Start of the Half Sleeve!

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Tomorrow (Halloween!) is my 26th birthday.  As my gift from myself and my lover I got to finally start my half sleeve!  I have been planning this for years, and after going through many different ideas I finally decided on an adaptation of my favorite piece of art -

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I have a hard time putting into words why this piece touches me so deeply, but it reaches deep inside and warms me.  I see myself in this painting as well as a deep connection to life, Earth and the Universe.  I wish that I could find the right way to express how it makes me feel... It's just right.

Obviously this is just the outline.  I still have a couple more sittings to do to complete the rest of the detail (quite a lot of that left to be done) as well as the color.  I absolutely cannot wait until it's finished.  It's going to be epic.  :)

It was done by Justin Guillory at Classic Rose tattoo in Dickinson, Texas.  Justin has tattooed me before and I have never been anything but thrilled with his work.  I was blown away last night when he started working on me because he drew the stencil of the girl and the skull and then started marking my arm with a marker.  It took like 10 minutes and looked like absolutely nothing to me, but then he sat the print out of the painting on a little easel and tattooed the rest of it while looking at the image!  People with artistic talent blow me away because I can't draw to save my life.

I could not be happier with it so far.  I already feel a little bit more complete.  I cannot wait until it's finished!  One step closer to looking like I've always envisioned myself.  It feels pretty great!

Happy Halloween guys!

Follow...

Hello there, lovelies!  I hope things are just smashing in your part of the world.

I'm sorry I've been so quiet lately, here and elsewhere online.  About a month ago I had a bit of unnecessary interwebz drama that made me a little weary of sharing so much of my life online.  I have been blogging for years and years and I've made friends with many people, some who are just as valuable to me as folks I know in "real life".  One of my most treasured friendships is with someone I met online many years ago, so it has been really hard for me to decide if I honestly did want to stop blogging.  Rather than completely abandoning my online world I have decided that for now, this blog shall be my only one.  I still have my other (more personal blog, so I won't reveal it here), and perhaps one day I'll return to it, but for now, I just cannot.  I hope all of you that follow me from over there can understand.  <3

In other news, not much else is new around here since I last vlogged.  (Thanks for watching, by the way!)  I am still doing the same things - crocheting, cooking, reading, writing (not as much as I would like) and spending time with the man I love.  My life may not be exciting, but it's a happy one, for the most part, and I'm thankful for it.

The only slightly exciting thing to happen to me in the last couple of weeks has been that I went and got my nipples pierced with my brother in law's girlfriend last night.  I wanted to do them for a very long time, I just could never get up the balls to do it and then of course, it wasn't nearly as bad as I had anticipated.  I'm happy with them and cannot wait till they heal so the real fun can begin.  ;-D

It had been a while since I'd gotten any type of modification, so it was nice to indulge in something that I get so much fulfillment from.  Hopefully one of these days in the not to distant future I can add more to my tattoo sleeve as well.  I guess part of the fun is the process leading up to it, but I'm not very good at being patient sometimes.

Also, I have reopened myself up to a faith that I had a strong connection to as a young teenager and I'm beyond thrilled that it speaks to me even more now.  I won't speak about my faith much here because I firmly believe that religion/spirituality should be an intensely personal and private thing.  My communication with Deity needn't involve anyone but us.  I will say though, that it has been extremely satisfying to reconnect with something that jives pretty well with everything I have always believed about the Universe and the powers that exist within, both human, Earthly and divine.  I'm only sad that I allowed it to fall to the wayside all those years ago because I could have been feeling this connection for so much longer, but I guess now is all that really matters.

I've written a couple pieces lately that I am reasonably proud of, but they involve my journey into finding my faith, and I'm not quite sure if I am comfortable showing them to the world just yet since I really feel it should be a private thing.  Maybe one day I will share, but for now I'm content to leave them within the pages of my journal.

Well, I guess that's really all I've got to say for now.  Hopefully one day soon I will have written something less private and more suited for posting here because that's the whole reason I started this blog, afterall.  Until then, take care of yourselves and love one another.

Vlog Update

I hope you enjoyed my 10 minute ramble.

Book & Short Story List for July - September 2010.

Once again, it's time for my reading list from the last three months.  As always, I've enjoyed quite a few great works and it's even more convenient and economical now that I have my lovely Kindle to keep things organized and such.

I'm excited to see exactly what all I've read come the end of the year.  For the first time in my life I've kept a detailed list of it all!  I wish I 'd done this for all the other years of my life because I always forget what I've read and when.  I encourage you all to keep a list as well!

July - September 2010.

•    Chainfire by Terry Goodkind
•    Phantom by Terry Goodkind
•    Confessor by Terry Goodkind
•    Jimbo by Algernon Blackwood
•    The Human Chord by Algernon Blackwood
•    The Centaur by Algernon Blackwood
•    The Extra Day by Algernon Blackwood
•    “The Insanity of Jones” by Algernon Blackwood
•    “The Man Who Found Out” Algernon Blackwood
•    “The Glamour of the Snow” by Algernon Blackwood
•    “Sand” by Algernon Blackwood
•    “May Day Eve” by Algernon Blackwood
•    “The Damned” by Algernon Blackwood
•    “A Haunted Island” by Algernon Blackwood
•    “A Case of Eavesdropping” by Algernon Blackwood
•    “Keeping His Promise” by Algernon Blackwood
•    “With Intent to Steal” by Algernon Blackwood
•    “The Wood of the Dead” by Algernon Blackwood
•    “Smith: An Episode in a Lodging-House” by Algernon Blackwood
•    “A Suspicious Gift” by Algernon Blackwood
•    “The Strange Adventures of a Private Secretary in New York” by Algernon Blackwood
•    “Skeleton Lake: An Episode in Camp” by Algernon Blackwood
•    “The Garden of Survival” by Algernon Blackwood
•    “The Listener” by Algernon Blackwood
•    “The Man Whom the Trees Loved” by Algernon Blackwood
•    “The Olive” by Algernon Blackwood
•    “The Wendigo” by Algernon Blackwood
•    “A Psychical Invasion” by Algernon Blackwood
•    “Ancient Sorceries” by Algernon Blackwood
•    “The Nemesis of Fire” by Algernon Blackwood
•    “Secret Worship” by Algernon Blackwood
•    “A Victim of Higher Space” by Algernon Blackwood
•    “Schalken the Painter” by J. S. Le Fanu
•    “An Account of Some Strange Occurrences on Aungier Street” by J. S. Le Fanu
•    “An Authentic Narrative of A Haunted House” by J. S. Le Fanu
•    “Ultor D Lacy: A Legend of Cappercullen” by J. S. Le Fanu
•    “The Haunted Baronet” by J.S. Le Fanu
•    The Witch of Prague by F. Marion Crawford
•    The Great Big Treasury of Beatrix Potter by Beatrix Potter
•    The Lost Stradivarius by John Meade Falkner
•    Clarimonde by Theophile Gautier
•    The Treasure by Selma Lagerlof
•    The Ingoldsby Legends by Richard Harris Brown
•    The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
•    Olalla by Robert Louis Stevenson
•    The Grey Woman by Abraham Merritt
•    The Parenticide Club by Ambrose Bierce
•    Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay
•    Dearly Devoted Dexter by Jeff Lindsay
•    Dexter by Design by Jeff Lindsay
•    Dexter in the Dark by Jeff Lindsay
•    Dexter is Delicious by Jeff Lindsay
•    Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
•    The Mystery of a Turkish Bath by Rita

Right now I'm blasting through The Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris.  I'm a big fan of TrueBlood, so I'm just devouring the novels and I have to say, I have no been disappointed yet.

Keep reading, guys!