Good Food, Good Friends

I am, by design, a social person. I could go months with no alone time and love it. Growing up in a family of 6, you learn to enjoy the quiet togetherness without needing quietness alone. Though I am learning- sometimes slower than I like- that it is important and rewarding to spend some quiet time thinking and processing, I still love to be surrounded by friends and family. The past few days have been a wonderfully social couple of days. I've gotten to spend quality time with my closest friends down in Nashville, and the rest of the week is just as cozy! Six of us are headed to Gatlinburg, TN (which is a tourist spot in the Smokies, for those of you not familiar with it) for the weekend; I could not be more excited. I will try to take some great pictures while we are there and document the fun for everyone when I return.

The planning for the little trip has got me thinking a lot about the importance of close friends. Before coming to Tennessee, my family were the closest friends I had. They are still the best friends I will ever have and my life would not be complete without them. Moving eight hours away can sometimes change the dynamics of a relationship, though. After a few months of getting settled into our new home, we made some great friendships that I believe will last forever. I never had a clue how important it was to have close friends until I had some that I wasn't related to. There's something very comforting about being chosen as a close friend.

If you don't have one or two people to whom you are not related to that you can be completely genuine and fun with, you've got to try it. Go out on a limb and let someone feel that special, chosen feeling, and you will get that in return. I have noticed that the older people get, the more they trick themselves into believing they are too busy for close friendships. Surface aquaintences are not enough; I am living on the greener side, and I've got to say - it's a pretty sweet place to be.

A Quiet Kind of Place

After all the busying about that was January and early February, things are beginning to calm down again. Dave's schedule has normalized somewhat and I have been able to spend some time unwinding at home. I've been trying to narrow my focus on the things I enjoy and the things that are important to me. I have always been the type of person who is anxious for the next thing in life, and I'm hopful that I'm learning to be content with my surroundings. So to help me do that, I am making more art than I've done in years, I'm turning down opportunities to do "stuff" (which is very unlike me), and I'm trying to be quiet. It's been quite nice to be able to sit - and to not think or act or move.

You should try it sometime.

Illustrations

Since I am one of the typical "looking for my life's passion" women in her twenties, I have persued many avenues. Maybe persued is not the correct word. Maybe...showed slight interest in is more accurate. I have quite the tendency to get fired up about something right at first and then slowly lose interest completely. One of the many things I have wanted to be passionate about in the past was illustrations. I've always loved to write children's books, and I love art, so why not write and illustrate children's books? Sounds like the perfect relationship, but in reality my love for illustrations is having an affair with my inability to stick with something. It's a disasterous relationship, to say the least. Here are a few examples of stories I have started and not finished.

This was from a story I was writing about a girl who's constantly getting in trouble.

This story was never actually written, but I like the illustration.

This was a story about a girl who loves shoes (about a real girl) and pretends to be different people based on the pair of shoes she's wearing.

And this one is about a girl trying to decide what she wants to be when she grows up. Fitting?

Old Books, New Art

I love old books. I can spend hours just flipping through them - smelling the pages, finding new and unusual phrases that just aren't used anymore, and laughing at the illustrations. I don't read as often as I'd like to, but I always have a book in my hand. I have been making art for my apartment for awhile now using old book pages. I repurpose the covers into journals, and use the pages in collages.

Here are some new items in my shop. I'm planning to do several paintings using old book pages, like the ones below. Just need to make a stop at Hobby Lobby for some more canvases. Oh how I love Hobby Lobby.

Big Day For Us

This has been quite an exciting day! This morning two great things happened. First of all, I got two hits on my artwork! I've been slowly adding new items to my etsy.com shop ( http://preciouspages.etsy.com ) and this morning I got some interest in two of the paintings. They're not actually sold yet, but someone has shown interest. Quite exciting for my very first attempt at selling artwork.

The second thing today that is oh-so exciting is that Dave got a call from an engineer/producer here in Nashville that asked Dave to help him out in the studio for a couple of days this week. While this is a semi-common occurance for Dave, this engineer/producer is pretty high up the ladder. Name dropping would be a little inappropriate in this venue (and unless you're in the scene a producer's name probably wouldn't mean much anyway), but trust me on this one...he's a great contact for Dave. He's worked with some great bands, of whom Dave and I were/are big fans and he's a great artist that places his faith above his fame.

The Lord has great things in store for us. Sometimes we don't notice the amazing things going on, but today we have been given to, abundantly.