AMZ Photography & Art: Decluttered

i didn't realize it had been so long since i last blogged. lately blogging just doesn't seem like a priority. i have a limited amount of time that i have free to get on the net and sitting down & blogging just takes too much time. besides, i'm sure my life is pretty boring to most people anyway!

but in case there are some of you curious, well here's a short recap...

about a week & a half ago Ben caught whatever nasty stomach bug that's been going. he was so violently ill that it really scared me. in our 10 yrs of marriage he's only been that sick one other time and he had a terrible case of the flu then. so we (or i should say he) made it through the night (why do these things always happen in the dead of night?) and the next morning i promptly shipped him off to the doctor's office. we paid a much need $150 for them to say that it wasn't the flu & basically they couldn't do anything for him, he just had to let it "run it's course". AHHHHH!! it's so infuriating to have to shell out money we desperately need for others things on a wasted diagnosis. hell i could charge half that and tell people the same thing. easy money. but then i think the whole medical profession is a big steaming pile of BS!

luckily within about 2 days Ben was feeling mostly back to normal just in time for Zander to take sick with it, promptly followed by Ava. *sigh* fortunately Meg & I dodged the bullet and as yet have not come down with any symptoms or illness. HALLELUJIAH!

on monday of this past week Ben & I decided that a much needed spring cleaning was in order. and not just to disinfect from sickness but to seriously purge the house of all the crap that we've accumulated that's just sitting in closets or on shelves that's taking up space and creating a dust magnet. so i gave the kids a week off school & i systematically went room by room over the last week and clean and threw away and put stuff in boxes for a garage sale. when all was said and told we threw away about 6-7 bags of garbage and our entire front porch is covered with stuff i'm getting rid of. i couldn't be happier. i can't even begin to tell you what a relief it is and it's like a weight has been lifted. it's funny how we buy & accumulate stuff to make us happy and in the end it ends up making us feel ... bad. i'm a minimalist at heart. the less clutter the better i feel. so we've instituted a new rule. for every new thing we bring into the house, 1 old thing must go. i'd like to keep my house this clutter-free and organized.

in the middle of all that chaos i finished up those 4 custom sports mosiacs that the guy ordered like 3 wks ago. OMG! was that the longest project ever!!! i'm so glad to be done. next time i get a custom order of that magnitude i'm charging a heck of a lot more. but now i can move on to other projects, more creative projects and get some new items up in the store. i'm hoping to do some smaller pieces that are cheaper and maybe entice buyers who don't wanna pay as much for the bigger pieces. you can check out my store at AMZ Studios! in other random news i'm sure you'll find it hilarious that me, the perpetual reader, the woman who'd rather read than do anything else has read...wait for it...3 books since Jan 1st. LOL! that is so pathetic by my standards. this time last year i'd already read like 10. but i am a lot busier these days and i've put it on the back burner. i've been going to bed so early and then when i get up in the mornings i hit the ground running with household/kid/chore stuff that i just haven't made the time. in actuality i've given myself the year off from reading and will only read what i want, which means i'm probably gonna go back and leisurely re-read books i really enjoyed.

let's see what else? Ava's completely weaned. she nursed longer than either of my other two and i have to say i'm quite happy to be finished with all of that. she's also starting to reject eating baby food and almost demands "grown up" food. she's also standing up by herself more and more and today she took her 2nd step. and then promptly fell down. LOL! Meg was walking by 9 months...i'm sure Ava's not that far behind. she's also cut 2 more teeth on the top. i can't believe that she's 8 1/2 months old! where does the time go?

so i've joined the Angelina Photography Club. i decided to meet with real life people (and not just talk to Flickr pals online). they meet once a month and there are projects you work on and you get critiqued and critque others and twice a year they have a photography exhibit at the museum where a photo or two of my work will be exhibited. i'm the youngest person in the group. mostly it's 60+ y/os but they were all super friendly at my first meeting which was on thursday. i think it'll be fun and something to do and will keep me on my toes photographically...well that's the idea anyway.

well i think that's about it...i'll close with a few pieces of eye candy!