Portabellopixie

Saturday Snapshots - May 26, 2012

OK, first off... duh.  What  was I thinking?  Of course they are called lightning bugs..  Too many years away from them and I am calling them fireflies.  I am properly ashamed, thank you for correcting me!  :)  They really are magical aren't they?

Also, I am growning tired of waisting my time deleting spam from my comments, so for the meantime, if you are in need of knock off Prada, knock off Oakleys, or other questionable goods, I can totally hook you up.  ahem.  Moving on..

My Saturday Snapshots were so well intentioned.  We took off from home over to the studio to grab some craft supplies (remember what I was saying about having half of the things and at, the other half at the studio..) and grabbed our stuff, but locked the car keys in the studio, along with my camera.  zing.  So my mom collected us, and we pittered around her house for the day and by the time Dustin rescued us I had a raging cold going on.  Yup.

So I rescued my camera and keys from the studio and spent the better part of the day in bed.  Hense the shots of my bedside table.  At least I have found "The Killing" (its gooood) and have the perfect excuse to lay in bed and watch it while binding a quilt.

Feel free to share any of your Saturday moments in the comments for others to enjoy.

Fireflies

I hope you are preparing for a fabulous weekend. Last weekend was the busiest I have had in months, so this weekend is about relaxation and fun. We're going to get our chores out of the way tonight, so all we have to do tomorrow is play.  Dustin and I have date night tonight, and I am in need of a night out!  This has been a busy busy week and I am ready for a slowing of things in general.  I'm going to take my Saturday Snapshots tomorrow, and have decided that I will set them to post Sunday morning.. so if anyone wants to join in, that is when I will have it go live. :)

Last Saturday, my neighbors with the awesome garden let me stage a photo shoot in their backyard. Well.. there wasn't much staging needed, I pretty much just showed up with my model and told her where to stand. Isn't the candle pretty? 

When I was growing up, my dad was in the army and we moved.. a lot.  Several of our locations were on the east coast where the fireflies come out at dusk and continue to light the sky with their twinkle bums.  I didn't realize fireflies don't reside everywhere until we moved.  I missed them so much.. we don't have fireflies in Montana, but a candle setup like this just might help.

Good Night Sweetheart

Dear Eliza, One day when you are a little older and we have had a spat over a boy, or a curfew.. or whatever the day has brought us, I hope you google my name to make fun of your sooo uncool mom and come across this post.

Because tonight, my sweetheart, you gave me the first real taste of your sass. Wow.. it truly shocked me sweetie. I mean, I really was trying to help you clean your room.. hopefully I find someway of teaching you that I won't do it for you but am happy to help. Obviously I haven't figured that one out yet or taught you to be clean enough to this point. I promise to work harder on that, ok? Will you promise to not slam the door in my face anymore?  Cause while I pride myself on how I have come to let hate mail and unproductive criticism slide off my back, your little 8 year old body slamming that door behind me cuts like a knife. But again.. I may just not have taught you well enough to channel your emotions. Let's work on that too, ok?

So if you stumble upon this little note a few years from now, know that on this night, I snuck back into your room and tucked you in. I kissed your tear stained cheeks and told you I loved you.  And in your unconscience state, you whispered "I love you too.."

I will try extra hard to remember that these years we have together while you are a child are so short, and losing tempers or fighting is just a waste of those precious moments we have.

Good night, Sweetheart.

Love,

Mommy

Sew-lo!! (me waving hi from a new sewing spot)

I have been sewing.. a lot.  Enough to bring the machines home from the studio and set them up in the sunroom off of our bedroom.  It has been really nice.. for the last 7-ish months anytime I wanted to sew, I had to go to the studio..  It seemed like the perfect solution to the "working at home is hard to do" scenario, but after all this time, and too many nights away from the bustle of my family, we made the decision to move me back into the home.  The division of work space and home space wasn't workin' for me.  For some it is the perfect solution.  Not so much for us.

It is helping tremendously..  I was going a little batty there and couldn't concentrate on anything.  And when I could concentrate, I would gear up to work on a project and find that the pieces needed were split between the two locations.  "Argh!"  I've said that so many times I've started feeling like a pirate.

Flowers of both the fresh variety (care of Mothers Day) and of the quilting variety fit nicely in a new sewing space.

 

Big Dipper Ice Cream

If you live in this little nook of the world, you know what this is.

Oh yes..  it is finally warming up enough to slip in a trip to Big Dipper.  Even though that sentence makes no sense, as you see a line year round and we are in Montana for petes sake.  If that doesn't give testament to the quality of ice cream, I don't know what will.

Maybe this?

Do you guys see that tooth *just* hanging on?  Nothing I can say convinces him to let go of that thing.  Hmph.  We've been lackadaisical about tooth fairy duty (some traditions we are big on.. some not so much.  We don't make a big to-do out of the Easter Bunny either.  Easter, yes.. Bunny, notsomuch) and the promise of reward is doing nothing for him.

It's finally warming up enough also for shoeless jaunts outside.. heaven.  The trees are filling in and the flowers are starting to open.  Like these irises..  come on pretty ladies.. you can do it! 

They make me want to dip a paintbrush into deep purple paint..

Portable Art

What do you toss into your bag before you leave the house?  Everyone has something they don't leave without.. even if it is only keys.  I have a few things that I feel funny being without.  One is a little red bag that is full of a mixture of loose coins, a few dollars and lip gloss.  The bag isn't even pretty anymore, but I can't part with it.

A few other things that always end up coming with me are pictured above.  The gold compact holds a little secret..  If you saw it like that you would assume pressed powder for the face, yes?

Behold..

I found the compact at the Missoula Antique Mall.  It still had the remnants of the powder it held to begin with.  I cleaned it up and gave it a few coats of Dr. Ph Martins enamel.  If I were to do it now, I would use a spray enamel, but at the time, I tried something different.  Dustin helped me to sand down some plastic half-pans  (the little boxes that hold the paint - they are called pans) to fit.  So now they are really.. quarter pans?  I used rubber cement to stick them in which makes them movable, but so far I haven't felt the need for changing and I've had this for maybe a year now..

The pencil case was found on etsy for $5.  Free shipping.  ahem..

It rarely leaves my side.

The sky blue brush is a Niji Waterbrush.  You fill the barrel with water and it flows through the tip while you paint.  I could use them exclusively really.  They work so well..  whenever I end up using a traditional brush, I feel like Tony Stark.  You mean I have to DIP it in water?  It doesn't do it ITSELF?

There you have it.  My little portable art studio.  What can you not leave home without?

Saturday Snapshots - May 12, 2012

Saturday Snapshots.. a new feature for my blog. I might not share every weekend, but we shall see.  I have felt a need to document our Saturdays for a while.  We look forward to this day all week.  Sometimes Dustin has to work, sometimes not.. but we try to squeeze in as much as we can either way.  Farmers Markets.. chores.. yard sales..  picnics.. sleeping in.. stories in bed.  We love Saturday.  And thus was born.. Saturday Snapshots.

I would love to see snapshots from your day too! If you feel inspired to join in, feel free to direct us to your spot in the comments.

Tidying up..

The Picnic umbrella goes up!

New Haircuts

First Barbecue and Outside Dinner  (I live for this..)

Mothers Day plants for the Grandma's are "wrapped" - Clematis this year!

Tuckered out..

Hope your day was fantasic!

Something to Pray for..

Tonight (after we watched Hollie Cavanaugh go home.. we have our priorities) we climbed into bed and Dustin read scriptures. I was practicing more with my camera.. look at this capture in almost no light..  (!!)

Then Eliza volunteered to say the prayer.  She had a bee in her bonnet about something silly..  (insert 8 year old priority of making a lunch for a field trip x days early..)

So she starts her little prayer..

"Dear Heavenly Father..

We are grateful for this day.. we are grateful that we could.. do things.. we are thankful for our family..

PLEASE HELP US TO UNDERSTAND THAT OTHER PEOPLE DON'T KNOW EVERYTHING, ESPECIALLY OUR PARENTS.

....

Amen"

Have you ever been scolded by your child through prayer?  I have. 

And I have to say, it was hee-lar-ious.  All reverence was gone and Dustin & I cracked up, rolling over on the bed laughing.  We are *such* good parents.

Amen to that.

The child doesn't look like she has that bad of a life..

A gift that keeps on giving

I have a new camera.  Its a big girl camera..  all shiny and new and fancy.  I've wanted a new camera for a while, and when Ethan broke Old Faithful (all the photos you've seen from me have been taken with a Nikon D50) I finally had a good excuse to take the plunge.  I thought that the fact the new baby had "Nikon" (a Nikon D7000) on it would mean I *totally got it* right outta the box.  I have after all, been using a Nikon for about 5 years and understand the Nikon language.  This was of course, until I turned the new girl on. 

Whhaaa?  I thought I KNEW all this!  yeah.... no.  So Mr. Instruction Manual and I have been spending some time together.  He's dog-eared, I'm confused.  It's all good, we'll get there eventually.

These photos may look passable, I assure you it was a happy accident.

However, look at the pretty Bleeding Hearts!  I urged Dustin to get his mother this plant for Mothers Day 12-ish years ago, and now over a decade later, it still brings a gift every spring.  Its a little tradition that we have sorta kinda adopted for me.  Not every year, but maybe half of my mothering years, have resulted in a new plant for the garden.  Even though we would be living in a space that we knew we wouldn't be staying in forever, we would still plant it.  And hopefully those plants make it.. it would be nice to see them in bloom whenever we are driving through whichever town they might be in and see them.  A little stamp of "us" here and there.  Do you ever wonder the story behind plants you see?  Who put them there?  Why are they there?  I do..

A few more neighborhood shots with the new shooter..

Missoula is such a beautiful town..  I hope to capture a bit more of it this spring and summer.  This gorgeous brick home is our neighbor..  I had the happy chance to live in this house for about a year during school.  It is now on the historic registry in town.  The current owners have put in a lovely garden, I'll have to see if they will let me photograph it.

But I have my hands full with other projects at this exact moment.  I've been doing an author review all day long and if I have to check my grammar one more time or make myself sound more intelligent than I really am - I will go a little wacky. I love that I can come here and write a huge runon sentence and blow bubbles if I want to and nobody has to proof read before I press publish.  ha!

All right, moment of blowing bubbles has passed.  Thanks for humoring me.. back to it!

Go buy those mama's in your life a plant.  But make sure to tuck some chocolate in with it.  She'll thank you for the chocolate now, and then every year for the plant.  It's the gift that keeps on giving.

WIP

I have a friend.. well everyone has a friend.  But you know how to meet a few special people in this life and it's like..  "oh hey!  I remember you from heaven!  I'm so happy to see you again!"

I have this weird sense of premonition.. I can meet someone and know they are going to play a special part in my life.  And oddly enough, it isn't really me "meeting them"..  I am usually seeing them from across the room.  It has happened three times.  With my best friend from high school.. we had just moved and it was my first day attending church there.  She was playing the piano in our young women's group and I remember being sort of irritated.  Playing the piano was MY thing.  Why didn't they ask me to play?  Oh yeah.. duh.  They don't know me yet.  And that moment I knew our paths would continue to cross and blend together for the rest of our lives.  We're going to Hawaii together in November woohoo! 

It happened with my husband (that is a really funny story that I will explain at somepoint.) 

And then with Amber.  She was writing on the dry erase board across the room and I knew she was going to be a part of my life forever, even though I didn't even know her name.  And she has been.. we had our first children 9 hours apart, baptized them together, seen each other through ups and downs so personal to each of us that I feel almost vulnerable even mentioning that they happened in this space.

But this post really isn't about touchy feely friendships.. it's about an ongoing project that Amber & I need to finish up.

The other day she posted this on instagram:

Which followed in a quick session of "lets go rip the fabric off that thing and do something with it!  (The couch really wasn't in bad shape, but had been sitting outside for who knows how lond and we decided it a better use to rip away the good parts and do something new with it.)

That night we donned our Mockingjay shirts (Ambers creation) and snuck out for the night to the remote country road that this pretty couch had been abandoned.

So now I have a pile of super cool vintage fabric that was totally free..  and I need to do something with it so it doesn't sit in a pile of WIP projects that become neglected.  So... here we go!