Everybody's working (photos)

As I begin my afternoon, I decided to take a break from my "work" and catch up on some photo's and some family and crafty news.  Today's title is in relation to the pics I'm posting as, right this minute...not everyone in the family is working. Tony is of course.  He's actually had a very long work week made up of an average of about 14 hour days.  That is HARD work...but, its tamed by the weeks where, because of the economy, his job has only been able to offer him 2 or 3 days work. Apparently, the company hired a new sales person and he is bringing in business, which is obviously a good thing...but, making for some long hours for the drivers.  As Tony drives, Caleb is preparing for his month-long trip to Juneau to see friends and family.  I was about in a 'fit of nerves' last night, thinking of how much I will miss him.  He is always a ray of sunshine for me!  Luckily, however, Oregon is finally getting some of nature's sunshine (although its rainy today, the forecast is for a holiday weekend in the 80's increasing to almost a heat-wave next week, with temps reaching into the 90's!) so while I'll miss my big-little guy, I'll be tending a growing vegetable garden, and by the time Caleb returns, we should be just about ready to make salsa!  So, Caleb is doing laundry and packing, Kallie is watching T.V.; waiting for her beau to come for a visit and Michael is in town playing some basketball if the court's not too wet...in which case, he's just chillin' with friends.

My "work" today is continuing progress on 7 Autumn decorations/center pieces.  Its funny to think of preparing for fall, as I am the one person who would never rush summer, but I've already received applications in the mail for fall craft-shows...so that's what I'm working on.  These little center-pieces will be available for the first-time for the public.  I created them a few years ago for some of my family members, but have decided to create a series to sell at the craft fairs and in my Etsy store.  Here's a sneak preview of one that I made and have used for Fall decor the past few years:

This photo includes some of the angel ornaments I make for Christmas, but its the scarecrow piece that I'm working on now.  Since they are all hand-made, each will be slightly different, of course.  They all include my original poem: Scarecrow Philosophy.  More about that and more photos to come when the set is finished.

The next worker featured in today's blog is Caleb, although, if you could see the rain coming down, you would know that these photo's were definitely not taken today!  However, they were taken just last week. I love how green everything is! And all the variations of greens,topped off with spashes of color in my flowers!

And finally, a group of pictures of Tony and Michael working-out. 

Michael came home from a weekend trip to see some of his buddies with this 6 minute ab work-out that the boys would all gather and do together.  It is a work-out posted on You Tube.  The guys do it about 3 times a day and swear it works... having not tried it myself, I have no first-hand knowledge of the results, but if just watching the exercise could give me a six-pack...I think seeing this work-out a couple of times would do it!  Michael generally does it twice in a row, making it a 12  minute work-out.  You can see from the photo's that it didn't take long, when Michael got his Dad to join him in the fun, for the two of them to work up a bunch of manly sweat. 

Ummm... I'm pretty sure this is not what a couch is made for.  And, I would know!  In the photo where they are reaching to the side, you can see that they are watching the You Tube work-out  on Michael's lap-top as they do it themselves.

They aren't finished yet...the video gives a couple of 10-20 second rests.

Well, that's about it for today's account of different types of work being done around the Jacobsen house in the last week.  I realize, unfortunately, that none of these photos includes Kallie or the work she's done...and she, is in all reality, one of the best workers around the home.  She is pretty faithful to clean the kitchen and can be coerced into cleaning the bathroom from time to time...but, she shares that bathroom with two boys- so I don't blame her that she prefers that one of them be responsible for the bulk of bathroom cleaning!

If you see the prior post about Tony's birtday, you'll see the cake, brownies and decorations Kallie made, not to mention all the other cleaning preparations!  She even made another pan of brownies last night...sabatoging all the boys' ab work-outs, I'm sure!

Well, keep a watch for the finished scarecrow center-pieces.  There will be a limited number.  Feel free to leave a comment to reserve yours now.  When they are finished, I will post them AND replenish and update my Etsy store.

Until later....