Picture Post

On my table:  A Victorian Mr. Mustache.

A pile of Snuggy Baby Swaddle Bears

A sense of calm on my window sill.  The figurines I purchased from Elsita.

Walter and I went for a walk and came home to Mr. Pumpkin Head greeting us on the porch.  

Fire Truck Progress and the Ark

It's been a bit quiet on the Pink Cheeks front this week.  It was nice to make something slowly, and really nice to spend time on something new.  

Walter got to paint his fire truck.  Right now it looks like a mail truck, but it is the under painting of a fire truck.  Note to self:  Good costume idea:  Postman going "postal" while driving a mail truck.  Walter loves painting.  His technique is a bit "Jackson Polluck" (he favors a messy splatter).  

Louisiana is one of the most overweight states in America.  I think I know why.  "Hey, Louisiana, make some sidewalks!"  We used to walk all over the place as Hoosiers, but it's hard to walk comfortably with a toddler when there are no sidewalks.  It's really maddening.  Also, with homes having to be on "stilts", and our home in particular not being constructed in a thoughtful way:  every time I walk across the house I feel like the Stay Puff marshmallow man.  Everything shakes and rattles.  I used to do workout videos, but I know if I tried that here then pictures would fall of the walls and Walter would surely wake up from his nap.   I'll feel much better once I join a gym, but I've grown a bit tired of gyms.  Maybe I'll take a line dancing class.  I've got to do something, and it's not going to be swearing off beignets!

I really am in love with this latest mobile (now available as a made to order item in my shop).

It's soft, sweet and gentle.

I usually love a loud splash of neon and bold patterns, but sometimes it feels very good to make something as quiet as a whisper.

Halloween Prep

Here are some sumos in progress.  I was glad someone ordered them, I love working on sumos.

I am determined this year to not let Halloween creep up on me.  Making costumes are among my favorite childhood memories, not to mention one of my main motivators for becoming a mother.  Not really.  Okay, yes completely.  I was surprised to learn, actually, that the time-frame that you, as a parent, have to decide what your child will be for Halloween is extremely limited.  Walter is 2 1/2 and I definitely wanted him to be a strong man, but I would feel too guilty making him dress up as something he doesn't find awesome.   Surprisingly, he is not as fond of nostalgic circus side show characters as I am.  So, we are going with fireman driving a fire truck.  He loves fire trucks.  He calls them "woos" about 50% of the time still (because that is the noise they make).  There is a kid song about a fire truck where you forcibly (but still at a kid friendly level) say "get out of the way" for the fire truck, and he loves to run around and demand we "get out of the way".  I think it is his clever way of getting away with being rude in protest to us always reminding him to say please and excuse me.  Anyway, I am going to paper mache and paint that truck, and then he is going to wear it like the little boy below (notice the pug-turned-dalmation [love it]).  I really want to all dress up as a family this year.  My original plan had me as a cat stuck in a tree and Joseph as a ladder (because inevitably, Walter will tire of walking and want to be carried).  But, Joseph thought it would be a little lame to be a ladder?!  So, we are all going to be in cardboard cars.  I think Joseph will be batman in the bat-mobile (opposite of being a ladder), and I will be a hippie in a VW bus.  I am also very tempted to have my dog, Albert, be in an Oscar Meyer Weiner mobile, but I don't know if he'd be as good of a sport as the pug below.  Watch out Halloween! 

This Week...

Ninja Girls got new hairdos

Sheep Went to the Prom

Here they are dancing to All the Single Ladies

Horse-head and Fish-head walked their terriers.

This kid continued being awesome.

What's On My Desk

A gal in a horse head, and her fishy-fan hubs.

Green Thumb, Cheerios and Adorable Babies

Every once in awhile my thumb turns green.  It then proceeds to fade to less greeny green, until it's back to regular flesh color and most of my plants are dry and brown.  Usually my thumb greens up when my eyes see something lush and beautiful.  This time it greened when I eyed some adorable succulents and cacti.  They are so tiny and darling, I just want to pinch them.  I have to smile at them when I make my coffee in the morning.  They are humble little succulents.  I am going to do my best to help those little guys thrive.

 

Walter and I made a "turd feeder" (he can't say B's).  This is a dynamite activity to do with children.  It's low key and relaxing and you can do it out doors and then quietly wait for birds to come.  When they do you can squeal in delight that you fed the turds!

 

Making custom mobiles for family's expecting little ones is my new most favorite thing to do on this planet.  It forces me to try new things and stretch my brain in ways that I never would have.  I feel so excited by them.  It reminds me of how I used to feel in art school when we would get a challenging assignment.  Left to my own devices, I don't challenge myself as much.  With this new direction of customs I am forced to, and when things don't work out (like with the umbrella, initially) there is no time to mope because there is a definite deadline that needs to be met.  This is just an ideal recipe for me, creatively, and I am super happy about it.

Pigs!  Oink!  It's funny how one pig in a skirt makes the others look naked, when really it's perfectly acceptable for pigs to not where skirts.

 

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeetness from Switzerland.

Hurricane Isaac

Last week, Louisiana decided to initiate us into the state.  Or, I suppose, the gulf of Mexico decided to initiate us and throw us hurricane Isaac.  

We don't have a TV, and I stay at home with Walter and my Pink Cheeks biz.  I get most of my news from the Daily Show and Colbert Report, and they were on vacation, plus they don't have a weather person.  So, basically I had no idea a hurricane was heading our way until the Sunday evening before.  Really though, that is still plenty of notice for a former tornado country girl. 

We got a hurricane survival kit going.  We bought batteries and ice and lots of fig newtons.  For some reason, we also were told to get lots of water.  I didn't understand it at the time, but hurricanes make your water taste awful, and smell like rotting fish.  Could it actually be rotting fish?  I don't know.  

It was definitely windy.  The trees were swaying back and forth like they were at a music festival.  Most people had their windows boarded up with plywood.  We didn't.  I said a silent prayer for the neighborhood bunny rabbits (two domesticated bunnies roam our block, Walter likes to feed them bread).   I have experienced very bad storms before, and this was similar to those with the exception of it carrying on and on and on like the energizer bunny.  Our power went out the night of the storm. 

 It stayed off for 5 more days.  It was hot and sweaty.  Even our furniture seemed to sweat.  Everything was slippery.  Luckily we have a gas powered stove and water heater, so we could cook and boil water for coffee in our french press.  We have a tiny portable dvd player, and we would sit around by candlelight watching Wallace and Gromit on a teeny, tiny screen.  Walter did a lot of shirt-less play in the kitchen sink.  He really liked the french press plunger.  He also liked drinking melted fudgcicle out of his sippy cups.

Our 96 year old neighbor's power was turned on the day after the hurricane.  That sounds fair to me, though it was hard to watch him come out of his house with his jacket on (the ac gets a little cold for him).  A few days into the power outage, we realized Mr. Bonvelaine had a very convenient outdoor outlet facing our window.  He kindly agreed to letting us run an extension cord to it and then we had a couple of slightly less miserable nights with a breeze of a fan.  Thank you kind neighbor!

Now that our power is restored, I find myself missing the power outage ever so slightly.  It was nice to be forced not to work and to have non-stop creative play time with the whole family together.  It wasn't all Leave it to Beaver, because irritability levels were stretched with the heat, for sure, but  a lot of the time it was quiet, peaceful and calm.