BOX ep

((well well well. I almost forgot about this blog until a friend asked me to post something about this album. So here it is! ))

My most recent artsy attempt has been my favorite kind of all: music. The past three years have been extremely transitional for me, and I have dealt with it the only way I know how, through music. This time last year, my good friend (and creative genius) Kyle Thurman and I started a small project. He wanted more experience producing and recording, and I wanted to put these songs into record form so as to never forget them. Kyle ended up doing so much more than just recording, he helped to polish them and lend me a few members of his band (Bradley Batterton, Brian Batterton) as well as his own musical talents to make these songs into what my heart heard. Here we are!

 There are 4 songs on BOX,  [Bring You Home, Box, Everything We Had Planned, Alexander Rd.] I would love to give you all the detailed stories about each and every song, because I'll tell you, they are so fun *wink*. But these songs were part of a healing process. I know that sounds weird, but the other day I was in my room and heard one of my roommates listening to this record, and it was a surreal moment: every lyric and every sound was created for me. For a moment in my life I needed to express, for an experience to remember and also say goodbye to. Inviting someone else into that moment with me, and having it out there in the world was kind of a scary thing.
Scary and healing...healing for the moments that hurt, the moments of beauty that came out of that hurt, and for the hope that comes out of the transitional moments.

Thank you all so much for the support of this album! Thank you for being in those moments with me and hopefully finding common ground in your own lives. This is the first time I've shared any music that I wrote all by myself and I'm happy to know people actually like it...and me. :)

Album Available on iTunes now! search  "Allison Button"

-A

Newspaper Canvas Art

Here's the deal, when I travel I don't normally like to buy the cliche' souvenirs, I like to find things that are more personal. Over the past few years I have been all over the world. When I was in Europe specifically, I fell in love with newspapers. There is something old and romantic about reading a newspaper, and I loved seeing ones in different languages and styles. I started collecting them as my own personal souvenir. I wasn't sure exactly what I would do with them, but they made it through 2 moves so I knew I should eventually do something with them. Then Hobby Lobby had a sale on canvas and I knew exactly what would happen to these papers! Here it is:


Started as any craft usually starts, with good ole ModPodge and cheap paint brushes!

This is my paper from France. Hope it doesn't say anything bad haha:)

I looked through them all finding the parts that had the best color and picture, I wanted it to be pretty!

The modpodge tried to tear the paper up a few times, I probably could have done it better, but I'm not a perfectionist and I wanted it to have character.

I did about 3 coats of the podge.

Here is the final product! Paris, Ireland, and Israel.

T-Shirt Quilt/Blanket

This is how it started. a pile of 20 of my favorite t-shirts that i never wear but am emotionally connected to :)

Lets follow my Rocketboys t-shirt all the way through.

I made a template out of a cardboard box and cut them all from that.

cut out fusable interfacing (had to guess on the yard amount and was only 1 yard off!)

Ironed the interfacing on.

 (my mother suggested flipping it over and ironing directly on the interfacing,

not on the t-shirt, so as to not mess up any designs on the shirt. she's a smart lady)

Lined all the pieces up to see where the colors would look best and of course, where the Justin Bieber shirt should be placed. :)

Sewed all the pieces together! Then sewed the backing on.

 (i like this b/c it requires sewing only straight lines:)

I had a quilt i already loved that I used as the inside of this one.

 Basically this was just a duvet cover that i sewed up!

I added a few buttons in the corners of each square b/c, well... BUTTONS!

 and to help keep the blanket together

TA-DA! it's officially my favorite.

Puzzles and Pieces and NYC

CI'm sitting in the parking lot of my favorite sushi restaurant in town waiting on some friends to join me. I don't know if it's my cold or the changing season but nostalgia is heavy on my heart right now. As I write this, a song lyric is screaming in my head-"I think I've finally got it figured out, everyone needs someone they can keep around." (canopy climbers)
I've never been one to get emotional when a friend leaves because I've always known that there is possibility to see them again. But this time feels different. I think I've grown in the aspect of relationships this past year(and I know I have more to grow) but damn this hurts. Everything about this town is them. They are my past, and my present, and I can't imagine not having them in my future. It's enough to make me want to beg on the streets to make the $800 a month I would need to join them in the big apple. I know it's not my time to go yet, but I wish it were.

There is a season for everything. God better have something big planned for me this year. I know He has my best interests at heart but I'm still going to miss this little family that I've made. Hillary, Annie, Brian, Grace(who already left me;), and now Emily, you are the best brightest parts of my life and I WILL see you again. Soon. I love you guys more than you know and I can't wait to see what your lives will become.

Cheers to making a new family and new experiences.

"Some things are for a lifetime, and some things are forever."

I have made this comment a few times in the past week and it seems to really resonate with people. (I'm not trying to sound cool I promise:) So I thought I should just put down my thoughts about it, and why it's been running around my head.

Some things are for a lifetime: like marriage, children, careers, houses(sometimes;), basically everything we build while we are alive only lasts a lifetime. ONLY. In the spectrum of eternity our lives are 'but a vapor'. We get what, 80 years if we're lucky? It seems like a long time when you're 15, but at 24, the time is ticking!
I feel like we tend to focus so hard on physical things, and I don't just mean like money and stuff, I mean feelings. And emotions. I don't mean to discount them, I am just trying to get a broader view of things. We let our emotions decide what we eat, where we go, who we spend time with, ect... Let me reiterate, this is NOT a bad thing! God gave us emotions for a reason.
- Let me tell a story, there is a girl I know who is getting to know a man who has a daughter. My friend, who has been saving herself for marriage has had to rethink any potential with him because of that. This is noble of her, but I began to think, things like that are only for a lifetime...

Somethings are forever: the work we do for the Kingdom of God has lasting effects. Forever. Whether you are leading a Sunday school class, Pastoring a church, or having a great relationship with Jesus that people can see just shine out of you. When you live your life to please God, that is what lasts forever. And if you marry a man who already has a daughter, yet together you are able to do more work for the Kingdom-which is the better?

Now I know there are lots of variables that play into all of this, but this is just a broad explanation of what I've been thinking about. What do YOU think?

Matthew 6:20 "Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal."

TOKEN SINGLE GIRL

So I know this is supposed to be an art blog, but I’m not having much time for many crafty things. I’m definitely a bi-polar artist.

So now it is for thoughts.
First on my mind, my brother found a blog that a girl wrote about a Proverbs 32 man. About what a real man should look like. And basically, he should be like Jesus. Yay! Like we didn’t know that.

Next on my mind is a twitter account that I found from a teenage girl I have known for a long time. Her entire account is dedicated to her future spouse. (#tmfs)
As I read some of the things she said it made me sad. Only because I hope she has other goals.

And then my thoughts ran around my head for a few days and this is what I came up with.

What if marriage weren’t the goal?
Since we were the smallest of children, little girls are led to believe that they will someday find their prince. Or future spouse. And we dream about all the things we will do together. We see other peoples lives and can’t wait till we find ‘the one’. This is all well and good, but as we get older and ‘the one’ seems not to be able to find us, we get discouraged.

I myself have gone through all these things. One day I looked back on my life and had the thought, “what if I had lived a life that didn’t revolve around marriage?”(or the lack thereof)
What would I have done different? How many more things would I have accomplished?
What adventures could have been had by not waiting for a man to join me on them?
I am not discounting marriage at all. I believe God wants us to want to marry, but I also think, what if you died tomorrow and you went to heaven, and they played you a movie of your life(which I think might happen ;), and most of it is spent worrying about or looking for a future spouse? What a waste!

Now to explain the title, TOKEN SINGLE GIRL. At the church I attend, my friend and I are what I feel the “Token Single Girls” whenever we get prayed for, you know there is going to be something about a future husband in the prayer. But one day, I was prayed for to have a partner. A partner in life to help me further the Kingdom of God. BAM! When that was prayed it’s like a tons of bricks turned into mud and slushed all over me. (great mental picture huh?) Since I was about 21 years old I decided that “only the deepest of love can entice me into matrimony” (Elizabeth Bennett, Pride and Prejudice) Truly the reason I want to marry is so that together, me and my husband could do more for the Kingdom than we could alone.

Two is better than one. But I’m not going to worry about when and how it will happen. [Okay I say that but then my lady hormones might kick in and I’ll start dreaming again.] But till then I’m going to try to be who God wants me to be, and apparently right now that’s single. And iiiiiiiiiiiii like it  (but anytime he wants to change that I’ll be cool with it)

"If music be the food of love, play on." - PLATO

A few weekends ago I went to Nashville, TN with some friends of mine to record a small album.
We went not expecting anything at all, and what we found was perfect.
3 full days of listening to the same 6 songs, perfecting every tiny detail, and eating lots of fast food.

I am completely impressed with the musicians I went with (and met there). Never in my life have I felt people understand the music of my mind like they did.

I've always been a fan of music, from a young age singing Point of Grace songs, and old school musicals. I have finally realized that no matter what happens, whether I get married and have 20 kids, or stay single and become the next Taylor Swift- I will ALWAYS write music. It is the first thing I do when I need to get an emotion out. (and we all know emotions never leave us girls;)

So no matter what life holds for me, I know I have been given a great gift.



Music is my FAVORITE form of art.