More freezer paper

I have a confession.  I am totally addicted to freezer paper stenciling.

It was absolutely necessary to make 8 skull and crossbones pirate shirts for the five year olds birthday party last week.

It was also absolutely necessary to make orca whale shirts for our trip to Sea World in a few weeks.

And, it was also absolutely necessary to make a shirt for my brother.  Because he asked me.  Through a tweet.

HOME project

On a small wall in my home hung a giant clock.  A giant clock that had been hanging and not telling time since June, when we moved in.  Though I found it to be embarrassing, displaying a broken clock in its full glory, and stressful for the occasional guest who got confused at the time, the husband insisted that it stay up.  That he would fix it.

Well, when that husband was gone for two weeks I took it upon myself to find something new to hang in the spot where the broken clock loomed over head.

First, I went to the local craft store and found some giant letters - on sale, for about $4 a piece.  Next, I borrowed some old National Geographic and Sierra Club maps from my dad. He gave me one for the Korea's.  I chose to not use that one.  Then, I set about with the modge podge and went to town gluing the maps to the letters.

Now, when I looked at those letters up on the wall, the project felt incomplete.  Like something was missing.  I decided that the wall needed a little bit of "art" along with the letters so I hopped onto my computer to make something.  I found a map of Utah online that I liked, pulled it into photoshop and filled it in with gray.  Then, I had some free digital scrapbook papers that I'd downloaded ages ago that served as a perfect background to the gray Utah.

A quick print, frame (frames I already had from IKEA), and hang and I had myself another homemade installation.  I have to say that I like this much better than the broken clock.

Quite an honor!

Story time. 

Bear with me.

I am a faithful reader of the blog Design Mom.

I find the information on Gabrielle Blair's blog to be well written, beautiful and inspiring.  She finds things on the Internet that are lovely and worth sharing.  She has children who she writes so eloquently and honestly about, and she just seems to be all around cool.

A few months ago when reading her blog through my blog reader she issues a call for DIYers.  She said she was interested in responses from crafty types who have done some interesting projects and are good at photographing their projects.  I stewed on that for a few days.  I occasionally do interesting projects.  I take good photographs of my projects.  I am proud of most of the stuff I end up making so on a whim I decided to send her an e-mail.  I told her a little bit about myself, shared a link to my blog, and provided a short list of 3 projects I'd done since moving to the new house that I thought were sort of cool.

Right before Christmas a form e-mail was received in my inbox, one she probably sent to the thousands of men and women who submitted e-mails to her (I can only imagine how long it takes to go through so many e-mails!) informing me (and all the others) that she was going through all the submissions and would get back to us.

Cool, I thought.  And then thought nothing else of it.

Fast forward to Friday.  Every Friday on the Design Mom website is a short list of links to carry readers into the weekend.  Things that Gabrielle has found to be clever, interesting, beautiful...you get the idea.  On Friday, just like every other Friday I read the post and clicked on a few links and then went about my business of the day.

Then last night, after a busy crazy day of birthday parties for the five year old, Ross told me he'd written a blog post about his work trip to Chile and Argentina.  I opened the blog to read the post and noticed that my "top 5" post feature had a new top two.  My cousin Jodi's wedding had been bumped to third place - it had been in first since May.  But, I didn't think much of it at the time.

I logged in to the blog and saw that I had three comments awaiting moderation.  I turned to Ross and said, "Wow!  You have three comments on your blog post already and you just barely wrote it!"  He was rather proud until I opened the comments and read them.

It was confusing.  The comments were legitimate comments from profiles I did not know for a crafty post I had written at the end of August about the wall art installation that I made and hung in my bedroom.  Huh!  Curious.  Still every the dunce I asked my husband how he thought people found this post and made comments - one even putting a link on HER blog.

I was totally dumbfounded.

Then I went into my stats.

Duh!

There were 3,800 hits on this one blog post in less than 24 hours.  For my little goofy blog that's intense.  3,800 people looked at and read this particular post.  How did they get to my goofy little post?  Well, the numero uno referring link was the Design Mom website.

Still being ever dumb, I clicked on the link and it took me back to the Friday post that I'd already read.  I stared at that post unable to figure out how that post was leading to my blog.  Finally because like I said, I'm a bit dense sometimes, I just decided to click on every single link.

The fourth link down on the post, I hit the jackpot.  The "clever idea for displaying a quote" on the Design Mom post is a link to me.  TO ME!

I grinned from ear to ear.  I was so excited.  After telling Ross the whole story he of course told me I needed to figure out a way to monetize my fame.  What fame I asked.  Then, I called my mom.

To make a very long story short.  This is a very cool thing for me.  My silly little project recognized on such a big blog by such a neat woman.  I am truly honored and very, very surprised.  This totally made my weekend.

Obviously, right?  I just wrote one of the longest blog posts every about it.

Buenos Dias

So this is Ross.  I got back last Saturday from my two week trip to Santiago Chile / Mendoza Argentina.

I spent most of my time working at the office, but it was fun to speak Spanish all day and take a trip down memory lane.  Fortunately everything has not been overrun yet by TGI Fridays, Dunkin Donuts, Subway, Starbucks, etc...(despite all of these restaurants being within walking distance from my hotel in Santiago).

I have tried to summarize my experiences via the following lists...I have also attached some pictures.

5 best things:

1 - Asado

2 - Milanesa a la Napolitana

3 - Dulce de Leche

4 - Warmth / sunshine

5 - Hearing Spanish all day

5 weirdest things (about Chile):

1 - EARTHQUAKES - I was in a 5.1

2 - They eat hamburgers w/ knife and forks

3 - Avocados on EVERYTHING

4 - Pizza (so weird)

5 - Plants growing on the side of buildings

and finally, 5 thoughts and observations about Argentina:

1 - It looks EXACTLY the same (so much for progress - just dustier and more graffiti)
2 - I saw the one eyed dragon less than 1 hour after touching down at the airport...I never saw it in Chile
3 - Instead of speed bumps they had speed dips
4 - The inflation is out of control (4.30 ARS to 1.00 USD)
5 - It is depressing to see such a smart / good people struggling because of TERRIBLE governments

The best part of being gone for two weeks is coming back home (and try to rescue Annie).

so, so, so, so, funny

Yesterday morning I was sick.  All day yesterday I felt like crapola.  Halfway through our school morning routine I got hit by one of the metformin induced stomach aches that renders me totally helpless for a good two hours or more.

I called our dad.  I was in a panic but luckily he had the time and was able to rush home and get the five year old off to school.  That just left me and the Chick to fend for ourselves.

He had a snack, not including the plastic cannon he was thinking about eating, and he had the Mickey Mouse Club House on the boob tube.  He kept checking on me to make sure I was okay.

One of the best thing this kid does these days is tell stories.  They always start with, "Mom, it was so, so, so, so, so funny....." and end with something about the baby elephant "blasting a turd" at the zoo, Perry the Platypus thwarting the evil doctor, or something that he made his pirates do.

After I had recovered a bit and sat down on the couch with him and a cherry coke, I sent the above picture to his dad.  I am so grateful that this kid is so chill.  He always has been, always will be and I so, so, so, so love him for it.