6 Seconds of Fun

Friday night twitter introduced me to a whole new wonderful social media medium.

6 seconds of magically looping infinite addicting fun!

…and I am IN LOVE!!!

It is called Vine.

Vine is an iOS mobile service app that lets you create and share beautiful, short looping videos. It’s life in  6 seconds of looping motion.  To me it is a fun and whole new way to share life with video and I can not wait to see where it goes!  Here are a few of the ones I have made so far…

Saturday Night beverage

  Continue reading “6 Seconds of Fun”

Bad Word, Bad Word, Bad Word

My daughters and I had just finished a shopping trip to Target.  Items were bought and not too much money was spent.  Sooo hard to walk out of there without a super cute had to have it it was on sale shirt, jewelery and shoes… aka $50-75 later.  The girls each bought something from the fabulous dollar section with their allowance and I had a new pair of earrings.  Coats we zipped, mittens and hats on… we were ready to brave the freeze and head out to our car.

“Hands please,” safety first ya know.

A quick walk across one lane of the parking lot and we were at our car.

Parking1

“Girls lets be quick getting in it’s cold out here,” I urge them… cause seriously it was brrrrr. Continue reading “Bad Word, Bad Word, Bad Word”

Saying Good Bye to The Whining Monster

Around these parts Saturday morning means two cups of coffee, a couple of lazy hours on the couch, tweeting with a back ground of Phineas and Ferb and …. cleaning.  When 10:30 rolls around the iPhone gets put down, the Leapsters get put away and the TV gets turned off.

As quickly as my thumb clicks the power button on the remote the sighs, the awwwww moms and the Oscar winning whining begins.   Now I have to give the girl credit… well me credit and Olivia (7 years old) too… just last month we finally had a break through in cleaning.  Break through as in cleaning without her driving me crazy with insistent whining and discovering ways she can delay having to actually clean and seeing how long can she can keep it up before she gets enough of  toys taken away to stop…let me tell you it is exhausting.  She exhausts me!

This particular Saturday the girls had only one chore to do.  They needed to clean the toy room (control you laughing… only chore + cleaning toy room= cleaning a room that looks like a tornado has struck leaving a path of toys covering every space of carpeting).  I told them I would help them today, because it was a big job (and because it was easier then running up and down the stairs as a 7 year old and a 5 year old cleaned a toy room together trying to refrain from complaints, whining and tattling).

We walked up stairs, our spirits high as we giggled and talked about how we were totally going to rock this toy room clean up. We bet on how long we thought it we could get the room cleaned.  We excitedly told each other what we were going to do after we were done cleaning.

The three of us stopped in our tracks at the doorway to the toy room.

“Ugggggg!” I thought,  “That’s a lot of freckin toys!”

“I’ll clean up the food mommy!!!” (aka plastic toy kitchen food) Francine sang as she jumped right in to clean.

“Ohhhhh moooommmm thatttssssss tooo mmmuuchhh to cleannnn!” Olivia whined.

“Olivia we have been through this before…. {insert mommy lecture}… You were so good last week.  Lets work together and get this done!”

“Ok mommy!”

{mini-mommy happy dance in my mind} “Go Me!” I say to myself in disbelief.

After several minutes of whine-less, blissful cleaning (Did I just say blissful cleaning… I really need to raise my standards!)

I hear, “Ohhhhhhhh mmmooommmm thhissss issss tooo muchhhh.  I just cannn’t dooo it anymoreeee!”

I take a breath and pause to contemplate my next course of action.  Suddenly, I catch Olivia studying me.  As I open my mouth to lay out the law and give my usual if you don’t do this you will loose this line, the corner of Olivia’s lip curls into a smile.  Gears turn in my head.  The world slows to a flashing halt.  Visions flash through my head reminding me of all the things Olivia has done lately that I thought she couldn’t do.  The fog has lifted and fireworks go off in a blaze of sparking aahhhhh haaaaaa.

I close my mouth, stand up and walk over to Olivia.

In my firm mommy voice and a n extra stern mommy face Isay, “Stand up!”

With a what the heck is she going to do, how much trouble am I in this time look she stands and worriedly looks up at me.  I make a fist with my hand and bring my imaginary bugle to my mouth. I begin to loudly hum Taps.

“daaa daaa daaaaaaa daa daa daaaaa daaaaa da daaaaa da da daaaa da da…”

Army

I put down my imaginary bugle and place my right hand over my heart.  I look down at the floor and hang my head with a frown in imaginary sadness.

I say, “Today we put to rest the Whining Monster.”

Olivia looks at me studying my face.

“After years of fake whining, award winning acting and scamming mommy, today we bury the Whining monster.

Laughter fills the room as Olivia and her sister comprehend what I am doing. Her hands cover her face as she grins and belly laughs in disbelief and surprise.

“We are sad today to put it to rest.” I continue, “We will miss the Whining Monster.  You  brought us insane amounts of whining, drove mommy crazy and tried to avoid cleaning.  Today I declare Olivia is a big girl.  A big girl that can do way more then she lets on to mommy.  No more scamming, no more whining for today we know what she can really do!  We will not miss you! Good-bye Whining Monster Monster.”

whining

As her belly laughs slow into giggles, I look at Olivia to watch her reaction and we smile at each other.

As I begin to walk back to the spot I was cleaning I see Olivia slowly drop her head.  Her lips make a frown and I hear her mumble,  “Awwwwww man!  Now I am going to have to actually clean!”

 

Where the HECK has LV been?

Into our second week of the new year and you have seen no posts, no drawings, no New Years resolution… where the HECK has Laverne been.

Maybe she got trampled by that nasty flu virus going around…. no it wasn’t that.

Maybe her holidays were crazy busy and she didn’t have time to write… no it wasn’t that. (My holiday was absolutely fantastic, low key and uber relaxing!)

Maybe she simply has not been inspired to create… no it wasn’t that (I actually have inspiration coming out of my eyeballs!  Isn’t that fantastic!)

Maybe she decided to just boycott the whole New Years resolutions thing… nope! not that either (That resolutions thing…I have one already started and prepping to share it with you!!)

Ok, LV enough with the banter!  Get to the point!

2013 arrived. I read others lovely and inspiring posts with their one word, three words or moving resolution posts.  I began to wallowed for a while, not having enough time or energy to write a New Years resolution post when the year flipped into 2013.  I wanted to join the slew of other bloggers sharing theirs.  I wanted to link up and share mine with everyone else.  I wanted to read blogs, leave comments and ooze up all the love that comes from a great link up… but I couldn’t.

Most days (holiday breaks and work weeks alike) I am left with 2-3 hours of me time at the end of the day.  It is time that I cherish and hold sacred.  I used that time to write, draw and create.  The problem with 2-3 hours is that while to the average lay person that sounds like a vast amount of time, in the blogging/creative world that time goes by like the snap of your fingers.  That time also only leaves me to work on one thing at a time.  If I am working on an illustration, I can only work on that and not write a post too (or at least I have not learned to do both), if I’m writing a post I can only do that and not draw.  If I log into Twitter….well forget about it!  Nothing gets done, but the time I spend on their with friends is so wonderful!  So you get my point.

As the New Year rolled in and I wallowed in not being able to post I started to think about what I was doing during this time.  I was adding a tweek to a friends blog design which was the … OMGAWD that is it!!  Fantastic and I was redesigning Shirley’s  blog. As I reflect on what I spent my time doing,  I realized I was doing exactly what I would want to be doing.  I was working with two friends,  designing and beautifying their spaces and I was lucky enough to be part of their journeys… and I could not have thought of a better way to welcome in 2013!

SMChange

 

 

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