New Uppercase Living expressions on canvas

Here is an example of an Uppercase Living expression on canvas.  I first painted the canvas with a gold shimmery latex paint.  I had ordered TWO expressions from Uppercase Living (one brown, one burgandy).  I then separated the pieces to mix them up on the canvases, carefully measured and applied.  They turned out beautiful!  I then added a burgandy ribbon around the edges of the canvas.

Wow! I'm so behind!

I really need to get better at this, but we have been out of town off and on for the past week. Our kids were on spring break and we traveled to Nashville, TN to visit a couple whom my husband and I have been close friends with since college. It was great to see them and their family. We also got to do a little site seeing in Nashville. We visited the state capitol and the Bicentinnial State Park. We took the kids to the Parthenon replica as well. I'm posting a few of our pictures from trip. The funny thing (or not so funny thing) is that the cold weather followed us from the north to the south and we were walking around in 45 degree weather! Thankfully, since we arrived home, the weather has been beautiful and we are thoroughly enjoying the sunshine!

We were home for two days and then I had three Uppercase Living shows in Massachusetts! We traveled as a family to Springfield, MA where we visited the Springfield Science Museum. One of the highlights was visiting the Dr. Seuss National Memorial (Dr. Seuss was born in Springfield). The kids really enjoyed this leg of our trip but we are all very happy to be home.

So . . . I am in the midst of closing four shows and have two more coming up this weekend!

Wordless Wednesday

E-Mealz

So . . . for all of you busy mothers (and dads) out there who find 5 pm dinner time sneaking up on you, I have discovered E-Mealz! It costs $1.25 a week ($15 for 3 months). I will have someone actually planning my dinners for me AND my actual grocery list as well! I'm really excited about this and hope that it will simplify my life. The nice thing about it is that there is very little to no repetition on the dinners, which means that my family and I aren't going to tire of the same thing over and over and . . . . well, you get the point. Anyway, check out the link below!

My first completed knitting project!

A couple of years ago, I decided that I wanted to learn knitting. I'd like to learn how to crochet as well. So I finally took the plunge on March 11 and took a wonderful one hour class with Lisa, my teacher, at a yarn store nearby. So . . . I've been slowly working on my little hat project for the past few weeks and went in today to learn how to finish it off. Here is a picture of my first project. The hat will be a gift for my 20 month old nephew, Ethan. Kelli, you need to start talking to Ethan now about keeping hats on his head so he can proudly show it off!

Oh, the Love of a Guinea Pig

My 9 year old daughter is in love with her guinea pig. She and my 5 year old son acquired these cuddly creatures a few weeks ago. Sydney had been begging for a pet for a couple of years. We already have a shih-tzu. However, she has wanted something to call her own. We had delayed getting an additional pet for as long as possible I think. After doing a lot of research on hamsters versus guinea pigs, we decided that a guinea pig would be more of what she is wanting in a pet -- soft, cuddly, small, doesn't run away from you, not vicious. Anyway, Coconut is her guinea pig and Luke has a guinea pig named Lizzie. The two little ladies live in a cage which we made from a design we saw on http://www.cavygages.com/. The cage stays in Sydney's room and she is responsible for cleaning it out and keeping the area clean. I think she would live in the "pig pen" herself if we'd allow her to. Here is a picture I took yesterday of Sydney and Coconut. It was taken with my new camera! I finally decided on the Canon S5 IS because it isn't so complicated that I can't figure it out. Yet it is the closest to an SLR camera I can find.

Thinking Back on Easter

Easter was not our typical Easter this year. It didn't even feel like Easter. First of all, it is too COLD in the northeast to FEEL like an Easter holiday! Grant (our 11 year old son) was in a big Easter production on Saturday and Sunday at the church we've been attending. He had one of the main roles in a song. Well, lo and behold, who wakes up vomiting on Saturday morning? At first I thought that this stomach virus would move in and out quickly. However, he was still sick in the early afternoon. Not wanting to spread such a terrible thing to anyone else, I called the people in charge to let them know of the circumstances and to forewarn them that Grant may not be able to attend. Thankfully, prayers went up from us and the people at church and by 2:00 or 2:30 that afternoon, Grant was starting to feel better. Although he was late for the rehearsal before the performance, poor Grant finally made it in -- weary but alive. God is a great God and answered our prayers! Grant ended up doing well during all three performances and is finally starting to perk up this morning. The Easter production was really awesome and I'm glad that he got to take part in such a ministry.

Sunday evening we spontaneously arranged an after dark Easter egg hunt for our kids and a few neighbor friends. I think it was a big hit and we will probably be doing it again next year. The kids had flashlights and even though we didn't wait until pitch dark, it was fun for them to look for the eggs in the "almost" dark circumstances.

We didn't color eggs this year because of our busy schedule and we didn't even make our traditional Resurrection Rolls. Maybe next year . . .

Resurrection Rolls

Ingredients:
1 can refrigerated crescent roll dough
8 large marshmallows
Melted butter
Cinnamon
Sugar

Directions:
Give each child one triangle shaped section of crescent roll. This represents the tomb.
Each child takes one marshmallow which represents the body of Christ.
Dip the marshmallow in the butter and roll in cinnamon and sugar mixture. This represents the oils and spices the body was anointed with upon burial.
Lay the marshmallow on the dough and carefully wrap it around the marshmallow.
Make sure all seams are pinched together well. (Otherwise the marshmallow will "ooze" out of the seams)
Bake according to package directions.
Cool.
Break open the tomb and the body of Christ is no longer there!!
Celebrate God's love!