Project 13 of many. . .

I can't put pictures up of Project 13 just yet. Project 13 is a lovely little batch of bridesmaid dresses and one flower girl dress that I am making for my bestest, Kaite Rassi (soon to be Gregory!!). It may grow to include a few other little odds and ends, but as of right now my little list of things to do is keeping me quite occupied. I will have pictures after September 26th.

Sorry this is an uneventful post. . . I felt like I had to write something or else you all would think I was lost without a plan.

I will leave you with a picture of my puppy. . .
If that's not an incriminating photo, I'm not sure what is.

Kyle's surprise party

Kyle's party went off almost without a glitch - oh, except that Kyle got home about 45 minutes earlier than I would have liked. I had everything sitting out in the kitchen. Luckily he did not come into the kitchen or notice the table I had set up. So while he checked his email I hid everything in cabinets, closets, drawers and on top of the refridgerator. Unfortunately I could not find my camera . . . I haven't been able to find it for 3 days(which is a little concerning), so I don't have any pictures. Luckily Kyle has a video camera so I was able to get some footage of the beautiful arrangment of fruit that I made.

Unfortunately I ran out of time and didn't get to make this as full as I wanted too. . . These things go for like a hundred dollars at Edible Arrangments. . . mine maybe cost $15.

First I filled the bottom of the base with sliced limes and then put marbles (i only had red) in the bottom to hold them down. Then I flushed all the pulp that was floating around in the water out and stuck the top of the pineapple down into the vase. The pineapple acted like oasis and allowed me to stick scewers of fruit down into it. I used cookie cutters to make the pineapple flowers.
I made way too much food.
Here is what what the invitation looked like that I sent out. . . I thought it was kinda clever.


It's a magic card. . .

Project 13 of many. . .

I found this great little table on craigslist. . . I guess no one else liked it because it was a really old post and had been up for over a month. I was pleased that it was still available. I think it is going to be perfect for sewing on, the best part about it is that it gives me so much more room in my studio.

Before. . .


After. . .

I left the legs the original color and just painted the rest white.

project 12 of many. . .

A little while back we had a run-in with a gopher. Said gopher went all up and down the front and back of our home eating everything in it's path and spilling dirt everywhere. It took out many plants, including our two oleander bushes in the front yard . . . we were left with something that looked exactly like this. . . The gopher is now dead.
Kyle is gone this weekend in California visiting his friend Danny so I decided to pass the time the only way I know how. . . by starting a new project. The gopher actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Usually Arizona soil is a bugger to break (and it still put up a good fight), however, the intricate tunnel system of said gopher had really loosened things up a bit making this project a lot easier than it could have been.The flower bed has red and orange hibiscus in it as well as some rosemary vine. . . There is also a new tree (shoestring acacia) planted to the left. It should provide quite a bit of shade someday without really blocking the view of the side of the house. . . My only fear with plants is that they make excellent places for thieves (bandits?) to hide behind.
In other news I am liking my front yard more and more everyday. . . I can't wait for it to grow up and only wish that I didn't have to grow up along with it. My cat's claw has really taken a hold of the side of the house and hopefully will envelope the entire side front of the garage by fall. The mimosa (nestled between the two pink oleanders on the right) has also made a remarkable comeback after staying in it's planting bucket for far too long without any water and several below freezing nights. . . I guess I'm just not used to seeing trees loose their leaves. . .

The blonde inside of me really wanted to categorize my business as "construction" today when applying for an EIN.

New Logo

Envying Bezaleel. . .

Exodus 31: 1 - 6 "And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, See, I have called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah: And I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, To devise cunning works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, And in cutting of stones, to set [them], and in carving of timber, to work in all manner of workmanship. And I, behold, I have given with him Aholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan: and in the hearts of all that are wise hearted I have put wisdom, that they may make all that I have commanded thee;"

Exodus 36:2 "And Moses called Bezaleel and Aholiab, and every wise hearted man, in whose heart the LORD had put wisdom, [even] every one whose heart stirred him up to come unto the work to do it:"

I won't lie. Everytime I read about Bezaleel I get kinda jealous. I want to be that skilled! I want my skills to be useful to the Lord. So often I feel like the abilities that God has given me don't matter much in the Kingdom of Heaven - I mean, I could make some banners for the church - but other than that I generally feel useless. I mean, I don't even like most of the banners in churches - I think they are kinda lame most of the time. So what can I do? There aren't many temples going up in Phoenix that call for a "couturist."

I quit my job today. It was a really tough thing to do. When I first started thinking about it a month ago I felt really great about the idea. I felt free. I felt like I was being given a second chance at life. It was great! Today I just felt scared and sad. My last day of work is April 25th. I don't know what I am going to do. . . I just know that I can't sell myself to Macy's any longer. I have a million ideas of what I want to do, they all involve having lots of money so that I can hire people to interpret my ideas for me. Focusing on only one thing was never one of my strengths. . . I just know I have two eyes for a reason. . .

Read this guys blog. . .

When I read what SCL had to say on one of my favorite passages of scripture I had a hard time not thinking about myself and how I am literally in the desert burying my talent in the sand. Although, seeing it from the artists perspective I can understand why we so often do that. . . No one is giving us a place to work! How are we suppose to serve God with these funky/crazy skills we have that we don't even see as valuable. Yeah, we could build the Temple, but we don't know it. . . I think if we did that some things would change.

When I was in Vegas with my dad we started talking about some thrift store that Love INC. is suppose to be putting together (it may even be together, I'm not sure). I want to do something like that out here. It would be like an antropologie/coffeehouse/bar/artstudio/lounge house/library/jam session/small group/hostel/garden/farmers makert, only everything would be done by local artists/workmen. It would be a huge collage of overlapping work done by people who have never known how to use their talents for God. Everything in the store would be for sale and the people who made these things would be for hire and could go into people's homes and do installation projects of sorts and then the money, instead of going to them, would go to supporting local missionaries or something of that sort. We'd have workshops where people could come in and learn how to do something like, build a cabinet or make a pillow or knit or learn to weld or change their car oil. And everyone would be happy and the only bottom line would be to do something the best you can and to do it for the glory of God.

It's going to be in the middle of the desert and people are going to like it I bet. . .