Inktober 2019

Last year I posted an ink drawing from Robyn's Inktober each day of November as my daily blog post, but I found that I wasn't very good about posting other things, so I didn't make much progress. So this year, you get it all in one post. Which is super fun in itself. It is so great to see all of the art together. I'll  just apologize now. My phone is not taking the best pictures, so some of these pictures may look a little hazy. That is the phone, not the art. They were already all up on the wall at work, where I keep them, when I took pictures, so they don't all have the best light either. Nothing edited or photoshopped...just the art in all its glory.

June made the Inktober sign this year. She has little drawings to go with the themes. You can guess what a theme may be and then figure out what it is from the following pictures. For instance, on the top of the 'I', there is a ring and next to it, it says Day 1. The theme that day was...ring. Get it? It is like a little scavenger hunt. I really like it. (It may be hard to see the days...stupid camera.)

Now, for the all the drawings by Robyn. The prompts are supplied online, but Robyn decides how to interpret each theme. I love her ideas and creativity. Here we go.

Right around here, Robyn got some new markers. They are really nice alcohol markers and she loved them. All her pictures from here on out have color and some of them are full color drawings. They are fantastic. And she decided to start making them on half sheets of cardstock, so they are all uniform. I really like that size and she doesn't feel the pressure to fill an entire page.

Robyn did something new this year. (Besides markers.) She did a time lapse of all her pieces so you can see her ink them in. It is really cool to see her work come together. I chose three although she insists I do another post sometime with all the videos. They don't show up in the blog book so I was dragging my feet, but she likes to be able to access them.

She admits that she isn't the best at videos yet. Many are sideways, but you still get the overall idea.

Robyn is extremely talented. She let me put all her drawings up in the copy room again. I get so many comments as people walk through. And it makes every day brighter at work, to look at them. I am spoiled. My own personal art show. Here is a picture when they were going up. They are all there now, and Robyn finally came over to see them. I think she is pretty proud of her handiwork and she should be. It is truly a gift.

Now comes the hardest part. Can you choose a favorite? Some people can. Others choose several. Many people just can't choose. It took me a long time to choose for myself and I still love so many of them. But my personal favorite is Day 16 Wild. Luckily, I don't have to choose only one for the copy room. I can bask in them all.

Marry Me Day #20

Twenty years is a pretty big accomplishment. Soon I will have been a Cazier longer than a Dargan. I've spent half my life with the same man. And it is the best decision I've made. As I write this, Tyler is over in the kitchen, washing dishes, with pink gloves on. Is there a better man on the planet?? I think not.

Our anniversary was not too big this year because we went on a CRUISE the month before. So we celebrated in style, but just a little early. Well, technically we always celebrate early on 'Marry Me' Day instead of our anniversary in December. But we have been doing it for so many years, it feels like our real anniversary. We did some shopping and ate lunch at a Thai place that was delicious. We went out to a movie in the evening. Just some of the regular stuff. And we took our awesome anniversary photos.

Robyn took them last year and did great, so she is hired permanently. (I paid her in markers, which sounds stingy until you realize the markers cost $7 a piece.) It was a lovely day and we looked fabulous as always, so the pictures are incredible of course. We may be getting old, but we are getting old in style.

This next one is the one we are planning to put up on the wall. You may notice in other photos the glare on glasses or the picture. We only bother to fix the one going up on the wall.

Although we don't look too bad in these pictures, we did have some bloopers worth including. In particular, we thought it would be fun to take a picture of us jumping off a rock. It was a total fail. Apparently, we can't jump at the same time. Tyler says I was always early, but I'd like to point out that I was always in the air when the picture was taken. Doesn't that mean I was right on time?? We showed these picture to the kids and they laughed and laughed. Tyler does look a bit funny on that rock.

After taking his hand, we managed to jump together, but then hair and scarves were in the way. I guess it wasn't meant to be. But like I said, good for a laugh. In fact, this photo is just a bit different. Can you spot what is wrong?

I guess you can just call him Mister Fantastic. It is a pretty fitting name. And whatever you call him, I'll take him. Who knew 20 years could hold so much joy?

Experiencing Revelation

I don't get very religious on my blog. It isn't that I don't have a testimony, but it is very personal to me and I don't put it out there to be ridiculed. Oddly enough, I don't have enough readers here to worry about that, but old habits die hard.

This year has been so fantastic church wise. It is amazing to listen to General Conference and hear all the new revelation for our day. It is inspired and I feel so blessed to be alive when these changes are being made. It will be so beneficial for everyone. Some people don't like change, but I like to think the Lord thinks we are ready for the next step. And all the changes are procedural. The doctrine doesn't change.

Each conference for the last year and a half has brought some new change with it. Whether it is how we minister, or the time scheduled for church. This conference Tyler was released as Young Men's president as they are now having the Bishop and his counselors fulfill that role. The Young Women were given a new theme and they are changing a lot of the youth program. They also announced that a temple will be built in Orem. It was really a great conference.

We still have our conference wall going strong. I forgot to take a picture, but this time around, six out of seven of us reread all the talks from April Conference. Go us! We went out to eat dinner at Chuck O Rama to celebrate.

Now we have a new wall that is already filling up with stickers. I'm impressed with the girls and their diligence to listen to the word of God. I'll see kids washing dishes and listening to talks. June listens as she drive to and from work. Daisy borrows my phone and plugs in headphones to listen. It is very cool. I think they are so lucky and blessed to be alive at this time in the history of the church.