Geekery

The Sugar Show was Easter weekend. I have a lot of pictures to post, but I'll do that in the next entry. There is a lot of "housekeeping" items to catch up on first.I'm probably not going to catch up on them on this entry either. Grrrrr.....

I have so many Circle Motif and Collage related projects I want to do, but I'm going to dedicate April for the most part to some household projects and catching up on Scrapbooking.  

Wait, that was until I got two new custom orders today. Yay! Those do take priority, but I will keep scrapbooking out too so I can try to do them in tandem, so to speak. And the custom orders are from the same customer in Canada...so it's a big deal that she instills so much faith in me after that one...incident. I'd link it if you're not familiar with it, but the "incident" is still too painful and recent for me to do so. 

April is in full force and by my definition, it's really the last month that guarantees that despite the increased warmth outside, you can still go outside once in awhile. Our current piano bench is falling apart, and it's very 80s looking (blech), so it's time to change that.  Since this is the last month until at least October that conditions out of the garage would be close to favorable, the bench has to be re-finished now.

(note: The music of the 80s was the best by far. However, the fashions and furniture styles left much to be desired)

 I sought out a new bench at various garage sale and online outlets. I lucked out and a nice lady

in my neighborhood was selling a beautiful antique piano bench. She usually re-finishes them herself and I asked her to quote me a price for it finished, but her wrist was injured, so she sold it to me unfinished. 

As I said before, being that summer is screaming in our face, that I have to get the thing finished out in the garage now, or it won't happen. I opted for a fun Indigo blue stain (no, the below picture isn't some advertisement. It's just the stain I found that I liked)

Chris doesn't like that I'm not keeping a traditional wood color, but that's okay. I'm around to keep things less boring than typical wood colors and white walls.  It's not like I'm staining the piano itself the blue too. Wait...that may be cool! No, no. No. Just the bench. Just the bench, Jill. 

When it's done, I'll post a picture. But I'm on the clock because the other bench is falling apart fast!






So where does the Geekery come in? 

Well, last month when Mikelle and Chris went to the Ren Fen (Renaissance Festival), Chris originally put on his 16th Century garb and Mikelle freaked out and told him not to wear it. He insisted they get a few pictures together first before he changed.

So as a joke, he changed into his Blue classic Star Trek shirt. Mikelle said, 'Yeah, that's better!" Therefore, he wore it. And you wouldn't believe the picture Chris sent me from the entrance/parking lot area of the fair. 

I guess it is plausible that Dr. Who went to the 16th Century. There is probably an episode about it. However, I doubt the episode has a member of Star Fleet in it. Well, The Big Bang Theory does.  Sort of.  Well, it doesn't have the Tardis in it.  Anyway....

Sheldon Cooper as a visiting Vulcan at the Renaissance Fair on Big Bang Theory

And that thing that Sheldon is holding? Chris has one. He brought it with them to the Ren Fen. I am not kidding. I don't have a picture. I should, but I don't. Things were a little hectic that morning when they left, so I didn't get the picture. And he's not holding it in front of the Tardis.  Turns out, Mikelle hid the device somewhere int he car. I guess she got the same issues with it that she did with his original Renaissance outfit. 

Just a cute picture from last week that isn't really part of this, but wanted to post anyway.

Yeah, this one too.

Chompie and Christiam playing Wii

Chompie early in the morning with a Donut

Chompie at the Science Fair across town that Chris and Christian helped judge.

Chompie with a Homemade Rocket Ship from the Science Fair

Chompie with a Buttermilk Bar from Bosa Donuts

Who is Chompie, you may ask? I'll get to him in the next post. Haha. I know if I end here, I'll HAVE to come back quickly for the necessary closure. You don't post weird pictures of a little alligator toy without some sort of explanation. Well, I don't.

Face Palm

We survived Spring Break, but I feel my brain has been fried. Plus, I did two stupid things and they occurred two days in a row. I forgot two events/appointments. It's one thing to have a lapse once in awhile, but twice in two days? 

I really beat myself up over these kinds of lapses because competence is really important to me. It drives me crazy when people say they'll do something and then not do it. And here I did it two days in a row. 

In fact, yesterday in Primary there was a fun "Time Machine" set up for Sharing Time. I said, "Oh good. Can I go back to Thursday? If I can re-do Friday and Saturday, that would be sweeeet!" 

On the subject of the Primary Time Machine, later I asked Christian about it. 

Me: So cool, they had a Time Machine in Primary today, huh?
Christian: It was fake.

(face palm)

And this basically sums up Mikelle's Spring Break. Well, Zoey's involvement doesn't, but the kitchen table location and Mikelle in front of the laptop certainly does. I call it MindCRACK.

 Sure, it's actually called Minecraft, but if you're the least bit familiar with the popularity of this game, you'll know why I give it the name I do. 

Could this intimidate her to stop playing Minecraft?

Ohhh....she's brave...

Or she is THAT addicted...

At least on Saturday Chris and Mikelle went on a Daddy/Daughter date to the Renaissance Festival. I was hoping Chris could talk her into having her hair braided all pretty at the Renaissance Festival, but instead, she came home with this:

And here are the completed collages. I am crossing my fingers that I can have one more finished by Friday (The Sugar Show). 

The Owl one turned out busier than I anticipated and the darker parts on the scan don't do it justice. Those areas are a dark pink/glittery area that doesn't "translate" well on a scan or photograph.   They just look like areas that are too dark. 

Therefore, I don't know how well the option of having "prints" of it available will turn out. 

"We Love the Nightlife" Mixed Media on Canvas: Patterned Paper, Drawings, Maps, Ribbon, Glitter, Watermedia

"You're Never Too Tall For Heels" Mixed Media on Canvas: Patterned Paper, Drawings, Maps, Ribbon, Glitter, Watermedia

 Until Next Time...

First Day of Spring

But Spring around here is basically the Summer Intro. 

So moving on...

The Sugar Show is less than 2 weeks away. Actually, it's only 9 days away. ACK! I'll be ready, but it's feeling really close.

I didn't want to trump Christian's birthday with these little additions.  

First of all, this was a custom order that I completed a while ago, but it was a present for a 12-year old girl whose birthday was yesterday. I didn't want to post it until her birthday had come and gone. 

Personal Details have been obscured for Privacy Reasons

The story behind this one below is sometime between July 2012 and the end of 2012 I drew this on a small notebook page. It was a cheap 5x7 flip notebook from Staples and each page has that purple border. I filled it in. I ran across the drawing and figured it would make a cute postcard design.  The postcard is small, less than 4x6 in. I'm selling it for $3 and no shipping/postage charge for domestic orders.  I'll even throw it in for free with other orders.

It's Vertical when I uploaded it. Why it flipped it, I don't know. Technology.....

And then there's my Collage experiments...I've been wanting to do this for a long time. I hope to have 3 or 4 for the Sugar Show. So far I'm on 1 1/2...

Preview of the completed one...

I use pieces of some of my own doodles as part of the collage. In this case, her skirt and some of the blue border.  And I love using maps for artwork! It all comes full circle considering I wanted a Double major with Geography, but had to settle for a Geography minor.

Next collages will feature Owls,  Moons and some fun Flower tricks! At least that's the plan for now!

Birthday Slideshow

 9 Years Ago today...my earliest baby and only non-induction baby arrived at 10:17am. He was 37 weeks and 6 Days. He was also my largest at 8 pounds 1 ounce. Who would have guessed? 

He made me the LUCKIEST mom on a LUCKYday! 

I was at my wit's end because I was in so much pain from so many pregnancy complications. I was counting the days to 38 weeks when I would finally receive my "mercy induction". That would have been March 19th. However, earlier at an appointment on the 16th I learned that I wouldn't go in for the induction until late at night on the 19th. I was in tears. There was so much ripping and burning pain in my abdomen...just to the left of my belly button. I can't describe the pain accurately, only in that the worse it was as I sat up or walked. If I lied down or reclined, the pain subsided somewhat, but by the time the baby was fully developed, the pain was too much to endure. 

I couldn't take it anymore. 

And then the St. Patrick's Day miracle came!

Age 3 Weeks - Easter Sunday April 11, 2004. MIkelle was 3 1/2 years old.

And now, 9 years later...

Quest for the perfect Birthday/St.Patricks Picture...Take 1...

Take 2?

Take 3?

What were we trying to do?

Success! And with Irish dancing!

Big Dude and Little Dude (Inside Joke)

"I had a T-shirt on that said, It's  my Birthday! What happened to it? Great, mom is going to make me wear it for a picture tomorrow..."

Opening the fun...

Awesome! Light-up Legos!

"Yes! This is like my First Birthday, only it's not my birthday and I'm going to town here with this cupcake!"

Mmmm....Oreo Cupcake

Yummy!

Happy Birthday Christian! 
(and yes, that birthday T-shirt picture will be taken quickly!)

Edited 3/18/13 to add:

 

Three Things in a Teacup

Yesterday, 3/15, was the designated "Family Celebration" day for Christian's birthday. He originally wanted to do some more outdoorsy things, such as the Goldfield Ghost Town near Lost Dutchman State park (beautiful!), and you'd think in MARCH, we would be able to do that!

However, being that the Devil paid his heating bill early (he must have gotten a nice Tax Refund), summer-like temps had already invaded here in Hell. Therefore, we went to Amazing Jake's in Mesa.  Amazing Jake's is basically a huge indoor over-stimulating cacophony of kid craziness.  

Therefore, the kids loved it. 

I was in the old person parent camp of "get me out of here".  I was also still sick, so that didn't help. And Amazing Jakes has a great deal with food.  Included with admission is an all you can eat buffet. If you have the metabolism of my offspring (like I did back when Arizona was only one area code) that kind of spread is heavenly. However, for me it's pure torture. Despite all the extra aerobic classes I've attended this week considering Mikelle can watch Alexander, I don't think it will help what the food situation at Amazing Jakes brought on.

Amazing Jake's is actually just a stone-throw away from the apartment Chris and I lived in for about a year and half   (and the first place we lived that had a full size washer and dryer! That is like the Holy Grail to me). I was sad to move out of that apartment in late 1997. However, Chris had to concentrate more on finishing school (we were both going to school and continued to do so, but he had to step it up a bit), so we had to make some interesting moves between then and late 1998 when we finally moved to the student housing at ASU East (now known as ASU Polytech). 

Anyway, that was another squirrel. Back to yesterday.

As I mentioned already, I was still sick so I forgot our good camera and when Alexander looked absolutely adorable riding the carousal with his Daddy, we also discovered Chris's phone was dead, so no camera abilities there. It's okay. There are so many adorable pictures of X-man, you'd think he was a first born. 

We finally commandeered Mikelle's I-pod camera for these shots on the teacups:

As I mentioned above, I'm still sick. I thought I was getting better a week ago, but it quickly all came back. I still pushed through all my Aerobic classes. However, my voice was shot and by the end of each day my throat would feel so swollen and I could barely speak at all.

I hadn't gone to the doctor because in the past, if I wasn't running a fever, I would be sent away with a "sorry...jut wait it out." Let me tell you, I was thrilled with that considering the $30 co-pay just to hear that by the end.

However, this time, maybe since I came in with this still going on for 10 days, he gave me a prescription for an antibiotic. Let's see how that pans out! It would be nice to stop coughing and popping cough/throat drops and Ibuprofen all the live long day. Last night after we arrived home from Amazing Jakes I fell asleep early. I never do that. I found Chris and Alexander on the couch around 3am. 

Back to the Saturday "omigosh...will someone please clean this up!" kind of fun.

A Squirrel Post

This is a Squirrel post in that I'm kind of all over the place in this entry.

I'm feeling better today, but my voice is shot and I did have to resort to more "low-impact" moves in my return to aerobics this morning (being that the illness made me miss two in a row! grrrr) 

Anyway, I knew I was feeling better yesterday because while my throat still hurt and I was all stuffy, tired and phlegm-like , I had energy to do something about the house. And at 7am! And yes, I was a little passive aggressive (a little passive aggressive? Me? Never!) in that I vacuumed the hall outside Mikelle's door while she was still asleep.  Hey, she had to be getting up anyway.

Anyway, I posted my Spring Blocks before, but here they are WITH the Easter examples. 

And seriously, can Alexander please STOP being so cute? It's really making things difficult when he's acting like a butthead. I don't want to create a monster here, but you can see why it's a challenge:

He insisted to wear Mikelle's Fedora to bed. He loves hats!

And....

Wait for it...

THIS OCTOBER....

WOOT! WOOT! WOOT!

I can never get tired of going to their concerts! I am so jazzed! The last one was August 2009. That was my 7th one. This October will be numero ocho. 

1998 Singles Tour...RAWR!

I think my favorite one so far was their December 1998 Singles Show (left). Still, their concerts do NOT disappoint. Christian is major DM fan, but I don't think he should go with us. He expressed interest, but I am concerned with some of their content. Not the lyrics per se, but more the stage "visuals". Some DM concerts would have been fine, but others? Not so much. I don't want to take a chance with him coming with us.  It'll most likely be Fall Break too, which makes bringing him with us more of a temptation. However, It would just be my luck that it's one of the more edgy and racy concerts compared to others. Oy.

But I do want to keep his "Devotion" to Depeche Mode alive!  They'll be on Letterman tonight. I'll watch it of course and make sure to DVR it for him. 

More to do for the Sugar show and the whole "Wife and Mom" thing. Toodles!