Cheapsake Alert!

Our kids don't play in our own hose... They take advantage of the city sprinklers watering the small patches of grass around the neighborhood instead. :)

Usually on Sunday evening, I plan out a rough draft of my week ahead. On the schedule for today was sewing all.day.long. So much for that plan. My machine sat idle all.day.long.

Instead I got the 'Burb cleaned out (talk about embarrassing when you pull into a parking lot, open the doors and end up chasing garbage that came flying out of your vech.) and the basement gutted. So refreshing to get two much needed, dreadful chores done!

I'll probably be kicking myself tomorrow that I didn't sew today. I hate going too many days between sewing sessions. Tomorrow is filled with the last day of school activities so it'll be at least Thursday before my machine gets pulled again. Oh joy. ;)

Also on my list for today was to re-take pictures of my burpies. As I was cleaning up the lunch mess, I noticed the memory card for my camera on the front step, full of teeth marks. Oops. Big oops. I had left it in my laptop. My laptop was sitting on the piano bench (left there after my workout) when Dolly happened upon it. Being a curious little girl, she found the memory card, pulled it out of the slot and promptly chewed it to smitherines. Sigh. This is the second time it's happened. You'd think I would have learned after the first time, but no, I didn't. Double sigh. This latest chewed up card was my spare one. Let's hope Target carries the right card, otherwise my camera will be out of commission for a while.

A Sunday Hike

I had been craving a good hike. Between icky weather and busy schedules, we've only been out hiking a few times this spring.

On Sunday we took the kids out on a nearby trail.
Hubby had already biked 12 miles on Sunday morning, so he was perfectly content to hang back with our 2 yr old when she wanted to try hiking instead of riding. I went on ahead with the older kids.

Cheater! She takes a shortcut thru the woods. Shame on her. :)

This is also a trail that Hubby bikes at least once a week, most weeks twice. The kids and I kept exclaiming about that fact. Yikes!

By the time we made it to the overlook spur, we were down two kids. We had met some friends who were on their way down. Our 5 yr old jumped at the chance to turn around and hike back down with her friend. It was shortly after that, our 9 yr old decided to go back and meet up with Dad.

Yay! These three made it to the top and enjoyed the gorgeous views!

Baby Doll happily rode on my back and "played" with my hair, saying"oh cute!" the entire time. She doesn't always appreciate hiking and can get pretty antsy. We lucked out this time.

It was so wonderful to get outside, enjoy nature and the fresh air while sweating like a pig!

A boatload of pictures!

My quest for better and better pictures never ends. I've documented that many times.

This morning I sent some sample pictures over to Jessica to get her opinion. She has a great eye for styling, as I mentioned yesterday. (She will also be trying to get a photography business underway once she gets back on her feet after having a baby.)

I spent a few hours taking and retaking pictures today.

Here are some before and afters... Washcloths before.Washcloths afterLovie before. Lovie after. Since I had some new lovies to photograph, I just did the new ones. Still debating if I should go back and redo all of them...sounds like work.Bib before.
Bib after.

One of her suggestions was to use a white background to make the colors pop. I've known that but haven't had anything white hanging around. I ended up taking two pieces of white tagboard and cobbling something together. I ended up with some lines but was able to retouch them in Picasa. I'm going to check out fabric.com and see if I can find a piece of white fabric. It would be so much easier.

I didn't get very expressive shots of Dolly. She discovered the piece of tagboard hanging over the edge of the table made some cool noise when she banged her feet against it. Sigh. The joys of working with kids. :)


The thought of going back in and updating all my listings is a bit overwhelming. I think I'll do it slowly over the next few days.

I think someone was feeling a little left out, even though she just had her turn.

"Excuse me, do you mind? I'm trying to do something here." Every time I got up to get something, she's toddle over and monkey. This is why I usually take pictures when she's in bed. ;) Sweet Little Pea!