I've heard it said that journaling can be like therapy for the soul. I hope blogging counts. I could use a little therapy today. Zander is at the San Diego Comic Con, and that means it's my time to rip something up around the house. Last year the rip-something-up-tradition began when the cheesy pergo floor in the kitchen needed to come out. Underneath it was a semi-ugly linoleum that I considered an upgrade. Well, I've lived with that linoleum for a year now, and it's days are done. I ripped most of it out to expose the hard wood floor underneath. Writing it down makes it sound so easy. It wasn't. I'm sore all over. And I've got splinters. And bruises from whacking myself in the shin with a crowbar that I was trying to pry nails out with. This project has helped me see that I could do more construction like things around the house, it's not that hard, but I need to have more tools than a crowbar, a screwdriver and a hammer that's head keeps flying off. Now that I've got the linoleum and the subfloor removed, I've still got to get the screws whose heads have popped off out of the floor somehow. And, I've got to clean the papery glue off the wood. Then there are the gaping holes that are going to require a more substantial molding to cover them up. I'm frazzled. I don't want to spend a dime on this project and I want to have it all done and prettied up by midnight on Monday when Zander gets home. Bleh.

In other news, I'll write more about our trip to Provence one of these days! I've got loads of great pictures, but I need lots of time to just sit down and do it.

Bonjour!

Wow, long time no post. You'll be happy to know that I'm having SO MUCH FUN. Provence is lovely. We've seen lots of little towns, loads of beautiful churches, adorable doorways, the best flowers I've seen, and loads more... So happy seeing new things, but thinking about you loved ones at home and excited to tell you all the details!

Here are a few of the Proex shots being sent off to the orphanage in Colombia. I don't think the top one is too awfully bad, but the other two are the worst! Full body shots... Not since my senior pictures in high school.

Just 2 more (half) days!

Just a little bit farther is all I have to go... The last two days are 1/2 days, and really, it'll be lots of grading/cleaning/and summer well-wishing. I'm pooped. Last night was graduation and I got awfully teary watching some of the dear ones start off on their way to big, big things.
About a month ago, I brought a picture of my Grandma to one of my painting students and commissioned an oil painting. She (Janet) delivered it this week, and I'm absolutely loving it. I keep thinking about the parts that she got exactly right... The way my Grandma's hair curls and the exact spot it touches her neck feel like such intimate details for such a young artist to capture. It's 18"x24", any great bargains out there for nice framing in the cities?

Oh yeah, our home study went really well yesterday! We've got more than a bit of paperwork to do, but things are good. Boo the cat was a bit overly friendly with our very nice social worker, but I don't think she really minded. That is, until we spanked him raw. Anyway, the orphanages in Colombia require formal portraits, so we got some taken at Proex last night. Full body shots, together and separately. Same goes for the 3/4 shots and the extreme close ups! Oh my gosh, I felt like a huge dork. Especially because I think I might possibly appear slightly more motherly without my glasses on, so I had Zander keep mine in his pocket, and now I'm wondering if I just look like I can't really see anything. Oh vanity.

Recent Thrifty Finds

Memorial Day found me in the local Value Village. No, it wasn't the entire day, thank you very much... More like a very respectable hour or two. I got a fantastic vintage black suit. It's adorable, but I'm not sure when I'll get the chance to wear it. However, these little honeys I'll use. The little bird will hold my brooch/pin collection, or at least part of it. AND, I've been looking for a ring holder for a long time now. 1/2 price on 69 cents, and the price is right!


Side bar: I did not think us to be capable of getting PBS television. I've heard about it, but just thought that it must be part of a cable package. Oh no. It's available to us all, and so far, it's a bit like NPR for the eyes. I watched 2 episodes of Craft in America before I felt like the shiny box with flashing pictures was rotting my brain.

spring flowers

What a weekend... We hung out with good friends, ate good food, and got a TON done around the house. I even made it out to the Value Village 50% off sale early this morning. I'm happy. Content even. Think happy thoughts for us tomorrow, we're meeting with the social worker at our house. I gave the poison hatch under the sink an extra good cleaning. I'm picturing her looking through that kind of stuff. I'm imagining her writing in her notes something about how I should use something all the way up before I open a new bottle of tough on grease cleanser.
Since I'm a little bit nervous about our meeting tomorrow, I'm going to need to go on
a really boring rant about my garden. I'm loving working in the garden these days. My prettiest stuff doesn't even need any of my help. It just does what it's supposed to do.



I don't know exactly what kind of bush this is, but I think that I've heard it called an orange bush. It's huge and overbearing, but these little blooms smell divine. Ahhhh.



Last year I planted poppies and they kind of flopped. I was completely surprised to see them bud out this year. I love how they look like phalic looking aliens.



Here're my climbing roses. Can't wait for them to bloom.

Truck Lust

Yep, I've got a bad case of truck lust. How freaking cool would it be to do this to our Subaru? (The image is from Extreme Craft)

Art-a-whirl

This year for art-a-whirl, I decided that I wanted to get some stuff. I love things made by real artist type people, but darn it, they're always so much more expensive than the crap I can buy at Target. So I sewed myself up a bunch of reversible/expandable headbands, and sold them to the crowds. I made enough to snag some of the art work below (although the Puny Bunny was a gift), a cute ring that I'm too dumb to photograph without it being blurry, and cover my costs plus a tank of gas. Not too bad. The novelty of selling something I made was fun. I especially loved seeing little girls dancing in the hall while wearing my headbands. Art-a-whirl is fueled by lots of people who are passionate about their art, and the selling part just buys them the time to make more of it... Their art seems to define who they are. I felt really out of place in that aspect. I don't have a strong political or spiritual belief tied to my little headbands. Indeed, they are not meaningful, and are even less practical than say, a baseball cap. But it's the making itself, not even the product that excites me. Anyway, blah, blah, blah! I had fun.

Here's a bunny print by the talented Puny people. I can't wait to pop it up on the wall.

This sassy gal was printed by AmyJo. I've been a fan of hers for a while now, so it's kinda great to have a piece of her work. It was also pretty great to meet her. What a nice, nice person.

I can't remember the name of the person I got this from, but I LOVE it. It makes me feel very punk rock meets punky brewster.

On a side note, we got together with some friends on Saturday night and played Times Up. If you're into playing games, this is so fun. There's a bit of trivia involved which inevitably makes this big-picture girl feel like a dipshit, but not true this time... so, so, fun.

Bit of a bummer... The adoption home study with our social worker that was supposed to be tomorrow afternoon is postphoned until next Tuesday! So tonight we'll be watching Lost in our very clean and child-friendly home.

Iced Coffee

PRODUCT ALERT! I love iced coffee, and for a long time now, I've been trying out different ways to make it at home. Brewing it in the pot and popping it in the fridge tastes funny to me, even when I add lots of ice! One time I even made ice cubes from coffee, and that even tasted funny. Based on a recommendation from Treehugger, I ordered the toddy. This little system makes the best iced coffee ever, and it's so concentrated that it lasts me at least a week. It's not a fast process... You get 1 lb of coarse coffee grounds wet and let them sit and stew for 12 hours. Then you let them filter into your container for another couple of hours, and voolah, it's done. It's definitely cheaper than hitting Starbucks everytime the urge hits me, but more expensive than brewing hot coffee everyday.

Dear Alexander and Julia,

Welcome! Thank you for putting your trust in us to help you build your family through adoption. We look forward to working with you during this very exciting journey.

We received your adoption application and have officially opened your case file. LZ in our Minneapolis Area Office will be your adoption worker. She will be calling you in the next day or two to schedule your first home study appointment.

Again, we welcome you to our adoption program and wish you the best as you work to complete your adoption.

With warm regards,

The International Adoption Staff of
Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota

***We're official. It's happy and exciting and getting-to-be-very-real news. Now we just have to hurry up and wait for the next 10 or so months!***

This is another busy week at work, with a district-wide art show going up on Monday. Unfortunately, I'm so over being stressed, that I can't seem to get my butt in gear for the next big thing. Alas, I'm on my break, and blogging about nothing instead of getting something done. Oh procrastination, how you vex me so.
When I do get a little time in my grubby little hands, I want to try out this cool project. I've done the freezer paper stencils so many times, that I can't wait to try this cool little twist.
I'd also like to sew this dress.
Again, these are both forms of procrastination, because what I really need to do is go out and give our yard some attention. In the fall, I prefer the do-nothing approach to gardening because I'm sick of it all. That means in the spring the new stuff is trying its best to grow with all the old dead stuff lying on top of it.
More procrastination? My new Blueprint magazine came in the mail yesterday. I've been pouring over it non-stop, and this is my least favorite issue so far.
As a side note, I got my hair cut at Moxie on Monday. It's my second time there with Angela and she's awesome. Anyway, she dried my hair with a diffuser and it seemed managable to do that myself. Especially, ahem, because it would only need to be done once or twice a week. Which brings me to my question... Do any of you Minneapolis people have a diffuser cluttering up your life? If so, I'd love to take it off your hands in exchange for some of my own clutter that might make you happy. Let me know.

Why having today OFF totally rules...

There are lots of reasons why having today off is so great, but here are just a few...
1. I like my coffee in a ceramic mug, not a travel mug. Travel mugs don't feel good on my upper lip, and during the winter time the heater makes the outside of my traveler so hot that it burns my lower lip. Today I drank lots of coffee in a Minnie Mouse mug that my sister brought me from her honeymoon.
2. Last night I did not experience Sunday-night-get-ready-for-work-panic. Instead, I surfed the web and kept thinking about how great it will be to have Monday off.
3. This morning I woke up before the alarm clock went off, and it was already light out.
4. Today the city of Minneapolis replaced the tree they took down. While I'm sure it we paid for it good and plenty, we did not receive a bill and we did receive a very nice little DVD explaining how to take care of a new baby tree.

5. Because I have time to stop and smell the flowers today, I noticed that we have our first bloom of the season.

6. This morning I had time to adjust the duvet cover I made a few weeks ago. I cut up a too small and too shoddy old quilt and sewed it onto a sheet. Then I turned it inside out and sewed three sides of it shut. When I turned it right-side-out, it was a duvet. As a bonus, I found a bag of crocheted flowers at an estate sale and appliqued those on too. I have a lot of those left, if anyone wants some. I should probably put some ties on it to finish it off, but for now, it's fine. I thought I was being so smart and using sheets to make this because I have such a hard time working with large pieces of fabric, that I thought I'd save myself some cutting hassle. Not the case. The sheets weren't the exact same size, and they weren't even truly square. I'll totally make more duvets in the future, but I'll sew panels together instead.

Prom was fun. It was a lot of work, but so worth it to see how much fun the students were having. Oh yeah, the sweet hubbie and Tim worked their hienies off at the coat check. Thanks guys. Here's just a small smattering of Prom 2007, The Allure of Arabia...

Here's a quickie little post, just to stay in touch during this ultra-freaking busy time of year! Prom is tomorrow night. I made 25 gallons of punch this afternoon. My glasses will never be the same after falling into one of my mixing buckets. Along those same lines, the punch might also never by quite the same again. With my grubby hands digging around in there, trying to find my glasses. In my hot and hurried frustration, my only coping skill was to eat the tops off of three of the pumpkins bars that my mom made for the prom chaperones. Sorry Mom, I couldn't help it. There are plenty of snacks left over for them. Anyway, tonight we're seeing Hot Fuzz and I'm quite excited because Shaun of the Dead was so awesome. I'm also excited because I'm on people-overload due to all the drama that surrounds a high-school prom, and I need to do some quiet fantasy land re-charging before tomorrow. Oh yeah, I'm taking Monday off. I can't wait. I'll make sure and post some pictures of the big day real soon.

NEW LINKS PAGE

On this beautifully sunny day, I've been inside, drinking coffee, and updating my links page. I'm heading outside in 5 short minutes, but thought I'd tell you to check out da links. I'm planning on adding some more in the next week or so. Kind of speaking of links, I've been listening to the podcasts for Fresh Air and This American Life while I'm running. Any other regular podcasts I should be checking out? ALSO, I keep hearing how many amazing audio files can be checked out/downloaded on-line from the Minneapolis Public Library. But their website says those files aren't compatible with i-pods. Anyone got a way around this quandary?

Happy Birthday Mom!

Look who just turned 50-ish...

Vertical Endeavors. Oh my gosh, fun and scary and oh-so really, really hard to do. My girlfriend Katie (who has no website to link to) was an excellent instructor and made it look easy and very graceful. I can only wish that I could look that graceful... Especially with the harness framing and emphasizing my slightly robust BUTT. Lovely. Word has it that we're getting a Vertical Endeavors in Minneapolis sometime in the next couple of years.

In other news, adoption stuff is really coming together. We need to get a couple things notarized on Monday, but otherwise the paperwork is D-O-N-E. I'm spreading the word at work, which has been a little bit bittersweet. Just like you'd expect, I've gotten lots of encouragement and support. Lot's of people wanting to set us up with people who've gone through it. But unexpectantly, one woman that pulled me aside and wanted to know how I could look to "save" a child from another country when people in our own country are throwing their children into rivers. Because I didn't expect that kind of criticism, I didn't respond how I wish I would of. Wouldn't it have been cool if I punched her? Or bit her on the arm? And then said something mean and nasty about her breath? My typical response to conflict is to shy away and let it fester. Not with this one. It's nice to just accept that some people say stupid things. End of story.

Hmmm. What else? Have I mentioned that I'm the advisor for the prom this year? It's coming up in three weeks and I'm absolutely s p r e a d thin. I've been waking up in the middle of the night wondering how to go about making punch for 500. My budget for the affair is shocking. $12,000. Way more than our wedding! Wowza!



Oh yeah, I just finished my quilting class at crafty planet. I took it with Rebecca, and it was so much fun. This was taken when I was tying it off, before I put the binding on. I hadn't done binding before and it's so easy.





Speaking of crafy, here are a couple of presents that Zander and I whipped together. Isn't it kind of amazing and funny to think of him cross stitching?

By the way, this post will be labeled that it's posted by Zander. It's not. I just forgot that he was signed in and now it's time for dinner and I don't feel like fixing it. Have a great weekend!

Get over to the Groveland Gallery in the next couple of weeks to see Stella Ebner's work. She gave a wonderful demonstration this weekend on japanese woodblock printing. It was great. Her work focuses on really seeing the ordinary and sometimes mundane stuff in everyday life. She's one of those people I felt like I know from somewhere, and would like to hang out with.

Ride On

Here's one of the oh-so-many awesome finds at the thrift stores I hit this week. One of these days, I want to make her a saddle.