She's such a doll!

I just finished a new painting, another in a series entitled “Doll Collection.” Yeah, it’s a working title… I still don’t have a name for any of my doll paintings. The first 3 were given away as gifts a while back.

This one measures 11″ x 14″ x 7/8″ and is painted with acrylics on gallery stretched canvas (staple free sides are painted black. Here’s the no-name doll herself (with a black frame graphic & watermark):

I hope to eventually name her, any suggestions would be appreciated. Language is not my strong point today - I haven’t been able to carry my half of an intelligent conversation all day long. It’s a day made for painting I suppose. This painting will be available for purchase in my eBay store soon.

One can only hope that I will regain my coherency tomorrow. In the meantime, enjoy this insanely cute closeup of a pom (with a wee bit-o-racoon?) found on Cute Overload:

AWWWWW!!!!! I am hooked on that site. Anytime I need a good laugh, head-tilt, or a warm fuzzy feeling, I go to this site. It cheers me right up. Go, click, and be awwwwww’d. *cheese*

Sleepy Ann, signing off!

The Science Fair (da da DUUUUUMB!)

Today was supposed to be one of my “Bumper Days.” A day where I get my more mundane business tasks done, like filling orders, packing & shipping, listing, and replying to the flood of emails I get daily. Oh but when have planned “days” ever worked out?

My two boys (affectionately known as The Monkeys) are grade schoolers with a penchant for laziness and procrastination. They get that from both parents - I’m okay with admitting to that. So when the dreaded Science Fair season comes around… let’s just say more energy is expended toward the gases spewing out of their mouths than actually applied toward the realm of the sciences. And note to other parents in Plano ISD - your child is required to do a Science Project for a grade starting in the 3rd grade.

I have a deep rooted love for science. Fond memories of my childhood science fair projects flutter through my mind. I’ve made the volcano, the solar system, grew mutated beans, played around with goop, and so on. Fuzzy, warm memories. I’m proud to say that I’ve even won my 4th grade Science Fair at my school! (I lost at district, but that’s another sore to be picked later.)

This aforementioned love of all things science-y got a serious reality check this school year. Now mind you, my oldest son had attended another school for his 3rd-4th grades and had the option of doing a Bright Ideas / Young Inventors project for his grades of which he took advantage of. It was easy and fun. This year, no such luck. And I had two facing the Science Fair dilemma.

This year, I finally understood why the number of scientists in America were dwindling when compared to the rest of the world. This year, I discovered that bureaucracy not only took over the world of the science fair, but also squashed every ounce of foreseeable fun and interest out of it. I received TWO handbooks (too big to be called pamphlets… too small to be an encyclopedia) on what they could NOT do for their projects. It listed in full detail all the over-my-head-and-definitely-over-a-third-or-fifth-grader’s-head steps that MUST be included in their project. Time tables and deadlines were imposed and enforced. I wondered how they could possibly whittle down the infinite world of science down to fit into their strict parameters.

Then I read the following:

“Projects are to be original and not copied from a book or internet.”

My first inclination was that it sounded reasonable. Then I looked on the internet.

EVERY science fair project ever done in the history of the Science Fair is in a book or ON THE INTERNET! On top of that kick in the pants, the teachers at the school did full experiments every day to demonstrate to the children how to do their projects. Oh, but don’t do this one… we’ve done it in class. OH! And we will not accept volcanoes or solar system (or Wikipedia as a reference… LOL!).

We dug high and low for untouched, original projects. My youngest monkey wrote a proposal on building a hoverboard using magnets. REJECTED as being too difficult. My oldest went through so many ideas that the teacher finally gave in and let him do an experiment on Thermodynamics - something that has been done to death but is new to him. And that was the point I wanted to make to the administrators (not the teachers… it’s not their fault). ALL of these projects no matter how overdone and mundane - are new to these kids. You may be sick of judging them at these stupid fairs but to these kids, they are learning something new. As in, for the very first time! Isn’t that the point of the Science Fair?

Were they expecting to find some young Einstein (hey, they grew up on those DVDs, it must have had some effect… oooh, an experiment) to crop up and discover a breakthrough at an elementary school fair? I’m sure it happens once in a while, but why squelch the love of learning for all the other kids? My little fact finders were so sick of science by this afternoon that it made them cry. My oldest son, who used to love experimenting and all things sci-fi, told me today that he hated science.

Hated science.

Those words still hurt. My memories of my science fair glories became bittersweet. I didn’t have a handbook full of do’s and don’ts. When I was young, I just had questions and tried new things to figure out the answers, learning so much along the way. Elementary school kids aren’t ready for the harsh boring realities of the scientific process. A watered down version like I had, perhaps, but not the full on restrictions the school board imposed. This is the age where the love of learning and the excitement of new discoveries should be fostered. Instead, they’ve successfully killed off two bright children from their natural love of science. All for a grade.

I know I’m probably being overly dramatic. I think that they will eventually come back around with some guidance from me. As they get older, more patient, and mature, they will be able to understand why there has to be the “boring parts” to science. But for now, dammit - it’s supposed to be fun! =^_^=

What experiments were they finally allowed to do? Monkey 1 worked on Thermodynamics: What insulators work best to keep hot liquids hot and longer. Monkey 2 experimented with tap water and testing strips: Filtered vs Tap Water, what’s the difference?

Nothing remarkable or groundbreaking, sure, but we did it, it’s over with, and a heavy burden has been lifted off of our broken backs. And I say “we” & “our” because guess who had to supervise, type everything up, and stay up all night putting everything together? Mommy, that’s who. :-/

By the way, in case you were at all interested in our findings - Thermos’ are the way to go and always, I say ALWAYS buy distilled water over tap water. *shudder*

Blessings,
+ann

My shiny new Magic 8 Ball.

Google is now our splendoriffic new Magic 8 Ball. But instead of droll Yes/No/Maybe answers, it spews forth everything my kids and I need to know from ADD moment to ADHD moment. A quick look at our search queries reveals that my kids and I have asked Google the following over the past 7 days:

- What is a nautical mile?
- What time is it in Madrid, Spain?
- What are the national security threat level colors?
- What will happen if I hit reset on my MySQL tables?
- When will Mac OS X 10.6 come out?
- How much is a normal sales commission?
- How do I get glue out of silk?
- Who are Hello Kitty’s friends?
- When did Helen Hunt / Hank Azaria get divorced?
- What is the history of the Federal Reserve?
- News about a horse blocking traffic on a Texas highway?
- How do I reset a customer’s password in Zen Cart?
- What is a Freemason Bible?
- What is the name of Dan Brown’s new novel?
- Where are Samsung’s corporate headquarters located at?
- What is the Sedona Method?
- What is electricity made of?
- Will plasma cut through anything?
- What is plasma?
- What are the lyrics to Don’t Get Comfortable by Brandon Heath?
- Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic walk through guide?
- How are staples made?
- Who is the fastest human alive?
- Which spiders in Texas are poisonous?
- How do I make a time machine?
- How many centimeters is __ inches?
- Are Sharpie markers toxic?
- What are some easy science fair projects?
- What is thermodynamics?
- How do I make a Thermos?
- Why is my iTunes 7.6 upgrade in Spanish?
- Are we out of new TV shows?
- Why does Jay Leno need writers?
- What are some rainy day activities for older kids?
- What is a Boobah?
- How long until my kids can go back to school after getting pink eye drops?

I heart the internet. Billions of minds are better than one. (Or in some cases, none.) Anyway, my oldest son wants to Google, “How to build a new brain for my little brother.” so I must hand over the keyboard to my angst ridden pre-teen.

Legos.

I

It’s only 2 pm and I am ready to throw up my hands and call it a day.

- Today is a Teacher Work Day/Student Holiday and Monday is of course MLK Jr Day so my two monkeys get to have a 4 day weekend. Hooray for them, not so much cheering from me. I get to juggle work with cooking extra meals and referee duties.

I’ve made a few Fuzzies, shipped some packages, and replied to a few business related emails. Then my kids woke up and demanded breakfast. After I fed them, they went off to play while I tried my best to work on some new designs. I didn’t get very far when blood curdling screams alerted me to a brawl in the next room. A twenty minute long lecture over the “joys of sharing your Legos with your brother despite his tendency to annoy” given by yours truly ensued but only resulted in another yelling match over who got what on his birthday/Christmas. I pulled a King Solomon and threatened to throw all the dastardly Lego pieces in the trash (yes, I know that isn’t how the story went - but you try cutting tiny Lego pieces in half).

Both kids quickly pointed out that they had rights. Rights! *tiny fists pound the air* And their right to privacy included not having to share their private belongings. I had no choice but to turn Commie on them thereby squelching any more of this “freedom of owning possessions” nonsense and declared all Legos as community property to be delegated by the all-knowing Mother. Are we not all Comrades?

Seeing Red made me realize the hypocrisy of what I teach them about democracy and civil rights versus my actions as a parent, but did it stop me? No. Why? Because they are children. Fighting over tiny Lego pieces that in my opinion all look alike. I’m sick of stepping on them, unclogging my vacuum cleaner of them, and most of all negotiating peace treaties regarding them.

Where are their Legos now? They are safely locked away in three large plastic bins under heavy guard far from the reaches of their tiny grubby fingers. I have replaced the void left in their bedroom with absolutely nothing and I can hear them plotting their revenge. Words like “this isn’t fair” and “rescue mission” have floated out from the crack in their doorway. Am I scared? Nah. I’m distracting their plans to overthrow my regime with the delicious aroma of brownies baking in my oven. All the while I am devising a 154-trillion point plan for them to earn back their precious Legos…

One hard earned brick at a time.

Mwaahahahahaa!

Who??

I hear this stuff a lot:

“Eh, I don’t get into politics”,

or “I don’t really care what they do cuz it doesn’t affect me”,

or “I don’t have time to think about it - I have to work double shifts to pay off my bills”,

or my favorite line yet, “It all just upsets me so I don’t think about it anymore.”

And then these same people turn around to complain about everything that’s going wrong with this country or in their paychecks. Guess what? The reality is that we are all connected regardless of whether or not you are “into” politics. It directly affects your everyday life.

For those of you who care enough to ask me who I’ll be voting for and then follows with, “Who’s that?”… here you go (No, I didn’t make this video.):

I encourage all of you to get to know a little bit about your elected officials and all the Presidential candidates. Most of them don’t seem to know who you are or what you need and yet you allow them to send your kid off to war, spend your money faster than your teenage daughter and pick away at your livelihood one law at a time.

I’m just saying, it doesn’t hurt to learn something new and take a little stand for yourself every once in a while by casting an informed ballot. Don’t outsource your patriotic duty & privileges, okay? Okay.

Thanks!

+ann

P.S. To help make your research a little easier… http://www.vote-smart.org/election_president.php

P.P.S.

This is from my MySpace blog where I put this same post. My friend further explains why our system of checks and balances is so important (anyone remember Government class in high school?). After all, our current state of affairs did not happen overnight or by accident…
———

I think its bigger than any one candidate. Our government is designed to work when it is transparent (everyone can check out what’s going on.) It doesn’t work when the ‘open’ government is just a stage to put on the decisions that are made in private.

Unfortunately, a one party government becomes just that. When you choose your ‘presidential candidate, I think it’s much more important to consider who will control the other ‘houses’ before you vote… In order to keep some level of balance in our government, you can’t have the same political party holding power in both houses of Congress and also the presidency. That is what broke in 2002. There is nothing inherently wrong or evil about ‘republican’ or ‘democrat’, but when you have a group of <10>

Posted by Mike_Y on Monday, January 07, 2008 at 11:54 PM
———–

And here is my reply:
———–

I agree. Some tend to think that once they stick someone they like up top then they can forget about the hundreds of other elected officials. Checks and balances have been eroding for many years now and it’s only become really painfully clear to the general public with this latest administration (I’m including all three branches of our government here). For generations, those groups of “<10>

I love the line from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (the movie version) that says, “The President of the Galaxy doesn’t have any real power. His job is to draw attention away from the ones in charge.”

Of course, our President does have actual power and can even get away with abusing it it seems. Which brings it all back to your original point. I just hope that people will take advantage of this upcoming Presidential election to at least start informing themselves of what is going on in our government. Then who knows, some of them might dig a little deeper and get to know all those other pesky politicians. And then maybe some of them will start to wonder why our supposed fair and unbiased media would mysteriously exclude certain relevant news stories and qualified Presidential candidates from their airwaves and debates… *_*

Ultimately, it’s not important whether or not we all agree with each other’s political views - what is important is to give enough of a damn about our country to at least have an interest in what is going on and not just “leaving it to the other guy” to decide your opinion for you. Or worse, to think that your opinion won’t matter. All these opinions and lack of opinions add up to result in the world we have today. Connected, yo! ^_~

Thanks, Mike!

Be my Tiramisu.

I can’t believe it. Valentine’s Day is over a month away and for the first time in my life - I’m ready for a holiday. Ready as in “business ready” that is. I have products made and ready to ship! I’m usually scrambling at the last minute to get things done. Pretty darn amazing, I know.

I have a slew of new hair clips all set for your gal’s Valentine’s Day outfits. Actually, these can be worn year round - it’s great to be a girl! They are fun for grownups to wear as well, so let loose and have some fun with your accessories.

I found these painted hearts a while back and had to get them. They have a cool retro look to them and remind me of all the outfits and accessories I had as girl. Here are a few of them (I have lots more listed on my website):

I’m so looking forward to getting more chocolate. I’m almost out of my Christmas chocolate. Eeek!

I got some of the most delicious chocolate made by Frey, a Swiss chocolatier, called Tiramisu. It’s so ungodly good and even better than the actual tiramisu dessert. Or maybe I’ve just never had good tiramisu, made by a chef - any takers?

I can only eat one little square of this delectable delight a day - it’s that rich. Otherwise I get dizzy. I’m a wus. I’m used to ultra-dark chocolates with a lower sugar content. It’s a good thing too, it keeps me from over-indulging and makes for a nice reward at the end of the day. There is this creamy mascarpone filling (Latin for mind-bogglingly yummy… look it up) coated with silky milk chocolate. My youngest son practically begs for pieces of it (woo hoo, kiddie crack!). I think so much of it, I think it should have its own holiday. *drool*

Make every day count!
+ann

VW should make spaceships.

Call me weird but I love the ingenuity that goes into RVs. Things pop up, slide out, there are storage compartments EVERYWHERE, and everything pulls double duty. It’s a table / dresser, or it’s a seat / closet. Since I can’t quite afford my dream RV… and I shudder at how much it would cost to fuel one, I’d love to get one of these:

Or better yet, this one if it ever becomes available:

My youngest son prefers this one:

If it weren’t for the fact that I have two growing boys (and they in turn have a growing heap of toys), I would totally live in one. I could install a wireless network, have all my sewing stuff tucked away, and step outside to cook my meals. At least I would be able to fit this VW in a drive-thru. Okay, the novelty of living in a camper would probably wear off after a week or so. If I can even make it that long, after all, how would I shower? I think I’ll stick to my landlocked home for now. But one day, when VW makes a camper/spaceship… I will be first in line for mine.

It's Crewel.

Crewel fabric is just plain GORGEOUS! It’s all hand embroidered with this lovely thick hand dyed wool. I have several different colors and patterns that I will be making handbags out of. I’m trying to keep my goal of a bag a day (give or take…). Here is tonight’s finished bag:

It’s falls into my “Small Handbag” category. I personally prefer the smaller sized bags… it keeps me from accumulating too much junk. ^_~ This bag is available for purchase in my eBay store. I’m still having trouble figuring out the calculated shipping module on my regular website… so until then, all big items (like handbags) will be sold through my eBay store. Thanks for reading & I hope to have another one finished tomorrow! It’ll probably be a larger sized bag - I’ve had a few requests for those.

Cheers!
+ann

I love new beginnings!

Dear Friends,

2007 has been absolutely amazing for my family, business, and me. God has blessed us with an abundance of laughter, love, friends, many tears of joy and a few tears of sadness, lots of spiritual and emotional growth, and oodles of miracles - both big and small.

Count your blessings and you’d be surprised how many more will come to you in 2008. We can easily get caught up fighting and fretting over what’s going “wrong” in our lives (or other people’s lives…) that sometimes we forget all the wonderful things that are “right” all around and within us. It’s incredible how by just changing your mindset, you can change your entire life.

This year I will be designing a collection of one of a kind handbags. I was blessed enough to acquire a TON of beautiful designer fabric samples a while back. Now I’m putting an end to my procrastinating and putting these gorgeous fabrics to good use! I have a few listed in my store right now and will be doing my very best to make at least 5 purses a week (give or take a few ^_~) until all my lovely fabric is used up… ambitious but hopefully worthwhile. Here are a couple new purses I just listed in my eBay store:

I also have lots of blank canvases that need painting and many ideas to fill them with. My artistic inspirations come in binges though so I’m happy with just painting when the muse strikes me. Of course, those will also be listed in my store throughout the year.

I’m looking forward to whatever new discoveries and adventures 2008 will bring and hope to share them with all of you! Every minute you are blessed to be alive is a chance at a new beginning. Don’t wait for that elusive “someday” to start living your potential. We all have dreams in our hearts that we need to let out and take some chances on! Little dreams and big dreams: each one deserves to shine at least once.

Happy New Year!

Love & Blessings,
+ann