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2009-01-05T16:29:00.000-08:00

It's been almost two years since I posted. I always think that I should have a bunch of separate blogs for different subjects. Like, one of children's books, finance, personal, links, books, movies, whatever. If I'm going to do any updates at all, it's gonna have to be all in one spot. Besides all the other places where I keep track of stuff. I'll try to give it a go.

Swapbot Recieved

2007-02-27T14:39:00.000-08:00

I received my black and white swap in the mail the other day. My partner send me some yarn, a note and address book, a mug, frame, and some candles. I hate to be pissy about it, but I put a lot of thought and care into the package I sent, and I got what looks like a quick trip to the nearest craft store's dollar bin.

I haven't received anything for the zine or magic yarn ball swap I did, both of which were due almost a month ago. I don't think I'm going to do swapbot anymore.

Nikki McClure

2007-02-20T14:46:00.000-08:00

I just read in the Sunday Chronicle about a NIkki McClure art show. I emailed the store to see if they had any left, and out of five stamp style pieces they had left, one was this one that I wanted to most. And it's all mine, for only $250.

I love Nikki McClure's art, I hear about her gorgeous calendar all the time. I am so excited to have this tiny beautiful hand cut stamp in my home, and as my very first real original art purchase.

Valentines

2007-02-14T10:24:00.000-08:00

My first Gocco project! I have had a Gocco machine for more than two years, and I've never had the chance to break it out. It was so easy, and Z and I made these great Valentines to give her class.

No one else made their own Valentines, not one.

Black and White swap

2007-02-12T16:29:00.000-08:00

I just mailed out my Magic Yarn Ball swap this afternoon, and I finished putting together my items to send out for a Black and White swap.

I really like putting these together for the most part, I hope everyone I send to likes my stuff. I got some good feedback from my cover mix cd swap, and I got some songs that I didn't have copies of before. I love the White Stripe's cover of Jolene.

Swapbot

2007-01-29T10:54:00.000-08:00

My first Swap-bot swap was a Cover Mix cd swap. I forgot to take photos of what I sent, an annotated track listing, the cd, and a drawn cover, but I received these.

I love mail art and zines, and I've always wanted to do some swaps, but I never really had anythig going besides some zine trading, back when I was writing them. Swap bot makes it so easy, there are a lot of participants, and a crap load of different themed swaps, plenty to choose from. I'm glad to see some cool mail going around, from a lot of different and creative people.

Crazy Hat and Hair Day

2007-01-26T16:02:00.000-08:00

I don't know why schools feel compelled to do theme days. School spirit? Pajama day, red white and blue day, and now, crazy hat and hair day.

I wanted to do yarn dreads, but it didn't turn out quite right. Z's ponytails were a little short, so I ran some yarn through and around the ponytails, wrapped a little for a headband, and then tied some, proper yarn dread style, in her bangs. Oh so crazy.

I just got some of this pink Lamb's Pride yarn the other day because Z wants to learn how to knit. It's a little thin, I might have to get her some thicker yarn. Or cheaper, maybe, to start.

Art Buying

2007-01-05T20:07:00.000-08:00

I was kind of dissaponited a couple months ago, when some orginal Mark Frauenfelder art was for sale and I couldn't get any. I liked this one, with the girl in the O.

Then he offered up some screen printed Moleskine cahiers. I put in my order as soon as I saw the post on boing boing, they sold out quickly. I was so excited, I posted my "unboxing" photos to flickr.

This kind of thing happened again, some photos of Hunter S Thompson's were at an LA gallery and on sale for between $2 and $3K. And then I found out about the new limited edition book. Even though the book is $300, it's a steal compared to the photos.

Winter Decorations

2006-11-26T16:34:00.000-08:00

Besides a Christmas tree, this will probably be the extent of the holiday decorations around here. I hate paper snowflakes now. I tried to use a template, which I had a bitch of a time finding in the first place, but it ended up being easier to just cut freehand.

Hotel Shampoo

2006-11-24T17:36:00.000-08:00

Over Thanksgiving, we stayed at the luxurious and fancy Holiday Inn Express. Actually, it was pretty nice. It's pretty new, it was built a couple years ago, I guess.

Anyway, they have these little special holders for their bath products. They even have conditioner, which has been absent from hotel products offerings. They give you a shower cap (of course), and a little makeup remover wipe. The shampoo and conditioner bottles are pretty nice, with a flip top lid and a wide opening on top. Nice. I grabbed them to refill for next time, they'll fit a shower worth or two.

Another place good design has appeared. The hotel room itself wasn't too bad, either, even though it had the required gaudy, slimy bedspread coverlet and ugly upholstery. The headboard and tables were a matching dark wood with fairly simple moldings on top.

Thanksgiving

2006-11-22T13:49:00.000-08:00

I've been busting my ass cleaning for the last four days, so that I would have a clean house to come home to when we return from a little Thanksgiving trip. I did, like, six loads of laundry today, catching up and washing all the bed linens. I'm tired.

I always want to go away on holidays, and even though we're just going to see my family a few hours away, we will be staying in a hotel, so it kind of counts as a vacation. As much of one as I ever get, anyway. Five days off from making school lunches and getting kids out the door at 8am, I'll take it.

Laptop Lunch Box

2006-11-16T17:00:00.000-08:00

I finally got one of these Laptop Lunch boxes for Z. I hate using plastic bags, and even though I wash and reuse them most of the time, I'd still rather not.

They had a good deal on shipping at reusablebags.com, and I picked up some of those cool Sigg aluminum water bottles and a To Go Ware carrier. No more plastic bags! Hooray!

The typical school lunch that I make has a sandwich in a bag, a juice box, an apple, some crackers in a bag, maybe an organic fruit leather snack, etc. This one is kind of an Italian, antipasti style lunch, with olives, salame, crackers, and gnocchi. The little yellow container had parmesan in it.

Ina!

2006-11-10T23:06:00.000-08:00

My favorite cookbook author, Ina Garten was signing her new book, Barefoot Contessa: At Home this evening in Marin.

I love Ina, I have all of her books, and we love her Barefoot Contessa show on the Food Network. By we, I mean me and Z, she freaking loves that show. Sometimes I'll give her a choice between it and a cartoon, and she'll want to watch Ina every time. Yes, of course, we're on a first name basis.

So, we were both so excited to hear that we would get a chance to see her, and have a book signed for Z. She even let her take a couple photos with her, she wasn't posing for pictures, but it was nice that she made an exception for Z. There were no other kids there, I doubt she's seen many five year olds at her other signings. It was well worth the drive and the wait, and the book has some great stuff to try.

Turkeys?!

2006-11-09T09:58:00.000-08:00

I looked out the window this morning and saw a bunch of turkeys walking down the street. I have no idea where they came from, or where they were going. Turkey?! WTF?

There were a bunch, they hung out in the neighbor's yard for a little bit, then they crossed the street. I didn't follow them down, but they went over to the main road, and I guess they continued down the sidewalk, because I didn't hear tires screeching and squawks and feathers flying. And then they were gone.

Dinner

2006-11-07T20:03:00.000-08:00

Breakfast for dinner tonight. French toast, scrambled eggs, strawberries, and coffee cake.

Halloween is over, time for Christmas

2006-11-04T20:45:00.000-08:00

Right? It seems like everybody is getting ready for Christmas early, and not only the stores. I want to get going on presents and preparations, too.

We are lucky in that we don't have very many people to give gifts to on Christmas. My family, his parents, and then it's just us, and we get stuff for the kids. But this year, I want to give the family things that are either home made, perishable, or both. Last year, I really wanted to make those little hanging birdseed things, but then I found out they were made of suet. I got on to that idea too late to have time to render beef fat in my kitchen and mold it into shapes, or whatever the hell you have to do with it. I know it involves heating fat in a pot. We have a little hotplate in the garage now for projects, and I'm sure I can find a pot at the thrift store (I have All-Clad pans, none of that is going anywhere near craft projects of any sort), so that'll work for this year.

I made these little prototypes for tissue holders, as well. There are a lot of tutorials on craftster and such, but I just had to eyeball a couple, and test them for the little travel tissue packs I have. The first one had too much of an overlap to get the tissues out, the second one didn't have enough, but the third one turned out just right. I made a little template, so now I can get going on the material. I bought some wool felt at the fabric store, and some lineny stuff, and some patterned material, so I can try a couple combinations. Maybe a little quilting on one, maybe a raw edge applique, etc.

I think all the rest of my Christmas shopping will be done at Whole Foods. I'd like to get together some small gift baskets or something, some cheese, bread, salami, olives, maybe some fancy sea salts or chocolate. I'll make some of Ina's lemon bread and wrap it up.

Unless I see something that I know someone would just love, I don't like to give "things," for environmental reasons as much as anything else. I don't need to buy, purchase, consume, consume for myself, and I certainly don't need to on someone else's behalf.

Flickr landmark

2006-11-01T22:05:00.000-08:00

Landmark? Benchmark? Record? Whatever, my Flickr photostream hit 200 views today. That's pretty good for me, I know that some people's photos get viewed thousands of times, but 200 certainly seems like a lot to me.

I really love Flickr, I've only been using it regularly for a little over two months now, I think, and I bought a pro account a couple weeks ago. I don't upload a shitload of pictures, but more than a free account worth. I look around at other photos all the time, though, there is a great community of photographers and bloggers. I get a little peek into that group of cool people, at least.

Halloween

2006-10-31T21:02:00.000-08:00

This was the first year that Z really participated in Halloween. But now that she's in kindergarten, it's a much bigger deal, so I wanted to make her costume. Even though I waited until yesterday to make it.

I made a grey sparkly toille skirt, and this suedey, handkerchief style top. I made some little wings with sticks, and she was a forest fairy. It ended up looking pretty cute, and turned out okay. Don't look too close, though, it's not even close to perfect. It was 100% eyeballed, actually, no measurements.

Pumpkins

2006-10-29T21:42:00.000-08:00

Today was a nice Sunday in the house, good for cleaning and baking and carving pumpkins. These little zombie pumpkin guys are supposed to have paper bodies as well, but I couldn't quite get the proportions right yet. I got this idea from an old Martha Stewart Kids magazine, maybe it was last year's fall issue. Anyway, the eyes are made from scoops of pear, they were out like this all day, so they are already starting to brown.

It took awhile to get all the guts out of these pumpkins, Z and I were working at it for awhile. I didn't have any specific pumpkin carving tools, I used a small paring knife, which didn't work very well, it wasn't bendy enough to get any curvy lines. The eye holes are from the small of a round biscuit cutter set, and I used a measuring spoon to scoop out the eyes. Mine fell on the floor and cracked, though.

Postcards

2006-10-28T21:35:00.000-07:00

I had some really heavy cardstock paper laying around, so I cut it into pieces to make postcards. Z wanted to break out the paint, but after we went at them with crayons, pens, and some stamps, there wasn't any room for paint.

Art and Technology Day

2006-10-21T19:43:00.000-07:00

We went over to the Center for the Arts again today, to see the Ned Kahn with Bruce Shapiro collection again, and they were hosting Art and Technology Day. They had sun prints, wire sculpting, painting, a little Make booth, and some stuff from the forming North Bay Childrens Museum.

I guess an art car is both art and technology, and they had the Pen Guy there with his pen car. Z got to pick a pen to glue to his car, she picked a pink one, of course.

Carol Channing

2006-10-14T23:03:00.000-07:00

Hello, Dolly was the first show I saw on Broadway, and then I saw it again when it traveled to Sacramento a few years later. My grandmother and aunt are really into her, so I kind of inherited this weird love of Carol Channing. She had a show tonight at the Spreckels performing arts center, and I figured if she was going to be so close, I'd better go.

I was one of the youngest people there, including the teenage kids that looked like they had been dragged by their parents. Or grandparents. The median age of the audience was probably 60. Maybe a little less.

I went all by myself, which was kind of awkward, actually. I was hoping there would be some cool gay guys in their twenties that I could latch onto and hang out with while waiting, but there weren't any. Just old gay guys. And old women, and old couples, and old, old, old. Well, Carol herself is 85, so I suppose that's just about right. But I sat next to a nice gay guy who was by himself as well, and in the front row, even, on the side. We weren't allowed any pictures, but I took some anyway.

Thank you, mailman

2006-10-13T22:34:00.000-07:00

Quite the day for mail. No Netflix movies, though.

I've been waiting for Craft for months, they announced it in summer, and have throroughly teased me since. It's from O'Reilly, which is based in Sebastopol. I go past their offices when I get our propane tank refilled. I kept seeing ads on their website, and on everybody's blogs, and in Make. Tease! But now it is here, and it is great.

I used to make zines, and I used to read a whole crap load of them. I still have three large boxes in the garage full of them (how do you organize piles of different sized and formatted homemade zines?). Then I stopped making them, and quit keeping up with the whole scene. But I just recently re subscribed to the East Village Inky, a long running zine that kind of got me started on the stuff in the first place. I've missed it. But I think I'll just stick to the one for now.

Also in the mail today was Dwell, and House Beautiful. I actually don't like that one at all, they started sending it to be after they killed Budget Living, so they wouldn't have to give me my money back right away. Boo, House Beautiful. I need to call and cancel that one. RIP Budget Living.

Library book

2006-10-10T11:51:00.000-07:00

Only one book to pick up this week, Found Style, by Amy and David Butler. It has a lot of great photos of repurposed garage sale items. Certainly a good library pick, not so much to buy. It would look good on your old safe as coffee table, though, next to the floral frog photo holder.

It seems like there are a lot of new books coming out, interior design, craft, general design books.

Bins

2006-10-09T11:53:00.000-07:00

I cleaned these bins out to put on Craigslist and get out of the way. I don't really want the kids to have enough random crap to fill these bins. Nothing ended up staying separated by category, anyway. I got a few single metal bins on clearance at Target to replace them, they fit neatly on the shelves in Z's room. Those, and one bag to goodwill, and almost all that random crap is up off the floor, and mostly hidden away.

After I took some pictures to post to craiglist, my husband said, "No, you can't get rid of those bins. I love those." Whaa? You love the plastic rainbow bin thing? Alright, I guess they can go in Bean's room for now. I can use them to store all the clothes from thrift stores I haven't sorted, and the stuff I want to put on eBay. Her room is becoming sorting and storage central.

School Clothes

2006-10-03T15:06:00.000-07:00

Z had a substitute teacher today for the first time. I think that I was a little more concerned than she was. I sometimes forget that she's so grown up now. All her regular friends are still there, I suppose, and her teacher has been trying to foster in the kids an ownership of the classroom. Substitute teacher, no big deal.

It was pretty chilly, Z didn't take her sweater off all day. I love this sweater of hers, it's quite snuggly, and a pretty blue, from Old Navy. She's had that for a long time. I also love her new Hanna Andersson cropped sweatpants. When I wanted her to get dressed in them this morning, she said she didn't like them. When I reminded her that they were Hanna Andersson, she changed her mind. I know, bad Mommy, brand loyalty, instilling that in my children. It's great stuff, though. She's wearing her polka dot Hanna clogs, too.

Martha, Tea, and Going Green

2006-10-02T17:04:00.000-07:00

I usually fast forward through most of Martha Stewart's daytime show. I'll stop for interesting guests or crafts or segments. Today's show had Tracey Ullman making a tea cozy and drinking my favorite kind of tea, PG Tips. I love PG Tips so much, I have it every day. A friend who was married to an English man introduced me to it a few years ago, and I'm a total convert. I used to have to drive an hour to Cost Plus World Market to get it, but since we've moved, our local grocery store has it in it's little import section. PG Tips, with Sugar in the Raw, and real cream. Mmmm.

And I've read on treehugger.com that Martha is doing a "Going Green" week, and everyday has segments on saving energy, recycling, and making other eco-friendly choices. I'm so glad that becoming more aware of the environment is trendy now, I've been a little bit of a treehugging pagan hippie for years, and I'm happy to see more people adopting some small changes that make a big difference. In May, I was reading about this "Light Green" trend, and I think that was even before the Vanity Fair green issue, and An Inconvenient Truth. I knew it would eventually start being cooler to reduce, reuse, and recycle.

One other thing Martha metioned today was to use canvas shopping bags. I've been using these for awhile, from the Dharma Trading Company, based in San Rafael. They are plain cotton, with two, durable handles. I bought a dozen three years ago, and only two handles have broken, and were easily repaired. I use them at the grocery store, for all the library books, to carry stuff to the beach, and I can keep a few in each (terrapassed) car. Told you I was a hippie.

School Clothes

2006-10-01T22:07:00.000-07:00

I've been forgetting to take pictures of Z's school clothes these last few days. With all the plates I'm trying to keep spinning, it's hard enough to get her dressed and out the door in the mornings, let alone try to remember what she wore all week.

It looks like we're getting towards the end of the reasonable combinations of clothing items, it's getting hard to match the mis-matched. I don't think she's worn the same thing more than twice, though, and only a couple outfits. The solid color long sleeve shirts see a lot of wear, though.

When I dropped her off the other day, I hung out for a little, and ended up noticing a lot of girls wearing cowboy boots. Three with pink ones, one with brown. One pair, I know, was like this pair, that I am tempted to buy every time I see them at Target.

Great Design and the Library

2006-10-01T10:39:00.001-07:00

Oh, the library. How do I love thee?

I can request any book I want from their website, and any book from any library in the county is taken to the one I want to pick up at. They have almost every book I would want to read. Sometimes it takes a little while, if there is a waiting list, or if something is already checked out, or a new release. But, you can't beat free. (I donate to the library I most frequent, though, I'm a "Friend of the Library.")

I had some books to pick up that I had read about in some other blogs, like this Pure Style Living by Jane Cumberbatch. I'm not too horribly ultra minimalistic, or have everything in white, like in this book, but it is all gorgeous, and inspiring, and great design.

Time to Upgrade

2006-09-30T17:47:00.000-07:00

I've had my G5 iMac for almost three years now. I just replaced the whole graphics card thingy because it was having issues with going to sleep repeatedly. And now, it's acting like it needs a tune up or something. It's ridiculously slow and sluggish, even with little, simple tasks. Better back up in case it craps out.

I've been thinking about the new 24" Intel chip iMac. Mmm. Many inches. This old one doesn't have the remote or built in iSight, either. I heard that the employee discount is 25% off. Maybe I should become a (very very) part time employee.

Thrift Score of the Day

2006-09-29T17:49:00.000-07:00

I love this bento style lunch pail, I've been looking for some for Z since she started school. I really would like her to use these instead of putting everything in little plastic bags. Even though we reuse most of the bags, I could put more different kinds of food in her lunch, without being limited to what would fit in a bag or one of those little reusable plastic containers.

This particular one is a little too big for a kindergartener's lunch, if I ever made a picnic lunch for two, this would be just right. I'm not quite sure how this one is supposed to work, though. The handles thing latches just fine, but it has holes on the lid and the large open container, which makes me think that something might be missing. Another latching system, perhaps? And might it have originally come with utensils? I'm going to do a little internet research on that.

I'll also be on the lookout for more of these, I'd like to find a true bento box for Z to take to school. Even a Sanrio one would be good, for her snack at least, those are kind of small. I love this one from To Go Ware. For fun, I found BentoTV via Vegan Lunch Box. Fun Stuff.

Thrift Score of the Day

2006-09-28T18:33:00.000-07:00

I usually skip over the housewares section pretty quickly when I go to the thrift store. But now I'm trying to find some melamine bowls for Bean. She's old enough now to have her own bowl to start feeding herself. I have some little glass bowls that I use for prep, and she's dropped those on the floor a few times, but they are going to end up in pieces if she gets them all the time.

Ideally, I'd like to find some vintage melamine kid's bowls, maybe those kind with straight sides. I found a couple items today, a larger, shallow white bowl, and a plate with cherries on it, but not quite what I was hoping for. But, I did end up with this plastic Ikea bowl set, which will work just fine for her for now.

School Clothes - Monday

2006-09-25T10:51:00.000-07:00

Z's been wearing more normal clothes than usual lately. Normal shorts and normal shirts. Etc. As opposed to weird dresses with pants, random wacky shirts and stuff.

Today, thrifted Old Navy shirt and Mary Kate and Ashley shorts. These shorts are actually pretty cute, even though they are mary Kate and Ashley from WalMart. I don't like WalMart. Little embroidery on the front facing pockets. Z has a khaki version as well, but she never wants to wear them.

Crafty

2006-09-24T09:54:00.000-07:00

I used to sew all the time, when I was in high school I would go to my grandmother's house and make skirts and pants and little things. I knitted for awhile, too, when I was in school, and then later after I had Z, but I was never very good.

But anyway, I got a sewing machine so that I could make some of the little things I've been wanting to make. Maybe some felt toys or bags, sewing appliques on shirts, mending, some pillows, etc.

First thing on my list was a little tied kerchif for Z. I saw some cute ones at an upscale baby boutique, and I used the fabric from a sheet I found from a thrift store for the top. They had almost the exact same wave textured chenille at the fabric store for the lining that was on fancy $20 version.

Mine turned out okay, especially for my first sewing project in, oh... more than seven years. Man, I'm getting old. Seven years is a long time. Version 2.0 coming soon. As soon as I get twenty minutes to myself, so maybe a little longer than 'soon.'

Deadwood

2006-09-23T10:08:00.000-07:00

I freaking love Deadwood. My new favorite show.

I would much rather wait until a season's run of a show is over, and then watch all the episodes in a row. Everything comes out on dvd within months, anyway. Rescue Me season 3 just finished, so by the time I catch up with Deadwood, I can watch that. I finished up all of Carnivale last, Sons and Daughters before that. Remember that show? Cancelled after one season, but fairly amusing. Carnivale was so great, cancelled after two seasons, I hear mostly because it was so costly to produce.

The only show I can't bear to wait for is Project Runway, and now I'm watching the new Amazing Race as it airs.

Thrift Score of the Day

2006-09-22T17:35:00.000-07:00

There aren't usually too many toys at the thrift stores I go to for some reason. But I found aLilly doll, and I am very excited about it. She is one of my new favorite children's book characters. We even got a chance to meet Kevin Henkes when his "Lilly's Big Day" book tour came around to our local book store. My favorite is "Julius, the Baby of the World," even though Lilly has a little more of a bossy attitude in that one.

School Clothes - Thursday

2006-09-21T21:16:00.000-07:00

Z always wants to wear a skirt or a dress. I let her wear this skirt today, but only if she wore her blue pajama shorts on underneath, and practice sitting like a lady.

The little girls are enchanted by all this princess business, wanting to be and look like a princess, blah, blah. And they seems to focus on the dresses and getting married. Like that's gonna be a dream come true. Pff. A little bit of fantasy is okay, but I don't want my daughters to think that finding a prince is the ultimate goal. So I am constantly refocusing attention on manners and decorum. A princess is above all, kind and polite. A princess always acts like a lady.

Old Navy shirt, thrifted Gap skirt. Z compared her mary janes with white socks to Alice's in Alice in Wonderland. Damn you, Disney, you've brainwashed my child. She won't pay attention to the book version now. But the Mary Blair art direction gets me watching that one, too.

School Clothes - Wednesday

2006-09-20T10:53:00.000-07:00

It was a little too cold without a sweater this morning, but it'll warm up by her first recess. Fall is coming, I like fall clothes the best. Layers.

New Hanna linen dress, thank you, eBay. Bongo pink pants, from the thrift store last week.

School Clothes - Tuesday

2006-09-19T17:19:00.000-07:00

Old Navy shirt, Gingerbread something skirt with Sonoma Life Style shorts on underneath, old Stride Rite shoes that are almost too small. The skirt and shorts were the only thrift store finds this time. Pull those socks up.

School Clothes - Monday

2006-09-18T12:53:00.000-07:00

She can't not pose.

Great Escape striped shirt. Very 'let's go yachting.' SQZ Jeans, rolled up as to hide the hideous paint detail on the cuff. Both thrifted.

2006-09-17T17:25:00.000-07:00

I'm not a big t shirt person, for the most part. Mostly because I hardly ever wear anything with short sleeves. Ever. And I am also not in the habit of buying new clothes, for both thriftiness and environmental reasons.

But, I fricking love this design from threadless. I love grey and I love rainbows. Perfect.

Thrift Score of the Day

2006-09-15T11:33:00.000-07:00

This wasn't the prettiest or most valuble item I found today, but it's my favorite.

A regular old Oshkosh brand smock style shirt, with orange trim and quilty patchwork. Z can wear this under her new orange Hanna sweatshirt. It's starting to get cold outside. And orange is good.

Who loves orange soda?

2006-09-14T21:46:00.000-07:00

I don't usually go to Safeway, there's a Whole Foods close by, and then I get all the name brand stuff that we like from a locally owned grocery store with a great deli. This Safeway I went to was recently remodeled, and it has more organic and gourmet options now, in addition to the produce section looking all farmers markety, complete with umbrellas. Inside. In general, though, it looks pretty nice.

Their store brand of soda looks the best, though. I love this fruit design on the labels, especially the strawberry. I almost bought some.

School Clothes - Wednesday

2006-09-13T14:30:00.000-07:00

Z was the "star person" today, so she got to be the helper, and sit next to the teacher during the morning time, and be the line leader. She was most excited about being the line leader. Some kind of kindergarten status symbol, perhaps.

She wanted to wear this weird pink corduroy skirt/dress thing, which I think is probably a baby dress. The tag is illegible from too many washings. She loves that dress. WIth regular Old Navy jean shorts, and Stride Rite sandals that were on clearance last month. All her picks today, being star person and all.

School Clothes - Tuesday

2006-09-12T15:45:00.000-07:00

I got Z some Hanna Andersson polka dot clogs on eBay, so she had to break them in at school. They came back with the toes covered in black streaks from the playground blacktop, or whatever they put on the ground over there. Anything that touches it comes back filthy.

Flea Market Score of the Day

2006-09-10T15:37:00.000-07:00

There's a big flea market in Sebastopol on the weekends, and I'd never been.

There was a lot of new stuff, like clothes and bags and cds and junk, even some grocery style stands with produce. Not what I was looking for, I went for the piles of random used crap. I found some, after walking through some very narrow aisles of cheap knockoff import junk. Z was already tired and complaining at this point, and Bean was asleep on my shoulder, so we made a quick loop around the vendors, with their old vacuums and tchotckes and such.

I did, however find one thing worth getting, this weird Britax convertible booster car seat. The backrest tucks into itself. I can't seem to find much on the internet about it, but I figured that as long as it was a fancy Britax, it was worth the $20 price tag. Man, those things are expensive. And now we don't have to switch the booster seat from the car to the truck.

Thrift Score of the Day

2006-09-08T15:35:00.000-07:00

Thursdays are half off kids clothes at the Salvation Army. I found this Children's Place pink corduroy skirt for Z, which matches the little pink pants I got for Bean a few weeks ago. Those pants don't look like much just sitting there, but they are my new favorites on her. It was odd to find that same matching fabric and brand in both the girls' sizes. Z likes the skirt, especially because it has little pink rhinestones on the pocket rivets. Of course. Not bad for $1.50.

School Clothes - Wednesday

2006-09-06T11:48:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to take a picture of Z's school clothes everyday. Partly to keep an archive of sorts of her style, and also to help me remember what she's worn for the week. We've amassed so many items, I want her to cycle through everything.

Mostly all of her clothes are from thrift stores, and some are store brands, I find a lot of Gap and Old Navy and Children's Place. Sometimes I'll find some Laura Ashley, or Hanna Andersson, or even Baby Phat or Rocawear and stuff. At the size she is now, she can fit a range of sizes, and she isn't growing as fast as she used to. Now I can bring myself to buy more expensive, better made, new clothes, when they're on sale. I just made a Hanna Andersson order yesterday, they're having a big sale, and Z will be able to fit into those next year, too. They wash and wear better than anything else, and I can keep them for Bean to wear, or sell them on eBay for 50-75% of my purchase price. Great resale value.

But anyway, I wanted to do a kind of wardrobe remix: mini version.

On Z - Gap denim dress
- Old Navy pink trouser style pants
- Stride Rite mary janes
On Bean - Carters blue sweat pants
- Children's Place fleece white dress (one of my new favorites)
- Hanna Andersson grey hoodie
everything thrifted, except for the hoodie, which I bought on eBay