Little Update

I have been in a bit of a whirlwind of projects. One big one... hopefully I will be ready to share with you next week. But with a house of sicklings, I can't make any promises. Seems the laundry pile just gets bigger, the wool is finally getting lanolized, and the girls are cranky with colds.

on the upside Nick found me a bottle of vodka. lol. Its not what you think I promise! I decided to buy some vanilla beans and make my own vanilla extract with it. Guess how much a vanilla bean is at our organic store? $4! for one bean! so I bought just that. 1 Bean! So hopefully I can make a small bottle of vanilla extract. I have found cheaper places online, and maybe if my 1-bean-bottle works out well, I will make a better investment. It will still make more than what you buy in a tiny bottle for the same price, so I don't feel too ripped off.

On another note, check out this interesting interview on Huckabee's show. I am not a huge Huckabee fan, and I think is show is pretty bland. I am so homeschooling though. Even though I was homeschooled for the latter end of my education, I feel that as an adult I am still trying to undo some of creative smothering I was subjected to as a child.

Anyway, I better tend to my fussies and pizza.

Stickers.

Anastasia LOVES stickers. So I made her a little sticker book out of a photo album. I just bought a cheap album, used some scrap paper and she loves it. Plus she can stick, and re-stick the stickers as she seems fit. AND in the future I want to add some scenic post cards so she can have different scenes to stick them to. And the wheels in my head keep turning... in the future I also see making phonic or letter pages and she can stick coordinating items on them. Or even numbers with those little dot stickers. Imagine the possibilities!!

Here is a little Dover sticker paper doll that fits perfect in here!

Little monkeys I gave her after being brave at the doctor:

I was even thinking of making a "brave book" including small documentations from doctors appointments. Like a picture of the dog she got at the ER for being brave. the stickers she gets at the doctor. And a small caption that goes with each one explaining how brave she was. hmmm.

Hey good lookin', whatcha got cookin'?

I think I was reading in "The Creative Family" about taking pictures of places and things your child has played with as a way of documenting aspects of their creativity. It seems like a neat way to remember these early years of their lives and those little things they do as they learn about the world we live in. Finding wooden bears (or another toy) in my sifter is not an unusual occurance around here. Licking the beaters. Yum. I remember doing that as a kid and it seems strange that my favorite part of baking cookies/brownies/etc is eating the dough. I will bake cookies just because I crave cookie dough. Now Anastasia is carrying on that favorite tradition of licking the beater.

Even Isabel does her part in the kitchen. Her part is to be good and happy while mama works. And of course to let Anastasia torment her and then laugh together about it.

oh, and because we are on the subject of cooking, Anastasia has been making lots (ok 3) of felt cupcakes. These are the size of mini muffins and fit snuggly in a mini muffin tin. I was going to give them to her for V-Day but she always catches me making them and HAS to have them. And I am a pushover for letting her indulge me by playing with my crafts.

I sort of came up with these on my own, and think i might be able to sell them... but they take a lot of time to make (like 40 minutes each) so I feel like they should cost like $10... but that seems like an awful lot for little mini cupcakes. But perhaps making regular sized cupcakes wouldn't take THAT much more time and would be more likely to sell for a higher price. I was also thinking of making a pattern if anyone wants one. hmmm. I have so many brilliant ideas. Its just finding the time and motivation to accomplish them all. :)

It is really windy out here today. my grill blew off the deck. there is a freaky mask that blew into our yard... think twisted horror movie freaky. And the wind is whistling when it blows and a while ago it sounded like a child scream. kind of freaky. So I built a fire even though it isn't that cold because it seemed like a cozy thing to do. I feel much safer knowing I have a shot gun and that I know how to use it. (I hope Nick you are proud that I blogged about a gun! lol) But seriously. With tough economic times, and the reality that I think most robberies occur when people are at work and sweet innocent stay-at-home mom's like me are at home. I am not going to be a victim! ha! So watchout bad guys.

anyway. I am finally decorating for valentines day... simple but sweet. Holidays are a nice way to cozy up the place and a good excuse for craftiness. Plus a holiday where I get to add lots of red into my life is always a winner in my book. Well, I hope everyone has a Happy Valentines day and gets lots of love and kisses. :)

Dreaming of Swinging

Anastasia loves to swing. So I finally decided that we would buy her a nice "sky chair" swing with the savings bond my grandfather gave me as a baby. I think she will get a lot of use out of it. Here she is at a nursery testing one out. Now I just have to cash that thing in...

i haven't blogged in a while, much in part to a surprising amount of social outings. We are usually little hermits in the evenings and sometimes on weekend, but last week we were booked up! lol. Crazy. We also took a trip to Philadelphia on Saturday for my friend's Wendy's son Samuel. We had a really nice time, and wish they didn't live so far away!!

Now I have been addicted to making cupcakes. my cupcakes are super great because they are fat-free, calorie free... in fact they are made of felt! I thought they would be a cute gift for Anastasia for Valentines day. Pictures to come.

I am not a morning person. I am posting this a little before 9am... sorry if it is lacking in any way. i wish I could get up at 6am and jog every morning like I intend to. It is just so difficult for me and I have a new excuse every single morning for my lack of motivation. One of these warm days I will go jogging before nick leaves for work. Perhaps it would help if I wasn't up until midnight making felt cupcakes. hehe. ;) thats all for now. I have ideas and pictures for better posts.... but since it has been a while i figured I would post SOMEtHINg. now i just got spit up on. nice.

A Good Mom

A good mom teaches her daughter not to play with matches and keeps them out of reach.

A bad mom feeds them to her baby for breakfast:

hehe. We found Anastasia found the matches (bad mommy and daddy) and the logical thing to do was feed them to her doll. It reminded me of a card I gave my mom for mother's day a few years back reading, "A good mom lets her children lick the beaters." Then on the inside it read, "an even better mom turns the mixer off first." lol.

Maybe you recognize the baby in the picture? If you were anywhere near as in love with American Girl as a child as I was, you would know she is the classic "Bitty Baby" doll in the catalogue. Anastasia's aunt sent her as a birthday gift and Anastasia has enjoyed changing her diaper, reading books, doing puzzles with and feeding her. I am thrilled to have family who indulge her with American Girl dolls and accessories that I only dreamed of having as a child. I still have my doll (Felicity) and hope to see my girls enjoy them as much as I once did. I love things that haven't changed much since my childhood.

It was quite a rough weekend for our poor Ana-bear. She has been sick on and off for almost 3 weeks now, and became a bit feverish a few evenings last week. She would be fine during the day and so I didn't worry too much but did make her a doctor appointment for Monday suspecting some sort of infection. We didn't make it until monday. Saturday night was rough. She woke up every half hour burning up and shivering. I gave her some Motrin that she spit out and the little she did get, didn't help much. So at 4am after a grand total of 20 minutes of sleep, I decided it was time to go to the ER. The perk of living in a pretty small town is the empty Emergancy Room! So we walked right in, and the doctor found she had a pretty bad ear infection. :( poor kid. While peeking in her ear, she turned her head sharply and the doctor scratched her ear and it started bleeding. this was the point my hypo-glycemia kicked in and I began feeling faint. He thankfully didn't rupture her ear drum or anything, but it was still a bit disheartening seeing her ear bleeding. We each got a popsickle. mmm. We left with a few souveniers including a bottle of pink stuff and a valentine puppy beanie baby named "heartbeat."

Today we are all feeling better (and I finally caught up on sleep) and I found mixing amoxicillin with apple juice is the only way to get a full dose of antibiotics into Anastasia's system. whew. Hopefully the rest of the week will prove less eventful.

Fabric and Things

Bird purse and Bunny pen holder I made one special 2-year old: I love fabric. I have been recently smitten for imported Japanese fabric. I like that the prints are generally small and very whimsical making for absolutely fanciful childrens items. Currently you can enter in a drawing for some Japanese fabric at the crafty crow. Even if you don't sew you should enter and if you win, you can give the prize to me ;) This is what I recieved in the mail this week:I ordered these and more from a seriously sweet Etsy shop called Fabric Supplies by Charlie and Linsay. My picture truly doesn't do justice. All that I ordered is in the line "My Folklore" by Lecien. I highly recommend this shop and their 5 star customer service. They also carry Alexander Henry, Amy Butler, Michael Miller... all the best. And I feel that their shipping prices are completely reasonable especially if you are like me and only want 1 or 2 yards at a time. I just figured because I often get asked, "where do you buy your fabric?" I would share one of my new little secrets. I will not share the absolutely perfect Easter dress pattern that these fabrics will soon be part of... not until they are fully assembled that is. Just so I don't have every girl at church wearing the same dress because it is just that cute. Onto other cuteness:She loves her tea set and I have just introduced her to tea. "tai chee" in her words, better known as Chai Tea. Common mistake. Even at the cafe I worked at many people came in ordering a tai chi. She of course gets decaf Celestial Seasonings and I miss the yummy Chai I used to serve. And look how big Isabel is getting! Where did my newborn go?

She was replaced with a drooly, lovey, snuggly, giggly 4-month old. Even though having 2 kiddies keeps me far more busy, I feel that I actually love my time with them more than when I only had one. Isabel reminds me how fast the time slips through the hourglass of life... of my life with my babies who live off of love and snuggling. I feel that with Anastasia I was still partially connected to my previous life prior to having children and it was harder to accept how invasive she was. She was much higher maintnance than Isabel as a baby. But now with 2, I have severed all ties with my life before motherhood and I can bask in the beautiful light of their goodness all the more. I don't take for granted being caked in spit up and dancing around getting my baby to sleep. Or even the neediness of a toddler who isn't feeling well and needs cuddling with momma to make it all better. Because I know that it won't last forever and I need to invest everything into these moments that well be sewn lovingly into the quilt of life.

Happy Birthday Anastasia!

We celebrated Anastasia's birthday today with my family, aunts, uncles and cousins. Everyone had a really great time. Especially our little birthday girl!

The theme: Chinese new year. The cake: rasberry cheesecake and chocolate cupcakes. mmm.

The delectable food complete with a chinese lantern tree:

And I took the little peg people idea to the next level with my little peg centerpiece. I even had umbrellas for the drinks. Who doesn't LOVE little umbrellas?

I made chinese lanterns and strung them up over those icicle lights you see at Christmas. I just stuffed each icicle into a lantern. I hung fan-like flowers and the IKEA dragon from the rafters to create the party scene:

And the fake table (actually a very ugly space heater that doesnt work):

"Happy Birthday" Anastasia in chinese with the ox because this is the year of the ox:

I found this little radio flyer toy at the thrift store and because it is her birthday she got to have it inside, but from now on, I think it will be an outdoor toy.

I think this porcelin tea set was her absolute favorite gift, along with some haba gummy bears, both of which she has been playing with non-stop since everyone left. She also got some new clothes, and a few new books including a Mother Goose and Curious George Treasury!! What fun!
Since her birthday is tomorrow, and the true Chinese New Year, I was completely inspired by this post at One Pretty Thing. I still had so many ideas for the party, and just didn't have time for them all. We had a brunch with my French toast bake, an egg bake and a very popular batch of cinnamon rolls. Anastasia really enjoyed the company and had a blast opening presents. I was so pleased with her array of really nice gifts. She actually fell asleep when most everyone left, and the rest of us played "In A Pickle" (not my favorite game) and "Balderdash" which was a blast. Now Isabel sleeps in my arms as Anastasia curled up on her favorite blanket (Nicks baby quilt) at my feet. Better go put the girls in their beds and say Goodnight. Happy Birthday my beautiful girl. You are the light of my life.