The Love of a New Purse

After my low-self esteem day yesterday, I decided that I needed a little retail therapy. I know that shopping is not the way to go to solve problems, but I couldn't help it when I saw this beauty. I had needed to find a pair of shoes to go with the outfit that I am planning on wearing this weekend, so Fritz and I headed off to shop. I know that I will see lots of people that I only see every couple of years this weekend, so of course I want to look somewhat good. Hence, the self esteem issues yesterday.
Post-pregnancy, my body is still being mean to me. I had a really good month last month and have lost (and kept off) five pounds, but nothing more. It just doesn't seem enough. I didn't have a terribly hard pregnancy, however, I had serious issues with food. I didn't have nausea all the time, I just couldn't eat or find anything that sounded or smelled good to eat. I was told by my doctor not to work out so that I could save any calories that I gained that day. At the end of the pregnancy, I had only gained 12 pounds. I have never in my life had problems gaining weight until the time I was suppose to!
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And then.... after Fritz was born it felt as if I had been starving completely for the nine months and had to make up for it. Plus the non-working-staying-at-home-new-mother-one-income-semi-depression, hounded me into some form of weird happiness with food. I'm still at the weight that I was when I had Fritz, but now that the body has changed from the stretchy belly, I can't seem to get rid of it! My legs are getting smaller, but sadly I have been forced to buy a bigger size pants just to fit the tummy! Then of course the legs are soooo baggy I look ridiculous. Man! That feels better getting that all off my mind.
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Even though I know I don't look my best, at least now I will have a damn fine new purse to show off. Oh! And I did find the shoes too. ;)

Bits of Dark

I'm having one of those days...



Trying to find any kind of light and wondering if it will show tomorrow? Hopefully.

Sundays with Fritz-The Case of the Sniffles

NO PICTURES PLEASE!!!

Yep, I was sick this week. My first official cold ever! It wasn't too bad, but the first night it was a tad bit hard to breath so Mommy spent the night in my room to make sure that I would be okay. She noticed that I was sleeping with my blanket on my face (which is usual-I love it!) so when she tried to take it off I got really mad at her and cried and cried and refused to go back to sleep for a long time. That's because she wouldn't give me my blanket back!
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I still have a tiny runny nose, but mostly all is well. Mommy was telling me that she hopes her and Daddy don't get sick as well, as we have a big family gathering next weekend. For my birthday!! Yippee, presents!!!!!!

I SAID NO PICTURES!!!

Added to the Art Collection

Yeah, I'm a tattoo kinda gal. This is my fourth addition to my body art. Now I don't ever see myself as one completely covered (or even close to it), but I do have plans to have a few more. I still need/want to get the little feet prints that Fritz got on the day he was born, and a few other that are in the works in my mind.

The pic above is of the one that I got done today. It is of two African Violets and scroll work that I designed myself. The violets are because my Grandmother always had these growing in her house and I love how fragile and precious the real ones always look. The bottom three scrolls are for my other Grandparents that have both been deceased for quite sometime and their son, my Uncle, who is also passed. The top two are for my late Grandmother and my Grandfather (whom is still living). That's why the bottom scroll on the top is different from all the others as he is still living and it will not be changed until (hopefully) years from now.

If...

You love giveaways, click on The Vintage Pearl button on the sidebar! Hurry!

A Family Lunch

This weekend is the family reunion on my Mother's side, so since the Hubs, Fritz and I were/are not able to attend the entire thing, we did manage to drive two hours away to have lunch on one of the days. Not all of the family were there yet, but enough to chat with for a couple of hours.
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For dessert we had one of our family's most favorite things! Angel Food cake with whipped cream and strawberries. My Grandmother made the most wonderful, delicious cakes (she was an awesome baker and cook) and it was always asked at family gatherings if the Angel Food would be served. In honor of her, it was the perfect ending to lunch.

But.... the truly strange thing was were the happening, happened. Yep, in a cemetery. Since our very special Grandmother is no longer with us and last year before she passed she had looked forward to this reunion, we decided to still include her with some of the celebration by eating the cake by her headstone.

Now I can check mark off on my "Life's crazy to-do list" eating lunch in a cemetery! I have lived across from one before in Idaho, and strangely enough, it was actually quite peaceful!

Goodies, Goodies, and More Goodies!

I won my first blog giveaway a couple of weeks ago, and yesterday I received the awesome gift from Canada! Carmen from About A Girl sent me an incredible bounty of stamping goods. Included also, were some handmade cards made by her! I can't wait to start using this stuff, as I use to do some stamping here and there. I probably will find that my inks are all dried up as it has been a long time since I have taken out my stash. I'm sure there will be a pound of dust on everything as well!

Thanks Carmen for having a fabulous giveaway, and thank little Grace again for picking my name!!

Wednesday Craft Update

I'm starting a new scarf! After taking a three week break from scarf making, I decided it was time to start up again. It did help that I found some awesome new yarn. Below is my favorite kind of yarn. It is thick and fuzzy and very warm. This is a new color that they have out so of course I had to grab some of it! It's a darker olive green, and oh so, so lovely. I love this olive/sage-y color. I love green! Any kind of green. Seriously. I might have a small problem with the color actually. In fact some of my living room walls are almost the same exact color!!




I will have a painting for the update next week as when I re-painted my bathroom I realized that we did not have any wall art for the new color scheme. So, I decided that I will just paint one instead of trying to buy one! And I have to get it done as we have cousins from out of state arriving for the Birthday celebration for Fritz next Wednesday (HE'S TURNING ONE!!!!!).

My Funny Cats

Waiting for cheese handouts.

Having a conversation.

A Tiny Smell

Call me crazy... A few days ago I got a whiff of something delicious. Not food cooking on the stove nor a sweet perfume, but a silent sent of fall.


I'm not ready to meet this Autumn year yet, but catching the smell of fall was a nice surprise mixed in with the blooming of flowers and light Summer rains. I love fall. It is such a wondrous time to see the world getting ready for the cold days around the corner.

The colors of changing leaves slowly floating down to the Earth's floor while walking along one of my most favorite streets here that is lined with glorious old maples. My Grandparents house was located on one of these streets. I remember fondly a few times of raking all of the leaves into that huge pile to jump and play, or to simply just sit still on their cement walkway, staring up into the aged trees. Peering through the different colors to find the sky. Although that house is no longer in our family, those treasured memories are sure to stay.

Sundays with Fritz-The Case of the Giveaway Winner

Hi all! Mommy said that I was to pick who the winner was from her giveaway. I wasn't too sure what I was suppose to do, but picking anything sure sounded fun! Mommy wrote all the names down and put them into a hat. She told me to pick one out, but I thought to myself "One! Heck no!" so I picked out four instead...

She then put the four that I had picked out back into the hat (minus the ones that my fingers did not touch of course) for me to pick one again. This time I only picked out two. Mommy wasn't sure if I would be willing to pick out of the hat again with just the two, but sure, why not?!

This is me (above) trying to eat the wining card. Mommy told me that I needed to tell her who won before I could finish with my before bedtime snack.

And finally.... the winner is..... wait for it, wait for it.... Shellyfish! Ok, Shellyfish you won, so now you need to email my Mommy (robinyallen@gmail.com) to tell her what scarf you like the best and she will be happy to send it to you! And thanks to all who entered but did not win! I am also to tell that group to not worry as Mommy will have another giveaway sometime down the road.

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Bye for now!

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Fritz... signing off.

Just Us-Part Two

Last weekend, when Fritz was away to play with Grandmee and Grandpee, the Hubs and I took advantage of the baby-free hours and had a few dates. On that Friday night, we went to a movie that we had both been very eager to see, and of course had to get the yummy movie popcorn. It was so nice to go to an actual movie place to see it happen on the big screen, but the bad part was finding out the movie place had raised their rates since the last time we had been there when Fritz was a newborn. FYI... taking a newborn to a movie was actually quite easy as ours fell right to sleep and stayed that way! However, we would not dare to do that now.
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The next morning we tried to sleep in and did accomplish not getting out of bed until around 10 am, but we had been awake on and off for quite awhile as the house was eerily quiet without having Fritz there. We had plans to go to an awesome breakfast place but decided that Mexican food sounded much better. I had told the Hubs that this should be a weekend where we try new food places other than our usual. So off we headed to our downtown for an awesome little eatery that has a fabulous out door patio, perfect for people watching.



We had a lovely quiet lunch, as when we arrived there were only two other tables filled. For a few moments we were the only ones there, but as it got closer to noon, the place filled up really quickly.


After lunch we headed over to some stores to get supplies for a couple of updates that we have on our 'to sell' list. We are still planning on moving in a few months to a different town, and I knew it would behove us to freshen up our place as much as possible to hopefully get it to sell quicker. I had planned on a lot of out door work, but unfortunately the weather decided against that. I have plans to start that stuff tomorrow, as long as those pesky rain clouds stay away for one weekend!
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After the store trips, we headed home to start a few of those projects. I had gotten some paint to redo our bathroom and kitchen cabinets. We have lived here for 6 years and this was the fourth time I had done painting in the bathroom! Never again in this house!!!



After we got cleaned up nice and pretty, we took ourselves to a very nice/expensive restaurant downtown. Some close friends of ours had moved away a year ago and had given us a gift certificate of theirs to this place. This was the first fancy schmancy place that the Hubs and I had eaten at together. The food was absolutely delicious, the service was exceptional (and um, the waiter was, um, quite hot too-wink, wink) and we had a lovely, lovely dinner.
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The next morning we did more house things, and I was still painting the bathroom and didn't want Fritz to have to smell it when he got home, so my parents were happy enough to keep him one more night. That Monday I drove over to pick him up and was so glad to give him a big hug as I missed him terribly.
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I know it will be awhile before the Hubs and I can have another adult weekend like this. And although we cherish and love our little boy dearly, it was very refreshing to have a weekend free to pop in the car and go somewhere without having to make plans with a baby. I do wish that we can have a few days together again to just be with each other and not have to have other projects going, and I am sure it will happen some time down the road. Hopefully, though, we will not have to wait a year again!

More Scarves to Choose From For the Giveaway!

Here are some more scarves for you all to choose from for whomever wins the giveaway! I had needed to take pics of all the ones that are completed (not all of them are on here-sorry) so it was a good reason to finally get that checked off my 'to do' list! If you haven't already, don't forget to enter in the giveaway!
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My camera does not like colors very well, so on some I will let it be known what colors the scarves actually are. Some won't need an explanation as they turned up perfect in the pic.

This one below is a darker cranberry color. Thick fuzzy yarn. Very warm.

Pink/purple-ish color below. Not bright, though.

Hot pink and lime green. Thick fuzzy yarn. One of my favorite ones!

Skinny long scarf with the fuzzy warm yarn.

Soft yellow/purple/medium blue with orange-pink color. This yarn is very soft and fuzzy. Good for really cold days.

Lilac purple smaller scarf with peep holes.

This scarf is actually a blood red color. Very rich and pretty, but it does not look like it in this pic! Also, it is the thick fuzzy yarn best for colder temps.

Wednesday Craft Update-99th Post Giveaway!

This giveaway is closed!

I knew that my 100th post would be sometime this week so I wanted to do a giveaway for you all on this Wednesday Craft Update! We'll get to that in a moment, but first...

A craft store at our local mall was having another one of their awesome store-wide sales! I could have spent all day and a ton of money there, but limited myself to a few awesome things. Above is some new yarn that caught my eye. I do love bold, bright colors, but my true love is more natural/fall colors. With these I think I am going to make myself a scarf. I haven't made one for myself in a long time, so I think it is time!

They also had their fat quarters on sale, so I grabbed up 15 of them to continue my collection to some day make a quilt (or handbags?).

And... I finally finished the silly purple waffle scarf! Seems like it took me forever!

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Now on to the giveaway! I will send one of you lucky peoples a scarf of your very own! You can pick any of the ones that I have posted about, or if none of those suit your style let me know and I will see if there is some of the ones not posted that would fit the winner better. I will keep the giveaway open until Sunday for Sundays with Fritz, as I will let him (try to get him to) pick a winner! So let all of your friends know and don't forget to leave a comment to add your name to hopefully be chosen!

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Good Luck!

Robin

My First One

Thank you to Sassy! She honored me with my very first blog award, and had nice, kind words to say about me/my blog. I'm suppose to pass this on and I will, but it will have to be a little bit later as I am in the middle of some big house projects. I am almost finished with parts of the process and need to have a quick bite now, before I have to get back to it!

Sundays with Fritz- (Yeah, I Know It's Monday) The Case of the Cabinet Destroyer

Hi all! I know it's Monday, sorry I wasn't able to post yesterday on my usual day, but I was with Grandpee and Grandmee all weekend long! I had so much fun with them that they let me stay an extra day!

So anyway, on to the post. Mommy was doing the dishes and putting things away in the cabinets so I wanted to help her out. She didn't realize that the door was open to where all of my goodies are hidden. Luckily it was at the perfect height for me to find everything. Once Mommy noticed me having some fun throwing things on the floor, she told me that I could pick out my very own lunch food. Yummy! Usually she picks it for me so this was a special day for sure! Although, Mommy did say something about me putting back all that I had taken out, but whatever, that's her job!
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Fritz...signing off.

Just Us!

Fritz is off just now with his Grandma, headed to their house for the weekend. The Hubs and I have only been alone together since Fritz was born, for maybe at the most three hours? That's almost a year of not having a date night with just the two of us!

We have made plans to go to a movie tonight, and we have reservations to a fancy restaurant for tomorrow night. We plan to sleep in late tomorrow morning, and go out for breakfast before a hike in the mountains. But, sadly, it won't be all fun. We do have plans to clean and re-stain our outside deck. I also need to plant my flowers and do a bit of touch up painting on the house outside. Hopefully we can throw in a trip to the dump to get rid of the last bits of junk from our addition that we did over a year ago!
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Cheers to us for having a grown-up, kid-free weekend! (We will miss our little guy though, don't worry).

Haunted?

Nope. On a drive last Sunday, we decided to head to a small town to see about the scheduled rodeo parade. We got there in time, however it was too rainy and cold that we didn't want to have Fritz outside for a long time, so we decided to head to a different small town a half hour away. We knew of a house there that was turned into a museum, and we wanted to take a tour. Luckily they were open on a Sunday too!
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The house was built in the late 1890s with beautiful woodwork through out the entire house. I was not allowed to take pictures on the inside, but it was quite strange to be walking in a house built so long ago. Twelve rooms and three floors and only one bathroom, but the weirdest thing to me was the kitchen in the basement!
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Although the house is very old, it didn't feel spooky in any way. It's incredible to me to think what secrets that house could share. It is known by the historical society who inhabited it for most of the earlier part of the last century, but all we really know are names and dates. What about their actual lives? Happiness of life, or heartbreak of those hard times we will probably never know. Sometimes I think it would give people a greater understanding of where our ancestors have come from if we could only go back to be truly in that moment of time. We have history of course, but how much do we actually know for sure?

Wednesday Craft Update

I am still taking a break from the scarf making, and haven't painted anything this week, but I did have a chance to go to a craft store to find some goodies! My friend Monica had given me a gift certificate for my birthday in March, and I just finally went to use it.
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I got some awesome new beads to hopefully make some necklaces. I haven't made any for awhile so I am thinking it will be on my 'to do' list.

Luckily, the store I was at was having an awesome sale on some of their art supplies. I got a huge 24 x 30 and a two pack 18 x 24. I have never painted on ones so huge so I am pretty excited to see what I come up with!

Stay tuned for the update next Wednesday. It will be a special post!

This Has Been Us

For about a week now. The fog was in the canyon not the city, but it has been rain/snowing on and off and cold temperatures have creeped back into our lives. And here I was complaining about the heat!

Sundays with Fritz-The Case of Take the Money and Run!

Mommy and Daddy decided it was time to get me a non piggy, piggy bank, so they got out an empty bottle and gave me an entire dollar! I'm so rich now! Woot, woot!

When Daddy first gave me the money I didn't want him to take it back, so I thought "Heck with that I'm leaving with it"!

He caught me though, and did take the bill back. He said he would keep it safe for me for when I am old enough to go spend it on something really cool!

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Toodle loo! Fritz...signing off.

Bits of Orange

Another thing that I love about living in Montana is the beautiful sunsets we have here. I realize that most parts of the world have breathtaking colors as the sun sets for the day, but for some reason they feel more special to me here. Last week we had a huge cloud filled evening that absorbed every last bit of light the clouds could find. From minute to minute it is such a wonderment how the colors in view can change drastically.
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Here are two pictures from last week that I was able to capture. Notice the tiny white dot in the second picture. I was surprised with my little digital camera that I could actually catch the moon too!

I remember a time when I was younger where I first fell in serious love with the evening light during the great Yellowstone fire in 1988. My hometown is close to Yellowstone but still a couple of hundred miles away from the main part of where the fire was at, but I can still see and smell the smoke in the air that had drifted our way. Even though it was such a horrible fire, the sunsets that came of it were those of a dream land. So vivid and rich in the colors with the deep pinks floating in the fluffy clouds, the iris purple hiding the sun, and the golden orange hues stretching out to fill the rest of the sky.

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One night in particular, I rode my bike up to the top of the little hill behind our house (our house was on the edge of town) and just sat there staring at the sky. I had my little 110 camera and took a picture of that once in a lifetime sunset. I still have that picture floating around somewhere, but I have never needed to look at it to refresh my mind as it is still completely captured in my memory.

The Good and the Bad

On our nature walks, for the most part, we have been lucky in finding paths that are big enough to take Fritz and his stroller. That is until this one...

Not so good trail.

We got to the first bridge (that were steps) and realized that the stroller was just not going to make it any further. It is a stroller made for rougher roads, but this tiny foot path was too small. We do have plans to go back sometime to finish the hike, but we definitely will be taking our Baby Bjorn carrier next time!
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After turning around so soon after we had started out, we decided to find a different path. I knew of one that is a bike lover trail as it is 11 miles to a lake and very wide. I had been on it once almost 10 years ago and could remember some of the trail. I knew that it would be big enough to finish out the day with the stroller!

Much, much better trail.

Wednesday Craft Update-Umm, Yeah.

Well, I was pretty lame this week and did not do anything crafty, but I was quite busy with other things. My little baby boy is turning one on July 6th! I can't believe how fast he has grown! I had wanted to be crafty and make the invitations myself, but with there being close to 30 people invited, I couldn't imagine finding the time to make every one. I do think that the thank yous will be more on the handmade side. We'll see!

With plans of still moving in a couple of months, I want to get a jump start on getting rid of things in the house that we don't need. As of now, I have been going through piles and piles of old magazines. I find the articles or pictures that I want to keep and then recycle the rest when the bin gets full! We do have more than the usual of the mags lying around as I still have a lot of the new parent/baby ones. I can only go through them when Fitz is sleeping as he is such a grabby boy and likes to eat the paper!
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Hopefully next week I will have an actual craft to post!

A Smell of Wonder

We have one beautiful lilac bush in our yard. It use to be much bigger, but we had to cut some of it down to make room for a small addition to our house. When I sit at my computer if the wind is blowing, I can see it sway with the breeze. And when we have the window open the sweet smell drifts inside. Purple lilacs are my favorite and I have never taken pictures of them before, so yesterday I wanted to capture them in different times of the day.
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First... early afternoon.

Second... start of sunset.

Third... Last bits of daylight.

I love the last one the best when the sky was actually a bit hazy with its own purple color. I have dreams to get all printed and framed. Did I mention I love lilacs??