Music To My Ears

The other exciting news in our life is that we got a stereo in our car again for the 1st time since it was stolen 5 years ago. And I also got a new ipod. I haven't had an ipod since the very first ipod came out. I can't believe how far they've come! ha ha check out these pictures and look at the size difference:



So now, I have music back in my life again. Now I can listen to music: in the car, at the gym, on the bus, in the library. It's extremely exciting to be able to listen to kid music in the car while I'm driving the girls around.


Here are some of the latest tunes I listen to on repeat:

My Wedding Ring's Big Adventure

As you can tell from the title, this story will be a little scary, and a little sad, but I promise you it ends on a funny note! On Friday I didn't know where my wedding ring was for 5 hours. 5 hours of panic, hopelessness, and praying. My thoughts went all over the place: That diamond is from my mother-in-law! It's irreplaceable! - to - It's just an object Katie, keep yourself together - to - what if I have to get a new ring? Will I ever see my wedding ring again???

The story starts Thursday night really, as this is when I last remembered taking my wedding ring off. I pretty much never take my ring off. I take it off for showers, and doing dishes and the application of lotion. Otherwise, I sleep with it on. So on Thursday night I put lotion on my hands and took the ring off and placed it on the nightstand. I was looking through a magazine and so forgot to put it back on. I turned the light off and only while laying there in the dark did I realize "oh, my ring isn't on." So, I simply thought, I'll put it on in the morning. Well, 6:30 a.m. roles around and Wes gets home from work. All I remember is hearing things fall and him saying "I need to turn on the light." Then when I woke up at 7, I remember stumbling to the night stand looking for bobby pins but can't remember what I grabbed up off of the nightstand.

Fast forward to 2p.m. I am at work and have just put both girls down for a nap. I go downstairs and begin to write in my nanny journal and take a double look at my ring finger. No ring. Before I freak out I am in disbelief and look all around me. I back track but can't seem to remember what I had been doing the last hour. I start to wonder: How long has it been missing? Did I put it on this morning? Maybe its at home? I thought I saw it on my finger.

Wes is sleeping so I don't want to call him. I search the trash can, the laundry, I go into the baby's room, and open up the last diaper, I search the baby, I go back downstairs and panic really starts to set in. I call my mom because I have absolutely no idea what to do or how to calm myself. I just kept thinking, "could this really be happening??" At this point I'm a complete mess and don't know what to think. I cry my eyes out to my mom. Finally I call Wes and leave him a message. I call Wes again at 3, he has just woken up and so is laying there in the dark. I say "I can't find my wedding ring is it there?" He says he saw it this a.m. and that it had fallen. I am unsure and I say "You are positive it is there?" He says, he's positive. I feel a little better but not completely satisfied because he isn't actually holding it in his hands. I go on with my day and tell my boss about what had happened. We are both happy that it has been found and I leave work.

I call Wes and he says "I still haven't found it." I actually stopped the car. WHAT?

My first thought is, I'm sure it's there, He just isn't looking hard enough. I go home and Wes has done everything there is to do except take apart our bed. I begin to feel hopeless. We take apart our bed, we look under the rugs, under the furniture, I unpack my backpack, and finally I decide to text my boss and tell her that we actually HAVEN'T found it and to please keep an eye open. I'm sobbing and a couple of minutes later my boss calls me laughing.

"We found it!!" She says.

"What?"

"Yeah, Ummm... I think it was in Baby's buttcrack...."

"WHAT???" out of sheer disbelief and shock I say "You don't mean she pooped it out???" ha ha ha (as if it were possible for her to swallow this thing with out me knowing)

"Noooo," She passes the phone to Mr. Dad to tell me how he found it.

Apparently he went to check to see if baby had a poopy diaper and as he went to take a peek it fell into his hand. Tada! Ring was in baby's diaper!! :)


After thinking about it for a while, what I suspect happened was after changing her diaper for her nap I was putting her pants back on which were a little too small for her. I was readjusting them and think that maybe the ring got pulled off as I was adjusting her diaper. So bazaar. But Alas!

The ring and I have been reunited, and it feels so good...
I am so so thankful! :)

And Just for fun.. this is what our life looks like right now...

A Day In Seattle

Today we took a day trip to Seattle, and I'm so glad we did. A couple of months ago I heard about a Harry Potter exhibit taking place up there. I did some research and discovered that this exhibit had been touring the states and that this would be there last stop in the US. So, we decided it would be worth the trip and we purchased tickets. We also got to have lunch with John Herman and Rachelle LaRose and a couple of Rachelle's friends which was really nice.

Pictures weren't allowed, these are just images I found through google...

This was one of my favorite displays I think. This is from the Prisoner of Azkaban and their clothes were dirtied and you could see how tiny they were at this time.

They had an "herbology" section where you could pull up mandrakes from the pot and they would scream like in the movie

This was really awesome too- harry and ron's beds, Ron's is on the right and I guess that patchwork blanket is in most of the films.

Now on to what we thought of the exhibit. We both really enjoyed it. We both would have loved to hear more back story as to how the props and costumes were made and WHO made them (I'm sort of shocked that artists were never mentioned). However, the exhibit wasn't really suppose to be about backstory, or I mean it wasn't presented that way. It was more about recreating the experience for you. For example: everyone that worked there had English accents; upon entering you are first corralled around the sorting hat where they take volunteers to come up and be sorted into a house. The kids who did this were cute. The most unfortunate part was that pictures weren't allowed. The whole time I was just itching to break the rules. They didn't even have a poster at the end or anything for you to pose with as proof that you had been. The one lonely sign we found was the one by the bathrooms. Anyway, aside from those little issues the experience was pretty cool. To be able to see so many (MANY MANY) props up close was amazing. You certainly don't get to see so much detail through the TV. I think one of the things I found most interesting was to see all the different wands. Each wand is gorgeous, so ornate and so different- and they all suit the characters perfectly...

Some of the random things that we saw today off the top of my head (For those of you harry potter lovers out there who will know what these are):

Bellatrix Lestrange's dagger that she kills Dobby with in the latest movie, the Quibbler, the monster book of monsters, the pen, chair and desk that harry uses during detention in Umbridge's office, harry's glasses, the murader's map (WHICH WAS AWESOME), Nimbus 2000, Nimbus 2001, Harry's wand, Bellatrix's wand, Voldemort's wand, (well, pretty much everyone's wand), Buckbeak, Life size chess pieces from I think the first movie, Rita Skeeter's books and quill, all sorts of treats from the hogwarts express trolly, a display board from the common room, Hagrid's umbrella, the boggart wardrobe, The dresses and dress robes worn to the Yule Ball (gorgeous!), and much much more. Quite a fun day! Below is a video of the exhibit by the TVGuide channel.



Now, I'm off to bed, dream sweet harry potter dreams everyone. :)

Zine 1 of 5.

For my "Art and Social Change" class we are working alongside a local elementary school. We are volunteering in an after school art program where we teach them how to make their own "zines" (I'll get to what a "zine" is in a moment) as well as we are building a permanent display case to go into their school's library. This display case will house all of the zines that we will also be making and donating to their library. Each of us are assigned to make 5 themed zines which will stay in their library for the kids to check out.

Now for what a "zine" is. A zine is: a cheaply-made, cheaply-priced publication, often in black and white, which is mass-produced via photocopier and bound with staples. However, zines come in many shapes and sizes! Its really just a fun, cheap way to make your own books. It is common for zines to be silly or informal and have a very handmade quality to them. SO! On to the project... my first zine had to be on language. It could be about anything we wanted as long as two languages were present. Seeing as how I only know english I used a free translator online to translate my story into ITALIAN, my 2nd language of choice. Here is my first zine that will be passed along to the library. Click on the images to make them bigger if you can't see the text.













Hope you liked it! I'll post the others as I make them. :)

Yes, I'm still making art.

So, for the past several quarters my classes haven't been as studio intensive. Meaning that, they are less about making art and more about art theory OR art history. This is why I don't have as many fun art projects to show on the blog like I used to. However, I have finally produced a couple of things worth sharing. Or, well, things I'd like to share. This quarter I am taking:

- Art History of 14th century Siena.
-Art and Social Change
-and Digital Media Design.

The last on that list is basically a computer class teaching me the basics of 3 programs: Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. This class has far exceeded my expectations. I am loving learning about these programs and feel like I can finally use them as resources. Anyway, this first project I'm going to show you is not about the final product at all. It is definitely not a thing of beauty, however, it does show the types of things I'm learning and how cool these programs are. So here is the assignment: It is called "Line Drawing."

We had to choose a black and white image that we found on the internet, too which we would then recreate by building up lines to create value, etc. Did that sentence make sense??? Look and see what I mean....

I chose Audrey Hepburn. So using Illustrator I was able to make a couple of layers. Meaning that you can actually view the image of Audrey with out touching the image while you work over it. So I had one layer that had Audrey's picture. A layer on top of that I could "draw" on. And then a layer on top of that that I could "paint" on. So while looking at the image I would go through and shade in the dark parts and bring out the light parts by erasing color and layering color. etc... This is my work with the image still underneath.

And then this is what I drew with out the image underneath. Make sense? It's on the right track... It could definitely use some more work. But, fun huh?

I've done a couple of other projects in the class but those really aren't interesting to see. However, I have an even better project to show you next from a different class. So, on to the next blog post. :)

woopsy daisy.

I'm suppose to be squeezing in a bit of homework before our date night tonight but some how the blog called to me and here I am... I have a couple of blogs coming up. One that will include my latest art projects done on photoshop and illustrator, and one blog titled "ephemera" that I've been meaning to write about for a quite awhile. Hopefully those will be up tomorrow. As for now, I just wanted to send a quick "hello!" Wes and I are having a date night tonight just the two of us. Can't remember when our last date night was which means that we are long over due. I am looking forward to eating some delicious food at Beaker & Flask. Hope you all are doing something equally exciting with your Saturday.
Talk to you again soon,