Just another amazing artist on ETSY.

When I was about 10 is when I was a Michael Jackson fan. In my 4th grade class I bought a cassette tape copy of Thriller from Rene Rodriguez, the biggest troublemaker in school. The case was scratched up but I didn't care. I think I gave him $5. My first musical purchase.

My bosom friend Rosa and I would get together and listen to his music (Michael Jacksons not Rene Rodriguez) and sing and swoon. Our friend Heidi got the Thriller video on VHS and we had a special Saturday afternoon gathered in her living room to watch. I think Rosa and I were two feet from the TV. Heidi's mom made cupcakes.

cheese ball

Julien arrived last weekend for his summer visit. Greta and Ollie are in heaven.

Tonight Greta and Julien sat at the dinner table and I over hear Greta making her usual deal, "If I tell you a story then you have to tell me a story." Her story went like this:

Once upon a time there was a cheese ball and he lived in a tiny hole under the street. There was always someone knocking at his door. One day an owl knocked at the door, so he decided he wanted to move.

Then a street worker went down there and said, "there's a cheese ball!" and he threw it.

So, the cheese ball found a home in a matryoshka, a matryoshka without a baby.

The end.

I love it!

busy boy

Henry likes to play at the park,

tries to slip out the back door whenever possible,

and most recently likes to dress up in Greta's princess gowns.

more from the convention

international love

This past Thursday the kids, my mum, and myself attended the first day of a 4 day International Convention of Jehovah's Witnesses. We have our conventions every summer. Every few years there are special international conventions where delegates come from around the world to attend. This year one of these few special events was organized in Long Beach.

Upon arriving we walked into the lobby to a sea of beautiful happy faces. People of all different races together, greeting one another, embracing, exchanging small gifts, and everyone had a camera, everyone! Though most of us had never met before and in many cases did not speak the same language, you could feel nothing but the love, unity, brotherhood, and genuine peace of these fine people, my spiritual brothers and sisters. A day and a feeling I will never forget.

dishes

This is one of my very favorite photos of Greta and I. In our Culver City home, Greta is 2.

fresh and squeezed

old school

My mother's dearest and long time friend, Marilyn, passed to me her set of Nikon cameras (3!) with 3 extra lenses and tons of accessories, filters, flashes, tripods. They must be around 20 years old. These cameras feel so good to hold and the sound of the shutters...oh so sweet. I can't wait to shoot with film...like the good old days.

Thank you , Marilyn!!

Tonight after Henry went to sleep, Greta and I had some quality drawing time.
The blue sky we had today was her inspiration. She was mine.

le plage santa monica

I have to add how inspired I am by this woman and her quilts. Her photography is beautiful too.

I have the top of Greta's quilt almost finished. I sewed it together and realized I need it to be a tad longer. I'll have photos up soon.

Oh, in case anyone is curious how the baking soda/apple cider vinegar shampooing went...

I did it ONCE! It didn't leave my hair feeling silky soft. Didn't feel dirty, just not soft.

I'm too sensitive to that sort of thing. I was a bit disappointed at first and I'm sure it would get better after a certain "detox" period, but that weird textured hair wasn't worth it for me. Zach tried it too, same thing. I'll stick to my Aveda.

Going Granola...not easy.

I am line drying my clothes though ( most of the time ) all but towels and jeans.

Happy Tuesday.

baby doll

Greta loves her baby dolls. She hadn't been playing with the babies lately. This weekend though she stepped back into her mother role. I love seeing her push her baby around in a carriage, swaddle them , change diapers, wear them in slings, I especially feel proud when she will pretend to nurse them. So sweet.

I searched through the archives and found a few photos taken with her babies in the past.

This weekend we packed our bags and babes and were off to India, because you know, "They have everything in India."

She'll make a good mama someday, I'm sure of it.

look into my eyes...

... not around the eyes- the eyes the eyes!

meeee and ollieeee making cookieeeeees

Ollie talked me into making chocolate chip cookies at 10:30 pm.

Anything for you, Ollie.

henry

likes to draw on his leg.

handmade

A package came for the kids a few weeks ago all the way from Mendocino. Some cute clothes for Henry and this gorgeous hand knitted sweater by the one and only Gramma Peggy.

What a treasure!

all work and no play

if henry was a girl...

I might not spend $100 on one of these dresses from The Pajama Squid...but I would seriously consider it! Or better yet I would have my mum, being the master seamstress that she is, duplicate one.

They don't get much cuter than this.

happy accident

Got a little lost today trying to find a yard sale (like we need any more STUFF). We ended up on this bumpy dead end road and found this beautiful view instead.

We scored.

garden update and more!

Our garden hasn't quite turned out the way I had hoped. It is indeed a work in progress and beautiful and fruitful gardens don't happen overnight. I must remember that. I won't share any overall shots of the garden because it looks pretty sad. The sunflowers are fading and the weeds are popping up everywhere. I just can't keep up with them weeds!

Greta still finds excitement in the garden. We have had several tomatoes which seem to be her favorite. We also have had a few dahlia bloom, our second round of sunflowers are getting taller, the carrots are growing...slowly, one onion is coming up out of the gazillion seeds I planted, and this morning we peeked out the window to see this...

Splashes of pink! Sweet peas!

Our neighbor Mike is helping us with landscaping our hill. We want to rebuild the terraces, plant some tall bamboo to shield our view of the street below, and create some spaces for the kids to wander and play. There is a lot of work to be done. We will keep the plants native and drought tolerant. We also want to give our fruit trees more attention.

Today was lovely with rain in the morning and blue sky with puffy white clouds this afternoon.

Greta has a nasty cold, or a "very rude virus" as she calls it, so we were in most of the day.

I am finally starting on a quilt for my girl. Lately when I get my fabrics out she picks out the ones she wants for her quilt, I have been promising her one for a while now. So I went through my stash and chose all the prettiest pieces. I also did a little shopping at Superbuzzy for some fun Japanese prints. Here's a little of what I have.

I cut all into 5 inch squares. It's going to be colorful and very girly. I hope to get it started this weekend. This pile of squares has been staring at me for a couple of weeks now.
Here's Henry's angelic pose of the day.
Here's a cliche for your weekend...

Love what you do and do what you love.

Peace out.

hunchback

splendor in the grass