In my little world lately, part one

So much of our days is routine and rush.  But sometimes we do fun things as well.  Here are a few of the latest adventures...these are actually all from February.  I'll do the pictures from March in a second post.

 

A few months ago our ward Relief Society had a service auction.   People volunteered things that they could make or do as the items to be auctioned.  Bidding was using points "earned" from filling out a questionnaire.  At any rate, I volunteered a set of custom party decorations.  The party ended up being an "Under the Sea" birthday party.

 

Banner with salt dough sea stars

 

 

Poster for "Pin the Starfish on the Mermaid"

 

 

Invitations (and there were also coordinated thank you cards & menu cards)

 

 

It was a fun project :)

 

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For Christmas Santa gave Monkey a new leotard & a voucher for some gymnastics classes.  She loved it and did really well.  She is a monkey, after all. (sadly it's done now...I'm on the lookout for a good deal for her to keep taking classes.)

 

 

 

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This is totally random, but here's a teepee that the kids made one day whilst playing outside.  Sometimes it is nice to have a junk yard.

 

 

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I've probably already mentioned Wedgits...Owl and Otter got a set for Christmas from Santa, and we ALL loved them so much that I bought more so that there would be enough for us to all play with them at once. 

At first there was a lot of tower-making. 

Then Moose especially fell in love with following the instructions on the design cards to make pre-planned designs. 

Chick then experimented to find different wedges (where the pieces stay together because they are wedged together.  So these are two pictures of the kids showing off their wedges...Moose with a BIG wedge, and the three older kids with a display of all of the wedges that they've discovered.

 

 

 

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Valentine's day was fun.  I made heart-shaped breakfast cookies and smoothies for breakfast. 

Then my sister came over for a nice visit. 

Then I spent the afternoon making lasagna for my valentine, the fantastic Mr. Fox.  It was SOOOOOOO good!  Seriously!  The best I've had since I was in Italy. (It doesn't look very pretty in the picture, but it was good.  EVERYONE loved it, which is really saying something).  I used THIS recipe.

For dessert we had heart-shaped apple hand-pies.  Yum.

I didn't put up decorations or do anything very fancy, but I did make fancy foods.

 

 

 

 

 

That's it for February.  Fun times with my people!

I WON!

I don't get on facebook so very much.  Imagine my surprise when I got onto Facebook for just a minute today and found this:

It was a close race, but after tallying up the votes from Facebook and our UDMA ...shows, this year's Design Your Dream WINNER is Paige from Reflections School of Dance! Her costume will be in our 2013 catalog and Reflections will get a class worth of the design for free! Congratulations Paige and Reflections School of Dance!

 

Seriously, I am so surprised.  The facebook votes were almost 100 down below the first place person, and I didn't like pestering people for votes, so I'd given up.  I hadn't taken into account that there would be voting at the UDMA show...where people who are actually looking to buy costumes would be voting...and who have no affiliation with a specific studio or contestant.

 

So exciting.  Thanks, if you voted.  Stay tuned next June, when you see pictures of my design dancing in the recital!!

Design Your Dream Costume Contest: The Finals

Ok, folks.  Voting is up for the final three.  My design doesn't look quite like I designed it, but I honestly do like it better than the other two final designs...so I think that I should win : )

As of this posting, I'm firmly in the middle of the voting.

Please vote for me so that this:

is not the winner (I just don't even understand it....)

Vote here on facebook.

Design Your Dream Costume Contest

If you are friends with me on Facebook, then you've already heard about this.

BUT I entered a costume design contest and I'm a semifinalist and need your vote!

Voting is on Facebook (here).  "Like" Revolution Dancewear, and then "Like" my design (pictured below).  Easy as that!

If I make the top three, then my design will be made into an actual costume and professionally photographed.  Then more voting, and the grand prize winner's STUDIO will get up to 30 costumes in the winning design.  So nothing for me, exactly, but it'd be an honor to see it made into a costume, as well as seeing it on stage at next year's recital.  So Go.  Vote for "Fern" : )

HI!

I only have a minute, but I miss blogging : (

I mentioned in my last post that I was working on the downstairs.  Still no "after pictures," but today I did some of the color painting.  It's a light avocado color (I don't think the swatch shown is green enough, but maybe it's just my computer?).  It'll be paired with a robins egg blue.  The actual color names are: Greentree and Wintergreen Ash.  Whatever.  Anyhow, most of the room is a creamy white, but there are accents in these colors.  I'm pretty excited.

I knew in my head that I wanted a blue-green-(slight)yellow palatte (I like the peaceful analogous combination--it reminds me of an impressionist pastoral painting).  I found fabric for the curtains, but hesitated.  Now the fabric is nowhere to be found.  I bought solid fabric and am going to paint the stripes on.  Wish me luck.  Seriously.  I'm nervous.

The party for my sister...oh, I haven't mentioned that.  My sister recently got married and isn't having a reception.  So I volunteered to throw a family party for her.  I didn't want it here, but for lack of a better space.... Anyhow, that's what started all of the work downstairs-- if we can fix it up down there then we'll double our party space.  Anyhow, here's the invitation that I designed for it:

Ok, so the party, is in less than a week and a half.  eeeeee.  I'm excited, but have much to do before then.  I'm actually considering hiring a cleaning lady for a few hours.

I haven't started teaching the kids Italian yet, but I have exposed them to more Italian than before, and it's been fun to hear some Italian "jibberish" being spoken.

I found a compromise for the recliner.  I'm replacing the missing spring, and I ordered a slipcover today.  Cross your fingers.  I hope HH appreciates my efforts : )  Stay tuned for "after" pictures of that too.

Since it wouldn't be a proper post without pictures of my kids:
Monkey stuck a bobby pin into an electrical outlet and burned her fingers (& a spot of the carpet).  I'm really glad that that's all that got damaged and that she's fine otherwise.  Scary.  We now have the annoying plug covers on all accessible outlets.

Speaking of bobby pins: Chick was holding a bobby pin and said that she was going to pretend that it was a "smoke stick."  She said the girl on "The Trouble with Angels" had a smoke stick.  At another point in the day she said, "I'm going to kill myself."  Turns out it was a quote from that same movie.  The movie is now banned.

I'm just waiting for Moose to choke on a bobby pin, and then I will ban those too.

The kids had a tent and fort set up while I did my monthly layout.  I always think their play is cutest when I'm supposed to be working.

To redeem the above stories about Chick: she gave her first talk in primary on Sunday and did a fabulous job.  She's a good public speaker.

(Next year Monkey will be a sunbeam, and I'm dreading when she is assigned a talk.  There's no way that she'll do anything of the kind.)

Well, I guess I gotta get to bed.  Tomorrow is a trial day at the gym, shopping for stuff for the party, making soup and bread, and a blue painting day : )

The Weekly News

I'm having a bit of trouble believing that it's Friday already! I've barely been out of the house at all this week--Midwife appt on Monday, answered the door yesterday & went onto the back deck to talk to HH who was working in the backyard, and walked out to my sister's car today. That's it! Pathetic, I know. It's layout week.

The good news is that both my boss & my contact person down in Siena (my monthly layout is for the Siena community magazine) both LOVED this month's issue. It's not completely done--still a few edits left, but it's in the easy downward slide now : )

My sister took the girls to have lunch & play at her playground today, so I have total peace and quiet right now : )

Yesterday I wrote down everything that I ate, and today I'm doing the same--it's like I just woke up suddenly with enough brainpower to be good about my eating! Yay. Now if I can continue for the next 7 weeks, then maybe my total pregnancy gain won't be too bad {Confession time: I'm just shy of 30 pounds right now}.

BUT some more good news today: I'll have help after the baby comes regardless of how much I've gained! Why? I'll tell you why: I just won a Tummy Yummy Giveaway! I'm so excited, I get a super cool Tummy Yummy Nursing Tank! Yay! Thanks Tummy Yummy & Once a Month Mom!!

(Speaking of Once a Month Mom, I do plan to do another round of freezer cooking, but we haven't finished up what I did last time, so I decided to wait until after this week. We've really loved a lot of what I'd prepared, and it's just sooo convenient!)

I also was given a big box of clothes--some for Monkey, some maternity for me (Totally needed--my wardrobe is getting limited and boring right about now! Thanks, Andrea!). It's been fun to try things on my Monkey and me. And a bit humbling, because I'm huge. HH says it's time for another photo to document my belly, but I think it'll have to wait until after layout, so that I can get some makeup on at least.

The only bad news, that I hope ISN'T bad news, is that at my Midwife appt we noticed that the baby has a heart arrhythmia. I'll have to go in for a non-stress test & ultrasound. We considered finding out the gender, but I think if we can help it then we still won't...it's just so exciting to be surprised at the end. Besides, we've made it this long.... Anyhow, Charlotte, my midwife, says that arrhythmia's aren't usually a big deal & the babies grow out of them a lot of the time by the time they are born or soon thereafter. And ours is pretty mild. (I read 85% end up to be nothing to worry about). So lets hope for the best.

Oh, I also fell down yesterday, so I guess that's bad news too. I tripped over all of the toys in the living room when I was on my way to greet HH at the door. Thankfully he took over with the girls (and made them clean up their toys) while I got to lay down for a little nap. The only damage is a bruised shin & skinned elbow. Baby is still thumping around in there : )

To close: here are my cute girls reading together.

Here's what I'm up to...

I only have a minute for blogging today, but I wanted to share the invitations that I designed for Chick's birthday! (obviously this particular invitation was doctored for the blog...the real one actually has useful information and not just "blah blah blah")

I found some free vector images, so I've altered them to fit my purposes & am going to make most (maybe all?) of the decorations and such for the party...she picked the theme, and I have to admit that I'm thrilled. I loved Hello Kitty when I was little & still think that she is adorable!

Anyhow, I've been busy with FINALLY getting my phone book project wrapped up and sent to the printer...just before the cruise my boss decided to increase the pagination to 60, and to increase the deadline so that I could finish it (rather than having to hand it off to the other designer).

Plus I'm in the middle of my regular layout.

Plus I have Sharing Time this month, and I'm in charge of the "8 is Great" fireside this Sunday.

Plus, now that I have a theme for Chick's birthday I am getting a little bit Hello Kitty obsessed & am having trouble buckling down and doing the aforementioned things that I need to do!! (I think I'll do like cake #23 on this site)

Anyhow, funny news: I went to a liquidation store yesterday with the girls, and while I was looking at little toys for party favors, Monkey got the bottle of glue that I had put in the cart (away from her, or so I thought) and took the lid off & poured it all over herself, the contents of the cart, and the floor. She might also have eaten some. Good times.


Another funny tidbit: I made invitations for "8 is Great" and when I passed them out to the kids I learned that I had written "2009" on all of them & didn't think anything of it until the kids laughed at me and told me that I was a little late.

In my down time I've been ORGANIZING! I started with the girls' clothing--we'd been given some great bags of hand-me-downs, but they'd just been stashed here and there & not divided by sizes. Plus as they've outgrown things I didn't put them away in any organized way. So anyhow, we had boxes and boxes of clothes in the living room for a couple of days & now it's all nice and organized.

That led to the start of organizing the "tool room" which had become such a stash-all that you couldn't even walk in--seriously, it was totally filled with anything and everything. It's now only 1/2 filled, and all sewing and crafty/scrapbooking/beading/mosaic stuff has been carefully organized into the guest/sewing room closet. The baby gear that was in the sewing room closet is now in the nursery closet, and Chick's grow into stuff is in the tool room closet because that will be her room later this year. Make sense? Really I just transferred stuff in a circle (triangle) between the three room.


And while I'm still working on keeping up with all of my resolutions, the most exciting one right now is restarting Flylady. I could REALLY get used to having a clean kitchen!


Uh, I guess that's it. I hope to do some more cruise postings in the next day or two, but I should probably get layout done first. grrrr.

Wacky Buttons

It's been so long since I posted & I have so much news: the fabulous fabulous cruise, Christmas projects & festivities, my birthday, etc etc etc. But at the moment I don't have time to tell you all that.

What I am going to tell you about is the great birthday presents our ward Primary is giving to the kids. BUTTONS! We're using WackyButtons.com to produce them, and I did the designs. The prices were really reasonable, too.

So fun...makes me wish I were a kid again.

07:13:55

I'm taking a "too-stressed-to-function" blog break.

Christmas decorations are mostly up, but the boxes are still all over the dining table. Tree is up, with lights (which is a given, since it's a pre-lighted tree), but no decorations.

I've been working on an extra work project--a 56 page phone book that has a lot of ad design work to go with the actual laying out & formatting.

Plus all of the content has arrived for my usual monthly magazine layout, so the work is endless at this point.

I still have to finish shopping, altering, & packing for the cruise. I planned out an early maternity wardrobe based on how much I was showing with the last pregnancy at this point. Now that I'm closer to leaving I see that I was a bit off in my calculations... I can still comfortably button my jeans with no problem. What does that mean? Maybe it's a boy? Maybe it's a malnourished little person who is saying "FEED ME!"

Anyhow, what it means to me is that I won't quite look as smashing as I'd hoped (and to be honest my hopes weren't all that high to begin with). I will have one pair of normal fitting jeans that I could take, and I'll have some maternity clothes that should look good still, but I'll be even more "in-between" than I'd expected.

But Ahhh, the cruise. All of the details of our little life routine are written out for Grandma, and if I can just make it through the next week then I'll be rewarded with warm (maybe even hot at times?!!) weather, and nothing that I HAVE to do besides lounge around and eat a lot & be entertained.

07:13:55.

Seven days, thirteen hours, 55 minutes. (actually, since I started this posting, it's changed to 07:13:43...even better).

Well, now that I've mentioned it...

I'm obsessed with the idea of a new quilt for Chick. I won't get to start it until after the new year, but I guess I'll show you the possibilities & have a poll in my sidebar.

Chick's room is going to be spring colors. She'll probably have oversized flowers & garden-y items as well. I want her quilt to be orderly, so nothing too crazy for now. When she gets her own room (which isn't anytime soon, so honestly I don't know why I'm even thinking about it) she'll have these lockers instead of a dresser (the lockers are a salmon color, which should go ok with spring colors if I am careful about the color shades that I use). The quilt will be hand-quilted.

Below are the most likely quilt options. Please vote in the sidebar. Leave a comment after voting, and I'll enter you in a drawing for a goody. I have no idea what the goody will be...it may not be that good of a goody, but it'll be something. It's always nice just to win, right?

(You can also comment if you know something like "that quilt design is terribly hard and time consuming" or "you could do that edge with that center and it would look awesome" keeping in mind that I've really only made one quilt--a machine quilted log cabin. You can also tell me what kind of colors you'd use where, etc)

(click on the links to see the quilts)

Mock Cathedral window. Of all the quilt designs, this is the one that I'm most itchy to try, but not sure if this is the best time to try it. I have never seen one in person. Is it still warm without batting? great tutorials here and here.

Strip quilt. I'd keep the same color (different fabrics, same color family) all the way across the width.

Zigzag. I've loved seeing MamaLia & Sarah's beautiful zigzag quilts, and this tutorial makes it so easy!

Pinwheel #1. This has such a fun, airy feel to it

Pinwheel #2. This is such a really gorgeous quilt. I love everything about it.

Cheaper by the Dozen. I love the scallop edging!! Here's her interesting tutorial/intro to quilting

A little update

Hi. I've been too busy to post on here, and I'm really still too busy, so this will be brief.

A friend mentioned Flylady, and I think my life will never be the same again (that's the hope, at least).

Last week we went with my sister & her kids to the Woodland Park Zoo. It was fun, and some of the animals put on a show for us. It was COLD, though. My favorite part of the zoo this time was the zoomasium. They had big green stuffed chairs in a corner with pictures of mama animals feeding their babies (Babe had her meal in that corner, as I'm sure many many babies have done before her). Very cool. Also in there they had these coool blocks called Tree Blocks. I totally want some (I guess I could make them....).

Babe had her 4 month checkup and though she's longer than Chick was at that age (75%), she's only in the 10th percentile for weight! She barely gained anything since 2 months, so it's been a busy week just trying to nurse her extra often & drink Mother's milk tea, etc. She went in this week for a reweigh and had gained enough that the Dr isn't concerned anymore.

This week has been layout...



...and in my spare time (ha ha ha), Easter prep. I'm doing these decorated cookies & stuffed mushrooms to take to my sister's house for the gathering. I'm making Chick an apron & a dress to match Babe's.


I'm afraid the quiet book won't get done, and I don't want to stress out trying to do it--I have enough going on right now.

Last night I had a wonderful dream...HH, Chick, Babe, and I went to Italy for a vacation. I was young and thin with thick black tights and a very cute fitted black wool coat on. HH and I were running through Piazza San Marco in Venice & watching the pidgeons fly up around us (don't know where the girls were at that point). Guess I'd better keep teaching Chick to speak Italian so that I can make that dream a reality.

Ciao ciao.

A Special Kind of Magic and other Random Thoughts

Babies are just so magical. I could sit and snuggle and coo back to Babe for hours. I could get high from the smell of her head.

Chick is pretty magical too. A couple of months ago (end of December) Chick started to say family prayers (meaning that she would repeat what I told her to say). At the time she could only repeat back one word at a time. Last night she said the prayer and was repeating whole phrases. "Tay-tu" is thank you said quickly.

Right now she's "Tuck tuck. Tuck tuck. tuck tuck"-ing her baby into a play baby carrier. Actually, I think it's Babe's little rattle baby this time. Tchaikovski is playing in the background, but Chick is singing something wholly unrelated.

The picture above cracks me up: shirt with panties and play socks with pink Sunday shoes, and a nervous looking Babe at Chick's mercy!

My aunt is cleaning out her storage unit and brought over these two crates full of fabric for me! It makes me happy every time I look at them! I'll be putting some of the fabrics to good use this week, working on a giveaway item or two. I wish I could put pictures on of what I've been working on, but that would ruin the surprise. But Heather's is done, Mom's is almost done, Sarah's is started, and Nikko's & Katie's are still just ideas on paper. All are things that I've never made before, so it's been fun to learn some new projects!

Speaking of ideas on paper, I stayed up until midnight last night sketching out Chick's Easter gift: a homemade quiet book. It's going to be awesome, if I can execute as well as I can dream. It's my main craft project for March...I hope to get it all cut out before layout starts on Thursday. That and the copycat dress that I want to make for Chick's Easter dress.

Do you know what's worse than having a bad headache? Having it seep into your dreams so that you have a headache in your dream. bah.

HH screwed up his back on Saturday while doing a side job for friends. He's been hobbling around like an old man ever since. Poor Handsome Handyman....

I stopped in a the thrift store on Saturday to look for something that I needed for part of a project (it was there, new & for a great price!). I also found 5 yards of black fabric for also a great price (that was on my list to get at JoAnns), and a great little wooden abacus for Chick that only cost 69 cents! I've been looking for one of those online! Oh, and a roll of sheet crafting plastic for a dollar.

I'm still on the lookout for a girls coat pattern.... And a bookshelf like this one, so that we don't have to make it ourselves (do you know how many stinking projects we have lined up?!)

Lastly, and totally unrelated to anything--here is a picture of the Emmeline apron from Sew Liberated. I am so in love with this apron!

Why does Pregnancy turn your brains to Mush?

Last pregnancy I never felt like an airhead. This pregnancy was the same...until yesterday & today. ..

I spent much of yesterday muttering under my breath about WHY I was getting the final edits for the magazine on the day that we send to the printer, rather than the day BEFORE. Nerds...did they really have to take so long in sending them to me & thus making me a day late for getting it all to the printer?! I did feel bad that several of the edits were just because I didn't pay close enough attention to what I was doing during layout (I like it better when the edits are THEIR fault). That was airhead moment #1.

Airhead moment #1: This morning I got an email from one of the aforementioned nerds. She said that she was confused why I was acting like we were running late, when (per the production schedule that I had sent out) we were right on schedule. Hmmm...I looked at the schedule, and then I realized that I had written the "final approval & submit to printer" on the 11th, rather than the 12th on my calendar. We were, indeed, supposed to submit to the printer today NOT yesterday. I'm so embarrassed.

The good point is that I wrote a very diplomatic email to all involved (all the nerds) last night, and as I was writing it I complained to HH that I didn't want to be diplomatic...I wanted to give them a piece of my mind! I'm sooooooo glad that I was diplomatic, since I would have looked like a cranky #$%& who couldn't keep her days straight!

This weekend

Well, of course the weekend got off to a rather rough start with Friday, though it was fun to take the pictures & video.

HH had mandatory overtime on Saturday, so Chick and I did the usual--I worked some more on layout (revising the cover...still not approved, but below is a picture of it as it is now) & we napped, ate, played, etc.

When HH got home we went grocery shopping. It's pretty rediculous that I get so excited from grocery shopping, but whatever floats your boat, right?

Anyhow, we first went to QFC, where they were having a holiday open house with lots of tasty samples & sales. Then we also went to Albertsons, Walgreens, & Fred Meyers. I won't list everything that I got, and I was more intent on getting things put away quickly than I was in taking a picture of it all (like the die hard frugality chicks do on the blogs to the right)...but here's a summary:

• 92 items purchased


• $100 spent


• The average price was $1.10. That's the average, but some things ended up being free, and the most expensive was Breyer's ice cream for $2.50 each...we have our priorities straight.


• Everything was on sale except for 3 cans of Tuna (Fred Meyer sells it for $.59 a can for the first three, which seems to be the best deal, regardless of sales)


• In addition to sales, I used $20 worth of coupons : )

Plus:

• $15 credit to spend at Albertsons next time we go


• a free loaf of Albertson's french bread


• a free DVD rental from Redbox (we watched Get Smart...pretty funny!)


• a free 8x10 from Walgreens

New Logo Design

I finished the logo design for Sindea Horste Photography & thought that I'd share : ) It links to her new website, if you want to check out her work.

The gallery for my prego photos should be up at the end of the week...I'll post a link when it's ready!