Dog Blog

Hi. I haven't written in a while. An no, I am not even going to update you on my life. I'll do that soon though. It's ok, I don't think many people read this blog anyway. Lets admit it, it's not all that exciting.

This entry is about my family's dogs. We have really awesome dogs. They all have incredibly distinct personalities, just like the rest of my family.

Miss Stacey:

Miss Stacey is the oldest of the three dogs. We got her when I was about 16 and she soon became my best friend! She is incredibly sweet, sophisticated (seriously, only sleeps on fluffy pillows and never licks people), and smart. She has always learned tricks quickly..I remember when she was a puppy, if you told her to go inside and pointed in that direction, she did it. And no one even trained her on it! She also can do a few fun tricks, such as barking on command and jumping through hoops. She love new dresses, sweaters, and collars. Seriously, this dog is a true girly-girl. She also loves puppies. So much, in fact, that she once tried to take ownership over a brand new litter of puppies that wasn't hers.  She's all woman.

Briar Rose:

Briar is Miss Stacey's Daughter. She was born practically dead, but was miraculously resuscitated and has been healthy ever since. Briar is less of a smart dog and more of a sweet dog. She's incredibly empathetic; if anyone is upset, she's upset too, and will whine and try to lick them better.   However, she still has learned a few tricks and can do most of the ones that Stacey can do. 

Briar is a dog with very strong emotions. She doesn't make friends with other dogs easily because she becomes jealous of them. But once she does make friends she's loving and sweet towards them. When Courduroy, our third dog, joined the family, she went into a deep depression for a couple weeks. She wouldn't eat or play!  She make friends with every and any human she comes in contact with because she is a serious attention hog. She also is a toy and treat hog. We have to watch her carefully when another dog wants what she has because she has a huge temper when others try to take her things. She's the only dog I have ever seen give the stink-eye to another dog. It was hilarious. Overall, Briar Rose is incredibly playful and loving.

Corduroy is the lonely boy in a household full of girls. He adores my husband and we all think it's because he is the only male besides my dad that he sees regularly. As I said before, Briar Rose had a hard time welcoming Corduroy, but you should have seen his determination in winning her over. He would lay by her and make her play with him and lick her until eventually she let him into his heart and now, they are seriously best friends (except for when they want the same toy). He sounds friendly, and he is around those he knows well, but he also has some serious "Stranger Danger" issues. It takes him weeks of regular visits to get used to a new human.  This picture is an example of him hiding is his "man cave" under a chair when strangers are around, or when he's tired of dealing with everyone. 

Overall, Corduroy is the most playful of the three dogs. He loves to run and pounce and jump around.

So there you go. 3 of my favorite friends to hang out with. I hope you can see why. They are so funny and interesting!

Dream Job

Another Blogging question:
What is your dream job and why?

I'll be honest, I have some pretty simple dreams. I don't really want to be famous, and riches would be kinda nice, but not something I actively pursue. Mostly, I just want to be a mom, create a wonderful home and serve my family and friends. But I have a lot of things I would love love love to pursue on the side of my life as a mother, such as:

-Makeup Artistry. I would love to do theatrical makeup, artistic makeup editorials, anything really. I am also really into skincare and would love to help people attain healthier skin. I love creating beauty and helping people see the beauty around them....to me, makeup isn't something you have to wear to be accepted and "decent", makeup is a way to use your imagination, create yourself, play with color.

-I want to create a art curricula that focuses on child development and hands on experience. I think it would be amazing to hold my own children's art day-camps and workshops in the summer. It would be so much fun to design the programs and enrich children's lives with art. I also am interested in art therapy and working with troubled children.

-I've kind of tried to start this already, but I want to make and sell my own accessories. I love making jewelry, and from what people that own the things I make have told me, it is very fun to wear and compliment worthy. I like to work with a large variety of mediums, and often mix many different elements to create an accessory. Someday I would love to have a little sterling silver jewelry studio. I took classes once and know the basics of casting, soldering, polishing, setting, etc. And I am itching for more.

-A really random one: I would love to help make sets and props for theatre. Especially creating textures, plants, etc. It'd be so interesting!

Seeing as I am about an inch away from graduating with my Bachelor's degree, I am actually job hunting right now. Job hunting can be so stressful...everybody knows it. I hope whatever I find brings me closer to realizing one of these dreams.

Me as a 16 year old.

I am copycatting my sister again on blog topics.

A letter to my 16-year old self,

Dear wannabe emo Brynn,

I know your social life is hard, but you make it harder for yourself when you mope around to get attention from your friends.

Bravo on choosing babysitting over going to dances in the last year. You will always cherish those memories more.

About half of your friends are about to get super flaky. Don't agonize over it so much, just try to stay close to the ones that actually care.

Be nicer to your little sisters you jerk.

Oh by the way, you met your husband recently. It's not who you think it is....you don't even remember meeting him.

Driving will get easier when you calm down about it. Promise.

Those pink corduroy pants are soooo unflattering!

If you could get out of the habit of wasting all of your spare time on the computer now, that would be great.

If a guy is a jerk to you, don't kiss him. It won't even make a good first kiss story.

Sincerly,

Grown-up Brynn

Fears

So, my sisters has this list of blogging questions, and one of those questions is to list 3 fears you have and how they came to be.

1. Wasps. Probably my biggest fear. They are so evil and determined to kill me. I have been stung by wasps 3 times so far in my life, and have discovered that I have a bad allergy to stings. Each time I have been stung the allergic reaction has become worse. The last 2 times I was stung was on each ankle (a year apart) and eneded up with a red, painful elephant leg. I am scared that if I get stung somewhere on my upper body and don't get an epi-pen in time I will be seriously in trouble.

2. Moths, spiders, dead bugs in general. Moths, dead or alive, or super creepy to be. It doesn't matter how big or small they are, I can't stand moths. This all started when I was a kid and one summer we had a moth problem in our kitchen. Yuck. As for spiders and bug carcasses, I have always feared them. Spiders just creep me out and who really wants to touch dead bugs (besides entomologists)?

3. Okay this one is a little weird, but I think a lot of people have this fear. I am so afraid of getting pregnant and then not knowing until mid/late pregnancy, and then my baby having health problems because of it. I have pretty good health habits, but what if I am not taking my vitamins and don't get enough folic acid? Or what if my next job is something that exposes me to large amounts of chemicals and it does something to the baby? To make matters worse, most of the vital nervous system and heart development happens before many people even have a clue about being pregnant, in the first few weeks. That's so scary to me!!! I just want to be as healthy as possible so that I can have healthy babies.

Painting

I am in a painting class right now. Here is my latest painting. I haven't named it or anything, but it's an Aurora Borealis in Iowa. I guess I'll just name it "Aurora Borealis in Iowan sky." Original photo via:http://www.smeter.net/aurora/images-richard/richard1.jpg

I love the sky. Not so much wide-open-new-mexico-clear-blue sky (Although clear blue skies are nice) ; I'm more of a fan of skies full of huge white clouds, stormy skies, sunsets, colorful skies, and scenes from space. A sky like that is so beautiful and fascinating to me. Maybe when I graduate, I will start a series of paintings all about the sky. That would be so cool.

You have what you need.

You know how a few posts ago I wrote about having depression? Well, here is a little update+some things I have learned.

My depression has lessened quite a bit. As long as I maintain the good habits I have developed, I am fine. If I forget to take my meds or get into a negative thinking rut, it's not so good. But I can recover from it. That's the great thing about life-everything is temporary. You can get over things. There is constant renewal and change in life, whether we want it or not. All we have control over is what we do with that change.

Something I have been taught recently is that deep down inside, we all have what we need to find happiness in our lives. We all have the ability to validate ourselves, create inner confidence and peace; we all have an indispensable amount of strength. We all have instincts that are more likely to point us in the right direction, and we all have righteous desires. And deep down inside, I think everybody knows all of this already, they just forget it through all the craziness of life.

I'm trying to remember what I have learned and apply it. I know whatever happens to me is an opportunity of one kind or another, and I am trying to use that knowledge to become more peaceful and confident.

But here's the thing:
Often, I feel so inadequate. Sometimes I feel like so many people I know are ahead of me, like they are suddenly more talented with more opportunities to advance in so many areas than me, without even trying. Everyone else even seems to have better possessions than me. (Deep down I know that doesn't matter one bit, but sometimes I just feel so poor!) I'll be honest, sometimes I even feel like those people are rubbing it in my face. I feel like some people condescend to me. Sometimes, I feel like I am not needed, like my talents are underdeveloped and under-admired. So many of my old friends don't even know who I am anymore.
But, I know it's partially my fault I feel this way. I haven't tried very hard to stay connected to everyone else, and I haven't always made the most of my time. However, I am not going to let that get to me. I am just going to try to improve a little bit at a time. And to anyone reading this that has felt the same about themselves, just know that now you at least know of one other person going through this, and if I can make it, you definitely can. :)

Here is a video that encourages and inspires me from one of my favorite makeup artists, Kandee Johnson:

Anticipation

I have been so negative lately. I have felt so stale. Stale is a good word to describe it. I'm with friends and I hardly laugh. I don't get excited about the little things I get to do. And my wardrobe choices? The stalest of them all.

So I have been working on it. I am trying to see life in a more positive light and relax around other people. I have been choosing cuter outfits for myself, even though I have to change into gross clothes for work soon enough.

And then, the other night I realized something! I realized that I do, in fact, have a very exciting year ahead of me. And suddenly that stale feeling started to lift. And then I realized something else. Having something to look forward to feels really great. I keeps me pushing through the drudgery I have to face.

{Disclaimer: I am not endorsing to always dream that sometime in the future will be better, or happier, than now is the right thing to do. I do believe that trying to find happiness in your current situation is the best, and part of that is proactively making exciting plans for the new future.}

If you know me, you know that I am about to make one of my many lists.

Stuff I am looking forward to for this year:
This week: Valentines dance on Friday, Temple and Mardi Gras dance on Saturday. The two dances are excellent opportunities to dress up and put on fun makeup. So it's going to be great.

Next month: Vacationing in San Francisco, where I will get to see my uncles and plenty of new and exciting things. I love that feeling of arriving at a new destination and seeing that fresh, exciting landscape that you know you'll be relaxing and exploring in. Craig and I have been needing a vacation very badly. Being cooped up in a tiny studio apartment (it really is tiny if you haven't seen it-trust me.) located in a small town for so long has warped our perspectives.

At the end of the semester: Graduation! I am getting my Bachelor's degree for heaven's sake! I should be pretty excited about it. Following graduation, we get to move to a bigger apartment and start new jobs. I just hope there is an awesome job waiting for me. I am about to start looking so pray that I can get something that will suit me and teach me some great skills.

This summer: My birthday (I love having a birthday every year haha.), And hopefully a couple fun weekends out and about. Craig and I are hoping for a weekend trip to Park City and a weekend trip to Bear Lake. Also, I am hoping to have a booth at Craft Lake City, and I am just excited for all the farmers markets, art events, and SWISS DAYS (!!! my favorite!!!) that come during the summer months. I am sure there will be some hiking and maybe even camping with my family as well. :)

Fall/Winter: I honestly don't have anything yet, but I am sure something will come up.

It feels good to have something to look forward to.

in sum

Yep, this is one of those "here's how my year was" posts. But I like posts like this, because when you look back on an entire year, things become pieced together in a way that the whole become greater than the sum.

This year wasn't full of epic adventures, major changes or cool events. This year was not very exciting or fun. However, that doesn't mean this year wasn't important.

Basically, all I did this year was work and learn and work and learn. I was so busy working and learning that I gained 20 pounds. But in all that working and learning, I grew in some important ways:
-I learned how to work better with children.
-I discovered in myself an ability to teach and give wisdom and knowledge to others that I didn't know I had.
-My heart grew; I developed the ability to better see the value in everyone and love people for who they are.
-I came to a better understanding of disabilities and what they really mean.
-I learned more about the type of life I want my family to have someday.
-I learned what being poor really is, and how I am not as poor as I thought I was.
-I learned that I am a better artist than I thought I was.
-I learned just how legitimate depression is in affecting your life.
-I learned how to use the bus system.
-I learned how to be great at cleaning.
-I realized how great it is to have an education
-I realized that there is a profound joy in simple, sincere work.
-I came to understand the importance of peace and quiet.
-I developed the skill of writing Haikus.
-Discovered my love for teaching art to children, art therapy, and the general connections between children and art that are so important and amazing.

So, no, my year wasn't full of cool vacations, parties, friendships, or glamorous events, but through my classes at school, my internship, and my job I learned and experienced many new things that gave me better insight and knowledge on the important, everyday things in life.

That being said, I did have a few exciting things happen:
-I did my first real makeup gig for a music video! "Sadder" by Nik Day. (I did the clown and Nik's makeup)
-My sister Alyssa got married, and both the wedding ceremony and the reception were wonderful
-I went camping over Labor Day weekend and it was beautiful! And I was able to make it to the Swiss Days festival as part of the trip!
-One of my best friends, Kim, got married and I was a bridesmaid. Also a wonderful day.
-I went to the Renaissance Fair dressed up with awesome fantasy makeup.
-I discovered some new favorite music.
-I became addicted to Pinterest. (Me and thousands of others)
-I organized a second craft fair.
-I went to Craft Lake City, which was awesome.
-Spent a relaxing weekend at Bear Lake with the in-laws.
-HP 7.2 midnight showing!
-Worked with countless children throughout the year and loved it.

So that was my year. I feel fortunate to have had all of these experiences. It wasn't an easy year, but it was important.