For a few weeks now Amanda over at Soulemama has been posting an image of a moment,

"{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember."

I don't share images of my children too often, as it is nerve wracking for me to 'put them out there' so to speak.

Good morning sunshine...

For anyone who is 'local'.. Amanda will be doing a book signing in Concord, NH on Saturday. I think I might just have to take a jaunt to our capital city to get my books signed.

xoxo~

Abbie

I am enjoying the very beginnings of spring here.. it has come early and it is fabulous!

xoxo~

Abbie

It never seems to end around here.. ya know.. the stuff that stops life, makes laundry pile up and just gets your mind all wonky? Our poor Bonnie (of Bonnie and Clyde, our pair of miniature pinschers) is just not doing too well lately. For months we have been struggling with what the vet told us might be 'partial colon-rectal paralysis' possibly caused by a fall she took when she was younger. Ya, you can probably guess, it was not too pretty. But that wasn't too bad to deal with until she started to bleed and yelp in pain whenever she went to the potty. :(  Finally after many vet visits and some tests that should have been done months ago, we now know she has some type of colon disease. IBS, or something that is making the walls of her colon seep blood. Ya.. yuck!! Mind you it's even worse to clean up than it sounds.. BUT hopefully once the labs come back they can tell what kind of problem it is, so we can treat it.. today has been a pretty good day for her. She was finally able to eat food again (she hadn't been able to eat for over 48 hours) and slept quite content for hours. The bleeding has appeared to stop for now. All good things.

It is astounding how quickly life can get turned upside down and exhaustion can set in. Meetings, spring training, trips to the vet, town voting (my husband was on the local ballot) it all gets to be a bit much! And trying to keep things light and perky here, well, sometimes I can't! :) Tomorrow AM I go in for minor surgery, (not a big deal) soooo.. I was going to give you a list of my favorite morning blog reads, and some other tidbits but I just don't have it in me.. I'm trying to get some dinners in the fridge, the laundry caught up, the house back to some normal level of tidy and clean before I am laid up for a few days and it all goes to hell again.

When things get overwhelming, I visit Stephanie, from the Nie Nie Dialogues. Nothing will put your blessings back into your heart faster than a quick imaginary jaunt in her shoes. Even for a few moments.. her courage, determination and honesty about her situation just make me realize I need to shut up, stop whining and move on.

So I'll be gone this weekend, but I'll be keeping it all in perspective and enjoying this very crazy ride I'm on.

Pink undies and all!

xoxo~

Abbie

I did finish one of my crocheted socks... the pattern was written wrong, so once I did what made sense, instead of what it told me, it worked out great.

  I was so excited! Now.. pop. fizz. pllllttzzz.

To take this photo I laid, upside down, on our couch, feet stuck up in the air, and used the white ceiling as my backdrop. An awkward position but I really like the effect. I'm off to take a shower and wipe the bad taste from Squarespace and my stupidity (for not saving as I went) out of my mouth.

Have a lovely day! I'll try again tomorrow to share my favorite blogs with you... I just don't have it in me to do all that work over right now....

xoxo~

Abbie 

I have been trying to find something, anything to keep my mind and hands busy. Unfortunately nothing seems to interest me right now. I don't want to cook, sew, crochet, knit, clean, craft.. blah. I pulled out some of my favorite yarns the other day to see if perhaps I could start a blanket, hat, anything... blerg.. didn't work.

Above is a shot of half a sock I have crocheted. It is sitting inside my bench in the living room waiting for me. I had started to knit a pair of socks with this same yarn here. I couldn't keep my head in that project either and pulled it out after a few rows. I thought perhaps that crocheting socks (I really wanted to use the yarn) might work better as I am much more adept at crochet. The pattern is fabulous, but because I have little feet, I had to make adjustments. I did great until I hit the heel. Now I am stuck again and completely uninspired to keep going.

 Ah well.. someday my creativity will return. For now am patiently waiting for it. Sitting around, twiddling my thumbs, blowing my bangs out of eyes, and desperately needing warm weather, sunshine, and a good swift kick in the crafty rear.

xoxo~

Abbie

The other sock on my foot was a gift from my dear friend (and super knitter extraordinaire) Amber over at Pixies Stix. (she actually gave me an entire pair! Thank you Am, I love them!)   ;)

Thanks Sylvia!

I have been admiring images poised as old Polariods. Some are taken with actual Polariod cameras, some are digitally created with a dash of creativity. A bit of my childhood is encased in Polariod film and surrounded by that telltale frame of textured white. Most of it though is on slides. A painful process of transferring my childhood memories to digital is ensuing..

These images are old slides that I had scanned into my PC. (my scanner has a built in feature to do that)  I also scanned in an old Polaroid and edited in Photoshop, and overlaid one image on the other.

I realize the slight dark shadow that you get from an original Polariod is missing around the image, but for what it's worth, I think they came out pretty well.  I think you'll be seeing more of these in the future, perhaps with a bit more work to make them look more authentic. 

If you would like to play, you can find the above blank Polariod frame over at my other blog, The Vintage Moth. 

xoxo~

Abbie

My MIL gave the girls (my daughters) two antique prints (in their original frames) that she and her mother had bough at a local auction years and years ago.  I was going to paint the frames white, as although they are old, they probably don't have much value to speak of. Once I started to take them apart to clean, I just couldn't do it. I thought perhaps the prints were from an old calender or perhaps they were promotional images that were so often given with products at the turn of the century, but when I got them opened they had the original plate title and even written in pencil near the top it said 'Rustic Frame' in fancy script. They were intended to live in these frames. As they are. They aren't quite tramp art frames, but do have a similar feel.  I'm not crazy about the guilding around the edge of the wood, but that's what they came with.

I cleaned the glass, removed the years of dust and grime and due to some water spots and old tape stains on the frame paper, I cut two sheets of scrapbooking paper to mat them. (acid free) I just laid the scrapbooking paper over top, so I didn't disturb the hundred year old print. I think the next time I'm out, I'll look for some pink paper with white polka dots but for now these peices work fine. the nails that are used to hold in the thin piece of wood in the back are actually hand-hewn. Very neat! So for now, they hang above the rocking cradle that their grandfather made them.

If you would like to print your own, while I had them out of the glass, I (of course!) scanned them in for you! I also made copies of the back plates because those are fun too.. the only thing that bothers me a tiny bit is the sensual, somewhat suggestive positions the little girls are in, (almost as if they were 20 not 5) and that the artist called them 'Pets'.  Ahh.. well. A different generation. Isn't it awful that I scew them like that? Such a cynical world we live in now. But, really.. take a look. It is almost like they were made for C.S. Lewis. 

Oh well. Do with the images as you wish.

xoxo~

Abbie

Today is my 35th birthday. It really doesn't phase me too much. I don't feel any older, just a bit more in control. I do notice that time seems to go by faster now.  I also find myself suffering from the 'what am I going to be when I grow up' plague quite abit lately.

Aaahh.. well. I'm sure whatever is planned for me will pop up in time. Today was very nice. Spent the day cuddled on the couch with my girls (one of whom has quite the cough/fever) and watched Mary Poppins. I love Dick Van Dyke! Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is another favorite of mine.

For my birthday, once I can find one (they seem to be out of stock everywhere in NH right now) we are getting a Wii. I have heard great things about the Wii Fit Plus and want to try it out. Also, we played one at my brothers at Christmas and it was really fun!

Hope you are having a great weekend! Time to get back to doing nothing!

xoxo~

Abbie

 I have a thing for yellow right now. I had a thing for yellow last winter too..

This year it's a bit more high contrast.

 I also have been driving around.

The above shot is the road from town towards our house. I drive it almost everyday. No wonder this time of year I get into a funk. Not the most gorgeous route in the books. And the weather has been foolish. Too warm and no snow. For a month. No snow. We had two inches fall last night, the first time it's snowed in almost a month. In New Hampshire.

Hope your lives are a bit more 'normal' than mine, although, if Florida is getting snow, and New Hampshire is not.. we REALLY might want to take another peek at that Global Warming thing. ;) And is there ever a 'normal'?

xoxo~

Abbie