little lovelies

In case you didn't already know...

2007-08-07T15:51:00.000-07:00

I moved over to typepad. Seems like I lost a few readers in the transition. Bummer! The new blog is : www.littlelovelies.typepad.com! See you 'round!

ABC's of Me - B

2007-08-03T08:41:00.000-07:00

Can be found here. Change your bloglines or Google reader!

ABCs Of Me

2007-08-02T08:06:00.000-07:00

Blogging has been sparse for me lately. My craft room is in overhaul, so not much is being done there. We have been readying our lawns for a sprinkler install that Aaron and his dad are doing starting this afternoon. I have been reading and re-reading the last Harry Potter. We have been squeezing in playtime with the cousins before they leave on Friday. I have been simultaneously planning a high school reunion, family reunion and Handmade Parade.

So you, see blogging hasn't been the first thing on my mind lately. When I saw the idea for the ABCs or Encyclopedia of Me posts that people are doing I thought it was kinda cool. Cuz you all are dying to know more about me, right? HA. Whatever, you are stuck now.

Mmmkay. "A", right?

Accident-prone is the first thing that popped into my mind. I am so so so so very accident prone. The house we lived in growing up was a two story and would take those stairs two at a time regularly. When I was in a big hurry I would take them three at a time. Yeah. I am 5'6". Bad idea. THUNK THUNK THUNK @((!^#$ was part of my daily routine. Several times a someone would hear the thunks and the swear word and know that I was coming or going. Sadly, when I go back to my mom's house it is automatic to try to tackle the stairs two or three at a time, to the family gets treated to the thunk-swear even today.

The first time Aaron heard it for himself (we had all told him stories of it) the look on his face was clear: I married her?

Ahhh. Good times, good times. Thankfully my accident-proneyness never yielded more than some stitches (though the stitches story is more stupidity than accident) and a broken toe. Oh, one year we were sledding on Christmas day and I was sledding down a hill and hit a brick on my butt. I'm not sure what was worse the pain or the embarrassment. I was in 7th grade and we were sledding with the jerky neighbor boy, so the embarrassment was pretty significant.

My mom thought that maybe I should have had stitches for that one, but since the cut was literally where the sun don't shine, there was no way my little 7th grade self was going to go to the ER and have someone stitch me up, there. Oy, I am blushing thinking about what might have been...

(That pic is from Hawaii 2 years ago, I am not uber-pregnant now. Aaron was soooo irritated because he knew that the bird owners would want money for holding the balloons and dorky me thought, noooo they would say up front if they wanted money! HA. they wanted 10 bucks for that pic!)

The one where Pheobe gets sick of talking about what to do next and talks about PBS instead.*

2007-07-27T08:50:00.000-07:00

Your comments on the last post about staying or going were very helpful, so thanks! The numero uno reason that I would like to move to Typepad is to reply to comments directly to the commenter. Since someone said that wordpress offers the same feature for free I may look into that. I just got this here blog-thing where I like it, so I am hesitant to move. Funny how I am putting waaay more thought into this move than I do our brick and mortar moves. What I have to weigh is whether or not, at the end of the day I am going to want to move to Typepad anyway. Because if that is going to happen anyhow, then I migt as well move now, right?

Geez. Have we had enough of the stay/go discusson? Me too. Lets move on.

Aaron and I have been watching the new PBS mini-series, Simon Schama's Power of Art. Three words: Ah. May. Zing. I am so disapointed to find that we caught it on the tail end of the series and that next week's look into Rothko is the last one. We saw David and Turner and both were extremely fascinating. It is as much about the art as about how Schama presents it, which is brilliant. Actually it is probably more about Schama and his presentation because I am looking forward to the Rothko episode as much as I was the Turner though I am not as much interested in Rothko's work. I am, however, eagerly waiting to hear what Schama's commentary on the work is.

And now I leave you with my Club Little House submission. I had planned on doing a 4th of July picnic/fireworks show. Well that evolved into a Day at the County Fair. There is a fair poster, blue ribbon (you can decide what you won it for), a blanket to watch the fireworks show on and a firework. The firework has a long end to attach to the back of a dollhouse, so it really looks like a fireworks show.

*Not a real Friends title, but it sounds like it could be, dosen't it? Of all the Friends, I think Phoebe would be the one to watch PBS.

Should I Stay or Should I Go?*

2007-07-24T09:45:00.001-07:00

VS.

I am a perpetual cheapskate, but I think I might have to be done with blogger. I want to be able to reply to the comments I recieve from all you cool people and get comments from those who email me to tell me they can't leave a comment because blogger has some sort of grudge against them. Was that a run on sentence? I feel like it was...but I digress. I am looking into typepad because, well, everyone has typepad, so it must be just peachy, right? The only thing that bums me out about typepad is that it costs moola and I am cheap.

Why pay for a service when you can get perfectly mediocre service for free, right? Hmm. Maybe I should rethink that one. Anyway, you typepad fans out there, sell it to me. Should I stay or should I go?

*Is it weird that song lyrics amd movie lines fit so well in my daily life? Probably, but it is fun. I am so lucky to have a husband who always knows what I am talking about when I insert a movie line into our conversation and can do it even more flawlessly than I.

6 years...

2007-07-23T09:05:00.000-07:00

:: four apartments :: one house :: three cars :: millions of smiles :: a few tears :: bunches of good jokes (and only a few bad ones) :: two babies :: one fish :: dozens of movies :: oodles of evenings talking :: several seasons of geeky si-fi tv :: loads of patience (on his part)

:: 2,190 days loving each other ::

6::21::01

We tried...

2007-07-18T23:11:00.000-07:00

really
really
hard.
Turns out popsicles keep tears away and kids from running off.

Wish we had thought of it about 45 minutes earlier...

It's Party Time!*

2007-07-18T08:27:00.000-07:00

Sweet Table Settings: Check

Pretty Birthday Girl: Check

Uncle Aaron on Trampoline: Check

Party Crown: Check

Uncle Rhys enjoying tea with the kiddies: Check

*Said in the same manner MC Hammer says "It's Hammer Time!"

Shop, Stop And Stroll

2007-07-16T16:41:00.001-07:00

My creation
Originally uploaded by littlelovelies.

Not only was this a completely cool name for a show, it was a completely cool night! Of the few shows I have done so far, this one was the best and by far the most fun. I'm sure it had a lot to do with the fab gals I was with!

What is even more exciting is that now Handmade Parade has a home! The owner of Coffee Garden in Scramento wants to do Handmade Parade with us in October and even said we could have a bigger crowd this time around! So now, we are in the process of getting together our amazing talent for the show, so if you are interested please e-mail me at handmade_parade@yahoo.com for all the info!!

Milestone

2007-07-13T11:42:00.001-07:00

Milestone
Originally uploaded by astragalus.

We passed an important milestone last night. The "kid with a gaping hole in his head and needs to get stiches" milestone. As the kids were getting ready for bed Monkey was sitting on the arm of the couch and slid off right into the handle of the DVD cabinent. No roughhouseing, no running, falling, jumping. He just slid right into the cabinent as he was trying to help and turn off the dvd player.

That's whatcha get for helping, kid.

I took one look at it and realized stiches were needed and scooped up him and peanut and we were on our way. 5 hours later and one traumatizing sewing experience later we were home.

The ER nurse was particularly bothered by sewing our monkey up because he had one at home same age, same name (who looked remarkably like our monkey, too), so he was really brokenhearted at having to participate in our boy's pain. We all shed a few tears together.

Our monkey was a serious trooper, though. Once it was over they gave him toys and stickers. He even shook the nurses hand and the docs hand and gave them stickers to prove he harbored no ill will towards them.

When all is said and done he'll have a kick'n pirate scar over his eye to show everyone.

When Nothing Else Fits...

2007-07-11T18:04:00.001-07:00

When Nothing Else Fits
Originally uploaded by littlelovelies.

My shoes always will! Thank goodness for that!

Tomorrow my neice and nephews are coming over to play and make homemade corndogs (maybe this is why only my shoes fit...). I don't know who is more excited about this me or the kids. Probably me. They are too busy being tired and grumpy at the moment. I accidentally squashed Peanuts foot with my chair and I refused to let Monkey have Corn Pops for dinner. two nights in a row. I am SO mean.

Lookie what my friends are up to!

2007-07-10T14:33:00.001-07:00

Flickr Friends
Originally uploaded by littlelovelies.

I have some pretty fab flickr friends, no? Look at all this fabulousness!

I am hopefully going to have this uploading deal figured out soon because I have soooo many things to show. I made the dollhouse fireworks the other day, and man did they turn out CUTE! The quilts are only slightly less cute because I can't figure out the whole binding thing. Someday. But all in all the sets are super super cuta and I can't wait to see who gets them in Club Little House.

I have also been a decopauging fool the last few days and have an impressive pile to show for it. It makes me pretty happy I must say. There is a Sac Craft Mafia event (Stop Shop and Stroll) on Saturday night so I'll be selling the stack of goodies there.

But for now I am getting great inspiration off of flickr!

Vintage Photo

2007-07-09T10:22:00.001-07:00

Vintage Photo
Originally uploaded by littlelovelies.

I wonder if we all had cool cameras like these if we wouldn't stll be using film...It's wierd, but I miss my film camera. I miss the click of the shutter. I miss wondering if the picture turned out (but I don't miss the frustration of getting a picture back that I had hoped would turn out well, but had actually turned out garbage).

I know there are fancy pants cameras that simulate all the fun of film without the frustration of not getting the shot you want, but I can't afford even the cheap versions of those cameras right now. Besides I have two killer film cameras that belonged to my father wasting away in the closet.

My Dad was a hobby photog. His subjects? Moi and my siblings, beaches and flowers in Hawaii, classic cars... About a year before he died he gave me his old Pentax camera and extra lenses. One Christmas he sat down and showed me how to use it and all the effects that it could create.

I hardly listened to a word.

Not because I am an ungrateful brat (at least not at that moment) but because I was paying more attention to how excited he got explaining something he loved to me. He would get all giddy and happy that we were interested in something he loved (his other love was math, and I am sorry, but we did NOT share that one) and try and teach us years of skills in a half an hour.

Now my Dad ws one of those guys who could actually learn years of skills in half an hour. It really must have chapped his hide that none of us kids were like that. Actually I take that back, my Marine brother is like that, but his interests didn't include photography as much as trying to figure out how to tap a keg when the liquor store forgot to give him one. A good skill to have, yes, but not really one my dad could relate to so much.

And so my Dad was left to teach me everything he knew about photography and telescopes (another love we shared). Today I am the proud owner of dad's cameras and telescope and sitting here wishing I had paid more attention to what he was saying when he explained these things and less attention to how much fun he was having explaining it.

Actually, I don't. It really was more fun watching him enjoy the moment. Besides, I can download the manuals of the internet, right?

My creation

2007-07-08T17:12:00.001-07:00

My creation
Originally uploaded by littlelovelies.

Till i win the war between my camera and the computer I'll be creating mosaics. Lots and lots of mosaics...

bugs and glitches and such

2007-07-08T13:18:00.000-07:00

So I am using a different computer for my blogging and whatnot and have just discovered two very disturbing facts. #1 - this computer eats my itunes. I just bought 3 albums on itunes, got my recipt and poof! they are gone never to be recovered. I want to call Apple and cry about it but I am about 90% certain they won't give a rip. And disturbing fact #2 - this computer won't let me upload photos. This is so sad because my pink birthday party was last night and I have some fabulous pictures. Cute pink decorations and grown men hula hooping. I know you are really sad to be missing out for the time being. IT (aka Aaron) is working on it. We better figger it out soon cuz we can't afford to go buying a new computer!!

Happy 4th!!

2007-07-04T09:25:00.000-07:00

Thanks so much for the sweet birthday wishes. We had a pretty laid back day since the real birthday party will be on Saturday.

Hope you all have a great 4th! Please think of/pray for my Marine brother who is currently in Iraq for his third tour. He has been there a week today, and will be there for 8 months. Here he is with his wife Ashley last July.

Happy To Me!

2007-07-03T13:34:00.000-07:00

On my sister's second birthday we took her to one of those make your own bear places and she went around the store saying "Happy to me! Happy to me!" As a result we named her teddy bear Toomee and frequently will say "Happy to me!" Instead of Happy Birthday to each other.

Today is my birthday, so "Happy to me!" We aren't doing much today since I will be having a big party on Saturday (yes, I still give myself birthday parties). I did take the kids to have cupcakes for breakfast and to the zoo in celebration. I forgot the camera, which is a huge shame becuase the bakery I took them to was adorable. These are the cupcakes I made for Monkey's birthday, I haven't made anything special for myself today.

I am celebrating the rest of the day by cleaning house and watching the history channel. The Presidents is on and I am a sucker for American history. This week has been chock-full of entertainment for me. It just now occured to me that its probably because of the 4th. Duh.

So. Back to our trip. On Tuesday we went to Disneyland, which was actually fun despite the fact that it was the middle of June. We didn't have to wait in line longer than 30 minutes, though my Monkey just couldn't understand why he had to wait in line at all. It is suprisingly difficult to convince a 3 1/2 year old that he does, in fact, have to wait in line like everyone else. The last straw came after a particularly long wait for a ride that ended up breaking down just before it was our turn. We gave him the choice of seeing Mickey or waiting for the ride to work again and he chose to leave the line and see Mickey.

I won't go into detail about what transpired during that wait. I'll just leave you with this picture and the knowledge that we packed it up and called it a day right after this.

My family assured me that Monkey was very well behaved for a 3 year old in a theme park for 8 hours, but I still have my doubts.

There's No Place Like Home

2007-07-02T08:57:00.000-07:00

I am soooo glad to home! We had a great trip, which was only a teeny bit exhausting with 5 little ones and two unruly dogs. The chaos was like nothing I have ever experienced. These 5 munchkins woke up and hit the ground running each and every day. They didn't stop until they passed out each night. They were all pretty much a blur for the entire week.

We took them to dinner at the marina in Oceanside, looked at the boats, and made complete messes of ourselves with ice cream. When we got home we tried to get them all settled down for bed, but that was a complete failure. At one point my monkey was so tired and wanted to go to sleep soooo badly, but his cousin was playing cars on the race track that was on monkey's sleeping bag-while monkey was in it. Poor monkey couldn't cope and wanted to call it a trip then and there, but I managed to calm him down and get him to sleep in the dining room in his little beach tent.

In the morning all was forgotten, probably just as much because we were going to Disneyland as because he got a decent nights sleep (sort of). Tomorrow I will tell you all about Disneyland and why you shouldn't take tired children to theme parks. Oh wait, you all are smart enough to know that already...

Dollies

2007-06-16T10:24:00.000-07:00

The 15th came and went, full of packing, cleaning (the car, my house is shameful), and Father's Day planning. We are suprising Aaron with a sushi lunch and a round of golf at a la-de-da course with his best friend, who is celebrating his first Father's Day. The best part is that Aaron truly has no clue what we are doing and once we get to lunch he'll think that the fun os over, but oh no, there will be golf, too. Oh and more sushi with the fam tomorrow night. It will be good to give him all this great food before I leave for two weeks and he tv dinners it until I return.

So all that to say, I decided not to list my dolls until after I get back, since if I did, I wouldn't be able to ship anything for two weeks anyway. Just to get you all giddy and excited here is a teaser pic of the Mama doll, all done. She's sewn up now, but I am too lazy, ahem, I mean busy, to take a pic of her.

Gotta Get 'em Dones

2007-06-13T18:27:00.000-07:00

pack
clean out the car and take it to the shop
go to the thrift store to get beach towels, books, lap desks for car )and probably a half a dozen other things completely unrelated to the beach or our trip)
find portable DVD player and kids tents (they are sleeping in them in the hotel room)
sew up last minute totebags for neice and nephews

buy:
snacks for the road and the beach (cheaper up here than down there)
alcohol (cuz I'll need it to recover from the 6 hour drive)
an attitude adjustment for monkey
aspirin
bandaids
sanity
muzzle
swim toys

Ok, so the new 'tude, sanity and muzzle I can't really buy, as much as I might want to. Today has been particularly trying and included me leaving a full cart of things in the middle of Target while I had to wisk my child back to the car. If you were at the Target in Elk Grove and heard money having dino-raptor temper tantrum, I apologise. 10 minutes later after he got his consequences he was giggly and cute. You would have never known that he had ever had a melt down.

Is it just me or are three year olds bi-polar? I just remind myself that it is just temporary. Temporary. As in not forever....right??

2007-06-12T13:34:00.000-07:00

Who needs a vacation?

Me me!! Ok, I don't really need one, but I would like one. Preferably one that involves the beach. That would be great. Well, next week and the week after I will be getting my beach vacation. Sort of. Next week the kids, my mom, my Granny and I will be driving down to Oceanside, CA to visit with my brother who is a Marine stationed at Camp Penndleton. He is going to be shipping out for his third tour in Iraq in July and we are going to go down and spend some quality time with him and his family before he leaves. Then, less than 24 hours after I get back from Oceanside I'll be hopping on a bus with 40 high school kids and go back down to San Diego for summer camp. The second trip I'll be on my own for.

The beach vacation I had in mind involved a cabana on the beach and nonstop "grown-up" drinks, but a sandy beach blanket and the occasional diet coke will do ok, too. My kids haven't ever been to the beach and I am quite excited about taking them. I am bummed that Aaron has to miss it (dang work). We live far enough away from the beach that our next beach trip will be just as exciting for the kids and I plan on taking millions of pictures.

That delightfully geekiny picture of us is from our trip to Hawaii 2 years ago. I was rather pregnant with Lily, so the jetski guy made us promise about 100 time that Aaron wouldn't go faster than 20 miles per hour. It was fun even at the crawl we were driving at. We had spent a day hanging out on a sandbar about a mile from the shore. The water was waist high, which was weird seeing as we were so far from shore. All the non-pregnant folk got to wind surf, go tubing and speed on their jetskis. A trip that should definitely be done again in a non-preggo state.

We did get to "deep sea walk" ie: wear positively freaky helmets 10 ft under water and walk through schools of fish. Most fabulous. Though if you thought too much about the helmet and what might happen if it stopped working (nothing, really, we were only 10 feet from the surface) it was pretty scary. I need to dig up those pictures, we looked like we were from 10,000 Leauges Under the Sea with those helmets on!

Anyone have a trip of a lifetime planned? Or, if not the trip of a lifetime, a trip of the summer? Do tell, I love to live vicariously through others.

2007-06-11T09:42:00.000-07:00

The names are cut out and folded up...

Monkey drew out one name...

and Peanut wanted a turn so I let her pick out a name. Her one name came out as two, so I figured what the hey, we can have three winners!

Sarah was the first name drawn, so she is the dollhouse set winner and Sonya and Jenn were Peanut's picks, so they will get surprise goodies! email me with your addresses! littlelovelies @ yahoo.com

little lovelies faves of the day

2007-06-08T10:19:00.001-07:00

little lovelies faves of the day
Originally uploaded by littlelovelies.

I will be dreaming of these things all weekend. Aren't they all so lovely? Yes, yes they are. Man, bloggers at large are so freaking talented I can hardly stand it. Really. I can't.

Last weekend was super busy, so I am hoping to relax more this weekend. Probably won't happen though. We might go down to the homeless camp again on Saturday evening and maybe after church Sunday we can go to the zoo. There is a new penguin exhibit that my monkey is crazy for.

But for now, I am going to pull out needle and thread and continue on my little family 'o dolls. I'm crossing my fingers that I will have a few done to show you next week.

Thanks for all your comments of Wednesday's post! You are all definitely going to be in the dollhouse 4th of July picnic drawing. You can still comment today, if you want to be entered. Monkey will draw a name tomorrow morning!

2007-06-07T14:00:00.000-07:00

Dollies in progress

Wow! You are all so very sweet to me. Thank you so much for helping me put CODL (crazy old dollhouse lady) into perspective. And thanks for your comments, you are all definitely entered into the drawing for the dollhouse 4th of July picnic I am making! If you didn't comment yesterday you can still comment there till tomorrow and be entered for the picnic. But we don't need to talk about yesterday's haps anymore ;) just say hi.

Soooo moving right along to these little dears here. Above is the mama doll to my first family doll set, she is coming right along and quite cutely, too. Below is a Peggy doll with cat eye glasses. She kind of looks like she's heading up a caper, doesn't she?

All the little dots on her apron are french knots. I am very much in love with french knots right now. Once you get the hang of them they are so very easy and so very fun to do. I highly recommend them to everyone.

I don't care how sweet their digs are over at google, blogger is lame right now. I am not really yelling at you guys, blogger is. I swear. Thanks for the link, Monica! Love your new look, BTW!

2007-06-06T10:39:00.000-07:00

A New Blog and A Really Big Rant

So my friend Amanda just started her own blog called Daily Diner. It has great meal planning ideas and recipes and is loads of fun if you need to make a menu in a hurry. Be sure to check it out and say hi!! Oh and I chose this pic because it makes me happy and I am GRUMPY right now.

And now for the rant.

I took the dollhouse back today. It didn't fit my furniture and was a little too fragile for my kids to play with, so it really was the best thing. Well I get there and tell the lady these things and she starts looking it over and telling me that I broke the roof (one end was loose, as it was when I bought it), put in all these dents and basically broke it to bits. It was still in the condition I bought it in and the whole time she kept telling me I did these things. I assured her that I didn't and the whole time she is telling me I am lying.

My stomach churned and I couldn't believe my ears. If she had told me "Oh, I'm sorry we don't take returns (which apparently was their policy)" I would have gracefully said, ok, and walked away. It was my fault that I made an impulse buy I understand these things. But instead she said, "You are lying, you broke this house, but I'm going to do a return for you anyway." Gee thanks. I felt like if I said never mind I'll just take it and leave I'd be admiting to a crime I didn't commit.

She runs my card, shaking her head, sighing and saying, "I can't believe this. That house was perfect. Absolutely perfect." So I got my money back, but my dignity is on the green shag carpet of the store. I really feel like a huge jerk, even though as soon as I got home I looked at the pics I took and all the offensive dents she blamed on me are there clear as day. I know I didn't damage that house at all, but she made me feel like I threw it down a flight of stairs before returning it, and then tried to scam them.

What makes me even more mad is that the store was crowded and I know that I am going to be the topic of the morning. The lady who bought a perfect dollhouse and then broke it and lied about it. Whatever. I shouldn't care. I know I didn't do anything wrong. It just hurt my pride, really. I callled Aaron, bawled about it in the phone and he was sweet and said all the right things.

I've learned two valuable lessons. Impulse buys aren't worth it and when buying a vintage dollhouse, point out any and all flaws beforehand and make sure you tell the person that you know they are there, just in case you have to return it. Ugh. Lesson learned. The hard way.

In honor of a hard lesson learned, I think a giveaway is in order. I am doing the Club Little House with Inspire Co. and I will make one extra CLH set for the winner of my Ranting Drawing. So leave a comment here between now and Friday and on Saturday I will draw the winner's name. I have decided to make a 4th of July Picnic, complete with quilt, picnic basket (what I had gone into the offensive store for in the first place) and fireworks. Yes I said fireworks. There will be perfect little dollyhouse fireworks! So, friends, comment away!

2007-06-05T09:20:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend we started a garden. My plan was originally to get a wheelbarrow and plant our little garden there, but wheelbarrows are expensive and I had already made one impulse buy for the week, so there you go. We planted our garden in the bups above. I was good and I labeled all the cups, but then in their excitment to plant all the cups and seeds got mixed up, so we'll just be suprised when they grow.

This is a lesson in patience for all of us. Monkey has been pretty disapointed that flowers don't just appear when you water the ground (me too, son, me too). When they do appear he'll be pretty excited. I have to be patient when he asks 5,000 times a day to water his "planets". Hopefully my kids will have a greener thumb than me. I swear my house is where bad plants come to die. Though some hydrangea I got last year which I thought I murdered, has sprouted back to life and is quite lovely. I guess there is hope for all of us!

2007-06-04T14:00:00.000-07:00

The Queen Mum

No, we weren't robbed over the weekend. It is the mother of all craft WIPs...my office. I am ashamed to say that this is a good day. It certainly is no cozy workspace for me. Someday, when my brain gets rewired as an organized person, it will be clean and lovely and will rival the best of the best. Until then my poor little office will remain a perpetual WIP, much like the people who use it, I suppose. Aaron did give me the ok to go shopping for stuff to reorganize, so that will be on the horizon one of these days. I feel like I won't be able to truly takle it until I have a whole weekend to devote to it. I want to be able to pull everything out and do it Clean Sweep style-keep, trash, sell/donate.

I think what I really need is for people who aren't attached to my crap-er-stuff to come and tell me to clean up my act (any volunteers?). Aaron says that the only thing that will solve my problem is a match. He's probably right.

Thanks for checking out my Etsy shop, guys! I am doing dolls this week so that on the 15th I can actually put up dolls. I just love making them! I love drawing them and dreaming up their little outfits and fun little details. I just finished cat-eyes for Peggy. Too cute if I do say so myself. I'll show her off tomorrow, maybe.

2007-06-01T09:09:00.000-07:00

little lovelies handmade on Etsy!!

oy. I am not a very good shopkeeper, am I? Click above and it will take you away to shopping bliss!

2007-06-01T08:27:00.000-07:00

WIP Week Continued

WIP week is back with a couple of embroideries I am working on. Above is the Retro Baby, which will be framed and below are some samples to send someone for a project that may or may not work out...

UPDATES!!

The shop is open and ready for business! As I was loading stuff in I even got a sale! Thank a million Linda!! From now on the shop will be updated with new things on the 1st and 15th of every month.

The dollhouse is going back tomorrow with not a single regret. It is just too fragile to be a child's toy and I really really want my kids to be able to enjoy it and when I put my furniture in it the scale was waaaaay off. I should have realised that it would be too small for my stuff. I can't afford the furniture that goes with those houses and, again, the kids couldn't play with it. So off it goes and I am completely fine with it.

2007-05-31T15:00:00.000-07:00

We interupt little lovelies handmade to bring you this:

(WIP week will return tomorrow at its regularly scheduled time)

I went into a dollhouse shop to look for picnic baskets for my Club Little House submission and came out with this. However, she may have to go back when I show Aaron and tell him how much I spent on her. You see, we have a lovely "fun money" system. We get a set amount each paycheck to spend on whatever we want, but above and beyon we have to tell each other and make sure the purchase makes sense. Well, here we are the day after payday and Claire's fun money is gone (shocking) and in no way shape or form does this little metal darling make any sense. It is the epitome of a impulse buy. I have been hemming and hawing over dollhouses for ages and I gave into the urge without truly thinking about it.

Isn't she so sweet, though? If the Cleavers had a daughter this would have been her dollhouse, I am sure of it. To be honest, what I really love about it is the outside. The inside is fun and all, but in my dollhouse o' dreams I would be able to "wallpaper" the walls with all sorts of fun scrapbook papers and paint. Plus, I think I wanted something more sturdy for the kids. I want a dollhouse they can touch and play with and this isn't it. The roof is rather precarious.

Don't think I won't get out my furniture and snap a few pics before I be good and carry her off back to the store. I let all the teeny tiny goodness in the shop get the better of me. At least I can say that she was mine for 24 hours. Besides, the guilt of not having discussed it with the hubs first is killing me, lol!

...sigh...

PS thanks so much for all your sweetness about the shop opening and the kitchen. Be sure to check the shop in the morning!

PPS sadly there won't be any peggy dolls because they had a ruthless encounter with a three year old and sizzors. It was a sad time for all parties involved. All is not lost, but they will not be in doll form as expected...

2007-05-30T07:41:00.000-07:00

A WIP of the Shop Variety

I almost forgot about this WIP! The little lovelies handmade June 1 launch date is looming ahead all too quickly. I have plenty of fun stuff to introduce to you, though most of it will be familiar things that I have talked about with you all before. I am working on Peggy and Cecelia dolls and have been toying with the idea of little family doll sets. The baby that monkey requested has been embroidered and is just waiting to be stuffed with fluff and sewn up. Daddy dollie is still in the works.

Since I made the Mama doll (formerly Lola) she has been a staple in my kids day. She is a perfect size to clutch and carry around the house. Right now we have a playtime ritual of putting our dolls to sleep and giving them kisses. We have two AG dolls and Mama doll (who is a perfect size to be a doll's doll...) and all get lined up and kissed by peanut, covered with a blankey by monkey and drift off soundly to sleep.

This morning, in preparation for the June 1 grand opening over at Etsy I made a colossal list of things I need to do, starting with getting a postal scale so I can weight things and mail them off from home. Two kids, several packages, a line at the PO and unhelpful counter staff is a hell that I hate to enter, which explains the growing mountain of packages that need to be mailed out. I realize that if I am going to have the least bit of success with little lovelies handmade a postal scale or baby sitter will be in order. I think the scale will be cheaper.

2007-05-29T09:01:00.000-07:00

This Unfinished Life of Mine

Little factoid here for ya-I was going to name this blog My Unfinished Life and feature all the works in progress in my world. I decided that since an alarming number of projects 'round these parts don't get finished (especially the home improvement variety) maybe that wasn't such a great idea. We reach a functional stage and it sits in home improvement pergatory until pennance is served. Right now we have a functional, but unfinished bathroom, a functional, but unfinished kitchen and a functional, but unfinished backyard.

Speaking of the kitchen...here are a few pics of where we are at right now. We need to fill in that hole in the wall that was once upon a time an ironing board (unless I can talk Aaron into making me a new one), paint, put in baseboards, redo the lino (sad story there!), replace the light fixtures, etc etc etc. We'll be truly finished the day we put a for sale sign in the yard, lol.

Since I have such a large number of WIPs right now, I dub this week, Claire's WIP Week. Everyday this week, I'll feature another WIP. And next week, I'll show off the finished products. Except the kitchen, of course. I won't be finishing that beast in a week.

2007-05-24T09:06:00.000-07:00

Family Dolls

Thanks for all the great ideas on what to name my dolls! Several of you suggested your own Grandmother's names and the I thought "duh, I have grandmother's too!" So I decided to name this doll Peggy and my more mischevious ones (which I have yet to make) Cecelia after my grandmothers. Peggy is my mother's mother and was a PE teacher and librarian before having eight (yup. eight.) kids and staying home. When her kids were younger she taught piano until about 5 years ago, when she retired (somewhat reluctantly).

Cecelia is my father's mother and when she was young (and now) she had amazing movie star looks, and a mischevious side. As a young bride she had a crochet string bikini, which she swears she never actually wore in public. She was very trendy and had all the latest styles. Her dresses from the 50's were to die for! It was her amazing 1955 all lace wedding dress that I wore when I got married. Oh how I loved that dress.

So, this little Peggy Doll has a plaid skirt, sweet angora sweater, button flower in her hair and a flower brooch given to her by an admirer. This surely is during her librarian days, I'll have to make a PE teacher Peggy next. But first I am going to make a baby and boy doll for my kids then a Cecelia doll. Because they are all hand embroidered they take awhile to make. I actually started this one on Saturday at the Maker Faire and finished the embroidery last night. I probably won't sew her up until I finish some more.

Oh, and I might give her some cat-eye glasses. I haven't decided yet.

2007-05-20T17:33:00.000-07:00

Maker Faire

The Maker Fair/Bazaar Bizarre was this weekend and I went on Saturday to keep Missy company, who had a booth for Mohair Circus. It was so fun and there were so many cool things to see. Unfortunately the only pictures I took all day are the ones here, but Missy, Bethany, Michelle, Sonya and many others have tons to make up for my deficiency. Good thing-we wouldn't want anyone to feel like they missed out!

I met bunches of cool people, Jenny from Sew Darn Cute, Michelle from Green Kitchen, Sonya from Knit Sonya and blog reader, Cori, to name a few *Hi Girls!* They were all very very sweet.
Baz Biz was in a huge room where there were booths and demos where you could make your own jewlery, screenprints, lamps, vases, paper...you name it, it was there. I didn't really get to see everything, which was a bummer. Maybe next year!

2007-05-17T09:40:00.000-07:00

Lola

I finished my embroidered doll (really she is more of a softie/stuffie) the other day. I would have posted pics of her sooner, but Monkey found her and has been playing with her ever since. He has even requested a boy doll for him and a baby doll for peanut girl, saying that there needs to be a "family" for him and peanut to play with. Needless to say I am very happy to oblige and soon there will be a mister and a baby for Lola.

Lola is all dressed and ready to do her housework, duster at the ready. I think if I ever make this particular doll again I'll try to make her a real apron. I made her with no arms and legs on purpose, I was going for the Russian stacking dolls look, though I do have an arms-and-legs version in the pipes. It will be a good long while before I have an arms-and-legs Lola to show, because, frankly, I am just not that good at this stuff yet. Regardless, I love her in all her housewifery glory.

Though, I do have to say that a family gal isn't quite what I had in mind for Lola. I may have to change her name to something more domestic. Any ideas? When I originally drew out the dolls I included a bikini-clad Lola and a violin case-toting mafia Lola. Somehow a husband and child don't fit in with the bad girl image I was going for. Maybe she'll stay Lola and hve an alter-ego "Lolita". Yeah, I like that. Lola the sweet, family girl by day and my night "Lolita" the mafia crime boss. Don't you love how I ask your opinion on names and then before the paragraph is even over I have decided not to change her name and give her an alter-ego instead?

Add a 5th cute and endearing thing about me: I make dolls and then name them and give them alter-egos. That's downright weird. Fun, yes, but weird. Oh well. I'm ok with it.

On a completely different note, I watched my tivo'd Gilmore Girls last night. All in all I liked the series finale. It was my favorite show ever, but it was time to be done. Ugly Betty has been capturing my attention lately, so it softens the blow a bit. I did think it felt rushed, but it was always a show that left me wanting more at the end of the episode, so I guess I'm used to it. I like how L & L quietly made up, loved that Rory went off on the campaign trail and that Lorelai will be at dinner with the Gilmores friday night.

I was falling out of my seat laughing at Emily trying to lend Lorelai more money, and if Aaron wasn't sitting next to me I would have cried buckets when Richard told Lorelai what a great mother and person she was. I think I would hve liked to see Logan again, not because I liked him (I cheered when Rory said "no") but because if they loved each other so much I just think he would have been around a teeny bit because you just don't go from a proposal to nothing like that.

And on to the 6th cute and endearing thing about me: I have invested waaay to much time in a television show. But thank goodness I am not alone. They are too.

2007-05-15T14:44:00.000-07:00

7 (more) "Cute and Endearing" Things About Moi

I was tagged a few days ago by Arlene to tell ya all about my weirdness. First, for reference, take a look at the first 6 weird things about me. Take note that I am officially changing this bad boy to "cute and endearing" things about me. Because, well, I can. So after wracking my brain (ha!) I have 7 more cute and endearing things about me. Because you all wanted to know more about me than you already do, right?

Anyhoo, here we go:

1. When my kids are not home I will sometimes go all day without talking. I rarely talk on the phone, so if the phone dosen't ring or I don't make a call I won't utter a word from the time Aaron leaves for work until he gets home.

2. Raya will hate this one, but when I paint my toes I rarely take off the polish. I either paint over it or let it grow out. I know, I know, its gross. Someday when I can afford to get a pedi every two weeks, I'm there. But til then, just don't look at my toes from October to March.

3. Tori Spelling cracks me up. She does! Do you remember her as Screetch's girlfriend (Violet?? If that is right I am officially a loser) funny stuff. Also, her show So Notorious on VH1? Freaking hilarious. And now I am dying over over Tori and Dean: Inn Love. I just love a person who doesn't take herself seriously, and that girl knows that her life is ridiculous and dosen't mind that we all see it. I actually laugh out loud watching her shows.

4. When in the car I mumble. Alot. Aaron is constantly telling me to speak up. I don't know why I do this and I don't know why I do it only in the car. Ask Aaron how cute and endearing he thinks it is...

Ok. At the moment I cannot come up with 3 more. Maybe I'll open it us to my friends and family to comment on here more weird things I do. There's millions, I just can't think of any at the moment. Sorry!

But I do tag my fellow mafistas Shonda, Amy , Melissa and Missy to play along. I'm tagging you in the spirit of the game, but if this isn't your thing, that's coo', too.

2007-05-14T20:11:00.000-07:00

Fairy Slippers

I got these jewels for Peanut today at good ol' Target. Like most things the picture dosen't do them justice. They are the perfect fairy slippers for a little girl. My little girl might be only 18 months, but she already loves shoes and pretty dresses and frequently brings me her shoes or a pretty shirt to put on her. Soon I will start collecting and making dress up clothes for her, something that I am so looking forward to.

The softie swap mails out tomorrow! Are you all ready?? If not make sure to drop a line to your partner and let them know when you plan of mailing it. I made a Flickr group for them, but it is open only to participants of this swap, so if you have a Flickr account and didn't get an invite please drop me a line through Flickr and I'll send you one.

2007-05-13T08:27:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother's Day

Yesterday I had the best proudest, most wonderful parent moment of my life.

We were invited to serve food to the residents of a homeless camp with some friends. This stretched me in many ways because this wasn't a soup kitchen where the volunteers stand behind tables and serve food or where you make up some take home boxes and hand them out, and the only contact you have is a brief hello.

This was a BBQ put on by an amazing ministry called Project 61(no website, though. boohoo) The members of this group go out to a homeless camp in our area every two weeks and provide more than just food to the people who live there. They provide the residents with friendship, laughter and most importantly their actions show these residents that they are human beings deserving of love and respect.

It is hard to put the whole experience into words. I was saddened by thier living conditions, amazed at their tenacity (one man made himself a lovely garden complete with a pirated watering system), heartened by their ability to relax and have fun with us-most of whom were complete strangers.

We chose to bring our children with us, a choice that we were unsure about, but in the end proved to be just what they (and we) needed. We had brought birthday party horns with us and I gave the bags to Monkey to hand out to people. He took his little bag of horns and walked around the crowd offering them. He and several of the residents played and ran around with their horns.

Monkey is just at the age where he will make blunt (and rude) observations (like "that lady is fat" or "why do you have no teeth?") so I was worried he might do that, but my boy was wonderful. He played and talked and ate, blissfully unaware of missing teeth and dirty clothes. He explored the camp (under our watchful eye) and made new friends. He sat down with a man and played with his toys, a scene that just broke my heart.

They have a camp "toybox"-an old Folgers coffee can with 5 or 6 small toys inside. One man told me that during the day they will sit around and play with the toys. When the man (whose name I didn't catch) saw that Monkey was going to sit down and stay awhile, he brought Monkey the toybox. The man was very quiet and just watched Monkey play, but there was a very slight brightness in his eyes that wasn't there before.

When we left they made us promise to come out again. They said they didn't even care if we brought food with us, they just wanted to talk and visit with the kids. They just wanted to see their friends again. We will definitely be going back. I pray that experiences like this leave my kids with a respect for life and for people.

As we pulled into the driveway Monkey said to us "That was a great party, Momma. " Yes, son, it was. And that is the best Mother's Day gift I could have ever gotten.

2007-05-11T11:22:00.000-07:00

WIP and a Bright Idea

She is a doll that I will hopefully have done by Baz Biz. I drew up 4 or 5 different designs earlier this week and she is the one I decided to embroider first. Embroidery is my favorite craft. It knocked crochet of its crafty throne. I think I like it so much because a little embroidery makes even the simplest (or crappiest) of drawings look sweet. Lord knows I am not much of a drawer (is that a word? doubtful) but when I embroider up one of my chicken scratchings it just looks so special.

I have also been saving the kids drawings with the hopes of embroidering some of them. I think it will be a cool way to incorporate peices of them and me into cool artwork for the house. Once I finish Lola here, I'll get started on some of monkey's works of art.

2007-05-10T08:50:00.000-07:00

Just in case you didn't already know...

We are the biggest dorks ever and have the pictures to prove it. These are from our last trip to DL. I love how in the first pic we are concentrating soooo hard. Because, you know, we are saving the intergalactic world from the evil emperor Zurg.

And in this gem above I look brain dead. Notice the little white bump? That is a 4 month old peanut. Was she ever that small? I love how monkey's head just barely comes over the top of the ride. He loved that one. So did we, obviously.

Tomorrow hopefully I will be far enough along in my latest project to take decent pics. They looked really weird today so I improvised with these pics.

2007-05-09T17:13:00.000-07:00

Peptogirl's Cupcake Swap!

How fun does that sound? Check out her blog for all the sweet details. And sign up fer cryin' out loud!

2007-05-09T10:09:00.000-07:00

It's a lovely day outside. We should be out enjoying it, but the bug I have been fighting off the last week or so finally decided to catch up with me, so out comes the Gilmore Girls Season 3, the kleenex box and embroidery work. Peanut looks to be working on the same bug and naturally Monkey boy is a ball of energy. He'll get to spend some time in the backyard while us girls nurse our runny noses.

I made these coasters not too long ago out of a charm pack. They are perfect for making criss-cross coasters. I liked the allsorts pattern just fine, but I really wanted to add my own twist so I folded my squares diagonally rather than straight. I think they turned out pretty cute. And now I have reason to but millions of charm packs. I love me some charm packs.

Speaking of charm packs, look what this whiz is doing with them. She even got herself a covershot! Monica is offically a covergirl! Congratulations, Monica!

P.S. Thank you so much for all your sweet comments about HP and starting the little lovelies handmade shop. I really really wish blogger would figger out a way so we can respond to each of them! Psssst Blogger powers that be!! Are you listening???

2007-05-08T10:02:00.000-07:00

little lovelies handmade

Official Launch-June 1

Lily Claire Designs is no more. Not that it ever really was, but you know. On June 1 I will launch little lovelies handmade at etsy and on this here bloggity blog. I need to get through Baz Biz and all that craziness and then work on some fabulous stuff for the little lovelies handmade store. I'm sure that lots of buttons and pattern girls will be involved. I'm predictable that way.

But first I need to get my butt to the post office and mail off the millions of swaps I'm doing. No, I haven't forgotten about you girls, I just can't chew gum (get ready for a show) and walk (mail out my swaps) at the same time. The same day the organizing bug bites, maybe the time management bug will too. Ha!

So about that fab postcard up there...my friend Stacey of Babycard Expressions made it and my business cards. Pretty crazy cute, huh? She's adding design services to her repertoire, so if you have any business card/letterhead needs she's the go to gal for it! She has even started a new wedding invitation business called Lovely Inks. Go check her out.

Love Em All!

2007-05-07T14:57:00.001-07:00

Love Em All!
Originally uploaded by littlelovelies.

It been awhile since I made a mosaic. I have been hunting up fun stuff on flickr lately, you can kind of tell by the order what I was searching. Aprons, vintage patterns, bridal designs, doll quilts, play food, real food...all fun stuff!

2007-05-07T12:33:00.000-07:00

Well, Handmade Parade is over and for a few days life is going to be peaceful until I start getting ready for Baz Biz and the Maker Faire. Sacramento Craft Mafia and Missy will have booths and Handmade Parade and little lovelies handmade will have a small presence there as well.

Saturday night after things had died down from HP and the yard was (somewhat) back to normal, we had friends over for dinner and margaritas. Nothing like spaghetti and margaritas to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. What can I say, I was tired and didn't feel like cooking or shopping for food, so we ate what Aaron could make without too much assistance.

Sunday I woke up not feeling 100% (no, it wasn't the margaritas) and stayed home from church with monkey boy. I think I just needed to sleep in, because I felt so much better after, that I actually decided to try to tackle my ridiculously messy craft room. After working on it for a few hours it looks not much better. I had layers and layers of stuff piled on my table. I need to get everything put away and dealt with so that I can get in there and create without being bogged down by clutter. I'm hoping that someday some organizational "bug" will get me and I'll be a neat freak. Ha.

Back to the craft room and more organizing. Oh and the cute little bottle above is made by the amazing Vallen of Queenly Things. Go tell her she needs to open an etsy shop!

2007-05-06T10:09:00.000-07:00

I love Parades!

Especially the Handmade variety. Bright and early yesterday morning dear bloggy friends began arriving and Handmade Parade was on its way. Everyone's tables were lovely and left me wishing I had millions of dollars to spend on lovely things.

The best part of the day was being able to visit and talk to such wonderful, creative people. I look forward to more events like this! It was really exciting, because for many of us, this was our very first craft show. It was a beautiful sunny day, with the only downfall being a nasty wind. Every once in awhile a big gust would come through and knock over displays and product.

With gasps and giggles the girls would rush around picking up their stuff and creating ingenious little ways of keeping their stuff firmly on their tables. It was fun, nonetheless! We had mother's day shoppers and people looking for wonderful, handmade stuff. It was great!

And look! Peanut got a new dress courtesy of Bitter Betty Industries! Dosen't she look sweet? She is quite the girly girl, because she was pretty thrilled to be getting new duds. You can't see in this pic, but there is a SUPER cute appliqued crow on it, too. My flickr has better pics of the dress and of all of the booths at Handmade Parade. Check it out, becuase almost all of these fab gals have said they want to march again in September for the Handmade Parade Fall Fest!

My super sweetie pie partner in crime Missy. She was sick and a tad grumpy, but she looks all sweetness here, huh? Love ya, Missy!

Check out everyone's fab photos here and here oh and here, too!

2007-05-04T23:07:00.000-07:00

Ready, Set, Go!

Well, I am as ready as am going to be. The cupcakes are baked and frosted, the coffeemaker ready to go. (the important stuff, you know...) The backyard is cleaned up, kiddie toys put away. My stuff is priced and packaged. There is nothing left to do except sit back, have a glass of wine and get a good nights sleep.

See you tomorrow!

2007-05-02T12:42:00.000-07:00

Another one about food.

Expect food posts more often, folks. I am on a mission to make sure we use all of the contents of our veggies each week and sharing recipes with you is part of the fun for me.

I picked up our veggies today and got a sweet little suprise. Pretty bright red strawberries! I smell a berry crisp in our future... Again I searched epicurious for recipes and got an assortment of yummy ideas.

This weeks box includes Salad Mix, Strawberries, Rosemary, Chard, Snow Peas, Leeks and, Arugula. I'll be making Mixed Berry Crisp (with fresh and frozen berries), Seared Rainbow Chard with Leeks, Rosemary Shortbread, and Arugula Salad this week. All these recipes can be found on the epicurious website (I'm too lazy to hyperlink all of them). If you all have any suggestions for recipes I must try using any of these ingredients toss 'em my way!

By the way, last weeks recipes were amazing. I wasn't sure that the Spring Vegetable Soup would be flavorful enough, but it was perfect. The Collard Green Olive Pesto is also going to become a family favorite. It was good spread on cibatta, too.

I'm off to make Martha's Marble cake for Handmade Parade and mow the lawns!

2007-05-01T15:06:00.000-07:00

I Had To...

I had to get more floral wire.

I had to get it today.

I had to get it at Michaels.

I was good and didn't buy anything. This time. I just got what I needed and took a little look-see. I like what Martha has to offer, but I think I am more excited about the packaging and color scheme, than the products themselves. That crazy Martha knows how to sell something and how to get the crafty community all in a tizzy.

I know that I'll buy her products because there will be time where it will just be easier, but when push comes to shove, I think I like getting my craft supplies online from independent retailers and other crafters. Of course, I say this now. We'll see how my resolve holds up the next time I'm standing in the ailse, salivating over glitter and glue....

*ps, thanks so much for all your encouragement for HP! I have my list all divided out by day and what needs to get done for that day, and I must say it has worked out nicely so far.

2007-04-30T19:40:00.000-07:00

Game On!

For the last few years Aaron has been playing softball on Monday nights with his buddies. Last year Monkey was old enough to toss the ball back and forth at Aaron (we hadn't quite mastered "catch" yet) and he was looking forward to the start of the season this year.

Peanut was asleep before gametime so I had to miss out on the first game of the year, but Monkey and Daddy got to have a guys night at the ballpark. Besides. I have a huge to-do list to finish!

2007-04-26T14:40:00.000-07:00

Nine Days.

Till Handmade Parade and do you think I'm ready? Not so much. There are piles of fabric, thread, paper, buttons everywhere. I work well under pressure and the pressure is on. I have notebooks, picture frames, keepsake boxes, Mothers Day brooches, little lovelies dolls and so much more to finish. Not to mention make some homemade munchies and spiffy up the backyard...

In. Nine. Days.

Do I have a prayer?

2007-04-25T22:18:00.000-07:00

Buh-Bye Red Meat

A few months ago we signed up for a CSA and have been enjoying weekly vegetable and bread deliveries ever since. We have tried lots of new veggies, or at least veggies we don't normally buy, like beets (which I like roasted with olive oil salt and pepper) leeks, and this weeks fava beans. We have made a commitment to healthy eating and though I proposed going vegetarian all the way (pretty much everything I cook is sans meat anyway) Aaron balked at the idea of no more chicken ever again. At the end of the day red meat got the voted off the island and chicken and fish get to stay. We rarely eat red meat to begin with, so this isn't really the sacrifice it might seem.

I love going through my recipe collection and planning our meals. I have big plans for the veggie box this week. Fava Bean and Spring Vegetable Soup, Collard Green Olive Pesto, Beets and Carmelized Onion with Feta are just a few of the recipes slated for this week.

The other night I made vegetable lasagna, adapted from my favorite Everyday Food lasagna recipe. It was probably the best lasagna I have made yet and was made using whatever veggies I had on hand. I am not one to follow recipes exactly (or directions, or patterns...) but this one I followed pretty well. I just added chopped up broccoli and some extra garlic cloves to my marinara sauce and used low fat or part skim cheeses.

It must have been pretty good because we had it for dinner Monday night and Aaron took the leftovers for lunch both yesterday and today.

PS see my fun new range?? I love it! SO easy to clean!!

2007-04-24T18:02:00.000-07:00

Simplify

I am filled with a desire-no-need to simplify my life. To declutter, clean, streamline. I am realizing that our needs are few and we just have too much. I emptied out my closet, the kids closets and toy chests, and our bookshelves. Of course it all just gets transferred to the garage until I can make a massive trip to Goodwill or have a garage sale.

Hopefully soon I can have a garage sale to raise some much needed funds for my 3-Day walk. I got my first $150 this week, which is very exciting. Aside from the fact that I signed my life away to raise $2200, getting the first pledges makes the whole endeavor feel very "official".

Ahhh. The closets are calling. More purging is needed...

2007-04-23T10:35:00.000-07:00

First Snow

Being the Californians that we are, we don't see snow unless we travel to the mountains. On Saturday we took and impromptu trip to Lake Tahoe and rode the Heavenly Gondola up to the top of the mountain. Monkey and Peanut were absolutely thrilled by this new thing called snow.

And being the Californians that we are, I had no gloves for my kiddos, so both were a bit shocked and not a little ticked off when their hands got cold (don't worry, we were only at the top of the summit about 10 minutes). Monkey thought it was worth it to be cold if that meant he got to bean mom and dad with snowballs.

On Sunday we went to a birthday party for Aaron's Dad and on the way home saw the most spectacular rainbows. There were double rainbows and at one point we were able to see a full rainbow, but I just couldn't capture it all with my camera.

crochet fortune cookies

2007-04-18T18:09:00.001-07:00

Oh. My. I am going to make about 5,000 of these. Starting right now.

Wave Swinger (#10)

2007-04-18T13:37:00.001-07:00

Wave Swinger (#10)
Originally uploaded by Christopher Chan.

I don't know why, but I really love this photo. I love the brightness and the fun of it with the looming stormy sky behind.

Normally this type of picture would be a bit dark for me, I am more of a happy-balloons-party kind of person, but I suppose all the CNN I have been watching got to me. I finally had to turn it off.

I can't understand what sort of pain and depression would lead someone to do such awful things. It has made me realise how blessed I am with my life and my little family, though.

2007-04-12T14:06:00.000-07:00

He's Superfly

Check my boy out. Just too cool for school. He had his first dentist appointment today and he is just chill there in the dentists chair. The good thing about him is that when he is unsure about something he is really good and really quiet, which works out perfectly for doctors visits. Hoestly I think they won him over when they showed him the Blue's Clues toothbrush before they got started. If only that worked for me...

As a reward for being the chillest kid on the dentist block I took him and peanut to the zoo. At one point I looked up to see him climb onto this bench and recline back like this. Ahhhh king of the world. Must be nice to be so dang cool, huh?

In between all my parenting mumbo jumbo I have been crafting, I promise. I need to get ready for Handmade Parade, you know. Missy and I are super excited about it and have all sorts of fun things up our sleeves. Even though the one in May isn't even here yet, we have been brainstorming about the one we are doing in the fall. Good good stuff is on the horizon!

Maybe tomorrow I'll have some crafty pics for ya. You know. For my crafty blog here...

2007-04-11T08:59:00.000-07:00

Joy of Parenting

There are days that I love having kidlets and days where I...well...don't. Yesterday was one of those days. It wasn't a particularly bad day, just an irritating day. At three years old Monkey Boy has achieved the omniscience of God-the kid thinks he knows everything.

"Who are you talking to, mom?"

"Daddy."

"No you not."

Kid, mom knows who she is talking on the phone with better than you do.

or

"Mom, where is sister?"

"She's taking a nap."

"No, she not."

"Mom, is the sun going to bed?" (It's 7:30 and the sun is going down)

"Yup"

"No it's not."

Ok, fine. Technically its not. Whatever, you're three.

Really, I don't know why I find this so irritating. Maybe because I am closer to a three year old in maturity than a 27 year old. I am constantly amazed at how quickly Aaron and I can get drawn into an argument with this pint sized know it all. Now I just ignore him past the "no it's not" but I am irritated nonetheless.

My irritation grew as we cleaned his room and I found several broken toys and ripped books among his stuff. There is really no greater crime against kid stuff than ripping up a book in my opinion, and Monkey knows this. I nursed the books that could be saved back to health and mourned the loss of the ones that had to be thrown out. After I did this I looked up to see my kid shoving matchbox cars through a little hole in the wall of his closet (it is on the huge list of things to fix around here).

Like I said joy of parenting.

(don't you love how much he hates being on my lap in that pic above? and notice he tatooed himself with a green marker)

2007-04-09T18:49:00.000-07:00

Easter Recap

Obligatory Easter Finery pic for mommy-check

Easter Spoils-check

Pretty table-check

Egg hunt and prizes-check

More chocolate than we know what to do with-check

Grown men acting like children-check

Well, that covers our Easter, how was yours?

2007-04-06T11:36:00.000-07:00

Easter Cheer

So the kitchen is almost done! Today Aaron and I will be putting on the drawers and doors to the caninents, tomorrow we will put in the countertops and sink and the new range is delivered and then we will be pretty much good to go! We'll still need to paint, maybe we will be able to do that tonight. There should be halfway decent "after" pics available next week.

For Easter we are still planning on having the family over and a few friends. We are going to BBQ (since you never know if stuff is going to go smoothly with the remodel...) and have "linner" (late lunch-early dinner, get it? haha). We are planning a big easter egg hunt including adults and kiddos. Hopefully the adults will be willing to play along...

Monkey boy has been shopping with me for candy and toys for their baskets and the eggs. We don't do the easter bunny 'round here and concentrate more on our religious beliefs, so the kids help with the planning and know that mom and dad hide the eggs. I actually like being able to share the planning and stuffing of the eggs with my boy. It is really sweet how he is getting into it. I will put things into his easter "totebag" (we are doing library bags instead of easter baskets to celebrate the new card) and suprise him with it. Peanut girl is still too little to have her own bag this year, so they will share for now. Next year, she can have her own. I'm pretty sure she won't mind ;)

These tissue paper birds nests will adorn our easter table and I am using these vintage sheets as tablecloths. I really loved the decorations available this year, everything was quite vintage looing and very charming. I spent way too much money on stuff this year!

2007-04-04T15:23:00.000-07:00

Softie Swap Sign Ups End April 8!

If you still want to take part in the Softie Swap, now is the time to shoot me an email at lily_clairedesigns@yahoo.com and let me know you want to participate. All skill levels are welcome as are international swappers (please email me if you would prefer not to have an internation swapper, though). Here are the particulars again:

Email me with your name, address, blog, and email. (my email is lily_clairedesigns @ yahoo . com)

Do this by April 8.

Mail your swap by May 15 or let your partner know if you'll be late.

Softies should be handmade, but they can also be vintage. NO NEW STOREBOUGHT SOFTIES. No matter how cute or vintage looking they are.

You may use a pattern from someone else, but if you are able to do an original design that would be fab, too.

A softie can be a stuffed animal, cozy, soft tote bag, pillow, bean bags, toys, aminimiguri, pin cushions etc... See Softie Central for ideas. They have TONS!

All skill levels are welcome!

Oh, and did you guys notice that our little Missy is a WINNER!! She won in the Bunny/Bear Category! Way to go Missy!

(ps. thanks Missy for the icons!! Fell free to take either if you are participating)

2007-04-01T20:26:00.000-07:00

Debris

Taking out the cabinets revealed years of contact paper and wallpaper left by kitchen users past. It was a little eerie seeing the remnants of their kitchens. I guess the next owners will think that way about us. While more work was being done I went to Home Depot to pick up the lino floor tiles. I had planned on getting black and whit checkerboard and came back with a funky-retro (in my world anyway) tile that I liked better. I hope it goes OK with the cabinets.

It is pretty nerve wracking to pick cabinet facings, light fixtures, tiles, paint when none of it is together and in the house yet. I am just picking the things I like and hoping (praying) that it will all go together. I sort of live by the rule, "If you like it, it will all fall into place" when it comes to home decorating. I think it works. No one tells me my house is ugly. Of course if someone did, I'm not exactly sure what I would do...

Anyway, Aaron is plugging away at the kitchen and we are optimistic that we will have it in working order by the weekend. Miracles can happen, right?

2007-03-31T22:30:00.000-07:00

Dust Storms

The kitchen redo is well on its way. As with every home improvement project that graces this address, we are behind but not discouraged. The previous owners had some serious issues with doing thing right and because of their uber crappy tiling job the guys had to spend a few extra hours today knocking out tiles and cement board, which left a fine dust everywhere. It was pretty awful in the kitchen and back yard. Thank God no one has asthma troubles or it would have flared badly. I would post pics, but blogger won't let me tonight. @*&^@#&! Blogger! No worries, I'll post bunches tomorrow to make up for it.

Since I had kid-duty I got to take my monkey boy out for the afternoon while peanut slept. We went thrifting, where I got some great books including a vintage Singer Sewing book all about sewing everything you can think of. The pictures are pretty fab.

We also went to the library today and got monkey his first library card and borrowed his first book. They even gave him a certificate with his name, the date and the title of the first ever book he borrowed- Arnie the Doughnut. Thoroughly hilarious. We have read it 1 and a half times already (we only got halfway through at bedtime, monkey was tuckered out and asked to finish it tomorrow) and will surely read it many more times before we go back next week for more books.

When I was in elementary school we lived on Oahu and every week my parents would take us to the library where we could get as many books as we wanted. For a freaky bookworm like me that was like Christmas. Every week. How fabulous is that? We only stopped going to the library each week when my parents realised I was (and still am) a kid who liked to read her books over and over and over. Good books are my friends.

The Secret Garden, Anne of Green Gables, Jane Eyre - all my friends. I would read these books and just couldn't part with them. They became a part of me and how could I give that back to the community library? After that (and probably largely in part because of cheap books from Scholastic) my parents bought me books to my little hearts content.

Taking my little boy to the library was a momentous occasion for mom, if not for son. He thought it was cool and liked exploring the shelves, but was only as interested as a three year old could be. He was pretty impressed with his bookmark and certificate, though.

For Easter this year I have decided to make my kids library bags instead of Easter baskets, even before our little trip. I figured that library bags would be more useful than Easter baskets, anyway.

2007-03-30T21:05:00.000-07:00

My Kitchen Died.

Actually it was brutally murdered today. And it was awesome. If I could dance and sing "I'm gettin' a new kitchen!!" and type at the same time, I would. I am a pretty talented gal, but we'll have to draw the line there. Aaron and a friend of his demo'd most of the kitchen today and we (and by "we", I mean "they") will be taking up our atrocious tile floor tomorrow. I cannot wait to see that stuff go. The previous owners did a horrible job of tiling and didn't even remove the base boards prior to putting the new tile in. The guys tried to take it up today, but blood was shed, so it was decided to get new tools and try again at 8 am tomorrow.

While they have kitchen duty I have kid duty. I have two veeeerrrry curious toddlers who would love nothing more than to yield a hammer with daddy, so we'll probably fly the coop tomorrow. Thrifting, maybe? I need to get some things for Handmade Parade, and tomorrow is as good a time as any, right? I tried to slip out today and go, but would you believe that at 2:00 on a Friday afternoon I couldn't get parking? Crazy.

Well, there it is, my naked cold kitchen. hee hee! I am giddy with future kitchen excitement! This wall was where the fridge, some cabinents and the stove used to reside. We aren't doing a major overhaul, we are putting a new stove and cabinets where the old ones were. Just younger, faster models. :) Couldn't get Aaron to go for a new fridge, though. Bummer.

2007-03-28T09:04:00.001-07:00

Softie Swap!

In honor of my friend Missy's double nomination to the Softie Awards I am going to do a Softie Swap! Sign ups for this swap will close April 8 and you'll have to send your partner your softie by May 15. This is a really long time! I am doing this because I know that softies are not something that you can just whip up in a day or two. Ok, maybe you can, but I can't!

Here's the lowdown:

Email me at lily_clairedesignsatyahoodotcom with your name, address, blog, and email.
Do this by April 8.
Mail your swap by May 15 or let your partner know if you'll be late.
Softies should be handmade, but they can also be vintage. NO NEW STOREBOUGHT SOFTIES. No matter how cute or vintage looking they are.
You may use a pattern from someone else, but if you are able to do an original design that would be fab, too.

But most importantly, go to the Softie Awards page and vote vote vote! It'll also have great ideas for your softie!

Oh and go over and sign up to do Missy's First Aid Kit Swap, how fun!

**NOTE** Anyone and everyone is welcome to do this swap no matter their skill level. The point is to have fun and get to know other crafters. Also, a softie can be a doll, animal, animiguri, cozy (tea cozy, coffee pot, ipod etc), pin cushion, pillow etc...Check out Softies Central for more ideas. Join the fun!

2007-03-27T09:42:00.000-07:00

Thanks, Amanda!

I came home yesterday from a long day and found this from my dear friend, Amanda.

She has one of my favorite shops around, A. Bel Studio and now A. Bel Emporium for all my vintage needs. Gotta love that girl! She sent me some seeds from her garden, a pin and a cute little card made from a vintage illiustration. Love it all! She kills me with her cuteness most days.

Since I am going to the PO this week, expect some mail love back! And all you Swappers from my earlier swap, your thank you gifts are ready to go and will be on their way!! Finally. Geez.

postcard for May 5th Handmade Parade!

2007-03-26T16:43:00.001-07:00

postcard for May 5th Handmade Parade!
Originally uploaded by missy ballance.

Mark your calendars!

2007-03-26T11:13:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday, Bro!

Yesterday was my middle brother Garret's 21st birthday and we took him out for dinner. I know, you are thinking "he just turned 21 and he went out with you and your kids?" Yup. He was a bit of a -ahem- rebel when he was younger, so the "usual" 21 bday party antics really weren't in order. Kind of a "been there, done that, puked on the t-shirt" sort of thing. So instead we went to a local gourmet pizza place that has lots of micro-brew beers on tap and had a great dinner with him and his wife.

I feel really lucky to have such a great brother. When we were kids he was a royal pain in my arse (right. what little brother isn't...). About the time he turned 12, when most brothers are at their height of buttheadedness, mine got totally cool. I was 19 and was a swim teacher. He volunteered his whole summer to help me out and all he wanted in return was a day at Six Flags. I know a good deal when I see one, so I took him up on his offer and we had a blast hanging out all summer, teaching little kids to swim and then at the end of the summer we whooped it up at Six Flags.

I took a lame pic below of a page in my scrapbook. Can you see us hamming it up all super tan with our bleach blonde hair? Good times, good times. I can always count on Garret to be dumb with me and have fun. He has become such a great man. When our dad died, he was the closest to him, so I was really worried about him for a bit, but he has really made a great life for himself and his darling wife, Kate. I am super proud of you, dude! Happy Birthday, I really hope you had a great night! I love you!

2007-03-22T09:42:00.000-07:00

I think it's official...

I just might have crafter ADD. I am working on about three veeeerrry different projects right now and have about 10 more cooking in my brain, making it very difficult to concentrate on the projects in front of me. I have been making things for Handmade Parade and am working on a few contributions for Glitter and Grunge next month.

I am also feeling swappy again...I want to do another swap, but I won't let myself until I send out the thank yous for my last swap. That's right, I didn't forget, girls. I just started a project for each of you that was waaaaay too time consuming and didn't turn out as I hoped. So on to plan B! So to all you brooch swappers, thanks so much for playing last time, come again for another swap. I'm thinking dollhouse stuff this time, round. Who dosen't just love miniatures?

Anyway, the tree above is part of an applique I am doing, but I need some more details before I get to sewing it on anything. Thanks for your encouragement of the bird/whale. I had put on legs, but they weren't doing anything for me, so I cut them out. Maybe I'll revisit it, though.

2007-03-20T10:24:00.000-07:00

Birdie - 0, Whale - 1

I made a few appliques yesterday (soooo fun!) and sewed one to an old tshirt I had. I have a feeling that all my clothes will be getting the treatment soon... Anyway, I asked hubs what he thought of my shirt and he said "Cute Whale!"

Humpf. Too bad we were going for bird, which I pointed out to him and he said "Oh yeah, I can tell its a bird." Lies. From a distance it really does look like a whale. Good thing it was an experiment. Bad thing I sewed a bird-whale to a perfectly good tshirt.

2007-03-19T11:26:00.001-07:00

This week's Inspiration
Originally uploaded by littlelovelies.

Here are a few of the pictures that are inspiring me this week. I especially love the fabric candies and the little babushka dolls. Sigh. I love flickr.
Thanks for all your fun encouragement on our kitchen remodel and color picking. I am still having fun with it, and now that I have a good idea of the kitchen wall color I have moved on to curtain fabric, but that is soooo much harder than I had anticipated!

2007-03-16T16:02:00.000-07:00

The Colors of My Life...

I love color. When we bought our house the thing I was most excited about was getting to paint. We painted deep, dark, rich colors in our front room, bedroom and our son's room. They are gorgeous colors, but they are not my colors. I think maybe I thought they were, but after three years of living with them and one pregnancy where the darkness of our front room practicaly drove me nuts (below) I realise that light, bright and fun is what I need.

Army Green, Ralph Lauren Paint

We are going to be remodeling our kitchen in the next couple of weeks, and I am absolutely ecstatic about new colors, cabinents, curtains. Right now it is a bright white, but we'll be painting the walls a new color. We were thinking the green, but now a pale yellow is speaking to me, but we'll see when the time comes what I pick.

Smokey Plum, Behr Paints

Our bedroom is the picture above and it is the one room where the dark color dosen't bother me. I think it is because the windows in there provide so much light and all our bedding is white, so the color dosen't overpower. If we ever move, though I'll be working off the color palete above.

I got this little stack of fabric today to make coasters from, but I am thinking I might be using a few in future curtain and or pillow projects. They are so yummy. I am not a huge orange fan, but I am really liking the paisly today. No worries-I'll never paint the walls orange!

2007-03-14T13:50:00.000-07:00

The Girl Scout Cookie Trifecta

Yes, I realise that there are only two boxes of cookies pictured, and that "tri" means three. Thin Mints are not pictured. Because I ate them all. Or at least I ate most of them. I shared... A little. Aaron had 3 or so and the kids had a few... Ok, I pretty much ate them all.

Thank goodness that Girl Scout cookie time is only once a year. I have looked forward to March ever since I was a Girl Scout. I hated February, because that was when we had to go door to door selling the cookies, but I loved getting the cookies. I loved going to our leaders house and seeing cases and cases of cookies lined up in her living room. My troop was frequently a top selling cookie troop, I think partly because many of the girls came from large families who would buy dozens of boxes. We were unlucky in that our family was all out here in California and we lived in Missouri at the time, making it neccesary for me to hoof it to the neighbors houses each February.

Rarely did you see Girl Scouts in front of the supermarkets the way you do now. I think that is a new development in Girl Scouting, probably because sending your kid out to sell in the neighborhood isn't as safe as it once was. I actually used to go by myself for blocks and blocks. I don't think I would even consider letting my kids do that now. The supermarket scouts is where I have gotten my cookies for the last several years, and not once since we moved into our house has a Girl Scout, Boy Scout or Campfire girl ever come to our door selling their stuff.

It is probably a good thing, really. I am a sucker for little kids selling stuff. Entertainment Books, wrapping paper, candy, bad gift items - you name it I bought it. As long as it was a kid selling it, I was wrapped around their little fundraising fingers. The last time I remember being hit up for all these things was before I was married and I lived with two girls in an apartment. I think the kids of that complex had our number because we bought from everyone. We had so much over priced wrapping paper and candy it was ridiculous. We must have really put a dent in their fundraising efforts when we moved out.

But for now, I need to be content with my once a year Girl Scout cookie overload, and be thankful that the neighborhood kids don't know that a sucker is living down the street.

2007-03-12T13:08:00.000-07:00

Back to Life, Back to Reality...

Anyone else hear this song in their head when they read the post title? No? Oh well, it's a good one for getting stuck in your head alright. At any rate, back to reality for me. I got to spend tons of time in the craft room last night and made or finished or started several projects. I made some magnets, cards and pincushions, finished cutting out my pattern ladies, so they are all ready to go on whatever my heart desires this week. I'm thinking trays and picture frames, but I am known to change my mind only eighty bajillion times, so we'll see what comes to fruition. I also started work on mini notebooks, but haven't finished them yet. I think I need to stare at them awhile before I really know what to do with them.

I did just look around my desk and count all the WIP (sounds so much nicer than "abandoned", no? But that is what they are...) and I have about eight. That I can see anyway. Some of them are pending trips to JoAnns for missing parts and pieces, and some I got bored with and needed a break from. All of them need to get finished soon, though. I just need them done so I can move on to bigger and better things.

Like getting ready for Handmade Parade, May 5. We are going to be busy between now and then! It really is just around the corner. Missy and I are also hoping to have a booth at Baz Biz May 25, for the Maker Faire, so we'll see if that works out. It would be so cool to be there. If HP isn't there Missy and I will go with the Sacramento Craft Mafia, who is also hoping to have a booth. In June I'll be at Sellout Buyout as a part of Second Saturday's Artwalk in Midtown and Downtown Sac.

So there will be lots of craftin' going down here. It is good that the youth group at church is partaking in a Media Fast during the month of April. It is just a really cool time to focus on our relationships with God and each other and really think about the things we watch and listen to. At the end of the 30 days we come away feeling refreshed and excited to serve our church and community anyway we can. I love that this is something a group of teenagers are choosing to be a part of! How cool is that?

On April 1, I will take a 30 day break from blogging and Flickr, but I will be updating the HP blog with our crafter profiles and returning emails and posting to the Media Fast journal. You'll still be able to get the info you need on HP from me or Missy. But, there are still 2 weeks before my fast!

Oh, and I drew a name for a pink pin from my post the other day and it was Heidi at Everyday Cookies! Yay! I'll drop it in the mail for ya!

2007-03-09T15:48:00.000-08:00

No More Coma

Well, the camera is out of its coma. I finally remembered to get new batteries, so I can now post my own pics. I have been crafty lately, I made myself a little shop apron, which I am in love with. I put it on to take some pics and I haven't taken it off yet. I used a vintage fabric that was in my husband's grandma's stash that my MIL passed on to me (or maybe it was in her stash...) and a bunch of scraps I had in my own stash. It turned out pretty cute, I think. Very bright and a teeny tiny bit garish, but hey, that's me!

Yesterday I whipped up monkey boy a little totebag to take his baby Bible and an emergency clothes change in for when we go to church. Was that a run on sentence? I can't get it to sound right...anyway, he likes it and immediately filled it with trains and cars. We'll see if we ever get his church stuff into it.

And today I have been crafting with a cause! I made little welcome kits for the people who sign up to be on my team for the Susan G. Komen 3 Day Walk. Which has a name now-Team G.I.R.L.S - Griping Is Really Lame Stuff. We are not great at coming up with catchy names and really aren't the type to have 'hooters', 'knockers', or 'boobs' in the name, so we came up with that. It's cute and catchy and should remind up not to whine no matter how much our feet get torn up. Or at least to whine under our breath. The welc0me kits have little water bottles and mini-first aid kits from the dollar store. I just added my own little touches to them. After I finish this entry I'll be making log books to track our walks in and make sure we are on the right track.

Tonight, after the munchkins are asleep, Aaron and I are going to be working on some things for a church toothbrush drive we are doing for people in Romania. We have a friend who goes there on a mission trip each year and he brought it to the church's attention that there is a great need for toothbrushes and toothpaste there. In the poor parts of Romania oral hygene is not of great importance and as a result people are getting very sick. They are hoping to collect 10,000 toothbrushes and toothpastes by May 1st. They will then be boxed up and shipped out to Romania to be distributed. A tall order, but we think it can be done, especially since you can get 4 toothbrushes for a dollar at the dollar store (Who knew!).

We are placing a toothbrush and a little write up on the needs in the service packets for the Bible Study Groups that meet each week at church. My high school girls bible study has also decided to do that for their service project this semester and have some really cute ideas on how to get their fellow students to contribute. I am pretty excited to see how the girls get the other students involved in this.

I love crafting, but I am really jazzed about doing my crafty stuff for a good cause. I know that I am planning on making some special items to sell to benefit Team G.I.R.L.S. and am really looking forward to showing the stuff to everyone!

2007-03-07T08:41:00.001-08:00

In Nov, I will be doing the same as these gals!
Originally uploaded by littlelovelies.

The 3 Day plunge, that is. In November the Susan G Komen for the Cure 3 Day Walk will be in San Diego and I am going to be there! A girlfriend and I decided a few weeks ago that we would do this walk.

Now we are up to a team of 4 and a half (one girl is still thinkink about it, but I think she'll do it) with a goal to make a team of 15. I have never done anything like this before. 60 miles over 3 days! But I really can't think of a better cause to tear up my feet for, so I am doing it!

Each walker needs to raise $2200, but I really feel like that will be the easy part. The 3 day website has such helpful and fun ideas for raising money, that I know we can do it and have fun at the same time.

Missy and I had also discussed having a charity aspect to Handmade Parade, and I am so excited to say that my 3 Day team is it! We'll be taking donations during HP to benefit our walkers and to even sign up some new ones. (I am officially a charity case, lol!!)

Please check out www.the3day.com for more info on the walks, they are taking place all over the country starting in late August. If you have a friend you can walk with, please get together find or start a team and get out there! Oh and watch the Inspirational video with tissue, I cried buckets, but I am a bit of an emo freak.

And all you local yokels who see me regularly, beware, I am going to ask you to play along with me!

*I am adding this for fun - leave a comment on this post and I will donate a dollar for each comment to out team effort. Also, I'll draw a name to will a pink Brooch, so comment away!

More Flickr Love

2007-03-06T10:08:00.001-08:00

My creation
Originally uploaded by littlelovelies.

My camera died. Well. The batteries died, anyway. The camera can be revived, but I keep forgetting to buy batteries when I go to the store. I guess we can say my camera is in a coma. Poor camera.

In the meantime I'm posting my daily inspirations. Fun stuff! I heart these pictures! They make me happy. Thank goodnedd for Flickr and the ability to "borrow" other people's pics in a crisis.

When I do have a camera again, I have TONS to shoot. I have three fun packages of goodies to photograph, more granny squares (post to the flickr group if you have any, kids!), a granny square purse, I have been working on, and some super fun magnents I made yesterday.

It's all stuff I am making to get ready for Handmade Parade and some other shows in the area. I might even update my etsy shop with some of it, but I haven't decided quite yet.

Have a lovely day! Is the sun out where you are? It is out in full force here and it almost makes me want to go out and clean our yard. Almost...

2007-03-03T21:15:00.001-08:00

My creation
Originally uploaded by littlelovelies.

I have been wanting to play with the flickr toys for awhile and finally found the time! These are some of my red, yellow, green, blue inspirations!

I think I have the flickr toy bug now! I'm going to go put more goodies into my faves so I can make you all lots and lots more of these!

2007-03-02T16:06:00.000-08:00

Crochet Parade

I'm still working away on my granny squares. I'll probably be traveling with them for the next little while. If we have plans to see each other in the next few weeks, I'll likely have yarn, hook and squares in tow. I had told myself that I would make five squares a day, but I am averaging three a day. A bit below my goal, but the day is young, I still could make 5 for today at least.

Missy and I have been busy preparing for Handmade Parade. We are getting a blog up and we'll be adding profiles of our crafter/artists and other cool information as time goes on. Be sure to check it often and leave comments. We'll have suprise drawings for cool stuff every once in awhile so comment away, kids.

I wish I could stay and chat longer, but one of my munchkins is deciding to have a meltdown, so duty calls!

2007-03-01T12:31:00.000-08:00

Happy Hooking

I have always liked the granny square. There is something modern in its simplicity. I think anyway. I'm certainly not that last word (or any word...) on what is cool or modern, but it is something that seems to translate well in all sorts of styles. I was never a huge Rosanne fan as a kid, I wouldn't even say I am a fan now, but one thing I always thought was cool was the granny square blanket on the back of their couch. It was so homey and normal, but not really something that I thought would work in my world. It wasn't till I noticed the granny square blanket on the couch in Rory's dorm room, on Gilmore Girls (yes, I watch too much TV, shut up) that I realized I could totally make granny squares work for me. Hers was done in rainbow yarn, which was a major 'duh' moment. Most of the blankets I had seen had the colored squares, bordered in black. While cool, not quite for me. Fun, bright colors-totally for me!

I am not always one to follow the rules for my crafts, but for some reason it just never occured to me to make a GS blanket in anything other than bright colors, bordered by black. Probably because part of me really does like that look, I'm just not sure that I want to live with it. The photo above is the yarn I am using, all from my stash. I wasn't sure that I would like the way they came together, but as you can see below, they are darling and completely fun!

I forgot how long it takes to make a granny square. I made these three last night while watching Tivo'd tv with the hubs. I made three more this morning and now my Monkey boy wants to learn how to make a blankie. I had started out this project thinking I'm make a blanket for the back of the couches in our living room, but now I'm thinking maybe I'll try to make little coverlets for each of the kids beds in their room. The colors are pretty much exactly what I am doing their room in when we get to it. Won't they be darling with one bordered in pink and one in blue on each of their little beds? And I'll make them each little Stichette pillows...

Oh and check out all the granny square love...

Alicia - hers is all minty and lovely.

Posy - explore her whole blog, she has several granny square blankets and all are gorgeous!

Flickr - Join us if you want to Crochet along! Or if you have made a granny square in the past and want to show off your work.

Kinky Boots - These Boots are Made for Walking

2007-02-27T09:23:00.001-08:00

It didn't show up below, so here it is!

2007-02-27T08:09:00.001-08:00

I hope this comes through! It's the catwalk scene from Kinky Boots, which I watched during the kids naptime yesterday. the whole movie cracked me up, but this scene shattered me, it's so funny. The stuffy British owner of a failing shoe factory decides to make boots for drag queens - "2 1/2 feet of tubular sex". Drag Queens have a hard time finding shoes to support their weight, you know.

The owner is strutting his stuff because the drag queens didn't show up to model his kinky boots. If you haven't seen this movie, you MUST, it's HILARIOUS!

It's the perfect cheering up movie clip, which today I needed.

It has been three years today since my dad died. It's weird how surreal the experience was and, at times, still is. I think what made it so strange for me was that I was moved out of the house, and had stopped seeing and talking to him on a daily basis, so it was hard to think he was gone. He was just at work, or at his house, but not gone.

I just deleted everything I had written here about him, I think because nothing I could say would do him justice. He was one of the most complicated people I have ever know. Maybe the most complicated. He was a genuis. He was maddening and hilarious and weird. He loved all movies scifi or action or political, but wouldn't hesitate to take me to a romantic comedy. He took me to Clueless, French Kiss, and Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion. And He loved them. He would have taken me to Kinky Boots, I'm sure. That scene would have cracked his stuff up.

The weekend before he died my family traveled down to SOuthern California to say goodbye to my brother, who was leaving for his second tour in Iraq. For weeks after hearing Dallas was leaving for Iraq everyone on the family had a bad taste in their mouth. We all felt something might happen to him, so we drove 6 hours to say goodbye to him and left to go home the next day. We all stayed in a hotel and in the morning, my dad had to get up and go to work. He worked his weeks in So cal and flew his plane up to Nor Cal for the weekends.

I remember sitting, eating breakfast and looking up to see my mom out the window saying goodbye to my dad before he drove away. I thought for a second about going out to say bye and decided not to because I would see him next weekend when he came home. It was on his way home the next week that his little plane crashed into the side of a mountain. It is definitely something I regret, but I try not to dwell on. I just make sure now that I tell my family how much I love them all the time. So much so that my son frequently rolls his eyes at me, "I love you, too momma. Stooop!"

Kay. Now go hug your kids, call your parents give them some love and go watch that clip again, so that you can be all cheered up, now that I brought you all down.

2007-02-26T09:36:00.000-08:00

Our Big Surprise!

This is the fun thing that Missy and I have been working on! We are holding a craft show with some totally awesome gals and now we are formally inviting you to be a part of it! If you are a crafter who lives in or can travel to the greater Sacramento area on May 5th, we would love to have you participate. Here are some of the details:

Hi everyone!

Thanks so much for expressing interest in the Handmade Parade. Missy and I are so excited that such talented ladies want to be a part of this with us! The goal of the Handmade Parade is to sell our wares on a grassroots level to friends, family, coworkers, and area shop owners. Even if you are from out of the area, we believe you will benefit for being a part of this as a way to meet collectors, shopkeepers and, of course, hang out with other crafters! It is our goal to hold small scale craft shows twice a year - The Spring Fling in April or May and the Fall Fest in September or October - for as long as there is interest. Right now, we would like to limit participation to 8-10 crafters, to keep the event manageable.

Spring Fling 2007 is going to be on May 5th, from 10 am until 2 pm, in Sacramento. *I will give more location information to those who are truly interested and contact us* Each crafter who participates is being asked to pay $20 for advertising and production costs, and bring a homemade snack/treat to share with our collectors, in keeping with the handmade and homemade theme. We will need to know if you will need a whole table, or can work with a half table, or irregular table such as a card table. Whole tables are about 6' long by 22" wide. We will cover the tables with vintage linens, and all you need to bring is your product and displays! If you have special requests, or suggestions, please share them with us. We would like to keep this event as light hearted and fun as possible!

If this is still something you are interested in being a part of (and we hope it is!) please email us back at handmade_parade@yahoo.com indicating what your displays will require (half table, whole, or irregular). At this point the price to participate is the same all the way around, since it is all going towards advertising and production. Payment will be due by April 1 (no foolin!). Please include your preferred way to pay (paypal or check) so I can give you the information you will need to process payment.

Please feel free to forward this email to any crafters you know who would be interested in joining us-as of right now we have at least 5 slots available. It will be on a first paid first signed up basis, so be sure they pay as soon as they decide to join us. (We already have 2 jewelry gals, and we would like to keep this as varied as possible, so let's get some different styles of craftiness involved!)

Please feel free to copy the Handmade Parade logo into your blog and let people know you are participating. For the time being we aren't include address information on the logo, but we might later. People can email us at handmade_parade@yahoo.com with questions and to get information.

We can't wait to meet you all and have a great day!

Love,

Claire Bone and Missy Ballance
Handmade Parade Grand Marshalls

2007-02-23T08:07:00.000-08:00

Bloggy Friend Fun

Yesterday my kiddos and I spent the day with Missy and her two kids, crafting, chatting and having fun. Missy was showing another friend of ours, Melody, how to sew and me how to needle felt. She is a great teacher and even better multi-tasker-she was teaching us both at the same time!

Missy makes the most adorable mohair bears and bunnies and used to make Little Missy Primitives Dolls. She even gave me a LMP to take home! I was like a kid in a candy store in her studio- there were so many great things for projects and inspiration. The doll she gave me is on the table to my right. Cute, huh?

Our kids played really well together, which is always nice. Her Gracie is only 5, but she is so smart! She was in the craft room with us the whole time, sewing and felting away. I think Missy has a future crafter on her hands...

Missy and I have also been working on a fun little project together, which is pretty darned exciting, if you ask me. Of course, I do get pretty darned excited about a lot, so you'll have to be the judge of how great it is on the excitement meter.

2007-02-21T08:28:00.000-08:00

Fairytale Dreams

Monday was a day off for Aaron, so instead of being good and working on the house like we should have, we took the kids to Fairytale Town. It was the first time going since Peanut learned to walk. She had the time of her life going down slides with Daddy and Monkey, walking from slide to slide, and climbing up on play structures by herself. It was funny because you could tell she was so proud of herself. She thought she had made it big time.

See that pic below? It's of the entrance of FTT. See how the grown ups are crouching down to enter? My kids think it is the coolest thing that they don't have to crouch down. About 30 seconds before I took that picture as we were leaving someone wasn't paying attention and conked her head smack on the stone. She was pretty embarassed and her husband laughed at her. Guess she shouldn't have been fooling around with her camera and should have been looking where she was going... Poor thing. I personally feel really bad for her. ;)

Afterwards we took the kids to another Sacramento landmark, Gunther's Ice Cream, which has been in business since 1940. My grandmother used to go there with dates and her friends when she was in college and my uncle worked there when he was in high school. Some of my earliest memories are of me and my parents going to pick him up from work and me watching the ice cream being made through the window. They always have the best flavors of the month. This month is Cherry Cobbler ice cream. Y. U. M. I am always completely wracked with indecision on what to get when we go there.

Not suprisingly both kids conked out in the car on the way home, so I got to work on some brooches, cards, needlebooks, etc and Aaron put new closet doors up in my craft room and the kids room. So I guess we had a bit of a productive day!

2007-02-20T07:48:00.000-08:00

I am a Looooser!

Do you see that stash of pink and brown fantabulousness above? That is from my swap partner, Nancy, who has been extremely patient with me because she hasn't gotten her stash from me yet. Nancy, honey, thank you sooooo much for this awesome stuff!! You won't be disappointed by your box (just by the time it took to get to you...)!! She was the sweetest and even sent my two kiddos those great duckies. Can you believe it? Cute cute! She sent a notepad, bookmark, thrifted watering can, CHOCOLATE, handmade coasters and warming pad (which smell lovely, what is in them?) and my favorite, brown embroidery floss and a whole beading kit!! Thank you so much Nancy!

And do you see the sweet confection of a potholder below? That is from my potholder swap partner, Amy. Thanks Amy! The potholder and the recipe look great!

How was your weekend, friends? Mine was pretty busy. We have been playing catch-up since being sick and it is not fun. Friday was the first day I left my house in two weeks and since then it has been nuts. On Sunday, I was at a friends house visiting and Aaron calls me. My son is hollering in the background and Aaron calmly tells me he swallowed a penny and what should he do?

Greeeaaaat.

So I tell him to call the advice nurse who is basically useless and tells us to take him to the urgent care center (yeah, the same one I was in two weeks ago for my kidney infection. We are all on a first name basis) since Monkey boy was crying and seemed to be in pain.

So I hopped into the car, drove home, we dropped our peanut girl at a friends house and were on our way. Funny thing is once we got into the car monkey was just fine. No more tears, no more pain, but since we started the adventure, what the hey, let's finish it, right?

So we go to the doc, wait 45 mins go in take an xray, where we can see perfectly that he swallowed a dime. Even better. Thinner, smaller, it'll pass through him just fine. So later today we are expecting a return on our little "investment". The doc suggested washing it up and putting it in his baby book. I think not.

But hopefully we have learned a valuable lesson on putting things into our mouths... We are gonna get the monkey a piggy bank so he can learn to save his money properly.

So how was your weekend?

2007-02-16T16:22:00.000-08:00

Busy Busy Day

I left the house at a quarter to 8 this morning and got back at around 3:45. My kids had follow up drs appointments at 8:30 am ( yay! no more flu or pnuemonia!), checked out a new thrift store where I got this lovely stash above - all for $9. We went to lunch and went shopping for baby shower stuff.

It is a co-ed shower in the evening, so its a dessert shower. We are making cupcakes and having everyone decorate their own. Then we'll have prizes for creativity etc. We got oodles of cake mix and candy. There will also be a chocolate fountain and all sorts of fun things to dip into the chocolate. I'm pretty excited about it! I'll have loooots of pics as I am making stuff for the shower.

Thanks for all your sweet comments about the flowers I made! A few of then will be in the shop next week. Most of them are hopefully going to be sold at a shop here in town. I need to take samples of my stuff to the owner on Monday and hopefully she'll love it all and want to sell it! If not, it will all end up in the etsy shop, lol! If you saw something you liked email me and I'll put it in the etsy shop for ya!

2007-02-15T08:57:00.000-08:00

Spring Flowers

I am ready for spring, can you tell? I put my pattern girls away for a bit to work on these flower pins and hairclips. I really love them! And they are so super easy to make. I used a few of the flower tutorials that are out there right now and then sort of tweaked them. I'm not big on following directions, so I modified them to my liking. How do they look?

So, yesterday was Valentines Day and Aaron and I were going to go to the movies, something we haven't done in ages. However, the night before both our kids decided to cry and be generally unhappy until 2 in the morning, so we were pretty beat. Besides, is it just me, or do movies seem like a crappy date now? When we go out, I want to talk and visit and have adult conversation. We can Netflix movies anytime. Although, occasionally we rent a movie and say, "dang that was probably awesome on the big screen!" Like Moulin Rouge and Marie Antoinette. Great movies that were probably completely unforgettable in theatres. I still need to see MA, but I can tell from what people are saying that it was awesome.

Maybe I should Netflix it right now?

2007-02-13T14:02:00.000-08:00

BEWARE:This Post is Full of Freaky Circus Clowns!
So, if you are afraid of clowns, this is not the post for you! Come back tomorrow when I have less creepy fodder!

I promised awhile ago to devote a whole post to our favorite kitschy breakfast eatery Pancake Circus, and here it is. Chock full o' freaky clown goodness, too. The food here is great, cheap and service is uber fast. So fast that is you tell the waitress (whose name might actually be Marge or Peg or Sue or some other diner waitress worthy moniker) that you need a minute, she almost looks at you like you asked for escargot or something. We needed about 15 minutes and she was really getting a tad testy with us. Luckily the kids are cute, they charmed her into not caring so much. She even brought our monkey boy a huge hot chocolate with a massive mound of whipped cream.

The two clown pics down there are from the cash register area, which is so saturated with freaky clowns it creeps me out a bit. Basically the sad clowns are the ones that are creepy and you can see that there are a few there. Why? Why paint a sad clown, people??

2007-02-12T16:56:00.000-08:00

Gimme Some Lovin'

I set out to be productive and productive I was. I was able to get oodles done despite a fruitless trip to the hardware store and a late breakfast out at Pancake Circus (I took the camera and got some good pics! I'll blog about it in the mornin). I finished up my Valentines for the Flickr Valentine Swap. I started out hand embroidering them all and well, that got old real fast, so I put my sewing gals to good use. They turned out pretty cute considering I changed my plan halfway through. A few lucky peeps will still get a hand embroidered one. Next time I'll start earlier!

Then I moved on to my collages.

I picked my girlies and played around with colors and vintage buttons and seam binding....

...and came up with these! I am really happy with how they turned out. Especially this one down here. I'm a bright color kinda gal and I think she really fits the bill, don'tcha think?

I like these gals, too, but I think next time I'll put some patterned paper under the pattern tissue. I really like the textures on this one. I mod podged the tissue to the plaque, which gave it a cool wrinkly effect and then I used spray adhesive for the girls to keep them smooth. It feels really cool to touch! I wasn't sure I was going to like the plaques over canvas, but I think they turned out quite nice. I still want to try some with canvas, but I think I'm going to favor the plaques.

I'm going to call the collages Kae Collages after my husband's grandma. She turns 90 this year! In the 60s decoupage was pretty hot and she was a decoupaging fool. She made all sorts of cool pictures, most are 3 D, and pretty fab. Whenever I pull out the Mod Podge I think of her. The next time I go to my inlaws I'll have to go around the house and take pictures of her stuff. My mother in law must have at least 10 around the house. It is really great how timeless they are.

2007-02-11T14:10:00.000-08:00

Happy Happy Joy Joy!

What a fun Mail day it was for me yesterday! Not only did my order come in from Amanda, (who is quickly becoming my very favorite person to shop with) but I also got a sweet little brooch from Heidi at Everyday Cookies. It is so fun to open up the mailbox and have sweet little treats like that. Miss Amanda even threw in some extra goodies for me - her storybook cards (they made the trip quite well, dear!) and a pattern for my little girl. I cannot wait to sew it up!

On Friday over at Inspire Co., Amy posted these bon bons she made for a friend. As soon as I saw them I knew I needed to make some! I went a bit crizazay doing them and made like a dozen of them. These are the ones I am going to keep for my decorations. I am sending a couple with some swaps I'm in. I think I might use a few as pincushions. They are pretty perfect for that, I think. They have also inspired me to try to make some that look like muffins and cupcakes, so I might try some of those later this week.

I have a HUGE list of things I want/need to make right now! I am finishing up my valentines for the Vday Postcard swap on Flickr and the thank you's for the brooch swap. I want to mail them out Tuesday. I also picked up a few Vintage pattern catalogs at an antique store yesterday and have been painstakingly cutting out the beauties to make collages and cards from.

Since it is a three day weekend, my lovely amazing husband will be home and I'll get a full day to craft, while he can help with the kiddos. Soooo, that makes my goals for this weekend pretty lofty- finish up those Valentines, the thank yous, make a couple collages and a few cards. I think it can happen! We'll see. Shockingly the kids prefer me to Aaron with boo boos and general sickness and since both kids are still getting over being sick, that means lots of whining for mommy.

Not that I don't want to take care of the kids, but sometimes Mommy needs a break, right?

2007-02-09T08:29:00.000-08:00

Thank You Beki!!

My Brooch Swap from Beki came yesterday afternoon! My partner was the amazingly talented Beki and she did not disapoint! She made me the most beautiful brooch!! I just can't stop staring at it, it's that cute. I am working on a purse right now that I think it will look perfect on. It is good motivation to get the purse done, so I can put this beauty on it!

She also included a patchwork zippered pouch, which I LOVE, and a cute notebook, ribbons and my favorite-this itty bitty sack full of buttons. The sack was just so cute tucked in there like that. I'm a sucker for itty bitty cute things. Babies, puppies, little sacks of buttons...

My current project uses lots of buttony goodness so I am thrilled to have more. I will be putting them to use right away! I love that yellow one in front best, I think. What can I say? I'm a simple gal. I just can't help it that buttons just put me over the moon!

Now, everyone go check out Beki's etsy shop and get a cute little pouch or purse of your own. I have my eye on a few cuties there myself, better hurry!

*Can you believe "itty bitty" is not a word?? Spell check just dinged me.

2007-02-08T14:07:00.000-08:00

When It Rains It Pours...

When we do something round here we like to go big. Especially when it comes to illness and baby births and stuff like that. When I had my peanut girl we were taking care of my little sis while my mother was on a dream vacation to Italy. She was to be gone three weeks. No big thing. I still had six weeks till my kiddo was born. Week 1 sister comes home with a memo from teacher saying that the class had a "ringworm" epidemic. Luckeee. We took all the necessary precautions and avoided it. Week 2 my peanut girl decided she wanted to come early, but since it was too early I was put on bed rest for a week. Did it and the day they let me off bed rest I went into labor and well...So week 3 rolls around and I have a new baby a two year old a 7 year old and my poor sister comes home with the dreaded ringworm. By the way, my mother in law deserves a medal for helping us while I was in the hospital. She bore the brunt of the drama on the homefront and plenty of drama there was.

In the true spirit of us doing things big, this week I am recovering from the aforementioned kidney infection (of which I am pretty much fully recovered), but my kids didn't want me to feel bad being the only one sick and all. Soooo. Monkey boy had the flu and Peanut girl has pneumonia.

I think he is pretty much recovered because he is back to being all snotty to his sister today. Of course, she being sick has made the slightest touch from her brother absolutely deadly. She is also basically fine just a yucky cough. It all just adds to the chaos that is our life. Bedtime is interesting right now. We sit the kiddos on the counter in the kitchen and assembly line the meds and graham cracker bribes until the deed is done. They are good sports about it. But they also think graham crackers are cookies.

All the sickness has led to longer naptimes which equals slightly longer craft time for me. Can't complain about that! So I have been making my little swappy thank you gifts for the gals who participated in my swap. It has been really really fun! I would show you, but I'm pretty sure my readership basically consists of these gals and it would spoil the surprise and we really can't have that, now can we? Sadly the pics will have to wait till next week, after they have been mailed out and hopefully arrived. I'll post next week fo sho' gals!

Oh and thanks for the logo love! I went with D after much agony. I'll show you the site that it was for when I get the go ahead to show the public!

2007-02-06T18:39:00.000-08:00

Excessive Pics of the Logo....

So last night I actually started and threw out three different designs before deciding on this one in the way of the font an color. All the fru frus that I added aren't sewn down yet because I am wracked with indecision on which one to use. I kind of like the imperfect look of the fabric. I feel like I am almost there on finding what I want, ya know what I mean? Soooo, I need your help in deciding which one to use. Which is your favorite? When I finally decide which one to use I'll retake the pics in better lighting. And maybe a better camera!

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

Exhibit C

Exhibit D

Exhibit E

2007-02-05T16:34:00.000-08:00

Thanks for the love!

Thank you so much for all your get well wishes you've left me in comments and email! You are all too sweet, but it is much appreciated!!

It turns out the fever I had blamed on my cold was actually due to a kidney infection! Awful awful awful thing to have, but once treated recovery is fairly swift. I feel like I shall be back to my normal blogging, crafting and cooking ways very very soon. I have actually decided to embroider my logo for a new group I just joined. I'll tell you all about those fantabulous gals in another post. They all deserve their own post, they are that cool.

Anyway, back to the logo. Since I have been under the weather with a mandate to rest, there is plenty of time to embroider. Embroidery is the perfect convelesence craft, no? As long as there is decent light all you need to do is use your hands and you can create beautiful things. It's a great way for a sicky like me to feel useful! I hope to have it done tonight, so I can snap a pic of if for tomorrow. Plus I need to send it off to the powers that be by the 6th, so I gotta get cracking!

Also, yesterday was the deadline for the Brooch Swap for all you swappy gals. If I had my wits about me when I set that date I would have seen that it was a Sunday, and the post is closed Sundays! Der! So if you had to send yours today, no big deal. I created a flickr group for us called Little Lovelies Brooch Swap, so when you get your brooch be sure to post it for all to see. We want to admire each others handiwork! I do still plan on sending you all a thank you gift-most of them are done, but getting sick sort of curbed productivity if ya know what I mean.

2007-02-01T22:23:00.000-08:00

Picture Test

Yippee! It worked! Thanks for the tip, Lucy!

2007-01-31T12:28:00.000-08:00

Dear Cold and Flu Season:

I am officially over you. Not that I wanted you around to begin with, but in past years you have had the decency to infect us for only a week or so. This year you have officially overstayed your welcome. Your nasty, icky, annoying germs have been plaguing us off and on since November. November! I don't even let people I like stay around that long!

Please pack up your belongings-your cough medicine, ibuprofen, thermometers, Kleenex, chicken soup, humidifiers, children's cold medicine- and vacate the premises immediately. As in right now. Your presence cannot be tolerated any longer! Because you have chosen to overstay your welcome (though, truth be told, you never were really welcome) my poor family has been stuffy, chough-y and generally feeling gross for far too long! Be gone!

Sincerely,

Claire, Aaron and our munchkins

***

If only it were that easy. Too bad we can't just send an eviction notice to germs and tell them to take a hike and have them actually leave. Wouldn't that be lovely? I know we are not the only ones who have been dealing with the round robin illness this year. Lots of families we know have been perpetually sick since the fall-kids just keep infecting each other again and again in a yucky kleenex and vitamin C filled cycle. Maybe this is just normal cold and flu season and I am only feeling it extra hard this year because I have a three year old in preschool activities. Maybe I just need to get over it and accept the germs as part of my life from mid-November to March. Maybe we need to have vitamin C IVs from now on.

Whatever.

Sorry girls. I'm grouchy and sick again and my darling babies are finally feeling better, which I am thrilled about, but I truly do not have the energy to take care of them today. They are finally "napping". I can hear them singing in their beds, which is so stinkin' cute. I hope they fall asleep, though. Please, PUHLEEZE fall asleep little ones!

I very briefly considered calling my mom to take them for the day, but I know she'll just laugh at me and say "I had 4 kids and no family to help me and I always managed to take care of you when I was sick." It's basically her version of a "I walked uphill both ways to school in the middle of a January blizzard" story. So instead I whine to you guys about it. Aren't I nice? I swear, I'm not going to post again until I have something interesting to say.

**Blogger still won't let me add pics. Anyone else having this problem?

2007-01-29T10:11:00.000-08:00

Kid Free!

My inlaws have taken my babies for a few nights so they can get some much needed grandparent time and we can get some much needed no-kid-time. Today is going to be full of crappy tv that I can't watch with the kids around (think E! and crappy MTV reality), I am going to go to the post office and mail off all my swap packages, and maybe hit some thrift stores. All with no kids!

Tonight Aaron and I will have a nice evening together, maybe even go to a movie. A movie!! We haven't gone to a movie that wasn't animated or didn't have animals as the main character in ages. I think Bill Murray's Broken Flowers was the last movie we saw together with no kids. Great movie, though. I'm loving the new weird indie flick Murray. Although I do still love Stripes and Groundhog Day and other Murray ridiculousness.

Tomorrow, before I go get the kiddos I'll finish up on some projects I have, which wil be nice. It's always good to get stuff done!

But for now, crappy TV is waiting for me. Have a nice day!

Well, blogger won't let me add a pic right now. Sorry!

2007-01-27T09:08:00.000-08:00

Dollhouse Dreams

Today I am dreaming of dollhouses. I never had one as a little girl. Not a real one anyway. I got all the furniture for Christmas one year, but we never got around to building the house to go with it and I just played with the furniture in shoeboxes, anyway, so it didn't really matter. I did always want one, though.

I have decided that for my sister's upcoming birthday I want to build a dollhouse with her. We'll do it now and by the time her birthday rolls around in March, she'll be able to take her completed dollhouse home. At first we were going to buy a dollhouse, but they are sooooo expensive (the one I want is anyway!), so Aaron and I decided to make our own from wooden boxes he'll build for us.

Noelle's House

This morning we sat down and designed the floorplans of our houses. I am ashamed to say that mine looks like a child drew it, but, hey, we can't all be good at everything, right? Sister's is a house for a little bear family, mine is a booksop on the first floor and studio apartment on the second, with a little attic. Now that the plans have been "drafted", Aaron can get to building!

My booksop. The door will be straight!

2007-01-26T09:13:00.000-08:00

Vintage Sewing

I have just started buying vintage patterns. So far I have mostly bought little girls patterns because I hope to make my peanut girl her clothes when she is a bit older. Little girls clothes in the 50s and early 60s are so sweet! The adult patterns I intend to make some collages with and frame some for my sewing room. In my head the collages look really cute, I hope they translate as cute on paper.

The two patterns on the ends are from Amanda. Thanks, honey!

How cute are these sailor suits?? I promise not to make

one for my son. That would be awful!

I also just signed up to participate in Tie One On, which I am so excited about! I found a couple patterns I want to try and my "valentiney" fabric, so I am ready to go. I choose the cherries fabric because I didn't see any Valentine fabric at my Joann's store that wasn't cheezy. And my kitchen is done with vintage cherries and fruit, so I thought the cherry fabric would be kinda cute.

PS. All you experienced sewers out there-should I trace the vintage patterns onto new pattern tissue or should I try to use what is in the envelopes? The sizes aren't a big deal because she'll need to grow into all of them.