A REAL bat for Halloween.

So I read lots of blogs and websites and of course right now everyone is just in the height of the fall/Halloween decorating phase and I’m seeing some super cute ideas everywhere!  But I bet I’ve got something nobody else has!  I have a bat in the backyard.  A REAL one.  I don’t live in the country, people.  I live in a small town on a very busy highway.  I am not out in the middle of nowhere. 

So imagine my surprise when I had our 2 dogs in the backyard playing and I see Sophie sort of pawing at the ground and then she is doing that bowing down with her butt in the air because she wants to play maneuver.  And I’m thinking, oh great, she’s found a bird or a tiny ground squirrel and is trying to play with it.  So I head over to see and found out that THIS is what she was trying to PLAY with:

Welcome to my life.

(You’ll have to excuse the blurriness of my photo.  I was freaking out so bad I couldn’t hold still.)

The damn thing kept flopping up and down but couldn’t fly. 

 But seriously…..what the hell?  Are you kidding me?  What is the deal with wild animals wanting to come to MY house?  (remember this?)

Just so you know, the bat was not harmed by the dog, the dog did not bite the bat, the bat did not bite the dog, and my husband scooped him/her up into a bucket and drove it out to the woods somewhere.  I don’t need to know where.  

Anybody else got a bat story with Halloween coming up?  Let’s hear it.

Happy anniversary to me!

Our tenth wedding anniversary was last month and I wanted to show you one of the things my husband bought me.  I have had a photo of it hanging in my office as a “someday” purchase……like “someday when money grows on trees, I’ll buy that necklace.”  Anyway, it’s handmade and sold in an awesome Etsy shop called Cinnamon Sticks.  Is that not just the cutest name for a shop ever?  And you might notice her photos are taken with cinnamon sticks.  I love the cleverness of that. 

Is this thing FABULOUS or what?  I can hardly stand waiting for it to arrive in the mail!  Patience is not one of my good qualities.  If you’re in the market for jewelry for yourself as a gift, you should check out her shop.  There are other pieces I would love to get that I have bookmarked for “someday” also. 

Check this one out:

You can buy it here.

And I LOVE this one also.

She actually made the sparrow herself.  You can buy that here.

And I love these stacking rings.  I’d like to buy a set of 3 to wear with my name, hubby’s name, and our daughter’s name on them.  Then I would wear them with my daughter’s name in between ours.  LOVE.

You can find those here.

So anyway……No, I don’t know this girl and she didn’t pay me to say nice things about her.  But when I find awesome things I like to share my discoveries! 

Backyard visitors.

Autumn has arrived.  I don’t like it.  Yes, it’s leaves-changing-colors time and weenie roast time and the crispness is in the air.  But for me it symbolizes that winter is right around the corner.  And I hate winter.  I despite it.  I loathe it.  I don’t like snow (especially driving in it) except when it’s coming down in big soft fluffy flakes or the sun is glinting off of a new fallen snow.  And then I only like it through my window of my house.  This year I have really enjoyed spring and summertime because it seems like every time I took a look out my office/studio window I would see a new visitor in the backyard.  I hadn’t ever really thought about taking photos of them before (besides the hummingbirds) but this year I thought I would take pictures and make a scrapbook page.  Maybe it will get me through the winter until spring arrives gain.  We live on a pretty busy highway, but you’d never know that when you’re in our backyard.  I love it!

Here are a few visitors:

This little guy was eating his breakfast outside my kitchen window.

This is the first year we’ve ever had one of these types of butterflies in our yard.  I was way too excited. 

And this little guy kept coming back to see me.  I purposely hung the feeder outside the window near my desk so I could just stay seated at my desk and take a photo when he came by to say hello.

There he is dropping down and looking in at me.  It was so fun!

This guy was looking right at me too!

First year we’ve ever had finches come visit us!

Isn’t she pretty?

These little dudes I saw through Summer’s bedroom window.

And then a couple decided to pose for me!  ha ha  I think one of them is hogging all the birdseed because that other one looks pretty skinny!

I didn’t really need to know THESE things were visiting our backyard!

And I didn’t like this monster either!  Seriously, this thing was HUGE.  Yuck.

I have also found lots of flowers and bits of nature in our yard this year. 

(anybody know what this blue flower is?  It’s very pretty and it grows on a vine and it invades everywhere in our yard.  I have a love/hate relationship with it because it’s everywhere but I love it because it’s so pretty!)

Anybody else see a heart?  Is it just me?

Outside my kitchen window is a tree that grows these berries.  We don’t know what they are, but the birds love them.

One of my favorite photos. 

And another favorite of mine.

I go out on rainy days too with my camera wrapped up in a plastic bag. 

Can you guys see the spiderweb in this photo?

I wish I could look out the window someday and see a gorgeous deer out there but that’s never gonna happen.  What have you guys seen in your backyards?  Leave me a link so I can come and see!

One precious life.

Here’s a little story about how a project came to life in my head and then in my studio.

My dad owns a gorgeous classic 1966 Corvette Stingray convertible.  It’s not your average car.  And not just because it’s an antique or because it is beautiful.  My dad worked his ass off for that car.  And then he worked his fingers to the bone restoring it.  He stripped that car down until there was nothing left but the frame.  Removed every bolt, every nut, every teeny tiny piece of that car.  Then he painstakingly cleaned and buffed and painted and chromed them all and put them all back together.  The parts that weren’t original 1966 Corvette parts were replaced with ones that were (after months of searching ebay).  He put his blood, sweat, and tears into that car.  And I mean that literally.  He sanded that car down so many times his fingertips bled.  What he thought was going to take a few months took more than 2 years because of little problems popping up here and there but mostly because of the paint job of the entire car after it was assembled.  Dad bought defective paint.  Which meant it looked horrible after he sprayed it onto the car.  So he had to strip it all back off down to the bare frame.  And then he bought more defective paint.  So he had to do it all over AGAIN.  And then AGAIN.  I honestly thought my poor dad was gonna have a stroke before it was all over.

Okay, so needless to say my dad is pretty proud of the finished product.  He’s worked very hard and totally earned this beautiful automobile.  And here’s where I’m going with this story.  Pop has this great car that he worked so hard to have.  If this was MY car, I’d be making up an excuse just to drive it down to the grocery store every night.  I’d drive that sucker everywhere.  But my dad doesn’t do that.  The car sits in his garage with 3 inches of dust on it.  Dad works 3rd shift, 7 days a week.  He’s busy.  He’s tired.  I get it.  But it makes me CRAZY.  So a few months ago I sat him down and we had a talk.  I told him how much it bothers me that he’s 60 years old and his entire life is work, that he’s got this kick ass car that never leaves his garage, that my daughter just finished softball season and he never made it to a single ball game, that he is LETTING LIFE PASS HIM BY.  My Pop is my best friend in the world, we have this special relationship that fathers and daughters don’t usually have, so I can tell him like it is.  I want my dad to be happy.  Because dad being happy equals me being happy.  So I gave dad this big long-winded lecture (YES kind of like this story….I’m sorry) about enjoying life, about driving that damn car even if it’s dirty (that was one excuse he gave me…..are you KIDDING me?), about making the effort to come to his granddaughter’s activities because she’s only a little girl once and time goes by so fast…… you get the picture, right?  Dad said, “I get it, girl.  I’ll try.”

A few weeks later I was reading an e-mail from Melody Ross.  She is a (famous) scrapbooker (was the owner of Chatterbox) and while I ”know” her from scrapbooking, it’s not the scrapbooking part of her that I enjoy the most.  She is a phenomenal woman.  She has been through so much in life, has walked the road to hell and back, and she has come out the other side a different person, and I think she’d probably say a BETTER person.  She is so INSPIRING to me I can’t even tell you!  She has this event she puts on with her sister called Brave Girls Club a few times a year and oh, how I dream of going to one of these someday, but anyway until then I subscribe to her daily Brave Girl e-mails.  It’s sort of like an inspiring little positive affirmation every day delivered right to your inbox.  Sometimes it’s a sentence, sometimes a paragraph, ALWAYS inspiring and motivating.  So a few weeks after the conversation with my dad I was reading one of these e-mails and one sentence jumped out at me.  It was this:  Decide to make every single day the very best day of your one precious life. And I went WHOA.  And I instantly  knew that I wanted to make a project for my Pop.  I have been seeing Subway Art springing up all over the internet and loving it and I decided to make my own version of that with this quote.

I went to Michaels and bought a big ole canvas (package of 2 at 40% off! woo hoo), spray painted it black to color coordinate with dad’s garage, and then figured out how to lay out the quote onto my canvas.  I experimented a bit with fonts and sizes until I got what I wanted.  I cut all the words out on my Pazzles from cardstock first to make sure it all fit just the way I wanted.

After I got all the words on there (using a laser level to make them straight), I spray painted a couple of clear coats onto it to protect it from dust (and I was a tiny bit paranoid the vinyl would fall off later).

And here’s the finished product.

I absolutely LOVE it and so does my dad.  He was pretty impressed!  ha ha

I was planning to make myself one of these as a gentle reminder.  I think we all need this reminder because it’s so easy to get caught up in the trials and tribulations of life and forget about the beauty of it and the fact that you only get just the one so you’d damn well better enjoy it while you can.

I got a reminder of that on Wednesday when my husband called me from work to tell me he was being sent to the hospital by his cardiologist.  He was having chest pain at work lifting some boxes and moving things around and he mentioned it to one of the gals who works there and she promptly threw him into an examining room and did an EKG on him and then another.  The doctor didn’t like the looks of the second one so he told him to hightail it to the hospital so they could monitor him overnight.  Everything checked out okay (meaning no heart attack) and he came home yesterday, but the doctor told us before he discharged him that the chest pain was for sure a heart issue and it needs to be checked out.

Nine years ago (right after we celebrated our first anniversary and our daughter’s 1st birthday) my husband had a coronary artery bypass (open heart surgery).  They bypassed around 4 blockages in 3 different arteries.  What a ride that was.  It was for real the scariest day of my life to date.  Then three years ago he had a blockage in his carotid artery (in his neck) bypassed.  So he doesn’t have a great track record!  Chest pain in a guy like that is kind of a big deal….so Tuesday we’re going to the hospital bright and early and they’re going to do a heart catheterization on him.  That’s the one where they run a line up through the artery in your groin all the way to your heart and shoot some dye up there to see if there are blockages.  The cardiologist will be able to see if the parts where they bypassed have gotten blocked or perhaps if he has blockages in totally different areas.  The answer is probably going to be a definite yes, but the decision of what to do about it will depend on how big they might be.  If they’re small enough, a stent can be placed and he’ll stay in the hospital overnight.  If blockages are too big, they advise the open heart surgery…..and I don’t ever want to go through that experience again.  So if you don’t mind, everybody send me good vibes and prayers and happy thoughts, okay?

Know any funny jokes?  I could use a good laugh right now, lemme tell ya!

*edited to add:  For those of you who have been asking, my husband came through his heart catheterization okay.  He does have blockages, but they do not want to do surgery on them and are just going to try to keep him from having any pain by having him wear a nitro patch on his chest during the day and we’ll see what happens.  **edited to add: Ken is still doing well, went back to work after two LONG weeks off via doctor’s orders (he was chomping at the bit!). He wears his nitro patch on his chest when he is awake and has felt fine ever since his “episode.”  Thanks for the well wishes everyone!

I’m joining in this party here:

and I’m joining in here:

Ouch.

This is what happens when you’re the catcher on your softball team…..and the pitching machine pitches at 30+ miles per hour (yes I know that’s not very fast but she’s 10 years old)…..and the batter misses the ball…..and you get hit with the ball!

See that line of little red dots?  Those are actually the indentation from the stitches on the softball!  Her momma (ME) probably would have cried, as I am a big baby when it comes to being in pain…….but this kid is like her daddy in this kind of situation.  She’s a tough cookie.  Didn’t even complain about it!  You’ll be seeing this photo again in the future on a page for her softball scrapbook.

Almost Home.

I miss her.

(i love her shirt)

I haven’t been apart from her for more than 4 days since I went to a girlfriend’s wedding in Texas 2-1/2 years ago.  (wow, has it only been that long?)  I was on an adventure back then and way too busy experiencing new things and meeting my online friends in person and just in general having a wonderful time to miss her too much back then. 

My house is too quiet. 

There’s no video playing loudly from her computer.  (I usually have to shout “turn that music down please!”) 

There’s no Lady Gaga song blaring from her bedroom.  (just in case you’re wondering, I only let her listen to the ones without curse words) 

There’s no shouting at the Wii coming from the family room and drifting through my office door while I’m working at my computer.  (the kid really gets into her games)

It’s just me.  (and the cats and dogs of course)  Working at my computer all day.  Making my scrapbook pages that are due now (yes, I wait until the last minute nearly every time). 

Waiting.

We dropped her off at camp (2 hours away) on Sunday afternoon.  It’s her first time ever going.  She BEGGED us to let her.  We were reluctant to say the least (especially her Daddy).  She begged MORE.  We were scared.  It’s a big world out there, and it’s not always a wonderful place to be.  Bad things happen.  But in the end I said we can’t hold her back because of OUR fears as parents.  Hell, if we’re gonna do that then the poor kid won’t be allowed to leave the house until she’s 30.  We can’t keep her from doing something she’s dying to do and having that experience because we’re afraid.  I don’t want to raise a daughter who’s afraid.  Let me rephrase that.  I want to raise a daughter who maybe is afraid but does it anyway (and I’ve tried to set that example for her).  I want to raise a daughter who is strong and competent and confident.  So we let her spread her wings…..just for 5 days…..

Today is day 5.  Oh, how I miss her. 

I knew it might be hard, so Monday night Ken and I went to the movies.  (we saw Grown Ups and laughed our asses off)  And then Tuesday night Ken and I went to the movies again.  (we saw Knight & Day–it’s no Mission Impossible but it was pretty good. Tom Cruise is FUNNY)  Thursday night was a rented movie from Netflix and painting some patio furniture so my front porch will be prettier. 

But Wednesday was when it hit me.  The quietness.  We went out to dinner that evening (at Arby’s–big spender, that Ken is) and then had nothing to do.  Well, of course there were things I could have done (cleaning, dishes, vacuuming), but nothing FUN.  Nothing to distract me from feeling like there’s something missing, like one of my arms or legs has fallen off, this weird feeling that I’m forgetting something when I leave the house, it’s hard to explain…..it just feels OFF.  Like my world is somehow wrong.

So I’m waiting.

Today I’m leaving work at noon and going to pick her up at camp.  I can’t stand the suspense.  I’m going to try VERY hard not to cry when I see her so as not to embarrass her in front of her new friends. 

She’s almost home.

Winner.

Forgot to tell you this last Thursday!  We have a winner! 

I put all the comments on strips of paper and put them in a bowl.  I had my girl pick out a number from the bowl.  She picked #7.  This means that Sable is the winner of the CSN Stores $40 gift card.  I have e-mailed her a week ago and have not heard anything from her, so I’m going to try again today to contact her. 

Thanks to all of you for entering the giveaway.

Silly Girl.

One day back in May I asked my daughter to let me take a nice photo of her new hair highlights.  She is 10 years old, and this is what I got when we went out into the yard and began.

Picture me the entire time being totally frustrated and yelling, “Please just give me ONE GOOD SHOT!  That’s all I ask! JUST ONE!”  ha ha

And this is what I got:

I kinda like it.  It really represents who she is right now, always flashing the peace sign and saying “peace out” instead of “goodbye” to someone.  She cracks me up.  But  I swear to you I grew a couple of new gray hairs that day.

Then a few days later on Mother’s Day I asked my husband to take a photo of me with my daughter.  And here’s what I ended up with after EVEN MORE of those goofy face photos.

ONE photo I really like.

And this is what I did with it:

It was a challenge over at Practical Scrappers that week to use transparency in some way, and that whole black swirly frame above is a transparency.  I just put it down over my photo.  I used a rub-on from Imaginisce (I think) on top of the transparency and I also stamped the month and year on top of the transparency.  And because I can’t stand to finish a page without adding something sparkly to it I also added some dark pink rhinestones on there too, which you can’t see very well in the above photo.   Hopefully you can see them if you look closely enough!

Giveaway!

I was recently contacted about doing a review or giveaway on my blog and I thought it would be fun to give away free stuff to one of my readers out there in blogland! 

So……I’m giving away a $40 gift card to CSN stores!  I’ve been checking them out and have seen some things I’d like to buy myself.  They have several different websites.  The one with sectional sofas has some great prices and we even recently had to retire our poor old sectional sofa.  My husband had it for I don’t know how many years before I married him and we’ve had it the 10 years that we’ve been married, so that thing was TIRED.  And it’s funny because I didn’t like it all that much while we had it.  It was 3 pieces and I always thought I’d like a separate sofa and loveseat more, but now that it’s gone I miss it and was thinking about buying another sectional, maybe one of those that has a recliner built into it or something.  But I got to looking around on this CSN site and they have this nice leather sofa and loveseat set for a pretty good price.

I have 2 big dogs that I unsuccessfully try to keep off the furniture and I’ve been researching online what kind of furniture to get so it doesn’t get destroyed by the dogs and everyone says leather.  I could just keep the dogs in their crates during the day when I’m working in my office and they’re unsupervised, but then I feel like a bad dog mom.  ha ha

So since I’m a scrapbooker I also looked for things at CSN that I could use for scrapbooking or making cards and I found a few things…..like some acrylic gems here or envelopes here and here (I can always use these!).  I found some organizational stuff too like some floral bins here and I like these magnets here for my inspiration boards in my studio.  I also like their magnetic boards here.  I think all of these different sizes put on a wall in the studio or in the kitchen would look neat.

Okay, so if you’d like to win a $40 gift card to CSN Stores, here’s a couple of different ways to do that:

1.  Go check out their website and then leave me a comment and tell me what you’d buy with the gift card.

2.  Follow me with Google Friend Connect (I just joined!) over to the right —–> toward the top and leave me a comment that you did.

3.  Post on Twitter or Facebook with a link back here and leave a comment that you did.

I will draw a winner on July 8 at 8:30 p.m. central time, so you have until then to get your entries in.  Good luck everyone!

Centsational Girl.

(that’s my sensational girl above with her new highlights May 2010)

I recently discovered a pretty cool blog called Centsational Girl.  She’s pretty crafty and that’s what ended me up at her blog in the first place.  Oh, but she also bakes and decorates and grows things.  Her blog is full of ideas and inspiration!  So anyway…..not very long after I subscribed to her blog she came up with this post, and now I really like her!  This is the kind of stuff that I am always thinking and saying and trying to keep in the front of my mind as my daughter grows.  (This is also why I make scrapbooks, people.)

As a mother, here’s the part of her post that really struck me:

So my message today is simply this. 

Forget the laundry and the dirty dishes.  Check your email later.  Close your computer and put down your phone.  Ignore Facebook, and forget all about Twitter today.   

Go make some memories with your child.  Read to them, play with them, hug them and love them.  Be there for them when they stumble and when they are victorious – they will always remember that you were.  And even if they don’t remember it all, you will treasure the memories made.  Make your legacy your presence in their lives. 

It struck me because it is SO TRUE.  Which is why my kitchen sink is always full of dirty dishes.  Always, Lord help me.  Don’t get me wrong.  My house isn’t disgusting…..but I wouldn’t eat off my floor if I were you.  ha ha  Because when Summer says, “Mom, will you play Wii with me?” I don’t say no.  And when she says, “Mom, come watch this funny cat video with me,” I don’t say no.  And when she says, “Mom, will you pitch to me so I can practice my hitting?”  I don’t say no.  Ever.  Because I know when she’s older she will not remember whether our house was spotlessly (is that a word?) clean or not.  She will remember did I spend time with her?  Did I have fun with her and play with her?  Did we laugh together?  And I want the answers to all of those questions to be YES…

Go read the rest of Kate’s post here.  It is so well written and wonderful that I asked Kate for permission to show you a piece of it here and send you to her blog to read the rest of it, and she graciously agreed, so you must go please.  Thank you, Kate!