Isn't he pretty? I pumped up the colors with photoshop for fun. Took this with my iPhone, in a hurry, so it's not the best but I wanted to try to capture this little guy. His actual color and *design* on the side of his shell was very inspiring to me. I'm thinking these colors might be what I'm needing for my bedding in our master bedroom. Funny where inspiration will hit you! So, after admiring him for a bit I ate him. Yep, sure did. And, with no guilt. He was yum!

We were invited to 21st Annual Crawfish Boil put on by the St. Louis chapter of the LSU Alumni Association. Too much fun! I have always wanted to do a crawfish boil but I didn't know how to eat them. Had heard horror stories. Yuck. But, dh and I got into it. And, there is a process one must follow to ensure you get your share. Table must be clear, best with lots of newspapers layered on the table. Guests must stand back and cheer loudly when the man carrying the HUGE dripping pots of yum comes by. If you get his attention he will dump a good amount from the pot in the middle of the table. Then it's up to you to get in there and grab your crawfish, corn, hotdogs/sausage, onions and/or garlic that you want to eat. No plates. Lots of papertowels and spray butter. Yum! Fun! Must. do. it. again! Seriously thinking of trying this at home.

You know there's something liberating about being at a function where table manners are not encouraged.

Thanks St. Louis chapter for a great night. Hope to see you next year!

NOTE: I have having a HARD time with the spacing on Blogger. Please excuse it's mess. It isn't me!

This weekend was fabulous. DH, myself and DH's Aunt "Honey" went estate sale shopping. Well, actually, dh went to one estate sale and then Honey and I promptly dropped him back off at home and we went back out. Love him but he isn't much fun to go out with because he doesn't like driving around. He wants all the sales to be next door to each other, like garage sales. lol. So, he stayed home and helped the neighbors with their individual sales - it was our subdivision garage sale weekend. I can barely stand going to garage sales anymore. Estate sales and auctions give me the thrill I'm searching for. (Although having said that I did attend a neighbors sale because I heard she was selling power tools. Another fav of mine. I picked up a Dewalt scroll saw for a very sweet price! Seriously sweet.).


This weekend I changed things up a bit and used our TomTom instead of printing out directions on MapQuest. It worked beautifully!

- First, I circle in the newspaper the sales I want to attend.

- Second, I input the addresses in the TomTom.

- Third, I go into each addresses using TomTom and find out how far away they are from my current location. I mark that information on the actual ad itself. If some are too far away I will re-evaluate the ad to see if it's one I still want to go to.

- Fourth, I mark on the ad's the order that I want to go to, starting with the one furthest away. This way when I'm out I don't have to think. I just follow the #'s indicated. When we are leaving a sale I just navigate quickly to the new address. What's great about this system is the TomTom always knows where I'm at. So when I'm at sale #3 and want to go to sale #4 I just pick the address of sale #4 and it gives me door to door driving instructions from sale #3. It's AWESOME! And with my system, by the time we reach the last sale, we are close to home.

I wish I could tell you I found that special piece but I didn't. Picked up a few wire baskets and a couple date stamps but that was it. Here are a few pictures from the trip of houses we went to and items I looked at but didn't want to pursue:

To finish the day off I went to Three French Hens. I've never been there before and had always wanted to go but was never really sure where it was. When I ran into it I knew I was going to have to make a stop. While I was there I caught my eye on these two pieces. These can be custom made to size and I've been thinking of something like this for our TV. A really long and low piece. I wonder if I can make it? Hmmmm. Maybe I could use my scroll saw.

And, as a follow-up. A few days ago I expressed my feelings for our local DMV office. Such a dreary, ugly place... yet, there is a very large, gold, ornate frame of the Gov. Blunt which I found so out of place. I did have to go back and this time taking a picture of it was a priority (I'm sure the guy standing behind me wondered what the heck I was doing!). Here it is:


Isn't that funny? Normally I crop my photos - I prefer close-ups. But, in this case, I wanted to show the contrast. Actually, this wall is the nicest in the whole place. You should see the door they cut out of the wall (on the wall to the left of this picture). They literally cut the door out and have not trimmed it. Nor did they make a neat, clean cut. Such an inspiring place to work I'm sure.

Will post a picture of two once he returns. Of course since it's not digital you'll have to wait for the drop off/developing/pick up delay. Boy do I love digital!

Late *late* last night I finished a pending project, the organization of all my digital photos. I had started this project a little over a year ago, and had a made a really good start on it back then but, it still needed some work. So, last weekend I decided I needed to tackle this so I went out and got some needed supplies;

I use Photobucket to upload many of the photos I post here. Unfortunately I haven't paid much attention to my organization of those photos within my account. Today I decided to quickly fix this. Unfortunately, this *quick* fix has resulted in a mess. I should have known it would *remove* all my photos. Uggghhhh! So, if you see a message THIS IMAGE OR VIDEO HAS BEEN MOVED OR DELETED. PHOTOBUCKET. just know is a result of my *oops!*. It will be corrected. Looks like I will be busy late this evening!

Have you received your money yet? If not you can go to the IRS Where's My Stimulus Payment? website. Enter the requested information and you will find out when you will get your money. It worked for me!

Interested and qualified candidates are encouraged to contact Juliet Romeo (xxx)xxx-xxxx.

I've had Monster.com sending me information on jobs in the design field for sometime so I can get an idea of what is available in the market. I've learned that they come across few and far between, however, Monster seemed to think the one referenced above might be of interest to me. It wasn't, but while glancing at it I couldn't help but notice the contacts name. Juliet Romeo. Do you think that is a real name? If so, what do you think her parents conversation was like when they were deciding on names for their little girl. "Our last name is Romeo, what if... "

Imagine all the interesting names those lucky fellows working at the DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) get to see. I've been there the last two days and I must say the Missouri DMV's are exceptionally depressing places to be. Actually, all the Missouri State offices I've been in are sad, ugly places. That should not be allowed. Maybe if the spaces were nicer, a lot nicer, the people who work there would smile more. This would promote good will and happy customers. Seriously, it should be a law!!!! I did think it was quite humerous that there was a fairly huge *proper* photo of Governor Matt Blunt hanging on the ugliest white wall (flat, inexpensive chalk like white) in a very thick, ornate, gold frame. I wanted to take a picture of it but I wasn't able to because two windows opened up at the same time. Darn the luck. But, I'm happy to say [with a sarcastic tone] that because they failed to provide me with the correct information yesterday, I get to go back there next week. I will try again to capture a shot if it. Quite funny.

First, Happy Mothers Day to all mothers out there. And, here is my pick of flowers for each and every one of you. These are from Martha Stewart, the Martha Stewart Lotus Pod Bouquet. Very unique and special if you do ask me!


I have had a very good day. First, opened wonderful, heart felt cards from my boys and enjoyed the most beautiful flower arrangement from them. Then we went to church. We haven't been in a couple of weeks (broke our record for attending!) and was happy to be back. We are learning about Song of Soloman and I'm sure you have never experienced anything like this in church before! It's amazing and quite educational. The boys are hearing everything with us. Quite interesting conversations on the way home and I'm expecting this upcoming week as well.


Then, lunch. I love lunch. I love eating. It makes me happy. Our great friend joined us for both church and lunch. Happy times. After dropping him off my boys all took me to Creve Coeur Camera to give me hands on look at their digial SLR's. I have the itch and that's going to be a problem! We were *supposed* to do my Mothers Day shoot today but it rained all day (or most of the day) so this was postphoned. So, if I wasn't using a camera today I decide I would look at new cameras. I've had a 35mm Canon Rebel S since maybe 1991 which I've loved. It's been on the shelf since digital came out and I have to say I'm totally in love with digital. I have close to 8000 photos on my hard drive just over the last few years. I started with Kodak Point & Shoot. Quickly realized I needed more. I upgraded to my current Sony DSC-H1 which has been great. Have gotten great photos out of it. But, I need more. I find I need (and want) much more control of my photos in the editting process. I also, need to learn more about, and have more control, over my lens. Since I'm a Canon girl at heart (and have a couple Canon lens already) I'm looking at the Canon Xsi or the Canon 40D. I'm really leaning towards the Xsi because from what I read it's brand new (only two weeks old) and is giving the 40D a run for it's money. It's less expensive than the 40D too. Hmmmm. I'm processing...


Then we came home and I took a very long, deep, not waking up kind of nap. It was wonderful! When I finally did wake up (3 hours later!) I ate a bunch of junk, watched movies and TV with my family and played on my laptop - surfing the internet. It has been a total no responsibilities kind of day, which I love and doesn't happen all that much.

So, what's on my mind besides cameras. Basically in a nut shell, living life the way you want, finding out what you are passionate about and finding your way into it. We have had a death in the family recently and that has helped be a catalist for going forward on some things I continue to put on the back burner. Will share more details later but some things are in the works. Happy.