• artsy fartsy,  Bug,  party party,  Shop Talk

    pinkkkkkkkkity!

    Smells like a party is brewing around here. Not a christmas party or a new year’s party but Baby Bug’s first birthday!!!! I’ve been looking forward to this party my entire life. The trick is to not go overboard because she’s just a little kid afterall. So the guest list is pared down to only close friends and family, the decorations are simple AND I’m not even cooking forcing my mom to cook any kind of theme centered meal. Easy does it, right?

    But I am going crazy with the pink kitties. YAY!!! PINK KITTIES!!!! I figure this is my last year to rock the pink. Sooner or later she’s going to be the one dictating what color and what theme her parties are, so I might as well squeeze every pinkity drop out of the whole “girly foo foo” thing while I can. I love pink so much right now. It just makes me happy. You’d think it would have worn off after this party, but it hasn’t.

    The invitations were a blast to make. I’ve always wanted to make circle invitations but it was never really practical until now. Cutting circles by hand is laborious and messy (actually it’s impossible by my standards because unlike everything else I make, I do not like lumpy circles). Having a custom die-cut made is expensive and way too over the top even for a freelance designer like me. But now there is the circle cutter!

    Even though I hate the whole scrapbooking industry (because they put people like me out of business and other reasons…) I have to admit the tools they offer to the mainstream customer are wonderful. It took some instruction from Toby and his amazing mechanical engineer guy brain but after a few rounds, I had circle cutting down. I recommend this tool to anybody who has a steady hand and a desire for happy paper discs in their life. Circles are fun. Customized cup coasters anyone?

    I can’t wait for the party. Even though I actually like planning parties better than I like attending them, this one is going to be special. The moment I am most excited about is watching her dig into her very own cake. A round cat face cake of course, with pink icing. I have a picture of me eating my first birthday cake somewhere… I wish I could find it so I can post it but the baby is sleeping and I don’t want to wake her up so I can go fishing for it. It’s in the closet somewhere hidden. Anyway, it’s a great picture with chocolate icing all over my face. I think. Maybe it was white icing. I’ll post it one of these days.

    I chose pink kitties because she seems to really like cats, obviously. What kid doesn’t? But it’s my lucky break that she learned to say “kkkkkkkkittttty” as her first word after “daaaaah daaaah”. I don’t even want to count “daaah daaah” as her first word because she says it for everything, not necessarily just “daddy”. But Toby wants to call it her first word because well, he’s her dad. So I guess I’ll give him that pleasure. Meanwhile you and I will know that “kitty” with a super rolled “k” sound at the beginning was her first word.

    So anyway, that’s what’s brewing up in my brain these days. I wish I was better at solving world peace or something useful.

  • artsy fartsy,  the great illness of 06

    Meet Sludgie*, the Gallbladder Pillow

    I’m working on a little something something for those of you who participated in my “help-me-entertain-my-baby-while-I-die-of-gallbladder-pain” contest. I thought it might be fun to make gallbladder pillows/Christmas ornaments as a prize. Doesn’t everyone want to hang a little green gallbladder with googlie eyes on their Christmas tree? At least those of us in the no-gallbladder club will appreciate it since we’ve evicted our own gallbladders (Thanks to my friend Kate for that reference.  She called me up pretending to be my gallbladder contesting her eviction.)

    My problem is that there are too many of you who had good ideas that I actually used. Measuring spoons in a box! Junk mail! Toys all over the floor! I used them all. I wanted to make all 31 of the participants a gallbladder pillow but it took me TWO hours to make just this one. Mostly because I was sewing it at my Aunt’s shop and I spent most of the time yapping. But what else is new? I love hanging out with my Aunt in her sewing shop.

    Yesterday I was super anxious the whole time because I left Baby Bug at her Aunt Becky’s house and I kept imagining her crying because she missed me. I’m sure in reality she was fine and didn’t miss me a bit because she loves her Auntie Becky but trying to get that through my thick skull is impossible. Because I was such a worry wart and I had to get back to Becky’s so she could play taxi and pick up her own kids from school, I only had time to sew one gallbladder pillow. The pinking around the edges took a lot more effort than I planned on (the felt is wool and quite resistant to cutting). So I hope everybody who participated is patient (and likes Sludgie the Gallbladder) because it might take me a while. OR I might just think up a different prize.

    *Stuffed toy not recommended for children under three. Unless you are like me with an eagle eye watching your little kid because it is possible for little babies to pry off the glued on eyeballs with their wiggly little fingers and eat them.