Box Town, USA

Have I mentioned we’re moving into a house? A house of our very own? Our first house? I did? Well, I’m sure you’re just dying to hear more about it!

It’s a lovely 3 bedroom/2 full bathroom colonial in Irondequoit, NY. It’s not very far from where we are renting right now. The best thing is that it is about 8 blocks from my twin sister’s house! Yay!! So we’ll be seeing more of her and her adorable family. I love her so much. We are inseparable.

Other great features of this house:
- First floor laundry – need I say more about how happy this makes me? It makes me very, very happy because I cannot carry laundry baskets up and down too many stairs these days.
- Detached garage – one word: woodshop!
- Huge bedroom that I am turning into my studio. It will have room for more than one work surface. More about my exhilarating organizing efforts soon!
- It is in “move in” condition and needs no to very little work
- The front of the house faces south meaning lots of light for Mr. M’s plants!
- The kitchen counter top is teal! Not boring off-white or tan. Color! In my kitchen! I love this!
- Working fireplace in the living room
- Half of the basement is finished - good for cooling off and hanging out in the summer months
- Closet organizer in the master bedroom
- A yard to plant flowers and dig up stuff, have a compost pile and a rain barrel

But, for now, we are living in Box Town, and will continue to do so for about 2.5 more weeks. I do not like Box Town. I cannot walk around our place to get to the other stuff that needs to be packed. Also, living in this half-here and half-there limbo is stressful to me, as I like things to be constant. So I’m learning some new coping skills, like walking around the apartment with my fingers in my ears and my eyes closed repeating “this will all be okay soon” over and over again. Deep breath. Okay. I’m good.

Moving stinks. The process is way stressful. I’m hoping the payoff of living in our own home is worth this craziness! The studio will be the last thing to be packed, as I need it to de-stress in and create calm in my head. Trust me when I say this… this is the last time we EVER move.

Silent Emotion Treasury

glassgirl included me in an Etsy Treasury inspired by a mixed media work called Silent Emotion by kellyrae.

I hardly ever get included in Treasuries so this makes me very happy. Can you find me? I'm currently down at the bottom left.

Click and comment, please!

(picture links directly to the Treasury so please go visit it at Etsy while it is still there.)

In the Gift Guide

Etsy has really good taste for their Father’s Day Gift Guide! They included my “The Handy Man” card! Suffice it to say, I’m really excited about this. I hope it turns into sales! But really, I’m just very honored to begin with. Thanks, Etsy folks!!

Monkey Pants!!

photo by Anna M. of www.ImogensGarden.etsy.com

I was poking around in the Etsy forums a few weeks ago, as usual, and stumbled across ImogensGarden’s shop run by Anna M. She has the most adorable classic children's clothing with a contemporary flair. Immediately I fell in love with the sock monkey pants. Alas, she only had kid sizes! Mind you, I am not even five feet tall so I figured I could fit into a kid size. I sent her a message on Etsy to ask if she would be interested in a trade: monkey pants for a custom pendant. Never have I asked for a trade, so I was a bit hesitant to even put it out there. She said, “Yes!”

So I sent her my measurements (note to self: lose 10 pounds!). We began discussing her custom pendant. She told me she had lost both of her grandmothers in February of this year (along with two aunts and a tornado hit her house). She wanted a pendant to honor her grandmothers. One of her grandmothers had a glass bluebird of happiness on her windowsill for as long as Anna could remember. My grandmother had one too! Then I had a strong gut feeling that they were the same bluebirds. I had taken photos of my grandmother’s house shortly after she died so I would always remember some things I loved. The bluebirds were one of those images. I emailed the picture to Anna and sure enough they were the exact same ones her grandmother had! Small world. So we decided to use the photo as part of her pendant to remember her grandmothers. The back of the pendant has an owl on it to symbolize her other very wise grandmother.




The pants she made me are great! I love them! They fit just right and feel good too. The construction and serged edges really impressed me.

But what really got to my heart about all this was the lovely feedback she gave me on Etsy. She wrote, ”Absolutely the most beautiful, meaningful piece of jewelry I own. This means the world to me. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

I love how art has the power to touch us so deeply and across many miles. I’m very grateful for the new friend I made. Thanks, Anna!

Goodbye

My twin sister’s dog, Dobie, has been a bit off lately, but we had no idea of how sick she actually was until they took her to the vet on Monday of this week. Unfortunately, she did not come home from the vet’s office. She was more than extremely anemic and very dehydrated. Her crit was 8 and it should be in the 40-50 range. The only option was blood transfusions and that would have just been a band-aid for a larger more enigmatic problem. The nurse said that Dobie should have already been dead as she was so ill. That dog was strong. She always had been. So my sister and brother-in-law made a hard but right decision.

My sister and I are really close so I love this dog like she was my own. My heart is broken and I miss her greatly. Dobie was a wonderful addition to our family over the past 9 years. She was a miniature Doberman Pincher. For some reason she always smelled like Fritos corn chips. Her incessant barking was always annoying and no amount of training or treats stopped her. But, frankly, I would give almost anything to hear that barking now. She had the most adorable little smile. Her favorite thing to do was to lie in the sun in the grass. Her eyes would be all watery and squinty and her black fur would get warm, and she would not budge from that spot. During winter she could be found traveling across the floor under the skylight following the sun as it moved. When my sister and brother-in-law lived in the city, I would go to their apartment after particularly bad therapy sessions to hang out with Dobie. She always made me feel better.

She handled the addition of two children in the house with ease. The food being dropped on the floor by the kids made her very happy. My sister is lamenting the sweeping of the kitchen she will now have to do, as her little vacuum eater is gone.

Dobie, I hope you know how much we all loved you. And I hope you know there is a tiny Dobie-shaped hole in my heart that will never be filled. Goodbye, good little friend.