Half assed lotion -- try # 1

Crumble up/knife shave some beeswax into the bottom of a 2 cup measuring cup
Drizzle in some calendula infused olive oil to get to around 4 oz
Put in a spoonful of shea butter

Stick the whole thing into a pot of water like a double boiler
Heat until mostly melted
Pour in a few ounces of aloe juice and drip in a dropper full of vitamin E oil
Heat whole thing until melted

Allow to cool for a bit and then transfer the whole thing into my immersion blender container.
Put 6 drops of geranium oil on top and let sit for a while.
After the oil on top of the aloe juice forms a soft skin on the top, blend with immersion blender for a few minutes and then let it sit for a while more.


It didn't turn out well. I don't know why I thought it would. The aloe sat in beads in the lotion, it had a bizarre consistency, and it got moldy really fast. That was a serious bust.

Loss and kids

Last month we discovered our sweet friend T-Rex the cat is not going to be with us much longer.

I took him to the vet because he was breathing a bit hard, and I was petting him and felt a lump that seemed weird. Worried that he may have some kind of intestinal blockage or something similar, I took him to the vet.

Not a big deal, he's young he'll be fine. The vet advised me that there was no lump, but that she was concerned about the breathing. Maybe it's heart worms... but they are treatable. She advised I get a lung X-ray for my panting kitty. Then we will know better what might be going on. Off T-rex went to the back for an X-ray and out came the vet looking concerned a while later.

"He has fluid around his lungs, it doesn't look good," she informed me soberly. We discussed options and I gave the ok for her to aspirate the fluid around his lungs to make him a bit more comfortable and check him for leukemia. She came back looking a bit confused. It wasn't fluid around his lungs and she wasn't sure what it was. He was also negative for leukemia, so she thought it could either be FIP or some sort of hernia where some of his organs were up around his lungs.

After some more discussion, and texts to my husband, and tears, I decided to have him checked by a ultrasound tech. For that he stayed at the office until the afternoon and the mobile lab went to the vet to check him out. Turns out he has granulomas around his lungs AND on one of his kidneys (remember where I was told I was crazy and he didn't have a lump?)

This is probably from dry FIP and we have no clue how long he has. He has been on fish flavored steroids for a month now, but his kidneys are now huge. I can feel them when I pet him. The panting is gone after the steroids though. He seems relatively comfortable but he's really slowing down--- at only 1.5 years old.

It's been a blessing to have him with us this long. He's our "foster failure" --- one of our first foster cats who we just couldn't part with. He loves life, loves the girls, is gentle and friendly with huge ears and inquisitive eyes.

Cuddling with our foster mama cat

Ok OK, i shouldn't have put the wreath on the cat tree

Helping us with our Easter celebration

We've been discussing sickness and death with the girls. It's been hard to discuss but I feel like it's better to take the mystery away from this process. They've known he was really sick from the moment I brought him home from the vet, and they know soon he won't be with us. I gently remind them occasionally that he is still sick and is unlikely to get better. I remind them to be gentle with him. That's all I can do for now.

They grow and grow and grow

My tiny girls are much much bigger now. I can't believe I haven't really posted for two years! Ivy turned 3 recently and Lorelei is now 4.5.

I'm trying to decide if I should start blogging again. I'm wondering if I have enough to say. I always have plenty of pictures, but not the words to go with them.

On letting go..

No, nothing bad has happened... I realize now that the title of the post sounds like it did. But I have been overly stressed, grabbing at straws and trying to figure out how to make things happen, which I saw this quote on someone's Facebook feed. I added some texture and a nice font and thought I would share. Maybe it will help someone else too. 

Ivy turned 1!

We had a fun cake smash with Ivy when she turned 1! Actually we did it with her little buddy Maddie because they are only a few weeks apart, one baby at a time.

She had a great time exploring the messy cake, and an even better time when we let her sister jump in and help.

Happy late Birthday to my beautiful tiny girl!

Anti-procrastination month follow-up

I'm setting this to auto post on the 1st of June, so I can't cheat and not follow up. Hah! Tricking myself even!

Here's my list, with notes of what I've done (and links to blog posts if I blogged them)

Craftiness:
Finish the stuffed bunnies I am making as baby shower gifts (all three of these babies have been born now!) finished 2 bunnies, planning to sew a (simpler) tiger or elephant for #3. 5/3
Add straps and applique to Lorelei's sun dress I started last year added applique-- having problems with the straps
Make pillowcases for Lorelei
Make a pillowcase and mattress for the doll bed
Make the "sunshine" pillow I bought supplies for
Paint Lorelei's Letters for her room
Dye "festival dress"
Dye the experiment underwear
List the dyed stuff I have sitting around on Etsy!
Finish Lorelei's birthday silks having some problems with the colors. First attempt has been made

Photography:
Fully edit my personal bluebonnet sessions
Get friend's maternity session booked and shot Done! And edited too! 5/6
Get John's newborn session at least booked Shot and edited! 5/30
Schedule C and A's toddler pictures

House Work:
Finish sanding bench 
Varnish bench
Finish digging new flower bed
Buy pots for tomatoes
Plant tomatoes
Put mulch and path gravel down
Start on the second bench




Stuff not on the list that took over some time:
*Finished our porch  ceiling that has been messed up for a few years now! I'm so glad that is done...
*Went on a 9 day trip to Virginia--- shot a wedding (mostly edited!) a set of graduation photos (done!) a set of portraits for a friend (done!) ad a whole bunch of family photos (about half done)

Tomato Planting

From a few weeks ago.. so behind on my blogging, but at least I got them planted before I went on vacation!
I bought pots and even planted my tomatoes (given to me by a neighbor) the same day.

Notice that mound around the pepper plant? Ivy's been digging

 Dirt around her face...

 Yep... gross tasting.

Lorelei loving the rainbow-ness of the new pots. They were a bit more expensive than the plain ones, but solid plastic (not hollow walls) and hopefully will last quite a few years. Plus, they make me smile.

I put them in front of our big drive in gate, because we rarely open it and that expanse was just dying grass in the Texas sun. We can't put permanent beds there obviously because we do use the gate sometimes, but it sure is nice to see something growing there!

Stocking bunnies

For my first completed project... I made two stuffed bunnies for baby shower gifts. My girls got a pair of these bunnies for Christmas this year and since I had the pattern I decided to use it for the gifts.

... and broke my first (but surely not my last) sewing machine needle.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is why you remove pins instead of sewing over them.

I used a pattern from Minelolly on Etsy.

Here are the bunnies I made this week:

So about this pattern.... it's a great pattern, with clear instructions but this project does NOT go fast. It also might be hard on your sewing machine if you have a $88 Walmart special Brother like I do. I like it, I'm glad I got it, but I don't think I'd attempt to make three bunnies at once for presents again (notice I stopped at 2!).

I also completed my maternity photo shoot, but she gets to see her pictures first! I may include a shot or two from that in a post later this month.

.. back to work for me!

May is Anti-Procrastination Month

AKA Finish what I started month.

I have enough partially finished projects that I can NOT start anything new. It's got me in a creative RUT. SO this month I am pledging not to start anything new, but rather to work on finishing what I have started. Oh my, this list is long. Not all of it will get done, but some of it will, and that will feel freeing, I am sure.

Craftiness:
Finish the stuffed bunnies I am making as baby shower gifts (all three of these babies have been born now!)
Add straps and applique to Lorelei's sun dress I started last year
Make pillowcases for Lorelei
Make a pillowcase and mattress for the doll bed
Make the "sunshine" pillow I bought supplies for
Paint Lorelei's Letters for her room
Dye "festival dress"
Dye the experiment underwear
List the dyed stuff I have sitting around on Etsy!
Finish Lorelei's birthday silks

Photography:
Fully edit my personal bluebonnet sessions
Get friend's maternity session booked and shot
Get John's newborn session at least booked
Schedule C and A's toddler pictures

House Work:
Finish sanding bench
Varnish bench
Finish digging new flower bed
Buy pots for tomatoes
Plant tomatoes
Put mulch and path gravel down
Start on the second bench


I'll keep the progress updated on here. Wish me luck!

X, Y and Z!

OK, the last three! All together I know.. crazy week.

X is for.. well, X. Like the shape. A little acro yoga for you. I went for the first time last night. Believe it or not, this is the very FIRST pose you learn.

Y is for Yellow

yeah yeah.. I kinda fail at this sort of picture. I'll try again some time. But not tonight.


Z
Zebra
zero
zorro
zimbabwe

zzzz... man I'm tired. This challenge is definitely going out with a whimper. But I have enjoyed following new blogs, having new commenter and in general being part of this craziness. See you next month!

W is for Wet Mess

Nono.. not like THAT.

We bought a fixer-upper so we could get a bigger house that we otherwise could afford... but the fixing has been at a crawl. First I had a baby. Then right as I got to where I felt like I could handle working on the house more again, ops.. pregnant again. Ok, not oops, we planned to have them close together but didn't exactly expect it to happen that fast. Now second baby is one and we're back to really working on the house again.

Today was "try to match the ceiling texture where we took off the fake beams" day. Wow was it a wet mess.

The strip furthest away is the wet mud where we were trying to match the texture-- it dries white.

Our handy dandy friendly handyman friend surveying his work


Tomorrow, more of the same trying some more to match and get them all looking right.

V is for Vice

I'll let you interpret it however you want...

All images copyright Cindy Chapter 2011

.. and yes, I know I'm a day behind....  See you tomorrow!

U is for Umbrella

Kids LOVE umbrellas. I don't know what it is about them.. Here in Austin it hasn't rained in what seems like months, so my pictures will have to be umbrellas in the sun.

The "keep the babies from frying" umbrella fort

My favorite from this park trip

T is for Texture

Texture is one of those things I haven't really messed with in my photography. In my graphic design, yes, because I like a little texture on blank spaces but usually I like my photography to stand alone. For T though, I challenged myself to try to apply texture to an image or two effectively.

Here is my original:

Here it is with a vignetted vintage paper

A weathered painted metal

and peeling paint (super transparent because it made the skin look really weird otherwise)

Just because I was having fun, here's me and the younger critter also with the vignetted paper. It does make an interesting vintage effect.

What do you think? Do you like photos with added texture? Do you find it gimmicky? Do you like it but just not what I do with it? (that's ok! Be honest!)

That's it for "T".. see you tomorrow with "U"

S is for...

swim
sink
sank
sunk
swami
silver...

Did you know that some people think taking collodial silver can keep you from getting sick and heal any number of diseases? It  can also turn you permanently grey! I have bad enough luck with medical side effects, I don't think I'll ever try it!


snow
silly
sign
spin
sustain
splash
sushi--- mmmm sushi.... had sushi last night. It was nom-erriffic.

Sweep

Sweet potato Sprouts

Sweet potatoes are super easy to sprout, and one potato can make enough sprouts to grow a bunch of plants.

Here's how I did these

1. Find a sweet potato that has been neglected a bit too long in the pantry. Make sure it has a few sprouts already.
2. Chop it up into about 6 pieces
3. Let the pieces dry out for a few days (depends on the humidity level... make sure they aren't wet to the touch before planting them)
4. Plant them in a shallow container of potting soil until the sprouts are big with roots coming off of them


5. Twist the sprouts off and plant! I got almost a dozen plants out of mine.

I planted mine in some pots on my patio because I was feeling cheap this year but wanted lots of green growing things. Obviously I won't get any harvest-able potatoes out of these small pots, but the foliage looks nice, and it's a lot cheaper than commercially grown sweet potato vines at over a buck a plant.

Egg hunt fun!

We hosted an Easter Egg hunt this morning for a group of kids. I had each parent bring 2 eggs per kid and asked that they be labeled. In hindsight the labeling was a bad idea for mostly two year olds..  but I wanted to make sure each kid got one of the little egg crafts I made.

I made some tree-hanging eggs-- with little "leaf" labels... though these would be more recommended for either younger kids with moms helping, or older kids who can remove them without ripping off the leaves.

...and I made flower eggs. I love these, and they were fairly fast and fun to make
I wouldn't have wanted to make more than one per kid though because they did take a bit of time.

..

A bit off topic for the A-Z challenge, but I wanted to share the idea before Saturday's easter egg hunts.... and this is supposed to be a craft blog after all!

R is for...

Rabbit, ribbit, roll, right, rivet, river, ride, really, read, rhyme...

Red, Ripe Raspberries!

Yummy luscious tasty juicy berries.

Do you like raspberries?
My memories of berries, both raspberries and blackberries involve picking them at my Aunt's house on the eastern shore of Maryland... staining my fingers with the juices and knocking Japanese beetles off of the bushes.

Q is for

Quiet
Quilt
Quit
Query
Quarry

.. just outside of Austin in Cedar Park there is going to be a new water park that sounds awesome, made in an old quarry. I cannot wait to take my girls there. They will have the spouts hidden in the natural looking rocks.

Quarrel
Quest
QWERTY
Quark

Questions

Time to be random and irrelevant
I found one of those old Myspace surveys and filled it out:

1. If you were to attend a costume party tonight, what or whom would you go as?

A fairy or a wench ;) sinc ei already have those costumes

2. What are your choice of toppings on a hamburger? And do you prefer gas or charcoal grilling?

Charcoal grilled with cheese and a little steak sauce

3. You are chosen to have lunch with the President. The condition is you only get to ask one question. What do you ask?

Something completely random I'm sure... I'm not very political

4. It's your first day of vacation, what are you doing?

Taking a long walk through the area to see what there is to explore

5. What is your concession stand must-have at the movies?

Gummi Bears

6. Which do you dislike most: pop-up ads or spam email?

Popups

7. What do you think Captain Hook's name was before he had a hook for a hand?

James

8. Rock, paper, or scissors?

Rock

9. How long was it from 'the first date' until the proposal of marriage? How long until the wedding?

There was never a real proposal... we decided to get married for insurance reasons

10. Which is worse, being in a place that is too loud, or too quiet?

Too loud

11. What is one quality that you really appreciate in a person?

Thoughtfulness

12. At the good old general store, what particular kind of candy would you expect to be in the big jar at the counter?

Jawbreakers

13. What is the most distinguishing landmark in your city?

The Texas state capital building

14. Everyone hears discussions that they consider boring. What topic can put you to sleep quicker than any other?

Economics

15. How many times did it take you to pass your drivers test?

Once

16. If you had to have the same topping on your vanilla ice cream for the rest of your life, what topping would you choose?

caramel

17. What food item would need to be removed from the market altogether in order for you to live a healthier, longer life?

Red Bull O.O

18. You are offered an envelope that you know contains $50. You are then told that you may either keep it or exchange it for another envelope that may contain $500 or may be empty. Do you keep the first envelope, or do you take your chances with the second?

Take my chances 

19. If you had to choose, which would you give up: cable TV, or DSL/cable internet?

We've already given up cable TV

20. What is your highest level of education? Bachelor's Degree

21. How much is a gallon of gas in your city? What was the highest it's been?

Something like $3.57. Yikes! Makes me glad I drive a little Protege 5

22. What kind of lunch box did you have as a kid?

Smurfs!

23. What would you rather have, a nanny, a housekeeper, a cook, or a chauffeur?

Easy--- a housekeeper! I'd rather have someone else clean up than someone else take care of the girls. 

24. Would you rather be trapped in an elevator, or stuck in traffic?

Stuck in traffic

25. Lets say a brick fell on your foot, and your kid is standing right next to you, what is your 'cleaned up' swear word?

MRRFFFUUUOOOWWWWWWW-- yeowch.  (yes really)

Was that enlightening? No? I didn't think so. Sorry guys... busy week isn't allowing as much photography exploration as I wanted. 

P is for...

Pregnancy and Poverty

Falling off my thread of happy for one post.

I read a lot of blogs about BIRTH. The options, and how the US system is doing it wrong. There's finger pointing everywhere.

How dare you have a hospital/home/birth center birth! Don't you know the baby is going to be stressed/induced/tortured/given unnecessary exams/shots/homeopathic remedies! You might need stitches/be induced/have a C section/tear/hemorrhage/be given a vaginal exam/be looked at  by more people that you'd like/only have one person there!

All over the world though, women have NO choice. No choice, and no education.

This video really touched me this morning.
In fact, it made me cry (I'm not a crying type). All with words and music. There are no photos at all in it.

O is for...

Orchid.

Is it just me that thinks orchids close up look a little creepy sometimes?

See those incisors?

What do you think?