Catching Up With Life

I swear it feels like all I do is try to catch up with my life,  I am so far behind on so many things that my To-Do lists have to-do lists.  I can't seem to get really focused on anything so am doing a lot of bouncing around on projects for the house and creatively.  At this point all of our stuff is out of storage although plenty of it is still in boxes.  The photo above is my studio in mid April after the move but before some of the new additions to the room.

Memorial Day weekend we rented a cargo van and headed up to College Park and hit the Ikea.  I had been wanting to go for a while but timing had never worked out.  For our 20th Anniversary at the beginning of the month that is what I told Wayne I wanted (to go to Ikea before he headed off fishing with some of the men in his family).  We spent the weekend  building furniture (about 1500 lbs worth).  This photo does not include everything we got.

These are my new blue bookcases,  they go well with the blue wall across the room from them as well as the blue ceiling fan.  They are no longer near this empty. We got 2 of these for the Office although those aren't built yet.

This is the new Expedit desk and shelves.  I got another unit like the one on the left for the other side of this wall as well as 2 of them for our master bedroom.  They are pretty cost effective and have lots of space for books, art supplies and bears.

Yes the couch is still in my studio,  will figure out what kind of nesting chair I want to put in my studio once we finally get the great room finished and the couch where it belongs.  You can see my new desk for creating behind it.  Now I have 2 big work tables to create on.  The top is a beech countertop that I still need to oil or otherwise finish.  You can also see that some of the stuffed animals were quick to find homes on the new shelves.

While Wayne was gone for 10 days you would think that I spent most of my time getting my studio organized and I did a bit but I spent more time on a couple of other projects that I knew needed getting done.  I managed to finish painting the last of the base moulding and almost all of the crown moulding for the great room while he was gone.  The photo is of some of the crown moulding which is red with a copper paint accent.  3 coats of each color on 8 pieces meant it took a bit of time, but I can't wait to see how it looks like up.  The only thing we need to paint yet is the corner pieces but Wayne needs to do something to them before I can paint them.

The other big project I tackled while he was gone was the Master Suite.  I was getting tired of the clutter everywhere and boxes and........   So the new Expedit shelves went in and I completely rearranged it, including moving the bed on angle to the room.  There are still project to be done but it feels much calmer since it is less jumbled.  I like the bed on the angle since when you walk into the room you can see so much of the hardwood floors showing.

I also got my Sacred Space up in our bedroom.  The table contains a lot of my treasures that I collect here and there.  Some are pieces of the world around me that I have picked up, some are pieces of my art and a few are pieces of art and odd bits that I like.  The piece on the wall is one of my newer finished pieces.   It is my Zentangle Dragonfly, if you want to read a bit about it I included some of that in my BJP blog.  I will try to write a post later about how I finished it.  At this point I am planning on adding my 2010 BJP piece to this wall as well once it is finished.  I have added candles to the table and I want to make it more stair step so that things are easier to see.

Since Wayne has been home he has put up the ceiling fan in the great room and we spent all day on Sunday trying to get the basement organized.  Before Wayne can do most of what needs doing in the great room he needed his table saw up and running and to be able to work down there.  The basement is the general storage area and looked like a cardboard factory had blown up down there.  It isn't completely organized yet but like things are together and most of the boxes are unpacked.

I was hoping that we would be able to work on the great room this upcoming weekend but think the time may end up going to Wayne's car since it has been acting up,  may need some transmission work.  If so sounds like I even get to help some (I am sooooo excited).

The projects around the house are coming along but it will be a work in progress for a while.  With unlimited budget, energy and time we would be further along but I love how it is coming along and it is showing our personalities.  It will be a one of a kind, no doubts.   If you would like to see more photos remember we have the Web Gallery that has more photos.

Also if you are interested I am on Facebook now.  I play games too much but I do put short updates on some of the things I am up to there.

A Winged Visitor

This photo is one of the dragonflies that visits me occasionally. He has been nice enough to let me photograph him. I find it interesting that in their adult stage dragonflies change colors as they age. I saw what I can only assume is a younger version of this species the same day. It's colors were duller and the back was more gray than white. This particular dragonfly will let me move around it as long as I don't move too quickly. Saturday morning I was out pulling weeds since it was a bit cooler and he landed on the driveway not 4 feet from me and just stayed there for a while as I pulled weeds. Your only crazy if you talk to yourself and get answered right? It is OK to talk to critters.

The physical enablement is going well. I think I may have even lost a couple of pounds but we will see. This week I tried some new things. Between the treadmill, water aerobics, weight training, basic pilates and Tai Chi it wasn't boring. I won't be doing all of them but wanted to try some things to see if I wanted to do them more. Some of the changes are incorporating into my life more readily than others but over all I am very pleased with my progress so far.

I am making good progress on my Pop-Top purse and should it finished soon. Along with a couple of other pieces I am going to enter them into The Dairy Barn's Bead International 2008. The entries are due in the first week of September so after finishing it I need to work on getting photos taken and ready and doing the entry form.

I put a little more time on my BJP page for August and have the columns almost finished. Or at least what I think what may be finished, who knows what I may decide later.

Wayne is doing fine and keeping very busy. He is running most days to keep in shape and has lost weight since he got there. Mostly by watching his serving sizes (with as much as they get served he could be gaining weight), he also says it is probably partially since he can't have beer or wine so doesn't have those calories in this diet. We are now 2 months done and hopefully the rest will go quickly. I am sure before I know it he will be back home and in my hair again.

Dragonflies and Transformations

Dragonflies are a powerful symbol for transformation. They motivate the changes necessary for spiritual growth and the path to creative expression. Of course this is only one of the many ideas I found for what dragonflies symbolize. In East Asian and Native American cultures they generally have positive symbols while in some European myths they are seen in a more negative light.

I have been seeing more dragonflies of late and they have been popping up in my art a lot since I started beading. I currently have 2 purses, a compact and few crystal dragonflies that I have made.

As I mark the first day of August and the official beginning to the changes I am going to make in my life I have decided that the dragonfly is the perfect spirit guide to help see me through my own transformation. The photo above is one of the dragonflies that I saw in our yard. Maybe I will be lucky and more of them will pose for me.

Day one went well and mentally I am in a pretty good place about these changes being a want and not a need. If I feel I "need" to do something it is work and I don't find joy in it. Since I want this change for myself I feel more motivated to make the commitment to myself and thus the changes.

Collen and I had our first day at the gym, it is small but clean and we were the only one's there so that was actually kind of nice for us at least. Yesterday we ended up going for a walk at a local park. We saw quite a few dragonflies as we were walking around a pond.

I made a few changes to my current website but mostly it was getting rid of some old blogs and adding links to my new blogs to the main home page.

I finished my journal and card for the July BJP page. There are pictures on My BJP Blog. I have also added my first entry for my August page before I add the beads.