oh to be cool enough...

to decorate my sensibilities with one of these.

oh the regret of not having one on my wedding day...
or even on my yesterday...

and i'm even more regretful that i will never have luscious long locks to pull off a low side swept ponytail as shown :)





(house of telsa)

i want a baby....

so she can don these little lovelies...

although purchasing a set would mean i would have to choose my favorite design, which proves to be impossible :)

etsuko furuya

quite a mouthful to say, but i can't dream about this fabric enough. there is something so endearing. special. vibrant. about it's simplicity.

after pineing over it for several days (including it's quite expensive price tagging) i have ordered one 1/2 yard. not sure what will be created out of it's marvelocity, but i'm sure anything will look better when donned in this echino migratory bird masterpeice.

scratchy monkey

Kids have a funny way of attaching the whole family to a specific item. In our house, we are ever in love with scratchy monkey. Named for the way foster endearingly scratches his noggin, he is one of three identical monkeys purchased in case our scratchiest monkey happened to become estranged. Scratchy is easily identified from his peers by his disheveled stature. He is clearly the most worn. Chewed. Freyed. Loose. Payable. Loved. My foster snuggles and sleeps and carries and includes scratchy in all facets of our life. The car. The potty. The store. The ever popular baby in my belly scenario. Scratchy rides remote controlled jeeps and in the underseat compartment of fosters hotwheel bike. He high kicks with ease. He can fly faster than buzz lightyear and gives gumby a stretch for his money. He knows how to calm tears and wipe away fearful situations. I've even seen him dive from atop the highest banister a time or two. I don't know how long he will be in our lives but I must attest that I too love our scratchy friend. I've even become akin to his location at all times...a sort of scratchy gps homing device. He's our scratchy. You can't help but love his scratchy little face :)

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photog assistance

hey all you photo experts. i'm in need of your camera know-how.

i've been snapping away as usual, expecting my normal amount of d200 camera amazingness.
today was a balmy 70 degrees, sunny, perfection.
but all of the sudden i'm seeing blue...horrifying, washed out, putrescent blue.
see what i mean?






i know we are a naturally pastey family, but this is a bit too far :)
my settings must be all wrong, but i have no idea what to change.

i've tried on program (P). i've fiddled with apature priority (A). i've messed with the f-stop. i've cranked the iso. all to no avail.

any suggestions??

please help. we can't be a pastey blue family forever!

new look for fall: cow boots work with any ensemble.

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oh how I love finished products...

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i can't seem to...

remember anything.

i have a serious brain spillage issue. things spill out and never return.
i have tried to remind myself 4 times that we need milk. it spills out every time.
i have written myself 8 notes to finish our berkheimer taxes (yeikes!)
i can't ever remember that i have a load of laundry in the washer. so i have to wash it again. (and again).
i have forgotten to make dinner at least 7 nights in a row. sad but true.
i totally forgot to write back to my dear friend denise...in fact i even forgot that she had written me in the first place!
it's not that these things aren't important, it's the sad and quite alarming fact that my brain just can't hold it's girth anymore.
i remember the days of ole when i would multi task the daylight out of problems in need of solutions. i could remember the slightest details and recall strange and wonderous facts.
i would even go so far as to remember to mail birthday cards and congradulatory notes ahead of time.
not so much any more.
what is it about me?
is it my newly aquired 30-something status?
is it my much over exposed brain power and newly faultering eyesight that should clue me in?
i think i am in need of one of those voice-recorders that they advertize for your keychains.
"get milk"
"pick up drycleaning" (well, we don't dryclean anything, but if i did, i'm sure i would need something to remind me to pick it up :)

ok, enough. i'm sure i have something that i should be doing right now...
if only i had written down what it was :)

Hair cut #2. Lesson learned: hair grows. in the future allow delightful haircuts to be snipped by delightful friends

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Haircut #1: a.k.a. Hair cuttery disaster of 2009. Lesson learned: cheap haircuts are cheap

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future flip phone fanatics

fever pitch, er, uh...stitch

i've been burning the midnight oil recently

stitching and prepping and slicing, stitching some more.

i acctually did a bit too much slicing last night and took a nice chunk out of my left pointer with my rotery cutter...serves me right for getting overly ambitious in my cutting stance :)


i am still in a bit of shock over my recent surge in orders...
what i always dreamed would happen, and it is acctually happening!


my sweet and tender emery lin bags have become quite popular, and i just hope and pray that my little emery lin's will travel around and be loved by their new caretakers.


as i look at them, all prepped and ready to go, i can't help but love the work that went into them. so many hours. so many stitches. so much time that i mulled over their fabric combinations and their crafty floral accents.

i almost hate to let them go...
if only i had enough arms to carry them all i might just consider keeping them :)

farmer foster

we had a delightful afternoon at springton manor today.
tagging along with the mcintires, the boys were full of energy and skipped and climbed and tumbled their way through this perfectly picturesque park.

circa 2003, mr. clinto and i were wed at this very site...it brings back such fun memories of that day. i was trying to explain to foster the concept of getting married as we were driving, and i said, "mommy and daddy were married at springton manor farm. that's where we are going today! isn't that exciting?" foster thought for a minuet, and said, "were you married with the animals? can we see the animals? i want to see a goat." i guess i should expect that animals are much more exciting than my wedding story to a 3 year old boy...but seriously, this kid has animals on the brain ALL the time. he is always pretending to carry one, or save one, or put a bird in a nest, or carry a baby penguin, or feed a mommy monkey, or chase a giant hippo. it will be interesting to see how this love of animals plays out in his life....but for right now, all i know is this kid needs a pet :)



more pics

superpower needs

i've always been stumped by the superpower question.
you know on those cheesy email chain surveys with life determining questions like "coke or pepsi". (the answer is, of course, coke :).

last night, as i struggled to fall asleep even though i was totally exhausted (thank you insomnia), it hit me.

i really wish i didn't need to sleep.
that would be my superpower. the girl who doesn't need sleep.
think about it.
what if no one needed to sleep. ever.
24 hours of awake time all the time.
imagine how fulfilling it would be to have so much more time to fulfill your dreams.
chat unsleepily with your husband.
rock your babies as they snooze peacefully.
get your law degree.
peruse a magazine uninterrupted.
wipe the dust bunny base boards.
learn a foreign language.

whoa, wait a minuet, that would mean that babies and toddlers wouldn't sleep either...
oh snap. that's not going to work.
ok, i've got it. brilliant!
it would be like a rite of passage. 12-14 hours of sleep required per day for all those under 18 years.
upon 18th birthday, BAM! no more sleep required.
just in time for college cram sessions, procrastination for your statistics 101 exam, and fun beach weekends with your new college gal pals.

sleep is probably one of the needs that i dislike the most
because i need it so much.
i cherish it. loath the lack of it. feel forced to learn to cope with life in it's absence.

when you think about it, our needs define us.
they embody our human-ness.
what and how and who we choose to let in to heal, protect, and nourish our needs also defines us.
we can't fathom a world without need.
it is so foreign, it doesn't make sense.
the very basis of who we are is based on need.

i need sleep. my superpower would probably just make me even more wasteful of my time and cause me to long for a well rested break from the busyness of life.

amazing how we were created with just what we need.
and yet also created with a need for something more that we can't get on our own.

needs.
ingenious.

me vs. october

we have a spare bedroom which was converted into my sewing room.
i say "converted" loosly because it was really more of a hostile takeover.
anyhoo...
last night, i entered my land of fabric swatches, in-process projects and general serenity to find the temperature to be akin to that of a screened in porch...maybe verging on outdoor tool shed.

my husband's oversized hoodie and my comfy pants were no match for it's frigidity.
i relinquished and brought out the space heater which has a nifty temperature gauge to read the current temperature.
58 degrees.
awesome.
i'm no internal temperature professional, but i think this is below living stanards.
thank you slip-shod 1973 construction and gaping window valences.
i now sew in a winter coat, scarf and mittens.

today's quote

foster:
"mom, i'm not married yet.
i'm gonna get married when i have long hair."


classic.

doughnut day

8:23 am.
we were post-breakfast but at a loss for activities to fill the day ahead.
whining quickly made a turn dangerously close to approaching the meltdown zone.
it's in the approach to meltdown that some of my most fantastic ideas are born.
perhaps it's my knowledge that meldown recovery is a slim and slippery slope and avoiding it by destraction tends to bode better with our day, or perhaps it's my innate procrastination that always comes through at the last minuet...

regardless, my fantasticness was quite spontanious today.

upon finding 2 nearly expired coupons, an unexpected trip to the doughnut shop was sure to retract the looming meltdown.



i gumby armed my keys and wallet and plunged all of our bare feet into our shoes without thinking twice about our night time clothing status.

after all, pj's and shoes with no socks is perfect surprise doughnut attire.

i seldom allow a doughnut indulge, so when i divulged our plan, their excitement was contagious.



en route, i happened to catch a glimpse of my discheveled appearance, so i drove past the walk-in dunkin 1/2 mile from our house and devised it would be better to travel accross town to a spot more akin to keeping my short-shorts and slightly unsightly hoodie from making their pulic deput. i made our trip into a thrilling hunt for a drive-through as we scoured the surrounding buildings for the perfect location.

at last. doughnuts for them. iced coffee a-la-me





it's always the little things that are the most entertaining.
we talked for an entire day about sprinkles and doughnut shops and doughnut making and anything and everything somehow came back to our morning doughnut surprise.

i love days that make memories.
today was a great one.

inspire me

i often come across some pretty amazing people in the blogosphere.
with amazing talent, views of the world, and creative capacity that is downright inspiring.

some creativity boasts lean but signifigant wording with magnificant pictures that capture their thoughts, while others boast lucrative wordage and even i, the wordiest writer of all time, can relate to.

i've recently found my newest favorite...a true inspire me blog. give it a whirl. prepare to be a bit disheartened by her vast ability to capture and do so many things, but also prepare for a color birrage of wonderful. if only i could transport my home to be an identical twin of any of thehomes she captures. collections of random that somehow meld together. i have finally found the definition of my design asthetic. my poorly-design-asthetic home is often left by the wayside for lack of funding, hope of having a more perminate home to express my inner imaginings, and lack of inspiration. well, i can check #3 off of my list. inspiration found. (decor8)



then peruse this blogger, who is inspiring my crafty side, and has become oh-so-famous with her oh-so-fresh fabric designs. call me crazy, but i really want to win a million dollars to i can spend my days ordering her fabrics and sewing myself into oblivion :)
(grand revival designs)



wall murals. there are a million amazing ones on etsy. i love them all. secretly, i want to learn how in the world to do them myself, but i can't quite figure it out yet. still, they are picturesque and the perfect expression of a room. i'm in love.
(walldecors)



being a lover of old things new (see my many granny posts) i admire the perspective of the creativity that sadie olive posesses. a beautiful artform. i like to think my granny may have used these items in the "olden days" and perhaps used a lace doilie under her oil lamp beside her tattered bible. old treasures feel like home to me....hence my inability to thow anything away :)
(sadie olive)

there are a few more, but i'm sure there are many i've missed out on.
i would love to hear who inspires you...i bet they would inspire me too :)

same me. new tricks.

i got inspired this week (thanks to some pattern making pow-pows with my mom) and have gone into production mode again. i'm going to attempt to do some christmas expos, and these little babies are my new favorites.

cute, clutchy, and a bit too adorable for their own good, i'm thinking i might just have to keep one for myself :)

one of those days...you never want to forget

today is sunday.

and last night was one of those nights. a crying child awoke oh-around-3am.

after some 3am cuddling and soothing and repeating the back and forth hallway shuffle a few more times, 7am came along and i could barley move enough to realize it was morning. usually, i would peel my limp body frame from my pillow-top mattress, throw a toothbrush in my mouth and attempt to snag some form of clothing that is within my grasp as i head into the day.

but today, oh my. today was a day to remember.

one of those days that i won't soon forget.

after my initial 7am wake up, i drifted back into wonderful, peaceful sleep. i awoke suddenly to silence. unusual, perfect, silence. i sat straight up in complete alarm mode. silence? where is the crying? where is the "mommy! i'm awake!!"? where is my husband? what time is it? what is happening?

i blink several times at the clock in disbelief. does it really say 9:30am??

i stumble downstairs to find 2 happy children, a smiling husband and a gloriously CLEAN house!

carpet vaccumed, check.

toys put away and ORGANIZED, check.

old, unplayed-with toys in goodwill pile, check.

books stacked to perfection in big to small order, check.

kitchen cleaned, countertops wiped and dishes put away, check.

kids fed, check.

2 loads of laundry washed and dryed, check.

cluttered stairwell now uncluttered, check.

clean coffee cup sitting ready beside steaming pot of coffee, check.

i could hardly speak! my amazingly gracious and stupendous husband had been slaving away, cooking and cleaning and de-cluttering and entertaining the chitlens whilst i was snoozing!

he chose to let me sleep. one of the truest forms of love, in my opinion. we parents know the cherish of sleep, and how it is a gift more precious than precious metals or a million dollars. (ok, maybe i'd take a million dollars, and then sleep, but you get my point :)

i really am married to prince charming!

what a handsome and remarkable man!

today proves, yet again, what i see all the time...

a husband who makes so many sacrafices and is so very selfless, even to the point of clean-kitchen-ness!

the thing is, my clinto seldom reads my blog. in all of his humbleness, he would probably be embarrased to know that i have gushed on and on.

but i just have to put it out there. it's too unheard of, these days. a husband that works hard at work and works hard at home?

he is to be commended.

each and every day he passes on a legacy to our boys that can't be taught, it can only be watched.

a legacy that shows what it is to be a man who serves his family.

a man who will never claim to be perfect, but will strive each day to take pride in what he does, even if it's stacking the kid's books the way he knows only i would appriciate, setting a coffee cup out, cleaning the dishes, or letting mommy get some much needed rest.

he's the dad i always pictured. he's the dad who's crawling around on the floor playing hide and seek, moments after arriving home from a grueling day at work. he's the dad that bakes cookies with his sons. he's the dad that teaches his sons the difference between a wratchet and a wrench. he's the dad who builds forts out of cushions and races cars on the kitchen floor. he's the dad who goes to work early so he can come home and have more time to spend with his family. he's the dad who swaddles our newborn and stays up during late-night feedings, even when he has a full day of work ahead. he's the dad i want my boys to emulate.

he's the dad our kids will be proud of...in fact, they already are :)