It's Thanksgiving week so me and my baby sister have had more time to hang out! We made this picture out of melted crayons yesterday, and managed to shut the power down for a minute (apparently 2 is too many blow dryers going at once;))! It's not the most beautiful thing that I have made, but we spent time together and that's what matters.

I <3 you, baby sis.

My parents paid for a photographer that we know to take my senior pictues a couple weeks ago. She did a great job. This one is my favorite because I love my worn out shoes .

I have an issue with keeping shoes forever. I don't want to let them go, I want to wear them until they disintegrate. Let me tell you why.

1) I don't want to waste. If the shoe fits-why buy another pair?

2) I can be picky about shoes and sometimes have trouble finding replacements that I like.

3) I love love love having shoes that tell my story. I love dirt and grime, and getting all messed up so that I can be cleaned again. I like seeing the threads in my shoes because, to me, that says "you've done something, Lydia. you've been places. you've worked hard." And in the end, that's what I want my life to say.

Sure, we are young.
Yes, there are things we do not know or understand.
Of course life is going to be hard.
That does not give anyone a right to tell us we can't, to say that we must do a certain something.
Our lives are just that: our lives.
We have a right to make our own mistakes.
How will we learn if we never live?
Independence is hard, but it's something we all have a right to pursue.
Why do youcomplain as if life is a punishment?
Why do you act like you had nothing to do with making your life what it is?
I see, I know, I can tell.
Your decisions decide your destiny.
Maybe even your happiness.
Do not try and re-write your story through me.
Stifling us will not give you a second chance.
Only you can do that.

It's time for change; why shouldn't we want it?




Lydia

These are my new coloured pencils! I am so blessed to have the money to buy them for my own use. I'm working on a drawing for my Grandma's Christmas present! Shhhhh

Here's another bracelet pattern! I tried to make it more masculine for all the fellas out there :) email lydia.braceletsforchange@gmail.com to get yours!

Summer's over, and how it flew by! My summer was a whirl wind of many different things: work outside, work inside, free work, and paid work. It had good moments, and bad. 82 days of being; a glimpse into what life is like on the other side of High School.
I was able to take advantage of a bunch of super fantastic oppurtunities such as: travel, teach a little girl how to read (!!!!), meet new people, help a fab old lady take care of her very special grandson, sell bracelets that I made to retailers, and just chill (a very little bit) with my ridiculously off the wall friends. So good.
And now, here I am: the end of the beginning. Finished with school on the first day of Senior year. Times change, and now is the time to hit the books, to return to academics, and to (hopefully) have more time to devote to art.
In the next few months I'll start calling colleges, and figuring fractions. It's time to read a lot, to glue a lot, to listen. It is time to spend time with the people I love, and will leave. It's time to have a steady schedule (sadface), and to make some really important decisions.
I'm buckleing down to face reality, and to bid adieu to life as I've always known it.

Now is the time,
Now is my time;
Now is really no different than all the other times, except for everything.

I'm home. Back from New York City, and slowing getting used to being at home and being back in my home routine. It's hard. I don't feel like I should be back. It seems like it's not right for me to be back and getting back to "life." But at the same time does feel good to be back. My heat is torn and my life has been wrecked, but that's only because of God. God's allowed me to be vulnerable, and allowed my heart to be changed. I've seen the change start, and I've seen Him change everything. My life's been put upside down, and I'm so excited to see where else He's going to take me.

Brianna

Well I have been back for a few days now...and the trip was fantastic. Really just great. The first half of the week (10 days, actually) was probably one of the most challenging periods of my life, but I feel like I walked away from it knowing more of God than I did before. And that's all I really want from life. More of my God and Saviour.

What the Native people of this country have been forced through is a tragic story, and there's many ways to look at it. You can look at this people as a race with their own culture that's been ripped away from them, who have been left with nothing but some land. You can look at it as a race of people who may have gotten the bad end of a deal hundreds of years ago, but should get over it.

The way I look at it though, is that there's a group of people who have been wronged as a race, who are generally living below the poverty line, and who haven't been shown the Gospel in the right way. I believe that it's my duty as a Christian to help them. That's really it. I don't really care what anyone thinks about the situation, so long as they try to help.

These words have never meant as much to anyone as they now mean to me, for in the fine print He tells me what's wrong and what's right <3

My African Child~by Toris Okotie

So young in heart
He cried for milk
So poor and helpless
Mama weeps in pain

His eyes so red
A week he cried
A month ago,
To the world he came

Mama so young
Papa has run
Under the bridge
They lay their heads

In storm and rain
They search for food
Through man and sex
Mama fed him well

The days went by
Mama health decreased
Only five months old
Mama said good bye

In rain and cold
He cried so loud
In sun and heat
He wept and wept

Three days gone by
Since Mama left
And now he sleeps
To meet with Mama



This poem is one of my favorites because I love how concise it is. I am amazed by how few words it took the author to relay his tragic story so poignantly.

Stay tuned, more poetry is on the horizon :)


Lydia

It may be March, but Spring is coming.

"Writing is like giving birth to a piano sideways. Anyone who perseveres is either talented or nuts." -Flannery O'Connor

I like to pretend that National Freedom Day has nothing to do with a President, or something being signed, but rather that it is a day dedicated to the commemeration and vision of liberation from wickedness and deliverance unto perfection. I like to think that it is about all the bad in the world being taken away, and being replaced by the power to do boundless good: to speak without restraint put on by the cold and irreligious bonds of society.

Happy (National) Freedom Day!



(I am not sure who the poem on that painting was written by, so I can not tell you to whom the credit is do. I can only tell you to whom it is not do, and that is me).

Celebrate in your own way, and I'll celebrate in mine.
Think about your tears (from this year), and I'll think about mine.
Look forward to the time that's been given you, and I'll look forward to that which I've been given.
I wish you all peace and love.

happy trails, friend.



Lydia

Here's just a few of my awesometastic Christmas gifts! I'd have to say that the honorable mention is A BRETT DENNEN CD!! but I got that before Christmas.


God be with the children who don't get gifts for Christmas. May He give them (as He has given me) food, clothing, and eternal life. Hallelujah!


Lydia

SALLY IS HERE!! and I have been beating on her for the last hour :)
She's really a wonderful djembe. Except for this weird sort of piercing/resonating sound that she makes...I'm gonna look into that. Hopefully it's ok/will go away.
I'm so thankful!!



Lydia

I always forget that you have to upload pictures in the opposite order I want them posted in, so here's the back cover of the notebook I made today.

The pages...made all of re-used paper.

And here's the front! I got that from a magazine.

Lydia

The book on the left is phenomenal. The book on the right is up next.

I am also reading Working in the Shadows by Gabriel Thompson. I highly recommend (so far).

Lydia