We’ve Moved

I am so excited to announce that we are now live at WeMakeThree.com. Please pardon the dust while I do a bit of housekeeping and design stuff. But in the meantime, would you please change your bookmarks?

slug - defined

slug ¹ (slg) n. : 1. someone who fritters away her day by doing nothing productive and then feels horribly guilty. 2. Any of various small, snaillike, chiefly terrestrial gastropod mollusks of the genus Limax and related genera, having a slow-moving elongated body with no shell or only a flat rudimentary shell on or under the skin. 3. A shot of liquor.

 I fall under the first definition. Yesterday, after waking up at 3:00, I went through the day in a haze and never got anything done. By 4:00 pm, I managed to clean my tub, and scrape off the previous day’s mascara. But I was so dang tired.

Today will be better. Thanks to Tylenol PM. It’s off to brave the mall and get Jake some clothes, and maybe I’ll be seduced by the Ann Taylor window. Anything’s possible.

We’ll spend Memorial Day on the water. Our waverunner has been rotting in storage for a year. It’s so dang much work to go out for the day. But I’m always glad when we do. Gas will be a little more this year. That would be the understatement of the year.

And why don’t more people care about gas prices? Here where I live, the state with the 4th highest rate of foreclosures, nobody seems to care. There are plenty of boats on the water and gas guzzlers on the road.

And I’m always wondering how today’s gas prices equate to the those during Oil crisis of the 70’s. I vaguely remember lines at the pump. And I thought, well, it must be different this time, right? But we had a war with no end then too. And there was plenty of political uncertainty then too. I think that little thing with Nixon was about to explode.

So in 1974, oil spiked to $12/barrel. And today is $132. I would have to do some research to figure out how to adjust that number for inflation. But I’m pretty sure we’re paying more at the pump than we did in 1974. And I’m wondering when we’re going to care.

I leave you with this: a photo of my son who can fall asleep anywhere, anytime, anyhow. Oh how I envy him.

 

the upside to insomnia…

is that when you unexplainably wake up at 3:00 am, you can do a lot of blog reading. and meeting more cool people. I started blogging in 2005 (yes, I’m still trying to index my posts from my blogger transfer). And when I started, it was pretty much just me posting pictures and occasionally documenting a family event.

But the thing is, I crave creativity. And I have a decidedly uncreative job. And I’m social, and time-deprived for a social life. In such a short time, I’ve connected with an incredibly talented group of women, who I now count among my friends. And even if it’s just in cyberspace, they’re friendships are real to me. And their comments are encouraging, and they make me want to be a better person. This little hobby is sort of like taking a vitamin. Yes, I can live without it, but I feel so much better with it.

So SanDiegoMomma posted her response to a meme called “you had me at”. So I’m listing 5 blogs that hooked me, that I read regularly now.

1. TheMomCrowd: The folks at TMC are some of the nicest people you’ll ever want to meet. I started reading from nearly day one, and I’ve always admired them for their commitment to just being the best moms they can and sharing a little along the way.

2. SanDiegoMomma: Amanda at TMC introduced me to SDM through one of her posts. I was instantly captivated. You see, I am not awed by celebrities. But I do get starstruck when I meet smart, creative people. And this post is one of the most inspiring I’ve ever read. If you have a daughter, it should be required reading. And I’ve been reading her blog ever since.

3. MommyPie: At the epicenter of coolness, there is MommyPie. Sorry, I can’t point to a single post. I was just hooked. Maybe because she’s not a Track Mommy. I so get that! And maybe because she’s so witty and somehow puts words on paper that are exactly what I think, but wouldn’t occur to me to say. Like in this post. For those reasons, I read her blog every day.

4. Steph: She writes, she rants, she designs fabulous blogs, and she is one of the nicest doogs (see how I did that MommyPie?) I’ve ever met. Who else would actually be willing to take the time to share her knowledge of geek things to a novice she hardly knows? I was blown away by the lengths she went to just to help me out. Most importantly, she makes me laugh, she appreciates her husband, and I love that.

5. Kristen: The name of her blog, We Are That Family instantly drew me in. And after reading posts like this one, I liked her instantly. What an amazingly cool mom, and great writer. I want to be like her when I grow up. Thanks for the daily dose of bloggy goodness.

There are many more. You have filled my GoogleReader. I’ve appreciated learning and sharing with all of you more than you know.

too much testosterone

My sweet little boy came up to me a moment ago, and said: “mom, would you please carry me to bed, pleeeeeeease?” Anyone who has met this kid understands his charm. And me, all sentimental and such, picks him up each time he asks, wondering if it will be the last. He’s just so heavy. But I do, and lovingly sniff his sweaty-boy head as we wander to his room.

And then: “Mom, I can fart better than dad.”

PrompTuesday (only a little late)

So I’m going to try my hand at a scary story - in ten minutes or less. So not me, but here goes nothing.

It was a dark and stormy night.

It was a gorgeous Sunday afternoon. The kind of day where the rays of sunlight work their magic until you can feel the pull to go outside. Football was on. I just couldn’t take another minute in the house, and it was only the first quarter. So I packed up Jake and the stroller, and headed off to the park. It was playoffs, and so I assumed (correctly) that the park would be deserted.

After exhausting the swing, I thought a walk by the water might be nice, and a scenic climb up the lookout tower would do us good. There was a long, winding path from the playground leading to the back of the park to the lookout tower. As we crossed a little bridge, a man looked at Jake, and tried to strike up a conversation. Nothing wrong with that, but I felt in my core that we should keep moving.

On the way, Jake was distracted by the ducks. Suddenly, the air was still, and I felt him. I knew he was there. He had followed us to the path. And now we were alone on a very long stretch leading to the back of the park. I grabbed Jake’s hand, pulling him away from the ducks and walked on. “Don’t be a lunatic” I told myself. He’s just a normal guy who likes kids. I looked over my shoulder to find his eyes were boring holes into my back. My pace quickened. I could feel my heart pounding. We walked faster, and cut away to an adjoining path.

“Ok, we lost him.” We kept walking. But I felt his eyes again. He had continued to follow us. “What does he want with me? Or worse, what does he want with Jake?”

Thinking quickly, I scooped up Jake and started walking away from him as fast as I could. And he was still following us. I couldn’t breathe. Everything was closing in. God help us. I only saw a slow motion blur. I couldn’t shake him.

And then, as if by magic, there he was. My knight in shining armour. The park ranger driving his golf cart. Jake squealed in delight. “Hi there. Think your son would enjoy a ride?”

You’ll never know how much.

I know I cheated just a little. This is a bit longer than it was supposed to be, and I spent 15 minutes instead of 10. But I’ve always wanted to write this true story down. It is a single event that finally taught me to listen. I know it was God’s voice telling me to stay away from this guy. But I pushed it aside, and called myself crazy. Only after I was trapped in the back of the park with a wiggling toddler and nowhere to turn, did I realize how foolish I’d been. I know in my heart the consequences of ignoring that feeling could have been unthinkable. He was a normal looking, clean cut guy . But I just know what I know. And that park ranger who appeared out of nowhere saved us.

little tugboat note card

i just love him.

keep it moving… nothing to see here.

It’s funny. Some days I’m just overwhelmed with things I want to write down. Memories I want to preserve. But when I finally get a moment to unplug, I feel the tumbleweeds blowing through my brain. So, here’s a bit of a mosaic of things I’m thinking about tonight.

1. I’m so completely nostalgic that Jake is nearly done with kindergarten. It wasn’t supposed to go this quickly. I’ve loved saying that my son is in kindergarten. Maybe because after that, school becomes so, well, ordinary. Is that weird? Yes, I know. It’s not all about me. Jake has been lamenting the fact that he won’t have the incredible Mrs. Day as his teacher next year. He’s already decided that he won’t like his new teacher next year. But he said the same thing when he left his preschool too.

2. The last couple days, Jake has been searching for attention in a new way - for him at least. It started with the following comment: “Mom, I must be the most ‘wedicuwous’ kid.” What are you talking about? “I wasn’t a good listener tonight, was I?” Melt me already. Maybe he has no idea what the word ridiculous means (he defined it as not a good listener), but he sure tried to put it in context. Still, it’s nothing I would ever say to him. And since then, there have been other self-deprecating comments that make me want to take him up in my arms and feed him all the chocolate ice cream he wants. To heck with the broccoli tonight. My baby is feeling melancholy.

Wait a minute. This kid is smarter than I thought.

3. Which David? This business of predicting the American Idol winner has become quite serious among my coworkers. In my opinion (even before Simon’s comments tonight), most were in David C’s corner. But that’s who they liked. Not who they thought would win. As I’ve repeatedly said, you can’t underestimate the Hannah Montana vote. Ever. David A, you and your stage dad are about to take it all the way home. But is it to late to teach him how to be a guy’s guy?

4. Consider yourself a creative writer? I’ve never thought of myself as one. I really just think of what I do as creative journaling. But dang, if San Diego Momma isn’t going to challenge me to keep stretching my wings. And her entry in for this week’s PrompTuesday is positively goose-bumpingly chilling. But I’ve always been a wimp for horror. Still, I have an idea rolling around, I just need to put it on paper.

5. I’ve got a several giveaways for Moon and Back Studios scheduled in the coming weeks at some incredible sites. If you want details on how to win a free set of our fabulous premium photo cards, stay tuned and I’ll tell you how to enter.

Out.

student showcase

since you asked…

I’ve had some posts and emails asking how I made the collage on my living room wall. It’s really quite easy, but it took me some trial and error, and a couple weekends. Here’s what I did, step by step.

1. Figure out what photos you want to use: I brought all of mine into Photoshop and cropped them to 12 x 12 at 300 dpi. If you’re not sure how to do that, you can always go to a photo lab. Make sure you use a coordinating set of photos with a clean background. Otherwise, it can look cluttered, and we’re going for clean. If you’re taking the photos yourself, you might want to read some of my photo tips. I personally think that black and white photos or a light sepia tone works best. You don’t want colors to fight.

2. Choose coordinating paper: I am on the creative team of Designer Digitals, and am partial to their designer papers. For my wall, I used Kellie Mize’s Little Black Dress 2. Using their designs requires you to print them yourself. An alternative is to choose designer scrapbook papers at your local craft store. Just choose a collection so everything is coordinated.

3. Buy 12″ x 36″ x 1″ blocks of styrofoam: My hubby humored me and cut these into 12 x 12″ blocks with a utility knife. He is very engineery, so I knew he would cut them perfectly. And that’s important if you want to line them up in a grid. Somebody mentioned using foam board for this, but I specifically wanted to use styrofoam because I wanted the depth.

4. Affix the photos and papers: I found that Elmer’s cement glue worked the best for this because it worked with styrofoam and didn’t ripple the paper. I was warned against spray adhesives because they could melt the styrofoam. After gluing, make sure you have a good adhesion by pressing the styrofoam upside down against a flat surface.

5. Edge the styrofoam with ribbon: I used a 7/8″ matte black ribbon. Start by attaching it with two short straight pins, and then pull it as tight as you can, attaching it with two pins on each side. I colored the pin heads with a black marker so they would blend with the ribbon.

6. Attach to your wall: There may be an easier way to do this, but I ended up gluing four 2 x 2″ paper squares to each corner on the back of the photo blocks. That made a nice, smooth surface so I could attach foam adhesive squares to each corner and press onto the wall. Foam corners don’t adhere very well to styrofoam.

I had fun doing this, and probably spent $75 or less on the entire project. If I was loaded, I would have printed everything on canvas. But it would have been quite spendy.

If you don’t want to use photos, you could just use coordinating scrapbook paper.

I’d love to see photos of anyone’s similar projects. If you decide to give this a try, I hope to hear from you!

i do aspire to marthaness…

Well, not in the mean, rip-roaring tantrum because you tried to use parmesan in a shaker instead of freshly ground parmigiano reggiano Martha. I meant the other one that smiles on camera and produces lovely things for one’s home. I fancy trying to take after some of her decorating goodness every now and then.

And I found this idea in a magazine and just had to give it a try. I’m pretty happy with how it came out.

And I built myself a little nest, thanks to Pottery Barn and cashed in reward points from the Chase card. In case you’re wondering, this is where I am happiest blogging and scrapping and designing stuff. Don’t you love that little botanical lamp sitting on my nesting tables? Normally, it would be a little more cluttered with books and a wine glass, but I tried to clean up for you.