Oh! I've been tagged!

Yup that's right. In the world of blog land I've been tagged by nycole. This means I have to list seven random things about myself.

1. I grew up in a family as the eldest of 3 girls and have 3 daughters myself. I love my children and enjoy watching them grow. I do wish they could stay little a bit longer though. I love watching the children play happily. When they are fighting and whining I feel pretty grumpy and annoyed. I enjoy making them happy and am pretty frustrated when they aren't happy.

2. I've written and illustrated three as yet unpublished books. Someday when I have more time I keep promising myself I will further pursue the publishing of them. I do attend a monthly writers group but haven't worked on anything new in some time.

3. I love creating things and wish I could do this every day. Its nice having a shop on Etsy because now I don't have to feel guilty making things since I'm selling them. I would much rather create something new than clean the house.

4. I collected chicken salt and peppers shakers for several years and though I have many displayed I have several boxes full of them now. I actually like the pottery chickens I now create myself a lot better.

5. I love gardening and being outside working in the gardens. I love lots of flowers and my gardens tend to be on the natural side and less formal. I don't like weeding out new seedlings and have created many more gardens just by moving these seedlings around. I don't think I can handle any more gardens now. Watering during the summer can be a big chore. I really like making planters and garden sculptures out of hypertufa and cement.

6. I love reading a good book but haven't had much time recently to do this. Once I start one I usually have to stay up all night to finish it.

7. I dream about sitting on my porch and relaxing but there is always so much to do that I rarely sit very long. It's difficult to keep up with things.

These are the people I am going to tag...
magscrafts
artsyclay
lilyriver
purposedesign
soloartworks
ahna

I need to set some goals regarding the photography for my shop. In general I am pretty happy with what I have, but it does take up a lot of my time. Maybe if I was better streamlined it wouldn't end up as such a time sink. I was just reading Enthral's tips included in one of her blog posts. I do manage to follow some of these but I really have to find out more about this macro setting on my camera since I am sure I must have one. I do hate reading manuals though. But I have the tripod so if I just set up a little area to photograph I think I would have better success.

My littlest had her kindergarten end of the year show this morning. They were all so cute dressed in red, white, and blue. Their sign language singing of "God Bless America" and "America the Beautiful" was adorable.

Another rainy day...

I finished this little french hen or "la poule" today. Craft night with my friends is tomorrow night and I'm really looking forward to it. I started work on another wedding couple and I may be doing a custom order for an upcoming wedding. Exciting! Anything to do with weddings is so much fun.

Well it looks like rain in the forecast for the next few days too. I think this will mean the end of the lilacs for us. My beautiful white crab apple only had 2 days before the rain spoiled the flowers. Here is the last photo of the lilacs I took while the sun was out. The deep purple is already fading.

You can't sell it! It's mine!

Yes, that is what my daughter proclaims after everything I make now. But who can blame her -- they are pretty cute. So I often end up making her a version to keep as well. She has a few chickens now and this morning when I finished my little white kitty and grey mouse she protested again. When I wouldn't give in she ran off and brought back a dollar for each. That ought to do it mom, right? Arghh!

My items are listed in two new treasuries today. The first is called "You Animal" by montezumamudd.


The second is called "Teachers Pets" by Majo.


Between the thunderstorms I worked on a new label for some of my things. I would like something a little different for the wedding items. This picture was taken yesterday of our crab apple tree.

Tuesday....

I finished up this little bear and his stand today even with my daughter home from school. We ruled out a fracture yesterday but the bump on her head is huge still. While I worked on this bear she sat down and drew up ideas for other needle felted works. For 6 she has some pretty creative ideas.
My bride and groom birds on Etsy sold yesterday after reaching over 3000 views! They were linked to on a blog called MightyGirl. I was surprised to see such a huge jump in views so fast!


This is a photo of the wind chime thing I made up on Mother's Day. The spring was found by my husband along the old railroad track. He was good to carry this heavy thing the rest of the way on our walk. It makes a nice sound when the door straps clang against the spring.

The space between the notes...

It is a beautiful Mother's Day. I really love these cool sunny days in the spring. On Mother's Day I get breakfast in bed so I am forced to linger around the bed a lot longer than I would like. This morning everyone was busy in the kitchen getting breakfast ready, flowers cut, and cards made. Amongst all this was the usual fighting over who does what, who is not sharing what, and so on. There never is peace with young kids -- or very infrequently anyway. Today I wasn't minding the noise though. The breakfast was delicious - crepe suzette and espresso.

Soon after breakfast we were off to church. My husband played a beautiful piano piece today. He really played so lovely. As I listened it dawned on me why I find this specific type of music so relaxing and meditative. Those brief hesitations and pauses between the notes seem to stop time and we wait on the brink for the next note. I marvelled at how perfectly he played this and how those pauses seemed so absolutely perfect. If they had been shorter or longer everything would have been off. The children's choir also sang and they were so adorable. This is the first choir group that has worked hard learning their songs and they did so well.

I spent the afternoon doing odds and ends. I made a driftwood and railroad spring sculpture to hang off the porch. I also used a few antique strap hinges with that so when the wind blows they ring like a bell against the spring. I had to use some plastic coated electrical wire to hang it because it was so heavy. I also made a bunch of repairs to the other driftwood, sea glass, and old bottle wind chimes I have had about the yard for a few years. They all look so beautiful again. I also put up our rather naked christmas tree to make another bottle tree. I don't have enough blue bottles yet but I will have to keep my eye out for them.

A day for reflection and remembrance

It was a rather sleepless night as I slept beside my youngest with her huge head bump. She was rather uncomfortable all night long. And I was a little worried that we should have made a hospital visit. That and my cousin's funeral today kept me thinking too much.

My cousin was too young to leave us at 46 years old. I regret that I had not seen her in so long too. Once my grandparents passed away the annual family gatherings pretty much ended except for weddings and then again funerals. I remember playing with her and her brother in their basement while the grownups talked upstairs. My younger sister joined us in playing hide and go seek amongst the many interesting things they had stored down there. Our own basement was not one you would want to linger in let alone play in and was the source of many of my nightmares growing up. But their basement was more like an attic with and assortment of things to explore and awesome places to hide. When you are young and in the moment you don't realize how fleeting these times can be. You take for granted that Christmas parties will go on forever, grandparents will never die, and families won't drift apart as children grow up and have families of their own. I can't help but feel nostalgic for those times even though I am thoroughly enjoying parenting my own family. I look at my children and am sad for my aunt and uncle and for what they have endured. The loss of a child at any age is a difficult thing to cope with. So on this day I remember my cousin as I remember her -- a beautiful young child with a bright future ahead of her. I pray for the strength to endure whatever our futures hold and the peace to enjoy those beautiful moments in life.