Teddy K, SPs and Christmas Wrapping

This is my friend, Ted. In my phone, his name pops up as Teddy K. I'm not sure where that came from or if he even knows that I call him that, but I do. He's one of the coolest guys I know. We met exactly one year ago at the Fellowship of Christian Athlete's Winter Recharge. He played bass guitar in the band. He's one of those friends that you could not talk to for a year and then when you hang out, it's like you try to talk about what happened since the last time you talked - but because you are so similar and so distracted by the little things, it makes it difficult to carry on a conversation. Haha - That's a good thing though! We eventually got around to talking about the past semester (we haven't hung out in a long time). Today, we walked around downtown in Athens, getting blown away by the intense wind and laughing the whole way. We went into a bunch of shops, checking out all of the objects that could possibly act as a back scratcher and checking out the cool hats and such. 

Ted is also a barista and had to work tonight so I followed him to the wonderful Jittery Joe's for his late-night shift. We were able to talk a lot more about life and all of the wonders of it - school, romance (or lack thereof), coffee... we didn't talk much about Jesus but He was definitely present. If you haven't had an intense conversation with me lately, you won't know exactly how rough of a semester this has been for me... but it's been bad. It was so encouraging to talk to Ted - especially when it comes to the dating department. We both have the same issue: we analyze things WAY too much, before anything is physically there to even analyze. I'm thankful for Ted. And I'm thankful for the time we got to hang out tonight. Enjoy the pics! 

The one below is our "family Christmas card" enactment. You can't tell but he's sporting an awesome Santa sweater as well as a duotoned gray cardigan. 

This is Chris, one of Ted's co-workers. He's a pretty cool guy. We tried to take the picture with the sign that says "Jittery Joe's" and on the bottom, it says "running fuel" or something "fuel"... so we were acting like we were running. On fuel. But it doesn't really make sense because you can't read the entire sign. Next, is a picture (taken by Chris) of Ted and I talking about the Naughty List... a list of lattes that hold about 1000 calories in them each. ;o) Just kidding. Ben, on the other hand, is a friend of Chris and Ted. I actually didn't formally meet him, but Ted took a picture of him as he was leaving. And now he will forever be engraved on this blog. 

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These are a pair of my most favorite shoes! I'm not materialistic. At all. But these? I love them more each time I wear them. The pictures below are self-portraits (SPs). Elsie finished up our projects for the class and this one was probably in my top five favorites. I think it's so fun to play with angles and random objects! The shoes would be qualified as an SP... Above is another one of our projects. It's a little bracelet - awesome, huh? I love making these! More to come! 

  

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These are the lovely packages I wrapped. Chase did an awesome job on wrapping mine so I couldn't let him beat me out! The three at the bottom have the reindeer wrapped up in them for my grandparents, aunts and uncles.

 

Disclaimer: This blog holds Christmas gifts... Dad - don't peek till after Christmas!

Hello!! I hope everyone is having an absolutely lovely day! It's quite muggy here in Georgia but warm. Still a great day though... I've been busy getting everyone's gifts made and put together so I wanted to share them with you. This first one is the one I gave to Laura. John, a guy I work with, said the felt 'envelope' was excessive but that's what we do as artist - right? Go over the top. The bird was an embroidery pattern from Elsie. And the envelope had a nice little surprise of a Cambridge Coffee gift card inside - she loves coffee. Probably her biggest expense besides groceries... as it is the majority of a college student's greatest expense. Our friendship began with our love for Kristin Billerbeck novels. I used to think C.S. Lewis was cheesy when he said, "Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, 'What! You too? I thought I was the only one!" That was mine and Laura's encounter when I saw her reading the Spa Girls series in Cambridge one day. I didn't think anyone else around Auburn had heard of Billerbeck. Anyway, I got her the first two books from the "What A Girl Wants" series. She gave me some awesome guitar picks and a Death Cab for Cutie band shirt. She's awesome. 

These are the wonderful, glittery reindeer my mom found at Target. I made the decorative bows around their necks. Aren't they great! My mom helped a pretty good bit which was wonderful spending time with her and learning from her. I made these for the grandparents and Aunts and Uncles. I still have one more reindeer to finish. 

    

This is my favorite!! My brother, Chase, always has screen names or e-mails called 'the eskimo friend'. When I was listening to Damien Rice the other day, I realized that was where he got the idea from. Damien sings a song called Eskimo so I painted all of the lyrics in the background and then put 'so i look to my eskimo friend' on the sides. It was so much fun to do this for him. I really hope he loves it! I also got him a couple of things from Moosejaw.com. He probably gets tired of getting paintings every year. haha - just kidding. This will only be the second year. 
    

This is one of my projects from the Elsie class. The heads are wooden balls from Hobby Lobby and I sculpted the bodies out of clay. So cute! 

   

  
One more project from Elsie's class. I LOVE these! They are old books from a thrift store. The top one is The Legend of Paul Bunyan. I got it for my dad because he's in the lumber business. Sometimes he claims to be a lumberjack. ;o) I think he'll love it! The other one is The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. The last present for my brother (I got him a lot this year). Whenever I think about him, he defines adventure. I thought it would be cool to do the cover like a treasure map (idea I got from Elsie) so I did. 
  
    

Finally.... I got my hair done today!! I haven't had much luck with hairstylists in Auburn so I just came home and got it done by Donna, the lady who used to do it. She did EXACTLY what I wanted! I'm so excited about it!! (side note: this picture is mainly for Courtney because I just got off the phone with her telling her about it. I'm sure it doesn't look as awesome as yours... haha)

K- I'm off to play. Or maybe watch a movie. Or maybe nap. Or maybe all three. Actually. No. I think I'm going to practice these dance moves first. Then all three. 

and if that wasn't enough for you, here's some holiday cheer. My friend has this obsession with Relient K... and well, it's kind of slowly rubbing off on me after he sent me some CD's a couple of months ago. Enjoy:

<3 Christmas Break.

Hello all!! 

I've been terribly busy with school and such so I haven't been able to keep up with the blog BUT I do have some fun things to share with you for now. I can't tell you just how excited I am about being home for Christmas! My mom and I have been busy at work already - though she's getting paid for her work. :o) I have truly enjoyed being with her though and already learning so much. I'll be putting up many completed projects in the next few weeks, but here are a few things for now:

*This is a mini scrapbook album I learned how to make in my Elsie class. It's made out of recyclable office materials and Starbucks coffee cup holders. Enjoy!! 
    
        

*I made scarves for each of my roommates (4 other girls) for Christmas this year - including Laura (she's one of my closest friends). Well, I embroidered them by hand... I didn't make the scarf. I had so much fun making them and fitting the colors with all of their personalities! 

  

This is the one I made for my roommate, Courtney. Hopefully it will help keep her warm in Oregon...