amongst friends #48

WATER~

The theme this week was WATER. I like the pictures this week. What do you think? I really expected more beach pictures. I am surprised there were only two of us. Especially with 4 people living in Florida. I love the contrast between my Alaska beach photo and Jerri's Florida version. Having lived in both places, I can truly 'feel' the vibe coming from each picture. It has something to do with the colors.

Karen and Joanne both had fountain pictures. I didn't hear where Karen took hers but I keep thinking it's at Disney although it could be St.Petersburg.. I know Joanne took hers in front of the 'water works' company where she lives. She say's it's nice to look at when she drives by.

Jocelyn's photo of her daughter at the aquarium is a classic and the colors are really vibrant. This is probably my favorite photo of the week although anyone who knows me well would know that. Children always capture my heart! :)

Kelly's picture is a different take on the theme and her picture rounded out our collage submissions.

Sandy's close up of rain drops on rose leaves is quite pretty.

Jenny's photos are often 'in the moment' of her life. This submission made me smile in it's simplicity. It's a great choice.

I haven't a clue how I will come up with a photo for next week's them- REPTILE. The Southern participants in this group should have a slight edge over the rest of us.
Do you think you can think of something to photograph for reptile, if so, join in. You may just have to take my spot. :)

amongst friends #47

~Stained Glass

Remember to click the photo twice if you'd like to see some detail in the photos.

Well it wasn't quite so hard but it seems a lot of people have access to some great stained glass stuff. :) Color me jealous!

Joanne said that sweet little angel sits on her bathroom counter.

Sandy said that her picture is a window in a small church/chapel near
Edinburgh, Scotland. I LOVE it!

Karen didn't write anything but I can tell you that knowing her, it's no surprise to me she has stained glass with dolphins on it.

Jerri says Karen picked this little lamp up at a garage sale. She mentioned that I love looking for treasures like these and she couldn't be more right!

Kelly and Jocelyn both found lovely lamps too. I believe Kelly's came from her Aunt Jerelyn. I remember drooling over it when I visited last.  I wonder if Jocelyn's belongs to her or her mom?  :)

Jenny's picture of the star is very interesting to me. I'm wondering where it is from.

My entry this week is of a faux stained glass piece in my kitchen. My wonderful sister-in-law painted it on Plexiglas as a gift for my husband. It hangs above a walk-through from my kitchen to my living room.

Moving on to next week, the theme is water. After that will be reptiles, reflection then weather.  Good luck, I know I'm going to need it. If you're visiting for the first time, please feel free to join in. We'd love to have you.

A New Spin on Art

SO, Daddy did it! He finally built the spinning art drum thing I'd been bugging him to do.

Cali and I have been talking about this thing since we saw this really cool version here.  Well actually, I first saw one here then followed their link to  Teacher Tom's.  Anyhow, I'd been bugging Scott and he finally did it.  He really did it!

It was finished on Friday and we really wanted to test it out but Cori was having a sleepover for her 13th birthday celebration and therefor monopolized the majority of my time Friday night.

So Saturday, Cali and I decided the girls should go watch the Kenai swim meet then the homecoming football game so we could spin and paint, and paint and spin.

I set the thing up on our table although it would have just as simply worked on the floor.

First she opted to try painting with her feet which worked very well but I kept having to put oo more paint. Then she decided (her own idea I must say) to add hand prints to her masterpiece. These two things go together, she told me.

After we decided we'd gave that a good try we changed the paper and I gave her some paint brushes.  She had to tell me if I was to spin fast and s-l-o-w. She tried side-to-side and up and down. What she really loved was splattering the paint but when I realized it was making it's way to my front window, we nixed it for a sunny day in our near future.

I think the art rollers I'd read about were made a bit fancier than ours but Scott was able to use materials on hand so it didn't cast us any anything.  Grandpa got the drum at work 'cause he entertains my crazy ideas too. :)

I am hoping to take this into Cali's kindergarten to share soon. It makes a slight squeaking noise every now and then so I need to pad the screws. Also Cali says it need a handle and I've got to work on that.

In the mean time, we'll keep practicing art methods and design.

You know you want to try it. Admit it. It's OK, I did! :)

Happy Birthday My Sweet Teenage Girl

I think back and it seems you were just a baby in my arms. A little girl holding your Daddy's ear drinking from you sippy cup. I'm not sure when it started happening but you are growing and changing daily, right before my eyes. You are bright and beautiful, sweet and fun, a peace-loving, naturally caring teenager and I am so very proud of you. 

Love that my girl still likes soft cuddly things!

Happy 13th Birthday Cori.

I Love you so much more than you will ever, ever know!

amongst friends #46

Hour

OK, seriously, if you think it will be boring and no challenge at all, join us! I promise you will be challenged. :)

For the first time, I almost didn't submit a picture. I could not think of anything to take a picture of.

I finally decided on my appointment book so you can see the running I do. I should have however photographed a different day because this one seems fairly slow as compared to usual.

Kelly got a cute picture of a clock on her daily route.

Jocelyn found her picture at the mall.

Jerri says "
This pic IS YOUR DADS drawn by a mother of a past girlfriend Liz. I always loved it. you know about my clock collection. This painting was rolled
up
for a very long time so when I moved to this house I
framed it. It's
been hanging in my bedroom since. ( I actually remember this painting from my childhood. It takes me back.)
I love Karen's take on the theme. Here she is showing the 'dinner hour'.

Sandy says "Here is a photo of an ancient 'pocket sundial'. This one is also a
compass. I
saw it in a museum in Oxford last year."

Jenny says" Most memorable time in my life...:( (I'm not sure what this means. I have to find out!)

Lastly Cali took a picture of the clock she sees everyday in the lunch room at school. Good job Cali!

Next week's theme is Stained Glass and after that comes Water, Reptile then Reflection. Let's see what you can come up with, join us!!

Tennis Anyone?

As you know, last Thursday started a little rough for Miss Cali.  Once I got her to school however, I think things settled down.  Coming home- that was a different story. Once she got in the car after school. She got a bit whiny. I wasn't really sure what I was in for once we got home.

I opened the front door and she marched right into the living room, making a bee0line for the couch where she promptly turned on the television. I was sort of following her on my way to the laundry room to fold the load of clothes in the dryer. I sort of half-heard what was on TV, so I asked her, "What are you doing?"

She replied, "Watching TV."
"What are you watching?", I asked.

"Tennis!", said she.

"Why tennis?", I asked.

"It was what came on", she told me.  (Now keep in mind, she was staring straight ahead, speaking in a monotone.)

"Do you always watch whatever is on?"

"Not if it's scary"  she replied.

"So you just gonna sit there and watch tennis???"

"Yup!"

And she did, even as her little worn out body slumped over to the side, onto the arm of the couch, to tired to move. 

~Love~

:)

amongst friends #45

antique~

 Well, I didn't think I could have anymore trouble than what I've had recently with these collages but boy was I wrong. We are running a little late due to late entries. I am guessing this is in part due to the recent holiday. I know we were busy in our house!

Also, I've had more computer problems than I'd care to count lately.

I couldn't finagle this collage much this week as my computer kept shutting down. I think I've hit 100% picture overload. :)  Hopefully I will get the problem remedied soon.

There are a lot of interesting photos this week. The items that were photographed are fascinating. 

Jerri says:  "This pitcher and basin belonged to your great-grandmother,  Bertha Cassidy Aley.  Old, you bet ya!"  (Yes, that would be my great-grandmother.  The same one my daughter Cassidy is named after.) It's a beautiful piece and I am in awe.

Karen's boat is at least 25 years old but I can't find the details. I will update as soon as she sends them to me again as I lost it while wrangling with my computer. grrr!

I'm not sure whose ring Jocelyn is wearing but it is beautiful. 

The cameras in my photo are part of Scott's collection. Aren't they wonderful? I thought it would be quite appropriate to share them for this.

Sandy says:
I have a collection of old books. For the photo, I opened up a very old one of John Bunyans's works- interesting colour pages, the one showing is of the Giant in Pilgrim's Progress. Also you can just see the front of the one I picked up just for the 3D cover!

Kelly photographed many things she has only recently acquired upon her mother's passing. Can you tell what each of them are. I'm wandering if that reel was ever even used. It's quite a collection of lovely little things she has there.      

Joanne Says:  When I thought about all the antiques I had in the house I thought Wayne would be my choice for this category. Slightly used, a little rough around the edges but still in fairly good shape for an old fart!" Now that is true love, right? :)

I adore the traveling case in Jenny's picture. I don't know much about the figurines but I'm guessing there is a love story behind those flowers!

Next week, now only days away our theme is HOUR. Are you ready, I hope I will be in the final one, hour that is! Join us if you'd like. We'd love it if you did.

When 'So Cute' becomes 'Too Cute'!

Last weekend Cali, Grandpa and I went garage-saling. (Yeah, I know it's not a word but how do you correctly say it?)

Cali found a darling little Asian dress. Thursday night she decided she was going to wear it to school on Friday.
Friday morning she put it on and it was truly adorable. Really! All of us were admiring her cute self. Cassi mentioned that I should put her hair in a bun and so I did.

Then we remembered we had these cute little chopsticks made just for hair and we added them. And all of a sudden her cuteness took on a whole new level. Seriously. And when it did, well she kind of froze. She got incredibly nervous.  She started saying she wasn't sure if she should wear her outfit. She was afraid people would laugh at her.We convinced her she was darling and we headed off to school.

We got out of the car to head in when the cross-walk lady saw her and kind of screeched, "Oh my goodness, you are the cutest thing ever" or something close to that and Cali went scurrying behind my legs. I managed to get her as far as the front door but at least 4 more people talked to her about her cute-ness. By the time we reached that door, she decided she wasn't going past it and just hid behind it.

I tried real hard to just leave her there and go in but even hiding behind an all clear glass door she was cute and people kept telling her so. She was near screaming point when I figured I'd better take some action.
We decided on the count of 3 she would choose to walk left through the front doors or right to head back to the car to go home and change outfits. 1-2-3... she couldn't choose, so I marched her to the right and sped home. I was a bit concerned that it would prove to be unfair to the kindergarten teacher to make her go in wearing the outfit. (We still have a few kids struggling with being away from Mom every day and there are still many tears. Knowingly sending Cali in with more tears would not be nice of me I decided.)

This is what we changed into, although she was still saying, "Maybe I should just wear this dress Mom" when we arrived at the house.

As you can see, she was still battling her decision. We finally agreed that we might try the little Asian dress another day but I wonder if sometimes 'so cute' can be 'too cute' and just not worth the hassle.

Twin Cheerleaders

They are liking this 'twin' thing!

Wordless Wednesday 09-01

Cali's first drawing from Kindergarten.

"A Rainbow and the Jackpot"