I know I’ve been a terrible blogger. I haven’t written a word in almost three months, and it hasn’t been for lack of things to write about. Hopefully that’s all about to change... I leave for Prague in a few days, and my goal is to keep a detailed record of my life there so that my friends and family feel like they know what I’m thinking and experiencing even if they can’t be there with me.
I suppose I should catch up by summarizing the past three months. A lot has happened. It went by so quickly. First of all, I accidentally fell in love. I wasn’t even looking for a date, let alone a relationship. I guess we don’t get to plan everything. Anyway, it’s been a huge blessing to spend the past few months with John. We’ve had lots of great dates and shared a lot of memories. We had a beautiful autumn this year, and it was so fun to introduce John to Ohio (he’d just moved here from Phoenix, AZ) and take him to my favorite places.
John working on his motorcycle
One of our first dates
Pictures from a beautiful fall day at the Indian Mounds in Newark
John's kitty, Sid
I will miss this smile.
Another thing that I did over the past three months was get some tattoo work done. I had been wanting to do this for a long time, and knew I wanted to do it before I left. I got in touch with my friend Miller who I know from Athens but now works at Short North Tattoo in Columbus, and we talked about what I wanted to do. I brought a couple of pictures, and he drew up a sketch. We modified it slightly and then started working on it. It took 8 grueling hours, but I am pleased with how it turned out. It was a cover-up of an old tattoo I’d gotten 7 years ago. I hadn’t taken good care of it so it didn’t look very good and I had been wanting to modify it for quite some time. Thanks to Miller for great work and to John for being there for me every painful step of the way.
These are the pictures I used for inspiration
(I'll post a picture of the actual tattoo next time)
Another highlight of the past few months was a trip I took with Bianca to Lake Erie. We got a hot tip from the stonecarving teacher at CAC about a spot on the lake where beach glass can be found. I suppose I should begin by explaining that Bianca is Ava’s sister. She has lived in England for over ten years, but she has made extensive visits a couple of times this year, so I’ve gotten to know her and pal around with her. She’s been taking the metal classes at CAC with me and working at the store since September.
Anyway, we made the trip up to Erie, and had a great time beachcombing. I’ve decided that I’ve been greatly underrating the Great Lakes for all of these years. It was beautiful and full of treasures, and our only regret was that we hadn’t made it an overnight trip so we could have had more time on the beach. Although we didn’t find a lot of glass (I did find a few nice pieces), we found lots of gorgeous things. I’ve used pieces from our trip to make a couple of my first rings, and Bianca has used some of hers to make gifts for Ava and a beautiful pair of earrings she gave to me as a going away gift. She also purchased a mini drill press which she let me use to drill some of my other stones and glass pieces so I will be able to use them in future pieces.
Binky scoops up a treasure
My precious booty
The holidays were really special this year. Having a baby in the family makes everything so much more fun. It was also great having John to share the holidays with. We went to Shelley’s house in Indiana for Thanksgiving. The boys couldn’t be there, but we were able to Skype with them while we were all there. The time between Thanksgiving and Christmas was pretty much a huge blur. I was so busy with work and jewelry classes and volunteering and preparing for the trip and making Christmas presents (I made a lot of commissioned pieces in addition to things for the store and my own gifts for people). I’ve also been trying to see all of my friends before I leave, although it’s really impossible to see everyone.
John's dad's Thanksgiving pie
Christmas this year was great. It was so good to have all of the family together. It doesn’t happen very often anymore, and it was really the first time we’d ALL been together, since Jared hadn’t even met Emma yet. I’m glad I got to be here for his first time meeting her and that we all got to spend Christmas together. We even got family portraits taken. Two days after Christmas Jared was on a plane heading for Melbourne, Australia. Shan returned to Madison a couple of days later. Shelley and David and Emma headed up to Cleveland on Christmas Day, but they will be coming back through for a few days so I’ll get to see them one last time before I go. One of the hardest parts of leaving like this is knowing how much I’ll miss with Emma. It’s so amazing how fast she changes and how many new things she can do every time I see her. I’ve been able to spend time with her a couple of times a month since she was born, but I guess I’ll have to get by with digital interactions for a while. At least my sister is an amazing photographer and keeps us all updated on Emma’s new tricks and milestones. Sigh...
Emma and I
The whole family
Sibs
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