I Love....

those eyes

this mischievous grin

that confidence

these tippy toes

and this mustache!

xoxo

Nessa Dee

Anticipation

I'm eagerly awaiting this weekend which will be spent with some of my favorite peoples. For several years now, a group of women from my family have been getting together for a time of fun, relaxation, encouragement, dessert, crafting, praying, and dancing. With life moving at such a fast pace and schedules keeping us so busy, this is something that's much needed. It's gotten a little more elaborate with each get together, and has evolved into themed "retreats," as we like to call them. This year we're holding it at my mom's new house and have a quilt theme, which means that we've been pulling out all of the quilts my Gangy and her mom, Granny, made. We'll be adorning the beds with handmade quilts, using quilted table runners, making a quilt craft, and putting Quilted Northern in all of the bathrooms. (Okay, maybe we're getting a little carried away) I can't wait to see everyone, and just take a break from the schedule to rejuvenate and laugh. And of course, it will all be documented with tons of pictures!

Looking forward to seeing you ladies!

ND

IF: Climbing

Meet Caterina. She's a fashion forward caterpillar who loves shoes and bright red lipstick. Her motto: Why wait for metamorphosis to look beautiful?

And what does this have to do with climbing? Well.... wait....

hold on....

There.

Now she's climbing a tree.

Nessa Dee

I Should Be Painting Right Now

Instead, I'm forced to clean the bathroom for the second time today. Why? Because someone, and I'm not naming names, but the furriest of my three children decided to go dig in the damp, muddy flowerbed while she was outside. I had just spent a good portion of my day scrubbing down the bathroom to get it extra shiny, and now, I'm left with this:

I guess that should teach me a lesson. Never waste time getting the bathroom extra spiffy when your yard is muddy....maybe? OK, perhaps a lesson wasn't learned. Nonetheless, I think the culprit is sorry, judging by her expression:

And I thought Finn and Audrie were a lot of work.

Nessa Dee

Reaching For The Sun

Aren't these tulips beautiful? They were a gift from my husband. They weren't given to me as a birthday present, or for our anniversary, or as an "I'm sorry I said you look fat in those jeans, please love me again" gift. These were given to me at 3AM on a Friday because Jonathan hadn't been home much all week. Basically he had been working hard, having to stay late at the office, missing out on family time to provide for me and the kids......and I get a gift. Does that make any sense?

What a beautiful man, both inside and out. I love him bunches. He deserves much.

So, to you Jonathan, I'm presenting this gift:

xoxo

Ness

IF: Pale

Pale, pink giraffe.

Here's my last minute contribution. I did this a while back for another IF, but ended up submitting something else.

ND

In The Schoolroom

We started learning about flight in science last week. We read about flight in our science encyclopedia, and loaded up with books on the subject (thank you Mom, the librarian). I decided, for this lesson, to take the kids to someone who knows a lot more about the subject than I do....my grandpa. Audrie and PaPa watched a video on flight, and demonstrated Bernoulli's Principle with a piece of paper, a fan, and some tape. Then, PaPa brought out a book on making paper airplanes. We all got in on this action. The book had a lot of different types of planes to create.....very complicated models, by the way.

I don't think any of us successfully completed one of the intricate versions. After numerous attempts to replicate these fancy fliers, and statement from my grandpa that his degree in aeronautical engineering might have to be revoked, we resorted to the good ol' simple folds of the planes we learned to make as children. Then it was time to demonstrate flight and its forces of gravity, lift, thrust and pull. (I was listening, too.)

Afterwards, we moved outside to see what was left of the freeze the night before....

and had a leaf fight with Uncle Van.

Thank you, PaPa, for your insight and wisdom when teaching us.

ND

Winter Rose

Just a touch of warmth on these gray, winter days.

xo

ND

Dinner Anyone?

Finn loves to cook. He's always wanting to help me in the kitchen, but being two years old, it's not always the safest thing to have him stir a pot of boiling water over an open flame. At my mom's house, he loves to drag out her pots and pans, and all of her kitchen utensils to make a big pot of soup. (There must be something special about her pots because he doesn't do that often around here.) Well, one day, while he was cooking at my mom's, I was in the process of making a Halloween costume with felt. He proceeded to take the felt scraps and put them in a pot to make his soup, which then led to me cutting out different colors and shapes for the ingredients. This soon became the norm every time I worked with felt, so as a result, I decided to make actual "food" for him to use in his culinary adventures. Using inspiration from felt food I had seen online, I sewed a few things to give to Finn for Christmas.

A turkey, ham, Swiss, and cheddar sandwich on white with lettuce, tomato, and pickles.

Bowtie pasta with tomato sauce, olives and basil.

Pancakes with syrup and a side of bacon.

Pizza topped with pepperoni, olives, and bell peppers.

The tins you see in the picture are from Ikea, and are used to hold all of the food.

So now, when I am cooking at the stove, Finn is right alongside me, mixing up his own creation without open flames and burning hot pans.

Nessa Dee

IF: Contained

This is just a quick painting of my dog. My printer's on the fritz right now, so I couldn't print off a picture to guide me. I tried to get Trixie to pose for me, but as it is with puppies, it's hard to keep her energy contained. She sat still for brief moments of time with the promise of a treat. But, since it was my son giving her the treats, she was led into another room following his uncontainable energy.

Nessa Dee

On The Easel

Just popping in to show you what I'm currently working on. Besides children's art, I like to dabble in mixed media abstracts. The first picture is one of the early stages of the painting. I like to cover the canvas with heavy texture as well as torn pages from books or newspapers. I stencil or paint on words, symbols, and numbers for added depth, and then I start layering on the color.

After several layers I add more paper, words, symbols, etc. and then layer on more paint. I keep this up until it gets to a point where I can call it finished. I'm not sure if I'm done. It's kind of dark, but I'll mull over it for a few days to see what needs to be done.

Well, that's it for now. Have a happy week!

ND

Ulterior Motives

Someone slowly eased her way onto Audrie's chair as she was eating lunch today.

Perhaps it was for a little taste of something good.

Or maybe it was for a lot more than that.

But how can you get mad at her with a face like that?

ND

IF: Resolve

I resolve to reach for the stars, and if I only make it to the moon, I will have accomplished much.

Nessa Dee

Eight

My little girl turned eight today.

She awoke to a table full of presents.

She ate cinnamon toast for breakfast.

She wore her new skirt and shirt.

She played with her new toys (an electronic 20 questions game and a CSI kit).

She played restaurant with her brother.

She licked the icing bowl after helping me make cupcakes.

She had Sonic for lunch.

She played with her friends at the park.

She shared her cupcakes and enjoyed a couple herself.

She turned eight today and I didn't hyperventilate......until I heard her say "I'm almost ten!"

Happy birthday my dear, sweet girl!

I love you,

Mom

Starting Anew

A little late, but the Christmas celebrations have finally come to an end. We gathered with my side of the family over the weekend and celebrated with our usual Christmas meal of Mexican food, the exchange of gifts, a mean round of dominoes, and all of the laughter that comes with a family get together.
My brother, who flew in from Africa on New Year's Day, greeted us with this shiner. Apparently, if you go all day without eating and are in the sun for quite some time, you're prone to fainting. And if you faint near an object with corners, say a computer, you are likely to hit it with your eye which can result in a fair amount of bruising. At least it wasn't from getting hit by a drunk soldier with an AK-47, which was his first story.

Since we've just now finished with the Christmas festivities, I feel like I haven't yet started the new year. It's going to take a little bit of time to recuperate from the celebrations and get back into the swing of everyday life. I'm excited, though. A new year brings with it so much promise. I'm ready to make some changes and get started on my new year's resolutions. But first, I have to write them.
Well, it's off to packing up my Christmas decor, cleaning the house, finding a place for the new toys, writing my new year's resolutions, etc., etc.

Nessa Dee