Wacky Pants

This is my husband's blog, where he chronicles the lives of our wee(and not so wee) ones. I leave this venture to him for two reasons: 1)he's still captivated by their cuteness (aren't all dads though) and 2)well, frankly I'm too exhausted to think of a number two, but I swear there is some less selfish reason besides, "Because it's my blog....all mine," that I'll surely think up later. Anyway, here's to a father's devotion to his life with kids and a wonderful husband all the way around. I love you, Babe.

All I Want For Christmas...

Is it wrong to be totally jealous of your child's Lego set? As a kid, it seems the Lego fairy just flew right past my house and gave them all to the two little boys living next door. Didn't have a clue what all the stink was about until my eldest son reached the age of Lego about two or so years ago and ever since then I have had to repress every urge to take over construction duty each time he's gets a new project. This year, Santa couldn't help herself and got him a doozie; the Polar Express knock-off kit with like a gazillion pieces. Oh, there was no way he wasn't gonna ask for help with this one, right? As it turns out, he enjoyed the challenge and I was relegated to piece-finding duty, again. Maybe the bright minds at Lego will appeal to us hands-on moms one year and turn out a snap together tiara with little blocks made of solid gold.

By the way, for all you moms who feel like you got gipped out of the early childhood medical forensics facial reconstruction kits (and you know who you are), some brilliant person in the universe blessed us with the, yes, "CSI: Forensic Facial Reconstruction Kit". It's a dream realized and I didn't even have to go through 8+ years of grueling medical study to do it. Thank you, brilliant person.

Happy New Year to all!

Rocky Roads

C'est Fini!

(I didn't actully do anything to the two from the left. Bought one and my seven yr.old adorned his old one for kicks.)

Refrigerator Science

This week in the kitchen/laboratory, I learned that the shelf life of brioche batter/dough is approximately 2 days. On the first day, my brioche cooked up flaky and buttery with a lovely eggwash sheen, in the perfect double lump shape. The second day, there was just a slightly yeastier flavor, but overall still the flaky wonders, only I forgot to add the eggwash to make it glisten. My bad. By the third day however, it had a skunked beer odor with a funky spongecake texture. Not so yummy, I gotta say. And not too sheeny either. And that's our lesson from this week's "Refrigerator Experiments that Gross Your Husband Out."

Sure, Why Not?

As we pulled out the Christmas deco this year, I decided I was a little sick of the cheesy red felt stockings that were purchased in a hurried moment of need. (You gotta have sumthin' to put the coal in , right?) So, I figured that while I'm already in knee deep in holiday denial and overwhelmed by the prospect of gift-giving this year that I should go ahead and whip up a few homemade stockings for my crew.


Well, the first two went rather swimmingly. My three year old helped pick out all of her own fabrics and to my utter amazement, she managed to beautifully match hot pink naugahyde to some lovely vintage plaid and ethnic cotton remnants. For the wee girl (11 mths), I put together an easy-peasy number; just took a little extra care with the stitching. (I'm not a terribly good seamstress, I must confess.) Well, as I began to consult my eldest child about what he wanted on his, I got a laundry list of wintry goodness. Snowmen, snowflakes, wreaths, trees.... What else is there to do but take up the embroidery needle for the first time in at least.... well, ever. Why not? Chances of getting overwhelmed....sure, I'll take em'.



Low and behold, just a few days into the new project, a dear friend hits the shores after a long stint in Japan with a book full of wintry style embroidery. *Thanks, Sweets. I love it.* Being the guerrilla homemaker that I am, I attack the project with even more gumption and go-get-um, but quickly stray into freehand embroidery territory that begins to take far more time than I could've anticipated. But, honestly, just about anything that takes more than an afternoon to do is a bit much for me. So almost two weeks after stocking #3 was started, it still lay in pieces, a mere 7 days before Santa arrives. And I've only two stockings yet to go! (I do believe I mentioned I've got a problem with focus, right?) But hell's bells, I've got a new passion for embroidery and my kids can pretty well bank on plenty o' guilt gifts from Mamma Claus this year. Ho Ho Ho!

Jurassic Plastic

Fuzzy Pink Escapism

Escapism* from the burden of holiday shopping and a denial that Christmas is a mere two weeks away in the form of a beautiful lace scarf. Instead of shopping for the impending day of gift giving , for which I have not purchased so much as a stocking stuffer or token teacher's gift, I have begun knitting this scarf which is well beyond my skill level** and requires an intense amount of concentration on my part. But the most unforgivable truth of all.....I'm knitting it for me. Yes, I do feel an inkling of shame at my selfish display and I'll be sure to flog myself with the fuzzy, pink scarf when it's done. By then it'll be time to wrap.

*Mom, once again, thanks for the exact perfect word.
**I only began my self-taught ventures in knitting/crocheting in September and have most recently learned to breathe between stitches.

Shark Signage

day shark
Originally uploaded by redrocket_.

I'm lacking the creative oomph necessary for successful blogging as of late, so I'm posting a project completed some time ago. I like signage and my son likes sharks. Together we came up with this particular wall hanging. Until just now, I never realized how menacing this thing looks at night.* Yikes.

*(If you'd like to see the night version, you'll have to click on the pic to get to my flickr stream. It seems my computer savvy is not fully developed enough to implement a successful mouseover effect, but I'm working on it.)

Thrill of the Hunt

Needless to say, I've put this blog on the back burner for way to long and it's beginning to resemble something left to simmer since Thanksgiving. Urgh. I hope to break out the virtual brillo pad in the next week or so and give this place a little renewed shine. Until then, I must confess that it was not only the holidays and children that have kept me away but a shiny new pair of Dr. Marten boots that I've been angling for for some time(ten years at least) now. I spotted the fore-mentioned boots, a burgandy oil-finish eight eyelet pair, for $44 dollars at a local discount chain here!!! My heart lept. This score would have trumped my $12 pair of Birkenstocks from Dillards, because this here pair of boots were exactly the boots I've been determined not to pay $110 dollars for said number of years now. The Birks were a definite "It'll do for $12 bucks" kinda score. Anyhoo, the perfect pair of boots, the perfect price, and a crushing realization that every size but my own is sitting on the shelf in front of me. Heartbreak, though a bit of an actual real-life overstatement, is the only way I can describe my feelings at this loss. So I must confess to all that being unable to walk away from the prospect of a perfect shop-and-conquer deal, I spent the week or so after Thanksgiving revisiting the very same store (and every other shoe store in town for that matter) reliving the moment of failed conquest, chipping away at the futile hope that the next shipment would herald in my Holy Grail of shoe trophies. My husband insists that I'm being ridiculous not paying full price to begin with, but he just doesn't understand that it's the thrill of the ultimate discount hunt. 5%, 10%, even 20% off just doesn't give me the adrenaline rush and feeling of accomplishment that some $60 off can. Maybe as I scrub clean this here blog getting it ready for the New Year that is just around the corner, I'll consider renaming it "Get This Brain Smatter for Real REAL Cheap!!"