Monday, August 31, 2009

where's the love????

Haven't been around these parts lately and evidently neither has anyone else. That, or not that many of you liked my Spotty creations. Where's the love people?

Anyway- enough poor me crap.

The winners are:(and I would have picked these same people even if a thousand had entered)

Laura- the cuff must go to you because not only do you have a wrist that it will fit, you also deserve a reward for your irreverent, smart ass attitude and faithful readership.

Domestic Katie- you must have the brooch because you are just crazy enough to wear it to church and because I'm using this as a bribe to get you to come to SPARK!

Thursday, August 27, 2009

lest you forget

I was thinking it is high time to remind all you loverly people that I make jewelry. Which is for sale. On Etsy.

Lest you forget that your purchases fund my rock and roll life style which these days has become a little more, well, hillbilly, I thought I'd remind you.

And I thought a little giveaway would help you remember.

So I made some stuff to give away on this here blog. See! I'm even talkin' hillbilly these days.

Save me from myself. Please.

Spot was always my favorite. Dick was, well, with a name like that, what do you expect. And Jane? She was a little trite for my liking.

But Spot- now that's a dog.

So I made some Spot stuff.


I will be picking a winner for the cuff bracelet and the hair piece, which doubles as a brooch, which triples as a super cute waist band flourish, on Monday. Leave one comment and tell me which item tickles your fancy and cross your fingers.

The cuff is on the small side so if you are big boned (and by that I don't mean fat) you may want to opt for the hair piece.

Good Luck!

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

and as long as we are talking dresses. . .

I was born to wear a Korean hanbok.

Why can't we American women adopt a more forgiving style? Think of all the rolls and flaws that could be hidden under a dress like this. The possibilities.

I'm gaga over these images from Korean Vogue. Would it be weird if I just started wearing a hanbok? Could I possibly start a fashion revolution?

Na. I'm only big in Asia.

I am thinking though, that Birdie might look smashing in a hanbok. She's way more chic than I am. I'm going to start work on a pattern. Her hanbok must have a bird embroidered on it.

So much to do, so little time.

seriously in love

I'm seriously, seriously in love with this Etsy shop. If only I had somewhere to wear one of these gowns. . . ahhhhh.....

Alas, my life is baby barf and random Lego pieces.

For everything there is a season. When I'm forty, I'm planning on really getting sexy.



Tuesday, August 25, 2009

the sentry

It was jealousy at first sight.

What, prey tell, was this person doing, coming into our house, stinking it up? And the noise! Oh the ear splitting noise! In the middle of the night for Pete's sake.

How could everyone be paying so much attention to this miniature person? She has no hair! And there I was with locks and locks of soft curly hair. And look at my eyes. Couldn't they see how sad I was? How forlorn?

Little by little things have changed. It may be defeat, however, we think it's much closer to acceptance.

He tries to lick her downy head, ever so slyly so as not to be detected. Just one lick as he passes by.

And he has become the nap centurion. Maybe it's the soothing Baby Einstein music that keeps him there, but we like to think that he has finally fallen in love.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

zerrissentheit & apfelstrudel

In another life I think I might have become a lexicographer. I do love words and few things give me as much satisfaction as when I discover a new word that so precisely describes the inner works of my disheveled mind.

I ran across "zerrissentheit" the other day in a magazine. It is a German word that means "disjointedness, disunity, inner turmoil".
Lately, I feel like a circus performer juggling, balancing and sweating like crazy to keep up. I've got the motherhood ball which is by far the most important and also the most awkward to keep in sync with my jewelry business ball and my drive to create art ball. And then there is my church work ball and my housework ball.

Not to mention that my leotard is pinching into my chubby thighs and reminding me that I really need to be running everyday.

So I'm trying to juggle all of these balls. Keep them up in the air and look good doing it.

It's total zerrissentheit and not very eloquent.

There's another German word that I love. Gemütlichkeit. It means "a warm, comfortable, convivial atmosphere, coziness".

I was thinking the other day that I'm not one looking for perfection. I think we've established that. I know that my children won't remember that the house was perfectly clean on Christmas morning, but they will remember if their mother was happy.

What I really want is a little gemütlichkeit in my house. I want peace and quiet and happy children with rosy cheeks and full bellies. And if I am surrounded by great arts and crafts, that's gravy my friends, gravy.

Jo has an apple tree, which in and of itself is quaint and storybook, but it also gives apples. It's a giving tree. The apples are tart and crisp and perfect for baking.

I thought to myself, that if I have to face a life full of zerriseentheit, I might as well get a little gemütlichkeit in there to balance it out.

I set out to make some apfelstrudel for my little family.

Then I realized just how much work the dough is to make and I thought- crap. All I need is more big project.

So I decided to whip up a batch of cinnamon rolls and add in little chunks of Jo's tart little apples. I also added some walnuts, currants and brown sugar oh my! Obliviously the pinching leotard wasn't bothering me that much.


Sometimes it's the littlest things that bring gemütlichkeit to your life.

The smell of warm cinnamon rolls wafting through the house.

The hound dog curled up on the kitchen rug.

The sound of your parents laughing together.

Your son smiling up at you with frosting on his lips when he tells you that your are the world's best mom.

I'll be the poster girl for a zerrissentheit life for the rest of my life if only I can have moments like these.

Friday, August 21, 2009

fancy pants

Last night after Sugar Daddy came home and rescued me from the two screaming mimis, I carved this stamp.

Is it perfect?

Exactly who's blog is it that you think you're reading? Get real sister. I don't do anything perfect. And I like it that way. Or I like to say I like it that way because it makes me feel better about myself and things in general.

So no. It's not perfect.

But is it fancy?

Hell yes.

It's a fancy pants monogram stamp that I'm going to use to make some fancy pants cards.

Cuz' I'm just that fancy.

Pants.

Happy Friday.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

*******breaking news*******

LOST MAP FOUND
Just yesterday a very valuable map surfaced and was acquired by one small boy by the name of Thomas Meeker. The map is over one hundred years old and although it can't be known for sure, experts think that it is the very map said to have been hand drawn by non other than Butch Cassidy.

The map was given to Thomas Meeker by his father who declined to speak as to the map's origin.

Included with the map was a brittle old photograph of the Wild Bunch which includes, the Sundance Kid, Tall Texan, Butch Cassidy, News Carver and Kid Curry.


Thomas and his father have tentative plans to visit Escalante, Utah next month on an expedition to the Hole in the Rock area where the Wild Bunch was known to have a hideout. There has been much speculation as to what treasures the map might reveal.

In the meantime, the map is being kept safe and sound in Thomas's cigar box where all his other valuables are stored.

The National Geographic Society has been in contact with the Meeker's, but they have declined any offer to sell or reproduce this incredible find.

However, if the price is right, a certain unnamed inside source would be open to negoitations to help fund her fashion addiction.



Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Spark



Thinking you might like to have a Girlfriends weekend away?

Who wouldn't love that?

Check out SPARK.

I'm going and you should too.

Registration starts next week!

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

the thinker

This one's a thinker.


She takes her job as littlest Meeker very seriously.

She's working diligently at being extraordinarily cute and lovable.

She's pooping and sleeping and eating.

A lot.
Especially the eating part.

She's starting to reach for things and talk to us in baby babble. I so wish I spoke goo fluently. I'd love to know what it is she has to say.

She only graces the most fortunate with a smile, however, when she finds you deserving, she smiles with her whole body, arms and legs jut out into starfish formation, toes point, fingers stretch, eyebrows raise. It's quite a sight to behold.

I think this little girl of ours, this little pontificator, is brewing up some mischief in that brain of hers. She's just biding her time until her body catches up.

Heaven help us.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

three months in the making

It took me an entire three months, but I finally finished and sent out Birdie's birth announcements.

Each card came with a DVD of this video.



The Meeker Family Film

I love the way they turned out, but honestly, next time I'm just going to go to Paper Source, sit down at their humongous design books and pick one to be printed. That is, if there is a next time.

Sometimes I hate that I have such definite ideas of what I want. Things rarely turn out as good as they look in my brain, but this time, with the help of a great photographer, videographer and graphic designer, I was able to get exactly what I had imagined.

Turn the sound up on your computer to watch the video. I really dig this song.

etsy love

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

sat*tis*faction


You cook. You clean. You fold laundry and pull weeds. You put the same plates in the dishwasher day after day.

And do you get satisfaction from all this?

I don't.

But I know a little secret. One of the easiest ways for a domestic engineer to acquire the satisfaction that so alludes us is to can.

Jams and Jellies are the easiest.


Yesterday I finally got around to making my pomegranate jelly from the fruit that I juiced and froze last fall.

It had been nagging at me. Every time I open the freezer there it was peeking out underneath the frozen chicken breasts. It would say to me, "Helloooo? Are you going to do anything with me or what?"

And folks, I don't need that monkey on my back. I've already got two, as in kid monkeys, not addictions. Although I have my fair share of those too. Nothing serious. Don't send the cops.

I tell ya, there is soooo much satisfaction in looking at those deep crimson jars sitting on my counter like precious gems. And they are precious. I get a ton a mileage out of divvying this jelly out to friends who crave it's sweet tartness on their morning toast. You know who you are, you jelly fiends, you!



Oh, and I couldn't help myself, I had to carve a stamp for the tops of the jars. I make this jelly every year, and every year I write on the top "Pomegranate Jelly". Blah. How boring. A stamp is much better, don't you think?

The jelly is done. I don't have to do it again tomorrow.

The next crop of pomegranates will be ready to pick in October, but I'm pretending that's a long way off.


Sunday, August 09, 2009

ruffles

What is it about ruffles. . .

that makes me love them so much?
Is it their coquettish playfulness?

Or their puckish flipancy?


Maybe it's just the romance they exude.


Oh but I do love ruffles.


The more the merrier.

Saturday, August 08, 2009

saturday

One of the happiest places on Earth IS NOT Disneyland. Hell no.

It's our pool, on a Saturday afternoon with some good snacks, cold drinks and old friends.



Oh, and dressing Birdie in one of her ten, count them, ten, swimming suits is all part of the fun.

So many people gave her pool attire that honestly, she is the bathing beauty fashionista of Carlsbad.

Splash. Blop. Blop. Blop.

Thursday, August 06, 2009

the last gift

Please forgive the length of this post. It is a story that must be told and, hopefully, one worth reading.

My grandmother gave me many gifts. She gave me her big nose and wrinkly hands which I am not at all fond of. She also gave me my sense of tradition, my love for literature and my height, all of which I have found very useful.

It seems she saved the very best for last. Shortly before her death she gave me one of the most precious of all gifts I have ever received.


Reed and Vola Campbell, May 1945

One of the many, many shortcoming of my character is that I don't receive compliments lightly. I only take a compliment to heart if I believe it to be true. Say for example, someone were to compliment me on my bookcases. Now that's a compliment I can really get my soul around.

Shortly after moving into our house, Sugar Daddy humoured me and let me order, from New York, a set of Hale bookcases. They have leaded glass and are the very same book cases used by the Library of Congress for the last hundred years or so. They are wonderful and I treasure them.



Now, if a person were to tell me that I have a nice singing voice, well, I would have to make a note to self that that person was apt to use flattery to get in my good graces. It is a widely known fact that I sound like a deaf crow when I sing, not that it keeps me from doing so.


I know, because I have been told, that this is a very egocentric way of being, and I should change my ways. My opinion isn't the only one that matters in life. I'm working on it, but it is slow going.


One hot October day several years back, when I was in Utah visiting my parents, I decided to take a walk up the road to my Grandmother's house. I arrived wringing wet from the unseasonable heat. Sweat rolled down my back and my hair had sprung loose from my clips and hung in wet limp tendrils.


She meet me at the door. In the months to come she would loose the use of her legs and then her dignity, but on this day, she was up and spry. She hugged me close to her bony angular frame and it felt wonderful to be in her embrace. Then she held my face between her hands and said, "My beautiful, beautiful April."


I knew at the moment that it was true. Like most mothers and grandmothers, she truly believed that I was extraordinarily beautiful. Never mind my stout nose and deep set eyes. These were her genes and Campbell stock was steadfast and loyal and strong in spirit.


So I spent the afternoon with her, feeling beautiful, which was a unfamiliar notion for a girl with a big Campbell nose. And it was a gift that I will never forget.


One year later, almost to the day, she passed away. It is a loss that I have felt acutely.


There is a desk that had belonged to her father that my Grandmother had inherited. I loved this desk for all it's little individual drawers and it's heavy rolled top with a brass key to lock it shut. It is made of oak and I think it may have been a drafting table at one time.




My father, knowing I loved it, requested the desk be included in his inheritance and stored it in his garage until just last October when my brother brought it to me. It was covered in a thick layer of greasy dust and the metal joints were rusty and becoming useless. My father asked me several times if I really wanted it. It seemed in such disrepair. I had hoped that some of the photos and letters would still be in the drawers, but it had been cleaned out shortly after my grandmother passed, left bare.


As we were jostling the desk around to clean it and position it, we made a discovery. Secret drawers.

And what was inside? I know you are dying to know.

An old gas station receipt dated January 15, 1962, some three cent stamps that say "Win the War" and a two cent Jefferson stamp, some fountain pen tips, and a few of my great grandfathers tie tacks.


And then there was the last gift.


On that October afternoon three years ago, I sat on my grandmother's couch and talked about my desire to have another child. I cried a little, because there are somethings you can only hold in until you see your mother, or in this case, my grandmother. She listened intently, dabbing her upper lip with a Kleenex, as was her habit, and finally said that she was positive that God had great plans for me and my family. She had no doubts about it. And then she stroked my hair and patted my leg and we went into the kitchen to have some sugar-free diabetic cookies.


The last gift my grandmother gave me was hidden in the secret drawers of the rolled top desk. It was for the child that she knew would be coming to me. A little girl.


Around the time Amelie was conceived, I opened the drawers to find a gold baby ring and a tiny gold heart necklace.


The ring finally fits Amelie and I love to see it on her chubby little hand, although I am paranoid that she might suck it off and swallow it. The necklace will have to wait until she is old enough not to pull it off. For now, even though I am not a heart wearing kind of person, I will wear it around my neck.

Thanks, Grandma. Only you could find a way to send me a gift in this way.

Although Amelie will not inherit the Campbell nose, (thankfully), I will read to her from the best books and hopefully she will love literature like you and I. And I will continue to carry on the traditions that you started so that she will feel your presence in our life.


Love ya. Give Grandpa a kiss for me.