Shoes are finished!

This is the 100th anniversary of Converse this year, and here's my tribute.

They is finished I declare!

Jim VanHorn

I didn't mention it on the exact day, but Jim VanHorn passed away a year ago April 22nd.

I was a wreck this year. I hope it hurts less next year.

I listened to alot of ACDC and that made it better...

For those of you who knew him, please join me in remembering our brave and loyal friend.

Turning the lights on

So I decided to give my blog a brighter look. It's minimalistic, but clean.

Things are going well. I leave tomorrow evening for Chicago! I can't wait to see my precious wife and son. I've missed them so.

I've definitely used the time to focus and create. I'm very excited about where the clothing line seems to be headed. I finished the shoes, and I'll have pics up soon.

Work's been decent. I'm still uncomfortable with my current situation, but who knows? Everything could change in one decision by the right person. So I'm praying for that to happen. If the right person decides to move me to a different job, it could happen immediately. That's how it seems to work around here. Stall, stall, stall... change now.

Kiah's growing in leaps and bounds. His phone conversations are starting to make sense. (Alot of talk about trains and fish and kitties) He now says "I love you" clear as a bell when saying goodbye!

Well, I best get back to what I was doing...

Peace

Sorry

The pics aren't showing up in the post below... my apologies.

I am attaching them here in hopes you will see them.

Dumb blogger.

New shoes

My Converse All-Stars are announcing their retirement today... They've seen alot in the past two and a half years, and while they were my first pair of Chuck Taylors... they will not be my last. Case in point, I've already purchased their replacements. As before, I will be coloring on my shoes, but this time I have been encouraged to send pictures to Converse, and see if they'll use the design. This sounds very exciting to me and I have determined to do so. While the last design I used on my shoes was sparadic and haphazard, this time I am putting a great deal of thought and planning into what I want them to look like. I've begun work on one of them, and here's what I have so far... The "Fire Circle" is a design I've been using throughout my work, and you can actually purchase several articles of clothing with it off my cafepress.com webstore. The design itself began as a tattoo idea for the upper center of my back, and based on my growing love for the design, it may still become that. In some ways, I feel the circle still needs some perfecting, but the imperfect qualities it has have grown on me... I may not change them at all. Hmmm... Anyway. I still have a week before I see Sarah and Kiah again. I've been missing them terribly these last two weeks. Three weeks is too long. I have determined that now. I've been able to be very productive, but screw productivity! I miss my family! I would much rather have one of our hectic "can't get a thing done because Kiah won't stop being clingy and breaking stuff when he's not being clingy" days than these incredibly productive lonely ones... our bed seems like a mattress without her... Work's been good, but frustrating. We're still hurtling toward a cliff this summer, and nothing's been done on the management side to slow our hurtle... :) I hope I'm wrong... but I don't think I am. Well, that's it for now. Love and peace to you all. P.S. Feel free to stop by HollyCross and have a look around. We appreciate your support!

Rooftop thoughts and high brow tomfoolery.

So Sarah and Kiah are in Chicago for a few weeks, and I've got some time on my hands. And it won't wash off.

I cleaned a disgusting window in our upstairs bedroom/apartmentish room which has a small roof below it. So now, my super clean window allows me access to the roof, on which I have placed a folding chair, and I now have a lovely place to sit in the evening and look out over the fields. It's really quite relaxing, and I enjoy my little fortress of solitude. Well, it's not particularly solitary, as Ezra realized he can throw tennis balls at me while I sit, but when he's not harassing me, it's very "solitudary."

I watched the Lady in the Water the other day, and couldn't have been more impressed. I'm an M. Night fan (except for Signs which was a total piece of crap) but I had heard that the Lady in the Water was supposed to be a flop.

It was touching, funny, suspenseful and refreshing... everything I had hoped, and nothing I disliked. Totally ownable.

I met with my HR manager this week to discuss my recent issues at work, and I think things are really going to improve. He and I have a great repoire, and I enjoy talking with him a great deal. They've decided to add to my title here, and give me responsibility over the public areas of the hotel in addition to the rooms. I've already been assuming responsibility over them for awhile now, but they finally decided to make it official, and back me. Up till now, I've just had my housekeepers clean whatever I saw was dirty, and other people "didn't have time for."

I hope to have another location or two added to our department shortly, and a pay raise for the added responsibilities is in the works. I hope it's big. We'll see.

For my birthday, I got the money for a Nintendo DS, which I have found to be highly enjoyable. Being such a flitabout person, I find portable gaming systems to be so much more enjoyable than a TV bound one. Although, the Nintendo Wii is a fantastic idea, and Sarah and I hope to have one someday.

I purchased a game called Trauma Center: Under the Knife, where you operate on people who have been infected by a Bio-terrorism virus that adapts and changes. The DS has two screens, and the bottom one is a touch screen that uses a stylus. In Trauma Center, you use your stylus to scalpel, stitch and suction your way to greatness. It's a blast!

I also got Professor Layton and the Curious Village, which is a fantastically well designed, well drawn mystery puzzle game. It's deep and engrossing, challenging but fun. The in game videos are beautiful and keep the game interesting, and the music is repetative but pleasant. I beat it in a week, but you can save your favorite puzzles to do again, and new puzzles are available for download weekly.

Well, that's it for now. I'll keep you posted on new developments. I'm creating a Cayman t-shirt tonight for a friend of Kristen's! My first adult design for sale! Very exciting.

Adios!

6 months of silence...

Yeah, so as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted...

It's been a crazy last few months. Lack of broadband, and excess of thought requiring tasks have led to a profound amount of silence on my blog. It's amazing how much of my writing stems from random thoughts, and the wish to inflict them on my family and friends on a whim. Remove the ease of jumping on the computer and shooting off a rant/thought/ramble, and you get 6 months of silence.

I've missed it though. Especially the responses and conversation with friends that writing here spawns. Reading over the past few years here, I see conversations with friends we've lost to death and distance. And friends we haven't lost at all.

The moves, the jobs, the pains and joys... it's been a great couple years, and I've been honored to spend it with such fine people.

I don't know where to begin if I am to update you on my life now. Suffice it to say that I have moved back to my "hometown" as it were, and I am still working in hotels. I am working for the best hotel in the area, as I wouldn't have it any other way, and while the road has been a bumpy one, I am happy that we have done this move. I miss my mountains, and the sunshine, but being near family has been as priceless as advertised. Sarah and I are both looking forward to building our own life in our own home, but have enjoyed the closeness and hospitality that my family has provided by letting us stay with them until we find our feet.

I have recently solidified a past dream of mine, one that involves drawing designs on clothing. I have made several half-hearted attempts in the past to see it to fruition, but I have a really good feeling about this time. I am planning to begin an actual clothing line under the moniker "Hollycross", which is a previous design of mine which first appeared on this blog.

My first work under the label was this onesie, made for a wonderful little girl, born to dear friends of ours. I have named the pattern "Cayman" after her, and I have been pleased to see it very well received. I have been taking orders via email, and hope to soon have a website up and running where I can begin to fill orders as well. I must find a good way to produce what is needed, before I get in over my head... but it's great to see a demand.

Once I know more, I'll fill you in. Again, it's good to be back in the blogosphere... I missed you.