* Lunch with AlliG
* Fabric browsing (and a yard of buying)
* Aged Sumatra and a snickerdoodle in a downtown coffee shop with random books for perusing
* Work later…

{book shown is Last Launch by Dan Winters}

I picked out a bisque vase, painted it with acrylics, remembered what a fanatical perfectionist I am, tried to just roll with it, and had a great, solitary time. After I was done they sprayed it for me to give it that shiny seal. Then, I got to make pretty papers.

Here’s what I made

Here’s how I made the paper

I picked color combinations of scrap papers, added them to a blender with water, and liquified it. Then I poured that into a mold submerged in a pan of water, let it settle, then picked to mold up and the water drained out. Then I took the screened bottom out of the mold and put it on a tray, then used sponges to collect some of the water from the pulp. After that I transferred the screen and pulp to another area where I used paper to blot up even more excess water. (Ok, as an aside, that blotter paper was called a couch, written pronunciation of ‘kuch’ but when the lady was giving me the instructions out loud it sounds like ‘cooch’ and this kept cracking me up. Especially when talking about moving my ‘cooch’ over to the ironing board. Lol) Anyhoo, after most of the excess water was removed, I ironed the paper on both sides to further dry it. And that’s it!

Here’s a few shots from the paper-making process

It was awesome! I made 5 sheets of paper. I’m thinking that a couple of the sheets will be used for the covers of a little poetry book I’m working on.

Later, I treated myself to some good Mexican food (avocado enchilada, omm nom nomm!) and then got some new books from the library.

I’d juuuuust about gotten it all figured out, and for about 3 weeks there I was doing great. I’d gotten it all worked out in my head to let go of some shit and that it was going to eventually feel OK to settle in to some nice child-free living plans. (See Bucket List).

Then I got a couple of pregnancy bombs dropped on me, I fell into an “eh, meh” type of week, and next thing I know I’m trying to figure out how I can finance a private adoption.

Arg, brain, come on and give me a break.

Make a tandem skydive

Read more books

Go camping

Hike 3 new trails

Earn black belt

Exercise more

Enjoying some comforts on a cold winter’s night.

From Midnight Mass.

Thanks to my site stats, I know that a lot of folks Goo.gle glitter and/or rainbows in conjunction with a ton of other word combinations. I also get infertility (“Insurance coverage for infertility sucks”) and crafty (“cutting felt”) referrals. These I can understand.

But, for your amusement, Here are some of the more WTF search terms that actually led someone to click on this here blog:

“Naughty little constitution miscellaneuos, he he he!

Small thing sculpture cray

Glitter deviled eggs

Bitter lonely childless feminist cat ladies

Bitter feminist childless cat ladies

I shit glitter and rainbows

Hat made of fruit

Glitter panties

Can i get mu felopian tubes unstuffed

I am on the toilet i can let him out

Glitter on by surgery

Does shit glitter work”

I’m not sure what the official count was, but I know that we signed in more than 70 families at our location. It was great to be able to greet the families, see all the children in their best clothes, get them signed in and sent on their way to the hair and makeup area and then their studios for their portraits.

There were 10 little studios set up in the Sunday school rooms at a church that let us use their facility. The photographers brought backdrops and lights and made it really nice. In a larger room, a team of editors were busy taking the memory cards, editing as many photos as they could in 30 minutes, then burning a CD and printing out a few photos.

Picture frames were donated, so one of the best photos was printed out and put in a 5×7 frame. The framed picture and one or two additional 4x6s were then presented to the family, along with a CD of all their images with a photo release included so they can print more pictures themselves or e-mail them.

After the photo shoots, the families waited in an area near the registration table, and so I was able to visit more with many of them. There were tables set up with crafts for the kids to do, and I got to help some of the kids decorate foam photo frames with stickers (all donated) and color a variety of Christmas-themed coloring book pages. A few kids attached themselves to me, climbing in my lap or coming up and hugging me all around my leg. It was so sweet.

In between checking in the families, I got to spend a little time peeking into the doorways of the photo studios, watching some of the families get their pictures made. It was great to see the photographers interact with all of them, especially the little kids, treating them so sweetly and having fun. The faces of the children were fun to watch. Some seemed shy, others were so excited to be dressed up and feeling pretty. One little boy just kept grinning and jumping up and down with his hands in the air.

Around the craft tables I got to see the smiles on their faces when the photographers brought down their printed photos. Everyone seemed pleased and ooohhed and ahhhed. One of my favorite pictures I saw was an older woman kissing her mentally-disabled adult daughter on the cheek. It was so sweet, and the woman was so happy with her experience. She told me it was the best picture they’d ever had made.

For many of the families, this was the first formal portrait they’d ever had. It was the first time many of the younger children had ever been photographed.

I know I take the ability to take photos for granted, to grab every little snapshot I can of my Neffie, to see in pictures how much he has grown and changed. I can’t imagine someone having no baby pictures of their child, or no pictures of their family as a whole.

My crafty friend turned out to be ‘Kelly Jo’ at Delta Moxie from waaaayyyyyy on the other end of the state (seriously, we’re about as far away as we could be). Here’s what she sent me.

A pretty little bundle with a sweet note tied up inside…

… that contained these 2 cute ornaments. Here’s the front…

… and here’s the back of the ornaments.

I love them, and I thought it was especially neat that she personalized one with my blog name. So, thanks a bunch, Kelly Jo, for these pretties!

I sent ornaments to Simple Words By A. You can read what she thought about them here.

Y’all can go check out all the other cool handmade ornaments that have crossed the state in the last week by going here and checking out all the link-ups.

Here’s what he picked out for the 4-year-old boy he chose:

Here’s what I picked out for an 8-year-old girl (that little thing is actually her “big” gift – an mp3 player):

The other thing we did recently was Honey Bear’s project and one of his favorite things to do this time of year. There’s a business owner here in our city that collects kids’ coats and then distributes them at local schools. I think the school counselors and teachers keep an eye out and give the coats to the kids that need one.

Here are the 6 coats that Honey Bear bought (and picked out himself):