Fancy Pants & Poopy Pants winter 2010

Sunny with a chance of puke

Sun, 7 Mar 2010 21:35:07 -0500

What a beautiful, uplifting weekend! Every spring (there, I SAID it!) there is a ‘first day’ where you realize that spring will be coming...nay, IS coming and perhaps is even here. You venture out with less layers, leave the doors or windows open to let the stale air out of the house and the kids revel in rediscovering the street and play OUTDOORS for hours without whining. This was it! The weekend was sunny and beautiful.

I started Saturday with a walk around the hood with my sister and an AMAZINGLY GENEROUS breakfast at Aris Place (Roncesvalles). We both laughed and enjoyed the east coast feel of the diner. The smell, the friendly, genuine service and personalities. I practically rolled out of there after a huge plate of homefried potatoes, peameal bacon and eggs.

In the afternoon, Phelan went off to visit with Sarah, Jill and Mr. Eyebrows (their new hedgehog), Tristan went to play with a friend, and Isaac and I went for a little hike in the ravine by the Brickworks. Perhaps I glossed over the colossally momentous detail... ISAAC AND I SPENT SOME TIME TOGETHER...WITHOUT KIDS! Ok - we had the dog - but he doesn’t prevent us from having meaningful discourse about our life the way our kids do! In fact - in much the same way we found our selves rediscovering one another as we walked the beautiful path through the woods - we also reveled in the time with Dobby - his excitement at finding this new amazing endless spot to run and play and sniff. As we walked the path for the first time, he was cautious and somewhat hesitant - but when we turned around to double back, he was entirely transformed. Isaac said he needed the first trip to get the lay of the land and now he was able to enjoy it for real. He tore around in wide circles at speeds rivaling the fastest I’ve ever seen him run. Even just a couple of hours together helped Isaac and I to reconnect and to concentrate on some forward-looking subjects. Life just comes so hard and fast and we are simply never alone together.

Like all great things, however, it seems there’s gotta be one poop-flavoured jelly bean in the bag just to keep you humble. Phelan puked all night long. Now dealing with such things is never fun...but for me, the fact that we were entering into a stomach bug bout for Phelan strikes dread into my heart. Anyone acquainted with the minutiae of our life might recall such blog episodes over the years as Pukefest, The Prince of Pukers , Vomit Boy and others and knows that Phelan has a very twitchy stomach and takes a LOOOOOOONG time to recover from such things.

It’s time for bed and I have to say - I think all of our previous puke experiences with Phelan have taught us something about how to help him through this. He hasn’t puked since this morning, and much as we know better than to count our chickens before they have barfed, we have been VERY conservative in responding to his requests for food (OK - yes - we are starving him). It does seem to be working. We’ve used the timer all day and only given him an ounce of liquid at a time - telling him he can have another when the timer goes off. He is notorious for barfing even a small glass of water within 20 minutes, so we’ve learned to trickle it in.

OK - I’m totally boring myself. Can’t imagine how you’re feeling.

Isaac had a cycling wipeout this week on a patch of ice. He has been labouring with sore/stiff neck and shoulders, but seems to be mending.

Tristan and I are reading from the series ‘Children of the Red King’ (aka Charlie Bone) - loving it - both of us!

The Adventures of Super Smile

Sat, 27 Feb 2010 11:03:30 -0500

Tristan wrote and illustrated this story yesterday afternoon after Author/illustrator, Ruth Ohi visited his school. Clearly he was inspired. (if on facebook, click ‘view original post’ to see all the pics - or check my photo albums where I have also posted these images).

“The Adventure of Super Smile and his but on fire”
“Book ritten and illustrated by Tristan Meyer Odell”

“Super Smile doesn’t know his but is on fire”

“he looks. he knows somethings rong”

“then he sees his buts on fire”

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. and that was the first time he didn’t smile.”

The Vaseline Incident

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 19:54:59 -0500

It was a clean-up of epic proportions.

Last night was a perfect example of ‘blogged too soon’.

Perhaps if you read my blog entry last night (and made it past all the moronic wanking and feeling sorry for myself for being sick) you know that I had to clean up a messy little incident with a tube of Carmex (a vaseline-like lip balm that comes in a tube) after Phelan had a pleasing sensory experience with it all over his hands. I discovered the happy boy in his mess, laughed, cleaned it up and came upstairs to write a little blog entry about it.

You know that thing about ICEBERGS and their TIPS?

It seems that our intrepid 4 year-old really loved the way that jelly product felt in his hands and JUST HAD to get a little more of that experience. AND it seems that a really HUGE container of VASELINE had been left on the shelf by Tristan’s bed (who complains of dry lips at bedtime). Fast forward a half hour or so...

Phelan emerges from the basement. He is inexplicably glossy and his hair is sticking up in greasy tufts off his scalp. He is COVERED from head to toe in Vaseline (it takes me a few minutes to figure out what had happened. His clothes, arms, face, hair... COATED in a quarter inch layer of the thick, greasy goo. I yell to Isaac, “WHAT IS ALL OVER HIM?!!!” We return to the scene of the petty Carmex crime to discover the brutal torture and murder of a massive quantity of Vaseline. Tristan’s entire bunk is SMEARED with a careful coating of Vaseline. The bedrails, the sheets, the pillows, the stuffed animals - IT IS A HORROR SHOW! Phelan declares he’d like a bath. D’uh.

And there began an unscheduled ‘deep clean’ of our basement and the kids’ room. A large garbage bag of pillows (which unfortunately did not have pillow cases on them at the time of the crime) and large, goopy stuffed animals will be leaving our home permanently and quietly on the next garbage day. A load of sheets, pillow cases and clothes Phelan had been wearing went into the washer. Twice in HOT water with extra Borax and they seem to be useable...HOWEVER there was a nasty thick Vaseline ring around the washer the next morning. As I tried to wipe it off, I thought of The Cat in the Hat and the pink sludge that just kept being transferred from one place to another and you could never get rid of it.

Then there is the child. No soap I had in the house seemed to be adequate to get the stuff off his skin - so we just wiped and scrubbed until it was reduced to a thin layer. I googled ‘how to get vaseline out of my kid’s hair’ and an extraordinary number of hits came up. The general consensus seemed to be that nothing would actually work perfectly and ultimately you’d be waiting it out. I chose a couple of suggested methods and set to work. After one very painful shampooing incident (shampoos involve screaming at the best of times) with dishsoap and baking soda, Phelan emerged looking not bad at all. UNTIL HIS HAIR ‘DRIED’. I have taken to calling him ‘grease monkey’.

So thank you, Phelan. The basement and linens would never have been cleaned this weekend without you - and for that I am grateful. I am also grateful to you for bursting my little bubble in which I had this idea that you were extraordinarily immune to getting into such predicaments. “He never touches stuff!” I shall perhaps be more wary.

A helpful friend today told me that gasoline works on Vaseline.

Hmmm.

(Here is Phelan before I peeled off his greasy clothes and put him in the tub last night. Note the goop all over his face and clothes.)

Cherry-flavoured basement

Sat, 20 Feb 2010 19:56:50 -0500

I just went downstairs to find the basement smelling suspiciously of artificial fruit flavours. Found Phelan in Tristan's bunk, having squeezed all of Tristan's cherry Carmex into his hands and onto the floor and he was happily rubbing the smelly goop all over his hands and arms.

It’s been a lost day in many ways. (WARNING! You are now entering the whinging zone) I can’t even believe that almost a week after having to spend the entire day in bed due to illness - I’m reduced to the same again. I have had no energy this week and even the most minor outings have wiped me out completely. This is driving me CRAZY - given I have so much to do and I just can’t even think straight enough to plan or organize. The house is a disaster as I haven’t the energy to either clean up or compel anyone else to.

I watch the One of a Kind Show drawing closer and think about what isn’t done and just get wound up tighter. I hate being sick.

On a lighter and less whiny note - today’s photo taken a couple weeks ago at my sister’s apartment. She and her partner have adopted a baby hedgehog. Tristan and Phelan were meeting him for the first time.

Building with Boxes

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 16:23:02 -0500

First today’s news... there’s a great new blog (www.ohmyhandmade.com) that has just launched. Great for mompreneurs, kids retailers and folks who love great stuff for kids. It’s particularly awesome today because they published an interview with me. Here’s the link if you are interested.

There has been an extraordinary amount of box-related creativity going on in this house lately. Both Tristan and Phelan are suddenly fixated on independently building various vehicles and other devices from cardboard boxes. Pictured above is some sort of hot rod that Tristan built a couple weeks back. You will note that the rear axle is provided by my folding dolly and the front chassis is the vacuum cleaner. All is connected by a complex arrangement of strings that can be pulled to make various things (real or imagined) happen. he had also constructed a harness for himself to wear when in the drivers seat/cockpit. He said that he’d used the vacuum cleaner because it has a motor and the whole arrangement ‘should’ actually be self propelling.

Phelan also in the course of the last couple weeks has created a boat, a space ship, an airplane and a train out of different cardboard boxes. He draws buttons and maps on pieces of “clean, dry paper” and then cuts them out and sticks them on his creations.

Perhaps part of the reason they’ve been inspired is that there were a lot of boxes lying around in the last couple weeks as I was working to pack SIX wholesale orders for new retailers coast to coast! I’m glad they are pretty much all dispatched now, as it was mayhem trying to pack orders with kids cutting windows in my boxes and such!

Yesterday Isaac sent me this link for a neat new product which totally fits into this latest creative craze at our house! This is brilliant!

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/02/16/makedo-universal-con.html

Phelan’s space ship.

I have been sick since Saturday and it sucks big gobs of putrid goozleheimers.

A Word on Babies...

Sun, 14 Feb 2010 16:37:04 -0500

Lost in my two months of blog silence was a recognition of a most extraordinary and auspicious event that touched me to my core. I was honoured to attend the birth of my dear, dear buddy Jenn’s second son. On January 9th - a perfect, clear, sunny Saturday, I witnessed the birth of Corben Joseph Lucas. I was also present 3.5 years ago when her son Griffin was born. This time, she was at home and it was, in a word...perfect.

I have been and continue to be deeply immersed in the stresses of my reinvention/new business. I had also been quite distracted by my deepening friendship and involvement with a friend who is fighting cancer. The call to attend Corben’s birth was such a gift. To have nothing be more important than Jenn and the arrival of her baby on that day was beautiful and right. I am thankful to them for that.

The baby theme continues for us this year. Isaac and I will become Auntie Gretel and Uncle Isaac at least THREE more times in the coming months - as new cousins are expected for Tristan and Phelan in 2010. Being each the eldest of 6 (count ‘em...that’s TWELVE) means that our younger sibs are all just getting around to making babies in the past few years. We just got the news today that Isaac’s brother Josh and his wife, Kim (Vancouver, BC) are expecting a baby in August - and just last weekend we also heard from Isaac’s sister Amber that she and her husband, Tobyn (Victoria, BC) are also expecting a baby in August.

My brother Nick and his new bride, Mika (Telkwa, BC) are having a baby in May.

Being an Aunt is extraordinary. You love a child like they were your own...but you don’t have to clean up their puke in the middle of the night! I’m over-simplifying it - but suffice to say that now that Isaac and I have closed the ‘door’ on future children...we are overjoyed to be part of the journey of others.

Contemplating getting back on blog wagon...

Sun, 14 Feb 2010 14:45:45 -0500

Hi. Yeah, it’s me. I feel a little awkward and sheepish composing this post. After over 8 years of never failing to post at least ever 3 weeks, if not daily. Suffice to say, I’ve still been composing blog entries in my head every day. I just haven’t been getting to the act of actually committing them to keyboard. Many reasons. Sometimes I get overwhelmed by the ongoing level of stress I’m dealing with - it gets old ‘talking’ about it - and I figure I’m not the only one who doesn’t want to hear any more about it. Life just seems to get more and more complicated and keeps throwing more curveballs and some of it just puts me right out of my comfort zone (meaning what exactly do/can/shall I say about it ‘publicly’?)

We’ve been working really hard to shift our daily/weekly patterns around here to create some more stable routines for us and the kids. This has been meaning no late night computing - or early morning computing (basically my blog time). This attention to family time and simpler routines is paying off in some areas - but does leave me without this outlet.

Obviously much has happened since my last entry in early December. I doubt I’ll ever actually catch much of it up and I’m still grappling with my comfort level around sharing some of our current challenges.

Here are some broad strokes...

Phelan: Is almost 4 and is in an utterly delightful, delicious CUTE stage. he is so helpful and creative and fun to be with.

Tristan: This unbelieveably creative and engaging kid brings me such joy and is hungry to learn so much about the world. We are narrowing in on how we can help him to be happier in school and have more peace in his days.

Isaac: How did I get so lucky to have you? It’s Valentine’s Day. I wish we could spend it somewhere alone together - it’s been well over a year since we snuck away for a night alone. I wish we could do it again. We’ve been through so much this past couple years. Thank you for your constancy and your love and faith in me and our family.

Business: I launched a new website (and have yet to take an order on it), did my first big wholesale trade show and was accepted to the Toronto One of a Kind Show.
I’m struggling to cope with the fact of slow beginnings with income - while appreciating that I’ve made enormous strides in only one year.

Phelan needs his bum wiped...

Phelan did NOT photocopy his bum...

Wed, 9 Dec 2009 06:23:00 -0500

Isaac is all done in Australia. I can’t even begin to express what a relief it is to me that he is done with Congress. The stress and the around-the-clock work he’s been engaged with over the last few months has been oppressive (particularly when you add mine to the mix!)

It will be such a relief to have him ‘back’ - and I don’t just mean in body! We’ve missed his spirit around here! I’m sure Isaac will have some great pictures to share from his trip to the rainforest and the great barrier reef (with his new camera bought in Hong Kong!)

Someone in Australia took
this photo of Isaac on the last day
of Congress. I think it tells all.
(if you are on FB, click ‘view
original post’ at bottom to see
the pic)

In the meantime, we do finally have some of Tristan’s photos from his adventures. I’m excited to hear his commentary on them - but for now they are fun to look through and get a sense of what his days have been filled with and how many lovely people he has met.

Here is a link to an online album of Tristan’s photos
http://gallery.me.com/tristanmo#100377&view=grid&bgcolor=black&sel=21

I have been having a really nice time with Phelan, who is drinking up all the mama-attention. This morning his face was priceless when he woke up and I took him to the window to see the first snowfall! He has big plans for shoveling and making snowballs this morning!

Last night he discovered the photocopying abilities of our printer. You should have seen his excitement...he was like a young office intern left to his own devices in the copy room after hours...he did everything short of copying his bum! We have copies of his Thomas engines, DVD covers, money and more! I had to cut him off after 5 copies! Sadly he knows all he has to do is insert object under cover and hit green button! Power! Fun! Machines at work!

I googled ‘Fancy Pants Kids’ yesterday. The results were staggering - a far cry from a year ago when nothing came up but my own website! Try it! You will find evidence of a lot of promotion and publicity. FPK is on a number of holiday shopping lists and gift guides this season, including Toronto Life, National Post and Sweetmama.ca. Here is my favorite it’s a ‘celebrity stocking’ put together specifically for the character Max, in ‘Where the Wild Things Are’!

I’m working hard to get the content together for my new website, which I am desperately trying to get live before Xmas (tick...tick).

Today I take a few hours for my own physical and mental health. A massage (OMG, my body is a twisted mess) and a soak at www.bodyblitzspa.com - I think what I most look forward is the hour I’ve promised myself on the red lounge chair by the side of the salt pool to just read a book quietly. Blackberries are NOT ALLOWED poolside. This is what I need most...just for a little while.

Then back...into the breach.

Have you done your holiday shopping? Any kids on your list? I know a great source of Canadian-made, unique gifts for kids!

More Tidbits (and some turds, too)

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:54:19 -0500

Feeling pretty overwhelmed after an arduous weekend of veterinary challenges. Dobby ate a basket of Halloween candy on Thursday, unwittingly left on the floor by a babysitter, then must have gotten into the normally off-limits basement as door was left open (probably also babysitter...I never thought to mention it to her before I left) and must have eaten a bunch of garbage and toys in the kids room or something. I can only assume that this combination of crap created a solid jam in his intestines somewhere and his whole system stopped moving. To make a long story short(er) I worked my butt off all weekend doing everything one can do at home to encourage him to pass the obstruction. Had some heroic help from a good friend who helped me with the fabulous home-enemas I gave him. While I was successful at nursing him through the weekend and thus avoiding emergency weekend vet care, it was clear this morning that it was time for X-rays and rehydration.

A thousand dollars later, he is home for the night. I have to take him back tomorrow for one last x-ray before surgery is ruled out completely. However it does look good. A thin stream of flotsam and jetsam is tumbling out of his ass now and he spent the day on IV, so he’s rehydrated. I’m feeling very angry with the rotten garbage eater and wishing Isaac was home so I didn’t have to make all these decisions alone.

Enough of the turds - now the tidbits...

Tristan is still having a great time in Hong Kong. I’ve been managing to catch him on skype about every second day. This morning he declared to me that he had started growing a mustache a couple days ago! Goofball!

I’m pasting in some more of Ali’s great little comments about her time with Tristan. Still don’t have any photos to share...so instead I’ll share the dingo that Isaac got to meet and pet tonight in Melbourne! (see above)

Tidbits from Ali:
~Watching Tristan as he came to understand how to read time. I'd been working on him for days and then he suddenly looked up and cried: I get it, I get time! His eyes danced. And yes, he can read time.

~ In the middle of a phonics class Tristan requested that the Chinese teacher tell the children in Chinese that it was okay if they made a mistake because they were just learning.

~Listening to dumb cartoons in the background and remembering being a kid watching stupid cartoons with my mother in the background ironing or cooking.

~Getting Tristan to make his own sandwich. Says he does this all the time...I don't know....

~Watching Fenton play hard with Tristan, swinging him around in circles over the ferry deck and playing water Frisbee with him in the South China Sea.

~Getting up twice in the middle of the night to turn off the alarm clock that Tristan says he never touched.

~Talking to Fenton about Tristan. Telling him that Tristan hung up his shirt and trouser as required by la Granali. However, both were hung completely upside down. He even had to button up the shirt upside down to do this.

~National Geographic, watching it with Tristan. He is entirely capable of following a science programme and attending to it all. We're working on reading time and have now learned to count on fingers instead of trying to "think" it out - the body doesn't lie.

HK Tidbits...my son is ‘rocking the house’!

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 09:35:08 -0500

(I’ve stolen the following lines from Ali, who has been emailing daily comments on her days with Tristan. The photo was taken by my friend Kathryn at her Muskoka cottage a couple weeks ago.)

-Another day with Tristan. We are rocking the house! His expression. I notice that kids are coming closer and trying to talk to him more and more. He ran a Tuck Shop at recess and impressed everyone.

-Buying Tristan new underwear and socks from M and S because he had run out of clean ones. Had to get some for Phelan, too. Also got a Knights in Armour watch for T. I know, I can't help myself.

-Tristan asked me if I knew that Pepsi is a legend. He says it's like Jesus or the Gods are legends, get it? No.

-Another successful day at school with Tristan. He wants to know when he will be using the microphone to speak to the whole school next. Most kids are frozen with fear at this idea.

-Tristan and I went up to the roof of the school and looked around. There is a garden up there. We counted the banana trees and bamboo patches.

-Tristan (the lazy North American individualist) stood at attention with his hands behind his back for 20 minutes at assembly. He introduced himself with a microphone and helped me like a professional teachers' aide all day. I am blown away.

-I'm really impressed how all of the teachers at my school are so welcoming and warm with Tristan. One asked him to help her walk the kids to the train station. He went right away.

-Seeing how relieved Gretel was when we chatted with her after school. She must be very proud of her little thinker/questioner.

Thanks, Ali! We love you!

Eight years old in Hong Kong...

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 05:53:46 -0500

Dear Mom,

I'm really having a great time. Thanks for the letter, it was very, very nice. I had lots and lots of fun in the classroom and in the school. I was teaching kids about Canada and English. I have my own desk in the teachers' room and I get to use the elevator plus I even have my own computer. it's a great time here, I hope it's a great time there too. If you're tired at smiling, how are you going to smile at me when I get back? I have my own cell phone. Plus I have an octopus card to go on trains and buses and you can use it in the shops too. Ali is going to buy me a watch so I will know what time it is. Aren't those a lot of good things. We will talk about it more when I come back or when we do another message. I love you! and Phelan, too.

Bye

Tristan
-----------------------------
Hi Gretel,

We're too busy to write a proper letter but Tristan is doing ABSOLUTELY FREAKING AWESOME BRILLIANT FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!!!
My expectations have been blown out of the water and he is serene, confident and very, very capable in being an English Teacher Helper! We will send more later!

Much love,

Ali and Tristan

Eight Years Old

Sat, 7 Nov 2009 08:12:12 -0500

Tristan turned 8 this week.

If you wish to follow me down memory lane, here is a forgotten link to the early beginnings of the Meyer Odell family blog. (http://www3.sympatico.ca/offstage/)

...and the sun shone forth!

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:45:00 -0400

I’m sitting in my van in the parking lot of a roadside rest stop. For the past hour as I started my drive home to Toronto from London, my mind has been racing. I’ve been overwhelmed with emotions, new clarity on some stuff and a renewed sense of well-being, satisfaction and JOY. I’m delighted by these feelings and the accompanying need to write them down...NOW!

I guess I really needed a bit of a break from the hamster wheel of life - both for rest and to help assess, check-in with myself and gain some perspective on the rapid-fire events of the past year. 4 good nights of sleep sure haven’t hurt either!

As I started my drive, I found myself overwhelmed with pride and satisfaction for what I accomplished this weekend and over the year as a whole. I’ve been so busy trying to accomplish the near-impossible, learning on the job, racing to meet deadlines and seize the day, that I really had no perspective on what i really have accomplished. Spending some quiet hours after work with my very good friend, Sally and a glass of wine, it has begun to dawn on me. At first I was dismissive of Sally’s frequent comments about how much I’ve accomplished and what a good job I’ve done of getting this business going. Now as the haze induced by perpetual motion has lifted a bit, I realize she is right.

So I’m stopping the drive (literally and figuratively) and taking some time for myself to just pat myself on the back and acknowledge myself for doing incredible work. I figure the next round of PMS in a week or two will drive me back into mental paralysis about such things, but for today I’m blowing my own horn and feeling good about myself and hopeful about where I’m going and what it will mean for me and for my family. (This paragraph induced those ever-elusive tears!)

The last month or two have been incredibly stressful. In a couple of weeks, the government cheque that has been supporting me through my business start-up will end. I’m terrified of this and have been driving myself harder than ever to make sure that I maximize the potential for Halloween and Christmas sales and to set FPK up such that it will be able to begin to support me. Financial stress is gut-wrenching. I’ve never faced it so fully as I do now. My choices leave my family exposed in a very real way and the weight of that has been overwhelming and suffocating.

As I drove along I felt myself emerge from the oppression of financial worry and see the possibility that is emerging from my hard work. I am really building something. Something that is fully and completely mine and that I and my family can, do and will derive joy, satisfaction, pride and income from. I feel a sense of purpose and a sense of being ‘up to something’ that is bigger than anything I’ve ever felt before.

Last night Sally asked me, “What made you think of doing this, anyway?”

I couldn’t answer that. I have no idea how this all happened! I reflected on this over the last hour and realized that my recent turns in destiny have been driven by IMPULSE and INSTINCT and INSPIRATION. (I suspect INSANITY ranks in there, too - but let’s stay on the emotional upswing, shall we?) I don’t really know what I’m doing - I’m just doing it.

AND IT IS WORKING! Holy shit!

Soon my battery will die (the one in my computer, that is!) and this will have to be finished from home. Who knows if the high will last that long - but dear reader, rejoice in the good hours with me. Thank you all for your support - I know my entries have been grim and stressed and that may continue - but know there are good days. This one rocks! (And I’m only high on caffeine - honest!)

I’d like to thank Phil Collins, Huey Louis and the News, Pat Benetar, Coldplay and Men Without Hats for making me sing out loud today. I needed that.

Time to go home. I miss my family.

2 Good Nights

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 08:11:10 -0400

I’m in London, Ontario. I’m vending at the London Arts and Crafts Show for the weekend. I am sleeping on the sofa of my beloved university friend, Sal and I have had two delicious, uninterrupted nights of sleep (two more to come!)

Not being kicked in the head or gut by a three year old all night is very lovely.

Though I am having peaceful time with no serious obligations for the next hour, this is the most intelligent entry I can muster.

8 hours on my feet yesterday and 13 more to go in next two days. My smile muscles are already tired and my bubbly is going flat.

Today’s photo is a store window in Vancouver is that carrying my products. (www.hipbaby.com). Made a sale to the huge toy store in London (Ontario) yesterday (www.toyshopoflondon.com). Kind of made up for the ridiculous lack of sales at the show yesterday.

Title? I’m supposed to TITLE this entry?

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 05:48:38 -0400

Life continues to be too hectic and too complicated for me to find the mental space or time to blog. I will try to keep a trickle here so you don’t all give up on me...might just be photos, links and one-liners for a WHILE.

Today I want to re-post a blog entry by an online acquaintance on the US west coast. Katie is an artist and a mother, who does an incredible job of promoting her beautiful evocative paintings. She also works in her home. Recently she blogged about the joys of finally having a workspace with a door. She spoke eloquently about the most important reason she was happy to have a door on her workspace. I am beginning to really understand what she says, as I find the urgency of my work sucking me constantly away from my family and from tasks that need to be done in our home. Katie says it best... (check out her artwork while you are there!)