My friend Sam posted this video on her blog (backtome.typepad.com....sorry blogger apparently has some linking kinks I can't figure out). Anyway, enjoy. Its hilarious.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Craft-o-rama
I opened an Etsy shop in February and realized I had poor timing. As in, no time to work on items to put in the shop. My initial plan was to make a lot of small items. My rationale was that smaller projects would take less time so I could put more items up more frequently. umm...that's not really working for me. I recognize that cranking out tons of small stuff will soon make me feel like a machine. I am now focusing on designing large pieces for Etsy, which is much more fun. These projects also take a long time. Somehow knowing I can't whip it up in an afternoon takes the pressure off.
My favorite big project is a knitted handbag in a tweed rib stitch. Its sweet.
So what happened to the smaller projects? This is the super fun part...Mark is helping me put together a craft blog. Yeah! Its in the planning phase at the moment, which is a nice way to fill small gaps of time during the day without too much commitment. When I have the opportunity to set aside time every day, the blog will be the space where I put up my small projects. So far I have a series of themes planned for each month of the year where I will feature histories, how-to's, how-not-to's (eg, my various blunders), and hopefully some inspiration. I'm also considering putting up a new knit stitch pattern each month, though I'm not sure how popular this would be. I'm a collector of stitch patterns so someone like me would love it. ;)
These are the monthly themes I have planned so far. They are in no particular order at the moment.
1. Decoupage (this might be my first month because I love my photo album to recipe books...you'll see)
2. Paper mache (likely to be my least successful series...a true craft experiment for me, but I want to make Isaiah a pinata at some point..hahaa )
3. Paper folding (endless possibilities)
4. Paper making (probably better if this is before paper folding month)
5. Magazine reed creations (I'm already rolling endless numbers of reeds after Isaiah goes to bed)
6. Candle making (my first attempt already taught me a few lessons)
7. Scrap yarn projects (probably another month that will appear sooner rather than later since I already have a number of ideas for this)
8. Scrap fabric projects
9. Knitting
10. Crocheting
11. Re-purposed crafts(think coffee cans and bottle caps)
12. Featured crafters (this is in hopes that I actually have a small following so that I can feature my favorite crafty friends and their shops, websites, and projects).
Who needs to go back to an office job when I have all of this to look forward to? ;)
My favorite big project is a knitted handbag in a tweed rib stitch. Its sweet.
So what happened to the smaller projects? This is the super fun part...Mark is helping me put together a craft blog. Yeah! Its in the planning phase at the moment, which is a nice way to fill small gaps of time during the day without too much commitment. When I have the opportunity to set aside time every day, the blog will be the space where I put up my small projects. So far I have a series of themes planned for each month of the year where I will feature histories, how-to's, how-not-to's (eg, my various blunders), and hopefully some inspiration. I'm also considering putting up a new knit stitch pattern each month, though I'm not sure how popular this would be. I'm a collector of stitch patterns so someone like me would love it. ;)
These are the monthly themes I have planned so far. They are in no particular order at the moment.
1. Decoupage (this might be my first month because I love my photo album to recipe books...you'll see)
2. Paper mache (likely to be my least successful series...a true craft experiment for me, but I want to make Isaiah a pinata at some point..hahaa )
3. Paper folding (endless possibilities)
4. Paper making (probably better if this is before paper folding month)
5. Magazine reed creations (I'm already rolling endless numbers of reeds after Isaiah goes to bed)
6. Candle making (my first attempt already taught me a few lessons)
7. Scrap yarn projects (probably another month that will appear sooner rather than later since I already have a number of ideas for this)
8. Scrap fabric projects
9. Knitting
10. Crocheting
11. Re-purposed crafts(think coffee cans and bottle caps)
12. Featured crafters (this is in hopes that I actually have a small following so that I can feature my favorite crafty friends and their shops, websites, and projects).
Who needs to go back to an office job when I have all of this to look forward to? ;)
Family Updates
Clearly, I'm not the best at keeping up with the personal blog, but i have a feeling even those who love me dearly aren't interested in the most mundane details of our lives. So, I've been trying to save the highlights for the occasional blog. Today I have lots of good news to share.
First, my mom had a very successful surgery on the 6th. She would probably describe those first few days as horrific. Fortunately, she's a tough lady and a quick healer. She is at home now and loving the fact that Isaiah thinks she's just the coolest thing ever. Seriously, the kid LOVES his grandma.
Isaiah continues to grow like a long, skinny weed. He's about 30" tall at this point, but only weighs around 17 pounds. This is in no way what we were expecting. Clearly there are few signs in infancy that will predict what a child ends up like later in life. It is doubtful that our child will be a genetic anomaly, expressing recessive genes for a 6'6" frame and lanky build.
Over the last few months Isaiah has hit his developmental milestones right on target: rolling over, sitting, pincer grasp, etc. He is eating semi-solid foods, cheerios, and teething cookies. The eating landmarks were exciting at first. Then I discovered that its not the receiving end I need to be worried about. I'm already looking forward to potty training. hahaha.
Mark and I are proud to say we've managed to keep Isaiah fed, clothed, and bathed without sending him to the ER. Weew! So far so good. It is now obvious to me that parenting is all about pretending like you know what you're doing. In reality Mark and I have learned to develop mental lists of what could be wrong with the baby and go through the list until we hit the jackpot. Its like an endless guessing game really.
I've been told Isaiah looks like he's close to crawling. I wonder if I'm the only mother on the planet who hopes he is a late bloomer in this department. I have not baby proofed yet (I know, I know) and we have lots of stairs. Eek!
First, my mom had a very successful surgery on the 6th. She would probably describe those first few days as horrific. Fortunately, she's a tough lady and a quick healer. She is at home now and loving the fact that Isaiah thinks she's just the coolest thing ever. Seriously, the kid LOVES his grandma.
Isaiah continues to grow like a long, skinny weed. He's about 30" tall at this point, but only weighs around 17 pounds. This is in no way what we were expecting. Clearly there are few signs in infancy that will predict what a child ends up like later in life. It is doubtful that our child will be a genetic anomaly, expressing recessive genes for a 6'6" frame and lanky build.
Over the last few months Isaiah has hit his developmental milestones right on target: rolling over, sitting, pincer grasp, etc. He is eating semi-solid foods, cheerios, and teething cookies. The eating landmarks were exciting at first. Then I discovered that its not the receiving end I need to be worried about. I'm already looking forward to potty training. hahaha.
Mark and I are proud to say we've managed to keep Isaiah fed, clothed, and bathed without sending him to the ER. Weew! So far so good. It is now obvious to me that parenting is all about pretending like you know what you're doing. In reality Mark and I have learned to develop mental lists of what could be wrong with the baby and go through the list until we hit the jackpot. Its like an endless guessing game really.
I've been told Isaiah looks like he's close to crawling. I wonder if I'm the only mother on the planet who hopes he is a late bloomer in this department. I have not baby proofed yet (I know, I know) and we have lots of stairs. Eek!
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Cake FYI
In case you were curious...The cake was hidden inside a soup pot in a cabinet above the refrigerator. I knew 2 things that were at my advantage: he would try to hide it somewhere that would be difficult for me to reach and he would try to hide it inside something so that I might overlook it. Poor guy. He didn't have a chance.
Place Your Bets
I'm so happy to see that the sun it out today! I find it especially rewarding since I actually slept 6 hours straight without interruption! (Both truly deserving of the exclamation)
Sleep is still an amazing thing to me. After a few years spent reading and writing about it you would think the wonder would be lost. Nope. Baby has renewed my interest. At one point shortly after I started dating Mark, I had a 6-month bout with insomnia. It was easily explainable as stress-induced and eventually went away. During that time I tried melatonin and Ambien (on separate occasions) and realized each works well enough and has its rightful place in the market for the pill-for-a-cure types (like me).
In hindsight, I feel like my "stress"-induced insomnia as well as all of the pills, the marketing, and the money that goes into promoting the "fix" for insomnia is laughable. There is a permanent cure for insomnia. Its called having a baby. Spend a month with a newborn who wakes every 1-2 hrs to eat. Cut to a few months later when you still haven't slept through the night, except the handful of times a friend or family member gave you relief. You'll sleep. Trust me. I can sleep just about anywhere these days. Doctor's office waiting room, accountant's waiting room, the line at the grocery store....just a few examples of places I may have closed my eyes for a minute too long. (To be fair, I'm anti-nap. I generally don't allow myself to sleep during the day because, seriously, who has time for that?)
That being said, sleep is clearly a precious commodity in our house. Step right up and place your bet, the wager is 1 full night of sleep (note that a full night is defined as 8 hours, not 4 or 6). So, over the weekend we had a spontaneous Easter egg hunt(the egg being a piece of chocolate cake). Our bets were placed: I wanted 1 night of sleep, no interruptions; Mark wanted me to write a blog post about his awesomeness. hmmm.mmm... I'll let you know who won in a minute.
First, a little background is probably in order for this sleep wager to make any sort of sense. A few months ago Mark and I had a conversation about "having nothing to eat". I generally go on a stock-up grocery run every other week or so. I plan ahead, buy in bulk, use my coupons, etc. I only buy "quick fixes" on these trips because I have planned ahead for them. If we run out of veggies or baby items, obviously I will make a quick trip to the store. Otherwise, if we run out you likely have to take the time to cook something.
Mark's time is in short supply so he is always about the quick meals. For this reason I make him plates of leftovers and buy endless boxes of cereal to keep him fed. The problem: he is a like a kid in a candy store the day after a big shopping trip. A bag of grapes will disappear in a matter of minutes. A box of cereal? That might last a day or two. Block of cheese, forget about it. Gone! You get my drift. Fortunately Mark agreed that he was guilty of binging on the convenience items so I started hiding his absolute favorites to keep him from eating everything at once. He agreed this was probably the best tactic.
Cut to the weekend. Mark is at home with Isaiah. I am out running errands. I arrive home to see my crazy, wide-eyed husband frantic for something to eat. Remember, preparation is not an option for him. His mind went straight to the goodies that I had hidden. He spent the day trying to find them and couldn't. He was amazed by my skills (patting myself on the back). Of course, I couldn't resist telling him the reason it was so easy was because he had a Y chromosome. Yes, its a stereotype, but a relatively true one. Naturally, he was offended so I explained that for some reason he thinks there is nothing to eat because he can't find a quick option sitting right in front. If I were to put grapes toward the back of the refrigerator, for instance, they would remain unnoticed. Again he begrudgingly agreed that this had some truth to it. He found my stash in a drawer under the dish towels shortly thereafter. So much for my tricks.
So last weekend Mark comes home with individual pieces of chocolate cake. Yum. He is determined to prove that he can hide goodies just as well as I can. In other words, it had nothing to do with the Y chromosome. We places our bets. Clearly he was confident given his request for a blog about his awesomeness. So who won?........ A quick 10 minutes into my search I was feasting on chocolaty, tasty, cakey goodness. Booya!
The moral of this story...do not challenge a woman on a diet to find a piece of cake hidden in the kitchen she practically lives in with the additional reward of a night of sleep.
So now that I have blogged about my awesomeness I want to be a good sport. Even though he lost the bet, my husband is truly quite awesome. Aside from all the things he does for us, like working his butt off and going to school and being a great daddy, he is also endlessly entertaining. What? You want to have a chocolate cake hunt? Don't mind if I do. Who needs a television when you've got entertainment like Mark? Am I wrong people?
Sleep is still an amazing thing to me. After a few years spent reading and writing about it you would think the wonder would be lost. Nope. Baby has renewed my interest. At one point shortly after I started dating Mark, I had a 6-month bout with insomnia. It was easily explainable as stress-induced and eventually went away. During that time I tried melatonin and Ambien (on separate occasions) and realized each works well enough and has its rightful place in the market for the pill-for-a-cure types (like me).
In hindsight, I feel like my "stress"-induced insomnia as well as all of the pills, the marketing, and the money that goes into promoting the "fix" for insomnia is laughable. There is a permanent cure for insomnia. Its called having a baby. Spend a month with a newborn who wakes every 1-2 hrs to eat. Cut to a few months later when you still haven't slept through the night, except the handful of times a friend or family member gave you relief. You'll sleep. Trust me. I can sleep just about anywhere these days. Doctor's office waiting room, accountant's waiting room, the line at the grocery store....just a few examples of places I may have closed my eyes for a minute too long. (To be fair, I'm anti-nap. I generally don't allow myself to sleep during the day because, seriously, who has time for that?)
That being said, sleep is clearly a precious commodity in our house. Step right up and place your bet, the wager is 1 full night of sleep (note that a full night is defined as 8 hours, not 4 or 6). So, over the weekend we had a spontaneous Easter egg hunt(the egg being a piece of chocolate cake). Our bets were placed: I wanted 1 night of sleep, no interruptions; Mark wanted me to write a blog post about his awesomeness. hmmm.mmm... I'll let you know who won in a minute.
First, a little background is probably in order for this sleep wager to make any sort of sense. A few months ago Mark and I had a conversation about "having nothing to eat". I generally go on a stock-up grocery run every other week or so. I plan ahead, buy in bulk, use my coupons, etc. I only buy "quick fixes" on these trips because I have planned ahead for them. If we run out of veggies or baby items, obviously I will make a quick trip to the store. Otherwise, if we run out you likely have to take the time to cook something.
Mark's time is in short supply so he is always about the quick meals. For this reason I make him plates of leftovers and buy endless boxes of cereal to keep him fed. The problem: he is a like a kid in a candy store the day after a big shopping trip. A bag of grapes will disappear in a matter of minutes. A box of cereal? That might last a day or two. Block of cheese, forget about it. Gone! You get my drift. Fortunately Mark agreed that he was guilty of binging on the convenience items so I started hiding his absolute favorites to keep him from eating everything at once. He agreed this was probably the best tactic.
Cut to the weekend. Mark is at home with Isaiah. I am out running errands. I arrive home to see my crazy, wide-eyed husband frantic for something to eat. Remember, preparation is not an option for him. His mind went straight to the goodies that I had hidden. He spent the day trying to find them and couldn't. He was amazed by my skills (patting myself on the back). Of course, I couldn't resist telling him the reason it was so easy was because he had a Y chromosome. Yes, its a stereotype, but a relatively true one. Naturally, he was offended so I explained that for some reason he thinks there is nothing to eat because he can't find a quick option sitting right in front. If I were to put grapes toward the back of the refrigerator, for instance, they would remain unnoticed. Again he begrudgingly agreed that this had some truth to it. He found my stash in a drawer under the dish towels shortly thereafter. So much for my tricks.
So last weekend Mark comes home with individual pieces of chocolate cake. Yum. He is determined to prove that he can hide goodies just as well as I can. In other words, it had nothing to do with the Y chromosome. We places our bets. Clearly he was confident given his request for a blog about his awesomeness. So who won?........ A quick 10 minutes into my search I was feasting on chocolaty, tasty, cakey goodness. Booya!
The moral of this story...do not challenge a woman on a diet to find a piece of cake hidden in the kitchen she practically lives in with the additional reward of a night of sleep.
So now that I have blogged about my awesomeness I want to be a good sport. Even though he lost the bet, my husband is truly quite awesome. Aside from all the things he does for us, like working his butt off and going to school and being a great daddy, he is also endlessly entertaining. What? You want to have a chocolate cake hunt? Don't mind if I do. Who needs a television when you've got entertainment like Mark? Am I wrong people?
Friday, March 20, 2009
Etsy Shop
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
And They Called Him King Poonami
So what is it that is keeping me so busy that I'm a blog slacker? Today I realized it might have something to do with the extraordinary amount of poop that I deal with on a regular basis.
Isaiah never was a fan of formula and is a tiny little guy holding steady at the 10th percentile for weight (and 95th for height..he's like a 2x4 with a head). When we first started solids he didn't eat much. It was mostly a taste and see process. Shortly before the 6 month mark his appetite for solids began to mimic his father. In other words, he is now capable of eating us out of house and home. I haven't seen much difference in his weight, though I expect all this eating to catch up with him soon. I have, however, noticed a significant difference in the poop arena.
It goes without saying that the more that goes in, the more that comes out. That being said, I wasn't expecting this! Isaiah can go from spankin' clean (gleaming even) and within a matter of seconds there's poop EVERYWHERE! Its down the leg, up the back, in the neckline?!! WTF! How, oh how, is a mother to undress the poop monster without getting it in his hair or on my shirt or on my hands? I have yet to find a way...and I'm becoming a pro.
Aside from my continual gag-ridden amazement of the poonami, I also wonder about the timing of it all. How is it that I can spend the day staying so busy that I forget to eat and once I FINALLY put something on the stove...you guessed it, POONAMI! I am always running late these days. Want to know why? In a word, POONAMI.
So now that I have finally taken a minute to sit and eat my lunch/dinner (linner?) while venting about poo, I've got an emergency waiting for me in the other room. Yes, it is covered in poo.
Isaiah never was a fan of formula and is a tiny little guy holding steady at the 10th percentile for weight (and 95th for height..he's like a 2x4 with a head). When we first started solids he didn't eat much. It was mostly a taste and see process. Shortly before the 6 month mark his appetite for solids began to mimic his father. In other words, he is now capable of eating us out of house and home. I haven't seen much difference in his weight, though I expect all this eating to catch up with him soon. I have, however, noticed a significant difference in the poop arena.
It goes without saying that the more that goes in, the more that comes out. That being said, I wasn't expecting this! Isaiah can go from spankin' clean (gleaming even) and within a matter of seconds there's poop EVERYWHERE! Its down the leg, up the back, in the neckline?!! WTF! How, oh how, is a mother to undress the poop monster without getting it in his hair or on my shirt or on my hands? I have yet to find a way...and I'm becoming a pro.
Aside from my continual gag-ridden amazement of the poonami, I also wonder about the timing of it all. How is it that I can spend the day staying so busy that I forget to eat and once I FINALLY put something on the stove...you guessed it, POONAMI! I am always running late these days. Want to know why? In a word, POONAMI.
So now that I have finally taken a minute to sit and eat my lunch/dinner (linner?) while venting about poo, I've got an emergency waiting for me in the other room. Yes, it is covered in poo.
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