It fits

A saw a picture like this on the internet last year. So, having apples and free time, one day I thought, I wonder how hard that was to do? Well, surprisingly easy and I love how it looks! It's just sad that it doesn't last long being perishable and all. :(

Wordzzle on dating tragedies

Over at Views from the Raven's Nest, a Wordzzle challenge is posted weekly. The basic idea is to use all 10 words provided in a short paragraph (plus mini challenge words if you can). More information can be found here.



This week's words are (translation, crunchy, cat’s paw, trunk, I love raspberry tarts, global warming, star struck, the midnight ride of Paul Revere, fragile, spring fever) with a mini challenge of (pancakes and syrup, flat tire, mongoose, this place looks like a bordello, first dance).

And before you read this, no, I'm not actually this much of a cynic but I got the idea for redefining "Rasberry Tart" and it ran away with me.

***

Yeah, I know what you're thinking, buddy. We all do. "I love Rasberry Tarts" is what you're thinking. Translation: Redheaded barbies with skirts up to *there* who say they concerned with global warming but really only care about spring fever, finals and getting all star struck. On the other hand, I can't exactly expect you to be all that noble and interesting and everything. I mean, what did I honestly expect from another internet dating site? "The midnight ride of Paul Revere" kind of guy or something? I should have known better. The guys out there seem to be one of two kinds: "end the night in their trunk" creepy or so nasty you'd rather lick a cat's paw right after it climbed out of the sand box (and you KNOW where that's been) than so much as shake their hand.

Still, I suppose it's a little better than the bar scene. There you walk in and your first thought is "this place looks like a bordello" because, seriously, could they be wearing any less? And then there's the classic guy who comes up to you and says something like "I bet you're the kind of girl who likes pancakes and syrup. You know, for breakfast tomorrow morning?" all the while leering at me from a face shaped like a mongoose. *Shudder* My reply is generally something like "Yeah, you're not even getting a first dance, my friend, much less a good night or morning anything." That tends to take the hot air out of them like a flat tire.

Ah, well. I'm still an optimist and I can't help but hope that there's a guy with substance somewhere out there. Something a little more crunchy than this bland soup of a dating pool. I'm not fragile and I think I'll hold out for a while. But thanks for the invite all the same.

Kid rooms

I have a thing for personalizing kid rooms. More than any other room of the house I feel like this is the one where I can truly get creative and try anything. The pictures below used to be my kids' bedrooms.

The fantasy bedroom was created by freehanding the castle using one of their toys for my model and by projecting the dragon (found on the internet) onto the wall using a small craft projecter (one of the best Christmas presents EVER!). After painting, the pictures were outlined with permanent marker. A warning: yes, the marker can be covered by primer later but it will take at least three coats of it as I learned when we sold this house and I had to repaint this room something a lot more boring.




The jungle room was orginally painted for my sons but soon after finishing it I found out I was pregnant (with a girl) and we moved the boys into the bigger room where I made their castle. In the jungle room the giraffes and the elephant were projected onto the wall and I traced with pencil (because I'm TERRIBLE at drawing living creatures) but then I freehanded the plants. Plants are very forgiving and it's really hard to get them wrong. For the plant styles I used my favorites from an idea I'd seen in a magazine. This room we left as is when we sold the house and the family moving in had a two year old little boy who was going to live in it.

The lamp was originally all white and I got it for about $10. I painted the black stripes on it and then watered down some orange craft paint to give it a wash.








In June I'm moving again, one way or another, and I will be painting bedrooms again. I'm thinking a forest bedroom for Glenn (kind of like the Brother Bear movie-ish), a pretty green room with butterflies and fairies outlined in purple and blue for Erin, and maybe pirates for Joe (treasure map, etc). The last one I'm not entirely sure of just yet (he doesn't have really strong feelings on any particular style) so I'll probably paint the other two first and let him think about it. Have any ideas?

Are you rich? Maybe you don't know it yet!

So there was a story on msnbc about how unclaimed money gets sent to the state and each of the 50 states maintains a database of who money is owed to. They also have a link to each of the state websites in the story.

Anyway, I'm home sick today and have nothing better to do so I searched for my name and, not finding anything, searched for my parents too. And what do you know, they're in there! Yeah, it's probably worth very little but how cool to be finding your own forgotten treasure? I'm curious to know what they "lost and found".

Want to look for yourself? http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30375542/

Sometimes...

Sometimes it's hard to be mad... Even when you should be.