Thank goodness for STRESS...

did I say that OUTLOUD? why yes, yes I did and actually MEANT IT! We've been busy with readying our house for sale, listing our house, trying to sell our house AND trying to buy a new house in addition to our everyday, full time, sometimes having to work weekends kind of life...and it's been a BIT stressful, to say the least...but in the midst of it all, I found inspiration and a few moments here and there to CREATE! and here's what I came up with...a canvas which makes the most of the family pictures that SARAH SUNSTROM took...I'm thinking it will look AWESOME in the NEW HOUSE (once we find one!)

Aren't those colors cheerful and FUN!! love it...can't wait to find a spot for it!!

Toodles, thanks for stoppin' by!

 

Family Pictures...

A few months back I attended a fund raising scrapbooking crop for a very sick (local) young mom...Melanie Putnam...(you can read her story HERE)...as of today, she's still waiting for a new set of lungs....well, at this crop, I bid on and WON a photo shoot with Sarah Sunstrom, a young local mom to be...and SHE WAS AWESOME! Here are a few of my favorites....

OK, it's obvious I have more than a FEW favorites! Now which one to print on canvas....any thoughts???

 

Got Soccer? layout and some kiddo pics...

As a new spring soccer season starts, I finally scrapped a page about my daughter's 2010 fall soccer season (though the word season implies she played a series of games, that really never happened!).

 

The border detail...some rounded rectangles and punched circles....and a die cut on pop dots!

The title detail...I cut a star out of the transparency sheet, ran it through my Xyron X and layered on top of the varsity letters from American Crafts...the smaller varisity letters are from Reminisce...

The patterned paper is all Teresa Collins Sports Edition II...

Maia went to a birthday party today...a PRINCESS PARTY...she was very excited...and got all dressed up for it...

And here she is with her PRINCESS accessories:

Devon got to go too (they have an older son his age)...but he was way more low key about the whole thing...(and glad he didn't have to wear a dress!)

That was our Saturday...toodles all...thanks for stopping by!

 

An Indian Wedding...

Okey, dokey...back to vacay photos...mostly because I wish I was still there and NOT here, in the midst of a midwest blizzard of massive proportions...I'm channelling my inner 'India vibe'...

In addition to sharing the photos, I'm sharing the story of the wedding, as I understand it...now I have some Telugu (the state where the wedding took place) blog followers, so I'm sure they'll correct me if I mis-state something (please do!!)...

This marriage was considered a 'love marriage' i.e. the couple met (in college), decided to get married and then sought their respective family's approvals...this is in contrast to the (still common) arranged marriages, where the bride and groom are introduced through family members who have deemed them 'compatible'...

On the day of the wedding, the bride is 'prepared' in a morning ceremony (apparently the groom is prepared similarly) with her immediate and extended family...

she has a female companion (to keep her company)...gifts are presented here as are offerings of bananas and flowers (always given with the RIGHT hand...as I found out the hard way!) There is a Hindu priest (Brahmin) preciding over the ceremony and there is a band and lunch served...

My kids especially enjoyed the flowers and the music!!!

At the official evening marriage cermony, the bride wears a red sari woven with red silk and GOLD threads...real GOLD threads...these things are HEAVY and very beautiful...she also wears a floral headress that is meant to touch the floor when she sits...

She sits on one side of the 'veil'-really a curtain and the groom sits on the other, until a specific point of the ceremony is reached....the curtain is then dropped and they hold a spice paste (cumin and jaggery) on each others heads...this part is considered the actual 'marriage' part, the 'I dos', so to speak...

They stay this way until everyone who wishes to bless the couple has blessed them, by sprinkling tumeric rice on their heads (3 times each)...

There was another part of the ceremony, where they tie symbolic cords as necklaces around each others necks, but I missed this part, as both kids fell asleep (jet lag) and we had to go back to the hotel...all in all it was a beautiful 'small' wedding (only about 300 guests!)...

Toodles all, thanks for stopping by!

The Green Shark's journey....

The Green Shark...aka The Green Brick...finished its derby debut yesterday...(I'm just glad it finished)!! Here's a video of its 2nd heat!! It didn't take top 3 for speed, but I'm pretty sure it was close...we'll find out the times today or tomorrow...there were 61 cars in the derby, the most ever...and it was a TON of fun!

More vacation photos...

I'm back to posting some more vacation photos...still holding off on the wedding photos as I want to research the whole wedding ceremony a bit more and better understand for myself what I witnessed and photographed....but here's some more (other) photos from the trip...

In Hyderabad (northwest of Chennai) I went to a handmade craft bazaar...love all the colors and handiwork that was on display...

Even saw this gentleman practicing his craft, right on site!

Visited Charminar, which is a memorial built in 1591 to celbrate the end of a plague...climbed every one of 149 handbuilt (and very uneven, sometimes more like double steps than regular) steps...but the view was worth it...

Luckily my daughter got a 'ride to the top' and she enjoyed every minute!

Hyderabad is known for its 'bangle street', where there's seemingly hundreds of shops selling fashion bangles...all prices negotiable...I picked up one for about $17 US and it was a big hit at the wedding...wish I had a picture...the city is also known for it's quality pearls.

We went to a night sound and light show at the ruins of Golkonda where I learned of some of the area's history...Hyderabad is approx. 45% muslim (versus about 10% muslim further south in Chennai) and you can definitely see the mongul influence in much of the city's architecture...

When we returned to Chennai, we visited a vegetable market...I am still in awe of the variety of fruits and vegetables that are available there...here are some yummy pictures...

Maia and Devon had fun playing on the bicycle powered delivery cart:

and here's the owner of the market (on the right), with my father in law (on the left)...

There are still a ton more pictures to share...hopefully I get some more posted this week...Toodles all, thanks for stopping by!

Some vacation pictures...

Sharing some vacation pictures today...over the holidays we travelled to India to visit my husband's parents and his eldest sister...this is the 3rd trip that I've been on, my son has been along for all 3 trips, my daughter for the last 2...I have similar thoughts and feelings each time I visit and then I have some new thoughts too...such a wonderfully different place to visit and I'm always a bit sad that I stick out like a sore thumb, as I feel I miss out on some of the experience because people can tell instantly that I'm a tourist...but anyways...

the in-laws live in Chennai (Madras), so we spend most of our time there...this trip we did have a side trip to Hyderabad for a cousin's wedding, but I'll have a whole post dedicated to those pictures and stories...it's the rainy season in Chennai at this time of year...which is their version of winter, which means daytime highs of 80-85 F and 100% humidity...and MOSQUITOS!! I apparently have a mosquito magnet embedded somewhere in my body which means I'm SWARMED if I go out after dusk and even if I don't, I get several bites a day...and I'm allergic to their version of mosquito venom, as each bite swells to the size of a silver dollar or larger...the 'wear long sleeves and long pants' defence strategy is out given the temps and humidiay, but I found that 100% DEET worked well and doubling my daily antihistimine kept the swelling of the bites I did get to a normal level, so I avoided a repeat trip to the hospital (my first visit the bites were so bad I ended up visiting an allergist in India)! MUST REMEMBER THIS FOR THE NEXT TRIP!!

Here's some pictures from Chennai...we celebrated Devon's birthday there and the kiddos donned some traditional Indian clothes for the celbration:

We then went to a water park to continue the celebration...we drove down the coast, which we hadn't done since our first visit which was 2 days after the Tsunami in 2004--this time there weren't any relief camps and the huts on the beaches were back...here's some pics of the water park...most of the women swim in full clothes, so I kept my bathing suit 'under wraps' as well...

On other days we also went to the Children's Park (the zoo) and the beach...I'll be sharing those pics and the ones from Hyderabad in other posts...

Toodles all...thanks for stopping by!!

 

from our house to yours....

 

Happy holidays to all!

My singing kidlets and a weekend page...FINISHED!!

I might be breaking out of my creative slump...more on that later...

My son is pretty good at playing the piano (for his age) as the video on this post proves....looks like his musical talent ends there...here's a new video of the kidlets singing Happy Birthday to me a few weeks ago...

Despite the obvious 'tone deaf', yelling til your throat hurts feel of the performance, it still melts my heart to hear it again...this one's a keeper!!

Oh and here's a page that I finished this weekend...finally, I was able to sketch, print and create a page/project start to finish without multiple breaks due to creative brick walls...it's been a while folks...maybe it's over? Fingers crossed here in the frigid state formerly known as Iowa, now called 'the southern North Pole'....at least in my books...

Supplies are mostly Jillibean Atomic Soup, with a Teresa Collins transparency and some American Crafts thickers thrown in for good measure!

Good thing the mojo is back, 'cause look what Canvas Corp. sent me as part of a cross promotion with Xyron:

 

I'd best be getting busy...love me some canvas...Toodles all...thanks for stopping by!

Some family fun...

Had a busy day today...Devon had his 2nd piano recital (and we got the video proof this time)...He played "we wish you a merry christmas" and did very well...here's the video proof....

I took the dress up oppurtunity to get some pictures (of course)...

AND...Devon scored his first basket in a basketball game!!! His team is REALLY GOOD this year...the boilermakers is their name and they practice 1x a week...it definitely shows!!

Good job Mr. D!!!