Such is the busy life of a stay at home mom...

AHHHHHH! I cannot believe I haven't written in over a week!  With school ending last week, Zoe's birthday and party and me feeling like a truck hit me, I just didn't have the time. 

So here is a re-cap of what's going on.  Iris is now officially a 3rd grader!  And Zoe is officially a Kindergartner!  Iris was accepted into the REACH program at her school, which is basically for gifted children. (Don't ask me how that happened, I may have street smarts, but books...no way.)  She is really excited, I just hope she keeps up that excitement once she is finally challenged in school!  She will be working on 4th grade work, so it's definitely going to be a whole different ball game. But I am so proud of her, I am one happy momma!

Zoe turned five on May 18th...I can't believe she is going into school next year. I swear it feels like yesterday when we brought her home from the hospital.  She is no longer my helpless little baby! It makes me a little sad, but excited for her future at the same time.  She is smart as a whip, and such a comedian.  I think my biggest fear is that she will end up being the class clown!! :) She had a blast at her birthday party. Even though it was hotter than Hades out, the kids didn't seem to mind a bit. Momma here though....whew...I hate the heat and humidity! Now, can I just say that this child got enough toys to keep 5 of her busy??? My goodness...she needs her own house just to store all of her toys. 

The biggest hit at the party though, was the pinata.  The kids each took turns swinging a stick at this thing and let me tell you, these kids have some serious pent up rage...LOL. The looks on their faces was priceless!  Once the pinata busted open, it was a complete free for all.  Luckily, I put five and a half pounds of candy in that bad boy. So there was plenty to go around. 

Tomorrow I am going to the girls' school for a Kindergarten Readiness seminar.  It claims to give you the tools and tips to make sure your little one is ready for school.  I am really excited and hope that I can come away with some useful information.  I really need to work with Zoe this summer to make sure she is on the up and up.  (fingers crossed triple time!) I will report back my findings, and share some of the tips I get for your own use!

Iris' last day of school was also on Zoe's birthday.  The day before her class had their awards ceremony.  Iris got a "Positive Patriot" award for the second year in a row!  A Positive Patriot is someone who exhibits, throughout the entire year, a positive attitude, helpfulness, etc... Basically someone who sets a good example for other students.  I am so proud of her!! If only she could bring that positivity home with her...(sigh)  

So, now that summer has officially started, so has the fighting, bickering, tattling, and general grumpiness. LOL. It's gonna be a long one....

Speaking of bickering...I must go break up the latest round.  But I promise to get down to business now that the beginning of summer has started.  I have been working hard on some new jewelry and will be posting pics soon.  I will also be having a giveaway in conjunction with my latest jewelry venture. 

Have a WONDERFUL Wednesday everyone, it's hump day!!

Tuesday Fun! - "My Journal" For Kids

Good Day! Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend, and for all of you moms out there, I hope your Mothers Day was as good as mine was! My hubby treated me to some new shrubs and flowers for the front yard!! I may have worked my behind off on my special day, but it was so much fun I didn't want to stop! The yard looks wonderful now, and that makes me unbelievably happy.  (Major Kudos to my hubby for that!)  Zoe gave me a hand colored rock, and a flower she picked on a walk with her papaw the day before. :)  Iris gave me a framed photo of herself, she picked the frame out all by herself and paid with it with her own money too.  All in all it was a great day, and I am so thankful for what I have.  

Ok, enough gushing!.....

Today's tutorial is a project that I finished months ago, but only came across the other day.  I got the idea from something I had found on the Internet, but didn't want to pay $30 for! 

Basically, this a guided journal.  I made one for both of my girls, and my niece.  I put various fun questions on a page and then a space for the girls to fill in their answers.  I also added a few games, pictures and coloring pages as well.  Let me tell you, the girls LOVED their journals.  I just gave the journals to them yesterday and all three of them immediately started flipping pages and saying things like "Ohhhh I want to start on this one!", "Who wants to play Tic-Tac-Toe with me??".  This would be a great way to keep them busy on a long trip too.  I am actually thinking of putting one together for just that purpose.  Maybe more games? 

I printed all of these on 4x6 plain index cards, but obviously, you can make them any size you wish.  I wanted them to be small enough that they could throw them in their bags (or my purse).

There are tons of pages, as you can see from the above picture.  You could customize this anyway you want to, the possibilities are endless!  Like I said, I am thinking about making a travel one. You could make one that is all story starters, all games, all coloring...whatever you like, or whatever your kids like.  This took me a while to put together, but that was simply because I made it from scratch, and didn't really know what direction I wanted to go with it.  

When you are creating the pages, there is no need to format the page in Word to the size you are printing.  Just make sure when you are getting ready to print, you select the correct paper size.  Word (or whatever processor you are using) will shrink it to size. Also make sure that if you have the option, check "shrink to fit paper size" or something along those lines so that every bit of your page makes it on the smaller one.

When I was finished printing and compiling all of the pages, I simply hole punched  the pages and added metal rings to hold it all together.  Iris commented that she liked the way she could fold the pages underneath one another without bending any of them. (Score one for mom!)

So there you have it, another kid friendly project! You could collaborate with the kiddos ( I wanted mine to be a surprise) and come up with page ideas together. Maybe make a "Mommy and Me" journal? 

Let me know what you come up with! It's hard work, but its so much fun and so rewarding to see the smiles on their faces when you give them their personal journals.

Have a wonderful day everyone, Zoe and I are heading out to get her birthday party goodies.  (Ahhhh, I am so behind on this party stuff. I am usually on top of it! )

An Angel With Fashionable Wings...

Shirley Beth (Naile) Woolfitt

September 21, 1947 - May 12, 2011

Even as a young girl, she always had style.

On May 12, 2011 I received a phone call that no one should ever have to receive.  For some reason, it felt like I was in a movie. My sister was the one to call me. The first thing she said to me is "I love you Sascha, I love you." I thought, okay that's sweet, but she's really bothering me at work to tell me that?? Then she told me the bad news, I thought she was kidding with me. (not a very funny joke, mind you) I thought I misunderstood her.  But then she started crying and I knew it was no joke. My aunt had just died.  I completely flipped. I mean hyperventilating, uncontrollable sobs, the works.  We buried her five days later.  

She was and still is, an inspiration to me.  She encouraged me to continue working on my artwork, she even sold it for me in her shop in Virginia.  I would finish a piece, send her a picture and ask her opinion. And she was honest.  If she thought something needed tweaking, she would tell me.  And I valued her opinion more than anyone's.  To this day, I miss that.  I find that I have become even more of a critic of my own work, and I think to myself  "What would Shirley think of this?".   To be honest, since her death and up until about a month ago, I sort of went on a "hiatus" of sorts.  I just didn't have it in me to get in to the studio and work.  I would try and try and try, but after losing your inspiration,  it's very hard.  

On the one year anniversary (or a day early, rather) I want to share with you, some pictures, articles and memories of my Aunt Shirley.  I want the rest of the world to know what a wonderful person she was, and what my family lost the day she died.  Thank you for continuing to read, I know this is a little off track of my normal posts.  But this is important for me and I thank you for your support.

My aunt was a funny lady.  She was a fiery red head, with the personality to match.  She was full of so much energy and life, it was infectious.  She was smart, beautiful, funny and caring beyond belief.  I remember as a little girl, she would take my sister and I for the weekend and spoil us rotten.  She loved to curl our hair, take us shopping, etc...(she generally had shorter hair, and every time she came at us with that curling iron, I just waited to get burned...which my sister and I did on probably more than one occasion!)

She moved away when I was still a kid, so we didn't see her as much anymore.  We did visit, and it was always full of places to visit, activities and such.  That woman could draw up an itinerary like no one else.

She met Dr. Robert Woolfitt at a car show in Hershey, Pa. and in 2001 they married at my Aunts lake house.  She then moved to Norfolk, Virginia.  After some time there, she took over a boutique, re-vamped it a bit and opened shop under the name éclectique Melange.  She sold high end shoes, jewelry and other accessories.  I was able to visit her shop once, and let me tell you, it dripped with her style.  It was amazing.  Check it out.

 Working hard!

Aside from owning the shop, my Aunt was also a milliner.  If you don't know what that is, she basically made her own hats from scratch.  They were gorgeous works of art too.  She trained in London with Rose Cory, who was the late Queen Mother's milliner.  She had started out embellishing hats with her own style, and then moved on to hand-making them from scratch.  She was really good at it too. Had her own line and everything.  Here are a few examples, with my aunt modeling her own handy work.

And some more...

This is my favorite. She looks so elegant and regal.  That was her though. 

She was also featured in a few articles in the local paper The Virginian-Pilot, for her shop work and her sense of style in general. There are also a couple after her death.  Here are a few links, in case you want to check them out for yourself. 

The Norfolk boutique formerly known as Melange - 9/24/2008

Great fashion isn't just for the young - 7/20/2010

Get purse fix without losing your wallet - 5/10/2011 - This article came out just two days before she died.

Norfolk boutique owner dies unexpectedly at 63 - 5/14/2011

Local fashionista both lived and died with style - 5/31/2011

Put hangups shelf and have some fun - 5/8/2012

Not only was she a milliner, but she was also a dressmaker.  She made the fancy dresses she wore to the Opera events she attended.  They were gorgeous dresses too.  I don't know how she did it all.  I can't even sew a whip stitch properly, let alone sew an entire gown!  

My aunt was also an animal lover...more specifically cats (she's had Siamese cats around as far back as I can remember.) and dogs. She was a donor at the local SPCA, and she always had a few cats around the house. She even had her picture taken with her cats, I swear only my Aunt could pull this off without looking like the crazy cat lady! 

My Aunt was also a very funny lady...(she is totally going to haunt me for this) she could belch like no one's business...it's a trait that all of us "Naile" ladies inherited and cultivated over many years... :)  For as much of a lady as she was, she belched like a man. I loved that about her too, weird huh? She had this infectious smile, and a wicked sense of humor.  I think sometimes she didn't mean for something to be humorous, but I would crack up just at the way she said something.   

She always insisted on being called "Grand Aunt Shirl" by her great nieces.  Something about it sounding better than "Great Aunt Shirley".... :) Again, that was just her... but, looking at it now, I think it fits her. She wasn't just great, she was grand in every way. 

It is unfortunate that she never got to meet my nephew Alex. And it is even more unfortunate that he will never meet her.  My sister was eight months pregnant with him when Shirley died.  

So, there you have it.  That is the short story about my beloved Aunt. I would never be able to fully capture her story here, you would never stop reading!  Just know that she was much loved, for obvious reasons.  I hope that you can see just how much she meant to me, and my entire family.  

The below, is a poem I read at her funeral. The picture I took  that is behind the wording is of the pendant we all wore (that my mother made in honor of her) and a flower from her casket. 

I miss her so much. To this day, if I think too much about her, I still cry.  I am not sure if the heartache will ever go away.  I still have the last text message she sent me saved on my phone.  It was four days before she died.  It simply reads "Love ya kid."  Even as I sit here and write this, I am fighting back tears that threaten to spill over.  Her headstone sits in northern Indiana, and I can visit it in about 3 hours time.  I need to do that soon and have a chat with her.  Like her in life, her headstone is over the top and elegant.  I am pretty sure she would have loved it.  

Thank you so much for sticking with me through this post.  It was a hard one for me to write.  At the same time, it's so easy to talk about her and all of the "grand" things she was and did.  

I hope everyone has a great weekend...

For The Love Of Photography

Good day! I am so sorry I didn't post anything yesterday. I was out weeding and planting flowers all day, and I may have over done it a bit...just a tad (Stupid "Fibro").  

I know I said in my intro that I love photography, and I wanted to share with you some of my work.  After reviewing a ton of pictures, I realized that I love to photograph flowers and nature stuff. I also love to photograph people, but, something about outside stuff just intrigues me.

Believe me when I say I do not in any way consider myself a "professional", far from it in fact. But, I love to take pictures.  Just ask my computer hard drive. It got mad at me and forced me to move about 15K pictures...

Anyway, here is a look at some of my work...

See, I love taking pictures of flowers!

Black and White is also a favorite of mine. I think 2 things about it. 1. It hides flaws and 2. It brings out some of the best features. I loved the way the vintage fan turned out. Unfortunately the fan belongs to my mom... :(

Again with the flowers! Does it ever stop?? :)  The apple holder is my little one Zoe, and the hands in the bottom are mine and my husbands. Awwww, how sweet, right?

Let me say that in regards to the "Smoke Crack" picture, while I don't agree with the sentiment, I thought the picture turned out well. The phone booths were somewhere in London, I love the phone booths there.  Do we even have phone booths anymore here in the states??? The ehh hmmmm....beverage is a really good beer that I had in Greenwich England. I swear beer tastes better in Europe. And the apples were taken at Anderson Orchard during Zoe's first field trip.

As you might be able to tell, I like to shoot in cemeteries too. I know it's a bit macabre, 

but old headstones are fascinating. I am sure I don't have to point out what the first picture is, but I will anyway, Big Ben in London. That clock is MASSIVE. But it is absolutely breathtaking to stand directly underneath it. The beautiful little girl in orange is my daughter Zoe.

My nephew Alex when he was just a day old. What a cutie pie!

Zoe's favorite horse, Rose. She belongs to my cousins in Northern Indiana. She is such a sweetie.

So there you have it. A small glimpse into my ever expanding "portfolio".  If I couldn't take photographs, I think I might wilt away.  I swear one of my biggest fears is having my pictures or the external drive they are on, stolen. Ahhh, it chills me to even think about it!

Let me know what you think, and please feel free to share some of your own work! Like painting, or mixed media, or any other form of art, photography is a learning process. And the only opinion that matters is your own. (unless you are trying to get into National Geographic or something! )

Thanks so much for reading and following along. I appreciate it more than you know! 

**Please be sure to check back tomorrow, I will be honoring my Aunt who passed away May 12, 2011. She was an artist, business owner, philanthropist, fashionista and just a wonderful woman in general. Her life and death has had an immense impact on my life and so many others. I will try to honor her as best as I possibly can.**

Till Tomorrow, 

Tuesday's Tutorial - "Deck of Hearts"

Good evening all! Hope the week is going well for all, so far...it is only Tuesday I suppose. ;)

The project I am going to go through today is a slight spin-off from a piece I saw on...wait for it...Pinterest.  Never would have guessed that would you? 

The original piece I saw was made from paint chips from a home improvement store, mine is made from playing cards. Have a gander...

This was a pretty easy project from start to finish.  The only issue I ran into was finding paper that was thick enough for the hearts.  I started out using vintage sheet music but it was so thin and flimsy that it sort of warped when I stuck it to the adhesive dots (I will get to that in a minute). For now, let us please have a moment of silence for the vintage, an totally un-reusable sheet music.............I hate to waste good vintage paper. 

So, to start out, I gathered my supplies which consisted of: A heart shaped paper punch ( you could use any shape to your liking though), playing cards, scissors, "ZOTS 3-D adhesive dots", A thick piece of watercolor paper, a ruler and finally a shadow box frame.

The first thing I did was punch out all of my hearts. I wasn't sure how many I would actually use, so I just kept punching away! It actually becomes kind of addictive to punch all of these shapes, I almost couldn't stop!  

Next thing I did was decide how big of an area I wanted to fill. Since my frame was a square 12 x 12, I knew I needed to keep it a square shape. I decided on 9x9, to leave a bit of the background visible to give it more depth. After that was done, I lightly drew some lines to give myself an idea of where I wanted to place the hearts.

As you can see above, when I said lightly, I meant it. I didn't want any pencil markings left behind. 

Once I had everything lined up, I started applying the adhesive dots. These things are an absolute godsend. They were easy to work with and they have some serious sticking power. If you want to pick some up, I found mine at Hobby Lobby and they are called "ZOTS Singles 3-D Adhesive Dots". For this project I used 1/2", but they had additional sizes as well. 

You may be able to tell from the above picture that there are clear squares around the circle shapes. Those are just the backing. I left them on there until I was ready to place the hearts because, like I said above, they have serious sticking power. You will need to remove these, obviously, prior to sticking anything on them. 

Once I got the dots where I wanted them, I erased the remaining pencil lines. 

***NOTE: I have recently fallen in love with my Sharpie Liquid Pencil. This pencil is great. It's erasable like a pencil (even better than a regular pencil, in my opinion), but you don't have to worry about broken lead, or sharpening because it literally works like a click pen. ***

Anywhoo...Just about finished now! Once I had all of my hearts stuck in place, I attached the finished piece to the velvet background of the shadow box frame with more ZOTS. (So far so good, as far as it staying in place.) I wanted to give a 3-D effect to the whole piece, I didn't want to secure it flat to the background. I felt like it would take away from the whole 3-D thing I was going for. So that is why I chose to use the ZOTS dots (that rhymes!), but you could choose to do it differently. It all about you!

And there you have it! I actually love this piece. I can't wait to find a special place for it to hang. But, for now, it sits on my desk as a reminder of what I am capable of and why I love being creative. :) 

Let me know what you think! Shoot me an email, or comment here...feedback is always appreciated!

Don't forget, you can now subscribe to my blog via email to get my post automatically sent to you!

Check back often, I have some ideas in the works that may involve a giveaway or two!! (Who doesn't love fee stuff?!?)

Weekend Recap

Whewwww, what a busy weekend!  Hope everyone had a wonderful one, I know I did! 

Saturday was full of sports. First was Zoe's T-ball game, it was my first one since I missed her first one last weekend.  It was SO much fun to watch.  I was cracking up laughing throughout the entire game.  Fighting for the ball, playing in the dirt, throwing the ball to the umpire instead of tagging someone out. It was comical, to say the least.  Zoe had her team pictures that day too, and I cannot wait to see them!  I managed to snag a few pictures for myself to post here.

This is Zoe waiting to get her team pictures taken, she did so good and stayed just like this for a good 10 minutes. That's a lifetime for this little girl!! 

She got to be the "Pitcher's Helper" which put her right where she wanted to be...able to snag a lot of balls hit her way!  She did so good chasing after the balls. Now, if we could only get her to throw them when she got them... :)

I couldn't wait to watch her hit.  We have been practicing with her for weeks now and she's got a pretty good swing, if I do say so myself.  

Since she was the last to bat, she automatically got to run all of the bases.  So, she thinks she hit a home run each time at bat! :) As she rounded the bases, she gave me a huge smile and a wave.  Melted my heart instantly to see her so happy and loving the sport.

One drawback of a 9am game was that the grass was still wet with morning dew. I learned that the hard way when I wore my little cotton slip on tennis shoes. They were soaked before I even got to the field! I absolutely hate wet shoes. 

As you might tell in the picture, the shoes look sort of dark grey. But in reality they are a very light grey. I kept taking them off to sit in the sun for a bit, hoping they would dry, but to no avail. I was mad too, I love these shoes!

Next up was Iris' soccer.  Unfortunately, I missed her first game of the day because it overlapped with Zoe's T-ball, but I did make it to the second one.  She loves playing Soccer and I am so thankful for that.  She is such a girly girl, I was afraid she would avoid sports all together! She made three goals Saturday. One in her first game and two in the second.  Anyone who plays soccer knows how difficult it can be to make one goal, let alone two! 

It was so hot out for the second game, I thought the whole team was going to pass out right there on the field! Poor Iris' face was bright red and she was exhausted.  But, she played right through it.  I could tell by the end of the game though that she was slowing down a bit.  As soon as we got in the car, the AC was promptly put on full blast!  

One thing I realized about taking pictures at Soccer was, they never stand still! It's so hard to take good pictures when they are constantly on the move. The one picture I did get of her standing still, she said to me..."MOM! NOT NOW!!"  :)

So, after all of the games, the girls and I grabbed a healthy lunch at the McDonald's drive through. :)  Later on in the evening, we went down to my brother-in-law's house to watch the Mayweather boxing match.  I tell you what, I would love to see someone finally beat that guy. He is way too cocky.  But, that will probably never happen, because truthfully he is good at what he does. 

I got to see a girlfriend of mine that I hadn't seen since Easter time, and I realized how much I missed her face!  :) So it was good to see her and laugh with her.  The kids had a blast because there were a bunch of kids there to play with. They ended up not getting in to bed until after 1am!  I told Iris, who is my early bird, that she better sleep in.  Apparently, in her world, that means 9am. I swear that kid just can't miss an hour of daylight.  Zoe on the other hand is good for sleeping in.  She didn't end up getting out of bed till around 10:30.  

Sunday was a good day here at the Escue household.  Mike had the girls help him load up grass clippings (with no complaints from the girls! WHHHHAAATT?) and then he took them shopping for a special prize for helping out with no complaints and working so quickly.  After that, we all had lunch at the local Mexican restaurant that we love. Later in the evening, we went to Mike's softball game.  Unfortunately they lost. But, they made a pretty big comeback in the 6th inning. 

All in all, it was a great weekend. I couldn't have asked for a better one. Hope everyone else had as good of a weekend as I did.  Feel free to share any fun stuff you had going on!  

As always...please feel free to email me and PLEASE follow me, by entering your email address over on the right of your screen,  or leave a comment!

Here's to a great week!!