Merry Christmas!!

Hello from Santa Barbara, California.

Wishing you all a Very Merry Christmas!!!

Love and good wishes,

Tha Kaminski Family

Do These Shoes Make My Butt Look Big??

The other day I ventured upstairs to the kid's bedrooms to assess the damage see if anyone had cleaned their rooms lately.

I spent a few minutes cleaning Indy and Alex's bathroom and tidied up.

Then I made the mistake of crossing over into Ari's room. It's a good thing I don't have the health department on speed dial because I was so disgusted by her bathroom AND her bedroom that I had to drop everything and run away screaming.

I texted her at her little Gingerbread house decorating party and told her that her room needed some serious attention. She promised that it would get cleaned up  right after I took her to the mall to do a little shopping. I equate this to negotiating with terrorists.

Fast forward a couple of hours later. I tell her that I will organize her closet while she cleans up her bedroom and scrubs her bathroom. I only commit to this because I have recently just spent some time organizing the closets of the other two little punks and I feel obligated to be "fair".

I should have known better because I spent the whole time getting her closet all perfect and lovely and all she did was try on all of her high heeled shoes and prance around her bedroom.

She did eventually clean her bathroom but not until I had finished my part of the clean-up and left the building.

Do I stink??

We went out for dinner  last night to celebrate Indy's birthday. It was all going so well until I look over at

Ari and she is lifting her arm up into the sky to get a good sniff of her armpit. Now normally

 this wouldn't be a problem but must we do this in a restaurant??

I think NOT.

Of course now there is a pattern here. She did the same thing in the car the other day. I finally said to her...

"What are you doing?"

"Checking to see if I have BO"

"Honey even if you have stinky armpits, you shouldn't worry about it." "Everybody has stinky armpits at one point or another"

"Yea I know but I'm so worried that I'm gonna stink."

"Unless someone has his or her nose in your armpit, I don't think you should worry about it"

"And by the by... no body better have HIS face in your armpit" I'm just sayin. ( had to throw that in there)

So anyway back to last night. After I caught Ari smelling her pits at the dinner table. I made the mistake

of trying to show her a less obvious way to see if you stink. Then everybody had to chime in and give

their  rendition of checking for stink and then smelling their fingers. Alex did it with his eyes crossed,
like he loved his stench.

Indy did it in song, I think if she cold have stood on the dinner table and turned it into a 3 act musical she would have. ( watching an 8 year old smell her armpits is pretty funny)

This was our cue to get the Hell outta there  leave while we still had the option to stay.

I love my stinky little punks.

My Baby is 8

My little girl turns eight today.

 They managed to sit still for this one picture

 But then they got unruly and I had to chase Ari around the kitchen to get my camera back. She snapped my picture in the process. Little PUNK

Miss thing had to lick all of the candles

 The other little punk wouldn't smile for me.

Pay no attention to the multiple paint colors on the walls in the background. I was looking for the perfect shade of blueish grayish greenish. 

I found it.

I love my little punks.

Run Boy Run!!!

Guess who ran his very first Half marathon yesterday??

Yep... my super sexy husband!!

I of course just waited at the finish line for him. My large chest doesn't allow me to run long distances. At least that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

 The finish line was in a beautiful park in an area called Point Clear Alabama,  right on the water.

All race finishers got to enjoy as much Gatorade as needed 

And of course they got to belly up to the Keg of beer too. Apparently that is the preferred drink of choice for a race finisher. It is supposed to replenish your body's need for carbs in a super fast way and helps to prevent major soreness from fatigued muscles.

That's THEIR story and THEY"RE sticking to it.

And here comes our boy, across the finish line in a respectable time of 2 hours and  three minutes.

Yea that's him all dressed in dark grey.

 Down the "chute" he comes!!

Of course I pointed him straight to the beer keg to "recover".

I had Ari with me so I made her snap our picture. I've discovered that I'm not in ANY pictures so I need to work on that. My cheeks are still pretty "round" from the steroids that I was on but I'm grateful to be alive and well so I'm working on "self acceptance" of myself.

Our good friend Alicia ran too. Actually she was the one that signed Ted and herself up for this race. She is Ted's running inspiration. She is full of "awesomeness"!!

LOVE HER!!!

Good Job Teddy Boy!!

We're so proud!!

Create, Create

I haven't had much time to post any blogs lately because I've been busy decorating.

First I had to re-make the soft roman shades in the kitchen because I am going in a different color direction. I've used the same colors in the last four houses we've owned. It was time for a change.

So they went from this...

To this. Much lighter. There are six of these windows PLUS a large window over my kitchen sink.

 Yea, I made them myself. I just took the old ones apart with a seam ripper... VERY carefully so I could keep the technical part of the shades intact. Then I bought this beautiful fabric and re-sewed them with the new fabric. Pretty huh?? I think so. Now I just need to have my super sexy husband paint the walls.

Then I was hired by my friend to decorate her house for the Holidays.

Did the inside AND the front door

I used a lot of burlap. It's my new favorite fabric. I made a tree skirt , table runner out of it and bought some 9" burlap ribbon and used it arounf the front door and on the Christmas tree and anywhere else I could think of. 

Then I moved on to my own front door.

They do things BIG here in the South so I had to step up my game this year.

 My crafty neighbor and I made the painted burlap stocking and Santa's for our front doors, and I did 21" wide red and white mesh ribbon on top of lit garland for around the door.

our tree is so small for thr ceilings in this house that it looks a bit like a mini tree so I had to make the top of the tree look like a party hat. 

I'm hoping to get a bigger tree on clearance after Christmas.

Once I finished all the projects above, I had a free day or two so I decided to make new Christmas stockings for my family. So with some direction from my friend, I made these "Ballard Design" look-a-likes. I sewed everything but the monogramming witch my friend did for me.

I wonder what my next project will be.