T.G.I.F.

This week has been a bit frustrating.  I've been trying to get fin. aid all straightened out so I can attend classes next week.  Well Wednesday I get told that I need to have my h.s. transcript sent in before they can approve/award any financial aid.  Classes had to be paid for by Thursday. Well I get that done and go up there Thursday after work to see whats up and if I need to pay the 50% needed for classes.  The lady in the office said that everything seemed okay and that I would have to sign a contingency form on the 14th.  Well her manner and the way she said it kinda struck me funny.  She wasn't rude or anything but something about her told me she was either new or just not confident with what she was doing.  I get home after getting the kids and all of us going out for tacos and there's a message on the machine telling me to call the financial aid office.  I call them this morning and it turns out I needed to sign that form sooner then that.  So I drive up to the college and the main campus faxes over the form I need to sign and the campus I will be going to faxes it back so everything should be good for now.  

    On another college-related note I found a site that rents textbooks and plants a tree for every book you borrow/rent from them.  It's http://www.chegg.com and I recommend them.  I got three of the books I needed from them for 149.xx (including tax and s&h) and 3 trees were planted in my honor.  So I saved around 70-100 dollars (depending if I was to buy the books used or new) and when the semester is over I just mail the books back, no worrying if the bookstore will buy them back or if I'm stuck with these expensive books that I'll most likely never open again.

A bit on the silly side today...I accidentally wore two watches today and didn't realize it until 2-3 hours later.  I put them on sometime between 7am-8am.  I guess I saw one and put it one, then saw the other one and thought I guess I should put my watch one(they weren't in the same place/room), if I thought at all.  I didn't realize this until around 10am when I was at wal-mart and thought to look at my watch to see what time it was.  Funny thing is I still haven't taken one off, I guess since I've wore them this long...

I had a creative streak today as well and finished the picture frame I did for my aunt's secret santa gift.  Yeah, I'm a bit of a procrastinator....but hey, at least it's done before next Christmas, right.

Here's a pic of it:

It's got a little bit of color in it.  Very little, the colored pencils I used weren't my watercolor pencils (kids thought those made good regular colored pencils and took them) so it shows up super light.  That's okay this way the wood grain and the wood burn show up and the picture is the main thing not the frame. You don't want the picture frame to out shine the picture it's framing right?  I think it looks nice anyway...it's much nicer in person for some reason woodburned/pyrography art never looks the same in photos as they do when you see it first hand.  I guess that goes for all artwork though.  I love going to art museums and seeing landscapes but seeing that same pic online doesn't give me the same feeling.  Gotta see the brush strokes (or burn marks) I guess to get the same vibes from it.

    

I need to get burning.

It's been a while since I've finished a burn. I've got artist's block I guess. I get lots of ideas but just can't seem to get myself to pick up a piece of wood and burn on it. I do have an awesome idea for one that I am going to attempt to do.
Here's the rough, really rough, draft:



It's going to be a lion statue with a empty city street behind it...think I am Legend where the streets are all grown over and wildlife has returned. I'm going to try and do it for a competition for a website/community I'm a part of. I'll probably draw it a couple more times before I put it to wood (mostly cause I want to get it just right and I cannot erase once I start burning).
Anyway that's an idea.

Well guess I need to get around today and try to get some stuff done. My table I got from freecycle is lovely and heavy. I barely carried it in the house, right now it's sitting in my living room. I'm a hoss and I'll manage though, lol. I've not had a dining room table in so long it's going to be so nice. The four chairs are in pretty good shape, minus a little artwork from the kids of the people I got it from. That's okay those magic erasers are wonderfull and slipcovers aren't hard to make and I've got plenty of fabric.