Painting...

I really enjoy painting. I feel accomplished after finishing a piece.

Last night I decided to paint something (really someone since I prefer to paint portraits) so I grabbed a canvas and my paints and sat down at the computer to find my subject.

Originally I wanted to paint this picture of a girl/woman drinking coffee and you can only see her eyes peaking over the rim of the cup. I have seen this picture twice, once on pinterest and then at a restaurant where it was part of the wallpaper.

Naturally I looked for it online but couldn't seem to think of the right search keywords to find it.

So then I thought, well dummy, just use one of your own pictures.

I settled on this one, I loved how the shadows enhance the picture once I made it gray scale.

I like to either paint in gray scale or in a warm or cool color scheme but still sticking to a gray scale style.
I have painted only in cool colors (green, blue, purple), warm colors (yellow, orange, red and brown thrown in) and I have also used one color in gray scale fashion (greens only, reds only). In one of my favorite paintings I used a gray scale for the subject's face, clothes and body but used warm color highlights in her otherwise black hair (the girl actually had something similar in real life and I really liked the colors).

So when I started thinking about how I was going to paint this picture I decided I wanted to do a gray scale style but with blues. I did not pick blue because I was depressed or anything like that, I just wanted to use it because I had not in the past. (I take that back, I have done a portrait in blues before but it was a commissioned piece and I stupidly unfortunately forgot to take a picture of it.)

I paint...

One of my many hobbies and loves. I may not be very good but I love it all the same.

Planning a vacation... {Warning: Post is a BIT lengthy}

So I haven't really traveled anywhere in my adult life.
Sure, my parents took my brother and I to Galveston, TX once and then to San Diego, CA once but that was when I was younger and didn't appreciate where I was. I only remember bits and pieces of those trips.

Last year for my birthday, my parents took me to the south eastern point of the state to a lake for a weekend. It was really pretty and I took over 600 pictures on that trip.

I decided right around Christmas that I wanted to actually go somewhere {out of the state} for my spring break from school.
My first thought was to go BIG, so I picked Ireland.
I have always wanted to go to Europe {nearly every single country, actually} but then I talked to my parents and was persuaded that if I went to Europe they would want me to go with someone. I really wanted to go by myself because it would have been adventuresome and brave of me to do.
Then I saw the price and nearly choked on my coffee.

So that bummed me out a bit and I decided to do something state-side. But where??
There are SO many places {even in the US} that I want to go visit.

Watching some travel and realty shows with the folks and came across St. Augustine, FL. There is this REALLY cool old fort there that I had heard about and wanted to see one day.

Done.
I announced right then that I was going to go there. Once again my Dad was concerned about me going by myself and strongly recommended against it.
I asked my friend what she thought about it and she said it sounded like fun but I could tell she wasn't exactly as thrilled as I was about going.

A few days passed and then the subject of going on a cruise was brought to my attention. Hey, that sounds awesome! I could go to a couple different places AND say that I have been on a cruise all at the same time! {Big smile and both thumbs up to this idea, it had my quick approval.}
My Dad asked how I would feel about my Mom going with me so that I wouldn't be alone.
I have ZERO problem doing that since I currently do not have a boyfriend to ask and it really bothered my Dad letting me go anywhere by myself.
Next day we started looking at cruises and figuring out the logistics.

That is what killed it for us... the Logistics.

The airfare, the cruise, the excursions, etc. were quickly adding up and the time frame that we were working with was pretty tight.

So we set our sights back on Florida.
I will not say where in Florida we picked {you will get to find out when we get back} but we narrowed our destination area down and contacted a rental property about rates and such. {You have no idea how excited I am about all of this!}

The adventure continues...

Been a while...

School and work pretty much took over my life there for a while.

-I met a guy that I liked but he had some personal issues he was working through, so we are now somewhere between acquaintances and friends. {Moving on to new prospects.}
-Stressed over getting good grades in my classes and somehow managed to get A's in the end. {Whew!}
-Submitted my application for the Dental Hygiene program {Now I just have to wait until March and then hopefully May.}
-Spent a somewhat stressful Christmas with my grandparents in Texas. {Alcohol was involved, enough said.}
-Got sick for about a week {Nothing big.}
-Now back on the trail of getting ready for school to start back up again and looking for an entry-level job in a dental office for experience.

Christmas with my immediate family was pretty cool though. My nephew is getting cuter and cuter every day!

Need I say more? {He loves his blanket.}

My Mom started a blog recently, I am pretty proud of her for doing it and keeping it going as regularly as she is. {I should probably be taking notes, huh?}