I'm moving - I'm still working out the bugs, but I've decided to leave blogger for more expensive pastures - here's the address -

www.amazingus.typepad.com

Oh man.

I have a cold and I have allergies. That means my inner ears itch and hurt. I'm sneezing and I have snot. My throat iches and is sore.

Bleh.

Today we start cooking and baking for the music festival trip. Chocolate chip cookies, hazelnut biscotti, curried chicken, bbq'd chicken, bagels, and a few other things that I just can't remember right now. It's all yummy.

My unschooled kids are loving day camp. They've tye dyed t-shirts and aprons, they've gone hiking everyday, played like it's going out of style, slid down mountains of dirt, traded lunches with other kids, and there's more to come! I'm loving the peace and quiet of my free afternoons. I've been to the gym, out for lunch, shopping for camping gear, and napping. Life is sweet.

The kids and I have been very busy the past few days.

The kids have been busy playing. They are so good at that. Stu has been playing with friends, the piano, painting, reading, making cookies, and hiking. Robin has been playing with friends, reading, video games, hiking, and building his fort. Busy busy. I love it.

I've been busy cleaning. I've cleaning the living room, studio, dining room, kitchen and front entry - all top to bottom and they sparkle now. I'm very happy to have that all done.

Now I have to tackle the bathrooms, the garage and the backyard patio.

Jeff is helping by the way. He's the one who will be cleaning the patio and helping with the garage. Even though we'll miss the money, it's so nice to have him around. He was gone for so long working and going to school.

I've been able to find a little bit of time to work on my new shadowbox, it's coming along nicely. And as I'm sure I say about all of them while I'm making them, this one is my favorite so far.

Next week my mom and I will be getting us ready to go to the music festival. This is our family vacation and we look forward to it all year. It means music and the whole family and friends. It means almost total freedom for the kids and a lot of watergun fights. I means catching up on reading, hand sewing, drinking lovely coffees, and hanging out with my sisters. It also means taking a lot of photos with my wonderful new camera.

The week after we get back I'll be out and about photographing local wineries for a client. I'm a little nervous about that, only because it's been forever since I was hired to take specific photos and I'd hate it if I screwed it up. I guess that's what digital cameras are for.

This photo (on top) is of my garage sale silver bowl filled with the crystals off my chandelier, fake pearls and sea shells that we've collected. I think it's just beautiful. It looks like a pirate's loot.

Here's a sneak peak at what I'm working on now -



I'm working hard on getting it finished.

Today is Jeff's last day at his weekend job. This runs from good to bad. Bad cause we need the money. Good cause we miss him like crazy. Middling cause next Saturday he'll be in class all day. And that's every Saturday for the next 10 weeks. Boo.

Not much new here. Just creating art and raising kids.

After a pretty crappy weekend (Jeff at work again, the kids out playing, me alone and loney), Monday turned out to be one of the best days ever!

The kids had a Camp Fire sleep over so Jeff and I woke up alone in the house. It was quiet and wonderful. We decided that a picnic and a trip to the beach would be a great way to spend the day. So we started in the kitchen. I baked an apple pie, marinated some chicken and made some pasta salad. Jeff bbq-ed the chicken and cleaned the kitchen.

Then we picked the kids up, finished what we had to to get us ready and we were off!

The first thing we did was eat and drink (ok, the kids had rootbeer, we really one had small glasses and no driving).


Then there was a lot of lying around.




Followed by some rock climbing.


Then we hit the beach.




Finally we ended up a the hot tubs, a perfect end to a perfect day.

Here she is -



She is wearing a gold tulle skirt (although you really can't see it unless you look into the tower), pearls, and her hair is braided mohair. She's gorgeous.

And here's a sneak preview of the next one -



I'll post it as soon as it's finished.

I was going to rephotograph all the shadowboxes today, but himself has taken the new camera to his classroom for his last week. So I'll get them up as soon as I can. Let me just reassure you though, Rapunzel has her hair, and she's lovely. It's not the hair I had ordered though, that still hasn't shown up. I improvised and I think it's better than the hair she was going to have.

Once again, we're busy. After a very non productive weekend (massive allergy attack. My fuzzy head and I sat of the sofa all weekend like a zombie.), we are back to feeling better and on the go again.

We've had some upsetting for moment, but we're ok now, news. We won't be getting a new car anytime soon. The extra monthly money we thought we'd have we won't have and we have decided to save for a new used car instead. So it'll just take longer, but we're ok. We would rather be here in this house with a crappy car, than out of it with a new one.

I've started another shadowbox. It's on a circus theme. But you'll have to wait for more because I'm still figuring it out.

Since I have no new shadowbox photos for you, here's a photo of the bookcase in our home library. Picture it stuffed with more books piled on the floor cause there's no room on the shelves. I love it!