Miss you all

Tonight I went out for supper with my girlfriends that I used to work with. Some of the girls have been gone for a long time and others it's been a few years but when we all got back together we started right where we left off. Our conversations went from one subject to another without even skipping a beat, not much quiet time with us girls. We vowed not to let so much time pass us by without doing this again. I wished I would have taken my camera but I totally forgot to take it with me this morning so this is a picture not of us but of what symbolizes friendship to me.

Thank you "N", "K" and Lynn for letting me take pictures of your butts. Bet your happy I didn't have my camera to take pictures of our butts.... LOL

Texture

I froze outside tonight trying to find something to take a picture of, these little guys feel the same way.

Texture and layers make everything look better.

Dress Up

Elly loves to play dress up. She comes downstairs in anything she can find to put on, I'll have to get her some fun clothes to wear.

I bought her these gloves when she was 2 years old, she puts them on every time she's here and begs to take them home with her.

No time to play or explain what I did. Elly has changed her favorite color from blue to "All the colors of the rainbow" so here she is with all her favorite colors.

Swine Flu.....

Isn't that a drinkin' flu? It's all over the news, another reason to wash your hands a million times a day until the skin falls off.

Last night I had an awards banquet for a local organization.... I'm thinking the food that was served may have caused a bit of a sickness, not like food poisoning.... a step down from there. Food poisoning you get sick immediately and this sickness didn't happen until early this morning. I did feel better by the time I had to go to work but the other guy that was with me called in sick. Then today all I hear is radio news talk about swine flu, it's time to rally the disinfectant!!

Me and My Buddy

Such a sweet little boy. Does he look like Grandma?
I know the only thing the same between us is the size of our eyes.

Sassy Green

Tried out my sassy green color today. I'm thinking it's a summer accent color and then in the fall/winter I'll have to change it out. But for summer I'm liking it, it's sassy and that's what I want. Now I just have to find a few items that I can sass up and be able to replace them in the fall with a not so wild color.

Guess where the color came from? This is the green dots from blueberry's room & Lynn's kitchen. Who would have guessed that it would match perfectly to my inspiration art see here and here. I love green, it was obvious to me that this re-decorating was going to get a splash of it somewhere.

Baptism

Garrett was baptised tonight. He is such a good baby and his momma empresses me every day. She planned a very private and memorable baptism for her little boy and she loves every minute of being a momma to our two wonderful grandchildren.

Garrett didn't even cry and slept on the table as we ate pizza. Adam and "C" are the godparents, they are very responsible teenagers and I think they will do a great job as Godparents. I didn't realize Garrett was hanging onto Adam during the ceremony until I downloaded these photos. Garrett is already finding safety through his buddy Adam.

Inspiration

The inspiration for blueberry's room was her crib bedding but when Lynn and I found this print by Andrea Laliberte we had to have it. We brought it home to show Jesse, I told him "this is what blueberry is going to look like when she grows up". He looked at the picture and then looked at Lynn and said "she looks just like her momma" the way that he looked at Lynn was incredible.

Lynn and I googled Andrea, there are 4 prints to this series, let's just say it's a good thing we couldn't find them with the same type of frame. On Decorating Cents they always pick their favorite thing when the room is done.... this print is my favorite thing.

Chunky Columns

The columns are almost done. There are a couple small pieces that need to be installed, sanded, stained and then we can call them done. I love the look they give the house, it's articular interest and they look just like the magazine photo I gave Mike. He has done a fabulous job making our not-so-straight walls and ceilings look like they were made for this space. Here is a sneak peek of my chunky dream columns, right at the chunky part.

Exhaustion ;)

I spent another day painting blueberry's room and it's done. It's super stinkin' cute and it's all done. The doctors better have been right when they saw baby girl on that ultra-sound because if this baby is a boy I'm gonna be back there again to do some switching around. Let's just say it's screaming pink everywhere with a splash of green.

I had to take some fun maternity photos of Lynn before I left. This will give you a small peek into blueberry's room but I'm sure Lynn will be sharing the rest soon. She's a little exhausted so it may be a few days!! :)

Here is the SOOC photo

I removed the Tinkerbell tattoo, adjusted the lighting, cropped the photo, added a texture background and another background with a grudge frame. Then I changed the blending mode to create a worn out look to accent the mood of the photo. (Sorry Lynn I tried to disguise your rib cage but no luck..... you should be wearing them with pride, I haven't seen my rib cage in a very long time)

Highway to home

Today I got to paint blueberry's room. I was so excited to start this project and they are finally ready for me. Lynn had to move her office to blueberry's room due to the bathroom remolding project overflowing into her office space. They got the walls up and painted to move her back down this weekend. So today was my turn to transform the all wood room to a bright baby like nursery. My first coat was primer so that wasn't very exciting but then I started with the butter yellow and it hit me.... they are having a baby! It hit me hard..... THEY ARE HAVING A BABY! I'm not sure what I thought before but this room is stinkin' cute and it's screaming BABY from all four walls. On my way home it was raining, snowing and sleeting and since I can't spoil Lynn's surprise I'll show you my yucky drive home.

Don't worry I didn't look through the camera I just held it up and snapped away, I wasn't even sure if I got a good photo until I got home. I really like it, especially the road going straight through the middle of my photo, and then the 2 semi's spraying water near the foggy skyline. Usually you want to have the focal point off to the side of the photo but this one works perfect in the center.

Your photo should always have a beginning, middle and end to create interest for the viewer. The beginning is the highway, the middle is the semi's and the end is the foggy skyline. Look at the photo again and see if you eye just naturally follows that path. Pull up some of your photos and see if you have a beginning, middle and end. If not go outside and practice or crop one you already have, you'll really like the outcome.

April Showers

bring May flowers. It's amazing that a little rain will green things up and make all the spring perennials pop right out of the ground. My columbine grew about 4 inches today.

Veggie Supper

Tonight for supper I made roasted asparagus, that's it nothing else..... yummy! Lynn brought roasted vegetables for Easter and they were so delicious I had to make the rest of my asparagus the same way. Thanks to my sister-in-laws suggested Tupperware Veggie Containers they were still as crisp as the day I bought them. I'm telling you those things really work, I have 4 of them and they are in my fridge all the time. I don't think I'll ever boil vegetables again.

Tangled

Here's my Honeysuckle Vine, it's about 7 years old and huge. It's tangled vines become a dazzling display of orange flowers...... not this year. Those 7 years of vines are tangled onto the brush pile never to see another orange flower again. John thought it needed a trim, now the living vines are about 1/4" long, it's okay it will grow back! Before I let John loose with the trimmers anymore we should probably have a discussion about what a trim is. But look at that sunshine and blue skies, how can you be upset with anything when the weather is so nice.

Today at work we have a 3 mile Adopt A Highway stretch that we clean. Let me tell you people are pigs, why do they throw so much stuff out their windows? Here are some of the highlights and let me tell you they are highlights so keep reading.

First we are told not to empty any full Mt Dew bottles..... why? The truck drivers fill them with their own Mountain Dew and when there full they toss them out their windows. Well guess what we found lots of them and they just aren't Mt Dew bottles they also fill up clear bottles so you can tell what it is, then you have to put them in your bag and drag them heavy things along with you.... gross!! Then every person who drives by that section of highway has to smoke or chew and then they throw out the empty packages. We found a full size blanket now how did they manage to throw that out their window? And the beer cans that you find, I think they drank the beer then filled up the Mt Dew bottles and threw them all out the windows. And here's the real kicker.... we found tampons, now what in the world is she doing changing that in the car? Underwear and condoms galore!! By the time we were done I slipped in the slimy ditch water, got one muddy foot, my glasses are covered in dust, my mind is spinning with all the possibilities that happened when this garbage was tossed out the window, my legs are killing me from bending over 3 gatrillion million times but it felt good to clean up a small portion of the highway many people travel everyday.

Yellow

Yellow is a color of spring. Any color this time of year makes us happy.

April Color - Spring Yellow

Can you hear that?

Listen really close, can you hear that? I can't either, it's called quiet at this house once again. I love those twerps to pieces but the best thing about grandchildren is you can eventually send them home. Not for too long, I'll be ready for them to visit again by..... let's say Thursday!

If I ever get a hair up my butt to paint this table and chairs again someone please pull me back to reality and tell me how stupid I am. I have painted so many spindals in the last couple weeks that I will burn this set before I paint it again. The yellow and orange/red have 3 coats and could use a 4th and I still need to do the clearcoat. Of course I love the look instead of this... I was going to be sassy and paint all the chairs the green color from the picture on the back wall but I decided to coordinate instead of sass...... hummmmm maybe I will paint one more time, I already forgot the pain.

For right now I have the table runner and the beads on the vase in the sassy green. The breakfast nook has the bottom board in place and the columns are started. With this nice weather we'll be staining windows and trim in our sleep. My goal is to be finished by Adam's graduation party. Why is it that us girls think everything has to be done by a certain party you are having at your house.....

Hopscotch

We had the kids again tonight and it was nice enough to go outside after supper. I taught Elly how to play hopscotch. It kept her entertained most of the night.... finally a game she can play by herself and she liked it. Garrett watched her and made sure she didn't cheat. Not much for Photoshopping tonight with going outside for yardwork and the kids here.

SOOC

cropped, brightened colors, added borders, stamped.

Bright Eyes

It's amazing how fast they grow, Garrett is getting to be so much fun and is getting so big.... Can his eyes get any bluer or bigger?

New Shoes

Grandma's starting to spoil Garrett with shoes too.

Easter Eve

Easter candy is really hard on me. I love the Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs and can't stop eating them so this year I didn't buy them. The second worst Easter candy for me is those gosh darn marshmellow bunnies, not only do I love the colors they come in and the cute little faces I also eat an entire package in one night. I can leave them alone if they are fresh, but once the get hard and stale they call my name.

I wasn't going to have Easter candy they year but I couldn't do it, I had to break down and buy some, what's Easter morning without a candy plate looking all pretty on the dining room table. When I was young we had our Easter baskets hidden and a huge silver tray on the table filled with candy. We would all steal the candy from that tray until we found our baskets, sometimes I purposely didn't find mine so I could eat off the silver tray and then have my entire basket while everyone else's was half empty.

I hope the bunny doesn't hid your baskets too hard.

Signs of Warmer Weather

Our niece had her baby today, may have taken her a while to enter this world but with it being so cold she was just waiting for the nice weather. Her name is Ava, We've only seen pictures since "S" does not live near us, she looks just like her mommy.


We also had another Hemmer baby born last weekend to our nephew and his girlfriend "J". He was 3 weeks early and was suppose to be born after Ava. His name is Eric and so far I haven't even seen pictures of him, they are not far from us so hopefully next week we'll make the trip over to see them. Eric is John's parents first great grandchild to carry on the Hemmer name. So far there are 9 great grandchildren, the family is continuing to grow and it's so fun to have them all together. We hope they all come to Lynn's shower so we can meet them in person.


Since I don't have pictures of Eric or Ava I have a photo of life, it's the beginning of a beautiful summer and a growing family.

Things are changing

What happened to having a black table and chairs? John should know by now never to trust me when it comes to this table. It may be awhile before you get a full view, I forgot how much work this is.

He's still here

I can't help myself but to take a gazillion pictures of him and he sits so nice.

Sharpening a Photo

My Photoshop Tuesday has already become a challenge only because I don't have time to learn new things with Photoshop so I just use the same things I already know how to do. I'll try to throw something little in the same ole' stuff and hope that you can notice from the SOOC.

As I was taking the pictures of Adam and Michelle I noticed how her brown dress with the cream matched my decor so well and her feet crossed dangling in mid-air, looked like a fairy princess waiting for her mission. Here is the photo SOOC

Here's the photo after I brightened the colors, straightened the dresser, cropped in slightly so it didn't look like I cut her head off by accident

(one of the photography rules is never, and they mean never, cut someone off at their neck, wrist, knees, shoulders... any joint. Doing so will look like you messed up and give the person viewing the photo a wanting to see beyond the outside frame)

my new photoshop skill was the sharpening I did on this photo, to notice look at the tables in the picture behind Michelle they look much more defined, her shoes, the detail in the dresser drawers, you can even see the fluting in the new column (they are going to look so cool when they're done). Speaking of the column.... I tried so hard to get that column straight in the photo but then the dresser wasn't, I'm not sure why that is but you probably didn't even notice until I just pointed it out. I know stop talking and show you the photo already!!!! I'm not sure why but I think this is a very cool photo, you can get the best photo by noticing the simplest things when taking pictures of the obvious.

Another Prom Dress

The bling these girls showed at Prom was breathtaking. I heard a number of mom's talking about the expense of Prom, for those of you with boys... count your blessings 1) tux rental, 2) girl's flowers and 3) meal. For those mom's with little princess girls growing up you better start saving now it's the dress, then shoes, then tanning, then jewelery, then the hair updo, then makeup, oh and don't forget the nails (hands and toes), how about the eyebrow waxing, maybe the leg waxing too....then the comfy flip flops, then the post prom outfit, then the matching purse, oh I almost forgot the garter. If I were you I'd throw all those princess dress-up clothes in the garbage and re-stock with mud boots and jeans, if your lucky she'll not even know what Prom is.

Seriously this is my 5th Prom as a mom and it's worth every penny..... boys or girls. This dress was gorgeous, of course dads wallet has to be a little lighter. This shot was cool, the real detail is in the top of the dress but I didn't want to look like a stalker to the poor girl who I didn't even know.

Late March Color - Green

I realize and maybe you did too....I didn't do my color post for March and of course it's green since it is the month of the Irish. Green; my favorite color and I've been struggling with a POTD for green. I knew in my head what I wanted but everytime I proofed the photos it didn't speak green to me. My hard drive is jam packed with un-used, not the right, just plain ain't gonna do.... green photos. Yesterday as I'm in the produce isle I see a kiwi....... that's it, so I buy one. I get to the checkout lady and of course she has to comment on me buying one kiwi.

Checkout Lady - "what are you gonna do with only one kiwi?"

Me - speechless, not sure what to tell her "I just need it for a project"

Checkout Lady - "what kind of project do you need a kiwi for?"

Me - thinking "what's it to you?" but I said "I need to take a picture of it for the color green"

Checkout Lady - "why?"

Me - thinking "if you would quit talking you could do your job a whole lot faster", but said "because my color for March was green and I need to take a picture of green"

Lady behind me - "the inside of a kiwi is beautiful, you are gonna love it"

Me - "thanks, I hope so"

Checkout Lady - "paper or plastic?"

Me - running as fast as I can away from the store swearing under my breath how I hate shopping and I'm never gonna go there ever again, I will starve before I step foot in another grocery store again! Until next week.

The lady behind me was right, my late March color - green.

Prom

Adam and Michelle went to Prom today. It was so much fun having them at the house to take pictures. Of course they had to get up on the dresser, thank goodness Michelle is used to me snapping pictures of everything and making everyone do silly stuff.

Here's our handsome son, he's been in a tux so many times in his 18 years, but every time I see him in one I just can't believe how tall and skinny he is.

Did you think I was just going to show you him? Of course you get to see his date, the most important part of Prom..... the dress, hair, jewelry, and shoes!! That's John's son being his normal naughty self, but I think Michelle can handle him.

Flying High

Dad is going to be flying high again real soon. Today when we got to the hospital his heart rate was around 50 bpm. They were giving him lots of stuff to thicken his blood for his surgery that was scheduled for 3:30. Dad was is really good spirits but you could tell he wasn't feeling the best. His brothers and sister were there visiting and he certainly enjoyed their company as they waited for the clock to tick. They finally took Dad down to the surgery at 4:45, they were running a little behind, the doctor that was going to do the surgery was quite a funny guy, he told us that he would be performing the procedure, he was the electrician for the hospital that fixes all the lights in the building. Dad had the plumber fix his heart in 2000 but this time he needed the electrician. John asked how big a pacemaker was so the doc brings in the pacemaker and shows it to dad.... it was about as big as a pack of cigarettes but then he said.... "that's not it, it's this one" and that one was the size of a 50 cent piece. In about 15 minutes they were taking him back and we'd see him again in about 2 hours.

John, I and Joanne had some supper and shortly after we got back the doctor was there and letting us know his heart rate was up over 80 bpm, he was doing well and everything went as planned. Dad was awake the entire time, he talked to the people in the procedure and even counted the stitches the doc put in. By the time we left tonight he was doing well and that heart rate didn't drop at all, his color looked so much better and he looked more awake than I have seen him in awhile. He may be 82 years old but now with this new ticker he thinks he's 39 again.

Thank you all for your prayer and thoughts.

Perched

It's been quite the eventful day for everyone so I won't talk much... just update you on my dad's health. He had a procedure today that shocked his heart and was going to put it back into rhythm. The shocking worked and he was recovering very well until they were about to send him home and the rate started to drop and become erratic again. The rate slowed down to 34 bmp which is very slow, during this time he was resting comfortable. The doctors had to come back to decide what they were gonna do. So now he's doing well, in very good spirits and is waiting for tomorrow when they will monitor his blood level until they can perform surgery, which will hopefully be able to happen tomorrow. Joanne is doing a super job keeping him in good spirits along with herself and all of us as well.

And since it's a POTD here's the pic for today.