Connor said, "attack Fletcher, Mom!" and so I did. Fletcher's silly face makes me look slightly less imposing, I think. Spiderman in the background isn't concerned about Fletcher's welfare at all.

Karalenn and I are co-making this dress for me. The light colored one, on your left. I'm adding to it a black satin ribbon under the bust. I think it will be fabulous!

Allison Ohran, master cardmaker, showed a few of us how to make these fabulous mother's day cards last night. I am so proud of myself! There are 4 panels on the inside, i couldn't fit them all in one picture so here are the parts. We get to put pictures on them! yay!

For the week 16 prompt, Emily encouraged us to have someone else contribute to our journal cards. I was honestly completely stumped. Thank you Je@net for your post and inspiration! I had what I needed all along! The text reads "My 6 year old son Connor made this puzzle for me this morning. I had to cut out all the pieces and glue it together! I love it."

and I happen to be a closet fan of pikachu anyway. he's just so dang cute.
the little 'son' sticker on the front was something i got at joann - so was the paper on the back, and the stickers. (can you tell I don't get around much?)

Chris and Nanette came over to play the wii last week. It's always fun to watch people boxing eachother on Wii Sports. I really wish I had gotten a picture of Hannah and Tyler -- it was awesome.

Hi guys! You look silly! I love it.

Hannah's dress is in final-fitting, hemming mode, so I'm starting on Nanette's now. Here's the pattern and fabric. We're doing the short version of this one, as she is such a short li'l thing! :) For Han we're going for a Hippie look. For Nan, the flapper. We're actually going to try finger curls in her bobbed hair next weekend. Wish me luck!

Goodbye Roley. You were a good rat. We'll miss you. And, like Fletcher says, we look forward to playing with you again when we get to heaven.

Another funny story.

Driving down Palms last night and pulled over for a screaming fire truck. Fletcher from the back got all excited.

"I hear a firetruck Mommy!" and then the firetruck honked very loudly as it passed us at an intersection.

"...... and elephants!" yells Fletcher. Much laughing was had by all. Then on the freeway we're heading home and I ask the kids if they need to pee. "Connor do you need to pee?"

"No, Mommy, I'm okay."

"Fletcher do you need to pee?"

"No. I don't need a pee. I have an L."

I love my kids.

This is my current project - a dress for friend Hannah. We're making it full-length. The fabric she picked out is really fun - a stretchy net print, and we put turquoise lining fabric underneath. Very light and breezy, but she'll need to wear a slip in the sun!

Obviously some explanation is due here, since I did not follow this week's prompt of "my parents". That would be because I do not have a single picture of them together (except in my childhood album which I heartbrokenly cannot find.)

So I've informed my sis that I need a pic of them together and then went ahead and did my card on my favorite animal. I am an Aries. Also, I was born in the year of the sheep. It's in my blood to love sheep.

When I was a kid Mom used to take me with her to Pat Magladry's farm (i hope i didn't totally butcher her name just then) and I would watch the shearing, and timidly pet her HUGE sheep dog. I picked up a MSL magazine last week on a whim and lo and behold! Sheep pictures! Under the heading "Northeastern Pastoral". Sure. Okay.

Anyway, here's my card.

Funny story:

Craig walked in the door this afternoon and Connor popped up from behind the half wall that 'separates' our front door/closet area from the dining room, in an attempt to scare his father. Not getting the reaction he hoped for, Connor asked, "Did I scare you Dad?"

"Well, not really, I kinda saw you there, and that's not really the kind of thing that would scare me."

"What are you scared of, Dad?"

"Well. If anything were to happen to you or your brother, that would scare me. Or your Mom."

Pause. And then in a voice full of concern and skepticism:

"Mommy scares you?"

I just won this vintage pattern on ebay a couple of days ago. I cannot tell you how excited I am to make a dress that I can wear backwards and get away with it. I would try odd things like that when I was young, and then have to live through a schoolday of nasty comments. By the time I got into high school I had learned to conform. I'm happy to say that I am not afraid to be a nerd anymore. I am SO excited to wear my backwards dress. I'd like to do it in black and white. What do you think?

Kisses, Kris

A couple of weeks ago I posted some gorgeous pictures of a gate with lilacs on it. Here (look, I imbeded a link! and it's embarrasing how easy that was...)

Now, to give myself some credit, I knew they weren't lilacs. But I didn't know what they were and I figured someone would correct me. Karalenn said yesterday that she was sure it was Jasmine, and then we realized we were each talking about a totally different plant.

So today I got an email from my Mom. :

Hey sweetie! Just visited your blog. . . . the pretty flowers you like so much . . . . that's Wisteria not lilacs. Might want to change that so people don't start snickering at you behind your back. Not that I did . . . . much. . . Love, MOM

So it's Wisteria! yay! And yes, my mom laughs at me on a regular basis. It keeps me humble. Love you Mom!

I've always liked these large ebony birds for some reason. Maybe it's the mysterious lure of the black feathers and croaky call. Maybe it's that so many of the fantasy novels I've read have them as some kind of omen or evil spy. *shrug* On the back of the card I made an envelope and put the poem by Edgar Allen Poe inside. It has got to be one of the best poems ever written!

trying to get a profile picture up again. it gave me trouble before and I gave up. here's another shot...

7 months and 25 days of no chocolate. yes, you heard me right. i have eaten chocolate. And it was no Lindor truffle, no chocolate-heaven cheesecake that did me in! It was the CADBURY MINI EGGS! I bought some and put them in the freezer, knowing full well that they were one of my favorite chocolates and that I would not be able to find them in August when i started eating chocolate again. And then I got the bag out and put some of the little scrumptius eggs into my sons' easter baskets.

The smell. It was the smell! My mouth was instantly full of drool and I thought, "just one". Half a bag later, I realized that I was going to have to eat it all to get rid of the evidence. After confessing my shame to my dh today after church, he informed me that this was "probably a lapse that you are not going to be able to recover from. I mean," he said to me, "you can't say you had no chocolate for a year when you ate an ENTIRE BAG of easter candy one weekend."

sigh.

But HEY! I had no chocolate for SEVEN MONTHS AND 25 DAYS! I mean, I never would have thought that possible a couple of years ago! Never! So i AM proud of myself! .....and now I'm going to go sew a big brown 'C' on all of my shirts..... :)

The bane of my husband's existence is durable bubbles. These things just don't pop! And of course, since we don't have a yard, we HAVE to blow them in the house! :) So then there's this wierd, soapy film everywhere. Connor discovered the other week that he could catch one, and then catch another, and another, in a chain. He was very proud of his bubble tower!

Week 13 Prompt: "What's on Your Mind?"

well.....my best girlfriends and I are taking a weekend-long roadtrip in May. It's ALL I can think about!

Here's a link to a good article on Buffy Season 8.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2047890,00.html

You'll have to copy paste - for some reason it's not giving me the click-link. One of these days I'll sit down and learn how to imbed links.

The last sentence is my favorite.