December Birthday

As of 4 a.m. this morning there are to teenagers in the household.
Happy 13th Birthday Navid, my Christmas baby . Love you.

The Christmas tree is decorated. So far we've only had to pull the cat out of the tree twice.
For the teen cousins that are receiving gift cards or money, these are a few gift boxes I made. I'll add a few extra trinkets and candy inside.
Daughter's Gingerbread house that we had to spray with "Fooey" (cat retardant). I'm now off shopping to find a few more gifts.

Mid-November

Can you believe it's mid- November and Thanksgiving is next week? I have all these projects in mind for Christmas (both for decorating and gifts) and I just realized I'd better get started very soon. I have to finish up a couple of items I'm working on but then I'll have to focus on the holidays.

I just finished this small stuffed doll that I'll be listing on Etsy in a bit. ***

Last week, just as I was thinking of getting dinner started, my son reminded me that he needed a jester type hat for a school activity the following day. He'd mentioned needing the hat the previous week but I had forgotten all about it. Anyway, I managed to gather the materials and put together the hat in a couple of hours. My sewing machine is in the laundry room which is right off the kitchen so I was able to go back and forth between preparing dinner and working on the hat. I was lucky to have some felt in my stash that matched the juggling balls and I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out.

The Beauty of Pollination

Had to share:

What Happened?

Mothers and Daughters/Fathers and Sons

I didn't plan to be away for so long. Not that I've always been a frequent poster but it's been months and months since my last one.
So what's been happening the last few months? Well once the weather warmed up I spent more time outdoors in the garden or hiking. Soon after the kids got out of school we left for Puerto Vallarta and had an absolutely wonderful time (twelve of us all together- best friends and their two kids, my sister, her husband and their two kids and myself, my husband and our two). We stayed in Nuevo Vallarta, visited downtown once for dinner and dancing, took a side trip to Sayulita twice but mostly spent time at the beach or poolside. Came home relaxed but that didn't last long.
A couple of weeks after arriving home I started feeling not so good. Each day it was something different, neck pain, lower back pain, mild nausea, no energy, low grade fever and then it all of the sudden hit me. I thought it was the flu but it didn't explain some of the other symptoms I was experiencing. To make a long story short, after a couple of days of blood work, and an ultrasound, I was told that I had an inflamed liver, I was tested for Hepatitis A and it came back positive (my doctor suspected this when I told her I'd been in Mexico). It was most likely something I ate in Mexico, when and where, I'll never know but I have my suspicions. I was told it would take time but that it was something I would recover from completely unlike other forms of Hepatitis. I was in bed for three weeks- my skin and eyes turned a lovely shade of yellow, I had no energy whatsoever and I lost 10 pounds ( I'm skinny anyway so this wasn't good). I was told to drink lots and lots of water, keep away from sugar or fatty foods and to have blood work done every 3-4 days (now just once a month). For weeks I was struggling with anxiety and I wasn't motivated to do much but I'm so much better now. I'm still recovering after 3 months and it's only been in the last tw0 weeks that I've felt somewhat back to normal. My liver enzyme levels are still high but nowhere close to what they were when I was first tested.
I'm grateful that I'm feeling better and if there's any good news in all of this it's that I'm eating healthier, exercising more and I'm now immune to Hep A. Get vaccinated against Hep A if you haven't, you don't have to travel to get it.
Looking forward to posting on a more regular basis.

Fabric by Dena Fishbein

Excited to find this fun fabric at our local arts and crafts shop.
http://www.denadesigns.com/

Working on:

A little knitting,

a bit of painting,

and some Mermaid making.

Woodland Style

Woodland Style by Marlene Hurley Marshall

I received this beautiful book from my sister on Mother's Day and had to share some images.

Filled with photos of creations by talented artists and designers.

Ideas and projects for creating, decorating and even cooking with natural elements.

Mumford & Sons

I have to share my love for this band. They'll be in Oakland on Thursday (Railroad Revival Tour) Unfortunately, it's sold out. Pause my playlist at bottom of page before playing videos.

http://www.mumfordandsons.com/



I recently bought their CD and I have to keep myself from playing it over and over again.

Spring in Our Garden