It’s been a while, hasn’t it?   About as long as it has been since I dusted the top of my TV cabinet.  I could write my name there, too. 

In the interest of catching up as soon as possible, I’ll give the “short, short version” of the happenings here at Chez Schauer.

October brought the end of kids sports.  While we love watching them play, juggling baseball, soccer and cheerleading was practically an event of its own.  It was refreshing to be able to take a breath without having to run off somewhere armed with chairs, coolers, and gear.   I can’t imagine what it will be like when kid #3 starts playing too.

Thanks to my Mom, the kids were outfitted well for Halloween once again.   She spent hours creating costumes and the kids loved them!  We had an Annakin, a Darth Vader, and a Sleeping Beauty.

And this little number was lots of fun.  I’m the Swine Flu.  Plus, any costume that lets me wear long johns, a pink sweat suit and fuzzy crocs is a hit in my book!

Only a week later, we had a new addition to the family.  We went from thinking about getting a puppy next spring, to bringing home Kona in a very short three weeks!  Just when we thought diapers and babyproofing were behind us, we moved into house training and puppy proofing.  We must have been insane!  She’s a doll though, and a great puppy.

Here’s a shot right after bringing her home:

She’s now up to a whopping 4.5 lbs.

I’m also gearing up for my first major showing at the CHA winter show in January.  I’ve committed to sharing a booth for the entire show with a fellow designer along with my usual showcase table.  I’ll be in the License and Design Section, booth # 2639.  More on that coming soon.

Did the puppy destroy the house? …Did the Schauers get the real swine flu?  Is Carla ready for the January show?  Tune in tomorrow for the exciting conclusion… 

Until next time,
Carla

I love downloading photos.

Well, let me rephrase that.  I love looking at the photos I’ve downloaded.  The actual downloading process is, frankly, less than exciting.  And because of that, I don’t do it as often as I should.  Coupled with the fact that I most often use 4gig cards, it may be several weeks before I fill up a card enough to bother with the download process, and often makes the subject matter a bit of a surprise.   Which in a rather circular manner brings me back to my original thought:

I love downloading photos. 

Today’s long-overdue downloads are brought to you today by my oldest child, who inhereted my old G3.   Nearly nine, he loves snapping photos almost as much as I do, and I love looking at the world through his eyes.  In this case, his eyes were taking in this summer’s Disney vacation.

There were a few shots remarkably similar to ones I had taken

and some that were close, but taken from kid-height:

There were some that were better than the ones I took with my DSLR:

and some that captured moments I missed:

Of course, there were multitudes of photos of his favorite subject:

himself.

He took 216 photos over the week we were there.  Yes, several were blurry (he’s an impatient boy and it’s a slow camera), and some are unflattering, to say the least.   But he had some great shots and, most importantly, a record of our vacation through his eyes.  From his perspective.

Until next time…
c.

Remember that Staples commercial?  One of my favorites.

Just a quickie post before the long holiday weekend!   The 2 big kids went off on the big yellow bus last week, and the weather here has been cooler than normal.  It almost feels like fall already!  Since fall is my favorite time of year, I can’t say I’m disappointed.  I will miss the carefree days of summer, though.  We’ve had a great summer–long vacation, baseball games, pool time…  It is definitely harder to fit in the relaxing moments once school and fall sports are back in full swing, as evidenced by the 9 full hours we spent on various ballfields last Saturday instead of hanging out by the pool.

Can’t say I’ll miss that this Saturday!

The house feels a little empty with the big kids gone all day, and I imagine I’ll feel a bit lonely once the little one starts preschool in a few weeks.  I have been able to spend more time in the Craft Cave during the day, though, instead of squeezing my projects in at night.

I whipped up this mini-composition book as a birthday party favor idea.  I’m not a fan of the “goodie bag”, tending to toss the junky stuff as soon as I can reasonably expect the kids to not miss it, so I’m trying out some ideas as possible alternatives.  I’m thinking this one would be an easy craft to make and take along home.  The bookmark is a barrette clip with a felt flower attached.

Paper is from Paper Trunk, felt flowers and monogram from American Crafts, and I stuck it all together using Helmar Premium Craft Glue, Fray Stoppa, and 450 Glue.

Have a fantastic holiday weekend!
Until next time…
c.

Here are a few more photos from the memory cards I downloaded a couple days ago.  Technically, they’re not perfect, but I love them anyway.

Here’s another from the race.  The headsets with the microphones were a big hit.  That’s my mom wearing the other ultra-fashionable head accessory.

Yes, this is a photo from last year’s family beach vacation.  Yes, I just downloaded it.  No, I have no excuse.   The boys still let me dress them alike, and this was just post-hair-donation.

And the last just cracks me up.  Covered with sand, running full-tilt, giant grin on his face.  That’s my boy!

That’s all for today, I’m swamped!

Until next time…
C.

I mentioned last week that I was on a massive creative streak, spending night after night in the craft cave pulling my Designer Showcase table display together.  After late nights and buckets of caffienated beverages I’m almost there.   Two more projects left.  Sleep is overrated, right?   The creative binge is fun, but the aftermath leaves a little to be desired.

Here’s one of the late-night projects made for Helmar Adhesives:

I finally got my gallery up and running this weekend.   To see more projects, click on the “Gallery” tab up top.

In other news, while preparing for our upcoming adventures, I made sure all the memory cards from our cameras are empty and ready to go.  In the process, I found quite a few photos I had forgotten about.  Here’s a little gem from our recent NASCAR race at the Kentucky Speedway.  Kid #1 was super-excited about being able to stay up late and go along.   He was fun to watch.

I’m still lamenting the lack of photos from the NKOTB concert last weekend.   We got a random upgrade to pavilion seats.  Total retro cheesy fun.  Completely different from *coughcoughtoomanyyearsagocoughcough* when I was 13 seeing them the first time.  It was a ball.

Off to head back to the cave.  Those projects aren’t going to make themselves!

Until next time…
C.

And by mess, I truly mean MESS.   That’s right, all caps.

For the last few weeks I’ve been knee-deep in the craziness that happens when a home-remodeling project coincides with a big deadline.    So there is mess in the construction zone, mess in the craft cave, and a big mess in my brain.

Our new floors are finally installed.  (Hooray!)  We took out all the carpet and 20 yr old parquet flooring on our main floor and replaced it with a stranded bamboo plank.   I love it!    It updates our ’80s house tremendously.    However, everything that used to be in the toy, china, and crystal cabinets (and anything else that was small enough to be carried) now resides in our master bedroom.  Who knows when it will return to its proper home.    What a mess!

I’ve also been working on some projects for Clearsnap, a fabulous company whose products I’ve been using for years.   I had the opportunity to be introduced to them at the winter CHA show, and they are as wonderful as their products.   With all the construction and those wild steroid side effects, I was a manic stamper.  The result?  Utter destruction of the Craft Cave.

I’m not one of those highly efficient people who must return each and every craft supply to its proper home and wipe all traces of the current project from my desk before beginning a new project.   Instead, I toss all craft debris off to the side or onto the most convenient, least cluttered surface, leaving me a progressively smaller workspace in which to create.   At the end of the creative streak, I triumphantly cross off the last project on my list, take a deep satisfied breath, and lift my head.

Then I make a face not unlike that of the kid from “Home Alone”.    What a mess!

As for my brain, well, it’s always a mess.

What I could really use is a magic lamp, a genie, and 3 wishes.   Ahh, all my mess problems solved.

Until next time…
C.

Poor neglected blog!

I’ve been bouncing around like a gnat on caffeine these last few weeks, flitting here and there doing everything and nothing all at once.    I’ve been on a 2 week steroid pack for poison oak I managed to find while geocaching, despite looking carefully.

I realized, while taking the pack, that my brain functions in slow, methodical processes.   I like to take my time and make sure a task is completed thoroughly before I move to the next one.   While this method has it’s imperfections (ie.  the long list of uncompleted tasks always waiting their turns), I can be sure that my current task will be completed well.

But for the last 2 weeks, I have been experiencing life as a “flitter”.   From a land somewhere beyond my comprehension, this “flitting” took over my brain, and turned me into a mess of random chaos.

Put away glass…see water spot…water…laundry…add load to washer…see random toy, take to kid’s bedroom…notice stray shoe, take to closet…”hey, how did that get here”…”I should take down the shelf in the dining room”…walk through the kitchen, see the dishwasher still open and full…

Definitely NOT my usual nature, and it drove me crazy.  I’m glad it’s done and my regular brain has returned to it’s plodding, sedate pace.   Welcome back sanity!

Until next time…
C.

A few posts back, I mentioned I’d be kicking my little “black cloud of bad health” to the curb upon it’s one year anniversary of hanging over my head.    I should have mentioned the cloud should leave my household as well.    On Sunday night, after a great afternoon of hiking and geocaching, we ended up here again:

(yes, that’s the old photo from last time.)

No, it wasn’t me with the injury this time around, though I would have taken the pain for her if I could have.    My daughter fell and cracked open her lip, and off to the ER we went.   Apparently the wonderful warm weather had everyone outside falling off of stuff, because the place was packed!

I was so proud of her!   She didn’t fuss as we waited hours to be seen, even though we didn’t arrive at the ER until her bedtime.    No complaints while we waited in the room for the lidocaine to numb her face, and not even a whimper as the dr. added 3 stitches to her upper lip.   She was a real trooper, and all the doctors and nurses were impressed with her behavior.   She left with a handful of stickers and a blown-up rubber glove that made a great balloon, rooster comb, and cow udder.

She’s fine, and her lip is healing nicely, thank goodness!  Plus, she got a kick out of showing off the stitches at school yesterday.    And apparently it felt good enough that she could eat peanuts and chocolate caramel corn at the Reds game last night, so I think she’s on her way.

Now…black cloud GO AWAY!

Until next time…
C.

I’m still trying to catch up around here.  It’s amazing that 3 weeks of being sick can mean almost double that in catch-up time.   My “to-do” list is out of control.   Since the last time I made it here:

• I finished a magazine assignment
• “Mount Laundry” is no smaller than when I started washing it.   (How do all these clothes get so dirty this fast, anyway?)
• We went to our hometown for Easter to do some family visiting.
• The kids participated in no less than 3 egg hunts while we were there.   We will still have candy left next Easter.
• I have not yet stooped to secretly stealing my favorites from the kids’ baskets.  My own stash is still being carefully rationed.
• I’m steadily planning our Disney vacation, even though it’s not for months.    I’ll be going non-stop leading up to the departure, so it’s now or never for the planning stage.
• Kid 3 has successfully stayed dry since awakening this morning.
• I’ve been changing diapers for almost 9 years straight.
• Our old dinosaur computer finally gave up while I was sick.   PSA:  automatic backups only work if the old pc transmits the info to the backup hard drive.   Lesson learned.  Pictures were recovered, but emails from the end of Jan. to mid-March are gone.
• Cool file of my work to be seen in stores soon has disappeared because of the aforementioned crash.    Luckly the Clearsnap folks are top-notch, so I think I can get another copy.  I’ll post when I get it again
• No fewer than 3 people ran by my window this morning in the drizzly rain.   Since my Chiari 1 malformation diagnosis in September, I now understand it doesn’t hurt everyone else to run.  But seriously, I can’t understand the pleasure of getting soaking wet while I exercise.
• Rain has broken for a bit, so I’m taking the kids on a walk.  I should have started my 30 Day Shred workout today, but I’m feeling too lazy.   At least I’m getting outside, right?  And I won’t be wet.

Until next time…
C.

It appears I have completely missed Spring.

When I got sick 3 weeks ago, the trees outside still had bare branches and the tiny tips of green leaves were just popping through the ground.   Skies were overcast, and the midday temperatures were barely hitting 50.   If we were lucky, we could wear our light jackets in the afternoon instead of the heavy winter parkas.

While I was in quarantine (NO ONE wanted to be anywhere near my germs!), time froze.   The blinds were pulled down to accomodate my 20 hr./day sleep schedule, and the weather outside was none of my concern.    After my two weeks of solitary confinement, I spent another week trying to shake the residual exhaustion and wacky Chiari side effects.

By the time I finally made it out of the house and shook my head to clear the cobwebs, what did I find?    Blossoms falling off the backyard pear trees, droopy daffodils, and a forecast of snow!    Here in Ohio, that means that spring is over and we have moved on to the least popular of our seasons, “Mud”, which has already caused the cancellation of 3 baseball practices last week alone.  “Mud Season” isn’t nearly as pretty as the flowers.   I feel cheated.

On a side note, I’m coming up on the 12 month mark of this incident that seemed to start the plague of lousy health I’ve gotten stuck with this year.    I’ve decided that upon reaching this noteable milestone, I’m passing off the black cloud to someone else.   The dratted thing wore out it’s welcome rather early into it’s stay with me, and has rather impolitely refused to leave.  I’ve had quite enough thank-you-very-much.   Time to go.

Now, I’m off to enjoy mud season and all it has to offer.    Good times.

Until next time…
C.