What's Happening in MY World!

Good Morning! I guess I should say Good Morning... It is before 10 a.m. and so far my morning is going good. I AM a little groggy though, so it there are a few snippets here and there, I must have dozed off on my keyboard.

I did not, however, doze off while I was making these bad boys... Aren't they fabulous? You can check out this pair and  many more at my Make Up and Mud FACEBOOK Shop.


 I LOVE the little wings in the center behind the purple and silver bead... So far, I've kind of stuck to my comfort zone when I created jewelry, and I haven't really made any "out there" pieces. Well, that's about to end, because I keep getting requests for BIGGER pieces with more "Sparkle!" So, they're coming!

I think I may do a little painting today. I painted 6 wine glasses for a Bride and her Bridesmaids a few weeks ago, and I found that I really quite enjoyed watching a regular glass come to life.  I have a HUGE oversized wine glass that I purchased as a centerpiece for our wedding, and it has just been sitting all alone since March. So, I've started painting a Christmas piece, and so far so good! I guess I'll break all of the "Creativity Rules" and give you a sneak peak... (Remember, It is NOT finished!!)

TA-DA... What do you think?

Ok, If anyone can tell me how to turn the photos after I have uploaded them, PLEASE let me know! Even if I edit the picture and turn it upright in my program, it refuses to stay that way when I upload it to my blog! Grrr....

For now, just cock your head to the right, and you can see what is slowly becoming Old St. Nick. I'm still working on his mouth, so right now he seems to resemble a cat with his whispy whiskers... That will hopefully change a little later today. After I have completed all of the painting, I will then add one more entire layer of paint to finish him off, and then I will bake him in the oven for a while to make sure all of the paint is sealed forever!

(I have to add a funny little comment... As with just about anything, he looks so much better in person. When Evan saw him the other day, he exclaimed, "Wow! He really actually looks like the REAL Santa!") I can't help but crack up, because the way he said it is as if he was expecting him to look like a fake Santa... He was so excited! haha...

I only have one more oversized glass, and it is a martini glass. I'm not quite sure what I want to paint on that one yet. I'm thinking about painting a few Christmas glasses with some Holly or Mistletoe on them, but I haven't decided yet. I'd like to have some Christmas glasses, and it would be even better to create and paint some beautiful pieces to sell.

In the Spring, I painted two canvas's for our bedroom with one of our initials on each one. The "S" hangs over Scott's side of the bed, and the "C" hangs over mine (obviously). The problem is, I made them in Spring colors to match our Spring Comforter... Now, Fall Season is here, and I have to make two more pieces to match our Winter Comforter... Any ideas? 

Here is a picture of the current Initial Canvas's. I keep saying that I am going to hang curtains over that window...but so far, I'll I'm doing is "saying" it. I haven't bought curtains, and I'm probably going to wait a bit on that one. The canvas's look pretty cool in person, when the bed is actually made and the pillows are in place (which obviously isn't happening in this picture, and tends to not happen quite often...) Anyway, the Winter comforter I am going to switch this quilt out with is dark brown and light bluish/green... That's what is in the bathroom as well...

PLEASE give me some ideas for what to make next! I know this time I'm going to make the new pictures bigger than these are. I basically had painted two abstract canvas's, and I didn't like how they looked when I finished. Then I got the idea for "Initial" pictures above His/Her side of the bed, and I realized that the colors were similar to the bed quilt. I gave Scott the slightly darker canvas, because it looked more manly... :)

(FYI: I did not edit these pics, so please ignore the glare!)

And of course, I had to add a picture of our little princess, JoJo. She obviously loves the bright colors in our "Summer" bed quilt. It goes with her "tan" well... haha.

Ah... Yes. The Scrabble game Scott and I recently played. I beat him. Again. We actually played Scrabble three times on the very last night of our Honeymoon.While Most honeymooners spend their last night of Bliss trying to savor each moment together and take advantage of every piece of new lingerie received at the Bachelorette Party... NOT the New Beltons. No, we savored every last moment of our last night together trying to see who could come up with the best Triple Word Score... Romantic Huh?

The bottom line is: I won. All three games. And every game since then. And every Scrabble game I've ever played him in. Scott says his brain "just doesn't 'think' like that." My FAVORITE game is Scrabble, and I love it so much, that I play with myself when he's not home. I guess my left side and right side of my brain are playing each other... Seriously. I have to say, I am a word fanatic. And if Scott was trying to get me to play a "Numbers" game, I probably would have gone and put on Lingerie on our last Honeymoon night instead of playing the game. But, I do complete book after book of Crossword puzzles, and there's nothing like the feeling of being in a situation where a complex word is used and I'm the only one who knows what it means, because I had it in one of my previous Crossword Puzzles... Doing Crossword puzzles will make you a Scrabble whiz.

I can sit for hours and do crossword puzzles. Who knew? I started doing them after High School and I got addicted. I have tons and tons of those little Crossword puzzle books, because when I finish every puzzle in the entire book, I'm so proud of myself that I can't seem to throw it out. For me, it's like throwing out my High School Diploma. So needless to say, I take up wonderful space by saving all of the Crossword Puzzle books I have finished just so I can remind myself that I am smart... especially after I have one of my "Blonde" moments... Just call me the Queen Cruciverbalist!

I also love anything with Trivia. And luckily, Scott loves playing Trivial Pursuit. Now I'm going to let you in on an embarrassing secret... When the kids come to our house for the weekend, we all play Trivial Pursuit together. I'm fully convinced that kids today are being taught far more than we ever thought about being taught at ages 11 and 8. Now here's the sad part: When we play Trivial Pursuit with the kiddo's, we have to use two decks of the cards from two different Trivial Pursuit games. Why? Guess....

Yes, Scott uses the "REGULAR" Trivial Pursuit cards and Izzy, Evan, and I use the "JUNIOR" trivial pursuit cards. haha... That's what happens when your husband is 16 years older than you. He laughs constantly, because there's no way I'm going to be able to answer questions about something that happened in the 1980's, because I wasn't born until 1987. Laugh all you want buddy, but the youngins whip your booty quite a lot, don't we? (Love you sweets!)

(Also, with everything that has gone on with my MS and brain lesions, I have a lot of moments where I second quess things. I do little games, like I'll time myself to see if I can finish a puzzle in under three minutes, or I"ll get someone to call the clues out from across the room to do the puzzle without looking at it... as long as I can still do it, my brain is still working great!... even though that's questionable by many..haha. It keeps my brain fresh!)

More Photos from our Honeymoon can be found in my Facebook Honeymoon Albums.

If you decide to click on the Honeymoon Link above, don't forget to check out the other two Honeymoon albums as well. I'll provide the links to them below.

Honeymoon Album #2
Honeymoon Album #3

And we STILL have more to add so check back often!!


Moving on: here are the baby birds that used to live on our porch. They were there until mid-August, and it was so amazing to watch them grow. Then one day, they were hopping around the yard, and I got to watch them as they tried and finally succeeded in learning how to fly. They are baby miracles if you ask me...

And this beautiful Sunset was from our ONE beach trip this summer. I still can't believe we only got to go on one beach trip. Each Summer, I usually lose count of how many times I go to the beach... At least we got to take the Kiddos to the beach, and they had a great time!! This was one beautiful sunset we were able to experience together! Notice the shadow of the man sitting on the bridge in the distance on the far right of the picture... I'm thankful that I got to capture this! You can check out more photos in my Facebook Vacation Album.

Well, I'm about to get back to business. I have more photos to edit today, and I'm going to work on organizing more of my jewelry inventory. After I feel like I can take a break, I'm going to paint a little for fun. I've started setting the alarm on the stove, so I don't lose track of time. TIME MANAGEMENT is not one of my strong suits, and I'm having to force myself to exhibit some control, because if I don't I will never make it selling my work! Discipline is the key, and I haven't quite mastered it, but I'm working on it every day.

I would really appreciate your comments and ideas for any new pieces. I love seeing how many people are reading my blog, and I have thoroughly enjoyed watching the numbers rise and rise throughout the past few months. It makes me feel connected to the world, even if I don't get out much anymore.  I would ask you for your feedback though. I can't give you what you want, make you what you like, or tell you anything interesting if you don't let me know what you would like to see or hear.

I'm going to try to fill you in more often on what's going on around our house. It's quite a bit more interesting than you would think, but then again, I'm so random and sporatic that it almost has to be interesting. Just as I included the baby birds above and the bedroom canvas pictures, I want to continue to show you those parts of our lives. I took the pictures of the canvas paintings in July and the baby birds in August, but I haven't taken the time to upload them until now. Why I chose now, I have no idea. Maybe I'm tired of being in the shadows, and I'm ready to mingle back in to the "REAL WORLD." It's easy to forget that the world is out there when you're home all the time... which I am... obviously.

I almost forgot... What do you think about Video Logging, otherwise known as Vlogging? I'm thinking of posting a video once a week to my blog or profile, just to keep you updated with the "REAL" me, LIVE in person... sort of. It makes me nervous, because I don't want to be one of those babbling You Tube videos, but I'm tryint to find a way to better connect to you. Should I post a few videos? Hmm.. Let me know what you think!

Well, HERE I COME!



 Again, THANK YOU so much for reading my blog... I love you all!