C Tann-Starr's Outside Blog

Club Chaos Eye Candy: Japanese Gardens, Fort Worth Botanical Gardens, TX

C Tann-Starr (Tann Starr Music CarolynTannStarr.com TannStarr.com) — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 02:30:29 -0800

Disclaimer: Any comments and contributions provided on ActiveRain.com (or other electronic or print media) does not establish an agency relationship with any third party. Blog posts are intended to be informational only. Please be advised that real estate practices vary in regions and from state to state and market to market. The information contained herein does not constitute legal advice. All parties in need of legal, accounting, tax, or real estate guidance are directed to consult with the licensed professional of their choice. Please seek specific guidance from a retained professional in the specific field(s) required to service your interests. I and/or team blog writers make no claims, promises or guarantees about the accuracy, completeness, or adequacy of the information contained in or linked to this web site and its associated sites inclusive of but not limited to CarolynTannStarr.com MySpace/TannStarr 46486 NY Working Moms Examiner ActiveRain Group Club Chaos ClubChaosAgents.com CyberMinions.net CTannStarr Outside Blog CTannStarr Localism Blog TannStarr.net UberMental.com

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Kim Harrison Vicki Pettersson Jocelynn Drake Jaye Wells Amy DeZellar Lynn Rush Jeannie Holmes

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Club Chaos Eye Candy: Lakeside sunset at The Colony, Texas

C Tann-Starr (Tann Starr Music CarolynTannStarr.com TannStarr.com) — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 22:31:05 -0800

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Kim Harrison Vicki Pettersson Jocelynn Drake Jaye Wells Amy DeZellar Lynn Rush Jeannie Holmes

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Kendall Grey Jeaniene Frost Faith Hunter Stacia Kane Sherry Soule

Alicia Anderson: Touched By People Places and Things

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Tann Starr on Amazon.com

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Felix Lipov, Official Photographer, Ambassadors of Chaos

Obzeet

C Tann-Starr (Tann Starr Music CarolynTannStarr.com TannStarr.com) — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 01:39:51 -0800

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Kim Harrison Vicki Pettersson Jocelynn Drake Jaye Wells Amy DeZellar Lynn Rush Jeannie Holmes

Ward Nasse Gallery

Kendall Grey Jeaniene Frost Faith Hunter Stacia Kane Sherry Soule

Alicia Anderson: Touched By People Places and Things

CarolynTannStarr.com

Tann Starr on Amazon.com

Life With Wee People

Outside Blog Minion Report

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Felix Lipov, Official Photographer, Ambassadors of Chaos

Life With Wee People: Getting ready for Passover chaos...

C Tann-Starr (Tann Starr Music CarolynTannStarr.com TannStarr.com) — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 07:28:20 -0700

Life With Wee People: Getting ready for Passover chaos...

Nothing beats getting kicked out of bed by your kids in the wee hours of the morning (LOL). I like watching them jockey for position when it comes to getting their kisses and hugs in. We were up late last night getting ready for Passover chaos. We have some of our NYC girls coming down for a visit so we're counting down the hours until they get off the plane (and plotting lots of FL mischief to get into - evil grin).

My kids expect to be hosting a couple of beach outings while they're here. Shorty was singing a love song yesterday about that while Noah fired up the laptop for more wee people dictation. We've been writing our collective butts off and obsessing over the graphic novels. When the girls get settled in I'll share some new art with you guys. We're still mastering Book Club Blues Vol 2 & 3 tracks so this is gonna gt interesting. We're playing tourist for Spring Break (and taking lot of pictures - silly grin). I've been neglecting Localism and YouTube (yeah, I got your e-mails - sigh). The shorties and girls are going to help me post a bunch of fun stuff so stay tuned for the Little Minions editing digital clips. They are getting really good at timeline-drag-and-drop. The special effects keeps them clicking away for hours and now I have to worry about cameras in the fridge and being duct taped to skateboards and bikes (said the chick who taught them to experiment with their creativity - LOL). ;-)

Now if I can just figure out how to keep Noah the Net Geek from opening every other icon on the desktop I'd be a very happy camper. Mr Autism likes running multiple programs and I usually have to close down ten to fifteen just to watch Unbox. He loves keeping busy which usually translates to me being kicked off my laptop for hours (LOL).

Stephen the Minion Blur is a lot easier to handle. You can distract him with loading a Thomas the Train DVD in the living room (and shorty takes off like a bat out of hell to watch it every single time - evil grin).

Tann Starr on iTunes

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Kim Harrison Vicki Pettersson Jocelynn Drake Jaye Wells Amy DeZellar Lynn Rush Jeannie Holmes

Ward Nasse Gallery

Kendall Grey Jeaniene Frost Faith Hunter Stacia Kane Sherry Soule

Alicia Anderson: Touched By People Places and Things

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Tann Starr on Amazon.com

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Felix Lipov, Official Photographer, Ambassadors of Chaos

Life With Wee People: Cranking out the noise... Catch The Rush

C Tann-Starr (Tann Starr Music CarolynTannStarr.com TannStarr.com) — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 14:18:03 -0700

Life With Wee People: Cranking out the noise... Catch The Rush

A few of my NYC gal pals are coming down in April (followed by a couple of relatives) so next month is going to be mad fun and very busy. I shall be cooking my a$$ off on the foodie and creative side while indulging in another silly mini vacation. As a general rule I like my vacations to be fun and enjoy being a big 3 year old. I've been a wee bit distracted collecting author swag and quietly running amok doing a massive amount of research. I shall fill you guys in on it all later. I collected a lot of eye candy (happy sigh).

Illustrating the graphic novel has been keeping me mad busy and the draft children books are piling up. I'm bugging my girlfriends to do a few animations with me. We have a lot of material and I've been experimenting with some very interesting software. FYI: My kids are totally into turning me into a twisted version of a Dr. Seuss police sketch artist which is mad fun because they enjoy recording nonsense and I get a kick out of them telling me what to draw (wicked little grin).

We got the information on how to create these puppies from a dear old friend of mine: George Hartman. We like the work he did with his publication so we're having a blast lining up our ducks, dotting our I's and crossing our T's while doing ridiculously fun artwork. Stephen, the Minion Blur has been experimenting with miniature car crashes while Noah, the Net Geek has been lining up the plush toys so he can keep his characters straight while performing. Me? I get to take pics, write notes and draw on demand while the wee people drama unfolds...

When I'm not cracking up with laughter (or being chased around the house by kids wielding magic markers) I sometimes get to take wee people dictation during our creative writing projects. Sometimes these things take a while because Stephen likes to drive miniature cars all over the furniture, build ramps and tunnels and/or rap tracks into the mic while Noah frequently yells and does wild sound effects between spurts of dialog. If you leave him alone and simply observe he'll work out the entire dialogue between Sponge Bob et al and a few pillows or plush toys while at play. Then I have to get all dark and twisty on them to keep things interesting because they are unreliable narrators who can't make up their mind on a daily basis where the story-line is heading (hence the multiple books in progress - LOL).

We have been creating some really fun creatures while messing around with this project (which may require more trips to the zoo for further research because we're mixing and mismatching body parts). Our team pen name is going to be "Stephen C. Noah" while the three of us are wrecking the house engaged in this fun project from little minion literati hell. We'll write in our own names when we actually do something independent of each other.

The boys have a very interesting imagination that keeps me bouncing between libraries thumbing through National Geographic magazines staring at the jungle and people from around the world. They expect their creatures to creep in fascinating landscapes with lots of color and texture... like mud... slime... goo... mars bug pooh...

Yeah... they're picky that way (LOL).

When I'm not maxing out my library card or living in Barnes and Nobles I spend an inordinate amount of time on the floor coloring with the kids and letting them run amok editing music tracks with me. We will give you guys a sneak peek of an author tribute track for Lynn Rush. She has some really cool stuff coming up:

Lynn Rush on Amazon

Lynn Rush's Blog

When:

Friday, March 30, 2012, 9:00 AM

"I'll be on the morning news show with the amazing author, Alan Dean Foster!! You can LIVE STREAM the broadcast as well: http://www.aztv.com/category/219822/themorningscramble Thanks for your support!!"

Where: The Morning Scramble TV Show, 3211 Tower Rd, Prescott, AZ, United States 86305

A bunch of peeps are going to RT but I don't know if I can make it because I have company. On Thursday, April 12th from 4 - 6 pm participants can meet Lynn Rush and more than 125 e-book authors and dozens of graphic novel authors. The RT Booklovers Convention will be held April 11th-April 15th, 2012. The convention will be hosted at

The Hyatt Regency O'Hare Hotel

9300 Bryn Mawr Avenue
Rosemont, Illinois, 60018
(847) 696-1234

If you can go you really should stop by and get a few autographs, chat with the writers/graphic novel illustrators attending and collect literati swag. We all know how much I like author swag so I'm gonna keep pushing the collectibles button (silly grin). Lynn is really sweet and you guys will adore her as much as I do.

This is a brief 2 minute DM Zone interview on YouTube about her trilogy.

We hooked up a couple of author tribute tracks for Lynn on the Book Club Blues Vol 01 project. The Book Club Blues Vol 02 and Vol 3 projects have been keeping me up for late night because it's been 122 days since my last release and I've been composing like crazy but bouncing the tracks back and forth between music projects (said the anal retentive blogger who can't make up her mind which order the songs should go - LOL).

Lynn Rush has Vol 3 all to herself. She's mad fun to play with online and a very cool social media peep so go follow @LynnRush on Twitter. ;-)

I really do need to get my musical rear in gear and master the rest of these tracks with the shorties so I can post a tease (because I'm waaaaaaay overdue for some mischief - evil grin). This is sneak peek week (and yeah, I will finally get around to answering some of that e-mail that has been piling up while I've been quietly traveling - silly grin).

My kids are tweaking the re-verb so I gotta go before my wah-wah starts to sound like a metal plate chorus on steroids (melodramatic sigh - head thunks on table - eyes crossing). ;-)

Stay tuned for some new music and more random musings (LOL)...

Tann Starr on iTunes

Tann Starr on IMDb

Kim Harrison Vicki Pettersson Jocelynn Drake Jaye Wells Amy DeZellar Lynn Rush Jeannie Holmes

Ward Nasse Gallery

Kendall Grey Jeaniene Frost Faith Hunter Stacia Kane Sherry Soule

Alicia Anderson: Touched By People Places and Things

CarolynTannStarr.com

Tann Starr on Amazon.com

Life With Wee People

Outside Blog Minion Report

MySpace

Ask me something...

Tann Starr on Jango Music

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Felix Lipov, Official Photographer, Ambassadors of Chaos

Life With Wee People: Exercise Little Minion Style

C Tann-Starr (Tann Starr Music CarolynTannStarr.com TannStarr.com) — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 06:05:37 -0800

Life With Wee People: Exercise Little Minion Style

Noah the Net Geek has been training for Track and Field (among other things) so yesterday we packed the boys up for some fun under the sun at the Special Olympic County Summer Games.

While en route to Merritt Island, Stephen the Minion Blur gave wee people orders regarding what the next Kim Harrison cartoon should look like. I'm saving that insane argument and collection of new sketches for another blog post (LOL). We're in love with the British covers so Shorty has been quite vocal about me learning the girls features and getting the hang of illustrating burning bunnies shields.

Yeah... he's into custom art (my fault entirely) and usually crayons a lot of it after we're done (to give it a personal touch - LOL). We're trying to find a cool after school sports program for the shorties to get their gym on that also caters to giving their wee people client the benefit of an individualized education program full of personal touches like the instruction provided by their current teachers who are volunteering a lot of personal time to coach 'em.

I tried talking them into an arts and crafts kind of thing but they claim that's what they have me for. I may have to set up a free class at a library since libraries are always looking for volunteers to do creative stuff. My kids would love that: Little Minions Art Classes coming to a blog post near you (but I digress - LOL).

Feel free to give me educational sporty links to Orlando, Indialantic, Cocoa, Vero Beach, Palm Bay and Melbourne people. Will keep you guys posted on what we discover as we go along. We're experimenting. There' a lot to sample in Brevard County and the Special Olympics gives the kids a chance to train for different events and hang out with really cool people who care about their development, dedication and hard work. One rule: must be hands on, interesting and fun. My kids are visual learners (LOL).

Noah did basketball the last time we participated in the Special Olympics and the fact that they quite happily discovered team sports are mad fun helps keep my kids dedicated to learning them.

This event took place at a very cool high school with tractors that made my 5 year old drool (LOL). It started out cold and gray but eventually warmed up (when it was almost time to go - Murphy's Law - LOL).

Irony is, my kids took to running up and down the bleacher steps to keep warm. Sad is the adults couldn't keep up. Mike snagged them in front of the press box and put their hoodies on (which did not last long because running amok made them "too hot" and they ditched their clothes every chance they got - LOL).

Little Dude did his Hulk Hogan poses and showed me his Ozzy Game Face, then went out and placed first in TBT and the 50 meter dash in his division heat. That's my boy!!! Shorty brought home two new blue ribbons. How cool is that? Very!

My Guy Pie loves Track & Field. Every time I turned around Little Dude was dancing in the grass. I was waiting for him to do a cartwheel but 145 photographs and several digital films later I realized I was going to be denied the flip shots. It seems he saves those for the gentle abuse of our furniture at home during The Noodle Wars.

I bet he won the TBT throw because of battling hubby with those blue bowling ball pins (LOL). Yeah... we rough house a lot in my house (happy sigh).

He gets his victory dances from watching football. We're huge sports fanatics. ;-)

Athletics are mad fun. Anyone can enjoy participating in sports... I'm thinking while I wander around looking for cool business organizations to join I should check into how to help officially coach the wee people in a sanctioned sport. I may introduce them to boxing next and look into forming a small team of wee people warriors (LOL). There's a cool gym in Vero Beach I want to check out which doesn't have a website. Seriously? SERIOUSLY??? I could be linking to you and sending fun social media peeps your way. Just sayin... (snerk).

I'm not leaving my current gym because I love Planet Fitness but it's a fact that there isn't a speed bag, heavy bag or boxing coach there so a gal's gotta do what a gal's gotta do when she's raising active rough and tumble boys. I may have to join a boxing gym if I want to get my kids into a mainstream program (or not join and ship 'em off for coaching so I can read my fave authors in an uninterrupted bubble bath - LOL).

My kids have an amazing group of friends full of energy who are mad funny (LOL). It's always a pleasure to spend some time with them, their parents, siblings, teachers and coaches. We're already cooking up our next bit of play date mischief. When it comes to occupational therapy my house is an explosion of arts an crafts projects (LOL). My keyboards take an amazing beating and everyone loves the electronic drum machine (LOL). I need a new amp (sigh) and have to replace the Sony (melodramatic eye roll) and shall take care of it soon. Right now I have other things on my mind that need my immediate attention like finding an after school sports program to tire my shorties out (silly grin). Swim team maybe? Hmm...

What ever it is I want to see more smiles like this one (happy sigh). There was a lot of giggling going on all freakin' day. We could barely keep them contained (and sort of didn't want to - LOL). Will show you guys Cocoa Beach next...

That's where we took the boys for a victory dinner on the pier after dinosaur shopping (LOL). I'd tell you more but it's time for me to go to the gym. If I don't work out before it rains I wont survive the next Noodle War (which is a serious work out in itself and is scheduled for 10AM - LOL).

When I get finished at the gym I have to shower, pack a saddle bag, grab my laptop and head down to Miami to see the fabulous Kim Harrison. I want to get my book signed and meet a few blogging buddies for some digital mischief (LOL).

Kim is on the A Perfect Blood book tour. Will post more about that after I find a cool Miami beach to haunt with my laptop. I am being treated to my first Mojito later today. This should be very interesting...

I've never been to Miami so I'll have to cover something for Localism while I'm wandering around down there. Nothing like the hunt for eye candy to keep me all perky and jogging with my Nikon (LOL). ;-)

Tann Starr on iTunes

Tann Starr on IMDb

Kim Harrison Vicki Pettersson Jocelynn Drake Jaye Wells Amy DeZellar Lynn Rush Jeannie Holmes

Ward Nasse Gallery

Kendall Grey Jeaniene Frost Faith Hunter Stacia Kane Sherry Soule

Alicia Anderson: Touched By People Places and Things

CarolynTannStarr.com

Tann Starr on Amazon.com

Life With Wee People

Outside Blog Minion Report

MySpace

Ask me something...

Tann Starr on Jango Music

Tann Starr on Blip.fm

Felix Lipov, Official Photographer, Ambassadors of Chaos

NAPW

C Tann-Starr (Tann Starr Music CarolynTannStarr.com TannStarr.com) — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 08:26:54 -0800

NAPW

Melodious isn't home. I'm sitting on the floor with my laptop pouting. I want to hear about the baby being born (I'm excited and impatient - sigh). In a few weeks I'm going back to TX to see the latest bundle of joy popping into my virtual world and I have to admit the suspense is really killing me (LOL).

It's a boy and I bet he's beautiful. I can't wait to see him and enjoy the benefits of being a virtual grand-aunt without the pain of giving birth. Yeah... I love babies... they smell really good, cuddle great and melt hearts (happy sigh).

Right now I'm stalking her Facebook page and trying not to call her cell phone. One message at home is good. My fave TX family is busy and should not be distracted from the drama of a new grandkid making his debut on the world. I'm supposed to be going jogging so I'm gonna get dressed and take off in a few minutes. We all know I have to get my jog on before the kids get home from school (and our brand of insanity begins - LOL).

I'll leave in a minute but before I go run off to haunt the causeway I'm gonna leave you guys a link to the National Association of Professional Women.

I was thinking this would be a very cool organization to join (yeah - I actually got an invite - sweet). If this works out there will be functions full of business executives I can study and make friends with while I organize my brand spanking new corporation into sub-divisions.

Florida is different from New York. I have a lot to learn. I wont just be doing real estate while I'm floating around down here. The music studio has to relocate, I'm writing my a$$ off and have to publish all of my music sheets. The graphic art is staying in New York City so I'll have to go back four times a year (if not more) and the girls want to form a Private Investigation firm because they miss me doing their legal investigations for pizza.

Me? I miss retaining them for a dollar, good pizza and all that snarky banter while noshing on great food (LOL). If creating a P.I. firm will get them to come play in Florida then what the hell - I shall start range classes in Orlando immediately.

Okay - after the Kim Harrison tour and my wedding anniversary. I need to behave for that before I go run amok on my next road trip adventure to cook and start kissing beautiful babies. Will be in Miami on Sunday and Palm Beach on Monday. Tuesday is a secret (can't tell you everything - LOL).

I found a really great range to check out in Orlando. Did you know you could rent some really cool firearms to practice with down here? Yeah... I definitely need to make new professional friends and find out what else I don't know about Brevard County. It's time to join some fun organizations and get busy. The girls are coming down for a Girlie-Girlie Day paintball marathon. I need to be ready for the invasion and have to test run a few locations with hubby and the little minions (evil grin).

I need an interesting list of stuff to join. I'm starting with a library card and working my way up to who knows what. Will keep you guys posted (LOL). ;-)

Tann Starr on iTunes

Tann Starr on IMDb

Kim Harrison Vicki Pettersson Jocelynn Drake Jaye Wells Amy DeZellar Lynn Rush Jeannie Holmes

Ward Nasse Gallery

Kendall Grey Jeaniene Frost Faith Hunter Stacia Kane Sherry Soule

Alicia Anderson: Touched By People Places and Things

CarolynTannStarr.com

Tann Starr on Amazon.com

Life With Wee People

Outside Blog Minion Report

MySpace

Ask me something...

Tann Starr on Jango Music

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Felix Lipov, Official Photographer, Ambassadors of Chaos

A very scary thought...

C Tann-Starr (Tann Starr Music CarolynTannStarr.com TannStarr.com) — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 05:42:58 -0800

http://www.webpronews.com/facebook-incident-launches-first-amendment-fight-2012-02

I wouldn't ever want someone forcing me to post anything on my blog or other social media accounts... Reading this made me realize just how much I enjoy having the freedom to speak. If the court said delete it I'd go Okay. If the court said write your own apology I'd say Okay.

Putting words in someone's mouth to write the apology for them or go to jail if you don't publish someone else's apology on your behalf that gives up your personal court business during a custody battle - what a very scary thought...

It opens the door to a whole bunch of monkey business by litigants... The HE SAID SHE SAID during a marriage never ends. Everyone has an opinion, even their stupid opinion... I think I've vented enough in cyberspace to understand how horrific this really is on a personal and professional level.

Just saying yall might want to pay attention to what you guys are posting on Facebook. Never know if a stray comment is going to come back and bite you in the a$$ after falling out with someone...

Pssst... Realtors, this also means you and how some of you trash your competitors/clients. A few of you are so busy trying to boost your "follow me" numbers you have no idea who your subscribers really are and what they're doing lurking on your social media pages. My girlfriend got dragged to another state to give a deposition for having a conversation with a relative that the soon to be ex-wife didn't like. Cost her a substantial amount of money to comply with the court order because she needed to hire her own attorney, travel, lodge, then get back to New York City.

I bet my gal pal would not have enjoyed having a court order shoved down her throat regarding forcibly apologizing on Facebook for having the nerve to comment on a negative experience for anything personal.

Neither would I...

Tann Starr on iTunes

Tann Starr on IMDb

Kim Harrison Vicki Pettersson Jocelynn Drake Jaye Wells Amy DeZellar Lynn Rush Jeannie Holmes

Ward Nasse Gallery

Kendall Grey Jeaniene Frost Faith Hunter Stacia Kane Sherry Soule

Alicia Anderson: Touched By People Places and Things

CarolynTannStarr.com

Tann Starr on Amazon.com

Life With Wee People

Outside Blog Minion Report

MySpace

Ask me something...

Tann Starr on Jango Music

Tann Starr on Blip.fm

Felix Lipov, Official Photographer, Ambassadors of Chaos

Life With Wee People: Push - Pull the fat off...

C Tann-Starr (Tann Starr Music CarolynTannStarr.com TannStarr.com) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 03:45:45 -0800

Life With Wee People: Push - Pull the fat off...

My 10 year old is Autistic and my 5 year old sufferes from PDD-NOS. This means I have to get very creative in explaining things to them. They are both visual learners and have taken an interest in my obsession with going to the gym in the wee hours of the morning. Whenever the shorties see me get my Praying Mantis - Tai Chi - Wing Chun warm ups going they like to get in on the act because Kung Fu usually leads to the Noodle Wars.

We do not have a pool but we do have pool noodles. Two huge red and purple ones. We gleefully wreck the house playfully beating each other with them while learning to kick and block accurately (silly grin). Stephen has taken to staff fighting with the pool noodles while Noah usually wields them like a sword. Me? I usually get my a$$ kicked at some point because hubby likes to pretend write our names on the bottom of the oversized inflatable bowling pins and arc them through the air like guilded missles (which can be a huge distraction requiring very creative retribution - sly little grin).

This is me telling you You Are Your Own Gym (and yes, I am a Mark Lauren fan) so you should have mad fun incorporating play into your exercise routines.

Seems the shorties want me to do my Hulk Hogan poses before they get on the school bus. Why? I have a temporary Rachel Morgan tattoo Stephen the Minion Blur wants to apply to my arm except he thinks my arms "need more work. I'm not Hulk Hogan enough. A really cool tattoo requires a really cool arm."

Even though I can bench press my own body weight he thinks I'm not working out enough. We're on the floor flipping through the pictures of our copy of You Are Your Own Gym so he can select our next push - pull objective. This book is photo rich so my 5 year old doesn't have to read, he simply looks at the pictures and gets busy with his Mama in tow (LOL).

Since Stephen and I are both April babies we've decided we want one of these for our birthdays so we can get our hit - kick on. It will make a stellar addition to The Man Cave. Hubby knows it's on my things to do list (and if he EVER wants to ever see me in a bikini he should give in - hint - hint - evil grin).

I'm jogging on the causeway later. I'll show you some cool water views of Melbourne when I get back and let you guys in on just how effective doing a split military work out really is. Best part? I still eat what ever the heck I want (in moderation) and am making wonderful progress. :-)

Tann Starr on iTunes

Tann Starr on IMDb

Kim Harrison Vicki Pettersson Jocelynn Drake Jaye Wells Amy DeZellar Lynn Rush Jeannie Holmes

Ward Nasse Gallery

Kendall Grey Jeaniene Frost Faith Hunter Stacia Kane Sherry Soule

Alicia Anderson: Touched By People Places and Things

CarolynTannStarr.com

Tann Starr on Amazon.com

Life With Wee People

Outside Blog Minion Report

MySpace

Ask me something...

Tann Starr on Jango Music

Tann Starr on Blip.fm

Felix Lipov, Official Photographer, Ambassadors of Chaos

Life With Wee People: Pot Gardens

C Tann-Starr (Tann Starr Music CarolynTannStarr.com TannStarr.com) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 13:45:56 -0800

Life With Wee People: Pot Gardens

Turns out my kids are into gardening and enjoy being able to nibble on the organics as we go along. We already know where we want to put the patio and deck so we're fooling around expanding our pot garden one plant at a time. In January those grape vines were just a bunch of dry twigs. Stephen, the Minion Blur has been watering them religiously (and drowned the raspberry and blackberry vines - LOL). The Strawberries are coming up lovely. So are the Serrano peppers and celery. We've a bunch of stuff growing so I guess I'll save that bit of info for another post.

I think the thing I love the most is how much the birds and butterflies have been hanging around. My kids are thrilled to watch their antics and I find that painting outside is very relaxing when they're chilling checking out the wild life. I just discovered that when birds fly south for the winter they take over Florida yards (LOL). The kids put a bowl out to accommodate them and we get tiny visitors all the time.

Noah and Stephen love the Blue Jays. I kind of get a kick out of them as well. I'm thinking a few bird sketches would be nice. They certainly pose enough for me to start banging them out (silly grin). If all goes well with the shorties (and they don't steal all the art supplies) I'm going to be hanging out in the pot garden creating some cool Kim Harrison art with Noah the Net Geek.

Seems we're having a spirited debate about the next Kim Harrison cartoon. Tonight we're spoofing on Dead Witch Walking. Stephen wanted Ivy off the bike but now Noah wants Ivy on the bike. Translated: more drawings (LOL). Turns out they both want me to re-draw the Burning Bunnies shield and make the first illustration larger so I'm on the floor with a 16x20 canvas pad about to "fix" my 12x16 illustrations (head thunks on table - melodramatic eye roll - silly grin), then it's off to the pot garden to sketch and watch the sun go down on my backyard and maybe feed the birds (happy sigh). After, the shorties and I are going to make some noise (evil grin). I am recording a new track. We're doing monster drums tonight (LOL). ;-)

Tann Starr on iTunes

Tann Starr on IMDb

Kim Harrison Vicki Pettersson Jocelynn Drake Jaye Wells Amy DeZellar Lynn Rush Jeannie Holmes

Ward Nasse Gallery

Kendall Grey Jeaniene Frost Faith Hunter Stacia Kane Sherry Soule

Alicia Anderson: Touched By People Places and Things

CarolynTannStarr.com

Tann Starr on Amazon.com

Life With Wee People

Outside Blog Minion Report

MySpace

Ask me something...

Tann Starr on Jango Music

Tann Starr on Blip.fm

Felix Lipov, Official Photographer, Ambassadors of Chaos

Life With Wee People: Kim Harrison Cartoons

C Tann-Starr (Tann Starr Music CarolynTannStarr.com TannStarr.com) — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 16:29:18 -0800

Life With Wee People: Kim Harrison Cartoons

It's been a while since I planted one of these in the Kim-Stream so I'm gonna hang out on the bed with the kids and draw a bunch of cartoons. We're doing Tamwood and Morgan tonight. I'm hoping for a quiet evening where I get bossed around by my 5 and 10 year olds (LOL). The best sketch gets to go to Deviant Art so I have to at least draw ten of 'em. Will give you guys a sneak peek tomorrow... if they survive the wee people... they have crayons ( we're sharing a sketch pad - LOL). ;-)

P.S. Composed something really cool for a fave writer. I'm trying to figure out the graphics for the next book club review. We are soooo talking about A Perfect Blood when I get finished playing with my pens and electronic drums (evil grin). ;-)

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A Perfect Blood

C Tann-Starr (Tann Starr Music CarolynTannStarr.com TannStarr.com) — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 22:27:36 -0800

KimHarrison.net

Kim Harrison is @BurningBunnies on Twitter

Kim Harrison on Amazon

Kim Harrison on Facebook

I've been locked away for an entire month editing my book. Obsessively focused on the task at hand means I've been in all work no play mode. It freaked a lot of people out because I'm a Google Whore and Social Media Butterfly so going off-line cold turkey forced a lot of peeps to face their Internet addiction to my blog (and inadvertently generated a massive amount of e-mail regarding what's going on in my backyard - LOL).

Yes, I missed you guys madly (and will do a blog answering most of your Life With Wee People e-mails). I lurked silently when I cheated from the self-imposed ban because this I wanna be a author thing is a serious goal requiring an amazing amount of concentration. I love my virtual home but in order for me to meet my deadlines I had to stay away from Club Chaos long enough to keep my writing team happy. Now I have to please my beta readers and editor... (happy sigh)

I formed a brand new corporation with one million shares. What we're going to do with them has kept me busy (and a wee bit stressed - silly grin). Luckily for me I earned my break from writing/organize, then run a new corporation-hell and am starting my vacation so I can enjoy the 16 city Kim Harrison book tour for A Perfect Blood.

If you want to know what all the Kimaholic excitement is about read the first five chapters of A Perfect Blood here. By the time you finish them you'll be stalking Amazon waiting for the book to download because the 9AM wait for Barnes & Noble will just be too damn painful (LOL). I have a four pack of Starbucks to keep me wired and awake for tonight's amazing speed read. Yup. There will be a Book Club Bookie review when I'm done. I'm staring at my Kindle app waiting for my Android to load. I have no control when the damn thing will release so I'm a bookaholic twitching in electronic withdrawal drooling in anticipation for the wild ride to come. ;-)

If you want the A Perfect Blood wallpper click here. It is very cool. :-)

The best part about being a die hard Kim Harrison fan? Chicka never disappoints when it comes to blowing your paranormal loving mind and she keeps getting better... Check out Pale Demon while you wait for your electronic pre-order to materialize. If you want to be in Hardcover Heaven The Hollow Insider and Blood Work are simply gorgeous... If you're serious about discovering the wonderful world of The Hollows you should start at the beginning and read them in order. I've read them all multiple times because each time I make a run through I learn something new about the way her mind works. She's bloody brilliant regarding plotting and pacing. It's a fun series to read and I'm soooo into irony and snarky dialog by kick a$$ sexy characters. I'm a very happy Kim Harrison addict (and finally figured out how to draw pixies - oh joy! - new cartoons coming to a blog post near you - LOL). She's not just a great writer, Kim is also a good sport when it comes to letting fans play in The Kim-Stream.

P.S. Hi Jesse! Hi Laura! I will call you two tomorrow. If you see a 321 area code that would be me. Pick up (LOL). Time to go log into Facebook and freak 'em out (evil grin). Feels good to be home. ;-)

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Life With Wee People: Put your building samples to the test...

C Tann-Starr (Tann Starr Music CarolynTannStarr.com TannStarr.com) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 12:45:48 -0800

Life With Wee People: Put your building samples to the test...

Fun is letting your kids abuse your building supplies (LOL). If you are going to install flooring you should buy a sample and put that puppy to the test. If you read my blog you know that my kids are not shy and every so often something gets destroyed by accident or design (making them the ideal test subjects for experiments in durability - silly grin).

Building Direct is kind of cool because they invite you to beat, bash and inspect their samples. We consider that minion friendly advice and decided to give their sandstone, marble, granite, slate and engineered hardwood a run for its money. We even threw in the peel and stick vinyl stuff because it looks like wood, cleans easy, is reasonably priced and a kid friendly project for the lanai.

The Little Minions spent their holiday weekend scratching the floor samples with their toys, drowning them in the tub, drying them in the sun, walking on them like stepping stones, tossing them onto the rug and lawn and incorporating them into their building blocks for Hot-Wheel-NASCAR and Thoms the Train adventures.

The "sun walking" was a particularly brilliant idea. Turns out some materials warm up and hold heat faster than others.

We're not sure if the thickness plays a factor or the composition of the materials (maybe both?) but the engineered products felt better under our toes during our cooling/heating outdoor experiments than the tiles and stones. It's all fabulous building materials but my kids have a sensory preference so I'm bowing to the wee people since home is their fave space to run amok and play.

We wanted to be fair with our toe tests so we tried them all at different times during the day and realized drowning them in the tub may have gently warped a few wood products (making our toes a wee bit picky regarding the bare foot sun test).

Turns out these were more minion proof when push came to shove:

All of the samples were very cool to fool around with and are great to work with for a number of interesting projects we're cooking up.

I'm sketching what I want to do and am looking forward to ordering more material from them. Turns out I prefer high density fiberboard. It has great moisture resistance. Mr Autism and Mr PDD-NOS also enjoyed playing with it and the engineered hardwoods are easy to manipulate and install. The boys want to line their custom toy and art boxes with the click maple engineered flooring and put down the Vesdura vinyl flooring in our art spot instead of slate. It's textured and feels really good on our toes...

FYI: They learned a new word from the DIY Network: Banquette. Being visual learners they want to take a crack at creating a couple of custom storagebox seating sets to park their stuff. Turns out piano hinges are not that expensive so we're making a tools and materials list to design custom wee people seating.

Stephen thinks we should install the flooring on the walls and floor of a workshop play shed so it will all match.

That might actually work...

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Question: When do I need a permit?

C Tann-Starr (Tann Starr Music CarolynTannStarr.com TannStarr.com) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 15:55:40 -0800

Question: When Do I Need A Permit?

Answer: Per the Florida Building Code - Building 2001, Section 104.1.1 When required:

"Any owner, authorized agent, or contractor who desires to construct, enlarge, alter, repair, move, demolish, or change the occupancy or occupant content of a building or structure, or any outside area being used as part of the building's designated occupancy (single or mixed), or to erect, install, enlarge, alter, repair, remove, convert or replace any electrical, gas, mechanical or plumbing system, the installation of which is regulated by the technical codes, or to cause any such work to be done, shall first make application to the Building Official and obtain the required permit for the work."

I have to contact the Building Division at 321-953-8924 on Monday. Some of their forms are on-line so I have to read fast because it's Saturday, football starts at 4 PM and I have to finish picking the brains of the Florida builders I've been quizzing all day. My naked backyard has me ordering samples from BuildDrirect.com while driving my set creators crazy. We've decided if we're going to do something interesting with all that wasted space behind the house we better start designing something useful for the buildings department to approve.

Yeah... there will be before and after video because we all know how easily amused I am. Since the boys have The Den and The Man Cave the girls want a womens retreat out back where we can spar on an outside kitchen deck without getting ants in our pants when we give each other the smack down (evil grin).

My kids have been measuring the yard, planting potters and sticking little pegs into the ground where they want stuff. As soon as we find out where all the pipes and electrical lines are we are going to Feng Shui the backyard (LOL).

I have to fly into NYC to pick up some equipment and drive it down with my gal pals. I figure by the time I get back my stone, tile and floor samples will be here. When I get the rest of my tools out of storage the kids and I are going to be building some custom furniture in The Man Cave. I miss my wood working set, need to set up the workshop because I've been itching to carve something interesting and really want to finish putting my office together... I have one framed sketch leaning on a table against the wall. I need to start framing and hanging stuff...

If we're going to start installing stuff to play in and on, state law requires jurisdictions "to provide comprehensive building code enforcement services, including plan reviews and site inspections" so I am picking every helpful brain I can get my social media hands on to figure out how to design the best amount of play area for the buck. I have very talented friends I'm dragging down from SC and NYC so I have to make sure all of our paperwork is correct so we can do something cool with the house. Build Direct, Home Depot and Lowes are my fave on-line places to be right now.

I have approximately 8 minutes left before hubby gets back from his sister's house and I start waving my laptop at him again. Next week we have to rent a 10 foot box truck for me to drive. I'm very excited about that and don't need a commercial license for it as long as I only haul my own stuff. Looking forward to it (LOL). ;-)

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Life With Wee People: The Planter Expedition...

C Tann-Starr (Tann Starr Music CarolynTannStarr.com TannStarr.com) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 17:23:31 -0800

Life With Wee People: The Planter Expedition...

Noah the Net Geek is on-line playing World of Warcraft while Stephen the Minion Blur is lining up the gardening tools for some fun. We asked Mike to stop by Wal-Mart for some potting soil and a planter. We have most of what we need and figure by the time he gets back three out of four will be planted. :-)

Mr PDD-NOS is getting really good at measuring stuff. Cooking and planting gives Shorty an opportunity to get his math on. We are going to keep moving the plants around to chase the sun and figure out the best spot for them. When Spring comes we will to have to transfer his plants into the ground so I have to give my Guy Pie a lot of time to make up his mind how to arrange the bird/butterfly garden.

When we get finished making a mess in the drive we're migrating to the backyard so Shorty can peg where the patio or deck needs to be and we can chat about what type of pavers to buy. He's looking forward to tapping sticks into the ground and running amok with the tape measure and string. ;-)

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Kim Harrison Vicki Pettersson Jocelynn Drake Jaye Wells Amy DeZellar Lynn Rush Jeannie Holmes

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