Happy Mother’s Day! May 10, 2009

I know everyone thinks THEY have the best mother of all…but on this one, I have to claim the top spot. My mom REALLY IS the very best there is.

I went looking for pics of mom with me when I was little, but alas, what I found were pics of me in college…YIKES. And because we are doing all sorts of fun family stuff today (like a picnic!) I can’t spend the
time it would take to go through the gillions of photos to find the perfect, sentimental ones. Instead, we will look at a few, that remind you mom, that I turned out okay IN SPITE of my best efforts NOT TO.

Check out my sparkly-sparkly eyes and lips…and those vintage earrings that I found in my grandmothers jewelry box (Here’s to you, my precious Grandmother in heaven,
who I always felt in my heart was also my mom. I was the luckiest kid alive to have not one, but TWO wonderful moms to TRY to teach me right from wrong
That’s when paisley was all the rage, and let me tell you sugar, I was INTO those trends.
I’m just sorry I couldn’t find the one of me in the fingerless gloves and lace  (ala Madonna)–actually I did find one, but it isn’t fit for public consumption

I also got WAY into Social attire as seen here in my authentic 50’s cardigan
(also pilfered from my grandmother…and no keds for me, honey I was sporting real-deal saddle oxfords!)

Mom always loved these nice tame pictures taken during the DAY when I was acting the way she raised me to act So the one on the left is for you mom.
The one on the right however, I am sorry to say is that “other” Kathryn with some poor boy who I am unable to identify

This one REALLY is for you mom, because for years you referred back to this photo (which, by the way,  I think is not a very good one) saying “I wish you would wear your hair the way you have it in that photo I liked so much.)

Anyway, both of your kids graduated college and ended up with careers, families, kids, all the things you hoped and prayed we’d have (we even go to church…most of the time)…and it was all because of your love and support (through all of our shenanigans). And while these photos are not of the warm, fuzzy, sentimental journey I was hoping to post, at least they will remind you that I SURVIVED and turned out okay in spite of a few years in there when you probably worried that maybe I wouldn’t (This last one is me with John Gaffney, my sophmore year boyfriend and Lawrence “Laurie” Cartledge, my childhood friend who also went to Auburn. Laurie, what the HECK is that on your head, and more importantly, WHY?

Okay, so now I need to brag on my husband and kids a bit, who allowed me to sleep in today. Then I was greeted by original, and beautiful artwork created by both of them (yes, there was also that moment when they both decided it would be a good idea to paint THEMSELVES green, but we won’t go there)…there was my all-time favorite breakfast waiting for me…a pot of hot joe, with warm, wheat bagels from Brugers, cream cheese, capers and lox. MMMMMMMMMMMMM. Precious cards, a gift card to the nursery down the street for buying flowers for the yard, the sound of hubby building shelves in the laundry room and plans for a family stroll on the Boule-bard (as Clara calls it) and a picnic. I have to share this cuteness from Henry who appears to also have been CURSED with the creative gene. Ha.

When I asked him what the thing was, protruding from his head, he said “it’s the generator used to blow it up”. Oh my.

And here is what he wrote in his Class Mother’s Day newsletter…

“Does your mommy guide you through life? Mine does. (In other words, he means, “does your mommy yell you through your daily chores etc.?”) In fact, last night we had leftovers (yes, this says it ALL)

But my mommy added her own touch. She put the most scrumptious bacon ever on them (also leftovers of course, that I was lucky enough to find, to spruce things up a bit). The cool thing about my mommy is she can make t-shirts, backpacks, water bottles and more. (THAT’s my boy. Ever the marketing wizard I trained him to be. Bless him ):

Henry Gage

And thanks to my precious Clara for the beautiful night light you made me at school. I LOVE IT.
Now mom, would you PLEASE call me already so we can open our gifts to each other over the phone????
I see how it is, you are at ROBERT’s aren’t you? Even though we BOTH know I am your favorite. Ha ha. (Is this bringing back MORE memories you’d rather keep under the rug?)

I love you the most mom. For all you do, all you are…life without you in it is unimaginable. You are truly the best. Me

So Much to Do…. April 21, 2009

So Little Time. I know, we’re all in it together. This world has gone bonkers…never any down time. or maybe it’s the phase of life I’m in…juggling way to many balls. On Saturday alone, we had THREE games, between soccer and baseball. Anyway, this week, still working little by little on the impending changeover to our new name, look etc. Filling orders, writing a little bit for CityView, doing more art for Celebrate with Phyliss Hoffman and illustrating TWO BOOKS! (This one is tres cool….I can’t wait to see them once they are done, hard cover, book jacket and all!) Thought I’d share this one invite I just completed…it was the customers cute idea (the tent)…

and a customer photo…

Now I need Your Help!!!! Stinky has a bday coming up…he’ll be 9. His bday is in summer so we always have pretty small parties, a few friends to the movies or a party at home. This year we promised him he could have a big to-do, but when asked he comes up with stuff like Chucky Cheese. I’m sorry–I know it’s HIS Party, not MINE, but I’m not sure I can stomach the big CC. Please send me your ideas!! If we pick yours, I’ll send you a gift certificate to spend at Kat in the Hat. Thanks in advance!!!

and one more cute kiddo in a kat tee!!

Happy Easter! April 12, 2009

Not sure what’s it’s like in all of the homes across America on Easter morning, but I’m pretty sure we aren’t the ONLY ones who start the day off feeling a little less than, well, holy.

It starts out like this. Sun is up, birds are chirping..I am alone in bed. I wipe the sleep from my eyes and stumble downstairs. Hubby is watching TV and drinking coffee. Good start, right? But wait, what time is it? 7:30…WHAT? Early church is in one hour. Kids are still asleep, baskets have yet to be plundered, eggs are still in hiding…and I HAVEN’T HAD MY COFFEE. “Well”, we reason, “we’ll just go to Sunday School”. It’s settled. But as the coffee gives me a jolt, I belt out “Jesus Christ is Risen Today!”…and the guilt starts creeping in…”we can’t not go to church on EASTER!” Okay, so we’ll go the 11:00 service. settled. We get the kids up, and as we are enjoying  a nice breakfast…hubby says…”you know we could still make early church.” It is now 5 til’ 8.

And then the hell breaks loose…pj’s flying, whining at higher and higher decibels per second, yelling, muttering….the kids are eying the Easter Baskets and then me with THAT look (the ‘how can you be so cruel’ look) and then, some how, some way…we scramble out the door and actually get a SEAT in EARLY CHURCH! Whoa. Lovely service of course. Henry looked so handsome in his first ever coat and tie, music was beautiful…and of course, I never tire of hearing the story of the resurrection.

But then the second course begins. PICTURES. Hubby turns into pure evil incarnate when picture time arrives (you notice he is not in any of them. grrr.). The kids refuse to smile, the seats are wet with dew, my heels are sinking into the muddy yard, the sun is shining DIRECTLY in my eyes…it is pure torture. This year I didn’t force it. We took a few (terrible) shots, and we were DONE. The plundering was done, the hunting…we changed into our grubbies and now….now, we will have a lovely, blissful, Spring day. Hallelujah, Praise God.

Also, a nice review posted today (or yesterday…not sure). (www.peekaboopicks.com). Here is a screen shot.

The Birthday Bonanza Has Begun! April 3, 2009

A special outfit for Day 1…and a crabby girly to put in it. Ergh.

Now off to pick up cupcakes!

The First Five. April 1, 2009

If you know me well, you know that I had no greater aspiration in life than to have a daughter. We hoped/planned to have two children, so after my son Henry was born, we knew we had but one last chance for a girl (although I think there’s a good chance our family would be larger had we not gotten the girl with number two). At that first ultrasound, we were told that baby number two was another boy. Yes, I admit, I cried. A dream was gone, but soon I embraced my sweet new baby boy and grew excited knowing that this was the perfect plan for our family. We named him Holt. Henry & Holt….the combo had a nice ring to it. But towards the end of the pregnancy we had quite a surprise. Holt wasn’t a boy after all. And I do believe the moment I learned this was the giddiest moment of my life. That very day I went out a purchased the first of many (I mean MANY) pink outfits for my GIRL.

I had always told my beloved grandmother that I would name my daughter after her. Her name was Sarah Lucille Callaway. We would name this baby Sarah Callaway. But my grandmother didn’t live to meet the great grand daughter she would have adored. And by the time our girl came along I had pored through our family genealogy even further and discovered the name Clara. I fell in love with the name instantly and decided my grandmother would surely give her blessing no matter what we named our daughter (and the Clara in question was her favorite aunt), so we combined the two names…and named our baby girl Clara Callaway. In my mind, the most precious girl on earth.

Clara’s first birthday was Easter weekend and deliciously frilly and fussy. Nana came for her party as well as brand new friends from our neighborhood (we had only lived in Knoxville for about 6 months.)
Funny enough, I actually flew out that afternoon to Los Angeles to meet with folks about what was to become my t-shirt line!

She had a little polka dotted punch cake from Magpies, and butterfly shaped cookies…

And then before we could blink she was 2…

It may have been pushing it a bit to have a formal tea party for a two year old, but miss clara was the picture of perfect etiquette and decorum! We had a Spring lunch of fruit, chicken salad and cheese straws…

We used great grandmother sarah callaway’s rosebud china, and great grandma Gage’s lace tablecloth. This is a bad picture, but I painted a tea set too, just for miss priss which they are using (needless to say, that teaset now contains lots of glue).

Miss Priss had a big piece of pink cake. Her guests had petit fores and drank iced pink lemonaid!

This is the birthday duck. He comes out every year for Clara’s bday. The little rosebud place card holders were also great grandmothers. We even brought out the sterling and crystal!

Guests took home little bunny baskets filled with old fashioned candies.
It was a memorable day indeed.

Then another year passed…

And she was 3.

Maggie the mannequin greeted guests at the door.

The cake was much cuter before the long car ride home from the bakers home who lived in the middle of timbuktu, then sliding out of the box and
into my lap, and melting.

The whole fairy shebang was planned for outside and it
turned out to be FREEZING cold so the fairy costumes were stuffed full with turtlenecks and thicks tights.

But guess what? We still had a wonderful day!

We made cookie “wands”, planted flowers. painted faces and sprinkled fairy dust!

Yes, I realize it looks more like torture! Ha

fairy dust…

The fave gift…her first pair of crocs!

Four came much too soon…

Determined she would be a dancer, we gave it our all…

Poor baby…woke up feeling a little under the weather…not the way the birthday princess ought to feel. But she rallied (just barely) and took it all in. She could still end up thinking it was pretty cool to have a real true live ballerina dancing just for her.

Not a great pic of the cake…I was too flustered to figure out flash etc. It was raspberry chocolate (I ordered vanilla), with white chocolate shavings all over. The ballerina fell over not once, but twice and was sure to land in two different spots to insure maximum floral destruction.

(I CANNOT FIGURE OUT why the type is blue and underlined…sorry.)

This is Caitie, our lovely ballerina who danced for Clara.

She was so beautiful to watch and danced to the music from Enchanted.

We made ballerina paper dolls…

and ate chocolate cake. YUM.

After cake, we played “pin the tutu on the ballerina”

and our newly minted  four-year old had a happy, happy day.

Wow. Now,  here we are..the eve of FIVE. Mommy must admit, it is bittersweet. My baby is no longer a baby. Every day I wish to freeze her in place, to hold her on my hip again, to feel her downy soft baby hair…but then I can’t wait to see her grow into a young girl either…she is precious, now and forever. I love my girl more than I can express with words.

We’ll be going to the zoo (the same thing big brother did for his 5th, and his 1st here in Knoxville. In fact, this was his invite, except we pinked it up for Clara…

Clara is more excited than I’ve ever seen her. We have been talking birthday for MONTHS…Nana is coming of course…and it will be a three-day celebration. One at school, one at the zoo, and the “real” birthday will be spent at home with family.

She has another special outfit for her school party on Friday, but she’ll wear this to the zoo…and of course, I’ll post the whole whirlwind affair right here for posterity!

The Last Monday… March 30, 2009

with my four-year old has arrived. I truly can’t believe that my baby girl will soon be five years old ): This week I’m going to dig up some pics from her first four bdays…but right now, I am catching up this pathetic blog that has missed out on the last 4 months of life at the Gage house. I went to download a recent pic from my camera and realized I hadn’t downloaded since BEFORE CHRISTMAS. So gear up for your torture and get a big pot of coffee brewing…this is a glimpse into the not-so-terribly-exciting happenings at our house.

This is what snow looks like in Knoxville, Tennessee…

Gorgeous, no??

The kiddos were OBSESSED with hot chocolate this winter. Little did they know it was sugar-free. Ha. I think I need to give it to them intravenously all year long, if it provokes these sorts of displays of sweetness!

This is Christmas Eve…the one gift they get to open the night before…they decided to open the gifts from each other…

whoa. I’d say he picked a good ‘un! (yes, it’s a cheesy Barbie car, sorry mom)

Santa and the reindeer are off and on their way with full tummies!

This is what January looked like at my house. Stop that, it’s nothing to be jealous of. And while parking on the street or stacked on top of each other in the driveway is GREAT FUN, count YOUR blessings. I’m sure you have things going on at your house that are just as dandy.

This was one of those impulse deals hubby is apt to pull on occasion. One stone toppled off the rock wall, and HEY! Let’s tear the WHOLE THING DOWN and RE-BUILD IT! See that red clay? Yes, me too, all over the carpet in my car, and on the rugs in my house…

It IS complete now, and yes, it does look quite nice, but getting there, well…my mom taught me not to say anything at all if it isn’t going to be nice.

This is “Penquins on Parade” at Stinky’s school. It was THE CUTEST program. Bet you can’t guess which one is Stinky?!

They had to wear black and white…yes, those are his PJs (which you may recall also served as his jailbird Halloween getup–now how is that for ingenuity?) Oh…this pic reminds me…big news on the Stinky front. He gets his glasses off next Spring!! He is SO EXCITED. He has worn them since he was nine months old!

Paintings for a nursery! I know…I had never done such earthy hues for a nursery, and certainly not TROUT, but the room sounds adorable and I am pleased as punch that my little paintings get to be some of the first visuals this little one will spend his days looking at…

Awwwwwww. This is Painter. We didn’t think we had any pictures of her. I had forgotten taking this one. She was such a gift to my boy. He ADORED her. She is and will continue to be missed for a long while.

Sassy Pants in the kitchen…

Let’s hope she ends up more interested in this activity than her mother.

Budding Soccer Star! (She HATED BALLET, as did I when I was her age) but she is ALLLL about some soccer. You can tell she is going to be a serious athlete, the way she plays with her hands in her pockets.

of course the tongue comes out in tense moments…

A little girl talk…

and a little snuggle from daddy…

and of course…couldn’t pass up the perfect photo op of a kat in the hat water battle in action…

speaking of water bottles…they are going like hotcakes! Better get yours…

My photo skills are rapidly deteriorating ): It is rare that I get a decent shot anymore. Oh well. I think it’s that whole thing they say… when you are doing a million things, it’s hard to do any of them really well…

Phew! You know you are so relieved that this is FINALLY DONE. That’s all I’ve got, and I gotta get crackin’…

Happy Monday!

Give Me a Break… March 20, 2009

Okay, so TECHNICALLY I got one…it IS Spring break….but geez, this week calls for another one without what I’ll call the “BIG 3″. As I was whining to Sarah about our baby kitty being lost, and the mailman taking off with  two huge orders that were meant for customer pickup (and bore no address or postage), she reminded me that these things happen in three’s. It was meant as a warning, but no need…I also lost the diamond in my engagement ring this week. Not such a stellar line up, huh?

Well, here at the tail end of it, there has since been a bit of resolution. We did find Painter, our precious kitten, but it didn’t end well. We live on a busy road and she didn’t know better. My kids are heartbroken, as am I. I really fell in love with her, and am so grateful for the brief time we had with her.

The post office somehow figured out where one of the packages belonged and took it to the customer…shocker. And a huge relief. My mother said “see? there is STILL good in humanity!”

And last evening, hubby found the DIAMOND! This is the second time he has found a stone that fell out of my ring (I am REALLY Hard on jewelry) but then I remembered, he’s IS an archaeologist. His eyes are trained for this type of thing. I will hire him out if you happen to have lost something on the smaller end of the scale

Certainly not the perfect outcome for everything, but I think this is what they refer to as closure.

And there is a mighty sweet kitty in heaven this morning.

New Photos! January 14, 2009

These are unedited or retouched (note bruise on child’s forehead! and totally yellow shot below it…among other snafus).  I was experimenting with the borrowed camera again! And actually quite disappointed in myself. I made some major technical errors on many of them as I was shooting–a total bummer to get home thinking “yay–I got some awesome stuff and then to see that on half of them something, somewhere was out of focus. But I guess practice makes perfect.

It’s a good thing I took these photos of Sassy Pants because we cut her hair off yesterday! She has a precious little angled bob like she did when she was little.

I’m off to buy myself a navigation system. I have gotten lost for the LAST TIME! ha.

Today was One of Those Days… December 19, 2008

I get on a designing roll sometimes and can’t quit…the ideas just keep coming. Here are the fruits of the day!

Chuck Taylor’s. (Boy & Girl versions) I am REALLY excited about this one

Flip flops (Boy & Girl versions)

I’m a little late with this one…shoot! Oh well, there’s always next year…

I posted the motor cycle the other day, but hubby and Stinky are convinced that the addition of motorcycle shop will make this one “sell like hotcakes.”

okay. whatever you say. This is merely a TEST.

sea turtle (why I am labeling these, I don’t know)

seahorse for boys & girls

new sharks!

surf boards

And that’s all for now…hubby just walked in after being gone since LAST FRIDAY, 14 holiday parties and volunteer activities at school, basketball practice, a ka-gillion baths, and bedtime stories, packed lunches, morning battles, carpools and more cooking than I’ve done all year. THANK YOU GOD!!!!

And woo-hoo! It’s holiday time!

Here’s An Idea! December 18, 2008

let’s put stools and chairs on our heads. geez.

could Christmas Puh-LEEEEEEEEEZ hurry up and get here?!!!!

Here are some of my adorable customers, Kate and Maddie

(thanks for the pic Greer!)

Miss Thang had her Carol Sing last night…and miracle of all miracles…

SHE SANG!

I couldn’t find my zoom lens and the pics have red eye …
but at least the event is documented for posterity.

and finally…MOI. ha.Wrinkles and all (don’t get me started). I had to do a “portrait” for something, so I figured I’d post for my dear mother who will TELL me it’s a nice picture even when it’s not.

Speaking of wrinkles…I haven’t had time to gather together the great finds of 2008 like I said I would, but I will tell you about this one (although most of you are so flippin’ young, this won’t be something you break your neck to go buy). Green Cream. A guy I went to college with sells this stuff. Do wha?

Okay, his mom invented it. She’s some big-time, well-known dermatologist, and she came up with this miracle cream. It has retinol in it but you don’t have to have a prescription. It is really good stuff. I have tried lots of things and this one makes a difference…you will thank me for this one, I promise.

Green Cream is an advanced retinol treatment for all skin types. Founded by Dr. Nia Terezakis, a dermatologist with more than 30 years’ experience, Green Cream uses retinol, a stabilized form of vitamin A that is universally thought to be one the anti-aging ingredients with the most promise. Retinol speeds the skin’s natural exfoliation process: a new layer of skin is usually produced every 35 days. Retinol shortens that to 5 or 6 days, giving your skin a continually brighter, smoother appearance. Green Cream comes in three strengths, ideal for conditioning your skin to the effects of retinol. Most skin types can start at Level 6 (the middle strength), and progress to Level 9 after three to six months of use. Sensitive skin types will want to start at Level 3. With Green Cream, you’ll see improved tone and texture with tighter skin, diminished lines, tighter pores and an overall rejuvenated appearance.

You can get it lots of places (google it) but here’s one if you gotta have it NOW.

http://www.dermstore.com

Happy Exfoliating!