A few Christmas decorations

Here are just a few simple Christmas decorations from our home.

Piece by piece

“Really?      Puzzles?       NOW?”  I ask.  “Sure, let’s get them out and let Mama make some coffee and I’ll help.”  I stagger towards the kitchen and notice the early hour and that she is totally ready to start her day.  Me?  Not so much at 7:10.  Not THIS ready.  Recently she has become fascinated with puzzles.  Ashley wants to do them all day long.  She is very independent and gets frustrated but sticks with it and I admire her diligence to complete the puzzle.   She is only 2 1/2 and I’m surprised by her determination to complete them by herself.  Her little face gets so serious while she puts it together.  I love these phases.  Soon we will be on another kick but for now, puzzles are IT!

I’m going to do it

I’m going to do it.  I’m going to blog more often, I promise.  I mean at this point, anything is an improvement, right?  Right. I didn’t blog the past few weeks while we were out of town in Florida, but I’m back and ready to jump into it.  I have felt guilty for not putting up new things so…my apologies.  Okay, I’m done.

So what have ya’ll been up to?  We went to Florida and it was wonderful.  I’m in the process of getting all of my photos together (all 335 of them) and will post them (no, not all of them) soon.  Walt Disney World was unforgettable and I SO enjoyed the delight of our children as they saw new things each day.

They danced on this bridge near the castle to music playing in the park.  Simply precious.

Mark and his girls.

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On to business.  I have a VERY messy studio that I would be mortified to show to anyone which I need to be tidy up.  I need to set up my new torch, concentrator, and all of the fun accessories I purchased.  OH JOY!  What is it about children that zaps all of our energy?  I can’t seem to find any of it lately.  Did someone hide it from me?  I know they stash things all of the time and I’m going to run across it one day in a drawer under a shirt or in the zipper of a little purse here in the house.  I just KNOW IT!  If anyone finds some extra energy around your home, mail it to me.  No, FEDEX it to me!  I’ll pay for the shipping.  giggle…

I’ll be back soon with pictures of two bracelets that I’ve been hiding and some pictures of my family.

Losing a pet is never easy

We had to put Ellie to sleep because she was ill and it broke my heart.  I bawled for a whole day and looked awful!!  I don’t know that my eyes have ever been that puffy.  I miss her and the very things that drove me BONKERS, make me miss her now.  For example her barking while the kids were sleeping, stealing and eating the children’s toys, the dinner napkin snatching black and white hair all over the furniture and a myriad of things like that.  I will miss the way she greeted us when we came home each time.  We could have been away for 5 minutes and she still greeted us the same way.  Unconditional love will be missed in our home.

I’ll be back

We had a wonderful Christmas and I’m always so sad when all of the festivities are over.  I don’t know why, but I am.  Does anyone else ever feel that way?  I took down the tree and all of the decorations today because I won’t be able to do it later, or at least for a while.  I’m having surgery tomorrow to move my ulnar nerve so I’ll be out of commission for a while.  I’ll be glad to stop the frustrating discomfort and look forward to being better.  So for now, I’m signing off and wish all of you a Happy New Year!  Can you believe it is going to be 2010?  Not me!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from my family to yours!

Enjoy your gifts lovingly presented to you.

Clomp…clomp…clomp

I have been “clomping” (that is the word I made up for the sound of me walking with this shoe) around for a few days now with this lovely shoe.  ARGH, MATEY!  I sound and look like a peg-leg pirate walking through the house.  Swaying one way and then the other trying to walk in this shoe that won’t let me move my foot.  Three weeks of this?  Holy, moley!  I’ve taped my toes together and that will hopefully help my toe heal properly and I REALLY look forward to walking in a regular shoe again.  Ahhhhh.  Y’all feel free to run out and get yourselves one of these fashionable shoes.  They are ALL the rage!

On to other items.  The girls went to a party this morning and have started their sugar feast.  This is NOT a good picture but you get the idea.  They wouldn’t sit still and wouldn’t smile so this is all you get for now.  I will be in the presence of Cinderella and Snow White this year.

Ashley turned TWO

Ashley's birthday wasn't really the special day that had we planned, but since both of the girls were sick and had fevers, we stayed home and played in our jammies. Ashley is a delightful little girl and makes us laugh all the time. My baby girl turned TWO! Time is flying.

A short break

We went away last weekend to have a family vacation with my husband’s side of the family.  It was a wonderful weekend and we had lots of fun but we missed sharing the weekend with Mark’s father who recently passed away.  We scheduled this vacation before he died and felt that we should go ahead with our plans and I’m glad that we did.  I love Mark’s family and enjoyed the time I spent with them and the children loved playing together.  Oh to have that much energy again and love for life without concerns.

We went to Potawatomi Inn in Angola, Indiana.  It is a beautiful place and I loved being near Lake James. 

One special addition to our weekend was that seaplanes landed on Lake James for the fly-in and then came up a ramp on the beach and onto the grounds.  I LOVE planes and I just stood there grinning with delight watching them land.  I couldn’t help it.  I loved hearing the engines.  My father passed along his love of planes to me.   

  

Mark and Ashley swinging or “fwinging” as she says it.

A seaplane docked at Lake James near the beach

 

A seaplane on the grounds after it landed.

The children also got to do crafts in a craft room at the Inn which was totally awesome and we could have stayed there all day but wanted to go outside to enjoy the trails, the beach, and the play area.

It was a weekend I will always remember and hope we can do it again another year.

Potty Picasso

We came back from a short family vacation on Sunday only to head right into potty training (not my choice)!!!!  This has been a long week, but a good one.  Ashley is doing well with this whole new phase of her life and I look forward to spending more time away from the bathroom and the edge of the bathtub (which is right next to the toilet).  Ashley enjoys sitting on the throne toilet and drawing for a VERY long time.  It leaves the cutest little red ring on her back side though.  shhh….

We have also lost four teeth in our household this week.  Mark had his wisdom teeth pulled yesterday so he has been sleeping and taking it easy to say the least. 

That is it for me.  No big news or design reveals this week.  I’ve been busy getting my custom orders out and have only two left to do so I’ll be done by the end of the weekend. 

Enjoy your weekend and I’ll share a few pictures later of our time away last weekend.  Ta Ta

PiLes of PiLLows

We commonly have piles of pillows in our family room.  Pillows are squandered from every nook and cranny of the house and are thrown into one area.  Depending on the moods (two little moods), this area turns into a fort, a castle, a jumping arena, a giggle ground, a television viewing retreat, and the list goes on. 

Plan to pile on the fun in your home too!  What do you have to lose?

Lovely, Little Words

When Ashley speaks, I can’t help but enjoy her words because they are so precious and will soon be regular words soon enough.  Don’t worry about the spelling please because these aren’t correct words anyway.  : )  Here is a short list of words I hear throughout the day:

• “Top” = Stop said rather insistently
• “Noey” = No
• “Lookie” = Look
• “Bookie” = Book
• “Nackie” = Snack (are you picking up the pattern here?)
• “Cleam Up” = Clean up and is sung beautifully to the song. : )
• “Okay Mama” = That one melts my heart
• “Self” – because she is FEIRCLY independent!

She reads all of the time and I find her with piles of books or magazines around her quite frequently. 

I hope you enjoyed your weekend.  I enjoyed mine and LOVED the weather.  I found it to be refreshing and revitalizing.  I couldn’t get enough of it this weekend and wish every weekend was like this.  I guess I would get tired of it though and want the change of the seasons.  

I torched (made beads for my custom orders) until I unexpectedly ran out of fuel, so I’ll have to lug my big tank out of the studio and get a new tank.  It isn’t too heavy now but when I bring home my full one, it is a heavy sucker.  That is a very professional term, isn’t it?  Sucker.  Ha ha.

Ballet starts tomorrow so it will be fun to add more variety to life and the schedule.  Not for me silly ladies, Mia.  I couldn’t lift my foot above my hip if I had to.  Well, I might be able to but I don’t want to try. 

Chat later!

Custom orders should stay on schedule in case you were wondering.  I’ll let you know if I fall behind if I can’t get my new tank.

I Do

I do love my husband more now than I did on our wedding day.

I do cherish each moment we spend together and can’t wait to spend the future with him by my side. 

I do pray that my daughters find wonderful men just like Mark because he is a wonderful man in so many ways.

I do love him for the spectacular father he is to our girls.

I do have a best friend in my spouse and respect him for so many things that he does, says, and accomplishes. 

I do feel like a princess because he treats me like I am one. 

I do thank God that I said, “I do” fourteen years ago today.

I do Love you Mark!

Yes, I was tired that day.  : )  It isn’t the best picture but it makes for a fun memory.

Changes

I cannot express how EXCITED I am that my old kitchen floor is finally going to disappear under a new layer of flooring!  I can’t take it any more and we are tackling the floor this weekend.  We have waited too long, in my opinion, and I am thrilled that we are going to have a new floor in a few days.  After the floor is done, I’ll have to paint the cabinets next but I’ll start with baby steps first and be happy with a new floor that doesn’t have weird funk on it.  OH JOY! 

Change is in the air and Mia started preschool this week and loves it very much.  She can only remember one boys name and so we keep hearing about him.  Hmmmm?   She loves it and Ashley cries when we drop her off and proceeds to tell me, “Miss Mia” for the next few minutes until I distract her with candy or something fun.  Sorry, but candy works. : )  We are all enjoying the new schedule and changes in our home.  

Have a good weekend and if all works out well, (let’s all cross our fingers), I’ll show you the new floor in a few days.  :::giggle:::

Happy Friday

Mia took this picture of Ashley yesterday and I found it on my camera!  I thought this made a lovely way to wish you a happy Friday. 

Farm Fun at a Park

Recently we went to a local park that has a “farm” with animals and it was a day of firsts for the girls. 

This was the first time they:

1. Saw chickens running around free on the farm near a playground.
2. Saw llamas, sheep, ponies, bunnies, and goats.
3. Petted goats.
4. Took a short, very short, ride on a pony.
5. Went on a wagon ride pulled by a tractor.

They loved it and I saw so many people there that day that I knew and I was truly surprised to see each one of them.  How crazy that so many of my friends decided to go the same day.  Weird.  It was fun to visit and chat with friends and yet learn a little about animals and have a good time.   We will be going again soon I bet! 

View Full Album

I haven’t been very good this week about blogging, but don’t let that fool you.  I think about the blog all the time.  I write little things in my head (but obviously don’t put them here), and take pictures so that I can share them with you, but in the daily shuffle of priorities those things seem to get lost or not make it to the computer.  I still write them in my head though.  How many other people out there think in blog posts?

I have a necklace set that I’m going to share with you next week that is so fun.  It was a custom design and I had fun doing them for a mother and daughter.  More details to come.

Oh, I’ll post the winner of the “Followers Freebie” on Saturday morning. 

Silly Fun

Today was a day to be silly and have a fun lunch and not worry whether or not it was healthy.  You know those days are fun every now and then.  I made silly sandwiches that looked like the girls.  NOT REALLY.  LOL  They thought it was fun and of course, Ashley ate the eyes (M&Ms) right away.  Mia saved hers and ate them a hour later.  She is a VERY slow eater.  VERY S….L….O….W eater. 

My allergies kicked up today and I sneezed all day long and blew my nose like crazy and generally felt like I was in a fog.  I’m going to take allergy medicine on a regular basis starting TODAY and see if that helps.  I’m miserable.  UGH!  You didn’t ask, but I told you anyway.  : )

I will leave you with a pair of earrings that are a great punch of color to add to your lampwork collection.  Go ahead and visit them.  Go on.   They are on sale also!

Till tomorrow.

Treasures

Mia couldn’t wait this morning to show Mark and I what she found yesterday while at Aunt Vicki’s house.  She and her cousin Ella, ran around in the forest with Vicki and gathered ALL kinds of things.  I remember the wonder of finding wonderful little treasures in the county when I roamed around.  Mia turned her little brown bag upside down onto the table and this is what was in her bag.  She had a beautiful piece of moss, twigs, precious little white flowers, pinecones, grass, and “onion grass”.  How fun to be so small and see the little beauty of life. 

 
What did I do yesterday you ask?  Well, thanks for asking.  : ) I worked and then I organized my corner of the office.  Packing supplies are now all nice and tidy, I purged myself of papers that I collected for no GOOD reason, and then organized my 2008 receipts and invoices into a box and then…um…I played!  It was fun to be with just Ashley.  I really enjoyed the refreshing change in our schedule!

A looooong time ago

I have had this picture on my refrigerator for some time and love to look at it.  This is a picture of my family from 1974 or 1975?  I don’t know exactly.  I am the one in the far left corner on my dad’s lap.  It makes me smile!  It also makes me miss my mom.  What fun though to see a picture from the past.