no news _is_ good news!

because I've had some requests...we are just being blog lazy.

But Marian is doing really well and is thrilled to be home.

We appreciate your concern :)

Guess...

...who gets to go home tomorrow?
This goofy girl.

(a crafty sent to her by her friends Jeff & Sara).

Blood counts today were beautiful & her engraftment study showed that her at 100%: all Audrey Annette blood. Very very good news.

Nathan is coming to pick us up and we might pull it off being a surprise to Audrey. So if you see her tomorrow, zip the lips.

Real time blogging

What are we doing RIGHT NOW?
The Vivonex boxes in our room have all been called for. Marian has caught the recycling fever.
In the foreground, the emerging circus train.
In the background, a little townhouse for the tiny doll I wrote about yesterday.
More dollhouse work:

tiny drawings

Her loyal craft friend Snippety Gibbet sent Marian a sweet little ACEO while I was gone (this is reminding me that I need to post pics of the gorgeous scherenschnitte cards she's sent over the last couple of months; you can see most of them on her blog. If it's darling and fairy or hedgie or foresty, it's now ours!!). When Marian was organizing her Art Star goodies, she had a teeny blank card and bag from packaging of the magnet she chose from the small object, and told me "I could save this for a little drawing or something." I responded that it might be a good idea to draw a little something for Miss Jan, and to my shock she agreed and got right down to business amidst her buttons and treats (in the mail category, she repeatedly refuses to do more than sign written-by-me thank you notes).I loved these little letterpress frames we got in our Art Star goodie bags (sycamore street press). I'm sure they're for gift tags, but Marian kindly volunteered to draw me "our new little baby if it's a girl. Of course [giggle], we don't know what she look like, but I can just draw something. It's okay!". Photo worse than I thought. Now it's dark, so this will have to do. Those are "fuzzy slippers."Last week when buying a USB cable at the Penn bookstore, we bought other goodies. This is why I tried to get N to buy one for me and bring it: the $5 cable cost me $40 because it came with.... But I don't regret this little treat. Intended to be flashcards for your ornithology class, Marian did exactly what I wanted and promptly started to fill it with wee drawings. Two of my favorites: apples and lemonade. You can also see the Eiffel Tower and banana slices...

The Pretty Baby Bird

I was enthralled with the generous patch pockets on this little Old Navy shirt, and promptly after putting it on her found all sorts of tiny, light tidbits to fill them: a wooden nickel from the small object (handed to us by Sarah herself because we bought stuff at her Art Star booth yesterday. I felt kind of like a stalker --"I'm an avid blog reader!" were my brilliant words--but really delighted to buy in person), a tiny crocheted baby in pouch from made by gettig, and this little sewn book and the important mechanical pencil (Marian likes her pencils sharpsharpsharp). While we were eating breakfast, it became the beginnings of The Pretty Baby Bird, a sweet little thing chronicling the hatching and life of a wee robin with drawings and one word per page. An early page, photographed by the artist herself:Higher res versions to follow!

baby carriage

I spent the week home with Audrey, and I'm afraid my computer time got devoted to a little cloth diaper obsession I have going right now (and I know a lot of you--particularly my most beloveds--are rolling your eyes at me, but I'm encouraged with innovations...).

I have rather a backlog of great Marian craft artist photos, but have decided to stay current rather than try to play catch-up right away (a problem I used to have with my junior high journaling: I'd want to write, have a little guilt trip about not writing for 5 months, and fill pages with a dry little logbook items instead of passing on the passion that brought me to the little book in the first place).

Marian is dying over all things baby right now, filled with daily angst that she can't "hold that cute little baby right now." The main Marian-driven project of the weekend was making a baby carriage for her favorite stuffies (today it held Lambie, Bunny, and Achoo). When Audrey & I arrived Friday night, we were greeted with this sketch:I love how she's using sketch lines for some of her drawings when she wants to be careful of her dimensions. I hope she keeps the clear-lined drawings in her repertoire, too, though: they have a lot more spontaneity and character. When she sketches, sometimes she gets hung up on accuracy and loses a bit of charm. I'm sure I'll see plenty of changes in her style (age 6 & all), and I'm sure I'll stay nostalgic.... The pig on the side was her original decorating plan: lots of wee piggies and apples. Each side got just one in the end.

We decided to use a Vivonex box (her formula comes in packets that come 6 to a box, 6 of which are in another box, which is then shipped in another box. It drives me crazy.) for the base to start with a bit of stability (the box lines on the sketch above are mine), and add cardstock sides. She chose to make the wheels from one of the cardboard hospital meal trays I saved for crafting purposes because "I really like the texture" and the handle from a stick that's been floating around our room since I brought it home from a hospital walk (I hadn't been outside for awhile, and I kept it next to my bed for 3 weeks).She was delighted with the result, and decorated it with ephemera gleaned from postcard artist ads in the goody bags we scored at the Art Star Craft Bazaar on Saturday. After an overnight drying, we loaded it with stuffies this morning. I'm afraid she ended up a bit disappointed, though: "I thought it was going to be big enough for me to push it standing up!" She hasn't given it the time of day since. Tomorrow I'll try to put in a good word for it ;).