Lil' Baby Lovies

I just finished up an order for 4 16" square baby lovies. Two for a boy and two for a girl. I love how they turned out and I love how they look folded and ready for shipping. 

I think, this will be the next pattern I share.

Have a great weekend!! 

been in a funk

don't know if it has been the weather or what, but I just haven't felt like doing much. including blogging.

today i wanted to show you a hat i plan on putting in the shop very soon. i am working on lotsa colors and will have them posted on Monday.

i also want to work out my pattern for my dainty frilly sunhat that was listed in my shop last year. i think i am just intimidated by the sizing...so i may just make it in a toddler size, and then whoever wants to modify it can. i also may need some pattern testers for it, so if you are interested, let me know. here is a picture to remind you what it looks like:

Me? A Scrapbooker?

So, when I had my daughter, it must have flipped the girly, craft switch in me. I became a crocheting fool, a clippie makin momma, and well, a hoarder of all things memory related to my daughter. Well, in a box.  My friend then began selling Creative Memories Scrap booking supplies, and I was hooked! 

I literally have the debate in my mind when the kids are napping..."Should I crochet, or scrap?"

I love my corner rounder...I think it is my favorite purchase...and my tape runner. YAY!!

This is my newest purchase. It is a sleeve that holds everything I need inside of it.. my journaling boxes, pages, and stickers as well as scraps. LOVE IT!!

Any way, I think that if you  have a big box of pics and memories, scrapbooking can be a fun way to organize it, and make a beautiful book for you or someone you love.

Where's your favorite place to pick up scrapbooking supplies? Do you like to crop alone or with friends/family?

Keep It Simple Silly...Toddler organization

So my son has always been the type to like a tidy room, tidy house...all that jazz. All I have to say to my little man of barely three is, "uh oh, our house is not happy. Let's clean up." and he is throwing toys in his toybox and shoving books into his bookshelf faster than Lightning McQueen can say "KaCHOW."

My daughter on the other hand is a little bit of a tornado. She moves stealthily and quickly...and rips apart a closet, a bedroom, the living room, her room in a matter of seconds.

So for her, I tried something different. Something very simple and very effective. She is keeping her room more organized, when I tell her to clean up, she AND her brother both utilize my little organization system. And here it is.

One big box for pretty much all her toys

One bucket for all her dollhouse dolls and ponies

And one bucket for all her kitchen supplies and fake food.

I know it doesn't seem like much, but it has really help keep things a little less crazy in her room. :)

Shower gifts..

I've had the pleasure of joining up with a friend of mine to make some items for the "filling" inside of her adorable diaper cakes. She wanted something special for her friend at church who was having twins, a boy and a girl, and I made these for her. Secondly, our friend who had been trying to conceive for nearly five years scored two years ago with the birth of her first child, a daughter. She kept praying that she would be able to have at least one more babe, and lo and behold, on their first try, they got pregnant with a boy. I made some sweet baby boy items for the little man.
And here are a few pics of the finished cake. Lovely, Amy! :)

I tryin to say somethin'

It's those pesky letter L's...and for some reason two year old little tongues just have a hard time wrapping around those particular shapes.

Daddy: What's in your pocket
Boy (looking in pocket to see what he had put there earlier that afternoon): A Dawyer
Daddy: A what?
Boy: Dawyer!
Daddy: a dollar
Mommy(slightly irritated that daddy is getting a kick out of boy's frustration): Daddy, come on,
that's what he's trying to say. Those letter L's are hard...
Daddy: What is in your pocket?
Boy(big grin): Daddy, I tryin to say somethin!
-~-~-~-
Baby girl: Ummmmmmm blllllaaaaaayyyyyy llllllllla
Translation- umbrella
She was pointing out the window right at it and said it. So cute!
(Boy is still afraid it wants to eat him.)

Toolbox

For my boy's birthday last year...my dad made the big boy a toybox...shaped like an oldfashioned toolbox. too cute.

and since then, my little bug calls it his toolbox.

and on friday he decided to take every last toy out of it. with the help of sissy of course. note the deer in headlights look upon her face.

Super Excited

About my new sunhat design. I feel like I have been spamming facebook too much with my posts, but I just want everyone to see how totally sweet these little numbers are. I sold one, too, to one of my best friends yesterday, because she simply put it on her daughter and it was just too cute to resist.

Without further ado..

MeeMee, Ya, that's Meeeee

Yes, Mee Mee. And that would be ME, ME *waving and jumping*.
My Itty baby girl calls me MeeMee instead of Mommy, and I kind of love it. I especially love it because she has been calling me Mommy and Momma for quite some time and my son didn't say that til he was like 18 months old. But MeeMee. That just melts me heart. (said with a pirate voice)

Ya.

That's the other one. She answers everything with YA now. OH MY GOODNESS. so cute.
"Sissy, do you want to eat?" "Ya."
"Did you make poopoo?" "Ya."
"Do you love your Bubba?" "Ya."

I can't stand it...it's so cute.
No walking yet...but she sure does know how to get around, that one.


Lastly, we totally believe in teaching the babes the correct names for their "private parts" in fact, we don't use the words private parts either. So sonny boy was leaving off the VA part of the female anatomy off when he would say it, but I would just say, No, it's VA-gina...
anyhoooos. He started putting VA infront of everthing...like, VaPenis. Va-yotion (va lotion). Vamac&cheese..ya.
sooo
We went on a walk the other night. I was pulling the kids in their wagon. we start to pass a house where someone is weeding their garden. guess who decides it's time to say the word correctly? That's right. That would be little man...
i was mortified, and rightly so. i really hate the word...and quickly changed the subject to dogs. followed closely by a chorus of little bitty voices "woofing" in the wagon.

Boy oh boy...

I am so tired. I think the hubby and I have just fallen into this really bad habit of going to sleep so late and waking up so early...it's finally catching up with me. I slept later than my kids today. I was awakened...like at 8:30 this morning by the screeching of a baby girl...trying to mimic the birdies outside her window. This was followed closely by the more masculine screeching of her two year old brother (lol) trying to mimic the sounds of sissy through his wall.

It actually is one of the cutest things. Listening to the babes "talking" through the wall.

Our girl is such a chatterbox. We ask her what a doggie, kitty, and monkey say, and she makes the sounds. We were at my parents house yesterday and went outside to pet their boxer, Hattie. Before I know it, little Lady is saying, "Haaddie" she loves to learn new words. She was all over the word "Egg" at Easter, only she said it, "Eck".

I am officially addicted to facebook. It is really crazy to me that you can find people you went to elementary (why?) middle and high school...and re kindle friendship! I go on there "just for a few minutes," only to be caught up in status, new friends and inbox messages. So fun.

We are looking forward to the egg hunt for the kids on Saturday. It was cancelled this past Sat because of rain...so here's to crossing fingers that little lady will be walking by then! :)

This last weekend we made such a kickin' recipe for dinner..I think I will incorporating it into either a weekly or twice a month meal for us. Greek tacos. I will post the recipe soon. All I have to say is warm pita bread, tomatoes, cukes, and ground turkey...okay and feta, and greek yogurt. YUM.

I am trying to restock my store. I feel like all I am doing is putting my hands on lots of little projects that haven't quite got finished. So slowly but surely items are being loaded onto Jenster76 . I really want to get more hats made, but that is taking a back burner right now to getting market bags and the like done. Soon I say, soon.

Have a great day!

Oh Happy Day...

Well, It's been some time I post again...so here I go.

Toddler Moment:

Okay, so some of you might remember my post on my myspace blog relating to the embarrassment and eyebrowraising that went on when little man invented the "F" word. If you didn't read and aren't quite familiar...here is an excerpt:

Friday, June 06, 2008
the F word
So..on with my story. My 17 month old, is learning to talk...so cute, he repeats every thing he hears. But this is not a story about him repeating a word he has heard. This is about him creating his own word (albeit a word already created in the "real" word) and using it to his heart's content...and his mommy, not so sure how to approach this one. (if at all)
I was grocery shopping with my two babes today. Gonna make Mexican food tonight so hubby said to grab some Dos Equis. So that is in the bottom of the basket. Josh starts saying "Foo fa" which in my previous post is his word for the moon in spanish. Then he starts saying, "Uck" because the shopping cart had some blackish smudge on the handle. I acknowledge both and pick up a bag of blue corn chips. (I'm no dummy, I used to watch Sesame Street with the two headed monster that puts two sounds together to make one word...I can see where this COULD go.) Then he goes, "Ho ho ho" which is my cue for singing the Ho ho ho hosanna, Ha ha hallelujah song...so I start singing away...(quite oblivious to the fact that I am in the grocery store until much later, I might add) All the while the little two headed monster is working on Foo fa and Uck in my little boy's head. I'm finishing the song off with "I've got the joy of the Lord..." ready to repeat the ho ho ho part when the tiniest voice in front of me starts saying....yup...you guessed it. F*** F*** F*** F***.
I'm standing in front of the ground beef...staring at my little man who is as proud as a peacock to have invented such an intriguing word, and yes, I am getting stares. I know I must look like a wreck on wheels...Two babies under two years old, singing about getting saved, with a six pack of beer in the cart and my boy practically shouting the F bomb. I may have had the "what? this isn't normal?" look on my face, but I was smiling on the inside. Oh how sweet is that innocence...

Well, that was then, and this is now...and we *think* he is using the word "Forgot" in front of almost EVERYTHING...like when I say, "Hey, where is your sippy?" He says "Oh I forget sippy." HOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWeeeeeeeever, it doesn't in the least bit sound like "Forget" it sounds like "EFFit" but not even effet...like full on...well you get the idea. So we are going through that again. And it's funny!! I mean...Hubby and I keep straight faces in front of little man, but we turn our heads and give the side glance to each other like, "Did you just hear that??"

Little ladybug is doing just fabulous!! She has an amazing vocab for just being one. I credit it to the fact that she has a Bubba that is constantly talking to her...and her momma won't shut up...and well, she's just brilliant. :) She learned "NO" waaayyyy earlier than sonny boy did...but that is to be expected if she wants to have any peace while playing with her toys. Her newest is "I love you." She says, "I uuuuv oooooo" presh.

Spring keeps having false starts over here. I just want Spring to "Bring it.." and bump out winter. We are going to dust off our bikes...buy a bike trailer, and hit the trails soon. I cannot wait to tow those two happy babes around on my bike!! It has been over two years since I have put the pedal to the metal on my Kona. Soon enough. In the meantime, a bunch of March Mommas and I are doing the Jillian Michaels 30 day Shred. Killllla!! Wow. that thing is brutal...when you haven't used your muscles in a while that is... *ahem.* I am going on day 7 today. I have been having trouble with my feet hurting while doing jumping jacks and jumprope...I thought it was my shoes so I bought new ones...and they hurt worse. I think I will continue to do the workout barefoot?? I had to quit midway yesterday because my feet hurt so bad. I was encouraged, however, because I took measurements yesterday and in 5 days of shredding, I have lost 2 1/2 inches!! that's pretty exciting!!

Watched the Changeling Friday night. Wow. That was a bit darker than we expected...but very good...just left ya kinda emptyish. It's long too. like 3 1/2 hours. I think we finished around 11:30 pm and the hubby pops in Cars...I was sooo tired, but he said he couldn't go to sleep on "that note"...

I have the cutest baby washcloths for sale in my shop right now...and I made a PRECIOUS preemie hat for Brooklyn Lorenz (check out her blog in my profile). I'm just waiting for her daddy to send me his addy!! I've never attempted one before, but I just had to...and it's adorable...will be even cuter atop her sweet little noggin.

I will post pics soon...sorry this got so long. Have a wonderful week!!

Busy Busy

Hello Folks!! Sorry I haven't posted in a while. My babe turned one on Tuesday and her big ol' honkin' party will be Saturday. Totally stoked. Gonna order a 6 foot sub for the occasion. Note to self: order sub.

I couldn't think of party favors that anyone would actually like...uh who really enjoys bringing home a bag of plastic toys??? No offense...I actually have enjoyed the bouncy rubber balls my son has received...and the bubbles, loved the bubbles...I digress. What I am trying to say is, I am copying someone on my birthboard and making huge cookie favors. I found a recipe on allrecipes.com...put 'er to the test last night...and made a huge mess. The instructions said to place one inch apart...welllll...let's just say I squeezed about ten huge cookies on the tray and we pretty much had one huge cookie in the end. Today I did better and only put four at a time on the tray...and o. my. golly. They are absolutely beautiful. Like cookie bouquet style. except without the stick. I still must ice on barriers and then flood them with glaze. OOOoooh I forsee hours of uninterupted cookie bliss in my future. Will post pics.

In regards to etsy...I have broken thru the 20 sales mark thanks to 23 wonderful buyers who found my products worthy of buyership...Is that even a word?? Anyhoo...sometimes you feel a little lost on Etsy...just one of a gazillion stay at home moms who crochet. Well, yesterday, I found that somebody featured me in their treasury... (Basically it takes a lot of effort to even get a treasury slot, and when you do, you start placing items from the zillions there are on etsy into your treasury.)And to top that, her treasury made it to the front page of etsy today!!! My humble little cotton washcloths were on the front page of etsy.com!!!!! I want to scream it makes me so happy!!

In other etsy related news, there is quite some buzz over my market bag...I sold two this week and am working on a very pretty sage and tan one now. I have three more lined up after this one, and some interest in a custom colored one as well. Now if only I could grow one more set of arms and hands....wonder if they sell them on etsy..oh wait I think they might.

If you are the praying kind, my little man and I both have a serious head cold...I'm starting to wonder if he's got the flu..dang play dates...and mom's who don't tell you that their kids are snotty and sick before you get to their house. Not. happy. But if you could say a little prayer for my boybug I would really appreciate it. oh. And also for his sissy that she stays well for her super sweet 1st birthday extraaaaaaaavaaaaaganza.

tootles

So ya..

I've got an idea for my blog. I wanna start a weekly post...What's For Dinner? I think that if I post my dinner ideas for the week, I will hopefully, give you guys some dinner ideas, and I maybe will get some from your comments!! Sometimes it is just really hard to pull it all together and get a healthy balanced meal on the table for a family with two of the harshest critics being 2 and under. I will start this next week...or maybe tomorrow, who knows.

In other news, my baby girl will be one on Tuesday. Time has passed so fast, and I have been in such denial all year. I think it has something to do with her being kinda smallish and dainty...when I nurse her, she still curls into this little newborn ball of love...and she still wears little clothes. Like size 3-6, or 6-9. So in my head I place the size as her age and there you have it...I am certifiable!!

She is just a sweet little thing. Loves babies, loves to eat, loves her momma, loooooves her daddy and her bubba. She tries to mimic almost everything I say to her...so I spend a lot of time repeating myself...just to hear her try to say things like, "Hippopautomus" Just kidding...but she tries to say things like "right there" "that one" "banana" "agua." She is so attuned to me, as I am on the phone throughout the day, she knows when I am going to hang up and she says, "Byee." even before I do or right as I do. funny.

Her party is coming up in a couple Saturdays!! I need to look into prices for a sub sandwich. I have determined to make this easy on me. I want a sandwich premade and chips and veggies. I am making cupcakes, and I haven't found the recipe for frosting that I want yet. I did, however, find the cutest little candy ladybugs at HobbyLobby to top the cupcakes...aww. Of course, I can't wait to take pics of them when they are done.

Etsy seems to be alive and kicking for me. I have had two order this month...and that's good because I hadn't had any orders since December. I am really on my way to 20 sales!! Woo hoo. Kind of exciting for a girl who had no idea this would be something I would be doing in September of last year!!

We've been sick over here...seems like lots of folks have. My son had it first, then my daughter, then of course I start to feel it coming on...and my hubby tells me he does too. Who gets to lay around and mope...for two days...and not take care of the kids...and send the other to the store with the kids while moping in bed...while the other is just as sick...OH, that would not be me. I think that guys just automatically think that because you are up and running that you must be better, or at least feel waaayyyy better than they do. Uh sorry bub. I was running a fever, running errands, and it took me twice as long to recover...in fact today I feel completely normal again. He did on Tuesday. Must. be. nice.

Well, I am pressing my luck this morning...the kids are both still asleep and I want to get going with my day.

Lovies to all,
Me

All done

Little lady just blows my mind sometimes!! She loves to eat just about anything, and for the last few weeks, I have been wondering if there is a cut off for how much she eats, or if she is just a bottomless pit!! The one and only sign language cue I have done for her all along is "all done" which my son really took to, but she hadn't done anything with.

Well, on Friday, I just kept putting more and more food on her little tray as she would eat it right up....I noticed her slowing down a bit, and finally, she looks at me, touches her little fingers together and brings them apart while saying, "Ah dieeen." PRESH. She just told me she was done!! I am loving this now, because she has a say in when enough is enough.

She is really working with the word BABY a lot too. The other morning she woke up, I laid her on the changing table, and the first thing she sees is a picture of her when she was first born. She says, Baayyyyba. I say it correctly for her, and she keeps practicing it until her sweet little voice says, "Baybee." Oh I just love it!

Little man is doing great as well. He just loves his toys, and he just loves his sister's toys too! I have to remind him to share with Sissy all the time, and pry his hands off her hands as he is trying to move her away from her own toys!!

He is so awesome with his alphabet, he is constantly pointing out the letters anywhere he sees them. I have to be on my guard because he will say it until I acknowledge I see it too. He can identify all his capital letters, most his lower case letters, and me being the former teacher that I am...He also is saying their phonetic sound as well. I think I have a baby Einstein on my hands.

I'm working on a diet. Ya, I haven't really mentioned it before, but I am. It has been two weeks now, and I feel really good. I must admit though, that I did indulge in some junk food this weekend, and I don't feel like I ruined everything! I am back on track today, eating my one egg spinach omelet, plain yogurt and blueberries for breakfast!! The hubs and I both feel sooo much better when we are eating right. So far I have lost 8 lbs. I have many more to go, and I will keep you posted as to my progress in a once a week update.