Wrapping 2010 up by posting a last photo of our Christmas Decorations before I take them down. I spent most of my time in the kitchen. (working on my art or craft projects while my family cooks. Life can't get any better than that!)

I made a lot of jewelry this Christmas. This is a bracelet I made for myself out of paper tags. It is jingley and light. I used my family Christmas card as the theme.

And presents! Devan got me this fabulous ring and some other goodies. I love, love, love that ring! And Hilari gave me these fabulous shoes. Now, I need an outfit to wear them with, or loose some of this Christmas goodies weight and wear them with a vintage black dress that I found in a downtown Glendale second hand shop.
I must also brag about the gift that Mr. Fabulous got me. It started out with a fur leopard casing that I thought was a shopping bag. I soon found out that it fit right inside a bicycle basket!
Then I opened this awesome drink holder...

that fits perfectly onto this fabulous bike!

And when I need to pass somebody with lightning speed, all I need to do is ring this fabulous bell!

To top it all off, Brooke and Kelli bought me a sewing form in my size that I have been wanting for a long time AND Chelsea gave me an "Official Glamma Fabulous" pendant that she ordered from a real pageant company. I just might wear it while teaching a class, but sometimes I just put in on and walk with "cup cake" hands!!! ha-ha (that's pageant talk for the way a toddler is supposed to walk with her fancy pageant dress on.)

I thought you might like to see a close up of the sash.

Now on to the new year!

Yeah, I finally got my computer fixed!

This last few weeks I have been unable to post on my blog. I kept getting this: javascript:void(0) . So my fabulous girlfriend Lori came over to help me. Nothing worked. Then latter the next day, her husband suggested that I update my Windows Internet Explorer to the "8" version. I went to do this and "9" was available. So I updated it. Still nothing, seems this is still an experimental program. So finally this morning after much searching (I am no expert in computer skills) I found where to uninstall the "9" version and install the "8" version. It worked!!! I share this because this seems to be a problem that others have had. I can't wait to share my Holiday photos!

2010 Christmas Greeting

I hope that you are all enjoying the holiday season this year. It is REALLY hectic around here (a REAL CIRCUS) with so many little ones, but I would not have it any other way. I wish all my friends out in blog land happiness and joy amid your own chaos. Let's enjoy the ride together!

My Demonstration Painting for the PFFA

Last week I demonstrated my techniques in painting with soft pastels. I just love working with this art medium. The facets on each teeny tiny piece of pigment reflects light like no other medium as there is very little binder that surrounds the pigment. This also makes for almost no darkening of the color as the years go by. There are pastel paintings today that are hundreds of years old whose colors are as vibrant as when the artwork was first painted. I titled this painting "Farmers Market Trio". This "study" is 11" x 14" and I am selling it unframed on my etsy for $125.

Thanks you Peoria Fine Arts Association for asking me to be the speaker for your Nov. meeting. You have a lot of talented people and they were all so nice!

My Paper Mache Dear Head

Remember this Dear Head that I made from cereal boxes? Well, even though it looked fun, some of the cardboard was very flimsy, so I decided to cover it with paper mache. It took days and days of adding layers, drying time and more layering. I had to tape and prop it up as it was so heavy.

I finished the last layer with the comics from our daily newspaper. Doesn't it look great?

I'm refining my own pattern so that I can make some to take to a few custom decor shops around the valley.
I think I'd like to make some crazy fantasy animal head too. Fun!

New York!

This last week, my daughter Hilari and her best friend Laura, Laura's Mom (my best friend) and I went to New York to celebrate Hilari and Laura's 20th Friend-iversary. We had the best time! We were so fortunate that Laura's brother Paul and his beautiful wife Steph gave us the grand tour and led us through less tourist traveled roads to eat where the local foodies dine. FABULOUS!

Our first major stop was the Museum of Modern Art. Wow.

The next day, we went all around the city and as we neared Central Park, we saw a lot of police and this car on it's side with a gun shot right in the front window. I was a little freaked (and excited) and then we found they had just finished filming a movie!

Hilari and I took a day and visited 30 Rock and toured the NBC building. That was fun seeing where Saturday Night Live and some other shows were taped...
And we couldn't resit taking a picture with the Naked Cowboy. (I guess there are a few Naked Cowboys, like Santa... He can't be everywhere at once, so his helpers fill in)

We saw "Mary Poppins". We got some cheap seats at the last minute and we were on the top most balcony. The play was wonderful. At the end, Mary Poppins flew over the floor audience. We couldn't see her and I was a little bummed, but then her head peeked up over our balcony and she was about 12 feet away and smiled right at us as she flew up into the ceiling/sky! Hilari and I were walking to the train station to visit our friends that we had met on a cruise 2 years ago, and we saw fire engines, and a huge blow-up mattress. We looked up and there was a man on top of the building ready to jump! Then we found out it was another movie being filmed. We waited a while to watch him jump, but it was taking too long so we'll have to see it at the movie next year.
We visited Ground Zero. Paul is an architect, so it was so interesting hearing him describe what was going on. I have a photo of myself and three girlfriends from the top of one of the twin towers from my first trip to New York about 20 years ago. It was surreal to think that this is where those buildings once stood and how 9/11 changed everything.
I took this picture looking out of the window at Ground Zero. Look at the shadows of buildings on the glass in front of the other buildings outside. Cool!
Our last day was cloudy and colder. The skyscrapers blended into the heavens.
I can see how people love living in New York. If I could cart my whole family with me, I'd live there for a season and then move on to another wonderful part of the country and so on. But, it looks like it's an Arizona life for me which isn't so bad from October to June!

#14 Glamchild Pepper is Born!

Pepper Kay was born yesterday morning healthy and welcomed by her Mom, Dad and "Big Sister". Daisy was excited to get to hold her new baby sister and quickly gave her a kiss on her cheek and a "beep-beep" on her nose.

A proud family. My heart leaps.

After about 10 minutes, Daisy is "over it" and contemplates her new status as an older sibling and "is this baby going to live with us?" reality. I am happily doing some major bonding with my cute little girl while the rest of her family are at the hospital. Fun!

Halloween Weekend Travel Log

Over the weekend I went to CA with my daughters Brooke and Chelsea and their families. We stayed in Pasadena. On Friday, we took the train to 3 different "countries". First, we stopped in "Little Tokyo". Remi bought a silk parasol. Then we went to "Little Mexico". Remi bought a pink guitar.

and our final stop was "Little China". The kids stood in front of some mannequins. They blended in so well that it was hard to tell who was who! The boys mission was to buy stink bombs. That was definitely not my idea!

On Saturday, the real reason for the whole trip, was out adventure to Disneyland during Halloween time. The Haunted Mansion was turned into "The Nightmare before Christmas" and Space Mountain was turned into a scary alien invasion. It was very crowded, but we had a great time.
It was especially fun for our own "Little Princesses". They got to meet all the "real" princesses and were taught how to curtsy, wave and dance. Fun!

Phoebe

Recently we had Phoebe's first photo session. She's such a cute little thing!

Here she is in the Blessing dress that I made for her. Devan put together the headband.

And here she is in a fabulous ensemble.

I wish I could pull off those bloomers!

Smith Spooktacular 2010 THRILLER!

This is probably the only THRILLER video where all the Zombies are smiling! It was fun, I wish you could see the "audience", they were probably scarier than we were. Thank you Quenton for putting the video together. I know we didn't give you much, but we did have a blast doing it !!! and Thank you Sarah for being the gal we all looked to for our "moves". (double click on the photo or on https://files.me.com/jbeals321/75o4m8.mov )

Cruising for Murder...

Most of you know that I love to throw a party, but I LOVE going to one even more! This last weekend, we had the privilege of going on short cruiseThe evening started with a lovely "The Captain's Cocktail Reception" followed by a delicious Mexican Meal.

I was employed as a humble cocktail waitress with stars in her eyes. Stars for Broadway that is, and I took every chance to sing every Show tune that I could remember so that I could get the "attention" of the Captain and the Entertainment Column Journalist. Since I was "busy serving", I did not have time to get photos of everyone, but I'm sure that they will pop up. Here are a few of the quests on the cruise ship.

The "Towel Boy" sure got around... The Captain, whom my heart belonged to.
Our hosts, celebrating their wedding anniversary, but the groom seemed preoccupied with the Show Girl "Candy Cam" whose job I wanted!
Best Costume went to this Hunk! (the girls on the ship could not take their eyes off of his muscular physic.) (He also seemed to like that Show Girl for some reason.)

and yes, I did receive the "Best Actor" award. But really, my good friends know that was no act! ha-ha
The Cruise director's "better half" won "A MILLION DOLLARS" (real shredded ones) for accumulating the most $$$ for the evening.
Who would have guessed that this lovely "sweet" passenger with a culinary background would have been the brutal murderer?
And finally, the murdered showgirl, and her job was mine! Thank you Tanners for a Great Evening!