RrrrraaaAAAAAR!

Just look at what my little boys made (Made!) (with Grandpa's help) for me for my birthday. It's a mighty mighty BananaSaurus Rex and it is currently terrifying the leaf-eaters on my sewing table.

Happy Birthday to ME!

Louise Black? Louise Black!

I am positively giddy today because Louise Black - whose Etsy shop I've long admired - is on Season 6 of Project Runway! Heidi Klum! Tim Gunn! Make it work! Project-fucking-Runway! I'm so excited, I have to go make something beautiful and grow up to be Louise Black!

How lovely is that?

Tempest in a Teacup

8x8 print, $25 at couragemylove

Ready, or not: It's time to go to school.

Today is the first day of school for my first-grader (preschool doesn't start until after labor day - very civilized) so of course I had back-to-school-mom nightmares.... that I forgot to send his lunch with him, that I was making copies and got locked in the office overnight, that I couldn't remember the state capitals.... chilling.

Farewell, Summer Mom. Hello, Soccer Mom.

Soccer started today and school starts Monday, which means we must bid Summer Mom a sad farewell. No-one will miss her more than me. We technically didn't do everything on the Summer Mom list, but if there's one thing I've learned, it's that the words "technically" and "summer mom" should never be used together in a sentence.

Confirmation that I am awesome: Lolliblog

Remember my Extra-Ordinary Little Jars? One of them is featured on Lolliblog - a ravishingly beautiful party planning blog. Imagine that! Actually, you don't even Have to imagine it, just go there and take a peek!

10. Ride on a train.

It's a little train. But, hey: these guys are little.

Real Housewives of the PTA (Livermore Style)

I started my new job yesterday. Like all of my other current employment, my new job requires a large commitment of time and energy, and pays zero dollars. I'm financial secretary for the PTA. Stop laughing.

Seriously, shut up.

I'll wait.

I suggested that, as a fundraiser, we do the Real Housewives of the PTA (Livermore Style). My obviously dim-witted neighbor suggested that we are too boring the be the Real Housewives. Thanks, Mike!

Have you seen the Real Housewives? Of course you have. I'm simultaneously drawn to and repelled by it. (It's sort of the same feeling I have about cheerleading competitions, but that's another whole blog post.) I would argue that we are neither well-enough groomed, nor well-enough shod to be the Real Housewives, but too boring? Certainly not. Mike is clearly not paying attention.

Off to make my handsome husband a martini and tell him we need a pool boy. And a pool.

I heart alpacas.

I don't really heart them. They're kind of weird tall sheep. But so soft.

And look look what I bought when we went to visit Spruce Ridge Farm in Old Chatham, NY - where you can get gloriously soft yarn, handspun from the fleece of an animal you just saw, running around in the yard. Maybe I do heart them after all....

Holy Craft.

I went to the American Craft Council show today and saw Handmade Nation. I'm so overstimulated, I may never sleep again.

Looky Looky!

Look look look what came in the mail today! I'm clapping my hands with joy! I found these in Grandma's basement and my uncle Rob shipped them out to me. Grandma used to make braided wool rugs and this fabric has to have been stashed away for at least fifteen years. And it smells fine. Will wonders never cease? Now, if only I knew how to make a rug....

WTF, Sarah?

Remember Sarah Palin? Me too. I'd almost (blissfully) forgotten her, but....then she started talking about health care reform. I'm not exactly her target audience, but I do speak english and I think I'm smart enough to follow her arguments, generally. But, how do you get from end-of-life care to "Obama's death panel" and euthanasia? There must be a bridge or something, because Rush and an angry mob seem to have arrived there as well. Maybe they carpooled?

This is what I don't understand. There's a lot not to like about nationalized health care. There are plenty of reasonable arguments against it. And you went with "Obama wants to kill my baby."

Sarah? Is that all you got?

Hello Bluebird!

I sent some goods off today, to Hello Bluebird in West Reading, PA. Grand Opening on September 3 - let's All go! Want to?

So, yeah....

My kids just left for a week at Grandma and Grandpa's house. And that's great and good and fine and everything. Wonderful for them, and probably healthy for me. Obviously, I have no idea what to do without them. Also? I'm not sure I know who I am without them any more. Sad, I know. Lamentable. Honestly.

How lovely is that?

Adrienne's work is amazing. Check it out here.

Postcards from the Hudson River Valley....

There's a reason Thomas Cole and Frederic Church and Asher Durand came here to paint. It's quiet and lush and dramatic and really just stunning. As an added bonus, we got to stay with Adrienne and Ray in their hundredandfiftysomeodd-year-old house, which we found delightful. Adrienne would remind me that living in a California suburb means that I don't have to worry about the furnace burning the house down during an ice storm. She has a point. But they have a claw-foot tub and fireflies (fireflies!) and a huge shady crooked front porch. Plus, the kids got to pat alpacas and climb on fire trucks and eat "lamby cheese." It was kind of awesome.

4. Swim in 2 oceans - part 2

The Pacific Ocean is cold. The Atlantic Ocean is also quite chilly.

By the way.

Postcards from Cape Cod....

Cape Cod was lovely and stormy and beachy and cold and grey and wet. But, the sun did come out from time to time, and we regularly embraced twenty-two people to whom we are related. One of us had their toes tickled by a crab, two of us got the stomach flu, three of us played a lot of croquet. All four of us ate ice cream cones and, at one time or another, exhibited a very bad attitude.