Change of address

I'm making the change to wordpress.

Pop on over and find me at the new blog site: Velvet Chair.

Hope to see you just around the bend.

She's paying for her own diapers from now on

We have a neat art museum in our city that recently requested any person from the community to submit an 8x10 piece of artwork, frame provided, for a large mosaic-style installation that is currently hanging in the East Gallery of the building. There were over 550 people of all ages who contributed to this event. I'll give you one guess about who made this red painting.

Fugedaboutit!

I know, I know, you're wondering if the dog mentioned in the post below has taken all of my extra time and instead I'm out walking the heck out of a fuzzy 4-year-old canine instead of creating witty posts (with totally random photos!) to help you through your mundane work day. Well, the short answer is no, but thank you for the emails. We did not get the dog. Turns out that someone else had fallen head over heels for her as well (or was just quicker at convincing her husband that the dog was about to be given a one-way trip to the doghouse in the sky any day now, when actually our humane society no longer euthanizes, but I forgot to mention that when we were in negotiations over the adoption. I am so not a nice person) and had taken her home on the day I finally talked Chris into adopting her.

Probably for the best, but I'm now officially banned from returning for any reason. We'll see about that.

So this photo. This is what I call my daughter's New York look. She was trying to smear oatmeal on the lens of my digital SLR because apparently her putting Hello Kitty stickers on my arms and drawing on all of my fingers wasn't near enough of a reminder to me that I live with an unpredictable 2-year-old tornado; I also needed an expensive piece of camera gear riddled with apple cinnamon breakfast cereal. I feel the love.

I Just Cannot Help Myself

So you know me? Then you already know that I have no willpower over animals. If my dog, Natasha, wanted to sleep on my pillow at night and drool in my hair, I'd most likely let her. It's just good karma, I believe.

Now that our household is down to one dog (yes, we once had 3 large dogs pooping in our 1.5 acre yard and eating 30 pounds of premium dog food each week), we have decided to adopt a 4-year-old mix from our local shelter. In my opinion, the best dogs are the ones who have never had a good home and are in the most desperate of needs. This particular dog that we're planning to adopt has been at the shelter for nearly 2 months, and not a day goes by that I haven't thought of her.

We have plenty of love and snuggling to spare and I surely won't be able to sleep tonight as I'll be up thinking of all the great things I can show her about life in a dog lover's home.

UPDATE: I called the humane society and they told me that someone else had put a hold on this particular dog. I will have to wait until Sunday to find out if they adopt her or not. I'm beside myself. Dang. This stinks.

Wondering if I could cover every wall of my home with this stuff without having to explain it to my husband

Vintage wallpaper is so cool.

I remember my great grandmother having the best cabbage rose pattern in the bedrooms of her little, modest Michigan lake cottage. I loved to lie in the big queen bed with wet hair while smelling of sand and sun and looking for the repeated flowers.

from Secondhand Rose

Scent of mothballs not included.

Future head of mechanical engineering

So you know those clippy elastic things that keep mittens attached to coats? Seems my child has an aversion to stuff she cannot toss to the ground. I purchased a pink pair of them last night and victoriously ratcheted them to her winter coat before we left the house this morning; all the while thinking, "There is no way in hell she will be able to open these. No way." Then in the car on the way to daycare I hear her precisely rip each one off from her purple-sleeved jacket and throw them slowly and deliberately to the floor.
I. Can. Not. Win.

Just browsing, thank you

I often type search words into Flickr and look at the pretty pictures from random accounts. I then say things to myself like, "Oooh, wow," and, "Oh, my goodness," which my daughter now repeats several times a day. It's a weird pastime that I enjoy when I'm waiting for a phone call, trying to ignore someone or, in today's instance, just had one too many caffeinated beverages.

This is a gorgeous lamp post that I'd like to find and stand under if I ever make it to Florence, Italy.

from Flickr account Curious Expeditions

Cats

A little late in posting this, but Halloween was wonderful. A few highlights:

glowsticks as bracelets, Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown (one of my absolute favorites), Hershey's bars, lions and their adorable tails, jack o' lanterns the old fashioned way, cooking pumpkin seeds while sipping hot, spiced cider, carriage rides through downtown with family, fall candles.

That sums it up nicely. Okay, now I'm ready for Spring.

All Hallow's Eve

I love Halloween.
Currently listening to Jill Tracy, drinking Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte, and mentally piecing together my costume for the night's festivities.
Be safe everyone.

Animal lover

This little girl loves her some animals. She talked about this pony for the rest of the afternoon and cried endlessly as we were leaving because we wouldn't spend another 4 dollars on a second ride.

She ran through the parking lot cursing our names and tried to hitch a ride from another visiting family from West Lafayette who were attempting to stuff their small son into his car seat as he was also spewing profanities to his parents about wanting to take another hayride and they were all, no way, mister, hayrides don't grow on trees, to which he smartly responded, but you know what does grown on trees? bad, mean parents, to which they quickly slid their minivan door closed and sped off down the dirt road.

I am liking this necklace and am considering an early holiday present to myself

It's got to be the change in the weather that's prompting me to want to wear something like this. It's feminine and quite kitschy. I love it lots.

from etsy seller lechic

Befitting of her middle name

We enjoyed a really great weekend which included a free children's movie (no thanks to the crabby, grumpy lady who wouldn't move her damn coat for us because she said that someone was sitting there. Um, unless you've got yourself an invisible friend in that fleece jacket there, sweetie, I didn't see anyone come sit in that last empty seat in the theater and my 2-year-old daughter spent every bit of 75 minutes squirming in my lap and grinding buttery popcorn kernels into my crotch, thanks to you), pumpkin spice lattes, a trip to the wind farm in Benton County (look it up, super cool) and many other fun autumnal activities. I'll be sure to remember these days as I'm cursing the cold weather in just a few short weeks.

My dwelling just might look a little like this if I lived in a fancy New York space without baskets of mermaid and animal plastic toys to trip over

I've always had a great appreciation for clever design and color; despite the fact that my own wardrobe is mostly the same 6 colors and none of them are actually all that bright, come to think of it. My chameleon-like tastes include lots of things which could include painfully modern, silly vintage, highly dramatic and heavy baroque; and I'm a Pisces, so it all depends on, you know, my mood.

I also spend oodles of time and brain power thinking about, sketching and looking at interesting shapes and style. This contemporary wall radiator (yes, that slip-n-slide banana-yellow thing on the wall) is a great example of an innovative mind. It kind of reminds me of that sketch on SNL with Maya Rudolph and Fred Armisen where they play a German couple who live in an all white apartment and have unrecognizable modern chairs and she wears a white 1/2 dress, 1/2 pantsuit, has a severely asymmetrical haircut and she and her husband (who wears a lavendar jumpsuit) cannot properly pronounce the very common names of her daughter's dates. Okay, yes, I do need a night out; thanks for asking.

from trendir

Change of pace

I camp with this wonderful bunch every year for a weekend at the Feast of the Hunter's Moon. We sing songs, play music, cook amazing campfire meals and catch up with everyone. I've been going to this event since the early 90s and I'm so happy that we're going to now start taking a yearly group photo like this. Can you spot me, Chris and Rosemary?

Reflection

Without going into too much sap and sadness and kleenex, yesterday marks the eighteenth, I hesitate to say, 'anniversary' of my taking a handful of pills to, um, chase the blues away.
I remember the room, smells, sounds (The Smiths, Strangeways, Goddamn awesome album, by the way) playing on the boom box on the dresser, my depressed state of mind and all of the stupidness of that afternoon's decision. After being rejected from the campus hospital ('Hey, we don't take suicide situations!'), an awkward stomach-pumping, hours of crying, inept hospital counseling, failing miserably at trying to explaining myself to my devastated mother, I never thought that I'd be talking about this on an open forum like this (I mean, this was before Al Gore invented the internet, for goodness sakes); but as I get older, I find that sharing your own difficult experiences makes you confront your own deficiencies, and maybe even help someone else feel less embarrassed by just coming out and saying, 'I've done dumb things, too; and I'm here for you if you need me.'

I have a friend who often says, 'It ain't all rainbows and unicorn farts.' That, my friends, is honest, eloquence defined.

Something for me to remember when I'm resisting the urge to bang my head into a bloody mess on the floor

My little sweetpea turns 2 next week. I'll post more later about her, um, delightful behavior as of late; but for now, I'll just repost this little reminder that someone recently shared with me.

The "Toddler's Creed" appeared in the syndicated weekly newspaper article "Families Today" by T. Berry Brazelton. It is a nice reminder of the stresses we feel with normal behavior of toddlers.

If I want it, it's mine.

If I give it to you and change my mind later, it's mine.

If I can take it away from you, it's mine.

If I had it a little while ago, it's mine.

If it's mine, it will never belong to anybody else, no matter what.

If we are building something together, all the pieces are mine.

If it looks just like mine, it is mine.

Lovely organization

I don't know if it's the picture I like or the actual concept of keeping delicate jewelry from becoming a vining mass of chains with cutesy, bright mismatched china pieces; but this speaks to me.

from martha stewart

Heading out first thing tomorrow to get this dog a chewy, messy rawhide bone

From having pacifiers and sippy cups energetically pushed into her face, to toddler offerings of toothbrushes and mermaid dolls piled on top of her back; Natasha endures countless moments of this sort of canine humiliation without complaint. Go out and get yourselves a dog just like this. She's great.

Although probably not for a Moose Lodge audience

I recently saw the band The Henhouse Prowlers for the second time and it just reinforces the fact that I adore this kind of music. They also sang a song about 'the first train robbery in Indiana' and also boast the alias name of Sexfist to ensure placement in punk/rock venues.
That, my friends, is brilliant.