Afraid to Create

I am so afraid of creating art or something meaningful in my life.  I thought I was lazy and didn't have the time, but lately, I have come up with any and every excuse not to create.  I am too busy, I want to watch a show instead, it takes to long to set up my space, to put everything away, yadda yadda.  It is me.  I am my own worst enemy when it comes to creating art.  I actually love creating, but I think it is at the end, when it is said and done and I stare at my tapestry and am so extremely critical of myself.  WHY?  Are people going to tell me that is sucks?  Well, then they suck, lol.  What am I creating for?  My house, for relief, to relax, for my own personal enjoyment?  My husband and my best friend are my best cheerleaders.  It is pretty funny actually, I could take a piece of foil roll it up in a ball and they would both give me praise.  That is why I love them.  But honestly, I need to get over myself, use a talent that God has given me and create something!!!!

So with that being said, I am going to create a painting.  I have been oggling (is that even a word?) over the birch trees and I am going to try.  If I screw it up, then I can start over and create something else, but at least I attempted, or am going to....

So world, and to myself, here I go!

I used acrylic and painted this for Sean.  There is even a little heart with our initials.  Hope you like it, Sean sure did!

Thanks for reading along!

-Hayley

I like to take pictures too!

I have some friends that love to take pictures and are amazing at it!  If you hang around me long enough, you will understand I always take pictures of things going on and the memories to look at later through my scrapbooks.  But I also like to 'try' and take artistic photos as a hobby.  I have no idea what I am doing, but it is still fun.   Below are some pictures from a trip in 2007 that  I took in Switzerland in the Alps.  I just took them off of facebook from an old album.  Let me know what you think!

Obviously, I did not take this one :)

A really pretty lake

A man smoking a cigarette

This one makes me laugh.  I try and think they are married and she is mad at him and turning away and he is like, 'whatever'.

Baby ducks swimming

This one is my all time favorite.

Another shot of the first lake

I feel like this little girl is trying to catch up with her family, but feels so small and is trying to fit in.

Hope everyone had a great weekend and an even better week!

-Hayley

I love frames

I love buying frames to put pictures in.  My favorite is when I find a really great old frame from the goodwill.  I never buy frames full price, and only in department stores new like Michaels if I have a coupon or if they are on sale.  It makes it that much more fun.  Sean says I have way too many, but I love it.  Of course, for our wedding we got married in a barn and I had to have a 'family wall' where we put all of our engagement pictures and pictures together in frames for everyone at the wedding to see.  It was a lot of fun buying frames and painting them and putting our pictures in them.  The only problem was what to do with them after the wedding?  Most of them went into our bedroom :).  I cannot wait to have a wall full of frames or to have a hallway full of our children's pictures.  Below you can see how the pictures looked on our wedding day.  Also, the last picture is a great wedding present idea, to google letters or take pictures of letters to form a last name to give to newlyweds or a birthday present.  It is really fun and unique.  

-Hayley

painting :)

I painted yesterday and I felt so alive.  I have not painted since my undergrad in college.  I love it :)  Below is the progress, it is still not done.

A pretty white canvas

Acrylic paint 

 Water container

more sky

Adding the grass background

Adding a little of the grass detail on the right

More grass

photo of it in black and white

What makes you come alive, that you have not done in awhile?


-Hayley