Flowers in the Window

Driving home tonight I was listening to a favorite song thinking how fun it would be to learn to play it really well on the guitar.  And then how fun it would be in the next life to have an endless supply of time to learn to play the guitar really well and who I would want to teach me.  And then learn all the other things I want to learn.  Then I had a sad thought.  What if I couldn't learn?  What if I weren't able to progress?  It made me cry.  I realized how much I love to learn and how much I yearn to end up where I can continue to progress and grow and enjoy what I do (and will do).  It was a very humbling little moment.



You can find this beautiful photograph here



Happy Birthday Lyndsi!

My baby turned NINE!  She wanted a birthday party this year and planned the whole thing herself.  Mom got to play assistant and that was fun. She and I spent a lovely Saturday afternoon pouring through Family Fun magazines for games, cutting out felt and paper, and designing the perfect party invitations. 

The actual birthday morning-dad made pancakes!

On the big day we made cupcake necklace charms with permanent markers and shrinky dink paper.  The girls loved watching the magic that is shrinky dinks.  (So fun to introduce a favorite childhood craft to a new generation.)  We played "oink, piggy, oink" and musical dress-ups. That was a hoot.  My friend gave us the idea. We filled a black garbage bag with all sorts of dress-up items.  When the music stopped, the person holding the bag had to put on the first thing they pulled out.  Hilarious.  The girls loved it.  (I can see lots of potential for teenage and even adult fun with this one.)  Afterwards we did a photoshoot of each girl.  Next were presents.  Nine year old girls are fun.  Every single one of the ten gifts piled in the living room and a handwritten (and nearly all homemade) card.  How cute!  Instead of the traditional cake and ice cream, Lyndsi requested an ice cream bar.  Oh. My. Goodness.  Nine-year-olds can pack away the sugar.  Let me tell you...I'm glad I didn't put out all the treats!  It was an awesome party for an incredibly wonderful girl who constantly amazes me with her intelligence and insights, delights me with her giggles and is a complete joy to have in my little family.  Happy birthday Lou!!

Johnny Depp

I think my husband is a Johnny Depp wanna-be.  First there was the "Cpt. Jack Sparrow" look.

Jack:

Jeff:

 
Now there is the "Frank-the-math-teacher-from-Madison-Wisconsin"
Frank:

Jeff:

But really-this is his most rumored look-alike:
                                                    
Hey-at least everybody loves him too. :)

Necessity is the Mother

of all creation?  Invention?  Either works here really.

Lyndsi is having a party to celebrate her birthday.  She's been so cute about the whole thing-planning everything.  More on that later.  To appease the miser...I mean the husband...I opted for the frugal route. And I am having so much fun with it.  We made her invitations using photoshop and then just printed 12 invites (4 x 6) at Walgreen's.  I think it cost just shy of $2.50.  And Walgreen's isn't the cheapest by far.  (I just happen to really like the quality of my photoshop stuff there.) 

The only downside to a 4 x 6 invitation is you need a special sized envelope that runs about $6 a box of 50.  In typical fashion, I forgot I needed them til this morning when Lyndsi needed to take a few to school.  She's going off track today, so it was really important that her school friends got their invites today.  I pulled on my thinking cap and came up with a pretty great idea if I do say so myself. 

I grabbed a few pieces of cardstock from my stash and cut it to about 6 x 10.  I adhered the photo somewhere near the bottom-center.  I folded the ends over and secured it with a cute party hat I cut from my Cricut.  I love it!  Aside from Christmas cards, I will never need to buy this size of envelope again!

If you're interested in this idea, but don't have a Photoshop program, there are free places online to do the same thing. One of them is picnik.com.  (I understand it's pretty easy to use, too.)

The House: Part II

Ok. Here's the next installment of our house tour.  Certain piles of boxes have been taken care of since the photographing of these rooms, but I'm not going to go back and redo the pictures.  You understand, right?

To the left of the robes is our shower. To the right, the WC.  Our counters are nice and high and have 2 sinks.

Our lovely soaking garden tub, the entrance to our spacious walk-in closed and to the right of that, our linen closet.

This is the master.  It's so nice.  Plenty of room for Jeff and I, plus Chloe's cradle and changing table with plenty of room left over for her to play.  We LOVE all the natural light we get in here.  Eventually, we'd like to stick some chairs by the bay window for a little reading nook.

The little girls' room.  The biggest non-master room in the house. 

Sophie's side of the room. We've since gone in and straightened up a bit and moved a few things around making it look more orderly.

The craft room.  This is my sewing station.  Those cupboards to the left?  Came with the house.  Sweet!  I have actually done sewing at that desk since setting it all up.  It's been really nice.

The cricut station and the stamping cupboard.  Plus the source of all the natural light.  It is a great room to craft in, especially in the morning when the room is drenched in sunshine.

And my scrapping table.  And where lots of other crafts will one day happen. Plus lots of storage.  I am loving all the storage.

That's it for today folks.  In upcoming features we'll see the family room, the rest of the basement and some of the exteriors of the home.