Fun & Flair

Making skirts is not just an activity I reserve exclusively for my children. I have been known on occasion to make an article of clothing for me. This is one such occasion. I found this fabric at Walmart of all places. It came pre-gathered on the top, and could be sewn into either a dress with straps or used as a skirt. I elected a skirt.



It was very simple. I made one seam in the back to sew the flat piece of fabric into a tube shape. Pressed up the bottom hem, sewed it, and voila I was done. I had the grey tie from another skirt I bought this summer, but never did like the tie with the skirt it came with. However it is perfect for this skirt. Total cost of the project: $17.97 for one yard of fabric. (I know pricey for a yard of fabric, but the picture really does not do the fabric justice. The flowers are woven into the material, so it is not cheap fabric, nor does it look cheap in person)

Best part, the oohs and awe's I got a church when I came strutting in wearing my super cool skirt. Alright I am vain I admit it, blame my mother, I do.

Who says New Years is one day only????

My ultra awesome visiting teacher brought me a bottle of "bubbly" along with glasses and party poppers to celebrate the New Year. Since we spent New Years with at Grandma and Grandpa's house we did not get to use our gift on the date it was intended for so we decided a day or two later to revisit New Years.

My kids think "toasting" is about the coolest thing ever.

Note how Katie holds the glass, a pro at two years old, this can't be good....

Poor Lauren, she had Mark on one side and Katie on the other, with both of them demanding to "toast." Not sure she got to drink anything, but she sure clanged a lot of glasses.

If she has one.....

As part of my new jewelry making hobby, I made a cute necklace for Lauren. Lauren sat at the table and helped me design it. Katie, not to be left out, was at the table too. I had not intended to make Katie a necklace, thinking she was a little young for a necklace that was not plastic, but Katie told me in no uncertain terms that if Lauren was going to have a necklace she would be having one too.....

Here is Lauren's necklace.

Katie's matching necklace. I have to tell you she is quite proud of her necklace. At church on Sunday she showed it off to anyone who would look at her....a true diva.

Bucket list, item #2

I am the accessory queen. A title I embrace fully and whole heartily, and I am not ashamed in the least to call my own. I have never met a piece of jewelry that did not agree with me.

After my trip to China and spending waaaayyyy toooooo much time in the jewelry section of the market I decided I needed to make jewelry making a new hobby.

Now the new hot item in Utah is pendants. These pendants have lobster claw claps on them so they can be enter changeable on a necklace. Some of the pendants are made with trays, and others have the design between to pieces of beveled glass, and soldered together with metal.

Well the soldering project seemed a little overwhelming so I decided to start with the trays. I ordered some tray blanks online and begin to experiment.

Here is the result.

I took scrapbook paper and cut it to the size of the tray, then I "blinged" it out with all sorts of shiny, sparkly things. Now when I first did this in December for my secretaries, I used resin to seal the tray, but I have to tell you resin was a pain the butt to work with. It was messy, sticky, got thick really fast, and it was hard to work into the entire tray. So I got on the Internet to see if there was an easier method, and sure enough there was. It is called "Ultra thick embossing enamel" It is a crystallized substance that you place over the top, once you are finished with embellishment. You place the tray in the oven on about 375 degrees and the crystallize substance melts and leaves a clear sealant over your tray. It takes about 4 minutes. Once the tray has cooled down, its done, no drying time required like the resin.

As you can see I added the lobster claw clasp, along with more jewels to of course add to my bling...


I am totally in love with my new jewelry...however I still want to learn how to bead, and I now want to learn how to make the pendants that have the glass and are soldered together, so alas the bucket list projects continues.....

Third Grade Sale.

Every year the third grade at Lauren's schools hosts a sale. One of the purposes of the sale is to learn about economics. Lauren had to decided what she wanted make, determine the cost to make the product, make the product, and price the product. Lauren chose flower bows.

Lauren making her flower bows.

Parental help was allowed, I was in charge of anything that required the hot glue gun.

Lauren with her finished product. The money the third grade earns from the sale is used toward a fun field trip.

Mark in letters

With the girls both having their names in wooden letters on the walls in their room, Mark, ever a protector of fairness and justice, let me know he needed his name on his wall too. So four wooden letters, a little scrapbook paper, and a few embellishments later, "Mark" now resides on the wall in his room.

Pretty dang cute, don't you think?

Brave or Crazy, you decided, part three

Monday brought another fun activity, a place called Bullwinkle's, which had arcade games, and a giant play maze, like McDonald's, only much more intense. The best part, the maze was free to kids under three!

Katie, contemplating her next move.

Katie, a view from the top.

Kallie, swinging from the ropes.

After Bullwinkle's, it was on to Wendy's for lunch, yes say it now, its fun when aunt Tiffany comes! Meanwhile Katie is trying to figure out how to convince mommy to continue the party when she returns to Utah...

On Tuesday it was playgroup at the Church. Basically moms bring their children, there is a whole fun closet full of ride on toys, and children four and under run wild in the church gym, while moms gab, a win-win for all. Katie got to meet Kallie's friends, and I got to meet Arianne's friends.

Finally no visit with Arianne is complete unless come crafting takes place. I was working on a jewelry project and Arianne was finishing up a cute Valentines decoration for her front door. Notice I only allowed her arm in the picture, because NO women should have to have her picture taken for at least 90 days after giving birth.

Since the mommies were crafting, the girls of course had to play with "foam" which is essentially these little foam balls that can be molded into shapes or things.

We had a super fun time with Arianne and family, I left feeling like Arianne was on her feet, and going to just fine with two kids.

Brave or Crazy, you decided, part two

As you can imagine with two 2 year olds, dress up was the order of the day, EVERY day. Sometimes more than once a day.

Kallie in her finest.

Katie, singing, like all good Disney Princesses do.

On Sunday we made cookies, the choclolate chip varriety.

Because these girls have Ison/Hales genes, they like the cookie dough more than the cookie!

On a weather note, the weather here is playing with my mind...., ok it does not take much to play with my mind..., but still. The first few days, it rained, which of course I anticipated, after all I was in Oregon in January. But on the third day, the rain stopped, the sun came out, it was green outside and 55 degrees. It felt like March. I had this overwhelming desire to purchase Easter dresses, hide plastic eggs, and eat really good chocolate Easter candy.....

Brave or Crazy, you decide, part one.....

Because I am the best big sister in the whole ENTIRE world, I traveled from my home in Utah to be with Arianne in Portland, post baby, and make sure she landed on her feet. (Truth be told, it was less about being a good sister, and more about avoiding be cursed by my mother...., ok not really, because I do love Arianne as if she was my own daughter, but the added side benefit is avoiding being cursed by my mother....)


Part of my job was to entertain Kallie so Arianne could bond with her new baby and get a little rest. Well the perfect person to aid in the entertainment of Kallie, is of course Katie.


I have to say Katie was a trooper in the car. We broke the trip down into two days, spending the first night in Idaho with Grandma Loretta.


One of the first orders of business was to go to the grocery store and obtain food, because in addition to entertaining Kallie, I needed to provide nourishing food for Arianne. I was feeling particularly brave and decided to venture to Albertsons with both two year olds.


Now you have to understand for both of these girls when they go to the grocery store, they are required to sit in the front of the cart, its all about containment of a two year old. However because we were no longer in Utah county, home of grocery carts that seat many a child, there was only one seat and two girls. This meant those girls were free range....and free range they were.....


We started out in the produce section, not necessarily by choice, but simply because it was closest to where we walked in. The freedom was a little much for them to handle. They were running around the produce section, tossing random fruits and vegetables into my cart, basically anything below 36 inches in height that they could get their hands on. Meanwhile I am trying to restock the produce section with items from my cart, while obtaining the items I actually needed.


At one point while I was mulling over bananas, the cart was commandeered from my side by the girls, and driven right into the bakery section, specifically right into a bakery display, knocking over sweet and delicious products, with a loud bang. Ummmm.....lets just say the experience did not get any better after that and ended with Kallie chasing Katie in the cereal isle, which resulted in Kallie falling and hit her head.....I do believe I have been banned from the Albersons located on Wilsonville Road, in Wilsonville Oregon.


For the record I want it to be know by shoppers in the store that day, just come to Utah county and go to the grocery store, you will see our behavior was really not THAT bad! And to Albertsons, come to Utah county and you will understand how to kid proof your store, I hold you partially to blame, after all don't you understand all the attractive nuisances you create for two year olds???? (That a legal term you know, go ask your corporate counsel)



After our experience at the grocery store I decided the next day's activity needed to be more kid friendly, and much more contained, the kids play area at the mall. I told Arianne as we left that I expected to be gone for a while, because I was going to let those girls run wild until they begged to come home....

Here we are crossing the bridge.


Katie would climb up on the top of the frog and shout, "All aboard!" Humm maybe a little too much Thomas the Tank Engine in her life?

Hugging the frog is also good.

After about an hour and 15 minutes those girls decided they had enough of the kids play area and we treated ourselves to a cookie at Mrs. Fields. Now here is where the story gets a little dicey.....you see this mall had a Macy's.....I can't go to the mall, and NOT visit the Macy's, especially a Macy's I have never been too.....so with the promise of riding the escalator I took the girls into Macy's....

We first went to the hosiery department, for I am in search of these really cool steel gray tights I saw on a mannequin in the Macy's in Boise....I have yet to locate them, but trust me I will. In order to get to the hosiery department we had to pass through lingerie. Kallie saw a mannequin in that Department and insisted that it was her mother. As a mom isn't it nice to know that your two year old thinks your skinny with long blond hair, especially after just having a baby!

Next it was on to women's wear, where I was quickly scanning the clearance racks while trying to keep track of the girls. At one point they had gotten up on the platform where the mannequins were and were singing and dancing "Single Ladies." Yep, now two stores in Oregon in which we are no longer welcome.....seriously Macy's get a grip it was only mannequins.....

Meet my new niece!!!!

Arianne had a baby, and I got a new niece. In other words, she did all the hard work, and I get the rewards! Meet Charlotte Aleah Smith. I went to Portland to spend some time with Arianne and spoil her, Keith, Kallie and of course Charlotte. Plus now I have to rely on Arianne for a baby fix, seeing as how my factory has closed.

If you think her face looks familiar, it does, she is a spittin image of her older sister Kallie.

Katie, of course had to hold her new cousin, I am trying to convince her that she is a human and not a baby doll.....

Katie lovin on her new cousin, with Kallie the older sister, smiling on!

Before and After

The prior owners of my house left a few choice things behind. I don't know maybe they just ran out of boxes??? One of the things they left behind was this picture and frame of a tulip. For the last seven years it has been hanging in a bathroom in my basement. Well recently I decided to 'style' up that bathroom, so that as you were taking care of 'business' you could enjoy a stylish retreat. (I have been watching way toooooo much HGTV.) The tulip picture really didn't cut it with my new decor. But the frame (not the color of the frame) and size were prefect for the bathroom.

So I 'updated' the look.

I started by painting what was a very 1980's Miami Vice looking wood frame, a lovely chocolate brown.

I then used by Cricket machine to cut out a design and placed my design on scrapbook paper.

It looks great in my bathroom and only cost me a little scrapbook paper!

Somewhere in the universe....

This arrived unsolicited in my mail on Tuesday......

Apparently somewhere someone in the universe thinks I have a much more exciting life than I actually do........ I'd really like to meet them!

This can't be good....

Sunday night I was in the kitchen preparing a fine meal of macaroni and cheese when Mark ventured upstairs to show me his green hands. I could tell that he had been in the paint....I told him to go to the sink and wash his hands and I proceeded down stairs to asses the damage, and was met by Katie coming up stairs, and this is how I found her clothing....not to mention the blue paint covering her legs and feet. Then I was scared.....

I immediately yelled at Lauren. She had the paint out on Friday afternoon when one of her friends was over and they decided to do an art project. Earlier on Sunday afternoon I asked her to pick up the paint and put it away, in order to avoid just this sort of catastrophe. Clearly she thought my instruction was optional, as opposed to mandatory.

I took Mark and Katie to the kitchen sink removed clothing and washed them down. Then it was on the the basement to determine the damage.... About half the floor in the dance studio was covered in blue and green paint. Good news, it was Crayola paint so I knew water would remove the paint and there would be no lasting damage. In my haste to clean up the mess before it dried and my hysteria in the fact that I had paint on my floor, I did not take a picture, so you will have to use your imagination.

Paint got clean up, Lauren's punishment was to pick up all the toys in the basement, which after a weekend of the kids playing is no small feat...she was not pleased, but the message was received, that when mommy says put something away, she expects it to be put away.

FYI, my house is now paint free, I threw it all away. In addition I took the dry erase markers and put them up high, available upon request only. You see the paint incident followed last weekend's incident of a black crayon that was crushed up with little bits of crayon spread all over the dance floor and ground into the floor.....

Tea anyone?

I was beginning to think that Santa had inadvertently left one of his elves at my house. For about 10 days I would go into my dining room to find items removed from the cupboard and placed on the table. I would put the items away, but within a day or two they would be back out.

I could never catch the culprit, hence the elf theory.

Finally Katie fessed up and informed me that she was having a "tea" party in the dining room. Apparently her plastic tea set would just not suffice anymore and in order to have a proper tea party, she needed to be using the real stuff, in a real room, that appeared to be designed for tea. After all in her life we have never actually "eaten" in the dining room, so it was logical for her to conclude that it was a very proper room to serve tea.

So next time you come to my house don't be surprised if Katie invites you to tea.

Bucket List, item #1

New year, new hair! To celebrate Boise State going to the Fiesta Bowl, I colored my hair. Well more precisely during the game my friend, and stylist Molly, colored my hair.

I have been blond all my life, mostly. I was born with dark hair, but that all eventually fell out and the locks that replaced all that dark hair were blond. As time and nature took its course and my hair darkened, I made frequent visits to my stylist to remind my hair that it truly wanted to be blond, despite what its DNA was telling it.

Well it was time for a change.....Now more than one individual in my life accused me of making this change in haste as a response to all the craziness of the last few months, but I assure you this is a change I have been contemplating for quite some time. I just finally got the guts to act on it.

And because I clearly have no shame, as evidence by my many self deprecating blog posts, I am willing to share all the details of what it takes to transform my life, errr, I mean my hair....

The "before" picture.

Molly, making my hair red. Apparently I had to go red to then go brown, otherwise I would have been purple. And well, purple hair just would not be very judicial like, and as a judge I have certain standards to uphold. Beside the fact that if I had purple hair, I am not sure Lauren would claim me....

Very red indeed.

I now know what I would have looked like had my mother permitted any of us children to be born with red hair. (We were specifically forbidden to have red hair)

Got to put a few highlights in for dimension.

All wrapped up, with highlights and brown hair dye.

The finished product! A lovely shade of brown. I am very happy with it.

If you are my secretary.....

If you are one of my secretaries, then this is what you found in a smartly wrapped little box on your desk for Christmas.

You see I have the best secretaries in the ENTIRE world. They make me look really brilliant, much more so than I am. I can't spell or proof read, and if you have read my blog for any amount of time you know that to be true. (I would seriously have them do editing on my blog if it were not for those pesky human resource people who seem to think that violates about a million different policies....HR really needs to learn to think outside the box a little...)

My secretaries not only proof read and spell check all my decisions to ensure that anything that goes out with my name on it looks like I am an intelligent human being, they also have to deal with all the crabby people on the phone who are upset with either a decision I made or are wondering why I am not making a decision more quickly. They sort through the hundreds of pieces of mail I receive each week, they organize my cases, send them out for transcripts, schedule my cases, give me my cases each week in a nice neat pile with little tabs for each case, they file my cases when I done, they do endless amounts of computer work associated with each one of my cases, but most importantly they don't complain about having to work with me. (Well at least they don't complain to my face!)

So at Christmas time I try to give them a small token of my appreciation, for just being the wonderful staff that they are! This year I made them these clips. It is a metal tray that I put scrapbook paper in, blinged it out, and covered in resin. I added charms, a chain and a clip. They can clip these on to their key chains, purse, or even their name badge for the office. And hopefully they will think of me fondly when the see it.....

The Bucket List.

Welcome 2010! Rather than set goals for the new year I decided I would make a bucket list, (not that I plan on dying in 2010...) but rather I thought it might be a fun way to do some new things in 2010. So here is the list.....

1. Change hair color
2. Learn to make jewelry
3. Climb the "Y" in honor of 20 years since college graduation, (yikes I am old), which was the last time I climbed the "Y"
4. Visit a new city. (In America, I am sooooo over foreign travel...see China post circa, October 2009)
5. Learn to use Photoshop
6. Prefect my awesome sense of style and taste.
7. Be more humble.....
8. Play more games with the kids
9. Clean out the garage
10. Invite five different people to go to lunch with me that I have never taken to lunch.
11. Listen to five new music artists and incorporate their music into my itunes.
12. Buy lemonade/Popsicle from a kid's stand during the summer
13. Sit on the deck during a hot summer night and admire the night sky.
14. Learn to use the Gypsy machine I bought to go with my Cricut
15. Paint a room in my house, some color other than beige!

Here's to a happy, fun and different 2010!!!!!

When mommy says no....

When mommy says "no" you can't have a tattoo, despite how cool you think they are, then you must simply take matters into your own hands, and self tattoo.

I have a feeling I might be having this discussion several more times in the future.....

No more Chinese toilet!

As fun and unique as it has been to have a Chinese toilet in my house, well it just really wasn't my style. Plus I did not think that Katie would potty train Chinese style. So I got my floor fixed and got a new toilet.

Grandpa came over to do the installation of the new toilet and Mark, seeing that tools were going to be involved, decided he needed to be involved.

Grandpa showed Mark how to tighten down a bolt.

After being shown by Grandpa, he excused Grandpa so he could complete the work himself.

One new toilet, and fixed floor

Western style toilets ROCK!

(Especially when the flush.....the non flushing toilets in my house are another blog post entirely....)

Happy New Year!!!!

New Years Eve: Food, movies, food, games, food, puzzles, food, playing with cousins, food, gossiping about everyone in the family who was not there, food, party poppers, food, party hats, food, sparkling cider to ring in the new year, food, and finally did I mention food?

Addie and Lauren missed the memo that they were supposed to eat their food not wear it.

Katie and MacKenzie, they teamed up against Laure and Addie, and all the girls teamed up against the lone, boy, Mark.

Mark insisted on wearing Papa's t-shirt for PJ's

We have horns and hats, it must be getting close...

Yay, party poppers!

Cheers to the new year!