September Goodbye

September a time for change. 
I write this with tears in my eyes as we celebrated 14 years of life with my cat but today we bid him farewell.  He lived a super happy, comfortable life.  His nickname was Fatsy. 

                               

As you can see from this pic a few years ago.
But in the last 2 years he lost his ability to eat normally and very bad food allergies developed.
He lost his battle today.

I will miss you.  You gave me much comfort over the past 14 years.  Always by my side when I battled sickness, recovery from surgeries and depression.  He was so intelligent and had a meow that made you laugh.  I will miss his mow wows at 5 am to feed him.

Goodbye Rest in Peace 

Back to Homeschool

This is our first week back in the swing of homeschool.
We are excited to have found a community of homeschoolers.
We will now have outings and classes along with like minded parents and children. 

This week we have been to orientation and found a mom with a son the same age as my boy, who also shares the same allergies and way of eating. And to put the cherry on top, they live right down the street from us.  Finally able to bond with a family who gets it. 

We are so excited to start supplemental classes at the resource center.  My boy will now have drama class, science, geography, and Polynesian studies.  I especially love drama and polynesian studies since his dad was born in Hawaii.
He will now bond with children like him and finally have friends to interact with.  

When we are not in classes or outings, we will be at home with set times and structured class at home.  So far he is doing so good. Granted it has only been 2 days but he is really dedicated to learning and wanting to do work.  It is really amazing to see the change in him and how the frustration has turned to happiness to learn.  He wants to know what everything around him says.  He is dying to learn more in reading.  He has a disability with learning sounds and sounding out words so he memorizes everything.   Everyday he sits and writes his words over and over as to learn the word and spelling of it.
I am so proud of him.

(learning to tie his shoes)

He has shown so much growth and maturity since leaving  the public school system.  I never thought I could handle it but seeing the results makes me work harder for him.

(art studies at the Bellagio Fine Arts Gallery, his best Picasso face)

So our summer is officially over. Now if someone would let the weather people know.  These heat warnings are killing us.  I am so ready to turn this AC off and feel a cool breeze. I am ready to ride my bike and show off my new crochet basket.

Well, when we are not schooling, which is about 10 pm at night, I get to sit and crochet.  I just finished up this poncho.  I am so in love with it.  Again it needs to get cold out so I can actually wear it.

I am also working on some other things that I will reveal as soon as I get further into them. 

Life is full and we are hanging in there.  This dog is so much fun and keeps a smile on our faces.  We are so glad he found his way to our home.  The cats, not so much...

What I did on my Summer Vacation

Well 2 weeks just wasn't long enough.
I miss the ocean, the cool air and waking up to open windows.

We had so much fun on our vacation.
Hanging with family and friends.

We had art camp classes with the fabulous Paul Frank!!!

We met up with my friend Kelly and enjoyed the Renegade Craft in LA

she sat with me in the park and showed me how to granny.

We went to the beach almost everyday and when we weren't boogie

boarding we were swimming in grammys salt water pool

We explored, we had seashell hunts on the beach at sunset.

We had roasted marshmallows with family on cool nights by the fire.

The memories and fun we had as a family are ones that will stay with me always.

It just went by too fast. 

Christmas in July

I know I know it is 113* out but its nice and cold inside.

People like to get their decor in order early and I like to get out of the studio by October and spend the season with my family.

I usually sell out by the beginning of October and then I get a ton of requests to make things once November hits.  Sorry folks, I make it early and when it is gone it is gone. 

Therefore my Christmas in July kick-off.

Crochet Home for the Holiday tea light jars,

Ornaments,  woodland dress up animals so cute to adorn your tree or packages

Garlands to hang by the mantel, staircase or around the tree,

and Dear Santa advent pockets for the 12 days of Christmas.

I will be making kits this year to buy as sets for all in one decor.

Have a safe and happy 4th,  after the fireworks go off, its on to Christmas....

Summer Boho Bags

I have finally received my gypsy pouches back from the publisher and it got me motivated to get them listed along with the NEW backpack style I made.

Dream Catchers and Boho Bunnies

I am excited by the little boho Bunnies...A line for little tots to tote around their most precious treasures in.

These are all one of a kind bags.  I pour my heart and all my spare time into making these bags something that someone will love to carry.

They are little tiny quilts in your hands. 

I have listed them all in my Etsy shop and if you see any you have to have please contact me.

Happy Summer

Dog Days of Summer

Meet our new family memeber
Tucker!!!

We have been playing around with getting a dog for the boy for a long time.  I just couldn't commit.  With my allergies and never owning a dog, I knew it would be a lot to fall on me.
But when we met Tucker it all changed.
He is the sweetest boy ever.
He doesn't bark, he doesn't nip or drool.  He is super calm and super smart.

We are training him to become a companion dog for the boy.

The boy still has some issues with showing affection and recognizing an animal is even in the room.  I am hoping it will all start to sink in that he needs to feed him, love him and play with him and become BFFs

Never say never.  I can't wait for him to be a companion so we can take him with us every where we go.

So this is keeping us super busy this summer and we are still finding time to swim everyday and the visit new things.

  Like the Las Vegas Comic Con.
The boy was in absolute heaven meeting his heroes and super villains to attack.  

The goal of summer fun is happening, except for that stinkin' cold thing that hit us last week.  That I could have done without.  I am still trying to recover some energy...

Summer of Fun

It is HOT here already 111* coming this week.

To live and get through summer we are focusing on doing new things and finding fun.

The boy attended his first "CAMP" last week.  Art Camp.  It was a full week of learning about artists and doing their own versions of the famous works.
It was a learning experience for me and my boy.  While all the other moms got the freedom of kissing and dropping their kids off for 3 hrs, I was the only mom that had to stay and hover. When you have a child with special needs, no matter how much you want them to be part of the crowd, it becomes so apparent when you are in a camp full of typicals that your child is definitely not typical.  Let me tell ya, those feelings of jealousy for the other families come roaring in and it takes ya down a rabbit hole.  We had our ups and downs and it was a long week.  But overall I am so glad we did it and that he really did learn some things, Like he can't stop talking about Andy Warhol.  A big thank you to Mary Beth and Dave for having us to Art Camp.  

With this learning experience for the both of us, we are trying hard to get him into more and more activities to learn to be around others and how to socialize with others properly.  And hopefully get him back to where he was a year ago before the public school system let us down.  My boy used to be the first one in a room to say hello and make a friend.  Now, it is hard to even get him in the room.  Bullying and being treated differently by his old classmates and staff really took a toll.

So I am always happy to find a new place for him to explore and find a bit of happiness.  Yesterday we stumbled on to CAMP MACYS.  We had to run to the mall to fix my hubbys watch and it was at just the time that Macys was hosting a "CAMP" for kids.  Storytime around the campfire, arts and crafts, dance party, photo booth and prizes! all for free.  He had a great time.  And I loved the slogan  ALL ARE WELCOME.  It really made him feel he could be himself and fit in.

With the slogan of our summer "SUMMER OF FUN"  we will be traveling to Cali this July to take an art class with one of our all time fav Artists Paul Frank.  I cannot wait to participate in this fun day of arts with my boy.  It is a dream come true. 

My goal is to make summer go by fast and be one of the most memorable for him.

Oh we are also into the Summer Reading program at our library.   It is very disappointing this year.  Sad to see they are really cutting corners and not doing any great activities or story related days.  We always look forward to the summer reading program.  I guess we will just make it fun for ourselves and set our own goals and activities.

As for me I am still crocheting the evenings away.

 

I am done making cacti for now and have moved on to making floral garlands.  I have a huge stash of yarn from a previous project last year.  It is yarn I don't usually work with and would not have a use for it in a typical project of mine.  But it works great for brightly colored layered floral garlands.  I should have this stash thinned in just a few days if I keep this up.  I am thinking of bundling them and selling them in my etsy shop...totally fun bohemian summer decor.

Well, this is the kick off to our summer and we have a big surprise coming later today.  I have to get off this computer and get ready.

More to come, summer of fun!!!