pretty in pink

Mani-Pedi … priceless

Having to do it myself … also priceless!

My first birthday celebration was glorious, and was spent with my wonderful family.  We spent part of the day in the mountains on a picnic and a four mile hike.  We then had a delicious lasagna dinner that my husband made.

Now, I’m so happy that I get to celebrate my birthday again with some amazing women tomorrow.  My long time friend, my aunt and my future daughter-in-law are all coming over for a pot-luck dinner and then…

Thanks to my son, who always seems to come through with great ideas, we all get to go to the Indigo Girls concert!

I couldn’t think of a better way of celebrating my birthday again, than with people who are so special to me.

I’ll miss having my daughter with us for this night of fun!

use your imagination here

For Mother’s Day, my lovely daughter gave me a wonderful gift.  We spent an  evening  together at a studio painting  a picture of the flatirons.  Now, I’ve never painted anything on canvas before, so this was a brand new experience for me.

As a child, I loved those paint-by-number paint sets I seemed to get at Christmas time.  I painted plenty of horses in a meadow and other things I can’t remember,  on velvet … but never on canvas.

The owner of the studio’s daughter, was a girl I recognized as one of my kindergarten students more than twenty years ago.  She immediately recognized me as her kindergarten teacher and was amazed that I remembered her and her name.  It would of been fun if she was the instructor for the evening, but she wasn’t.

I consider myself to be a very creative person … you know, the artsy/craftsy kind.  The other thing about me is that I’m a perfectionist, so I knew this may pose a bit of a challenge in the two hour period.

Everything was going smoothly until the teacher shouted out that it was time for us to finish up and go, since he was closing.  I still had to finish my path, more green shrubs, and all of the flowers!  This is when I went from “Oh, this is so cool, working at my turtle pace,” to …  “Oh my god!  I need to rush and splat down the paint so I can walk out with a finished product!”

My daughter’s painting was gorgeous!  It showed the carved edge of the flatiron mountains, and the delicate petals of all her dainty meadow flowers.   None of which I was able to achieve.  As a matter of fact, I admire these very mountains right outside my window every day, and yet I completely froze and forgot what they actually looked like!

My painting is more like a Monet, meant to be admired from afar.  It’s grown on me, and I actually love it!

All in all, it was a very good experience for me since it took me out of my comfort zone.  Best of all, was the time I was able to spend with my amazing daughter.

My painting will be proudly hung in my sewing/craft studio at home.  A reminder that everything doesn’t have to be perfect in order to be enjoyed.

Thanks, and I love you Diane!

The little ones enjoyed their egg hunt and even got a visit from the Easter Bunny.

There was a bouncy castle and even a trampoline for kids both big and small.

There was a lot of catching up with family.

After the children’s egg hunt, it was time for the adults to run around and have fun too. Twenty four dozen confetti filled, colorful eggs, were scattered throughout the backyard. The grown-ups ran around wildly, picking up eggs and cracking them over the heads of one another. Colorful confetti was falling faster than ticker tape at a Macy’s Day Parade!

It is believed that cracking these fun-filled eggs will bring the recipient good luck in the upcoming year. Nothing is more funny than watching multiple generations of men and women acting just like kids. The energy and laughter were delightful!

It looks like lots of luck is coming my way!

It also looks like Roxy also will have a year of good luck!

Woot, woot!

Sharing the love with our hostess.

Thank you Vince and Roxy for a glorious day filled with good food, good fun, and good people.

love

Thanks to the mega wind gusts on Friday, I’m sporting this lovely blackish, yellowish, shiner.  This is my first black eye, and it really hurts.

People  stare at me when I’m shopping.  I feel the need to put on my Jackie O. glasses and navigate around the aisles in the dark to avoid the staring, and the need to explain that a big, brown, recycle bin + hurricane force winds, kicked my face’s A$$!

black eye mess

The reason this happened is because I’m such a good Samaritan.  I decided to wheel my humongous recycle cart to the backyard on a high wind day,  when abruptly a hurricane gust of wind slammed into me … and that stupid cart.   The cart’s lid flipped backwards with such a strong force, it nearly knocked me down to the ground.  Unfortunately, my face caught the brunt of that blow.

The hard plastic hit my face so hard that my first thought was, “Oh my god, it knocked out my front teeth, what is the name of that last dentist I saw”?  After rooting around my mouth with my tongue, I discovered that all my teeth were there (even though my front tooth was roughed up on the bottom).

I next thought whether or not my eyeball was laying on the concrete on the side of our house.  Since I darted into my house so quickly, and I didn’t feel my foot squish my eyeball along the way, I assumed it was still inside its socket.

At first, I looked just like a boxer with a broken nose,  as there was immediate swelling so that my nose became very wide on the bridge, and was slightly bleeding.  Two of my kids have broken their noses, and fixing that was NOT something I wanted to endure, so I prayed my nose was going to be alright.

I had a nice red “slap” mark on my face courtesy of the big brown beast.  I’ve iced off and on all weekend, and have taken more ibuprofen than I’ve taken the last year in total.  Because I’m so bad A$$, I even went on a two mile walk right after the accident.  I  wasn’t about to let that ghastly wind scare me, so I just took an ice pack and iced along the way.  Afterwards, I didn’t feel so good.

The moral to the story is to let your big, strong, husband take care of the big brown beast on hurricane wind days!

ding, ding, ding, … round 10 … I win!

I ate too much!

I have a feeling that today I’m going to to look like Marlin after our Thanksgiving feast.

Enjoy time spent with your family.

love

lemony lemon birthday cake

I’ve always thought she’s an angel on earth.  She is so beautiful, patient, kind,  and always, always,  positive.

You might say that she takes life’s lemons and turns them into lemonade 100% of the time.

Now that is an art my friends.

Hope your day was joyful and that the upcoming year brings you everything good.

Love you!

P

My fist attempt at this Thorpe hat was much too big for my daughter, who is an avid snow rider (boarder).  She really appreciates the hand knit woolens I’ve been sending her way lately.  I guess she’s finally grown up to appreciate how amazing hand-knits can be.

Making a hat for someone who isn’t around to continually try it on is sometimes like Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  You just keep knitting, and ripping it out, until the next time she can come home to try on her hat to assure the fit is perfect.

Unfortunately, I knit this hat up entirely the first time, only to be unraveled and knit again two more times.  Yes, I know that this process is labor intensive, but although the measurements said the size would be exact, it turned out to be much, much, too big, … think Papa Bear size.

Papa Bear size hat ... much too big!

The second time I knit this, I only got several inches into the hat before I realized that the size was going to be just a bit too big too,  due to the stretchy yarn … think Mama Bear size, so I had to rip this out.

Mama Bear size hat ... a little bit too big!

The third time is always a charm, (so they say)!  This attempt was the  Baby Bear size ( you get the idea) with a perfect fit … although my daughter is not a baby anymore.

Baby Bear size hat ... a perfect fit!

She shreds up the snowy mountains on her snowboard, because gurlz rule!

So this hat is for D-Spin, my fierce snow rider, who always needs to sport a cool hat after a long day on the slopes.

Stay toasty warm honey!

P.S.  Be safe!

He’s been wanting an old “beater” bike, one that can stay locked up to the bike rack at work, in all kinds of weather … snow, sleet, hail etc., without him worrying about it getting damaged.  Before I found one for him, he almost paid triple for a bike that was in pretty bad shape.  Thank goodness he didn’t, because our bike gift was 100% free for him, and way cooler!

I love garage sales!

This is where you can get some of the  best prices in town.  We found this 1970′s Schwinn Suburban bike hanging on the garage wall of an estate sale.  The son of the owner wanted $50 for it and was pretty firm on the price since it was in pretty very good shape for its old age.  It even came with the original owner’s manual.  After saying no to the asking price, we left.

Thinking of what a cool vintage bike this was, and the fact that we have the know-how and energy to breathe new life into it, we decided to return during the last hour of the sale.  To our surprise, the bike was still there.  After asking the man to take it down, another couple came over to admire and inquire about it too.

Knowing I wanted to buy it, and nobody was going to buy it out from under me, I quickly negotiated a deal with the owner. He finally accepted $35 for this diamond in the rough, and made sure to remind me that he could get well over $150 if he sold it on Craigslist.  I knew he was right.

The seller felt good knowing that his deceased father’s bike would be given a new life, and  lots of care from my conscientious son.  (Yes, I had to share a bit about my son’s avid commuting in order to seal the deal).  We quickly and happily departed before he could change his mind, and got to work on detailing the bike.  We bought new tires, tubes, and brakes for it as well.

vintage 1970's Schwinn Suburban ~ before

Yes, it took hours of cleaning , lubing and tuning up, but … the end result was amazing!

The look on my son’s face was priceless!  He was so surprised and happy to be getting a new “old” bike with lots of vintage charm (my description, not his)!  True to the 1970′s all the way.  His new “old” bike was originally considered to be a “lightweight” road bike, although it weighs about 50 pounds (slight exaggeration, but not by much)!

Now it’s shiny and vintage-cool-looking.  All for around $90 total.

all cleaned and tuned up ~ after

Like I said before … the look of surprise on my son’s face … priceless!

Think green!

I’m embarrassed to say that this birthday wish is now over a month old.  Better late than never, I say!

When my first child (daughter) was born, I had no idea how she would change my life in the most positive way.

I fell instantly in love with her the moment our eyes met.  She had the most ruby-red lips, downy soft hair, and lovely pink skin.

To this day, she still is the most beautiful little baby girl I have ever seen!

She let the world know she had arrived, by the wails drifting down the halls of the hospital, while the nurses bathed her and checked her vitals.   My little baby girl and I were inseparable.  She was so adorable and fascinating.

Now I get to watch my adult daughter venture out into the world and share her beauty, brilliance, devotion, humor and energy, with all who are lucky enough to get to know her.  People love her.  She makes me so proud, because there is nothing that can hold her adventurous spirit back.

This birthday I decided to use my new found time to make her something special.  After our trip to Italy, I was inspired by the stunning stained glass in the cathedrals.  Knowing that my daughter exudes charm, multi-facets and  radiance, much as the stained glass, I knew a stained glass quilt would be perfect for her.

She was completely surprised by this very personal gift from me.

Surprise!

So here’s to a sparkling year ahead, that is filled with a multitude of  splendid moments.

I love you so very much honey!

Mom

Grandkids' gift to my mom

Hope all you moms out there had an incredible Mother’s Day!

I was so thrilled when my all my kids gave me a gift certificate for a Swedish massage at a local spa.  What a marvelous idea.  Ooooh!  I can feel my tension melting away just thinking about it!

I also received a new pizza stone and peel.  Hooray!  As previously blogged about, I completely cracked destroyed my old baking stone, leaving it virtually useless.  My bread just hasn’t been as good since.

Now I can use my new stone for the artisan breads I’ve been baking lately, and for all the new kinds of pizzas I’ve been dreamin’ about.

Thank you all for such a great Mother’s Day.  I certainly felt the love.

I love you all so incredibly much!

I’m so glad you’re mine.  I’m the luckiest Mom in the world!

Love

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