Picture Quota Update

I just wanted to give a small update about my picture issues. Apparently many other people are having the same problems. I have been searching Blogger Help for answers and I came across this message from Blogger:

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Some users are reporting that they're hitting unexpected image quota limits when uploading an image from Blogger. We're investigating the issue and will report back when we have more information to share.

It seems as though this problem really is a glitch and they are aware of it. Hopefully my blog will be back up and running soon.

Also, one person commented and said that you can upload your pictures into Flickr!, copy and paste the HTML into your blog and it will work that way. I'm in the process of joining Flickr! so maybe I'll have a real post up soon!

Help Please

Hi All!

I am having an issue with Blogger uploading my pictures. It says I have reached my Picasa storage limit and will not upload any more pictures for my blog unless I buy more storage. When I click on a link that says "learn more" it shows that I have 1 GB storage in Picasa and I am using 100% of it. But, it also says I have 5 GB in Drive and 10 GB in GMail that I am using 0% of. It also says that if I use all of my storage in Picasa, it will automatically start uploading photos in smaller size.

Can anyone explain why I am unable to upload any more photos if I have storage space in other places available or why it isn't uploading the pictures in a smaller size?

Kiev, Ukraine journal - 11-27-94 and 11-28-94

*Disclaimer: Please remember that I wrote these when I was 12! I could be a snarky brat! I also am typing these journals exactly as I wrote them, bad spelling and all, except I have abbreviated names to protect the innocent or not-so-innocent.

11-27-94

Today we went to Left Bank. After class we had a diner. There were these yuck minnows for lunch. People were tearing there heads off and eating them raw. We also had this yuck bread, too. It had square peices of fat on them. It was disgusting. Then Seargae took us home and we had a real lunch. Our lunch was a good healthy lunch without raw minnows. Michelle and I then took a nap. Mom kept waking me up because she said I wouldn't sleep tonight. I slept like a log.

*Apparently I was unimpressed by the Ukrainian cuisine.

11-28-94

R called us early this morning to see if we wanted to spend the night. Dad said we couldn't because we had to go to Bogdon and Maria's. We had to eat supper there. Instead of sleeping over we spent the day (until around 7) with R. We left R's around 5:00 and met mom and F at Levo Bereshna at 5:30. We met the guys at Poly Technique institute around 6:30. The JL took us to their house. For supper we had rice and bread and meat. It was pretty good. Then Bogdon, dad, and I all had paper airplane fights. We went home and went to bed after that.

*"Levo Bereshna" and "Poly Technique institute" are both metro stops in Kiev.

Kiev, Ukraine journal - 11-25-94 and 11-26-94

*Disclaimer: Please remember that I wrote these when I was 12! I could be a snarky brat! I also am typing these journals exactly as I wrote them, bad spelling and all, except I have abbreviated names to protect the innocent or not-so-innocent.

11-25-94

Today we got up early to go to Gedro Park with the Cs. We got to ride two rides only because it wasn't open and the gate was open on those two. We rode the cage and this other silly little kids ride. Then we went back to the Cs and R put my hair up in a bun. I looked exactly like a Russia she said. We stayed over there until thanksgiving dinner with all the Americans. It was at our house. It was really good. We had turkey, stuffing, pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes, gravey, ham, and corn. It was almost like Americas except that we weren't in America. R then spend the night.

11-26-94

Today I went with R to babysit S and A two American kids. They were alright I geuss. A was the best probably because he is only 9 months old. S is 3. She is a major pain. She ate her bowl of cereal and wanted more so I gave her a tad bit more, then she said she didn't want it, so I ate it. Then we had raviolli for lunch. It was all right. S finished and she started to color. Then she got up and started biting A. I almost spanked her then. But I just took A. He would cry every time I sat him down. Then dad, mom, Chelle and the Ls came and picked me up. That's all.

*I always wondered why no one wanted me to babysit for them....

From Vintage to Modern

During Christmastime last year, Home Depot aired a commercial about redoing an old window frame into a Christmas decoration.

 I loved the project from the first time I saw the commercial and I really wanted to do it last year. I had one problem, though. I had no idea where to get an old window.

Fast forward to yesterday. I was looking through Craigslist for an old, vintage church pew (for our front porch) and came across a listing for a store in Tulsa called Home Accents From Vintage to Modern that had old windows. Um, yes please. I called the store and they are only open Thursday through Saturday, but the lady was supposed to be doing some work in the store today so she was so kind as to set up an appointment with me so I could come by and look at her windows.

And I found a window! I know it doesn't look like much and that it isn't exactly like the one in the commercial, but it was priced right at $5.00 and I think it will work.

I am really looking forward to this project!

Kiev, Ukraine journal - 11-23-94 and 11-24-94

*Disclaimer: Please remember that I wrote these when I was 12! I could be a snarky brat! I also am typing these journals exactly as I wrote them, bad spelling and all, except I have abbreviated names to protect the innocent or not-so-innocent.

11-23-94

Today we got up early to go sovonier shopping with C and R. We bought one barret out of about 4 hours. R had to go home early though. She had to babysit for A and S. Then we went to the Church at Centre. Mom taught the lady's class. She taught about the Shunamite woman. R is a baby-hog, ha, ha. She held A all through the lesson. Then we were giong to leave with K2 but she couldn't find K, so K2 and us just left. She said he could find his own way home. I hope he could. I have full confidence in him, maybe. Ha, ha.

11-24-94

We went with mom to English. I got a bunch of homework.

What I'm Loving Wednesday and Oh, How Pinteresting

It seems like it has been forever since I linked up with Jamie for What I'm Loving Wednesday! I so need to get back into the groove.

I'm loving that the presidential elections are over for another 4 years. I do get tired of all the political bashing, articles, posts and whatnot that election time brings.

 On that same thread, I'm loving this Facebook status one of my friends wrote this morning:

"My guy didn't win. But I marvel @ the process every time. 120 million people decided in one election cycle whether to retain a government or replace it. While driving home from the polls, I didn't see any dead in the streets or witness any fire fights in the pastures and fields. 30,000 people have died in Syria the past year trying to accomplish what we do in 1 day of voting. Just some food for thought."

Good thoughts whether your guy won or not.

I'm loving that I have an online shop for my creations now! You can check out my store, Lisa's Little Lovelies on Facebook or on Etsy!

I'm loving the 2 new shirt designs I did this week. I have one more shirt that needs to be outlined and then I can start on some more new designs!

Floating in the Sky Shirt

See Ya Later, Alligator Shirt
Or as I call it: My Lacoste Knockoff

I'm loving that The Children's Orchard came through for me again. I've been looking for a white sweater and a jean skirt for Chloe Jo for a couple of months now and found both there on Monday.

I'm loving Halloween clearance! I bought these pettiskirts for Chloe Jo's birthday. She is going to invite a few little girlfriends over for a Princess Teaparty. I know it is way early to start planning (her birthday is in April), but Halloween clearance is right now so we went with it.

I'm loving this sweet girl. She makes life so fun!

 I'm also going to link up with Michelle for Oh, How Pinteresting!

Source: thegoodstuffguide.com via Lisa on Pinterest

I'm really loving this pin. I thought it was a great idea for kids just in case we go out and we get separated somehow. I made one for Chloe Jo and for Brianna. I just hope they will never need it!

Source: makeit-loveit.com via Lisa on Pinterest

I think this is such a cute skirt! Wouldn't it be adorable done with handkerchiefs!

I got a kick out of the next few!

Source: forums.theknot.com via Lisa on Pinterest

Source: repinly.com via Lisa on Pinterest

Source: someecards.com via Lisa on Pinterest

Link up here and here to play along!

Happy blogging and pinning everyone!

Election Day

Did you remember to go vote?

My little helper and I went this afternoon!

I can't hardly believe this is the 4th presidential election I have voted in.

The polls are closing down here and we are anxious to start seeing results come in!

Today is not only election day for our family. It also marks 4 months since anyone has seen or heard from Skylar, Russ' cousin.

I can't imagine what Skylar's parents are going through. Please say a prayer for Skylar, her family, her friends and for the FBI agents that are working on her case. I pray that her parents find answers soon.

This afternoon was busy, busy. After voting Chloe Jo and I came home and I started a new project. My Mom made me this blanket back when I was a teenager. It's around 15 years old. It is a twin size so I gave it to Chloe Jo since her bed is the only twin in our house. Well, I kept finding pieces of string on the floor that Chloe Jo had obviously been chewing on. I couldn't figure out where it was coming from. Well, one day I realized what was going on. My little stinker had chewed off the ties on her blanket!

I was so mad! I actually left the room so I could cool down before giving her what for! I had no idea my little girl is part hamster.

And that is what I did this afternoon. It took me about 4 hours to retack the blanket, but I did it and it looks so much better.

Plus, after laying it out on the table, I realized that several of the tacks were completely gone. It needed retacked very badly. Sometime in the near future, I will have to redo it again so I can change out the flannel backing. It is starting to wear very thin.

And that's all she wrote.

Chores

Chloe Jo is getting to the age where she loves to help...but only when she wants to. In light of this, I have been trying to find ways to help her want to help all of the time.

I had pinned several things on Pinterest about chores. There were a few pins about how to reward children who do their chores and a few about how to help them do them when they don't want to.

I eventually chose to make a chore chart. I felt that this way would yield the most benefit for Chloe Jo at the stage she is in now.

Chloe Jo's favorite color is pink so I knew I wanted to do the chart out of pink paper. I had some of the strawberry paper I used for her birthday party decorations left over so I decided to use that. I wanted her name and the words to pop so I chose a contrasting green paper for those. I got out my Cricut to cut the letters and I put the chart together.

 I ended up making it 12x24 after quickly realizing all the chores I had for her wouldn't fit on the 12x12 paper.

I had bought some magnetic strips to cut up to put on the front for the chores to stick to. Again, I quickly realized that wasn't going to work because the pieces had to be put together just right for them to stay. The chores kept falling off. I am now in the process of changing the magnets to velcro instead which is working much better so far. I did put strips of magnets on the back of the chore chart so it can hang on the refrigerator.

I took the chart and the chores to Office Depot and had everything laminated so it would last.

Even though I had troubleshooting problems, the chart turned out great and Chloe Jo loves moving the chores to the "done" side.

Here is a close-up of the chores I chose to put on the chart.

I, personally, am a believer in teaching responsibility to children when they are young. Productive children turn into productive adults and that is one of our goals as parents.

Trick-or-Treat

On Halloween evening our town put on a trick-or-treat on our main street. We invited cousins Brianna and Brenson to go with us. It started at 5:00 and we were able to visit each station in under an hour. That gave us plenty of time to get some supper and make it to Bible Class. Afterwards, Brianna and Brenson came to our house and Chloe Jo and Brianna (along with their Daddy's) trick-or-treated in our neighborhood. It was such a fun evening!

Here is Chloe Jo before we went to trick-or-treat. It was so warm that she was able to nix the long sleeved shirt and the cloak!

Cousin Brianna was a zebra for Halloween. The girls were so excited to go trick-or-treating together!

Mr. Brenson was a giraffe. His baby blues are sooooo precious!

One more of the Princess. My sister took this picture and I love it.

My sis also took a family picture. I do wish Chloe Jo was looking at the camera, but it's a great picture other than that!

The evening was topped off by this gorgeous Oklahoma sunset. Absolutely stunning!

Etsy Shop Launch!

I've been trying really hard to promote my store since I opened it on Facebook!

I have also advertised on Craigslist and in the Tulsa newspaper.

Today, I finished getting my Etsy shop back in working order. I have 15 items listed right now and am planning on getting more done in the next week. I am trying to concentrate on the applique shirts because those are the items I think will sell the best.

I ordered some business cards and am excited to get them in the mail so I can set them out around our town.

Please help me out if you can and tell your friends about my shop!

Here are a few of the more recent things I have made for the shop:

Plastic bag sack. I'll have a post about these soon.

Fabric and Wooden Bead Necklace. I really love these, but haven't gotten many hits on them. Maybe I'm the only one?

The Lazy Tie Shirt. So adorable! I also think this would be cute with a matching skirt for a girl.

Gary the Monster Shirt. This may be one of my favorites!

I am so excited to get this idea up and running!

Kiev, Ukraine journal - 11-21-94 and 11-22-94

*Disclaimer: Please remember that I wrote these when I was 12! I could be a snarky brat! I also am typing these journals exactly as I wrote them, bad spelling and all, except I have abbreviated names to protect the innocent or not-so-innocent.

11-21-94

We arrived back in Keiv around 8:00 A.M. It's really nice to be home. I like Keiv a lot better than I like Harcoff. Harcoff was really muddy at the time we went. I would rather live in the states than in the Ukraine. We went shopping at the meat market, too. Mom bought a roast. People make fun of her because she asks them to write the prices down. It must brighten up their day Mom said. I saw a guy pick up the icky bloddy head of a hot to. It almost made me barf.

11-22-94

We started off the day by doing a bunch of homework. Then we got unpacked and Mom went to teach. Her English class was very quit except for one boy and one girl. They boy was really weird. He asked mom why was I so sad. I said I wasn't but the kid still thought I was. The kids name was Sergae, I think. Sergae then asked mom why she came. Mom said so we could work with the Church. Sergae then asked do you really belive in Jesus. Mom of course said yes. We went to the Bizzare afterwards. We didn't get anything though.

Quotable Chloe

I've been meaning to do a post of a few funny things Chloe Jo has said recently. She says these things and I think "Oh! I should blog that!" and then I forget. Sadness. Here are a few of her more recent funnies:

*Cousin Brianna was over playing one evening and they were picking up the play food. Chloe Jo picked up a banana and said, "Hey look! It's a Brinana!" Pretty good joke for a 3 year old!

*One day Chloe Jo came up to me and said "'I' is for ice cream...with m&m's on top!" and then ran off.

*A couple of days ago we were playing with the Barbies. Chloe Jo was not happy that they were all named Barbie so she renamed them all Dora. Baha! The mind of kids!

*Last night Chloe Jo wanted to say her own prayer. "Dear God, thank you for peoples and for ice cream with m&m's on top. Amen. .... Oh, and Santa. Amen."

HalloZOOween

When we first moved to Oklahoma, we were gifted with season passes to the zoo. We love going and it makes for an inexpensive, fun outing for all of us. Throughout the year, the zoo puts on several extra activities and HalloZOOween is one of them. We invited some friends and headed off on Monday.

I remembered to take some pictures of CJ in her costume before we left!

She was so excited to be a princess! You can see some of her sparkle makeup in this picture.

She was also so excited to be going trick-or-treating!

We didn't know how crowded it was going to be so we arrived early so we could be in the beginning of the line to get in. Here is the princess waiting to get into the zoo. It ended up turning chilly so she had to wear her jacket under her cloak.

Once we got in, the fun began. Many of the cities businesses set up trick-or-treat stations for the children and there were two very large play areas. Chloe Jo is pulling the sword from the stone in this picture. Just call her King Arthur!

CJ was so excited to meet some of the Disney Princess' that were there!

I'm so sad these pictures are so blurry! I'm just not a good photographer. :-(

Ariel and Chloe Jo

Belle and Chloe Jo

Extra sad about this picture. Belle is my favorite.

Chloe Jo and Snow White

Prince Charming was there, also, but Chloe Jo refused to have anything to do with him. Good girl.

There was a booth to color pumpkins. I had to, first, convince Chloe Jo to sit down and then she wanted me to draw the face. I should have known. She doesn't really care anything about coloring. She was happy with the pumpkin after it was done!

Or maybe she knows that Daddy is her Prince Charming right now. Love the Burger King crown there, Russ!

I think Chloe Jo had a mouth full of tootsie roll here and it was inhibiting her ability to smile. :-)

There were tons of games at the play areas. CJ enjoyed the bean bag toss. Her aim was somewhat lacking so she finally just walked up to the pumpkin and dropped the beanbag through the eye. Whatever works!

By far, CJ's favorite activity of the evening was this obstacle course tent. She must have gone through it a dozen times! She didn't even care much about the handful of candy she got at the end. You know it's a favorite when that happens!

Russ is already talking about going again next year so I guess that means it was a hit!