Snow Report!

Let me just apologize now for the formatting nightmare that is this post. It is so much easier to link to the videos on flickr, but flickr insists on this wackadoodle right-hand alignment thing. GRRRR. Here. Look at the pretty baby. It will make you feel better.

Phew. Now you can watch her on video:

Bethany Makes a Snow Angel - February 13, 2010

Originally uploaded by sarahblascovich

Bethany loved being outside this morning, in our whopping three inches of snow. It has, of course, sent all of Atlanta to a standstill - again. Two actual snows in one winter? And it's not even March? Unheard of! We are fortunate we don't have to go anywhere today, because apparently the roads are icy disasters - again. One day, the city of Atlanta will have an appropriate number of sand trucks. Until then, we're snowed in every time there is any accumulation. There are worse things, I know.

Because Amy asked so nicely...

Here is the most recent decent picture of the Brownie. We've had one more since this one, but even the midwife who "took" it said that it looked more like a Halloween decoration than a baby. Turns out this 3-D technology isn't perfected, and if some other body part is in front of the face, you get a spooky image. This one is actually from September - sorry.

At this point, the Brownie was head up (boo!), but now s/he has complied with modern medical practice, and is head down, so that's one less reason to end up with a very unwanted c-section (yay!). At the last appointment, I also got to watch him/her doing practice breathing, which is pretty cool to see.

We have had several lovely showers, and people have been very generous, so we feel like we're in good shape for the Brownie's arrival in about a month. I managed to forget the camera at every single one of the showers, so I am at the mercy of others to have the time to download photos and send them to me. I am being patient, since I still have photos from APRIL on my camera. Ugh.

I am aiming for massive progress in the Brownie's room this weekend - we moved a bunch of furniture out and did some rearranging on Halloween (in between giving uncostumed teenagers one piece of candy each - boo again!), so it's almost time for the decorating & organizing, which we all know is my favorite part, vastly preferable to actual cleaning. You might get lucky and get to see the results of that in photographic form, but it also might be March before that happens.

Happy Wednesday!

Happy March!

It never snows in Georgia when it "should," and usually it doesn't even count, but this is fantastic. It started during church, and by the time I drove home, the houses, cars, and the park were covered.

It's like movie snow - you can actually see the great big flakes!!!

(I know I'm entertaining all of you who see this stuff as a nuisance - some of us still think it's pretty cool.)

January Mantel

January Mantel
Originally uploaded by sarahblascovich

For the mantel-loving folks out there, here is what it looks like today. Mid-month, it will probably go ahead & transition to Valentine's Day, just because I love red that much. It also means that I can put out last year's swap goodies, and add this year's to it as they arrive.

Fun things include: our photo by MonkeyBean; an altered bottle made by Dawn, coveted by me, and Christmas presented to me by the Motherina; bottle brush trees Monkey & I dyed last year; and the l-o-v-e-l-y soldered piece from Lennye.

The other side of the mantel is kind of dull, so I didn't even bother to take its picture. For excitement, I signed up for the Decorated Fireplace Mantels group at flickr. Since I'm the only one in the group who's posted a picture so far, we'll see how this goes. I just want to make sure I'm up on the hottest mantel trends (*snicker*). Speaking of flickr - I'm thinking of upgrading to the Pro account. Any thoughts on this? I mostly just want the ability to EASILY organize & label all of my pictures, somewhere other than our skittish hard drive.

Happy Sunday!

Because Monkey L*O*V*E*S these dark pictures.

I don't know if she's complained about it in the comments, but Monkey simply adores the way I never take blog pictures until late at night. Therefore, the pictures are always dark, since I am allergic to the flash. When you live in Northern Europe, like it's starting to feel like I do, it gets dark at about 4:00 in the winter. That makes it impossible to work all day and get decent photos. With that in mind, I present Christmas decor 2008 - in all its shadowy glory. It should also be noted that this is only one room. I'll show you more later, if you're good.

The aluminum tree, now with color wheel! We moved it in front of the fireplace this year. We also found that precious tree skirt at an antique store for a steal.
The angelic portion of the mantel.
The not-so angelic portion, with non-flammable icicles!

Do. Not. Call. My. House. Again!

While I am BEYOND excited that the Georgia Senate race is in a runoff, I am NOT excited that the RNC has found enough money to call my house three or four times a day. I have now been home for 22 minutes, and they have called twice. Once was a little girlie named 'Skylar,' who says, "this is Skylar, and I'm calling from the RNC. Did you know, that um, um, the Democrats, are um," at which point I told her she had the wrong number. Then, I just got a robo-call from "Paul" at the RNC, telling me that the Democrats were "dumping" money into Georgia. Geez, Paul, obviously only the Democrats are doing that, because Robo-calls are CLEARLY FREE.

In honor of this torture, I give you some very funny SNL:

Last week, subtitled, Is Sarah really a dork, or does she just play one on her nonexistent TV?

We painted two rooms. The Sprite-themed room is now really blue. The diaper-themed bathroom is now yellow. If you haven't seen those, let me try to explain.

Our spare bedroom was attacked by two poor-quality painters who decided that they wanted to paint stripes. Stripes of unequal size. Stripes of yellow - yellow EXTERIOR HOUSE PAINT. You can imagine how many coats of primer that took. The bathroom was two different shades of pumpkiny-brown. I won't elaborate, but I will horrify you by saying that our bedroom used to be the same two colors. We took care of the bedroom before we moved in, but kept putting off the bathroom. We also used the appropriate paint on the ceiling, so HOPEFULLY we won't continue to have mildew issues. Oh, wait, we KNOW we won't, because they used craft paint last time. Sheesh. Lindsey also replaced the ceiling fans in both bedrooms. We are very impressed. We also learned that our breaker box works. Don't ask.

I spent the week downtown at a hotel working with teachers on testing stuff. Fortunately, Lennye was there, and no, I didn't pay her to write the nice things she said on her blog. :) It's always great to see Lennye, and we got to talk about writing a bunch, which makes me happy. Of course, we were sitting a table full of elementary school teachers, so when we started the blog-related conversation, I think they thought we were from another planet. {How could they have found that out???}

My cousin Laura came for two days with her friend Kristy. They had fun being tourists, and they tested our new Ikea sleeper-sofa, like the sweet generous souls they are. My brother is in town with some of his friends from UGA, and we all met up last night in the Virginia Highlands for what is probably the latest night I've had in a year. I feel old, especially since I was annoyed by the fact that there were broken stalls in the women's room. I mean, if it's a BAR, obviously, it's not going to be in good shape. I know this, but it still annoyed me.

More work this week, then Thursday Torrence & I drive to New Orleans. I may be slightly excited about that. I may be working on an entire NOLA itunes list for the trip. I may be burning said list onto CDs for all of my friends. That may make me a dork. What do you think?

Summertime (dedicated to Caro)

Boo hiss on this astronomical definition of summer starting in mid-June. If you live where I've (almost) always lived, summer starts when the weather gets hot. That means summer has started. Summer in the city is fun - *contrary to what the song would have you believe - because people get nice & chatty all of a sudden.

I have studied this effect in a number of cities, and it's definitely true for the beginning of the season. Sure, the glow wears off by August, but the first few hot days make people talk to you! It's so true that it appears in Bridget Jones's Diary - and if it's in Bridget, by golly, it's true. (Ask any girl from my immediate generation. They'll agree.) Like Bridget, I've actually witnessed this phenomenon in London. I was there on a little railroad-induced layover before I went to see the Feather in Oxford, and my friend Julia & I sat in Hyde Park and laughed at all of the very pale English people looking in a dazed, squinty sort of way at the blue sky and smiling. (Apologies to Helen Fielding, because I don't know where my copy of the book is, and I have a suspicion that I stole most of that line from her.)

In other news, our hibiscus is blooming. It was prey for some very nasty insects at the end of last summer, and we were afraid it was done for. Fortunately, thanks to some very potent organic plant treatment, it has made a full recovery. I'll get a decent picture tomorrow so you can be impressed, too.

Finally, as if all of that summer funness just wasn't quite enough for you - there's another Sweet Goodness Swap on the loose. Head on over & sign up speedily if you're interested. Pink lemonade! Parasols! POLKA DOTS!!!

Happy Summer!

PS Did I mention I'm done with my real job for the summer? And now I get to do some projects from the "home office"? Could this be the secret source of my joy?? ;)

*This song is one of the MANY that my very hysterical father sings by scrunching up his entire face, stomping his foot, and mumbling through the verses in order to scream the chorus.

Sometimes, she can plan...

Now that I travel, I pay attention to the weather. I am famous for never knowing the forecast (or what time it is, but that's a different post). I used to wake Lindsey up to ask him what the weather was going to do, which I am quite sure he found very annoying. In fact, I know he found it annoying, because he used to say things like "how would I know? I'm not up yet!"

Anyhoodle, because I now use weather.com for purposes besides convincing myself it was within the 12 degree temperature range that allowed us to take the kids to recess, I knew YESTERDAY it was going to be rainy & gross today. That meant I went OUTSIDE yesterday, and read on the swing, and walked around downtown Decatur. I left all of the yucky inside chores for today, so today I get to do the following things:

1) Clean. In a big way.
2) Organize fabric into cloth bins suggested by the amazing Sarah.
3) Laundry. You all know that laundry is an uphill battle for me ALL THE TIME. I used to have to stay up all night in college sometimes, not to do schoolwork, but to do 15 loads of laundry. Ugh. I'm not that bad anymore, but I still really hate it. And believe you me, if I didn't have moral principles that prevent me from hiring out housework to people Lindsey & I refer to as domestic wageslaves, I'd definitely let someone else do my laundry. But that would be wrong.
4) Write a bunch of thank you notes, sympathy cards, and general mail that hasn't been sent for a variety of lame reasons.
5) Work on a master plan for VBS.

Did I mention that I bought Steel Magnolias for $5 at Target??? That means at some point today I'll be bawling my eyes out, if you're interested.

And has anyone listened to Lennye's playlist yet? It's definitely quality, but for some reason it makes me think I should be drinking while I'm listening to it. I'm not sure what that says, exactly, but it's an unsettling feeling at 10:00 in the morning...

Finally, I don't think I've shared this yet. While in New York, I got to check out the fabulous Purl Patchwork store. The thing is about the size of a large closet, but they have it very well stocked with some gorgeous fabric. I'll have to photograph my fabric selections for you, but here's a shot of the store:


For added excitement, you get to swivel your head to see this, because I forgot to flip it before I downloaded it, and I just plain REFUSE to waste time downloading it again.

Happy Tuesday!

Busted.

I found these in the cabinet last night when I was putting away the groceries. Yes, we are opening a Twizzlers store - didn't you hear?


On to the embroidery. This first piece is part of a surprise gift, so you don't get to see very much of it. It came out MUCH better than I anticipated, so there may be more of these in the future.

This is the ornament from the Craft Leftovers kit. I heard Kristin's CraftSanity interview, which sent me right over to her Etsy shop to get this! I love it. Everything is thrifted or reused in some way. The felt is an old sweater! This is almost done, just waiting on some additional blanket stitching, which I can now do myself, whoo-hoo!

This one is going to also have a little stick-figure sort of stable off to the left-hand side, but that involves multiple colors of thread, so it'll probably be this weekend before I'm feeling that patient. It is definitely going to be part of a pillow, as is the mystery embroidery up above. I bought my mom a cute Halloween pillow that inspired these, and we already had the tea-dyed fabric, so it seemed like the obvious choice.

In other news, they have installed a stop sign on our street! Very exciting, since it felt like we were living next to the Atlanta Motor Speedway all the time. Since we've actually already done that once, we weren't really feeling the NASCAR-type love. This sign has ALREADY reduced the unnecessary traffic on our street (which is sort of a cut-through), and really slowed things down. We were hoping for a speed bump, but we'll take the stop sign.

(Once you care about things like this, by the way, you know you are OLD.)

Happy Friday!

Awwwww

1) I got to meet Owen; he is darling.

2) This is sort of not even close to how pretty it is in our backyard:

Our neighbor has a tree whose leaves have turned translucent yellow, but I can't get a picture of them from outside, only through the window on the sunporch, and you can imagine how well that turned out.

3) For those of you lurking out there from New Orleans, you'll love the Bud's Broiler part of this, and I KNOW it will make you think of me. :) It will also make you cry. (That warning is for Caro, so she won't read this at work.)

Please learn from our mistake:

when decorating with natural materials, be VERY cautious before putting them in your house. If, for example, you find some great-looking acorns, you might want to toast them in the oven JUST to make sure that little white wormy-looking things won't wriggle out of them onto your vintage tole tray.

This is the scene of the crime, restored to its previous blissful state via acorn removal activities.

We had a great weekend, and I am madly in love with the weather. Now, I get to leave it, & head down to south Georgia for the week. I'm sure when I get back it will be COLD, not just chilly, and the leaves will all have fallen off the trees. That's the way things tend to go around here.




In other excitement, the Halloween decorations are put away, and it's not even December yet. This is me turning over my new, highly-organized leaf. (I can hear all of you snickering, there's no need for that!)

This is the current version of the mantel for Thanksgiving. I really thought I had more vintage postcards with a harvest/fall theme, but obviously, I do not. I'll be on the prowl, so don't worry.

Have a great week - I'll be back within cell phone range on Friday. ;)

Non-Ikea-ness.

Because I'm not 100% satisfied with the crafty area yet, you're going to have to be patient. To encourage patience, I've decided to show off our newly Halloweenish mantel. It's a mix of things we've bought, I've made, and gifts from my Mom, who's as into decorating for holidays as I am. Gee, wonder where it came from?
Lindsey thought it was quite funny that I left the wedding pictures up. He's threatening to tell people that we got married in October, just so it'll make sense. I guess that's better than telling people that our wedding was scary! (ha!) Towards the middle you can see two muffin tins that I gussied up for the season. I'm thinking about leaving them up through Christmas, & just changing out what's inside them. I bought them because they each have 8 cups instead of the usual 6 or 12. (See the close-up below...)


This is my "yard dog," straight from New Orleans. It came in very useful in the classroom, where my kids ALWAYS could remember the greater than & less than symbols. He also served as a very cool reward for good behavior. I've been told more than once that it's cruel to own this thing, but remember that alligator meat IS widely eaten in Louisiana, and using the head is WAY better than just throwing it away. Now, of course, he's outfitted for the season, courtesy of some creative cutting suggested by Lindsey. (I really hadn't planned to include him on the mantel.)

Some very productive scouring of the Value Village Halloween shelves resulted in these two lamps. The one on the right has a flickering bulb! They definitely crack me up. Who in the world invented them? They're crazy fun. It's like the plug-in candles you put in your window at Christmas - only for Halloween? People will buy anything! ;)

Anyway, that's enough showing off for one evening. Hope everyone is having a great start to the week!

Heureusement, IKEA est la!

Massive trippage to the IKEA. Massive. All in the name of getting this house ready for people to see it. Some results will be visible this evening. Stay tuned. All I'm telling you is that there is now a craft space. mwahahahahahah.

Wowza!

My very cool Holiday Sister Swap partner, Miss Jeannie (or Jean Knee, if you read her hysterical blog), sent me this happening card over the weekend. It is made out of a paper bag, and it rocks. At first, I decided I was going to send one of these to everyone I know. I was so determined on this front that I actually picked up a paper bag that had been carelessly tossed on the sidewalk while Lindsey & I were walking last night. (It did not, contrary to his expectations, contain any kind of illegal substance, or even smell like pot. So there.)

Then, I woke up, and looked around this extremely messy house, & realized that in order to have the Halloween party of the century on October 27th, I'd probably be better off cleaning that making cute cards.

In lieu of actually receiving a card, you can just admire this one, and maybe be inspired to make some of your own. (That's for those of you down in Jackson, enjoying your fall break...)

It's sitting on top of a very cool galvanized tub, that will be in action on the 27th, as well.

In case you haven't figured it out, this post serves only 2 purposes:
1) to thank Jeannie for this great card
and
2) to issue a save-the-date for the Halloween party of the century, on Saturday, October 27th, at 6:00 pm, chez nous. (Evite is forthcoming later in the week.)

8 things I learned today:

1) Just because it's fall doesn't mean you can leave your car windows down overnight. Some kind individual will come by, ransack your car (you won't BELIEVE how much junk hides in your glove compartment), and take all your loose change. Fortunately, if you have recently stopped living out of your car, it's all they can take.

2) People who go through other people's cars do not like Norah Jones or 10,000 Maniacs. They leave those CDs alone.

3) When you think your cat has adjusted to being an indoor cat, she will stalk the door, waiting on you to open it, and then escape outside. Once outside, she will act as if she has no idea who you are, until you scare her back in the door.

4) Should you decide to go to the zoo to escape the very bad day you are having, you may encounter rude people, who shove their cameras in front of you in order to take a picture of an animal they can see equally well from their portion of the fence.

BUT:

5) Baby pandas take extremely precious naps at about 4:00 in the afternoon. They collapse over horizontal poles, with their legs dangling. Amazing. (The picture up there is a not-very-close approximation.)

6) Meerkats like to watch people. Particularly if one meerkat is on guard, and the others are combing their hair.

7) Girl lions chase & antagonize boy lions, who in turn play hard to get.

8) Elephants dance! Really! They wave their ears back & forth & shift their weight. Very cool for something that weighs 14,000 pounds.

I've decided that I came out ahead on the lessons front, particularly in regards to the car. I am actually quite famous for leaving the window down, but before my only consequence has been a car seat wet from dew (or rain). Maybe now I'll remember?

Fall comes to the city - and the kitty.

Last night, we were *finally* able to sleep with the windows open. (I'll spare you the saga of the search for expandable, removable window screen. Just know that I prevailed, and we own them.) Our poor cat, who has had to become an indoor kitty since we moved into Atlanta, did not sleep. She went from one window to the next, and the instant she heard an acorn hit the porch, or the leaves rustle in the bushes, she jumped off the bed & ran to investigate. I do feel bad that she can't run & play outside, & enjoy the weather, but at least she'll get to sit in the window for a month or so.

I spent Wednesday through yesterday at noon in Athens. We went out for dinner in downtown Athens (home of the University of Georgia) on Thursday night, and it was so funny to watch the extremely dressed-up freshmen ready for a night on the town. Caro would have especially enjoyed that the boys were dressed up in KHAKIS. (gasp) I keep telling her it's an SEC thing, but she just doesn't get it. ;)

Further entertainment was provided by huge clumps of sorority pledges, ridiculously dressed so as to humiliate them. Now, I will own my sorority membership with semi-pride, but I was NEVER, and I do mean NEVER, forced to look ridiculous or behave stupidly to join. I wouldn't have stood for it, and neither would most of my pledge class. (There were three or four girls who WANTED to be hazed, but we weren't really friends, being as they were, quite simply, insane.)

I was a little jealous that all of them (I'm sure) were headed over to Sanford Stadium this afternoon to watch UGA beat Ole Miss. It is perfect football weather, bringing to mind this fantastic song. Ignore the video (unless you want to reflect on the deeper meaning of this song as sung by a Lousiana band (LSU kids, in fact) in relation to last season's Saints' post-Katrina success as New Orleans' team). I'll quit before I cry. And before I use any more parentheses-within-parentheses. BTE used to play every Lundi Gras at Tipitina's uptown, and it was always an amazing show. (At least it was the two times I went.)

Last night, we went over to East Atlanta Village for dinner, dessert, and a visit to the local bookstore. (Not to be confused with these less-local bookstores.) It was lovely.

I. Love. Fall.

So THIS is what people do early in the morning...

Tuesday morning, 8:30 a.m.
Originally uploaded by sarahblascovich

A happier post, to apologize for the previous one.

This afternoon, the Saturn will be transporting yours truly to Augusta, & then onward later in the week to Savannah. I've never actually been to Augusta, so that should be exciting. I always love Savannah. Since I'm on the work schedule, I got up early to finish getting some things together for the trip.

This is what I saw when I looked up from the back porch where I ate breakfast. Pretty cool, huh? I became, um, slightly obsessed with light the year that I lived in France. Paris gets ZERO light in the winter, so when Caro & I ventured south, almost to the Mediterranean, in January, we thought we were in heaven.

My winter light obsession is part of the reason Lindsey & I were married in January. (Well, the light & the fact that I sweat a lot, & wedding dresses are heavy.)

Anyway, the camera's batteries have been fully recharged, so that all sorts of picture-taking fun can be had in Savannah. And, maybe Augusta - who knows?

Intermediate Posting

Since I don't have the infamous picture of me WITH Jimmy Carter yet, I thought I'd tempt you with a few of the man himself:Here he is speaking to the Japanese students. He was pretty funny, actually, and made a few jokes about how Plains is TINY. He said it had 635 people. I'm not sure where about 450 of them live, so that might be the greater Plains metropolitan area.

Here are President Carter, the Superintendent of the visiting Japanese school system, and the translator. The translator worked HARD for his money; virtually no one spoke English in the group, so even simple things like "leave your bags in this room, so the Secret Service doesn't have to search them" took a LONG time to explain.

And the bike... As you can see, this is no titanium, German-engineered racing bike. In fact, I think it is older than I am. (However, the agent riding with him DID appear to have a fancy bike.) He rides very well, you'll be happy to know.

In other fun, here are some pictures of Lindsey with the Rhino. They had a lot of fun opening Ryan's present & reading a book. Much like our house, the book contains Ryan's favorite word, "mess." ;)


As of this weekend, we are now proud members of the High Museum of Art and Zoo Atlanta. I FINALLY got to see the baby panda, Mei Lan, for about 12 seconds until I was smushed by a bunch of adults with large cameras. Sheesh. She turns one on Thursday, so hopefully after that, the crowds will die down. (She is very cute, and quite a ham. She also appears quite healthy, so maybe soon she'll get to hang out with both of her parents. They are still separated most of the time.)

In other excitement, I'm on my way in about an hour to south Georgia, where I'll be training teachers in Pelham and Waycross. Go swapiness! I will get to see Jenn, who lives down that way in Sylvester. Her husband is the high school football coach there; the Rams won on Friday night. Whoo-hoo!

I'm still in the middle of a few kimono-fabric pillows; hopefully, I'll get those finished next weekend so you can see them. Happy Labor Day!

Your patience is appreciated.

Kindly continue to wait for the upcoming post that will feature a photo of.....

(dum, dum, dum!)

My coworker, Jimmy Carter, and myself. Need I also mention that we will be standing beside him as he sits on his BIKE. That is correct. Jimmy Carter, greatest humanitarian alive, rode his BIKE from his house to Plains High School to meet a group of Japanese students and welcome them to his hometown. My sweet coworker (who, I should mention, is 7 months pregnant) thought she was going to cry.

He is just as cool in person as on TV, folks. Even the local media people, who film & interview him all the time, kept saying things like, "I can't believe he rode his bike!" The Japanese kids were so cute. They sat very politely & listened to him speak, and the minute he was done, got out their cameras and started snapping. (I was only slightly jealous of the cameras.)

Pictures also to come of the Rhino's visit to Atlanta. His mother was kind enough to bring him up here so that we could play with him.... I did have a heart attack during the visit, when of his own volition, my husband got the child out of his car seat. The Rhino emerged unscathed, undropped, and in a good mood. (Miracles do happen, people.)

The Summer Shade festival rocked, and from it, we brought a new friend home to live with us, in our very tiny (but growing!) Collection of Agrarian Folk Art. Lindsey named it that while we were waiting on the artist to return to his booth so we could pay him.


In other neighborhood news, an orangutan briefly escaped from his enclosure over at the zoo this weekend. We only live a short walk away, but the little dude didn't even get out of the zoo itself. They had him tranquilized & back where he belonged in about half an hour. I was disappointed that I didn't get to see a big, hairy, orange ape walking down the street.

However, since I did get to see the nation's 39th president ride his bike down the street, I don't think we can count the weekend a total loss. :)

Who's coming to visit next?