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.)

♥

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!

♥

Mini-rant and what I'm thankful for today.

I'm going to climb up on my soapbox for a minute.

If you see something tragic from afar, 

i.e. someone get hit by a car or someone falling to their death,

don't

go home and facebook about it.

Really? A tragedy has hit that person and their whole families, and you are going to go put it up on your facebook to attract "Oh poor you" comments, and get attention from it?

It's totally cold hearted and selfish.

Okay, enough ranting for the day.

I have a ton of homework, and I am very sleep deprived, which makes me cranky. 

I almost never remember my dreams, but last night I had an extremely vivid nightmare that kept me up half the night.

So I definitely need a reminder of what I'm thankful for today, which is...

My mom.

She's coming over to take me out to dinner tonight for a much needed break.
She's also listened and been supportive of me for all of my emotional breakdowns in the last 6 months, and most of the ones before that, as well.
She has turned out to be one of the most important people in my life, and I don't know what I would do without her.

How cute are we in our Christmas Sweaters? =)

I'm so very thankful for her.
♥

I simply can't get enough of these kids.

Cracks me up.

I've seriously watched it like 50 times.

♥

Finally...

I feel like I'm back to my old self. 

It got pretty rough there for a while.

But I'm seeing life in a positive light again, and feeling pretty good.

Due to this whole thing with school (my final, official appeal is the end of July, for those who are wondering) I've pretty much been feeling like a failure.

Yeah, that sums it up pretty well, just a failure at life. It wasn't just in school, it felt like it seeped into all the other aspects of my life. I felt like a failure as an employee, a friend, and a wife.

But I think it's over now. I think I'm finally realizing that one woman's opinion of me may derail my plans, but it doesn't define me. 

I have a job that doesn't make me miserable, and I think I'm pretty good at it. 

I have a loving family, especially my mother, who told me from day one of this whole fiasco that she was proud of me no matter what. 

I have all of my needs provided for, a nice house, plenty of food, and anything else that comes along.

I have good friends who listened to me cry and be miserable for 2 months, and still love me.

I have a wonderful husband, who loves me even when I'm silly, irrational, emotional, and just plain needy, as well as happy and carefree. 

And I have God's unconditional love.

So, with all of these things in mind, no more feeling sorry for myself, and feeling like a failure.

Life's to short to waist so much energy on one woman's opinion.

So I'm done.

I'm looking forward to the rest of my summer, and good food, fun with friends, impromptu dates with husband, and many hammock naps. 

Life is good.

And I finally realize that again.

♥

This...

is...

Heaven.

Love it.

♥

Missed a spot...

Can I just say that I love my husband?

He is so great.

When I first decided on this compost project, 

I totally thought I could build a compost bin by myself.

hahaha, I know, right?

So, when about a month and a half went by, and all I had was this,

(again, I know, right?)

I started to whine a bit about how it was hard.

And maybe it was my whining, or the fact that we had 1 1/2 month old food scraps in our kitchen, or that I had his tools still spread out everywhere, but Tuesday morning, he took pity on me, and did this. Yes. All in one morning. 

He's so awesome.

We got hinges put on today, and got it filled with all of our yard and food waste that we had been storing up. Which was gross, but exciting. 

As you can see, he actually gave it two doors, on on top and one in front. He's a genius.

I also spent about 2 1/2 hours weeding my garden this morning. 

I worked out hardcore last night, so I knew it would be tough because I was sore, but I stuck it out, and once I got stretched out, it wasn't that bad.

It was a lot of work, but my grass patch now looks like a garden, lol. I feel very accomplished.

After all this, I went with Jamie to get some food, and then took about an hour long nap. And when I woke up, I was sore. Crazy sore. My arms and legs feel like I just ran a marathon.

And, when I knew I was going to be outside for a long time, I of course put on sunscreen, because skin safety is important. 

But, apparently my shirt slid down in the back after I started working, because I woke up with this.

I will admit, I find this almost as hilarious as it is painful. Almost.

So now I get to go work a 7 hour close with a 12"x6" burned rectangle on my back, and super sore arms and legs. 

I may not be able to get out of bed in the morning. 

haha, but seriously.

♥