a little ART CAN'T HURT

today

maybe it's time to touch base with my blog.

been away for awhile. life has been busy.

-kids last days of school

-baseball tourneys

-birthday

-anniversary

-family vacation

-fourth of july

-first fridays at the shop

-doctor appointments

...and, oh yeah, training for a triathlon

i need more hours in my day. it takes a lot and posting on my blog has taken a back seat to it all.

i'll be back soon. 

so much to share. more pictures than you care to see i'm sure.

so today i'll leave you 'pictureless'.

for now.

68 days until my race - won't you help a girl out? still need donations and corporate sponsors.

CLICK HERE TO SEE MY TRAINING PAGE.

98 days and counting

So I did it.

I signed up to do a triathlon.

I have 98 days to train for the Nations Triathlon in Washington D.C.

Here, I'll help you with a visual...

It involves a lot of sweating, running, sweating, swimming, sweating, biking and, oh yeah, SWEATING! I am loving it! 

I've signed up to race for TNT (Team In Training) which raises money for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. You all know that my Mom is battling non-Hodgkins lymphoma - well she just marked six months in remission!!! I'm running in her honor and in the honor or a local woman, Stephanie Schrock and everyone who is out there battling blood-cancers. We WILL find a cure!

The triathlon is made up of three legs: I'll swim .93 miles (in the Potomac River), bike 24.9 miles and then run 6.2 miles. I'm doing pretty well in training so far - it's been two weeks and I already see a difference! My endurance is going up and my hips are shrinking. Cool!

Doug has been so supportive in all of this and the kids are really excited about the race too. They've been so understanding when I need to go to the gym, bike and swim. Not things that they can participate in but they are getting involved all on their own.

Trev started biking with me on my daily runs, which are 5 miles. That gets my first cardio for the day and is a nice way to gauge my running times. 

The girls joined us on a trip to Grandma & Grandpa's house the other day - almost 3 miles! Trev lead with Mamie riding her bike behind him and Heidi ran just behind them with me. 

Doug drove beside us and played papparazzi the whole time! 

I'm so proud of my three little ducklings!

I have quite a journey ahead of me - nothing like what Mom has gone through with her cancer in the past year - but it's something I can physically DO to help fight back against this horrible disease.

It's what I CAN do.

Won't you join me?

If you'd like to make a donation to cancer research and help me meet my fundraising goal click HERE.

happiness is a wagging tail

The sun is shining.

Birds are chirping and bees are buzzing.

Caterpillars are inching along and the grass couldn't be more green.

Happiness.

inside the fort - wall #1

Super-bright, super-colorful chalk!

Comes in real handy when you have a wall you can draw on!

I consider chalkboard paint to be in the Top 10 Best Things Ever!

So do the kids!

(the feet in the pic belong to me - I was reclining on the couch and taking in the sun)

The fort is so relaxing...

I think I might just have to claim it as mine.  :)

hopscotch

Chalk and a rock.

Who knew it could be this fun!

Even dads like this game!

Nice shoes honey!

box tops

Does anyone else have cereal boxes in their cabinet that look like this?

It drives me nuts that the boxes won't close compeltely once you've hacked off the box tops.

When we come home from grocery shopping all I ever hear is "there are SO MANY BOX TOPS!" 

And then out-come-the-scissors....

The things we do for our kids!

the best dog ever

You know that pet you get when you're "all grown up"?

The one that is your first child? The one that has a super-special place in your heart?

This is mine. Meet Tobi.

(Tobi and girls circa 2007)

The world just lost the best dog.

Today we had to put my beloved friend to sleep.

He's been living with my parents since my divorce as right after the split I didn't live in a place that allowed dogs. He became part of their family too and so he stayed.

They were so good to Tobi in his aging days. My heart hurts for their loss as it is also mine.

Tobi had a kind soul that just made you relax.

If you were upset he'd come to you and rest his head in your lap.

He used to lay on our bed and I'd rest my belly on him when I was pregnant with girls - he was the best furry body pillow.

When he slept he held his front paw in his mouth just like he was sucking his thumb.

He new the word 'treat' even if you spelled it out t-r-e-a-t. He still knew and his tail would wag.

He was always so gentle with the kids but loved a mean game of tug-of-war with his rope tugger.

I went through so many vacuum cleaners because of his looong reddish hair - but I'd do it all over again if I could.

Today was so hard. The keyboard is wet with my tears right now.

I haven't really been able to function since this morning's trip to the vet. 

But we held him long after he was gone. He knew he was a good boy. He knew he was loved.

My loving husband just got done burying him in our side garden in the middle of a thunderstorm.

But he's worth it. Tobi was that kind of dog. The best.

(Tobias the Great XIII, 1998-2009)

class project

Mamie's teacher was in my shop a few weeks ago and saw a little project that Mamie and I had done. It is a simple way to turn a sweet drawing into a treasure that loved ones can display anywhere. She asked me if I'd come and help her class do this project for Mother's Day and I said yes.

Here are the steps (as photographed by Mamie while I was working with the kids):

1) draw something....anything! The kids drew pictures of their moms and rainbows, flowers with butterflies - make it your own.

2) you need to cut your picture out. You can get creative with the shape of your piece by cutting around each of the edges and even seperating some flowers or clouds to sit seperately. The only rule is that the bottom of the picture must be flat, so now is when you can get a ruler and exacto knife out (parents, this is for YOU to do) and trim the bottom edge so it's flat.

3) then you mount the picture onto foamcore. I use pre-sticky board from the shop but you could just put spray adheasive onto a regular piece and lightly rub the picture onto it. The foamcore needs to be at least 3/16" thick or it will be too flimsy.

4) an adult can then take a sharp exacto knife and cut the foamcore alond the edge of the drawing. Get right up next to it so that there's no foamcore showing around the image. This part is tough - it takes muscle, patience, a really sharp blade and a mat of some kind. Self-healing cutting mats are amazing and are worth their weight in gold!

(In the pic below you can see my one cotton glove. That was so my hand holding the images still didn't smudge any of the marker on the drawing)

5) then I took black foamcore (1/4" thick) and cut it into strips. I glued two strips on top of each other and cut them down to fit each drawing.

6) using a hot glue gun I glued the bottom of the drawing (the flat side) onto the middle of the double-up strip of black foamcore. The black foamcore becomes the base of this 3-D drawing.

Here is one of the finished projects. You can see some of the others in the background on the window sill. You can glue seperate flowers or rows of grass or butterflies onto the black strip in front of your drawing to give it more depth but there is no way to go wrong with this simple and fun project!

Supplies needed:

crayons or markers or colored pencils (for drawing)

paper for drawing (I use cardstock because it doens't crinkle when the kids cut their drawings out)

white foamcore

black foamcore

spray adheasive

sharp exacto knife

ruler

glue gun

sweetness

There are a few things around our house that just scream SUMMER...

and making smores is one of them.

Our littlest chatty-cathy here has got marshmallow roasting SO mastered that she can roast with one hand while she makes a dramatic presentation of why she thinks High School Musical is SOOOOO awesome and then gives me the you-just-don't-get-it-mom look the next second. 

LOVE IT!

There's nothing wrong with the good 'ol fashioned kind but we've also come up with our own incredible concoction. 

Let's go over the list of ingrediants needed:

creamy peanut butter

chocolate bars

chocolate graham crackers

marshmallows

and if you're REALLY wanting to put the yummy-factor over the top, then use THESE...

Are you salivating yet??? Yes, these are marshmallows covered in TOASTED COCONUT!

I'll warn you, they're addicting to munch on plain....but toasted they are unbelievable! 

to. die. for!

The kids usually stick to plain mallows which is fine with me - leaves more of the coconut ones for you-know-who!

You can't see the chocolate bar I'm about to put on this smore, but it's there!

And THIS is the result you can expect...

This is the face of sheer delight!

Try it. You WON'T regret it - although your hips and thighs might after 4 or 5 of these.  :)

Summer is just around the corner and I can't wait!

home sweet fort

So little time and so much to share...

It will have to be a little bit at a time.

Yes, the fort is 99% done.

It's got a red door too. Had to do it - couldn't resist.

The green leaves are popping out all over and starting to create a veil around the fort.

Planted the gerberas that our lovely neighbor gave the kids as fort-warming-gifts!

Shoes come off at the door. It's a rule.

Otherwise the carpet would get really messy -

 - and on that note I must say GOODNITE!

Sleep beckons and my cold feet are just dying to attack my sleeping hubby!

Interior fort photos coming soon!