Cherish those big hugs and kisses from your kids, and notice the subtle hints of appreciation from your hubby for the things that you do to take care of your family.
Grab a fork, or a shovel, or some mulch or something – and enjoy!
Happy Mother’s Day!
May
13
2007
Catching Up!
May
12
2007
I am finally starting to catch up with my “to-do” list. Here are some things I’ve crossed off my list, and I still have to get visuals to go along with everything for you.
- Finish up a blog design, MommyHelp.com. That one was an EW project that launched last week, it turned out really neat, new moms will love the tips and information on Breastfeeding and parenting. There’s a forum there, too – lots of nice supportive women there. Check it out!
- Another EW blog design project that I just launched this week is The End User. This is my first fluid blog design for EW, and it’s that black & white one I talked about. It wound up being a really neat layout and project – even though I had to hold myself back from changing just one little hex code to bright red or something. The urge was there, and it persisted – but alas. It’s black, white, and shades of grey, and I shouldn’t even be showing you yet because I still have some tweaking to do. Go on and have a look anyway.
- Live.Love.Read. It just so happy over there. My eyeballs really enjoy it, it’s like therapy. Go. Get happy. I’ll wait.
- One of my blogging buddies enjoyed one of my Ten Little Fishies so much, she wanted a print of it. I’ve got one sitting beside me that I’ll be matting and sending out for her by Monday.
- Sketching Titto for his next portrait – he’s such a ham. His second portrait will be much more colorful as he’s preening and really has a gorgeous spread of tailfeathers. I’ll get his sketch up here later today.
- Two Mother-Daughter banquets. Two nights in a row this week, I’m telling you – it’s been a smidge busy over here this week.
- Balancing the checkbook. Next on my list. Ugh.
I still have some things to add to my list, too! I need to respond to some inquiries and add a photoblog design project, and I also need to find an hour to tell you about the wonderful experience I just had sending off my Great Blue Heron painting to his new home. The whole experience and sequence of events – beginning with meeting Laura – will leave you just as astonished as it did me. Divine intervention indeed.
I also need to tell you about my neighbor. This lovely woman we’ve lived next to for 11 years is not doing so well. I’ve been assisting her whenever she calls for help, and last weekend I waited with her as the ambulance came to take her to the hospice where she is now staying. She’s had trouble breathing for a couple of years, and initially when she was diagnosed they gave her 6 months. She’s well beyond that, but now she’s suffering and the pain she feels just from the effort it takes her to inhale and exhale breaks my heart. I’m going to cut some irises from her garden and take them to her today, and I’ll probably be saying goodbye. It’s very sad, but I’m glad that they are keeping her as comfortable as possible, she shouldn’t have to suffer through her final days. If you’d keep her in your thoughts and prayers, I know she would feel comforted knowing everyone wishes her peace. It seems odd, and I may even sound glib writing about her, but she’s honestly ready to pass on, she has been. She is tired of having to experience the pain of her body failing her before the Lord is ready to take her.
Mother’s Day, aaah Mother’s Day. What do you mom’s want for Mother’s Day? Me, I shared my secret with a friend, and I’m not going to spoil it here but wait patiently to see if my family knows me as well as they think they do.
Live. Love. Read. Blog Design.
May
10
2007
This was a fun design to do, I feel .. hungry when I go there. Yes. Hungry. For a big bowl of rainbow sherbet. There are worse things to feel when you visit a blog, right? heh.
Nancy is a doll, she’s so intuitive and sweet and wonderful. She’s also deep and thoughtful and intelligent – all of that comes out in her blog, and now I think we’ll be seeing even more of that as she finds her comfortable cozy spot among the bright sunshiny happy color scheme, and the sunflowers, too.
Her design was actually a real challenge, if you think about having a bowl of sherbet in front of you, if you stir it up too much it gets brown, eh? That’s not so good. I had to find that perfect balance, and then I had to figure out how to port an entire database from one server to another. WooHoo! All turned out well, and just opening her new spot will make you smile. So go on, just do it.
Come to the Zoo
May
10
2007
Of course any zoo is a great zoo in my book, and I’m thankful we have one nearby. It’s small, honestly it doesn’t take more than an hour to walk through – but I kinda hang out with the critters, talk to them, study them, and of course photograph them. I can never get out of the zoo with fewer than 100 pics on my memory card.
Oh, yes, and the kids had a good time, too!
Like A Camel
May
10
2007
Conversation moments ago with Chickeymonkey while putting her socks on:
Chick: “Mommy, why are your hands so cold?”
Me: “Because I’m freezing. If it’s below 100 degrees out, I’m cold.”
Chick: “100 degrees?!?!”
Me: “Yes I’m like a camel. I have two big humps, I drink a lot of water, and I’m happiest when it’s scorching hot out.”
Chick: “Mommmmmyyyy, you don’t drink a lot of water!”
BFFL
May
9
2007
Today I get to hang out with them at our local zoo for a little while. It should be fun, and I’m expecting to get a memory card full of sweet pics of both the girls and the critters!
Hey ~ check this out! I’m glad I looked up the zoo site, now I have more motivation to fill up my memory card – they’re having a nature photography contest! WooT!
Chinese Freeze Tag
May
7
2007
Shelly (This Eclectic Life – bookmark her if you haven’t already) tagged me with this Chinese Freeze Tag. I’m supposed to tell 10 interesting facts about myself. This can be something shocking or anything that may become a surprise to people!
Shelly seems to think that I am interesting. Haha! Boy have I got her fooled!
Seriously, I’ll try not to disappoint. I’ve got my gallon of coffee beside me, and I’ll give it a go.
- I religiously get up at 6:00 am. You might think I do this because I’m so organized, blah blah blah yadda yadda – but I do it for me. I do it because I get one hour of peace. Me time. Silence in the house, just me, my latte, and my active imagination. I’m rarely productive in this first 60 minutes, the most I get accomplished is my shower and morning latte. I try to go through my favorite reads on bloglines, get my to-do list going in my head – but mostly, I just use that time to relax and get some positive energy going for the day. Yes, I do it on the weekends, too.
- I am a compulsive online shopping cartoholic. The other night, I shopped around for a couple of hours and filled my shopping cart with all kinds of wonderful beautiful and insanely expensive camera equipment. Canon 30D. Lenses. Memory Cards. Spare Batteries. Now if only 40 of you would please order a nice big blog design package, I could actually create an account and continue checkout. ::holding my breath::
- This one time, at band camp…. oh, wait. I never went to band camp. I went to a girl scout camp once when I was a kid. We made smores, and I felt special because I had little tin campy cookware. Awww. Then I didn’t feel so special because my BFFL totally ignored me and hung out with the troop leaders daughter. Then I hated girl scouts forever and ever and I quit, and I pouted. A lot.
- I’m a worst case scenario kind of mother. (Can you imagine?!) If my children are doing something, I will have a visual flash-forward of something crazy and terrible that involves either blood, death or dismemberment, and I will hover over my children to ensure my crazy visions don’t become reality. Here’s an example. My girls are playing in the backyard. Pulling grass and building little grass huts for their LPS (Littlest Pet Shops) and I’ll look at them and smile about how well they’re getting along, and feel at peace. Suddenly, flash forward to my vision of them going for another handful of grass to build another hut, and hidden at the base of the grass is a nail, or a shard of glass, and suddenly my kid pulls her hand up from the ground covered in blood with her finger just dangling there.Sometimes, being a mom in my head is the most terrifying thing on the planet.
- I’m a big cry baby. I get choked up at what most people would think are the least emotional things in life. So-and-so got voted off American Idol. My friend talks about how proud she is of her little one for doing something cute. I gaze over my yard and the flowers in bloom. I see a pile of feathers in the backyard that indicate a bird of prey has had lunch. I drive past someplace where there was once a forest, and there’s now a car dealership. I see the balance of the checking account (heh). Someone tells me how much one of my paintings moves them or means to them. Someone asks me what inspires me, or how I paint. Seriously. At least once a day, I will get overly emotional about one thing or another.
- Surprise! I drink coffee until about 1pm every day. (just act surprised.)
- I used manual focus on my camera for the very first time this weekend and I got a really wicked cool shot that I’m very proud of. I usually don’t push myself with my camera, but lately I’ve been wanting to really get the top of the line equipment and to justify it, I have to learn more. I even tried to take a better shot of the moon last week when it was full. I did ok, I have a lot more to learn, though.
- I’m not afraid to learn something new, but I am terrified that I won’t remember it for long once I learn it.
- When I was little, I stuck my tongue out when I was concentrating really hard. Coloring, writing, thinking. I still do it. And when I’m painting? I rub my tongue on the inside of my bottom lip, and sometimes when I finish painting for the day my lip is raw. I don’t know that I’m doing it when I’m doing it – I only know that I’ve done it after the damage is done.
- This will definitely come as a surprise to most of you. Because it just happened and I haven’t had a chance to really tell anyone yet. I’m pregnant. HAH! Just kidding. No. It’s close though, I totally scorched my hair yesterday when I was trying to fire up the grill. I still have my eyebrows, thank God. I’m terrified of three things in combination: gas, ticking, and flames. Those three things spell death, fire and/or explosion. Just like pregnancy, right? I turned on the propane tank. I turned the dial to “hi”. I pressed the ignition. Tick tick tick – no flame. I tried the two other burners. No flame. I stopped. I went back to the first burner. I turned the dial and pressed the ignition. Tick tick – BOOM (singe). The smell of burning hair is really gross. Just so you know.
The end. I hope you enjoyed yourself, or at least ordered a wake up call so that you don’t miss anything important today after you wound up face down on your keyboard.
If you want to do this then TAG! You’re it! Trackback to me so I can come read yours.
Dude, could you help me out here?
May
5
2007
Have you ever seen a mama squirrel with teeters full of milk climbing a 3/4″ diameter iron pole for a little lunch when there’s plenty available in her own private dish on the ground? There’s my QOTD.
This one here, well, he just wouldn’t stop lookin’ at me. Silly standy squirrel.
I’m a pacer. Not that it’s related to my crazy kooky squirrels, but it is, sortof. In my best creative moments I’m pacing from the front to the back of my house, usually munching on granola or yacking on the phone. Yesterday I paced. I was working on a blog design layout that is black & white. Literally. In a world full of colors, I had to restrict myself to black, white and a couple of shades of gray.
For me, that’s a little like being a two year old throwing a tempertantrum that momma won’t let me use her watercolors, just a stupid lead pencil and one lousy sheet of copy paper from her printer. ::stomps and pouts::
We work with what we’ve got, though, and I made it work. Phew.
Still, in the creative process of putting the pieces together in my head, I paced. I have my camera at the ready, and I was delighted to see a couple of really beautiful and unique birds yesterday. I know a lot of you might not remember to check my photoblog, and yesterday was an especially active day, I uploaded quite a few new bird photos. For the larger image, just click the thumb.
I used to post my photography here. I decided to create a photoblog so that I could not only make my photos larger for viewing, but to be able to post more frequently without disrupting the regular average everyday stuff I write here on my blog. Now I’m wondering, was that such a great idea? I mean, there are folks using Flickr who were given Nikon D80’s to test for 6 months – with an option to purchase at a discounted rate at the end of the tryout. Who wouldn’t want to be approached with a deal like that? Is Flickr the place to put your stuff, then? I’m so confused. I’ve got my own server space, my own place to do it – I’m not sure I see the benefits of putting my stuff on someone elses server, aside from the obviously cool opportunities, as long as people notice and/or like your photos.
And then there’s my gallery – and it must be “that time” again because I’m wondering how functional it is for my guests. And I’m also wondering when I’m going to have time to format a bunch of auctions so that I can offer my Eye Ate It paintings for sale – and Kiki, too – now that I have them back from exhibit.
I do this, from time to time, I start revamping my whole existence on the web in my head. I crave feedback from everyone who stops by.
Well, dude, could you help me out here? I’ll be in the other room(s), pacing.
My Brown Thumb (aka Stuff I Kill.)
May
4
2007
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