A few more wedding pics if you can stand it

my four girls - all grown up

Birds Galore

More bird news - there are now five new eggs in the nest on our front door! And there is a huge mess of sticks and twigs on the front porch - there's more nest building going on in the upper rafters of the porch. I had no idea a nest was used more than once - wonder if it's the same mama bird? I'd really like to get rid of the whole arrangement and yucky, dirty nest, but I'd feel really guilty...so, I'm resigned to another round of babies hatching.

Other news - we've received the professional photographer's photos of the wedding - all 900 of them! How will we ever choose?

Challenge

It's been a busy week and I decided today to take some time for myself and participate in an art challenge that my friend, Vicki Chrisman, posted here. The challenge was to create something "out of the box" from our usual art work and to post on our blogs by today.

So, here is mine. I've been wanting to start an art journal forever and have actually painted some pages in this old sketch book from my daughter's college days. But I had never finished a page, so I decided to make one for this challenge.


I scribbled watercolor crayons (love those things!) in three different colors on the page and then liberally added water with a water pen and brushed the pigment to blend. I liked how the really wet paints dripped and blended. Then I inked one of the new large Prima foam stamps and stamped over the dried page. I cut the words from an old Daisy D's ad. It's very simple, but I like how it turned out. And it was fun to just create for the sake of creating for a change! Once Vicki posts the links to everyone who participated, I will share them here.

A New Tool

It's been quite awhile since I've been to the local craft stores, but I had some time this afternoon and a coupon that was burning a hole in my pocket (you know what that's like, right? I'm surely not the only one who does this...) so I stopped at Michael's. I almost didn't find anything to spend my coupon on...until I spied these:

I had seen them online before, but never in the stores. Aren't they cool? They are "fringe scissors - for making fringe borders, confetti and shredding paper." Now, I don't think I will be shredding our household documents, but they will be really cute on cards or whenever I want to make grass. Here's a closeup - I apologize that it's somewhat out of focus, but the blades are not - you really are seeing five parallel blades!

This is how they cut - isn't that neat? A new tool to add to the mix.

Happy Mother's Day

Hope all you mothers out there have a wonderful day. Relax and let everyone treat you! Here's a sweet image for you to use - isn't that baby's expression just priceless?

Birds - Chapter 3

Remember that nest on my front door and the four little birdies that hatched before we left for Mexico? When we returned, the nest was empty - I had mixed emotions as I wanted to see the little ones learn to fly but at the same time, I'm anxious to clean up the mess.

When I opened the door this morning to let the dog out, was it my imagination or did another bird fly into my house? I thought I heard a loud chirp but since all the windows were open, I figured it was outside. This evening after work, I was relaxing on the sofa when I heard the now familiar sound of bird-flying-in-house! What is this, a bird hotel? Has the word gotten out that this is the place to be? All my life I've never had a bird come inside and now there's been two in as many weeks.

Here it is perched on my upstairs loft railing. I wonder if it was thinking "ha, ha, you can't get me up here." I was too tired to chase her/him, so I opened the door to the garage and ignored it. Eventually it flew out and I quickly closed the door to the house and opened the garage door. When I looked to make sure it had left, I found it walking around on the grass very close to the garage - do you suppose it's one of the youngsters?

Oh well, I've really had quite enough of birds this spring. Next year you will NOT find an arrangement on my door!

Wedding

This was the ceremony site, just feet from the water's edge. Check out the wind and the whitecaps in the distance.

The groom awaits...

Little 3-year-old Max was mostly interested in playing in the wonderful white sand.

This is my son, Will, and the youngest daughter, Sara. Check out the palm trees blowing!

Oldest daughter, Kim

Matron of honor, Dana - she just got married in September. I'm hoping there will now be a lull for awhile...

Bill and Kelly - he was a very proud Daddy. We all went barefoot!

The Mexican minister spoke very good English and the ceremony was very nice. Josh's boss, Keith, brought his ukelele and played their favorite songs, though with the wind, it was hard to hear.

First (married) kiss:

Time to celebrate!

We feel very fortunate to have a wonderful new son-in-law and that our family and friends could all be together for this joyous occasion!