rear view mirror

I had half of this written before I decided this thing needed to be short and sweet.

I was at lunch today with a friend talking about the post I was going to put up; I was overcome with the amount of things that can happen in a year. This year I had friends die, a nephew born, traveled to Africa, completed two more semesters of college, started a blog (clearly that's not very important, but I needed to throw that in), went 5 months without being able to hug my best friend, 2 break-ups, 3 set-ups, weird dates, even weirder parties, LOTS of friend got married/engaged... I mean I could continue, but I'll stop.  These things all played some kind of role in my growth as a person, but more importantly, most of these events helped me grow as a Christian.

My theme this year was forgiveness. I know we think about forgiveness when we wrong someone and we want to make sure they don't hate us, but what an honor it is to forgive others. I've been hurt this year, to the point of tears, and those people that hurt me, I went on a journey to forgiveness. My heart never really wanted to make peace of anything, I wanted revenge. But, by the grace of God, I remembered/keep being reminded of how much I've been forgiven by my Savior. It's been a trying year. I've made huge mistakes, and because I have my hope in Christ I've seen how emotional and spiritual scars can be made beautiful, no matter how painful and ugly they were originally.

So this post is short, but don't be fooled, my year was jam packed with a plethora of things that I'll remember for the rest of my life. As for those mistakes that left scars, if I hadn't made them, I might have forgotten the sweet joy of being forgiven by the Creator, my Savior, my King. It's been a beautiful year, every year in Christ is beautiful; it's one more year closer to being home.

Christmas in pictures

Pill bottle filled with Jelly Belly's and a fake prescription for Mom.*

All the stocking hung in a row...*

proof that i need a better camera*

this is where the magic happened (FOOOOOOD)*

Virg found the pickle!!

georgie's first christmas

he's just so cute!

first present, he owned that thing. he knew exactly what he was supposed to do.

Christmas night and jo and bruce's. the whole dining room was filled with his gifts from that day

hahahahahahahahahahahahahaa

* - Christmas eve

Christmas hodge podge

Remember, as a child, when you would get out of school and come home for Christmas break and have ALLLL the time in the world to reek havoc and then make your mom say things that you only thought people that were destined for doom would say? Yeah, I long for those days.

So far this break has consisted of late nights, because I have to get in time with my friends that have come from college, and early mornings, because I have to earn the money to pay for those late nights. Don't get me wrong, I love being a college student/young adult and playing around with the fam and with my friends, but I do wish I could actually have a "break". So far I have slept in twice, I use the term "sleep-in" loosely. Sleeping-in has been me jumping out of bed to rush around at 9. Better than 6 or 7 like it has been though. (Oh those rabbit trails... get me every time) Anyway, I thought this was supposed to be the MOST wonderful time of the year? So far, all I've seen as an adult, or really since I've been shopping for my huge family on my own, it's super stressful, and then when Christmas day comes, there's like 2 minutes, if you're lucky, of, "OMIGOSHILOVEIT!", and then your present is old news and they move on to the next one. You know what? I'm happy with 2 minutes. I just like to make people smile and go, "You put time into this present for me? (insert teary-eyed smile here) Oh honey, thank you so much!". Okay, so maybe that's only what my mom does, but still 2 minutes? I'm welcoming you with open arms this year! I'ma love all of your 120 seconds and then relish in them for a solid 5. Merry Christmas.

So speaking of  "(teary-eyes) time?!", this year I made pillows for my friends. I love pillows, esp small ones that I can snuggle up with. I don't really sleep on a pillow in my bed, I kind of shove it aside when I'm sleeping, but that's due to the fact that my bed is AWESOME. Regardless, I also love Scrabble, so I got my arts and crafts on and made these:

BAM. Scrabble pillows!

Yeah. I love them. That isn't the finished product, but you get the idea. Some of my friends have double names--ugh, you people-- and so I've made them front and back with one letter on each side. That's right I'm dedicated. And since I'm way behind on posting, I seriously had more time when I was studying for finals than I do now, ruh-dic-a-lus, that was my bit for Wonderful Wednesday and then some musings. I hope you all have a very merry Christmas! I'll share with you what I got and how much I love my family and spending time with those crazies when tomorrow is all said and done.

apple of my eye

For those of you who do not know my most treasured of friends, you're seriously missing out.

That is my beautiful friend and sister, Melanie. Precious Mel has been gone and it has been a LOOOONG 4 months, well 20 weeks to be exact. She has been serving our King in Senegal, Africa, and while my selfish self was dreading her leaving, I can't help but be so proud to be her friend. Mel has the most generous and sweetest heart. I mentioned in a previous post how she was so influential in leading me to the Lord. And I'm sure that my story is like so many other. Unlike me, Mel has a gentle spirit that perpetually encourages and loves people, genuinely. She has probably the most impacting ministry just because she loves. She does very little that has to do with herself, her heart in focused on loving the Lord.

Mel and I have so many stories that are hilarious, insane, weird, and wonderful. She's been my best friend for about 5 years now, and part of that time we were in the throws of ECS. No mercy there. High school was ridiculous, and not for the reason that high school was ridiculous for most of you people, ours was... well just see for yourself.

this was a typical school day

all those plays

projects

 Which that is actually kind of funny because we made projects and our school building looked like the projects for about... oh forever. Seriously, our school didn't get an actual building until the end of our junior year. For the years before that, we were trailer trash.
 

ell, me, and mel

  I love this picture. We were the 3 craziest girls in the school, which with being crazy comes the added bonus of retarded stories; those range from normalish to completely absurd. I have more memories at that age, or from those years, that involve us than I have with my family at the same time. Mmm, best friends. :) Adoration is the best way I can describe how I feel about Mel. I absolutely adore her.


Mel, there are a million people that are busting to see you. I'm so honored that I get to be one of them.

SOTD: Stephen Gordon - Good Decisions

This is one of my all time favorites in the realm of little known singers. He's got the voice of Michael Buble and looks of Chris Martin. It's a great combination.
I love his album "I Have Seen Your Shining Spirit". Check that one and his newest one, "VA", out on itunes.

 Listen. Love.

TSO: A Pyromaniac's Paradise

As you may remember, I told you I was going to see Trans Siberian Orchestra. And I did. And what a day! It starts off by me going to a Christmas party the night before and over exhausting myself. Typical Clara. I woke up in a bit of a panic wondering if I would make to the meeting place, the Morrison house, on time... or before I started to get, "Claraaaa... where the heck are you?!?!", texts. (side note: punctuality? Not my thing.) Well, I didn't. I was running late, of course and got a, "Did you know we're meeting at my house?", text, which, yes, I did. But I made it --only like 5 or 10 minutes late. Win for me!! Got on the road. The crew consisted of Scott, Allie, Virginia (baby sister), Abby (Scott's baby sister), Daniel and Charles (Daniel's baby brother). Almost the whole way up to the 'ham we listened to Jessica Simpson's new Christmas album, you know, to put us in the right spirit. I think Scott got close to running the car off the road.

our car, minus abby. thanks clara's huge head

the girls after the show

 Fortunately, we lived! We got to the BJCC and I made it to the entrance (remember how I'm exhausted?). Poor Scott had to wait on a new character in the story, Mitchell. Good glory, that boy. By 3, when the show was scheduled to start, Mitchell had yet to arrive. Bless it. Anyway, my part of the story: So I get in, find my seat, and I am aaaaall alone. That's right kids, Clara purchased her ticket separate from everyone else. I got lucky enough to sit next to old ladies who, if they had been given the opportunity, would have thrown their bras on stage, TSO followers. Now for you people reading this at home and don't know what the TSO followers are like, they are the dungeons and dragon people. They will forever live in the 80s and have no problem spilling beer on your coat, maybe that was an isolated incident... regardless, they're very entertaining people.

So there I am, alone, waiting for this thing to happen. The lights go off... the stage is lit up in flames, yes, flames, and I'm mildly terrified. OH and I forgot, The seating is like obnoxiously vertical. If I had leaned forward too much, I would have fallen to my death. Maybe not, but throw in my fear of heights and vertigo issues and you have a small panic attack. Back to the show. There were lights and flames and long hair being flipped and people running the WHOLE TIME. It was physically exhausting to watch. And when I say light show and flames... well, if I was an illegal drug kind of person, I'm guessing acid would have made the experience all the more amazing. The show was narrated by this huge black man who sounded just like Barry White. Win #1. People started coming out of the ceiling on these crazy contraptions rocking out on their fiddles and guitars. Win #2. Holy crap, they had a flame thrower. (Clara freak out = 9 billion times more than is necessary) Taking back win #2. They also had these giant mechanical stages that went out over the audience. That was actually pretty cool. Win #2 reinstated. Okay, so the hair. The whole band must be on speed or something because they have an absurd amount of energy and they flip their long, flowing locks around that I'm surprised they don't all have whiplash. It hurt me just watching them. Every single one of them had hair longer than me. It was hard for me not to have hair envy. Win #3, only because their hair was so shiny and beautiful. Anyway, the first part of the show, the narrated part, almost/did put me to sleep. All that music was like a lullaby to my already sleep deprived head.

see! perfect ambiance for falling asleep

So I made it through the first part, which I thought was the only part until they kept teasing me with all this, "Like the show? How about a few more songs?" ... "How was that? Here are some Band members... More SONGS!!" ... "more songs?" ... "Hope you enjoyed it... here are some more songs for the road!" ... "Can we sneak in some more?" By the time that was all said and done, I had almost gotten up to leave 4 times. About 3 hours later, they finally released us.

fire...

lasers...

and hair flippage... OH MY!

Now this is where the real fun begins. Mitchell, who was mentioned earlier, is the most scatter-brained child E.V.E.R. Bless him. Child lives in Birmingham, yet has NO idea where he is and how he's going to get us to his house. Over hearing Scott's conversations with him brought almost all of us to tears. We pulled over on the side of the road TWICE and once he pulled up next to us to tell us a story... ON AN ON RAMP!! I don't know how we didn't die. After a ridiculous amount of phone calls, fits of laughter, and angry yells of starvation, we FINALLY got to his house; I was so hungry that Taco Bell looked like fine dining to me. We hit the mother load. His mom was a prettier and more talented version, and less of a crook, of Martha Stewart. Now it could have been because my stomach was eating itself, but that dinner... WHEW! I felt like a queen. She made these delicious chicken fingers breaded in pretzels, almonds, and herbs with her home made ranch sauce and home made cheese fries, which was followed by a chocolate and caramel trifle. Hi cardiac arrest, I'm Clara. Watched the Heisman and left 10 pounds heavier. Ended the evening by watching The Office with the Morrison famjam, found my way home through the rain and threw myself into bed. Wonderful day.

artful clothiers

This is purely for gazing and wondering how someone can be so creative and make clothing so beautiful. So what if you can't wear it! It's soooo pretty! I enjoy being a girl.

i lusted... did you?

felt tip markers. genius!

This guy took felt tip markers and made pockets for them to fit into and they bleed the colors spots onto the fabric. He now lets people choose their own colors and make their own patterns. Funky, funky!

noddin my head like "yeah"

if you play romeo, i'll be juliet

i'm also partial to cinderella

Is it weird that I had to catch my breath on a few of these pieces?

Wonderful Wednesday

This is one thing that is making my day wonderful; a day with Mr. George. His mom is having me take pictures of him today for his 6 mo, even though he is now 7 mo and 4 days, who's counting though! Anyway, this little nugget of happiness is crawling, shaking his head, waving, and laughing up a storm. He makes me want to have children of my own some day. I love this big bundle of happiness. 

I got to spend some time with Hobson today. That was, as always, a wonderful treat! Sweet Hobson is moving away from me (booooo), so we had our little goodbyes. He is a lover of comedy and wonderful music. We got to relive TV show moments, share about our future plans, and muse over lyrics that make your heart either stop beating because they're beautiful or because they're so disgustingly terrible that the only thing left to do is die. Hobson, you are wonderful and precious. I'm really going to miss you.

SOTD: Passion Pit - Sleepyhead (Acoustic)

I really like the original version, but because I was raised to love acoustic everything, this one stole my heart.

Listen. Love.

SOTD: Trans Si

I'm going to see these guys Saturday and I've been looking up videos of them for the last week. I'm soooo pumped! Enjoy this, and if you can still get tickets, try and do it. It's going to be ahhhmazing.

For later in life...

yep. that's it.

Well kids, no more suspenseful waiting for the wedding dress I'll have if/when I get married in the winter. This is everything I want in a dress. My mom wouldn't even be kind of surprised by this. She actually expects me to run off and get married to the next guy I meet (this will NOT be happening... I meet a bunch of weirdos on a regular basis).  Anyway, here I am. There it is. Told you I was unconventional.

Wonderful Wednesday

It's that time of week again; It's a WONDERFUL Wednesday!

This Wednesday I bring you: charcoal.

I used to charcoal all the time, and for some reason that I can't recall, I stopped. However, I've been inspired to start back again! (hooray!!) I'll show you my finished product, and probably photograph along the way to show you progress. Since I'm posting this, I have to complete this task. Or I could delete this whole blog, go into hiding, and then never finish my project... but that's much too much work. So I'LL DO IT! In the mean time, here are some drawings that I found that I hope you'll appreciate as much as I do.

preciousness

This reminds me of my sister who, before she got sick, was the most talented ballerina. And when I was subjected to this art, which is something I still kind of hate, I always dreamed this is the way we'd look if we made to the realm of big tutus.
etsy: MyraPaintBallet  shop

"the halls of my mind"

I wish I was that good with the shading... maybe I'll get there if I start working hard enough. Anyway, the title of this is the caption above, and the artist said it's a self portrait of what she feels like are the shadows of her mind, where everything is stored, lost, and forgotten. For all my twitter friends, #win (side note: out of these 3 pictures, this is the only one that is completely charcoal)
etsy: AmiCreatz shop

L.O.V.E.

1) I WISH I could do watercolors well.
2) Does that dress come in my size?
I love this so much, but I think it speaks for itself.
etsy: laurenspaintpalette shop