10 Reasons Why I'm Glad It's Fall

This week has been ridiculously busy at work. I've neglected my blog. I've ignored Twitter. My sewing project? Stagnant. But today? Today, I can breathe a little. And today, I'm joining in on Mama Kat's Writers Workshop. I know it's kind of lame to rely on a prompt, but all the posts I wanted to write are completely forgotten.

10 Reasons Why I'm Glad It's Fall

10. My birthday is in the Fall. While I hate getting older, I do love getting gifts from the hubs and handmade cards from the girls.
9. Cool weather.
8. Apple picking, pumpkin picking, hay rides, corn mazes... candy corn!
7. My anniversary. Every year we celebrate means another year we didn't kill each other.
6. My world gets a little more colorful with the changing leaves.
5. Football. Mostly, just the sound of football. I love the games on in the background.
4. Chili
3. Turtlenecks ~ Cozy clothing in general, but I love love love comfy turtlenecks.
2. Fires. Fires in the evening. Fires in the morning. Fires all day long.

There's a tie for number one
1. Red wine ~ Cooler weather means I turn in my white wine and break out the reds
1. No humidity for bad hair days!

My ideal Fall day?

A briskly cool day watching football in my turtleneck, in front of a fire drinking red wine and chili. And my hair looks good too.

Happy Autumn!

Time for a change

I'm thinking about "rebranding" my blog. I know that sounds silly. Like it's a "brand" or something. I work with big brands everyday. A brand my blog is not. But that's the terminology. If you go to a blog conference, anyway.

I'm thinking about a re-do because at this blog conference a speaker said something that really resonated with me.

"I'm not just a mom. I'm many people. Mom is just one of the hats I wear."

The idea behind Figments of a Mom was actually that there are many "figments" to me. So now I'm thinking of taking "mom" out of my title. But then what?

Figments of Me? Bleh.

Figments? Meh.

I need to do a little soul searching to figure it out.

I think "Conflicted" might be a good place to start.

What do you think? Should I change it up?

My bathroom

I'm borderline obessed with taking photos and altering them with iPhone apps, as well as taking photos with my Hipstamatic app. I mean with all the lenses, film and flashes you can mix and match the possbililites are endless!

So at some point in, hopefully, the near future, we will be redoing our 100 year old bathroom. In the meantime, I've decided to photograph the original elements which I plan to print and put in frames to hang on the wall of the new bathroom. Here are some variations:

The previous photos were all edited in CameraBag, my first photo app.

Notice the dual faucets. Doesn't make washing a face very easy.

These were all taken with the Hipstamatic app, John S lens, BlacKeys Supergrain film.

I envision these all in the same style, maybe 4x4 at the largest, in oversized black frames.

Check out the other great photos at A Beautiful Mess, 5 Minutes for Mom and Wordless Wednesday.

I need another day and other ramblings

Who ever came up with the idea that the weekend should  be just two days? Seriously, where did this nonsense begin? Does it go back to Greek times? Is it just because Saturday and Sunday are the only two consecutive days that start with the same letter? On for 5, off for 2 is a little unbalanced. I think On for 4, off for 3 is much more reasonable, don't you? I can imagine the things I could done with 3 days at home.

Saturday morning is generally reserved for hitting the local yard and estate sales. I grabbed my favorite  shopping companion who promptly shared with me that she's home without children for the first time in 10 years. What is she to do with all this free time?

Wha?!

If you're a follower of my blog, you know that I nearly fell over. Free time? What to do? I wouldn't even know where to begin. There's so much I would want to get done. I dream of being home while my kids are at school. D.R.E.A.M. about it!

*** 

Little K had the Monday Blues this morning, she so eloquently warned me. As we approached the bus stop she reached for my hand and started walking slower. Here we go, I thought to myself. Refusing to socialize with anyone, she buried her face in my shirt. I'm pretty sure I saw her wipe her snotty nose on my jacket too.

I don't want to go to school. I want to stay with you, she whined, practically forcing the tears.

This scene is all too familiar, reminscent of many mornings last year. I get worried, of course, that another child is being mean to her to make her not want to go to school.

The bus arrives, she distributes teary kisses goodbye, climbs aboard the bus. On a normal day, she's blowing and catching air kisses. Today, sullen and weepy, she peers from the window of the front seat and weakly waves to us. Gotta love having that sad face sticking in your mind as you head off to work. Breaks my heart.

E, on the other hand, was all smiles. Even though she's been feeling under the weather and exhausted, which is no surprise after sharing a room on vacation with her friend who ended up having walking pneumonia the whole time, then being with our afterschool sitter who has mono. I hate germs. I'm just waiting for the fever to kick in.

Are you fulfilled?

This was a topic of conversation between the hubs and I. We were dining al fresco in our old Queen Village neighborhood before a Phillies game. Conversations tend to be more meaningful when we're out and obligation-free. A date night, I dare say.

My children fulfill me, said the hubs.

Not me, said me.

I need more. So much more. I want to learn skills. I want to go places. I want to work for myself. I want to make a shit ton of money and have a household staff. In fact, I don't think it's possible I will ever feel fulfilled.

Ever.

So what are you doing about it, he asked.

What I can with my limited time and money. I taught myself how to make candles. I created my own line and sold them to a retail store. Until I went back to work full time. I taught myself how to knit and crochet. I'm taking an online sewing class. I have a year to complete it. We went rock climbing for Mother's Day. Skills. I would still like to get in a crew boat on the Schuykill River. I would like to make hand stamped jewelry.

Travel? I have young kids. Please.

Even living in one city isn't enough. Seattle. Chicago. A small obscure Midwestern town. I would love to.

Fulfilled?

I feel like I've barely lived.

Are you fulfilled? Are your kids, your job, your life as it is right now enough?

Why do I blog?

The final Back to Blogging Challenge asks why do I blog? Well, I've always written. For as long as I can remember up through the short time I lived in Paris after college, I've kept a handwritten journal. Mind you, these were the archaic days pre-computer. (Remember CompuServe?) My hand hurts now when I have to write that much. I wrote for the school paper in college and then went on to have a career in writing. While I "write" everyday, it's not my writing. It's advertising. So it was just natural for me to have a blog. Now, how it started, of course, was a way to vent, but my blog has evolved and includes observances, pet peeves and general nonsense about my life for whoever can relate. And for friends and family, like my mom, who hope to see pictures of her grandchildren.

I could come up with a handful of reasons to blog product reviews (hello, for the money!), or to have a photo blog (this is more likely to happen), or to create a community blog for women (but there are so many already). But mostly, I blog because I like to write. Writing to me has always been like putting together a puzzle--I love the challenge of finding just the right words to fit together.

Thanks for reading!

This event is sponsored by these generous folks: Standards of Excellence, Westar Kitchen and Bath, and Florida Builder Appliances

Back to Blogging Challenge Day 4

The Back to Blogging Event continues. Did you miss my other challenges?

Take the stairs!

The shared driveway saga

No kitchen prison for my girls

Day 4 of the challenge has me writing about a woman that inspires me. My first thought was eh, no one is jumping to mind. I better do some research, quick.

Then I thought of her.

Jen Groover.

She is a mom to twin girls whom I met at our kids gymnastics class a couple years ago. We were chatting about who-knows-what when I asked her what she did for a living. She described the handbag she makes with a special compartment in the bottom to keep everything organized. Oh, ok, I thought, she must be crafty and she probably sells it on Etsy.

That was until I googled her.

Her bag wasn't being touted on Etsy. It was being touted by celebrities!

And not only did she invent The Butler Bag, she was also juggling speaking engagements with several other businesses. I'm still boggled by the idea of how she manages it all.
What inspires me about her is that she takes risks and makes ideas happen. She puts herself out there and helps others along the way. And on top of all that, she'll stay up to dawn sewing Halloween costumes for her girls. She does it all.

I also thought of one more person who inspires me who I simply can't leave out: Elsie from A Beautiful Mess. She's incredibly talented, ambitious, versatile and passionately doing what she loves. I find anyone successfully doing what they love completely inspirational.

This event is sponsored by these generous folks: Standards of Excellence, Westar Kitchen and Bath, and Florida Builder Appliances.

Vast - Wordless Wednesday

Back to Blogging Challenge Day 3

The challenge today is to re-upload a post with a title that I am particularly proud of. That would have to be: No Kitchen Prison for My Girls from April 2008. When I was going through my old posts, the title made me stop because I couldn't imagine what the heck it was about. The best part was finding some funny things about Kyra that I had completely forgotten. So glad I have this blog to keep my memory from fading.

Kyra's birthday is coming up. She's finally going to be four. She's been talking about it for so long, I feel like she's been four for 6 months now. My mom and I were discussing a birthday gift she wasn't comfortable buying. A kitchen. When Kyra wants to help cook or bake, she likes to refer to herself as Chef Kyra (When she has hiccups, she's Miss Hiccups. And, occasionally, for reasons I haven't figured out, she's Miss Fiddlesticks. All names designated by herself.). So I got her chef gear. This is all funny to me because Chef Kyra won't eat anything that looks funny, or try anything new without first throwing a crying fit.


I digress. Meanwhile, I suggested to my mom that she get Kyra a kitchen for her birthday. But, my mom feels as though that would send the wrong message to my girls...that it teaches them their place is in the kitchen. Let's get one thing straight...I am all about gender equality. My girls will know they can do anything boys can do. Besides, that thinking comes from what they see in their own house. And let me tell you, I don't spend much time in the kitchen. Already, these are girls that have no desire to play with dolls, rather their stuffed dogs. So, I say, we'll balance it out with a workbench. Personally, I would love my own workbench and various power tools. There's a gift idea for Mother's Day! Fear not, young girls, you will never be relegated to kitchen prison.


But, if I had boys, would I be buying them a kitchen? I wonder.

This event is sponsored by these generous folks: Standards of Excellence, Westar Kitchen and Bath, and Florida Builder Appliances.

Back to Blogging Challenge Day 2

The challenge of the SITS Girls Back to Blogging event: Re-upload a post I wish more people paid attention to.

I'm reposting my Shared Driveway Saga series because for one, my father-in-law remembers it and still thinks the fact that I called my neighbors "fuckers" is pretty funny. And two, because it still makes my blood boil.

The saga began our first winter in our new house, the winter of 2007. This post is the last one in the series.

The 2nd largest snowstorm in Philadelphia's history landed on our driveway this weekend. Our SHARED driveway. Follow along here, people. It's important you know the history. At the very least, it's entertaining.

The snowstorm we had back in December was the 2nd biggest snow storm in Philadephia's history of snowstorms. Because we walk to the train station, and essentially don't drive all week, we decided we weren't wasting the back pain to shovel the snow off our SHARED driveway. If our neighbors wanted to get out, then they'd have to shovel themselves out for a change.

But they didn't. They just drove right through it.

Fuckers.

So, here we are yet again. This snowstorm trumped the 2nd biggest snowstorm of Philadelpia's history. And hell if we were shoveling the entire 22.5 inches off our 60+ foot long driveway ourselves.

My driveway is under here...somewhere...

A couple kids came around looking to make some money shoveling. My neighbors shockingly agreed to split the cost. But the kids ran off after they finished another neighbor's driveway. This was some serious snow.
So we decided to tackle the driveway ourselves the next day, wondering...will the neighbors actually help this time? Mmmmm? Doubtful.

We shoveled. We ached. We sweated. We finished our side of the driveway. Enough time had gone by that the neighbors had to know we were out there. Plus, I was making some relatively loud remarks underneath their window.

Then, the neighbor showed with his shovel. We were about 85% finished. Surprise!

I hate people who are transparent. We see through you. Just so you know.

This event is sponsored by these generous folks: Standards of Excellence, Westar Kitchen and Bath, and Florida Builder Appliances.

Let's celebrate Me!

My birthday is coming up.

Meh.

Birthdays are not as exciting as they once were, like turning 16 or 21. Even 25 was exciting. And milestone birthdays? Please! The excitement ends at 25. 30 is bittersweet because you're a true "adult", but no longer in your carefree twenties. Who wants to celebrate 40 or 50, or even 65?  Forget it. It's just old. I am eternally 34. In fact, I keep forgetting that I'm getting another year older. Denial, perhaps. In my current, young mindset, I'm too young even to have kids!

I mean, really. After 25, it's just downhill.

The only upside to a birthday is that I get something I have no good reason to buy myself. Like jewelry or techie gadgets. I'm not big into spa days. When I have so little time, I'd rather be having an experience or taking a class or getting something done that I wouldn't otherwise have time for.

Now there's a gift: free time! Oh, what I could do with hours of free time!

Of course, if you want to buy me a gift, I'm happy to give you some ideas. Like this for example would really make me happy. This would be nice too, because you can add to it for years. And if you really want to blow my socks off, just order this baby up. You don't even have to leave your chair. Of course, anything from here is good. You pick.

You know, after spending a full day at a blog conference meeting so many great people, this was soooo not the post I had in mind. There are two, actually three, posts in the works. But they're  involved and require me to not be at work to put them together. Thus, the shallow post all about me.

BTW, you've got just 3 weeks. Get ordering!

Back to Blogging Challenge Day 1

I'm taking part in a week-long challenge put forth by the SITS girls, the Back to Blogging event! It's about getting  back into a posting and commenting routine. I so need help with that. Plus, someone will walk away with Thelma and Louise, a fabulous washer and dryer set. You have no idea how badly I want a new washer and dryer. I complain about the uselessness of mine weekly. Just ask the hubs.

The first challenge is to repost your very first post. And that is definitely a challenge since I deleted it. I started this blog as a way to vent about certain very annoying people. I made the mistake of sharing my link with someone and before I knew it, very annoying people had the link. Thus, the deletion. And a quick change in the direction of my blog. So, without further ado, here is my "first" post:

October 29, 2007

 Take the stairs!

My building has six floors. I work on the fifth. There are two elevators. Some days when I feel I haven't taken my 10,000 steps, I'll take the stairs. What I need to know is ... what the !#$*! is wrong with the person who takes the elevator ONE FLOOR?!

As you can see, I like to bitch about annoying things. What I like about this post is that it's short and sweet. I still prefer posts like these. Oh, and it's full of honest attitude.

What would I change? Instead of using symbols, I would have spelled out fuck. Otherwise, not much at all.

You can't have giveaways without sponsors. Check out these generous folks: Standards of Excellence, Westar Kitchen and Bath, and Florida Builder Appliances.

My first blog conference

I started this post this morning, but my inability to focus on anything for more than 3 minutes still holds true...

I have no business blogging right now. Not only was I on vacation last week without wifi I might add. and, yes, yes, I did go through withdrawal, I actually have real work to get done, work that I'm being paid to do, work that someone is waiting for. But I can't focus because too much is happening on Twitter and I have a blog conference this Saturday. I don't want to miss anything. I'm totally and utterly distracted. I know. A blog conference? For real.

I signed up for the Philadelphia Bloggy Boot Camp back in June. I had read all kinds bloggers raving about these conferences, about traveling to various cities around the country and how much fun they had and how great it was to meet people they "know". I am certainly not a serious enough blogger to pay for a plane ticket but if it's happening locally, I think I must see what all this talk is about. You know?

There is truly a community that develops. Once you start following blogs and people on Twitter you see it. It's a virtual circle of blogging, tweeting friends. I'm sort of on the outskirts of one, I think. I don't blog or tweet regularly because, again, I'm not that serious. I mean, what do I have to offer that is so important? I'm just bitching about day to day stuff. But you do have "conversations" with people and develop a "friendship" of sorts. I'm starting to see air finger quotes. Need to stop with the quotes.

So back to this blog conference and why I'm so distracted...I'm insecure about going in alone without any friend support. I know there are tons of people there who know each other, which will be evidenced by all the squealing and hugging. I will feel left out. Like the nerdy kid who sits alone at lunch.

I have absolutely no idea what to expect or wear. Wear? Really? I have to worry about this? I mean, we all sit behind computers. Who gives a shit how we dress. For the record, I'll be nice-casual and most likely wearing flip flops. It is still summer after all. And that's how I dress all the time. Plus I hate getting dressed up.

I also heard that having business cards was a good idea. Please. That's just embarrassing for someone like me. I barely count even as a small blog. Until I started to think about meeting people and sharing contact information. I mean I do want people to read me. Maybe these business cards aren't such a cheesy idea after all. But how was I going to get business cards mere days in advance? Lucky for me someone mentioned how on Twitter! I'll be picking up my cards tomorrow. Don't hate.

There are also speakers so I expect to be inspired. I'm sure you'll see some changes here afterwards. But what I'm most excited, and nervous, about is meeting new people who blog! And that's because NOT ONE of my IRL friends blog. And most? Don't even get it. How is this? How am I friends with these people? In fact, I have one friend who barely knows how to use a computer! Can you fathom such an atrocity? One of my blogs is restaurant reviews. The girlfriends I dine with get annoyed when I take notes because "the story is more important than the dinner". See? They don't get it. But you, new friends I'll meet Saturday, will get it. You will totally get it.

And that is why I'm going to Bloggy Boot Camp.

See you there!

I have learned these lessons for you.

I like to learn things the hard way. Sure sure, everyone has advice to offer. But I? I like to figure it out myself. If you're not like me and you listen to advice, heed my examples...

Seriously, the puppy stage? Cute, super cute! But an absolute disaster on my life. Skip it if possible. It is, without a doubt, TRUE that having a puppy is having a baby all over again. You don't sleep. You can't leave the house for very long. You're cleaning up shit. Just when you get some downtime and relax, you have to take the puppy for a walk - and undo all said relaxation. The one downside to it NOT being a real life baby is that I'm not nursing it and thus not automatically losing weight. Instead, I am too tired to workout and thus reversing any progress I made on Weight Watchers. Do not, DO NOT, get a puppy. Although I would have skipped this stage with my kids too, so what does that say about me?

Digital photo storage? Get your own hard drive. Don't share it with anyone or anything else. Because you never know, someone, like maybe your husband, may drop that precious drive on which he has stored movies, and LOSE.EVERY.PHOTO.YOU'VE.TAKEN.FOR.THREE.YEARS. I'm not bitter at all. This is one of those things in marriages that simply do not need to be shared.

That is all.

Who the hell has time?

Summer vacation is over. School started today. 

I have nothing to look forward to. Certainly not the new morning routine, rise at the crack of dawn, workout, get kids and myself ready and out the door routine. I can't even look forward to sleep, because with the puppy in our room, I'm not getting any. And wine won't help because I have to invoke the will of Jillian Michaels and Weight Watchers to recover my pre-puppy, pre-vacation body. No wine for me! At least not as much as was being consumed previously.

I'm thinking it might be time to consider a nanny/housekeeper. We already have a dogwalker, a regular babysitter, and a cleaning lady. Why not lump all those skills into one person who will also have our dinner prepared each night? She can get the grocery shopping done while the kids are at school. Pick up drying cleaning. Do the laundry! I can imagine finally for the first time in 8 years having a really clean, clutter-free home. I'll even have time to workout!

I think this might have to happen.