An Expensive Day (or No Good Deed Goes Unpunished)

Visit to the Museum.
(A tragedy in one act).

We open in a damp, dark parking garage.  Still without an epiphanie bag,  Jill instead shoves camera into messenger bag, along with diapers, wipes, snacks, wallet and phone.  Three kids unloaded from what appears to be one of the last spots in the garage.  A feeling of doom hovers.

The troop heads for the grimy elevator, while mostly avoiding the plethora of puddles and oil slicks.  And then...

Bag strap failure. 
Bag dump.
Camera plummet.

Crash.

Camera body stage left.
Lens, stage right.

Jill:  Expletives.  (improvise).  Deep breaths. 

Camera will not go back together.  Plastic thing at the back has also popped off.  Can't even assess the damage now.  Just hustle it back to the car, while three confused kids huddle on the curb.

Curtain.

Hot Pink Picket Fence Quilt

Say that three times fast.

Pop the champagne, I finished my second quilt.  Don't peek too closely at my craftsmanship (especially the binding), but oh, this one was fun.  I just cut some strips that I liked and put them all together.  For the back I framed a piece of fuschia flowers with some of the brown flowers from the front.   It's a gift for a little baby girl who is due in just a few weeks.  I don't think she'll fuss over the wonky binding or a crooked strip here or there.  I can't say it's perfect, but I'm sure that it's one of a kind.   I'm not sending it until I know her name and birthday and can make her a little patch for the corner.  

Nearly all of the fabrics are Kaffe Fassett's, because I simply love his crazy, bright flowers.  There's an Amy Butler green in there and a Jennifer Pagnelli pink and orange stripe.  I am terrible at getting baby gifts finished on time, usually because I get so involved in the planning, the gathering, the starting and not so good at the finishing.  But oh, it's so satisfying to finish something, isn't it?

Take those Phthalates and Shove it!

I'm wondering if anyone else has this feeling.

I have given up (most) teflon, (most)  tupperware and cut back on my baggie use.  I hesitate before touching carbonless receipts, as I heard on the radio that they contain pcbs or parabens or phthalates or something evil, and I fear the toxins leached into canned foods but still use them.  I found out that I have been sorting our recycling wrong - for FIVE years.  I try and avoid products with fragrances and parabens and of course, I still have to look out for peanuts, tree nuts, sesame and egg because of my son's allergies.  And then when I ask my pediatrician why my son has these auto immune problems (eczema and allergies), they always ask if it runs in my family.  No it doesn't.  I don't buy it.  Why is NPR warning me against using all of these endocrine disrupters while my son's allergies are chalked up to genetics?  And giving up all of these things makes more work for me, scares me, guilts me -- all of it just starts to piss me off, frankly.  Where's the uproar about these poisons?  At some point, I get angry at knowing they are poisonous without having safe alternatives.

It's exhausting.  Where is Erin Brokovich when you need her?

[Picture not related to post.  It was a delicious, organic grapefruit, but surely not locally grown.]

for the love of

Saturated color.

I love playing along with easy photo assignment games on flickr.  It gives me a little something to mull over as I pass through the day.  A new way of seeing the same run to the grocery store, the school pick-up line, the dishes.  This week, Kristin started color week, asking for a different saturated color every day.  I didn't really shoot many new pics (except for the spilled grapes) but it was fun to browse through the old photostream and play along.

My imaginary career as a world famous photographer continues...

Looking for Green in the Brown

I took Jack to the Nature Center today to search for some green, some color out there. It seemed spring-like when I mentioned it to him, and then, when it was actually more grey and chilly than green and warm, I couldn't turn back.  I had already told him we'd go.

We were hard-pressed to find much green. But they did have some wonderful mud puddles.