Our weekend project!

This weekend we went to the Salisbury Festival and one of the booths featured tons of brightly colored hula hoops in all sorts of sizes.  The coolest part? They were homemade!  We were inspired and being the impatient sort I talked my husband in immediately going to Lowe's to buy supplies. LOL


To start off, all you need is some irrigation tubing (ours cost about $13 for 100ft), some couplers (we bought a pack of 10 for less than $4), and duct tape in whatever color or pattern  you choose. :)  I've looked online and I've seen other people just tape the ends of the tubing together, but we found it easier and more sturdy to use the couplers. 

First, you need to decide what size hoop you want--I made mine about 3ft in diameter, my littles' are closer to 2 1/2 ft in diameter with Mia's being on the smaller end.  To use the couplers, you have to heat one end of the tubing to soften it up a bit (but not too much!) and then quickly shove it in. LOL

One side down!

Heat the other end and push it onto the other end of the coupler to make the hoop.  There you go! 

Now all you have to do is decorate! 

As you can see I made mine rather simple.  The smaller hoop is Mia's right before we began to wrap the tape.  

I will be honest and say it took me awhile to get that hang of wrapping the tape (as evidenced by these pictures) and I'm still not that great at it. LOL  Luckily, my kids love me (and their hoops!) anyway. :)  

The finished product:

The hoops are much sturdier than the flimsy ones you can buy at the store and have just enough weight to them to make them easy and fun to use.  As you can see, I don't have any shots of us enjoying our hoops but that is because I've been to busy playing with my kids to get the camera out. I would call that a success.  :)

(A note: I have considered filling the tubing with sand to make a weighted hoop but that will take some patience.  I'll update if I decide to try it. :) )

Mia in Dreamland

This week's theme at I Heart Faces is By The Book and it is probably the easiest one I've ever had. I knew immediately what image I wanted to share. As an added bonus I was inspired to play around with it a bit using some texture and I really like the new result. :)

All my kids love books. Reading has long been a love of mine (I'm never without a book and my to-read list on Goodreads is hundreds of books long) so I am thrilled that my kids find joy in reading, too.
I took this picture earlier last year when Mia had been quietly playing in her room and I found her sound asleep with the book splayed across her body. It was just so sweet that I couldn't resist.

Best Face 2011

2011 was a crazy busy year for us. We finally moved. The kids were busy in school and while I got my camera out from time to time, it was not nearly as much as I'd have liked. Hopefully, I'll do better this year. :)

Not only do I want to work on getting out with my camera more often, I want to try harder to expand myself by participating in more challenges than I did last year. And starting off with the best face of 2011 challenge at I Heart Faces is a good way to do that.

Which means I've been sitting here going through all my shots from the last year, and I find myself stuck on this one.

It just makes me laugh. The curlers in her hair, the expression on her face and the way she is peering over the tops of her glasses. It's the not best photographically-just a simple snapshot taken on a whim-but it is the one that makes me smile the most.

The rest of the fall shots

I did get some shots of my other kids last week, too. Even more impressive I got a group shot and one of my going on 13 year old. I guess miracles to occur. LOL

I love Anakin's expression. So true to him. And they are all looking at the camera. And smiling. It may never happen again. LOL

Claudia is as bad as me when it comes to having her picture taken, so I was so happy that she agreed to sit for me. She's growing up so fast.

This shot is a little over exposed and isn't perfect but I love the interaction between my littles. They are so cute together.

I didn't get too much in the way of shots of Anakin. As you can see he quickly tired of me (he wanted to go play soccer with some other kids we met there. LOL)

Choice Two

This is the other shot that I took of Mia last week. I have to be honest and say the main reason I love it is her pouty face. You wouldn't know that within seconds she was jumping up and down laughing. She is such a drama queen. ;)

I do also like the background colors. :) A little more variety and depth of color.

I'll share the rest of the shots in a little bit. For once I even got a group shot!

Autumn Splendor

First, just let me say that I love this week's challenge. The colors of fall are my absolute favorite and if it wasn't for the cold, I'd want it to be Autumn forever.

Now, let me tell you that I've had the hardest time deciding which photo to enter in this week's challenge. I've even asked some online friends to vote on it because I just couldn't decide. My youngest is such an easy kid to photograph since she just loves being the star. She's so dramatic which meant I ended up with one shot where she's pouty and forlorn and one where she looks so excited and happy--how do you choose?

You don't. You make others do it for you. Hopefully, they chose well. I'll post the other shot in the following post and you can vote, too. LOL

As you can see this is the happy shot. This is my favorite, I only wish there had been more of the autumn colors in it. However, we seem to be overrun with yellow trees, not enough of the deep orange or reds which have always been my favorites. :)

Homecoming

This past weekend was Homecoming and Claudia had her dance on Friday night. She had so much fun and just loved her outfit I helped her put together and her hair and make-up that I did for her. Made this old mom feel like she was doing a pretty decent job, after all. ;)

I think she looked quite lovely. And for a change she actually let me take pictures of her!!! (Yes, that does deserve three exclamation points. LOL)

My little girl is growing up. *sniffle*