Down to the Wire

This is it. I leave this coming Monday.

I'll be shutting down my Etsy page this weekend for the foreseeable future until I am done training and actually get stationed somewhere that I can set up my printer and what-not.

I also got engaged last Friday, September 14th.

It was nice and really unexpected. The story of our engagement goes something like this:

He came home from work and I was still in my pajamas (don't judge). After our initial greetings he walked over to the dinner table to set a few things down and I mentioned that I needed to go to Wal-Mart to get batteries for my car key and while I was fussing over something on the table he said "Yea, ok, but will you marry me first?" I turned around, saw him on his knee with an open box and I jumped backwards, slamming myself into the wall and said "Right now??? I don't even look cute!" This got him to start laughing and whole time I'm saying "ARE YOU SERIOUS??" at which point he felt the need to ask me what my answer was. Haha. Obviously I said "yes" after the shock and I called friends and family while he cooked me dinner on the grill.

I enjoyed the way he decided to do it. I later found out that he meant to cook me dinner and do it then but couldn't hold his water so did it as soon as he got home. He knows I don't like public engagements with people everywhere looking at you and knowing your business and that cliche things like inside a teddy bear or stuffed animal just do do it for me. Putting it inside food or drink is a strict NO as well. That is just icky.

Most of the time that we spend with our significant others is spent doing ordinary things, usually at home, and I find it fitting being proposed to while doing something like that. It seems sincere to me and while I would have definitely preferred to have at least looked a little nicer it just emphasizes my point a bit more that I wasn't.

I had finally gotten dressed when a friend of mine insisted that I take an engagement day picture. Here is the result of said request:

Yup. Take a goooood look. This is the man I've decided to spend the rest of my life with...Haha.

We will be engaged for quite awhile due to all the training I will have to do over the next year and a half, but we're both ok with that and looking forward to having a long time to plan things.

As I mentioned in an earlier post I decided to sell Jenny, my car. What an experience that was.

I got an estimate from Kelly Blue Book and I knew that CarMax or a dealership wouldn't match it but I thought I would see what I could get for it if I had difficulty selling it online....Holy smokes. They offered $4,000 less than it was worth! No freakin' way. I know you have to turn around and sell it for a profit, but NO. So Craiglist was the next place I figured would help me get closer to what it was worth.

I'd like to take this moment to describe the circus that is Craiglist.

First, I am somewhat uncomfortable selling my wares on a website that not only has a rant column dedicated to the musings of people who I'm pretty sure should be committed, but that also allows people to place ads for people who are seeking marital affairs from their spouses with an emphasis on "no-strings-attached". Not a quality place to be doing business if you ask me.

Despite the obvious con's I put an ad on there for my car anyway because it seemed like the easiest thing to do. I should have known that when you put a reasonably priced Mercedes on Craigslist that the first people to become interested are invariably anyone who is a sociopath. The first guy to contact me tried making it seem like my car wasn't anywhere near the value that I had asked for and tried to smooth-talk me into receiving considerably less for it. Lucky for me I'm not an idiot and told him I would think about it (just to get him off the phone). He kept texting me about the car and if anyone was interested and finally agreed to a price more fitting to what I knew I should get. Fast forward to the day he was coming to get the car and pay me--no show. Essentially he annoyed the crap out of me for 2 days, didn't show, and for the next 2 days had the nerve to text me and ask if the car had been sold yet.

Thankfully he stopped because I was about the block his number.

The next interested buyer turned out to be a Nigerian internet scam. Yup. Took me a whole day to figure it out because initially the person wasn't that pushy and wasn't asking me for information about myself but eventually it all came out and I reported it.

Just as I was starting to feel bummed about my chances of selling the car a nice couple inquired about it. Andrew and I met up with them, they thoroughly looked over the car and test drove it and agreed to purchase it ::::insert big sigh and lots of yay's::::

Although I felt relieved that it was one less thing I was going to have to worry about once I leave, that car was kind of a big deal for me. It was the first car that ever had just MY name on it. It was the first car that I bought out-right and never owed anything for it. It was one of the few things that I didn't have to worry about while going through my divorce. As stupid as having a minor attachment to an inanimate object is, I still had one for that car.

The day came to hand over the car, Andrew and I washed it one last time, drove it up to Raleigh and met them at my bank. I signed over the title and notarized a bill of sale and said goodbye to Jenny one last time. Don't get me wrong, I didn't cry or anything (I've known people to do that) but I kept rambling a little too much to the new owner I guess to not have to let it go so quickly.

The car was the one big-ticket item that I needed to take care of before all the rest of the packing and sorting that needed to take place before I leave so seeing the new owner drive away with Jenny made things hit home a little more. Since Saturday I have been without a car and pretty much stuck at home to look at all the things that need to get done in the short spam of time that I have left. It's all a little unnerving but things will turn out alright, right?

Right?????

Saying bye to my normal life--

Mindless Babble

Hello! Well, the good news is that it's Wednesday which means most of the work week is over. I called out today because I'm feeling a bit under the weather so I can relax a bit better now. Yesterday was my birthday and it wasn't a good one thanks to crazy drivers and school children so I'm going to pretend that it never happened.

I just LOVE LOVE LOVE Parking Wars on Netflix. I'm completely addicted. It's one of those shows where I become so animated that I start yelling at the TV. It trumps all "reality" TV based shows without even trying. I love to sit here and watch stupid people attempt to justify their wrong-doing and that "the system" targets them specifically and that their lives are being ruined because of it. Ooooooooooh how I would love to work there! Andrew claims he'd be fired after a day, but considering that you can yell at subordinates in the Army I don't think he would be able to make it long in the real world. Most of the episodes are located in Philadelphia and it makes me nostalgic since I'm from a suburb of South Philly so that's another reason I'm infatuated with the show. I think if I were to get a job at the parking authority I would want to be a booter. When I see them boot cars I can feel my adrenaline boost a little because of the anticipation of getting caught and having a confrontation. At least you could say you don't have a boring job!

Well there's one piece of good news with my shop and that is I made one persons Treasury List. I wasn't exactly sure what that meant but apparently someone liked one of my paintings enough to kind of showcase it on their listing of favorite artwork or something. Yay! It's been exactly a month since I opened shop and to date there have been no purchases but I'm crossing my fingers!

I did different colors of my previous print "Falling" so here are the other 3 colors of it.

I like them. There are skydiving places near my school so I wonder if they would be interested in possibly purchasing one? I should ask. Ugh, I'm not a good salesman. I worked at Old Navy for 3 years and I worked logistics so I helped unload the truck and put out the merchandise and I loved it but they would hound us to try and get people to get Old Navy credit cards and I just couldn't do it. Out of 3 years I managed to get 1 and even that one was on accident because the person ASKED for it.

I just realized that I should change my blog title from "RunRunRabbit" to "The Nervous Artist" haha.

I'm Now Legit

It's official my shop is now set up. I was completely nervous doing it, plus my happy bubble is a little deflated because virtually no one has looked at my paintings (yep, there's a counter of how many people have viewed your stuff). I know it only went up yesterday but I needed that confidence boost of like several people already having purchased my stuff. Haha, unrealistic expectations...CHECK.

There are currently 12 pieces up so there's not much to look at but I was too afraid to put a whole bunch up at once. For starters it costs $0.20 for each listing so I'm up to $2.40 of debt already and was not looking to add more to a store that has no purchases, and then there's the self-esteem issue of "Why put up more stuff if no one ends up liking what I have up there in the first place?" I know, totally lame, but I'm kind of at the whim of the Etsy gods right now which is not a comfortable place to be.

In other news the old, ugly dining room table we have has been stripped, washed, sanded and now in phase 2 of staining. I'll post pictures when it's all done so you can see the progression all at once. It needs to get done quickly before my parents come down for Thanksgiving. Luckily it's a 4 day week this week, next week is a 4 day, and the week after we have to work only 2 days. SCORE. That should give me enough time to finish the table top and legs before the family comes.

Which leads me to: Oh-My-God-I-Never-Watched-My-Mom-Cook-Thanksgiving-Because-I-Was-Always-Too-Lazy. To make my life less complicated my parents are buying the turkey in Pennsylvania and letting it thaw on their 8 hour car ride down here. Haha. When they told me this plan I thought it was cute. I didn't even find it insulting that they already knew I would make it a fiasco so instead went and planned ahead. I come from a family of planners, what can I say? And for that I am grateful. I should make that my speech for what I give thanks for.

Eyes on the Sky

First, holy crap was I wrong about Halloween. Well, actually, let me explain.Two kids showed up in the first hour and half so naturally Andrew gave them fistfuls of candy in the hopes to deter us from eating it all. However, that thinking led to us running out of candy early because after the rain stopped a whole storm of kids came and we were scrapping together things to give them. I was about to start handing out bananas and Icee's (despite it being cold) to avoid a mob of angry kids.

While I'm inching towards Etsy Shop completion I decided to take on a new venture that I found at The little Cloud a few days ago. It's called The Sketchbook Project. They send you a 32 page sketchbook with a theme and you create art based on that theme, send it back to them, and it travels the world for people to view. I thought it was inspiring so I decided to give it a try. 

My theme came up as "Tree house". I'm a little perplexed on how to tackle this subject but I asked my kids at school for ideas and a 5th grader thought it might be cool to draw pictures of different houses and stores all built in a tree...like a community in trees. It made me think of the Jetson's, how all of the houses and buildings are on poles in the sky. I thought it was a neat concept. I also thought of maybe having it built and then watch it progress through years with kids playing in it and then getting to old for it it so it becomes abandoned. I like the aging process and the nostalgia of it. I'm not sold on any one idea yet, but I have plenty of time before it arrives and is due.

Newness:

                                                                           Dawn

                                                                            Fog

                                                                             Blur

Blur is my favorite. I decided to do sky-like washes and to add interest and contrast I decided to do grids on them. I like how they are turning out, it's different than what I normally do with bright colors but I felt they need for more muted colors.

Now to satisfy my need for more phone games....Hanging With Friends!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

It's incredibly rainy here so I'm afraid there won't be many Trick-or-Treaters tonight :( This always happens, I go and buy a crap ton of candy bags for Halloween and it either rains or I'm living in a neighborhood where there aren't many kids and no kids come around from anywhere else. I suppose it's intended that I "put on my winter coat" as Andrew calls it with all the candy and junk food that will be appearing for the next few months.

No matter where you and what the weather is I hope everyone is having a satisfyingly spooky evening!

My Dogs Are Barking

Well, like with most things revolving opening my own business there were too many problems with making my business name as my family nickname "kimma" I was forced to stop doing business with that name. That means I had to open a new shop. So my new shop is www.kimberlyhutt.etsy.com so I have to close out my old one. This all makes me tired.

After several other problems that came out of the woodwork I ended up at City Hall obtaining a Privilege License and an In-Home Occupation License! I have to hand it in on Monday and then I'm legit! I have a few other loose ends but other than that I'm good to do business.

I keep saying "I'll be ready soon!" but I think I actually mean it this time! Haha.

Here is what else I've been up to:

This is Bailey! Isn't he so precious??? We have an outside school so the classrooms are in separate buildings and it's a totally open campus, kind of like a mini-college, but filled with short, little people. So he was wandering around our campus for 2 days, poor fella. He lived with a family whose kids go to my school but they couldn't keep track of him and animal control kept getting called on him. I kept calling the parents to come pick him up and it got to the point that they gave him to me. I couldn't just leave him! He's a mix but there's some pitbull in him and he has been great the last couple of days. Andrew didn't want another dog but I just couldn't leave him so we're on a trial period this weekend to see if he works out in our little family. Mia absolutely loves him. Not to mention that it's made her more independent from me and Andrew.

My life wouldn't be interesting enough to post on the web if I didn't have craziness piled on top of craziness.