although it IS Halloween!
And I got nothing for you today because I am gearing up for this Halloween Party:
and YOU are invited!
You can host or just crawl from party to party (no driving required so BYOB x3)!!!!!!!
Strange Days, School Days October 15, 2008
I have moved 21 times in my life. That’s a lot of throwing out, packing and unpacking. That’s a lot of things & friends lost and forgotten along the way. And yet I still have these. I came across them tucked into my desk drawer in a little clear plastic bag. Why do I still have these? What did they represent to me at the time? Friendship? Popularity? And why am I still holding on to them? Do kids even do this anymore? Where are these folks now? Why didn’t we, “stay friends forever”? Do they blog?
You can’t find this many WINGS at an airport!
Here are a few of my favorite backs of the photos:
I dated that first guy, Mike, and his brother. I won’t tell you which two they are up there, but they are there! Hint, they are the CUTE ones.
And now for a completely self-indulgent splattering of ME!
Not even going to analyze. But I know you caught the wisps!!! edit – did I post 12 photos of myself? Just checking.
I was just getting ready to type, “I’d kill a goat to be that thin again.” when my little one came over to the computer, pointed and said, “Momma!”. Goat saved, child kissed and photos tucked away again into my drawer.
How Ya Like These Apples? October 13, 2008
I think it would be hard to have a crappy time while apple picking.
We go every year, usually to celebrate Rosh Hashanah, but the boys were sick during the New Year holiday. We just squeezed it in, as today was the last day the farm was open for picking. Luckily there were plenty of apples for picking and eating! There was a sign saying that the apples weren’t as “pretty” this year due to a hail storm which made me love the apples more. Tomorrow we’re making “ugly apple pie” and it’s going to taste beautiful.
I think part of the appeal (ba dum bum) is that it’s an activity that takes family team work. We all work together to gather the apples, carry those sugar heavy orbs, and then work together to bake and eat them! Every body is a winner and everybody works together. Apple picking makes me gushy.
We took a hay ride and part of the ride was to “search” for the escaped magical pumpkins. Perfect hook for my big guy.
Here is where the retired “magical” pumpkins live.
This farm is about a 40 minute drive from our house. I love living in New England.
My little guy ate 3 apples, in their entirety. My dad says the saying used to be, “An apple seed a day keeps the doctor away” and so my little one should have a healthy winter!
Edit: I dug up some old apple picking/pumpkin patch photos of when my big guy was a little guy. These are from when he used to say, “punknim”.
Check out my good blends (blog friends) and all their appley goodness:
Paige’s at Funny Magic has some ideas and recipes for your apples! I like this great tip for “fresh” apple pie in the winter. Slice up your apples mix in some flour, sugar and cinnamon and throw the whole thing in a freezer bag and just bake it up in a pie crust or make a crumble on a dark winter day. It’s a PLAN!
Anne at Green Jello has a cool shruken head craft that we are going to try and tackle tomorrow.
Melissa at WhatKnot. has some great apple shots and be sure and check out her Etsy shop. Really great kid gift ideas!
Visty at The RinRins has a pumpkin related post, it’s not apples but it’s some solid fall goodness (check out the cutie sitting on the pumpkin in her Chucks, heart melty)
Hope your apples are all worm-free!
Honk Fest… October 12, 2008
where panache, drumming and jazz hands collide!
HonkFest is part street festival, part band geek comeuppance, and a full out celebration of sound. The festival is made up of modern day street bands from around the world. If you can bounce your butt to a HonkFest you SHOULD! Bring the kids! Everyone waves their freak flags high, in the best possible way.
And if I may be so bossy – click on the Hungry March Band clip and listen to the music as you read (or skim, I know who YOU are) this post. If you can’t do both at once, like hula hoop and play the saxaphone, then just click on the youtube video and listen to that. This post BEGS for a soundtrack.
Music below:
Here is what it says on the sleeve of the HONK! Live at the Dilboy cd we bought there:
This is fair warning. Honk bands are on the march, and we’re getting louder every day. We are geeks and geezers, doctors and bike messengers, rank amateurs and seasoned professionals. We are acoustic and mobile, and the streets are our stage, as we follow in the footsteps of musical liberation encompassing the entire post-colonial world; New Orleans second line jazz bands, European klezmer, Balkan and gypsy music, Inidan wedding bands, Brazilian samba bands, Afrobeat and highlife bans, American folk, funk and hip hop traditions, as well as the passion and spirit of Mardi Gras and Carnival. Lkke all those who turn swords into sousaphones, we aspire to breach all boundaries: between musical genres, between classes and cultures, between performer and audience.
Sounds about right.
We had a great day, listening to music – playing music, meeting friends (oh so late and so sorry!), running into friends (yeahhhh!), and meeting new friends! It’s hard to write about this in silence. The beat that makes you move your body no matter how shy you are is missing. Here are a couple links so you can groove to the carny vibe your own self.
My favorite is The Hungry March Band out of NYC.
This is a clip from a documentary about HonkFest called Honk You Very Much ***Warning – picks up once guy in the beginning does his thing, don’t bail too early. And gorilla in the end drops some choice 4 letter bombs so if the kids are around mute the gorilla!***
Sometimes my heart aches thinking about a time when (perhaps) my sons won’t feel comfortable busting some serious moves on the street, to participate in something with abandon, but HonkFest is such a clear reminder that even if they do “go underground” for a while, it can come back.
Here are my guys enjoying the day:
I love these shots. Can you tell? The cheesy chip fingers and mouth, the drum style, the fact that I caught the moment just before he gave the upper bongo a huge bap and bonked himself with the whole kit. My issue with repetitive sound and low threshold for noise in general be damned, my boys are drummers.
More from the mayhem below.
Check out the photographer with the uni-pod (?) and leg up on the crowd! I’d love to see some of his shots.
And the woman with the pink bandanna is rocking the hair I secretly covet. I didn’t get a shot from the front but I assure you, she has NO wisps!!!
And lastly, this guy looked like a HONK casualty. Death by HONK!
And lastly for real, we capped off the event with a visit to Kick Ass Cupcakes. Points for best store name and great cupcakes. I’ll take a few points away for price but yesterday I was not complaining!
They even have a vegan option which worked for my eldest! I got a chai spiced caramel cupcake that was o so good.
Drums and cupcakes = day well spent.
Hope you had a honkin’ weekend too!
The Changling October 10, 2008
We, the parents, fought it. But this year we, the parents, are giving up and giving in to the ghoulish side of Halloween that has so piqued the interest of my 6 year old (with a trickle down effect to the little guy – much like the blood from the corner of a vampire’s mouth. Waaaaaahahahahaaaaaaaaa).
I try and celebrate holidays with homemade decorations but it’s getting a little harder each year. As long as there is still some crafting and creating happening I’m okay with it. To tell you the truth, I am not prepared to commit to the money or time it would take to craft some homemade headstones plus, I think I’d be a little squicked out with it. So we now have store bought grave “stones” in our side yard. Tip – I bought them the day AFTER Halloween, when they are practically giving them away, and then the “Switch Witch” traded them for the bulk of the candy collected. Easy way to get rid of candies that may contain allergens and it’s healthier for the kiddos, not necessarily for the Switch Witch though.
My eldest mapped out the layout and excitedly arranged the spooky display.
The wind is not the friend of these Styrofoam markers!
And here is the most terrifying of all – we got a baby sleeper/skeleton costume at the thrift store last year in preparation for a true SCARE CROW or as I like to call it, a Scare Mom. Every time I leave the house I jump. I made it small as to not scare you. I changed my mind.
Edit – We added the bouncy eyeballs from Target into the eye sockets of the mask. I didn’t think it could get any scarier.
We stuffed this guy with newspaper, slapped a dollar mask on him and shoved him into the bush in front of the house. I remember being pissed at folks with this kind of decoration when my big guy was a little, easily scared, guy. Sorry to all the moms who will walk by, clicking their tongues, skipping our house on Halloween night! Your little darlings too will grow up and become interested in things like Zombies, swords, poo and the like. Just wait.
My still a little guy added this touch to the display:
And lastly (for now) my youngest and I put together this Potato Head pumpkin from a kit my husband bought. Homemade? Nope. Something my son excitedly taps every time he walks by it, yup. (So am I a little defensive, maybe!) Isn’t it funny how those who lean toward crafty feel like we have to go above and beyond and do it all with this kind of stuff? I am not alone with this affliction, right? I know it’s much more palatable to just present one’s stuff and not make excuses but I’m leaving in this little conversation with myself because maybe someone will relate!
We have yet to add the spider web, giant spider and bat my mom sent the boys. Stay tuned, if you dare!
Yon Kippur, Reflection October 9, 2008
I just realized yesterday while digging in the sandbox with my little guy that I have been a stay at home mom for 6 years. 6 years. It surprised me. Maybe I’m ready to get back to teaching. Having that thought has helped motivate me to want to get the most out of this year home with my 2 year old. I had such a rhythm with my first born, playgroups, library sing a longs, museum visits, projects, parks, and adventures galore. It has been much harder to find my groove this time around. So no big declarations or mapped out plans for greatness just, I hope, a more focused mindful time for us at home.
We started our day with a nice family walk in the “Great Meadows” located off the bike path at the end of our street.
Can you see the mouse wedged into the trunk by an owl, I’m assuming, for a later meal?
.Love the brothers.
Hope you all had a peaceful day.
L’Shana Tova
The Room October 7, 2008
Cleaning my “craft” room has been on my to do list for some time. And I have, only to watch it rapidly slip back into the junky abyss.
It was my craft room, then it was a nursery (kinda) and now it’s my “office”. It’s a place where I store my ever growing “inventory”, take my product shots, package my sold items, store all my craft stuff and maybe possibly one day create something. It is a tee-niney room. I am sharing these photos in an effort to motivate me to organize so that I won’t have to constantly declutter. I need to set up systems so I can walk in, ready to work, and not have to play a crazy version of Thrift Store Twister.
I am starting to understand just how important good natural lightening is to a photograph. I need to sign up for a course, quickly.
So what do you think of the antlers? They are vintage, really really vintage. I got them at an estate sale. I initially planned to sell them in the shop but decided against after reading these words from buygail on etsy, “My point is here that if you do not do your homework in regards to what is legal in taxidermy you could find yourself in hot water with the feds.” Cool, I’m out.
They are kind of growing on me though. You saw that coming, right?
And I don’t want to talk smack about anyone but I paid someone to do my Majaba advertisement, not much but payment was tendered. I am not pleased with it. I am embarrassed to say it did not occur to me to make my own damn ad. Until tonight, that is.
Thank to Lauren for teaching me the word geegaw! How did I not know it?
So I have written to the folks at Majaba and hopefully they will switch it out. If you have an Etsy shop and you haven’t heard of Majaba, check it out. It’s the stats you crave, another chain from your heart to the computer, it’s GREAT!
And for the record, yes. YES! Yes, I just might be the last person to make embroidery hoop fabric circles to hang on the walls. But I’m just going to crank up my boom box so I can’t hear your mockery.
I’m on a Roll… October 6, 2008
I’ve got butter on my pants! Boom-CHA
2 in one day. Special for you because you’re special. Blogging is like that, spurts and spells (most of mine, dry).
I had such a good rummage/yard sale day on Saturday.
I met my friend at a church rummage sale first thing Saturday morning and got some good bits for the shop plus a huge framed papyrus with all the Egyptian gods painted on it for the growing collection of Ancient Egyptian art and artifacts in the boys room. After the Unitarian church sale we went to Charlie and Pat’s rummage sale were I pick up 2 beautiful vintage Italian Christmas creches. You don’t have to celebrate the holiday to have a good eye, my pretend Jewish great grandma always used to say! On the way to drop my friend off back home we squeezed in a yard sale. We got some cool games and random goodness. I hit “just one more sale” (or two) on the way home and hit the MOTHER LOAD. You know how when you pull up to a yard sale and you know if it’s a match or not. I parked and immediately began scooping up the scores. I really wanted all the other folks to vacate the premises and claim this one as MINE. I bought a pair of vintage roller skates all rusted and lovely:
3 framed vintage children’s albums. Some framed funky prints, an atomic tea cup and saucer that had a tin sheriff’s bandage in it, and 2 metal tables that are the most perfect shade of green. They are keepers.
Photo does not capture the olive-y greatness that these possess.
I told the woman I loved her taste and stuff and we had a great conversation. I even slipped her my card, which was my challenge to myself of the day. She let me into the garage, which was blocked off ( I had already asked about buying a metal globe located in the cave twice), and showed me 2 boxes of dolls. This beauty caught my eye and I bought the boxes off the cool woman with fabulous taste (you should have seen the house!). A kind flickr flickrer informed me it’s a Japanese pose doll. She’s fetching. I’ll be posting her and some other finds in my shop today and tomorrow. I hope she goes to a great home. I had a blast acquiring her.
Here is an old Japanese ad featuring pose dolls:
Be Afraid
Things are on the mend here, I promise this will be a Negative Nellie-free post!
We dug out the Halloween box from the basement and are going to start making the “graveyard” this afternoon. The whole “graveyard” in the special project of my oldest, he has mapped the layout and is itching to set up up (and rearrange endlessly thereafter). We have drawn up plans for the Haunted Dollhouse and are planning our attack, I have a feeling this will be my baby project of the holiday.
We made these laboratory specimen jars (please say with La-bore-a-toreeeee with a creepy voice, we always do). I saw the idea right after Halloween last year and we’ve been collecting bits all year in anticipation. I found the canning jars at Charlie and Pats (world’s best thrift store) and since I couldn’t can my own can if I had to, it’s a perfect use for them. My son just mixed food coloring and water for the mad scientist colors and added bugs, rats, skulls, eyeballs and the like. We had planned to try some jars filled with hair gel but we had the creamy kind not the gel. Suspended gross stuff!
What are you doing for Halloween if anything? We’re always looking for spooky fun tips and tricks.
And treats, always treats!
Speak October 3, 2008
This article is the best at illustrating white privilege I have ever read. It looks at the presidential election through an anti-racism lens. Read it if you are so moved.
It is titled, White Privilege, White Entitlement and the 2008 Election by Tim Wise.
I found it enlightening and powerful. Edit to say thank you to Cindy for passing this along!
