"I guess you could say it's extremely vulgar, I like it a lot."

Oh to be there. And like about 6 years old again?
Or when do we start to get loose teeth?
When we can't keep our tongue from touching them and we still believe no one will ever die?
That is the best age right there. Straddling time.
This place is going on my list. Like now.


Merry-Go-Round from Doug Beatty on Vimeo.



title post- Metropolitan 1990

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On that midnight street /Sweep me off my feet

NYC: Street Dancing 2, originally uploaded by Professor Bop.

I am so excited for my dancing class tonight.

It is my birthday and I woke up with little voices singing and buttered toast and coffee all over my bed and a feeling of it is good here. I am a queen right here on this bed. My little princes and my king they come to me and tradition is good. It is grounding and it is affirming if you let it.

I never finished my list properly. I will work on my 36 list this holiday weekend and tend to it this year and let it really grow something special.
I promise that to myself.

Isn't it maddening to know there is so much life to be lived out there and we only get so much time to do it? I want to dance in the streets this year and talk more deeply and listen way harder and frolic. Yeah, I wanna frickin frolic.

Kiss Kiss

Fill yr mind up with all it can know

As promised, Jos and I are going to award a little prize to one of the lists submitted last week…Not without first saying that this wasn’t so much a contest. Every single list that we had the pleasure of reading deserves a prize as they were all creative, inspiring, interesting, unique… Every. Single. One.
But we both immediately connected with #33 on Alexis’ list, as we too are striving to “Embrace our inner hippie.” Brilliant…
So to help Alexis with her goal of hippie liberation, we’re sending her a copy of Tom Hodgkinson’s, The Freedom Manifesto + a copy of Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food to assist with #12 (“Don’t eat fake food”) We’re nothing if not helpful, no?

In the coming days and weeks, Jos and I will share progress on our lists and we hope you guys will all do the same. It’ll be like this big collective force of women committed to accomplishing meaningful little things with they’re very own virtual cheering section rooting them on.

Check out Isabel's list over at Alpha Mom!

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Friday is here and Simple Lovely and I have had so much fun with the lists! I hope I have everyone on here- I checked technorati and my comments for lists. If I am missing anyone please email me and I will add yr link promptly! If you want to send one in before the end of the weekend too you can! I am waiting still from some of my pretties who said they might- so come on if ya want! xo


These fabulous lists need to be checked out today:

Blond and Blithe
Radicool Life
Mary Loves
Shimmy Shake
Sugar City Journal
Hey Shannon Rae
Saviabella
The Other Tiffany

I loved yr lists. I loved this little project.
Now everyone please print out those lists and hang them where you can see them each day!
Thanks so much!
Kiss Kiss.

****OH MY LOVE MARY!
How could I forget you? I thought I had you on there! xo

The lovely Joslyn and Amy have created simple, inspiring, and totally doable birthday lists -- of a different sort. And I'm playing along. Here's my list of 36 things to do before I turn 37:

1. Hang framed family photos up in our hallway, gallery style.2. Go to Nantucket. 3. Don't skimp on sleep.4. Use that gift certificate we've been hanging onto for dinner in York Harbor, Maine.5. Gather up anything that I don't absolutely love in our house and in my closet and give it to Goodwill.6. Uncover the fireplace behind the wall in our living room.7. Visit Alana and Min (and my Godson!) in New York City.8. ...and, on the way down, stop in Danbury, Connecticut to visit family.9. Finally create a little desk space for myself.10. Take a photography class.11. Stop worrying.12. See a movie at our little local theater.13. Invite the new neighbors over for cocktails.14. Open an Etsy shop. A tiny one.15. Try knitting again.16. Go to Ikea at least twice: once this fall, and again in the spring. (This may seem like an odd goal. But it's over an hour each way. And sitting in the car and I do not get along.)17. Subscribe to domino magazine (instead of buying it every month).18. Learn how to turn on the DVD player. By myself. Without asking Rob for help.19. Go apple picking.20. Slow down when writing anything by hand; no more messy scrawl. (Where did my nice handwriting go, anyway?)21. Organize our digital photos.22. Keep a detailed calendar. No more ditzing out about birthdays.23. Accept that doing it myself doesn't look as good (or, last as long) and treat myself to a pedicure. 24. Cut down my Splenda use. Switch to a more natural alternative. 25. Stop procrastinating.26. Buy some exotic, coarse sea salt and figure out how to use it in our cooking.27. Get all of the fabulous prints I've collected framed and up on our walls.28. Read a book (fiction or non) that leaves me buzzing with inspiration and happiness.29. Scan old magazine clippings onto my computer.30. Stick to our budget at Christmas.31. On the first cold day of the season, enjoy a (sinful and amazing) Belgian hot chocolate at Pralines.32. Think twice before buying anything. 33. Get a library card -- and use it.34. Throw Rob a birthday party.35. Make this chocolate chip cake.36. ...This one's a secret. For now. :)


image from the delightful etsy shop boygirlparty

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Thursday List:
all week Joslyn and I are posting a selection of lists from our Friday adventure.
Thanks for yr gorgeous lists blissfully caffeinated, Rowena, and Jackie.

I do actually keep kind of an ill defined bucket list in my head that includes things like Go to Italy and Learn French and Write a Book. But this is not that list. This list is 10 things that I would like to do for myself before I turn 40. It’s a few years away, so I’ve got some time to work on these little tasks. (Blissfully caffeinated)

1. Do some sort of exercise other than housework on a regular basis.
2. Take guitar lessons with my girls.
3. Take a trip somewhere with my husband that isn’t work related or for someone’s wedding or birthday. That is just for us.
4. Take a creative writing workshop.
5. Cook some dishes from Julia Child.
6. Get a better camera. Take more pictures.
7. Find a pair of really comfortable flats and buy in at least two colors.
8. Improve my sewing skills. And then put those skills to use.
9. Get my teaching credential done so that I will some day have my own income again.
10. Turn off the TV more, turn the stereo on more, dance with my girls more.

27 before 28 ( jackie)

1. Start a gratitude journal
2. Plant an herb and veggie garden (I really like the Square Foot Gardening method)
3. Buy a dress pattern for the girls, learn to read it and sew up some dresses!
4. Take girls to the library at least once a week
5. Create more family rituals (Like our annual October Half Moon Bay pumpkin patch trip)
6. Learn to cook simple, fresher, healthier meals
7. Create a budget and stick with it!
8. Thrift more, pay full price less
9. Organize the girls' toys and donate at least half
10. Create meal plans every Sunday
11. Carve out more quality time with Hubby
12. Do weekly crafts with Natalie
13. Get back to reading at least one book a month
14. Recycle-I know it's awful that I don't already. My town does not have a recycling program, and I just haven't gotten around to finding out where I can recycle what.
15. Make bed every morning
16. Create a weekly cleaning schedule
17. Visit my Grandma and Aunt more, who live an hour and a half away
18. Learn to take better digital photos
19. Get over my fear of cooking for others and entertain friends more often
20. Watch an old movie at The State Theater
21. Pick fabric and sew curtains for the family room
22. Take the local community ed class on how to reupholster furniture, and bring my Nana's wing chair as the project.
23. Turn large blank wall in family room into an art wall- all with etsy finds of course
24. Go to more performances at the Gallo Center For The Arts
25. Write a weekly letter to my mom, re-capping all the little things that she misses by living so far away
26. Put little love notes in my Hubby's lunch (even though it will probably embarrass him)
27. Vote

A good thing I have a whole year to complete this!

38 things to do before 38 (November 19) (Rowena)

1. Paint a month of Flying Girls (this might actually be 30 things, but oh well.)10, 21, 35, 38
2. Schedule an artist's date with myself.
3. Get G completely off of diapers. 12
4. Get some business cards. 5, 10, 21, 33, 34, 35, 38
5. Put art supplies in the new cabinet.19,
6. Set up a nice workspace in my bedroom. 19
7. Sort kids clothes into keep/toss/store/giveaway
8. Get a long sweater/cardigan 32
9. Get some ballet slippers at target.32
10. Buy new paints and paintbrushes.
11. Write 25k words in my new novel (for nanowrimo).
12. Write an outline for my new novel (in October)
13. Figure out Flickr.
14. Go trick or treating with the kids. (I hear my neighborhood is Halloween central.)
15. Have a Halloween Party on October 18 (a Fanciful Twist. Awesome blog!)
16. Listen to music more often.
17. Take a walk to the beach with the kids.
18. Collect (steal) sand to make a mini sandbox for the kids to play with.
19. Make a holiday plan (including gift lists and plans for making stuff.)
20. Put ten paintings on my etsy shop.
21. Get a learner's permit.
22. Get a scanner/printer (either the one from storage, or a new one. Or get comfortable using my uncle's.)
23. Clean and purge bedside tables.
24. Start inspiration file/board.
25. Make play dough with the kids.
26. Make rice krispie treats.
27. Get some sculpey and make stuff.
28. Straighten out paypal account.
29. Make small and heartfelt public. (Not ready yet, so no link.)
30. Post one of my poems.
31. Host a giveaway32. Make a Flying Girl with my Alice in Wonderland.
33. Do some ATCs/ACEOs.
34. Connect w S.
35. Get a project going with PK. (PK, if you're out there, we've got to get off our rears.)
36. Start making Christmas presents.
37. Write up a business plan.
38. Post this list.

pic from flickr stream er3465

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Wednesday List:
all week Joslyn and I are posting a selection of lists from our Friday adventure.

Thanks for yr gorgeous lists Schmutzie and This Eclectic Life

Thirty-Five Things I Want To Accomplish Before I Am Thirty-Six Years Old (Schmutzie)

1. Have every last bit of laundry done all at the same time just once.
2. Join a yoga class without anyone I know in it and not give in to my anxiety about group activities.
3. Floss my teeth every day.
4. Write more poetry.
5. Exercise at least every other day, even if that only means shaking my butt to music while doing the dishes.
6. Properly schedule my writing and other creative tasks.
7. Do a minimum of one kind thing for someone else and one kind thing for myself daily.
8. Go to my gynecologist every six months like I am supposed to, because I should know better after having cancer.
9. Go to the dentist in spite of my terrific fear at the mere thought.
10. Eat when I am hungry.
11. Become a published author in a book - you know, those things that have printed text on paper.
12. Lose some of my toaster-related fear. It is not a malevolent appliance. Really.
13. Get a better camera.
14. Publish a book of my photography in conjunction with my x365 pieces.
15. Eat more vegetables and fruit as though they are not chores to be trudged through.
16. Clean out our closets and shelves of all the detritus that clutters our living space.
17. Finish knitting projects, both old and new.
18. Hang more of my photography around the apartment.
19. Reclaim and nurture the creativity I have irresponsibly been allowing to drift.
20. Listen to more music.
21. Read more books of all kinds.
22. Sit on a beach with my feet burrowed into cold sand in the shade.
23. Get past my hatred of the flub under my chin.
24. Go to more art galleries.
25. Learn to cook a wider variety of dishes and enjoy doing it.
26. Create my own art.
27. Do what I say more often.
28. Get a tattoo.
29. Have sex more often, because I will die one day.
30. Learn to crochet.
31. Celebrate more, just because.
32. Allow in people who want to know me.
33. Learn meditation and welcome it as a daily practice.
34. Feel less guilt. I cannot be a robot, so I should put that aspiration aside.
35. Get a new couch.

So, since I’m going to be 55 next year, it’s a long list! I have to list 54 things I’m going to do before my birthday. I apologize in advance for being so old.
54 Things To Do Before I Turn 55 (This Eclectic Life)

1. Remember to look at the list.
2. Choke down oatmeal twice a week, because it’s good for me.
3. Drink a glass of red wine each day, because it’s good for me. Maybe I can dowse the oatmeal with the wine to make it more palatable. Or not.
4. Give my husband spontaneous foot rubs (foot rubs are good for the solesoul).
5. Stop making bad puns.
6. Leave sticky notes all over the house to remind my husband to give me “spontaneous” foot rubs.
7. Take time with my cats each day to just play.
8. Learn from them how to be completely lost in the moment.
9. Learn from the cats how to be totally relaxed. No one relaxes better than a cat.
10. Take as my motto: “If you think you can, or think you can’t, you are right.” I don’t know if I can do that, but I’ll try.
11. Give someone a hug every day.
12. Remember to use deodorant before I give out hugs.
13. Have a party…for no reason at all but just to celebrate.
14. Remember birthdays…not mine, but other people’s. Maybe even do more than remember, and get the cards in the mail.
15. Finish the five remaining afghans for Share A Square so I can call it a “wrap.”
16. Stop making bad puns.
16. Get all the medicine bags and charms for the Good Medicine Project.
17. Answer all my comments from this month and stay caught up with the answering.
18. Don’t beat myself up if I don’t get them all answered.
19. In fact, stop beating myself up, but give myself affirmations, because “I’m Good Enough, I’m Smart Enough, and Doggone It, People Like Me!”
20. Re-read To Kill A Mockingbird and savor every delicious word.
21. Learn to use this polymer clay I bought to make beads and stuff.
22. Turn on the music and dance every day (when no one is looking).
23. Remember to shave my legs, even though I’m not going to show them to you. It’s just gross when you can braid your leg hair.
24. Use my Nordic Track for exercise instead of as a clothes rack.
25. Laugh uncontrollably every day at 10, 2, and 4 instead of drinking Dr. Pepper.
26. Go to Austin to see the bats.
27. Get new glasses because I’m blind as a bat. I’m seeing double double.
28. Finish painting the closets.
29. Call a few friends I haven’t talked to in ages and remind them that I love them.
30. Don’t be Scrooge at Christmas this year, even though Christmas decorations in August makes me see red.
31. Stop making bad p…
31. When Depression tries to strangle me, fight back.
32. Keep my chins up.
33. Turn my frowns upside down so that I can have symmetrical wrinkles.
34. Remember to water the plants. My money tree died. No seriously! I had a money tree and I killed it. Daddy always said I was hell on money trees.
35. Write five new ghost stories, because I’m sick of my old repertoire.
36. Pretend I am going to get jobs where I can tell the new stories.
37. Lower my cholesterol, so I never have to hear another doctor say, “How are you alive?”
38. Stop procrastinating. At least, think about it.
39. Break rules.
40. Figure out what the rules were that I broke.
41. Apologize to all concerned for the rules I broke.
42. Don’t break the rules about speed limits, especially if the Highway Patrol is in the area.
43. Take time for long, hot baths. I’m clean! But, I take showers and baths are more fun.
44. Sort through all the papers I have accumulated and actually throw some of them away.
45. Don’t get them back out of the trash can.
46. Take walks barefoot in the rain.
47. Make sure it isn’t freezing rain. Get a pedicure afterward.
48. Take occasional naps (after I tie up all five cats and stash them in the garage).
49. Write more haiku poetry.
50. Give myself permission to take artsy-fartsy photographs.
51. Don’t expect that everything I try will be perfect the first time out. Even Einstein didn’t make a perfect light bulb the first time.
52. Remember that Einstein didn’t make the light bulb…Edison did. Well, they both started with “E.”
53. Never, never never say “goodbye” to my beloved husband without telling him, “I love you.” You never know….
54. Exhale.

The yummy photo is from Schmutzie's awesome Etsy Shop!

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Tuesday List
all week Joslyn and I will post lists from Friday's adventure!

Thanks for yr gorgeous lists Liz & Modern Eve

A List (Liz)
The smart & always-inspiring Amy at doobleh-vay (along with new-to-me but also inspiring Joslyn of Simple Lovely) has issued a challenge that I find enchanting. It's to make a list of small, meaningful things that we hope to achieve in whatever time period we want. Here's my list for the next 12 months.

1. Finish Keri Smith's 100 things
2. Make a quilt for Dash
3. Make Mark Bittman's No Knead Bread
4. Shop local next summer
5. Celebrate Winter Solstice in a meaningful way this year
6. Walk more
7. Take myself to the movies in the middle of the day
8. Reach out to my neighbors (I have a plan for this that involves "no pressure boo bags")
9. Walk away from a mess
10. Take Dash to the snow
11. Grow tomatoes. And squash. And peas.
12. Go camping
13. Stop at every lemonade stand I see. This will require keeping cash in the car. If you knew me you would know this is a challenge.
14. Go to the park more often
15. Get a real basketball hoop for Dash & Josh
16. Attend the local production of the Nutcracker
17. Watch Lance Armstrong ride through the streets of my neighborhood
18. Find a really, really great bra and buy 20 of them
19. Finish having my tattoo removed
20. Count my blessings every day
21. Elect a new president (I guess that's not small, but my part in it will be)

25 before 26 (modern eve)
1. Cook a turkey
2. Take ballroom dancing classes with husband
3. Create a piece of mixed media art
4. Have a garage sale
5. Run a 5K
6. Enter an essay contest
7. Refresh my Japanese
8. Convert old home VHS to DVD’s
9. Plant an herb garden
10. Create Europe scrapbook
11. Spend the entire day with my nieces
12. Teach a marriage education course
13. Golf with girlfriends
14. Have my Grandma teach me how to play bridge
15. Get a library card and use it
16. Do a completely anonymous random act of kindness
17. Take my hunter’s safety course
18. Design my mom’s business website
19. Finish re-upholstering slipper chair
20. Make family chickey-soup recipe on my own
21. Have neighbors over for dinner
22. Learn how to give a good massage to husband
23. Read an non-fiction book
24. Collect and donate old dresses
25. Bake homemade bread
what would make your bucket list?

Photo from the divine Alicia Bock! Swoon!

Fill up your mind with all it can know

Monday List- all week Joslyn and I will post lists from Friday's adventure!
Thanks for yr gorgeous list Ann!

31 things before 32

I turn 32 in less than 4 months.

1. Start planning for a move to Germany.
2. Re-do my website.
3. Start gathering ideas for a book I want to write and submit 3 query letters.
4. Get a job.
5. Get a new pair of jeans.
6. Go jogging, several times.
7. Go for a scenic bike ride that includes a picnic lunch break.
8. Declutter my home.
9. Purchase a drawered cabinet.
10. Take more pictures.
11. Re-do my wall decoration.
12. Start taking pictures of my food so I can put them in my food blog.
13. Introduce my food blog to the Internet.
14. Buy some decorative pillows.
15. Spend the night at a hotel on the beach… spend two nights at a hotel on the beach.
16. See a play.
17. Go to a museum.
18. Clean out my car.
19. Plant some kind of vegetable.
20. Organize my home.
21. Buy holiday gifts off of etsy or dawanda (wow, I have to do that soon…)
22. Make some of the recipes from the many cookbooks I have.
23. Research more countries and what’s happening in the world. Not just this country.
24. Look for good master’s programs.
25. Start planning my own business… helping artist and makers get the audience they deserve.
26. Go to the planetarium show.
27. Organize photos, actual and digital.
28. Finish the bathroom and kitchen work… yikes, that’s tough.
29. Rearrange bedroom furniture.
30. Get new curtains for the living room.
31. Laugh every day.

This list could go on and on. But, I’ll stop now. I hope to see yours, but if not, I’ll see what other doobleh-vay & simple lovely readers said.

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gorgeous papercut by mister rob ryan

just afloat on the sea/find myself on a page of history

My Joe loves the "Carry On" films. He loves them so much he has to own the box package special editions and such. They remind him of home, of his childhood he says.
They are so British he tells me.
like Monty Python or the queen or HP Sauce
The films were first made in the late 50's and ran through the 80's. They are full of innuendo and parody and sauciness and are really quite hysterical. The Brits pride themselves on their humour (and they spell humor like that)and these cult classics are shining examples of this.

Joe says that Christmas was so marvelous because all the family would sit round and watch all the films on the BBC.(That BBC, I think he loves it more than me... it is like a person- like a real live person how he talks of it. THE BBC!)

anyhoo...

I am thinking of scratching one of the items off my list soon by having a "Carry On" party.
I want to invite a few folks over and screen one of the films while having fish and chips or a "Ruby Murray" (cockney for curry) and some Newkie Browns.

I want to watch Joe laugh and laugh with his whole body. I want to hear his accent come through thicker and stronger like it tends to when he drinks beer or is around other Brits.
I want to notice his accent as I daily do not after a decade.
I think it is still warm enough in the evenings to bring the projector outside and have this party! I am off to make another list.
kiss kiss

and check back all week for lists from other fabulous folks who are playing along with me and Jos. Get yrs in soon! xo

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pics from the BBC of course

When they insist on knowing my bliss/I tell them this

My divine friend Joslyn and I have been chatting for a while now about how we need to make lists that are for our lives and how hard it is to create and sustain that giant "bucket list" over the course of a life, but how it is far more manageable to keep ongoing yearly goals and lists.
After some inspiration from the amazing Hula Seventy, Jos decided to do a list of 34 things before she turns 35 later this year and since I am turning that magical number too I hopped on board too.
These lists are meant to be realistic and in the spirit of being good to yrself.

Simple things. Small things. Meaningful things.

Now here is the fun part:
Please join us in sharing yr lists.
What do you want to do before yr 25 or 43 or 55?
Next month? Next year? How can you make the time to be good to yrself?

Inspire us please?
Share with us by linking to doobleh-vay and simple lovely blogs and posting yr own list.
Leave us a comment that yr participating too.
We will pick one each day next week to share with the world.
And perhaps a little prize at the end too?
Kiss Kiss

1. Go see a movie alone and moderately dressed up.
2. Get a pedicure.
3. Take that ballroom dancing class with Joe.
4. Make Moroccan Chicken again like I used to.
5. Smile more
6. Write a thank you letter once a week to someone.
7. Spend more time off the computer/write in my paper notebook more.
8. Contact three more "out of reach" stores with my product.
9. Join the soup club and rock out with fall soup making.
10. Practice at least five random acts of kindness.
11. Go to a pumpkin patch and not Whole Foods front stoop.
12. Find a way to get Hunter Boots.
13. Entertain again. Scary as it may be- one small party.
14. Write my Love letter for Karey
15. Write a letter to Karey.
16. Organize my writings and office.
17. Bake a seasonal pie.
18. Have a milk bath.
19. Query three more magazines.
20. Go to the read to yr baby festival in town.
21. Make Mr. Kelly from the Hardware Store some cookies.
22. Go to this bakery more.
23. Teach the boys a new song.
24. Read a chapter book to them and not skip pages or make up random narrative about main character shopping for Prada handbags.
25. Get serious about handmade holiday.
26. Make Joe giggle.
27. Make more phone calls and write more letters to those I care about.
28. Visit our land in Athens and stop and get a Cafe D'Orlean's Coffee.
29. Watch the Carry On movies with Joe.
30. Go a whole day without saying no to my children.
31. Go a whole day saying no to all adults if I please.
32. Get a writing schedule on a paper and tack it onto the wall.
33. Get a check-up.
34. Walk to the Firehouse with the boys again and stop at Cottage Candy on wander home.

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Image from Penelope Dullaghan I heart her