{ can't talk }

busy.

{ halvy's unscripted }

it's 8:35 and my eyes are very heavy this evening...as usual, the boys are fast asleep and i'm following shortly.

we're closing up shop early tonight at the diaz pad, but i wanted to put up some of the candid photos taken on the fly when dad and the brothers were in town for the grad/holiday festivus.

*the thursday night shows start again tomorrow including 30 Rock's season premiere.  i'm almost too excited to sleep. except not, i feeling like passing out.

ladies and gentlemen. the halverson's.

{ dream catching }

this morning as i was making pj's lunch and he was sitting eating his cereal at the table i heard: "lauren?" you know that tone when your kids call your name and you know instantly that they're going to ask you for something?  i can hear it in pj's voice immediately.

me: "yeah?"  a moment of silence.

{source}

pj: "i was thinking of getting a dream catcher."

i'm so glad my back was turned to the kitchen so i could compose myself before responding.

me: "oh, yeah?  why's that?"

pj: "well, my friend virginia has one and she says she never has nightmares."

how sweet is that?  if you don't know pj, he is deathly afraid of rats.  aliens and ghosts will spook him, but he is absolutely terrified of rats.  he often comes into our room in the middle of the night after being woken up by a rat-related nightmare.

so, we may be in the market for a dream catcher.  who am i to prevent ancient magic from protecting his sleep? or mine?


***Traditionally, the Sioux construct dreamcatchers by tying sinew strands in a web around a small round or tear-shaped frame of willow (in a way roughly similar to their method for making snowshoe webbing). The resulting "dream-catcher", hung above the bed, is used as a charm to protect sleeping children from nightmares. As dreamcatchers are made of willow and sinew, they are not meant to last forever but are intended to dry out and collapse as the child enters the age of wonderment.  {source}

{ the witching hour }

my witching hour is right around 8:30 every night.  that's when my night chores come out to greet me.  dinner is over, the boys are in bed and we're alone.

tonight i didn't even give them a chance to rear their ugly heads.  dinner was early, pj got dish duty, i ironed eric's shirt before i let my body sink deep into the couch.  i even baked.  bread and chippers.  i know, i got the fever. 

here's the proof in case you doubt.  but come on, just believe me.

: : 

work is really slow right now, so all of a sudden i went from 3 years of nonstop rushing and racing and juggling schedules to hours and hours of spare time.

i'm trying to enjoy it.

doesn't it seem wonderful?  it should.  i need to

shut.

up.

and enjoy it while it exists.  because it'll be gone soon, right? one of my flaws is my lack of focus and drive when i have too much time.  

give me 2 hours of free time a day and 10 things to do and i'll get 12 done.  no problem.  but give me 12 hours?  i'll find 10 reasons why i should do these other mundane things.  

anyway, because i was feeling down today about not working and stressing about finances as a result, i decided i needed to fill my head with more motivating thoughts.

: : just because i'm not getting paid to design, does not mean i shouldn't do it on my own, for fun.

: : i spent the day with my sister, got an email from my dad, phone calls from both my brothers and had a sit down dinner with eric and pj.  charlie sheen would definitely agree that today i was #winning.

: : the sun was out all day today.

: : the sun is out all day almost every single day.

: :i have a blessed life.  one many would envy.  i need to remember to act like it.  i'm going to go fall asleep to some louise c.k.  goodnight!

{ lazy sunday }

our schedules are ever-changing, so it's rare when eric and i can both sleep in together. today we got to do just that and it was great.  pj was sleeping over at a friend's house so we had a nice lazy morning to ourselves.

we took a walk around the neighborhood and dined on some rooty-tooty fresh and fruities.  the rest of the day followed suit.  it was a lazy, loungey day all around.  loved it.

                                                                                   : :

after another walk in search of a super big gulp, i finally rallied as the sun was going down to take the Christmas tree and other decor down.

usually this is a sad day for me, but this year i'm ready to pack it up and move on with the year.  Christmas took a backseat to my portfolio and graduation this year.  our first attempt to get a tree resulted in 2+ hours of driving and no tree.  so i asked eric to just pick one up one day when i was at work.

i finally got it decorated, but the totes never went back up, they just surrounded the tree as decor.  kind of a bummer.  if you know me well, you know i LOVE to decorate for Christmas.  next year i've decided to go balls out.  game on, 2012.

{ post-holiday holiday party }

tonight is eric's holiday work party so I'm attempting to make a dress this afternoon based on one i've been eyeing at work. at some point i hope to write a "knock-off" tutorial, but because i'm racing the clock to get it done, i'll just describe my steps briefly:

1. Find a similar fabric. This makes a big difference. The more alike the fabrics, the more successful you'll be.
2. Find a medium-weight plastic. Heavier than plastic wrap (although this is what I used since I was in a hurry and it's all I had), something resembling ziplock weight.
3. Section by section pin the plastic as smooth as possible to the piece and trace a dotted line around the seams.
4. After tracing all the sections, pin the plastic to your pattern paper. I was out of pattern paper, so I used the back of some leftover wrapping paper.
5. Using a tracing wheel, trace your rough lines onto th paper, remove the plastic and clean up the lines. This part may take some eyeballing to smooth or "true" the pattern pieces.
6. Add seam allowance and sew it up!

                               : :

UPDATE: the finished product turned out better than expected. i actually wore it to the party and the best part was that I only spent $6.53! now I have a dress, a pattern and $100 back in my pocket. the pictures were taken with the iPad so they're not super clear, but here's the final product.

{ mr. brainwash }

last week eric, pj and i went out to the free mr. brainwash exhibit.  if you haven't seen the documentary exit through the giftshop, you should.  it's on the instant watch list on netflix and it's pretty entertaining.  all about graffiti artists and what they do.  i'm not a graffiti enthusiast, but i enjoy artists like banksy, who can create original, thought-provoking work out of an art form that is so taboo.

street art has really gotten a lot of attention over the last year and even though i was skeptical of mr. brainwash and his quick rise, i was thoroughly entertained as we perused the 4 floors of the abandoned building he rented to create his display.  every single inch was covered with something.  can you imagine the toll that would take on your creativity?  it just kept going and going!  displays in little rooms and closets and stairwells.  i snapped a few camera photos.

this room was one of my favorites.  you can't really tell from the photo, but this is the doors made entirely out of broken bits of record.  there were several images including a really great one of the young michael jackson.

love steve jobs as marilyn and a GIANT mr. potato head!

his trademark is the campbell's tomato spray paint can.