Where the hell have I been?

I miss my blog. I miss all my bloggy friends! I have been missing in action as of late, locked away in my happy place. I decided to start an etsy store. It's been a lot of work, and while it's fun, I have been somewhat obsessed with it, which might not be so bad except for the fact that I have dreams and visions of tote bags and tissue cozies all damn day and night.

Today I learned how to sew a button hole. Yay me! I even loaded some items in my store. It's kind of scary. I am almost afraid for someone to buy something for fear that they won't like it and give me a negative review. I just couldn't take a negative review.

So that's where I have been. I am going to give myself a little break from the sweatshop and check out everyone blogs.

If the spirit moves you, please check out my store and leave me some criticism. You can do it anonymously if you want (but I'll track you down using my sitemeter).

My happy place

I have been busy the last few days trying to get my 'studio' together. I love calling it a 'studio', it sounds so artsy fartsy. It's actually bubs' old bedroom which is a teeny tiny space which I have taken the liberty of painting the girly girliest color I could find. It's still in it's beginning stages, I want a cork board up and some of my photos and stuff. But it's up and running and I actually made my first project. I am really somewhat of a fiasco when it comes to sewing. God bless me though, I keep on trying. I can do my quilts, which mostly contain squares, but give me a pattern or anything that requires precision and I am totally screwed. It's just not in my genetic makeup. I am more of a 'improvisational' type sewer. I found this tutorial and decided it was easy enough for me to try.
I have to say while I am not entirely thrilled at the results, I think I need to make the bag itself a little deeper and I have to work on the straps, I am ecstatic that the finished project actually resembled the one on the blog. That is big for me. I might use it today for a test run, and then see where I have to make improvements. I just hope it doesn't look too 'homemade' in a bad way. I love fabric and this one reminded me of oil cloth, which I am also dying to sew with but it involves changing the needle on my sewing machine, and I am ascared to do that.

All in all, I am really happy I have my own room now. I have been planning it since last October, and it has taken me this long to get it together. Now I can create, and move on to cleaning up my backyard and planting my veggies. Ahhh, a woman's work is never done.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all my bloggy friends. I wish you all lots of hugs, kisses, homemade cards, tissue paper flowers and the gift of sleeping late!!!!

Pretzel logic- crunchy delicious autism awareness

I stopped by my sister's house last night with bubs. She had just gotten home from food shopping. She asked me if I had tried the puzzle piece pretzels yet. I had not heard of them. Imagine my surprise when she showed me the bag.

I can't say for sure how I feel about them just yet. Like I have said in the past, I am not a huge puzzle piece person. I appreciate the symbol as some kind of marker for solidarity, like a secret handshake or something. But I know there is controversy amongst the autism community about the meaning behind the puzzle, and that some people do not like it. I do know that it's here, and it's pretty much what we've got to work with for the time being.

I do like how autism is in the news and that more and more people are eager to learn about it and try and understand it. I am comforted by that. I am not too sure about Autism Speaks though. They seem too closely affiliated with the proverbial 'man' for my comfort. I haven't decided if they are friend or foe, so for now, I am decidedly neutral (with leanings toward the negative on them.

The pretzels themselves were kind of good. Almost like a pretzel type chip. You can now have your autism awareness and eat it too!

Me Me

I have been tagged by the fabolous and mahvelous Marla. My pictures are not as nice as hers though, and I think my life is mind numbingly boring. At any rate, I invite you to a glimpse of my exciting world. The order of things here is a bit wonky, I am having some technical difficulties getting these pics formatted.

5 things in my room

I wasn't sure which room I was supposed to pick. My husband is sleeping so I couldn't do our room, so I just picked my family room. It's been relatively child proofed for the last four years.

1) Zambezi river art~ When my husband and I were first married we went driving one day to westchester, just to enjoy the fall colors. We happened upon some kind of fair and one of the booths had these people selling art they got in Africa. We liked the hippo, the people we got it from said his name was 'Harvey'.

2) A mother's day gift from my son last year. I drag out all the stuff that he makes each year. This is a little jewelry box. 3) A remote control tarantula. No home would be complete without one. This one no longer works because one of his legs broke off. I don't think my husband will ever get rid of it though because he never throws anything away.
4) My very favorite photo of my husband and my son. When I went to pick up the pictures at the drugstore, they automatically made a large version of it for me to purchase. I love it for many reasons, but I think I found the intense eye contact between bubs and my husband very reassuring.
5) Our aquarium. This was bubs' Christmas present in '06. We wanted to find a 'mount wannahockalugey' like the one in Finding Nemo, but we haven't been able to. I do love the treasure chest though. It's a surprise every time.

5 things you have always wanted to do

1) Sing in a band. When I was a teenager, I wanted to be Janis Joplin, well not actually be her, but belt out a song like her. I guess I still do. My sister and I love to play 'rock band' on her Wii. She has surround sound and a large screen tv. Sometimes I drop bubs off at my mil's house and go do a few numbers at my sis's house with her. We take turns playing the guitar while the other one sings.
2) Write a novel.
3) Go to the pyramids
4) Go on a safari in Africa
5) Overcome my overall anxiety about everything, including flying

5 Things you are currently Into

1) Lost
2) Learning photoshop elements
3) Quilting
4) Blogging
5) Fixing up my house. We are currently (and by we, I mean myself) undergoing 'operation cottage living'. I have compiled a list of things we can do to make this house look/feel better. I got a subscription to a magazine for Christmas entitled 'cottage living' and I have decided I can turn my little shack into a cottage. My efforts consist of me making lists, cutting out pictures, rearranging and organizing crap and nagging my husband to do stuff on the lists.

Now I have the task of finding five people who would like to do this meme. I have to admit, I am really not sure if I know five people in blogland that I can do this to. I am going to start by tagging my friend Queen of the binge. I know she is very busy, but I am going to tag her anyway. I will also tag my friends Cake, Jaws and J and C and Me . I know that's only four, but Marla would be my fifth person and she was the one who tagged moi. But if anyone is reading and would like to spill some deet's about their life, please do!!!

*eta: I am also tagging Momster, my new bloggy buddy!



5 things in my bag


1) A paint swatch. I just finished painting my 'room of one's own'. I wanted something soft and soothing, yet not boring. To be honest, it kind of looked like an 8 year old girl's room when I was finished. It was in need of a dollhouse and a canopy bed. Now that I have some of my supplies in it, plus my antique chair, I am starting to like it. I will be picking up my grandma's sewing machine table from my parent's garage on Sunday. Then it will feel complete.








2) A little notebook with a jeweled magnetic closure. I go to bookstores and look at books and write the titles down in this little book and then reserve them at my library. I also write down books that I read about in magazines or hear about somewhere else. I am always on the lookout for a good book.
3) A winning scratch off ticket that my husband gave me. It's for two dollars. I don't know why I am carrying it around with me. I should just cash it in before it disintigrates in the mayhem that is my bag.
4)My son's wallet. Today was Friday and we took his weeks earnings to Toys r us. This week was a windfall. He had nine whole dollars in there (which is more than I have been carrying around). He got an imaginext dinosaur and a package of markers. 5) My new change purse. My sister makes fun of my Vera Bradley obsession. She says they are 'farty old lady bags'. I used to be way cooler, but I am just mesmerized by the patterns on the fabric. Plus this change purse was free w/a coupon when I got my tote bag.






I just realized that I put the end of the post in the middle of the post. Arggghhhhh. Like I said, I am having some formatting issues with the picture posting. It's really annoying, but it's late and I just can't type out all the linkage again. Sorry.

Taco love

I have been really bad about dinner time. I understand the importance of a family dinner time, where everyone can gather and talk about their day and enjoy a healthy meal. I understand because I grew up that way. I also understand I am a failure at it. For one, my husband works all kinds of crazy hours so there's a logistical problem right there. Add to that my never ending stream of diets in which I am usually eating a prepackaged meal. The final issue is that my son never seemed to be able to hold it together to eat at the table- he would get super behavioral and honestly I didn't see the point in forcing him to do something that would make him terribly unhappy all in the name of 'family time'. It bothers me sometimes, but we have gotten used to our ways.

I have the almighty taco to thank for lifting the cloud of maternal guilt I have been wrought with. Bubs has been expressing an interest in tacos. I think one of his friends had those 'lunchables' (which I haven't been able to bring myself to purchase) with the tacos in it. He has been intrigued ever since. So while out grocery shopping we threw caution to the wind and got the taco kit, with the crunchy and the soft shells. Last night, I assembled all of the goods (and my lazy self must admit that tacos are indeed dish intensive, with an emphasis on bowls) and we all sat down to dinner, get this... as a family.

It was exciting and wonderful for a few reasons. To be able to sit at a table with my son and husband and feel like a 'normal' family eating a meal was amazing. I felt like I was in a commercial for home baked goodness. No one was screaming or forced against their will to sit in a chair. No noggin was involved. No reinforcers. Just sitting at the table. Add in that my son was telling us how he was helper of the day and just what that means, well, that was tear inducing (happy tears). The triple whammy element that just set it over the edge into nirvana territory was the fact that my son was eating something he never had before and was enjoying it. He tried the crunchy one first and then wanted a soft one. He actually ingested lettuce!!!! He also tried salsa but that got rejected, 'too spicy' was his exact words.

Bubs even called up his grammy to declare 'I had tacos, they were delicious!' It was an amazing extraordinary dinner that was (almost) better than any five star dining experience I have had.

Gulliver's travels

Last night, my dad took bubs and I to the golf course to ride the carts. My dad does a lot of work at this particular course, he is in construction and he has moved dirt there to make paths for the carts. So after making sure all the players were gone, we took a cart and went for a wild ride chasing the geese off the greens. This golf course happens to be in a pretty affluent area. Long Island is a paradise for the wealthy (but hey, what isn't?). It was a beautiful breezy evening and my bubs had an awesome time flooring the gas pedal (it's electric though, right?) while his poppy steered. There were a lot of huge beautiful homes surrounding the course. Bubs was intrigued by these. He kept asking me if giants lived there. Which given the size and grandiose scale of the houses was a brilliant deduction. I told him that very wealthy giants lived there. Rich giants, with lots of dollars in their wallet.