Weaving a shawl

My neighbor is a big weaver. Or I should say a weaver, spinner, knitter, quilter, dyer etc. She will pretty much try anything when it comes to fiber.  Anyway, she has loaned me her triangle loom which I think I have had for the last 6 months with same project on it sitting in my kitchen. I think the fact that  I did not have a deadline kept me from completing the project.

The first 4 shawls I made on this loom did not look right. I used the wrong fiber, finished the ends off incorrectly, had a flaw in the middle of it and my personal favorite...ran out of yarn. Then about 2 weeks ago she called to give me a heads up that she was going to want the loom back soon.

(This is my youngest kicking back playing his Nintendo DS)

I think it sat in this stage of completetion for months and her phone call lit a fire under me.

I finally finished it. I was/am so excited about it that I wanted one for myself. This shawl is for a girlfriend of mine but whatever I make I always wear once. I don't think they mind.

I ran out and bought more yarn to make another shawl. I have 2 weeks to finish it. I thought I would keep this one for myself but I think my mother will get it for Christmas. 

P.S. Where did the spell check go on Blogger.

Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

I am a coffee drinker. I love the ritual of a good cup of coffee. A friend gave me this little story and I thought I would forward it on to you.

A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her.  She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up  She was tired of fighting and struggling.  It seemed as one problem was solved,  a new one arose.

Her mother took her to the kitchen.  She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to boil.  In the first she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans, She let them sit and boil; withoug saying a word.

In about twent minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl.

Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her daughter, she asked, "Tell me what you see."

Carrots, eggs and coffee," she replied. Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots.  She did and noted that they were soft. The mother then asked the daughter to take an egg and break it.  After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard boiled egg.

Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma. The daughter then asked, "What does it mean, mother?"

Her mother explained that each of these objects faced the same adversity: boiling water. Each reacted differently. The carrots went in strong hard and unrelenting. However, After being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outter shell had proected it liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened, The ground coffee beans were unique, however.  After they were in the boiling water, they changed the water.

"Which are you?" she asked her daughter. When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a corrot, an egg or  a coffee bean?

Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength.

Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and hardened heart?

Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor, If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you. When the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest, do you elevate yourself to another level? How do you handle adversity? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

May you have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trials to make you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human and enough hope to make you happy.

The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along ther way. The brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past; you can't go forward in life until you let go of your past failures and heartaches.

When you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling.

Live your life so at tehend, you're the one who is smiling and everyone around you is crying. It's easier o build a child tha repair an adult.

May we all be COFFEE.

The early morning.

Sophia and I woke up early and so that we could see the sun rise. At first I did not think it was going to be much, but silly me.

We got to the beach about 6:30, the official sunrise time is 6:58a.m.

We walked for a while.

This weekend is the Neptune Festival here on the boardwalk. This is  massive sculpture that sits on the boardwalk.

We then went to Mary's for breakfast. I had not been to Mary's in years! It was the diner that everyone went to for breakfast/lunch on the weekends. The local place. They serve the appropriate amount of greasy food and coffee after a night on the strip.  Now, granted I have not partied on the strip in many years. Kids keep you from doing that. I don't know if Sophia appreciated what an institution Mary's is.

After breakfast we headed back outside so I could watch the runners from the 3k and 5k race. I will sit on the side with my coffee thank you very much!

There are always some interesting characters. His hair has to add 5lbs onto his head.  Talk about some serious dreadlocks!

Sophia wanted  to stroll the shops. Had to ban her from buying a VB t-shirt.  I would have hated to have to kick her out of the family for buying such a t-shirt.  When you live in a tourist town you don't buy the tourist t-shirt. It's in the rule book.

I thought this one was more appropriate.

Because this is what I am dealing with and she is only 11 years old.

The greatness of it all.

This is what I want to do.

This is what I need to do.

To go to the ocean and feel the vastness that surrounds you when you look out into the ocean. To make me realize that everything that is going on is not that big of a deal.

To get my priorities straight.

To clear my head.

Trying to remain positive...

Trying hard to remain positive, but it's getting difficult to do so.

I have recently gone back to work. I really like the work that I am doing and I wish there was more to keep me busier. I am very capable in this position. I get things done, do it well and efficiently. Unfortunately one of my superiors thinks I am an 12 years old and need to be micro-managed.This is very frustrating to me.

Before I was married I was the office manager for 5 separate entities. Responsible for payroll, AR, employees etc. so I have the experience to be the office assistant in this office. It was made abundantly clear that I am only an assistant. I personally don't care what they call my position but apparently it is VERY important in my line of work.

I do have to say the experience is teaching me something about my daughter and how I need to handle situations with her differently. One of the hardest things I have found as a parent is to let my children have more freedom. I am not a helicopter parent, I do not hover over their every move but I do tell them to do things a certain way. Meaning...cover the spaghetti in the microwave so it does not explode and make a mess. To me that means I don't want to clean it up so do it right the first time. To them it means I don't think they know how to heat food up in the microwave and they need to be told how to do everything. I guess I need to let them make more mistakes and find out things on their own.

Although on a funny note my daughter heated up pizza rolls in the microwave for 9 1/2 minutes. Broke the plate. Filled the house up with smoke and 2 weeks later is still smells like the inside of a bingo hall.

Getting rid of the stuff

Stuff. Boy do we have stuff. I guess it has a lot to do with the fact that I have 3 children. Before they are even born they have more stuff than they will EVER use or need. I have gotten rid of all the baby stuff and have whittled their things down considerably in the past few years. What remains is my stuff. Actually let me clarify that.

My mothers stuff.

First thing to understand is my mom lives in Minnesota. I live in Virginia and all her stuff miraculously makes the trip to Virginia.

My mothers stuff. All the stuff that my mom no longer wants. Things that she could not bring herself to donate or sell in a garage sale. If she gives it to me she is not actually getting rid of it. Passing it on to her children, she says. So I accept it. I don't want to hurt her feelings. Well, actually I am usually excited about it then is sits in my house and I say "What the heck am I going to do with this?"

My mother feels I need Christmas stuff. I have enough Christmas ornaments and items to decorate SEVEN, yes seven Christmas trees. I have Christmas dishes by Lenox for 24. Now mind you, I have had Christmas at my house only....NEVER! Last year I did not even decorate for Christmas because we went to my mothers house. Which brings me to another story....

We went to Minnesota last year for Christmas. My brother was like "Julie the Cruise Director". We were going to go skating, skiing, sledding, snowmobiling. My mom was so excited. She was excited that her grandchildren were coming to MN for the first time for Christmas. Guess what she was more excited about. We were coming to MN and bringing the trailer to take more stuff back to Virginia. My paternal grandmother passed away a year previously so I had all of her stuff if my mother's garage and it was time for it to make the trip to Virginia.

My husband swears I have Clampets in my bloodline. I am beginning to agree with him.

So the purging begins. I am being ruthless. The 2o wineglasses I bought 6 years ago for my son's outdoor Christening party. The 2 silver chaffing dishes that were wedding presents...never used. Brand new placemats...sets of 4, I have 5 in my family.

When I cleaned out my grandmothers house, out in the garage was a 50 gallon drum. In that drum were collectibles wrapped in old bedding. Going. I don't want them. I am tired of the weight from stuff.

I wonder if I can sell 3 chidlren and 2 dogs. All their stuff would be free.

The First Day of School....3 weeks ago.

I was reading Chronicles of a Country Girl and she just blogged about doing storyboards that she read on Pioneer Woman Photography Blog. I wanted to learn how to do storyboards so I threw some pictures together. Not nearly as stunning as Chronicles, but I was motivated to give it a try.
I am not sure if it is going to have the boarder or not but I am just tickled that I actually fiddled around in Photoshop again. I have been hanging around Lightroom so much and not venturing out much.

The kids started school and were Very excited to be back. Well my eldest was really excited, boys maybe not so much.

Test of Photo quality

I desaturated the photos and upped the exposure... the first photo is uploaded at it original size. The last photo is uploaded at 50%...It did get darker. I have noticed that when I upload photos on the blog it gets darker? Go figure. Thanks for the input on uploading Kate....at http://chroniclesofacountrygirl.blogspot.com/

My Daughter

Sophia. My daughter. I miss her. She is spending the week at her grandparents and enjoying the time without her brothers. I think she misses us. Not that she would ever admit that. She is eleven and as far as she is concerned I am a pain. The one that nags her to clean her room, stand up straight and eat right. Her brothers are, well, her brothers.

I hope there will be some time soon that they will actually start to like each other. To appreciate that they have each other. I do try to remind them how important they are to each other but I may as well be speaking Cartoon...BLAh, Blah,Blah,blah BLAH!

My brothers and I, not close. I think that is more of the 10 year age difference. At least that is what I keep telling myself. Maybe I will realize soon enough just how important they are to me?

Summer

Summer is crazy isn't it? I feel like I have not had time to breath between working 2 jobs and trying to let the kids enjoy their summer. The girls and I decided to make a power trip to Virginia Beach in one day. Four moms and thirteen kids spent the day and the beach swimming and hanging out. We really had a great time and came home sunburned and exhausted, but it was worth it. I LOVE the beach! I miss living there. Thankfully my husbands family is there so we get to visit but not nearly enough.

Body surfing!
Skim boarding!

Being cool...

...hanging with the girls!

Laila Rose Fundraiser

I had the very special honor of being the event photographer for the first annual Laila Rose Foundation fundraiser.

Sheep races....I didn't win... :(

I have pasted a portion of the website to my blog.



The Laila Rose Foundation was established in 2006, in loving memory of our precious Laila Rose Engh, whom we lost at the tender age of four in a tragic automobile accident, along with her devoted mother, Lisa Engh. Laila Rose was an exuberant ray of sunshine in the lives of all who knew her. To our family, she was a pure delight for the short time we were blessed to hold her. Laila was a beautiful child, secure and confident in the warmth and love of her family. For Laila Rose, each day was a celebration of dance, song and utter joy. Our lives changed forever the day we lost Laila Rose and her incredible mother, Lisa. As a result of this tragedy we resolved to turn our grief into action and find a way for Laila's legacy to bring the sort of joy to others that she brought to our lives as a daughter, sister, granddaughter, neice and friend.
The mission of the Laila Rose Foundation is to provide financial assistance to meet the medical and surgical needs of adopted children and their families. Our hope is to give children the gift of confidence and joy that Laila Rose exuded every day in her short life.
Please consider joining us in our mission. The Laila Rose Foundation has already made a difference, and we hope you will help us bring more smiles to beautiful faces and strengthen the families who have opened their hearts and homes to these precious souls.

The foundation raised over $17,000.00...all from gracious donation from their spring fundraiser.

Here are a few of the photos I took from the event.

We had been having an amazing amount of rain this spring but the Lord gave us a break and provided us with the most incredible weather with a beautiful sunset.

You cannot have a celebration on a farm without sack races!

ArT WoRk

This is the frame that I made for my middle childs 3rd grade teacher as an end of the year thank you gift.
My "Sammy's" self portait. Love it!

Another view of the frame.

This is a Kindergarten auction project that I did for my youngest sons school auction. It is so much fun to do and well received by parents of the youngster. Read as "lots of bids" resulting in money for the school.

How did I do it? Let me tell you.

First of all I have a wonderful neighbor who has an amazing workshop and willing to help me out. He made the frame from 8 inch wide clear pine boards and attached a sheet of wipe board/dry erase board to the back. Hardware stores sell large sheets of this for a very reasonable price. I then prime the wood frame with white primer paint like Kilz.

Next, I have all the children draw a self portrait on a 5x7 piece of paper and color it with crayons. I encourage them to use bright colors and to stay away from the browns and blacks. Then I photo copy each one. Black and white copy works best.

Each bw copy is laid on top of the frame to find appropriate spacing. If a picture is too small or large you can reduce/enlarge on the copy machine.

I start in a corner working from left to right (because I am right handed) so that I do not smudge my work as I go along. Place on BW picture on the frame and trace with with a ball point pen, pushing hard to leave a mark in the wood of the outline of the child's portrait. Using carbon paper works best but I cannot ever find any. I then start using acrylic paint that I get from Michael's/AC Moore and paint the picture using the exact colors that they have used. Using skin color for the faces. The children's pictures are very basic because they are kindergartners and they do not to intricate work. I then outline all the colors with a black paint pen, this also works well for eyelashes. Sometimes it takes two to three coats of paint for some of the colors to get the pop of color you want. When I am done painting the pictures I print their names by their picture and let it dry for one day minimum. Then I spray paint the frame with a clear gloss to seal the paint.

If you do not have a way of making a frame this also works great with premade wood furniture from Michael's. I have even done it on a large unpainted book shelf with a storage cabinet that I purchased from Lowe's. If you use items that are prepainted you will need to make sure that the paint is not glossy and and will accept the acrylic paint.

The next frame that I am going to make for my home will be of my sons pictures that he drew in Kindergarten, I love having a fun way of displaying his artwork.

I hope this is understandable. It is really very easy with great results.

I shall call you.....

I have been trying to come up with something clever to say about this little guy, I got nothing. I just think he is so cool. He showed at the pool and starting doing his mating call. The strangest noise you have ever heard. Definitely did not sound like a frog to me. He is a tree frog but I am not quite sure what kind of tree frog. He has great little feet that allows him to stick to anything.

I also love how he has his head cocked and is looking at me like "WHAT"!

My Birthday

Tomorrow, I turn 40 wonderful years old. I honestly would not repeat my 20's. The 30's were pretty good.

I am the mother of 3 children. A preteen daughter that is 11 years old and 2 sons that are 9 and 6.

I remember when my mother turned 40 years old and I turned 13 the next day. We spent our birthdays on the Chesepeake Bay and I remember my mom saying she stayed up all night waiting for "something" to happen. She was a single mom and it was the two of us. I remember being the gawky know it all teenager. I could do it all myself. Boy did she struggle with me.
As I reflect on my life, my days as a teenager don't seem so far off. I genuinly do not feel 40, I like to think I don't "look" 40.There are so many things I now wish I knew as a teenager. I'm sure many wise adults in my life tried to share these secrets with me when I was teen, but I'm not sure I listened the way I should have. The same struggles that I am having with my own daughter. Hoping to make things easier for her, to not go through what I did.
So today's blog will be a little different. It will be about little secrets I've discovered along the way. Maybe if my daughter reads this she will understand a little more about "Dear Ol Mom".

Don't worry about having a big group of friends. What good does it do if you can't trust them? Instead, concentrate on building close friendships with a few reliable people. Be forgiving of your friends, but know when it's time to create space from them. If they try to drag you down with them, they are not real friends.

Value your family. Even if they make you angry or say things that embarrass you, be grateful they are around and in your life. Appreciate them, they love you very much.

Learn the power of saying "I am sorry." Genuinely apologizing for hurting someone goes a long way. Stop with the excuses. Take ownership for your behavior.

Look people in the eye. Making eye contact forms an instant bridge between you and another person. Practice talking to yourself in the mirror.

High school goes faster than you think. It is not the be all end all. Be involved. Become a part of your school. You don't have to be a jock or popular to fit in. See these years as learning years. Step outside your box and take some chances. Run for student government. Try out for the school play. Be a part of a team. Popularity is overrated. Sincerity is underrated. Look for the good in people, not just whether they are good-looking.

Find your own sense of style. Be who you are, not the person you think others want you to be.

Sex changes everything. If someone tells you it doesn't, they aren't being truthful.

Forgive your parents. They aren't perfect and they will make mistakes.

Listen to your gut. If something doesn't feel right, don't do it. If you feel pressured to do something, it's probably not a good idea. Don't let others decide the direction of your life.

Be cautious of overusing the phrase "I love you" in teenage relationships. Be cautious of underusing the phrase "I love you" when it comes to your parents.
Put energy and effort into what you love. Don't be afraid to fail. Failing isn't embarrassing; it's learning.

Getting a drivers license is a privilege, not a right.

Learn to recognize when it is time to slow down. Sometimes you have to slow down to regroup and refocus. Take a timeout.

Get a job so you appreciate a dollar's value. Learning the importance of hard work is one of life's most valuable lessons. If you are given everything, you will appreciate nothing. Set goals. Don't expect things to be handed to you. How good is something if you never have to work for it? Stop with all the computer toys. Put down your cell phone. Turn off your iPod. Quit texting for a few hours. Learn the value of a good book.

Your heart will get broken. And it will heal. One day, you will meet the right person and you will be grateful for all the heartaches. It will teach you who is right for you and who is not.

Listen to your grandparents when they tell about their lives. Their stories are part of your history.

Get to know your teachers. Regardless of what you might think, they really don't want to see you fail their class. A good relationship with a teacher can be a lifelong friendship.

Put the same amount of energy into your schoolwork as you do into your friendships. Education really is the key to unlocking opportunity, don't take it for granted.

Live your life like it matters. Live your life like you matter. Live your life to the best of your ability. Live your life in a way that makes you proud of who you are and where you came from.

Jill and Baby Jax

Jill is the mother of my sons best friend (I think we are becoming friends also:) and was the tiniest pregnant woman ever. In fact I think she was 7 months pregnant before I even realized that she was pregnant. Granted I had not seen her that frequently but I almost hesitated to comment on her pregnancy because I was not sure. We have all been there.... Your pregnant! Congratulations! and the response is a flat...No. You then wonder how fast you can run away.

I immediately jumped in to photographer mode and ask if I can photograph her pregnancy. I needed the experience and what a beautiful subject.

I did the shoot at her house which is an amazing log home on a cattle ranch. Unfortunately is was a very overcast and rainy day and the house was fairly dark. I only had my on camera flash and I was trying to use as much natural light as possible.

I was trying not to do all of the usual pregnancy photos but they always sneek in.

This is one of my favorites. We were able to get a couple shots in before is really started to rain. I was worried that the photos appeared sad and dark.
We were going to try and do another shoot in my studio but Jax finally decided to enter the world the morning we scheduled to get together.



Baby Jax joined his mom, dad, and FIVE brothers and sisters.

Little baby feet are made for nibbling on, love them.

I learned a very important lesson when scheduling a newborn baby session....NEVER wait too long to get them into the studio. Things were hectic and we did not get them taken until he was 5 weeks old. He was a big baby anyways, 8 plus pounds, and was no longer in the curled up baby and he was MAD. He cried a good portion of the shoot, I hope I was able to to get a few that they will like.

Like I said...he was mad!

I would really appreciate some constructive criticism on the photos.

My next post will tell a sad but hopeful story of Baby Jax and his family.

God Bless you Baby Jax.