how to tell if you're too drunk to paint

well, in my defense, i only had one twisted tea. but it was "light" and it had artificial sweetener in it, so i didn't really like it, so i drank it pretty fast. it made the daily show & the colbert report really pretty funny :)

but when i went downstairs, i saw that the floor that i'd just primered was 99.4% dry, so i decided to go ahead & apply the final coat of grey paint. i didn't feel inebriated. just nice and happy. and i had music that i knew all the words to, so how could it be bad? :) plus, if i hadn't finished the floor, i wouldn't have opened the door to the garage & realized that the garage door was open. that would have sucked.

clue #1: my early edging wasn't the best. but i corrected that on the 2nd wall. unfortunately, now there's grey paint on the white walls in a couple of spots. but it's just at the bottom.
clue #2: my jazz scatting was really good & flowed really naturally.
clue #3: i couldn't remember where i'd put the lid to the paint. i found it eventually, but...
clue #4: i almost painted myself into a small circle on the floor. it was close, but thankfully i realized my mistake before i completed the 4th side of the circle.
clue #5: circles don't have sides :)
clue #6: i stepped on the lid. luckily that was at the end & any footprints will dry the same color as the floor. thankfully i realized it before i stepped on anything that SHOULDN'T be grey, like our beige carpet. :)

i was really amazed at how much easier painting was after a nice adult beverage. and i'm proud of myself for finishing the project. i just started celebrating a little early :) hopefully christopher will notice the finish & not the mistakes :)

I AM NOT A HOARDER! :)

it's rummage sale time again at my church. it's really my favorite time of year. i volunteer during the set-up week, since i can never work or go to the sale since i work. i've fallen into a routine with the ladies -- everyone has their section that they sort. my section contains sweaters, pants & skirts. it's really an awful section for me to work, cuz my weakness is sweaters & cardigans. i love them. and every rummage sale, i come home with an enormous pile of *new* sweaters. but every rummage sale, i go through my stuff & the kids' stuff and get rid of stuff. i really don't understand how i can get rid of so much twice a year, and still have so much stuff!

but this year is a little different. we're planning a move, and so christopher is all about getting our house ready to put on the market. since we're planning to live in the house while we're trying to sell it, it needs to be ready to show at any moment. and that means that we need to downsize the amount of junk we've got. that means *I* need to reduce the amount of junk i have. but as i'm going through my stuff, yeah, i've got a lot, but no where near as much as i thought i did.

there was a trunk in our under-porch storage area that i've had since i graduated from high school. i had it shipped over to the states from germany when i started college. it went into storage every summer in ithaca & has gone everywhere with me since. i really had no idea what was inside. but what i found really surprised me -- there was really nothing inside! lots and lots of moldy junk (since we had a water problem under the porch), but nothing of any real importance. i mean, i found a lot of sentimental crap, and i did find my passport (which expired in 1993), and pictures of my brother & sister from high school, and a fabulous letter to charlie peltz, orchestra conductor & sex maniac extraordinaire. :)

i'm a sucker for pictures. i found a photo album of pictures of me taken in a random park. really odd. i also found 2 composites from my fraternity in college. totally awesome, but i really don't remember some of the older girls in the fraternity. and the hair! my word! :) we thought everything was so important back then. and some of my fraternity sisters are still really good friends, even 20 years later :)

but most of the stuff that was in the trunk that i thought i absolutely had to keep got thrown out. letters from high school friends in texas about people that i don't remember. posters from shows i don't remember doing. really random stuff that i don't remember why i decided to keep it. it actually feels good to let go and stop allowing myself to be defined by the things i own. now, if only i could feel that way about my shoes.

i have an entire collection of heels on a special shoe rack in my bedroom that christopher built for me. they're all arranged by color. i have an entire row of red shoes and one of purple shoes. i'm searching for the green shoes i see in my head. i only have 1 pair of orange shoes, but they're flats, and i'd love to find a pair of pumpkin pumps. :) but i only wear them on sundays to church. i don't go anywhere any other day that wearing clickety-clickety heels would be appropriate. i definitely couldn't stand up in them all day at the salon. and i'd look weird wearing them to drop alexander off at pre-school. so why do i need so many pairs? it always seems that i wear the same ones all the time anyway. but i love to look at them. christopher tried to get me to keep them in the basement, but i need to be able to see them. on sunday mornings, sometimes i'll lie in bed and look at them while i try to decide what i'm wearing. OOH! i just bought a new pink silk cardigan at the rummage sale that i think would go with my pink slingbacks for church on sunday with a white shell & a black pencil skirt :) nice! i love it when inspiration just hits me :)

switched at birth

my sister & i were switched at birth. or actually, before birth, since i'm the oldest & she's the youngest & we have a brother between us. but we completely don't follow the traditions of birth order. as the oldest, i'm supposed to be the go-getter, aggressive, ambitious one. and as the baby of the family, she should be flighty and ditzy. instead, i'm the one who was called "chocolate fluff" in high school, and she's the one with the cojones to ask her boss for a promotion, outlining exactly what she'd like her new job responsibilities to include! way to go!

congratulations, Michelle! i'm so proud of you! :)

...and now back to our regularly scheduled programming...

finally, the holidays are over. it's amazing how much more work they are when you have children. the whole mystique of santa and waiting for them to go to bed before everything can go out under the tree. and the meshing of traditions -- i've always been a shaker and my husband never had anything under the tree until Christmas eve, when they did the exchange between the siblings, and Christmas morning when santa's gifts arrived. but the kids were great -- i allowed them to shake and squeeze things (but not the coughing, sneezing baby from grampa & gigi *smile*) and they quickly grew tired of it when they realized that Christmas was still DAYS away. the torture! *smile* but we managed to have a wonderful Christmas morning, and they adored all of their gifts, even the ones with lots of tiny pieces that we're kicking ourselves for letting them open (obviously we would never have bought tiny legos! *smile*).

and now that the holidays are over, and christopher is back to school, we can finally get back to our regular lives -- watching tv all day (pbs kids, mainly) and eating when mommy remembers to feed everyone *smile*. actually, my days are pretty scheduled: mondays are gym days, so i do 30 minutes on the elliptical machine before my pilates class and then a group of us let the kids run wild in the "basketball room". tuesdays are usually laundry or groceries. wednesdays are pilates and spinning (which kicks my butt! *smile*). thursdays are either laundry or groceries. and friday is my free day. of course, sometimes the schedule alters cuz i may have a client or a doctor's appointment, but for the most part, we're pretty regimented. i also have to squeeze in a trip to my allergist, but that's changing since my friend lisa is no longer my shot technician. the girl that gave me my shot this morning hurt me so badly that my arm still hurts almost 12 hours later! needless to say, i am not gonna be her guinea pig and i'll be getting my shots at my pcp's office from now on. if i could get a stash of needles i'd try to get lisa to do it for me in exchange for free haircare, but there's probably some laws against that or something *smile*.

but the cookies are almost ready and i've got to get the cocoa going so when the kids come in from sledding they'll be ready. we're probably the only family that routinely goes sledding after dark *smile*. actually, i just looked outside when i went to take the cookies out of the oven and saw alexander out there shoveling the patio! i'd bought the kids snow shovels at biglots thinking that they could "help" daddy shovel the driveway sometime, but i never thought they'd use them *smile*. i wonder why they're shoveling the patio? i'll find out when they come in. *smile*

shopping with children--not for the faint of heart...

...at least not with my kids *smile*. my sister & mom can really appreciate this, since they've shopped with me recently, but alexander especially likes to push the envelope. he's almost 4 and likes to make sure that the boundaries are still firmly in place. i swear! but today was the icing on the cake. i just wanted the floor to open up and swallow me! *smile*

we had to go shopping today becuz they needed new pj's and isabelle needs pants (which is another story altogether *smile*). so we went to the mall with our friends kellie & clare & erin. gymboree was fine. children's place was okay. lunch was showing signs of needing a nap. so when we got to burlington i knew that i had no hope of keeping them in the stroller. fine. we found some jeans for isabelle and found some pj's for both of them and we're checking out. i know that my time is limited. even though i didn't force alexander to stay in the stroller the whole time, i knew that he was at the end of his rope, patience-wise. but he flips out while we're putting on our jackets to leave and knocks over my bottle of water, spilling water all over the place. i desperately wanted to thwack him in the back of the head, but i'm well aware of all the eyes on me. sheesh! i really just wanted the floor to open up and swallow me! when i was childless i used to look at those mothers with the uncontrollable children with pity and think about what poor mothers they were. clearly, if they were better mothers, they would have more control over their children and they'd be well behaved like my brother, sister and i were. how little did i know *smile*. but i was proud of myself, becuz even though i was embarrassed to the soles of my feet, i did what i would have done at home, and once he calmed down a bit, i took him out of the stroller and made him help me clean up the mess. i was so angry, but helping to clean up helped me to calm down, too, so that by the time we were done i wasn't afraid that i'd have to kill my child (don't call cys*smile*).

of course both of them are asleep now, and i have a moment to breathe before i have to deal with them again. thankfully there are still some things that isabelle doesn't follow in her brother's footsteps in. she flips out, but not as regularly and not as extremely. although until i saw her have a temper tantrum, i didn't think that children really threw themselves down on the ground kicking and screaming like you see on tv. the first time i saw her do that, i just looked at her and told her that when she was ready to settle down and behave like a sane, rational human being that i'd be in the living room. i had to leave cuz i was gonna laugh! amazing!

on being a SAHM...

i had a revelation while i was away on my mini-vaca with my sister and my mom. a lot of people who don't have children don't really realize what it takes to be a stay at home mom. my sister said as much to me while we were at her house and i was restraining my thrashing contortionist son. she really thought i had it made--that my life was perfect. i only had to work part time, and even though money's tight, i got to be at home all day with my two wonderful children and had time to create beautiful jewelry for my etsy shop. spending 2 days in her house disabused her of that illusion *smile*

i have 2 kids, and they couldn't be more different. but they're both a lot of work in their own way. isabelle is probably the most independent 2 year old you'll ever meet. and it's so frustrating cuz you have to help in a way that makes it seem like you're not helping even though letting her do it herself takes twice as long and you're already late...and alexander vacillates between wanting to do everything himself and not wanting to do anything himself. and you need to be able to know which day it is. and he's very high-energy. i don't want to label him as anything, but he needs a lot of directed activity, or he'll find a non-desirous activity to occupy himself *smile* and he's a master at breaking toys (and non-toys he just happens to be playing with *smile*), not becuz he's destructive, but becuz he wants to know how stuff works and why it moves or doesn't move. cheap plastic made in china just doesn't cut it for my son. he'll destroy it in a day. and not becuz he's malicious, but becuz he's so enthralled with it that he wants to know the entire parameters of it's ability. thank the Lord for tonka *smile*

so it was kinda gratifying to see my sister and open her eyes to my reality *smile*. i don't know what i would do if i weren't medicated. i'd either be in jail or western psych *smile*

big lots, blankets, beads and blessings

well, the kids and i just got back from a mini-vacation to rochester to visit my sister and mom. we had a blast. i got to do some of my favorite things in the world: go to a marvelous bead store, visit a foreign big lots and be blessed with family. *smile*

the bead store we went to was called Let's Bead! it was absolutely fabulous! i spent way too much money, but they had some beautiful sterling silver chandelier findings, and i just couldn't resist them. the shop was easily twice the size of my favorite bead shop here in pittsburgh, Your Beading Heart, and had a fabulous selection of everything imaginable, and at decent prices, too *smile*. but at YBH i can bring the kids and sit them in the classroom and they get to watch PBS kids while i shop. i was ecstatic that they fell asleep on our way to the shop so that i could shop unhindered by little curious fingers *smile*.

my other favorite thing to do is to visit foreign big lots. every time we go somewhere we make it a point of finding a big lots store that we haven't been to. each big lots is different, and while they have some of the same things, each store has it's own unique charm and personality. even here in pittsburgh, my 2 regular big lots are different. so we went online before we left to find a big lots near the bead store so we could do it all in one fell swoop *smile*. yay! i love big lots shopping sprees. although, i really didn't splurge on anything--just what i'd normally be buying for my weekly grocery shopping anyway. oh well. it was still fun becuz i did find a snuggie!

now, i am a cold person. starting in late september i usually start wearing gloves and a hat. and i wear a sweater over my flannel nightgown to bed, with a hat and an extra quilt on my side of the bed at night. so a snuggie was right up my alley *smile*. earlie in the day on wednesday i'd gotten an email from a friend via facebook that there was a website where i could get a FREE snuggie, so i think i may have another one coming in the mail, which would be awesome! *smile* my sister is worse than my husband about using the furnace, so i was plenty warm last night snuggled in bed with my two personal heating devices (named alexander & isabelle *smile*) and my snuggie! when i found it at big lots, i pointed it out as a joke, but when my mom bought it for me i was thrilled. and of course, we all had to pose in it, which my sister posted on her blog *smile*. so much fun!

which brings me to my last "b"--the blessings of family. it was amazing to be able to spend a couple of days with 2 of my favorite women in the world--my mom and my sister. michelle & i planned this trip as a destashing/trading expedition. we have this elaborate ritual of trading stuff we're not using for stuff the other has that we want. this trip centered around her polymer clay stuff, which is my latest obsession. whenever i go to rummage sales or yard sales, i'm always picking up quilting stuff, which comes in handy for this purpose. i'm really excited to work with the clay and i've got so many ideas i want to try out! *smile* but i can't do it tonight, cuz i'm exhausted! what should have been a 4.5 hour trip took 7 hours cuz we stopped at every restroom (and bush) between rochester and pittsburgh. i'm so grateful that alexander's a boy and can "potty like daddy" when there's no potty available. i don't know what i'm gonna do when isabelle's wearing panties *sigh*. we'll cross that bridge when we get to it *smile*

meet your new family...

my dad has been really into geneology lately, which is really awesome, but kinda hard cuz his family isn't really who you would think it to be. apparently, his mom was married to one guy, but had a baby with someone else. oops *smile*. but luckily, she knew who the real father was, and in the past year or so, my dad has done some research and found his real father's family, with all of his half-siblings and everything. kinda cool. but also kinda weird. apparently his family was not what you would call, um, chaste *smile*. or, um, faithful *smile*. there's another "other family" somewhere back there on his mom's side, too. really weird. it's the kind of thing you read about in a book or see on tv (thankfully not jerry springer, though), but i had no idea that it was my family's history. i wish i were a writer, cuz this has the makings of a great novel. too bad it's true *smile*. i don't think non-fiction sells anywhere near as well. well, we could change the names to protect the innocent and sell it as fiction, right?

and on a completely unrelated note, i will be revamping my heavenlycreationspgh blog to highlight my jewelry more fully. i'm gearing up to sell my jewelry at blossoms of verona, here in pittsburgh, starting 10/25, and i've got a fabulous new line of sterling silver and 14k gold that i'll have available there. but i'll take pics of everything and have it on my other blog, so stay tuned and i'll keep you posted *smile*. and my holiday earrings are moving quickly on my etsy site! the autumn and "boo-tiful" earrings are still available with free shipping for a limited time, so grab them while you can! *smile*

duchess

when i first started dating my husband he had a dog, and they were a package deal. not being a big fan of dogs, i really grew to love duchess. she was a really well trained dog, cuz my husband did a really great job with her, and she didn't jump on people or lick or really even bark. plus as she got older she really just laid there so it was perfect when we had the kids, cuz they could pull her ears and her tail and we didn't have to worry that she'd bite. if she was tired of playing, she'd go hide under something. of course that backfired when alexander was little, cuz he could crawl under and get her *smile*

but duchess got really sick this spring, and christopher had to put her down. it was a very sad day. so for his birthday (today *smile*) i commissioned a quilted wall hanging from my favorite fabric artist, Michelle Wescott, artisan in chief of The Quilted House and thequiltedhouse.etsy.com. she did a fabulous job. we did his birthday yesterday, cuz i have rehearsal tonight, and when he opened his gifts, i think i saw a tear in his eye. michelle did a fabulous job.

knowing her as i do, she had gifted my family with a wall hanging for christmas entitled "the family that sings" which included duchess. seeing that every day helped me know that she would be the perfect artist to creat a memorial to duchess. especially since we decided to not get another dog until the kids are older (or ever, if i have any say *smile*). but if we do get another dog, there will never be another duchess. she was really the perfect dog for our little family, and i'm so grateful to Ms. Wescott for creating the perfect memorial to her. *smile*