seriously in love

I'm seriously, seriously in love with this Etsy shop. If only I had somewhere to wear one of these gowns. . . ahhhhh.....

Alas, my life is baby barf and random Lego pieces.

For everything there is a season. When I'm forty, I'm planning on really getting sexy.

the sentry

It was jealousy at first sight.

What, prey tell, was this person doing, coming into our house, stinking it up? And the noise! Oh the ear splitting noise! In the middle of the night for Pete's sake.

How could everyone be paying so much attention to this miniature person? She has no hair! And there I was with locks and locks of soft curly hair. And look at my eyes. Couldn't they see how sad I was? How forlorn?

Little by little things have changed. It may be defeat, however, we think it's much closer to acceptance.

He tries to lick her downy head, ever so slyly so as not to be detected. Just one lick as he passes by.

And he has become the nap centurion. Maybe it's the soothing Baby Einstein music that keeps him there, but we like to think that he has finally fallen in love.

zerrissentheit & apfelstrudel

In another life I think I might have become a lexicographer. I do love words and few things give me as much satisfaction as when I discover a new word that so precisely describes the inner works of my disheveled mind.

I ran across "zerrissentheit" the other day in a magazine. It is a German word that means "disjointedness, disunity, inner turmoil".

Lately, I feel like a circus performer juggling, balancing and sweating like crazy to keep up. I've got the motherhood ball which is by far the most important and also the most awkward to keep in sync with my jewelry business ball and my drive to create art ball. And then there is my church work ball and my housework ball.

Not to mention that my leotard is pinching into my chubby thighs and reminding me that I really need to be running everyday.

So I'm trying to juggle all of these balls. Keep them up in the air and look good doing it.

It's total zerrissentheit and not very eloquent.

There's another German word that I love. Gemütlichkeit. It means "a warm, comfortable, convivial atmosphere, coziness".

I was thinking the other day that I'm not one looking for perfection. I think we've established that. I know that my children won't remember that the house was perfectly clean on Christmas morning, but they will remember if their mother was happy.

What I really want is a little gemütlichkeit in my house. I want peace and quiet and happy children with rosy cheeks and full bellies. And if I am surrounded by great arts and crafts, that's gravy my friends, gravy.

Jo has an apple tree, which in and of itself is quaint and storybook, but it also gives apples. It's a giving tree. The apples are tart and crisp and perfect for baking.

I thought to myself, that if I have to face a life full of zerriseentheit, I might as well get a little gemütlichkeit in there to balance it out.

I set out to make some apfelstrudel for my little family.

Then I realized just how much work the dough is to make and I thought- crap. All I need is more big project.

So I decided to whip up a batch of cinnamon rolls and add in little chunks of Jo's tart little apples. I also added some walnuts, currants and brown sugar oh my! Obliviously the pinching leotard wasn't bothering me that much.

Sometimes it's the littlest things that bring gemütlichkeit to your life.

The smell of warm cinnamon rolls wafting through the house.

The hound dog curled up on the kitchen rug.

The sound of your parents laughing together.

Your son smiling up at you with frosting on his lips when he tells you that your are the world's best mom.

I'll be the poster girl for a zerrissentheit life for the rest of my life if only I can have moments like these.

fancy pants

Last night after Sugar Daddy came home and rescued me from the two screaming mimis, I carved this stamp.

Is it perfect?

Exactly who's blog is it that you think you're reading? Get real sister. I don't do anything perfect. And I like it that way. Or I like to say I like it that way because it makes me feel better about myself and things in general.

So no. It's not perfect.

But is it fancy?

Hell yes.

It's a fancy pants monogram stamp that I'm going to use to make some fancy pants cards.

Cuz' I'm just that fancy.

Pants.

Happy Friday.

*******breaking news*******

LOST MAP FOUND

Just yesterday a very valuable map surfaced and was acquired by one small boy by the name of Thomas Meeker. The map is over one hundred years old and although it can't be known for sure, experts think that it is the very map said to have been hand drawn by non other than Butch Cassidy.

The map was given to Thomas Meeker by his father who declined to speak as to the map's origin.

Included with the map was a brittle old photograph of the Wild Bunch which includes, the Sundance Kid, Tall Texan, Butch Cassidy, News Carver and Kid Curry.


Thomas and his father have tentative plans to visit Escalante, Utah next month on an expedition to the Hole in the Rock area where the Wild Bunch was known to have a hideout. There has been much speculation as to what treasures the map might reveal.

In the meantime, the map is being kept safe and sound in Thomas's cigar box where all his other valuables are stored.

The National Geographic Society has been in contact with the Meeker's, but they have declined any offer to sell or reproduce this incredible find.

However, if the price is right, a certain unnamed inside source would be open to negoitations to help fund her fashion addiction.

Spark

Thinking you might like to have a Girlfriends weekend away?

Who wouldn't love that?

Check out SPARK.

I'm going and you should too.

Registration starts next week!

the thinker

This one's a thinker.

She takes her job as littlest Meeker very seriously.

She's working diligently at being extraordinarily cute and lovable.

She's pooping and sleeping and eating.

A lot.

Especially the eating part.

She's starting to reach for things and talk to us in baby babble. I so wish I spoke goo fluently. I'd love to know what it is she has to say.

She only graces the most fortunate with a smile, however, when she finds you deserving, she smiles with her whole body, arms and legs jut out into starfish formation, toes point, fingers stretch, eyebrows raise. It's quite a sight to behold.

I think this little girl of ours, this little pontificator, is brewing up some mischief in that brain of hers. She's just biding her time until her body catches up.

Heaven help us.

three months in the making

It took me an entire three months, but I finally finished and sent out Birdie's birth announcements.

Each card came with a DVD of this video.

The Meeker Family Film

I love the way they turned out, but honestly, next time I'm just going to go to Paper Source, sit down at their humongous design books and pick one to be printed. That is, if there is a next time.

Sometimes I hate that I have such definite ideas of what I want. Things rarely turn out as good as they look in my brain, but this time, with the help of a great photographer, videographer and graphic designer, I was able to get exactly what I had imagined.

Turn the sound up on your computer to watch the video. I really dig this song.

etsy love

Wall Decal

Kimono Robe

Butterfly Celebration

Jewelry Stand

Chickadee Tee

sat*tis*faction

You cook. You clean. You fold laundry and pull weeds. You put the same plates in the dishwasher day after day.

And do you get satisfaction from all this?

I don't.

But I know a little secret. One of the easiest ways for a domestic engineer to acquire the satisfaction that so alludes us is to can.

Jams and Jellies are the easiest.


Yesterday I finally got around to making my pomegranate jelly from the fruit that I juiced and froze last fall.

It had been nagging at me. Every time I open the freezer there it was peeking out underneath the frozen chicken breasts. It would say to me, "Helloooo? Are you going to do anything with me or what?"

And folks, I don't need that monkey on my back. I've already got two, as in kid monkeys, not addictions. Although I have my fair share of those too. Nothing serious. Don't send the cops.

I tell ya, there is soooo much satisfaction in looking at those deep crimson jars sitting on my counter like precious gems. And they are precious. I get a ton a mileage out of divvying this jelly out to friends who crave it's sweet tartness on their morning toast. You know who you are, you jelly fiends, you!

Oh, and I couldn't help myself, I had to carve a stamp for the tops of the jars. I make this jelly every year, and every year I write on the top "Pomegranate Jelly". Blah. How boring. A stamp is much better, don't you think?

The jelly is done. I don't have to do it again tomorrow.

The next crop of pomegranates will be ready to pick in October, but I'm pretending that's a long way off.