who knew macrame was cool again?

One of the lampwork guild members, Jeri Wiskus taught us how to make a macrame bracelet with a large lampwork piece.  Definately fun and great to use up little orphan beads, or big ones!  

Oh my goodness

Right after I snapped this picture, hubby and I said, oh my goodness, we better go to the basement!  It started to rotate, ever so slowly!  We were in the basement for about 3 hours.  My sister came out just before the storm and brought a chicken...we put the chicken in at 6pm, went to the basement at 6:15, ran upstairs about 7pm grabbed the chicken and had a little picnic in the "bat cave." I call that divine intervention!!!!  We continue to pray for the entire Boy Scout community.  We had a very personal connection to the camp, those boys and their families need to be lifted in prayer.

Speaking of picnic...has anyone checked out picnik.com?  Miss Jill showed me this website on Weds.  Oh so easy!

have you seen my puppy?

Oh my goodness, can you believe Carl is almost 6 months old?  This little guy wants 15 kittens and 15 puppies...we told him he will have to live on a farm.  Any ideas on how to get Carl to stop digging?  

thirteen

This little man turned 13 last week, we had a great time celebrating his birthday!  I love this picture of him...he was one.  Oh my.

toothless hillbilly

This fine young man lost his front tooth this morning.  We have had some pretty good laughs lately when he would stick that loose tooth through his lips....looking like a hillbilly.  Hopefully, the tooth fairy is one top of her game and doesn't forget, it has happened before.  What are we supposed to do with these teeth?  I'm pretty sure his future wife doesn't want an old tooth.

thrown & blown

This afternoon my little boys and I went to Thrown & Blown at the Louisville Art Gallery.  This wonderful potter gave my middle his first experience at the wheel!  From cutting the clay to sponging out the water.  

As soon as his little hands touched the clay and the wheel started to turn his face was lit by an enormous smile.  It took a little while for him to get used to having clay on his hands.  When I asked what his favorite part of the day was, he said, "getting to make a pot on the wheel!"  I have to say, his little pot turned out very nicely!!

before & after

As I look at these pictures, I hope that once I put a little distress & glaze on this buffet it will look better. In the before picture you can't see the leg that is gnarly or the top that had a weird gunk on it...
Once I get some little touches done and the glass jars back it will look just right.

wrist love

A few bracelets I put together from the last batch of lampwork.  
Most of the colors are true...it was nice and sunny when I took the pictures!
Can't wait to get back to the torch and work on the May MLG challenge!  

uploading issues

I had some success with photoshop...however, I can't get the photoshop file to upload.

This weekend was very fun!  I went on a retreat and did alot of quilting and visited a camp in SE Minnesota.....I loved the sign on the dumpster.

I used the Pioneer Womans tutorial for Photoshop....Ooohh it is so addictive!  Someday, I will get the picture up here, try, try, again.

good intentions

I had good intentions of taking pictures this weekend at our neighborhood party, but I didn't take one picture!  I take that back, I took pictures with Jen's camera...now I have to hound her for copies!!!

Today, I took my first Photoshop class at Apple!!!  It was so exciting.  I have go back, cause now I can't remember how to get a picture from iphoto to photoshop...oh the dilemmas!!  I learned to layer, desaturate, lasso and use the eraser....so exciting!

I love this pic of my hubby & youngest.  Youngest has just started to look like dad's clone...love.it.

big paws!

This dog has mighty big paws!  It's amazing, he is only 4 months old.  Last week we started training him on the hidden fence.  He gets it.  It is strange how different dogs respond to the correction.  He doesn't cry/yelp when he gets corrected, but slowly moves back. 
The tiles in this picture are 12x12....he is going to be huge.  He's a good puppy.

easy peasy

Yesterday, I looked at the pile of felted sweaters and decided it was time to do something with them.  Betz Whites book, Warm Fuzzies helped with some inspiration and techniques.  It turned out much better than I hoped!
Here it is laying on the living room floor.  After getting the squares cut, it was really simple.  While I was cutting the squares, I watched all the internet episodes of "Eli Stone" on abc.com.  Just what I needed, another televisionshow to watch!

gone!

I am so excited!  All of these beads and a few others sold this weekend!  The Bead Bazaar was a lot of fun.

It was great to see all the guild members and people who stopped by.
Time to make more beads!

I am very excited, I had a little tutorial from Tanya (up there on the right) about how to do free motion quilting!!!  Can't wait to try it!!

39 & decisions

My love had a birthday...he is an April fool.  Did my in-laws need humor at that time?  My husband is the youngest of five...I think he provided much humor in everyones life!  Including mine.  Love you, honey!
I am trying to figure out how I want to tag my beads for the weekend.  I can't decide if I want to use colored paper or grey.  After looking at this picture, I think I might change the tags...

a "little" fish story

My little guy was the first to hook one yesterday.  He brought him up from the lake on the pole.  Eeewww!  Big mouth bass, or "little mouth!"  As you can see, he was thrilled with his catch!
Not too much later, brother comes up the deck stairs with another.  Since I do not touch fish, I was yelling for daddy!!!  He came in from the garage and removed the hook.  Meanwhile, Carl thought this was a treat/toy.  Both of the boys requested for the fish to stay in the sink and swim around for a little bit.  Luckily, daddy thought we should put them back in the lake so they could grow some more.  Then we can catch them again!?!?!

AFA

When we were in CO we visited my husbands very special Aunt in Colorado Springs.  When you pass the AFA on I-25, in the distance you can see the chapel and the football field a few airplanes but that's about it.  We decided to go to the Visitors Center on base.  The drive is about six miles from the gate.  The road meanders around, passing small buildings where deer graze unaffected by cars.  It was amazing to see base housing tucked behind the mountain.  There was a little snow on the trees making the drive even more beautiful.  Once in the Visitors Center, I am overwhelmed.  I have a step-brother who went to USMA.  At Westpoint, all the buildings are grey stone each of them over 100 years old.  The AFA was built around 1959, all the buildings are glass and steel, very modern architecture.  There is something about the military academies that makes me very emotional.

I love the honor code.  Duty, Honor, Country.  What if we all lived by those words?
The architectural pinnacle is the chapel.  Inside the stained glass goes from bottom to top.  When the sun is shining, the stained glass makes the entire church glow.  In the loft, there is an amazing organ with contemporary pipes.  The event coordinator told us that he schedules 150 weddings a year in this church.  Can you imagine 3 or more weddings a weekend!  That's alot of brides and mother of the brides!!!

we're back from vacation

Oh Brothers!  These two had a fun time at Beaver Creek, CO.  We went with neighbors and had more fun than we could have imagined!  Our little guy did one day of lessons then skied with us. (He has had lessons before.)  He has improved so much.  There are some great greenish/blue runs so it was fun to watch him ski!!!
We skied for two days.  This was our first time at Beaver Creek, like all the ski resorts, the views from the top are amazing.  The last run of day two was our last for the trip....see below!
G-man has been snowboarding for at least three or four years.  This year he decided to try a grind rail...he made it to the end without falling off....then threw his arm back and nailed his left wrist.  As you can see in background, we watched the basketball games while we waited.  Dr. says four weeks and he will be playing baseball!!!  

wow!!

This weekend, the boys needed a picture taken with Carl....
This one was taken January 28th, whoa, this dog might just be gigantic at the rate he's growing!

new beads

I had a really productive weekend.  I love these light pink with frit and bubbles.  On Saturday I visited my favorite little bead shop... www.mainstbeadstudio.com ....Cheryl has a 'supercute' shop!!  I am inspired to make beads again!!!
Black base with frit and bubbles.  These beads go so well with black and denim..i.love.them.
An old signature..black and white dots with a new twist.  Click on the picture to see up close.  I want to do a series of these for the Bead Bazaar on April 5th.  I think the Bazaar will be really great, lots of great people participating.  For those of you are interested I have a few discount coupons for admission.

carl & the wood floor

It's hard to tell where Carl ends and the wood floor begins!  He looks so sad, but I think it's just a Golden trait.  
He is almost 20+ pounds, seems like it gets heavier each day!  He is definately fitting in at our house, the barking is so loud it reminds me of the other boys in the house.  This dog can DIG, Carl has exposed our underground soaker hoses!  My husband says he is still in pre-school training.....think we could have some classes on barking & digging????