You're Invited

Hey Ladies!

Do you want to come over to my new apartment? It's here on North St. in Chapel Hill, a few houses down from my favorite professor, and a few houses down (the other direction) from my friend Alex!


Walk around back and up the stairs...

And I'll let you in.


First we'll hang out in the kitchen for a bit...


Don't put away my butter, babe!!


Help yourself to muffins and tea--there's one for each of us!


Then we'll retire to the living room...

Lie on the couch, chat, and listen to records.


If you get really tired Mandy, you can take a lie-down on my bed.


and Ang, of course you can use my bathroom-- to fix your hair!

Thanks for coming over, Items! See you in Vermont in August...REUNION!!!

"That some home items matriachy shit."

La la la ladies!

My mom is fulfilling a lifelong dream of hers to learn to play the piano. Tommy gave her an old keyboard he wanted to get rid of (the title of this post is his response to my mom's ironing board stand--of course she sent him an email with photo too), Ben suggested she set up the ironing board as a make shift stand. She had her first lesson yesterday and proudly reported the teacher presenting her with small stickers for the keys that will help her remember who is who and she even played a 4 note song. She thinks she won't be concert ready for another 20 years or so (though she has already said she has candelabras like Liberace), but we are trying to talk her into a little something for our wedding.

Check out her "music studio"--Home Items stylee!

Go Mama!

Some good advice

ALL THE SCHOLAR LADIES

I get no detentions, did I mention, hard work is my intention?

blog roll + herb man

Hey ladies,

After Stace Case's post yesterday about her blog recommendation, I started a Blog Roll list for us along the right menu. Feel free to add whatever blogs are striking your fancy these days. I'm pretty into blogs these days since I do one for work and maybe because of wedding planning too. Anyway, I left both work and wedding blogs off the list for now.

Also wanted to share with you this traveling Japanese medicinal herb garden cafe...

A giant garden shaped like a human with plants growing at the place on the body that they most benefit. Does that even make sense?

Love you, ladies.

XOa

quick post

Dear Items,
I thought I would start posting quick random notes. Most likely blogs or books I would like to share with you.
Happy Monday
http://foodsforlonglife.blogspot.com
love
stacy

Happy Love Month

Hi ladies,

We hope you love our new look, just out in effect for the season. We miss you guys. In lieu of a dance party we thought we'd revamp the blog. Also, on the agenda is planning a yearly meet up. What do you say? This year the date is set for 8.8.10, location Intervale barn. Perhaps next year, we could meet at some hot springs in New Mexico?

From the Brooklyn Flea today, cupcakes left to right:

lavender!! yum, lavender frosting chocolate cake, bacon maple cupcake, the trio: pistachio chocolate, lavender, and maple bacon

Bottom photo is baby cakes, chocolate agave, gluten free,  cupcake, and vanilla spelt, agave, not pictured angela chocolate agave, gf and stacy's second lemon spelt, agave cupcake

August Reunion

Hi Items,

Ben and I are bon voyaging eastward as of Sunday morning. We plan to take about 7 days (no sightseeing really just slow going as we're towing a trailer) to get to Ithaca. I'm just now getting excited. About the move. Even about the drive. Rallying for this one has been especially tough.

Missing you all a lot and hope that we'll all be together at some point in August.

Remember the blog, ladies!

XOa

Bhutanese Friends

This afternoon, I had my first introductory meeting with some Bhutanese refugees, new arrivals, who are interested in participating in New Farms for New Americans. They are smiley, serious and excited people who are not afraid to use their English and who laughed at all my jokes. I gave a ride home to a couple people, and this old dude saw my good luck mandala hanging from my dash and said, "You good Budh famly?" "Yes!" "Ah!" How did I get so lucky as to have this job?

Michelle, you so dirty!

I mean Happy Birthday my friend who is now 30!

You are surely wise beyond your years and I am so thankful for your friendship and inspiration on this day and every other day.

LOVE.a

Rich Girl

Hi Items!

When I was in Ann Arbor over the holidays, my friend Lauren and I spent a lot of time (at least 2X/day!)dancing to this particular Hall and Oates song. Here is a video.

Also on the playlist were 'Matty Groves' by Fairport Convention, 'Remix to Ignition' and just regular 'Ignition' by R. Kelly, some Harry Nillson (vaudeville styles), 'MmmmBop' by Hanson, and Fleetwood Mac.

Oh how I wish to be dancing and aerobic-dancing with you!

winter times

Hi lovely friends!

I just started a new term of classes today, so I thought I'd give ya'll a little update before I got too busy.

In general Portland's been good, but times have been a little tough for us, as Mike hasn't been able to find a job yet. And our cat Ramona died. And Mike's grandma died. But all in all, we've been happy, seeing lots of beautiful sights, hanging out with good friends, and getting by just fine.

I don't know how many of you knew our cat Ramona. She was a super awesome cat. Even cat-haters like her. We had her for about 7 years. She's actually from Portland - we got her from the humane society when we lived here in 2001. So it's kind of special that she returned to her home to die. She wasn't old or (visibly) sick; now in retrospect, I wonder if she'd had cancer for awhile, or at least some underlying/chronic illness. Joey (our dog) could tell she was sick and he would lay with her on the couch before she died. It was so sweet.




He also liked to lie in the box we made for her when she was sick.



We miss her, but we're comforted knowing she lived a full, adventure-filled life.


holiday photos:

Mike's sister Megan came down from Olympia for Thanksgiving. We made a fairly traditional dinner here, including a small turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, stuffing, salad, and scalloped corn (mike's great grandma's recipe). I've been eating meat occasionally. I look mad here but I'm not.



Here's a squash pie I made. It was good, but I would definitely use a regular crust next time, because the graham cracker crust was WAY TOO sweet.



We stayed here for Christmas too. I don't know if Angela told you, but we got a serious snowstorm, and everyone was basically stuck home. Portland does NOT plow the streets AT ALL. It was pretty intense. My mom, dad, and brother came from Michigan, and my sister and her girlfriend came from San Francisco. We got around the city a bit for some dinners and a comedy holiday slideshow, but we had to carry shovels and dig the car out at least 4 times. Folks were helpful though - we got stuck once on our street and within seconds, two guys had appeared from different houses with shovels to help us. Then we helped people later on. It was very cheerful. It made my dad cry a little.

On Christmas day, we stayed at our house, made breakfast and dinner, decorated cookies, and most people got drunk and played charades/pictionary. Here are my brother and Kim-An (my sis' gf) decorating gingerbread shapes. My brother made a nipple/boob and Kim-An made a portrait of Joey (our dog).





And finally, here are some photos from a walk at the coast. It is SO beautiful at the coast. I love it so much. So wild and rugged and serene.






I miss you gals so much. I wish we could be together always. Hope that you are having a peaceful winter and enjoying 2009. I also just joined facebook tonight, so I will see you on the flipside!

Love, Michelle

Peace Dot

Looking for a photo today, I saw this and had to share.



How high are you, Michelle?

Wintery Creations

Cold weather and crafts go quite well together, wouldn't you say?

Here are 2 gingerbread houses I made with Jake and Abby, the kiddies I nanny for. Their mom and I did the construction, and the kids were the decorators.



It's hard to tell in these picture, but we put in round 'stained glass windows' made of melted hard candy.

I think they look like Midieval cottages with a courtyard between them! According to Abby and Jake, a lady who sews and knits and sells her scarves and hats and mittens out of her home lives in one, and a gingerbread boy and his mom and dad lives in the other. The gingerbread boy is over at the sewing lady's house everyday to get new winter accessories, because it is always cold in Candy Land.

Here are some of the sewing-ladies mittens:
Actually this is my first pair--my friend Talya taught me to make them over Thanksgiving!

Happy Winter and crafting to you, items!

Holiday Season 2008

Happy Holidays Items. Chris and I went to the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade this year. We got a wonderful spot! Hope you guys had a yummy Thanksgiving.

Very First Practice

 i am thankful to know each of you

my little elephant

i just wrote a whole post and somehow it all got deleted. i guess i don't understand how to use this blog yet.

well, here is take #2

i started sewing again! it has been a long time since i bought my sewing machine, almost a year since our remaining home items took a quilting class with crazy pat, and i haven't made a single thing since then. i still haven't even picked up my quilt from the parks and rec dept! i think pat kind of scared me off--she was pretty crazy.

this little elephant was made from the scraps of that baby rastafusion quilt made in that class. it took me a couple hours and is a bit crooked, but overall pretty cute. and more importantly, it got me back on the sewing machine and ready for another project.

i am currently stuck at home, super sick and snotty with a gross cold. it sucks, but at least i have lots of time to search and start a new project! miss you all!

Julia Child's Kitchen

Ladies, ladies, ladies...did you know that the kitchen of Julia Child, the great French chef, Muppet Show guest, and inspiration for Emily Pothole, has been moved from Cambridge, Mass and installed at the Smithsonian Museum of American History?!! I saw it today at the Museum's Grand Re-opening. There are so many home items, it was blowing my mind, so many cute cupboards and chairs and copper pots on the wall. Check out the online exhibit here, where you can see pictures of her adorable kitchen (which was the stage for her television show) and descriptions of her HOME ITEMS!

Home Items Blog, Take 1: My period

Hi, Items everywhere.
Since I am taking the leap here on the first post, I thought I'd answer the question, "How are you, Mandy?" by saying, "Last night just past midnight I got my period, and I'm feeling pretty gassy and crampy right now."



Here I am with a brand new Lunapad. Sweet pink, yeah?

I must say, being off the pill, regulating, ovulating, it's life changing.
I use Fertility Friend to chart and it's just amazing.
My period lasts three days and I don't go yeasty or crazy.
But I must admit, I still got the leg cramps and the feeling lazy.