engraving

Stuck In a Rut

Sorry for the lack of posts over the past couple days. I spent yesterday helping my mom finish engraving the wine glasses for the bridal shower. It is good to have that off my shoulders now, and I hope they like them.

I ate more junk food yesterday than I normally do, and am coming off of a sugar high. To be honest, I don’t understand why I drink pop or eat sugary foods when I know it will take my body a few days to get back to normal. Instead of giving me energy, it depletes me, and I end up with the groggiest mind.

But your body ends up craving it and I get super irritable trying to cut it out though I’m trying. It doesn’t do me any good aside from a very temporary sense of happiness, and that in itself harms any chance of long term happiness I want.

Anyways, the real reason I am posting today is I am trying to look into new forms of poems to write. I want to challenge how I usually create a poem and find something new along the way. Hopefully it will help me keep my brain functioning and motivate me, too.

My book has not been touched since I last posted it, and that upsets me. I also feel like my posts are very last minute on here, and I want to change that. Obviously I’m in a bit of a rut and I’m going to do my damnedest to get out it!

 

Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.

~ Harriet Beecher Stowe

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Shopping, Talking, and Creating

Today has been a very productive day in my books, and a decent one for my mood too. My mom invited me to help her shop for her Mother of the Groom dress and my future sister-in-law, Emily, was able to tag along. It was fun!

After trying on what felt like a dozen dresses, my mom was torn between three and that shrunk to two. It created a bit of a numbers war with 4 of us liking the one and 3 liking the other. Thankfully, I was able to give my mom an awesome speech (to push her to buy the dress she loved instead of the one my dad thought looked best) and it ended quite happy.

We got back to the house to see my dad and my husband, Andrew, had not started on the Punch A Cup game for my brother and future sister-in-law’s stag and doe (which happens to be two weeks away). They made a measurement mistake in two places, but I saved the day by proposing a solution.  (Tooting my own horn a little bit for which I apologize). The game needs a couple coats of paint, and then we will be cutting tissue to match.

While my husband worked on drilling the holes for that and my dad kept cleaning, my mom and I engraved glasses. Got another dozen done and only have 18 more to go! I am hoping we’ll get them done this Monday.

Emily told me she managed to get her wedding invites out and I know bridal shower invites have gone out too. It is so exciting waiting for mail! My only issue… I am still undecided on whether I want to attend their wedding. I don’t feel like they really want me there, but I don’t want to cause another fight by declining (even if I think I’m doing what they want me to do).

It isn’t my wedding, but it is nice to help my parents’ and family do these kind of things. Creativity is addictive, y’know?

 

 

Wolves Do Shine

From yesterday comes the second bit of art mentioned: Silver Wolves. It is actually the first one I did out of the two, but I am more proud of it than the Butterflies (as meaningful as they are to me).

Out of the two, I thought it would be simpler, or truthfully, not as hard to mess up. I was afraid to screw up from the last time I had tried the engraving art kits. With that in mind, I got started on the Wolves, and kept going.

It was easy to keep at it since I was enjoying it so much. I started with the background where I knew I was safer to learn the tool’s movements, and the effects it could create.

Once I felt at ease with using the scraping tool, I started on the main figures of the piece; the Wolves.

My strokes were fearful and timid at first, still unsure. With time, I found my method, and used it to create the two Wolves to the best I could. I have to say, I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.

Metal.Wolves.jpg

I scratched my initials into the corner just for the heck of it since I didn’t design it, just scratched it on the pieces with the tool (all provided).

Now all I want are more of these kits to do. It was amazingly fun, and honestly, there are screw ups, but I don’t think they are the normal eye sore they could be. In fact, I feel they add depth either to the end product, or about the flaws all of us humans have.

Anyways, I absolutely adore canine life. It is so beautiful, and has so many faces to it. I love wolves and foxes the most, for different reasons. In fact, used to dream about owning one, but realized they are better enjoyed on their own turf.

P.S. Found SD cards, but they don’t fit my camera. Hoping to find some time in the next few days to find something for the memory slot.

Butterflies of Mine

Crafting and art in its various forms are all of interest to me. That is why sometimes I love and/or hate receiving art kits with instructions. However with the Engraving Art series I turned out to love it.

I bought one many, many, many moons ago, and absolutely butchered it. It was a golden lion, and I just could not figure it out. Every scrap with the tool felt like a mistake, and I swore I would never do them again.

But then… While purging the house room by room, I came across two kits: Golden Butterflies and Silver Wolves. I decided to do them, and see if it went any better, and it did.

Metal.Butterflies.jpg

I absolutely enjoyed it! I loved playing with negative and positive space, and it was nice for the butterflies to turn out half decent.

Butterflies are a big symbol for my relationship with my husband, and for a good yet silly reason. He told me he would NEVER buy me jewellery, and if he were to propose, it would be with a ring pop candy. We would be married until I finished it was what he used to say.

Now, the jewellery thing didn’t bug me at all. I have never been someone who wears necklaces, bracelets, rings, or even earring on a day to day bases. BUT the ring thing irked me.

Now, my Andrew said this for YEARS. At least until he broke one day, and got me a necklace. It had a blue and green butterfly on it, made out of tiny gems, and it was beautiful.

That is what made Butterflies a big deal for our relationship. I have a red spotted ‘purple’ butterfly tattooed on my left fore arm, because of it (and as a reminder the life is beautiful). It was featured at our wedding, in our handmade center pieces.

So now, the trick will be framing it, and figuring out where I want it on my walls. It does reflect light fairly bright which is why the picture is dark.