An early Valentine...

OK ok~so I made it for myself...still counts, doesn't it?

So I saw this cute little necklace in an {un named catalog} and thought "hey, that's pretty darned cute...$118? Ya right!" I've been a little-oh, shall we say-'uninspired" lately. It was time to get off the booty and whip up something cute and simple.

I have a small handful of these gorgeous garnet chunks that I haven't done anything with for ages (and just happens to be my birthstone) I love how imperfect they are...it's all fairly dainty-the "live" nugget is about 1/2 inch long. I pierced, sawed and sanded the open heart charm and oxidized both for a little extra warmth.

I struggled with what word I wanted to stamp...LOVE seemed so-easy? It was my first thought-then decided to go with my "word of the year".

Seems as though in early January everyone was pegging their word of the year. Their word to live by in 2010. I never professed mine but picked it out and kept it all snug in the back of my mind.

live.

A little meaning behind this....after "the great scare of December 2009" with the funky lung CT all I could think was "I want to LIVE" I was scared, wide-eyed, weak, pissed....you name it, I felt it. Now that the scare is behind me and we moved to 2010 "live" took on an additional meaning and I want to wear it to remind me...

As a SAHM of 3 little ones and trying to get a small business off the ground at the same time it's hard to find balance. Days start to feel somewhat reminiscent of "Groundhog Day"-the same day over and over. Laundry, dishes, breakfast, off to school, lunches, clean ups, nap time/(ME time!), home from school, homework, dinner, bedtime...over and over and over...and my "me" time is roughly 2 hrs if I'm lucky. So "live" takes on something else now. Live it up. Go for it. Switch it up. Go somewhere. Get out of the house. Do something. Have fun....You only live once.

.....................Right?

Weekend projects

I've noticed a ton of new visitors stopping by here lately :) I wanted to say a quick

I always love to hear where people are finding me from...If you have a quick sec jump into comments and say hi!

We've been busy with all sorts of fun new stuff the past week. Funny-seems I'd have so much to write about-then when I sit here ready to write I feel blank.

Today had me twisting myself upside down to paint under a shelf very carefully not to lean on a new glass desktop-that was fun for the lower back! I've got lots of new pictures ready to load up and post on my shared house project blog with my friend, Kim. By all means, swing by there and take a peek at some of the things we've been working on around here.

I'm so over this weather! So happy the sun was out in full blast today-not a cloud in the sky! It really helps my motivation...I'm so ready to head back to class for The Artist's Way-wish it was March already! In the meantime I've been trying to plan ahead for shows this year and soaking up books on business junk and art inspiration. Fun times.

Top model

Meet my sassy new friend! She needs a name.....anyone?

I've been wanting one of these for quite some time...and was lucky enough to score her through freecycle! FREE!! Gotta love that!

I've been thinking it would be fun to have one set at the edge of my tent at shows modeling something. She's begging for a makeover though. I'll have to add that to my list of projects...

Linked back to Reinvented Trash to Treasure Tuesday...

Time to grow up

Sigh......I guess it was time. His bangs were hanging past his nose. People would stop us to tell us how pretty her eyes were. I found myself wanting to raid Chloe's hair clips to pull his hair back when he ate...lol.

I've been holding onto it as long as I could-but it was time. Dad demanded it was time-lol.

A good example of how long it had gotten...

It seems like just yesterday I was chopping Gabe's long hair off and sharing it on here...

My baby is gone and has been replaced by a little boy. My last baby-the last "first haircut".

Reflections on a birthday

I'm kicked back on the couch listening to an old 80's compilation cd someone made me years ago and flipping through decorating books I got from the library today (trying to channel my inner Candice Olson-har har). I can't wait to figure out what exactly I want to for our Living Room remodel.



Right now Trav is making one of my favorite dinners while the kids are playing with play doh at the kitchen counter. They keep bring me birthday giraffe cookies and rattlesnakes wrapped around their necks. I love the smell of play doh. Doesn't everyone?


I had a flashback earlier today. I had climbed onto a bottom shelf (I think) at JC Penney's. I was probably about Chloe's age (8) and we were living in Goose Creek, South Carolina. That shelf was maybe 10 or so inches off the floor and I remember like yesterday thinking "whoa-is this how it feels to be grown up?" and hoping that when I was an adult I didn't feel so dizzy and discombobulated being SO high up in the air. Then I sat on the shelf (must've been bored while mom shopped) and started looking at my hands in that lighting and wondering what my hands would look like when I was older. I stared at my hands and willed myself to remember what they look like right.now.



Wish I'd taken a close up picture of them-because I don't remember them. I guess looking at Chloe's hands is bout as close as I'll get. Ah-I think I just found my next project-taking pictures of her hands so she'll never forget how HER hands looked at this age. ;)

2009: A year in pictures~

Nostalgic over the years end I decided as seen a la CJane-I thought it was a great idea to document our 2009 in photos. Ones not necessarily shared on here before...

January.....started with my birthday (36th-cough*cough) and long awaited reconnections. Have I ever mentioned how much I LOVE facebook? Talking with old friends and posting old goofy pictures and sharing old memories -most not seen since the 4th grade has really made my year-no joke. 26 years.....sigh. Who can find me first? lol

Somebody who didn't have curls yet decided to start crawling......

And the foyer project is officially started. Who knew by December it wouldn't be complete? lol

February has a sleepy baby. A million pictures of him sleeping. Really-there aren't any others all month. Pretty sad.

March brings unseasonably warm weather (just look at the short sleeves!) and a new project underway-turning the garage around! The garage door was flip flopped around to face the alley so we can tear out the driveway and have more yard. I wonder why it took so long for the foyer remodel......anyone else? lol

April is the time little guy decided to start taking his first steps...And first boo-boos on the chin from falling.

And Easter block parties with lots of face painting with friends...


May brings more progress to the foyer remodel. The huge mirror has been swung around to the opposite wall and floors have just been laid.
And a little skirt twirling on wacky clothes day after school.

June brings a family vacation!

Here we are in Carmel, Indiana at an abandoned old church for sale. We fell in love with it right away. That AND the town. I should have photoshopped some fake tan on myself. yeek.
A little trip down to Boogertown....
All of us at the Smokie's sign. I just love Sawyer in this shot. lol.Litte guy turned 1 years old this month. Where?-you may ask are the photos of Sawyer's 1st birthday from June? Why-I haven't a clue. Feeling pretty irked about this too.....

July....Chloe's birthday. Why can't I find photos from her birthday either? What's going on here???

Here's a cute little tush in a romper...love it!
Foyer progress: sanding floors first to stain. And stain he did. 3 times! That meant sanding 3 times as well. It just wasn't coming out right. Hard work paid off-now they look great!

A much needed girls night out!

Sawyer's first boat ride :) This must've been on my Granny's 82nd birthday. We always take a pontoon ride on the lake over at my Aunt and Uncle's house.

August Chloe started 3rd grade back at her old school. A very wise choice and she's thrilled and doing great!
Gabe turned 3 years old!

I hooked up with an old friend, Shannon from way back in the day. She lives a couple hours away and we found each other through facebook. Have I mentioned how much I love facebook? We hadn't seen each other since sophmore year of high school. She came to the state fair with me and we went to see Heart and The Bangles. Had a blast and picked up where we left off-was so much fun!

While at the fair I played around with some photgraphy stuff. Thought this one turned out fun. :)

September was full of jewelry photos. Trying to come up with new lighting techniques,etc.
Gabe had his own soccer photo session.

Chloe had a great fall soccer session.

October had me scrambling to make inventory and gather displays for my first show.

Halloween of coarse. This year we had a butterfly, pirate and a dino.

Gorgeous yellow ginko leaves and blue skies.

Looks like Gabe's the next to get married? lol. He caught the garter at Trav's cousin's wedding. Amazing how fast men scatter away from that thing-hehe.

And Gabe starts preschool.....


November had crazy,warm shorts weather-just amazing for around here! We took full advantage and headed to Allerton Park an hour away and had a picnic and hiked all day-gorgeous!

My first show


Thanksgiving with the Festival of Trees right after dinner. Doesn't Sawyer look like he's deeply contemplating over what he should tell Santa to bring him? Too bad he can't talk to tell him lol.
December had me working on handmade gifts...This is an unfinished (!lol) project for Trav's handmade gift. More on that later...

I was lucky enough to have another night out with a group of us high school gals. We hit the comedy club spent lots of time beforehand eating Mexican and looking at old pictures. And no, we didn't call ahead to color coordinate-lol.

And Christmas was a lovely relaxed day. :)

Since we're fairly boring I will skip sharing pictures from tonite (New Years) since we'll just be asleep-lol.

I do have to say Happy Birthday to my baby brother whose bday is today!! Happy Birthday Clif!

Sorry for the longest post in history. I hope you'll all had a great 2009 and an even better 2010!

Custom Christmas

There was a slew of custom orders for Christmas this year. Here's a handfull of shots-so many gravitated toward the same necklace-the tri color lariat. Here are a few variations of it~

I'm praying since it's officially after Christmas no one will be surprised seeing their kids names on here-lol...

Here is one requested in gold and silver only.

With all metals represented (brass, sterling and copper) with a 4th charm...
With 2 children we came up with something extra to fill it in some and think this worked well! :) Mom and Dad's initials with a cut out heart.

Once again all metals with 4 charms~

And the classic one with 3 charms.

They are so simple, sweet and lightweight. Just love them. I keep saying I'm going to make one for myself but haven't gotten to that yet. Each charm is slightly smaller than a dime and spin around and jingle against each other and lay higher on the chest-picture clasping just under the collar bone and the charms lying underneath...Just love em...

Christmas Goodies

I sure hope everyone had a great Christmas! Between all of the different grandparents we're still not finished up with Christmas get together's-it makes it feel like the holiday lasts a good long time :)

We did have a bit of a scare on Christmas night. Someone was beating on our door and ringing the bell over and over. We woke panicked-convinced our house was on fire. It ended up being a deaf man unable to communicate with us and left. We have since found out this same man was arrested not long ago for a robbery at a candy store around the corner. I was convinced he was scoping out the house before he was going to break in-unfortunately it looks like I was right. Thankfully nothing happened and all is well.


Looks like Sawyer claimed Gabe's big-wheel for himself.
A shot of Chloe at Nana's house in front of the tree. I was playing around with a bokeh technique I'd read about over on Amanda's blog.


It's a bird......it's a plane.......

I had to add the picture of these curls....we probably won't be seeing them around here for much longer. It's almost haircut time for this little guy and he'll start looking like a big boy.....:(

Sharing my Grandmother's tree. It's not big or fancy-but there's something comforting about it to me.

My plan was to start showing some handmade gifts we made for the kids this week but between wading through all of the new toys and my weak attempt at home organization I haven't had a chance to compile the pictures. I'll get to that soon!!

Christmas ramblings

I just ran across this on a blog I follow (Peanut Petunia) and had to post it-got a good chuckle out of it.

I've been lacking about things to talk about. After the stress of the last couple of weeks with all the *hurry up and wait* with those darned tests I feel like I've just kind of collapsed in a heap then buried in wrapping paper-lol. In good news-I'm caught up with the shopping/wrapping! Yea!!

I wish I could show you the handmade gifts we've been working on for the kids!! BUT-Chloe gets on my blog all the time so I can't yet. After Christmas I suppose.....But I will say one thing I made her turned out so cute!!! She's going to be so surprised....

~A few updates~
My dad and stepmom just got in from Florida and we're all excited to see them....Things have shifted in the family dynamic (in a good way) for our family get-together on Christmas eve....The kids are hyper for Santa and Gabe is realllllly getting into the whole Santa thing this year..... It's so sweet now that he remembers the words to songs he's learned at school and is singing Rudolf all day long.....Sawyer's a little stinker and we can't have any wrapped presents under the tree til the actual morning.....

I've had a bunch of custom stamped neclace and glass pendant orders~Thanks to you ALL! I'd love to share photos but once again-they'll have to wait until after Christmas.....

Ahhhhhh-it's so nice to sit and have some coffee without the alarm and rushing to school.....

I can finally breathe

WHEWWWWW!!!

That's all I have to say.

All is well.

One foot in front of the other

Gabe and I at the Festival of Trees on Thanksgiving night

Well, I'd calmed down since the previous post but now my PET scan is approaching fast (tomorrow morning) and I'm starting to slowly freak out. I found out through a friend in radiology that I can't be around (mainly) Sawyer for at least 8 hours afterwards since I'll be putting off radiation. Sigh. So the plan is for Trav to take the whole day off and for me to stay out of the house and finish up Christmas shopping and delivering jewelry orders. Hoping I can at least get a lot accomplished while childless...

I'm hoping I don't end up melting into a puddle of fear afterwards knowing that I will have to wait until next Monday to get any results. I'm just praying it's scar tissue from the pneumonia I had a few months ago and not anything serious.....I'll tell ya what-it's funny how it takes times like this to make you sit back and readjust your priorities and look at your life from a new angle...

Attaching photos from the Festival of Trees since #1 I never got around to it and #2 I hate blogging w/o pictures. Even "poor me" posts like this one-lol.

Gabe and Trav

Alice in Wonderland theme tree

Twilight theme tree-hmm...I like Twilight and all but......

Chloe and Nana

Doesn't Gabe look almost giddy?

Poor Sawyer-he was there you just wouldn't know it! Maybe my next post should be about that little guy-lol.

An interesting few days...

That's putting it mildly!

So on Monday I went in to the allergist to have a CT scan done to just get a good look at my lungs and see how things look with this newly diagonsed asthma. Over 3 hrs later I leave sobbing convinced I have lung cancer.

My scan showed a small mass in my lower right lung along with mild emphysema. I have of coarse been on pins and needles, crying and nauseated ever since then. I don't do well with health drama concerning myself since I've had kids.

Somehow I was able to slip into an appt slot with a very busy pulmonologist this morning. Things he said made Travis feel much better-me? A little better-not 100%. Apparently because of it's nice shape and roundness he feels it doesn't look like "nasty cancer" as he called it and I will be getting a PET scan done next week and a follow up CT in 3 months to watch for growth.

Ok-so that should make me feel better, right? I mean-I already had the scenario in my head of him saying immediately "this doesn't look so good" so I do have some relief in not hearing those words... I guess just the fact that there is something IN me and I don't know what is IS is driving me berserk. To top things off he says it's in a spot that cannot be biopsied if tests come back bad. That is always lovely to hear. Maybe that's why I didn't leave with warm and toasty thoughts...

So anyway-if you're reading this please send me some good healthy vibes.
:)

Goodies in the shop!

I've been busy finally listing items from the sale. Here are a few cuties I put on Etsy last night.

These post earrings are a fun alternative for people who don't like to wear danglie earrings

Purple and Teal dots

Teal and Ivory dots

Petite periwinkle flowers

A great Christmas gift idea!......Just sayin'....;)

Let the listing begin!

Ok so I've been pretty lazy about listing on Etsy lately...Now that I've got some settings down on the camera and got some decent pictures I've decided it was time.

Just love this bracelet...:)

Maybe I'll trickle in some more listings tonite if I get a chance.

Cuteness!

I've been meaning to show this all week! Here is the kid's picture from the halloween photo shoot that my friend Angela Wright had. What a great idea...and looking through her gallery from that day there were quite some imaginative costumes! I loved looking through them...

photo courtesty of Angela Wright Photography

This picture is so stinkin' cute...Of coarse I'm biased...

If you're from the area I recommend you checking her out!

Holiday Hall

I had a great time working at the Art Association on Saturday! I loved wandering in there~I swear I'd see something different each time around. It was neat to see what different people would pick out. There's some really neat handmade stuff in there!



I was so busy talking to the nice man working with me the entire time I forgot I had my camera until we were closing up for the day-oops. So I took this quick shot on my way out the door...I should have run over to take pictures of where my items were displayed! Oh well-live and learn.

Ahh-to go there again...

We rented My Life in Ruins last night. Looooooved it. Not really for the story line-although it was kinda cute...but the scenery! Ohhhhh the scenery!!

Anyone else who's been to Greece knows what I'm talking about. I almost felt like I was there...And they showed so many places we'd been. I wanted to cry. I wanted to be there again. And I swear the crappy hotel scene was the nasty place we'd stayed in-lol.

In other news: I'm working at the Holiday Hall at the Art Association today. If anyone local is out and about today stop by to say hi between 12-3 :)

I'll be the one wearing the black A wax seal necklace ;) hehe

While I'm at it~

I keep putting off taking pictures of my jewelry since I end up getting frusterated...but me thinks me figured out the settings on the camera! (hope I'm not jinxing...)

Anyhow, here are a handful of wax seal pendants I have leftover from the show. I *love* these!! I wear my teal one all the time...but I'm thinking about snagging the black 'A' up in front there...hehe.

If anyone is interested they run $17 as well. Have a great evening! :)

Just the beginning...

Well, we're quickly jumping into winter. My dreaded season. I'm already mourning my last class for the Artist's Way- which ended last night. The 2nd session picks up in mid-March. I was so looking forward to it jumping back in in January but the group decided to hold off a few months.

Jan-March is my yucky time. Easy to admit. I get the winter blahs like nobody's business...

One thing the class has really helped me with is finding joy in the little things. I plan to work on this daily. It's also helped me to organize my thoughts a little better, prioritize my time and get in touch with myself-seeing myself from the outside-in.

On that note~ I love this quote from my notebook...

"In order to have self expression, we must first have a self to express"
Pretty much sums up alot.

And because I hate blogging without a picture here's a peek at a few of the little initial pendants I whipped up for the Panther Creek show. I've gotten quite a few orders for these for Christmas. If anyone's interested give me a call or email. They average half inch give or take with a sterling saucer on the bottom, a swarovski crystal to top it off and strung on sterling wire. These are the ones I have left right now but could always make others in your choice of color. They run $17.

perfect*day

When I'd heard this past weekend was going to be in the 70's we jumped at the chance to spend the entire day outside. We had planned to go to Allerton Park in Monticello for Trav's birthday a few weeks back but that's when I ended up with pneumonia so it got sidetracked-then got cold. The only thing that could have made the day better was if leaves were still on the trees. It made for lots of great crunching as we walked the trails though :)

Here are some of my favorite pictures of the day....

What a perfect spot to choose to have our picnic, huh? Ahhh....

I think this was called the Fu Dog Garden.

Love this. Just love it.

I'm missing one...Guess he was in the stroller.

I just loved this shot of her.

Gabe was so proud of walking on fallen trees. He had a blast in the woods but was a little bummed he didn't come across any animals.

Creek.

We scaled way up on a huge tree that had fallen. A good photo spot evidenally-a photographer had been staked out there as well.




Here's the daredevils now on the tree......

Just love this shot of them. Wish we could have gotten one with all of us up there-but honesly I just can't move that fast for my timer-lol. (honey-I really need a wireless Canon remote for the camera! *hint*)

Sweeties. The garden we were in at the time was absolutely covered in those biting japanese beetles. Those suckers were all over us for most of the day chomping away. This garden had huge white pillars in the sun as you walked in from all four sides-and they were coated with those bugs...Gabe has now conquered his fear of the ladybug.

Here's a shot of the whole family. Glad we finally found a spot that we could do it-I'm always behind the camera. I really have no pictures of me with my kids!

I'm so glad we jumped at the chance to slow down and spend the whole day together. It's really been awhile since I've gotten out and been close to nature like that. It makes me want to explore other options for hiking around here-although I admit I was pulling up the rear just like in Gatlinburg when we hiked up to the falls-lol...

I survived!

The fine arts boutique at Panther Creek went off without a hitch. This was my very first official show. I've done 2 years at the Art Association's Holiday Hall but since that is a month long sale w/o working the entire time I don't count that so much...

Luckily I had my friend Cindy there to help me out. She's so much fun and a really hard worker.(I call her my "muscle") I'd had my tables and displays set up in our dining room ahead of time so I was able to just zip through setting everything right where I wanted it. We breezed right through set up and were there from 9am-7:30 pm. Long day. An interesting learning experience that's for sure! I'm sure I'll be changing up my displays as I go...

Here's my table...My old friend from high school, Christy Freeman, was at the table to my right. it was a blast having all day to kick back and talk about old times and catch up. It was like no time had passed at all. SO much fun!

Here's a picture of Cindy. She'll kill me for putting a picture of her on here-lol. It's so blurry tho. The lighting was a bit dim but it was a cozy atmosphere. It was quite busy right after they opened so I tucked the camera away-meaning to get some of me and Christy, a shot of her booth and around the room but I totally forgot I had it with me!
I was approached by the NICEST woman about joining Prairie Art Alliance. I'm curious what it's all about and need to look into it. She sent an invite for a gallery opening this evening but I couldn't make it...But it would have been the perfect opportunity to check it out.

I have to work on my inventory for the Art Association Holiday Hall due by Monday. I always have the hardest time choosng what to send since it's a limited amount of items they'll allow into the sale. Better get to work......

It's time!

I know I've been really bad at blogging lately. I've been super busy building inventory for my first offical art sale.

Tomorrow is the day!

I started this whole journey filled with tons of anxiety. Now I'm actually pretty excited about it! I think that says something...

BOO!

It's that time again!


We had a full day yesterday-always so much to do on Halloween.


First off was a photo shoot over at Angela's. She was nice enough to ask me to set up a display of my jewelry over at her studio space during her Halloween shoot. I can't wait to see the kids' picture-it's gotta be 100x better than mine. I can't get them all to look at me at once and someone's always fussing...
Case in point:

Chloe had a big halloween/birthday party to head to afterwards and got to do lots of fun things-including playing fear factor-lol. She made it sound like she didn't really participate much and was pretty grossed out.
"Arrrrrrg!!"

The best part always is to meander around the neigborhood with neighbors then letting them play outside in the dark for awhile before heading in. The night always ends with grandparents stopping by before the pj's go on.

Do anything fun for Halloween?

He's a big boy now!

Today was the first day of preK for Gabe.


I suppose he did ok. One of my biggest fears was what if he was allowed to go to the restroom alone and wandered out a side door? Well...apparently today a boy hit him in the head with a toy and he became upset. He decided he wanted me. He was going home. Now. Luckily they caught him before he left the building. Honestly I'm not sure how far he got. Not sure if I want to know.

I got there early to pick him up so i could observe them on the playground-first thing he did when he got to the swings was fall off backwards onto his head. It took all I had to not jump out of the car and run to him. BUT I forced myself to sit and watch and see how the teachers handled it.
I walked with him and his new friends to the bus so he could see how it was done for tomorrow and he insisted on riding it today. He was soooo excited! I was waiting at the end of the driveway when they pulled up and he peeked up and saw me and waved and stood up. That bus monitor was on him like a flash and sat and gave him a talk about what you can and can't do on a bus (think they should've done that FIRST?? perhaps??) Well, needless to say he gets off the bus bawling since she reamed him and said they're mean and he's never getting on the bus again. Later when talking about his escape plan today he said he's never going back to Sissy's school again he doesn't like it. Sighhhhh. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.

*i have the blahs

Ok this is the umpteenth day in a row of rain and dreariness. No, I'm not posting any jewelry photos as there is no sunlight to take them...so you'll have to wait. :P

I did a couple new things whipped up today though. It's always a good day when I feel like I got something accomplished. There's still so much to do to get ready for this sale though! Stess!

In other news: I received the call that Gabe got into preK starting on Monday! He's excited---I'm a nervous wreck. Will he fall down the steps? Will he be the little turkey in the class always in trouble or the good kid? Will he end up sick all of the time? Too many what ifs and I just need to chill out-I know...

Handmade Christmas

We purchased a new tv cabinet at Ikea the other day and thought maybe it was time to get into this century and get a flat screen to go with it...So I had a thought: how about we make that into a "family xmas gift" and (besides Santa's gifts of coarse) anything else exchanged between us be handmade...

Ok-why am I doing this to myself? lol

That means I have roughly just over a month after completing this art fair to whip thru an already long list of things I'd like to create for all of them...this is going to be tough. Worst part? I can't blog about any of what we make since Chloe knows how to get on my blog now-stinker.

How about tomorrow I start a show of a few pretties I've been making lately...

Happy anniversary my dear...

We ran up to Bolingbrook yesterday for the day. Shopping at Ikea for our 13th anniversary. I know -how romantic!! lol. Fighting with the kids all day inside of that hell hole...I forgot how they heard you thru like cattle w/ those stupid floor arrows...I don't remember the one in Shaumburg being as annoying. In this one you couldn't go back to the bathroom (3 kids remember? *cough cough*) without going all the way back thru against the flow of traffic to the beginning. Can you say NEVER AGAIN????????? I did about 10 million times yesterday. 5 hours inside that place. Happy Anniversary my dear- here's a massive coronary for you-lol.



What made it all worth is was our dinner afterwards over at Bass Pro. I didn't even know they had a resteraunt! I've never been to one before but wow-that place rocked! The prices were good too. As a rule we never eat seafood unless we're on vacation on the coast so it's good and fresh so I was a bit skeptical. WOWWWW was it good! Trav got his old standby-a grouper sandwich- and I got blackened mahi mahi. yum yum yummmm it was perfect! What was even more awesome was the massive saltwater aquarium they sat us right by so the kids could gawk at the gorgeous fish and the baby shark that kept swimming by...

Oh boy-a new love...

Have you met these little guys yet? Oh this new show is the cutest!! If you have a little one 2-4 surely by now you've been sucked into Dinosaur Train by now.

Every morning it's like Gabe knows somehow when it's 8:30 and he starts jumping and dancing waiting for it to come on. I always chuckle at the silly theme song they have and we almost all have it memorized by now. It's like a contest to see how many words we all get right.

Now that I've done my public service announcement...lol.

Beading news: Got lots of beads made today! Bad news is I probably won't be able to get to making anything until Monday since we've got so much going on all weekend. In my tray ready to go are the maings of a new lariat, ring, bookmarks, beaded bangle, keychain, pin and a pendant. I love it when I can whip thru a great batch of beads and know I can get a big chunk of stuff whipped up when I'm ready.

Random...

I survived my week of reading deprivation. I took it very seriously and didn't get on the computer, read mail-anything. I did have to help w/ homework but what's a little math work, right? I did get to spend 8 hrs at the E.R. one of those days! Evidentally (they think) the med I was taking from my pnuemonia caused my esophogus to get all inflamed. My sternum hurt SO bad. The nurse called me back and said to get in (she was more gloom and doom saying it sounded like a blood clot-greeeaaattt) so off a ran...

Back to the no reading-Honestly-I've got to recommend it! After the first few days (and dreaming I was writing emails-lol) I really got busy and got some stuff done! I made gobs of new jewelry-a few necklaces, 3 bracelets, maybe 8 pr of earrings, bookmarks, a keychain and a couple bezel set rings-cuuuuuuute!

I'm excited that I feel I'm building up my inventory. My tables are still set up in the dining room so I can add to the displays to get a feel of what I still need. This weekend will be shot as we've got another wedding saturday then Sunday/maybe Monday looks like we'll be up in Chicago for our anniversary. Nothing exciting-I just want to go to Ikea-lol.

How long will this last?

hmm.

I just read chapter 4 of The Artist's Way and received my tasks for this week in the mail. Since I was too wiped out to go to class last night the teacher was nice enough to mail me the papers.

**Let me start out by saying this is going to be a very long hard week for me. It's all about reading deprivation. I read that and thought "pfft, no problem-I'm not reading a book right now anyway!" then read further where it talks about how much of a time-suck reading emails, blogs, facebook...you get the picture. Eek. I like checking in on my fave blogs. This is gonna bite!

It even discourages tv. I haven't been watching any tv lately and only occasionally I get to hear Barney or Seasame Street in the background for noise. That won't be too much of a problem. Now I will say that I did kind of count on being able to rest up and lay on the couch and read SOMETHING while I'm trying to recover here. I get the whole "if you're not reading or watching something you'll get busy doing something else" gig-but I'm sick! This is gonna be f.u.n.

LOL-k-I'm done ranting. guess I need to turn off the computer now. See ya next week and wish me luck.