My friends ROCK!

I expressed on facebook how I was challenged of what to put on Ari's annual mixed tape. I received luckily a couple of great suggestions for songs too!
But one friend went above that and emailed me a whole birthday playlist.
First of all you need to know Stacy C. She rocks. Literally, she does.
She is infamous in the Bay Area for her mixes. And if you are lucky enough to be her close friend, chances are you have one made especially for you.

So when she read my distress email this is what she sent me within record speed:

Subject: Happy Happy...

What a hoot! :)

---

THE CD THAT STACY WOULD MAKE FOR ARI'S BIRTHDAY PARTY:

1  Girls Just Wanna Have Fun - Cyndi Lauper
2  Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite - The Beatles
3  Music Box - Regina Spektor
4  Suki Yaki - Kyu Sakamoto
5  I Think I'm Turning Japanese - The Vapors
6  All Over The World - Electric Light Orchestra
7  Private Eyes - Hall & Oates
8  Alley Cat - Bent Fabric
9  Shish Kebab - Ralph Marterie
10  Iko Iko - The Dixie Cups
11  Click Song Number One - Miriam Makeba
12  Whistle Stop - Roger Whittaker
13  Jolly Roger - Adam and the Ants
14  Start Wearing Purple - Gogol Bordello
15  Little Drop of Poison - Tom Waits
16  Summer Nights - John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John
17  The Battle of 1814 - Johnny Horton
18  Queenie Wahine's Papaya - Elvis Presley
19  Ulupalakua - Hui Ohana
20  Pipeline - The Chantays
21  Rock Lobster - The B-52's
22  Walk, Don't Run - The Ventures
23  Apache - The Shadows
24  Mr. Custer - Larry Verne
25  Running Bear - Johnny Preston
26  Stranded In The Jungle - The Cadets
27  Beep Beep - The Playmates

How cool are my friends?
I love them, each and every one.
(This means YOU!)

What tha F...

Today we spent a slow Saturday lounging around the house.
The kids played, I made a couple shrinky dinks and we all had a hard time motivating.
We finally made it over to the the Festival of Books around noon.
WOW!
Tucson festivals always cease to amaze me.
Never in Berkeley would there be such an amazing family friendly event!!
It was actually too big and the kids were a bit over stimulated.
We went to a few booths, said "hi" to a few friends, and visited Rebecca at her booth.
Then quietly snuck into the sweet World of Words library that she works at. I highly recommend visiting it if you go. It was like a little bit of tranquility underneath the super highway of people. PLUS fyi, it's a good place to pee!
(NO, I did not squat in the aisles of your library Rebecca. I swear that smell did not come from me!)

The whole thing was so very cool.
It makes me a proud Tucsonian to live in a place that has such devotion to learning and to it's children.
Every festival in Tucson always has children's activities.
In the Bay Area festivals were rarely kid friendly much less kid oriented.
I blame this "love of children" crap on our proximity to Mexico and their child loving culture.
Damn them!

Tomorrow the Festival of Books continues.
At 11:30am the monk in the bookstore will be erasing the sand mandala and giving away the sand to people so they can bless their homes with.
We just may have to go back for that!

And to prove I'm not making this all up....

Viola!

I had a super hard week this week.
Actually "super hard" doesn't give it justice.
Anyway I've been meaning to post a picture of my finished purse.

Actually, I've been meaning to do a lot of things.. like take my sickly cat to the vet and buy my kids much needed shoes.

Oh, my poor cat.

But off the subject of cats and onto birds!

My lovely new purse...

I bet my kids ballet school could beat up your kids ballet school!

Here's a recent article about the ever funny and talented Mr. Rodger's ballet class!
Teagan and Ari love, love, LOOOVE Mr. Rodgers!
This is a lot coming from two kids who have never liked any of the classes I've dragged them to in the past. But they get so excited when they get to go to class at Dancing in the Streets.
Joseph Rodgers just makes dancing fun!!!

http://elindenews.com/features/12-features/101-south-tucson-studio-keeps-kids-dancing

Check it out and look for the cute red-head.

my so-called life.

I swear I didn't just sit on the computer all day blogging, looking at etsy, and lurking on facebook. I really do have a life. I do, I do!

Okay, I did skip my pottery class. For no good reason, I just didn't feel like going.
Instead I sat on my rump ordering Amy Butler fabric (which I never actually bought.)
Then I blogged some.
Then I tried calling Jen (hint, hint...)
Then I lurked on facebook.

But later I got my rear-in-gear and had a productive day.

I went to Stephanie's and we lurk on etsy.
PLUS, I brought my sewing machine over and actually sewed something.
We both made purses. Neither are finished, but so far so good.

Here's Stephanie bag:

(She even made her own handles!)

Here's my bag:


Steph and I thought we were SO F'in clever when we thought about what was going to be on our next bag.
But we looked it up on etsy, and apparently we aren't as smart as we think we are:

Look this one is even a shrinky dink!


Hmf!

So after Steph's I even went to library and then came home and planted a cactus garden.
I do have a life, I really do!

Proper etiquette

Say you are invited to a fancy Tea Party or something.
It is always proper etiquette to bring something to the host.
Like flowers or a fifth of everclear or something classy like that.

But why butcher innocent flowers?
What have they done to you?
You don't want your host to think you are a killer do you???

Here's the solution:
Duct Tape Roses.

Beautiful. Simple. Practical.

My kind of tea party!

Made by Berlin-based artist Yvonne Lee Schultz.
It makes me smile inside.


And every tea party needs the perfect table cloth, am I right?


Ha!