gourds-part...?

i am going to try and put wires on the gourds today.  they really need to be up and ready. in fact, i'm so sure this needs to be done that i loaded them all in the truck, ( put them in front with me, i was afraid they'd blow out the back) & took them to work for a "lunch hour" project.

lady drivin to work in a small old toyota truck. can't see the lady cause of the 4 huge feedbags filled with gourds. lady can't see anything to the right of her cause of the 4 huge feedbags filled with gourds.

don't ya just love livin in the country.

yes, it is a baby necktie

i worked about 3 hours making a baby necktie for you know who. i wanted a real tie. oh, i know he will never wear it, but thought it would be something special and he might as well know from the very start....every man sometime, will have to wear a tie.

and for the first time, i tied it by myself...thanks to a google search.
you will not find one of these at baby gap, this tiny tie is the cutest thing ever!

crocus? where are you?

we moved into the house we now live in on valentines day 1997. it was a warm sunny day. i remember one of the friends who helped us move saying,"she already has "flares" blooming in the yard".  those "flare's" were yellow crocus and they have bloomed every year around this LOVEly time.  i'm sure they were placed in the ground years ago.

today is february 16 and there is no sign of the crocus. my daffodils are coming up, so maybe the crocus will decide to pop out later, but i am a little worried.

this fall i will try and remember to put out more spring bulbs. jack will need a flare to pick.

this yard cart was a gift from greg.

bulbs i planted 10 years ago 

the mobile

just had to add a quick note about the mobile. took it to work today to show my office-mate, and another co worker dropped by with her 11 month old daughter. the little one loved it! the mobile was what caught her eye even with all junk great stuff in our office.

results are in for 11 month olds!

project completed as promised!

well it only took about 3 hours uh, 12 hours to complete this project.
here are a list of things needed:
split rings
craft paper (michaels)
circle cutter (michaels with 40% off)
realized i had to have the cutting mat, ( trip to walmart 0% off)
small hole punch, not the typical paper hole punch (another trip, found something i could use at big lots)
dowel (needed smaller one, lucky i had one in my craft closet)
white paint. (spray paint did not work, only took a couple of minutes to paint with brush.)
fishing line
glue gun
dremmel tool and drill
last thing needed; lots of patience...

finished project is a cute, handmade, modern mobile that hopefully will be exciting for jack to look at.
it is very lightweight and has lots of movement.
these are the colors of his room, but also the symbols of nature. blue for the sky, green for trees and the small bright white circles remind me of little bursts of clouds.


not sure how the pictures will look, but we love it. 
welcome to the world jack!



greg thought i needed his help

and i did!

 

finished at last











if he ever gets his hands on this;
it's a goner :)



another view

new project

well the new project is coming along nicely. have to be finished by friday night as it is something for jack bradley's nursery.  i want to give it to jessie at the shower her friends are throwing her. will post some pics and give you a little hint as to what it is.

i can put this in the blog cause' jessie never reads it!

my handy, dandy new circle cutter

2 hours and 56 circles later

couple more hours of work tonight

projects

why do i take on so many different projects!

you can read about my "decluttering" project here;
my gourd project here; here; and here;
my cooking project here;
notice n-o-n-e- of them are competed.

two new projects this week that must be finished by saturday. oh dear me.
but check back later, i think you will like it.
hint: (crafty project for the soon to arrive grandson.)

:(

i took the time to download the audiobook-eat, pray, love tonight. well, what appeals to some doesn't appeal to all. listened for about 20 minutes. i didn't like the book at all.

it's :( to waste all that time. well at least now i know not to bother with the movie.

best audiobook i've ever listened to: the secret life of bees! you must!

oh well, on to the next one.

ipod

greg gave me an ipod for Christmas and i am really enjoying it. the 50 dollar itunes card made it even sweeter. feeling good that i discovered the r.e.a.d.s. program at the library! free audiobooks to checkout. i will say it again...free!

just finished that great book, "in His steps". think i'll visit the library tonight and check out another book.

i also have 3 movies on my ipod "you've got mail", "juno" and "mitilda". do i watch them at work? no, never, of course not, why would i do that, don't even mention it :)

bella

this is bella. don't you just love her look. she loves animals, doesn't care to get dirty and is up for almost anything. bella stays with me often on saturday nights and we have a blast. she never meets a stranger, loves soccer, rides in horse shows and likes to sing with me. in fact we are writing a song about baby jack, my soon to be grandboy. i'll post it just as soon as we have it finished.

greg describes bella as....active, little on the hyper side. i say she's just got a lot of livin' to do, (and trys to do it all!) and i think that is grand.

gourds-part 3

sunday afternoon went something like this-

temp: in the 60's

me: needing sunshine

2 dozen gourds: needing white paint

bella: needing to stay busy

tanner: not needing anything but has not choice but to follow us around!

words of advice: if you have to paint 2 dozen gourds, buy the good white spray paint! covers better and a "good" spray nozzle is a must! by the time i was finished-my hand was killing me....and i think they are going to need a second coat.

stay tuned, we need to replace the old gourd houses by the end of february!

gourds-part 2

yesterday was a beautiful day, a great day in fact for working on our gourds.

here we are, 4 generations, providing new homes for our martin families. hopefully they will return like they have for so many years

these small hands sure came in "handy" today!

the toothbrush and the mouth guard!

tanner recently started wearing a mouth guard while he sleeps. he has a "tongue thrust" and it is pushing one of his teeth, which is making it get kinda loose. so, our dentist felt the guard would give his teeth more protection. anyway....tanner follows all directions to at "T". capital T if you know what i mean. he is so good, doing exactly what he's told. he was given instructions on how to care for the guard, especially about cleaning it every morning with a toothbrush....a toothbrush.

a few days ago tanner was up and in the bathroom before greg. i was already getting ready for work too and suddenly greg was knocking on the bathroom door, my bathroom door. he said (loudly), "tanner is using my toothbrush to brush his mouth guard!"

well like i said he was told to use a toothbrush. i guess the dentist forgot to mention whose toothbrush. i of course, thought it was very funny. :)

declutter...

i am trying to declutter, notice i said t-r-y-i-n-g. boy, this is really a difficult, notice i said b-o-y. hopefully from march til... forever, we will have a new little grandboy running around our house. so that is why i am feeling a need to get rid of all this stuff. i could seriously throw out half the of what we have. wish me luck.

another good day

enjoyed another "today has been a good day".

dad's cousin gave me 2 dozen gourds, today has been a good day.

set up new wireless connection and i am one step closer to getting our computers on the right track again, only two more steps to go. ran into old friend from high school. the day was sunny. 35 free songs for my ipod. today has been a good day.

watching "julie & Julia"...love that movie.

today has been a good day

i was flipping thru channels on the tv the other day and for some reason i stopped on a music channel. it was a rap video and the guy was singing about the day being such a good day. this afternoon i thought to myself, today has been a good day.

i woke up and cleaned some on my house. it's a house that i love. today was a good day. i picked jessie up and we went to the junk stores. bought a beautiful blue dresser for 65 dollars. today was a good day. found the perfect curtains, blinds for baby jack's room. crib arrived and jason put it together. today was good day.

spent some time at upward basketball, watching tanner's team play. caught some great moments on video for awards night. today was a good day.

have two girls here playing and having a great time. bella spending the night. today is a good day. life is good, today is good. looking forward to tomorrow, which i think is going to be a good day.

apple-take a bite

yesterday i went to the apple store in west town. tanner's imac needed a new dvd drive, so we finally made the drive up to get the drive installed. if you haven't hung out in the apple world, well you should. all the techies i swear look alike, talk alike, sound alike...well you get it. and the customer base is about the same. i remember going into an apple store in cleveland tennessee, i think it was 1979. we wanted to buy one but did not have a credit card so our request was denied. no credit card, no apple computer. but believe me that newcomer named apple looked quite different than what you will find today. is apple really the superior computer. well i can only speak from what i know . after being involved in church media for almost 10 years and working with several different computer and software programs for that purpose... there is n-o-t-h-i-n-g that compares to the imac and their software for church media. everything always works perfect. it is the only way to go.

now the statement i just made is true, i swear! i spend several hours each week getting this computer ready and it has become my dependable friend. for home use, it is good but can't really say it's any better suited for our family than our other 2 pc's. in fact i am using a little acer right now.

i am thinking tanner and i should hang out at the apple store more often. look cool and learne more how to make it our dependable friend at home as well.

tanner does love his apple!

my butterfly in a Jar

i bought one of these for my mother in law and.....had to go back and get one for myself.  i love my little fake butterfly. 

1-5-2011

everyone getting snow but us :(

finally bought a dust ruffle for bed today and can't believe what a difference it makes! why didn't i put one on a long time ago.

1-3-211

well, it's day 3 of the new year and like always-doesn't feel much different than last year!

except for the fact that i scheduled my first colonoscopy tomorrow...what was i thinking.