For the first Sunday in a while, I feel really blessed and lifted. 

We tried a new church (again) today.

Trying to find a new home church is so hard.

I started the morning feeling so frustrated and fed up.

We were running late, so we almost didn't go,

but I'm SO glad we did.

We tried "The Blended Church" this morning, 

and for the first time in a long while, I left feeling lifted and happy. 

We were hesitant at first, because it sounded too good to be true, but it turned out great!

For starters, I absolutely love seeing people come together despite different races and cultures, to worship our one God.

It was very inspirational, there were literally people of all ages and races there.

The building was simple, and I found out it is because they do a massive amount of outreach and community and missionary support, which is something I passionately believe in.

The worship was very gospel, with a little rock and even some funk thrown in, which is right up our alley. They have connection groups, and many great programs going on. 

The preaching is a bit more...enthusiastic 

than I'm used to, but it's not a bad thing, just different. And they have 3 pastors on staff, so I'm interested to see if it changes.

We haven't decided yet by any means, but I'm looking forward to going back.

I'm excited and feeling positive about Sunday mornings again, and I think this church has more potential then any others we've been too.

Yay!

♥

My paintings...

I haven't posted any oil painting artwork in a while, so I decided to update with some of my finished works from last semester, and some of my works in progress. 

The final product of my very first still life! It's now at my mom's house. 

A painting of a photo from our vacation to the Indiana Dunes.

Two practice still life setups.

An in progress lighthouse from a postcard from St Augustine, FL. It will go in our bathroom when finished.

The following is a sequence of a reproduction (for technique practice, not for sale or anything, lol.) I chose Le Fille avec un panier (The girl with the basket) by Berthe Morisot. 

This is the original painting by Berthe Morisot.

I took one picture after each class, so each picture equals 2 1/2 hours of work, and it's on an 18x24 canvas.  

And the finished product! I'm pretty proud of it, except I think the face could use some adjusting.  I'm realizing there is no such thing as completely satisfied when it comes to artwork.

This is a quick still life I did that is now hanging in our house.

The following was my final project, that I never got completely finished, but it was pretty complex, so my prof didn't mind.  It's a photo of Jamie and his brothers (Jamie's the little one,) that I'm going to give to my mother in law when I'm done.

Here's the original photo,

I'm kind of burnt out on it, so I'm taking a break for a while. =)

And finally, this is the first still life of Semester 2, and it's still in progress.  It's to practice painting metal and glass, which is really hard. We also have to use only analogous and opposite colors, which is a challenge I am enjoying. 

We are also going to focus more on landscapes this semester, which I'm really excited about. 

More to come later!

♥

Sorry friends!

Wow! It's been a while!

To update everyone, after lots of hard work I passed my class last semester with a B- (I'll take it!) and had a very enjoyable and uplifting Christmas break! I've just been trying to bring myself back to the positive place I was at before all this madness started.  This semester is going well so far, I have a 6th grade student teaching position in an IPS on the southeast side of Indy. I'm excited about it, and just ready to get started.  I'm also retaking painting, because I really loved it.  I also decided that since I'm not working, I want to put my energy into a good cause, so I'm going to be tutoring homeless students in Indianapolis this semester through School on Wheels.  I'm really, really excited about it. 

Other than that, things are going wonderfully, and I'm feeling strong and motivated.

Graduation here I come!!

♥

Loving these new tunes...

Been listening to both of these a lot lately. 

They have a very soothing groove, and I need that right now.

Things have been insane, and it's been a hard week.  

I have one last assignment to alter, and then I'm done for the semester. I'll catch everyone up on my life then. 

For now, I'm just going to keep jamming to these songs. 

And staying positive and happy, because things are finally looking up. =)

♥

Things of late...

It's been a while.

Sorry friends!

I've been uber busy. 

Here are some new events...

I (mostly) finished the class I was retaking.

What a relief.

I got (and still am) super stressed about work.

I work really hard.

A lot.

I love painting class.

And just painting in general.

It's been incredibly soothing.

I love my husband, 

and get to see him at least a little more since my class ended.

Which has been awesome.

And things are all around, average, normal, and decent.

I promise a more in-depth post soon.

I'm just enjoying life right now.

♥

I love painting class...

Some finished products...

Wine Bottles on a Tablecloth...

The same still life in monochromatic and color (don't judge my lemon, they are HARD)...

A quickly done still life (a bit rough, but I only had about an hour)...

And some works in progress...

the start of a still life, just colors blocked in and super basic shading...

And after day two, The bowl, apple in front of the bowl, front right apple in the bowl, and the back right apple in the bowl, all enhanced and shaded. (The front apple is my favorite.)

And our first potential house decor, a painting of the lighthouse we visited in St. Augustine, FL. 

If I like it enough, we will hang it in the guest bathroom, next to the blueprint Jamie bought of the same lighthouse.

Still needs some clouds, and detail work in the trees, windows, and railings, but I'm really happy with it so far. 

Taking this class=best idea ever.  

I'm so excited to discover a skill leading to something that I really enjoy, and that is relaxing and productive. It's great.

♥

Mail that makes me happy...

Civil Wars Tickets and Mother Earth News Magazine.

Heck. Yes.

♥

Re-committed. And tired.

Today my friends, will by day 8 of 8 straight days of work.

all of the shifts were 6-10 hours long. 

For 8. straight. days.

Needless to say, I'm ready for a break, and that is a large part of my lack of non-simple blogging.

I've been at the new store now for 3 weeks, and it has gone a lot better than I expected. I actually really enjoy it. Just not 8 straight days of it. =)

I have re-committed to being a flexitarian.  It will be super difficult when school starts, but for now it's not been bad.  I just make 2-3 vegetarian meals a week, and eat them and their leftovers at work and at home, keeping me meat free, and then allow myself fish or chicken once or twice on the weekends. 

The vegetarian section of the "Healthy College Cookbook" has become my best friend. 

I love that cookbook.

Last week I had brocolli-tofu stir fry, garlic and tofu green beans, and pasta salad.

This week I've had Sesame noodles, a different pasta salad, and today I made ginger-soy tofu over rice.

It's delicious. 

Other than massive amounts of work, things have been pretty good in this household. Recycling is taking off, which I am so excited about. It's a real eye opener to see how much we've been throwing away that we could have been recycling. 

We re-potted the mandarin tree, so there is more dirt under it now.

And we have peppers from the garden, but everything else is kind of stalled due to this ridiculous heat.

Jamie and I have been getting to spend a lot of time together lately, and it's been so nice. We've finally gotten into that summer swing. Unfortunately, school starts in less than a month. But, I don't want to talk about that yet. 

Tomorrow we are hanging out with our friends Amanda and Joe.  Joe and Jamie are going golfing, and Amanda and I are going to get pedicures. Neither of us have ever had one, so we thought we would go together to try it. I'm really excited, I love seeing those two. It's nice to have friends we can get together with, and I always feel good when I'm with them.

And I got to talk to Misty yesterday, which was so great. 

Oh yeah, and Minnie's in heat again, so you can imagine what she's been like to deal with. If you can't imagine, here is a picture from the last time.

And I will leave you with a thought from the other day.  When I was a kid, I read the book "Harriet the Spy" by Louise Fitzhugh about 50 times. I loved it.  There is a simple passage in there, in the 3rd chapter, where Harriet is talking to her best friend, that says:

"She never minded admitting she didn't know something. 'So what?' she thought; 'I could always learn.'"

I realized the other day, when the grocery store clerk looked at me like an idiot because I didn't know that scallions and green onions were the same things, that this one tiny passage has helped shaped my life. As I started to feel really stupid, and stopped and thought, "So what? how was I supposed to know if no one ever told me?" And then I didn't feel bad. It's amazing the kind of power books can give us. That one small passage has helped shape me into the person I am. I feel confident even in not knowing things, because I can just learn them later. 

And I love that.

♥ 

Husband and I
are officially...

Recyclers.

It feels good.
I'm really glad we live in an area that offers curbside recycling.

♥

First Garden Harvest!

I officially have my fist harvest!

Awesome!

I did my research, and my lettuce is leaf lettuce, so it grows back repeatedly when you cut it about an inch above the root, so we should have lettuce for the rest of the summer!

Here is the before...

And the after...

And all of my lettuce!

I also picked a couple of green beans that were ready off of my lone green bean plant.

Hopefully next year, I will have lots of green beans, because I plan on planting twice as many.

I'm also excited, because my tomato plant has 14 green tomatoes! 

I'm going to have a lot.

My corn is starting ears...

And my peppers are sprouting (with a goofy dog in the background).

And I made another friend, a baby Praying Mantis.

Cool.

I feel really good about my garden and harvest, and this is really becoming a passion of mine.

I have already started making my plans for next year. 

Oh boy.

♥