The One With All The Excuses

Well I MEAN to post to my blog every day, but sometimes the real world gets in the way. I've been making things like this:
And buying things like this:
And watching things like this:For those who aren't glued to it like we are, this is tonight's episode of Last Comic Standing, showing the auditions from London England and Minneapolis Minnesota. There's a story here, and please please please let me bore you with the details. For starters, let me just point out that Travelous is in the picture above, standing in line in the back wearing a gray sweatshirt. And now let me enchant you with the tale...

It all started last year, when one of Travelous's close friends was on the show and came in second place. Last year was my first year watching, and of course we didn't miss a single episode. So when the auditions were coming up for Season Five, we talked Travelous in to trying out. The audition schedule was analyzed, and a round trip plane ticket was purchased for Minneapolis. Of COURSE it was the cheapest ticket I could find, and it couldn't be changed.

A week before the audition, Travelous's grandmother passed away.

Travelous flew to Wisconsin for the service, with a return ticket back to Seattle at 10pm the night before his afternoon flight to Minneapolis. Not a perfect flight schedule, but he would be able to have almost a full night's sleep before flying to Minneapolis and waiting in line for the auditions. It would have been perfect, if it hadn't been for those meddling TSA employees, who I blame for his missing the connecting flight on his way to Seattle. The airline offered to fly him straight to Minneapolis, but all of his luggage was on the way to Seattle so he made the next available flight, early in the a.m.

He got into Seattle, and had a two hour turn around before heading to Minneapolis where he stayed outside all night in line.

So by the time he made it inside in front of the judges, he'd been awake for about 36 hours. The sleep deprivation worked against him, and he biffed it hard. He bit his tongue in the middle of a joke (very unlike him), and that mistake left him speechless (VERY unlike him). That was it for Minneapolis. I could bore you with further details about his trip to Arizona where judges saw about 75 people in the line in which he was number 83 or so (I've forgotten the actual numbers, but you get the idea), but I fear I've taken enough of your time.

Rest assured dear reader(s), the Comedic Genius cannot be down for long. Coming up in July is the Funny x 5 tour with Travelous, Ty Barnett (the guy in the pic with Trav above), and a few of their friends. And I promise to write something better tomorrow!

"Against the assault of laughter, nothing can stand" - Mark Twain

The Day of the Great Newses

It started when I woke up this morning and checked my e-mail first thing (as I'm sure all Etsyists do) and found that I had my first sale to a complete stranger! It was one of my favorites, the "Just Do It" Qubicle Quilt that I made when JenniferJo was waffling about starting to make art. I love the colors, the beading, and the quote, so I'm over the hill with happiness that it found the right home. The buyer even wrote a message to say that she was going to hang it in her sewing room/studio to help inspire her. Perfect!

So great news #2 is that Travelous just got his second message from someone who heard him on Sirius Satellite Radio. He got a message from a producer a couple of months ago asking if they could play some of his comedy on Jamie Foxx's new show The Foxxhole. Since this kind of thing doesn't always pan out, I think we both kind of forgot about it. We don't have Sirius (or a radio now for that matter), so we haven't been able to hear it ourselves, but it was certainly great news!
Great news #3 wasn't so much news as it was a new idea... for me... for my Etsy shop. I spent most of today working on a project with Boo so she would have a gift to give to her teacher tomorrow for the last day of school. It gave me a GREAT idea for another item to round out my store, which gives me a kind of electric excited feeling. So lots in store, and of course there will be more here as I figure it out a bit better. Woo Hoo!

So until tomorrow...
-Tasha (pretending she's not afraid of the thunder)

Thing Two

Partially completed item number two that I am working on. I do believe a theme is emerging here...

A Preview...

So I stayed up late last night "beavering away" as Tif would say, and here's what I've started with all that red... I'm trying to take a break from all of my blues and purples, and I have to say I'm already quite pleased with my little result here. More to come, but this is the beginning of a new little section in my shop, which will be unveiled all in good time. For now I need to finish this beauty (I'm thinking purple for the binding... is that breaking the rules of getting away from purples and blues??) and get started on a few other ideas I have brewing.

Oh, and I also wanted to remark upon my latest observation, which is that while every other crafter in the world seems to be in love with Japanese material right now, why is it that I have to suddenly see material from Finland that I just want want want? Material that runs $38 per YARD. And why couldn't I find ANYTHING in the section of Japanese material that I liked? Inquiring minds want to know!

And if my good news couldn't get any better, I won the official dottie angel 100 sales contest to name Tif's door! Now one would think I had an unfair advantage in that I was the one who went shopping to pick out said door, but in actuality the proof is in the pictures. Tif's #3 (as she affectionately refers to her third born child) was photographed as he drew the name from the bowl, and it was ME. I win a beautiful cuff from Tif that is gorgeous like everything she makes. Yeay for me!

That Problem We All Face

So for about a week now every time I sit down to the sewing machine to create I sew about ten stitches before becoming disgusted and walking away. I know we all get it - that ugly Creating Block - but it sure can get you going into a bit of a spiral. Especially if your Creating Block causes you to eat a pint of Ben and Jerry's while watching a Behind the Music episode on Pantera. I'm not saying that happened, I'm just saying that if it DID happen, it might make you feel even worse. ESPECIALLY if you were never even a fan of Pantera.

Now I like to come up with solutions as much as the next person, so I thought I'd better find a way around my Creating Block.

So I started by buying a couple of books to try and get out of the funk. Sometimes the books we buy can say a little bit too much about us... But the books took a whole week to get here, so I needed to try something else.

I started by looking at my stash and I realized that although during my banky days I use this purse, wear these glasses, and sometimes put on these shoes, I didn't have a bit of green in my stash.





One of my favorite necklaces (again, green).
















So I went to the store and I spent the hard earned money from my precious Etsy sales, and I bought this great material...
There's not nearly as much green as I meant for there to be, but that's because on the way to the green I saw this and this and this, and by then I'd spent it all...

I was very excited to get started sewing when I got home... with all my new materials all ready to go and laid out on my cutting table...

So I was really shocked when I found myself using all of this...






(RED)











To make these...Which are works in progress.

So stay tuned, because apparently the Creating is now Unblocked...

-Tasha

*Update: In case anyone happens to be wondering, I FINALLY remembered the name of the artist that made the green necklace above. Her name is Lori Kirsch and I happened to be in a booth across from her at my first show in Alaska. I traded a couple of my scarves for her great necklaces. I couldn't remember her name for the LONGEST time!

Each in Our Own Way

This post may look like another thinly veiled attempt to show some more zoo pictures, but I can assure you that is not the case THIS time. Oh yes, there ARE zoo pictures in this one, but they are merely to illustrate a story. A story I knew I would be telling you dear reader(s) as soon as I saw it. Oh yes, I think about you like that.

We met this woman at the zoo.

She was talking to a group of people that had gathered around her, and I had to start listening, as her story was very fascinating to me and I'm kinda nosy. She reminded me of the "Feed the Birds" lady in Mary Poppins, and it turns out that's not too far from the truth.

















Only in this case, the 'bird' is an orangutan.
I apologize for the glare on the glass in the picture, but once we were here watching this I didn't want to move around and break the spell.

*I don't know the name of the woman or the orangutan, so for the purposes of this story we'll call the orangutan Mimi, because that's much shorter to type than 'orangutan'.

The story is this... the woman in the picture starting visiting Mimi at the Woodland Park Zoo about ten years ago. She would sit on a bench across from this window and watch Mimi in her enclosure, being very conscientious about not eating in front of Mimi. One day she did have a sandwich while sitting on the bench, and she said Mimi immediately pulled the barrel over to the glass and sat on it to watch the woman eat. Over the years this interaction has become what I saw Monday, which is this woman bringing a variety of objects to the window specifically for Mimi's entertainment. Mimi will tap on the window to show what she wants to see next, and the woman complies; whether by blowing bubbles, painting her fingernails, or eating, which apparently Mimi still likes to watch. On Monday it lasted until the door in the enclosure opened and Mimi ran off in search of her own food.

Seeing this interaction got me thinking quite a bit, and I'm pretty sure this won't leave my mind for awhile. I wonder about the woman, about the people that exist in her life so that her best friend is an orangutan that she visits every day, but I assume she's never touched. And what of our little Mimi, whose face has that bemused expression, but who also seems to be placating the woman to an extent. Does Mimi look forward to the daily visits? Does Mimi think the woman is her key to escape? Would Mimi eat her if given the chance? (I don't really think that last one, but I thought I'd put it in to see if anyone was still reading). I do have to say that the woman seemed to have so much love for Mimi... it seemed that Mimi was giving her a reason to get out of bed every day. So maybe I'm reading too much into this, but I certainly would like to see someone turn this story into a movie so I could watch the lady blow bubbles while I eat popcorn. The zoo doesn't sell popcorn anymore (tragedy).

By the way (change of subject). I promised myself that I would never ever ever use this blog for complaining, but I do want to say one thing: the feeling of having to pay a deductible (and mine unfortunately is $500.00) to replace something that you already bought and that you yourself did not break or lose is really sick. And yes, I'm glad I have insurance. But I'd be even MORE glad if I had my nice stereo with XM and Mp3 and CD. Grrrr.

And that's all I have to say about that.

~Tasha

The Day that was like THAT

I left the house today with an empty camera, and came home with 263 pictures. How does that even happen?

It started when I opened the car door and saw this, the space where my stereo had been the night before. This unplanned remodeling of my automobile was not exactly welcome (far from it), but we had a busy day planned and could not stop our day here.

So we dropped Baby off at pre-school, then stopped at the police station to drop off what the thief left behind, then made our way to the zoo to meet baby's class for a day of animal watching and picture taking (obviously!). Please allow me to share some highlights...
We had to cut our zoo trip a tad short (at 4 hours) so I could head back to Pleasantville for a hair appointment. Oh yes dear reader(s), I'm looking more and more like a Pleasantville Suburbanite every day. Who would ever know that this woman, was once this girl?

After the hair was done we went out to dinner to show it off and apparently take 50 more pictures of the kids. I can't help it that I have such a photogenic family...
What a day. And to top it all off, when I came home my package of cards I'd ordered from NellaBleu had arrived. They were everything I imagined they would be and more!

Here's to the knowledge that I can sleep tight tonight, because at least I have no car stereo to steal....
~Tasha

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all of those that do some fathering out there, including the Mom's who have to do both jobs, the Step-Dad's who don't get enough credit, and the neighbors and mentors who just look out for each other. This day is about the men who take the time to be in a child's life, and as anyone who knows me in the real world knows, I consider that a pretty important thing.

Now let me gush.

I am lucky enough to be with a terrific man who has been in the lives of me and my children for almost two full years now, and who has stepped up to taking on the two best kiddos with great gusto. So there wasn't a dry eye in the room when we woke up this morning to Baby bringing in the Father's Day gift he'd made for Travelous, thus marking Trav's first official Father's Day.I am so lucky to have such a great FAMILY!

On to other things...

Heather (my sister) asked me to make a Teenie for a birthday gift for a friend of hers, which I did and then immediately listed on Etsy at 7am yesterday. I looked at something else and then went back to look and the Teenie was GONE! Apparently Heather is an early morning surfer like myself and had already snatched it up. Can I tell you how glad I was that she liked it, so I didn't have to spend last night making another one? The links are to the Teenie, so in the off chance that any of Heather's friends happen upon my blog DON'T CLICK! I mean... you never really know, right?

So not having to make another Teenie freed up some time to start something I've been thinking about, which is making small wall art quilts that are designed to be hung together on a wall. I'm still working it out, but I saw another blogger decorate her baby's room in these wonderful small quilts she made, and I thought it was gorgeous. So I can't figure out how to market them on Etsy (sell together as a set, or individually), but any advice would be welcome. Here's the beginning of the first ONE. Now I just have to figure out the rest...

I Dream of Vacation

So I was feeling frustrated yesterday, and one of the things I do during these moments is a Google search. Don't ask me why, but there can be something therapeutic in knowing that all that information is available at your fingertips, and no matter what words you put into that search box Google will have SOMETHING to spit back out.

And that is how I came to be searching the words "vacations for tall people"

I have to tell you, this search did not help to end my frustrations. For one thing, to vacation at this point in my life is to dream. For whatever reason though, us women are dreamers... and I like my dreams to be specific. I want my dream vacation MAPPED OUT in my mind. I want to have a target to shoot for. Easy enough right?

Insert Travelous. Travelous of the 6'7" tall Travelous (2 metres for my metric reader(s) - readers and metric conversion BOTH courtesy of Google...) who is too tall for many beds in this country, and apparently everything else in other countries. I found page after page in my enlightening Google search of warnings to travelers that tall people are the pariahs of the tourism industry. A review for the Hotel Little Regina in Paris states specifically "not for Families or Tall people" - which doubly excludes us. A link to the site for Green River Marina in Kentucky (??) where you can rent house boats for your vacation explains that "life preservers are provided (excludes toddlers, infants and Big & Tall)" which is basically saying that chunky butt better know how to swim or he can just drown. I did find one hopeful destination, but imagine my dismay when I clicked on this entry Sailing holidays in Greece with tall people accessible yachts and found that the actual name of this site, their actual web address is http://www.disabledsailingholidays.com/. And yes, they say their sailing trips are perfect for those who are wheelchair bound, visually impaired, or very tall. Admirable indeed, but I had NO IDEA we were in that category by virtue of having to duck through a couple of doorways. And by 'we' I mean Travelous, because at 5'7" (1.7 metres) I am a full 12 inches (30 cm) shorter than him. Which means that the "tall rooms" that you can book at the Hotel Monaco in Chicago aren't doing ME any favors, with their 9 foot long king sized bed, extra tall bathrobes, and super high shower head, sinks, and countertops.

And lest I think it couldn't get any worse, my beloved Google stopped finding vacation destinations altogether, and started giving me links with "tall" and "people", and that's when I realized that tall people envy has turned into tall people dislike, especially amongst bitter (presumably short) male bloggers. There was this entry: "apparently tall people are better at time management, because they are all up close to the fence" that I never could quite get a handle on, along with rants about sitting at the theater behind a tall person, how tall people get paid more money (huh?), and tall people sticking their knees in the seatbacks of innocent travelers. Quite frankly I became frightened to travel at all with my tall person, and am rethinking being seen with him in public. After all, this Google find:

"I would cringe whenever I saw people looking at me in 'that way.' Tall people know what 'that way' means. A look of shock, disgust, horror - or, even worse, ..."

had me too scared to even click on the link to see where it would take me. Who knows what other horrors the world's tall people have been subjected to, besides (in my house) seeing the dust on top of the refrigerator and being asked to change all the lightbulbs. I originally thought it was cute when the little old man came up to us in Costco and asked Travelous what team he played for, but maybe I should rethink things a bit and recognize that all of these people, these tall haters... all of these people are Lilliputians, and they're threatening MY travels.

So for now we'll have to take our adventures where we can find 'em.
~Tasha

The Joker

It was a relaxing night on the couch with Travelous, spending that good old fashioned "quality time" before he races out the door to his first love. Down the stairs traipses Baby, and he's in rare form tonight. There was nothing for me to do but grab the camera, so I could use my child once again as material for my blog. Shameless? Oh yes. But what else can one Mommy do when this is the kind of kiddo you have?

And while there was comedy and frivolity from Baby, Boo was busy being the responsible one. She took a shower, then promptly made MY bed,

complete with accent pillows, stuffed buddies, and a welcome note.


Have I mentioned what great kids I have? Can I mention it again?? Once in a while you just get something right and you have no idea how. THAT'S Boo and Baby.

One Thing I've Learned...

Okay, hopefully I've learned MANY things during my years on earth, but one thing I've learned since I've been blogging, is that when I'm really proud about the way a post looks I am much less likely to be excited about writing a new post. F'rinstance, I was so pleased as punch about how nice yesterday's pictures looked, and here I am without pictures again. Not that I didn't TRY, it's just that I ended up with this shot that looks like a paparazzi photo, but in reality is Travelous walking the kids to the bus stop.

I puttered around a bit this morning and tried HARD to find something new and interesting to take photos of, but there simply wasn't a lot to choose from. I posted some new items on Etsy tonight, and decided I like this close up picturesince I've never done much hand sewing, I was a little proud of my "handiwork"



I also have this picture that I really like from the ReStore trip, that I didn't have room for yesterday

But there's really not much for me to say tonight to outdo all the great pictures from yesterday, so in the end all I can do is insert the gratuitous kid shot. This should get me off the hook, shouldn't it?

Oh The Things You Can Find!

Many apologies dear blog reader(s), as I have been remiss in my postings of late. The truth is that I have been out bargain hunting, finding ways to spend the last $4 to my name, and making sure the children have nice things to keep them dry. Both Boo and Baby have recently lost their raincoats at school, which is a very bad thing indeed here in the sunny Pacific Northwest. It did however lead me to find the buy of the century at my local Value Village, as I was able to find this coat for $1.99. Please take a moment to Oooh and Ahhh over it with me won't you?

The jacket was such a bargain because it was found missing all of it's buttons, but Mummie Dearest loves her little Poopsie so much that she sewed lovely new posie buttons until her fingers bled. Luckily the coat is slightly too large for Boo, so we hope to get much more mileage this time. I could just cry over the beauty of this striped lining, couldn't you? What a perfect jacket for my dainty little Boo. Who by the way, came home from her slumber party this Saturday and was promptly found like this.

Apparently staying up until one in the morning at age 8 is no easier the next day than it is at age 32.

I spent a wonderful day today with Tif shopping for girl things like doors

and doorknobs

You could find anything you wanted at the ReStore in Seattle, including a fish tank with real fish inside a TV.

Believe it or not I've ALWAYS WANTED a fishtank inside of a TV, and once upon a time had even purchased the perfect old console television to do it with. Alas, it was not to happen for me.

Spending time with Tif did what it always does, which is give me new ideas for sewing and renewed hope for my little shop on etsy. So I must be off for more sewing!

~Tasha