Passing of Lucille Dickinson Ainsworth

Lucille Dickinson Ainsworth
May 14, 1926 - January 29, 2010

My Nanny passed away last Friday.

I loved her very much and find it hard to fully express the woman she was to me. She made the best biscuits and chicken 'n dumplings I have ever had in my life. She made the most gorgeous quilts and lace. She could crochet anything. She truly loved me and held me up on a pedestal. She was a fantastic woman to me.

What I will miss most is when my family and I would visit, she and I would always be up first in the morning and would spend time catching up and talking before anyone else would wake up. She with her coffee and me with my freshly made, hot, buttery biscuits.

Her memoirs is what inspired my graduate entrance portfolio. She was a truly neat lady and I would have loved to have had more time with her.




It's just not fair when death sneaks up on you. Of all the things I regret this year, with all of the medical difficulties I've had, I hate that I didn't get to see her to say goodbye. It's the bitterest kind of regret, the choices I have made, that put me on the path my life is on now. I didn't get to say good bye and it is so overwhelmingly sad.


Nanny, I will miss you and can't wait to see you again someday.

New Places to Shop

Yesterday when I got home from work I decided to do a little Internet shopping. I know. I know. Goodness I AM hopeless. Although, I do have an excuse. First I had an ebay gift certificate, second, I really got into my Cricut over Christmas break and I was looking for a stamp/logo thing to put on the stuff I create. I found Paper Angel. They have some very girly stamps that are customizable and cute. Right now they have buy any stamp get an art stamp free. I choose to get this free stamp you see to the right.

I also got a stamp with just my name to stamp in my ginormous book collection I keep at school and a stamp for all the things I'm planning on making, just insert my name where 'Carol Rockwell' is:

Fun stuff, check it out!

Designing with Fonts

Pretty much my second favorite thing in the world, next to color, is fonts. I love them. I'm one of those sick freaks that sits in a movie theatre and can name the font used in the opening or closing credits. It's weird I know. There's also an entire documentary called Helvetica, about the history and use of Helvetica. I love that film. It's awesome and I wish I had a copy.

I get most of my font downloads from DaFont.com. I think it is a French based website, but I'm not sure. Anyway, not the point. They have some of the best selections of free fonts on the net. Sometimes a designer wants to know what you are going to use it for, but that is rare. It's also good to support the artists so they do have a pay pal donation button you can click.

Here are some of my favs from DaFont:

I also like the different dingbat fonts they have and if you travel over there, check out the "movie" fonts, like Star Wars. Awesome!

Too Depressed to Shop

Here are the coupons for this week's shoppers.

50Sale - My Shape

$25 off $75 - Code # 2081 and $60 off $150 - Code # 2082 New York and Co.

(Plus 10% Cash Back if you have a Discover card and link through their website!)

4Steps - Sephora for some facial samples with a $25.00 Purchase

I am officially and finally under complete shopping restriction.


Luckily, I have no wish to shop right now, which is weird since I'm depressed. Normally, I would be all over the shopping. Can you be too upset to shop? I guess so. Plus, I think I did all my damage for Black Friday shopping after Thanksgiving. The only thing I need to worry about is the money that is going to a new bridesmaid dress for one of my best friend's wedding. Thank goodness she has good taste, so I don't mind shelling out $200+ for a dress. Hopefully, it will be in the summer that I can pay for it.


Normally I do like to spend more time talking about fashion and a good steal but I'm just too frustrated, depressed, and angry to do that today. I am going to end up taking days off with no pay this year. I'm still pretty angry about it and don't really have an outlet to express that anger so I'm cleaning my classroom today. First off all of the days, I've taken are for sick leave. We get 10 days and I've used 6. Then I'm having surgery, so between all the pre-op appointments and the other specialists I have to see...I run out of sick/personal leave March 11. Which means the March 12 is going to be a no pay day for me and my surgery recovery time.


It gets better. My grandmother is dying. I found out yesterday that my bereavement leave is taken out of my personal days. So that means I won't have any left after the funeral. So every appointment I have for the rest of the school year including my surgery, or God forbid I get sick, is going to be no pay.


And I was looking forward to 2010....


Advice and Prayers welcome!

Colorstrology

I'm into Pantone. I have been since college, mostly because I love color. Can't get enough of it. For those of you not in the know Pantone is a standardized color reproduction and matching system. By standardizing the colors, different manufacturers in different locations can all refer to the Pantone system to make sure colors match without direct contact with one another. This works in advertising, fashion design, manufacturing, etc.

I was sitting in Massage Envy waiting to get my massage and I noticed this book called Colorstrology, a zodiac based on colors rather than stars or numbers and is Pantone based.

For instance my color for January 18 is Deco Rose Pantone 17-1614. It says I'm Friendly, Compassionate, and Determined. I guess I agree with that.

If you want to look up yours you can head over to the Colorstrology website.

Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo

It's that time of year again. HLSR. My favorite time. Can you read into that statement and hear the sarcasm dripping from my keyboard?

I would like to say this isn't my first rodeo, as per my usual smart aleck saying when anyone questions my knowledge and experience, but in this case it is.

I've managed to avoid the dreaded contest for the last 4 years, but now I have to participate since they have allowed ceramics to be functional. Darn. I kinda enjoyed my grace period of no entry.

Don't get me wrong, Rodeo is a great way to earn money for college but the contest is set up by grade level, so you could have Seniors with only one year of art competing against Seniors' with 4 years of art in AP Studio. Not fair by any means. Plus, I'm not looking forward to driving down to Reliant Center with a ton of sculptures and ceramics by myself, with a fractured heel. Woo Hoo. Not to mention the extremely confusing paperwork that I have most likely screwed up because my mind is literally on surviving this year with all my medical problems I'm having.

Wish me luck.

Unrated Version

I'm tired of the unrated version. I really am.

This weekend in honor of my 30th birthday I Netflixed The Hangover. I have heard from everyone how funny this movie was. I was totally psyched to see it. Two of my friends were coming over to watch it with me before I got ready for my party.

Well, lo' and behold, Netflix sent me the 'unrated' version. I think I want to go on record and say that the theatrical release is usually funnier because the 'unrated' version is just gross humor that is too awkward to be funny. It lessens the movie. Granted the movie was funny, but not as funny as everyone built it up to be. There were good parts but overall the only line I could remember to quote after the movie was over was the dumb 'three best friends' song.

The Hangover overall was funny, but I found some other movies funnier that I saw this year, like The Ugly Truth. Sigh, maybe I'm getting too old, but just in case, I'm going to look for the original theatrical release and give this movie another chance.