BrRrRRrr....

For already experiencing 85 degree weather this year,

this 52 degrees feels mighty cold!!!

I felt this was the perfect time to share some images I had taken of the boys when it snowed...YES!!! SNOWED here in Texas...Feburary 4th to be exact. I think Dave and I might have brought something down with us from Montana ;)

The kids were actually missing the snow, so when they woke up to a

light dusting on the ground they were SO excited!!!

As far as recent news with me, I am still finding a balance to our new life here in Texas. I am starting to think that MAYBE I'm getting there...

I just had a photo-shoot with the most adorable twins and am finalizing my updated website. It's taken me awhile because, well, I'll explain all that later :)

Until then, my crazy fun boys, playin' in the "snow..."

Looks like even Sam was missing it ;)

These were some adorable mittens that Aunt Heather bought the boys for Christmas :)

He didn't last long...

sTrAnGe...

I had a mentor session on Thursday and was pootin' around with my old lens. I hadn't shot with my 50mm 1.8 in a LONG time. My client aka FRIEND ;)...has this lens and I wanted to see how it acted with my 5DMkII. I forgot how amazing that little lens is!!!

Here is a shot that I took in my room.

I don't know why I am so drawn to this...it's so strange but so ME....

*It's Thursday - Dave is off and we can

snuggle in the morning ergo the messy bed

*a sock monkey that one of the kids put at

the edge of my bed because his

"butt needs to be fixed"

*a chess game on the floor with pieces

my kitties have knocked over

BbBbbbBbb...where are you?

One of my clients had a great wall with all of her pictures along with different monogram letters of her last name randomly throughout. It was SO cool and something I really wanted to do...but with my own twist on it...

History of the pieces:

While cleaning out my 110 year old house I moved from in Montana, I found this really awesome mirror. I was just thrilled with how distressed it was and honestly was a bit embarrassed that I didn't find it sooner. Anyhoo, I was going to proudly display this mirror in my new home to remind me of my Montana house but as everyone knows, during a move, there are always casualties. And my sweet mirror was one of them. It awaited its burial against the fence in the backyard. It got rained on more than a few times before the pack rat in me said that I surely could find a use for it somewhere. So I very sweetly asked my hubby if he would clean the glass off and make it a frame. He did. And I was even MORE happy with the look of it after it weathered a bit in the yard.

The gold frame was one that I purchased at an antique store in Montana as a photo prop. I wanted to do the whole, "hold the frame at the torso and photoshop the couple kissing in the frame" number. Super cute idea, but I never got around to doing it. So my little prop just hung on my wall looking pretty all by it's lonesome.

The little yellow "B" is one that I purchase from Urban Outfitters many many moons ago and couldn't leave the store without it. The BIG darker "B" I purchased at Hobby Lobby when I first moved here.

The story:

It was an accident that I used all of these together. I was going to have someone over and my house was super dirty. Like any normal person would, I went crazy and just started piling things and hiding stuff. I managed to pile the frames and the B's against the wall together and after a week of seeing them there together I decided that they had found their match.

Isn't it fun when something amazing comes together accidentally?!?!?

I am super happy with the results but I have a big dilemma...I cannot find myself a lowercase "b" that I like anywhere! I haven't really gone internet shopping for one, but I figured I would ask ya'll to see if you knew. I would like it to have red on it or be all red, and I am going to put it by itself under the gold frame...

Please help my b's find their lost friend :)

have i mentioned...

...lately how much I adore my kitties???

{tReAsUrE}

My sister is here and we're are having SO MUCH FUN!!!

Yesterday, we went thrift store shopping...

...I triple HEART thrift store shopping!!!!

I feel like I'm a pirate searching for treasure, in a war against all the other pirates for the hidden pieces. What an adventure! Searching through caverns of crap for that ONE special find. Yes. I love treasure hunting.

And I hunted well yesterday...All my treasures listed here added up to less than 18 dollars!!!

I got this nifty glass thingy that I thought would make a fun paperweight...

reminds me of a molded jello...

My dinner plates are chipping and I can't find a set that I love to replace them, so I decided, why not just find different plates that I like???

Here's what I collected yesterday...

My husband requested that I picked up some Tshirts...

apparently he likes me in them...

Here's one of the many fun ones I found...

I have a collection of creamer and milk glasses as flower vases and scored a new one :)

And this is what I'm MOST proud of...the much needed desk chair...

my poor husband has been sitting on a step stool for too long...

this chair needs some scrubbin' but I fell in love!

{LoVe} mini-album

So this was the other thing that I did on Vday for my Hubcap...

I got my new photo printer and I was SO excited to use it. It's funny, because I had had this idea when I saw these little plastic badge holder thingys from Walmart...and it was before I saw it done on...yes...none other than Ali Edward's site. So I decided it was a quick enough project that I could do it the day of Vday...yeah, I had these cute little books for my munchkins but nothin' for my hubby...whoops.

Anyhoo, for this project I just took our photos and resized them and then put these cute little overlays from Ali E. and then printed them out, cut 'em, chopped the corners off, stuffed them in the holders, added some ribbon and stapled it so it wouldn't go anywhere...and then I was saved.

I had something for my Love...

I had to include the cheesy "prom pose" :)

i should hold onto these for the kids...

...because they love them so much and Parker has sadly lost his already without having it one day :(

I posted earlier some fun photo booth pictures (from Dave's apple notebook), for a fun project that I spotted on the amazing Ali Edwards blog...

Not only do I triple heart Ali for her simple yet brilliant work, but we also share the same name AND spelling...double awesomeness! She also has helped me learn that it's ok to take ideas and use them...like for this project, I seriously did it pretty much the same...I even scored the same paper for the outside of the book! I wanted to get all crazy but had to keep remembering what Ali Edwards says, "You don't have to re-invent the wheel..."

I accidentally ordered the wrong size backing board for my clients photos and so I have 50 8x12 6-ply backing board that I knew SOMEday I would use for SOMEthing...I almost threw it out but alas, the pack rat in me was screaming that I would regret it later...

SO...since I didn't have these pre-cut fun chipboard pieces to make my book, I just used my nifty little circle cutter and cut out my own pieces :)

Adhere some paper, sand the edges to finish and slap some paint on the other side and VOILA!

My own little mini book ready for some fun "innards."

I didn't have any cool transparencies like she had, and the Michael's AND Hobby Lobby stores let me down on that venture too...so I ended up making my own by purchasing just the clear covers for report binding and such at Office Max. Then I cut the circle pieces and then stamped them with white Opaque Staz On. A little more effort but it produced the same effect for a fraction of the price of a transparency. Are these report covers acid free??? I have no clue...but I did discover a website that had some acid free acetate for binding...

Anyhoo, so I added my photos and the love circles from Ali just like she did for her book, jotted down my love note to each kid and here we have it...a fun little interactive Valentine for each of my munchkins! I did something pretty neat for Dave too, but that will be in my next post...more of a digital scrapbook type of thing...here's some images of the final mini book :)