Inside Helen's Head

I GOT PUBLISHED!!!!

So I was running errands today and happened to purchase a copy of Belle Armoire Magazine.  I love Somerset publications - I think they have at least twenty that I would like to subscribe to - and the July/August issue had this really cool coat made from grungeboard that caught my eye and I decided to buy that one.  So I finish my errands and come home, settle down in my chair with a little pasta for lunch and start reading the magazine...when I got to the bridal article I remembered that I had sent them a suit that I had embroidered several months ago and thought I guess they didn't like it...I kind of didn't know if they would, it isn't as artsy as some of the stuff they publish and I figured they would've told me if they were going to use it - then I turned the page...and I'm looking at this lovely wool jacket with this colorful embroidery and it takes a moment to sink in... THAT'S MY SUIT!!!!  I jump up and start screaming - Do screams count if no one hears them?  And I call my mom and I post on my facebook page and WOW - it's totally exciting to have something published.  SO a big THANK YOU to Somerset Belle Armoire for publishing my suit - it made my day - possibly the best day EVER!!!

 

 

 

oh yeah....i have a blog.

Well, I am home with a sick kid, again.  This time Joshua got sent home for vomiting - poor kid was kinda pale there for a while, but seems to be feeling better, as he is playing with the Wii.

What's new with me?  Well.  LOST ended.  And not just for the season, but forever.  And that makes me sad.  The last show was wonderful, I laughed, I cried, I will buy the DVD.

And then my other favorite show -GLEE- ended for the season, and it was really great...but now I have nothing to watch on TV.  For awhile there, with three shows to watch, I was overwhelmed with TV.  Now all there is is those stupid housewife shows that I keep turning on for some reason.  Sigh.  At least I have Project Runway, and Lost on DVD....maybe I'll go buy season 1 of Glee.  :)

Anyhow.  Troy was in a weight lifting competition, and won 2nd place with a lift of...I think it was 365.  Something close to that, anyways.  The guy that beat him was about 50 pound heavier than Troy and it was someone that none of the local gym guys knew - but he got first and that made Troy sad.  But at least he beat 'Bama!

I went to the yard sale of an artist - I always enjoy the yard-sales of people just like me - she had fabric and oodles of art stuff, tools, some furniture - lots of neat stuff.  And she had just sold her house which was out in a field of wild flowers, the sale was held in her barn/studio.  I wanted to move in.  But I just bought a bunch of stuff, including a pattern cabinet.  I need a bigger house so I can keep buying treasure!

School is out for the summer - Joshua was happy and excited and Kat was a little sad.  Joshua got an award for doing really well on his TAKS test.  I was pretty excited about that - I like it when my kids get awards for being smart!  Actually, I teared up a little when he got it because it was so unexpected - he has a learning disability - I always thought Kat would get her name up on the wall but I was so happy that Joshua did - YAY! 

I took them to Braums to celebrate the start of summer - We love Braums!

The kids went to our local water-park with their classes to celebrate the end of school (that last week is just all parties and fun!) and Josh got a sunburn on his ear.  He must have missed that little bit of skin when he put his sunscreen on - Texas sun in fierce!

Ouch!  So the kids are out of school and driving me nuts - we bought them a Wii and everyone is enjoying that...it's amazing how satisfying it is to whack the snot out of an animated character...I had to put a tape line on the floor cause Josh kept getting so close to the TV I thought he was going to smash it - so everyone has to stay behind the line.  It's really fun.  I got a dance mat too - DDR - but I will only use it when everyone is gone cause my friend Todd is trying to get Troy to video tape me doing it - and that would just be too embarrassing to have that wind up on YouTube.  :P

I also started a quilt.  I put my name on Gloria's list about a year ago...so she should be getting to me soon....so I better get it done!  I don't want to lose my place cause it takes her a year to get to you anyhow.  LOL  It's more fun than alterations!

We have been enjoying our garden's produce and also that of our fine farmer's market - it's so hard not to buy everything when you are there - but then you end up with more than you need for the week and it spoils and that isn't good.  This week we had zucchini andonions and tomatoes and cabbage to work with so we had bread and two layered casseroles.  Yummy stuff!  We also tried some local wine, which was pretty good.  I don't know that much about wine, just if I liked it or not, and I did.  :)

Troy's cousin had a birthday party and we went to it - it's nice having family near by.  He had a cow themed party and we got him a cute stuffed cow and some other cow stuff - he seemed to like it.  It was nice seeing them and since Uncle Garnet and Aunt Nancy were visiting too, that made it extra fun -I especially enjoy it when Nancy tells stories about when Troy was a kid...he sounds just like Josh!

My other new thing is Dawn dolls...but that is going to be a whole post to itself!  Bye for now!  

National Scrapbook Day 2010

Well we had another super fun time at this years retreat.  Scrapbook N Such always plans such a great retreat!

Tamy and I entered "Crop In A Box" in the centerpiece contest.  It was a spinning box that was covered in mini scrapbooks of past retreats and topped by a miniature scene of Terri scrapbooking.  This pic is of Terri when she first saw it.  Her amazed reaction was pretty cool and we felt like we had "won" even if we didn't win the contest.  It was a lot of work but it was fun having the most talked about project!
Tamy got a gypsy!  Such a fun toy - everyone with a Cricut needs one!
We won the contest!  We got a huge bag of scrapbook supplies...not that either of us needed any,  but free stuff is always fun.
Tamy thought I should share more of my wine.  But was complaining that she would get a headache?  Don't whine if you want wine!
We crowned CJ the Queen of the Crop or at least of our corner, based on the she who has the most stuff wins thing.  Dear God this woman has a lot of stuff!
We had chicken for dinner.  This is the sort of food that tastes good but no one should eat.  You can identify this sort of food by the beige color.
Tamy is a multitasker!  Her iphone is very cool - we were able to check our ebay auctions from the crop!
There were TONS of classes at this crop.  I didn't take any of them, preferring to work on my own pages.
Although this project was tempting.  Isn't this book just amazingly pretty?  Tamy took it.  She loves to make mini books!
Hazelnut Lattes make me happy!  (and keep me up!)
Tammy's working hard!
All of this stuff is really hers.  And there is more in her van.  And look!  She did some scrapbooking!  We like to give CJ a hard time because she brings so much and gets so little done.  But it's because she is very generous with loaning her stuff and teaching people how to use it.  The rest of us just want to do our own projects!
My hair DID explode out of my head.  Why do you ask?
Tammy, Tamy, Helen, CJ.
New friend Brenda!  She was very cool, collects dolls and was interesting to talk to.  She won this very pretty pink bag (that I wanted) and also a gypsy!  So lucky!
Tamy and me doing close ups.
Even the Mt Dew couldn't keep me up!  But that timer will wake me up to do the lights - it's LOUD!!!!
Tamy tried to dye her hair the same color as her Glori doll.  I think it's easier to change the dolls!
Another shot of our centerpiece.
Our dolls came along to keep us company!  This is mini Helen, Mini Tamy and Mini CJ.  Notice that CJ is NOT scrapbooking, but is reading a book.  Sigh.  How will she ever get anything done?
   

Catching up.

Once you get behind it just seems to snowball.  Today I am home with my sick daughter so I have lots of time to sit around and get caught up!

Joshua has become good friends with Alex, who is my friend Tamy's son.  They both like dinosaurs, Legos, Star Wars and active playing...very active.  They raced all over Tamy's huge yard playing spy and chase and swords...

 
Katherine had a banquet for Girl Scouts.  We made tons of tissue paper flowers for the decorations and had lots of dessert at our potluck.  We even had a magician...who wore so much cologne that you could smell him across the room and I was sick for days after from smelling him.

Kat looked so sweet!
Aren't the flowers pretty and colorful?  We all got to keep some.
Mr smelly magic
Awards!
Kat got lots of new patches!
Well - I guess I'll be busy!   I have a lot of patches to sew on!

I signed my kids up for camp...this requires one to get up early and wait in line to get a spot.  The rec center camps are really popular and if you aren't in line by 6 am you probably aren't going to get your kids in.  Well - it wasn't as crowded this year but still quite a few - Tamy and I sat out there huddled in the cold drinking coffee.  Someone needs to put a port a potty out there!

I've been working on a room box for my Dawn dolls.  It's too fun!

This is Jessica and Gary.  In my pretend world this is my friend Todd and me.  Jessica's hair has been colored to look more like mine.
And here is my room so far...Love the tin ceiling! More to come!
 

Easter!

Hey, we had Easter!  We did the usual Easter stuff, here are some pix of the egg hunt and dinner...

 We made lots of pretty eggs.
  HAM!!!!
Look what Kat made!
Lots of colors...
I love decorating eggs!
Yummy candy!

I think Hershey wants an Easter basket!    

Storm Computers Saved the Day!

National Scrapbook Day, that is!  My printer crashed on Sunday while I was printing proof sheets in preparation for a weekend of scrapbooking.  As it is kind of expensive to go to these crops, I like to bring more than enough photos to keep me busy.  So I was pretty upset about the printer thing.  I spent most of Monday on the phone with HP (NOT HELPFUL) and then on their website trying all of their suggestions for reviving it to no avail.  Feeling hopeless and sad, I went looking for a new printer to replace it, hoping to find one that would use the $200 worth of ink cartridges I had already bought.  WELL there are NO printers that take HPs 02 cartridges.  ANd no printers that seemed like they would make me more happy than the one I already owned.  I went home feeling even MORE depressed.  After eating a box of Thin Mints I decided to at least SEE if someone could fix it, although I had my doubts and hated the idea of shelling out $50 to have someone tell me I would have to buy another.  So I found a privately owned computer biz - STORM COMPUTERS (located at 4806 Kemp) and called, hoping that since they were listed as a warranty center they might actually fix things in house rather than mail them back to India or someplace.  And what do you know, They were super nice, fixed my printer and had it done within a couple of hours for less than $50.  Hooray!  Thank You Storm Computers for saving my weekend!  You guys are my new best friends....and if you'll excuse me, I need to print some photos!

Sigh

Well I just don't seem to get around to posting very often any more.  I am going to try to be better about that. 

I have recently started playing with Dawn dolls again and it has become something of an obsession!  It started when I asked my friend if she remembered Dawn.  And she did, quite enthusiatically.  So when I needed a little present for her I bought her one off ebay.  But then I wanted one, too.  And my daughter had lost mine.  (probably in the back yard.  It's like a toy graveyard out there.)  So I got me one.  And then she wanted to do a centerpiece for National Scrapbook Day, a small one, because they have gotten so big (there's a competition at the retreat we go to) that it has gotten out of hand.  So it turned into Crop In A Box, which involved miniatures and photos and lots of cuteness.  Which led to looking for Dawn clothes on Ebay..... I created an Ebay monster.  I made the mistake of letting her bid on my account - and her bidding got big really fast and I got uncomfortable with the ammount of money she owed me...just started feeling icky and not fun.  And then this morning I looked at a lot I was bidding on and my bid had changed...and it turned out she thought it was her bid - I was just pissed that she was bidding on so many things that she couldn't even remember what she was bidding on and what I was bidding on.  So I changed my password.  Anyhow.  So I have been very busy working on the Crop In A Box which is so stinking cute...and I want to keep it, I knew that I would.  But it's for the competition and if it wins, the scrapbook store will keep it.  SO I started building my own ultimate craft party in a room box I had bought a long time ago when my buddy Sharry and I went through a miniature phase together.  We used to challange each other to make the most ridiculous things...but we would and they would be wonderful because we were trying to impress each other.  Anyhow, so I painted my roombox aqua and I am putting in a "tin" ceiling and black and white floor tiles - basically it's going to be the studio I would have if I could...and it's going to have dolls to represent the people I would invite to my craft party.  Even tho some of those people are dead.  Because in a perfect world they would be there. :)  But I am having much fun working on it.

National Scrapbook Day is this Saturday and I am going to Scrapbook N Such's weekend retreat...and I haven't done a thing to get ready and my printer died.  So I was debating over having it fixed or buying new, and am going to go look at printers today.  So MAYBE I can actually scrapbook at this retreat.  Otherwise I might just sit there and make miniatures.  It'll be fun, whatever I am doing. 

Later!

Joshua had a Birthday!

I can't believe my son is ten.  He also is 5 feet tall.  As tall as some of my adult friends.  So weird to see my little boy growing up.  Anyhow.  We had talked about him having a party at jump for joy and then his dad gave him a b b gun to play with...and he shot his window.  Now if it had been one of the crappy aluminum windows, I probably wouldn't have cared.  But no, he shot the double paned Pella replacement windows that it took forever to save the money for.  So that party was canceled by me.  Troy got soft though, and told me to get him the present he wanted, a Nintendo DS which cost as much as those windows.  It's a good thing Josh has Troy or he wouldn't have any fun at all. :)

Anyhow.  So we had a little family party with cake and balloons and we took him to see "Diary of a Wimpy Kid".  Which was an okay movie but seemed more like a TV show than a movie.  My kids latched onto the "cheese touch" thing. 

I had decorated the table for the party and went to get balloons.  When I came back there was a penny on the table.  No one else was home.  I guess our ghost decided to leave Josh a present.

I think I look old and tired in all the pictures from the party.

Kat's favorite part is always the cake!

Josh loved his DS - he even took it to the movies and played during the boring parts.  Kat want to play with it so she will probably want one for her birthday , too.     
 
 

Catching Up

Okay, it's been like a month since I have posted anything, and I am SORRY!  Sometimes I get too busy having a life to write about it.  :) 

So...Kat and I have been selling cookies.  We spent a very cold Saturday sitting in a cookie booth with the wind blowing the whole time...it was miserable.  and people just don't want cookies this year.  Kat sold about 1/2 of what she did last year.  She has no enthusiasm for selling after so many people have said no.  And I am SO SICK OF SELLING FREAKIN GIRL SCOUT COOKIES!!!!!  And we were supposed to be done but our troop has gotten stuck with many cases of leftover/unsold cookies and I got talked into taking just one more case home.  If it was carmel de-lites I would probably just buy it.  I may anyways and just give them away.  Last year we were able to pick up cookies as we needed them but this year there was all this guessing and preordering and we ended up with more than we needed.  And it sounds like a lot of troops did.  So anyways.  If anyone needs any cookies, contact me and I will get them to you.  Stupid cookies.

I draw pictures on Katherine's lunch bag every day.

She saves them.

I bought a dawn doll on ebay.  I love ebay.  You can find and repurchase all the toys you had when you were a kid.  Next I am going to buy her pink corvette.  Or a VW van, If I can find one to scale.

 
Me and the kids went to visit my parents during Spring break.  On the way up we saw a big grass fire with lots of black smoke.  I don't know if it was a "fire" or if they were just burning their fields but the kids thought it was pretty exciting.  Then they fell asleep and I didn't have to stop as much as I usually do.  While we were there we went to  the Exploration Place in Wichita KS - the kids really like it there because of the three story castle there.  They have dress up clothes and props and it's just really neat.  So me and my parents just kinda hung out for several hours while they ran amok with the others kids.

We also went to the Scrapbook Garden, located in Wichita, KS.  It was a pretty amazing scrapbook store - even bigger than Scrapbook n Such.  I felt slightly disloyal until I saw the aisle of Basic Grey products.  I love Basic Grey!  So awesome!

My family wasn't as enthusiastic about stopping here - in fact they wanted to leave after the first row of product.  Sigh.  I'd like to go back and spend a few hours - maybe even take a class.  They had a very friendly and helpful staff and an amazing selection of products.  I know I'll be back!

We had a nice visit with my parents and were traveling home on the Kansas Turnpike.  At one of the toll booths there was a huge line, maybe 40 cars waiting and only one lane open besides the KTAG lane.  I pulled in with a sigh.  After being almost parked for several minutes, I noticed that some cars were pulling out into the KTAG lane, and then trying to cut in the line closer to the front.  I was thinking how dangerous that was, pulling out into a lane where the traffic was moving at 70 mph from a dead stop when I heard the crash and watched a white car spinning towards us, crashing back and forth between the cars.  It was a very "oh shit" moment, realizing that there was no escape with a concrete barrier to my left, a car ahead and behind and the wildly spinning car.  It hit the black car behind us, bounced off and slid to a stop.  The kids went nuts.  People started getting out of their cars and running around on the highway, some cars from behind the accident started trying to drive between the damaged cars.  The toll booth opened up another lane and I pulled into it and Kat started taking pictures out the back window.

We were right in front of that black car that you can see 1/2 of on the far right.  The white car on the far right was knocked off the road by the other white car that is kind of in the middle.  It was hit by the big truck when it pulled out in front of it.  I gave my kids a talk about being patient and how you can get hurt by being in a hurry.  They thought the accident was the best part of the trip.  Sigh. I was glad to get home safe.

Katherine finally decided to get her ears pierced.  I had wanted to do them when she was a baby but didn't feel like I really had the right to decide to put holes in her body, that it should be her decision.  And while she wanted earring for some time, she hadn't quite summoned the courage to get them done.  In typical Kat fashion, once she had decided she was ready, she was quite impatient to get them done.  So we did.

Last weekend I was at my friend Tamy's house.  We are working on becoming inner circle friends.  Which probably seems weird, but there is a difference between friends that you just see at work or that you are in a club with or church with and people that you call and make plans with .  I think it takes getting together and telling your secrets and stories to get to that inner circle.  There are some people that you just click with that get a sort of direct path there (like my friend Sharry) but most take some relationship building.  Some people never get there, no matter how much time you spend together.  I define these people as the people you can be your absolute true self with, the ones that "get" you, the ones that you don't have to explain yourself to.  They see you as your best self and only mentally hold on to the best parts of you.  A person is fortunate to have one such friend.  I have been blessed with many, some who have been my friends for a long time, some that wander in and out of my life, some that I knew only briefly before they went away for one reason or another.  But anyhow, my point, I guess, was that I don't really have an inner circle friend that lives here at this moment and I miss having that kind of relationship.  So Tamy and I are hanging out more, seeing if that works.  Anyhow.  I was at her house and our children were playing together  and they decided to pretend that my car was a time machine and they played with all the switches and buttons and left enough stuff on to drain the battery to the point that we were not able to jump start it.  So her husband charged the battery but when I was able to bring my car home the power steering no longer worked.  I felt very clever in that I figured out what was wrong with my car and changed the fuse myself.

More later!  I gotta go watch LOST!!!!  :) 
   

 

A conversation while selling Girl Scout cookies

This is a real conversation we had during our door to door sales.

Kat - Would you like to buy some girls scout cookies?

Man - You got any chocolate?

Kat - We have peanut butter patties, thin mints and caramel delites.

Man - Do you have those chocolate bars?

Kat - We're selling Girl Scout Cookies, not candy.

Man - I like those chocolate and coconut ones.

Kat - Caramel Delites?

Man - No, I want a chocolate bar.

Kat - Sir, we are selling cookies.  Did you want any cookies?

Man - no.

Kat - sigh.