What should we make today?

Are you ready...

for Christmas? I'm not quite yet. Still working on getting the last few orders out. Still futzing with the Christmas card design and getting ready to send the pieces off to Office Max for some color printing. Which means then I get to make a run into the big city, the last Saturday before Christmas, to pick them up. Do I like living on the edge or what?

 

The decorations are up, both outside and in, here is a picture of the front door. My most favorite saying of all time and my most favorite mitten! I hope you are remembering to be merry and if not, knock it off, your ruining it for the rest of us! 

tee hee!

Silver Bella, you came & went too fast!

It's been sooooo long since I've stopped to talk to you, I hope you will forgive me? The new job has kept me busy, busy, busy and then after school activities, they make the evenings just fly by! But I wanted to slow down and share some glitter fun with you. Silver Bella was a blur, both the weeks leading up to it and the weekend itself. But, you've read the other blogs, so you've seen the excitement in the other bella's photos. It doesn't even capture the energy of the weekend, you have to see it for yourself! 

I was a Bella Roadie again this year with Cori & Sassy, (miss you guys!) and I got to help out with Rebecca Sower's class. I tried to catch a pic of everybody in the room. Yes, they are blurry because those girls just don't sit still!

Here is Maija with her finished project, I was so excited to see her, the last I had talked to her she wasn't going to make it! Isn't she gorgeous?!

 The swaps the night before were just amazing, I believe there were 32 different swaps, I was in three and about didn't pull it off, several girls were in more than ten and that just blew my mind! I would have an ulcer for each one (complete with little SB logo on each) as much as I fretted about those three! Some really serious Bellas out there and they are definitely fun to hang out with! I'll post more on those late though, as each swap deserves its own post with plenty of pictures! This shows the flurry of activity that happens...

 

Love these silly girls, Lonnie, Natalie & Stacy. I do believe we could have laughed and drank together into the wee hours of the morning! Next year!

I wish I had my wits about me more and that I had taken more pictures but that glitter cloud just gets ahold of and before you know it your hugging everybody good-bye! I didn't get to say good-bye to half the gals I wanted to, guess we'll have to get back together next year!

Back from the mountains...

and this was our view from the condo deck, just breathtaking! In more ways than one as the condo in Dillon, (thanks Garry & Sandy! Happy 50th Anniversary!) had three levels. If I ran from the basement level to the top level, I was seriously sucking air! I was feeling pretty bad about it until I noticed the other flat-land dwellers in the family having issues, too. My sinuses also had issues, but by the end of the week it they were getting used to the altitude. My poor nose got sunburned on the Vail trip to the top of one mountain via a crazy fun gondola ride. Apparently the SPF 15 in my make-up isn't tough enough to give full coverage 10,000 closer to the sun! Who knew?

We made several day trips to surrounding towns, Breckenridge, Frisco, Vail and an extra fun trip to Fort Collins to visit the New Belgium Brewery and taste some Fat Tire beers. The most amazing approach to running a company that I think others should embrace or at least consider, maybe spend thousands of dollars to do one of the market researches that companies love to throw money at. Great idea teri, way different from the brewery tour we took years ago at another well known label. We now have several mementos from the gift shop to remind us of the day we worshipped at the alter of Saint Arnold, the Patron Saint of Brewers! I love the collage idea to honoring a man of true brilliance!!!  The whole front area/tasting room was decorated in scrabble tiles and found objects along the bicycle them. Very, Very  Creative!!! My camera battery was failing so I only got a few pics, you'll just have to check it out for yourself. And we ate at a fantastic street cafe that had the most amazing hand cut fries tossed in truffle oil, Winston, want to go back with me? Or the creamed corn? We didn't have a bad meal all weekend, but by Saturday evening, I just couldn't look at another menu and be inspired to eat, I just wanted my feather bed. Pooped, I tells ya! That was me!

One morning we met Kay the photographer for family photos on the mountainside, love that back drop!!! The kids got to do individual photos and had a blast.  In between photos there was the added of excitement of feeding the local ground squirrels, they can get a lot of peanuts in their cheeks! I don't know what was funnier, watching the chipmunks or Hannah's screeching reaction when they got close to her, hard to get her to pose with a varmint creeping up beside her!

Frisco on the weekend featured a neat little art and antiques fair where one booth perked me up and made me think of all my Bella Sisters! Especially the Texas ladies. Watch out for this local Texas Belle setting up her booth somewhere near you. She had the most beautiful merchandise I have ever stumbled across. Katie had an amazing selection to choose from and t was hard to decide what treasures to bring home with me. Tried to talk her into going to Silver Bella, maybe you can convince her Teresa? 

This is what July 3rd looked like in our backyard...

A good old fashioned water fight...

this is what a great group of neighbors look like...

this is what a great group of neighbors look like, in a drizzling rain...

Mike and I discussed at length for months, where to put the pools for maximum sun exposure as the trees in the back yard have grown so much the last few years. Who knew they would become the protection from the rain which didn't deter any of the folks from sticking around, eating lots of yummy food, catching up on each others busy lives, laughing and just having fun with each other. Like the water balloon launcher...

and the water balloon launcher targets...

the faithful wiener dog who made sure no food stayed on the ground for more than five seconds, and fiercely protected her duty from any other dogs who came by. Sorry Zane, next year, you can help clean-up the party, okay?

the belly flop presentation...

one of two frisbee injuries...

Just going through the 800 pictures I took yesterday shows that when you are with your favorite people, no matter what the weather, you can still have a good time! 

Hope your Fourth of July is just as fun! And if your curious, there is one house that will be "For Sale" in the early Fall in our neighborhood. Stay tuned for the "Going Away Party photos" that will surely produce as we try to convince that family to stay!

Just a quick note...

to let you know that all is well in my neck of the woods. I was forced to cut all ties with you my friends through the internet when my hard drive crashed in my computer. The folks at the Apple store took care of me and got me up and running again, but not having backed up any email addresses and bookmarked website addresses, was really not a smart thing to do. So if you haven't heard from me in awhile, it's not that I don't love you anymore, which I do, it's just that I can't remember your info!!! 

Luckily most of my projects were backed off onto a secondary hard drive, but I had no access to it, so all order filling came to a screeching halt! Along with product development and personal projects, too. Needless to say, I was a little antsy to get it back on my desk. Finding all those fonts I had picked up over time will still continue to haunt me on a project by project basis, that's for sure!

So I was forced to do projects that didn't not require the computer as a tool. How did I ever function as an artist? Well, you draw stuff by hand, actually look through magazines as a resource instead of Google, and you get the picture, pioneer stuff! Actually, I did clunk around on my husband's PC for a bit but he doesn't have any of the creative programs that I had and he had actually had to reinstall his own hard drive a few months ago also, so none of my stuff had been saved from when I had crashed a year ago. 

Some things I had started before the crash and I was able to continue on with, like this piece for my front door. You are familiar with my front door, it's extra tall and red, so it really needs pieces that are oversized and that pop right of in color schemes. Nothing does it better than this daisy piece, which I will be able to make more of so check out the etsy store. This photo shows it on the interior side of the door and it still looks nice against a white background. I just love those daisies!!! Can't get enough of them!

I've been playing catch up since I've gotten back online and working at an office here in town so my crafting time is now modified a bit. But I think it makes me more respectful of the time I do have to create, rather than thinking, oh, I'll get to it tomorrow, I know have to really focus my time and be more organized. I feel like I am back in Martha Mode, which is what I used to call it back when I worked full time at the photo studio, I really did get more done back then. 

I've also been going through the pictures from the pool party last year, picking out the best ones to put into the invitation to this year's party. And boy, was that hard! Usually i get so busy running around making sure everybody is having fun, I forget to take pictures. So I've been trying extra hard the last few years to stay on top of that and I've gotten so much better at it!! It's hard to believe that the Fourth of July will be here in four weeks, so I gotta get those out, out, out!!! If you're new to the blog, we host a neighborhood party in our back yard for the Fourth where we try to get as many of the inflatable, rectangle pools in our backyard as possible. It's a blast, I highly recommend it. One neighbor called it the Redneck Rivieria and you know what? That pretty much nails it! A giant slip and slide on one side of the house for the kids, four pools in the middle of the back yard all lined up for the kids and then four or five  pools squared up on the opposite side of the house for the adults. Water balloons flying around and various games in the neighbor's yards and Jimmy Buffet music blasting from the Paulsen's stereo. Everybody brings food, we supply the main dish, this year it will be a mini slider buffet, you know the tiny burgers that are all the rage now? And then a yummy breakfast at the end of the night to send everybody home with smile on their face and a sunburn on their necks.

I'm also supposed to be walking to get my raggedy old body into shape for the Relay for Life event at the end of the month. My sorority has a team every year and this will be my first year. Not quite sure how that will go, it's been 22 years since my dad passed away from cancer and I have those walls built up pretty high, of course, there are cracks in the foundation and I'm not sure what some of sobbing mess I'll be when the times comes, I guess we'll just have to deal with it all over again when it happens...sigh. Please go to my site and make a donation, I hope and pray your life is not scarred by cancer and hopefully if we work together we can turn the corner on this horrible sickness. 

In the good old summertime...

in the good old summertime, strolling thru the shady lanes, with my baby mine...do you remember that song? We used to sing it at the country school I went to as a child. We had, red hardback songbooks, the cloth covered kind, that corresponded to a huge set of records. We were each allowed to pick a song and then we got to find the page number and tell the other kids so they could look it up in their books. Then we got to find the record and put it on the record player...aaaahhhhh, the good old days, when life was simpler. 

These days the kids are so busy, Jacob has soccer and baseball, and of course they schedule practices during games and the overlapping is driving me crazy!!! Maddy has softball, which is on Jacob's free nights o we are constantly at the ball fields. Lucky for us our town is small enough for a huge complex with a big parking lot in the middle. No dropping kids of on one side of town to race to the other side of town to pick up the other one. For that I am thankful!!!

I myself have so many things going on right now, my brain is swimming with what-ifs and if that doesn't work out then we will do this's (is this's even a word? Oh well, it works here!) Too many projects, not enough time!!!! One enormous project is looming over my head, threatening to take over my whole summer, totally dependant on too many other factors and people to make it work smoothly. Just a feeling of dread, that leaves me ancy for a clear path to choose, but, it doesn't seem to be up to me at this point. I hate not feeling in control!

One thing I can control is what happens in the studio, lots of projects swirling around down there, too. Like a big snowglobe that just was shaken, pieces of projects at various stages pop into my head through out the day, solve this one piece of the puzzle then another pops up, well, can't finish that one right now, so put it aside and move on to something else, and it just continues. Some Summertime flash cards are in the etsy store, soon some patriotic ones for the Fourth of July will be in, too. Lady Liberty is back and she still needs a drink! Uncle Sam is on his way. Photo charms are on the work table...I was planning on posting a picture here but it is trapped on the Apple...sigh!

I can't believe it's May, I can't believe our local graduations were this weekend, I CAN'T BELIEVE MOTHER'S DAY WAS YESTERDAY!!!! I CAN'T BELIEVE SCHOOL IS OUT IN TWO WEEKS!!! I hope all the moms had a great day!

Yardwork needs to be done, I am the landscape designer of the house and so there are flowers to be planted, weeds to be pulled, plants to be divided and transplanted...you all know what I am talking about, you're right there, too! Anybody need day lilies? Just putting that out there. How about black-eyed-susan's? Self-seeding (God, are they self-seeding!) perennials, easiest plant in the world. Deb, should I ask Rich if you want any? tee hee!

And OHMYGOD!!!!! The freaking squirrels dug up the two planters I had planted with flowers looking for their freaking nuts from last freaking Fall, I just about lost it when I saw that. I replanted the sad little plants, put some grass mulch around them and then sprinkled, and I MEAN SPRINKLED, Cayenne Pepper all over those flowers!!! Man, that felt good! Now, would someone please tell me if that is safe for squirrels, cause I really hate to tick off an entire species that lives in my backyard. If anyone has any other safe options for squirrel deterrents, please share? I Googled it and it sounded like a good idea, but you just never know!

 

My computer's hard drive crashed, HARD, last week, and hopefully the kind folks at the Genius Bar can install a new one. They were pretty sure all information was lost, so back to square one when it comes home in a few days. God bless my husband for getting me a back up hard drive to store my project files on years ago! All the emails are lost, so it may take me awhile to track you down, if you don't hear from me, please drop me a note so i can get you back into my new email address book.

 

Meanwhile, the sun is shining, the dog is sunning herself, and I have a list of things to get done, and you probably do, too, so I won't keep you! Have a great day!

 

 

An old friend...

has a new blog! Ch-ch-check it out! Chippy paint background, vintage this and that, gorgeous!!! I loved the website the minute I saw it and now I know why, this super-chick had a hand in the design!

Does anyone know...

of any photographers in the Dillon, Colorado area, that would be willing to shoot a family photo, this summer in July? Any recommendations would be great!! And are there in great antique stores or thrift stores in town or within a short driving distance? Where are your favorites?

Hope your Easter was a hippity-hoppity one!

Time to put the weiner dog in the sun...

she's starting to fade a bit in color, Vampire Doggie! Park her on the neighbors brick edging (one of her favorite spots) in the bright Spring afternoon sun and her batteries will be recharged in no time! Now if I could muster up the energy to take her for a walk every night, we could both work on our "Muffin Tops!" 

Speaking of muffin tops, has anyone picked up these at their local Easter Candy Display? I went on the Hershey's website to see what they were all about and there wasn't anything there. Are we a test market? They tasted okay, a little gritty, my guess is sugar that didn't dissolve all the way. I wouldn't buy another bag, and I may not even finish this one. But, they did make me want and Almond Joy REALLY bad! M&M/Mars must be loving that unanticipated turn of events!

Teresa updated the Silver Bella blog with the class schedules AND PHOTOS!!! OHMYHECK!!!! Is it going to be awesome this year! You gotta check it out!!! There are some very fun things going to be happening in Omaha in November, and we all know only the funnest people come and play. Glitter draws ladies like us like moths to a flame! It's been fun reconnecting with Bellas on Facebook, I have such a hard time putting faces with names anymore, I think it was from my days selling Southern Living at Home and I met so many new people so fast, I may have blown a bulb! It surely can be the age of 40 hitting me like a ton of bricks! I'm STILL stiff and sore from getting ready for the photo shoot and all the time I ran up and down those stairs! But anyway, I can't wait to see them all again in November!

I added a new item to the esty store, just in case any of you weren't aware that in order to find true happiness, you need to follow your own bliss. Now this doesn't have to be a life altering thing, don't throw out an entire work wardrobe in order to go and buy something more comfortable to wear like jeans and t-shirts, although that positive bump in the retail business might be big enough to register on the stock markets and provide a glimmer of hope, thanks for taking one for the team. This garland is just a reminder to stop in these crazy, chaotic times and find a little bliss in your day. Surely something brings you a smile, chocolate, stopping to create something outside of your regular collection of supplies, a treat from Starbucks (again, the economy thanks you) doing a kind deed for a friend or even better, a complete stranger. Just a little bliss, everyday, not trunkloads full like a greedy CEO, but just one little thing and it will all be good.