Friday Links

I painted this abstract tree "masterpiece" at Pinot's Palette last night with some co-workers. It is now brightening up my cubicle. Yay!

How about some Friday Links?

♥ Throughout November, when you bring a jar of peanut butter to Muddy's for the Mid-South Food Bank, you'll get a free Tomboy cupcake! I don't know about you, but I'm about to stock up on some peanut butter. There is a limit of one per person per day.

♥ Stories From The Brooke's diet got her out of an awkward situation. This post just made me laugh, and commiserate, as do all her posts.

♥ Native Born on not expecting everyone to like you. I go through phases of heavy struggling with this, and am currently in one, so I needed her words of freedom.

♥ If food is your love language: Theology of the Kitchen Table from Preston at A Deeper Story. (If you're not following A Deeper Story, you're missing out!)

♥ I'm still thinking about a recent post at Carolyn Custis James' blog about interpreting Ephesians 5 differently. I'm not saying I take her thoughts or those of the article under discussion as absolute gospel truth, but it's a fascinating angle on things.

♥ Some writing thoughts that resonated with me: Life. Edited. on coming out of the writer's closet, and Chasing Blue Skies on Why I Do What I Do.

♥ I recently discovered the fantastic ministry LOVE AND RESPECT (NOW). I think their stuff is interesting no matter what phase of life you're in. Well, their recent blog post It's Just Coffee gave me a (needed?) smack upside the head this week. I felt like the author had invaded my thoughts while I was asleep, Inception-style, so close was it to my own feelings. I've felt uncomfortably convicted ever since. Now if only the whole world would get on board with her conclusions.

Happy Friday!

Bluesy Tuesday

(source)

I don't know if it's the shorter days already affecting me (and we're still in DST, people), or other things, but I've felt increasingly down over the last couple of weeks. It can be hard for me to find the right balance of time alone and time with people - I'm an introvert and need regular downtime, but if I'm alone too much, I get lonely and depressed. It's a bad sign when I start feeling alone even in a crowd. Sometimes it's a very fine line. Also, although I love fall, this time of year can be a little difficult for me due to past events. In the present, I'm worried about my cat Peach, who's not eating much and getting way too skinny despite my best efforts. Finally, I lost my camera at a wedding reception this weekend. I foolishly left it out on the table along with all my friends' cameras, and at some point I guess it was stolen (the caterers found a lot of left-behind things, but no camera). I was holding out hope that the reception hall staff found it, but I just got confirmation that they have not. Thankfully, I still have my old camera (and my new iPhone includes a pretty good one), but I'm still sad and angry at myself. Aside: This is an example of why it's so important to import and back up your pictures regularly! I only lost a few photos because I'm vigilant about backup. If this had happened to my mom, who literally transfers photos from the camera to her computer ONCE A YEAR, it would have been devastating.

Anyway, via a random series of links this morning, I discovered Parker Fitzgerald's 365 Polaroid Quotes project. I looked at every one - I couldn't stop. The combination of his beautiful, artistic photos and uplifting quotes (one example at the top of this post) truly comforted my soul. I now feel reassured about life, God, and the universe. If you need a little reassurance today too, check them out.

What I Did On My Christmas Vacation

our local musical light display

Partly thanks to the convenient placement of the holidays in 2011, I just had ten days off from work! It was the first staycation I've taken in ten years of cubicle dwelling. Here's a recap:

+ Christmas 2011 was a success! My parents, brother, and grandma attended my church with me on Christmas Eve, but we didn't go on Christmas Day because Debra and Lance arrived mid-morning. As usual, my parents were excessively generous with gifts. I got a sewing machine (you'll be hearing much more about that), AND an electric leaf blower and electric edger that are super easy to use. Not sure what it says about me that I'm equally excited about craft and yard implements.

 

 

+ For New Year's Eve, my parents, brother, and I had dinner downtown at Pearl's Oyster House and went to the Tigers game. We arrived back at my parents' just in time to see the NYC ball drop on TV. At our midnight, we switched to the guitar drop on Beale Street (and the "Moon Pie Drop" out of Mobile - did anyone else see that?!?). I was home in bed by around 1 am. As far as I'm concerned, it was an almost perfect NYE.

+ On New Year's Day, we had one midmorning service at church, which was an absolutely perfect kickoff to the year. Then I hosted an open house/late brunch. About 20 people came and everyone seemed to have a GREAT time. I feel loved and blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life. ♥ We didn't do a craft this year, but I made a simple backdrop for photo ops:

 

 

 

+ Before my sister went back to Nashville, I got to feel my niece kick for the first time! It was amazing. (She has a name now, but it's not public yet.)

+ I bought a Kindle Touch the day after Christmas. It felt indulgent and impulsive, but I'd been thinking about it for a long time. Now I can participate in BookSneeze and other stuff for book bloggers. I'm still totally Team Real Books, but I'm excited to have an e-reader for vacations, rare books, giveaways, flash sales, that kind of thing.

+ I also bought long-awaited faux wood window blinds, and they look wonderful. I'm thrilled that the days of yucky beige aluminum blinds, and cats rattling them in the night, are over! (Pictures to come.)

+ One of my vacation goals was to see movies, something I never do anymore. I watched We Bought A Zoo, One Day, Tangled, and Dolphin Tale, and enjoyed them all. My mom was amused that I described Dolphin Tale as "surprisingly emotional," but it was. I was a mess for at least a third of it. (If you'd ever seen my dolphin-and-whale-covered childhood bedroom, this would make more sense.)

+ I enjoyed long lunches with Nell at Cafe Eclectic, and Caroline at Petra Cafe. Both places were on my list of restaurants I wanted to check out.

+ I went to the Brooks Museum to catch an exhibit of 1950s Everglades etchings. The other exhibits were cool too. I'd like to go to art museums more often.

+ I ate way, way too much. I exercised most days, but I don't think it was enough to counteract the constant desserts and dips (and wheels of Brie). The post-holiday soup and salad diet starts this week. :P

I hope everyone got at least some holiday time off! How were your breaks?

Hanson and Tigers

I had a wonderful and VERY busy weekend. On Friday night I went to see Hanson perform at the Delta Fair. I'm not ashamed to say I've been a huge Hanson fan since 1997, and anyone who dismisses them (or doesn't even know they've released four more albums since "Mmmbop") is missing out. I actually spent ten minutes evangelizing about them to a guy on the Ferris wheel, after he asked me who was playing that night.  He may have been sorry he brought it up. LOL! This was my third Hanson show, and I'm sure it wasn't my last. I was only about ten feet from the stage (on Isaac's side, which was a happy accident since he's always been my fave).

(It was impossible to get a good picture of Zac from where I was.
Also - the backup keyboardist looked just like Wallace from Veronica Mars. Be cool, soda pop!)

On Saturday morning, my friend Hillary and I went to the 100 Tigers exhibit on the U of M campus. To celebrate the university centennial next year, 100 big tiger sculptures were painted by different artists. This was the only time they'd all be shown in one place before they scatter them around town. It was REALLY cool and I'm so glad we went - I took a ridiculous amount of photos. Here are some of my favorite tigers:

Papier-mache music tiger

Glittery mosaic tiger

Line-drawing tiger

And of course, basketball tiger

Each tiger was assigned a class year. They were arranged semi-chronologically, and where my class's tiger should have been, there was a gap. I was distraught and confused. Trying to console me, Hillary said it must have some special placement. To my surprise, she was right - the Class of 2001 tiger was voted Best in Show! :D

Yay!!!

That wasn't the end of my weekend fun. I also rode my bike on the Greenline and got pizza and paletas with my mom, and attended an 80's roller-skating party, but I don't have pictures of those things. :)

30 Day Journal Challenge

30 Day Journal Challenge, a set on Flickr.

I finally finished the 30 Day Journal Challenge last night, having been several days behind almost the entire time. I'm very glad I participated in this. I'd never art journaled before, and sometimes it was a struggle, or I just felt silly. But after only a few days, I could feel an old door of creativity opening.

I was a wildly creative child. I doodled on everything and wrote stories constantly and didn't think about how "good" any of it was, or whether it lived up to certain standards. In fact, I was proud of it all and freely showed it to people. Creating was as natural to me as breathing. But when I grew up, I told myself I didn't have time to waste on producing mediocrity, especially when the world was already full of it. I eventually realized that my perfectionism was killing me (across the board, not just in this area). So I've been re-programming myself, and releasing my creative self a little at a time. Because I believe that God has plans for her; that I have to crawl before I can walk, and walk before I can run; and that it IS okay to write and draw and make things just for the enjoyment of it, without thought of usefulness or productiveness. I believe that since we're made in the image of the Creator, creating is an inescapable part of our nature. (Madeleine L'Engle has a lot of great things to say about this.) Everyone has their own art, and there are a million non-artsy ways to express our creativity, so I'm not saying those are any less valid than the traditional arts. I'm just saying I'm trying to get back in touch with those traditional things!

Anyway, this challenge was a good experience and I'd definitely do it again. In fact, I might look for another challenge or set of prompts to do in a few months! It was fun to see my friends' different takes on the same subject. I also made some new blog friends over the course of the month. :)

Thanks to the awesome Janel for putting this challenge together!

Happy weekend.

This past weekend was wonderful!

I successfully taught line dancing to a group for the first time, at my church community group's chili cook-off. I was nervous about it, but everything went great! I also baked pumpkin cakes (and will share more about them in another post).

I went to Murfreesboro and got in touch with my inner band nerd at Contest of Champions, along with my best friend from college and her husband!

This show (by Brentwood High School) was about being lost in the woods and totally revolved around a flutist. For that reason, it goes on my list of top ten favorite marching shows of all time. :)

I visited the Dale Chihuly exhibit at Cheekwood on my way out of Nashville. I'm so glad I did - it was beautiful!

 

Then I came home with my new armchair! I saw it at HomeGoods (which we don't have) last time I was in Nashville, decided against it, then couldn't stop thinking about it. So Debra picked it up for me. It looks perfect in my living room and I look forward to many happy hours of reading in it this winter.

It reclines, too! :)

My day of culture.

Sunday was a relaxing and cultured day for me. After church, Myla and I went to the Brooks for the final day of the Who Shot Rock n' Roll exhibit, featuring both famous and little-seen photos of rock stars. It was cool. I have to admit that my favorite was "Girls In a Hotel Who Have Just Seen New Kids on the Block," circa 1990... my generation's contribution. It was next to an equally fantastic photo of crazed British girls trying to get past some constables to see the Beatles.

Later, I went to our other major art museum, the Dixon. My parents' friends had given me their tickets to Symphony in the Gardens there. I couldn't find anyone to go with me, so I went alone and am really proud of myself for doing so. :) The fall weather was too perfect not to go! Admission to the museum and gardens was free with the symphony ticket, so I went early and looked at some sculpture and plants. The symphony itself was great. They have a new conductor who was wonderful at engaging the audience and sharing interesting things about the music. She also said that Dvorak is one of her favorite composers and asked anyone with Czech heritage to wave their hands (I'm a quarter Czech). :) My parents have season tickets to the symphony, so I'm hoping to tag along to a few more performances.

After all that, it was still pretty early, so I watched some of the Dolphins/Jets game with my dad and brother. I saw it through to the end at home, although it was painful (and I scared the cats more than once with my shouting and hopping). Brush it off, Fins!