Boy Can I Relate With This Mom!!

This is HILARIOUS!!!!! I got this in an email today, and was just cracking up!!! Maybe because i can REALLY relate with drawings like this right now - as my daughter is a 6 year old 1st grader - who is encouraged to draw story pictures, as well as write the stories. LOL!! So I have many papers that look just like this coming home each week! haha.. and I don't always check until they come back to me!! Check out the picture first. Mom's reply to the teacher is underneath. :D This is entitled "The Importance of Checking Your Child's Schoolwork" Dear Mrs. Jones, I wish to clarify that I am not now, nor have I ever been, an exotic dancer. I work at Home Depot and I told Sarah how hectic it was last week before the blizzard hit. I told her we sold out every single shovel we had. Then I found one more in the back room, and several people were fighting over who would get it. Sarah's picture does NOT show me dancing around a pole. It's supposed to depict me selling the last snow shovel we had at Home Depot. From now on I will remember to check her homework more thoroughly before she turns it in. Sincerely, Mrs. Smith Now, if that didn't make you laugh, I think you need to check your pulse!! LOLOLOL!! Have a wonderful evening! :) xo Bren

12 Squared

12 squared - that's how many balloons were here on our ceiling last night at midnight!

Today is my son Bailey's 12th birthday! We sat and blew up 144 helium balloons last night, with the plans to FILL his room up, so when he woke up that's all he'd see! :)

Well... not to sound like a worry wart.. but being a mom of 4, i DO think of things like.. as the helium goes out, and the balloons drop.. and him on a bunk bed up high.. he might suffocate! Sooo... we came up with an alternate plan. Tack a sheet all around his bed - totally encase the bed, so when he steps out of the sheet, he'd be in a sea of balloons!!

Sure ok. LOL

Except his floor has MAJOR squeaks, and just walking into his room to hang the sheet - he woke up! Sooo scratch that plan! LOL

So instead, we filled the bathroom and shower, and completely filled the whole upstairs hallway!

Made a couple of giganto Happy Birthday signs and hung them in the kitchen and across the bathroom door - so he'd have to bust thru it to go potty. lol

Sadly when i woke up this morning at 5:30, MOST all of the balloons had lost their ability to fly!

Now... we finished at 1 am! 5:30 is ONLY 4.5 hours and they were dead by then?? I was really surprised! And kinda sad he didn't get to see them in all their glory. But he still LOVED walking into a sea of balloons on the floor! LOL It was a fun way to start his day!! :D

I got these little berries stitched up this weekend. There are actually 12 - so appropriate for this post! :)

They WERE going to be lil pin cushions. But now they're little cinnamon or clove scented sachets. haha.. long story!

These aren't quite done... i am going to sand them down and take the sheen of the velvet off, and maybe add a little hangymabob to each of them.

Sadly THIS is ALL i've gotten done as far as handmades go, this entire last week! Just been too busy to even SIT lately! Hopefully productivity will pick up soon!

Ok.. off to hit Sam's club and get the month's grocery shopping done and get ready for Bailey's "party" tonight!

Bright blessings,

Bren :)

I am very blessed to belong to a wonderful group of ladies on the web! It's not selling oriented.. more just a kindred spirit group of very talented women who share with each other, and support each other through life!

They make me smile every single day. And the amount and quality of sisterly love that flows through the group is what makes it amazing!

Lookie what showed up in my mailbox yesterday!!!

What an absolutely sweeeeett, loving gift from my friend Merrie!! And it's partially filled with lavender - mmm... smells good! :) Isn't it darling? Thank you soo much Merrie!

OOh and I wanted to show you these too! These absolutely darling little itty bitty socks were knitted by a fellow rug hooker in our group!! Holy cow... there are over 300 stitches in these lil guys, and they are soooo teensy!! To give you an idea how big they are, each of the little strips on the tree there are about an inch long! I can't knit period! No way, no how! Believe me i've tried!! LOLOL!! And i can't even imagine knitting something this tiny!! Laura gave these to me at our wool tree workshop - tooo cute!!! Thank you so much Laura!! :D

I woke up this morning and happened to glance over at the window. This is what i saw. Do you know what it is??

It's an "uh oh... i been a baaad kitty" sign! LOL

Then when i went to put it back up on the blanket chest... i see that a corner has been pulled out. Now.. my new camera and software and I are NOT getting along! :( hrmph!

The camera keeps keeping some of the pictures!! And no matter how hard I try, i can't get them to upload to my computer! ?? I can't figure out why??

anyway.. this is the only other picture that got retrieved from the camera.. of course it's the blurry attempt at showing you the unhooked portion of the corner...

haha.. and if i hadn't told you what it was - you wouldn't have a clue!! :D

I'm guessing it's time to clip Pounce's nails. And I'm guessing she was up on her favorite perch, looking out the window and she went to jump down and got snagged - taking some wool with her! LOL

She's a GOOD kitty. She loves the wool rugs so much, that's her favorite place to lay! I don't think she would do anything to jeopardize her permission to lay on all things wool! LOL

Well snot much else this morning. This was just supposed to be a quickie post.

I woke up with a pounding headache this morning, that has now crossed the boundary to migraine. :( So i think i'll probably go get a cold compress and lay down and see if i can shake it before it gets worse!

Hope you have a wonderful day!

xo Bren

Makin' purses

I have been on a purse making binge. LOL

and loving every minute of it!!

I haven't been able to just dissapear to my craft room for hours on end, for.. oh.. several months! It was a MUCH needed creative indulgence - i am just not a good person if i don't get some kind of creative time on a regular basis! LOL I start to get cranky! Add in a bad case of pms, and it's just not pretty!!

One thing i love about burying myself down in my room, is i am able to tune out "the world", and tune into God. I load up my mp3 player with my mostest favoritest pastor's podcasts, and listen to them one after the other while i sew or create. So it's a double whammy time of blessing!! LOL

These last few days i think i listened to 12 or 13 sermons.. was down there all by myself laughing, crying , singing and praising God!! Might sound kinda weird to many of you. (haha or all of you!) But those of you that know what it's like to be in the presence of the Lord, I'm sure you can relate!!

Anyway, here's some of the purses I got finished :) oops pounce snuck in here! She's convinced that this is HER hooked mat and that she's supposed to fit her whole body on it. LOL She's pretty close!

Praising God for a gorgeous sunny day here in Colorado, that I am going to get to spend with my goofy kids!!

I hope you have a wonderful day, and it's not sooo cold where you are!

blessings, Bren

PRO-NUN-CI-A-TION

HOLA! I'm a day late with this. Hopefully you'll forgive me! I was working at the shop all day yesterday. Ya know.. i just gotta say... i LOVE being around people, talking to people, showing them how to hook, talking about wool, and sharing the history of hooking! Just plain LOVE it! That was a much needed boost yesterday. It reminded me of WHY we are getting ready to start on a new journey! (more on that soon!) Ok... so in the same spirit as the other day... just some strange facts, so you can walk away saying "i learned something new today!". LOL Now whether or not you choose to actually APPLY that new knowledge is something else entirely! :D PRO-NUN-CI-A-TION What are the correct pronunciations for the words below? The answers might surprise you. If you pronounce them differently, don't worry - many people do. But here's how they were originally meant to be pronouned 50, 100, or 200 years ago - and, according to the dictionary, still should be. STATUS: "stay-tus" (this makes me think of the British lol) TRANSIENT: It has two syllables not three, so it's "tran-shent", not "tran-zee-ent." APPLICABLE: The first syllable is the one that should be emphasized, as in app-li-able, rather than app-lic-able. VALET: It's not a french word, so pronouncing the last syllable as "ay" is incorrect. It should be sounded as "val-it". (Another fake french word: foyer, which is pronounced "foy-ur", not "foy-ay".) SPHERICAL: "sferr-i-kal" , not "sfeer-i-kal" EITHER: "Eee-thur" or "aye-thur" ? "Eee-thur" is the preferred way. (and so is "nee-thur") PRELUDE: "pray-lood" is incorrect: the proper pronunciation is "prel-yood." (wouldn't have guessed that! lol) FORTE: If you're discussing someone's "forte", as in a strength, the "e" is silent. "For-tay" is correct only if you're using it as a musical term. (**ok... so... we're supposed to say "rug hooking is not my FORT" ???!!! hahahahah. yup. well... i guess i'll be looked at as a fool then... cuz fortay sounds better!! lol**) DECREASE: If you're using it as a noun, it's de-crease. If you're using it as a verb, it's de-crease. (**figure that one out! lol**) ERR: Rhymes with "hair?" No, it rhymes with "her". CARAMEL: "Kah-ruh-mull" is the original way and still the preferred way, although "kar-mull", which was once a Midwestern regional pronunciation, is also acceptable. GALA: "gay-luh" MAUVE: It once rhymed with "stove", but now the "au" is sounded as "aw". REGIME: The first syllable is sounded as "ray." JOUST: In the 13th century, it was pronounced (and spelled) like the word "just." LONG-LIVED: Today we say the "lived" as "livd", but until the 20th century, it was pronounced "lyved." QUASI: Today it's often pronounced "kwah-zee", but it's more correct to say "kway-zi." **Do you hear our British ancestors in all these words like I do? I'm guessing that is WHY they were pronounced that way. And then in pure American fashion we "slanged" 'em ! ** Last little tidbit of the day: A first-class ticket for the Titanic cost more than a typical crew member would earn in 18 years! I'm off to my little hidey hole today to create creat create!!! Talk to ya soon!

Uncle John's...

Do you ever have SO much going on in your life... your brain going in so many different directions at one time, that you just want to tune out?? Or run away. LOL Sadly you can't run away from your own thoughts! ha! That sounds like a basis for something Steven Wright would have said. Oh dear... Regardless... i'm there. And since if i started talking about all these things, it would make for very boring reading for all of you... i'm taking the running away approach! (not something i often do - unless it's that "thing i do" and decide i need to make a quilt! lol) Well Uncle John has given me just the inspiration I need. Trivial information. Fun facts. Things you never would have known. Do you know Uncle John? He's widely appreciated and held in high esteem in our house. :) Each year he gives us a new book packed to the hilt of useless information. And we love it! LOL So I thought it might be fun to share some of these things with you here and there. No pictures today. Just bubblegum for the mind! All factual and proven. **Have you ever been around someone who yawned... and you suddenly had to yawn too? It's common in humans (no one knows why), but scientists at Birkbeck College in England discovered that dogs can "catch" yawns from people, too. A 29 dog study found that after they made eye contact with a yawning person, 21 of the dogs yawned as well. *** ***There are more English-speaking people living in India than in the US, UK, and Canada combined. *** **Cognitive psychologist Daniel Oppenheimer of Princeton wrote a study arguing that short, simple words make writers seem more intelligent than long words do. The name of Oppenheimer's study: "Consequences of Erudite Vernacular Utilized Irrespective of Necessity." *** LOL ***Pig squeals have been recorded as loud as 130 decibels, only 10 decibels less than a supersonic jet taking off.*** ***Myth-conception: If you "sweat like a pig," you sweat profusely. The truth: If you sweat like a pic, you don't sweat at all, because pigs don't have sweat glands. They keep cool by staying in the shade or, occasionally, rolling in the mud.*** That's it for today! Tomorrow i will bring you PRO-NUN-CI-A-TION facts that may surprise you about common words! Have a blessed fact informed day! :)

What do all these have in common????

Give up???

:D

Dan and Emily rock on the drums!!!

Bailey is a genius on the guitar!!!!

Calli beebops with the best of the go-go's on the mike!!!

And me...I'm this (in my kids' eyes) because i don't suck so bad at the bass or guitar anymore!! LOL!! So i usually get put on bass!

I know you guys are laughing.

LOL

But the wii and guitar hero is seriously FUN! We have family "band practice" every night. And i gotta say... it's good clean family fun. Brings our family together laughing and having a great time. We're all learning new "skills" - and we all think we're rock stars now!

who knew??!!

bahahaha!!

****

Been working my tail off on a new venture. Snot a whole lot of computer time lately. Actually haven't even been home most of the week.

Tranny went out on the van. And it was out of alignment. Got it back today.

Going to be a realllllyy busy week. Will try to check in here more often.. hopefully after i can share the new news with ya'll!!

God bless you!

xo

Bren :)

Values

I'm still having fits with my new camera. LOL It has GREAT quality, color, works faster than my old one, an apparently doesn't hate yellow like my old one!! Woohoo!!

BUT... i can seem to get the pics into the software that i want to use to adjust them. The kodak software only allows me to crop and rotate. I can't resize??? I can't take away brightness or add light... so i finally found a convoluted way to get three of the pics into that format, to see if it could be done - and it can!! But i sure can't be doing that each time - it would take foreva!

I'm sure i'll figure it out. Eventually! LOL

Here are some pics of the rug i'm currently working on. I learned something the other day!! Something that probably should have been obvious!! But apparently i was oblivious!

The 2 pics below... you can see the wool on the right that i used for that bird.

My focus was to stay in the same soft old family.. but looking for related but different looks. One would have thought (well at least i did! lol) that these would have hooked up different enough that it would be noticable! But NOPE!! When looking at the rug full on, you think they were hooked with the same wool! So one of them will be coming out. lol See how close they are when your nose isn't right up on them?

Now this is what cracks me up... ALL the background wools... are of the same value, with the exception of the lightest green... which is just a hair lighter than the others! To the naked eye, you can see SLIGHT movement and differences in the background. But in a picture - holy cow! Looks like a jumbled mess!!

Seriously, you don't see it this way to the neked eye!!

It looks more like there are varied shadows on parts of the rug!

Soooooo another quest.. to learn how to take photos of my rugs that don't scream differences!! LOL!!

I know i will be changing one of the bottom 2 birds. And have been fooling around with the flowers. Everything is a medium value, and soft and old looking... very very low contrast!!

LOL I think Jule Marie would be having fits with me right now! But on this rug, that is exactly what i was going after! But i want enough of a contrast that the flowers don't melt into the background, and that's what they're doing right now! :D

I love fiddlin with stuff like this!! I learn so much!

It's snowy and cold outside this morning. Hope it's warmer where you are!! :)

bright blessings, Bren :)