"H - A - Double L - O - Double U - Double E - N spells Halloween"

That's from La Danse Macabre (the elementary school lyrics, at least) that I DIDN'T get to listen to today. So you know that list of things I planned to do in celebration of Halloween? Well, none of it happened. I couldn't find my "Macabre" mix, which is the official Halloween CD I made 3 years ago. It's great! Looked everywhere—gone. So I settled for the "Harry Potter—Prizoner of Azkaban" soundtrack. Not a bad second choice. It did the job. Then I didn't have the Halloween pasta for lunch. But I DID get a nice cortisone shot in my butt at the allergist, and came home and napped through lunch, and didn't get to watch any movies. I didn't make it to the family Halloween party in Queen Creek, and didn't get to dress up again, either. But I did get to get dolled up for a "farwell" party for Wes, who is officially not employed by The Arizona Republic as a fashion photographer as of today. He is setting out on his own. Hooray! More on that later. So I got to do my favorite orange eyeshadow routine:


And I wore a patent leather black belt and my pointy black shoes. Thoroughly Halloween, I say. Tonight we didn't go trick-or-treating, and hid from the trick-or-treaters at our door, b/c we forgot to buy candy. Wes is in a mad rush to get a portfolio completed to send to a client for a potential job. So I helped him with that, while little Finn crawled around and "talked" to the vacuum cleaner sitting in the dining room. Overall, not a bad night. :)

Here are some pics from the party we went to on Saturday night. I am Little Red Ridinghood, Finn is a little Monkey, and Wes is a Danish Construction Worker. Why Danish? Because all day long I said "You had better figure your costume out!" "Do you need help with a costume?" "We are leaving in an hour...COSTUME?!" "WES! C'MON!" And out he comes in this blue jumpsuit that someone gave him when he was in Denmark on his mission. "It's an authentic Danish construction worker suit!" he says. So there you go. He does this every Halloween—manages to procure a totally passable costume in the last 10 minutes before we leave. And they are always articles of clothing I have never seen in his possession in the 5 years I have known him!

Here we are at the Grandparents Johnson's before the party.
That basket doubles as a "diaper basket" hehe!

My monkeys!

Tiffany and I put some work into my costume.
There was a lot of attention to detail and some hand
sewing involved, even though it's hard to tell in this pic.

Bananas, please!

Boo!

Things I plan to do in celebration of Halloween:
• Watch Shaun of the Dead on Hallows Eve (done)
• Listen to "La Danse Macabre"
• Watch Harry Potter
• Make curly, Halloween-colored pasta from Williams-Sonoma for lunch
• Go to family costume street party as a Monkey and Little Red Riding Hood. (You guess who is who...oh and Wes is in class all night, so no dressing up for him. Too bad, so sad.)
• If I lived in a city with realistic fall weather and foliage, you can bet I would be out stomping on crunchy leaves!

Documentation of celebration to come...

Top Secret

It's no secret that my favorite TV show, maybe ever, is The Office. Because of a standing Thursday commitment for church, I miss a new episode every week. So tonight Wes watched with me, as I caught up on 2 weeks of missed episodes. If you are ever interested, you can watch episodes from the current season 4 here: http://www.nbc.com/The_Office/video/episodes.shtml
In the show, Pam, the receptionist, is an aspiring graphic designer. I like that we have that in common, because I, too, am a graphic designer. It says it right there in the right hand column of my blog. So in 2 episodes now, Pam has been hit on because of her graphic design talent. Apparently guys find it attractive when a girl has creative skills, especially those of a design nature. So I know I've got that going for me. Ha! And come to think of it, Wes did seem extra smiley around me on my thesis show gallery opening night. Must have been those skills.

Anyhoo, lately I have been cruising other gals' blogs, only to find some really crafty girls out there! I mean top notch. I am not crafty. I repeat NOT CRAFTY. I can be if I have to be, but I am really more the latter in the term arts and crafts. So "artsy me" finds it hard to sew things more complicated than a baby sling (see earlier post), or make delightful ornamentations for every holiday to adorn my house. I appreciate those who do these things, but it's just not for me. I don't even scrapbook (gasp). But I do, ironically, design scrapbook PAPER. OK, I went to a technical school (Rochester Institute for Technology in Rochester, NY), I love and crave the modernist design movement and all things modern, and I relish perfect design exactness. I spent over 6 years doing layout design for various publications that involve things like document grids, picas and locked guides. I kern type for a living. And I love it.



So when the girls from Glitz design, a new local scrapbooking company (www.glitzitnow.com) came to me and asked me to design their scrapbook paper (among other things), I was a little nervous! I mean, I knew I could do it, but I kept reminding them that I had only been in a scrapbook store maybe 5 times to buy a paper cutter and Kolo portfolios for the strictest of uses. But I took on the challenge and I have to say it's awesome! I spend hours basically illustrating fun and pretty paper. I use a program called Adobe Illustrator to "draw" designs, and of course there is Photoshop for some "after effects." It's a great complement to the rigors of typesetting and layout design. It's artsy without having to be crafty. And I really wanted to post some examples of current projects. But guess what!? Not only do I have a job that men go crazy over ;) but it's also TOP SECRET. Double whammy. Are you intrigued? I can't share any of our new designs until January 1st, so that no one will steal our stellar new paper ideas. But I am including a scrapbook paper and chipboard design from last season's cutting room floor (both copyrighted, of course). And for a look at more of last season's designs, visit Glitz's website listed above (or at right). Let me just say that if you are a scrapbooker, you'll flip out over next season's stuff. It's almost enough to make me a crafter. Almost.

Finntastic

So it's time for a little Finn. I have some updates. Finn had his first bath in the big bathtub. He looks happy here, but the screaming that followed resulted in a return to bath time in our sink for now.


Before bed we like to play a game I call "Hide and go sut." Sut is pronounced "soot," and is the Danish word for binkie or pacifier. It's what we call it around our house. Finn likes to have 3 or more suts in his crib at night, should he wake up and find himself (gasp) sutless. So we play a fun grabbing game to get them all in the crib. (I am not looking forward to weaning him from the sut...)

"Ta-Dah!"

Finn is crawling all over the house, including climbing through tough spots and getting caught in, and dangling from, precarious places.



And finally, Finn has added a new word to his developing vocabulary as of this morning (by developing, I mean 2 words). He is working on "Dada." I missed recording the magical first moment when Wes opened the car door today and said hi to Finn in his car seat, and Finn said "Dadadada!" and reached for him. It was unbelievably sweet. But I am including some footage of his latest attempts tonight.





PS--Nice job on the comments, guys! I think 6 is my record--I'm making it to the big leagues, now! ;)

Lost and found

Koda is back! A very nice old couple found her wandering the streets late at night and pulled their car over to check out the scene. As soon as they opened the door Koda JUMPED in the car. So they took her home, renamed her Suzie (yikes) and tried to teach her tricks. They had 3 other little dogs that Koda happily bonded with. They saw our "Lost Dog" posters the next day, and called us. When Wes went to go pick her up, they tried to show Wes the tricks they taught Koda (who they still insisted on calling Suzie). They put treats in front of all the dogs and told them to sit and stay. The other dogs sat obediently, but Koda promptly ate hers and then tried to eat the other dogs' treats, too. :) Way to go Koda! She is safe at home now, eating all the treats she wants.

Missing

This is Koda. Koda is currently MIA. :(
Today there was a lot of yard work going on in our back yard, and somehow Koda slipped out of the side gate. We have 2 puppies: Libby and Koda. So while Libby was lounging in the shade, and Finn and I were swinging on the porch swing, and Wes was chopping down trees, Koda was escaping. We searched high and low for Koda for about 5 hours today. It was a long and tiring search which yielded no results (yet). Tomorrow we are putting up posters. Koda is scruffy, won't tolerate a collar and is very friendly. She will probably pass as a stray with no owners. The good news is no one would steal her to sell her, because she kindof looks like and old man (the poor dear). But the bad news is she might end up at the pound. She has a registration chip in her, and I called it in. So she is on the ALERT list for lost pups. We hope she makes it home soon. Libby is standing at the door and just staring. It breaks my heart. But Koda probably sees it as one big adventure, and here is why I think this:

Tonight after a long hunt, Tiffany (Wes's sister who helped us look) and I were starving, so we got some Panda Express. After each family member got a fortune cookie, there were still two left. We assigned cookies to Libby and Koda randomly, then opened them. I don't think I have ever seen more fitting fortunes ever. Especially on a day like today. Take a look:

LIBBY'S FORTUNE

KODA'S FORTUNE

We were both laughing and sadly sighing at the perfect coincidence of the moment.
Here's to a speedy return, Koda--we miss you!!

Mama

Finn says Mama now...but only when he's in the mood. See what I mean:

"Pbbbb."


"Mama!"

Attentions all hardwood floor owners! This is the product for you!

OK! THIS IS AMAZING! A while ago my mom told me about this product for cleaning wood floors that she swears by. I have been putting it off for a while, but broke down last week and invested in the best floor product EVER. I have a light bamboo hardwood floor that I have a love hate relationship with. It's gorgeous...when it's clean. But it gets so dirty so easily, and that drives me nuts. And now that Finn is crawling, he has become a miniature dust mop! Grrrr. So I finally ordered some Bona hardwood floor cleaner. This is the most unbelievable way to clean hardwood floors. It comes in a spray bottle and is safe for all hardwood floors. I decided to go with the spray bottle, refill and mop (it's the flat, microfiber cloth kind, and you can get the same mop at Target or Walmart...I was just going for ease-of-purchase). You just walk around the house with your mom and spray bottle in hand, spray a section of floor, then mop, then spray, then mop. It dries instantly and you can walk right where you just mopped, no water needed, no need to rinse a dirty mop (I did the whole house with the same mop cover, then took the cover off and put it into the washer). It's safe for both my puppies and little Finn, and my floor now has a nice luster! I opted to buy the kit below and a refill of the liquid. It came out to about $50 and is worth every penny. I was so excited that I did the whole house in 15 minutes(without even vacuuming, and it even picked pu my dust bunnies). And I never get excited about cleaning. Bye-bye stupid Swiffer Wet! Check it out: http://www.hardwood-cleaner-resources.com

Duh.

I had a really idiotic moment tonight. I just made Wes help me FRANTICALLY look for the serial numbers to my Adobe Creative Suite software. My computer suddenly wouldn't open Photoshop without a serial #, and I couldn't find that software anywhere. It's vitally important for me to be able to open Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. I work with them every day, multiple times a day. I have large projects pending that I need to start work on in the AM. I was basically starting to hyperventilate when those serial numbers went missing and my computer was saying "The important file that holds the information that is crucial for your financial and creative well-being has been irreversibly eradicated."

So it's super late and Wes has to work at 7 am, and I was making him tear the house apart looking for a WHITE box marked "IMPORTANT SOFTWARE AND MANUALS." This goes on for like 3 hours. So I finally opened my hall closet for the 4th time. I had looked in that closet and not seen the box, even though I shuffled through checking lots of times. Exasperated, I thought maybe I was losing my mind, and I would just go through each individual box in there, just to appease my increasingly panicked state. The very first box I pulled out was a GREEN box labeled "IMPORTANT SOFTWARE AND MANUALS." Ooooooops... Found it! (I just recently reorganized the entire house, so I must have been remembering the box differently.) Wes just stared at me and then said in a deadpan voice, "How many times have you looked in that closet?" Sheepishly I said "4." And he just walked right past me and went to bed. I called after him "At least I didn't throw it out!" :) I felt SO bad. I was already embarrassingly laughing at my own stupidity. He didn't smile. Sigh. I had a total airhead moment on that one. Poor Wes. So a big thank you to my husband who was a super good sport about my frenzied panic, and will probably never let me live this down—just like the "white chocolate story" (that one, for those that know it, is a sad moment in "The Lyndsay History of Wit and Wisdom" ... or lack thereof). But that's for another blog entry!

Motivation

I commented on someone's blog today that I base my day's activities on motivation. Since there has been absolutely no laundry motivation this week, Wes had to wear an old white shirt to church from his missionary days. Yikes. But I have been motivated to read my "October books." Every October (this doesn't happen in any other month) I get the craving for Chasing Vermeer, The Witch of Blackbird Pond, and The Hobbit--all young adult lit, all excellent. I recommend checking them out! And I have to thank my Mom and Tiffany for being such stellar librarians and exposing me to great literature. Now I am off to raid my bookshelf...

Keepin' it real.

So I was just nursing Finn (it's almost midnight, so he was thoroughly passed out...). He was all curled up on my lap and making those cute tiny sighing noises he only makes when it's a late night feeding. And his little bare feet were all tucked up in that precious newborn position. I was starting to get all sappy about how sweet he was when he was first born. And I was kissing his little toes and feet when suddenly lets a huge one rip. It was loud enough to wake and startle the dog. Way to keep it real, Finn. Way to keep it real.

(The first day home from the hospital Finn was pretty gassy b/c no one at the hospital told me that a nursing mother shouldn't eat BROCCOLI and cheese soup...duh people! So my dad was sitting in the living room with him and the rest of us were in the kitchen. My dad calls in and says "Man--Baby Finn is just laying here letting 'em rip!! I can smell them all through the house!" We were all cracking up. Not your typical comment about a newborn. It was so funny. Poor little guy. And poor dad, too, for that matter! Hehe.)

Back in action...or at least a bathing suit

Now I know that some of you are going to say "Lyndsay, you looked like your old self again quickly after having a baby this year...yadda yadda." And though I agree that I have been happy with my physique for a while now, all you moms know that there is always some "tweaking" to be done under those layers of clothes. And EVERYONE loves a happy surprise in the figure

Here are few nice discoveries this month:
1. I went shopping with my parents only to happily discover that I was fitting into the size pants/jeans I wore before Finn came along (I haven't been real jean shopping since Finn was born--just every few months I check to see which of my old jeans fit again. My butt has been hanging on to a little extra fluff).
2. At my latest check-up I found out I am only 3 pounds away from my pre-pregnancy weight. I don't own a scale, so I never check. (I know where those other few pounds are hanging out, considering I am still nursing).
3. I have a totally presentable bathing suit body again! I mean, I am sure I could have gotten away with wearing one before, but you know how it is. I didn't exactly go swimming this summer because none of my existing bathing suits really fit properly and I didn't feel up to buying one. And now it's technically fall. Solution? Laundry and blogging in my bathing suit! :) Finn says I look great. And it only took 8 months to make the full reversal, ha!

Crocodile Mile

Does anyone remember that slip n' slide from when we were kids?

I had Wes take some pics of us out on the golf course behind our house so that I could enter Finn in the Gap casting call that's going on now, hehe. He got some great shots, and Finn is wearing a super-cool crocodile outfit courtesy of Granny Beauchamp. Totally model material.

(Oh, and a note on my techno-savvy skills. **I know that when you click on the pic it shouldn't take up the ENTIRE SCREEN like these are doing. It's annoying and you can see every pore on my nose. But I have been too lazy to resize all the pics. Sorry. Something to work on in the future...)

Scene of domesticity

A year ago Wes and I moved into our current house. That was after 3 months of intense remodeling. Let's just say we had to deal with 2000 sq. feet of thick 70s carpeting and mirrors with that painful metallic crackle effect. Being modernists at heart (mid-century, that is), we wanted a home built in that era, but most of the 1940-50s built homes in this area (still in great shape) are way out of our price range. So we settled on a remodel of this house, and we love love love it. So in honor of living here a year, I thought I would post some pictures of our home. I have to give a lot of credit to Wes. As visual and artistic as I am, I had a tough time visualizing an entire remodel in full 3D. So Wes took me over to the recently re-opened mid-century wonder of a hotel, the Valley Ho (in Scottsdale: www.hotelvalleyho.com). Wes has photographed fashion shoots there before, so they know him. He pretended I was a client that wanted to check out the luxury suites to get ideas for a photoshoot (so I had to pretend I was not married to Wes, despite the fact that I was 6 or so months pregnant with his child and wearing his wedding ring). But they bought it. So we borrowed some awesome color schemes and design ideas, and came up with a Wes and Lyndsay version. Oh, and mad props to Wes on the front yard and his cactus vision. Here's to having a husband that shares the same aesthetic as I do!

**A note about the dining room: We kept the original flocked wallpaper.
It is the background for my blog banner up top.

The Rents

We had a fun-filled week with my parents who came in to visit Finn and me while Wes was away for a photoshoot in L.A. We took a trip up to Wes's parents' cabin in Williams, AZ, headed down to the artists' town of Tubac where my mom bought a great painting from a wonderful little gallery down there, had fun shopping (I have now have some fun fall clothes), and basically spent the week lovin' up the baby. It was great to see my parents! We always have such a good time together. Here are some pics of the gang:

Grandad and Finn (he's going for the glasses...)

Everyone hanging out on the guest room bed
(Tiffany, the puppies, Finn and my Mom and Dad).

Mom and me in Tubac, AZ...cutting up.

Out to dinner with the whole family. That's Wes's mom holding Finn.
He loved having all of his grandparents around!

Sleepy boy at the end of a busy day.
Check out those awesome "BabyLegs" (www.babylegs.com).

Mushaboom

Wes isn't overly convinced yet that these little puffy overalls are the best look for Finn. But I did "boy them up" a bit with some brown sporty shoes. I think it's a fab, and rather European, look for him. So my parents have been in town over the past week (hence the blogging hiatus...more to come on that visit in another blog), and Finn had lots of opportunities to miss naps in lieu of kisses and play time. So yesterday, after my parents left for Texas again, Finn took a 4 HOUR NAP...in the middle of the afternoon. Can you guess what that lead to? That's right--Finn wide awake at midnight and me bouncing, feeding and rocking Finn in the dark until 2am trying to convince him that sleep was still the best option. It was a throw back to his newborn days. But how can I be exasperated when he is so cute?! The overalls won me over. :)