I just went down a little webby rabbit hole and found this great artist. The Chicken Fried Therapy blog today had a post about affordable art over at 20×20 Art. Because my walls are embarrassingly naked and I am cash challenged right now, I jumped on over there. Lots of fun stuff to buy. But, this one artist really caught my attention! He has an entire series called “More New Math” on his website and it’s just genius!

If you click on the random button, it will generate more in the series.

Image from http://morenewmath.com by Craig Damrauer – Click on the image to go directly to his website to view more.

Also, this same blog post is over at my home remodel blog, http://midmodredo.com because I know my Design Friends would love this.

My mom is the most difficult person to shop for. She pretty much buys herself any goodies she wants. She can also create, bake, sew, anything and everything. So, it takes a lot of creativity to surprise her.

I had an old leather jacket that I never quite liked. I loved the leather, but I didn’t like how it fit. And, the zipper always got stuck. So, I cut up that old leather jacket and tried to think like my mother. I used the tutorial for a handbag from my Freckled Nest Home-Ec online sewing class. I used the tutorial as a loose guideline, but just did my best to work within the constraints of my “found” material.

My mom had helped me re-upholster two little mid-century modern chairs with this great polka-dot fabric. It was stupid expensive, so I swore to use every last thread. I think it looked pretty great as the lining on this leather bag.

What do you think?

It’s been rather fun being back in the house this Christmas. We had to spend last Christmas in the apartment when our remodel went “slightly” over schedule. So, I may have gotten a little too excited with celebrating this year. However, I’ve never had much space or much Christmas decorating “stuff”. So, I’m only an amateur at this Christmas decorating business. And, by the way, I’m not much for the standard red and green decorations. You also can’t see it, but I made my silver tree skirt under the tree.

Note: I posted all of this over on my home remodel blog, http://midmodredo.com

Pic 1: My starburst wreath made from twigs. I saw where folks at “The Painted Hive”  made it and posted it on their blog here.

Pic 2: Christmas tree made from cut out paper circles made from mod paper.

Pic 3: Ty dressed as a lumberjack in front of the Christmas tree.

Pic 4: View of the living room and Christmas tree—Ty about to open gifts on Christmas morning.

Pic 5 and 6: I finally got to sit a proper dining room table with my grandmother’s china. I think it’s from the 1960′s, but I love how it looks timeless.

There have been so many great gingerbread houses across the modern blogosphere the past few weeks. While I don’t have the artistic talent, I wanted in on the fun. A few families on my block got together for a little gingerbread making party. We had seven kids and three mommas. We set the kiddos up with graham crackers and all of the fixings, but we had the good homemade baked gingerbread fixings for the moms.

It was a little frantic with the frosting flying for seven kids between the ages of 20 months and 9 years old, but it was fun. Stacie and I both attempted to do gingerbread houses inspired by our own home designs. Stacie has great pictures of her own house on her own blog here. I made a few extra houses with basic butterfly roofs for the other two moms.

The kids had a blast!

Personally, I love this house the best. I baked the walls, but my architect/former engineer neighbor, Jo, totally rocked this butterfly roof house. I just loved it.

***Note: This blog post was posted on my home remodel blog at midmodredo.com, too.

I am slowly trying to get my sewing mojo back after a 30 year absence. My toddler son asked for a Buzz Lightyear costume. Yes, I could have bought one, but I am trying to reclaim my legacy in a long line of crafty make anything women. It’s not perfect, but he loved it. And, I re-learned a lot of things. Let’s just say that I really know how to use a ripper!

I wish it would have been as lovely as this Buzz Lightyear over at the blog, “Just Another Day in Paradise”, but I’m pretty proud of my first Halloween costume sewing project!

And, the happy faces are from the Saturday before Halloween…before my face got whacked by a ladder.

Oh, I so wish that the title of this post was figurative. Oh, but it’s way too literal.

After my 40th birthday in October, I’ve been pretty much on a huge high. I ran the half-marathon, my libido finally decided to return (TMI, I know), I was getting motivated to getting my financial house in order, and our house projects are feeling more manageable.

On Halloween, after patting myself on the back a bit too much for my Martha Stewart worthy Halloween costume craftiness, Tim cajoled me into doing some exterior touch-up house painting. No biggie…I’ve been painting all summer. I’ve been living on a tall ladder for the last year and a half.

BUT…you know there’s a but in there, right? When I went to step on the ladder, it felt a little unstable. It was in grey breeze (fancy gravel)…I was annoyed, but sort of dug it in the gravel to stabilize it. I then I started to step up the ladder.

And, then I heard the screams. My screams. Really loud screams. I didn’t feel pain. I felt horrified. I realized somehow that the ladder collapsed on top of me. Actually, it was on top of my face. And, I quickly realized that my front teeth were gone. Gone. Fucking gone. More screams.

I think I scared the entire neighborhood. My really great husband does not think well in crisis. He wanted to call 911…I screamed twice for him to run across the street and get our neighbor, Brian, who is a dental hygienist and the neighborhood “sheriff”. (He’s the man you call for car, plumbing, general disasters). Tim was back with Brian in under 2 minutes. In the meantime, I was kneeling trying to catch the pools of blood. Still no pain. Just freaking freaked out.

Brian got me cleaned up and iced up. He called his dentist bosses to confirm his dental triage. Which were outstanding, by the way.

Suddenly, my house was filled with my costumed neighbors. One neighbor swept my son away in his costume to a block party so I could freak out without freaking him out. (Thank you).

I was knocked down and completely rattled…more tomorrow.

***By the way, I’m trying to participate in that NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month)…yea, I wanted to start on November 1st, BUT…freaking ladder delayed me a bit.

We are finally rolling in veggies from the garden. Loads of fat tomatoes and green chilis. Tim made the best green chili stew, while I stick to assembling tomato appetizers and eating my body weight in pesto.

It’s so nice to see the Ty boy devouring a plate of late summer stripey tomatoes and cucumbers from the garden.

Can you see this massive bucket of basil? I think I need to make some pesto tomorrow.

Finally, Tim made green chili stew tonight with roasted chilis from the garden.

Just plain silliness. I just watched seasons 3, 4 AND 5 of Weeds this past week on Netflix on-demand with my father. Okay, now I’m done. I have it out of my system. Nancy will have to be okay without me for a while.

P.S. I just installed a Samsung Blu Ray player that allows me to stream Netflix to my TV. Only $130 bucks at the Costco. Bargain!

I’m sorta loving this summer food. We made Tuna Nicoise with green beans from the garden.