YO!

WHY did I not know about Yo Gabba Gabba?!!! Created by one of my favorite music artists in the world!!!

No crafting tonight

Just proofing a client baby session.

Every night this week, when I do finally head to bed, I think about how I COULD go into labor during the night, but I remember reasons why it may not be a good idea tonight. You don't have to read the list, but it would be helpful if you did, in case I forgot something. My list:

1. The dishes aren't done
2. The laundry isn't folded
3. The kids' bags aren't packed
4. I haven't made my phone number list for the hospital
5. I need to buy groceries
6. I have a session tomorrow
7. I have to still finish proofing the session from today
8. I haven't learned to crochet mini-granny squares or found my itty bitty crochet hook so I have something to do in the hospital
9. No good t.v. on right now, must wait til week after due date to have good programming in the hospital
10. bills to pay
11. haven't dropped of pre-admin form to hospital!!!
12. Saturday is better than Friday
13. Pay day is tomorrow and hubs has to pick up his paycheck (and be at work for big boss's arival)
14. I want to make brownies


LOL what have I forgotten?

What I did tonight

Raesha and I went out to a cafe and got dessert. mmmmm I got a Cin-city cinnamon bagel and Raesha got a slice of cheesecake. yummers! It was sooo nice to get out of the house for an hour with her and gossip ;)

At home, I totally intended to go to bed by midnight, but one of the kiddos (B?) turned the drying cycle off on the dishwasher and I really needed to do the dishes tonight as our live-in colony of sugar ants could smell the BBQ sauce from dinner! (Am I weird that I think sugar ants are so cute?! They're so tiny! and named after sweet sugar! But of course I can't tolerate them on my kitchen counter.) OK so I turned the drying cycle on and worked on a new doll (found out they are only 50¢ at the dollar store!!!) I know C-bug will be so excited to see this edward scissorhands doll! Even if he is a little effeminate.

Not-So-Little Scrapper

Kerry is as you may know a fantastic scrapper! She put a challenge to her readers to scrap the most favorite moments of the year. I'm not sure I can meet her challenge number wise, but it really jump started my scrap-dead brain. I've got tons of ideas now for things to scrap, rather than questioning "What do I scrap and why?"

This one says: "This is about more than growing a life inside of me. It's about the collaboration betweeen husband and wife that ultimately creates a piece of art on film and within."

CLICK ON THE PHOTOS TO SEE BETTER QUALITY

I added music

Warning! I added a playlist to my sidebar...not sure how long it will last. You can go push pause on it, turn down your speakers or listen.

I am just UP LATE AGAIN!

Tonight it's heartburn. I read blogs, I cleaned the bathroom, I took some tums, I read some wonderful birth stories from Ina May's Childbirth Guide to get me all hyped up.

For those of you that don't know, I'm one of those crazy ladies that doesn't get an epidural! People always ask me why I don't, they question my reasoning, motives, and I suppose sanity. I can't REALLY explain it other than saying, unless you've done it and done it in a way you were okay with you just don't know. It's all really empowering.

tired and finally sleepy

Internal monologue is finally wrapping up. I'm craving some red vine licorice! Thinking I should have been packing my hospital bag tonight intead of playing around on the internet. The night was cloudy with a chilled breeze, much like autumn's nights. I'm reading a book of fabulous birthing stories and worried that all the positve experiences will cause me to accidentally induce my own labor. I will be so tired tomorrow. Even with all the housework the kids helped me with last week, the house is still a disaster. And this isn't even half of it...the monologue is much more eloquent and descriptive...my poor eyes and fingers just don't have the strength to type out it's prose!

P.S. It is officially Jess's B'day! Go wish her a happy day!

The News

So the news I have been waiting for! I entered a contest for a seat at Skye Hardwick's Business Bootcamp workshop in Salt Lake in February! Brrrrr! And I won! I'm so excited! If anyone needs to not be so dang soft in this business it's me! I hope I get my butt kicked!

I also had a nice(?) surprise last night when my sisters and friends covertly changed our girls night out into a baby shower! I even got some sweet presents sent in special from some great blogging friends! I have to take proper pictures and send out proper thank you cards! Dang it! LOL! I was completely embarrassed by the attention but soaked it all up for the baby's sake ;)

I'm Leaving

I'm leaving the house today! I swear! I don't know why I have shut myself up all week, but am wondering if I do leave the house today, what will happen? The one time I actually left this week was to get groceries, and the hubs LOST a decent chunk of cash...can't blame him really, he's been working every day (even when he had a day off this week he got called in to fix a problem!) So he's distracted, AND the cash was in too many small bills to fit into his wallet. We're still not 100% sure it even left the house with us, given that we have a 3 year old who likes to pick things up and stash them in grocery bags around the house...

And I've become a bit too obsessed with checking the internet. Mostly, checking for responses to various postings...oh and then there's the fact that I can't get to sleep at night! I finally figured out how to explain it! Initially, my body would be tired, but my brain kept going...but last night, it occurred to me that I have an inner monologue going on!!! AN INNER FLIPPIN' MONOLOGUE!!! No wonder I can't fall asleep! There's constant chatter in my head! I started to feel like Harold Crick! And like HArold, I'm not crazy. Unlike Harold, it's not a narrator...I'm just pregnant ;)

And if you've read through my woes this far, I'll reward you with some craftiness! ;)

I bought this dollar store porcelain doll last week ad made her into the most awesome witch! I removed everything (including hair) from the doll, painted her white (like a vintage porcelain doll) and got handy with the glue gun! I'm thinking aout making more! ;)

Housewife vs. the working man

So, while I'm at home, fretting over the things that need looking to, my hubs (The Admiral) has this kind of day...the guy in the black shirt is my hubs, the man who is talking to him is a well known actor in heavy make-up...did I mention I'll be changing diapers in about 4 weeks while he'll still occasionaly be brushing shoulders with celebs?

In the mean time

I am waiting for some news...and waiting for a couple of other things as well (the baby and all) and feeling a little restless, hence the second post today.

Last month I got to cracking a little on some home decor things I wanted to do, this is one of them. I've had the post cards around for a couple of years and realized they really matched the kiddos bathroom. The van was a recent gift from a friend that is always worrying about me. She's an all natural birth mom too, and we've been joking about having our babies this year in my van...someone told me VW gives your baby a scholarship if you do that...but I haven't found anything on it...Don't really want to clean up the mess anyways! LOL

For the Baby

So this nameless baby's mama, finally made something for "it" I had been putting off any baby stuff making because of not knowing what "it" is. But I just HAD to make "it" a blanket! Mostly because I know that after this baby finally comes out and shows "it's" big shiny butt the the world, I wont have time nor stamina for quilt making. Fortunately this one wasn't too much work anyways. Thinking of ordering more polk a dot material for a matching sling!

Hey! Don't forget to enter the Name our Baby" contest! Only about 4 weeks left. There's a link in the side bar ----->

More Halloween, if you don't mind

Good sweet Dawn is really helping me out BIG TIME with coming up with assignments for The School of Craft. With only 4 weeks left (officially) of this pregnancy, I barely have time to think about blogging...between naps, nesting, back to school time, my church responsibilities, and doing the best I can at getting some crafting and photography work done. (oooh I do have things to show you!)

Anyways, Dawn came up with this great assignment:

Let's do Halloween this month. You may work in any medium but you must include a pumpkin somewhere in your design (in honor of Moki and the cute pumpkins on her blog). The deadline for posting your work here at our Flickr clubhouse will be September 30, 2007 (I believe a month is a must in any serious deadline).

She even said there will be a prize!!!

The coolio thing to me is I "met" Dawn (and a group of other great artists) a couple years ago when Amy hosted a Halloween/jewelry swap...(right?) Can't believe how long ago that was!

So get going crafters! Join the School of Craft flickr group!

ohhhh and look at the details over on flickr for the mosaic above! Some of the pic owners have GREAT vintage collections!

Do you like Cake?

This video nearly sent the moki house spinning into a whirlwind of fury and brimstone last night. Hubs wanted me to stand around and watch it, while le bebe wanted me to go sit down and eat something. It's a bit funy though ;)

Is it too early for Halloween???

So craft stores are putting up all the holiday stuff...have you noticed? I've been everywhere this week hunting out Halloween decorations...waiting for Target to finish up the back to school thing so they can start unloading their bounty> Over at Michaels, Martha's got some new nice expensive things (you can make on your own for pennies but the packaging and such is like crack, so you know you just HAVE to buy it!) LOL!

Michaels also has black and white Halloween decor...some real neat-o stuff and I really loved the pumpkins on pedestals. But am in a money crunch right now, and definately can't JUSTIFY buying Halloween decorations in AUGUST!!! ;) So I picked up some candle holders at the thrift store for 50¢ (who btw has reorganized all their clothes by color instead of size!!!??! WHat the heck?!) and then picked up a couple of pumpkins at the dollar store (who also has Halloween going on!) cut up some fabric, pulled out the paint and hot glue turned on "The Matrix" (thanks teresa)and voila!

Perhaps the need for autumn is being manifested because of my disgust with summer. Going through the third trimester in summer is exhausting and of course hot. You'd think I'd go swimming to cool off more, but even the idea of getting wet doesn't appeal to me. Mean while, the baby has hiccups every night about 11, sleeping on the left emphasizes the bumping, sleeping on the right causes heart burn, so I usually wander away from bed to read a book (Mermaid Chair right now) or try to do something productive (which obviously from my posts hasn't been crafting ;) The truth is, I have had a pile of photography props, and photo boxes for client orders blocking my desk, and my poor pelvis prevented me from taking a step large enough to step over it. Since the rest of the house is falling to pieces (because these late night hiccup sessions cause me to sleep in so comfortably) I just moved props and boxes to another room...a girl's gotta craft what a girl's gotta craft ;)

Only 5 more weeks left...technically...but seeing as I have never had a baby on time yet, and do things as close to all natural as pregnantly possible, I probably have something more like 6 or 7 weeks ;)

Dear Mr. Moki

Dear Mister,

So, a weekend at the lake with your brothers and cousin...a weekend away without any kids...without any spouses...without any cares...sounds a lot like what I have been requesting for myself ;) Nope I don't REALLY hold any resentment towards you...just jealousy. But I won't let a weekend go to waste. We hit up only one yard sale and scored a bag of scrabble pieces, mickey mouse popsicle sticks, an old golden book and a big tacky welcome sign that will soon be soemthing even better, for only $1 total!

We also went to the library. T-man is like me...he is jonesin' for the next holiday to come. Sure it's still 3 months away until Halloween, but it doesn't stop a heart from yearning and a brain from planning. So we came home with a stack of Halloween stories and project books. Also in the stack were yummy books for me, like a Baja cook book and Rick Bayless's "Mexican Everyday." Of course I started craving shrimp tacos as soon as I took them off the shelf...so lunch:

was ever so yummy! Chile lime shrimp, pico de gallo, ripe avocado, and frech strawberries on the side...all chased down with cold lemonade...and none for you, you vacationing man!

(shrimp cooked in chile powder and lime juice. pico de gallo: equal amounts of yellow onion, tomato, avocado, bell pepper...and some green chile, garlic, salt and lime juice to taste served in warmed corn toritllas...mmmm I want more)

So have fun mister! Don't get a sunburn, don't get bit by mosquitos, don't get sand in your shorts, don't get in a fight with your brother and have to walk home ;)

Love,
moki

P.S. Don't forget about the Name My Baby Contest

getting a little bit crafty

I'm redecorating my front room table, I do it monthly or seasonally, and was looking for some nice pale blue and green striped fabric to make some matching pillows. All I could find was a BRIGHT and DARK striped cotton/spandex blend. At only $2 yard, it was hardly a gamble to buy half a yard and try to bleach fade it. It worked WONDERFULLY and I'm making the pillows today.

But it also got me to thinking about some of my other fabric. Maybe like me you have a stack of fabrics that just turn you off creatively. You wonder why you bought them to begin with. They're too bright, they're too busy, they're just all wrong. I threw all of these into a sink of bleach water and within half an hour oh so, they had faded to wonderful soft shades! Not sure what I'll do with them now, but they are nicer to look at ;)

Dont forget to enter my contest on the previous post!!! We need all the suggestions we can get!