Ruffle Shower Curtain

Now complete!

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First up...

Thanksgiving:

My Thanksgiving this year wasn't spent in typical holiday tradition sitting idly watching football or planning black Friday shopping excursions; this year it was in the middle of the Texas Hill country without even cell service and yet full of family fun and adventure. Being the city gal that I am, I might have been “getting away” from work and daily responsibilities but my laptop was making the trip regardless. So I packed up my necessary equipment in my Altego backpack and headed to “camp”. Camp Eagle that is. It’s a great place – you should check it out.

Winter Clean Out.

I'm so sad to have not blogged in faaaaarrrrr too long!  It's sort of unbelievable how overwhelmed I have been.  I think I say that a lot but I realized through a series of things happening (or not happening) that I have been shutting down due to overwork.  "All work and no play makes Constance a dull girl", and totally not function properly.  My new recent habit has been to do nothing if I don't know how to do it at first.  This has mainly been a problem with my freelance and as overflowed into blogging.  Instead of thinking, asking, or creating a solution I just don't do it.  ugh!  not good.  To be honest the only reason I am blogging right now is because it is about the only thing I can do while a video I'm working on for work renders.  It takes about all the juice my laptop has to offer so I shut down most all my applications while it works.

Busy busy bee.

It's Friday, this has been a crazy week.  I feel as though I haven't stopped at all and honestly I'm not even sure how I got to Friday.  Like when you get to a destination and don't remember any of the drive... uhh yeah kinda scary.  So sorry to my fantastic and loyal readers but I haven't anything too ground breaking for you this week as pretty much my fun projects have been on hold for work.

One upside to being a designer/photographer though it sometimes your work is fun to show.  And this week I had the extreme pleasure of a newborn photo shoot!  Yay!  So here are some of the shots we got.

Meeting Benji!

I might be a little obsessed.  It's true!  

I went to meet my newest little nephew this past weekend/week and fell in love with him and the 2 year old that is Boone!  Wow is 2 a busy age!  That kiddo just goes and goes but his adorableness never ends.

3 Decades Old

Today is the day... I'm 30.  YIKES!  I've been laughing all day because as people wish me happy birthday it almost sounds like they are offering their condolences. I really don't feel like I have much to say right now about turning 30.  I'm sure that will change at some point but for now I'll just tell you about the birthday party I had last weekend. 

Yes, again this year I threw myself a birthday party.  Maybe it's an odd thing to do but it's my excuse to have a themed party, get my guests to dress up, and create a fun atmosphere that gets remembered (for a while anyway).  This year a Murder Mystery party was on the agenda.  And as previously blogged it was going to be a wild west theme.

So I went ahead and downloaded the game which came with all the clues, invitations, a website guest could log into to find out more details and other party tips and ideas.  Of course, being me I had to design my own invitations, clues, name tags etc.
Here are my creations:

Everyone did such a great job staying in character and trying to figure out the clues that led to the murderer, it was so much fun.  So here are a few more pictures from the evening.

The Cast!

5 Lessons from Gone with the Wind

Apparently I didn't get enough book reports out of my system in high school—that almost seems impossible. Nevertheless, these are lessons I learned in reading Gone with the Wind.  I'm not saying they are lessons I have exceeded in accomplishing - these in many cases have been truly convicting.  I have had this nagging feeling, since starting Gone with the Wind, of heart ache.  I'm not sure if my hopes for the "greatest love story ever told" (I naively assumed a feel good) were being dashed by what I think is more accurately "a great love story tragedy" or if I really just became invested in the characters but either way I *felt* this book.

When I first started contemplating this post it was out of a pang in my gutt and I thought I must get my thoughts out there somehow... but I had no idea what it would turn into.  As I am writing and revising and coming to terms with my thoughts I am realizing this is a SUPER DUPER "keeping it real" post.  So I have come back up to the top here to write this little disclaimer that I share my heart and it ain't always pretty so if you are looking for a light-hearted post on GWTW this isn't the one to read...google on my friends there are some good ones out there but this one is personal and apparently I feel the need to share ;)

Here's the short side of it.  I put up walls and I put them up fast.  If I think I'm going to be hurt I get angry and pissy and stay-the-heck-away-from-me-y because I want whomever I fear is going to hurt me to get back, run in fear, leave me alone... better than being hurt and vulnerable!  right?!?  ummm no, not right but I do it time and again unless I can consciously stop myself.
And that my dears is exactly what I feel like Scarlet does.  I guess her wall is money and a do-what-I-want attitude. BUT they are walls baby!

So, without further ado, here are a few things
I have been pondering as my heart aches through this book: