Don't forget to drop by Shann's blog. She is over there under Awesome Blogs, as Paint Mine Pink, she is hosting a great goodie giveaway!

Also, tune in soon, for a SWAP! Cupcake Swap that is!!






Finally we're enjoying some good weather! We had our opening day baseball parade yesterday, and my son Brendan's first game of the year. He pitched, and played wonderfully!

My cousins were supposed to come over yesterday evening and I had to cancel. It would have been so great, I was really looking forward to it, but then hubby caught the darn strep that we've been passing to each other. All six of us are now on medicine, and we can hopefully knock this out! We've been sick off and on since Easter, and none of us are particularly nice people when we don't feel well.

My cousins are so much fun, we are of the same breed, and that is...

BOARD GAME JUNKIES!!! Especially those of the Trivia Variety. I'm never competitive until I get around my cousin Tim, and then all bets are off ;) He brings out the worst in me! And I love it!!

Little known fun fact about me (as if the entire internet is just crawling with people who know any facts about me, let alone fun ones *heehee*)- I took an art class in college in Two Dimensional Design. The teacher had us create a board game as our final exam, and I created "Brady Bunch Trivia" complete with 1500 questions. I got an "A" and my teacher wanted to come over and play it with his girlfriend :D

I even spoke to Sherwood Schwartz (the executive producer), and his son Ross, about getting it made into an actual game, but Mr. Schwartz (and what a sweetie he was) said that Paramount now holds all the rights to anything Brady. If anyone is ever up for a game though, come on over!! :D And if you think you can stump me with any Brady questions, well just give it a try! :D :D

Ooh, yeah...funny story. I had put in some calls to the Schwartz's about the game, figuring I'd never hear anything. A couple of months later, the phone rang, and it was Ross. I tried to remain composed, but I was SO excited. Anyway, he no sooner tells me who he is, than my son Brendan (3 years old at the time) projectile VOMITS across the kitchen! I was holding Bren's head over the garbage can, trying to sound professional...Ah, kids...gotta love 'em!

Finding my Mojo

Today was going to be one of those rare days that I get to work while the kids are at school, ah bliss! Happy joy joy!! Then it rained, and in walks my hunny and wrecks it all LOL






He got rained out, but he cleaned the carpets upstairs and brought me a Dunkin Donuts Coffee, so I let him stay.

I got to go thrifting last night, what a great time! I found some enchanting little treasures, which I will post later on. I even found a pair of American Girl pj's for $5, and some little levi's for my son for $4. Can't beat that!




You know its funny, my little brain can think of all of these things to occupy myself, and all of these things that I can't wait to blog about, and then when I'm actually here, zip. Zilch. Nada. I know there's something going on upstairs, I just can't seem to find it LOL

Filth flarn flarn, Filth

I was going to attribute that statement to Bill Cosby, but I think it was actually Eddie Murphy doing an impression of Bill Cosby LOL

Anyway that's what my house was the last couple of days. I was really sick with some kind of flu, and in those two days, my house took on a life of its own. The dust bunnies must be more like dust rabbits, because they multiplied. The pile of dishes in the sink seemed to have hit puberty, it just grew and matured over night. Seems like just yesterday that it was just a tiny pile of cups *sniffle*

I was really suprised that they all weren't naked and starving when I was able to get moving again. Funny how no one notices how much you do until you don't do it ;D

I wanted to post some pictures of my new stuff, but I am having camera problems (again!!) so here are a couple of my kids bedrooms. My daughter, the baby and only girl, had to have a princess room. She has stuck wallies stickers over parts of it now, but this is the basic idea:






My son Brendan's room was a Harry Potter theme. We did it about 5 years ago, and its Liam's room now, and he would like to change it to a skateboard room. This is the closet




Have a great day all, make sure to pop over and see Lori at the Faerie Window (side bar under awesome blogs) she's having an amazingly adorable and cute giveaway!

Thoughts of collections

I was never really a collector. My Grandma, however was, she collected salt and pepper shakers. As a child, I spent a lot of time with her, and got to know her collection pretty well. Some of them, like the dutch boy and girl on a bench, she would let me take out and play with. I wasn't allowed to mention that to any of my cousins, it was our secret.

When Grandma died, in 1998, my mom got the salt and peppers. We were in the middle of a kitchen remodel, and she didn't have room for them, so my husband left the wall of the dining room empty. We put Gram's cabinet there, and seeing the collection together again was so great. Here are a couple of pictures of her collection, now in my home





The first picture is the left side, and the second is the right side. My teapot collection is now on top of Gram's salt and pepper collection :)

Batteries Required (booooo!) and a Sweet Suprise!

Well, the kid-goblins did it again. My camera only has one battery. No one seems to know how this possibly could have happened. Hmmmm, its a mystery alright ; I have two WIP's that are nearly finished, and I got a great treat in the mail too.

I went outside to take Annalise to school, and yippee, a package, that says Lisa Kaus Art Studios *happy dance* I can't take a picture of it *sniffle* but here is the one that I purchased:



The picture doesn't do it justice, and she sent me the cutest little card, and the whole thing was wrapped so nicely, it felt like Christmas! She is a helluv an artist, I love this piece :D :D

Anyway, my daughter has 8 days of school left. She only goes 3 days a week, and those 2 hours are my working time, as my other kids are in school too. Back to working nights again, I guess. I don't mind working at night, because it is very peaceful, but at the same time, after giving to everyone in my family all day, sometimes I'm too tired to be creative. That's one of the only downsides about art, you can't just magically turn it on at will. When I used to do portraits, I could normally knock out a basic outline in under an hour, but there were times when I just couldn't draw to save my life. I think it shows in your work too, if you're tired or bored, so its difficult to be on top form at night.

Ever keep working, long past when you know you should have stopped, and end up just trying to put little fixes on your work, or just work on this one little area, and end up practically ruining it? I hate when that happens ;)

Well, I'm off to try to read some blogs before I have to go get the boys. Anyone visiting, have a great day!

Time flies by!

My kids have been on Spring Break at two different times, so I have not done much, or had any new pictures to show...til now! Miss Jamie talesfromtheterracottage.blogspot.com/ from the Terra Cottage sent me the sweetest package!! There were lots of adorable stickers inside, fairies, cupcakes, the alphabet, a supercute egg pick, and a lovely card, and OMG the cutest tags!!! Here are some pictures!


Isn't she the sweetest!! And she's talented too, she's got some really cute frames up today, check them out!!
Jamie, you made my day, thank you so much!!!!

Liam and Annalise's creations!

Annalise is my 5 year old dd. She is a girly girl, and loves to make things. We picked up the April issue of Martha Stewart's magazine, and there was the cutest little chick in a basket, so Annalise and I decided to break out the pipe cleaners and give 'em a whirl. She looks so proud!



This is Liam (6 yr old ds) making his easter crafts, he takes his work very seriously!