Time just flies by...finally an update

Okay it has been pretty busy here the past month! With a trip to Pittsburgh to visit Art's family for thanksgiving and then the office party here this past Friday and all of the prep involved..i have fallen, yet again, behind in my postings!

Let's back track a month or so. We had a fun Halloween..here are the boys in their costumes. The day was filled with the school party and evening trick or treating. As the tradition continues, Art took them out around the neighborhood while i passed out candy. It is sad, we get fewer and fewer trick or treaters each year.

Then the first week of November, Salina came to visit for a couple of days..that was nice. We had been missing her. Here she is with the boys the morning she went back to Portland. Mom and daughter..i love this little girl...okay yeah she is growing up...and doesn't look one bit like her mom..ha ha
the we went to Pittsburgh..actually south of Pitts to visit Art's family! We stayed with Rick(Art's brother) and Marcia our SIL and also Mikayla our niece. They live out in the middle of nowhere in the hills, on a gorgeous farm! The morning sun shone in the kitchen window in the morning..it was so cozy and inviting!

Dinner was at Judy and Ron's house..here is a picture of Judy showing a rarely seen side of herself..ha ha ha..what a silly girl. I love Judy(Art's sister)

Ty and Jon with Mikayla and Oscar

Here is the whole family that was gathered! what a wonderful day. I think the only one missing is Aaron's wife leigh..she was snapping the pictures. Liegh is such a sweetie! This was the first time we got to meet her and their baby Abram. Aaron is Bob and Linda's son. Bob is Art's brother

We have done a bit of holiday decorating around here...the Blythe girls have been busy too! Paprika is putting on the finishing touches on the tree in the house!

No holiday season is complete without at least one Christmas program at the school. Here are the first and second grade students performing their program. It was called how the penguins saved Christmas. They were all dressed as penguins..it was a fantastic program and cute as ever!

Here is my little penguin, Jonathon! The decorating continued, The Christmas tree is 12 feet tall. We broke down and went artificial this year for the first time ever. We were in a time crunch getting ready for Art's staff's office party hosted here at the house so it was easier for me to just go get a tree. I was fortunate to find a 12 footer~...man this baby is huge too!

A close upof someof the decoration...My mom made the most amazing metallic paper snowflakes...most are red and i just love them. What a lovely addition to my tree. I was smiling when i put them on...they were the very last touch that I added! Thank you mom!!

Here are some of my dolls wishing everyone a Happy Holiday season! oh and they are singing a few carols too..ha ha


And another wish of love and happiness from me! I got all dressed up for the party..a good opportunity for a picture i think..this is with the standard "Salina"smile...ha ha..now i know where she got it from..LOL!

And last but not least pictures of the office party!Art and his staff!

Mingling and drinking! Fun was had by all! dinner was delicious too, catered by my favorite restaurant BiCi Bistro here downtown Battle Creek!

The hit of the party..yummy chocolate fountain! Lots of goodies to dip in it too..fruits and cookies and pretzels and lots of stuff!

Nicole! She has helped with our theater parties..isn't she just a doll?She says she feels like family..and yeah i have to admit, i feel like she is another daughter!

And last photo for today, Matt and Michelle, our neighbors and best friends. They are the greatest. Matt now works for Art doing his lab work making retainers and appliances.

So there you are, an update on our lives..phew! next time i won't wait so long..famous last words..huh?..ha ha Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Seasons Greetings to you all!

love and hugs!

we are the world

in light of our historic moment on election day, i would like to congratulate all of the Obama supporters that i know...comprises probably at least 70% of you!..haha! In the spirit that you all know me for, I want the best for all and I sure hope you all were right! I stand behind McCain's statement of support, this is our America and we all want the best for everyone and we can do it if we all work together!

As always, I plan on bringing my own sunshine to each and every day, no matter what clouds may hover~ As the saying goes, be the change that you want to see in the world!! Love and unity is what I envision a perfect world to hold...and to celebrate that, what better song to enjoy than the collaborative song of many many many popular and famous artists "we are the world!" Still my all time favorite song ever!





namaste!! (that means may the divine spark in me greet/recognize the divine spark in you...loosely translated)

having fun this weekend!

wow what a busy week...uh yeah i know tell me something we haven't heard before..okay crazy but a good week. Let's see...on Tuesday i went birthday shopping for Turner..we had football practice mon-weds, football game on thursday, the cornmaze with cubscouts tuesday, turners birthday Weds..finally nothing Friday, Turners birthday party at the bowling alley Saturday and sewing day in between the stuff on Friday through Sunday....so here we go..backwards in order of things...
Today i started out with crocheting this cute apple hat! I realized that the color was matching the little hat that i received as a gift with an order from a lovely lady over in the UK. Her granny Madge knits them....so of course i had to make matching dresses for the girls. Raven i think is upset though that her hat isn't an apple....Here Stormy gives her a shove for their photo shoot...


ahhh nice and comfyRaven and her hand made hat from Granny Madge and dress by me...i have been having fun drafting my own patterns for the Strawberry Shortcake dolls and the Blythe girls! I made the gnome last year..i think i need to make some more..they are so cute!Stormy's apple hat is my second attempt at amigurumi crochet...i didn't have a pattern so i winged it and am tickled with the results...i kept seeing these hats and have wanted one of my own for a quite a while...then i found the fabric and made the outfits...
I recently finished decorating the Garden Room in the Expedit shelves...the knitting is one of the treasures i found when i was on an outing with Joanne and Catherine..it was on a card..ha ha. This is Seville(l) and Paprika (r)
my lime haired Pistachio is still on her mission interviewing all the frogs around here to see if one turns into her dream prince....
Calico is happy and warm in her new hat and cape that i finished yesterday!
Kendall has been in the mood for halloween, so she ventured out to an abandoned cemetary...and finds a new friend...she has her magical dragon with her to keep her safe....she doesn't seem to think it matters that he is the smallest creature around...
Things get a bit too scary for her...
she is wearing an outfit i made on Friday! i just love all of the details on this. It is made with a pattern i bought on ebay...the directions are all in Japanese...so sometimes construction is a bit of guessing game..lol So....our adventure on Tuesday was going through a corn maze with the cubscout pack 300. It was intimidating at first..but then i realized it was loads of fun!

some of the cubscouts..Jonathon joined this year too..so we are going to have loads of fun this year!
we had stations to find and had a card to punch. There was a sheet with a sort of map and clues on where the 10 stations were...it was really pretty cool!

here is the arial veiw of the actual maze...The man uses coloring book pictures and a portable GPS to create his mazes..you can find them on google gps as the M-66 corn maze
Last but not least...Turner turned 9 on Wednesday..this was his main gift...they have been playing it nonstop this week.... so a fun but busy week....and finally some R&R time for mamma...now off to bed to start the next crazy week of my life

love and hugs to you all!!

Rip Van Winkle round robin and more football

Well, I finally got some work done in my dark round robin books. I was able to get two spreads done in Cindy's dark hearts and winged things book the first spread..when there is darkness there is also light: Angels. Each tag has a word on it ie:hope,love,joy,trust
Forbidden Love. hybrid metallic ink on the black pages adds such a cool touch. I have had this heart with wings stamp forever just waiting to be put in this book! Cindy i hope you like the spreads.
This page is for a collaborative project to be displayed at the Oshtemo public library. We decided on the theme of "4 letter words" My word is wish

And now the football pictures of the thing that has totally consumed my life for the last 2 months or so. Here is Nick,Tyrus and Jake. best buds since kindergarten! Tyrus after the game. He got tons of playing time this game...and was covered in sweat. Unfortunately they lost the game :(

Tyrus was team captain for this game too..cool! Little Jon about to lose a front tooth. we ate at cracker barrel after the game..the tooth came out the next day!

my ham Turner...

hello...remember me?

ha ha..okay i wasn't planning on updating really..but came over to add my friend Lorrie to my blog list...okay let me tell you..if you have ever ever been interested even one bit about making your own papers you must go visit her blog! She makes the coolest paste papers i have ever seen. She also makes hand made books and altered art among many other things..go check her out. http://lorrieabdo.blogspot.com/

WEll, my life has been consumed with football the last couple of months..and between the exhaustion from the practices and games and still getting used to the school schedule..i have had a tiny bit of time in between for a few fun things..but unfortunately not much. However, in the art department i have been creating projects for Stampington.com. This altered lunch box is one of my newest creations, due out sometime in the next week or so in the Postscript newsletter. It features Oscar as one of my "Fairy Riders"

This weekend I tried my hand at something completely different!! Amigurumi! Little crocheted animals all made with one basic single crochet stitch. My pink elephant turned out pretty good for my very first try. I have not done any crochet to speak of in over 20 years! I think more will be coming. I also bought a book on crochet borders and crochet flowers. I tried knitting with awesome instruction from my mom...but i just don't think i have a great knack for it..so back to crochet it is~
Of course i am still playing with my ever growing collection of dolls! My Blythe dolls have been such a bright spot for me...and playing with the scenes and such gives me such a kick...Here is Kendall sitting with her little companion, Pinkie, contemplating whether i did good on the elephant or not. Pinkie admits that she is rather disapointed that he wasn't smaller so she could more easily play with him!..ha ha Here is my newest addition...some are here on the table...Strawberry Shortcake dolls...the others are in the Shortcake Soup~...ha ha..to tell you how crazy it has been..i have had them over a month and just yesterday finally got around to giving them a much needed bath.

Shortcake Soup!!Once upon a time..there was a green haired princess named Pistachio. She has been searching all the land for her true love! She had heard rumors that if she kissed all the frogs in the kingdom she would finally find her Prince...here she sits on a lily pad under the light of the full moon..interviewing her first three prospects. She hasn't decided yet how badly she wants to kiss all the frogs, so she asks first.."So, Which one of you is the real prince?"...to be continued

And along with the dolly play and photo sessions..come clothing designing and creation...this beauty was designed especially for Pistachio~ I did have the suprise when she arrived..her hair was not LIME green as i thought it is NEON LIME..woah! took about 2 seconds to fall in love!
There is also some major drama going on around here in Sunny Blythe Towers...Clover is so disappointed. Her "date" did a no show..she thought he was coming when he said he would "try" to meet her for the opera..Officer Kaylarae did clue her in that any time a person,especially a man says they will "try" to do something..it usually means they are not intending to do so....
"sniff sniff" Clover wails on..... Meanwhile in Sunny Blythe Towers...Arturo(the missing date) is being romantic with his true love Anni and is watching reruns of their favorite soap opera ....Blythe Opera....he really does love Anni...Clover should have known better than to try to vie for his attention..every one around here knows his heart is true to Anni!

On a happier note..every one enjoys a rainbow..and I am one of those that just is entranced by anything even resembling one...one of my favorites is the calico wall at the fabric store..oooooh..aaah! I now have my Blythe Rainbow..from left to right: Rickie,Seville,Gabrielle,Pistachio,Calico,Koneko and Lilla...yes they all have names..ha ha

so one last development...i stand true to the statement that when one door closes another opens...soon i will be designing for an incredible digital scrapbooking website http://www.scrapartist.com/index.html A very exciting new opportunity and I have so many ideas already!! Keep your eyes out soon for my new blog that will be dedicated to this new and exciting art medium! i will keep that posted with all of my latest in the digital scrapping world!! I hope to have designs available by the beginning of November...maybe even soon~

ta-ta for now..and i promise it won't be two months next time~

xox's