Make Like A Tree and Leaf: July 2008

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Today is...

Hello!! Today is Thursday... I am saying this for my own benefit because I woke up this morning convinced that it was Wednesday! I cannot keep my days straight this summer, school will start soon so I will be right on track... hopefully! I woke up this morning and am definately a bit ill. I quickly rejected what I ate last night and when I tried to eat some chicken noodle soup today because of my current ravinously hungry status my stomach apparently rejected that too. Hopefully this is just a 24 hour bug and will be gone by tomorrow.

In the last couple days I have done a bit of painting... This is the first of a four part collection. It in not titled yet... but once I finish the other 3 parts it shall have a name! My dad loves sunflowers and when I began to paint this he then brought in four different types of sunflowers from the backyard so I could have inspiration! They did help... but soon I noticed that little tiny bugs were crawling all over the table and on the canvas but I did get rid of them so it is all good now.

This is a work in progress and is not yet finished but I did want to share it none the less. I shall show it again when it is completely finished.

Happy Trails...

Monday, July 28, 2008

35,000 Miles

I returned home yesterday from my fourth and final trip of this fabulous summer! I was calculating it last night and I have traveled about 35,000 miles in two months! It has been such a wonderful summer that I am sad that it has to end but none the less like all things... they come to an end eventually!

These are both beautiful pictures of the wild flowers up Manti Canyon!

This last trip was back to Utah to help my grandpa clean out his store and also to go to three different family reunions. There was a reunion at Fish Lake with my moms immediate family as well as a reunion with her extended family and then for the grand finale there was a Smith reunion with my dads family. There was alot of rook playing, Chuck Norris jokes (thanks Preston), and alot of bald men! It was slews of fun! I never see that side of the family so it is always good to see that some of my oddities really are genetic and there are others that are just as stubborn and crazy as me!
Jed, Preston, Me!

Cousins...........

Dad, Preston, and Micah...

That is all for now... Happy Trails!

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Happy 4th of July (one week later)

I am finally posting about our Fourth of July Festivities! My sister and brother in law Shannon and Zach came down and we did a chocolate fountain! Here are some pictures!

Shannon and I got matching shorts and decided to be corney for a day and matched!!

I made some hair do-dads ...

My father has taken up carving and has started to carve his thumb... remarkable isnt it?

Trees Full Of Jewelry!

Happy Saturday!

This week I have been trying to detox from all my vacations, yes I know my life is very difficult but that is what I have been trying to do none the less. My week of detox has consisted of watching lots of movies, TV Shows, and a whole lot of nothing! Amongst the nothing I have managed to get a few things done however. I have discovered and remedied a few problems that have vexed me over the last bit of my life. For example I have ALOT of necklaces! Here they all are...

An excess of necklaces in fact... I had a jewelry holder but apon examining it the other day I discovered that the holder was so full there were necklaces hidden in the back that i dearly loved that I had not worn in months for the sheer fact that they were hidden!

This was a problem that had to be solved! I needed a bigger jewelry holder so what did I do? I MADE ONE!!!

My dad so willingly helped me to mount my tree to some wood so it wouldnt tip over!

This is been my major project this week! I just got some wire i had laying around and twisted and twisted! I am excited with how it turned out! I love jewelry and i love trees so what could be better?

Happy Trails!

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Bonjourno!

Hello!!! I have been out of touch with the blogging world for more than a month, wow!!! I wanted to share a few snap shots of my fabulous trip to Europe! I had an incredible time and learned so much! We got to go places I only ever dreamed of visiting! Enjoy the pictures and I will begin to post more of my artistic adventures soon!

Our feet in the Rome Airport!

A fountain in Saint Peters Square outside the Vatican!

The Fabulous fountain of Trevi

The Roman Forum at Sunset!!!

The Colliseum at night!!!

The Vatican in the Square of the Pinecone, can you see why?
I didnt realize but the Vatican is one of the biggest art museums in the world! It has millions of incredible sculptures, paintings, and pretty much everything you can imagine both secular and not... You could spend years there, if only we all could!!

One of the many incredible statues at the Vatican. Aparently, this is one of the pieces that gave michaelangelo his inspiration when he painted the Sistine Chapel!