Ok, so I'm hooked on these soaps that the talented people from Etsy have whipped up..literall­y. Ohmiiiigod! These things are dreamy..when­ you wash your body with them..just makes you feel sooooo delicious. Seriously. If your partner/wife­/hubby (yes, men, it's ok to use smelling good girlie soaps!!)/sig­nificant other/etc uses them, you'd just want to take a bite! :P

Anyhoo..chec­k these babies out!! I have a bunch of them, in different flavors..so last night, I had chamomile honey..and now I smell like pina colada..I kid you not..the heavenly smell lingers! One of the office girls, Jan, has told me I smell yummy!! haha

http://www.­etsy.com/vie­w_listing.ph­p?listing_id­=10235363­

and this, toohttp://www.­etsy.com/vie­w_listing.ph­p?listing_id­=11593590­

The first one has body butter (buttah)..om­g..it really is like buttah!!! :D

So, for the brave, the adventurous.­.here you go..and enjoy!!

PS. I don't know the sellers of these things..they­ are total strangers..I­ just happened to stumbled upon them one of those boring evenings online..and got hooked!! :D

Fifth Disease..what happened to #'s 1-3???

Soooo ok, it's been a busy month..and I have a new 4-page list of excuses piled up, too. Staying at home is a lot harder than I initially thought, really. I, personally, think I need a raise, 2 times what I make now, at least. but then nada x nada= even more nada. Oh, well, it's a rewarding job, to be sure. Whenever I get back to the working woman's world, it'll be easy peasy stinkyneasy. Nothing..and I mean nothing, comes close to the whirling devishes I have at home. People who have no kids give me THAT look when one (or both) of my boys decide that now is the time to regale the grocery store with songs from Spongebob Squarepants. I only assume that their intolerance stems from not having/wanted kids of their own. At least that's what I tell myself so I can turn apologetically to them & say, "We're practicing for a play." (which isn't exactly a lie, since we have impromptu skits at home, the little maggots are avid performers) Anyways..where was I?? ranting inadvertently sidetracks me...ok, boys...hmmm


Ahh ok..my son, connor, a wonderfully affectionate bundle of whine (hold the cheese, please!) on his bad days was handed quite a whopper a couple of weeks ago. He got all these weird squiggly, snake-y lines all over his arms & legs..I had a sneaking suspicion the bane of his toddler days, was back...the mysterious ailment-Fifth Disease. He had gotten this when he was only 14 months old..I thought he had the start of some contagious virus by the looks of it. I was assured, apart from the fever, general fatigue & freaky appearance, it was relatively harmless & hey, he would never get it again. WRONG! The poor guy was plagued with it for a couple of weeks, though not too bad this time. Just mostly on his body. His face didn't get the brunt of it this time..none of that Maori tattoo artwork in red. Now I'm left to wonder, will he get it again later? Should I join a Mothers United Against Fifth Disease group? Or start one if there isn't any? I think I'm going to research this more..just in case the blighted thing comes back to haunt us again....

what you can accomplish in half an hour

There's a lot, I think. Give birth, bake a cake, pilates, waste time...the list goes on & on, as you all know. I had a craving for chicken, curry & tomatoes..and decided to whip up a nameless dish (though, I'm sure it's got a name somewhere)..ok, it's a version of chicken curry. It turned out really good, especially over jasmine rice.








And while I was browning the chicken, I decided to whip up some brownies. I barely had enough Hershey Cocoa powder, which made me really nervous...but I chopped up a couple of Hershey bars & mixed it in with the batter..and it turned out sooooooo yummy. I didn't get a pic of the before..this was after everyone attacked it!






Now I'm getting hungry...hmm pasta sounds really good right now..and there's that whole, fresh pineapple calling my name....

when bamboo fight back

I never thought i'd say this with absolute certainty, but plants have a mind of their own. it all started 9 years ago...

we have been members of the missouri botanical garden for years..there's nothing as soothing as walking almost endless acres of carefully tended gardens, intoxicating perfumes from blooming native & exotic flowers. everyone smiling, greeting hello to strangers. it was this feeling i wanted to capture. with that in mind, we set to work. evenings...weekends spent digging, weeding, tilling..finally, planting...we were proud of the end result...a small, shade japanese garden with a basin & a shishi odoshi...on the opposite side, a gravel pathway, bordered by uneven heights of logs, a pond with koi & goldfish lazily swimming away...chasing the bubbles formed by the waterfall cascading. our little heaven on earth.

2007...everything is mature, cherry trees blooming profusely, pink & white..flowering almond shrubs, orange quince, junipers, mugho pines, yews, hostas, water lilies orange, white, red...fountain bamboo arcing gracefully over trickling water...and...the other bamboo..bamboo..everywhere. what??? that's not supposed to be there...what, it's in our neighbor's yard, too!?!?! wait..this is supposed to be CLUMPING bamboo..NOT running...checking to read the label (which i've kept all these years for care purposes). yes, CLUMPING. i have this impending feeling of doom...someone, a trickster, a disgruntled employee...probably switched the bamboo & shipped it, with a huge smirk..."running bamboo, they would never know the difference when they look at it". heart beating fast, i leaned over the side of the pond..is that??? no! a single bamboo shoot has pierced through the pond liner- the same 45 mm EPDM liner, with the 20 year impervious-to-anything-mother-nature-can-dish-out liner!! with a sinking feeling, i walked around the pond...and sure enough, there were even more bamboo shoots growing..where they were never planted! i looked sadly at the bamboo..not quite understanding how something i have lovingly tended could turn on me so spitefully. i felt a sense of betrayal. with trepidation, i walked around the fast-forming grove..and saw shoots coming up..far, far away from where i originally planted it, those many years ago. counted 43 new shoots. this won't do! it was either the pond of the bamboo...

armed with pick-axes, shovels & loppers, my husband & i set to first, cutting the shoots to about a foot from the ground. with a sinking feeling, we dug, horrified...an intricate maze of runners, crisscrossing. after hours of working laboriously, we cleared almost all of the spreading menace. high fives all around, glass of ice cold coca cola to celebrate...and made a solemn vow..unless it comes without roots, no more bamboo!

and more purses

been busy again with purses the past 2 months. seems like spring=gimme more bags/totes/purses...just too bad i don't make shoes, too! everyone seems to be pregnant, know someone who is, will be..not that i'm complaining...i enjoy the challenge. it tickles me to run into someone with a "steff" purse. the first time was at a mall 45 minutes from here..so it was pretty exciting. i felt like a star for about 5 seconds, before i felt a tug at my shirt..my son, grant, with ice cream on his shirt. oh, reality check!

i've started resin jewelry again, and working with beads, as well as kanzashi. having short attention span is the pits! i can't seem to commit to one project alone. hmmm maybe there's some pseudo-freudian claptrap to be pondered there, ja?

anyhooo, i've had my assistant (and i use the term generously), jason, helping me..since i'm sadly lacking in any drawing skills (though i manage to communicate my ideas well...good thing he understands squiggles & sticks)..well, jason's been my draft technician. it's a prestigious position, really, practically thankless. he's been great about making patterns out of my rambling gestures & vague sketches.

i've been equally blessed in my friends, too. my friend, melissa, has my purses displayed at her shop windows..right in front of the county courthouse. not too far, as it happens, from my friend, dana's bookstore..where my purses are lovingly displayed, too. dana gets the older, more conservative crowd=simple totes & bags. melissa's salon (karma) caters to the younger clientele, i've got the hobo's, the granny bags, the french shopping bags. glitters, buckles, faux stones, the works. either way, it's always a challenge to try to come up with ideas, color combinations. definitely no time to snooze!

i will be..branching out, as it were, at summer's end. i have sketches of aprons, headbands, tops, bibs, layettes, etc. i don't want to burn out doing the same thing all the time..knowing my propensity to be distracted & derailed when i get bored, i had better make sure i have enough variety...or i'd be in a catatonic stupor before long!

i have yet to set up my etsy shop, too. ok, i have it set up..just have nothing in there to sell. zippo. there's so many talented women in there with all the wonderful work they do with purses, i think i'm a bit intimidated. one of these days, i will have extras in hand to be able to, though..plus i would really like to have more than just purses, though. i want a veritable orgy of choices! (one can dream). for now, i'm content with what i have..a small, but thriving enterprise (i like the sound of that!). my plans for the future currently on paper...rather, papers..as there's a number of haphazardly sketched designs. with luck, and a lot of hard work....

i've started writing again. after a sleepless night..listening to june bugs doing kamikaze on my window screen..i suddenly developed this urge to write something..anything, gibberish, gobblygook...i just felt like grabbing that pen & start scribbling...not that i expect everyone to be wholly enamored of the oft-strange thoughts running through my head..thankfully, some of them are ziiiiiip sooo fast that most of my harebrained ideas are never put to paper..or, *gasp* heaven forbid, implemented!!!

i've been meaning to update my journal for ages now, too..i read my old one...and the last time i wrote anything of importance was the day i got back from the hospital, after giving birth to my beautiful daughter. i wondered why i stopped? it wasn't from lack of interest...i think i lost my pen or some such pathetic excuse i gave to that niggling, annoying voice in my head that often cropped up in such inoppurtune times..such as when i'm shaving my legs, beating 2 eggs to a supposedly airy confection (never airy, believe me-i'm a merengue failure)....ahhh i get it now..i have 3 little "mom mom mom!" voices next to me..and little is relative..and i suppose this will have to continue when i have my quiet time again..when the "uhhuh uhuh uhuh", "na uh na uh na uh" voices are asleep....

sooooo, in the future...barring any calamity (like a dropped stitch or something), i will be posting some of my stuff here. i have yet to figure out how to add pics-visual aids, i call them..or make some of the fancy stuff, links or oooh ahhh pretty extras...but i'm hoping that i can do that with my little stories. i've always loved picture books & lamented why they seem to take them out of "adult" books anymore. hey, there's those of us who are still secret dr. seuss readers! i promise myself i will finish a draft & post it (right now i have 5 unfinished, i think)...now, back to my sweatshop..and see you next sunrise.