from my phone

I don't take a bunch of pictures with my phone

(or my real camera...)

and I'm definitely not on instagram

(nor do I want to be)

but I do take a few here and there,

and they help tell the stories of our days.

That is the gift I made for the dirty Santa gift exchange we do at my Dad's.

We often have a theme, and a fairly low price limit.

This year's theme was 'creative'

but at the very last minute he switched it to 'unique'

which threw me a little - because the two are not the same, in my opinion.

I felt like what I ended up with was both creative and unique,

so I was pleased.

The multi-medium art picture

(made with fabric scraps glued onto a piece of leftover painter's canvas

then thread-painted with black aurifil 50 wt thread

and chicken feed (aka seed beads) sewn on by hand

then mounted onto a  piece of board, 

broken by one of my TKD black belted boys)

went along

with the gift of a Harvest of Hope hen.

See? creative and unique....

(I didn't win the competition, but I did end up bringing home the 2nd place gift :-)

and my gift was one of only two to be stolen so many times it was frozen.)

The aforementioned gift, made by my brother Matt.

I wasn't sure where we were going to put it, it's pretty monstrous,

but we cleared off the top of the bookshelves and put it there :-)

taken Dec 27th ~ the 28th anniversary of our engagement.

I'm pretty smitten with that man!

.

I sent that picture to T

and he had to send it back to me several months later,

because we lost our card for Golf.

I saved it to my pictures this time.

My niece, Jordan, said that everything she's read by this author was good.

I knew I'd never remember,

so I took a picture of her library book.

Jordan also used the last of her eyeliner to give me cat eyes - but I didn't take a picture of that...

Roasted veggies.

They looked better than they tasted.

For some reason, even after 2 hours in the oven (with 2 chickens) they weren't done.

There were tears over these veggies.

But still, I think they were pretty.

My mom took pictures of the sunset the same night I did :-)

As beautiful as the sky was this night

(and my phone didn't come close to accurately capturing it)

it didn't hold a candle to the sky the night of my quilt delivery

A year and a half ago,

I so helpfully gave Tyler some gift suggestions.

What I really really wanted, was for him to make the pressing board.

He didn't do it for my birthday that year, 

but he bought the wood for Mother's Day.

He worked on it off and on,

(mostly off ;-)

and by my next birthday,

he still hadn't finished it.

For some reason, I don't think he was all that inspired with my project...

I try hard to not be a nag

but dang it, I really wanted that pressing board

and there were quite a few times that I would have used it

if I'd have had it,

and I was finding myself a little irritated that it was sitting in the closet mostly done,

but not yet usable.

I decided that my lack of nagging wasn't doing anyone any favors,

and told Tyler as sweetly as I knew how

that I was past ready for my gift.

And he finished it up in just a few days :-)

It's so pretty!

and useful!!

(thanks, Love)

Now - that one is self-explanatory ;-)

Less than $25 to fill up my tank when it was about 1/4 full!!

I found that scene the day after Lexi's birthday.

I told Tyler I don't know if we have a teenager,

or a little girl! 

But then I saw her doll:

They put the diapers on the outside, because it makes them easier to change
and looks cuter.
Too bad you can't do that in real life.

and remembered - we have a little girl 

who loves make-up :-)