Week 46 and 47

woo woo. I'm naked! :0) My first nudie painting. hehe Week 46's theme to do an art challenge around was "Rejuvination" and Week 47's theme is "Happy Place". This is exactly how I give back to myself and fill up my little "mommy store" so I can have energy and patience to keep going. It is my happy place as well so I thought I'd combine the two since I was behind and they go hand in hand for me. (Other happy places are the beach, the temple, cozy by a fireplace with a good book... so if I have time after I'm all caught up more on these challenges than I'll do one of those, but for now this'll work.) Wanted to try a different sort of face shape and style, but feel I look a little Latina. It's fun, but just doesn't look too much like me. That's okay though, it's good to try new stuff.

I LOVE bubble baths! I could take them everyday. It is how I cope and move on. I grab a good book, sometimes light candles, fill it up with salts, bubbles, oil, whatever yummy smelling stuff I've got and soak and soak and soak. Sometimes I set up a small tv/vcr in there and watch movies. It's ridiculous how much I love baths. When we lived in our ity bity house in LA the bathroom was so small it couldn't fit a tub. I had no bath for 2 years and I thought I would go crazy some days. It's so fun to have a jetted tub in my new home. I get quite a lot of use out of it, as do my girls. :)

Week 28 and 39

Well I combined these into one post even though the weeks between were spread so far apart. I'm playing catch-up. I feel like I go in cycles of creativity. I've just got bit again by the painting bug when before that it was the decorating bug and before that the sewing bug. Okay so anyway, about the art challenges, that is what this post is suppose to be about anyway right?

Week 28 was "Goal of the Week". So I'm totally cheating, but I figure it's okay to if I admit it. The truth is that I really just wanted to paint a little Christmas tree and use glitter and get into my hubby's gold leafing. :) So I pretended that my goal of the week was to get my Christmas tree up. (It's embarrassing to admit, but we put our tree up two weeks before Thanksgiving- gasp! I know, poor Thanksgiving. ) So I guess my goal of the week was to pretend to need to put the Christmas tree up. There, that sounds legit.

Week 39: "Someone Spesh" Well since it's Christmasy time and I'm pretty sure that's why the painting bug bit me I painted a picture of Santa Claus. I'd certainly say he's special, wouldn't you? Since I had so much fun with Seth's gold leafing I used it again (on the star and bells on his hat and scarf). Don't you just like his beard? :) It makes me happy to look at it. I love those little swirls. Seth had the great idea to have the shape of the beard mimic his hat but go the opposite direction. I had made a slightly different shape to a beard and I'm so glad I changed it. I'm married to such a smarty pants. :)

Well I'm off to probably catch up some more while I'm in the mood. This is sure fun. Actually no, I just looked at the clock and realized I'm an idiot and I'm going to bed. Tomorrow (oops, I mean today, but when the sun comes up) I'll paint more I'm sure since I don't have to work, but first I better tidy up the house so I don't feel icky all day. It must be late because I'm writing down my thoughts. Ok, goodnight before I write something even more dumb. Like that.

Hickory Dickory Dock

Emily's challenge for week 30 was "Not Anymore". With my children being 4 and 7, I don't have any babies anymore. I cannot turn back the clock and have my growing big girls be so little again. It makes me realize how much I need to cherish my time with them at this age because that is slipping quickly just like the time of when they were babies. It seems to be slipping even faster. That's why I have so much fun keeping our family blog and my own family journals so I can record and remember the wonderful and stinkery things they do.
I've always LOVED LOVED LOVED grandfather clocks. When I was a little girl my dad and I would look up grandfather clocks in catalogs and day dream about making our own in his garage. I was sure we were going to, just as I am sure I will get to it eventually. :) For many years I've imagined making a little painting of the "Hickory Dickory Dock" nursery rhyme using a grandfather clock. I'm glad I've finally done it. It makes me want to paint some of the other nursery rhymes I've loved like, "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod" and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". I guess keep your eyes out for those. They may be coming (depending on how long I continue to be baby hungry) :). Don't be surprised if my next paintings are Christmasy though.

Last Installment of Thankfulness (for now)

V- Vacations- glorious vacations! Vacuums- although I love them more in the hands of my husband. Vampires- only the good kind like Edward and his "family" or else my family in our Halloween costumes. I'm thankful for VanDyke's too. :)
W- Wishing Wells, Wishing Stars, Wish Bones, Wishing on candles, Wishing on eye lashes, etc. I'm also thankful for the Weekend! I love playing and catching up on Saturdays and I love resting and going to church and eating Sunday dinner with Seth's family on Sundays!
X- Okay so it's going to sound obvious and dumb because it's the only X word in our language- well practically :) but I'm thankful for X-rays because we are going to the dentist this morning and so our girls will be getting x-rays of all their lovely Halloween candy cavities. I guess you would think I wouldn't be grateful for that, but you'd be wrong. I don't blame the X rays. I blame that darn capitalism-candy combo that I love so much.
Y- My YARD! Hooray, there are such things as yards in other places. It's amazing to realize after living in LA, but we have a yard. And not just one! It's true... we have 2! And you can run around in them and plant flowers and mow them.
Z- zzzzZZZZZzzzzz- I'm thankful when I can get some of those!

This has been fun for me. In all seriousness though, I feel so blessed and too often over look all the things to be thankful for. I have begun to realize that the past few months I have been spending too much time thinking of things that I want instead of things that I'm thankful for. It's interesting because we have been blessed to be able to buy a house. We have been saving and hoping for that for our entire marriage. We have lived in places smaller than my family/kitchen combined and been utterly happy with a bed that comes out of a wall into the middle of a family room or a bedroom so tiny and narrow we had to buy bunk beds to fit two kids in there. Now that we have a bigger space most of my thoughts have been how much I "need" to fill it with wonderful furniture, more toys, decorations, etc. My thoughts have turned from grateful to selfish. Isn't that interesting... that the more I've had the easier it has been for me to want more instead of realizing how blessed I've been? Well I'm glad I caught myself, so I can change things around. The blessings that I've always had no matter what I've had around me are still the same and that could make anyone happy if they would realize it and think upon it. We live in a beautiful world created by loving creator. We have a Father in Heaven who created us in His image and loves us and hears our prayers and answers them. We have His Son, who loves us, came to earth to show us the way, and gave his life for us. We have the Holy Ghost, our free agency, our talents, trials to humble us and help us, repentance, and an ultimate potential in each of us. We have scriptures, our families, the temple, the gospel, a prophet, beautiful sunsets, oceans, mountains, trees, pretty leaves and flowers, snow, and beautiful people who inspire beautiful things and reflect the goodness from whom they were created. These are all things we have no matter where we live or how we live. Maybe these are too tender of feelings for this type of forum and I have to admit that it's easier to be silly than sincere, but I feel I want to share my feelings of gratitude to any who would want to read it. Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Life.

Thankful List part 4

Q- My Queeny Tiaras. I love my little collection of tiaras that I wear around the house while I clean or cook or just because. I know it's super nerdy, but what can I say, I like sparkly things.
R- Rainbows and radio active spiders that bite and then the comic books and movies about that guy the spider bit.
S- Seth of course and my scriptures.
T- Temple Blessings- I stole that one from Heidi. Too good not to use. Although I'm very thankful for tax returns as well.
U- Ok so the only u word that's coming into my head is unleavened bread and I'm not exactly thankful enough for that to use so I don't know... Oh wait- The United States! Yes, I'm super thankful to live in the United States with all my wonderful freedoms that have been fought and preserved. Gracious- how in the world could I have forgotten that?

Well only V,W,X,Y,Z and I'll be ready for Thanksgiving dinner!

My Classroom Thanksgiving Decorations

I thought I'd post pictures of some of the things I made for my class for Thanksgiving since we went ahead and moved straight onto Christmas in my house. (sheepish giggle)

I have a section of wall that I change each month for the season or holiday that month and so here's a picture of the little veggies and leaves I drew and cut out and glued to create a little border which I am pleased to say only took about 20 minutes to make. I was surprised by that. :)

The turkey is something I created while the kids were doing seat work one day after reading my friend Kristen's idea of making a Thankful Turkey. I went around asking the kids their favorite color and what they were thankful for. I saved room on the other side of the turkey for the other teacher who teaches in my classroom on Tuesdays and Thursdays. My favorite thankfuls are "dinosaurs" and "turkey". I thought those were so cute. Of course being thankful for moms and dads are wonderful, I would want my kids to say that, but I loved the kids that were thankful for more random things. I put it on the front of my classroom door so when parents wait for class to get out they could read what their kids said.

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.