I'm Leaving On a Jet Plane.......

My boy left for Hawaii a little over a week ago. Now I know he's 15 & he's not a baby anymore, but he's my baby. And I put MY baby on a plane by himself to fly across the OCEAN. He was walking to get on the plane & I'm all, 'Don't talk to strangers, don't drink too many energy drinks, don't go too far into the ocean,' & I'm sure all he heard was, 'blah, blah, blah'. Poor kid, he was so scared I was going to cry in front of everyone in the airport. Then I had to watch to make sure the plane took off ok & then sit on pins & needles until I heard from him. So now he's in beautiful Oahu enjoying some much needed time with his uncle. I am so glad he went because he usually has to share his uncle with everyone here.

On the home front, I got a new job here in town. I am so excited but sad to be leaving the cool people I met at MDW (My Daughter's Wish). But it is way closer & a great opportunity for me. It's at Scrap Diva & it's a great store here in Brentwood. Jim & the kids are excited to have me closer to home.

I've finally had some time on my hands so I have made a point of going to some of the local stores here. And what treasures I found! First up is this fantastic store called Maria Neu Interiors & Boutique. This place was amazing to say the least. Her sign alone has been calling my name for months. The owner was really nice & gave me a lot of information about her inventory. She not only has fabulous stuff in her boutique but she also does interior decorating. Just some yummy beautiful stuff. It was very French & had some unique handmade items. Clothes, furniture, art. So here's a peek:

This is a beautiful vintage looking chair. Love it!!!

This was the infant area that had furniture & some beautiful handmade outfits that the owner's friend makes. The designs are called Pixie Bleu Vintage & the designer actually uses vintage lace that she orders from her friend in Paris. Love it!!

I saved the best for last. This picture was stunning to say the least. It was just breathtaking & I fell in love with it. So if you're in the area or even if you're not, stop by, check it out. Drool. It's Maria Neu Interiors & Boutique at 220 Oak Street in Brentwood. She also has a website, MariaNeuInteriors.Com. Good stuff. Oh and look at her window:

Also took a little drive out to the Lafayette reservoir to take the kids for a walk. It was so nice & the weather has been great. Not incredibly hot, just the way we like it. Afterwards we stopped at a little thrift shop nearby & Gavin latched onto the oddest thing. The kid is definitely unique.

We had a great 4th. Spent the day with the kidlets, bbq'd & then we took a drive out to Concord to watch the fireworks. The weather was perfect, just cool enough & a nice breeze. The kids had a lot of fun & so did Jim & I. We did some good family bonding.

Well, I'm off to pack for a crop. God Bless America & remember to thank our service men & women for protecting our country & our freedom.

I'm On A Roll

OK so I've been in a creative funk for like, months. MONTHS. How that's possible is beyond me with all the crap I own. But sometimes you just get funky. Well the funk is gone & I have been a creatin' fool for the last couple of weeks. I have also been taking lots of pictures so I have a ton of goodies to post.

I know I dragged my butt on this but here is the lovely frock I bought at The Vintage House. Isn't it beautiful? And only $14!! I couldn't believe it. It doesn't fit now but it will. I promise!!

I was stumped for a Father's Day gift & was sitting there looking at these little men when it came upon me that they will never be this little again. Someday they will be big, brooding teenagers (right Vinnie?). So I painted a canvas, got their little hands all painted up & made this for Jim. He loved it. I tacked on the most recent pictures I had of them & voila! A work of art.

Anyone who knows me know I can't plant crap. Everything I plant dies. But I am trying to break the cycle & teach the kids to grow stuff. Hopefully they will be more successful than I. Here's a pic of Gavin planting some sunflowers. He was so cute patting the soil down.

I also purchased these cool model kits for $1 at Michael's. Great time killer for the kids on a day too hot to go outside. Like today. They helicopters, tanks, race cars. All kinds of cool stuff just for boys & they had a blast creating their own little projects.

I also got this little gem at The Vintage House. It's an old Kodak Brownie camera & I just love it. It is so cute & while I won't use it, I just love the vintage look of it.

My brother brought this beautiful little perfume bottle back from Kuwait. It is made of brass & the detail is amazing. He is still in Hawaii & we're hoping he'll stay there for a good long time. Vinnie is flying out to visit him next week. He'll be staying there for a couple of weeks & he is so excited to be spending time with his uncle. Plus, he won't have to share him with any of us! When Beto comes home everyone is always competing for his time so now he can spend time exclusively with Vinnie.

And this little beauty is actually a bottle of sake. Jim & I went to our favorite Japanese restaurant for dinner a few weeks ago when I spied this lovely pink bottle perched on top of the sushi bar. I've never had sake but it wasn't bad & we only drank it because I wanted the bottle. It is just such a beautiful soft shade of pink & I loved the name, Sayuri, which means Lily in Japanese. For anyone who has seen 'Memoirs of a Geisha', the lead's name was Sayuri. So pretty.

Last but not least, I scored this pretty at Safeway (Yes, Safeway!) for just $3!! I couldn't pass it up. Not sure what I'll do with it but I'll figure something out.

Stay cool, drink lots of water & spare the air!! It's blazing out there & won't cool off for a couple of days.

Summertime!

Well, almost. Today is the last day of school & I have to admit, I am excited. And aprehensive. Having the boys home all day for the next 45 days will be a lot of work but I am looking forward to sleeping in, going on some outings & just enjoying some time with these little men. My boys are growing faster & faster & I am trying to slow down & savor these moments. On that note, my young man, Vincenzo, just enrolled in some college courses. COLLEGE. Of course, he was kicking & screaming but his dad checked into him getting some extra credits over the Summer & so he's going. Oh, & we're doing this to 'ruin his Summer'. You know, cutting into his sleep, XBox time, whatnot. The important stuff.

So a couple of weeks ago my darling husband talks me into going to a tailgate party at an A's game with his co-workers. Now I've never met these guys & I didn't want to be the only female there but Jim insists, other wives will be there. Right. So we get there & this is what I'm greeted by:

That's a Boston Red Sox shirt. And he wasn't the only one. There were hundreds. The problem? I'm a Yankees fan. I'm wearing a Yankees hat. The Red Sox hate the Yankees. Yes, it's a man thing but this grudge goes waaaaaay back. Like Babe Ruth way back. So I am getting glares, jeers, wiseass remarks from these psycho Boston fans. Then we get to the tailgate & guess what? NO WIVES. Just this:

A bunch of drunken pipefitters. I admit, we had a blast. He works with some very nice guys & I was happy to see Jim in his element. By the way, the A's won. Sorry Boston.

I must brag though. My sweet Kieran received student of the month for May. I am sooooo proud of this boy. This is the boy who cried everyday the first week of school who has blossomed into a boy who loves school. He was so excited & we are so proud of him. We were very lucky that he had an awesome teacher & she was so patient with him. Good job Kie!!

Last note, Gavin is into this show on Nickelodeon called Go Gabba Gabba. One word: SCARY. I mean freaky scary. Like one of those shows that has songs that you just KNOW send subliminal messages. And I just saw Biz Markie on here singing. For those of you youngins' you won't know who he is but for you old folks like me, he was the big fat guy back in the 80's who dressed like Beethoven & sat at a piano singing, Just A Friend. YouTube it. It's so worth the laugh.

GO YANKS!

The Clouds Parted....

and the Angels sang. For on the 18th of May my children actually slept in their beds ALL NIGHT and didn't wake me up! For the first time in EIGHT STINKIN' YEARS I actually slept in my bed all night!!! Yes, I am one of those mothers who gets up when her kids cry in the middle of the night and go sleep in their room. Usually it's Gavin who wakes me up. Or if Jim is snoring like a bear I am like, I need my sleep, and bail out. But 8 years??? Who knew?

Maybe it's a coincidence but on the same day, these two knuckleheads had a birthday:

Jamie turned the ripe old age of 8 and Gavin is now a strapping 4 years old. To celebrate we took them to the dreaded Chuck E. Cheese. And surprisingly, we all had fun including Jim & I. The kids had a blast playing games & even got to see the giant rat do the chicken dance. I can't believe how fast these years have flown by. So we won a bunch of tickets & the kids picked these lovely things:

and the kids had a blast with them. Even got Nana in on the action:

If I had known a cheap pair of Groucho glasses would have provided so much entertainment, I would have bought ten pair.

I am still drooling over the pictures I took at The Vintage House. So have you made the trek out here yet?? Well what are you waiting for???? Time's a wastin'! Jim laughs because everytime we drive by I am craning my neck to see if there's anything new in the window. He calls me the stalker. But it is just such a beautiful store I can't resist.

I loved this red wire dress form but resisted the urge to buy it.

Ain't it perty?

I am in create mode now. I just finished making 22 albums for Kieran's entire kindergarten class. Nothing fancy but it was time consuming as heck. But do you think that stopped me from hording more projects to complete? Heck no! I managed to purchase a dress pattern, an apron pattern and some beautiful fabric to work with. Yes, I am going to try to sew on a sewing machine. So if you see my fingers bandaged up, you'll know why. I am also trying to learn to knit. My mom is showing me & being so patient because she knows I'm the type to get frustrated & give up. And of course, the camera & I are becoming very good friends. Jim is drawing the line at me bringing it to bed (get your mind out of the gutter!) but I am dragging that thing everywhere I go. Which is how I managed to catch this little bugger showing me his muscles wearing Vinnie's old Superman pajamas. I swear, this could would live in pajamas if he could. The best outfit is the Buzz Lightyear pj's with his black cowboy boots. Ya' gotta love it.

Summer is almost here & we can't wait. Jim & the boys are installing the sprinkler system in the backyard & then we can lay the seed for grass. I am praying for a nice backyard by July but we'll see.

I also posted some new blogs on the side. Check 'em out. I am the total blog stalker & have found some amazing sites with beautiful things. Have a great week!!

P.S.

My deepest apologies to those who hated the blasting Bubbly song that came on everytime you visited my blog. I admit, initially I was tickled that I figured out how to do that but then it just got plain irritating. And why was it posted 3x you ask? Well because I am technically challenged and it took me 3x to figure it out & then a day to figure out it posted 3x. DUH! So I have successfully removed the all too cheerful Bubbly song and am now songless. Until I find something else that doesn't make you want to stick an ice pick in your ear.

The Vintage House

Oh my GOD. I have been waiting a few weeks for this place to open down the street from me. There are a couple of antique places out here but this one caught my eye because it is my favorite color of aqua inside. I have literally been stopping in front of this place a couple of times a week and just looking in the window to see what they have. Drool, drool, drool. Practically licking the glass in anticipation of all the loveliness. And today was the day they finally opened and it was well worth the wait. Absolutely beautiful inside and so many goodies!!

I was in heaven just browsing through the store. The owners were super sweet and I scored some cute stuff. I will post pics of those later but in the meantime, here is the beauty of The Vintage House:

It is a beautiful store and the prices were amazing. I can't say enough but I will definitely be returning. So if you're in my neck of the woods, the address is on the door in the picture below. Ignore the reflection of me. I was just so excited I didn't even realize not only was I in the reflection but also that a man was walking out the door as I shot it. I'm sure he was thinking, what is this crazy woman doing and why does she have drool on her chin???

Last weekend was National Scrapbook Day and I was lucky enough to be able to participate with my pals. I haven't cropped in awhile so I had a lot of fun and was so excited to be able to spend the day with Nancie!! It was a long weekend but fun.

This is the super cute wallhanging she made for a class at MDW (My Daughter's Wish). Love it! Her stuff is so amazing.

Busy wrapping up the end of the school year. Less than a month of school and I am busy busy. Love the weather lately because it has been warmer and just beautiful out here. And I have been taking my camera everywhere and getting so many pictures. I would love to post them all but it would be just too boring of a blog. Maybe I should break down and create a Flickr account? If I do, I'll post it if anyone is interested. Have a great weekend!!

What the...???

When Nance & I went to LA a couple of years ago, I got totally hooked on this place called Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. You know how there's like a Starbuck's every block up here? Well down in LA it's the opposite. CB & TL is everywhere. Our friend Frank bought me a yummy green tea & Japanese cherry latte. Heaven in a cardboard cup. ANYWAY, up here in Starbuck's country, there's only 2. And they're both in San Francisco where I hardly go anymore. So a couple of weeks ago I had a shoot in Mill Valley. And early shoot. So I purposely left earlier to take the loooong way to Mill Valley so I could make a pit stop at the CB & TL in Ghiradelli square. I'm all excited, thinking about it all week. I pull up, gleefully plop my coins into the meter and turn around. And this is what I see:

WHAT THE HELL??? Where is my Coffee Bean??? I swear, I was sooooooo mad!! It's 7 in the morning, I have been waiting all week for this & IT'S GONE!!! I stood in the middle of the street, cursing to myself which in SF is not uncommon since there's whackos on every corner. I stomp back to my car & unfortunately, had to resort to the evil, bad

Yep, the Devil's den. UGH!! Nonetheless, it ended up being a good day. Mill Valley is goreous & the weather ended up being beautiful. I was too busy working so I didn't get any personal pictures but it was a nice day.

I was very lucky to have the opportunity to go on Kieran's fieldtrip last week. Mom watched Gavin while I went to the Stockton Children's Museum with 20 kindergarteners. How his teacher does it is beyond me. The kids were amazing & so sweet. She actually has a great group of kids. The bus was 45 minutes late & she kept the kids occupied by singing & it was such a kick.

It was my first field trip with Kieran so I really got to see him interact with his classmates. I had 3 kids in my group, Kie, Andrew & Esmeralda. Kie & Andrew are friends I was so tickled to see this as we walked out to wait for the bus:

I love this age where you don't care about who sees you or what people think. You are just YOU. I hope they never lose that. There are so many people that lose that 'realness' when they get older. It's like you have to put on a front for certain people or certain environments. I'm guilty of it too though not so much now as when I was younger. I am soooo not the people pleaser I was. Call me what you will but I am all about keeping it real now. I don't have the time or energy to be fake anymore. I have 4 kids for pete's sake. I don't even have time to sleep!

ANYWAY, keep it real baby!!! By the way, it's National Scrapbook Day on Saturday. Or in our case, Nat'l SB WEEKEND. Because one day just isn't enough. So scrap something, create something. Do it up!

Who knew?

That the lighting in our local Jamba Juice was amazing? I have given up my daily Starbuck's and taken up the Jamba. Sooooo yummy. After school last week I was there with the boys with their super cool new sunglasses and took a glance down this little space between the window and the wall and the light was just beautiful. People in the place thought I was nuts but who doesn't already?

I have been really good about taking my camera everywhere with me now. It's great because I have caught some really good stuff. Everything has been so nice and green around here and the weather has been gorgeous. I am trying to take the kids to the park once a week and we even got Vinnie out there last week.

Look at this bunch of roughnecks. They had so much fun batting the ball around and they even talked me into hitting a few with them. It has been way too long and I was rusty but the kids got a kick out of seeing mom hit a baseball.

I have also begun to take pictures of inanimate objects. My dad bought us a crate of these beautiful strawberries and I couldn't resist. I am not a big fruit eater but I am trying to eat better with the marathon coming up. Jim on the other hand....

Eats stuff like this. I know you probably don't recognize it under all that butter and sugar. That's French toast under there. MY French toast. The French toast I make with French vanilla cream (fattening) that he adds about half a cube of butter to and then pours on about half a cup of sugar. That's right, HALF A CUP OF SUGAR. It's a miracle his teeth don't rot out of his head.

And then there's this. How freakin' cute is this? Gavin just adores his daddy and I got this cute shot of them last weekend while we were out. Love it. Things have been great and we are happier than we've been in a long time. We are much more relaxed and I can't believe how much better things are. I am truly blessed and having Jim by my side makes all the difference in the world. I am feeling creative again and am working on a few projects that I hope to post in the next few days. Back to normal. Actually, better than normal. I am at peace and how wonderful that is.

Check out my Slide Show!

Happy Birthday Nancie!

It was my girl's birthday yesterday! Daniela whipped up a 'surprise' crop party for her and we had a blast. Maya Road has these great 'people' albums in the shapes of either a man or woman made out of chipboard. So crafty Daniela whipped one up of herself and Nancie and I got scrapper's envy and made one of ourselves. And of course, Saturday night everyone made one of themselves and it was so much fun. I have had scrapper's block for months so it was nice to actually complete something. And being the kooks that we are, Nancie and I pulled together some background props courtesy of Claudine Helmuth's great paper and jazzed it up.

Nancie insists we do this immature stuff because we didn't grow up together so we're making up for lost time. I agree! I met lots of new people. Great, creative ladies who I haven't had the opportunity to meet with my hiding out the last few months. I just don't get out enough because being around these ladies really revived my creative side.

So the first picture of me & Nancie is at the coffee house. Next pic is the two of us joined by Daniela for a little shopping trip (note the little shopping bag contributed by Sawna).

Last is most us at Nancie's party. Not everyone was done when I took this but I had to skeedaddle early as I had a shoot on Sunday morning. But left to right are: Liz, Daniela, Shawna, the guest of honor, Nancie, Meredith, Tristan and myself. Background paper is the party paper.

Had 2 shoots this weekend that went well even though it was freezing outside. I love my job but the cold just kills me because I am such a big baby. I'll take the heat any day over the cold. Next weekend we're shooting in Sonoma and I am soooo looking forward to it. It is so beautiful out there and it's an indoor shoot so the cold won't matter. Plus we're done early so if I wanna hang out afterwards I can. Fun stuff.

Lazy Blogger

I am awful. I admit it. I'd say I have a good excuse like I've been vacationing in Fiji or touring Europe but alas, I have been simply vegetating in lovely, serene Brentwood. Not exactly the height of excitement but I have been getting out with the camera. And loving this beautiful weather. Apparently it has revitalized the kids also because they are actually allowing me to catch them. So here we go:

Jamie is the helper in the family. You need to clean,vacuum, wash dishes, cook, he's your man. So I had to buy this when I saw it. So stinkin' cute.

My brother finally made it home at the end of January. We were all very happy and excited to have him back. Praying that he doesn't get sent back to Iraq. Vinnie was in Heaven for 3 weeks with his idol and I even managed to get him in front of the camera for pics with his Uncle and grandfather.

Gavin finally let us cut his hair. And it only cost me $40. $15 for the haircut and $25 for the toy I had to bribe him with. His hair was seriously getting bushy and then he wouldn't let me comb it and of course, Jim who is almost bald is complaining that he looks like a girl. He didn't

but it was worrying his dad. I loved it but started to worry about the things he could hide in that hair.

So everything is beautiful and green around here and I am so loving it. While I am not thrilled with California being so darn expensive and the school system falling apart, I do love the scenery. Absolutely breathtaking.

Lastly, if anyone is into photography, they are having an exhibit at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco of celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz's work. She has done some amazing stuff including a recent photo shoot with Queen Elizabeth. Details are here: http://www.famsf.org/legion/exhibitions/exhibition.asp?exhibitionkey=818

It runs from March 1st thru May 25th.

Get out there and take some pictures in this beautiful weather. Gotta love it!!