Zines, Mags!

I'll openly attempt at least two months of this year were passed at the pool soaking up the rays (best money I've ever spent)and reading magazines. I'm completely up on fashion, cooking and the goings on of celebrities. I have an addiction to magazines. My mailbox confirms this once or twice a week. Each promises to solve all your life's problems. I don't think they, the mass media, nailed it yet. I still can't get my fussy eater to touch, let alone eat a veggie, and my week nights are still hectic even with the greatest 30-minute meals. But with each article I stuff my brain full of more information. Some of it is useless (pretty anything from US; a subscription I share with a friend). However some makes me into a complete geek(I know things no 40ish suburban mom should know, directly from Wired). Most the information I receive from these zines is stuffed into the little corners of my mind to pop out at gatherings with friends, leaving them with more evidence that I'm quite nuts.


A couple of years ago my magazines started to guilt me out. How can I spent money on this? The US weekly issue ISSUE was solved when I started sharing a subscription with a friend. Seriously I can not spend $70 dollars on something that offers me no usable information. US is purely entertainment and I can get that for TV. Oh but the "Who Wore It Best" section calls to me like the Sirens called to the Sailors. I rarely resist and therefore I was saving money by getting a subscription. A-Ha! They got me.

Magazines have become so discounted, I had to buy a subscriptions to any magazines I picked up one or twice a year, because the subscription price was around the price of two at newsstand prices. Again saving money. I have a recycling center near me and all my mags go out the door to new owners or to be recycled. Luckily, I will not have to have the production crew of Hoarders over anytime soon and the guilt is dissipating.

Seventeen was my first subscription and I felt like such a seventeen year old when I read it at fourteen. At around seventeen I stopped getting Seventeen of course and started with Glamour. I have had a subscription to Glamour for twenty-four years. Can you believe it? Out in the world I'm sure there's someone very impressed by their 75 year anniversary with National Geographic, I assume they are better person for it. But I have really been through a lot with Glamour. At seventeen I cut out pictures of my favorite fashions and I made a scrapbook. It's funny to see that most of the stuff I choose you could walk down the street with on today and not be laughed at. O.k. there's a few neon pieces that might get a few stares, but no laughing. Fortunately, I didn't like shoulder pads, so that spares a lot of ridicule.

But Glamour was with me during the college years, dating, getting my first job, marriage, first baby, second and third.Over the years my interests have changed and so have my concerns, but I assume I'll always getting Glamour. The covers didn't embarrass me until I was around 37. My dad was over and a Glamour was lying on the table with a teaser on the front cover in giant letters that read something like "Have even bigger and better orgasms." From that point on they was relegated to my bedroom or bathroom. There's nothing better than hanging out in the tub with a new magazine.

When I was around thirty I went through a period where I was going to get smart about the world and finances. Time, Money and Newsweek showed up in my mailbox and I tried. I mean I really tried. They couldn't keep my interest. With a new baby in the house, Parenting and Parenthood magazines were more fitting and they kept me up-to-date on everything to freak out about. Then came Family Fun, and I must admit it was really fun.

There was "O"prah. Paaahh! I couldn't be that deep every month. I've had a ton of "A-ha! Moments," but they never amounted to much.

I am crafty and I do get several scrapbooking magazines, my favorite of which went belly up, Simple Scrapbooks. Creating Keepsakes just expired and I will let it go . . . I haven't scrapbooked in a year. If I get my butt in gear to scrap, I'll probably get a new subscription.

Martha Stewart's Living and Everyday food are loved along with a new edition Food Network Magazine. I get Rachel Ray's Everyday but I will not be renewing. I will never ever make Lamb Chops with Pomegranate Sauce and Saffron Pilaf. That ain't happening here.

When Real Simple hit the newstands I knew I'd found my match. Organizing, life stories, great recipes, little crafty things it was a match made in heaven. They seriously do have ways to make your life simpler. I use lots of little time savers from Real Simple and they work.

That just reminded me . . . .what happened to Hallmark magazine. That was so pretty.

For the good and the bad of it, I love magazines.

Now the real reason I sat down here was to show you what I have going on at my Etsy shop Bitsofme. I've been cooking up monsters and dolls. Santa's little workshop, right in my shop.

I'm running a Cyber Monday sale 10% the entire shop with the coupon code CYBERMON used at checkout.

Playing around with ideas for the office, that I've decided I hate. Did I mention I also hate our whole house. . . . well, not the bedrooms, just everything else.

home office design

contemporary home office design by san francisco general contractor Harrell Remodeling

traditional home office design by seattle architect Bosworth Hoedemaker

modern home office design

eclectic home office design

Playing around with ideas for the office, that I've decided I hate. Did I mention I also hate our whole house. . . . well, not the bedrooms, just everything else.

home office design

Strawberries!

Forgive me followers, for I have not blogged. But today I will.

We had a great day. Off to the berry patch at 10 after a couple rainstorms with Julie, Andrea and respective kids. The skies cleared just as we headed off to the fields on our wagon. The morning ended up being 72ish and breezy. Perfect!

No pics of the picking. But I've got three GREAT helpers. They picked and picked without a single compliant. Griffin picked and ate, picked and ate.

Lost my phone in the strawberry patch and had to get a ride back to look for it. The damn thing was on vibrate, so it had to be seen to be saved. Thanks to Andrea for spotting it.

We all had lunch together on a very windy deck and were fortunate to see a deer milling about. After parting ways, we headed to the pool. Loving it. Headed home for jam making.

Enjoy your boiling bath!


Two hundred and sixteen ounces later I think we have enough for the year and a few Christmas gifts.



I can't until breakfast; I'm having an english muffin and jam. Yum!

Oh Rainy day!

What have I been up to? Taking the Wilton Cake Decorating class. Here's my first project.


And here's what happened to it after dinner.

What to Write About!

I haven't blogged in a while and I do feel an obligation to keep this going. If not for my audience, at least I should keep up for me. I do love to look back and see what I've been up and such.

Today I logged in and realized it'd been way past a month since my last entry, so I need to change that fact quickly. But what to blog about: Eyjafjallajokull volcano, the economy, my crafty stuff? Then suddenly the topic presents itself. How's about I blog about a 7 year old boy?

This seven year old boy.

Well, I'm writing about the left half, not the right half. I think it's the right half that causes me all the trouble. The left half is quite possibility the most confident person I know.

A couple of weeks ago his school had spring pictures taken. (Spring pictures Pfft!) They came back last week and they are horrible, as you can see. I hesitated to even include this picture because it's so awful.



Oh, but Griffin LOVED it. I assume he thought he looked fantastic because he has on his favorite shirt and that come hither stare. BLAH! I had to explain he's a much better looking boy than this picture shows. He still loved it, but I was NOT going to buy any. So, a week passed and Griffin asked to see his fall pictures. Now these were cute. I got them out and he asked to have one cut out. I asked why and he said he'd show me. I cut it out and he did this with the picture.



He's a good looking guy and he I guess he wanted to remember that.

He really is pretty amazing. I don't think I had the capacity to realize at six that I was in the wrong school and that my hearing loss did not need to hold me back. Griffin did. He had a hard time figuring out how to let us know. Mostly he threw a fit every day before school. Then one day he said< “I hate my school, because Will’s school is the best. I need to be at Will’s school.” I’m not one to just give in to the kids, but there was something very special about how he said this. He was determined to make me understand he absolutely meant what he was saying. Much to my surprise later that day his teacher told me he rarely used sign in the classroom. He was trying to buck the system he was in. He is his best advocate. He is so much happier mainstreamed.

I don’t know if it will stay that way forever, but he’s learned to stand up for myself and that I hope lasts a lifetime. Hopefully if he’s uncomfortable again, he’ll let us know. . . .without the fits.

He is also very in touch with his feminine side. Don't get me wrong he's ALL boy, but he can be all boy with flowers on his Crocs, holding a pink balloon. He has never cared what Gus and Will have said about his color choices, because has he's said, "I just like pink."

Meanwhile, there's one pink thing he loves more than all the others, Princess Peach, from the Nintendo games. He found a picture of Princess Peach in a book Gus had from the library. He asked me to copy it, which I did. A couple days later I was putting stuff away in the hall closet and I heard Griffin talking to someone. He had the picture of Princess Peach. He was looking at her longing and saying, "I love you Princess Peach," he kissed her and said, "Good Night." He put the picture on his shelf and cuddled down into his blankets.

Now let's talk a bit about the other half, the right side. Oy! This kid has ideas. He's always got some huge plan, some half baked plot. I wouldn't call them schemes, because that seems so negative. These plans are for the enjoyment of everyone, only I end up cleaning up. Case in point:

Yep, that there's a fresh squeezed glass of OJ. I was folding laundry thinking about what to blog while all this happened. I walked out, found this and found my blog topic. He cleaned up the table and I got the sticky floor.

Here he is leaping into another adventure.

Fly little dude, fly.