Costume Contest Winner

What a great costume! and great photos! She is who we voted for, too, and she won! And what did she win? She won one of my very favorite Flipside Hats from Cat in an Apron! I've been talking to the very cool mama of the little bride, and I could NOT be happier that the hat is going to her. Check out HER blog, as well, Scrappin' Hillbilly. Makes me happy.

New Blankets!

YAY! I have a new batch of blankets finished! I'll try to get them up on the website today. They are so incredibly soft - I'm really happy with how they turned out. I could just swim in these lovely prints.

Hunger Monster Cure

What a fantastic idea! I don't know how many times I'd run out the door thinking I couldn't eat another bite, and then as soon as I drove out of the driveway, I'd be STARVING. In nine months of being pregnant, I never did get the whole "eating small meals all day long" thing down. The idea of having these in my purse and just grabbing a container of milk whenever that hunger monter hits is SO GREAT!

AAAHHH caffeine!

My husband had to go back to work last night. He is so awesome (yes i SAID it, AWESOME) that he comes home after work, eats dinner with us, gives the kids a bath, gets them ready for bed, reads them books, THEN goes back to work. I hate that he has to work so late, so often, and I hate the architecture industry for making it necessary, and for paying SHIT wages, but I love that his priority is us.
Anyway, he went back to work, which means that I don't go to bed until he gets home. It makes no sense, but it is the way it is. He got home around 12:30, we got baby o. ready for bed, talked a little, etc., and before i knew it it was 2 a.m. Baby O. woke up to eat at 5:30ish, the kids woke up and went downstairs, only to start screaming "DAAAAD" 10 minutes later, and then we were all up for good. I was sitting at the kitchen table with my head in my hands trying to get up the energy to get in the shower, and Marc's cell phone rang. Now, when someone calls us after 9 pm or before 9 am, I always assume the WORST. Marc is fumbling around looking for his cell phone, and I'm thinking "Who died THIS time?? How am I going to explain it to the kids? What do I have to wear to a funeral??" And I'm running through the list of people who it could possibly be.
Turns out it is our neighbor. He is calling to ask if he can BRING. US. STARBUCKS. because he is walking over anyway. Seriously?!? How fantastic is that?! It completely turned my day around. I stepped out of the shower to my husbands hand jutting into the bathroom holding the beautiful drink! And the cups are the snowflake holiday design!! I felt like bundling everyone up and going for a walk in the SNOW to sing Christmas carols. I'm this easy to please.
I tried to avoid Starbucks for a long time while I was working. I was trying to go the whole "Starbucks is too corporate, and a sell out, etc. etc." In my old age I've accepted that some things just work, you know? and i LIKE them! Starbucks makes me happy. Maybe it isn't GOOD coffee to a connoisseur. Maybe they are more marketing than service or product. and yes there is one on every corner, and i should be supporting the local shops (i do this, too). But, OH, how Starbucks can make me happy! The steaming, creamy chai tea latte warms me and seriously makes my day!

Sew Mama Sew - Handmade Holidays!

I LOVE to read about all the lovely things they are making over at Sew Mama Sew. I don't see any time to actually try any of them in my near future, but in a couple of years, when the kiddos are a little older, i'll be ALL over them!

And I LOVE their fabric, too!

Pilates post pregnancy

I'm looking for a good POST preggo pilates dvd. I did this one through my whole pregnancy this time: Pilates for Pregnancy. It was very NOT challenging, but I was proud of myself for doing it at all as I did not work out at ALL with my first two babies. Now I would like to find one that is specific to getting a post preggo body back into shape. I'm terribly worried the third one did the final damage that I won't be able to recover from!! I worked out around 2 weeks after baby O. was born, and it was pretty easy - I was happy that I had worked out throughout, but now we are at SIX weeks, and I've been so sleep deprived that I've totally slacked off. I'm starting again.
Here's a whole list on amazon.
I'll check them out AFTER I do my regular pilates dvd... ugh.

Thank You Gifts

The sweet kids in Mr. H's class made a beautiful poster when Baby O. was born. Each one signed it, and I know it will be a real treasure when they are older and look back at their kindergarten scrawlings. We have it hanging in Baby O.'s bedroom (even though he has yet to sleep in there...). We were so touched we decided to put together a little thank you gift for the kids. Each one of these little bundles has two tulip bulbs in it. I used tissue paper I already had cut into squares from Miss Mae's birthday party, ribbon from Patty's baby shower, and stickers I bought on a whim and hadn't used yet. I'm happy with how they turned out, and I hope the kiddos all go home and plant the bulbs so that next spring they'll remember Baby O.'s birth!

Vote for one of the great costumes!

One of these darling kiddos will win a bloggeritaville prize for best costume - including a Flipside Hat from Cat in an Apron! Hurry and vote today:
Tales from Bloggeritaville

Hormonal Emotional Tides.

I'm having the craziest moments of incredible joy and sadness due the great tides of my post preggo hormones. I thought I'd keep a few for posterity....

First "it brings me to tears":

The idea of my daughter trick or treating, walking up to a house and selecting the perfect candy out of the giant bowl of brightly colored boxes. She chooses RED, because it is her favorite color, but has no idea it is a box of RED HOTS, because she can't read.

When I found the red hots in her candy bag this morning, I actually cried.

Yay! A new Lord England webisode!

And Lady England smacks the Lord.

Lord England opening lyrics

He's not English, he's an anglophile,
and he calls his mommy mum,
He converts his dollars into pounds,
and he beats his redcoat drum,
Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord England!

Just in case it is stuck in your head, too, and you need ALL of the words...

The Lego Party

I'm still recovering from the weekend of events and company. YES, I know it is Friday! Everything is taking 3 times as long these days. We had Mr. H's party here on Saturday and what a great success! The boys from his class are freaking adorable, and we thoroughly enjoyed every minute with them. I kept seeing every little moment as snapshots that we would look back on in 12 years of these men as babies. We have pictures of my brother and his friends as little guys and their round baby faces I knew so well as adults. My mom said "you are going to turn around and these little guys will be here for their prom!" Probably don't have to mention the tears that came along with that conversation!

We handed the boys their little take-out box of legos as they walked in the door. They grabbed them, plopped themselves down on the floor and started making really great cars! I thought they would need some help, but not one of them asked for any help at all. Here are some shots of the race track Marc made.

I had imagined each race would have a winner, who would get a prize, and then we would discuss WHY that car was the winner, and "which tires go faster?", and "why do you think that car won??" yeah, NO. It was so incredibly loud with their screams, and they were jumping up and down and racing each other to get back to the head of the track. It was great! He made the whole track out of scrap pieces we had around, and propped it on a plastic shelving unit from the basement.

Want to see the pictures of my awesome lego cake with fondant icing?? Yeah, I chickened out AGAIN, and ordered cupcakes from my favorite place in town - St. Cupcake (or St. Crackcake, as I like to call them), and OOOOOOh were they delicious. Thank goodness I decided to do that as Baby O. decided to stay up most of the night before, and I was practically delirious by the time the party rolled around anyway.

GREAT list

This is a really great, great list of beautiful toys that I wish my kids had grown up playing with. We tried really hard to go the "no plastic" route, but failed pretty miserably! If you are doing any holiday shopping for little ones, you should definitely check out this site first!

Lord England

LOOOVE this! I could watch it over and over and over. It is too freaking funny. OH MY!

I grew up with this guy, and adore him and his lovely wife!

LEGO birthday party!

My sweet little baby Henry is turning SIX YEARS OLD next week. How can this possibly be?? We usually have pretty huge birthday parties for the kids - I'm not talking about pony rides and hired musicians and that sort of nonsense, but we usually invite all of our friends, and really 'do it up' as I've heard they say in the South. I'll post some of the parties we've done later as they were great fun! This year we are having a Lego party for Mr. H., and limiting the guest list to family and the boys in his class. It is always hard having a birthday at the beginning of the year - the big friendships haven't been formed yet, and it is awful to exclude anyone. Luckily, there are 8 boys in his class, and we can invite them all.
We went to the Lego store and bought a package of a million wheels and axles and such, along with tons of loose Legos. Each little guy (and Miss Mae, she keeps reminding me) will get the same amount of Legos and wheels from which to fashion some sort of vehicle with which we will have races! My husband (a self proclaimed 'gear head') spent most of last weekend making a ramp with three lanes, complete with giant numbers shouting out the lanes, for the boys to race their Lego cars. It looks fantastic, and I hope the kids love it as much as Marc does! The boys can then take home their car and leftover Legos, as well as any 'prizes' they win during the races, as their party favors.
As I am NOT a baker, and I usually am focused on the other components of the kids' parties, I've never even attempted to make their cakes. Every year I toy with the idea, then think, "Hell, people do this for a LIVING. Let's buy one." We've had gorgeous ones in the past, including cupcakes with cherry blossoms, a volcano oozing with melted redhots and covered with dinosaurs, and a treasure chest with candy necklaces and gold coins spilling out... But I'm really excited about the idea of actually making a cake this year! I'm not going to go crazy and actually make the cake from SCRATCH or anything, but I'm going to stack pieces into the shape of a couple of giant Legos, and MAKE FONDANT FROSTING! YES!! I've always wanted to, and I think this is a nice baby step - just a big rectangle with a couple of cylinders on top, right?? My friend is coming to the rescue with all of the cake pans and expertise. Plus I've been searching the internet for instructions on fondant. This is a great tutorial: Joe Pastry -scroll down a bit to get to the layer cake instructions.
I looked up a million other Lego cakes, but they are almost always made with a spread cream frosting, and just look messy! I love buttercream frosting, but a Lego should really be completely smooth i think. I'm going to give it a try. if it turns out terribly, I'll run to the store, get a sheet cake, and make a Lego vignette on top!!