beading: artistic stone

I based this beading creation off my good friend, Sara Hardin's free project idea featured on Soft Flex Company's web site. I made the design my own by choosing a different shape of artistic stone beads, using black accent beads instead of brown, and stringing with soft flex sterling silver extreme 925 flex .019 beading wire instead of soft flex beading wire in butterscotch and finish both the necklace & bracelet off with a sterling silver toggle clasp. This was one of my favorite designs to create and is so much fun to wear. Thanks for providing the inspiration, Sara!

sending love & support

Julie, a friend from my East Valley Hip Mamas Meetup Group, invited us over to her home for a wonderful event. She belongs to a Navy Moms online support group and found out about this website where you can "adopt" a serviceman / woman. There are many men and women who are deployed overseas and are living without many things that we take for granted. Last Friday, we put together care packages to send overseas.

Julie had group members drop things off at her home before the date and the 6 of us that got together to put the packages together all brought donations. We packaged up 12 boxes with food, tea, hot chocolate, condiments, toiletries, magazines, blank greeting cards, books, DVD's and beanie babies (soldiers carry these to give to children they meet while deployed). It was awesome. I am so happy to have helped. Thanks to Julie for getting this together and for all those in the EVHM group who donated time, items & money for postage!

obama mama

our anniversary

Yesterday, was our 7 year wedding anniversary. We spent the day as we do most days, working at home together. Our kids were with Nannie who agreed to keep the kids for dinner so, Bert & I could go out. That is a huge treat these days. We tried to go to an indian restaurant but found they were closed on m,ondays so, we instead went to an irish pub in downtown tempe called Rula Bula. We had been there a few times before years ago. The weather was nice so we sat outside in the courtyard and enjoyed each others company and some fabulous homemade fish & chips and for dessert, irish bread ice cream which was heavenly. Bert & I realized yesterday that we in fact spend on average 23 hours together every day! How sweet it is to be loved by you :)

homemade jam

Here's my second batch of jam. 2 weeks ago I made blueberry & today I made strawberry. I don't know how the strawberry tastes yet but, the blueberry was fabulous! I think it could use a little less sugar so I'm going to try the sugar free pectin next time and see if that helps tone it down just a bit. I used the freezer jam method and love it. It was super easy and because you don't cook the fruit it retains its natural vitamins. It feels great to have homemade jam made with fresh fruit and no added junk in it plus, it was fraction of the cost of gourmet jams. My kids inspired me to try making jam due to the sheer amount of pb&j's they eat!

sketching: road trip 2

It's amazing that I still have more sketches to post from Alpine. Getting away from the everyday and enjoying cooler weather really inspired me. Above is the wonderful wood burning stove from our cabin that Bert lit a few times a day.


I traced the outline of one of the mountains we saw while driving. I wanted to play with negative space.


This view while driving was just so pretty. I think i was too much in awe to really get a good sketch out of this scene.


I did this one looking out the cabin window. The pine trees weren't exactly standing in such a nice row but to me that is how I felt they were at the moment so that is how I sketched them. I really like this sketch and hope to paint it on a larger scale one day.


This is the only sketch that i started in alpine and then finished on the drive home. It started out as the outline of a delicate flower but, after i looked back at it the petals took on the resemblance of ladybugs wings. How fun!

swimming in style

I received a chain email from my aunt and almost died when I saw this picture in it. I'm pretty sure, no positive, I had this exact bathing suit as a child. This image sure brought back memories (and with me memories are sometimes hard to come by). What style!

sketching: road trip 1

cactus sketch on the 87 headed north

forest sketch done on the 260 headed east

pine sketch on the back porch of the dinky castle in alpine

daisies sketch done at our cabin while in alpine

salt river canyon sketch on the 60 headed south

dinky castle

The Mead's dinky castle! Here is the corn planter located on the side of the road as a marker for where to turn to reach Carla & Mark's neighborhood. How quaint!


You drive down the dirt road with breathtaking views of pine trees and mountains ahead and wildflowers bloom on either side.


Mark and Carla are wonderful jewelry artists. They chose to leave the phoenix area and move north to Alpine, Arizona about 2 years ago and they live in a beautiful cabin style home they built (aka the dinky castle). Please visit their website www.blackmountainjewelry.com to admire and purchase some amazing hand crafted fine jewelry.


Here's me & Carla in front of her home.


Bert & Mark in position on the couch. Picture taken from the bedroom loft.

Carla cooking some yummy dinner. She made dinner for us all weekend and it was superb! She is an amazing cook and everything was delicious plus, we had leftovers to take back to our cabin each night. What a hostess!

Well, I can't post about the lovely dinky castle without paying homage to all the wonderful woodland friends in the backyard. Carla is well stocked on peanuts for the blue jays and squirrels and sugar water for the hummingbirds (and boy there were a lot of humming birds) See Carla feeding the blue jays above!


Here are some stellar blue jays. See the baby up top chirping to her mama!

Here's me feeding a peanut to the abert's squirrel begging below the back porch.


The hummingbirds were the toughest to photograph. It is amazing how quick they are and how many there were! No joke at dusk there were sometimes 20+ hummingbirds feeding on the back porch. They aren't shy and fly right up to and all around you. I picked up some mini hummingbird feeders today via www.freecycle.org a recycling network. The Freecycle Network™ is made up of members across the globe. It's a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It's all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills. Pretty sweet.



Just before we left, Bert, Carla & I enjoyed a road trip satisfying lunch at the Bear wallow Cafe. Thank you to Carla & Mark for a lovely weekend. We loved the R&R and are looking forward to returning with the kids! Love you.

cabin fever

Here stand Bert & I on our cabin porch at Deer Dancer Cabins in Alpine, AZ. This place was fabulous! Rustic and simple with all the amenities (or non amenities) you need for a nice relaxing weekend. The cabins were secluded with pine tree views from every window!




Above stands Bert inside our cabin next to the wood spiral staircase with faux branding symbols (nice touch) that leads to the bedroom loft. And the second photo is the view looking down to our living room from the bedroom. Instead of tv, Bert made a fire a few times a day for us to enjoy.


Look at all these wonderful goodies our hostess Carla left for us in the cabin! It was such a sweet treat. We arrived on Friday, August 15 which was my 30th birthday. She left me a gift bag with a beautiful soy candle and natural soap from the Paisley House, this adorable vase and fresh picked flowers. She also left us 2 cup cakes and korbel in the fridge, peanuts to feed the birds & squirrels and advil in case we experienced an "altitude" headache. I also later found out she went around and straitened all the curtains and left a couple windows open for fresh air. Thank you, Carla for making our little cabin in the woods feel so welcoming!