Happy Birthday to me!

It's my birthday! and my husband sent me flowers at work!  Aren't they pretty?  The card with them was amazingly sweet and made me cry.
(willfocus.com is the site of my coworker who is a photographer and took the pics.)


























Also, I do have a new project to post.  I recently decided to learn to read Tarot cards, so I got ahold of a deck (Shadowscapes by Stephanie Pui Mun Law- http://www.shadowscapes.com/index.php- good LORD it's gorgeous. I love this artist) and I wanted a fancy box for it to go in.  So I bought a plain one from the craft store and decided to decorate it.  I'd seen several things on Pinterest about staining wood I wanted to try using tea and steel wool soaked in vinegar.  So I made an absurdly strong cup of tea from some tea I'd bought ages ago, and didn't like.  Bigelow's Constant Comment flavored with rind of oranges and sweet spice. icky.  The tea painted on the wood as a rather orange color, which concerned me.  I was afraid I was going to end up with an orange box.  However, when I added the coating of vinegar and steel, the son of a bitch turned pitch black.  Not what I expected.  I was hoping for brown.  But black is better than orange.  So I added some decorative gold paint, and using the gel medium for transferring pictures I'd read about, added a Seal of Rassilon (from Doctor Who) to the top.  It looked appropriately Celtic and mystical for a Tarot box, while being completely and utterly nerdy.  I am happy about it.

Father's Day

so, we're less broke than we were for Mother's day, when we were both unemployed. I got Caleb a Boise State shot glass, since he collects them. Which people find ironic, since we don't drink. Someday I'm going to get him a nice display case for his collection. Shannon made him a card that I helped her with that she wrote "I love you, Daddy" and then put stickers all over it. Then we went out to Caldwell to have dinner with his parents, and went in with Caleb's brother, Aaron, and sister, Katie, to buy thier dad, Paul, a barbeque for Father's Day. it was fairly uneventful, other than the usual stress that Katie's kids cause.

Holly hell. they make me insane. The oldest is Shiann, a foster kid, who's 14 and has cerebral palsy, and all the extra stress with that. Then there's Madison who's 8, and Kayla, another foster kid, who's 10-ish. they're snotty and bossy and will tattle at the drop of a hat. Then there's Devon and Hope, 6 and 7, who ignore everything Katie says and do whatever the hell they want. And then Fintin, who's 3, and is the biggest whiny drama queen, EVER. and she lets him get away with it. Finally, there's Claire, who is 8 months old and just has the natural stress of a baby. She's also a foster kid. So, no, I don't like being surrounded by her kids. they make me crazy. It might not be so bad if she actually disciplined them and had any control AT ALL over them. sheesh. I was ready to leave by the time we finally did. I don't know how she stands the chaos.