pixiegenné

photo laden post

what i've been up to...

the halls got decked.

we had an ice storm. it was pretty.

i spent the weekend in boston with some good friends. this is the anthropologie store. i've been itching to see it since erin posted these photos of the new york windows. i want to replicate this but that's a whole lotta paper chain. you need paper chain elves for a job like that.

my kids decided to live in boxes for a few days. it was pretty funny.

this week is an epic battle between me and my to-do list. wish me luck.
and good luck with yours :)

hi guys

i'm the queen of camera shy but i'm sincerely trying to get over it.
(hello)

i made a new little corner in my living room recently w/this bookshelf and mirror. i think the bookshelf has been in every corner of my house at this point.
i like to move things around.
when i was a freshman in college, i had two other roommates in a room clearly only suited for two people and the three of us managed every possible furniture configuration that year, including one that required crawling through bunkbeds to get to our desks. for me, i don't think it's the idea of having something BETTER in place; the important thing is that something is DIFFERENT.

i wanted to give a couple shout-outs today while i'm thinking of it. first, (for locals), my good friend betsy is involved with the Chinese School here in Portland and they are hosting a wonderful book sale tomorrow at the Breakwater School. there will be dumplings, a maine author visit, and a wonderful selection of multicultural books. seriously, all i heard was DUMPLINGS and the rest was charlie-brown-teacher talk (mwa-mwa-mwa-mwa-mwa). i love me some dumplings.

i also wanted to put in a plug for a survey john's company is conducting around the perception of the culture of sustainability. go ahead, it won't take but a minute.

my week hasn't been especially taxing, but i'm happy it's friday. i'm off to a little happy hour tonight and then this weekend i roll up my sleeves and whip this house into shape. i'm hosting thanksgiving and my to-do list (which is still in my head) is quite long.

have a wonderful weekend!
xoxo

more ikea!

the other thing i was psyched to get at ikea was this hanging planter. i've been on the lookout for a while, but all the planters i like seem to be out of my price range. my love for ikea runs deep.

other stuff going on...
got attacked by a turkey yesterday
welcomed my neighbors home from paris

it's raining and i'm feeling sluggish. but the basement's dry and all the trees are budding, so i should shut my whiny pie hole.

ikea!

the ikea trip was a success. bed for jane. bed for us. plus a bunch of random goodies i couldn't resist (like the two pillows on jane's bed). she downsized from a full to a twin so we needed new bedding. luckily i've got some twin sheets in my vintage stash. and i made the duvet cover you see here from an old quilt top and a vintage sheet sewn together. i took a cue from an ikea duvet cover i have and just left an opening to stuff the duvet in (no need for buttons). very quick and satisfying.

happy monday!

quit yer (and by "yer" i mean my) bitchin

as much as i love commiserating with you about this god-awful month, i think i need to move on. our vacation week is almost over, and there have been some nice highlights...sibling harmony...cool lunar eclipse...fun craft time w/friends...stuff like that.

anyway, my friend julia is inviting people to join her next week in posting ideas to get you through the rest of february. my contribution will be this: i recently did a major vintage book purge and thought i'd spread the love. so next week i'm going to be offering up lots of vintage kids books here. serious amounts of book love. and probably some chocolate.

i'm having one of those days were i can't type a decent sentence to save my life plus i have to go pack for a trip to vermont, so i'm going to end here.
hope you have a great weekend.

just chillin'

charlie's got the worst of the cold today so we're just chillin'. jane made him some new pokemon art that he's adding to his wall o' art here.

i have a good list of things i could be accomplishing at home today but i feel like i'm swimming through molasses. did i get a good night's sleep? yes. am i over my cold? yes. did i have a decent breakfast? yes. have i had enough coffee? double yes.

so what's my problem?
oh, yeah.
right.
it's fucking february.

a very etsy christmas

i never posted all the handmade goodies that came and went this christmas, but here's a few. jen got me the very cool wood relief from karen miller and the guy with the beard is from ashley g (also via jen). his name is serge but he looks a lot like john which i'm guessing wasn't lost on jen when she picked him out.

the cute pig i bought from stephanie a while back. how the hell she makes all those tiny stitches is beyond me. my hands cramp up just looking at them.

moving in a different direction

jane chose this hot pink paint for her room when she was 4 years old. when she was four she wore dresses everyday and liked me to braid her long hair and put it into complicated up-dos. now she is nine and likes to dress like a boy and has her hair chopped short and wants her room painted army green.

so that's my project this week. then charlie's room. then our room. my goal is to have it all done by spring so i can switch my attention to the outside of our house. which desperately needs some attention.

i stumbled upon this youtube over the weekend, which i thought was hi-larious, but john wasn't all that amused. i'll let you be the judge.

all sorts of stuff

all sorts of fun stuff going on over here...

we got the tree up. we got the right size this year (we often overshoot and have to chop it up to make it fit in our miniature home). and i think we got it at the right time although it always feels early and it seems like people get them earlier and earlier. or is that just me?

we made cookies. again, seems a little early but they were fun to make and i put most of them in the freezer for later (will-power willing)

got some shopping done. i have to confess that, although i took the handmade pledge, there are a few things the kids really want that i can't find on etsy. but here is some of the handmade goodies they will be getting this year...

awesome plush
good luck charms
rockin' wrist gear

i plan on finishing my shopping for them here on wednesday night. john and jen and the rest of my family and friends are getting lots of handmade stuff but i can't show you here because they sometimes read this.

our show friday night was lots o' fun. thanks to all who came out. we bought a lot of wine and i think it was drank all up, which is a sign of a successful evening, in my book.

john's co-worker sent him this for his birthday. they send you a file of your actual song, but i can't figure out how to share that here. i can assure you, it's pretty funny.

 

bloggers are dorks (crafters, too)

(we're all just crawling out from under a rock after being sick for most of the last few days. i sat on the couch with the kids and made lots of paper snowflakes...)

i have this bloggy friend that lives a couple miles from my house and we have a few friends in common and we leave comments on each other's blogs and e-mail back and forth sometimes yet we've never met (though our husbands have). i like this little piece of self-deprecating snark that she posted yesterday.

it reminds me of last spring when i was in brooklyn for renegade - i was having some drinkies w/some brooklyn friends and my friend scott asked "how was your little ren fair?" which made me feel all defensive and then it hit me that i'm a huge dork. and then i was thinking, well, it could be worse. i could be a star wars dork or a trekkie dork or one of those dorks that goes to grateful dead cover band concerts and tries to guess which concert they are authentically replicating (albany, '78!!). but i'm still a dork. a crafty blogging dork.

(plus i'm a librarian)

(of course i'm only talking about myself here. you are wicked cool)