Well...I'm back

Hello, Everyone!

Happy New Year!

To be honest, I deliberated for a long time about whether or not to keep blogging or if I should quietly close this place down.
The spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak. Or the flesh just doesn't seem to have much free-time these days. Lol.

But I'm not ready to say goodbye to this little corner of the internet. I still have so  much I want to share and so many things I'd like to do here. So I thought I might as well see if I can give it another go. Even if it's only now and then. After all, it's my blog, I can do what I want, right? Hehe!

So here we go, the first post of 2017 and hopefully the first of many!

New year...I love the start of the year! I love how fresh and crisp it is. Like getting a new notebook and you want to fill it up with all kinds of cool things, but you also want to take the time to just enjoy all those clean, empty pages.

I've always been a bit of a 'new years resolution' girl. I like having a goal or two for the year. I usually have something I want to do and need a nudge to actually do (like boxing classes) and something that's more about getting closer to God.

My two main goals this year are:

• Trust God.
• Create music:

I'll do a post a little bit later about the fist resolution. :) For now, this is more just a thoughtful sort of post that in a roundabout way deals with the second resolution. Apologize in advance for general cheesey-ness. Sometimes you just gotta!

Over the last few months I've been full to overflowing with inspiration and dreams and a longing to do things and create things.

It seems that everywhere I turn right now, I keep seeing things that make me want to create, things that make me want to share how much beauty I see in the world. Things that remind me with sharp clarity how much God must love this crazy old world...Things that make me dream.

I believe that God gives us talent, and dreams to go with them, for a reason. Even if we never do anything big and important with them, I think we are meant to use them.

Now I'm going to ramble for a minute.
 I know that our main purpose in being on this lovely little planet is to earn our Salvation and make it to Heaven. That's what God wants first and foremost from all of us. And that's what really maters.

And perhaps what God asks from us sometimes is to give up something we love. To realize, perhaps, that a particular dream we had isn't what He wants for us.

But I also think that our talents, our dreams are a gift from God. And I think God wants us to use them unless He says otherwise.

I mean, when you give someone a present, doesn't it just make you so happy when they actually put it to good use? It makes you feel like your present meant something to them and they value it.

I'd imagine it must make God happy when we use His gifts well. Even if it's just in some small way.

Maybe talents are the tools God has given us to help other people.

Think how many times you've been in a tough place and you read that one book  that gave you new hope, made you feel a tiny bit stronger. Or you've had a really bad day and then you hear that one song that just makes you feel peaceful again. That's such a wonderful thing, isn't it?

And how amazing is it that God, who has created such beauty and light, and filled the universe with mystery, saw fit to give His creatures the ability to create as well?

For me, writing music is something I really want to pursue. I want to write lyrics that share a little bit of who I am. I want see if I can create something beautiful. (Even if I am the only one who thinks it's beautiful! Lol)
I also want to create cover songs that are my version of the song. This is tricky because even though I usually have a fairly good idea of what I want my music to sound like, I don't play nearly enough instruments to make it happen. And the ones I do play I'm not super great at.
But hey-ho, a goal is a goal and I might as well start somewhere.
That's my music goal this year.

What is your talent? What's something you love and really want to do more of? Maybe now's a good time to start! Even if you're taking baby-steps. It's worth it.

As far as this blog goes, I still want to do what I was going to do last year. I want it to be primarily a blog that deals with music.

• Sharing songs
• Talking singers, songwriters, and musicians. 
• Maybe sharing my stuff.
• Other music-related things like books, movies,etc.

Anyway, I realize that was a complete information dump. I sat down to write and realized it had been so long that I had no idea where to start or how much to stick all together in one post. Kudos to you if you made it all the way through! You brave soul! Haha!

2017! Let's make it a great one!

God Bless,

Amy

Lifey Update

Hello, Everyone!

I'm going to just jump in with all my cool and groovy news!

Cool and groovy news 1.) Lill' ol' me finally owns a firearm! *Squeeee* This is a big, exciting thing. It goes bang and I love it.
I've been interested in owning a gun for a long time. At least five years. I'm sort of  a slow mover when it comes to doing stuff. But here I am, the proud owner of a sleek, black gun.
In October/November-ish, I'm hoping to take a 4 day handgun class from the same place I took hand to hand combat and knife fighting last year. Which is part of the reason I finally bought the thing. I want to train with my own weapon. :)
I still need to name my gun. But I haven't settled on a worthy name yet. Ideas are welcomed.

Cool and groovy news 2.) This timid potato signed up for a year of boxing classes! 
Honestly, it's both way fun and way terrifying. It was one of my new year resolutions (See? Slow mover!) and I was like, "It's now or never!"
One of my sisters signed up with me, (Because this timid little potato couldn't do it alone) and we've had...4? or Maybe 5 classes so far.
Picture this: 7-10 young, athletic fellows... All of whom know what they're doing... Some of them training for real fights. And two small girls who have very little idea of what they're doing and somehow manage to look dainty even with boxing gloves on.
Class starts: *Teacher* "Time to jump rope for 10 minutes"
*Me* "Okay..." Jump jump jump....
I0 minutes later...*me dying a little* (Oh, and thank you, giant wall mirror. I now know that I look like a rabbit when I jump rope.)
*Teacher* "Let's shadow box!"
*Me* "Yes lets. I can do this!"
*Teacher* "Time for some sweet boxing combinations!"
*Me* "Yay! I totally love this!"
Sweating and lots of heavy breathing....
*Teacher* "Let's do 150 crunches!"
*Me* "WHAT?!" *Writhes on the floor. Dies...*
*5 minutes later*
*Teacher* "Awesome, hour's up! See you next week"
*Me* "Oh yes, for sure!*

But actually, the Teacher is very nice, as are the rest of the students, and they're all very polite and encouraging to us two, nervous girls.


Thus ends my cool and groovy news...

Otherwise, Summer has been pretty nice this year. The weather's been lovely and I've snuck in more days at the lake this year than I managed last year. I've also managed to burn almost every time I've gone out. *Sigh* The price I pay for forgetting sunscreen.

There was one particularly awesome day a couple weeks ago when we spent the day at the beach. We swam for ages, built a really loppsy sandcastle, had snacks and chatted about our favorite old Disney Movies. (Moonspinners! Such the best!)

Erm...It looked cooler in real life. Just saying...

I finally took my sister's suggestion and read The Virginian. (Well...I'm almost finish reading it.) It is so delightfully Wild West! I love cowboys and that part of American history, but it's tricky finding good books in that time frame.

The Virginian nails it. NAILS IT.

I settled down on my day off to just binge-read it, and after the first couple chapters, I went to get my cowboy hat out of the closet. :) 

So, you know, if you want to read something really good, go find The Virginian. IT'S GOOD!

Also, I'd like to say that I was sort of trying to be really 'on it' with recording a song for my channel this month. I recorded two songs. And I filmed video for two songs. 

And I hate both of them. They just didn't mesh. They refused to work. They're loathsome. 

So I'm not going to post either of them. *Broods*

It just hasn't been my month with music. It makes me feel angry. Like, I should be getting better at making videos with all the practice I've been having. But I sort of feel like these last two attempts were some of the worst quality things I've done. 

It took a great amount of self control not to drop-kick my laptop out the door after the last one. 

So...Fingers crossed for next month, eh?

Lately I've been having so much inspiration for writing music, arranging music, and an idea for a musical that I'd like to write (HAHAHA!) but finding myself without the know how to make it happen. Why don't I have any musician friends to do all the hard parts for me? You know how awesome that would be? Like, here I have a melody and some lyrics. Could you please come up with a piano, drum and possibly guitar part for it? Thanks. Oh yes, and if you could please put it down in musical annotation that would be the best!

So, since I failed epically with recording a song for this month, I'm going to just leave you with a song that I heard for the first time a couple days ago. Because this is kinda epic.

I must go now. I need to prep for dinner and maybe have a snack.

God Bless!
Amy

Lifey Update:

Hello Peoples!

Let's just skip the part where I grovel about not blogging and try to explain why I haven't. That is getting old, is it not? ;)
I can sum up in three words: Life. Get's. Busy. 

Moving on quickly!

Let's just head in with a life dump, shall I?

It's been a really fast year so far. Like, here we are at July (What the freak?) and I feel like I can't catch up with myself!

February brought Disneyland in all it's wild, hectic glory.

March was just March. Though there were a few lovely walks in March. Complete with gorgeous, swampy meadows.

April brought my brother's wedding and a visit with my sister and her freakin' adorable family.

(The only picture I took on my phone! #woops)

(She just had her baby 2 weeks before they came out!)

May brought a lot of work, (Mother's day at a flower shop...) and more meadow-y walks.

(Because I will never not love dandelion fuzz.

 It's basically magic on a stem. :)

Then June hit with some days at the beach, wedding craziness at the shop and finally a visit to see my friend.

My best friend and her husband had their first baby this June and I'm the Godmother. It was a blast going out for a week and visiting, holding that baby as much as I possibly could, and just being there.

She sleeps like a tiny boxer and it makes me so happy.

And she's got so much hair!

Paint night. (I mad dis. #beautyandthebeast)

We did some shooting. 

And took a beautiful evening walk.

Everything was so golden. 

And this series of pictures are my favs. :)

That brings us to the 4th of July, which was very pleasant and involved a trip to Barns and Noble, Hobby Lobby, and a very nice BBQ.

Other than that, I've been juggling work, hobbies and other trivial things like doing laundry, cleaning the bathroom and watching fun TV shows. 

Right now I feel like I have so many things I want to do and just don't have time for. I'm plugging away at trying to learn guitar, and though it's coming along, it's definitely tedious.

I want to write and draw and make music. I want to be outside and just sit by the water and listen to the waves and the birds. I want to do more self defense things and go on hikes. I want to cook new dishes and try my hand and making pasta from scratch. I want to learn more about guns and shooting. I want to learn about cars: How they work and how to fix/understand mine.

I want to spend more time with God and less time worrying about things I don't really have any control over. 

This year I'm really antsy to have my own home, to create a place that's mine, to have a family and start that part of my life. And that's something that I have to leave to God and His timing.

And it's really hard.

Anyway, I did manage to upload another song to my channel. #ItShouldHaveBeenInJune. 

I was all set to post it in June and time got away from me and I failed on that one! Lol. But it's finally up and I'm even hoping to have another video up this month as well.

Let me know what you think and maybe leave me some suggestions if you have any songs you think I should sing. ;)

Thanks for stopping by!

God Bless,

Amy

Life in pictures

 Hello everyone

Have you all noticed how awesome and inspiring my blogging has been lately? No? Me neither. *Head Desk!!*

Summer, you guys. The days are longer, yes. But they are also jammed packed with...stuff.

And since I can't even think of the right words to say, I'm just going to share my life in pictures. 

But first, press play on the song and then scroll through. The atmosphere is much better that way. ;) Plus, I think this song is gorgeous!

A simple lavender and baby breath bouquet for a bride.

My workstation at work. Far tidier than it usually is. *Grin*

Coffee. Everyday. Always.

Evening at the lake with Treskie.

A different beach day. ;)

A little of this!

Crazy-huge hail! I've never seen any this big where I live.

Flash-flooding.

After shooting the video for my channel. 

Another evening at the lake. 

Sunday afternoon outside with my guitar.

Another evening at the lake. Because it's the most peaceful thing ever.

No comment.

Blurry shot of me trying to record. *snort*

This fabulous arrangement.

Two words. Grilled Peaches... With Ice cream.

Sneaky shot of Treskie in singing class. ;)

Dandelions and a ladybug? Perfect! 

Thelfie!

Final project for my floral class. (That's done! Thank goodness:)

Yet another evening at the lake. What can I say?

What's your summer been like so far? anything special? New? Exciting? 

Until next time, you wonderful people!

God Bless!

Amy