things i love thursday

i still craft! oh yes, i do. i may not write about it much here anymore, but i've been working on projects here and there- the above picture is a gift i made for jo and lib for their upcoming wedding...a framed paper quilt. i used pieces of paper, vintage and new, that reminded me of them- their initials, their names from the phonebook, an old children's cookbook, paintings by gray and i, seasame street ephemera, etc.



what else do i love? you ask-

-spending lots of QT (ok, well maybe not lots, but lots in comparison to none, which is what i usually have) with crystal and little man. watching the kids tear through our houses. and yelling at femiknit for cleaning up. drinking barry's tea. basil jelly. roasted garlic jelly. goat cheese. heirloom tomatoes. being fancy, but not really. how can you be fancy when you have pummie slobber all over you?

-massaging boo and johnny last night pre-project runway

-red peppers, canneneli beans, marinated artichokes, wheat pasta

-no plans for the upcoming weekend for the first time all summer

-my new wrist cuff that i've been wearing nonstop since it was fantastically gifted to me from femiknit

-watching women talk at the park. expect upcoming post about "women's conversations"

-taking dad out yesterday to the water. talking. perfect day. green curry and coconut and chicken and bamboo

-jubilee jumbles getting kicked from pr- although she did kind of grow on me. but she smokes!?! hello.

-still in love with the saving grace of lavender and tea tree essential oil saving my life

-tab...your comments- i love them! that necklace is amazing- it's going to look great on you. glad we can connect here

-seeing steph and the babies this morning. andrew and tyler are the most perfect little furry treats i've ever seen- i got to hold them both and snuggle their little baby love smell this morning. aaaah.

adjust up and down

"in a world of disorder and disaster and fraud, sometimes only beauty can be trusted. only artistic excellence is incorruptible. pleasure cannot be bargained down. and sometimes the meal is the only currency that is real.
to devote yourself to the creation and enjoyment of beauty, then, can be a serious business- not always necessarily a means of escaping reality, but sometimes a means of holding on to the real when everything else is flaking away into...rhetoric and plot. " -elizabeth gilbert- eat, pray, love


and a quote for my dear d.b.: "...and when you sense a faint pontentiality for happiness after such dark times you must grab onto the ankles of that happiness and not let go until it drags you face-first out of the dirt- this is not selfishness, but obligation. you were given life; it is your duty (and also your entitlement as a human being) to find something beautiful within life, no matter how slight." -elizabeth gilbert- eat, pray, love

today we celebrate my dad's 50th birthday. more beaching and eating and loving and experiencing beauty. d.b., thinking of you. off to the post office today with packages for dear pixie, boho, leonie, and amy. (d.b., i'm saving yours because i'm scared you won't be there to receive it and it will get snatched up!).

namaste party peeps. namaste.

self portrait challenge: enclosed in a photobooth

me enclosed in a photobooth, pre-pictures, with the kiddies. aah, the anticipation and grooming and goofiness.


and two more photoboothies:


by far my most favorite place to be enclosed.

here we go again

i miss you bloggie world. this weekend has been fast and furious, as are most of our weekends are here in ninabeanaland.

friday night i made broiled buffalo chicken that made our noses water and our eyes tear up for the rest of the night. we sat around and ate at the table as a family and listened to ravi shankar and all smelled of burning incense. saturday we hosted a gilbert family get-together (rare happenings) here at our house, so the morning was spent picking big bouquets of mint and wildflowers and getting the yard/house ready for our peeps. all this with a semi-sick baby attached to my hip. chicken parm and lasagna and all those other yummy party treats- i heart making people chubby. the day ended in chilly sweatshirt weather, so i was basically in heaven- until the sneezing started. so now i find myself with a little sickness of my own, blowing through rolls of toilet paper and killing my poor tree friends left and right (although my husband will tell you i don't give a damn about trees when it comes to my t.p. consumption).

anywho! i picked joey out of his warm crib this morning only to find him covered, esp. under his chin/neck/face area with this mysterious rash. so basically someone in the universe is determined to make it impossible for me to see my girl steph's new(ish) baby boys who came home yesterday! i'm terrified of infecting them with one of our many unidentified germs. so off to the doctor's tomorrow for my pum- although i'm sure it's just a virus. probably from licking the shopping cart handle at market basket. that's my guess. and i'm hoping to feel better in the morning.

joey's sickness, however, did not prevent us from having a huge garden harvest and then heading off to newburyport to see one of the tall ships in the harbor- some park playing and some food eating (black beans and lime and onions- i heart you).

off to bed with my new book, and the rain falling softly outside. and my new socks from nessie noodle keeping me snuggly and warm. thanks nessie! they are my new most favorite posession in the whole wide world.

things that have saved me these past couple of days:

-finding multiple frogs all over our yard and playing with them with gray
-gray's new boho outfit
-caramel coffee
-cups and cups of tea
-organic unbleached sugar
-mint
-chocolate
-strawberry shortcakes with biscuits
-baskets full of musical instruments
-your emails and comments and phonecalls
-nag champa
-tea tree oil
-garden clogs
-cookies and cream ice cream
-freshly mown lawn
-libraries
-free newspapers
-inspiration boards
-magical unexpected packages


here's to a healthy week- a new week- a new begining.

photobooth friday: high school edition

steph, nina beana, and kimmie- high school style

love these photos- love how i'm all washed out with a halo-ish light. love the happy faces and crazy kisses. most of all, i love how both of these lovely ladies are still in my life today. also, steph's baby boys are coming home from the hospital, possibly tomorrow! steph, you are going to be a great mom. we're all rooting for you!

happy friday peeps! still sick here with 104+ temps, but your comments and kindness are like little life rafts for me. thank you for getting me through these rough couple of days (and nights). xo

self portrait tuesday a little late: enclosed in my china cabinet

today, i want to crawl in and never come out.

smile and relax

look into frame- smile and relax


look into frame- smile and relax


look into frame- smile and relax


my mantra of the day


one sick bean and possibly another bean coming down with fever...another day in the house, another day with a sore left arm from koalaman clutching, another day of nursing and snuggling. good and bad, bad and good. look into frame- smile and relax.

help arrives in the beautiful form of mindertins

mindertins was rad enough to take initiative and plan a date for us today. we were both going to meet in the middle at the "imagination station" in reading. we arrived only to find this glorious sign: "this facility is closed per order of the board of health." yum! safe! healthy! um, no. so we decided (well, we had to convince the kiddies first not to bust through the warning signs to get to the park) to move our adventures elsewhere.

we ended up a town or two over, deep in the forest (trying to escape the buggies)- impromptu letterboxing adventures! our kids took to each other immediately- no awkward introductions there. they were like two little hippie spirits frolicking in the forest, finding hidden treasures, stamping away, identifying (sort of) mushrooms (aka: is that a wild mushroom?) everyone but mindy and joey ended up taking off either their pants or pannies- peeing in the forest can lead to that. luckily, mindy is a pro and not only carries tissues but doesn't pee on herself! kudos!

this was just the therapy i needed...light coming through the trees and all. perfect day, perfect company.

despite this sick and feverish little one. i feel so bad for him- he's never been sick before. not even quite sure what's wrong with him. i knew something was up this morning when he was actually snuggly. not a good sign. very feverish but i was hoping the forest would do him good, like me. no luck. he just got a good dose of tylenol and now is in bed. i keep peeking in to make sure he's still breathing. not used to seeing my babes sick.

here's my girl teaching the babes to whistle through an acorn. my soul sister!

thanks mindertins, for saving me from yet another day of being stuck in the house! we must, we must get together again soon and let our wild ones play.

tired hippie seeking sleep and pathouli oil

tired today. yes, the happy hippie even has bad days. mopey. tired-eey. sleepy but can't sleep. the up-at-nights are getting to me, i think. and getting used to a new routine. changes. changes. i never did well with changes.

this morning we invited our peeps over for butterfly crafting. colorful scraps of tissue paper on colorful butterflies and ladybugs and even a baseball and football. and listening to rainbow brite records. and sesame street. so at least the day started off good. but two days without leaving the house for out-of-the-house activities are catching up with me.

sounds like i need some serious forest therapy.

random list- hope you still love me.

(swingin' and chompin')

-using essential oils in the shower to c.a.l.m.
-symphony chocolate- who would've guessed that it would be so good?
-augusten burroughs is my gay boyfriend
-spring cleaning for the upcoming fall
-making room for the kids bigger clothes by putting all the non-fitting ones in storage
-despite hormonal rollercoaster rides over the past couple of days, managing to eek out a good day yesterday- going blueberry picking and then going to the beach and finding rocks and shells and semi-swimming and getting all sandy and then riding some rides and taking some pics. although my husband (that's you babe) cut me off from taking any more photobooth pics. evidently three strips in two days is just too much. hrmph!
-organizing memories
-trying to get used to this crazy non-working schedule. i.e. i have no clients. but i need to pretty much be available in case i have clients. life would be a whole lot easier if i just 1. had clients. or 2. didn't have clients and didn't have to work. i'm going to have to get used to this in-betweenishness
-had my first client last week. loved it! i forgot how rewarding massage can be. when i was in school i had a love/hate relationship with massage (mostly hate) because of the nature of my education, and the whole subjectivity of massage (not hard enough! not fast enough! not enough enough!) being in school burnt me out and made me somewhat cynical. but! alas! being on my own, with nobody watching over me...aaah. love it. the only one that's judging me is my client. and hopefully they are enjoying themselves. i loved lighting the candles and the music and the dark dark room. i love my space. so much better than hospital-curtain-school-clinic! aaah!
-going to try to sit down for a second now and clear my head while bean #2 is sleeping- it's been nonstop since 6am this morning. tonight is housefull of guests, so must clear my head!

have i told you lately that i love you?

seriously, people...just when i thought life couldn't get any better, i go ahead and have some of the best days possible. for some of you, reading this is probably pretty obnoxious, but there's no way to poop-coat (as opposed to sugar-coat, i guess) it. life is stinkin' good.

again, the good results from the mri have got me riding on the high-life vibes. and then friday morning rolled around and it was my bonafide beeerfday. and i got lots of fantastic wishes from my wonderful bloggie peeps and day-to-day peeps. and phone calls. and love. and then i got all dolled up (not really) and loaded up the kiddos and picked up my dad and we drove to newburyport. put joey in his new riding car and pushed him around. and ate the most fantastic food at the purple onion. black beans and lime juice and hot sauce. and shrooms. and watched the babes play at the park. and then i got a chance to shop solo for some birthday records. neil young and john denver and ravi shankar and someone else who escapes me at this moment. yes, i was born in the wrong decade. i just can't attach myself to current music. the ravi s. was a complete splurge (at a whopping $6- j/k!) but it was my day so i went with it. then i scored a beautiful sari-ish ensemble for gray at a used kiddie clothing shop for .79! life is good. of course, when i tried to put it on her (after my purchase, of course!) she got all dramatic and started flailing around, claiming it was the most itchiest and completely horrible piece of clothing ever. hrmph.

so after newburyportieness, we packed up again and moved ourselves on over to the beach for a photobooth session (a priceless one at that) and some pizza and some skee ball.

(notice me flashin' the 2 and 8- 28, baby!)

then home for some cleaning and centering and getting ready for my date with my husband! who came home early from work! with the kids picked up and whisked off for a night of fun with puppadd, john gave me the most bestest present ever- my record player! with a johnny cash album! so we hooked that baby up- and i'm not lying here- popped in the john denver album, whipped out the tambourine and maracas and rhythm sticks and danced like the dirtiest hippies this side of clark university. this little dance session was the best birthday gift i've ever gotten. then we headed off back to the beach for an oceanside dinner at brown's- fresh freakin' clams. dipped in a crapload of butter. and beer. life is good. then back to the photobooth for yet another set of pictures- our first set got eaten by the machine, and we had to take another set, which came out the balls. love them. back to the house for more record listening into the wee hours (read: 12 o'clock) of the night. bed.

next morning was gift finishing and getting everyone ready and leaving for a mini-roadtrip to jo and lib's shower- (getting reaaaaly lost and being late), socializing, working through social anxiety, the usual shower goodness. observing love. eating fancy delicious food. being envious of jo's rockin' rockstar dress. thanking my stars that i didn't bring the babes with me. on the way home, getting lost again, the stars aligned and i ended up at the living earth, my most favoritiest place in worcester- hippies and stinkiness galore (mama al, did you love this place, too?) rushed in long enough to sniff around and squirt myself with some zum zum pathouli lotion. holy crap- i want to make out with the creators of this lotion. i was a hippie stinkin' goddess for the rest of the day.

so this is my life. oh, wait! the packages. the stinkin' packages! angela from love green dog rocks my world. angela, thank you! thank you! pictures to come, although stuff has been used and loved already. and auntie stephie sent some bookie love, which i received last night. thank you! i'm going to call you in a bit to talk about the day and see what's up. also, my mom got me a pair of kickin' dr. scholl's, in red- and i was lucky enough to stumble across a picture of her from august of 1977 wearing the exact same shoes. now, if i can only find a way to adjust that damn impossible strap! i'll officially be transported back to 1970-something.

photobooth friday: the anticipation edition

love the lights

love the old photos

gray waiting

more waiting

hum...still waiting.

daddy gets a piece of the waiting action

the family awaits



if you calculated how much, over time, i've spent on photobooth pictures, it would be scary. frightening. probably hundreds of dollars. but some people do crack....and i do- photobooths.

lots of plans for the day- including hitting up two photobooths, birthday style. i've got the best family that puts up with my strange requests. this morning- singing in bed and the snapping of gray's toes. there's nothing that puts a smile on my face faster than watching gray snap her toes. yes, we are a family of strange habits.

last night- delicious dinner of artichokes and red peppers and pasta at my mom's. the kids were cherubs after a less-than-cherubic day, and mama even got to sip on a pomegranite (ha! this is soooo not the spelling, but i don't do spell check) seltzer.

here's wishing you wonderful sprites a happy and mango-slush-sippin' day.

things i really freakin' love thursday

gray's art is becoming more fantastic with each passing day. yes, i'm biased. yes, it's a bunch of squiggles. but i love each and every one of those carefully placed and intentional squiggles.

bug carcasses. yes, bug carcasses. and playing frightening games like "hide the bug carcass on someone else's body".

mandala tapestries and green clogs and bouncy balls


what else? you ask.

well,

*the new ani cd although listening to it makes me feel old and frumpy and grown-up

*my new j.o.b.- and my first client yesterday. and after being in school for over a year, it felt SO STRANGE to get paid for what i was never allowed to accept money for before. almost surreal. and then i got a TIP! my first tip. it was weird and wonderful, and i treated myself to an iced coffee, one i earned with my own sweat and tears (ok, maybe not tears, but i was definitely sweating.)

*homemade eggplant casserole from my dad- and eating almost the whole thing

*going to shanshan's this morning and getting the best treat- carole king, joni mitchell, and crosby, stills and nash records. the best best part was that she borrowed her mother's monstrosity of a record player (speakers, etc) and set it up in her playroom so we could listen to my new digs- the kiddies were transported back to the 70's. luckily we weren't at my house or we'd have the incense going and the kids would most likely have been naked and eating potentially dangerous objects. it was the best morning ever. seriously.

*dreams of red dr. scholls

*not having m.s. yes, m.s. as in multiple sclerosis. crazy story, and to make it real short- went in for a routine physical, and left with a mri appointment to rule out m.s. so i've been going to appts, which i hate, and calling doctors to get my damn thing read, and finally, FINALLY almost a week later i find that my brain is ok. no m.s. hi, i don't have m.s. this is part of the reason why i've been distant and crazy here lately. worrying and not worrying about this nonexistent possibility. but i'm clean. and i have a normal brain!

*putting the kids to bed at 6pm and sorting my old pictures into decades. or more like "college" and "growing up" and "high school." it's like someone went through my boxes of photos and shuffled them. so i'm trying to get them in order. put in albums (ha!). i'm really bad with memories. i have such hazy ones. so organizing my visual ones may help me a bit. and also, does anyone have any advice on what to do with family photos (i.e. mom, dad, me and brother) all posed and happy when parents are no longer together? hum, questions.



also, i've been having some trouble with replying to comments lately-- i find that someone may ask a question and i won't be able to reply because there won't be a reply address, so i've decided to try to address questions in the comments section. so if you ask one, check back a day or two later, and hopefully i've answered you there. thanks beautiful peeps!

my life in pictures

this weekend we had a big surprise 50th birthday party for my dad at his house-- he thought we were having a small graduation party for my brother. he started getting suspicious when all these relatives started showing up, and i showed up with a big obnoxious sign. it was nice to finally be able to do something for him- he's constantly taking care of everyone and helping everyone and giving the shirt off his back, literally- i'm pretty sure he enjoyed his day.

this is my gorgeous new tea set from my friend amy. we got together this weekend for a girls night out and everyone took such great birthday care of me! i thought we were just celebrating nicole's birthday, so it was such a surprise when it was a double celebration. i love celebrating birthdays- some people can't get into it, but i'm all about celebrating birth and life. and pretty tea sets don't hurt either.

these bud vases make me want to cry every time i look at them. they are so organic and delicious looking. from my friend kim. and her story behind them makes them even sweeter. i heart my friends.

this is quickly turning into a "look what i got!" post. but seriously. look at this bag. could it BE any more nina-ish. i've been carrying it around with me ever since i got it. a new bag! i'm such a bag whore. thanks nicole!

the obnoxious sign i made for my dad's birthday. poster board is not my usual medium, but i was commissioned to make a sign, and this is what i came up with. my dad has had some serious hair styles. currently he's sporting some pretty crazy facial hair but his party on top is pretty tame. aaaah, here's to 50 more years of awesomely bad hair! (my dad's business name is "awesome stuff from the past-" hence, "awesome hair from the past".

saturday was picnic-y goodness. i don't think a day gets any better than saturday. so perfectly sweet that i can't even put it into words. family. picnic. grass. bare feet. food. blankets. quilts. games. silliness. balls. rolling around. leaf identification. bug carcasses. sound like fun to you? us gilberts are a bunch of dirty hippies.

this picture melts my heart.

as part of the sat. night girltime, we sat around and looked through all our high school (small, all-girls, catholic, oh-my!) pictures and newspapers and crap. it was pretty much frickin' hysterical. except i ruined.every.single.picture. in every picture all my friends are smiling like beauty queens, and i'm the one with my tongue out or humping someone or acting like a dork. hum.

seriously people. seriously.

evil little tinkerbell and her vegetarian fare.

pink frosting. cupcakes. two tiny little buns. even though it's hard sometimes, i heart being the mama of my little girl.


nicole's birthday bag (almost finished here, it got some button and ribbon loving after the pic was snapped). this bag drove me insane. do not sew cordouroy ever freakin' again. but i do love the way it came out. even though john told me it was the worst fabric combo ever invented. i still heart sewing.




could this post be any more all-over-the-place?

i've been collected records like a fiend, in preparation for my birthday present from my man. if you want to find us, we'll be spinning neil diamond on friday, singing our hearts out.

missin' you, my bloggie friends. missin' you.

new photobooth friday- beach love edition

new photobooth, originally uploaded by Nina Marie Gilbert.

on back:

"saturday august 5, 2006

salisbury beach, MA

joe's playland

taken 2 days after auntie stephie had andrew and tyler, and the same day gray and mama went into mass general to visit the new znoj parents."




i'm learning the more that's written on the back of photobooth pics, the more precious it becomes years later when everything isn't so fresh and new.

i'm seriously hearting how pummie looks so terrified of gray and i in the first picture. and how we all look shiny and glamorous and happy. and how the pictures get darker and darker- gray's face in the second one cracks me up. pummie's checking something outside the booth out in shots 2-4. it's pretty obvious that we're a bunch of dorks.

i heart my stinkin' family.

noggindrills and nevernudes

chaos contained, at least for a minute.

nakedness and fairy wings- does it get better than this?

crazy costume time.

the fairies (they like to think of themselves as princesses, but i say fairies because it makes me feel better about the whole thing).

naked pum, about to rip his wings off.



have you ever had words stuck in your head, and you can't help but say them over and over, whether it be internally or out loud? my friend joballs and i once talked about how she gets names stuck in her head. the past couple of days i've had the words "noggindrill" (from this kids show zaboomafoo) and "nevernude" (from arrested development) stuck in my head. over and over. sometimes in the same sentence. and yesterday i discovered that it makes quite a snappy little tune..."noggindrills and nevernudes, noggindrills and nevernudes..." repeat. repeat. repeat.

yes, i'm a bit insane lately. these past couple of days have totally rocked the cash-bar. monday: forest in the morning, forest in the afternoon. bird sanctuary with the p's. tuesday: packed up the crew, back to the bird sanctuary (which gray says so stinkin' cutely i can't even tell you) and we brought a ton of dress up costumes, and there's this open air stage and they went wild for hours and hours. i stripped down pummie and put him in a pink tutu and butterfly wings and took pictures. yesterday we drove to manchester NH (or man-chess-taaaah if you're from around here) and took the kids to a family member's book launch party at the see science center. tab rocks, writes children's books, is gorgeous and a fantastic mama, has a famous illustrator, and did i mention she writes freakin' children's books?!? see her at her marvin monster website. so proud. so fun. we played with electricity and dug for fossils and had lemonade and cookies. last night was fun with boo, and falling asleep waaaay to early. today was brownie makin' and cupcake eatin' and popsicle drippin' and inside and out funtime with the crew of wild and crazy kiddies.

did i mention lately that i hate (dislike really strongly, fine!) my sewing machines? while making a birthday present (not my own, but i've been recently obsessed with my upcoming birthday) i just about THREW THE FRICKIN' THING OUT THE WINDOW. i could not do that, however, because it's on loan from my mother in law. because i already broke mine. because i will never learn- i can't sew through eight layers of thick frickin' cordouroy. lesson learned.

off to plan more parties and presents and maybe wipe a bum or two in the process.