cookies!

we made cookies today. well, *i* made cookies and the kids hounded me for samples and beaters.



this time 2 batches came out to be

(excuse me while I do the math: 5 x 12 = 60 + 8 = 68 and 6 x 12 = 72 + 7 = 79 and 68 + 79 means that i ate a whole bunch of dough out of that first batch, and = 147.)

147 cookies!

Let's see if they last past Thursday.



update: GONE before thursday was over.

Aren't friends amazing?

i've been more than a little stressed about life lately. it's been that kind of stress that wounds my ego, zaps my hopes, kills my dreams and makes me hide from the phone and unexpected knocking at the door. the kind that makes me wish to be invisible.

always, in my darkest times, a little ray of hope named laura (lolo, if you're part of the popular crowd) arrives to brighten things.

she provides the silver wings of my escape, pillows soft as clouds to refresh my dreams and the space to renew my hope. these aren't the only things she provides, they are just a few of the things that fall under the title of: bestest buddy and life long pal.

it's only when she steals me away that i have a chance to not think; to forget it all for a little while and just be me; not the disgruntled wife, irritated mother, exasperated daughter, or frustrated human, that plagues my real, everyday existence.

when i'm with her, my mind drifts to recollections of acidic gas, and president gas, postal trucks, horse-faced girls, border refusals, popsicle parking and the better: snack bar. bridges, tunnels and canadian beer. and that ouzo will eat the paint off a car when mixed with stomach bile. i recall a truck from ohio full of boys showing their asses.... and keeping their socks! i recall murder and mayhem touching our lives, so much heartache... and canadian cops that don't like vodka & oj when it's thrown at them by angry american brats. lady bugs, and blue hornets and horny friends better left in the past. i laugh. i remember. i forget the troubles of today and realize that this is what makes a life: getting through it and making a memory for tomorrow.

i will laugh until my gut hurts. i will play until i collapse from exhaustion. i will eat until i'm stuffed and i will sleep until i'm me, again. and throughout this journey, i will remember how to dream and return to hope.

i have the best of everything... friend and gift... all in one.

work in progress

work in progress
Originally uploaded by merckury

i started this before christmas and have been working at it a little at a time since.

it's a copy-cat design. not my original work... just something regurgitated from someone else's brain and imagination, but I like coloring best, so it's all good.

my imagination is lacking these days...
no sunshine + too much sugar + too much stress + too much sleep = not much energy

these things make my brain foggy.

(i wish i could recall the artist's name, or I'd give credit where credit is due. blame it on the brain fog.)

oh, christmas trees! oh, christmas trees!

we decorated the trees last night. the kids and i did.

they played pack mule with the boxes of decorations, while i directed traffic.

maybe now that we have this done, i can catch the spirit.

it was a good idea when i got it a few years ago:
3 small artificial trees. 3 small non-artificial children.
it's a good ratio.

the trees are small, less small and slightly bigger-sized; so are the kids, so each kid gets to decorate their very own tree, with their very own ornaments.

but times change.

the little guy's not happy with his tiny shrub now that he's taller than the tree. he says it shrunk since last year; he doesn't realize how much he's grown. he's also made so many ornaments at school, that his shrub won't hold them all anymore. and he wanted to use them all!

the other 2 are happy. once the trees are on the table, they're taller than they are.

except one kid is taller than the little guy's shrub, even on the table.

and that's a reason to tease.


photo: riley's first christmas ornament

finished

thank you

beeswax collage.

Thank you Suzi Blu for reminding me of the beauty of beeswax.

ooooh! pretty!

yesterday's pink fluffy sunrise

class of '59

class of '59
Originally uploaded by merckury

i found a stack of old high school graduation pictures at mom's house and asked if i could borrow them. as usual, the question of "what the hell for?" came up. "just for fun" is my standard answer.

this was some of the fun.

i *heart* sunbeams

Originally uploaded by merckury

a recent picture of moi, playing in a sunbeam.

something i've done since i was a little girl... errr, younger girl... since i'm still a little girl at heart. and also in stature.

there's no place like home.

a couple of little house i created not long ago. it seems to be a theme lately. home.

just beautiful...

the positive & negative

so it's one of THOSE fridays, again. spelling test day.
except that it wasn't. it was yesterday. i missed it.

i know i wrote the latest schedule down right. i know i heard correctly when she said that they had reading festival, but that we'd work the test in anyway. i know i never saw the sheet she waved in front of my face with the dates of march 9 and march 22. the one that i saw showed march 8 (which was a 1/2 day, no school on march 9), and march 23. i wrote it down. i checked before i wrote it. i checked again after i wrote it. i checked again before i pitched the paper. the date was easy. it's mom's birthday.

but she told me....

i'm scared of the red ink!

i have to go to the school today and give a spelling test. that's easy enough, as long as i can keep the little buggers calm & quiet through the process.

...but I have to see "the sarge".

(that's the name we've given this year's 3rd grade teacher. it fits beautifully.)

why am i scared? because i accidentally blew off the last test and got a little red ink nasty gram from her that wasn't really for me specifically (but it applied to me) about letting her know if we can't make it.

i thought they outlawed teachers using red ink?

oooh, we're cool....

i've been passing this sign for quite a while now. i still don't know what it means, but it's time i found out.



from the looks of things,
the program has been a real success. < < sarcasm

iced tree

the first journal I made just for me.

materials used:
paint, rub'nbuff, handmade fiber paper, napkin, postage stamps, tags, bubble wrap print on a hard bound blank book.

imagination,scissors & glue! oh my!

This makes me laugh everytime I look at it. And I had such fun making it!

Here's the scoop: My husband's mother and aunt hold "Camp Grandma" a couple of times a year for all 11 grandchildren. They rent a jumbo van, collect all the kids and head out on some wild weekend adventure. A good time is had by all.

The kids have taken to calling them the "Queen Grandmas" (though this sounds suspiciously like a title my mother-in-law would have come up with for herself *smiles*).

The concept for this was created by my mother-in-law (she's the one wearing the body ofMary Queen of Scots) for Aunt Dawn's birthday. The finished product was created by moi, and went far beyond what she had envisioned.

Aunt Dawn loved it. I

:o)

my space

so this is my "studio"
(hahahaha)

It's where I play
and dream
and hide from the world

(mostly my kids and that one annoying neighbor)

It's the only place on the planet that's
ALL MINE.

(doesn't keep the kids from spending more time back there than I do, or the husband from from using it as a tool dumping grounds, though.)

It's nothing special, just a space that I don't have to clear in order to serve dinner.

thick as a brick

journal page-

It started out as a written rant, but when I thought about it a little, I decided that her intrusiveness would have her reading all about herself, so I went visual instead. Maybe it will fool her. She's thick as a brick.

Any way... "She" is a neighbor of mine. She spends way too much time here.... I'm not much on fluffing the esteem of insecure people. This seems to be the duty she most wants me to perform. I also don't have patience for people with a shortage of common sense. She's seriously lacking in that department, too.

Also, it offends me when people I don't particularly like walk into my house without waiting for me to invite them in. It also offends me when said person decides to stays for hours on end, despite being told that there are many jobs to be done that day and no time for visitors. The fact that I continue doing whatever I was doing and don't drop everything to entertain should offer a hint of some type, but like I said: She's thick. As a brick.

She doesn't leave her house in winter, so I have a reason to look forward to it this year.
"Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!"

not so great at sharing, huh?

I haven't posted anything here for a very long time. I've spent hours and hours scanning stuff, but when I start browsing through my folders, I don't see anything worthy of public display. Not that this is any more worthy than anything else, it's just time to get back in the swing of things.

I'm not sure who this woman is. I started with the cat eye glasses and was thinking of Aunt Dee. She and Aunt Karen have been having some issues recently and I (jokingly) offered to make Karen a voodoo doll to take her aggressions out on, which promted me to start thinking about what details I would use to convey that this was representing Dee.

The cat eye glasses. For sure. She's sporting them in her 8th grade graduation picture. The only other thing that stands out to me about her (as a physical characteristic) is a picture of her with her skinny little legs poking out of her communion gown at the hospital while recovering from rheumatic fever. Beyond that, I'm at a loss.... and I'm not making the doll anyway. It was just something to ponder.

But this looks more like my mom. Who also sported some cat eyes back in the day.