Tuesday, February 3, 2009

A small reprieve



It's been a rough few days, but today is a new day and we're moving on. Miranda hasn't been sleeping well and we've had some real low points - especially yesterday. You can only go so many days with a handful of hours of sleep before you start to feel hopeless! Last night Mbird slept through the night waking just once to nurse. We think it's because she's also really tired, and tonight we may be back to the 'same old' but hey, at least we finally got a break.

I have to mention these cute little Le Creuset bowls I picked up over the weekend. I had a mural client meeting to go to in Los Gatos and stopped in Sur La Table on my way out. I was looking for a food mill to help me with pureeing foods for the Bird. Found that, then also got a nifty set of silicone ice cube trays that I can freeze some of those pureed goodies in. The bowls I spotted with the baking supplies. Bright red, green, yellow, and blue flexible silicone bowls in sizes from 1 cup down to 1/4 cup. Perfect for measuring out bits of what you need while you're putting together a recipe. But also perfect I thought for feeding Miranda pureed foods from - eventually she could feed herself from them (silicone is so rubbery and easy to hold on to). And after I had them washed up I handed her the stack and they've since become her new favorite toy while sitting in her kitchen chair :o) Silicone is great - medical/food grade safe - saturated colors and very tactile. I'm thinking of chilling one of the small ones in the freezer to make something cold and gummy for Miranda to suck on (those two bottom teeth are finally through and really growing!).



I'm also working on the logo project for Jared's sister's film company, 'Open Boat Films'. Stephani's film company is bent toward science and the natural world and her favorite image for the logo is a flying fish. I remember watching flying fish while out in the Pacific heading to the Perlas Islands for the weekend (or the Pearl Islands if you watched 'Survivor'). Growing up I remember much of our time being spent out in the ocean, speeding past ships headed to transit the Canal, floating over the deep blue/turquoise waters off of Mogo Mogo, Contadora, and Shell Island (which is where my dad always said pirates abandoned their dissidents). My brother, Drake, and I would spend hours crouched over mini-ecosystems in the tide pools finding starfish, snails, urchins, and psychadelic colored fish. I remember vividly reaching out to touch a dolphin's side as a school leaped alongside our boat and one time out in my uncle's much larger boat (the Pasha) a huge whale baby snuggled up alongside us like we were its mama. Such magical times in a magical place. I wish I could go back right now, even if just for a few days.

It's another beautiful clear day here again. We'll get rain later in the week so I need to jump on my rain-free tasks stat. Mixing up my weed-killing vinegar solution to spray the clover in the front garden and the driveway, and maybe finally priming the kitchen window exteriors so they won't be soaked with rain again (for probably the 20th time, but better late than never!).

Love and sunshine to you all,
devon

ps - I haven't given up on fixing my blog...just needed a break from it for a few days so I could do things like finish my taxes and work on the logo and such. Hoping to make a shiny new lovely page very soon!

4 comments:

Laura Zarrin said...

Sorry to hear about the sleepless nights. This to shall pass (repeat over and over until it's over). What's the recipe for the weed killer? I have a pup now and a ton of weeds. I need a non toxic solution. Any idea what to do about snails?

Charlie said...

Is that font "Unifinished Sympathy?"

My Mid-Afternoon Daydream said...

Laura, the vinegar solution I use is actually called horticultural vinegar, 20% solution. It's a little tough to find - here's a site that carries it: http://www.cleanairgardening.com/weedvinegar.html

I changed my mind about spraying it yesterday since our warm spell was passing - it works best when it's hot/sunny out. But it DOES really work, and I love not spraying nasty chemicals! The other thing you can use that works well but is more pricey is Burnout II - mostly clove oil, smells great. (Oh, this year I'm trying a strip of copper tape around the strawberry bed to ward off snails - hoping it works...)

Charlie, you know your fonts girl!!

Laura Zarrin said...

Thanks, Devon. I try that solution.