Spawn

It sure is a good thing that a child's cute factor over-rides the 'evil factor'. If it wasn't for that 'cute factor', surely the population wouldn't be booming as it is! My younger spawn has decided that she runs the place. She's got an attitude the size of Texas and it seems to grow with her. I have no idea where this attitude comes from. I suppose it's that 'terrible 2's' that everyone talks about. She doesn't miss an opportunity to misbehave. If the opportunity arises, she jumps the bandwagon and is riding high. For example: My 4 year old left the room, leaving her precious lion behind. It's her favourite thing and the spawn knows it. What does she do? She waits until her sister is out of sight and she grabs the lion and goes after her making SURE she knows that she has it. Then she runs giggling whilst her sister is screaming in anguish because she has her precious lion.
Ahh.. just sibling stuff right? One would think; and I surely hope that this kind of stuff stops as they get older though I think that the 2 year old will continue with her mischief until she's 90 years old. She sasses me, her father and anyone else who happens across her path. This is an ugly age, to say the least. I find that the only time I have any peace in my life is when the spawn sleeps. She's very confident and knows exactly what she wants. She just doesn't go about it the right way. She'd rather go, full steam ahead, and bulldoze her way through. She doesn't have even one ounce of patience. I guess that's why I have so much patience. I need to make up for her lack of patience.
It's true... the cute factor is the only thing that keeps her on the planet!

Procrastination!

My mind is going 250 miles per hour. I totally forgot about a friend's Arbonne party lst night. I feel like such an ass. Two weekends ago I forgot about a birthday party that my 4 year old was invited to. On Sunday morning I forgot to call a friend back to tell her I couldn't go to our SCA meeting and she was waiting for me. *sigh* WHY can't I remember these things? It's not that I am not remembering the actual events, it's that I totally get caught in some time/space continum! I even have my cell phone set to remind me of shit but 10 minutes after it reminds me, I forget it. What the hell is the point? I don't forget, I think I put it off. I am a procrastinator. I hate being a procrastinator. I have always been one. In High School I'd wait until the night before to write all my papers and do homework. I did great with that. That was my system. It flowed over to college. I procrastinated, crammed the night before and came through with shining colors. It worked for High School and college. WHY can't it work in 'real life'?
Procrastination does NOT work in motherhood. It just doesn't. Kids have schedules and need some sort of routine. I don't procrastinate with their routine. I have that set into the grid of my day. It's the 'extras' that I am having a hard time finding a slot for. (In my memory grid, that is.)
I have always lived in the moment. I don't look ahead to things and I rarely look back. I am always RIGHT here and I think that is a major problem too. I need to be able to be HERE and NOW and also look ahead to activities and events that I need to focus on and prepare for. I do a LOT of stuff. I'll admit it. I do.
My friend and I do a fair share of the Baronial events for our SCA group and we worked great together, always calling and reminding eachother to do various stuff. She's a procrastinator too. HAHA!!! We love company! ;) I need my own friggin secretary who follows me around with a notepad and a cell phone. That's exactly what I need! I need someone with a cattle prod to shock my ass once in a while to say "HEY! PAY ATTENTION!" or "GET your ass MOVING!" I do well with last minute stuff. I live for it. I think this is why I love organizing the SCA events. Most of the preparation and organizing is done at the LAST MINUTE because that's when everyone is all together in one place ready to get the event started. I crave it, the stress, the running arond and the last minute preparations. ALL SCAdians are procrastinators!
In my daily routine, I hate it. I am bound by 2 grids. A clock and a calendar. I would love to be free of both, to just do what I do as I get to it.
ARGH!!!!!!

Sunday Morning Rain

There's something about rain on a Sunday morning that gives me permission to enjoy a lazy day. For me, Sunday is usually the prep-day for the week. It's the day that I run around, frantically trying to be sure I'm ready for Monday. Do we have enough groceries? Do the dogs have enough food? What are the kids wearing tomorrow? Did we finish the bills to mail them off on Monday? While usually being hectic, the rain somehow gives me a sense of calmness. Rainy, overcast days also are huge inspiration days for me. For some reason, I LOVE being in my studio on a rainy day more than any other. I think it's because I feel cozy and content being inside knowing that outside it's wet and windy.
I know today will be a solid creating day. My girls will play along side of me with their play doh, toys and crayons. We'll act silly, dance, goof off, be together, and just be creative. I am sure there's going to be some cupcake making going on too!!
Enjoy your Sunday, whether it be rainy or the perfect Spring day!
Here's a bit of sunshine on a rainy day. This is my 4 year old trying to jump rope for the very 1st time.

Sparkle, Shine or Shimmer - {Studio Friday}

I have found that things that sparkle, shine or shimmer bring great personality to my studio. I love sparkling clean windows, stained glass and mirrors. My mom made this for me. It's made from an antique window frame. She painted it with a base coat and then a coat of crackle paint. She added the ivy (My favourite!) and Voi-la! It hangs in my studio giving me another window. Mirrors and windows give such a nice, open feeling!

As you can see, I have used it to hold a piece of my daughter's art work ;)
And it also shows, in the middle pane, that I forgot a Halloween decortaion when I put them all away......!
Have a sparkly, shiny day!

Have you ever?

Have you ever looked at your kids? Just sat there and stared at them in awe, wonder and amazement? I do it everyday. I am completely blown away by their beauty, intelligence and their constant yearning to learn. I am completely blessed and I don't take it for granted. My girls are very photogenic which makes my work easy! I am a scrapbooker. That's my definition of myself. A scrapbooker.
I love photos like these. They show simplicity, beauty and perfection.

My Aunt Jennifer and my Mother-in-Law get all the credit for these photos. They have a knack for clicking that button at just the right second. I am a very clumsy photographer. It takes me 100s of tries to get that 'perfect' shot. I am not always aiming for that 'perfect' shot because I do like to scrapbook life as accurately as possible but it's nice to have a fabulous photo to showcase !!

Is it an addiction?

I ask myself, "Is it an addiction? No, it's a life-style." It's my life-style. It's Scrapbooking. Can I go a day without it? Yes. Do I feel fulfilled if I go a day without it? Normally, no. If I am on vacation, my time is spread out differently so I don't miss it as much, though I do take 10 Zillion photos to scrapbook so that makes up for the days missed scrapping!
Things such as this make me very happy:
{April Scrapgoods Kit}

And here are the 'extra' goodies from the April Kit!

I haven't had a chance to dive into my April Scrapgoods kit yet. It'll probably be a while until I can jump in and swim through all the lovliness! We're right in the middle of packing and preparing to move so I have been deprived of scrapbooking a lot lately. I still get my kits and open them and am able to 'ooo and ahhhh' over them. I have jotted down ideas I have for certain papers and embellishments and tucked them inside the kit boxes. I still stay creative in mind, though I haven't been able to create much lately!

In the "Zone"

Did you ever sit down with such a mood for writing and you are going along, everything is pouring out with absolute perfection; each line a masterpiece and you are in the "ZONE"? Your mind feels light and free as you type and let all of the creativity pour out. Writing this way is better than chocolate (Ok maybe not, but darn close!) Your mind, hands and whole body are completely in tune with eachother, you drown out the tv or radio that's on in the background. Your masterpiece is an absolute work of perfection. You are all done and you hit 'save' or 'send'..........then IT happens..... your browser decides at that very moment to FREEZE! OF COURSE you didn't SAVE your work up to that point... you were in the ZONE, your mind, completely engulfed in the subject you were writing about.
You quickly hit the backspace key. Nothing. Frantically, you hit it again, you try reloading the page. Nope.... that blank white frozen page sits and stares at you, MOCKING YOU as your mind, hands and mouth start to go crazy. Under your breath or out loud you shout an array of colourful expletives in hopes to SCARE your computer into cooperating. The white screen, sits there, frozen, staring at you. Mocking your very existance. It's fearless, sitting there, cold seemingly laughing at you. You are infuriated. That happy-go-lucky, light and free feeling you had been experiencing only seconds before has turned dark, ugly and IRATE! You feel betrayed by this machine, this evil, *&^(# ^%#*, @&*&^@ %&@(*#& ()#&^^% MACHINE FROM *$##!!!
Try as you might, you can NEVER write what you were writing exactly as you had it. You can try, try, try, but it will never flow the way it had been, it'll never look or sound as good as it did as you were happily typing and minding your own business. You will make a promise to yourself to save every single paragraph as you go along from now on but you won't. When you're in the zone, you are wearing blinders and you can't stop the flow of the words as they flow out of the tips of your fingertips to the keys on the keyboard. I have sworn to myself time after time that I will remember to save as I go along but I never do. My mind is on a one track line from point A to point B and saving derails the flow. Good luck to all you passionate writers out there... computers are rather evil and have a mind of thier own sometimes. Forgetting to save can send you spiraling down into a whirl of foul language and evil moods as your computer quietly denies that final "Send" or "Save" request.........

A Cat doing a 'Drive-By'

We laughed SO hard! OMG, we get eachother started and everything is just SO FUNNY! Yesterday, the brunt of the joke was the cat. She has this way of looking at you from underneath her eyebrows, she looks like an evil spawn. I swear she's evil but Mindy swears it's just her look. I dunno what started it all but we were standing outside, imagining the evil the cat could unleash into the world. Bryan started with the visual of her standing up on her back legs, 2 9mm guns and letting 'em rip! Take in mind, this is a REALLY small cat. She's about 2 - 3 pounds.
She's TINY ( don't let that fool you! she's EVIL!) Ok so we've established that the cat is, indeed , LITTLE. Thus, enters the story a BARBIE CAR! So next, imagine this evil looking cat doing a 'drive-by' in her stylish Barbie car, yet again, equiped with her stash of weapons!
We were out on the front porch and looked up to see her glaring at us from a bedroom window. Talk about CREEPY? I guess you just had to be there. Matt, Bryan and I and even Aunt Donna were cracking up! We just have this chemistry and every single time we're in the same room we erupt in uncontrollable laughter. We make everyone laugh.
Most of it's just spontaneous and it can't be written down, it doesn't translate. Too bad, because it was really friggin hysterical!!!

Spontaneous Challenge!

Today as I was surfing the blogs I frequent, I came across this photo-ad. I see lots of ads in scrap magazines but for some reason, this one really appealed to me.
What I want you to do is pull out of it what inspires you and create with it. Whether it be the colors, the architecture of the ad the structure, the lines or the journaling. See what you can create using this as your inspiration!
Be sure to post a comment below with the URL of where we can see your fabulous artistic interpretation! Oh! and also, throw in a link to your on-line gallery! I would love to link to you!!

Tag! You're It!

TAG! You're it!!!
Cut and paste this in your blog entry and answer the questions!!
Tag someone today!!


For the Love of Five:

Five minutes to yourself how would you spend them? ideally?
Hugging my 2 little girls with all my might! They are so active and always on the move that I hardly get a 5 second hug lately, not to even mention a 5 minute one!

Five bucks to spend right now: how would you spend it?
I would take my 2 little girls to the flea market and give them each $2.50 to spend anyway they see fit!

Five items in your house you could part with, right now, that you hadn't thought of already?
I could get rid of:
1. old shoes ( why does my closet seem cluttered with shoes I no longer wear!!??
2. scrapbooking diecuts from 3 - 5 years ago. *UGH*
3. silk flowers with leaves missing (thanks to ,my 2 year old!)
4. empty bag of dog food (LMAO)
5. Dead flowers on the front porch. (Who AM I? Morticia?!?)

Five items you absolutely, positively could never part with in your house.
1. Our Wedding Ketuba
2. Photographs
3. Scrapbooks
4. Mackie's Peepas and Lion
5. Ellie's 'Beah'

Five words you love.
I love these five words:
Together
Daughter
Mommy
Family
Friends
These words are those that are the deepest in my heart and bring joy into my life!!

I am tagging...
Beth
Jax
Vee
Tracie
Kim

{Studio Friday} Work Hands

Being creative, my hands are one of the most important tools I have. As I sit here and reflect this weeks 'Studio Friday' topic, I look at how baldy I have abused my hands. They are so dry from Winter's dry, cold air, so chapped and in desperate need of a moisturizer. I look forward to the humidity of Summer and much healthier skin! Winter is evil on the hands and face! I can't find my digital camera so this is the best photo I had.

A crafters hands may not be attractive, they may be dry, cracked, bruised, have paper cuts or be in the line of 'danger' with each creation they craft, but they are the hands of love. They work together with our heart to create our masterpieces!

Under the Influence of packing tape....

Who would have known there could be adventures that go along with packing? Of course, since Murphy's Law follows me wherever I go, I have been on some interesting side-treks during my on-going journey!

1. Where's the *&%$#(@ PACKING TAPE?! To pack, one must have PACKING TAPE! We have purchased several ROLLS of this so-called packing tape only to discover that it likes to cammoflage itself and hide amongst the STUFF, which makes it impossible to FIND when we are trying to make or close a box!

2. NOW Where's the *&^%$(@ PACKING TAPE?! The said tape, yet again, disappears. This time to another FLOOR OF THE HOUSE by way of a husband wandering while talking on the phone while playing with the sticky-ass tape. Yes we have more than one roll, but it seems that 3 are missing now and I refuse to open a 4th because the other 3 are hiding somewhere, most likely, in obvious sight.

3. Dammit where's the (#*#$^@( PACKING TAPE?! This time the tape has wandered off on two very short legs. It's on a BRIGHT red dispenser and that color is just irresistable to a 2 year old. I heard, "RIIIIIIIPPPPPPP" ... the sound of the tape screaming, "HELP ME! I'm being ABUSED BY A TODDLER!!" I ran into the room in time to find my 2 year old taping the fish tank. I asked her, "Hmm... Why are you taping the fish tank?" and she answered, "I dunno" and I asked "Do you think the fish tank needs tape?" She answered "I dunno." I said, "Can you give me the tape?" and she handed it over, with a huge grin. "Thank you. please don't take the tape again. We need it to make and pack boxes with, ok?" She exclaimed with her hands firmly set on her tiny hips, "I didn't take it, I BORROWED IT"

Baby Turtles!

I have had 2 turtles for more than 11 years. They are great pets! My 12 year old turtle LOVES to be hand fed. She's learned to beg when she sees people. It's very cute. My younger one is a bit shy, but he's got his moments. He's a goofball. When he gets startled he freaks out and jumps off his rock and digs to get under it. He's a chicken!
My 2 little girls love them too so I decided to get them their own turtles. My older daughter named her turtle "Lily" and my little one hasn't named hers yet. We'll see as she gets a bit older what she calls her! See how little they are?

The larger of the 2 is "Lily"

They are so CUTE, I just had to share!

"The Red Coats are coming!!!"

"The Red Coats are coming! The Red Coats are coming!!"

What a beautiful day to be outside! We went to a Revolutionary War Reenactment. The Battle of Bound Brook, one of the battles in New Jersey during the American War for Independence, occurred on April 13, 1777 and resulted in a defeat for the Continental Army who were routed by about 4,000 troops under British command.
The weekend events result in a big 'camp' site with set ups of many period type activities. We had a great time walking through the encampment and then going over to the battlefield to watch the great battle.

The guns and canons were loud but the girls are no strangers to battlefields, guns, canons, and people running around yelling and screaming. The were unphased and went about their business playing with little rocks and flowers they found in the grass. It's obvious that they are children of reenactors!!
It was such a gorgeous afternoon. We were outside until around 6PM. The girls are noticeably tired; each playing in a different room now alone. It's nice though... usually they are fighting and making a huge MESS! I hope that this lull lasts another hour until bed time.
We're headding to PA again tomorrow for the day to check out the area. I am looking forward to seeing more houses out there and more areas within the 20 mile radius of the prospective workplace!!

Weekend joy rides

We love to drive around various places on the weeekends looking for flea markets, garage sales and new places to visit on the weekends. We usually head out in the morning and go grab Dunkin' Donuts for breakfast and then point the car in a direction and drive. Usually it's westward into Pennsylvania. We LOVE going to Adamstown, PA (3 hours away though! ) to the antique markets. The area out there is so unspoiled and rural! I love the Amish farmsteads, the produce markets and of course, the flea markets ;)
Yesterday we drove around a little south west of Philadelphia and checked out a completely new area to us. We may be moving to that area in the not too distant future so it was nice to go there to see the old familiars; Wal*Mart, Target, Toys R US, Starbucks, Borders, McDonalds and various Pizza places and good markets. It was comforting to find the same things we have here. I didn't, however, find ANY CRAFT OR SCRAPBOOK STORES!!! I will have to look closer next time and also grab a phone book. How can it be that there is no MICHAELS? HOBBY LOBBY? AC MOORE? OR SCRAPBOOKING STORE!?!?
Today we're going to meet my mom at the Warrenville flea market and then to have lunch with her. Haven't seen her in a few weeks and today is supposed to be really nice so what better time? The sun is shining and it's supposed to be in the mid-60s!

Studio Friday April 7th 2006

My friend, Vee has been posting to her blog something called 'Studio Friday'. Each friday her blog has had a little tidbit about her Studio or her craft. It interested me so I checked it out and it's definitely something that I'd like to do too! ( Thanks Vee, for the inspiration! )

This week's topic is "Room With a View"

My scrap room has 2 large windows. I can see the swingset and part of my back yard. It's a great source of light as well but I can close the blinds and feel completely cozy if I want to. I get a lot of my creativity from the weather. My windows are important. My house is FULL of very large very tall windows. The view from my studio is important to me. Sometimes I sit and drift off to 'la-la' land in a day dream and that's when the creativity hits me. Here's the view out the windows:

There is yet another view from my scraproom, and that is behind me on the couch. This view delights me even more than the one from my windows.......

They are the ultimate source of inspiration for my creativity!

Camels!

"What about them?" You ask? My answer is simple, they are my favourite animal. This photo was sent to me by my mother in law and it is absolutely my favourite!!

This is not a photo of black camels crossing the desert. The actual camels are light. Look close.... the black is their shadows!! I just had to blog this.

April Showers........

Yeah.. April SNOW showers. Last week was a week of warmer days, 2 of which were in the upper 70s. There's nothing like being lulled into a false sense of security. I thought that Spring had finally arrived! Boy was I WRONG! It's cold out there! The wind is whirling it too quickly to get a good picture.

Oh well, so much for going to the mall!
I still want to go out. I am going to head to the mall anyway... I know that 10,000 other people will do the same but atleast the girls will get to walk around a little and use up some of their energy!

Chew on this....

Does this look like the face of evil? Well it IS! It was bound to happen. Zippity discovered her tie-out leash. Twice in 12 hours she has managed to chew THROUGH the heavy duty nylon on her flexi-lead and run free! She doesn't GO anywhere but since she loves being outside so much I let her out on the back porch to 'sun her buns' and enjoy the fresh air. She is always within complete view and I saw her chewing, but thought it was the greenie that I had given to her. NOPE! It was her friggin' lead. AGAIN. *Sigh* She loves being outside and I hate to restrict her outdoor time to just walks and evening play, but if she is persistant about chewing through her leads, then I won't be able to allow her to sun herself out there. We live in a neighborhood which has no fences. We don't have an invisible fence for the dogs either but I think that when we move, I will invest in one. She LOVES being outside and I want her to have her 'freedom' to be out when she wants.
Bailey is the queen of the turf here. She goes in and out as she pleases. She knows where her yard begins and ends and she obeys boundaries. I wish I could trust Zippity to behave as nicely! Zippity has been off-leash a few times and I must say, she has NEVER left the yard. She is a Jack Russell Terrier though, so I know that her attention may be caught by a deer or bird or other dog and then it'd be next to impossible to get her to obey. JRTs, when they set their mind to something, can block out the rest of the entire world. Hmmm I may just be part Jack Russell Terrier... what was that you said? Hahahahah!!!!!!!

Weekend Whirlwind

It seems that the week takes forever to get through and then the weekend is just a few short hours....
We're huge into living history (WW2 and also Medieval.
This weekend has been a blast!
SATURDAY
We went to a living history WW2 display. It was a small one at Camp Evans, in NJ. They dedicated a new Signal Corps museum and we all set up so that the attendees could see an actual set up of WW2 equipment and uniforms after the ceremony. I was rather disappointed because the ceremony was by the front gates and the living historians and reenactors were down the road a little bit and sort of hidden. We had a small trickle of guests pass by but most people didn't even see us. This happened once before with this same group of organizers. I think I will email them and let them know that it's unacceptable to have us out there, without pay, for 8 hours only to have set up our stuff without anyone to show it TO.

Most of our immediate group set up and also our Axis Friends had a small camp across from us. (just 5 of them) Here is a picture of my hubby setting up his small field hospital.

The day went well, aside from hardly any passers-by, but my girls had a blast playing in the sandy-dirt! *UGH* Here is my little one, displaying, proudly, her DIRTY FACE!!
We had an very fast, very windy rain storm right as we were breaking down for the day and we got SOAKED. I hurried up and packed the girls in the van and had them watching their dvds while we packed up the rest of the van. Everything got SOAKED!
SUNDAY
Today has been a 'veg out' day. We woke up wanting to drive out to PA to get some auction items we won but my 4 year old had a tummy ache so we opted to stay in. She isn't herself. She's lazing on the couch and hasn't moved. This isn't at ALL like her. She's usually begging to go outside. It's 74 degrees today. Hubby straightened up some stuff upstairs, organized some stuff to pack and I did a load of laundry and ran to get subs for lunch! I LOVE LOVE LOVE SUBS!
I am scrapping and playing at TTS today and who knows what the rest of the day will hold. It's only 4:30pm!