Oh Christmas Tree!

I love this special effect...manual focus.

Natalea and Mo hang their ornaments...notice the daylight coming into the window.
Erik hanging his...it's now nightfall...he was outside puttering when the girls hung theirs up.

Marlar Tradition says the girl always puts the Angel on the tree...very last.

This year, was no different as Mo hangs Angel with some help from Brother.

This is without flash. I'll aim to get a better one tonight.

This was around 5am this morning. I like this shot, with the one light glowing in the background, slightly blurred. Sometimes, I amaze even myself. Hehe.

Now I'm off to complete my Snowmen and Christmas Trees.

10 of them, mass produced, assembly-line style even.

AND...my arm is killing me from all the cutting yesterday.

Wish me luck.

Hehe.

Happy Sunday!

Love,

TT

Vacation

Would you vacation here??

Heh.

I would!

(How ya like me now?)

Happy Thanksgiving

I am thankful for....

My family.
My friends.
My life as imperfect as it is.
All of my blog readers...you know who you are.
We love you all and wish you the happiest of Thanksgivings!

I will have photos later of our feast.
We are having ham, scalloped corn, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, gravy, and cake.
We are eating off of Tom's grandparents' china.
It's a holiday tradition we are starting back up this year, now that the children are old enough to not drop dishes.

I'm still pulling a 94% in school too.
I posted the wrong assignment and got my first big "0".
I did email the professor and hopefully he'll give me some points, even if it's late, I had it done.
Bet I don't do that again.

Happy Thursday,
Love y'all!
TT

Happy Friday

I'm happy it's Friday.
We have big plans this weekend.
Cleaning house. Heh.

We have to clean up the living room and get ready to decorate for Christmas. I figure if we dust and all that this weekend, next weekend I can play with some of that scrap stuff in my room. Who knows, I may get it all done on Saturday. Power clean.
Then on Sunday, I can take my tests and look forward to Week 7 of school.
Which reminds me, I have a project due I think next week.

I better get busy.
Study tonight.
Clean tomorrow.
Tests and school week preview Sunday.

Happy Friday.
Love,
TT

Hire Kelly Purkey

crowdSPRING, hire Kelly Purkey for your new Community Marketing Manager!
(Click on Crowdspring and Kelly Purkey for linkage)

She's got an eye for design.
She's got mucho talent.
She's got good work ethic.
She's got style and pizazz.
She's for hire.
She can jump like no other.
And
She likes cupcakes.

Hire Kelly Purkey, you WON'T be disappointed.

Mo's Birthday Celebration

Dual Bowling. Like Dual Banjos. Shortly after this, they were schooled on Bowling Etiquette. We went to Vidalia to bowl this game.

Heh.

Mo thinks that if you lean, the ball will follow. It does.

DQ Cake from Reidsville. No monkeys allowed. Heh.

Poor Baby! Someone wore her Monkey self out! She got this monkey blanket and backrest along with the Kung Fu Panda movie. She's watched it 20 times already.
School update...I got an A on my big project in Graphic Design class.
My grade in there is a 98%.
Go ME!
91% in Management and 94% in Success Strategies.
Go ME!

Planning our trip to Atlanta this week too. We'll be staying downtown Atlanta I think. The kids are off school the day Lynn flies in so that worked out perfectly.
More details to follow...
Love,
TT

Creative Genius

My mother took this photo of Remmy and asked me to fix it.
So I did.

First, I deleted the background by tediously magic tooling it and cutting it out.
Those of you who know how to do this, if there's an easier, faster way, PLEASE tell me.

I then took that photo, made a copy of it, and then cropped out his hand.
I plan on printing this one for his book I plan on finishing up this weekend.

This is my Typography poster assignment. I think if you click on it, you can read the writing. One of my classmates was hysterical as she read it. I was laughing hysterically at her comment she left in our discussion room. Hehehe. Gotta love some humorous artwork.
Anyway, all of this is done with my Mack Daddy Photoshop program.
Which has a very DEEP learning curve.
I have SO much to learn.
I'm off to edit more photos.
Basketball and such.
Toodles,
Love,
TT

Tacky Yankee Children

So...it was tacky day at school today.

This is Gabryelle's Tacky outfit...lookin' good Sparky!

Natalea struck a pose...

Olivia Newton-John would be JEALOUS!
This is the dress that TriCeraMo loves....
But can't fit into any other day.

Gotta love some tacky Yankee Childrens!

They were inspired by Madea...

Where DID I put that purple mumu?

I'm off for some birthday cake...baked by Brother Baker.

I swear, he's gonna open a shop up.

Sweet dreams.

Love,

TT

Happy 9th Birthday Monique!

These are the cupcakes that Mo built. She wanted to bring something for her class today, so we baked cupcakes last night when I got home from Natalea's first basketball game. More on that in a minute.

This one's for Kelly Purkey...who always seems to have a cupcake on her blog at least once a week! Don't expect any jumping photos though...hehe.

Plain old chocolate fudge cake mix with white frosting. And then...

Add in the Neon colored Frosting Gel and with a toothpick you get a tie-dyed cupcake! Thanks to Family Fun, I found this easy recipe for these babies. The girls really had a blast decorating them and they only cost about $5 for the whole project!
Last weekend we went to Statesboro and found a Hallmark store. Bad idea. I picked up this year's assortment of ornaments. Just think, in another 5 years, Erik will be 18 and have just as many ornaments to cover his own tree!
Tommy got the ESPN one, Erik wanted JD, and Natalea got HSM, Gabby got Scooby, and Mo got the Grinch. And all but the boys' are musical. I almost woke the house up when I took this as Natalea's was singing.

Natalea's first game...I'll post photos tomorrow after I have more time to edit them...went well. The girls lost 22-24 to Toombs County, but played a damn good game. I thought I was watching a boys high school game, they were so rough. And fouls...OH MAN!! Brought me back to the high school days for sure!

SPEAKING OF WHICH...NEAL FOX will have a birthday this weekend I think on the 17th. My memory has faded some, but I think it's the 17th...maybe it's the 18th...it's soon I know!!

So, Happy Birthday Neal Fox...I must email him a card!

This week has been busy so far...I'm glad it's Thursday. One more work day then we can party!!

We are taking Mo and the kids for a game of bowling for her birthday, depending on if Tommy has to work or not will depend on which day. Then we'll rent movies and have a movie night at home with popcorn and theater candy!

Tiff..if you read this..holler at me...you guys wanna go??

The grades are still at 94% average...GO ME!! The term is half over now and I am confident I can do this!!

Happy Thursday!

Love,

TT

Sunday, Sunday

Well, I've completed my Project 1 worth 875 points and my weekly assignment for my IGD class, taken a mid-term exam and a quiz today. I feel pretty good about it too. I'm pulling a 94, 95, and 92 percents in my classes. Now, if I can only maintain.

The kids and Tom were pretty good this week about letting me get it all done too.

Hopefully the next 4 weeks will be this good.

In other news, the girls are outside playing Polly Pocket in the grass. In November.

Erik is toodlin' around the old house with Tommy.

And mowing the lawn. In November.

The windows are open and the weather is fantastic. In November.

We can't wait to see what December is like. Hehe.

We might turn the heat on then.

And things are still green and barely changing colors here.

Scooter likes the windows open for sure. He loves to bird watch from here.
Happy Sunday y'all!

Love,

TT

Finally Friday

It's about time. I have been waiting for Friday all week long.
For several reasons.
I want this week in school to be over and soon.
My Project 1 is due on Sunday at midnight and so is my regular assignment in my Intro to Graphic Design class. So far, I have a 95 in that class. It's mid-term, anything can happen.
But I'm still floating above the water.
I'm pretty much done with my other 2 classes for the week, I have a mid-term exam in my Management class. I'm saving that for Sunday as well.

Saturday I get to go scrap with my boss's wife. She's hosting a crop. She's also my Creative Memories consultant. Tonight, I'll pack up my stuff or some of it anyway. I have a couple things I need to work on, like Remmy's book. He might get it by Christmas. Hehe.
I have the concept down, just have to figure out how it's gotta go together and how to hide those photos and make it sturdy enough for him to play with.

Sunday will bring some relaxation and house cleaning. I have these boxes in my livingroom that I need to get unpacked and sorted and moved out to the shed.
And I have some tests to take.
And assignments to submit.
By midnight, Mountain time.

Happy Friday.
I'm off to work-hopefully my boss won't wait until the last minute to get work done.
Love,
TT

Change Has Come

Wow.
In all my years and wildest dreams, I never thought I'd live to see the DAY when there was a black President of the United States.
Awesome.
The pride I feel for America right now is unequivocal to anything I've ever felt before. The fact that America stepped up to the plate and WANTED to change is unimaginable.
I voted for Obama.
I did it for my children and my brother and my cousin and because I have a sense of pride for the black man, woman, and child. I did it for my family.
You see, I wasn't raised to be prejudice. I was raised to accept each person for who they are, not the color of their skin.
Thank you mother.
It was her doings, as dad was raised in the south and had a few prejudice bones in his body, but not always.
Change is good, and America is realizing that. It's about time.
Amen.
Happy Wednesday.
Love,
TT

Shape and Space

This was my assignment last week. Compose a collage of black and white.

This week, we have to do 4 color palettes. Heh. In Photoshop.

I did this in 81/2 by 11. So I can put a color photo in the space beneath the words.

I was thinking ahead.

Now, go VOTE.

Happy November

Sunday we did this......in our bathroom.
I was lucky enough to go to Lowe's and find my discontinued pattern there on Saturday. And for $.68 cents a tile, well you just can't go wrong. 35 Tiles later (I bought 40), we have new bathroom flooring. I did the piece around the toilet...thanks to my thoughts of using a chipboard template and an xacto knife. I love scrapbooking when it can relate to my real world!

Saturday night found us here...at the Street Dance for the Fall Festival in Collins. This little guy was dancing like no other 3 year old I have seen before. He really got into that dance!

Of course, the girls were looking forward to it. They were in the van well before 8pm...ready to boogie. We didn't stay long, and next year we'll know to go down earlier in the day and spend some time getting to know our neighbors. Gotta love small town living. Maybe we'll have to coordinate it with the Solano's too.

Oh yeah, I won a prize over at the Kim Kesti Blog. A buttload of Halloween scrappy stuff...which I needed! Thanks Kimaro!! Now I have to go buy that book she's drawing for this week...don't go lookin' there Lynn...it's a recipe book...hehehe...you might find one in your stocking!

On to a school update....

Friday night I had my Intro to Graphic Design Powerpoint ALMOST finished. I couldn't find it Saturday or Sunday. I had to start all over. It's saved in 2 spots now. I'll be damned if I am gonna start that over again. It's work 800+ points. Major gradage.

And how can you take a 10 question quiz with an open book and get some wrong? Ask me, I'm a PRO! Every quiz I've taken, I have done open book and got things wrong. How does that crap work? Apparently, I need some memory exercises, which is this week's topic in Success Strategies. Heh..how appropro.

BUT...I'm STILL in the 90's for my grades in all 3 classes. GO ME! It's mid-term and I have 1 exam this week...so forgive me if I don't socialize much. I REALLY want that Dean's List/Honor Roll status. I REALLY want some scholarship material gradage.

I CAN DO THIS.

Happy Monday.

Love,

TT