Vacation was great!

Just got back from our annual family vacation. We go camping every year and have a blast. This year we got to go for two weeks! Yea! And even better, it didn't rain until two days before we left. And that was only a light rain. WooHoo! We all stayed dry. Except the butterflies (and us when we went to play in the rain). After the rain was over we found butterflies that were drying their wings, so they didn't fly off when we approached. I saw this one on the kids' toy and couldn't resist. The rainknocked down a bunch of leaves, too. This is one of my favorite shots.Nothing is retouched, or moved or staged! The bright orange ball and yellow leaf were sitting right there with this blue black butterfly walking all over it, flapping it's wings. I couldn't believe it let me get this close with my camera! After I finished taking a few shots, my daughter walked over and PICKED UP the ball! When the butterfly stayed right on it, I realizedit might not be able to fly until the wings were dried. She loved it! (I made her put it down after she walked around and showed everyone.)

One of our favorite camping sites is at

Fontana Dam (in NC.) There is a camp ground at the bottom of the dam right on the spillway. Every morning the mist/fog rolls up the spillway in wonderful billowy tufts, so large it fills the whole area and you can't see across the spillway.

One evening, as the sun was setting, the mist started rolling

in early. Just thin little wisps barely catching the last of the glow from the sun. I kept taking pictures of the mist rolling in until the creek was full.

This trip was in the mountains of North Carolina. The views, of course, were great. My children start hollering "the mountains!" as soon as they see the slightest hill we when start our road trip. They get so excited!

P.S. Didn't do ANY tatting -- can you believe it?! I can't, and I was there! But, I didn't even pack it. I knew where I was going was completely "outdoors" and was concerned with things getting messed up and dirty. Plus I knew I would be spending almost all of the time in the lake swimming, on trails hiking, and by a smoky campfire cooking sticky s'mores. So fun times were had by all and the tatting stayed safe and clean at home. But now I am home, and one of my favorite tatters has her new book out....yeah!!! Can I wait for the mail?!!!!

looky, looky...

Been drastically busy....kids...work...husband out of country for a month with work....etc. He took all the cameras so I can't even take a pic of these little earrings I made for my sisters in their favorite colors. I got the pattern from this site: http://yarnplayertats.blogspot.com/

If you haven't been there, GO. She has some wonderful designs, great colors, and is putting a lot of it in a new book. She also has a lot of free pattern

s on the site. Here's a pic of her latest

Isn't it great? She makes some very simple thi

ngs look great. K

eep watching.

Sing with me....

"I'm picking up a baby bumble bee, won't my mommy be so proud of me..."

This time of year, the bees are coming out. Each time a yellow nose one shows up, my husband likes to try to catch it. The kids love "petting" it. But the girls haven't yet got the nerve up to hold it.

In case you didn't know, the yellow nose ones don't sting. This one doesn't look as bright in the "fur" as usual because my husband caught it with wet hands. It hadn't dried out all the way when this photo was taken.

I am trying to take this bee as a sign that Spring REALLY is on the way. Even though we had to put on the jeans and long sleeves again today. (-:

Sleep deprived parent...

Isn't that a little redundant? I always thought "parent" meant "sleep deprived" and vise versa. I am one of those people that needs the solid 9-12 hours of sleep, and can't fall asleep at the drop of a hat. And knowing that my first born is turning 9 in a couple of months, you already know that I have been sleep deprived for the last 9 years, give or take a few months. My first was the "easy" one. She nursed every 3 hours and started skipping a feeding time at night really early. It's the second one that really made me the walking zombie! She nursed every hour and 45 minutes, almost on the dot. And didn't start sleeping through the night until she was about 4 years old. (No, I did not nurse her that long!) It took about a year of serious work, after she could use the bathroom by herself, get her own water, cover herself up, to get her to not wake us up. (And we didn't get up to do these things for her, either. She just felt it necessary to tell us about it.)

Anyhoo, I saw a tee shirt with this on it at this website. scribbleprints Maybe it could serve as a warning to folks if I wear it around? I wonder if I would get better, politer(is that a word?), faster service? Maybe a footnote added to it....something like "and I'm PMS-ing also!!!" I bet I could walk down a crowded isle or sidewalk and not have to step around people. Kinda like a female version of Moses and the Parting of the Red Sea? Hmm, might have to think about that one. (-: (See how dangerous it is to deprive us parents of needed sleep?)

This site is giving away free button with this logo on it in a drawing. http://scribbleprints.blogspot.com/2010/04/test.html

Check them out, leave a comment saying you heard of it here on my blog, and we could both win one.

Here's to you having fun, enjoying life, but most of all....getting the sleep you need!! (See previous post for a relaxing pic to help you get into the right frame of mind.)

Back to the real World

Vacation was greats! Spent the time at my late grandmother's house in the Florida Keys with 5 families. With a dozen kids running around, it was wonderful to sit back and relax without the responsibility of my children. Got to work on the veil a bit, finished all the books I took with me, did lots of puzzles, drank a little wine, had some laughs, enjoyed some great food (mostly cooked by others,) played a lot of volleyball, and generally had a lot of fun.

I took a number of extra shuttles and largest threads I had, just in case somebody wanted to try. I got one taker, one young boy about 10yrs old. He actually did pretty well for his first try. Much better than I would have thought someone his age would do at first. But the Wii was calling and he was off and running.

This is the view I awoke with every day from my bed in the master bedroom! I know now why granddaddy designed the house to sit the way it does. The sun (and moon) rises right over the bridge behind those three palms. What a wonderful way to greet each morning. I think it might have the ability to make me a morning person after all these years!!! * * * S I G H * * *

Life sorta seems humdrum after that.....(-: