I want to start this tradition.....

I was pinning away on Pinterest tonight, after one of the worst days in my recent memory-feeling very down/agitated/exhausted-when I came across this simple looking post of a pretty, smiling lady and just decided to click on the link with her and read her story.

http://mixmingleglow.com/blog/?p=1358

 It was an immediate pick-me-up. I read her blog post (her name is Robyn by the way) and the comments from her readers, and I feel inspired to follow her example and be selfless on my birthday as well. I think it would be a fun tradition for me and a great example to set for my children. Hopefully they will want to do it as well.

I was thinking of the random acts of kindness I have performed lately, and how it felt to do them. It is definitely a kind of high that is addicting.

One that pops out in my head is a few weeks ago, I was at the grocery store and after just finishing my late night shopping I got into the line to check out. The lady in front of me had 2 kids with her, and as I was putting my things on the belt, I heard her tell the cashier that "she was short on cash, so could she put some things back?" When I saw that she was putting back things like bread, milk, and cereal I told the cashier to just add the remaining balance to my order. The look of shock and confusion on both their faces were priceless. The cashier asked if I was serious, and I assured her I was. I had a little extra money, and this was worth using it on. The lady kept thanking me, and telling me she was sorry. I just smiled and said "I've been there. I'm glad I could help." Then she came up and gave me a huge hug! That was awesome. She left with her much needed groceries, and I think I restored the cashier's faith in people. She kept saying she had never seen someone do that. I just smiled, and told her I was happy to surprise her.

Random acts of kindness rock, so I hope this experiment can be a success! My birthday isn't for another month and a half, but I thought I'd share this lady's GENIUS idea. I truly love it. I hope I have given you guys something to think about. Check out her blog, it is fantastic! I dare you to try and be in a bad mood when you finish it.

I am now in a good mood, problems behind me, and my mind running with all the possibilities of R.A.O.K. I can plan for my birthday. Mine will be less financially involved than hers, but I think I can still brighten people's days by being creative.

Have a Glorious day!!

My Latest Project....

Freshly painted clock for my notoriously delinquent brother and sister-in-law. See, I drew their names for Christmas in the family "grab a name out of a hat" tradition. While I did get them a normal gift-I had to do this. Jabbety-jab-jab. I'm always making fun of them for being so late. It's PERFECT for them, whether they want to admit it or not. I wonder if it will ever make it on their wall? =) Only time will tell.......

Drying now, waiting to be sealed. I'm hoping it looks better then.....Reads "Whatever, I'm late anway."

Speaking if which, My dad got me a Cricut Create. It is the smaller version of Cricut, but I love it!!! Give it up for early birthday presents!! I just need to make friends with a LOT of people that would be willing to share their fabulous Cricut cartridges with me. They are far too expensive! Meanwhile, my friend Misty has 2 of them, and we had fun doing some creative cutting last night. I see many awesome projects coming up!!!

Also.....

Tonight was the annual "Trunk-or-Treat" at church. Here are a few quick pictures of the boys. The older 3 anyway. Miles was WAY too fussy, and sleepy to come. It would have been miserable bringing a tired, crying 2 year old around a huge crowd of people. He will be doing Trick-or-treating on Halloween, after a nice, refreshing nap.

Ninja Assassin

Spiderman

Vampire Sheriff

Real non-vampire teeth



wanted a beard painted on when getting his face painted.



Cupcake treat!!!

Me and Miles hanging at home, after I got home.

My new love....

I have discovered a new obsession inspiration, for the paintings I want to do. I am just in awe of this man, and literally just sit and stare at his talent. I am a HUGE fan of color. The more vibrant, bold, and in your face, the better for me. Rainbows everywhere would be my ideal. I discovered a painting on Pinterest, and then another-but two wasn't enough. I searched, and searched, and finally found out his name. Leonid Afremov. Oh, you better believe I Googled him! What I found just blew my mind. I honestly could spend hours just looking at his work. I would die to own one of his original pieces, but besides being WAAAAY out of my price range, dying for it would be rather counter-productive. I wouldn't be able to enjoy it! Ogling them all the day through has inspired me to attempt to paint something like it. I think I'd do one of his Park scenes, since the Italian cityscape that I LOVE, is just a little bit out of my league. Baby steps. I will try painting something like his, and see what comes of it. Art and crafts give me peace, and make me so unbelievably happy that there is no wrong in the world when my hands are busy creating things. But the perfectionist in me may keep anybody from seeing the painting if I don't like how it turns out. Sorry. It's something I'm working on. =)

Meanwhile, enjoy some of his GENIUS I borrowed from Google images.......

So cute.

This would be such a gorgeous place for a stroll.



I can just imagine walking through the rain at dusk here.



I want to sit there forever.....



I love this.




The orange, yellow and red captivate me.



This is what I imagine Heaven looks like.



This is one of my favorites. Ah, Itlay.......




Couldn't you just die?




WOW!



Still here....

Taking pictures everyday is surprisingly harder than I thought. Well played, life. Many things have happened in the past few months, most of which I don't remember. But of the things I do: my Dad has moved in with us, my sister (Holly) and her hubby (Justin) have moved here, and Holly has had her baby, Mia. Plus school started, and with that; I now have a preschooler! First kid to go to Preschool-third kid. Is that weird? Am I the only one that usually doesn't send the kids to Preschool? It's a pretty big adjustment, schedule-wise, since he has a different time-frame than the older boys. They leave for school at 6:25 (gotta love bus times), Nathan starts at noon. They get home at 2:10, and Nathan ends at 4:00. My days are crazy with running around, doing dinner, Scouts, homework, errands, etc..... Thank goodness for Dad and his car! Nathan wouldn't be able to even go if it weren't for him, since the Preschool bus can't come here. Also, I'm volunteering in Nick's class this year. Which is actually, REALLY fun.

I'm randomly doing Pinterest projects, which I keep meaning to add pictures of here-but I am terrible at remembering to do so. Here are a few pictures of the things I have done, or am currently working on.

This is a journal that I am covering with fabric for myself.

The Zorro ornament I made for Nathan today. Pre-painting. Zorro ornaments? Impossible to find! Who knew? Nathan is kind of obsessed with Zorro right now.

Yoda shirt for my friend's son's birthday. I painted, "My Lego Yoda shirt, this is." underneath Yoda.

The Beatles painting I did for my brother, Jason.

The custom Scrabble coasters I made for my brother, Aaron's friend.

I made 2 sets of these Flight of the Conchords coasters for my brother, Jason, and sister, Wendy

I have to make a few more ornaments for Nick, Ben and Miles. And I'm going to be making some Camp Half-Blood shirts for my boys, as soon as I find either orange shirts or orange shirt dye. Percy Jackson books rock! =) 



Catch Up Time!!

Lots of days on here...

Here we go!!!

A Bad Habit = Procrastionation. I mean, my last post was on July 28.....need I say more?

Someone I Love = Miles. Dirt and all, and even though he steals our toothbrushes so I have to constantly buy new ones (proof right here). He's been my easiest kid so far, and he's so much fun to have around. That being said-I love all my boys, Alan included. I just had to split up them up with the pictures I was taking.

Childhood Memory = Our trip to Lake Tahoe When I was about 11 or 12. We went to Ponderosa Ranch, where Bonanza was filmed (outdoor scenes at least), and I had my first taste of Sarsaparilla. Lovely sarsaparilla! I've been a fan ever since.

Something Blue = Since I am the mother of all boys this was pretty easy. Plus, I love blue AND I love skulls, so.....

Sunset = This was harder since I rarely know when the sun is even setting. I'm usually running around, or doing something. Today, I made an effort to be outside to photograph it. Certainly wasn't spectacular by any means, but it was pretty with the contrast of the porch colors, and the trees. At least I thought so.

Yourself With 13 Things = These 13 magnets represent different things I love. A pumpkin for my enormous LOVE of the holiday season (Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas). Skulls for my love of science. (These came from National Geographic, so very sciencey. hee, hee.) An elephant for my love of animals-other people's animals. The goldfish, both because I like this kind of goldfish (again, other people's), and I love the color orange. The hard one to see in the center is the rainbow effect left on the water from an oil spill. It reminds me that beautiful things can come from disastrous events. The little girl is for my love of drawing. The 4 leaf clover is for my love of nature. The skull bottle cap, again represents my boys and how I love them, but they will probably be the death of me. =) The Leninade cap represents my trip to Russia with my brother, Jason and sister, Holly. Fun time. The lower right different language one is the bible in ancient Greek. Reminds me to keep God in my life. The top different language just represents my love of learning about  anything foreign, and travelling!!!! The footprint shows the way I prefer to be-sans shoes. And last but not least, San Francisco. The Bay Area. My home. I miss it greatly.

Eyes = Nick's eyes. You can probably tell he is raising his eyebrows in question at the time I took this. This is soooo Nick. Always asking questions. Any answer I give is never good enough to stop the questions, so I chose this for the shot.

Sunflare = Ok, I substituted Silhouette because I couldn't get Ben to co-operate with taking a picture. Plus I got this pretty awesome shot while I was waiting for the sun to go down. This reminds me of the absolute power books can have in our lives; whether it be for good and they brighten our lives with their knowledge, or for worse and they blind us to the world around us.

Long Exposure = Nathan was pretending to fly. He is so giggly, this was a hard thing to do and get any kind of focus in the picture. It is what it is. He had fun though. =)

What makes me smile.....

In a word......CRAFTS!!! It doesn't matter what kind of horrible day I've had, fights I've gotten into with the kids, or sleep I didn't get-If there is an opportunity to make something, especially something from scratch, then I am all in, baby! I have noticed too, when the boys are arguing amongst each other, the best way to end it is ask if they want to make something. Clearly the creativity genes have been passed on. =)

Below are a few pictures of things I have made. I know it's supposed to be one picture a day, but honestly-I can do what I want with this challenge. It's my blog. Here we go....

Sculptey Yo Gabba Gabba Ornaments

Painted Shirt For A Friend's Birthday Present

Map Coasters

Scrabble Tile Coasters For My Brother

Jet Packs For The Boys

Bubble Magnets!!!

These are the kind of things that really make me smile. Apart from my family, because that's an easy answer. Granted, they don't make me smile all the time. I think there is an equal amount of glaring, frowning, and looks of confusion that accompany those smiley, happy times. Crafts will always make me smile, without fail. LOVE THEM. In fact, I'm about to go in and paint some coasters with the kids right now. Well, as soon as Ben and Nick get off time out......

Something Green, From Low, From High......

Three days of my photo challenge at once. Right on time.....

This is our "Green" Family. Faces courtesy of my 8 year old.

"Looking up" at one of the enormous trees on our property.

This slug was right at my feet while I was watching one of my kids in the little pool outside. Scared the life out of my youngest boy. Gross looking, but I thought I'd share. This is my "looking down" picture, by the way. =)



Clouds....

There are really not much in the way of clouds today, since it is hot and very breezy. I DID however manage to document the very few there were before they got blown away. You're welcome. ;)

Horrible view, right? I should really complain to someone about this..... =)



What I Wore Today...

I should have changed this one too, now that I think about it. How boring to take a picture of what I wore today....Unless I showed the more scandalous type of pictures. But believe me when I tell you, a picture of my shirt and pants is actually WAY more appealing to look at. I spared you the chocolate smears, nose wiped, dried tears and some white stuff that I have absolutely NO idea what it is, and just took a picture of the heap. Although, that again might have made this day a bit more interesting.....

No Star Wars underwear here.....Unfortunately. =(

Self Portrait.......

Here I am in all my Glory. Fresh faced and watching you.......