Embracing and Walking Through

The end of the year is quickly coming and so many thoughts still make their way through my head and heart, swirling back and forth, looking for a final place of rest.  A new year will be soon begin, bringing about life in old and new ways.

This holiday season was more sobering than I expected, especially in relation to the loss of my father just a few months ago and how much it still really affects my daily life.  Whether the feelings are above or below the surface, I'm still coming to terms with the death that touched my life in such a tragic way not long ago.

In other thoughts, I shared with my dear friend P yesterday how lately I've been reminded that life is just too fragile to walk through each day with a careless, taking things for granted, attitude.  Tomorrow is never promised to any of us, yet we tend to walk around as if it is.  I personally want to change that mentality and plan to do so starting with myself.

I sense new changes coming this year for me personally and I'm going to welcome them with open arms, fully aware that I have every opportunity to embrace them, love them and walk through them to the fullest extent or simply let them pass me by for fear of what tomorrow may or many not hold.

Just A Little Note

Above are a few photos from playing around with my new camera today, exploring the functionality and such a bit more.  It was alot of fun going on walks and visiting different places to capture some favourite things.  I've been inspired by a number of peeps from the blog world over the last few years; something I love about being a part of this loving community.

So let me end this little note by sending each of you hope, joy and happy wishes for a new year with special new beginnings.  :)

Merry Christmas, With Love

Merry Christmas to each of my wonderful bloggie friends.  It's been a tough couple of days feeling the loss of my father this year but doing my best to push through.

Thank you to each of you for all your love, care and concern over the past several months.  It means so much to me.

Merry Christmas, with love!

Sophia xo

Sunday Sketches

Hello and welcome to another Sunday Sketches - one week before Christmas.  Whoa!  Can you believe it?  (Before I forget, SS will be postponed next week but will resume the week after Christmas.  So, please make note.)

Nothing fancy or special this week as I've been terribly busy with all of the hussle and bustle going on this Chrstimas season. I've devoted alot of my time helping and giving to others in hopes to occupy my mind and heart since it's the first year without my father.  :(

Red velvet cake is my favourite, especially during the Holiday season.  So here's a quick painting of a delicious slice that caught my eye on the shelf at a local bakery. Yum!

OK.....off to visit everyone!

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This week's participants:
Please sign-up below to submit your sketch for this week, which will also allow others to stop and visit.

Sunday Sketches (WIP)

It's another week of Sunday Sketches and I'm really looking forward to seeing what each of you have done this time around.  :)

Above is a WIP of an idea I had.  Yes, there are a few spots that need some fine tuning but overall I'm quite pleased thus far.

I do hope this little note finds each of you doing well.  Are you ready for the Christmas season?  What are some of the fun things you have planned for family and friends?

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This week's participants:
Please sign-up below to submit your sketch for this week, which will also allow others to stop and visit.

Mulling Things Over

Photo: ©2011 ~CoffeeFTW

It's late here and my mind has been mulling many things over tonight.  As I sit here wrapped up in a cozy scarf, snuzzling my my hot water bottle, my mind pages through the list of uncertainties in my life and my heart feels overwhelmed.  Don't get me wrong. I do believe that life comes with some and we must embrace those the best we can but admittedly, it can be difficult at times.  The fact is that everything seems uncertain right now and that scares me.  A year has passed and it seems I'm not much further along than last year, when writing and feeling alone.

As Christmastime approaches, I'm not only reminded of the recent deep loss of my father but previous losses, all the while watching other things I hold dear slip through my fingers right in front of me, leaving a huge taste of uncertainty in my mouth.  Too much can bring fear and loneliness to a level in one's life that can be quite frightful at times, sometimes struggling to keep one pushing through.

I've had far too much loss in my life but have learned to overcome such unfortunate things, turning them into good to not only allow myself to personally heal but ways that bless others in the process as well.  It's just that I'm ready for some certainties where I don't have to worry about always changing bad into good, so to speak.  My heart desires to be able to wake up each morning and know pretty much how the day will unfold.  I desire the things any single, intelligent, talented and lovely girl would want in her life, but that's just not the place I'm currently at right now.

However, all of this definitely builds one necessary and solid thing for me that is SO needed to tackle such a journey.  FAITH.  Faith to continue to persevere regardless of what I see or don't see.  Faith that gives me the strength to leap over a wall and tackle the battle(s) before me.  Uh huh.

My turn IS coming and it will be far more beautiful than I could ever imagine.

Sunday Sketches

Can you believe it's that time of the week again?!  I'm amazed at how quickly this week has passed, let alone the fact that we're moving into the first official week of December.

Above is another one of the custom order holiday cards that I've been requested to make.  Feels like this final project is not progressing quickly, thus becoming quite tiring!  Oh dear me.  Nevertheless, pushing through emotions and thoughts to get these cards completed and hopefully then some down time for the rest of the month before the new year begins.  Who knows what lurks behind the door of 2012...

Happy SS. It's time to take a spin through everyone else's little cozy homes.

Grab the Sunday Sketches button here.

This week's participants:
Please sign-up below to submit your sketch for this week, which will also allow others to stop and visit.

Cocoa, Decorations and Daddy

It's already been terribly difficult this holiday season.  The thought of my father really being gone is taking its effect on me in deeper ways than I ever imagined.  I'm discovering more and more just how much his loss in my life really is.  What makes it even more difficult is the fact that I continue to feel like he's going to call me.  Quite odd knowing that's not possible but I cannot even begin to tell you those feelings.  Real. Very real.

The family tradition has always been to put up the tree on Thanksgiving Day, along with making the rest of the house festive.  This year I failed to do so but had nothing to do with any lack of trying.  By all means I did, but felt the loss and anger growing within so much that I tossed everything back in the boxes and walked out of my little cozy home to grieve.

A day or so passed and I found myself in front of the tree and boxes once again, only this time inviting my friend C to keep me company. Alas, we sipped my famous cocoa, chatted, decorated - let me tell you how beautiful my place looks, inside and out now.  My daddy would have loved it.  Even the newly lit Christmas house - ones he loved so much.