Another from the ranch

kitty, originally uploaded by BlushOnYourCheek.

I adored this kitten, she was so tiny with so much hair.

One quick picture

since I've got bread at the end of it's rise and it needs attending. Two of the horses at my family's place. I think Silver is on the left but Sport and Silver look nearly identical to me so it could be Sport. Bonnie is on the right, she's a Percheron/Clydesdale mix and massive.

Crafty fun for toddlers

I'm co-chairing Kinsley's daycare Christmas party on Friday. So, my task was to come up with a craft little people could do with relative ease. So, James and I are going to busy ourselves cutting out about 100 mitten shapes from red, green, and white cardstock tonight and tomorrow. Then on Friday the children will decorate two with foam stickers, little pom-poms, glitter glue, crayons, and then we'll tie a ribbon between the two and they have made a mitten ornament.

Then, for my own fun, I'm thinking I'm going to make these calendars for next year. I already have a wall calendar for my office wall but I can make an excuse and have a pretty one on my desk as well.

Advice well taken

12.16.07kinsley.2, originally uploaded by BlushOnYourCheek.

We took time to stop and smell the roses today. It's been nearly 4 or more years since neither James nor I have been in school. It's nice to finally have some downtime.

The Pear Shirt

pear shirt, originally uploaded by BlushOnYourCheek.

Finally, I snagged a picture of the shirt I made for Kinsley. I bought a red knit shirt to wear underneath it now that it's getting colder outside. I'm really hoping I didn't make the sleeves too tight though.

Pink is festive

cookies, originally uploaded by BlushOnYourCheek.

I had a quick moment to decorate a few stars last night- all pink of course. It really did help lift my spirits and get me in the Christmas mood. I even managed to sing a little "I want a hippopotamus for Christmas".

Martha turned my frown upside down

I was in a bit of a funk about Christmas this year. We had let a friend stay with us to help him get on his feet in a new town and it went downhill from there. Needless to say the loss of a friendship and a feeling of having generosity taken advantage of can zap any Christmas spirit.

But just as I was starting to send out invitations for a pity party I decided to bake it out. So I baked 2 dozen thumprint cookies, 2 dozen sugar cookies, another 2 dozen gingerbread cookies, and a loaf of bread. I can't take all the credit on the bread since I let the bread machine work a brioche out for me but it came out so delicious.

I'm going to decorate as many cookies as I can tonight and hopefully get a good handprint of Kinsley's so I can make hand cookies. I used this royal icing recipe but doubled it and subbed powdered egg white for the real thing and used almond extract instead of lemon juice. James just called and said he picked up pink sugar sprinkles for me. It's like he knows what little thing is going to make me happy in the day and he knows being able to pink up the holidays is just what I need to do right now.

I'll upload pictures of the cookie madness tonight (except the thumbprints, those disappeared since Saturday).

The girl, my world

50mm 1.4 lens, Aly's Simply Vintage action

Busy weekend

But oh so worth it.

Last night I helped my cousin and two of her friends tear down the wallpaper in my aunt and uncle's house. Wowza. When DIF says wait 15 minutes they mean it and we were not so patient. All in all though, 4 hours later all the paper was down. James and I went back to help smooth out the drywall and prime the walls. I'm so excited to continue with the painting; it's going to be gorgeous!

Playing with histograms and photoshop

(action is Creamsicle by SCP and a frame action from action central)