my weekend

We had ourselves a weekend of relaxing and fun and somehow managed to squeeze some house projects in there somewhere.

Friday night was the Tour of Lafayette Square bike race. Shane is a into biking so he worked one of the corners and Monkey and I went to watch some of the action.

Some of the racers making a turn

A tiny racer.


I think this person had the right idea.


Next year maybe Monkey Pants can ride in the kids race.

I had a photo shoot Saturday morning with a cute cute family. I'll post some of those tomorrow. Then Breakfast outside on Sunday with these two topped off the weekend. I love an outside breakfast.


Hope your weekend was great!

lesson learned

Today I learned that I must not go anywhere without a camera. Even if its just my little dinky point and shoot. I must not go anywhere without a camera because I might miss something that needs to be documented. Like today when Monkey Pants and I headed over to the park to play on the playground. When we got there we were greeted by a man riding around on a child sized ATV, with no shirt on, smoking a cigarette. He was having a grand old time looping in and out and under all of the playground equipment. And dangit I didn’t bring a camera. I’ m not sure what he would have thought about an impromptu photo shoot but it would have been nice to capture. We stuck to the swings for a while and when he started popping wheelies we got the heck outta there because I could just hear the news report…”A little girl was hurt at a local playground today when a large man on a tiny ATV popped a wheely and ran her over. When interviewed the man was mostly concerned about the cigarette he lost in the accident.”

Anywhosits. Today was a nice day. I had Mista Nug in the morning, Terri came over for lunch and I got to see an ATV show this afternoon. Tonight I have a bunch of editing to do. Scholl family you are up. Here is a sneak peek. Little Grace was not too excited about me taking her photo this day, but we got some good ones.

Monkey at the gardens

On Sunday we headed to the Botanical Gardens for some family time and a little photo shoot. Here are Shane and Marlie feeding the huge fish. She loved it.



I wanted to get some shots of Monkey Pants in a new cute dress that my MIL got her. Here are some of my favorites…










Man she is cute.

Havreflarn

Friday morning at the butt crack of dawn my friend Amy and I loaded up for a long day’s trip to Ikea in Schaumburg, Illinois.I have had my eye on a white couch there for my studio space for a long time. When does it make sense to drive 5 hours
to Ikea to buy a couch? When your brother in law gets you a sweet deal on an empty cargo van and you have a friend who splits the cost with you and you do it all in one day so you don’t have to pay for a hotel room, that’s when. So, we were off!

It was a long drive and then finally we could see the building in the distance.



If you have never been to Ikea it is an experience. This place is stinkin huge. We spent one hour just one the 3rd floor! They have everything and the prices are amazing. Here is Amy with one of our carts full of loot.



What is really funny is that most of the furniture you pick up in the self serve area. Self serve couches. They have a little photo showing you how to put it on your cart. Here is me trying to get my couch. A nice little Ikea man helped us when it was clear this wasn’t going to work.



Did you know Ikea has food? Mmmm havreflarn. Before we left we had to get an ice cream cone. Actually a fat free frozen yogurt cone. Put fat free in front of anything and I’m in.







Then it was back on the road again. Poor Shane had to help carry my couch in at 1:00 am. But look, it was worth it. I need some throw pillows to jazz it up, but isn’t it the most glorious Ektorp you ever saw?

Tuscaloosa

I got back late last night from Tuscaloosa. A few old friends and I drove down for the services for Noah. Needless to say it was a very emotional trip. I am so glad that we went. It was good to be with Deb and Josh and grieve with them for their loss and celebrate with them that Noah is now completely healed.

I was so humbled and touched by their faith in strength and it was amazing to see and meet some of the people in their new home town that Noah’s life has deeply touched.

Josh spoke at the funeral and the message was clear. He spoke about how they are just a normal couple who had an extraordinary little boy. And how the reason they can celebrate during this more than difficult time is not because they are incredible people, but because they know and believe in an incredible God.

We sang this song during the service. The words are powerful and speak volumes about Deb and Josh’s view on their journey with Noah.

Blessed Be Your Name
by Matt Redman
- - -
Blessed Be Your Name
In the land that is plentiful
Where Your streams of abundance flow
Blessed be Your name

Blessed Be Your name
When I'm found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness
Blessed Be Your name

Every blessing You pour out
I'll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say

Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name

Blessed be Your name
When the sun's shining down on me
When the world's 'all as it should be'
Blessed be Your name

Blessed be Your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there's pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name

Every blessing You pour out
I'll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say

Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name

You give and take away
You give and take away
My heart will choose to say
Lord, blessed be Your name


It feels a little odd to be back home and getting back in the swing of things. But here I am and here we go. Tomorrow I am off to Ikea with a friend. Yep, I’ll take photos and explain later. +

Noah

Some of you have been following little Noah Lauer's journey through his mom's blog. Sweet Noah passed away yesterday. He would have been 1 year old today. I don't even know what to say. There are no right words for this. His parents have an incredible faith and are somehow finding a way to rejoice that Noah is now healed and free in heaven. I've been holding Marlie tighter today, and tonight for the first time in a while I rocked her to sleep. Because I can and its such a blessing. Please continue to pray for Deb and Josh.

10 FAQ

I get a lot of questions about my business so I thought I’d do a little FAQ for ya.

1) How did you start your business?

First off let me say that if you have the idea and desire and the confidence you can start your own business. The biggest hurdle for me was all the people that were like “You can’t just start a business.” And “Anyone can have a website, so what.” And “But you are going to have to take out a big business loan” But I got over it and was like “Well, this is where I think God is pointing me, so here we go!”

I did not take out a small business loan. Fortunately an art business can have very little overhead so I just worked with what I had. For a while I was constantly putting all of my money back into the business. But then eventually I started making a consistent profit.

When I started this whole thing it was me and an idea and a bunch of art supplies and a new camera. Then I wanted to have a booth at this art fair and I started filling out the application. On the application it asked for my tax ID #. And I was like what! I have to be all official to sell crafts in a park? Yep, apparently. And Shane was like well, you have to do it some time so how about now.

So I went to this website because I live in the lovely state of Missouri. Each state probably has their own. It is pretty helpful I must say. They tell you want forms to fill out and you can print them from the website. It can be kind of confusing, but was not as bad as I thought. I had this anxiety like if I didn’t fill out the right forms someone was going to come arrest me. Guess what? They won’t. Just go through the steps one at a time and you’ll figure it out.

2) What type of business is Just The Thing?

When you register a business you have to choose a type. Just The Thing is a sole proprietorship.

3) Do you have to charge sales tax? Is it a hassle?

Yep, it’s the law and stuff. You are required to pay sales tax on any service or product you produce. I pay my sales tax quarterly and its really not a big deal. I just have to remember to pay it on time. They give you a form to fill out and you send in a check and that’s it.

4) How did you pick a name?

I was looking for a synonym for the word “original” and I typed it in to my computer’s thesaurus. The phrase “just the thing” came up and there ya go. Honestly, I don’t love it so much anymore but it seems too hard to change now. But that is a whole other blog post.

5) How do you get your work done and take care of Monkey Pants?

Twice a week my BFF Beth has her for 3 hours at a time so I get some stuff done then. Sometimes I have a babysitter for a half day once a week and we are working on getting more babysitter time. But, I get most of my work done at night. Shane is in class every night so I put Monkey to bed and then I get to work. Also, I recently talked Beth in to being my collage assembler extraordinaire. She works really hard at putting the collages together so that I can concentrate more on the other aspect of my business and so that I don’t loose my mind trying to do it all.

6) I’ve seen other signs that are similar to your name collages. Did you know that you didn’t event them? I could make one myself ya know?

Yes, I know that I am not the inventor of the name collage. I have seen quite a few similar things done by other artists. But, I have done a lot of work to make them look how I want them to and make them affordable for you. You could make your own its true. But by the time you buy a custom size frame and have a custom mat cut it would cost 3 times as much as buying one from me would. Since I buy all of my supplies in bulk I can sell them to you at a reasonable price.

7) Where are the letters in the name collages from?

The letters are from all over the state of Missouri and some are from Beale Street in Memphis. Random I know, but they had some cool letters there what can I say?

8) How long does it take to get a name collage after you order one?

It takes about 2 weeks to receive a collage.


9) What kind of camera do you have?

I use a Canon 30D. I love it!

10) Do you have a life?

No, its Friday night and I am blogging this post.