Week 32: Hoards of Glass (November 14-20)

Over the past two years I have amassed a collection of beach glass in all colors, shapes and sizes. It has been sitting on the shelf in pretty clear containers just collecting dust and I have always wanted to do something with it, but just wasn't sure what to do. Well, a couple weeks ago there was a Craft Fair here on island and I fell in love with a couple pieces of framed artwork that were created from beach glass and pottery. I inquired about purchasing one, only to find out that it wasn't for sale. Even though I am a little lacking in my creative abilities, I decided that I could make my own version of it. For the last week I have had glass spread out on my coffee table being sorted and manipulated. After several sessions of changing pieces in and out and deciding what looked best, I was happy. Over the weekend I put together 4.5 framed pieces of artwork (one needs some more glass to finish).

In Kwaj style, there are no shadowboxes around so I purchased some inexpensive picture frames at the PX and made my own shadowboxes with duct tape(silver since there is no black to be found!) to hold everything together. I will be sending these to family as Christmas Gifts and I hope that they understand that I have limited resources and did the best I could:)

The first finished piece. It will be going to my parents.

My second piece, it will be going to my brother and sis-in-law. I had fun with this one and FS was great as he helped me find the best pieces with just the right color.

This will be going to my other bro and sis-in-law.

I was just playing with glass (maybe my new favorite evening activity) and this just sort of appeared in the pieces. It will be going to FS this weekend as a Thanksgiving gift.

This is a work in progress. All the rest are 5x7 and this one is 8x10. It needs more glass and will hang on my wall when complete.

My duct tape shadowboxes. Not the prettiest back, but it works!

I am excited to go to Roi this weekend and get my beach glass hunt on! Hopefully there will be lots of glass to be had and great memories with friends.

Tough Stuff

So it has been a rough day for me. At lunch it was starting to rain and I stopped by my BQ to pick up a jacket before I headed back to work and saw my answering machine light flashing. I took a quick listen and it was my dad asking me to call him. I knew instantly that something was wrong and that I needed to talk to him sooner rather than later. I called him when I got to work and found out the news we had all been waiting on; the biopsy he had about 2 weeks ago confirmed prostate cancer. It was caught early, which is good, but I am still just numb from it all and can't seem to stop crying. Needless to say it has been a rough day and I am looking forward to talking to my parents again tomorrow. Being out here is so hard because I want to be there with them and hug them and know that everything is going to be okay, but instead I am thousands of miles away praying for them and waiting for news as it comes.

Week 31: Horrible looking deliciousness (Nov. 7-13)

I am not much for scary movies, in fact I flinch at previews of scary movies, but I was willing to give one a go to spend time with friends. A friend recently received his copy of The Human Centipede and we decided to have a themed party. The movie is quite graphic and I actually don't recommend it at all! But in an effort to make it a themed party a couple of us came across a recipe that looks intestine like, but modified it to make it healthier and gluten-free. We think ours turned out very realistic looking and I just couldn't get over how horrible it looked. Every guest that walked it was "wowed" but its disgusting appearance! We ended up coming up with our own filling (chicken, a bunch of veggies, sweet chili sauce and more) then overlapped spring roll wrappers and stuffed our intestine. I attempted to paint the blood (with food coloring) on the intestines, but realized I am not good at veins and so FS took over with some help from LC and they finished it out. I love the see through look of the spring roll wrappers and it was DELICIOUS!! I can't wait until our next themed party.

Our spring roll intestines. Stretched out it was 8 feet long.

Week 30: Rain, Rain, Go away (Oct. 31-Nov. 5)

This week encompassed Halloween, which was pretty uneventful for me. I had plans to go to Roi and celebrate with FS (formally blogged as "the boy"), but the poor guy was sick. I went up and spent the weekend keeping him company during the few hours he was awake each day and reading at night. We did manage to get out on both Sunday and Monday for a walk around the island. I had a great fairy costume that I had planned to wear out and was ready to leave him in bed and celebrate with friends, but ended up falling asleep pretty early. I woke up at 10-ish and my pajamas sounded more exciting than my costume! I was happy to be were I was and to just spend time with FS in the intermittent moments that he was awake and coherent.

The weather her has been wet, wet, and wet. The first week or so of November has brought 8 inches of rain and many wet clothes hanging in my shower. On the 5th, we had a 1/2 day of school and a bunch of us decided to head out to the beach since the sun was making a feeble attempt at showing itself. We got about a couple hours in before the rain starting dumping and we headed home. When we got back home, 4 of us decided that the rain wasn't going to ruin our party and we sat in gutter and kept the party going. While sitting there in the downpour and remember that I have some fabulous rain boots that I bought before I moved out here, but had never worn. I am pretty sure I looked a little silly in my bathing suit, shorts and striped rain boots. We took a slew of jumping pictures with umbrellas and made quite the spectacle. It was such a blast, I even had a phone message when I came inside from a couple friends watching us out their window and laughing at us jumping in the road. I love that my girls LC and KC are so spontaneous and always ready for a fun experience!!