Auntie

I am an Auntie.

Little O.

So new.

So soft.

So full of warmth.

So full of hope.

This tiny life has just added a fresh purpose to my own.

So amazing.

So thankful.

Sister

For the past few weeks I have been a guest at my sister's home. It has been wonderful to have such time to hang out with my little sister....doing things like grocery shopping, cooking, watching movies, and waxing poetic about life. In the best and worst of times it is a blessing to have such a sister. It is a bonus that she comes as a package deal with her loving golden retriever Mason Dixie. She brings extra warmth and goofiness into any situation. I love my sister and her furry partner.

A-hoy!

Ahoy there matey! It seems that I have been a bit lost at sea as of late. And for good reason...my first nephew, Baby O, is on his way. I have had so many ideas running hurry scurry through my head it was tough to batten down the hatches to get the baby shower presents finished on time. Between work and life I could only squeeze so much time into creating all the wonderful odd stuff filed in my silly aunty head for the new baby boy in the family. My goal is to give Baby O a chance to see the world as a beautiful and adventurous place. The presents that made it to the shower included: First Mate P. Bear, a treasure chest full of goodies, and the pirate ship bookends (the matching bookshelf is still in the making....with hopes of a delivery to the nursery before the stork arrives ;).

1260

1260: how many times a humming bird heart will beat in a minute. My grandmother loved her hummingbirds. Many humid summer days were spent waiting for their arrival on the perch of the feeders that hung from her magnolia tree. We would sit on her glider and drink sun tea out of aluminum cups. My grandmother must be on our minds lately. Last week I doodled the above hummingbird, and then ordered a new necklace from Home Studio. Yesterday in the mail arrived a Valentine from my mother...featuring, yes indeed, another hummingbird. I miss my grandmother and watching for the hummingbirds...

Reading Rainbow

My friend is such a clever creative girl. She is quite the bookworm, just like me. We both have a slew of books and very very full book shelves. During a recent shindig at her lovely abode I noticed her new arrangement of her books. They were sorted by color. How beautiful! Such a slendid idea made me quite envious. My own library is arranged alphabetically by chaos (the white shelves below her rainbow shelves).

Albert

Morning

Oren Lavie - Her Morning Elegance - Celebrity bloopers here

Mark and Marilyn

There was a glitch on the schedule at work...and miracles of miracles, wonders of wonders...over the next eight days I only work once before I get back in to the routine of the work schedule. What a happy overlooked error on behalf of my manager. I was clueless of this news worthy event until yesterday. Thus I have an open calendar...books to read, drawings to hang, baby shower gifts to be made, a party to attend, brows to be waxed. I am giddy. Above are two new portraits of Mark and Marilyn. For one of my New Year resolutions I vowed to take more pictures of those I love...I believe I am going to make an addendum to that...to include drawing more portraits of people I love and those who inspire me to be more with my life...

The Girls

The Golden Girls Necklace from Trashed Clothing. It is currently a new favorite conversation piece at work. Who knew there were so many Golden Girl fans? I guess you have to love them and all their fancy pajamas and midnight cravings for cheese cake. Television inspired me to have a life like Rhoda in my 20's, Kate and Alley in my 30's , Elise from Family Ties in my early 40's, Murphy Brown in my late 40's....and later a life much like the Golden Girls. My new assistant on overnights would like to get one for himself....Which Golden Girl are you ?

Witness

• The metro was crazy.
• My toes and nose froze.
• After the third hour I was starving.
• My scarf was cute and useless.
• The port-a-potties were out of toilet paper.
• He arrived.
• He took his oath.
• He spoke to us.
• The benediction was great.
• The poem kind of sucked.
• My nose was still froze.
• I gave up on the scarf and feeling my toes.
• The stomach growl was fierce.
• The metro was even crazier.
• When we finally arrived to my friend Jason's home...I fell asleep mid sentence on the couch.
• It is the most amazing thing I have ever been a witness to...
• I am so thankful.

Self

It is so hard for me to draw a self portrait...my mother tends to appear on the page before I am done. I thought it only right to apply the memoir assignment to myself and to see what would happen. The words were submissions from my little sister and a dear friend. And I really love how my glasses turned out...so very wicked and nerdy! Just like me...

Mrs. Fruit

Ah, Mrs. Fruit... ...the older lady that abides in the downstairs half of the our rented house with her daughter Lump.I should pause to say that those are not the real names of my neighbors. They have simple respectable names, such as Edith and Renee.But Lump is kind of loud and oafish. Her bottom is wide and looks as if the potatoes still need mashed when she wears her stretchy pants. And Mrs. Fruit has always been a bit out there with her Einstein hair and matching velor jump suits. She had a tendency to repeat the same story over and over and over again, the little scratched record in her brain was never righted.

We have not always been good neighbors.

They are loud. Sometimes very mean to Mrs. Fruit. The conversations from down stairs are heard quite clear when I am in the bathtub.A few times I had the notion of elder abuse cross my wires.But there was the good daughter that would visit below, often. She was the order to the odd couple chaos. I had trust in her. And she always liked my flowers.

I have a green thumb. When the weather warms up it itches something fierce. My place has a huge yard, but alas, I do rent. There are to be no perennial flower beds, herb coves, or vegetable gardens for the likes of me. Thus my thumb gets a bit bloom crazy for the front porch. It borders on a bit of madness. I will put off food and laundry monies to plant just a few more begonias for the front steps.Two summers ago I decided to give the front porch a fresh coat of paint. And I tacked on to the agenda the picnic table that sat off to the corner. It was a sad table that saw very few fried chicken and watermelon type get togethers due to wobbly benches, a loose plank or two, and the chipped redwood paint.Three gallons of paint later the porch looked spectacular. The picnic table was now officially cute and fixed. I put off the water bill and purchased two white rocking chairs for the front porch and a new American Flag.I knew Mrs. Fruit would love these additions. She would often wonder out to the front porch and prune my flowers all the while the scratched record about her father's garden played and played. Before the rocking chair additions she would sit in the plastic camp fire chairs on the front porch and watch the traffic and the foul mouthed town teens go by. As for the new flag, I knew she would be over the moon. She loved to fix the little grave marker flags I put in the planter for Memorial Day and then would leave out for the rest of the summer so she could move them from planter to planter.

And I was right.Oh, how she loved the big flag and would stand next to it and watch it wave every morning.Oh, how she assumed those rocking chairs were hers all along.Oh, how she rocked her day away.

Then came the note, from Lump.

There was trouble.How dare I have painted the picnic table. HER picnic table. She would not have chosen those colors. How dare I! Our house was a shared house!At this point I could regale you with the rant that all my family and friends had to deal with. I was pretty perturbed.In the end I took a very deep breath and did the following.I wrote a brief letter back. I included an apology. That I had thought the picnic table belonged to the house not to her. That I fixed it so all could use it. That I planted the flowers to share with her mother, that her mother loved the front porch as much as myself, that the rocking chairs were for her...and that I was only trying to be a good neighbor.

I left the note with a new flower box full of pansies and a mini American flag on the back stoop (their main entrance to their half of the house).

A month later I ran into Lump at the mail box.She apologized and hugged me.And then told me all the things going on with her mother's declining health. In the time that has followed Mrs. Fruit came out less and less. And then Lump's yelling at Mrs. Fruit became more and more.

This past spring I was planting marigolds and using THE picnic table as a work space when Mrs. Fruit bolted from the front door. First she went to the corner to inspect the flowers and then to rock in her chair.I tried to start a conversation but her skipping record was playing to loud and she tuned me out.My arms were elbow deep in a manure bag when she went for the stairs. She has never attempted this by herself...I tried to get after her before she took on another step...and thenWOOSH. Renee was there yelling and screaming at her mom.And Mrs. Fruit just kept yelling back that she was sick of her and taking off for the woods and not coming back.

Aye.

What an intense and personal family moment to be witnessed to. Renee took her back inside and came back and explained how her mother has been having mini-strokes and has been very difficult to handle. And that was why she has a day sitter during the week when Renee worked.

Poor Edith. Poor Mrs. Fruit.

This morning as I was making my bagel, there was a knock at the door. The last time there was a knock our pipes had burst and flooded the apartment below. I hate early morning knocks.

But it was Lump, Renee.She came to tell me that Mrs. Fruit died on Monday, that she knew we didn't get the paper, that was why there has been a lot of family coming over, and that there would only be simple services on Saturday.

Before I could say anything, she looked at me and said "...thank you for all the flowers, she really..."and then she broke into tears.I wanted to hug her, but thought better of it and let her get her burst of tears out of the way. I think she was embarrassed and did not see the tears coming in such a manner with me.

As she waddled down our stairs back to her apartment, I felt my own tears coming.

And I let them come.

For a woman who was a bit crazy and drove me a bit crazy too.

I do not believe in much.

But I do hope that where she is there are flowers to prune, an American Flag to admire and rocking chairs to rock...

and that someone has righted her skipping record...

Memoirs

My second swap this month has to deal with writing five memoirs using only six words for each person. Honestly, I loved this assignment. Even though things took a turn and each memoir ended up with a matching doodle portrait of some of my most favorite people. (Perk up mate!...if your doodle portrait is missing there is an entire batch on the back burner in my dear head :) ). This assignment also revealed that I do indeed need to finally purchase a scanner in order to make my images appear more crisp for your viewing pleasure...What would be your six word memoir for your self? Or yours for me?

List

Sometimes it can be difficult for a bookworm such as myself to find good recommendations. Over at L's site she recently listed a slew of books that have quickly made it to my reading list this year. Above is a list I compiled as the sun came up this morning. The list is for my current swap...listing one hundred books to pass on to another reading lover. It turned out to be quite the mix...and, I , um noticed that I guess I have a thing for stories with magic...or magical realism. Who knew?

Have a read that changed, challenged, entertained or educated you last year?...please, do share!

Wonder

Sometimes nature is such a wonder to behold....from within the coziness of my flannel pajamas inside my home. Such a day stirs my memory. My inner child is pleading to go outside and play...sled...make snow angles...snowballs...attempt a fort... come home an hour later in order to get broomed on the front porch (my mom used to make us stand just outside the front door while she used the broom to remove the snow off our clothes..)...then stand over the heat run for one blow cycle while hot chocolate is being made (with extra marshmallows). I would love to go outside and participate in this day...but, um, I lack adult sized snow bibs.....and I am out of hot coco.

Reincarnation

267.51

Any guesses?

This is the amount it took to get my windshield washer fixed for my car. I am content with every penny that was spent to get her going again...since this weekend calls for quite the snowing. It also makes me more determined to learn more about the beautiful mystery of my vehicles mechanics. If I happen to have the chance to be reincarnated I am going to stand in the line for the mechanically inclined...until then I plan to sign up for a Mechanic I class at the local adult learning center.

Caution

This year I will use Caution in my life choices. This year I will throw Caution to the wind. Either way he will greet me each morning of 2009 in my studio. Caution was a holiday gift from my dear friend C....with her psychic friend powers she new exactly what I needed to help me stay on track...or adventure off onto the unbeaten path. And now for the odds and end of my New Year's resolutions...

1. Keep going to the gym (and add the spinning class once a week). Since July 45 pounds have went MIA...and I am curious what can happen in another six months...
2. Time to grow up (a bit) and find an entire house to rent.
3. Remember the birthdays of others...and get the cards purchased or made into the mail on time.
4. Donate blood.
5. Get my teeth cleaned and a real physical.
6. Start my etsy store.
7. Participate in the Renegade Festival in Chicago.
8. Finish my short story about Eve in the garden.
9. Publish my children's book on LuLu or Blurb...and see what happens.
10. Plan and execute three dinner parities...one per quarter (is that too dorky?)
11. Learn how to do my own oil change.
12. Payoff my medical bill (finally!)
13. Start a real savings account...and leave it alone.
14. Adopt a dog and a cat.
15. Grow my own herbs.
16. Cook more. Eat out way less.
17. Pay more attention to the needs of my family and friends.
18. Finish my first felt book before the nephew is born.
19. Find my Aunt Charlotte and my college friend Yolanda.
20. Take more pictures of people I love.
21. Participate in more art swaps.
22. Post art more often.
23. Buy my own truck, couch, scanner, and printer...all for my art of course ;)
24. Go on a canoe trip....and a bike trip.
25. Ride a horse.

What are your plans?

Paging Dr. Bronner

First it was Burt and his Bees. And now Dr. Bronner is living in my shower. The label on the packaging is a bit creepy, weird, odd, and way amusing. A few months ago this product was featured in my favorite magazine in the know written universe...BUST. My sister can tell you that we are both suckers for "new-to-us" products, even though we usually resort right back to our toiletry staples that we have been using for, um, decades. Sometimes we hit pay dirt. This liquid soap smells a bit on the hippie side...IE very natural instead of artificial sweet. So far I have scrubbed my face with it, made a bath soak, used it as a shower wash...and used it to wash my sensitive hair. It super cleans the hair, thus I have been using it once a week. It makes my scalp tingle....and so far that is the best thing to happen to me this new year. In other news my schedule changed big time at work (I start a seven day stretch on Tuesday night), a flu bug has found my nose, and the windshield wipers have stopped working in my car (so I am clueless as how to get them fixed over my seven day stretch...). I do have a few resolutions this year and I will reveal them with my next post. ... :)