Craftyness Station!

About a year ago I asked Jon if we could make a place in the guest bedroom where I would make crafty things. I really wanted a light table (a work table that is lighted from the inside). But up until now, Jon has been so busy with other things, he wasn't able to work on it. But this year around my birthday got started with it and after working on it on the weekends and some week nights, we finished it this past week!

The glass top and casters came from IKEA and the rest from a home improvement store. The legs are fence posts and Jon added the decorative trim. It's exactly what I wanted and I love it!

We also cleaned up and painted an old wardrobe that I had found at a children's clothing store that was closing. It had been sloppily painted white several times, but with shelves already built in it, it was a steal at $125. I had tried last year to sand it to refinish it, but the white paint was too stubborn, so I opted to paint it bright pink instead. Jon calls it the "Pink Elephant in the Room."

You can see all the photos at MY FLICKR PAGE

Toy Cameras

When Jon and I were driving thru Kentucky a few weeks ago, we stopped off at a little antiques store and I found a cool little kodak brownie starmeter camera. Later that week Jon found two more, and much older, kodak brownies, a Duaflex and a six-20 at an estate sale down the street from our house.



The six-20 had been sent to his father when he served in Italy during the 2nd World War, so this little guy made it all the way to Europe and back.

I just wish we had some of the photos that he took while he was there. Jon and I were eager to try the cameras out and went the the Camera Doctor (formerly Jack's Camera) on N. Decatur Road to find out about what kind of film they take and get them loaded up. My starmeter camera requires a special film that I had to order and I haven't filled up the roll yet, but here are the results from the six-20 and Duaflex.





We went to the historic Decatur Cemetery based on a suggestion from the camera store guy to shoot images that are timeless. But we also took a few "modern" shots for the sake of juxtaposition.

Life of the Un-Dead

SO, well, here I am, sick again. Luckily it's not anything lethal - or at least not yet at this point. After a few weeks of disgusting off-and-on-again lung-cookie-making (aka hacking up gunk from the depths of my lungs) I finally went to the pulmonologist and was diagnosed yesterday with bronchitis with a touch of pneumonia and ordered to a week of bed-rest. It's not as fun as it sounds.

I think it came from a perfect storm of my pre-existing upper-respiratory left-over crap from SJS, pre-existing fatigue, exhaustion from starting a new job (just like anyone would have) and the onslaught of the allergy season (yep. here in GA we've already had pollen counts of 278 (This is the amount of pollen particles measured within the last 24 hours in a cubic meter of air) = really freaking high = congestion out the ears.

I was just beginning to get into the swing of things at my swingin' new job. I am super-duper happy that my bosses, Mary & Adam are being so unbelievably understanding of this. Especially considering I've only been working for 3 weeks and I've already taken 4 sick days (not including the rest of this week). I am so totally getting the employee of the year award.

But what really bums me out is that this is my birthday week. I turned 31 on Tuesday and was gonna go blow my first paycheck on new jeans that night. But by the time I got home, I felt like a ton of bricks hit me and all I managed to do was enjoy the awesome bouquet of 40 gladiolas that Jon put together for me (although I did "remind" him that I am not 40 YET thankyouverymuch.) And I had awesome plans with my friends to have dinner and go catch a show at Dad's Garage on friday and then on Saturday go down to Savannah to party it up with R's people because it's her bday on the 7th. I don't like this "No fun for you on your birthday" game.

OMG! I got a JOB!

Okay, well, I'm not really sure how it happened either. I must have some seriously good brownie points saved up somewhere. My college pal, Mary, emailed me a couple months ago totally out of the blue and basically plopped a job at her awesome company in my lap. The company is SolDesign and I am their brand new Account Manager.

I'm a bit nervous about how my energy level will hold up or how my doctor's appointments schedule may interfere with what they need, but I have been open and honest with Mary and her co-owner, Adam, about my limitations and they still seem to want me anyway. Even though I haven't worked in a looooong time, I have worked as an Account Manager before, which is giving me the extra boost of confidence to give it a shot anyway. And we're doing a trial period to make sure it's a good fit for everyone. So, I'm pretty darn excited!

On the 2nd day of Lent my true love gave to me...

(I don't really have anything clever to finish that "12 days of Christmas" reference)



ANYway, I am not sure but I think I am breaking the rules of my "Time for Lent" thing already because while I write this post I am, in fact, still paying attention to my email inbox, running the laundry and I haven't even really taken time to specifically think about/learn about/talk to God today. Except that as I was trying to straighten up the space next to my side of the bed, that included folding up my awesome prayer shawl and I was like, "hey, I should use this prayer shawl thingy!"

It was knit for me by a group of ladies in Massachusetts who kind of knit prayers into these shawls that they then give to you. It's all kinds of awesome because 1)it's my favorite color in the softest yarn ever 2)you know that someone took the time to hand-make it just for you, so it makes you feel special and loved 3)there's like, loving faith mojo attached to it 4)and you can use it to warm and comfort yourself when you're feeling low, alone and generally chilly. I also have a new shawl, thanks to my awesome friends from Germany (hallo Iso u. Dodo!), that's wonderfully soft with great silver stripes and will be perfect when the weather's warmer.

I actually have been intending to use it in part of a personal "me" time and prayer ritual - to make a pointed effort to step aside from crazy life stuff and have a few quiet moments with myself and with God. Like how some people light a candle or incense or have a favorite spot at the local Cafe where they reboot their spirit. For years it was my bed, pillow, diary and a decent pen that was MY place. And sometimes it still is, although it's not quite as "mine" since I share the bed with Jon (kind of oart of that whole 'married' thing). That's nothing against him, it just means that I need to adjust my "special place" a little and I am blessed to have a whole house to do it in.

At the very least I could use the shawl as my "invisible cape" (I think Harry Potter had one?) where Jon knows that when I have the shawl on me, I am having my own little time and would prefer to be left alone - thus making me "invisible." And hopefully have that head/physical/quiet space that I think most of us are desperately lacking in our lives to reconnect and really feel the ground beneath our feet.

Ah, well, now I'm getting kind of preachy or something annoying like that, so I'll just try my best to do all this stuff I'm talking about and I'll let you know how it goes. We leave for Jon's home-town tomorrow for his Grandpa's funeral this weekend, but I hope I'll still be able to stick to my Lent-y-ness and keep posting here or on flickr.

My first day of Lent

I've been wanting to do an "In My Life" or a "365" for a while but knew I didn't have it in me to really do it. So, instead, I'm going to try to do the 40 days of Lent FOR Lent. (and, no, it's not just for Catholics)

Basically what I am giving up for Lent is time. I am going to take time that I would/could normally waste on t.v.. email and other crap and use it instead on actively taking time to either pray, read the bible or some other similarly spiritual activity that might hopefully deepen my relationship with God.

I started my journey tonight at our church, All Souls Fellowship, which hosted a special Ash Wednesday service. It's a church that I found online last year after I got out of the hospital and wanted to find a non-catholic church that offered contemplative prayer. Since then, we wound up having our pre-marital counseling with this same church's associate Pastor, Dan, and feeling quite at home in the sunday services.

Tonight, Pastor Shayne's homily centered on Psalm 51:1-17, which begins with, "Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love: according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions."

I find that the central themes in my faith are Grace, Forgiveness* and Mercy. And being the nearly completely screwed up person that I am, I am SO grateful for that!
(okay, so I accidentally originally typed "forgivemess", which is really more accurate)

We've been BLOGGED!

Our awesome photographers from OUR LABOR OF LOVE, Jesse & Whitney, also keep a blog of their work. And now we're in it! CH-CH-CHECK IT OUT