quiltagami...

I bought this book for my Mom for her birthday. (Surprise! Happy birthday, Mom.) Her birthday is in July. I bought it early on purpose so I can attempt one or two of the patterns first! Buwhahahah. My mother is an origami wizard, so I imagine she'll have a blast with this book. Me, on the other hand...not so much. Origami drives me crazy, I guess because it's done on such a small scale. Or maybe I'm just not patient enough. That must be it. Upon her death, my mother should be canonized for her patience. To be the mother of six and still manage to be person she is, sheesh. A saint I tell you, a SAINT!!

Even with my aversion to origami, the projects in this book are so gorgeous that I HAVE to try.

Mom, if you want this book early, you'll have to come visit to get it. Buwhahahah. Even if you aren't one to lift a needle, this book is still beautiful to look through. The fabrics she uses are so rich and luxurious...it's too bad there aren't swatches to touch. But that's just the fabric junkie in me talking. I would buy a book packed full of beautiful fabrics in a New York minute. Oh yeah, those are called swatch books and my husband has forbidden me to bring any home. Bah.

"ooo are a bad mommy!"

Since having our new computer desk installed last week, the entire "work" area has been reconfigured. Logan's computer is set up on its own little desk to the left of the new "big" desk. In an effort to free up some leg space for him, I put his CPU behind the desk with all the drives and power button facing out to the left. The tiny green light above the power button may as well be a freaking beacon lamp at the top of a lighthouse as far as Caleb is concerned because any time he is within a 5 mile radius of it he is COMPELLED to push the button. The sound of the button clicking and the whirr of system shutting down sends Logan into fits since he's normally right in the middle of some challenging alphabet or coloring activity on his Pooh game and in the three year old's universe I imagine that's akin to being in the middle of a twenty page term paper that you haven't saved since page three when some schmuck trips over the power cord at the end of your row in the computer lab.

Caleb pushed the button for the twenty-seventh time today and I scolded him for doing so. Keep in mind, WHENEVER one takes a tone of castigation with Caleb, he immediately bursts into tears (as if the tears will lessen the severity of the punishment about to be served, ha HA, he knows not from whose loins I sprung). Instead of throwing a fit about his computer being turned off AGAIN, Logan took the stance of protective big brother. He chastized me for making the baby cry. He informed me that I was a bad mommy and that I shouldn't make the baby cry. Hrmph. I can't wait until Logan sees a child protective services commercial a couple years down the road...should make for fun times.

a month of softies: vintage catwalk

Meet Miss Ruby Mae Smith, my submission for Loobylu's A Month of Softies.



My original inspiration came from memories of my great grandmother, Florence (aka Flossie, very vintage all by itself, dontcha think?). Ruby is a simple little pancake style doll. She is made of cotton muslin and has little button eyes, a puffed satin stitched nose and wool hair. I think the knotted strand of pearls adds an extra bit of vintage flair, ala June Cleaver, et al.

Be sure to check out all the other softies and the archives too! Can't wait to see what February's theme will be.

illustration friday: gluttony

This week's topic has some brilliant spins taken on it. So far my favorites are this one, this one, this one and this one.



Click here for full image.

This week's contribution is really unfinished, he needs teeth and probably some hair too. I also thought about inserting images of SUV's and big trucks (but then, I'm not a hypocrit so that idea was promptly eighty-sixed) or a landfill instead of food. I just don't have the time this week to do what I'd like to do. Harumph.

look what i found...

I came across Jennifer Murphy's website over a year or so ago and have been totally smitten with her sweet little bears and kittens and birds and such ever since. Did you see her article in Mary Englebreit's Home Companion December/January issue? She looks just like you would expect her to, pixie-like. (At least that's how I imagined she would look.) The pictures of her studio and her collections of trinkets and ephemera are enviable to say the least. Anyway, I stopped by her site today to see what sort of charming little critters she's come up with lately and found that she has turned some of her creations into printed valentines. HOW CUTE ARE THEY? Simply adorable.

cozy and pink...

I just got an email that my new favorite coat is being shipped today!



I just hope it stays cold long enough for me to wear it this season!

the guestbook...

is finished! I think it turned out really well.









I scattered the "our guests" pages throughout the book.


I ended up using twenty pages for the text block and I am STILL in love with that flecked paper. I wish I could get a good scan or picture to show it off, but I am having no luck, so you'll have to take my word for it.

I found the website of a man who took antique woodcut blocks and turned them into the coolest fonts and set them up as "postcardware." All you have to do to register the fonts you use is send a postcard to his daughter. SO COOL!

aaaaaarrrrgh...

To the idiot who sealed the overflow pipe with pvc epoxy: If only I could find you, I would epoxy all of your fingers together and take all of your plumbing tools and give them to a REAL plumber. Ugh.

orange and brown...

My paper arrived today and man was it a mixed bag. The pictures were a little off. The teal stripe is dead on, the orange is a little lighter in person (probably due to fading from sunlight exposure), the stars are glittered (sigh, not what I was expecting) and the flecked paper is SO much cooler in person. Anyway, I couldn't wait to get started on a book so I made this one last night.











I think I'll mail it to my Mom. I owe her and my Dad a thank you note anyway. They gave me a subscription to this magazine:



I L*O*V*E it! Thanks Mom and Dad!

illustration friday: the seasons

Click to see full illustration.

My brain is currently geared toward all things celestial. My sister-in-law is getting married in a few weeks and I've been helping her here and there with ideas. Their ceremony will be held in a planetarium, thus their theme is a celestial one. Not everyone's cup of tea, but very well suited to my sister-in-law and her beau.

I'm waiting on some really neat papers to be delivered (tomorrow!) so that I can get her guestbook made. I never realized how over-priced wedding guestbooks are for the materials they use and the crap workmanship they offer until I started looking for one for her. I'm thinking I'll do some kind of fancy japanese stab binding technique.



Can't wait to get started on it. There is something very relaxing about making a book.

did i just hear that?

Caleb fell asleep very early last night, so early that he woke up at 3:30 this morning to start the day. If this were Logan who was up for good at 3:30 I'd have been up too, because he's at the age now where he might just burn the whole house down simply because it seemed like a good thing to do at the time. With Caleb, not so much, he doesn't like to stray too far from Mom or Dad's side at the moment. Thankfully.

While I changed his twenty pound wet diaper, Lynn fixed him a fresh bottle of milk. We turned the boobtube on to the Disney Channel and proceeded to sleep with one eye open.

Caleb wanders around LOOKING for stuff to get into, er, play with, so there isn't much around that he can harm or be harmed by. Every now and again, one or the other of us would get up to see what he was banging on or talking to. Once he was sufficiently bored with everything upstairs he decided to climb into bed with us and watch Playhouse Disney for a bit. This is the first time he has ever watched TV on purpose. Lynn elbowed me to look at the kid laying on his belly between us with his feet in the air, chin in his hands, watching a They Might Be Giants video...on the Disney Channel. I wish I had the camera, it was that cute. And confusing too...They Might Be Giants in the middle of Playhouse Disney. What? TMBG has a children's bed time book (which I love) Bed, Bed, Bed and a pretty good children's album too. The album, No!, has a pretty cool flash interactive program on it that the "video" was gleaned from. It may the exact same thing, but I haven't looked at the disc in a long time.

Well, here's a diet coke toast to early mornings with one year olds. I need a nap.

"Well, we're dressed for investigating, so let's investigate."

Last night we ran around the metroplex searching for a play gas station for Logan. I know they exist, but apparently, no one sells them. Our last stop on the quest was Target, where we found that Caleb is mezmerized by BoohBah and Target doesn't sell play gas stations either. While roaming the aisles we came across a small bit of shelf space crammed with Teen Titans paraphernalia. Among all the action figures and such was a costume. I surreptitiously pointed to it and before Lynn could zero in on it, Logan had already laid eyes on it.



I was worried he would fall asleep in it, but once he started feeling sleepy he decided to take it off and fold it up for the next day. As soon as he woke up this morning he was ready to put it all back on again. BEFORE breakfast. In the same order as yesterday. Woman!! What in the hell is wrong with you?!

swoon...

swoon
Originally uploaded by aplcreations.

I love to make valentines. When I was a little girl, I used to LOVE designing and creating my valentine mailbox for my desk at school. The thought of that mailbox was more exciting to me than the actual valentines that would go into the box. Some years we made valentine bags out of brown lunch bags...eh, I wasn't so fond of those...not enough surface area to decorate I guess.

"You Make Me Swoon." Swoon is a fun word to say, try it, I dare ya. It's even more fun to ask other people to say it. Unless they're three, people are hesitant to just complete a random command like that for fear of some nasty ulterior motive. Good times, people, good times.

My grandparents gave me a new woodburning tool/soldering iron for Christmas and I have been dying to try it out on something since the night I opened the box. I also just bought myself a new japanese screw punch (LOVE IT) and have been making up reasons left and right to use it. Did I mention I'm a coll(hoarder)ector of any kind of cool, interesting, oddball paper known to mankind? Well I am. So, having two new toys that needed playing with and more paper than I'll ever use in three lifetimes, the fish idea came to me Saturday night. Voila, a sort of a gift within a card sort of valentine. The little collaged charm is removable. Once you open the card you can leave it like it is or take the charm off and wear it or hang it somewhere. Swoon.

In any event, I started working on a couple different card designs this weekend and have posted a couple on my website and will be posting a few items on ebay this afternoon too. Time to get some cash flow working.

adventures in parenthood...

My husband is a hands-on type of dad. He doesn't hesitate to change a rotten diaper. He takes "the early shift" when one or both of the boys decide it's the perfect morning to start the day at 4:30am. When our boys were tiny and still being breastfed he was the one to get out of bed at 2am, 4am and 6am to change the baby's diaper and then hand him over to me for feeding time. Where did I find this man, you say? San Angelo, Texas, way back in the summer of 1991.

Anyway, today's adventure entails a nasty diaper rash and NOT diaper rash cream.

For some reason raisins absolutely tear Caleb up. This wouldn't be such a bad thing if the kid didn't totally DIG raisins. For quite a few months I could just not give him raisins. Logan doesn't care for raisins, so raisins never came up in the daily "snack quest." Well, recently Caleb discovered there is an entire other universe above his line of vision. Since that discovery Caleb now thinks to look UP and he knows how to CLIMB, extremely well I might add. Needless to say, raisins were re-introduced into Caleb's diet a few days ago and now he has an awful rash.

This afternoon Caleb woke up from his nap, puttered around for a bit, and filled another diaper. Lynn scooped him up, plopped him on the changing table and began changing the diaper. As I was walking out of the room the screaming commenced (poor baby). As I re-entered the room whimpering was quickly amping up to screaming again. And there was the smell of Mentholatum in the air. Instead of A&D ointment, Lynn had smeared Johnson's Soothing Vapor Baby Cream all over Caleb's rash covered bum. My very dear, very sweet, very UNOBSERVANT husband only read 'soothing comfort for babies' before adding insult to an already injured little bum.

illustration friday: balance

I have been enjoying everyone's submissions to Illustration Friday since its inception and finally, FINALLY, I sat myself down and worked up my own submission.



I started out this morning brainstorming ideas for both Illustration Friday and A Month of Softies. This month's theme for A Month of Softies is vintage catwalk. As I doodled and sketched, I thought of my Great Grandma and many of the cool memories I have of her:

• Walking with her to her hair appointment and watching her get her hair set in a permanent wave.
• Her Daniel Green forest green brocade slippers.
• Her pretty sleeveless a-line dresses.
• And the grapes!

She always had green grapes in the fridge and croissants by the toaster for us. Green grapes were on her grocery list every week. To this day I think of her when I grab my bag of grapes at the grocery store. My little guys are too young right now to regale with stories of Great Grandma...it would be like telling stories of Bob, the guy in that suburban over there. One day they'll be old enough to suffer through my stories and even further down the road they'll be old enough to appreciate the stories I share with them along the way.

Anyway, as it turns out, Great Grandma is my muse today. I'll be bringing her about in the form of a doll in the next couple days for her stroll down the vintage catwalk over at Loobylu.com for A Month of Softies.

randomness, total randomness...

Before the randomness ensues, a public service announcement: never, never leave a three year old and a one year old unsupervised, even for a minute, even if your bladder is about to rupture, with a bowl full of ravioli. Believe me, the mess you will make peeing down your pants leg is a far, far smaller one than the mess an apparently famished one year old is going to make with ravioli.

The ravioli was Logan's leftovers from lunchtime. He asked to save some for his snack later and that's just what we did. Naturally, at about the same time I needed a potty break, Logan was ready for his snack. Caleb had just finished his delish-nutrish snack of raisins and goldfish crackers and was already back to his trucks and blocks, minding his own business. I thought to myself, what could transpire in less than three minutes? HA! Ha Ha! Why can't I say what CAN'T happen in three minutes? I quickly took care of my own business, hurried back to the living room...no Caleb to be found...looked on into the kitchen where there was no Logan to be found, but there was Caleb, COVERED in tomato sauce and ravioli chunks, standing on the kitchen table . Logan came around the corner proclaiming, "Look mom, I shared my 'nack with Baby Wah Wah!!" Thank you, sweet and generous Logan, your kindness is overwhelming. Anyway, Caleb had his bath early today.





Now on to the randomness:

Have you seen the train wreck that is The Surreal Life Season 4? Holy cow, this group of castmates makes me laugh.

Sigh...you know, I had a mental list of three or four crazy things to share and have totally forgotten what they were. I'll think of them later, I'm sure, so hang in there.

mmmm, benihana...

If ever you needed to be reminded of a child's wonder, a trip to your local Benihana restaurant will do the trick. We received a gift certificate to Benihana for Christmas and decided we'd better use it before we forgot about it. We packed up the boys and drove down to Dallas for some shopping and Benihana.

Shopping was eh, to say the least. Benihana was good as always. Once Logan decided on teriyaki steak and hibachi rice the fun began. Our chef was really funny, hard as hell to understand, but FUH-NEE. I ended up watching Logan and Caleb instead of our chef. Caleb got such a kick out of the clanging of the spatula and fork on the grill...he sat there grinning and clapping the entire time. Logan's jaw actually dropped while watching the flicking and flinging of eggs and shrimp and various veggies. Logan used his chopsticks, quite agilely, I might add. Caleb used his chopsticks too, only he used them to stab his food...whatever works, he is a one year old after all. Good times, people, good times.

This family outing serves as a reminder to me to relish these days as they are fleeting. Before I know it, my little three year old Logan and my little one year old Caleb are going to be 20 and 18 and won't be nearly as impressed with the performance of a teppanyaki chef as they were today.

lemony snicket

has just been added to my all time favorite movies list. After dinner out with our little monkeys and my husband's sister, we went to see Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. Even if you haven't read a single book in the series, it is a great movie. I'd go see it again just to watch the credits...and textures and architecture and eyeballs. Besides all the interesting stuff to look at, I have decided that the character, Sunny Baudelaire, was closely based on a female version of Caleb. If you know (and even if you don't) sweet Caleb, once you see Sunny in action, you'll understand what I'm talking about.

happy birthday...

to me!

Today marks my thirtieth year of life. When I think of thirty years as a span of time it seems like a relatively long time. However, when I think of thirty years as a span of ones life it seems like a drop in the bucket. I have been fortunate enough to have my first thirty years marked by many milestones, both good and bad I assure you, but the good far out weighs the bad. I came across this quote in an email not too long ago: "Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming -- 'WOW, what a ' ride!!!'" I have seen it before and always come away from it with a grin, mainly because I know so many people who live by that creed but also because I try to live my life the same way as well. With all that we have to deal with in our lives today I think skidding in broadside at the end will make it all worth it. That said, it is my decree, I will spend my next thirty years improving my broadside skid (to be evaluated every thirty years hereafter, heh)...I want it to be the one with the most flourish and creativity a 100 year old can muster!

48 hours...

of sleep deprivation and a baby's misery culminated in Caleb's eardrum rupturing. I never thought I would be so happy to have such a thing happen to my child. It bears repeating, Caleb was MISERABLE (imagine that word typed in foot tall letters, that would explain how terrible he felt) for 48 hours straight. I feel like a bit of a dunce for not realizing it sooner, but the poor little guy is in the middle of teething and cold season and blah-dee-blah, plus he never ran more than a low grade fever which I attributed to his teething. Dunce, I tell you! We made a trip to the pediatrician yesterday to have him checked over and a freakin' car payment later we now know he has an ear infection in his left ear along with the ruptured eardrum in his right ear. Our new insurance for this year has a family deductible of ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS $1,000 for an individual and TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS for the family! Our pharmacy coverage stayed the same, but it has a family deductible of $500. GROAN. GNASHING OF TEETH. SIGH VOMIT. All I can say is thank God for negotiated fees.

On the Logan front, he's still be tortured by all the rain. He has all these new outdoor things to play with and no outdoors in which to go out and play with the things. He dreams of doing this again someday:

He asks to go out in the garage to see his bike and his Gator pretty regularly. So I let them loose in the garage and he and Caleb go out and climb all over everything, even the old trike and wagon too. I used to let Logan ride his trike around in the kitchen when the weather was nasty, but between his new Evil Kanevil tendencies and Caleb's fervent desire to ride the trike as well, it stays in the garage. Rain, rain, go away, come again another day.

who knew...

dental hygiene could be so important to a one year old? About ten minutes ago, Caleb came toddling over to me with his toothbrush in one hand and Lynn's toothpaste in the other. I take the time to specify that it is Lynn's toothpaste because we have a specially formulated children's toothpaste for the littles. It tastes like bubble gum, sort of. Caleb handed me his toothbrush and then proceeded to open the tube of toothpaste before handing it to me as well. I pretended to put some toothpaste on his toothbrush and gave it back to him to use. Well, let me just say this, if looks could kill, I'd be on the floor writhing in pain and wishing for death right now. He looked at the toothbrush and looked at me like I had just rubbed my big toe all over it and then handed it back to me as if to say, "nice try, MOTHER, let's try this again and let's do it the RIGHT way this time." He's quite the clever little fellow.

Meanwhile, Logan is downstairs lamenting the fact that it rained all day yesterday and is STILL raining today. He is wistfully looking at his sandbox (which at the moment is a mudbox because none of us can remember to put the lid on at night). He desperately wants to take his new John Deere Gator out for another spin but the rain, THE RAIN, is ruining all his plans! Apparently, rain makes Logan seriously melodramatic.

Oh, and in other breaking news, I might have jumped the gun on the fabulous-ness of 2005. Caleb and Logan both were up and down ALL night last night. Caleb wailed and bawled inconsolably for thirty minutes at a time and then would fall off to sleep for a while and just about the time I would start to doze, Logan would wake up screaming. We never figured out what was troubling Caleb, although, I think the combination of teething, runny/stuffy nose and ears bothering him was the culprit. 'Round about 3:30am I figured out what was bothering Logan. He dropped something on his big toe a couple days ago and I think the pressure is building under his toenail and anytime he bumps it it shoots debilitating pain straight up his leg. Why would it be hurting him while he sleeps? Logan is a busy sleeper, he moves around ALOT. His dreams seem to consist of what he did earlier in the day, riding bikes, playing soccer, etc. He talks through his dreams and moves accordingly as well at times. I'm praying that tonight's slumber will be peaceful for all or Mommy and Daddy are going to have matching nervous break downs!