like fingernails on a chalkboard...

...that's what styrofoam is to me.

Dare #130 is up – pet peeves. Styrofoam (the feel of it, the sound of it) is the number one thing that I cannot stand. If I'm in the same room as someone who is unpacking stereo or computer equipment packed in styrofoam, I squeal and run away as fast as I can. It makes my teeth hurt. I hate touching it at all, but worst of all is when two pieces touch each other and it makes that squeak. I'm cringing just typing this. If anyone was to ever torture me, this would be the way to go. Stapling this piece of styrofoam to my page (and writing on it with a Sharpie) was physically painful for me to do. But there you go. For the love of The Dares.

This is what is on our morning playlist today...


and this why you should watch Yo Gabba Gabba... (a brand new episode airs today and we're having our own viewing party.)



Friday is here once again, we're unfortunately not going to make it to see Andrew Bird at Hoyt Sherman tomorrow (but that's okay because we saw him play last summer) and I feel a coffee date coming on. AND, weather permitting, my BFF Jane + girls and I are heading up to Minneapolis for a day of fun tomorrow. YAY weekend!

ode to grandma

This is my grandma, Minnie May. She loved fashion and sewing. She was crafty. And in my eyes, good at everything.

She made delicious meals. She was silly and soft spoken and would say phrases like 'oh my stars.' She was the best and sweetest grandma ever. And she taught me lots of things. Sewing, crochet, stitching of all sorts, baking... a lot of the special things a granddaughter gets to do with her grandma if she's lucky. But one thing I never got the chance to learn from her was one of the crafty skills she was best at: quilting. I remember admiring her works in progress stretched out on wooden quilting frames in the basement. And the quilts she had spread out on every bed. I loved snuggling under them when I stayed overnight at her house. And before she passed away, she had tucked away a special quilt she had made for each of us grandkids in her closet.

So this year, I promised myself that I'd learn to quilt. And I'm so happy I did. It's cheesy but I do feel as if I've bridged a gap and done something that maybe my grandma had always wondered or hoped I might learn to do. I wonder.

It's no surprise since I had her example to look up to. And I have to admit that it felt really special to give my first quilt to my little girly. My grandma inspired me to do this and now I feel like no matter how imperfect my quilting attempts may be, it's still something us girls can share. Something I can love that I know my grandma loved. And maybe a skill that I can teach to a certain someone someday who may or may not want to learn. We'll see.

And now for something a little less likely to make me weepy... I finally finished knitting my first hat! It's the robin egg blue hat pattern from Ravelry that I had started and re-started several times with different yarns before finding this awesome color and falling in love. I like my hats a tiny bit big, and I'm so glad this fits so well. And covers my ears.

I think it just had to be blue. And of course, all I had to do was look through my grandma's stash of old buttons that I had recently inherited to find the perfect big gray button for the side flap. I can't tell if it's made of shell or stone, but it's awesome. Shimmery and heavy and the perfect size. Thanks, grandma. Alright, alright, I get it, you're helping me out! You approve of the craftiness. ;)

guilty.

new dare up ... check it.

...and I finished knitting this dude today – a snake scarf for Lotus. Named Archibald, after the worm on Yo Gabba Gabba. I feel like it took me forever to finish this guy and I was so happy to find these perfect yellow button eyes in my grandma's bag of buttons. It almost looks like he's wearing glasses. He's just long enough that he'll curl around Lo's neck three times and hopefully he'll stick around for a few seasons.

happy weekend to you!

after careful consideration...

i do still want these... (if I can find them somewhere in my size.)

v-day recap

Sweet flowers from Bo to us girls. I love green mums.

Giant chocolate chip heart-shaped cookies and the softest snuggliest new pink jim-jams in the universe. Courtesy of grandma Carol. So soft that we let Lotus wear them all day. (No I didn't let her eat the whole cookie.)

Rad Valentine for Bo from Elise's shop. I had the toughest time trying to decide what words to fill in the blanks with. I enlisted the help of some friends who helped me get the ball rolling and then I included some of their ideas inside the card. Ahem... pain to my ass? Foofa to my Brobee? So funny.

Calendar love. For some reason, I forgot to take off the January card until now. Maybe because each month is so pretty and I don't want to say goodbye.

And an almost finished quilt. Yup, I made it through my five week quilting class and here is the not-so-perfect but still pretty cute end result. After I finish hand-sewing the binding to the back, I'm going to throw it in the wash and then I'll give it to Lotus to use in her crib/toddler bed. Sweetness.

on motherhood.

Last night Lo and I sat rocking in the Eames chair for quite a few of the early morning hours. She has been feeling sick for a day or two and last night she had a rough time sleeping.

As I was woken up several times during the night (and sat for long periods of time in the rocking chair,) I couldn't help but be reminded of this sweet ode to motherhood that I had just read by Keri Smith. She described those middle of the night experiences, where at one minute 'you feel bathed in frustration... and then sometimes even minutes later you are calm and peaceful again.'

It's nights like last night when you snuggle that little pajama body into your lap, smooth the hair over a warm forehead, give a back-rub, wash their face with a cool washcloth, offer clear liquids, rock ... and do pretty much anything else you can think of to provide a tiny bit more comfort to a little someone who just feels like crap and can't tell you why.

And no matter how tired you are, you are reminded of how special this motherhood gig is. You smile and kiss their hair and rock in the dark at 3 am, and take in these sweet days when you can still make everything better. When they actually ask to sit on your lap and welcome the excessive little kisses and hugs. The independent two-year-old who tells me 'no no no' and 'i do it myself' on a regular day is now just a sleepy, sniffly little girl who wants her mom. I rocked and rocked and rocked last night and reflected. Those newborn baby days are long gone. And nights like these are sometimes a reminder of how far we've both come.

I'm tired today, but I don't mind nights like last night at all.

band names + flocculence

This might be my fave Dare topic to date, because this definitely deserves a place in my scrapbooks. A few years ago, Erin and I worked at a local alternative newspaper together. She was a journalist and I was a graphic designer. We had many, many strange adventures and assignments together and it's where we became friends. We decided that we were going to start a band someday. Maybe an all-girl band. Erin decided the band name should be the 'mind bullets' and it stuck. And we began sending each other mind bullets via email.

It was our superior form of mind reading and sharing brain waves and things like that.

And so I dedicate this page to my friend Erin.

Mind bullets. - - - - - - - - - - -------

More Dare radness...

And today you must check out Kara's first post at Work Your Soul.

(lovely lovely photos by Kara.)
Subject: Flocculence. It's incredible and you must see the rest for yourself.

thank you, elsie flannigan...

So you know I read about the captain crunch frappuccino on elsie's blog and had to try it. Upon further investigation on the internet I found that you can either ask for your strawberry frapp with either two pumps of toffee nut or one toffee nut/one hazelnut. Either way, it really really is that good. And either way, apparently it's bad Starbucks etiquette to ask for a captain crunch (or any made-up-not-on-the-menu) frappuccino. You have to order the strawberry and then ask for your syrup. And not in shots (like alcohol.) Pumps is the word. (This makes me laugh. But I like knowing this information.)

I've heard that the manager at our nearest 'bux, Michael, is a big fan of these, too, but it seems that so far I'm one of the only people ordering these at our location because I keep getting a big reaction from the baristas every time. I can tell I'm going to be wanting one of these all summer. Better hold the whip though because I'm already feeling my jeans mysteriously getting smaller and smaller...

a whole lot of i don't know

Check out the new stuff up at the Creative Type later today. My text is jacked from one of the Veer catalogs that I had been holding onto for a few months.

This is me doing some seam-ripping late last night on my almost finished quilt for Lo. Only one week left in my quilting class and I'll be done. It's not perfect but I'm so excited to try more things and learn as I go.

We got this DJ Lance hat and glasses right before Lotus' birthday party. She cried every time Bo put them on (totally freaked her out) but now she's getting to be more daring and occasionally asks to wear them.

Check out these rad Amy Tangerine t-shirts from my sweet girl Amy Tan. WOW. I wish you could see them a little bit better in this pic but mine says 'this is the life.' And you've gotta love camo on a little girl. So our style.

eff

He's playing just down the road from us at the Val Air next month. We're going. Again.

Jealous?

(side note: if you know ben folds, you might have realized by now that my blog is named after one of his songs... the best imitation of myself. just confirming that since i'm already talking about ben folds. i love ben folds.)

i'm a _______ virgin

new dare is up!
(I would like everyone to know that I did not care for Burger King's Whopper Virgin campaign using locals from remote villages all over the world to taste-test its Whopper against the Big Mac. I think they should have used people like me instead. I would have gladly volunteered my expertise.)

it's good to be the birthday girl.

Last weekend was full of birthday celebrations for our little girlie.

Lotus is officially two years old and if you ask her, she'll tell you.

'I twooo.'




Yo Gabba Gabba was in full effect.





And Bo and I both had our chance to wear the DJ Lance Rock hat and glasses.

And ... the Brobee cake. The proportions came out wrong and I used almost an entire bottle of green food coloring, but he looked the part.



We had two awesome days spent with good friends...

and family.

And our sweet friend Sarah knitted Lotus this amazing Foofa hat! (seriously, how cool is that?)

My baby is two and I really can't believe it. I could go on and on about the day that we brought our brand new baby girl home on an icy cold winter day, and how I whispered in her ear about how excited I was to be her mom; how I couldn't wait to get to know her. It warms our hearts to see family come together for little Lo. It makes me grateful to know we have such caring friends. And so stoked to see all these little pals play and grow up together. I love this.

PageMaps!

This month, the Typists at The Creative Type got to take a stab at Becky Fleck's PageMaps. If you're a scrapper, you've likely seen Becky's PageMaps on bookshelves everywhere. Check out more of the February pages right here.