A Sad Day...

I've come to a decision that has been bubbling for some time now.  I haven't been posting because I've been trying to figure out WHAT is going to happen with Cat in an Apron.  After many tears and lists and pacing, I've decided to close it down.  I'm working on new things, and I'm going to keep this blog open after all. I still have so many things I see every day that I would like to share.  I'd love it if you would stick around with me and see the new blog and the new direction.

I'm working on a giant sale to finish the rest of our inventory.  I'll have the details VERY soon.  And I'll share the new project I've been working on as well.

Cheers to you all, and thank you so much for supporting Cat in an Apron!

Proud Moment

My husband turned on the T.V. in another room this morning.  The announcer's voice was blamming on about what I thought was the superbowl (clearly I'm not into sports...).  He called to my daughter:  "Mae, come see what these girls are doing!!" 

I thought, "this is it! This is the moment where she is being told to watch the cheerleaders and not the MEN playing the sport".  My  heart sank, but I rationalized it with, "well, those professional cheerleaders ARE amazing athletes, and just because they are wearing short skirts doesn't make them any less of an athlete," along with the other litanies I had repeated to myself and anyone else who would listen when *whispering* I was a cheerleader. 

*Okay, I was never THAT kind of cheerleader!*

I told myself we weren't endangering her gender realities or her self image or feelings about the condition of her bellybutton for the rest of her life, because they are just cheerleaders!  and they ARE girls!!  And it is okay for girls to be cheerleaders!! But I was also planning a loooong lecture on her ability to play ANY sport, including cheerleading if that was her desire because girls aren't relegated to the sideline sports...  blah, blah, blah....

I turned the corner into the living room wiping my hands and preparing to start my amazing mother lecture series to see a ladies' moguls competition on that damn t.v.!!!  My husband hadn't called her in to see cheerleaders (not that there is anything WRONG with that) at ALL!!  He was showing her how those skiers were leaning forward and, "see how fast they turn??" and "YOU could ski like that, too, Mae!"

I'm a proud mama and a proud wife.  Those bumps skiers kicked ass.  And so does my husband.

Baby Jesus and Mr. O.

 

This is Baby Jesus.   He is my son's lovey.  None of my kids have ever had a 'blankie' or a specific lovey that they couldn't sleep without.  Until now.  Until Baby Jesus.  Our Mr. O. has always loved babies, and when his big sister took all of hers back, he was left with NONE.  That is until he found Baby Jesus.  Baby Jesus is just about two inches tall and came in the arms of his mother, Mary:

 

She was a gift from the kids' Fairy God parents.  Mary is safely tucked away in Miss Mae's room, but Mr. O. has taken Baby Jesus and will. not. let. go.  He can't sleep without him.  He sets a place for him at our table.  He buckles him into his stroller and pushes him around.  He calls him, "Baby Jesus."  He feeds him with a doll bottle that is two times his size.  Did I mention Baby Jesus is 2" tall?!  

It is very, very, sweet but DOES solicit quite a few giggles from all of us. "Don't throw Baby Jesus!"  and "Uh-oh, we lost Baby Jesus again!"  And every night before drifting off to sleep, O. says, "I love you Baby Jesus."

We all adore Baby Jesus but I was afraid he would lose him for good and would be devastated.  I also thought he needed a baby that would fill his arms - one he could really snuggle with all night.  We found this amazing woman on etsy.  She also writes a lovely blog that I would like to escape into for even just one day.  To be able to make the things she makes!!!  Find her at Driaa.  She was a dream to work with and makes personal dolls, too.  She'll make them perfect for your little person down to the embroidered shoes and hand knitted sweaters!  Look at Queen Elizabeth!!

(Mr. O. was asleep when he arrived in the mail and I ripped him out of bed to open the package.  He was a little groggy and grumpy...):

 

This is how our  new baby arrived, complete with a sweet sewn heart on a ribbon:

 

and he came with his own personal blanket!!

 The new baby is yet to be named, but he is clearly part of our family now.  Baby Jesus is still #1 in Mr. O.'s heart, but that is kind of how it should be!

A Fun Little Summer Incentive

I've been stewing an idea for a summer "incentive" chart and wondering how to draw swirly lines and how many steps I would need to get us through the summer, when inspiration hit.  Okay, my husband hit - as usual (and not in the "he only hits me when I deserve it" creepy kind of way from Natural Born Killers that I'm still too afraid to watch) - he said, "oh, you mean like an old Chutes and Ladders game board?"  Genius!  Chutes and Ladders turned out to be way too rectilinear and in fear of his head growing *too* large, plus the idea of having to hit a chute and slide back to the beginning after working so hard to get ahead defeating the purpose, I thought Candy Land would be the perfect path for our summer to follow.  I found this image of the original board online, and thought it was exactly what I was looking for.  I edited it up a bit, replacing the dancing kids with ours, and adding our prizes along side the yummy candy spots.

We have a Lego fanatic in our house which translates to giant abandoned piles of the little plastic shards around our house like the churned earth tailings that are left after gold mining.  This Lego fanatic is now old enough to handle cleaning it all up himself, but could use the help of a goal or two.  We are also working on speaking nicely to each other, not interrupting, focusing and a myriad of other typical child / parent issues that could be smoother.

The apparently now defunct Didj is a *huge* obsession with our kids, still, and during one of Leapster's ginormous sales, I scooped up a bunch of 75% off games and cases and covers and have them in a basket as the incentives.  These along with a movie out, an ice cream shop visit and the "big, big surprise" (which means I couldn't think of the final goal) will hopefully entice the kiddos into perfection.  No, I'm not holding my breath, but it will give us a goal!  The kids will move their markers along the customized Candyland gameboard every day as they clean up, or do something without being asked, or will have to move backwards if they slip up.  Hopefully it will be fun, and we'll all be cleaner and nicer by the time school starts.

*update* sorry for the spelling mistakes.  I really did fix them once - somehow they were lost in cyberspace - thank God for spell check!

Homer Price and His Doughnut Machine

My son's class was reading Homer Price

in his first grade class and they decided they MUST act the entire thing out, and Mr. H. of COURSE volunteered to make the doughnut machine for the play!  He assured everyone it would be SO easy and even built a model for us to follow:

With some help from his dad's recycling room at his office and a pinkie swear that the machine would NOT return to our house after the play, we set to work!  We first watched this video from youtube.com to understand the scope.

This is only part one, and there are THREE parts if you are so inclined.  We weren't.  But we did watch enough to build the doughnut machine out of cardboard!

The kids did a GREAT job with their play!  And someone ELSE got to take the machine home!  Win, win!

A Princess and The Pea Party Invitation

My daughter's 5th birthday was this weekend. We had a lovely Princess and the Pea Party. I am incredibly lucky that one of my favorite people in the world, and the mama of my daughter's good friend is a fantastic photographer! She took the most gorgeous photos - they made me cry. It was two hours of crafting and story telling and good girl friends - those first girlfriends at 5 years old - yummy food and some more crafting and general celebrating. For ME it was worrying that everyone was having fun and happy and not escaping through a back door or something, and before I knew it, it was over. NOW, though, I look at her stunning photos and my memories are of a magical, almost slow motion, perfect two hours of princessy fun! (We also took some photos, but ours pale SO much in comparison, that instead of showing them, I'm going to wait for hers to post here.) I'll share the "getting ready for it" parts, though.

I'll start with the invitation. I ADORE using sewing and fabric in different media. I've made a few invitations this way, but this is by far my favorite so far. Here is a close up of the PEA.(I know it looks funny to blur out our info, but I'm still leery of all of that.) I love the imagery of the towering bed with loads of different fabrics. I knew I wanted the invitations to be tall and thin. Paperzone here in Portland has a line of blank invitations that I keep going back to. The colors are perfect, the weight is great, and I love all of the different proportions they offer. It is called PZ facets. It seems you can't order anything from the website, which is too bad, but if you have one near you, GO.

Here is the first sketch I did:The gorgeous font I used is from Dirt 2. He is SO talented! All of the fonts are free for personal use, or available to purchase for commercial use. I used The Quickest Shift. SO scroll-y and perfect without being too sweet. He also has gorgeous photoshop brushes!! I used a few of the Secret Garden brushes for the details in the bed posts and feet - you can't really see what it is, but I know they are there, and I love them. I can't wait to figure out what to REALLY use them for.

I did a bit of a tutorial on flickr if you are at all interested in making invitations like this. If you want ANY other information, I'm always happy to share.

*Stephanie's photography page had her old blog as the link.  I've updated it to the real one:  http://stephaniebryanphotography.com/ **

Tissue Paper Hearts

Miss Mae and I made these for a couple of her friends for a party she went to today. I saw them on Crafty Crow, and they brought back so many memories of when I was young!We used leftover pizza boxes (that I, AHEM, found), lined one side with some pretty valentine-y paper, glued the tissue to the other side, punched a hole in and tied it up with a pretty, spring-y green ribbon.

The party was a KICK! She actually went to TWO Valentine's parties this year! What a lovely idea to have a Valentine's party. I hope we can do this in a couple of years when things slow down a bit here... I hope to get the pics of the parties up tomorrow - so incredibly sweet.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Everything is all ready to go for making Valentines:Miss Mae's friends: Mr. H's: and:

I believe I have a glitter/glue/horrible-scissors-that-hurt-my-hand/tissue paper hangover.

Happy Valentine's day to you all! (is it St. Patrick's Day yet?!)

Surprise Plates

Do you have words or phrases that are part of your consciousness - part of you - but you haven't spoken them since you were a child? Surprise plates are that for me. When I was very young my brother and I would make "surprise plates" for each other. If either of us was feeling low or ill, we would put a little of this and a little of that on a plate with a paper towel over it to hide its contents until the other one would whip off the towel and say "SURPRISE!"
My sweet Miss Mae is home from school today, and my first thought was "surprise plate!!"

Another one is "Fishy-toe-bite" but that is another story.

New Year's Resolution: Feed My Family

I've never been one for New Years' Resolutions. I've never understood why anyone would wait for ONE time of year to make changes in their lives. This year, however, it coincides perfectly with what is going on with us. There's been a natural break in our schedules and it is a perfect time to start. There are SO many reasons this is so important to our family: we need to save money, we need to eat healthier, I need to get my head on straight. That last one is the biggie - the last thing I need right now is to try to figure out what to feed everyone at the last minute. This is when I give up and tell my husband to bring something home for dinner!

This is a before shot of just a tiny bit of my recipe books piled high with little corners bent over on the pages of yummy recipes I'd like to try. Let's just say I haven't opened one of them since I bent the little page over!I sat down and ripped out every recipe I think would work for us, put them in plastic sheet protectors,and made a binder for all of our family meals. I can take them out and move them around by the week or by dish or by season - anything I want.

I bought this darling little calendar from Clementine NW (LOVE THEM!!)

It stays in my recipe binder and every Sunday night I'm sitting down to plan out the week's meals. If I can swing it I go grocery shopping for the week on Sunday, so far it has been Monday morning. This will work!!!

I know tons of you plan out your menu's for the week ahead - do you have any great tips to help me!?

Happy Thanksgiving Weekend

I sit here happily grateful for my lovely little family. How did I get so lucky? I think my feeling are best expressed by my son's Lego representation of our family. My mom should be very proud of her little hottie image and my husband is not quite as gangsta as the outfit implies, but does tend toward baseball caps on the weekends!

A Little Halloween Inspiration....

Still need an outfit for tonight?? Here is some Mr. H. inspiration.

We have Cleopatra, King Tut, and the most adorable mummy you've ever seen in our house. Watch for photos later.

Where The Wild Things Are?

Anyone else conflicted on this one? It looks SO uplifting and SO exciting, and my little adventurer is sure to recognize a kindred spirit, but will those wild things come back when they are alone in their room, in the dark, at night? If you've seen it with your kids, will you tell me what they think?

Swaddle Blanket Giveaway

As my baby is getting ready to turn ONE, I found this photo of him sleeping soundly in his swaddle at EIGHT MONTHS OLD! Swaddles are truly miraculous - the answer to all sleeping woes. Babies love to be all snug as bugs. He is a big boy, and still fit into our swaddle blankets at 8 months! This one is called O'Henry Swaddle Baby Blanket - Blue Green Clusters.

And because I'm feeling all warm and snugly thinking about my swaddled baby, I'll give one of these swaddle blankets away! You can even choose the print. Respond to this post before Saturday night at midnight (Pacific time) and I'll draw one of you at random. If you subscribe, post that and I'll give you another entry. If you post this in your blog, post your address and I'll give you ANOTHER entry!

Princesses

As I was reading to my kids tonight, I asked them what they wanted for Christmas. I've been thinking of things I can make or find that are made. We are making a gigantic effort to finally cut down on the amount of presents that are given to our kids. When our first baby was born, we had all of the lovely ideals about only having organic, natural toys, and not giving in to the mad commercial crush of noisy plastic toys. As the years went on, we seem to have lost our resolve, because our house is completely cluttered with blinking plastic!! We've spent most of the weekend going through all of this clutter and getting rid of everything we can. How do all of those teeny tiny toys and pieces of toys multiply so fast? We were literally dumping plastic bins full of worthless junk into garbage sacks (some bound for goodwill). We are making a place for everything so the kids can be successful keeping their areas neat. We are absolutely NOT buying anything from Mattel, which is MOST commercial toys, because of their complete lack of integrity and care for the safety of our kids. I'm going to make as much as I can, and we are going to buy handmade.

In answer to my Christmas question, Mr. H. starting listing, at a frequency so high I think he woke up the neighborhood dogs, every single Lego set under the sun. He also made up prices for each one even though he has no idea how much any of them cost or which ones cost more than others. YES I'm holding on to these days as long as I can. And thank GOD Mattel doesn't own LEGO!!

Miss Mae answered, "princesses." I started to think of lovely princessy capes and crowns, and she started describing SNOW WHITE. Puffy sleeves and all. I knew this day would come - she has never been interested in Disney princesses - but I hoped it wouldn't. And it is here. She went on and on and on about all of the Barbies (Mattel) and Disney princesses (MATTEL!!) So I'm scouring Etsy for a better version of princesses. A kinder, gentler version. Here are a few I've found and want for her:

This lovely pink hand felted crown by curlylulu!

Ooooo! and this great print by artelf!

This sweet Sparkly Crown Pink I Spy Bag by Cozy Things:

Sheila Lukins

Sheila Lukins the co-author of The New Basics and The Silver Palate Cookbook died on Sunday at age 66. I'm actually sitting here crying. My mom gave me her New Basics when I was in high school, and it is still my favorite cookbook. Even now when it is so easy to just print out a recipe and toss the paper in the recycling, I pull out her book first. I was just at a friend's house for dinner, and she too had this sitting on her shelf. These women taught so many of us to cook! I always imagined their sweet little shop in New York and thought one day I'd go there.

Not one recipe feels dated or makes me think "that is so 80's!" How many books can you say that about? Every single thing I've made from it turns out wonderfully.

It is a sad day to think she isn't here anymore, but what a legacy she has left in all of us! I know I feed my family and friends with meals she imagined for us.

Every single day I use a cookie cutter to cut out a shape from my kids' sandwiches. I cut the left over into pieces so it is like a little puzzle. I was terribly impressed with myself until I saw THIS! I'm not sure this would get Mr. H. off of our peanut butter and jelly jag, but SUPER cool sandwiches at Funky Lunch. Apparently they are releasing a book with instructions! I saw them at Cool Mom Picks, which I LOVE. You should subscribe.