Cheekwood

A friend and I took our kids to Cheekwood Yesterday. We enjoyed a pleasant picnic at the ponds and then we walked the gardens. I've found that I like photographing flowers almost more than I like taking pictures of the kids. Flowers are always still...
Anyway, here are some of my pictures from the day:







Oh, and Emet made new best friends with the plastic crossing guard.

New Door

We have been working on the outside of our house for...forever, it seems like. We currently have one window (on the front of the house) painted the correct colors, one window scraped and primed, and one window half scraped. We've had the front door stripped of it's dark gray paint for about a year now; we had decided to stain it. But after involuntarily commenting on other people's bright painted doors, Seth said to me "Ummm, it seems like you want to paint the door instead of stain it."
"Oh, I guess, I do!" So we decided to stain the inside of the door (which is yet to be done) and paint the out side the same color as the window sashes.
I forgot to get a "before" picture, but below is the inside of the door which pretty much looks exactly the same as the outside before we painted it...so, you get the picture.
Before

After

Next we need to take off the iron door, add numbers and a good light fixture, and finish painting the inside of the portico. Oh, I can't wait 'til it's all done!

Surprise!

We've been with out power for the last 48 hours. Had to have the outside meter box completely rebuilt. Total bummer. But now the power is back and I had a surprise when I entered the Internet again. Someone featured me in their treasury on Etsy. I feel so honored! It expires in 4 hours, so if you're not too late, pop over and see all the cool things she put together. Click here.

Plantage

Someone sent me this lovely link. The baby and I sat mesmerized. Go take a little breather and click here.
(Music by Under Byen)

Oooops....

I won't be working for at least a week or so, or putting any pressure on the palm of my hand because yesterday I did something really stupid. I tried to use the tip of a butcher knife to get the seed out of an avocado by holding half of the avocado in my right hand and sticking the knife in the seed with my left. You can probably guess what happened with my story build-up, but apparently the knife found the seam of the pit and slid all the way through the avocado straight into my hand. The bone that is in the middle of my hand stopped the knife from going all the way through. I nearly fainted from the shock of it and the massive amount of adrenalin that was released in a short amount of time. Don't worry, I'm o.k. and I should heal fine (in lieu of stitches I opted for a superglue type substance that holds wounds shut,) but I just needed to recount the events to hopefully get them to quit replaying over and over in my head. I didn't sleep very well last night...

Elizabeth Foster and Julia Martin

I bought myself a new painting this weekend at the OFF 12th event. It's an Elizabeth Foster painting and as soon as I saw it I knew I wanted it. I had been looking for something to hang in a grouping with a new Julia Martin painting and one of Seth's that he gave me for Mother's Day. This one was my favorite and it had the right colors to balance out my grouping perfectly! Yay!
(Top: Elizabeth Foster, Bottom: Julia Martin)


FYI, Elizabeth has an amazing voice too! Check out her Myspace to see more pictures of her art work and hear some of her music.

It's Time to Bake a Pie

Oh. My. Good. Ness. There is nothing like a berry pie! The kids were excited because they got to have dessert and they were proud because they "helped" make the pie by picking all the berries. If you don't have a Mulberry tree, you can still make a berry pie. They are super easy with a lot of vitamins too!


Berry Pie
For the crust:
Cut 2/3 cup of shortening into 2 cups of flour until all the pieces are at least as small as peas. Push all of the flour mixture to one side of the bowl, and with a fork stir in 1 Tablespoon at a time of water until you have mixed in 6-7 Tablespoons. Moved the moistened dough to the other side of the bowl as you work. You will never get it all moistened. There will be some dry parts, but just try to make them stick to your dough ball. Don't stir or knead more than is absolutely necessary. Divide the dough into two equal balls. Wrap one up on plastic and put in the fridge until later. Roll the other one out on a floured surface to line the bottom of an un-greased pie plate.

For the filling:
Mix 1/2 to 3/4 cup sugar with 3 Tablespoons flour in a medium bowl. Add 5-6 cups of berries of your choice. Stir. Dump the whole mixture in your prepared pie plate.
Get out the other ball of dough. Roll it out on a floured surface and drape over the top of the pie. squish the edges together and trim the excess. Cut slits in the top. Baste with melted butter and sprinkle with sugar.
Cover the edges of the pie with foil to prevent over browning and bake in a 375 degree oven for 25 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 25-30 minutes or until the crust is golden. Cool completely on a wire rack.
Enjoy!

MiniBlog

Have you heard of the Mini Blog? It's a great directory/index of Etsy shops. Just one more way you can navigate buying that perfect handmade gift. Check it out.


Click the picture to go to the MiniBlog.

Mulberry Pie

Our Mulberry tree started as a pesky weed a few years ago. When it got a little bigger, Seth said he was going to get it out of the ground, but I asked him to let it stay because it provided some much needed shade on the back part of our driveway. When it got big enough, it began producing berries, enough to taste and to share with the kids...but this year, this year there are berries upon berries upon berries. The kids pick them and eat them and they pick them and save them for later. Flocks (I'm not kidding, whole flocks) of birds perch in the tree and dine. Tomorrow, I'm baking a pie. Seriously. There are enough berries for a whole pie. Maybe even two. Yum.

Event Pics

We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day to have an outdoor event. Here are a few of my pictures throughout the day. The whole day was great. Great music, cool vendors...I hope they do this again!

OFF 12TH

Don't forget about the OFF 12TH event tomorrow! It's located right near "The Mirror!" Vendors and music...Free entrance! I'll be there!

Yesterday I made...

...these bellflower earrings. I'll be posting them in the shop today.

The Light Pink Peonies are Blooming!

...and FYI, each color smells different!

A Liza Shtromberg Keeper

Did I tell you about the ring that my sweet Seth presented me with? It was on our date, and I had been admiring a Liza Shtromberg ring, so he secretly bought it and tapped my leg under the table at dinner. I thought he wanted to hold hands or something, but when I reached under the table, there was a box! So sweet! He never really buys me jewelry (probably because I'm a jeweler) but it was so nice to get something from a designer I respect, and that I don't have to sell off my body! It's mine! I get to keep it! Yay!

I've Been Featured!

One more thing, I've been featured over at Something Just To Start! If you get a chance stop by!

The OFF 12TH Event

I'm sorry I've been kind of lazy on posts lately. And I'm afraid this week won't be much better. I'm gearing up for a show this weekend. If you live in the Nashville area, you should think about coming to this event. There will be lots of great music and some vendors (including me.) Check out the OFF 12TH Myspace page to see a schedule of musicians and the vendors who will be there (i.e. top friends.)

Mother's Day Gifts

Mother's Day, for me, began earlier this week when the kids started bringing home things that they had made for me at school. Elijah brought home a necklace made out of a jar lid, and several construction paper Mother's Day cards and a magnetic picture frame adorned with tissue paper flowers complete with a picture of him. Kaleb, not to be out done, began to come up with presents of his own. Several colored pictures and a saxophone concert later, on the day before the actual holiday, he presented me with this lovely chart explaining me. It's so sweet and creative, but I asked him "Only ten percent caring?" "Oh, Mom," he replied, "You're more caring than that, but I had to make it all fit. You know I can't have more than 100%!"
At least I'm raising a child that knows his math!

Sweet, Sweet Peonies

I love this season in particular for all the blooming flowers. Our hot pink peonies have begun to bloom (we still have the light pink and the white ones to go) and their sweet perfume smell and all their luscious petals sweep me off my feet whenever I step foot outdoors. Yesterday, Seth cut a large bouquet to keep in the house. There is nothing like fresh cut flowers to wake up a sleepy house! I love having them in here, although I've been sneezing some. I've promised myself that I will not go over to them and smell them up close (awful allergies) but I have to admit, it is very tempting.

New Pieces at Bijougirl Designs

I've been working this week to add some new items to my shop. Check it out! Mother's Day is coming up!

Emet got his hair cut.

Not only has he gone from looking like a baby to a big kid, but instead of Bozo, he now looks like a Precious Moments figurine.

Express Bijougirl Designs

The show went great this weekend. I sold tons and every one of my business cards were taken! Yay!
I still feel like I need to recuperate and catch up here at the house though. It's amazing how gross things can get on the home front when I neglect it for a couple of days! So...back to work!

The Greater Story...Wow.

Yesterday at church, Seth painted one 12 x 8 foot painting during each service. Four services, four paintings. While everyone was listening to our pastor speak about God's Greater Story, they were watching Seth paint it.
The story ends like this: God's ultimate purpose is that His Glory would be fully displayed through His people who reign with Him in Creation (Revelation 21 and 22.) He wants us to have a relationship with Him and He wants to do this whole beautiful creation thing together. Wow. Just that together part blows my mind. That a great and powerful God would want to do life with me. But what about the beginning of the story?
God created a wondrous creation and a people to reign in it with Him.(Genesis 1 and 2) It sounds a lot like the end. So what went wrong? What was man's answer to God's invitation?
He/she decided that they wanted to rule without God. (Genesis 3)
I don't know about you, but I can't do anything without God, but still that foolishness that Eve thought would be wisdom, runs in my blood and I struggle every day to remember that I can't do it with out God. And so many times I try!
So what did God do in response to our choice?
He became a man, to suffer and die the death we deserve...so that we can have the life we don't. Whoa... I can't even write that with out a whole range of emotion going through me.
And why did God have to go through this whole story? Why didn't he just skip to the end? Because with out all of it, we wouldn't fully know who God is. With out our "fall from grace" we wouldn't know that God is full of grace and mercy; which is such a beautiful part of life. With out Jesus's death, we could never know the height and width and depth of His love. How could we? Every piece has it's place in the story.
Here are Seth's paintings. The first is Creation, the second: The Fall, third: Redemption, and the fourth is Re-creation.


And I love this picture the most. To me it symbolizes how Seth has joined his personal story with God's greater story. Because Jesus has taken Seth's place on the cross, Seth has a hope that will not disappoint, because his life is secure. The end of Seth's story will be the the same ending as God's story. And Seth is taking his part in the greater story right now. Amazing.