Lily, a photo documentation

First time in pigtails! Hooray for hair! She couldn't tear herself away from Discovery Kids...
Yesterday I was working away in the garage and this is how she came out to find me. Necklace in hand and all around body. Doll and diaper bag in hand, her doll stroller is just out of the picture.

Lily watching her more T.V. Using a garden tool bag as a purse.

Lily and Elmo. She got him for Christmas and he kind of freaks her out. I'll press his buttons so that he'll shake his stuff for Lily and every time she will knock him over to make him stop and leave. Guess she has a thing for tall men who don't sing?

Mom it happened, just like you said.

The following is an exact script from a conversation with Owen today.

...Owen comes running into house. "Mom!!, it happened, just like you said it would."

Me, "what happened?"

O', " A stranger talked to me."

Me, "Oh, my goodness what did stranger say, and by the way you did just like I told you to; run home and tell me exactly what happened, very good Owie."

O', "Stranger said, get off my lawn."

My new biz-i-nas...for locals only, sorry.

I've started a new business, but only for my Texas friends (told ya'all non-Texans that it was the greatest place on earth, this is just further proof.) Those who know me know that I am always out shopping/antiquing/refinishing things. I just can't help myself. Well all too frequently I run across things that don't work for my house for one reason or another but I love them nonetheless. So I've decided to start buying them anyways and opening my house up to have a decorators open house. My first open house is on Friday the 27th from 9 to 1. We'll see how it goes and the web address below is where I'm posting pics of some of my treasures. Enjoy!

http://featherforyournest.blogspot.com/

You know what else I like?

Working... Somewhere in Russia my father is beaming. It's probably kinda weird but I just feel SO good doing physical labor. Don't judge. But seriously nothing thrills me more than the whole family working together on Saturday; weeding, mowing, racking, vacuuming, washing the car or cleaning the garage. It just puts me in a great mood. I'm not sure why I like it so much, I do have wonderful memories as a child working together on projects.

To give you an idea when I was growing up my father wanted a bigger nicer house for his family. Too expensive to pay someone to do the entire project, so he contracted out the big jobs that we couldn't do (my mom, dad, me and five brothers). For years after school and every weekend we would spend working on the house. There are pictures of us kids on the second story holding the exterior walls up while my dad was nailing them down! We were like eight and ten! Ha. Even after we moved in we were always doing projects as a family, my dad would get some grand idea of something and we would all set off to make it happen. For instance, he got it in his head it would be cool to have a gazebo, surrounded by a mote with a bridge to get across then a stream coming off the mote down to a waterfall onto another stream and ending at a pond (see his ideas really were big). So we did it and it's still there today, and it was really fun.

All that just to say that I sincerely enjoy work. While your busying yourself in the labor there is an internal energy I feel, kind of like runner's high. That's when I'm firing on all pistons, I do most of my productive thinking while engaged in some activity. And then there is the result that I love; either a clean house, orderly lawn/garage, project done that didn't exist before my concept etc. Or, seeing my children accomplishing their chores and feeling oh so proud of themselves.

Love you dad, thank you for this gift you've given me. :)

Now for some eye candy. The kids have been wearing the 3D glasses since they got home from the movie yesterday. And Luke has been eating off his necklace he made for me.

You're welcome.

I heart quiet.

I'm surround by quiet now. It happens so rarely that when all is quiet I remember how much I like quiet. Thank you Chad for giving me quiet. All the boys are at the movies, Lily is sleeping and I'm doing what I want (which oddly entailed me, mopping, dishes, 1 load of laundry a Dear Geneive episode and blogging, hum). But this morning on our usual Saturday chores I just had to come and take a picture of Lily who was just so cutely laying in the leaves her brothers were raking. And the boys asked that I take their photo too, so as not to leave them out... here you go. Notice my super sweet outdoor sectional in the background? That was my latest craigslist find!
The aforementioned cuteness.

This part is for my mother. I just finished a project of upholstering a bench, she wanted a visual. Here the bench is while staining the legs, probably would have been better to do them when they weren't on the bench already but when I have I ever gone the easy route, why start now.

My tools; screwdriver, screws, scissors, drill, twine and hemostats (yes I am a doctor. A doctor of upholstery! Oh yeah.)

The trusty sewing machine that my lovely mother bought me. Just love that lady. The sewing part of this project was crucial. I wanted a grid pattern on the top of the bench with buttons placed on the intersecting lines. Lots of measuring, remeasuring, calculating, adding, subtracting, drawing perfectly straight lines that were 80 inches long, etc. This part took the longest.

Viola! I am quite pleased with myself. Anyone that comes over is forced to come and admire this beauty. Not even kidding.

Aren't I great? (And humble too.)

Stock yard; yee-haw

This is how the field trip got started, in the lunch room at the Fort Worth Stock yard. Lily running off with Luke's preschool class walking rings.
Remember the posts about Lily and her passion for necklaces. Now you see that I wasn't exaggerating.

We saw lots of cows and saw a magic show that was essentially a show dedicated to brainwashing us of the goods of high fructose corn syrup (I'm really not kidding)..."you like MacDonald's chocolate milk don't you, that came from corn and it IS good for you".

They had a petting zoo that was so fun, Luke and Lily loved it. Lily spent her time running between the baby sheep and baby goats and staring at the Llama and Zebu.

Soft please.

Luke smiling for his teacher, Ms. Whitney whom he informed me is perdy.

Lily after stepping in it, literally. Good times!

Sweet, sun kissed goodness.

The sun doesn't really have a lot to do with this post but it's shining down on me as I write and I can't help but love it's goodness. I love Texas, if for this alone (I love it for many other reasons, but the sun here is simply divine. It visits very often and from September to June it is perfect). But isn't Lily just too sweet to pass up posting a picture of her from this afternoon. Sitting on the outdoor couch, eating a cracker and contemplating life.
Now, off to find that delicious dog food (she seriously has a passion for Lucy's food and eats it by the fistfuls when opportunity presents itself).


I was washing up the kitchen table from today dinner and saw this imprint of Lily's foot on the table top. Isn't life grand. The sight of it made me smile and reflect on how happy I am. Love where I'm at, what I'm doing and who I'm doing it for. That is all.