Recent Reading!

I recently found Laini Taylor's first book, "Faeries of Dreamdark: Blackbringer" at my local library much to my delight. Discovering her blog through Sunday Scribblings is what led to me finding out about her first book and reading the first chapter online. Laini is a talented artist and author.

Faeries of Dreamdark is the tale of Magpie Windwitch. Magpie is a faery whose noble efforts help to rid the world of devils and worse in a time when most of fairy civilization has fallen to frivolity. Through her journey she unearths dark secrets hidden since the beginning of the creation of the earth by it's creators and faces the resulting chaos head on.

I give this book two thumbs up! ;)

Las Frutas!

Card craft!

My kids and I love to make cards. We've never made Halloween cards before really but what the heck, it was an activity that didn't involve the TV... woohoo!

Blown Out!

Leftover tire from trip from hell...

Harvest Table

Julie's Chicken Tagine!

(Cheated and had to use olives from a jar)

Twas yummy!

Ham Jensen...

A character created by Chaya...



Ham tries on an apple for size...

Halloween is Coming...

New REAL Water Colors With the Girls...

C'mon Mom, the new paints are ready, take the picture already... (i only had time for one try!)




The girl's results as hung on the wall by little E.



The end. Little E. thought it'd be fun to mix everything together to find out what happened.

This was the best $5.60 I have spent in a long time. A set of 12 real water color tubes... I had to get over micromanaging the girls about keeping the colors separate, mixing separately, and not using too much paint. For goodness sake, it was only $5.60 and we have enough left for at least 4 or 5 more sittings.

Self Portrait Before Date...

Jeff and I will have been together for 19 years in a week or so. We've been married for 13 of those years. We went out this weekend...

Zach Shirking His Homework Responsibilities...

He was supposed to be helping Chaya with her math but instead was daydreaming.

Next Big Purchase...

Now, for anyone else having to consider braces, please note the difference in price if I buy a membership to a discount dental plan that I found on the internet called Dental Network of America. I googled discount dental plans and found several plans and surprisingly enough one of the orthodontists that my dentist recommended was listed for a few of the plans. So, I picked the plan that offers 20% off orthodontic services for the price of $109/year. Not bad, huh?

Bye Bye Baby Girl...

Yes, it was the first day of school for my other kids, too, but this is little E.'s first day of all day kindergarten. :( She seemed to like it. She said she made lots of friends, liked going outside for recess, and liked riding the bus.

Future Studio...

Today was the day set aside to regain/gain some divine mojo as deemed by a fellow blogger, Megg. This morning I awoke planning to set aside the day to start making the space in our carriage house/barn deemed as mine, my own. This meant cleaning and going through boxes from our move eight years ago consisting of art school memorabilia and lots of negatives, photographs, and obsolete photography equipment mixed with some dried up clay and glazes. Throughout the day, I started to feel overwhelmed but I knew that today was divine mojo day and somehow that reminded me that I need to quiet those damned negative voices that normally keep me stagnant. I decided that rather than one day for divine mojo, I am going to dedicate the rest of this week to the project. I fully intend to write down all the negative things I tell myself, burn them up and release them to God to be replaced with positive energy and thoughts. Awhile ago the following verse from the Bible came to have new meaning for me,

"Philippians 4:8
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things."

Before whenever I read this verse, I only heard the negative side of what it could mean... what I shouldn't be thinking about or watching on TV or listening to or whatever. Lately, though, it's taken on a deeper meaning for me... I think this verse means that we should focus on the positive things in life and ignore the negative voice in our head telling us that we aren't good enough, that there will never be enough time, that we are too old, etc. So, for me, finding divine mojo means taking this verse to heart.

The Outside:



Panorama of the inside (BEFORE)

Oh Dear!

She's My Girl, can ya' tell?

She chose these boots for her birthday present. We celebrated her birthday with friends a couple weeks ago rather than in the spring. Gotta love a girl who follows in her Mom's footsteps.

(OK, so these aren't Fluevogs but I had to tag them that way since i want to group my shoe photos together. Anyway, there's no sense in spending that kind of money on a foot that's still growing!)

Catching UP: AUGUST 20th

After 10 Hours Driving...

two blown out tires in two days, one piece of metal hanging down in the wheel well, pulling a camper with no view of what's behind me, and no air conditioning for the final 10 hour drive... A drive that should've taken two days total driving 6 hours each day and stopping for the kids sake dragged out instead to four days, driving only an hour or two each day until the last day where I drove about 10 hours, but with many stops. I am just about decompressed and wish I had had my camera with me because I do have stories to tell. ;)