Thanks!

Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes.  I was really stunned by how many e-cards, text messages, and phone calls I got yesterday.  They all made me smile and I had a really great day.  After work yesterday I finished icing the cake I had made the day before.  I was craving birthday cake, I don’t think I’ve had one for years, even though Chris and I are sharing this one.  Yep, his birthday is today!  Jed came down yesterday to give me his gift (the Planet Earth series) and to go to dinner.  He was celebrating an event as well so it was a three way celebration.  We went to the Fish House for dinner and it was good.  We shared Alligator for an appetizer, and then I had the stuffed salmon.  mmmmmmm, it was very tastey.  =0)  The waitress found out it was my birthday so she brought out cake with a candle and we shared that before we went home and ate more cake.  I’m still full from last night. 
Also, last night I finished Harry Potter.  It had been put on hold over the weekend while I was scrambling to finish my latest beaded flower piece.  (more on that in a different post)  Harry Potter really isn’t the type of books to put down for a couple days and pick right back up, not b/c you forget what’s going and need to reread.  But b/c all you think about for the next few days is Harry Potter and what’s going on and what might happen next.  I did enjoy the end, with all the hype and build up I think it was really the only way it could have ended.
Today, Chris’ parents are coming into town.  They want to see our house now that we spent a lot of time working on it.  I think they’ll be impressed.  So, we’ll go out to dinner with them tonight and probably breakfast in the morning.  Then the rest of the weekend I’m not entirely sure what’s going on.  I want to place my birthday order for some more wire etc.  I also have another fun idea that for beaded flowers I want to have done by next weekend.  This will be my first wearable piece, if it gets done in time.  Next weekend we’re going up to visit my parents, and on Saturday we’re going to the Renaissance Faire.  I would wear the piece to that.  I’m really excited about it.  =0) 

changes

Today is the last day I will be 25 years old.  Not that is really a big deal it’s just that I don’t know where the year went.  I know everyone seems to say that right before they’re birthday’s but really the year I was 25 and the year I was 22 just seemed to disappear.  I’m not sure what the excuse is for this year, but the year I was 22 a lot of that had to do with an unhappy work sitituation that was finally fixed.
Lots and lots of things have changed in the past year.  Too many things to really keep track of, some are really great wonderful things, others not so much, but again I guess that’s the road of life.  The most obvious change that has happened is of course that Chris and I got married.  We managed to throw a big party and celebrate the marriage too.  That pretty much ate up the first few months.  Then of course the holidays always fly by, especially now with two sets of parents to visit for each holiday.  The holidays are fun though, and I enjoy them each year.  Around this time an event occured at work that tends to rear its ugly head evey now and then since.  It definitely affected both Chris and I and has definitely been a learning experience…just to see what people can be like in different sitituations.  Ourselves included.  Early into the year we decided to try looking at some houses in the Peoria area, by the end of March we bought our first home.  The next few months after that consisted of working on the house.  It got to the point thats all we did, so we’ve taken the summer months off for a break.  And here we are again in the middle of summer.
Throughout those major events others have occured.  Two of my close friends at work have had babies, one has just recently decided to move back to her home town a few hours away.  My friend Miranda who I had wine night with every Wednesday during the last year has decided to go to grad school in California to get her MBA.  She leaves today or tomorrow.  We’ve grown really close and I’ll miss her tremendously.  Other friends of ours have moved to new homes as well.  Many more we’ve talked to less and less for various reasons, but mostly because everyone is so busy.  Chris has been diligently working on music.  At one point I made the decision to try and sell my flowers, and then we bought the house.  So I got the website up this summer.  I’ve gotten my bouquet published, and put on display locally.  I’m applying today to have a couple other pieces exhibited in another art gallery this fall.
This year has been very dramatic and full of high emotions at both extremes.  It was fun and fast.  I do hope that 26 will be just as fun, but maybe just not so dramatic.

egg plant

This morning I wandered out to the veggie garden to see if any of my tomatoes were turning red yet.  Unfortunately, not but I did find that we have two small cucumbers just beginning to grow.  Then I wandered into my neighbor’s wonderland of a garden.  This Jim is a very nice guy and loves to talk gardening.  He loves to talk about almost as much as he loves to garden!  I don’t ever mind though b/c I really enjoy listening and learning about it.  He grows everything you can think of, sweet corn, several varieties of tomatoes, cucumbers, another several kinds of squash, including pumpkins, potatoes, cabbage, and the list goes on.  Last week he dug up some potatoes for us for our dinner, they were delicious and very tender.  I’d never had home grown potatoes before.  He also has some small miscellaneous veggie plants growing, just to try new things.  One of those is an egg plant plant.  I’ve never really had egg plant so I wouldn’t know what to do with them, but he sure has a beautiful one growing out there.  On that same plant was this flower.  When I found it a bumble bee was packing pollen in his swollen pouches.  He was very busy with all the squash flowers too.  I really thought the egg plant flower was pretty so I snapped a pic.  I like that its just a lighter shade of its fruit.

bits and pieces

I haven’t posted pics of any new flowers lately b/c I haven’t made the time to work on them like I’ve been wanting to.  I started this one a couple weeks ago and thought it would almost make itself.  I was so excited about the colors, but after making the larger outter petals it stumped me.  I’ve been thinking about how to finish it for over a week now and have a pretty good idea.  Unfortunately, I won’t have time to work on it again until maybe the weekend.  For now we’ll have to look at it in pieces. 

booked

Today Chris and I booked our vacation, and it’s the vacation I’ve been wanting for over a year now. We booked a cabin right outside the Great Smokey Mountain National Park in Tennessee. The dream vacation would have been the same idea only in Montana, but we really wanted to go somewhere that we could drive to in a day. Tennessee would be a 9 hour drive, but if we left early and played some driving games I think it’ll be fine. We’re going the week of our 1st anniversary which is also in October. This is prime fall color season so it should be really beautiful. I’m so excited! He’s going to bring his guitar and I ‘m bringing my beads and we’re not going to book any other plans. I just want to go somewhere that we can sit on a deck pull out beads/guitar and relax. The national park is very close by so if we get restless or bored I want to go for hikes in the woods. One of the day’s we’ll probably go to Gatlinburg which is a very touristy town nearby. Maybe I can find a bead store in the area too to check out. I’m excited to have a relaxing vacation with little or no obligations. We splurged on the cabin so that we’d really enjoy it if we just wanted to stay in for a few days. Especially the weekend…GSMNP is apparently the most visited national park in the US. And with October being prime fall color it’s supposed to be packed. But we figure we’ll go for hikes in the early morning or evening and stick to the weekdays. Now all we have to do is be patient and wait for October to roll around.
In other news, last night I bought Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. So far it’s pretty good. Definitely a fast read, I’m already 130 pages into it. The style in the writing seems a little different, but that could be b/c it’s been so long since I read the last book. I still haven’t heard a word about the ending, and I’m trying to keep it that way.

back to the grind

We returned from our camping trip yesterday afternoon exhausted. It was a nice long trip away from work and other every day thoughts. Instead we focused more on catching up with some friends that we only see about twice a year. Then we cooked, camped, and kayaked the rest of the weekend. Too fun. The kayak trip was 9 miles long and the first day Chris and I were the only ones kayaking, the rest of the group canoed. Chris and I tried that last year, but I didn’t like it much. There’s a lot more freedom and speed in a kayak, plus they are a million times more comfy for long trips. It took us about 4 and a half hours to kayak 9 miles. The Meramac river is a very slow river with very little current, that meant we pretty much had to paddle the entire way. The second day everyone kayaked, which was fun b/c then it turned into bumper kayaks! The second day was also Saturday which meant the river was jam packed full of people drinking, and drunks acting stupid. Once we got away from them the trip was much more fun. After two days and 18 miles of kayaking my arms and back are very sore. I’m also very itchy from the million bug bites I got….yikes, I counted 26 on one leg from the knee down.
Over the weekend I realized that one of my favorite things about camping is falling asleep listening to the frogs and bugs chirp. It’s been a while since our campsite has been next to a river/lake/pond. It was really relaxing just listening to them chirp away and then now and then hear a bullfrog groan out. Amazingly we didn’t have any raccoon problems, although a squirrel did raid the site and found a can of cashews. I think it ate more of the can than the nuts though. I took some pictures that I’ll get developed tonight, so if anything turns out good I’ll share later on this week.
This week is busy for me. Lots to do and what I want to work on most isn’t working out too easily. That always seems to be the way it works out. I’ll share more when I can.
Tonight I have a date to buy the new Harry Potter book. I’m so excited and it’s amazing that I haven’t already heard anything about it. I’m hoping it stays that way. I want to find out what happens myself, I’ll probably be up for three nights straight reading it. Chris and I saw the new movie last week and enjoyed it.

one stormy morning

We’ve had some really great storms this morning.  It is about the only thing I don’t mind waking up to in the middle of the night.  Last night the storm actually incorporated itself into my dream.  I don’t really remember what I was dreaming but I do remember seeing flashes of light and dreaming it was lighting, and then somehow I realized I wasn’t dreaming any more and that I was awake.  It’s a weird feeling, almost like I was still in a dream while awake, or when exactly did I wake up.  About an hour ago another huge front swept across IL.  It was one of those really rare storms where the clouds are literally black, like 11pm black.  The main front has now passed, but it’ll proabably rain and thunder most of the morning.  It’ll be good for all my tomato plants in the garden. 
I blame the storms for not being really focused at work today, but really I think it’s because I’m thinking of the million things I need to and want to do in the next couple weeks.  I just got an email about another exhibit at the art guild, this one is juried to get in.  And the application needs to be turned in by Aug 1st!  yeesh!  Not sure if I’ll make that deadline or not.  I’d really like to enter some newer stuff, but everything thats new that I want to enter isn’t made yet!  ha.  funny how that works.
The art exhibit on Friday was a lot of fun.  There was really a great turn out and lots of really cool art.  The curator did a wonderful job displaying my bouquet, I was kinda worried about how she’d do it.  But it was perfect.  I wish I’d brought my camera.  There was really a broad spectrum of art, and some really unique stuff.  Chris and I saw several pieces that we really loved.  If we had lots of money, we’d have splurged.  Miranda and Misty came to the exhibit too, and afterward we went out for dinner and dessert.  mmmmm, strawberries romanoff.  =0)  Saturday we drove up and had lunch with Chris’ folks, then headed over to see Jon and Theresa.  Theresa and I had a girls night planned out.  We went out for martinis and girl talk.  It’s been forever since we’ve hung out just the two of us.  Chris Pratt came up and her and the guys went and rode in the LATE ride, in downtown Chicago.  The LATE ride is a 25mile bicycle ride through the streets of downtown Chicago.  It starts at 1am and goes till 7am.  The picture above is one that Pratt took of the Chicago skyline at dawn.  It’s sorta blurry, but its a cool effect.
Thursday we’re leaving to go camping with a group of friends from southern IL.  We’re going to the Ozarks in MO, and camping on the Meramac River.  Camping, kayaking, and hanging out.  It should be fun!

purple22

This is the newest bouquet.  It’s a fun arrangement and each flower is a different shade of purple.  The name, purple22, comes from an old password I used to use ages ago.  I was in a crunch for a name and that’s what came to me.  I guess I’m not that creative when it comes to names.  All the flowers are one’s I’ve had on hand for a while.  The smaller two bright fuschia flowers were originally going to be used for centerpieces for my reception.  The lily was made a long while ago.  The lily is really cool, b/c the center beads are actually clear with purple stripes on them.  It gives the petals a very shiny look.  The other two flowers I just made here and there. 
I really love putting the colors together.  A lot of times I’ll just make a huge stock of random flowers, then sit down one day and arrange different flowers together and see what works.  These four really work well.  I’m happy with them.

Peoria Art Exhibit

I’ve talked about this before as well, but I’m going to again.  Tomorrow night (530-730) is the opening night for the annual Peoria Art Guild’s Member’s Art Exhibit.  It will be on open to the public.  Any member who is an artist can enter any one piece and have it displayed for approximately a month in their gallery.  Although anyone can enter there is a jury and prizes will be awarded.  I’m not really sure what the prizes are or even what categories they’re awarding prizes too.  This is all new to me!  I entered Jamaican Sun and am very nervous and excited to see it actually displayed with other people’s art.  I’m also very curious to see what other people are doing.  I know there will be some photography and I’m sure very cool paintings.  But I’m wondering if anyone who’s a member does sculpting, or other 3-D work. 

Dichroic Green

I know I’ve shown this flower before, but now it has leaves and is officially finished.  I thought maybe I’d get a decent pic of it this time around but no such luck.  For another view click here to see it in the gallery.  I love this flower and wish you could see it in person.  The green leaves help the yellow petals to really stand out.  Then the dichroic green glass really glows.  I really like dichroic glass, it seems to have an energy and life of its own.  I bought the rectangles at the Bead and Button show in June.  I also bought three cabs that are dirchoic glass.  I think two of them will make great centers to future flowers.  Cabs are new to me though, so that might take a while to figure out. 

I also finished a new bouquet that I haven’t talked about at all on here.  Pics of the new bouquet will be up this week.