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These monsters move so fast that you can barely catch them on film:
For Halloween, we went to our first Rock n Romp. It was fun taking the girls to a pub and eating with them at the bar. As usual they ate all the onions off our burgers. It was funny to see Rachi with her little bunch of onions, chopping away in her monster costume. My sister got these costumes out of a costume trade bin at the daycare she works at.
We got to talk to Joy and Debbie and Matt with Adam and see some live music. Friends and music! Crazy like old days. The girls were a little confused when they saw a kid dressed up as Elmo. They kept pointing and saying "ELBO" as if they were seeing a celebrity.
Here is Jeff trying to wrangle both monsters:
Yesterday, I met up with Heather and Emmett (more friends! I feel like we are all human again, with all our friends) and we all went to the National Geographic and then spent some time outside because the weather here has been unseasonably warm.
Jeff and I actually recorded a podcast on Saturday, now we just have to edit it and post it. We are excited to get back to it. So check back.
Happy Halloween. I have a treat. $2 off at the seamonster store. Just use the coupon code, zombies at check out to get your discount. Also applies to my etsy shop (just message me the code when ordering and I will send you a new paypal invoice). Real update later!
This skirt is now on my etsy shop. Here is the description:
This is a rad super rad vintage nurse's skirt. It says, "Somtimes I worry about zombies" in iron on letters. Zombies are a big problem today, show your concern with this one of a kind skirt.
This is a vintage skirt and says it is a size 18, but there is no way! Please read these measurements carefully. The waist is 16 inches from side to side or 32 inches around. The length is 24-1/2 inches and the hips are 22 inches from side to side or 44 inches around. So, 32 waist, 44 hips and 24 inches long. I have no idea what size that really is, so measure yourself! This skirt will fit someone out there.
Writing on skirts is totally my biggest passion right now. I made this one this week. I wish I could buy iron on letters by the letter and not the alphabet, cause I never have enough "E"s. I need to learn to sew. I need to learn to sew. I need to learn to sew!
Just a few photos from my week. The girls are cranky from their 15 month shots. Poor ladies. I cut their bangs this week against my will. They have Owen Wilson Lady hair now, but it isn't bad. This is my favorite outfit on Rachi right now. You can't see, but this is a dress that she wears over jeans:
Brilliant mom Tip # 172: Snacks are always better in Halloween treat bags. Buy the bags when Halloween is over, they will cost next to nothing:
Rachi looks totally high in that one. Below, try not to notice their bare feet on the dirty kitchen floor. I am a stay at home mom, not a house wife, so I don't clean the floors. And they are eating raisins, that isn't rat poo.
That is all for me today. All of the zombie shirts are now in the store and selling fast. Clones are all up, too. I still have lots of pandas, octopi and dance floor shirts to put up, though. I am going to be selling in person at like 3 venues in DC in December, so email me with your special orders now if you want something for the holidays.
If you are a cool mom or dad in the DC area, you need to check out the RocknRomp. RocknRomp is a kid friendly rock show that happens about once a month in Silver Spring, MD. This Satrurday (see flier above) is the Halloween show. Adults are $5, kids are free! This rad flier was made by Jessee Art School Dropout for Debbie 60bugs, both members of the Craft Mutiny!
If you come, please be sure to say hi, I will be the one with twins in monster costumes.
The podcast is coming back this weekend. I think this is true. So far, episode 5 of the podcast has been downloaded over 4000 times this year! I have no idea why, it is funny, but still. I envision one crazy person downloading it over and over. Anyway, Jeff has promised we will be podcasting every Saturday night, with a show posted on Sundays. Check back on Sundays to see if this is true!
Just a quick picture, I have way more photos from last week that I wanna post, but it is 12:30 am. The first time I put my new ipod earbuds up to Rachi's ear, she says, "ooooh." and starts to dance. My old ipod died about 3 months ago. I didn't want to replace her because she was Suki and I loved her. But, here is Clementine, she is a green nano 4gb. Jeff made me buy her. He tried for months and finally, we were in a target and I had $200 in cash in my little tooth change purse. So, now Clem is mine. And theirs.
I think some ipod shuffles will be in our future. Ok, not near future, but maybe a year or so. For now, I can only listen to Clem when the girls aren't watching.
This reminds me, there is still time to enter the Croncast 300 new listeners by their 300th show contest to win an Ipod! If I win, I have promised mine to Jeff! If you aren't interested in tech podcasts or Harry Potter podcasts or whatever the hell is out there, you will dig Betsy and Kris because they just talk about their life, which is usually very funny.
Also of interest is Betsy's new blog, Resale Queen, where she writes about buying stuff at Goodwill and selling it on Ebay. My sister does this, too, and I am fascinated with how much someone will pay for something they haven't touched. I think the internet makes us buy things that we wouldn't normally buy because we want the sensation of possessing something. And we can get this sensation by just holding it in a store. Sometimes that is enough and we don't buy in stores, but when we see a picture online, we want to possess it. This is why good photographs on online shops is so important. While I know this about my own shop, I often am too lazy or busy to take my own advice! Anyone out there wanna model my shirts for me for pictures for the site? Only if you don't look like a model, though. I hate it when little indie shops have model-looking people wearing their clothes. I want real people to wear my clothes, not insanely pretty pose-y people.
Anyway, enter the Croncast contest and become a new listener here:
It is 11:06 and I am tired. I have too many jobs and this keeps me up. I have declared a war on debt and hospital bills. I will win this war and then will be able to sleep and make quilts and capes and silly hats. I know that three years from now this will be my truth, so I press on. It isn't as hard as working in an office. I need to remember that. As always I need to remember a lot of things. I have fought this debty war before and I have fought this weighty war before and I know how to win wars. But I still get emotional about them. I need to get past the emotional part and get to the fighty part. I feel like I am getting there.
Before I got pregnant, my friend life was full of boys. I liked this friend life. It was easy. And I was always fun fun funny me. But when the babies started growing in my tummy I lost some of the boys. Not all, but some. Not the most important, of course. The girls in my tummy took away the sadness of this loss. Today I found myself surrounded by new friends, all girls except one little one whose mommies are awesome. I like this change. I am gathering girls and keeping them in my life and it feels better than my old life. I am gathering girls near and far. I send packages to the ones I can't touch and I gather them from across the sea.
Is there a new you in your life? Do you dig her?
Rachi wears two hats. One summer on top of one witch hat. I dreamt this. Except future Anya was at a party wearing two hats, waiting for her sister. I wonder if they are getting mixed up in my soothsaying. Rachi can now say "octo" for octopus and "Adi" for our door man Adisu. Ani says, "no no no" and "shhh". They are new girls everyday.
I love watching the girls do things on their own. Together, but also on their own. Without me. With me, but me removed. I love watching them interact with each other in new situations and seeing their wonder in the world. Last week, we made new friends and met them at Dupont Circle for some chilly squirrel watching. Here are the girls on their way to see some birds, I didn't follow at first, I just took their picture:
After a bit, I made sure there was no broken glass to fall onto or anything and took these close ups:
Wrangling them out in the world is harder and easier than I thought. Times like these photos, things are easy. The girls feel free to roam and explore. But then I have to get them into their stroller and things change. Some moms would of course try to not even take them out of their stroller because of this. Not me, I take them out and let them pick the grass and chase the squirrels and say oooooh to the birdies. They are indie girls who don't need mum if there are better sights to see. And this is how it should be.
I am drowning in contract work, but all I can think about is making things. I have been thinking of making things that I don't yet know how to make and this is both exciting and frustrating. This is the first time in about 4 years that this has happened to me. I think it was 4 years ago that I started to make the little collages on wood that I loved so much. I have nearly stopped those, except a new batch of mirrors that I made for Crafty Bastards this year. I think the original batch of collages were about 60 or so. I have maybe 10 of them here on the wall above me and maybe 10 more unfinished in the closet. So there are 40 out there that people bought on the original website or at the first Crafty Bastards.
I started making those collages even before I had a website to sell them on. I wasn't sure what the point of them was at the time. I just needed to make them. I needed to write, "We are all pretty girls" or "We prefer telepathy" on a piece of wood. I needed to glue hundreds of tiny things, bits of my life, bits of trash to wood. I didn't know why. I would finish them, and leave them on the guest bed in our old apartment. I even gave some to a friend, I wonder if he still has them. Sometimes I want them back. :) Do you have one of those collages? Could you send me a picture? I miss them and wonder who you have. I started the store so that I could sell them and get them off of the guest bed.
So, right now, I am itching to sew. And I don't know how to and I fear I won't be good at it. And what I want to sew is on a huge scale. I want to make something really big and interesting. I want to make a quilt, but not a regular quilt. I want it to be something completely new. I want to cut out the biggest letters that I can. I want to write things big. Then I want to go to sleep under it.
It is weird. I have felt a little numb, silk screening the old sayings on shirts. But that zombie shirt woke my ass up. I am brimming with new ideas and I wonder what is up with me. I wonder if it is the 10 pounds down. I wonder if it is being in the Craft Mutiny and being inspired by all the indie craft gals in my life now? I wonder if it is meeting the folks at Crafty Bastards this year? I wonder if it is working with Scott on drawings and the idea of doing a children's book together. Whatever it is, it is rad.
What are you thinking of making? What are you making? Make something new. It will make you new.
I have been slowly updating both the I Like Seamonsters shop as well as the etsy store. So far I think I have added most of the remaining Army of Clone shirts as well as a bunch of things from my Crafty Bastards $5 bin. The $5 bin stuff is in the etsy shop. I have also added all the cards that are remaining including the last 3 pack of "Sometimes I worry about zombie" cards:
I just found some girlie sized clone shirts to add to the site. It never ends. After that, I will start on the dozon or so American Apparel Stress and the Modern Octopus shirts that I didn't sell.
I just wrote this postcard:
It is sunny cold today and I only have a few minutes to write before the girls wake up. The school kids are yelling outside like at the beginning of that Belle and Sebastian song on Sinister. I hope you know the one I am talking about. I miss you even though we have never met. - tina seamonster
I have had to change the comments on my site to only post after I approve them because I am getting attacked with spamy casino porn comments. I mean attacked! So, if you comment, don't worry, it will show up!
I have been trying to keep the TV off in the house except for Seasame Street, so I listen to podcasts. This always makes me wish I had more time for our own podcast. I like to podcast when the girls are awake, but Jeff has a good point that it would be better to do it while they sleep. Anyway, hopefully we will get back to is soon. So, my favorite podcasts are The Ricky Gervais show and The Croncast. The Croncast is Kris and Betsy Smith, a married couple in Illinois ( I think!). They are funny and they podcast 3 times a week. They are having a contest to win 1 of 4 ipods. They are trying to get 300 new listeners by their 300th! show. Anyway, you can click on the link below, become a listener by activating your RSS feed and even create your own handle to get into the drawing to win an Ipod. You should listen to them because they are funny and rad, though. The more people I send as new listeners, the more times I get into the drawing for a new Ipod! It is rad and so are they.
On Saturday, my sister and I sold stuff at a huge baby sale in Western Maryland. I had been saving all of the girls' stuff for the past year to sell and I was excited to sit outside and get rid of it for far less than we paid for it. It was a good sale, we got rid of lots of stuff, but it was cold and rainy towards the end.
My sister and I traded turns running around buying stuff, which was really fun. Being far away from DC (in Hagerstown, MD), things were cheaper than even our thrift stores. There were many many 10 cent bins for me to shop in. I almost like 10 cent bins better than free bins. This one old man had all these different priced bins, 10 cent, 5 cent, 25 cent, etc. I couldn't even imagine how he figured out where things went. I spent lots of time digging through the 5 cent and 10 cent bins and came up with about 6 things. Some of which are in the picture below. When I went to pay him, he was horrified that I didn't care if they were 10 or 5 cents each. I just offered him 75 cents! for all 6 things and this kinda made him mad. He wanted to make sure I only paid what he wanted to charge. Some of the other good buys I got were this huge Boohbah for $1. He was brand new! And this stuffed little octopus book which was 10 cents. I like these small 10 cent items because the girls like to carry around small weird things. In these pictures, I set some of the loot out for the girls to take. Rachel likes to try and gather up as much as possible. Then Anya is left with the dregs.
I have lost 10 pounds since I started staying home with the girls a month ago. This is pretty amazing since I wasn't really trying. I am still fat and I need to remind myself of this when I see thinner Tina in the mirror. So, 244.5. This is an awesome number that I have been wishing and hoping to see for over a year. I think it is happening for one reason and that is that I am not eating out at all. This makes sense. I do crave it a bunch, but am not going crazy about it.
Today, I walked the girls to the U Street Post Office, which is just ridiculous. The tellers are all behind this bullet proof glass that isn't needed anymore. The place keeps all the supplies behind the desk, as if theives will steal all their priority mail tape. I was brave and brought my packages/orders there to get together since the girls are always taking things out of orders when i am not looking. I banked on them being asleep from the rock stroll rock of their stroller. I was lucky and they slept for 2 hours. I had funny adventures during those two hours, made a deal to help a used Jaguar salesman named Stephen. If I help him sell a car, I get $300. I asked him if he had any not so nice cars, because who the hell buys a used Jag and he pointed to the Toyota. We have a Toyota, I thought. Stephen was a huge black man in his early 20s. He was linebacker big or big like the men in my family. I enjoyed talking to him even if I am not going to help him sell a Jag from a crappy lot on U Street. His black suit looked like he was going to church.
After Stephen and the post office, some dirty punks sitting outside of the doggy daycare gave me nasty looks when I smiled at them. I thought, "Fuck you, dirty punks. I have pink and blue hair and you work at a damn doggy daycare taking care of rich gay guys' dogs for $50 an hour. I am the real punk here, pushing my babies in their expensive shoes. I don't even have a god damn job. Take a shower, tomorrow, you smell like dogs." I wanted to say all of this, but I didn't. It made me laugh, though.
Next, I looked in some pawn shop windows at some maracas. Two different pawn shops had 4 different sets. Who pawns maracas? I thought about the money in my pocket and wondered how much I could get a set for. The girls would love them. But then I thought of one of them hitting me in the face with one. On I went.
Near the Whole Foods, a panhandler tells me he needs a quarter to get some sardines. In my pocket, I have a quarter, a dime and a five dollar bill. I take out the quarter and the dime. He only takes the quarter telling me that is all he needs for the sardines and shakes my hand as my phone rings. It is my mother-in-law who has a question about this weekend. She also asks me where I am. I think, " I am helping a homeless man buy sardines while pushing your twin granddaughters in their expensive shoes. It is going to rain soon and I am far from home." Instead I say, " I am at Whole Foods, " because this sounds motherly.
After a visit to their old daycare, the girls and I settle in on the lawn of the university where Jeff works and is helping with some talk about Pakistan or something. It is chilly and the girls hang on me like monkeys. We are a sight on the school lawn. We watch the clouds roll in because the rain is coming. Anya tastes the grass and Rachel crinkles leaves and I am getting smaller and it is October. My favorite month of all.
Some pictures of what I bought at Crafty Bastards:
The squid pactch is from Cleo Dee, the shirt is from 1girl1boy and the banana is from My Paper Crane. The shirt is just an amazing little piece of art, hand dyed, block printed and appliquéd. It is way too nice considering it is a 2T! I plan to sew it to a skirt when the girls grow out of it. Or perhaps frame it.
Octopus pin by Art School Drop Out and octo eraser earrings from Charming Vices. Both of whom plus Heidi mypapercrane are members of the Craft Mutiny (as am I!).
Also picked up at Crafty, Rachi models this rad cape by Debbie 60bugs (also a mutineer!):
Here is a picture of the purses my sister made for the fair, I love that sad bloby one:
This bag photo is by Glen S Colen!
I am having a harder time than I thought updating the shop. I have so many shirts left over, it just seems like too huge of a task to inventory and take photos of each one! I must say I was disappointed that I didn't sell more Stress and the Modern Octopus shirts, I have maybe a dozon in this rad kid's ringer tee that is orange and green, I also have about a dozon American Apparel girl t's. What I learned was that I need to bring more clothing racks so that I can hang everything up and no one has to rummage though bins. I also sold maybe 5 skirts that I wrote on. This is my favorite thing to make and sell. I will be concentrating on these from now on. I would like to maybe learn to embroider them rather than iron on letters. But needles and girls might not happen. Heidi mypapercrane has a sewing machine that will stitch words. Hmm... I will dos ome research about what size fonts it will do, this might be the answer. If I could just type "I googled you today" and have it sewn onto a skirt, I would be so excited.
Thanks to all of you who came out to see me at Crafty Bastards this weekend. It was a crazy day and I hope I didn't seem too overwhelmed to chat! My booth was swamped with people all day. I really can never imagine this until it happens. I mean, it was like that last year and for the past month I kept wondering if I dreamt it.Yesterday proved that I hadn't as the people just kept crowding the booth. It was truly amazing.
Even more great were meeting both Karen and Nicole who I have corresponded with for a while. Other highlights were the tiny fights over "Sometimes I worry about zombies" shirts. I only made 15 of these because I was product testing them, but people just seemed to love them. I just added a pre-order to the store if anyone wants me to make them one. I also love love loved it when people bought skirts. I was telling my friend, Lisa, that I never sell the skirts and up comes a girl with the skirt that said, "I googled you today." I was so happy. Skirts are my favorite thing to write on. Something about the swoopy swoop of where I put the words. But I never sell them because they are always the wrong size for the person who really wants them. On my agenda is to concentrate more on writing on skirts because people really dig them.
Some things that I made last minute didn't even get pictures taken of them. Like the mirror that I made that said, "Some day we will all be ghosts." It was my favorite item of the day, and I secretly wished it wouldn't sell. But the girl I sold it to had the best comments about it. She said it made her happy, not sad. I felt the same way about it. I told her the story of my brother moving to Cali and missing us back in DC and how I wanted to mail or fax him my sister's ghost. I actually said the sentence, "And my sister has a ghost." to a stranger. Anyway, the girl who bought the mirror told me she had just moved here and was lonely and just bought a plant (she showed it to me). I wished I could give her a ghost instead.
Ok. More coming, like pictures of what I bought. For now, here are pictures of my booth, including the amazing sign that my sister made for me ( that is my sister's daughter, Shiny, in the picture).
I am working on updating the store and hope to have all extras in the shop in the next two days. There are lots of girlie sizes left.
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Copyright © 2005, Tina Henry-Barrus, all rights reserved.
Design by Jeff Barrus, 2005. |
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