Clock

Here's a clock that Diego and I made a few years ago, when he first started asking me about time:

I made the dots and attached the popsicle sticks for him, and then we did the rest together.  I did make a tiny pilot hole before installing the popsicle sticks, and the screw is fairly tight so that the hands can be spun around easily, but still hold their positions. Our clock is mostly used in imaginative ways, with occasional counting and time-learning play. 

Made from scrap wood, popsicle sticks, tiny wood screw, felt-tipped pens.

Park Bench

When Joe and I first came to Los Angeles, we moved from a tiny Manhattan apartment, so we had a lot of furnishing to do.  One of the first additions to our house was this park bench, which is now one of our favorite places to sit in the house.

I found an old bench with broken slats that someone was throwing away.  Saving the beautiful curvy cast iron pieces, we replaced the broken wood with new red oak.  It was too pretty to put in the garden, so it has been sitting by our front door ever since.

It really is a comfortable place to sit, and people have even been known to take cat naps there (although whenever I see that, I want to blanket them in a newspaper to keep them warm Central Park-style.)  We used new brass bolts with round button tops to attach the wood.

The whole project cost us about $40, but it could be done for a lot less if you used pine or recycled wood.  One of the fun parts was deciding how long we wanted the bench to be.  I almost made it into a chair, and someday I'll probably make another one as a matching chair, which I think would make excellent living room furniture.

The combination of velvet, wood and cast iron makes me very happy!

All Sorts of Horrible Things About My Mother

I'll have to confess, Mom was not very enthusiastic when I first told her about my blog.  She cautioned me about sharing private information, told me not to "spill my guts," and said in no uncertain terms not to write anything about her.  My response was, "But MA, my blog is called, 'All Sorts of Horrible Things About My Mother!'"

 

                                                              My mom holding me, 1970

Fortunately, she's now an avid fan of these posts.  As with most of my endeavors, she's cautious and protective at first, and generous and supportive until the end.  She's got a great sense of humor (even though the punchline is usually in the first sentence of her jokes), she is a natural teacher, and she somehow made it look like having four kids in under 6 years in your forties was just fun and easy.

If you have a mother that you love anywhere near as much as I love mine, lucky you, give her a call!

Happy Birthday, Ma!  I love you so much!

Here's another picture of Julio sitting on the toy bed, 'cause I know you'll probably like that better than the adorable picture of you that I posted above:

I wish I was there to celebrate with you!

Buy Now, Pay Later

Danger Cat

A couple of years ago, I took this picture of my friend's cat:

My friend's sister surprised her by having the photo turned into a painting:

The photo was taken to Nepal, where three different versions of it were painted on metal by Nepalese artists.  My friend's sister then got to choose her favorite one.  The commissions were arranged by Danger Dogs from Nepal, an American art dealer who practices fair trade and "micro-finance through art patronage."  How cool is that?

No Afterglow?

Poor Halloween... so quickly cast aside!

Weekend Highlights

Costumes of course:

So SPOOOOKY!!!

Happy jack-o-lantern soup:

This monster decoration:

Candy search & seizure:

 

Our friends with the two darling little girls dressed their kids like a police officer and a firefighter.  The parents dressed up like a robber and fire.  So cute!

When we got home, we had trick-or-treaters coming to our door, and no candy to give out.  Diego and Ruben wanted to give away some that they had just collected, and they had so much fun answering the door and handing out most of their candy.

Enough already with Halloween.  Between school parties and neighborhood street fairs, gatherings at friends' houses and trick-or-treating, I'm relieved to see some November!