Yeah, I thought that would be my last 2008 post, but

that was before the kids showed me their latest PhotoShops. The first is a Pokemon “sprite” by Isaac — that’s what Isaac and his friends call it when they combine images of existing Pokemon to create new ones — and the second is a visual composition Mabel calls “goooooood tidings!”

Isaac calls this “Chartodile.”

(Those are [...]

Last chance to post in 2008! Everybody hurry up and blog!

Aaaaaand . . . that’s all I have to say.  I’m making the kids  spend the afternoon helping me try to conquer the chaos (even just a little of the chaos,) so there’s no time to be lost.
Last chance to clean house in 2008 !  Woooot!
(Yeah, I was hoping that would help me get in [...]

You don’t have to be a contestant on Project Runway to clothe yourself from the hardware store

I’m especially posting this impressive no-sew clothing design project (done by our friend from our Berkeley days) on behalf of my sister Lili, who wrote a thesis on the uses of Tyvek in book conservation. (Right? Please correct me if I got that wrong, Lili.)
Update:  I just noticed that could sound like the [...]

In which I discover that sometimes I’m not a perfectionist

Today instead of folding laundry or cleaning my kitchen or organizing my home or even making my bed or getting dressed, this is what I’ve been doing:

I have a cousin who’s expecting twins, a boy and a girl (just like TAMN!) and this is for her.  I’m pretty sure my cousin doesn’t read my blog [...]

Only six? And can they be concrete rather than abstract? (Oooh, tags can be so hard for people with borderline OCD)

Darlene tagged me, and since I’m hoping that means she’s forgiven me for talking about politics in her comments a while ago when she’d said she didn’t want political comments, I think I’d better do the tag, to help reverse any evil blog-related curses I may have incurred.
The tag: List 6 random, abstract, weird [...]

How cool is that?

Via a sewing forum I frequent, I just found out about this company that will print custom fabric for $18/yard with no minimum purchase amount.  I think this is a fabulous idea — I just wish I had a reason to need to design some custom fabric.   If  a reason arises, it’s great to know [...]

Like a kid on Christmas morning. Times four.

Dean and I collaborated well this year in choosing gifts for the kids. He had the idea to get a bunch of dress-up hats for Henry, which were a big hit; when Henry opened them, he tried to wear the construction helmet and the fireman’s hat and the airline pilot’s cap all at once. [...]

Christmas morning (before the tornado)

Almost speechless

It turns out that when I’ve spent time in the company of family, I’ve told all my stories and don’t have much left to say on my blog. I could take the glass-half-empty view of this and say that it shows I need a social life, but I’ll take the glass-half-full view, and say [...]

Christmas Rocks and Kisses

Posted by Dean at Zina’s request:
Today we did a Christmas-eve sprucing of the house (everything but the tree) while Zina was doing one last shopping trip, which caused some discontent among the children. When Mabel was out of earshot, Rose said to me, “Mabel is not being good and Santa is going to give [...]