Life is Good

Love/Hate

Yes, it's a love/hate relationship I have with my iPhone.  Friday was mostly hate.  I recently acquired this 2.5" x 4.5" piece of technology and that is a big step for me.  I seriously resist any technological advances and it is a wonder I even have a blog somedays.  Again, Friday was mostly hate.  Unbeknowns to me, I was suppose to plug my phone in weekly to itunes for updates.  So when I finally did this after a month my phone and computer decided to freeze up.  And because this is a "tiny laptop" (so the apple tech tells me) all ability to use the calling aspect of the phone is down as well. 

5 Tech hours, three uninstalls and three installs of itunes, 50 curse words, and 5 minutes on the computer by my husband and the problem was all fixed.  I have no idea what Marc did, I'm certain it was one of those senarios where I loosened the lid for him type of things....nevertheless, my phone is once again working and I am happy.

Yesterday I managed to squeeze in a few mintues to create something for Halloween.

This was a photo from 2005 of Marcus wearing a cute little black cat mask.  Just got in these cool Jenni Bowlin bingo cards for Halloween, stiched on some crate paper and ribbon from Rusty Pickle.  Added a Prima flower, a few other goodies and Viola!  

And my favorite photo for today while I was getting a few shots of our Halloween decor...

This is a old railroad crossing sign that was in a local antique store which I absolutely loved, but it was an outrageous price and I just couldn't do it.  I went back months later to admire the sign again and possibly splurge for it but it was gone. :( 

The kids and I went to the Brownsville Antique Fair this summer and one of the first boothes I passed by, I immediately spotted the sign.   And it was half price!  Lesson learned and I am happy!

So it now resides in our entryway and when I took this picture with the flash, I loved how it lit up the reflective lights.

And so I am caught up with my October daily and off for a little creative time!
 
 

October Daily

It's finally here, alright so day two, of the beginning of my favorite time of the year! OCTOBER! FALL! and the beginning of the holiday season. This year I am going to attempt an October daily album with a photo from every day.  I had two photos from yesterday that I didn't have a chance to post and todays will get posted later and maybe I'll get caught up by Sunday.

So for Day 1 and my most exciting news..........
 

Yes, it is offical.....I'M A DUCK!!! And in my wildest dreams I never thought I would dare wear the colors of green and yellow representing the University of Oregon Ducks.  Never say Never! After a year plus application and hiring process I finally received my offical offer to become a Lieutenant for the Department of Public Safety.
 

And as October 1st arrived so did the fall decor chaos....
 
and that is only one view....there are a few more tubs located to the left.  So my project today was to get decorated for Halloween and the rest put away.  That got interrupted by a day stopping crisis with my new iphone that froze up with the computer.  Crisis, averted and now I am back on track to finish the decorating and hopefully on to a couple days of creativness before I go back to work.

Hopefully I'll get the photos posted from this years Coburg antique fair as it was a good one, two car loads to be exact and two trips to the ATM....ouch!
 

One get up and its here!

Know what I'm talking about?

The annual Coburg Antique Fair!!!
 

We had a fantastic time last year and I already had my calendar marked before I left town last year for this years event. A dozen of us die hards got up in the dark and met on the street corner in Coburg at 6am last year equipped with coffee (ok, so I had a Coke, no surprise) head lamps, rolling carts and money burning a hole in our pockets.  It was a fantastic day! We broke up into small groups and divided and conquered and then met up for some food, sharing and peer pressure, the good kind.  The kind where you really want to buy something in particular but hesitate and all you need is that little push from the girls to get it.....yeah, you know the kind.

So after a very short time this is where Sarah and I found ourselves...
 
don't think we'll make that mistake again!

This was my first score of the day,
 
a gorgeous writing desk.  Needed a little tlc, you would never know it from the photo but it was a bit tired and an amazing deal at $50.  I was pretty excited because the rest of the day I saw them all over at different booths for $200+.  I took it into a furniture repair store and had them repair a few things and freshen up the paint, though it looks exactly the same only in great shape for everyday use. 

We joined back up with the others for some lunch and contraband sharing..
 

and somehow after 30 something years, I was talked into registering to vote.
 
yes, it was a big moment, celebrated by all.
 

Ali made a great score on this old paper box and looking at in now, I thought this was a cute picture as she was pregnant with Anna.

 

I scored on a few things...
 

and other finds I think I shared here.  I also scored on a fantastic $5 chair that I had reupholstered but apparently don't have a photo of...maybe I'll share it with my finds of tomorrow.

It was an exceptional day and I cannot wait until 4:30am tomorrow when I will do it all again and share another great moment like this.

Back to School

It's that time of year....McKenzie started back to school.  It seems so late in the month but finally the day arrived and the sleepless nights of excitement and days of indecision of what to wear are over for her .
 

Couldn't let the day begin of course without the first day photos.
  

 
and a little "yeah, I'm an eighth grader" sassiness with it:
 

So proud of you Honey and the wonderful young lady you are becoming. And as you pointed out today...I can't believe you are going to be a freshman next year.

Right now your favorites are:

 
And though you were probably the only living 13 year old without one you now have:
  
running shorts

Use Somebody by King's of Leon

Her:

and these two movies:
       


your new vintage vanity/desk

and this color blue:
 
which is the color of your room.

and to no surprise your favorite food is still pancakes.
   

Day three already?

It's day three of my four day weekend and I'm not quite sure where it has all gone.  The first day felt a bit productive. I gave Marcus his requested "low mo" mohawk hair cut, got my craft area organized and made a nice dinner.  Not too shabby for the first day not to mention a bit of scrapbooking time in as well so even better.

Now day two on the other hand was a bit different. Day starts off great, everyone is in a good mood sunny day filled with hopes of more productivity.  Go to the store with McKenzie....leave Marcus home with Marc and forget the cell phone.  No worries, just going down the street for one stop and then home.  Way wrong answer!  I get contacted by a store employee who tells me that my husband just called and that he cut his finger...bad.  I can tell the panic in his face that it must be a bit more than that.  Drop everything we have run out the store and drive home like a snowplow pushing cars!

Walk in the door to see Marc holding his hand in his shirt dripping blood.  He was cleaning the riding lawn mower (no, he didn't stick it underneath) he got it caught in the pulley mechanisms and cut one of his finger halfway through.....ewww, is right!  Raced to the hospital, several stiches later and increase in my blood pressure after I was about to pass out and all is well. End of day 2.

So today we are taking McKenzie to a basketball summer camp which is a couple hours away so that will account for most of today.  Don't know exactly what I was planning on doing, its not like I was going to tackle the list of home remodel to do's.

I have gotten a little time in for scrapbooking in the past few weeks and finally got around to taking some photos..

  

All the layouts are made with kits from Studio Calico.

 

 

 

 

Jenni Bowlin....{sigh}

For those of you who know what I'm talking about doesn't she just inspire?

So I signed up for her Re-purpose, Re-think, Re-invent class over at Big picture scrapbooking.  Having lots of fun continuing on with my repurposing of the Marc classification of "junk".  Jenni has a lot of great tips and ideas which makes for some great challenges.  One of the first was to create an inspiration board...easy enough though I haven't finished quite yet. Maybe I needed to make an inspiration board with inspiration to actually finish my inspiration board...hehe. I do have the coolest frame which I think was shown down further that I hope to finish as I have four days off starting right now:)  One of the projects was to create something, project or layout using milk caps she sent us.  This is what I came up with...

I used a book plate from Basic Grey, old ribbon I had, jewel hanger; 7G's, chipboard; Maya Road, couple other goodies and the sparkly on top is an old clip on earring of my grandmothers.

 

 

and because I haven't photographed any layouts lately or uploaded any new pictures here are a couple other repurpose projects I finally finished.

This one I don't have a before photo of but just envision dirty and brown. I got it last summer at the Coburg Antique Fair, which I will gush more about in a couple weeks:)

 

The photo is a little fuzzy...its that "my camera sucks taking indoor photos" thing again but you get the idea and it has a cute little clear vintage looking knob on top.  I used thick foam core board to raise some of the photos to different heights.

And this is a frame I picked up for yes...$5 at the Coburg Antique Fair as well.

 

I had an old bathroom mirror that Sarah gave me cut to fit and glued on a pearl covered letter from TJMaxx.

And now this hanging in my entry way...

 

I am counting on a couple days of creativity as I have talked myself out of having a yard sale. Hopefully I'll have something new to post after the weekend!

Blackberry Jam Festival minus the blackberries?

We have been keeping ourselves busy these past couple days and trying to survive the heat.  However we seem to find ourselves outside in the sun each day at the peak of the hottest temperatures.

Yesterday we participated in the Relay for Life with several friends.  The event is Eugene was an amazing turnout with activities and booths set up everywhere at the Lane Community College.  Marc had to work so Marcus, McKenzie and I loaded up and headed down to LCC for a walk.

This is McKenzie and our friend Tyler filling up the candle light bags with sand.
 

Marcus was even really good about walking with us so we didn't even need the stroller.
 

We all gathered to watch the Survivors' lap.
 
 
This was a pretty amazing moment for those of you that have not been to a Relay for Life event...especially one of this size.  All those purple shirts represent the cancer survivor wearing it and were lead by police motorcycle officers around the track and the sea of purple goes on for quite some time.  Pretty powerful moment especially when you took note of the small children and babies wearing those purple shirts as they passed by.

Marcus and his friend Joey had fun in the bounce house.

I even managed to make it in one photo.

On today's agenda was the Blackberry Jamfestival in Lowell, Oregon.  I haven't been to that in years and I think in many years past I have just managed to be patrolling in the area and apparently made one major assumption........that there are blackberries....to eat.

Yeah...so I have been planning to go for days now.  Salivating over the thought of blackberry cobbler, blackberry pastries, blackberry syrup over ice cream, you name it I've been dreaming of it.  I mean, who wouldn't...Blackberry Jam...seriously what else would one assume?

Marc, Marcus and I made it on the tail end of the parade.  You know the fun kind that still throws candy from fire trucks, ambulances, police cars, homemade floats and a local car collectors group where when they wave they sincerely smile and not doing so in an 'elbow, elbow, wrist, wrist' fashion.  Don't ask me how I know that bit of trivia...no surprise this girl was never princess in a parade.

Anyhow, onward to the food!

What....wait a minute....what the hell is this.....NO BLACKBERRY COBBLER!

Seriously!!!!

How did they possibly covet the name Blackberry Jam when there was not one blackberry food item to be found?  Civil suit pending!

Breathe....

Ok, so out of the 3 food booths we decide to get some lemonade in the 90 degree heat.....two drops lemon juice, 4 heaping scoops of sugar, water and ice.  Hmmm, well at least it was cold.

The craft booths.....well I wasn't in the market for steal saw blade cut outs or pipe cleaner pets....but I did find this...

 
I have seen their goodies on Etsy and came across them at a booth at the Blackberry Jam.
 
We have some friends that just found out they are going to have a baby so these cute little onsies from Max and Ellie are going to be perfect.

Marcus also scored two days in a row with a bounce house and a pony ride.

 
 

And ever since we have been holding up in the air conditioned house and now about to venture out to enjoy the afternoon in the pool.

Hope you are staying cool and enjoying some summertime activities!

She is a teenager!

 
Would someone please tell me when that happened?

Yes, she turned 13 and I am a little taken back. 

This year she decided that she didn't want a party, that she just wanted to spend the day with us. So I started the day out for her like this:

 
 

McKenz has been wanting to wear more make-up than the restriction of mascara only that we have allowed her to wear.  All her friends in the 7th grade mind you wear it all and lots of it.  So to say we have been on the conservative side is probably an understatement.  Needless to say I have been planning for some time to take her to the MAC counter at Macy's for a little surprise on her birthday. And was she surprised!

 

Megan who works for MAC was so great with her and taught her a lot about wearing make-up and McKenz eagerly took it all in.

 

Ta Dahhh!

 

We followed this up with a little shopping, manicure, pedicure and then met up with Daddy and Marcus for a nice family dinner.

I still am a little surprised when I look at her and see her make-up. But then this is what often comes to mind when I look at her...

 

Happy Birthday Lovey!

Happiness is....

  
Need I say more??

But really...this was quite an experience that Sarah and I realized for our rookie year of the 52 mile yard sale.  Yes that is 52 miles of yard sales along one stretch of road.  We very naively thought we could accomplish this during one half day.  When after oooooh.....say 4 hours we came to the realization that we had only ventured 14 miles.  Yeah, this was our rookie year and next year we will plan for two days, a supply of bottled water, snacks, coins, daycare and toilet paper:

Though I managed to add to my list of $5 finds, can you spot it? 
 

If you can believe it that cute little Martha Stewart green dresser was my $5 find. Everything else was less except the vanity which was a steal as well.  And yes that is another empty frame on the far left, however that became my inspiration for what I have finally decided to do with them all.

Sarah's Ford escape has been affectionately named "The Junkster".  It has served us well during our junking ventures. This trip however, I think we reached maximum capacity and looked to the exterior for more space to haul.

 

 

I have to say that we found some excellent homemade goodies along the way to make the day complete!
 

Yes...happiness is a 52 mile yard sale.

Red, White and Blue

 
We spent a great day together on Saturday.  We started the day off with a patriotic craft project:
 
 
 
which ended up mostly on Marcus's hands...
 

The end result....
 

and the bonus extra...
 

Then we were off to a friends house for some food, fun and firetrucks.
 

 

 

and then back home to meet up with Daddy for some fireworks.
  

 
 

and a moment where Marcus didn't really care for the loud screaming from the fireworks..
 

Hope your holiday weekend was a memorable one!