Constant Dreamer

Holey Bread

My three year old son has a thing about bread. He will not eat bread with holes in it. It must also be free of any nuts or seeds or flecks of oatmeal or wheat.  It has to be a light to medium brown inside or forget it. As you can imagine, this is not so awesome for those of us serving him the bread. Oh my god, the screaming that kid will do over a hole in his bread.
"It's YUCKY!"
Usually followed by more screaming and some writhing on the floor.
Fortunately, most of the slices in any bag of bread aren't too offensive.

I took photos of my new workspace the other day and I don't like them. It might be the mess I still have to remove. I'll take more and post those instead.

Father's Day

Today, my husband slept in and I painted everyone's nails. Except my husband's. It was a spa day. No, the fussing really kept that spa vibe away. Regardless, everyone turned out pretty.

My daughter's toenails:

Her fingernails:

My son's fingernails (you try and leave out a screaming three year old):

My son's toenails:

It took me hours to get to my own toenails. In fact, I had one hand painted when my daughter insisted I paint ALL of her nails. Along came my son and he wanted to be painted. Not anywhere near as particular, he preferred a touch of color on each nail. A little messy-like.

I made blueberry pancakes today as a treat. They are wonderful to eat cold later. It's been a relaxed day for all of us.
Right now, there is a blanket fort in the front yard and it's starting to rain. Beautiful evening.
Happy Summer Solstice!

P.S. In the end, I locked myself in the master bath and painted my toes in peace.

I'll Take "Things That Are Not Washable" For $200, Alex

Last night, I washed a pair of disposable training pants with our clothing. That's about as awesome as it sounds. It might surprise you to know that it takes two "super wash" cycles to get rid of the gel from the explosion.

Maybe I Need a Cape.

I'm not sure how some other moms do it all. SouleMama has three children and one on the way and somehow still manages to keep on blogging and crafting and homeschooling (and let's not forget her wonderful book). Loobylu has kids and blogs and keeps up with her arts and crafts nicely, as well (and OMG her softies are ADORABLE).
Electric Boogaloo has two busy boys who she also homeschools and creates beautiful art AND knows the value of a good f-bomb when properly placed. Lots of other art/craft bloggers are moms, but I can't list them all. I'm clearly not organized enough for that kind of undertaking.

My sad little blog has seen no action whatsoever for over 2 weeks. Rest assured, I am getting something done behind the scenes (and I do THINK about blogging although I know that doesn't really count). I have come to the conclusion (much to my relief and dismay ) that I need to institute a schedule. There is simply no other way that I can take care of my children and my business and the meals and the housework and spend time with my husband AND my friends. My personal alone time is often smashed together with business because I need a bit of quiet to make art.

Oh! Speaking of art, I'll be back very soon to show some of the new stuff I'm working on. It's a departure from tiny animals, but I'm really enjoying the process and the results.

Stardust

I recently watched the best movie I've seen in a long time. Being a parent, I have to choose carefully the movies I actually go to the theater to see, and those often end up being about zombies.
I'm not sure how Stardust slipped by my radar. I only knew it existed because I read about it on someone else's blog (I want to say it was The Black Apple but I could be wrong). What fantastic film!
I'm always a sucker for a fairytale type adventure and this was certainly a good one. Plus, Robert De Niro is in it. Can't go wrong there.

I bet you're all thinking "Details! Tell us more about it!" and I'm sadly not being very helpful. Now you know why I'm not a movie critic in real life. Ha.

The Theater That Matt Built

Instead of drawing or painting, my husband does the equivalent of the full room art installation. His theater construction project is a current featured article on Electronic House.
I even get a mention for the velour curtains I made to hang in there. As much as I want to say I'll never do that again, I know there will be another theater in the future that will need custom curtains.Maybe I'll make those outside.

I'm seeing from this post that I clearly need to rethink my blog entry categories. "Stuff Without a Category" is hardly dignified. Plus, I realize that "Current Projects" don't stay current and that really poses a problem. I'll work on that.

Rescuing Art

I don't mean "rescue" in the literal sense, like running out of a burning building with a priceless painting or moving a sculpture out of the path of a hurricane (although both sound noble). I'm talking about a botched vision. Sometimes, I get the idea that I will create the most perfect art ever created (by me, of course) and completely fall short. It can end up being the lamest art ever created (by me, of course) in a blink.
Often, it does.
Ironically, it's the work that I'm not terribly fond of in the beginning that my husband convinces me will sell like hotcakes. He has never been wrong.

My most recent endeavor (the aforementioned "button project") has been taking over our kitchen island for several days now. Perhaps it's the pressure to hurry so that I can bring our kitchen back from the art studio it has become, or maybe it's lack of planning, but *wow* it's bad.
I need to figure out a way to rescue it properly. I say "properly" because I have already made multiple attempts to fix things and have failed miserably. For example, I was aiming for a deep blood red and ended up with what my husband called "bubble gum red". Nice.
I'm so tempted to scrap it, but I have already invested at least $20 in paint. Plus, I KNOW it's salvageable. I feel like one of those contestants on Project Runway at the 11th hour when Tim comes by and makes a face like he might vomit because the outfit is a disaster. Yes, Tim. I will "make it work".

Bummer

Number of times I have stepped in a puddle of pee on the bathroom floor today: One.

Divine Intervention

My Mom got us a gift certificate to Game Stop for the holidays. Yay Mom! Thanks! We picked up 3 games with it. My new game is Bioshock. It's amazing. Breathtaking. Especially on our 8 foot screen. It's also very very violent and full of bad words. Not appropriate for children at all.

As a result, I've been staying up very late all by myself gaming my thumbs off while everyone else sleeps. Meanwhile, the laundry is piling up and my new work space is mostly empty. As fate would have it, we've been having issues with our beloved XBOX 360. Today, it's being shipped back to Microsoft for repair. No more late nights shooting crazed underwater city dwellers. Back to getting this house pulled together and filling up my shop.

So Far, So Good

I haven't purchased a single thing since Monday. Of course, I haven't left the house because it's been cold enough to freeze my eyes open by simply stepping outdoors.

Perhaps tomorrow I will cave. It's been awhile since we've had Reese's Peanut Butter Cups in the house.