Whirlwind Month of Events...Bo is home from Afghanistan!!

First off I wanted to let everyone know Bo is home! :) It was a chaotic, stressful, and frustrating trip back to the states but all that fell behind us when we finally welcomed him home to us here in KY.

June came with Jared turning 16 years old, my husband finally coming home, Father's Day, then us leaving getaway and just falling off the grid to coming back home to celebrate July 4th with friends. The time flew but at the same time it was memorable and every day spent knowing we were a complete family again just made my heart soar.

My now 16 year old son. :)


I am not done downloading all our pictures from the trip yet but will share some that I do have and Bo's homecoming.

June 2011- Welcome Home To Bo...

Waiting for the plane to arrive in Louisville, KY.

Bo with Boys...

Bo and I..

A stranger came up and was so sweet to offer to take our family picture.

For the first meal back with us he chose Lynn's Paradaise Cafe in Louisville, KY.

Father's Day 2011

A few scenes from our getaway..we left our hearts there and will be back. :)

View from our 18th floor Condo...bay on one side, gulf waters on the other. :)

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July! I am back to the grind trying to get things back to normal again in this full household and should have more pictures to share and new art soon. I came home with so much inspiration. :)

So much so much.....

May 2011 Daisy

I know it seems I have neglected my blog, but really I have been around just have not shared much due to so much happening at once all with its own attachment of emotions. Yesterday I got a scare, thankfully it dwindled down to just a worry but it just made me realize the real sacrifice those in uniform make and those of us who support the ones in uniform. Peaks of stressed emotions like that just makes all the beautiful moments in our lives really worth having even if its as simple as watching everything green up for the summer or watching your kids walk across the podium to receive their academic award for the year despite all that has also been thrown in front of them.

For those of you wondering no Bo is not home yet and we really do not know when he will be coming home. Their replacements got pushed back and so until they step foot on their base to replace them we are still in limbo. But unfortunately life doesn't wait and the boys and I have celebrated events and holidays without him.

May 18, 2011 was 18yrs of marriage for Bo and I. This one even if he is not around felt more meaningful than the last years. I think its because the true form of love, patience, communication, trust and values were tested this year and has persevered to show us what is important in our lives and how we are reminded that it is hard work in every level that gets us to that point, its not luck, its not given, its earned.

I have so much to share but do not want to ramble throughout this so I will share in the best way I can, visually. :)

So here we go...

Another season of track for Nick.

Mother's Day with the boys.

18yrs together:
May 18, 1993 wedding at our courhouse.

4 months later at our church.

Meeting up with lifelong friends for a baby shower

My first finished journal girl for my The Goddess and Poet portrait class from Suzi Blu.

2010-2011 CHHS Academic Awards-you have to have a 92% along with a GPA of 3.5 or higher to receive an award.

Jared. 3.9 GPA with all honors classes and AP Biology

Nick with a 3.8 with all honors classes and AP US History, AP Chemistry and Pre-Calculus

I hope you all have a great Memorial Day weekend! Stay safe and have fun!

Gifts from Bo, New Work, Happy Mother's Day

Yellow flowers in Afghanistan picture by Bo. :)

There is a Sunday market that happens on the base that Bo has been to only twice. The first time was just to see what was around and take pictures and I have an entry on that right here http://abigailscreativejourney.blogspot.com/2011/01/bazaar.html. The second time was to look for some gifts that he can carry home to me. His base doesn't have an American Post Office and at this point I really do not want him going out of area just to figure out how to mail something to me. Not worth it in my eyes. So when he went to the market he kept a look out for small things he can just bring home to me.

I woke up to an email with him excited of his finds.

First was a beautiful handmade bag. I told you he always looks for elephants for me. LOL! He knows how I love hand made things and color so when I saw this I knew, he really knows me well. :)



The second find was what he was so proud of. You all know how I love texture in my art and I have been working on different projects with images being stamped on my paperclay projects. Well Bo found these printing blocks. Here is what he wrote. "The biggest find were these block prints, since you are all in the paper clay stuff with the impressions, I thought these were a huge find, so I bought you 3 of them....The guy said they are about 200 years old, and they were used for imprinting ink onto fabric, such as dresses, blankets, and other textiles....I figured you could use them in your artwork....What is cooler than knowing your stencil patterns come from something like that."











I am so excited. I have an old printing block similar that I bought from an antique store here and just love the designs on it but the grooves in it are not as deep as the ones above. It is such a great find and what a neat thing to keep even if I didn't use it in any of my art. :)
Even if I am happy these are coming home to me, I will be even happier and will have the best gift of all when I hear the news that he is coming home. Things have changed and now its all up in the air but I am praying within the next month or so I can finally see an end in sight. Cross fingers.

In our news here at home, we have been busy with testing, AP testing, track meets until late at night, yard work when we are given one of our few sunny days. We are averaging around high 60's right now and just taking care of the everyday busyness of life. So when I have a moment to spare or a time to escape into my little studio downstairs I set up for painting, I steal away.

Here is my 2nd fearless painting for Abstract Adventures. My mind was so busy that day and I had to quiet down the chatter. Glad I did. :)













Then I put some paint on a leaf collage project I am working on. It is not finished yet. I do multiple projects at a time. :)

The first days of the project:

With paint added

I am hoping that with a weekend of no sports events that as a present from my kids I will have some free time to work on more of my projects. :)


I am blessed to have a wonderful caring, strong and artistic mother that has instilled value and morals in me and always told me to never let anyone turn me into someone I am not. She always gave us kids the freedom to be who we really are even through criticism of others. Thank you Mom!



I am also proud to be a mother to two handsome young men who have been my inspiration to life, who opened up the world to me through their growth, and who have been the best teenage boys anyone can ask for mostly through this deployment and all the other events that have been thrown at us this year.



And of course I cannot leave out that I am a happy furkid Mom to Kaiah. :)Here she is chilling out while I was painting. She was watching the rain fall out the patio doors.

I want to wish all the Mother's out there a Happy Mother's Day.

Charm Necklaces

Usually around the winter, since my garage is not heated like in Alaska, I take a break from making glass and jewelry all together and try to spend time on other projects and art works or take classes online. This year I was unfortunately a bit unmotivated due to my lampwork artist being gone. He left me a couple sets to work with but it just didn't seem the same to finish it and not be able to share it with him. I dragged my laptop and table out of my art room into my room so I can hear the skype calls at 1am and put another table in there just to keep up with my other projects. My bead table, I left as is.

As March rolled around and I was busy with a painting class and visual journaling, I really wanted to finally make my charm necklaces. But I always found a way to put it to the side. Then the news of my Mother in law passing came and the the anxiety and nervousness of my husband making an emergency trip out of Afghanistan cost nights of no sleep. Well I couldn't really paint, well I could, but then I would be cleaning up a mess every 2am so I thought well I can quietly sit in my room and bead.

Since I make my own jewelry. I usually do not buy jewelry, but I could not pass up a sale in American Eagle of these long necklaces that mimic the charm necklaces I wanted to make. So I bought two of them with the chains I wanted and some pieces in the charms that I liked. I took it home, took it apart and then added my own flair to it. So I cannot really claim the whole necklace as mine since I didn't make the chain and some of the components but I did make it to a point that most of it was mine and that the pieces I incorporated into it meant so much to me.

So here they are:

My first one with charms of thing that remind me of what life is all about for me.



The elements that I incorporated were: The love life pendant, brass leaf, and antique key. The rest were already a part of the necklace.


This is the second necklace:



The elements that I incorporated in this necklace were: The Green Girls Studio pendant of strength with Swarovski crystals,Bo's organic blue glass bead with a sterling seahorse, sterling key, rock, coral beads, and my hand made imprinted dragonfly wing and sterling hoop from metalsmithing class in UAF. The only thing not mine is the chain.

I love how long the chains are and how they dangle and clink. Not a necklace you can wear ALL the time but I feel as if a part of how I express myself is always with me. :)You see all the nature elements and the sea that I long for and my keys. :)

It felt good to put my energy into creating with my hands rather than stressing as my husband made his travel home and all the other anxiety and worry that came with our news. This is when I realized how deeply my creations do affect me and how it will always be a part of my life. No more pushing it to the side because of how others view it as not "being a job". I worked enough my whole life from 11yrs old on. Now as I am given the opportunity to finally tap into what my passion really is and to take the time to raise my boys I will do so with my head up high and knowing that I love life more now, once I have finally dropped others expectations of what my life should be like.

Creating those pieces then gave me even more inspiration to start back up with my jewelry. I probably need to anyway and rotate out my jewelry from Woodland Gallery out for new ones. This summer will be busy for us so I am not sure if I will be doing any art shows or bazaars. We will see maybe an opportunity will pop up that I cannot pass up.

Before heading out of Biloxi, MS when we went down for the funeral, we had to pass by the Bead Shack in Gulfport. My brother in law told us of the place and how the owner makes her own lampwork beads too. So of course Bo had to check it out. :) Her beads are beautiful but larger. Bo likes the simplicity of our beads that look closer to rocks and organic to nature and ours are still different so he was satisfied that our beads are still ours in design. :)But of course I could not leave without some goodies. :)So I picked up some silver components and a beautiful string of blue gemstone beads. I have not made anything with it yet but I am itching to so hopefully I can make myself a Mother's day gift soon. :)




I know time will be ticking but we found out that my husband will not be coming home around the time frame we thought he would be headed back. So once again it is a waiting game for the date. I try to keep my spirits up with being busy with the boys and their activities and my online classes. I am also blessed to have such a supportive group of friends online and here in Kentucky that make sure we are doing okay. Thank you for your friendship. It is greatly appreciated by our whole family.

Well it looks like the sun is finally trying to come out and our half mowed lawn looks really awful now. But Bo kept on telling me to wait until the ground is dry or else I will tear the yard up. So hopefully it does dry so I can finally finish it up and tidy it sometime this weekend.

Have a great Friday...off to a track meet I go this afternoon. :)

Rain, rain, Go Away!

Wow we have been bombarded a whole week now with severe weather. Night after night of rushing the kids and the dog (who also gets anxious) down to the basement as our tornado sirens go off. This Alaskan girl is not used to being freaked out by the weather like that. LOL! Last night was about the scariest for us when we found out a funnel cloud was spotted not too far from where we live and we watched the wall cloud and the rotation in it come through our back yard and made everything eerie, quiet, and dark until it unleashed its energy. SCARY! As I write this the wind is still kicking outside. We have had so much rain that the other half of our neighborhood is flooded and we have to find a different route to school. Yes you heard right the kids are still going to school and yet if an inch of snow falls they close it. We were on an hour delay today and they pushed testing for tomorrow. The boys have state testing this week then their AP exams next week.

No we do not have a creek out back, that is because of how much rain we have had. As you can see it pouring down.







Poor Kaiah all she wants to do is go play and she can't. The backyard is soaked, the mat she lays on is soaked and there is no sunshine for her to sunbathe in. :(





The rainy days though call for being at home. I do run my errands but I prioritize what is important, like picking up the kids. But if I really do not have to be out in it, I will not be, mostly after a scare of it coming down where you couldn't see in front of you to drive right and I was still far away from where the boys were. It can be depressing with no sun. You all know me, I love my sunshine. But I have put my energy into my arts. I really love the 21 Secrets workshop I am part of and I try to pace myself on what workshops to do first and try to finish projects before I start another but that isn't working too well. Laughing...I want to try all the different techniques that I have multiple projects going at once. LOL! But that is a good thing right? :)

Here are more Silent Messages Workshop projects made with paperclay. In these pictures they were just made and so I had them sitting out to dry.

I love how some of the textures came out.

I experimented with putting it on canvas.

I cannot wait to paint and finish these pieces. Other than that I am working on other projects for the different workshops and just joined "Drawing Happy" and "Collage Paint and Soul".

I am so happy to be learning and creating. It puts me in such a positive mood no matter what challenges have risen throughout this deployment. Thank you to the artists and instructors who has given this opportunity to me.