On this Earth day~

I've been wandering around with the camera around my neck grabbing shots of signs of spring. This time of year seems to fly by us and I don't want to forget it. I tend to sit in awe at what we're surrounded by sometimes but hardly take a second glance at. It's really amazing.

I used macro mode for most but wish I had a macro lens.

My dads lilacs. They're enormous.


Gorgeous.

Our sad lone tulip. It really needs some friends. This fall I really need to remember to plant some more. Someone remind me then-k? ;)

Our Magnolia tree in the front. *Gasp* I wish it would always stay this beautiful. The blooms don't last near long enough. We spent as much time under the canopy of flowers as we could.

This was the first bloom on the magnolia "bush" I caught before the flowers all opened overnight.

And our sad single daffodil. Only one bloomed :( Not sure why.

Unfortunately this year we won't be planting a garden like last year (behind our neighbor's house) but I plan to get the kids involved and digging in the dirt when it's time to split and transplant some plants soon. I'm sad about the loss of the garden but plan to try and buy as much fresh produce locally at our farmer's market this year.

:)

We are recycle freaks and tend to have more recycling than garbage. Wish we could have more containers. Chloe's job is to take to the curb and Gabe's is to bring up the empties. About a month ago I caught Sawyer going to the basement door, opening it (gasp! eek!!) and throwing his yogurt container in the recycling can. My jaw was on the floor. He is less than 2 years old-but I guess he's paid enough attention to the kinds of things that go in there instead of the trash. What a feeling to know you're doing something right!

What I wore~Week 1

Following the lead of Lindsey over at The Pleated Poppy~I decided to photo my daily outfits for awhile. Let me say right now-I feel totally silly-but it HAS made me feel a little more accountable when I choose my clothes for the day. Instead of grabbing yoga pants and Trav's big old shirt I am forced to think about what I put on my body. Paying attention to what I wear-kind of like I did before we had kids...

I've loved looking at the others who have linked up with her and seeing different ways to pair up outfits or accessories ;)

Well......here we go...

Day 1:
Old Navy black top (scored for .97 cents!)
Apt 9 denim shorts
Reef flip flops
black "A" wax seal necklace-made by me
Do you like my Shey B camera strap that my friend Kim sent me? :) love it...

Day 2:
Green top from JCP -that I didn't realise how awful it looks til just now. Won't be wearing that again!
Mossimo shorts (hmm-not wild about these either!)
Reef flip flops

Day 3:

Old Navy top

white cami

necklace I bought way back in high school

old jeans (name?)

Simple brand tennis shoes

Day 4:

Old navy striped top

Old Navy grey cami

Apt 9 shorts

"Live" necklace-made by me

Day 5:

Ok, the day before I wore that shirt for 5 minutes until I realised how warm it was outside so I grabbed it off the closet doorknob the following day when it cooled off.

old jeans

old tennies

high school necklace again

Day 6:
Talbots cardigan that is the softest in the whole world!
white cami
Gap jeans
Simple brand tennis shoes
"Live" necklace made by me

Day 7:
JJill top
Abercrombie man jeans
Reef flip flops
"Live" necklace again

*Spring!*

Hallelujah! The new computer screen we ordered for the laptop did the trick! I had almost 400 pics to upload-whew! I have a sneaking hunch the next few days you may be overloaded with picture heavy posts ;)

Here's a few from Chloe's first soccer practice for the spring session...

Playing with a little sunflare...

Anyone else ever get "the stink-eye"?

Andddddd...he snaps out of it!

Extras:

It's been absolutely gorgeous in our little part of the world. Sunny almost every day and mild temps. Chloe scored 3 goals for her soccer team on Saturday and is thrilled. Has her pumped up for next week-funny what that can do for your confidence. We leave for for a family wedding/vacation in Florida soon and the kids are so excited. On Gabe's list is building sandcastles and going to Busch Gardens to see animals. Chloe's just excited to get gussied up and go a wedding on a beach and be out of school while her friends are still there (lol) and Sawyer? I just hope he survives the drive down. Or we do. One or the other.

Don't be jealous of my bag...:)

Well, I'm still on the old dinosaur computer...awaiting the new laptop screen that was ordered. Sure hope this will work! I've been so many pictures and have nowhere to upload...wah!

My Artist's Way 2 coarse started back up last week-looks like a fun group and am looking forward to seeing everyone weekly :)

Our magnolia tree bloomed~and is dropping it's blooms like crazy today. I sat out on the front steps doing my homework for class trying to get some sun on my legs and huge petals were raining all over me...Smells so good. Perfect day.

Oh, and I won a cutey patootie purse last night from Lindsey over at The Pleated Poppy! It's the first time I've ever won anything and I am JAZZED! I've had her posy pins on my xmas list, birthday list-you name it for maybe 2 years now. {he can't take a simple hint?} I loooove her blog and visit daily~go check it out!

*extras*

Chloe's soccer has started back up...Trav's indoor soccer is almost done...Gabe's resisting afternoon naps...Sawyer's in the throe's of terrible two's {and 2 yr molars-ugh}...started couch to 5K again and so far so good (and bought a pair of super cute capris a little too small for inspiration to lose a few more lbs)...huge neighborhood garage sale coming up-wow we've got a bunch of stuff!...lots of shopping {but with no luck} to find the perfect dress for a Florida beach family wedding next month...oh, and we're going primarily organic and it feels really good :)

M.I.A.

Our computer monitor bit the dust. Waiting on the part that will hopefully solve the problem...so... I am currently on our ancient laptop that is almost worse than having no computer at all-lol.

I did dig thru some old photos that are on here tho and ran across this sweet pic of Gabe from 2 years ago.

Right before he fell and lost those sweet little chicklets up front there...:(

What a little sweetie.

{Just cos I hate to post w/o a pic hehe.}

We've been super busy here but I feel we have nothing to really show for it.

Neighborhood egg hunt, 3 stops for Easter, huge basement clean up, lots of walks and stating Couch to 5K over again~spring!! Throw in a few doctor appts, air duct cleaning, lost contact & vision testing, repeat ct from the fall (good), spring cleaning/getting ready for garage sale, taxes (ugh), researching basement paints and trying to find a driveway guy-whew!

And as we go on with these day to day things lately I've been trying to figure out how on earth I'll have the time to make items for a show coming up in June. I know it seems so far away but I haven't had the chance to sit at the torch for a couple months! Add a vacation and a 2cd birthday party in between now and then....agh. Oh! And the Artist's Way class starts back on Wednesday night! :)

Trav says I'll always find an excuse and that I just need to sign up for it-that I work better under pressure anyway. He's right...But right now I'm mad at Sam's Club for discontinuing the table I need (just need 1 more for art fairs and had planned to get it NOW), don't like my table coverings and don't have enough displays..ya, I know. whine whine whine...lol.

{Just me and him}

An impromptu date was in order. I'd been out of state for 4 days-my first time away from any of them not counting when I was in the hospital to have each of them...

It seemed to affect Gabe the most-acting out towards me once I was home. I decided he needed some one on one mom time...

So we hit McD's for vanilla cones (before dinner!)....

Man, the kid needs a haircut!!

Gonna steal it... :)

And I brought Daddy's old duck call so we could go by the duckpond at the park. Quacking at them is about as good as feeding them it seemed...

Did some sliding.

And some spinning.

And more spinning....

Lots of sliding and swinging.

So glad we ran out to do this yesterday. We both needed it.

As I type I'm listening to the wind and rain hit the windows and wondering if there isn't a little hail mixed in-it's loud! Making it a very lazy day around here...Yawn!

~Spring is in the air~

It's been awhile since I've posted.....and it's been way too long since I've done any jewelry posts.
.

I have no good excuse. I just hate winter and tend to curl up into myself...

I grabbed a few minutes when the sun was {finally} out to take some jewelry shots. Yes, they could be better but I did what I could do...

I've been sitting on some pieces all winter and haven't posted them on Etsy. Why? Wish I knew. Maybe the beginnings of spring is lighting a fire under me... :)

There is a free business card promo going on over at MOO for Etsy shops that I thought I'd take advantage of. Hense, one more reason for some photos.

I'll try to add this sweet little flower cuff in my Etsy shop later on today...unless I snag it for myself. ;)

eta: it's now in my Etsy shop!!

Send some extra fun...

Ok, so I admit-I'm totally old-school when it comes to wrapping kids birthday gifts. The Sunday comics. What would we do without them? My mom always wrapped with them and I guess it rubbed off... And after Chloe's first year of preschool with 15+ birthday parties -the handmade birthday cards became awfully handy too. I just can't imagine dumping all that money into wrapping paper and cards!

Here we have a picture of Gabe and his neighbor friend...It was taken in November and he had his birthday party last week. It was one of those last minute neighborhood things... so I scrounged for the comics (yea! we had some!) and whipped up a quickie card for him.

There are many free photo editing sites that let you convert your photo to a pencil sketch. I thought this would be a great little "extra gift" for him to be able to color-- and it's personalised!

Check out some of these sites for fun editing...

http://www.picnik.com/
http://www.befunky.com/create/
http://www.photofiddle.com/home.html

and send me a link if you end up editing something fun! I'd love to see...the possibilities are endless :)

Awwwwww.....

Hmmmmmmm.
Well, that "awww" could go 2 different ways...

I'm lovin the new poster Chloe surprised me with tonite...

Not so loving the artwork Sawyer surprised me with....

I told Trav...even though she put the marker away (and he can reach into that drawer now thankyouverymuchneedtomoveeveryyything!) I think it's very interesting he had to find the exact same marker that she used and post his art right below hers...

Road trip!

When my mom mentioned that my brother, who lives in Charlotte and I haven't seen in months, was going to be in St. Louis for the night we decided to hit the road to have a quick visit...

He is on the road with the group Carbon Leaf, who played at Blueberry Hill. he used to work full time for them when he was in Richmond (where they're from) but now he travels with them every now and then doing their sound.
We walked around for awhile window shopping while he did sound checks for a couple hours. Here's a sassy gal...lol
Had to take this music store pic for Gabe. Check out that guitar-lol.
The Loop-the area near Wash U is where we were. Lots of neat resteraunts, bars, bookstores and shops.
I swear 90% of my pics turned out like this-lol. The flash was too blinding right across the table...
We ate at Blueberry Hill with my brother, Clif and the drummer of the band, Jason.
I was surprised at how many cameras I saw sticking up other than mine. Glad I wasn't alone-lol.

Chloe's had a bit of a crush on the lead singer, Barry, ever since we saw them play a couple years ago up in Chicago when he dedicated a song to her for her birthday and got the whole audience to turn and look at her. She even had people telling her happy birthday later in the day who recogized her. lol. What 6 yr old wouldn't looooove that!? She even named her stuffed bear "Barry" after him...I don't think she's wild about the new beard though...
For their last song Suzanna Choffel got up to sing with them. She was the opener and was honestly very very good. I'm kicking myself now that I didn't buy one of her cd's...
We had to jump into the photo booth before heading out. I love that that place had a photo booth and try to remember to jump in one whenever the opportunity arrises. Poor mom was squished in on the floor-lol. Love this.
So glad we jumped in the car and went. Even though we didn't get to spend a ton of time with Clif it was nice to be with him. The music was great and I truly felt like an old lady driving 2 hrs to get home and in bed by 3. lol.

Lightbulb moments

Winter. I'm so over it.

Chloe and I have been taking weekly trips to the library to make winter tolerable and expose ourselves to new reading (and her to the homeless population-you'd know what I mean if you live in Springfield...)

Here is what I've been working on this past week in bits and pieces. I'm trying to do my writing that goes along with the Artist's Way and am hopeful that something will rub off on me through reading this.

The other morning on the way to school Chloe gasped and said "Mom, look at all of the glitter in the snow today!" I had to look twice before I saw it. Until she'd mentioned it all I had seen was dirty slush and ice patches and that the stop sign had finally been replaced by the city after I'd called to tell them someone plowed it over in the ice a few weeks back.

This is basically how it looked. It took my breath away.

Photo from Google Images

I spent the rest of the morning asking myself the last time I'd "seen" the glitter in the snow. I didn't come up with an answer. That makes me sad.


Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up. ~Pablo Picasso

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.