Playdate

Before and After

Here's the bed I mentioned a week or so ago. I should mention the rug is from the always lovely Perch home. I wanted the post the "before" photo - but I'm still looking for it...

Anyone want to spend the night?

Magic lives here

I know that there are more and more parents these days who are reluctant to play up Santa, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy. I've even read that people refer to it as lying. Well they should avoid my house. Because Santa et al are all welcome here and they should bring along their other friends the fairies, wood-sprites and Man in the Moon.

My grandparents gave me a magic genie lantern when I was 5 years old. You may have seen it on my mantle. It's the oldest thing I own. And on special occasions we would hear it rattle in the other room. I'd run down their pink carpeted hallway and sure enough...the genie would have left me something. Not necessarily a toy, but always something special or unique. Often it would be left in the open hands of their Buddha statue. I can remember everything about the moment I received a handful of polished stones from the Magic Genie Lantern. How had these beautiful stones whizzed through time and space to me of all people? It was treasure. Magic meant that anything is possible.

Lucia and I went to the reservation last week into the woods to build a fairy house. I watched her diligently gather sticks, pile up rocks, yank up moss and create a cozy nook for the fairies to live in. She ran around and found 12 acorns that she turned into miniature cups. The final touch was a leaf for their bed.

And on Easter morning (after finding all the big guy had left for us including the chewed up remains of a very large bunch of carrots) she wanted to take the whole family back to the woods to visit her house. So we did. And when we found it, the cups had been moved. Proof!

I hope she remembers that moment the rest of her life.

Another Funny Easter Pic

Peep Show!

So I don't watch American Idol (anymore) OR Kelly Ripa...

and yet this still makes me laugh.  I thought you AI fanatics out there (you know who you are) would appreciate it as well.

Happy Easter!

In honor of Easter, I thought I'd post this picture of the truck I was behind the other day when I was driving to work.

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday!  Hidey - ho!

My favorite new blog

(that I don't contribute to, of course!)

I've mentioned this blog to a few of you already, but I haven't laughed so much in ages.  And yes, let's be clear -- it should really be called "Stuff _Liberal_ People Like" but I guess that didn't sound as controversial.  But hi, I'm guilty of about half of these things, and I can laugh about it, so... here you go.  (Wes Anderson movies, check!  David Sedaris, check! Indie music, Netflix, check and check!  Irony!  omg, check!)

And the Whole Foods one really made me laugh, because I'm pretty sure all of you know how much I dislike that store (too expensive, too pretentious, yadda yadda).  However, I must confess publicly that I've gone 100% VEGAN in my facial products.  You have no idea how much it pains me to admit it, but it's working.  Sigh.  Honestly.  Who AM I?

Honey Bee

Sounds sweet, doesn't it?

Unless, of course, you have a Honey Bee Hive in your home. And the Honey Bee Hive leaks. I thought the non-working fireplace and lead-laden windows were a problem until I imagined honey leaking though the walls of the guest bedroom. Like something out of the Exorcist.

Anyway, I know Honey Bees are in danger of extinction. I'm not saying I don't care but I don't have time to think about that now. I'm too busy crossing my fingers hoping Jerry Buckingham's testing of the bee 'carcasses' concludes just regular old bees with stingers.

We have guests coming in five days. The pillows of the guest bed are just below the vent from which the bees are dropping.

Chris is all - "We'll have to sleep up there and let your parents sleep in our room."

And I'm like, "No way, dude. Besides, if the angry bees defending their hives don't get my parents they can open their mouths and have honey for breakfast."

So, please say a little St. Patrick's Day prayer. No Honey Bees! I'm 1/8th Irish and so is Chris. I hope that helps.

Recycling

Whenever Adam gets a stain on one of his work shirts, I get a little knot in my stomach. I hate the thought of tossing them, but if they are stained I don't really think it's appropriate to donate them.

I have always wanted to make a "button downs and boxers" quilt, but that's also a daunting idea. I have nowhere to store the shirts until I have enough of the right colors, really; and with so many other little projects I want to do, it's unlikely that I would really ever bite off something so big.

Last weekend I found one of Adam's best shirts in the trash. Ugh.

But then, I had an idea ... What about a sun dress for Bean?

Shocking and uncharacteristic, I know. I took an idea from concept to completion in just a matter of days. Getting a Tuesday sitter for Miriam (!!!!!) certainly helped. I've decided Tuesdays are going to be my craft days.

Here's the back:

And a close up of the pocket:

Nothing fancy, but not bad for the first actual item of clothing I've ever made... er ... completed.

I might make some changes, though. I kept the shirt hem, and I think it's just a tad long. But I also think Hannah's about to shoot up, so if she doesn't complain I'll probably leave it. She has requested a second pocket, though, so I'll probably go ahead and add that.

As I was making the dress I was thinking what a shame it was not to use the yoke. Adam did a Google search and found this on the Craft Magazine blog:

How freaking cute is that? There's a detailed tutorial from "Cheytown" on crafters.org. Check it out even if only to see the incredibly cute pics of this dress in action.

Additional Google searches turned up ideas for shirt sleeves: skirts, little girl pants ...

Do you think Adam would notice if his shirts started disappearing one by one?

Middle ground?

There's something I hate shopping for. Even more than jeans.

It's shoes.

But, I've got a bar mitzvah this weekend and my trusty boots are not so trusty anymore (ok, they fell apart), so really, I had no choice. I took the trek out to DSW for what my sister might call an exercise in self loathing. My feet are "challenging," at best; few shoes are comfortable.

As I stood at the end of the big warehouse and scanned the aisles, I thought, "Mmmmmm, red shoes!"

I love the idea of red shoes, and always have, but have owned only one pair -- my big honking clogs -- in my lifetime.

As I wandered up and down the aisles, I found myself wondering why, if I liked red shoes so much, why didn't I own more? But then each time I got closer to a pair of red shoes I had spotted from a distance, I'd reject them out of hand. I began to realized red shoes fall into one of two predominant categories:

"Hooker"

or "Grandma"

I found myself getting more and more frustrated. I stopped and stared at a pair of ridiculously high heeled pumps, "Look at that heel!" I thought. "I mean who wears these things?"

I threw them down on the floor and crammed my foot into them. I was about to kick them off in disgust when I caught a glimpse of my reflection in the mirror ...

"Somebody who wants to look totally HOT, that's who!"

OK, so I didn't think I looked totally hot. I mean I hadn't showered in a couple of days, I was wearing Miriam in the sling ...

But my foot? My foot looked TOTALLY HOT.

And that's no small feat for my size 9, no arch-having foot.

I tried on lots of ridiculous shoes after that.

Most were either too strappy, or too pointy, or too, well, hookery.

But I finally found a pair that neither exposed my unkempt toes, nor was so flimsy that I feared breaking an ankle, and which seemed of appropriated construction to peek out from beneath wide-legged herringbone pants.

And they seem to be the middle ground between Hooker and Grandma.

Or perhaps just what Grandma might wear to turn tricks.

Watch This Show

OK, so you probably watch enough TV. But still, give this one a try. And if you really don't want to watch more TV try it here. Call me old-fashioned, but it's not TV if it's on your laptop.

In 10 Items or Less, Lehr plays Leslie Pool (the strapping young man, above), who returns to his native Ohio to run the Green & Grains grocery store he has just inherited from his father. His somewhat dysfunctional staff includes Carl (Robert Clendenin – That '70s Show), the sweet, doofus stockboy who serves as Leslie's sidekick; Yolanda (Roberta Valderrama – ER), the straight-talking dominant force in the produce department who's also pregnant with Carl's baby; Buck (Greg Davis Jr. – The King of California), the bagger who is looking towards the future by attending night school; Ingrid (Kirsten Gronfield – Steve Saves L.A.), the quirky-soft-spoken customer service representative who lives for Renaissance festivals; Richard (Christopher Liam Moore – Judging Amy), the dignified cashier who dreams of becoming a professional ice dancer; and Todd (Chris Payne Gilbert – The Broken Hearts Club), the sexy butcher who hopes one day to be a stock car driver.

I'm not gonna lie to you, it's not fierce and the reviews are mixed. But it's silly, it's weird, it's mostly improved. It's not a reality show. Very little singing. Nobody named Ben.*

* Hey, I love (love, love) LOST. But sometimes I get confused.