X-mas in AZ

Things are freezing right now!

I know that New York is under like, 8 ft of snow right now, but I'm still cold.

So there.

Anyhoo, the New year is almost upon us and I'm almost done with my two weeks off (sniffle) so I thought I would random post about a few things going on and then actually get some stuff done around my house (homework, laundry, sewing, scanning).

So, since I was actually home this year and my parents did not rent a house, I decided to decorate a bit for x-mas. Not much mind you, but when I moved down here my mother sent me with a crap ton (an actual measurement I swear!) of boxes filled with holiday cheer. Which I went through and got rid of via a garage sale then a trip to ye ole Goodwill.

So here is my "tree"



It was a tight X-mas money-wise this year so as I was undoing all the decorations I didn't know what I was going to do with all of my ornaments. Then I found this pretty star garland in a bag and knew it would be perfect around my bookshelf. I really liked how it turned out but I probably need to do something different next year. Three of my ornaments bit the dust. One while pulling out a book, another when I was taking them down, and another had death by helicopter (EVAN).

Then we had the decorations on the fireplace.



Before I talk about the nutcrackers I'll talk about the stuff on the bottom mantle below. I have a hand crocheted (not by me) set of carolers next to a light pole. One of my mom's friends made those YEARS ago (I seriously can't remember NOT having them) and I kept them cause they are some of my favorite decorations. Next to them is a sleigh with four reindeer that my dad made ages ago. Love them.

Then we have the Nutcrackers. Only one shelf on top of the mantle. That is it...compared to THIS:


Nutcracker Suite by ~Sarapuu on deviantART

so the insanity has subsided a bit. :)

My parents came and in my parent fashion they spoiled the hell out of the family. Just a short list of things I knew I had gotten even before Christmas morning: Lazy Boy Recliner, Ottoman, a promise to pay for fans to be installed, 15 month gym membership for the two of us,a kinect, Zumba for kinect, and a gift of money which payed for Evan's new laptop. Then all the stuff on X-mas morning.

I really hope the don't do this again next year, it was getting to be obscene. Evan and I felt bad.

I renewed the Netflix subscription for my dad (I got them a player and subscription last year) my dad LOVES the Netflix. It's like the gift that keeps on giving. Then I had gotten my mom an Arizona thing from the Day of the Dead festival. It was cut and artsy. She liked it. Then my brother and I went in together and did family photos. My parents didn't want to be in them but bull on that. We love them and made them.

Here is just the D family of 4. My brother, me, Dad, then Mom.



Then the WHOLE gang. My brother's wife, his step-son, my hub, brother, me. Then in front is my niece, dad, nephew, and mom.



My goodness we are a good looking crew of people!

Tarot

So a few weeks ago I went to a White Elephant party with my Geek Girls. Near the end of the night my friend Shauna got her tarot cards out and was giving little readings. We were to think of a question, shuffle the cards, then cut the cards into three piles, the past, present, and future.

My question was about my job. Major budget cuts to the education system are happening and I don't think I have ever really been so unsure of my employment for the next year.

Ah, the life of an art teacher.

Anyway as I was shuffling a card popped out, as I was about to put it back in Shauna grabbed it and told me, "It wants to be seen."

I continued to shuffle and cut the cards into the piles.

The first card (past) was the Two of Pentacles. The card for change. It makes sense, moving across the country, starting my career, meeting Evan, marriage, a house. My recent past has been all about change.

The second card is my present and it was the Ten of Wands, Oppression. Which with my job, this makes sense. I'm unsure of my employment so I don't want to get too attached, I am subbing a day a week which disrupts my life and teaching, but I do it for the love of the rest of my job. I am tired but I know I need to still work hard.

The third card is my future. While the card did not give me a definitive answer about my employment it did tell me that I would be okay. The card was the Six of Wands. Victory.

The fourth card, the card that popped out when I was shuffling, was the Three of Pentacles, titled "Works." The card featured an artist. :D

So, as long as I work hard and keep doing what I'm doing, I think I am going to be okay.

Massive Art Update

So there has been art going on.

Truly. So I posted a bunch of stuff over at the deviant art site and wanted to share it here!


Synthetic Business Cards by ~SyntheticPlatypus on deviantART


Emerson by ~SyntheticPlatypus on deviantART


Kiriban Kabuki by ~SyntheticPlatypus on deviantART


Mirror World by ~SyntheticPlatypus on deviantART

ENJOY!

Garage after

Garage before

Epic Fail

on the art front.

*bashes head against desk*

I have this creative grab bag thing right now and it is PISSING ME OFF. I just can't seem to get it. I finally have another idea which I will be doing this week and hopefully life will be good again.

I did finish the prize pic for Miss Kabukikatze for dA all I need to do is scan and post. Which I did hers by restarting the 90% picture I had finished before.

I also sketched a bunch for the webcomic I'll be working on and bought some new paper things for it. So, as soon as Miss Connie gets back from INDIA(!) I'll be able to start a bit more.

Had an epic garage sale over the weekend. I made posts everywhere and multiple times on craigslist. As the sale was going on I kept rearranging things and pushing everything forward toward the door. I think we sold about 75% of the stuff we had. Sold all the furniture but the bigger metal cabinet, sold one rug out of the two, sold all the electronics I had, and alot of the queen bed linens I put out there. Over half the shoes, a little bit of clothes, and honestly a bunch of misc. I didn't think was going to go.

We had the sale on Friday and Saturday and decided that what we had left was not worth trying to do another day. So I made a big bin of clothing for the geek girl clothing swap, and a giant pile of date and two bins for bookmans and said that whatever they didn't take at bookmans we would add to the donate.

Well, they took a bunch more books at bookmans! I have lots of credit again and am very excited. Carted everything to goodwill and my garage is EMPTY. We just need to organize this alcove we have and it's all good. My brother is very jealous.

I'll post pics from my phone of the garage sale. I have a new app and want to utilize it when I find fun Phoenix Art things. I'll do before and after pics.

I've also been running and I found part of the AZ canal system a mile and a half away, which is super exciting to me. I ran there the other day and Evan met me there (he can barely run) and we ran-walked an additional two together. But I was frustrated...how am I supposed to run with him all these miles I want to do? He's wheezing through one.

So we came up with a solution...he rollerblades. He'll rollerblade next to me on the long distances. Which we did (he can rollerblade forever) and we went and did 6.2 miles....which for those of you who don't know is a 10K.

So, a few (hopeful) goals this week.

1) Post the prize pic
2) finish this creative grab bag finally! (and post it to prove it!)
3) Get the clay stuff at school out and organized along with the powerpoints to go along with them.
4)Run the 6.2 miles Mon, Weds, Fri, and 8 miles on Saturday. (My eventual goal for this is a half marathon, 13.1 miles, which I would like to do twice a month and maybe eventually go for a marathon. But I still thing 26.2 miles is crazy)
5) Join the gym by the house to crosstrain on Tues and Sun.
6) Get most of the schoolwork done during conferences this week!

Test test test

This is a test from blogaway on the phone

Test test test

This is a test from blogaway on the phone

The Art is Coming.

It is.

I promise it is.

I stretched myself a bit thin for awhile and it left me with no time for personal endeavors such as art. The only thing I could really get in was a bit of reading which I do in bed before I am actually going to bed.

So wth that being said I have my fall break coming up next weekend. Now I have a big giant personal thing to take care of from Thursday evening to Sunday evening, but after that I have an entirely delicious week to do stuff.

So what exactly am I going to do?

Well here is a list of goals art and otherwise:
1. Run every other day and do my EA workouts for the rest.
2. Get FOUR Creative Grab bag projects FINISHED. I have the plans ready for one, so that shouldn't be terrible to do.
3. Finish Miss Kabukikatze's Prize Picture for dA. I started it...I'm not sure if I love it though. I may redraw it and color it differently. But the plan is there.
4. Character designs for a webcomic I am working on with one of my Geek Girl friends. She is going to be on a flight to India for 14 hours and will be e-mailing me massive amounts of stuff.
5. Get at least 4 pages (if she sends me that) drawn and finished for said comic.
6. Work on the Character Portraits for Evan's Game. He's making a video game. We have an idea so I'm gonna help with a portion of that.
7. SLEEP
8. Finish my library books. I'm in the middle of two of them now and am going to spend another day reading a different one.
9. Go to work on one day and get everything prepped for the week we get back. This will probably be done later on in the week.
10. Enjoy my house, husband, and puppy...cause I've been missing out since going back to work.

So ten goals. One Week. Will I do it, ladies and gentlemen? Or will I fail epically. You will find out with me!

Also: Last practice for cheer today...for this season. I'm still on the fence about doing it again but if it's just Mondays and Tuesdays then I probably will. The amount of money for this work is stupid. :D

Irritation

I'm getting irritated.

It's as if either everyone is way too polite or no one knows what "healthy" is anymore.

I've been on a diet...excuse me "life style change"

at one point a couple years ago (when I first moved to Phoenix) I was depressed, had a horrible living situation, and eating crap. I gained a ton of weight. I got a wii fit and lost ten pounds of that. Kept it off for awhile and then had to move all of my belongings up to a third floor of an apartment building when I moved out of horrible living situation. Lost another ten, kept it off for the most part. I was curvey but no one ever called me fat (technically obese/overweight according to BMI at the time).

Met Evan, current husband extraordinaire. Kept the weight off but became really sensitive of my size...especially since the man could wear MY PANTS.

We celebrated our one month together in style and I ended up gaining 8 lbs. Oy.

Adopted Evan's lifestyle of eating for allergies and working out with him. Lost 20 lbs.

Took a break, gained about 6 back. Still in overweight/obese land.

Got married lost those 6 and then some for my wedding. Yay. Gained the some back over the course of honeymoon. Boo.

Started a lifestyle of working out twice a day and only eating 1100 calories. No results...misery.

Decided to do something safe and drastic and now the weight is pouring off and someone hit my eating reset button.

I eat really healthy right now and everyone comments on it.

"Are you on a diet?"

Yeah

"Well, you don't need to be"

and I want to scream because yes I do. I'm still away from a normal BMI for my height. I am closer everyday, but everyone this whole time (besides Evan who knew what everything was and knew it was unhealthy) has told me I don't need to do anything. Now especially since I am super close to my goal. But I was not healthy before and everyone wanted me to eat like them and look like them and I refuse to do it. I know people think I am weird now.

I don't care. America has a warped perspective about the whole healthy eating and weight thing and I was a perfect example of this.

I'm almost there, I'm the skinniest I've been in I don't even know how long. I'm inching into middle school territory if I really think about it..I think.

But I am finally getting happy with how I look and feeling way healthy. I may even post the pics of my journey with my face blurred (even though there are already pics of my face) but they were me and I am proud of how it's looking now.

If not I'll just dig up photos from the past few years and scan them in to show that kind of difference.

I am happier now with myself but this crazy diet is almost over and then comes the maintenance for 3 weeks and then living the rest of my life. I'm kind of terrified about this.

But I believe in me!