A sneak peek into the everyday lives of able mabel

This was the scene unfolding in my front yard last night. Keep in mind it's about 7:30 pm and probably only about 70 degrees, max. Pretty chilly!

This one is a classic! Little brother, crack showing, assumes position to "attack" his older sister with the hose. You can kind of see them on the hill, unaware of their brother's intentions.

No, she's is not in jail. The toddlers and I were sitting safely on the front porch watching the water fight. Dad stopped working on the sidewalk and came over to join in the fun. His job? Herding the older girls towards the younger kids with the hoses, getting them close enough to get wet. There was much shrieking and laughter echoing thru our yard last night! Good times had by all!

O Happy Day!

or at least as far as yesterday's mail went.

Late last week I had ordered a necklace display from Fire Mountain Gems. Fed-Ex delivered it to my door yesterday, mid morning. I hardly wasted anytime before trying it out.

Being that we have such a variety of items in our shop, I'd like to "unify" each section. Stage all the jewelry the same, light switch covers the same, etc. I think it will help our shop look less cluttered.

When the "real" mail came, I got another pack of fabric scraps from Starlitnest. I've been using them for headbands, but am also thinking of other things...if I told you I'd have to...well you know...

The colors and patterns in this new batch were so awesome! Very inspiring! I was going to take pictures of them today, but it's so windy outside it wouldn't work. I was gone all morning so the lighting inside the house just wasn't right.

Dreaming

of new accent pillow designs! The last few nights I have had some ideas flowing in my head at odd times of the night. Crazy! My goal is to get a sewing machine sooner than later. I've found a few on Craigslist that I'd like to go look at. Now if I could just talk JB into coming with me to look at them....



Last night I hauled the red bench outside and tried to take pictures of some quilts sister JH had made. My baby cooperated for about 5 minutes. Better than expected! She's such a bundle of energy (as I sit here typing she's hanging onto my arm trying to get onto my lap. No chance, baby doll! Not until I'm done anyway!), I can't really expect her to sit still. I love having a "live" model in house, even though our sessions are short and sweet! (Okay, she got her way and is now perched on my lap. We'll see how long it is before she starts having at the keyboard!)

Duplos as props wasn't exactly what I had in mind...

Here's my cue that this session has now come to a close!

We made it!!!

Etsy just sponsered a Handmade Kid's Contest, I had blogged about it before. Today I noticed the finals were posted. Each category was narrowed down and now G.Q.Public can go in and vote on them.

We made it into this round in the furniture category! Part of me wonders if it's only because a few people entered...but hey! we still made it this far! Here's our entry!

Now you all get over there and vote!!

Madness around here

I'm not sure who is more ready for school to start, me or the kids. I feel as though I'm hanging on to my sanity by a thread. Here's a vote for more vacation during the school year and a two month summer break!

Today we broke up the monotony of life and took a trip to grandma and grandpa's to swim in their pool. It was the first time this whole summer! Sad but true! It was awesome to get out of the house, still be able to put the babies for their naps, and enjoy the afternoon. It's always fun to go there...you never quite know who will pop in there at any given time!

Last night we ate a semi-early supper and then I sent the kids outside while I pulled out the beads. I worked on jewelry until almost midnight. (give or take when you factor in the bedtime scene and the interruptions of the kids) I was able to get 8 necklaces done. Two still need clasps and I didn't have the right color for them. I'll have to shop around on Etsy tonight and see what I can find. Hubby has the camera with him (he's out of town) so I can't take pictures of them. An enjoyable evening...just me and my beads!

What should I do tonight?!?!?

Spent a little time

using the Pounce feature on Etsy this afternoon. Pounce has two different options...one for sold items and one for undiscovered (new) shops. When you sell something from your shop, it'll show up in Pounce. It shows the item you sold plus 6 other items from your shop.


We sold the Charcoal Sally Bag today, so I wanted to see what other items from our shop showed up in Pounce. I must have been in there too late because I never saw our shop pop up in there.

Oops...that pictures didn't link very well. Oh well, you get the idea!

I found some other cool shops though! Marked a few more favorites!

Sometimes Kids Rule the Roost

I had plans today to go with my mom and JB to the delightful town of Northfield, MN. We had helped mom get ready for her last doll show and this was our "payment", her treat to us.

My husband stayed home from work today, sick (it's making it's way thru the family), so I left everyone but the youngest home. He's pretty much horizontal so I felt bad leaving him with the baby. I figured the rest of the kids could fend for themselves, for the most part.

I was almost to my mom and dad's when babes started gagging. I quickly pulled over and managed to get her blanket under her chin as she started throwing up. Yuck! Back home I went. So much for my outing for today.

I was disappointed but it's life. Not much you can do about it. I've learned to expect things like this, it comes with the territory. I was thankful I had already been to Northfield. It makes it easier to stay home.

Since all I accomplished yesterday was racking up cell phone minutes, today I'm determined to get something done...well...as soon as my baby goes down for a nap!

Lazy Day

so far today. I'm using the fact that I was sick yesterday as my excuse to slack off today. I couldn't keep anything in my system (information overload?) yesterday, so today I'm "recuperating". Granted the washer and dryer are humming but other than that I'm just hanging out.

I'm going to use today for able mabel stuff. Take some pictures, work on our international shipping rates, that sort of thing.

It's contest time

over at Etsy. They are having a Handmade Kid's Contest with about 7 different categories you can enter items into. I just got our entry (the deadline is tomorrow) done for the furniture category. Sister JH had made a cradle/step stool. I had forgotten, kind of, about it! Shame on me!

I don't expect any of our entries to win but I figured it would be good exposure for our shop. A new challenge is always fun!

A little R & R

My husband and I just returned yesterday from a week long trip to Glacier National Park in Northern Montana. We celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary on the 8th, so we used that as our "excuse" to sneak away.

It was sheer bliss! A much needed break! We were both in our element as we hiked for two and half days, logging about 25 miles in all. My husband spent most of the time behind the camera and took a ton of pictures (about 400 in all). Gotta admit, he's pretty good!

One night as I lay in the green luscious grass at our cabin, exhausted from hiking, smelling the salmon my husband was grilling for dinner, I thought to myself "Life doesn't get much better than this!" (that is, if you're going to take a trip without kids!)

This is one of the longer, more difficult and probably the most breath-taking hikes we took. Approximately 13 miles total (Highline Trail with the Glacier Overlook). It was comical to see the expressions on people's faces when they realized I was pregnant, especially when we passed them! It was almost as if they expected me to drop in a heap in the middle of the trail. They all assumed it was our first baby and we never did "fess up" to anyone how many kids we already had! As we hiked, we both agreed that this was definately not a trail to take kids on. For part of the trail, there was a sheer drop off to one side. As we got to the Glacier Overlook trail (it climbed 1000 feet over the course of .6 miles) there was loose rock covered in sand. Slightly un-nerving but well worth it!

On almost all the trails, we hiked with the mountain goats. For the most part they left us alone, except for this guy. (this encounter was down by Hidden Lake) I was in front as we came around the corner to find him walking toward us on the trail. We stepped off into the weeds a few steps to let him pass. He walked right up to where we were, stopped, looked at us and headed right for us! We scattered off to the side and he again paused by where we were standing, probably thinking "stupid tourists" and continued on his way. He was a little too close for comfort!

We also saw other animals...big horn sheep, bears, etc. It is just so amazing to be out with nature. It made me realize how insignificant humans are. Awesome!

Paybacks from the kids started as soon as we walked in the door last night. Our youngest wouldn't let me put her down all evening and is also feeling needy this morning. I'm not at all suprised, in fact, I expected it. It's one of the "side effects" of leaving them home. It's worth it though!

Now off to weed thru my 255 e-mails waiting for me! Yuck!

Kid Quip

I had my daughter in for pre-school screening today. She's turning 4 tomorrow. In one part of the screening she was given different objects and then asked to describe them.

She was given a big blue button and asked the question "What do you do with this?" She sweetly answered, "Make necklaces out of it." I had to stifle my urge to laugh! The screener looked at me quizzically as she agreed that you can make necklaces out of it, but what else is it for...

My daughter never did get the question right but ya think able mabel is rubbing off on her?

Quick post

Last night JB came over and we made some jewelry. It wasn't a super productive evening, or at least it felt like it. Our husbands were both gone so our kids swirled at our feet. Usually when we've done jewelry, our kids are sleeping and the house it quiet. I guess if I tally up the numbers, we came out alright.

Here's two pictures (I have more but I won't bore you)...looks like blue was the theme of the night!

Today I started working on light switch covers. I watched a few of my nieces and nephews this afternoon so I didn't have high hopes of getting much done. I dragged my stuff up from the basement so I could work at the kitchen table. Watch kids and work at the same time...multi-tasking at it's best!

I ended up getting a total of 12 started. They just need to be sealed, which I'll try to do tonight.

As I was assembling them, I set them to dry on a ledge we have between our kitchen and dining room. I had just finished when my daughter dropped a whole bottle (baby bottle) of milk on the stove. Milk splattered all over the place!! Got that mess cleaned up and then went to put all my stuff away. While picking up the light switch covers off the ledge, I accidentally knocked one into the soapy water in the sink. So when it's all said and done...I really only got 11 done.

Now it's time to make supper and deal with this little lovie who got woken up from her nap! Sounds like a winning combination!