Lucky 15 Paper Arts

it's an Urban Affair...

So a few weeks ago my good friend Mitchell asked me to help him with an event to benefit the Downtown Market..  Urban Affair is being held this Friday (september 26th @ 6:00pm) evening at the Phoenix Art Museum..  So anyways... we are making dessert!!! for the VIP room and we decided to do a little market basket of sorts.. Making deserts using produce and other ingredients found at the Market...

So bright and early Saturday morning we got up, packed up the kids (well I did) and headed to the market for some shopping!!

My friend Lisa was there doing some cool "kids crafts".  Maryanne made a fuzzy pet rock..

My friend Christine (who owns Palatte) with her new baby Ruby...Brady and Shaun from Urban Cookie..  (I could keep going)Even Mayor G was there serving coffee!! The market was SO busy.. I am totally excited to see this type of community growing!!  So if you are looking for something to do on Friday Night and you want to check out some good food and some great art join us for an Urban Affair...

and now a word from our sponsor...

here's the deal... generally speaking i have strong opinions about things, but when it comes to politics.. well let's just say it can get to be a sticky situation when you find yourself the only one in the room with a different point of view, so i usually keep the forked tongue at bay unless around trusted companions.  as a woman i take my rights seriously, and anything that threatens to take that away... well, now i can be silent no longer...  seriously people this has got to stop!! 

i can't believe the b.s. spin that the republican party is putting on their pick for vp.  let's get real ladies... this woman was not picked for incredible ability to lead, govern or stand up to big business... she was picked for the two breasts on her chest and what was lacking between her legs.  they are blatantly trying to get the middle class soccer mom vote for a tyrant that will do nothing but lead this country farther down a very,very dark path.  and the scary thing is women are falling for it...  I have heard things like, "I know that he (McCain) only picked a woman to get ex-Hillary supporters, but I'm buying into it..."  are you kidding me??  so that's how women are going to make it to power???  only if a man wants to use us for a marketing stunt...  well then ladies, no more outrage at the porn industry, exotic dancers, prostitutes, over sexed reality shows and the likes or any other woman for that matter that might use her "assets" to get where she wants to go.  no more looking down on women who don't exactly use their brains as much as their beauty.  and no more teaching little girls that they can be whatever they want as long as they stay in school and watch their virtues.  and what does that say about the rest of us average women, when we would willingly vote for a man who in my opinion will bring this country to it's knees one way or another.  it like staring at the devil and saying, "well i guess you can come in, but only because you brought your wife..."  give me a break!!!  voting for John McCain just because he has a woman for a running mate is a disgrace and only works to counter act all that women have worked for.  this is not empowering, this is debilitating.  Sarah Palin's life is a mess and the republican party is spinning it as "normal" and "average"...  i'm sorry people if that is normal and average then we, as a country, have a lot of work to do and obviously we need some leaders that will not accept complacency as a defense for their deficiencies.  i don't want someone in charge of my life that has (for lack of a better term) that much drama.  these are not the "family values" that i was raised on and I am quite sure that i won't be passing those on to my children either..
so please by all means elect the republican party to office once more, and spin it as your feminist statement of the year...just be prepared to take hold of the basket handle as we walk down that path...

something creative...

ok.. so you've seen a lot of the kids lately and some maybe wondering what in the world I have been doing on the creative side...  well... I've been doing a lot of knitting.  I am really excited to have been able to participate in a protest of sorts with my knitting skills.

this is a helmet liner that I knitted for Senator Pat Roberts (R-Kansas) for the Stitch for Senate Project.
Check out the blog post with my helmet liner here... and check out my mom's here.  It feels good to take a stand with my hands and not even have to say a word (although i wrote a few...).

photo graciously provided by cat mazza

her day in the sun...

as soon as I stepped foot on the beach in Rocky Point I regretted not taking Maryanne...  so it was decided that we would take a quick trip to the beach, so that she too could experience a little sand and surf... so off we went and she finally hand her day in the sun...

i think that the ocean was a little overwhelming to her (what a large swimming pool) and it was super cold..  but she had fun trolling the shores with her daddy while Margot took the most relaxing snooze under the umbrella.

our hotel was right across from the sea so we could walk to (or run back from for forgotten things) and because of that Maryanne made some new friends... of the feathered variety.

she called him (or her?) her seagull buddy...  and she had no fear going out to feed him her cherrios and watermelon...  it was pretty cool.

over all just a nice time in the sun with a little bit of sand and surf...

one proud sis...

best buds already...

ten years in the making...

The Children's Museum of Phoenix (CMOP) had it's official grand opening (only to be closed for a few more days.. lets just say due to a less the visionary fire marshal, I know, I know just doin' his job to keep the public safe)....  but needless to say a big success AND the sum of ten years of really hard work and dedication of many, many people... even with a few exibits open and it is clear the this museum ROCKS and is going to add to the community here in Phoenix.  Anyways.. a bit of a disclosure.. my Mom has been working on this project for a while and designed one of the exibits now open (the infant toddler room)and (if you recall from a few posts ago) has worked and the finishing touches to the opening day... there is our tye die way up there on the railing!!!...

here is where you leave your shoes to play in the infant/toddler room... (shoes donated by Goodwill of Central AZ and look closely for a few added surprises hand crafted by yours truly and mom..)

all in all it is finally time for phoenix to have an educational sophisticated place to take our kids.. so thank you to all those involved that had the vision and the drive to make this happen for all...

(note to the reader.. of course my camera battery was on it's last leg and I did not get pictures of all the coolness so please check it out for yourself!!)

world traveler

gracie HAD to go but she missed the bus...  ok, so my sister gracie wanted to go to rocky point with her friend and they had it all planed only to find out that the group was leaving before gracie got back from a school trip to D.C.... so what do you do??? ROAD TRIP!!!..  my mom, margot and i drove gracie down to rocky point.  WOW!!!!  i haven't been down there in almost ten years and well... it's really different (in a kind of sad way.. no more camping on the beach an eating questionable burritos from the local vendors...now it's all gone luxury resort)... mom, margot and i only stayed a few hours but it was enough to put our feet in the sand, get a little salt water on our clothes and to do a little beach combing... it was kind of weird standing on that beach looking out into nothing thinking that 6 week earlier i was confined to a bed or a wheelchair and could only dream of days like this...  i wish i could have stayed for a bit longer... needless to say we had our adventures... (that's mango dipped in chili...so GOOD!!!) sat in traffic for a few hours due to an "accident", the the crafty nerds that we are mom and i knitted and worked on sock birds for cmop (see next post for details) while margot took a nap on the back seat (the car was not even on... so no brittney comments)    all in all it was a good day...

to dye for..

i haven't been able to be too incredibly creative the past few months...  but my mom asked me to help her with a project this week... i have been "dying" to do anything creative since i got home, i couldn't wait to start...  ok you guessed it we needed to dye some fabric...

well a lot of fabric to help with some aesthetics for the the new Phoenix Family Museum (also know to those involved as the Phoenix Children's Museum.. or vice versa I get confused).  My mom (who is a graphic designer in the process of expanding her career to include master of fiber arts (really she's working towards a master's degree) has been working on this project for.. well a very long time and the museum is set to open in a about a week (june 14th for those in town).  This is a big deal, and many, many people have worked hard to see this happen... so here is my contribution...  these will help some boring old ply wood become hip and happenin'...  it was a lot of work... but mostly just fun... it's been a long time since my mom and me have just gotten to hang out, and it was nice.

A long road...

I know that it has been months (!) since I have last posted...  and many are wondering if I fell off the face of the Earth (?), so here is the scoop.  In December along with the news that we would be having a little baby girl we were also told that I had Placenta Previa.  (fyi - when the placenta attaches over the birth canal)  Although I knew that the potential for complications was there, the doctors were so up beat that I really just put it out of my mind...  Well.. the placenta refused to move and at the end of February it got a little more complicated and I was forced to be on bed rest in the hospital... and that it where I stayed until April 17th, 2008 when we welcomed Margot Marion Olesen into this world by scheduled Cesarean. 
   
She came about 3.5 weeks early and she is tiny, but she is healthy and needed no extra help after birth and came home with me a few days later.  Maryanne is so excited to be a BIG SISTER, and Michael and I are just glad to be a family again...  Thank you to everyone who was there to support not just me but Michael and Maryanne too...  So it's a little crazy here, but I hope to be creating again soon.

It's a...?

GIRL!!!  Today was the day that we had our 20 week ultrasound and along with finding out that our new little wee one is healthy (not to mention super active) but that we are going to be welcoming another girl to our household... 

I should have known, Maryanne has been insisting that her new sibling was a girl since we told her to expect this new addition a few weeks into the pregnancy.  So, now all we have to decide on is a name.. it has to start with an "M".. (that way we all have the same initials..)  and that is the big update!!  Soon I will post all the goodies I have been working on for Christmas gifts.. and hopefully I'll have my etsy shop up soon too!!  In the mean time you can check out my latest creations at Frances...  and don't forget to buy local, buy handmade and keep your local crafter in business..