once again at one of my favorite stores, "The Antique Trove", ender and i found this beautiful red velvet dress. after convincing myself that i could not fit into it, i remembered a little girl who was just born and one of her name's is rose. now thats a fit! and she lives in a place thats green, really green, well much greener then my beloved desert. i couldn't resist the color palate of this dress and her environment.
this is also i book about sleep, opened to one of the best illustrations, that i sent with the dress. one should never underestimate the art of slumber. all you parents and aunt aricas know whats up.

*Its Time to Sleep, My Love - eric mataxes & ill. nancy tillman

a different kind of difficult

all the jobs i've had, i could do them because there was a light at the end of the tunnel- money, respect, experienced gained and so on. i would push through a long day because i knew my mummy would have dinner ready for me, or my room would still be there, my sanctuary from the storm. i also had the freedom of quitting at a whim.

the position of ender's mama is one of extraordinary endurance and work ethic. i am terribly weak in both. and if you look at motherhood as a job, and you can, and i will for today, it is the hardest work i've ever had to face day in and day out. Inmature leslie would be asking around for a new position already or deciding to go back to school on her parent's dime, ha! Its true. Yet, for the first time in my life I am doing a job and still reaping bountiful rewards by putting another person before me. Imagine that! 24/7 folks. the life i live is supernatural now. it was before, it could have been, but God used ender to have me see beyond the material.

this is ender's world view

he owns it

was and is

once a year, i take zander to buffalo exchange to buy his shirts and pants, this last year i found this very sweet, silk garden dress. (vintage of course!) i immediately imagined myself twirling on a rooftop garden, but when I went to try it on, wowza! this number was tailored for a wasp. no amount of inhaling would make the zipper ascend into its perfect place. blast! but i could not leave it in the store. it had to belong to someone and that someone had to be katie.

zander's aunt helped me turn another unwearable garment into a classy high waisted skirt :) This is one of my favorite projects to do. I just need to become completely independent.

Source: 2.bp.blogspot.com via Megan on Pinterest

the humming trees

with no breeze in the air, these trees are the only one's moving....a slight quiver

curious, you creep closer.

a droning

and closer

a frenzy of flitting, fleeting, flocking bees.

brief and to the point with each blossom.

which reminds me.... bee pollen! granules gleaned as the flying foragers go about pollinating the desert. sweet and powerfully healthy, especially in the sonoran desert where its a smorgasbord of blossoms for months on end. enjoy it in milkshakes, salads, cereals or like me, just pop a pinch in your mouth and let it melt.

*Note: the above photo of the tree is an ornamental pear tree. When the blossoms fall, it snows in the desert.

it came from my faded roll of film. i like the 'old' look,

it suits his soul - timeless. some adorable characters i picked up for ender's soon to be extensive book collection. (secretly mine:)

and this is an old school book journal my neighbor gave to ender. it chronicles until the 9th grade. i'm not much for scrap booking, but i do love a good hand cramp when it comes to journaling.

what once was, now is

in lieu of trying to save money and de-clutter and still surround myself with aesthetic details. I nabbed this shabby old tackle box from my parent's neighbor. Then Walmart supplied me with a color named Jade.

before

after

i think i would make a great catch for an employer looking to hire someone to play adam to colors. Instead of Jade, though nice, i think.... lady mermaid.... too fantastical? Not for me!

i love this color. i'm not done with it yet. I think I will take apart an old fan and spray down its blades with some of lady mermaid.

the sirens must be calling me today. honestly, beautiful maidens of the sea, the way to my heart is through ender's grandmothers. Get them, you got me.

there is no peculiar wind today that would carry Mary Poppins to me. we'd make a discreet and swift jump into these scenes.

this film is at least 5 years old, & some of the images are at least back two years... light leaks, light fades, i still adore these pictures more than any would be better digital version.

*click it to get a little closer

fool you not

this boy, oh my. he is ornery! we read a book the other day about a little fox who spilled his milk. ender said "uh-oh" then slapped my face! he picks this book out every time before nap and bed, and every time, i have to dodge his unique way of disciplining me. Look kid! I'm just the messenger!

metropolis- a film

a silent film restored by the magic that was the 1980's. i don't think i could have appreciated this film if it were not for zander. he puts his own fingerprints on it and i begin to see what he sees. something past myself.

its not supposed to be a comedy, but we laughed a lot. oh and don't forget about Troll Hunter. (it was a netflix night)
anyway. these actors depended so much on the eyes to tell the story.

zander thought his cousin melanie would have been perfect for a silent film role.

i'm sold.

i want to live in an RV. I don't care. Don't talk me out of it. I once heard of a family who did this. They traveled the nation's coasts and taught all their children how to surf. I just need to build an RV with a pop out suite to host Ender's grandmothers. We can strap everyone else to the roof.

15 months & a brief overlook

Aliases: squirt, sprite, nicks nooks, pancho, cricket, scooter, & so on.....

Hobbies: cars, throwing the ball, reading, rolling around on filthy dog beds or piles of laundry, eating, hunting for thread and lint on the floor, digging in the dirt, drums.

Words: Nana= Banana, Moo=Moon, YEAH!= YEAH DO WHAT I THINK YOU THINK I WANT!, Ba= Anything resembling a ball, Buh=Book or Up , Bye=Bye! And of course mama and dada and an extensive repertoire of animal and machine noises.

Bad Habits: Hitting, Banging your head on the ground, sticking Mr. Potato Head's anatomy in the wrong parts, whining.

Songs: Really, anything with a beat! or just anything.

Foods: Cheese, apples, pears, asparagus, peas, yogurt (the nasty sour organic kind), beets, blueberries, blackberries and beans. You'll give anything a try, so I totally respect you if you decide not to eat something.

our non edibles & musings

Are you supposed to pick a theme for gardens? Desert, Tropical, English Countryside....I can't decide, I get lost in them all.

I used to dig for snails in my mom's garden, then use leaves and sticks to create them a beach paradise. It took them a while to mosey off of their waxy green towels, so all in all, pretty cooperative.

I used to have english tea with the red dragon snaps and a little croatian-american girl.

I used to go with my mom to the nursery to greet all the stone statues by name. I so wanted to stay and live in their garden.

the lost tales and characters of tolkein.

a race of men once thought vanished from middle earth, the pale hun emerges when all of middle earth is at the doorstep of destruction. here you see a contemporary portrayal of a typical pale hun decked in common battle armour wielding his swift and sure bow. they have been lost in the fray of of more popular legends.

*just to be clear, it was the hun himself who spent hours figuring out how to craft the perfect Lord of the Rings hoax. Its so believable!

Longish before our little alexander as ender came along, there was zander as ender. " you never cease to amaze me, Andrew (ender), the way you turn people in plasma."
" he was a youngish man, younger than her, atleast, but his eyes were seductive with understanding. Perigoso, she thought. he is dangerous, he is beautiful, I could drown in his understanding.
" he was a creature out of legend, and yet he still lived..."

i read and re read these excerpts. for sure orson scott card had met zander!

i love LOVE LOVE LOVE these two photographs of zander. he is such an unruly, *free spirited boy.

and i should add. in highschool people would usually dub me as the free spritied, barefoot, hemp totin'hippie. i threw caution to the wind and hugged and kissed the trees. but zander, he is the Gen-u--wine free spirit. he is blown by the breeze of the Holy Spirit. he throws fear to the wind and treasures the broken hearted. zander doesn't usually like how i describe him. he wants a more masculine profile, but that will have to come in another post. today i see him walking barefoot next to Jesus, talking to the trees and animals, on a quest to love more.

quickly, lets look at what i experienced this week!fair haired cousins all sitting in a row. a feast at the Badlelair (pluntke) residence.christmas eve tradition at our little. little bungalow. christmas morning at the Toth's!Zander "the Hun" naughtily shooting his arrow straight and high.
hiking an itty bitty trail in the Superstition Mountains. Its kind of like the Bermuda triangle of the Sonoran desert. Legend, Lore, the Lost echo in the canyons. I want to go back! we had to cut our time on the trail short because ender kicked his boot off and a pretty cholla needled logdged itself deep in his heel. he was not happy.

Dice, "feliz navidad"

ender is nestled in for the night. bless him. zander is preparing our cave for the cadence of the candles, their flickering flames dancing in the breath of our prayers over them, and the grand lighting of the Christmas tree!

" For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ". II Corinth 4:6

look at this trove, treasures untold

ariel was such a hoarder. when i was a little human, i went antique-ing with mama and came home with boxes: cigar boxes, cricket boxes, shoe polish boxes, anything that would keep my treasures, mainly rocks and coins, safe and secret. i was out of control. the madness wouldn't stop. I told myself I wouldn't buy a single ornament this year! But the sun was shining on this particular silver orb at an outdoor antique market. An ornament box I can keep cloves

in or this beautiful red and green gem of mine. Always looking to put my rock collection to good use again!

*etsy

here is also another idea i'd like to do with them. i think this is weirdly perfect for me. my rocks always made me feel that something was Great out there in the Beyond. To muse over each one and remember the word that would describe my rock to me as a child... Yes, i think for now, this would do my collection artistic justice.

First Present of the Year

Zander's Aunt Kim has been teaching me how to sew. I recently just developed my fine motor skills if that tells you anything about my clutzy fingers. Ender is way ahead of me. Interesting Fact: at 11 months I taught him how to use a fork and he taught himself how to carefully eat cheerios with it. Yes, a cheerio puff balanced precariously on one prong as it made its stressful journey to his gummy, pink jaws. He'd then snort through his nose with satisfaction. Nerd.

I hoard anything anthropologie gives away to their customers to carry away their pricey products in; bags, ribbons, these buttons. It was time to put them to appropriate use. So here's to Aunt Kim!

Fair warning to my family: This is not the last homemade present I will be giving out this year. Some of you should be legitmately worried.

And LASTLY! The banana bread recipe is stellar! <--- try it here. I use 4 bananas, only 3/4 c sugar and don't feel like you have to bake it to the full hour. I've had many a palate melt.

along comes isla

she's been there, she's done that. a funny pair these two. just a shy year older than him, she is the magic to his milestones. we now have a goofy looking 14 month old toddling around the house.