I'm A Winner!

I’m a winner! My Oh-So-Sinful Mac-n-Cheese recipe won the ZNE Partito Bello Recipez contest last week! Yay! If for some reason the recipe is not still on the site, just ask and I will email you the recipe. It's super good and not a drop of it is low calorie, low carb, or low anything.

I posted new collage sheets on eBay and on Etsy yesterday. If only I could get some art to sell done. Alas, I'm still behind on all my other projects. I'm mailing that BoxaNotions out Monday if I have to stay up all night on Sunday to do it!

Oh, I also found these great little shrines to sell - so I posted them on eBay and Etsy, too. I think they're supposed to be dollhouse bookcases or something, I'm not sure. I think they're just perfect for shrines, though. I can't wait to work on one myself!

This Sunday I’m going to the Stamp Convention in Puyallup, WA. I’ve never been to a stamp event. I’m hoping there will be some altered and assemblage art type stuff. I’m afraid it’s going to be all about card-making kits or something. Anyway, I’m going because a fellow ZNE-er, Jeri Aaron, is going to be visiting from Austin, TX and I thought it would be a great opportunity to meet someone that I see on the ZNE Yahoo board all the time. Aren’t we all curious to meet each other face to face? She sounds like a really nice woman so I’m looking forward to it.

The convention is being held at the Puyallup Fairgrounds and that really brings back some childhood memories for me. The state fair is always held there and when we were in elementary school we would always get a free ticket for one day and early dismissal in order to go. We always went to the fair 2 or 3 times. A good friend of the family was the official fair photographer and he had a permanent office on the grounds. Family and friends always used the office as a hang-out and a rest stop – the adults used it as a cocktail lounge! Other, good, family friends also had a permanent place at the fair. They owned the main Western-wear store and were centrally located on the grounds. We would go and hang out in the store; sitting behind the counter shooting the breeze and trying on cowboy hats. All my memories of the fair are closely linked to my mother. She loved going as much as we did.

I hit the jackpot yesterday at the dollar store. I spent a fortune but I got a huge amount of altered art supplies. I don’t know about you but I like buying supplies almost as much as making art. Something about all that raw possibility I guess.

Another excellent piece from Glenda Bailey – I wish I could have watched her make it. The layering and texture is just amazing! Another blog to visit is Wyanne Thompson's. She's another ZNE-er and she just got the Greatest Studio of All Time!!! Take a look at the pictures. I know I couldn't ask for any more than that. Well, I could ask to live only a block or two away from it - but that's it.

At long last our lawn mower works!!! Yippee! Just in time for the home visit from Rexy's new teacher. It turns out the old teacher was just filling in while this teacher was on maternity leave. I'm very nervous about this visit because I'm terribly messy (hi Lennea!) and while I will clean up somewhat, I'm just so behind on everything that it's not going to look that fab. And the teacher has already told me that she's a neat freak - yikes! I foresee very little sleep for me tomorrow night...

What was the Number 1 song the day you were born? Click here to find out:
http://www.joshhosler.biz/NumberOneInHistory/SelectMonth.htm
Mine was "He's So Fine" by the Chiffons. This is kind of fun - I looked up everyone I could think of.

Okay, I’m going to “claim my blog” on Technorati – whatever that means. It’s some kind of search engine, I think, that increases traffic to your blog – somehow. Other, more technical people than I, use it and have talked about it, etc. So I thought I would give it a try. In order to do that I have to post this: Technorati Profile

It looks like we'll be going back to the doctor this week. My poor girl is still waking up coughing. At least now it's sometimes more like early morning rather that the middle of the night. I'm really, really, really hoping that it's not asthma. It's been going on for 3 weeks. It's got to stop, she's been missing too much school. I just don't have the heart to wake her up when she was up for 2 1/2 hours in the middle of the night. I know it doesn't sound like a big deal - a 3 yo missing preschool - but because of the Autism she really needs as much peer interaction and therapy as she can get, as early as she can get it. The earlier you catch and correct problems the more likely it is that she will be able to have a relatively normal life. The therapy she gets from the UofW - she's in the Early STAART Intervention Study - is fabulous and produces astounding results. It's been the key factor in her progress. But the peer interaction at school has proven to be critical, too. There's been a huge jump in her progress since she left the Birth to 3 program and went to preschool.

Her progress, in any case, is still miraculous. A year ago she couldn't even say "Mommy" and yesterday while I was making her PBJ she walked up to me and said, "Happy Mother's Day!"

Gratitude Journal:

1. Lawn mowers
2. micro tip scissors
3. socks
4. John Coltrane
5. Matisse