Smart Mommy Solutions

Well, summer is over.  I was off work all summer, and really luxuriated in the laziness of it.  I took a photography class, and posted some of the pictures on the photography section on  day 1 of class, day 2, more from day 2, my favorites from day 3, and then some extra pictures from class.  The cool thing about taking the class was that our time was devoted and carved out specifically for taking pictures and editing them.  We spent all day every day photographing and editing pictures.  You have to spend the time in order to get better.  Another great thing about the class was its location.  We were in Northern California on the coast near Mendocino at the Albion Field Station, which is owned by Pacific Union College.  The coastline is wild there, and we were camping in a little valley on a river/estuary,  so there was wildlife galore.  There were deer passing through camp daily, osprey overhead, owls next to our camp each night.  It was awesome.  We were very tired by the end of the week because we started photographing a 6:30 every morning, and we weren’t done until 9 each night.  Long days, but pleasant.  It was cold there too.  We were there mid July, and I don’t think that it got above the 60s every day.  I never took my sweatshirt off.  Here is a picture of our camp.

Then there is boating on the estuary.

  Finally, Here are the cabins that were for rent to camp in.  You still had to bring your own sleeping bag and linens, but you got a bed and shower.

So, after our lovely trip to the wilds of Northern California,  my daughter had surgery to have her tonsils out.  We then spent a lot of time at home recouperating and I spent more time on the computer with my pictures and editing software.  I decided to list some pictures on Etsy, and made cards and bookmarks out of my pictures.  It has become quite a hobby. 

Here is a sample of some of my cards.

I also love this picture that I messed with and made more like art.  Here it is in my shop.

Now I am back to work, and I have not completely organized my house like I was planning to do when the summer started.  I wonder if my house will ever be completely organized or is it important to always have that to strive towards?  I completely ignored my therapy blog once I took the photography class this summer.  Now that I am back at work doing therapy, I will have to start updating the therapy stuff again.  It seems that life is going to be very busy for a while.  Looking forward to Thanksgiving break and Christmas break. 

This kitchen table has been around the block a time or two.  It started it’s life when my parents got married in the early 1960’s.  My mom calls it Danish Modern.  It originally had a dark stain on it, and it was a good useable table.  When I got married in 1991, the table came with me to my new home.  Then we refinished it with a very barely stained top and forest green painted legs.  It matched our kitchen at the time. 

We then moved to another house, and I put a cream colored crackle finish over the green legs.  That worked for a bit except that I didn’t put a top seal over the crackle finish and it has been peeling off for the past 7 or so years.  The top, with it’s practically bare wood had not held up well to washing, and you could visibly see why I made a rule of no using permanent sharpie markers at the table.  The only hope to get those sharpie marks out is some serious sanding. 

I still like the stained top and painted legs look, but decided on a much sturdier finish on top. 

My husband was a little over zealous with the belt sander.  He tried to cover up some of his sander enthusiasm by making a black edge.  I’m not sure what I think about it, but I will live with it for a while, and if all else fails, it will become all black some day.  For now, it is better than it was before with its peeling paint. 

I had never sanded with power equipment, but my husband bought two new sanders for this project, and boy does power equipment make the job easier.  I don’t dread sanding as much as I used to.  The sanders that he got are a Ryobi belt sander and a Ryobi pad sander.

I’m linking to these blog parties, before and after party @ thrifty decor chick, whatever goes wednesday @ someday crafts,

Here is a picture of our new pet eating his dinner of baby mouse.  It is so cool.  I had no idea that you could buy the baby mice frozen.  Such convenience.

Ok, I vowed that we would not be getting any more pets.  I think that two dogs and two guinea pigs are plenty of work for the average family.  I guess that I am now eating my words.  We now have a new pet king snake.  It is my favorite type of pet though in that we caught it in forest, and we will set him free right back where we caught him when we are done having him as a pet.

Here he is right after he was caught.

Here he is with my dad holding him.

And here he is in his temporary cage until we get the larger aquarium cleaned out for him.

I work from home in a sense in that I am an Occupational Therapist that travels to people’s houses.  I have my own toys and therapy equipment that I bring with me, so I need to keep all of my therapy stuff somewhere.  Our office had been dismantled due to a flood, so I am just getting things put back together, so my therapy stuff is just put in a corner.  Here is my organization progress so far.  First is the before picture.

Next we have the after picture.

I brought in another set of shelves from the garage, and I used color coordinated pillow cases to cover up the ugly white plastic shelves that I am using to store my toys on.  I like using the pillow cases because they are the same height as the shelves, and I use two cases per shelf.  That makes it easy to get into each shelf individually.  I’m all about convenience.  Also, no sewing at all, and I can change the color scheme with new pillow cases.

I am linking this post to metamorphosis monday at between naps on the porch.

Here is yesterday’s summer slave labor job of the day.  There was much complaining, but we got some pretty flowers planted. 

I have been thinking about these for weeks, since we last went to Disneyland.  I am going to give away a little known secret of Disneyland, and I hope that I am not sorry later.  There is a little hole in the wall ice cream stand that is off the beaten path and hardly ever has a line.  It is on Main Street, across the street from the ice cream parlor.  When we go to the big ice cream parlor, and the line is out the door, we go across Main Street to see if the hole in the wall is open (it is not always open).  The last time we got ice cream there, my kids ordered cookie ice cream sandwiches.  I expected them to give us the ones that are wrapped in plastic and that you can buy at the little carts all over Disney.  What they did give us was fresh baked chocolate chip cookies with vanilla ice cream sandwiched between them.  It was so good. 

The last time we went to Disney, I wanted to get myself one of those cookie ice cream sandwiches, but it never worked out.  I have been thinking about them, and today I made my own.

Yummy.  I made my cookies from scratch with dark chocolate and mint chips.  Oh they are delectable. 

My daughter introduced me to a new book series that is the kind of book that takes over all of your time.  It is the Maximum Ride series by James Patterson.

It is about a group of kids that have been genetically altered with bird DNA and can fly.  They are in the midst of a plot by evil mad scientists, and it is up to the kids to save the world.

It is a really good series and has succeeded in consuming most of my spare time this week.  My favorite use of spare time.

This desk was a freebie.  It was unwanted in it’s old home, and I usually don’t turn away freebies.  It is a computer desk that was used in a credit union.  It lived in my daughter’s room for quite a while, but it is huge, and her room is small.  It was taking up too much space.  I put it in the corner behind the door in my room, and waited to decide what to do with it.  It started to accumulate stuff, including a sewing machine, and I thought, hmm, this is a handy place to sew.  I don’t actually like sewing, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. 
I started to clean up the space to make it a nice sewing corner, and thought if the sewing machine is going to sit out, it needs to look nice. 
I made a little cover for the sewing machine. 
I made it reversible, so I had two pieces of material and some braiding on the edge that I stitched together.
Now I am trying to decide whether to leave the sides open, put ribbon on to tie the sides closed, or stitch the sides closed.  I can’t decide, so it is staying as is for now.

This post is linked to the saturday night special blog party at Funky Junk Interiors and metamorphosis monday at between naps on the porch

Making sun tea today.  It’s nice to have the sun do all of the work while I go roller skating with my son’s class for his end of year party.
I put in 12 cups of water, almost 1 cup of sugar, and 4 tea bags.  When it was done in the sun, I added 4 cups of ice to cool it off.
I just got this canister at Target yesterday and thought it was the perfect size for sun tea.  It is made of glass which I think is probably better than a plastic one.  I have a bigger one that was given to me as a gift, but it is HUGE, and can hardly even fit in the sink to wash.  This one is a much more manageable size.  Mine is about 5 liters, or 1 1/2 gallons.  It is smaller than many out there.  I couldn’t find a direct link to it, so I linked to something close.

linked to strut your stuff thursday at somewhat simple