The Island of Yesterday

On the Island of Yesterday
My laundry is piled up
Washed but not folded
The dishes are in the sink
Starting to stink up the kitchen
The garbage is bagged up in one, two, three bags
Waiting to be thrown away

On the Island the Yesterday
The bathroom still needs to be scoured
The kitchen still needs to be mopped
The front room still needs to be vacuumed
And the fridge needs to be cleaned

On the Island of Yesterday
I left so much undone
There was so much I wanted to so
But I've sailed away from that Island
And I'm on my way to
The State of Dreaming about Tomorrow



This was inspired by my new book The Awe-Manac and I've also made an art journal page based on my poem.

All I Really Need To Know...

I learned from making art.

1. Art is messy. And that's not necessarily a bad thing.

2. If you screw up on something, don't toss it. Try and cover up the mistake with a button or a paper flower. You might find that you like it better anyway.

3. Look for materials wherever you go. You can find inspiration in the most unexpected places and at the most unexpected times.

4. You'll be inspired to work as you work, not as you're looking at pictures of others' works on Flickr (although that is certainly fun).

5. It is possible to let art overtake your life and your home. And, again, that's not necessarily a bad thing.


Where have you learned the important lessons in your life? Blog about it and then let me know. I'd love to read your important lessons.

And if you've never read Robert Fulghum's All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten (which inspired my five lessons), I hope you'll take a couple of minutes and read it.

Make that to-do list!

It's the new year. Time to make new lists full of fine resolutions. And then...don't complete them.

Want a list that you can actually get done? Here's "The To-Do List You Can Actually Do" from this month's issue of Real Simple magazine.

• Hit snooze.
• Shampoo; rinse; repeat.
• Forget to floss.
• Eat a bagel.
• Forget to put laundry in the dryer. Clothes can be permanently pressed (whatever that means) tomorrow.
• Screen phone calls.
• See mailman coming and realize Netflix and bills are still on the kitchen counter.
• Get sucked into movie on Lifetime.
• Grow anxious as Meredith Baxter (Birney?) murders the dad from 7th Heaven.
• Put off remaining duties while reading celebrity gossip.
• Decide for yourself "Who Wore it Best?"
• Skip Pilates.
• Eat a burrito.
• Pick up The World Is Flat on the nightstand.
• Read paragraph. Put book down.
• Leave eye makeup on.
• Lights out.

Ha ha! I'm going to cut this one out and laminate it. But I think I need to add, "Check blog to see if anyone made any comments," and "Check Facebook to see if I have any new friends."

If you happen to be at the store and you see Real Simple, pick it up for a minute and read "Lists of Legends" on page 102. Very funny.

Win Stuff! Like totally for free!

If you're interested in stamping, card making, and general paper crafting, check out the Simon Says Stamp Blog. You could win some cool stamps or other fun crafting things. You can also enter up to 10 times, so, ya know, do it...if you want to.

Whoa! Is it the new year already?

I don't know about you, but does it seem like this year has just flown by?!



I hope you all have a wonderful new year and I'm putting it out in the Universe that you will all receive blessings galore! (You know, because the Universe and I are super-tight!)

The 12 Troubles of Christmas

Okay, I have to start out saying that Christmas really was quite lovely, and, overall, the holiday break has been very nice. But it seems that I've had a few more "troubles" over the past week and a half than I would like. Some of the troubles were mere annoyances. A couple were a little more excrutiating. And I don't know if there were 12. Why don't we count them and see?

1. The snow. I hate driving in the snow! Before my accident last January and then getting stuck in a snowbank on my way to work on Valentine's Day, I hated driving in the snow. Now I despise driving in the snow and sometimes I even think about not going to work when it is snowing (it hasn't happened yet, but don't rule that out). So, I am counting the snow as one of the troubles of Christmas because it took me about an hour and a half to get home from school after we got out for the break on the 19th. Then I got stuck about 4 times between my in-laws' house and our apartment. What usually takes me about 5 minutes took 15-20 minutes to get home.

However, on the positive side, it didn't snow on Saturday and there were no problems picking up TSH from the airport.

2. The food. I had decided to make waffles for Christmas breakfast. Mmm, waffles.... Oh, where was I? Oh, yeah. Christmas breakfast. So, I started making the waffles using my trusty Krusteaz belgian waffle mix and instead of actually reading the package, I instead decided that it needed 1 1/3 c of oil instead of 1 1/3 c of water. Just so you know, even if you decide to add a little more mix and some water to the batter, it will not work! Instead, it will leave a mess in your belgian waffle maker that you will have to clean out later on. I guess I should do that today.

Another food related trouble is that I ate too much junk food and I was sick for a couple of days. That was totally my own fault. I'll take the blame for that. But who can resist all of those yummy goodies?!

Yet another food related trouble is when we took the boys to IHOP and Andrew had a fit the entire time and refused to eat anything and spent about a half hour embarrassing me.

But TSH and I went out to dinner by ourselves one night (thanks to the parents for taking the boys for the entire night!) at The Training Table, and it was delightful.

3. The movie. TSH and I decided to take the boys out to see The Tale of Despereaux Christmas morning. And while we were there, the power surged and went out at the theater, so we only saw about a half hour of the movie. We were given passes to go back later, which we finally did on Saturday. But the theater was freezing and I forgot my blanket in the car! (I had remembered it on Christmas.) The manager said that ever since the power outage, they hadn't been able to warm up that theater. Lovely.

But on the happy side, we did get to finish seeing the tale of the little mouse and TSH and I went and saw Twilight (1st time for him, 3rd time for me). And it was still totally awesome!

4. The ouchies. After we gave up on the movie on Christmas Day, we all got into the car and drove to my parents' house. Unfortunately, before I got in the car, I hit my head and it hurt so bad I thought I was going to have a concussion. No conussion, fortunately, but I did have a bruise on my head until about, oh, yesterday.

Then, early Monday morning (about 3:30), Nathan woke up and I decided to be nice and let TSH sleep (that was my mistake right there!), so I got up and fixed Nathan a bottle. I then decided to sit on the couch for a little bit because my stomach was making some rumbling noises (see #2. The food). After about a half hour of watching QVC sell canes and other items to people who need some help moving about the house, I turned off the TV, got up off the couch, slipped on some Christmas toy packaging that had yet to be thrown away, and hurt myself so badly that I wondered if I would have to go to the doctor. I was sure that I had screwed up my knee and I couldn't get off the floor by myself (fortunately , TSH had heard "a scream" and then noticed I wasn't in bed, so he came to find me, or else who knows when I would have been found). Good news, I didn't screw up my knee. Bad news, I did pull a muscle in my leg and it's now Thursday and I'm just starting to walk normally...and it still hurts. It's a good thing that we live on the bottom floor and that we don't have any stairs or I would be in big trouble. I'm not handling stairs very well yet.

And now I wish I had bought that cane that rolled which I saw on QVC just before I got hurt. I could probably use one right now.

And there is no good side to the ouchies. Except maybe that I didn't end up in the emergency room for either of them.

Alright, so maybe there weren't 12 troubles of Christmas, but what kind of post title would "The 4 Troubles of Christmas" be?

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and that you didn't ruin the waffles or do yourself bodily harm.

And to all a goodnight!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Hollie, my SIL, emailed me these questions and I thought, "Hey, those would be great to put on my blog!" Of course, she beat me to it, but I'm going to put the questions and my answers on here anyway.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Well, it depends. If it's a present for the kids, wrapping paper. If it's a present for friends or older family members, gift bags. So, both!

2. Real tree or artificial? I like my little, three foot, fake Christmas tree that I just put up on a table. But even if I had a bigger tree, I wouldn't want a real one, because I don't want to have to vacuum any more than I absolutely have to.

3. When do you put up the tree? Right after Thanksgiving. I want to enjoy it for as long as possible.

4. When do you take the tree down? Sometime before I have to go back to work, but never before New Year's.

5. Do you like egg nog? Heck yeah! What's not to like?! Sugar and fat are always my favorite holiday treats.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? I wonder what a "child" means. Does that mean before I turned 18 or before I left home or is it before I stopped believing in Santa? Maybe it's just the gifts that I actually remember receiving. That's what I'll put. My Cabbage Patch doll named Norma, my dollhouse made out of cardboard, and my stereo. Sorry, that's more than one.

7. Hardest person to buy for? TSH. I always try to get something that makes him jump up and down because he's so excited, but it hasn't happened yet. Maybe he just doesn't do excited.

8. Easiest person to buy for? Myself! I always know what I like the best! And my mom because she always tells me what she wants other people to get her for Christmas. And we have pretty similar tastes. (Hollie said, "Andria (she likes gift cards)." Well, it's true. I do like gift cards because I always know what I like the best!)

9. Do you have a nativity scene? Notice the emphasis I put on "a"? That's because I don't have just one nativity scene; I have multiple nativity scenes. I don't even know how many I have, but I'm going to try and remember now: eskimo nativity, cheap-o porcelin nativity from Big Lots, Charming Tales nativity, Precious Moments teeny-tiny tea cup nativity...I think I have others too, but I can't think of what they are right now. This year I only put up my Fontanini nativity that I bought on clearance last year and I bought 3 Wise Men for it this year on eBay. I'm going to see if I can find a star for it too.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? I am so bad with Christmas cards! I've gotten to the point that I've just given up on them. But I love the cards I receive!

11. Worst Christmas gift you've ever received? An electric can-opener. TSH gave it to me the first year we lived in our own apartment because I had said that we needed an electric can-opener. And, now, five years later, I still can't figure out how to use the stupid thing, so I always just use a hand can-opener. The only present that I've received that was worse than that one was when TSH told me that he had a surprise for me after I had been gone for a week on a trip, and I came home to find that a vacuum cleaner was the surprise.

12. Favorite Christmas movie? I think it has to be a tie between White Christmas and A Christmas Story. It wouldn't be Christmas without Bing singing "Sisters" or without an evil Santa saying, "You'll shoot your eye out!"

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? I usually start some time in September, but I'm slow this year and didn't start until just before Thanksgiving. I'm almost done. I just need to think of something for my SIL, Michelle.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Of course not! At least I don't remember doing that. That explanation would hold up in court, right?

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Honey-baked ham, funeral potatoes, and fresh rolls.

16. Lights on the tree? White only. I think they're so much more elegant.

17. Favorite Christmas song? BNL and Sarah McLachlan's "God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman" and Barry Manilow singing "Ave Maria."

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? I like to do both. We usually do a year at home, and then the next year we go somewhere. This year we'll be home; next year is Disneyland!

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Mmm, Olive?

20. Open the gifts Christmas morning or Christmas Eve? Christmas morning, even though, even as an adult, I can't sleep all night Christmas Eve.

21. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? I think this is the one time of the year that I try really hard not to be annoyed. So, I can't think of anything.

22. Favorite ornament, theme, or color? I used to do lots o' snowmen, but I've kept them put away this year and I'm not putting as much out. So, I guess I'll just say red and gold are my colors. I have red and gold poinsettias on my tree.

23. What do you want for Christmas this year? I want for my entire family to be healthy and happy so we can have fun while TSH is home for 2 weeks.