Organizing the year.

It took many, Many, MANY hyperlinks to create this post and that could only mean one thing.....

It's time for the annual Blog Archive Post!

All of my blogposts for this year have been grouped together in one convenient spot for your easy viewing.

Feel free to take a moment or two to catch up on all that you may have missed.

Let's get started, shall we?

January:

(1-5-11) See you in the mail!

(1-9-11) And grace will lead me home.

(1-14-11) A witness to love.

(1-17-11) Black appreciation.

(1-19-11) Wordless Wednesday - Jones.....

(1-22-11) Two!

(1-25-11) I am a rock.

(1-26-11) Wordless Wednesday - World Gym

February:

(2-1-11) Crumbling into joy.

(2-6-11) Buying myself flowers.

(2-9-11) Wordless Wednesday - Oil slick in the snow

(2-14-11) Red Velvet.....

(2-18-11) It's PLAIN to see.

(2-23-11) Wordless Wednesday - Forgive (On the corner of Canal and Taylor St.)

(2-27-11) Answering my call!

March:

(3-3-11) Changes.

(3-7-11) Cutthroat.

(3-9-11) Wordless Wednesday - Love (Near Clark and Orchard Street)

(3-10-11) Even if for a day.

(3-15-11) Label Whore!

(3-19-11) Doing it wrong.

(3-24-11) For all those who are struggling.....

(3-29-11) Reawakened.

April:

(4-5-11) Heads up!
(4-9-11) Road closed ahead.
(4-12-11) Gotta. Go. Bad!
(4-17-11) Detour.....
(4-23-11) One of these days.....
(4-27-11) What becomes of the broken-hearted?
(4-30-11) Maybe another year.....

May:

(5-4-11) Wordless Wednesday - The Leaping Wall (11th Street and Wabash)
(5-8-11) On my way out.
(5-13-11) Questions and Answers.
(5-17-11) Fallen.
(5-21-11) I was almost in the paper!
(5-25-11) Wordless Wednesday - Alley mural outside "Code Of Conduct - Tattoo & Clothing" (at 11th and State St.)
(5-31-11) To thrive.

June:

(6-5-11) Take a chance on me.
(6-11-11) Leopard ACEO
(6-13-11) Buying myself flowers....again!
(6-20-11) (Photo) Postcard mania!
(6-23-11) There will be other days.....
(6-26-11) I had sent her love.
(6-30-11) Stepping OUT of my comfort zone!

July:

(7-3-11) Bouncing back?
(7-6-11) Somebody to love.
(7-10-11) Sex blood death.
(7-13-11) Wordless Wednesday - Shattered!
(7-20-11) Escape artist.
(7-24-11) Unable to fly.
(7-28-11) Too many bad days.
(7-31-11) Returning to color.....

August:

(8-3-11) Wordless Wednesday - Olive
(8-7-11) I know I'm being a broken record but.....
(8-11-11) Losing Thursdays.
(8-15-11) Somehow, someday, somewhere.
(8-20-11) Weeeeeee!
(8-27-11) I wish I was the moon tonight.....

September:

(9-1-11) Thursdays are mine!
(9-6-11) If flowers could talk.
(9-10-11) Decisions, decisions, decisions.
(9-11-11) Don't forget what good can do.
(9-18-11) Two becomes three.....
(9-24-11) Goodbye to you!

October:

(10-1-11) Lake love.
(10-5-11) I need a vacation!
(10-10-11) I found love in Kentucky.....
(10-12-11) Wordless Wednesday - Lexington, Kentucky (cameo by Sami)
(10-19-11) Wordless Wednesday - Rush hour! (Michigan Ave. and Randolph)
(10-24-11) Drained.
(10-29-11) Paint on the sidewalk.

November:

(11-2-11) Wordless Wednesday - Broken skylight (Metra train terminal at Michigan Ave. and Van Buren)
(11-7-11) Nude on hold.
(11-9-11) Wordless Wednesday - Bump Workers (Near Clark and Lake Street)
(11-15-11) No art.
(11-20-11) Reduction in force.
(11-24-11) We are OPEN!
(11-30-11) Wordless Wednesday - Sullivan Center on State Street (formerly Carson Pirie Scott building)

December:

(12-7-11) Where we left off.....
(12-12-11) My southern honey.
(12-17-11) Lexington through Chicago eyes.
(12-23-11) Ready for it to be over with!
(12-28-11) Wordless Wednesday - Freak (the corner of Congress and Michigan Ave.)
(12-31-11) Organizing the year.

Whew!

Looking back, there were many difficult moments but at least there were some ups to the downs this year. I hope those bright spots will continue for me and ALL OF YOU as the new year starts!

Wordless Wednesday - Freak (the corner of Congress and Michigan Ave.)

Ready for it to be over with!

I used to enjoy this time of year. Christmas was my favorite holiday.

Working in BUSY retail has changed that.

Not all, but a lot of the customers at the arts-and-crafts store I work at are very demanding and needy and at times downright rude.

Maybe it's because they're city shoppers instead of slower-paced suburban-folk but there's this sense that I'm paid to help them therefore they don't need to be appreciative when being helped.

Add to the fact that the job is already stressful and tiring and has me working on or around actual holidays, well, it's not fun and it kills the festive mood.

Now putting up the Christmas tree at home becomes one more thing to do. The decorations another chore.

But on a happy note, let me show you what fellow blogger, Randy, made for me.

Currently hanging on the family Christmas tree!

Continuing his handmade ornaments for friends and family, Randy sent me this starfish. Made with colorful fabric, stitched with care, and topped off with a twinkling jewel. Love it!

It'll be a wonderful companion for the seahorse ornament he made for me last year and a reminder that there's still some good left. That December has many facets. Some better than others.

Perhaps deep down there's a part of me that still loves the Christmas season but I'm sooooo ready for it to be over with!

Lexington through Chicago eyes.

It's hard to capture an ENTIRE city through a handful of photos but I did my best.

Here are some of the pictures I took last week during my trip back to Kentucky.

I wanted to show what looked like "Lexington" to me, or rather, what caught my eye about the city.

Here. We. Go!

Hot Brown, anyone?

It's always nice to start things off with a good meal.

Lexington History Museum

Random street art! Look at all those colors!

Quaint shops just about everywhere.

Glass bottles hanging from a tree on a sleepy Sunday morning.

Horse statues.....

.....and decorated horse sculptures!

Manhole covers are painted in bright patterns here! Love it!

And last but not least, here are my babies:

Edith Ann

Sami

And Harry (he's always getting into trouble!)

Ah, how I miss all of it.

I've only been there twice now--a total of ten days--but it already feels like home.

One day I hope it will be.....

My southern honey.

It's almost like a dream. Like I never left Chicago.

I'm home now and after getting back from my returning flight this evening, I have to keep telling myself that my time in Lexington was very REAL.

I got to meet my budding boyfriend's coworkers, his friends and members of the community. We explored the city, cooked for each other, and he even taught me how to play pool at a dive bar late into the night!

We still have things we both need to work on but now we can face those things together.

It seems like a world away in Kentucky. A place to escape my troubles for a bit. Nothing else matters when I'm in his arms and just knowing he's waiting for me is enough. No wonder I wish I never left there.

One day--when the time is right--I won't.

Until then, my southern honey.....

Where we left off.....

When I returned from there I wanted to go back immediately.

It's only been two months but it seems painfully longer.

I miss it there. I miss his cats. I miss him.

Thankfully, I'm using the last of my vacation days before officially being laid off from my city job this month and going to visit him again for five days starting tomorrow.

The hustle and bustle of working this holiday season has made me weary and stressed so the relaxed pace of Lexington sounds perfect right about now.

And even though what we have is still in its nascency, it'll be nice to seem him in person again.

To kiss, to find life in each other's eyes....to continue where we left off.

Wordless Wednesday - Sullivan Center on State Street (formerly Carson Pirie Scott building)

We are OPEN!

The arts-and-crafts store I work for is run by corporate devils.

Driving sales and boosting profits are all they talk about. Their needs and gains are their only concern.

They push product for holidays SEVERAL months in advance just to squeeze out every dime they can.

Tradition, sacredness, and time spent with families aren't things they believe in hence why I have to work there today.

Uggh!!

I am NOT pleased.

Do people really need to buy glue guns or glitter (maybe) or beads that badly today of all days? Really?

I want to be home on this day. Away from work, eating good food, and relaxing.

But I'll go in with a smile on my face and do my job like always.

It makes me wonder though, if by continuing to work for such a greedy, cutthroat company aren't I just as bad?

I need the money though.

Funny, I bet "Corporate" says the same thing.

*sigh*

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone....at least to those that aren't working today!

Reduction in force.

Everyone knew it was coming but the news still left me disappointed and sad and not feeling like doing very much.

Earlier in the week, HR informed hundreds of us in our city department that due to our new mayor's budget cuts we were being laid off at the end of the year.

My layoff notice which I decorated with a yellow butterfly!

This'll be my second time getting laid off so I'm sort of used to it.

Yet as I walked to work today I couldn't help but hang my head.

The city job wears me down a lot and I've always intended on leaving there in time but I wanted to go on my terms NOT theirs.

And when I found out I'm working at the arts-and-crafts store on Thanksgiving Day, I wondered why I couldn't have lost that job and kept the city one instead.

Darn.

But I try reminding myself even though over a third of my income will now be lost, I'm fortunate enough to still be working elsewhere. Not many can say that.

Maybe it's God's way of telling me I need to lessen my workload.

*shrugs shoulders*

No art.

I wish I could say I'm working on the most AMAZING painting. Filled with every color imaginable. Texture and shape and form that dazzles the eye and makes your heart skip a beat.

But no. There isn't time for that.

I'm too tired from working so much. It's just not possible right now.

So my apologies, dear readers. I feel like I'm letting all of you down by not posting anything of artistic value here.

One day, I hope, I can immerse myself back into my art.

Wordless Wednesday - Bump Workers (Near Clark and Lake Street)

Nude on hold.

Fuckity-fuck and super shit!

It was supposed to be a companion piece to "Blood Butterfly".

A nude which I started SEVERAL months back but then with work and all, tucked away and never finished.

Here's the drawing I did for it back in July.....

Pencil on watercolor paper - 5" x 7"

I hate putting off paintings like this because now my original inspiration is long gone and I'm not sure I can get it back.

Oh well. I'll add it to my growing list of art projects that need to get done.

*sigh*

Wordless Wednesday - Broken skylight (Metra train terminal at Michigan Ave. and Van Buren)

Paint on the sidewalk.

They were just smudges really. Forgotten blobs of color that no one would notice. Except me.

With a bit of time to kill before work, I wanted to go see Buckingham Fountain now that it'd been turned off and drained for the coming winter.

Just steps away from the fountain, I found bits of paint on the pavement.

My heart skipped a beat. It had been so long since I painted now that I'm working all the time.

It was much more to me than paint on the sidewalk. It represented freedom, spontaneity, creativity.

Was it leftover remnants of an artist's messy plein air session or a deliberate attempt to paint a pattern on the ground for all to see? A magical sword, a rainbow feather, or something else entirely?

I'll never really know.

But I do know I miss creating art. How I long for it to be an everyday part of my life.

Sometimes I wonder if one's artistic passion eventually dies after not being used or does it just get buried deep enough that it becomes forgotten?

I guess I'll learn the answer to that firsthand.

Maybe one day the artist in me will be gone and the next time I see a sight like this it'll just be paint on the sidewalk.