Oh, it's good to be back~

How has everyone been?  Our computer finally died and it took us a while to get back up and running.  In the meantime things have settled down some. 

Last night we had Kiah's parent/teacher conference and it went really well.  He has been doing so much better~ better behaved, doing his homework more independently, and listening the first time. We have been giving him Synaptol, Omega 3's, magnesium, and some melatonin to help him sleep better.  Now if I can get my husband to get on the regimen since he suffers from ADD also and has all of his life.  Yes, it proves to be quite an adventure doing anything with my fam.  The boys with their ADD, granny with her dementia and me, I am no saint myself.  I suffer from anxiety so bad I don't drive.  So yeah now that the HIPAA privacy policies are no longer needed and everything is out in the open. 

I have had the luxury of getting out a couple times this past few weeks and had a blast  at our annual Halloween party.

     Beginning of the Party~                       

As I digress~

     Hiking Sierra Azul Open Space Preserve~

      Have you ever seen a bird like this?  Look at his beak~

    I just about ran into this spider after I was freaking out and running around crazily because I swear I felt      something crawl in my shoe.

                                      Natural Bridges State Park~  

            

I finished up all my ornaments for the 2 swaps I am in.  Now it's on to planning my son's Baseball Party, finally being able to participate in Julie Pritchard's Texture Town, and hopefully getting more listed in my sorely neglected Etsy store.
How 'bout you what have you been up to?  What crafting plans do you have for this holiday season?

Love is in the air and apparently strep throat too.....

Well, it is officially summer here.  Kiah's last day of school was Thursday.  The prior Saturday he started complaining of a sore throat, but I didn't really think anything of it since he is prone to allergies.  So we went ahead and took my sister and her boyfriend out to Santa Cruz.  It was the cutest thing seeing them go down the boardwalk hand in hand.  Her in her scooter and him in the wheelchair.  Ahh, young love.

 Kiah was not better by Monday; still a sore throat, a tummy ache, and a slight fever.  I set him up for an appointment early Tuesday.  He wanted to go to school even though he felt crappy because he didn't want to miss the last three days of seeing Nina, his 2nd grade sweetheart.  It turned out he had strep throat.  Go figure.  As soon as he took the first dose of antibiotics he started to feel better.

I am amazed at how many people commented on the giveaway.  Thanks to everyone who stopped by and a special thanks to the people who decided to follow.  You all made my week.

I am taking another one of Susan Tuttle's workshops.  I haven't had much time to do it, but I did do a couple pieces. The bokeh texture was made from some pics I took of bubbles purposely making them out of focus.The stained glass and Venus de Milo photos are from morguefiles.com.

She had a lesson on adjustment layers .  I never messed with adjustment layers before.  I made the above photo's background more pink by messing with the photo filter adjustment layer.

Next time I have some vintage finds to share.  Hope everyone has a good week!

I love vintage goodies

Found some really cool goodies today at the flea market.  They were all from the cutest elderly lady.  I got some vintage buttons, a large flower frog, a 1925 copy of Peter Pan and Wendy, and some little vintage hor d'oeuvre picks with abalone and polished stones.  I'll post pics of the other items tomorrow. 

We took Kiah and his friend to the creek by our house.  There were these beautiful yellow flowers and tons of gnats.  But the kids had fun and I got some good pics.

My photoshop elements actually worked long enough for to me to mess with a pic.  I swear it only worked because we were going to be walking out the door in a couple of minutes.  But I was able to quickly do this.

We will see how my computer will work this coming week.  I want to upload photos but am scared it will just up and die on me.  The Geek Squad guy said it can go at any time.  So I have been using my phone for most of my internet posting.  I apologize  in advance for the spelling and spacing errors.

Till next time

Is time on my side...

I have been in mourning the last couple of days. No computer, means no photo editing, no nothing. I have my phone but it's not the same. Plus I think I am getting a texting thumb from commenting on flickr using my phone.

Chris was too cute and actually took me out to take pics, with no strings attached. Except that he was going to fish, which was fine as long as I didn't have to wait forever in the cold for one more bite. He took me to this little nature preserve just out of San Jose near Morgan Hill. It was perfect. I got some really good pics, I think. I haven't been able to upload them yet. We went over to this other little park where people can water ski in this little strip of Coyote Creek. Pretty crazy I didn't know you could water ski in there. I was ready for the cops to come and haul them off to jail. Got some more good pics, took a couple of videos of Chris catching some fish, got hassled by some teenagers, saw a beautiful sunset, and then made our way back to the car. I felt good because we walked a couple of miles. Then Chris decided to re-up whatever calories we burned by going to all you can eat sushi at our favorite place The Sushi Factory. Smart I know. My hips are still yelling at me.

With all this extra time I have joined a couple art groups. The first one is The Artistic Mothers group at Trudy Callan's blog. I am also going to team up with Becky Dorsch for the Echo group put on by Susan Tuttle and Christy Hydek. I have actually had a lot of crafting mojo the last couple of days. Made a couple cards, layouts, and some really cool flowers made out of ripped up pages of a Boho magazine.

The pics above were taken and edited last week. As soon as I can upload I will share pics of our trip and the cool little flowers I made.

Till next time.

A Saturday Drive

Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time.  Go for a drive to Gilroy and look around, maybe make it to San Juan Batista to go see the mission.  Who would we take Kiah, Granny, or (gasp!) Kiah and Granny.  Kiah whined and complained, "But mom I don't want to go!  Why do you always make me go to different cities!"  Okay.  I guess he wouldn't like it anyways.  The last time we went antique shopping he kept bugging me for vintage comics, so much so I couldn't even hear myself think and Grandma would enjoy it, she used to help out at an antique store back in the day.

As we started on our way I remembered that my favorite thrift store was having a $1.00 sale.  I convinced Chris to stop for a quick second. I found some really cute embroidered linens.  A tatted table runner that was $15 marked down to $1.  The find that I got really excited about was a Dennison Centennial Rose napkin set that has never been opened.  It would be perfect for someone who is throwing a vintage themed party.  Or a party for someone who was born or married in 1964.  It seemed to be the start of a perfect day.

The drive to Gilroy was gorgeous, everything was so green.  I wanted to pull over somewhere so I could take some pics, but no such luck.We waited and waited while Chris got some arrows for his bow.  That took forever it seemed.  Finally we able to take a stroll and find some antique shops.  I love looking at the old masonry buildings in the downtown area.  They have so much character.  Unfortunately a lot of the buildings here are falling apart and some even have "Enter at your own risk!" posted. 

We walked into the first store and the trouble began.  First Granny nearly sat down in a 200 year old chair, the seat was barely threads.  Thankfully I caught her in time.  I spot this really cool painting which I notice has a Whistler signature.  I'm thinking to myself, Dang! I think I heard that name on Antiques Roadshow. Then hear glass being jumbled around........Grandma!  No!  She's picking up and messing around with everything.  Where the heck is Chris, I mean, come-on, I watched Grandma while you were getting your arrows, now it's my turn.  But no, he is no where to be found.  By this time I think she wanted to punish me for telling her what to do.  So she started farting.  Not just one or two, it was over and over again.  "Grandma do you need to go to the bathroom?"  "No"  "Are you sure?"  "Yes, I will tell you when I need to go."  I find this pile of really cool illustrations and get all excited because they are on sale.  " I need to go to the bathroom" ; "Okay, let's go."  We make our way to the front of the store and I start to ask the clerk if she has a bathroom.  Then Grandma chimes in, "I don't have to go anymore"  What the heck!  I start my way to the back of the store again and Chris starts to hurry me.  "I am hungry, let's go!'  You have got to be kidding me.  I mean, come on, when is it going to my turn to have some fun and be able to look around?  I guess I am shit out of luck.  I mention to Chris that I like the painting in the front of the store, the lady at the front who must have had super sonic hearing ( I wonder how many of Grandma's farts she heard ) says, " Oh you mean the one painting with the lady in the wooden frame?"  "Yes." "I'll let you have it for 50% off."  "Okay!"  When I got to the counter she already had it wrapped and everything.  Which kinda bugged because I wanted to have a closer look at it, but oh well it was only $7.50 and I didn't have to pay sales tax because I paid cash.  When I got out of the store I opened it up and it was a print covered in a bunch of shellac to look like paint strokes.  If I wanted to return it I probably could have, but she didn't give me a receipt. I am sure she just wanted of get rid of the eyesore, and I was distracted enough to want to purchase it. 

Chris, trying to lift my spirits, stopped by another antique store, but as soon as we walked in Grandma started her farting again, so I just gave up on the whole idea.  We ate dinner as I sulked and then we made our way home.  I just love family outings.

Coyote Point

We had a really nice day at Coyote Point Park in San Mateo. I had never been there before and have been wanting to go. Kiah had so much fun going down this huge slide, actually I think my mom had the most fun. She always says she doesn't want to go places but when she does she goes crazy.

The park is very beautiful. It has everything you could need. A great playground, a museum, a wildlife refuge, trails, and picnic areas all right by the bay. I got these pictures of a Coyote and a Burrowing Owl.

Kiah and Granny got to touch a Mountain King snake. I quickly had to change the subject though when granny asked the docent, "Are they edible?" as she was petting it.

I have been participating in another workshop by Susan Tuttle. I have a couple of pictures I manipulated that turned out awesome. I have them posted on my flickr, but will post them here soon. Thanks for stopping by.

We went for a drive up to Lick Observatory, I never been but I have seen it up on the hills my whole life. It was a crazy drive, but it was just Chris and I so it was nice. I want to go again when we have some more time. There was this hawk on the fence post five feet from the car but Chris wouldn't stop. Why is it that sometimes the the pictures you don't get seem more important than the ones you do.