All kinds of stuff going on lately.. the most recent news here in the south.. it snowed!!! To most of the family this would probably sound like uh, ok but its the 1st now we've had in 5 years. I think we ended up with around 6 inches here, and it was Skye's 1st time ever seeing snow. Sehlby had only seen it once before when she was a year old.
They both loved the snow and weren't happy when they had to come back inside because I had to still go to work, despite the weather. You gotta love that whole critical staff thing.. ugh. Skye is addicted to the snow, she was insistent to go outside and ended up out there about 15 times a night to play it in. Unfortunately it only lasted 3 days but I'm thinking there will be more before the winter is over.
I also got a chance to pull out my trusty scraper as getting the truck cleaned off took some time. We had rain that changed to ice/snow during the night so there was a nice layer of ice hiding under the pretty snow. This scraper is the same one I bought at Walmart in NY as a kid for my 1st car and I still have it, still in one piece. It's always works and has never broken on me.. so hey.. its a good thing. I tell people they need these things but, like my neighbor the morning of the storm, alot of people prefer to clean their cars off with gloves and CD cases. [No comment]
Don't leave home without yours!
In other news I actually read the whole catalog this year for the town of Cary parks & rec and found all kinds of classes that would be interesting to take. Dad & Mom are taking classes in Florida too so Christmas shopping kind of motivated me as well to get back into Spanish. I took it through high school and for 2 years in college so I think I have retained a decent amount of it.Either way it will help for work and dealing with our Spanish-speaking counterparts so I don't have to use a translator.
So far basic drawing is the only class I have actually started but starting over the next few weeks I'm also going to try mosaics, oil painting, another specialty oil painting class called "wipe-out method", more fused glass, a cooking crepe class, Spanish, and another one for stress & anger management. I figured hey, its free and I have plenty of stress that builds up... why not?
As far as the drawing goes.. I can't draw, like in the not at all sense. But as the instructor said, we've already started drawing.. and it will keep getting better. He is a professional artist and a pretty down to earth guy, so the class is fun. So far we've identified implements and worked on a series of exercises. They seem kind of weird but its a learning method that he says subconsciously teaches your brain & hand to work together so you become able to draw what you see. These are the exercises so far.. they are all series of shapes & patterns:
I'm going to keep practicing... so hopefully my squares will be better soon.
In other other news.. I bought a sewing machine! A real live brand new sewing machine!
It is made by the company baby lock, which I've never heard of before but after using it for a few hours I am definitely sold. I just finished a denim bag that I started more than 3 years ago and it had little to no trouble working through all those layers of denim like the lady told me when I bought it. It came with a 25 year warranty too... which is awesome... and of course the best part.. its not a piece of furniture (literally) like my last sewing machine (freight train) which is still upstairs posing as a table.
This is my denim skirt bag... finally finished after all these years. The outside is a skirt I found at a thrift store, the inside and all the pockets I added to it are from old jeans and a denim dress I had. On the pockets are iron-on transfers.. the washer ripped them off but they ironed right back on like new so I am sewing them this time to make sure they stay. The bottom parts of the bag are rhinestones from those bedazzler type thingys if you remember the 80's at all.. LOL The inside fo the bag has 2 pockets and is attached all around the waistband but hangs free inside the skirt at the bottom because I didn't want to give up the frayed look it has at the bottom. You can't see it from the pic but there is a long shoulder strap I made from more pieces of the denim jumper. It was made of a softer denim (not jean's-like) so it folded and sewed together much easier and it lays nice and flat on my shoulder.
So lots more new things are to come as I'm playing with my new machine, and taking all kinds of classes that are my 1st time at many different things. I'm also working on coming up with my own version of breakfast shakes and bars.. I have a pretty good peanut butter fiber bar recipe going, just need to tweak it some more and it should be good to go.
