This Old House

The house renovation:

Hallway in to the bathroom.

 Standing in the kitchen, looking in to the living room.

 Bathroom again.

 Bedroom closet

 Hallway looking in to bathroom.

Still working on finishing the cabinets but we have been so blessed!  All the cabinets were recycled from the shop, some that people changed their mind about so we got to use.  The pantry was another recycled piece.  The fridge, sinks, stove, and toilet were all given to us.

The boys like it here.

Summer

 I guess what they say is true, after you get married you forget your friends and everything else.  Not necessarily, you could say I've been a little busy.

 Since the wedding, time has torpedoed and yet it feels like one of the longest summers. Soon after we got back from our honeymoon we were given a house.  Let me be more specific, we were given a shell of a home.  We've spent all summer renovating it and finally moved in two weeks ago.  

  I interrupted building and spackling for a week of fun to experience The Gaunlet.  Our church does this every summer.  It's a youth retreat in Daytona where over 3,000 teenagers and 1,000 volunteers get together to worship and have a lot of fun doing it.  Each volunteer is assigned 2-4 students to room with and mentor during the week.  The signup begins in the spring but since I knew the wedding would be taking a lot of time I didn't sign up.  Even though  I was eager to go.  The Friday before they were to leave that Sunday night, my friend Cam called to say she was in a pickle and desperately needed someone to take her place because her graduate classes started the week we'd be gone.  Thrilled and feeling like a prayer had been answered, I faithfully said yes.  Two of the three girls were ones she had the previous year.  

 Each morning the leaders and their group of 2-4 kids had quiet time.  It was a hopeful site to see this every morning.

 The girls: Sierra, "Mini", and Briana.  All three just graduated high school and were each in a position of, "What do I do with my life???" 

 I got to reconnect with a girl I went to high school with, Jules (blondest one).  We weren't close in school but we ended up spending so much time together with our girls that now I'd consider her a real friend.  She'll be joining my ladies group I'll be starting next week.

 Praise for technology!  Even though the students weren't allowed to have or use phones, we facetimed mama Cam to let her know the girls were doing just fine.

 Thursday morning early baptisms.  Hundreds got dunked!

When they got a hold of my phone and went crazy with selfies...

This summer Stigall and I have spent almost one day a week with the Cattafi's.  Phyl and Mike got married last year.  Stigall knew Mike from a men's group they were in and they've remained close.  They recently started a homegroup with another couple, Jim and Lu, that we've joined. Usually groups are within a similar age range.  However, Chris and I have always gravitated toward people older than us and we thrive on their wisdom and humor. Every Thursday night we have dinner and talk about what the Lord is doing in our lives.  

Phyl and Mike are always up for anything so we've had some adventures with them.

 Helen is about an hour away so we took off on one of the hotter days to tube the Hooch.  It's a two hour long float down a river and through the town of Helen, which looks like an old German town.  It rained while we were there but, hey, we were wet anyway.  We also had the best cupcakes I've ever eaten.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...that is Saluda.  When I grew up we would always have "Cousins Day" during the summer.  I remember one year everyone also brought their dogs.  It's been a good while since we've had a cousins day but because my cousin, Jamie, and her daughter Hailey were coming down from Colorado, the aunts put together a cousin shindig.  Quite a few weren't able to make it but it still brought back fond memories.

I love the bottom pictures because I remember when we were the "younger" cousins and hated getting our picture taken (I guess I still hate that).  Now most of us first cousins' (top pics) babies are in the bottom pictures.

3 Days!

There's been a big gap between my last post.  School finished up and the wedding is three days away!  Just wanted to write a brief post before work about how excited I am and am so looking forward to seeing people that I love and marrying the man I love the most!

Up and Down and Up and Down and...

Hard to believe this school year is winding down.  Wow- almost finished with my first year of MFA.  Whew!  Unfortunately I'm not there yet which means I'm in the high stress zone for the next two and a half weeks. 

This week has been a tough one.  Long days, late nights, early mornings.  We are having open studios this week.  At eight thirty we congregate in the hallway and on break (not really...usually when Dave says, "Poof!") we all head in different directions to four other students' studios.  Within an hour each of the four will have other grads and faculty walk in and out while we talk about the work.  It's not meant to be stressful but it certainly becomes so.  It's not enough time to really spend one on one with anybody and you end up having to repeat your whole speech a couple times.  The whole thing feels very uncomfortable to me and since I don't know what I'm doing or why I'm doing it half the time, it's difficult to defend or discuss it.  Process??  I think that's it??!  It would be nice to have the whole day for anyone to come in whenever they wanted that way you aren't prepared for a speech and you can continue to work.  While I'm working, I'm constantly thinking.  So whatever I said this morning becomes totally different by the end of the day.  

My feedback always feels to me like no one knows what my purpose for doing what I'm doing is or what I'm trying to say.  And honestly, I never can seem to narrow that down until something just clicks for me or I write and write and write about it.  It does get a little awkward after I've talked and there is silence.  I've learned that silence is not usually a good thing.  Not getting a response right away puts me on edge because I know I haven't delivered well.

I've had to drive to Anderson for supplies multiple times already this week.  You wouldn't believe how hard it was to find a good sewing machine under a hundred bucks.  I'm tight on money so that's also stressing me out.  This morning my laptop battery died for good (of course, right before open studio) so I had to go get the one Chris has so I could write a paper- the one I'm working on right now, interrupted by a blog break of course.  Then, after visiting two thrift stores, I went to the hospital in search of baby blankets.  You know the ones they give out that are white with the little pink and blue stripes?  After buzzing my way in the locked entrance, busting through a vaulted door, and getting inspected with a laser and FBI agent who got my fingerprints, I finally made it to labor and delivery.  I rang a door bell and ended up in the room with the little babies.  The woman in there must have thought I was some kind of threat because she kept looking at me wide-eyed and every move I made she did the same, matching me every leg shift.  Needless to say I did not get the blankets.  Or a baby.

When I've reached my limit and I need to cry, I go somewhere and do a bad thing.  That bad thing is getting in line at the nearest drive-thru.  Something about fast food makes me feel a little better.  I think it's the grease.  I sped into Chick Filet on two wheels, desperately in need of some Christian chicken and a sweet tea.  Short on money, I got the largest nugget count kids meal they had (six).  When I got to the window it was the girl's pleasure to hand me my food and inform me that the lady in front of me paid for my meal and told me to have a blessed day.

Of course I cried.  After feeling negative and rotten for three days, I've lost perspective.  I had forgotten that someone was looking out for me and I needed a swift kick of grace to recognize that.  And things got even better once I got an email saying that my campus parking ticket got changed to a warning.  

Spring Break

It is hard to believe that spring break has come and gone.  I used the time to pick up a couple extra shifts at work and to mostly work on wedding stuff.  Here are some highlights from last week:

I may have mentioned this before but when I go home, I eagerly await flipping the pages of the Saluda Standard Sentinel.  My favorite part to read is the little trivia pieces that are used to fill in the blank spots.  You can imagine my excitement when I saw that one was right under our engagement announcement.

My old church had a shower for me.  It was very nice.  I got a lot of good gifts and got to eat (and take home!) a seven layer chocolate cake and a coconut cake.  My favorite.  

It is always a blessing to get to see this girl.  This is my best friend all throughout school.  People used to call us "Crums and Ham" (Cromley and Hammond).  Crums lives near Columbia and works at a dermatologist office in Lexington so I don't get to see her that much.  It feels a little surreal that I saw her at my wedding shower.  This is one of the things I'm most excited about for the wedding event, getting to be around a big group of good people that I don't get to see enough.

I crossed the South Carolina, Georgia line to spend a shopping day with Mama.  What a long day.  Six or seven hours passed looking for wedding stuff and I was about done for.  I can shop with the best of them but after about the third antique store, my back hurt and I could no longer form words.  We went back to her house and spent five minutes ordering about a dozen things online.  That's more like it.  I don't even have to put on real clothes to do that.

Because of the shower I didn't get to go to service that week.  Stigall kept telling me I needed to listen to it on the podcast (which they don't usually put up until Wednesday).  I noticed on instagram that some church people I follow were putting up pictures of "their flowers, #holyeverafter" so I figured it must have been a lesson geared toward the men.  When I questioned Stigall about all these Newspringer's with flowers and where were mine, he was quick to say that he was already getting them and that I'd ruined the surprise.  I have a tendency to that that kind of thing (you know, be an ass sometimes).  I did end up getting my flowers, along with a sweet note and a couple of my other favorite things, a big blue gatorade and a fun pack of fudge striped cookies (with another surprise note inside).  

We took the bonehead to the dog park nearby.  That's Stigall feeding him popcorn, one of his favorite snacks.

Cedar loves stirring up two things: mud and trouble.  Every time we go to the park, there is a continuous creek formed from rain water left over from last summer.  I'm not kidding, it never dries up.  Here he is lying in the small pond of water.  He tries to be the ring leader and lead the dogs into the water (or in to temptation as we like to say) so the owners can get mad at him.  And us.  It's pretty funny.

These went out.

Had a chance to catch up with McAbee.  We discussed art stuff and gossiped a little (okay, maybe a lot).  He was running late so I was forced to buy this big piece of cake to busy myself while I waited.

Cedar and Stigall spent an afternoon napping and lying around while I drudged through art theory, trying to get back in to the swing of things.  That bonehead is breaking the rules by being on the couch. Stigall, not Cedar.

I've got six weeks left in the semester.  At the end of it, I've made a vow to myself that I will get in shape.  Whether that is running or going to the gym, or not eating a bowl of popcorn and m&m's every other night.

Getting Your Picture Taken is Awkward

Stigall and I had a big day yesterday.  After our first premarital financial counseling at church in the morning, we made the long drive to S-town.  Aunt Jules is a great photographer so she offered to do some engagement photos for us.  This is pure torture for both of us since we don't like getting our picture taken.  Stigall doesn't mind it as much, especially if he doesn't have to be serious about it.  I, however, loathe it entirely.  I grew up with my mom taking pictures of everything I ever did.  Every first day of school, every day I drove when I turned 15, every time I wore a dress, every time I blew my nose.  Unfortunately with smart phones, her obsession with capturing every little thing has gotten worse.  Yesterday she took pictures while I was explaining what cake flavor we wanted.  It also makes it harder when you're being told to pose lovingly in an unnatural position and in an environment that you would never act like that in.  At one point Jules said, "You act like you don't want to be doing this!" to which we immediately responded, "We don't!  Mama is making us!"  

All that to say, the ones Stigall and I liked the best are the ones where we were making phone of the cliche engagement photos or were talking about how uncomfortable we were.  Here are our favorites:

"You are free to create the worst junk in the world"

This semester I've determined to be nicer to myself when it comes to my art practice.  Yes, I do not spend every waking second in my studio, I do not lose sleep over things I "should" be doing.  I'm easing up on myself because I have a job, a small group, church, a dog, and a fiance.  These aren't excuses for why I'm not letting grad school consume and overwhelm me, they are parts of my reality.  My reality is what the content of my work is about, as I try to understand and convey it. Without these things, perhaps there wouldn't be any sculpture at all!

When classes started, one of my seminar professors suggested reading Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg as an inspiring read discussing writer's block.  I was hesitant at first, thinking it might be more dreaded art theory kind of stuff.  But no, this book was clear, honest, helpful, and enjoyable.  Relief!  

While the book is about writing, if you switch out writing with creating, it is still application to art making.  Here are some excerpts I connected with:

"It takes a while for our experience to sift through our consciousness.  For instance, is is hard to write about being in love in the midst of a mad love affair.  We have no perspective.  All we can say is, 'I'm madly in love,' over and over again...Our senses by themselves are dumb.  They take in experience, but they need the richness of sifting for a while through our consciousness and through our whole bodies...Our bodies are garbage heaps: we collect experience."

"There was an article in the newspaper several years ago about a yogi in India who ate a car.  not all at once, but slowly over a year's time.  I told this to a group of third-graders in Minnesota.  One student looked at me and burst in to tremendous laughter.  Right from the beginning there was no logic in it.  It is absurd...In a sense, this is how we should [create].  Not asking 'Why?,' not delicately picking among candies, but voraciously, letting our minds eat up everything and spewing it out with great energy.  We shouldn't think, 'This is a good subject for [creating].'  [Creating] is everything, unconditional.  There is no separation between [creating], life, and the mind.  If you think big enough to let people eat cars, you will be able to see that ants are elephants and men are women.  you will be able to see the transparency of all forms so that all separations disappear."

She makes several great points that are so applicable to any sort of creating.  She is redundant about "just doing it" when it comes to her writing.  My problem is that I heehaw around because I worry my ideas are foolish and are not what the faculty wants me to do.  I'm starting to get over that and instead to consider the notion to just create.  Who cares what they think?  This is my time, my MFA degree.  So I should just do it.