in my (sometimes) humble opinion

I just did a post at Tag Sale Tales about going through my Grandma's things, I'm pretty happy with it. :)

Back from L.A! It was a good trip, I saw cousins I hadn't seen in 20 years (damn I'm old) and my Grandma's funeral was beautiful, probably boring for those that weren't family but I appreciated all the wonderful shared memories.

I got to miss the ice storm and 10" of snow that attacked Iowa (and knocked down our trees), but apparently round 2 starts today (they've already closed I-35 and I-80). Matt flew to Chicago 16 hours after I got home, he's supposed to come home tomorrow night but since the storm is heading East we'll see…

A few things that are cheering me up today: Young Folks by Peter Bjorn and John, chocolate cake, the photos on this blog, this Sabrina Ward Harrison book (that I got here), Daiso (basically a huge Japanese dollar store in Seattle. I had to go twice because it was so overwhelming!), Nika's huge smile in this photo (meeting her first celebrity!).

Matt and I ended up coming home early from our Seattle/Vancouver trip (which was ok with me, I've had a horrible cold for the last week) mainly because my Grandma passed away Friday night. Thankfully my Mom was able to go be with her on Tuesday (she lives in L.A.). I'm so grateful we were able to visit her last summer on our Girl's Trip (and that Nika got to spend time with her Great Grandmas). So we'll be heading out there on Wednesday.

This photo was one of the few I took on our trip, taken at the lovely Pensione Nichols B&B in Seattle, half a block from Pike Place Market. Our other b&b wasn't such a great experience, although the room was huge and gorgeous. Let's just say the people make a big difference. But it's for sale, maybe it'll have new owners soon!

I have to shout out to the best house/ferret sitter ever Kris, who not only didn't mess up our place while we were gone, she cleaned it for us! Yesss…

Also my talented friend Jade has a new etsy shop where she sells her amazing jewelry. That's it for now, gotta go work on travel plans. Hope you all had a lovely (or uneventful, whichever you prefer) Valentine's Day. We went to the delightful Music & Lyrics, and yes I am listening to the soundtrack right now. I love the cheesy 80's…

Yay, I'm all ready for Craft Saturday tomorrow! There were a few things I didn't get done, but what're you gonna do…

The image above is one of the 10 postcards I made for Tyn's Valentine's Postcard Swap. Eventually I want to start selling prints of the little collages I make (they take soo long, I don't know why I thought I had time to do 10!).

Matt and I saw The Queen last night, it was really good (plus I have a little crush on the gorgeous Helen Mirren). I remember hearing about Princess Diana's car accident and death, as well as watching her wedding (yep, I'm old), so it was really fascinating to relive some of that.

On a random note, is it me or has Oprah been amazing recently? The Secret, the declutter guy (you probably had to be there, it was great), the Man vs. Wild guy… Yeah, she's awesome. Speaking of great people, we're going to see Barack Obama speak at ISU on Sunday. We may be moving to Canada but we still care about who's running this country.

ps - if anyone has any suggestions for places to visit in Seattle and Vancouver next week it would be greatly appreciated!

I'm mainly posting because I wanted to put up this amazing photo my sister Trina just took of her daughter Ava. Love it.

I've been busy this week organizing my studio. It was at the point where I literally couldn't work down there, it was so messy. I was having to bring stuff upstairs to work on, but now I want to make some collages for CS (I'm mentally done with the assembly line stuff, it's so not inspiring for me). So I organized my books (got rid of 3 big boxes full), got my desk cleared off, now I'm going through fabric. It's possibly too cold down there to actually sit and work (I have to wear big socks, slippers, a hoodie and scarf right now), I might have to invest in a space heater. (Did I mention it's -5 degrees at noon on a sunny Saturday? I didn't? Maybe because it's so 'effing depressing…)

Fyi, Willy Porter will be playing at the m-shop on Feb 18th (and touring around the country), he's phenomenal live (not a word I use often, mainly because it's too hard to spell). Listening to: Gary Jules (if you like Cat Stevens…), Moonbabies.

In honor of Roeper's top 10 movies of 2006 show last night (I miss Ebert!) I decided to do my own movies of 2006 lists:

My favorites - Science of Sleep, Shut Up & Sing, V For Vendetta, Little Miss Sunshine, The Prestige, Stranger Than Fiction

Pretty good - Dave Chappelle's Block Party, Syriana, The Lakehouse, Persuit of Happyness, The Holiday, An Inconvenient Truth

I laughed a lot: Talladega Nights, Borat (yikes), The Ringer, Thank You for Smoking

These were good too, even though I had to use my niece as an excuse to see them: Cars, Over the Hedge, Nacho Libre, Eight Below, Charlotte's Web, Akeelah and the Bee

Movies I didn't love as much as everyone else but still liked: United 93, Children of Men, Casino Royale

Movies I need to see still but I live in Iowa so if you blink they're gone if they were even here at all: The Queen, The Departed, Half Nelson, Babel, Volver, Blood Diamond

Hmm, that was random. I'll finish even more randomly with a great quote from a great book I just re-read, Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver:

"Here's what I've decided: the very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. Not admire it from a distance but live right in it, under its roof. What I want is so simple I almost can't say it: elementary kindness. Enough to eat, enough to go around. The possibility that kids might one day grow up to be neither the destroyers nor the destroyed. That's about it. Right now I'm living in that hope, running down its hallway and touching the walls on both sides. I can't tell you how good that feels. I wish you knew. I wish you'd stop beating yourself up for being selfish, and really be selfish."

This morning when I checked the widgets on my computer it was -5 here (without windchill). I am so relieved that this will be one of my last Iowa winters for a while! Been busy being crafting and being unmotivated (not a good combination), but I did get some fun new stuff up in my shop.

I'm excited to announce my friend Kris has a business! Fern + Jane vintage reconstructed goods for self and home (named after her Grandmas - isn't that cute?). She makes gorgeous wallets, pillows, zipper pouches, sketch book covers, needle rolls, etc out of vintage and found fabrics. Her etsy shop will be up soon (I hope!).

ps - got our tickets to Vancouver in two weeks to hopefully find somewhere to live!