Last Christmas we were gifted a SF MOMA membership so I thought it would be nice to take advantage of the member event they had tonight. It’s free for members and they have music and drinks and you can wander around and enjoy the art. We don’t go out just my husband and I that often so it was a nice treat.
They also opened up the Amy Sherald exhibition (she painted the Michelle Obama portrait which they also had on display). It officially opens tomorrow so we got a little preview.
It was a nice way to start the weekend. I could get used to it.
Do you have any fun plans for the upcoming weekend?
One thing I learned over the years is that keeping my hands busy is relaxing me more than any yoga session could do. Since I need to concentrate on what my hands are doing my mind stops running in circles. So election night resulted in this finished Santa hat. It was not worn around school as of yet but I have seen it around the house quite a bit and it brings a smile to my face when I do. Someone on Instagram asked the other day what kind of glimmers we encounter on any given day. I had not heard the term glimmer before but noticing these small, perfect moments that make us feel good really spoke to me. So seeing the Santa hat worn each day is one of these glimmers for me.
When I got home today I also got my Cricut out and made gift tags for the three Advent calendars I am planning to make. It’s so useful. I would not have chosen to cut out the numbers by hand. IT would have taken me forever. This way I just pull up the program on my computer and let the machine do the cutting for me. It’s so satisfying to watch. The white houses are vinyl stickers and pealing out the windows was a little tricky but I am sure it gets easier with time, too. Don’t they look pretty? I don’t have all the little presents together yet, but when they are, they will get all wrapped up and each gets its own number.
I also want to try out to make an iron on for a t-shirt this weekend. We will see if I get to it. I kind of want to go to the holiday kick-off at a local shopping district. They have a very pretty light display on I can use some more glimmers in my life.
What about you? Do you have any weekend plans? Any glimmers you came across recently?
I have to say I was a little sad when I put away the Halloween decorations. Part of it is the neighborhood. I always liked Halloween just fine but the neighborhood we live in now is infectious. There are a couple of houses around the corner from us which are insane. The pictures don’t do it justice. After the kids were on their way I took a short walk up the street myself to just soak in the atmosphere. It really made me want to rethink our plans for the coming year. Maybe a shoot that drops the candy down from our porch? One reason why we don’t get as many trick-or-treaters is that there are quite a few steps up to our house. I should rope in the kids and their friends.
At work we had a lab meeting on Halloween and decided to do a group picture dressed up as characters from the Minions movie. I made myself a distinct nose on a whim and went as Gru. Since I don’t have hair it was easy enough with painted on eyebrows, a black jacket, a scarf and black training pants. Husband went as a crow to work since they always have a Halloween thing and the kids were a wizard and Marissa from the video game Hollow Knight. So the weeks leading up to the day I spend sewing a wizard cape and making butterfly wings. If you ever wonder why some of the wings on Etsy cost so much money I can explain a thing or two about that now.
My wing planning
The not so good thing was that I had a migraine on the day, but it helped with the grumpy Gru look. The morning went ok. I went home early spending some time sleeping off the side effects of my migraine medication. In the evening I felt better luckily.
Do you celebrate Halloween where you live? Did you dress up? How do you feel about the holiday?
I think it is an excellent idea to have a weekend escape from every ones in a while it may it be oh so small. It helps me see what a great place the world around me is and makes me appreciate the possibilities that are out there in our neighborhood close and far.
Last weekend me and my daughter went to do an Indigo dye class at the Handcraft Studio School. It was such a treat to have some one on one time with her and make something beautiful along the way. I was thinking about trying it out for a while but was glad to not have the clean up at home. I might give it another go though. Maybe make some holiday gifts with the kids? We will see if that happens.
When our kids go to bed they get to pick one CD from their extensive German radio play collection to listen to while falling asleep I actually had to look up what they would be called and I am not sure I picked the right word. Is it radio play or audio drama or..? Maybe someone can help me out on this one?
I have not come across them in the US really. Sure, there are very good recordings of audio books for kids (and they do like them) but my personal opinion is that it is so much more fun to listen to the story when the different characters are spoken by different actors and you get sound effects and background noises.
Audio dramas were very popular in Germany when I was growing up and as far as I can tell they still are. They were in fact so popular that the actors of one specific recording (“Die drei ???” or “Three Investigators” as is the original American title) toured theaters around the country to read life performances. It puzzles me why the audio plays are more and especially popular in Germany. If anyone has an idea I would be more than happy to hear.
In the meantime I am happy that my kids like to listen to them and I sometimes find them quietly sitting in their room relaxing or playing while doing so.
Home here and there 