robot•jumping•rope

going to the Farm for a day or so to catch some pretty sunrises, good coffee & conversation and perhaps a bullfrog (or two). Enjoy these days.

Put on your covet pants cause I got to meet Ms. Capello yesterday (and enjoy some delicious, I mean really delicious, cupcakes). Aren’t you jealous? She stood on my porch! And peeked into my new Blue Room! (she wasn’t allowed inside the sickhouse® just in case germs were floating about - we have a nasty bug going over here).

And may I just say she is just as funny in real life as on her wonderful blog, and so very, very nice.

I will confess (to you and to her) I was expecting someone different (and was frankly, a little scared, I mean - the woman has one sharp tongue!), but in reality she is a sweetie pie with a heart of gold, not at all messing with bitterness about what is going on in her life right now, and funny as hell. Perfectly appropriate, in my opinion. :) Plus her beautiful son is a towhead like mine - can’t get more delectable than that, my friends.

[And no, she doesn't look like the "tribal barbie" I photoshopped up a few years back for my Valentine cards (who does?). But just like my magenta-haired, Fluevog-wearing, tribal-tatted, nose-studded Photoshop creation, she's just the right amount of girlie, with just the right amount of edge.]

Thanks for the cupcakes, sweetie, and we must get together again, soon.

Somebody with more gumption than I had better plan a KC bloghers get-together, pronto. Seriously, get on that.

the artist in her studio, 9:30a.m.,

recent works:

new chalkboard wall in the boy’s room put to excellent use:

(dinos eat freighters)

he’s in there, somewhere. poor guy (high fever today)

early lunch! (mama’s ploy to produce early naps. it worked)

pasta, pears and chocolate soymilk.

cutter quilt I’m listing on eBay later today:

(forgive the shameless self-promotion)

We put together a garage sale Saturday and the quilt is one of the few items that didn’t sell. I wasn’t really planning to have a sale, but Friday morning we were puttering around in the basement storage room looking for something when it hit me that there were at least a dozen boxes of junk I had never opened from before we were married 10 years ago.

It had to go.

We unwrapped lots of dishes and books and knick-knacks (no longer welcome here), keeping only the truly sentimental and putting the rest on hastily constructed tables in the front driveway.

We made a little over $200 from 10-4, and celebrated with dinner out at my favorite Greek spot.

Not a bad haul for the little work we put into it, plus we met a lot of neighbors and friendly people. A man from Indonesia chatted with us for a long time, gave my son a bamboo whistle and showed us how to make fire from flint and a paper napkin. cool.

Also met a freshly-certified teacher who just bought her first house, a bungalow over in Strawberry Hill. We discussed homes and remodeling, and she shared that she’d discovered 2 Eames chairs in the basement when she moved in! great story.

And it just feels so good to have that stuff out of the house!

Anyway, the quilt didn’t sell, my Goodform chairs didn’t have any lookers, and several other antique/vintage finds will be listed on eBay or put into the free classifieds at dear husband’s work. Most people were looking for kid clothes and practical household supplies and tools.

’twill be school for one today as sick boy #1 is asleep now and sick boy #2 is in my lap. I’ll do some phonics work with my daughter and then let her have the rest of the day to paint. She will, no doubt.

I may head down the the sewing room when I have a free moment and play around with some of the fabric purchased yesterday at JoAnn’s (can’t. resist. coupons.). Planning to embellish some plain-ish knit dresses for my daughter for winter, and perhaps a new pillow for the Blue Room. We shall see.

~ have a delicious monday, all ~

2 sick boys and a wretchedly messy home prevent my posting this morning. I’ll attempt something tolerable by this afternoon, hopefully. In the interim, please enjoy this lovely drawn by the Artiste.

Don’t you just love barn owls in blue hats?

more Ling here .

ta ta!

the sidewalk decorating will cease,

the summer suppers outside will end,

and Ms. Rose Mary will move in to her winter condo.

Chilly and wet here today. We’re considering a trip to the library this morning, then making these after naps (we found the recipe while printing some helpful things earlier today).

Yesterday was my free day, my day to run around doing whatever I like while the kids are in homeschool co-op/mother’s day out. Spent a lot of time thrifting but not finding (I was hunting cotton sweaters), but I did uncover a perfectly nice set of Childcraft from 1981. The “Make and Do” book is especially fun - oh those 80’s crafts! I’ll have to post photos if we can remember to hook up the scanner.

No big plans for the weekend, maybe out to breakfast in the morning, and then cleaning out the garage, which sorely needs organizing. Oh, and we’ll try to get to Union Station for the model train show. My sons could spend hours looking at these layouts (they are pretty cool).

happy weekending and fall equinox to everyone!

p.s. to all local moms: the new Caribou Coffee drive-thru on SMPkwy next to Antioch Library is giving out coupons for a free coffee with purchase. Just fyi for the caffeine fiends among us. (and the coffee is actually quite good).

favorite spot

favorite painting

hey there, how are ya? we’ve been very busy over here in burbland. painting, thrifting, dating, teaching and learning.

first, the Blue Room® is coming along nicely. Here we are looking into the red hallway (that’s me in my jammies. nice messy table.)

at last update, we were going with a gorgeous saturated Ralph Lauren blue named “Emperor”, but Ralphie proved a little too blue for us so we found a new love at Lowe’s - “Pacific Wave” is lighter, grayer, greener, less intense and lovely. It looks different every hour of the day, and my chocolate brown couch finds it irresistible.

here’s another shot of our (ikea!) bench and the still-empty bookshelves - oh, and the antique kilim I found at a garage sale for $12. TWELVE DOLLARS my friends. To be honest, my sister found it and stood on it while calling me on a cellphone, at which time i rushed over and just about fainted, attempting to stay composed while i handed over the cash to the (unwitting? uncaring? clueless? inordinately generous?) former owner and then we shuttled that thing to the car like madwomen. I love, love, love a bargain. and my sister. (that’s another, less pretty but still very nice one to the left - it was $10)(!)

Speaking of bargains and obsessi loves, Angela has her chairs, I have plates. specifically, small plates in almost any condition as long as i like the color. These were a nickel each. The rosebud patterned-one is a Shelley!

and here’s a fun old pattern - I’ve been wanting to make a clothespin bag ever since the squirrels tore mine apart for nursery bedding. (check out the bun warmer in the top right corner!)

next, a rare photo of moi on an actual Date® with the Artiste. We went to the new Glenwood for the Kansas City Film Festival. I don’t usually flip people off while reading the Pitch. or maybe I do. anyway, here is photographic evidence that we sometimes go to a movie theater and make ou watch interesting films not meant for kidlet eyes.

school is going really well. still plugging along on the maché projects (which totally counts as crafting for me. seriously.) Nothing to show yet but here is the reference he drew for the creature we’re creating.

RAWR!

very excited to cavort around blogland today and catch up on what everyone has been making/seeing/doing. The kids are watching a (thrifted - thanks MajRThrift!) copy of Charlotte’s Web downstairs so i have 30 minutes to roam freely.
ciao!

firstly, there weren’t nearly enough photos of my handsome irish groom in the anniversary post, so here’s one of him sporting his navy blue Brooks Brothers wedding suit (the only suit he has ever purchased, so far as I know). isn’t he cute? we were so young and thin, then. sigh.

secondly, thank you thank you thank you to all for the kind anniversary wishes. we had a wonderful day running around town shopping estate sales and thrift stores, eating a fabulous lunch and giggling, which is what we do when we’re giddy and kid-free. such fun, such bargains, such a wonderful man is mine to have and to hold.

thirdly, my server and email are acting totally screwy and have been all weekend. my yahoo! account decided y’all were spammers and got rid of a giant lot of emails so if I haven’t replied to someone I swear it’s because yahoo! hates you, not me.

fourthly, we are back to “school” in earnest around here now, so the blogging will be taking a backseat for a bit. my daughter is right on the brink of reading independently, my son is deeply immersed in a dinosaur project involving lots of paper maché and many, many reference tomes from the library. (and the toddler wants to touch it all. and put it in his mouth. and scream when he is forbidden.)

they went to their first day of homeschool co-op last week and it really was a great day, with new friends made and some unfamiliar routine and structure introduced with great patience and kindness by the wonderful, experienced teachers I met. it will be a good thing for them.

and finally, the living room is, lord willing and the creeks don’t rise, going to be a Ralph Lauren blue-green (”Emperor”) before nightfall. Over the past week this section of wall has been

• yellow,
• gold,
• silvery-sage green,
• mossy green,
• hemlock green,
• pale aqua,
• saturated sea-blue and
• minty green.

Don’t ask. of course this picture doesn’t read correctly at all, it’s much greener and more saturated. trust me.

I intended to write a post this morning about books and reading and my favorites and my mom’s library but time and inspiration have slipped away so perhaps later in the week. it’s very gray here today, and while we’re glad for the rain, it leaves me feeling somewhat flat and uninspired (I’d never make it in the pacific northwest, would I?).

The excessive news coverage isn’t helping either, although I think it’s very important to remember and honor so many.

blessed and thoughtful Monday to all ~

edited by me on monday at 2:57

10 years ago today, in the front yard of my childhood home, there was just a wee touch of Martha

some youthful guests

some breathless moments

some good clean fun

plenty of carrot cake

and some kisses…

Happy ten years to me and my one and only. love you.

holiday.

I actually finished something. (No, silly, not the 1/3 portion of my house that sits covered with drywall dust and tools and echoes of curses and a few tears - the piano is STILL IN THE KITCHEN, the kids are eating meals on the deck, the furniture is still in the garage covered in my good sheets and we are still discussing paint.)

Last night we had a little discussion right before the Artiste went to his weekly cavema cigar club gathering, after which I threw up my hands and said “if all else fails - CRAFT!” (okay, actually it was more like “!@#$, @#$%! - CRAFT!”)

completed: little doorknob hanger cuteness for new nephew (who has a very themed room of lime green with black and yellow accents)…

other than the fact it looks like it was sewn and stuffed by a junior high home-ec student, I like it.

In progress:

from the angle of this photo he looks like “amish beard baby” or “5 o’clock shadow baby” because I used too much floss and apparently didn’t tighten the hoop enough. ah well.

the ideal would be one little pillow with a sleeping side and a story side, but for now I’ll just do two separate ones for two very special new baby boys.

needlework is so calming. I’d forgotten just how much it helps to sit down and busy myself with something that doesn’t require analysis, or discussion.

happy (long) weekending!