Leaving for Las Vegas

No new posts for a little while longer - we're leaving for Las Vegas Monday morning. Erik and I are going to have our first vacation sans Sage and live it up a little (as much as a 7 months pregnant gal can) before the baby gets here. My mom flew in from Columbus, Ohio on Thursday to spend a week with her grandson. She even helped me hold a yard sale this Saturday where I managed to get rid of a ton of stuff. A friend told me it was very "Circle of Life" that I was having a yard sale, seeing as how I'm usually the one attending them. I sold stuff cheap cheap cheap and it felt good to see people leave happy. Hopefully, I increased my bargain-finding-karma a bit and made $96 bucks to boot! Now I'm off to gamble it all away. . . wish me luck!

Happy Anniversary to us!

There we were 7 years ago. Before Sage. Before kokoleo. Before we moved from Savannah and bought a house in West Virginia, and then a house in North Hollywood. Before L.A. and Erik's job at Disney. Before some of those people in that picture got married, divorced, had babies or died. A lot has happened since then.

Check out my patchwork wedding skirt! I wish I had a better picture of it. My mom and I put it together that spring when I was on break from teaching in Savannah. It's composed of hundreds of 5 inch squares including pieces of my mom's wedding dress and Erik's mom's as well. Too bad I only had the occasion to wear it once. Wait, it's a wedding dress, I guess that's a good thing. Maybe my little girl will wear it one day. . . or maybe she'll cut it up and turn it into something else.

Happy Father's Day!

The baby is here! Just kidding. I still have a little over two months to go. I found this picture last week when I rearranged the bookcase in our dining room. It was published in Antietam Review, a literary/art journal that I couldn't for the life of me figure out why I had saved. I almost threw it away but luckily flipped through it and discovered this, which I had completely forgotten. It was taken in Shepherdstown, West Virginia by photographer Hali Taylor when Sage was only 10 days old (which might explain Erik's terrible bedhead.) He was so tiny and helpless (Sage, that is) and now look at him:


Almost five and letting dad borrow the car to lug a cooler of beer to the neighbor's house for a Father's Day cookout. So helpful!

Happy Father's Day to all the dad's out there, especially our dads, Sage's Papa and Pop Pop.

School's Out!

At least for the kids. We still have one more week of teacher meetings before I'm free. Friday was a crazy day full of goodbyes and gifts and even a few tears. I'm going to miss those kids. I would have shared more of my school-life on this blog but I didn't feel right talking about work or posting pictures of the kids without their permission. I will post this though:


It was done by Lillye (top row, 4th from the left) whose creativity I've talked about before on this blog. I'm the sassy stylin' one on the top row, 5th from the right (it was drawn before my big belly emerged). Thanks for letting me post this Lillye! You captured our class perfectly. Stay gold.

Caution: Graphic Content

I just have to move that picture in my last post down a bit. It's too nasty to be the first thing you see on my blog. So I will replace it with a nasty story about something that happened today and spare you any pictures.

It happens to every seamstress at least once. Unfortunately, I've had it happen a few times in my 15+ years of sewing. And today it happened again. The needle went through my finger. I was finishing the last letter on a personalized banner I've been working on and it all happened in a flash. I guess my middle finger slipped under the path of the needle. Instinctively I tried to jerk my hand away - BAD MOVE! I yanked the whole machine toward my face (I generally bend in really close when I'm sewing) and banged it into my upper lip and nose. Don't ask me how I managed to do that, all I know is that in the matter of about one second I was sitting there with my face throbbing and my machine askew, staring at my finger that was ATTACHED TO THE NEEDLE in the down position. I'm talking in-through-the-top-and-out-through-the-bottom ATTACHED. Luckily, I had the good sense to take my foot off the pedal. I sat there a few more seconds and knew what I had to do next. I slowly and carefully turned the hand wheel with my one free hand and lifted the needle out of my finger. I think it might have even squeaked a bit. Then laid down on the couch and passed out.

It's still throbbing and it's hard to type, but I think I'll live. Who knew sewing could be so dangerous?!

We're floored!

Let me show you what has been the bane of my existence for the past 10 months:

Ewww! What an ugly way to start a blog entry. I'm embarrassed to admit it, but this is what used to be the doorway between our dining room (carpet) and kitchen (faux wood linoleum). It wasn't our doing though! This is what the previous inhabitants left us, and what I wanted to change since the day we moved in.

I mean really, who thinks beige carpet in a dining room is a good idea?


Maybe if you're lucky enough to have one of those fancy only-used-when-company-visits dining rooms, or maybe if you don't have messy eater toddlers, but this is our only eating space and Sage is a beast when it comes to eating. So, obviously, was the kid who lived here before us. A close-up:


And then there was the linoleum. I'm guessing it was installed in the 60s or 70s. Vintage! Retro! except not. Usually I love stuff from this era. This floor, however, was unlovable.


So. . . for the last 10 months we saved and researched and shopped around for estimates and this month finally got the renovation under way. It wasn't without its snafus though. They measured wrong and ran out of tiles so for over a week we had to live with this in the laundry nook:


They even tried to charge us for the extra labor and expense but I put up a fight and held them to our contract. I argued that in my line of work, when I do commissions for people I tell them the cost up front and they agree to it. If later on I find I did my math wrong or it's going to take me longer than I thought or I have to pay extra for materials (and this has happened) I would never contact the customer and demand they pay up for my mistake. In the end they saw my point and finished the job. Beautifully, I might add.

The dining room:


Yeah, I know, there's a lot of wood going on there. But look at the floor!


And no more nasty transition to the kitchen:





Okay, so that wasn't your run-of-the-mill kokoleo post - there are no crafty pictures or yard sale treasures to see. But it's not every day a person gets new floors! Also, no "Made by Monday" pictures this week because, I'm ashamed to say, I didn't accomplish a single goal I set for myself last week. So now I'll re-set them all for next week, and if by next week I don't have any new creations to show for myself, well then I'll just stop setting goals.

Made by Monday June 4th

I have a bunch of projects in production, but not many finished ones to show for this week.

I've been trying a few different headband styles for a while now and these are my favorite so far:


They're made of vintage neckties embellished with vintage appliques. The each have a matching cuff as well.

Also, I finally cut into this super-cool vintage Smokey the Bear bedspread I got at the Rose Bowl Flea Market over a year ago. I hope to get a couple little girl sundresses out of it, and maybe a wrap skirt and tote bag too if I'm lucky. Any leftover critters will go into embellished shirts like this one:


I made two of these in grownup sizes medium and extra large. I just love the color and graphic design of the animals. It reminds me of Mary Blair of oldskool Disney fame.

Goals for the week ahead: Finish personalized commissions, make some Smokey the Bear stuff, make more headbands and cuffs, and update the website.

Goal for Tuesday: Survive jury duty at the L.A. Courthouse. Ugh.

My Leafy Weekend

This weekend's yard sale excursions seemed to have a running theme - a leafy theme. It started with this:


I'm not quite sure what kind of plant it is and neither was the seller, but for 10 bucks I was glad to lug it home to brighten an otherwise dreary spot in our yard.

At the next yard sale I scored this:


Like I really need anything to accentuate my ever-expanding cleavage, but it's a real leaf dipped in gold! I always wanted one, not necessarily this gigantic, but oh well. It was only $3.

The last yard sale yielded these for 50 cents each:



And that evening we took the dog and the kid to hike in Runyon Canyon where we saw lots of real live leaves.

Sunday morning, Sage and I ventured into downtown Hollywood for the Hollywood Farmers Market. I can't believe we've lived here for over 2 years and today was our first time attending it. We had a nice brunch on the samples alone. They even have a little crafty section where I got to meet Doris from I Can Fly designs. Sage has a monkey-on-a-tricycle shirt she made that I just love. Also, I finally got some new herbs for my garden. Check out all these different types of basil:


There's lemon, spicy globe, leafy, Thai, opal, Greek, cinnamon and arugula (not a basil). I also got a white sage and a purple one, some marjoram and savory. Now, let's see if I can just keep the @*%# snails away from them.

Finally, here's a picture I shot today of Leo and Kali. They're more loafy than leafy.