New Year's Cliche

Hi there. Happy new year! 2012 (which, coincidentally, is the number of page views this blog had last year). As A said, "I can't wait to see what will happen on December 21 this year!" I am still having a hard time remembering we're in the '00's instead of the '90's. Yikes.

The close of a year typically brings nostalgia and reflection for me, but this year it was all about looking ahead and being thankful for the huge changes we made in our lives in 2011. Last year we:

both quit our jobs,
I got a new job,
then added another job,
Josh started a few companies,
Josh got a new job,
we became proctor parents,
we are renting a 106 year old farm house that I LOVE,

and I practiced trust (others and myself) and allowed myself to settle (I literally forget to breathe on a regular basis).

Maybe it's cheesy, but most of the years of my life have a word or two attached to them in my mind. 2009 = growth, 2010 = risk, 2011 = trust and settle, 2012 = truth.

Truth here means speaking truth and hearing truth. I'd much rather avoid conflict and practice apathy than speak and hear truth. The truth sucks- it's difficult, embarrassing, and often unwanted. But, it's also true. It's time to challenge myself to be more kind through honesty, whether it's expressing my love and appreciation for someone or setting boundaries or engaging in difficult conversation.

Do you ever notice themes in your life?
What are your hopes for 2012?

Art Project

This is the story of how I came to do an art project:

Josh: Graham and Mandi invited us over to dinner.

Jen: Yum.

Josh: It's art project night so bring an art project.

Jen: !@#$%^&*&^%$##

I appreciate art. I admire artists. I am secretly (or not so secretly) jealous of people who can create beautiful things. But, I've never had much success with the dreaded "art project"; this probably started with my attempt as a 5 year old to make an angel for the Christmas tree out of a toilet paper roll (what adult in my life thought that was a confidence-boosting art project anyway?!).

So, when Josh announced that it was art project night at our super creative friends' house I just about caught a deathly cold and needed to stay home for the night. Instead I mustered up all my courage, bought a $12 picture frame at Ikea, Googled "how to clean an old painting" (answer from the interwebs: DON'T DO THIS IT WILL RUIN YOUR LIFE), rolled my eyes, turned off my computer, threw some q-tips and cotton balls in a baggie, and threw them in my purse along with a bottle of Dr Bronner's magic soap.

After a lovely dinner it was art project time. This was my art project: cleaning and re-framing an old painting that had been in my family for a couple of generations. The painting was done by my great great uncle in Spain and depicts a flamenco dancer performing in a plaza. It's not valuable, but has sentimental value to me since I remember it in my grandparents' house when I was a kid.

I broke the old frame off (it was literally nailed to the painting, which was done on wood) and got started. Contrary to all the advice on the internet I dipped a q-tip directly into the soap and started cleaning (yes, I'm rocking a horse t-shirt).

See the line on her skirt where it's partially cleaned?!

Ta-da!

It looks great in the frame, but we didn't get any pictures of it and I am currently camera-less. I am so happy that I tried this and that it worked! Check out Mandi's blog to see her super-creative self: mandimakes.blogspot.com. Have you ever been pleasantly surprised by an art project success?