Life is going on..

Well, I am back. I am excited to be back on the computer. I was banned from the computer during healing time...sometimes a break is good. I am feeling much better, thank you for all of your kind thoughts and prayers. It is so nice to be able to breathe through my nose. Ah, the simple things in life! I have lots to catch up on, it is nice to be able to stay awake during the day..the whole day. I was feeling a bit like a granny, needing an afternoon siesta to make it through the day!

Easter was nice. Caden has been aptly spoiled. But, his birthday is just around the corner, so more spoiling will be in order. He only has four more weeks of preschool. He is growing up so fast. He has made so many friends in the new neighborhood. There are a lot of little boys in the new neighborhood, really a nice mix. Everyone gets along really well, that is all we can ask for.

Spring has sprung here. We are discovering what plants we have here to work with, and also adding to the list of things to be done. The pool has been our biggest stepping stone. We cannot find any local companies to come out and kinda explain what goes where. Paul got it up and running, it is a balmy 42 degrees or so. Nice to look at and scoop leaves out of, that is about all the enjoyment we have gotten out of it yet.

I received my Amazon Japan order quite quickly. I am planning on making a spring purse like this:


or



I was really inspired by this also:



so many great patterns. Next, I would like to find a cute skirt pattern, for summer. By the time the purse is done, it will likely be fall ;) I am discovering that I have lofty ideas, but execution isn't so grand. I think I have crafting ADD! On the ceramic front, I have a lot of things ready to be fired in the kiln, but am waiting for Paul to help with the first firing, I am sorta afraid of hot things, and the kiln would qualify as quite hot! I am working on buttons and pendants mostly.

That is it for now, I better get going and work on some house stuff, I am so behind!

Celebration!

To celebrate my recovery from my surgery (which is tomorrow)-hey I am optimistic, I conquered Amazon Japan and completed an order! Paul still cannopt understand why I just need to have craft books in another language that I cannot read. But he just doesn't get it. In 3-4 weeks these will arrive, just in time for my recovery:







Oh I cannot wait--this will give me even more incentive to get better fast. I cannot believe Easter is so close. Yet another reason, the Easter Bunny has not prepared yet, Mr. Easter Bunny may need to do the preparations, but that will be ok, I heard he is good at all that stuff too. Can you tell I am nervous? I just keep blabbing on and on.

Oh by the way, shipping cost half the price of the three books, and that was international slow shipping, the kind that takes forever and is the cheapest of the cheap. Wow, I had no idea how much shipping is around the world.

Oh by the way..Zoey has healed well from her surgeries and is getting her stitches out today! When we got home today, after running a few errands, I called and called for her. She didn't come, then I started to hear the saddest meow you have ever heard. She had somehow become stuck in our closet, poor thing. She is no worse for wear and happily watching the chipmunks from our/or should I tell the truth and say her bay window! That would traumatize me!

photoshop fun

I was able to make this in photoshop so easily with my new paintbrushes from Jason Gaylor's blog Really Cool!

Breathing is an Important thing..

Thus I am having surgery (ugh). April 5th is the big day. I just found out that is Caden's Spring Break from school. I always thought spring break was around Easter. Apparently not. I am nervous, but tired of being tired-no more like exhausted. I am not getting anything done around here, my love for crafting is not even being attended to. I am just a tired lump on a log it seems. I hope this works, they say it will and I have heard good things, but I am tired of surgeries. My poor hubby, Paul, I bet he is tired of them too :(

So, for this reason, my blog will probably become sporatic after the 5th.

sorry, no pretty pictures for this post :( I'll try harder next time...

We're back!

We have been without internet connection for over a week. Being without internet left me with a strange feeling of being disconnected, like I was missing out on what was happening everywhere! I am happy to be re-uniting with my blog-friends!

We have been busy remodeling. Paul started his new job this week. So far so good, he seems to enjoy it. It is weird though, now that he took a job, he has been getting a lot of business for his own business. He is finishing up a big job right now, even as he is working a full-time new job. My busy husband!

Yesterday we tried to get control of our leaves. We have spent at least forty hours on these things and the leaves seem to win. But finally we have a hand on them now. It is looking much better, and wow, our yard looks so much bigger without all of our leaves! We have nearly 3/4 acres, and the former owners left us with all the leaves from what it seems all the years they lived here. In fact, our pool cover was so laden with leaves we had to remove it (another all-day event). Let us just say, that wasn't the easiest thing to do! But we love being home owners, it is all ours, and that makes the work worth it!

We went to the Frederick Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids, Michigan, for our annual Butterfly Exhibit voyage. Absolutely Beautiful, it was a bright, sunny day and the butterflies were very active. Here are some of our pic's











Today, Caden performed in the annual Kid's Day at church. This was his first time being on stage. We had the honor to have Grandma come with us. Caden was adorable as always, I think a good time was had by all. The pictures aren't great, but I know grandparents afar would like to see our little ham..here he is...



At one point Caden was playing "air guitar" and jumping up and down, it looked like he was trying to start a mosh pit. So cute. He sang and did the motions to the songs with the other kids, but also marched to the beat of his own drum. Once he saw himself on the big screen TV, it was all over! He did a great job, he was looking forward to this for weeks.

out of service...

our internet is our and has been out for about a week. We will have it back up around Thursday, so we will be updating then...lots of remodeling, butterfly exploring, etc. Fun, fun, fun.

down to the studs

our bathroom has been a bugger. Paul has been working day and night remodeling our main bath. It will be so nice when it is done. Here it is in progress...



He now has the bath tub installed and plumbing rigged so we can bathe. How nice it was to take a bath after almost two days..ahh the little things in life we take for granted. Paul is doing a great job, I am thankful to have a husband willing and able to do this. This will make the house so much nicer. The shower/tub stall were original and strapped backwards to the studs. It was the biggest challenge for Paul to get it out. He cut the fiberglass enclosure into several pieces just to pry it out. Poor guy. Looks like the kitchen will be a lot easier, just because the cabinets will go downstairs and are attached normally. The floors are laminate and nearly new, they are floating floors, so hopefully we can use most of this downstairs as an added bonus. I am so excited with the IKEA design, we chose the more solid beech design with lots of horizontal cabinets. Really quite modern for our town, but we start a trend maybe ;).....The European design seems so much more smart...and economical. The cabinets we were going to order from a cabinet shop were at least double and really had less "bells and whistles" Ok well that is what we have been doing...thanks for listening to the dribble...

Sugar-cago

Yep that is Cadenese for Chicago and that is where we have been. We took our first pseudo-vacation in over eighteen months and we really haven't gone on a true "vacation" since our honeymoon....9 years! Wow. We had fun. We upgraded to a suite with down comforters etc in the Hilton Hotel. It was really nice, we got at a lower price than lesser star hotels through the internet. That is where the story begins, yes there is always a story to our adventures.

I was cleaning up after the first night and picked up one of Caden's stuffed animals from near the bed. The only problem is that I didn't get only his stuffed animal, I got a dirty used condom (obviously from a prior visitor-because there is no action going on with your four year old in the bed next to you). DISGUSTING...
So...Hilton put us up in a real suite with a surprise wine, fruit and cheese, and cookies and milk platter at night. A free meal and free movies, free internet. That was nice, but it still was a really disgusting thing to discover in a four star hotel. The suite had whole city views, two rooms, three tv's, a big couch, it was nice. Apparently, if we hadn't paid online, our hotel could have had the stay rebated etc, but I doubt that, I think it was an excuse. But it was a nice surprise.
We had fun, that is all that counts.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel....I think :)

Paul has a new job that will be starting the 14 of March and a very possible contract to hold his attention and make some wages until then. Such a blessing. This is great news. The other news is the we(well actually Paul) are going to renovate the bathrooms. The small bathroom doesn't need much, we are switching out the dated cabinetry for a sleek pedestal sink. And then we will eventually tile the floor, it has maple laminate that will be replaced throughout the house to hardwood eventually. (When the kitchen is re-done) We have found very reasonable sources for hardwood and cabinetry, and the labor is, well, free, I suppose. We want to do all of this by the end of the summer. The yard will be needing attention too. We have nearly 3/4 of an acre. It is landscaped, but we have way too much grass, we will be making planting beds and order a whole bunch of sand to make a "beach" area. Caden will have a blast with a huge sandbox in the backyard. The fencing around the pool is ok but will need to be replaced soon because it is ugly. Luckily my mom's garden needs to be preened and we will be able to get starters for a lot of different kinds of plants. I am so excited for that! It will;; require a lot less mowing when we are done. The house has been updated since 1975, it looks good, but not great. We would like the cabinets drawers to actually have rails to glide on. We are making it look modern with "furniture" like cabinetry and quality hardwood instead of maple laminate which looks great but is quite slippery. Our cat has even developed "the skid with bottom down to stop you from running into fridge technique"

Onto other happenings. Caden has had an ongoing cold. It has gone from bronchitis to just a drippy icky nose that makes everyone grouchy. I have found out that I have apnea. Severe apnea, which is so strange because I have none of the risk factors, I don't even snore. I stop breathing 31 times in one hour. So strange. So now I go to the ENT to see if there is an obstruction. There are two kinds of apnea, obstructive and neurological, like premature babies that have not developed the wiring to keep breathing, or people with neurological disorders. I have no idea what mine is. I get to go and get a lumbar epidural on Tuesday for my ongoing nerve damage in my back. So a lot of health stuff going on here. Paul has been pretty healthy, except for all the stress he has to have, ugh.

Well I haven't made much of anything crafty this week, but I have found some pretty things. I will wrap this entry with nice positive thoughts.....

Etelage is a beautifully creative jewelry store down under in Australia. They have beautiful jewelry like this:



and this:



if you want to see the most detailed little glass cakes go to http://www.untitledsmile.com/. Really unique, such sweet details.

I have been so inspired by Jen Garrido


"anything for you"


"fiesta love"

One more artist Elsa Kawai
In fact, Etsy is a wonderful site to wander around to look at and purchase beautiful artful items from jewelry to ceramics and supplies.

hello...

hi all. well we made is through rain, hail, sleet, lightening, thunder, freezing rain, snow and oh yeah tornado watches all in one day-yesterday. It was an interesting weather day.

Caden is fighting another illness, he has been lying down all day, which you all know, that is terribly unusual. We have a kid who does sommersaults when he has bronchitis. It is nice to have cuddle time, but not when he is sick :(

Paul has redesigned our kitchen while he is awaiting the offers from two jobs. And they are both local! Very local, no long commute. It is nail-biting though, waiting for offers that will (hopefully) change your life.

Tomorrow it is supposed to be 8 degrees as the high, so we have decided to "pack" it in and stay home, nice and warm. The weather people call it breath-takingly cold, so we will just sit this one out (or in, rather! :) It will warm up in a couple of days.


good day!

"paper work"

today I worked on some paper collages...


"the blues" log cabin quilt inspired paper collage


pinwheel collage, papers, button, wool


pinwheel collage, papers, wool felted ball, glass pin

hope you like them! Have a good day!

wool and water

I thought that I would share some of the crafts that I have been working on lately. I have been making wool and soy silk scarves. I used up most of my colors, time to get more roving and batting, I think I really enjoy felting, especially with the addition of the silk. The first on I made I call "swiss cheese"...

This is made with cream wool roving and white soy silk, I forced holes after felting.

I must apologize for the bad picture quality due to a snowy day and no natural light...

The next one used up most of my colors in my roving supplies. I love this one, but I think that I will use it as a prototype due to not quite enough roving to felt strongly. But I love the idea anyways and it looks pretty I think...





I will end this with some gratuitous pet pictures...


Zoe is getting used to living with us, I love her long hairs, we have never had a long haired kitty before, no allergy problems, she lets us give her bathes, luckily.



This is our boogie eyed goldfish Bob, otherwise called the Notorious B.O.B. He is a good fish, I really don't know what a "bad" fish would entail!.

mini-adventure, 49.9 miles north, $29.90 budget

Yesterday was the last sunny day before the snow was going to come, so we knew we should make the best of it. Paul thought of a very interesting adventure. We all picked three numbers, averaged them and 49.9 miles north was the average. Then the budget averaged to be $29.90.
Here's Caden all ready to go:


Favorite blanket (fleece with a road design I picked out, backed and tied together) and Stinkball in hand, his trusty piece of baby blanket, oh it was so gorgeous when Great Grandma made it, I salvaged a large piece, he gets this little tidbit that I cut off to through away to make it more safe, but it turned out that is what he really loved about it, so I tied it all together to make it safer. anyways...


We got to 49.9 mile north...here it is...


Mile marker 152 on US 31. That was nice, what next? Well Ludington was just a few miles aways, so off we went. Caden had to go potty anyway, that is the norm.



We chased a few seagulls at the beach. Took a little ride to look at the dunes, lighthouse and all the sites...

ate a little food and headed home, under budget and a little less stressed. We were able to drive away from a few troubles, and relax a little. Something I suggest to anyone who needs to get away from the trials and tribulations of day to day duldrums. To top it off, Paul got another interview scheduled right before we left, so we left on a good note. A good way to enjoy a lttle sunshine!

superbowl xv-pictures

our superbowl cake, in our small group in church we are outnumbered by the kids, Paul thought of having this cake made, I thought it was a funny, good, idea!


This is Caden and his trusty "stinkball" (a bit of baby blanket he like to rub his nose and suck his fingers with) he ignored it for about two months and now he is back at it (only at home at night). This is Caden's main girl, he just adores her!

so those are about all the pictures we took during the party, we were too busy to take too many pics. The kids made a super castle, mailbox included. The adults watched the game on a projector big screen downstairs. All had fun!

A True Valentine

"For God so loVed the world,
That He gAve
His onLy
BegottEn
SoN
That whosoever Believeth
In Him
Should Not perish,
But have Everlasting life."

John 3:16

superbowl xv

We had a nice party, our first in in this house, actually our first in Michigan! We had about 10 adults and 10 children. The children made a castle out of cardboard and we had games, food and lots of fun. We thought that this would help "heal" Paul's homesickness, but it just was fun while it lasted. It didn't put a dent in it. Don't get me wrong, we had a good time, but we miss the family parties that were had nearly once a month for not much of a reason. Paul hasn't seen his parents in over a year and it is getting to him. Now we had some discouraging news today, we are having troubles being all happy! sorry.

life

Our church has started a "Godblog", in which we communicate through journaling and praying with God, that is sorta like a blog-isn't it. Is is not what we do, journal our life experiences, our wants, loves and desires on our blogs? Well, life has taken an unexpected turn for us...we have been dissapointed. I guess we will see what is next. But life will march on, we have our health, (well sorta for me ;). So all I want to do is share some visual interest, what helps keep me happy.


another beautiful fabric and creation in the work bysix and a half stitches


of course another favorite from my favorite, Penelope for those of you who "know" my house, it would look beautiful, no? I love this painting.


and

by Mati Rose McDonough


This linocut is by the always talented Littlestflower from Australia

and finally

The always enjoyable resin encased works by Alena Hennessy

Hope this adds a little sunshine for your day, because I sure hope that the light at the end of the tunnel has not been shut off due to power shortage! hehe

medical mayhem

Brain scan:done,
Completely strange Sleep Study:done.
Prognosis: Who knows.
The sleep study was not an experience I recommend. I didn't want to do it.(who really would?) I have had another undocumented one during attaining my BA. It showed no REM. Guess what, this one, ten (ugh) years later, no REM. The technician slapped a C-PAP, (something that you put on your face to keep you breathing) for 6 hours. It did not help. She said I had sleep apnea. She was not qualified to make a diagnosis. Needless to say, I freaked out. I don't need another ailment. Luckily Paul had the presence of mind to call my neurologist, who was also appalled by this and told us that it takes 10-14 days for Doctors to go over the information and make a conclusion. This conclusion was something completely out of the realm of expectation and hopefully under further review completely false. I rarely snore, my husband has never noticed me stopping breathing at night, how could I have apnea. I don't sleep, that is all, who knows why....

So that is how my last two days went. But to make up for all of this medical nightmares, guess what found it's way to me?


that's right...
The local little bookstore ordered it and got it in super fast. This is the best! It makes up for a couple of crummy days, and so does having a loving husband and cute kid, and my new found cuddle-mate Zoe.

She slept in my spot last night during my testing, and was all out of sorts until I got home. Animals really make you feel loved pretty much unconditionally. (It is probably because I am the one who feeds her, but I like to think otherwise!)

print

This is the itty bitty print that Anna to me. I love love love it. So cute.
She sent it wrapped up in cute paper and contrasting ribbon. Her site is filled with cute stuff! I love her blog!


see the cute bears! I love the aqua and red combo!

hearts

Our crayon hearts...closup...and window view...


please excuse the poor picture quality, we have had poor lighting around here most of the time, but I wanted to share...


this is better! Our minolta took this, the card was attacked by some sort of something and we were able to fix it! Yahoo! This is a much better camera, small too!

Ok that is it, just wanted to share, someone may be getting one in the mail with their birthday card! Wonder who?