pixiegenné

ah, the lilacs

a neighbor let me take these from her yard the other day. nothing smells up the room (in a good way) like lilacs. i can't resist even though they make me sneeze.

there are no lilacs in my yard. my neighbor betsy and i have a joking contest over whose lawn is the white-trashiest. she makes a good argument but i know she is just being kind. another neighbor was joking yesterday that her yard was looking a little "sanford and son-ish". i hear that (plus i'm going to tuck that in my back pocket and re-use it 'cause it's funny).

and here's a little secret: gardening intimidates me.
but this summer is the summer i try.
in true meg fashion - totally willy-nilly with no real game plan.
but i think a lilac bush is in order for sure.

oh, and i thought of this movie yesterday and had to track it down. which led to this (with music from rickie lee jones if you watch long enough. wasn't i just talking about her? crazy!)

p.s. i started that flickr group. join in!

thrifty color theme

i know other people have experienced this phenomena. i'm such a dork that i'm considering starting a flickr group. i am psyched about all my treasures today, especially the vintage skirt in the background that will be ripped apart to make something new. eventually.

oh, and i totally suck, by the way. natalie, a reader who is too nice for words, sent me a box of over 60 (!!!) super fabulous vintage books and it has taken me a week to thank her here. and i've already cut one up and made some luggage out of it. thank you so much, natalie!

and like melissa recently vowed, this summer will be the summer of the reciprocated gift. or i'll at least pay it forward (cheesiest movie ever, and yet the phrase sticks).

kick-ass weekend

weather so fabulous you can't believe :: happy hour :: good thrifting :: cookout with friends :: golfing (john, not me) :: building go-cart-type-contraption with kids (again, john, not me) :: sweet baby shower :: getting lots of yard work done :: getting lots of crafting done :: long + lazy picnic at the beach :: capturing charlie at his most dorktastic (couldn't resist once again breaking my don't-post-pictures-of-kids rule)

hope you had a kick-ass weekend, too!

chug-chug (chop-chop)

i know the goal i have set for stuff to take to renegade is wildly unrealistic, and yet i chug along...

it is like 95 degrees out here and the iced coffee i am enjoying right now is really freakin' satisfying. i hope spring comes back and visits for a bit...the three seconds it was here were quite enjoyable.

i just saw a poster at the convenience store for ricky lee jones playing at a local high school auditorium. is that sad? i love her. now i'm wondering if i've got anything besides "chuck e's in love" of hers on my ipod. my ipod needs an update, that's for sure.

can you tell i had nothing to write about when i sat down to post today?
i'll stop babbling now.
(have a great weekend)

chugging along

i've been a decoupage fool. i did something funky to my neck yesterday (the culmination of bad posture + too much time in front of the computer + too much time hunched over the craft table). whatever the case, it's annoying.

it turns out i was a lot sadder than i thought about my old shilo, and spent a good part of yesterday crying in my coffee (switching over to beer at some point in the afternoon). thanks for all the sweet words.

and here's some stuff making me smile...
mama listening to her i-pod
pauline (she's mine!)
awesomely awesome quilt top
cute sweet erin 
coveting a coverlet
atlantic city   
french boats

happy thursday, everyone!
xoxo

shilo, when i was young, i used to call your name...

my dog, shilo, died yesterday.

wait. isn't your dog's name yoko?

well, yes. but years ago, john and i got a dog named shilo and treated her like our baby and took her hiking and swimming and let her sleep in our bed and didn't understand why any of our friends + family wouldn't want us to take her along on every trip.

then we had a real baby and all of a sudden shilo became a dog. then a few years later we had another baby and john traveled a lot and shilo became a pain-in-my-ass dog, especially when she barked at ants crossing the driveway and woke someone up from a nap or when she knocked over a visiting toddler or when bending over to pick up dog poop at the top of a 4ft. snow bank w/a newborn in the bjorn and a toddler holding my other hand...

and it was during those dark days that my sister, cate, and i were chatting on the phone and she said she'd love to find a dog just like shilo and guess what i said?

so she was our dog for seven years and cate's dog for six years. 13 years is a good dog life, i think. and i'm not super sad (i'm sad for cate + her kids because i know how much they'll miss her) but i am a little sad and nostalgic and just feeling a little old, really.

goodbye, sheister-meister...

the "before" picture

big-trash-pickup season means i take the long-way to wherever i'm going, slowing down at each big curbside pile and wholly annoying the person behind me who mistakenly thought they were taking the short-way. i stopped to grab this yesterday and a guy working on a house across the street from me yelled an appreciative "there you go!"

this is the "before" picture, hopefully motivating me to take it on as a summer project so i can triumphantly unveil the "after" picture at some point. the number of projects i have on the back-burner right now (to be tackled after renegade) is getting a bit out of control.

it's funny how many people commented on the picture of me and my sister and our ridiculous hair. 1987 really doesn't seem like that long ago to me and, i know i'm wrong, but i don't think we look that ridiculous. i think we look gooooood. let me search through my archives a bit more and find my mushroom-cut from the early '90s. that was ridiculous. yeah, actually, i don't think i'll be sharing that.

oh, nostalgia

jen made me all nostalgic this weekend chatting about 80's music. this picture is me + my sister off to see u2 at boston garden in '87. she took me as a surprise treat at the last minute. isn't she a great big sister? i copied everything she did (track, chorus, bad perms) and listened to everything she liked (elvis costello, depeche mode, howard jones, smiths...). i've got more than my share of nostalgia filling up my ipod. howard jones' "no one is to blame"? that's just good music.

and speaking of music...did you see that instant karma is out? i always enjoy a good cover album. sometimes a cover can be better than the original. or just sheer genius, in my humble opinion.

happy monday!

friday!

super rainy in these parts and it's supposed to continue into the weekend. which means yardsale prospects are bleak...oh, well.

i'm home this afternoon waiting for the oil guy to come inspect my furnace so methinks i'll go do some crafting. first up on the chopping block is this super-cool school reader my friend, jen, just dropped off...

thanks so much, jen!

my work friend, emily, and i often discover that we find the same totally random stuff funny. like this, for instance. in my mind, dorky confidence + super funny = hot which means i think david cross is hot. also al franken a little bit.

have a great weekend!

true confessions

a real-life/bloggy friend of mine came to my house for the first time yesterday and we were both commenting on how odd it is to see someone's home after seeing so many "corners" of it online. it's a strange thing...i do sometimes wonder if people would be surprised to meet me after reading my blog...if i am somehow misrepresenting myself by what i share or don't share. anyway, here's a few bloggy confessions to keep things real...

• i check my stats
• it makes my day when an artist/crafter that i admire comments on something i've made
• i get a pit in my stomach every time i send out something i've made...i'm always bracing myself for the time when someone discovers i don't actually know how to sew/decoupage/etc...
• i get super uncomfortable when people pay attention to me and/or compliment me in real life. i think i subconsciously started this blog so i could share things i am happy and/or proud of without having to look people in the eye
• those are the scissors i use for decoupage. i should probably upgrade at some point
• i google myself when i'm bored. i did last night and discovered this! my pincushion is on the cover! see? i would rarely tell someone that face-to-face...

john's home! yay!
happy thursday!