from the mouth of the babe

"Why did the chickens sit on the eggs?

...


Because they didn't have any chairs!"

[Insert hysterical laughter.]

crafty inspiration

I've seen some truly awe-inspiring uses of imagination in my blog-reading this past week. The first is from The Blankie Chronicles. I have to say that I'd love a room like this.

Also, I've just finished reading through and enjoying all of the archives of Better After and there were some excellent transformations there, too. Actually, there are a lot of excellent transformations, but I definitely have my favorites. They come in the play kitchen variety.

oh so much free time

Nothing fancy, but I'm still in a bit of a transitional phase. Here's to February! In the meantime, I'm focusing on the little bitty things to keep me from thinking of big picture items.

And, wow, my scalp is really pink. It hasn't seen sunlight in forever (we bought sun hats this past year), so I guess I can't at all scoff when Cardo calls me pink.

i'm ready for my close-up...

...or not.

I just read this over at Storked! The guest writer, Erin, writes about the pre-birth grooming she plans to do (or planned to do, if she's already given birth).

Reading this and reading the comments made me think, "Huh, maybe I'm just weird or I just suck at being feminine."

I felt my first contraction and my water broke, simultaneously, at 3:00 in the morning the day Pic was born. I had just gotten into bed for the night (the insomnia is nothing new) when this happened. I jumped over Cardo to get to the bathroom. I had heard many people say that the amniotic fluid would ruin the mattress and we sure didn't, and still don't, have the money to just go about buying new mattresses. We both got dressed and ready and were at the hospital by four. I might have combed my hair.

I didn't schedule any manicures or pedicures and surely didn't schedule any sort of waxing. I still think that would have sucked, considering how sore I was after pushing a person out of me. Actually, I've never had a pedicure and I got a manicure once, right before I got married, because I thought that's what brides did. Believe you me, never again. I hated having acrylics and the woman actually cut my cuticles and I have major cuticle issues (I've got a little gag reflex going on just writing about it). I can cut and paint my own nails at home just fine, thank you.

However, I didn't realize that so many other people plan these kinds of things pre-birth. I'm guessing it's mainly a psychological thing, as some of the commenters said. They would feel better going into the birthing process if they felt they looked good. I didn't see myself while giving birth, but I just imagine that I was none-too-cute. I don't even remember looking at myself in a mirror for a long time after Pic was born. I really didn't care how I looked. (Hey, doesn't sound entirely different from how I feel about my looks now.)

All in all, this Storked! post just made me feel kind of out of touch with this femininity that perhaps I'm supposed to have. Eh, I'll get over it.

[Pic's up from resting now and she's doing my hair for me. Who needs a salon when I've got Pic? Gotta jet -- we're going to get outside for a bit, until we're sufficiently frozen through.]

----------------

P.S. Before I go, let me just say, I don't mind when others avail themselves of salons' facilities. I know that many other people actually care what they look like. And, often, others look really great. I feel that I always just look like me so I'm better off expending my energies elsewhere. ... This is not to say that I don't sometimes wish I could have someone else style my hair, pick out a killer outfit for me and send me off for a night out, but, well, someday.

it's getting hairy

Or, knotty. Or a big fat mess on top of my head here.



This is not what this was supposed to look like. I might at least settle for both sides matching, but that's not happening. I just can't figure out how to make this work. Help, please.

Yes, I'm basically asking for someone to sit around and braid my hair, an activity that might seem more appropriate for a sixth-grade slumber party, but, well, my eleven-year-old self missed out on those experiences.

If I'm going to have this much hair, I need to be doing something with it. I'm not ready to cut it off yet, so, really, help.

Thanks.

sleep is for those who aren't me...

...apparently.

And, well, why would I sleep when I could be adrift in the ether, listening to this


-- "The String Quartet Tribute to Smells like Teen Spirit (nirva" [I'm guessing the poster (post-er) ran out of characters for the title?]


-- "The String Quartet Tribute To Red Hot Chili Peppers - Soul To Squeeze" [This one just kind of cuts off at the end.]

? [I'm ending my sentence from above, of course.]

needed: blog project

Hello All,

I'm feeling adrift here in the great blogosphere. I need something to focus my attention around these parts. I'm wanting a blog project. Suggestions?

I'm interested in something having to do with photography, although I have a point-and-shoot and I don't know how to do anything special with it. I don't want to subject everyone to a bunch of terrible pictures, but I do so love visual images. I'm thinking something like the outside/inside photographs I've seen on other blogs. Ooh, I also have seen people collect photographs based on themes like color. I like the idea of photography projects because they force me to pay attention to details, scenes, moments that I might otherwise miss.

I'm also interested in something food related. A month of muffins perhaps? A year in cookies? Thirteen ways of looking at a pizza crust (ooh, ooh, that's a definite possibility)?

Crafting chronicles. I have a bunch of skeins of yarn and Furie Queene's knitting needles and I'd love to learn to knit something, if only for what I imagine to be the therapeutic repetitiveness of performing the same knit stitch over and over again. (Of course, I'll have to get past that whole making a big fat knot in the yarn stage I seem to so enjoy visiting.) I'm thinking of knitting scarves.

So, really, I have been looking for a new hobby and I suppose that I'm asking not only for blog projects, but also for a hobby. Insights very welcome.

Grazie mille,
v