Trying this again

In mid-August our little family moved from Oakland, CA to Philadelphia, PA and I am taking a lovely break from working. Unless I can figure out a way to not go back to work... door to door knife sales? Home daycare for potty-trained children JUST for nap time? Turning my doodles into wallpaper? (Dreaming.)

Since I have the time, was thinking I wanted to start writing a bit again. It's been ages since I last posted anything here. 4 years. And I can't remember how do use Blogger, which is sad. Old Lady Colla is helpless. I would love to rename this and update the template, too. But we will see. Maybe Ollie can help me. He's 8 and probably can do more on a computer than I can.


I'm currently at a great little coffee shop near our house, called Brown Street Coffee and Banhery, waiting for an exterminator to come to the house. A mouse brushed past me this morning while I was drinking my coffee and I'm disgusted and creeped out. I have an irrational fear of rodents.


We had a mouse this past weekend while my folks were visiting. I think part of the reason they terrify me so much is that they're so skittish. If only they would slow down and relax. Back to the mouse this weekend. On Saturday night my dad said he saw one on his way to bed. Since my dad is known to often be full of shit, I didn't believe him. Then I saw it. Then Ollie saw it. And being my son, he cried and we almost had to carry him out the front door. (That's my boy. I've taught him well.) I decided we would leave the front door open and maybe it would run out. It worked! It ran out. And our lovely neighbor who is also terrified of rodents ran up and closed our front door. All was right with the world. My lovely neighbor texted me that night and said that the mouse had ended up in her house. And her husband had put a trap out. And now THE mouse was dead. Things were looking up. Ollie and I were breathing easy. So free. So happy. Until this morning, while I was sitting on my couch, leisurely enjoying my coffee when one ran out from behind the couch. SUCH A SPAZZ. Now I'm away from my house waiting for Joe the Exterminator to get to my house. And I don't know if I should tell my lovely neighbor about this new development or not. I don't want to ruin her day.

i've moved to tumblr.

fun ny

happy mother's day to all the mamas

Last week we drove past a frat house. There were 4 guys sitting on the roof, drinking beer. Ollie asked why they were on the roof. Without thinking I said, “They are not very smart.” A few days later, on Saturday, Ollie and I were driving home from the grocery store. We drove by another frat house and again, a group of shirtless guys are sitting and also standing on the roof. A few blocks later,Ollie says, “Mommy, I think we just aren’t very smart.” I didn’t connect the other day and start wondering who’s saying this to him. Where's he hearing this? I asked him, "Why do you think we aren't very smart?" He said, “I think we should go on the roof.” 3 year olds are nuts.

Granny and my Aunt K at the beach

Granny

My maternal grandmother, Rosemary, holding my mom at her christening. Also pictured, by mom's sister Kathy, and my grandfather, John T.

lovely photo of my mom, two aunts and grandma in 1964. my mom is on the far right.

i wanted to share this from margaret gould's blog, fountly, because of the bits about women helping other women. in my career, it's more often than not been women who have taught me the most, advocated for me and most of all, inspired me. (not to say there haven't been good men, because there have been, too.)

march photo a day on instagram

i feel bad for neglecting this space, however, i've been working a lot at night or too tired to do much of anything once i get ollie down.

for the month of february i did a feb photo a day thing on instagram. i'm doing it for march, too, so i'm going to share that here. mostly i'm drawing the items, because it's fun and it inspires (prompts me) to do more than doodle or write the same things over and over. at first i thought i'd just do lettering but i'm kind of enjoying the drawing part,too.

march 1: up


march 2: fruit


march 3:my neighborhood


march 4: my bedside

kyoto bakery

a coworker sent me this link to a minimalist bakery in kyoto.

it's so peaceful. love the backlit mouse hole.



photo from here.

places to go

chocolate dipped potato chips? YES!

love these fashion week collages.

great sweater.

baked potato bar!

g and i have never really been big valentine's day people. our 1st valentine's day g made me a delicious dinner. he's made me tons of delicious dinners since that night, but never again on valentine's day. i do like to remind him of this.

but when you have a kid it all changes.

i kind of got into it this year. this meant i made each child a card and spent valentine's day eve with the masses at target, buying bags, temporary tattoos, candies and other crap.

i loved every minute of it.

not exactly what i had in mind. i wanted glassine bags, twine, and natural candy*, but this is what i could get my hands on at 8:30 at night on valentine's eve.






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and this is what he was wearing when g picked him up from school



* i'm sure the parents were cursing my name when they saw the chemical-laden candies i gave to their children.

we like to paint

on saturday night my folks too ollie for the night so we could go to dinner. it was so wonderful. we went to cesar. we ate paella.



then we came home and watched midnight in paris. i loved it.

happy monday!

i don't know why i've been so bad about posting lately. i guess i'm feeling pretty uninspired.



i'm feeling motivated this week. i hope to be here more often.

not too much excitement around these parts, except potty training and pink eye.
don't be jealous.