pixiegenné

road trip

we are getting out of town today...heading to north conway, nh to spend the weekend with some good friends we have not seen in a looooonng time. while there, we will visit story land, which is my favorite amusement park (i actually usually hate amusement parks, but this one is clean and reasonable and just cute and nice).  we also may ride up mt. washington's auto road and maybe even see this for ourselves.

children willing, i am looking forward to lounging, catching up with friends, perusing magazines, drinking yummy drinks and eating yummy food, knitting, and maybe a bit of shopping. we'll see - it's a pretty ambitious list of to-dos, i realize that.

hope everyone has a wonderful weekend, whatever you are up to!

kitchen, scene four....

...in which meg practices the fine art of procrastination and wastes 30 minutes taking goofy shots of her salt + pepper collection (and another 20 blogging about it) instead of getting to work...

really, i exist solely that you might feel more productive in comparison.  of course, you are wasting five minutes checking out my blog... :)

where does the day go?

so...the kids are in school for six hours a day.  i often feel at a loss at the end of the day when i try to think of what i have accomplished in that time span.  i enjoyed bethany's recent post and thought i would try something similar here, if only to make myself feel better.  here's what i've been doing with my days...

• working for john a couple hours a day
• running
• volunteering at jane & charlie's school
• hitting the thrift stores on sale days
• blogging....
• searching for the perfect library job
• making lots and lots of stuff. like these...

and these...


these are going to my new favorite store, edith and edna, where i am now gainfully employed one day a week. i saw that amanda was giving them some love today, too.  well deserved...they are two really great women - it is a blast to hang out there (and get paid for it!)

so i guess the days are getting filled.  still feeling a little lost, but getting in a groove...

day at the fair

some pictures from charlie's class trip to the fair...


and, yes, the shirt idea is yet another direct rip-off from stephanie.

hoping to get major crafting done this week.  stay tuned...

more book love

i was reading this post today and started thinking about lesser-known picture books that i love and felt the need, once again, to push some of my favorites on you.  it's like that annoying habit i have when i am out shopping with friends, "hey, look at this!  isn't this cute?!"  anyway...

i love this book so much.  it is a great read aloud, the pictures are so sweet, and both my kids love it.  it was always a hit back in my days as a children's librarian.  i am a big fan of picture books with simple illustrations and a simple, poetic and/or repetitious story.

here's another favorite...

this is from "the moon jumpers" by janice may udry (ill. by maurice sendak).  when i was in high school, i used to use this image for the cover of the mixed tapes i gave my boyfriends (think vanmorrison/catstevens/gratefuldead or smiths/cure/femmes, depending on whether i was feeling like crunchy/meg or alt80s/meg).  god, i was/am a geek.

other favorite lesser-know read-alouds...
a very special house/ruth krauss
fish is fish/leo lionni
brave irene/william steig
the wonderful house/margaret wise brown
the tomten/astrid lindgren

i'll resist the urge to come back and add all the books i am forgetting. 

yay, friday!  have a great weekend, everyone!

(please don't hurt me)

yep, i am already thinking about christmas.  really, i am just thinking about all the crafty things i want to do this christmas and if i really want to get it all done i need to start thinking about it soon.  and also, i have heard from a couple of people who are interested in having me make suitcases for them for christmas this year (which i am thrilled to do) and i am thinking that i need to get crackin' if i am going to accomplish all my crafty goals and get my wholesale orders done and get ready for my craft fairs and do custom orders.  i am also thinking that i may have had too much caffeine this morning and that it is having an effect (affect? always a mystery to me...) on my writing.

(deep breath)

all that to say:  if you are interested in having a suitcase done for christmas, please let me know sooner rather than later.  i am a people-pleaser by nature and hate saying "no" but also hate feeling overwhelmed. and now i will shut-up about christmas until at least after thanksgiving.  i promise.

i just sent a wholesale order out on saturday to mahar drygoods and he already has my stuff up on his site.  man, he is quick.  working on getting another wholesale order done this week - i'll take some pictures when it is all done and looking neat and sparkly.

better get to it.  happy wednesday, everyone!

p.s.  thanks for all who shared their porn-star/stripper names - there were some greats.  i think we can all agree that "butterfinger jackson" takes the cake.  john almost fell off his chair when i told him.

p.s.s.  john's stripper name is "patrick woodside" :)

a porn star by any other name...

a few people have asked me the meaning behind the name pixiegenné.  have you heard that thing you do to come up with your porn star name?  you take the name of your childhood pet and combine it with your mother's maiden name.  pixie genné.  i've also heard the one where you get your stripper name by combining your middle name with the street you grew up on.  elizabeth brewster.

plus i just like the way pixiegenné sounds.  plus i like pixies.  so there you go.

now you all have to share your porn star and/or stripper names.

here are some gratuitous shots of my button collection.  this is as organized as i can get them without buying something new to put them in.  i think i like them like this.

happy monday!

corner park picnic

corner park is a vacant lot in the corner of our horse-shoe shaped neighborhood.  charlie and his buddy chase organized a neighborhood picnic there today.  too damn cute.  hope everyone is having a great weekend.

i heart junk food

i really, really do.  i wish i could just eat crappy food all the time.  i wish we didn't have to think about sugar, or hydrogenated oil, or where our food comes from, or pesticides, or growth hormones, blah, blah-blah, blah-blah.  i wish "fast-food nation" was a pile of boldface lies.  but more than any of that, i wish someone would come out with a study proving the health benefits of cigarettes.  i miss them.

where was i going with this?

oh yeah.  so i made cupcakes today - and i wanted to share this recipe because it is soooo good.  and soooo junky.  it comes from my good-friend's-soon-to-be-ex-mother-in-law.  it has become the birthday cake recipe in this house (except for jane who doesn't like birthday cake and always has an ice-cream cake) and lots of people have asked me for the recipe.  so here it is...

disclaimer:  this is a very junky recipe with some shocking ingredients. someone watching me make it once commented "really?  there's no real chocolate in there?  i'll be curious to see what it tastes like".  she loved it.  it is a damn good cake.

2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 tsp baking pwd
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup cocoa
1 cup milk
1/2 cup veg oil
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 cup hot coffee (i know - stop judging me!)

preheat oven 350.  mix dry ingredients.  add wet ingredients.  pour into greased & floured pan (9*11 or two rounds or cupcakes).  bake 35-40 minutes.

frosting...
3/4 cup cocoa
4 cups pwd. sugar
combine & add...
1/2 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup evaporated milk
cream butter.  add other ingredients.  beat until smooth.

so there you go.  i like it best as a round layered cake decorated with lots of m&ms.  i mean, i used to like it that way until i gave up sugar a few months ago.  now i just stare and drool.

thank you to all who posted w/suggestions for organizing my unruly buttons.  i have started seperating by color.  i think i will need a bigger container or maybe even some jars but i already am psyched w/how much easier it will be to find monkey eyes and ears.  thanks also for all the monkey love - you made him feel special.

i hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

getting to work

above is a sock monkey in need of buttons.  finding the right buttons takes forever, thanks in no small part to my excellent organizational system.  if anyone out there has a large button collection nicely organized, please share your tips.  i need help.

i have been meaning to say a huge thank you to all who have been reading, looking, linking, and commenting.  i am new to the blogging world and all you crafty women have made me feel quite welcome.  thank you!

john and jen are giving me a hard time about my unwillingness to have my picture taken.  never one to back down from a challenge (not true at all, actually, i back down all the time - but not this time!), i faced my fear head-on.  so ha!

anyway.  i finally found some buttons for my monkey...

i'm feeling that wonderful sense of crafty accomplishment.  i think i will bask in it for a bit.