Guess who got herself a new camera? :)

I thought this one was sweet of Chloe and my dad. He happened to stop by as I was messing around w/ the camera the day we got it.




Classic Gabe-wearing my tennis shoes, carrying froggie and playing the kazoo.



I'd like to know how an 8 wk old can have dirty fingernails?



Here-this is for Kim and Mary. Still need to send in my 10 inches I had chopped off...that's the new cam! :) (note: the nice fingerprint Gabe had just put on the lens and I didn't see til afterwards-oh well...

Neat find....

I ran across this idea on another beadmaker's blog today (sorry I can't remember who) but I did bookmark it for future reference. I think it's pretty nifty but who knows if I'd ever find the time to try it out... Who'd have thought-cereal boxes! I've got tons of those! Cool packaging for art fairs huh?????



Here is the link to the site with the pattern.

I have now discovered what I believe is a baby einstein cd shoved in the disk drive of the laptop and can't get it to close all the way. NO idea how I'm going to get this sucker out.

We got our new camera! I've been too busy to learn how to use it very well. There are a zillion buttons and gadgets to figure out-eek! Lots of reading to do.

I made a necklace today! It's similar to one Kerry Bogert made but I changed it around a little. I still need to fiddle around w/ the loop closure for the clasp and it's done! I will attempt to get a picture on here tomorrow. Have I ever mentioned that I hate working w/ seed beads? If not- now I have!

Mosaic idea inspired by Em's blog that I frequent from time to time...

If you try one yourself, leave me the link to your post in the comments.

Here´s how you do it...

Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr search, using only the first page, choose your favorite image, copy and paste each of the URL’s into the mosaic maker (3 columns, 4 rows).

Now, I canot for the life of me make mine any bigger-agh! I really am computer illiterate. Anyhow, if you click on it you can see it better-I think mine turned out pretty good! :)



1. Ophelia's Mother, 2. reflections-thai, 3. Sad Angel, 4. garnet, 5. 246-Sean Connory, 6. Nut Pretzel Danish, 7. Sunset is served!, 8. delight, 9. iStock_000002897292Medium, 10. Product Of Our Parents, 11. بــحـط قــلـبـي بــيـن يــديـنـك هــديـه, 12. he loves me/he loves me not.

The questions:
1. What is your first name? Amanda
2. What is your favorite food? Thai
3. What high school did you attend? Glenwood
4. What is your favorite color? Garnet red
5. Who is your celebrity crush? Sean Connory
6. Favorite drink? Iced Cappacino
7. Dream vacation? Santorini
8. Favorite dessert? Cherry Delite
9. What do you want to be when you grow up? Happy, healthy and content
10.What do you love most in life? My kids
11. One word to describe you. Mom
12. Your Flickr name. BellaRhys

Early day & July's OPAM

I'm not usually up this early in the summer. I'm bored. I'm watching Saved by the Bell the college years. UGH.

I COULD be making something but just placed a big wire order yesterday and really need it before I dig my heals in and get started. If I had thought about it earlier I could have fired up the kiln and been doing something constructive-instead I'm watching Zach and Screech in class w/ a chimpanzee that does sign language...

OK-so on to July's OPAM. The porch is not finished. It's damn close though! He does have the columns 1/2 constructed in the garage so this weekend they'll be going up! :) Railing shortly after and I dropped the ball and didn't find a mailbox and house numbers-but love my furniture! Funny to try and do this project for a month thing and the next thing you know the month just flies by! OH! We DID create the shape for the landscaping out front and some out back and had 3 truckloads of mulch put down. It makes it look so much better already-even without plants yet. Here's a pic of how it's looking.....



I'm going tonite for a REAL haircut! How exciting-lol. Concidering I'm a hairstylist I tend to just chop at my own hair but since I'm going shorter I'll have Renee do it for me this time. We worked together years ago. Here's the pic I'm taking in-

I borrowed a neighbor's camera yesterday (thanks Shannon!) so I could take a few pictures for stuff to put on Craigslist and shot a few of Sawyer while I was at it.



Feels like he's hit a growth spurt all of a sudden- moving into 3-6 mo clothes and isn't fitting in my arm the same as he did last week. Since I didn't want to change the settings on her camera or use the flash they are pretty dark-doesn't help that it was gloomy and rainy out. Oh well-I still think they're cute-can see him flappin his arms like a little bird and grinning...



So this morning I go to open the new box of Cheerios and there is a Batman movie action figure in there. I pull it out and it's the Joker. Now is it just me-or is pulling Heath Ledger's likeness out of my cereal box a little disturbing?

Oh ya! So last night Trav went to the neighborhood association meeting and they were selecting new officers-including the new association president since ours moved. He comes home and says welp, guess who is the new president and grinned sheepishly. I laughed and said so does that make me a first lady??? lol-crack myself up...

This was taken on Chloe's bday a couple weeks ago in the Walmart parking lot. (lol) It bugs me not to add pics with each post so I thought I'd just put one up-just cos it makes me smile-what a goof.

Gabe~


*Upon enlarging that pic and looking more closely at it-it would appear that he has a very sinister idea cooking up in his head...I can almost hear a cackle and him rubbing his hands together -mwu-hahahahaaaaaaa!!!

It's been awhile-why? I have no camera-agh! The stinkin thing bit the dust and it's driving me crazy! We had already been looking into a new camera-what timing. Trav wondered if I broke this one on purpose-ha. We've sat and researched and I think we've settled on the new Canon coming out next week-the Canon XS. woohoo! I can't WAIT!!

The porch looks great. The columns and railing aren't done- but we've been enjoying our new porch furniture! If I had a camera I'd show you-lol. It's so comfy.

Chloe's got her first sleepover tonite at a neighbor's house. She's the only girl-lol. I think they'll play w/ pokemon cards all night is how it's sounding...

In jewelry news-I received an invite last week for the annual Holiday Hall at the Art Association. I've got a few ideas of things I'd like to whip up for it for this year...I'll post pics as I get it made- assuming I have a new camera by then :)

Trip to the zoo

We ran to the zoo yesterday with our neighbors. It was Gabe's first trip that he'd remember so he really liked seeing the animals. He was a little nervous, I think, about being in close proximity of the goats while he fed them but ended up doing ok-lol. Man was it HOT out! blecchhhh...



Chloe has a new project she is antsy to get working on. There is now a HUGE box in our garage-so big we can't fit it thru any door to bring inside. (our new porch furniture arrived in it) She's cooking up designs for it. I went to find old gallons of paint for her to paint it with but we can't find what we're looking for and truthfully I'd love to wait til the weather is a little cooler out!

The porch project: the floor is now stained and looks pretty good. I was having a hard time finding stain that matched the ceiling stain color-(long story) but I think we got it! The porch furniture arrived and I LOVE it! It looks awesome and we're both excited to get it out there. I think on Sunday he'll start wrapping the columns and measure for railing. I still need to look for a doormat and flower pots. I'm narrowing down what I'd like to do landscaping-wise out front but we're needing to haul in dirt to build it up a bit...I mentioned this to a neighbor and luck has it-they have alot of dirt to get RID of! (digging down for new patio) woohoooooooo! Good timing. So hopefully the yard will start taking shape soon too :)

Sunday picnic

Welp, the porch floor was sanded but the stain was NOT the right color or covereage sooo-it's not done like I had hoped it would be by now...

So I decided today since no big projects were going on we would go have a picnic at the park-it was GORGEOUS out. Sunny, blue skies,a slight breeze and 84 out. I took some pics w/ our, um, "camera" (I want a new one soooooo bad!)

It's interesting w/ 3 to get pics of-it was hard enough w/ 2 but now-lol-they just don't seem to work out. I am trying the new mindset of "they all don't have to be looking at me at once-just don't have your tongue hanging out or crying or trying to run in the opposite direction" ya know??? Here is a great example of every picture I have tried to take since Sawyer has arrived-LOL.

Note: Gabe crying, Chloe looking very uncomfortable and Sawyer looking like "um ya, let's not drop me ok?" **sigh**

Here's a few more from today...
Might have to start calling her Angelina~

Gabe-can't seen to get one of him looking straight at me-oh well~

Sawyer-complete w/ the required 5 week baby acne and dry skin~

A great one showing how Chloe is-flitting off on her own flipping her skirt around w/o a care in the world~"l la laaaa"

OPAM Progress!

So here is how the porch is looking at the moment...

Last weekend the siding was painted, lights up,doorbell on and my vent back up. (I'm finally making beads again!!)
Our porch furniture is ordered and should come on Monday. This weekend we hope to get the floor sanded and stained and the columns built. It's looking so good! I finally am starting to see an end in sight!!!

Chloe's birthday gift...

This pretty much speaks for itself...



Let me say this: I am NOT a basement person-I loathe ours. BUT it's the only place for this monster right now. I can't count how many times a day she's begging to go "just play a 5 minute game??!!" lol. She was thrilled and SO surprised!

OPAM

I've been inspired! Tara Whitney has started on her blog a OPAM (one project a month) challenge. I just LOVEEEEE the family portrait wall she just completed!! OMG. http://tarawhitney.com/justbeblogged/2008/06/02/opam-may-08-photo-wall-in-living-room-after/And upon reading some of her comments from others and seeing their projects and what they've gotten done it's lit a fire under my butt to try and get a few things done around here!!

Now that I've said that please bear in mind that with the remodel of a house that is what-104-105 yrs old there is ALWAYS a project of some sort going on anyway. I feel like a bit of a cheater this month because I've decided my project should be to finish the front porch -since it's already in the midst of being worked on anyway...Only problem is most of the work comes from Travis. It's actually almost finished being painted and only needs the columns built, floors stained and rail built. I guess MY job would be to find and order porch furniture, doorbell, mailbox, house numbers,doormat and some pots and flowers for the steps. Maybe I could throw in a bit of landscaping too- I was actually just out there w/ a hose trying to come up w/ a curvy shape for out and around the tree,etc...Not feelin it yet...

So-the before pics are already on here a few posts back-no need to re-post those. I'll hopefully be posting a finished porch pic at the end of July!! :)

So-I challenge you all who stop by here!! Go for it! Let's get some little projects done that we've been saying "oh I'll get around to that!" If you do this --don't forget to show me some before and after pics! :)

Happy Birthday to our little girl!!

I just cannot believe that Chloe is 7 years old today! **sob*choke*gasp** Where has the time gone? One minute I'm laughing at her crazy spikey hair and the next I'm helping her with math homework-agh! It's all going way too fast...









Her birthday dinner of choice is Culver's (gee, what else is new? lol) She will have a scavenger hunt to find her birthday gift after we get home...She's gonna freak when she sees what it is. -Pics tomorrow :)



She always did the silliest "cheese!!" face when we'd take her picture when she was about 2-3...



She's really grown into a great kid. She's got her moments of coarse, but for the most part she's pretty helpful, makes good decisions and cares about other's feelings.:)



I just love to sit and look at how much she's changed over the years...



HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SWEETIE!!

A visit to the White House

Don't we look like we're really there? lol





While Trav's aunt and uncle from Florida visited we took a trip to the Lincoln Museum ( I swear we're the only ones who live here who have never gone-lol) It was pretty cool! Chloe seemed to be more into it than I thought...and disturbed by images of slavery and Lincoln being shot...It was worth seeing-especially the ghosts of the museum show-very neat!





I swear...why does Gabe feel the need to be all "girls gone wild" all the time? He approaches strangers this way and I can't count how many pictures I have of him lifting his shirt-lol. What a goof.

Needing a creative outlet...

Wow-it's been awhile since I've made any beads! Trav took down my vent unit outside yesterday so he can paint behind it (still working on the porch) and now all of a sudden I'm pacing around here like crazy wanting and NEEDING to melt some glass! Looks like I'll have to wait on that. I've been kicking around putting some bead sets together to list for something different...

Here's a pic of how the porch is coming along...Getting close! All that's left is the yellow paint, stain the porch floor, frame an build up the columns and rails, and hang lights and ceiling fan...yea!!



It's going to get busy here soon anyway. Trav's aunt and uncle from Florida will be here today for a week visiting and Chloe's (7th-*gasp*) birthday is in a week and is still unplanned and no invites have gone out...sigh. Better get on that, huh? We always need to celebrate it a week after or so since everyone's always busy for the 4th of July and alot can't make it if her party is that weekend anyway...

Summer...

Lemonade stands, popcicles, swimming, sprinklers and knees covered in scabs...
And yes-Gabe finally got a haircut-lol.

Etsy baby shower

This was so fun to get in on!

One night in etsy's chatroom I had a lady ask if I had heard of etsy's baby virtual baby shower? I hadn't...she signed me up-and next thing I know I had some of the CUTEST STUFF sent to my door by these very talented sellers specializing in children's items!!

I can't wait til things settle down and I can be on the giving end of a shower-I think it's such an awesome idea!

So I thought I'd share some pics of my new goodies and the etsy artist's info in case anyone would like to take a peek at their shops! :) Thanks again guys!!!!!


Here's the coolest travel bib-isn't it neat?
Thanks Shelly!!
www.Odannysgirl.etsy.com




Aren't the onsies cute? I should have taken his picture in them instead-lol. Thank you Jessica!!
www.ALaineDesigns.etsy.com




Here's another funky bib with matching burp cloth-I like how it unsnaps for easy clean up...She also sent me an adorable crocheted butter yellow blankie-but I forgot to photo it...Thank you Jacqueline!
www.SnappyBibs.etsy.com

Guess it's time...

I thought it was time to introduce little Mr. Sawyer Reid...



He is now 17 days old. He does look a smidge different now (this was taken in the hospital) but I don't have a good newer pic. I should get to that, huh?

He's a very healthy and pretty content little guy. :)

Stuff Chloe says~

Today was Father's Day. Chloe sat dejected on the front steps asking why none of her friends were outside. After explaining that they are probably spending time w/ their dads since it's father's day like she has been she continued pouting then says "I wish there was a 'FRIENDS DAY'!"
Goof.
I said it's summer-everyday is friends day.
Another one:
This morning I glance over at her watching tv on the couch and got a good look at her feet and say "good grief-when did your feet get SO BIG???!!!" I mean they're huge! And she's 6! So she shrugs and says ......"I dunno-vegetables?" (she always says she's taller than all her friends since she eats her vegetables) lol.

End of school

Today was Chloe's last day of first grade! Her report card was awesome and they had an assembly today where she won an award for most improved reader in her class. She is reading at "end of 2cd grade" level!!!!!!! Isn't that great? I'm so proud-she was shocked when they called her name-I'm glad I was there to see it! We're going out tonite to celebrate that as well as the last day of school...she picked Steak n Shake-LOL.



Last night and again today we had some major storms blow thru here. Lots of trees and limbs down-TONS of lightning last night-the really scary "i think that just hit my neighbor's house" type...Needless to say no one got much sleep-well, except for Gabe-it didn't phase him at all!

So today is the last time I'll have a view of this when I look down...ever.

I'm being induced tomorrow early morning. Cross fingers and toes that all goes well. The next post hopefully I will be showing a picture of a healthy little boy.

Ahhhh silence.

I love it when the house is this quiet-no tv, kids yelling, hammering from the porch. This is awesome!

Trav took Chloe to the pool today during Gabe's nap. I whipped up an apple salad that my friend Kim gave me the recipe for to take to a neighbor's cookout tonite and plopped down on the couch to be lazy on the computer. :)

Last night I took Chloe out for a "girl's night". We saw Nim's Island at the theater and went to Culver's and ate on their patio afterwards. It was nice to just kick back- just the 2 of us girls and the weather was beautiful. I figure this would be our last chance to do this for awhile...

Our porch floor has been laid and ready to sand/stain. The ceiling boards are out there and ready to be put up. I think he plans to run some wiring for the porch fan and side door lights first. I can't wait!!!

Looks like I'm going to be on a school calendar committee. One of the school board members contacted me to see if I'd be interested in participating. I said yes of coarse- but the 1st meeting is this Thurs...well, I'm being induced on Wed so there goes the 1st meeting! I hate not being in the loop from the get-go since I'll end up feeling lost...Oh well, I'm sure it will be fine.

I'm going post this new picture of Chloe and Gabe-it's grainy since I zoomed in to cut me out-it's the first good smile we've gotten from him on purpose for the camera. No comments about his hair!!! Yes, I am going to cut it!! It's Trav who has been so resistant-if you can believe that-lol.

I knew he was being too quiet...

Dad and Conni kept Chloe and cousin Olivia last night so they could have a slumber party then had church and donuts this morning. When they brought Chloe home they brought in leftover donuts. I come into the living room to see Chloe after they left for 2 seconds and realised just how quiet it was in here and just knew...



He scaled right up there and somehow got the lid off the box. What a little stinker...

It's been awhile...

I guess I haven't been all that motivated lately. I've made a few beads, put together a pair of earrings for Chloe's teacher for an end of the year gift but that's about it...I actually can't reach my torch very well these days since my belly makes me sit too far away and I've had to adjust how I hold my arms and it's honestly a big pain in the rear (well, shoulders-lol)

Soooooo-I've decided to just chill out and not worry about making anything right now and when I think of something cute I just jot it in my notebook for later days. I"ve had tons of contractions lately so I've gone ahead and set my etsy shop on a temporary close down til I'm up and at em again-Maybe a couple weeks/month?

Other than trying to get ready for baby I've been just trying to organise what we'll be doing this summer. It's time to start planning Chloe's 7th (dang I cannot believe it!) birthday party, Trav's aunt and uncle from Fla coming up to visit at the end of June, trying to come up w/ a long weekend trip (so far it sounds like hiking at Starved Rock by our friends Tim and Jolene) and scheduling vacation bible school, swimming lessons and art camp for Chloe...

I'll check back in here soon and hopefully have more exciting stuff to talk about and maybe some pictures...:)

Featured in more ways than one...

I woke up one morning last week and saw that my little pink earrings in my shops views had jumped over 400 views overnight...what on earth?????? After digging around I found that I had been featured on etsy's front page! :) woohoo-pretty cool!

I then received a nice email from Blossoming Tree Bodycare that she'd like to feature me on her blog and sent a little interview to fill out. Of coarse I did it and she's got it posted up today...

I think that's a really neat thing to do-feature other artists and get some exposure for them-maybe one of these days I'll get organised enough to try that out. :)

In other news-I've been taking it pretty easy. Been trying to figure out what I want to make for Chloe's teacher for her end of the year gift and making some disks for earrings...Nothing too exciting. With only about 3 weeks left until the baby comes (or less??) I'm trying not to dive into anything new or time consuming projects right now.




Speaking of time consuming projects! Trav has been rebuilding our front porch for the last few weeks...Looks like I may have a porch to actually sit on this summer!!! I am so excited. It's ready for the flooring to be put down-he's ordering it today. I feel like I've got the ugliest house right now-1/2 of the siding on the porch is gone w/ just that black paper exposed, nasty brick columns have been torn out and the whole thing is being supported by 2x's-scary thing is he put those supports in the day before that earthquake-so of coarse when that hit the first thing he did was run for the window to see if the porch had fallen down-lol. This whole project has been a pain in my rear for at least 2 yrs now. He started it when I was on maternity leave w/ Gabe---this house was so messed up-the original wrap around porch had been all enclosed so what we did was take the side porch area and make it into a sunroom where my studio is now and knock back the front enclosed area to turn it back into a porch. The first shot is what the house looked like when we bought it-Yikes-( it was in foreclosure) and the next one is with the support walls in place so he could tear out those columns-that wall is now gone as is that column and is being supported w/ what looks like toothpicks (to me) lol. Hopefully in about a month or so I'll have a prettier picture to show :)

New bracelet

Here's the toggle bracelet that I listed today. It was pretty hard to photograph to show the colors well...

Just made a few sets of disks and droplets to hopefully whip up a couple pair of earrings tomorrow. I just didn't have the patience to sit in there any longer today-I was so hot and uncomfortable! It's so muggy and humid and gross out today-turning on the ceiling fan doesn't help since it just blows my flame all over...er. I'm glad though that we haven't been hit with the severe storms they've been calling for all day-large hail,damaging winds,etc...although I don't think we're in the clear yet.

So my house smells like a brewery-sigh. Trav made and bottled his own beer and it was in the basement-well,it's literally all OVER the basement. They started exploding 2 nights ago (that was interesting-him running downstairs trying to figure out where someone was breaking in at-lol) we found the broken beer bottles the next morning-what a mess!!! With all hardwood floors that smell just comes right up through them...I wonder how long it will take to air that smell out? He's cleaned it all but...may take a little time-agh!