Help

Hello? .............is this thing on? where've ya'll gone? i know it's summer and all, i guess with all this glorious sunshine i'll forgive you. but let's not make it a habit. okay?

I need your help. you see i purchased this chair. not the most popular chair on the street. but she's got a sweet spirit. and she's in serious need of a make-over. here she is.




so let's see if a giveaway will help all you lurkers out there feel more comfortable acknowledging your presence. i'm talking to you rochester ny!
here's how it'll go down. just list a link to some fab fabric you've had your eye on, in the comments section. it's gotta go with the dark wood, (that i'm staining darker) but it's gotta look sorta barn chic. not shabby, just barn chic. does that even make sense? the person whose fabric i choose will be the recipient of a fabulous gift. a banner! you know those cute ones that say, happy b-day, merry christmas. i made a cute alphabet one for little j. you pick, i'll make one that says anything....as long as it's not: yay for the democrats!" or something like that.
I'm hoping one of you has some advice for me. I have NO idea what fabric will make this sorry seat into the fabulous eye catcher she was meant to be. any ideas?

bits 'n pieces

we hiked this same trail in september, but didn't make it to the river. isn't he so tall?

silly austin on the river bank
little girls, best buddies.

quinton getting ready to bat, can you imagine the height on this kid when he grows into those feet?

when i was little my sisters and i begged my mom for pink curlers every saturday night. we are carry'n on the torch here, albeit with a slightly different color.


q wanted to grow out his hair, mike said, "okay" i said, "are you crazy, he' s 8 he can't have that option yet." mike said, "he'll hate it eventually and ask to get it cut." i thought, "ya, right."
mike wins, q begged for a hair cut after combing it got to bothersome.

austin playing t-ball in picturesque alaska.

last minute teacher gifts

ingredients

chalk board paint
easel target $4
ceramic plate of some sort, this one was $4 at wal-mart

I wasn't to thrilled with the paint. i just got some in a jar, the application wasn't as smooth as i imagined. i reccommend chalkboard spray paint! just cover the edges and then you should get an even surface and a nice clean edge. it was easy though, and if you can find a cool plate at a thrift store, it can be even cheaper!
ps my camera skills are lacking. i think mike needs a big expensive camera for his b-day!

dear conservative movement:

we would like to return carrie prejean (naked nancy) and dick cheney (tortured tom) the two "spokespersons," who you have recently held up as standard bearers for our political party. they are broken. try to be more careful in your selections for the star of conservatism in the future.

conservative, by it's very definition means: cautiously moderate. Mr. cheney can't even cautiously moderate his shot gun. and usually a shirt is required to be considered as cautious, ms. prejean, wind or no.

we've tolerated bill o' rielly's disgusting phone flirtations, sarah palin's less then perfect parenting, and rush limbaugh's drug battles. hey!, no one is perfect! right? but shouldn't the face of a party claiming the moral high ground be able, at least, to occupy it?...... i'm just sayin.

thank-you
a less than perfect conservative.

why i've been so blasted busy; caution

no time for actual sentences or inflection. austin got a bloody head wound from a two year old wielding a long stick. he and i spent 4.... FOUR, hours in the ER. austin in heaven, played gameboy the whole time. we went to seward with fam. (more picts later.) mike had surgery. on his knee. hence the wheelchair. i cringed for him. has been on crutches for 5 weeks. crutches in alaska come with spikes for the ice. i must do everything for him. although he can now put on his own socks. i made a personal goal not to whine and witch about it. i have one week to go. pray for me.

why buy if i can make it?

why buy easter outfits for boys? they have white shirts and khakis already. they despise sweater vests, which deeply vexes their mother. so how do you dress up a boy for a holiday without completely emasculating him? purl bee has a super easy tutorial to make a little boys tie!!! it was seriously so easy, even i didn't mess it up. and don't they look super cute! oh and super manly. can't wait to make red polka dot ones for christmas. are polka dots effeminate?
on another crazy side note: not only is avery my physical clone, it seems she has also inherited my need to create. i found her dancing with her "superman prince" she stuck a golf club through the arms of a costume, and used the other club for his head. and then danced the night away.

isn't he handsome? i promise i'm not manhandling her, she was just averse to having prince charmings picture taken.

a confession, and some hope

I think a bout losing weight and changing my body every day. I've told you before that I am vain. I guess being a woman surrounded by unrealistic body parts plastered everywhere from lengerie stores to burger king commercials, we tend to worry incessantly about said body parts. i made a mental list recently about things i would change about my war torn body. all it did was grow! it didn't satisfy me to say, "if I could just tuck one thing it would be........" cause as soon as i had a mental picture of a tummy tuck, all i could see was my dehydrated bosom!! once i had mentally "corrected" the chest area, I mentally noticed my slight double chin. it never ends, and now I am mental.
There is a voice of reason out there. I true champion of womanly shapes and curves.
She talks with such conviction and positivity about wearing our precious bodies with pride and even dare I say, pleasure. It's true. She's got the key to looking at yourself in the mirror, and NOT THINKING about it again for the rest of the day! when's the last time you did that?
We have given birth, eaten too many cookies (it does wonders for my soul, okay?), we've skipped the gym for playing polly pockets all morning, we've eaten nachos at 10:30 p.m cause that's when the hubs likes to eat, all these things make us the kind, giving women we are. Now get out your meausring tape, embrace your body type, and go shopping. you now have permission to fall in love with those stretch marks like the battle scars they are. rock on and then give yourself a break!