Before and After

Started working on getting the huge, mostly dead tree in our backyard down. Chris and his dad got quite a lot done, but it started to rain and hail so ferociously that they had to stop. We'll be working on this for awhile.
Sadly the only before picture I have of the tree was taken in winter. I guess I should have take one before they cut the top off:

It was a big tree. Chris' brother said he would come and get the wood because he'll burn it in the winter. Good to know we'll be able to get rid of it.
So here's most of the branches that were cut and part of the top.

And here is what's left in the ground at the moment.

The other side has a huge hole. Looks like it got struck by lightning years before.

MSD

I finally got my second MSD doll a few weeks ago and boy is she cute! I named her Wilhelmina - or Mina for short. Poor girl only came with underwear so I had to make a dress for her. At the moment it's the only thing she has to wear. I made a few things for Juste, and she can wear those, but she has to have more than a couple pairs of pants! Mina is officially Juste's older sister. Maybe one day I can bring Juste's twin sister home - but it'll take some time. After all, it took several years just to get his older sister. :)

Mina and Juste together at last:

Hail (on) the 4th of July

So we went up to Florissant on the 4th because my sister-in-law tells me everyone's going to be out there on the property having a picnic. We were a little late (the car started to over heat) but it was still before 5:30. They should know by now that there's no way we could even be there before 4. We hit a nasty hail storm when we go to Divide, but it stopped when we passed the light. (There is only 1 light in Divide.)
We were really close to the property when we saw a deer right next to the road. I had to get a picture!
Of course when we got closer Alice started barking like crazy at the deer and it ran away.
It was still light out and it wasn't even raining when we arrived, but everyone had left. We walked the dog around the property a little bit, but we didn't stay. I did get a picture of a tree that fell though.

On the way out from the property we saw another deer and it was hiding behind some bushes.

We went back to Woodland Park to my in-law's house and stayed until almost midnight. Everyone went back to their house. Apparently we had just barely missed them coming back from the property. Jessie(my sister-in-law) and her family showed up about 30 minutes after we got to Woodland Park. They had gone swimming in the river. We weren't the only ones who went all the way to the property and missed everyone. My other brother and sister-in-law also went out there and had to come back. (It's like a 40 minute drive from Woodland Park to the property in Florissant.) Jessie wanted to see the fireworks which were scheduled for around 9pm, but it started to rain. And rain. And rain. Then came the crazy hail, and more rain. The kids brought in some of the hail stones and they were about ping-pong ball sized. They made an awful racket hitting the side of the trailer. Of course this meant no fireworks. It rained until almost 11:30 then it finally let up some. Then we headed home a little while later. We live about 40 minutes away from my husband's parents, so I wasn't sure how much of the storm we got where we live. When we got home though, I found out. It had apparently hailed buckets at my house too.
I took these pictures several hours(like 5) after we got home - and there was still piles of hail! There are leaves everywhere and my rose bush got shredded. I had made a little homemade bird feeder(the red bowl in the corner) and it got ripped apart. The plastic was actually broken.

I kinda thought this hailstone looked pretty exotic. Looks like tree rings or something.

Tea Time

I just love tea! It's probably my biggest 'food' obsession. The picture of the tea cupboard is only a selection of the tea I have. Sadly I have more in my pantry. I love trying different teas - I've even asked the lady at one of the tea shops to just surprise me with flavors. I know I have tons of flavors... although some flavors overlap(more than one orange spice - but different brands have different tastes).
In my cabinet of teas I have the following:

By Brand

Bigelow: Orange Spice; Spiced Chai; Eggnogg'n(I know it sounds odd, but I love this tea!!)
Celestial Seasonings: (Factory is right here in Colorado!) Green Tea; Cinnamon Apple Spice(I think it tastes like oatmeal); Mandarin Orange; Country Peach Passion(Great cold); Wild Berry Zinger; Tuscany Orange Spice; Vanilla Strawberry Rose(Amazing tea!!); Tropic of Strawberry(Which I'm drinking at the moment); Gingerbread Spice; Chocolate Raspberry Bliss; Sugar Cookie Sleigh Ride(Also love!); Mint Magic; Black Cherry Berry; Mango Darjeeling(Also amazing cold); Apple Banana Chamomile(Available only from the CS Factory - or in Mexico); Chocolate Caramel Enchantment Chai; Raspberry, Sleepytime Vanilla; India Spice(Honestly wasn't that fond of this one - liked the Bengal Spice better)
Lipton: Regular(black); Orange, Passionfruit, Jasmine Green tea; Peach tea
Private Selection(Kroger brand): Earl Grey; Orange Spice(Quite good)
Stash: Green Tea; Earl Grey; Ginger Peach
Yamamotoyama: Oolong

Loose Leaf

Spice Trader(Booth at the Renaissance Festival): Hibiscus Breeze; Pirate Chai; Raspberry Chai; Licorice Spice; Bloodberry - These are all so good, I just want to buy everything he has!
Laura Lee's Teas: Kyoto Cherry Rose(Completely awesome tea); Cinnamon Orange(Smells like Red Hots); Bourbon Street Vanilla; Caramel; Oolong; Banana; Wild Cherry; Irish Cream; Prince of Wales
My Cuppa Tea: Earl Grey de la Creme(Best Earl Grey EVER); Orange Blossom Oolong; Christmastime Black; Jungle Fire
Honestly I love this place, I just wish they didn't close so early.

Hooray for plants that lived!

Sweet! My lemon basil is doing so well! It'll only be a matter of time now before they start sprouting their 5th & 6th leaves. Once those open I'll have to replant my basil into a larger pot. Honestly I can already see a root or two peeking out on the pot it's in.

Beginning sprouts:

1st set of leaves:

2nd set of leaves:

About to sprout 3rd set(need to replant soon):

I took this photo this morning :) These little dollar plants are doing so well! On a sad note - I killed my tomato plants... they got too much rain :(

My little bitty strawberry plant is starting to get a new sprout. It's so cute!One of the leaves is even jaggedy! It's too cute for me!! XD

My pepper plants are doing well at the moment too ... I dunno how, but a tomato seed got in with these so an extra tomato is growing in here!

Yay Tomatoes!

I don't know why I decided this year to plant tomatoes, honestly I've killed almost every plant I've ever been given. This includes a philodendron which I was told was impossible to kill... I admit it took me longer than normal but I succeeded in even killing that. It's not like I was trying! I just don't have quite the knack for plants. My mother-in-law gave me 2 pots of basil and.. yup, you guessed it. Dead. I love basil. I was really looking forward to those basil plants too! She also gave me a mint plant which I'm happy to say is still living :) ....for now.... So these tomatoes, again I don't know why I wanted to plant them so bad, but I got my way and now they are happily sprouting!

I started them in a plastic cake holder - We ate the cake first of course :P I didn't want to throw the plastic out, I figured I could always use it for something else. Now the sprouts have been out for 2 weeks I had to move them into the cups. The plastic was being bad and I hope this doesn't harm the tomatoes moving them so early. My tomato sprouts are so cute!

And then there is lemon basil...
I was at Target last week and in the $1 section (I love the $1 section, nothing quite like good quality junk!) they had little pots of various things to grow. Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Strawberries, Lemon Basil, Parsley... I think there was something else, but I can't really remember. Anyway I bought the Strawberries, Lemon Basil and Cucumbers. I haven't planted the cucumber yet, but I did plant strawberry and lemon basil. The lemon basil sprouted this morning! I saw cute little sprouts when I walked into my kitchen this morning. This is really giving me hope that I won't kill everything. I planted some peppers too, but have yet to see sprouts on those... Well, we'll see. (You can see the cute strawberry pot next to the basil.)


Just a few random garden pictures - I have an Iris that blooms in my yard, not sure where it came from, I think it was planted by the lady who used to own the house(I know the rose bushes were.)


You can see the mint plant in the corner next to the rose bush.

Finally Finished!

I told my good friend Amber that I'd make her a baby quilt for her newest child. (This will be her #3 and another girl.) I felt bad I never made a quilt for Amber, so this one had to be special. I agonized over what to make of the quilt(pattern and such) and I finally decided on a 9 patch, seeing as I'm almost an expert on making that pattern. I've made a couple other quilts before, but never quite made the whole thing. I always had to get my mom to do the binding, but I even did the binding on this quilt. I've been working on the quilt for quite some time and I finally finished it! I used a really pretty butterfly fabric and 12 solid colors and I embroidered crowns and butterflies into the solid colors. I found a pretty yellow for the inner border, I used the same yellow for the binding. I just love the color combination! I quilted(yes hand quilted) the butterfly squares and the yellow border. I actually just traced the patterns of flowers from the back fabric(Hello Kitty) with the thread. It's beautiful, and I hope Amber likes it. :) I can't wait to see what she'll say!

To the Zoo!

My doll Jess and her friend Mackenzie got to go to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo today. Jess was super excited. (A little too intense if you ask me. Seriously, once you get her going...) Jess is totally a mischief maker and Mackenzie is so quiet. I felt kinda bad for Mackenzie today, she couldn't keep up with Jess even though Jess only had 3 hours of sleep last night! Jess got new pants to wear to the zoo, hence her staying up all night.(I think they turned out gorgeously!) I stayed up until 5 am just working on those pants. (It's a Liberty Jane pattern and it's fantastic!)

Zoo Pix 5-25-10

Motivation by midnight

I swear that every time I decide I want to do something it's after 8pm. I rearranged my sock drawer at 9pm, I want to sew something it's 10pm, I finally opened my new LPS - it's 10:30...
Of course I don't really have the time to complete everything I want to do when it gets so late. I start watching a movie at 1am!

Speaking of new LPS:
(Just don't mind Jess' legs in the pic)
7 new single pets from Target. I know, I know I said I hate the flat eyes, but at least these guys aren't doing anything funky with their flat eyes. The swan and hermit crab have normal eyes, not flat eyes. I had to get the cute LE purple swan, I mean, it is limited. Although the only limited I have yet to get(that I've found in the store) is the ugly dog with it's ugly flat eyes.(Shown in a former pic.) I really debated getting these guys but the eyes just don't freak me out like a lot of the others. The chinchilla though... I don't know why but it looks like it's been living on the street and hasn't had time to shave! I think it needs a little hobo pack and it'll be complete.(Hence me naming him Hobo.)

Standing behind the pets are Elizabeth and Jess - they are American Girl dolls. You can't see Tempe, but she's next to them. Tempe is the pretty blue-haired girl in my profile. I also have Samantha, but she resides in the other room.
I love making clothes for my dolls! I just found a pattern book of Edwardian women's clothes at the library. I'm gonna copy a bunch of patterns and try to make them... of course this is what I was taling about earlier - wanting to sew at midnight! I want to do it now, but I know I'll never finish it tonight so I'll wait 'til tomorrow... of course I'm such a procrastinator that I'll go through this exact speech tomorrow night!

Oh yea! **Update**
My niece is doing a lot better so I'm quite relieved!

Hospitals...

Yesterday my hubby and I went to his parents house for a 'birthday' dinner. His birthday was on Wednesday and we couldn't really see anyone during the week since he works all night. My in-laws live about 40 minutes away from us in Woodland Park. They made tacos and we were there til 9 o'clock when his mom got a phone call from Billy(my hubby's oldest brother) saying his daughter Sarah needed to go to the hospital. Now the distance from my in-law's to Billy's house is quite far, it's almost a 2 hour drive. My mother in law has horrible night vision and as it was quite dark she was afraid to drive that far. Billy had to be to work so he needed us to get her to the hospital. My hubby and I drove his mom down there and we took the kids to the hospital. (Sarah's brother had to accompany us of course.) At this time it was close to midnight. Sarah has a rash covering her entire body, she spiked a fever of 101 and her legs were swelling a bit. She had to be given an I.V. and my mother-in-law couldn't look at the needle. She was kinda squeamish so my husband and I both went in there with Sarah(she had to have an adult present) while the nurse tried to administer the I.V., we ended up having to hold Sarah down because she wouldn't stop moving and freaking out. She got the needle in and finally calmed down. She had to be given several antibiotics, including Benadryl, which made her sleepy of course. We were there at the hospital until almost 4am when we were finally told they didn't know what was wrong, it could be an allergic reaction, but they didn't know to what. They did however, tell us it wasn't an infection which is good. She was given a couple of prescriptions and we took everyone back to Billy's. We left my mother-in-law with the kids at their house and my hubby and I headed home. It was almost 6am when we got home. I hope Sarah's doing better, I haven't heard from anyone today.

You gotta start somewhere...

Obsess: (b-ss, b-)

v. ob·sessed, ob·sess·ing, ob·sess·es

v.tr.To preoccupy the mind of excessively.

v.intr. To have the mind excessively preoccupied with a single emotion or topic.

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I think I get it from my mother. Please don't ask for details of anything from the TV show Supernatural from her, she can tell you all about it. Then there's her mermaids and her writing...yea, gotta be where I get it from. I've got a few obsessions, they go in waves really. Right now I'm all about American Girl dolls and gift cards. 2 months ago you couldn't pry me away from Facebook if you tried. There's also the anime, the manga, the video games, the Littlest Pet Shop toys... Of course Hasbro's the one that turned me from LPS for the time being. It's those ugly flat eyes!! Sadly I must admit I've bought a few new ones with the flat eyes, but I wish they would just put them back to normal.Notice how cute the sea turtle is - but look at the messed up eyes on the dog and the panda - the flat eyes suck. And besides, that panda just plain freaks me out!

Earlier I mentioned gift cards. Yea, that's right I collect gift cards - so does my BFF. We've got thousand of cards, I haven't counted them up in forever! The problem is Ebay has more gift cards... I just bought 60 cards from Canada. ::sigh:: I'm such a dork!





Will it ever end? I kinda hope not...