oh you missed me, didn’t you?

or, like my brother, maybe you were just tired of looking at that stupid pink chair. well don’t get too excited, you will be looking at this for a while too.

we traveled to deary for thanksgiving this year.  pretty much beyond the reaches of civilization.  my dad had to keep the stove going day and night for a week to get the middle shop warm enough for human habitation.  it turned out very lovely and rustic and almost warm even.

the ping pong table helped with maintaining circulation.  (i just sat closer to the fire.  someday i will have my own fire and won’t be heard from again.)

jael and granddad.

playing a very loose interpretation of checkers with grandma.

looking smug.

and “i’m just sooo funny.”

i think someone left a bowl of truffles laying out most irresponsibly.

the little weirdo.

we traded reuben for five foreign exchange students.  now i call that a deal.  all decidedly better looking and with fabulous hair.

surveying the damages.  no one will ever know with my excellent decoy.

and we even made it home alive.  after my uncle called us idiots and bought us snow tires.  those city folks should all just go back where they came from, you know.  where they have snow plows and macy’s and williams and sonoma and indian buffets….

oh look, it’s a chair.

a long time ago, my friend kandi gave me some old chairs which i faithfully kept in my garage for the “great day.”  actually, i think for a short stint they served as sawhorses in the backyard because my husband failed to comprehend my vision.

fortunately, when you can’t find people who understand your vision (which there seems to be a true shortage) then you just find someone you can boss around.  so last summer my brother kindly glued one of the chairs together for me.  i bought him an avocado bubble tea and told him nice things.  but the picture says it all.

now finally, yes finally, it is a chair.  a pink one at that.  the unfortunate thing is that there are two.  and reuben has moved to ecuador.  this is a bummer.

as i do need another one of these beauties at the other end of my table.  meanwhile this one typically lurks in the basement (in front of the computer) until i have company or more children.  the other one still haunts me from the attic.

it’s like the dawn of civilization

there is just something entirely decadent about having a couch in one’s basement – in front the computer (a.k.a. television).  i feel so american.  (as american as you can feel without an actual tv.  not to mention a microwave or cell phone.)  the first day we had it marc stayed in his jammies all day and watched soccer.  in his defense he was a little sick at the time, but still.

up to now the basement has pretty much been a wasteland of toys and laundry.  the couch is an amazing improvement.  there’s a place to sit. *and* it was only $120.  *and* it’s an ikea slip-cover, so i can update it.  and while i was at it i even got a computer chair.  i used to have to do all of my face-booking from the confines of jehu’s orange rocker (which you can still see lurking in the background).  it’s a whole new world.

not only that, but we are in the process of installing a wood stove and hearth.  you can see it taped out on the wall.  that way, in january i can pop out a baby and we both can veg on the couch in front of the fire while the children build lego masterpieces and i watch miss marple and smell baby breath.  …okay, so it won’t exactly be like that but i can dream.

we’re thinking of extending the hearth more than the tape and then building in a bookshelf to the left of it.  then all that would be left to do is evict the behemoth computer and buy an imac.  although i bet i could find a computer/tv cabinet on craigslist that could solve my decorating ills a little more cheaply.  not to mention, i told my husband i would organize everything on the hard drive when he bought me a new computer.  and i’m afraid.  so there, maybe towards the end of the month i will have some fun tile pictures for you.  i’m thinking glass mosaic.  but i’m always thinking.

i’ve done been shabbied

i was a little horrified at first but i have grown accustomed.  i mean, isn’t it all right if you do it on accident?

this is the vintage vanity i inherited from marc’s grandpa.  (it didn’t look this vintage before.)  i spent a whole day prepping and painting it and finally finished it off in the dark.  of course that’s the night it decided to rain.  when i woke up in the morning the first thing i thought was, “gah!  gayla is going to kill me!”  followed closely by, “wait, do i have to paint that again?”  and then rather slyly by, “…hey, i think i’ll just leave it and say i did it on purpose.”  genius.

i mean, shabby is all right if you do it because you’re lazy and not because you have some kind of militant psychosis like your mother.  that’s my theory.

i am kind of happy with the vintage piece of fabric i found to cover the seat in.  it makes it look more authentic.  i’m still working on the rest of my room.  i need to sew curtains, patch some holes in the wall, trim out the door, frame some art, paint…  you know, the same very old story.

lo they come

my family came down for halloween weekend for a brief stint of madness.  that made for 5 kids and 5 adults.  now that they are gone i’m still not quite sure what i should do about the kitchen.  i’m just going to think about that a little bit longer.  which i believe is called procrastination or perhaps only a very sensible fear for one’s own life.

grandma had fun taking the grand kids around the block to hand out homemade grape jelly and scarecrows.  they thought it was so much fun.  grandma thinks of everything.

daddy was mostly sick the whole weekend and used it as an excuse to lay low.  he’s pretty sly like that.

we got together with auntie piolet for halloween and here is the gang.  gideon and jehu went as pretty loose versions of thomson and thompson.  natalie did her hair in a giant cowlick after this picture and was a little more convincing as tintin.

and even though nobody knew who thomson and thompson were, the general consensus was that they were pretty handsome.  of course.

jael, on the other hand, had to go as the much dreaded chicken.  a costume that has so far succeeded in putting every one of my children into a state of traumatic shock.

it’s going to become a family tradition.

now i just have to think of what to do with all that candy.  i think we should sell it to tractor papa and buy legos before i am forced to eat all of it.  i just can’t live like this.