a work in progress

the casa nueva es muy buena. but it’s a lot of slow-going work. i’m feeling impatient and rather sloth like. i’m horrified by the amount of television little miss has had in the past couple days. I can now thank the littles for her desire to wear “a tail” everywhere we go. and i let her. why? because it’s easier than fighting about it. and also it’s cute and imaginative. i don’t care if people think she’s weird. i want her to know her ideas are good ones.

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the view from these shots reveals it hasn’t ALL been bad. highlights: 1. playing in new spaces  2. better backyardage  3. left here to watch over our vehicle by previous tenants. the number of catholic artifacts left behind leads me to believe that this house is either inhabited by a poltergeist we are yet to encounter or was inhabited by a latino family that loved dogs. the dog part i am sure of  4. cupboards before…  5. cupboards la fonda-fied. yes, there are some paint slip ups but i fixed some and this is just a stage in the evolution of the cabinets  6 & 7 darla’s last morning at the old house. the new house has a long hallway between her room and ours. i love to hear her feet running down that hall every morning  8. walking in the hood.  9. excellent coffee shop across the street  10. cup a day habit (of milk)  11.  getting cousinfriend in on the tv watching 12, 13, 14. don’t trip. no use enforcing the “no toys in the middle of the floor” rule while the whole place is basically in the middle of the floor.

our neighborhood has a park, a pub where kids eat free on sundays and a fab coffee joint. we’re set and i’m not moving anymore. ever. for the next year. or so.

littles

only a very teensy bit of learning has taken place in our household since we began the move A WEEK AGO. pretty much the only thing darla has learned is how to work streaming netflix on her own. and i’m not joking about that. the girl had way too much television while hubster and i were throwing things in boxes.

but

i can’t say that’s all bad. she’s gotten some good viewage these past coupla days. H.R. Pufnstuf and The Littles! the expansion of her imagination from these two programs alone makes it worth it.

i improvised a little lesson the other day during a packing break. we wrote a letter to “the littles living in our house” because darla became concerned that they wouldn’t know we are moving. she helped me with the verbage and got the spelling of her name correct both times. we sounded out other words and all that good stuff. i tried to impart basic letter writing knowledge, etc. i hope to have her help me write out some of these letters i’m promising myself will happen in 2012. gotta get back to the old quill and ink blot instead of just relying on this old magic box.

that’s what darla is calling the computer now. she actually told me “TV is magical” and i died a little inside. eh, sometime you do what you do right?

littles letters

pressin’ da letterz

last year i wanted to get in on igloo letterpress‘ new year’s resolution poster class. well, i let it all slip through the cracks and missed out. but this year i was prepared! which, just so happens, was my goal for 2011: “be creative, be prepared.” 2012 started with knocking off one of my life list goals: learn how to letter press.

our night at igloo letterpress was imPRESSive. ha ha ha. pun pun pun. here’s the life(dot)next evening at igloo making our new year’s goal posters.

owner allison chapman showed us proper use and technique of her vintage and antique equipment. she was a wonderful teacher and very generously let us make copies of each others posters. our night was well worth the money and by then end we had all decided that an annual tradition might have just been born. we had lots of fun sharing our new year’s goals, being silly with inspirations, imbibing and snacking and trying to spell words backwards.

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IMG_1565since we came as a gaggle with a set time limit there were limitations to personalization of posters. we decided to keep it simple with a _____ every day message. each lady provided their own goal for every day life of 2012. some really good, funny and practical goals were set thursday night.

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IMG_1617using the press was fun. being creative was more fun. hanging with lovely women in a beautiful space was the most fun of all. weeeeeeeee.

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our finished projects!!!!:

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and one very special new year’s goal sent in by life(dot)next creator, meg, from the west coast. words to live by, my friends.

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now a word on my goal: take your pill everyday. and yes i mean THE pill. because i got a baaaad case of baby fever and it seems like everyday someone i know is popping up preggers. that is great, wonderful, glorious news for them but it makes me green with envy and the truth is it’s just not in the cards for us right now. with sailor man on the high seas every three months, this momma just CAN NOT imagine doing it with two bambinos on her lonesome. but maybe once spicy #1 is a little older we can get ready for spicy #2. let’s just hope that next year’s goal can be something more like: “don’t take your pill at all, anyday, so you can get another bun in that oven.”

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2011 in photo review

i was just going to do a short one photo for each month but then i realized i don’t have any pics for march & april on my computer and i love so many of the pics of last year i’m just throwing them in one post. enjoy our year!

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i’m hoping that this is our best year yet. mostly because the mayans say it’s the last sooooo i’d like to go out with a bang. hope you enjoyed this mostly repeats visual wrap up of the year.

membership

our cosi membership pulled through for us in yet another city. here’s our morning at the indiana state museum last week. i was loving some hoosier history.

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IMG_15491. robert indiana sculpture

2. gazing upon the old L.S. Ayers holiday display

3. feeling how a gargoyle is carved from indiana limestone

4. loved the indiana art gallery

5. daddy daughter cheeseface

6. getting a curiously strong after lunch mint at Yats. seriously some of the best food indy has to offer is at this restaurant. spicy thai peanut etouffe??!! it was good.

7. momma daughter love

accomplished

my good friend and life goal guru sent out a website yesterday that is perfect for the new year. i used to write my ten goals for the year down and tape them to my desk. the four years  i had that practice going i accomplished every goal i had written down. i believe in having your goals somewhere you will see them everyday.

i hope this website will help me be accountable.

here’s my list of 12 for ’12.

thanks to meg for passing this site on!

Toomuchschtuff

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I’ve been a little quiet over here bc we’ve been elbow deep in packing supplies. We’re getting down to just the big stuff as small piles like this one are disappearing. I’m really looking forward to the new house and sharing our new abode once we’re settled in.

Painting projects are already underway. I’m doing the inside of our kitchen cabinets a bright red. We chose the color based on name alone:

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That’s right. LA FONDA FIREBERRY!!! And it’s an approved color by the national preservation historical society or whatevs. Bonus! I think I’ll just start referring to the whole kitchen as La Fonda.

Hopefully I’ll be back on track in a few days for I feel we still have much to share from the holidaze.

procrastinationalizing

we’re on our fifth day of moving. the day that i’ve come to the point of finding other stuff to do instead of moving. like dusting and washing all the window valances because they really REALLY need to be clean before we stuff them in a box….

anyways, if you’re in need of procrastination too then direct yourself to dadisthenewmom’s 12 reviews of christmas. funny funny.

i’m gonna go organize my sock drawer before i pack it up.