Well, my Christmas Vacation started last Friday at 5:00 p.m. (Thanks, Beck, for telling me how to post a video!) I'm off for two weeks courtesy of Texas State University's energy conservation policy. I still can't believe it. But instead of going anywhere, I've decided to work on some home projects that I have been putting off for months. Last time I had some serious time off was when I got laid off, but I was so depressed and worried about finding another job that I didn't feel like doing a damn thing...other than looking for another job, of course. Now I have two weeks off with pay, so I have a lot of energy to get some things done.
First of all, we did the Secret Santa thing at work and I got this big basket of pine cones from my Santa. Considering there are no pine cones where I live in Texas this is a nice reminder of the north. In addition to that, one of the admins got me the book on Stieglitz next to the pine cones (a pioneer in the history of photography) because she knew of my interest in photography. What a sweetheart. Thanks, Sarah!
It's cold here today...started out at 32 and is now 40. That's cold for here. It's a gloomy day, as well, which also reminds me of the north...a nice change as far as I'm concerned but MANY people down here would disagree with me. I actually wore my leather jacket today AND turned on the heat. Both are rare occurrences for me.
Oh, man...look what the kitties did while they were outside today. Bad kitties! I think they were trying to get my attention to let them back in...even THEY don't like the cold.
One of my first projects before Christmas gets here is making a collage of black and white photographs from birth to now for each of my three sons . I'm going to mount them in a frame so they can hang them on the wall. The idea came to me from one of The Ariel View blog posts on her sister's birthday. Thanks for the idea, Vee!
Another project has been that room on the other side of the kitchen window that I created the stained glass panel for. I've decided to use that as a hobby room because it has a cement floor which is good for working with various crafts...especially stained glass. I did a post a few months ago on a deserted factory that had been turned into apartment lofts. I liked the fact that they had kept the original cement floors.
So I decided to go for the same look. I had originally painted it in a checkerboard pattern when I first moved here and used it as kind of a guest/family room.
In transition...
I painted it all a solid tan, then went over with a sponge roller to get that mottled look. It turned out a lot darker than the factory floor, but I like it. Now I just need to find a work table so I can actually do some work in there!
And remember what the back side of that window looked like before?
Here it is now. I wanted it to look like it was built that way.
On a totally different note, I used a memory card I hadn't used in months to take these pictures and found this photograph was still on it.
No sunflowers out today!
