By the time I am done writing this blog, it will be Masi & My second wedding anniversary!!  I am so lucky & blessed to have such an amazingly supportive, providing, & LOVING Husband!

The first two years, we have been blessed with TWO amazing children!  Noah who is 14 months old, & Baby Fio #2 who will be born (if on schedule) on July 22, 2010.

The best advice I’ve ever received is when Masi & I were treading rocky waters a few years ago, so I was spending some quality time with my Mom, @ the nail salon of course!! While there I watched a couple in their late 70’s (I’m completely assuming) walk in hand in hand, smiling completely in awe of each other.  This man lovingly helped his wife climb in to a pedicure chair, took off her shoes, & & sat right next to her.  I being the nosy helplessly romantic person I am couldn’t help but ask this couple how long they have been married, and without hesitation they both looked in to each others eyes so adoringly, and as they looked back at me they both said, “almost 50  years!” As soon as I could pick my jaw up off the ground I unbelievingly asked, “& you’re still this happy?“  I am not sure of the woman’s reaction because I was completely taken back at what her husband did as I asked that.  After a quick chuckle he grabbed her hand, leaned forward & kissed her on her forehead…….turning back to me…….he said, “OH NO, EVEN HAPPIER!” without hesitation I immediately asked, “what’s the secret? Is it TRUST?”  He looked at me & said, “NO, if you don’t trust him, he has given you a reason not to.  Dear, true LOVE is survivng the storm when everyone else has given up!”  I remember just sitting there frozen in that moment as he continued telling me their story.  They were married really young out of wedlock & now have 7 (or so) kids (I don’t exactly remember the persise details) no one believed they would make it, & he said at times he doubted himself, & she nodded her head in agreement.   from what they told me, they both made a lot of mistakes, but through their trials & tribulations have learned that so many couples face the same storms, & as he reiterated the statement, “True LOVE is surviving the storm when everyone else would has given up” tears flew from my eyes like a never ending, God powered waterfall!!

Masi & I have survived our fare share of storms…….I’ve even sat through a lecture from a bitter old lady looking at me & saying ha, “you think you’ve been through a lot, honey, you’re both so young, you haven’t seen nothin’ yet!” but that’s her, that’s her story, not ours!  I refuse to let people dictate our future!  I have complete faith that true LOVE exists, & Masi & I have found it, & we’re going to be that couple in the nail salon 50 years from now proclaiming our love as I sit & get a pedicure! =) I’m not saying our marriage is perfect, we’ve had our share of trials & tribulations, arguments, & learning experiences, but the simple fact of the mater is We’re here today @ 12:19am still completely in LOVE.  It might only be our second anniversary since We’ve been married, but God’s in control, & We both have immense faith that he has brought us together for a reason!

These past two years have been full of Smiles, Laughter, and YES even tears!  I wouldn’t share any of it with any other MAN other than Thomas Mulimuli Fio! Happy anniversary LOVE!!

God Bless,

Crystal Saili-Fio

Noah’s already 13 months old, & in a little over a month our family of three will become a family of four!  Latley Noah has been extremley clingy, I wonder if those sibling rivalry instincts are already begining to set in????  I know it’s going to be work raising a toddler, & an infant, but the more & more I see Noah wanting to play with other children, I realize it’s all worth it. 

Becoming a parent has opened a door to a completley new world!  A world in which my Son’s needs, wants, & desires are top priority!  Now if only I could distinguish his wants from his needs…….  I read somewhere that this is the age where choosing your battles becomes imperative, I witnessed that first hand when I tried taking his bottle away!  My first attempt was interupted when Noah caught a cold the day Masi & I decided we were going to put our foot down.  I don’t know exactly what caused us to give in, & let him have his bottle  a few more days, whether it was his runny nose, pouty lip, or one tear that slowly dripped down his right cheek as he laid snuggled in his Dada’s arm’s bottle less…….  But nonetheless I had to stand firm & as soon as his cold departed I was on a mission, a mission that was going to require that Masi & I were on the same page.  Noah woke up at least eight times that night, screaming at the top of his lungs, for his companion that has been with him since birth, but I refused to give in.  (Don’t get me wrong each piercing scream tugged at my heart more & more, & I considered giving in multiple times, but as a parent I just had to realize that I was doing this out of LOVE, & one day when he has a perfect smile, he’ll thank me!)  Masi on the other hand with his tough exterior, was putty in our Son’s hands (while I had a pillow over my head, trying to escape the torture that was my son’s pain) he decided to sneak off & make a bottle.  Good thing I caught him, before any real damage was done!  Let’s just say that was a long night for all three of us, but that’s all it took, Noah has been without a bottle for a little over two weeks now!  To be honest I think he enjoys drinking out of his BIG BOY CUPS!

There is so much we’ve learned this past year, & there is so much we have yet to learn…….  Masi & I are not perfect parents, & we’re not always going to be on the same page, but I think that’s what makes this journey so exciting, finding ways to compromise, & really exploring the parenting techniques that work for us! 

Until next time,

God Bless,

<3 The Fio Family

At this time last year, I was about ready to explode and every week at church at least two people would come up and exclaim, “You’re still pregnant!?!”

Yes, I was still pregnant.

I was still pregnant until the end of May.

Sadie was due on the 12th.

Anyway, they gave me the customary Mother’s Day flower anyway since I was almost a mother, but I didn’t feel like one yet.  I felt like a giant whale waddling around trying to keep my belly covered with my extra-long shirts.

This year was much nicer.

I got 3 chocolate-dipped strawberries.  Anything with chocolate is good in my book.

I didn’t share either.

I’m sure you’re wondering where the “rap” part of this post is…well let me give you a brief introduction.

There’s a single guy in our church named Ian who was homeschooled…

…Yeah, I know what you’re thinking.  He doesn’t seem to care what people think of him, which is a good thing.  He comes up with the funniest stuff.

Like at Holly’s wedding (see previous post) last night…he was one of the MC’s, and when the dancing started, the other MC said there was a special guest who needed a dancing partner.

Ian’s grandmother!  He came out in the zaniest costume that made him look like he was a little kid in a sling on his “grandmother’s” back.  His grandmother was an inflatable doll with a wig and a dress on.

Hilarious…you had to be there.

All that to say, he made a rap for the mothers and played it in church, and it also happens to be on YouTube.

Here you go…enjoy!

Logo ideas for ‘Bradley’s’ of Shropshire.
Company specialising in high end leather goods, handbags, luggage, homeware.

A couple Junk Drawer zines are in an art exhibit about mass consumption and the environment. It is taking place at AE Studios LIC, in Queens, New York through April 23rd.
If you can’t make it to the show, you can still see most of the artwork posted online by the group that organized it all:
Art for Global Justice

Today my life is geeting worse i went back to court from cardiff to chelmesford, to fighjt costody for my 3 children. The social worker screwed me over and i lost, lost all three of my babies, cardiff social services are evil

There is a Junk Drawer display at the “The Opportunity Shop” in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood.
The shop is a temporary experimental project space for art in the urban community. It is located in a former Hollywood Video store.
The Junk Drawer set-up was created almost entirely out of stuff found at the space: sets of drawer, and display racks that were previously used for DVD’s. Zines are for sale, and there’s a drawer full of odds and ends you can donate to, or trade from. It is within the indoor yard sale area, which like a thrift store with plenty of items for sale.
The space contains an expanding collection of art as well as classes and talks. See the website for more Op Shop. It is open through the month of May, so hope you can see it.

Since I was 14 years old I’ve been designing houses for fun.  It all started when my dad was working for a log home building company and I fell in love with log houses.  The first house I designed had a huge prow-front and massive kitchen with the fridge on one side and the sink at the other side, with an island in between.  Lots of walking.  It had two lofts.  One was the master bedroom and one was a whatever room.  With a bridge between them and a spiral staircase in the middle.  They were both open to the floor below which meant you could see across from one to the other.  Hmm.  There was one other bedroom and no bathroom on the main floor.  And did I mention this house was about 2300 square feet?  LOTS of open floor space. LOTS of wasted space.  Cathedral ceilings.  Yeah, ridiculous.

I have since gotten a little better at designing houses for families instead of basketball teams, I hope.  I’ve amassed a binder full of sketches on graph paper and spanish and chemistry notes, most of which are trash, but I can’t bring myself to get rid of them since they’re a chronicle of my progress as a designer and I like to look back at how amazingly awful they were and what terrible rooms I visualized in my head while I was daydreaming in math class.

Sometimes in my dreams (at night) there’s a house that’s really cool and I try to look around at all the rooms while I’m there so I can remember it when I wake up.  I usually have to go through the house at least twice, but I start to wake up near the end of the second tour and then I have to make up the rest as I draw it out the next day.  They usually end up being mansions.

It is so much fun designing houses for people that if anybody asks me to draw one for them, I start asking them a zillion questions about what they like and what they visualize in their heads and put all the pieces together in my head, then fill in all the blanks as I draw it out, and I feel complete again.

Sometimes people ask me if I’ve drawn up my dream house.  I have to say no because there’s no way to design a house without seeing where it’s going first, unless you just want want to plunk a box down on the ground and call it home with no thought for views or sunlight or privacy or prevailing winds or landscaping.  I will design my dream house once I see where it’s going to be built.  Until then, I practice.

I’m not in too much of a hurry because I still can’t decide if I want round or square logs, and I have to resolve the chinking problem (to chink or not to chink…Darryl says no, I say maybe yes).  Then I see how cool straw bale houses look and I want to build one with round walls in some places and little surprise stairways and gardens.  And then I don’t know what to do.  So I practice designing strawbale houses too.  My MIL wants to build one in Saskatchewan so now I’m playing with designs for her.  Here’s a couple I did yesterday.

They are not to scale or anything but they’re designed for passive solar heating and protection from the cold north winds in Saskatchewan.  That nifty stone wall in the master bedroom (in both plans) would have hot water pipes from the stove or whatever other heating option is used so that the wall gives off heat.  Perfect for cold winter nights.  Both houses also have wraparound porches and roof overhangs to protect the walls from driving rain.

One thing I love about strawbale is its versatility.  You can make a curved wall wherever you want, and put a little diamond-shaped window in it, or embed some colourful glass bottles into it.  Walls can be fluid and irregular.  There doesn’t have to be any harsh corners or angles and you can create something that’s fun to live in as well as being functional.  I think having curved walls makes it feel like you’re living with nature instead of away from it since nature abhors a straight line and curves feel more soothing to the eye.  There’s nothing new age about it.  It just feels better to be in a house with curved walls.

There’s not many curves in these two houses because they’re designed to be easy to build, though I don’t know how easy the curved window walls would be, and I’m still practicing.  I’ll get bolder with house shapes as I play with more plans.

So there ya go.  If you’re wanting a beautiful home (or gymnasium) designed, write me with your wish list and I’ll see what I can do.  Don’t be surprised if I e-mail you back with an exhaustive list of questions.  It’s all part of the process.

It was great to be at the 2010 Chicago Zine Fest!
The festivities began Friday night with readings at Quimby’s. It was a packed house there, with people from all over showing up to hear well known zine and book writers Jeffrey Brown, John Porcellino, and Anne Elizabeth Moore. There were also some other zinesters who were really good, including Monica Anderson, Anthony Marvullo, Sarala Bee, and Chicago friend Michelle Aiello.
It was a nice balance of personal stories, some more serious, and some downright funny.
Most people afterward walked over to Johalla Gallery, where a zine art exhibit was already underway. The show included a diverse array of drawings, paintings, and photos. I had two photos there. Also, there was a zine wall, with covers from a whole bunch of zines. If you look you can spot Junk Drawer issue #3.
Saturday was the big day of tabling. There were so many cool people, I only wish I’d spent more time at all the other tables. But it was quite busy, and many visitors showed up, despite the rainy weather outside. I was able to sit in on one of the workshops hosted by Greg Means. The topic was zine libraries. Nell Taylor of the Chicago Underground Library also spoke.
The Junk Drawer table had drawers (separate, which I brought), and plenty of junk. People enjoyed playing Guess the Odds and Ends, some of which were trickier to identify than others. A few people even dropped off some junk drawer items of their own into the Junk Drawer donations drawer. A big Thank You to everyone who stopped by the Junk Drawer table.
Later that night there was an after party, with readings and bands.
Overall it was a great time, and wonderful to be there with so many fabulous zinesters. I’ll be looking forward to next year, and hope you will be too.

There are two looming problems with arguing with people who hold or deny certain beliefs.  The first is that they misplace the burden of proof, not recognising their belief to be the one lacking in evidence as compared to one with overwhelming amounts of evidence.  The second stems from this, and I am frightened to see so much of it.  It is that science itself, as a rigorous method of inquiry, is treated as nothing more than a belief system, floating about, grounded on a guess.

Christianity and atheism are often represented as dichotomous belief structures.  If you are not a Christian, you are then some form of atheist, in the sense that you are a-theistic, though of course you may be agnostic or undecided.  Christians acknowledge that their belief structure was given to them in one handy volume, and accept certain fundamental beliefs such as the existence of God.  Their beliefs are a rigid structure, a skyrise, built on this foundation.  Christians peer out the windows of their mighty fortress and see an equally solid construction by the way–Atheism (with a capital A).  This is where you live if you don’t live in Christianity Tower.  Your beliefs are likewise built up on a foundation, most likely science, and you arbitrarily adhere to this set rather than the opposing set.

But atheism is not a tower.  Atheism is simply a handy name for the unwieldy phrase, ‘I do not accept your outlandish claims of theism.’  There is no second tower, only one tower or the absence of it.  Atheism does not make rigorous, dogmatic demands of those who borrow its name.  It is not a coherent system of beliefs which must be defended in the face of Christianity.  Those who call themselves atheists simply reject the claims of Christians (or theists in general).

Science is all about testing things repeatedly in order to get the most reliable and untainted evidence.  However, those who think that science is just the God of Atheism are inclined to think that any failing of science to do what it sets out to means that it is a failed belief system and must be rejected.  An inherent difference between science and religion is that science sets out to correct itself.  Though there may be underlying invariants in the world, science cannot always accurately account for them, but it never claimed to be anything other than a process for trying to determine such patterns.  Religion dictates patterns which ought never, by its own prescription, change.  And yet Christianity has been much revised in its two thousand years.