The artist....

He's still at it. He fills notebook after notebook of his renderings. Here's one of the latest from his collection-- it features airplanes, his favorite, and a train, Nathan's favorite. Ahh brotherly love!

Oh and the second one was too cute to not share. The little airplanes have so much detail!

Ren Garbing

Are you the kind of person who watches a medieval era movie and then says to themselves-- I was born in the wrong time, I would have LOVED to have lived back then. Well, thats me. And my sister. And apparently many others across America due to the many Renaissance Faires and SCA's and such.

Sooo sister Mary has been going to Renaissance faires dressed in garb and I decided that I MUST get in on that action. So I've been sewing like mad creating garb for myself and the munchkins to go to the NC Ren Faire next month in Cary, NC. Here's a bit of what I've accomplished so far:

The bodice... I was so excited about it. I thought it would look so glamorous. I thought the fabric that I chose was PERFECT.. however, now that it is finished it looks like an 80's vest and I am *not* happy with it. It only took me about 3-4 hours to sew which wasn't bad considering it was my first ever. It has 3 layers- the outer is a home dec upholstery fabric. The hidden inner layer is some heavy duty canvas to give it some incredible body. The innermost layer is a lightweight twill. I am hoping it will look better with the grommets on it but I have to wait to do that because I don't have a grommet press. It also takes grommets at the shoulders-- the shoulders are currently safety pinned. I used duct ties-- gigantic, industrial zip ties which come in 36" lengths. I read about using those for boning on the Renaissance Festival site's sewing forum. They work great and are nice and stiff.

The little shirt is a t-tunic. I made one for each of the boys. They turned out really cute. I didn't use a pattern I just used generic t-tunic instructions found on the web to give me an idea. I did do a lining inside the neckline so I didn't just have raw fabric there-- turning it under would have looked bad and been a pain in the butt. So there you have it. My so-far garb.

Still kickin..

I'm still out here. Haven't been blogging as much lately because things have been crazy hectic recently. We are just hanging in there- kids driving us nuts, as usual. Dog making us crazy, as usual. Speaking of- she landed herself in the pokey last week. She took off, as usual, when she realized that she was free. I didn't chase after her because that just makes her run more so I waited for her to come back.. hours went by, no dog. Loaded the kids up in the car and drove around the neighborhood calling her-- still no dog. So went about my day, figuring she'd show up. Later that day, still no dog... ok you get the idea. By bedtime I was pretty depressed because of course I assumed that our dog must HATE us and she ran away.

So first thing the next morning (when I was supposed to be leaving for mom's) I call the vet/pound-- the vet IS the pound in King William County--and SHE IS THERE! Hooray! Well they tell me to bring her rabies certificate-- no problem! Uhh oops yeah. There is a problem-- unbeknown to me the FIRST rabies vaccination is only good for a year. I haven't had a young dog in a long time so I just ASSumed that it was good for 2 years. Sooo her rabies were out of date. CRAP! Can the vet/pound vaccinate her then? NO, the vet/pound doesn't have a vet on duty! What the heck? I thought you were the VET/pound. Soooo I had to go pick up Maggie and drive her 5 miles down the road to another vet, get her vaccinated and take her back to prove that she has been vaccinated. All with three kids in tow. Did I mention the three kids before? Yes I had to drag all of them along. Nathan took a donation box at the vet/pound and stomped on it-- shattering it. How embarrassing. Fortunately they were understanding and didn't even make a sarcastic comment. I probably wouldn't have been able to hold it together as well.

So anyway. That dog is a pain in our butts a lot of the time but I love her. Jason begs to 'put her on craiglist' every day but NO WAY she is a part of our family. It makes me so happy when Hunter draws a picture of our family, he always puts Maggie in the picture even if he doesn't like her and says that if he looks at her nose while he's eating he'll throw up. <3

I've found my niche...

Ok two niches actually. First of all, I'm REALLY enjoying web design. I'm taking a web design class from JSRCC right now and I am loving learning to write code correctly. I have spent the last couple of days working on this site for Jason's hunting club. It is also redirected from www.campmountainhuntclub.com but its a trick. It says it will redirect you but it doesn't, you have to click the link. I haven't figured out how to get it to do that yet. I even designed the banners and buttons in photoshop! Go me!

My OTHER niche is these books. I LOVE THEM! I decided to start selling them instead of becoming my friend Jill's biggest customer. They are highly educational. They are printed on paper from sustainable forests (which means they don't hack the whole thing down) They remind me of the DK books if you are familiar with those. Homeschoolers love them. The best part is that after I submit $120 in sales I don't have to buy anything else ever if I don't want to, and if I go inactive all I have to do is submit an order to reactivate myself.

The books are AMAZING. I will have to post some pictures. The pages, even in the paperback books, is nice and thick. They have some really neat books like the "Things to Make and Do" series. We have the Knight book of Things to Make and Do and Hunter loves it. The best part about it is that instead of having a book of things to punch out or cut out and color like most activity books these days where really, where is the creativity in that? These books give ideas and directions how to make things ALL ON YOUR OWN. Imagine!

So anyway, I created this very basic yet direct banner to put in my signature on the forums that I visit. I'm hoping to drum up a little business from there, not really to make money but really to spread the word on how great these books are!

(The banner will take you to my website for online ordering, by the way! ;) )

I feel like a thief!

...because I got a STEAL! I just bought a bike trailer for $25!!!

We've been looking at/thinking about buying a bike trailer for awhile. We both need exercise and we have these nice bikes we bought in Japan but haven't been able to ride them together in years because we keep having kids.

Soooo I went to Walmart today (I know, UGH, don't usually go there but needed fabric and didn't want to drive the hour to downtown Richmond for Jo Anns) and as I was headed to the fabric department I passed a small section of clearance toys. I was trying to speed past so the kids wouldn't look and thus start the chorus of "I wants" but I happened to glance over and saw a large box with a $25 sticker. Imagine my delight when I took a closer look and realized that it was a BIKE TRAILER! I snatched the box up immediately and then spent a good 2-5 minutes finagling it into the cart trying not to squish Nathan. Fortunately I had decided to use the "Oldest pushes the youngest in umbrella stroller" technique or I would have had a kid in the basket and then I guess I would have strapped the bike trailer to my back because I was NOT leaving without it. Called Jason to get the 'ok' although I'm not sure why, I would have bought it regardless of what he said. I guess because I wanted him to rejoice with me. Of course he said fine anyway.

I was a little worried that it would be missing some pieces, the box was pretty dinged up and it looked like it had been taped closed again several times. I figured I'd do like I always do and call the manufacturer to complain if parts were missing. So I got home and got to putting it together--it was actually quite easy to assemble and ALL THE PARTS WERE THERE! HOORAY!

The boys couldn't WAIT to go for a ride in it so I got to find out real quickly just how out of shape I am. Now hopefully with my new bike trailer my butt will start getting smaller. That would be nice.