Verbally Challenged

So much going on around here…so little time to write! Gah! And my designing has seriously slowed down, despite an assignment and looming deadline next week. Last minute doesn’t always work well for me but right now I don’t have a choice. Send me some good creative vibes please!

Loved Thanksgiving Day this year. I have so much to be thankful for and at the risk of sounding sappy I’ll simply say my family and health. Everyone gathered at my folks this year for the celebration and feast – not to mention games. We’re a big game family and usually sit around with some group variety, but with my folks in their new house the options have changed. I kicked some serious butt at air hockey (go me!) and took a beating at the pool table (I suck). Anyway – you can see where I am with the whole Thanksgiving thing…family and games…all socialization. Have I mentioned the food? Nope. I’m the first to admit, if it weren’t for the pie, I’d not get excited about all of that eating. It’s just not me in the food category…unless you were serving burritos.

Yesterday my awesome husband joined me for some shopping. I have to admit that I get caught up in the action. We don’t make a day out of it or anything but it definitely gets the Christmas bug going. We also took a nice long nap yesterday – all three of us. THAT was nice and SO not something that I do anymore. I’m usually rushing around trying to squeeze in some design time whenever Liam is sleeping. Yesterday, I just let it all go and man what a feeling THAT was! I need to do that more often. Just let go.

Today, my little nephew dude turns one. Last year on Thanksgiving I was supporting my sister while she was giving birth – looking at a little more than turkey there. Man was that amazing. Being a C-section gal, I never witnessed the whole birthing thing. I only knew how things went on tv…really accurate right? But I saw this little guy enter the world and watched his parents fall in love. Today we’ll celebrate him, I can’t wait!

So I’ve been crazy busy over the past few days – venturing away from my “normal” routine which is awesome! I need to remember what this feels like, doing something different and saying the heck with it. I think that sometimes we get to caught up in deadlines and what needs to get done on our mental lists. At least I do. So try and do something this weekend that you wouldn’t normally do and LET yourself do it – like take a nap. And don’t worry about what you should be doing. Enjoy the moment.

cause this gal is feeling productive! I’ve had a great day so far…LOVE when that happens! I woke up starving for some odd reason so we went out to breakfast. The even better part, Liam was an AWESOME little dude, sitting and drawing letters, eating his muffin and super cool fruit plate. I’m not normally a breakfast kind of gal but today it was perfect.

I found some super cute Christmas trees in wooden boxes (pre-lit) to flank my fireplace, and the price was almost right – I bought two of them. I also found a new tree skirt to replace the one that I made before Liam was born. Since we painted the family room the old one just doesn’t match so I need to retire it. I’m thinking about putting an extra tree up in the playroom so maybe Liam was use it on his tree. I’m thinking about having the kids from playgroup over to help decorate it…and maybe make some ornaments. Let’s see how motivated I feel over the next couple of weeks.

I put all of my Halloween/fallish decorations away today. If I were having Thanksgiving at my house I may have extended the fall stuff, but since I’m looking for Christmas stuff now I decided to toss it all back into storage. I also wanted to get it out of the way so that when my cleaning lady comes on Tuesday she can give me a fresh start for Christmas decorating…you wouldn’t want me to have to bust out a dusting cloth now would ya? Oh the horror!

I’m making tacos for Linner today (lunch/dinner, get it…linner…dorky I know but that’s what we call it) and I almost NEVER cook on the weekends. Being a vegetarian of 18 years now you know that I don’t have a roast in the oven. But me cooking on a Sunday…it’s nuts. Usually, we’re chatting with the Mad Mex staff right about now and I’m eating a Chick-pea-chili burrito with sour cream and a side of chimi sauce.

And assuming I don’t crash and burn this afternoon, I’m working on a project that I’m really excited about during Liam’s nap-time.

So what do you think, productive? For me on a Sunday – you bet. And tonight, Grey’s Anatomy. The perfect ending to a very good (and productive) day.

parents of multiple kids – how do you do it????? I give you so much credit, especially if they’re close in age – say 2 maybe 3 years or less. I’m dealing with one three year old little dude and after the day I’ve had, would totally be dead right now if I had a baby to deal with. Seriously.

I started the day off motivated and happy, ready to hit the stores and do a little Christmas shopping with Nate and Liam. Slooooooooooowly the day went downhill. Heck, the mall wasn’t even playing good Christmas music and HOW is that possible! I mean really, how do you mess up Christmas music? But it’s not all about the music. It’s about the toddler who didn’t want to sit in the stroller, and didn’t want to walk because he had to hold our hand, or didn’t have the right snack…or…or…ugh. I didn’t even make it to the grumpy cashier or the pushy people. And a sick and twisted part of me likes that stuff.

I know that I’ve mentioned this before but three (as in age three) is so much harder than two…NO comparison. But I’m learning how to deal with it. And hopefully during naptime, my Christmas spirit will slowly come back to me and I’ll play a few christmas tunes of my own tonight – Burl Ives, Harry Connick Jr., Ella, Dean Martin, the Potty Barn Mix (I’m such a dork) – and maybe even pull out a few decorations.

I’m off to rest my mind while Liam rests his body…and I’m excited because I have a cool project brewing in my head.

Happy Saturday!

Bad blogger! I know. But I’m back and I’m going to try and keep up…TRY being the key word.

I swear that this computer sucks up so much of my time. For some people, it’s the television – don’t even turn it on they tell you because it’ll suck you right in. Not me. It’s my computer. It would be one thing if the only computer in the house was in my studio. I’d have to get my lazy butt UP and go to the computer…gasp. But noooooo, I have an iBook and man…that’s when I really became addicted. Nate literally calls it my little buddy because it’s always at my side, or better yet on my lap. And worse yet (I can’t even believe that I’m admitting this), Nate had to buy one for himself (mine started off as ours) because I’m such a hog. I should be ashamed of myself but I think that Nate really likes the high-tech silver one that he has (mine is a girly white)…such a man in that department.

But in my defense, I use the computer for a lot of my work. I design on the computer, get ideas, write…it’s a starting point. The problem with this whole computer issue is that when I should be working I’m finding myself distracted, lured to message boards and other peoples blogs….I’m aware, I know, I accept it…I own it. Enough said.

So while being sucked into the Internet over the past however many days, I’ve purchased a few cool Christmas gifts. Pittsburgh is not particularly hip…so I need to search online for my unique gift items and dang…I can’t post any of the links!!!! Ah well, I need cool gifts ideas and websites (FEED THE HABIT)…have any?

I did get a cool baby gift for my girlfriend from here atomicmama – I selected the black flames for her little baby boy! I think that they’re flame kind of people…I know we are! I hope that it’s cute and heck, everyone has blue!

Now…I need to get to work. And I mean work, no chatting it up…designing. I have deadlines. I’m on a mission.

But before I go…here is one photo of Liam all decked out in his Old Navy gear:

Love Old Navy…love cheap.

I just got back from a run. For me, running is my therapy. It gets me thinking, gets me to go deep within my brain and really reflect. Nothing else gets me there (well accupunture but that’s a whole other thing) and I just love the feeling. I take my iPod, put on some music and go deep within the song lyrics. Music has a tendency to do that to me, suck me in, make me think. I am one of those people who can listen to a song once and sing it the next time. Lyrics have a way of branding themselves onto my brain. If only I had a knack for learning other things so easily.

So as I’m running today I realize that I’m breathing harder, my throat is tighter and it’s just more challenging. The reason why, it’s getting colder out and my lungs are adjusting. Which made me think about life right now and all of the adjustments I’m going through.

• Life with a three year old can be a serious challenge. I’m constantly adjusting my parenting to Liam’s ever changing behavior. It’s exhausting and overwhelming at times.
• I’m adjusting to the changing seasons. The darkness that envelops me at 5:30 pm just plain stinks. This gal needs her fresh air and light to function – it’s a major adjustment when fall and winter roll around.
• I’m adjusting my daily schedule to include time to run and scrapbook without being awake half the night. Not to mention time to sit and watch a movie with my husband (we just got two more from Netflix).

I’m just adjusting to the changes presented to me and trying not to stress. I’m trying to push through the challenges and face them head on, deal with them and move forward.

I’m trying.

A layout that I can’t physically show you right now because I’ve already sent it out for publication. However, since you just asked me yesterday about Liam’s hair, here you go!

And to fill everyone else in, my mom asked me yesterday when I was going to give Liam a real “boy haircut.” What the heck mom! So I asked her what defines a “boy haircut” and apparently it’s shorter and involves a comb and some gel…sounds nerdy to me! I told her that long hair is in (in MY world) and now that I think about it my dad had long hair when they met! Anyway – I think that while my little dudes hair is out of control at times and may look a little 70′s – he’s hip and cool and all mine! I love the long hair – it’s the perfect boy haircut!!!