smashing

Had a smashing time at Leigh Ann's shower tonight over at Anna's house. If it weren't for the Bee's Knees cockatails I wourdn't be slurring right now.



Oh, and here's the rest of the monkey. LA, I hope Esther likes it!

Diet Coke

I've been off the evil juice for about a week now. I'm still a bit sluggish without that mid day booster. Headaches? Yes. Leg cramps? Yes. Mood swings? I'm not sure, but why do you ask, do you think I'm moody, because if you do, you've really got something coming to you because I'm really quite a happy person, and I shouldn't have to be everything to everyone all the time for cripe's sake. Jeesh.

We're Leaving on a Jet Plane, dun dun da da da dun dun....

We're headed out to New Hampshire early tomorrow morning to spend time with the Cannon side of the family. We're staying in the cutest little house that is called The Coop. All of the houses have names like The Big House, The Chalet, and lots more that I can't remember right now. I'm so excited to see everyone.



I'll miss my little garden! This is the first cuc and it's already about four inches long. There might be a couple that are ready to eat by the time we get home. I'm hoping to come home to ripe tomatoes too.



Here's a sneak-peak at a secret project I've been working on. I'll reveal more after tonight!

patio update!

Well, we've got the back-breaking work done on the patio. I'd still like to grow some grass around the stepping stones, and add some sort of vegitation to the fence, but it's pretty near finished. I anticipate that it will change every year--I certainly hope so, otherwise where's the fun???



Here's a bit of a closer look. Isn't Santa handsome? Our neighbors (politely asked) where we got him.



Here are my cucs hanging on the side of the swingset. There are lots of little blooms, but this nasty little guy is tempermental. MUST be watered in the AM or it lays down and plays dead on me. Our plan is to have people nail their bottle caps on our swingset after every party. Do you think other parents will let their kids play at our house when the time comes?



Here's our clematis, growing up with the hlep of a steering wheel. I believe that Zander's sister has a story about her clematis that she would kill me if I shared here.

piece makers

I saw this lamp the other night at my mosaic meeting. It's made of old pots and pans and the words on the front say, "Blessed are the piece makers." Zander's Mom is in a quilting group called the Piecemakers, so I automatically thought of her. I'd love to make a similiar lamp.

Oops he did it again...

I'm not (OK, a little) ashamed to admit that that I've been a Britney Spears fan for quite some time now. I know it's lame, but I really do like a lot of the girlie pop out there. Of course I think her new husband is a loser. That's why this absolutely cracks me up.

I don't want to gloss over the nice things people do for each other. It's too easy to let the president or traffic or work or disappointments dictate. Today a new friend did something so very sweet for me. I was moved to tears not because of sadness, but because of the pure sweetness of her gesture. She is a gem, and a friend I'd like to have for quite some time.



Tonight was my first night going to the Mosaic Guild meeting. It was at Judy Sell's house out in Stillwater. I'm really drawn to the fact that she collects junk and just glues it right in.



Here's a detail of her fountain. She told us that the hose is there because she just was so done with the project and needed a way to finish it off before her daughter came home from camp. I too share that same type of impatience!

Zander is officially in San Diego. Check out the story of getting to the airport here.

Big Time Bloggers

The boys over there at Big Time Attic are blogging! They're leaving for San Diego today and plan to update their blog throughout the convention. I'm missing Zander already! But, I'm looking forward to seeing some friends, doing some reading, and working out in the garden.

henna hands

Tonight we headed over to Kumal and Archana's house for some swimming, eating, and henna hands! They made Indian food for us that was absolutely amazing, and then transformed the plain old cut up fruit that I brought into a really yummy dessert. Archana showed us the henna designs on her hands and feet from her wedding. I've never seen anything quite like it. I love how feminine it is without needing to be pastel-ie. I'm starting to think about teaching at the highschool. Wouldn't it be fun for the students to research some traditional Indian patterns and then try henna on themselves? I love it now, so I think that in highschool I'd have been thrilled.

more minty

Alright, I admit it, I'm obsessed with my mint plants.

1 watermelon hollowed out like a jack 'o lantern filled with:

watermelon guts minus the seeds
1 can limeade concentrate
lemon juice
a friggin ton of mint
rum to your liking

put this in your blender/food processor, but DO NOT, dear friends, ingore the sissy "do not fill past this line". That line is your friend, and if you don't pay attention to your friends they will vomit watermelon all over your semi-just-cleaned-kitchen.

1. Fun BBQ last night.
2. Despite the above, no one vomitted.
3. We have no real BBQ stuff, except a grill. Which I believe is all you really need if you want to spend your extra pennies on cute shoes instead of meat paraphanilia. The guys that took over the grilling (Thanks Kumal and John!) were reduced to flipping the meat with my heat resistant spatula and a pair of pliers.
4. The cops showed up with a gun and wanted to know if we'd seen a black guy in a white t-shirt. Duh, yeah, about every second of every day... Cops do not like sass mouths.
5. Went inside and played TABOO.
6. Mad this morning that I forgot to stinking take pictures. ARRGH.

PS: Thanks Shad and Kevin for lugging over the keg and other goodies!

Have I mentioned how much I'm loving summer in Minnesota? Particularly here, in our little house, with my sweet husband. He's been totally endulging me by letting me show him every last detail of the garden. "Look, the cucs are growing!" "Isn't our spinach adorable?" I know this isn't a hobby that Zander would choose, but I think he's basically enjoying the ride. I really love seeing echinacea in the garden. Every time that I see it I remember that it's an herb that helps you heal, and gosh darn it, it's perdy. I'm loving taking care of my garden. My fingernails are just black lately. Gross. I love helping my little plants grow and watching what they do along the way. During the school year I complain about having to nuture people all the live long day, but I really miss it during the summer! But seriously, I wish that I'd stinking get pregnant. My life is so full of great people and love and rituals and fun, but that want is a constant taste in my mouth. Everything reminds me of it. Not in a sad way, but an impatient way. Hurry up body!




We had a great time at the Craft Conspiracy meeting last night! Sumra was a great host, the embroidery was fun (especially the french knot!), and the food was fantastic. I'm excited for the next meeting where Archna will teach us all about henna design. I'm really happy with how the group is coming together. If you're crafty and haven't had a chance to join us yet, it's not too late. The meetings are always on the first Thursday of the month. Come! I'd especially love it if the Duct Tape Princess would come and teach us a thang or two!

grout queen

Yesterday was all about projects that I had started earlier in the summer, and was feeling guilty about not finishing yet. They are done! I grouted 3 pieces, one of which cannot be shown yet because it's a secret. I like to mosaic, but I really like how things looks when they're grouted. It's so satisfying!



Here's a detail shot. I'm going to take this little frame into the shop today and get some tips on really cleaning it up.



Zander and I had a really good weekend. We worked so hard on our patio on Sunday that we could barely move on Monday! The Wendy's we had for dinner that night was some of the best tasting food I'd ever had. Must...eat...something... Those Mandarin salads are TDF. Not really, but I wanted to use some savvy computer language today. Anyway, I'd love to show a preview of the patio, but I'll wait until there's not a huge pile of dirt in front of it! On the 4th we headed over to Mike and Emily's and sampled all SIX of the salads they made, washed it down with some Huber Bach, and then played some Taboo. I wish our game could have been taped our something. It was hilarious, if not a little bit sick. Our neighborhood had a thick haze when we got home. We had bits of firecrackers and bottlerockets all over our yard. One of the neighbor girls told me that her brother went crazy that night. I believe he might have. That family came and swept our driveway on Wednesday night to clean up some of the mess. They certainly didn't need to, but that was a really nice gesture. Tonight is Conspiracy night. Zander to the Cartoonist kind and I'll head over to the Crafter's kind.

Warning: Materialistic Rant

Anna and I had a little church rummage sale date this morning, only to discover that the sale is NEXT week. Darnit anyway. We did run across a cute little sale on the way where I scored an adorable pleated polka dot skirt for a quarter. I'm wearing it now and it makes me feel quite girlie, in a good way. We also stopped in at ARC Value Village. I spent about 10 bucks there, and got a nice assortment of little goodies. My favorite is a Chinese checkers tin that has fake Chinese writing all over it. Oh, and my new devilled egg plate also feels like quite a score at 69 cents! Like good conversation, one thing led to another and we found ourselves over at Brookdale for a coffee and then wandered ourselves into Forever 21 for a gander at the teeny-bopper skirts. Oh my, I bought one... OK fine, two, but they were cheap and cute, and I wasn't thinking about sweatshop labor. Until I got home. The bag is here, right next to me on the couch, and I was holding onto it contemplating taking both skirts back, when I noticed on the bottom of the bag it says John 3:16. Well, I went to their website and there is no mention of their mission statement or religious affiliations. However, there are a LOT of websites that talk about what an evil company they are. Anyone know anything about why the bible verse is there?

Polaroid-o-nize me baby!

Try this here.

Sampler

Last weekend one of our neighbors had a garage sale. I had high hopes, but alas, there was nothing there for me. He was however, handing out pamphlets for his drinking water business. We could get a water cooler and those big water coolers for about $8 a month. Wowza. I spend that much on water anyway. I think they run the water on our street through a poop and dirt tank that filters the elements into the water. So I gave Water Guy a call on Monday. In my message, I told him that I'm WAY interested, but I'd like to sample the water first. He hasn't called me back yet. He does store some of the water jugs outside next to the garden hose. I'm wondering if that's why he hasn't taken me up on the sample yet?

Stuck on You

Zander stopped home in the middle of the day to bring me these pretty glads from the farmer's market downtown. I think they're lovely and they do indeed make me glad. I was in a bit of a funk, even after a fun and delish lunch with Anna and LA. He didn't even know that (about the funk), but magically the flowers arrived anyway.

I don't think I've mentioned Chubby yet. He lives behind us. He is really skinny, really nice, and he fixes cars. Today he's been working on an older guys pimped out Caddy. I think it has solid gold hubcaps, and those spin when the car is NOT moving. Anyway, whenever this guy is over to see Chubby, he's trying to get that bass pumping the entire time... except that he only plays Lionel Richie, and that just doesn't provide a whole lotta bass. I kind of think he's adorable.



Today I've been trying to work outside in between rain drops. I planted the side of our house, where last week we ripped a thornie-yuckie bush right out of the ground. In its place are three mini bushes with little purple flowers that I hope will someday fill out and become regular bushes with purple flowers. Oh, and I also planted some sedum and gave my climbing roses something to climb on. I need something right in front of the little window. Maybe something with height... I'm just not sure what that'll be. Tonight we headed back out to Patio Town to get some gravel for our little patio area. I've got a lot of extra dirt from this increasingly-more-and-more-of-a-pain-in-the-neck project. Any ideas on getting rid of it? To make our trip a bit more fun we had a suburb-date out in Maple Grove. Unhuh, free parking. Unhuh, lotsa strip malls. Unhuh, lots khakis and whiney children. Yes, we could have gone all fancy, but instead we went to Apple Bee's and ate mildly disgusting food but drank it down with big, delicious margaritas.

good and bad news...

ALWAYS good news first. I got a call on Saturday night letting me know that I got the very part-time job at Mosaic on a Stick! I stopped in on Thursday and left my name/number, I called on Friday to remind them that I'm interested, and then stopped in again on Saturday afternoon to see if the position was still open. On Saturday they were really sweet, but let me know they were really busy and needed some time to figure out who to hire. Then I let them know that I wouldn't really be so persistant if weren't for my Mom that knows them. "Oh your Mom knows us, who is she?" "Oh she's Cheryl Joyce. She took one of your classes." "Cheryl Joyce? We LOVE her!!!" Long story short, they called and offered me the job about 2 hours later. I'll go into work tomorrow morning to talk about the details. I'm very excited.



Here's the bad news. As of this morning, our tree's got a ring. It's coming down. Time to research planting a new tree for the front.

Minty II

What to do with all that crazy mint? Check out an awesome Mojito recipe. My girlfriend Beth (who I don't get to see nearly often enough!) also sent this delicious looking recipe for tabbouli.

Tabbouli

(Do not add salt or olive oil until just before serving.)

1/2 cup bulghur wheat (fine grind is best, medium works okay)
2 bunches parsley (I prefer flat leaf texture but curly is fine)
1 bunch green onion
Tomatoes - at least 2 cups chopped
Fresh mint. 5 or 6 stalks at least
2 to 3 lemons (to taste!)
Olive oil
Salt
Cucumbers (optional)
Romaine lettuce leaves (garnish & scoopers, optional)
Fresh grape leaves (scoopers - optional)

Soak the bulghur wheat in at least three times its volume of cold water. Fine grind only needs a half hour of soaking. Medium grind needs longer.

Chop the parsley leaves, green onions, mint, tomatoes and cucumbers. I prefer using a knife to a food processor, the processor over does it. The tomatoes should be seeded and cut up into quite a small dice.

Mix veggies and bulghur together. Douse with strained lemon juice. If you are not ready to serve immediately, cover and hold in a cool place. Do NOT add salt and olive oil until immediately before serving.

You may garnish with more diced tomatoes and/or diced cucumber, and stick lettuce or grape leaves around the sides of the bowl to scoop with.

Strangeness in the Night

Yesterday morning I made my way outside, in my robe, to sit on the steps and drink some coffee. That sounds much nicer than what I was really going out there to do... There's been an ugly, bashed up mini-van with the windows rolled down, all the seats totally reclined, sitting outside our house for about a week, and I went outside to see the license plate so I could call the cops. The sheriff's office said that it hasn't been stolen, but I could have it towed if I considered it an eye-sore. Well, I don't want to cause any problems for anyone, so I just told him to put it on file that I think something weird is going on with that van. He was a bit patronizing, but agreed. Anyway, as I was coming back in the house, I noticed a 12 sided dice, some strange pictures (one dated Jan 1979), and a stretchy Santa on our steps. How I missed these on the way out, I'll never know! Anyway, the dice is awesome. "Think or Thwim," "Live off the Fat of the Land Join a Slimmer's Club," "Wishing won't make it Well," "As you Sow so shall you Mow," just to name a few sides. At first I thought the van and the stairway gifts were somehow related. Maybe the driver is leaving me clues and needs me to rescue him??? Ok, maybe not.



Boo is on the case. Together we'll get to the bottom of (drumroll please).......The Mystery of Who Left the Weird Stuff on our Front Steps

Ahh, Minty...

My little herb garden has gone crazy, and my mint is taking over. I cut a little to put in my iced tea last night, but seriously, I need some ideas for using it up!

New York

We're back from New York, a place I've always wanted to visit, and also a place I'd love to visit again. Zander had a great convention. He saw lots of cool people from the comic world, and sold a lot o' stuff. We stayed in the cool SOHO neighborhood, which was a great spot to be. Lots of great little shops and bars, and great people (and bird) watching too.



On Saturday while Zander was at the convention, I wandered all the way up to Central Park! There were lots of wonderful stops along the way... Union Square was fun, MoMa was spectacular. I knew it would be a great museum, but I practically squealed when I saw so much unexpected art work from so many of the artists that I teach students about. Frida Kahlo is a favorite, so I was really happy to find her work. It was much smaller than I'd imagined.



I also ate the best hot dog I've ever had outside that museum. Speaking of museums, LA recommended that I check out the American Folk Art Museum, and it was absolutely wonderful. One of my favorite pieces was done by a serial killer about 100 years ago. He happened to find a couple of colored pencils in the jail and then proceeded to render the jail's floorplan out of devil faces. These were the devils that told him to KILL, KILL, KILL. Every single floor was filled with so much great stuff... Unfortunately, no photos were allowed.



Alright, I hate pictures of me, and I especially hate it when I don't have any lipstick on (my lips are invisible), but I especially hate it when I've been sweating all day long in the humid, hot jungle of New York. But we are aweful about having pictures taken together, and I'm afraid that our children will someday wonder if we were ever in the same place at the same time... OK, we hit the Empire State Building on Sunday. The view was truly amazing, but the touristy lines weren't. Fortunately for me, the couple ahead of us in line were fighting, and I spent some time figuring out their story. I do think he is in "the mob" and I also think that he isn't bringing home enough "bling" to keep her occupied, so she's spending a LOT of time shopping. He just got the credit card bill right before heading to the Empire State Building, and he is not happy.



I had to save something (italics) to do on our next trip to New York, so this is the closest we came to the Statue of Liberty!

Craft Conspiracy

Check this out. If you are in the twin cities and if you are crafty, come to the Craft Conspiracy. We meet on the first Thursday of the month. We're a very new group, and frankly, we eat and talk a lot.

meow

This just cracks me up. I found it through mama unraveled 2.

No S!

Alright, many of you know that I've been an Atkin's girl, off and on for the last five years. Recently I decided that something about mostly eating meat, cheese and fake sweets just grosses me out. So, I went off of it. And I started my day with whatever the school lounge threw my way. Doughnuts and Tootsie Rolls you say? Oh yeah. Mayo dripping pasta salad with a side of birthday cake? Oh yeah. Dear friends, my favorite jean skirt is tight. Something needs to be done. I can't go back to Atkins. I don't want to count points and measure servings. I do want my jean skirt to fit nicely. I do well with easy rules, especially when there aren't very many. Thus the No S Diet and quality time spent with the treadmill.

Mosaic madness

Here's my latest mosaic project. The broken plates, coasters and tiles are all getting glued onto a metal IKEA table. I thought I could leave that little table outside until I got motivated to glue stuff on it, but it rusted!!! So, I'm experimenting with mosaic on a little rust!



The problem with working in mosaic on tables is keeping the surface flat enough to keep your beverage steady. Thus the coasters. If you see any cute ones without cork, let me know and I'll go snatch them up!

Grinnell

This past weekend we made it down to Zander's ten year college reunion. No we didn't ride into Grinnell on a tractor! I was a bit nervous about meeting so many new people, but it really was a great time. It was funny though, we spent a LOT of time talking to people from Minneapolis! I guess that means that we all need to get together a bit more often. Some of the high lites for me (not in any certain order)... 1. Meeting Pip, Zander's theater professor. She is the most centered, loving, welcoming, gracious lady. When I grow up I want to be like her. 2. Meeting Brandy from LooseTooth.



She has a cute little hedge hog! It ran around our dorm room with a toilet paper roll on its little head! 3. Getting a hug from Zander's freshman year girlfriend. She's beautiful and sweet. 4. Eating at the Dairy Barn.



I had a Whopper Cyclone. Yummm. 5. Rooming next to Mike and Emily. Yes, they did bust in around 2am wanting to know if we were up to the "devil's business." I don't think it was Emily's idea...

In the last few weeks of school, my 1st graders were all about Claude Monet. They loved it when I'd play the true or false game with them... True or false... Monet had 8 children? True or false... Monet was from Missouri? Well, like all good 1st grade students know... 1. Monet is all about the impression that light and clouds leave on the water and 2. He has a Japanese bridge in his garden. This was one of my favorite masterpieces that came out of that lesson. I love the rainbow and the "I love art" floating in the sky. Truth be told, looking at it makes me feel weepy. I'm sad to leave Turtle Lake. Friday was my last day there and I didn't do that well keeping it together. At the end of the day, a parent brought in her third grade son. He gave me roses. I gave him a hug and cried. This boy has charmed me all year long with his wonderful little chuckle. His pre-school sister cried when she found out I wouldn't be her art teacher. This is the card she wrote for me. Absolutely adorable. I just hugged her and cried again. Bye Turtle Lake! I'll miss you.

My first rose

Alright, I know what you're saying... enough of the boring garden pictures! Well, this is my first garden ever and I'm just a tad excited. I'm not sure what kind of roses I have, but this bush has got about 50 buds on it. The blooms are gorgeous but short-lived. They last about a day and then the petals scatter.

fanny pack

Listen, I know that fanny packs are usually ugly and the name grosses out the Brits, but Craftster has a tutorial for a cute one that I might try and make.

addition: I've been browsing Craftster tonight, and found another really cute project with a tutorial that I'd love to try. Here's the link.

The Lynns

How'd these two get so smooth? We had a BBQ last night. I found some chicken drummies in the freezer, so we grilled those up to be dunked in peanut sauce. I tried one and felt like barfing. Ever time I think about those drummies today, I still feel like barfing. I hope I'm not getting sick!

This seems like a fun idea. Pretty good price too!

2 things

1. This is my own special chili recipe. I normally don't toot my own horn, but it is awesome. And easy.

2 cans of diced tomatoes (I like the ones that've got jalapenos added)
1 can of chickpeas
1 can of black beans
1 small can of chopped green chilies
3 cloves of diced garlic
1 generous cup of cilantro, chopped
1 packet of ground boca burger (optional)

Top with a little cheese and it's finger-licking delicious.

2. I was doing my daily website rounds this afternoon, only to run across Crying While Eating, via Super Hero Designs. Scroll down to Ted. It's Zander's cousin, who is also on a Nestle Crunch commercial right now. I'm sure there are other fan sites, but we here at Joolie Doolie are VERY loyal.

junk

On Saturday afternoon Zander totally indulged me and agreed to stop at just one more estate sale. He got got a cheap computer monitor out of the deal, but I just found so much cool junk. For example, a broken ceramic horse's head that fits so perfectly on our fence post. We also scored a coupla big Tonka trucks that I'm going to fill with geraniums.

However, none of it tops this monster piece of drift wood that they gave us for free. All we had to do it haul it away. No small feat. We did have a few pieces of twine to tie it up, but we also had to use left-over macrome from the sale. We went about 5mph all the way home with the hazards on, got a LOT of attention... "what the hell is that for???" I think we're going to "plant" it in our backyard.

planting

It all started with an innocent trip to the Dowling garden sale with Emily. They had such interesting plants that I got a few. I based my purchases purely on cool names. I bought the cherokee chocolate and new big dwarf tomatoes. I don't know what they'll taste like, but I can't wait to see what happens.

After the first sale, we stopped at the best garden center ever. I don't know if I'll ever go back to Home Depot's garden department again. I got a lot of tasty herbs there. Although the basil shoots under the water bottle were started from Target's seed packets.

Here are my two little gardens. They're surrounded by lawn mower wheels that we picked up on the side of the road. There were thousands for the taking... if only I'd taken about 100 more...
Now if only I could figure out what to do about the creeping charlie that OUR neighbor claims is infesting HER yard.

Thanks Betsy, for sending me this great quote!

There is a vitality, a life-force, a quickening that is translated
through you into action;
and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is
unique.

And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium, and
be lost.  The world will not have it.
It is not your business to determine  how good it is; nor how valuable
it is;  nor how it compares to other expressions.
It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the
channel open.

You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work.
You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you.

Keep the channel open... No artist is pleased...

There is no satisfaction whatever at any time.  There is only a queer,
divine dissatisfaction,
a blessed unrest that keeps us marching - and makes us more alive than
the others.



-Martha Graham  (in a letter to Agnes DeMille)

recycled monster softie

Alright, this is truly my last post of the night. (I'm really enjoying having our new camera in hand) A while back I made this monster for part of Looby Lu's Month of Softies. It had to be made of recycled materials. Geesh, I had so much fun doing this project! The body is made out of old wool sweaters that I felted in the washing machine, the ears, arms and legs are made out of an old shirt that I cut up, and the pouch is made from a pocket off of an old pair of jeans. I think I'll be making more!

Outta town hubbie

Yeah, Zander is still out of town. I'm lonely for him, but I've been so busy that the time is just flying by. Last night I went to the Art Crawl in St. Paul. I liked it, but there were only a few things that I really loved. I did get sucked into (by mistake) a healing workshop. Folksie music, ringing bells, touching, laughter therapy... There were only 3 of us in the room, so it wouldn't have been appropriate to say this out loud, but I just hate that shit. After all of that I met my Mom for a beer, and then headed home. I was up really late (2AM) crafting, because I wasn't entirely sure that the booger man wasn't going to get me. I NEED to have our alarm system connected! At least my time was productive though. I dug out some of my old beading supplies and made a charm-like bracelet, and 3 pairs of earrings. I almost never wear anything except for little silver balls, but I just might wear these.

Camera Drama

Alright, you might remember that our camera croaked about a month or so
ago. We ordered a new one last week, off of Amazon, and this morning I
woke up wondering when we'd get it. Their website is great because you
can check the status of the shipping, and know where your stuff is. Our
tracking said that it was delivered last Monday... So I got a little
nervous. I called UPS and they told me that yes, indeed it was
delivered last Monday to our back door... So I got a little more
nervous. Well, to make a long story a little shorter, I had washed all
the floors a few weeks ago and my washing tub was in the back yard. The
UPS guy put the camera under the tub and there it's sat for the past 5
days!

I feel a girlie weekend coming on

Last weekend I was out of town, now this weekend Zander will be out of town. Yuck. Phoo-yuck. To make myself feel less lonely and more productive/inspired/happy, I'll be filling it with only fun stuff. No laundry or cleaning or yardwork. OK, maybe a little here and there... But just the bare necessities. I'll be heading here on Friday night. I'm not sure if it'll be any good, but I just love seeing people's studios. Anyone free? I'd love some company. Saturday morning I'm heading out to check the junk boxes that say free at the end of people's driveways. I needs more stuff for my mosaic habit. After the garage sale I'm hoping to meet Rebecca somewhere on a sunny patio, and sip on a mimosa... Not sure if the weather will cooperate though! Saturday night I'm heading over to Anna's for wine and crafty shop-talk. I'm also hoping to sucker her into helping me with my very deep rooted phobia of sewing in a zipper. It could be painful for us both.

After reading this, I was thinking how cool it'd be to put together something similar for Minneapolis. I love the idea of rediscovering something that is so very familiar. Any suggestions?

sleepy

I have a few wonderful friends that can totally manage on not much sleep. I wish I could keep up, but I'm truly an 8 hour girl. The 7 or so hours that I get during the week are made up by major napping on the weekends. Not much napping happened this weekend between the Lion King on Saturday night (just a tiny nap on Saturday afternoon) and the May Day parade on Sunday. I've enjoyed the parade in the past, but I really liked this one. I think it was the threat of snow mixed with warm-sunshine-forehead mixed with paper mache unicorns and cheese curds. And unexpectantly running into friends, chatting and then running into more friends. Oh, and Lion King was great, too. I'd heard about its wonderful costuming, but it was truly amazing.