GIVEAWAY!

Hello! Last night in the deep pathways of my brain, somewhere between being awake and asleep the thoughts of a giveaway for all my lovely blog readers came creeping into my head. When I awoke, I was so excited just thinking about it! I have had my blog for over three years now and I have received so much positive encouragement and support as I have grown in my creativity throughout the last few years. I really appreciate all the support that this blog and its readers have given me as I strive to discover who I am and what I want to be as a person and an artist. I am looking forward to my 5 month adventure in China and a little time off from all my many creative hobbies that I love so much. So before I leave the continent, I want to do a Summer Giveaway Extravaganza! I will be giving away a sweet ribbon necklace that I recently posted about to one lucky visitor of my blog.


To enter, just leave a comment on this post telling me your favorite thing about summer and make sure that I have your email! Enter the giveaway on or before Tuesday the 22nd of June! I will pick a winner through some sort of random method that night. I am just so excited to give one of my creations away!

(this is not the exact necklace I will be giving away)

My favorite thing about summer is getting to escape the heat with a movie in a nice cool movie theater. Whats your favorite?

Beads Galore

Welcome my dear friends to my newest creative obsession. I have made around 30 ribbon necklaces thus far and I do not see any signs of stopping any time soon (except for my journey to Asia which will halt most of my creative endeavors for several months). I really love these necklaces. I also love the bead store that I am forced to go to almost weekly because of the vast amount of necklaces I am making. I have no choice. It is unequivocally out of my control.My first experience with Beads Galore was memorable to be sure. It was a year ago and I was with Preston shopping for wedding supplies. At 9 AM in the morning, there was a line of quite a few people waiting for the stop to open. We did feel a bit out of place because we didnt need wheel chairs or oxygen tanks and we did not know how to shop in this crazy place. I have sense learned and re-learned the proper bead store etiquette and procedures and now it is one of my favorite places to visit. It is always an adventure, always overwhelming, and always a good time.

Here are just a few examples of the necklaces. Happy trails everyone!

New Paintings

I am way behind with posting about my latest paintings. Here are several of the commissioned paintings I have completed as of late.

Among the Forest

I finished a new painting this week. I really enjoyed working on this one. I must really want to become a tree somewhere deep down in my soul because I am always drawn to painting about it. This girl is not just giving life to her own tree but she is helping the trees around her grow stronger. It is a lovely idea indeed. Enjoy.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Craft Day

For many weeks, Mindi, Shannon, and I have been planning a Smith Craft Day Extravaganza! I have now moved to mesa so so we decided that last Saturday May 29th would be the day! It was awesome! We crafted all day and ate some delicious food while we were at it. I wish everyday was craft day! Zach says that I am the, "walking craft day" but I dont usually have people to do my crafts with so it was wonderful. Preston, Zach, and Jude were very good sports. We got a great deal done. We did not get as much done as we planned but we had a good time and did accomplish plenty.

We made, what seemed like, hundreds of blocks. I suppose it was only 38 but it took a very long while.

This is a look at the mayhem that was the condo. I brought all of my craft supplies up from home and Mindi brought some of hers too. It was wonderful to have everything we needed right at hand.

I told Mindi about an awesome salad I love from Macaroni Grill and she decided to try and recreate it for craft day. It was amazing. I loved that salad. I dream of that salad. Mmmmmm

This is a photo of what I have now named "Happiness Triffle". The ingredients are crumbled up brownies, peanut butter cups, vanilla pudding with peanut butter and whipped cream in it. Zach's mom told us about it and Shannon and I went from speaking with her to the store immediately to get the ingredients. It was very easy and delicious. It the perfect treat for craft day.

Almost done with all of our blocks.

Jude was even helping mom. What a good little helper he is.

As much as I hate living away from Mom and Dad and the extra ten or twenty degrees that the city asphalt and lower elevation brings, I love to live with Shannon and Zach and near Preston Mindi and Jude. I have the greatest family in the world. The end.

LOST Party

It is the end of an era. I have been watching LOST for many years now and it is finally at an end. I am relieved. I do not know if I could have handled it for much longer. I like the show and consider it one of the bravest and most interesting shows ever to hit TV but it caused me so much stress. It is like a big burden has been lifted off my shoulders. To celebrate, my siblings and some friends of ours had a party. We had Dharma cupcakes, Samoa Bars, hamburgers, and many other delicious things. We even decorated!

As for my thoughts and feelings on the finale, I hated it at first and now, after many hours of thought, have decided that I liked it but never plan on watching the show again. It was a nice 6 years, but I am done.

Farewell LOST!!

Mayhem

It is May again. That means that another full year of school has elapsed and I am officially halfway done with college. It is mad, mad I tell you! I cannot believe how fast time goes. I have come to relate the speed of time to how long white chocolate covered Oreos last in my presence. That is a infinitely short amount of time. You would not even know they were ever there. I have already in May, passed College Algebra, graduated from EAC, moved to Mesa, and partied like a ninja and the month isnt even over yet!

Iron Man 2

I love going to movies in the theater. I find a great deal of happiness in the whole experience. I hold firm in my belief that every person, if you ever plan on seeing the films, should go to Twilight movies the day they come out because of the experience. I have gone on opening days twice but not midnight showings and I fear I missed out. The true entertainment of those films can only be experienced surrounded by hundreds of hormone filled fanatical Mormon women. I hate the books and the movies but I do love to go see them the weekend they come out. I have rarely been so entertained. It was pure magic. Judging by experience, Iron Man 2 was a medium to a large amount of good. The movie wasnt fantastic but it was worth seeing. I stand by the belief that any film RDJ (Robert Downey Jr.) is in is worth seeing. The night involved hippies, a crazy crowd, me yelling at a super annoying girl, and a large amount of food that i snuck in. Wonderful.

Passing College Algebra

Math has always been a struggle for me. I knew the day would come that I would have to take college algebra but I have been putting it off for years due to pure terror. I finally took it this semester and I not only PASSED but I got a B! I had one of the greatest teachers I have ever had. Mr. Orr is my hero. Anyone is a hero of mine that can inspire me to work hard enough in math to get a B. The important thing is, I am done done done done done done done with math FOREVER!!!!

Graduation

I hate graduation caps and gowns more than I hate Kevin Costner and Miley Cyrus combined. That is alot of hate encompassed against this one graduation outfit. I really want to know who came up with this idiotic hat. It looks horrible on everyone.

Wendy, me, and Stephenie all graduated. I am going to China with Wendy. She is wonderful and NOT taller than me. I look like such a shrimp in that photo but I am not.

There were many highlights of my graduation but I will name a few. 1) They had a West Side Story special number. We were all extremely confused. We just went with it. 2) A kid that I have known for several years turned to me during the ceremony and asked me, "were you cross eyed as a child?" I looked at him strange and then bid farewell to him and my EAC career. EAC was a good place for me but it is time to move on.

Here is a little update. More to come. Happy trails...

Bookcase

Yet another semester of college has gone by and woodworking continues to be the only thing that I enjoy about school. I love to go and, although I have not done quite as much this semester, I did finish the bookcase I have been working on for sometime. I am rather pleased with the final product. I have a serious problem when it comes to normal bookshelves. You see, I have a few large books that are around 16 inches tall and then I also have books that are extremely short. There are very few bookshelves that are high enough to fit my big books and if they are big enough, they are just much too high for the little books. I kept this in mind when I was looking at bookcase ideas. I finally found the perfect idea at Ikea of course. There was a great deal of guessing and deviating, or as I like to say "tweaking", but it turned out similar and, in my opinion, even better than what I saw at Ikea.  Now all my lovely books can have their allotted place. My only problem now is that my expansive Harry Potter collection requires an entire bookcase of its own, but I will have to tackle that little debacle later. For now, I have a sweet new bookcase that is living in its new home and what will be my new home in 2 weeks. In exactly 2 weeks I graduate from EAC and move up to Mesa to live with Shannon and Zach for the summer before I leave for Zhongshan in August.

In the shop

The only down side of a bookcase like this is that it takes an eternity to stain. Check out all the surface area on that thing. You dont notice until you have to cover all of it 6 times.

Finished Product!!!

My dad just bought a new X-Terra last week and really wanted to test its hauling abilities. So despite the fact that there were three of us traveling in the vehicle for three hours, he was determined to haul my bookcase with us. Was it necessary? No, but Square Knot it was a test of his hauling abilities so failure was not an option. In case you cant notice, there is very little room on that seat. I barely fit!

Flower Power

Arizona has been my home for 18 years. I like living here but it is often very difficult to see the beauty of it, especially when it is hotter than hell, everything is dead, and you get frequent nose bleeds because of how dry it is. Sometimes, in this time of year, it is beautiful. We have had alot of rain this year and because of this the flowers in the desert have been AMAZING. They are rarely this beautiful. We have been doing our best to take advantage of it since we have never seen the flowers this beautiful and possibly never will again. We have been on many rides out in the desert and even went and cooked dutch oven dinner among the flowers last week. It was lovely.

On one of our drives to look at the flowers, Square Knot was too anxious to jump out of the car and get photos that he turned the car off without putting it in park. This causes a bit of an issue when you are on a hill headed towards a huge cliff with me in the backseat. I was powerless to save myself but thankfully Square Knot was able to save me. I told him that he could not count a life saved if he was the one that made it so the life was in need of saving. He disagrees.

Allison, Loren, Wendy, Me, Fabiana, and Jordon chilling on the desert. I think this photo because I feel that our outfits completely encompass our personalities. Allison the tennis ninja, Loren the super stylish one, Wendy the free spirit, and me the nerd. I think it is funny that I am in plaid pants and a button up shirt on the desert.

Loren, Wendy, and Allison are becoming cactus.

I have no explanation of these photos.

I love all of these girls immensely.

What a lovely time we had on the desert. Dads dutch oven cooking was as good as it has ever been.

Paintings Paintings Everywhere

It has been a crazy month. I have been very busy with school, painting, and my recent Robert Downey Jr. obsession. There was a time, long ago, where I would blog about a painting the second it was done but that time has passed and gone. Here are many of the latest paintings I have done over the last few weeks. I have been selling many originals and I really appreciate all the support I have been getting. China is getting closer and my money raising goals and seeming to be within my reach. I have a facebook fan page that I update frequently. If you are not a fan yet, get on that bizzle! 

A Flock of Birds

I love these little birds. I am very happy that this cute little girl has so many friends with her as she leaves on her journey to new places. I want to travel places by birds. I am sure that would be a lovely way to travel. I just need to find me some bird friends. I will get on that.

Within A Cage

My dad said this one looked 'terrifying'. I am not sure if that's an accurate description but it is a little oppressive. It reminded Zach of the movie Willow. I am not sure I understand this either. I suppose I will let you interpret it as you will. I enjoyed painting it while watching Iron Man (remember that Robert Downey Jr. obsession I was talking about).

Moonscape

I love city scapes. I always want to paint them but they never turn out how I want them to. That little girl has a hard time letting go of things. In this case, she has a little bit of an issue letting go of the moon. I do not blame her, I also love the moon. I have a hard time letting go of things too.

Commissioned Pieces

A lovely friend of mine asked me if I would paint something special for her and this is what we came up with together. She said she wanted something happy. I think this is happy. My favorite part is the umbrella's. I want every single one of those umbrellas in real life. Is that really too much to ask? I think not.

My wonderful momma wanted me to paint this for her to give as a gift. It is very similar to Within A Cage that I did a couple of months ago and have since sold. It is bigger and took more time and patience. I am happy with how it turned out and am not sure that this will ever leave the house. This may end up being a gift for herself.

I did a painting like this about a year ago. A couple wonderful ladies came over and both wanted one so I had to do another so both of these wonderful ladies would be satisfied. I like the second one I did much better than the first. Pages from Lord of the Rings serves as the background.