Sarah the magnificent!

Oh Sarah, you make me smile with your fresh and fabulous designs!

Stinky's Shirt Dress is so crisp and fresh with lovely retro flare, which is what makes Stinky Pete one of my favorite brands!

Still sick....is it scurvy?

Well, after eleven magical days of illness you'll be happy to know that I actually went to the doctor today! When I woke up this morning and felt like I had been run over by a mack truck and it was still painful to swallow I knew it was time for some medical intervention so I trucked myself in and for once was not told that it was a cold that had to run its' course. I swear if he would have told me that I would have just freaked out!! We're talking a mega watt freak out complete with me throwing old back issues of Highlights magazines all over the waiting room.

But luckily such a scene was prevented when he told me the diagnosis was bronchitis and possible bacteria that could morph into strep even though the rapid strep test came back negative.

So I'm on a Z pack and I promise you I can feel it taking effect. I know that sounds like I fell into some placebo type state. Like if the Z pack was really an S pack for "Sugar" I would still take it and magically feel better! But when it is so powerful that it only takes five days you know that stuff has to kick in with a vengence and begin the healing process.

So while I continue on my way to rapid recover I will leave you with a few pleasant thoughts that make me smile....

My wonderful Gerard sending his love my way from way out there on the road with his band *snicker*



And my cute dad who is going in for his final surgical procedure tomorrow after one month of radiation for prostate cancer.



Then we can't forget the incredible G getting to model the insanely wonderful
Pouty Princess OutfitThese pictures make me smile everytime I look at them and if you don't go and snap that outfit up you are crazy! The red underskirt is a seperate piece so that you can just wear the dress alone. G said she was the girl on "Dancing With the Stars" and all she needed was to get her little crush Charlie from preschool to come over and the two of them could dance the tango together!




And last but not least Olivia and Alex and the belly laughs they give me everytime they come for a photo shoot. "Harmony Olivia.....Harmony" (said in a very zen like voice)






When I'm feeling more perky I will be giving my book review for "My Sisters Keeper"!!

So long Preschool!

Wow, I can hardly believe it. After three years of preschool G has officially graduated and will be heading off to Kindergarten next year.



After a stellar performance of such classics as "Dinosaurs" and "Naming the Planets" the big church bell was rung signaling that school was officially out and then the party began.
Being a little fuzzy headed from my cold I can't say that I remember a lot about the pomp and circumstance of graduation. I also lost not only Little One for a bit but I my purse. I'm sure people wondered why at one point or another throughout the celebration I was walking around frantic and wild eyed with a stuffy nose.

It's been strange for me to think of G not going to preschool anymore. I'm one of those dorky mom's who doesn't want to let my kids grow up despite the fact that time and time again they keep telling me they have to. The night before her last day of preschool I lay awake thinking what a big deal it was that she was done with that place forever. There is no going back....only forward and that is bizarre! Some of her little friends are having quite a hard time with this transformation into "big kids."

Today at the normal "Friday Play Group" the three girls that had "graduated" from preschool were all highly emotional. At one point G, Kate the Great, and Audj (so nicknamed by G) were fighting, crying or talking about how they needed a break from one another. At one point Audj even clocked Kate the Great on the head which is something that just never happens at "Friday Play Group".



These three are the Three Musketeers and have had each others backs from day one. They are as close as little sisters and all three are going their seperate ways to different kindergartens. While that doesn't mean that they won't see each other at soccer and play dates and whatnot I guess I didn't realize that they don't understand that. They see this as some ending, and how do you make them understand that it is not.

As all the kids were leaving yesterday Audj was so sad. Her Dad said she didn't think she would see her friends again and she was also sad that she wasn't going to this great place that G was going....namely the same Kindergarten.
G has made her Kindergarten into this fantstic sounding magical fairy land where cookies grow on trees and the water fountains run with chocolate water! And while she sees this as a great thing her friends don't since they are going somewhere else!

So the three moms realized that we're going to have to ease them through this transition and help them to understand that they will still be the bestest of friends. They just won't see each other every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday in the hallowed halls of WPP.

And while I'm mourning G moving onto Kindergarten I will have to also sob into my hankie that Little One will be starting preschool. Everybody asks me if I think she is ready....she is beyond ready. She will be going next year with Lyssie Lou which will be so nice. Nice to have someone to show her the ropes since G will be long gone. G, Lyssie Lou and Little One were up to mischief at the big graduation looking thick as theives running around with smiles on their faces.



I realized how much I need to cherish the moments of this summer.

What is it that Ferris Bueller said

"Life moves pretty fast, if you don't stop and look around once and awhile you could miss it."

Wise words my friend!

SPC Self Portrait Challenge Week #4

I have been trying to challenge myself to step outside of my comfort zone a little and join the Self Portrait Challenge group. This is my first post!

"The challenge for May - is street photography - with YOU in it. Capture yourself somehow, somewhere on the street. With or without others around or others in the photo frame. You could ask someone else to press the shutter for you or carry around your tripod - whatever you do it has to have a ’street photography’ vibe to it. What is that you ask - well Amy Stein says that good street photography should be voyeuristic, immediate, and uncomfortably intimate. It is also often thought to need to be ironic and distanced from its subject matter, concentrating on a single human moment, caught at a decisive or poignant moment"

The whole picture is quite interesting for me to look at because I have been wanting to do these self portrait challenges for awhile and this particular night I decided "I'm doing it!' The girls and hubby were gone and I decided that something I wanted to capture was me out in front of my home walking on the sidewalk. It is a bustling suburban neighborhood of closeknit people so when I pictured myself there alone on the street I visualized myself heading up and out of the neighborhood because there was so much going on below my house and I just wanted to complete this task alone!

Well I went outside, set up my camera and was lining up the shot. One neighbor called out "Hey, that's cheating!" When I set the camera up. Smiling I waved and went about my business, trying to hurry to get this moment I was feeling on film. As I began my trek up the sidewalk with the timer going I hear the snap just as another person going by on a bike stopped.

"Hello!" It was someone my husband had once worked with on his nightly bikeride. Twenty minutes later as he still chatted with me my sweet neighbor two doors down walked up with her little girl in tow, just then my husband and the girls arrived and soon the front yard was filled with neighbors chatting. Women we knew came by with their strollers and children to say hi, cars drove by honking and waving with people we knew.

Almost three hours later I went inside to download my street picture.

Maybe I should have pointed the camera the other way and captured what was behind me....but I prefer this moment of solitude!

New Release Tuesday, Status of Mr. CC and other thrilling news....

I was going for a very "News of the World" title line for this post!

So on the ugh side I am sick. It came on rather rapidly yesterday, at first I thought I was allergic to the horses that were in the parking lot of G's preschool, so I came home popped some Alavert and went on with my day. But by the middle of the night I knew that it was not from a horse. Sore throat, sneezing, general ookey-ness.....I thought general ookey-ness was banned when it was close to summer? Not that you would know it from the weather here. It is freaking FREEZING. Rain and cold temps have made it feel very fall/winter the last two days.

So today was New Release Tuesday which means I got my "The Used" cd! WOO HOO. When I went to the CD store to pick it up I said "I'm loooking for the new Used." The youngster looked at me with a very confused expression. "You're looking for new used?" I got a little exasperated due to my sore throat. "No, I'm looking for the new "The Used" cd." She blinked at me again ala Homer Simpson. "You're looking for new used? How can it be new and used?" Then as I tried to explain it to her again it dawned on her and she showed me where the CD was, right up front. There were two versions, the CD and then the DELUXE edition with the CD and a DVD. Well of course I had to get the deluxe edition because if I am nothing else I am and will always be a music dork!

For those of you who aren't familiar with this band they have hit the big times via good old Utah where they were raised. I didn't really know much about them beyond the fact that the lead singer was Kelly Osbournes boyfriend at one point. But then enter my My Chemical Romance and their duet with The Used "Under Pressure" and I can came to appreciate the lead singers voice enough to try them out.
I listened to four of the tracks before having to retire to the bed due to sickness and so far so good! Bert McCracken the lead singer gets a wee bit screamy for me which I guess is his trademark so on the super screamy songs I check out and head for the next one, but the screaminess is at a minimum up through track four so I'll keep you posted on the rest of the cd as the week goes on.


Second order of business....Cody....or Mr. CC as we like to call him here at the homestead. He will also answer to Codamus Gordon (an homage to The Wild Wild West), C Spot, Coda-lay-hee-hoo, Cease and Desist, and on and on.



Is there a cuter dog than this dog....doubtful! Others might think their dogs are cute but Cody is REALLY REALLY cute. Months back he had a brush with death after a disc slipped out and embedded itself in his spine. Paralysis had begun to set in and surgery was required within 12 hours if we were going to save him and let him have a possibility of walking again. I honestly can't tell you how painful it was for us going back and forth and agnozing over what should be done. We didn't want cost to be an issue (and believe me it wasn't cheap) we wanted his quality of life to be what it was before this happened. With a 90% guaruntee that he would walk again we gave them the ok to do the surgery. It was so sad to see him on the table with bells tied to his neck as he launched into major siezures following the surgery. We visited him two times sometimes three a day with the girls and without for the next week listening intently as they went over the chart and progress as he did hydro therapy and physical therapy. I swear to you this animal hospital was AMAZING...if I ever need surgery I want to go there! Dr. Law was incredible and the staff was also attentive and sweet.

Once he was home we knew it was going to be a long road, the doctor said it could take up to six months if he got his legs back. With determination and positive attitudes we went about helping him get back to his former glory. There were days I wondered if we had made the right decision as he lay there and couldn't even stand or scratch himself let alone walk. We had to take him outside to go to the bathroom and hold him, trying to give him the feeling of having legs. He had a patch shaved to the skin on his back and a long 5 inch wound with big old black stitches that Little One dubbed the "spiders on CC's back".

We decided to include the girls in the whole process, explaining to them what was going on and how we needed to help him. It was definitely a team effort. And I'll be damned if one day he didn't just start standing. It was on three legs but he was doing it, then he started going out further into the yard.....using all four legs and next thing you knew he was gaining strength and running! It was truly amazing.

He had his first haircut since the accident, enough of the fur had grown in that when he was cut short you can't even tell that he had an open wound.

Cody is notoriously quirky with a penchant for attacking people and other dogs. The heart of a German Shepard beats inside the little Ewok and we knew he was back to full Cody strength when he began his random attacks and barking fits at anyone and everyone. You would think that his brush with death might put him in touch with his softer side but not this little guy, and I wouldn't have it any other way. He may have to always be locked up with guests come but at least we still have him with us!

Today G was working on her play-doh again and I had to take pictures. She makes these elaborate stories that she is completed engrossed in involving her play-doh. She makes these little homes with people complete with hair and chairs and sometimes she will have them growing older as the story goes on so they get bigger and their hair gets longer. The other day one of them had lost her mother so she had inherited all of her mothers things. I could hear her doing the story to herself of how the little play-doh speck of a girl had inherited her mothers hats (five little play doh hats lined the top of the cave house) as well has her mothers blankets (a little play doh blanket was on a shelf). It is seriously incredible to listen to her and to see her working on this story with little people the size of a speck.



I need to get a tape recorder or the cam corder to secretly tape the long stories that go on in the land of clay, I think that she will be the writer in the family someday!



Well now my throat is beginning to close up with pain so I'm off to bed and hoping for a brighter tomorrow healthwise!

Creativity at full force!

Last week I was on a creativity kick, working on necklaces and earrings for nothing other than my own pleasure! For my mom I created a beautiful bracelet and earring set with her favorite earthy tones. I wish I had snapped a pic of it before wrapping it all up to give to her for mothers day but alas I forgot! I'm going to try and snag it back for a quick photo op at some point. The bracelet had a wonderful sqaure piece of jasper in beiges, browns and ambers as its' focal bead. I then strung the rest of the bracelet with faceted topaz beads that were a handsome 8 mm ish and some small circular citrine. My mom loves toggles clasps so I used a funky sterling round toggle with a sort of Andrew Lloyd Wright feel to it! I then made some earrings in a new style for me, I have never worked with earrings that had sterling link chain so I thought it might be fun to try. From the sterling link I wire wrapped the same citrine that was on the braclet and then some sparkly little brown seed beads and dangled them here and there. It had the cutest movement to it once they were strung on the wire ear piece. She opened them in the car and put it all right on and might I say it looked fantastic on her!! Just her colors.

Then for a friends birthday I decided that while I was in my crafty mood I would make her a bracelet. She loves clean and simple looks so I ended up doing some smaller tumbled jade nuggets, nice and smooth reminding me of perfect mini ice cubes. I dotted some citrine in there that went nicely with the pale green and some bali sterling flowers. It turned out so cute and simple but at the same time very unique, not something you could just walk into a dept store and buy at the jewelry counter!

And then for me!



I found this fantastic little bird bead last fall and fell in love. It is a reverse painted glass bead with the bird on the inside of the bead. There were only two of these beads in a random case of a zillion boxes of beads haphazardly displayed in a shop with poor organization but exqusite finds! I have held onto these bird beads trying to figure out exactly what I wanted to do with them. I am a person who is creative on my own terms. I can't just whip something up for the sake of whipping something up, which is probably why I have never been a mass lister of my wares! Well the other night I figured out what I wanted to do and made this ever so sweet vintage and dainty looking creation for myself! The first day I wore it I got a compliment from a gal while picking up G at preschool and might I say I beamed from ear to ear since this was my special little bird necklace!




Also on the creativity front this weekend I had the great pleasure to photograph a beautiful wedding up in Memory Grove. The weather was gorgeous, I had a little fear that it would be too too hot but it ended up being quite pleasant since it was a morning wedding and reception, and only started to get toasty around the time I was packing up to leave!



The bride was gorgeous and the groom was wonderful too with a large hilarious family that kept me laughing! I'm going to put a few sneak peeks here and post more this week on the Dandelions and Daisies Photography Blog.



Now I'm not sure if cleaning your workspace counts as creativity or not? But I'm also trying to do that too. It seems like I just get the place cleaned up and inspirationally cute when BOOM I start to get too busy and next thing you know the workspace is like a hurricane has hit it as I try to work with my elbows balanced on top of piles of things that I have shuffled around the desk until they multiply into little baby piles of things that I never seem to get to. Sort of like that dreaded red wall....the red wall that I still have almost finished. BLAH. So today I have used my time wisely and have begun to dejunk the office in hopes of getting it back to its' former glory of inspiration!



OOOOOOOOOOOOH I have started a fantastic book. I resisted reading it when it was first suggested to me by my friend Jen. It sounded depressing and frankly I don't crave depressing the way I did when I was a teenager and would rent "Terms of Endearment" just for fun.
In fact I mentioned to Bri today that I am starting to remind myself of Phoebes mom on friends. When she said her mom never showed them or read them the ending of any sad movies or books. When I show the kids "Finding Nemo" I also start it after the mom is killed. And when I read that Dr. Suess "Horton Hears a Whoo" I cut out the part where the meanies are beating Horton.
So with this book My Sisters Keeper I am so engrossed in it with its' amazing writing style and storyline, I am reading it but carefully skipping the parts that are told from Saras point of view while Kate is young! So clever of me don't you think!! I hope it doesn't take a sudden turn for the "Old Yeller" on me where I can't continue, but so far so good!


And to finish off my lovely post on all things creative I just have to put a shout out to my lovely Gerard.



who embodies all things creative! Definitely he would not be the cup of tea of anyone I know but I just adore this band and everything they do is AOK with me! I thought I would post the picture of him at his creative best, plus he looks quite yummy! (He is 30 so I can say he is yummy!)

Happy weekend to everyone!

Things overheard at two recent playdates....

G: "Mom Sam asked if you and dad were married before you had me?"

Me: "Yes we were."

G: "He said if you were then that means you kissed each other on the lips."

Me: "Why yes we did, and when you and Sam get married you will kiss each other on the lips too." *snicker*

G: "MOM!!!!!!!!!!!! I DON'T WANT TO MARRY SAM AND HE DOESN'T WANT TO MARRY ME!!!!"

Sam: Yes I do!!




Blanckovich: "There's good naked and there's bad naked."

Me: "Golfing naked.....always a good naked."

The Joys of Motherhood

I cannot even begin to express all the joys that motherhood has brought to me. I always knew that I wanted to be a mom, from the time I was little I adored children and babysitting and nuturing. As I grew older I decided that I wanted to work with children in some capacity, in highschool I was a nanny for two highly at risk children that came with a lot of baggage and a divorced set of recovering drug and alcoholic addicted parents that battled each other at every turn. I adored those children, and often times felt like their mother as I would rush to pick up the little girl from school with her stress migraines, holding her head while she threw up and then would lie down with a cold pack on her head at the age of eight.

When Bri and I got married we definitely went back and forth on how many children we wanted. I wanted five, he wanted one or two, as time rolled on and we finally became mature enough to bring children into the world I knew that five was not going to happen, and as a mother thinking about that now I laugh at the notion that I thought I could handle five children! Ignorance is truly bliss when you're a young married woman!




My girls have been everything that I could have dreamed of and so so so much more, they are beautiful and witty and complicated and charming. Their enthusiasm and senses of humor amaze me. I could not count how many times a day I randomly blurt out "I love you so much" to each one of them.

They are everything to me and I look forward to each and everyday knowing that I can spend it with them.

Motherhood is both challenging and rewarding and I highly recommend it!!

Happy Mothers Day

If I were 100 lbs lighter and 1 foot taller we could totally be sisters!

Awwww my sweet Megan visiting with me and my girls when she was in town for the Girls Getaway! A promise is a promise and I have been promising her since she left that I would get these pictures to her, posting them here is a step in the right direction isn't it?



I met Megan when both of us were asked to join Boutique Eden over on Ebay. I instantly liked her from our IM conversations and when she asked me to collaborate with her I of course said yes. As time went on we talked often on the computer as well as the phone and when she said she was going to come and visit last year I said "COME ON DOWN"...actually I probably said "COME ON UP" since I am geographically challenged and kept referring to Idaho as up when clearly on a map you can see that from where I live Idaho is down. Even my hubby kept saying "why do you keep telling her to come up?"

I remember how funny it was when she had booked her flight and plans were made and her husband started questioning her on what did she really know about this family that she was going to stay with! We made jokes back and forth about her disappearing, tied up in the basement while my husband went all "Silence of the Lambs" doing the crazy he/she dance that the nut does in the movie! It cracked me up especially because we are so the opposite of anything anyone would fear, so I shot her off some pics of the house and the family (leaving out the pictures of the cage where she would be spending most of her free time mwaha ha ha ha ha).

It was like going to the airport to pick up an old friend, someone you had known since you were kids. My girls loved her, G kept calling her "Pegan" which made her feel cool and "The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe-esque". We shopped and ate out and hung around and dished dirt and even rented the horribly insane "War of the Worlds" because Pegan was so lovely and didn't want my hubby to have to watch a chick flick. She was so wonderful she even let me pretend that Tom Cruise was Brad Pitt so that I could stomach having to sit through a Tom Cruise movie after swearing that lunatic off after he went nuts on The Today Show and Oprah!






I am so grateful for our friendship, she has stuck by me and been my friend despite the fact that I can be a flakey, forgetful, goonie, stressed out basket case! Sure she'll drop the occassional subtle hint, like "Geez your forgetful, flakey, stressed out, goon-like basketcase can't you remember what time we're meeting for Girls Getaway Weekend!" And I know I can just smile and say "Ummmmmm, can you email me the times again?" And while I will be able to hear her sigh all the way from Idaho she will send me the email....and that's what makes her a great friend!

I wish I could get over my fear of flying, well it's not so much flying as it is my fear of the plane exploding in mid air that keeps me from flying, I would go up and spend some time with her. We could shop and play and I could get to know her children the way she knows mine!





Maybe I will do that.....take some time off from photography and go have a little fun......what do you think Megan ? Do you think you would let me come and stay! You do know though if you say yes you will have to provide me with some documentation that you will not kidnap me and attempt to sell me off to the highest bidder in Hong Kong where I would be asked to work as a dancing girl who would then disappear and Stone Phillips would do an awesome Dateline story on me......interesting.....:)

Where does the time go!

I'm sure there isn't one person alive who can't relate to the ol' saying "where does the time go?" I allow myself to be lured in by the fantasy that I have everything under complete control despite the piles on my desk of things that need to be done, are done, I can't seem to get done, and then that random pile of things I don't know what to do with so I keep the pile in my sight in case I decide to figure out what to do with it!

I have been doing a lot of photo shoots which is always fun! I was so happy with my cute little Megan came to town with the Boutique Cafe Girls Getaway and while visitng with us left a darling outfit for Paige to model for a launch she had coming up! Well that launch is now in process and I adore the pictures! Little One is such the funky and fun model. Her sister is much more serious about the process and takes a little to get her to stop scowling at me, while Little One just jumps right in there and makes it entertaining for herself!








Oooooooooh my necklace arrived today and it is FANTASTIC!! I am over the moon excited about it. I had the girls names stamped and the letters are petite and perfect, sometimes with the silver stamping the letters can look a little sloppy but these letters are just right. The seller was so nice and I'm looking forward to purchasing more from her!

The weather here has been gorgeous this week, borderline hot but nice all the same. Far different from last week where I had to keep reminding myself it wasn't freaking winter!

Tonight when we got home the girls stripped down and played in their big plastic pool out back, their little take out dinners on a table with an umbrella covering it sitting poolside. At one point I looked out and they were both sitting on the step of the pool their bare backs close together eating fries and just being so still and I thought this is what its' all about. Not just being a mother but just "being" in general. I would love to have more children running around sharing these times with these beautiful girls and our family but if it isn't meant to be it isn't meant to be. I just feel blessed and happy to have been given the two healthy, smart, lovely, witty, charming babies that I have.

Awesome Etsy Find & Current Book Review!

I have to say I am an ETSY addict. Not addicted in the way that I need a twelve step program and my credit card cut up, but addicted in the way that I just love going over there and spying out fantastic treasures that I covet for my own! I have made random purchases here and there from some very talented people and this time I am sure will be no exception! I am going to have the seller stamp the names of my girls on the circle on one side and then do the lines on the other side. I would LOVE to learn how to hand stamp the silver, it has been something I have been interested in for quite awhile but have not had the time to put into learning the process.

This SELLER has a real talent for jewelry design and has been very accomadating on adding or eliminating anything that I may or may not want on the piece! I am going to be ordering today and look forward to its' arrival! A Mothers Day present for me!

Now onto my current book reivew! I have just finished reading DEAR JOHN by Nicholas Sparks.




This book is sort of jumbled, it is as if he started with the idea to tell one story and then realized that there wasn't going to be enough of this story to fill a book so he veered off on another plotline and then again another plotline, not stopping long enough on one idea to see it through.

I really loved the way the story started out, the background of John and his father and how he came to be where he was. I think that Sparks should have focused more on John and his life, the interesting twist of his father and how he came to be the lone parent of John despite having possible autism. But instead the story becomes this somewhat sappy naieve romance between John and Savannah. She was just too over the top to be interesting. I found myself very interested in the parts with John after Sept 11 and the attacks and his place in the attacks as well as going to Iraq with the military but when his "love" for Savannah would come into play it seemed so fleeting considering they had spent so little time together. I just never saw them as this "Romeo & Juliet" couple who were madly in love. It seemed like a summer fling.

So overall I can't say I recommend this book, if Sparks would have spent more time on his main character I think it would have been a much more compelling read!