On the way to the Uptown Art Fair, my mom and I found this glittery tree in someone's dumpster. It's been hanging from the rafters in the garage until last weekend, when we put propped it up and put on some decorations. Zander's mom sent us the beautiful tree skirt a few weeks ago. She made it out of one of Zander's great-grandma Pearl's tablecloths. I LOVE it.



After the last CC meeting, with a crash course in ornament making, I whipped up some Christmas softies of our kitties. One of Boo and one of Juno. The one of Boo is cuter, but that does not mean that we love him more. We, especially I, love them both the same.



I'm still messing around with felted sweaters a bit more before I but together a big quilt. I made this scarf for my co-worker that I didn't think I would like, but has turned out to be a dear friend already. How is it, that so many things in life that you let yourself get freaky-psyched out about, turn out better than could've imagined? Anyway, she loved the scarf. She's funky and the scarf is funkier looking that it is in the picture, so it was a good match.

EARLY on Saturday morning we're heading out to Christmas with our Colorado clan. It'll be so nice to get away and spend time with all of them. All of you, have a fun and safe and lovely holiday!

I got tagged by the Juice to tell all ya'll five interesting things about me. Hmmm. I feel like it's all so obvious, but here goes.

1. In college, I started out as a classical music major. Since then, I've totally given it up (except the not-so-ocassional-karaoke) and would love to take voice lessons again. Oh, and maybe learn how to play the guitar.
2. When I was a kid I'd start to have flying dreams, but it'd always turn into the devil making me levitate instead. Last night was the first time that I could actually fly in my dreams, and it was so flippin' awesome. Yep, the conservative Christian upbringing scared me to pieces. Our children will have to ask their friends what a devil is.
3. I love taking classes, but I also really love discovering things on my own. I want to take oil painting and continue belly dancing this January. I also really love the time of day (4ish right now) when there are really long, purple shadows, and everything else seems golden.
4. I'm most likely to swear when I'm happy and cry when I'm angry.
5. This last one is a tease, but I've got a secret. Don't even try and guess what it is, because I'm not telling.

Bonus Track: Oh, and in the summer my challenge is to get to where I need to go, but only go through the alleys to get there. It's not just my OCD coming to the surface, it's the best way to get the best junk.
Extra Special Bonus Track: You can find some of life's sweetest poetry in Patty's music.

Now, I'm tagging:

Messica
Reuben Sandwich
McGoose
Jackalope Ranch
The guys over at the Big Attic

A few nights ago, at the very swank Big Time Attic Christmas party, we were discussing olds trends. Specifically, the pinning of the pants. We were all quite specific that the pants needed to be pegged, but our methods varied slightly. I sewed mine so tight that my foot could barely make it through the ankle hole, and then rolled them with a cosmetic safety pin out the outside of the roll. Others constructed the peg with a single fold and roll, and yet others made it all possible with a double fold. Well, news flash... And it really is news because I've only just noticed it today, but I've noticed it on about thirty high school girls in the last half hour. The rage is now pinning the back of your shirt to make it fit even tighter. Mostly I'm seeing this accomplished with huge safety pins, but I've even seen a few with the old style diaper pins. This one's bound to be a classic.

Send a big day old smooch over to Reuben. She had a birthday yesterday!

No Child Left Behind

No child left behind, unless of course you're on an ART II field trip at the Minneapolis Institute of Art today. In that case, it's two children left behind. We realized it right before the bus driver got a call from the museum, but just before we got back to school. Whooops!

This summer I found some really lovely quilts that are pretty light weight and not so great for our Minnesota winters. I was so sad to put our old comforter back on the bed... it just looks so blah now. However, today I found this, and it's just filled with beautiful blankets made out of felted sweaters. I've been picking up old wool sweaters around town for a while now, and I've got a small collection going. I might give the whole quilt idea a try. After messing around with how to felt, I think I've got it down to a science. Hot wash/cold rinse with a couple tablespoons of dish soap. Dry on high, but empty your dryer filter mid-cycle because it makes a huge mess.



Isn't this skirt adorable? Lots of fun stuff over on their site. It looks like it'd be pretty easy to make without a pattern. So, I'd like to try and slap one together soon. Does it seem like it would be better with a stretchy fabric? I don't want it to pull when it's tied, AND I don't want something I'd have to iron. Any suggestions? This is a total side bar... The website where this skirt is from sites on every one of their pages, "Don't Steal, Karma is real". It's not like I'm going to put one together and then try and sell it to Target. I just like making skirts, but what I hate is how superstitious bullcrap sucks me in, even when I don't (especially in this situation) feel like I'm doing anything remotely wrong that'd warrant me getting hit by a truck. In my mind this goes along with the forwards that you're supposed to forward to your all of your friends within 5 minutes or a baby angel will lose it's wings and fall dead to the ground. Or, none of your wishes will come true. Ever.

On a happier note, we had a great weekend over here at the Cannon house. I took a class at the MIA about modern American painters on Saturday afternoon. I wasn't all that excited at first, when I found out that the class would last for 4 FREAKING HOURS. But, the class was wonderful! I got to see the new exhibit, which was pretty good, and heard lots of background info from the docent. Best of all, there was a 70+ year old artist that came for a show and tell about his work. His stories were wonderful. Many centered around LSD, which seemed especially cute because he was just so darned old. After that, almost ALL of our holiday parties happened on Saturday night. So Much Super Lots of Fun. Then, Sunday we got to see the Gnome, the Gnome's husband, and the Gnome's darling baby. It was great to see you coffee slurping mongrels.

On a more personal one, I've been a bit under the weather lately. Nothing catching, just trying to get this crappy thing called Factor V under control with... You guessed it, yeah baby, self injections. Like most people, I like to be in control. In fact, I like to be the driver. I like to be the teacher. I like to follow recipes where I know things turn out yummy. I don't like that this is probably why I miscarried last year. Right around this time. That sucks and it makes me sad in my otherwise happy world. I'm feeling pretty sorry for myself, jabbing myself in the gut every night with something that feels like poison. Ugh. So, tonight I'm making english muffin pizzas and drinking light OJ (which is surprisingly good) and we're going to watch a comfort movie like Moulin Rouge and I'm going to sing along through the whole entire thing. Lucky Zander, eh?

Last night I had an absolutely lovely time at the Mess's place for our CC meeting. The food was great, the project was fun, and as always, the women were fantastic.

Right now I'm reading A Million Little Pieces and really loving it. The writing style is choppy and sort of runs on and on, in a surprisingly good way. You might have already read it, but it takes place at Hazeldon, so it has lots of little Minnesota cameos. Reading this book makes me especially glad to have met Zander. Before Zander I dated 1 or 2 nice guys and about 100 FREAKS. One of these freaks was a guy that I met at the grocery store in the Midway. One of the previous nice guys had just broken my heart and I thought a date with someone new was just what I needed.
Him: Yeah, my car's in the shop. Do you think you can pick me up when we get together?
Me: Of course, that'll be so fun. (He wrote down an address and I didn't think a thing about it)
The next weekend, I got all gussied up for our date and went about finding the address. I drove and drove and drove. I FINALLY happened upon Hazeldon Treatment Center and (surprise, surprise) the address matched. At that point, I should have turned the 1989 Ford EXP right around. But I just didn't think that was very nice. I mean, who am I to judge someone when they're trying to get their stuff together? Well, to condense, the night was bazaar. Just a few highlights: He was the president of City Pages, but he used a different name in print, so no one would find out. He created the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. His father thought he was Andrew Cunanan. Hazeldon was his temporary housing. He was a millionare that really just wanted to be real. He gave away all his cars and cash to the poor. But more than anything, his family was the most important thing in his life. (This he proved to me by sharing an old picture of a family picnicing more than a block away) Enough. I've disgressed. The book is good. Pick up a cheap copy at Costco.

Right now I'm stuck in my room with about a million students cramming to finish a painting that's due tomorrow. Panic is finally settling into their cold little hearts. Mmwaah, haa, whaa. I really can't believe that tomorrow is already Friday, although I can't say that it upsets me much. Especially because I can FINALLY get my hair cut on Saturday. Melissa, if you're reading this, you're impossible to get an appointment with. Especially on my one-two day's notice.

Zander and I were supposed to be heading down to Nebraska this weekend for the family Christmas party. We're just not going to make it. There are all kinds of reasons why not, the least of which is just that I'm a big old winter riding/driving baby. Luckily we got to see my Grandma a lot in the last couple of weeks, so I don't feel quite as bad about it. So, since we're staying in town, I am super-excited for the craft and mcad sales coming up... Especially since I've done zero, zilch, nada, and nunka Christmas shopping.

Alright, the kids are outta here and so am I! Have a good end of the week!