Snowy weekend = productivity! And me finishing my homework before 4 AM!

Never have I been so grateful for my iPod as I have been these past three weeks. It makes it so much easier to focus while doing homework. :) I got a lot done this weekend. All my sketches for my drawing class and my 100 Implied Lines project for 2-D design class. I never made it into the studio to play because I was too busy.Fun items: sketchbook, pencil, iPod, kneaded eraser (who knew how much fun erasers are?), and m&ms...I have fun homework. Well, until my hand cramps up it's fun!
Finished project! It's due at noon tomorrow! So glad I finished it at 11:50 pm instead of 4:15 am like I seem to have been doing right before my critiques.

It's amazing how these past couple of weeks I have been reminded constantly of how much Jesus loves me and all of us. I have always known that Jesus loves us (John 3:16), but now I'm beginning to understand how He loves us. I guess there is a difference in knowing and understanding something. I'm adopting Paul's prayer for the Ephesians. Eph 3:14-21. Between the sermons I've heard at church these past couple of weeks, the lessons from the Bible studies I go to and what I've read in my own studies of the Bible recently I am blown away by how much He loves us. The cool thing is it's not just talk. It's action! He continuously blesses us, loves us, teaches us, disciplines us, forgives us...he repeatedly takes us back when we hurt Him. I always thought of God as being above being hurt, but we do hurt Him when we disobey or don't trust Him. But he is so patient and faithful...He never gives up on us. When I slow down enough to actually think about it it is such a wonderful reminder. The maker of the universe LOVES ME!!! Now if only I could keep up with the "slowing down enough to actually think about it" part...I took a 3 hour nap today. It was so nice. I needed it so badly! I am way behind on my sleep!

I'm thankful for a day of rest, productivity and fellowship. Today was such a blessing.

I had a visitor!

My niece, Olive, came to visit me!!! Actually, my sister and brother-in-law were passing through town on their way to visit family and they stopped to visit me at school for an hour. We went to Starbucks and got breakfast and had a little chance to catch up. Oh how I miss them. And this little girl...she gets cuter and sweeter every time I see her! She is almost 10 months old now. It seems like time has sped up since she was born. Does having children make it seem like you're living in fast forward? I can't believe how much she has changed in such a short amount of time. She says 'hey dere' now. And she makes an angry face which consists of her squinting her eyes and puckering up her lips and breathing really loud through her nose. It's hilarious! :) If I get an apartment next year I hope my siblings/family can come visit me for a weekend or so. That would be fun!I had my first ceramics critique yesterday. I made an 18 inch coiled pot and had to put an all-over pattern/texture on it. I spent about 50 hours on it in the past 2.5 weeks. Actually, I didn't even get started on it till Thursday of the first week I got back, so it's more like I spent 50 hours on it in the past 2 weeks. And I spent 8 of those hours on it the night before/morning of the critique. On Wednesday I had class from 9-3, work from 4-8 and then from 8:30-4:15 am I worked on it. If I didn't love what I do there is no way I would get anything done on time. I couldn't imagine spending 8 hours in one day on chemistry homework or accounting homework. I'm not going to say I exactly enjoyed being in the studio until 4:15 am, but I didn't mind it too terribly either. I was just exhausted by the time I got home and had to be back up for my 11 o'clock class. Let's just say that eating and sleeping have definitely dropped on my priority list this semester. I'm having a tough time balancing my 6 classes/homework/work and 4 Bible studies every week. I love everything I'm doing, I'm just really having a tough time keeping up with all of it. And it's only week 3! Gah!

Wish me luck! I'll hopefully be back with pictures of my ceramic pot soon! :) Happy Weekend!

comics...

This is the comic that I drew for my 2D design class. It's loosely based on a true story. :) I gave my niece a monkey-in-the-box for Christmas and it scared her. She didn't cry though. And because I think that clowns are way scarier than little sock monkeys I decided to change that part of the story around. I was up till 4 o'clock this morning finishing it and then I got up at 7:30 to go to class all day. I was going to work on my 'coiled pot that swallows time' for awhile this afternoon but I was so tired that I came home and took a nap. And now I need to do art history homework. But as soon as I'm done with that I'm going straight to bed! I don't have class till 11 tomorrow so I'm looking forward to a good night's sleep!You can click on the image to see it larger if you want to. It was a fun project, aside from the staying up till 4 am part. :) What would I have done without my iPod? Thanks to it I was kept company by everyone from Frank Sinatra to Bob Marley; from Phil Keaggy and Fernando Ortega to the Bee Gees and Electric Light Orchestra...yeah. It helped a lot!

a little wip

Here's a little headband I've been working on. I made a bunch of those little burnt-edge flowers and am attaching them to a fabric headband. I'm not sure if it's something I would wear, but it's fun making it.

Last pots

These are the last pots I finished. I like the one on the left. I'm wasn't thrilled with the one on the right. I had a feeling I would either love it or hate it...I don't hate it, but I don't love it either. I'm back at school. Classes are back in session. I'm taking all art classes! 6 of them in fact. In addition to ceramics I have drawing, 2D design, art history, art orientation and Intro to art education. I think I'll be pretty busy this semester. It's funny, we've only been back for a week, but it seems like it's been so long already. And I already have lots of homework! Today the ceramics studio had a throw-a-thon for the faculty, students and community. We all met up and threw bowls to donate to a charity event. The event is a soup dinner. People come buy our bowls and then fill them up with soup and have a dinner. I helped my classmate and teacher throw bowls for a similar event that took place in my hometown last semester so I was happy to get to help again. I only made 10 bowls. The grad students and faculty were whipping them out! It was pretty cool to watch. I got to meet some of the grad students who were in China last semester. I would LOVE to study in China for a semester. It's one of my goals. Anyway, the throw-a-thon lasted from 9-5. I left around 1:30 and we had a lot of bowls. Tomorrow is part two where we go in and trim the bowls we made. I think the students and faculty end up glazing them so hopefully I'll get in on that too.

It was great to get back on the wheel. I was afraid I'd be all out of practice after not being on it for a month, but I guess it's kind of like riding a bicycle. You get it back pretty quickly. I'm excited for my class this semester. I think my drawing class will be good too. I think I'm horrible at drawing, but already I feel like some things make a little more sense. My 2D design class is kind of intimidating...I hope that I become more confident and comfortable in those classes as the semester continues. I keep reminding myself that I'm a student and I'm here to learn. So it's okay that I'm not great at this stuff. I can get better at it. I have art history with two of the guys from Campus Crusade for Christ. They're both graphic design majors. They make it fun. It's encouraging to have them there. And they're pretty funny.

Well, that's about it for week one! I'm going to do some drawing homework!

Flowers for your hair...or coat...or hat...

We had a girl's day out. It was great! It included shopping, Thai food and crafting. Could you ask for a better day? I couldn't! It started with a trip to the Purple Fern! I just love that store. It's very inspiring. :) I bought the yellow and red button hairpins (pictured below) there awhile ago. I was going to blog about them a long time ago but only just got around to photographing them this week. When I went back this week I bought 4 more. My sister also bought a couple. We spent the longest time trying to pick the ones we wanted. There were so many. I am the worst at making decisions. I eventually settled on these and I love them. I like that they go together without being too matchy. I wore the first ones I bought all the time so I know I'll use these a lot too.

(hairpins purchased from The Purple Fern)

My friend bought a flower hairpin there and it was really adorable. She wore it a lot. Later in the day when we got back to her house she and I tried our hand at making our own. It involved fire and synthetic fabric. I accidentally caught a piece of the fabric I was burning on fire and almost threw it on the floor. Luckily I just screamed and then dropped it into the fire instead. I have a little fear of fire. When I took chemistry I made my brother (we took the class together and we were lab partners) or my teacher light our bunsen burner. I was afraid that I'd end up setting the place on fire. Luckily that didn't happen in either situation and we ended up with these pretty flower pins. I'm going to put the two on the right on pins and wear them as brooches. I made the pieces for a few more of these today but all my beads and buttons are at school so I'm going to wait till I get back to put them together. It's a very fun and easy project!

I love girl's days. :)

It's done!

The quilt I started during the summer is finally finished! Aside from my wonky quilting (it's puckering in a few places) and having some difficulty attaching the binding I am pleased with it. It's very bright, but I like it. I think it's sort of cheerful. Cheerful is a good thing because winter seems like such a grey, dreary time of the year to me. Bright colors make me happy right now. And I'm glad I finished it just in time to take it back to school with me!

It was a fun way to use up a bunch of fabric scraps!

More pots!

These are two little pots that I made and glazed recently. I didn't really care for them so I didn't mind being a little wild with my glazing. This first one I don't particularly care for, but I like the second one better. I really enjoy using wax under my glazes to make different designs. I want to keep playing with that this coming semester!

I can't believe that in less than a week I'll be back to classes. Suddenly I feel just a little bit anxious! I have a couple more pots that I will photograph and post here soon.

Self Portrait Tuesday and Braid Wednesday...all on a Monday!

I have lately become somewhat addicted to some of the style blogs around here. Through these I've learned that there is apparently such a thing as Braid Wednesday! I've also found tutorials for how to braid your hair different ways and decided to try some different hairdos. :) I've been french braiding my hair to the side for awhile now because I think it is less damaging to my hair than throwing in all in a ponytail. The tutorial I found was for braiding your hair inside-out instead of just plain french-braiding. I liked the effect a lot. :) I think I may just switch from regular french braids to french-inside-out braids.

I sometimes feel like I run around looking like a mess or worse, a messy teenage boy (I have nothing against teenage boys, but I'm a 21 year old girl and I want to look like one!). Especially when I'm at the studio since I can't wear skirts very easily while working on the wheel and I usually wear stuff that I don't mind getting really messy. In the end I am usually wearing jeans, a teeshirt and either sneakers or crocs. So it's nice to try to do something fun with my hair. It makes me feel better about myself. Before I did dental assisting I used to do crazy things with my hair. I'd put it in a ponytail and twist sections and pin them all over the place. Sometimes I'd twist a ribbon in with them. Or I'd rag curl it really tight and then pin the curls all on top of my head (my friend called them fraggles after the muppets). I did lots of fun stuff with it that I felt wasn't quite appropriate for a dentist office. I miss dental assisting. I enjoyed it a lot. But since I don't feel like I'm representing a professional office I feel like I can be a little more carefree with my hair. You find your silver linings where you can. :)

On pins and needles...but really just pins. :)

I made these little pins or brooches just before Christmas. I thought they would be a fun way to dress up a jacket or bag or to hold a scarf together. They were very quick and easy. They're really just pendants that I got from the beads section at Michaels that I Krazy-glued to little craft pins. I'm thinking of even pinning them to hats. :) I particularly like the owl and little turtle. :)

Happy New Year!

2010 is here already! I was sad to see the old year and decade go. I wasn't sure I was ready to say goodbye to it. But it was pretty painless. :) Here's to a new year and decade (raises glass of sparkling grape juice in a toast)! May it bring new adventures and challenges along with opportunities and blessings! I have a few posts lined up that I'll probably start to publish tonight. They're all of projects that I made last year but never got around to blogging about. I did finish a project today that was started last year and if the light is good tomorrow I'll photograph it and show what I finished!

I thought I'd write a short recap of the year's highlights and then maybe list a few resolutions.

Hightlights of 2009:

• Brought in the New Year in DC at Campus Crusade for Christ's conference: Radiate.
• Was surprised when our dog unexpectedly had puppies!
• Welcomed my niece, Olive, into the world.
• Was accepted into college.
• Moved to a new city for school.
• Took my first ceramics class.
• Fell in love with ceramics.
• Switched my major to ceramics. :)
• Got involved with 3 different Bible studies on campus.
• Met new friends. :)
• Lost 15 lbs!

Other highlights include: day trips to beautiful places! Getting to know my niece and hearing her laugh and start to talk. Spending time with friends during summer break. Crafting and cooking and exploring with those friends! Making the President's list for the 3rd time! Getting our Havanese dogs. Being the recipient of a surprise going-away party. Celebrating holidays with friends. Reconnecting with old friends. Finding new interests. Learning a new city. Learning more about myself. Learning more about God.

Every year I like to make resolutions. Most of them I don't keep. Here are a few goals that I would like to accomplish this year:

• Learn to budget my money and be more conscious of how I spend my money. Start a travel fund!
• Love others more. Really, truly love others.
• Be a better friend, sister, daughter, aunt.
• Take swing dancing classes.
• Learn as much as I can in my classes.
• Pursue other interests like nutrition (I am still interested in it even though I am not going to major in it).
• Travel somewhere. Anywhere. It doesn't have to be very far away to still feel like you've traveled. :)
• Learn about accupressure.
• Keep up with blogging.
• Try something new. Be adventurous! Explore!
• Train for a 5K.
• Grow closer to God. Learn more about Him. Become a woman after His own heart. Trust Him completely.