Twin babies of my dear Sharon and Skip!

I am deliriously happy to share first pics of Luke and Cora, the babies of my very dear Sharon and Skip!!  I want to gobble them up!  Look at her sweet face resting on her brothers!  Sigh! Sob!

Ava's favorite songs

So for those of you who may want a snapshot of my daughter Ava at 12 years old, I want to share her "A+ Tracks" playlist she wrote out for me to add to her ipod.  I was just so tickled to read through it, it's such a good synopsis of her dear little brain.  Maybe I'll get Sophie to write out hers, too.  I have a feeling they are a little darker.

So, in no particular order, here are Ava Clare's favorite songs:

You Belong With Me- Taylor Swift
Poker Face- Lady Gaga
Bad Romance- Lady Gaga
Dancing Queen- ABBA
Mamma Mia, ABBA
Take a Chance on Me- ABBA
Bad Day- Daniel Powter
Check Yes, Juliet- We The Kings
Swing, Swing- All-American Rejects
Boom Boom Pow- Black-Eyed Peas
I Gotta Feeling- Black-Eyed Peas
Beautiful Day- U2
Billie Jean- Michael Jackson
Black or White- Michael Jackson
Brown-Eyed Girl- Van Morrison
Come Together- The Beatles
Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots- Flaming Lips
Fight Test- Flaming Lips
Heroes and Villains- Beach Boys
I Don't Wanna Be In Love- Good Charlotte
I'll Go Crazy if I Don't Go Crazy Tonight- U2
I'm Yours- Jasons Mraz
July, July- The Decemberists
Lady Marmalade- Christina Aguilera, Pink, Li'l Kim
The Middle- Jimmy Eat World
Mysterious Ways- U2

Is she not the sweetest?

Saintos

I just decided to post these little delights, made for the inimitable Pam Smith to raise a few dollars for her trip to Uganda.
Acrylics and paper collage on canvas paper.

nanowrimo for real

Okay, I am really doing it.  Next month I am tackling a whole novel.  50,000 words, 30 days.  It doesn't really have a plot yet, just characters and a setting.  I am being constantly assured that the plot will come.  I just have to make these people in my head real and they will live out their stories, miraculously, on the page in front of me.  Participant after participant in National Novel Writing Month, November, swears this to be true.  So I'm trusting these complete strangers and I'm making myself do it.    I have a lot to say and I'm tired of being afraid to say it, so here is my chance.  Only six days left to takeoff!
So, what is the novel about?  Well, it's about life, of course, and it's pretentious and high handed right out of the gate, because hello!  It is me writing it.  It's about Emmeline Superior, the niece of my character Bauxie Superior from previous works.  She lives in a fictional Britain and then a fictional-but-based-on-real Seattle at the time of the Alaska Yukon Pacific Exhibition in 1909.  It has some horror, some supernatural, some time travel, some murder and mayhem, but mostly its psychological, about the struggle between free will and fate and our acceptance of each. Kind of.
Intriguing?  I hope so.  But really the writing is about overcoming my doubts and self criticism and being disciplined enough to just keep writing.  A lot.  For days on end.
Stay tuned!

Yes, Yes, Yes

Remember that Jim Carrey movie where he just decided to start saying "yes" to everything?  I actually thought Zooey Deschanel was cute in that movie, though I will never forgive her for "The Happening".  Anyhoo, I am having fun this week trying to say yes to everything.  Generally I have no problem saying "yes" to things that are unreasonable to ask of me in the first place, and things I want to buy. This is different.  I am trying to emulate my darling Jack Jack in saying, "eh, why not?" to everything in front of me.  Red, white and blue day at work? Why not cut the feet off my old red and white striped tights and make leggings to wear under my uniform denim skirt today?  Then why not give Melody the cut off foot for a stocking cap for her kitty?  Why not?
Why not just sign up for Deviant Art (art community and print on demand site) and start getting some of my work out there?  
Why not try soy in my $2.00 afternoon iced drink at Starbucks today?
Why not barbeque at home on the fourth of July and just watch the fireworks on TV?  
Why not order a game from GameFly that I actually want to play and everyone else in my house will be bored by?
These are major, impactful decisions, by the way. They signal a sea change in my psyche. (I LOVE the phrase, "sea change".  For a long time I thought it was "C-change" and I thought it was dumb, like "Change with a capital 'C'."  But it's way more profound than that.)  All these "yesses" add up to a great big NO to that martyr personality that is always demanding to take things over.  

Why not just order myself the perfect birthday present, with Jack's card, from Etsy, and let it be from him?

Yes!
http://www.etsy.com/listing/50631411/circus-circus?ref=v1_other_1

By the way, I want to be this artist when I grow up.  I LOVE her sensibility.  So many lovely things.
Happy birthday, mamacita Lacey!

6 Items or Less

So as usual I am a late in signing up officially, but I decided to do this little experiment on my own.  To see how the "officials" are doing you can check in with them here.  The idea is to wear only six items of clothing for one month.  Exceptions are made for workout clothes, underwear, outerwear like raincoats, and accessories.  I am also adding jammies to my exception list.
Why am I doing this?
I need to simplify the activities I expect my pea brain to handle.  I spend so much time looking for clothes, thrift store shopping for clothes, washing clothes, obsessing over clothes, throwing out clothes, getting new clothes- all accompanied by my daily whine, "I can't leave the house, I have nothing to wear."  Frankly I'm bloody sick of it all.  I am going cold turkey.
Yesterday I packed up all the colorful and useless clothes in my closet into duffle bags and wheeled them into the garage.  I panicked a little when I had to get dressed to go see friends, but I rallied and pulled on two of the uniform pieces.  Felt ugly.  Didn't matter.
So, the month of July on 6 items, plus jammies, swimsuit, jacket.  Here's my uniform:


Black t shirt
jeans
brown skirt
black and white dress
peacock shirt
denim skirt


Embarking on day 3 today.  Panicked when I got peanut noodles all over my black tshirt yesterday, but calmed down.  Other than that, plus warning people at work, I hardly thought about what I was wearing at all.  Which is a minor miracle.

Lacey's Top 4- #2!

I'm on a roll!  Watch out world!

1.  lentils with vinegar and tomatoes, cheap and perfectly, yummily sweet.
2.  my Pilot G4 pen
3.  natural oatmeal soap
4.  classic soul queen Bettye Lavette on Wait Wait Don't Tell Me. Total class act- and I am totally buying her album, Interpretations: The British Songbook.  Helllooo deep and sexy cover of "Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me"...