Halloween

Home sick today- feeling pretty icky. And its Halloween- so much for the fun. But I slept until 1 p.m.- must have needed it because I never do that. Hope I feel better really soon!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY 2 FAV FOLKS

47 Years ago yesterday Mr. Dave was born. I've known him (not just of him) since Fall 1981. Wow. Happy birthday big guy!
And Miss Katie- you were born 16 years ago today at 3:55 in the afternoon. I called in sick that morning- since she was 2 1/2 weeks early and I hadn't gone on maturnity leave yet.
Wow! Love this photo too! We took it at Dublin Castle last spring.

1 more post today!

I know- 3 posts, a bit excessive- but must say this-
The Pats were super hot (52-7) against the Redskins and the Sox are playing game 4 of the World Series tonight.

Go sox!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We would love a Boston win but to take the Rockies in 4- go for it!

Let them Remember the cake

A project I've been busy with- a little gift for Katie for her 16th, a special cake she can keep and remember her birthday. Its made from 3 wooden nesting boxes, primed and then painted pink. I covered them in sparkles and then sprayed with clear finish to keep them from dropping sparkles everywhere. Then I used a cake decorating tip and bag with white golden acrylic paint, gave it a good dry. Wooden numbers were painted and put down on top of the cake, with a little sparkled added. The trim is one I bought and attached, then I added the buttons as a final touch. I'm very pleased with how this project came out-of course I finished it today- it was a real cake kind of day!!!!!!!!!!!

Let them eat cake!

Today I made cake. This one is the edible one- its a great recipe by the Charleston cake lady where you doctor a package mix. It was devil's food with chocolate mini-chips. A must have for any chocoholic. Frosted with white frosting from the jar and home made peppermint frosting colored pink, then decorated with colored sugar. Notice the date 4716! Dave will be 47 tomorrow. Katie will be 16 on Tuesday. Grammy came down to visit and Katie had gone to see Saw4 with Nick, his brother Ben and his Mom Lynn, so they stopped by for cake this afternoon too. Sooooooooo yummy.

Switch seats guys. Katie are not going to be 47. Dave might wish he was 16 again though.

My pink peppermint frosting.

Working on it!

Final cake with no candles.

My Saturday

So tonight is game 3. Sox are up 2 nothing after winning Thursday night at Fenway. They're in Denver tonight, and we members of Red Sox Nation are hoping for a big win-AGAIN!
One day I will remember that to do this blog one must work backwards- so baseball goes last- since its at night and though important-it is the World's Series afterall, but it needs to go after my day's event with my family- as they are #1.
2 2 New scrapbooking books arrived in the mail today. I got them (a good price too) on eBay. One is Designing with Details- those Designing with books have great ideas. I also got the new Ali Edwards Art and Life book, but for some reason I can't copy it into my blog no matter what I try. Both books are excellent- and when I say that I mean they aren't the same old same old. I think its hard to find a good scrapbooking idea book. I mean there are LOTS of excellent books, but I want one that pushes the limit and shows me some really new ideas. I recommend both of these.

Rain! Rain! Dark and dreary day.
Off to get my baby a new cell phone for a birthday present- she'll be 16 on Tuesday. She wasn't thrilled with the whole cell phone buying process- she likes her old cell phone but being a teenager think she needs a new one...so for her birthday we said she could have a new cell phone (along with her expensive driver's ed course that she starts Monday)...only she didn't find exactly what she wanted but had to get one...so she cried half the way home from Portsmouth...then Dave wanted a ladder for his birthday which is Monday...but he didn't like the ladder's at Home Depot...all I wanted to do was make them happy and I failed...though I will say Katie is warming up to her Krazer, which is what she said she wanted orginally, its just that after she say the new iPhone...

But we had a great lunch at the new Texas Roadhouse in Newington...ran into my friend Dee and her hubby Mike. Had a great lunch too, do I love beef...prime rib...mmmm. I know its bad for you but yum,yum.

Game 2

Last night we kicked butt-13-1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Let's see if Schilling can pitch as well Josh Beckett, let's see if the Sox can hold the Rockies!
I just wish these games started before 8:30 at night since I get up at 4:45 for work. Thank goodness tomorrow is Friday! (and its payday too!!!!)

More art and life when I have a week that isn't so busy with work, Red Sox, doing the usual.
Gotta love it.

More verbal ramblings

Weren't these the coolest clouds? A shot from last Sunday morning.

Tomorrow night is the first game of the world's series- Red Sox (YAHOO) vs. The Rockies. I remember 2004 when the Sox made the world series (especially sweet was the pennant where they came back from 0 wins to take the Yankees in a sweep). Does this mean a lot of nights of little sleep with these late games? Everyone was walking around in lack of sleep zombie-ville then. They broke the curse then too- was it 86 years? And Dad had just missed it since if he'd lived a few weeks more he could have seen them do it- and Dad loved the Sox too. Well I can do without some sleep if they'd win-that would be ok. Tomorrow I have 8th grade open house at school, will do a bit of birthday shopping between 3 when I leave and until 6 when I need to be back- and then go home and catch most of the game.

Today we have wind. Wind, wind, and more wind. The leaves are all coming down. Never got a photo today because by the time I got home from school I was too beat to go photograph the lawn. They are only going to get thicker as more come down.

Katie got into driver's ed- it starts Monday. She's excited. I am for her too, but a bit scared to have her out driving alone. Can she really going to be 16 on Tuesday?

Need to take some photos of my Dublin book- am quite pleased with it so far. Trying to make it a bit more city,gritty, cosmopolitan. Plus, you can only do so many the same before you need to take a twist. (Not that my pages are the same, but I try to make each book have a feel for what the book's about). Oh well, tonight I am tired. No studio time tonight. That's ok, had a great weekend playing in there and did some last night too. Think I'll go read in bed until I doze off- which won't take too long...it's another work week in the fall with darkness coming in not much after 6, cooling off...it fall and I am getting into hibernating mind frame...just a bit

nighty-night!

Yes it is October

OCTOBER! LOOK AT THIS COLOR IN MY OWN BACKYARD!

Finally, we have leaf color- peak color- and its a few weeks later than normal. Friday night we had a heavy rain, and a bunch of leaves came down in the yard, as you can see in this photo. I love fall. The colors, the smell of it, the comfort food you want to eat again (like crisp apples, pumpkin bread, roast turkey, pot roast, winter squash...mmmm). Get to wear my sweaters and my fleece again- but not too cold yet. And still too early for snow...though I can say I'm not totally crazy about these shorter day- the nights not bad, makes you want to put on your pjs and read on the couch with a cup of tea but getting up in the morning-UGH.

I sewed my pumpkins together and have them hanging on my hutch...I included the seperate pumpkin photos in an earlier post when I made them and now they are out to enjoy. Halloween is next week- as well as Dave's and Katie's birthdays. Need to go out and take some more seasonal photos- especially in the next couple of days while we're still really warm...they say cooler at the end of the week...but it is NH and it is October.

Last night the Sox rocked! They were hot! (They beat Cleveland 12-2 at Fenway) Tonight is game 7 for the American League Pennant...go Sox!!!!

3 things

1- We need a Red Sox win tonight- they're back in Boston- and right now, they look hot. If Manny can hit a Grand Slam right now- it would be a great start...

Love our Red Sox!

2- Have been thinking about a name for my studio and FINALLY, after months, came up with 1 I like today" Big Leo Arts! That's the name!

3- Fall colors are GREAT right now- really late for us by like 2 weeks, but wow- when we drove Katie up to take her PSAT this morning, I was blown away.

October 15, 1988

Its my anniversary- Dave and I tied the knot 19 years ago- WOW!!!!- still going after all those years- 19 married- 25 dating- WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(photo from last spring in Ireland)

Red Sox Nation

I love those Red Sox- all my life- grew up a Sox fan- and now we're playing the Indians- who are a great team...but we want those Sox to win the Pennant. Right now its 5-1, Sox- Yeehaw
GO SOX! GO SOX! GO SOX

Today is...

Wet and rainy, raw and grey. Its been a busy week- but a good week, not super stressful. Yesterday I had bookclub, we went to Newick's and had some fried clams- yummy, yummy, but today I feel so fat. Blubber gal. Emmie had an abcess on her face the other day- needed to take her to the vet to get it drained, but with the antibiotics, its looking good. She is her pretty little pie-pie girl And yesterday, I went to AE-love that store- could have spent a fortune- but I was pretty good. Notice, pretty good. I want to go back sooner rather than later...got a couple of great books:
"I Dare You"- a great scrapbooking book and also a book on creating travel journals by Design Originals. Plus that had all the fall and Christmas stuff out- I love holiday stamps and stickers and all the new items. That store has so much in it I bet I missed half the items.Here's the link. http://absolutelyeverythingblog.blogspot.com/ Check it out.
Watching LA INK, like that show a lot- though its so different from me- maybe that's why I am so fascinated with it. They do some fantastic tatoos, and not sure I would want one- maybe all my babies including my old dog Winnie if I ever did, but don't think so at this time.
Been doing a lot with my Dublin photos- making the book a little more city/grafitti- or trying to at least. Have to take some photos to show...also going to do a little book called Tea with the Queen and playing with some Christmas ideas...plus want to do some Christmas cards, and am making Katie a wooden box cake- using roung wooden boxes and stacking them to make a momento of her 16th birthday which rolls around on the 30th...plus need to do Dave's card...love it when I have lots of ideas and I'm pumped to do it all.

Long weekend!

Long weekend- I love it. Fall is here too- though yesterday we were warm warm warm and then we got rain as a cool front came through. But it is fall like today- bits of sun now but mostly we've had clouds.
Love Katie's 27 pound pumpkin on my deck, with what's left of my summer planter garden and my cat statue.
Here's Leo, he's gotten into everything lately- but he is the explorer guy. Dave put up paint scaffolding so now he can get on the screen porch roof, as you can see. He decided he needed to come in through my bedroom window on the second floor. Hope he doesn't do that all the time and goes back to using the door.

And then Friday morning, Dave got out of the shower and turned around to be stared at by him as he found a shelf without any towels on it and decided it was a great place to chill. Scared Dave.

Emmie is enjoying yesterday's warmth and sun. Me too. I vacced and cleaned out the hot tub, today I did the seasonal clothes switch over and cleaned off the front of the frig. Still have lots of art time too- but watching football right now, and then we have NASCAR and another Red Sox game out in LA-its first round towards the pennant. Friday's Red Sox game was great with a Manny 3 run homer at about 12;45 in the morning which wrapped it up and broke the 1-1 tie. Glad I could sleep yesterday- and today-I didn't get up until 10:16- in fact, Katie beat us up...amazing.

Lastly, my ghost flower. Playing with depth of field, this is not computer enhance any way. Fun.

Weekend is half done and now I can play the rest of the time...work on Dublin photos, finish a few cards, maybe start my next project- thinking of something like a mad hatter tea party- my style.

Beautiful fall day!

Today was in the 80's and warm. Sunny, beautiful, too nice to be in a teacher workshop. These are some photos of my backyard, taken last fall but it doesn't look much different except we still have a few more leaves on the trees.
Happy fall!

adding to my list

More items for my list which was started yesterday in the blog.

51- Have lots of years with Dave
52- have some small goals, not so many lofty high ones
53- be a little more wild and crazy
54-don't be afraid to try things
55-laugh, laugh and laugh
56- remember, travel is really high on this list still
57-play and have fun everyday
58-do something a little scary or challenging every day
59- do fun things with Dave more
60-appreciate what I have all the time
61- not get so cranky about doing things for others
62- exercise and stay limber
63-revisit the Isabella Stuart Gardner museum in Boston-its been years
64-go to the MOMA in NYC- and go back to NYC soon
65-go back to Vegas in the winter and go to Death Valley
66-watch more movies
67-buy fewer rubber stamps- no, have more $$ to buy my rubber stamps
68-not to be so wishy-washy which I am sometimes. Decide I want to do something and go for it
69- go to Montreal
70- also go way Down East Maine and into Canada (the Atlantic Provinces)
71- go to Maine more
72- stay home and play and not feel like I always have to clean things
73- accept my messes with grace and be ok with that

notice how much travel is listed in my list? Does that say something- good or bad? I love being home though-sometimes frustrated with the things unfinished but love being home.

Enough for tonight...

Life lists

Found this website while perusing on the Internet today. I have no clue how you get into the web page to add a list, though I'm not one of the cool people she knows...I am still cool though. http://coolpeopleiknow.pbwiki.com/
Since its fun to read other people's lists, and since I can't do a list on that web page, I'll do mine here-

100 things left to do that I can think of now- at least I'll start with 100 but knowing me, it will keep on going and going

1- learn to speak Italian fluently (or any language)
2- learn to play the drums
3- lose weight and keep it off
4- take a year off from work and pursue some of my other talents like being a housewife (eeks did say that?) or my art
5- travel a lot more to where ever I want to go-that's a long long long list
6- then pay off my bills and be debt free
7- have money to pay for Katie's college
8- not to be so insecure about silly little things
9- to work on my relationship with my mom-meaning I can't let her preference for my brother get to me so much
10-read even more books (I heard about someone who read a book a day for a year- wow- I'd like a book a week every week- better put the 1100 page tomes away)
11- travel more and more
12-finish our addition on our house its been 7 years so far...
13-take more art classes
14- get a masters degree in either library science or fiber arts
15- like the parts of me I don't like better
16-learn to relax more when life gets stressful
17-try not to have so many piles of my stuff around the house

if this the list of 47 year old or what?

18- be able to retire when I want to
19-not feel guilty about all my rubber stamps-like I'm not suppose to have like 1000 or so of them
20-spend more time with my friends
21- drive across the USA
22-do something crazy with my mom before she can't do it- meaning convincing her to do it in the first place
23-always stay friends with my girl Katie
24-did I say travel more
25-go to the Isle of Shoals and those other places
26- live for a while on the ocean on the coast of Maine
27- have adventures
28-learn to draw
29-make homemade bread more often- and other yummies too while I'm at it
30-buy some red shoes- and other colored shoes too while I'm at it
31-get back to having a great veggie garden
32-get acupuncture to make my stressed out neck feel better
33-not be afraid to try physically challenging or scary things-like going white water rafting again or going down hill skiing again
34-letting go and not having to life by those rules I set up for myself
35-trying to me more handy around the house like doing physical labor on the addition
36-being able to do all kinds of cool handwriting
37-kayaking more frequently
38-getting a house on a lake-like Merrymeeting here in town
39-living somewhere far far away for a bit
40-doing more art more often
41- not procrastinating so much
42-getting a new floor in my kitchen and diningroom
43-having more time
44-not having to get up at 4:45 a.m. to go to work, but still getting done by 3 in the afternoon
45-being more of an iniater than a mothering soul
46-shaving my head-if only I really could-or liking my hair a lot better
47-seeing people who are gone from my life-that I want to see that is
48- learning to decorate a cake
49-play tennis again- its been a bit
50-knit more often
ok,a good start....I can add to it another day or as I come up with something...

Tuesday and I ramble with words

Tuesday-another lovely day- though busy. The kids came in second block today showing me a website where you can check your bio-rhythms, and mine is all in the negative right now- emotion, physical and intellectual. According to this ( if you want to believe it) its going to stay down for a week too.

Did grade a few labs tonight- not as many as I should but I am having procrastination fever about grading these- though I graded many other things today- what's my crazy issue?-must be those bio-rhythms.

Anyhow- good news- instead of finishing my lab grading I finished my day in Northern Ireland book. Yahoo! It is not only done but bound too. Been wanting to finish this up for a few weeks now but always seems to be more to do...but not now. I still have other travel journal projects to do- the rest of Ireland, Phlly, the Grand Canyon...some year I'll do all the photos of Katie as a baby. Wish I had been a scrapbooker then.

Dave's been gone to a conference in Plymouth, Mass. and he's due home tomorrow night. Can't wait to see him even though he only left yesterday morning. Been watching some of this Ken Burns film The War- makes me think a lot of my Dad and UNcle Russell and Uncle Bob- my Dad's stories are now gone- except what I know. I think this war said so much about their generation...more than so many of us, since it bonded the whole country together. It takes so long to get old enough to understand and sympathize- teenagers don't get it, can't get it...

So much for my written ramblings tonight. I bid you peace and something good.