A couple of works in progress.

I am working on a few things right now. One I am not going to post pictures of one because it's a gift for someone. The other is a purse The Girl asked me to make out of a Marilyn nightie top she found somewhere. I haven't gotten far but it's going to be cute. I convinced her to use red on the outside to make Marilyns' lips pop.

We did lots of Christmas shopping this Saturday. Rick wanted to beat the holiday rush so the majority of our shopping is done. All that is left is a few things that I am making for people, something I want to get for The Girl and gift cards. It feels good to have it done. We usually are scrambling the week before to get everything bought or made.

I have been having trouble managing my children lately. I get alot of back talk from both of them. They don't go to bed when we put them in bed. It takes threatening to take things away and just all kinds of arguing before they will just give up. It's harder on me than it is on them, they think it's funny, I wanna cry.

Potty-training sucks my big toe. As a matter-of-fact I just gave up on it. It is like torture for both of us. She doesn't even notice that I haven't been asking her to go to the potty or anything. She doesn't go on her own at all. It's like the past month of intense potty training didn't even happen. I'm exhausted and a little angry about the whole thing.

Yesterday was, hopefully, the last time we will rake the yard. The backyard really gets alot of leaves because we have three very large trees that cover the whole yard. ( I have been trying to convince Rick to cut at least one of those suckers down but he likes the shade the generate. I do not.

Anyhoo... I took the oppurotunity to take some pictures.

Pretty leaves

Abby being still

Ella can not sit still... well neither of them can.

The G-man

HA! I got her.

These might be blurry

Something I Don't Want to Forget.

A few weeks ago Boog informed that she had a new word for "duh". I was intrigued. I had to know. "What is the word?" I asked. "Doyo." (pronounced Doy-yo.) "Did you come up with that all by yourself?" "Of coarse, Mom."

There you have it people.

What Being Frugal Can Do For Your Creativity.

Boog is not easy on clothes. She can not wear a pair of tights for more than an hour before they end up with a gigantic in them. Most of her shirts need to be bleached or stain treated as soon as they come of her back. As a matter of fact Bell doesn't get many hand-me-downs because her sister can really tear up some clothes.

I have been thinking about what I can do to extend the life of her clothes without making them look like they have been doctored up. Today I decided to try some stuff out.

I traced a cookie cutter onto a piece of cardboard (so I can keep it and do many more without using my cookie cutter everytime) and then used the that as a template and traced the shape onto some scrap fabric. Then I used some Heat-n-Bond to bond it to the shirt and pants. Last, I appliqued it with embroidery floss.

Drumroll Please.....

Falling Leaves

The only thing I had planned to do on Friday was rake leaves in our front yard. It ended up only taking about an hour to do the whole yard. We don't have any trees in the front but our neighbors have a few so we get some of the fallout.

Anyhoo... since it didn't take long I played with Bell and took some pictures.


I'm excited about a special Christmas present we are planning for the girlies. I will give out more details when we are sure about it.

Halloween

Halloween was excellent. Boog and Bell were very excited about getting out there and getting some candy, of coarse. Boog was a cute little witch and Bell was a puppy. (Everyone kept calling her a sheep.)

The amount of candy they got is unreal. Way more than last year. I think it's because Boog was way more into it this year and she made sure we covered twice the area we did last year. Bell was not into it. She went a block and then wanted to be carried home. Her costume didn't even make it over to Grandmas house. She insisted on taking it off before we got a chance to go over there.

On the Potty training front we are doing very well. She won't go on her own all the time but she does about half the time. #2 is still eluding us so I am doing a lot of dunking and swishing. ugh.

I started volunteering at Boogs school once a week. It is so much fun. The children are so excited to see you. I always get " I've seen you before." or "You're Boogs mom." Yep. That's me.

Fabulous Fall day in Ohio

I love Autumn in Ohio. The colors are gorgeous, the air is crisp, the smell of warmth coming from chimney tops, the colors are gorgeous, the colors are gorgeous and the colors are gorgeous. We went for a little hike on the river trail today and I got alot of beautiful shots.

The Falls. One thing that is different about the river water here and the river water in Colorado would be the clarity of the water... for sure. Still beautiful.

Bell

My future Botanist

My favorite shot. Would look great in black and white or sepia, I think, but the colors are just to beautiful to hide.

If you look closely you can see a rainbow right in the center.

G-man

Hairdon't

I don't know if you noticed in the birthday pictures but Bell wasn't happy with the style I have chosen for her hair so she did some work on it. She also wrote all over herself with marker. This is what happened when I told her she could not put the hair back. She kept saying " I want my hair back, mama" It was all very sad as you can see.




So I cleaned her up and took some more pictures so we could remember this forever. Motherhood is so fun.

Birthday! Birthday! Birthday!

I'm sure you already know this but 3 years is quite a big deal! There is peeing in the potty and putting on your own shoes. Lots of things to be done. To much to go into detail at great length.

Bell's birthday party was lots of fun for her. She had pizza and "bwunch"(Ranch) which is her favorite thing in the world right now. She tore through her presents faster than G-man could snap the pictures all along being quite charming and giggly. She slept with the fun bear that Aunt K got her. Actually she didn't sleep, she played... for hours before crashing.

We are seriously potty-training now so she wore no pants during the entire party. Just a shirt and panties.

Bell decided she wanted a balloon cake so I made her up cupcakes instead of the ladybugs. She loved them. She woke me up with one in hand yesterday morning whispering. "I eat cupcake?"

Buck Up...Date.

Bell's third birthday I soon. The planning is slow-going. I told Boog she could invite two of her friends from school but I have yet to call those two friends parents. I also haven't bought any of the food or any presents. We don't exactly have big parties. We have get togethers with family and maybe a few extras but that's it. At the most there will be about ten people there.

I'm going to do a ladybug cake, I think, or maybe just a bunch of little cupcakes to spell out Happy Birthday Bell. I know I can pull one of those off. I have been looking at princess cakes at www.cakecentral.com but most of those are very elaborate with fondant and everything. I am not there yet.

G-man has been doing great at work he has had a lot of business and that is always good for us. He has been palying the guitar and bought himself some recording programs. All he has to do with these programs is hook his guitar up to the computer and play. It records it. Isn't that cool?! I thought it was.

I haven't been doing a whole lot. Just trying to keep up with my domestic bliss. haha. I did make a few things though:

These little witches












I needed a pincushion because this just wasn't working. It looks like, no scratch that, it was a den of pain.














So I gave my little bird a little more character.

The Bug Is Back.

If you recall a few months ago, I wrote about my discontent with photography. I felt like I was just getting boring. I had no original ideas anymore. I felt bored... that feeling didn't last long.

As you all know photography makes my blood pump, it is my passion, it's the only thing that I am overly confident, that I do extremely well. In fact, I am getting a little teary eyed just thinking about what I can do because it just really gives me so much joy to do it. I am now itching to get my backgrounds up and get started on some stuff.

I need a camara though. I only have my little Canon digital. I would like to get a not so little Canon digital (that I want really bad) but they are unreal in price. Hopefully for Christmas I will be able to get the Canon digital that is a little lower in price, but equally as good as the one that I want really bad.

I guess photography will always be with me. I love peoples faces when a photo takes their breath away. When a mother cries because you have totally captured her child's personality. It's a great feeling to know your photos will forever be how she wants to remember her child at that age. I don't know how to describe how I feel about it.

I just love it.

Homecoming

This week-end The Girl and her beau went to their Homecoming dance. They stopped by the house for a few minutes so I could get some pictures.

And down I Went.

I have pretty much already told everyone who reads this blog about my ankle but I have nothing to blog about so I'll post pictures of the sorry sucker about a half an hour after I did it. Just so happened that I had the camara right nearby... as always. Enjoy!

The Cold.

The seasons are changing and we have all got a strange cold. I am calling it the "walking fever". It's gone around the house over the past 5 days. stared with G-man, as all of out illnesses do, went to Boog and myself and now Bell and The Girl are feeling it. It really isn't that bad, just a minor cold with a fever. Weird, huh.

Boog had her school pictures taken yesterday. She wanted to get dressed up and curl her hair but as it turns out, she doesn't like getting her hair curled. I tried to tell her beauty is painful but she wouldn't listen. Kids. *giggle*

Guitarman joined a band. They play Metal and the like. It will be fun to see him to a gig. I have never seen him in front of an audience, well, I have on tape but not live. He's totally hot. I have my own personal Rock Star!

Timmy had a birthday this month so we celebrated that at MIL's house on Sunday. I will have see about getting some pictures from her to post.

Made a few things

I have been doing alot of sewing this week. I finished a few reconstructions I started a while ago. Part of the reason I hadn't been working on them is becuase I didn't want to mess them up. They really are not hard at all. Just sew a straight line and you should end up with something decent.

Stacey's shirt started as a gigantic tank top. The picture of her in the shirt is foggy looking because little fingers smeared up my camara lens.


Jamie's shirt was just a regular sweatshirt. I used a bleach pen to put the design on it. A little tip I learned is to spread out the lines with the bleach pen because they bleed into each other and you get a blob.

Christi Thomas

Christi Thomas is fighting for her life. Visit her, donate or send a loving message. I put a link to her site in my links.

SPC: With someone

It's been over a month since I did my last Self Portrait. This months theme is to be with someone.

Bell is a sweet, sweet girl. She is all about having a good time. If it isn't fun she doesn't want to do it. Hence, my trouble with potty-training.

She has an extensive vocabulary. The other day she told me she could see her reflection in the mirror. Are there many 3 year olds that say reflection?

Interview with The Bell:

What is your favorite color? "Pink"
Dora or Diego? "Diego"
What's you favorite game? "Caillou"
But that's a show "yeah"
o.k.
Do you like Dogs or Cats? "Cats"
Do you want Mommy to stop asking you questions? "No"
No? "yes."
o.k.

Family Fun Fair

Saturday I took the girls to the Family Fun Fair. It's an annual thing the local Community college does.(LCCC)

Boog and Bell had lots of fun making tye dyed shirts, necklaces, getting a caracature done and taking in a puppet show. I had lot of fun, too because it was all f.r.e.e. For me, that was the icing on the cake.*giggle*

Speaking of cakes... I won a cake in a cakewalk. We kind of had an advantage because there were 3 of us and there were only 8 squares. We had them out numbered so it was no surprise to me when they called out my number. It truly was a cakewalk. *giggle*

Boog won a goldfish. What are the odds?! Lady luck was definitely on our side that day.

There were lots of kids carnival rides so I did purchase the all day passes for the girls. Money well spent. Bell had a grand time on all the rides but Boog was not so jovial after she scraped her elbow on a slide.

By the end of the day I was walking away with a cake in one hand, a goldfish in the other, my big bag of necesities hanging off my arm and two crying kids in tow behind me. I am sure we were quite the pathetic sight but that's the price you pay for a great day at the fair.

Blogger is being stupid and I can't load all the pictures.

Thrift Finds

I haven't done one of these in a while. I got some good stuff the past couple of weeks.

This is a gigantic bowl. I think it may be a planter.







This is a cool pictcher. I'm not sure how old it is but it's 50's or 60's. I got this, the two flower glasses and the polka dot set all at the same garage sale.










A learning puzzle to help Abby spell. I think it was originally a classroom puzzle. There was alot of stuff at the Goodwill that day for Kindergarten Teachers. I also picked up some worksheet books for Abby's teacher just in case she could use them.










The Flower glasses.







These are my prize finds for that day. I love these. I don't really want anyone to use them because at least one will definitely be broken and I don't think I could stand that.