Greek Speak

I never pledged a sorority in college. I figured I was already Greek. Despite that, my friend Laura (she owns Trumpet's Uncle Domino) asked me if I would come and speak to her Pan-Hellenic club about Art Everyday. (Laura's not too smart as is evidenced by the fact that she asked me to talk.) She further offered to pay for my gas - I figured it would be about $1200 to get the Yukon down to Peachtree City so I happily agreed.

On the E-vite that Cele sent out, she told everyone that I had been on HGTV. Not true. Should be true, but alas, erroneous information. (She constantly confuses HGTV with Dog the Bounty Hunter). So I started out my introduction by dispelling several rumors and myths -- celebrities need to do this all the time.

1. I have never been on HGTV, but have been known to watch it.
2. I have never piloted the space shuttle.
3. I have never been playmate of the year.
4. I have never won the Iditarod.
5. Any hopes of getting "cultured" as a result of my little speech were completely unfounded.

The club President, Chantal, graciously hosted the meeting in her lovely home. I met lots of nice ladies, sealed the exits and yacked about how I got started on Art Everyday (Debbi Crane) as well as how I went from corporate statistic to mixed-up media artist and book author in less than three years. The ladies were wonderful - my favorite kind of audience: captive.

A Greek girl with a whole bunch of "Greek" girls.

This is Debbie. She missed the group photo so we took this one. She's an absolute hoot! Debbie was the only person in the group who had heard of CPS or Etsy. No worries, I am evangelizing the message of collage and hope to the masses. Debbie has a darling Etsy shop where she makes tassels out of vintage salt and pepper shakers. I want one from the dog of choice, Deb.

Thanks to everyone at the ASCAPA for suffering me and for this neat-o Certificate of Appreciation - so sweet! A special thanks to my girlfriend,Laura for the great intro and the fab salad at Tea Fusions. Y'all were great hostesses. I'd love to come back next year if you'll have me.

In honor of Trump's win

Trumpet took a four point major today and we're celebrating here at Praterposte with adorable flickr-lifted images of the dog of choice.

I knew doxies could fly! Vicki over at I Need Orange found this on flickr and it's too cute not to share. Vicki has an appreciation for short-longs as she has a corgi. The Queen breeds her Corgis to her Doxies and makes Dorgis - that makes Vicki and I practically related.

"In this painting, the Queen is shown with some of her favourite dogs, including one of the royal dorgis. The dorgis first appeared when the Queen's corgi Tiny cross-bred with Princess Margaret's dachshund, Pipkin. There have been 8 dorgis - Tinker, Pickles, Chipper, Piper, Harris, Brandy, Cider and Berry. The Queen currently owns three dorgis (Brandy, Cider and Berry)."

You'd think the Royals of all people would respect the sanctity of a bloodline. Sheesh.

So here's to you Trumpy. We love ya and can't wait for you to come home on Sunday. Only 3 points away from a finished champion. We're almost free!

Meet the Buttericks

They will be making a formal entrance into society in the next issue of CPS, but for now, a casual howdy-do: meet McCall Butterick and his wife Mitzi Singer-Butterick (of the Atlanta Singers).

Below, Mitzi is modeling a lovely crinolined skirt in a colorful Bohemian print by Anna Maria.

Mitzi, partial to AM and Bohemian for obvious reasons, had this quilt made for her home.

A former ballerina, debutaunte and graduate of Miss Florence's Finishing School, the ever graceful Mitzi bids you farewell and looks forward to seeing you again at your local newsstand late next week. Ta ta.

Back to School

Today was the first day of middle school for our boys.

These boys who are spooning in the bouncy seat.

Our 4 pounders in their little sweetpea gowns with the draw strings.

They started middle school you know,

the ones with their chubby feet in their mouths or dangling from the stroller.

The little guys in the highchairs feeding noodles to Winona.

Reese, the one on the big wheel.

Connor, in the footie pajamas.

The kindergarteners.

Started sixth grade today.

Heat Waves, Hot Dogs & Adventures in Motherhood

I've been uncharacteristically quiet for a week, thought I'd check in so y'all didn't think I got heat stroke and fell unconscious. I'm alive and well and blogging from an undisclosed air-conditioned location in the north suburbs of Hotlanta.

It's about 102 outside according to the thermometer in my gas-guzzling SUV. Look - I'm not exaggerating. (For once.)

I wanted to take a picture of Trumpet beached and panting on the driveway to post here, but didn't have the heart to put him through it. I borrowed the above picture from the Internet. Our first wiener dog, Winona, looked like the bathing beauty you see above.

So here's my favorite heat wave story - twelve years ago this summer Chicago suffered such blistering temperatures that people were dying by the dozens! I mean, the city had to bring in big refrigerated trailers to serve as extra morgue space since the regular morgues were full. So if you know that my twins are going to be 12 in October and have done the math, you will realize that at the time of this famous Chicago heat wave, I was pregnant with my boys. On bed rest, vacillating between profoundly uncomfortable and utterly miserable.

In August 1995, Mark and I lived in a 50 year old brick ranch on the near south side that needed everything from a new roof to new plumbing. It had one bathroom. Mark was tearing out the old floor tile in THE bathroom when he discovered that the sub floor around the toilet was water damaged and dangerously soft. He told me that he was going to have to repair the floor which required REMOVING the toilet.

I was a little upset at this news. You know----hormones, record heat, underpants the size of a paint tarp. So Mark's way of soothing me was this: "Cher, if I don't take out this toilet and fix the floor, some day you are going to sit down in the bathroom, but wind up in the basement picking porcelain out of your backside." I was convinced. Especially considering the size of my prenatal backside. It could hold a lot of porcelain.

Out comes the toilet. For. Three. Days. Need I reiterate? I had two babies and Winona the wiener dog laying on my bladder. It was rough, kids.

My neighbor gave me her house key on a ribbon which I kept around my neck. I would walk across the street to her house EVERY TIME I HAD TO PEE, which as you may imagine, was a whole lot. I remember it vividly: waddling down the sidewalk and fighting back the nausea as I watched the heat rising in shimmering waves from the blacktop and thought loving thoughts about my husband.

Well, it all worked out. I didn't kill Mark so he was able to fix the floor, the weather eventually cooled off, and the boys arrived early but are just fine now.

There's probably a moral to this story, but I'll invite you to leave your proposed morals to my little tale in the comments.

Yeah, it's hot. But I been hotter. And bigger too.

I Rawk!

Thanks to Deb Silva.

I'm a little choked up.

*sniff*

Cheese, Chocolate & Caran d'Ache

Yesterday, I found myself in the vicinity of a Blick Art Supply with time to kill and no kids in tow. O Happy Day. I went down every aisle at a leisurely pace. Such a luxury to just drink in all the goodies. Encaustic paints and clay and papers and brushes of every type and shape. Is there anything more wonderful than the potential of new art supplies?

I bought an etching needle, which I'd been meaning to buy since the printmaking class I took at Arrowmont. Now I can make dry points or defend myself with the same versatile implement. Etch this evildoers!

By far the most exciting thing I discovered was the a la carte Caran d'Ache display. (If you are a history buff, hope to be a contestant on Jeopardy or just want to add to your already overflowing font of useless knowledge cut and paste this URL in your browser - this thing refuses to be hot linked, maybe we weren't supposed to know http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caran_d'Ache)

I have the set of 30 Neocolor II which is divine, but can one ever have too many CdAs? I think not! These wonderful, delicious sticks of joy aren't cheese or chocolate, but they are Swiss-made and good enough to eat.

I selected a handful (not all the colors are pictured here) bringing my count to 36 with the lovely additions of Bordeaux, Olive, Pink, Indian Red, Raspberry Red and Azurite Blue. How did I live before Debbi introduced me to the wonderful world that is water soluble crayon? It was not living, merely existing, really.

Accept no imitations. I tried to go cheap. It ain't worth it. Go Swiss or go home.