Work in Progress

This is a prototype of my new bunny pattern, the pattern was way too small, so I sewed it leaving the rough edges out. I have refined the pattern, as well as a small ducklet pattern, but who knows when I will actually get to sew them. I am thinking that they will be a fall/winter project. Caden loves his bunny, no matter how wonky the poor bunny looks! I am also working on making some headbands like this:


I am growing out my hair, this should keep my unruly main under control. The pattern was provided by the lovely heather bailey She also has a couple other handy tutorials..


I am working on getting the kiln full of all the new beads and buttons I have been making. I have also slipcast a few pendants, and have quite a few designs in the works. We are having a few technical difficulties, as usual. The printer needs ink...My laptop will never return etc...I work so much faster on the laptop, but I am so thankful for the new set-up Paul provided upstairs on our main television.

I had another set of spinal injections yesterday. The neuro added more meds to try to push them further up the spinal canal. So far so good.

Paul has had a change in his work, as in he as to be in Chicago (120 miles away) for ten work days a month. And to ass to that, we have to provide the housing. I would have truly been much more excited if we were childless and were in a different stage of life, but now, this is a bit worrisome. We are looking at small studios, for him to stay Monday thru Thursday night two weeks a month. In the summer, Caden and I will probably stay one week a month with him. We will probably take the train. In the fall, when school starts, we are thinking that caden and I can go over the weekend in between the two weeks. It is hard to tell,. We just found out about this change yesterday, and who knows, maybe it will change for the better...Or something else will come up, it is such a difficult economy.

I have also bee gardening. This is my first (albeit puny) lavender harvest:

I wanted to make a lavender wreath for the front door, but they crumbled and I didn't have nearly enough, so I will have to do something else with this batch, I think I will be planting a few more also.

and my lovely hydrangea's, which I am trying to dry:


Oh, almost forgot, Caden has graduated to only those blow up arm swimmies while in the pool, he is almost ready to swim on his own! I will try to get some pic's this weekend. Next week is VBS, I am helping out at the craft department, caden gets to be in the kindergarten group! Last year I was a group leader (ugh) and Caden ended up joining my group of first graders. I think he is ready to be on his own this year, actually I was quite surprised last year when he wanted to be in my group, he is usually so independent. Thanks for listening! Talk to you guys soon!

Hooray, we are back to "normal"

Sorry for the long delay in posting our vacation pictures. I know some of you have been patiently waiting, and waiting, checking back everyday. Thank you for caring so much, it makes us feel loved!

Caden and I left for sunny and very hot northern California June 19th and came back July fifth. It was a long trip. It is nice to have Caden visit his grandpa, they both had fun getting on each other's nerves. But mostly, it was fun. We were able to go to Monterey and the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It was a wonderful experience. Caden was amazed and so were we. Sadly, we had to leave Paul at home to work, work, work. After work, he would work on the yard, he created a lovely block retaining wall.

here is our pictorial synopsis....

Caden and Paul at the airport, waiting to leave Chicago airport....


Caden with his trusty "stinkball" (yep, he still has it) as we were taking off for the long trip.


Caden swinging high above Auburn, California, in the same park that Paul asked me to marry him.


more swinging....


now, onto the slide, wondering just how hot it is going to be...Oh just a measly 105!


and down the slide.


onto Monterey....
early in the morning, we went to the beach at low tide, how it conjured up memories of our many trips to the coast and marine biology counseling....

A sea anemone, right on the rocks on lover's beach.


mussels


another anemone.

onto the aquarium...

a crab with an anemone, beautiful lighting in the aquarium.


jellies


white anemones


sea urchin


Caden trying oh so hard to touch the stingray (they have a large aquarium set up for the purpose) they felt like thick velvet. He got so soaked!


This is a spot where you can actually be under a wave, this was one of Caden's favorite exhibits, he would jump and dance and scream in delight.


Caden looking into one of the displays allowing you to see the ocean through the eyes of a bat ray.


Caden dressed up like a whale.


sea otter hamming it up for the cameras.


more otters.




We also went to Nevada City. There were some wonderful stores with great art, but it was quite expensive. Luckily for me, Auburn had a ceramic supply store, and I was able to pick up some items I needed, and my dad and I were able to make a bead stand for my kiln. I am almost ready for my first fire, I have more than enough beads and all the supplies needed, now to find the time...

I hope this post was worth the wait, hopefully, now that Paul set-up a new super dooper computer to our TV in lieu of my laptop, I can post more often! You can also see more of our pictures at my flickr site .

talk to you soon!


***post edit: this was ready to go two days ago, but we have had lovely internet problems lately...err AT&T...

Grand Haven Kite Festival

Here are the pictures from the kite festival, that I promised oh so long ago. It was another beautiful day, just like today....






this last picture depicts an upside down dog, teddy bear? something? I didn't like that one much, it gave me the heebie jeebies, kind of like he was floating face down...


This is why we don't get pictures of Caden, he is a grouchy picture taker...errr.


we have to distract him and tickle him...

taken with the video camera, no i am definately not photogenic.

studio time

I was able to squeeze in some studio time this week. I have created a few more hand sculpted ceramic pendants ready for the bisque fire. Here are a few pictures:




the butterfly pendants are about the size of a quarter, they will bisque fire white and then I will glaze them.




they need to dry for a couple of days before I can kiln fire them.


The small pinwheel is my favorite, it is the size of a dime, I think I will make another, larger one, I really liked where this could go, with a little color...

I just wanted to give a shout out to Andi at

Mystic Spiral, who kindly called me and answered all my kiln questions. I have had a kiln for over a year, but have been afraid to use it, silly me! Hopefully, this will get me one step closer to achieving a dream.

One day we want to pick up a Nikon D50 or D70, to take some better pictures, but it won't be anytime soon, unless one drops from heaven......uh didn't think so.

color week: white

Little Birds and Mav re-started a weekly blog color theme. Today is white. I love white, I even like white walls *gasp*. We love to contrast rich earth tones with white linens and curtains in our house. This is my contribution for today:


my white ikea vases, oh how I love thee.

for the love of ceramics

I discovered this new to me artist at the doctors' office yesterday. She casts porcelain in molds made from tin takeout containers. Such a great idea...beautiful texture! You can visit her site here.







The lovely peices above are by Mia Goransson. She combines the translucency of porcelain and the beauty of nature together beautifully. She makes molds of fresh buds to create the realistic branch effects. I have been admiring her work for a while now.

Well, that's all for today. Have a wonderful day!

gimping along...

We took our first pier walk of the year on Sunday. It was absolutely beautiful. The only problem is that I twisted my ankle. It didn't hurt right away, but as the day went on, it got so bad I could hardly walk on it. I went to the Doctor today, as it wasn't getting better. It looks like it is only a Grade II sprain and should be better in a week. Good news, but I was thinking it would get better quicker, I don't like limping around, and Caden is too quick for me on a good day!

Paul has been working lots. He is very busy. He will be traveling a lot at the end of this month, when Caden and I are in California.

I still don't have my laptop back. Our "friend" "borrowed" it about 6 weeks ago. He is no longer returning our calls. hmm, we think that our last resort is to report it stolen, because he took it for supposedly a couple of days, now it has been well over one month, and he isn't returning our calls. Can you trust anyone in this world anymore? hmpffff

Another drama over here is that Caden is first on the waiting list for school of choice for Spring Lake school. Apparently, the superintendent of Fruitport schools lived on our street, and somehow was able to skew the school lines to make our little street part of Fruitport schools, since he needed to live in the district. Well, thanks a lot, good for him. It sucks for everyone else in the neighborhood that wants their kids to go to school in the same town as we live in. Every child on our street goes to Spring Lake Schools. This year, they have 90 kids in the district, whereas 60 is the norm, so they shut down school of choice. We are up in the air on where he will be going to school. I did, however, manage to swindle our way into getting him screened in the Spring Lake schools next week to see if he should go in young fives instead. That is one step in the right direction. If they open up school of choice, he will get in. So, we hope that it all works out. No matter what, he is registered for both districts. Fruitport doesn't screen for young fives, it is parental choice. We, quite frankly, just need a little direction in that matter. I just don't know if he is ready or not. Over here, about 85% of the kids go through young fives first. When I was little, I went to young fives too, but I was always one of the oldest in my class because of it. Who knew that this would be such a drama?

Well that is our latest update, hope all is going well out with you all. Have a great day!

Things Caden says...

Today, as a large semi truck backs down our street to make a delivery...
Me: "I wonder what it is..."
Caden: "Maybe it is a giant ice cream cone!"

To have the imagination like a child, life is full of grand surprises.

Westward ho!

Calling all relatives and friends residing on the West coast: That time has come around again, Caden and I will be in California from June 20 to July 5, visiting grandpa. If anyone would like to entertain us, just let us know. We have two weeks to spend catching up. Caden is really lucky to be able to spend so much time with my Dad. Since his birth, my Dad spends his vacation time visiting us in Michigan for two weeks in the fall and then sends Caden and I out for two weeks in the summer. It works out well. It seems like we see each other even more now that we live on the other side of the country. Hopefully we will be able to visit with Grandma and Grandpa "lini" like last year, too.


We had a great weekend. It was hot and humid here in Michigan. We had a garage sale on Saturday, used the proceeds towards a trip to the waterpark on Sunday, and enjoyed our pool Monday. I never thought we would like having a pool as much as we do. It was really nice floating in our very own in-ground pool. We have been cleaning it and feeding it (putting chemicals in it) for two months, but it was worth the wait. It was a pleasant 82 degrees in the water. Not too cold and not too hot. Caden is learning how to swim. His confidence is getting better, he even was jumping in and floating in the deep end. We tried to get him to dive in off the diving boards, but he wasn't quite ready for that. Sorry, no pictures today. I still don't have my laptop back and loading pictures on the spare computer is a real chore.


Today Caden had his first "real" ouchie. He squished the tip of his middle finger in between two 2 pound weights. It is pretty swollen and bruised. Poor guy. We are keeping our eyes on it, if it gets any worse, or he complains about it, I think I'll bring him to the doctor. It is the tip of his finger, so I think there isn't much we can do for it. He seems to be using it, and it bends, so I think it is just a big ouchie.

Hope everyone enjoyed the long weekend, and we hope to see you soon!

If you can't join them, chase them!

Caden and I took a walk down by the wharf earlier this month. We had tons of birds to feed. The word quickly spread, the segals joined in. The birds must have been hungry.







"I'm going to get you, mom!"


After we ran out of food, Caden was tired of being chased by the birds, so he chased them back!


and chased and chased them!

Happy Birthday Number Five!

This wasn't the first time he saw his cake, earlier in the day I found him with suspicios blue lips (from the frosting). He was too tempted by the construction trucks on top of his cake that he had to dig in!

We had a good time, Caden got to go to Chuckie Cheese. He had a blast. It is very much like a kiddie casino. Sorta addictive to kids and parents alike. AS always, Caden make out like a bandit with more than enough toys to last a lifetime!

Beautiful things...

I was able to download pictures finally!
Here are some things that I have been loving...
tulips...




Window shopping...

These bright blue birdy salt and pepper shakers caught my eye.
I am loving anything that has to do with birds lately. We have been have beautiful bright orange orioles come eat on our deck, but I can't seem to catch them on film yet, they are too quick!


I loved these bird figures, they have another cute version at Target, much more affordable than these, but I cannot force myself to part with my money yet..maybe I will find them on clearance, my cheapness is getting the most of me!