The Stitch

Two days ago Elizabeth and I were playing Monster/Dragon/Lion. That's the game where you and your child take turns roaring loudly and chasing each other around the room, until the child collapses in a giggling pile on the floor and you tickle her till she pees. Well, apparently I roared one too many times, because Elizabeth came to a sceeching halt mid-roar and shifted from hysterical laughter mode to hysterical crying mode in .000000000000001 seconds.

I felt terrible for making her cry. Her tears caused my heart to shatter in a million little pieces.

I ran over, scooped up my crying babe and whispered in her ear how utterly sorry I was for making her sad. She looked at me with her teary eyes and said, "Time out, Mommy."

After the initial shock wore off, I quietly set her down and walked over to the Time Out chair and sat down. I looked at my daughted and said one last time, "I'm so sorry, honey."

She stared blankly at me, sniffling just a little, climbed on the couch and watched me take my Time Out. After a minute, I asked, "May I get up now?"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"What do I have to do to get out of Time Out?"

With that, Elizabeth hopped off the couch, wandered over to me, looked me square in the eye, gave a nod of her head, held out her tiny hand and issued her response.

"Jelly Beans?"

And for comparison, the first image is Elizabeth as a newborn and the second image is Adam as a newborn:

who have gone above and beyond the call of duty! We've been really fortunate to meet and work with some extremely friendly and kind folks over the last month or so. I'd like to give out their information with high recommendations for their services. If you ever need an electrician, a contractor, a flooring specialist or an attorney, I can't say enough good things about these people:

Frank T. Crego, attorney from Harter, Secrest and Emery, LLP. This company also supports public radio, which makes them extra, extra wonderful.

Ryan McHugh, our contractor, who sent his extremely efficient team to finish the drywall and electric in our upstairs. He doesn't have a website, but if you need his number, email me and I'll give it to you. His prices were unbeatable.

Cisco's flooring - this lovely gentleman installed our bedroom and stairway carpet two years ago. We're bringing him back to do the upstairs for us because he's fabulous. Pricing: FAR better than any other company we contacted.

Patrick Driscoll, electrician. He's helped us out several times now, and every time, he thoroughly explains everything that needs to be done. He's coming back Friday morning to help Brian finish wiring, and his prices are extremely reasonable. He doesn't have a website, but again, if you need his information, just email me and I'll get it to you.

Carpet is being installed today. Carpet = the end of the current remodeling project.

*EXHALE*

Now, on to the next project: The completion of the upstairs bathroom and the installation of a new bathtub in the downstairs bathroom.

After that, the only room left for renovation is the living room, and WE'RE LEAVING for that one. The plan is to go on vacation for a week while the crew comes in to gut, insulate (there was absolutely no insulation in this house when we moved in), drywall, install the fireplace and carpet.

When we come home, everything will be finished. Life will be good.

We've learned so much about remodeling over the past four years. Most importantly: The best thing to do (if you want to avoid divorce and keep your sanity) is to hire someone else to do it.

On a side note, young Adam has outgrown almost all of his 0-3 month clothes. He's only 7 weeks old. Last night he slept from 10 pm to 4 am. Is it possible he was switched at birth? We're not used to babies who gain weight and sleep all night. Weird.

the ILLINOIS SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL located in Bloomington, IL is
still in need of some of its key management positions.

The positions are:

ASSISTANT COSTUME SHOP MANAGER/CUTTER-DRAPER. The salary is $4000
and the dates of committment are May 16-July 1.
ASSISTANT CUTTER/DRAPER. The salary Is $2300 for the same time frame.

The Festival is housed at Illinois State University. The costume
area has a large vaulted ceiling shop with two windows, a small
additional shop space, a separate Crafts/Wig room, and a Dye Room
with a large working dye vat. The shop is responsible for executing
designs for three Shakespearean shows during the above stated time
frame.

Housing is included with the contract. Each company member will have
their own bedroom and bath in a lovely apartment complex with a
pool. The work day begins at 8:30 and ends at 6:30 with a 1 hour
lunch and 2 fifteen minute breaks. The company is guaranteed one day
off each week.

If you know of anyone interested and qualified for these positions,
please send a resume and cover letter to Chad Lowell, Production
Manager. It is best, at this point to email items directly to Chad
(cmlowel@ilstu.edu), but they can be sent via snail mail: Chad
Lowell, Illinois Shakespeare Festival, Campus Box 5700, Normal, IL
61790-5700.

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Theatre l'Homme Dieu in Alexandria MN is looking for a student Costume
Intern for this summer season.

Duties include stitching, wardrobe, and possible design work or
assistant design work. Specific in-shop assignments can very with the
student's interests and experience.

Contract is from June 7-August 14th. Salary is $1500 with a possible
design opportunity of an additional $750. Housing is provided in
cabins of two-person bedrooms. Three meals a day are provided by a
staff cook.

Season consists of "Beyond the Rainbow", "You Can't Take it With You",
"Little Shop of Horrors", "Biloxi Blues," and a traveling children's show.

Be part of a student company of approximately 20, with an additional
professional staff of actors, designers and technicians. Most company
members are from midwest and most of the professionals are from the
Twin Cities area. Many of our students return for several seasons and
many continue to return as professional designers and technicians.

Exciting and friendly, social, company atmosphere. Beautiful location
at a former vacation resort on Lake l'Homme Dieu. Please visit the
web site at www.tlhd.org and contact me at rcwhite@stcloudstate.edu
for more information and to apply.

I buy lots of stuff on eBay and my feedback all looks the same:

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B O R I N G.

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Wow, this buyer has AMAZING feet.
Nobody grows evergreen trees like you New Yorkers.
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My cat ate those once. ONCE.

The Mac-Haydn Theatre in Chatham, NY, is looking for a cutter/draper
for the summer, May 14 through September 2 (some flexibility to
accomodate school or other work schedules). Challenging, rewarding
position for person with a love of good theatre work, and who thrives
on doing their best. All aspects of patterning, cutting and draping
for season of main stage and children's musicals. Strong skills needed
for fast, accurate work. Work closely with designers and artistic
director/producer; excellent contacts for future work, past staff now
working with major regional theatres and tour organizations. Position
might also include, but not be limited to: fittings, alterations, some
construction as schedule allows and is needed. Possibility of design
for children's theatre shows; some construction work on same.
Driver's license necessary, car is handy. Busy 2 week production
schedule does include regular time off. Close to NYC. Salary plus
housing.
Please send resume to: mhtresumes@taconic.net; or fax to 518-392-4547.

***********************************************************************************************

Bay View Music Festival is looking for a cosutmer for their summer season. The shows are : Noel Coward's Hooray for Hollywood, Carousel, and La Cenerentola (Cinderella). Located in lovely northern Michigan...a beautiful place to spend the summer. More information is available at www.bayviewfestival.org .

I knew it wouldn't last. Just like clockwork, Adam has decided to be just like his big sister and kick into colic mode. For the last four nights, he's been crying and screaming from about 6 pm until about midnight. I was really hoping he'd skip that whole scene.

He's great during the day, but as soon as we sit down for dinner, he starts crying. And crying. And crying.

We tried the usual: Gripe Water, Mylecon, extra burping, extra diaper changes, rocking, holding, singing and more. (Yes, we tried that too). And just like E-Beth, nothing seems to soothe him. Hopefully it won't last five months. . . .

*sigh*

They say that nobody ever gets two colicky babies in a row.

I guess they lied.

And check out this site for the best darn online photo flipbook I've ever seen. So creative!

When I was a kid, we weren't allowed to say the word "fart." We had to say "fluffy" instead. Yes, our friends laughed at us and called us dorks, but we eventually recovered from the trauma.

Today I saw this and I decided that I may need therapy after all.

Meanwhile, if you're really bored and have a metric butt-ton of gummy bears, you too can make one of these

Brian held Elizabeth upside-down by her ankles and gently swung her back and forth. Her cornsilk hair seemed to explode from her head in some sort of gravity-induced frenzy. Elizabeth laughed, screaming "MORE! MORE!"

As they walked toward me I shouted, "Oh my goodness! It's a DANGLE BABY! Look out for the DANGLE BABY!"

Finally, when Elizabeth started to turn green and looked like she was about to hurl, Brian lowered her to the floor and released her ankles. She immediately spring to her feet begging,

"MORE, Daddy! MORE DINGLEBABY! MORE DINGLEBABY!"

A request went out for designers of Tudor-inspired garb to submit photos of their work. I submitted a dozen or so images, and received a request for a photo release today. I'm mailing it off this morning and with luck, some of VMS' Tudor gowns will be shown on tv!

Here's what they said in the email:
"This show will air first on STYLE NETWORK, followed by (possibly) E!, then (probably) Showtime On Demand and (possibly) Showtime itself."

The photos may be used in an upcoming 1/2 hour national cable TV special on Showtime's new original series, "The Tudors," starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers as a young Henry VIII.

We'll keep you posted!

Well, folks, the Simplicity Patterns contract has arrived and has been ok'd by a lawyer. So that means we'll definitely be working with Simplicity to bring our designs to the public in pattern form! We've missed the 2007 deadline, so we're hoping to be included in the 2008 collection.

In other fantastic news, we've worked out a licensing agreement with Greycat Designs (who is closing shop, because the owner is getting married this summer and attending law school in the fall) and we'll be offering many pieces from her line. You can see part of the collection here. We're still working out a lot of the details, but we hope to have each item available for purchase within the next month or so. If you'd like to be notified, just sign up for our newsletter by going to our home page.

We're also going to be adding about 40 new designs to our own current line-up. These designs are part of our new wholesale line and we'll be putting them on our site to see which garments you like best. The popular items will be selected for mass-production! We're going to be doing the first of several photo shoots within the month. This spring we'll do a second photo shoot to build a stock library for our customers to use in their catalogs and websites. Again, if you'd like to be notified about the release of this new line of clothing, sign up for our newsletter.

Elizabeth and Adam are doing really well. E-Beth is having trouble pronouncing words that begin with the letters SM and replaces the SM sound with the F sound. It's really cute when she says "I'm smart," because it comes out as "I Fart." However, when she wants us to take her "Smock off," we get into trouble. What comes out of her mouth is "Fock off!"

To my dear husband, who does so much around here. I forget so many of the wonderful things he does for me and for our family. THANK YOU!

Especially the frequent changing of the cat box.

And the butt dance.

Mostly the butt dance.

Quite possibly the cutest darn videos EVER shot of Elizabeth. Special, special thanks to Aunt Anita and Uncle Jim for the fabulous BLUE outfit, which she adores and wants to wear every day.

Clicky clicky to experience all that is adorable.

And then click here for Elizabeth's encore performance.