happy half birthday!

Today is Emily's half-birthday, which we decided we'd celebrate every year since her birthday is in the middle of the holidays. She spent the morning at the zoo -- hopefully some animal photos came out well, and if they did I'll add them later. She then got lunch at a swanky Japanese restaurant. Right now she's out cold, but when she's up it's present time! She's getting more haba blocks for her (small) set; a really swell wooden Totoro puzzle (up close here and here); and what might be my new obsession, some Holztiger animals. I am loving these things as kid's toys, and plan to give her a couple animals for every occasion. And in case you were wondering, no, she's not getting presents twice, these are her presents for the year (although one plush polar bear was put away for her actual birthday).

In other news, things are horrifically hectic around here, but a break is in sight, thank goodness! More then!

more rose cupcakes

I didn't make these, they're from the new issue of Family Fun, but aren't they cute? And certainly going to be easier than what I did. Although, after my experience with the sushi cupcakes, I personally don't think I want to deal with fruit roll-ups on anything ever again. Kids would probably love them though.

(not much of a) MoCCA report

So the MoCCA Art Fest was last weekend, something we really look forward to every year -- so much so that we've already bought our table for 2007! (June 23rd-24th - mark your calendars!) Emily and I just went on Saturday (that exhausted her -- and me -- plenty). And we were pretty busy so as usual, didn't get to see a whole lot, but the show was really busy and everyone was pretty up. It's always nice to go to a show where everyone seems to be in a good mood.

Evan already posted a couple of the sketches we got in Emily's book -- we're pretty slack about getting sketches but we've got some cute ones. Besides the Gahan WIlson and Brian Lee O'Malley he posted, we got excellent drawings for her from Christine Norrie ad Todd Webb. Todd, btw, gave me some new comics that were all awesome. I didn't get any other comics myself, but Evan brought home some stuff. Haven't had a chance to look through it though.

The one disappointment of the show -- I saw Tara McPherson sitting at a table, and thought she was there for the show -- I desperately wanted to get a sketch from her in Emily's book -- not only am I a big fan, but so is Emily! At least, I think that's why she's always trying to steal my Tara McPherson Dunny from the desk. But, she was only sitting for a couple hours, by the time one of us was able to get up again she was gone. (And Evan was so swamped on Sunday he barely left the table and missed her Sunday session too!) Oh well, I doubt she does convention sketches anyway, but phooey!

Anyway, MoCCA rules as usual, at least what little we saw of it. Here's to going both day next year!

cute kid's aprons

How cute is that little puppet theater apron? It reminds me of a similar apron I saw a while back in a Japanese craft book -- that one was for the parent, and had a puppet theater up on the chest area, I guess so you could play with the puppets while sitting down. It was so cute I wanted to buy the book! (But I didn't -- can't buy everything...) Also really cute for kids are these aprons from Furnis:



Besides the goose and mushroom, there are also cheese and egg as well. Goose is my favorite, though.

a wiki meme!

I was tagged by Thien-Kim with this one; it's pretty fun!!

1. Go to Wikipedia.
2. In the Search box, type your birth month and day (but not year).
3. List three events that happened on your birthday.
4. List two important birthdays and one interesting death.
5. One holiday or observance (if any).

Events:
1767 - Mason-Dixon line, survey separating Maryland from Pennsylvania is completed.
1851 - Herman Melville's Moby-Dick is first published as The Whale by Richard Bentley of London.
1985 - Nintendo releases the Nintendo Entertainment System in the United States.
There were too many to choose from! So I picked one from each of the last 3 centuries.

Births:
1898 - Lotte Lenya, Austrian singer and actress (d. 1981)
1919 - Anita O'Day, American singer

Death(s):
2000 - Julie London, American singer and actress (b. 1926)
2000 - Gwen Verdon, American dancer and actress (b. 1925)
Okay, I cheated, but Julie London and Gwen Verdon on the same day?!

Holiday:
French Republican Calendar - Piment (Chili Pepper) Day, twenty-seventh day in the Month of Vendemiaire

I'm tagging Christopher, (who I just discovered is way into OTR like Evan is! Which is irrelevant but...) Also Mary and Cate, who I know haven't done this one.

r.i.p., mr. jinx

Thanks to everyone who's been saying nice things over on Evan's journal. We got home a little while ago from the vet, where Mr. Jinx finally finished out his run here with us. He started to really deteriorate a few days ago, and this morning while we were waiting from a call back from his Dr., he got up onto a kitchen counter and then fell off and was unable to get back up without help. We were hoping he could make it to his 15th birthday next month, but still, nearly 15 years is pretty good for a kitty. Bye bye, Jinxie. Hope Pixie's waiting to show you where the best sleeping spots are.

update: Crushy is a little bounder! Not 6 hours after we came home with no Jinx, and he took possession of the bedroom again. (He gave it up about a year and a half ago). It was nice to have the kitty company though!

Yo!!

And here's the kid's show that should go on the air right now, Yo! Gabba Gabba!. The site has a trailer and two songs for downloading -- we showed Emily the trailer a couple days ago when she was sick and it perked her right up. She now insists on seeing the trailer as many times as we can stand and has added the phrase "gabba gabba" to her repertoire. (Her favorite character is Brobee, the green stripey guy.)

The show isn't acually real yet, but with the minds of the Aquabats behind it you know it'll be fantastic. Hopefully someone will pick it up and Emily can enjoy Yo! Gabba Gabba! for real someday! (And in the meantime, where's the merch, guys? Do I have to make her a Brobee shirt myself?)

In other news, my hosting problems continue, and between work, upcoming Mocca and Emily's having been sick (and the bad Mr. Jinx news) I can't attend to it right now. Sorry to those of you who have had trouble commenting or who's emails to me haven't gotten through!