Swirly Christmas trees

This is what I worked on this week... I drew about 10 of these swirly trees in one setting one night. Then cut them out the next evening which was Wednesday before going to church. I have an idea for it which I wrote about in my Gratitude journal. I have just not had a chance to post it yet. I can see them scattered about on white cardstock or watercolor paper. I want to use water color to draw pale blue indentions to represent the snow. If it doesn't work, I will draw it with a pencil. I can just see it... What did you work on and create this week?

theRAV

This post is good as any to fill in the gaps of our Christmas holiday. Thankfully we made it up to Indy safely and back. It was kind of weird this year because we had to drive back on Christmas day. We sort of ruined Yvonne's plan of having Christmas at her house on Christmas Day. So we had Christmas dinner followed by the gift exchange on the 22nd at my in-laws. I did leave some of Rhett's gifts scattered each day. I let him open his main gift on Christmas Eve. He got a Nintendo DS. When he opened it, he started crying. Then he was jumping up and down as I saw a tear fly from his eye so it was all worth it. I took oodles of picturesas always. Most of which I have uploaded now. I did not bore you with every single one of them - just the good ones.

Coming home on Christmas day was weird. Don thought the Cracker Barrel would be open. DUH! It was Christmas. So we snacked on junk food on the way home. I was just thankful the gas stations were open. That was my fear. While in Indy, had some of the best sugar cookies Helen made. I left my recipe for it on the table the day we left. Don said I probably wouldn't make them anyway! I'd written a recipe for persimmon pudding in my Gratitude journal so I could email it to Susannah of http://inkonmyfingers.typepad.com/ which I emailed to her today. We ate cheeseburger helper before we departed for home. We got home around 9 pm which is early for us. It was good to be home again.

The day after Christmas we had Christmas at my folk's. Luckily mom had leftover Christmas dinner consisting of ham and her dressing. I got to catch up on "General Hospital" again. I realize it was Wednesday, church night. So I decided the four of us would go ahead with our Christmas, open presents and take Don's to him. So that was weird also.

I made the mistake of letting Daddy open his gift 1st. We'd gotten him Rhett Butler's People. Instead of him sitting, watching and enjoying Rhett opening his gifts, he was far more concerned about collecting the wrapping paper as Rhett opened them. He got on both mom's and my nerves. He still couldn't wait. He took that garbage out as mom was opening her gifts. So he missed out on what she received. Both of us kept our wrapping paper to ourselves.

We got home at 6 only to discover we were supposed to be at Elisa's to have tacos and open gifts with them. Nice to be told this at the last minute. Don was stressing and fussing. I hate it when he does that. He did not mention church.

Tatum got a Hannah Montana wig from me. I took some really good pictures of Wesley. She looked so growny. Very photographic. I gave Steph an abstract. I let her pick out which one she wanted. She picked the one I called "The Windmills of My Mind." It was actually a photo of a whirly gig printed 4 times and adhered together to form the abstract. It was the one I had in mind for her from the beginning back in October.

When Wesley Rose opened her lamb picture, she was hollering, "Granbe made it. Granbe made it!" which made me feel good. She is starting to recognize my work.

So the present exchange is through for awhile or until the next event or next Christmas.

I came back to work in good spirits, mad but I am over it now. When I told Don about what transpired, he said it boiled down to poor supervisorship. That is what happens when you don't have a supervisor. I vented a lot of my concerns to him. He made me feel better and stop worrying about what I was concerned about. So I think I will keep him.

We got off early from work on the 28th. They gave us New Year's Eve off too. I love my job!

I got my hair scrunched for $5! I went to the mall. I went to JCP. I had to pee really bad. The restroom was being cleaned. A lady working in the salon saw me. I wasn't doing the pee-pee dance but I must have looked like I really needed to go! She told me I could use their restroom. My bladder and I thanked her.

I realized I'd forgotten to pay my JCP bill the day after Christmas so I was paying it when my friend Jimmy came by to give me a hug. I kissed him on his cheek. I looked at stuff but didn't find anything. Guess I really wasn't in a shopping mood which is a shocker. I went to talk to Jim but he was busy. He was getting off at 6. I told him I was going to Wolf camera up the mall but stopped at the bookstore where I bought my yearly calendar mom always gives me or my birthday Life Little Instruction Book by H. Jackson Brown, Jr. I love buying what I want for her to give me! I also go the 3rd book of the Savannah Vampires by Raven Hart The Vampire's Kiss.

That I bought for myself.

I printed all the Christmas pictures. I took over 80 photos! Watched "Moonlight".

The rest is sort of blur now. Didn't do much. Just the ususal of catchin up on emails. Can't recall anything that stands out now weeks later. New Year's Eve was spent at home with my guys. Rhett and I undecorated the Christmas tree while Hunter Don slept on the couch beneath a blanket. In my family, we believe it is bad luck to leave the tree up after New's Years. The one year I defied fate, was the year I had my hysterectomy. So it comes down. Rhett broke one of my ornaments but I did not get upset. He broke a pink icicle. I told him to throw the broken part away and just not worry about it. I think he was shocked. He looked like he was going to cry. My attitude was, "Oh, well..." Who is this strange woman? LOL

We watched the New Year come in with Dick Clark. Someone had said they thawed him out. So it was a quiet New Year's for us. I did not want to be in a crowd of crazy drunk folks anyway.

Happy New Year by the way. My mom woke me up early on New Year's day thinking I had to work! Don worked on my car after hunting. He replaced the alternator which killed the battery. I never thought that was a good batery anyway. But does ever listen to what I say? At least it is running again for which I am thankful and I don't have to drive the monster truck. We ate at Hartz chicken where I had a few black eyed peas but they are not as good as my mom's.

My New Year's resolution was to not stress. I should have resolved to not let others make me mad and angry but that would have been broken on the 2nd day of the new year. It just made me thankful I am considerate of others and am not selfish; not thinking only of myself like my co-workers.

Jan. 4th was my friend Mike E's mother's 90th birthday. He sent an email hinting to call her with good birthday wishes which my mom and I did. Got off work a little early. Cell phone bill to pay. I learned how to store numbers on my phone. Don had to work today. Went to eat Mexican.I got nachos which I will never get there again! Should have just gotten rice. Got home in plenty of time to see "Moonlight". I have given up the ghost on "Ghost Whisperer" for my vamp!

Jan. 5th, slept in since it was my birthday weekend where I could do whatever I wanted to do. Amanda called wanting to do something. I was so wishey-washey. Needing a shower and to do my hair which took the rest of the afternoon. I wanted to see "Enchanted". It was at the regular movies at 8 pm. Don was in the woods. He got home just in time for us to make it there while the previes were playing. No shower for him. Because it was so expensive I had to buy the popcorn and drinks. So that was my birthday present from him. Steph & Amanda came too. Amanda kept saying she was working on a project. I wondered if it was something for me. I was hoping it was like Steph's eye picture she made her. "Enchanted was very good or at least I thought it was. A bit boring in the beginning. The optomistic character was a tad annoying to a point. Then the unexpected happened and it got really good. Dr. McDreamy was dressed as a prince. Sigh. Honey pleez! I haven't said Penny's expression in a long time. The artwork at the end was awesome. I guess it inspired me because I stayed up til 1 am working on a collage inspired by the prompting of Leah from http://www.createeveryday.com . Her sugesstion for inspiration for the New Year was to cut things out of a magazine(s) that meant something to you in the next 365 days. I'd already cut out words that were calling to me from their box... It was not finished but I liked what I had thus far. It lead to more inspiration... next post... my birthday.