little lovelies handmade

Wow girls! Thanks for the dirty laundry support. I find it even more humorous the amount of email and comments I got vs the normal crafty posts. It like doubled. My tracker also says I had quite the surge in traffic today. You are all a bunch of voyeurs, you. You and me both, right?

Anyway, if we are going to be honest about things around here I might as well tell you that I already watched a Christmas movie and wrapped some presents last night. In my defense they were gifts for out of state/country family. I'm not that good. There is still plenty of time for me to drop the ball and have to abandon all hope of a handmade only holiday. A midnight Wal-Mart run could still be in the cards for me. No one with a garage like mine could possibly be that organised about the holidays, right?

Right.

P.S. I see a bunch of you joined the flickr group, but it is still pretty lonely. C'mon! Bring it!

Airing my dirty laundry...

Saturday night I participated in the Get Made Holiday show hosted by the Sacramento Craft Mafia. I decided around 8 pm Friday night that it was something I wanted to do and emailed Lauren of Speckled Hen begging to share a booth with me. Lucky for me she said yes and I scrambled to get a few things ready. The show ended up being somewhat poorly attended because  of the rain and I sold only a few things, but I got to hang out with Lauren and Melissa and commiserate about the picture prefect parenting/crafting/wifeing that is dispayed out there in blogland.

But I suppose that is how blogging is. We choose to put only our pretty stuff out there for all to see. Since the blogs we read tend to be on the craft/parenting side of things we are seeing plenty of perfect crafts and great parenting and kids who are creative and don't talk back and mothers who don't spend too much time emailing and reading other people's blogs. They have chosen to put their pretty lives out there and not talk about the stuff that dosen't go well or show the picture of the garage that hasn't been cleaned in six months (or six years...). The funny thing is that when people do bear all and talk about the bad parenting days or the dirty dishes that have sat in the sink three days everyone seems to breathe a collective sigh of relief like, "Oh thank God I am not the only one..."

We seem to take a sick pleasure in seeing people's laundry piles and dishes and dirty craft rooms. It feels like a club. Especially if you are bad housekeeper, which I am and always have been. My tolerance for clutter is really high. This is most likely because I grew up in a house with three boys and my mom was a lousy housekeeper and she grew up in a house with eight kids and large amounts of mess and chaos. Hopefully it isn't a gene I have now passed on to my own children. Oh if only Aaron knew the baggage our offspring would inherit one day...

Anyway, Lauren and Melissa paid me the lovely complement of saying that they apprecite that I blog the good the bad and the ugly and not just the pretty parts of my life. In all honesty I really do mostly blog the pretty. Sure I may share how my kid overflows my friends toilet, post a picture of my craft room (which is worse now, by the way, even after a complete overhaul), and talk about the messes I make, but it reality is all still the pretty part of my life.

We thought it would be rather grand to have a flickr group where we post our real lives. We were calling it a reality check, but I think I'll call it Airing the Dirty Laundry. I even took a picture of our garage for it. Maybe then I'll be embarassed enough to clean it. I thought, oh haha I'll take a picture of the garage and post that, but it really is shameful. But in an effort to show the real me, there it is.

Wow. I cannot believe I just did that.   

I'm just gonna say it.

Christmas.

Whatever. I know there those who can't utter the word until after Thanksgiving, but I am not one of those people. I was prior to blogging, but I'm over it. Who cares if I decide to pull out a coupla ornaments pre-turkey? Who cares if I am itching to go to Ikea and gnome it up? Who cares if I'm already rethinking furniture placement for the tree? As I long as I don't actually go out and buy one till after Thanksgiving I am not certifiable. At least not for holiday reasons. Luckily if I were to be that crazy Aaron would put the holiday smackdown on me and refuse to buy a tree till at least the second week in December. Honestly, with the whole tonsilectomy thing hanging over my head we may not actually be able to get a tree this year.

You see holiday decorating is not my husband's thing. At all. He gets very little enjoyment out of decorating the tree, save the fact that it makes me and the kids happy. He gets zero and I mean ZERO enjoyment or satisfaction from putting lights on the house. He sort of likes cutting down a tree, but should we decide not to, he will be thrilled. So whatever holiday decorating is to be done, it is to be done by me and my "helpers". So since there is no telling at what point during the holidays I kiss my tonsils goodbye, decorating may be minimal 'round here.

I think I am ok with this, though. I say "I think" because at this moment I really am ok with the thought of simple decorating, but check in with me when we are in the throes of the season. Chances are the certifiable me will be back.

Handmade Parade Holiday Gift Guide!

From now until December 15th a team of amazing contributors will be scouring the internet for fabulous holiday gifts, recipes and tutorials to post to the Handmade Parade Blog. If you have taken the pledge to buy handmade this season, the Handmade Parade Holiday Gift Guide will show you where to go for unique gifts for everyone. If you would like to join our contributer team please email us at [email protected]. You can choose to contribute to any category, but you need to blog at least twice a week. If you have items you would like to submit tobe a part of the gift gude send us 1-3 photos and links to purchase.

Categories are:

Holiday Decorating

Recipes

Tutorials

Gifts: For Her

Gifts: For Him

Gifts: Kids

Vintage

Lars and the Real Girl

This movie is fantastic. It may even be my new favorite. Go see it the second you are able and don't be put off by the weird plotline. And it is wierd! Aaron and I snuck off to see it the other day when the kids were gone and were pleasantly suprised by the whole thing. It seems like critics either love it or hate it, but I love the message of grace and love it brings. A whole town rallies around this young man and his delusion and help him overcome it. Wacky, but sweet.

My Babies are Back

When I got home from the 5 star hospital stay my aunt and mother kindly whisked my children away for two nights so we could further rest in a peaceful environment. We did rest while doing all the laundry that piled up while I was sick (12 loads with all the linens and towels).

This morning I missed these two monkeys and went over to my mom's to pick them up. They were happy to see me, but Monkey was busy watching football with Grandpa and talking about cars to be too much bothered with me. Peanut was glad I came to visit, but after a minute or two was contented to be left alone with Nona for a few more days.

That's right, mom ruins all the fun. I loaded them in the car anyway and took them home. They hooted and hollered and earned themselves a well needed nap. They just woke up sweet as ever and are coloring for me. Now my babies are back.

The Hospital ain't no Hilton

This I know. That nagging sore throat I've had since Handmade Parade (and even before) never really went away. It has just been ebbing and flowing between bearable and can't stand the pain. Tuesday I went in to have a procedure done to my tonsils (I'm sparing you details here) that was supposed to make things better until I could schedule a tonsillectomy. Ha. It made things about 5 billion times worse and we were back in the doctors office saying, "Dude, what up? Why do I talk like I swallowed a potato?" Actually I couldn't speak intelligible words, so Aaron was the one saying "Dude, what up? Why does my wife talk like she swallowed a potato?"

Well, obviously said procedure didn't work and 3 doctors and a nurse looked at my crazy partially closed up throat, called up the hospital and admitted me right then and there. Say what? Yup, I went to the doctor thinking that I would just get a super drug or something and they shipped me across town for two and a half days instead. They decided that I'd lost too much weight in the last 5 days (I had, though my pants look great) and there was a risk of my airway being blocked by the swelling if they didn't admit me.

Yippee for me. I'll be honest here and say that part of me was relieved and thinking that I'd get a chance to rest in a quiet, kid-free environment. Ha. Ha. I really shoulda known better. It was so loud there that I couldn't sleep at all and liquid diet really does mean that everything on your tray is liquid. Verrry liquid. Thank God for the nutirient IV I had or I would have died of starvation. At any rate the hospital had the super drugs even if my doc's didn't and here I am at home two days later almost 100%.

I just need to be sore throat free for 6 weeks (bigger challenge than you might think) and if I can survive that, then come December 18 or so while you all are downing yummy holiday goodies for the next two weeks I'll be kissing my useless germ catching tonsils goodbye. I won't miss them, but I might miss the sugar cookies a little.