Week in Review 8/26/10

Week in Review 8/19/10

Shoot the Kids? I'd Love To

Just wanted to throw out a brag-rag post with a few shots from this fun photo shoot. Hubby's ex had a birthday in August and she'd requested new pix of the kidlets. I jumped at the opportunity to have a mini-adventure, threw the kids in the car and drove out to Salt Air.It was a great night and a fun adventure for all of us. We laughed so hard we nearly wet our pants ... literally, but I love how these turned out! We'll have to plan another mini-trip soon and take all the kids.

Week in Review 8/5/10

Getting behind again??? I swear I don't know where the time goes. Here's our first week of August though - finally.OY! Another busy week ... but soooo much fun! We celebrated #2's birthday, for starters. He's 15 now - crazy. We started off the day with Monkey Bread, as per his request, and had a super mellow day. I felt horrible, because we didn't have everyone here. This means no presents. :( Lucky for him though, hubby and I were crazy ready to go actually find a little brother puppy for Izzy. We've been searching the ads for the last couple of months and couldn't wait any more. So Murphy was adopted and brought home on his birthday. This, of course, means that we had to send oodles of pix to the other chitlins in Colorado so they didn't feel left out. Murphy is the sweetest little puppy and has a great personality too.

Monday the rest of the fam showed up to spread birthday cheer and give loves to the new puppy. That night the girls and I drove down to Provo for Mindy Gledhill's CD release party ... followed by a quick stop at BYU to see #1's new beau and have a double scoop at the BYU Creamery. Yum. We finally celebrated the birthday in full on Thursday, complete with birthday dinner ... pancakes and sausages, strangely enough. The presents this year were kind of funny too since all he had requested was cash. Oh well. He finally got to celebrate and that made us both happy. :)

Week in Review 5/13/10

Another birthday = another partay! #4 opted to skip the 'friend' party last year, so we went a little overboard this year. We decided to take his rag-tag group of friends to Boondocks for the night of their lives. ;) They were all so excited and were such fun to hang out with. We all had a blast watching the boys run around and get crazy. Driving and laser tag were definitely the highlights of the night ... followed very closely by his violin cake (courtesy of his ever talented mommy ... don't forget I'm the step-mommy so I'm not bragging shamelessly this time).

We also squeezed in Izzy biweekly haircut and were able to have a great visit with hubby's mom on Mothers' Day. Work is ... work. I've finished up counting my leftover inventory from Beehive and have to admit I was more than a little disappointed. I should really just stop selling these in Utah. I can't compete with jewelry, hair accessories and baby items in this market. :( On the other hand, now I have loads of new stock for a big shop update. I just need to photograph like a madwoman and make all the new listings.

I also have girls' camp in the works and have been busy planning craft projects and devotionals for the girls. I'm running out of time for that too, only about a month left. Good thing I work well under pressure.

Week in Review 5/6/10

Birthdays, beehives and pompadours!The beginning of this week was filled with anxiety and anticipation for the upcoming Beehive Bazaar. Hundreds of dollars worth of luminaries and night lights were waiting in line at the paint shop. I found out my new packaging tubes weren't going to make it in time for the show so I had to rework my display ideas. Waiting and worrying is not my strong points. I'm much better at pulling all nighters than pulling my hair out. The only real relief was an impromptu bowling adventure with great company. All in all, everything came together in the end and the location at Thanksgiving Point was fantastic. I even got to go to the opening bash Wednesday night with Wanja to see Mad Max and the Wild Ones. What a riot! A family rockabilly band out of Springville, Utah, made up of 3 brothers and their dad ... with the boys age 9, 12 and 18-ish. Too cool.

Then we went directly to the next family birthday. #4 is now 11! We took him out for birthday dinner/breakfast at IHOP, since we didn't have him his birthday morning, and then sent him on our signature ribbon maze to find his present. The ribbon started at the dining room table and wound through most of the rooms in the house leading him all the way to our storage room in the basement. He was supposed to pick up all the ribbon along the way which makes it so much more silly and helps the excitement last a little longer. What was the big surprise??? Yeah, pretty obvious from the photo. I love this little-big guy so much!

Week in Review 4/29/10

Ah, yes, the big weekend! My baby girl turned 16 on Saturday. 16? How is this right? We actually celebrated Friday so all the kids could be here with her. We had our traditional birthday breakfast with placemat and chair decorations from her siblings. She went off to school and came home to more decorations as we got ready for her party. I found an absolutely beautiful cake at Baskin Robbins that was perfect for her. For the party, we rented out the bounce side of Classic Skate in Sandy and invited just about everyone she knows. The turnout was pretty sparse, but we all had a blast ... including Wanja who so graciously came along to help chaperone. (I have the best friends) She even raced me through one of the inflatable obstacle courses ... where I almost wet my pants because I was laughing so hard.

Aside from birthday celebrations, the week also contained a trip to the Huntsman Cancer Institute to visit a very special patient who was struggling with pneumonia. After that we spent a sunny Sunday afternoon with hubby's sweet parents, started the soccer season for #5, had our girls' camp kick off meeting and made a delicious creamy chicken and wild rice soup. Oh! I almost forgot that Izzy also had a 'friend' over for a few days and was able to get some good girl/dog time in with Maddie. It was really cute to see how they interacted with each other and it's made me start thinking about getting a second pup ... who have I become anyway?

Week in Review 4/22/10

Well check me out! I'm actually posting this one on time! I know the timing seems weird, but my weeks run from Friday to Thursday for a couple reasons. First off, January 1st was on a Friday this year ... and Friday is when our week ends with the kids, as in they flip houses every Friday. So let's see what happened over the last 7 days.

We received news that my father-in-law's health is failing pretty quickly, so the next few weeks may be a bit shaky. My brother-in-law has been in the hospital for his own health reasons. Needless to say there were lots of good-cheer-spreading visits to those we love. I got to actually have a lunch date with hubby dearest, which was way overdue. The cub scouts got to clean the church grounds Tuesday night ... allergy alert. I admired more of the gorgeous spring flowers in our neighborhood ... allergy crisis. I finally made a big dent in planning for girls' camp thanks to a quick shopping trip to Robert's.

The rest of the week was spent getting ready for the big birthday party tonight. (Heaven help us) The guest list was close to 50, but we really don't have any clue how many people to expect. I just hope it's everything she hoped for. You only turn 16 once. Wish me luck!

Week in Review 3/18/10

The third week of March was ... full, to say the least. It was my first week of Crew Support training. We had final dress rehearsals and sound checks for the play. #1 had her first track meet of the season. #3 was diagnosed with strep on Monday, missed 3 days of school and we found out it had developed into pneumonia by Thursday, the opening night of Hello Dolly that she and #2 were both in. Talk about a bummer. She made every single practice and wasn't able to perform once for the public because she was so sick. On the other hand, we flew the 'ex' in from Cali as a surprise for our 2 oldest. It had been a long time since they'd seen their daddy and it was somehow fitting for him to be here for this. Aside from all that, we tried to squeeze in some relaxation and actually had dinner in the park one night and as well as a quick trip to our favorite library. We also enjoyed celebrating our niece's birthday my sister-in-law's house where eating is an art. I wish I could accurate describe the BBQ ribs they make ... and the cake. Heaven!

The Full Facelift: Before & After

Here it is, folks. Just look at those bare walls. We've been in this house for just over two years now and still, not even one picture hung. In fact, my sweet girl had picture frames stashed all over the place ... half of them filled with prints and the rest with the original display pictures still in them. It was time, time to make it look like she actually LIVES in this room, this very bright green room.Where to start? First, a shopping trip to IKEA for some quick fixes. We'll go left to right in the pictures below. 1) I located the four prints I gave her for Christmas. They were in nice bright IKEA frames already and were artsy photographs she had taken herself. We dusted them off and hung them. 2) We replaced the old-fashioned standing mirror with the simple MINDE mirror for cheapie-cheap. 3) I started printing photos to frame her closet, kind of a reversed picture frame with all the photos along the outside. I chose photos from the last 12 months and mixed the sizes, 4x6, 5x5 and 5x7. I also picked up a couple packs of printed cards to mix it up a little and give it some variety. I used heavy duty glue dots to attach these all the way around the door frame. 4) This great little picture mobile was only about $7 and holds 10 images. It was a cinch to put together and I love how it moves. 5) Added the LACK shelf to hold even more pictures, a few figurines and her nerd glasses. 6) A comfy padded butterfly chair from Sears to sit and read in.We topped all this off with the fabric covered stretcher frame and some old records. This girl LOVES music almost as much as she loves reading. I married the two and put quotes from Edward and Jacob in the middle of each record. The black vinyl helped tie in the fabric and the new chair. Her brother also got her this fun paper star lamp to hang over her bed. It is even more delicious at night AND we found it at a great shop in Highland called Anna & Rose that you must go check out. It's run by a dear friend of mine and is simply fantastic.

Easy Wall Art!

Today is my daughter's birthday, my step-daughter that is. I don't think I've really broken down our family for you. I'll save that for tomorrow though. Today I have a great little project I whipped up as part of her birthday present. Since she gave us no help at all per wish list we decided to dress up her room a bit. She's a lot like me when it comes to decorating a place ... she doesn't do it. Our two bedrooms are the only rooms in the house that don't have anything on the walls to warm it up. I can actually hear a slight echo in mine every time I cough. Sad. Anyway, we found some quick fixes in the IKEA catalog and finished everything in less than 24 hours. My favorite part was the stretch frame.

They sell these at IKEA for $4.99, but they're very popular and hard to find in stock here. Luckily, they had one returned the same day I hit the store. I grabbed it and made a beeline for their fabric bolts. The one I wanted was black, white and green and out of stock. Grrr. So I took my second choice, black and white only, and had a great idea along the way.

The actual frame assembly was really simple, took less than 10 minutes and is about 20" square. After that I pinpointed the design area I wanted and cut my fabric to size, 26" square. Then I was the uber-nerd and colored in a photograph of the piece to plan where I wanted each color. (there just wasn't time/room for a flub up)Attaching the fabric was a breeze too. I just grabbed one of hubby's utility staplers and some 1/4" staples. First center the frame face down on the wrong side of the fabric. Now starting in the middle of each side, pull the fabric taught, pull up and around the frame and drive in one staple. Then, work your way down each side stapling every inch or so. Leave 2" at the end of each side so the corners are free as shown.For the corners, trim away a modest square to get rid of some bulk. Then tuck and fold to get a nice clean corner. This isn't an exact science; just keep it neat and clean and if you need to take out a staple to fix a mistake, by all means do it. It just takes a little patience, just a smidge. ;)OK. So far we've just followed IKEA directions. Now, for the fun part. I had to make this piece actually blend in with her bedding and wall colors, lots of lime green and different shades of blue, so I decided to treat it like a paint-by-numbers sort of project. I have gads of acrylic paint in my craft supplies, which can admittedly get a bit crispy on fabric unless you know a trick or two.

If you mix it with a Textile Medium, it will "transform the acrylics into a washable fabric paint". You can find this in most craft stores and it's reasonably priced. (I also had this on hand - scary how many supplies I possess, very scary) I chose a nice bright green, a turquoise and a darker shade of blue, all perfect for her bedroom. Just mix a dab of the textile medium into your paint and then choose a nice firm paintbrush of appropriate width for the area you're painting, mine were all very skinny. Then go to town. I tried to be careful about staying in the lines, but ... no one's going to go and study it up close where I hung it. ;)Here's the finished piece and another picture of it in its new home. More pictures of the bedroom facelift coming soon.

Choices ... Choices ...

I get to bring cupcakes to our families annual Chimi Party. We're celebrating my nephew's birthday on the same day and a handful of neighboring birthdays. I just can't decide what to bring. I think I've narrowed it down to these three choices:Banana cupcakes, since I have 4 bunches of them in my kitchen right now.Ice cream cone cupcakes, since this is the "Ice Cream Grandma's" house. These would be hard to transport though.Or pumpkin cupcakes to help welcome in the season. Now, to choose just one ... wish me luck.

SF: Post One

I promise not to drag this whole thing out forever, just thought I'd hit the highlights in the next couple of posts. Now, after a year of really ugly sales figures, I was pretty nervous about accepting the invitation to the show in the first place. So ... I decided a long time ago that this would be my birthday trip. Hopefully I'd be able to recover my costs, but this way it took all the pressure off right from the get go.

I roped a dear friend into going with me since hubby couldn't get the time off work ... and spending that many hours at an art shop would have sent him through the roof anyway. We packed up the car with everything I could think of and hit the road Wednesday around 3pm. After filling up the tank, we drove on the long, long, straight, unpretty highway to Reno. We pulled into the Silver Legacy, drove up the 17 story parking structure, got checked in and went to find some sandwiches for dinner. The next morning, we grabbed a decent breakfast downstairs and got back on the road. After we made our way through dozens of construction zones along the way, we landed in SF just after 1pm.

It took us 4 hours to get the booth set up and presentable and we were able to meander through the other booths for a smidge to get a sneak peek of the competition. Then we were off to find us some yummy-licious seafood at Pier 39 and take a stroll to relax before the next 3 days of work, work, work. Luckily, we were able to find and check in at the hotel before dark ... we were warned that it was in a dicey neighborhood.

This was our home at Fort Mason and the finished booth photo. Like my new breezy CK blouse I got for the trip? I found it on overstock.com ... gotta love point and click shopping on the fly.

Birthday Festivus

The budget conscious birthday fest this year for the big boy consisted of a sundae bar, night games for hours on end, an unexpected fireworks show and s'mores around the fire pit. We did all this at a great local park with supplies we mostly had on hand. Thanks to technology, we didn't even have to buy invites. He whipped up his own info-email and zipped it out to all his buddies. Easy-peasy. The kids all had a blast and had the most fun throwing cups of water at each other towards the end of the night ... go figure. It just goes to show you that you honestly don't have to spend a fortune on these kinds of things. Simple fun goes a long way.

Life is Great

I live for days like this. For starters, it's my oldest son's birthday. He's a big 14 yr old now .... (sheez I'm getting old fast) and I couldn't be more proud of the young man he has become. We started the day a with birthday breakfast of scones and monkey bread, per his request. The other kids all made our standard table decorations (placemat, chair sign and crown) and we sang happy birthday as he blew out the candles in his scone tower. A beautiful morning!

Then I went to search for blog/project ideas and was lucky enough to find Fantazya Fantazies' Flickr page. Wow, try saying that five times fast. I was hoping to find out more about this recycling phenom and was led to her Diary 2010 Project. Why don't I have ideas that are this brilliant? Note to self: must ingest more good vitamins and nutrients on a regular basis. She is soliciting 392 artists to each design one of the 392 pages in the calendar. Each participating artist must have an existing website where they sell their own art/crafts. We put our url in the page design and get free publicity. Free art for her. Free advertising for us. Right from the start, there will be at least 392 people who'll want to buy it publicize it because they are featured in it.Pure genius. I want to be her. Luckily, this morning there were 2 pages still available. I sent in my email request and heard back almost immediately. April 16th is mine! Mwah-ha-ha. Now I just need to whip up a killer calendar page and send it in by next week. Yikes. It looks like there is still one page left if you're lucky enough to get it before someone else does. I'll keep you posted on my progres.

Undiscovered Genius - Adoptabot

Brian Marshall should be my new best friend.

Every once in a while a search for new and fabulous ideas through the Etsy Pounce feature. If sales are slow for me, I search for "Just Sold" to see what in the heck people ARE buying these days. Usually I look through the "Undiscovered" shops to see if I can help out another artist and be their first purchase. Now and again I find true genius like this. How fun are these guys?If Brian really were my new bestie ... I'm sure he'd send me one of these delightful orphans for my upcoming birthday next month. Brian? Thoughts? :D Go check out his shop HERE and pick out your favorite.