Mini Mania!

Minis everywhere!! Old ones, new ones, pimped out ones, crazy painted ones…they are skating around in droves like dirty Chevys in Montana.   I want one!  Someday.  That day is not today.  But when that day comes, this is what it would look like.  Mmmmmm. 

My next fantasy ride. Envision grey rather.

But I digress.  As of May 22^nd, we officially reside in our little English bungalow! It is so lovely and wonderful, I wish you could walk barefoot in our thick, luscious oh-so-green backyard.  We got very lucky and got assigned a 3-bedroom place with a fenced yard.  Some people don’t get a fence even if they have dogs, so we are super grateful for that on top of the general amazingness of life right now.  The dogs are the happiest little scheisters you could imagine.  They have been frolicking and prancing and jumping and rolling and drooling and smiling their little faces off.  We’ve been exploring random footpaths that lead to always beautiful places; one ended up at a small river with 4 huge swans paddling around, one of them perched on a massive nest while giving us the stink eye.  The pigeons here are also enormous.  I think they could fight a chicken and possibly prevail.  The poo that they fling from the sky is proportionate, and somewhat frightening. 

It is a truly wonderful life.  Last night I was finally able to empty the two massive suitcases that I have been living out of for the past month and a half. Granted, we only have a few hangers and shelves since our stuff isn’t here yet.  But the suitcases are officially put away, which brings me much joy.  As I write this, we are sitting on our loaner couch in our empty living room with the doors and windows open, the breeze blowing through, the sound of lawns being mowed and my most favorite scent of fresh cut grass wafting through the air.  Something that I have been dreaming of for a very long time now is also happening.  Simplicity.  Since the day I moved to Seattle back in 2005, life has been rather chaotic.  Not the bad kind of chaotic, just the crazy-busy-commuting-going to college-working-interning-trying to have a social life too and not sleeping enough or exercising enough kind of chaotic.  Which I suppose sounds bad as I re-read it, but I loved every single second of it.  I was working my ass off to get what I wanted out of life in many aspects, and reaped great rewards for it.  But I of course always thought of the day when I would be done with school, done having to intern, have more time to paint, sleep, exercise and cook a normal meal, and miracle of miracles, not have to sit in my car for two hours per day to get to work and back.  Well that day has finally arrived.  I not only don’t have a commute, but I can WALK to work.  While surrounded by grass and trees and chirping birds.  And I can get up every morning and go to Crossfit.  And I can walk home from work, cook delicious healthy food while watching our dogs flip for joy in the backyard, and not have any homework.  Which means I can paint. And read for pleasure.  And go to sleep at a decent hour like an old person.  On top of all this, I have a job and working environment that is perfect for me, an absolutely incredible husband, wonderfully supportive friends and family, and we freaking live in ENGLAND.  To add to the simplicity, we have one very low-cost car, no rent, no utility bills and no cell phone bills.  Just internet.  JOY. 

We also went on our first adventure to LONDON this weekend, which is another blog altogether once I get the pictures edited! AND all of our stuff gets here Thursday!!! Wheeeee!!!

Slowly Settling

Hooray for artistic talent that is beyond my comprehension...

So I am officially in-processed and I start my new gig on Wednesday!  For the first time in my life, I have my very own, massive office with a huge window and a couple of delicious vintage-y leather chairs, and endless wall space to hang art of my choosing! Soooo very excited!! I also passed my driving test and have obtained my British license, which is a relief.  Not that I’m looking forward to navigating massive speeding roundabouts, but apparently I’m legal to do so. 

We move into our place on Tuesday, which I am also incredibly excited for.  No more pooing the dogs on leashes!  Our furniture and things may arrive sooner than I expected as well, which will bring me much joy.  I am particularly excited for our bed and bedding, my good knives, my magical garlic roller and drawers and drawers of art supplies.  It’s funny the things we end up missing the most.  My husband is of course excited for his reunion with the 52” flat screen and blu-ray player.  And most of all, we will be hugging the grill and slinging tasty slabs of meat and veggies all the live long day.  Stove top meat just doesn’t cut it anymore I guess. 

The last couple of weeks my mind has also been consumed by the development of my shop on Etsy.  This has been something that has been on my mind for a long time now, since my discovery of Etsy a couple years ago.  I’ve never been good at marketing myself or talking about my work, I think mostly because I don’t feel like I can ever explain it well enough to convey what prompted the creation in the first place.  I also have always felt strange about profiting off a gift/talent that I was born with.  It can be quite the conundrum.  But as I get older, I feel less strange about it and have more of the mindset that – if I can create something that brings someone else joy, and they are willing to pay to own it, then that begins to construct the dream that everyone has of getting paid to do what you absolutely love to do in life.  So that is the direction I’m trying to head.  Another slight obstacle is the fact that I love to paint massive paintings on thick-edged canvases, which results in outrageous shipping fees for myself/the buyer.  So I’ve been working on ideas for products that serve a purpose, are functional, beautiful, depicting of my style, which I enjoy creating and are affordable for the buyer and inexpensive to ship.  Enter the silk painting class that I had been hunting for for months – the weekend before we left Phoenix.  Perfect.  I fell in love, and painting super rad and beautiful silk scarves fits all of the above criteria.  So while I’m still going to be painting giant canvases as I see fit, I am also transitioning into 8”x56” silk painted scarves as well.  I’m thinking about starting another page within this blog that is solely dedicated to the artistic process once I get my studio set up in our new place.  I think it will be really interesting to be able to look back on pieces and the making of as I move forward with this.  It will take me a bit to build up the inventory of course, there is a steaming and hand-washing process that comes after the painting is done, but I’m really looking forward to the whole process and the finished product and of course seeing the shop itself come together.   

Send good creative energy please!!

With love and gratitude,

Em

Bury St. Edmunds

Trying to call the monks.

We went on a little adventure today!  Click here for more photos!  Bury St. Edmunds is a lovely little town about 30 minutes from base with an incredible cathedral and abbey gardens and ruins.  The cathedral and ruins are only a sliver of what used to stand before Henry VIII decided to abolish all things established by Catholic authority.  St. Edmund is a martyr that died at the hands of the vikings in his refusal to deny Christ.  After Henry banished all the Catholic monks and told them to get new jobs, they forgot (I think on purpose) to tell anyone where the body of Edmund was buried; I would imagine to prevent it being exhumed and destroyed by tyrants.  It was a  beautiful day and a beautiful sight.  So much history and fabulousness.  And tasty pub food! Hooray!

Dog Poo Dreams

So have you ever been woken from a dead sleep by the aroma of something nearby?  Just the other night I was dreaming of being on a train, trying to make sure that some babysitting plans for some random child were confirmed, when all of a sudden little piles of dog poo started appearing in the aisle of the train car.  As I realized what they were, the smell of hot, steaming dog shit overtook my senses and I awoke only to poke my husband awake to tell him that Henry had, yet again, taken a massive, overwhelmingly smelly dump in his kennel.  He isn’t adjusting well to the move let’s just say.  It doesn’t help that the temporary housing facility lacks fences and we are required to keep them on leashes at all times.  I mean, would you really want to take a crap while someone had a rope tied to your necklace? Me either.  Thankfully Scarlet is a shameless pooper so we are only cleaning half the stank that we could be.  I am counting the days until we get to move in to our wonderful home with a fenced yard – May 22^nd!

Remnants of jet lag are still lingering, and the change in number of daylight hours is an adjustment as well.  I woke up this morning at 0430 to head to Crossfit and it was getting light, and we go to bed at 1030 and it is barely getting dark.  I wasn’t expecting that, I didn’t think our longitudinal difference from Montana/Seattle was that large.  I hear that in the winter though it makes up for it.  I prefer the light hours of course :) Today was my first day back at Crossfit in almost three weeks, and I was scared I was going to have lost much of my momentum but I can still do all of my pull ups and still jump just as high – hooray! 

This week was full of orientations, briefings, paperwork, meetings, and a ton of other stuff I can barely remember.  The Chief here is very personable and inspiring, and the Brits working on base through the Royal Air Force are fabulous as well.  There is very much a sense of community here, and people are much more knowledgeable, helpful and kind than I experienced at our last location.  It is lovely.   I take my driver’s test next week; lots of crazy signs to memorize but much of it is perfectly similar so I’m not too worried.  AND I got an official job offer about two minutes ago, so that is a weight off the shoulders as well!  I definitely wasn’t expecting to snag such well-fitting employment so quickly and I’m very excited! 

Tomorrow we are going to Bury St. Edmunds for the day to explore, and Saturday we may head to Ely to see one of the oldest and largest cathedrals in the world.  I hear it is a magnificent sight, and I’m excited to have some good photography opportunities finally!  Photos to come!!

Life is good? Yes. Yes, it is.

Happy Friday, it is all coming together!  We got our housing assignment today, a lovely little British-style two level (with American appliances!) and a backyard with grass so thick and lush you can barely open the back gate.  There is even a big hanging plant hook in the brick next to the front door that I’m going to hang a massive Fuschia from; my Gram would be so proud – I can’t wait to grow things! :) We don’t get to move in until the 22^nd, but that should give our furniture and whatnot plenty of time to still get here – we got the notice today that it is in port, so it’s close! I’ve been bad about taking pictures so far, it has just been so nuts since we got here trying to get everything taken care of.  It has been so chaotic in my mind with the transition that it didn’t really sink in until today that we are actually in England, living our freaking dream.  I’ve been so used to things sucking for so long in the place-which-must-not-be-named and most things going the wrong way that I am a little gun shy when it comes to excitement.  But I still believe that when things are meant to be, they are easy.  And so far, things have gone very smoothly, all things considered.  I must keep reminding myself to maintain the excitement and positivity in order to keep manifesting the joy and good things coming our way, rather than get scared that it is all too good to be true.  We also found a car today, which will definitely grant us the freedom to explore that we seek.  I never thought I would say that we have a BMW, but they are everywhere here! It’s easy to find really nice older cars for cheap.  My husband had one when he lived in Germany as well, and he loved it.  The dogs are bathed and cleansed of all traces of nasty desert dirt and dust, and my white dog is white again rather than eternally pink from the red gravel dust.  They are so soft and happy!

Next week is packed with orientations, meet and greets, our driving tests, meetings, etc.  I’m very excited to start meeting people and becoming more familiar with the bases and getting in the swing of day to day life here.  I’m also especially excited to start the hunt for our favorite local pub – I’m hoping the bit of weight I plan on gaining as a result of upping my alcohol and non-paleo food intake will be balanced by the amount of hiking around Europe we plan on doing.  And let us pray that the incoming weight stays in my bra.  *fingers crossed*

Arrival

Alright! Day one in England.  Departure went very smoothly, getting the dogs through cargo was easy and cost less than we planned for, which is always a nice surprise.  Rental drop-off was easy, and we had plenty of time for breakfast and mimosas (me) before our flight left.  We ended up running to our connecting flight – turns out there is a two hour time difference from Phoenix to Dallas, not one.  The flight was long but involved lots of sleeping and movie watching and actually went by pretty fast.  My skin was already feeling the benefits of the new climate by the time we got to the Passport line.  After soaking my hands in steroid cream for the past year to keep the painful, skin cracking eczema at bay, my hands are already looking their age again. Sweet relief!  Our luggage all made it in one piece, and we had time for some tasty rashers and eggs with a spot o’ tea before we headed over to the animal reception center to claim the dogs.  The waiting room was full of stressed folk waiting for their precious pets to be cleared through customs, and about every 20 minutes an official would come out and tell someone that their paperwork was insufficient and they would end up sitting there for hours and hours waiting for their vet in America/Canada to open so they could contact them to rectify their documentation.  Our hearts pounded every time someone would come into the waiting room thinking that they were either bringing our babies out or they were going to tell us that our paperwork failed and we couldn’t have them for god knows how long.  As the hours went on, those of us in the waiting room became quite the team, cheering every time someone successfully got their pets back and rallying behind the ones that were getting screwed by the incredibly inefficient and cumbersome system that we all had to navigate to transport our pets.  6 HOURS LATER everyone cheered as our paperwork cleared and we got our beautiful (though stinky at this point) dogs back in our possession. 

After a 2 hour drive around London and through endless green fields and acres of yellow flowers and countless trees of a species I have never seen before that I am now obsessed with, we arrived at Lakenheath.  All the buildings are British-style brick, and the base is very compact, which makes it very walkable.  Crossfit is over on the next base (a 10 minute drive), so I still have to figure that out.  I’m on the hunt for a buddy and just doing the travel workouts until I figure out how to get over there.  Tomorrow the job hunt begins, and Monday is the in-processing orientation.  We are currently in temporary lodging, which consists of a two-level, 4 bedroom townhouse.  The dogs have never had stairs before and are in love with running up and down them.  We were quickly reminded of the joys of European plumbing and heating as well.  The head-face promptly blew off the shower, which resulted in water shooting in literally every direction possible and my attempt at washing my face appearing similar to a battle to the death with the Kraken. 

So now we are just waiting for all of our furniture and household goods to arrive, and we can begin to set up ‘home’.  Hoorayyyyy!!!