my alarm clock...

it's not hard to wake up with feelin' loved when this is the alarm clock....a lil floofy alien face without eyes.

meet mini's friends...

when your children are little, you know everything there is to know 'bout their friends. but when they are in high school, it's harder to keep 'em all straight...'specially mini's friends - they seem to have names that are similiar (lilly, lila, lola, lizzy), are all long 'n lean and have the same hair-do. i recently asked her to snap their faces for me so i could keep 'em straight (the bodysnatcher part o' her tends to get annoyed when i mix 'em up as she tells me more about each than any mother wants to know).

this is the batch she returned with. i am not sure whether to be frustrated by her sense o' humor or delighted with her creativity.

flowers to brighten your day

if you're anything like me, i'm sure you could use a break from all the news o' the day...so i went outside a snapped a few pictures o' some pretty things for you. hope they take your mind off it all, if only for a few seconds.

coco 'n tink's new collars

we discovered the place where tink n' coco were bein' groomed spent less time on the groomin' and way too much time keepin' the lil girls in cages. tink would return so mad at me for allowin' someone to treat her in this less than royal way that she wouldn't even look at me for two days. it took us a while to find them a new beauty parlor but finally they have a new hairdresser and standin' appointments so that they remain clean n' fluffy.

the new dog beautifier told me that the reason their floof was always a bit tangled was because their lovely canine couture wasn't lined in satin....that if i'd line up all their doggy duds in the silky stuff they would remain tangle free between appointments. this made perfect sense to me but i have never had the time to tailor their togs to accommodate the detanglin'. in the meantime they have remained neeked and in my opinion, in need of a lil accessorizin'. i have searched for collars that were special enough for them to don to no avail. i even tried puttin' some lil doo dad on their heads but coco immediately removes hers and then rips out tink's.

finally, i figured out the perfect solution....a collar full o' momade blooms, complete with a lil ring on it - to attach a leash! this picture is of tink, modelin' (n' nappin') the first one i made. she 'n coco look so pretty on our walks that everyone we pass has to stop to ask about their collars. i'm thinkin' about not buyin' that satin for now...i may even have to do some up for others who desire fancy tanglefree duds for their dogs.

how to make a t-shirt flower

so many o' you have asked for help in makin' flowers from your own leftover bits 'n pieces that i thought i'd try explainin' the easiest ones ever....the ones i make outta old t-shirts. they're so easy that though i make 'em all the time, i never even considered includin' them in the directions i have been puttin' together. i often forget that sometimes the simplest thing is best to start with - it makes you feel so successful you are more tempted to tackle the more difficult.

all you need for these sweet flowers is any old t-shirt - the softer the better - some scissors, patterns for your circles - or the ability to draw somethin' close to a circle - and a needle and thread.

the flowers can be any size but it's better to start small and then make bigger ones once you have your technique down. just lay your circle pattern on the old t-shirt 'n cut out a circle and then one slightly smaller and then one slightly smaller than that one and keep doing this until you feel you can't go any smaller (if you email me at mojackson at mac dot com i'll send you some circles to get you started).

stack your t-shirt circles in a pile with the largest on the bottom and then stitch a big X smack dab in the middle.

you can stop here if you want but if you want yours to be fluffier, slice into the stitched stack about every half inch or closer. to fluff 'em up, just rub your hand over the top real fast....or if you are real darin', just dampen your bloom slightly and pitch it in the dryer for five minutes or so....when you take it out it will be oh so fluffy and fabulous.

once you are done you can tack on somethin' green as a leaf - some ribbon or any fabric cut in any shape to resemble a leaf. if you so desire, you can stitch a tad o' yellow or a button in the middle.

now...what should you do with your fabulous flowers? hot glue it on a barrette or safety pin....or make a big batch 'n string 'em together for a garland...stitch a few onto your bodysnatchers shirt (if stitched together well they'll look bloomier after each cycle!)...the possiblities for these momade blooms are endless! and be sure to let your little ones make some too...it's a perfect way to introduce the joys o' stitchin' to them.

floods 'n flowers

the day after my last april blog i once again damaged my old broken back. i had the pretty white day bed moved outta mini's 'playroom' and in it's place two floofy poofy white denim shabby chic custom made couches. this was in response to mini's desire to turn the playroom she took over at 16 months old into more of a space for someone her age. i saw it as changin' a charmin' room created for adorable and adored little children to play innocently into a place where body snatchers could study 'n snack and probably sulk 'n sneer and dependin' on who is supervisin', maybe even snuggle 'n smooch.

the next mornin' i went back to admire my redecoratin' only to discover a disaster...there was water everywhere and in the center o' the ceilin', a huge sorta bubble thing - a circle about 6 feet around. i walked over and stood right below it - lookin' up to try and understand what was happenin' and at that very moment - as if it had been carefully planned - that big bubble in the ceilin' burst and anything that hadn't been wet, includin' me, was drenched. along with the water came big chunks o' plaster. since the ceilin' continued to drip from just about every spot, i headed out to find those big rubbermaid bins we use to store stuff in and did my best to position 'em where they'd collect the most o' the drips. i then gathered all the old towels i could find and started soppin' up all the water. before headin' up to the attic to see what was causin' this latest calamity, i plopped down on a couch to rest a spell and then discovered one o' those things that are both good and bad. the good - seems the couches had soaked up most o' the water and this was the reason the damage wasn't much worse....the bad....the couches had soaked up most o' the water and were now just two big soggy not-so-white shabby not-so-chic sponges. it was when i tried to yank myself outta the big ol' shabby sponge that i realized i had hurt my back sometime durin' all my frantic action.

the cause o' the perilous indoor precipitation: seems the guys we have been payin' to come four times a year to maintain the air conditioners weren't doin' what they were supposed to and somethin' they shoulda' been cleanin' out each time appeared to have NEVER cleaned and therefore created the flood.

and this my friends, is the reason for my recent bloggin' hiatus and why i haven't yet fullfilled my promise to blog up some o' the blooms that grew outta my last adventure in puttin' on the rit. but here is a pile o' flowers, created while i once again spent too much time on the mend. i miss the blogdom durin' the times my calamities keep me away and do so appreciate that you never give up on me. i have promised my family i would try to be more careful but i probably won't...just know nothin' can keep me away for too long.

.

happy birthday dear michael

yes...it's that time o' year again...june 17th...when i celebrate the birth of my dear brother way back on the same day i turned three. as i have blogged on this day previously, i was told he was my birthday present and i have adored him ever since.

so has everyone else who has ever met him. of course...how can you not fall in love with a blonde curly haired melt your heart toddler who grew into an adventurous boy - some days saddlin' up our horse dixie for his transport to school and other days pilotin' the same route via unicycle - school books tucked under one arm while wavin' at all his drive-by fans with the other...a handsome teenager and breaker of many girl's hearts, the only reprieve from their pain the few hours he played a starrin' role under friday night lights...a hard-workin' young man and then a loving father - early enough to beat everyone else in earnin' the title of grandparent to many lil boys who - like everyone else - adore him.

he and queenie - my much older sister - are in and out of my thoughts throughout each of my days and while i hate bein' so very far away from them, i am always comforted in knowin' that though i drive them crazy, both would fulfill just about any request i made of them.

happy happy birthday michael! it will be a huge sacrifice to my impeccable dietary standards, but in your honor i'm gonna eat a coupla' extra pieces o' my mini-made coconut birthday cake.

result o' the rit...

so here's a bit o' part two o' my recent adventures in puttin' on the rit. now on to part three...equally as fun. i will blog up some o' the finished product shortly!

adventures in dyin'...

i have always loved the idea of bein' able to change the color of material things from one color to another. unfortunately my first forays into the doin' o' dyin' only donated more digits onto that dire list o' momade calamities.

my first dumb dye job was when i was but a teen livin' at home with a mother, who took pride in her crisp white nursin' uniforms and a father who liked his undershirt, boxers 'n socks to also be white (yet not crisp). unfortunately, of the options offered up on the back o' the box o' rit, i chose the washin' machine one to dye a pale pink poncho the most scarlet o' scarlets to wear to a party planned for plottin' the prom. once the old washer had done it's dyin', i threw the newly dyed item in the dryer...then, bein' that the laundry was on my list o' daily assignments, i dumped in the next round o' dirty duds, added a dab o' detergent 'n then danced away, anxious for the dryer to do it's tumblin'. i had been so busy dreamin' up all the creative things rit 'n i could do together, i forgot all about makin' sure the old washer would not pass on any remainin' scarlet to it's next inhabitants.

and pass it on that old washer did indeed do. my mothers caretakin' costumes 'n my dad's undergarments were as pink as my poncho had previously been. the possibilities o' punishments paradin' before me created a panic that made me pained 'n pale....the first penalty bein' that i would not be wearin' my previously pink poncho to the party as planned.

i swore to never dabble in dyin' again after that first most dangerous deed. but years later, as a lowly sorority pledge, i was designated the duty o' dyin' costumes brown for a skit to be performed durin' rush week. havin' learned a hard lesson about machine dyin, i decided i'd do 'em all up in a big ol' pot in the dorm kitchen which was situated on the same floor but on the opposite side o' the buildin'. i drug all the dresses down the long newly carpeted corriders and dutifully stirred the huge pot for the recommended time. once they were all the correct shade o' brown, i rinsed 'n wrung 'em all out in the sink and headed for the laundry room - which was right next to my room. it wasn't 'til i had those dresses in the dryer 'n departed the laundry room that i discovered the dark brown drippin' dye that marked my path from the kitchen to the laundry room.

after two dyin' calamities, i took a lifetime anti-rit oath that i planned to keep. but after a duo o' decades, the desire to dye took hold o' me once again. this time, bein' a homeownin' adult, i reasoned that i had no one to answer to for any damage i could possibly do. bein' frightened o' both the machine 'n the boilin' pot methods, i decided to create a method o' my own. i just line up the gallon mason jars in the old porcelain doo dad den tub, dump in the powdered rit 'n add hot water then do a lil stirrin'. i then deposit the items i desire dyed 'n leave 'em in til they are the dreamed about color, do the wringin' n' rinsin' there on the spot, then hang 'em from the towel rack. i keep the same jars goin' 'til they're just about empty 'n then just replenish 'em. when not in dyin' mode, the tub has always come perfectly clean 'n the only calamity has been a lil white dog gettin' a few purple spots on her head.

so far the rewards o' returnin' to the rit have been worth risk. here's a shot o' my current batch - ribbons 'n bits o' this 'n that determined to become a flurry o' flowers.

mini's chapeau panier de Pâques

i had meant to post up the easter basket i made for mini much sooner...but i have been so tired all i've wanted to do if i had a spare moment is sleep. this is quite unusual for me as i tend to avoid sleepin' as much as possible - it always seems like such a waste o' time. i wish i could be like mini's daddy - at any point he can take a nap for a mere 20 minutes and is completely refreshed and ready to get goin' again. if i ever attempt to nap i wake all discobubilated and feel creepy for the rest o' the day.

enough about the zzzzzzzzs though....here is the shot o' mini's chapeau panier de Pâques......an easter basket made out of a hat.

the hat i used once belonged to her great great - possibly one more great belongs in there - aunt francine. i was even able to dig up a photo of her wearin' the very chapeau!

i chose this exact chapeau as it was the most cloche o' my cloche collection and therefore had the most area to fill. even so, i ended up havin' to set this hat basket in the basket mini has used for the bunny to deposit his goods every year o' her life as i needed a bit more fillin' room.

if you have a pretty hat you wanna turn into an easter basket next year, it is oh so very simple....i just twisted up a length o' muslin and then twirled wire 'round it until it would hold the desired handle shape....then wrapped it with satin ribbon, leavin' a bit extra on each end. i then used my second favorite tool - the hot glue gun - to attach it to the hat and once the glue was no longer hot, used the extra ribbon on both ends to make the points where it was attached nice 'n tidy. i lined my chapeau panier de Pâques with matchin' satin but it would have been fine without it.

hmmmm.....you know....maybe it's all that sugar i ate while tryin' to have just the perfect amount to fill mini's basket - i didn't want any to go to waste - that's makin' me so sleepy. i'll ponder that while i doze off here for a bit.....thanks for stoppin' by!

wisteria hysteria

been busy in the garden 'n snapped a few shots so i could show off my wisteria. it seems to be doin' fine even though i forgot to add it's favorite snack (superbloom) at all this year. i only have two planted - one original to the house (which makes it almost 100 years old) and the other i only planted three years ago. the old one makes it's way down one side o' the property 'n the new one went in a direction completely different than i planned but i'm pleased it did....it jumped a walkway, rode the top o' a brick wall and is now makin' it's way toward the rooftop of the north side o' the house.

now...back out to see if i can get the hydrangeas to join in the bloomin' easter parade. thanks for stoppin' by!

mini's marvelous minty morsels

i love brownies and it may be 'cause i was born in bangor, maine where supposedly the delicious chocolate treat was invented accidently.

my mom told me that a bangor housewife named betina brown baked a chocolate cake for her husband benjamin brown's brother bob's birthday. seems betina botched up somethin' while bakin' and her plans for a beautiful birthday bundt failed. instead she had something much denser 'n flatter than a cake but taller 'n less cripsy than a cookie.

since benjamin would be bringin' the birthday boy, his brother bob, to their abode before she ould bake another bundt, betina decided to go on and ice the flat cake, cut it into squares 'n serve 'em up on a platter with a big candle pokin' out from the one on top.

betina's accident was a huge success with bob 'n bejamin 'n from that point on betina's 'brownie' was what all members o' the brown family requested for their birthday treat. in no time the betina's brownie started appearin' at everything from birthdays to barmitvahs across the country and quickly became a traditional american desired dessert.

though i am not sure who invented them, i also love junior mints ....mostly eaten in the dark o' a movie theatre but mini's daddy always jams a couple o' boxes in my christmas stockin' so i like eatin' 'em surrounded by ripped up wrappin' paper piles too.

always aimin' to bribe me with her bakin' talents n' aware of my love of chocolate brownies 'n junior mints, mini started bakin' me what she called junior mint brownies not long after her bakin' carreer began. she'd stir up a box o' her favorite brownie mix in two pans and once right outta the oven, she'd dumb boxes o' junior mints on top o' one and then place the layer from the other pan on top, wait just a few minutes for a lil meltin' to take place and then put the whole shabang in the fridge. the result was so delicious she was banned from bakin' them too often.

over the years she has perfected her minty brownie recipe and it is too good not to share with you. it's perfect for all celebrations as the minty layer can be made any color with a bit o' food colorin'.

for the brownies:
use your favorite brownie recipe or even bake up a batch from a box. the ones i like best are dense and fudgy. mini uses her cream cheese brownie recipe most often and you can find oodles o' those online. mini lines her brownie pans with foil - one piece arcoss the bottom n' up the sides one way n' another piece the other way. she then pops 'em in a preheated oven for about 25 minutes or until the brownies start to pull away from the sides n' the edges just begin to brown. if you poke a toothpick in the center it will come out just about clean. when all that happens, she takes 'em outta the oven n' puts the pan on a wire rack to cool. they will stay in the pan until they are ready to cut n' serve.

once you've baked the batch o' brownies, it's time to concoct the marvelous minty layer:
you're gonna need....
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup of confectioners (powdered) sugar, sifted
1 1/2 tablespoons heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon pure peppermint extract or 1-2 tablespoons creme de menthe
your choice o' food colorin'

dump everything but the food colorin' of your choice into a bowl....with an electric mixer , beat all the ingredients until smooth. NOW a few drops of food coloring n' swirl around 'til you are happy with the result. if the frosting is too thick, add a little extra cream - it needs to be just thick but thin enough to spread...now spread it evenly over your COOLED brownie layer and put in the refrigerator until firm...this should take about 10 minutes...just enough time for you to make the glaze!

the chocolate glaze:
for the glorious glaze you'll need...
4 oz Semisweet Chocolate
1/4 cup Heavy Cream

this time you'll need a heatproof bowl...dump your chopped chocolate 'n butter in it and melt 'em over pan of simmerin' water n' the whisk until creamy smooth...then spread it over the minty layered brownies and refrigerate for another 30 minutes.

and finally...they are ready to serve!
to remove the brownies from the pan, just lift ends of the foil and transfer the whole shabang to a cutting board. cut into lil squares with your sharpest knife, wipin' the blade with a damp cloth between cuts. if you don't eat them all within the hour, you can store them in the fridge or even freeze 'em. but be aware that freezin' 'em won't keep you from eatin' 'em...i have tried that thinkin' it would make it harder for me to gobble them down...but they are just as easy to eat frozen!

if you bake up a batch o' these delicious desserts, please take a picture n' send it to me along with how long it took for them to disappear! and if you are new to my blog n' like chocolate chip cookies, please give mini's recipe a try....you can find it here!

the body snatcher

i have been very busy workin' on a new project n' as i've been workin' i've been tryin' to figure out when it was that the body snatcher (that had been here previously) sent her even less charmin' sister to break back into my home to possess my mini again. and also, what hormone or such is it that takes hold - in a blink of an eye - that makes a young person suddenly think they know everything there is to know about everything that could possibly come up in conversation? this led to more thinkin' n' ponderin' about many other things....like...why do young people - 'specially those possessed by creepy other beins' - go to the trouble o' askin' you how they look before leavin' the house for this or that and even twirl n' spin for you so nothin' is missed 'n then once you have given them the opinion they so much desired, why then do they look at you like you're plain nuts, make huffy puffy sounds 'n then go change everything they had been showin' off to you? these are questions i'd like to discover the answers for.

all this leads me to thinkin' about that big lipped octomom with the fourteen kids....thinkin' that if she had birthed just one o' the previous six earlier and already experienced the early double digit ages with 'em, she would have never ever gone on and had eight more.

today's picture is a snapshot o' the other two girls i am mother to...both just as spoiled as my beloved mini but much much easier to live with.

drivin'

my father had some very strict rules when it came to earnin' your drivin' privilege. we had to learn to drive a standard transmission and did so by spendin' a couple o' hours in the ol' chevy without any air conditionin' in the dusty vacant lot between hatton elementary school and the presbyterian church. we also had to have the ability to change a flat tire by ourself and, after sittin' for what seemed like a hunderd hours in front of the lil chalkboard we used to play school with while he chalked out all sorts o' foreign lookin' diagrams, we had to know exactly how a car worked so we'd know what to do if it didn't.

even after i passed my father's stringent driver's education, i failed the first three attempts to obtain the much desired license. i aced the written portion o' the testin' - it was the actual drivin' part that i had the triple trouble with. the first effort was so pathetic that before departin' the parkin' lot, the poor policeman panicked and told me to pull over promptly. i was told not to appear again until i was properly prepared.

queenie was assigned to give me another sweaty session in the vacant lot and though she allowed me only 15 minutes cause she had twirlin' practice that afternoon and didn't want to have the naugahyde pattern from the seats fried into the back o' her thighs, i optimistically set up a new session o' testin.

i can't blame my second failed attempt on her tryin' to save her lovely legs though....that time was completely my father's fault cause he had told me so many times not to take my eyes off the road that i never did - i stared straight ahead the whole time - i never took my eyes off the road - even when the policeman told me to change lanes or to back up. this time the officer by my side said little but did seem close to slappin' me when we finally returned to the DMV parkin' lot.

on the third try i performed perfectly until the policeman proposed i demonstrate a bit o' parallel parkin'. i had never participated in any sorta parkin' - at least not in the front seat or in daylight - and i pleaded with the policeman for pity points. but once again i departed the appointment without earnin' enough points for the drivin' privilege.

the fourth foray into fightin' for the right to navigate four wheels on my own was a complete success only because my lifelong friend bruce smith figured my bad fortune was due to the rule that i take the test in a stick shift and convinced my father to let me give it a try in his own automatic instead. i was finally an official licensed driver. only problem was, though i didn't realize it and no one else seemed to care, i really had no idea how to drive.

over the oh so many years that have followed, i have become a competent cautious driver but i am sure i used up a bundle o' the lifetime o' luck we're doled out at birth survivin' those first few years o' travelin' the highways and byways o' east texas and probably forced anyone who traveled alongside me or past me to use up much o' theirs too.

the time i have dreaded since givin' birth to mini is now loomin' - her desirin' drivin' privileges of her own. i find myself feelin' sick at even the thought o' her drivin' down our long driveway and takin' to the road on wheels...without a helmet or knee pads or even wrists guards. i've been brainwashin' her from the time she was born into thinkin' it would be much nicer to be driven than to drive but now that her age is in the double digits her mind is no longer easily molded.

i have poked around the blogdom hopin' to find some other mothers who may have discovered some sort o' technique to overcome the fear o' handin' over the car keys to the children they have loved and protected since beginnin' life a mere sixteen years ago...even one mother who can tell me how to continue to breathe when a child is out and about - commandin' a large movin' vehicle among other large movin' vehicles - and a siren can be heard off in the distance...but...so far i have found nothin'. i can't possibly be the only mother who wants to run from the room screamin' every time the subject of a learner's permit comes up...can i?

if any o' you can help me with this drivin' dilemma i'd be ever so grateful and promise to return the favor if ever i have helpful motherin' advice your'e in need of.

dust bustin'

early spring cleanin'...that's what has kept me blogless for so very long. it all started when the backyard trailer dwellin' dame (my cousin jo for those o' you who may be stoppin' by for the first time) - deposited the latest model o' the dust buster into the doo dad den. she won it as third prize in a drawin' down at the wall-mart. first prize was an autographed glossy o' her dream dude fabio.

jo donated her prize to me because the week before she accidently busted up lil flo's tail durin' her weekly doggie groomin' via dust buster session (thankfully the tail is still safely attached to the lil dog) and neither jo or flo can tolerate the site or sound of even a half charged buster for a while - if ever. this is a really big deal for jo cause she swears that any domestic chore can be taken care of with just a dust buster and a tub o' baby wipes.

anyway...once i got the sleek blue and cream colored plastic cordless buster fully charged 'n ready to go i left the doo dad den armed and determined to discover a lil dust to bust. in days past this would'a been a duty deemed difficult as della, our housekeeper for over a decade, was dedicated to domestic perfection. but not long ago some dastardly gang gatherin' developed in her district and she decided to pack up her family, cash in her 401k and depart for wisconsin. after some deliberation, we decided to designate della's duties to dena, the part-time domestic diva. apparently this wasn't the decision best suited for situation 'cause my adventure in seekin' a lil dust bustin' turned into two and a half months o' hard core bustin', scrubbin' and reorganizin'. seems dena is blind to dust and loves to 'stuff' stuff...in fact, i'm thinkin' maybe dena is in the wrong profession altogether.

my full-time domicile do-over has left lil time for anything else - includin' my plan o' bloggin' every day in 2009 or designin' many doo dads for delivery via download. but as bad as i have felt about havin' to neglect the online part o' my life, i love any kinda' hard labor and enjoyed myself thoroughly.

for those o' you who emailed, worried that i was blogless due to some new calamity, i'm proud to say i experienced only one minor yet major-ly painful episode in the almost three months i have been away from blogdom....that bein' the bedazzelin' of the bottoms o' both feet while reorganizin' mini's craft closet. i have known pain in my life but a bedazzeled body part ranks right up there with a root canal. as for the un-bedazzlin', in pain and in a panic, i grabbed the new dustbuster and sucked those damn dazzlers right out, wiped up the blood with a baby wipe and donned foot protection while performin' the rest o' my domestic tour o' duty. seems jo was right after all about bein' able to solve any domestic situation with just a dust buster and a tub o' baby wipes.

thanks for stoppn' by even when i didn't...i'll try not to get sidetracked again any time soon!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

a bit o' this 'n that

just stopped in to post a few shots o' some o' my holiday doin's. ...too exhausted for much more.

that top picture is this year's replacement for the poinsetta...see - our lil cocobelle will try n' chew just about anything so poinsettas are no longer acceptable. these'll look nicer out in the garden for a while too so it's better all the way 'round.

the second shot is the result o' havin' only two sizes of boxes - really big and really small...but havin' a medium batch o' presents needin' to be shipped off to someone near and dear. i had no choice but to make a medium sized box. mini triple taped it once i built it. SO...whoever receives this masterpiece - if it indeed survives and arrives - please know your box may be ugly but alot o' love went into it.

three, four and five are just a few o' the fireplaces here in our big ol' house - all gussied up with lots o' leaves from the magnolia tree out front. while i do still long for a mantel or two to set up some lil snowly villages or miniature trailer parks on, i think i made the best of a manteless situation.

i do so hope your holiday preparations are goin' well and that you get everything you wish for from good ol' saint nick! xoxoxoxomo

a shabby calamity

the year is drawin' to an end and unless someone pops up at the last minute to challenge me for the crown, looks like i'll carry the title o' calamity cowgirl for one more year.

i was really doin' pretty well 'til right after i last visited here back in october i believe it was...it may have even happened that same night...no...guess since it was after midnight it would be considered the day AFTER that last blog. oh GET ON WITH IT i can hear you thinkin' so i will continue tappin' out my shabby calamity for you...not for your pity of course. just had so many people hear i had an accident and then worry - since i've been away so long - that it was somethin' worse than causin' pain in every single part o' my body and the loss o' some teeth...

it was after midnight and i walked outta the doo dad den into the upstairs landin' - real fast cause i always head here and there real fast...i had only taken two or three steps when i ran into somethin' that was about waist high but not too solid...so as i tried to get around it, it sorta' went with me. somehow i ended up kinda flyin' over the top o' this waist-high-not-too-solid thing, smashed my mouth on the arm o' the couch and then slammed, knees first, into the rug - one o' those wool, rough, thick threaded rugs. this rug is so rough and thick threaded that it peeled away all the skin from both o' my knees.

at first i was just sorta shocked...i run in and outta that door a zillion times a day without anything hurlin' me across the upstairs foyer so i felt as if i had been attacked...that lasted only a few seconds...then the pain set in and i just laid there and howled. coco and tink came to my rescue but once again - like when that rat chased me upstairs - both of us screaming all the way - my family slept right through my latest accident.

next thing i knew jo was wakin' me up on the couch back in the doo dad den. everything hurt too much to sit up and though jo was jabberin' away as usual, i didn't hear a word she said...'TIL she asked me if i was practicin' my halloween costume and what a good job i had done makin' it look like some o' my teeth were missin'. sure enough, when i peered into the lookin' glass, i found that along with losin' the skin off my knees - and elbows - i had lost some teeth. seems this latest calamity o' mine was a big one...the biggest in quite some time.

the cause o' my late night trippin' can be seen in the photo posted along with this painful blog....that pretty green wire planter though multiplied and stacked. mini's daddy bought them for me one weekend in santa barbara and i have crammed them full o' flowers ever since. they have always made me happy....'til i asked that they be located cause i was thinkin' they needed a fresh coat o' paint. someone indeed located them and to prove it placed them in a neat stack RIGHT outside the door o' the den. i guess locatin' them was supposed to be a surprise of some sort and some sort o' surprise it certainly was.

i have since spent waaay too many hours in the dentist's chair and have many more ahead o' me. i'm hopin' i remain calamity free at least until ALL my teeth and knee skin are back in place.

if you know of a worthy contender for the crown, let me know...i am more than willin' to pass it on to someone else - for at least a year. i have lots o' catchin' up to do and sure could use the time off.

wishin' for a do-over

there was one thing almost every mother who had mothered before me seemed to feel i needed to know back when mini was really a mini and i so proudly carted her around hither and yon. all those other mothers looked me right in the eye and each said 'they grow up so fast'. i always gave them my best courtesy smile and acted much appreciative of these words said to me over and over but in my head was thinkin' what the hell are they talkin' about...time is time no matter what's growin' in it and there's no way the time raisin' my mini was gonna go any faster than other years and all my other years had never seemed to go by any faster or slower than they were intended to go by especially the not quite eight months it took to make her which seemed to last forever.

this is my official apology to all those other mothers...i sincerely apologize for givin' you my best courtesy smile and thinkin' you were speakin' nonsense and want you to know that nowadays when i run into some other mother who is cartin' around some tiny creature, i first seriously evaluate whether or not she looks like the type to sell me her bitty bundle and once that's ruled out - and so far it has always been ruled out - i find myself sayin' those same lame soundin' words to her.....'they grow up so fast'.

and while i'm apologizin' about such things i should apologize to my mother too...i sure wish i had known to do so before she donned her wings and halo but better late than never. mom - i am truly sorry that back when you would tell me stories about when i was a baby and things i had done or said or ate or wore that i practiced different courtesy smiles on you and was thinkin' you just HAD to be makin' it all up as you went along cause who could possibly remember such detail from SO long ago and though it was truly dear of you to want to entertain me with those tender tales about me from the old days, i was always left feelin' you had missed your true callin' as with such an incredible imagination you should'a been a novelist.

i now see mini practicin' her own courtesy smile on me when i go on and on and on about her early years. it was only recently durin' one o' those walks down that wonder filled memory lane that i realized instead o' workin' to record each o' my wistful words in her own memory, she was thinkin' i was wacky for tryin' to convince her i could actually remember anything that happened that long ago when i spend half my time tryin' to remember where i set the pen to my wacom screen just moments before. but i truly do remember each and every motherin' minute as if it was just yesterday and wish i could relive them all over and over again...well...i might skip a few o' those visits from the body snatcher but otherwise they are all precious to me.

mini did grow up too fast and i am not happy about it in any way. at the beginnin' of the summer she said somethin' that i still haven't recovered from...even thinkin' about the words that came outta her lil heart shaped lips bring big blobbety tears to my eyes and create a sharp pain in my stomach. they were words so horrible that i wasn't even able to call upon my years o' practicin' and finally masterin' my much envied courtesy smile as a response. she was in the midst of her daily bakin' and was complainin' to jo that her daddy had promised her a new kitchen from the time she first donned a chef's hat at almost three and that if he didn't get it goin' soon it would be too late since she we only had her for few more years.

A FEW MORE YEARS! how'd that happen? i'm still tryin' to work off those last few pounds from cartin' her around inside o' me all those months. a few more years? how'd the time fly by so fast. what's worse is she actually sounded as if this was a good thing although she was at the beatin' stage of the daily bakin' so maybe not...but maybe so. there's a chance she might be ready in a few years but there's absolutely no way i'll be anywhere near ready. i wish i could ask for a do-over. but since i can't i'll do my best to make the most of whatever time i get to spend with her....i'll even try to embrace those visits from the self-centered body snatcher.

next week mini will be goin' on her first extended trip away from home....a school trip - campin' and canoein' down some river. the only campin' she's ever done was in the backyard and from the fashion show she gave me and jo tonight of all the couture campin' ensembles she's packin, i'm not sure she realizes the canoe will be powered by her own efforts. i am sure that it will be a hard week for me...good thing i've got so many doo dads to finish designin' for delivery via download to occupy my time - time which i am sure will go very slowly.

a new dilemma in the doo dad den

so i am beginnin' to think i am NOT supposed to be on the internet in any way. seems no sooner do i knock one barrier outta the way, somehow another one pops up. i am thinkin' this is a sign the internet gods are sendin' me and i am too hardheaded to hear what they are tryin' to say.

as i may have written here on the ol' blog, in july i experienced a website owner's worst nightmare - or at least the worst as i know it so far....i went to my site via ftp and there was nothin' there - nada....zero....zip. seems someone decided to wipe me out completely. it has taken me from that first minute o' terror 'til now to get things almost back to normal. i still have much to do though so once again on saturday i sat down in my shabby pilot's chair to continue my repair work and low and behold i couldn't access my site...no part of it. i jumped up and fiddled with the airport, said a lil prayer and plopped back down quite sure my site would appear on the screen. but no success. i abandoned the larger screens and fired up the new lap top to see if i had better luck there....but no....my site refused to appear on the brand spankin' new equipment either.

i continued through my actual domain testin' every computer i could find to see if my cyber domain would appear and it failed to do so on any computer in any room. the weird thing was, i could get everyone else's site and discovered everyone else could see mine. i seemed to be the only one with the problem.

for the rest o' the day i tried just bout everything i could think of to get my site to appear for me but nothin' worked. i contacted the weekend help at my web host (they are never any help but i had run outta things to try) and they said there was no problem on their end (this is what they always say). i finally gave up and decided to go to bed. i was certain a new day would bring with it the ability to get to my site.

it didn't. after only a short time i became so frustrated tryin' to figure it out that i finally just reclined on the shabby couch and covered my head. i guess i was really in need of an extended bit o' time away from the screen as next thing i knew it was this morning - and i still can't get to my site. i called my web host - i always have better luck with the weekday workers - and the guy there says it's my internet provider's fault. i called my internet provider and they say it's the web host's fault.

i only wish it was MY fault...then i would have more hope that it could be fixed. i could go back over everything i have done and un-do it.

mini's daddy has now taken over the job o' figurin' out this latest dilemma in the doo dad den. i have my fingers crossed that he'll have better luck than i have figurin' out this newest obstacle that's keepin' me from dishin' out the doo dads i have designed for delivery via downoad.

in the meantime, since so many o' you were more concerned about my fluffy white constant companions than me durin' my long hiatus from bloggin', i thought i'd blog up a picture to let you know that tink and coco are alive and well and as cute as ever. i only wish they were a bit more help sometimes!

yoo hoo...here i am...

where the heck are you mo so many o' you have written and asked....so i decided i better get over here and answer. i didn't mean to let so much time pass since i last came 'round...in fact i have felt a heavy burden each day i have been forced to stay away for one reason or 'nother. i wish i could say i was just too lazy to poke out any words on the keyboard cause i could use big dose o' lazy about now but i fear it's just the opposite...i seem to always have about eight hours more i wanna do each day than i can cram into the twenty-four that are provided.

i have a multitude o' excuses i can provide to explain why the ol' blog here has been showin' you the same words over and over and over again - some quite acceptable and others maybe a bit suspicious - so i better not try to list 'em all out for you at one time. for now i'll just give you the number one cause for my disappearance for so long.

you might recall that my laptop - my preferred tool for peckin' out words as opposed to pictures could only provide me with a portion o' viewin' area since i first took it outta the box. even after many o' trip back to it's place o' origin for repair, it refused to allow me more than two thirds a peep onto the screen and that was only if i had a variety o' different pinchin' accessories hangin' off all sides. it seemed to lose a parcel more pixels each time i fired it up and i found i was spendin' more time tryin' to locate the exact pinchin' spot for success than i actually gettin' to create any words with it. i promise i did attempt to blog out some words on the big screen but every time - before i knew it - i'd have a hunderd or so photoshop windows goin' at once and i'd forget all about the words waitin' to tumble out o' my noggin.

finally a few weeks ago, after spendin' most o' the mornin' tryin' to locate the big industrial sized clamp i knew i had seen somewhere in the garage, jo stuck her head outta her home on wheels - which is parked close enough to the garage that me clankin' my way through the big red tool box had become quite annoyin' to someone who had only recently arrived home from an evenin' out on the town - and made a not so polite suggestion that it was time i pitched the no-screen mac in the pile with those that had come before and get a new one.

i'm not sure why but i had not even pondered the possibility that the answer to the persistent problem o' findin' the proper pinchin' apparatus was to just pitch the pesky computer and get one with a proper mount o' peepin' area. so after bringin' jo a couple o' advil from the big house and apologizin' politely for pryin' away so much o' her post party beauty sleep, i went directly to the doo dad den and ordered up a brand new laptop.

it took a while for me to actually push the button to complete the transaction. i had afterall never purchased a computer myself. in the past they have all been provided by mini's daddy who shops the apple store like some people shop for groceries. i never knew there were so many choices to make and i found myself anguishin' over each one. finally the titillatin' thought o' actually havin' a whole screen starin' back at me and no longer gettin' popped in the face by clothespins flyin' off their pinchin' location was too much for me and i checked every option available and punched my way to checkout success.

i am delighted to have shoved the lemon laptop under the shabby couch and therefore lose my number one excuse for not properly tendin' to my poor neglected blog. for those o' you who have never given up on me, i went out this mornin' and plucked what might be the last round o' roses til maybe february for you. wish i could deliver 'em directly but hopefully this shot will do.

mother's day serenade

a belated happy mother's day to all of you current and future mothers! i woke up to a lovely serenade by our dear coco (shown in the pic o' the day delivering one o' many encores) and was smothered with lots o' presents and a big chocolate mini-made cake that will take miles and miles logged into the pedometer's tiny window to work off. i truly hope that everyone else's day turned out just as delicious!

calamity cowgirl

i have been called calamity jane all my life. i first remember hearin' this nickname back when queenie passed on her cowgirl outfit to me after ditchin' it for a faux velvet cape and septor (an old baton with a tennis ball attached to the top). she had worn the cowgirl garb since watchin' a bedazzled crown bestowed upon a bareback ridin' beauty while attendin' one of our father's bronco bustin' rodeo performances.

the crownin' of the rodeo queen was her introduction to royalty and from that point on she wanted to be the queen of everything and immediately demanded the cowgirl outfit. she reigned the world around her in cowgirl couture until she discovered there was a queen of england. being queen of a country was much more appealing than rulin' a monarchy o' men, sometimes manly lookin' women and manure so she ditched the cowgirl costume for attire more fittin' her new exhalted position and i was able to move up from nurse to a hand-me-down cowgirl.

i was so delighted that queenie allowed me to wear the rejected cowgirl outfit that i didn't mind the occasional bop on the head with her faux septor.  jo had'a cowgirl outfit and had changed her name to 'fannie oakley' and as we traveled between the trailers she got much more respect than i did, followin' in my nurse's get-up, totin' that black plastic medical bag that made my hand so sweaty.

jo and i wore our cowgirl clothin' unless it was really hot outside and then we'd become beauty contestants or movie stars 'cause they could wear swimsuits. bein' a five year old with a lisp - among other speech impediments - wearin' blue rhinestone eyeglasses, special shoes for pigeon toes and the need for at least three band-aids stuck to me someplace at all times, it's a miracle i had any self-esteem. i guess knowin' i could be a courageous cowgirl or runner-up in a beauty contest whenever i wanted kept it from disappearing altogether. the only thing was...even if i appeared in water wear on one o' the beauty contestant days, everyone still called me calamity jane. queenie told me calamity jane was a very famous, altho not royal, cowgirl, and that i shouldn't complain and to remember to take my cowgirl hat off in her presence. 

it wasn't until jo and i were attemptin' to entertain queenie with a royal horse show and i broke my arm while tryin' to perform tricks bareback on our horse dixie that i realized why i was called calamity jane. two weeks later when i was finally taken to the doctor i overheard my mom tell the doctor that i was 'accident prone' and that they had become used to 'one calamity after another'.

i don't think i earned this nickname by bein' careless...it's just that i find myself attemptin' to do more things that can lead to calamatous adventures than maybe the typical person. these adventures have led to a number o' broken bones, lots o' stitches and often bein' able to tell anyone, if they should ask, what doctor was on call at the nearest emergency room.

i haven't done much to keep my title since becomin' a mother to mini....until the last coupla' months. suddenly i seem to be makin' up for lost time.  maybe it's 'cause mini is older and i have more non-mother time....or it could be cause jo's been around more and she brings it out in me.....whatever the reason, it appears calamatizin' is like ridin' a bike....it comes right back to you.

the year o' 2008 has given me about one calamity a week so far. though most fall into the comical area on the calamity scale, there's two or three that have created panic or work or pain on my part. the first and most time consumin' to fix was the collapse of a wall of books and fabric here in the doo dad den. i had just finished puttin' the finishin' touches on this year's crop o' easters eggs and heard a creekin' noise right above me. before i had time to ponder it's source, the very top shelf, full o' carefully alphabetized by title books, came crashin' down'...as it traveled it brought along with it the five shelves below, full of fabric - mostly those pesky fat quarters. the eggs did not survive the avalanche although the macs, me and the fluffy dogs did. it took me almost a month to put everything back in place. if you look closely i am sure you can tell which shelf got filled last...i spent the first coupla weeks carefully foldin' each piece o' fabric...but toward the end i was so sick of it and my hands were so crispy dry i just started hurlin' the pieces into any open space.

after i placed the last book and hurled the final patterned piece into place, i decided i deserved a lil sewin' time. shortly after i started i sewed right through my mousin'/typin' finger.....in the tip and out the side...with the zig zag stitch. in no time my whole arm was bruised and swollen - i guess from tryin' to jerk it outta the way once i saw what was happenin'. it has finally stopped hurtin' quite so bad this week altho jo swears there's a piece o' needle still tucked inside.

my most recent calamity was my dumbest to date. i had worked up a real thirst somehow and grabbed the closest water bottle. unfortunately i forgot i had poured bleach into it the night before to clean up a lil mess tink and coco made with one o' the snacks they insist on bringin' into the doo dad den so they can be close to me. i completely freaked out....i couldn't remember if doin' such a thing would kill me right away or if i had some time to put on a bit o' lipstick and mascara so when i was found i would be a more attractive. i could've looked it up on the internet but really didn't wanna know. i decided i'd wait until mini and her daddy got home and, if i was still alive, ask mini's daddy if i should go to the emergency room. i knew the answer would depend on what was on t.v. that night. apparently it was somethin' good as he told me i should drink lots of water and i'd be fine. i was a bit nervous waitin' to see what happened as the bleach traveled through my system but he was right - i am fine though maybe cleaner and paler..

i'm sure the rest o' 2008 will provide me with less calamity and much more calm. it appears i'm gonna need it 'cause while i was busy cleanin' up and healin' mini has decided she should start datin' and she isn't talkin'about the kind where your mother drives you to the chosen locale. luckily i was given a short reprieve when her report card arrived and showed a need for improvement. the next will arrive the middle o' june so i don't have much time to come up with the next delay. in the meantime i'm no longer naggin' her about gettin' her homework done every night and for the first time ever i'm hopin' she doesn't get straight As.

i hope 2008 has seen fewer calamities for you and if not, that yours are as easily fixed as mine....and if any o' you have suggestions for dealin' with datin' daughters i'd love to hear from you!

what would martha say...

back when martha still had her mail order catalog, she offered up this fancy wooden multi-tiered doo dad. she showed it all dolled up with little villages populated with those cute lil glittery cardboard houses and trees - all smothered in faux snow. it was so chamin' that i just had to oder one up to be fed-ex'd to put on the entry table here at the moland mansion.

while i saw it as havin' a multitude of holiday displayin' possibilities, no one else in my family thought much of my newly obtained 'thing'. i didn't let this squash my plans for usin' it though. when chistmas rolled around that year, jo and i were delighted to unveil our own vision o' martha's charmin' village - three tiers jammed packed with a twinklin' tinsel filled trailer park town. i am sure if i could find the shots we took from all sides, includin' from above, you'd agree it put martha's effort to shame - especially since ours included miniature versions o' the special park people we knew and loved durin' our youth and teeny plastic pink flamingos in pullin' santa's sled.

for some reason when christmas was packed away that year, martha's multi-tiered wooden doo dad got lost and i plum forgot all about it. but this year it reappeared and i discovered a more practical way to use it year round. maybe one o' you readers is also a disorganized messy artist lookin' for a way to work while keepin' lots o' itty bitty supplies to pick and choose from close at hand and can rig up somethin' similar.

i pondered for a long time how to make it work like a real lazy susan - you know - where it would twirl around so i could choose doo dads from all sides...but i'm not very mechanical and didn't have a clue how to do that...so instead, i put wheels on the round table it sits upon and now with just a slight push, i have access to all sides without much effort!

i'm sure martha would not be pleased if she saw' her fancy multi-tiered 'thing' bein' used in such a way...although i am certain she would have been impressed when it debuted as a trailer park.

thanks so much for stoppin' by...if you have a better idea for this doo dad decoratin dilemma please share it! i am sure i'm not the only person who is constantly tryin' to invent solutions for the semi-hopeless.

xoxoxoxoxoxmo

...i haven't been able to access my yahoo mailbox for most of the past week so please forgive me if you wrote to me there and i have not responded....i'm headin' there now and have my fingers crossed it's up and runnin' again.

mailin' momades

i worked like a demon doo dad'n designer to finish up a big batch o' momades for inspired amy. when i finally finished i asked for a shippin' box and plopped down on the shabby couch for a small rest while i waited for the cardboard bin to arrive in the doo dad den....at which time i would pack up all the momades and send them on their way. but i was so tired i fell fast asleep and woke up long after the day's shippin' deadline.....nary a thing left moland for inspired amy's waiting hands.

i felt so guilty for not gettin' the goods on their way that i used up the time i had til the next shippin' opportunity to dress each of my makin's up in their own lil outfit. i think all but one or two of 'em ended up in cute but sort'a rustic lil 'dresses' tied with the twine jo bought for mini to tie her tamales up with (mini's latest cookin' feat is to make a batch of every variation of tamale known to mankind with a different kind o' chocolate cake baked between each batch to cleanse our palette for a proper tamale taste test).

i finally got the brown carton out the door and to inspired amy but was further annoyed with myself to find all the lady chapeaus and additional fancy pin cushion eggs had somehow 'rolled' outasite and didn't make the trip this time 'round! i pondered, as i often do while deliverin' doo dads via download...it's a good thing i don't support my family off my attempts at bein' a worldwidewebmerchant cause if i did mini, her daddy, jo and the many pets would starve to death.

thankfully i'm much better at actually makin' the goods than i am at ever gettin' 'em to leave the doo dad den. so for those o' you who have written me to complain about the few eggs disappearin' so fast....if you still desire one to arrive possibly after the big egg day, let amy know and i'll send the runaway batch in the next box. after all, they do make the most delightful pincushions all year round.

xoxoxoxoxoslomo

sickly

i've been sick - AGAIN- and thought i'd better admit to it here in blogdom and ask for forgiveness from all who have emailed me this past week and have been gettin' annoyed that i have not yet responded. i was already behind before i fetched a few degrees o' fever but friday finds me feelin' in finer form so i am hopin' to empty all mailboxes before my head hits the pillow tonight!

i have a problem doin nothin' even when i'm sickly so while my head was too fuzzy for fetchin' emails durin' my fever fest, i was able to continue plantin' my indoor garden while reclinin' on the ol' shabby couch. thought i'd put up a few o' the felt variety o' flowers to brighten your friday. hope the rest o' you are stayin' healthy....and of course happy!

p.s. wow....i just found many many emails in the yahoo spam file....looks like i am much much more behind than i ever thought. if you have been waitin' a REEEAALLYY long time to hear back from me, please please forgive me...i had no idea that i needed to check there! you will hear from me lickety split!

an accidental garden

i have worked really hard not to let the recent mo-bash and idea thievin' effect me but i have an inklin' i have not succeeded. without realizin' it, for the first time since i started designin' doo dads for delivery via download, i have created more real doo dads than those of the digital sort. i do believe that this is because my beloved macs have felt more like enemies than my dear friends. i know it's silly to feel that way....all those cyber bullies doin' the bashin' and the artists that have stolen from me aren't INSIDE the computers...but their behavior has sure jerked away a bit o' the joy that makin' doo dads usually gives me.

while i pondered how to get my digital desire back on track, i started fashionin' a few flowers for fastenin' to my fabric creations. realizin' i had finished quite a pile of 'em, i decided i'd stick 'em around the old mirror hangin' in the doo dad den ( it used to sit on top o' my lil brother's dresser when we were growin' up). as the week wore on i made more and more flowers and continued planting 'em all 'round michael's lookin' glass. it wasn't 'til just a bit ago, when jo arrived at the den door (home from from a sizzlin' session with a sexy surgeon - actually, he only plays one on t.v. from time to time but i'm not sure she understands this) and asked me where the garden came from, that i realized i had accidently created a nice piece o' art.

it's not the best picture - i didn't have enough light and the camera was gettin' confused by the mirror... but i thought i'd plop it up here on the blog just the same in case one o' you might like to create somethin' like it. not only does it look better than in it's original form, i now have a nice place for storin' and pickin' my homemade flowers!

i'm thinkin' i'll feel like gettin' back to makin' the digital type o' doo dads tomorrow...it's hard to keep a doo dad artist down for long! plus i don't think there's any more room left on the old mirror!

jo returns!

too bad that not everyone who the cyber bullies focus their beady eyes upon has a whole community of incredible friends to take care of any de-bashin' needed! i am certainly appreciative of each and every one of 'em as well as all the complete strangers who have written me over the past week.

and wouldn't you know....just when the second annual mo-bash reached it's height, my dear cousin jo returned! seems queenie decided to give her a break from carin' for my dear auntie paula in dallas and she arrived just in time to help tracy put the final touches on moland's annual 'can you still fit into last summer's swimsuit' pagent. since this event coincided with so many people wantin' to check out all the doo dads, a new twist was added so that the ever so snug swimsuits and delightful doo dads could be properly represented together.

the only kink in the whole day of fun and games was that we had a well known designer show up and try to capitalize on the whole event by pushin' her set o' boxer knockoffs at every turn. poor dear....stealing someone else's original idea and passing it off as doin' a good deed....everyone has been shocked that she would ever do such a thing and as you can see, in her haste to do so, she got a lil bashed up herself. but we didn't let her ruin the day. two losers were announced for still being able to fit into last year's swimsuit....jo, of course....and zee, who has always eaten like a bird and may need a smaller suit this year. we'll try not to hold it against her.

i wanna thank each and every one of you for writin' me. i am still attemptin' to write everyone who has emailed but as always, i am runnin' behind. i am also a bit behind in sendin' out passwords for access to the lil shop so don't fret - i am workin' around the clock. and those still wantin' the original boxers three rather than faux ones, just send along an email and i'll let you know where you can find 'em.

mini says thank you too.

added a bit later....just got a post that i deleted....only because it had my dear friend amy's address and it should not show publically....the person - Anonymous of course - leaving the following comment - was from santa fe, new mexico and their IP number is 76.26.100.220 via comcast cable at lat/long 35.678.-105.9597....and this was their misinformed comment:

Mini? is there really a Mini Mo?? is there really a Mo Jackson? me thinks Amy Powers & Mo Jackson are one & the same, my dear. nice story about your "daughter" running across the meanies, tho.

Domain Name.......... mojackson.com
Creation Date........ 2005-04-16
Registration Date.... 2005-04-16
Expiry Date.......... 2008-04-16
Organisation Name.... Amy Powers
Organisation Address. (address removed)
Organisation Address.
Organisation Address.
Organisation Address.
Organisation Address.
Organisation Address. UNITED STATES

in an effort to make sure this is a rumor i can knock outta the way....how nice it would be if any one human could get the amount o' work done that amy and i are capable of each on our own! if this person was truly interested instead of just a rukus raker they would be able to see that we really are two individual people - one on the west coast and the other on the east but very close just the same. also, with a lil reading this anonymous person would discover that the reason the domain name is lised as amyis that without her i'd have no domain....she lovingly set everything up for me way back when. and finally, i am actually the mother of a daughter and create original digital art for delivery via download and amy is a lovely shop owner and inspires many through her wonderful products and kind heart. and you dear anonymous, need to find something more productive to do than post comments containing imaginary stories.

cyber bullies

i often get emails from people wantin' to turn their hobbies into businesses of some sort on the world wide web. they always say, 'dear mo, i wanna turn my hobby into business on the world wide web. could you please give me some advice on how to get people to be interested in my__________ (the blank is filled with anything from hats made outta clorex bottles to macrame plant holders that double as a place to poke the t.v. remote).'

while i have accidently turned designin' digital doo dads for delivery via download into a successful enterprise, i admit i am not the right person to help someone else do the same for their own adventure into cyberspace money makin'. if it wasn't for paypal combined with help from my dear friend inspire company amy, i would'a been plum outta luck when my doo dads became homeless a few years ago. plus seein' as how i don't make my livin' off of the doo dads, i tend to do things a lil differently than someone who might need to feed their family or pay the rent off what they ring up in sales from those who travel from cyber shop to cyber shop lookin' for things they can't find out in the real world.

one thing i do tell 'em is that they need to watch out for the groups o' women who hang out in packs known as cyber bullies. this is a mean group o' women and when crossed....even slightly...they'll go to their keyboards in mass and with a mob mentality, tap out the meanest things possible about you. no way can their words be confused with what would be contructive criticism! they don't care whether they know a damn thing about you or your business - fact checkin' is not somethin' they concern their mean ol' selves with. they just get goin' on those keyboards and don't stop until either an alert is sent out that some other poor soul needs a good bashin' or whoever is in charge o' the free-for-all-type-o-forum they are doin' their bashin' in decides the mob has gone a bit too far and closes the bash down.....but of course they don't remove the unkind words - otherwise the mob might turn on THEM. plus, the more posts they have, the more they can charge for advertisin' so it doesn't make good sense for 10 or so bashin' pages to be jerked off their postin' place (except of course if the bashin' has taken place at two peas ....those people there are quite responsible and don't take kindly to their members bashin' someone around and usually pull the mean ol' words from view as soon as they become aware of 'em).

the bashins' that have been held in my honor have been pretty bad. there was one just about a year ago that was quite a whopper. i knew somethin' was up cause once again my mailbox was filled to the brim with people registerin' to become members o' my private sites. i never read the things but my friends and moland neighbors do and from what i understand, the pack o' cyber bullies participatin' reached new heights o' mean.

i did my best to put it outta my mind...this is hard when you know people are sayin' things about you that are untrue or unkind or both....even if you don't know who they are. anyway, i went on puttin' it outta my mind until my mini somehow came upon this vicious ol' thread revolvin' all around her dear mother. i do believe it is the most upset my child has ever been. i'm not sure if she was more upset that such horrible things were bein' said about her beloved mother or the realization that grown women could be so mean. she kept askin' me what these women would do if they discovered one o' their children bashin' a schoolmate on the world wide web....and why would they be settin' such a bad example for them. one woman in particular really bothered her...her mean ol' words were followed by a picture of her kids and somethin' about her son bein' autistic and how people should be kind to each other.

yes - i tell the people who write to me for advice that they need to be aware that things like this can happen to 'em. especially cause they may not be as fortunate as i've been....with the exception o' poor mini discoverin' that grown women can indeed be meaner than the meanest girl in school, my friends and neighbors havin' a hard time sittin' on their hands cause i always ask 'em not to involve themselves in the melee no matter how much they want to defend my honor and me workin' hard not to take it all personally, the cyber bullies comin' out in force against me is always a boon for the doo dad'n business. seems the minute half o' those women hit the button to get their post up and eternally on the screen, they send me an email askin' how they can register.

one thing i always tell those who write me for help - never ever read any bashin' held in your honor and never ever participate in 'em thinkin' you can get the bullies to look at things differently. they are bullies afterall and you usually can't tell a mean ol' bully anything....just let 'em entertain themselves at your expense....if they had somethin' more productive to do they'd probably be doin' it . you just gotta feel kinda sorry for 'em....i'm sure their moms forgot to teach 'em how to do unto others.....

i do so hope you are not doin' any bashin' or gettin bashed this fine valentine's day and instead are celebratin' with lots o' kissin' and huggin'. i'm attachin' a picture of a recent gatherin' o' the cyber bullies jo took. she attempted to infiltrate one of their meetins' recently but her big hair was recognized right away and she barely got away in one tube topped piece.

faux body images

ever since that jennifer love hewitt dared to show her reality thighs out in the open there has been lots o blah blah blah about the need for everyone to have good feelins' about their bodies. my much older sister queenie could sure help anybody findin' themselves lackin' in this area.

when my mom found a simplicity pattern she felt inspired to stitch together she would ask for our measurements. it's not like i was gonna measure any differently than the last time she got so inspired - at the very same time she found just the right fabric on sale at walmart for 99 cents a yard - but for some reason she could never find the right piece o' ripped up crinkled grocery bag she used for scribblin' the numbers - and all important information - onto...sometimes with her eyebrow pencil. so once again i'd take that stiff yellow strip - not sure if it's cardboard or paper or what - and wrap it around the circumference o' my protrudin' body parts and call out the sometimes painful numbers to my mom over the phone. she''d have to wait for queenie's body strings to arrive via the mail.

queenie has never allowed anyone to use one o' those crunchy numbered tapes on her royal skin. instead, whenever a recreation o' any o' her body parts is called for, she uses regular ol' twine and attaches a lil piece o' tape to the end sayin' which human part it recreates. this way she never knows the actual numbers and always feels just fine about whatever length those pieces o' twine end up bein'.

if invited for a visit to queenie's palace you can count on feelin' really good about yourself if you back up to the full-length mirror and crane your neck to check out how your behind looks in your 501 jeans cause she always has one o' those that reflects back a more stretched out version of yourself - not anywhere near a funhouse mirror but also nowhere close to accurately conveyin' your true saddlebag shapes. and since her bathroom scales are always set to a good ten pounds less than what i find on my own, jumpin' on for a weigh-in is a delightful experience. everybody leaves queenie's house with a pretty good body image - even if they do know it's ll pretend.

queenie says the only important opinion about how she looks is her own and the way she sees it she looks pretty darn good. and somehow since she always thinks she looks pretty darn good, i always think she does too.

fortunately my mini has inherited more o queenie's good body image feelins' than my own. at mini's age most girls are pretty critical of themselves but so far i have never heard mini complain about how i made her. she got some of these positive feelin's from her daddy as well 'cause no matter how he looks, in his mind he is the most handsome devil on the planet.

i am sometimes envious o' queenie's ability to love herself thru thick and thin. she never compares herself to others where i sometimes do...like when i go see the colorist to the stars in beverly hills to get my faux blonde hair and am placed smack dab between a faux red headed super model and a faux blonde academy award winner...i find it really hard not to close my eyes and wonder what it would be like to have just one really long leg (it might be worth havin' to hop from place to place) or the ability to throw on a tight t-shirt over a bra-less torso and not fear i'd be asked when my due date was.

on the other hand, mini's daddy is capable o' reachin' a whole new level o' self-love that often leaves me scratchin' my head. yesterday, when he returned from gettin' me a cappuccino at starbucks, he reported that he had stood in line with robert redford who "wasn't very tall" and "what a shame it is that he has 'that thing' on his face".

while rushin' to get all my projects done today i'm gonna ponder how borin' life would be if we were all the same. i'm sure most o' you have long been finished with all your holiday preparations while it will be quite the miracle if i ever do. i vow each ho-ho-holiday season that it will be the last that i feel the need to gift everyone with momade items and in the future will not only purchase all outgoin' gifts but pay the ridiculous amount charged to have them gift wrapped and shipped by someone other than me. it's more likely i will succeed at havin' queenie and mini's daddy's perfect body images before i am able to achieve such a lofty goal....especially since the time i spend makin' the gifts is really a present i am givin' to myself.

good hat headed milliner mo

you may think that jo has big hair cause she's stuck in some poofy time warp. but that's not the case. jo's big hair is our grandmother's fault.

from the time we were born, our grandmother told us at least once each time we were with her that we were very fortunate to have inherited her good hat head and that we owed it to ourselves to wear a hat whenever out in public. and any time we were out in public with our good hat heads hatted, she made a point o' callin' to our attention all the less fortunate heads we encountered so we would appreciate how lucky we were to carry the good hat head part o' her DNA.

while i loved donnin' all the chapeaus grandmother crammed onto my good hat head, jo hated each and every single one. she said they detracted from her natural beauty and that since we also inherited spectacle needin' peeper DNA from this good hat head grandmother, addin' a hat too was just tacky. queenie agreed with her but only because she had good peepers and had made it clear early on that the only thing she was ploppin' on her good hat head was a tiara so grandmother never made her wear one o the matchin' hats forced upon me and jo.

as much as she hated those hats, jo put up with 'em for the first five or so years of her life. but then one day we accompanied grandmother to the beauty salon and while she had her hair-do done up, we dug around in all the beautician's drawers where jo discovered a teasin' comb. by the time we left for our next stop of the day, jo had mastered that tool like a pro and with almost a whole foot o' teased hair on top of her good hat head, she finally put her flat foot down and told grandmother she was done honorin' her good hat head and from that point on would be goin' out in public bare cause her high hair would no longer accommodate any sort o' coverin'.

queenie's tiara and jo's bouffant left me as the only grand-daughter willin' to wear a hat which was fine with me cause i actually liked 'em - plus no matter how jo tried, she was never able to get my hair to hold a tease - even with a double coat o' aquanet.

by the time i was maybe 8 or 9 i started makin' hats for my friends - even those without good hat heads - and other than a hiatus i took for a couple o' years after sewin' 5 or 6 machine stitches through my pointer finger, i've been makin' 'em ever since.

above are some o' those on their way to that sweet amy's shop, inspirecompany.com. last year i only made lil ones for lil hat heads and many o' you requested i do some larger ones next time 'round....so that's just what i did. i believe this batch will be on the shelves o' amy's shop between now and monday so if you're in need o' a couture chapeau cloche or two, be sure to stop by and take a look.

now i must go finish decoratin' all those trees mini and her daddy insist on havin'. jo's still not back from helpin' our auntie move so i'm left to do it all with no live entertainment. i'll blog up some shots as soon as i am further along.

hope you all are enjoyin' the season and have done more shoppin' done than i have. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

free lead with purchase

when you sit at a screen designin' doo dads for delivery via download for dollars and dimes and can hear but not see the television in the tv-on-all-the-time room below you, lots o questions come to mind concernin' what you're hearin' and many of 'em get stuck there and refuse to leave. the question at the forefront this very minute is why o why the producers o' that merv crossword game show chose the sound of fingernails on a chalkboard as the background noise while they fill in the blanks after a question is asked. i am thinkin' THEY think it is the sound of a pencil on paper but sounds more like the dreaded fingernails on the chalkboard to me. if the show fails i do believe this will be the reason.

other questions that keep poppin' into my noggin......am i possibly the only person within t.v. sound range that is sick o hearin' about britney? is anyone besides me thinkin' that no matter what paul did to heather, nothin could make him look as bad as she looks goin' on all the entertainment shows spewin' venom and that all that venom is pretty much cancelin' out any good thoughts we had about her after she performed for us so well with only one leg? am i the only one who would consider myself a failure as a mother if my child appeared on judge joe brown's show? and why'd they move the soap with the monkey and witch to some other universe? why'd days o our life kill off john....or is this just another one o those times when he's only pretendin' to be dead and that's the reason marlana isn't bein' as dramatic as usual??

on the top o my list o questions gathered while listenin' but not watchin' the t.v. as i design' doo dads for delivery via download are ones havin' to do with the lead the toy manufacturers have been includin' along with their toys at no extra cost and the mysterious increase in dear children bein' diagnosed with learnin' difficulties and autism. the questions i have about these newsworthy items have remained on the top o my question list for quite a while now and i keep hopin' one o those talkin' heads will either give me the answers or at least ask the questions themselves.

here's what i keep wonderin'.....

•how long are we to assume this lead giveaway has been goin' on? they have recalled many o playthings that are currently on the shelves of toys 'r us and other fun providers but what about those that are no longer bein' manufactured or sold? it seems to me that we are left to think that all toys made previous to this discovery and not recalled and still in our possession are safe - those maybe in an attic packed away to pass on to those grand kids i'm hopin' to have one day when i grow up. but since i have not yet been told how these toys are checked and how often they are checked and how the current lead pass-along was discovered, i am left wonderin' about every toy i ever placed in my mini's eager hands or have stored away.

•i know little about autism except that it is a very difficult diagnosis to receive about any child - whether one o your own or someone else's. from what i have heard most children with autism develop normally and then suddenly that development seems to go haywire. also that many parents of autistic children firmly believe that immunizations their children receive are the cause of the disease as their problems begin around the same time they received them. why has no one ever given the statistics on how many children that did not receive them are autistic? did any o' those children - immunized or not - play with too many o those toys that come with the free lead - or possibly somethin' even worse?

i am sure that since none o' the experts have been posin' these question they shouldn't be on the top o my question list but they remain there right next to all the others. others such as - could our trust in thinking all the systems in place to keep us and our children safe and the products we purchase safe and the food we eat safe be misguided? shouldn't someone at least ask if maybe lead or some other dangerous element our children have played with or consumed created the onslaught o' learnin' difficulties and problems today's lil children are developin'?

i'll keep listenin' while i design the doo dads and as always, will end up with more questions about the world we live in for my on-goin' list than answers and from time to time may be forced to share more of 'em here in blogdom. in the meantime, since both the lead problem and child development have been featured so prominently at the same time on all the newsy type shows, i'll keep hopin' one o those talkin' heads will at least ponder for us whether something like lead on our children's toys could be the cause of all these sweet children bein' diagnosed with illnesses and problems at a higher rate than ever.

i fear i may be diagnosed with a permanently damaged neck if lil coco keeps growin'. while she doesn't seem to be gettin' that much bigger, she is certainly much heavier. i can state this as a fact since the only way to keep her happy while mini is away at school each day is as you see her in today's blogart...in a lil bag hangin' from around my neck! it's not really too bad unless tink has a fit o jealousy and insists on hangin' from a bag o her own....unfortunately this is most often the case. lookin' on the bright side...it's always nice to feel needed.

candy costumes for red cross donations!

when i was seven my wonderful grandfather gave me a ring with my birthstone in it. it was an emerald cut alexandrite (not quite sure that's how it's spelled but i guess it's a bit late for me to start bein' concerned with spellin' dontcha think?) in a dainty gold setting. it was of course the first piece o' jewelry i had ever received besides the pin i got when joinin' the blue birds. then when i was eight that same incredible grandfather gave me my first watch. since my family's idea of jewels leaned more toward soap on a rope than anything insurable, i wasn't gifted with any other precious metals or gleamin' gems until my first true love jerry fairchild gave me a gold bangle bracelet the summer before we headed off to college.

by the time i was out o college my birthstone ring didn't fit any more, the timex no longer kept time and the bangle bracelet was pretty much mangled. and though i had started rakin' in a bevy o baubles from the dashin' dare devils i dated, those first pieces o jewelry were, along with my bluebird pin, my most prized possessions. while the blue bird pin was always safe in the top drawer of my mom's dresser, the ring, watch and bracelet were kept in the lil velvet box the bracelet had come in.

i am not sure how it happened but the lil velvet box got lost when i left my last residence in texas. i didn't even realize it was missin' for a couple of years but when i did it made my sick to my stomach and still does whenever i think about it disappearin'. for a few years i kept hopin' it would turn up in one o my boxes of art supplies or photos but after a while had to accept that it was really gone. at least i knew my blue bird pin was in a safe place...or at least i thought it was. when i cleaned out my mom's house after she died and it was no longer in the top drawer of her dresser, i was sure i'd come across it in one of the other places she stashed the family heirlooms but unfortunately it never materialized.

when i watched hurricane katrina unfold on the television screen i felt really guilty that i had ever even mourned the loss of those tiny lil pieces o my past and vowed not to ever think about them again. of course with the passage of even such a short period o time, my promise not to think about my lost trinkets faded and i have to admit i have thought about them now and then. but...after a week of watching my fellow california citizens sift through the ashes that were once their homes full of their own precious trinkets and photographs and beloved doo dads, i feel i have no right to ever think about 'em again.

i have to figure out how to really help the poor people who have lost their homes... i would certainly need someone to help me if i i suffered the same loss. for the time bein', since i am sure many of you feel the same way i do, i thought i'd provide a way for us to do something that could be done quickly and easily.....so....if you'll please make a donation of at least five dollars to the red cross and send me a copy o the email receipt they send you, i'll send you these delightful doo dads! i'm sure you must have some naked candy in need o halloween costumes and you can't find any more festive than these created with doo dads by my dear friends lori, bettyc, christa and lisar. even if you've already dressed your candy for this halloween, you can always get 'em now and use 'em for every halloween from now on!

the red cross web address is http://american.redcross.org and i am pretty sure they take all sorts o credit cards. once you have your proof o donation just shoot me a copy to neekedcandycostumes@mojacksonslildoodadshop.com and i will send along file for you to download halloween costumes for your neeked candy bars and lifesavers as well as some instructions for gettin' 'em printed and on the candy. if you have any questions please send 'em along and for all who participate, let me thank you ahead o time! and if any o you ever hear me whinin' about losin' my earliest momentos please feel free to remind me of those who have been left with nary a one!

ribbon revelation

the last thing jo said to me before settin' out on her long road trip was that she'd wring my neck if she returned to find my ribbon collection in the same big tangled mess it took her almost two weeks straight to get organized. since i take all jo's threats seriously, i truly tried to keep all the ribbons in order by color and coiled perfectly just as they were when she pulled the silver bullet outta the driveway. i'm not sure how it happened but in no time they were once again just a big ol shiny pile o' tangled trimmins' - as you can see in the before pictures.

i have a hard time believin' it was me who is responsible. maybe it was tink. i do, afterall, have this picture i could hurl toward jo if i wanted to place all the blame on the fluffy lil creature. but jo would just say tink was tryin' to get them all straightened up again.

however it was that they got all tangled again, i had to act quickly to fix 'em back up.it was finally time for me to figure out some solution that would actually work for me. i've tried just about everything...jo's coils, racks in all shapes and sizes, my dear mason jars, big bins...i could go on and on....if you've seen or heard of it i've tried it. each one of 'em worked...if i wanted to just ADMIRE my colorful collection. but none of 'em worked after one search for whatever it was i needed. the end result was always the same big tangled mess.

it was time for one o my three hour tours of the hardware store with the mission o findin' the perfect ribbon rack for a piggly person who can't keep things neat but hates anything outta place.

i took tink and coco along for moral support and we traveled up and down every aisle - all thirty-two of 'em. of course along the way i found many items i couldn't live without - so many in fact that at one point i was afraid i'd have to take the girls outta the basket to keep 'em from gettin' squashed. when we hit aisle number thirty-two outta thirty-two without findin' a solution to my dilemma i started tryin' to figure out how i could get all the coilin' done in such a short period o time. but at the very end o that very last aisle, my perfect ribbon rack was waitin' for me. it was diquised as a hook of some kind to hang a bicycle on but i wasn't fooled for a minute. it was just the thing i'd been needin' all my ribbon rackin' life!

as you can see in the 'after' shot, this set-up might not work for everyone but it is more than perfect for me! it took me no time to pitch the ribbons all on and now when i need one of 'em i can easily poke through the whole shabang to find what i want....and the best thing is - i actually put everything back when i'm done! i'm tryin' to get the rest o the doo dad den organized but when that's done i'll make my new ribbon setup a bit neater but for now i am more than pleased with it!

i'd love to be one o those less-piggly artists capable of inspirin' you with lots o pretty supply set-ups...i must accept that i will never be in that group. i'm hopin' a coupla you visitors are more on the piggly side too and can also solve your trimmin' troubles with a ribbon rack disguised as a bike hook!

moms

recently one of my cyber acquaintances lost her mother. i haven't been able to stop thinkin' about her sadness but since i don't know her well enough to send her suggestions on how to go forward in the comin' days that will turn into years o' missin' her mom, i thought i'd blog about my own experience here.

my mom died three years ago from breast cancer. once i got through the first stage of sadness and began to try to resume my life, i realized that since her death, thoughts about my mom popped into my mind hundreds o' times a day and each time i had to do my best to not to be pulled into that dark hole that is so very close to your feet durin' the difficult times of your life. it's okay that the monster within had a grip around one o' my ankles - i could deal with that - but once i allowed it to yank me into that dark deep hole, i knew i would be in serious trouble for a long period o' time.

when you have a loved one die from an illness it's not like in the movies or on television. they don't just get sick and then lay in bed and after awhile, close their eyes forever. it's usually long and drawn out and sad and noisy and really horrible and they seldom look anything like they did when they were well. so it takes quite awhile for your thoughts of them to be of who they were before they became sick. this can't be forced - i know cause queenie i and talked many times about tryin' to do so. we wanted our thoughts to be of the happy lil chatty lady who never had a good hair day and still thought polyester was the best invention ever, who never met a stranger and who everyone loved. instead the visions that danced in our heads were of a shrunken person with one sprout o' somethin' that looked like sprigs o' steel wool stickin' outta the top o' her tiny head...someone who was usin' every bit o' strength she had left just to breathe in and out.

after her death, it took almost a whole year for thoughts o' my dear mom to return to the mother she was before those last sad days. it just happened one day that the pictures that accompanied the constant thoughts that popped into my head without warnin' was the one i had longed for. it was around this time that i had the revelation that kept that monster from pullin' me down into his dangerous hole - those constant thoughts of my mom weren't brought about by her death - they had been there all along! it was just that i didn't pay much attention to their steady presence until each one was associated with sadness and pain.

i realized that my mom had been there in almost everything i did almost every day - how could she not be? she's the person who had either taught me how to do everything i did everyday or had been there the first time i did the things i still do or i had talked to about the things that make up my every day life. somewhere as i brushed my teeth or sewed a stitch or did a doo dad, long before she was sick, she was there. when i put mini to bed or comforted her when she had a bad day or prayed for the body snatcher to snatch some other pre-teen-bein', she had always been poppin' in and outta my mind (especially durin' the body snatchin' times - i do so owe her an apology for my own time with the body snatcher).

i'm pretty sure this is what all daughters must experience somewhere deep in their subconscious their entire lives, in everything they do - the floatin' in and out of thoughts and images of our moms. maybe sons do it too but not havin' been anything but a daughter i can't say for sure. anyway, none of us pay much attention to 'em 'til our mothers are lost to us and then these 'visits' can make us feel a constant sadness that are capable of sendin' us straight into the monster's depressing hole.

realizin' this has made all the difference for me. little by little i began to let myself celebrate my mom's life and look forward to her poppin' in and out of my daily life instead of associatin' each visit with her loss. it also helps me be a better mom to mini cause knowin' she too will always have me poppin' in and out, i want to be at my best in each pop!

there are still those times where i am overwhelmed with sadness that my mom died but there are now more times when i just feel lucky that she was mine and was here to be mini's grandmother. mini spent her summer bakin' and sewin' and more than once she announced outta the blue, 'wouldn't grandmother melissa be so happy to see how i love the same things she loved". i am thankful i could be delighted at her feelin' and sharin' this with me and not in some dark hole unable to hear her.

i do so hope my cyber friend can move closer each day to celebratin' her mother's life and if she ever feels like she may fall into the grip o' the monster, feel free to ask for help from those who have experienced a bit more healin'.

today's blog accompanyin' art is - once again - the cute lil un-dogs that surround me. i promise to change subjects soon if you'll indulge me just a lil longer!

celebratin' siblings

i'm sorry i don't yet know how to do up a mo-tube to document and display for you the disappearance o' the doggy doo dad den dilemma and the development of true sisterly love! my dear friend gail deserves not only my undyin' devotion for dolin' out the winnin' dilemma dissolver but her choice o' doo dads designed for delivery via download.

after less than 24 hours o' doin' as directed, tinkerbelle has actually done some frolickin' with her baby sister. we are all beside ourselves with glee as tink's refusal to be a big sister to coco has weighed heavily upon us all. the only thing we have done differently is pay attention to tink first and more dramatically and make it appear we are protectin' her from the smaller fluffy female. i was concerned that this would cause chaos to coco's self-esteem but at her young age she seems completely oblivious to anything other than the joy of bein' alive.

i guess it's like almost everything else in life...it's always the simplest things that work best....even in seemingly serious sibling situations.

i am thinkin' that gail's solution was exactly what mini's grandfather may have been implementin' when he introduced my much, much older sister queenie to her new baby sister in the snap above. it appears at the time the shot was taken she is not yet convinced that this tiny creature should be welcomed into her royal kingdom but subsequent photos show true love quickly developed. in fact queenie has never been able to get enough of her much younger lil sister - she was after all the first to call me 'mo' - obviously expressin' her desire to have 'more' of me at all times.

hopefully her highness will take a break from her royal duties today and stop by my humble blogdom to read my birthday greetings to her. everyone should be lucky enough to have a much older sister and i am so glad queenie is mine.

sibling rivalry

since unfortunately i was blessed with only one child, i never experienced siblin' rivalry as a mother...or even as a siblin' for that matter. i adored my brother michael the football star (as does everyone who meets him) and my sister's IQ was in those triple digits and she was magna-cum-everything and named queenie and for most o' our childhood, wore a crown (NOT a tiara - those are for mere princesses).

i couldn't play football (tho i did often play around with those who could) and never read a book until i got to college (but still made good grades by turnin' in fabulous book reports where i made up not only the story i pretended to read but the author, book name and even the book numbers). the closest i ever came to royalty was when i was football sweetheart and then - wouldn't ya' know - they crowned me with a mere tiara that was just on loan...so as you can clearly see spendin' time rivalin' while growin' up was not time well spent.

therefore i am at a loss at what to do now that this sort o' behavior is occurin' right under my nose. mini got coco - her own lil biddy un-dog - for her birthday and tinkerbelle hasn't been very welcomin'. i had envisioned the two lil ones frolickin' up and down the long hallways and cuddlin' up together and once coco got a bit bigger, tink even sharin' her closet o' canine couture with her lil sister - and they are actually sisters - so i had no reason to doubt the days ahead would be filled with fluffy, furry fun.

but tink will have nothin' whatsoever to do with coco. nada....zilch...zero. coco has tried just about everything to get her to play and tink just turns up her nose and goes to someplace the baby pup can't get to. but no matter where she is, she keeps her coal black eyes on me...watchin' every move i make and listenin' to every baby-talk word spoken to coco - like she's keepin' a list. i am at a loss as to what to do. especially now that mini started back to school this week. both girls wanna sit right on top o' me so my day is spent havin' two tiny white fluffballs jumpin' back and forth across my lap - tink tryin' to get away from coco but still stay close to me and coco followin' close behind.

in the next few days i'm afraid it's gonna get worse. there was one remainin' pup from the batch coco came from and once jo saw the boofy bouffant on the lil barker (on the right in the top picture), she decided she can't live without it...so when she returns this week from her wal-marts across america tour, we'll have three! i do so hope at least two of 'em will be friends! i can't stand for my home to be full o' fightin' fluff! i could use some helpful hints on healin' and harmony if anyone o' you has some to offer!

i guess you can tell i'm pretendin' i wasn't missin' in action for the whole summer! if you'll humor me for now i promise to meet you here regularly now that mini isn't home all day....unless of course one o' these teeny tiny fuzzballs turns vicious and attacks me.

changin'

i have been workin' around the clock this past month on a big project. it has probably taken me twice as long as it would anybody else. i have no organizin' skills , dyslexia and the attention span of a nat and had no knowledge whatsoever about the process. but i have had that enviable list o' attributes in all my endeavors so it was somethin' new slowin' me down.

i just haven't felt like myself lately. i am usually pretty even in demeanor but the past coupla' months my typically pleasant mood has traveled all over the place....and can do so in a nano second. i can be feelin' just fine and then, from the t.v.-on-all-the-time room (which is directly below the doo dad den and runs at a very high volume), i hear that poor paris is without moisturizer in prison and i am thrown into a state o' despair. since nothin' has really changed in my daily life to cause these mood swings, i am forced to face the truth.

the truth is....i am approachin' that thing. that thing i first heard about a zillion years ago...that thing that made all my grandmother's friends do crazy things and gain 72 pounds overnight and made their hair fall out - just the front part where you would normally sprout a nice set o' bangs and was real difficult to hide...that thing that makes you sweat like a pig in a poke on a hot summer day and can make your skin match your faux alligator bag.....that thing that can make you throw all nutritional learnin' right outta your mind and force you to eat only one major food group for days on end (that food group bein' anything full o' grease and goo) and can make you stare for long periods o time at your prince charmin' and try to remember when he was charmin' and why you thought he was princely.

my grandmother used to get together with a group o' ladies once a week - i believe they called themselves the rose society but i could be wrong cause i don't remember there ever bein' roses mentioned durin' their gatherins'. they usually held these faux rose society meetins' in my grandmother's parlor full o' victorian velvet furniture and jo and i got to come in and serve the gooey goods our grandmother pretended she had made herself. after our servin' duties we'd go door to door sellin' whatever gooey goods gotten at the grocer's weren't greedily grabbed by the gossipin' group.

but that all changed after one rainy gatherin' day. followin'our servin' duties jo and i sat right outside the door and spied on these fascinatin' creatures and from that point on, we preferred their gossip to makin' money from leftovers. these fancy women talked about all the friends they had but that weren't in attendance. the poor non-attendees were experiencin' some horrible luck and some had takin' to really bad behavior - behavior unbecomin' to any person much less a grand mother! they talked about each women as if they were checkin' their names off a list when they couldn't think o' anything else to share about 'em. before movin' on to the next victim, my grandmother would say, in one o' those loud kinda whispers..."she must be goin' through the change". there was always a big emphasis on the word 'change' and then the gossipin' group o' grand mothers would greatly gasp, gulp down more iced tea and then get goin' on the next 'friend'.

what was this change the group o' grannies attributed to such looney behavior and horrendous luck? jo said it meant exactly that - the 'friend' was off goin' through all her change - choosin' to go shoppin' rather than sit around with a bunch o' middle aged gossipers gnawin' on faux home-baked goods with our grandmother. queenie said it meant that the woman was havin' that operation to make her face all stretched out and shiny but i knew that change was called 'havin' work done'.

after a mornin' o' listenin' to my grandmother boss my dear, sweet grandfather around more than usual, i heard her tellin' my aunt that she hadn't felt like herself lately and she must be at the beginnin' of goin' through the change. havin' heard that this change had caused the faux rose society member's friends to age 100 years within a week or wake up to big bald spots or lock their prince charmins out of the house, i had no choice but to ask my grandmother...what was this change she spoke so often of and was headin' toward herself?

my grandmother told me it was monstrous mistake made by mother nature....that when women reached a certain age they went through a change that was about the same as bein' turned inside out and hung upside down and that nothin' ever looked the same again and that only the strong survived. this of course concerned me greatly - especially the part o' havin' to be strong cause my grandmother never lifted a finger except to stir somethin' now and then or pick up the phone and her rather large upper arms showed no sign o' muscle. while i pondered her fate, my grandmother sat down her snicker's bar and wrapped those rather large - and sweaty - upper arms around me and told me not to worry - that by the time i was her age they would have invented somethin' so i wouldn't have to deal with this change. she was wrong.

in all the passin' time, a zillion years it seems - nothin' has been invented so that jo and queenie and i don't have to deal with this change. i'm afraid, instead, the money for such a cure was spent on makin' sure men still acted interested in their changin' women (even if their woman was no longer interested in that kinda interest). you know - that one those nice people wanna make sure we know how to obtain by sendin' us all those emails daily.

personally, i feel this way o' doin' things wasn't thought out too well...if they had taken care of us women first there might not be such a need for drugs like that for men. maybe if women weren't forced to sweat like pigs or have rollercoaster moods and crunchy skin, there wouldn't be so many men needin' viagra and the like.

havin' decided my moodiness the last coupla months was due to this monstrous mistake mother nature made and seein' no way to skip it and no cure bein' offered in the near future, i decided to read up a bit on it all. i only made it through the first few pages where they have a picture of a changin' woman. it's a side few and she has droopy double ds, a double chin and is sort of pudgy. the caption says, ' embrace the new woman you have become'....then it has all these lil call outs all around that scream out all the things to look forward to embracin'. i searched in vain for even one i could pretend to accept much less embrace. mini's daddy looked over my shoulder and apparently felt the same way i did about this change. i was glad he had appeared to offer up some kind words o' love and support about these loomin' changes and i could tell he was takin' some time to come up with just the right thing to say to me...his adored wife and mother of his perfect child.

when he finally spoke, he said, 'i don't know mo....maybe we should just get a gun a shoot you.' then he went outside to admire his grass. you can see just a bit o' that much admired grass along with some o' my outdoors creative work in the attached pictures.

it's my birthday tomorrow. that means i am one year closer to 'the change' so i guess i need to finish readin' that horrible lil book. i'm hopin' they put the worst stuff up front and i'll discover the list worth embracin' as i read more.

thanks again for stoppin' by and for takin' the time to leave your sweet messages ...i hope you all have a happy father's day!

xoxoxoxoxxoxo,
mo

my cheatin' quilts....

speakin' o' havin' a bad memory....long ago when i first started the bloggin' i tried to convince doo dad'ers everywhere to step away from the scrapbooks and experiment with their vaults o' treasured digital deliveries in other venues. i put up a view o' a quilt i made with a portrait mini gave me for mother's day made by printin' out the art on one big piece o' fabric and then doin' the quiltin'....rather than cuttin' all the lil pieces and sewin' 'em together as in traditional quiltin'. i had promised to blog up some more examples of this technique and then plum forgot to do so....so...it may be two year's late but here it is!

pictured here are three o' the many quiltin' projects made in this cheatin' way: pink girls for one o' my best friends judy, a canine cover for mini's daddy featurin' every dog he ever owned (the ones that are no longer with us are wearin' halos) and one i started for mini's fifth grade teacher bordered with a lil pieced pupil for each student along with their names. i never did give it to her...this was the year i abandoned mini for the first time to be with my mom before she died and the teacher was less than kind and understandin' to the situation. i must admit to takin' great pleasure recently in choppin' it to bits to make a new set o' doo dads for moland...where everyone is always kind and understandin'!

if you want to give a cheatin' quilt a whirl you can get some warm up instructions in my blog from may 2005 - i can't remember how to make a link so copy and paste this in your browser bar: http://mojackson.blogspot.com/2005/05/mini-mos-quilted-mom.html. after that just do a bit o' googlin' and you'll have no problem findin' a flurry o' better information than i offered up. if you do end up makin' somethin' please send me a picture as i'd love to see!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxxoxomo

a rose is a rose...

here's a view for you o' today's cuttings along with the pretty blue sky floatin' above moland this mornin'. i have to admit the shot was taken by accident and the blooms weren't snipped by me nor did they end up inside with me.

i have blogged previously that my memory isn't great but i was beginnin' to think it had taken quite a turn toward really bad. if you do any gardenin' o' flowers for cuttin', you probably do like me and keep sort of an inventory in your head of what's bloomin' and gauge where you're gonna be snippin'. but for the last coupla' weeks the explosion o' roses stored in my mind and what i actually found the next day was completely out o' sync.

since jo's taste runs more toward botany that needs to be dust-busted once o' year and mimi is workin' too hard tryin' to get discovered by a hollywood producer (or win the lottery) to care about nature, i knew they weren't pinchin' my precious pink profusion o' petals...and though mini has taken to wearin' a rose in her carefully coiffed tresses or on the lapel o' one o' her vintage 'uniforms', she can't afford to sacrifice any o' her mornin' mirror time and demands her daddy deliver the day's decoration to her dressin' room door. so...i have been left scratchin' my faux blonde noggin' tryin' to figure out the dilemma o' the disappearin' roses.

today the answer to the dilemma was discovered! when i headed outdoors with the heavy canon on my shoulder and my favored orange handled fiskars in hand i discovered my one-time neighbor's housekeeper weldin' her own orange handled tool. the accidental photo was snapped while i stood tryin' to figure out what she was doin' in my garden cuttin' my roses and stuffin' 'em into her basket. i was left rather speechless when she turned and waved to me and as i got closer, startin' tellin' me how glad she was that the roses were so big this year. i'm not sure i ever did say anything before she picked up the basket o' my roses, carried 'em the distance out the gate and down the long driveway and across the wide street to her car.

the ex-neighbor who is at this moment enjoyin' my roses hasn't been my neighbor for at least six years. when she was my neighbor she had asked on a number o' occasions if she could send her housekeeper over to cut a coupla' flowers when she was runnin' low. i had never had a garden for a neighbor to covet before so i assumed this was equivalent to borrowin' a cup o' sugar or such and i always said 'sure'. i may be wrong but i am thinkin' that sendin' your housekeeper across town to fill a huge basket o' 'borrowed' blooms to beautify your boudoir borders on beastly behavior. at least now i know my memory hasn't gotten worse - altho i think i would prefer that over tryin' to figure out how to tell the ex-neighbor that a rose is a rose is a rose....but the rose belongs to me if it grew in my yard and that i am no longer in the bloom lendin' business.

before i go find mini's old locker combination lock to attach to the side gate, i will finally tell all o' you who have written and asked...how i put the old border on the photos. sorry it has taken me so long to remember! in photoshop o' almost any version, while on the layer with the photo you wanna put the border on, choose 'stroke' under 'edit'....when the box opens, enter a number o' pixels you want for the width....choose to add the border to the 'outside'....then click on the color choice in the same box and choose the color you want the border...leave everything else the same and hit 'okay'....and ta da! you gotcherself a picture with a border! i am horrible at givin' directions so if you give this a whirl and it doesn't work feel free to email me and i'll get jo to write out the process...before i have her call the ex-neighbor!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

my oasis

well...once i got outside and saw how far behind i was in the gardenin' department i had a real hard time draggin' myself back in. it's amazin' how many more steps gardenin' can add to the counter than doo dad makin' does... also amazin' how quickly cousins and other relatives can disappear when they see big ol' pots and plants and piles o' dirt delivered and waitin' to be placed.

when i first made this big ol' house my home, the closest i had ever come to gardenin' was gettin' to the flower mart early enough on friday mornins' before all the good stuff was carried away by the florists to the stars and others. i was usually successful at that part o' the challenge but once i got the blooms home, the rest was always a disaster. if you've never attempted to pleasantly arrange a few blooms in a glass container you may think, 'what's the big deal'. that's what i always thought even though i failed at every attempt to do just that. i was so bad at it i wonder now why i didn't give up after the first try.

once i'd get my expensive bundles home, i'd line up the week's choice o' pretty containers, get out the fancy snippers and get to work. the outcome was always the same....i would do and re-do so many times that when i finished the floor was covered in the snips and i was left with tired blooms with not much stem on 'em. i was lucky if i ended up with one small vase o' flowers lookin' as if they had been through a really bad storm.

at some point mini's daddy - a life-long appreciator of beautiful blooms arranged professionally - decided to risk offendin' my floral designin' attempts and had a real pro come give me some tips. i'm sure the guy had some helpful things to share with me but i didn't hear or remember anything that happened after he whipped out a chunk o' that green stuff called oasis, possibly one o' the best inventions ever - alongside the glue gun and drill of course - for faux martha's worldwide. holdin' that block o' creepy feelin' green in my grip was all it took to turn me into a passionate gardener and no longer a flounderin' florist. besides chocolate and air conditionin' it's one o' the staples i make sure we never run out of here at moland.

one o' the reasons i haven't blogged more is cause i hate a blog without a view...so i took lots o' pictures o' what i do outdoors when not indoors and what i do with all the outdoors i bring inside. now i'll have somethin' different and pretty to use along with my musins' no matter what they might be.

i do so appreciate all o' you who have continued to visit every day no matter how long it's been between bloggins! i am hopin' to make those trips worth your while now that i have some future views ready and in waitin'!