Even More Thankfulness...

G- God. Of course. :)
H- "Herby the Home Wrecker", as my husband fondly refers to him. (My body pillow that I can't sleep without- where would I be without you sweet pillow?)
I- Imagination and Imaginary Friends.
J- "Jewels"- Kendyl's imaginary friend. I also love Jack-o-lanterns.
K- Kendyl and Kenzie :)
L- Lullabies, my Love machine hubby, and my Love machine hubbies lullabies.
M- The Moon. I love, love, love the moon. She has inspired many beautiful thoughts, stories, drawings, and songs in my life. Even more though, another M word is Mother. :)
N- No more being sick. Hooray. After 3 weeks I think I can safely say I'm on the upswing for good. I hate bobbing up and down out of getting sick and then feeling better to realize I wasn't completely better and feel awful again. This isn't a fun time of year with all the yucky germs going around (especially for a teacher).
O- Olive Garden- yum! One of my favorite restaurants. Feel free to take me out anytime to that place.
P- Painting. I'm so glad I rediscovered my love for painting again this year and stopped being such a chicken (hiding it under my bushel). And could I forget Pickle? NO, NEVER! I love pickles. I go through a jar way too quickly. I wish they had more good nutrients in them.

More Thankfulness...

D- Diversity. I miss the rainbow of colors of faces that I would see in LA. Another D word is dancing. I'm thankful for silly, beautiful, uninhibited dancing. I get the biggest kick out of kids (or grown ups) that can just let loose. Whenever a really great song comes on, no matter where I am (home, watching a movie, in the grocery store) I can't help but start busting a move. There's nothing better to me than a terrible dancer who is just happy to be dancing (i.e. Elaine from Seinfeld).


E- Edward (yup- that Edward- sigh) Sorry if you are gagging right now Seth. Just know that you are my Edward. :)

F- Fall colors. I just love them. They are my favorite. That's why I decorate my Christmas tree with fall colors. Besides then I feel I have a good enough excuse to start decorating early for Christmas (yup- we already have begun- ekk). Other F words (NO! Not that one you stinker.) Food and Feast! Yum. I love food. Especially dessert. Ooo I forgot to say dessert in my D words. But the most important F word of all- my FAMILY! There would be no happiness without you!

The Pay It Forward Idea

Here's the Pay It Forward Idea:I will send a handmade gift to the first three (3) people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. You may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog. (so, you must have a blog to participate.) I can't wait to see who I will be giving to. To join, just cut and paste this on your blog and comment away. So get posting.

My cute friend Amber has a really sweet list going and I thought it would be fun and good for me to think about all the stuff I'm thankful for- especially this time of year. Only I can't seem to be serious about any letter I try to think up. I'm going crazy here trying to be as sweet as Amber, so I guess I'll just put up the dumb stuff that's going through my head and maybe something sweet will come out every once in a while. I think I'll post a couple a day instead of just one so I can get it done by Thanksgiving. Join the fun, even if my 3 are taken of who I'll give something to and let me know if you're doing it so I can check out your blog too. :)

(Note: the pillow picture above is not what I'm making. I just found the picture googling and thought "why not?" I don't know what I'm making actually, but I will.)

A: Azcaban- I'm thankful there's a place for all those nut-job wizards and witches.

B: Brandy- Yah, I'm thankful for it. What? It makes me feel better at the end of the day. I'm just kidding. You know I don't drink the stuff.

C: Capitalism- Down with Communism! ooo ooo and candy. Nothing goes better with a little candy than Capitalism- YUM!

I'm the luckiest girl in the world!

I am, I tell you.... because I have the best friends in the world! Last week I found this package on my porch sent to me all the way from some of my buddies in the fiery lands of southern California. I should have been sending them something because of the sad state of things going on there, but no, they were thinking of my silly birthday while smoke filled their lungs- bless their little hearts. So thank you Hannah, Kristen, Nanette, and Betsey. I sure love you guys and miss you more than you know. I was a wreck for at least a day because of your sweetness (more than my normal wreck-ness from missing you, that is). As soon as Seth got home from work and saw it all he said exactly what I thought he'd say. He looked at my presents, furrowed his brow, and said, "Well, let's move back" in his Eeyore sort of way. Of course we'll wait for the fires to be completely gone first. :) In all actuality, we are enjoying it here. We have the things we missed in CA- family close, our own home, less work hours, mountains, lots of roaming space... we just miss now the things in CA that we can't have here. Oh to have pumpkin cheesecake and eat it too. :) We'll just try to focus on the good things of each place that we live in and not dwell too much on the stuff we can't have- like you sweet friends a stroll away! Love you girls and all the rest of you still there!!!!

P.S. And thank you Jason for sending us post cards of Southern CA on our bdays too- so we could miss it more. :)

Our Halloween Costumes!!!

Well I can't believe I finished these in time for Halloween. Even though I have been sewing them for many weeks I had to stay up till at least 2:30 in the morning several times this last week to finish and I was sewing Seth's jabot for his suit 20 minutes before our Halloween Trunk-or-Treat party. I don't really think of myself as a talented seamstress, so I hope it doesn't feel like I'm showing these to brag like it took me so little effort or something. It's actually quite the opposite. My costume took me about 6 weeks last year, Seth's took me about 3 weeks, and the girl's costumes took about 3 1/2 weeks altogether. Even though I don't think I'm super talented or that it comes naturally, I do think of myself as determined and I feel that's a talent. It takes me about 4 times longer to sew something than my friend Kristen and by the time you see a finished product you can know that I've sewn, unpicked and resewn almost every seamline about 3 times to make it right because I screw up so much (and maybe I'm a bit of a perfectionist- but lets not bring that up). I find that every project makes me that much better with less screw ups though. Just in case you can't tell we are 17th century vampires. I was going to make a different costume for myself this year, but when my girls both told me they wanted to be little vampires to match my dress from last year how could I refuse but to use the same dress. :) So here we are....

Makenzie

(She likes to be very creepy so she really hammed it up for any picture taken of her in her dress. Notice her little spiders in her hair- her idea I might add.)

Kendyl

(Here she is waiting to see Kenzie in her school parade and the other picture is of her marching in her own school parade)

Seth

(He likes to be creepy too. I suppose that's where Kenzie gets it. :) I overexposed the picture to the right on purpose so you could see the detail and textures of the different pieces of his suit.)

Karalenn
(Well I really didn't have any pictures of me taken by myself since I made this last year. So here's last year's pictures.)

The Whole Fam

Better hope you don't run into us on a dark night.

Hope you all had a very happy and spooky Halloween!

The details of parties, events, and such will are on our family blog here. I just wanted to post the sewing projects that I've been putting my heart and sleep into the last few weeks here on my projects/art blog.

Happy Halloween!

We made these for the outside of our house. just kidding. We may just have to though. Too funny. We'd probably get in trouble with our HOA.

A funny story

I just thought my friend told a really funny story on her blog of what happened to her at breakfast two days ago. I can't believe how out spoken some people are.

http://lisamarieandkendonjensen.blogspot.com/2007/10/im-so-sorry-i-spoiled-your-breakfast.html

A Witch's Birth

I made this little painting a few days ago thinking of Kendyl and how much she likes to throw spiders into so many of her drawings. They are usually dangling in the air all over her characters. Toon club's topic last week was "Witches" and even though I'm not in toon club it made me want to make a witch painting. It also goes along with week 43's challenge in the art journal that is "scary". Although it's not very scary, it was to Kendyl. :)

At night sometimes we will make up stories and take turns going around adding on to the story until the story finds its end. Well this little painting spured a new story a few nights ago. Tonight Makenzie refined and dictated the story to me, so I put it on our family blog here. The girls are downstairs making drawings to illustrate more parts in Kenzie's story.

Week 36: Life Is Beautiful

Awww. Finally I am out of my creative slump!!!! I'm so glad to be posting this and not have to look at my Jane Austen post anymore. I hate how I want to draw and paint and then I get in a slump because some picture doesn't turn out right and I freak out, throw it in a drawer, and vow to never paint again and tell myself I'm only fooling myself that I'm an artist. I have attempted several drawings and paintings and felt super annoyed. In fact my last post for the art journal I didn't like, but put up anyway because it had been so long.... but the family Halloween portrait I was working on made me so mad I didn't touch a pencil for two weeks. Finally this morning I was inspired by a fun children's Halloween book and wanted to make my own night time pumpkin patch.

So here it is: Week 36's Challenge was, "Life Is Beautiful" and although I'm behind this fits perfect with how I feel. I just love autumn time! Halloween, colorful fall leaves, pumpkins, whistling wind, crisp air, my birthday, my hubby's birthday, smells, pumpkin carving, walking through trails in the mountains, sewing costumes, picture taking, decorating, pumpkin pie milk shakes, parties, costume contests, making silly little crafts with my kids. Life is beautiful in the fall. It's my favorite!

P.S. A very happy 36th birthday to my biggest brother!

What Jane Austen Character Are You?

Well this was fun. Try it out. I'm so happy I turned out to be my favorite character! When I think about it, I would probably have to admit that I am a bit of an Emma. I do just love Pride and Prejudice though. I know the book by heart in many places and definitely the A&E movie version is memorized. I always spurt out little lines that apply to life every once in a while. I go through my Jane Austen phase and try to reread her books every spring, but most of all Pride and Prejudice if I can't fit any other book in. I watch the 6 hour A&E version monthly and my girls groan, "Oh no, not Mr. Darcy again!" :) I like to watch it while I sew or catch up on backed up laundry. Believe me, it can take that long.

Anyway, try it out and tell me who you are.

Take the Quiz here!

Check this out!

This is just too funny. I have been looking for a good black top hat to go with Seth's vampire costume I'm making him this year for Halloween and this ebay listing was just too funny to me. Most people will show one, maybe two pictures of the item and this wonderful person posed with his top hat 11 times! Some with a gun, some with a pool stick, some with a beer, one with a girl. It's just too good. http://cgi.ebay.com/CUSTOM-QUALITY-BLACK-LEATHER-TOP-HAT-MODERN-BEAVER-SILK_W0QQitemZ120161024212QQihZ002QQcategoryZ105399QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem I think this one's my favorite!



A few minutes later: I just found the same guy in almost all the same poses with a white hat just like this one. He's so cool! Here's the link to the white top hat pictures too http://cgi.ebay.com/CUSTOM-QUALITY-WHITE-LEATHER-TOP-HAT-MODERN-BEAVER-SILK_W0QQitemZ120163141951QQihZ002QQcategoryZ105399QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Okay now this is getting ridiculous. I just found him again on a different one. It's a girl posed a bunch of times in a top at and one of her last pictures is of her sitting on his lap and him wearing a big sombrero. He must be the top hat pimp. Here's the link. http://cgi.ebay.com/ROYAL-ASCOT-BLACK-LEATHER-TOP-HAT-PROM-FORMAL-WEDDING_W0QQitemZ120163142012QQihZ002QQcategoryZ105399QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Week 35 and 33's Art Challenges

For Week 35's challenge it was strength. We were suppose to create something around what our strengths were. I know one of my strengths (and maybe weaknesses) is how easily I give my heart to others. I love loving people. I love to do things for others. In fact I live for it. :) I grew up always helping other people and loved being able to cheer them up or do some sort of secret little thing for them. Not to say I wasn't a stinker or that I was perfectly kind. I mean, we all have Emma moments right? (that's what I call them anyway- you know the scene in "Emma" where she says something horrible at the strawberry picking picnic and you just feel sick watching it and Mr. Knightly scolds her- "badly done Emma!" Oh how I hate those horrible moments) Anyway, my mom was a wonderful example of acceptance and my dad was an incredible example of service. I thought I'd make my painting into the Queen of Hearts card since everyone else is scrapbooking these and on a deck of cards. It made me feel like I was fitting in a little more with the rest of these amazing gals. For Week 33 the challenge was 10 minutes. Create anything and see what you come up with in 10 minutes. Although I forgot the 10 minute part and I remembered it as 15 minutes for some reason and then fudged for an extra 5. hehe I didn't have anything in particular in mind except to use a color that's in my head lately- cobalt. All because of a certain dress in my head right now. :) I just wanted to make a quick little painting of any sort of design that wanted to come out- so here it is. enjoy.

(My sister just asked me how I made it so I guess I'll describe what I did: I sketched out the lines of the borders and flowers, then put masking fluid over the flower vines and borders and went crazy with the blues and purple watercolor- painting over it. The masking fluid protected what I wanted to keep white so I could be as careless and dark with the blue as I wanted. Then I crinkled up saran wrap and stuck it on top of the blue to let it sit and dry. When I lifted the saran wrap it dried making that texture in the background. Then I took of the masking fluid with an erasure and outlined everything in black. I added touches of rusty orange when I was all done for a good compliment to cobalt blue. voile! So basically it's just watercolor and ink)

Well folks, the results are in...

Stirring the papers.......


Drum Roll Please.....

And the winner is....

XENA!!!!!!

Of all the silly luck... Xena happens to be Seth's youngest sister (Hanna) and she was at Seth's parents' house when we did the drawing tonight!

This is a reenactment of Hanna hearing her name win.

This is her saying, "Nanny-nanny-boo-boo" to everyone in the contest.

For shame. :)



Thanks everyone for participating. It was super-fun. Now I don't want to hear any whiney-whinersons saying that the contest was fixed in any way. :) That includes you, John, who will now think that I have never liked you. hahaha

A Great Movie!

Alright everybody, why haven't you seen this movie yet? I'm so surprised at its box office sales right now. It was such a good fairy tale- adventure, action, romance! The actors (Claire Danes, Charlie Cox, Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sienna Miller, Rupert Everett) were amazing. I loved Robert De Niro! And the "dead brothers"- hahaha. You just have to go see it. Seth and I went on a date last weekend (hooray- those are always great to have) and went to this movie. It was so fun, one of my favorites from the summer. I don't want to talk it up too much, but I really just want to encourage people to go see it. The official movie site is http://www.stardustmovie.com/ . Go to it and see clips of the movie or their photo gallery. Anyway, it's definitely going to be one that I buy and I don't say that often. In fact I think I need to go see it again for "research purposes". :) I fell in love with a certain dress of hers (Yvaine) in the movie. Actually both dresses she wears are FABULOUS! Although the silver one is amazing and is more true to her character of being a fallen star I can't help myself about her blue one! I mean come on!... it it must have at least 15-20 yards of my favorite cobalt blue colored taffeta and deep blue velvet. yummm. :)

So here are a two pictures showing her blue dress. Get ready to drool. I am going to make this dress for me for Halloween this year! (you can drool on me when I wear it :) I know I'm no size 2 like Claire Danes, but I think it could still look fabulous. I kept telling myself that I should use my vampire dress again since I spent so long on it, but again... I can't help it. :) Sorry Seth. I know I kept telling you that same thing too about wearing my vampire dress again. Did you really believe me? I think I might have for an few days.

My friend Kristen, is going to make the silver star dress (here and here) for herself for Halloween so we'll make a cute pair. (If only we were in the same state still- sob, sniff, sniff.) Maybe I'll have time to make Tristan's (Charlie Cox) costume for Seth (here). :)

Anyway, I'm so excited. I'm going to get right to work as soon as I finish Kendyl's mini vampire dress. :) She wants it gold though so it wont be too spooky. She said she wants to be able to wear it at Christmas too. silly girl. My fingers and just tingling here imagining sewing all that velvet and taffeta. ooo ooo Maybe I'll even dye my hair platinum like Claire Dane's in the movie! eek... Oh I am such a dork! :)

Random Halloween Prize Give Away!

Well I started working on a painting to get back into Emily's challenges, but then this came out. I can't help it! So I guess it will just have to fit with Week 37's idea for "Draw Something". There's something that gets me going as soon as school starts. Even though it's in the upper 80's and 90's, not a leaf has changed color, and I haven't even seen one little ghoul or goblin I just get so excited for Halloween to come! I like to start planning costumes and begin sewing at the end of summer so I can have a few months to get the costumes made in time (here, here, here, here, and here). Today the Halloween bug bit me! To celebrate the approaching fall and ghoulish delights I made this little painting.

I want to try something fun too. I'm ready to go get some candy! I'm talking the good stuff! (Not what people usually pass out at Halloween). I'll pick up some extra and send it to one of you! I'll also make a copy of this little painting and send it along. It's my way of getting everyone else nerdy-excited with me so I'm not alone in this. Leave your name (or more) in the comments. On Sept. 8th I'll draw a name of who to send some treats and this painting to. I'll post the winner on the 9th! Go ahead, don't be shy. Good luck to the only 5 friends that look at this blog. :) hahaha Oh- and one entry per person. :)

P.S. Kendyl says the kitty's name is Cat-tail and the witch's name is Pretty Spidery Girl. Just thought you'd want to know.