where the crafty ladies be at...who knew?

i love the world of crafty blogging. i could spend hours reading what these folks have to say about crafting and baby tending and crafting some more (amanda soule is my new hero). and honestly, this year has brought about for me a new interest and love in learning and finally doing. just doing. the doing has been a little slow, especially when i don't know how to properly use my sewing machine or when i feel overwhelmed to the point of giving up. but the inspiration keeps me going.

so back to that doing. well, i recently discovered a facet of the world of crafty blogging--one that i really knew existed, but perhaps wasn't ready to journey into until i had figured out how to use that ol' machine. that would be the one where they actually show you how to do it...so that you can do it now and stop not doing. duh, that's what the crafty bloggers are supposed to do, no?

craftapple is such a site. the owner not only posts her love of the craft, but shouts, in bright colors "hey, i can do make this and that and here's how, sister". the owner (ms. apple?) posts tutorials and patterns made with delish fabrics (joel dewberry, amy butler) in addition to maintaining an etsy site. so you can buy, but also learn, make and do. three cheers for the spirit of sharin! hip-hip-hooray!

baked orange FINGERTIP!

I'm guessing that these came out in 2003, which is the pretty much when I fell off of the face of the earth, because I had no idea that Baked Cheetos existed until today. And apparently they taste exactly the same as the old regular kind--cheese breath and unhealthy food coloring included. I'm quite excited and plan to use it in my celebration of "end-of-poison-ivy-coming-out-of-my-body, beware of the 'roids" week.

Baked Cheetos!!! You know, though that this means that there will be double the amount of orange filament on my fingertips--yet with half of the fat. Now for the collective "eeeew"...you know you love it!

conversions and the mr. t

i had to convert inches to yards for my non-numbers self today and found this handy site along the way:
http://web.telia.com/~u54504162/javascript/convert/

this tool helps you convert basically anything you need to, from money to measurements to volume for cooking, and weights and area (all up in your area!). i had to calculate how many yards of divine amy butler fabric i'd need for some curtains. i'm off to order.

oh, another note: steroids that help treat poison ivy (bitch!) also make you INSANE. seriously. i feel like mr. t. today, only slightly less mr. and a little more bi-polaroid. just wanted to share that. stay away from the 'roids!!! eek.

have a lovely day.

lyrics for my new poison ivy song, entitled "poison ivy: bitch, 2007"

poison ivy
in my yard
BITCH!

dormant in silence
"it's just a bug bite"--NO
BITCH!

on my legs
for a week
BITCH!

poison ivy
she is mean
BITCH!

crappy medication
looks like bad foundation
BITCH!

urgent care
to repair
BITCH!

looks like i've
got fried turkey legs
BITCH!

fasting 2 days
to make it go away
BITCH!

cephalexin
and prednisone
to heal my wounds
BITCH!

i'll never wear shorts
when i do yard work
BITCH!

If this woman were on Top Chef, she would take down Tom Colicchio and then cook him up with a nice risotto.

If you live in or stop by Columbus, Ohio, you must get yourself to Alana's Food and Wine. Meet Alana Shock. This woman is a force for good food, a lover of fine wine and magician of tasty morsels. And the language she speaks is food--all food. My husband and I had our wedding reception at her restaurant and gave her full control over the menu. As a chef she is trustworthy and the food is always impeccable.

I had a special opportunity to eat at her home the other night--something I will always be grateful for. For her, it was a simple BBQ with some friends. However, for me, it was an opportunity to transport myself to another land where Morningstar Farms and frozen peas don't exist and the the honor and love of cooking reign.

She served up a fabulous spread of food, including ribs slathered in tasty BBQ sauce and flank steak that I probably could have been buried with. "Oh, no problem being dead now. As long as I have this steak...we'll be okay." I ate so much food that I think I hit the brim of my throat. Now, I know that this is really not what you do when you are eating such fucking incredible food ("savor it!"), but when you are me and you need to hold on to a little to save for the rest of the bland vegetarian week, you take all that you can. I seriously ate so much meat, that I won't have to eat meat until Thanksgiving 2008.

Have I been inspired to get off my ass and make good food? You bet. There's no need not to ever, ever. So I have to hit the books and get myself learned up! Thank goodness Fall will keep me indoors where I can take my time practicing. Get me the risotto!!!

carb tuesday

i can not believe how many bread products i have consumed today. here's the list:

2 slices of bread (for a turkey sandwich)
2 ginormous bob evan's biscuits*
2 ginormous slices of banana nut bread*

my oh my. and now for the sugar crash.

*given to me by a coworker who can not consume gluten

tomorrow will be an all lettuce wednesday. and tomorrow, i will turn into a carbutterfly.

a peek goodbye at summer

http://flickr.com/photos/bellabluebell/967550659/

why teenage boys in central ohio aren't all that bad

bringing smart and snarky back to the high school boy world

labor day, how i love thee

i'm taking the next 2 days off to extend the already nice and lovely long weekend. this will create kind of a mini-vacation for us, which i'm so grateful for. it's been much needed for my already clouded head. in addition to the r&r needed, the main goal for this extra time is to reconnect with my son, who is currently watching dora's pirate adventure as i type this. we'll soon whisk ourselves away to the fun that awaits us in columbus, ohio (woo woo!).

on the agenda:
cosi
library
zoo
train exhibit/celebration
haircuts !
nature walks
a trip to yellow springs for bike riding
crafting

on my agenda:
crafting with some ladie-friends
cleaning up
sleeping
sewing
eating
happy hour with co-workers tomorrow
giving lots of kisses to my boys, who i am so grateful for

happy labor day, everyone.

joni mitchell

joni mitchell's music has always made me feel wonderful. she's releasing a new album at the end of september. the lyrics are available for preview at her website. she's updating big yellow taxi on this one. can't wait!

holy blessings

i work for catholic social services--actually, in the dept. that does counseling for catholics and those who are uninsured. and consequently, i work with quite a few catholic folks day in and day out. today i discovered that a lot of folks who work for the church close their phone messages and conversations with "god bless you". who knew?

this is something that i have never experienced until today...when i was the recipient of 4 of them, including a voice mail from sister mary frances.

i will just assume with all of these saintly send-offs that god is wanting me to be blessed. thanks catholics! i needed that.

cross stitch text generator @ subversive cross stitch!

Get your own cross stitch pattern (text only) here:

http://www.subversivecrossstitch.com/howto/robot.htm

Yay!

and the sweetness of the leaving

ah, and every day you gaze upon the sunset
with such love and intensity
why it's ah, it's almost as
if you could only crack the code
then you'd finally understand what this all means

ah, but if you could...do you think you would
trade in all, all the pain and suffering?
ah, but then you'd miss
the beauty of the light upon this earth
and the sweetness of the leaving

from jane siberry's "calling all angels"

in the last few days i have lived through quite a loss all to myself with my first experience with miscarriage. it's no fun, at all. nothing redeeming, as anyone would guess. just ugly and tormenting and brutal. and i'm so very, very sad and angry. yesterday i read sharon olds' very raw and personal miscarriage over and over. i needed that though, i think in order to find my own recollections somewhere else--in someone else, i should say. it didn't bring much light though. just stretched out the darkness i was lying under. and i know that's okay to do.

on my way to my ob's office this morning, i shuffled through paul's very icky 80's-male-laden ipod collection and found some light: jane siberry. i'm always aware that things will be okay in the end, even when they're not right now. and when i'm in the thick of pain though, especially this kind which is so foreign to me, peace seems so damn far away. hearing these words, "but then you'd miss/the beauty of the light upon this earth/and the sweetness of the leaving" helped remind me that there is love on the other side of so much of this that's sad and heavy.

for nay nay

Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting--
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
--Mary Oliver

index my heart, index my heat

Up until this weekend, I had forgotten how much I hate my lovely barely air conditioned house. We have a tiny AC unit on the side of the house that emits just a whisper of cool air during the summer. The sweltering weekend reached up to 90-something at one point. Even my anti-AC, "I heart window fan" husband brought in the extra troops--our second AC unit, which we installed in our bedroom window. That unit, so icky and awkward and big and loud, was a godsend (This is where my husband would say, "that's what she said". I second.) Every year I am reminded that we need to update the AC--primarily because dualing units are a fire hazard for the outdated electrical system, something that the electrican will probably be reminding me when he visits us on Friday. I'll be so glad when October is here.

almost three

if eyes are windows to the soul, then here is the spirit of my wee one, parker. every day i am blessed by this child's wonderful eyes that welcome me into my place in this world.

sewing

I'm taking a series of how-to workshops at a local sewing shop in August. Although the primary goal is to learn sewing 101, the ultimate and most blessed goal of all is that at the completion of the workshops, the student will receive their own Huskystar E20 sewing machine! Free! (For those who don't know how to sew, we are idiots, and idiots will believe anything is Free!)

But how much fun is that...learn the basics, and there you got it, fancy pants sewing machine for you! And knowledge. That's like going to grandma's house, learning how to sew, quilt, make curtains, read patterns, size up stuff and then walking away with your own damn machine--a new machine, at that. I'll also learn how to use this machine while I'm in the series. Owners can upgrade the machine in the future as they advance in their sewing skillz. Here is a loverly photo of the Husky E20. So glorious! So husky! So Free! not so much!



*a note, this 101 class is so glorious, that even my friend Natalie wanted to take it, but they would not let her (boo, hiss) since she wasn't in need of the Free! machine (she has her own bad ass Viking). It makes me sad, since I'll be going solo. However, this will mean that Natalie and I will have a sew-a-thon at some point in the future, making sun dresses for every boy and girl in Columbus, Ohio, including Charles and Chester.

Also check out Wholly Craft if you are in Columbus, OH for sewing classes. They have some of the best basic and creative sewing classes in town.

bike and tie to bonnaroo

last thursday, our wee family was driving home from the library when we spotted 2 mormon elders on bikes, cycling for the good mormon word. i always wonder if going door to door to recruit mormons really works--or is worth it to those young men. so the following tiny exchange happened between my husband, paul and i:


me: i just don't know why they don't do something better with their time
paul: like go to bonnaroo?


at this point, i realized that it would be so much better for them to be at bonnaroo. without the ties. good luck, ya'll elders!

why potty training sucks in the summer

because you have to go places, like the zoo, the science museum or grandma and grandpa's house with the hope that your child will not pee his or her pants--especially since he or she will not pee on an adult toilet. so what do you do? put a diaper on him or her, which inevitably throws any potty training accomplishments that you might have reached out the window.

or you bring mr. potty and the jar o' potty candy with you.

Veggie Booty Recall

Arrrrh. Who knew that if you ate booty, there's been doodie from yr booty? Arrrrrh! A setback for the vegetarians. It seriously is, though, the best nutritious crack that your kids will eat (and packed full of vitamins...and salmonella.)