Remodeling inside and out.

I feel inspired this weekend.
The artist in me is trying to burst out of me. It hurts so. I must create. So, I've decided to tackle a bunch of tasks and I will probably get in over my head, so if you don't hear from me for awhile, please don't worry-I will be fine.

My first task:
I have decided to redo my pet art portrait site, www.TMoodyDesigns.com . I really need to change the look, prices, SEO -just about everything. Last year, I was discouraged with the economy and thought that it was the end for artists. Lately though, while surfing the net (do they still say that?) I noticed that artists are still rocking and selling their art, so if they can do it, so can I. Wish me luck on this project.

My next task:
A couple of weeks ago, I tackled cleaning out my boy's room. If you have ever stepped foot in that kid's room, you might of lost that foot. It was BAD. I survived the task, but I got a vision. This vision came from reading my blog buddy Creative Junkie's blog. She redid her laundry room and it turned out beauuutiful. I loved the brown walls. The uniformed look made me cry. Then I thought to myself, I want brown walls-in my boy's room. Of course, that would require changing the rug on the floor and the curtains too. We would then have to take down those posters and frame some cool art instead. Yes! Yes! Oh how wonderful it will look!
Only thing is, I KNOW that he won't want me to change anything. He likes his ugly yellow walls with marks all over them and the half- ripped posters taped to them-ugh! So, what's my plan? I'm going to get it all done while he's at his dads. I'm so evil thinking like that! Boo-hahaha!

The next task after that:
While watching my new favorite series, Pysch (thanks, Sis, for getting us addicted to this show) my eyes happened to glance over to our wall that has the family photos on it. I did one of those double takes and gasped. I couldn't believe how long I've had the same photos up there. I mean, these are so old, they scare me. I remember taking these when I got my first camera when I decided to get into photography. This camera wasn't even a professional one-argh! It made me realize how far I've come in talent and how unprofessional they looked. Then, I realized that when a photography client comes to my house for a meeting, they SEE these horrible photos. Do they think that is what my work looks like? Oh the humanity! Maybe that's why some clients leave so fast. Oh my, these have to go. So, I am changing over the photos and the frames. THIS will be my hardest task, because I HATE HANGING UP FRAMES. I cannot get them to line up if my life depended on it. Pray for me.

Now, my last task:
My oldest daughter Jess has been inspired to start a blog. Well, she started one last year, but life got in the way, so she is starting fresh. She has asked me to design it for her, give her pointers and basically, just bring her into the blogging world. She's turning twenty in a couple of weeks-Wait! Twenty? OMG, I have to stop and wipe a tear off. Okay, I'm fine now. I figure with her turning the big 2-0, this would be a great time for her to journal her life. So, when I'm done with it, please visit her. Follow her. Love her.

Okay, that is all for now. I have my plate full and this may take longer than a couple of days. Then again, I've been known to move mountains in a day. (hee, hee)

Catching up.

Sorry that i haven't been around for awhile. Life has been in the way and working on several projects. I'm even starting on my next book- I know, this one isn't even out yet.
I realized that it had been too long since I've blogged or commented on blogs, when the only comments I've been getting are spam ones.
We've been so busy that we haven't even opened everything that we got for Christmas. Well, we took the wrapping paper off, but actually opening and using the stuff is another story.
I remembered that we got a video camera from MIL, so as we were catching up on shows we recorded, I tried it out.
Mind you, this wasn't a big expensive one, just one that you shoot and then you can plug it in directly to your PC. It was dark in the room, so not the greatest in clarity. I decided to use one I shot of Emily. So, here is crazy haired Emily talking about her MP3 player.

Easy Bake Oven? Hardly.

Did you ever have an Easy Bake Oven? I did. I loved that oven. I would "bake" anything I could get my hands on. We would stick cookies in it to warm them up, and buy lots of mixes and make cakes and brownies, and all sorts of yummy stuff. I really loved it-you felt like a big person, being able to work with a very hot object and not get in trouble doing so.

I remember getting my oldest daughter one when she was little, but I don't think she got into it very much. I also used to buy her tons of Barbies and she never really played with them either. I'm seriously thinking that maybe she was switched at birth.

I talked my youngest into asking for one for Christmas from Grandma. Last night, I was asking myself, Why did I do this?

For some reason, I don't remember it being so hard to use an Easy Bake Oven. Or, how messy it is to use one. Or, how long it takes to bake four microscopic cookies. How? How, did I ever love this little simple piece of machinery?

I had promised her that we would make her cookies mix and cake mix after I got all my work done. After reading the directions, I carefully put the mix in a bowl and found out you can only add about three drops of water to the mix. I nervously added the water and accidentally added too much. Wow. You NEVER want to add too much water to these space age mixes. It turned out slimy, but we still used it-at six dollars a mix, we are using it.

We finally got the four cookie balls made and I realized that they wanted you to only cook one cookie at a time for ten minutes a cookie. What? Ten minutes? What five year old is going to wait that long for EACH cookie? Had I known this earlier, I would not of waited until 8:30 at night to do this.

So, I helped her push the pan in, not realizing that you have to mush the cookie down, so it would go through the door. Now, we had cookie dough stuck on the door. Not good.

We survived the first cookie, but learned that you don't really want to leave it in for the time that they say, or you will have a cookie that is burnt on the bottom and those little boogers do not want to come out of the pan.

We also found out that the frosting can be very picky too. I think I must have either added too much water, or not enough. After five minutes of trying to get it to stick to the water, I pulled out a can of frosting from the fridge and suggested that green frosting would look so much better.

After the cookies were all baked, I figured she'd be too tired or bored to make the cake-I know I was. Nope. She was all excited to make the cake because she was going to be a "cooker" when she grows up and she's going to use her Easy Bake Oven to make yummy desserts. I'm thinking, yeah, to use it as a step stool.

So, we finished the cake and luckily, the frosting decided to work for us. For some reason, the cake looked and tasted just like the cookies. Had I known this earlier, I would have suggested we made the cookies as a cake too and saved alot of burnt fingers and cursing.

She was so proud of her cake, she wanted me to take a photo of it.

Next time she wants to use that Easy Bake Oven, I'm going to tell her there's a new Happy Meal toy at McDonald's, and afterwards, I'll buy her a dozen pink frosted cookies from the bakery down the street.

Ouch!

I'm not sure if I told you that we got a Wii -AFTER Christmas. We have been wanting one for some time now, but either they were either sold out, or something would come up to force us not to be able to get it.

Well, after I found out that my DAD got one, then I was all like come on, we HAVE to get a Wii. When your father beats you at technology, then you've got to do something about it. So, we finally got one, when my husband showed up one day with it. I have to say, I totally love it.

The only thing is, now, I'm laid up after playing it too much. This little white box can really give you a workout. I wasn't even playing a workout disc, just the tennis and bowling game.

Now, I am SO sore on my left side (I'm left-handed) and every morning, I feel about fifty when I wake up. I am using muscles that I haven't used since high school, when my sister had to play tennis all the time because she was in love with John Mcenroe.

I think it's amazing that these days, you can run a marathon, play tennis, go bowling, and even play baseball-right in the comfort of your own living room. Now, when they figure out how to add swimming to the list, I think it would be the ultimate Wii sport. Not having to worry about wearing a swimsuit after you spent the winter eating brownies? Hell yeah.

Medusa hair

This is what my daughter's beautiful curly hair looks like when she wakes up in the morning.

I'm thinking that when she grows up and gets married, she better hope her husband loves her for her wonderful personality, cause that crazy morning hair will scare the bejesus out of him.

Here's to a great rest of the year.

Okay, I've decided that I'm going to look at this bad start of the year in a positive way. I'm going to figure that I'm getting everything bad out of the way early in the year, so I can look forward to only good happening the rest of the year. Sounds good to me.

So, with all that out of the way, I have to ask this: Does your husband get PMS?

I think mine does.

All last week, he's been grumpy, picking on my cooking, whining about silly things, and short tempered. For all you husbands that deal with a wife who gets PMS, I feel for you because I now know what you go through. I think there should be a place for husbands (and wives) to go to while their spouse goes through this temporary insanity.

I hope the hubby is over his PMS symptoms by this week, because I don't think I will be able to take another week of it. I guess he didn't get the memo about my positive outlook for the rest of the year. I'll have to shove it up his @$&% to make sure he gets it.

Surviving 2010.

I'm thinking that maybe I would like to go back to 2009. Can I do that? Huh? Can I? Can I?
The new year is totally sucking with a capital SUCK!

Let me recap my year so far:
The 1st:
Family came down with a near death flu.
The same weekend:
My grandpa died.
The next Sunday:
We woke up at six in the morning, freezing. Reason: Furnace broke with a 695 dollar repair.
This last week:
Lost a client.
Got turned down for a new car-twice. (my lease is up in April-yikes!)

This, all in the first month of 2010.
I would like to say, "Can this get any worse?" But, I fear that I will jinx myself. How can I have high hopes for the rest of the year? My book is in the printing process and all I can think is, will it be a flop? I need to reach my goal of selling 2000 copies. Now, I wonder if I will even sell one.
I'm starting on a new project right now, but I fear with all my bad luck that it will fail.

I just want to hide in my bed and not come out.

I know I won't be buying any lottery tickets anytime soon.

Skin MD review

I haven't done a review for awhile and I knew I had promised to post a review on a product that has been following me around for the past couple of weeks. This product is Skin MD.


All winter long, I fight dry skin. I constantly wash my hands, because let's face it, I get into a lot of yucky stuff. I’ve tried tons of lotions, but have disliked most of them. With sensitive skin, many lotions either are too greasy, or don't work worth a hoot.


Recently, I was able to try Skin MD Shielding Lotion with sunscreen. When I first tried it, I waited for the slippery, yucky and greasy to come.
It didn't.

I waited for my skin to go back to feeling dry five minutes later.
It didn't.


Basically, Skin MD creates a barrier to keep out irritants that dry skin. It works by boosting the natural protective abilities of your skin.


I take this bottle everywhere and I use it all day long. I probably don't have to use it as much as I do, but I love it so much. If you are a mom or even if you aren't, you will love this lotion. I bet all my change in my change jar that you will. (all $2.75 of it-hey, it took me two weeks to save that!)

If you don't believe me, then go get yourself a bottle. Skin MD can be found at any drugstore and I think I might be holding a giveaway in the near future. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go put some more lotion on my hands.


Disclaimer: I received this product for free for review purposes; however, my review was honest and my opinions are my own.

Happy Birthday, Bella

My youngest asked me today when Bella, our bigger dog, was having a birthday. I told Emily that I really didn't know when Bella's birthday was. Emily said that we should give Bella a birthday party and give her bones and dog toys and decorate with dog decorations and how fun it would be.

I told her that it would be nice to throw her a birthday party, even though she gets into the garbage the second we leave her alone in the house, lets the most silent-but-deadly farts, and hogs the whole bottom of the bed every night.

The hubby was listening to all of this and then leans over to me and whispers,

"What about Mia?"

Then I was all like yeah, she didn't mention little Mia.

Sorry, Mia.

I guess you didn't make the cut.

Maybe you need to eat more beans and learn how to scoot the step stool to the garbage pail because apparently, the more smelly and bad you are, the more you are loved.

TM Cooks-I mean, PW Cooks.

One of my gifts this year was PW's Cookbook. She is my favorite blogger-she passed up Dooce on my list. I love the setup of her blog and I drool over her food photos and I've been following her little book tour online. What a fun life she lives!

When I got her book, I swore that I would try her recipes and make wonderful meals. My family will be so happy, that they will write her love letters.

So far, I've only been able to make one recipe since we've been sick. I tried the Cowboy Sandwich and I got rave reviews from the kiddos and hubby. I could have taken some photos for you, but my buns (the sandwich buns, I mean) accidentally got smashed in the process of grilling them. Never put a heavy dish on top of delicate buns-lesson learned.

I haven't decided what to try next; maybe one of the desserts. As you know, I can't cook, but I do believe that PW is making me a better cook. My kids thank her. My hubby thanks her. This cookbook should be given to every married couple as a "recipe" for a great marriage-Get it? Recipe? Come on, that was a good one.

Four Weddings and a Funeral-minus the four weddings.

Starting the new year has NOT been very, very good to me.

We celebrated New Year's Eve with lots of yummy food and watched a ton of movies. It was a nice time, but had I known what was coming the next couple of days, I would have opened that second bottle of champagne.

The next morning, we all woke up with the flu-well, except for Emily-she started the whole thing a couple of days earlier.

This flu was so bad, I wished for death to put me out of my misery. We were all dying, and as I crawled back to the couch from hanging out in the bathroom, I swore that I heard my husband calling from the bedroom, asking if our will was up to date.

We recovered, finally, and I've been trying to catch up on everything. It's been making me feel overwhelmed and depressed and just plain yucky.

To top things off, my grandpa passed away on Sunday, which happened to be the same day that we were doing our Christmas with my dad. He lived a very long and happy life and lived to be ninety, so now he can be with Grandma and all is good.

Today was the funeral, and it was nice to see family again. I hate it when it's under these circumstances and I always say that we should plan something fun to bring the family together.

So, now I'm back and ready to write again, 'cause I miss all of you guys!

I'll start by letting you know that this Christmas, I accumulated a ton of coffee cups.

I got some like this one.

And some cool ones like this one.

I had to get this big chocolate colored one-and in case you didn't think so, it says so.

So, now I must clean out my kitchen cabinets to make room for all my new cups. I was thinking that I might have to do my spring cleaning early, since I also need to make room for my hubby's new fancy deep fryer and coffee maker that he won't let me touch-apparently, I get coffee grounds everywhere. That's fine with me, because I just send him to Mickey D's to get me a carmel flavored ice coffee instead. I wonder how long it will take before he gets tired of going out in the sub zero temps and just let me use it. I give it two days.