The Storybook Collection

I am toujours working working working on my latest line of baby-girl fashions. One never knows when a baby shower will come up and you need to have a super cute gift ready on the double. This collection was for my friend Alicia who is having a girl any second now. Can't wait to see the little cutie!

It's a little ironic that I ended up settling on this theme for her present, because I found out later that she'd dreamed I bought her story BOOKS. Imagine how surprised slash STOKED she was to get story ONESIES instead!! This collection was totally meant to be.

So with no further ado, I present to you:

The Storybook Collection

La Madeline

Say bonjour to everyone's favorite little fille d'école.

Grow, Sally. Grow!

See Sally growing up faster every day.

Sunday in the Park avec Babar

Those sophiticated Elephants, Babar and Celeste, take Pom, Flora, and Alexander out for a spin in their pram.

Fin.

Knee High to a Chinaman

While my sister was visiting, we went to see one of the few DC attractions that has eluded me over the past 8 years: The National Arboretum's Bonsai collection. The Arboretum is a favorite oasis of mine but somehow I've always managed to time my visits when the Bonsai Museum is closed. Apparently optimal Bonsai growing requires that they keep Banker's hours.

But now, I'm rather glad I hadn't seen this exhibit before because seeing it when the Bonsai were in their vibrant, but tiny, Fall glory was totally awesome. When thinking of Bonsai I generally assumed they were some sort of evergreen tree. But NO! They can be anything!! Tiny tree sculpting belongs to ALL Tree Races.


Check out this wee little Japanese Maple. (OK horticulturists, if I get these names wrong you're gonna have to just deal. I ain't no garden pro.)



And here's a teensie little ... um ... Birch? Or maybe another brand of maple? I can't really remember and its so little I can't use my eagle gardener eyes to tell -- as I usually would -- based on leaf shape. Anyway, it's a yellow-leafed deciduous tree which is WAY little and WAY PRETTY!



Inside the greenhouse is a little myrtl. I really really love myrtl. Isn't it so pretty? And Don't you love how they grafted in that chunk of white wood? Those bonsai artists are so clever!



And look who's hanging out here: Eeensie Weensie Chinamen! Don't they look wise? These little fellows are about the size of my thumbnail, and are hidden cleverly as a little treat for the observant.




Oh, and did I forget to mention that everyone of these trees is at least 50 years old? There's even a white pine (that I didn't picture here because we're showing decidous trees, people) that is FOUR HUNDRED YEARS OLD. Crazy, I know. But true. That tree was alive when Shakespeare was around!

Anyway. LOVED my trip to see the Bonsai! AND I'm even more dedicated to keeping my cactus plant alive now. (I wonder if you can do cactus bonsai.)

On Family Old and New

Hallo! Just back from my Thanksgiving week in Phoenix, AZ, year two. Everything was the same as it was last year. Same Brother and Sister-in-Law being super hospitable and fun. Same Parents being goofy (like when my Dad hid his See's chocolates in the microwave. Would've worked too except we all watched him hobble over and stash them inside. He's a master of deception.) Same warm sunny weather. Same never-ending swaths of BEIGE BEIGE BEIGE. Yup. All basically the same as last year. Except I didn't puke my guts out. And we didn't go to the Grand Canyon.

Oh. And this year I have THE CUTEST NIECE IN THE KNOWN UNIVERSE. No biggie.

Please visit her Online Shrine for your daily worship.

One fun thing we did this year was force my parents to do Oral Histories. I learned several interesting stories about my grandparents.

For example:
My newly married and very poor maternal grandparents were lucky to get one of the very small log cabins at the WPA worksite. They knew a skunk was nesting underneath the house, but so far everyone was getting along just fine. Until some neighbors stopped by for a visit. (Here you should picture me cough-saying "Visiting Teachers." Can't prove it, but do the math. They show up at your house + try to "help" = Totally Annoying Results. I'm just sayin'.)

The "neighbors" saw the skunk and had the GENIUS idea to chase it out of its cushy sub-cabin home. Well, it was the thirties and I'm guessin that good cabins to live under were few and far between. Old Pepe wasn't going anywhere without a fight.

He ran under the cabin to defend his territory. And ....

SPRAY SPRAY SPRAY

... Just like that, poor Grandma and Gramps returned home to find their house and all of the contents therein completely saturated with skunk stink. They had to move out of their cabin and lost all of their stuff. INCLUDING a brand new sack of FLOUR. Which in Great Depression Currency was like three Hermes Birkin bags. If my Grandma had even known these words she probably would have told her no-good "helpful neighbors" to stay the freak out of her biz-nas from now until like forevah. (That's what I would have told them, anyway.)

To add insult to stinky injury, they smelled so Skunky no one would be their friend or rent them a new apartment for weeks. Poor stinky fore-fathers. Life was so so SO hard for you.

I'm glad we did these family histories because now I know that my mistrust of "helpful neighbors" is both well-founded and genetic!

PS. Does this strike anyone else as a story that could only happen in rural Idaho during the Great Depression?

The Much-Awaited Home Tour

Remember when I had all of these plans to post pictures of our newly renovated apartment? Well, after I got distracted taking pictures for the housewarming party, the party got into full swing, and then life got into full swing and well, our house never got picture-worthy clean until this weekend. I came home from being out of town for a week to find the house spic and span!

Camie, being the awesome roommate that she is, went ahead a cleaned the joint up and posted a photo tour of our cute cute apartment. Isn't she the best?

I will refer you to her for the tour.

The Outside
The Neighborhood
Entry and Kitchen
Living slash Dining
Upstairs Shared Spaces
Camie's bedroom
My Room (not as tidy/beautiful as I'd like but still pretty snazzy)
The Exit

I love our new house, and I hope you do too!

How I Spent My Staycation

I'm playing hostess to my older sister this week. We are still wearing these outfits. We look even more awesome than you can imagine.

92%

I was scanning through the Status updates in Facebook yesterday, and one of my friend's said, "I'm working to get the vote out for John McCain." And I got this squinty look on my face that I get whenever I see something that is weeeeiiiiird. Thinking about it for a mo, I realized that this guy was the first person I had heard during this election who said they were planning on voting for McCain.

Later, when I discovered that the Obama/McCain split in DC was 92/8% the lack of McCainers made a lot more sense. Apparently DC is a McCain-Free-Zone, so its a good thing I switched parties before moving here. I might have been run out on a rail during the street party that ensued when it was called for Obama. I'm still in the shallow end of the Democrat pool, but so far I'm finding it quite refreshing.

But, even though I've defected, I still really like McCain as a person. However, some advisor somewhere should have sat him down and talked to him about the importance of White Strips. I thought his concession was exceptionally gracious. So I say, well fought Honourable Gentleman from Arizona! May your aged bones be warmed as you bask in the toasty AZ sunshine!

And with that,

Let Barack Nation Begin!

Wherin Halloween Becomes My Favorite Holiday

This has been one of the best Halloweens of all time. AND IT'S ONLY HALF OVER!! I'm heading out in a few minutes for round two of parties.

You're probably wondering why this particular Halloween is the best?

Here's why.

First, and nothing to do with me, our new neighborhood appears to be a destination Trick-or-Treating neighborhood. And there were Kids Galore cruising the streets last night. Since becoming an adult I've never lived in a neighborhood so trickertreat heavy. It was totally fun!

But more interesting than living in Kidlandia, I had the easiest, most fun costume. Utilizing both my awesome new haircut and my dip back into the braces pool I was able to pull off a TOTALLY Convincing Ugly Betty.



But most people said something like, "Are you Ugly Betty? Pffft. More like CUTE BETTY!!!" And I was like, "Ohmygosh! Your sooooo nice! But I totally am, right?!"


My rockadelic outfit was made, Oh, about 1000 times better by these snoopy-on-a-sled socks.




At the office, I rocked the stiff competition and WON a $20 gift card!! (along with that jukebox and Stahlin)




After work, Camie and I went to Bryan and Adam's house for a delicious and diet-friendly dinner party. Everybody loved Lucy. And got "I Love Lucy" stickered to prove it.



The party was just starting, though. From there we went to meet party friends Jen and Steve (featured in video below) at a Liberty Tavern in Arlington.

WAY SUPER FUN!!!

This clip is basically what it was like all night. Two things to notice. 1) They're playing Thriller. Which is, in and of itself, WAY AWESOME. 2) If you listen closely you can hear Camie yelling "Faster Faster FASTER!!" All I can say is, Billy Blanks ain't got nothin on me.




That clip? Yeah, that's pretty much what its like everytime I go dancing. Me = Ridiculous

I hope you all had a fun and safe Halloween!