busy noel

I haven't posted in forever and a day due to an insanely hectic and stressful holiday season. The normal busy-ness of christmastime compounded with keeping up with a two year old and a newborn (adjusting to life with both and not just one has proved to be a challenge) and also trying to finish up the massive renovation/addition...
Henry has been busy perusing the pages of Target's holiday toy catalogue... This time of year is so different when you are an adult with young kids. I am more excited to give Henry his presents than I am to receive any of my own. Ahh, to be a kid again...
I refer to this toy catalogue as "Henry porn." The pages are well-worn. This is him before a nap.

We finally got a tree and I was able to properly decorate for Christmas. (don't let all of those packages fool you... my mom brought over the presents she got us early, because she thought that it looked too 'bare' without them)

I have been savoring my time with this little one too. She is so unbelievably sweet. I am just in love with her... I am trying to make the most of my days, as crazy as they are.

trying to create a "handmade christmas" -----

and failing miserably. Loved ones who are expecting gifts: please, please, please excuse my major lameness this year. You know I'd give you the moon if I could. Unfortunately money is tight, and due to the fact that I haven't actually slept in a bed in over two and a half months, inspiration is running a little low. I'll make it up to you in the coming year, I promise.

even though I haven't been able to do my dishes in the kitchen sink... I have been doing my dishes in the bathroom sink for the past month while waiting for our granite countertops to be cut and our plumber to connect our kitchen plumbing. I have enjoyed bathing some things in our new bathroom sink more than others.... I am just glad I talked Mike into getting the double sinks. Annie seems to enjoy them....

Annie is more than likely our last baby, and I am going to so miss the sweet and tiny perfection, the wonderful compactness that is an infant. Nothing in this world is quite as sweet and dear as a baby.... I will forever remember dancing Annie through her fussy evenings next to our tree from this year... and the feeling of watching Henry hang his first ornament, with his tiny, agile and determined hands.
Merry Christmas, friends, and wishing you a happy, happy new year!

paper cut house

So the title of this blog has been bouncing around for forever and it is getting on my nerves. What the hell was I thinking with the whole 'starfish' business? A totally ridiculous name, really. I do have somewhat of a connection to the name; however not enough to live with it or like it any longer.

I have painted sporadically over the past sixteen or seventeen years or so, and it has always been a major passion of mine. It is a medium that I love and cannot live without. Work output has always been sporadic; some years there are months of work released at fever pitch; some years there are spells drier than the Atacama Desert.

Around eight years ago I began really dabbling with collage and instantly fell so in love with it. I ended up filling an entire book with collages, pages front and back. Last fall/winter my output was satisfactory, enough so that I decided I would open and etsy shop and begin offering some affordable prints for sale. Cassie designed a nice shop banner for me and I set up my account. Approximately a week later I began projectile vomiting around the clock (I became pregnant) and sort of lost my drive to be creative or enterprising.

Lately, even on no sleep, the stress of the big renovation, pushing another baby out of my vagina, dealing with a gregarious toddler, etc. the inspiration has been stirring. I can feel some more work coming and I just have to roll with it. I am officially changing the name of this blog to the name of my etsy shop, Paper Cut House. It will still be a blog mostly for me to look back on so I can remember what was up with me and Mike and the kids at a certain point in history. There will maybe still be some stuff for you, too. I'll announce here when the shop is up and running, but I'm shooting for late January.