Crocheted Marilyn

Oh my word, how freaking awesome is this??? I'm still a beginner at crochet, and I need a person-to-person tutorial on changing colors, but this would be such a cool project. For someone to make for me.
This came from Craftster.

49 Sensational Skirts

I've got a lot of skirts in my closet. Skirts for every season. Skirts for almost any mood. Unfortunately, I don't have a skirt for the PROM this year. Yes, I'm still a prom adviser for my high school, and yes, it matters what I wear. I'd wear the off the shoulder peach number that my mom loving sewed for me 18 years ago, but I think she got sick of storing it in her house and donated it to the good will. Anyway, I picked up 49 Sensational Skirts the other day, and the book is fantastically inspiring. This book is not about learning to sew a skirt. Although that is one possibility offered, the book is mostly about taking a skirt you already have and embellishing it. Not with your be-dazzler, but with other cool stuff.
This first skirt is embellished with cordouroy loops, and I think it looks like a muppet. I've got some silk from Thailand that I could cut up to make the loops. I like the idea of the edges fraying a little bit.

This second skirt needs to be a couple sizes too big before you start because this plume will take in about 1 1/2 inches all the way around when it's done. I'd need to go to the the thrift store (if I must) to find the perfect skirt for this one.


I can't decide which one to do...

March Retail Therapy

Oh man, I love this print. Found at anh-minh.

Frida Vans

Z had these painted for my birthday. I absolutely love, love, love them, in the kind of way that makes me not want to wear them, but instead cherish them safely in a box. I broke down and wore them out today, stepping carefully around puddles and other such harm. It's a longish story, but I've got a really-almost-exactly-the-same-extra-pair in a men's size 6 (women's 8?) that are up for grabs, too. If you know someone that might be interested send them my way, I'd be up for making a super deal. Matt Kriske is the talented young artist and he's done a bunch of other pairs too. The x-files pair is lovely and he takes commissions.

Happy Easter!

Today my sister brought over our little nephew Joey at like six in the morning. The coffee was barely even brewing and we still had sheet marks on our faces, but he was awake and excited and ready to play. He spent a lot of the day with us and man-oh-man, he's got us charmed.
Here he is so sacked out that he can't take one more turn around on the sit and spin without a quick little nap.


And here he is wrestling with Zander.

PS: I'm officially on ALL candy detox. The amounts of Easter candy that I've eaten this year is insane. Robin Eggs. YES. Reeses Peanut Butter Eggs. YES. M & M's. OH YES.

Spring Break

We're back from our little spring break in Mexico. It was wonderful. I'm peeling. I'm reeling at all this snow today. Barf. I'm also wasting tons of time today. I'm alternating going downstairs to get another handful of speckled robin egg whoppers with surfing around on the internet. Oh spring break, how I love you so.

Just when you'd stopped checking in...

It's been a long time, hasn't it? Wowza. When times get especially tough for me I hunker down and do the essentials. I shy away from friends a little bit, I get sloppy about returning emails, I neglect calling my grandma, I certainly don't update this thing, I under-water the plants, and I over-feed the cats. I'm not trying to make excuses, just realizing some patterns, and really just wanting to STOP THE NONSENSE. I remember back to waiting tables, when I was on the verge of so-freaking-busy-induced-freaking out, I'd get totally silent and do my job. All other systems would shut down so my machinery could just hum along at top speed until I could collapse in the break room. That system sucked. I still have nightmares about waiting tables, and in my dreams I usually spill water on some fat guy at the Pannekoeken. This all sounds dire, I know, but in the whole scheme of things, I'm doing just fine. Is my marriage falling apart? No. Is my house flooded with sewage? Not yet. Did I start using drugs that make all my teeth fall out? No. Is my health failing me? No. BUT, our adoption plan for Colombia fell through. All those eggs that I put in one basket got scrambled and so did I. SO... We dropped our adoption agency and started over. We've started working with another agency (Children's Home Society) and things are working much differently. Colombia is out and Korea is in... For now, and hopefully for the next 10 months or so! Tomorrow our social worker is conducting part II of our home study at our house. Everything is clean--even the knobs on the stove that never get any attention. We're attempting to appear normal by stashing the Vicodin away and keeping the wine on the counter. And Ben, if you've found this blog, that was a lame attempt at pre-home study humor. Anyway, despite my over-use of cliches in this entry, I'm feeling good and especially hopeful, and even a tiny bit peaceful. I'm ready to start watering the plants again! Speaking of plants, I just got this notice about $25 trees! I guess they go really fast, so I ordered mine a few minutes ago.

In other news, my copy of Rhett Butler's People is in at the library. Too bad it's a hard cover because it is coming with me to Mexico for spring break. I hope the library folks don't mind it coming back smelling like suntan lotion and margaritas. Oh Rhett...