silly as it sounds...

sweet

kara made this video of his arrival
(....still crying! *sob*!)
i swear
she should get into videography
this is amazing
:)

come + gone

my sister kara and her husband joe

the army wife enjoying the twilight moments
of a first lieutenants brief visit home
during an 15 month tour of duty in the afghanistan war

he was here for just the briefest whisper of a moment
it seemed
though his presence during veterans day and thanksgiving
made both of those things
so much more sweet

we are so thankful

god speed, joe!
we love you!

table drowning 101

**photos by Amy Grendell

we had a book club dinner this week, amy, rachael, jodi, anna, kathryn and me at amy's house.
we'd all finished up the three books in the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer and,
always looking for a good excuse to have a mom's night out, decided to do a little book club dinner!

when i told amy i'd do the table decorations, (poor amy) i don't think she understood... ;)

in my husband's words, i took half the stuff out of my house and dumped it on amy's table. ha!

the theme ended up being "Old World" glamour, and though the pics are taken with the lights
on, just imagine a candle-lit table full of shimmering ruby ware, glittered birds, mirrors layered
with old window frames, strings of silver chain and pearls, and deep rich satin cloth.  YUM!

the light fixture dressing was my FAVORITE part of the table!
it was completely macguyvered.  i swear. i bought a random remnant at
the fabric store in a pretty deep red sateen, pulled old vintage lace bits
and pieces from my lace bin and stitched them randomly to
the bottom edge, looped 3 french sateen ribbons around it
all, then secured it to the light with office binder clips!
i was worried...in my head, it kept working out all wrong,
but irl it ended up turning out great!  i was going to disassemble it,
but i think i'll keep it around for awhile for MY table at thanksgiving dinner!  :D

oh, yeah.
and we talked about the books.  ;) 
if you haven't read them, i recommend them for a fun, quick, highly
addictive read. 
if you have read them, well, what do you recommend for us next? :)

third winner!

ALISSA ENG!!!!!!

congratulations, alissa; you are the third winner in the random
giveaway drawing for a DW 2008 Calendar!

please email me with your shipping address, and i will get it
sent out to you!  :D

i can't wait to share some photos from a book club dinner i went
to last night; we were discussing books 2 & 3 in the twilight series
by stephenie meyer.  the theme was "old world elegance" and i
got to pile amy's table high with glamour and glass and glitter and
feathers and velvet and satin and wood and and and and....lol. my
husband says, "why is it that when you go to dinner, you take half
the house with you?"  :D  it was SO fun!  i'll share the pics when
amy gets them to me. 

...another winner...

the second name drawn by baylor....

for the DW 2008 Calendar Giveaway is....

MEG MCKENZIE from nz!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

congratulations, Meg!
and email me with your shipping address so i can get this out to you!
:D  :D  :D

one more winner is coming tomorrow....do not despair!  ;)
in the meantime, i will regale you with a tale of baylor and the battery:
meet, "Charger. "
it seems, magically, that anything mommy adds googly eyes to,
comes to life and gets named!  :D  who knew? LOL

...and the winners are...

are you ready? baylor and i did the printing, cutting, and drawing today...

we decided that it was a special occassion, so we pulled out the fancy rubyware!
baylor pulled out three strips (after i had sufficiently mashed them around each time)...

and are you ready?

winner number one is.....

AMY COOSE!  :D  :D  :D

and the second calendar goes to.....

oh, man. shades of Ryan Seacrest, here.
Don't you hate that annoying commercial break excuse?
heh heh heh
well, it's not a commercial....
but....
calendar #2 gets announced TOMORROW!  :D

Congratulations, Amy, and if you will please email me with your shipping
address, i will get your calendar to you!  :D

Now, i need to go check in on my sister....my brother-in-law 1Lt Joe Mangan
is home for a short visit from Afghanistan!  :D  :D  :D  :D  Happy times!!!

ok calendar girls

:D

so my printer was uncooperative last night
and my kids were out of ink

lol

so i am printing when i get home from teaching at CKC-Seattle
later today!!!

hold on tight!!!

:D

just for the wait, i'll make it THREE calendars!!!!!  :D

xoxo
tia

WOW, and i mean, WOW!

you guys have me so excited, i don't know what to do with myself! LOL!
everytime someone posts, i wish i had another calendar....and another calendar....
and another calendar.....i want to give you ALL a calendar!! LOL!  :D

I am going to print off the comments list tonite, have my kids help me draw a name
from the paper slips, and announce the winner in the morning before i leave for
CKC-Seattle!  if you win, please email me your shipping information and i will get
that calendar out to you pronto!  :D

in the meantime...a new "garden" went up today at TwoPeas...i got to do an article
about sewing and scrapbooking, and tons of fun pages with our theme: blurry photos!
just go to the "designers garden" tab and click on "latest" on the left.  several pages
of amazing layouts await!  :D

also, i had a new digi kit go up on tuesday, called "family INK"...they've been so fun
to print out onto clear sticker paper.  my kids are now making specific requests for
their own "tattoos" stickers! LOL

please remember this image is copyrighted and my not be saved. 
thank you for respecting the law!  :)