Helping schools in Uganda

I found on Craigslist this school desk for e. The seller is a Church in South County who had a wonderful goal of gathering desks (sizes ranging from K-8) and shipping them to a school in Uganda. After researching shipping costs they scrapped that idea and have decided to sell them locally and will send the school the money made. Not only a great desk but a great cause!

e really enjoys it...mostly putting all his supplies in the cubby. And the notch for your pens, pencils, markers...Too Cool!

Once the weather is warmer, I will strip it down and make it just as fun as his "Hot Rocker". I'm seeing chocolate stained wood, metallic baby blue metal and a pop of orange inside the cubby.

For those interested you can contact the seller here http://stlouis.craigslist.org/fur/573945833.html.

Measuring Plant Wall Decal

I've joined a group called DesignSpotter on Facebook. DesignSpotter is an online magazine published by Gunnar Schmidt [Berlin/Vienna] and Markus Gogolin [Cologne]. I have found some really great designs through them, however with some of the links it can get a bit frustrating having to convert currency and reading all the copy in German, NOT! (2 years in college and I remember nothing!).



I found this measuring plant wall decal. I was just recently talking to a friend about designing growth charts. Karl and Louise parents of e's best buddy Ewan had looked for a height chart for e for Christmas (insert joke here...I am all of 4'11", e's father 5'11" so he's not the biggest boy...I'll take the blame for that). Anyway, Karl and Louise were frustrated in not finding one that looked "cool" so Karl shared we should design them and sell them on Etsy (Hey! Don't steal the idea!).



This decal costs $80 and can be purchased at greenergrassdesign. I think e should have one even if he is only in the 5% for height!

"Tschüs!"

Pyrrha :: The Stork and The Eagle ::

Christmas 2006 I purchased a piece of Pyrrha from Lusso.
This was a gift to myself for the holidays.



The stork is a symbol of the strong maternal bond and is thought to be a harbinger of happiness and prosperity. I love this piece so much...so much that I want to purchase another...



Two Eagles Crest: motto reads "Dum Spiro Spero" meaning "while I breathe, I hope". Eagles are symbolic of nobility and ingenuity.

e's middle name is Adler which in German means "eagle". In keeping with the theme of Pyrrha jewelry being about me my boy, this is a piece I would truly enjoy to have.

Pyrrha designs are amazing! Enjoy viewing their online shop and continue to look for more pieces locally at Lusso. They are currently not carrying anymore of the line but share they will in the near future.

Murals

When e and I moved into our new home I decided it might be nice for him to have a common denominator in both his room at Daddy's house and Mommy's house. e's father and I had designed his room with edition prints of music artists from childhood and those we enjoyed. This print in particular I thought would be fun to duplicate in some fashion. Andrew Bird a wonderful musician paired up with Jay Ryan a wonderful illustrator and designed this poster.

I took the illustration of the musicians and projected them onto his wall at the new house and created this room.



Not to long after e's room was complete, I was asked to help design nursery rooms for Jubilee Church. I happily accepted the job and designed this toddler room for them.



Sharpie has water-based paint pens that made these murals very easy to do. You can visit: http://www.sharpie.com

I was inspired by the illustration style of simple lines. After laying out the look in Illustrator I printed out a transparency and projected the trees onto the wall. The animal wall decals found here: http://www.babygeared.com/farm.html now had an environment to live in.

It was a lot of fun creating these two rooms. I hope to soon collaboratively design another room for e's buddy Ewan with his father Karl. I'll post that room once it has been completed.

Enjoy!

e in ReadyMade

e's "Hot Rocker" made it in ReadyMade.
The February/March Issue, pg. 10.
Go pick up an issue! Fun!

Awhile ago I sent into ReadyMade Magazine a photo and description of e's "Hot Rocker". This rocking chair used to be mine. Now with a face-lift it belongs to e. I designed the letter e graphics and had a local vendor create the transfer, metallic! PMS8903.

One Saturday I was having my morning coffee and decided to look through my new issue and wa-la! There it was!

e was pretty excited to see it published as well.

Perhaps this blog should be titled giggles.

I have decided that one letter a year to e is not going to capture all his little details so I've decided to blog.

Tonight as I laid down beside him to go night night, I hoped I would remember every little detail of this evening.
Let me begin:
• e: Mommy where is your forehead? |said with a paci in his mouth, as he pushed back my bangs| me: e what are you doing? e: I lick your forehead Mommy. |giggling| me: gross. |in a silly voice|

• Evenings are spent either on the couch or in his bed reading books. This evening it was the couch. So I gave him his paci and cup of milk and I made myself a Chai Latte. We got ourselves nestled under the covers and he sipped on his milk as I on my Chai. All of a sudden he stopped and decided he wanted to stick his finger in the froth....e: ummm Mommy, I like it. me: e drink your milk. e: more Mommy. So I stuck his paci in it and with excitement he put it back in his mouth.

• Still on the couch...e: Mommy I tooted |giggling| me: Silly. After the second time I asked him if he needed to go poo poo before bed on the potty. After some coaching he finally agreed and we headed to get his stool and toilet seat. He managed to strip himself down out of his footed PJ's and sit up on the potty. He asked for his magnets. His magnets are part of a potty chart of which he's awarded to choose and move to a day of the week if he practices. The organization of the chart has been scrapped and we've chosen to play games with them, tonight we chose the parrot magnet and the game, which hand is it in. You know the one where you place your hands behind your back and ask to choose the left or right. I play as I check in with him from time to time to see if he's concentrating on going poo poo. e: yes Mommy, I have to go poo poo on the potty. He then takes the parrot and puts it behind his back. I just wait for magnet parrot to fall into what could be a poop filled toilet. His version of the game is to choose the hand that it's in for me with a big grin on his face. I then check back in with him to make sure he still has to go. me: e does your body need to potty? e, is your body telling you that you need to poo poo? e: |looking down at his belly| body? do you want some coffee? |pronounced poo-kie| yeah? ok, |using his imagination he pulls a cup out of thin air and begins to drink it| me: |giggling| what are you doing? e: talking to my body Mommy. Don't ask me where that came from? Needless to say the poo poo never came so we headed to bed.

• Laying down beside him looking at his big dark dark brown eyes. me: I love you buddy. e: I love you too Mommy. me: I love you Elliott. e: |getting louder| I love you Mommy. With his sweet, high-pitched, getting even louder voice he kept saying I love you Mommy, I just giggled.

• me: e can we pray to Jesus. e: Daddy, La La and Pop. |said very quickly as if I'm done, move on to a song please Mom| Daddy and his Grandparents made it to the top of the list by-passing anything to be thankful for. After giggling I brought him back to the order of things...giving thanks then blessings. After I sum up the day and we cover everyone by saying "all our family and friends" I say Amen and it's as if I've prefaced it with a "can I get a..." cause his Amen...quite loud and pretty soulful!

Those of you with children may find the sweetness in each of these details of my evening. Those without kids will not have made it past the first bullet point of him licking my forehead. But in order to completely embarrass my boy during his most impressionable teenage years I MUST get all these details down on paper more than once a year. He changes daily. He is SO much fun. I could not enjoying being a Mother any more. I am overwhelmingly proud of him already at the age of 29mnths.

I love you e.