A new look

Well I definitely have to hand it to people that program (not that I didn't before!). Yesterday I decided that my other blog, Crafty Synergy needed a new look and it took me FOREVER just to change some colors, add a banner, etc. The fact that I slapped that old banner together so quickly and it wasn't that well thought out to begin with just finally got to me.

The new banner has more to do with the actual name of the blog. According to Webster SYNERGY is: "A mutually advantageous conjunction or compatibility of distinct business participants or elements (as resources or efforts)". In keeping with that I consider the "waves" each one of us as we cross paths and compliment/help each other.

OK you can say it. Kinda cheeessy! But there it is. That's my story and I'm sticking to it! ;)

Down memory lane

I was playing with little C with these toys this morning when it suddently dawned on me that I really take it for granted that we still have them. The "newest" ones are over 25 yrs old. They look better in the photos. They do have some wear and tear but in general they're in decent condition. All are Fisher Price except the treehouse which is General Mills (??).

The yellow house was given to me on my fifth birthday. I don't remember when I got the tree house. The farm and garage belonged to my youngest brother and the school house belonged to my other brother. They are both single so when we had the kids my mom gave them all to us for the grandkids to play with. Lucky me! :) IMO today's Fisher Price toys don't even come close to being as cute or as well made as all these. How sad.

So does anyone remember these? Play with these?

Dreaming Big

As I watch the Olympics it amazes me what all these athletes do and the dedication it takes to get where they are today. It makes me really wonder why I'm not doing more to get where I want to be. I have a lot of ideas and I know they will work. I just need to go for it. These are the thoughts I've been having all day as we all walk around in our pjs.

We're all in our pjs because we're all sick. Little D has bronchitis, little C has a fever/cold/something, hubby has some other stuff and I have a recurring heart burn that is going to kill me.

The weather took a drastic turn and we're dipping just below freezing tonight. Yeah, I know big deal for all you northerners but for us it's just plain weird. Just a few days ago the kids were in shorts.

Speaking of dreaming big, my nano seconds of TV fame have been postponed. HGTV has decided to start airing the new season sometime in July. ??? All the new episodes are ready to go so I have no idea what that's all about. They just let everyone know in a mass email sent out yesterday. Stay tuned.

Illustration Friday - Simple

When I saw the new assignment for this week this drawing came to mind. It's drawn on watercolor paper because my initial intent was to paint. I ended up changing my mind and using a little bit of everything: ink, pencil and charcoal.

I drew it when I was in college. It was a lazy afternoon and I happened to see a photograph that inspired this drawing. I saved it thinking that someday it would make a great father's day present. I don't even know why I thought that. I was single and I didn't get married until 4yrs later. When hubby and I celebrated our first father's day together, little D was 5 months old. I gave Daddy this drawing and a framed black ink handprint of baby D.

What could be more simple and pure as the love of a parent and child?

By the way, Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Through the eyes of a 2yr old

A couple of things happened this week with my two year old that made me really stop and think about how she perceives things.

OH-OH!
We were in the kitchen on Wednesday morning getting her older brother's lunch ready for school. I had the jar of jam (made of glass - see where this is headed?) on the kitchen counter and she wanted to 'help' and give it to me. I had my back to her and didn't see her grab the jar. The next thing I heard was a splat/crash sound. I turned around and there she was standing barefoot in the middle of a mess of pieces of glass and jam. Quick as a flash I picked her up and sat her on the counter to check her feet and legs for any pieces of glass. I was barefoot as well and a couple of meters from her so I don't know how I got to her without getting cut myself. I did pick a couple of pieces of glass off her feet that were really tiny but that was about it. No cuts, no crying and we were OK.

Out of all this the thing that stuck in my mind was her face the minute I turned around. Her big brown eyes were like saucers and she was sooo quiet - frozen. She was completely waiting for my reaction. I didn't want her to move and the first thing out of my mouth was "it's oK. it was just an accident". Her body languaje changed from poised "ready-to get-in-trouble" to relaxed in an instant and that's when I grabbed her. To me this was the epitomy of how words can have such an impact on anyone depending on what you say and how you say it.

SPOOKY ART
Yesterday I went to the musuem to see the Basquiat exhibit. D was in school so I just took C with me. Amazingly she let me hold her the whole time (vs the usual chasing her around everywhere as I'm saying 'don't touch' a million times) and she was really intrigued by all the paintings. Basquiat's paintings are very expressive and in several instances he shows the human form in a very outlined/skeletal way. My little one caught on to the "skeletal" looking part of that. She would point to the human figures and look at me, chatter her teeth, mumble something like "ooooohh! sppoooooky" and then laugh out loud. That's kind of what she does when she sees Scooby Doo...LOL! I was happy that she enjoyed the whole experience more than I thought she would. She was more engaged than I thought she'd be.

Kids are always amazingly spontaneous and react in ways that still surprise and delight me. I wish as adults we could still hold on to some of their simple/straight to the point ideas and see the things for what they are and not for what we imagine them to be. Ok enough philosphy for one morning. It's really windy out today. Who wants to go fly a kite with me?

Illustration Friday - Chair

I didn't get a chance to properly submit an illustration for this week's illustration friday. I decided to take a small break from work and here is my 10 minute attempt (5 min to draw and 5 min to post). It's just a quick pastel sketch. No computer retouching as is probably obvious.The perfectionist in me is having a heart attack. The rest of me is ignoring that.

My turn!

I've been tagged by Ponderer and Marzi! :)

Four jobs I've had in my life:
[1] retail sales at a women's clothing store
[2] bank teller
[3] sales at a cosmetic counter
[4] graphic designer

Four movies I would watch over and over:
[1] Pride and Prejudice
[2] The Sound of Music
[3] too many 'chick flicks' to name
[4] ...

Four places I have lived:
[1] New Jersey
[2] Colombia
[3] Houston
[4] San Antonio

Four TV Shows I like to watch:
[1] Grey's Anatomy
[2] Law & Order CI
[3] That's Clever
[4] Almost anything on the Fine Living channel

Four Places I have been on vacation:
[1] San Francisco
[2] Cartagena
[3] Villa de Leyva
[4] Pensacola

Four Websites I visit daily:
[1] The Switchboards
[2] HOW Design
[3] Flickr
[4] Several blogs

Four of my favorite foods:
[1] plantain (any way - yummmm!)
[2] macaroni & cheese
[3] italian
[4] pretty much any south american dishes

Four places I would rather be right now:
[1] at a real studio painting on BIG canvases
[2] sitting on a porch of a house/cabin in the mountains
[3] laying on a beach at some resort
[4] running in some quiet park

Bloggers I am tagging:
[1] maria
[2] mel
[3] jeope
[4] needle book

This and that

Super busy. So much so that here I am at 5am working away. I just read this article and thought I'd pass it on. It's an interesting and easy way of obtaining business. Enjoy.

I also found out today that my HGTV segment of That's Clever was moved to a different day. Here it is. It's really official!

And here's this to add a little color to my blog...

Is there a refrigerator heaven?

Well my weekend revolved around the fact that on Thursday our refrigerator died. At first we thought it was just the freezer. The evidence: a puddle around it that morning. I thought "no biggie" I'll call the Sears people and we can survive a day without a freezer. I'm not one of those that uses it much except for ice cream and some other odds and ends. I've never understood those people that need the extra sub-zero freezer in their garages. What the heck to they store in those huge things anyway!?

Fast forward to Friday afternoon (when Sears guy is supposed to make his appearance). I hate the fact that the appointed time is from 1pm to 5pm. How annoying! I don't have a life at all right? I don't have a son that needs to be picked up from school, kids to feed, dinner to make, errands to run, right?! I drove super fast to and from school to pick up little D in fear that we'd miss the guy and came straight home to wait for him for three hours more. I finally got fed up and called customer service only to get some woman that thought I was being funny. I basically told her that I had to throw away all the food in our fridge (yes, all of it, once I realized the entire fridge wasn't working and everything started smelling 'lovely') that I had small children and they were hungry (of course nothing in the pantry was to their fancy on this particular afternoon!). She smirked/grinned kind of laughed. Normally I would've of lost it right then and there but I did a mental rewind of what I had just said and decided that yeah maybe I did sound kind of funny. Anyway, the guy shows up at 6:30pm! By then my survival instincts had kicked in and I had the "brilliant" idea to call for pizza. HELLO! Like I never do that on a Friday evening anyway (pizza/movie/game night at the Z household). It's funny how I was so stuck on the fact that there was nothing in the fridge and that made me feel so useless as the kids kept asking for this or that. More like stupid.

It turned out that the problem was that a little thing the size of a stack of playing cards was messed up and it cost us $200 something. Oh brother. We chose to just see it as a plus because we were already picturing a weekend trip hunting down a new fridge. Another plus - I didn't cook all weekend because we had to wait 24hrs before storing anything in the fridge and Saturday was so busy for us that I didn't have time to go grocery shopping until Sunday. He-he.

To futher illustrate my frustration over this weekend's events I actually drew a refrigerator going to heaven (with little wings and all) but decided that if I posted that horrible pitiful thing none of the lovely people that read my blog would ever come back. Who knows you may never come back anyway after just reading this drivel (if you've even made it this far!). Ha-ha!

Where do you work?

I work at home. Mostly at this desk and other times...wherever the wireless signal will let me go! ;) Today I feel wonderful because I have a new desk, clean bulletin board (that's why it isn't very inspirational right now!), and all my things are organized. My creativity decreases exponentially as my mess increases so it gets to a point where I just HAVE to clean up or I'm at a standstill. I'm not a "stuff scattered everywhere" messy person. I'm more of a "neatly stacked piles of all sorts of stuff" everywhere around me.

So the point of this whole post? None really. Sorry - uninspired at the moment and tons of work to do.

Ohhh one more thing. Yesterday I found out that my HGTV episode is #202 and it will air on Feb 27th. For those of you that don't know what this is about you can get some of the details here. I'll probably be sending a massive email to all family and friends the day before and the day of the actual event I'm probably going to be hiding behind a cushion during the whole thing! Ackkk!