The Swagger Wagon

I love, love, love this. I relate to it on so many levels.

Bookbinding!

Some of you may remember way back in November of 2008, Iblogged about how I asked Darin if he could teach me to read music/play the piano. He managed to evade having to actually do soby gently telling me that he thought I was too busy to start a new hobby, but he assured me that yes, my hobbies DO keep me interesting and "mysterious" to him...

Well, shortly thereafter my pregnancy and eventual birth of Collin took center stage, and I forgot all about wanting to learn to read music/play the piano. Soon after Collin was born, Darin completed the Crafting Studio he was building for me in the basement, and after several months, I got back into the swing of crafting as told here and started my little grassoots crafting business, Tabitha Designs.

Well, lately with the arrival of spring, I've been getting out and about with the babies much more and love walking with them around downtown. As a result, I've become acquainted with this charming little shop in Des Moine's East Village shopping center called Ephemera. Ephemera calls itself a "stationery studio" but I call it a "breeding ground for creativity." They offer lots of fun classes to bring out the inner creative soul in you (creative writing, knitting, drawing, etc., etc.). The friendly store owners convinced me to take their one-night class on "Beginning Book Binding". So used some birthday money, enrolled and attended with a friend last night! Here's what I made and I'm so tickled:

Well, now I'm dealing with all these urges to learn as much about bookbinding as I can, looking up bookbinding material suppliers, envisioning all the possibilities there could be for me and bookbinding. And um, well, I'm afraid I'm gonna need to calm myself down a little bit before Darin's fears about what might have happened with me learning to play the piano might be realized through my new bookbinding interest.

Oh dear. I'm afraid that this complusively creative soul is going to need some large doses of self-control and self-discipline... what do you think?

Oh, and one final little thing... I checked out Ephemera's site today and was pleasantly surprised to find that a picture of little old me and my bookbinding creation made it onto their blog today! Go take a looksee: http://www.ephemeradesign.com/blog/?p=536

Good night, friends!

Elmo's Ricky Gervais Lullaby

If you are a mom to a preschooler who is a Sesame Street fan, you've likely already seen this. If you're a Ricky Gervais fan, it's also possible you've seen or heard of this. Regardless, I saw this for the first time watching Sesame Street with Lucy this morning during Collin's nap. I laughed hard. And sweet Lucy laughed too, but I think it was because I was laughing so much, she figured she ought to laugh too... even though she didn't actually "get it". : ) Don't we all do that in those uncomfortable social situations when a joke is told that we don't get?

Enjoy:

Fargo and Frila

Darin and I took a long time to jump on the "texting" band wagon. We held out and we held out until we just had to stop paying the fees for the texts that kept arriving on our no-texting-plan phones. When we did cave in and add the plan, the responses from our friends when they first received texts from us, illustrated how behind the times we were.

They said things like this:

"Wow, you can text now?!"

"A text from Erika? I'm shocked!"

"Look who's texting?!"

"Aww, I'm honored to have gotten a text from you!"

You get the point. It's kind of amusing when my baby-boomer parents know/use texting lingo more skillfully than I do.

Last night Darin was here at home and the babies and I were a couple hours away at the home of my parents-in-law while our furnace was being replaced. Darin and I texted back and forth for about half an hour before going to bed. I felt all warm and fuzzy each time I got a text from Darin... kind of like he was my boyfriend again. It was kind of cute. (Am I allowed to say that about myself?)

Anyways, even though I've been texting for about a year now, there are still little things that I just really get a kick out of that show my texting youthfulness. Mainly, I really get a kick out of using the t9 mode on my keypad to spell out people's names and it cracks me up to see the alternate options that pop up while doing so.

So I love the fact that when I spell out Darin's name is also pops up as "Fargo" and mine shows "Frila". I kind of want to start calling Darin "Fargo" now and hope he'll start referring to me as "Frila". I think they'd be charming new terms of endearment. What do you think?

I bet I know what you think... You probably think that the fact that I haven't yet purchased a phone with a separate keypad for letters and that I still have to use t9 to text shows all the more how much of a texting novice I am. And you'd be right. I AM pretty old fashioned with my t9 texting ways. But if you know your "alternate" name using t9 mode, would you humor and tell me what it is in the comments section? I'd love to have a new nickname for you.

Thanks,
Frila

Biter Biscuit

Collin REALLY loves biter biscuits. This video makes me smile. Hope it makes you smile too. : )

Two

Just a little narrative from this morning about my now TWO year-old.

Lucy and Collin were sitting in Lucy's room with me. Things were great, we'd even just finished with a great giggle session when Collin grabbed one of Lucy's "babies". Lucy took it from him.

He grabbed another "baby". She took it from him too. We went through this until there were four babies in Lucy's lap. I grabbed a different toy and gave it to an unaware, happy-go-lucky Collin. Lucy started to take it from him, but mid-grab, I intercepted her arm and told her a firm "no". She proceeded to throw her body on top of the FOUR toys in her lap while Collin sat grinning with his one toy that she desperately wanted. Tears were streaming down Lucy's cheeks and she began wailing at the perceived injustice of the entire situation. I sat, watched her and quietly laughed at her, but then sobered up when I realized how often I surely act like a two-year-old when my Father in Heaven is exceedingly generous and gracious to me.

After Lucy worked her way through the pain and disappointment of not being allowed to take a fifth toy away from her brother, she walked to me, arms outstretched for a hug. Which I was happy to give.

And if only-human-me, was happy to hug Lucy, it makes me confident that the Father is truly pleased to receive those who come to Him for comfort even when their own greed or other shortcomings were the cause of their hurt.

Get Acquainted With Tabitha Designs

Well, after a few years of putting it off and giving lame excuses when people have said to me, "You should try to sell the things you make!", I am plunging in and attempting to start my own grassroots business selling handmade crafts. I am very much learning as I go, but having a lot of fun starting "Tabitha Designs".

The thing is, Darin and I are adequately provided for, so I'm not doing this because I need to earn extra money. In fact, lately I've almost felt strange about all the material excess I truly have. But there has been a part of me that has just wanted to see if people might actually want to buy what I design/make. So I came up with a solution to my dilemma!

Tabitha Designs will be dontating 40 % of all sales to three charitable organizations that are pretty important to me: Ruth Harbor, The ALS Association, and Samaritan's Purse. When customers shop Tabitha, they may select which of the three to designate their purchase towards...

Click on the graphic below and take a peek at my under construction website for Tabitha Designs and let me know what you think so far! (FYI- I don't have any items listed for sale quite yet, but will be trying to get that in order soon!)

Also, you can follow Tabitha Designs on Twitter here: http://twitter.com/Tabitha_Designs

And for those of you who are Facebook users, after you take a peek, do me a favor and leave me a comment here to let me know if you think I should create a Facebook fanpage for Tabitha... I'm trying to decide.

Thanks, friends! : )