Cooler temperatures and a great day in my studio make for a happy crafter.

I worked on Holiday Craftacular plans for a little while today too and I am happy to announce that I am officially accepting applications. I should have info online soon but feel free to email me at naomi@glitterworkshop.com if you would like me to send you an application. It’s pretty neat that I only sent out the first round of emails about an hour ago and I already have a small stack of applications. It really is a sign to myself that my years of hard work are starting to show.

The girls just asked me what was for dinner tonight. Oops. Knew I forgot something…. I shall leave you for now with a couple of pictures I somehow forgot to post from the corn festival.

Happy September everyone!

This one’s a little blurry… the merry go round was merrily going round..

Luna was just being a goof all day. Now I see why they include those little diaper covers with baby dresses! They leave marks around her chubbily little thighs though!

On to dinner…

Another school year….

Today is Zoe’s first day of middle school. The sixth graders go back a day early so they get the whole school to themselves to get the hang of things a little before the rest of the kiddos invade the place. I really wish her an easy go of things. I remember middle school all too clearly and those most certainly were not the best years of my life. UGH. BLECH. UGH UGH UGH. BLECH BLECH BLECH.

On one hand I was hoping that we would have moved by now so they wouldn’t be going to their current school, but since we haven’t, it is pretty convenient that their school is across the street. They both can walk this year! No more waking the babies up from naps in the middle of winter to run and pick the sisters up from school. I just wish their school was a little more… I don’t know. Small? Personal? I don’t know. There is just something about their school that rubs me the wrong way. There are so many kids there that the kids that are pretty well behaved and decent enough students just get pushed along and never challenged and don’t really have much attention paid to them. I really don’t put too much blame on the teachers individually (although there are some teachers there that I do feel have made a poor career choice….) but I guess maybe like so many other things perhaps we need to be the ones to make the changes we hope to see. It is just so hard when it is your children’s educations we are talking about.

Well, hopefully this year will be a great one. I am going to go into it with an open mind and an open heart and I hope the girls will do the same. The babies are at grandma and grandpas today so I can work, Darby is finding a movie to watch for a little while (got up early to walk her little sis to school even though it is her last vacation day!) and Zoe is done at 1:30 so then it will be a little big kid time then MORE work, which will basically be my story until the Creative Connection is over with. I do have a potentially exciting appointment to go to this morning too… hmmm….. more details to come??? Hard to say… (oh, and NO it does NOT involve an OB this time around thank-you-very-much.)

xx’s oo’s and happy thoughts of back to school, crisp apples, pumpkin lattes, and cool breezes.

My hands have been keeping busy this week stocking up sweets for the Creative Connection. Here are the latest batch of pies, straight off the crochet hook!

I have also been making apples and pumpkins and am hoping for a whole table of delicious stuffed goodies before the show.

It has been hard to get my work time in this past week because of back to school prep. I will have two heading to middle school next week! Yikes! Everyone has shoes and supplies (I think… gotta double check everything…) but we still need one backpack. Well, some sort of bag. Darby for some reason is very anti-backpack but all the messenger bags seem to tear. hmmmm…..

I have also been working on a secret plot to take over the world. Fine, perhaps not take over the world, but I am plotting. Or dreaming… I guess there is a fine line. I may have more details soon but you will just have to check back to see.

Off to glue more headbands. I have some fun fall designs I am working on including these.

How I love fall! Soon we will have Luna’s birthday to plan, then Darby’s. For now though I think I better go check and see what type of plot Ms. Zoe is up to. She keeps sneaking quietly into my studio and quickly hurrying past me into her studio. Very suspicious indeed! Let us see what she is up to…. hmmm, I guess I lack the secret password to get in. Any suggestions?

With all the Craftacular madness I completely forgot to mention a huge milestone in our family, Luna’s ten month birthday!!

My sister in law took the wee ones in for some pictures for Henri’s second birthday so we have some adorable pics to remember the big occasion.

I didn’t have time to indiviually scan them all right now but here is a little collage.

All the children grow up much too fast but it seems with each one it just gets faster and faster. I suppose it’s because so much more is going on. I just really can’t believe that Luna’s first birthday is going to be here in just a couple of months. Her personality is really starting to show and she is becoming such a sweet girl. Well, she still is a daughter of mine which means she is a moody and a bit a of a diva, but sweet nonetheless.

Time for sweet corn fest! Ah, how I love living in Wisconsin. We actually had to DEBATE which cheesy festival to go to today. Love it….

There are two blogs that I love reading close to every day. The first is my dear friend Michelle’s over at Dainty Daisies and the second is Elsie’s over at A Beautiful Mess. Well, about a week ago Elsie came up with the idea of each person coming up with 4 simple personal goals that “will make your life more beautiful each day” that you can accomplish before 2011 and I thought it would be fun to play along. Michelle is also joining in so make sure to go over and see her goals!

Ok… here we go!

#1. Create one new product or product line for my business. I find myself being caught in the rut of making what I know will sell or just playing catch up on orders. While I do need, of course, to make what will sell, it is very important to create something new. This goes to the core of who I am as an artist and also gives local customers new merchandise.

#2. Create one original painting. This can be any size, on any medium. I love to paint and used to have grand dreams of painting in my studio in Greenwich Village. When I graduated high school and briefly attended the Milwaukee Institute of Art this was going to be my focus. Well, these dreams gave way to painting nursery walls in Madison, but I still love the feel of a brush in my hand and I think it will open my creativity up.

#3. Walk a wee bit each day. I know, this sounds silly. We walk every day! Well, working at home and occasionally having days with lots of work hours and few Mommy hours, I can spend countless hours plopped in the basement listening to Pandora or watching Netflix while making bracelets or crocheting. I am grateful that this is my income, but days go by when I forget to just walk to the end of the street and watch the seasons change or listen to the birds. I am not going to say ‘walk a mile’ or even around the block… perhaps just to the park and back (the end of my street).

#4. Take a few minutes every day to just say thank you. There are certainly moments and days when I don’t feel like I have much to be thankful for. My kids are fighting / crying, my bank account is again in the red, the house the filthy, I haven’t said four words to my husbands except ‘pick up milk please’ in two days…. but you know what? That is all just crazy. Sure, there are always going to be weak moments when you just want to throw up your hands and say ‘I quit!’ but then there are the moments when all the kids are asleep peaceful, or playing wonderfully together, or they thank you for making dinner or your husband smiles at you across the chaos of the dinner table and it makes you want to cry because it is the same beautiful smile you fell in love with so many years and so many diapers ago. Whoever it is that I pray to quietly in my worst moments, I will also remember to thank.

I do have a fifth goal but for now I will keep this one to myself. It is a bit of a pipedream and I do not think would fit into the simple goal category but is still one that I love to think about….

Thank you Elsie for having a beautiful, inspiring, blog!