I'm (at long last) back! This is going to be a long one...

I've decided I love Miranda July. Here's one reason, she's warm and real and articulate and I'm now anxious to read her new book called No One Belongs Here More Than You. If her name sounds familiar it's because her indie movie - Me and You and Everyone We Know - was the talk of the town a couple years ago, if you're into those things (as I am). Here's another reason I love her, she introduced me to The Blow, a girl band from Portland that I now love. I listened to one song and had to order their newest album. Does anyone still call them albums? I'm definitely showing my age.

This lovely picture is my sweet Rexy on her new swing set on Memorial Day weekend.

I was tagged again a couple weeks ago and am just now getting around to my seven random things due to the prolonged ineptitude of Earthlink. (Nearly 3 weeks without DSL and with deafening static on the land line - this is all I'm going to say on this subject as I tend to get apoplectic when I start thinking about the continuing Earthlink fiasco.) So, here we go:
1. I'm a cookie addict

2. I'm a terrible slob (even though I vowed I'd never be like my mother!)

3. My wardrobe is 90% black. I keep trying new colors, but black always seems to just look better...

4. My husband and I were married in 2001 and we still haven't developed all the film from the wedding!

5. I've never figured out what quid pro quo means (would someone tell me?)

6. My husband and I own nearly 400 movies (let me know if you ever want a recommendation - I loooooooooove talking about movies), we got together because we both liked the same indie director (Hal Hartley), and I once saw5 movies in one day - at a film festival, but we've only been in a movie theater 3 times since our daughter was born!

7. I'm currently sacrificing family dinner for art. I can't even see the surface of our dining room table and large parts of the floor due to the enormous amount of supplies standing at the ready.

Hmmm....who should I tag? I think nearly everyone's been tagged by now! If you haven't been tagged, let me know and I will promptly tag you.

I'm so thrilled, I finally got a little quitlting iron for using beeswax! I'm currently in the ZNE Book Club and we're trying techniques from Claudine Hellmuth's Collage Discovery Workshop. Okay, wax was not one of the assigned techniques (not yet, anyway) but I snuck a little crayon wax in around the edges and down the sides (It needed more than just peeling paint!). The technique we were assigned was the "peeling paint" technique. Here is the piece I did (with the little bit of red wax thrown in):

It's 5"x7" and it's called, The Worst of These is Indifference. One of the words I hate the most in the world is "whatever." Have an opinion! ...Of course it's much better if your opinion is in accordance with my own. ;-D

While I was gone (offline) we went through another bout of sickness at our house, ugh. What that means is that I'm just as behind as I ever was. I have yet to catch up. I did get a few of the Cercles d'Ame round robin pages done for some people. Here are a couple I did for Donna Cook's Rolodex journal. I've got just a couple more things to do and then I'll be complete! I wish I could go back and do some of the earlier pages I did over again. Once I got comfortable, I started being more creative and layered with the pages.

On to my Gratitude Journaling:

1. Rexy's new Pre School teacher, Erin

2. Rexy's therapy supervisor, Tracy

3. The Internet

4. Chicken nuggets (the 1st meat Rexy has eaten!)

5. thrift stores

Oh! Another thing that happened while I was gone - Pam and I submitted our reunion story and some artwork to Somerset Studio! I'm excited, but not too hopeful. I rushed my piece (the deadline crept up on me and I changed my mind at the eleventh hour about what I was going to make!) out and I was happy with it at the time - and the UPS gal was impressed - but in retrospect I don't think it was my best work. I'd show you a picture but I'm not sure if that's against their rules. I feel like I should have made it more visually layered. I don't know. It was a flag banner made of triangles, maybe it wouldn't work if were more "busy" looking. Ugh, I could second guess this forever, I bet. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Lastly, a bit of sad news. I haven't seen or heard the neighborhood rooster in weeks. I fear the worst.

We'll miss you around here, Rooster.