Nesting...

So apparently I have a desperate need to organize and make pretty everything in my house. Perhaps this is a way of avoiding all the real work I have to do. Today it was the bookcases. Here are some pictures of the results.

It was a strange day today. I have a lot to do, but am having a great deal of trouble settling in to do it. Lots of memories and melancholy as I sort through and let go of things. But it is definitely worth it to have more space.

Christmas is Coming.

It has been such a wonderful weekend that I don't want it to end. We have been decorating all day, and continuing to work on our bedroom replacing the lights and organizing. Here are a couple of shots of the bedroom with the new lights.




Here are a few pictures of the lovely Christmas decorations that we have been putting up. This is absolutely my favorite time of year. I always cry when I pull of the ornaments and see ones that my father gave me when I was a child, and ones that came from my grandparents that have now passed away.

Hunting the Wild Christmas Tree

The weekend is continuing to be wonderful in every way. I woke up at 4:00 am this morning and couldn't get back to sleep and so I went ahead and got up. I had some really lovely quiet time and learned how to pray the Anglican prayer beads that a friend gave me last year.

Once the hubby got up we had a lovely lazy morning. We finally managed to get ourselves together by lunch and head out to the Elgin tree farm to find our special Christmas tree. It has become a yearly tradition. You drive out to the middle of nowhere until you see the white tree farm truck and then turn left. My husband and I love the truck. Someday we want to have one just like it. Then you wind through a bunch of country roads and when you come around the corner you see a bunch of cars, cute buildings, and a little farm.


Tractors pulling wagons with hay bales will take you out to where the trees are being cut. They plant different sections each year and in several years the trees are big enough to cut.




We chose to walk for the first time because there were quite a few families waiting on the hay ride. It was a very pleasant 60° and sunny. We even found a tree very quickly. We usually take a long time looking to find one with the right shape, density of branches, and with pine cones.



This particular tree had outdone himeself making pinecones. There were 6 or so and they were quite large for this species of tree. Here I am pointing them out like a dufus for the camera.



You pick up a saw when you leave the hay ride to go out into the fields. Here is the hubby preparing to lumberjack.



And then if you are really strong and clever, you can hold the tree up directly about your head and look really manly while it drops needles and sap down your neck.



And then it is time for the walk back to the front for the helpers to shake all the loose needles out of our tree and bag it.


Once you reach the front you can either pay right away or take a look though the lovely ornaments in the Christmas Cottage.



So anyway, we got little tree home and started decorating him. We only have about half the ornaments on so far, but he is just lovely. I am so very happy.

The Best Thanksgiving Ever

I think yesterday was the best thanksgiving I have ever had. After we had a lovely lunch and Mom and Bob took off we came back and lit all the led candles and my flicker light fake fire up and cuddled on the couch watching movies.

We had started Love Actually, which has become one of my favorite holiday movies, before my parents got into town on Wednesday and so we finished that one. We then went on to watch Stage Beauty which had been recommended to me by several of my friends. I am completely in love with this movie now. It was a fascinating peek into Restoration Theater and the Shakespeare Revivals and some of the best Othello I have ever scene. It confirmed a lot of the choices that I made when I played Desdemona at in the Shakespeare scene compilation that The Baron's Men did last fall. We then finished up with Julie and Julia, which I had really wanted to see in the theaters but completely failed.

I discovered something really important about myself in that sweet little evening of curling up with the hubby and movie watching. The hurt and anger left over from things that happened during my play has really been weighing on me. It has been really hard to deal with because there was no way to let it out that wasn't destructive to self or others. I learned last night that watching and weeping for other people's love, joys, sorrows, and triumphs is a very safe way to let that emotion out. It no longer feels like failure to cry, when I'm not crying because of the negative emotion, and my body doesn't seem to care except that it just gets the good cry that it needs.

So I am truly thankful today, for a beautiful day with loved ones, and for a tremendous insight into what makes me tick.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The hubby and I had a lovely breakfast with my mother and stepfather and then finished our cooking and headed over to out best friends' house before noon. They have three delightful kids and it is always a joy to get to play with them. I wish I had thought to take a picture of the Turkey because it came out stunningly beautiful. My friend used my Turkey recipe and now they are hooked. We had a lovely meal and then my parents had to head back to Houston to fly out overseas tomorrow and the hubby and I headed home for some serious couch time.

I'm trying to get up the energy to work on the Egyptian collar project that I have been making. I think it may have to wait for tomorrow though because momentum to leave the couch just isn't happening. Here are a couple of pictures of the project in various stages.

A Little Taste of Thanksgiving

Well, it has been a lovely day of cleaning and getting ready to cook. My hubby took the day off and so we have just been enjoying being together and starting to get in the holiday spirit. My mom and stepfather are on their way to town and we are going to spend Thanksgiving with our best friends and their kids. What a beautiful time. I decorated the house this year for the first time and has really helped to get in the mood. Here are a few pictures. Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving.

How did I loose a year of my life?

So I looked at the blog this morning to retrieve so recipes from last Thanksgiving, and realized that this year has gone by so fast that it is overwhelming and that I have a lot of catching up to do with my life.

I should probably start with the wrap up from my play, which was the single thing that took up most of this year, but I can't quite face jumping in to that yet because it is a really long story.

Perhaps I can just skim over some of the basics. The Baron's Men put on A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by me, in the fall and it was more critically and financially successful than all of the plays that the group has done so far combined. It wore me down tremendously mentally and physically because of some of the interpersonal drama that happened as part of the production. It was definitely a learning experience, but even with all the success, I honestly don't know right now if it was worth it in the end.

I went straight from that into a Halloween show for Beth Burns that was a fantastic experience where I helped with costuming, set decoration and music, and had a really great time. This was in the middle of my busiest season with my mask business and so even though it was a blast there was a large amount of stress to try and keep up with my orders.

I then went straight into a week of making 30 masks and helping with a local event called Luminalia which was held by Austin Shakespeare. It was a crash course in how to fund raise as well as being the most masks I have ever made in one week.

Needless to say, I am not planning anything for the Holidays except relaxing and reclaiming my life. I am so looking forward to the quiet time, remembering my habits, rediscovering my interests, and just being.

As a part of trying to get myself out of the deep negativity that some of the interpersonal stuff in my play put me into I have been trying to look every day at what I am thankful for. I've been using my facebook status to do this, but I am collating them here as a way to "count my blessings". Some of them are pretty prosaic and sometimes silly, and yet when I look through them I realize how much I am truly blessed in my life, even in the little things.

• Jennifer Davis is thankful for her amazing husband who enjoys cleaning and organizing as much as she does.
• Jennifer Davis is thankful that she gets to do an awesome scene with Bridget Farias and that she got a dry run for her Monday audition.
• Jennifer Davis is thankful that the pile of stuff to put away has dwindled from the entire living room to about 1/8th and that she can walk in all the rooms of her house again. She is also very thankful to stop and put her feet up for a moment.
• Jennifer Davis is thankful to be back on her diet and that she has already lost two pounds of the stress weight. Only 18 more to go.
• Jennifer Davis is both thankful and extremely excited to have gotten a callback. Happy dance.
• Jennifer Davis Is thankful for people that listen and care.
• Jennifer Davis is thankful to be back working on her business full time. It is nice to have an undivided mind.
• Jennifer Davis is thankful to have a husband who supports her, loves her, and believes in her.
• Jennifer Davis is thankful for reality checks from real friends
• Jennifer Davis is thankful that she gets to spend the day making beautiful things that make people happy.
• Jennifer Davis is very thankful to the wise women of her Bible study who always give perspective.
• Jennifer Davis is thankful for little gestures of love that make a relationship of nearly twenty years feel fresh and new.
• Jennifer Davis is thankful to be 4 pounds down on her quest to loose the Midsummer stress weight.
• Jennifer Davis is thankful that she can laugh at the stupidity.
• Jennifer Davis is thankful for soft beds, warm husbands, and purring kittens.
• Jennifer Davis is thankful that the DVD for Love's Labors Lost from the Globe just came in and she gets to spend the afternoon listening to it while painting.
• Jennifer Davis is thankful for Promise Pizza. If you haven't had it yet, go now. Mmmmmmm.
• Jennifer Davis is thankful that the 30 masks for Luminalia are almost done. I think this is a record for me in one week. Of course I wouldn't have finished without the awesome and talented Katy Thompson.
• Jennifer Davis is thankful to have been a part of Austin Shakespeare's Luminalia . What a beautiful and fun event.
• Jennifer Davis is thankful for coffee with friends, the quiet satisfaction of a job well done, and exciting sides to practice.
• Jennifer Davis is thankful for paying off some of her debts. It is always a wonderful feeling.
• Jennifer Davis is thankful that La Madeleine has added slim and petite versions to almost everything on their menu.
• Jennifer Davis is thankful to have succeeded in the loathed task of dress shopping and to have something sleek to wear to the Austin Shakespeare's King Lear Showcase.
• Jennifer Davis is thankful for her hot coffee. It is darn cold out here.
• Jennifer Davis is thankful for Cat naps with real cats.
• Jennifer Davis is thankful for a good laugh and that sleep makes you feel better.
• Jennifer Davis is thankful for an entire day to clean house and do laundry.
• Jennifer Davis Is thankful to be released. What a fun and exhausting day.
• Jennifer Davis is thankful for a nice dinner, a wonderful husband, and the chance to put her feet up.
• Jennifer Davis is thankful for spending the holiday with a dozen good friends and for the excitement of getting to cook loads of delicious food.

Hope that the holidays bring you many good memories, good friendship, and love.