am I a bird brain?

bird mobile by Spool

 

bird houses by Tamar Mogendorff

At HATCH we are getting obsessed with birds. I know I'm not the only one! Though I come by it quite authentically as my grandfather loved them, kept a collection and always had birdhouses. My mom also loves birds. Now we watch them out in our back woods at the feeder. So when I thought about the atmosphere of HATCH, I thought I would make it a woods-- I am going to create floor to ceiling trees that are all white. That is one reason I went with the owl too (besides the fact that Caroline wants to be an ornithologist to study them!).  I saw these birdhouses and thought it would so cool to do something like this! It would be great to do a zakka class for adults and have a show on the wall like this. The funny thing is that I was sketching a bird for the class page of my new website and it looked just like this! That is kind of spooky! You might remember last year too that I call my house the "tree house".  I have to be near nature or I go crazy! I will show you what's "hatching" as it happens!....

not so indie anymore

Anyone notice that Motts Apple Juice is using Ingrid Michaelson's song "Be OK" on their commercials? I hate when they take great songs and commercialize them!!!

big families are awesome!

Is anyone else a fan of this show?  I don't watch it regularly but when it's on, we tend to get glued to the tv. Tonight I saw an episode where the kids painted with pudding! That sounded like a lot of fun so I thought I'd mention it here. The funny thing about this show is that they live in Elizabethtown, PA which is only about 20 minutes from my home! They are a local family. They actually filmed one show at the Hands On House children's museum, which is at the end of my street!  Do you think they'd come visit us at HATCH??! ;)

studio update

Maple laminate floors... coming along! Doesn't this look great?! Furniture next!

how i keep my sanity

Patricia Walden

In all the craziness of life I found something that allows me to relax and be calm, sleep better, feel better and be healthy. And my body craves it now!! It is yoga. I've had doctors and counselors recommend it but I never took them seriously. Until now. I've been doing yoga here and there since I was a little girl, but never regularly. Now, I practice every single day at home!! I hate to miss it. I found an excellent tape that is short, easy and is perfect to start with: am & pm Yoga. Rodney Yee does the am part and Patricia Walden does the pm (I love her!!!). If you don't like to exercise or don't even have time, yoga is perfect for you. Yoga Journal has a great website too that is full of information. I think that life can be too full and busy on a regular basis and that keeps us from our full creative potential. I think of drawings and paintings when I'm practicing yoga. I even practiced it when I travelled to Cincinnati. Here is a video of Rodney Yee doing some of the postures that I do!

I'm working!

I did this self portrait to use for my webpage design for HATCH. I thought instead of doing a photo (and we know I'm not a photographer...yet), it would be very appropriate to just draw myself!! I absolutely love drawing people and I always forget that until I do it again. I think I am just the slowest worker alive. I was going to have my consignment letter done today and my beginning web page design... I'm still working but it's taking FOREVER!!!  Hope you had a good day!

silly boys, jeeps are for girls!

Okay, pull up a chair and get comfortable!! Time to catch you all up on what's been going on around here!  I haven't even been around for the last couple weekends. The first news: My Odyssey of the Mind team of fifth graders (my son and his friends) competed two weeks ago at our Regional Competition. They've been working all school year on their skit. I was proud of them and how they did, but we were surprised when they got second place and are going on to compete at the State level!!! They had the highest score in their Spontaneous problem! I love these girls... I wish I could keep them all! States is April 18th in Williamsport, PA. (Home of the Little League World Series!)

Nathaniel turned 11 yesterday too! I can't believe how fast the kids are growing up! We're already talking about them driving in a few years.

HATCH has taken a back seat to lots of things lately but now is crunch time! Maureen Miller is going to teach classes for me in May on Thursday evenings. She is a photographer and will help all of us non-photographers take better pictures!  I am going to get the website up this weekend...even if I have to pull all nighters!!! I finally figured out iWeb enough to design something. 

Craig has been working on the flooring. We got light maple laminate which will be beautiful! He layed the underflooring while I was in Cincinnati and painted all the trim work to put around the edges. He did lay 6 boxes worth.... but there are a total of 45!!!!

 
Before I went out of town, he picked up his new car. We didn't time our end of leases right- they were both up now! So he ordered his mini cooper and is very happy with it! Dad calls it a coffin on wheels, but it gets amazing gas mileage and is perfect for his around town trips! Everyone who sees it loves it. I considered the mini clubman but eventually decided on something else...

 
This is the first time in my life that I actually picked out the car I wanted... and NO lease! This one will be all mine! Much to probably everyone's surprise, I loved the Jeep Liberty! It has a huge top that opens, almost like a convertible and it is fun to drive. I'm tall and it's really comfortable. We're taking it to Florida next month.

I saw a bumper sticker on line that said, "Silly boys, Jeeps are for girls!" That sums it up right now! It is actually "trail rated" so I could go off road if I want to! We'll see.

I did go out by myself to Cincinnati last weekend. I pulled my back right before our OM Competition so I have still been suffering from back pain constantly. But I've also been doing yoga every day and keeping it from getting too stiff. 

My stepfather Jim had tongue surgery a couple weeks ago. It is probably the worst surgery you could imagine. They had to take half of his tongue and then reconstruct it. He hopefully will learn to swallow and talk again. He has a huge scar across his whole neck for the trach tube. He had a huge piece of his forearm taken off for muscle for his tongue. He had a large area of skin removed on his thigh for skin for his tongue. He has a stomach tube for feeding which he said was painful. He is in a lot of pain. I appreciate all of your prayers and good thoughts lately. He is supposed to have surgery on his lung too in a month but he is in no shape for that yet. Please please please if you know someone who smokes, tell them about this. It has been a tremendously hard thing to go through for Jim and for my mom and everyone who knows him. It was good to be in Cincy to see my parents and just be there.

I am getting ready to send out consignment letters... hopefully I haven't lost all my friends over the last couple of months with all that is going on here! At least spring is here and the weather may just finally get warmer!!! I am losing some of my encouragement... I guess when bad things in life happen, other things just don't seem so important. People are always the most important thing. Recognizing feelings and expressing them, no matter what they are is also important. And having people who truly love you around... that is the most important thing. I'm sad and tired and I miss all of my friends, from home, from blogging and everywhere. Craig is surprised that I've been able to keep everything in motion without crumbling. I guess that's the strength women have. I'm listening to Jack Johnson today and spending time catching up and that's a really good thing.

Talk to you all soon!

xoxo

what's going on?!!!

Monday my stepfather had surgery. He's recovering in the ICU for 5 days. It went as well as it could have gone. It is still very tragic.

Tuesday Caroline had oral surgery. She is fine now but lost four teeth and refuses to smile in public. Such is the life of a tween.  My OM team had it's last practice and they still don't have their lines memorized.

Wednesday Beth is going insane. I did manage to talk with my sign guy. He is excited about my shop idea but he didn't tell me if he liked the logo or not. Should I care? I don't know!

I STILL haven't read your blogs... are you still there? I did write up a consignment letter draft and a submission intention form so that will be finished shortly. I can't seem to get the web design to work easily in iweb. Trying to learn something new off the cuff is very difficult in a time crunch. And tomorrow the OM team performs their skit for the school. Are they ready? Who knows?? I have a pile of paperwork to prepare for the Saturday all-day competition!

Thursday will fly by... Friday I'm going to Philly in the morning with Craig to turn in his old car and pick up a new one. Saturday is competition day. Sunday I drag myself out of bed for church and then probably fall back into bed from exhaustion!!! And THEN maybe I read some blogs!!!

HELLLLOOOOO OUT THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

anyone listening? :(