Dizzy with Distraction

Somehow I have managed to become inundated with due dates. I have articles and guest posts and shop updates all due, due, due and what do I do? I get distracted by the birdies in the garden (of which there are many).

Not only am I enamored with the love story of Gomez and Peg, there is a wee bushtit hop, hop, popping all over the place with his happy gray feathers and ultra cool top-knot and more than a dozen gold finches peep-peeping their way through sock after sock filled to the brim with happy seeds.

We also have an acorn woodpecker who has taken to thieving large seeds from Peg's Place. He hollers and whoops as he swoops upon the linnets who scatter this way and that and then he dashes into the birdhouse (feeder) only pausing to tilt his head my way with a cross-eyed stare. Then he quickly grabs a beak-full of goodness, swoops back up to his perch on the telephone pole where he swirls around the pole stuffing his thieved booty into the holes he previously pecked. Distracted, I tell ya!

Distracting me even more are the books. THE BOOKS! Thank goodness for libraries. I serendipitously received two holds I have been (only-semi) anxiously waiting for since March and now, NOW they are in my hot chubby hands and it is all I can do not to forgo sleep (and I really like sleep) to read, read, read them.

And before you think me even dorkier than before I will not mention the lateness of my next Netflix DVD which involves a certain Doctor. Ahem.

Happy weekend everyone!**

 **pics are just some peeks into the week. some craftiness, gomez, dinner & a wip.

making the bed postcards in the shop

Now you can send or save some of my most favorited photos from the making the bed series. In the shop. Sweety, sweet dreams!

blue dilly dilly packs of happy

now in the shop!

working on a shop update

Took far too many photos today but at least they are pretty and make me smile. There is a kitty on my lap and I am drinking some leftover coffee with cocoa in it. That may be more information than you care to know. The nephew a-go-go is still on spring break so today involved a lazy recovery from the weekend. We watched Doctor Who,  sampled micro-greens, discussed Godzilla and learned the definitions of conglomerate and paradox. Have you ever tried explaining the meaning of paradox to an eight year old? To anyone? Go ahead, I kinda dare you (though I won't double-dog dare you). Oh and just to prove to you how extraordinarely dorky I am, we a-go-gos are quite excited for the return of Peg. And....she has brought a boyfriend home. We call him Gomez. Here's a sneak peek for the shoppity shop...

today we dyed our eggs

 and then we painted with them.

 and some doilies.

Paint Playing

Yesterday, the nephew a-go-go spent the day with the a-go-go girls and we painted up a storm. We began by doing a project from this awesome book by Heather Smith Jones and then we just went cuhrazy!

crafting for craft: doily sleeved top

Hop on over to CRAFT for the how to.

what does spring mean to you?

 Spring means so many things to me, to check out a couple spring feeling pics of mine along with a few other nifty people, skip on over to Kara's blog to get a bit of inspiration. I love when I am invited to a party!

today: april 17

I baked cookies all day. ALL DAY. I do not want to even think of looking at another cookie.

p.s.
I had really intended yesterday's post to reflect how a day can start out one way and end in another. It was simply one of those days you wanted to hit the covers within moments after waking but by the end of it you are so glad you didn't. As I wrote at the end of the post. It was a good day. A very good day. Thank you to those who emailed me. Big squeezey squeezes to you. I wish I could figure out a better way to convey that I'm not such a gloomy Gus. I'm really not.

today: april 16

started out wonky and on uneven footing for everyone around. Got straightened and slip, slippy a few more times. It was an up and down kind of day. A day for a swing run like Lita and I used to do when the going got tough. It wasn't all bad, goodness, no but it is remarkable how tricky words and lack of words can make for crankiness and misunderstandings.

Today we looked at apartments and felt dismal dismay. The pickings are slim but we look, looked anyway. We allowed ourselves to feel utterly defeated, down-in-the-dumps and dismayed. But we shrugged it all off and felt grateful for family.

Today we piled too many into the car for a quick trip back up to the college. There was soft serve for the family a-go-go (I held out for a Coke with dinner) and a walk about the local college as we chatted up students in various booths about bees, cotton mills, sustainability and newborn foals. We hiked up and up and up a hill in the warm sun that seemed to turn hot as the hill got steeper. We passed by ewes and lambs mowing a weed patch and witnessed the breeding process for horses. It was far more interesting than I imagined and marveled at the young women in training who prepared the stallion and the mare. We decided after seeing how the majority of the students in the breeding program were women that you tall young men who like ladies would probably do very well in the program. Mister even said he should have went for horse breeding.

Today we drove up and down a windy road eye-spying critters such as turkeys, bunnies, cows, deer, blue birds, nuthatches and magpies. We walked up another steepity steep hill covered in dappled sunlight examining grass, flowers and dead trees. We listened to birdies sing-singing their songs and watched lizards duke it out for a sunny spot on a hot rock.

Today was a full day. It had uppity up and downwardy downs. We laughed, we argued and we enjoyed the company of family. We adventured out together, walking this way and that and we ended it with dinner (In N Out), a grocery run (we eat far too many apples) and a peek through the mister's telescope where we saw Saturn all rings a-glowing and a wee moon saying goodnight.

Today was exhausting.

Today was a good day.

p.s.

i still have bunnies in the shop!

i think i need a push start

like an old, tired car i need a push. i can get going once that happens. i hope. the wind is kicking up something fierce here which makes for perfect allergy transference. darn wind. I cough, i hack, i wheeze and then i wheeze some more and i get so, so, so tired. i'm awake, and have been but i'm not AWAKE.

and it is going to be a purty day. the mister is home, the birdies are out, i got myself into a dress and am not hating it but the feet are dragging, the eyes are sleepy, the head is stuffy and the ears (or, ear. my right ear specifically) are throbbing. aren't i fun to be around? it would be lovely to take a bike ride but for the wind and the pollen. i'm really NOT a fan of the pollen. in fact, i am downright fearful of the pollen. once it gets in, there is no escape.

so what do i do? i have MUCH to do for something up-and-coming-and-super-top-secret right now. i suppose i should get to that or should i attach myself to the inhaler and curl up with a reread so i can be ready for this book when my turn in the library queue pops up or should i declare today a lazy day and curl up with a smoothie, the inhaler and watch this?

i think i will get to at least one of things from my up-and-coming-super-top-secret project and then check in with the mister to see what he wants to do. our original plan was to adventure out before the sun for a two hour drive but the temps where we were planning to head to were a bit too chilly for us (southern california natives). we do need to look for a place to live, there is that. i hate looking at rentals. ick. this is such a disorganized post. double ick. i keeping yawning. sigh. at least i was productive yesterday working on things for my up-and-coming-super-top-secret project.

okay, i have decided. i will work on one thing for my uacssp, call a listing or two, have lunch with the mister and make plans for a sunset adventure. tomorrow we will tackle a bike-ride as long as the mister's bike is working. he's working on it right now. and we will venture out into the little town for open house festivities of rodeos, livestock and free ice cream. there. it is done. phew!

what song is in your head?

I've been keeping as busy as I can as the job hunt continues and no one seems to want me. I've pursued just about everything from office clerking, preschool teaching, shop working, merchandiser and grocery store bagger and at this point I'm beginning to think I am damaged goods. It makes me think a lot about perception and how we perceive ourselves so completely differently than those who do not know us and those who do. I'm always baffled by the response I get from friends who read this blog and think this or that about my mood or mental state. I am often left wondering, "Goodness, is THAT how I sound? Eesh!"

I've been reading a lot lately from various blogs about the purpose of blogging and the edited versions of our best selves. In all my honesty I can say that I don't edit. I'm who I am, the good, the bad, the nutty. I have upswings and downward spirals and panic attacks and laugh attacks. I blog when I am sad, moody, grumpy, happy, bored...you name it. The only editing I do is probably the not-posting yet another cranky mood as it seems I'm quite particular and am quite tired of close friends telling me I am emotional and everyone knows this or that about me when truly, those weren't the songs in my head at the time.

Have I written about the songs in your head dealie-o? It was a group exercise from one of my infant development classes. Our professor had us stand in a circle facing in (and yes, there were eye rolls, mine included) and asked us to close our eyes and think of our most favorite dancing song. She asked us to imagine ourselves dancing and so I did**, along with the rest of the class and I could tell because I could hear some folks jig a little. After a moment or so, she had us open our eyes and turn to someone standing next to else and tell them the song THEY were dancing to. What? Huh? We all stood there completely befuddled. And that was the point! She said that no matter how well you know someone, no matter how much you common you may have, even if they are your children, parents, siblings or spouse, at any given moment, you most probably do not know the song in their head, even when yo uare both dancing. I was floored! I was astounded! She was completely correct. It became my mantra that week as I am certain my friends will tell you. I couldn't talk about it enough. So now, when mister and I are in a mood. Or when we're reaching the peak of persnicketiness or other somesuch chaos, one of us may ask "What song is in your head?" We use it as a tool to simply gauge how the other is feeling. Usually, when I ask this, I think of a song that matches the mood I think the mister is in and if he answers along the same lines then I know how he might be feeling.

When I am grumping about something I may remind myself that I do not know what song so and so is dancing to and they in turn do not know mine. But still this vast world of blogging allows for much to be misconstrued and I'm not a fan of being misconstrued but I suppose I have to take the good with the not-so-good. I'm trying and fumbling greatly and doing everything I can to make this little blog grow into something that will put food on the table. Any ideas? I'm grasping, grasping, grasping away. Writing for this site or that site and trying to merit out the paying gigs which appear to hire the same six or so people. What's a moody girl to do? I suppose there is nothing else really but to keep trying, keep pushing, keep writing and to keep dancing.

So, what song is in your head?

**I was dancing to this song.

shop update: vintage linen love bunnies

 

happy bunny blanks for you to enjoy as is or for your kiddos to paint up as they will. each bunny front is made from a neutral faux linen, muslin or denim and backed by a happy bit of vintage bed linens. they're in the shop now! hurry, Easter is just around the corner!

seed eaters

seed eaters, originally uploaded by jek in the box.

itty bitty birdies doing the chicken...

bunny making

in the shop tomorrow...blank on one side and a smidge o' vintage goodness on the other. happy spring!

poppytalk's spring colours week: white

i had such a lovely time hunting out the perfect photos to post for this week. i was even lucky enough to have a few of them featured. thank you to the awesomeness that is poppytalk! to see more of the fun, travel over to poppytalk or take a gander at the flickr group.

poppytalk's spring colours week: lavender

to see more of the fun, travel over to poppytalk or take  gander at the flickr group.