gratitude

Happy Thanksgiving to you! Thanksgiving is typically a day to express gratitude, even though I try to be grateful every day for my blessings. I just want to take a moment to say how very grateful I am for the most important things in my life - my kind and supportive hubby; my smart, funny and unique children; my cute and faithful little dog; all of whom I love beyond measure. I have such a wonderful life and as some of my artistic dreams take flight I am feeling ever so thankful for it all. I hope you all have a wonderful day filled with gratitude for all your blessings.

pie day

Today is pie day. When I said that this morning, my son asked me if that was some kind of holiday or something. I made pumpkin, apple and pecan. I gave myself a break this year and went with store bought crust. Usually everyone says, great pie Mom, but when they are done I notice the crust is always left to the side. I'm pastry impaired. I am great at making all kinds of desserts, but flaky pastry is not one of them. I say, who cares about the crust, save calories and just eat the filling and whipped cream.

Later today, we will be delivering a few packages like the one above, with my handmade pumpkins. Happy pie day to you!

overwhelmed

A journal page with one of my favorite quotes and one that is very appropriate for me right now.

Another journal page. I call it "omgiamsooverwhelmed", also very appropriate right now.

I am feeling a tad bit stressed. Time seems to be moving so fast lately. There is always something going on with the kids, the holidays are fast approaching, unfinished projects, the house needs cleaning, the dryer broke... You know, the usual stuff. I am looking forward to Thanksgiving - I'm hoping to relax a little, eat too much pie and have some quality time with my family.

Quirkiness

I'm a pretty regular person, but once in a while, even I cut loose a little. Here are a couple of the quirkier things that I have made. The top picture is "Gary" and under him is "Petula". These were both designed by my teenage daughter, Cassidy. She drew me some wonderful pictures and I made Gary and Petula come to life - kinda like Frankenstein. Gary now resides in Cassidy's room (under a pile of dirty socks), but Petula can be purchased from my etsy shop. I'm enjoying the sun today. I hope it's sunny where you are.

Sun, where have you gone?

It's raining again... I went around the house in search of the sun and this is what I came up with. Meanwhile, I am keeping busy, making things for my shop. I'm getting all kinds of inspiration lately, but there are not enough hours in the day to complete it all. Of course, it doesn't help that I am usually asleep on the couch around 10pm (well, ok, maybe 9:30 if there's nothing good on t.v.)

I do believe in fairies...

This magical door mysteriously appeared at the base of one of our trees this morning. There is a little path made of twigs leading up to it and the ground sparkles with silver fairy dust.

A favorite tree. The kids call it a "fairy tree" because of all the interesting nooks, where fairies might reside.

A doll that I am working on.

I don't know about you, but fairies have always been a fascination for myself and my children. When my kids were tiny we would make a fairy garden every year. In a wood box, we would plant flowers and set up an elaborate "fairy village" using all sorts of natural items. Sometimes the fairies would even leave little gifts. We own quite a few fairy books and even though the kids are getting older, I still see them laying about the house from time to time. I myself, like to make fairy dolls, houses and fairy inspired treasures.

In our house we have always believed in all things magical. I think it has encouraged my kids to use their imaginations and to maintain a sense of goodness in this sometimes harsh world. My wish for them is that they never lose this magic and that they will share this with their children someday.

Have a wonderful day!

Lobster Fest

Today we started a new family tradition. Lobster fest! Mark is a member of the local Kiwanis Club and they had their annual lobster sale. Mark and the boys worked all morning passing out lobsters. We bought four lobsters, not knowing if the kids would eat them and they did! We all decided that this would make a great yearly tradition, although we might need more than four next year with these hungry, growing kids.

Rain, rain, rain

Gone is the good weather from the weekend. It's been raining all day. The perfect kind of day to catch up on laundry and play with paint.

Green Time

Hunting for treasures.

Dexter

Mark and I on the "Love" bench.

Pretty waterfalls.

Teenager

Out enjoying a beautiful November day in Virginia. I have lived here four years now and I still get excited about the good weather, even though it's good almost every day. It was so beautiful yesterday, we decided to take a trek at one of our favorite spots. Our teenager would have rather stayed home.

Glitter Joy

I was at A.C. Moore yesterday, just to get a couple of shipping boxes. Well, you know how that goes - never in too much of a hurry to look around for a few minutes. I saw this glitter. Tiny pots of glitter in every color - so cute, so sparkly - I just had to have it (I know my husband hates to hear that). I have no idea what I'll do with it, but I'm sure I will think of something.

A journal page in progress. It says, "Don't forget to make a wish." Needs something else ... Hey, maybe some glitter.

Just a tiny bit of the loot from Saturday night. It took a lot of restraint for me to take this picture (you'll understand if you read my earlier post about Halloween).

The kids were off from school Monday and Tuesday. We spent all day Tuesday "antiqueing". My only treasure was some old seam binding, but as they say in that credit card commercial the time with my kids was "priceless". They are at such different stages in their lives, that it is really hard to find an activity that they all want to do. We had so much fun and ended up finding some great shops, because of course, Mom got lost.

Now that they are back in school, it's time for me to get some work done. The other pictures are some snippets of Christmas stuff I am working on for my etsy shop. Oh yeah, I made my first sale on etsy the other day. I was sooooooo excited I actually jumped up and down. Really.