Pink Prickly Pear

You are a good person.

This is hanging on the wall at Blue Genie and I had to take a photo of it.  I love it because I love possums, and doesn't that cigarette cloud kind of look like a partially dehydrated possum doing a headstand?  I also love it because who doesn't like to be reminded that they are a good person?  And also because B. M. Walsh painted it.  Poor, unfortunately named B.M. who I am sure is also a good person.  And funnily enough, I have a friend named Brian P. Walsh who, if he ever decided to sport a rockabilly hairdo, would sort of look like this guy, except I'm pretty sure Brian would not wear a cerulean blue maternity shirt.  I wonder if B.M. is related to B.P and somehow thinks B.P needs to be reminded that he's a good person?

I got to pick up my man from the airport today!  He's been in Tokyo, and at first I was insanely jealous (because Tokyo?  It's up at the tippy top of the List Of Places I'd Better Get To Go To One Day) but then I realized that despite being away from home for 4 days, he was only booked into a hotel for 2 nights.  Which I assume translated to something like Not Enough Sleep.

Sleep is important to me.  

I still want to go to Tokyo, but when I do, I want to be in country longer than it takes me to get there and back.

Our new place in Austin has this sweet little dining room with lovely wood frame windows all around, but in a 900 square foot house, every room gets used often and for more than one purpose.  Mid-afternoon, this room gets bathed in dappled sunlight and it's time to throw down a wipe clean tablecloth and break out the watercolors.  

I'm adjusting to this smaller space and finding I really like it.  It's not big enough to get dirty.  It's not even big enough to get untidy.  It's just not big enough to leave out lots of stuff.  

The immediate benefit to living in a small space is getting to spend more time with my family.  The other day I was feeling a little at loose ends because surely there was something I needed to be doing.  And yes, I suppose there's always something that could be done, but the big stuff was taken care of.  So it was nice to be able to lay out our painting supplies and, without a lick of guilt, actually sit at the table and paint with the kids.  D'anjou's painting stamina did not last quite so long, but he was happy to snuggle up in my lap while I read out loud to my girl, who could really spend all day long painting.

Our days here are slower and it feels really, really good.

Valentine's sweatshop

 

I love, love, love (or should I say "luv") how these turned out!  I think I love the big printed sheet even more than the individual Valentines.  If I weren't renting, I might insist on a stamped wall of hearts somewhere.

We had to shut the door on a certain someone in order to complete the project unmolested.  It didn't stop him from scampering in this morning and attempting to put my little press bed through its paces. "Monkey see, monkey do".   D'anjou cannot resist tools of any kind.  

 

How cool would a family print shop be?

Put 'em on the glass!

 

It's an artsy-fartsy evening at Chez Pear.  Actually, it's artsy-fartsy downstairs.  Upstairs, I think there's some operation involving the removal of all the bath water.  

Not down the drain. That would be too easy.

Min-Pear is going into mass production for her Valentines this year.  She created a design to cut into a linoleum block.  We only had black ink, but she worked out a creative solution with a washy red background. While we were working earlier, I realized I have been carting around the glass palette in the above photo (towards the rear of the workbench, with the brayer resting on it) since my first year in art school!  It's a piece of glass I had cut at Hechingers down the road from my mum and dad's.  I meant to reinforce the edges with duct tape, but ran out mid-way through the third side. I'm only slightly amused that in almost 20 years, I've never seen fit to finish the job. 

Check in tomorrow, for photos of the finished product;)

Let's put Thriller on repeat today, shall we?

Mini-Pear has declared Halloween her favorite holiday.  She ran into our room this morning and dove under the covers with us, "Happy Halloween!" 

Halloween.  I could take it or leave it, but I'll try not to squelch the kids' joy too terribly much.

 

Our park day's Halloween Shin Dig (organized by Mini-Pear) was a raging success.  Potluck contributions were the bomb.  I ate very well, as did the boy, but apparently it didn't stop my little kitty from hunting mice.  All we want for Christmas is hanta virus!

 

Close inspection of both pictures will reveal the kids in matching tie-dyed costumes.  Insufferably cute, and once again, we demonstrate our homemade costuming prowess!

Here's a blast from the past...

(mostly for Kate)

So this puppy walks into a bar...

I woke up to this set-up on the living room floor.  I dunno...with alcoholics on both sides of the family, should I encourage this sort of creative play?

Wotevah...Pass me another drink.

While I'm documenting the girl's hijinks...

They make much fun of my sensible 3-to-a-pack cotton thunderpants around these parts.  As we know, mini-pear needs no excuse to bust out the sharpie markers, so she decided that perhaps she might increase the cool factor of my panties with some embellishments.  Creative?  Wildly inappropriate? 

The new children's museum...

was definitely more our cup of tea than the Reuben Fleet Science Center.  I made sure we weren't visiting during peak hours and it made all the difference in the world.  We pretty much had the place to ourselves.  If I lived downtown, I'd get a family membership and just come hang out at least one afternoon a week.  Maybe we'll get one anyway, just for the bad-ass climbing wall;)

 

The staff were young and energetic and friendly (look at me getting all age-ist!  there was one delightful old bird assisting with the painting workshop!).  There were cool art workshops scheduled throughout the day - mini-pear made a buckyball inspired tree decoration in one and a monochromatic painting in another.  In addition to the workshops, there were various stations you could drop in on anytime - there's mini-pear messing around with some clay on the shaded terrace.  The building is architecturally interesting and supposedly* environmentally sustainable.  There's an organic cafe (which we didn't check out because we'd already had lunch at home), a cool playground across the street, and it's a short walk from the train station if you want to leave the car at home.  Disclaimer: We didn't leave the car at home.  It would cost us $24 to take the Coaster there and back!  I'd like to be greener, and Maude knows we were all over the trains and buses back in DC, but $24 bucks seems a bit steep for a day trip.

We rocked out inside the Porta Party - a porta-potty retro-fitted with lights, a disco ball, a thumpin' sound system and an iPod.

 

And although my first reaction to a room filled with mattresses and pillows was, "Ewwww.  Head lice!" much fun was to be had in here after I noticed the velcroed slip-covers on the pillows.  Hopefully they get washed often...

So, the children's museum?  We liked it.  Next time I'm going to give the organic cafe a go.

Ooooh, I almost forgot!

For Martin Luther King Day, I took the kids to see the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Choir perform downtown.

We packed a lunch to eat while watching the performance, but it being a gospel choir, we found ourselves needing to move our hands and bodies way to much to sit and munch our hummus and veggies.  We packed up and ate after the show, never mind our grumbly tummies.

Anyway, locals, if you get the chance to see them, they are great choir.  I must be getting old, or sentimental, but the words of the songs struck me in a way they hadn't quite before.  Maybe it was just seeing the MLK choir on MLK Day and picking up on the emotions of the performers.  I was moved to tears at one point.  Then, out in the lobby, meeting the woman whose solo moved me to tears, I said, "You moved me to tears!"  She gave me a huge bear hug, which had the unfortunate effect of moving us both to tears!  That's me, sniffly-puss.  What the heck?  Or as we say here at Chez Pear, "Matter the what's?"

Besides being an awesome show, all their proceeds (not just from this performance, but any proceeds they receive as an organization) go towards providing scholarships to college bound visual and performing arts students. 

Face-painting

Tell me those aren't the cutest little kitties you ever saw - my favorite three year olds at the park yesterday!  Mini-pear decided she'd like to run her own face-painting business.  She made a little sign, we shopped for supplies, her dad volunteered as a model to practice on, and she's now set up shop at two different park days.  It's been a lot of fun.  Last week the business even ran itself for a couple of hours - some of the older girls wanted to just use the paints and glitter to make their own tattoos.  Face painting is so fun, everyone wants to join in - I think the above kitties weren't even painted by mini-pear, but her "apprentices".