Hi. Remember me? I used to blog here. I got on this “organizational tear” for the last two days that completely consumed me. I’ll save you the gory details, but in a nutshell, I finally found an alternate calendar and a task management system to try so that I could stop using Outlook. I’ve been using Thunderbird for my email for at least a year, and having to run two separate programs for my schedule and my email wasn’t cutting it. In fact, I was avoiding opening up Outlook altogether, and as such pretty much ignoring my schedule. That wasn’t really working for me lately…

Anyway, it took two days of trial-and-error, testing, setting up difference scenarios & then changing my mind and trying something else, but I think I’m happy at this point. I’m ready to get uber-organized, and keep up with all of my responsibilities. The only thing I miss in my new setup is a way to sync with my Palm. That’s not as important as it used to be, though. I haven’t been carrying my Palm with me much these days. With luck, somebody will develop an appropriate hotsync conduit before too long. I should be able to wait.

I made another scarf like the others - spread out the work over the course of the week - and I really love it. I haven’t photographed it yet, but I will tomorrow, while I’m wearing it, since it’s for me. Heh. I have three more destined for the shop, that I hope to finish this weekend.

Guess you noticed the gratuitous kid pictures? The pirate got his costume out of his aunt’s box of “things she got at theme nights at the club” (there were several pirates at school, but I bet the others didn’t have a flamboyant silver skull and crossbones on their hats. heh.). The dragon wore a costume that his brother wore for the two previous years. Never thought we’d get so much mileage out of a last-minute $10 Wal-Mart purchase.

One more Halloween over,  three more bowls of candy to try and keep my hands out of…

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So the lawn guys were here today cleaning up two weeks-worth of leaves. They did a great job on the lawn, the sidewalk and the driveway. And speaking of the driveway, guess where most of the driveway leaves got blown? Yeah, oh so conveniently onto the car. And up against the garage door. Neil was so amused he snapped a few pictures.

Amusingly enough, the head of the lawn guys lives next door, and when he looked out the window and saw what our car looked like, he came over and fixed it. And probably had a “discussion” with one of his employees. Heh.

I’ve got a bunch of new magazines in stock and covers to scan, but there’s a child sleeping in the same room as the scanner tonight - I had to separate the two little chatterboxes, or they’d never go to sleep. Guess I’ll just flip through the magazines and make note of the polymer clay articles for now and scan the covers another day.

Tomorrow is going to be dominated by Halloween-related activities. Man, I wish I liked this holiday. At least I have a snazzy new skirt to wear. I think maybe I need a fun skirt like this for every holiday…

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It seems that my favorite time of year has arrived. The house is filled with the quintessential smell of fall - fresh-baked pumpkin bread. If your house doesn’t smell like this today, why don’t you take my recipe and see if you can rectify that, hm?

I welcomed autumn this morning with the very first hot apple cider of the season, and I nursed that mug all afternoon, refilling and re-heating as necessary.

The cornerstone of the First Day of Fall Ritual is, of course, the baking of the pumpkin bread. I was hoping to have some little helpers, but they preferred to watch a Netflix movie. That’s ok. I cranked up the music and enjoyed myself anyway.

Much to Neil’s chagrin, the other very important aspect of the First Day of Fall Ritual is the giving away of the baked bread. Lest you think I am heartless, I’m letting him keep the muffins The four little loaves, however, are destined for gift-giving. I have been doing this every year for at least twelve years, and ever since the kids have been school-age, the recipients have been teachers. I have to admit that I often drop the ball on end-of-year teacher gifts and some of the other more traditional holidays, but I always have a First Day of Fall loaf of bread to give, and maybe that makes up for it somehow.

This year’s loaves are going to three teachers and a bus driver. The teachers are also getting polymer clay pens and the bus driver is getting a polymer clay leaf pin - all in the Autumn color scheme, of course I made little gift cards from orange computer paper, and a computer sticker. I used some pigment inks to add a little interest, and then doodled on them a little bit with an ultra fine point sharpie. Then I tied everything together with a length of twine.

Before we know it, there will be crunching leaves underfoot, knitted sweaters, cozy blankets on our laps, brilliant foliage, and that crisp smell in the air that only fall can bring. I look forward to drinking in all of those wonderful autumn treats and savoring them as long as I possibly can, until winter arrives.

Happy Fall, my friends!

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Ok, when I say “we” I actually mean “Neil.” My contribution is to keep the children from touching the wet walls. That is a surprisingly difficult task. As soon as they know that they can’t touch it, it becomes a serious problem for them. Just walking through the room, they are inexplicably drawn to leaning on the wet wall, or using it to hold themselves up. You’d think they were 87 years old, the way they need to manhandle the walls just to get from one room to another…

Anyway, for the nearly 10 years we’ve lived here, our living room has been the same off-white shade that it was when we moved in. We decided it was time for a dramatic change, and we chose two colors for the room - pea green and the brown you see above. I really like it! I can’t wait to finish it, put our furniture back and re-hang our decorations on the wall, including a few “new” hand-me-down prints. I think a new living room rug, and new upholstery on the dining room chairs would really complete the look, but that might be a little longer in coming.

As part of my “keep the kids out of the paint” duties, I took them to my parents’ house for a little impromptu Labor Day cookout. They got to spend the afternoon with their cousins instead of in their father’s hair, which was a Good Thing for everybody. We had conversation in the back yard, lunch in the patio, and a shirts vs. skins football game in the front yard. Sort of. The three youngest kids, only one of which knew a football from a hole in the wall, were the skins. My oldest nephew, my 23-year-old brother and his friend were the shirts. Not exactly an even match, and it didn’t last very long, but it was funny.

I almost forgot - I made baked apples for breakfast today. It was a nice change of pace from my usual Fiber One bar, that’s for sure. I used this recipe from Simply Recipes, minus the nuts and raisins because Neil is not a fan of either and I generally don’t have them in the house anyway.

I have to keep reminding myself it’s Monday today. I hope I get my week straight before Thursday - I’d hate to forget to walk Aidan to the bus stop on his first day of school

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In the Encyclopedia of Me, P is most certainly for Polka Dots, and I’ll tell you story of how that came to be:

Fifteen or sixteen years ago, when I was a college student, I spent my summer working as a teller in the local bank where my dad was (and still is) the manager. One of the other tellers had just bought these simple black canvas shoes that were decorated with white polka dots. I thought they were nifty, but being a poor student, I couldn’t afford to buy a pair for myself. So, I went to Woolworth, got myself the $2 white canvas shoes they had, and put my own red, green, blue and yellow polka dots on them with fabric markers. I wore those shoes for the rest of the summer and well beyond that (in fact, I only managed to discard them last year, though they had been threadbare and the soles had worn through many years earlier). When I returned to school that autumn, I went back to my job working at the Computer Aide Station, wearing those shoes. Unfortunately for me, there was also somebody who worked there at the same time who was fond of plaid pants. The proliferation of polka dots and plaid in the Aide Station caused the mean, grumpy boss (who himself generally wore gray, brown, and blue solids and nothing in the least bit adventurous) banned plaid and polka dots from the computer center. I was forbidden to wear my shoes again as long as I was working there. Of course, it was all in good fun and I didn’t pay any attention. In fact, I later bought myself a funky polka-dot bucket hat and matching shorts and made sure I wore them to work as often as possible

There’s a lot more to the Polka Dot story, but that’s how the whole thing started. After the banning of polka dots from the computer center, I guess I ended up on a polka dot crusade. I created a Vax Notes group called “The Polka Dot Palace” (Tina, remember that?) which was the precursor to my BBS of the same name. I later changed the name of the BBS to the Polka Dot Cottage, which I resurrected nine years later on the Internet. Somewhere in there I bought a car, got a POKADOT license plate, and started a business. Polka Dots and I go waaaaay back, although I rarely wear them myself these days.

P is for Polka Dots. And actually it’s also for Party, which brings me to my next topic…

It poured on us! We were supposed to have AE3AWPE on Thursday, but it had been cloudy all morning and by Noon it was raining and three different weather forecasts were calling for severe thunder storms all afternoon. So I called everybody and told them to come Friday instead. Fast forward to 2pm, when the party would have started had I not postponed it, and the clouds parted, leaving behind a gloriously sunny day. And I mean gloriously. It was beautiful, perfect water party weather. And I had told everybody to stay home. Darn.

Friday dawned, sunny and warm, with a favorable forecast. We set up snack stations and water toys, I put out the dye buckets for the Moms to do some tie-dying, and friends began to arrive. About an hour into the party, that storm that never came on Thursday decided to drop by. It rained buckets. Being a water party, it wouldn’t have been that big of a deal were it not for the accompanying thunder and lightning. We spent the remainder of the party indoors.

Had I just stuck it out on Thursday and not postponed the party, we’d have had a long, lovely day in the back yard with a dozen of the boys’ friends running through the sprinkler. Instead, we had an hour of backyard play with 6 of the boys’ friends (several couldn’t make the rain date) and a few hours cooped up inside. We all had a nice time anyway, but it’s somewhat frustrating that everything would have gone exactly according to plan if I’d ignored the threatening clouds and the inaccurate forecast! Ah, well. There’s always next year

I lied the other day. I made two more skirts: the one above with the gorgeous Amy Butler print that I’ve been dying to use for ages, and another one which is from Joel Dewberry’s Aviary collection (what’s with me and the birds lately, I wonder?). That brings the total to 11. I also made another one of those shirts. I have obviously been enjoying the Summer of the Elastic-Waist Skirt, but there has been one drawback - I haven’t had a built-in indicator (aka pants getting too tight) that I am overdoing it on the munching. These skirts have been waaaay too forgiving. So comfy, but so dangerous for the waistline.

So I have come to a decision. I stepped on the scale this morning, knowing I had put on a little weight, only to find that I was a mere 2lbs shy of my all-time non-pregnancy-weight high. Oh, dear. Last time I weighed this much was 1998, and I remember hating it then. Nine years later, I’m not as miserable about it. No offense to my parents or anything, but “skinny” is just not in my genes. Little by little I am giving in in to heredity and just accepting that I’m meant to have some pudge around the middle. I’m not at the point of total surrender yet, though

So, starting today I am on a diet. Well, sort of. It’s more of a “pay more attention to what I am eating, eat a little less of it, and try to slim down somewhat” challenge. Heh. I took a set of “before” pictures and uploaded them to flickr (I set them to private - I’m not insane enough just yet to show you the least flattering images of me ever) . I recorded all of my vital measurements with the images. Periodically, I’ll take more pictures and take more measurements, and if I ever see a decent amount of success with this, then I’ll make the pictures public. I am not a believer in starving myself, and frankly I have no intention of being miserable from giving up all of the foods I enjoy. I’m just going try and improve my ability to practice moderation. Wish me luck. I thoroughly enjoyed being 130lbs a few years ago, but I’ll take 140 at this point and like it

I hope you enjoy this week’s Flickr favorites. I’m looking forward to seeing how the prominent colors in my favorites change when the seasons change. I anticipate a turn towards warmer hues in the coming months…

It’s a beautiful open-window day, with a breeze blowing in. Any moment now, I’m going to crank up some tunes and do a bit of cleaning. Happy Saturday!

Lisa

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I had to go out-of-order with the alphabet so that I could do Neil on his birthday. (You may interpret that last sentence however you wish, but keep in mind this is a Family Show )

Yes, in the Encyclopedia of Me, N is for Neil, my husband of 12 years, the father of my children, and my partner in crime. He is also the one who has accused me of writing novels for posts lately, and so in his honor, I make this the shortest post ever. N is for Neil. Happy Birthday, you crazy old coot.

Lisa

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Yes, I know O does not come before N, but I decided that O and N needed to be switched, for reasons that will be come apparent eventually. Or maybe not. Doesn’t matter - it’s my blog and if I want to re-arrange the alphabet, then so be it Shall we get on with it?

In the Encyclopedia of Me, O is for Oral Histories, and that is mainly because, when I think about my grandfather, who would have been ninety years old today, I mostly remember how he liked to tell stories. And I liked to listen. This picture was taken at my nephew’s 2nd birthday party in the Summer of 2000. That’s my 7-year-old on his lap, who was a plump 5-month-old at the time. My grandfather had a very technical mind and loved to solve puzzles. I remember him sharing his thoughts that day on how to get the water to flow uphill in the moat that Neil wanted to dig around our home. Neil never did dig that moat, but it always amuses me that Grandpa had given so much thought to the logistics of it, even though he surely knew it was not going to happen.

I am having trouble finishing this post. I composed the whole thing - quite eloquently, I might add - in the shower a few days ago, which is where I do some of my best work Somewhere between thinking and typing, words become a completely different animal, charged with more emotion than one might initially have expected, or just not coming together coherently at all.

I had some general observations about the old and the young and storytelling, but I can’t make the words say what I mean, in the non-preachy way that I mean it. I wanted to draw parallels between some of my grandfather’s interests and my own, and how, in thinking about it, I have realized that I am more like him than I may have realized. He had a whole basement full of things he made - some useful, some just decorative, most made of salvaged materials. Had I been thinking about it when I was last at my parents’ house, I could have illustrated this post with an image of the windmill he made for my mother out of an old metal cigarette ad. He was full of projects like that.

I wanted to talk about how many times I dreamed about him when I was expecting son #2. I wanted so much to name the little guy after him, but there were several reasons why using his name was not practical, so we went a different direction. I spent the first few months of my son’s life with a feeling of his familiarity. Now he just looks like himself to me, but initially I felt like someone else was looking at me through his eyes. When we dug up a photo of my grandfather from his babyhood, I knew where I’d seen my guy’s eyes (and much of his face!) before. For fun last year I “aged” son #2 on a website whose address I now forget, and it was uncanny how much he, as an old man, looked like my grandfather.

I wanted to talk about the memoirs he wrote, which I found fascinating, entertaining, and funny. I could hear his voice as I read them. When I discovered he had been writing down some of his stories, I emailed him and asked for a copy, which he gladly sent along. [As an aside, how cool was it that I could email my grandfather?! Six years ago, How many thirty-year-olds could have said that their grandparents were online?] Those memoirs arrived in my inbox just a few months before he died, and I read them during the weeks leading up to his passing. I haven’t looked at them since, but I keep them in a safe place. I hope that my own kids will find it interesting to read some anecdotal family history some day, even if one of them never knew him and the other one was only a year-and-a-half when he died.

O is for Oral Histories (which, I realize is stretching it, but coming up with another O word for this wasn’t easy…)

This post almost didn’t happen. If the weather had been cooperating, I’d have spent this morning getting ready for the boys’ water party, the afternoon having the party, and the evening recovering from it. I’d likely have gone with the much easier “O is for Open Windows” post, and chatted lightheartedly about how much I enjoy feeling a breeze coming into the house or the car, even though I’m not much of an outdoorsey person. I’m glad I was unexpectedly presented with the time to go a bit deeper. Even though I really do love open windows.

Lisa

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Let me start by wishing my sister-in-law (Neil’s sister) a Happy Birthday.  Despite what the picture may show, she is not a pigtailed 4-year-old this year    I realize this is yet another greeting to a family member who’s probably never going to see it, but just the same… hope you’re having a great 27th, Shana

If you’ve been keeping an eye on the new additions to the store, you’ve probably already noticed that I managed to stock some of those books I’ve been blogging about.  I’m really excited to be able to offer these titles.  I don’t have many of each, and they may not even be permanent additions to the store, but I’ll keep them available as long as there’s demand.

Now, I have a sewing question.  I’ve been waiting not-so-patiently for my copy of Simplicity 3835, the pattern that’s sweeping the crafty-blogging community , and it finally got here today.   In reading the sizing information, I’m getting confused.  My bust size does not correspond with the size clothes I usually buy.  Do sewing pattern sizes have anything to do with the sizes they sell things in the store, or is it a whole other animal?  I’m afraid to start cutting things up until I know what I’m doing…

Something else came in the mail today - my birdie fabric! I’m making a new skirt tonight (because everyone knows you just can’t stop at six ).  What excites me more than making the skirt itself is making up some clay jewelry to go with it.  I haven’t been all that jazzed to make claythings lately, but for some reason I’ve had visions of aqua and orange dancing in my head for days now, just waiting for the fabric to arrive so I could make a perfect color-match.

Speaking of aqua… I decided (two days late) to join in on the Encyclopedia of Me Meme, which I found through Creative Little Daisy.   So, I’m going to kick off with A is for Aqua.   I’ve been an olive/chartreuse girl for some time, and although I am not ready to ditch my green love just yet, I’m finding myself drawn to aqua and turquoise a lot lately.  You can see how it’s all over my flickr favorites, a recent skirt, and my craft room dreams.

Now I have to go think of what the heck I’m going to do with the rest of the alphabet

Hey, it’s Friday, and I just remembered I took the next two weeks OFF!!  Woo hoo!  Once I get the last batch of open orders out the door this weekend, it’ll be nothing but bonding with the boys and crafty goodness as far as the eyes can see.  Oh, and “A&E’s 3rd Annual Water Party Extravaganza,” of course.   More on that as details develop, I’m sure.

Happy Friday!

Lisa

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Wow. Normally I’m a couple of days ahead, but today I’m behind and having a hard time remembering it’s already Wednesday.

I took a lot of slice-of-life pictures today, and I’ll probably share some of them here, but first, my parents’ wedding picture. It’s their 37′th anniversary today. I’m not sure if they ever read this blog, but just in case: Happy Anniversary, Mom & Dad - thanks for being such a great example of respect and teamwork all of these years! (Don’t worry - I called them and am not expecting them to get their anniversary wishes through a post they’ll probably never see )

Now as far as that slice-of-life thing goes, much of today was a dizzying fanfare of domesticity. From unloading the dishwasher to decluttering the living room, nothing really exciting happened here. And yet, I feel the need to tell you all about it and dare you not to be bored to tears Ok, so, here I am unloading the dishwasher. Note the snazzy new skirt (which you can read all about here if you are so inclined). After the dishwasher was empty I put the dirty dishes in it and cleaned the living room, with the two small evil henchmen, who had actually been the ones who messed it up in the first place. *yawn* Oh, did I type that out loud? Sorry…

I did some food shopping today, too, and let me just say how happy I am to be using these tote bags for the job. I had originally bought 15 of them from my cafepress store to use as promotional items, but for some reason I stopped giving them out. I found that I had 5 crisp, unused ones recently and brought them to the grocery store with me. It was so nice not to come home with another 5 paper-in-plastic bags to stuff in their spot under the sink. I do use those paper bags for other things, but I accumulate them faster than I can recycle them these days. Besides the obvious environmental benefits of using canvas tote bags, one of my favorite benefits is the fact that I can sling two bags over each shoulder, also carry one in each hand and bring my whole shopping load in the house in one trip! I love that.

We had more pool time today. I dipped my feet in the pool to cool off and then kicked back to read a few magazines in the shade while the boys played. It’s hard for me to just sit there and relax when I have all kinds of projects waiting for me in the house, but it’s getting easier. I’m trying to enjoy the moment, watch the boys play, take a few pictures, water some plants, just putter around in the grass or read something crafty.

I’ve never been an outdoorsey type, but there truly is something satisfying about being in the yard in the summer. I’m enjoying watching the butterflies flutter by, feeling the tingle of the sun drying the drips off of my ankles after I’ve dipped them in the pool, and taking in the learning process of curious little boys. Son #1 says to son #2, “look at my hands! They’re a different color under the water!” And so begins several minutes of observing how the water changes the way things look.

I’ve decided that tomorrow will be the drawing for the Pocket Full of Posies Giveaway. I also decided to add another magazine to the pot. I was sent a sample issue of Cloth Paper Scissors, which was nifty, but not really what I’m into right now. Into the givaway it goes! If you’re interested be sure to post a comment to the posies thread tonight and get your name in the running.

The End.

Get it? The End? (psst! look at the picture)

Someday the kid is going to get me for that.

Heh.

Happy Wednesday!
Lisa

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I’ve always thought that I could improve my finished polymer clay jewelry by learning some wireworking techniques. These videos are a good start for absolute beginners. I already know how to do most of these things, so I’m hoping they produce a few more advanced tutorials sometime.

I found this link via Cyndi Lavin’s bead blog (I almost said Christine Lavin, but she’s someone else entirely, LOL!).

Now, if you have a moment, please send me “patience vibes.” I’m supposed to be having a happy, carefree day, wearing my new skirt and enjoying turning 36. Isn’t that how birthdays are supposed to be?

<rosy filter on>
I always envision myself breezing through the day, looking lovely, relaxing in my spotless house, enjoying time with my perfectly-behaved children, maybe meeting some friends for a casual get-together, where I am radiantly effervescent and ever-popular…
<rosy filter off>

Instead I’m losing patience. Patience with my internet connection, patience with son #2, patience with the state of my house… I need to relax. Maybe I should just pretend yesterday was today - yesterday was *almost* like I envisioned. My friends surprised me with a spur-of-the-moment breakfast get-together at Starbucks. No kids involved (woo hoo!). I wasn’t radiantly effervescent (I spilled my tea on myself twice) but it’s not like I *ever* am. The best I get socially is comfortable-yet-slightly-bumbling. I’m ok with that.

Boy, I wish I could get a haircut and an eyebrow waxing. And then come home to a nice relaxing shower and an hour or two catching up on my favorite feeds… blissfully alone - just me and my Dr. Pepper. LOL! Ah well. I guess there are worse things in life than shaggy hair and having to stop typing every 30 seconds to answer a question about I Spy Fantasy, right? At least I have my Friendly Frank to look forward to later…

Lisa

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Hi, all! I hope you are enjoying Spring so far. I have a few things to tell you about today.

1) In honor of my 35th birthday on Monday, I am having a one-day (give or take a few hours – I already started it) sale! Any order over $35 will automatically be discounted by 10%. You don’t need to use any coupon codes – the 10% discount will automatically be applied if the items on your order exceed $35. Enjoy!

2) If you are one of my jewelry-and-gift customers, you may have noticed that my website hasn’t been updated in about 6 months. I hadn’t made many things in that time, so it didn’t really matter from that standpoint. However, I have sold things, and I hadn’t taken them off of the site. So, this weekend, I went through all of my inventory and removed anything that is no longer available. In addition, I’ve begun adding some items that I hadn’t had a chance to scan in the past. Most of these items aren’t new, per se. They’re just new to my website. I do have some brand new items mixed in there, too. I’ve been on a creative kick lately and am still going… Here’s a link to everything that I’ve added this weekend: http://www.polkadotcreations.com/gifts/showN7.html

69 items, as of this writing, and I still have a pile of barrettes and earrings to scan. I’ll try and get them uploaded sometime this week.

3) Now, don’t forget, it’s the end of the school year, your kids are going to want to bring in teacher gifts, and one thing teachers can always use is PENS! We’ve got plenty of unique pens available, from the fancy, Cross-style pens: http://www.polkadotcreations.com/gifts/showSER_Twist%20Pen.html (and mechanical pencils: http://www.polkadotcreations.com/gifts/showSER_Mechanical%20Pencil.html ) to the simple everyday Stick Pens: http://www.polkadotcreations.com/gifts/showSER_Stick%20Pen.html

Just so you know, I usually pack orders on Monday nights, but I’m taking this one off and going out for dinner – I make it a policy to avoid work as much as possible on my birthday, LOL! I’ll get any orders that come in packed up on Tuesday night instead and out to you by Wednesday.

Have a great week!

Lisa

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