Theater Meet news flash 2007

Hello! My name is Oscar and I am the MC for this most exciting event of 2007! The annual Sonneborn Home Theater meet!Allow me to introduce you to our lovely usherettes and bartender for this most exciting event~ On the left we have miss Stephanie with her darling sister miss Salina in the middle and on the far right our newly acquisitioned bartender ms. Jamie. An amazing find! As our hosts Art and Angela were shopping for a new desk at Art Van, lo and behold they discovered that they also had staff with hidden talents like bartending...feeling like they got two finds of the year...not only the gorgeous new red couch in their foyer, but also the most wonderful bartender ever, they left that day with a huge smile on their face!....lolhere is a close up of this gorgeous and totally sweet trio~Our evening event had a tally of 67 guests(not including host and hostess and usherettes and a couple of friends) Here you see them enjoying the bounty of food spread before them
And here is Jamie all ready to take your order...We heard rumors that she was the best bartender ever and served up some pretty mean drinks!

Here is our most handsome and wonderful host, Art, enjoying a bit of conversation with our guests!
Don Kellogg and his wonderful wife Melissa!! I was enjoying all of the attention...amazing what the right clothes can do for a guy...they all fell over, gone ga-ga with me in, my spiffy outfit for the evening!Of course i had to make my rounds to make all of our guests feel welcome...here Kris is scratching my ears and head...and she even let me bite her fingers.....

then of course i had to get my photo op with the gorgeous usherettes....hey dudes am I cool or what?...i bet you wish you were me...he he he~

and we can't forget the wonderful momma! Here she is giggling with the girls...and wow she worked hard on those stunning red costumes for the girls~

here are a few more of our guests of the evening..we have a gazillion more pics but will only bore you with a few of the shots..here are a couple of newcomers to the party(first timers to our home) John, Garen,Jen and Mariellen
All and all it was a wonderful evening...the rumble was that there were gasps as the theater screen was brought to its full size of 14 feet wide...many great compliments of how it looked and sounded! Yay!! success!...there was lots of great conversations, food eaten, drinks drank, and even later a bit of hot tubbing and tons of giggles! I say it was a great party!!

Here are the men that made it happen, enjoying a most fun photo op with all of the girls...

from left to right: Mark Seaton our speaker genius,Stephanie, Ken Whitcomb;calibrator extraordinaire,Jamie, Chris Collins another calibrator extraordinaire, filling in while Ken was away, Salina, Nicole our parking coordinator and our host Art!

Next year, it has been decided, it is going to be a full blown Halloween party!!...wanna come?....I know mamma is going to make me a really cool costume..this year I think she is making me an "Oscar the Grouch" costume!!

but in the meantime...mamma is going to rest and read emails and hang out on the internet for a month...lol!..until she starts preparations for the family reunuion for Thanksgiving!

PS...

here is a link to last years costumes:
theater meet 2006

Coming up for AIR!!!! phew!

Well ,again I have been going furiously....sewing sewing sewing....It took me 4 hours to cut out the costumes and design the tails for them. Then, I sewed until late Saturday night, started over Sunday at 10 am and ended at 9pm and worked another 5 hours yesterday(squeezed inbetween normal family life...what is that any way..I forgot it has been so long.. I had gottn all but the last two sets of buttons done....today I went to the gym..ran to the fabric store, came home and sewed on the l;ast two sets of buttons and then made the hats... I am so happy to announce: the costumes are finally finished~ YIPPPPEEEEEEEE!

here is some of the carnage from that sewing adventure YIKES!!!....I have to add I am THRILLED to pieces with how they turned out!!! The best ones so far!

a little teaser...i don't want to completely spoil the fun of when the girls are done up and in them, I will post pictures on sunday!and this just happened to look cool...the hat next to the diva sign..lol....okay I admit i did move a piece of paper from behind to make it look nicer in the photo...
Art took this of the boys the night before last...so sweet to see all three of them conked out together
Well the race continues...I have 3 days left to completely clean and steam clean the whole house...finish up any outside clean up, grocery shop and finish planning the food(this is the short version of the list..highly abbreviated!)..speaking of which, the garage fridge is gross, so i have got to add that to the list.

for some reason I am now not nervous....now that the costumes are finished....*my goodness i never imagined it would take this long*..I really figured thatI would have them done, hats and all by Sunday night..here it is Tuesday. However, it worked out. I had Monday built in as my fluff overflow sewing day and Ashton's 21st birthday was saturday, so I was going to take him shopping today...but he forgot and was sleeping when I called...so i asked him if we could postpone til next week..he said that was great...yay! that made a huge difference..now I am back on my time track i had planned...

tomorrow Mr Clean and I have a date....and Mr Pinesol and Mz Murphy's Oil soap...and that steam cleaner and I are going to do a nice long slow dance......

hey is it Sunday yet?.......

til next time

xoxox!!

Life ate me Whole.....

and I have lived to tell about it..PHEW!!! Okay lets backtrack a few days...Friday...busy as usual..I had been able during the week to procure the highly valuable and much desired item...after many phone calls and a few trips around and about the local countryside...

Here we are...Friday evening...you enter the home and head for the studio...oh my GOSH!!! there is this horried trail of stuff...every where.....follow it and see ...what is it?

Is it black Snow?.....it is on the stairs....in the office...Under the stools......to the left it is under the chairs and around every thing...every where.....by ths sewing machine...by the bathroom...you turn to the right and you see the culprit...24 yards of black VELVET>>>it had exploded and shed all OVER the place....ACK..you learn that Angela has been wrestling with it for hours on end...... You turn and see more carnage...the trim that had been heartlessly ripped from the old burgundy curtains..i have a picture..but I will spare you the pain of such a heartless dismemberment...(have no fear a new life will be breathed into that yardage one day...resurrected into a new beautiful lined cape for Angela....) you turn again...and oh the poor woman...you spot Angela..she is beat and worn to the bone...
Ah but a quick peek behind her and you know all is not lost...her knight in shining armor brought her refreshment..a delicious glass of soothing Pinot Noir...Firesteed by name...it instantly brought life back to her...at least for a bit....next day..after more wrestling....sewing yards and yards of edge stitches and seams...you see the trim laid out....they are beginning to finally look like curtains rather than just a sea of black nothingness....
4 hours Friday night, 8 or more hours on Saturday...another 6 hours sunday and they finally have come to fruition...the beautiful black velvet theater curtains......

the story has an overlap..that continues inot Mondays saga....how does this poor little girl go from super model for her big sisters make up experiments....(she is building her portfolio) to Blues Clues puppy in less than 12 hours?
Poor thing had all 4 of her wisdom teeth pulled this morning...poor baby....tyrus foot ball socks make a great cradle for the icepacks..worked like a charm...the good news is they were clean..

so last picture for today...what is in this mystery package that so wonderfully arrived Friday afternoon...stay tuned to find out...it might be a while...but I promise you that you will learn about the contents of this very most exciting package....i jumped up and down for joy when it arrived!...

and Dad....blllllll on my drawers....rofl....and yes 30 some years later I am still healing from that bedroom out the window day..but i do use the experience wisely and occasionally tell that story to my own children at key moments of room cleaning stubbornness...

now off to attempt a start on a piece of art that is veeeeryy late!

so what is in your drawers?....

inspired by Adrienne's post about what was in her drawers....here are some of mine...ACK! I can't believe I am sharing these....the crevices of my home...the dark hidden things, that make you cringe to even think of some one else seeing them....
Lets take a quick tour...the front room....it has a library table with two drawers, and two end tables...what did i find in there?.....ooooh here is the first one...piles and piles of miscellania..a base for a broken clock, a baggie full of christmas replacement bulbs, a metal ball...a cookie cutter, a wheel for those pop the wheelie thingiess the boys had...I think those are all broken by now and the ropes that hold Mr Blowup Frosty and Mr Blowup Frankenstein down in the wind...among other things! I do blame some of this on that gorgeous man i live with...he is wonderful at helping pick up..BUT...he sticks it all in the drawers, rather than in the kids rooms or the closet or where ever it may belong and he doesn't know where...the good news is...the floors are clean..! *disclaimer* this is not a complaint...just an observation..I would much rather have to clean the drawers out once in a while, than have it all on the floors...


Hey! this one is rather organized and has no unwanted items...a drawer next to my favorite seat..it holds my tarot and angel decks only....
By the front door...not terribly crammed..Hey! that is where I stuck the catalogs from Dream Street....and wow~ I totally forgot about that wooden bear and clothes....saving it for grandkids I suppose...it has been there for I don't know how long...so I guess it is safe and can continue to stay there....
this is a miracle...a completely empty drawer!!! Halleluyah...okay i have to confess...Art just painted the coffee table and two end tables...so all the drawers except the phone book drawer are empty....for the moment at least...
Last but not most certainly least on our 'drawers in the house' tour(there are few more..the bill drawer and one or two more) is the MOTHER of Junk drawers...the kitchen junk drawer..you could create a complete survival kit from this drawer....Survivor man beware.....
na nah.......nah na.....(think Jaws theme here)...the suspense is building...here it is...the JUNK DRAWER of the Century....a close up!..are you scared?

and a top view.....super size the picture to see the enormity of the contents...doesn't it send chills down your spine....of excitement maybe?..since mostly it is altered artists that read this blog...lots of opportunities waiting here....you know..the scary thing about this really...I had cleaned it out less than 6 months ago....and this is how fast it filled...yikes!!!

so....now it is your turn....show me your junk drawer...and pass it on...post a link in the comments section..lets play a game of it...

MSG

wow..i was just reading that page on MSG...it is kind of scary...I have had some of the worst reactions and believe me it was terrifying! here are the ones that I experienced all at once on one of my most severe times:
rapid heartbeat
palpatations
nausea
flu like achiness
dizziness
lightheadedniss
loss of balance
disorientation
anxiety
panic attacks(yeah this helped the whole thing even more ....phew!)
insomnia(gees i wonder why!)
chills and shakes
numbness in my face and hands and feet
shortness of breath
chest pain
flushing
and a weird feeling in my mouth...sort of runny..kind of like when you are going to throw up...

I had all of these all at once..I thought I was dying....the adverse reaction developed suddenly. I never had to watch what I ate before..but one night after we had eaten chinese I woke up with all of these symptoms...the good news is i remembered that my brother got headaches from MSG..so i was smart enough to go see if there where other reactions...bingo!

so you might want to watch out...It is in my understanding that allergic reactions/sensitivities can come on suddenly...I guess your body can only tolerate so much of things..and one day....it is the straw that breaks the camel's back...kwim!?
just thought i might share this...some people have never heard how bad MSG is actually for us...I avoid certain restaurants because I know their proprietary season contains MSG~...

Tuesday night's dinner....

I apologize if you find my food pictures boring..but I am trying to make food amore fun and healthful point in my life...a hobby of sorts...Rather than throwing that frozen pizza in the oven just to save time...I am making dinners a fun part of my day...and taking pictures of the pretty dishes actually adds to the fun! I would also like to add if any one is interested in "recipes"just say so and I will be happy to add those too..i just thought that i wouldn'tpush it..lol! I hjave been told by any visitors that I am a really good cook...I do have to admit..I haven't killed any one yet....so it must not be too bad...rofl!...I guess my lasagne has a reputation..some one working on concrete here a couple of summers ago asked me about my lasagne..so guess what!? I made a lasagne lunch for the whole concret crew...about 8 guys the next day..they left with a smile on their faces..rofl!

Last night i tried something I have never made before. I made homemade chicken pot pie!...I usually hate anything pie...the crust makes me sick to my stomach..I realize now that it is probably because it is full of transfat, when you get pre-prepared crusts and on commercially made pies and pot pies...bleh! So, instead, I thought I would make a bisquit topping...'made from scratch' bisquit topping..with butter instead of shortening...another bleh on my list..I think I have bought shortening once in my life and regretted it!

Any way, the recipe search had quick results...I made up the pot pie ingredients and gravy all on my own including a bit of spicy natural chicken jalempeno sausages....for just that little bit of zing~...easy peasy gravy with flower in the liquid...and just found a recipe for butter/buttermilk bisquits. Since I didn't have buttermilk I substituded a bit of sour cream...about a 1/3 of a cup..but ended up adding the rest of the milk in anyway...But the sour cream added a delicious flavor

the first Picture is of the chicken,chicken sausage and onions cooking in a bit of chicken broth..I use every thing MSG free...that is nasty stuff and I have adverse reactions to it...almost 3/4 of the ones listed...
Here I have the biquit batter mixing in my barely used mixer...i keep forgetting I have the darn thing...rofl..but I have drug it out twice this week..yay!
here it is fresh out of the oven..and I have to say...this was THE BEST bisquits i have ever had..the boys said so too...Turner even ASKED!!!! to try it..now that was a first..he is a food puritan..nothing can touch each other..nothing can be mixed...meat in one pile..an inch inbetween...noodles in another pile..veggies in another. Okay so he only ate a few bites..but that was monumental!!! here is the yummy inside. I mixed in frozen peas and a bit of a frozen veggie soup mix. I feel better about my use of frozen vs fresh not that my mom told me that they are saying in most cases frozen is actually better because all of the vitamins are frozen in right after they are picked...fresh could be sitting around quite a while before being consumed...phew! frozen lasts so much longer..therefore is more economical!

so I am very happy to report supper was a hit with every one last night...and it sure did taste good! I guess if the cook approves and had ahard time not picking at the left overs...it must have been good...LOL!!

art nite became pizza creating nite...

Well I had the best intentions to get back up to my studio last night to make some more art things..but ended up spending a fun time making pizzas with the boys...yum yum! the boys are thrilled when they get to make their own! I flatten out the dough for them and then put the sauce on and they get to do the rest~

Here is Jonathon adding cheese to his pizza

Turner creating his...
threee scrumptious looking kid pizzas..made just how they want them...

Mom and Dad's loaded pizza...it is nice to make your own from scratch..including the sauce...because other than the pepperoni I know exactly what goes in it!~ Light cheese is another plus so it is a bit healthier for you than gobs and gobs of cheese that doesn't agree with either one of us anyway...LOL~

can you smell it?..mmmmmmmm Art said it was the best pizza he ever had...now wasn't that sweet?!
this was my morning view today...two handsome men ready to go off in the world to start the day...the first two out the door...Ty is getting so tall...and Artie looks so super duper handsome in his tie...mmmm mmm..gotta love a man in a tie!

Today i went to the gym..yeah yeah tell you something you don't know..lol....but after that yay! I got to meet with my local art group over in kalamazoo at For the ARt stamp store...The Altered Sisters are so fun the spend time with..it has been too few and too far in between times..so it was an extra special treat today for me! 5 of us also went to lunch at a delicious restaurant called Martinis..great Italian food! What a nice day today...

so now time to clean up..the builderguys should be close ....I can vacuum AFTER they leave..and then dishes and time for football practice....and then make supper and put babies and me to bed...days just don't have enough hours in them some days....other they have too many..lol!

maybe there will be time tomorrow to go play art....and play with someof my new stamps I got today...one of my favs is a Michael DeMeng one...bought for a RR I will be playing in soon....perfect for one of the themes of the "dark hearts and wings" or something like that...verra cool stamp! almost like it was made for that theme~

and the winner is..........

Well Jonathon wasn't near by for the drawing..so i picked the next one up to help me out...Turner was more than happy to help....here he is as he picks the winning name....(sexy in his boxers..lol!) and with no further ado...the winner is:
Congratulations Fran! I will get that out to in the next day or two.....
I hope you like it!!!
xoxox
angela

good morning...

What a beautiful day it is...and was yesterday! WE started out early though...Tyrus had his first football game and we had to be there by 9:30....now on normal days that isn't really early but it is saturday for cripes sake...Any way the weather was perfect...65 and a bit sunny and no humidity...perfect football weather!~

We enjoyed sitting and chatting with some of the other parents and watched the game that started at 10:30..fortunately it had short quarters....Tyrus got to play the whole game..he is starting line up for defense...i have no clue what position he is in but he is in the front row toward the center...and then they won....last quarter with 2 minutes to go they scored a touchdown...the one and only one in the game...and held the other team off the rest of the game..YAY!

then we had a bit of lunch and came home...around 2!! amazing how fast a day can go! after cleanup and spending a bit of time with ARt....the rest of the day I spent doing some artwork!! Double yay! I worked on the rest of the tiles for my local group. Each person picked a theme and handed out these cardboard tiles that Joanne provided. they seem to be made out of coaster material..with rounded edges..very cool substrate for artwork. The intention is for each artist to hang them together creating a larger panel of art with all of the tiles attached to each other to make a "quilt" of sorts~

The first one here had a Johnny Depp theme...since no one had jumped at doing a Pirates of the Carribean one...i had to~The second one is a "cool colored Dragon" theme...i love this dragon stamp i have and was tickled to have the opportunity to play with it! Used mainly papers and things that were close at hand...one year i will have no scraps..HA!this third one is actually made on a piece of unprimed canvas...it ran a bit when i sprayed on the Color Mists through the stencil..but i liked the effect! This is Susan's wings themed tileand my personal favorite an ABC-reading themed one for Chris...it reminds me of some of Adrienne Hurtt's work!!!....i miss that girl..

so now I am off to see if i can fix Ty's internet so Art can have peace on his..and do a bit more art today...today's prject is to get the Diva Dictionary pages made and ready t mail for tomorrow...my word is Carp....i already made an image a while back for this and added it to my last collage sheet...so that part is done..oh one more image..i have been playing with more fairies like my cupcake fairy...this is a tooth fairy..i had some one ask me to make one...in none cute colors...well these fairies are all "cute" so that is hard to do..but it is not in light pnk....if you would like to use her in your artwork go ahead...since i have a rather small audience here..it is fun to share with all of you!! All of her accesories are handpainted...I painted the wings along with a pile of others and her wand and teeth accents last night too! What a fun artfilled evening it was!