My Weblog

*pHoTo LoVe*

Oh, just a few fun things happened today.

First, I have been dying to dress up some younglings and bring them to this school bus that Jenni found. Jennie, 2 moms, seven kids and I headed there today. It was wonderful.  I learned something new and that would be: I really like to set up the shot, not so much be the photographer. How you guys do both is beyond me. You must be superheroes cuz it is near impossible to do both.  Well, at least from my experience. So I set up quite a few of these, tried to capture a few shots but I am sure Jenni will show me up real soon once I get a peak at her photos. She needs to bring me on as her assistant. I'd be a good worker! Hint. Feel free to leave her a note to drop the hint.

Secondly, my house is almost decorated outside. It has been so nice out and I am so excited about my front door. I think I have driven past my house going 5mph just to stroke my ego a bit. The only sad thing is the ornaments I used to make the garland 5 years ago are near impossible to find. They are just those huge plastic balls. they used to be everywhere. I needed to replace a few, well, quite a few and I almost puked that they were 4.99 a piece. Come' on, they used to be 2 bucks.

Third, you will freak when you see the dress Sam just made. Oh, my lucky stars. Fantastic. I meant to take some pics today but it got dark too quick. Tomorrow. And I'll try to get my Platinum stuff rolling. Sorry for that. But hey, you 'll want to keep checking the blog cuz some good stuff is happening real soon.

And on top of that, the pHoTo LoVe pics are rolling in. Pure amazement. You guys are so good. I can hardly wait to start sharing and even more excited to bring one of you guys to Dress Rehearsal 2010.

And now a random rambling from Gabe. We moved his room around yesterday, he has 2 twins that used to be pushed together cuz he kept falling out. We had to separate them cuz my niece is coming down and we needed the extra bed. Here is what he says to me tonight.

Gabe: "Mom, can my new little brother sleep in my bedroom?

Me: "Umm..we don't have a little brother"

Gabe: "Can we get one?"

Me: "Honey, where do you think we would get one?"

Gabe: "Maybe we could walk around and see one on the street and get him. When is Thursday?"

Me: "In a few days, why?"

Gabe: "What are we doing on Thursday? We could get my little brother."

So, it may be funnier heard than told. And I hope I don't bore you with these little ramblings, but I'm begging David to make my blog into a book for me for Christmas. And I love to remember all the stories of my boys, and yes, MJC as well! And no, Gabe is not getting a little brother off the street nor anywhere.

Spinning

It has been such a great day. I helped Jenni with her shoot. I have now mastered not only holding the reflector but folding it too! Impressive. I also had the greatest inspiration for a new project. The weather was perfect. I have been going through tons of old photos for another project and it has flooded my mind with so many wonderful memories.

I am at awe and grateful for all you gals. You have given me a chance to live out something I wasn't really sure was possible. It is so cool to see photos from when I first got my Matilda Jane tags made, to art fair customers to conferences and the 435 party. I can hardly wait for summer and will give you a date real soon.

And this gorgeous girl would be Kylee. You surely have seen her before. Kylee was pretty much a package deal when Lynette came on board. We adore this girl.  Not only is she stunning she has the sweetest personality, the hugest heart and the most amazing...well, to me, a work ethic like you would not believe. This girl rocks and is soon to be a Birthday Girl.

So I have this "top secret" project I am working on. It does not involve clothing at all. I am so excited about it but I need a bit of help from anyone who lives in Fort Wayne that may want to participate. You know how I always tell you that when Joe or others ask about his hand I usually tell them it is not any different than kids who wear glasses? Well, my project has that sort of spin.

So if you live around here shoot me an email and I'll tell you more. I'm not sure how to say it without sounding..umm, dis-heartful, but I am looking for some kids 6 or above that have some sort of "quirk" similar to Joe or anything from a learning disability to I'm afraid of the dark.

Sorry to be so secretive but....

Good Morning to All

I've got the pram set out at the curb. kids fed and now I am off to help Jenni with a photo shoot. Okay, 3. That girl has it.

But what I am most excited about is decorating for Christmas. I am totally getting into the festive spirit. I love Christmas. Love it. The challenge of finding the most perfect gift is so my favorite part.

Have a great day and...I'll post you up some Christmas light pics later. We have a not so little tree named Seymour. We got him when he was just about 2 feet tall. That guy is well over 10 feet now and such a blast to deck with lights. We make him so dang bright it is almost funny. He likes it though.

Ya, my neighbor actually got his own little tree this summer, Herman. Hmmm...I wonder if they'll be some Christmas competition this year. But then again Herman is only 3-4 feet. We got him so beat.

Taming the Beast

Poor David had to deal with me the other day. i was so upset he had forgotten to buy a video camera. We have one, but it's pretty old, okay, real old. Yeah, from the days of bag phones. So he rushes out to get one and you know guys. Electronics is not a quick buy. There is always research involved. 

Well, just in the nick of time he shows up with it so I can tape Gabe's thanksgiving Feast at school. You have never seen anything cuter. Ever. I focus, zoom in and out, move around knowing I am making one great movie. 

I brag myself up to David. He goes to view it, and as you already guessed, I got the record and pause button messed up. Dang it. Not one good clip. and even worse I barely took pics cuz I was so proud of my filming skills.

And that is pretty much the story of my week.

I am so excited for Christmas. We're gonna break out the decoration this weekend. Or I hope. Well, Gabe is having a breakdown and I can tell David is getting bored of it, so I had better go help out.

Sorry for the lame post. At least you have great pics, huh? I must get that boy to bed cuz I want to make a ton of Blurb books tonite before the 20% off an free shipping ends. Wish me luck

I am left to wonder if my family were this beautiful would Citibank Mortgage pay a little more attention to us? Okay, I know my family is gorgeous but come on, how great are these guys? Wow.

6 months later and still no word about the house. We put an offer in last June. We upped the anty quite a bit in early September but still no response. I am sorry Citibank, but this is ridiculous. We are practically begging to buy a foreclosed house and we jsut get ignored.  Any clue? What does one do?

We live in the greatest neighborhood. This is the only house that would ever make me even consider moving. I am in love with it, but the love affair is really starting to drain me. For real, I thought banks needed money? Or would they just rather it sit empty. Makes no sense.

We really don't need to move. I love our house. It's the backyard that is the issue, too small.  And poor Goliath can barely make it down the steps to it. You know we have had him for just over 11 years and for the first time ever we got a violation for him barking. I'm half laughing because I find it unreal, a 100 dollar fine. Come on. Dogs bark and it was at 11 in the morning. Shouldn't most people be awake? Plus, I was home that day. It was like minutes.  Okay, I am just venting cuz..who knows.

Okay, back to focusing how in the heck am I gonna get this house? You think I should just go to Citibank Mortgage and knock on their door? better yet, knock down their door. Oh, even better bring Goliath so he can annoy them with his barking? Hmmm..to many decisions.

In the midst of all this...umm waiting. Let's do something productive.  Let's all go to Citibank Mortgage. Just kidding. Let's find some real deserving families and get them some cute stuff for their Turkey Day dinner.  I always feel bad saying this, but we don't have boy stuff so it kinda has to be a family of girls. Yes, I know it is not fair but it is what it is.

Shoot Sam an email, samm@matildajaneclothing.com with your suggestion. SUBJECT = TURKEY DAY.  She will need a name, mailing address and sizes. We'll pick several of them and let you know. Please know we pick randomly. It is hard for us to judge ones situation without knowing first hand. Random is the best so we don't hurt feeling.

You'll have till tomorrow night, Tuesday to enter your requests. So send us a family, a school group or even a teacher.

Thank you Jenni, Jessica, Alisha, and Jill  for all the most fantabulous photos. I love them and so appreciate you sharing them with me! You think Citibank Mortgage would take a MJC bribe? Can you tell I am getting antsy. I was for sure we would be moved by Christmas. But I will tell you this, and you can hold my word for it (sorry David) if we are moved by 435 Art Fair next year I will invite you all to my open house. It is too good not to share. But you just have to be able to handle Goliath!!!

Don't you just love

 

This age? These girls are so dang awesome. It;s just that age where you are not sure what to do, you want to follow everyone's lead but yet you really just want to be you. And more importantly you just want to have fun. Oh, I just had to share these pics cuz I loved them so. They brought me back to that time when I could just wake up, call the neighbors and ride our bikes for what seemed to be years.

eye candy + a whole lotta love

David loves candy. Loves it. We spent  most of Friday morning strolling around Omaha's Old Market before we were to head to the hockey game that night. Old Market houses 2 phenomenal candy stores. David loves sugary candy, not chocolate. Seeing I had been there before I knew exactly where we needed to go, Hollywood Candy. A must place to go for those sought out candies and all the fillings for your Christmas stockings. 

One thing led to another and we started chatting it up Larry. We had no clue he happened to be the mastermind behind the operation and to my great delight a collector of all things I loved. It pretty much made my day just  to see these colorful candy boxes. To my surprise it certainly did not stop there. David bragged up a bit on how he collected Star Wars. Oh, poor us, we had nothing on Larry.

He had an entire letterpress workshop in his basement. Not to mention the plate that went with every movie on the planet. Yes, that included Star Wars. I cannot even begin to tell you how fortunate we were to walk into Hollywood Candy that day. He and his wife, Mary, spent a good 2 hours with us showing us some of the most amazing collectibles and "lost art" (as I call them) objects ever. I was in complete awe.

Sorry if my pics are blurry. There are so many to share I had to compress them down and I am clueless on that!

Anyways, they told us about Hatch exhibit that was going on in town also. So we ran over there Saturday morning. After all, we needed to cheer up after the loss Friday night. Well, the world only got sunnier.

Seriously, look at all this goodness. Oh, my gosh. Speechless. And for them to be so kind to spend hours out of their weekend to share it with us was amazing. It was seriously one of the best trips ever. And if Larry and Mary are any reflection of the folks of Omaha we are so moving. Hey, wait my dad is from there. Okay, that place must just breed good folk.

 

Is this like a photographer's prop playground or what. And you haven't seen half of it. 

So now we are back home after a few hours delay in Cincinnati. The boys stayed home with my niece, so it was a fun weekend away. And hey, we even won Saturday to top it off.  Though I will have to say our personal tour of all this goodness was the most amazing part by far!

Have I told you lately that I love you guys?
Okay, truth be told I'm sitting in Omaha at the game and it's getting boring. Why, oh why can't we just win? And why the heck am I blogging at a game?

I was reading my comments and I just had to take 2 seconds to say I love you. It's so nice to read I'm not alone in my scary nervousa world!!! I'm so dumb.

Thank you

The Fabric of Our Lives

 

A week ago today I was sitting in bed trying to think of every excuse possible to stay home.  I had been invited to Florida with some moms from school however while I knew them I did not really know them. I was so dang nervous. It seems as I get older I get more reserved. I get more self conscious and I get way to nervous. Little do you know, I am the most self conscious person I know. But then again, one rarely admits it aloud. Good thing typing is easy.

It took me at least a year to go into what is now my favorite restaurant. I always feel I am being judged and people look at me as if I do not belong. So for me, walking through a door into an unknown place or even Joe's school is a constant battle. It is a weird feeling and a really sucky one that I cannot believe I am posting about. But hey, it is who I am.

Well, I did it. I went to Florida. And as dumb as this sounds, I am so proud of myself for not backing out. It was wonderful and the gals I went with were every bit as wonderful. The easiest girls to talk to, and not once did I feel judged or out of place. Thank you girls!

Now, we all know I am a Captain and DT Coke girl. So why does everyone drink wine?  Once again, I decided to step out of my comfort zone and give it a try. Okay, well I do like Boones Farm and that is a wine, right? So my only criteria for wine is it tastes like Boones Farm or soda. And voila, we have RELAX.  9 bucks a bottle, taste like Boones farm and is cheap like Boones Farm. Right up my alley!

So now that I emberassed myself to death telling you what a dork I am, I'll go hide. It is so odd how comfortable it is to type/text people but in the real world how fast one, well, I feel uncomfortable. So I guess I owe you girls a big thank you for allowing me to feel safe in all I tell you. Thank you!

I grabbed the computer, headed upstairs and told David I was gonna write a real good blog.  Ha.  All it took was a look at my email box to change my mind. There are way too many sweet little pics to share.

 

 

 

What'd I tell you? Adorably gorgeous, eh? See so my stories of my nervousness, or my trip to Florida last weekend, or the greatest book I just read, or Gabe's cute Turkey Day song, or the fact I really might think boys need to start we deodorant in 2nd grade, or my gosh, the greatest therapy clinic I have to get Joe into, or ummm just a bunch of stuff will just have to wait. 

More cuteness ahead.