Jennifer, hey there! Jennifer M. Yes you. How are you? Are you ready for us? We're excited to come. Now, please avert your eyes. wink.

We're taking a little trip to Dallas this weekend for a wedding. (Brian's cousin- he's great and so is the fiancee. Good people, they are.) Anyway, we're staying at Brian's sister's home and we're excited to see all the cousins and have a little mini-vacation.

I've been busy yesterday and today getting some gifts ready to take with us.

Gift 1: The host(ess) gift. For Jen and Scott for letting us stay with them.

Gift 2: An outfit for an almost 4 year old. The Earth Day baby in the family.

Gift 3: The wedding gift. I pulled this painting out of my shop for them. I intended to make another, but time ran out on me. The good thing is they are the kind of couple who will really appreciate a piece of artwork instead of a random houseware. They are cool like that.

Gift 4: A bunny treasure box for an already 6 year old. Oooops.

Now I've got to finish packing bags. We're leaving at the crack of dawn. Before dawn really. So I'll see you next week!

Posted by Alicia at 05:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)

So Brian will email me any minute and tell me "no one cares what you had for lunch." I know. I really do. But our long weekend was ALL about food and that rarely happens for our skinny little family. Here are a few foodie highlights (in very particular order):

•breakfast at Wheatfields with Heather and Matt. Good rolls, coffee, and company.
•lunch at Local Burger.
•Ben and Jerry's ice cream.
•bloody mary's snuggled up on the couch for this movie. Watch. it. now. (if you haven't already.)

•pork roast in the crock pot Robot Style. Homemade pitas (recipe found via Stephanie) wrapped around a pile of pulled pork, greens, cilantro and "baja sauce". Washed down with ice cold Corona with lime. I'm still drooling over that meal.

•Easter breakfast- Banana crumb muffins, Mr. Dell's Potato casserole, bacon, juice and coffee.
•Smoked ribs (thank you, Brian!)
•pineapple upside down cake (thank you, Dad!)
•marshmallow peeps and jelly beans (thank you, Easter bunny!)

I gotta go now. I need to take a walk. Oy.

Posted by Alicia at 06:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (20)

Happy first day of Spring, everyone! (or Fall down there in the South.) Yippee! I can tell you without a doubt, this is the happiest I've ever been about the arrival of Spring. Old age is making me lose my tolerance for the cold. And it's a beeeea-utiful day to boot.

This is Maura. She's in my shop today along with a few other goodies. And don't forget the Welcome Spring Sale ends Saturday.


Is there not a single Willy Wonka fan out there? Anyone? Seriously? No?

**crickets**

Anyway, I promise next week I'll stop hounding you to buy things. It's going to be gift week for me. I have gobs of gifts to make including a wedding gift, a hostess gift, little girlie birthday gifts, and a few baby gifts. (Um, Angela? Is Milo off to college yet? I swear I'm still working on his present.)

I'm calling it a week. Even Brian has the day off tomorrow. Have a wonderful, relaxing weekend! Much love to you all.

Posted by Alicia at 11:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (17)

the only pretty ring time.
hey, ding...
a ding-a-ding.

Sweet lovers love... the Spring.
you really can find anything on YouTube.

**********

Welcome Spring Sale in the Noticing Project Shop.
(go peek- cheap, cheap!)

Posted by Alicia at 11:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The ground below my Noticing Project photograph. Wait until you see today's pair. A bit freaky- sometimes the coincidence give me the shivers.

I thought I'd pop in and tell you the details of tomorrow's Welcome Spring Sale:
It begins tomorrow at 10 am (cst) and ends Saturday at 10 pm (cst).
1.10.08, 1.14.08 and the red ribbon selections will be substantially discounted.
After the close of the sale these items will be gone for good.

Thanks, and hope to see you over there tomorrow!

Posted by Alicia at 04:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Hello! Hello!

Thank you, everyone. You are all so kind to lend an ear and a get-well wish. Wellness has returned. We're back- back to laughing, drawing, playing, working on projects, sleeping well, cooking, eating. What a relief. After a loooong evening in the Urgent Care clinic, poor little N was diagnosed with rotavirus. That is bad. Don't get that. She's better now and it seems she's trying to make up for lost calories. It's 9:45 am and she's had two bowls of cereal, two sweet rolls, a granola bar, and a pear. And she just said, "Is it lunchtime yet?"

I had cobbler and coffee. Yum.

There's no school this week for Spring Break. It's too rainy for the St. Patrick's Day parade, so we're here at home listening to the sporadic thunder and planning some indoor activities.

************

I have two shop announcements:

Heather and I are planning a Welcome Spring sale in the Noticing Project Shop starting this Wednesday. Think rock-bottom, last chance pricing. We hope you'll stop in.

Also I will be having a (very) small Shop Mayfly update this Thursday about noon. There will be one blond baby doll in there if you're interested.

************

Have a great week!

Posted by Alicia at 09:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (14)

We're having a little bit of a hard time. Poor little N is still sick. She's been up in the night for several nights. She feels unwell. I feel tired and crabby. I feel guilty for being crabby. Brian is tired too, and I get mad at him for saying he has a meeting. Yeah. I wish I had a meeting. The washer broke, so I'm up to my ears in dirty sheets and clothes (that special kind of dirty that is such a treat for the mother of a three year old with the stomach flu.) Brian fixed the machine last night so I'm trying to catch up. J is bored and tired of scrambled eggs and leftovers for dinner. The weather is lovely, so I hear. N and I are missing it. We really haven't been outside since Saturday.

Everything is on hold. These canvases have been patiently basking in the sunlight for days. We'll catch up soon, paints and brushes.

I think I'm going to take a few days off here as well while we all recover. I hope to catch up with all of you soon too.

Until then, STAY WELL.

Posted by Alicia at 09:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (32)

Oh, good grief no, he's not wrestling!

He had his pinewood derby race early this morning. Although his car, Rocket Fuel, didn't win any awards, we had fun. And thanks, by the way, for all the well wishes for him. You all are the best! After about an hour of lounging around yesterday, he was right as rain. I told him I wouldn't make him go to school (I usually do in a case like that) but he better remember I gave him a freebie.

Of course now his baby sister has a fever. Oh, joy.

Posted by Alicia at 04:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (15)

A green mug of coffee (mug inherited from Brian's grandmother) and a green boy (sensitive tummy inherited from his mommy.)

My mother used to say, "Are you ok? You look green around the gills." Now I know exactly what she meant. He hasn't thrown up, but every once in awhile the pink drains completely from his cheeks, a terrible green pallor replaces it and I can just tell his tummy is flip-flopping again. Poor sweet thing.

It's snowing today, so I'm setting aside my longing for Spring and going with it. We're camped out on the couch watching movies, reading books and I've got plans to make homemade chicken noodle soup.

Hopefully the rest and soup will mend him because he has some plans tomorrow! (hint: there's a weigh-in tonight. Hee hee.)

Happy weekend, friends~ Stay well.

Posted by Alicia at 09:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (15)

It's cold today. I'm resorting to houseplants for today's green fix.

Sunday Heather showed her work space and invited us all to do the same. This prompted a quick clean-up of my own studio which soon evolved into a marathon reorganization. I took a few photos as hard evidence that at one point in space and time, it was indeed this tidy.

Posted by Alicia at 06:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

The paperwhites are done blooming. I'm ready for some daffodils.

Here is a short movie starring my very silly, very cool, green-hearted friend.

If you ever have doubts that being green is worth all the effort, read THIS. You won't be sorry. The frogs, the stars, the ponds and trees, the boys with rocks and the poets who document it all. Just knowing you're on this little blue planet makes it worth all the effort we can muster.

Posted by Alicia at 11:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

The green fever is spreading.

Posted by Alicia at 06:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

We had a beautiful weekend! Warm and very breezy. It's cold again today, but the weekend was enough to keep me going.

Good morning, March. Hooray for you!

Posted by Alicia at 08:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)