Home & Family

The mirror was first.  It’s been sitting around our garage for three years now, as it was too boring to bring inside.  And my current rule-of-thumb is… if it’s ornate and prissy, then it better be a funky color, or no deal. 

Anyone can pick up a gold mirror just about anywhere.  Where’s the fun in that?  Friend comes in, turns the corner and says, "Oh, nice!  I have a gold mirror too.  Mine is hanging over the couch, not the piano though.  How creative that you hung it vertically.  I’d never have thought of that!" 

Yawn.

So… though my mirror still has the frilly-thing going on, at least it’s owning up to it full-force– a few dollops of Jamaica Blue ala Isaac and a smattering of chartreuse ala moi and now my studio walls aren’t so naked anymore.

I went on a clean-up kick last week, restacking fabric and sorting through my books.  Within a couple of hours my studio was sparkly-clean and ready to take on the world. 

Then, just as I was about to wrap it up and move on, Isaac caught the shiny- studio bug; it hit him hard!  One conversation about blah-blah-beige-and-the -need-to-color-my-world and Isaac was off to the store for paint.  Fantastic!  It was like Dave-the-Slave Week, except my husband’s not a Dave.
(Laura‘s invention – hers is a Dave)

How about a turquoise mirror, honey?  Ooo, and a green chandelier.  And those jars need red lids.  Bright red.  And I need a rod for some ribbons.  And a couple more shelves too.  Ooo, pretty.  Now hang those over there and put these other things right here.  Aah.  Thank you, thank you, Macho-Sweetie-Good-Guy.  (‘Macho’ being the key word amongst all of this funky froof)

Now the studio’s all glammed up and I’ve got at least a week’s worth of new blog-fodder. Watch out Mr. Beige… Oh, it’s terrible.
(Token UHF reference to make my brothers smile – see footnote below)

∆   ∆   ∆

Footnote : )  The first hundred times Matt and Ryan played UHF were a torture, but somehow, after a while, the movie grew on me.  Aah, the good ol’ days of algebra homework and afterschool UHF. 

I think it was my brothers’ guffaws that grew on me, not the movie so much.  Eventually I looked forward to each gag and my brothers rolling on the floor in laughter.  I swear, my younger brother must hold the world record for how many times one joke can be rewound and played over and over… and over again.  His favorite part was the "I’m thinking of something orange…" sequence, though Wheel of Fish and Conan the Librarian were certainly in the running.  My favorite bit was Spatula City.  WARNING:  My fond memories do not constitute a recommendation.  Rent at your own risk.

The collection grows.  Cute hangar, huh?  What I can’t believe is that her ponytails are still intact. 

And, as bloggy-voodoo would have it, she looks an awful lot like Hillary’s recent mobile and Sarah’s subsequent magnet set, both adorable.  How old is she?  I have no idea.  But, she had to be mine.

Yesterday was Elijah’s birthday — ten years old.  How’d that happen? I’m certainly not ten years older than when I had him. 

We took him and a gaggle of his friends to an indoor play-shangri-la: buffet, tokens, bowling, the works. 

It was the first birthday party I didn’t have to decorate for (mixed feelings here).  But, with his birthday following Christmas so closely, I can’t deny that it was a welcome break.

Mr. Wooden Robot says, "Snick–Snock–Blaggle–Blaggle – Time – to – vote – for – the – Bloggies – Snick–Snock–Blaggle–Blaggle"

I messed up on the nomination form the first time around.  I put URLs where the blogs’ names were supposed to go and had to go back in and copy and paste until I had it right.  I should have read the directions first – it really wasn’t that hard. 

I think today’s the last day to nominate (until 10pm Eastern Standard), then there’s another round of votes once they have a ballot together.  I’m not sure what the big deal is with Bloggies (anyone with Bloggies insight?), but it’s always fun to put a good word in for my friends – I hope you all win!  Winning is fun all by itself. 

And, voting sure made it clear that I don’t have enough links in my sidebar – I have far more favorites than I’ve pronounced.  So, sometime down the line I need to figure out how to make one of those stand-alone links pages.  Those are neat.

Mr. Robot is about 3 in. tall and was adopted for a mere 50¢.  He came home the same day as these guys.  Anyone sensing a trend in my spending habits?

Today, I serve you spoons.  Funky plastic ones from the 50s or 60s, I think.

When I was a girl, my parent’s silverware tray contained an average selection of spoons, forks and knives, but for one long, slender, iced-tea spoon.  When clean, that spoon was always my preference.  I didn’t find out until years later that it was my older sister’s preferred spoon as well (which explains why it was so elusive). 

Last year, I bought Julia an antique, silver iced-tea spoon for her birthday (I think it was her birthday) and some months later I found these ones for me.  Much more Heathery.  Of course, they’re not a comfortable shape for cereal, soup, ice cream or anything else. (They’re meant for stirring, I think.)  So, I just look at them.  And Charlotte plays with them.  They remind me of long-spoon days long-gone. 

…and there’s no better welcome party than a family of tiny toy beavers (two inches tall) — or are they chipmonks? — from my favorite antique store.

I’m not sure why I had to have these, but their post-holiday sale price of $3 must have sealed the deal.  I stopped by again today after a dentist appt. and found even more silliness to see me through the marathon.  (What?  Did I call it a sprint?  I recant.)