Singing Singing All the Day...

1. What is the last thing you purchased for yourself?

On the same ticket I bought a matching couch + chair, 6 retro school chairs, 2 rolling chairs, a sweet plastic shopping bag, an old book... I'm sure there was something else, but I can't remember what. I got it all at the DI for $96.00... I just realized, when I went downstairs to find a pair of shoes, I've bought something for myself more recently: a cute pair of ballet flats at Old Navy for $0.50. I was shopping for the girl at their 50% more off clearance sale and couldn't pass these up. Even if they are a wee bit snug.

2. What's a recipe you have been dying to try, but haven't got around to it yet?

Heather Bailey's Strawberry Pretzel Dessert Ice Cream not only does it look and sound yummy, but she also gives you a free download of the recipe on the cutest [did I say cutest? I meant most absolutely the cutest] recipe card. Plus one for vanilla as a good measure.

3. Share something that is inspiring to you at the moment.

Alex Noriega's sketchblog. I love this idea. I keep thinking that I'm going to work on my illustration skills and actually do something with them. In my mind if I were to do something like this weekly or bi-weekly it would make a huge difference.

4. What's something you have been enjoying as of late?

Slushies. I keep making fruit slushies and I love them and my boys love them. Especially *B*.

5. What's something you would like to try?

Altering clothes/patterns to make my own designs. Probably just for the girl right now. Not feeling so hot in my own skin. Maybe after I've lost about 60 lbs. or so.

6. What's something you're looking forward to?

A trip to Phoenix + Anthropologie [for the first time] + Ikea (yes?)

7. Post a few of your own favorite photos from the last few days. I know you all think I'm crazy when I say she's naughty, but she absolutely is. She is not supposed to be having sugar [as in sweets] until she's two. But look at this. She found it in my purse and helped herself to it. See those crocodile tears? I had taken it away from her and then realized that I really needed a photo so I gave it back. The tears stopped immediately and she was one happy little stink. And yes, I'm a mean mom. I took it away again after we were done taking photos.

8. What's something you've been thinking a lot about lately?

Am I done having kids? I'm not getting any younger you know...

9. What is the last thing you wrote?

Besides this post? A memo about something *I* told his friend Derek. Rumor has it they were building a robot so it could sneak up into the kitchen in the middle of the night and steal some toys they bought at the Rec Center with stolen quarters. I guess he told Derek to come back at midnight so they could get the toys [with the robot of course]. Derek informed them that he would be sleeping at midnight.

10. What is something you wish you could be doing right now?

Lying in a hammock on the mountain.

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* As you may have noticed I am quickly approaching my 200th post (this just happens to be #198). I will be giving away something. Not sure what yet, but it will be something I made. In order to be entered into the drawing you must fill out this survey on your own blog and let me know when you've done it. I'm looking forward to reading your answers!

ps. this survey was originally posted on this blog and then modified a little to this one and finally I found it on Kara's blog and I modified it a little for you.

enjoy the journey!

Seriously, if you can ignore the bad make-up and the low budge graphics/cinematography and probably a myriad of other obnoxious things that are sure to be wrong with the movie... you need to watch this. THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON trailer in HD
I am now officially excited about this one. I'll admit. I'm as much a Jacob fan as an Edward fan. I loved the book New Moon. I think Bella needed to be with Edward, but I loved Jacob.

2.for.Tuesday

I've got at least 10 projects in the works right now. My house is showing it too. I think *B* might be tired of me, but then I wonder: is it better to be dull + listless + slightly depressed me but have a clean house or to be excited + full of life + random but have piles stacked all around and ragamuffin kids? I know which me I prefer. If only I could get past the dirty house guilt. I would really like to have Mary Poppins live with me. Snap my fingers and all that...

one: a felt sewing book from Martha. I've been sewing [and dreaming of sewing] a lot lately and I have trouble keeping track of things like needles + the buttons I keep buying and never using etc. I need this little friend. It looks simple to make and I know it would find itself very useful. And ladies... I've just discovered that MSL has a craft blog. Of course they do.

two: a mosaic maker. I've seen these around a lot and wondered how they did it, but never took the time to find out. I'm taking a class from Elise right now and guess what she showed us today? Yep... a mosaic maker. It's so super simple and just plain wonderful. So glad she threw this into today's lesson. This is just some of my 365 project photos. Actually... it just might be all of my 365 project photos. I didn't get very far with that one...

I've got a whole lot to do. I'm trying to talk myself into focusing on the house today. *B* deserves that.

enjoy the journey!

Oh! But It's Been Fun!

The weekend has gotten away from me. I disassembled + sanded + spray painted a chair. I tried out a pretty little something special with my crochet hook and some wool fisherman's yarn. I tried my hand at fulling [basically the same as felting only done with wool yarn that has been knitted/crocheted/woven in some way or another]. I colored my woolen projects with kool-aid. Pink lemonade and black cherry to be exact. I planted more flowers around my lilac tree. I picked and ate what I assume will be the last of our peas. I experimented with omelets and turkey + avocado sandwiches on artisan bread [I will learn to make my own artisan bread one day]. I lifted weights. I ate ice cream and drank pina colada and laughed at a stupid movie. I banished my boys to their room until they cleaned it and tried not to hurt them. I made faces at the girl and enjoyed the faces she made back. I chalk painted on the sidewalk and listened to *I* philosophize about our pictures... "see mom, it's raining and then you take a big jump and get up to the sun and the rainbows." I did this all while *B* put new legs on the table he's refinishing for our dining room. He's wonderful. I did not clean my house.

enjoy the journey!

ps. I also received my first Anthropologie catalog. Bliss. Such great photography and fun graphic ideas. I also enjoyed this [be aware that it scrolls left to right not up and down].

I Think I Might Be Damaging My Children

[She said as she watched her oldest son put a grasshopper in a bag and bash it with his fist a few times]. And just an hour ago I paid him $.10 for every snail he gathered up in the garden. After I counted them I told him to bash the bag on the sidewalk and then put it in the trash. He also gets paid $.10 for every dead grasshopper. Just in case you were wondering. Stinking things eat the plants. The can live in someone else's yard if they want to live.

2.for.Tuesday

I am considering this the first official day of summer since the weekend doesn't count and the holiday is, well... a holiday. Today was the first day *I* should have been in school but he wasn't because it's summer. Craziness. It's summer.

This is a photo of his last day of school. The large poster he is holding is his life sized emu he wanted to make. Did you know emu was pronounced ee-myou?

Because it's summer I'm going to ignore the backlog of great ideas I have to share with you and share some of my own [and there will be more than two this time]. I'm going to attempt keeping my kids mentally engaged this summer while still keeping it fun. I know you're laughing and thinking "good luck with that one..." But hey, I can dream right? And besides, they're still young...

One: summer book club idea/photo from BH&G magazine. I first read this article a few years ago and now that *I* is turning into a voracious reader I think he'll really enjoy it. After a little search I've discovered a few different lists for kids book clubs. Oprah's and Great School's + the article link also give suggestiong for choosing books. I'm sure there are even more out there...

I talked to him today about the idea and he loved it. He already has his friends list and knows which book he wants to start with. He wants to read Fablehaven but I just checked library availablility and though there are 20 copies there are also 12 requests. I'll check back on that and encourage him to choose another book. Maybe something like Peter and the Starchatchers. Except the library only has 2 copies of that one. Hmmm... Sorry, I will stop boring you with my search of books to read...

Two: what I did this summer books. I'm having him/them journal write and he chose Mon/Fri to write. I'm making a conscious effort to make sure they get all of their pegs done before they can play and *B* wants to have them help buy their school clothes with the money they earn from that [the photo above is of the peg charts I made last year]. I'm planning on going on official outings once a week [don't think this will be anything huge. Probably just a trip to the splash park or something like that]. I will let him use my camera to take some pictures and I will take some pictures and he will write about it in his journal. We will also be making projects like embroidering pictures they draw [since he wants to learn to sew and I told him he has to learn to handle a needle + thread before he can use my sewing machine] and we will be traveling the world. He insists that his class went to Australia the last day of school and he loved it. The whole last week they learned things about Australia and wrote a report about something they liked that was unique to the country/surrounding area. We discussed it and he would like to visit one country every two weeks. I'm cool with that. I think it will be fun. We'll read and cook and search the net and in the end he will think he's traveled the world. Love it! In the end we will make a book at Blurb and he will be able to remember what he did this summer. He loves the idea.

So, these things paired with lots of roaming the neighborhood + playing with friends + our standard camping/fishing trips + growing/eating our garden fare = one pretty eventful summer. Hopefully we'll be able to spend some time swimming too. It would be a tragedy if my kids didn't learn to swim.

enjoy the journey!

I Am Bewitched...

Since we got back from Sea World we have been trying to figure out the best way to handle our family videos. We bought the recorder before we left and now it's 6+ months later and we've got lots more video to deal with. Just like my photos... we're glad we have them, but what are we supposed to do with them? I'm trying to look at them from different angles. Just like I do with my photos:

I'm not just taking these for me so I should leave an unaltered original filed somewhere of all photos/videos. Just because I like extreme cropping and photos of legs for my projects doesn't mean that everyone likes that, and my favorite photos may not necessarily be theirs + vice versa. I may not want to see the dirty dishes in the background or hear me hollering at one of the kids in the background, but one day that will be a reminder of life. So it should be saved... out of my line of sight.

I want to crop out all of the unnecessary and keep the expressions and the mannerisms. I want to make it the way I see it. Not necessarily the way it is [though I'm not really sure what the problem is with the camera. You'd think it would capture what I see...]. *B* says I envision life with twinkling lights and fairy dust and that I get upset when it doesn't come out that way. That's just fine with me [minus the "it doesn't come out that way" part]. I like those things.

So... sorry about the rambling, basically I've been trying to figure out the video editing software we have and trying to alter our videos. I'm not very good at it and I'm not very patient, but today Kara shared this video on her blog... This is what I want to do. It's magical. How the heck does one go about doing something like this? I will figure it out and when I do I will share our stellar family videos. Until then I will keep my hollering at the kids a secret!

PACOVOLUME "CookieMachine" from discograph on Vimeo.

First I will figure out how to shoot manually with my camera. I'm thinking I probably won't even use the manual mode once I learn, but I want to learn so I have a greater understanding of the concepts as a whole. Yes, someday the camera will capture what I see and I won't have to do altering after the fact. I know it's possible. For the most part, Hula Seventy doesn't alter/edit her photos. Someone commented on her photos in Flickr and asked what editing program she uses and I'm pretty sure she said she doesn't. A true photographer. I think it's amazing [when I popped over to grab her url for the link I quick read her post and she was talking about capturing life as it is... including old home videos. You should read it. She is so great with words and imagery. Love her].

enjoy the journey!

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p.s. Today *A* came home with an orange and black striped witches hat and two collapsable trick or treat pumpkins. He wanted me to get him a cup holder so he could take his water bottle on his bike with him. I was standing in the kitchen at the time and my synapses collided and now *A* has an ice cream bucket hooked to the front of his bike for a basket. I'm so glad that Blue Bunny has started putting their half gallons in plastic cartons. I've been using them for all kinds of things, but this is by far my favorite.

As he rode away on his bike he kept looking back at me grinning and waving and grinning some more.