REVIEWS ARE IN

Forgive me for not posting a picture. Stumbled into bed at 1:18 A.M. this morning, and Annie was up at 5 A.M. Asking for orange juice. Demanding an audience with Dora the Explorer. Wrapping herself around my knees as I dragged my tired butt into the kitchen and started the day. It's a multiple cup of tea kind of day. Onto the reviews:

SHIMMERPLANET ALBUM RELEASE
My Gawd; have I really been wasting my time watching American Idol when I could have gone to see this goddess chanteuse perform? Carolyn Eufrasio has the most gorgeous, soulful, throaty, amazing voice--the kind that gives you goose bumps. She has true star quality, and I would recommend that anyone reading this download Shimmerplanet: A Better Place. Now. Get thee to itunes.

WELL RECEIVED
The film by J. King screened at the Tribeca Grand Hotel last night. My best work was left on the cutting room floor (Dan's too), but it was still a great film. John Farley does a great job in it-old Mudders will remember that at one time he and Dan ran an ONIM store by themselves, and while they may have come close-didn't actually burn it down in the end. Anyway, J.King is an amazingly talented writer, director and actor, and I predict he will be incredibly successful once more people become aware of his quirky and brilliant film work. You can sign up to be informed of future screenings by emailing jkingpop9@nyc.rr.com The film was scored by BULLY-check out Bully.com for more info

DENICA'S BIRTHDAY
Celebrated at the bar in the Tribeca Grand Hotel was great fun. I am always impressed at the talented and interesting people we are lucky enough to have work with us. It's officially pajama Friday next week.

MY DEAR HUSBAND
Successfully fed, bathed and put the chilluns to bed all by his lonesome. Spoke to me briefly at 1:18 and did not give me grief. At 6 took Annie off my hands so i could return to bed. Wiped up the jelly I had tracked through the kitchen at 1:20 a.m. after making a sloppy peanut butter and jelly sandwhich to absorb the pinot grigio. Gave me small amount of grief about the jelly.

I am a lucky, lucky, lucky gal.

We are SUPERSTARZ

Dan and I will make our debut film appearance in the film WELL RECEIVED, a film by J.King. You may join us for the screening tonight, Thursday May 18, 8 pm, at the Tribeca Grand Hotel Screening Room- 2 Avenue of the Americas. Or you can wait for the DVD. See you on the red carpet!

Download Shimmerplanet

Our very own bird in a muddy cage-Carolyn-releases her band's latest CD on itunes tomorrow:


FOR THE ONE WHO KILLS TOMORROW - TUESDAY, MAY 16.

Also, please join us as we support the launch:


IN CONCERT, MAY 18



For those of you who will be in New York on Thursday, May 18, we're

putting on our biggest concert yet. We like to surprise you with our

choices of non-traditional venues (our last concert was in a public

library)! This time around, Shimmerplanet takes you to church with a

nod to a New Orleans' style funeral. Be there! Amen.





Thursday, May 18, 2006

7:15 p.m.



The Metropolitan Community Church of New York

446 West 36th (9th/10th)

New York, NY



Incredible Live Performance!

Shimmerplanet Gift Bags!

Wine and Hors d'Oeuvres!

Art Exhibition from "For The One's" Artists and Photographer!



Cost: FREE





info@shimmerplanet.com



http://www.shimmerplanet.com

My Nonnee

Nonnee is my MIL, and raised Kip to be a fine husband and father.

No one is more generous of heart and spirit. She is of the belief that you can't love your children too much, anymore than you could extinguish the sun by pouring gasoline on it.

She'll work tirelessly to cook the family one of her famous breakfasts, and if the pancake batter runs out, promptly declare she didn't particularly care for pancakes that morning anyway.

Nonnee has taught me so many things since I joined her family ten years ago. Among them:

1. You won't break a baby if you actually wash its face.

2. A good haircut is worth the money. Who cares if you saved a few bucks if your highlights turn green the day after.

3. Elbows off the table. Really. Not negotiable.

4. Start each day with a piece of bacon, end each day with a cosmo. Cocktail hour is a way of life. Embrace it.

5. True ladies who might be required to snort OJ through their nose don't complain about it.

6. Forget red hats and purple dresses; wear aqua and you'll look fabulous. All good jewelry must jingle. If you've spent most of your life laughing, your wrinkles will be beautiful.

7. When you had a good role model, being the matriarch is easy. Or at least you can make it look that way. If at first you don't succeed, do it the way your mother told you to.

8. Civility makes the world a nicer place. Practice simple kindness.

9. Love your children, and they will come back home often. Of course, it doesn't hurt to build that home by a beach.

10. Tell your grandchildren you are magic and they will believe it: their parents have always known it to be true.

Words never come easily when I try to write something for Nonnee--I choke each time there is an opportunity to talk about her goodness. She has raised me up in ways she'll never know, and I am proud to be her DIL. I love you Nonnee. Happy Mother's Day to one of the all time best in the biz!

My Wicked Stepmother

When I say "wicked" I mean it in the Bostonian vernacular way-which means awesome!

There is a song that used to be on one of the records my parents had. I used to listen to it all the time, and the lyrics go like this:

Sunny,
yesterday my life was filled with rain.
Sunny,
You smiled at me and you relieved the pain.
Now the dark days are gone and the bright days are here,
my Sunny one shines so sincere,
Sunny one so true,
I love you.

My father could have written that song himself. He met Sunny when he moved back to Kalamazoo Michigan (where he had grown up), shortly after my mother died. She was walking a small dog.

I first became aware of the fact that my father was smitten when he came to visit us that first Christmas. I caught him staring at a photograph he had with him. It was of Sunny at her daughter's wedding. From the picture you could see that she was full of energy and life, and you could tell she liked to laugh. He was like a highschool girl sitting by the phone that Christmas morning waiting for her to call.

My father and Sunny had a whirlwind romance and were married that Summer. Initially, some in the family had difficulty with the swiftness of their union. I did not. I knew that my mother's passing had taught my father to grab joy when he could, and to live each day fully. Life is sweet, but life is short, and life is made even sweeter, and the days even longer, when you are able to spend them with someone you love.

Sunny has wrought amazing changes in my father. The man who used to tinker in solitude in the basement is now on committees, attends the theatre, hosts parties. The only travel I could have associated with my father in the past is the commute from Stamford to NYC; now together they have gone bike riding in Paris and Hawaii. He has seen the Grand Canyon. The man who lived the majority of his life with a series of cats, now owns a small dog that he treats like a child.

I am thankful that my father found Sunny to love and be loved by. I celebrate her this Mother's Day with the fullest of hearts, knowing how much she cares for my Dad. She injects his days with joy and energy and an appetite for life (although he now always splits his soup and sandwich combos.)

My Mom

My mother died five years ago around this time of year, when Jesse was just about a month old. That is when I feel I fully became a mother, an adult, and a woman. Parents work their whole lives to teach their children; and their final gift (though painful) is always a profound lesson. Her passing left me with a legacy of strength and perspective that I did not possess before: ironically, nothing teaches you more about life than death. Mostly, you discover that you can survive and persevere-and that surprises you. You connect with an inner core of strength that you may not have been aware of-and you hold onto the knowledge that those "spiritual abs of steel" will hold you in good stead for the challenges that we all face as that damn circle of life keeps on going round.

I come from a long line of women who create. I grew up playing with dolls that had been handmade by both my Grandmothers, in houses filled with creativity and expression. We always had a Sewing Room; a magical cave of fabric bolts and glass jars of buttons, shelves of gold trim, plastic fruit, and my mother's noisy sewing machine. She would make clothing, tablecloths, curtains, wreaths, and miniature Christmas Trees decorated with various themes. In the last place we lived, it was a small room with dark paneling and massive shelving that held a huge collection of plastic boxes all holding crafter treasures. The hallway off of this room held her doll house,always a work in progress, and next to that, the living room, with paintings she and my father had made. My favorite was a large red sun coming up over the horizon.

In the basement there was an orchid greenhouse, and my Father's workshop where he made weathervanes and clocks and wooden whirleygigs. And of course, there was the ceramics studio.

One of my first memories that I can recall fully with all five senses, is making a pot on my mother's rickety green wooden kickwheel. I am three, and the sun streams at a sharp angle through the basement window and it creates a spotlight in which the dust dances like a smokey apparition. The smell is sharp--clay smells like earth and mold and metal mixed together. And I perch on her lap, my legs not long enough to reach the base, her hands on top of mine, feeling the sandy clay spin beneath my hands, feeling her leg kick the metal wheel, the excitement of making the clay rise and form and become. My mother made me a creation junkie right then and there, just as she had hooked my father earlier, and would go on to hook the entire family.

My mother had a smile that would light up the whole room. This is what they said about her at her funeral: how very much that smile would be missed. And I remember seeing it, as we all gathered as children around the coffee table when she opened a box of crayons.

People have asked me what my mother would have thought about the success I went on to enjoy as a potter. I tell them that when I opened my first store in 1995, I saved for months to be able to send a limo to pick her up with my father, and drive her into the city for the opening. My mother, meanwhile, had been saving paper grocery bags for months--and at the opening she presented them to me: a pile of used grocery bags, carefully smoothed. "For the store, for when a customer buys something." she said. I never told her we had preprinted glossy bags hanging behind the counter. I have always loved that my mother arrived in a limo carrying paper bags for me to reuse.

I did not really come to know and understand my mother until I had my own children. Then her love for me, which before had been hidden in various pockets and casings of the baggage of my childhood, became crystal clear and tangible. In the voracious love I feel for my own children, I feel the certainty of my own mother's love. This knowledge becomes a looking glass through which allows me to review the past and see it anew--accepting the fact that I had failings as a daughter, and understanding now some of the more perplexing things my mother did. I am like her at her worst sometimes: when I express anger through a cold, stoney silence, or I am quick to criticize, or walk into a public place and complain about how loud the music is. I see me at my worst: My mother was very hard of hearing and before she got better hearing aids, I would stand behind her as a teenager, cursing her to her back. I allowed her to lose me as I got older by not letting her see often enough who I was growing up to become, then I blamed her for the distance. We never spoke about her impending death, and when I visited, I used to draw analogies to some of my pregnancy symptoms to the reactions she was having to chemo: as if cancer and giving birth could be the same sides of a coin flipped by God into the air.

Ah, but she loved me so. I am sure now that she crept into my room when I was small to check my breathing. Certain that she shared the pain of every scrape, every bruise, every insult and setback. Positive that her greatest hope for me was simple happiness.

And each day I celebrate her. As Jesse and I lay on the rug shoulder to shoulder with a new pack of markers. As Annie and I make a tent out of sheets and the cushions of the couch. As each day I am lucky enough to make my livelihood in a way that is creative and fulfilling. I am not motherless, because in the end, I am mother-full; overflowing with it all. And like her, doing the best that I can.

So stop smoking if you smoke so that you can be with the people you love and who love you as long as you can, and call your mother and tell her that you love her.

Quick Annie story

Annie and Jesse went to a street fair yesterday. Jesse won a stuffed Winnie the Pooh bear dressed in safari garb.

All evening long, he referred to this bear as his "puppy." It was "My puppy this..." and "My puppy that..." Finally, as bedtime drew near, 2 yo Annie, hands on hips, told him in a voice full of authority; "It's a BEAR. Not a puppy."

Well of course Jesse threw a fit and flung himself dramatically across the bed, sulking and carrying on. A tantrum ensued. At last, Annie came into the room and with a voice barely concealing her disdain said: "It's a puppy, alright? Now go to bed."

Ah, I look forward to the day my Banana becomes the wife and mother she is so destined to be.

Heading Home

With sun kissed skin and several extra pounds, we return to our usual lives today. A vacation blesses you with the ability to see your everyday surroundings with new eyes; to appreciate the familiarity of your own bed, the comfort of your routine, and the pleasure in the company of the usual suspects. We will see you tomorrow with a pocket full of seashells.

lessons from the beach

1. Children don't care what temperature it is--they just jump in. Grab joy when you can, but get out when your lips turn blue.

2. Never throw sand, because it makes the ones you love tear up.

3. Wear protection. This obviously applies at all stages of life.

4. There is high tide, and there is low tide. You can find many hidden treasures if you look during low tide, and high tide is a great time for sailing.

5. You are small. The ocean is big.

6. When you dip your hand into the water and pull it out, the water lets go. Traces of it remain, but it lets go. We should learn to be more like the water.

7. Castles are made to be built and then jumped upon and thoroughly destroyed, with the full knowledge that tomorrow's castle will be even better.

8.Pick up any shell you'd like, but if it has something slimy in it, don't expect Mommy to carry it.

9. Wash your feet off before you enter the house. Wash your mind off before going to the next thing--because sand in your thinking can be so annoying.

10. Sometimes it is nice to just walk beside eachother, your tiny hand in mine. And when you get tired, I will carry you.

Vacation continues

.

v-a-c-a-t-i-o-n

Shells collected so far: 82
Number of times Jesse has rubbed sand into Annie's hair and told her he was giving her an "ocean shampoo": 3
Number of times I have snuck away with Annie to nap curled around her while the breeze blows softly through the curtains: 1
Number of hours Jesse has spent in the pool today: 5
Number of times Annie has thrown up in the pool today: 1
Number of times I have said "I think I will go in the pool" today: 3
Number of times I have actually gone in the pool today: 0
Number of books I have read so far: 1 really really good one
Number of cocktails had by other adults in this house: 32, mostly mojitos and cosmopolitains
Number of times I have checked my Emails: 3
Number of days left in Paradise: 8

I have a spray on tan

I'm writing this from the beautiful Isle of Palms in South Carolina, where I have gone with family to enjoy a ten day vacation. Of course, getting ready to take a vacation is exhausting in itself; endless trips to CVS, trying to find creative ways to keep the children busy on the airplane, painting toenails pretty pink, etc. I have overpacked as usual, and Kip has brought the brown sneakers that he schleps on every single trip and swears he will wear, but never does.

Before I left, I invited the staff to submit guest blogs. Only Uma came through with a single picture of a penguin. (Thanks Uma.) That was gonna be it,but by chance I was lucky enough to come across the following list of guest bloggers and their topics:

Jill's Blog: "Hiring the perfect assistant--it's easy, fun, and I like to do it a lot"
Carolyn's Blog: " The art of multitasking while holding a compact"
John N's Blog: "Why a nice white boy like me wishes he were raised in Compton"
Natasha's Blog: "Smiles, rainbows, and belly laughs"
Megan's Blog "I found a mistake on a purchase order at 10:15 pm at home, and now my bosses think I am the bomb!"
Alyssa's Blog: "Shut up. My thesis is done. I don't have to write crap."
Uma's Blog: "Why I love penguins."
Alyson's blog: "Why can't Lorrie ever spell my name correctly?"
Yolanda's Blog: "Te quero penguins."
Chris's Blog: "Why I feel like a penguin sometimes"
Candice's blog: "Like I have time to write blogs."
Monika's blog: "Blogging is better in Hungarian."
Becky's Blog "I am staying at my bosses house and have looked in the medicine cabinet"
Dan's Blog: "Why can't certain people learn how to make their own urls?"
Denitza and Scott's Blog: "What do you mean MORE parade mugs? I thought we were done!"
John Z's blog: "I came for a part time job, and I never left."

Blog on, people. It could have been just like Joan taking over for Carson, but noooooooooooooooooooooo. So I will submit periodic vacation updates as my spray on tan fades ever so slowly (except the really dark spots around my knees.)

What's In Your IPOD?

Ten favorite songs in my IPOD:

Vertigo U2
Trouble Cat Stevens
The Rising Bruce Springsteen
The Obvious Child Paul Simon
The Fire Inside Bob Seger
Tender is the Night Jackson Browne
Satellite Dave Mathews Band
Paper in Fire John Mellencamp
Into the Mystic Van Morrison
I Drove all Night Cindy Lauper

Ten favorite songs in John Nelsen's IPOD
(Hey, if he didn't want everybody to know, he should have brought his own charger to work)
Billie Jean Michael Jackson
Thug n U Thug n Me 2Pac
What Up Gangsta 50 Cent
Toxic (two versions by the way) Britney Spears
Bitch Please 2 Dr. Dre
Big Pimpin Jay-Z
Gold Digger Kanye west
Straight Outa Compton N.W.A.
Got Your Money Old Dirty Bastard
Pass it Pass it Snoop Dogg

Ten favorite songs in Kip's IPOD
Thunder Road- Bruce Springsteen
Tenth Avenue Freeze Out Bruce Springsteen
Jungleland Bruce Springsteen
Born in the USA Bruce Springsteen
Born to Run Bruce Springsteen
Blood Brothers Bruce Springsteen
Kitty's Back Bruce Springsteen
Blinded by the Light Bruce Springsteen
Wiggle your little Footsies- The Wiggles

All I can say is: true dat.

Some Bunny Loves You!

Be Hoppy.

A Political Message From my BIL Andy Veasey

It's nice to get a forwarded Email that doesn't threaten dire consequences if not passed on to others. Andy sent thsi today and I found it very enlightening. It only takes a few moments to read, but is an issue that effects us all.

SOCIAL SECURITY

WHY WAIT UNTIL 2008? THERE IS AN ELECTION IN 2006. I HEREWITH FIRMLY STATE THAT I WILL NOT VOTE FOR ANY POLITICIAN, REGARDLESS OF THE OTHER ISSUES, IF HE DOES NOT SPONSOR AND SUPPORT THE FOLLOWING LEGISLATION. THAT INCLUDES EVERYONE STANDING FOR ELECTION IN 2006.

LET US SHOW OUR LEADERS IN WASHINGTON "PEOPLE POWER" AND THE POWER OF THE INTERNET. LET ME KNOW IF YOU ARE WITH ME ON THIS BY FORWARDING TO EVERYONE IN YOUR ADDRESS BOOK.
IT DOESN'T MATTER IF YOU ARE REPUBLICAN OR DEMOCRAT!


KEEP IT GOING!!!!
2008 Election Issue!!

GET A BILL STARTED TO PLACE ALL POLITICIANS ON SOC. SEC.

SOCIAL SECURITY:

(This is worth reading. It is short and to the point.)

Perhaps we are asking the wrong questions during election years.

Our Senators and Congress women do not pay into Social Security and, of course, they do not collect from it.

You see, Social Security benefits were not suitable for persons of their rare elevation in society.They felt they should have a special plan for themselves. So, many years ago they voted in their own benefit plan.

In more recent years, no congress person has felt the need to change it. After all, it is a great plan.

For all practical purposes their plan works like this:

When they retire, they continue to draw the same pay until they die.

Except it may increase from time to time for cost of living adjustments..

For example, Senator Byrd and Congressman White and their wives may expect to draw $7,800,000.00 (that's Seven Million, Eight-Hundred Thousand Dollars), with their wives drawing $275,000.00 during the last years of their lives.

This is calculated on an average life span for each of those two Dignitaries.


Younger Dignitaries who retire at an early age, will receive much more during the rest of their lives.

Their cost for this excellent plan is $0.00. NADA....ZILCH....

This little perk they voted for themselves is free to them.You and I pick up the tab for this plan. The funds for this fine retirement plan come directly from the General Funds;

"OUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK"!

>From our own Social Security Plan, which you and I pay (or have paid) into,-every payday until we retire (which amount is matched by our employer)-we can expect to get an average of $1,000 per month after retirement.

Or, in other words, we would have to collect our average of $1,000 monthly benefits for 68 years and one (1) month to equal Senator! Bill Bradley's benefits!




Social Security could be very good if only one small change were made.

That change would be to:


Jerk the Golden Fleece Retirement Plan from under the Senators and Congressmen. Put them into the Social Security plan with the rest of us


then sit back.....


and see how fast they would fix it..

If enough people receive this, maybe a seed of awareness will be planted and maybe good changes will evolve.



How many people CAN you send this to?


Better yet.....


How many people WILL you send this to

ALYSSA'S THESIS IS DUE MONDAY

The lovely Alyssa Stalsberg, our AR and CM, will soon be receiving her Masters in the ever popular field of Literary Criticism; provided she completes her thesis by THIS MONDAY. Always cool and competent, we have no doubt that she will pass this final test with flying colors, but just in case, we offer our help here. Alyssa, go have a cocktail, your work has been done for you. Here now, excerpts from the thesis we have written in purple magic marker, Xeroxed, and put into a fancy folder from Staples:

"Let us contrast and compare the literary virtues of the classics Goodnight Moon and Everyone Poops. (*author's note; I cannot figure out how to underline in Blogger. Deal with it.) Certainly, neither of these respected works are crappy, although arguably that theme comes to play in Everyone Poops. The allegorical use of the bunny in both works references the fluffiness rampant in today's society...."

"One can compare the language used on a ticket issued for public intoxication and the nutritional label on a Hershey Chocolate Bar. Or maybe not. Frankly, I found my ticket for public intoxication to be wholey UNREADABLE. I mean-literally. Like the words were jumping up and down and spinning....."

"We can certainly draw parallels between William Shakespeare's Hamlet and the latest episode of Wife Swap. Both works have wives. And husbands. What would have happened if the King's Wife had to go spend a week in Wisconsin with a granola eating, berkenstock wearing liberal? It could have all played out so differently..."

We see honors in your future. Of course, that could be in the form of a hastily rendered certificate of MUD for Employee of the Month, but an award is an award baby.

Everything Alyssa does, she does well. Everyone at MUD knows that your thesis will be no different. You surely do not need it, but we wish you much luck. And hey, let us know if you want us to finish the cover of with glitter pen or not.

JILL GETS MARRIED!

For those of you who have been watching the dates change on every DIY wedding product in the line; it finally happened! Our fabulous National Sales Manager married an equally fabulous guy, Don Boterus, this Sunday. It was a BEAUTIFUL wedding-and now I shall attempt to post pictures which will prove it.

The Final Chapter in the Phil Saga

Just received a postcard from Jersey City, where Phil. Stella and Cat have holed up briefly on their journey back to NYC.

Seems that, while traveling through Utah, the gang was exposed to some persuasive ideology and have collectively decided to go Mormon.

Big Love to you all.

Trouble In Paradise

Update on Phil and Stella: seems that in their honeymoon mode, they decided to do the nasty on top of the letter H in the Hollywood Hills. Much is overlooked in tinsel town, but it happened to be 3:00 in the afternoon and a family of four from Wisconsin happened to be sightseeing at the time. They say the five year old will be traumatized for some time to come. Phil and Stella were arrested and thrown in the slammer. Broke, and unable to make bail, they called their friend Cat back in New York, who beat tracks with all her legs to help her friends out. The three continue their adventures....

update from Phil and Stella

Just got a postcard from the happy couple. Seems they've traveled to California. Stella has a dream of making it big in movies, and Phil wants to support her. Phil writes that he had the name "Stella Monkey" tatooed on his left buttock. He's gotten a job as a host at a vegetarian place in the neighborhood, while Stella goes on auditions. They seem very happy.