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Picture Frame Jewelry Holder

In an effort to get more organized, I have begun a series of projects around the house. One of the main areas of chaos in our house is my dresser. I have everything from clothes that need to be put away to jewelry to toys belonging to the kids covering it. So to help with the mess, I decided I needed a better place to store my jewelry. I found that the jewelry box that I have doesn't fit everything, especially my really long necklaces, so I made this: A picture frame jewelry holder.

I bought the frame from Goodwill for $0.50. I then drilled four holes and added four plain, wooden knobs from Home Depot (each cost about a dollar), ran some twine across the frame for my earrings, painted it and hung it using some ribbon that I had laying around the house. Easy peasy and oh so functional!



Evanescence


Disclaimer: I apologize for the terrible spacing. I copied this post over from Word and no matter how many times I put two spaces at the end of a sentence, Blogger seems to ignore it. So sorry!

A few months ago, it was announced that Evanescence would be kicking off their new tour in Clemson. Since they are my favorite band, I was stoked! I checked my calendar for the date - a Friday! I almost never go to concerts because they usually fall on work/school nights. This was great! I scrolled down my calendar a little further and realized that was a very important day - Chris was scheduled to undergo ACL reconstruction and meniscus repair. I immediately pushed the concert out of my mind.

Over the next few weeks Chris kept telling me that I should buy tickets. I refused. He even said that he'd be okay to go to the concert that night. I wouldn't entertain that idea at all. In the end, I didn't buy tickets. Three days before the concert, I was driving to work and listening to my radio. They were giving away tickets and meet & greet passes to the show. I figured I'd try to call in and, if I managed to win them, than it was just meant to be. I won!

I still was battling the idea of leaving Chris after his surgery to go to a concert but he continued to assure me that he would be fine. I decided that I would take Cadence with me. Although she is only eight years old, she loves Evanescence as much as I do. She is taking piano and voice lessons and wants to be like Amy Lee when she grows up. She knows almost all of their songs and can tell you what album and track number a particular song is if she hears it.

I bought Cadence an Evanescence t-shirt and she picked out some accessories from Charming Charlie's and off we went. Prior to the show, we attended the band's sound check and watched them practice about six songs. Cadence asked if there would be more people at the concert as there were only about 50 at the sound check. I assured her that there would be. After the sound check, the members came around to meet everyone and sign autographs. Amy Lee stopped and spoke to Cadence for a few minutes. She asked Cadence if she preferred singing or piano and Cadence told her that she preferred singing. She reminded Cadence that she needed to practice and also told her that she has a very musical name. Cadence was completely star struck.

Here are some pictures of the items we had autographed. We were not allowed to take photos in the meet & greet session; however, the radio station took some and should be uploading them to their website sometime soon. I'll update the post once they are up.


After the meet & greet, we grabbed some dinner and met up with John and Erin, who were also attending the show. We made it back to the concert and found our seats. They were pretty great - third row in the bowl. It was a little loud for Cadence being so close though and we were a bit cramped so we moved up to the upper bowl for the rest of the show. Cadence was completely happy up there. She got very excited when certain songs played but was disappointed that they did not play "Haunted" - Cadence's favorite Evanescence song.

We got home very late and Cadence slept almost all the way home. Chris was still curled up on the couch - Grandma and Big Jake to excellent care of him. Although I hate that Chris had to miss it, I think Cadence had a great time. It was an excellent first concert experience.

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I promised I would start my next blog entry out this way, so here it goes:

My creeper cousin says I haven't been posting enough lately.

She's right. I've had all sorts of posts in my head but haven't seemed to get around to actually writing them. I was going to post all about Cadence's amazing red carpet birthday party, but I didn't get around to it. I was going to post about our Thanksgivings and our Christmas, but something always kept me from sitting down to the computer and actually doing it.

So I'm writing now.

Finally.

I'm not even going to try to catch up on everything from September forward. So much has been going on that I wouldn't know where to start. I will say that a lot of wonderful times were had and great memories were created over the fall and into the Christmas season. I will also say that the Christmas season ended with one of the most difficult events to ever face our family: we lost our beloved Aunt Judy to cancer.

When I was first told that she received eternal healing on New Year's Day one of the thoughts that ran through my mind was what New Year's Day would mean for us in years to come. Would it be a day of mourning or celebration? How could I count down the seconds to midnight knowing it was counting down to the anniversary of such a loss? Then I remembered this picture that I snapped of my aunt a few New Year's Eves ago:



We rang in the New Year by the Falls. She was dancing all over with the band playing behind her. I yelled her name right as the fireworks went off and she paused to smile for me. It was perfect.

Although future New Year's Days for everyone who knew her will be difficult, I think she'll be celebrating them. She'll be dancing around with Heaven's band playing behind her and will pause to smile at us. It will be perfect. She'll be celebrating the day God called her home and eternally healed all of her pain. We should celebrate it too.

I didn't intend for this to be a sad post. I'm sorry if you had to reach for your tissues. I did too. I promise the mood will be much lighter next time I post. And I promise to post more frequently. I really do have lots to share and lots to say. I just need the find the time to share it and say it. If you happen to find any of that time, will you please send it my way? Thanks.