8th Grade Dance

Tilly went to her first dance tonight.  My little girl is growing up!  Can you believe she'll be in high school next year?  *sniff*

Back to School...Sorta

This is going to be a weird week, I'm afraid. The middle school has conferences all week, which means early release. Tilly goes to school at 7 a.m., I blink, and then I'm back sitting in carpool to pick her up around noon!

I was planning to have a bead giveaway today, but it all depends on whether or not I can find the camera! I guess I could just describe the beads and go from there, but I would like to post a picture. I'll update later, when I know for sure.

*UPDATE* 5:53 p.m. -
I found the camera!! Thank heavens for that, but now it's a little too late to take/crop/post pictures. I'll do the give-away tomorrow morning!!

Happy Birthday, Tilly!

Happy 13th Birthday, sweetie!

And no, that crazy/gorgeous confection isn't Tilly's cake, but I bet she'd like it! Tilly (and Davis both) have requested carrot cake this year. Yum! (We're all for stealth vegetables in this house - it's the only way my husband will eat them!! *snort*)

Anyway, welcome to your teenage years!!




Now, if anybody needs me, I'll be in Tahiti...

Thirteen in FIVE days!

Talk about a reality check! I find it hard to believe that my darling firstborn will be a teenager in just a few short days. Lord, give me strength...

Got Some Tissues?

'Cause I've got issues!

Nah - there's nothing so bad it's worth crying over. I've only got a couple minor irritations like: -

* Pappashop can't retrieve my mailing list from PHP List either, so it looks like I'll be starting from scratch this week. Anybody use Bravenet?

* There is something truly wrong with my camera. *sigh* No matter what settings I change, it wants to focus on the background rather than the item being photographed. I've gotta get it figured out because there's a slew of new beads to shoot for the March update and I don't exactly have wads of cash laying around to buy a new camera.

* Tilly's piddly cold (that she refused to take medicine for) has turned into bronchitis and an upper respiratory infection. We picked up some antibiotics and now she's on the sofa playing Wii, but my oldest isn't exactly the 'suffer in silence' type - know what I mean?

But there are some good things to report too!

We've got a 3 day holiday with the kids home from school, so even though she's not exactly enjoying the holiday, at least Tilly won't have any school work to make up! And if she's feeling better tomorrow, we're probably going to go to the dollar show and see Madagascar 2 (hey - she'll have been on the 'biotics for 24 hours and won't be contagious), eat popcorn, and generally be lazy.

I'm one step closer to having chickens - wahoo! My husband has finally consented. He's doing the coop requirements and design research (I did all the zoning and city law research last year, so I already know we're good to go on that front.) and wants to have a materials list by this weekend. So, it looks like I'm getting The Girls sooner than I anticipated. I had, of course, intended to wear him down over the next several months but now I no longer need to! What am I gonna get? An Australorp (Mimi), a Barred Rock (Fifi) and a Rhode Island Red (Lola).

You wanna know the funny thing? I was nervous about telling my parents, thinking that they were gonna be all "There goes Jena, with another of her hare-brained ideas...*sigh* Why couldn't we have had a normal daughter?". But guess what?! My dad told me last Friday that he and my mom had decided to get chickens! And that was before I had even told them that I wanted some! Like my friend, Kate, says - this is just the Universe's way of telling me to go for it!!

Time Out For Beads

I'm taking a time out from my regularly scheduled posting of attractive men to show you something I made for Tilly. Her school has a required uniform and she wears her sweatshirt as a jacket nearly every day, as do lots of other students. The only problem is that it's warm in the classroom and everyone peels their sweatshirts off and then when the bell rings, it's bedlam while everyone checks their labels to make sure they get their own sweatshirts. So, I decided to make some beads for her to use as pulls so it'd be easy for her to identify her sweatshirt at first glance.


This is the first pair I made. Obviously, very "Valentine-y", but then I think it'll be fun to make beads for all the holidays. (At least the holidays that occur during the school year and are during the cooler months.)

You ought to see the huge honking mandrels I had to use in order to make the holes big enough to slip over the drawstring. They're actually hollow mandrels that were intended to be used for blowing hollow vessels. (From Tink at Black Swamp Glassworks, in case you're interested.)



Didn't they turn out cute?

And it Was All Good

Yesterday was wonderful!! Tilly's cake turned out to not be the most attractive thing in the world, but boy - does it taste good. Thanks to the recipe that Kate found for me here, Tilly got her gigantic oatmeal creme pie b-day cake and she was thrilled!

Now I'm gearing up for Davis' 7th birthday tomorrow. (Yeah, I know - all our birthdays are right on top of each other. Elinor's and mine are both in September.) I've got cupcakes to make and presents to buy and finish wrapping. I guess I'd better get busy then!

And yes, I did have help with the icing. How could you tell??? *grin*

Happy Birthday, Tilly!!

My oldest daughter, Lauren Tillman, turns 12 today at 11:12 a.m. Can it really have been that long ago? All I know is that she grows smarter, more self-sufficient and more beautiful (both inside and out) with every passing day. I'm so grateful to have been entrusted with the responsibility and privilege of being her mother. These last 12 years have passed so joyfully - I can't wait to see what the future holds for her!!

"When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life so that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice."

- old Cherokee saying