My bad. Been busy - doing a little bit (or rather a lot of bit) of everything. Going in many different directions at one time and starting to wish this wasn't the case. Doing too many things, means I'm not a master of any! Got to change that!

Getting ready to take a short trip to Chicago for a work conference. Wasn't too excited to go. I've been to Chicago a bunch of times and I'd rather stay home and work some unfinished design projects, like our master bedroom. I'm stuck because I'm trying to find a unique duvet cover so I can finalize my color pallet, but that is easier said then done. I really, really like the bedding shown in the movie P.S. I Love You. (Ignore Hillary Swank in her bra - really just look at the bedding!). Unfortunately I have discovered this bedding was a prior years collection of John Robshaw Textiles and is no longer available. Bad news. As a side note, check out what's on the wall behind her bed. Isn't that cool?! Reminds me of some of Jennifer Bertrand's art on the walls used in some of her designs. I'm loving swirls, in home design and scrapbooking. I'm pretty sure something like this will show up in our master bedroom somewhere. I might have to take out some fabric paint and make my own duvet with these swirls. Hmmmm, that could be interesting!

I also want to finish our kitchen cabinets. Remember they've been painted but I need to finish the top with a build up of crown moulding and then over/under cabinet lighting. Once this is done I can move onto tiling the backsplash. I've resolved I'm not going to be getting a double oven anytime soon so I need to just finish it with the current design. The problem, I can't find the one piece of moulding I need. Here is a picture:

This is a piece I picked up about four years ago at Lowes and of course they no longer carry it. It was just an average in-stock piece! They have apparently changed their distributors (last year) and no one can tell me who carried this piece. I want to use this on the bottom of our cabinets and at the top, upside down. I would then build up the top to add crown moulding (either regular or cove moulding) at the very tip top. I have already spent significant time trying to track down this piece and no such luck, visiting local woodworking companies, other home improvement stores, numerous websites. My next step is to call Lowes headquarters to see if they can provide me any direction what so ever but I'm not holding out much luck. Any suggestions?

I'd also like to design and build a couple pieces for our outdoor living area. I want an island for cooking and a buffet table to put food and utensils on. I have ideas in my head, just need to go gather some of the pieces from a local architectural salvage store and start building.

So, with all of these design things swirling around in my head, I see the time we are going out of town as a great opportunity for uninterrupted design work at home. But, I have to be a good spouse and go on this trip, reluctantly. But then this morning I realized that our hotel is located not too far from the Chicago Merchandise Mart. Be still my foolish heart, a design meca right around the corner. I've always wanted to go there and in looking at our iteniary I should have some significant time to peruse it. And, I should be able to get into the designer only areas. This trip might not be so bad afterall!

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.

Ick.

What's up with the photo? I wasn't in the mood to post without one and I didn't have anything new so I decided to pick one of my favorite oldies of Chad. Wasn't this so sweet?! I have another super cute one of him winking too that I'll have to share another time. Now onto the real post...

Three words that have a lot of meaning for me lately (and yes, I'm counting to-the-point as one word). Ali Edwards is big into words and I think of her when I repeat these words over and over in my head. I have to do something with these three words soon, especially Deliberate and Powerful. They are always in the front of my mind each and every time we leave church. The way they run everything there is amazing and the more I learn about who they are the more I admire what they have done, and the way they have done it. The way in which they go about handling everything is such a great model for both life and business. Some other words I've heard described about this church; creative, energetic, real, different, addicting. Our class on Monday evenings is close to the end and it has been so powerful it wouldn't be unrealistic to take the class a second time. DH and I have already used a lot of what we have learned outside the church buildings. Yeah for us!

Deliberate. To-the-point. Powerful. Yep, those are my words. And, one other... Awesome!

Ok, before this gets crazy out of hand I want to state for the record that our family is way into the Robbie Seay Band, with our favorite song Song of Hope (Heaven Come Down). This is the song playing on the website. I picked up their CD several weeks ago at Church because our family loved one of the songs performed that day. Every since then our entire family has been singing and listening to the CD. Then the other day, I heard Song of Hope on the radio - while on our way to church. Then, an American Idol commercial was on and I was stopped in my tracks because I thought I recognized Robbie Seay Band as the music playing. Surely not... I must just have them on the brain. Then Chad told me he heard it and saw Robbie Seay Band on the screen. Then, I went to their website and it confirmed it! So, before they become so totally popular I wanted to state we loved them way before (a whole month before)!

This is a great short clip and something our family will begin to do immediately. It doesn't matter your position on the war, it's about so much more. It's so simple and powerful: http://www.gratitudecampaign.org/shortmovie.php

My thoughts and prayers go out to the Lyon's family. May peace be with them as they go through this difficult time. I've been following this family's difficult journey since I was made aware of their blog via a link from Ali. My heart goes out to them this holiday season and on.

Blogger is apparently having some technical difficulties and is not allowing me to upload photos. Bummer, since I finally have a bunch of photos to upload. I've sent them notification of my problems and hopefully it will be working again soon. Have lots to share.

Please hang in there with me while I continue to "tweak" the look of my blog. I'm trying to find the perfect background and am still playing around with it. Like white, but I'm in the mood for something a little different. Might just have to create something. Hmmmmm.

Notice a change to the blog? I've totally been neglecting other responsibilities and playing with this - a lot. Having fun and getting closer to the look I've been wanting for awhile. I really like the 3-column templates but wasn't able to find one for the "new" blogger. Apparently they were being updated and are now available from sources other than through Blogger. Also found some good widgets which I added - do you like?

What's next? I'd like to work on better content, more pictures, "tweaked" banner for a start. Soon.

... Blogger lately? I'm having the hardest time with formatting. It's not allowing hyperlinks, italics and I keep having spacing issues... Is it just me?

Some things you just don't do for any reason, period! These things include but are not limited to:

• Laying things on the top of the stove when you are not cooking such as papers or fabrics of any kind.
• Park the car half in and half out of the garage.

And why do I say this? Let's say nothing has been burnt yet. My "new" car, not so lucky. I think my family understands this now.