Husband

Yeah, I got one of those. And oh he is a good one. My wifeliness, I'm not so sure. These photos... all these precious, adorable photos of Matt... were left inside a book that I was selling at Half Price Books. Lucky for me, someone came and sought me out and gave them back. I don't even know why they were in there... some long forgotten Matt memorial project. But these little moments in time are so heart-stoppingly adorable. Baby Matt, young Matt in the lawn chair looking very suave and professional, teenage Matt with a ponytail and dashing white jeans striking some sort of fabulous pose, blue Matt dressed as a smurf at a Halloween party, and of course the most dear photo of all, which I would have been crushed to lose... holding tiny, tiny Jack, with the most tender expression on his face.

Matt and I have been kind of on the outs for a month or so, just mad at each other, not getting along, blaming each other for everything that's going wrong in our lives. I should make a little collage of these photos, and stick them up somewhere... remind myself of what a great guy he is, and remind myself of the stages and phases of life, and how fleeting they all really are. We just happen to be in this time of life with really little kids, and we're both here pointing our finger at the other one saying, "You, there, should be making sure the house is a lot cleaner and there's a lot more money and the kids are being parented perfectly. It's all YOUR fault." Of course, reality check, this is a very imperfect and stressful (and completely impermanent) time in our lives. We're all just passing through, soon enough we'll look back and it'll all just be a few photographs, that's all that's left. You're a baby, a kid, a smurf, a dad....all we can do is try to enjoy it while we can. And cut each other a ton of slack.

Sweet Spiced Pecans, among other things...

Today in our gift making class we made these delicious pecans (an ideal Texas gift by the way to send to relatives who don't live deep in the heart of Texas where pecan trees abound), also peppermint and sweet orange bath salts, and some fun playdough for good measure. Here's the recipe for the pecans... so easy to make, and delicious. A good sweet treat for youngsters, because if they're going to eat the sugar, at least they'll be ingesting a little protein, too. And put these on a salad for some real good eatin'.

SUGAR AND SPICE PECANS
from COOKS.COM
1 lb. pecan halves

1 egg white

1 tbsp. water

1 c. sugar

3/4 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

Beat egg white and water until frothy, not stiff. Stir in sugar, salt and cinnamon. Add pecans, stir well until pecans are completely coated. Spread nuts on large baking sheet. Bake at 200 degrees for 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes. Remove from oven when "dry" and toasty. When cool, store in airtight container.
Pecans SHOULD be refrigerated or frozen (up to 2 years) in order to keep their freshness.

Making cocoa

We made cocoa in my gift making class on Wednesday, among other things. Of course we had to sample our wares. And of course I have to share these photos with you, because kids with hot chocolate moustaches are the cutest things ever.

We also made beautiful lacy golden crowns, as modeled by Violet in the pictures below.

Here's the cocoa recipe... it's the absolutely most divine recipe I've found. So easy and fast to mix up with your toddler or kid to give to to a teacher or auntie or friend. And it's so unbelievably good.

Ingredients
2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup cocoa (Dutch-process preferred)
2 1/2 cups powdered milk
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 pinch cayenne pepper, or more to taste
Hot water
Directions
Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl and incorporate evenly. In a small pot, heat 4 to 6 cups of water.
Fill your mug half full with the mixture and pour in hot water. Stir to combine. Seal the rest in an airtight container, keeps indefinitely in the pantry. This also works great with warm milk.

Rockin' out with Miss Staci

Feeling very very luckily fortunate today to have been able to host a Miss Staci show in my backyard. We had traded a show for an art class that she and her son Rand took with me this fall. The show was SO fun... the kids had a ball as you can see. Bubbles, tunes, and lots and lots of fun friends... quite frankly a friday morning made in heaven.

Gettin' all Celtic on your Festival

I love this time of year in my neighborhood. It makes me freak out with love for Austin. First we have the Dia de Los Muertos parada right down E. 6th St.... then we have Celtic Festival down at Fiesta Gardens (a stone's throw, quite seriously, from my house... or perhaps we should say, more accurately, a frisbee's throw from my house), and then the East Austin Studio Tour, which has expanded to TWO weekends this year! Yippee! Nov. 14th through Nov. 22nd. That's good because I always go out on Sunday it seems and then have so much fun that I'm kicking myself for not having been out since Saturday in the a.m. seeing all the awesome art and cool cool spaces for making art and rubbing noses with some really awesome people. This time I plan on taking full advantage. But back to the Celtic Festival.

First let me assure you that I am not a Fest kind of gal. I'm kind of claustrophobic and not really as social as you might think and I do have three rather young, unpredictable children who could be enjoying themselves perfectly well one moment and then on the ground in a foamy-mouthed rabid rage the next.... so we have to kind of exercise caution as far as attending events goes. But ever since I stumbled upon Celtic Festival whilst on a walk when Jack was but one years old and we had just moved into the 'hood... and I observed from behind the chain link fence the sheep herding demonstration and the Strong Men in Kilts chucking huge tree trunks and all sorts of lads and lasses all Medieval-ed out... well, I was hooked. So now we go every year and it's really quite perfect for, uh, how shall I put this... I don't quite want to label my boys as 'aggro'... but for the discerning young chap who enjoys some crashing and banging of metal objects and weapons... it's pretty darn exciting. We watched some sort of wonderful Viking group battle each other and afterwards we got to get up close and personal... talk to them and try on their helmets and hold their shields. There was also this great archery set-up where you could shoot ten arrows for three dollars... hellz yeah! Jack was all about it. We ran into our friend Max (in the red shirt) who shared his cotton candy with us... I do believe that was Bruno's favorite part of the experience. Max bought that tiny cross bow there, that shoots a little nerf arrow... I want to think how to build one of those... would be a great project to do with kids, potentially.

Anyway, Celtic Festival! Also going on tomorrow, Sunday, Nov. 8th (my birthday!) Happy birthday to me, and check it out....

Austin Creative Reuse... our first event!

This was so exciting... putting our idea out to the good people of Austin, turning people on to this awesome vision and igniting this little spark of excitement that's going to keep this project blazing on towards completion!

This meeting was to kind of to explain more to people what this reuse resource center is going to be like, how it's going to operate... and telling people more about how this model is very well established in places like Oakland, Chicago, New York City.... there's at least twenty of them in the U.S. Austin is so ripe and ready for a place like this.... it's pretty much a no-brainer.
Our event was really well attended and people were excited! My assignment was to lay out a simple reuse project. I decided to do this marble labyrinth game.... I can't even tell you how excited I became seeing what people came up with. So excited that it's a little bit ridiculous. But there it was, what I have been dreaming of this whole time... people creating, having fun, and using all these scraps and odds and ends to boot... well, there just ain't one thing wrong about that. Austin Creative Reuse in action.

Sometimes I just love people so goddamn much

Submissions to a Where the Wild Things Are fort building contest, at http://www.booooooom.com/ (in collaboration with http://www.weloveyouso.com/). More forts can be found here and here.