Portrait of a School Yard

Late Summer nights.

The smell of cedar chips.

Lights in the dusk.

The crunch of asphalt.

Walks in the dark.

High Fashion

Ok, so I don't normally do posts like this. I like to create content more than regurgitate it. However, in honor of Fashion week, and all of the fabulous blog postings, and photographs that have followed it, I just have to say:

This girl is so much cooler at 13, than I will ever be in my whole entire life. Ever.

STYLE ROOKIE

Guilty

Ginny Branch Stelling cheekily posted a list of her own guilty pleasures, and dared us her readers to join her in confession. Gamely, I racked my brain, and even called in reinforcements. I discovered that I allow myself very little guilt for my simple pleasures. In fact, as I've read the multiple lists that followed the post, I found myself wanting to add many to my own list, and roll around in the guilt, "until my fingers get all pruney."* I've never actually had Prosecco, but I just know that I would enjoy drinking it while cleaning house.

Check out her list, catch a glimpse of mine, and and pretty please, show us yours too. I'm dying for some scandalous new ideas.

Pretend

Spending the morning watching I Put a Spell on You in Lula mag, put me in a frantically creative sort of mood. If summer could be the dreamy, couture fairy tale depicted in Spell I think I'd like summer all year long. So, while I tried to finish 3 knitting projects at once, my husband organized music on his computer, my sister did crosswords on the couch, and Maddie played some sort of imaginary game about Garfield which involved crawling around on the floor in a peach tank top, and little gloves with a scarf hanging out of the back of her pants.

I love that when she plays imaginary games, she often says, "I just wanted to know what it would be like," as if the whole pretending experience was a form of learning something completely. What would it be like to be, say, Garfield the cat... think I'll find out. Often she will say something to me that is completely out of character, and then she will laugh, and say, "I just wanted to know what it would be like to say that."

Note

We did leave the house. However, I really don't think that a spontaneous family jaunt to the last chance dollar theater to finally catch Up could be considered a chore. Do you? It was lovely, and of course, I cried through the entire film.

Then, that scratchy feeling that had been tickling my throat for the past 24 hours went out, and brought back some friends. So now Achy Muscles, and Tired Body have joined Scratchy Throat, and I think that they are having a party. Apparently, they did not get the message that I was already intending to rest this weekend. They had to conspire together to make sure of it. Poo on them. I guess we will have to see if chicken soup, couch rest, and some old episodes of Star Trek Next Gen. can scare them off.

List-less

Ahhh! The weekend. I have been waiting for this day since Monday! Sooo good. Today, I walked my little girl to school, and then I came home, got back in bed and did not open my eyes until noon. Sheer bliss. Shall I tell you what I have on my to-do list this weekend. Not a damn thing, that's what. It feels heavenly. I have stuck a few things on there, just in cases. I may get them done. I may not.

I have already done the grocery shopping. Something I hate. Have I mentioned that? This hatred may be made worse by the fact that our little town has boiled itself down to one grocery store. Safeway. I have nothing against Safeway, exactly, but a little heathy competition is good for the soul. Not only are the obvious things like selection and price affected, but can I just mention that the place is crowded ALL of the time? But that is done for the week... possibly for the next 2 weeks. We'll see. So, I may not have to leave the house at all.

Clean a little, craft a little, snuggle on the couch? Yes, please.

Unveiling of Swankity

Two of my rather ingenious friends, came up with the rather ingenious idea to start a company. This company would be called Swankity, and it would be fueled by the various passions of, well, people. Simultaneously, they came up with another ingenious idea, and that was to have me design for them. At least, I think that was the order. Either way, I am very thrilled with their brains.

The original thought, when traced back to its very origins was to provide some stuff for the peeps hanging out in predominantly male oriented passions. Namely ATV's, classic cars, gun shows, etc. There are LOTS of ladies at these shows and events, and just nothing for them. Unless of course you enjoy big ugly man shirts with boring prints, and we don't. So classic cars is where we start, and we do love us some classic cars, especially, I will admit, of the rat rod variety.

Here is our first show at Wheels & Waves in Seaside, OR. The booth looked gorgeous, and if I can say so, the shirts did too. Pretty please check out the entire line to date at swankity.com.

The site just went live 3 days ago, and needs lots of fine tuning, as well as little things like a shopping cart, but we are SO very excited about this venture, and have a list roughly a couple of kilometers long of ideas for car designs, as well as a myriad of new passions that need their own line of Swankity gear. Deep breath.

Here are a couple of car pics. It was after all, a car show.

And have a kiss from the giant martini glass. We are all out of Blow Pops.

New Beginnings

Yesterday was the first day of 4th grade. It was the first day of many other grades as well, but not at out house. At our house there was only one new grade, and that was 4th. Yesterday was also the day of my fabulous friend Kala's going away party. She is moving to Portland, because everyone moves to Portland. It is the place to be. And me without my camera. Of course. The whole day. I did not even pick up my camera once. I walked my baby to school, and then I kicked myself the entire way home. Not to worry though. I got pictures today, and we can just pretend that they are the first day of school pictures, and no one will be the wiser. Right? We will just call them the first day of school pictures and then pretty soon, we will not even remember that they were taken on the second day of school. . . or the third, because really the pictures I got today were crap.

But the first day of school was good, and the second was good. New friends were made, and old ones greeted. The new teacher was approved, and the class hamster met with MUCH excitement. My fabulous friend Kala looked even more fabulous than usual and we said our not-so-good-byes, as Portland is not so very far away. A new day began, and this time I remembered my camera. The spiders were very gratified, I am sure.

Gift

This card arrived yesterday from Grandma D, mentioned here as a prime shopping companion. Grama D also has the special gift of finding the perfect card, every single time. Not only that, but when she finds the card, she swoops it up and sends it. Sometimes, the card will arrive with its perfect and well timed sentiment and you will be blown away with the enormity of her generosity of spirit. Sometimes, the cards arrive for no reason at all, like this one. She just saw it, thought, "How perfect," filled it with a little bit of inspiration, a dash of kindness, and a few stickers, and off it went. I think that is lovely. Here are a couple more of my all time favorites sent from her doorstop over the years.

Another Checklist

Excuse me for a moment while I go through my mental checklist for the day.

Replace the leaky shower head. Check.

Can tomatoes. Check, 2 canners full.

Make raspberry jam. Check, 2 batches.

Clean kitchen floor because I spilled sugar all over the place. Check.

Finish last Swankity design for the car show that is in a week. Check.

That is SO immensely satisfying. As I am sure I have said before, there are few things that I enjoy as much as crossing things off my list. I love, love, love it.

Oh wait... Drop daughter off at sleepover. Check. Yes, that's right. Maddie is off at a sleepover with her BFF where I am told they are going to turn on the music and dance like lunatics. Good idea. Maybe I should add that to the list.

Morning Rain

Morning bagel face, prepared inadvertently by my sweet husband, made me giggle.

In preparation for a long... weekend

The kitchen is full of the smells of garlic, and dishsoap. The boxes of soil covered tomatoes are washed clean and laid out on the table too ripen. The flat of raspberries is covered with a towel, a frail protection from the fruit flies. A long weekend, and plenty of time for, well, no that is not quite true. But hopefully, sufficient time for a little balance.