Monthly Archives: July 2011

Jul13

On the Importance of Flowers

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On the Importance of Flowers

When I was first dating Jared, I used to say how he didn’t need to buy me flowers for Valentines Day, birthdays, or anniversaries. First of all, flowers can be expensive. Anybody who has had a significant other or a mother knows that any flowers bought on Valentine’s Day and/or Mother’s Day are priced to rack in the big money. And then, after a few days (or if you’re really lucky, a week or two) they die. Get all limp and soggy or dried up and brown, and it’s a nasty mess to clean up.

So I told Jared not to bother.  He, like any smart man, decided to play it save and did it anyways, but I would have probably been okay without it. I really did feel badly about how expensive and overrated they could be.

But secretly, I was always really glad he did it.

I LOVE having fresh flowers around the house.

Cayenne Roses Close up

Especially since we have our own home, I feel a certain pride in the beautiful things that are around, even the temporary items like flowers that you have to keep changing.

Flowers Outside  

There’s a certain charm in having them around. The subtle fragrance. The many shapes. The variety of color. I’m always amazed with the beautiful, delicate colors that nature can come up with. I love being surprised by the natural beauty that we can find in the world, and so grateful for it being here.

Cayenne Roses Top view

H-E-B is having a “Rose Festival”. Lots of the flowers aren’t in the best quality, but I found these “Cayenne” roses in the big bin and loved that color. And for roses, they have lasted quite well for the past 5 days. 🙂 Woohoo!

On a side note, I also found this awesome color highlight setting on the phone that I tried out on the roses!

Color highlight Cayenne Roses Close up Color highlight Cayenne Roses Close up 2

What are the simple things that brighten YOUR day?

Jul12

Who doesn’t like glitter?

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Who doesn’t like glitter?

So, I could go forward with my rant about how overused the word “epic” is. Or talk about how the South Beach diet is (not) going for me (First 5 lbs in like the first week, gone. Then in the following 3 weeks of faithfulness, only 5 more lbs. UGH.) But both of those aren’t very positive, and I need a non-negative post right now. Or at least something in that “neutral” zone.

So, a little history into the crafty side of Elisabeth. I like doing crafty stuff, but generally it’s non-typical crafty stuff. I’ve tried quilting, scrapbooking, and even photograph albums, but I’m just not the best with them. Story of my life.

During my senior year of high school, my totally awesome mythology teacher (yes, I got to take a whole year of MYTHOLOGY in high school. BEST. CLASS. EVER. And not because it was an “Easy A” sort of class, because it wasn’t.) had us do a mosaic project. We could take any subject in Greek/Roman mythology and make a mosaic of it, using whatever materials you’d like. So I took a picture of John W. Waterhouse that he made from The Odyssey.

Penelope and the Suitors

(You can find “Penelope and the Suitors” and more from the John W. Waterhouse website.)

My teacher had an overhead of this picture, so I was able to project it up on the wall and do a rough sketch of what would fit on my posterboard I had been given to work with. Fifty hours -yes, really FIFTY 5-0 hours- later, after using up lots of beads, thread, yarn, glitter, and paper, I turned this in:

Penelope and the Suitors Mosaic    Penelope Close up

Most people really liked it. It was voted in the top 3 of however many students finished the assignment. That was pretty cool. My mom was really proud of it, and as a birthday present the next year, she got it framed all nice for me. It now sits on the wall in our dining room, even though every time I look at it I find ways I could have made it better.

Anyways, around the same time we moved into our house, I got the desire to make another mosaic, this time taking my inspiration from Greg Olsen’s art, White as Snow. It almost turned into a gift for somebody else, but after spending 10 hours just to finish Christ:

Christ closeup

I knew that I would be too invested to give it away. Plus, shipping the thing would’ve been a pain. So instead, I gave her this, which was probably much more conveniently sized as well!) This time, the project took about 30 hours, mainly using various beads and stones and some twine. Not having to cut up colored paper into tiny sizes really cut back on the time. It sat around the house for awhile, until this past Valentine’s Day when Jared took it and me to the nearest Michaels store to get it framed. (And let me tell you, that isn’t cheap!) It now resides in our living room wall, looking like this:

White as Snow Mosaic

Lately, I’ve been doing “glitter pictures,” something that I saw Martha Stewart (and no, trust me, I am no “Martha Stewart” housewife in ANY way or form) do on a Jay Leno show. Very random. But it’s fun. You take a picture, and then you glitterfy (new word!) it.

Sunflower pre-glitter  turns into

Glittered Sunflower Glittered Sunflower 2

I take the picture, size it and print it out, then glue it to a canvas. After it dries, I glitterfy it. Since I haven’t had time the past year to do this sort of thing, it took me a bit of time to warm up to it, about 5 hours. But the finished result is pretty neat, yes? I’m working on one of Bonnie to see if I can “customize” it more.

Glitter Bonnie

Stinky Stevie has not been glitterfied yet. It’s probably a good thing he can’t read this blog, or he’d be offended I did Bonnie first. But he is a MAN dog, after all, and I’m pretty sure Jared would say being glitterfied is not manly.

Anyways, Jared thinks I should try doing this on one of those crafty websites and see if anybody would want to buy it, but I don’t know. What do YOU think?

(Sorry for any fuzzy pictures… our camera is on its last legs and has been having lots of issues…)

Jul7

Fowards

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Fowards

Warning to all readers: This is a rant. If you do not like rants, then please do not continue reading. Thank you.

One thing that drives me CRAZY are email forwards. Of any kind. I do not care for your lolz cats or husband-bashing or motivational food-for-thoughts or political opinions or  stories about a sick child’s dying wish or a warning you to not pull over at _______ because ______ will happen AND YOU MAY DIE.

And oh, don’t forget to forward this on to  as many people as possible because if not, you will have seven years of bad luck and then you or someone you love will die a horribly tragic and excruciating death. So, to cover all your bases, you do a mass forward to anyone who ever had the misfortune to be included in your email address book.

Come on, people!

If I wanted to see the cute, cuddly animals, I could do a Google search. I have a lolz cats of the day on my iGoogle page, which I rarely look at and while I am thinking about it, I may just get rid of it now.

I rather like my husband, and he’s excellent at putting his clothes in the hamper and dishes in the dishwasher, so I don’t want to bash him or men in general.

Political opinion pieces generally include extreme character attacks, and it’s just depressing to read.

And all those warnings or “Oh my gosh I can’t believe ____ happened!” emails? Check out snopes.com and the likes first to make sure it’s not purely made up. Because most of those things never happened.

So, don’t send me your forwards. Unless something like the Second Coming has started AND IF that were to happen I could probably hear about it first on CNN.com or the news, so really, forwarding an email chain isn’t necessary.You could even just post a link to it on your Facebook page, and give me the option to -click- and view it if I so choose to.

One in fifty might be worth resending, and if it is, at least include some personalized “I really thought of you when I saw this” note at the top. And make sure that the actual email is included. Thank you.

Tune in next time for my thought-provoking essay on how the word “epic” is completely overused in today’s youth and media…

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Jul5

The Help

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The Help

I just finished reading The Help by Kathryn Stockett.

Wow.

You always hear people going on about a great book, and then the hype usually doesn’t live up to the expectations you formed. And plus, it wasn’t a fantasy/sci-fi novel that I tend to gravitate to; it’s more of a historical fiction.

It just got me thinking about all the lines, borders, fences, etc., we put up between ourselves and anybody else who might be considered “different”. In our daily chats at CTWP, this came up over and over again, in multiple settings and different issues.  Race. Religion. Sexuality. Social status. Abuse.

We fear different. Different might even be better than what we do, and we can’t have that. It’s like the Demotivator: The tallest blade of grass is first to be cut by the lawnmower.

Underacheivement

(Thanks, Despair.com)

We often like to pretend those lines aren’t there. It’s wrong or inappropriate to discuss them as a teacher in the classroom setting. Some things are acceptable now that weren’t when my parents were children. And even then, some people still have deep rooted prejudices towards the Civil Rights movements of the 60s. And students are amazed when they realize, in several parts of the world, the country, the state,  some people still keep their lines drawn firmly between themselves and “The Others”.

So it’s always there, the current deep and powerful, lurking under the waters. That’s why I love novels, reading, writing, so much–because deep in every important story, the lines are discussed, crossed, eliminated, or held up. And your reaction to whatever it is, tells more about you than you even realize.

Stories like The Help tear at me. I wonder how many times I just accepted something that was told to me because it was “just how things are”? How many times I treated somebody based on a preconceived stereotype, not thinking about what I was really doing or saying? How naive and ignorant have I been?

In the end, I desperately wish that people could just truly care about each other the way they should, not withstanding these lines. What a place this world could be, I wonder, if everyone treated each other with a little more kindness and acceptance. If we all lived by The Golden Rule: treat everyone how you would want to be treated yourself.

Would we have those lines still?