A grand adventure

Alot of my crafty pals are expanding into BJD's (ball jointed dolls) I think they are amazing, but can not honestly justify the expense...(and with 3 boys I can't even try to pawn it off on a daughter. :-( lol) So I decided to go searching and see what I could find. Imagine my surprise to discover that Barbie has a line of jointed dolls!!! (What gets me is the 12 inch GI Joe/ Military figures have been fully articulated for years...what took Barbie so long???) Any ways the Barbie jointed line is called Fashion Fever Fashionista, with names likeCutie,Sassy, Wild, Glam, Artsy and Girlie. These dolls are just wonderful. And at around $10, I can totally justify buying one. (or 3!) I have seen a couple of male dolls in the store, but can't seem to find pics of them online...although I think my gal will be looking for a military man like me! (Just a silly little aside...back in the mid to late 80's {height of Barbie time for me!} my brother had some of the original 12 inch GI Joe figures...it used to annoy the snot out of him cause inevitably one of his Joes would always come up missing...My Barbie always picked Joe over Ken...maybe I knew even as a little girl that I was gonna end up with a military man! lol)

These dolls are made of the hard plastic all over, with joints at the shoulder, elbow, wrist and knees. Oh and her head moves too, but I'm pretty sure they all do that! LOL. The only body part than doesn't move is her ankles. I just bought her a huge pack of shoes on Ebay as I can't STAND the shoes she is currently wearing, I think they are ugly! She'll be getting some new clothes eventually too as hers are a tad more provacative than I would prefer. (It's raelly a good thing I don't have girls...'cause we'd have had issues over Barbies. Seriously is is really necessary for her clothes to be as short as they are making them!!!)

So my grand adventure is going to be branching out into 1:6th scale miniatures as well. I am hoping that these pieces will do better at local craft shows as my area seems to be devoid of any 1:12th scale collectors or miniaturists. (I have no intention of stopping doing 1:12th though!!!)

So keep an eye out for new things of all sorts coming from me! Oh BTW I also sent in my booth fee for my first craft show of the season...May 8th, the Saturday before Mother's Day...So I will be focusing on Mom quite a bit over the next couple weeks!

Astronomy Night

We are lucky enough to have an observatory and Space Science Center nearby. They have started bringing their telescopes out to the elementary school the boys attend, for Astronomy Night. The middle son and I went last year and had a great time...we all went this year. And although the kids had more fun running around the field with their glowsticks and their friends...they each enjoyed seeing the stars and planets in the telescopes. We saw Mars, Venus and even Saturn...and even though it was about the size of a pencil eraser...the rings of Saturn were stunning!!! It really was one of those awe inspiring moments! We are very lucky in that, even though we live in a neighborhood and not out in the country our stars are ALWAYS visible! (unless the cloud cover is too heavy) But it really is neat to walk out into the driveway or the back yard and be able to look up and see a sky full of stars! I have decided that I am going to pick up a telescope to star-gaze! If you have an observatory nearby I highly recommend checking them out!

Moving Along...and looking for ideas

Well hubby emailed me today, they have arrived at their first stop on their way to their destination...although technically it's the 2nd stop after a refueling stop along the way. But anyways we are down to about 362 days until he comes home! =D (and NO I don't plan on counting down the days. lol) But I prefer to think on the terms of how many till he ocmes home rather than the how many has he been gone.

I started my workstation reorg on Tuesday, and got one rather large box sorted and almost all put away. I discovered that I need to come up with a good storing systen for fabric...I have yards and yards of some colors, but have decided to store the bulk of it in storage bins in the garage. I am going to keep about a 1/4 yard in the house for mini work. Any one have any suggestions?

I still have a ton of sorting and reorganizing to do, but it'll all get done eventually, although I am not moving at the pace I had hoped too. but I plan on doing some more here shortly. (MUST LOG OFF FACEBOOK!!!! LOL) Tomorrow it's another Dr's appointment, then off to Hobby Lobby to exchange my unopened Orchid for an Alison Jr. I realized that it would be much easier for me to just build Mom the bigger house rather than trying to bash a pair of Orchids together! And with my 40% coupon, and the refund for my Orchid the Alison should only cost me about $30!!! =D AND it will give me more than enough room for all the things I want to do. I mean it IS supposed to be her DREAM house so why not go big! =D

(BTW the picture is from out trip to Disney last year)

Books 26 through 29

I may not have been doing much through out the last couple weeks but I HAVE been reading! LOL I have 4 more books to add to my tally.

These 1st set of 3 are part of the Mack Bolan series that my husband reads. (the link will take you to my first post about Mack, for a little backstory if you are interested.) Book 26 was called
Code of Honor Mack is called upon to infiltrate and eliminate a super covert team that has been taking out government employees. Book 27 is System Corruption After the son of a friend is murdered trying to uncover the truth about sub-standard body armor being sent to our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, Mack is brought in to find and protect the one man who accidentally stumbled onto the evidence.
Book 28 is called Betrayed. Brokering peace can be a dangerous business. Dr Sharif Mahoud knows that only to well. His wife and daughters are in hiding, his son has been kidnapped and he is being chased by just about every war-monger in the Afghan region. Mack Bolan has been authorized to go into enemy territory to bring Mahoud and his family out alive.

Bolan books are definitely not for the faint of heart, but if you have ever found yourselve captivated by the History channel, you might find these intriguing as well.

Book 29 is about as far from the previous books as you can get. lol Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke was a wonderful story of the last remaining dragons in the world. When humans begin encroaching on their hidden valley, one brave (or fool-hardy...depending on who you ask!)dragon takes up the search for the fabled Rim of Heaven, the last remaining safe haven for dragon-kind. Setting off accompanied by his Brownie friend, they are soon joined by an orphan human. Around every corner lies magic, mystery and danger.

If you enjoy dragons and mystical creatures I am almost postive you will enjoy this book!

It's been a long week!

Sorry I haven't been posting, then again I haven't really been doing anything these last few days so there really isn't much to tell. (although I have finished 3 books, but will post about them later)

Monday morning I woke up ready and raring to start getting all my craft supplies sorted and put away...I MISS CRAFTING SOOOOO MUCH!!!! And what happens? Yep I hurt myself, I pulled a muscle in my lower back somehow. grrrrrrrr So it's been muscle rub, massages and Motrin all week. I felt really good yesterday, spent the day photographing some jewelry making books and magazines I plan to list for sale. (curious? shoot me an email! =D) So last night when hubs and I went to bed I forgot to have him give me my massage and muscle rub. Yeppers guess who's real sore again today? I hate this I really do! So it's back to massage, cream and a hot soak in a bit. Hopefully by next week I'll be feeling better and can start getting this craft area organized. I want to rent a booth at a show in May, but need to be able to get some stock made up.

Some of you already know, but for those who don't my husband is heading out Monday for another tour in the Middle East. This will make his 4th in the last 7 years. He will be gone for a year. (This is another reason I haven't done anything!) We are just kinda hanging out and enjoying having him here with us. It's been kinda nice that the boys were home for Easter break this week too. I imagine over the next year I will be posting alot more as well as crafting a lot more too, as I don't sleep real well when he is gone. So hopefully once my back settles down I can knock out the re-org of my craft area and get back into sculpting and mini-making real quick.

Thanks for listening to me ramble. =D (btw that is my hubby in the pic, it was taken in October of 08 in northern Alabama where he and I went on vacation!)

Happy Easter!!!

May your day be filled with sunshine, your home filled with laughter, and your life filled with joy!
Deborah

Book 25 of 100..

Wow I am officially a quarter of the way through my 100 books...and the year is already 1/4 over. How the heck did that happen?!?!?! Does anyone else feel like time is just flying by???

Ok so book 25 was Kisser by Stuart Woods. This was another of the books that my sister ordered by mistake. It's one of the most recent in a series about the main character Stone Barrington. Barrington is an ex-cop turned lawyer, who in this book gets involved with a new-to-New York actress (who's ex husband is trying to kill her), an undercover cop(brought on the scene by a case Stone is working on) and her temporary roommate.(whose boss is the client Stone is working for) Then throw in Stone's own psycho ex-wife, (who happens to be a former Mob boss's daughter!) and a US Attorney General whom Stone had a liason with in the past.

Throw in an heiress about to be scammed out of her trust-fund by a drug dealing 'artist' and well it makes a rather, um, interesting story. Personally I found this story...well, fuzzy. It just seemd like there was WAAAAAY to much going on in it. The writing was ok (although there were several editing errors that really annoyed me {like changing a characters name mid-story not once but twice!!!} which ironically the author basically acknowledges he knew were there!!!) I just couldn't help but feel like the story could have been fleshed out a little better, or maybe trimmed down would have been the way to go. Honestly the actress (whom the story is titled for) could have been left out and the story itself would have been fine. This was supposed to be her story, presumably, but I felt the heiress's 'story' got way more attention. Oh well. I read it and chalked it up on my 100 Books in 2010 log. But this is an author that I most likely will not be searching out more from. :-( I hate saying that, but it's true. I'm not even sure what genre to label this book. It's not a drama, it's not a mystery...I guess it's just cop fiction.