The demon sleeps.

The demon, in this case, is occupying the shell of my formerly sweet and reserved three-year-old. He looks peaceful enough with those eyes closed tightly and his shallow breath whistling in the air. Be not deceived my friend. Be not deceived.

If it’s not a case of “making it snow” by way of spreading twenty pounds of flour across the kitchen and dining room floor, it’s mixing Powerade and Bisquick into a goopy mess on the carpet. Oh and then there was the thousand piece puzzle that just happened to explode all over the carpet. Do you happen to understand how difficult it is to pick up tiny puzzle pieces off of Berber? This child needs to be on twenty-four hour watch. And I? I just don’t have the energy for that. A woman needs to sleep!

It isn’t that I don’t love to clean up ridiculously unnecessary messes at any given minute of the day, but, well, I don’t actually. I loathe that idea entirely. I’m not a huge fan of cleaning constantly throughout the day, though I realize, now more than ever, that it is a much more effective way of avoiding the treacherous end of the day mass overhaul of accumulated junk.

He does these things. These things that annoy the hell out me. Things that require me to drop everything in that very moment and tend to them. And then, do you want to know what he does? He apologizes, wraps those tiny little arms around my neck and says, “I wuv you, mommy.” That is why I put up with it all. Because he doesn’t mean to drive me crazy, he’s just so damn good at it.

In short, mama needs a break. Hard.

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Creative Estates Retreat

Some exciting news in the other world I exist in…the Creative Estates Retreat world.

We just launched our new site this morning and are over the moon about it.

Kristin from Ahoy Graphics did the best job. Manifested our every dream for what the site should be, really.

Head on over to the Creative Estates Retreat site to check out our pretty little pet.

creativeestatespeek

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Twenty pounds.

This is what happens when you choose not to lock your child in the closet with a cell phone and a twenty while you take a quick shower for an interview.

Mothers everywhere, learn from me. Lock your children in a room with padded walls while you attempt to improve your personal hygiene.

For the love of everything holy, heed this advice, if nothing else.

By all means, however, if you’d like to experience what your kitchen, dining room, and half of your living room might look like with twenty pounds of flour strewn about, knock yourself out. Just know that your knees will hurt from vacuuming the grout for an hour.

And flour will still be everywhere.

Ahh, children. What a breath of fresh air.

flour

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Final hello there! house Meet’n’Greet at Joe’s Farm Grill

We’re just a couple weeks away from our final meet’n’greet before the main event in a little over a month (what?! where’d the time go?!).

This meet’n’greet event will help spread the awesome word about our two-day, October home & garden event in Tempe. Full of mingles, delicious foods, information overload, and a hands-on Painting Like A Pro demonstration, it’s sure to be a blast at Joe’s Farm Grill on Saturday, September 17, 2011 from 9am-11am.

Head on over to get your tickets now. Space is limited and they’re only $10.

While you’re in hello there! house mode, check out the website for all the latest information on contributors and classes. Not to mention, there’s totally a contest going on right now on our blog for a free full event pass. Uh…that’s basically a free $225 gift of amazing.

Check it all out, join us on the 17th, and then again in October. We’d love to smoosh you!

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A place, a pace, a memory.

Not many people know that before I became the master of the spawn rearing, I was in the music industry. It explains a lot about my crass sense of humor and my ability to always be one of the boys. Hell, when your demographic is twenty-seven year-old males, it comes with the territory.

I met Husfriend while working in radio, dontcha know? Someday I’ll tell that story and there will be a nifty little hyperlink for you to reference.

Tonight I was bantering back and forth with a friend on Twitter and a King Missile song was referenced because a) when is an obscure nineties song reference not applicable during friendly banter and b) see: crass sense of humor. We played that song at times on the station where I worked. It threw me back to a time where things were different. Simple things. Every things. All of it.

Not to suggest that I have any sort of distaste for the new life I lead, but, the banter mixed with a splash of an experience at a show last night, made me forget what it was like to be in the world of music. Shows almost every night of the week, networking your face off with label reps, talented artists, and fellow music lovers, sleepless nights, endless days. It was all so fast-paced and devoted. There was no leaving early. Those were your friends up there on that big stage. There was no time to eat or sleep. You just existed in the realm of music, never to be idle because that meant invisibility. You had to be memorable.

The mindset flows through me more than most know. I’ve applied it to my current lifestyle. Never be invisible. Ever. Sometimes, however, your world, and the people therein, do not align with this mantra. There are better things to be done, more important people to see, and you’ve simply done a bang up job of killing time for them until those things were readily available. And this post about missing the music biz, just turned into a deeply profound discontentment with relationships. Amazing how that happens.

The tie-in lies in the reality that when you’re in the presence of the adored, it instills a false sense of self-importance and priority. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, does it not. When you haven’t seen someone for months or years and you have just a few hours to revel in their company, you soak up every damned second of that time. Nothing is more important.

I miss musicians and label reps and music lovers. I miss their mentality. The specialty in seeing one another.

I miss being missed.

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hello there! house full event pass giveaway

Check it out over on the hello there! house blog.

We’re giving away a full event pass to one lucky person and that’s pretty boss since it’s worth $225.

Head on over and get your entry on.

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Time to tip the scale.

A post about weight. And hating weight. Nay, loathing weight.

Specifically weight gain.

I’ve always been rail thin. Always. Twiggy was a nickname until about four years ago when I got pregnant with Nugget.

I only gained 35 pounds during my pregnancy and managed to lose a significant amount of that weight between birthing the child and ten days of breastfeeding. But now, things have changed.

I made the conscious decision, with the help of an emotional intervention by Husfriend and my family, four months ago to do something significant to help with my “mood swings”. Abilify, a bi-polar medication was the resulting solution.

Along with the newfound attention to my mental health and that tiny blue pill, I’ve managed to add two inches to my waistline and a few extra chins to my neck. This? Is not good for that mental health I’m working so hard to tend.

I’m not overweight by any stretch. In fact, I’m now the average weight for my towering height of 5’10”. But…BUT…it’s just not the body I’ve always had. The skin I’m so used to living in has disappeared.

In fighting off a larger demon, I’ve been introduced to a new, more terrifying demon…self-esteem. I’ve always been a confident person, outgoing, quirky, the “fun” one, but lately, because of the way I look, I’ve lost my will to bask in the personality that better defined me than my pant size.

So I’m going to do something about it. With a significant amount of accountability, I’m setting a goal to tip the scale in the other direction. To take back control of my physical health while addressing my ugly mental health. Morgan inspired me with her post about her 100 pound weight loss as a result of depression. I don’t want to lose the weight by acting on the overwhelming urge I’ve felt to swear off eating until I lose the ell-bees. Morgan’s experience has inspired me to use my unhappiness as a motivator to do it the healthy way. It’s going to be hard and I’m going to need you guys to take good care to yell at me to eat something because, lately, I just haven’t been and it hurts. Hard.

My biggest fear? Buying a scale (no I don’t own one and never have). I’m terrified I will begin to have one of those obsessive relationships with the most obnoxious inanimate objects in a given person’s household. A daily battle royale if you will. Let’s not even mention the war to be inevitably waged during The Shed every month. Sheesh.

So. Will you accept my challenge. To keep me in line and make me do this whole weight loss thing the right way?

I need you.

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Second Non-Official #LexusRoadTrip

I embarked on the first official #LexusRoadTrip last November to Bloggy Bootcamp in St. George, UT with Kelly.

This time, things are a little bit different.

Tomorrow I head out with Audrey to road trip our way, picking up Megan en route, to San Diego for Saturday of the BlogHer Conference.

This road trip is proudly driven by the Lexus IS350.

Follow us on Twitter for all of the shenanigans and I’ll be sure to update this here blog along the way.

Hello, open road!

lexus

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Rosemary Watson’s Photo Challenge: Day 7, Eyes

I just could not get my child who was blessed with the most brilliant greenish-brown eyes to hold still for me today long enough to capture those darling peepers of his.

Instead? You crazy kids get sock monkey eyes.

day7

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