pretty as the morning

Tuesday Crafties {Baby Crafties}

2012-02-14T13:00:00.000-06:00

Over Christmas I got a few gift cards to Amazon and after pooling them together I was able to snag a new toy camera. You can see how excited I am here.

Anywho, I ordered it with plans already in mind for how I might use it to make cute little crafts. So since it arrived last week me and the little miss have been busy trying it out and making our first little projects.

First up we finished our Christmas thank yous. Since we receive several thoughtful gifts each year via mail I thought snapping a pic of little miss with her beloved new item to incorporate into the thank you would be super cute. Here's the thank yous:

And since this is the little miss's first Valentines and since she can't really make Valentines without some major momma assistance, I thought I would use the camera to help her make a few Valentines for her loves.

Not too bad for my first two attempts with the camera. Hope you have a wonderful Valentines Day!

Baby Adventures and Crazy Hairs

2012-02-09T10:00:00.002-06:00

The past week has been filled with random friend visits. Last week we got to see some dear friends of ours from Tulsa who passed through town on the way to a wedding and over the weekend one of our friends from Indy brought his daughter down for a college audition. And this week our we had friends visit from Iowa. Yesterday we took our little girls to the aquarium and had a blast.

The aquarium was surprisingly empty so little miss could stand up and look in the glass at a few points and just loved it! She even gave a few little "ooooh!" when fish swam close by.

You might remember these two cuties from a few months ago. It's so fun to see how they've grown just since they last time they got to see each other in July!

And can we chat a minute about hair? As in my sad, postpartum hair. I thought the worst was during the great postpartum hair loss of summer 2011. But no, for the past three months all the hair I lost last summer has been growing back and so in every picture I take with my head in it (and let me tell you it's hard to take cute photos of adventures without your head in them!) there is a halo of new hair, like a small duckling or one of the children from Who-ville. It's out of control. I keep thinking they will eventually get long enough to blend in with the rest my hair, but seriously ya'll it's out of control. And I think it's contributing to the overall crazy hair situation in the above picture. But luckily there is a cute baby in that picture to distract you, right?

Baby Bites

2012-02-07T21:00:00.001-06:00

We have embarked on the adventure of eating solids. We are not following any particular method unless there is a fancy, study based title for "the momma trusts her gut to know what's right for her baby."

So far we really dig bananas but we don't like them in little pieces. We like a chunk of banana we can hold and bite pieces off. We also like organic, whole grain cereal O's, strawberries and blackberries. Despite the face I caught below :)

We also like small pancake pieces (no syrup!), eggs, raisin toast, shredded cheese, brown rice, steamed broccoli and the star of our tray--crackers!

I've had friends say that their favorite phase was starting baby food, but this is so fun! To see what she likes, what she doesn't--how all of that changes from day to day and week to week. And to watch and encourage her as she figures this food thing out and builds self-esteem in her new skill. Being a parent is just the best.

It's A Monday and I'll Cry If I Want To

2012-02-06T19:26:00.000-06:00

Ok, my title is a little dramatic. No tears were actually shed in the making of this day or this post. I have been struck with some yucky cold like thing that is making me feel tinie-tiny, weenie whiney. I wore leggings and a scarf indoors most of the day today if that is any indication as to how I was feeling. Just incase you all think its all cute babies and house project and crafts all the time over here. Somedays you just wear your crafts (yep, knit the wool tunnel scarf last winter), wear fake pants and enjoy the company of a very well behaved baby.

But despite feeling crummy, here's to a quick recovery and a good week!

Up in the Air

2012-02-03T07:00:00.000-06:00

The weather has been insanely pretty lately. Tuesday was warm and sunny so we took a family walk to the park to check things out and see what kind of fun might be in store for the little miss this summer. It was fun to see all the other kids running around.

And look what we tried out while we were at the park:

Our little miss is growing up so quick!

Special Delivery

2012-02-02T12:00:00.000-06:00

I got a little belated package in the mail today from Santa with a new toy. I cannot wait to get the hang of this little guy and start in on a whole list of fun little projects.

Some Photos of Recent Adventures

2012-02-01T13:30:00.002-06:00

It's been a few weeks since one of these and here are a few of the things we have been up to via my phone...

I've owned these shoes for two years but just figured out what to wear them with...everything!

A gift from my sweet sister. I have like every page marked!

We made this face on demand for like 30 minutes straight. Pure baby awesomeness.

Little reader gonna brush up on her Niebuhr (both). You know, a little light reading in our tutu.

Lining up our friends.

Mom snack

Crafty organizing

New artwork arrived from OneCanoeTwo for the creative room. Love!

What would the monthly photo dump be without a Scrabble pic?

Warm winter days playing outside.

Nap time mean tea time

Baby wreckage

My new work space

Woke up from her nap one day and all she wanted to do is climb on my lap and give me kisses. So cute.

A new baby in the family means dropping by congratulation flowers.

Sitting on our blocks.

New art wall. Makes me so happy.

Our reading interests summed up in a book shelf.

Valentines Baby Headband Tutorial

2012-01-30T20:00:00.001-06:00

Happy Monday! Hope you had a great weekend. Do you ever sit down to write on Mondays and honestly can't remember a thing about your weekend? That was me this morning. We had a good weekend--grabbed dinner with friends, rented a movie or two to get caught up for awards season.

Last week I shared little miss's Valentines inspired heart headband and today I wanted to share a little tutorial so you can make one of your own!

To make your own headband you will need:

Red and white ribbon. I got this spool as a gift from my aunt (does she know the way to my heart or what?)

Measuring tape

White elastic (the softer the better--this is for those soft baby heads!)

Two 4" by 4" pieces of felt one in red and the other white

White embroidery thread

Fabric glue (not pictured)

Small binder clips, chip clips or clothes pins (not shown)

A scrap of graph paper and a pencil (optional)

First you will need to know what size baby head you are working with. You can do this either by measuring (which can be tricky--they are very wiggly subjects) or what I prefer to do is use the head measurement from our last doctors's visit and add an eight or a quarter inch to that measurement for each month past the visit.

Now, measure and cut a 4 inch piece of elastic.

After you have done that, subtract 3.5 inches from your measurement. That is the length you need to cut two equal in length pieces of ribbon.

Now, this is the trickiest part (and it not that tricky!)...lay one strip of ribbon face or polka dot side down. Run a moderate strip of glue down the entire length of the ribbon adding extra glue on the last quarter of a inch at each end.

Next take the other piece of ribbon you cut and lay it face down putting glue only on the last quarter inch of each end.

Now take the elastic and lay the last quarter inch of the elastic on the last quarter inch of the first ribbon. then fold the second ribbon over on the elastic and first ribbon, pressing along the way and removing any excess glue with your finger.

When you get to the last quarter inch of ribbon bring the other end of the elastic around and place it between the two ribbons and press firmly.

Now take your binder clips or clothes pins and clamp them where the ribbon and elastic meet. Set aside to dry.

While the headband is drying cut a heart shape out of your read felt. I free handed mine but if you aren't great at free handing use a piece of graphing paper to sketch out a pattern.

Using the red heart as a guide, cut two hearts out of the white felt that are an eight of an inch larger all the way around.

Using the embroidery thread and a straight stitch stitch your read heart however you would like.

Take the read heart and glue it onto one of the white hearts. After the headband is finished drying take the two white hearts and place glue on them and press them around the ribbon just off center. Wait to dry and then try it on your little model!

I would love to see how yours turned out!

Happy Friday and Some Internet Love

2012-01-27T09:00:00.000-06:00

This week has been seriously exhausting. The mister has been out of town again for work add to that little miss is going through a growth spurt, teething and constantly on the go crawling, climbing, crumbling crackers, smooshing bananas and generally being a busy little adventurer and you get one tired momma.

I have a few new lenses I am looking at for my camera, plus a few toy cameras so my lens/camera lust has motivated me to try and master the manual setting on my Canon. Luckily I have a subject that is willing to work for a few crackers and a piece of banana.

Here are a few of my favorites:

In addition to this little love, here are a few things from around the internet that have caught my eye:

1) I already make my own vinaigrettes but I think I will try making my own honey mustard via this recipe over the weekend.

2) I have been trolling Craig's List for a little piece of furniture for our guest room just like this one.

3) Our medicine cabinets are pretty beat up and in need of some care. Thinking about doing something like this.

Monday I have plans to share a little tutorial. Hope you have a great (and restful) weekend!

Creative Room Makeover {After}

2012-01-26T09:00:00.002-06:00

Hey, look! I am actually following up on an after post on one of our home projects! As I shared in my 12 in 12 post and in my "before" post we have a room right off our entry way that was made for a home office. It has two closets, which make for perfect storage for all sorts of stuff, vaulted ceilings and a big window. We needed the space to function in 4 different ways:

1) As a home office for T's day job. You know we need some space for filing, tech gear, etc. and it also needed to be a space that was acceptable to be seen in the back ground of skype meetings.

2) As a quiet space away from sleeping babes to play music and hang out. Since T is a musician he needs space where he can write and play anytime without waking the little bear, especially since most of our free time is after she goes to bed.

3) As a reading nook and library. We both own waaaay too many books and love to read. Having a place to store our books and to curl up with one is a must in our house.

4) Last but not least I needed a space to be able to sew, blog, scrapbook and edit pictures.

In addition to these four functions, it also needed to be baby safe for days when either of us needed to wrap up a project while the little miss played.

I think we were able to make it all happen, so without further ado here's our Creative Room:

We started with taking everything out of the room as I shared in my before post, so we could paint. We chose Benjamin Moore's Divine White color matched to Behr Premium paint and primer in one. I chose Divine White for a couple of reasons, first, the furniture is dark and the red accents bright so I wanted to go lighter and brighter. Divine White is also what we painted the entry way so visually it would make that space seem continual and draw the eye in and make the art wall the focal point. Plus, I had a gallon left over from the entry way project, so bonus! It took three coats to cover that yellow up. Each time we tackle a project to cover the yellow I always under-estimate how dark it the yellow really is--ugh!

Once we finished painting we brought the furniture back in. And weeded through some of our books. Some went to half price, some went to the attic and some went to other areas around the house. But we slimmed it down so we could add some knick knacks and whatnot.

This little snail vase is one of my favorite little details. I found him at a florist around the corner from our house in Indy. I am hoping in the spring when the selection is healthier at the local green house to pick up a little succulent to plant in there.

I am too much of a nerd to not organize my shelves according to genre even though all the home decor sources say to organize according to color, but I did try a little color clustering on my shelves with in genre and only did it with colors that would compliment the other colors in the room like the red and cream. My thought was the colors that didn't fit could blend into one another by not being placed by one another and the colors that did go together could pop.

The wall the bookcases sit on is the tallest, largest expanse of space in the room with no doors or windows along it, so I had an art wall in mind that could capture some of our loves--music, memories, babies, letterpress art work.

In the corner across from the chair on the other side of the big window I created a little nook for me to blog, craft and do my thing. I saw the NORBERG desk at Ikea a few months back and thought it might do the trick and be a space saver. Really there is plenty of room for another full sized desk, but I thought a desk that could fold down would be good at motivating me to tidy up my mess at the end of the day...so far...so good. Also, I wanted whatever desk we chose for this corner to be able to be used else where in the house because I have a little more in store for this room when we can afford certain pieces of furniture.

The chair was free. It was left behind at one of T's gigs a few years back and so we drug it home and it sat. And sat. It was originally a dusty, pinky, orange and covered in dirt from outdoor and music festival gigs. I cleaned it off, sanded off the nasty old paint, primed and painted it with a white semi gloss. The basket is to keep track of current projects and they stay on the chair (away from little hands) when I am not working on them.

I organized some of my other items in mason jars on the desk. Thread and ribbon and whatnot. I wanted to hang three of the FORHOJA cubbies above my little area for more storage, but alas Ikea is sold out. Which is probably good because it will force me to find something more creative or unique off Craig's list.

I am pretty happy over all. The room is cleaned up, organized and meets all our needs. It also is light and airy and feels more like "us" than the dark yellow. I am hoping to tweak it here and there, add a few more prints to the art wall, and of course the cubbies about the sewing desk. And the mister digs it and I know the little miss likes it now because she can actually hang out and play.

So there it is! Our little project.

Tuesday Crafties

2012-01-24T14:00:00.001-06:00

Valentines Day is just around the corner and I now have two loves to think about this year! For my little love I wanted to fix her up with something cute to sport this spring and beyond. So I made a quick headband she could wear on her baby adventures. You know, cruising the house for lint to taste, pulling up on the couch and practicing all our new sounds.

Doesn't my little love look so cute...and so stinkin' BIG?!?!

I really like being able to make her little things and I hope that when she looks back on her childhood that it's some of these handmade things that are the most precious to her and that she can see they were little labors of love.

Pssst...want to make your own? Check out the tutorial I posted here!

Creative Room Makeover {Before}

2012-01-23T17:00:00.002-06:00

We started 2012 by tackling one of our house projects. It's by far not our most difficult or daunting project, but we are really happy with how it turned out. Plus, If we are ever going to get this house feeling like "ours" its going to be room by room one little project at a time.

As I shared in my 12 in 12 post we have a home office just off our entry and formal living/dining that needs some help being pulled together. Its actually a great sized room, has two closets and is the perfect space to turn into a space for playing music, crafting, reading and being creative.

I snapped a few pictures the day we closed on the house to document the "before." Again, you can see the yellow paint everywhere.

The yellow paint extended into the creative room and made a room with vaulted ceilings, french doors and a big window seem much smaller and darker that it actually was.

Since we've moved in we have had a desk and our books shelves in the room but it has mainly been the catch all where we have piled those last remaining boxes that didn't have a home yet.

And I am horrible at true "before" pictures. I guess its because when it comes to tackling a project I am SO sick of the before and SO ready for the after I dive in and forget to snap pictures. But here is one before I snapped with the ol iPhone of the little miss helping with the demolition process.

I am super excited to share how we transformed the room to meet our needs and create a beautiful space to read, write, play and create. Stay tuned!

Happy Monday and A Little Baby Cuteness

2012-01-23T10:33:00.002-06:00

Woah, it's Monday again! It seems like the weekend just flew by. I guess that's what happens when you are trying to soak it up as much as possible. I am getting ready for another week of momma and baby adventures and tackling my still woefully behind to do list. And I have a few little things to share including a house project.

And because it's Monday and everyone needs a little extra cuteness I have a little video for you. Remember Friday when I said I had been teaching little miss to go "Ooooh!"? Well here's a short little video...just ignore the goofy mom coaching.

I thought this was a goofy little trick but she is now all of a sudden very interested in her books that use the words "who" and "moo" and is trying to get those sounds out. But mainly its adorable and funny and makes me SO happy to hear that little "Ooooh!" as she crawls around the house.

Remember my 12 in 12 list? Well, I am off with a bang and with the help of the mister have tackled #7 Get the "creative room" pulled together which I will be sharing later today.

Happy Friday and Some Internet Love

2012-01-20T21:20:00.000-06:00

Happy Friday everyone! We had a great week...not sure about that to do list, but we did survive T's first week of travel with flying colors and even had a little fun! I taught baby girl to go "Oooooh!" and now she does it every time she gets excited or sees something she likes. Too cute. And this weekend we have a great little family outing planned.

Here are a few things from around the internet that caught my eye this week...

This article on being a parent really touched me and apparently a lot of other people too since its made the rounds this week. It captures the paradox between absolutely loving being a parent and also counting down the minutes some nights until bedtime. It gave me some solid ways to talk about this wondrous and challenging calling of parenthood. Check it out.

Another parenting article but equally as insightful that I read this week.

And how cool is this Lego taxidermy!? Such a cool addition to a little guy's room. You could do a whole woodland theme around them.

Love the idea of painting up a fun little camera like the Holga with a chevron design.

Hope you have a great weekend!

Tuesday Crafties {Baby Crafties}

2012-01-17T16:46:00.000-06:00

Adelaide is getting to the age where we can do some age appropriate little projects together. After all, she made her first piece of art work at church already! So this week I thought I would finally tackle the whole "baby's footprint and handprint" pages in the baby book I spruced up earlier this spring. Yes, this would have been ten time easier when she was little, little but better late than never right?

Here's what you need to get those little baby paws down on paper for posterity:

1) Paper, pages from the baby book or card stock (what ever you want/need/have)

2) A non-toxic ink pad

3) baby lotion

4) a wet towel or dish cloth

So set everything up--pages, ink pad and wet cloth before getting started. Then I took my willing little assistant and applied lotion to her hands and feet and to my hands. The purpose of the lotion is to create a thin barrier between her hand and feet and the ink, thus making it way easier to wipe off. Putting it on my hands did the same thing. That's my big secret trick for this whole project. Then I did her feet first to get her used to the idea and placed each one on her page, wiping them off in between.

Finally I did her hands which proved to be waaay trickier and a wee bit unsuccessful because we are at the age where we are the master and commander of our hands. But it was a fun project to do together and now I have a little something in her baby book to remember those cute little piggies.

It's Monday

2012-01-16T11:17:00.000-06:00

It's Monday here. It's overcast and windy but warm, another deceptive weather day here in Texas. We are off to a pretty productive start to the week, considering T is back to traveling during the week for the first time since July. He's gotten these two girls pretty spoiled around here, so I am pleased that today has started so well. I have a few things that I hope to share with you all here on the blog over this week and next as I try to get back on top of things, find my routine again and tackle my long list of to-dos. I am shamefully and embarassingly behind on things for the shop, blog and around the house. So my plan while T is gone is to soak up time with little miss and get that list tackled.

So here's to Monday, tackling to-do lists and trying not to miss the mister too bad. What's on your slate for the week?

iPhone Photo Dump

2012-01-14T13:42:00.001-06:00

We will get back to some semi-regularly scheduled programing here soon. There's been some crazy changes going on around here but in the mean time here's a big photo dump of our last month.

I love wrapping gifts and making my own tags

We are a playing machine these days

My little present under the tree

Love this face, so funny

Whiskey sweater

Our first piece of art work--see the little blue specks? We did that :)

Date night at a local tapas place. Yum.

I've been pre-prepping my smoothies. Momma breakfast awesomeness.

Showing baby Jesus a little love

My little present

My smiley little girl with her Christmas present from her mom and dad!

Auntie snuggle time

More Scrabble time with the fam

Oh, you know, just admiring my dad.

Airing out our piggies on a long walk

Little elf

NYE with my sis and sis-in-law

When it's not a smoothie...

Troubled teether

Warm sunny winter days in Texas

Baby on board

Tackling a house project or two...

Trying our hand at crackers

12 in 12

2012-01-09T22:25:00.000-06:00

via

I am not a big New Years Resolution kind of girl. I have some core commitments and some things that are more like life goals that more or less have to do with what sort of person I want to be. But this is stuff I work on year round and don't wait until the new year to tackle. They, like life are more of a work in progress that something to be declared and started at a set point.

I love the idea of the 30 by 30 list that bloggers like Nicole have done and Jen is doing now, aiming to accomplish, do, see or try 30 things the year before turning 30 years old. I really like the way their list have a nice balance of big kind of accomplishments and smaller little projects. I had high hopes of doing my own 30 by 30 list last year, but thought twice about it once I realized I would be growing a sweet little babe, working full time and oh, moving across country, trying to get a new house settled and becoming a mother all at the same time. So I made the wise decision to focus my year leading up to 30 on those big changes. But I still like the idea creating a list of sorts to tackle some of those projects and whatnot that I need a little nudge to do, plus it would be such a fun way to get a sense of accomplishment.

So in the spirit of the 30 by 30 since I missed the chance to do a real 30 by 30 and since it is the new year I am going to be doing a 12 in 12. Twelve things that are not really resolutions but more things I want to learn/do/accomplish this year. Twelve things to do in a twelve months span. I think it will be fun to check in from time to time and share how they are going.

So here they are:

1) Try a new hair cut and color. I change my hair up by growing it out and cutting it off but the last couple of years I have noticed that I have the same go-to hair cuts in this cycle and I would like to change things up a bit. As for the color I have wanted to try something new and have just been too scared--I have great natural hair color and to be honest time is a tickin away on how much longer I can enjoy color free hair so I want to enjoy it while I have it but I would like a change. This year is the year to do it!

2) Learn how to wear lipstick. I am really more of a lipgloss kind of girl. In the last year I have tip-toed into the realm of lip stain lip glosses. Lipstick makes me cringe and either think of middle school when we were all obsessed with wearing way too much in totally wrong shade all the time or my grandma who I am pretty sure has been wearing the same shade for decades. I would like to get over the cringe and learn to work it in.

3) Decide on a paint color for the formal living/dining and then paint! Pretty straight forward...if I could ever make up my mind!

4) Run in a race. Yep, I run 3 times a week and have never run in a race (more on this later). I would like to give a whirl.

5) Refinish the bed frame I bought at the flea market. This may seem a bit to-do listy but I really want to tackle this project because it is the starting piece for decorating the guest bedroom.

6) Begin building our food garden in the backyard. This will be a multi-year, multi-phase project but woohoo I can't wait to start it! I am pretty sure that in Texas I could garden 9 months a year if I planned it out carefully, but I have much to study, read, plan and plot this year!

7) Get the "creative room" pulled together. We have a home office but we would like it to be part office, part music and part crafting space. I would really like to see it pulled together to function in all those different ways so that our family has a little space to retreat and work on projects.

8) Visit the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum. I am from the Oklahoma City area and have very strong memories from that day. I haven't had the chance to go to the museum but I would like to very much.

9) Take Adelaide to the place where T and I got engaged. I know she will love it! I think we will make a special family holiday of it!

10) Visit at least two art museums NOT in my city. We have a membership to the DMA. I have big plans to not only beat the heat by taking little miss there in the summer, but taking full advantage of the exchange program that allows us free entrance into 500 other museum nationwide. Yes. I geek out just thinking about the possibility.

11) Finish a sewing project from a pattern. Ok, the tea towels I made don't really count as sewing. I really need to put my machine to good use this year, but let's just start with finishing a project!

12) Attend at least one concert. Our late-night, rock show going days have definitely slowed since little miss arrived. It would be nice to get to at least one this year, because watching music live in a room with other people is a spiritual experience that I miss.

So there it is--part to-do, part resolution, part belated bucket list, 100% me. Wish me luck?

2011 A Look Back

2012-01-03T21:38:00.000-06:00

This is a little late but we have been soaking up the very last drops of our holiday vacation around here. 2011 was by far the craziest year I have had in many, many years. When I think back about what has happened it sort of amazes me. So for fun here's our year in review...

In January we we letting the news sink in that we were going to move to Texas for an opportunity in T's career. We listed our house in Indy a week before Christmas with seven inches of snow on the ground in the midst of this crappy economy and by the second week in January we had a contract on it and it was sold. I was also in full-on baby cooking mode with only 2 full months left to go, feeling great and still had plenty of energy.

The month of February we flew to Texas to look for a home and found our lovely little abode and made an offer. Things got super quiet here on the blog because I was a little busy growing a healthy little person, prepping a house for a packing/moving team and wrapping up things at my full time ministry, and saying goodbyes. The last week of February we closed on our home in Indy, said some very sad goodbyes and make our way to Texas via Oklahoma to get settled.

In March we landed in Texas, closed on our house and began the fast (ok, I was waddling by now so not that fast) and furious of nesting for a little one due to arrive in a month. My family came and helped paint the master and the nursery and unpack all those heavy boxes that were off limits. I started to get my bearings in the city and on the advice of some really wise women at my last church pre-emtively joined a mom's group.

The month of April got off to an exciting start as we welcomed our little girl into the world on the first. She was little and sweet and perfect and we quickly threw ourselves into the nerve wracking world of being new parents. The first half of April T was able to stay at home with me and my family came and pitched in. Since we didn't get much sleep I don't really remember much beyond cuddling with my little girl. At the end of the month we celebrated Easter as a family.

May we started to get back into the swing of things, tackled some projects around the house. Put the finishing touches on the nursery and even got to the flea market to pick up a few pieces for the house. I started sharing a few of my crafties here on the blog. Me and the little miss started to hit a stride together, figuring out this mamma-baby thing.

In June we were reminded of how stinking hot it is in Texas. We stayed pretty close to home this month. At the end of the month T and I had our four year wedding anniversary and got to celebrate by going out on our first post-baby date by ourselves while my mom watched the little miss for an hour or two while we went and got dinner. It was fun to hang with T but we were both sort of a wreck being away from our sweet little girl.

We started the month of July off by taking a quick family get away to Nashville TN to see our friends and introduce the little miss to some of our dear friends from Indy and Nashville. It was so fun and Adelaide did great sleeping in a hotel for the first time. When we returned from vacation our AC was out--ugh! But we camped out at our family's house and it was fixed in no time. The record breaking heat here in Texas was in full swing and so we spent a lot of time in the pool and little miss even got in on the action!

August I turned 30 and we had a little family party to celebrate. We tried to avoid the heat which showed no sign of slowing. And someone turned three months old, started responding more and more and began to love reading books.

In September Adelaide and I baked cupcakes together for Aunt Kathrynn's birthday. We also made a trip to Oklahoma for a wedding shower.

This October was a BIG month for us. The Texas Rangers made it to the world series and T got to go to one play off game and a World Series game, which was a total dream come true for him. Of course, we spent most of November in sports mourning, but we won't talk about that... Another big thing happened in October, which contributed to my total blog silence--my little brother got married to his lovely wife Ashley. The wedding was beautiful and the reception was a blast! We also took a ton of pictures of little miss at the pumpkin patch when we went with both my mom's group and as a family, saw her army crawling really get going and ended the month with Halloween and a cute baby in a bear costume.

November along with sports mourning we got enjoyed the cooler weather, got outdoors and had some family adventures. I launched a modest little etsy shop and then got dealthly ill with a stomach flu from hell. Seriously, it was an awful way to get five pounds closer to my pre-pregnancy weight. The middle of the month we saw little miss's first tooth and not too long after her second. She also discovered and mastered the concept that she could move and scrunch her face to get reactions out of people and used this new skill anywhere and every where. And we celebrated our first Thanksgiving with Adelaide in our new home.

And December I worked to add a few new crafty projects to the house, we baked cookies and decorated for Christmas. I even did a little update on the nursery to add a little extra magic. Me and the sister went to the DMA to check out a special exhibit and then T and the little miss and I went back to check out the general collection. We celebrated the holiday as a family of three in our home and had a wonderful time making memories, relaxing and just soaking up as much as we could of the little miss as she army crawls and "talks" up a storm.

When I think that this time last year I was pregnant, with a house on the market, preparing to leave a job I was madly in love with to move closer to family in Texas my head just spins. This year was full of goodbyes, but it also brought one of the most amazing hellos of my life--welcoming our daughter into the world and getting to show her the ropes. It was a dizzying year, a tearful year, a joyful year. One I will remember for the rest of my life.

Over the Christmas Holiday

2012-01-03T19:55:00.000-06:00

Our first Christmas with little miss in our new home in Texas did not disappoint. While these years when all of my siblings have been grown and the holidays have been all adults have been special, adding kids makes the holidays a-mazing and magical.

Here are a few pics from our day:

Helping open presents

Playing with our new doll

Scoping out Aunt Kathrynn's present

Looking at the tree never gets old

Playing with our doll

The bath squirties from Santa were a huge hit...unlike the VERY suspicious crawl tunnel

How was your Christmas holiday?

Nursery Decor {Handmade Update}

2011-12-27T14:00:00.000-06:00

I am totally sucking at sharing all the projects we have been tackling around the house. Sometimes it's hard, because it seems like the book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, except its more like, if you give a wife a paint brush...she will paint the wall and if you let her paint the walls, she will probably want to paint the trim a fresh white, and if she paints the trim, then she will probably want nice white chair rail. Anyhow, all that is to say, its all in progress right now! And this time around we are hoping to stay in this house for a while so I am trying this thing called patience, where I wait for the exact right pieces to come along and take my time pulling it all together.

With all of that said, I have done some tweaking to the nursery that I thought I would share. Remember how the nursery looked back in the spring when we brought little miss home? If not you can check it out here, here and here. Now, if you were paying close attention to those posts (and you probably weren't!) you will notice that there is a wall missing. It's not just because I am a bad blogger, I left that wall between little miss's closet and door out because while I had a cute coat hook and art print hanging there, it was just sort of blah. You can see it in its full blah-ness here:

And since I sit in the glider staring at that wall every time I nurse or read to or rock little miss, I have had lots of time to contemplate what to do with that space. Our ceilings are vaulted which is awesome, but it seemed like the space was just vast and overwhelming. But I wanted to do something that wouldn't look crazy on a wall with two doors and that would add a touch of whimsy. I thought about bunting, since it's so popular right now. Like these here:

Via

And while I love the bunting, I am not great at sewing just yet. Plus there is the problem of finding fabric. I have been hunting for fabric to sew a curtain panel for the little miss's room for months now with no luck of finding something that coordinates with her colors. So the idea of finding a half dozen coordinating fabric seemed over-whelming and not really how I wanted to spend my time...or money...which brings me to my solution.

Remember when I whipped up that red garland for the mantel for Christmas? Well, it got me thinking and after a few more days and nights rocking in the glider and staring at the big blank wall, I decided that I wanted to make a three dimensional floral felt garland in a gradient sort of color scheme that would fit in with the existing nursery colors but also pull in some colors that could help it transition as the little miss grows up.

I tapped into my existing felt stash and cut the flowers out in as many colors as possible that would coordinate and then hand-sewed them up with coordinating thread.

Then I lined up the flowers so that they graduated from one color family to the next like a rainbow. Then I strung them onto a really long string and affixed each one so they wouldn't slide or move or cluster while I hung them or over time. I really wanted to make sure they were well made and sturdy so they would last.

I hung it by tapping four small nails into the wall as close as I could get them to the ceiling. I then draped the garland over each nail, wrapping the string around the nail once or twice. And luckily when I draped it on the wall the colors fell just right to compliment the art already hung on the wall.

The stats go a little something like this. There are 33 different colors and a total of 66 flowers. The garland measures roughly 40 feet long because I wanted enough to create that drapey effect on the tall wall area above the doors. It took me about two weeks to pull the whole thing together, but it was well worth it.

I think it adds something to the wall that already had the print and hooks without making the room feel too crowded or overdone. And the cost to me was just the time of sewing all the little flowers together and stringing them. So a pretty cost effective project that added a lot of pop!

Now every time I sit in there to play or feed or rock little miss I can look up at my creation, my little crafty labor of love. And the little miss seems to like it too--she likes to look it up at it and smile and point. And she paid it the highest compliment when she first saw it and started bouncing up and down and smiling!

P.S. Did you see the little blue dress hang up on her hook? It was mine that I had my nine month baby pictures taken in when I was a baby and I have big plans to get some photos of the little miss in it this spring--I can't wait!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-24T14:41:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas! Hope your holiday is full of peace, joy, family, friends and laughter.

No One Goes to College...

2011-12-20T22:20:00.000-06:00

My friend Jessica has blogged several times about her mantra when she worries about her kid's development or whether or not something they do is "normal." She says, "No one goes to college..." As in no one goes to college with a pacifier or no one goes to college wearing pull-ups at night.

When I heard her use this phrase I chuckled for two reasons. One, as a new parent its so easy to stress out about benchmarks and development and all that jazz and two, I have already ready had to implement the phrase because little miss has her own "personality." Don't get me wrong, she is a dream, she is easy going and people are constantly complimenting how well she behaves for her age. She is easy going and funny but there are still things I worry about so here's my edition of "No One Goes to College..."

1) No one goes to college eating only pureed food fed to them by their mother while their hands rest politely at their side.

2) No one goes to college making a little gremlin face when strangers talk to them in the store.

3) No one goes to college tearing their socks off any chance they get just to chew on them and wave them around their head.

Also, there's no Tuesday Crafties today because I will be sharing a special nursery update later this week featuring a new crafty. As long as the weather cooperates and I can get some natural sun light to take some photos!

Happy Friday!

2011-12-16T22:34:00.001-06:00

Happy Friday, all! Only a week until Christmas, do you have all your shopping done? I only have two more gifts to purchase and one special gift to make and then I am totally done! I am hoping get it all done without having to deal with the craziness of the mall. When it comes to holiday shopping do you try to avoid the chaos or do you love the chaos?

Have a great weekend! We will see you back here on Monday!

A Quick Holiday Card Display

2011-12-16T22:31:00.000-06:00

I love getting all the holiday cards in the mail--catching up with people, seeing all the cute pictures of the kiddos and grandkiddos. Instead of keeping them in a basket or in a stack on the kitchen counter, I wanted to create a quick display so I could enjoy our cards a bit more this year!

I took bakers twine and hung up two 3 foot strands and took tiny clothes pins to clip the cards up.

Over the top I hung a little JOY banner that I made with three doilies and a cool font I found and saved from Martha Stewart but I can't find the link now to the pdf (If you know--let me know and I will link it up!).

These are not the best pictures on the planet--I took them too late int he day, but I really wanted to share this project before the holiday passed by!

Hello, There

2011-12-15T17:13:00.000-06:00

Just a quick reminder that if you haven't yet to hop over and enter to win the Sprout Tot OXO Highchair that I bragged about last week!

And sorry about the grainy iPhone pic--we are blogging on the go today!

All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth

2011-12-15T15:25:00.001-06:00

Well, technically we have three, but you can really see how much those two bottoms have grown in over the last month! The teeth make us look so much more like a little girl, don't you think?

Or maybe it's just that we have enough hair to sweep to the side in our bows these days :)

Tuesday Crafties {Pinterest Edition}

2011-12-13T08:33:00.000-06:00

I am hardly ever an early adopter of ANYTHING technology or social media related. But I was one of the early adopters of Pinterest and it been so fun to see everyone hop on board. I love having a landing spot to collect and organize online ideas and inspiration. Some of the things I pin are connected to larger projects around the house that I am working on in the long term, some are for when the little miss grows up a bit. But I definitely didn't want to get into the habit of pinning without actually trying some of the ideas I pinned.

When I saw this necklace tutorial from ECAB, I knew I wanted to try it because it looked so much like other necklaces I had seen at places like Anthropologie.

I will spare you the play by play, as Jessica did a great job with her tutorial, but I did take some creative liberties to make it my own. Since I already have a beautiful turquoise necklace I found in San Francisco on our vacation last year, I decided to go with black bead to meet a need in my own wardrobe. I also went with three strand in each braid rather than two to create some thickness.

I am pretty proud of how it turned out! Have you tried anything you have pinned? How did it turn out?

Over the Weekend

2011-12-12T20:33:00.000-06:00

We had family in from out of town this weekend for a birthday celebration. It was loads of fun, but one of the highlights of the weekend was that my sister and I got to go to the Dallas Museum of Art for the opening weekend of the Jean Paul Gaultier exhibit. It's only making two stops in the US (Dallas and San Francisco) and four total stops in the world so this was our chance (no San Fran vacation planned this year!).

There was no photography allowed in the exhibit but we did snap this pic (via the ol iPhone) outside the exhibit.

It was a great way to avoid the malls and to get the chance to connect.

Happy Friday and Some Internet Love

2011-12-09T10:14:00.001-06:00

Image via

Happy Friday! It seems like another week flew by, as I tried to squeeze as much productivity out of nap times, taking care of Christmas packages, tackling some big house projects, adding a few small things to the shop and keeping things running round here by tackling all the super glamorous things like laundry.

This time of the year there are some really great resources around the web. Here are some that caught my eye that I thought you might enjoy too:

1) Simple Mom shared a simple Advent calendar--I can't wait another year or two until we can do this with the little miss

2) I bragged about our high chair earlier this week but did you see that its on the docket to be given away at Apartment Therapy and Ohdeedoh's Holiday giveaway this year? I think I will enter to win it so I can give it away to some friends of ours who are expecting!

3) Speaking of Apartment Therapy, did you see this simple, modern ornament tutorial? Those wood cut shapes would be perfect for painting with the kiddos--maybe as part of the Advent calendar :)

4) And did you see this tutorial for diy yarn letters? So cute! And could be used other times of the year!

Hope you have a wonderful weekend! See you back here on Monday!

Baby Stuff Review*

2011-12-08T15:27:00.001-06:00

When we started preparing for little miss part of that prep was gathering all the "stuff." We did the registry, we read the Baby Bargain book, talked to family and collected the wisdom of wiser and more experienced moms. We tried to take in all the the collective wisdom around us and we were also acutely aware thanks to the book Parenting Inc that there is an entire industry aiming to make money by preying on our insecurities and ignorance as new parents. One of our guiding questions was "is this something we really need or is this product playing on our new parent fear, ignorance, etc?" That being said there were still items that we have gotten little to no use out of and some that I couldn't imagine surviving without.

Now being a mom of nearly 8 months (yikes! can you believe that?!) I thought I would share a few of the items we have loved and used to death and some of the items that were a total flop. Of course each family and baby's needs are different, but here's what worked (and didn't) for us...

What worked...

1) The Baby Swing--top of the list. My mom said, "if there is anything you want out of the box and assembled before you go to the hospital its this--it may be the only way you get a hot meal for the first couple of months." And boy was she right! There was a phase of oh...maybe 2 months in the beginning where this was the only place that little miss would take a nap besides in our arms. With out the swing I am pretty sure that no meals would have been cooked and no dishes would have been washed in this house.

2) The Breast Pump--across the board every mom I knew that breastfed and our doctors said "you get what you pay for when it come to breast pumps." And I would say that ours has ruled and been totally worth it. Plus it will stand up for future uses with future kiddos.

3) Baby Carrier--we used a baby Bijorn that our awesome cousin Jenny passed along. We also had a sling but I liked the Bijorn better especially once little miss could face outward. It is how I get the house vacuumed on those days where little miss doesn't want to be put down. Plus she prefers it over the stroller when we are out and about because she gets to be snuggled in close to me but gets to be at eye level to take in all the sights and people. It actually has started to get harder to carry her sometimes because she gets so excited that she bounces up and down

4) Our high chair--I LOVE our OXO Tots Sprout high chair. It met all of our needs and concerns--BPA free, had a small foot print, the tray could be removed with one hand, no cloth to worry about cleaning three times a day (it has a really cushy wipeable seat pad), sturdy and fits in with our decor. Plus it was super easy to assemble (like 6 bolts) and is really high quality. It was a splurge item for us for sure but it will be with us and I am sure look and work like new for all our kiddos, nieces, nephews and other babies. And as a totally random side note--of all the product registration cards I diligently filled out for each baby item like a good first time parent this was the only company that personally contacted me to confirm that they had received that little card and thank me for my business. Not by a mass e-mail from the "do-not reply" address, but a real live person. I was impressed.

What didn't...

1) The Boppy--ok, so everyone raved about what an essential this was to baby life in the beginning and the product claimed to have all these multiple uses. But it didn't work for us because our little miss was a peanut. It didn't work for breastfeeding because she would slide down the crack between me and the pillow, it only worked for tummy time for a week because then she would start kicking her legs and launching herself over the top of it. It did work well to give her support to sit but no more than two pillows would have. I guess it just didn't work for us and I wonder if we had a bigger baby if I would feel different.

2) The Bumbo--I know, I know. Another one of those "must have" items that has changed baby life since your mom was doing all this. But honestly we used it so briefly before she was in her exersaucer and high chair it seems wasteful. And now that she is getting so strong it's definitely not stable enough for baby sitting. I have heard other moms say that the Bumbo is really depends on the baby's personality--certain babies really dig it and others don't, so maybe the next one will dig it.

What must have things have disappointed you as a parent? What things are your must haves for baby growing?

*I obviously didn't get paid for this post, I am just opinionated and really like hearing the opinions of other moms on this stuff!

Tuesday Crafties

2011-12-06T16:14:00.000-06:00

I am super excited for this Tuesday Crafties to be sharing a new crafty and our mantel decor. I didn't go all out decorating the mantel this year, partly because this is our first time ever with a fireplace mantel and I am still sort of wrapping my head around it and partly because we keep it simple round here and the tree is only a mere five feet away and I didn't want it to feel too crazy in here.

Anyhow, I made this simple felt garland to bring in a warm, Christmas feel while still complimenting our existing art work, etc. I also think that because the garland ties into the existing art work and adds a touch of warm, cozy it may be the kind of thing that transitions our decor from Christmas to winter.

When T saw me hanging it he laughed and said "only we would hang garland from our collection of show posters!" I guess he is right, but that's the point. To make and decorate this house into something that is "only us."

What kind of things do you incorporate into your decor that are totally representative of your family?

P.S. Want some handmade garland of your own? I have some listed in my shop!

Happy Friday!

2011-12-02T16:47:00.000-06:00

This week we have been hard at work decorating the house and getting some cleaning and organizing tackled. this weekend it's supposed to be cold and rainy which is so rare here in Texas that we are actually really looking forward to it. We also have some fun family time planned this weekend and I can't wait!

What do you have planned for the weekend?

Life Lately According to My iPhone

2011-12-02T15:51:00.000-06:00

This has turned into a nice little monthly ritual and a great way to highlight some of the more day-to-day moments. Here are a few photos of our adventures...

Fall cooking. Yum!

Lamb hat to frame this cute face, yes, please!

Best teether ever--feet!

Still keeping the baby book up! Go mom!

My walking buddy.

New grill pan has made some amazing creations!

Tights collection, now, all we need is some cool weather

Our fall foliage

Baby room nook for playing

Wild hairs

Baby dishes. Perfect size.

Hot cocoa

Moose and bear

Family game night

Momma fashion

Tis the season...a little early

More momma fashion. Skinnies and stripes.

Pie making

With a buddy

Who is now making this silly face all.the.time.

My handsome husband hanging the Christmas lights on our abode

Game night with friends

Family trip to the zoo

More zoo

Little miss at the zoo taking it all in

My absolute FAVORITE picture! She's saying, "put that sweater down, lady, that's my size!

Adelaide at Eight Months

2011-12-01T14:18:00.000-06:00

She is my joy. She brightens my day with her funny faces she has learned to make just to entertain and communicate with us, with her tiny booty rocking in the air right before she launches into like the millionth attempt to crawl, with her sweet disposition and dramatic opinions about food she gives me like a million reasons to smile.

A Girl After Her Aunt's Own Heart

2011-12-01T08:51:00.000-06:00

About a month ago little miss was dedicated in worship at our church. It was a meaningful experience because we were able to have our extended family and some friends present. A few days after the dedication my little sis and I were reminiscing about the dedication and how wonderfully it went and my sister started telling me that during worship there was an awkward spot where someone should have been talking or there was a silent transition. She said, "yeah, it was awkward so I decided to fill the dead space with a hand fart. You know, make a little fart noise with my hands. But don't worry," she said, "I leaned forward so it would sound like it came from the people in front of me." I laughed SO hard I almost fell off my chair. Only my sister would think, "Hey this is awkward! I know the perfect solution--make a fake fart noise!"

About two weeks later my sister, Adelaide and I were riding in the car somewhere. My sis and I were in the midst of some really passionate conversation. Suddenly our conversation sort of came to a close and the car got silent and from the back seat we heard a little, "ppphhhhtttt." Our little miss decided to fill the silence with a raspberry or as my sister now calls it a mouth fart. We like to keep it classy around here.

Tuesday Crafties {Thanksgiving Table}

2011-11-29T09:04:00.000-06:00

So here's a few quick glimpses of our Thanksgiving table and especially our place cards which doubled as our napkin rings.

So I used what I had in my craft supply and took gift tags, stamped a little holiday greeting plus the name of the person whose place it was on the tag. I then ran the tag ties through a button, tied it off around the napkin and finished it off with a sprig of orange dried flowers. I like the way it turned out and that I used what I had to add a nice little detail to our holiday meal.

Did you do anything to add a special touch to your holiday?

Over the {Holiday} Weekend

2011-11-28T14:53:00.000-06:00

How did everyone's holiday weekend go? We had a wonderful holiday weekend--it was equal parts restful and adventurous and full of family-time awesomeness.

Our Thanksgiving Day was low key with a small get together with family and friends, hosted at our house. I cooked a full Thanksgiving meal which was awesome--I love cooking especially in my own home for people I love! And bonus, we were able to get my sis to snap a few family pics for the Christmas card. This one is of just T and I, so it didn't make the cut for the Christmas card, but I love it so much I have to share it here.

And we got a few pics of us girlies!

We are not big Black Friday people, in fact, we have only ever made one purchase on Black Friday. Really, the whole Black Friday thing seems rather counter intuitive to how we do Christmas with a budget and a plan, but hey, no judgement here if it's your thing (unless you pepper sprayed anyone and then, shame on you!). So instead of participating in mass consumerism we decided to create some family memories and enjoy the crazy warm weather by packing up our cute little family and heading over to the FTW Zoo. I mean really, where else can you spend a gorgeous day at the zoo in late November but Texas? So we took advantage and took the little miss to see the animals.

Little miss loved the penguins and turtles and then just really loved all the people watching. The cooler weather meant that all the animals were out and very active, rather than in the summer when they are either indoors or lounging in the shade. We saw a zebra get a full run going, which was stunning.

Aren't these two just the most handsome date to the zoo a girl could ever have?!

On Saturday we started decorating the tree for the holidays and met up with friends for lunch. Little miss and I also got some time together so we decided to pop over to the mall to say "hey!" to a friend that just picked up a part time job there. And I am so glad I did because little miss was hilarious! Every time we stepped out into the main mall crowd she would grin and bounce up and down--she was definitely excited to be around all the people.

Sunday was more decorating and resting and family time and just sort of soaking up the last bit of family time together before a hectic week.

How was your Thanksgiving holiday?

Over the Weekend

2011-11-21T10:53:00.000-06:00

I am just going to warn you. If you are looking for a magical over the weekend post with fun pictures of mommas and baby and dads having adventures, this post isn't going to be that.

Thursday night I got violently ill with a flu virus. At 4am when it looked like it wasn't a fluke and I might just die, I rolled over and sent two texted, one to my aunt who lives around the corner to see if she could come help with the little miss during the day and one to my sister to see if she could come help T disinfect the house after she got off work so that no one else would get this devil. I will spare you the gross details but let's just say it took until Sunday night for me to have a real meal and my "meal" was a dry baked potato. Awesome.

The upside is my two favorite ladies pulled through, so little miss was very happy and well cared for and my house is sparkling clean and germ free. And of course T was super dad over the weekend taking little miss out on mini-adventures that they would then come back and recount to me. There might have been some Christmas decoration gazing and petting puppies involved--those two are just too much fun when they get together!

The down side is that all then thing I planned on wrapping up, taking photos of and getting listed in the shop were delayed. But don't forget you can still enter the giveaway until midnight tonight!

So that's what happened over my weekend, did anyone doing anything fun or have an adventure? Since I stayed in bed all weekend I would love to hear what you were up to!

Thanksgiving Prep

2011-11-17T13:56:00.001-06:00

Happy Thursday all! We are getting very excited planning our Thanksgiving meal, cleaning the house and getting the china out. Every time I think about using the china I have a little inner squeal of excitement (goofy and girly, I know!). It's little miss's first Thanksgiving, but it's also our first Thanksgiving in our new home and truth be told it will be our first Thanksgiving in our own home period. I am really looking forward to hosting and making memories in our home this holiday season. Right now I am debating what part of our menu will be traditional classic dishes and what new dishes I want to try out and maybe incorporate as new family tradition in years to come. Do you keep the menu the same very year or do you change it up? Any recipe suggestions out there?

And remember we have our first giveaway going. Enter here and check out the shop here. I have a few really cute things I am working on for the shop that I hope to get listed this weekend. And I might even be working on a few cute things for the house to decorate for Christmas!

2011-11-16T13:29:00.001-06:00

Well, yesterday was pretty exciting here on the ol blog, at least for me. And despite it being such an exciting week already we are surprisingly taking it easy around here this week. Little girl caught a cold from some visitors last week and her cute wide open, slobbery kisses have managed to infect us all. No complains but we are hanging out and trying to all get better before the holiday next week, since we are going to be getting our cook on over here for Thanksgiving.

On a totally random side note, I am slowly reconditioning to do a few runs this winter. I have one in two weeks and you know I have the cutest little running buddy. If only we could get these colds cleared up and get back at it! Do any of you out there have any tips for running while getting over a cold?

Pretty As the Morning Launch and Giveaway

2011-11-15T15:46:00.014-06:00

I am really excited and nervous for this post. Maybe only a handful of you dear readers know that I originally started this blog two years ago in the hopes of launching a shop on Etsy, to track my journey, share my work and network with other creatives. But as you know, life got in the way, in the very best ways. And I never felt like I was fully ready or it was ever the right time.

But two things happened recently that gave me the shove I needed. First, I read this article by Jess over at Makeunder My Life and it really struck a chord. I am a perfectionist to the core. And I realized that I might not ever launch the ol etsy store if I waited until I got everything done and everything was "just right." A few weeks later and I was sharing this with my friend Jen (by the way this girl is crazy gifted in the crafties department, check out her Flickr stream here. But I warn you it craft-intimidated me for sure!). I shared with Jen my concerns about launching, things I wanted to do/have done, etc. And she just sort of laughed at me and said, "Those things are like the littlest things when it comes to selling online, really, no big deal. They could be done later, after you start, you know, actually selling things." Well, when you put it that way...

So I did it! I launched my shop last week! It is a small start and its definitely not a perfect start but it's a start. And to celebrate I want to do a giveaway, since a) I feel like celebrating this small accomplishment and b) I've never done a blog giveaway yet! So I am giving away one item from the shop to one lucky reader.

Entering the giveaway is simple. Pop over to the shop and check it out (and if you want to tell and friends or two or ten) and leave a comment in the comment section below. Also, I will be adding new items through out the week so keep checking back. I will draw a winner on Monday, November 21!

Tuesday Crafties

2011-11-15T09:46:00.004-06:00

Are you gearing up for Christmas, yet? I usually practice a little restraint and wait until the week of Thanksgiving before I totally give in and bust out the Christmas music and start on the Christmas crafties, but this year I have some pretty big plans and projects so I thought I would get cracking early.

We have had some pretty big occasions in our lives this year--the little miss was born, my brother got married and my sister got her first place. Lots to celebrate and lots to commemorate. I wanted to make something special to mark this year especially for my brother and his wife, something that they could get out year after year and remember this year as special. So I got into the craft supplies and here is what I came up with:

On the other side I put their names and I have to say, I think it will make a very cute gift.

Also, stay tuned for an exciting announcement later today and our first ever giveaway here on the ol blog!

We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Programing to Bring You a Baby in a Bear Hat

2011-11-11T20:36:00.001-06:00

I know I already shared, but seriously. How cute?!

We kept it out after Halloween just for fun. She only thinks it awesome because we think its awesome.

Fall Goings On

2011-11-10T10:39:00.001-06:00

We are pretty big on fall traditions and celebrations at our house. Last year I shared a few of our favorite activities past and present. This year as we physically acclimate to the warm weather here in Texas it has been a wee bit harder to get into the fall mood because my brain and my wardrobe say "its time for knits and tights and hot beverages" but the weather says "you can still wear shorts and flip flops." Either way we look forward to this time of year and of course this year we are excited to share it with the little miss.

Here's a brief little recap of our fall comings and goings so far this year:

Little miss and I went with our play group to the pumpkin patch and got some killer photos of her in the patch.

We also took a drive out to the country and took some family photos in the patch.

Nothing says fall like cider and pumpkin ale and all the deliciousness of a change in season and a change in the seasonal beers we buy. Yum.

We have started turning on the oven and busting out the fall recipes. Bake stuffed squash is my favorite. Here's how you make it.

We have drug out the fall decor and spruced it up a bit this year.

We had one (yes ONE) cool, foggy, rainy day.

We dressed little miss up as a bear for her first Halloween.

And we may or may not be keeping the head of the bear costume out to put on from time to time.

That's a glimpse of our fall so far. What have you been doing to welcome the season after such a brutally hot summer?

I Mustache Ask You A Question

2011-11-09T12:32:00.001-06:00

As you might have caught the other day, I got a night out last weekend. Since my sister has moved to town we have had lots of time together but no time where we have gone out just the two of us. So on Friday night we decided that we would go grab a margarita and some mexican food at Uncle Julio's, as DFW staple.

It was awesome getting the chance to just spend time together swapping stories and laughing but there was something equally as awesome that happened while we at Uncle Julio's...

Perched in my margarita was a stir-stick with a mustache on it. Obviously we did what any two mature adults would do and took a few pics.

At the end of the night as we were leaving my sis says "I stuck that mustache in my purse, you never know when you are going to need a mustache."

And of course it only took a day for us to realize it was the perfect size to hold up to give little miss that air of sophistication she had been lacking. Oh, and she matches her grandpa now. After we took this pic we put the mustache back in little sis's purse, you know for emergencies.

Hilarious. What would you do if you had a small portable mustache?

Tuesday Crafties

2011-11-08T15:01:00.001-06:00

Its been a while since I have done a Tuesday Crafties post. Not because we haven't been being creative over here, but because we have been tackling some big house related projects. So, while I know it's not terribly original, I will leave you with a quick hair bow I pulled together for the little miss's first trip to the pumpkin patch this season.

Some felt, a vintage button, and some ribbon and we were the cutest little gal at the patch. plus I used a different kind of clip this time so the flower can go into her hair or clip on a hat when she is over the whole headband thing.

What have you been crafting lately?

Life Lately According to My iPhone

2011-11-07T13:45:00.000-06:00

It's been a long time since my last one of these...but we have been up to a whole lot of little adventures and projects.

We finally tackled the pile of boxes in the garage. It was totally cleaning domination. There are now two cars in there.

We love our books. Pooh's Five Little Honey Pots is a current fav.

My little running partner.
Who only kinda drinks from a sippy cup but grabbed the Camelback and got it on the first try.

Momma lunch

Last month's favorite toys

Getting my hair did for my little brother's wedding.

World Series. T went to two games. We are in sports mourning right now.

Vintage Jewelry from Bess and Evie's

Little books for little hands

Sunset on the prairie

A night out

Movie night with the mister

So what have you all been up to lately?

Time Out

2011-11-07T13:16:00.000-06:00

I needed a time out from blogging. It's complicated. I think those of you that read and write blogs understand. The internet is public and that's exciting because it connects you to a lot of amazing people but it also scary because it leaves pieces of your life exposed to people that don't have the best of intentions. And then there's Adelaide and her safety and well being. These are not new questions to bloggers or to me, but I have needed some time to think about it and figure out how I want to share our little story and sweet little life here on the ol blog. I didn't start this as a family blog or a mom blog, but I have a family and I am a mom and so that is part of how I share what's going on here. Ultimately, I love writing and blogging and trust that I am smart enough to protect my family while doing what I enjoy. There are far better and more eloquent articulations of this dilemma out there, but I thought I would share where I've been.

So we will be back to regular programming here. And I am excited about that, because we have been very, very busy.

Life Lately According to My iPhone

2011-09-15T10:03:00.000-05:00

Chores and pretty bowls

Early morning walks

Family Date Night--yogurt for dinner!

Studying the stain glass while momma shoots some video promos

Impromptu nap

Disc golf

Chatting my ear off these days :)

Rosa's Cafe finally opened by the house--yum!

Ready for church

Test driving our new high chair

Crashed out

Random box unpacked and lost shoes found

Jamming to some Reliant K

Tuesday Crafties

2011-09-13T08:30:00.001-05:00

When I was in the third or fourth grade my mom gave me two vintage needle point kits that made complimentary portraits of plants. It was meant to teach the different stitches and it was so much fun. I wish I still had them. I was thinking about those a few weeks ago and wanted a way to job my mind and my fingers on all the techniques, so I decided to do a little floral doodle on a kitchen towel.

I haven't decided yet if I am done with it or if I will fill in a few spots with greenery and leaves or not, but I am pretty happy with the way it turned out.

I think my favorite part are the purple flowers that I did entirely by french knot. It took the longest but it looks really good.

What things did you learn how to do as a kid that you wish you still knew how to do?

Football, Exercise and Other Miscellany

2011-09-12T15:59:00.000-05:00

Hiking around the disc golf course with T. One of my favorite pictures.

This weekend was the perfect blend of relaxed with a little activity thrown in. With the cooler weather here in north Texas (you know 60's as the low and mid to high 90s and the high) this past week, this momma took advantage and kicked it into high gear with the whole post-baby weight loss thing. To be honest I have been really laid back about losing the baby weight, not because I don't care or I am letting myself slide but because everything has its time and its purpose and those early months I needed to focus on learning to be a mom, recovering from childbirth and mastering the whole breast feeding thing. Plus, there are the practical aspects, the gym doesn't take infants under 6 month and we had a heat advisory under affect for like 3 months straight. And I also sort of wanted to see what my body was capable first and you know I actually don't have very much to loose (single digits). But what I do have left to lose I am going to have to work at so we have been getting out and taking long jogs in the morning. I make sure to bundle little miss up and put a hat on her so she keeps her ears covered from the north Texas wind. With all that prepping and caring from my little jogging buddy, I didn't think to cover my own ears so this weekend I spent time resting and sneaking in a nap or two to stave off the sore throat and ear that were making themselves know. Now I am feeling much, much better.

I found this hat in our dresser. It was a gift and it is SO girly and SO adorable.

While resting we made sure to soak in as much college football as possible. Even though its still not anywhere cool enough to wear a hoodie, drink cider or any other fall-like activity, college football means that fall is coming. Even if our teams are not looking so hot this season. And since its still pretty warm here, why not enjoy snow cones from a giant pirate ship?

How was your weekend? Eat any food out of any interesting nautical vessels?

Tuesday Crafties

2011-09-06T15:13:00.000-05:00

Happy Tuesday, I hope your holiday weekend was fun and that you are off to the start of a great four day week! Usually these 3 day weekends totally throw me off but we got up and at em at our house and are tackling our to-do list. I am really excited to get back to my regular Tuesday Crafties post, I have really missed sharing them and have some awesome little projects I've been working on lately.

My little sister leaving the nest and has taken a job to be much closer to our family here in Texas. To say I am excited does not do it justice. As I write this I want to follow each of my sentence with four or five exclamation points like I am a 13 year old girl, but I will refrain! Anyhow, since she is getting her first place and has nothing, I thought I would pull together a care package of sorts to get her started.

She really loves Anthropologie for clothes and stuff and I really love them for their housewares but am I going to pay $20 for a dish towel, no thanks. So I thought, I will go check out my local fabric store and see what they've got and sew her a couple of dish towels! Here's what I came up with:

I am pretty proud of myself. I haven't sewn anything freehand with out a pattern in forever. And even though technically the towel was a rectangle, I used two different fabrics and added the ric-rac finish. I am pretty excited and hope she likes them. And I am thinking I might make some for my sister-in-law next, maybe as a Christmas gift.

How was your holiday weekend? Did you tackle any projects?

Life Lately According to My iPhone

2011-09-01T22:33:00.000-05:00

Can you believe its already September? I should have taken the summer or maybe the last month officially off from blogging. Our lives have been speeding by at a surprising clip this summer. Lots of changes, lots of projects and some travel and adventure thrown in for good measure. But this week we have really gotten back into the swing of things. And today my mom's group had its first meeting for the year and it was like SO needed I didn't even know I needed it, you know what I mean? It was great to be back with the other moms, see how big all the little ones have grown, hear who is pregnant and where people traveled and meet the new moms. Anyhow, I am hoping that I can blog more regularly now that fall is here and we are back in the swing of it.

This is a major picture dump but here's what we've been up to:

Our piano toy

We love books

One of my favorite pictures. Nap time.

Big delivery day from Amazon

Our exersaucer. We rock it.

Jammies for our road trip

Road tripping

The contents of one of the Amazon boxes. Safe. Simple. Functional. Chic.

WE had rain one morning, so I was in the mood to bake.

My standard breakfast.

Dress from our dear friend Courtney and floral bow made me

The books we are really digging this week--its always a new rotation and combination

My happy helper making cupcakes

Trying to help mom

Its she a tiny peanut? She sat on our laps most of the night--she just too cute to sit there!

Birthday cupcakes for my baby sister.

College football starts tomorrow and I CAN. NOT. WAIT. Let the temperatures drop and fall begin! What are you looking forward to this fall?

You Betcha, Baby

2011-08-24T08:47:00.000-05:00

Remember when my husband made a bet on baseball that involved our unborn child and then lost said bet? Yeah, I had tried to forget that too. But in honor of the GVZ's last day in San Francisco/first day in Texas we are doing the walk of shame, or rather the scoot of shame:

I think T may have learned his lesson about betting and babies.

They Say It's Your Birthday

2011-08-16T20:51:00.001-05:00

As I mentioned already, we had a pretty great weekend. We celebrated my birthday over the weekend. My little sister requested vacation time from work over a year ago for my birthday and arrived in town on Thursday of last week. I love it when she visits. She and T had gotten together months ago and decided to throw me a pool party and invited our family and friends on Saturday. It rained for the first time in a loooong time the night before and the whole day was cloudy. Which would ruin a normal person's pool party but considering we live in Texas and it has been sweltering hot we actually enjoyed hanging by the pool enjoying the cool, grey day.

Me and my sis

There were balloons at my party which somebody really loved!

And guess who got to debut their new sunglasses?!

My brother and his niece (taken with my NEW camera lens! Yippee!)

On Sunday, after church we had a family brunch at Le Peep with our family that had come to town. My french toast was to die for and the company was the best!

This past year of my life has been full of lots of excitement, changes and adventure. We settled into our new house we bought in Indy and made it feel like ours, found out I was pregnant, I left a job and vocation I loved dearly to move across country 9 months pregnant, sold a house, bought another, welcomed our sweet little miss into the world and I embraced being a stay at home mom. I normally prefer quiet, low key birthdays, to big extravaganzas. But this year it was especially nice to close this year of my life out and welcome this next year with a low key, but fun filled weekend surrounded by the people I love.

When it comes to birthdays do you prefer a big and wild party or quiet and low key? Or does it depend on the year?

Weekend In Pictures

2011-08-15T14:43:00.000-05:00

Happy Monday! We had an amazing weekend! I will share more in a post later but here are some of the highlights in pictures!

Pretty flowers from our garden

Lunch with the girls at Pei Wei

Scored ourselves and cute pair of baby sunglasses for the little miss

Someone celebrated a big milestone :)

Still loving our books

Family brunch at Le Peep

Facials and movie night with the little sis

Summer Harvest

2011-08-11T12:55:00.000-05:00

The blueberries are looking just lovely lately so I am spending the day freezing them for muffins, coffee cakes and smoothies in the winter.

And surprise of all surprises, my zinnias have hung on in the heat and so I clipped a few to cheer up the house and add a pop of color.

Over the Weekend

2011-08-10T09:07:00.000-05:00

We hit the road this past weekend and got out of town to our family in Oklahoma. We had a great time and despite the fact that they have actually been hotter than us during this summer heat wave a storm/front rolled through Saturday night and cooled things off by about 30 degrees. We sat out on the back patio that night, looking out over the golf course and the rain just poured down, feeling the cool mist on our skin. Lovely.

Here's the rest of our weekend in pictures:

I finished reading The Help--great book

Lunch date at Camp's

Double date with the folks and little miss at the Iron Star in OKC

Preaching gig in Luther, OK. Tim sang. It was fun.

Back home in the car, playing with our rattle.

How was your weekend?

Her Eyes

2011-08-05T17:01:00.000-05:00

This little miss may have her daddy's nose and mouth but those eyes and those facial expressions are all her mama's. Lord, we are all in trouble, but I kind of love it!

Nashvegas, Baby!

2011-08-02T21:06:00.000-05:00

As I already mentioned we took a little weekend getaway/family vacation to Nashville last weekend. We went to connect with our friends, since several of them were in Nashvegas for a conference. We wanted to the little miss to meet some very important people, friends that feel like family that were with us through the whole pregnancy in Indy, friends we have know for decades, friends that will play a very important part of her life growing up, people that have been part of the village we have been building around her since she was only a dream. And it was perfect.

Happy Friday!

2011-07-29T10:26:00.006-05:00

Remember when I said that little miss's hair looks blondish red in this picture but that it was a fluke of the sun light?

Well, I was totally wrong. We have a big tuft of strawberry blonde hair growing, just like our great-grandfather, two aunts and an uncle. And I figure that since my hair is brown with red highlights and T's is brown with blonde highlights, then, well it makes sense.

Either way we think this little miss is just fabulous :)

Instagram Love

2011-07-28T19:19:00.000-05:00

Are you on instagram? I jumped on the bandwagon a month or so ago and love it. Its the perfect, easy way to change things up when you are snapping pictures constantly!

Here are a few from our adventures around:

Little miss taking an inpromptu nap

Square Burger Date Night

More burger, date night deliciousness

Frozen Yogurt Date Night with T

Our cheeks are growing cuter and chubbier by the day

2011-07-28T10:17:00.000-05:00

Howdy all. We are still here, crafting, cooking, reading books and avoiding the heat. Will pick up regular posting soon!

Over the Weekend

2011-07-18T10:25:00.000-05:00

This weekend was pretty chill. Since our week was crazy hectic, we tried to be as low key as possible to recover and get some family time in. I don't know about you but after having an adventure I really enjoy having some home-body time. Lots of disc golf, laughter, early bed times, meals shared with family and of course, laundry.

Little miss tried out her Bumbo seat this weekend as you can see by her just chillin'. She thinks she is a big girl and can sit up, but she can't just yet. For now though I think we will skip the Bumbo and enjoy that her favorite place is sitting on our laps checking out all the action.

How was your weekend?

Thankful

2011-07-16T13:16:00.000-05:00

This week was wild. W-I-L-D. And its not quiet over yet. I am thankful for...

...the chance to take the little miss on a quick weekend getaway vacation to meet some dear friends.

...that our thermostat now reads this:

instead of the 95 degrees it read when we walked in the door from vacation.

...that we have family near by that don't mind if we move ourselves and our baby in while the AC gets fixed.

Will be back this week with more on our little adventures, as soon as this momma can get caught up. But for now, isn't that little bum the cutest? We are taking to sleeping with it in the air these days.

Basil Harvest

2011-07-07T13:42:00.000-05:00

I hope next summer to have a raised veggie garden in the back yard, since you know, this spring I was a tad bit busy having a baby. But when I did the planter make over I did put a little basil plant in amongst the zinnias, margarita flowers and sweet potato vines. To be honest, the basil didn't look that hot when I planted it and the planters get full sun all day, so I didn't think the basil had a chance in the Texas heat. But to my surprise, the basil is taking off like crazy. In fact, so that it doesn't take over the whole planter, I had to do a little mini harvest.

No stranger to big batches of basil, I tried to figure out how to store it. In the past I have made the basil into a pesto and frozen it in ice cube trays for adding to sauces and pasta dishes in the winter. Yum. However, since its only the first of July and I have already had to collect some, I have a feeling there will be enough for pesto later in the summer. So I thought I would try my hand at drying my own basil for the winter.

Here's how I did it:

First I clipped the basil from the garden. I had read that in order to totally not shock your plant you need to leave behind about 25% of the plant. That way it can continue to grow through the rest of the season and you can do a second harvest in August (hello pesto cubes!). So I clipped the plant back.

Next, I soaked the clippings in cool water. Now lots of "pros" suggest not doing this step but its a safe, effective way to clean bugs and dirt off them. And my desired outcome is dried basil, not bugs in the house. I soaked them for maybe 15 minutes, fully submerged in a bowl of cool water.

Then I removed the clippings (and took the bowl of water out to water my newly shorn basil plant) and aid them out on a towel to air dry.

Once they were air dried I removed any discolored or yucky looking leaves (yes, yucky is a technical term). Then I took the ends loosely (making sure that air could flow between clippings and leaves and tied the ends together with baker's twine and hung it upsie down somewhere cool and dry and away from the sun (at this point in the process it can loose flavor with too much exposure to UV rays...or so they say).

When they dry I will take them down, remove the leaves and store them in a glass or plastic air tight container, I will store the leaves whole because I have read that it preserves the flavor better if you wait to crush the leaf when you are ready to use it.

On the whole it was really easy. I can't wait to use it in my veggie, chicken manicotti dish this winter. If you had an extra stash of basil what dishes would you use it for?

Tuesday Crafties

2011-07-06T14:01:00.000-05:00

I seem to be in a crafting rut. Well, maybe more accurate is I seem to be in a crafting rut when it comes to the craft projects I actually complete and photograph :)

Remember when I made these finger puppets to send to a little friend of mine? Well, I wanted to start making a few for Adelaide to build up her little collection. For some reason I wanted to do bugs, probably because I was inspired by this cute little swimmer. So here's what I made:

A book worm, a lady bug and a bee. The photo didn't turn out very well but the bee has hand stitched detailing on the wings.

Anyhow, I have a few crafties I want to tackle to get me out of my rut. For fun here is what I am cooking up:

1) I want to sew a nursing cover as a gift for a friend (I have a beautiful Amy Butler fabric and everything...I just need to you know, sew it)

2) I want to embroider a bib necklace to add some edge to my summer wardrobe and try some new color combos.

3) I need to sew some curtains for the little miss's window in her room. I have the fabric and style picked out I just need to go buy the fabric and sew the panel up. Details, details.

I think that's it for now...What are you dreaming up in the way of summer projects?

Over the Weekend

2011-07-05T13:46:00.001-05:00

Happy belated Fourth of July! We had a great weekend, here's what we did...

My sister K came into town for the holiday and to visit the little miss. What I love most about her visits is the laid back vibe her visits have whenever she comes town. She is family that feels like family and not like a guest, so we spend a lot of our time making home cooked meals, catching up and just relaxing. This time I had a little competition in the "chatting and catching up" department as the little miss wanted to talk her ear off and show her all her new tricks.

I also love K because we have similar styles of cooking and similar tastes, but she always reminds me of stuff I know how to do but have forgotten, so her visits always jump start my cooking a bit.

Sunday we made plans with the rest of the family here for a day at the pool and a cookout to celebrate the holiday. Little miss debuted her ladybug swim suit with the red tutu and I was brave enough to snap some pics of the two of us together (and apparently brave enough to share them on the interwebs).

Little miss even got a little dip in the pool while the pool was still in the shade. Don't worry we were super safe. All you can see in this picture is the little cutie in her suit, but there were like 5 people surrounding her and my uncle kept a very close eye. In fact he kept saying "watch out her cheek is 3 inches from the water!" It was very sweet.

She loved the swim time, especially since the pool was bathtub warm. Since I grew up around and with pools I just really love being able to slowly introduce the little miss to swimming so that she will be safe and love this activity as she grows up. T, K and I loved the swim time because it was a great way to stretch our muscles in the heat playing volleyball, swimming laps and just goofing around.

The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing and having fun not doing much of anything. I am super excited for this week on the ol blog. I have a few little projects to share in the kitchen and a few crafties to share as well, so check back a little later!

How was your holiday weekend?

Smart and Pretty

2011-07-01T12:32:00.002-05:00

I have been thinking a lot the past few days about this article from the Huffington Post that circulated around facebook the first of the weeks and our lives with Adelaide.

When she was born the gifts and packages came pouring in. Truly we were overwhelmed with generosity. We averaged a package a day for the first 2 months of little miss's life and have only now slowed to two or three a week. Needless to say I am still working on thank you's but all of this is probably topic for another post. Anyhow, one of the gifts that we received in the mail was this adorable pink onesie with a peace sign on it made of organic, fair trade cotton from a friend of mine and fellow feminist from grad school. The card enclosed said "congratulations on the birth of Adelaide! I know we were taught in school that pink is bad for little girls and all that stuff but this so darn cute!"

Around the second week Adelaide was at home, I was in her room talking to her while changing her and getting her dressed when I saw my mother in the doorway sort of smiling. I asked what was up and she said "I love it!" "Love what?" I asked. From the time Adelaide was born I have said, "You are so pretty and so smart, because you can be both, baby." My mom had caught me in one of these pep talks. And like the author suggests in the Huffington Post article, we make as big a deal out of our cute tutus and pink peace sign onesies as we do how much we like to read around here. Even at nearly 3 months.

There are very clear and specific moments in my life that I can pick out where I was treated like an idiot because I was perceived to be pretty and well the person I had encountered couldn't possibly fathom that you could be both attractive and smart. If it weren't for my mother affirming and encouraging my love for books, my early and slightly weird for my age interest in documentaries and for the crazy rule in our house that you could only watch a half hour of TV a day unless it was a news show (yes, I was a 10 year old 60 Minutes and Dateline junkie...this was all before cable and the 24 hour news channels so it only really bought you an extra hour a day) who knows if I would have had the insight about myself to know I was both smart and pretty when I encountered people who wanted to minimize my intellegance and the courage to stand up to them and insist that I did indeed need to be taken seriously.

I appreciated the article, but what I appreciated most was the wide span of women on facebook who shared it--not just my explicitly feminist friends from grad school, but mothers, daughters, dads, pastors and friends. It gives me hope.

Happy Anniversary!

2011-06-30T12:55:00.000-05:00

Four years ago today T and I stood in front of our friends, family and God and made public the private commitment we had made to one another years before. That we would journey through life together, tackle whatever challenges and obstacles came up together and help see one another's dreams into reality together. We have moved six times, lived in three different states, traveled to some really cool places, acquired a degree and a dog, bought (and sold) our first home, made two career transitions, and welcomed our beautiful daughter into the world together. I am grateful for him as my partner, my friend, my love.

Here's to many, many more years and many more adventures.

(The picture is from Eischen's Chicken in Oklahoma our first year of marriage)

Tuesday Crafties

2011-06-28T19:58:00.002-05:00

Happy Tuesday! We are off to a slow start this week, since our weekend was so full of fun and celebration. But I do have a little crafty bit to share with you. Little miss got a new little romper this weekend as a gift and I decided that it needed a matching head band. So even though you have seen me do head bands for the wee babe before here is another one.

I think this one is way better than my previous attempt because this time I thought about the placement of the leaves in relationship to the elastic and her head. I sort of forgot that last time and they stuck up like little feathers on an Indian head dress.

I made this one with felt and tried a bit different style. Here it is on our little model:

I know, I know, its huge on her head, but its so stinking cute!

Lunch Lately

2011-06-23T15:03:00.000-05:00

I suppose this lunch is barely worth mentioning since its so simple. But I figure its good to be honest. I really dig breakfast foods for lunch or anytime. And this has got protein, grains, and tons of fresh raw fruit so it gives good fuel and is easy to pull together at a moments notice.

What are your too simple to mention but complete healthy meal staples?

Planter Make Overs

2011-06-22T09:08:00.001-05:00

As I mentioned a week or so ago, during morning nap time I have been dashing out to the backyard to tidy things up and work on a few projects. One of the projects I have been working on is figuring out about the planter situation for our patio.

Our patio pots look like hell. There is no way around it. They are faded and sad looking and to add insult to patio injury we were gifted some second hand planters from the previous owners as well that were equally sad and faded. Since like most folks we live on a budget round here, new pots and planters just aren't in the budget this year, we have other things higher up on that house to-do list. But I love planting and gardening and growing things too much. I also like things to look neat and tidy and not, well, like hell.

So I decided to do a quick makeover of our existing planters until next summer (when it will actually be in the budget). My idea was to gather up all the different style and colored planters both ours and gifted and spray them all a single color to tie them together and cover the fade and ugly and age.

Here is a "sort of before" picture. Why sort of? Well I got so excited about this project I didn't take a proper "before" picture of the whole ugly collection. When I realized this I snapped a quick pic of the bases I hadn't sprayed yet so you could see the fade, but this is most definitely not the worst of it!

Although the many color to choose from in the spray paint isle were tempting I decided to go with a white semi-gloss to keep things neat and simple. My goal was to spray them all nice and evenly with a plastic primer and then the white, do the best I could with my two cans of spray and then hope the plants grew over any imperfections. Quick, cheap and hopefully a little less ugly.

Here they are after I sprayed them but before I planted. To be honest at this point in the project I sort of thought they looks not as bad but close. Well, maybe that's an overstatement but I was still skeptical of my own project.

Then I filled each of them with sun friendly plants, following the rule of tall growing, mid-growth or mounding and vines.

I think the purple and yellow sweet potato vines will hide any imperfection and I already think its a nice improvement. And for the cost of two cans of spray paint ($3.95 each), I think its not too bad!

What projects are you hoping to tackle on the cheap this summer?

Over the Weekend

2011-06-20T12:16:00.000-05:00

Good morning! It's Monday and I don't know about you but I am ready to tackle this week and knock several things off the ol' to-do list! I also think I am energized for the week because our weekend was so fun.

Friday I got the weekend off to an early start with my friend Jane who was in town for the weekend. She bravely agreed to load up the little miss and go to Ikea and to lunch. It was so fun and aside from the little miss hooting her way through the home decor section we did pretty awesome on our little trip. I got some long, black picture ledges I was going to use for the office, but they are too long so I think I might give them a try in the eat in kitchen area. I also got a cute little vase. On Friday night T and little miss and I hung out with family and ordered pizza and watched the US Open (we are a family full of golf nerds!) and tried to avoid the heat (can you tell that's a theme here these days?!).

Early Saturday, before the heat got too unbearable, I left T and the little miss alone to have some daddy-daughter time while Jane and I met back up to go to Trade Days in McKinney, TX. Jane was on the hunt for a big metal star for her back porch and I was on the hunt for some vintage glass pieces to plant a few plants in an put around the house and a funnel cake. I ended up finding a glass bowl with three cute little legs, a metal hook for the closet to hang purses on and the coolest drawer pulls (and no funnel cake).

I also got this cute succulent to plant in my bowl for $2 at the flea market--way cheaper than you can find them at the lawn and garden store. And way healthier looking. In fact I wish I had gotten a few more. Ah well, there is always next month!

I don't exactly know what I am going to do with these pulls yet, but they had so much personality for $1 I couldn't pass them up.

The rest of Saturday, T, little miss and I spend blissfully vegging out and enjoying each other's company with nowhere to be.

Sunday was T's first Father's Day. Little miss and I woke up and tried to let T sleep in, but he wanted to get up and hang with us. So I made coffee and breakfast for him while Adelaide entertained him with her cuteness. At breakfast we had him open his gift and cards from us.

This picture is from earlier in the week--Adelaide and T watch the Texas Ranger games together. I even got her a little headband to wear that matches her onesie that she can wear to the park to see games next season.

In the afternoon we trekked over to Fort Worth to be a part of the ordination service for our friend Jackie. The service was beautiful and little miss was an absolute doll for the whole hour and a half ordeal.

Afterwards we grabbed some Mexican food with our friends that were in attendance at the service before heading home. It was so good to get caught up and for little miss to meet some of the people that are so important to us. Here she is with our friend Ryan. She wore her tutu for the occasion, because nothing says "I celebrate this special day with you" like a tutu.

It was a great weekend with the perfect balance of fun and adventure and relaxation. How was your weekend?

Our Sleeping Beauty

2011-06-17T15:01:00.000-05:00

I have fielded a couple of requests to write about what we are doing to sleep train the little miss so early, since she can already sleep 8 hours at a time through the night. I have to confess right off the bat that we are no experts but that this is what is working for our baby and our family. This will be a lengthy post, so if you are not interested in sleep training your baby or in sleep theory meets practice, here is a cute picture of the babe partying in her bed and I will send you on your way for the day:

Resources and Stuff
Like I already said, I am by no means an expert. We have used a combination of sources and adapted them to who we are as a family, what we are comfortable with as parents and to our daughter's specific needs and personality. We know what her likes and preferences are and we know what her natural rhthym is and we use those things to our advantage, but every baby is different. What's important is to figure out what those things are for your baby and incorporate them into your strategy to get those extra winks. I will share more specifics later.

The three resources that have influenced our sleep training in these early months the most are Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child* (it was given as a shower gift and was recommended by the pediatrician), our pediatrician, my mother and this blog post by Nicole over on Making it Lovely.**

The Beginning
I have to be honest, before Adelaide came along I hadn't really given much thought to the whole sleep thing. We are both good sleepers and so I assumed two things, that when she was tired she would sleep and that she would fall into a natural schedule (I also assumed that I wouldn't get any decent sleep for months, maybe even years). While both of these are sort of true, they are also not true at all. It was probably around two weeks old that we started thinking about how to be intentional about teaching our child how to sleep and getting her into a routine.

We developed a bed time and a routine at around three weeks, maybe a little before. For those of you that have had a newborn, that may seem like a joke, but we wanted to begin to give her little brain the signals that say "Its time to wind down and sleep." We had bath time at a set time every night, then we took her to her sleeping area, nursed her and worked on getting her to sleep. Now, this is where it gets tough. Some nights we would work 2-3 hours to get her to sleep because she was fussy, but instead of thinking our plan wasn't working we powered through. During this period we would either wake her or get up when she woke about every 3 hours to feed. Like some of our resources suggest, we kept the lights low or off and were "all business" meaning no playing, singing etc. (I might have had a quiet whispered conversation with her about the middle of the night surprise in her diaper a few times) and we stayed in the sleeping area (our room in the early weeks and now her room). We wanted to communicate that night time was about sleeping so low lights and quiet voices sort of set the tone. She started going to sleep quicker and sleeping a little bit longer so that by her one month check up she was hitting 4-5 hour stents from time to time, which our pediatrician shared is what she is capable of at that age.

Six Week Growth Spurt and Colic
At around six weeks our little miss had a growth spurt and for you expectant moms this is also the peak time for colic. For 10 days straight she didn't sleep more than 3 hours a night. I thought I was going to go crazy, but luckily had a good support system, family and friends that would come over during the day to hang with her while I caught a nap. During this time we still stuck to our schedule, keeping her in a routine. On night 11 guess who went to bed after her bath and slept 13 hours only getting up twice to feed? We set the tone for our nights so that when her little body was ready it would click. That is more or less how our nights went for two or three weeks.

I guess it would also be helpful at this point to share a few things about expectations. Adelaide is a baby. She is unpredictable, her neurological system is developing and she is still learning about our family and most importantly she is figure out things about herself. Our job is to help her develop over time the self-soothing and sleeping skills that she needs for healthy growth and brain function. Thus we have worked towards a future goal even when it shows no sign of working. We also know our daughter and know her needs and quirks. For example, we know that at least 1-2 nights a week she is going to be gassy and fussy most of the night, waking every two or three hours. We work as a team to get through those nights and keep in perspective that the other 5 nights a week she is sleeping how she should for her age and sometimes even better. We stick to our plan because even though the two nights a week where she is fussy suck, the other 5 nights are pretty much bliss. But be patient, Rome wasn't built in a day and a baby isn't going to pick up on your new strategy or routine for a while until it becomes exactly that, a routine. If I am honest anything new we add or try take 1-2 weeks to really see any result.

Ok, I feel like this post is getting way too preachy so let's take a break and check out how cute that little babe is dancing in her crib:

Would you check out that side kick? Anyhow...

Two Month Shift
The week or so leading up to our two month check up we introduced another strategy to help little miss get better sleep. Instead of plucking her up out of bed every time she woke or peeped, we left her in her bed and would go to her, check to make sure she was ok and then we would sooth her back to sleep. Soothing is baby specific, so do what you know works for your baby--swaddling, rubbing their head or tummy, offering them a pacifier, you are the parent and you will know what works and what doesn't. Oh and keep in mind what works could change from week to week or even night to night.

The idea behind leaving her in her crib was two fold--one, the jostling around your baby makes it harder for them to sleep. Imagine trying to get to sleep and having someone pick you up and move you around, it would make it hard. The second reason for this is that at this age the baby is getting so much more social and may prefer to socialize with you in the middle of the night instead of sleep. And trust me there is tons of fun to be had and socializing to be done during the day after everyone has gotten sleep. Of course, if little miss couldn't work herself back to sleep by lying in her crib with us trying to console her we got her up and rocked her. This was a gradual process and even now we have nights where her fussiness requires rocking or other out of crib soothing.

At our two month check up our pediatrician, who God bless her is a big proponent of "when the whole family gets sleep the baby is happier and healthier (and so are the mom and dad)", shared that developmentally babies at this age should on average be able to sleep 6-8 hours a night without waking. You better believe that with the promise of 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep she had my attention.

Building on our existing routine and per our doctor's recommendation we now have started laying little miss in her bed not all the way asleep and sometimes awake, so that she can begin to practice falling asleep on her own. The idea is that then when she wakes up in the night she can get herself back to sleep and not require us to get up every. single. time. over. and over. again.

No Cry Babies
While some sleep training and sleep theorist say that it is perfectly fine to let a baby "cry it out" at this age, we are not using this method. Our pediatrician does not believe that its an appropriate strategy for babies this age (2-4 months) for cognitive and social reasons. And we were not comfortable with it as parents. So what do we do instead? We let her "fuss it out."

This is again one of those things that falls into the "you are the parent and you know your baby best" category. By observing little miss during her morning naps and at night we have learned the intricacies of her little noises. Her "I am trying to get to sleep" fussy noise is very different from her "I am in distress" cry. I always thought the baby books were a little optimistic when they talked about learning "cues" from your baby, but it happens and it should be used to one's advantage in the epic quest for more sleep as a new parent.

So, once we put her down or if she wakes in the middle of the night if she wakes up or starts making noises we check on her first to make sure she is ok (quietly, ok, stealthily). Then we let her work it out. If she sounds like she is about to cry we go in and console her either in her crib (first strategy) or by rocking her (next strategy). We give her the opportunity to practice her own skills at falling asleep first but always console and help her get to sleep if needed.

Since we have started this phase our little miss has not only woken up and gotten back to sleep with ease a handful of times, she has also started sleeping in longer chunks of time. Most notably she sleeps 8 hours straight one night a week or more. But it is a process for sure.

Naps, Naps, Naps
One of the first things our pediatrician asked when we shared she was sleeping better was, "have you noticed that naps are easier too and when naps go easier bed time is easier?" Heck yes.

The theory (if you aren't familiar) is that when your baby is over tired it is harder for them to wind down their little brains and calm themselves into sleep, especially the more social they become. So sleep becomes a cycle, crappy night sleep leads to crappy naps which lead back to crappy night sleep. And I would have to say in our experience that's totally true. So a commitment to good night sleep means having some game plan for naps as well. Now each baby is different especially on this topic. I know that some babies at this age can take three naps a day. We get two solid naps and a cat nap in each day, but sometimes the wheels fall off the bus and we don't. I am not suggesting being a slave to the baby's sleep schedule. Let me tell you, when you realize that there is only one roll of toilet paper in the whole house you go to Target, nap time or not (and grab an extra case of diapers just in case). But it helps to have some structure and some naps.

Disclaimer or Reality Check
Like I said earlier in the post, we are laying ground work for a long term goal and have realistic expectation of the little miss. We also know she is a baby so things to go totally smooth every night. A gas bubble stuck somewhere between a burp and a fart can ruin the whole family's night. We can have a gas bubble one night a week or three. Growth spurts can throw a wrench in the whole sleep thing (although if it does the it is sure to follow some blissful sleep eventually--little bits can't keep up the insomnia forever!). Realistically this strategy has earned us on average 4-5 nights of good sleep for the whole family a week. Which isn't perfect, but its better than no nights of good sleep for many more months to come. And the longer we stay after it, the more good nights we seem to get and the bad nights don't seem as bad because you have gotten some rest and you know eventually that week you will get some more. I said "not as bad"--they still suck :)

So that's what we have been doing that works. I am sure it is TMI for most of y'all (you probably left after the cute baby pic and aren't even reading this) but I would be curious to know what is working for the other moms out there?

*If you have read this book you will recognize some of the stuff I have said and we are trying. There are some things about it that are helpful, especially the argument for why everyone needs good sleep. However if I got the chance to chat with the authors we would have some disagreements, mainly on the value of a good editor.

**If you are breastfeeding there are some nuances to all of this that you may want to have the support of a lactation consultant for. Our local hospital has several lactation consultants on staff that are awesome at fielding my calls and answering my questions and being of general support and awesomeness. Also, message me and we can chat about it, but this post was getting waaay too lengthy already.

Nursery Art Work Update

2011-06-16T09:19:00.005-05:00

Since we are already on a nursery kick this week I thought I would share a little update. When I did the nursery reveal I shared that my plan for little miss's two art walls over her bed and dresser was to slowly add art and pictures, taking the art upward since the room has some height to it.

Well I already added a few things to the wall over her dresser and changing area. Remember it looked like this before:

Well two weeks ago Nicole at Making it Lovely posted a free download of a print for her daughter's nursery and it seem just perfect to add to our little collection. Plus it was right in my price range--FREE! If you are interested in adding this cute print to your collection you can find it here.

So I printed it off, went to Target and got a frame and finally framed our family's first holiday portrait together in another frame I already had around. Then I sort of played around with the layout and this is what I came up with:

Cute, huh? And for those of you that like the straight on view to get a sense of lay out:

I really like the new lay out and I think it holds the wall better with a few more items and a little more height added.

DIY Nursery Mobile How-To

2011-06-15T14:59:00.000-05:00

For this week's Tuesday Crafties I shared the mobile I made for the little miss's room. Now I thought I would share how I made it so you could make your own!

To make your own you'll need:

the inside hoop of a needle point hoop

half a skien of yarn

various colors of felt

embroidery thread

craft glue (I like FabriTac)

a sharp pair of scissors

and stuffing (not pictured)

To start I took the hoop and placed a thin dot of glue on the inside lip to tack my yarn down. Then I wrapped the entire hoop in the purple yarn I had chosen. When you have made it all the way around, secure the finishing end with another dot of glue and let dry. To keep from holding the loose end down while it dries I used a small plastic clothes pin to hold it securely until it was done.

Next, while the glue is drying cut your mobile shapes out of the colored felt. I chose birds and free handed the first one and then used it as the template for the rest. You could easily do circles or flowers or another kind of animal for yours. Cut out two identical shapes for each color.

Here are my bird bodies and wings above. After you cut out your shapes, choose your thread. At first I thought about doing contrasting colors for the stitching but then decided to go tone on tone. I also chose dark brown and dark blue thread to do the eyes. First I used a double French knot stitch to make the eyes on each body. Next I glued the beak on to the inside sides of one of the bodies. Then I stitched up the body, making sure that I stuffed the stuffing in before finally closing it up. After that I put a little stitch around the wings and glued them on as well. This step takes the longest because of the all the hand stitching, even though I consider myself pretty quick. To save time you could sew them on a machine, I just like the folksy sort of look of the hand stitching and thought it contributed to the overall look I was trying to accomplish.

I tried to do them in as many colors and I could and to try to balance light and dark, bright and muted colors. I think they turned out so cute!

I set the cute birds aside and returned to my yarn hoop to create the hanging apparatus. To make the hanging part I took the same yarn I used to wrap the hoop and measured out nine pieces of yarn roughly five yards long each. (I chose a really long length because we have high ceilings and I wanted a little extra to drape when I hung it) I divided the yarn into groups of three, and folded them in half, so I had six strings. I then tied them to the hoop 1/3 of the way around.

With each set of six strings I divided them into threes and braided the yarn about 12 inches. I did this for each set. I used a chip clip to hold the braid and keep it from unraveling while I braided the next. When I had them all braided, I gathered them together and held the whole thing up so I could make sure the hoop was level. Once I had it level I tied all the yarn into one big knot.

Then I took the large group of yarn and redivided it into thirds and braided the rest of the two and a half yards or so. When I only had about 9 inches of yarn left I tied the whole thing off and trimmed the yarn evenly to create a tassel at the end.

To affix the birds to the mobile frame I first strategized to stagger the birds so that they would alternate light and dark, bright and muted and not place two that were similar in color too close to each other. I also sewed together ten birds so i decided to hang two sets of three and two sets of two to create a staggered look as well. I then took a quilting needle (read needle with an eye large enough to get yarn through) and used it to thread the yarn through the center of the birds. I tied the yarn off under the last bird and then tied the top of the strand of birds to the hoop.

Ta-da! Here is the final project.

Pretty cute huh? I thought about adding a few strands of tinier birds through out but for now this is perfect! And the nice thing about it is it's soft so in the night if bump my head on it it doesn't hurt and it also doesn't set off a bunch of noise and lights like some mobiles!

If you try this project I would love to see how you adapt it and make it your own! If you don't want to give it a try but want one, shoot me a message and I can make you one.

Tuesday Crafties

2011-06-14T08:38:00.003-05:00

You may have noticed that the little miss didn't have a mobile in her room when I did the nursery reveal. I had a few on Etsy that I liked, but wanted to add to the very personal touches in the room. While I was home a few weeks ago I had the chance to look through our family albums and was reminded of all the special things my mom made for us and for our house to give it a special and loved touch. So I decided to make a mobile myself using stuff I already had in my craft closet.

Here is the final result:

I tried to play of the birds in her linens but make it something all its own. And I really like how it turned out.

Want to learn how to make your own either for your nursery or as a baby gift for a friend? Come back tomorrow for a step by step how-to!

Over the Weekend

2011-06-13T09:08:00.001-05:00

Our weekend was for the most part nice and relaxing. How was yours?

On Friday we went out on a family date to Fuzzy's Tacos. I love their shrimp salad with house dressing and we both love their queso. Yum! Little miss made the perfect third wheel to our date smiling at us and looking around the whole time.

Saturday we hung by the pool and cooked out (that seems to be what we do every weekend!) and watched the Rangers play. Sunday we just hung around the house and rested and of course caught the Mavs game.

This week I have some really exciting stuff to share. My Tuesday Crafties this week will come with a tutorial (yea!). I have made a few updates to the nursery I will share with y'all and by request I have finally written a post about how we have sleep trained out sweet little miss. And maybe there will be a few more things I share. Who knows!

Happy Friday!

2011-06-10T09:20:00.000-05:00

Hello all, are you looking forward to the weekend? We sure are! We have been busy this week getting it done and for the first time in a while we don't have any out of town family visiting and don't have any social commitments. While it may sound boring to some, with a new baby and constant demands to visit us the little miss it will be blissful to just hang as a family, do some things around the house and relax.

Here are somethings from around the internet that caught my eye this week:

Like we need anymore books or bookshelves in our house but isn't this the prettiest idea?

I was glad to see a tutorial for sewing curtains for the novices like me out there. If only I could settle on paint colors and find the right fabric...

I know all little kids say hilarious stuff but my friend Judy's grandson is hilarious. I laughed so hard when I read this I almost woke the baby.

I know its kind of overplayed in the design world especially for nurseries but I am thinking of putting together some garland or bunting for the little miss's room especially after I saw this on Apartment Therapy.

I don't know if you saw this original post by Kelsey and Eric about marriage but the follow up post was almost as good.

Hope you all had a great week! Have any fun plans for over the weekend?

P.S. We are soooo rocking the tummy time right now. And we are adorable doing it! And doesn't little miss's hair look blonde in that light? I swear it's not. It's brown but that lighting caught all of her cute little hairs and made them glow!

Not So Fast

2011-06-09T13:07:00.000-05:00

Two things people say to me as a new mom that make me want to cry and/or punch the unsuspecting commenter. "They grow up so fast" and "I hardly remember my child being that small." I know that sounds pretty harsh doesn't it? But seriously, I have loved every moment of these first few weeks and months and there are so many details about Adelaide and our family that I don't want to forget, especially how small she is. So I am spending some time this week instead of blogging making sure I have written down as much as I can for my own memory but so that I have these memories and stories to pass down to her.

I have a few things scheduled to post so I don't think you will miss me and I will be back with some fun stuff next week but for now, I think it will leave you to smell in more of that intoxicating baby smell and memorize all those fingers and toes.