The brave soul that I am...

...just let my husband chop about 5 inches off my hair. lol. Chloe says we're twinkies now. I still need to live with it for a few days and will probably chop a little more here and there-seems I always do that.

What a lazy Saturday! I'm NOT complaining-it's nice to wander up at 2pm to finally shower sometimes-lol. I've been going thru Chloe's mass of books thinning out the ones that are just too easy for her now and passing them along. Fun stuff I tell ya. Fot the kicker guess where we're going as an outing later on today? Walmart! woohoo...(sigh...)But I've gotta get my clear sleeves for my kickin new recipe binder so I can add to it...:)

Sawyer just this week started moving around the room. He's not crawling but just scooting, flipping, turning-getting to where he needs to be. Then while he was "napping" yesterday I was rummaging in the attic for a few minutes, came down and peeked in at him and the little turkey was sitting up in his crib just grinning at me like a damn fool! Panic set in and the crib mattress is now lowered. He has been practicing all day with this new skill of his to go from belly to sitting.



I finally got some new photos taken yesterday of more bead sets-I wasn't happy with the first ones I took so I'm redoing some...so a little more photoshopping and hopefully I'll be getting them listed this week.

A few things

I have absolutely nothing to talk about. It's cold and gross and I can't feel my feet they're so frozen. The blahs are definately hitting hard here-I can't wait for spring!!!

I've been spending bookoo amounts of time on facebook lately. Here is a 25 random things about me thing that I copied to put on here since I simply have nada to gab about...:)


1. We have no photos of me. I am always behind the camera. I told trav if I died tomorrow we'd have no pic for the obit.

2. I was born in Sydney Australia. My dad was in the Royal Australian Navy. I still don't understand how that works since he's American.

3. I have lived in Australia, Virginia, South Carolina and Illinois. For some reason I still concider South Carolina to be where I belong even though we moved away when I was 10. I hate Illinois but I am afraid I would maybe miss the seasons.

4. I am a blog NUT. I love blogs, I have a blog and I read blogs all the time. I have no idea what I did before blogs. What a waste of time-lol.

5. I don't know how to shop for myself. I physically cannot force myself to buy stuff that is meant only for ME. (mommy guilt??) I can buy each kid 10 pair of jeans that they don't need but I am going on 6 yrs of no snowboots for myself-and I live in Illinois-now come ON...

6. We are currently remodeling our 2cd old home. Our first one was a bungalow built in the 30's and was precious when we finished it. This one is over 100 yrs old,3 stories and we have only the foyer left to do and finish the garage. Exciting!!!

7. I am secretly petrified that I am indeed allergic to this house though...

8. One of my best friends I met online and we still haven't met in person. Most would think that's a little strange.

9. I've been a hairstylist for 16 yrs. I haven't worked hardly in 2 yrs but am still very close with many old clients and talk, email and have lunch with a few.

10. I used to be a good runner. I could run and run and my legs would never give out. Now I doubt I could make it to the corner of my street.

11. I make a mean pulled pork. Ask Trav.

12.I am not loving my new pillow I bought. It's too puffy.

13. I'm not supposed to be drinking hot chocolate-but I am right now (shhh!lol) -(kidney stone diet-omg I am so old!!!)

14. I am starting a book club with a friend hopefully soon. (oh the things you look forward to when you're a SAHM)

15. I wish I made more time for friends...(see #14)

16. When I was 2 yrs old I snuck out of out of our house wearing a see thru nightie of my moms and went to have a playdate with a friend down the street without my mom knowing. It was before 6am. Everyone was asleep. Boy-I would love to be able to remember the look on the neighbor moms face. My mom was mortified.

17. I've always wanted to write a children's book. I'm not sure why-I'm not any good at writing!

18. A blog I have been reading since August has made me completely re-evaluate my life. http://nieniedialogues.blogspot.com/

19. I feel we made the wrong decision to send Chloe to a different school this year and am currently fretting over it alot!!!

20. I love to lampwork. It's like therapy to me to sit and melt glass in the flame. I can't get the boys naps configured so I can actually have time for that now though.

21. I have an etsy store and have sold thru the art association's holiday sale. When I have more tme to devote to my lampwork/jewelry I would love to have a website and be in art fairs-although how to arrange doing that and care for the kids seems daunting.

22. The furthest place we've been on vacation is Greece. It's got to be the most gorgeous place on earth. (well,the islands...Athens is dirty-but very interesting)

23. This one time in New Orleans- Travis and I decided to take the cablecar to the end of the line just to kinda "tour" the graden district expecting to pay and turn around or something. Ya-it was end of the line for these suckers. We had to walk more than 5 miles at like 2 am thru some sketchy areas. I still to this day cannot believe we didn't get mugged!

24. I love the show LOST. We both are sooooooo happy it's back on!!!

25. I am thinking about cutting my hair off. Like -tonite. Funny thing is I'll have to let Trav do the back. After cutting hair for 16 yrs how can I be so critical of other stylist's cuts yet let my husband hack at mine is beynd me...lol.

Just playing around

I had a few moments to kill and thought I'd play around on photoshop a bit. With the intention on working on bead photos but got sidetracked-ha-isn't that always like me...



Anyhow, found this sweet picture of Gabey after he had eaten lunch and was just kind of spacing out. It was taken shortly after Christmas. I could just eat this kid up. lol

{Besides changing to b/w- I sharpened, tweaked the light balance then did a canvas texture and added some extra grain.}

All is well

Thankfully!
Gabe's scope was yesterday. He did great-all is fine (no reflux,etc) I've never seen one of my kids have to be put under for anything-so to see him beforehand after getting his "happy juice" then afterwards while he was coming out of it was a bit upsetting...But the bottom line is he's fine.
:)

Busy busy 2 weeks ahead of me. I'm still trying to get more beads listed so bear with me.

Here come the beads...

I've posted 2 bead sets in my etsy shop today. I've also decided to run a Valentine's promotion for free shipping on any listing with a heart in it- jewelry OR bead sets.




Just click my shop link to the right side over there>>> if you want to come take a look around. :)

My big mess and stiff fingers...

Bead sets coming your way!

Need to flex my fingers for awhile. I photoshop my photos so the beads show w/o blah backgrounds but my poor fingers hate it! Takes quite awhile. Oh well, I think it's worth it. I took all of the pictures in the nic of time. It was nice and sunny then all of a sudden we've got that winter storm sky look. Yuck.

Ok-break's over-time to get back to work...

Of coarse I'm going to worry...

So we just braved the -28 degree windchill to go to the GI dr for Gabe since it takes at least 6 months to get into him. Of COARSE the appt fell on today of all days.

He is scheduled for a scope/biopsy next Wed to check him for reflux. Since he's always been so easy to get sick and sick so bad (upon other issues) he was diagnosed with restrictive airways-the GI dr says reflux and restrictive airway disease kind of go together (I'd never heard that but ok...) then asked if he's wakeful at night? (omg-like allllll nightttttt longgggggg he's talking in his sleep,calling for water,etc) he said yep! I was just going to ask if he was always asking for a drink while in bed-that answers that. He's fairly certain he's got a reflux issue and he's got to be put under for this procedure. I've heard plenty of others say their child had to have this done but having your kid put under just scares*the*crap*out*of*me!!!

Sighhhhh...so I'm gonna have to get a grip and know that whatever comes from this and whatever med they put him on will make him feel better.

School's been called off today due to the weather. I've got Chloe "playing school" right now w/ mom homework assignments (lots of math and reading a chapter book for her reading minutes for school) so I can hopefully start getting some of these bead sets ready to photo.

I'm thinking a hot chocolate break is in order soon tho...:)

Be on the lookout...

I'll be listing lots of odds and ends bead sets on Etsy over the next week...Just need some sunshine for decent pictures.

Nothing much going on around here to gab about. Lots of organising and freecycling mainly... Nothing beats the feeling of getting rid of your trash especially when it's someone else's treasure. Chloe's finally back to school after her bout with strep throat. Working on the 2cd art card challenge...This one is a bit tougher so I'm sitting on it for a few days trying to figure out what I'm going to do with it. I am thinking it's going to be low-key and simple.

A-choo!

I've been hit with a nasty headcold. What a way to spend a weekend. *wah*

I renewed a few items in my Etsy shop and will be adding more over the weekend. Pop by if you feel like looking around. :) My shop has been empty for far too long.

52 Q

I read Emily Falconbridge's blog regularly and she has started a new art challenge for 2009 that I decided to sign up for. It looks like it will be fun/interesting and hopefully stir up the creative juices. I'm always up for a challenge and something new.

Basically each week she will ask a question and you take that question and make a mini art card (or whatever you so choose) with your answer. After pitching the first one I started I finally completed one last night and posted it in the Flikr group where everyone who joined will be sharing their completed projects.

Stop by and take a look through some of them-they're really interesting! I love seeing what everyone comes up with. Here's mine:



In other news: yesterday me and my friend Kim were gabbing on webcam and-the goobers we are- gave each other kitchen tours (cabinets and all-lol) I think it started with my whine of feeling so unorganized lately. As Travis says "organised chaos" and I hate it-but I feel like I never have a free arm to get anything done lately. SO-I've been a busy bee today-my kitchen looks like it was hit with a tornado but lots of cabinets have been rearranged and shelves readjusted up or down and things OFF the counters. Loving it so far. Doesn't take much to get a fire lit under me.

Off to finish it up!

Uh-oh...it starts this early???

She'd kill me if she knew I was doing this -lol!

(written by a boy on Chloe's bus)

Dear Chloe,
this is for you, (picture of a dog)*(i think?)
love,gabe (ya his name is gabe too)

next note-torn from his notebook by the kid sitting w/ him to torture him and get it to chloe

I *heart* chloe
she is cute
and when she smile
she look
beuteful

Say it with me now...AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW...(and eek! 2cd grade?)

She came tearing through the yard from the bus yesterday with this look on her face and papers in her hand. She says READ THIS all exasperated sounding BEFORE I TEAR THEM UP!!! I read-did the awwwwwww-then when she tried to tear them up I told her she should keep them and put them away somewhere. I think it's sweet and she'll appreciate it one day when she's older. I can't beleive she listened to me. :)

Last night she started indoor soccer on an older league (10 and under-she's 7 1/2) and I've just gotta brag for a minute-SHE ROCKED! Usually she's a little timid on the field for some reason-runs alot but not many kicks in. But for some reason with these girls being MUCH bigger than she was she was aggressive and getting her foot in there to steal and blocking-I was so proud! She did end the game with a smacked ball to the gut and some tears but was fine and I think she was pleased with how she played as well.

Oh-and yesterday I didn't get those last 3 things done (trying to be accountable here!) so boxes,yearly goals and etsy didn't get done but I did figure out wii fit! :) So rollin em over to today-lol.

What can be done in a day?

Chloe came home with a cough after spending New Years with our friends up north. It's now passed to Gabe and of coarse blows up into this huge thing. Almost at 104 temp yesterday and was up most of the night talking in his sleep and acting disoriented even after his fever broke. It always settles into his chest and sounds so awful-scary.

I've been playing around with the blog if you haven't noticed. I messed around yesterday making the new header-that was fun. I have a boatload of blogs to add to my list on the side that I haven't gotten around to doing...maybe later today.

I started the artist way morning pages this morning. Oy! 45 minutes of writing when the alarm went off-so needless to say I didn't get a chance to shower. lol. I can't believe I'm going to have to set my alarm earlier just to WRITE...sigh. I wasn't at a loss for words like I expected to be though. Funny when you're used to typing more (like we all are these days I think) when you go to write so much longhand your arm and hand starts cramping up-lol.

Todays goals: rearrange Gabe's bedroom to accomidate the huge train table that's smack dab in the center like an island, clean upstairs, add blog list, make my bead goals for the year on here so I have something to follow and work on a listing or 2 for etsy. OH! And order some boxes! Doesn't sound like a ton but with one sick and one crying and teething anything is a challenge. Enough for the day I think-hopefully I can check em all off later :)

OH! I have had a facebook page for quite awhile but never mess around on there at all. I tend to forget I even have it until I get an email saying someone added me as a friend then I check it. Anyhow, got on yesterday and figured out the high school checker and started poking around adding people-it was so fun to see people I went to school with-some I didn't know very well and some who were great friends who moved and lost touch. I heard back from one that just gave me a huge smile when I read her note. I'm excited about reconnecting with her :) (yes,YOU,Heather!)

Happy Birthday to me...

After me telling Chloe that I was 26 quite awhile back she believed it and tells everyone I am 26. Works for me. She's 10 years off but I'm not correcting her. I figure as long as she thinks I'm younger I'll feel that way too. I told Trav if this keeps up year after year it she will sit and think gee, were you really 14 when you had me?

Here's a shot of what we were doing last year on my birthday~
MGM on our 2cd day at Disney watching Beauty and the Beast...



The light display there was so cool!



I can't beleive a whole year has flown by so fast. Feels like yesterday.

So I get to pick whats for dinner tonite. :) I'm thinking a run for Thai is in order-it's been at least 6 months. Hoping they're open since it's Sunday-and since I"m craving it they probably won't be...eek.

We had yet another xmas this morning (with Trav's dad and step mom) since they went on a cruise over xmas. Gabe got a new train table and I'm still trying to figure out who had more fun setting things up- Gabe, Chloe or Travis? I'm also anxious to try out the wii fit they gave us :) looks neat!

A year of goals

This was another custom order for a friend's sister. Thought I'd wait until after xmas to show it in case she stopped by-lol.

So I was reading Linda Lawrence's blog and love her idea of having the goal of concentrating on something in particular each month for bead designs. Especially things that you're not feeling too confident in or would like to tweak. great idea-and I work better if I have something in writing to follow along. I haven't written up what I'd like to be working on yet-I'll work on that this week. Ohhhhhhhh I got a few new fun mandrels to play with for xmas! I'll definately have to work in designs from them!! (a cone mandrel, button hole mandrel and a puffy one-helps with hollow beads-FUN!!)

Also, I think for awhile I'm going to concentrate on listing some bead sets on etsy. (and lots of hearts for Valentines day!) Oops-I also have a few leftovers from the art association show I need to get listed and forgot...Speaking of that show-it went fairly well, I sold more than last year but concidering the economy I wasn't expecting much anyway.

Starting fresh

Happy New Year!!!!!!

I've had a couple of days to just chill and gather my thoughts-they seem to be running rampant lately. I'm not one for New Year's resolutions-I think they're silly and I never stick to them-but this time of year does get me thinking about changes I could incorporate in my life.

So I like to call them GOALS. I haven't actually sat and written anything out-this is on the fly-some of my random thoughts lately.

Happiness. That's a huge one I want to work on-not just for me but for members of my family. I'd love life to be more stress free and just-happier. How does one make that happen? Not sure-but it's certainly a goal-as well as healthier eating, more quality time together(game nights?),etc.

Health. Our doctor kinda sucks. We've needed a new one for years and never get around to getting a new one. That needs to be lined up and also a new pulmonologist for myself to keep up w/ my sarcoidosis. With my recent allergy testing and breathing issues it's made me a bit paranoid about torching and want to speak w/ a lung dr at length on this.

I've started a new project as well. A book set I asked for for Christmas and received from my mother in law that I've wanted for years. It's called The Artist's Way and it's basically a guide for getting unblocked as an artist and freeing your creativity. I love the premise of it but so far it sounds like it's going to require a lot of time and committment. (Setting my alarm 1/2 hr early to write 3 pages long hand of random waking thoughts? Oh my...LOL.) We'll see how this works out. It's a 12week coarse-I'm optimistic though...

OH!!-it also requires a weekly artist date w/ yourself-forcing yourself to go somewhere alone to do something special for yourself. Whether it's going thru Starbucks for a coffee by myself or wandering around Barnes and Noble by myself for 1/2 hr (sounds like heaven!) just to BE. This should be interesting since my life revolves around the kids-my needs haven't been looked into for 7 yrs! I'm not quite sure where to start-lol.