Oscar's baby clothes quilt

Oscar's baby clothes quilt
Originally uploaded by Hillary Lang

I have a mountain of sweet onesies with stains I've been working on so long, that they don't fit Baby O. anymore! I thought it would be the perfect thing to chop them all into squares and make a quilt. And genious miss hillary did it years ago! I love that she used the white as an entire square - I was wondering what to do with the white!

I have little piles from each of my three kids.... Do I make one for each of them? or one for me with all three? hmmmm...

A Spring Flower Offering?

My kids were playing in the back yard yesterday, and when I peeked to check on them, I found this! Oh my gosh, it was so beautiful, I couldn't stop taking pictures. It looked like it was a world away from our sodden Portland spring. Maybe an Indian flower offering. I'm hoping it will usher in spring in our part of the world.

The kids thought the flowers that had already fallen from the camellia tree were so beautiful! Miss Mae even called the really dead one in the middle, "the golden one". I think they have the right outlook on life. Just because these blooms are not in their prime on the tree doesn't make them any less beautiful. In fact it makes them MORE beautiful. More interesting. More full of character... I took about 1000 photos, but trimmed them down to add to flickr if you'd like to see more.

Tea Party Invitations

A graphic designer friend I used to know used to say, "I'm the best because I only use the BEST art, and the BEST photographers. Now I can find both at istock. I adore this site. Everyone most likely knows this, but it is the BEST resource for original art out there. Everything is very affordable, too! (although when I started using it, everything was $1, and now some are as high as $25! shocking!) I usually stick to the vector illustrations and the photos. These are some of the vector illustrations I found that I thought would be fun for a tea party. I used the comp versions to play around with layout - old fashioned cut and paste. Miss Mae thought we should make ALL of them, and send each friend their own. I convinced her it was a better idea to go with one. This is the one we decided upon:

I can honestly say I have NEVER seen a sweet little girl wearing a teacup skirt with a saucer hat standing on a sugar cube, while catching tiny sugar cubes with her spoons. TOO great. The card is a yummy off white, and the envelope Miss Mae's favorite: PINK.

spring is here

If you ask my Miss Mae when her birthday comes, she says, "when the cherry blossoms bloom!" and look! they are blooming! These are actually plum blossoms, but they are pink. And they are blooming! Portland in the spring time is wet and blustery and cold... and often grey. But the trees start blooming and it is like there are these sparkling globes of pink and white and purple everywhere. The gorgeous blooms will eventually start to fall, and left are pink and white and purple puddles splashed all over the grey sidewalks and streets. Sometimes I feel like we have jumped into one of Mary Poppin's sidewalk drawings.

It means the days are lengthening, and the warm weather is around the corner. And so is Miss Mae's birthday! This year we are having a dress up tea party! I'll post the process over the next few days.

Gorgeous. Art.

Isn't this STUNNING? My dear friend Shannon, sent me to this artist on etsy, and OH. MY. I could just stare at it for hours. There are more, too, that she sells as prints. The originals are: Paper, Pencil, Ink, and Digital color. She calls them illustrations, so I imagine they have stories to go with them. Don't you create your own story with every image? I do. WOW.

I blog on another site that I belong to - I've written about it before - Mamapreneurs. I posted there, about my plan of attack for keeping this house and this family together and working towards our common goal, similar to my blog post here. After the follow up post, a really incredible woman wrote on HER blog about MY post and added the best information. I think the attitude adjustment is a daily reminder! I feel like I'm doing great, and then we start to tilt and slide. Then I bolster up the other side and we start slipping the other way.

I had a really great talk with a dear friend the other day, and we were talking about this point in our lives. She said she felt like all of the big moments in life had already happened to her: falling in love, getting married, having babies.... And that her life was pretty much for the kids now. It made me think about my reality. I think it is SO easy to get overwhelmed when we are in the moment. Some days I feel like I missed the part where I signed up to be a cook and housekeeper. I want nothing more than to stay home with my kids, but frankly the other part of it stinks. I imagined playing all day with the kids, doing craft projects, going for walks, spending afternoons at the art museum meandering through the lovely installations. In real life, I'm lucky if we make it out of the house more than just to drop off or pick up someone from school or go to the grocery store. No one comes along to clean up the crafting messes and spend hours scrubbing the paint out of the kids' clothes. No one has dinner ready when we stroll back in after a day at the museum.

The only way to make it through these times is to hold on to the fleeting seconds of wonderment, the lovely smiles and belly laughs that bubble out of my kids even when I'm carrying a giant tower of laundry. I know they are going to be big and gone so fast. I know I am SO BLESSED to have them. I know the fact that Miss Mae just shoved a pencil through the front of her dress is going to be funny some day, and I'll wish I had my baby girl to hold on my lap while she cries about how much she loves her little ruined dress.

It is so easy to think that what is happening right now is going to be my reality for ever. It isn't. Just like those difficult days when Mr. H. was a baby seemed like that WAS my life are gone now. He is 6 1/2 years old already!!

I simply have to focus. I have to step away from the computer and JUST PLAY. I have to allow the mountain of laundry to sit quietly in the corner and not loom and jeer at me. I have to not obsess over how much I am NOT accomplishing, and realize that my accomplishments are THEM. And I'm not going to get a second chance with them.

So here is to living in the NOW! Here is to letting go of all of the voices telling me how I'm not doing enough. Here is to realizing how quick this time in my life really is, and that I'm not going to get it back here is to MY attitude adjustment!!

I am a HUGE fan of Denyse Schmidt. She is a RISD girl - I just love saying that... and so immensely talented and gifted. She makes quilts perfect. Not perfectLY, but makes them PERFECT. She is hosting a new batch of classes that I would adore attending - alas, making it to Bridgeport, Connecticut for a class is a bit beyond my capabilities at this point. If you are closer, GO!

My mom gave me this book when it was first published, and I went through and did a good number of the projects.

I'm not a fantastic sewer, and I learned SO much by working through them. I think they are still relevant today - isn't it funny to think they wouldn't be 2 years later? Seems things really come in and out so fast these days.

Gorgeous.

This woman is insanely gifted! And who would have thought a person could make desert bars for a living?! DREAM. JOB. They are simply stunning. and they are DESSERT BARS. Oh my.

Check them out:

Amy Atlas

and make sure you check out her portfolio - click on eye candy.

I can go to bed happy knowing these tables exist.

St. Patrick's Day A Little Early

Word To My Peeps...

My father-in-law loves Peeps. Every year, my mother-in-law buys a couple of packages, opens them, and puts them away until Easter. Easter morning, they are crunchy - sort of like a Lucky Charms marshmallow - just the way he likes them!

I received this book from my dear friend Susy for my birthday - I LOVE IT! It is SO well done - who knew Peeps could be used in so many ingenious ways?? She uses the funny little marshmallow candies beautifully, and really, the recipes are great - Peeps or no Peeps! We'll be pulling this book out every year for our Easter celebrations.

Helping Our Kids Schedule Their Time

I've made these checklists for our kids to help organize our morning and evening routines. Ours has two boxes - one for Miss Mae and one for Mr. H. I've laminated ours and hung two dry erase pens right next to it, so they can check off each item as they complete them. I'm going to try to attach them here so you can download them and use them, too.
I'm having trouble getting them on here so you can print them out full size.... I'll figure it out and post them in a bit. If anyone has any pointers I'd love some help!!

We Fell Off the Wagon a Bit...

But we are getting back on track!
We didn’t exactly walk away from our plan, but I’ve come to realize that implementing my goals (please see my previous post about running my house like a business…) is going to take some intense work and focus to start out – especially with a new baby who seems to insist on being held all the time. I know that once we can really adopt the good habits, I will be able to step back more and more.
Here is how it went down: we did GREAT for the first week and a half, and yesterday I realized that I was beginning to feel that same overwhelmed feeling and wondering what I could delegate when I realized I HAD delegated, and we had fallen off of our “take responsibility for our house” wagon. One night of my husband getting home late and the kids needing to rush into the tub and skipping the house pick up slips into two days in a row, which slides into me thinking, “oh it is just easier to do it myself” and that familiar weight of, “how can I even start on my work when THAT pile needs to be addressed,” and “I can’t possibly tackle that pile until the room is picked up” and pretty soon my day is shot.
Upon much introspection, I realized I would never allow a team of 20 very able adults to just go off alone after ONE project set up meeting and assume we would all be on the same page and the project would run itself, so why was I assuming these little people would be able to do it?? Even though everyone was very tired tonight and we are all fighting off colds, and it would have been MUCH easier to just get the kids to bed, we sat down and had a quick refocus ‘meeting’, did a quick house pick up, and agreed that we’d have a real meeting tomorrow night.
It amazes me that as soon as one of the original agenda items starts to slide the others head down the same hill. I noticed we were all snapping comments at each other and there was a real feeling of exasperation by the time we were finished with dinner. Kids are SO reflective. As soon as WE start to feel overwhelmed and are affected by the chaos in our environment, our tempers shorten and flare, and the kids immediately snap right back. Not okay for any of us.
Our new game plan is a weekly meeting to check in with everyone and see how everyone is doing with their responsibilities, posted checklists for the kids for morning and night routines, and a nightly check of our family calendar so everyone is prepared for the next day. I will have to ‘enforce’ these routines for a while, but hopefully we’ll get to the point that it just IS what we do every night.
My personal goal is to organize MY time so that I am focused and calm and ready to help them every morning and night as we get into our routine, and not worried about finishing this or that, or going through my to do lists in my head instead of giving them the 100% they deserve. That is possible, right?

Incredible Looking Breast Pump

Can pumping really be this simple and cute??

When I pumped for 4 long months. Four LONG MONTHS. Let's call them INCREDIBLY long months, I used a giant pump that was in the shape of a cute black backpack. It was the simple and cute version for its day, but a dinosaur in comparison. Lugging that thing around was a gigantic pain. Not to mention the feelings of hatred I had for it. This sweet little pump is actually almost darling - I mean, even though it is a pump.

I KNOW pumps allow moms to return to work. I know my son wouldn't have been fed breast milk for five months of his life without one. I get it. But having the intimate relationship I did with my pump, I feel the right to proclaim my disgust. I couldn't be away from an outlet or car cigarette lighter for more than 4 hours at a time, I spent almost as much time with that pump as I did with my son, and don't get me started on what it feels like to BE PUMPED - physically and emotionally. WHOOOSH, whoosh. WHOOOSH, whoosh. WHOOOSH, whoosh. I swear sometimes I could hear words in that incessant sound.

Enough ranting. Check out this sweet little pump. Let me know if it really works. And imagine yourself being set free to pump, pump, pump!!

Valentine's Day Fun

I think Cupid threw up in our house.Once again, I imagined my kids making lovely little heart people and valentines and sweet little heart animals out of these heart shaped post-it notes.... I got wrapped up in something for a bit after I handed them each a little stack. Note to self: don't hand crafty goodness to kids without explaining the amazing creations you have in mind... and stick around to help!!

They really were funny, though. The dark pink are Mr. H., the light pink Miss Mae. Their game: only step on your own color. Much better than sweet little heart animals....

How To Take Great Photos of Your Kids!

Campbell Salgado makes me happy. I first heard about them when I was pregnant with my second baby. One of my friends told me I should have some preggo photos taken, and I thought, "NO WAY!!" First of all, I look HORRIBLE this giant, and second, why on earth would I want to look at them in the future!? Well I was incredibly wrong, and thankfully, I have the photos to prove it. I went in very apprehensive thinking I wouldn't have any revealing photos taken, and I ended up feeling completely comfortable with Francisco, and actually feeling PRETTY and happy with my gigantic body. I did my photo session with my then two year old son, and our photos together are an absolute treasure. We have pics of him showing my belly a toy, and kissing my belly and us giving each other giant hugs among others.

If I could go to their studio once a month to capture my growing babies I would. Their photos are magic! We went back as a family when my baby Miss Mae was born, and then again for her first birthday. I'm hoping to schedule another session when Baby O. can sit up, so we can capture all of his yummy meatballness.

Their process from beginning to end is like having life long friends photograph you...., well, like you are a rock star who has amazing photographer life long friends. I felt so at ease, as did my kids, and I felt like it was really US being photographed, not me racing around trying to make sure every hair was in place and praying we get a good shot in our 20 minute time slot. At the same time though, this entire studio and photographer are focused on US - very rock star for me. If you can, GO THERE.

AND, now they have a great blog!! And they are sharing tips for taking photos of our kids ourselves! How lovely and generous of them! I think I may just get out a sheet and take photos of the kids on the next sunny day!