My It's a Wonderful Life Village

So, this week, I put up my It's a Wonderful Life ceramic village. It took me from Monday to Thursday to do it. Part of the reason it took so long was because I took photos of each piece and the box it came in. Another reason was due to work and not being home enough. And when I was home, I suffered from several migraine headaches that made me unable to work on it. But it is finally up and I am excited to showcase it again for the first time in about 8 years.

With the book I used

In process

Completed

I have added two videos for you to check out, as well, with an explanation of what some of these buildings are.

Photo Friday - Bells Part 46

Welcome to Photo Friday. Here, I one or more photos related it to It's a Wonderful Life.

This week's Photo Friday features the bells that decorated the porch of my parents' home during Christmas, 2015. These photos were taken December 20, 2015.

It's never too early

It's never too early to get ready for Christmas.

NEVER!

On Tuesday, Trans-Siberian Orchestra released their new album, "Letters From the Labyrinth."

I haven't listened to it yet, but I plan to remedy that very soon.

On Thursday, I had a scout leader meeting and found out that two of the leaders (or their wives) have already put up their Christmas trees. Also on Thursday, I tuned my car radio to 101.5 The River, and found out that they have already started playing their 24/7 Christmas music. See? .....

I'm geeked. I'm so excited for this.

On Saturday, I watched Ernest Saves Christmas for the first time since I was 14. It was better in 1988. My best friend said he wanted to watch It's a Wonderful Life with me. Which is nice, since my family won't watch it with me anymore. They say I quote the movie as it's playing too much. Whatever.

My TSO playlist on Spotify is ready to go. Our Christmas gift planning for the boys is underway. I'm excited. This is the best time of the year. I absolutely love it.

But if anyone has any ideas what to get a 12-year-old kid who doesn't know what he wants for Christmas, PLEASE let us know. We're stumped.

So party on. And if you want to share pictures of your trees or other decorations, or of you watching IAWL, please post them here. I'd love to see those photos!

Let there be art!

A really weird thing happened to me this weekend.

I have always been creative. I did a really good water color still-life in elementary or middle school that my mom insisted on keeping. I did a plaster statue of a kid playing guitar. I wrote my first song lyrics in eighth grade and filled 3 notebooks with them. I added guitar to about six of them, and a solo to one of those.

Short stories, poetry, essays, and now more recently blogs: I have enjoyed doing all of them.

This past weekend, I read the book Cobain Unseen by Charles Cross, and at some point, I became inspired. I have ideas for several projects, but I have no idea where this inspiration came from (a dark place maybe), how long it will last, or what it means, or even what mediums it will take. What I DO know is that if I follow through on some of the projects I have imagined, I won't be able to post them all here.

This first project, which I am posting here, was not my planned first project. The inspiration came from an unlikely space. I was at work and opened this big plastic box that turned out to be full of Easter decorating supplies. When I opened it, I was overwhelmed with the smell of stale chocolate, plastic grass and easter eggs. So I took a picture of it, learned how to use the Photoshop selection tool the right way (thanks YouTube!!!), and created this. The Hannah Montana sticker was a bonus feature that I found while searching through my kids' stuff for a sticker of the Easter Bunny.

Since this movement was inspired by Kurt Cobain and his work, I think it's very appropriate that the first thought upon opening that box was "Smells Like Easter in Here." So I named it "Smells Like Easter."

Smells Like Easter by Greg Van Vorhis