Kohl's

We went shopping today at Kohl's. We're getting our next outfits for our family pictures. I'm trying to get new ones every six months, especially now that Cole is growing and changing monthly. B decided he'd like to do green as our main color.

I love everything about clothes shopping but I'm very picky when it comes to coordination as well as prices. I simply will not pay full price if that means $80.00 for a dress.

I found this dress online that I absolutely love. It wasn't at Kohl's though. We looked for about a hour for something else equally cute but came up short. We ordered the dress online.

B picked out these shorts for me. Lol. :)

I found this cute dress. But it's short enough that I plan to wear my dark blue jeans under it and rock it like a shirt. The picture is very mis-leading. It's a bright yellow. I just love it! The picture also doesn't show the small black rose that's detachable but came with.

This is the Tony Hawk brand polo tee I picked online for B and he loves it. It's a very bright green but not as bright as the photo shows. B will wear this with his nearly black jeans.

Cole got a Tony Hawk polo tee for toddlers! We found it on the clearance rack and I simply cannot find a picture of it online. It's similar to this one, but solid green (a shade, barely noticeable lighter than B's) and has a skateboard decal on it, nothing else. It's very cute.

Lastly, we got this shirt for Cole. His middle name is part of the Great White Shark's genus name so we like to get him shark things here and there since it's a subtle play on his namesake. He also LOVES anything shark so it works out for us!

I'm very happy with our shopping trip! I cannot wait to see my dress. :)

My List

And, here it is. :)

THE LIST

April 23rd 2010

Mind/Body/Spirit

1. Workout 3x a week
2. Eat no fast food for a month (0/31)
3. Read a cultural book
4. Write blog entry about Cole
5. Volunteer in a children's program
6. Donate clothes - Goodwill (06-19-10)
7. Volunteer in an animal program
8. Buy and use teeth whitening kit
9. Eat a fruit/veggie twice a week for 2 months (0/16)
10. Take a photography class
11. Cross stitch quilt-top
12. Go to bed by 12am every weekday for a month (0/24)
13. Get bike fixed and use it
14. Read 200 books (16/200)
15. Write a book review for every book (0/200)
16. Go bird-watching
17. Take a photo a day for 30 days (0/30)
18. Write 20 blogs in 3 weeks (0/20)
19. Do the 30 day shred (0/30)
20. Continue daily facial cleaning (42/1001)
21. Write a letter to myself to open in 10 years
22. Leave an inspirational note inside a book for someone to find
23. Get a massage
24. Identify 100 things that make me happy
25. Write a book
26. Send out christmas cards
27. Get a new hairstyle - Done (05-2010)
28. Lose 12 pounds
29. Photograph a landscape from the same location, capturing all four seasons
30. Write a will
31. Sew at least one article of clothing
32. Obtain all the movies on "To-Buy" List
33. Organize music collection (finally!)

Home

1. Move out of my parent's house
2. Buy THE new bed set
3. Make something for master bedroom
4. Cook 10 new meals (2/10)
5. Write a recipe book
6. Take cake class
7. Build my first piece of furniture
8. Refinish Cole's nightstand
9. Finish glass plate craft
10. Plant a tree
11. Purchase something from IKEA

Friends/Family

1. Make/Buy something pretty for 3 friends (0/3)
2. Get Crystal and Holly out together
3. Have a game night with family
4. Plan a girls getaway
5. Go camping with friends
6. Get Doo Tattoo
7. Spend an entire day with Cole
8. Take Mom and Dad to BJs - Done (05/2010)
9. Teach Cole to identify his alphabet on sight
10. Teach Cole his phonics and reading
11. Have at least 2 family portraits done a year (1/6)

School

1. Get accepted into SSU
2. Major in Children's Psychology
3. Attend EVERY class
4. Get an external hard drive - Done (05/2010)
5. Get a 3.0 GPA Spring 2010 - Done (05/2010)
6. Maintain a 3.0 GPA
7. Finish 2 math courses Spring 2010 (2/2) - Done
8. Devote minimum 2 hours a weekday to school


Finance

1. Maintain Credit Card at <30%
2. Build a savings account of 3 months worth of bills
3. Help Brandon get school money saved
4. Get copy of credit report
5. Raise credit score to minimum 575
6. Keep up current budget
7. Pay back Brittany
8. Pay back Dad
9. Pay off B's truck
10. Pay off Sears and close it
11. Pay off GE and close it - Done
12. Purchase new family car
13. Save 5% down-payment on house
14. Save $5 for every task I complete

Travel/Entertainment

1. Go to a basketball game
2. Take Cole to a monster truck rally
3. Go to Monterey
4. Go to see a theatre production
5. Go to an artist exhibit
6. Get a passport
7. Do 5 tourist attractions in California (1/5)
8. Write a movie review for every NEW movie I see (0/3)
9. Vacation in Oregon cabins

Relationship

1. Say nothing negative to B for 7 days (0/7)
2. Work on a craft with B
3. Read the 5 languages of love - Done (04/2010)
4. Give 3 thoughtful, spontaneous gifts (0/3)
5. Take one class with B
6. Find something to compliment B on daily for 30 days (0/30)
7. Write B something
8. Exercise together at least 12 times (0/12)
9. Cook together for at least 28 days out of the month (0/28)
10. Have 8 nights alone (0/8)
11. Read Fablehaven books (4/5)
12. Take cooking lessons together
13. Go horseback riding
14. Say yes to everything B asks me to do for a day
15. Take a dance class

101 Things to Do in 1001 Days

I've seen these lists on blogs all over the place. Some people shorten the challenge to 30 things to do in 90 days, but mostly I see 101 things to do in 1001 days.

The idea behind them is obviously: Make 101 goals to complete by the end of 1001 days.

Photo courtesy of er3465

I've been working on my list for two days now. I haven't hit that 100 mark but I'm less than 20 away from it. I'll post it as soon as I'm finished with my list.

I've been encouraging B to make his own. I think a list could be fun for him but he lacks the ambition to take the time and make his list so a shorter list might be better overall.

Cool Picture

I found this picture when sifting through my latest upload from the camera. It's pretty cool for all the things you can see in it!

I intended to take a picture of that cute honeybee on my car window. I had noticed it when I took off to drive to a store about 3 miles away from home. I figured it would get blown off since I was going speeds in excess of 50 mph. At the store, the bee was still there and survived another trip back home. I wanted a picture of the wonder bee and was only able to snap this one before she flew away.

Upon reviewing this picture, I was amazed at the amount of things it really ended up capturing.

You can see the bee. But in addition, you can see the reflection in the window which shows you the bright blue sky and the clouds, myself, my love necklace, and my camera. The picture also shows inside the car window. You can see my toddler's car seat and a variety of his toys, a sled-dog, a snake and a dragon.

This picture makes me smile.

Point Reyes

So, my class on Natural History requires nature walks and field trips. We went to Point Reyes National Seashore for my latest one and spent a great deal of time wandering around. :)

It is my very favorite place to be and I had hundreds of photos to sift through, as well as quite a few videos. Here are some of my favorites.
Mule Deer at Bear Valley Visitor Center
Samuel P. Taylor's Redwoods. These Coastal redwoods live in a climate that is seen rarely worldwide. They're in a temperate rainforest.
South Beach Waves
Driving to South Beach. Amazing view!
Cliff overlooking South Beach
Iceplant. This is an exotic plant brought to PRNS. I love the yellow speckled in with the purple.
Eye. Heart. Ewe.
It says 8-10-87 + 7-14-87 = 11-21-07 which is B + Me = Our Son
Drakes Beach
Limantour Beach
Limantour Beach
Sneaky Deer!
On the way to Limantour :)

Mother's Day

Trying to decide what to get my mother who has everything! I came up with this: I'm working on my craft glass plates. My mother is a crafter extraordinaire. She's also absolutely in love with her Sheltie and very sad that he is getting older.

I decided to make her a silhouette of her dog, Scout. He's a beautiful guy.



I wanted to make it a distinguishable picture of a Shetland Sheepdog though. So I took a picture of him in real life and once again, used paint to get rid of a background and blacked in Scout's form.



I used white board marker on the front of the plate for my stencil. Then painted in the back. I could just wipe off the marker on the front after filling it in for my base. I'm on the fourth coat and it's still able to be seen through when held up to the light so I'll need to add 2-3 more coats before finishing it.

It's my favorite piece so far and I think it's coming out beautifully!

Glass Plates

I found a fun project for decorating your own glass plates. The instructions I received said:

Buy a clear glass plate. Print out a design (or freehand) and trace onto the back of the plate with a permanent marker. Use acrylic paint to fill in the design. Apply as many coats as necessary. Get a satin based spray paint, masking tape where applicable and spray the back with a "background" color. Apply two coats. Apply clear finish coat. Voila! You have a pretty custom plate that is safe to eat off of or display.

I found some clear glass plates at Goodwill for .50 each. What a steal! They are these cute dessert plates. I got four of them. I had been wanting to do a Sparrow silhouette on one. I decided since I'm doing a class that covers the birds in Northern California, to include my favorite ones!

I have a plate of: The American Kestrel, American Crow, House Sparrow and Yellow-Billed Magpie. The bird silhouettes are painted in black. I found their pictures (live form) online and used paint to erase the background and fill in the black.

I found just taping the picture to the front and free-handing it on the back worked best. I removed the picture after the second coat and just fill in with my form now. No permanent marker is noticeable this way.

I bought a Robin's egg blue and white and will do both colors on alternating birds. Here's my babies in the middle of coat four. The light still shines though them so I'll put 2-3 coats more for a solid. Then I'll wipe them carefully for fingerprints before spray painting.

Please excuse the jaws. I set them to dry on my shark collection display box. :)

Refinishing Nightstand

So we found this nightstand probably a year ago. I thought it was hideous but just the right size for our toddler's room. It was at the Deseret Industries (Utah's Goodwill) for only $3. But, being a pretty typical crafter, I found myself pretty busy and distracted by quicker projects and the nightstand was used as was for the time being.



Now that I'm a student and have quite a bit of free time and less house-ey projects to work on, I have more time to worry about finishing projects I never got to.

B was kind enough to sand it down for me. Today I got around to finishing the first coat of primer. Now we'll need to sand it down once more, apply one more coat of primer and go to town on painting.



I decided to do a fun peek-a-boo blue color inside the drawer. But the rest of it will be a creamy eggshell white.

Cookies!

We decided to let the two year old have the frosting. He's an artist!

Dog I Love!

Today I was doing research on the gray wolf for homework. I found a picture of a dog breed that's really new, called a Tamaskan. The Tamaskan looks exactly like a wolf, in general. They're bred for temperament. Apparently they're so mild mannered, they're used as service dogs or rehab animals. :)

The catch: There's very few accredited breeders of them in the U.S. The dogs are rarely bred and there's lengthy waiting lists for the puppies. You can read more about these awesome guys here.

The first Tamaskans bred here are found here.

The most recently active breeder is found here.

I love this dog and think that it will be the breed we choose to get alongside our German Shepherd in the next five years. :)