10 pieces of inspiration

I'm stealing this idea from another blog I read. Not sure if it will be a regular thing or not, but I like it right now.

10 pieces of inspiration

1. Two great documentaries. Exit Through the Gift Shop and Objectified. Banksy is a new artist on my favorite list. I love art that asks questions and his work hits the nail on the head. I am thinking about what my tag should be and dreaming on going out and painting Elkader. Objectified had some similar artists. I am ready to start making my furniture pieces.


2. The deer finding hidden grass in the snow. I took this photo on my way to Postville to see the film based on the raid in 2008. There are so many fields of deer right now I think they are cattle until I see their tiny little legs.3. The melting snow also means icicles. They have always been one of my favorite parts of winter beauty. They have inspired me to start taking photos again not for professional reasons, but for my own enjoyment.
4. A new outfit. Black Vintage Hat- $6 at Goodwill. Wood Circle Earrings- $8 at Maurices. Vintage Inspired Vest and Rose Shirt and a Golden Rod Skirt from Maurice's Sales Racks- $40.

5. Discovering really good local musicians. Last night we went to a dinner theater that had a pre-show of Chad Elliott. Elliott is a musician and an artist on the side. How is that for a job.
Great music, including a song he wrote for the theater production Peace through Corn.
6. Learning about history in a creative way. Peace through Corn was a dinner theater production about Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev's friendship with Iowa farmer Roswell Garst and his trip to Iowa in which they proposed a way to end the Cold War by making sure everyone has food. The play was extraordinary. In the panel discussion Liz Garst (granddaughter to Roswell and there at the event) was there to talk about the actual meeting and answer questions.
7. Clever ideas that poke fun at computers and design. I sometimes think "Apple Z" when I want to undo something I have just done, like spill something. I love these Copy and Paste shirts for twins.

8. The response I am getting on goodblogs.com The site was created by a friend of a friend. I was skeptical about what the site was actually going to be and was heartbroken when I found out that it was almost a competition. Your posts get votes and if you make it to the front page you get $20. I didn't want to subject my writing to votes, but I went through with it anyway. In two weeks I have had 4 posts make it to the front page. I feel great about it.

9. The Time Traveler's Wife. It has been a long time since I read a good non-fiction book. I saw this movie and I thought it was stupid. But I got the book anyway and I love it. I'm not looking forward to the ending because that was the worse part of the film, but I am hoping that it will unfold a little better, even if it is the same.
10. The blog that inspired me to do this. www.thesimpledollar.com Despite the fact their inspiration is for saving money and mine is for the joy of life.

Two new things

Link has been starring into space a lot recently. Not sure what that is about.
He also took his pajamas off last night, all by himself.

Play and Fight

Mom's group has started up again after a Christmas and snowstorm break. Sadie is coming too. We spent Valentine's with Sadie, Jason, and Stella. Link and Stella has a lot of fun together. We ate sushi and I was jealous of Stella's love of veggies and potty training and Sadie and Jason were jealous of Link's ability to drink from a cup and his willingness to share everything. Link does do a good job with playing with others. Unfortunately he attracts kids who want to take things away from him. He is often whining as everything he picks up is ripped out of his hands.
At the last play group though I caught him grabbing at a friends eye pretty hard. He had a time out and had to tell someone else sorry for the first time.
Yesterday when we were at Schera's Link was messing around with some coins, when he came back he was chewing on something. I thought it might be a coin, it wasn't, it was chalk. As I was swiping his mouth he clamped his back teeth down on my finger flesh pretty hard. I finally got him to unclamp with my flesh gone.

Blizzard 2011

Check

You may have not noticed the recent checks of the 101 checklist, especially if you read in a reader, but lost have been coming off lately. Yay!

2. Finish paying off my Firstmark Loan was noted on Facebook earlier this month.

17. Have a game night 1x a month has begun via last Friday when I joined a Bunco group also fulfilling a goal I didn't have down, to meet more friend in Elkader instead of the surrounding towns.

35. My big earring wearing days are back now that Link can be trusted to not rip them out of my ears.

43. Sing a Fleetwood Mac song at Karaoke was completed in Nov when I took home second place. Thanks to all who didn't show up so I had little competition and much more confidence.

62. I am in the middle of directing another musical. Thank you Central for hiring me on this one.

66. 30 books have been swapped thanks to paperbackswap.com

90. I think visiting Ohio annually can be checked off the list now that it seems everyone is in the same mindset.

Lincoln updates

Link is enjoying the following:
Putting things in shoes
Taking pictures of his fingers
Running around without clothes
Stacking things
Putting lids on things

He has excellent vocabulary.
He knew practically every part of his body without us even teaching him. I guess he was listening when people said "I'll get your toes" and such.

He knows how to say all the words he can sign.
We are moving to signing emotions now. He already knows Happy and Sorry. Now we are doing sad and mad.