I'M FOR SALE!!!!!! ON ETSY!!!! I can't believe I actually did it, now hopefully I won't be completely disappointed by no bites, I'm looking forward to adding blocks though I have beautiful set I finished at home that just simply says imagine so we'll see what happens! Check me out on Etsy my username: AContemporaryWorld.

another new painting, and this one is for sale! I'm going to submit this painting as well as another one I'm working on to a place called art is art down on Henderson off 75. I'm really excited and can't wait to sale my first painting! I'll keep you posted.

more paintings! this is so fun.....

LOOK! I've been painting! I've found a new love and could spend almost every minute of every day painting. Here's a couple of recent creations they are unnamed at the moment but I'd like to take suggestions for names so if you have an idea when you view the painting leave me a comment!

Also, check out the blog entry below I've created a couple of online portfolios using blogspot, so if you've ever wondered what my work looks like check them out!

To view the paintings larger just click on the pic...

Hey guys, check out my new portfolio blog if you have a minute: Rachel Maples : Design Portfolio

also I just created a Freelance Portfolio if you have two minutes check them both out

This past week Matt and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary....We've spent the week thinking about all the wonderful, horrible, weird and wonderful things that have happened over the last 10 years. Here's a few things we've learned.

1. Life is never what we expect it to be, and that's okay.

2. Love can withstand the craziest of storms.

3. Children freaking change everything!

4. We're never quite prepared for the next phase.

5. Contentment is not in our vocabulary.

6. Friends will come and go but we have each other and that's all we really need.

and most important.

7. We love each other and always will.

We also spent a good part of the last week living it up. Celebrations started Wednesday evening with a yummy dinner, Sprinkles cupcakes and then hours spent sipping wine at a wonderful wine bar (Vino100) and talking about what the next 10 years might bring and what we'd like the next 10 years to bring. Then Friday my parents cooked dinner for us (really sweet) and Matt surprised us with Sprinkles cupcakes and we had cupcakes & champagne for dessert. Then to cap it all off, Saturday Matt's mom kindly took Dealey off our hands and we spent and evening in Ft. Worth eating amazing Italian food, drinking wine & cocktails and laughing our butts off while watching one of our favorite comedy troops Four Day Weekend. But really the sweetest part of the whole week was Matt's surprise of a night at the Worthington in Downtown Ft. Worth. What made it so special? It's where we spent our wedding night 10 years ago. It was an amazing week spent with an amazing man, my hero, my love, my Matt.

Here's a few pics, us in the hotel room before we went out & me getting a little goofy after a few glasses of wine and cocktails at the comedy club :o)

Christmas this year was an amazing and exhausting time of family. We hosted Matt's mom's family for Christmas Eve. The food was amazing and overflowing, the sweets to die for and mounds of presents that everyone enjoyed. Christmas day was equally as fun but with a smaller crowd, of just my family, which was just fine with us. All in all we had a very blessed Christmas and are looking for an even better New Years. Here's a few pics from our two days of Christmas fun.

• CHRISTMAS EVE •

• CHRISTMAS DAY •

wordless wednesday : oh! funny boy

saying goodbye...i had to say goodbye this morning to my dear friend Christine she's headed back to new york with her sweet little girl eva. we so enjoyed their company the last few days and i was very sad to say goodbye. i feel like though i have a new perspective on life after her short stay here and have learned some new thoughts to keep in mind while dealing with each day. first off whenever things aren't what i thought they would be i just need to say to myself "it is what it is" there's nothing i can do about D having a bad day or being sick i just need to find the best way to cope and work through it and not get so down about the fact that it's not the schedule or the norm. probably much easier said than done but i'm determined to make it a way of life, after all on the subject of life it is what it is and the only thing i can do is try to help the situations i can help realize that there are many many things out of our control and reach and those things will be what they are. again a tough concept to first embrace i think but i again am determined to make it a way of life and mind. so first things first i know my life isn't as happy as it could be, matt and i aren't as close as we could be and those things I can help. Matt and i have to find time to work on us and i need to take steps to correct what it is that makes me unhappy in life be it work or home and in actuality there are things in both of those areas i've got to deal with and regain some control of ultimately regaining control of happiness in my life. if you've read this far thanks for listening to me ramble on about my life maybe it struck a cord in you maybe like me you too like to control your life and need to realize that sometimes it just is what it is and it's not control you need you just need to cope and move on. so to those of you feeling my words, i raise my glass and say here's to dealing with what is and helping what can be helped. here's to happiness and the pursuit of it. I'll keep you posted on my endeavours.

wedding fun. we went to a wedding this last weekend and dealey and weddings has proved to be an odd mix and this one was no different my dad ended up spending the majority of the time in the lobby walking around with dealey. poor little guy just can't sit still to save his life or so we thought. He did sit still long enough this past Sunday to get his face painted at a festival our church put on but at the wedding it just wasn't happening. I do have to give props to the couple getting married they made it a very child friendly wedding more so than any other I've ever been to. They passed out coloring pictures and crayons in little baggies as we went into the worship center which was totally cool, he did color for all of 5 minutes maybe. Then at the reception they had chicken tenders and french fries for the kids to eat which was awesome! I don't know about you guys but I've never been to a wedding that had such accommodations for kids. Of course dealey was the cutest kid there in his brown cargo's and argyle sweater (thank you Rana). Here's a few pics of our sweet boy and we got a video of him dancing on the dance floor at the reception I'll try to get that posted later this week but if I don't just know it was too cute and pretty funny,

halloween...okay okay I know it's way past halloween time but it's been hard to find time to pull the pics off the camera so much so that now I have 3 post worth of pictures on there :o) Halloween was great D really got into it and carried his bucket the whole time and loved that when he went to someones house they gave him something. When we go for walks now he still expects it and trys to walk up to peoples house. We have the boy who fears nothing. So here are some fun pics from that night. Once we got home it was a fun game of dump the bucket over D's head and then pick it all up. We finally decided to let him have a little candy and he loved it, of course. Enjoy our little monkey, we sure do.

a new thing.....dealey had his first school pictures taken at MDO a few weeks ago and look how cute he is. he did so good for the first school pics of many to come! I love the smirk on his face i think it makes him look even more like me. sorry matt. i also can't believe they got him to sit still and look at the camera even though it was pre-haircut (see below) he looks so grown up.

it had to be done.....yes I cut dealey's hair the wings where out of control now he looks like a little man. I know so of you loved the wild hair and we did too but it just seemed like time to let go of the baby curls, at least some of them.....

PUMPKIN FUN...because of my self loathing lately i haven't shared many dealey pics or dealey happens he's grown so much. he's nearly 3ft tall now which is just crazy and talking up a storm. granted most of it is still giberish but it cracks him up! Earlier this week my mom and i went to the Arboretum to check out the pumpkins and walk and I got some great pics of the d man and wanted to share them with everybody. At first he wasn't too interested in the pumpkins he just wanted to play with the clasp on the stroller but he got into after a while once he saw all the other kids playing and having fun. after the pumpkins we wandered over to the water frogs (which d loves) and splashed and played in the water until i got tired of chasing him around...he was soaked.

MISSING NY & FRIENDS...this time of year is why you move to NY. I was reminded of this when my sweet friend Christine sent me pictures from when they went apple picking a few weeks ago. Something we did with Dealey last year just before we left in NY. side not can you believe we've been back a year? i can't. I wish we had beautiful rolling country sides where we could pick apples and enjoy the company of friends while basking in the cool sunshine a crisp autumn day. doesn't that sound just perfect. i miss ny & our friends christine, steve & eva. sigh....texas may have some great things but it's seriously lacking in areas. check out the pics who wouldn't want to be where they are?

so it's been months of well let's just be honest sad and pathetic post, but thanks to lovely meds that are finely working and the power of optimism i have to throw out there my new look on life. i choose happiness. that short and rather simple phrase has given me a whole new outlook on life. I haven't looked forward to the future in a long time and now I can't wait to see what happens. so join in the joy and wake each morning and choose happiness.

It is difficult to live in the present, ridiculous to live in the future, and impossible to live in the past.
Nothing is as far away as one minute ago.

talentless. have you ever wished you were something or somebody else? had something others had not in an obsessive or envious way but just curious what it would be like? i wish i could be ordinary. i long to not be tortured and drug down by an endless number of creative ideas. i wish i could ask other people how to do stuff instead of knowing how to do so much. i wish i was talentless. even if for a day. i've joked for months about making a tshirt that said talentless so people would never ask me anything. not sure if it would actually work but i think it's time for that tshirt to become a reality before the insanity of my creative mind drives me over the edge. i am now at the point where i can barely sit still to even write this post i have to be doing something every minute of every day. i've heard it's the minds way of coping with anxiety but i don't know if it's healthy just seems a bit maddening at the moment. what would you want to change about yourself if you could be something or someone different for a day?

I SURVIVED my first sunday football game....but only because we were joined by a few friends they made it bareable, so thank you friends. I have lots to write but can't seem to find the patience to sit down and let it out. so here's a short version. therapy seems to be going no where fast but i'm not giving up and meds still aren't working but my psychiatrist now believes they misdiagnosed the depression and anxiety and i'm actually bipolar. it's a hard truth to swallow but really right now i just want to get my meds right so i can feel better and feel like rachel again. i fear it may destroy my whole world if i don't find some answers soon, some people are being rather impatient and i just feel like a failure......and so we begin another week taking one day at a freaking time.