Hot New Artist, What do you think?

The hottest thing to hit the art world is here, and everyone is talking about him! Who? Stuart Semple.

www.StuartSemple.com

Stuart is a fresh face at only 27. He is British, which you know, that accent alone makes him worth checking out. Not only that, but he has caught the eye of celebrities like Johnny Depp, Sienna Miller, Boy George and Debbie Harry, who are lining up for his work, which by the way doesn't come quick or cheap! There's a 24 month waiting list for his pictures which can sell for up to quarter of a million dollars.

Okay, so he may be the fresh new face of the art world, but at these prices, he is way out of my league. Of course, once an artist gets noticed by the celebs, it is only a matter of time before the prices of their work jumps out of reach of the masses. Good for him, not so good for the rest of us.

What makes him different, you ask? Well, first off his painting are gigantic. And he has a talent of mixing song lyrics with cartoons and a slick fashion shoot style imagery altogether to make a wonderful new painting. Something different and forward, hip and happening and upand coming in the world.

New Year, New Resolve

Well, it's a New Year and whether I like it or not, I will turn 40 this year, there is nothing I can do about that. As much as I would like to ignore the fact, it will still come and I don't have a time machine to make sure it doesn't come, so what am I going to do about it. Well, one thing I am doing for sure is changing!

I am not happy with things the way they are. I have updated my weight loss blog, http://www.weightlossjourney.blogspot.com and will continue to do so. Weight loss is the first goal. I joined Weight Watchers yesterday and will be attending my first meeting tomorrow, but I have been using the online tools to keep track of what I am eating and how many points it is all worth, and I am happy to report that I stayed within my allowed points yesterday!
I am going to start getting back into my Dieter's Devotional Study and will update my other blog with notes from it, my food log for each day, exercise log (if I can find the time to squeeze that in my day!). I also have another devotional-bible study book that we were going to start, but that fell apart before it ever got off the ground, and I will be using that book too, and noting it on the blog.

The second big change I am making this year deals with Financial Peace. Brad and I are attending Financial Peace University at church. The program is written and formulated by Dave Ramsey. We had our first class last night, and it was great. I know that some of what he is saying is going to be hard to do, but then again, I am tired of feeling like I have no control over my money. I don't think I ever learned the proper ways to budget and manage money as a younger person and so I have never had the savings that I really needed to have, and so when something big comes up it is a crisis, not just another day. I am looking forward to his program, he is a great speaker, and unlike others he has been there, done that. He pulled himself back up after losing everything, so he has lived and is living what he is preaching, which makes it so much more believable. There are eight or nine couples in the class, and I am lookign forward to what it will do for us all.

Happy 2008 to all, and I think with the New reslove to change things in my own life, I may in fact have a Happy 2008 after all!

New Sweatshirts

One of the kids presents from Grandpa David and Leslie were new sweatshirts. Now if you know my household at all, you know that these went over extremely well. All three kids love to wear them, and do all the time!
Here to see Molly. And her sweatshirt was a pullover lilac ADIDAS sweatshirt with satin trims and black sleeves. She has a black polo on under here sweatshirt and it matches her purple crocs. Now, if you don't know, Molly LOVES her crocs! She would wear them everydy, all the time if she could. This pair is a purple pair in the mary jane style, so they look pretty good!
Here is Maeve doing her best model pose in her sweatshirt. Her's in a darker purple in a zip-up style, again from ADIDAS. She loves it. She wears it all the time. In fact it was 60 degrees when the kids left for school this morning, so that is the only jacket she wore.
Now we have Tiernan. What can I say? He had his shirt on and I said, let me take a picture to send to Grandpa David and Leslie, so he promtly took it off, and when I asked he put it back on backwards. Just his sense of humor! So I took the picture anyway, and of course he likes it! His sweatshirt is a blue NIKE pull-over hoodie, and that is probably his favorite type! He wore it almost everyday since he got it!

What more can I say, they look good and grandpa David and Leslie did good!

Just added to the "a TAMM creation" line...

Scarves!!

Handknitted just for you, in the Fancy Fur (shown on the left) or the Fun Fur (shown on the right).

The adult size scarf is about 56 inches in length and 6 inches in width.

The child size scarf is about 42 inches in length and 5 inches in width.

The Fun Fur has a great deal of stretch in the length and width, the Fancy Fur has some stretch.

Currently available: Fancy Fur: in Red Confetti, Chocolate Confetti (as shown above), Bright Blue Confetti and Black Confetti

Fun Fur: in Chocolate (as shown above), Black/Grey/White Striped

Other colors coming soon....special requests welcome!! You need a color to match an outfit, let me know, I may have the yarn in stock or be able to get it quickly!

A bargain at only $12.50 (plus shipping)! Similar items seen in stores for up to $19.95 or more!

UPDATE: I added these to the line on one of the websites at 2pm, and by 4pm had sold both of these two pictured above! WOW! I never expected them to go that fast! So, I still have them available, and have the colors, but right now I am running on a three day delay in shipping, which will give me time to make your order! Yep, right now I am running on a make them as you order them basis! I hope to get back up in stock, but if the orders keep up like this, then it may be a custom-order basis.

Thanks for understanding!

Northern Christmas

Well, one more Christmas on the list to blog about and this one is the Northern-most we went this year, Valprasio IN, about an hour south of Chicago, which was a four hour drive from our house in Southern Indiana. I blogged about the drive up and the pool previously, so now about the actual Christmas.

We went to Aunt Jo's place, which is my mother-in-law's sister, and had Christmas with her and her family.

The kids had a good time, although they were ready to go home soon after presents were opened. It was good to see this side of the family again, since we don't get to spend that much time with them due to the distance.

Protect those new Christmas gadets

So were you like alot of other people and you got new, cool, high tech toys and gadets for Christmas? Well, then you need to check out invisibleSHIELD. It's a great little shield for everything high tech!

ipod case
You all know that I have three kids, so you can imagine what it is like to keep things from getting scratched and dinged and spilled on, so when I saw this website, I was like....okay, but how much. So I checked it out! I was amazed. For a screen shield for my phone, which is just a plain older model LG camera phone, it was only $11.95. Now, I have had my phone for two years, and I love it. I know how to work it, and I just don't want to change it, but it is scratched. I wish I would have known about invisibleSHIELD when I first got the phone! And when you think about the cost of a new phone, well, the cost of the shield is nothing!

So anyway, not only do they have them for the screens on the phones, but full body covers for the phones; which by the way is exactly what I need for Brad's phone. He's a guy and he doesn't like the belt loop phone holders, so her carries his phone in his pants pocket! Now, you all know what all is in a guys pants pocket, so you can probably imagine what his phone looks like. This will be great for him, so that I can help keep his phone a little safer a little longer! Yeah!

Now, I am going back to check in on screens for the kid's new GameBoys, even though they are older model games, it would be great to keep them looking good and in good shape for them.

So, for those of you who got new high tech gadets for Christmas, check out invisibleSHIELD to help protect them long into the New Year!

Girl Scout Cookie Time!

The time has come!!
Girl Scout Cookies in the Ellettsville-Bloomington area go on sale TODAY! Yes, that's right as of January 1, 2008, you can order your Girl Scout Cookies.

Brownie Troop 441 will be taking orders from 1/1/08 through 1/20/08.
Cookies will come in 2/9/08 and be delivered soon after.
Cookie Booths at local stores will run from 2/9/08 through 3/9/08 for those who missed ordering or who need more.
Also, if you miss ordering in Janurat, talk to you local Girl Scout anyway, most will be taking add-on orders until 2/9/08.

Just some facts:
all girl scout cookies have 0 trans fats
there is a new fat-free cookie this year
they freeze wonderfully

According to Girl Scouts of America, I am not allowed to list all the cookie types here, but I encourage you to contact your local girl scout. If you don't have a local girl scout, send me a comment and I will help you get in touch with one or work out a plan to make sure you get your cookies.

Cookies are again only $3 a box, and the local troop keeps $0.50 per box for activities and patches.

Thanks for your support!!