Paper Roses Have No Thorns

My mom's birthday was last week. I always like to decorate her gifts so she knows how special she is to me. Plus she then gets some of my art! 

I made these roses out of plain copy paper soaked liberally with spray inks - I haven't figured out these spray inks yet. The edges of the roses have a little glitter on them. The color from the spray inks lifted when I put the wet glitter glue on, which resulted in the glitter colors matching exactly to the rose colors. Happy accident!

I added some loose fake leaves I had around, twisted them together in the back, and made curly-Qs with the stem ends. A little sparkly, sheer ribbon added a nice touch and allowed for tying the decoration to the gift.

To be honest, I was not expecting the reaction I got from my mother and twin sister about these roses. They LOVED them! The two of them immediately imagined many uses for them - from hair clips to wreaths. How lucky am I that I have the two best cheerleaders ever in my family for my work?!

(We were all gathered for The December Birthday Bash where we celebrate mom's birthday as well as my and my twin sister's birthday at one party. December just gets too busy with that many birthdays to party for.)

Mom has asked me to sew a little felt piece and a pin back to her gift decoration so she can wear it as a brooch!

Then my nieces (5 & 8) wanted some! They insisted on coloring their own if I would cut the roses and roll them. How could I say no - even though it was about 10 minutes to bedtime? 

The roses below were made by my youngest niece. The yellow yarn was her idea as she wanted to wear the roses in her hair. A heavier cardstock was used for these roses and you can see they end up a bit larger and fuller. 

The roses are rather fun to make, and I imagine I will be developing a line of art to use them on. Maybe even some hair accessories and what-not. I'm intrigued by where these will take me!

- Vickie

My Niece's Creativity Fair Project

I love being Aunt Vickie to my twin sister's kids. These two little girls are wonderful. One is seven and the other four - their birthdays are coming up in a few months. (How did they get so grown up so fast?!) They are the two funniest people I've ever met! 

The seven year old has a Creativity Fair coming up for second grade. She couldn't wait to ask me to help her with it. She says she "wants to be an artist like Aunt Vickie" all the time. 

I melt.

I show her my work a lot to inspire her. She is fascinated that I make so much out of recycled materials like cardboard and junk mail. She wanted to use recycled materials for her project - "just like Aunt Vickie!"

I set up the dining room table for us to work since there's not enough room in my messy studio. 

When she arrived to work on this she had an egg carton with her. I asked if the shapes of the egg carton looked like anything to her. When she turned it over she saw mountains. I thought a row of it looked like a bug. She said "caterpillar" right away! So creative! 

I let her do all of the art part and I only handled the hot glue part and painted a few toilet paper rolls to move things along a bit faster. She cut the egg carton into rows lengthwise. I showed her how to decoupage with torn tissue paper. I have some printed with music. She ripped up and crumpled the pieces. We sat together and I made a caterpillar, too, to show her some techniques. We painted over our decoupage with craft paints. She got creative with the stripes and dots. 

I poked the holes so she could thread pipe cleaners through the egg carton for legs. Then I showed her how to wrap a pipe cleaner around a pencil to get a tight coil. 

Since I had recently been working on some toilet paper tube crafts she wanted to do something with those, too. She thought they would make good buildings. She painted six tubes different colors. 

I also have been working with coffee cup sleeves as art and that kind of blew her mind. So I gave her a couple to see if she could come up with an application. She pulled one open in the middle and saw that the part that is folded over would look like a roof if she cut the sleeve in half. She's a genius, right? Am I biased?

There was a roll of punchinella (sequin waste) on the table. She asked what it was. I gave her a piece to experiment with. She said it would make good roof "tile". Again, genius!

I hot glued the roofs onto the toilet paper rolls and then glued on the punchinella she had cut to fit the roof shapes. 

When the caterpillar was near the houses the idea of scale came to my mind. I said it looked like a GIANT caterpillar was walking through town. She laughed and then excitedly said we should make a lawn and a road for the scene. I love that she gets funny things like this now that she's old enough. 

I hot glued three pieces of poster board together to make a sturdy base. She decoupaged more tissue paper to that and painted the grass - making sure to mix three shades of green for more depth. She also added a road and sky on the base.

Another coffee cup sleeve looked like a car to her. I showed her how to cut one to look like a car. She cut her own and painted it yellow. I had some really thick black craft foam sheets I was mounting my homemade foam stamps on, and I thought that could make good wheels. They would be thick enough to hold the car upright. She liked that idea. She cut out "circles" and painted hubcap spokes with silver paint. (I think we need to work on the scissors skills a bit more!)

She also made paper windows and doors for the houses. If you look closely you can see she drew people screaming and being frightened by the GIANT caterpillar outside their homes. There is also a cat and mouse peeping out a few windows.

She designed and made 99% of what you see in the photograph up top. I only painted a bit and glued it all together. And soon I will teach her how to use the hot glue gun so she can do that by herself. 

I can't wait for the Creativity Fair at her school now! I am going to be so proud to watch her show off her hard work! 

- Vickie     

I'm A Heat Refugee

As the temperatures here soared last week so did my inability to cope with being overheated. Our air conditioner couldn't keep up with the demand. It overclocked itself and formed a big chunk of ice in and around the tube the moves air or something (I know not how these air conditioners work) into our house to cool it off.

Ice! Outside! In 90+ degree temperatures! That didn't melt! What is it? Ice 9?

Ice, ice, everywhere. And not a bit to cool off my house!

Everything sounded like it was working, air was blowing from our vents, but the house just kept getting hotter. By late Monday of last week it was about 80 degrees in my dining room. Upstairs, I am sure, was about to just burst into flames.

Not cool. Not cool at all.

My house was now uninhabitable to me. Some of my meds make it hard for my body to regulate its temperature or sweat properly. I overheat quickly and dangerously. The heat makes this throbbing chronic migraine absolute torture. Mr. M rescued me and drove me out to my mom's apartment where it was cooler. I have been a heat wave refugee at her place for a week and a day!

Mom and I made my Great Grandma JoJo's Oatmeal Cookies

During this adventure Mr. M has tried to get the air conditioner (AC) fixed. At first it seemed possible to melt the ice and get it going again. Our handyman is very talented at actual fixing rather than just outright replacing so we gave him some time.

Long story short: Delay. Delay. Delay. Work halted as unprecedented power loads caused a power outage in our area = no work for 1.5 days. One day was our handyman's birthday = no work. Days were lost to waiting for ice to melt. Yesterday as he put in the new AC he discovered the old AC was too small for our house. More of the furnace had to be replaced than he expected. Parts need to be ordered. Delay. I am *told* it will be done today. (crosses fingers)

I got overly optimistic that the new AC would be running and went home yesterday as work was piling up in the studio. I got overheated again and had to come back to my mom's. FAIL.

My mom's ridiculously gigantic geraniums

Rochester, NY set record high temperatures on Thursday, July 21st at 98 degrees F. We had at least three days last week where we had 90+ degree temperatures. That's unusual for us, and I believe constitutes a real "heat wave" on the books.

I've never seen so much brown, dead grass here. It reminds me of when I lived in Texas, and of days when I could actually go outside in the heat. I'm not doing outdoor craft shows for In My Head Studios because I cannot sit under a tent for three days if it gets over 75 degrees. I feel like such a wuss!

Mom and I have been having fun though. We get along famously! We babysat my adorable nieces for two days. Fun crafts were made. Cookies were baked. I've been teaching Mom all the really cool stuff she can do with her iPod.

But I miss my house! I miss Mr. M!! I miss my art studio! I wanna go home!

- Vickie

The Lake House Trip 2011

I’ve been on a little trip this past week or so. Just got back last Thursday. We (and by “we” I mean me, Mr. M, my sister and her family, and mom and her friend) went down to a very special place for a very special reason. We finally got to lay Dad’s ashes to rest at The Lake House a good seven months after he died. Since he died on New Year’s Eve and got fireworks we figured he deserved the fireworks of the 4th of July for a proper final send off.

The Lake House is in the Top Two Places I Love. The first place being anywhere Mr. M is, of course. So having Mr. M at The Lake House was bliss!

A Little Background on The Lake House:

My father’s parents bought land and dock access in Georgia on Lake Lanier in the early 1960s (we are figuring at best). At first my grandparents and their four sons (my dad and his three younger brothers) would camp there on the tent platform they made. Then part of the cabin was built. Just the one room that was the kitchen, small dining area, and small living room area. Not really big enough for a family of six.

Mom & Aunt K

So they just kept adding on. Soon a bathroom, laundry room and shower. Then a master bedroom with a loft for the kids. Sometime in the late ‘70s (I am guessing from all the burnt orange decor and carpet) a large living room and in-ground basement was added as the brothers were having families and more room was needed for grandchildren to visit. Also Grandma and Grandpa retired to the cabin and they needed more room.

Much of what is there is built with material that was taken from the ground with their bare hands. My uncles shared stories of the stones in the fireplace being pulled from any stream they happened upon. Some are poured concrete that hold special rubies and gems they sifted at those find-your-own-treasure places you see a lot in the south. The brothers also striped the bark off the lovely timbers that adorn the ceilings. I never knew those two things.

We would go to The Lake House every summer when I was a kid no matter where we lived (Charlotte, NC; Plano, TX; or Rochester, NY). I have the best memories of that place. I learned to swim and water ski. Grandma taught me about gardening. I caught and cleaned fish. The Lake House is paradise to me.

I have not been there much since I moved out of my parents’ house when I turned 18. Sad really. Dad and I went a couple times together. I went when Grandma and Grandpa died in the late ‘90s. Otherwise I haven’t been able to afford the airfare or a car trip.

But that is going to change. My pennies are going into an airfare jar!

Being there instantly made my whole being calm down. The swimming did me good. The sun and lake water made my skin happy. It turns out that boat rides make me smile involuntarily. And I knew Dad was there with me always just wanting us to have as much fun there as he had. Plus it’s ridiculously fun to drive a 30-year-old golf cart down an off-road, tree-root-littered pine forest path down to the water. It’s 50/50 if you’ll make it!

One of my uncles lives very close to The Lake House and takes very good care of it. He uses it a lot and keeps a boat at the dock. His kids use it. It is still being loved. I think that is wonderful!

I do plan on trying to go again this season when it’s a little cooler. The 90º F temps kept me inside too much. A little week-long art retreat up there alone sounds like heaven.

RIP Daddy! I love you!

- Vickie

Where To Start? What To Say?

Hello again. I’ve totally been avoiding blogging. But I’m not avoiding you. I have wanted to talk to you, but I don’t quite know what to write. You see, a lot has been going on. An overwhelming “a lot” to be accurate. An “a lot” that has often defied words. So I won’t mince words because there’s no way to sugar coat it. 

My father died. 

Yep. He did. It’s true. As much as I don’t want it to be true. It is. My dear, sweet, beloved daddy is gone.

I’m still in shock and it has been 26 days. He died on New Year’s Eve morning at the young age of 63. It was sudden and unexpected even though he had a second aortic valve replacement surgery in October. He was healthy and perfectly fine when I last saw him on Christmas. 

I am the one who found him at his house. I was too late. There was nothing I could have done. He had clearly been gone for several hours. But I still tried. I sure did. I called 911.

He had been vomiting for a few days (flu?) and my sister had been bringing him fluids and aspirin. She had seen him the night before. But that morning she had her three year old to get to preschool and her job to get to and she was running late. She called me to go check on him, as he was not answering his phone, which is not really unusual for my dad. So Mr. M and I hopped in the car and drove the ten minutes across town to his house expecting to find him sleeping upstairs where he couldn’t hear the phone. 

But he was not sleeping unless you consider it The Big Sleep. We do not know the exact cause of death. We can only guess. It did not look like he suffered at all. 

I had to make the calls to my sister, brother, my mom (they were divorced), and my dad’s girlfriend. Then I had to call his three younger brothers. Oh, my goodness. Those were calls I never want to make again. Ever.

Family and friends arrived a few days later. My brother, his wife and two kids came and that rocked. My three uncles came and that was so awesome. I have not seen two of them in over 10 years. The service for dad was great. So many people showed to pay their respects. It was so nice to meet his friends whom I had only heard stories about.  

So this is the thing that has me very preoccupied. I suppose it’s not something y’all want to read about a ton. I will try to spare you the grief process posts. But you will be getting a great big tribute to dad post as soon as I can stop crying when I try to write it. 

Dad was also a maker of things – particularly antique cars and hot rods as well as model trains. Much of what I do as a craftswoman I learned from him. He taught me how to use almost every tool I own and then some. So naturally being in the studio right now is really hard for me. Everything reminds me of him. I come in here and just cry if I try to work. Most projects are on hold. (My shop remains open, as everything is ready to ship.) 

I’m trying to stay busy, but all of this has caused a flare in my fibromyalgia and I’ve been in a lot of pain. And it has dropped below 0 degrees F here too much and that isn’t helping. 

My last few posts about taking in the love seem so poignant now, don’t they? So many lessons learned about love these last 26 days. Being able to be receptive to love right now is holding me up through this. But I think that may have to wait for another post by itself.

If you do anything at all today, I highly recommend you make sure to hug your loved ones and tell them what they mean to you. You may only have today to do it. 

My bloggy friends, I love you! xoxo

- Vickie

Where Did the Last 30 Days Go?

Busy! Busy! Busy! And none of it was so interesting that it got a blog post! You know, the ho hum of everyday. Maybe I don’t see the interestingness for all the doing that gets in the way. So I guess you want an update on things seeing as it has been a month since we last met? Where have I been? What have I been doing?

A couple days after the show at St. Rita’s last month my dad had emergency surgery. Big, major, scary surgery. It went as planned but there have been a few complications. But Dad is now doing super-duper well after all the surgery and poking and testing. He is staying here with Mr. M and I for a bit. To be truthful, I like having Dad stay here with us. I get to hug him whenever I want and spoil him a little. He deserves it. He’s an awesome dad!

I get a lot of my craftiness from him. He makes things, too, but in a much larger scale. His skill in restoring antique cars and hot rods is stunning. He does it all old-school with steel sheet benders, welding, and paints them himself. You don’t find that much anymore. We have been hatching plans to restore a little MG he has hidden away. Of course, I want to make everything we would need from scratch, but he is experienced enough to know that is not practical if we ever want to finish it. C’mon! It’s a giant art project!! On wheels!

Other than that I have just been making “Tiny Works of Awesome” for shows. That’s my new slogan. Do you like it?

Way more custom orders came in this year than last and caught me off guard. Those are taking a little longer to finish than I hoped they would, but only because I want them to be my best work for my customers, and I am taking care of my dad at the same time.

If you are considering a custom order for this holiday, I encourage you to hop on it very quickly. I am only taking custom orders until December 6th in order to assure on time holiday delivery.

The photo up top on this post is a new work of mine. Trying the steampunk thing. She has a lot of little details like tiny watch parts, beads, washers, mini brass lock nuts, and brass nails. This one sold at my last show, but I am taking orders for more like her. Let me know if you dig it and want one.

Want to shop in person with In My Head Studios? I love to meet people at craft shows! My next show (and possibly the last show of the season):

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Irondequoit High School’s Arts & Crafts Sale

10:00 AM – 4:00 PM

Irondequoit High School

260 Cooper Rd


Rochester, NY 14617

She Gets Me

The other day my mom and I were chatting about art and my recent passion for all things art journal. She and I spend a lot of time together in the studio. Out of everyone I know, she knows my creative process the best. She gets to see it. And she totally "gets me" like no other human being on this planet does.

So she shows up last week with her sketchbook in tow. I got excited immediately that she did some artwork and wanted to show me. I’ve been trying to gently encourage her work because she has talent. After all, I get my creativity from her. She starts talking about how excited she gets for me that I have passion in my life in the form of art. And she got all teary eyed. Then she showed me what she made…

It’s a tribute to me. My mom made an art journal page about me! Isn’t that the coolest thing ever?! And she wrote such lovely things about me on it. It makes me cry every time I look at it. It has taken me a full week to be able to write this post without bawling my eyes out!

Yes, that’s me with the crazy, curly hair and sunglasses. (My chronic light sensitivity warrants the wearing of sunglasses all the time or I get migraines from the light.)

I know this image is probably too small for you to read what she wrote so I’ll tell you:

“You dare to dream
You believe in your art
You dare to try (‘It’s only paper’)
You bravely venture forward
You push your limits
You hunger for art knowledge
You dig deep for answers
Your beautiful soul shines
Your hope is strong
Your mind is beautiful
Your strength is amazing
I admire you”

She took the time to include a bunch of things I love like dominoes, art journals, pens, stamps, cloth, scissors, paper, tags, cards, paint, ribbon, and a domino pendant. She even drew my art journal and wrote “I GET YOU” on one page!

She said she had a vision of this page and wasn’t sure she would be able to get it out of her head and onto paper. But she was thrilled to say that it came out exactly like she wanted it to. I’m so proud of her! She and I don't really hold our feelings back from each other. We’re kind of a touchy feely family that way. We don’t hold the kisses and “I love you”s back at all. Life is too short.

I’m still kind of speechless to describe what this means to me, as I’m sure you can understand. This will be something for me to look at in my dark moments when I’m in pain and feel I cannot go on. It gives me hope. It makes me feel so very loved. If this is what my mom sees when she looks at me then I might not be so bad after all.

Thank you, Mom! I love you more than I can express! xoxo

Chippy the Hamster

Meet Chippy the Hamster whom I took care of the week before Christmas before she was gifted to my nieces. Isn't she cute? How could I not miss her? I come downstairs in the morning now and I think, "Oooh, man! Chippy isn't here and I'm lonely." Insert sad face.

I think I might have to get my own hamster now! But I know Erik won't really go for that at all. He kept calling Chippy a "rodent" in a disgusted voice. Scrooge.

It sort of did me good that week to have something tiny and cute to take care of and love. I know I can always pop in to my sister's and visit Chippy since she's only seven blocks away. Maybe it's time to revisit the pet ideas with Erik. He wants a dog really bad and so do I, but it's snowy now. Will a puppy go potty out in the snow to housetrain it? I'm doubting the ease of those training sessions. Plus there's a ton of stuff in the studio that a puppy would rip to shreds in a heartbeat. It would be nice to have some company in the studio though. I am torn on this topic. Lately my brain has refused to be decisive so this may be on hold for a while longer.

Halloween Parade!

Each year the school near our house sends all the kids out on a Halloween Parade in their costumes! This was my dose of cute for the day! The whole street was filled with laughter and vampires, witches, Storm Troopers, and cats. Adorable!

Here is my niece:

(Don't fall out of your chair because I managed to blog twice in one day!)

Picture the Impossible

Let me just say that I love scavenger hunts of any kind. Sign me up! So while perusing Twitter I found out about Picture the Impossible. There was a link to the Facebook group and I signed on immediately without really knowing what I was getting into. But they said “scavenger hunt” so I was in!

Picture the Impossible is a city-wide game hosted by many of the big names in town like Rochester Institute of Technology, Kodak, and our local newspaper, the Democrat and Chronicle. There are going to be all sorts of games in the newspaper and local events to attend and get codes and clues. Wheeee!

I cannot wait for this to start this weekend!! The newspaper said today I will have to go to the Clothesline Art Festival at the Memorial Art Gallery and get codes. We were planning on going anyway so now it’s going to be even more interesting.

Picture the Impossible is also raising money for local charities. When you sign up, you join a faction. I joined The Tree faction and the money raised from the points I earn will go to the Golisano Children's Hospital at the University of Rochester Medical Center.

The game culminates in a gala party held on Oct. 31st at RIT's new Student Innovation Center. Only 300 people get to go and invites will be based on how well you do in the game standings. I really hope to go!!

So the next month and a half will be fun with me running around the city trying to figure this stuff out. My twin sister also signed up and we joined the same faction. I’m really looking forward to doing this with her. She is lots of fun! She loves scavenger hunts, too!

I’ll keep you posted about this event!

Rainbow Popcorn Party

Monday, at my niece’s house she made us play “Rainbow Popcorn Party”. What you ask is a “Rainbow Popcorn Party”? She just made it up. She’s 4 ½ going on 9. It involves rainbow balloons, streamers and party hats.

We drew balloons and made a sign, and I drew streamers and she taped them to the walls. Then she said we needed party hats. So I cut out circles from construction paper and made cone-shaped hats. They didn’t turn out too well and some were either too big or too small. But they ended up fitting all the stuffed animals, from Pinky the Dog to a big frog. I even made hats for my sister, my niece and myself. Any excuse to play with paper and you can count me in!

We served our guests play food and real popcorn. My sister is a popcorn nut. I gave her an old fashioned popper you crank on the stove and she uses it all the time. She makes the best popcorn ever.

I love how creative my niece is. She always singing or making up funny stories. She spends hours in front of the mirror making faces and doing dance steps. She’s a performer. I love her so much! She says she wants to be an artist “like Aunt Vickie!” when she grows up. I would have to say she is already on her way. She can write all her letters and does the most wonderful drawings. She’s getting good at using scissors now too. We have so much fun together. And, of course, I indulge her every whim. So who am I to say no to a Rainbow Popcorn Party?!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope each and every one of you has a safe, healthy, and happy Thanksgiving!!

As for me, I will be at my mom’s place eating things with lots of butter in them.

Craft Show Today!!

My Etsy shop is closed down because I’m bringing my entire inventory to the Community Nursery School of Irondequoit’s Craft & Bake Sale fundraiser.

Date: Sunday, November 23rd – TODAY!!

Time: 12 noon to 5 pm

Location: Irondequoit United Church of Christ, 644 Titus Ave, West Irondequoit 14617

Details: “Please come join us from 12pm to 5pm at the United Church of Christ on Titus Ave in West Irondequoit for the CNSI Craft and Bake Sale to support our preschool.

We have vendors and crafters showing and selling for all your gift giving needs. Please come sample some tasty treats from our bake sale as you shop.

We are also having Door Prizes for you to win! All proceeds go to funding the preschool for this year.

Plenty of parking! **FREE admission!**”

So you can see why I’m excited! My sister helped organize this event and I’m proud to have been invited to participate. Now I just have to control myself around all those baked goodies all day!

Remembrance ATC

The MAMMA flickr group theme last week was “remembrance”. Preparations for my craft show took precedence, and I did not get my entry done in time for the swap. But I thought the theme was worth spending some time on.

My mom has all these great photo albums of my relatives, lots of neat antique photos. Looking through them reminds me of where I’ve come from. Both my maternal great grandparents came off the boat from Sicily. I hope someday to visit the place of my ancestors.

This photo of my mom’s parents reminds me of how much they loved each other. They were together for 64 years when my grandfather passed a few years ago. I miss both of them greatly. I like to do things to honor their memories. I made a big shadowbox collage about my maternal grandmother I’ll show you someday.

The background was made a few months ago with gel medium and acrylic paint. Then I stitched the border on my sewing machine in brown thread. The lace was a gift from my grandmother. I have a box of old buttons I like to draw from for my ATCs. The metallic element that says “parents” came from my hunt at the Dollar Store for collage items. Nice score, I think.

I’m not sure when this photo of my Grandma Ann and Grandpa Chris was taken. Maybe when he was on leave from Korea or just returning home or right before he left. Aren’t these two just beautiful?

Toodeloo, Midtown Plaza

Midtown Plaza, a Rochester, New York landmark closed this year. It was the first indoor shopping mall in America. It opened in 1962 and reigned supreme among shopping centers here for decades. Large department stores such as Sibley’s and McCurdy’s were located there. My grandparents and parents shopped there. I went to see Santa there as a child and shopped at the Wegmans grocery store and other shops there as an adult. But as malls do in urban areas, it began to die out as crime rose in the city. The building is slated for demolition to make way for a corporate headquarter.

Today they held an auction at Midtown Plaza to clear out all the leftover things, some of them treasured pieces of Rochester history. I really wanted to go nose around but had an appointment that cut my day in half. My mother and her boyfriend did attend.

My mother’s boyfriend, Dave, is into all kinds of things. He buys and sells stuff for a living. When I say “stuff” I mean cars, scrap metal, the entire contents of houses for estate sales, cabinets, and the list goes on. You name it, he has sold one. He loves going to auctions. He makes a decent living doing this, too!

He got some great deals today. He bought the entire contents of a Hallmark store for $20.00. Not much merchandise was included, but he got all the displays, shelves, counter tops, desks, some office supplies, and their notable Hallmark purple aprons, one of which still had a name tag pinned to it. He also purchased the contents of a back room of a shoe store, a big neon sign, a Christmas tree and wreath, and some other odds and ends.

My mother came home with a really cool piece of art. She bought a ceramic relief sculpture of the topography and buildings of the Rochester region including the Genesee River, Lake Ontario, and the Erie Canal. Most of the well known downtown buildings are there. It’s beautiful. Mom remembers it being on display on a big table and under a glass cover. I know she’s going to find the right art collector and make some money off her find. It weighs a ton though.

I am going tomorrow to help them clear out their auction purchases. Don’t ask me where Dave is going to store the contents of two stores. I’m really looking forward to photographing the building as it makes its way to oblivion.

Pranking

My best friend Joolie always leaves me notes all over my house when she comes to visit. I mean everywhere. Inside books, behind pictures, in my knitting bag… sometimes I don’t find them for years. It makes my day to find one, too, as it reminds me of why I love her so much.

I was never able to get her back because I was never alone at her house when I visit her. But I had the chance in March when she got married. I innocently begged out on a trip to the local bar. I brought my own Post-It note pad too. And I went to town on her new house. She is still finding notes!

My sister recently asked us to baby-sit so they could go see “Batman: The Dark Knight”. My hunny and I took the opportunity to leave her notes all over. We left them in food boxes, under things, in bowls, on stamps, in books, in nooks, and in boxes they won’t open until Christmas. My favorite was the note in a plastic baggie we hid halfway down the big oatmeal container. She makes oatmeal for her kids everyday. We had to dump out half the oatmeal to do it, and we spilled it all over her floor. We had to do a bit of cleaning to hide the evidence. I also put one right out in the open that read, “I wonder how long it will take you to find this.” It didn’t take her long. Now she calls me when she finds more notes. And we both laugh! So much fun over a few Post-It notes!

My sister and her family are currently away camping and I once again have full run of her house as I am checking her mail for her. I’m desperate for another prank, but cannot think of a good one. Do you have one?

And We’re Off!

This is an old photo of my twin sister and me in our playroom taken when we lived in Plano, Texas. She is the one with the adorable smile in front. I have the goofy face in back. We spent countless hours making things and playing school or office in there. Our mom always made sure we had enough paper, markers, glue, pencils, and projects to work on. She is awesome that way. She still buys me art supplies! And my sister and I still do craft projects together some 30 odd years layer.

She tells me she still has the black tape dispenser in her house. And the Smurf on the top shelf holding a cake. She also has the shelf but it is painted red now. I have not found anything in the picture that I still have except for the giraffe note holder my grandfather made.

I’m also not sure when this picture was taken. It’s sometime between 1982 and maybe 1986. I’m not good at telling how old I am in old pictures. It’s sometimes miraculous if anyone in my family can even figure out which twin is which in most baby photos! Some we will never know who is who. I often wonder if maybe we got switched at some point and I am really named “Valerie”.

Toy Boat, Toy Boat, Toy Boat

My twin sister phoned me the other day from work inquiring how to fold an origami boat. I found instructions online and walked her through it over the phone. (We have such a “twin connection” that my hunny joked that I only thought the instructions, and she was able to make the boat.) All she told me was that she had a puddle to float a boat in and, obviously, some downtime at work.

She is a hairdresser. The salon where she works is really nice, although there is a bit of a water problem in the basement. Condensation from the air conditioner collects behind a wall and pools at the bottom of the stairs. This is the “puddle” she was referring to. She sent me the following picture, from her Blackberry, of her three boats.


I think she was trying to make a point to the salon owner about the conditions in the basement.

My hunny got his haircut by her shortly after that picture was taken. She sent him home with one of the boats for me. Being the good sister that I am, I made her a boat in return.


(This picture isn’t as great as I was hoping it would be as it was also taken on my sister’s Blackberry.)

It has a bamboo skewer mast, a paper sail that reads “i love you to the moon and back”, portholes made from eyelets, and is named “USS Shake It!” which is her new catch phrase from Shear Genius.

Since we now only live 7 blocks apart I can just pop over to her house anytime I want to without the hassle of driving far. This opens a whole new world of (harmless) pranking possibilities! My big plan was to get her husband to unlock her car for me so I could surprise her with the boat I made by leaving it in her car. But he was not home when I called to arrange this. So I just went over there and dropped it off to her. We had a fun impromptu evening of goofing around. It was really nice. We watched Shear Genius and worked out some new business card designs for her salon. Fun was had by all!

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.

Happy Easter!

Plans for today: eat chocolate bunnies until they are ALL gone!! Don’t forget to intermix the chocolate with jelly beans to aid in digestion.

The only funny tale of Easter hilarity in my family that I can recall in my Sunday afternoon sleep deprived state is the time my sister made us all an Easter card that said “Happy EATster!!” I think we were only in grade school at the time. My mother probably still has the card. I guess her spelling slip up hinted at her desire to eat on Easter. We tease her about it to this day. When I see her today I will say "Happy Eatster!" to her without a doubt. Then I will cluck like a chicken from that Cadbury egg commercial. Bok Bok!!

Candy, chocolate bunnies, Peeps, Cadbury eggs, malted milk ball robin eggs, and peanut butter cup eggs were always plentiful in our Easter baskets on Easter morning. My mom The Easter Bunny made sure we didn’t want for anything. It was a dentist’s nightmare. My parents would actually let us just eat candy for breakfast. The baskets had enough candy to last for weeks.

I hope you have your fill of candy, food, and family today. We’re going to my mom’s for ham and lamb, which I sincerely hope that she wrapped one around the other before she baked it. It will be the new Turducken! We'll call it Hamb.