ARTFUL BLOGGING

IT ARRIVED!!!!

Just today, my copy of Somerset Studio's ARTFUL BLOGGING arrived.... As I uploaded each of the pictures below (tick, tock, tick, tock...boooooring) I started flipping through it's pages filled with wonder and color and pattern and texture and

CANDY FOR THE EYES!!!

Oh my goodness! I can't even DESCRIBE it's glorious pages!!!

Talk about INSPIRATION!!!

It's like a combination of the glossy photos of Victoria magazine combined with an issue of Stampington with tidbits of wisdom from people who are out there DOING IT...CREATING each day and struggling to write about it at the same time. The balance of journalling and creating and combining both....

I'm in love!!!!

POLKA DOT PARTY

HERE IS THE CIGAR BOX I STARTED WITH (it smells soooo good!)

I finally finished my first Altered Cigar Box....it was SO FUN !!!!

(I didn't take any pictures of the outside of the box but it is covered in more turquoise polka dots just like the inside walls. )



AND OF COURSE I NEEDED TO SHOW YOU MY CREATIVE FUEL for this project.....these are my new lovesss....chocolate covered nutter butter cookies....After walmart stopped carrying them I became very downhearted...could life continue without my favorite junkfood treat? I was sooo sad....But then, lo and behold, I found them at Shaws!! (granted they weren't cheap but when you GOTTA HAVE IT, you just gotta have it !!)

BARBECUE

Saturday afternoon we went to a graduation barbecue for Kyle and Caleb....although the forecast called for clouds, rain, and thunderstorms we did it ANYWAY. So for the first hour or so, we ignored the dark, heavy clouds above our heads and just as we sat down to eat, the rain came flooding down. But that was okay because we all crowded under the tents and chowed down....the rain lasted about as long as the food and then the glorious sun showed it's face and the baseball game started. A fun time was had by all!!!!

Richie played catch with Bella and Jaina Mia looks up at the thunder above

Bella was LITERALLY jumping up and down after catching the ball in her mitt! JOY!!!


Mia chased the balls around that missed the girls' gloves and had a blast doing it

TypePad Anyone???

Alright, I'm going to put this question out to the Universe (uh...the online universe anyway)....

I've been really admiring some Typepad blogs and I'm considering maybe switching (from blogger.com).... except that blogger is F-R-E-E and type pad is like three bucks a month....three schmee, that's like nothing....unless I wouldn't really be getting anything better for my money...

So here is ZEE QUESTION-ONY.... DOES ANYONE HAVE EXPERIENCE WITH TYPEPAD? What do you think of it???

My biggest complaint with blogger is that lack of ability to really change my layout (besides altering the width of some of the columns and the colors). I'd love to have just a simplistic drag and drop sort of thing... Also, a feature that I love about some blogs is that you can click a button when visiting them to be alerted when there are new posts....does typepad have that feature?

ANYONE?? Throw me a bone!

YOU ARE NOT YOUR STUFF

So I've been trying to DE-CLUTTER....

I friend once told me (in what she thought was a compliment) that my house was perfect for the cluttered look. That it wouldn't work in most homes but the 'look' really worked here. Those weren't her exact words but it was one of those casual observations that kinda get stuck in your craw and are hard to forget.

Yes, I live in a large old farmhouse in Maine built around the year 1900. (There are no real public records on file for it so most of it's history is just guesswork....but I digress ) I love bits and bobs and bobbles of stuff here and there. And 'cluttered' really IS an accurate description of my "decorating style" for most of the house. I've tried to be more minimal in my bedroom and now I'm trying to apply the same minimalism to my diningroom. I've packed away all the candlesticks and mirrors and doo-dads that were 'decorating' every flat surface (see above pictures). I rolled up the large rug that was under the large (with both leaves it seats 6 -8 people depending how much you wanna squish) oak table and heaved it up to the attic. Then I took out both leaves of the table....but that made it more card table size and that was too small so then added in just the one leaf and that seems to more minimal and yet practical I think....Anyway....it's an ongoing project...just like my ever-growing project to get my craft room organized. And to THAT end I almost started drooling when I saw an advertisement for a new magazine coming out this month...

http://www.organizemag.com/index.html

It's feature article is entitled, "You are not your stuff" by the guy that helps people de-clutter their homes and get rid of about 2/3rds of their stuff that they don't use and is just cluttering up their lives on that tv show...on tlc I think? Can't remember...but if you follow the link his face is on one of the featured pages that they are showing from the inside their premiere issue.

It's all I can do to NOT click SUBSCRIBE ME NOW!!! right this instant....they even let you flip through bits of the issue and there are lots of colorful pictures of the perfectly organized space with shelving and baskets and rooms that are just screaming, "I AM THE HOME OF AN ANAL-RETENTIVE GENIUS AND I KNOW YOU ARE JEALOUS!!!!".

And of course, I AM. I am DESPERATELY jealous.

... It's as if I am completely convinced that if I could just get my home organized, my life would somehow magically fall into place and be organized as well and I would actually get around to DOING all the projects that I have been collecting supplies for and yet haven't touched. *sigh*

LISTENING...

Well, today I downloaded my 30 songs from emusic.com ....you get 30 a month on emusic and I always think, "Gee, that's a lot of music....I can't imagine finding THAT many tracks I actually like". And wouldn't you know it, it seems like it is never ENOUGH! Between new artists and old stuff I've never heard before and comedy tracks, I always seem to run out of downloads and have to add them to my "saved for later" list.

Anyhoo.....here's a few of the tracks I downloaded today for anyone interested....

The Slip: Tracks from their album Eisenhower: "Even Rats", "If One of Us Should Fall", "Suffocation Keep", "Life In Disguise", "Paper Birds"
The Rakes: "The world was a mess but his hair was perfect", "We danced together", "Perfect"
Cary Brothers: "Who You Are", "The Glass Parade", "All The Rage", "Precious Lie","Lonliest Girl In The World"

And some comedy tracks by Kathleen Madigan...you might recognize her from the show, "Last Comic Standing". She was on it a few years ago and this year she was one of the judges...She's mixed in on my ipod with Jim Gaffigan and Christopher Titus....Having comedy bits in my shuffle of songs always seems to perk up my day a bit. Although I should warn you....when you are listening to your ipod while shopping at walmart, laughing out loud when you are in an isle presumably all by yourself, people DO look at you a little strange. Hee hee

A few more recently downloaded artists.....(i love that you can just download a song or two if you aren't in love with the whole CD) :
Cat Power (great bluesy female vocals): "Good Woman", "Maybe Not", "Names"

And here's a song that was playing recently on someone's blog that I really liked: "You Know I'm No Good" by Amy Winehouse You would swear you were listening to someone from Billie Holiday's era instead of a tatooed modern girl. LOL

Another powerful woman singer is Amy Rigby...she is a grownup with words that have some life experience behind them (from her album "18 Again An Anthology")
Tracks I really liked were "All I Want", "Cynically Yours", "Raising The Bar", "The Good Girls"

I'm also still entranced with just about anything from International Singer, Bebel Gilberto. I may not speak the language of a lot of her songs but i'm still completely hooked! Recent tracks downloaded are from her album Momento.

For dancing and grooving around the house (i.e. cleaning and getting stuff done) I like French artist Elke Brauweiler. A lot of electronic dance music with French lyrics. Album name is "Twist A Saint Tropez"

I'm also still enjoying stuff from The Weepies and The Czars which I wrote about in an earlier post.

So that's my two and a half cents for today!

Yummmm......

Well, yesterday's grocery shopping trip was especially sweet due to the FREE cocoa reserve hershey's chocolate bar (70% cocoa) I got with a coupon from the paper. I feel like such a dork extolling the virtues of coupons but I get such a thrill when they take dollars off of my final receipt total.....like I outsmarted the big bad grocery man trying to get all my mulah....MUH HA HA HAAAAA



And since I was feeling especially culinary.....domestic diva that I am (okay, even *I* am laughing at that one)
....I decided to try out a new recipe that I found for waffles.....I'm getting such a kick outta my little waffle maker! I made banana pecan waffles with fresh strawberries and whipped cream on top. Yuuuuummmm.....although I think I went a little heavy on the pecans. I have a bad habit of not measuring any of the non-essential ingredients when I cook and bake....vanilla? Pour it in! Who needs a measuring spoon??? More is better!!! Sugar? Can it ever be sweet enough?? Pour pour pour, yeah that looks about right. Then comes the nuts.....lets add in a few MORE handfuls....the picture of the final product next to the recipe looks a little nut-shy.....PUT IN MORE MORE MORE!!!!

So here is final product....they were so heavy that after gobbling up several waffles (plus lots of toppings of course) I don't have room in my stomach for coffee. Who knew that was even possible????

I don't need to even TELL you at this point that I make THE BEST chocolate chip cookies...MORE CHIPS! MORE NUTS! Oops, the measuring cup is already dirty so just throw in a dollop more of peanut butter.....A little too much brown sugar in that scoop? Too much vanilla spill into the bowl? No worries! More is better! MORE MORE MORE!!! I feel personally that the best cookies are basically a bunch of crunchy sweet yummy stuff stuck together with little bits of dough here and there....

Here are the girls eating up their waffles this morning.....Mia's forehead is already looking much better as you can see and again, thank goodness for all that curly hair...it covers a multitude of sins...even disguises the bits of strawberry stuck in it! LOL

BOOKS

To The Making Of Many Books There Is No End....

Here are a few that are currently on my www.amazon.com wishlist:


Journal Revolution: Rise Up & Create! Art Journals, Personal Manifestos and Other Artistic Insurrections
by Linda Woods (and her seeester)

The Art of Personal Imagery: Expressing Your Life Through Collage
by Corey Moortgat

Wide Open: Inspiration & Techniques for Art Journaling on the Edge (Book & Card Kit)
by Randi Feuerhelm-Watts

Living the Creative Life: Ideas and Inspiration from Working Artists
by Rice Freeman-Zachery

Art Making, Collections, and Obsessions: An Intimate Exploration of the Mixed-Media Work and Collections of 33 Artists
by Lynne Perrella

Mixed Emulsions: Altered Art Techniques for Photographic Imagery
by Angela Cartwright (Author)

The Age of Feminine Drawing
by All Rights Reserved (Editor)

In This House: A Collection of Altered Art Imagery and Collage Techniques
by Angela Cartwright, Sarah Fishburn

Caffeine for the Creative Mind: 250 Exercises to Wake Up Your Brain
by Stefan Mumaw (Author), Wendy Lee Oldfield

List Your Creative Self: Listmaking as the Way to Unleash Your Creativity
by Ilene Segalove (Author), Bob Velick

Feeling ARTY

Today's post can be found on my attached site (of artwork) :

http://feelingarty.blogspot.com/

I AM ART

Well, at long last, here is me in my fancy shmancy

I AM ART shirt

(which I am totally in love with as you can tell!!!)

On a side note....yesterday was an eventful day....after a busy morning, followed by a tired afternoon, evening started rolling in....the girls were playing around the house, Richie called to say he was on his way home and I was in the living room when I heard a crash, a bang, a thud and the tears of a tiny girl in pain....I jumped up and ran into the hall to find Bella escaping the scene of the crime and Mia crumpled up on the floor crying in pain. I kissed her little red knees but couldn't really figure out where she had hurt herself until, moments later, a huge, egg-shaped lump swelled up on her forehead. It LITERALLY swelled up before my eyes way bigger than her little fist and let me tell you, I was one FREAKED out mama-cita.....I grabbed the teddybear-head-shaped-ice-pack (which I highly recommend for kids as well as adults - i use it more than they do - because it is ice-cold without the bite of those horribly cold icecubes thru the conventional paper towels on an injury).....

...so back to my tale of woe....

So as her poor little noggin is swelling up, I'm panicking and trying to hold a 30 lb. kid in my arms, apply the icepack to her forehead as she is shrieking in pain (mostly from the ice pack for some reason....she would stop crying once i took it off), and dialing the pediatrician....Of course, they have just closed down for the day and their answering machine says to call 9-1-1 in case of emergencies.

....Now I don't know if all moms go thru this internal dialog but I'm thinking that if I call 9-1-1, the ambulance will arrive, they will see me as a sterotypical overprotective mom, shake their heads and scold me for wasting their time, and then slap me with a huge bill for their trip to the house. But then I'm thinking the whole scenario of 'WHAT IF???'

What if she has a concussion? What if she is bleeding internally and I failed to do anything about it? WHAT IF WHAT IF WHAT IF WHAT IF?

So I dial 9-1-1 and try to explain why I am calling which I do totally apologetically and asking if I am overacting and trying not to sob into the phone and thinking oh-my-goodness-i-am-the-sterotypical-overprotective-mom-that-i-have-such-disdain-for....but what if my baby is dying??? HELP ME HELP ME HELP ME HELP ME!!!!! Funny the kinds of moments that make you realize that pride and self-respect are completely overrated.

So they send in the troups....

And since we live at least half an hour from the closest town with an actual title of 'city', everyone that arrives on the scene from fire and rescue is volunteer. Let me tell you, they are the NICEST, KINDEST people and totally reassured me and checked out my little one carefully and related stories of their own kids falls and well, they were just sooo nice. An ambulance driving team arrived from Lewiston and they were just as nice. They told me it was good that I had called, evaluated her injuries, told me what to watch for in the upcoming hours and told me that if I felt like going to the emergency room for my own peace of mind to totally do it and not feel bad at all. What a great group of people!

Anyway, the swelling went down some (at first her skin was threatening to split open where her little head hit the corner of the hardwood door) and she now, not even 24 hours later, has a large purple lump on her forehead but is in good spirits and seems to be completely fine.

In fact, she was so excited at all the flashing lights and the ambulance that she didn't want me holding her because she wanted to jump down and go check them out! She is going thru this car and truck phase...Everything is either a "cruck" or a "choo-choo" and getting to check out the inside of the ambulance (they let her toddle around inside after they saw how excited she was over it) was the highlight of her year I think.

So her and her sister got to run around inside the ambulance, pressing levers and checking out the gurney and I managed not to burst into hysterics at the ambulance driver's suggestion that we run and get a camera to take a picture of them in the ambulance. Richie pulled out his camera phone which he previously had never used for picture taking purposes and tried to get some shots....At this point I'm like totally coming down off the adrenaline and picture taking is the LAST of my concerns. HEllo, I was afraid my baby was gonna die from internal bleeding and everyone is standing around joking and taking pictures because everything is fine and I'm still a basket case. Sheesh....

So anyway, that was my day yesterday.....Motherhood is totally boring....NOT.

PASTRIES AND PASSING DEADLINES

As is usual for this time of the month, my anxiety levels are building because I have a shared altered book that I need to have finished and mailed out by the fourteenth or so and, despite gathering up a small box of supplies that might work for the spread I want to do, my muse is escaping me and I keep NOT WORKING ON IT. *sigh*

Nothing is as stressful as a looming deadline. Of course, without them, I would never ever get anything done.....For instance, I invite groups of friends over because It GIVES ME A deadline to get my house scrubbed and shining. Without the deadline, I do the minimum and kinda overlook the dustbunnies. With my outside activities, my deadline is the amount of time I think my plants will have withered and died without watering or other care. Usually I wait till just before that point. With laundry, the deadline is....how long can I wait before we start running out of vital items to wear. For my husband that would be bluejeans....for myself its usually underwear....(I have plenty of all the other stuff!)...my girls its usually pajamas.....so again, without the deadline, nothing would get done.

In other news, the sun is shining and it's beautiful outside....it's been dismal the last couple of weeks....day after day of dark skies, rain and every few days, thunder storms. Today is a brief respite from all that so I need to take advantage of the vitamin D and get out there. I did have OTHER plans today for getting out of the house but for some reason i woke up at least once an hour last night and therefore this morning felt like a bear emerging only half-way thru hibernation season.....arrrggghhh....

I have decided tha our second try at a Clothing Swap was a SUCCESS! Lots and lots of clothes to go around and just about every size and style and color and fabric imaginable. The box of wigs were the biggest hit....Everyone passed them around, camera phones were whipped out and the laughter shook the house....Totally a fun day. I have to add that Betsy's addition of iced coffee and some pastry that were like a cross between croissants and nutty sticky buns were DREAMYYYY.....I only stopped eating them when I came back for more and found the tray empty! Anguish! I really need to get the recipe. (And as most of you know, while I DO collect cook books, I almost NEVER actually USE recipes. LOL So that is really saying something that I want the recipe!)

Saturday

IT CAME !! IT CAME!!!!

IT CAME IT CAME IT CAME!!!!!
My shirt came in the mail today and I am soooooo excited (can you tell??) !!!! I cant wait to wear it!!! YAYYYYY!!!!!

Okay, you are like saying....huh? What is she talking about?? Right?

Welll.....after confessing that I had been pining away for an "I AM ART" T-shirt which is created by Linda Woods and her sister, the authors of Journal Revolution and Visual Chronicles (see www.journalrevolution.com ), Lo and Behold, the ACTUAL Linda Woods sent me an email and offerred to send me one if I provided her with my address..... Can you believe that??? I was so bowled over to get an actual message from her on my blog AND an email that I was like, NO WAY!!! ( I revert to my former CA self when I get excited and tend to say 'like' about every other word, for which I sincerely apologize). And not only did she send it to me....she sent it out right away, priority mail and BOOM it was in my mailbox today and HOW COOL IS THAT????

Dude....I AM SO PYSCHED!!! I can't wait to wear it!!!!

I have to run it through the wash because of my allergies....gotta wash all new garments to get some of the dye off.....BUT THEN I AM SO WEARING IT!!! Wooo hooo! YAYYYYY!!!!!! I will have to take a picture of myself wearing it so you can see how cool it is.....*BIG STUPID GRIN*

And If you now just HAVE to have one (how could you NOT???), you can get one just like it, or in another color, or one that says Rise Up and Create! or Rise Up and Bake! or Rise Up and Laugh! from a link on her blog.... http://visualchronicles.typepad.com/

FAMILY PHOTOS

And here are a few more....

Family Photos

In Mid-June we hired a friend of a friend to take some family photos...and by 'family', I mean Richies whole family - His folks, siblings (plus one spouse), and the four of us. We weren't too keen on the larger-group photos but I really liked almost all of the ones of the four of us....Here are a few of them!