I Have Always Wanted To Try This: Embroidery on a Photo

I have seen some artists who take black and white photos and add color by embroidering it onto the image. I love embroidery and photography and I had been dying to try this. My Nana recently took a trip to Arizona to visit family and someone gave her some awesome photos of her younger years. This was one of the photos and I loved it. 

My Nana looks so beautiful. It looks like a scene from a old Mexican movie. She looks like a movie star. I knew immediately that this was the perfect picture to try out this new craft. I consulted with my crafty cousin Cassie to see the best way to do it. She recommended transferring the image to a canvas. As I looked into this it would require me take apart the canvas so that I can iron on the transfer. And a needle through a canvas is a lot more work. So I decided to go with just a piece of linen. 

After a quick trip to Hobby Lobby for transfer paper, a piece of white linen, and embroidery string I was ready to get started. Step one was to print and iron the image onto the cloth. I was worried it would bubble or not stick in some places. I had nothing to worry about!     

Then it was time to bust out the hoop and start working. I was debating between making the skirt red with yellow flowers or green with yellow flowers. I ended it going with green because it was my Tata's favorite color and I imagine this is what my Nana looked like when he first laid eyes on her. 

 It took about 4 days to finish and since Joey was out of town I had a lot of time to work on it.

As it started to come together I could see the end result and I was so excited to finish. I couldn't embroider fast enough!

I went to a thrift shop and found the perfect matted frame. When it was done we stretched the cloth over the matting and it was done.

I could not be happier with how it turned out! I love how it brings depth, texture and color to what is now one of my favorite pictures.

Over the weekend I got to give it to my Mom for her birthday! I was so excited to give it to her.

This was such a fun project and I hope that I can fine some more photo to embroider! 

17

Her birthday is always the toughest to wrap my head around. Today my Chone turns 17 years old. 

That blows my mind. 

How can that little perfect child who loved to wear crazy rainbow socks and loved spending the night at my house, who was the only kid in our crew be a year away from adulthood? 

The one with that big smile and who could light up a room and who could gladly get me to watch Lilo and Stitch everyday.  

The little girl who liked to dress in all green or sometimes in a Barney costume.

She was our first baby and I always say it because it's true, she was my first true love. When this kid came into the world I was floored with the love I had for her.

She is so smart and so funny. She was such a great little kid. I loved every minute I got to spend with her as she grew up.

And then she became a big cousin and a big sister and she has always been the best example for the little ones. She is kind and patient and loving to them. My kids obviously adore her.

Our weekly trip to Chuck E. Cheese are just a memory. Yes she could get me to go to Chuck E Cheese weekly! Anything for my Chone.

In the blink of an eye she has become a young lady. A smart, talented, politically charged young lady. Someone who stands up for what she believes in and has the guts to stand in front of hundreds of people and speak her brilliant mind or sing a beautiful song.

As she has grown up watching her perform is still one of my most favorite things. To see her play an instrument or act in a play gives me more pride than she will ever know.

I cannot believe that today she is 17 years old.

Chugg, 

I am so amazingly proud of the person you are becoming. You are strong, smart and using your talents to fight for what you believe in. I am so happy that you have found your passion in life. I remember when I found mine. It is life-changing. 

I can't tell you what a trip it's been to be part of your journey in this life. I have to admit, I take a little credit for the person you have become. There were years when we were together all the time and I loved that time. I have no doubt that you are going to change the world. You changed my dramatically the day you were born.

I love you so much. 

More than you will ever know.

 I am here for you for always.

 Happy 17th Birthday Chone Balone

-Tia Lissa

Louie Misses Phi

So we have been in school for a few weeks now. We are starting to get into a routine and I have to admit that I am missing homeschooling Phi. I feel like I only really see her for 3 hours a day.

Insert sad face emoji here.

As much as I miss Phi during the day, Louie is taking it the hardest. She is not crying or moping around or anything. Instead she is directing her emotion into big projects for her sister. Over the last few weeks she has..

• made a sea otter diorama with cardboard, paper and a soda can
• put together a playlist of her sisters favorite songs
• set up a dance party for her and her sister
• drawn many many many pictures for her sister
• let her sister pick the night music more than once
• made me write down jokes that she could tell her sister

All day, Louie is thinking of ways to make her sister happy. I think she hopes that if she gives Phi gifts, she will miss Louie as much as Louie misses Phi. 

The girls are used to being with each other all day, everyday. And Phi is really loving junior high and she says things like "I can't wait for school on Monday" and I am sure that hearing things like that are hard for Louie to hear. I am glad that she is using these feelings to be a little more crafty and creative. And Phi is great and they get along great for the few hours they are together during the week. At night Phi reads to Louie from her Babysitters Club graphic novels. On the weekends they binge watch Rob and Big and Fantasy Factory together. 

I am so glad that Phi is loving school, and I am glad that Louie is adjusting to the change. But I am really happy to see how much my girls love each other. 

Miracle Hamster

I thought for sure last weekend was going to end with a dead hamster in my freezer.

Let me explain.

Joey was gone last weekend working on his car. (Don't even get me started on this damn car project!) So it was just me and the girls. We slept in on Saturday with plans to head into Palm Springs for the day and meet friends for dinner. And then I heard...

"Mom! Persimmon is not moving!" 

I thought for sure she was gone. I walked in and expected to find the hamster dead. She wasn't, but she was not in good shape. Just so you know how bad it was, normal Persimmon will not let anyone get near her. If you tried to pet her or god-forbid pick her up she would bite you. Guaranteed. I opened the top of the little box she was in and she did not react. She was laying flat on her stomach and I could see she was breathing. I reached down to touch her and she did not react.

Not good.

Immediately Phi started sobbing. Full on panic crying. This of course brought Louie into the room who became hysterical when she heard. Now is a good time to remember that I was solo parenting. Then I started crying because my kids were so upset and I had no idea what to do.

I starting messaging my sister Elaine, she works at a great vet clinic and I knew she would know someone who could give some advice. But when it came down to it once a small rodent shows signs of illness it is almost always too late.

I cleaned out the box she was in and put her back and handed it to Phi. I told her to try to see if she could get her to drink some water while I scrubbed the cage clean. The next few hours were spent with Phi like this....

while I waited to her. "She stopped breathing".

Really guys I thought it was a matter of time.

Eventually Persimmon started to move a little but when she would get up she would be shaking and wobbly. As the day went on she started to move around more. As the afternoon started to get away from us I had to get Phi to get ready for dinner out. She went to take a shower and left the hamster with me and Louie. As we sat and stared we noticed that she was shaking less and moving around more. She was even pulling herself up. Then she opened her eyes. You would have thought she hit the Super Mega Lotto the way Louie reacted.

We put Persimmon back in her cage and headed out for dinner. As we drove home a few hours later I prayed that I would not come back to stiff hamster. Instead she was climbing through tubes and even eating a little.

By the next morning Persimmon was back to normal. Back to eating, drinking, pooping and trying to bite us. It was a freakin miracle. Even Elaine could not believe it.

Now I am super paranoid and am constantly waking up this poor hamster even time I see her sleeping. I need to make sure she is okay and not back to super sick state.

Did I mention this all happened while Joey was away??

I Cried More Than When She Went to Kindergarten

Like lots of California kids, my kids went back to school this week. Back to school is always stressful and gives me lot of anxiety but nothing was like this year. See Phi has been at a small charter school homeschool program for the last 3 years. She was home with me everyday. I was her teacher so all her lessons were one on one. She went back to the same charter but this year was for all-day junior high. 

At school. 

ALL DAY

JUNIOR HIGH

I was so anxious about this transition. There are just so many new things at once. It's hard for me to not see these experiences from 11 year old Elissa's perspective. And 11 year old Elissa should have been on Xanex. It took me back to my first day of high school and that was still one of the scariest days of my life. I kept thing about all the things that Phi could stress about. There were just so many new things for her, from switching classes, dressing out for PE, locks and lockers, how the bells work and even what to do if she needs to go to the bathroom. She has not been in a real classroom setting since she was in 2nd grade. 

I was so anxious that for 2 weeks I was having typical school nightmares. The night before school started I had the worst one. I had a dream, a very vivid dream that Justin Beiber started a full on race riot at Phi's school. 

All day school also means we have to be up and out of the house at an ungodly hour. On the big day we were up and ready with enough time for the traditional by the front door picture. And this year thanks to my awesome paint job we had a cool chalkboard door to pose in front of. 

 Is is just me or did she grow-up into a pre-teen like overnight?

Holy Moly I can see what adult Phi will look like in this pictures.

I think Louie knew that this new adventure meant big changes for her. She has spent almost everyday of her life that she can remember with her sister. And now she was going to be riding solo for most of the day. Louie woke up really early and literally just sat and stared at Phi while she ate breakfast and got ready.

I have a few first day of school pictures with my sister in her pajamas! And chances are I also wore a long shirt and leggings on my first day of 6th grade!.

We drove to school and the entire drive Phi was talking non-stop. She was so excited for her first day. It was then that I was reminded that Phi is not like me at her age. She is much more confident and brave. She doesn't worry about the little things like I did. We pulled up to the drop off point and I asked for a selfie.

This is the exact moment the waterworks started. You can see my face is starting to crumble.

I kept it together long enough to kiss her bye and to tell her to remember everything because I am going to want to hear all about her day. Then she shut the door and walked away and I broke down. I started to drive away and I drove past to see her walk through the gate and that image was too much. She was literally entering a new phase of her life and I had to pull over because the ugly sobbing crying was happening.

This big change was really scary for me because this was the first time that I have had to let her go on her own and figure out all new things. To send her into the world without me literally holding her hand. I sat in my car and cried and hoped and prayed that I have been a good enough parent so far. That I have prepared her for this. I hoped that I was there enough and at the same time hoped that I let her be independent enough. Phi is my first kid so really I can only hope that I am doing things okay. That I am raising her to be successful and with the ability to take on new challenges.

It was a long day at work as I stared at the clock, looked over at my copy of her schedule and imagined her in whatever class she was in. I could not wait for the end of the day to go pick her up.

Of course she asked us to sign her up for the after school program so I didn't go get her until after work. When I picked her up she was again non-stop talking about her day. She loved it. She gave me a minute-by-minute recap of her day. She handled it all like a champ. She got to all her classes, reconnected with old friends from 2nd grade, and even made new ones. She loved all her teachers and is anxious to start learning new things.

The next day Phi was very excited to go back. I believe her exact words were "I can't believe I get to go back again!".  The next day was also Louie's first day of 1st grade. Louie is back in the homeschool program so she only goes to class for a total of 3 hours over 2 days. 2 hours one day and 1 hour the next. Since her class doesn't start until later in the morning I wasn't home for her big send off so Poppa took the pictures.

She wore a new dress that Grandma Kim had bought her and Poppa braided her blue-tipped hair into her signature 2 braids. Louie has the same teacher and same routine but when Joey sent me a text of a picture of her I cried again. This time it was because I knew that this was the last year of homeschooling for Louie. Our school is moving to all day elementary next year.

In one short year I will be dropping off both kids for a full day away from me at school. Ugh! 

It's Baby Season

Yesterday I went to my best friend Sam's baby shower. She is due at the end of September with her second child.  She is having another boy. I also got to visit my friend Dana and meet her crazy cute almost one year old son. And as I am writing this my gal pal Angela is in a hospital in London, England and she is in labor with her first baby. She has been keeping us all updated through Facebook messenger and me and the girls are so excited and hoping for an easy delivery and cannot wait to get some adorable baby pictures. Louie even did some shopping today for her new London friend.

It's baby crazy around here these days. I even had someone ask us today if we were having a boy. (uh offended much?). Joey and I get asked all the time, if we are going to have more kids. People seem to just have this feeling when they know they are done having kids. Here is the thing. I never got that feeling. When Louie was born I didn't feel like we were "complete". In a perfect world I would have liked to have had 4 kids. All about 2 years apart. But of course we don't live in a perfect world and it took us about a year to conceive Sophia. When Sophia turned 1 year old, we ditched the birth control and started trying for baby #2. It took us over 3 years to conceive Louie. In fact right before I got pregnant with Louie I had went to my ob/gyno and started talking about fertility issues. After about the second year of trying Joey and I had decided that if we were not pregnant by the time Sophia turned 5 we would stop trying. We were not getting any younger.

Louie was born 10 days after our self-induced deadline.  After she was born I didn't immediately feel like my family was done. But we had to face reality. Odds were it was take us years to get pregnant again. We would be raising kids until our sixties! So for the last 5 years the chances of more kids has been decreasing and decreasing. At this point, with a 6 year old and a junior higher, the idea of starting all over again with a newborn seems exhausting. We are even starting to imagine what our life will be like when the girls are in college. The cruises we can take, the dinners out, sleeping in on the weekends. At this point we have started talking about the big "V" for J.

So this is what my family looks like...

If thing would have worked out differently maybe we would have had more kids. But 2 girls is what I have. 2 amazing kids. I am so lucky to be their Mom. Watching them grow how been such a trip and J and I have doe our best to pour everything we have into them. It's crazy to remember being a teen imagining what my future would look like. To try to imagine what my husband and kids would look like. I can honestly say I never imagined what I have today. What I have today is so much more and so much better than I even could have imagined.

How Many People Does it Take to Paint an Entire House? 15 apparently.

Who could make us drive for 5 hours each way to spend two days painting a house and moving from one town to another? The baby of the family that's who.

Last weekend Elaine and Kelly moved into their first, we own the place, home. As you can imagine it is super exciting. So the family headed up to San Luis Obispo early on Saturday morning, packed up our cars and headed to Atascadero.

The new place is so cute and is a perfect home for Kel, Elaine, The El's, Dexter and Buster. The only thing was that almost every wall was a light lime green color. Like everywhere you looked it was green. The kitchen, the hallway, the dining room, the living room, every single bedroom. I don't think my sister has hated a color more. Earlier in the week Kelly's awesome parents had prepped the entire house for painting. They probably never want to see painters tape every again. And this is where we come in.

We started with a pow-wow in the living room...

The paint was poured. Natural linen for the downstairs. We grabbed our brushes and rollers and got right to work.

And by we I mean all of us.

Mom

 
And the kids too. I mean that's why we had these kids right?

This one eventually ended up with paint on her legs and at some point leaned against a wall.

After tackling the downstairs. Joey and I did the dining room and kitchen. We moved upstairs. More snatural linen for the hallways. Cari and Luis took a can of white truffle and went to work in the master bedroom.

While Joey and I painted Ellie's room. natural linen for 3 walls and a pinkish coral for one wall.

Of course there were hot dog and pizza breaks one day. Taco and burrito breaks the second day.

Moving in the middle of summer makes for very hot days. After day one we were all beat. Mom and Pops went home to sleep while the rest of us painted one more room. The master bathroom we painted in sea salt while listening to 90's alternative. By the time we were finished we were all exhausted. We took a trip to a near by fast food place and fed everyone. We headed back to the new house. set up air mattresses and took showers with no shower curtains. I totally forgot to pack blankets so I spent a very cold night sleeping in Ellie's room.

Day 2 was all about moving everything from the old place and painting baseboards.

Of course we were paid in food and beer.

And of course we all got to take turns loving on The El's.

2 days of painting, sore muscles and 10 hours on the road. I would do that and then some for my family. I mean look at this face. I would do anything for this face.

Kelly, Ellie and Elaine, we are so happy for you guys! The house is awesome and we have already made some great memories there. Keep that guest room ready for us. We are planning a visit very soon!