Like every good girl on the planet, I have a special place in my heart, and closet, for shoes. There’s a shoe for every mood, and every occasion. Some shoes can cross over, most can’t. I have a couple pair of mules – slip-on’s, we call them, of the backless kind. I like them, because as much as I love shoes, I am lazy about them. With these, there’s no bending involved, you just step in and go. Perfect! I’ll take two pair -one dressy, one casual. Oh but wait – I forgot – one in sneakers, too!

For months, I’ve been on the search for the perfect pair of mule tennis shoes. At last, they’re mine! The only problem? They’re white. OHHH how I hate white. It’s so, so – so absent of color! Bah!

White and I only get along in small doses, when surrounded by color. So herein lies my problem. How am I going to color these shoes?

By the way, these were the bargain of the year at just $5 – so I could NOT say no to these well padded 1980′s reminiscent sneakers.

Back to the problem. They’re white. What can I paint them with that won’t bleed onto my socks or fade – Sharpies? Food coloring? Clothing dye? (None of which I have on hand. Honestly.) – and more importantly, what color do I want them?

As luck would have it, my wonderful hubby had just cooked dinner. Teriyaki chicken. Mmmm. And you know, I thought to myself, teryaki stains clothing. Yes, it does. And yes, I did.

LifeCruiser ever so graciously nominated me for somethin’ in the 2008 Bloggies. Normally disappointed with all blog type awards, I don’t really care either which way – since nobody seemed, until now, to realize that there are ART BLOGS out here in the blogosphere that have been ever present for years. There are crafters and self-representing artists and folks trying to make a living and gain exposure and just share their work online.

This year. This year they’ve done it. The 2008 Bloggies have added my category – so I’m BEGGIN’ ya, go nominate me. Really. I’ll send you a box full of snoggles if you do. Check it out, the category is “Best Art or Craft Weblog“

You should also nominate your other favorite bloggers, because they deserve the recognition. Someone has to click on those links and go there to check ‘em out, and that just might be the one click that blogger needs to really get the recognition they deserve. So go. Do it. Be cool. Everyone else is doing it. Not that you should cave to peer pressure all the time, you know, ’cause that’s really just crazy and not very smart. Just this one time. Just for me. Grazie.

p.s. nominations are accepted until the 11th.

Man you’d think I just fell right off the face of the earth. Some of you might actually wish that to happen. Well, fooey on you people, I say! Fooey!

I made up a new word the other night. I took the girls out shopping and we passed a local news station on the way to the store. I looked over and saw they were setting up the newscast right out front with the camera and the lights and I hollered “FRONNNNK!” and told the girls I should have fronked the horn at them, and we would have been on the news. Or at least our fronk would have been on the news. Chickeymonkey swiftly informed me that “Fronk is not a word.” Uh. Why not? Didn’t I just say it? Didn’t I define it, too? Why can’t fronk be a word? And most importantly,

She was silent in the back seat and had no answer to my questions. Catybug was on my side. Fronk sounds cool. (Go ahead, try it – like a goose sounding honk, it’s called a Fronk. Because I said so.) Chickeymonkey was pretty upset at that point, and started yelling at Catybug that IT IS NOT A WORD. To which I, the mom, because I am mature and growing my kids up right, replied:

And of course you know what her reply was.

As it turns out, she was just more irritated with Catybug for getting on board so much faster and really having fun with it. She told me in secret that it’s okay if I say it, it’s just NOT okay when Catybug does. Well, that’s no fun, people. I think EVERYONE should be fronkity-fronking whenever they feel like it. So go ahead and fronk if you wanna, you have my full permission and blessing. Chickeymonkey will get over it.

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Five is the answer to the question you have all been asking yourselves for weeks:

“How many bite sized butterfingers WILL she eat after the no-candy promise is over?”

I know you were wondering.

Also, because you need to know, I stockpiled them in the freezer. And I have two left.

For now.

My butt went numb from driving. I annoyed the bejeesus out of my little sister (who drove this backseat driving ohshithandle gripping passenger from Mom’s house downtown), we circled the “W” so many times we lost count before we finally found it. I was welcomed with hugs and giggles with Lisa and proceed to Navy Pier to dilly dally and find the nearest Starbucks. I bought stuff – mainly shoes, because I’m an idiot and wore a new pair that caused a wicked line of blisters across the tops of my feet. I ended up with four pair of shoes in my bag that night – and I’m sure Lisa is still shaking her head and waving her pointy nurse finger at me about always wearing comfortable broken in shoes when you’re going to be walking a lot.

We put our hair down for the cocktail party and I sought out Kim (aka MommaK) who, with that head of hair, was not hard to find. Yes, she’s gorgeous and sweet and wonderful in person – just like she is on her blog. Lisa, Kim and I had some cocktails, chatted and ran into some other bloggers on the rooftop of the Navy Pier. The three of us cabbed back to the hotel and had some good food and a couple more good drinks, we chatted about the conferences and blogging and it was all really comfortable.

I didn’t attend the conference and as I understand it – most everything is covered over at ProBlogger, retold by a woman to women so there’s some mushy gushiness for serious (and seriousLY) female bloggers. I just went for the friends, the drinks and the limo ride – the flip flops were a bonus. It was also really nice to see a different side of the City. Having grown up nearby, I steered clear because of the crime and ick – but from the top of the Navy Pier – Chicago is a true melting pot filled with beautiful elements and a nice breeze off of Lake Michigan. The water is clear, the gulls and purple martins were wonderful to watch, and the smell of freshly baked churros made walking on the Pier really enjoyable for as many people as were there.

It was a short afternoon full of flip-flop shopping, blisters and friends – and I went away from it feeling blessed to know some very sweet people and also a bit like a schmuck for not saying thank you enough, interrupting too much during conversation and overall feeling like I act just like I live in the middle of this here cornfield.

I hope you had a good weekend, and thank you to everyone who volunteered to beta test for me! You guys are awesome, and I have a lot of work to do!!

I’ve just tallied up the results, these are my totals:

1. Pamibe : 52 referrals
2. Michele : 44 referrals
3. Jenny @ Our Life Together : 16 referrals
4. Shelly @ This Eclectic Life : 4 referrals
5. Kara : 3 referrals
6. Erikie : 1 referral
7. Invalid : 8 (dupes, me, etc.)

Pamibe is the winner of a custom monochromatic portrait of her dear baby girl Tess who passed away last fall.

Wow, I coulda’ saved myself the count and gotten the results from you, Pam!

Michele’s referrals also count toward Pam’s total, so she really ends up with 96 referred comments on her behalf.

Congratulations and thank you to everyone who participated! If you would each (Michele, Jenny, Kara, Erikie & Shelly) please contact me I have a special gift for you for referring people over to play.

Thank you!

Because I’m crazy busy over here, I am going to have to go underground for a few days. Maybe even the whole week. Yes, it’s possible. I know, I know. Calm down. You’ll be ok. In fact, you may even wind up being better than ok, because if you have a blog, you can try to win something while I’m working over here in the background (hear the clickity clack of my keyboard already? Smell the burning brain cells? Yes, that’s me.)

I thought up this crazy thing while I contemplated abandoning you for the whole week. I’m throwing caution to the wind here, so please play along. If you have a blog, or even if you don’t have a blog and you’re just a bloghopper/reader, you can participate. If you don’t, I’m very sorry. You should have a blog, everyone else has one.

1. On your blog, or in comments on a blog, send people to this post to leave a comment. THIS post. Not another post. Just this one. If they leave a comment on another post, it won’t count.
2. The comment left here must say “Referred by way of …….” insert your name/URL in the dotted field. If there are just dots in the comment, I won’t know who referred that commenter now, will I? (one comment per commenter, please.)
3. The referrer now earns one point toward the grand prize.

updated to add:

4. Your own initial comment DOES count for you, but while follow up comments by you as the referrer are appreciated, they are not accumulated into your total. (ie. you comment, then you send referrals, your first comment counts for you – and for the person you were referred by. Ooh it’s getting twisty turney now.)

See how easy that is? Very. What do you win? Hmmm… I’ve been tossing that one around. I think I will give the winner a choice, because having a choice is such a cool thing. The winner can choose from one of three things:

1. A lovely signed print of one of my hundred thousand photographs
2. a climby squirrel t-shirt
3. a custom 8×8 monochromatic oil painting (person or pet, single subject).

Now hopefully this isn’t the least bit confusing, but if it is, I will update/clarify as needed. Of course Multiple Personalities need not join in, and I should also tell you that I will moderate comments to verify that all fields are properly filled in and authentic.

To sum up this complicated way of entering my very-cool-prizes if you win refer-a-comment contest, send people here to comment, be sure they tell me you referred them so you get credit. Your competition are my readers, and the commenters you send – should they decide to play along as well.