Yes, I am alive

Ok, I know it has been several weeks since I have posted anything but life happens.

I have just been wearing too many hats the past couple weeks, and it seems that that nothing is getting 100% from me.

Mom — good and bad
***Oldest son was home with some college buddies brewing ale with us. Brewing one weekend, and bottling the next. (all are 21 or over)
***Youngest son had a nasty virus that just would not go away. Yes when 15 year old boys are sick, they actually want their moms.
***Missing daughter, who is a long way from warm California at college in burr Wisconsin. I have been baking and sending care packages. I am doing my part to keep the postal service solvent.

Artist—well at least trying to be
I have been working on stuff, but most are project that are for trades. I will photo and post stuff when I actually finish. Unfortunately I have not had a lot of time to work.

Also, did the taxes, paid the bills, purging cupboards.

Just very busy!

Hope everyone has a great weekend — hopefully I will have something I can post in the next day or two.

Inauguration Day

Today history was made!

Lets all hope and pray for a brighter future for America!

Where is my creativity hiding???

I have not posted in a while, because I haven’t had anything interesting to post. No art, no fun activities, nothing. I am just feeling brain dead. Truly I think the tiling job (still unfinished) sucked my mind dry. It is so monotonous putting one tile up after another, even breaking up the pattern with design and color, I will post a finished picture later, but we won’t be working on it again until the weekend. It is a two person job, and hubby has returned to work.

Maybe I am just melancholy since two of the three kids are already back at school. My daughter is back in Wisconsin, and I won’t be seeing her again until late May when I fly back and drive home with her. The youngest is back to high school, so no more sleeping in for me, he needs motivating in the morning. The oldest is home until the middle of this month, lol and it is noon here and he just rolled out of bed. I don’t blame him though, it is nice to turn the brain off during breaks. When he goes back, he starts his last semester of his senior year, graduating in May with two bachelor degrees, a BS in Physics, and a BS in Chemistry. I know he has a tough semester ahead of him with senior projects.

Maybe I just need some fresh air, I tend to be a homebody and have to have a very specific reason to get out.

Check back tomorrow, I WILL have art posted!!!!! I am going to put away the fat book group project that I am working on (won’t be hard to put away, I am suffering from artist’s block on it), and I am going to just do some art for the sake of doing some are. I have a friends b-day coming up, and I have a special card in mind that I want to make!

tiling

Thank goodness I don’t tile for a living and charge by the hour; if I did, not one would ever hire me. Between yesterday and today, I have probably spent 10 hours at it, and have roughly 1/3 about 16 square feet of the shower done. It would go so much faster if you did not have to stop and measure and then cut tiles to fit into areas. I am using standard 4″ by 4″ tiles, with 1/16 inch spacers. Tell me why couldn’t the contractor who built this house in the 60’s actually build it to some regular dimensions? The tiles we took out had been cut to varying sizes too. I am taking the rest of the day off from the shower, and maybe tomorrow too. After dinner I am going to go attempt to be artistic — I am so sick of playing with tiles, that I have no idea if I will have any Muse or not. The stiff Margarita I am taking up with me may help!!!

That week between Christmas and New Years….

I hope that everyone had a great Christmas. We cut back on the gift giving this year, and still enjoyed it just as much. My youngest two gave me an addicting Play Station 2 game, Katamari Darmacy (ya I enjoy playing video games — it is a great way to bond with the kids, learn to enjoy what they enjoy) — We spent most of yestesday playing it — one of the blessings of having Christmas Day Leftovers, is minimal cooking the day after. I made a big breakfast frying  leftover ham, and Belgium waffles, so the rest of the day we just grazed.

I must say the gift I was most impressed with was from my daughter, that alas will be leaving to go back to Wisconsin for school on the 2nd. When she first got home, she helped me alphabetize my recipe box within each category. Being someone who really likes to cook, I have recipes written and printed on a variety of materials. Well, it seems that each night after I went to bed, and anytime I left the house, she was madly re-typing the recipes for me on her computer and formated them into recipe card size with sunflower embellishments.  As soon as we proof them making sure that tsp and tbsp didn’t get mixed up, I will be printing them out, and will have a pretty new and organized recipe box.

Today I will begin “crafting” on a big scale. My husband is off until the 5th, and we have been putting of the project of re-tiling the downstairs bathroom. This is something we have no experience with, but I read up on it, so I know we can do it. We will probably work on it a few hours each day, so that we still have time for other things. I plan to spend the afternoon working on a project that I saw in my dream last night.

Have a great day all!

merry christmas all

Not a lot of time to post

Well, I have not added much new information lately for my few faithful readers. I have hubby and all three kids here until after New Years Day, so they are all keeping me busy. Instead of gaining the freshman 10, my daughter lost a freshman 5, so I am working on plumping here up a bit as insulation for the burr weather in Wisconsin. I looked at the local web cam there yesterday, and it was -1 with a wind chill of -31. (and I think it is cold here, raining, and about 51 degrees) We have been doing a lot of baking, Including Rosettes, Krumkake, Lefsa, and more sugar cookies. I just got lax in posting recipes. Alas, the first three require special tools, but I will post the sugar cookie one since it is yummy.

Decorating for the Holiday’s

This morning has been dedicated to interior decorating, with the outside to come this weekend. I tend to overkill at Christmas with the decorating. I have such a hodgepodge of stuff, (No I won’t bore you with all of it) that I spread it throught the entire downstairs. This would include the living room, hall/ entryway, kitchen, and bathroom. I have just started, and will now wait to do the tree until this evening when I have some help. We decorate the tree with Hallmark ornaments. I started a tradition of buying one each year for use and the kids when we got married and they were born. That means this year I have 21+20+18+14=63 plus assorted ones received from friends, so about 75 to take out of each box, carefully unwrap, and hang from the tree. This takes quite a while.

Here are some blurry photos of what I got started with this morning.

days gone by

The above picture is as you enter the house and look down the hallway. This shelf has pictures of my parents, grandparents, and great grandparents, and great great grandparents displayed throughout the year along with antique glassware. So as to not disturb what is already on there, I just tuck in the oldest of my holiday decorations amongst the pictures and collectibles.

Above the fireplace

entryway hall

I have some smaller areas decorated too, but this gives you an idea of what goes on in December in our home. I will post a picture of the tree when we finish and a few outdoor shots later this weeks.

I knew him when!!!!

Yep, that would be our furture president and me. Haines Hall, Occidental College in California 1980.

I was a senior he was a freshman.

Obama and me!

Happy Halloween

It was a slow motion day today. I had a migraine, so not a lot was accomplished. Made red candy apples, and will make caramel ones tomorrow. Finished decorating for the trick-or-treaters. I carved a pumpkin, and hubby carved a zucchini.

Kitty Pumpkin

Zuchinni Goblin