Buttons Magee Weblog

fun having

Just posting to say Hi on a beautiful Sunday!  I took the girls to a birthday party yesterday and got to play some skeeball.  That pretty much made my day!  Hope your day is going as well as mine!

when they get along

 
No one ever told me how much sisters fight.  Having a brother as my only sibling I only knew the bickering that came from that relationship, and understood that to be normal.  Um, no.  I never knew that sisters seem to fight about anything at anytime.  These two go at it constantly.  But then, as quickly as the ruckus started it is over and they are as sweet as can be.  Case in point, the above photo which I took during one of  their many moments watching Night at the Museum.  Adorable.  They cuddle with each other all the time.  Of course eventually Olivia complains that Zoe is putting her foot on her or is kicking her or something.  I'll take the cuteness whenever I can get it though. This upcoming weekend brings with it, you guessed it, more kitchen work.  We found out that the faucet we ordered won't be available for seven weeks.  Even after canceling the order with one company and finding it somewhere else, it looks as if we are destined to wait for it.  I like it so much though that I am willing to wait for it.  Considering we have a few weeks more of work on the kitchen, then vacation, I don't think we will suffer that long without a kitchen faucet.  I have also discovered I will be building a pendant light!  Just call me Rachel the electrician.  The wiring above our sink is for a pull-chain fixture.  After poking around we have decided we just don't want to deal with rewiring the area to accommodate a switch.  I found the fixture I want, but it costs over $100.  A bit more study revealed that we could totally make the kind of pendant light on our own with little aggravation.  This way it will operate with a turn key on the fixture and have a bit of a vintage feel.  That will be interesting to see the finished result.  Have a great weekend everyone!

**edit** I had been meaning to mention where I get my film developed here in KC since some of you had asked me recently.  For Kodak film I take it over to Crick Camera Shop.  For Fuji film I take it to Process One.  The prices are comparable, as is the quality.  Both will do cross-processing.  I will say Process One had my regular print film ready the same day, whereas Crick took a day or so.  I prefer to use fuji chemicals and paper for Fuji film, just because I think they turn out better.  That is ultimately the main reason for using two different places.  Crick is on State Line and PO is on Metcalf and 95th. 

reno reno reno

I thought I would take a moment to return to the kitchen reno today.  As you can see from the photo with the paper plate, we are still kind of camping.  As a person who does not buy disposable plates and cups, this is both liberating and depressing at the same time.  For me, a meal is the entire experience all the way down to the plate the food sits on and the napkin that is used.  Although it is a nice break to not wash dishes all day long I miss the ritual of the meal.

This is our "kitchen" right now, or in other words my studio.  All of our meals are prepared in here right now.  As you can tell, there is definitely no sewing happening any time soon.

Soo, the reno...well, yesterday I got most of the cabinets painted.  Today I need to work on the drawers and cabinet doors.  I have started painting the ceiling, and today I am going to sand the plaster wall that I repaired.  Hopefully by the end of the weekend all of the painting will be done.  David has most all of the cabinets installed now, and we have ordered our sink and faucet.  The next steps are finalizing our choices for the open shelving up top and calling the counter top guy to come take measurements.  It's fun to now be able to see better what it is going to look like finished. 

Well, I need more coffee.  I am currently sitting right around where that blue chair cushion is in the photo.  My computer is on the wall there on the right, so I just have to turn around to fix myself another cup.  Now, that part I like!

thank you

For the first time in a long time I am carrying around stress.  Not to worry.  It's not really bad stress, more like deadline stress.  I don't find motherhood particularly stressful.  Trying and exhausting at times, yes.  But this work type of stress hasn't been around in a long while.

See, for the first time in five years I have actually contributed monetarily to our household, and I forgot how great that feels.  Ever since I was around 14 I have been making some kind of money for myself.  Well, this week was a pretty big moment for me;  I opened a business account at the bank.  A business account.  Now, I don't know if I will make enough to truly merit a business checking, but it is there , and it seems to create this need to achieve. 

The recent school portraits are the force behind this new development, with some people writing checks to my business name.  I have to say, I hope this works out for me, because making pictures is definitely my calling.  It is the thing I feel compelled to do.  Not a moment goes by during the day when I am not thinking about a photo.  My art prints are what make me really happy and it is nice to have another field that can help out.

Anyway, I just want to say thank you.  Thank you for being the force that brought me back around to my passion.  A passion about which I had almost forgotten.  If it hadn't been for this terrifically inspiring internet world, you, I don't know if I would have ever come back around. 

trouble

Big trouble.  Because I have reunited with a long lost love: film.  I can't remember the last time I looked at one of my own photos and gasped.  But yesterday, when  I picked this roll up, some of the photos literally made me gasp.  The special ones were mainly pictures of the girls, because moms get all crazy about that kind of stuff, but no digital film does this. 

On another note, here is my mother's pink bathrooom.  Everything is pink in here.  tub. sink, tile, is the toilet mom?  My girls think this is pretty terrific and Olivia freaks out if my mom mentions eventually remodeling.  I love it.  When I go in there I imagine girls dressed in their ponytails and bobby socks getting ready for school in the mornings.  Or with those pink foam rollers at night in their pigtails.  I love it.

Ah film.