photobooth lovins, friday style

nin john and pum photobooth, originally uploaded by Nina Marie Gilbert.

out with the old vibes, in with the new! these pics were from our last sunday day adventures- we're all not showered, we're stinky, we're at our best. we had a plan to do "deer, moose, beaver", but john bailed at the last minute because he was holding sleeping pum, so i was left to my own animal devices.

i waited for the pics to develop, which felt like it took forever, while john went back to the car to put sleepingpummie back in his carseat. when i handed the goods to john to look at them and said "i love these. you look so happy!" that right there made my day.

today is our five year wedding anniversary. five wonderful years, two kids, and lots of crow's feet later, we're still going strong, having fun every day. i love you johnpiglet, piashire cat, mayaandmiguelito. you are the best i could've ever wished for. meow!

and today is also vacation! lots of packing and tryingnottostressdespitemajorroadclosures. can't wait to see you my charlton peeps!

i am hysterically dying laughing because i just read boo's post about the parking adventure and it's so characteristically mean spirited (why i love him) and then his old video just killed me. for any of you that don't know me personally, this is really how i drive...it's a nervous habit that's carried over from when i was little. we call it "banging". it's gotten me pulled over by the police a bunch of times. but it seriously helps me focus. you would get used to it after a while of driving with me. john isn't even phased by it any more. it only bothers him when i'm pregnant (i tone it down a bit). i love in the video how grace is all unphased by our crazy normal-for-us behaviors.

better person

trying to be the better person, i'm putting a note in her mailbox-

it reads

"dear neighbor,
judging from last night it's pretty clear that parking is important to you. in the future, we will try to let our guests know this and respect your space, so using the garbage cans won't be necessary. we value you and your family as neighbors and would like to continue to have a healthy and happy relationship with you all. please feel free to talk with us about your concerns.
warmly, the gilberts"


and ps- i didn't sleep at all last night because of this (i hate conflict) and joey was totally up all night too, vibing on my vibes.

a serious case of the crazies

oh my god- i have to write about this before i go to bed so i can get it out and get to sleep. my neighbor is seriously crazy. we've been nothing but nice to these people; waving, saying hello, smiling, cleaning up trash, etc. and this crazy mo fo woman (she's my age and lives with her parents- no judgement here but she seems pretty unhappy about it) is OBSESSED with her parking, and fighting with people in the neighborhood. anyway, with the new "my garbage cans are going to block my spaces" thing- boo parked his car in one of "her" spots tonight (she had moved her garbage can because it was garbage day and she needed to put her trash out in it)- and at 9:45p she comes home and starts beeping in front of my house like a madwoman screaming "I WANT MY SPOT! I WANT MY F'ING SPOT!". we were all scared in the house and nobody went out to confront her. i don't want this mo fo doing any crazy shit to me or my kids. but i'm completely livid right now that she'd be so disrespectful to my kids sleeping in their rooms at the front of the house. and to make matters worse, as soon as boo opens the door to leave, she runs out of her house, jumps in her car, and moves her car up 3 feet into "her" imaginary parking spot. this may not sound dramatic or crazy to most peeps, but if you see my street, and see how there are NO OTHER CARS parked anywhere on it, and see how far she's parking from her actual house, then you'd see why she's so crazy. and my mail was missing from my mailbox today, including a package that was going out, and i don't want to point fingers....but- looks like crazy mo fo neighbor wanted insises on the pin swap. so jen, if you don't get your pin, look for my neighbor sportin' it, listening to loud 80's music while cleaning her car of imaginary dirt.

ooooooooooh, bad karma.

things i love thursday, really bad (TILTRB)

gray's angelic glow


oooh, it's a new day. i'm trying to channel all the positive energy that i can. today my goals are to:

-do everything on my mental to-do list as soon as things pop into my mind. for example "oh, i need to change the toilet paper roll," or "oh, i should empty the dishwasher and fold the 18 loads of laundry on the guest bed"....and instead of just thinking those thoughts, actually DO them as soon as them come into my mind. so far today this has worked well except that it's only 9:37am and i've got until 8pm to roll with this.

-pack for our trip. pack up all our snackies. i'm a big snacker. and i'm a big packer. so watch out charlton's...here we come

-take the kiddies to the animal shelter to snuggle up to some lonely kitty cats and get scared by all the barking doggies and smell all the funky smelling little rodent thingies.

-try to eat at some point, preferably something healthy but probably not

so on with the things that i love, really bad:

-pesto

-pizza

-vacation planning

-finally getting out from underneath the 400+ emails in my inbox. i'm all caught up and erased (i had to get up at 5am this morning to accomplish this task)

-my neighbor. just kidding actually. i'm trying to stay positive about this hideous horribly mean human being who puts out trash cans on our street to save "her" parking spots, even though they are right in front of MY house- and even though we live on the smallest most untrafficy openspacey road in the whole of suburbia. it's ridiculous and her actions make her feel bad every time i look out the window. but then i just laugh because she's so unhappy and she cleans out her car blasting the most horrible music and i just take videos and laugh, laugh, laugh. i hope i'm never that unhappy. ps- i was very VERY tempted to go put my garbage in those garbage cans today but resisted the temptation as karma is serious and i didn't want to mess with it.

-grace has been a serious POW lately. all this week. a PIECE OF WORK. very defiant, very NO-ish, very rude and mean. but why do i love this? because when she wakes up in the morning she is the sweetest little angelic piece of loveliness i've ever seen. and today i'm killing her with kindness...melting her with my care bear stares.

off i go party peeps! have a fabulous thursday!

two little videos to brighten your day

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grace falls asleep on sunday night while eating her dilly bar (please excuse my grate-a-licious sounding voice!)

and-


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joey attacking the clifford ride-on. we don't condone violence here, but i have to say it was pretty funny watching him because john and boo have been watching the ultimate fighting championship lately, and it was perfect seeing joe do all these moves on poor clifford. what was really happening though was joey was trying desperately to get clifford into his mouth.

just can't

i can't get my head out of my fanny today. i just can't. despite the coffee and the phonecalls and the playing tea party, i can't become productive. i find the computer a big time sucking machine sometimes. i'm punished. i have a to-do list miles and miles long, which includes washing all the pee-sheets in the house and tidying up before vacation, but i just can't motivate myself. joey is nursing non-stop and we're all sweaty and sticky and hot. he can't get enough food and milk- it's a constant battle to keep him full. he's teething, cutting his two top teeth, number three and four. gray is really, really into playing games like tag and school non-stop. life is wonderful and full but i'm a tired mama today.

enough of that!

also, blogger is piAssing me off because it won't republish my profile when i make changes- i want to not use my last name and city, but it won't take it off, which is really ticking me off right now. -oooh, just fixed it- had to republish whole blog. yeah!

but on a lighter note, we received the best gifts in the mail yesterday from jen- two t-shirts from the kiddies that read "H2O-town or bust- gilbert/charlton reunion 2006- bring on the fun!" um, hello? how freakin' nice is this? john and i are so excited to be part of this whole "couples who vacation to see each other" lovefest. more on vacation to come-

off to go be productive! must.be.productive.!

did i mention i love the mail?

gray sportin' the scarf

the marble magnets are there- you just have to look closely

flapper grace

another scarf shot

me sportin' the scarf love this mornin', pre-coffee




heather from four sweet peas is a complete mail rockstar. i received this package on saturday and seriously surfed on my mail happiness throughout the rest of the weekend. thank you heather for such amazing and heartfelt treats! the magnets are now on the fridge, grace was been sportin' the flapper headpiece all morning, the bracelet rocks, and my scarf.........helllllllo! i love it. i'm a huge fan of skinny scarves! and this morning it was actually chilly enough to wear it! thank you for your wonderfulness and maillovekindness. you really do rock!

speaking of mail, click on over to my new bloggie, swaparama mama, for all the new swap lovins up for the taking!

can i get a 'what what'?

this weekend was crazyfastamazing. i haven't uploaded my pictures yet so you'll have to wait on the visual update. let it be said that chrisanderina's wedding was completely gorgeous despite the downpourish rain. erina looked like a princess, and both of them were glowingly happy. john and i left our house at 3:15p to get there for 6:15p and we were almost late. there was some crazy traffic situation. but like i imagined, we had fun dancing and singing in the car, with john practicing his "moves". we ended up being one of the first couples there anyway. so like i was saying, the night was filled with love (and alcohol). john had a couple of glasses of top shelf scotch and then proceeded to give one of the nicest and drunkest professions of love to his table of friends. everyone was teared up, including john. i felt lucky to be part of a bunch of in-love happy people. even shaun and i danced together. we were all about the love. and john and i were all about the kissing. lots of kissing pics.

then sat. was filled with rain again. my dad's show got rained out, but he's a persistent antiquing kind of guy so he still went and set up. needless to say, he didn't do so well. but we all trucked over to show him some support, and met up with femiknit and little man. we got some seriously good microcreamery ice cream afterwards and watched the kids run around like wild beasts while we got attacked by killermosquitoes. sold only three stinkin' pins, one of which was sold to the woman who owns the antique store, so that doesn't count. although i sold more items than my dad, so that's ok by me.

sat. afternoon was party preppin', and then sat. night was tingball's party here. ooooh the fun. family drama. drunky grandma rollin' around on the floor (i'm not kidding). gotta love family stories! tingy stole my camera and took half naked pictures of himself. i'll make sure to post them tomorrow as the second part of his graduation present. i also made him a quilt with his name and '2006' appliqued onto it. the '2006' was an afterthought after i cut a big hole in the finished top piece when i was stupidly cutting another piece of fabric on it. hello! so now it really is a graduation quilt.

today rocked. we got up and dropped missgracemissymaya at puppa's and then headed to the ocean. we ate hot french toast bagels made fresh on site, and ate them outside in the misty cool sea air. we threw babyjoe in the backpack and walked along the pier watching fishing boats and lobster boats and richpeople boats. we smelled the air and each other. we went to a sculpture garden. we walked around and got a treat for a baby friend. we talked like adults. then we went to the other beachy beach and took photobooth pictures. which we entitled "deer, moose, beaver". i will post them on friday for photobooth friday goodness. then we napped and walked and topped the day off with dilly bars. grace was so tired at the end of the day that she passed out while eating hers. we caught it on video. i may or may not post it depending on how much i hate my voice on the commentary.

so tomorrow i'm going to post all my swappies up on my alterna-blog, swaparama-mama. i'll put pics and goodness up tomorrow, but right now i'm so tired, and i can hear my neighbor downstairs talking to john. john's more tired than me and the conversation sounds scarily boring, so i'm going to rescue my sweet sweet man.

on the agenda for the week: getting ready for our watertown trip this sat at 3am! mental readiness is the key.

nina and steph photobooth friday

nina and steph photobooth, originally uploaded by Nina Marie Gilbert.

oooh, here's another one of my favorites. not sure where the other ones in this strip are, but this one is by far my favorite of the strip, so that's ok. the back reads "salisbury beach april 17, 1994- psycho aliens". i was making fake glasses and i'm pretty sure steph was trying to take my lead but couldn't figure out how to do it. that's why i love this picture so much- steph's innocence and figuring-it-outedness right there caught on film. i love it.

happy friday, happy weekend, happy chrisanderina's wedding!

things i lust after thursday (TILAT)

i love this pic taken by my little shortie- it features me, chewing gum, and my sewing machine hovering over my head. which pretty much sums things up. this week has been filled with non-stop sewing and worrying about other people and chewing lots and lots of sugarless bazooka bubblegum, which has brought about joey's new nickname, bazooka joe.

ok, on with the list of things i freakin love and lust after!

- fresh basil and mint (yes, bub, i threw some mint in there, and you didn't even notice) pesto...our first batch this year. served with a nice soft stick of french bread.

- did i mention the tea and the lemons and the mint consumption around here?

- chirs and erina's wedding tomorrow night- john and i love weddings. we love sitting at the reception and taking it all in. we love being in the car together dressed up and driving to the wedding. we love debriefing afterwards. we love seeing our friends happy. we are dorks. we love weddings.

- homemade baby gift for john's boss

- new beer last night for cocKtail wednesday- stella artois- hello! john and i may be in love (with the beer)

- my FIVE year wedding anniversary coming up next friday. john and i feel old. five years. two kids. the bags under my eyes sure do show it.

- john's leg hair. it's the softest, puffiest, longest, lightest colored leg hair you've ever seen. it's the sweetest. it makes me love him more and more every time i look at it.

- surprise visitors in from texas this morning...up in MA for the wedding tomorrow. i miss sara and shaun. i wish they would play in my sandbox every day.

- grace's obsession with crafting has reached an all-new high. what to do with all the piles and piles of artwork? i tear it up into little pieces when she's not looking and glue it into this crazy new "scrap"book. i try to get a little piece from the besties.

- pins ready to go for sat.

- hearing crytsal's nasally sickass today on the phone. i love stuffynosesounding people. it's a sickness i have.

-i love wists.com. does anyone else know of this cool site? i'm sure i'm not the only one. you see something cool on the internet you want? click "add to wists" and you can keep a running tab of everything. my wist-list is here.

happy thursday happy thunderstorms happy lintballs between your toes.

the deets

antique flyer, originally uploaded by Nina Marie Gilbert.

hey party people, here are the deets on my dad's gig this weekend in haverhill, MA. a couple of you have asked for info, so here it is! his booth is a little 10'x10' number, filled with goodies.

mindy, if you are going to go, let me know and i'll totally meet you there. if not, then we must plan some girl time soon!

n.

crafty and giftie roundup

close-up for the mail lovins- card by danielle

this bag makes me happy. i fill it with granola bars and burts bee's lip stuff and lots of markers. and gum. and junk. thank you angela for the wonderousness of it. i want to live inside of it.

lots of crafting going on- lots of painting and sewing and memory making. using seashells as water dishes.

more love
lots of pin making in effect. for the antique fair my dad is working this weekend. anything that doesn't sell is going up for swappies. so let's hope they don't sell! they all have their own little special summery names. aaaw.

holy mail! there's lots of lovin' going on. lots of gifties for neens. i'm a happy girl. i want to go through and catalogue each and every piece of love but the kiddies need me and i'm i'd be here all day. so here are all the packages together making sweet sweet package love. thank you to danielle, mindy, ani at pancakemama, alison, jen, angela (did i forget anyone? i've already had my coffee so there's no excuse). to get back to my last post- the other wonderful ladies that i got to meet, jillian and heidi, can be found here. thanks for the great time, ladies!

this yarn makes me wish i was a better knitter. i almost wrote "yarner". which goes to show you how bad i am. but i'm inspired to learn to make something soft and wonderful just so i can use this yarn. thank you ani at pancakemama!

jen's bracelet. hello! even gracie wants a piece of the action!

i have a serious crush on this piece of soft cuddly horsie fabric from angela at love green dog. i want to make something super out of it, but haven't decided on what yet- hum.

a close-up of the braceletty goodness.

i am really lucky. have i mentioned this lately? i am especially thankful and feeling grateful with some recent horrible events that i've been made aware of- not in my life, but in someone very near and dear to my heart. for many reasons, i have to be elusive and can't get into any details, but these particular events have made me appreciate even more all the love and warmth that i am surrounded by on a daily basis.

with that being said, i'd like to thank boo for my gorgorgorgeous pin that he gave me yesterday. i think he may have gifted it to me while i had my hand stuck inside my broken garbage disposal, so i may not have thanked him properly. so thank you boo. it's lovely. if i weren't sweating in my bathing suit right now waiting for my beegine parmigana to arrive, then i would be wearing it proudly.
and thanks for buying me milk.

and going grocery shopping and making the most delicious dinner ever. the best quote of the night was something like "if i'm ever rich, i'm going to make you guys the best dinner..." and then we proceeded to describe the exact dinner that was sitting on the table before us. quite a spread. we're a family that likes to eat.

the main discussions around here lately are about how i should've been born on a commune, and still live on a commune. it's just the way that i work. where are all the communes?

also, i've been seriously diggin' fresh mint on anything, along with sun tea and lemons. ooooh.

have a great freaky day!

weekend recap

me and the man, father's day 2006

i am a lucky mama. i was fortunate enough to be able to meet one of my online sisters, under a pink sky
(mindy) on saturday- i also got to meet two other fabulous bloggie women (and if i was together enough i'd have their links, too, but it's 100 degrees out and i'm hotthotthott)-
i loved mindy because she automatically walked up to me and my fam with open arms, reaching out for a hug. she's my kind of people. warm, happy, open-hearted. i wish we had more time together, and that my babyjoe was a better warm-weather child, so we could've stayed longer. but just meeting once was enough to know that we'll meet again.

feet in the car, road-trippin' style- lots and lots of miles to be driven in the next couple of weeks-

me and mindy- after meeting, i got in the car and looked in the mirror and realized that i had a huge gob of toothpaste on my ear and all in my hair (that's what i get for helping a three year old brush her teeth before we rushed out the door-). i almost died of embarrassment. mindy didn't seem to care though.

seriously. this is how my husband sleeps. if i didn't know better i would think he was a little sensitive. grace graciously snapped this picture of her daddy on father's day.



here's hoping that everyone had a good weekend. joey calls, must go!

father's day

there's no mistaking it: i have the best dad there is to be had in the whole wide world. ok, well maybe your dad is the best, too, and that's ok. because there's plenty of room in the world for the best dads ever.

these are two of my most favorite pictures of us- the top one i'm taking a bite out of my bad mcdonald's clown (yes, i look like a little dude- like grace, i didn't grow hair until i was like 5), and the second one shows one my most best times i ever had with my dad, picking apples and pears in my nanu's tree in the bucket of our tractor. i can still vividly remember the excitement of going up in the bucket, getting swarmed by bees, the exhiliration of being allowed to do something so "dangerous" with my dad. taking big bites of the crisp tart apples.

for anyone who's ever been lucky enough to meet my dad, you know that he's selfless, open-hearted, simple, and kind. what you see is what you get. he will literally give you the shirt off his back if you say that you like it. it's best to stay on his good side, and if you do, you will be taken care of (taken caramel) forever. he holds his family close to him and cherishes every moment. he likes to taste life and is known to say over and over when surrounded by the ones that he loves "i'm a lucky guy. who's luckier than me?" this is why i love my dad. this and so so many more reasons.

in addition to having the best dad, i also happen to be lucky enough to have the best husband. my children, therefore, also have the best dad. i love the happiness on john's face in this picture. glowing with fatherly love and dedication for his little bean. i've never met anyone with such a drive to be successful and happy- someone who loves the feel of being outside, of being surrounded by his peeps, of going on little adventures. someone who dreams of a comfortable and snugglefilled future. my children can depend on his constant love and dependability. there is no question of him: he just is. he, too, is the best daddy in the world.

happy father's day to my two best dads. how lucky am i? look at me. who's luckier than me?

dilly bar humor: comfort

dilly bar humor, originally uploaded by Nina Marie Gilbert.

the other day we decided to pack up the kiddies and truck into the forest for some letterboxing loving, some friendly forest comfort. but nature had other plans for us. pretty quickly we all started getting attacked by steroid-shooting mosquitoes. covered. i got very freaked out when i looked down into the stroller and joey was being swarmed. so i bolted, leaving john to venture deeper with grace because she was FREAKING OUT. she wanted to go letterboxing so badly. it was heartbreaking seeing her clutch her little stamp. when she watched me leave so fast she got overwhelmed and they trucked back to the car right behind me. she was sobbed hysterically. this is a girl who rarely freaks out from sadness...and there was no comforting her. so i pulled out the big guns and said "does anyone think we should go to daaaaaaaaaaaaairy queen for some dilly bars?!?" and it totally worked. we drove a couple of blocks to the DQ we had previously spotted and got her her favorite cherry dilly bar. i grew up on these things. cheap, delicious, immediate gratification snack. as john came back from ordering and handed grace her dilly bar, she says "look! look! my dilly bar has a nipple!" now if that's not comfort food i don't know what is.


happy weekend!


www.mamasaysom.com

photobooth fridayertins

oh photoboothie! how i adore you! there's no writing on the back of these babies. they feature yours truly, my little brother uncle tingtingtingballs, and jared woodsum, who i liked to call "jared wood-scum". my first real kiss (summer before high school...late bloomer i guess). a sort of best friend turned boyfriend but should've always been a friend. love didn't last long for me but our friendship stretched on for years and years. there's lots of crazy jared stories. i remember driving around is his parents little car listening to rap music. we thought we were the coolest. we were invincible. here's another example of "i have no idea what happened to..."- jared in this case. i'm sure he turned out just fine...despite his craziness he was a good kid. here's hoping that jared is healthy and happy!

can't wait to see everyone else's friday lovelies.

more baggage

thank you to everyone for your comments about the diary posting. it's so interesting to explore how we all view our pasts and some of the measures we've taken to hide who we were, etc. i have to say i was horrified slash having the best time of my life last night when john and i snuggled up into bed and john proceeded to read aloud half of my diary. it's very freeing/excruitiating to hear someone else read your angst and fickleness. i love john because we've known each other forever, and he knows all the people i wrote about when i was 10. i wrote about HIM when i was 10 (see above connections...stacy c. is connected to "jon" (my husband's name...spelled wrong). i love sharing a past with john. i love that he gets as much excitement as i do reading and rereading all these pieces of the past. i'm sorry for breaking up with you in 7th grade for being too fast johnny! he bought me a heart-shaped balloon and i thought the next natural step after a heart-shaped balloon would certainly be kissing, so i dumped his ass.

and eddie's real last name was molina, and eddie was my first boyfriend...so from then on i was known as "nina molina the caaaaahpet cleeaaaanah" (you've got to picture the methuen accent and remember the reference to the then-popular vacuum commercial to get it).

as promised, my diary- age 10

"i am 10 and it's not very fun. i can hardly do anything by myself. i'm usually bored because i have a little 4 year old brother but he keeps me busy because i'm usually cleaning up his mess. and he makes alot of them believe me and i'm always their to clean it up. well i can't understand why he can't clean it up himself. he is such a baby."

priceless.

john will appreciate my writing about driving to the beach and my discussion of highway vs. backroads, which we still have today.

every time i look back upon these pages, i realize that i was one angsty little girl. i'm glad i grew out of labeling everything either "cool" or "stupid". everything was so black or white. even though i was angsty i hope i was still a sweet girl to those around me...maybe i was just venting in the diary.

good morning good morning

up early
stretching
drinking water and oj, hydrating the old bod
crafting planning dreaming
hoping for sun again today
going downstairs to brew some coffee
then out into the garden
to check on my tender babes


if i can get my act together, i thought it would be a funny and heart-wrenching assignment for me to randomly post images from old old old school journals of mine. well, i guess i used to call them my "diaries", so we'll go with that. i was always the girl writing in her diary, jotting down hideous (yet at the time INGENIOUS!) poems and wishes. i'd be at a slumber party with my notebook, writing instead of gossiping. steph and i used to sit right in front of each other and write back and forth in my diary (sometimes about my now-husband) instead of actually talking to each other. it was just what we did. my diaries were usually the ones that friends got to read. i never seemed to mind- nothing was really sacred (which is kind of sad in a way). like always, i'm here blogging and putting it all out there (and steph's diary is STILL a secret!).

i got to thinkin' about my diaries recently with all this rain...when the water started flowing in the basement, my tub of diaries were the only thing i cared about (ok, that and maybe hot water and heat-). i carry these things around with me, make sure they're always near. yet rarely ever look at them. they are just a part of me. it's like i'm keeping a tub of spare limbs in the basement. and i'm not quite sure what they say about me, who i am, or what i've become, i just know that they're me. so please join me while i whip out the baggage and post some of if for all the world to see.

(now that i've actually written that i'm going to do this, i have to actually do it, right?)

self portrait attempt at pop art

self portrait tuesday: my stinky feet, not pop art

my feet ridin' on the T in boston this weekend

this is what happens to feet in a mudpit at pride after weeks and weeks of rain. you should smell my basement.

i can't do the pop art thing. i don't have cool software, and i don't have a good enough understanding of pop art. the first picture is a real self portrait, and the second picture was taken by boo as i was (trying) to walk away from his booth at pride. that's all you're getting for my self portrait tuesday.

woke up this morning semi-rested because joey only woke up once last night to nurse. life is good! and gray slept semi-late after coming into my bed at 5:45am for snuggles. and then shanshan called and asked if she could come over for a visit over breakfast, so we tried desperately to talk and catch up while our FIVE kids roamed around mischieveously. gray is a hideous sharer but i tried not to be too crazy about it because shanshan and i quickly realized that the kiddies do so much better when left up to their own devices and are allowed to navigate the ups and downs of friendship by themselves. this weather rocks. it's sunny and the birds are happy. i'm happy. my garden is looking good after i had to replant all my cukes because some critter decided to snack on my tender babies before they even had a chance to grow. i was out early this morning spreading my coffee grounds on the soil. does anyone know if this even works or helps? i read it somewhere but i'm not sure if it helps. i'm wondering if that's why my critter at the plants...they were like "WHAT?!? coffee? i'm all over that shit!" and chowed down. i would if i were a rabbit.

in other boring news, i've decided to have another mail swap. sometime soon. i've reduced myself to becoming a total mailjunkie now. and i love it. i don't want my high to end! i love getting little pieces of you. so i'm thinking monday june 26th i'm going to post some pins and swappiestuff. do check in!

so it's been a long day

mini moopie cooloos for the twinners, originally uploaded by Nina Marie Gilbert.

it's late, and i'm about to roll on into bed for the night after a nice cocKtail, but i just wanted to send some happy wishes out into the universe in hopes of having some good dreams tonight. i've been dealing with some serious sleep deprivation and bad dreams and nursing all night long. my milk is all out of whack. today was wonderful but i hit many walls. grace is going through this fabulous stage of screaming NO at me and really meaning it. she doesn't budge. lots of crafting with boo tonight. taught him how to make stuffies. these little cuties pictured above were made using the mini moopy pattern from nest studio (and if i was really good i'd find the link but i seriously can't right now) via kiddley.com. i'm bad at patterns so this is a bit of an enlargement. i made them for kristen and craigie's (our twin niece and nephew's) first birthday. the stuffies are being punished in this picture and taking some time out in our time out chair. i wish the picture wasn't so blurry, but again, i'm too tired to find a better one.

hello, this is me blogging + tiredness + drinkie + buffalo chicken stromboli + crafting head.

finally, i'd like to add that gray's favorite song is that really REALLY popular song that's always on the radio (and american idol) that goes "so you had a bad day..." but she's made up her own words that go "so you had a bad day. you sing a sad song and drag it around." i love her words so much better than the real ones (which i don't know off the top of my head). i love the imagery of singing a sad song and then just dragging the crap out of it.

oh, and one last thing, i got the most beautiferous bracelet from my girl jen today in the mail. i've been wearing it ever since. she's converted me from a non-bracelet-wearer to a bonafide-bracelet-wearer! i love how it's all nina-hippie-style, too. boo even commented that if HE were to design a bracelet for me, that he would've chosen the same doodaddies. thank you jen! you crafty mama.

peace out lovelies!

my heart pants for pride

today was filled with torrential downpours and winds that turned people's umbrellas inside out. it was also filled with beautiful gorgeous screaming people waving flags ringing bells singing crying laughing.

very pride-a-licious with jo and libs- at the end of the parade....soaking wet (hi, that's dirty) but happy. (that's my fake a-stranger-is-taking-this-picture-and-my-camera-is-getting-soaked smile).

to intensify my near-nonexistent glaminess and femmishness, i wore a pink sequin and lavender satin tutu...

our soakin' and stinkin' feet

my girlies


i march in pride for lots and lots of reasons, most of which i'm not going to get into now. yes, despite my hesitations, i went into the city, skipped the birthday party, and marched with madfemmepride. i thought to myself...which thing will i remember more 20 years from now? and of course marching came out on top. but mostly i wanted to go to honor my girlies pictured above, and all my wonderful friends who welcome me into their arms with love and understanding. who are getting married. who rock. for everyone in my life who's queer or misunderstood or prejudiced against in any way. thank you for being you and letting me be me.

i felt a lot of things today, and definitely saw some haters along the way. at one point i was feeling a lot of sadness about some of the looks and comments i saw being tossed around from members of the lgbt community. but then something beautiful happened. there were two women cheering us on from the side of the road, a couple (i think). the looks of love and complete happiness for us marching, saying "thank you for marching!" and smiling and waving with such joy wiped away any negativity i was feeling. there are people out there who can't march or who might be too afraid to march or who are just plain old inspired by watching other people march. that made it all worth it.

madfemmepride poster

the ultimate best part of the day was when jo looked at me and said "pride is like my birthday. it's better than my birthday". or something very close to that. she gets more excited about freakin' pride than her birthday. people call her and say "happy pride!". seeing her happy was worth any pneumonia that i'll get later from being so cold and wet.

my heart pants for you.

"dear ma: everybody's feeling fine and eating their heads off. nothing much doing except that pa cut warren's hair this morning and did a fine job. did you enjoy your auto ride? will look for you sat. with love, bertha."

do vintage finds get better than this? we think the postage is 1919. i love the grubby fingerprints. and the fact that it's from malden ma. and good old bertha mentions an "auto" ride. a real piece of history. and i love the image on the front....it immediately caught me eye a couple of weekends ago when we were antiquey-peeky at todd farm. i knew i had to have it even it was blank on the back. the words were just a bonus. my heart pants for you? what's up with that? i love it.

seriously people. the mail love. after the kiddies went to sleep last night and johnny and i were watching possibly the new worst show on television (windfall), i got a nice chance to sit down and look through my treats. i've arranged them all just so in a box because that's how i am. i'm a girl that's easy to pleasey, a girl who loves mail. i want to post pictures and more details, but it's 6:30am and i don't know where my camera is at the moment. i'm hoping that it miraculously plugged itself in to be charged for pride today. although it's hysterically raining right now. soggy.queers. not fun. (soggy.straight.people.not.fun.either., ok?) so we'll see. i'm not a big driver and especially not during flood warnings. so in the meantime, before i post deets and pics, just know angela, danielle, mindy, and ali- you all rock my socks off, and my heart pants for you.