Leanne Wildermuth : Artist by Nature

Belly Rubs and Baby Gifts

April

2008

There is a belly in the blogosphere that is about to burst. Raehan is due any ~~minute~~ day now with baby #3. There is nothing more beautiful or poignant than a pregnant belly, except to know that this new life is being born to one of the most kind and gentle people I’ve had the pleasure to meet.

I know that this baby, like her two beautiful girls, will be loved beyond measure. He (or she, but I’m sticking with he) will be smart, well cared for, disciplined, and adored. Read to every night, sung to and doted on. By the time her beautiful baby is able to read, there will be a stack of letters tucked away written by his Momma and sisters that he’ll cherish for a lifetime. That’s just the kind of mom Raehan is.

So today I’m celebrating this very special woman and wishing her a wonderful, memorable and totally pain free birth (heh).

Congratulations, Raehan, and many blessings to you and your newest addition.

xoxo

If you would like to join InterstellarLass, Kimberly, Vicki, Aka Monty, Angie and I, you can make a donation toward an Amazon.com Baby Gift Certificate for Raehan, too.
Clickity click this.

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Filed under: Chit Chat

Get Your Green On

March

2008

HAPPY ST. PATRICK’S DAY!

I’ve got my green on – where’s yours?

Alright – all you Irish folks, speak up and claim your heritage. As for me and my blood, my grandma came to the USA from Cork County, Ireland, when she was a teenager (and I’m sure Mom will post a story here in comments). I have fond memories of her cussing at me in Gaelic when I was a wee lass, for wiggling her waddle while she played pinochle. Aaah those were the days.

May God give you…
For every storm, a rainbow,
For every tear, a smile,
For every care, a promise,
And a blessing in each trial.
For every problem life sends,
A faithful friend to share,
For every sigh, a sweet song,
And an answer for each prayer.

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Politics

March

2008

Saw the blurb “Democrats must join together to defeat the Republicans” on a blog – like it’s a cause to wage war on. A bit extreme, I think…

Can someone please explain to me how “Republicans” are so horribly awful that “they must be defeated”? Don’t Republicans make up like – over half – of the United States population? And in that vein, why is it that a Republican candidate can graciously bow out so that the party doesn’t split, and Democrats can’t seem to figure out that the in-fighting in their own party is doing exactly that?

Please, discuss.

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Yo Quiero el Nappo in el Sunlighto.

March

2008

He moves from the back of the house in the morning (his current station in the sun) to the front of the house in the afternoons to lay in the sun. He’s got it made. Oh and hubby wants me to mention he’s totally litter box trained. Hasn’t had an accidento on el carpeto in over 3 days.

Taco Bell has me all puzzled about how Copper would sound if he could talk. Dude. I hear him speaking Spanish when he smiles and pouts at me, and yes – he absolutely smiles and pouts. I’ll try to capture that so you can see. I’m sure we’ll be having caption contests. Oh, yes we will. I already have the starter photo for the first Copper Caption Contest for you, so you might want to brush up on your Alta Vista Spanish.

Our sweet little dude needs a category. I’ll be accepting category name suggestions here in comments and then we’ll vote after I get a handful of cool snarky Coppertastic titles. Get creative! I love creative. Once he’s got a category, captioning shallo commencio.

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Filed under: Chit Chat, Copperlicious

A Perfect Post for Body Issues

March

2008

I’m a visual creature, as you all know, so for me to get sucked into a post with a lotta words is a pretty big deal. Ammie hooked me in the first few lines of one of her recent posts, Dear body*,

We have had a love-hate relationship since my childhood. You love me, while I hate you. I realize now that this has to stop. I have to stop abusing you, hating you, demeaning you. You don’t deserve it and I’m sorry for my choices that have made you the way you are.

If that hasn’t hooked you, well, then you might not have the same kind of issues. I can relate to Ammie, I am Ammie in this post. It was a gut wrenching read, as it so boldly went to that place we all need to go to reach the point of making a change. I’m not going to spoil it for you, since I think you should go read it for yourself. I’m just going to thank Ammie for putting it out there, and award her this well deserved, cute (and pink) little Perfect Post Award.

If you’d like to read more Perfect Posts, you can find a list of ’em at Mommak/aka/Kimberly’s and Lindsay’s place.

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I’m Down With That.

February

2008

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As I was trying to fall asleep last night, thousands of thoughts ran through my head. This made sleeping quite challenging, as you can imagine. All I kept thinking was “I’m down with that.”

I can’t breath out of the left side of my nose.
The room is spinning, while I’m holding perfectly still.
My eyes feel waterlogged.
My hearing is muffled, clarity achieved only by the annoying popping of my jaw. I have not changed my altitude.
My throat randomly misplaces my voice, no amount of clearing helps it return.

So yep, I’m totally down with that. I’m down with whatever the “crud” is that everyone else has. This is the first time I’ve been sick all winter, that I can recall – so I’m grateful to have held out for as long as I have. Tylenol Severe Cold is my friend. The room can stop spinning any time now.

The rose, by the way, is from my Valentine’s Day bouquet. I’ve applied some special effects – vignetting and antiquing with PhotoScape, a really great free photo editing software that I found through Pam. I am in the midst of a software deliberation that is bordering on making me insane as the price tag is just — ouch. I love the product I’ve been using for years, but it lacks the vector editing that I desperately need to make my life as a blog designer a much happier one. Of course that will necessitate a new system (Hello, Dell Dude, this is where you come in and offer me a great deal). I’m not entirely down with that, yet!

Today, I’ll be painting. After I have a steamy hot shower and clear my head. Then I’ll dive back into the design front, as I’m working on 6 projects simultaneously, as my schedule is quite full and I’m very excited to be keeping so creatively busy!

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Pick A Politician, Any Politician.

February

2008

.. it all boils down to the issues.

Slobokan spent a lot of time on this 2008 Presidental Candidate PDF – print it out and start marking it up, it’s a really great way to find out who will stand up for what you believe in.

Super Tuesday has come and gone here in Illinois – and I got some first hand experience about how these online “polls” that help you “choose your candidate” are completely skewed. You have to do the leg work yourself, and this chart will make it so much easier. I hope you find it as helpful as I have!

Update: Robin left this link – I checked it out and it seems unbiased, as well – another cool resource and place to get some background on the issues. Visit Select2008. Thanks, Robin!

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What is my Niche?

January

2008

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I’m a typical blogger, curious to know how much, if anything, blogging will bring to my business – and also curious to know about the types of people who visit me and find what I write useful or interesting enough to come back.

I signed up for Google Analytics and took a look this morning – and you see what I saw. For an undisclosed period of time (so I don’t seem arrogant, boastful or lacking in my traffic), I took a screenshot of my visitor loyalty. I am absolutely curious about the first group – “who are you and why don’t you come back?” But more importantly, I want to hug and sqwish (as translated by my fantabulous lovey doodle) the rest of you. You all are some dedicated people.

I can only surmise that the absence of drama and posts that create friction between people make me “ho-hum”. I’m okay with that. I like my little drama-free corner of the web. It’s happy over here, and most of the time you can find me singing “tralalalalaaaa”, smiling broadly and spreading bird seed in the forest backyard. Birds land on my finger, poo on my pretty dress and though I’m irritated, I merely shake my “no-no” finger at them and kiss them on the head before they fly off.

But I digress.

I do feel like I’m having an identity crisis. Thanks to those blog awards that shall remain nameless and without link (because I’m not a finalist, and neither is anyone I nominated), I have to wonder – how on earth should my blog be classified, then? What am I? Am I such a jumble of mish-mash writings that no one can really tell? Because I’m certainly not like the ones who are finalists in what I think should be my category. Not even a little.

So now I’m leaving it up to you – the 663 (or however many) people who stop by more than once, how would you classify my blog? And to those of you who are just a flash in the pan – well fooey on you. You don’t know what you’re missin’. So there.

[poll id=’6′]

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My Groovy Birthday : A Recap

January

2008

My Birthday started a day early, even, as my dear friend Lisa sent along a Groovy e-greeting, where she spent hours, apparently, scouring for my face and cropping it just so that I could do this very Groovy Birthday Dance on screen. I was feeling all giggly and shiny happy-like, starting my celebration a day early and all. Everyone should have a two-day birthday, I think!

And then it happened. I actually turned 37. And nothing changed, except that new number I have 366 days to try to remember – or forget – depending on the day. My gray’s didn’t get any grayer, my face didn’t get any wrinklier, so that’s a good thing.