Houses, Wallpaper and Doorknobs

I am a house buff. My idea of a fun afternoon is driving through neighborhoods looking at all the beautiful houses. I especially like houses built anywhere from the 20's to the 40's. Big, little, yellow, blue... whatever. I love them all. My neighborhood has some especially interesting looking homes. This is definitely not a cookie-cutter neighborhood. I took some shot while out on a walk a few months ago.
These are a few of my favorites. The woodsy cabin house is so warm and cozy looking. The italian villa is crazy beautiful. It's right on the corner of my block to so I get to gaze at it everyday.

The barn style house is really cute. The woman has it decorated very americana, country, amish feel. She just had it painted the very faintest color of lilac with mauve, rust colored shades. Now the yellow and green house is not one of my favorites but it is definitely worth mentioning. Bold choice of color for sure. If I showed you the whole house you would cry because it really doesn't deserve to look like that.

My house was built in 1944. Alot of the wallpaper we have been tearing down is really ugly. I don't think all wallpaper from that time was ugly but this stuff is putrid. I also think the people who owned our house in the seventies had really bad taste in wallpaper too. There is also a layer of the fine dusty-rose colored pink with blue hearts in the kitchen area. Eck.

A great thing about having a house this age is that it comes with a few treasures. Every interior door in our has a glass door knob. Some are gold and some are silver. They are all beautiful. I think the they are the best thing about our house.

Tearing Down the House.

Want to live next to me? The house next door has been for sale for about six months.

Ella had fun dressing up these paper dolls I downloaded and printed off of Kiddley . They are made by Sarah Neuberger. She has lots of fun things with these little people on them. I love watercolors. I think they make childrens art so beautiful.
A few weeks ago we decided we wanted to open the kitchen up to the dining room so we just started knocking down a wall with out any real plan of what we are going to do next. Still don't have a plan really, just an idea of what we want it to look like. We also took out a built in buffet to make the dining room more roomier. I was hoping to find great treasures hidden in the wall and behind the buffet. Nothing. I did find an enormous amount of dust bunnies and yuck in the vents. I am now trying to convince Rick that we will all get asthma if we do not get the vents cleaned soon.

BBBBBBBRRRRRRRR

It is so cold the district has canceled school today and tomorrow.

Still doing Natural lighting. I just like it. No stark lighting and sometimes the slight blur it creates is very cool.

I cought Abby sleeping so soundly on the couch the other day.

Just playing with some stuff.

Abby has decided that the foot of her bed is much more suitable for a good nights sleep.

Martha Stewart's team of creative people are genius's. These will be our Valentines.

Doing Things

I have not blogged in over a week I think. We've been up to no good around here.

Did you know that it's nearly impossible to have a presentable home when you are tearing out built-ins and knocking down walls. My home looks like a cyclone hit it. I was able to catch up on some cleaning today though, because we are supposed to have friends over for Super Bowl Sunday.

I have been watching Ella alot lately when she didn't know I was there. She makes me laugh. She doesn't walk anywhere. She skips ( well not skip, she does that thing like she's riding a pony, that kind of skip), runs or crawls. She loves to have a dramatic enactment of any situation. She will tell me she doesn't like me just so I will pretend to be terribly hurt and she can tell me ever so softly and sweetly " but Mommy, I just don't." It's sound kind of strange but we get a kick out of it.

I have also been thinking about my swap partner and her children. I am really stumped. I want to do so good at this swap thing. It's my first one and I want it to be a hit!

I really have not stuck to my Photography Friday. I think it's something I will have to make myself do. I don't mind, there should be more of those things in my life, like being sarcastic.

I was trying to figure some things out on my camara and Ella decided to grab a few shots. Penny was also interested in the action. Nothing new about that.


My Gramma gave me this blanket and it's ugly as sin if you ask me but I can not throw it out. She didn't make it, someone she knew did but still...


Remember me saying I am devoting this year to Christmas crafts. Here is my start on that. I messed up the letter but it's not bad for just sitting down without any paln what so ever for what I was about to do.




It's all Coming Along Nicely.

Health Care

Sick, sick, sickies. Both of the girls were sick with some kind of bronchial infection and ear infections. Seeing as we do not have insurance I only took one of them to the Express Care (it's an after hours facility the hospital has right in the ER.) They split the antibiotics and decongestant. I know that is not good but I have to do what I can with what I have. I told the doctor I had another little one with the same symptoms in hopes he would give me a large prescription for both. Unfortunately that did not work. He just said I should have her see someone. Yeah... thanks... like I didn't know that, guy.

I have to say that for the past couple of years not having insurance has really made me think about the Universal Health Care Initiative. My family is by no means in the poverty situation but we are also not in an upper middle class situation either. We are smack in the middle where it's hard and you have to sacrifice some things to get by. We make to much money to be helped with Medicaid but we don't make enough to pay $500 a month on insurance. I know there are lower priced insurance out there, trust me... I know, but with those you get either/or (you choose office visits or prescriptions to be covered but not both) and it ends up not being worth the money you pay.

It's a balancing act. On Wednesday when Abby was complaining of an earache I knew that I had to send her to school because at school the nurse will look her over and call me if anything is wrong. That was my way of making sure I didn't go the doctor only to find out Abby was just being overly sensitive to something minor, which is not something I would normally assume of her but that's what I mean. I have to be sure before I do anything.

I think the Universal Health care Initiative would be great for our country. For people like me who are in the middle especially. Everything I have done, medically, comes right out of our pockets. It comes out of my children's college fund, it comes out of our vacation money, it comes out of our budget for bills, our grocery money... everything. To not have to worry about that would make many lives so much easier. I mean it's terrible that I have to weigh my options when it comes to taking my sick babies to the doctor. It's terrible I have to split the medicine for one into two thus making it less effective. It's just not necessary and that's why Universal Healthcare is completely necessary.

The only people I could think that would be against this is maybe Doctors. With this kind of thing they may take a pay cut of some kind. Would that really be all that terrible. Private practice doctors make an insane amount of money, to me, as it is so I don't think taking it down a notch would change their lifestyle all that much. I mean shouldn't they want something like this because it will improve peoples lives, which is what they are supposed to be in the business of doing anyway?

If You're Gonna Spew, Spew In Here.

Old Man Winter

I so have a bone to pick with this guy.

Every year Winter messes me up. I feel all discombobulated. I like being in the house but when I feel like something is making me be inside I get all rebelious. Is that cabin fever? Not sure. I haven't been sleeping well and that could have alot to do with it. It's a multitude of things. Tomorrow is a new day. I think we will take a trip to Walgreens just for the sake of sanity.

I am continuing on my plight to rid the world of stained and holey clothing. My finsished project is a pair of jeans for Abby. They were very stained on the bottom, probably with mud, so I covered it all up and viola... (v ee ola)

Photography Friday

I'm starting a new thing. Fridays for Photos from now on.

Still doing natural light. I am really liking it.



The many faces of The Bell.


My little baby girl is quite busy. So very busy. She is often just a blur.

Flying. It's fun, you should try it.

I had to enhance this one because she was moving so fast she was just a ghost.

Don't Go Breaking My Heart

A few projects in the works at the moment.

Patches need to be sewn. I have them stuck on but now I have to do the sewing around the edges.


Rick has wanted an old lunchbox like this for a while and I found one at a garage sale this Summer. I planned to have it painted and looking good by Christmas but that didn't happen so I am working on it tonight.



Abby and Ella wanted some little books to draw in and I didn't have anything for them so I made little notebooks for them out of regular notebook paper and two divider cards I got out of an old library index thing.



Abby and Ella really like the movie Chicken Little. Don't go breaking their hearts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6IYlXozWtc

100 things about me.

I started this awhile ago and just finished it tonight. Apparently blogger puts it in on the date it was started so it's a few posts down.

Lagging Behind

I often write my blogs in my head but don't get to actually typing them out. The main reason is that I don't ever remember my idea by the time I get here. It's hard to be consistent when you are forgetful. I will start writing them down to help me out with that a little.

Here's something. I signed up to be apart of a Swap. It's super fun and I have wanted to do one for a long time. They are usually coordinated by one blogger and lots of bloggers who read her blog sign up and she pairs them up. Then you send them stuff that relates to the theme of the swap. The one I signed up for is actually for kids, just to get them involved in the whole idea of making or giving away toys and books that they want other children to enjoy.

I have been organizing my craft area. Getting all the fabric color coordinated and throwing out useless things I just bought on a whim. It's wonderful but probably boring to read about.

Abby had tonsilitis this past week so she missed the last two days of school last week. I kept her home today too, just for good measure. She gets it every year. I just let it run its coarse, no need for a huge doctors bill and unnecesary antibiotics. Ella has had a cough that is getting kind of scary though so I am watching it closely and may be taking her in if it doesn't get better soon. Rick thinks its getting better, I hope he is right.

I have no plans for tomorrow. Hasn't this just been a thrill to read? Holla. *giggles*

Lazy Sunday.

Our Sundays are always lazy. It seems to be that even when we are doing lots of stuff around the house, this day still feels like a lazy day.

Today we went grocery shopping. Rick and Ella are napping with the football game. Abby is making me pretend hot cocoa. It's delicious by the way.

Rick got involved in a pool at work. The person who loses the largest percentage of their body weight wins the pot. It's roughly 500 dollars so he is all about being on a diet. This makes me laugh.

I hope you are having a lazy Sunday.

Goodies and kindness

A few months ago an elderly lady that lives a few houses down from us passed away. Her daughter has been in town for quite some time to settle all her affairs. She has been having an on going estate sale. Every week she has new items that she has found from cleaning up the house. Apparently her mother was what I fandly refer to as a "keeper". She kept everything. I check in with her every week to see if there is anything that suits my fancy. Yesterday I found a few things.

I got this childrens dresser for $8. It needs to be sanded and stained or painted. I haven't decided which.


I walked around that house for a good 30minutes trying to decide whether or not to pay $40 for this cute table and chairs. In the end I decided against and just went for the dresser. When I came back with my van for the dresser the woman ( I should have gotten her name) told me if I wanted the table she would give it to me for $20. What a steal! She told me she would much rather two little girls enjoy it rather than an antique dealer. She went on to say how she and her sister would have tea parties on the table and if she found the set of linens and the tea set she would have her son bring them over to me. I almost popped I was so excited! I thanked her about 5 times before I left that house.

The legs are the best part. They have a slight bow to them. I don't know why but the legs make it special to me.


I also got a very cute chenille bedspread with matching pillowcase for $5. I didin't get picture of it yet but when I do I will post them.

I didn't get these chairs at the sale but I wanted to share them. The smaller one was made by my Manny ( He's my step-fathers Dad.) He can make anything out of wood. The chair is called a "naughty chair" but we don't use it for that. Ella uses in mostly for watching tv. The other one is just old and worn and I love that. Maybe one day I will find something useful to do with it but for now I use it as a step-ladder because it is extremely sturdy.


On the Photography front, I have been experimenting with natural lighting. It's very difficult to take a GOOD picture with natural light but I am learning. Here are a few.

Abby likes to line up her oranges. I think it's cute.

She also likes happy faces.

My Christmas cards.

Some of the trees I blogged about before Christmas. Rick says they look more like mountains.

Just the living room in natural light.

The step-ladder chair.

Some fancy art A'la Boog and Bell. Not naturally lit, just cute. Water color is my favorite art medium, especially for kids. Abby has done some great pictures of flowers. I will post them sometime.

Over-scheduling your children.

I read an interesting article today. It was in the newsletter that Abby's school sends home. I'd like to share it with you.

Lighten activity schedule to shift focus on school

"A crowded schedule makes children feel stressed out now and burned out later. Plus it may take away from your child's top priority ~school.

Child development author David Elkind says children under age six don't need to take part in structured activities. Many parents have a well-meaning need to keep their child busy with outside activities. But it's not the way to go.

Children whose days are filled with structured activities get used to being entertained all the time. They're bored more easily and less creative. Never alone, they seldon have had to rely on their own inner resources to keep busy or solve problems.

Also, three out of four children who start sports, scouts, music or other lessons before first grade drop them by age 13. They've done the activities so long, they're no longer fun."

~* Im not to sure about copyright stuff. I think they got the article from The Parent Institute, A division of NIS, Inc.*~

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The article goes on to list some ways to cut back you kids schedule and so on.

I found this article so interesting because I have always felt bad about not putting the girls in more activities. I just thought it was a good idea for them to be more social. I'm not really sure why that's important to me because I am not a very social, outgoing person. I think I just have that mentality of wanting my children to do more and have more than I did.

I'm actually comforted by this article. It soothed me a little. I don't feel like such a bad parent for not getting my kids involved in different things. Now I am glad and I think I will wait a few years so they can try a few things out and then tell me what they are interested in.

What do you think of the article?

100 Things About Me.

1. I am a Mother.
2. I have two really cute kids.
3. I was a lonely kid.
4. I have an older sister and younger brother.
5. I am married to Rick.
6. I am not at all interested in knitting or crocheting.
7. I am not perfect.
8. I live in Ohio.
9. I miss Colorado.
10. I miss my family.
11. I have a step-dad, his name is Ronnie.
12. My father died when I was 6.
13. I love my husband more than even he knows.
14. I am nosy.
15. I love blogs.
16. Organizing makes me happy.
17. The pictures in magazines like Martha Stewart Living and the like give me butterflies in my stomache.
18. It's hard for me to forgive deciet.
19. I cry everytime I watch Father of the Bride because it makes me sad not happy.
20. I was in the Army.
21. I am just now starting to figure out who I am and what I am good at.
22. I like country music.
23. I am a night owl. I live off about 4 to 5 hours of sleep a night.
24. I have a dog named Penny.
25. My mother was born in Texas.
26. I was born in New Mexico.
27. Never fails, everytime I hear The Star Spangled Banner I cry.
28. I try to have a total meltdown at least twice a year.
29. I knew what my daughters name was going to be when I was 16.
30. I believe in destiny.
31. I LOVE astrology and psychics and all that mojo.
32. The Office, both British and American, is the funniest show ever to be on TV.
33. Before I became a mother I was totally and completely relaxed about pretty much everything.
34. After becoming a mother I got pretty uptight about things and I am now trying to get back to the old me and chill out a little.
35. Crossing things off a list gives me a great sense of accomplishment.
36. I love photography.
37. I am on a diet. I hate saying it.

38. My breasts still tingle, as if producing milk, when my kids do something that really hits me emotionally. Wierd, I know.

39. Rick is gonna hate that I actually posted that last one. hehe.

40. My best friend is Jamie P.

41. I love her very much.

42. We like to have fun together.

43. Everyone is annoyed by us when we are together, except us. hehe.

44. I was born in New Mexico.

45. I collect vintage stuff.

46. I am very scared to show people the things I make cause I am afraid they aren't going to like it.

47. Secretly I think " how could the not like it?" just to make myself feel better if they don't end up liking it.

48. Chips and salsa are my favorite snack.

49. I reward myself once a week... just for whatever.

50. I take my kids to McDonalds for dinner on Thursdays.

51. I washed a chapstick with the laundry today.

52. Goo Gone gets any stain you could possibly ever have out.

53. My sister and brother are named Sandy and Dusty. My name is Trisha.

54. My aunts names are Julie, Joyce, Janet and my mom is Judy. My uncle is named David.

55. My kitchen walls are yellow.

56. My living room walls are blue and a dark tan color.

57. I like to give old things new life.

58. I think my Gramma is still with me. Especially when I am inspired to make things.

59. She inspired me to make things as a young girl too.

60. 50 First Dates is my favorite movie.

60. I want to take a few art classes.

61. I think experience and knowledge should trump a degree.

62. In the Army my MOS was 31L.

63. People have told me I look like Ellen Degeneres and Alanis Morisette.

64. If I were ever to have a boy (highly doubtful) he would me named Jack Lathan.

65. I love old names.

66. I love family names.

67. I had a Great Aunt named Ivalene. She would chew tobacco and crochet at the same time. She kept a spitoon next to her chair. She was great and a little scary at the same time.

68. I have to tell Ella to "get down" off of whatever she is climbing on at the moment like 10 times a day.

69. I am a Gemini. My husband is a Scorpio. My daughters are a Libra and an Aries.

70. Yeah, I like that stuff.

71. I have pledged to devote 2007 to Christmas crafting. It would be alot funner if Jamie lived closer.

72. I have done quite a bit of rock climbing in my life.

73. When I was 18 I fell about 50 feet down the face of a cliff. I'm ok.

74. Never use wool gloves when repelling.

75. Even if your instuctor says it's ok.

76. I like colorful socks but I think I may be getting to old to wear them. Is there really such a thing?

77. It's 1:25 am right now.

78. Almost there.

79. Abby loves Chicken Little.

80. Ella loves Cars.

81. My favorite is The Little Mermaid.

82. I didn't cry on the first day of school, I cried on the second day.

83. Hello My name is Fabulous.

84. I have a myspace.

85. I am not good at accesorising

86. I adore red heads.

87. I loathe the news.

88. I heart JT. He's bringing sexyback.

89. I cut coupons and rarely use them.

90. I am an ex smoker that occasionally has a cigarette.

91. I have had my heart broken.

92. I have broken a few myself.

93. I was never very innocent.

94. I experimented with drugs (psychadelics mostly) alot.

95. I use Tide.

96. I love romance. Anybody know where I can get some?

97. I have a new favorite reality show ~ Bad Girls on Oxegyn Network

98. I have had three wedding bands. All from Rick and all with stories.

99. I do not have a green thumb.

100. Me Now.

Linen Closet Color

I really want to paint my linen closet a fun color. I think it would be a refreshing to open the door and see all my pretty sheets with a fun color behind them. Just an idea. I think maybe a soft lime green color. I'm just bored with white. What color is your closet?