A haircut

It is so tricky to take pictures of yourself. My terrific neighbor cut my hair just the way I wanted it. it is shorter in the back and angles longer toward the front. She came over to check it out the next day and see if it needed any fixing. She said something along the lines of, "I am good!"

Wifely Advice

Here is a great article about the "s" word.

Manna from Heaven?

In the past year I have found a one hundred dollar bill in a Publix parking lot, a twenty at a rugby game, a five in a Target parking lot and another hundred on my yard. I have tried to give the money back to its owners but to know avail my neighbor didn't claim it and they kept it in a safe at Publix for a month before calling me to come claim the other hundred.

So crazy. I have never found money on the ground that I can recall before this year. A request: if you are going to lose your money in my yard please put it in the fenced in area. I'd prefer the ease of not having to chase it in the wind.

Likes & Dislikes

I asked the kids what they liked and disliked and this is what they said. It is funny to see what they said after each other. Ward really got into saying what he liked.

 

Ward 2 yrs: 

Likes: Trains ( especially Thomas, cucumbers, peanuts, raisins, food in general, Lightning McQueen ( anything Cars), and cars

Dislikes: (he couldn't come up with any so I am venting..ahem...sharing) sharing his train set, sharing his cars, sharing in general, staying in bed at naptime and

 mornings ( such a crank...like his mother)

 George 4 yrs:
Likes: Batman, stickers, Legos-especially Star Wars ones, carrots, spinach, cucumbers
Dislikes: mushrooms

J

Joffre Jr. 5 yrs:

Likes: Star Wars legos, soldiers, watermelon, playing basketball, NFL anything

Dislikes: Fairies and Princesses, zucchini

Renata 7yrs:

Likes: Plants, fairies, princesses, bright colors, to write, to draw, to sew, read, watch t.v, apples, pizza
Dislikes: onions, dull colors, rain, cold

Hubby at Work

He didn't know he was being filmed.

Necklaces

I have been making necklaces and more necklaces. My neighbor has bought a couple from me and I really enjoyed making them for someone.
Anyway, I am trying to figure out how to get decent pictures of them. I decided to try putting myself in the pictures even though I always feel super goofy taking pictures of myself. Here are a few more. The last one I am not sure if I like.It is in progress. I need to make some longer ones but need more beads and find it harder to design for. I am working on a three strand red one too. 

Snow Day= Paint Day

Joffre only had to go to work on one of the snow days this week. So I got some time to paint. The same thing happen last year and I was a very happy camper.

I finally tackled finishing my Flamenco dancer painting. I am very close to being finished except for her hand. I have been wrestling with it for ages.I think it is a value problem (darks and lights). It looks fine if I take it away from the rest of the painting but can't get it work with the rest of  it . I keep making it too light. The worst part is that I finished it (the hand) and really liked how it worked and then I realized I had made 5 fingers instead of the four that were showing ( her thumb is folded behind the hand unseen) and almost cried as I wiped the paint off and started over. Alas. I am going to try to finish it and my raccoon piece I keep putting off too.

  I actually have probably only worked on this painting 4-5 times for a total of 15 hrs or so but it has taken me 8 months ....maybe a year to finish it. It is just so hard for me to get uninterrupted time longer than an hour.

8" of Snow

We tried to make a snowman but the snow was so powdery we had to make a snow turtle instead.

A Real Snowfall in South Carolina!

Understood Betsy

Joffre recently picked up an old (copyright 1916) children's story from the thrift store for Renata.I usually check out the books for her and our concern about old books directed at girls is that they may treat women/girls as stupid or have too much sentimentality. So I started reading and was so delighted I read the whole story and told Joffre he should read it too. He picked it up and read the whole thing too. He said he couldn't believe how much he enjoyed it. It is apparently a classic but I hadn't heard of it.

Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield is the name of the book and it is about a little girl orphaned as a baby. She is immediately given a home by an aunt and her grown spinster daughter . They are protecting her from other cousins who also offer her a home but they deem very unsuitable for caring for children. The girl grows and is very very coddled and protected from all difficulties by the aunt and cousin. One of them becomes sick and through strange events the girl is sent to stay with the "unsuitable" cousins in the country. The girl learns she is expected to do things for herself and even enjoy doing things for herself.  A series of events happen that force her to reason out how to deal with difficulties and who to look to as an example of good reason. She learns about work and the satisfaction of learning to do a job well. Gossip and modesty about charity are addressed. She is treated kindly but in almost sly ways in order to bring her out of herself. It is so well done with, of course, a happy ending.

Spongebob Square Pants

This is so right on. Spongebob is such a weird show and has always disturbed me. I've seen about 4 episodes. The kids have seen about 2-3 shows and they were really weirded out the first time they saw them and even scared.

Misc.

So I keep changing the design of my blog but only using templates they have. This is driving my husband crazy! (which is kinda fun) I just don't want to spend the time messing around on the computer! I'll get there eventually.

Anyway, here are some pictures of my niece looking super cute in a hair thingy I made for her.

 Here are the cousins goofing around at Christmas.

 I just thought this was a fun picture of my sister- in law and decided to add it.

And lastly is a quilt I made my parents for Christmas. I also did some cowboy drawings but forgot to get a picture of them. They are for their new house in Montana (hence the western theme).

Cool Idea

This is a cool idea- a quilt with writing as the design. She chose song lyrics but a biblical proverb would be really cool...write them on your doorpost and your gate...