a night at the movies.

the husband and i and our two good friends went to dinner and a movie last night, while the bean had a sleepover at her gigi and poppy's house. we've only been out a handful of times since she was born, and it was so nice to get out.

i used to go to the movies often, it was one of my absolute favorite things to do. sometimes, in the dead of august when it was so hot that i couldn't bear to sit in my un air-conditioned apartment, i would go to the movies every night after work that i didn't have plans.

i've seen three movies in the theatre in two years, now, and last night we saw across the universe, a movie i'd been waiting for since i first heard it was being made. i have been a huge fan of julie taymor's work since my friend kristy and i went to see her show at the women's museum in dc six or seven years ago. i really loved the movie, although visually i thought it was a bit disjointed, but it was inspiring and actually kept me awake half of the night even though we didn't get home until 1 am, well past my usual bedtime. (the only other movie that ever had that effect was the science of sleep. - especially the "making of" - the director spent three months in his backyard doing all of the stop-motion scenes!)

the funny thing was that i remembered how much i liked going to the movies alone... i mean, i loved seeing the movies with friends and the husband, but it was at times such an odd movie that i kept worrying if everyone was enjoying it. the great thing about going by myself is that i didn't have to care...

more ideas than time.

fall is coming quickly, and like every year, i am nesting like crazy. every magazine on the newsstands shows yet another gorgeous house with a beautifully decorated autumnal front porch. one day, i will have a porch!

i went a little shopping nuts last week, both on etsy (more on that later) and on fabric websites. i received a gorgeous order from purl, having bought about 20 yards of fabric in order to make a new duvet cover for my bed. the bean ripped it open and before i could even look she and the dog were happily building a tent with it and generally creating chaos.

the next day i received my order from reprodepot, which i waited to open until the bean was asleep notice the difference!) i love fresh, folded fabrics. it's almost a shame to wash them. these are some halloween fabrics, some fabrics i decided i needed for projects and the apple corduroy will hopefully magically become a skirt. either that or i will be holding off on sleeping for a few weeks...

hindsight has rose colored glasses.

or something like that. i doubt the cakes my mom made for me for my birthdays growing up were anything like i remember them. in fact, i don't really remember them at all except for one holly hobbie cake and a fuzzy memory of a yellow care bears cake. (did i just give my age away?) but i thought it was amazing that she made them and no one else had a cake like it.

so, the bean's 2nd birthday was last week and of course, i had to make her cake. she is currently obsessed with jojo's circus, in fact, of the very little tv we watch, it's what she always requests. i decided to make her a jojo cake. oh, what it looked like in my head - it was amazing. it was going to be colorful and oddly proportioned and was going to make the whole party. well, i made a few unfortunate decisions: 1) to bake the cakes at 11pm, then 2) to have purchased one pan when my intention was to make two cakes 3) to make the batters one after another. I ended up taking a hot cake out of a pan and putting it on the only surface i had that was large enough, a platter which oddly enough turned out to be more like a bowl than a platter. the cake, being hot, immediately adhered itself to the platter, so i was committed.

luckily, my mom came over the next day to help ice it. i used an obscene amount of red dye to get red, and i didn't release just how terrible this caused my homemade icing to taste until the bean tested it and said "yuck." (a two year old turning down butter and suger? unheard of.) we forged on... and while i couldn't help thinking i needed to fix bits here and there - i placed no less than 7 wooden skewers in it, covered it with plastic wrap, and barricaded it in the corner away from cats, husbands, and toddlers. i felt really bad about using all that plastic wrap, but i would have felt worse if it had become a cat trampoline.

the bean thought it was great, but me, i still can't help thinking of all the ways in which it does not look like i planned it. i just hope she has the same kind of memory as her mom...

so maybe i am really going to like this.

maybe it's just the fact that i spent an extraordinary amount of time alone today, but i think i've been waiting to write this stuff down for awhile. all day today, i felt like will ferrel in that movie where he's a character in a book.
it's a bit rainy and cooler today, and i am so excited for fall that i wore my fantastic new skirt today, which i bought on etsy. i've spent a little more time than i should there, but i think this christmas we're going for an all-handmade gift theme. (i did that two years ago, all handmade by me, with a four month old baby sitting in a babyseat on the worktable next to my sewing machine! what can i say? i was a little nuts.) so, really, i have every reason to be looking around, right?
since the bean was up with a cold last night, i'm heading off to dreamland early. sleep tight.

dipping my foot in.

here i am, probably the billionth person to start a blog when there are just about a billion left who don't have one. right in the middle. i have kind of a love-hate relationship with the whole blogging phenomenon, and yet here i am... just how do you start a blog anyway?

hi, my name is jen. i am foremost a mom, which is something i'm still adjusting to even after 2 years. i left a wonderful job in the american craft industry to (mostly) stay at home, although i do work just a bit to help pay the bills. i live in the suburbs just at the end of the city, in a pretty normal house, with my husband, daughter, two cats, and a dog. normal. it wasn't always this way. after being one of eight in a class, yes eight, "jens" (jennys, jennies, jennifers) through most of school, i went to a large college and did my own thing. i had fun. lots of fun. i traveled, had interesting friends, a few really cool jobs, and then i met my to-be husband, and had more fun, traveled lots more, met more interesting people. we were always out and about.

then my daughter, the bean, was born, and suddenly our idea of a big night was spending it at the playground. as anyone with children knows, it's a big adjustment. for me, it's the biggest. she is the greatest thing going, but i often wonder where that old me is. (my guess is prague.)

i guess this blog is going to be about coming to terms with all the really wonderful aspects of just being average. afternoons spent blowing bubbles, the hidden potential of crayons, and whatever of my own interests i can squeeze in. all in all, it's pretty great being normal.