9 Canvas Painting

I've been trying to get a project like this done for months now, and the one I started ended up not being what I wanted. But I finally just went and spent the money to get what I actually wanted, and I LOVE it. I got the idea from Joann.com in their project section. The most expensive part is the canvases. That's why I wanted to try to do it another way using styrofoam and scrapbook paper. That way just wasn't working for me the way I wanted; I might go back to it later, but for now...

I took 9 small canvases.

Then I mixed my paints. I got a medium yellow, red, burnt sienna, and titanium white. Painting the outside first, I started with a deep darker red.

I left the paint a little thicker for more texture.

Then you do 2 squares a shade lighter, 3 squares an orange color, 2 squares a yellow-orange, and 1 square yellow.
After they dry, you put them together.

Then you use a squirt bottle to make circle designs with off-white. And let it dry.
Then you separate them, let them dry, and voila! Fancy art for the wall :) It only took about an hour and a half with drying time. I'm excited to put it up today after work!

Memorial Day Weekend: Friday and Saturday

This weekend was jam-packed!

Friday Trevor and I went out on a date with his birthday gift from his brother. We went to Macaroni Grill and to see Terminator. We ate way too much and stayed out way too late for Trevor to have to be at work at 8 on Saturday. We both enjoyed Terminator. I'm glad they took the opportunity to redo some cool shots from the first one. We heard some people saying they didn't like the movie because the story was slow or didn't go anywhere, but I disagree. I really liked the love story they had, and the idea that a machine was the one who saved them. It was a little weird when John Connor used his Batman voice though :) haha

That was days ago. Saturday I finished my book! I spent like 4 hours reading because I was so tired of never having enough time to just READ without interruption. It was one of those days where you don't shower until like 3 o'clock. This book was better than the last two, I think. I read it in 2 weeks rather than 3 months like the first one :) And it opens up the love stories way more :) I like those parts. It's funny that I focus on those parts so much. When I was giving Trevor my opinion on the book when I was finished, we were talking about how when he reads the books, the love stories are sort of just there; they are part of the story, but not the most important part. For me--the love stories are pretty much what's driving the plot. Everything else takes second place. I'm just glad Robert Jordan was a smart enough man to include them in the amount he did.

Saturday night, Trevor had a show, and it most likely was his last with A Horrible Night to Have a Curse. The members are sort of going their separate ways--on to different things in their lives. Trevor is sad--and I'm sad for him. It's been hard facing that this experience with his closest friends is ending, and that he will have to fight even harder if he wants to continue to perform. A few of the band members want to be able to tour and the other two members, including Trevor, can't really do that. They want to tour for a month or so, and to be honest, we can't even afford a week-long tour, not to mention Trevor has no vacation time until October.

(This is one of Trevor's designs for the band. He's got some of his others up on their myspace, and their music is up there too. www.myspace.com/ahnthac. Not sure how much longer it'll be up there.)

Anyways, so some of the members may be starting a different project--but either way, AHNTHAC is done. Writing has stopped, practices are being forced to stop because the space is no longer available. It's sort of depressing to think about, and we kind of avoid the topic since it's just sad. I hope Trevor will be able to find time to be with his buddies when the band is done. It was sort of a way to be forced to hang out. In a lot of ways, the other members have gotten distant since Trevor is married and has just other obligations and interest in a wife. It would be hard to see him lose what little bit of interest they do still have. We'll just have to wait and see if he wants to start a new project--down the road, or right away--or move on to something else.

Here are some pictures I took with my phone. It was a really great show. Trevor's brother and his girlfriend were able to come! That was really exciting for us! No one from his family has been able to make it to a show before, and Trevor was really glad that someone was able to share the band before it ended. He was super tired after the show though. My brother and his friend also came, and a couple people from Trevor's work. It's always pretty awesome to see other people's fresh reactions. During the third band, Trevor and I were standing off to the side in the pit and noticed that one of their friends had been dancing (supposedly a little to hard--although, he seemed to be doing it as much as anyone else) when the Avalon has banned moshing and hardcore dancing because of how many fights have been started. The security started taking him out, and he was really hesitant to go. He wasn't fighting the security or anything at first, but he was trying to figure out why they were kicking him out for something so tiny, trying to tell them he wouldn't do it if that's what they wanted. We saw them take him up out to the front of the theater--and Trevor followed but I didn't follow as fast. I saw when the doors swung open that the security was starting to get really mad at him and starting to push a little. By the time I got to the front, I saw him struggling through the font doors of the Avalon--they literally shoved him out! Pretty crazy. Trevor told me that three security guys had gotten him in a head lock and punched him 4 times in the face when he's started to try to force his way back in. Crazy! Who punches someone in the face?

Long story slightly shorter, Trevor had to stay for like an hour and half when they called the police and give a witness statement against the security for punching him when they didn't need to. That security officer is sort of known for being abusive, and the owner of the Avalon is known for being kind of a jerk. The friend was being kind of stupid resisting being kicked out--but yeesh! Beating someone up is kind of uncalled for when they aren't even fighting you. That was the second time we missed iwrestledabearonce playing because of a fight. Lame. Trevor's band got banned from playing at the avalon because the owner thought they were involved, when really, they just saw what really happened--and it wasn't even the whole band--just 2 members who saw and told the police what happened. These are the same people who maced the crowd when 2 people started fighting a while back.They're just SO into having control and making money that they don't care about the people who are actually there for the music. Trevor is one of the most anti-fighting people that has ever been inside the Avalon--and yet they kick him out because they never take the time to hear all sides of any story. They wouldn't even let him back in to get the band equipment and merch. I had to go inside with a police escort to get it all.Chyea, like I'm going to cause a problem. It wasn't even us that were getting upset--it was the owner and security guards who were yelling the whole time.

Anyways, sorry. Back to the weekend. After the show we hung out with the band and a bunch of people and went to Denny's. We used to do this a lot, and it was really fun to do it again. It's been a few months since Trevor's schedule's been a lot crazier.

Then we finished up the day by packing for Idaho...

Idaho--Memorial Day Weekend: Sunday and Monday

Sunday we headed off to Idaho for visiting the cemetery where my Grandpa and the rest of my mom's side are buried. I drove the whole way up! I never have to do that since Trevor usually likes to drive--but his license is expired and he wanted to be cruel to me... :) It was really great to see everyone again. A lot of my family got to go--which is really rare to be up there at the same time. It's been years since that's happened. My brother Joe, his wife Constance, and my niece Sage; my brother Steve and my nephew Jordan, his girlfriend Ash and her son Matthew; my mom, me, Trevor, and of course my Grandma and Uncle Jon, and Great Aunt Edra. I made sure to take a lot of pictures so I can always remember what everything looks like. Grandma, I hope you don't mind I'm sharing your awesome house with everyone :)

They live in a small town--Georgetown, Idaho. And my great aunt lives in the ... city, if you will, Montpelier, about 15 minutes away.

We went to the Cemetery on Monday afternoon when the sun was still out. It's always really calming for me to see their tiny cemetery with so many people I'm related to. I don't have a very large family--so seeing all those people who I'm related to is really interesting.

Here's my Grandpa's headstone. He passed away in 2005, and Trevor never got to meet him. Idaho is much different without him. I'm glad I've been able to visit his grave for the past two years.

This is the headstone of my great grandparents on my Grandpa's side. They lived right next door to my grandparents when I was younger, and I will always have very fond memories of them. We called my great grandpa "Grandpa Boom Boom." You'd have to ask someone else why, I just remember doing it :) And my great grandma always had yummy food for me to eat. They had a hammoc in their front yard that we loved to relax in. More pictures of that to follow.

My grandma told me that this is the headstone for the oldest set of Hayes's that lived in Georgetown.

And these were the babies that were buried from that set of people (I'm pretty sure). Baby graves are SO sad. They're so tiny.

My grandma told me that this woman started the line that I'm from.

There are a lot of scenic shots :) Trevor took this one while we were at the cemetery. All weekend it was sort of rainy and cloudy mixed with sunny spots. The clouds kept doing SO many cool things--not to mention there's just so much SKY out there, and awesome hills to take pictures of.


We spent quite of a bit of time digging while we were up there. When I say digging, I mean it very litererally. On my grandma's property, out in a field, is a big section where people a long time ago used to throw out their trash--and growing up, we used to go digging in it to find treasure all the time when we'd visit during the summer (mostly my brothers). So of course we did it again.

Here's the field.
We found a dog jaw! Matthew really liked it.

Jordan saw me taking pictures of "all the junk" and got really interested in having me take his picture with some junk too :)

Sage was such the girl (besides me) of the group. She kept wanting to be held, and kept herself from getting too dirty.

We also found some other animal's jaw bone. We think it's a cow.

We mostly found old bottles for extracts, salves, old cough medicines, mouth wash, antiseptics, purfume, lotion, that kind of thing. Even OLD coke bottles. Last year we found pieces from an old Maytag washer, and a ton of OLD buggy car parts.

Someone's shoe!

There were so many things I realized I want to remember forever. There are a couple of ways you can get around to the back field where the digging was going on--but when we were little, we were only aloud to go one way--the safer way. I think it was just that there isn't a bridge over the ditch one way, and there is another way. This time, I went the way we used to be not allowed to go, and I took a picture of the post. Funny thing is, I was still a little nervous :)

When my great grandparents were still alive, there used to be a gate here and a path to get from my grandparents house to their house. That's my great grandparents' house right there. It didn't used to have the blue roof. The house was sold when they passed away, so we can't really go over there anymore though.

Here's the shed by my great grandparents' house. I went in there once, that I can remember. Pretty cool.

There used to be this old barn on their property that was SO creepy and old looking when I was little. I think it got torn down because it was falling apart. This is either something that replaced it, or part of it still standing, or something else entirely. But I do know it's been there for a long time :)

There's a small cabin next to my grandparents' house and this is behind it. There's a story about how my grandpa made my brothers stack bricks and rocks back here, but I don't remember the whole story. I was always a little freaked out back there because of spiders and such.

Here are some pictures of my grandma's house. My grandpa built their house for them when they got married, and also built their giant shop with my great grandpa.

Side of the house and cabin.
Inside is the smallest home you've ever been in :) But my grandma knows how to make a small space work. They raised my mom and my uncle there, with a kitchen, a bathroom, a living room, and 1 bedroom! Wowza! I love that she's maintained a lot of the old stuff, like her sink. (She's probably going to kill me for posting these pictures when her house isn't as tidy as it normally is since we were all there messing it up...)
That little door on the left goes into the bathroom--I love that bathroom! It has green paint and it's like 3 feet by 3 feet not counting the shower. AWESOME!

This picture is awful, but it's the only one I got of the living room. This isn't even everyone that was there. But it's cozy, and fun to be so close to everyone and have a good time.

Georgetown and Montpelier (and everything in between) went crazy for these bears that some guy in town made a few years back. This one is on my grandparents' porch.

I forget what kind of tree specifically this is, but it's some sort of olive tree, and I've loved them ever since I was little. They give amazing shade! And the leaves make this beautiful rustling sound when the breeze blows in the summer. Ah, makes me want to be there...

Oh, the ditch! Kids will be kids, and when we were little, we were obsessed with the ditch! It's just a tiny little creek/stream that runs behind their house, and my grandpa built a bridge over parts of it. We fell in a few times and were always scared of the leeches. But it entertained us for hours on end. We used to play games where we'd watch stuff float down, and have races. Kids. My brothers were so mean to me around it, and would always tease me and try to push me in.

Here's a familiar view :) We used to poke our heads down there and yell at eachother on the other end, and watch the stuff float down.

I used to peak through these kinds of holes at the ditch and watch my stuff float down.

Here are some views from the back of the house. It's so pretty.

This thing CREEPED me out when I was little! Door to the cabin. We used to sleep in there during the summer. My brothers used to tell stories about ghosts with their heads cut off floating down the ditch... :(The clothes line. My grandma used to hang her towels and sheets out to dry in the summer and I loved seeing them. Sage is such a goober.Matthew and Sage. They thought the ditch was all that. I scared them off by telling them about the leeches though :) Now I know why my parents used to tell us that.My grandpa built this bridge one summer and had my brothers help. I "helped" too.We planted some pine trees in the field one summer too. It's getting bigger!It got super cloudy when I went for a walk down the road. But it's still a cool picture. Their house is the last one on the road. I used to be so scared if I went too far I wouldn't be able to get back.There's a cow farm across the street. We got to go see the baby calves one time when I was younger. You can always hear them mooing in the summer.When I walked down the street, there were horses out in one of the fields. My grandma told me that a guy gets wild horses and trains them. The one that would let me touch him had been there longer--but the others were kind of scared of me. He was pretty huge. Trevor couldn't remember ever touching a horse before then, and he was kind of amazed that I wasn't scared :) haha, oh Trevor.

You can see the cemetery from their house. The line of trees is where it's at.

Everyone wanted to go searching for more things to dig up by the old railroad station, and we found this on the way. Creeper...

We didn't find much treasure. But my brother did find a silver German spoon, and Trevor found something that looks like a clock or music box. Other than that it was just spikes at the railroad station, and bottles in the field.

I'm really glad Trevor got to have Monday off work so we could go up and visit again. It's very peaceful and restful up there.

*Note: I found this cool blog where they do what's called Small Town Snapshot Sunday. She lives in a small town and shares beautiful pictures of small town life. I thought my gram's house would qualify.