Self Portrait...

What hides behind my spectacles.

March 27th... Humble Treasures...

I am working on my friend Judi's circle journal... treasures of the heart. At first all I could think of were the people in my life, past and present... even stories of those I had never met who touched my mother's life. Then it came to me. The pillow case is one that my mother hand embroidered many years ago, soft as butter with age. It is like the caress of her hand. She taught me how to embroider as a child. It is such a relaxation. Chatting or listening to the radio while creating beauty. I always love having her pillow cases on my bed. I even wrapped my wedding bouquet in one. That special. The cross is silver, worn thin... it once had turquoise enameling on it. It was given to a 16 year old boy and he carried it through the battle fields of World War I, his young daughter was given it upon his death. She was 14. She always showed it with great reverence to her daughter. It was a piece of jewelery that was kept safe too thin to wear daily. It was very special. In 1997 on her daughter's wedding day she gave it to her to wear. It was an honor and I wore it again at my mother's funeral service and her memorial gathering. I miss her. She was an amazing lady. The enameled rose pendent was given to me by my Aunt Aileen when I was born. A sweet reminder of the lady from Gadsen Alabama... I smile every time I recall her phone calls. "Why honey, how ever did you know it was me?" spoke in her lyrical voice with the southern drawl. I never told her it was her accent, I always told her that it was her loving self I recognized. So here are my treasures. Humble, yes... priceless too.

Circle Journal Entries....

This is my layout for Anilu's lovely cj, which is about faves.... they make my day... they make my life. That simple. Really.

March 26th,

This is Heather's cj that I contributed to. Her journal is all about home. What makes my home is my family, for as the cliche says "Home is where the heart is". This was photographed earlier in the week, but since I also am posting Anilu's cj entry that I did photograph today I decided to combine them. It is my blog I can do that :-P

March 25th...
Love this game table in the little park near where I work. I think the squirrels were playing chess. Please don't tell my friend Denise, I am sure she thinks they cheat.

March 24th...

This sums up how I am feeling, wishing for good news. Matty is going through some difficult testing over this next month or two. He is such a sweet, funny, strong boy and I just hope I can be all that for him.

March 23rd....
I love my guys, they are too funny. Seriously I had just caught all three bouncing on our bed. Yes, even Daddy.

March 22nd...
Matty loves lotion, moderation is not part of his vocabulary. Laundry is part of my husband's vocabulary thankfully.

March 21st...
I feel so monochromatic... that I just had to take this photo... blahh. Hehe either that or I am part chameleon!

March 20th...

Today was a very long day for us spent mostly at Boston Children's Hospital where Matty went to have a MRI of his spine. His spine is perfect, thankfully. He needed to be sedated for the procedure and Joey tagged along. Everyone celebrated with much cuddling, laughter and Chinese food followed by bubble baths and bed time rituals. Joey went to sleep in his crib and Matty fell asleep in his bed. The nurse in recovery told me to check Matty thru the night just to be safe after sedation. Well, this is what I found. Two brothers back to back snoozing away. So sweet. Had to share. May all your news be good news and thank you, God for this good night after a long day.

March 19th

This is the wonderful wind sculpture that stands out front of where Matty receives PT. We all love it. Joey and I amuse ourselves by taking walks and finding mischief while Matty works hard. It is our secret.

This is the classic coin check on the lobby pay phone. Yes, astounding they have one and even more astounding that Joey knew what to do. Yes, that is Joey's sweet face reflected in the smudged chrome.

Better Part of the Day... March 18th.

This is the "quilt" block canvas my art group created... I did the gel medium thing after each member added pastels to the acrylic painting they had done previously. Love my group. Love.

How the Day Began on March 18th....

Now I know your thinking it started with coffee and on a normal day it would have. We decided instead to have an original day. A day when I was woken up to "Honey, Jenny has cornered a mouse, do something!". Yes, my dh asked me to handle it. Why? I have an aversion to little cute furry animals being killed in my home. That is what Andy would have Jenny do or try to do himself. I threw on clothing, grabbed the nice coffee can that was going to be altered and caught/rescued the little startled mouse. With total bed head I went on a brisk walk to the farmer's field behind us and released the mouse. I explained to him that he was lucky and should find shelter in a barn instead. I asked him to pass the word along as well. He looked some what bemused and ran off. I think he had a tale to tell :-)

Oh your black heart...

your sparkly shiny beautiful black heart :-) I like all that glitters!

A Boy and his cat....

Joey loves my Jenny. Pure and simple. He even walks with her, side by side. Pretty impressive, if I tried that my legs would surely malfunction and the cat would be laughing. Notice the high tech child safety lock? Yup, he broke every last one, but strapping tape works. Go figure.

A Serious Elephant...

Matty takes being an elephant very seriously, he takes a moment to get into character. He even trumpeted then he saw mommy had gotten out the camera. He is a smart cookie, he knows a future blackmail photograph was in the making.

Playgrounds...

A touch of spring is here... and off to the playground for us. I could spend hours taking photos on the playground... oh wait a minute, I do! I think my neighbors think I am a little kooky. hehhe hate to disappoint them so I won't ;-)

Lack of Track

is NOT a problem. To say Joey is obsessed by ALL that is Thomas is putting it lightly. We even have traction engines. Yup, they don't need tracks, Matty told me so.

This is a typical Matty moment, he starts talking by 6:30 am and does NOT stop until he falls asleep. His newest desire is an IPOD, he is four. He calls it The Machine. His daddy has the machine, his mommy does not. I am thinking my coolness is now in question, I must get one. By the way of the 1000s of songs on daddy's pod he discovered and loves to sing on the top of his lungs (on key) Queen's We Will Rock You. Oye. Love this boy. Word.

A Flurry of Photos...

Just a few photos of the many I've taken and not had time to upload. I hope to do some more tomorrow. Bad blogger am I! Hope you enjoy and there is a most adorable baby picture in this post towards the bottom. Cruel to make you look through all of them to find it I know.

My boys love this horse, excuse me, horsie! He reminds me of the mechanical horse my mother would let me ride in front of the old Zayre's Department Store when I was a toddler. I love that my sons will have this memory so similar to mine. A bit of nostalgia in front of our super market. Good times.

I love the colors or ripe peppers... yellows and reds. It almost makes grocery shopping fun. Almost.

Blue Jeans... well, I live in them and I adore them. Andy wishes I would remember to wear skirts. He thinks I am forgetful. I am not. Enough said.

I never feel like a Proper Bostonian... so this magazine is for me :-)

I just loved this cross walk... so I thought I would share :-)

I loved the reflection of the older building in the window panes of the newer building. The image just struck me.

One of the reasons I was/am going to Boston frequently... so tiny and so very meaningful. He is one of two blessings. My dear friends are now a family of four, J and T greeted the world at 32 weeks. They are almost two weeks old now. Yahoooooooo! Auntie Anne is very much in love with these two adorable newly minted people.

A flurry of photos that I have taken for many days now and haven't posted until now... this tower just grabbed my attention on one of my trips into Boston. It's varying subtle shades and how it seemingly is stirring the clouds. It is amongst the hospitals... which makes me wonder if it is an incinerator. I would like to think someone was trying to touch the face of Heaven.

A Week of PODs...

Day 60 of 365 Hard to resist... Matty adores home made popcorn. Joey and I agree. Fun times are had just watching the corn pop. Both boys like the sounds and the show. Hehe I guess we are country bumpkins if this is our fun.

Day 59 out of 365... Weird. Yes, it never fails everyone is on a different page when reading together. The truly weird part is that they are taking a moment when they are not running around ;-) They are so serious and so very cute.

Day 58 of 365 These are the solution for a grey day... Joey's is the pig and Matty's is the fish. The color choices were entirely their own as was the painting. I love :-)

Day 57 of 365... My seniors painted the pieces to the quilt block... next time they will draw on it with oil pastels and then I will use gel medium to attach it to a canvas... by the way the background is a plastic table cloth.

Day 56 of 365 This is a photo of the prep for my seniors art group. Yes, no hands other than mine have touched it. Color: None. This will be the beginning of a paper quilt that later will be put on canvas. Very blah without the artists.

Day 55 of 365... these flowers are so hardy they survived a week of curious boy hands. This photo I have to admit was requested by the model. He kept saying "cheese Mommy" so I grabbed the camera. Love that smile.

Day 54 of 365

My sweet Matty is a lover of beauty... and the color yellow. There are arches in the photo as well.

Sorry for the delay in posting, this past week has been a very busy one. I'll try to catch up and post this weeks photos on Sunday.

A Week of POD

Day 53 of 365
My sweet Joey, looking sleepy eyed as if he is tired by all his deep thoughts. I just wanted to pick him up and cuddle him.

Day 52 of 365
The prompt was artistic and I just wasn't feeling artistic, but I thought this arrangement of onions were. I know my hubby thinks I am just a wee bit eccentric too, but he loves me for it :-)

Day 51 of 365

It is in my nature to love mother nature. This is the private farmers road that abuts our land. Love the gate and the fields behind it. It is a historic still working farm... though now they only farm hay. During the American Revolution the farmers mustered there (i.e. the minute men).

Day 50 of 365

The prompt was stripes... I love the colors of these stripes. They make me smile any way you stack 'em.

Day 49 of 365... lurking in a bag on the back of my studio door is a banner that needs to be sewn together that I created to celebrate Halloween, it isn't just the cat that is whimsical it is that fact it has been waiting since 2006 to be finished. Yup, never place something on a door that remains open.

Day 48 of 365... I spied this old vent grate on a building built in the 1910s/ Love the Copper Patina and lurking behind that is an older rusted iron grate. Yes, in the winter I often marvel at the things I see on the ground as I tuck my head into my coat ;-)

Day 47 of 365 The photo I took on 47, the layout is photographed later :-) I tried very hard to appear Irked in this photo... it Irked me to have to take so many photos to get one that said Irked. I never thought I would have to practice that.

A Weeks Worth of PODs

Day 45/365 (yes, somewhat out of order... sort of like me ). This is the layout/card I created for Andy. In this layout I pay homage to his loving daddy skills. He is a talented father, he learned from the best.

Day 46 of 365
The prompt for the day was light. I love how my flash helped me out here... by bouncing light off the branches. Lucky me.

Day 44 of 365


I visited our friends Kelly and Kieran with baby clothing in hand. I keep finding cute little outfits for the twins. It is a compulsion. We will probably be meeting them in the next 2-4 weeks. I just wanted to make sure they were appropriately clothed for the occasion ;-) Auntie Anne is eagerly awaiting their arrival, however, tells them there is no need to rush. Word.

Day 43 of 365
Lacking a crystal ball to foretell the future we relied on a glitter ball. It merely kept it's council to itself. One could even say it treated us to a comfortable silence, a pretty one though. A moment of play at work.


Day 42 of 365 The prompt was create. This would be a lovely inspiration for my studio... it is so very creative and could hold so many materials. S:::i::::::::g::::::::::::::h . It's price tag is beyond what my pockets hold. Alas lint is not considered legal tender.

Day 41 of 365

Landscape at night... just realized I hadn't found a landscape I liked so... this is what I took. Love the tree feathering the night sky.

Day 40 of 365 State of Confusion

This is the state flag of Massachusetts. The confusion is I took the *backside* of it. Dang Nabbit. I love how the shield is the same exact color of the sky.