Romantic Siren Red

After a week of rain we were finally able to get our house painted. Here is David the painter cheerfully painting our pump house.The color we chose is "Romantic Siren " . It kind of sounds like a whorehouse to me. But I really do love it.

Here is Nick pointing out some missed spots. We are a painters nightmare because we do jewelry work and both have pretty good eyes so we notice details and the tiny spots.

David took it in stride and was a lot of fun to have working out here.

A view of the back side of the house (while Nick readjusts his ponytail.)

The front porch and door and two busy boys.

My parents, Fran and Joe, were visiting from Albuquerque while the painting was going on.

I've been getting lots of great suggestions for naming the earrings! Thanks everybody! I'll give it a few more days and then make my difficult decision.

Now to get ready to go to Saturday Market tomorrow. The weather is supposed to be good but I don't expect much in the way of sales since it is the holiday weekend. I try to make a lot of jewelry while I'm at the market so it will at least be a productive time well spent.

Henry's Safety Town Graduation

This past week Henry attended Philomath's Safety Town Class. It's 3 hours a day for the whole week teaching kids about to enter kindergarten all about safety from fire and electrical to gun and stranger safety.He really enjoyed it . Here he is holding his certificate.

I tried to get him to pose with Officer Keppe and McGruff the Crime Dog but he refused. Max was willing to step in. Officer Keppe looks thrilled eh? I must give kudos to him though. When we arrived at the Fire House for the tour they got a call and all the firemen had to suddenly leave the building. He stepped in and gave an impromptu tour. He used to be a fireman also.

Grandma Fran got to come to the graduation too! Here she is with boys in front of the little team house at Safety town.

I took a few videos on my camera. They sang a bunch of cute songs. Here is one of my favorites "Stop ,Look and Listen". I can't get that damn song out of my head.

My first blog embedded video !

In other news...

I am waiting a few more days to see if I get some more responses for naming the earrings and then I'll make the big difficult decision.

some new things

After a brutally hot saturday at the Market with mediocre sales I might add, we headed into a week of cooler and wetter weather. While most unfortuitous if you are about to get your house painted it was ideal for taking new pictures of some new items.

I am at a loss for a clever name for these so if anyone can suggest an excellent name improvment I will send them a free pair !Really!

The name I have given them for now is Sterling Silver Celtic Spirals and Loops Column Earrings.

This is a new shawl pin/Hair pin design:

Celtic Loops and Spirls Shawl Pin

Groovy Flower Power Sterling Silver Earrings

These are the match to our Groovy Flower Power Pendants in sterling silver and also in aluminum. It was request by a customer at the Saturday Market. I've since sold a few more at the market and knew it was time to bring them to Etsy.

This week my parents are visiting from Albuquerque, N.M.

I just registered my baby boy Henry for Kindergarten today!

How did that happen?!!

The girls are back !

The goat girls and Mama Llama that is. Our neigbors Chris and Shelley have brought them back for their summer visit to our back 4 acres of poison oak, blackberries,thistle and scotch broom. They've actually been back for a month or so now and looking quite bloated from all the good stuff we have for them to eat. They are the best summer guests you could ask for.
Of course they still like to eat the treats that kids feed them. Henry likes to tease them and pull it away before they can get it in their mouth.

Here is the noble and ridiculous Mama Llama. That is actually her goofy tooth sticking up and out like that.

A proud profile shot.

Max spacing out while the goat tried desperately to get his attention and food.

Ryan and Mama Llama caught in a serious moment. Ryan came over with Lauren and Aidan for a visit last Friday while Mom Amy was away for the weekend becoming certified as a jazzercise instructor.

Max shows off for lauren.

They are so cute together! Take note of the multicolored cedar siding shingles on our house because on Friday we are finally getting our house painted and it will not look quite this shabby again. (At least not for another 15 years.)
The G scale train layout that was on the back deck has been tempoarily removed too until after the painting is complete.

This is what I came home to last night...

Total messy mayhem


Yes, that is Max with green marker all over his face riding his horse. Apparently that potty is just for show. ( I am trying hard not to give him a potty training complex but he is being really stubborn about giving up those diapers.)
Life has been good and busy busy busy, hence the neglected blog. I have some more pictures to post later.

A customer at the end of the day last week told me some wise words his grandmother told him about child rearing-
"First we teach them to walk and talk and then we tell them to sit down and shut up."

So true. Of course it's more like me begging them to stop jumping and please stop talking and just go to sleep already!