a few of my favorite things...

pretty green and blue jewelry

red Simple shoes

Readymade magazine's "How To Make {Almost} Everything"

Strawberry Shortcake notebook i picked up at the grocery store for $1

The Honeymooners complete DVD set

Sur La Table giftcard for buying kitchen toys i normally wouldn't

and

a drill press that i didn't photograph because it is still in the box because i don't have space on my existing workbench for it but will soon have space for because i am going to once and for all build my new workbench before the year is out

{hopefully}

twenty aught six

it can't be...it just can't be!

Is this really true? My new favorite toy is on the way to the retirement home? I got my gocco for my birthday last July and only really started using it this fall in preps for BazBiz. And now, word on the street says, it's Japanese manufacturer is calling it quits. So do I invest all my non-existant money in buying up supplies that will last me the rest of my life? Please say it isn't true!

AHHHHHHH...sigh of relief

Bazaar Bizarre...prints like these didn't sell as well as I thought they would. But, other things did surprisingly well. So no complaints from me. I think people are more interested in handmade paintings over digitally enhanced drawings. Well, they're groovy for the web, but when it comes to hanging something on the wall I suppose I'd have to agree. Sold paintings that were significantly higher in price more than I sold prints that were mass-produced and cheaper. That actually makes me happy. Now I know what to focus on - now I know other people appreciate original work too!

I have so many thoughts on the BazBiz, but I feel like I need to spend the day decompressing first. Need to unpack, need to catch up on the things I neglected all last week (laundry, grocery shopping, trips to the park with Mr. Little-Ball-O-Energy). But long story short, it was a fantastic experience. Far exceeded all my expectations.

DOH!

~pillows~

Stayed up late last night to finish screening some pillow covers and cutting felt circles. Woke up this morning anxious to get these done...and after the 2nd pillow I jambed my big fat clumsy finger into the sewing machine needle and broke it (the needle, not the finger). And wouldn't you know it? I don't have any extra needles (or at least I can't find any - I'm sure the second I buy more I'll find a secret stash of mine somewhere - so secret not even I remembered where it was - this happens often). So, pillow making is on hold till I go get more needles. Grrrr!

Add to the list of things to do before I die...

Visit NYC when it's snowing. Watching the "Today" show I see that it is snowing this morning in New York City. So pretty! The other night I drove by our local (or shall I say one of our local) Starbucks and they had a snow machine on the roof blowing snow down on the courtyard in a fantasy winter wonderland. I wanted to stop - but it seemed silly to stop. This winter we've got to drive ourselves up to the mountains to see some snow. I bet Mr. Munchkin would flip!

Nature's SO Bitchin'!

We watched “March of the Penguins” tonight.

When I was in 5th grade, each student in my class was given a letter of the alphabet and told to write a report on anything beginning with the letter that was assigned. You can imagine my disappointment when I wasn’t assigned the letter “P”, for “Penguin”. I LOVED penguins.

I was stuck with “E”. And the girl who got “P” was, in fact, writing about penguins.

Now imagine the joy of my little adolescent heart when I discovered I could write my report on the “E”mperor penguin!

Watching this movie, I’m simply amazed at how these little black and white critters can find the one other penguin, among thousands, that they’ve hooked up with that winter to mate with.

And then I think…

I wonder if there is some creature somewhere else watching a documentary about those crazy bastards living on planet earth, saying to themselves, “It’s simply amazing how they can hop into those contraptions every morning and head off to the same distant location every day only to find themselves back at their original destination every single evening. Ain’t nature bitchin’ ?!?”

santa anas in december?!?

Finally in the home stretch toward finishing up my mobiles. I think once these are done, I'll feel much better about my status for Bazaar Bizarre. Speaking of bizarre, this Southern California weather is driving me nuts. The "BIG" rainstorm we were supposed to be getting over the weekend turned out to be probably 5 minutes of sprinkles Friday night. Now the sky is crystal clear, the santa anas have kicked in (Red flag warning for brush fires!) and it is dry dry dry. All the lotion in the world can't stop me from itching. I shouldn't complain...I know it's far worse in places were you all are experiencing actual winter weather conditions. But while everyone is dreaming of a white Christmas, I'm just hoping for a little moisture in the air. Ha ha ha.

critter story

So...

I was happily painting these little boxes this morning when i heard some shuffling noises coming from the direction of my son's basket of toys. The first time, I shrugged it off, thinking I was hearing things and maybe if I ignored it, it would go away. The second time, I stared long and hard at the pile, crossing my fingers that one of the cats would emerge. No such luck. The third time, I jumped to action, assuming that aforementioned noise was being generated by some form of large rodent. (my mother-in-law just last night was talking about her resident rat...so this was consequently on my mind) I ran into the next room and grabbed the one of two cats that I thought was best qualified for the job of earning her keep (and this took me several seconds because they are both pretty docile). After planting her in front of the toy basket, I quickly picked up the toys hoping that imagined rodent would appear and cat would, indeed, earn her keep. But what did I find?

You see...

Toy baskets sit underneath our 50-gallon fish aquarium. After a brief stint of trying to maintain a salt water aquarium, I sold the lot of salty critters on e-bay and filled the aquarium with fresh water (much less time consuming) koi. I have 5 koi fish. They are larger than your average gold fish...not quite as large as the koi you'll see in larger ponds.

So...

When I lift the toys, I see one of the koi fish flopping there on the floor! I suppose what had happened was that after I fed them, this one must have gotten overly excited and just torpedoed himself right out of the aquarium! Thinking back, I think he'd been flopping there for probably 5 minutes - and yet, when I plunged him back into the aquarium he was absolutely fine. Sure he spend about another 10 minutes in recovery on the bottom of the tank, but now he's swimming back and forth with his tank mates like nothing's ever happened. Resilient little bastard.