pixiegenné

doodly-do

three full days of in-service meetings...

and a picnic dinner at the beach...

that's what i've been up to. how 'bout you?
i'm so glad it's friday! i'll catch up with you next week.
happy weekending...

refrigerator pickles

just like granny used to make (that would be john's granny). john was psyched to have his pickling cucumbers come up in the garden so he and jane could make refrigerator pickles. i can't find his mom's recipe that they used but it was something like these. i'm not a fan of things that are pickled but j+j tell me they are tasty.

got some flickr faves to fill up my craftless blog...
geninne zlatkis
metal chest (so cool!)
studio refresher/organize
the little red house
maxfield + parrish
minimugs

hope you are having a great tuesday.
xoxo

greetings from allergy hell

oh, the allergies. i'm an itchy, watery, sneezy, coughing, rubbing-my-eyes, walking zombie these days. bleh.

on a happy note, i am at long last almost done with painting. here's the living room color...

it's kind of a non-color. could be tan. could be gray. john thinks it's a bit purplish. i'm pretty happy with it and glad to almost be done (one more coat and then the entryway and then done). i'm down-to-the-wire for my goal of three rooms painted this summer. it's that damn trim that takes forever...

we were basking in the glow of cable-on-demand while visiting my folks recently, and discovered the hbo series "flight of the conchords". have you seen this? probably you have - i'm always behind on the latest everything. anyway, it is sososo funny. we quickly gobbled up the whole first season and will probably watch it again once it's on dvd. here are some bites...

if you're into it

think about it

business time 

jane's day

i did nothing but paint my living room today, which isn't very exciting. so here's some stuff jane did...

made some cool little clay guys this morning w/charlie and friend, jack. then she went to jack's house and they, along with friend zaeda, decided to start a revolution.

damn rabble-rousers. now she's hanging with ellie. i'm sure she's doing something equally ground-breaking over there.

i hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

sappy nostalgia (you've been warned)

(my family at my grandparents, mid 70s. that's my washed-out face in the front)

i'm feeling sad for my good friend, jen, who lost her grandfather yesterday. and i love love loved cassi's recent post about her grandmas and i'm feeling wildly nostalgic today so i'm going to shamelessly copy her (i hope you don't mind, cassi!)

grandma + grandpa genné
old creaky (supposedly haunted) farmhouse:: strawberry garden :: bb-gun shooting gallery :: little stream :: big green buick :: grandpa's workshop :: smell of pipe smoke :: watching "the amazing mr. limpit" :: leather reclining chair :: hand-made wooden toys :: scary old dolls :: secret closet connecting bedrooms :: nana upstairs w/a drawer full of caramels :: eugene the dog :: my grandpa's scarred up fingers from years as a shop teacher :: salt-n-pepper shaker collection :: grandma's vanity :: canadian mints :: pulling quarters out of your ear :: "well, if it isn't my old school teacher, mrs. pflumpf!" :: windmill cookies :: secret back stairs :: fresca :: dirt basement :: spearmint leaves :: my grandpa standing in the middle of the road to help my dad back out of the driveway

(all this nostalgia was just interrupted by a frank conversation between charlie, chase and i about how a tampon works. i hope i was thorough, jen, and there aren't any follow-ups when chase gets home.)

now i've lost momentum. maybe i'll get to my other set of grandparents on another day...

late summer, late afternoon

i was loving the sun so much yesterday that i went out and took a bunch of dorky pictures. nothing exciting to report here, except another good chat w/charlie. i made po' boys for dinner last night (popcorn shrimp, coleslaw + tomato on french bread), which led to this...
charlie: hey, mom, i know why they call them "poor boys".
me: really? why?
charlie: because of all the poor dead shrimp in them.

there's a chill in the air...

it feels like fall today, which is by far my favorite season. but i feel like there's a bunch of stuff i still want to cram into summer. i still haven't finished painting, i definitely did not get to the beach enough or grill enough or visit everyone i wanted to visit.

and i haven't hit as many yard sales as usual, but i did hit some with jen this weekend (it's jen's birthday today, btw. happy birthday, jen!!). i didn't find anything spectacular but did pick up this little mug (because i was in need of a mug. hahahahahahahahah).

and we had our neighborhood block party this weekend, which is super fun. my friend betsy came, and brought me this bag, which i love. thanks so much, betsy!

here's some random kid stuff...

jane and friends asked me to make them a good "dance party mix" the other day, and here are the songs jane selected from my i-pod:

rock lobster/b52s :: shake it up/cars :: should i stay or should i go/clash :: salvation/cranberries :: three is the magic number/de la soul :: groove is in the heart/deelite :: macarthur park/donna summer :: i will survive/gloria gaynor :: kids in america/kim wilde :: kung foo fighting/kool + the gang :: melt with you/modern english :: nth degree/morningwood :: sweet caroline/neil diamond :: send me on my way/rusted root :: me + julio down by the school yard/simon + garfunkle :: mr. roboto/styx :: istanbul/they might be giants :: my doorbell/white stripes :: don't go/yaz

i thought that was a pretty kickin' mix.

i took the kids downtown friday night to meet john for dinner and we past some peace demonstrators which led to some questions which led to this exchange...

charlie: where are we fighting a war?
me: iraq
charlie: that's where jack (good friend) is right now!!
me: no, jack is in nantucket.
charlie: oh, right. i always get those two mixed up.

happy monday, everyone!

friday!

this is a suitcase i made a week or so ago from a friend's favorite vintage kid's book. aren't the colors fun? i am getting eager to be done w/house projects so i can get crafty again.

i've done a little shop update if anyone is interested....it's all decoupage this time.

i took the kids to a water park yesterday and went down the "totally tubular" water slide with charlie about 30 times. we had the best time. charlie kept saying things like "dude! that ride was sick!" and "i can tell why they call this ride totally tubular!!" jane and her friend lucy went on this crazy free-fall tube ride known as "the taco" because it's shaped like a huge taco. they are such grown-up girls! anyway, the point of this story is that water parks are sosososo fun. i want to go every day now. except that they are also pretty expensive so that won't be happening. but maybe at least one more time this summer.

rambly....sorry. no big plans for the weekend....ahhhhhhhh. plans for happy hour tonight, though.
fo' sho'.

have a great weekend!

random bits and pieces

random stuff

• i was folding laundry today and noticed how utterly bland my wardrobe palette is. can you tell i don't like to draw attention to myself?
• i haven't done a whole lot of thrifting this summer. i've been much more into purging and organizing. but i saw this little vintage enamel pot today and had to have it. so cute, no?
• and i haven't been especially crafty this summer, either, making this perhaps the lamest of craft blogs. but i did jump on the beach-mobile-bandwagon (a la blair + jen) and made this with charlie a few weeks ago (truthfully, charlie's interest lasted about 15 minutes, so mostly it was me. but jane + charlie collected a lot of the sea glass). 

so that's all i got today. hope you are having a super fantastic day!

what's grosser than gross?

my friend, jen, and i were debating which is grosser, cleaning out a maggoty trash can (me) or weeding your garden and grabbing a handful of your dog's poop (jen). then i stepped out on my front porch and found this...

jane + friends spent several hours working to rid the neighborhood of japanese beetles. they are very entrepreneurial.

sorry. here's some pretty pictures of my new curtains to help erase that from your mind...

urban outfitters sells the curtains for $24 a panel or you can get a bedspread of the same material for $16 on sale and make your own curtains. you can guess which option i chose. quelle bargain!