{Art} Mary's Painting

I made my brother's girlfriend a painting of two of the places they traveled. I hoped it would bring her happiness as she looked at it and remembered the good times they shared instead of the end of their relationship when he was sick. I'm not sure though, as I haven't talked to her since I gave it to her.

They traveled to Colorado and Manhattan and I had the idea of combining the two. It's 12 inches tall by 36 inches wide, and 1.5 inches deep. It looks great on the wall, if I may say so.



And here's a close up detail of the buildings...


Linking up to these parties.

{Art} Baseball LOVE

One of my coworkers had a wedding shower last week and I knew from working with her that her wedding was going to incorporate baseballs and the color red. So, I came up with the following....



I love it! And luckily, so does she! They are 8x8" canvases that can be hung either as a 2 by 2 or all in a row, or even set up on a mantle or shelf because the canvases are 1.5" wide on the sides.

The letters are slightly outlined in black (only on parts) and then highlighted in silver. The red is a pretty, basic red that goes well with the St. Louis Cardinal's style red - not to bright, not to dark.

{Life Lately} Conversations with Lily

I love Lily's language and today is definitely no exception. She normally speaks in 3-4 sentences and talks from the moment she wakes up to when she gets put down at night. I love it!

Today's morning conversation (we've had many more since) dealt with Mr. Potato Head. She has a few of them and one was in her closet, backwards, and looked like her bald Cabbage Patch babies from the back.


L - Baby?
M - No, Mr. Potato Head
L - Oh, what’s that?
M - Mr. potato head
L - Oh, ok. I like-y tater head.
M - What do you want for breakfast?
L - Jelly sandwich
M - Ok (and we walk to the kitchen, turning into the tv room)
L - No, over there (points to kitchen)
(I take her to the kitchen)
L - What are you doing?
M - Getting the bread (I place it on the plate and get a knife).
L - Cut-TING bread? (extra emphasis on the TING)
M - Yes. (I go get jelly)
L - Get jelly?
M - Yes (spread jelly on bread)
L - Good.
(I reach for peanut butter)
L - Nuh-butter?
M - Yes (as I spread it)
L - Good.
(I place the two slices together).
L - Cut? My turn?
(I didn’t let her cut it)
L - Oh bother. --- I LOVE THIS! She sighs and says "oh bother!" and looks super sad for a split second!
M - Ready?
L - Yeah.
M - Grab Mr. Potato Head, I’ll get your sandwich.
L - OK!
(we walk into tv room)
M - Do you want to watch tv?
L - Yay! Back-gardens! (Backyardigans)
M - OK.
L - No, Dora!
M - Dora?
L - Yay! Boots!

After that, and dealing with ATT Customer Support for 45 minutes, Lily opens a map book and is counting the letters in countries’ names, starting with USSR.
1, 2, 3, 4. Counting (looks up and smile). Good counting!

Other things from today:
L - "Ohh, messy, toys messy" - she had dumped her fishing game on the floor and the fish are everywhere.
M - "So pick it up."
L - "No, Mommy turn."
M - "No, Mommy didn't make the mess. Lily needs to pick it up."
L - "Ohhhh"

She hasn't picked them up yet. She moved onto something else.

While watching Dora: "Moon! I like-y moon!" It also talks about Mary (as in with Little Lamb) and she is talking about going to Mary's house, which is part of the map on Dora.

She's full of it and it's not even 10:30!


I really want to keep writing these down as they are great memories I need to treasure! Some day I'll have a printer and print everything out.

{Farm} Hay Bales

My parents let part of their property get bailed and as soon as I saw them the other day, I thought it would be fun to get Lily's picture taken by one. So when we went out the other day, we stopped and took some pics.