In Retrospect: One Little Quote of 2016 & Tim Tag Assemblage

Happy Happy! I'm off today. Have a hot date with a sander & perhaps some paint. It's my birthday and I'm turning 32 again or perhaps it was 42. I'll let you know how sore I am after sanding and then we can decide...

I thought my birthday was a good day to wrap up all these Tim Tags and what I did with them.

I feel like I've run a long race in 2016. At times this year I was jogging, other times flat out running with sweat dripping off my nose and honest to goodness boob sweat. It's been quite a year. The industry I worked in tanked a bit and I found myself reinventing in the early part of 2016. The very fact that I was relieved and happy I guess says something for the fact it was dying and I was slowly dying too. If my soul was a color, it would have been that of a dried up leaf and just as brittle.

Sat for a couple of months, jumped into the first job offer and then figured out quickly it was another place that my soul could die. I have nothing against earning a living but I think that large parts of it are overrated. Honestly, if you have been following along in the American dream, you are defined by your job instead of a lot more important things like not being a dick, raising kids that aren't dicks, and contributing to the overall well being of here. Or in your case, there.

Thankfully a job that caught my eye lined up with the fact that they needed someone like me badly to do the job. It's kinda more than a job since it's not exactly super high paying (hello, not for profit), you have to believe in the mission (see paragraph above about contributing to here), and you pretty much have to work pretty hard. The other day I came home itching due to insulation in my bra.

Earlier this month we kicked someone out of their house (and her two kids and a dog) for not paying the mortgage. You'd say we were dicks, but four years is a very long time to let someone live in your house for free. The motto around work is a hand up, not a hand out. The week before we held a home dedication for a new family who is moving from a shitty apartment (we have slum lords here just like you have them there) to a new home that is awesome.

I know every inch of that home. Well, not maybe every inch. I avoided the attic & the blown in insulation like the plague. See again earlier paragraph about coming home itching. That house is solid though. Which brings me around to my one little quote.

See I thought the one little word idea was cool, but in years past, by March I had long forgotten what I was striving for. Following along with the Tim Tags of 2016, I reminded myself at least twice a month (once making the tag and then the subsequent blog post) of what I was aiming for.

If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.-Isaac Newton

I wanted to remind myself that I was building off what others had done, to stay grounded, and that it was a team effort. It fit. I feel like I'm in a team. 

On the glittering, spray painting & blogging side of things, that is also certainly the case. It's now pretty cool (and also geeky) to be a pinteresting freak who would rather glitter than say bar hop. Or in my case, drink wine & glitter in pjs and slippers. Inspiration is just one pin or post away and could be from as close as the next town over or from across the world.

I like seeing my tags all together like this. Can't say I'll try it again, unless I make a collection of something else to display. I've got quite a few things for the walls here at Pratt Inc. as I'm from a long line of artist types. This particular upcycled frame was one I really loved though. Eighteen coats of antique gold paint later (and some plaster to fill in the gaps), a small piece of wood to build it up deep enough to display tags, and a sheet of velvet backing cut to size was also a fair bit of effort and I was nervous about spraying each tag with adhesive and then sticking them on. It worked though! Once I've got Christmas packed up, I'll show you where I'm stashing it!

So, onward and upward 2017.

A wave and a nod to the giants who have built what we have so far. A good foundation is always key.