Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Update

On the craft front: Commission from my mother-in-law to make her a necklace for next 4th of July... (here's the work-in-progress)


... a necklace based off of a pendant my friend Calindy gave me (here's her Etsy shop; http://www.spritzy.etsy.com) that has these colors and a kinda damask pattern in a tear-drop shape:

...
then I'm also working on jewelry and a hairpiece for my friend Sonja's wedding. Here's the flower that's the centerpiece of the hair thingy:

To go with her wedding gown:


Oh & the necklace style she likes that I'm using as inspiration (but it'll be purples, cream, crystal & silver)


and I made a diaper cover and headband/bow for a dress I made Amber out of one of my skirts (I didn't get the bow done before the pictures) and we had a friend do family portraits for us. These first two are pics I took at home and then a few she took with my camera...







And some of the pics she took with her camera & edited already:




Which brings me to news on the family front... I don't think I shared about our new childcare arrangement. We weren't breaking even with the daycare, so we asked around & ended up working something out with one of my co-workers. She has two kids & one on the way and Amber's loved being at their house! I wish we could keep this up, but she's going to continue working on her master's degree this fall and the baby's due in October, so we're going to need to find something new. Another promising lead seems to have fallen through, so we're pretty much back to square one and I'm getting more and more tempted to just give up & stay at home! I love my job, and there's promising developments, but the emotional roller coaster of trying to find affordable childcare is just about too much. :/
Anyway, in more fun news, my co-worker was sick last Friday (well, that part's not fun) and Amber got to stay with the neighbors while I went to work. When Paul got off work & went to get Amber, their three-year-old son asked "Can we keep her forever?" Awww! They also have a son who's exactly 40 weeks older than Amber and the neighbors on the other side have a son a couple months older than him, so ... we're in trouble! lol!
Our freezer & fridge crapped out the other day, so we got a new one yesterday. Our plan to get Kindles as an anniversary gift to ourselves and a reward for getting the guest room is not going to happen. Between that and the tax audit that's costing us another $1,800, we just can't justify the expense. Maybe for Christmas. :/ ... but yay new fridge! It's black! :D