i’ve been hit with a migraine and being sick all week. off and on, so it surprises me each time. anyway, sorry for the lack of updates. im sure ill be back on track on monday.
xo
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home again
my trip to utah was totally totally awesome. i have photos and stories to share, just not yet. right now i have to run out and get a pre-schooler to school and then head down to the beach for a session.
but real quick- i just had to share this photo i took yesterday before we all headed home. my family all in one place. i love us!
headed for the promised land
i will be away from my computer until monday.
i will miss it.
i will be in utah-the land of wide open spaces, friends, gorgeous mountains, dooce, clean air, billboards you would only see in utah, really good thrifting, and the awesome people who hired me to come.
I LOVE UTAH!
lisa mcgarvey made me feel just like i was getting interviewed by Rolling Stone magazine.
a few weeks back, i was interviewed by lisa for twopeasinabucket.com. i thought she asked some really insightful and different questions. maybe she SHOULD write for Rolling Stone.
(click on image to get to interview.)
and thanks 2peas and lisa for thinking of me.
You must be my lucky star
’cause you shine on me wherever you are
I just think of you and I start to glow
And I need your light
Cause baby you know…
so, i never did end up taking photos of my gang in the fields of yellow flowers. now the flowers have died off and tall golden weeds have taken their place. as i drove home from running errands last week i spied a very convenient field around the corner from my house. so that very same day, not wanting to lose out on another chance, i took anna while the others were at school. on our way out the door-my mind sparked with the idea to grab that wooden star from the boys room. i am SO glad i did.
and just for kicks, take a listen to this:
that song came out when i was in second grade, and i remember dancing in the garage to it with the neighbors. i wanted to be madonna more than i wanted to wear a bra.
THE SOAP! THE SOAP!
people-this soap is an orgasm in a vegan re-plantable/re-usable container.
in the last recent months, every time i have hugged my mom or emily i have said out loud or at least thought to myself, “man, you smell good! what is that?” my mom said, maybe its my patchouli oil? emily said, maybe its my dreadlock shampoo? i have always loved each of their smells, but recently it has had a different tinge of something new. (im a total smell person. attach smells to memories and people.)
then the other day, revelation.
emily and i were spending the day together on her birthday getting massages and shopping. with no children. there were no children there at all. none. and massages. outside. in a yurt. with no children. do you see why this was so fantastic?
in one of the shops we stopped in, she spied something, ran towards it, and picked it up saying, “tara, the soap! the soap! THIS IS THE SOAP! this is the soap your mom gave me for christmas. this is the one i wanted you to ask her about!”
(emily has been telling me for weeks to email my mom and ask her where she bought the soap that was in the gift bag she gave emily for christmas. she had run out, and could not bare to live without it another day. however, i kept forgetting.)
i walked over and picked it up, held it to my nose-SALVATION! this was what i was smelling each time they were close to me or hugged me hi/bye! THIS SOAP.
but at this particular store, the line was very long, we were very tired, and i was very hungry-so i wrote the name down and we left.
later that day i talked to my mom and told her all of this-she was like oh…that soap? i got it at world market.
where do you think i went the next day? and bought their entire stock? (8 bars)
not sure if anyone out there is crazy enough to buy a soap without a previous smelling experience, but just in case you like a kind of an incense lavender hippy smell, i would check it out.
OPAM: may ‘08 (photo wall in living room)
okay for all of you following along with me, today is the day to post your before picture on your blog. if you dont have a blog, take a before picture and put it somewhere you can see it a lot. for motivation. for those with a blog, you can then post a link in the comments here if you want!
here are my before pictures:
the first one was taken obviously before the frames were even up. see them in the bottom right?
and the second was taken the night the frames were hung by my amazing brother in law jason. he did it for me since neither i nor jeff have the know how for such things like perfectly level photo frames in a perfectly spaced grid. or the laser level that jason has. or the patience. we just hand it all over to him with a smile and hope that our company and jokes are worth it.
since then, i have filled the frames with two photos. my project this month will be to finish the rest.
deets:
frames are from ikea
they are 19 3/4 X 19 3/4
i have my photos printed at my pro lab
idea to buy and hang these frames came from the lovely erin vey, a hugely talented doggie photographer in the pacific northwest.
now, go forth and OPAM!
such imagination
every time the sun hits the car just right, i hear “shrek car, mom! SHREK CAR!” from miss mckenna.
now with more twitter!
because of this lady over here, i am now signed up for a twitter account. she says jump, i ask how high, m’lady?
feel free to follow me, or not, if you are like “twitter? whatever.” i was like that too until yesterday at 4pm when i got an email telling me to join. and like i said. i do as she says.
you can see what im up to or what my current thoughts happen to be on the sidebar at the bottom. i assure you, they will be boring sometimes. and also dont forget, check it is still down there too.
i promise. this is the VERY last time i forget to take a before photo.
because the before in this situation was positively shameful.
our downstairs closet has always been called the “art closet” because instead of hanging coats (which we never really need) we always stored our basic kid art supplies inside, along with their school stuff. (backpacks, etc) in various forms, such as a rolling plastic cart or an ill fitting bookshelf. the results were always a complete disaster. kids papers and backpacks and musical instruments thrown haphazardly inside, peeking out the bottom of the door even when it was shut. it drove me a little more insane each day. but, i let it sit like that for almost four years. so you can imagine how insane i really am.
i got the idea in mind to add more shelving about six months ago, and i finally had a chance to hire someone to do it two weeks ago. once the shelves were put up, the walls looked a hot mess. i realized i would have to paint the inside of the closet.
sidenote: ever since we moved here, i have wanted to paint my laundry closet a shocking, fun color, just to have a little happy surprise when i opened the doors. but i havent ever actually done that. i am too scared to move my machines. they were really hard to get in there, and even just thinking about moving them makes me feel anxiety ridden.
so, to satisfy my whole “shocking, fun color in a closet” desire, i purchased hot pink paint for the art closet.
(lowe’s : rasberry blush)
i also scurried about finding baskets and jars (target & at home) to hold all of their art supplies.
i also bought the kids all NEW art supplies. new crayons, colored pencils, markers. glue sticks, tempura paints, watercolor paper. puff balls, googly eyes, pipe cleaners. paint brushes, pencils, erasers. totally stocked them up. they needed it. we havent updated our stuff since the beginning of the the previous school year, so i didnt feel wasteful getting rid of some of the old stuff. also, after reading and being really, really inspired by this book, The Creative Family, by Amanda Blake Soule, i wanted to do as she suggested and give them good quality art supplies to create with.
i started sunday morning at 10:30, when jeff left for the gym. the kiddos were all happily occupied with club penguin (internet game) and el dorado (our favorite cartoon movie). we were all in our jammies.
they each came downstairs every so often to see what i was up to, and help. help sort things into jars. help toss out trash and recycle out the paper and plastic from the new supplies’ packaging. help fill up the shelves once i was finished painting. anna begged to help me paint, but i just couldnt quite hand it over to her, i had no tape or anything else protecting the floors, baseboards, or shelves. (but i promised her that the next painting project she could have at it. and she made me promise whatever it was, it would be pink.)
jeff came home while i was only about 1/2 way through painting. he passed and said, “pink, tara?! pink?!” and i looked at him with the eyes that mean “praise me now or lose me forever!!” and so he said, “but i like it!” and i said, “its a CLOSET man. A CLOSET. chillax!”
we finished at 4:30. we did have some breaks for lunch time and other stuff (fights, consequences, computer support), so all in all, it took me about five hours to finish. we were still in our jammies.
and here it is, in all of its care bear splendor. (thanks lisa.) 
that green basket on the floor holds our oilcloth tablecloths that protect the table and floor from artsy messes. i bought them from a sweet woman in mexico who sells oilcloth purses out of her house and hangs them from her fence so driversby can purchase. i knocked on her front door praying she spoke at least some english so she could understand what i wanted. and she did. and she made me two in three hours, while we hung out in rosarito beach.
so if you are still reading, thank you. for some reason i really wanted to write about my process. i feel like i accomplished something huge, that has been on my to do list forever. so i feel really great today.
when i first started my blog, i did this thing called One Project A Week. (OPAW) i think once a week will be too much for me, so i am going to do one project a month. (OPAM) anyone want to join me? im going to call this project my april OPAM. and my project for may is going to be to fill the 9 20×20 frames you can barely see in the top photo with the last 7 images it needs. once i do that, i will take a photo. i could post my before on may 1st, and my after on the last day of may. you all could post on your blogs too, and link in the comments here. wouldnt that be fun? we could all goad each other into finishing.
(and guess what, i already took that before picture).