Month: December 2013

Ringing In The New Year

Ringing in the new year is always fun, whether you are with good friends or good family. This year, we’re celebrating the new year with good family. We won’t be able to do too much but we’ll at least be able to enjoy good company and a nice, warm gumbo. Our holiday has been quite fun and fairly relaxing. We’ve been able to see family who we haven’t seen in quite a while. We’ve been able to join one of John’s grandmothers for a joyful church service. We have had the opportunity to see many of the blessings granted to us in the past 3 or so weeks. The experiences we’ve had during this holiday have refreshed and enlightened us in many ways.

John and I discussed resolutions and whether or not we’d make any. He is leaning towards not making any and I’ve decided on one: not saying anything negative about myself. I need to tell myself positive things so I will start living those positive things. Most of the time, I do my own thing and am a fairly content person but every now and again, I’ll make a mistake and speak out negative things. So I’m going to work on being more positive this year.

I think the reason many people fail at keeping their resolutions is because they don’t know the definition of the root word, resolute. If you look it up, you’ll find that it means “having or possessing determination or purposefulness.” When you are determined to succeed at something, you will find (or make) a way to succeed. This also makes me think of the word ‘resolve’. I’m pretty sure they are synonyms.

The girls and Nojo are still working on their resolutions. This will be something new for the girls. We’ve never really discussed it with them before. But I think it’s always good to set a positive goal for yourself at the beginning of the new year, and do everything within your power to achieve it. We set goals for our businesses. We set goals for school. We set goals for things we want to acquire. Why /not/ set goals for bettering ourselves in mind, body, or spirit? Kittles Family Artworks wishes everyone of our readers a happy and safe and very blessed new year!

“Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

Taking A Holiday Break

Since we’ll be preparing for holiday festivities this week, we’ll be taking a day or two off at the blog. We have some family members to spend time with and celebrate with. I’ll be back periodically to post any nifty things I discover and I will pick up the every day posting after New Year’s Day. Thanks for reading and sticking with us this far. We appreciate each and every one of you. And we hope you are all having the best holiday season you’ve ever had with many more to come in the future!

For folks who enjoy the wonderful music of Annie Lennox, I hope you’ll enjoy this song.

If you enjoy instrumental music, I hope you’ll enjoy this number from Mannheim Steamroller.

“The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance; the wise grows it under his feet.”  ~James Openheim

Quoteful Saturday: Childhood Magic

“There is a garden in every childhood, an enchanted place where colors are brighter, the air softer, and the morning more fragrant than ever again.”  ~Elizabeth Lawrence

“Did you know that childhood is the only time in our lives when insanity is not only permitted to us, but expected?”  ~Louis de Bernières, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin

“If you carry your childhood with you, you never become older.”  ~Tom Stoppard

“To trade a childhood wonder for a plausible explanation – is there a worst trade one makes in life?”  ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com

“And I leave the children the long, long days to be merry in a thousand ways, and the Night, and the trail of the Milky Way to wonder at….” ~Williston Fish, “A Last Will,” 1898

All these quotes were found on this page on Quote Garden. May we forever treasure the magic moments of our childhood, carrying with us the warmth and innocence of those times.

Fabulous Friday SE2

On this Fabulous Friday (special edition #2), I’d like to share a couple of special things with you. We’ve been hanging out in the Atlanta, GA area and got to enjoy a couple of fun things, so far. I’d like to share them with you and recommend you also check them out if you are close enough to do so.

The first place we checked out was the Gift of Lights Holiday Light Spectacular at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. When you click on the link, it should take you to the information page, which will tell you about the dates, times and any cost involved if you are interested. I can tell you that our family really enjoyed it and John was able to get a pretty cool photo. The 2 mile drive takes you on part of the actual race track and we thought that was pretty nifty. It was certainly something our kids had not been able to do before.

The second place we visited was the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, GA. We were able to view the ‘Go West’ exhibit and the ‘Paris on Peachtree’ exhibit, as well as view many of the other fantastic works of art on display there. Honestly, I’d love to go back one day and really take my time and really study more of the pieces. There was so much to see that we didn’t have time to view the whole “Paris on Peachtree” exhibit. You can click on the link to find out more information about the special, limited-time, exhibitions. I think there was a two-week time limit so definitely stop in if you are close enough and get a chance. It’s definitely worth your time!

There are only two recommendations today but here are today’s quotes.

“There are two kinds of light – the glow that illumines, and the glare that obscures.”  ~James Thurber

“Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes.  Art is knowing which ones to keep.”  ~Scott Adams

I’m enjoying this chillstep music mix as I type. I hope you’ll enjoy it, too. I thought it went along with the post on the art museum. Truly, these kinds of music are pretty artistic, in my opinion.

Inspiration and Dreams

Today we received a wonderful treat-a trip to the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, GA. We have some small local art galleries around us but larger art museums are a bit too far away for us to visit easily. We really enjoyed our visit. There were so many varied pieces of art and so many styles to view! We weren’t able to see everything but we did manage to see most of the special exhibits: one focused on the Old West in the United States and one focused on Paris. I think my favorite artworks were the sculptures. It never ceases to amaze me how one can carve soft, flowing fabric and hair out of solid rock. It was great for our kids to have this opportunity, too, as this was the first time they’ve been in a large art museum. I know we have all been inspired by our visit and I’m expecting to see some beautiful new ideas come out in the work of our hands in the future.

In closing, you don’t have to visit an art museum or gallery to get inspired to create something new. In fact, many of the pieces of art we viewed today were inspired by things seen in nature and human life. Some were born out of a sincere desire to help others achieve something better in life. Still others were wonderful documentation of historical times, so useful and helpful to us today. Look around you. What speaks to you? What draws emotion out of you? In what ways can you convey that through the work of your hands? Have fun doing it!

Here’s one of the photos I snapped today. It was taken and edited with my phone.

We started our visit to the art museum by checking out some sculptures at the entrance.

We started our visit to the art museum by checking out some sculptures at the entrance.