How lovely is that?

Dublin XIII aka Angel Exit, 8x8 inch print, $100 at vlad

Saying goodbye to 2009 feels a little bit like watching a bad boyfriend walk away. You did the best you could and now he's gone and it's better this way but still.... Onward.

I've missed them so.

It took a lot longer than I thought it would, but the workroom is finally clean. Apparently, I am easily distracted. There was just enough time left for a long run - thinking about bare trees, flightless birds, seeking, chamomile, Baltimore, and breathing.

Now it's time to go pick up my monkeys. I've missed them so.

It's all over but the sweeping up.

Christmas is done and my monkeys have run off to stay with Grandma and Grandpa for a few days, so now I have no reason to procrastinate further. I have to clean my room. It looks like a bomb went off in here during a cyclone. And then a mail truck crashed into it.

Unless, of course, someone can think something else to do? Anyone? Want to come over?

Anyone?

Gingerbread, iced.

Happy Christmas to you, sweet ones (and sour ones too)!

Scones for Christmas breakfast.

Gingerbread.

Retail obligations having been fulfilled, the holiday baking begins in earnest. Actually, there was a lovely chocolate-chip banana bread yesterday, which I neglected to photograph - but that was baked just so we'd have something to snack on. While we're baking.

Renegade! whew....

Sorry, the pictures are kinda meh, I took them with my phone and I was in a hurry and I didn't care that much because, Renegade? Was awesome! I can't say enough good things about it and I stood up on a concrete floor for two solid days....

Everybody was talented and hardworking and beautiful and amazing and nice. Nice. How does that happen? I love nice people who make cool things. Especially Megan from Harrilu and her patient husband who knows what baby-rib is. The girls from Aroo Studio? I love them. Sweet Meats? Love (thank you for the awesome deal on the Hambone) and the adorable Kelso from Kelso Doesn't Dance and Long Beach Craft Mafia. I loved them so much I didn't even care that I didn't get to pee for like eight hours. Whatever.

Thank you thank you to everyone who came to visit: Maia and Mimi and Lucia, Mick and Christine, Silvia and friends, Dad, Paula and Tom - and even Colin.

Thank you x the power of 10,000 suns to Julie, who did everything and was the best boss I ever had. And thank you for texting.

Tomorrow there will be unpacking and cleaning and counting and accounting.

But today, there is couch and coffee, resting tired toes, snuggling my sweeties and caring for their coughs.

Ready, or not....

I'm absolutely not ready. Not an ultra-super-bitchin time to be having yet another crisis of confidence since 95% of all success in this business seems to come directly from believing in yourself and your work. But, I'm showing up (which is the other 5%) and I have my little thrifted table, which is now blue and awesome and I have my Julie (bRex Saleswoman of the Year) and I just need to finish pricing everything and pack it all up and make some wholesome snacks.... And then get some sleep. Unless I decide to stay up all night making myself something to wear. It wouldn't be the first time.

Tis upon us.

This is what I want.

For Christmas. This is what I want. Of course, it's already sold out - so, unless you're Steve Jobs, you're probably not going to be able to get me in. Just in case: Steve, if you're reading - all I want for Christmas is to go to TED2010.

Party time....

All decorated (even my dear deer) and it's time to party like the kids are sleeping over at Mimi and Papa's.

Hobbypreneurs?

From the Intuit Future of Small Business Report:

Today’s passion-driven hobbyists will breed many of tomorrow’s small businesses. Stemming from the “Maker” movement, and enabled by technology, these hobbypreneurs – both knowledge and craft-based – are leading a new generation of entrepreneurs who increasingly take the step to turn fun into profit.

Hobbypreneurs will continue to grow in numbers and influence, creating new niche products and markets in the U.S. and abroad. These frugal, techsavvy, green-oriented, out-of-the-box thinkers are creating new business methods, models and processes. And along the way, they are spurring growth and innovation.

Hobbypreneurs? I don't know whether I should feel encouraged or insulted. It's certainly apt and a thousand times better than "Mompreneur." Maybe I'm just cranky (highly likely) and inclined to bristle at anything that makes me sound like the dilettante that I am.

You can read the report here, if you're into that sort of thing.

What are they trying to say?

This morning, my kids found ornaments - instead of candy - in their advent calendar. So they put them in the back of the toy garbage truck. hmm.

The Salahis: who cares?

Congress has subpoenaed the Salahis. Really, Congress? This is how you're spending your time? Attempting to question two media hounds about a party at which nothing untoward actually happened? Remember when you were going to fix health care and regulate the financial services industry? Just wondering.

In unrelated news, Tiger Woods: who cares? I'm starting to hate the internet.

More Goodies for Renegade!

More Goodies for Renegade!

WhAat?

It's snowing here today. At my house. "This Never happens," I said to the ever-delightful Fin, and he replied: "Mama, it's happening right now." And so it is. This being California, we all have to pull over to the side of the road and gape at the sky as though we've never seen weather before, so I'm looking forward to a mildly unproductive, but enchanting sort of day. And hot cocoa.

How lovely is that?

Tangerine Hewn Ring, $70 at QuercusSilver

Goodies for Renegade!

Thrift store madness.

Omy, but I do love me some junk. This little table is not in the best of shape, but it's made of wood and isn't broken. $15, but I probably overpaid - Fin was dismantling a garment rack and I was in no position to haggle. But look at it! It's gorgeous! Just needs a little sanding and a little spray paint.....

Goodies for Renegade!

Fin (age 4): Knock Knock.

Fin: Knock Knock.

Me: Who's there?

Fin: Boobs!

Me: Really? Because I thought we had another year or two before that started.

You Win!

If you've made the best strawberry jam at the County Fair, if you're a really good driver, if you've emptied the dishwasher.... You should be commended. Your Prize Ribbon will be waiting for you at Renegade Craft at Fort Mason on December 19th and 20th. Have I mentioned it enough yet? I'm a teensy bit excited about it.

How lovely is that?

HARMONY Deer Art Print, $24 at animama

Pixie Campbell makes beautiful earthy-mama delicious paintings and writes a super-sweet blog too, where she featured my October Apron among some of the loveliest gifties I've seen. Thank you Pixie, for finding me so I could find you right back!

I'm not a bad girl.

In the language of first graders: I'm not a bad girl. I just make bad choices. Like going to the outlet mall on Black Friday. Bad idea. And all my own - people tried to talk me out of it. I don't know what came over me. Thinking of shoes, maybe? I don't know.

It's not that I never shop in the real world. I do. I have kids, I go to Target, I admit it. But mostly, I dwell in this little, insular handmade world where every item is personal and precious. I was totally unprepared for the depressing effect of mountains of discounted merchandise. Totally. Unprepared.

And if you are bracing yourself for lengthy blather about the woeful commercialization of Christmas, don't. I love presents and honestly, "Santa can hear you" is pretty much my favorite parenting tool right now.

It's just that when I buy two pairs of children's gloves for five dollars, I have to stay up all night thinking about poverty and global economic systems and what would have been better: paying $10 or not buying them at all. The best choice would probably have been paying $60 for hand knit gloves made of undyed alpaca wool from animals fed only organic whatever it is that alpacas eat.

Problem solved. Let's go run around on Pismo Beach. Please, don't lose your gloves.

Goodies for Renegade!

Wooly tweedy lacy frilly goodies for Renegade. With cowgirl snaps.

Three weeks to Renegade and time to start stressing in earnest - complete with anxiety attacks, all-nighters and periodically bursting into flames. Inhale. Exhale.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Dude! Part of me is appalled that we will spend this day overeating to commemorate the mass genocide of indigenous people. And the other part is like: hello, pumpkin pie!

Get your art on!

Dolan Geiman - on whom I have a slight art-crush - is having a sale! You really must go because his work is wonderful and amazing and CHEEP! ha ha. Because of all the birds? O, nevermind. Just look....

ps. I just read the Etsy Featured Artist interview, and now have a crush on Allison as well. Read this and you'll see why. Also, I bought this:

My hero.

Seamus says: Mama? If I was a hero, I would save the day!

Oh, little man! (I want to say to him.) You are my hero and you save my day everyday in so many ways, you beautiful amazing creature - I aspire to deserve you. But I'm afraid that my ferocious maternal ardor will freak him out so I just hug him a little too hard and he says: Mama? We're endotherms.

O, glorious junk.

Piles and bins and stacks and boxes of glorious junk they have at the East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse. It is sublime....

Old slides! Who wouldn't want them? Certainly I bought some - do you even have to ask?

Silk. Silk! For $5 a pound! There's something about buying something by the pound that isn't a melon that makes me think: Bargain! even when it's totally not.

Old textbooks that smell like old textbooks and have the library cards still in them. Wow, I love random garbage/treasure! Nirvana. I'm helpless. There's something wrong with me.

And watching my offspring dig thru a heap of whatever and emerge triumphant, holding aloft a strip of blue mylar or a floppy disc and yelling: Mama, you gotta See this.... well, I'm jubilant (of course) and worried. There may be something wrong with them as well.

Found: one very small home. Unoccupied.

Treasury Love.

My apron is in this awesome Treasury by felicitycrew (whose photos are lovely lovely lovely, by the way) - my little apron couldn't be in prettier company, could it? Awwwwww....

How lovely is that?

Nice Day To Wash, 8x10 print, $45 at Bonnie Jones Photography

It's going to be a good week!

Actually, I have no evidence of that. But? In the absence of evidence to the contrary, I declare that it will be a good week. If I say it with enough confidence and alacrity, maybe it will come to pass. If not, there's always coffee.

Hello, coffee....

Goodies for Renegade!

DIY Vintage Quilt Kits.... I could eat them up, I love them so.

Countdown to Renegade!

Only 37 days to the Renegade Craft Holiday Sale in San Francisco! And I have about 725 days worth of getting-ready to do. Did I not mention that bRex will be at Renegade? I only found out about it myself on Monday because at first I didn't get into the show and I was like waaaaaaaa! and I was like what's wrong with me? and why am I here? and what am I doing? and then I started to get used to the idea but then someone else dropped out or didn't pay or wasn't ready or whatever and so they asked me if I wanted to come or what and I said okay. Okay?

My friend, Danelle, says that I should not continue to dwell on this point. She says it is awesome that they realized they forgot to include me the first time.

I say: the cool kids don't hate me after all!

Still, I think I may have to sneak past security and set up my booth in the bathroom. Not that I wouldn't do that.

What I learned at the Zoo.

Pandas are not bears. They are raccoons. Also, I learned that the number one thing my kids enjoy doing at the zoo is: pushing buttons. Their second favorite thing had to be a three-way tie between: climbing things, tromping through the landscaping, and eating candy. Viewing exotic animals was way down on the list. Twelfth maybe.

Here we go....

Road trip: This time to southern California, specifically Carlsbad, more specifically Legoland, also known as Heaven on Earth to two of my favorite people.

An ethical question and a certain perfect necklace.

Best way to dress up your jeans, white t-shirt, and black cardi? No, not the leopard print flats. Again. You need something with effortless je ne sais quoi, something current and timeless, something perfect.

Paula: if you don't want to know the provenance of your Christmas present, read no further.

I have the honor of being included in a two-party online mutual admiration society with Carole Maher, the proprietrix and heart and soul of LuLuSparkles. We've never met, but we typety type back and forth and some of her lovely, delectable creations have come to live with me and some of mine have gone to live with her. I'm crazy about her shop full of vintage-made-new baubles and the witty, romantic descriptions and I just adore LuLu herself.

So, I got this necklace from her as a Christmas gift for Paula, which was very forward-thinking of me and not at all typical behavior. And it arrived in all it's splendor and glory and I could see right away how tempting it would be to keep it for myself so I closed the pretty box and put it away.

And then of course I was invited to the social event of the year - the Ironmen Soccer End of Season Cotillion for 6-Year-Old Boys at Chevy's. There I was, in my jeans, white t-shirt, and black cardi. I opened the box. I looked. I looked away. I put on the necklace. I took it off. I put on the leopard print flats. Took them off. Sighed deeply and emailed LuLu:

If you buy a necklace for someone, is it okay to wear just once before you give it to them? twice?

And she replied:

It is TOTALLY (her caps) acceptable to test drive once or twice! As long as the person you want to gift it to does not see you wearing it.

Talented AND wise, she is. (My caps.)

So, of course, I wore it. It is perfect. It says: I don't have to try to look this amazing, I am actually this cool.

How lovely is that?

Multicolor Crocheted Circle Scarf No6, $85 at subrosa123

Stupid Fancy Grocery Store.

It's not the whole reason I'm blue, but part of the credit for my general malaise has to go to the fact that my grocery store closed. It wasn't the best grocery store, but it was My grocery store. It was a little dim, a little shabby and I'll be the first to admit that there was a bit of a freshness issue with the milk. Sometimes.

But it was close and so very very friendly. The produce guy and the butcher were chatty. (Did you know that the "color added" in farmed salmon comes from the feed? Neither did I.) My discordant children were handed cookies. I strolled like a bon vivant through checkout. If I was frazzled, they soothed. If my offspring were well-behaved, they noticed. Life was good, even when the milk had expired.

So now I have to go to the further-away newly-fancified grocery store with it's internecine parking lot and sphenic, hermetically-sealed melons and tantalizing crockery placed just at four-year-old fingertips. The aisles are too narrow, the lighting is weird and frankly, I don't want to grind my own peanut butter. Checkout pullulates with self-important professionals buying their bento box lunches and impatient five-dollar-juice-sipping teenagers. And do they carry totally useful fancy items like culinary lavender or morels? No! Stupid fancy grocery store.

OooLooky: Branding!

Sewing a label on your product. Good idea! I'm not a hundred and fifty thousand percent in love with these (as one would hope to be), but they do the job. And when people covetously ogle your new MamaGoToMarket Bag and ask you where you got it, you'll be able to say: "It's from BananaSaurus Rex!" rather than, "Um.... It was on the internet - something with a lizard and a fruit? Maybe?"

Also? I'm pretty sure that Johnny Damon and I are related, based on the following evidence: He used to play for the Boston Red Sox and I'm from Massachusetts AND his last name is Damon and my grandmother's maiden name is Damon. Just sayin.

It's the most wonderful time of the year.

I awoke to the sound of a crinkling halloween candy wrapper and a whispered "can you open this?" and therefore: It is officially Christmas. If you don't believe me, look. Poke around in the Eco-Friendly section and you may find something BananaSaurusy.

Okay, I'm done....

Well, wasn't that just a week of self-indulgent crap? I'm a bit of a tempest in a teacup, but that was overly-dramatic, even for me. I apologize, my dear patient reader....

Super Diamond at Bimbo's Therapy.

Yellow Daisy Therapy.

Homemade Spicy Pickle Therapy.

Sewing and Loud Music Therapy.

Charlotte's Web Therapy.