MakeSomething365 - Day50: Wedding DAY

Wow! 50 days of making something! Whaaaaaaaaat?!?!?!

The wedding day was kind of a blur. We got up early. Got ready. Picked up Jill. Packed the cars. Went to the reception country club. Had fun eating, drinking, and getting ready for the wedding.

At one point, I finally got a chance to let Jill see my wedding shoes and I was happy that we all agreed that a certain decoration on the shoe needed to be removed.

So, I took the whole top of my shoes apart and cut things and unsewed things and then resewed and then ended up with a pair of fantastic shoes! (Which later made me feel like I was standing on boulders because they had no padding on them AT ALL and I had to walk in them and stand in them for hours.)

The wedding ceremony was practically perfect.
The reception was even better.

I never wrote my speech.
I'm not really sure why. Every time I thought about it, I had no time to write it. And, every time I had time to write it, I was busy thinking about other things. There were a few times that I wrote it in my head and hoped I'd remember it when I had access to a pen and paper. But, that never happened.

Then, Jill's dad gave a few speeches that gave me the perfect idea for a speech.

I feel REALLY GOOD about everything that I said.

I am excited to see the video because I don't remember everything that I said (except for the main parts). But, I meant every word.

The friends, the family... everyone being gathered together just made me happy.

And I was happy to see Jill and Robbie so happy, too.

I really love them so much.

We had a grand time. And, there will DEFINITELY be pictures later.

MakeSomething365 - Day49: Wedding Weekend

This entire weekend was filled with wedding extravaganzas!

On this day, Becky got up early to take Jill to the tanning salon while I tried to get a tad more sleep.

That didn't happen. HOWEVER, I was able to get ready without having to rush. Which, in turn did mean that I got some rest in some way. And, I really enjoyed that.

Making time for rest is super important to me. So, I was happy to just slowly get ready while I watched some cable TV. :)

Becky came back, then we left to get some last minute essentials.

We got ready and did a bunch of other stuff and eventually went to the wedding rehearsal which was followed by the rehearsal dinner (which was delish!).

Afterwards, we all went out to this place called Rum Bar which was outside in a beach setting even though it wasn't on a beach. It was on a river. There was sand everywhere and I took a few minutes to exfoliate my feet in the sand while we all drank fruity concoctions and chatted the night away.

When we left there and got back to the hotel, Chad was waiting for us.

It was nice to see him again.

:D

MakeSomething365 - Day48: Wedding Preparations!

The whole reason I was headed out of town was to be Matron of Honor in my friend Jill's wedding.

Becky picked me up early and we drove 4+ hours down to Jupiter, FL.

Our hotel wasn't ready for us. So, this posed a slight issue.

This meant that our helping out the bride started immediately after our long drive.

After that, it was go-go-go for the rest of the trip!

We went to the mall, went to the jewelry store, went to the spa, THEN, we FINALLY got to check into our hotel.

It was lovely!

Helping a friend is always worth while!

MakeSomething365 - Day47: Creations To-Go!

This day was filled with work, excitement, and packing.

I made time to pack.

This is a huge deal.

I almost ALWAYS pack my things the morning that I plan to leave town.

I'm really proud of myself. :D

MakeSomething365 - Day46: New Pendants!

Well, again... no pictures for this one. But, on this day, I played around with some new pieces I bought. I'm really excited to keep working on these and post them up!

MakeSomething365 - Day45: More Flower Hair Clips!

Today, I am catching up on my blog posts. So, since I've been on vacation, the next few will be rather short. But, creation has always been in play!

On this day, I made a new flower hair clip. I don't even have a picture of it yet. That's okay though. I've been a busy bee!

MakeSomething365 - Day44: New Crafting Corner!

Chad and I rearranged our living room in the midst of cleaning the house.

I have a fantastic new cleaning corner and it's so clean in here!

I feel so peaceful in a clean and lovely home. :)

MakeSomething365 - Day43: Colored Pencil Doodles

I was really sick all day.

I took a nap for 3 hours and then went back to bed around 9 or 10 and slept the whole night.

I just thought I'd share a few doodles I've been doing lately since I was too sick to do anything.

MakeSomething365 - Day42: Completing a project

The completed photo that I started from yesterday:

MakeSomething365 - Day41: Contributing Friends!

So, this is another short one.

Today, my co-worker, Anna, wanted to contribute to my watercolor awesomeness.

So, she drew me a picture in crayon and asked me to use my watercolor paints to complete the picture.

Pictures TOMORROW!

MakeSomething365 - Day40: Watercolor = Magic!

So, lately, my friend and co-worker, Jessica, has been talking to me about watercolors and I've been aching to try them!

It's been YEARS since I painted with watercolors... like, really since I was probably 8 or so.

Today, at work, I was able to paint a little bit while I was at work today. I also drew a couple of pictures and used a small pack of colored pencils that I purchased at the checkout area of Hobby Lobby. Gosh, I am sooooo obsessed with Hobby Lobby. There's too much awesome stuff for one person to do there!

I realize that the picture below is hard to read due to the lighting I chose to take the picture in, but it reads, "Lookin' down, you'll never see me... try the sky, cause that'll be ME!"

It's a lyric from my favorite song from Funny Girl. Coincidentally, the song is called, "I'm the Greatest Star".

Shine on, friends. Shine on!

MakeSomething365 - Day39: Spring is near!

I am so excited for the pretty spring colors that have been showing up all over the place lately and I've been meaning to try my hand at making some pretty flower hair pieces.

I added a pretty purple pearlish bead/jewel to the center of these with wire that I ultimately used to connect the flower to the hair piece.

Pictures! Hooray!

I'm really proud of myself! So exciting!

MakeSomething365 - Day38: Valentine's Day! Weeee!!!

So, we totally watched the Valentine's episode of Glee and I totally agreed with them saying that it's nice to have a day where everyone is encouraged to spread love to each other. I mean, it doesn't have to be romantic love.

JUST LOVE.

But, let's be honest... the only thing I had time to "make" on Valentine's Day was...







...love.

hah. ;)

MakeSomething365 - Day37: A Day with Chad

Earlier today, I finished up a painting with zebra stripes and used pretty blue glitter. It's hard to see everything clearly in the pictures below. It looks better in person. But, it was fun to do.

The rest of the day, Chad and I just laid around and watched Glee and Survivor and made food for each other and hung out with the dogs.

It was another bit of free time that has really helped me feel a bit better.

I wish I had had the want to clean up around here. But, I was just so grateful for the free time, that I did absolutely nothing other than work on my painting and make food. Hah... wow...

But, I don't regret it at all! And it was good spending all of that time with my sweet Chad.

And, I had pics on here, but I forgot that I deleted them earlier. So, no more pics. I will add them tomorrow.

Goodnight, friends. I pray you're enjoying the peace and joyousness of today. :)

MakeSomething365 - Day36: Time to Myself

It's not often I'm physically alone anymore.

However, I have felt very alone even in the presence of people lately. It's not their fault. It's just that work has me feeling like a shell of a person instead of who I really am. So, I try to be someone else in front of everyone and then Chad has to deal with my crying and emptiness when I come home. That's not fair for him. I barely know myself anymore. I feel like I only know myself when I'm deep in my art. And there's not too much time for that these days...

I'm usually only alone when I'm driving to and from work. This is also the time where I listen to the music I like and just have time to myself.

These days, it's not easy for me to even listen to music anymore though. Which is very strange for me because music is what usually makes me feel at peace and feel free. But, I feel like I'm never at peace anymore. And, when I'm in the car, I'm having to sacrifice listening to music just to gain some peace through some quiet. I take almost all of this time to just pray about everything going on. God's got something huge for me. But, I do realize that we have to go through bad stuff to get to the good stuff sometimes. I'm just so ready for it to be over.

Anyway... back to the point...

Through situations beyond my control, all day Saturday I was pretty much by myself (except for dinner time when we met up with Brian, Andria, and baby Elliot).

So, I took that time for myself and I painted. I don't feel like I'm very good at painting, but I still love it anyway. So, I painted allllll dayyyy. I only made a few things. But, that's because I took my sweet time and relaxed while doing it. Do I feel like I got full peace? No. But, it definitely helped ease my soul a bit after everything that's been going on lately. Here are just a couple of the things I painted. The first one is a simple painting that I've been meaning to paint for years. I know, it's so simple. But, it seems like yesterday was the perfect time in my life for me to paint it. The second one is a piece I made last month that I wasn't happy with. So, I took the tiny clock off of it that I had on there and added a pretty, colorful leaf. I feel like my heart takes a big sigh of relief when I see it hanging on the wall now. And I painted a pretty little heart inside of the locket.

I realize now that peace is more precious than I would have ever thought. Thank God for every moment of it.

MakeSomething365 - Day35: Staying in on a Friday Night

On Friday, after work, I hung out with some sweet co-workers and played cards and Yahtzee!

I haven't played Yahtzee since I was like 10 years old or something. It's pretty awesome.

We made our own sandwiches and had some good convo.

Gosh, I love roast beef. haha

Pictures!

Yahtzee!!

MakeSomething365 - Day34: Haiku For Callie

Not many words need to be said for this:

Tarzan's sharing the love, too. :D

MakeSomething365 - Day33: Learning About Myself

While reading through the 365 Daily Journal, it repeatedly talked about learning more about yourself while doing your project and seeing how you've grown.

It's been over a month now since I started the project and I am realizing that they are right! It is so true that I'm learning so much just within my own life and I'm growing so much.

So, tonight, I'm MAKING a blog about how I have grown and learned since starting this project.

This project hasn't just changed MY life, but others that I know as well. It's gotten my friends into doing this. I really love that. It's inspiration just with action for yourself and that really means a lot to me.

I've also tried to find other things to create and I've liked trying new crafts along the way so far.
I feel like I've learned from my own imagination how to do different things with my jewelry... just because I challenged myself to stretch a few limits within my own style specifically because of this project!

I have found more passion where I already knew my passion was. But, I didn't realize how big my passion was for crafting until I started getting more serious about and more "crafty-friends" have come out of the woodwork and have inspired me along the way.

It's really nice to know people who share your interests because it's nice to be able to craft together and share ideas!

Honestly, I've known a few crafters in my lifetime who refuse to share their ideas and how they did things. But, where's the fun in that?

Yeah, if someone can make what YOU make, then they won't buy it from you. But, to me, INSPIRING SOMEONE is more important than a few dollars. And, who knows? It might even change their lives entirely for the better!

I feel like I'm a pretty open-minded person to begin with. But, I am constantly teaching myself to stop keeping things in a certain order and just make them more original! Add more color to that painting! Take away that extra few links of chain! Use colored chain! Try to draw something even though you're bad at drawing! Put some glitter on those feathers! Wire wrapping? Sure!

It's all part of a fantastic growing process that this whole project has truly helped inspired me to do.

I realize that this blog was, mainly, an explosion of thoughts. But, sometimes that's what life is all about: beautiful chaos. hah :)

Since I didn't make anything other than this blog tonight, I'll leave you with a picture from a yellow day. Then, later in the day, I accidentally got mustard on me. Yellow was just trying to drench me that day! I'm just glad I didn't get peed on by anyone or anything crazy...

It's okay to be chaotic... in a lovely way. :D

MakeSomething365 - Day32: Photographer/Groupie Night

So, Chad has been growing his hair out for a good 2 years and he was finally ready to cut it. So, I became photographer/groupie for the night!

It's nice being a groupie for cute a hottie. Jussayin'...

MakeSomething365 - Day31: Inspiring Friends and Inspiring Friends!

It's really cool to think that I may be inspiring someone by doing my 365 project. Especially since it's difficult to find purpose in life when you've had the kind of last 2 months I've had. But, I know it's there.

Besides all of that, it's nice to not just have one friend who inspires me daily... but a whole LOAD of friends who inspire me. Even with just one kind word or encouraging sentence about my crafting, I become greatly lifted.

Tonight, Chad and I spent time with Justin and Rachel at their lovely home and I sat and worked on my jewelry while we chatted (and then, eventually watched The Bachelor - in turn, chatting during commercials). It really helped lift my broken spirit. More than they know.

Moving on...

I'm pretty open-minded when it comes to crafting. And I like hearing ideas and about what people like. People who don't MAKE jewelry are still usually people who WEAR jewelry. So, it's always a good idea to keep an open ear to people's thoughts on the matter.

Ultimately, Justin and Rachel lent a helping thought to my jewelry making tonight and I really love what was produced from it all. (Especially since I got *5* pieces done tonight!)

I'm only showing 3 of the pieces. But, I hope they are enjoyed. :)

I'm so glad to be inspiring friends in the same way that I'm glad to have inspiring friends!

MakeSomething365 - Day30: Heart-Filled Half Heartedness

So, I DID craft but I got started on something while spending time with my family and never got to finish it due to lots of things going on with my family. Then I ended up going to bed around 8 after eating some very delightful sushi. Crazayyy!

So, I'm not even posting pics.

However, it is pretty cool that Day 30 of making something every day has arrived. I can't believe it!

Onward to Day 31!

MakeSomething365 - Day29: Neon Valentine!

So many great things happened today:

-I slept SUPER HARD and slept in without sleeping past 9am.
-Went to a Mary Kay show at a nice hotel conference room with Kara and a bunch of other strangers. We got a few awesome things and won some stuff.
-Went to Hobby Lobby with Kara to get pieces to make her wedding jewelry with. And also found some other essentials for some other jewelry requests I've gotten.
-Hung out with Becky, Bri, Mike, Mirko, and April at a hookah bar. Not sure if I will do it again. But I would probably go again and just sit with everyone. It was fun spending time with my sweet peeps.
-I organized my jewelry quite a bit! Got another locking box b/c I'm officially out of room in my current jewelry storage areas.
-And I made a new Valentine piece. Awesome pics below!

Let your heart shine! In neon if need be!

MakeSomething365 - Day28: Painting for Peace

It's important to know that *I* know there are better days ahead. God is great. I have so much to complain about but really so much more to be thankful for.

It's easy to get lost in the moment of hurt and let it turn into anger. And I am so hurt these days.

It's also easy to forget about the bad while getting lost in a joyous moment. It's those moments I look forward to. And Chad has been so wonderful during these hard times. It's hard to stay angry for too long when he's got inspiring words for me every step of the way. See? There's another thing to be grateful for.

Tonight I painted. No tv, no music, no cell phone. Just me and my paint supplies. I painted until I forgot why I was angry. And then I remembered but I wasn't angry anymore. It's still hurts. But the anger has subsided and that's what's so important.

I didn't finish the painting. But, I accomplished much more than I thought I would. I saved the paint water in a tiny Martinelli's bottle that I bought because I knew I would need it for something one day... besides just the delicious apple juice that it held, of course.

I also got a few new findings and more chain because I was running extremely low. I put it all away. I may or may not make something tonight after I put the computer away.

I pray that you are having a good day. If not, I pray that you find the things to be grateful for in your life. And I pray that you find something that brings you peace during this time.

I'm glad that God sees us through and gives us continuous and unconditional love. We are so undeserving. But, we are never alone. It's wonderful to know.

MakeSomething365 - Day27: Create more than just tangible things

Sometimes it's best for you to MAKE TIME for yourself, for others, for crafting, for music, etc...

Tonight I made time for family that I've not made much time for throughout my WHOLE LIFE. It was simple. But, it was a good stepping stone in the right direction.

I also made time to kiss Chad. It still wasn't enough for him. But, he's a boy. He'll NEVER get enough of kissing time.

Now, I'm making time to blog just to say that I'm going to stop blogging and make time for a nighttime snack and some shut eye.

That's right, friends. I made nothing tangible tonight.

And guess what? IT WAS WORTH IT.

So, because I know you guys love it when I post pictures, here is a picture of my favorite place to go to during my lunch break from work. It's a place where I make time to breathe, dance, sing, or just close my eyes and thank God for beauty.

And here's a picture of sweet Layla. We found her in Granny's CLEAN laundry. We had to rewash everything from the top. She's too sweet to stay mad at. Also, we got her a new cone that is like fabric and more bendy material. She is sooo much more comfortable in her Comfy Cone. I'll post a pic of her in her new cone soon. :D

Make time for the more important things in life!

MakeSomething365 - Day26: Sometimes HAPPY doesn't mean GOOD/RIGHT.

Today, I was really thinking about happiness and what it means to be happy in the Lord.

Then, something that I've thought about before came back into my head and really got me thinking harder.

Just because something happens in your favor (I.E. "We got the house!", "I won the lottery!", "My boyfriend said he loves me!", "I'm moving away because it's convenient and seems like a cool idea!", "I'm gonna buy this item because it's exactly what I'm wanting but it will make me not be able to pay for a necessity... but, who cares?!") doesn't mean it's a positive in the eyes of God.

I've thought -many times- that certain "good things" that happened to me, weren't such good ideas in hind sight. I mean, even if nothing BAD happened afterwards; doing, getting, or enjoying any certain "good thing" at the time might have actually prevented me from doing something EVEN BETTER with my life because I was so focused on what I wanted as opposed to what was best for my life and/or other lives overall.

I know all of that might have been confusing. But, I just wanted to share that from my mind because it's been heavy on my mind lately. So many people that I love are experiencing things that are making them very happy. But, these things seem like things that are copping out of more important things in life or these things are blinding them from better things. Maybe I'm wrong. I mean, I don't know what's best for others. Heck, I barely know what's best for myself these days. But, I just wanted to put forth my thoughts tonight to get other people thinking.

Don't let good things blind you from something EVEN BETTER that is out there.

I made a pretty birdcage necklace. Something about the cage being empty actually makes me happy. To me, it says there's beauty in an empty cage. It says "FREEDOM".

 I HATE using the flash on my camera for my jewelry pieces, but, it was essential for being able to see the true color of the purple chain.

Free yourself from what's holding you down in life. Open your eyes to TRUTH and LIVE.

MakeSomething365 - Day25: Getting back to business!

Went back to work today. Eh...
Made new jewelry during my lunch hour. Yay!
Chad took me on a date for some sushi! Delish!
Updated some Etsy things and left feedback where needed! Hooray!
Made and purchased business cards! Finally! Yippee!

It is now time for bed. But first! Pictures!

To successfully love another, I believe you must learn to love yourself first. And, never forget that God loves you most of all.