Toot Sweet

Moving to a New Blog

2011-10-01T18:16:00.000-07:00

Come join me over at my new blog Tami’s Tiki Hut. It was time for a fresh start and some new inspiration. I will continue to blog regularly at my new location. See you there.

Taking a Break

2011-09-10T14:37:00.000-07:00

It is time for me to step away from the computer for a bit. I started this blog 3 years ago when I found out I was pregnant and wanted the space to document and journal my experience. I am going to take some time off for some new inspiration and possibly a new blog. I still will be keeping up with all of you. I will be back soon either revamping this blog or with a link to the next one.

August Wrap Up

2011-08-31T18:31:00.002-07:00

August felt like a busy month and flew buy in a few blinks. I did not try many new recipes this month but I did manage to make a batch of Chocolate muffins. I took it up a notch and made the big ones. That is how I roll.

My front yard made it thru the hot summer. This little humming bird light my husband brought home for me from the hardware store. It is solar powered so you just stick it in the ground. It is watching over my favorite plant at the moment, my purple bougainvillea.

I am working away on my hexagon blanket. I am finally starting to attach all those circles into hexagons to form the blanket. I am on my fourth row. I decided that all the circles that have the yellow on the outside I am attaching them using the pink yarn. This way it gives a bigger contrast than with the cream. I am three months in on this project and looks like there is an end in sight.

My Pinwheels in the Park Quilt is coming along. I completed my quilt top. With no one around to hold it up for me, I taped it to a cabinet to get a photo. I am a bit behind the group schedule that has us done by today. Looks like I will need a bit longer to sandwich my quilt and do all the quilting before binding. I have my backing fabric and also my binding fabric and just picked up my batting today. I don’t have a big enough table to pin it all together so I will need to wait for some time that Chloe is not around and I can tape it to the kitchen floor and pin it all together, preferably after I clean the floor.

I am looking forward to September and hopefully some cooler temperatures. Chloe is doing great and is growing like a weed. In a week or two I am planning a potty training weekend boot camp. Not looking forward to that but we need to get it started; I can’t put it off any longer. She is definitely ready I am the one holding us back. Here are some photos of Chloe taken in August.

Table Runner Anniversary Gift

2011-08-23T17:22:00.005-07:00

It was my sister-n-law & her new hubby’s first anniversary on the 14th of August. It is hard to believe a year has passed since we were all in Las Vegas for their wedding. The moment I spotted the tutorial on Cluck Cluck Sew’s blog I knew it would be a perfect gift to make for them.

I used one charm pack of Cherries Jubilee by American Jane. I have had this charm pack for awhile, waiting for the right project to use it in.

The runner is composed of 40 snow ball blocks. I used the method in the tutorial for making the blocks by putting a piece of tape on my machine marking the line of sewing, instead of marking a line on each white square. This worked beautifully and saved me some time.

For quilting I did an out line. It was more of an inline that I followed a ¼ inch inside the blocks across. I had to put some tape on one side while quilting to remind me not to cross over to that side accidentally. In this photo you can see on the right what fabric I used on the back. It was a white with little cherries all over it.

Here is a close-up of the quilting. It left a nice pattern on the back side.

Overall I like how it turned out. I had the most trouble with the binding. It came out a little messed up on the back side, I think because it was store bought and not wide enough. For future quilt projects I think I will make my own binding and also hand sew the binding on the back side. It adds a lot more time onto the project but I think worth the effort.

If you would like to make one the tutorial I used you can find at Cluck Cluck Sew HERE!

WIP Wednesday

2011-08-17T14:23:00.002-07:00

My work in progress at the moment is the Pinwheels in the Park quilt. I have completed my first 6 blocks and have 6 more to sew together. There are many imperfections in my blocks; luckily the pattern seems to be forgiving so far. I am making it for myself so that alleviates any stress there. I love how they are turning out. Here is a close up of each 6.

Sponge Bob Toddler Blanket

2011-08-16T18:01:00.004-07:00

Chloe’s play pal Emily had her 2nd birthday this weekend. So I thought I would make her a little blanket featuring her favorite character Sponge Bob Square Pants.

I used a cotton fabric print for the top and a bubble gum pink flannel for the back. I used Quilting in the Rain’s easy tutorial to make the blanket.

I added a little heart to the back with Emily’s name to personalize it. I added this before sandwiching the blanket together so the stitches would be on the inside.

Here is how it looks around the edging. Overall it was a nice little project and I like how it turned out.

Chloe was invited to celebrate at McDonalds with some nuggets and birthday cake. Emily’s Birthday cake was all about the Bob of course.

In the photo Emily is on the left along with her Mom Sally and Chloe is on the far right with another friend Lily. This was Chloe’s first invite to a birthday party. We both left needing a nap.

Linking Up:

Chloe's San Antonio Videos

2011-08-12T11:49:00.003-07:00

I finally was able to download the videos of Chloe from our San Antonio trip. Thank you family for being patient with me, it seems to take forever to download those things for everyone to view them. For my readers that are here for the crafty stuff I just completed 2 gift projects and will be able to share the details shortly. I am just waiting for the recipients to receive them. One is in the mail and the other will be delivered at a birthday party tomorrow. This weekend I will be sewing my Pinwheel blocks together. I can’t wait to see how they come out.

Riding Carousel

Splash Zone

Eating Icecream

Brushing a Goat

Chloe on a Ride

Playing with Balloon

Wave Pool

Wave Pool

Pinwheels in the Park Quilt Along

2011-08-07T17:19:00.005-07:00

I know, I know another project, like I don’t have enough already started. This quilt by Sew, Mama, Sew I had already spotted and printed out the tutorial and stuck it in my folder of quilts I would like to make. So then a little bit later I am reading Lovely Little Handmades blog and read that her and Knitty Bitties are starting a quilt along for August making this Pinwheels in the Park quilt. I could not resist joining them. Read all about it HERE & HERE.

I ordered up some fat quarters from Kerri’s etsy shop Sew deerly loved. They are Japanese, Lecien Flower Sugar in colors red, blue and pink. The white fabric is Kona cotton white I got from the Fat Quarter shop. I will use these for my Pinwheel in the Park quilt. Not sure yet what I will use for the back of the quilt.

I thought I should make up a practice block just to make sure I could make this quilt. I did not want to slash into my beautiful new fabric without a little practice first. I am still kind of a Newbie in quilting. I made this one out of some leftover Halloween fabric from last year. I love it! Now I am really excited to get started. I can see doing this quilt in different fabrics themed for the holidays.

The quilt tutorial is HERE.

The schedule for the quilt along:
August 1-7 Cut Fabric
August 8-14 Sew Blocks
August 15-21 Finish up Blocks & Sew quilt top
August 22-31 Quilt & Bind

The quilt along leaders are Lovely Little Hand Mades & Knitty Bitties so go on over and check out their progress. There was also a Flicker page just started for this quilt HERE.

I am planning to cut up my blocks tonight after Chloe goes to bed. I don’t think I will be able to keep on track with the quilt along schedule, just because I have a lot going on right now. I am going to try my best and should be able to catch up if I get behind and not be too far off the schedule.

July Wrap Up

2011-07-31T17:21:00.006-07:00

Wrapping up the end of July it is hard to believe we are half way thru the summer. This dog statue I found in the clearance area of a Crackle Barrel shop. I got it dirt cheap and thought it would look good out front near our front door. Turns out Chloe likes having the dog inside so she can talk and play with it. For now he will stay inside till she gets bored with him then I can sneak him out side to his permanent spot.

I am a WinnerI hardly ever enter to win anything on the blogs. I only try for things I really want. April over at Sew to Speak had a fabric giveaway for the full collection bundle, 30 fat quarters total of Anna Maria’s new collection, LouLouThi. I left a comment in hopes of winning. It was on my mind every day waiting for the day the winner would be announced. You know in your head where you think there is no way you could win but there is a small glimmer of wishful hope. When I saw my name listed as the random winner, I was shocked and so excited.

The package came shortly after they received my info. I did the happy dance all day and kept saying I can’t believe I WON!

My favorite ones out of the stack are these three. I think I will pull these three out and use them for something else. The rest I am thinking to use in a half square triangle quilt and have a few large block areas to showcase some of the fabric.

Other Projects & ProgressMy current project is a little hush, hush, because it is a gift I am making. I can say I am using a charm pack of Cherries Jubilee by American Jane and a ton of little squares. I will reveal all once it is done and gifted.

My Hexagon blanket is coming along. I lay the center circles out in a pattern to kind of see what my plan would be. I decided to have rows of 10 and 9 across and do a total of 17 rows down. So it would be 9 rows of 10 & 8 rows of 9, figuring out to be a total of 162 center circles. I have about 10 more to make. I also decided I wanted to make the half hexagons for the gaps along the edges where I only have 9 circles across. So I will need to make 16 half hexagons for those. Steady as she goes with this one.

This month we set up the blow up pool. It is a 10 ft circle, and came with a mini filter system. It is the perfect summer to have this thing since our backyard is not landscaped yet and we had plenty of space for it.

We can sit in it comfortably and Chloe stands with the water level a little above her waist.

One of us is with her at all times she is in the water. Chris and I both took a refresher CPR class a few months ago. Chloe can not swim yet and this pool is giving her lots of practice in the water. Personally, I love getting in this thing. I think we have as much fun as she does in it. Lots of fun in the sun and we can stay home to do it.

Some tasty things I made this month. I made the Country Dijon Beef Stew and served it over egg noodles. I got this recipe from February’s Family Circle magazine you can find the recipe Here. It turned out super tasty and I will make it again. I also made a wonderful cake topped with strawberries. For the cake I used the Vanilla Cake recipe from the book Apples for Jam by Tessa Kiros. I am normally a chocolate all the way girl but this simple vanilla cake was the bomb. It is so good. I will make this cake over and over again until the day I die. It is the perfect compliment to any fruit topping or ice-cream.

Thrift Store Finds
This month I went to the local thrift store. Every few months I plan a trip there to pick up some cheap play clothes for Chloe. On the few days that she goes to Daycare when I pick her up I am presented with a child that I dropped off clean and stain free but now is head to toe covered in spots and stains. I learned very quickly to not put her best clothes on her for Daycare. I found for Chloe pictured on the left side: 4 pairs of shorts, 2 T shirts, a seersucker dress and a toddler bed sheets set. For me on the right side of the photo I found 4 flat sheets & a beautiful vintage yellow top sheet. I use the sheets for quilting. It is a cheap way to find large amounts of fabric and some work perfectly for the back of quilts. In total for the whole loot I spent 20 bucks.

Well thats a wrap for July. I am looking forward to August and all the summer goodness it brings. Our rain season finally started and brought with it this little guy. We have found him on our front porch in the evenings taking advantage of our porch light and slurping up all the bugs he can eat. He is a real fatso and has these little tiny legs. I will leave you with some photos of Chloe taken in July.

San Antonio Texas Vacation

2011-07-24T22:03:00.005-07:00

Warning a very long vacation post. I finally have a block of time to sit down and tell you all about our San Antonio TX vacation. It was a few weeks ago and already feels like forever ago. With Chloe being 2 years old and airline tickets being as expensive as they are we decided to find a place close enough to drive to with in one day for our summer vacation destination. We live in Southern New Mexico and the perfect destination was San Antonio. So we packed up the car and headed out around 5:30 am. Chloe was in good spirits for most of the drive.

I believe it took us 11 and a half hours total to get to our destination. By the end of the journey we were all ready to get the heck out of the car.

Our hotel had free breakfast included which was great to just go down to the lobby and grab some food before starting our day.

Our first day we headed to Sea World. I have not been to a Sea World in awhile and I think they have greatly improved over the years.

Chloe is obsessed with carrousels. Chris and I would take turns and ride them with her. This was the first time we allowed her to sit on it by her self with out one of us holding her on it. This allowed us to get on a horse our selves and enjoy the ride.

Chloe is an animal lover so Sea World was right up her alley and she enjoyed seeing all the wonderful sea life.

Over in the Sea Lion area there were several babies. Here is one that was just a week old. You are able to buy a handful of fish to feed them. I would call the Mom over and give her all the fish I bought. So adorable to see the babies.

Chris being 6 ft 2in, Chloe loved to get up on his shoulders as we walked around. When we returned home after our vacation Chloe started putting her stuffed animals and dolls up on her shoulders and walks around the house just like she did with her Daddy. It is so sweet to watch.

One of the cool things about this park is there was a kids wet area where there was water spraying out in all different places and the kids could get cooled off from the hot Texas temperatures. I was so glad I had brought Chloe’s hot pink sun swim shirt. She was so easy to spot amongst all the kids and made it great to keep an eye on her as she ran around getting wet.

This is one of the coolest parts of Sea World. They have a tank with dolphins that you can buy fish and feed them right out of your hands. We spent 2 days at Sea World and spent a good amount of time just hanging with the dolphins.

Look at that, I am still in aw of being so close to them.

After a fun filled day at Sea World and a little nap back at the hotel. We went to one of our all time favorite restaurants called Pappadeaux. We do not have one of these restaurants any where near us at home. So we seek it out anytime we go on vacation. Chloe was flirting with an elderly couple at the next table over. She does pretty good eating out we just keep her busy and try to order her food right away.

This is their dessert tray. We ended up getting a piece of key lime pie we took back to the hotel to enjoy later. I had a mango mojito while Chris had a Sam Adams. We shared an oyster appetizer. Chris ordered the large Alaskan king crab and I had the crawfish etouffee. Chloe got the mac-n-cheese with an ice-cream for dessert. This meal was unbelievably good as expected.

The next day we set out for the San Antonio Zoo. Oh did I mention Chloe got a stuffed Shamoo while at Sea World. She calls it baby whale and they have spent a lot of time together ever since he joined our family. He even has top ranking and is part of the select few she sleeps with.

I love a good zoo and this one is one of the largest in the US.

I loved this little bird. This photo was taken thru glass. I was very tempted to go home and get a little bird of my own after watching this one. I am sure our cat Cosmo would love for me to do that.

They had a little petting area that had a handful of goats. Chloe had a good time making friends with the goats.

After the zoo we went to the Rain Forest Café restaurant for a late lunch. Here is Chloe munching on a kids pizza. She is keeping her eyes on the animatronic gorrillas that are right near our table.

That night we went to La Margarita Mexican restaurant. This is where I had a fishbowl size margarita and everything was right in the world. Kids eat free here. It was a perfect ending to the day.

The next day we went to 6 Flags. This is Chloe on one of the rides. She was not tall enough to ride most of the rides but the ones she could get on she loved.

Of course they had a carrousel and we rode it several times. It was very hot at 6 Flags so we ended the day early.

We headed back to the hotel for some much needed rest and some air conditioning.

The next day we went to the San Antonio Botanical Gardens. I am a sucker for plants and beautiful flowers and am teaching Chloe a love for gardens.

We had a wonderful time exploring the property and seeing all the beautiful plants.

Next we headed downtown to see the Alamo. I normally love to visit historic buildings and learn all the history there is to go along with it. The Alamo was a bit crowded and it was not the best experience over all. It was free so that is probably why it was so crowded.

Next we headed to the downtown river walk area for some lunch. We found a brilliant little British Pub called Mad Dogs.

The service here was excellent. One of the lovely ladies dressed in a mini kilt took a liking to Chloe and brought her a balloon.

Chloe loved this balloon till it met its death several hours later. I took a mental note that if ever I needed a few hours of time to get something done to get Chloe a balloon and tie it to her pants.

I ordered the fish and chips. Oh yummy, I wish I was there now.

This photo you can kind of see the River Walk area. It meanders around and there are several restaurants and shops along the way. You can also take the little boat that goes up and down to different stops.

Here is Chloe still hanging on to her balloon.

The last day we went back to Sea World. This time we did a lot of the same things we did the first day but we also went into there water park area. There is a great wave pool along side a wade pool.

Chloe had the best time splashing around and getting wet.

The San Antonio vacation was wonderful and we are so glad we went. It was a perfect destination and plenty for all of us including a toddler to enjoy.

Seersucker Summer

2011-07-21T11:27:00.003-07:00

1. RLD0005P Ralph Lauren Girl Seersucker Dress, 2. Seersucker shorts 3, 3. Red Seersucker Flower Pillow, 4. IMG_0871, 5. Summer Time Seersucker Full Apron, 6. Seersucker Conductor Baby Booties, 7. seersucker & ticking, 8. Seersucker for Sammy, 9. seersucker, 10. seersucker knickers, 11. Smocked silk seersucker yoke dress, 12. Seersucker Top
Chloe was sick all last week and as soon as she felt better I started feeling crappy. Oh, the joys of mother hood. These two weeks are a total bust and not much has been accomplished. As I sit here in a daze with my box of tissues, I felt like sharing a few flickr finds inspired by my new obsession with Seersucker fabric. I have been seeing it everywhere lately. It is such a perfect fabric for the summer. I will be back as soon as I feel better.

Farmer's Wife Quilt Along Progress

2011-07-13T12:26:00.005-07:00

I managed to complete 4 more quilt blocks for the Farmer’s Wife Quilt Along. Here are a few more fabrics I picked up while on vacation to add to my stash for the quilt. I am happy to be going at my own pace. Here are the four blocks.

#3 Basket BlockThis is probably my least favorite block to make so far. The handle kind of puckered a little. I think my tension was too tight, and I should have spaced my stitches more.

#4 Basket WeaveI like how this one turned out although it is probably my brightest block so far. I will need to make sure to incorporate a few more bright blocks to kind of even it out for the big picture.

#5 Bat Wing

#6 Big DipperI like this one a lot. After doing this block I can see making a pinwheel quilt in the future.

Overall I am doing great with this sampler quilt and have not had any major problems or mishaps. Here are a few of the blocks #1-6 by other members of the group that caught my eye. There are currently 675 members in the group.

1. 100_2728, 2. FWQA, 3. FWQA Block 5 Bat Wing, 4. FWQA Block 6 Big Dipper, 5. FW5, 6. another Autumn Hints block!, 7. FW #2 Autumn tints, 8. Farmer's Wife Quilt-a-Long - Block 4, 9. Basket, 10. FarmersWifeBlock1, 11. 1, 12. FW Block #2--Autumn Tints

Joining In

Our Creative Spaces

Chloe's Character Friends

2011-07-09T10:45:00.004-07:00

I thought I would post a quick note in between popsicles and running bare foot thru the grass. Here are some photos of Chloe with a few characters from our summer vacation in San Antonio. I am joining in with Open Roads Mama and her Summer Photo blogging series where you start with some photos and end with a quote.

“A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.”By Walter Winchell

Our Anniversary

2011-07-07T06:48:00.003-07:00

Today is our wedding anniversary. 12 years ago today we were married at a resort in Jamaica. We have been together a total of 18 years. We started dating in our early 20’s. Our lives have been one adventure after another. I think the key to staying together all these years is that we grow together. We have the same vision for our lives and our future, and want the same things.

This is one of my favorite photos taken on our honeymoon. We had an awesome time the week we spent in Jamaica. There are so many memories of that time. The night of our wedding Chris and I went swimming in the pool and his wedding ring slipped off in the water. We were married not even 24 hours and Chris had already lost his ring. Luckily the next day the pool guy found it in the filter.

Happy 4th of July

2011-07-03T19:53:00.003-07:00

We made it safely home from our summer vacation. It was a great trip. Give me a little time to do some laundry and sort thru my photos and I will tell you all about it. In the mean time I hope everyone is having a great holiday weekend. I put together a little flickr mosaic of some patriotic craftyness that has caught my eye and would like to share with you.

1. Week 27: 4th of July, 2. IMG_2004, 3. American Hero Pinwheels, 4. Red, White and Blue Quilt, 5. IMG_9176-1, 6. American Yo-yo's, 7. Nancy's Memory Quilt, 8. Family reunion quilt for auction, 9. Patriotic Patchwork, 10. Patriotic Quilt 2009, 11. Patriotic Flags Rag Quilt Pincushion, 12. Patriotic Quilt

Family Road Trip

2011-06-25T09:53:00.005-07:00

Our family is heading out on a road trip. Since airline prices are so high we decided to find a destination we could drive to within a day for our Summer vacation. This photo is of course from the movie National Lampoons Vacation. Let’s hope that our road trip goes smoother than theirs did.

We decided on San Antonio Texas for our Summer Vacation. I think we figured it to be a 10 hour drive to get there. It looks like a pretty cool city and has plenty of family stuff to do with a toddler.

Bringing on the tripI am bringing the book “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan” by Lisa See. This is one of my favorite books and since the movie based on the book is due out July 15th, I thought I would re-read it.

I am also bringing my Hexagon blanket to work on. I should be able to make a ton of the center flowers during the drive there and back.

I will be back soon with photos and a sunburn with plenty to share of our vacation. In the mean time I thought I would leave you with a list of blogs that are all doing the Farmer’s Wife Quilt Along. I have found so many cool blogs since joining up with this group; here are a dozen of the member’s blogs.

A Little SweetnessAlyson’s PetalsA Quilting LifeCharise CreatesHappy ZombieKD QuiltsMiss PrintQuilt DadSimplifyTwin FibersThe Enchanted BobbinWhy Not Sew

Farmer's Wife Quilt Along

2011-06-23T11:48:00.005-07:00

A couple weeks ago I started seeing a bunch of my favorite sewing and quilting blogs mention the Farmer’s Wife Quilt Along. After a few days of obsessively watching everyone else, I took the plunge and joined in. I guess you could say the farmer takes another wife.

The quilt along is a large group of people on the internet all making the Farmers Wife Sampler quilt from the book. I bought my book from Amazon. I ordered it with free shipping so it took forever to make it to my front door. The quilt along was all started by Angela at Fussy Cut & Amanda at MsMcPorkshopQuilts. You can find all of the members on The Farmer’s Wife Quilt-a-long Flickr page. There you can see everyone’s latest blocks they made for their quilt.

The quilt once finished is a Queen Size quilt and made up of 111 blocks. The quilt along is casual and work at your own pace. The majority are trying to make 2 blocks a week. Even with this pace it will take a year to make this quilt. I decided to make mine Scrappy. I have accumulated a bunch of whimsical and cutesy fabrics since I was pregnant. So over the last 3 years I have a good pile of stash that I can use to make my quilt.

I am making the blocks in order and here are my first 2 blocks

#1 Attic Windows

#2 Autumn Tints

I am photographing the blocks on a diagonal because that is how they go in the quilt. I am still a beginner quilter and have not yet mastered getting my points exactly right. I am using this sampler quilt as a learning process to sharpen my skills and to learn new things. So far so good and I love how my first 2 blocks came out.

Linking Up
Our Creative Spaces

Feels Like Summer

2011-06-21T09:15:00.003-07:00

When Chloe went with her Daddy to Lowes she picked out some flowers to plant at home. I believe they are a type of Zinnia.

Chloe and I worked together as I showed her how to properly pot a plant. She even has her own little watering can to help water all the plants.

Last weekend we went to the Cherry Festival and came home with a wonderful cherry crumble pie and 3 pounds of cherries. Yummy!

My Creative Space

2011-06-15T15:00:00.002-07:00

I have been working on this American Wave wall hanging. I had ordered the kit a few weeks ago from Connecting Threads. Summer time always makes me feel patriotic. Right now I am cutting out the pieces. I am a little bit nervous about sewing all the curved edges together. Normally I would just modify the pattern and make the pieces rectangular to avoid sewing the curved edges. This time I felt the curved pieces were necessary to give the flag a wavy look. Plus this is the year for me to stretch my creative wings and to learn new skills. So bring on the curves baby, I am willing to give it a shot.

Joining in with Thursdays Our Creative Spaces.

Yarn Along

2011-06-08T13:40:00.004-07:00

Ginny over at Small Things does a yarn along post every Wednesday where everyone can blog about their yarn projects and also the books they are reading. I thought I would join in the fun. I am reading Bob Greene’s book “20 Years Younger”. The book breaks down into 4 categories to work on; they are Skin, Diet, Exercise, & Sleep. It is a good read and is motivating me towards a healthier lifestyle. I am currently working on my Hexagon Blanket.

I decided on 2 groups of 3 yarn colors for my hexagon center flowers. This is the first three colors and their 6 color combinations.

Here is the second group of 3 yarn colors and their 6 color combinations.

So far I have completed 60 center circles for my Hexagon Blanket. I am planning to use a cream color to join them all together into Hexagons. Now that the pattern is pretty much engraved into my brain after 60 circles, I can get a handful done a day working here and there when I get a chance.

May Wrap Up

2011-05-31T14:42:00.005-07:00

I can not believe May is over and Summer is here. This month I added 2 plants to my front yard. We lost 4 plants this winter that never recovered. The plant pictured above is a Bougainvillea “Bush Royal Purple”.

I planted it next to our front porch hoping it will grow up the posts and cascade over with a ton of flowers some day. This plant demands my attention when I look out my front windows. I love it, and love to see a punch of color.

This is a Pindo Palm I also planted this month. We usually vacation in tropical places. Palm Trees to me feel like I am on vacation. I have wanted to have one of my own for awhile now. I think it will do great in my climate for the majority of the year. I just might need to give it a little TLC in the winter if our temperatures drop to low, by maybe covering it up the first few years.

Hexagon Blanket
I wasted no time starting a new project. I have been looking at all the Hexagon blankets online on Ravelry & Flickr and had wanted to start my own for some time now. I finally purchased some yarn on sale at WEBS hopefully enough to complete a blanket. It is Encore Plymouth Worsted Yarn in colors: #0180 rose, #0235 aquamarine, #0029 pastel pink, #0793 pastel blue, #0896 pastel yellow, #1606 purple.

Here is one of the many inspiration blankets. This one is by Maxine over at Tiny White Daisies. I plan to make mine similar to hers. I will be using a cream color yarn forming the outside of the hexagons joining all the center flowers together. The pattern I am using is free and you can find it on Ravelry HERE and also HERE.

The Summer of Sewing
This summer I am planning to spend plenty of time with fabric and my sewing machine. My machine has been packed up since the move last October. Hopefully it will not hold any grudges. I have purchased the fabric above for a little Patriotic project to kick off my summer of sewing. More details to come.

Movies
Last weekend we took Chloe to see Kung Fu Panda II. We went to the 2D showing not wanting to deal with the glasses. We wanted to see how Chloe would do at the theater. There is a Winnie the Pooh movie coming out this summer I want to take her to so we thought we would practice with Kung Fu Panda. Chris and I had bets going as to how long we would be able to stay. I said 20 minutes. We were both wrong and she was able to sit thru the whole hour and a half and we even sat a little thru the credits while people were leaving. Some of the things that helped was we got there when the previews had already started so there was no wasted time sitting around. Also we sat near the front so the screan was literally in your face with little other distractions. Also there was booster seats available at the theater to use. The only thing she needs to work on is her whisper. Through out the movie she would say Mommy look or Mommy Panda, loud enough for many people to hear. Luckily there was lots of children in the theater and many kids talking. Overall a big thumbs up and all three of us had a good time enjoying a movie together. We are looking forward to the Winnie the pooh movie due out later this Summer.

I will leave you with some photos of Chloe taken in May. She let me put her hair up this past weekend. It lasted about 15 minutes.

Little Patchwork Blanket

2011-05-26T10:10:00.003-07:00

I completed Chloe’s Little Patchwork Blanket. The inspiration behind this blanket is from Lucy at Attic 24, her Zig-Zag Baby blanket. I thought it was brilliant to put the little squares together on the diagonal. Here is how the project came together.

I used Baby bee Hushabye yarn in all solid colors. Top row across colors are Baby Sage #82, Sugar Plum #60, Meema’s Blue #39, Middle Row: Boo Pink #40, Naked #11, Pink a Boo #36. Bottom Row: Baby’s Blue #50, Chocolate #80, Mint Charm #26. I used one skein of each to complete the project.

I started with making little granny squares. I liked how easy and portable it was making the little squares. It was amazing how fast you can turn out a bunch of squares. I would make them in the evening while watching TV or if I had a moment during the day while Chloe took a nap. I think it came out to 150 squares and 35 half squares to complete the blanket.

Then I sewed the blocks together into zigzag strips. Then I added half triangles onto the ends and top border to make the blanket square.

Then I sewed all the strips together into a blanket. I used the cream colored yarn when sewing all the blocks together and also for the half blocks on the top and bottom border strips.

I added a single crochet border that I went around several times with varies colors from the blanket.

Tada! It fits perfectly on Chloe’s toddler bed.

Chloe is admiring her new blanket. She is learning her colors and this blanket has lots to practice with.

The Little Patchwork blanket is a perfect size for Chloe to drag around the house and play with. I love how it turned out and am so glad I made it with yarn that I can throw into the washing machine when I need to. I love how this blanket turned out and am excited to start my next project.

Last Oprah Show

2011-05-24T18:53:00.002-07:00

I have been watching The Oprah Show since I was 14 years old. I do not know where to begin to thank her for the knowledge I have learned from watching the show. I have laughed and cried. I have read a ton of books, and watched a bunch of movies all that I saw first on her show. I have loved all the celebrity appearances and that Oprah always asks them the questions we want to know the answers to. The list goes on and on for all the things we have shared together tuned into her show at 4:00. On Wednesday the 25th of May 2011 I will be in front of the television with a box of tissues and watching the last ever Oprah show. Can’t wait to see what she does next.

Weekend in Southern Oregon

2011-05-21T21:53:00.006-07:00

We spent last weekend in Southern Oregon. Chris’s Grandfather was having his 90th birthday party that Saturday. So we flu out on Friday and came back on Monday. The whole flying business to get to Southern Oregon and to get back home was a torturous experience with a 2 year old. The two days that we spent there were wonderful and well worth all the trouble. We stayed at the WeAskU Inn that is in Grants Pass, Oregon. This is our second time staying there and is a real treat. We stayed in one of the cabins that the back porch overlooks the Rogue River. This is a photo taken in our cabin. You can kind of see the sitting area with a lovely fireplace and plenty of room for Chloe’s pack-n-play and room for her to run around.

The first morning we met up with Chris’s Dad and step Mom, Chloe's grandparents, at the Tap Rock Northwest grill. The restaurant was great and we had a beautiful view while enjoying a leisure breakfast. After eating we went outside and walked along the property that was against the river. We had a wonderful visit with them and Chloe was also able to meet one of her cousins close to her age.

The birthday party was that afternoon and Chloe was able to meet her great grandpa for the first time. We had not seen him in several years so it was nice to get a chance to visit with him. It was great to hear stories of Chris’s grandpa from his friends and family.

The next morning we met up with Chloe’s Grandmas in Jacksonville Oregon. We walked over to the GoodBean Coffee Company and hung out for awhile while I drank a Chai Latte. I stopped in a quilt shop named Country Quilts. I came out with this quilt pattern titled “Shell We Dance?” by Java House Quilts. I love turtles so there was little chance of me seeing this and not bringing it home with me.

We then went to the Jacksonville Inn for their Sunday brunch. The food was excellent and the service was even better. Overall we had a wonderful time and it was great to be able to spend time with Chris’s family. I will leave you with some more photos I took on the trip.

Crab Sandbox

2011-05-17T18:53:00.001-07:00

We set up a little sandbox for Chloe to play in on the back porch. It took me awhile to decide on which one to get. Overall the best reviews where of this crab sandbox. It is perfect size for her to play in with a bunch of digging tools and pails. It comes with a lid to help keep the weather and unwanted critters from getting into it. The best part is I am able to sit on the back porch with her and squeeze in reading a magazine while we both enjoy being outside. Digging in the sand is now one of her favorite activities and Chloe affectionately refers to the sand box as “Crabbie”.

Mother's Day 2011

2011-05-08T20:39:00.002-07:00

Happy Mother’s Day to all the Moms out there. Chris took Chloe out this morning and she came back with this beautiful bouquet for me. It was the sweetest thing. Chris opened the door and whispered to her to bring the flowers to Mommy. She came in the house by her self holding the large bouquet and once she found me she smiled and said “Mommies flowers” and handed them to me. The sun flowers in the bouquet are exactly what I needed, hints of summer just around the corner.

Today was all ready perfect receiving the flowers but we continued on and took Chloe to the local zoo. Here she is feeding the ducks. This time she knew what to do with the handful of food and tossed it into the water one piece at a time and laughed as the ducks raced for it. We ended the day with a stop for some ice cream for a very sweet ending to a perfect Mother’s Day.

Here is one of my favorite photos taken at the zoo. Turtles in a row laying out in the sun.

Tummy Bug

2011-05-05T10:18:00.002-07:00

Poor Chloe has a tummy bug. She caught it at her daycare. I was told yesterday that it was going around. This is news I would have liked to have heard earlier in the week. Since Chloe just goes a few days a week and only for socializing with other kids I could have kept her home. Oh well what can you do? At least her immune system is building up to be mighty strong. We have been washing lots of laundry including her favorite stuffed cat and bear pillow. She is now eating some dry cereal, a bit of applesauce and some water. My fingers are crossed that this will stay down. Overall her mood is good and she does not have a fever today, so hopefully the worse is over.

Happy Cinco De Mayo to everyone. I will be making beef tacos with margaritas tonight for hubby and I. We are not ones to pass up any celebration that includes Mexican food.

April Wrap-Up

2011-04-30T11:16:00.004-07:00

The warmer weather has brought back the plants in my front yard. This is the Mimosa tree that now has some leaves. It is so nice to look out the front windows and see a green tree.

One morning I was out side very early to check one of the sprinklers and found this lovely snail heading across our front porch and towards the front lawn. He was so cool looking I let him go on his merry way. I will have to keep an eye out and see if he has settled into any of my plants for his meals. So far I have not noticed any damage. Not sure if they are enemies of the garden or our friends. I know if he was a slug I would have tortured him in a slow cruel death then nailed him to the porch low enough to show any of his friends they were not welcome in my plants. I had many a battle with slugs when I lived in Oregon. Here in the southwest desert I was very surprised to see the snail.

I have been working on my Little Zig Zag blanket this month. I have completed all the squares and the half squares for the ends. I also have sewn together the strips, and will begin to sew the strips together. This is my first time making granny squares and sewing them together. I am learning a lot and realize now the importance of making the squares exactly the same size with the same amount of stitches. It will look more like a scrappy blanket than a work of perfection, but that is how you learn. I already have thoughts on my next granny square project, which is motivating me to finish this one.

I am looking forward to May. We plan to get some things for Chloe to do in the back yard for some much needed energy release while playing outside. Right now our backyard is just dirt and we probably will not get it landscaped until Fall due to the large cost. It is a good size backyard and will cost a good chunk of change to get some basic landscaping. So for now we are thinking to get a little sandbox and possibly a kiddie pool we could all sit in. Also in May I plan to find the time to tackle my office/craft room. It is the last room in the house that is still pretty much packed up. My sewing machine is still in the box since we moved and I have big plans for lots of sewing projects this summer. I really need to get that room cleaned up, unpacked and organized.

Chloe’s hair is at a very messy stage of growth. It is like when you get a bad hair cut and you have to go through an awkward grow out. It has taken her 2 years to get this much hair and it still is barely long enough to pull back. Hopefully it will continue to grow and we will be able to pull it back out of her face. It doesn’t seem to bother her at all; I am the one that is constantly smoothing it back off of her face. I will leave you with a few photos of Chloe taken in April.

Happy Easter

2011-04-23T19:50:00.002-07:00

Happy Easter! Chloe and I made these Carrot Cake Cupcakes thinking we should make something special to leave out for the Easter Bunny to help fuel his energy in hiding colored eggs all night. I found the recipe at Simple Recipes HERE. I added a few drops of green food coloring to the frosting and topped each with a marshmallow peep.

The video below is one of my favorites from our vacation. We are walking along the path and came across a bunny rabbit. Chloe was trying to coax the bunny to come closer to her. Have a wonderful Holiday.

2nd Birthday Cake

2011-04-22T11:35:00.003-07:00

This month has been packed full of birthday celebrations. Chloe’s birthday at the end of March, Chris’s birthday was last Sunday and mine is today. We managed to celebrate Chloe’s birthday after getting back from vacation. I made her this Panda Bear birthday cake.

It took me an entire day to make that cake. I started with making two 12 inch rounds.

Then using the teddy bear cake pan you clamp it shut then pour the batter in thru the top and stick it in the oven upside down to bake.

Here it is cooling on the counter after baking.

So then I began to decorate the bottom rounds, using cream cheese frosting. I just kind of made it up as I went along.

Here is what I ended up with for the bottom.

After the teddy bear cooled I placed him on top of the rounds.

Then I began to pipe on all the white parts of the bear using cream cheese frosting.

Here it is with all the white parts covered.

Then I filled in all the black parts of the Panda. I used junior mints for his eyes.

Tada! I used a few candied flowers on the top along with a number 2 candle.

The Panda cake was a big success Chloe loved it. She kept talking to it. We think she thought it was a toy.

She got a big kick out of us lighting the candle and singing happy birthday to her. Her Daddy helped her blow out the candle.

She was not as messy eating her birthday cake this year compared to last year.

Chloe made out like a bandit for her birthday.

Since this is a crafty blog I thought I would show you some of the home made gifts Chloe received. This cloth Doll was made for Chloe by her Grandma. It even came with a change of clothes.

This is a crayon holding truck made by Chloe’s Uncle Rusty with a little help from her Aunt Stefanie. I was blown away by this gift. Seriously, how cool is that thing? Chloe loves it and when she is not using it for holding her crayons she is on the floor driving it around.

Chloe has grown so much in the last 2 years. She is blossoming into a sweet, vivacious little girl. I can’t wait to see what she does next.

Vacation Chloe Videos

2011-04-07T18:00:00.003-07:00

We are back from our vacation and I am still playing catch up trying to get things back to normal around here. I thought I would share some of the vacation videos with you. This is mostly for my family that I am sure is itching to see how Chloe was on vacation. We had three parts to our vacation. We started out in Florida at Disney World for 2 days then drove to Vero Beach Florida and stayed a few nights before taking a 3 night Disney cruise to the Bahamas. I will do a full trip report with photos telling the details of our trip as soon as I get all the photos sorted out. In the mean time I apologize to the non family members for unloading a bunch of home videos on you. LOL

March Wrap-Up

2011-03-26T09:29:00.005-07:00

I am wrapping up March a little early because we are leaving on vacation. Well Spring has officially sprung in our neck of the woods. We have put out the shorts and packed up the heavy sweaters. I gave up on the Matsuri scarf pattern. I ripped it out and started over 3 times and decided I was not having much fun with it. So I found a pattern I liked much better. It is the Malabrigo Waffle Scarf, you can find the pattern HERE. The picture above is my progress so far. It looks nice with the yarn. I tweaked the pattern a little and do 2 stitches of garter stitch at the beginning and the end of a row to help keep it from rolling. This pattern is soo much more enjoyable and I am so glad I switched. The book next to my scarf is “Water for Elephants” by Sara Gruen. This is the book I am bringing with me on our vacation. I know everyone has already read this one. It has been on my list to read. I saw an advertisement for the up coming movie based on the book and it looks like a good one. So I moved the book to the top of my list, wanting to read it before the movie comes out.

I tried several new recipes this month. I tried the Biloxi Banana Bread recipe from Martha Hall Foose’s book titled “Screen Doors & Sweet Tea. This was the best banana bread I have ever had. I have used my old Betty Crocker recipe since I was 18 and now I am switching to this one. It is awesome. I also tried a Minestrone soup recipe that turned out good even as a left over. This one was from Martha Stewarts Everyday Food. Overall it was a good month for food and dinners in this house.

We are packing up and heading out on our vacation. I will be back with tales of our adventure and lots of photos. I will leave you with some photos of Chloe from the month of March.

Happy Birthday Chloe

2011-03-25T14:12:00.003-07:00

Chloe is now 2 rears old. The whole day I kept thinking about 2 years ago and being in labor. I wonder if I will still be thinking about that when she turns 20. We are taking a trip for some much needed relaxation and plan to celebrate her birthday then. When we get back from the vacation I plan to make her a special cake and we will do presents when we get back. This has to be her best week ever. Chloe has been in the best mood all week, no tantrums, & no trouble. Hopefully she is not saving up all the drama for our trip. The older she gets the harder it is to plop her down and take some photos. I attempted to take some photos of her in a new dress. Looks like I will continue to try over the course of the next few weeks. All I need is one good shot so I can frame it to mark her second birthday. Here are some of the photos I have so far, as you can see I don’t have the best shot yet.

Chloe Meets Chuck E

2011-03-22T18:56:00.003-07:00

We went for a drive and stopped at a Chuck E Cheeses for a little arcade fun. This was Chloe’s first time at one of these establishments. When I was growing up we went to Showbiz pizza. I was a little disappointed at Chuck E’s. There was no animatronics band playing music. There were a few things Chloe could ride on and play with. Of course we had to introduce her to skee ball. I think we spent 5 dollars and walked away with a handful of coins we did not play and had turned in our tickets for a sheet of stickers for Chloe. Not bad for a little cheep fun. Here are some photos of the fun.

Rub a Dub Dub

2011-03-17T08:31:00.001-07:00

My Creative Space....

2011-03-10T12:04:00.003-07:00

Every Thursday Kootoyoo does a My Creative Space linky for people to show whatever creative thing they are working on at the moment. I thought I would join in this week. This is what I have so far on my Little Zig-Zag blanket. I have completed 80 squares so far.

I started laying them out to see how I want to place them in the strips.

I think I will go with these four colors for the top and bottom border. I need to make at least 60 more squares and 20 half squares. Still a lot more to do, but I am very happy with the results so far.

If you want to showcase whatever creative thing you are working on or would like to take a look at what others are doing head on over to Kootoyoo every Thursday.

Happy Birthday Cosmo

2011-03-08T08:37:00.003-07:00

Our tiger cat Cosmo turns 8 years old today. This photo of his face is my all time favorite. Today he will spend most of the day napping. I will give him a special lunch of canned food with a side of cat treats.

I still remember the day I went to the local animal control and picked him out of a large litter of kittens to adopt. I think he had 8 sisters and one brother. I named him Cosmo after the Seinfeld character Cosmo Kramer. Even today when he is all wound up and running around Cosmo will make a crazy entrance and slide across the floor tousling the throw rug. Cosmo has lots of nicknames, like Bootsy, Mr. Boots, Jr. Mint, Fancy Pants, or Skitter Magoo. He is certainly my precious baby boy and hope he is with us for many more years. Here are some more of my favorite photos of Cosmo.

Tuesday's with Chloe

2011-03-01T16:13:00.002-07:00

February Wrap-Up

2011-02-27T11:59:00.007-07:00

Although February is a short month it feels like winter gives you its last big kick in the pants. The month is a blur but it still seems like you took a beating. Chloe is growing so quickly. About a week ago she got up in the morning as usual but it felt like she had grown older over night. I still have moments like when I am driving and she is sitting in her car seat in the back and I catch a glimpse of her and I think Wow I have a kid. I find myself starring at her in wonder, and total love for her.

I tried several new recipes this month only one worth mentioning. I tried a chicken nacho, a sausage and pepper sandwich, and a supposedly the best meatloaf you will ever try recipe, it was not the case. I did make some Strawberry-Chocolate cupcakes that were a real treat. I found the recipe at cupcakeblog.com. The specific recipe I used is HERE. The blog is all cupcake recipes and I think I will be back to see what else I can make from the website.

I started knitting the Matsuri scarf. I think I might rip it out and start over on a smaller needle size. It looks good I just think the pattern will pop out more if I go to the next size down in needles. I finally figured out the berry-in-a-box stitch. There was a Dec 4 section that I read over and over and even got out a few of my stitch handbooks to try and figure out what it was telling me to do. I had to just start it and finally my brain clicked and I got it.

I started another project I am calling my Little Zigzag blanket. I was inspired by Attic 24’s zigzag baby blanket she made awhile back. I just thought it was brilliant to put the little squares together on the diagonal. I am using Baby bee Hushabye yarn in all solid colors. Picture on the left Top row colors are Baby Sage #82, Sugar Plum #60, Meema’s Blue #39, Middle Row: Boo Pink #40, Naked #11, Pink a Boo #36. Bottom Row: Baby’s Blue #50, Chocolate #80, Mint Charm #26. I have already started making the little squares. I like how easy and portable making the little squares are. So far so good and I am amazed at how many squares I already have just working on them here and there.

Well that wraps up the month of February. I am looking forward to watching the Oscars tonight. I will leave you with some photos of Chloe taken this month.

My Granny Stripe

2011-02-18T13:38:00.003-07:00

I have completed my Granny Stripe blanket. This is my first project completed in my 2011 challenge to create 11 in 2011. This was an easy project it just took me awhile to get it done.

I used Baby Bee Delight yarn in colors: Naked, Pink-A-Boo, Bashful, and Berry Jam. It is very soft yarn and nice to work with. I have already washed the blanket in the washer on delicate cycle in cold and dried it on an air non heat cycle and it looks great. I like that I can wash it if I need to.

I did a total of 10 repeats of the pattern striping. Sorry the photo is not great. It is not easy to get the whole thing in the photo. I took this one standing on the stairs looking down at it.

I decided to do a shell pattern around the edging instead of the picot that was used in the pattern.

Overall a great easy project. You can find the pattern HERE.

Now just 10 more creative projects to complete in 2011.

Happy Valentines

2011-02-15T12:14:00.003-07:00

Hope everyone had a wonderful Valentines Day. It was pretty low key around here. I had planned to make some cupcakes for Chloe to bring into her class at daycare, but they don’t allow any home made food to share with the kids. So I picked up some cookies and some white grape juice from the store to bring in for the kids and their afternoon party. Chloe had a great time and even came home with a goodie bag full of little toys and treats.

We gave Chloe a panda pillow pet for Valentines. It has a little Velcro flap on the bottom that you can undo and it becomes flat like a pillow. It is pretty cute and she carries it all over the house and also has it with her for naps and bed time.

The mail man dropped off a package for me just in time for Valentines. I got the new Berroco pattern book #309 Vintage DK. Along with it I got 2 skeins of Berroco’s Vintage DK wool blend yarn in color #2176 Pumpkin. I plan to use the yarn to knit the Matsuri scarf from the pattern book. It has been awhile since I have picked up my knitting needles and I think this will be the perfect project to get me back into the game.

I went to the movies on Valentines and saw No Strings Attached with Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher. It was a good romantic comedy and perfect for the holiday.

Coming soon, photos of my first completed project of 2011.

Oatmeal Cookies

2011-02-12T20:10:00.004-07:00

Today I made oatmeal cookies. I have never made oatmeal cookies before, there always seemed to be a better cookie to make than oatmeal. Since all three of us have a major sweet tooth I thought maybe I would try to be a smidge on the healthier side making oatmeal cookies instead of whatever double fudge chocolate cookie recipe I wanted to try at the moment. This recipe is called Grandma Mollie’s Oatmeal Raisin chocolate chip cookies. Of course it does have chocolate chips in it, probably why it caught my attention in the first place. I tore out the recipe from Country living magazines September 2009 issue. You can find the recipe HERE. These cookies turned out wonderful and both Chris and Chloe approve.

We are finally starting to thaw out after all the bad weather. The weather caused a black out in our town due to high consumption of electricity. The electric company was able to get all the power back on in a reasonable amount of time. The biggest problem was that the natural gas company shut down all the gas. With no natural gas we had no heat and no hot water. Luckily we had two space heaters to help keep us from being too cold. It was about 2 ½ days until they got the gas back on at our house. The guy rang my doorbell the afternoon of the third day and said he was there to turn the gas back on, I looked like hell with flannel pj pants on with a couple of layered tops and a sweatshirt, my hair looked like a hot mess since I had not washed it in a few days. His name was Justin and I could have kissed him square on the mouth. Chloe even liked the guy as she stood beside me all bundled up saying hi to him for the 10th time as he went around the house turning things back on and making sure the gas was on and working correctly. I have my fingers crossed that will be the worst of the weather we will see this season.

We made a trip into a nearby town to do some shopping and to stop at our favorite Mexican restaurant. Chloe is enjoying a plate of cheese quesadillas with some beans and rice. This place is pretty cool because not only do they have amazing food they also have a large bird cage in the lobby that houses several exotic birds a few parrots, cockatiels, and even a toucan. Chloe got a big kick out of watching the birds and talking to them.

Silent Sunday

2011-02-06T11:33:00.003-07:00

January Wrap-Up

2011-01-30T12:53:00.004-07:00

The first month of the year is coming to an end. I am patiently waiting for the longer days of day light. All of my house plants are loving the new house. This is my Christmas cactus that decided to finally bloom again. I think it has bloomed a total of 3 times in the 9 years I have had it. It makes me giggly when my plants are happy.

2011 Challenge
I was able to try a few new recipes this month. These three turned out the best. From left to right is Minestrone soup, pretzels with a spicy mustard dip, and vegetable lasagna. The soup and the lasagna were meals both Chris and I liked so they are making it to the list of regulars. The pretzels were wonderful and would be great for special occasions. Recipe credits: Minestrone Verde recipe is from Cat Cora’s classics with a twist book. Pretzels are from Pyllis Hoffman’s Celebrate magazine, the Fall 2009 issue. The Chicken Caesar Lasagna recipe is from Better Homes and Gardens and you can find the link HERE.

The granny stripe is the crafty project I am working on at the moment I have finally completed the main part of the afghan. I did a total of 10 repeats of the striping pattern.

I am currently working on weaving in all of those ends. Then I will start on the border. I am hoping to complete this in February. I already have some ideas for my next yarn project and I am anxious to get that started.

I will leave you with some photos of Chloe in the month of January.

2011 a New Year

2011-01-18T13:47:00.007-07:00

Hope all of you are doing great. This will be a big year of changes for Chloe. This is a photo of Chloe and her last day with her crib. We decided to change her crib to a toddler bed this January. She is almost 22 months and we felt it was time to make this change. I try to only do one big change at a time. We will probably be starting the potty training in a few months after she turns 2 years old, so now would be a good time to switch her to a toddler bed and give her time to get use to it.

Her crib is a 3 in one crib that turns from a crib, to a toddler bed, and then can also change into a twin bed that uses the longer front and back panels as a head and foot board. I changed her crib on a Friday so we could start this on the weekend. The Friday that I changed her bed I think I stood in her doorway and stared at this bed a million times. I think it was harder for me then it was for her. She was totally excited about being able to climb in and out by her self. The first night I kept to her same night time routine and put her to bed. She has always slept with her door closed. So I closed her door and put a kid gate in the doorway so if she did get up she could not wonder around the house at night. After closing her door I ran and hid where I could watch to see what she did. A few minutes later she was up and opened her door and looked around. Then she closed the door. A minute later she was back and opened the door and said “Papa?” I stayed in hiding. She then slammed the door shut and that was it. I checked on her about 2 hours later and she was in her bed with her pillow and blanket fast asleep and slept thru the night. She has been in her new toddler bed for over a week and has had no problems. I was stressing about making this change for the last few months and am so happy that it went as smooth as it did.

New Year Challenge
Can you believe it is another year already? I did not make any New Year resolutions this year. Instead I decided to challenge my self to be more creative. I think when I am creative it makes me feel peaceful. I love to make things with my hands and my mind, and it is a big part of who I am as an individual. I am so many things to other people like being a Mom, Wife, daughter, sister, not to mention my least favorite business owner and employer. Some times I need to be just Tami and to reconnect with myself. So to be more creative this year I am going to do 11 in 2011. I challenge myself to create or make 11 things this year. My rules are that I have the entire year and I can start things from scratch or complete projects that I have already started and the goal is to complete 11 creative things in 2011. I am also adding a side challenge to 2011 to try new recipes. It is real easy for me to get stuck in a rut and make the same dinners week by week because they are comfortable and easy. Now that I have a toddler I feel pressure to expand and become a better cook and bring more variety into our meals. So I challenge myself to try at least 2 new recipes a month for the entire year of 2011. I figure I can try more if I want to but I need to do at least 2 a month and see how it goes.

This is my least favorite month of the year, this is the time I work on the taxes for our dental office from the prior year. YUCK!!! Tax Hell! Anyway I won’t bore you with all that stuff. Hopefully I can get all that wrapped up by the end of the month and can move on to happier days. Chloe is doing great by the way and has some how turned into a kid. Where did my little baby go? I will leave you with some photos of her.

Happy New Year

2010-12-31T14:58:00.002-07:00

I wish all of you and your family the best for the upcoming New Year. I can not wait to see what will happen in the next 365 days. I will take it all the good and the bad and stick each one in my pocket as I grab the steering wheel of life and move forward choosing the next path I will take defining the chapters in my life.

I toast to you and thank you for being your self and allowing me to do the same. Thank you for helping me to feel connected to people, when most times it seems like we are all alone. You are the evidence that we are not alone and that we can all find some common ground. Cheers to You my friend!

Happy Holidays

2010-12-18T08:08:00.004-07:00

We have been enjoying the holiday season. I should be back to regular blogging in the New Year. For now I am happy to spend time with my family. The house is still not completely unpacked but the majority is done and is very comfortable.

We have taken a few outings with Chloe and she is doing so much better with the car rides. I think it helps that we put her car seat in the middle of the back seat. She can see more. Here she is at a Mexican restaurant enjoying some quesadillas.

We gave Chloe a new table and chair set for an early Christmas gift. She loves to sit at her table and doodle. It is a good size and sturdy construction so she should be able to use it for a few years. It is from the Papagayo Animals collection.

This weekend we hope to make it to the mall to possibly take some Santa photos. This Christmas we are spending a few days with family. Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season.

Boxes & More Boxes

2010-11-20T13:39:00.004-07:00

We moved in. I can’t say we are unpacked yet. Here is the front of the house.

The backyard is a blank slate. We are not going to worry about it until next spring when the weather warms back up for planting.

If you walk thru my house you will see many piles of boxes much like this stack here. You might find me unpacking a box while Chloe is in another part of the room making a mess with something I have already put away. It is an uphill battle I hope to conquer by the end of the year. I think my biggest challenge is that we downsized with this house. So we moved from a larger house to a smaller one and even though we got rid of some stuff I need to get creative on how to make space for things. Our master closet is what I am dealing with now. We have about half the hanging space we had in our old closet. I think I might try those clothing storage bins under the bed and switch out winter sweaters with summer clothes depending on the season. I will also need to fold up pants and stick them on a shelf or something. If anyone has any storage tricks or ideas feel free to pass them on to me.

The week we moved into the new house we found a new home for our dog Haley. We love and miss her dearly. We just did not have the time to give her all the attention she was craving in her later years. We were able to find an older couple that already had an Italian Greyhound. They fell in love with her and vice versa. We are so fortunate to find her such a loving and good home.

This is the lump we had on our bed the first week we moved in. It is our cat Cosmo hiding under the blankets.

Cosmo is still getting use to the move. He slinks around and mostly comes out when it is quiet, basically after Chloe goes to bed. I think once we are all unpacked and settled into a routine he will be more comfortable.

Note from ChloeHello everyone. I am the luckiest kid in the world. My parents bought me a new house. This place is so cool. I have a big back yard full of dirt to dig in and run around until I am too tired to stand. We live much closer to the grocery store and even close to the park. One night we had this thing called pizza delivery. I thought it was ok but my parents were so excited they were dancing around the living room. Apparently they had not been able to have pizza delivery in 8 years. Geez that is like 7 life times to me, my parents must be ancient. Well I better go Mom is busy and I want to finish stuffing some raisins in the couch cushions before she notices.

Closed on the New House

2010-10-29T12:55:00.003-07:00

We finally closed on the new house and are moving in next Friday. I might be missing in action for the next 2 weeks. I have a week to pack up the house and get everything squared away for the move. I have moved so many times in my life that I could be a pro at it. Of course all that experience you can throw out the window. This time I am moving with a toddler and it is a whole new ball game. I am hoping she gives me enough time to get it all done. Here are some photos of the new house. I wish everyone a happy and safe Halloween.

Wednesday Matinee

2010-10-20T11:31:00.002-07:00

Florida Vacation 2010

2010-10-17T20:48:00.006-07:00

We packed up the family and headed to Florida for the Annual Dental conference and a little vacation. We had to leave the house for the airport at 5 am. That was hard but we managed to get the car and our selves all packed up and left on time. We loose 2 hours in Florida so we booked the earliest flight so we could arrive there at a reasonable time. Here is Chloe on the plane. The flight attendant gave her a little activity book with a thick multicolored pencil. This kept her busy for a good amount of time.

Chris had classes with the dental conference the first 3 days. Chloe and I spent the first day together at Epcot while Chris was in class. Here she is with her new Winnie the Pooh. I have sung the Winnie the Pooh song to her since she was a baby, just the parts I know. She sings it also and it sounds like Bee Boo Boo.

We spotted this large crane about 2 feet from us.

Here we are with Marie from the Disney movie Aristocats. She hangs out near Paris in Epcot’s world showcase. Chloe is obsessed with kitties & puppies. Anything with a long tail and pointy ears is a kitty to her including squirrels, beavers, and raccoons. All large animals she thinks are cows this includes horses. Chloe will make a Moo sound any time an animal resembles a cow.

Here is Chloe with her Papa sporting a sombrero and a tambourine.

The second day while Chris was in classes Chloe and I spent the day with my family at Epcot’s food and wine festival. My sister and her boyfriend, my 2 nephews, my Mom, My Brother and his fiancé all met us to spend the day together. This is the only photo I took; it is of Chloe and her cousin Steven. I feel like a total idiot for not taking any photos, the sun most have gotten to me. The next day Chloe and I spent the day with my family again and went to my Dad’s house for some great food and family time. My Dad took a bunch of photos that day and hopefully he will send some to me. Overall it was a great visit with my family and I was so glad they could all spend time with Chloe.

One of the evenings we ate dinner at the Sci-Fi Dinner in Disney’s MGM Studios. It was real cool. You sit in cars and there is a huge screen in front like a drive in that plays clips of old sci-fi movies. Here is a photo of Chloe and I sitting in the back seat.

This is the view I had mostly going thru the parks. I would walk behind Chloe with the stroller to kind of keep the crowds from running her over.

The Safari ride at Disney’s Animal Kingdom is one of my favorite rides. Here is Chloe and Chris on the ride. The following are some of the animal photos I took while on the ride.

They had a petting zoo at this park. Chloe got to get up close to several of the goats.

This petting zoo had several roped off areas that the animals could go in and out of when they needed some time away from the kids. I thought this was a great human set up for them.

We spotted this black swan snoozing in a quiet corner. If I remember correctly they are native to Australia. It was beautiful.

Here is a spider we spotted as we exited the park. Holy Moley.

We pre-purchased tickets for Disney’s Not so Scary Halloween party. This is held at the Magic Kingdom after park hours and all the kids dress up and are given a treat bag to go trick or treating though out the park. This was a complete nightmare. We lasted about 45 minutes and I think Chloe screamed and threw a tantrum about 30 of the 45 minutes we were there. This is the one photo I got of her in her Snow White costume. It was not her night and there fore it was not ours either or anyone around us. So we promptly left and lesson learned not to buy tickets like that in advanced not knowing what kind of mood everyone will be in at the time of the event.

Sugar over load, Cream Puff anyone?

We had a Princess Character lunch were you can eat and all the princess’s will come by and visit your table. This is Belle playing Peek-a-boo with Chloe. Here are some Princesses with my princess.

Sunset photos

Here is Chloe; we are waiting for the boat to take us to Disney’s Downtown marketplace. We started the vacation staying at Disney’s Beach club which was were all the Dental Conference people got a discount, then we moved over to Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort for the remainder of our stay. This was our first time staying at The Saratoga. They have a real nice spa and golf course and are the closest to Downtown Disney Market place and Pleasure Island. The Beach club resort is still are favorite.

Driving through to the Magic Kingdom.

The Polynesian Resort is one of Disney’s older hotels. We usually plan at least one breakfast there before heading into the Magic kingdom. In one of their restaurants they make this amazing Tonga toast which is cinnamon French toast stuffed with bananas. Ohh it is good. The Polynesian is a Hawaiian themed resort. This is a photo of some hanging baskets at the entrance. Here are some more photos at the resort.

We were at the Polynesian for a character breakfast at their Ohana restaurant. At this restaurant they serve breakfast family style, where there is a big skillet of eggs, bacon, sausage and potatoes they put on the table for everyone to scoop out what they want. During the meal characters will come by your table for you to take photos. Here are some photos taken at the breakfast.

Not sure what this plant is but I love the color of the berries against the contrast of the leaves.

Chloe watching some kids play.

Chloe liked to sit on little rocks that were perfect height for her.

Back at the Saratoga resort they had an area for kids near the pool that had many water spouts for kids to splash around and get wet. Here is Chloe playing in the water.

Well that is about it for our Florida vacation. Back to the real world and piles of laundry.

New House Progress

2010-10-07T20:52:00.003-07:00

We were out driving around and spotted the wiener mobile in a hotel parking lot. Of course we had to pull over and take some photos. This is Chloe and I posing with the sweet ride.

Here is the front view the plate reads RELSHME. The front seats look pretty nice. I think it would be cool to drive this thing around.

New House Progress
The new House is coming along little by little. This is the back yard. They have completed the back yard fencing. The house does not come with any landscaping in the back just the block fence.

Here is the living room with the archway into the dinning room and kitchen area. I really like the archway. You can see they have dry walled and textured the walls.

Here is the pantry in the kitchen. It will be nice to have a good size pantry.

Here is the master bath soaking tub. I like having the block window in the bathroom to let in some natural light. They plan to paint next, then put in all the cabinets, then do the tile work.

I was able to go and see the movie “Legend of the Guardians”. It was really good. I love owls so I had to go and see this one in 3-D. The animation was unbelievably beautiful. I might even read the books to Chloe when she gets a little older, they have a great story line.

That’s all for now, we are heading to Florida for a week. The annual dental conference is in Orlando this year. We also plan to spend a little time with my family whom lives in the area, and of course we will spend some time with Mickey Mouse at Disney World. I will be back with some photos. Have a great Week!

18 Months Old

2010-10-02T12:03:00.003-07:00

Chloe turned 18 months old at the end of September. I don’t think I have seen her crawl in at least a week. I think she has chosen to stick with the walking. It takes her longer but the view is much better. She is down to one nap a day, right after lunch and it seems to be enough for her. She sleeps about 12 hours a night she goes to bed by 7pm and is up around 7am. She eats 3 meals a day with one main snack in between lunch and dinner. She pretty much snacks all day long. She is on the skinny side so I am not really worried about her eating too much. Here are some photos taken in September.

Apple of My Eye

2010-09-28T11:19:00.005-07:00

It is apple season. This time of year I am all about the apple and wallow in my love for them. There are so many different things you can make with apples and they compliment many other foods. They are even perfect all by them selves plucked off the branch and shined on your shirt, ready to take a big bite out of. The phrase “apple of my eye” goes way back to Old English and is in several pieces of literature from back in the day. One of my favorite pieces that uses the phrase was by Shakespeare’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream” written in 1600. In ancient Greece the apple was to be sacred to Aphrodite, and to throw an apple at someone was to symbolically declare one’s love; and to catch it was to symbolically show one’s acceptan

Johnny Appleseed Day
Johnny Appleseed was a real guy named John Chapman and was among the American settlers who were in the movement west in North America. As he traveled west, he planted apple trees along the way, and sold trees to settlers. As he continued his journey the legend of Johnny Appleseed grew. He was born on September 26, 1774, which is where the date for Johnny Appleseed Day came about as September 26th. Of course I was not going to pass up this holiday with out cooking up some apples.

Apple Bread
I made a loaf of apple bread using the recipe by Tessa Kiros from her cook book “Apples for Jam”. Tessa writes: “I love the name apple bread—it carries me off in my fantasy to some very green hills with chunky plates and bowls of fresh cream, with rosy cheeked children skipping about here and there.” This bread turned out wonderfully, and I will make it again and again. It was a big hit and you can see from the photo that is all we have left of the loaf.

Apple Sauce
This is my second time making home-made applesauce. The first time I made it for Chloe when she had no teeth but was ready for solid foods. I used the recipe from Simple Recipes website. You can find the recipe HERE. My whole house smelt heavenly while this was simmering on the stove. A great thing about the recipe is you can freeze portions of it. Back when Chloe was younger I froze portions of the applesauce in ice cube trays and would pull out cubes to thaw for her as needed.

Apple Stem Game
Do you have any memories of playing games with Apples when you were a kid. Something us girls did while we were kids was when you were going to eat an apple you would turn the stem and every turn you would say the letters of the alphabet, and whatever letter you landed on when the stem broke off was the initial of the guy you were going to marry. Of course you would work hard on getting it to land on the initial of the guy you were in love with at the time. To this day I still do this game when I am about to eat an apple and coincidently it always lands on C for my husband Chris. LOL

This photo and the one above were taken from a small apple orchard down the road from us. Their trees are over flowing with apples right now.

I could not end this with out a photo of the Apple of my Eye; Chloe. Feel free to share any of your favorite apple recipes or memories.

Life Kicking My Butt

2010-09-18T14:22:00.002-07:00

Life has been kicking our butts. There is so much going on with trying to sell our house, building our new house, our dental office, & the remainder of our herd of alpacas we moved to a farm up North to be sold. Chris and my life together has always been a roller coaster ride of change and I think that is how we like it. But the thing that is different this time around is we have a child. A child is a whole new adventure in itself. Most of the changes we are making in our lives are because we have a child and are planning our future with her as a family. The problem is it takes time to get from old life A to new life B. Lets just say life is busy just having a toddler, and throwing in all of these other factors life is crazy. So Chris and I had to regroup and figure out how to make this process more doable with out killing each other.

We decided to change up Chloe’s schedule which we started last week. Now she goes to day care part time on Monday, Wednesday, & Friday. Since our dental office is closed on Monday this gives both Chris and I a day to do whatever. It is kind of like a day to reboot and to relax in order to face the next week. Last week was the test run and let me tell you it was a big improvement. I could not have asked for a better week.

Last Monday I decided to take the day for myself and let Chris do whatever on his own. He chose to sit in front of the computer all day playing games and was happy as a kid in a candy store. I started the day with grocery shopping. I know what your thinking but it has to be done. Then I headed up the Mountain to a nearby town to try and find a gift for a family member’s up coming birthday. Have you ever gone out shopping for a gift for someone and find something you just have to have for yourself. I stood at the jewelry counter staring at these earrings and I knew I was in trouble. My rule is I can only buy something if I absolutely love it, and would not be able to find it cheaper somewhere else. Of course I tortured the sales lady by having her take them out of the cabinet while I tried them on and stood there looking at them for a good 15 minutes. I was thinking would it be ok to send a birthday card telling the recipient Happy Birthday, I picked a little something out for myself, thank you. Fortunately I get an allowance twice a month that is for my use no questions asked. I usually just spend it on stuff for Chloe or magazines. These earrings definitely seemed worthy of digging into my stash of coin. So I bought them, and I am so happy I did. I know If I had not I would have been searching for similar ones for the rest of my life. I am loving the lady bug drop earrings that kind of remind me of the Queen of hearts from Alice and Wonderland.

I decided to go to the movies that afternoon. I chose to see the romantic comedy Going the Distance with Drew Barrymore. This movie was so much fun. It was laugh out load funny. This is one I will definitely watch again when it comes out on DVD. After the movie I picked up Chloe and both Chris and I were all over her like she had been gone a week. So a big thumbs up to the new schedule and we will see how it goes next week.

The Girl Can Walk

2010-09-14T13:15:00.003-07:00

Chloe finally started walking on her own. One evening last week I was on the phone with my mother and Chloe got up and walked about 9 steps towards me. It was sooo cool. She did it a couple more times that evening. She has been walking a little bit here and there each day since and building up her confidence. I am so excited for her and for us.

This is a video of Chloe with her favorite toy at the moment. It is a stuffed cat she calls KittyCat. Her favorite thing to do with KittyCat is to lye him down and cover him up with a blanket and she will say “Night Night”. She will do this over and over again. Otherwise she will just drag him around the house and he will participate in anything she is doing.

Tantrums, Park, Home, & Sanity

2010-09-12T20:25:00.004-07:00

Chloe looks all sweet and innocent here but don’t fall for the cutie pie act. At 17 months she has started to throw tantrums. I thought this was not supposed to happen until 2 years old, you know the terrible 2’s. From what I have read it is best to take charge now and let her know that it is not acceptable behavior. This sounds pretty impossible considering how young she is and the language barrier at the moment. After reading all I could find, we decided to set up a play pen in an out of the way corner to kind of use as a time out. Her tantrums usually occur when there is something she wants but can not have due to safety issue, and also when you end an activity that she wants to continue. If she is out of control and does not look like she is coming back to normal any time soon, I will pick her up and place her in the time out playpen and tell her I will be back when she calms down. I then walk out of the room and stand outside the room listening. If she calms down I will go in and get her. Otherwise I pop my head in after a minute or two and ask if she is ready to come out yet. This usually prompts her to let go or forget what she was so upset about. So far I have only had to do it maybe 4 times in a week period. I am open to any advice and feel free to share any methods you have used and seems to work.

Children’s Park
On a happier note we found a children’s park that has a baby swing. The only one we were aware of before that had baby swings was the local zoo and you had to pay admission just to get in and use the park area. Chloe loves some swing time. The park also has a huge jungle gym area with lots of buildings different size slides and things to climb around. Chloe is still a little small to be climbing around but should be big enough this autumn. Here are some photos at the park.

New House
The new home is coming along. I thought I would share some indoor features I am excited about. This is a photo of the loft. It is a large upstairs area we plan to use as part family room and part Chloe play room. I am excited to have a place for Chloe’s toys and still have plenty of room for a space adults can chill out too.

This little window is going to be above the kitchen sink and over looks the back yard. I have always spent a good amount of time in the kitchen and at the sink but since having a baby I clock serious hours in front of the sink. Having a window above the kitchen sink is probably one of the top five things I must have in my house.

This little area is up stairs beside the staircase. It is going to have a half wall so there will be plenty of natural light. This area was kind of a surprise, we did not notice it when we just looked at the drawn out floor plan. We decided it would be cool to make it into a little reading nook for Chloe. We are thinking to put a child book case and possibly a few bean bags. This will be great for accommodating Chloe’s ever growing stash of books.

Granny Stripe
I am progressing on my Granny Stripe afghan. I have completed 28 stripes which is 56 rows. I am so glad I started this, and I should name it my Sanity Blanket. It is something that is keeping me grounded and relaxes me. Chloe is currently going down to one nap a day instead of two. This is kind of like when Chloe decided she did not want her pacifier any more and just quit it cold turkey. My husband and I were not ready to get rid of it but she was clearly not having it any more. I think I would hold onto the second nap until she started kindergarten if I could. I did not realize how much I depended on her morning nap until she decided she did not need it anymore. I am not sure if it is harder on the kid or the parents when they go thru these transitional periods.

A Shout out to my Father, Happy Birthday Dad! You have been in my thoughts today. Chloe sends her Grandpa lots of hugs and kisses. I wish you many more years of happy days.

Ottoman Make-Over

2010-09-09T18:50:00.002-07:00

This is the ottoman I bought out of desperation while very pregnant. I really needed it to put my feet up in the evenings. I found it in the clearance section of a local furniture store. I loved the size and shape and that it had a drawer. I hated the fact that it was all black and did not match anything but the electronics in the room. So I covered it up and it worked perfectly getting me thru the long uncomfortable pregnancy.

I eventually moved it into Chloe’s room and covered it with a blanket that matched her décor. I usually have her diaper changing basket on it, and both Chris and I sit on it while she plays in her room. I decided to go ahead and fix it up for her room in our new house.

Here is the new look. I took the seat off and painted the base an off white color. Then I covered the seat with a striped fabric in cream, pink, and green. This was my first time using a staple gun, I love that thing. I am looking around the house trying to find more things I can use it on. I am happy with the result and it will look even better in her new room once we move because the wall color will be a bigger contrast than what she has now. I can check this project off my list of things to get done before the move.

Wednesday Matinee

2010-09-01T10:14:00.003-07:00

I know how the family likes to see Chloe in action. Here is a look at her latest dance move.

Could Sleep a Week

2010-08-25T13:41:00.002-07:00

We spent the weekend in Las Vegas for my sister-n-law’s wedding. I feel like I need to sleep a week just to get back on track. This photo is of Chloe at the wedding working on walking. The wedding was way past her bed time, but she was a trooper and did not get fussy at all.

I made the bride a little gathered clutch using Noodlehead’s tutorial. This was hard using the fabric I picked out a lace and a very silky fabric. I think it would have been a 100% easier if I had just picked out simple cotton fabrics. Here is the front I put a little heart with August 2010 embroidered on the front.

Here is the back. I put another heart on the back with the Bride and Grooms initials.

On the inside I used a white fabric for the lining. Overall a great little project and I plan to make some more using some funky fabrics and possibly doing some appliqué to add character. I usually avoid patterns with zippers involved but this came together pretty nicely. If you would like to make your own gathered clutch head on over to Noodlehead’s tutorial you will find it HERE.

The Granny Stripe
I had been following Attic24 as she was crocheting her Granny Stripe afghan pictured above. What can I say; I love how it came out and enjoyed watching photos of her progress. This year I have been trying to use up some of the stash of yarn that I have accumulated and decided to take a look and see if I had anything to use for my own Granny Stripe.

I had a bunch of this Baby Bee yarn in the white and blue-purple color. I am obsessed with the color combo orange and pink at the moment so picked up the 2 middle colors to go with what I already had. The colors from left to right are: naked, pink-a-boo, bashful, & berry jam.

Here is what I have done so far in the stripe pattern I came up with. I love this pattern and it is so much easier for me than making a ton of granny squares. I am making it large enough incase the 3 of us want to cuddle under it together while watching a movie or if we just want to all be toasty together. You can find the Granny Stripe pattern HERE.

Our new house is coming along. They painted the exterior and still have to paint the front door and put up some shutters. Chris has been able to go inside and check out their progress. He says they have been working on the electrical and the plumbing. I am just happy that there is progress and hopefully they will finish at the projected time. No one I know that has ever built a house had them finish on time, so we will see. I am trying to catch up this week on some work from the office. My plan is to start going through the closets next month and tossing out stuff we don’t want to bring to the new house. I am not looking forward to packing up the house. I am much more excited about working on some slip covers, cushions and some furniture I plan to change up a bit for the new house.

Last Days of Summer

2010-08-12T12:06:00.003-07:00

It certainly feels like the dog days of summer around here trying to beat the heat. I have been busy with a few projects; one is a little something I am making my sister-n-law. She is getting married this weekend. The family is all a buzz and excited for the upcoming ceremony.

My summer favorite polish for my toe nails is Frutti Petutie #540 by Sally Hansen. I have not worn polish on my fingers in over 8 years but I sure like it on my toes. This would not be my normal color choice but it looks great on and just screams summer.

I read Shanghai Girls by Lisa See recently and it is such a good book. While reading this book I laughed, I cried, and I thought about my sister & my best friend and my Mom, & my daughter. If you are a woman and have a pulse put this book on your to read list. If you like this one read Snow Flower & the Secret Fan also by Lisa See, which is one of my all time favorite books.

We always have a steady supply of bananas in the house, since Chloe and I usually split one every morning. Potassium is so good for you. I recently read a study that concluded potassium helping to prevent strokes and high blood pressure. Anyway I tend to make a lot of banana bread with the left over ripe bananas. This is my latest concoction it is Banana white chocolate chip macadamia nut bread. I always start out with my favorite old time Betty Crocker banana bread recipe then toss things in and see how it comes out. This one was delicious.

Now that the alpacas are gone our front pasture has filled to the brim with sun flowers. It is amazing; there have to be thousands of them. I could set up a stand and sell them. I will leave you with a few pictures of all their glory.

Saturday Matinee

2010-08-07T13:22:00.003-07:00

Today Chloe figured out how to get in and out of her wagon. I left her for a minute and came back to find her sitting in it in her room. She quickly scrambled out of it before my eyes. I moved the wagon out to the living room and she continued to get in and out of it. She keeps adding more skills to her growing list of things that scare me. The wheels are definitely turning in that brain of hers. Here are 2 videos of my little monster.

Cool Stuff

2010-08-05T13:11:00.004-07:00

Chloe has almost outgrown her baby swing. Here is a comparison of her when she was younger and now. The one on the left was taken last October at around 7 months old and the one on the right was taken at 16 months old.

LeSportsac has a line of diaper bags. This fall they are coming out with several more print choices with a few Dad friendly colors. I love their handbags the last one I bought was in a Hawaiian theme print with a tiki and a Hula girl on it that I found at one of their shops in Waikiki.

How cute is this Beatrix Potter tea set? This is so cool I want it for my self. It is a little on the high end price wise but would be perfect as a special gift. You can find it at Stash Tea.

New Home Progress

2010-08-01T14:26:00.002-07:00

The builders finally started framing up our new home. We are so excited to see the progress and how much they have done. Last weekend we were able to walk around inside with the framing up to kind of get a feel for how it would be once it is done. We are very pleased with the floor plan and think it will work perfectly for how we live at home. I drove by last Friday and they were still working on the siding and also putting in the garage door. Here are some photos so far.

16 Months Old

2010-07-26T13:34:00.005-07:00

Chloe is now 16 months old. You hear it all the time how fast they grow, it is amazingly true. Chloe has 11 teeth that include 3 molars. She is eating well. I will cook up some food for her on the weekends to last thru the week. I will usually make some pasta, she likes the mini shells. I will also make up some rice using chicken broth instead of water. Then I will make 2 veggies. For protein I will give her turkey, chicken, ham, or a beef meat ball. Almost every meal she will also have fruit. Some foods Chloe loves are: grilled cheese sandwiches, chocolate chip waffles, American cheese, yogurt parfait, & blue berry muffins. She likes to explore her environment. She will open up draws and cupboards that do not have the safety locks on and will take everything out of them. Some times she will put them in different cupboards for me to find later. She says Mama all the time and sometimes she will even pat my chest and say it. The dog and cat are still her first priority, and is always fascinated to watch and see what they are doing. Here are some recent photos of Chloe at 16 months old.

Our Summer Vacation 2010

2010-07-21T13:43:00.003-07:00

We set out on our summer vacation the weekend of July 4th. There are three legs to this vacation. So I will break it down into three posts Dallas Oregon, Portland Oregon, & Maui Hawaii. So grab yourself a cup of coffee and sit back and relax because this is a long vacation post. Chloe did better this time on the car ride to the airport and also the plane ride.

We arrived in Oregon Saturday evening and stayed with my In-laws for a few days in Dallas Oregon. Sunday was the 4th of July and they had a BBQ planned for the day and invited a few friends over to enjoy the day with us. Chloe liked hanging out at the house. They had an island in the kitchen that she would go around and around exploring.

Their cherry tree was full of cherries. I just loved seeing the contrast of the red cherries against the green of the tree. It was a dwarf tree so the cherries were at eye level.

We could not have asked for a better spread of food for the BBQ. There was fresh crab with cream cheese and cocktail sauce to spread on crackers. The main meal was grilled fresh wild salmon with a special mustard sauce. This salmon was to die for, it literally melted in your mouth. There was also corn on the cob and a green salad. The rolls in the photo above were brought by Cathy a dear friend of the family. The rolls were very good, and Chloe could not get enough of them. I got the recipe from Cathy and plan to make them myself for Chloe to enjoy.

For dessert there was a cake decorated like a watermelon and home baked cherry pie made from the cherries off the tree in the back yard. The entire day consisted of many things starting from scratch. Starting from the time they got up and working straight thru the day until people were leaving there was a lot of effort into the day. From cleaning the crab for the appetizer, to making fresh strawberry lemonade by squeezing all the lemons, and finishing by picking the cherries off the tree and baking a pie. I spent most of the day chasing Chloe around and trying to keep her out from under foot. Overall it was a great holiday and we were glad to spend it with family and friends.

Oregon Coast Aquarium
We went to the Oregon coast and checked out the aquarium. Chloe had a miserable time on the car ride over. She hates being locked up in her car seat. Once at the aquarium all was great and we had a good time looking around and learning about the sea creatures. We drove around the coast a little and found a good place for lunch. Chloe fell asleep for a little bit on the way home.

Chloe’s first Major Booboo
That evening Chloe got her first major Booboo on her face. I can say we were all a little emotional after it happened. Seeing your child bleeding and crying is a horrible thing. Some times at this age you can’t prevent an injury when your child is so excited and able to move around on their own, and not yet aware of the possible dangers in front of them. As a mother of course all the scenarios run thru my mind of the things I might have done to prevent the injury. Chloe seemed fine after the fact and never gave it a second thought. Luckily it was not a major injury and it is almost completely healed.

The Park & Ice Cream
The next day we walked to the local park and let Chloe play on the swings. She loved it. We packed up a picnic lunch to enjoy at the park. The walk was a lot longer than anticipated so the lunch was much appreciated.

We decided to hit Dairy Queen on the way home from the park. Chloe had her first very own ice cream cone. What a mess. She loved it.

Of course Chloe was completely spoiled by her Grandma Ce & Grandma Lauri while we visited. Not only did Chloe have a room of her own all set up with a pack-n-play to sleep in, and a bunch of toys to play with but they also got her a kiddy pool. Chloe experienced a child pool for the very first time. It took some time warming up the water for the pool. It was worth the wait and Chloe had a great time splashing her grandma and playing with toys in the pool.

Fabric Shop
There is a cute little fabric shop in Dallas, Oregon named Grandma’s Attic. My MIL & I took a little trip to the shop while I was visiting. I wish we had a little shop like this near my house.

I picked up this Charm Posies quilt pattern, Fat Eighth bundle of 8 pieces 9” x 22” fabric titled “storybook VI” in orange colors, small travel scissors with point cover, & a 40 piece 5” square cut pack of Darlene Zimmerman’s “Paper Dolls” fabric collection.

Out for Breakfast
They took us out to breakfast at a local place called Café 22 West. Chloe had the chocolate chip pancakes. We all had a great breakfast while dining outside on the patio.

We had a wonderful time visiting with Chloe’s Grandmas and look forward to doing it again. We packed up and headed for the next leg of our vacation.

Portland, Oregon

2010-07-21T13:34:00.005-07:00

Wednesday the 7th was our Anniversary, so we drove up to Portland, Oregon to stay 2 nights before heading to Hawaii. We stayed at the Hotel DeLuxe. The hotel is a contemporary tribute to the golden era of Hollywood filmmaking. This hotel was great and I would definitely stay there again. Our room had a separate living room that could be closed off from the bedroom. This was perfect; we just set up Chloe’s pack-n-play (which the hotel provided) in the living room for her naps and bedtime. That evening we drove to Seasons & Regions Seafood grill for our anniversary dinner. It was wonderful. Chloe enjoyed her grilled cheese sandwich off the kids menu, While Chris and I both ordered cocktails and seafood for dinner.

Knit & Purl
The next day Chris and I were up early and the 3 of us walked to a Starbucks for breakfast. After breakfast we walked to a shop that I wanted to go to while in Portland, the Knit & Purl yarn shop.

Thank goodness they had a seating area for Chris and Chloe to hang out while I took some time looking around. It has been awhile since I have been in a real yarn shop. I loved it.

I held myself back from getting too much, keeping with my goal for using up what I already have in my stash of yarn at home and keeping my pile to a more manageable level. I got the Sublime pattern book #630 & 2 skeins of Shi Bui sock yarn in color Blossom.

The 3 of us went back to the hotel. Chris met up with a good friend of his from dental school to spend the day with and I met up with my best friend Alicia whom works in a building a few blocks from our hotel. We were able to get together during her lunch break. So Alicia, Chloe and I walked to Hot Lips pizza for a little lunch and some girl talk. This was Alicia’s first time seeing Chloe. It was so great to see her and to catch up on our lives. While we were walking back after lunch the road was all blocked off due to the vice president giving a speech in a nearby building. They would not let Alicia back in her building so it gave us a little more time together.

After dropping Alicia off Chloe and I wondered around popping into the little shops here and there. Our hotel was in a great location with plenty of places to get to within walking distance. Plus there is a Max & trolley system all around us to take you even further out if you wanted. I think the only thing I did not get to do that I would have liked was go to the Chinese Garden located in Portland’s China town. I will put it on the list for next time.

Chloe and I were pooped after our afternoon of walking and we went back to the hotel for a nap. Once Chris got back from spending the day with his friend we went out to dinner, and then packed our bags to be ready for our flight the next day to Hawaii.

Maui, Hawaii

2010-07-21T13:12:00.005-07:00

On the 9th we got on the plane from Portland Oregon and headed to Maui, Hawaii for the last leg of our vacation. This was a very long flight. We finally reached our destination and got a rental car to drive to the West side of the island. We were staying in the town of Ka’anapali, at the Ka’anapali Beach Hotel. This is a couple miles from town of Lahaina.

The hotel had a walk way that went along the beach and connected our hotel and all the other hotels, restaurants and shopping place in the area. This was super cool and convenient since we had the stroller.

Our hotel room came with a full size crib. It would have been nice to have a separate seating room to put the crib in but I guess you can’t have everything. This made it difficult for everyone sleeping and getting to sleep and staying to sleep. At any given moment she would stand up and look at us in our bed and say "HI". It was kind of funny. It is not easy trying to ignore her so she will go to sleep, while she is doing her best to entertain you.

Eventually she would fall asleep and we would try our best not to wake her.

Our beach was nice and we were able to rent an umbrella for the day with 2 lawn chairs. We would position Chloe in front of the chairs under the cover of the umbrella with a towel and some toys.

It was fun to see her this time playing in the sand with her pail and shovel. I also took her down to the water’s edge and let the waves come in on her legs. She would giggle and we had a good time. We both ended up with ton of sand in our swim suit bottoms.

Lahaina
We drove to Lahaina and their downtown area walking along the beach and checking out the shops. We stopped at Ululani’s Hawaiian Shave Ice. This is rated the best shave ice in Hawaii. There was a long line but well worth the wait. Oh man this stuff is sooo good! I had the Lahaina flavor combination: pineapple, coconut, banana even Chloe could not get enough of this stuff. Hawaiian shave ice is permanently on my list of must do any time I am in Hawaii. While we were in line Chris spotted a guy back behind the counter that looked familiar and told me to look at him. It looked like a guy we use to know named Dave that we worked with at a restaurant back in Oregon during our college days. Sure enough Dave spotted me and asked me what my name was. We were all smiles at our chance encounter. Dave & his wife are owners of the shop and have a few more shave ice shops in different locations. How cool is that.

Maui Ocean Center
We took Chloe to the Ocean center. This was set up really cool with lots of large tanks filled with fish and the glass was low enough for Chloe to stand next to and watch all the critters.

Along the walk way by our hotel we spotted this carved palm tree. It looks like the palm tree was broken off so they carved it into art. That was a great idea.Here are some random photo taken while in Hawaii.

Our time in Maui we just took it easy and let the day decide for us what we would do. The vacation was a great escape and with all the time away, made us appreciate home. Hope you enjoyed my trip report.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

2010-07-02T20:08:00.003-07:00

We are packing up and taking a 2 week vacation. It was originally planned for just a week, but life has been kicking our butts and one week was just not going to be enough to properly get away from the grind. We are first heading to my in-laws in Oregon and giving Chloe some time with her Grandmas. Since we were going to be all the way in the Pacific Northwest we decided to head on over to Hawaii for a week. Adding on a week in Hawaii was my husband’s idea. Gee, I think I will keep him. The vacation falls along our wedding anniversary which is July 7th. We will be celebrating our 11th anniversary. How time flies especially after having a baby.

Cool Site
There is a cool site I found that gives you birthday fun facts. I put in Chloe’s birth date and it gave me this information: Fun Birthday Facts

Zodiac Sign: Aries
Half Birthday: September 23
Birthstone: Aquamarine
Birth Flower: Daffodil or Jonquil
Chinese Zodiac: Year of The Brown Earth Cow
-Your baby will start kindergarten in 2014, be old enough to drive a car in 2025, finish high school in 2027 and will graduate from college with the class of 2031, give or take a year.
To put in your own child’s birth date, the link is HERE.

Happy Birthday America. Hope everyone has a wonderful fun filled holiday. I will always remember the fourth of July my sister, brother, & I set our palm tree on fire with a firecracker. I can’t remember exactly which one of us tossed it. Luckily we were quick to grab the garden hose and put the fire out. I don’t believe there were any adults around, so keep an eye on those kiddies. The excitement of the celebration can certainly take away their better judgment.

When I get back I will share all of our adventures with you. Right now I need to get off the computer and get to packing. See you on the flip side.

Days of June

2010-06-28T09:04:00.006-07:00

June has flown by and I can not believe it is almost over. It certainly looks like summer around here and the high temperatures we have had makes it feel like the hot days of summer. Chloe is starting to get her molars. The second one just broke thru a few days ago. The molars seem to be much worse than when her front teeth came in.

On Saturday we got a call from the Realtor wanting to show our house, so we packed up Chloe and the dog and headed to the park for a bit. We were lucky there was a little cloud cover so it was not too hot. Here are some photos from the park.

In June we went to the local Cherry Festival. We stocked up on fresh cherries and cherry cider. We also got a cherry pie and some home made fudge. Our sweet tooth is in full capacity this summer.

For Father’s Day weekend I baked up Iny’s Prune Cake with Buttermilk Icing from Ree Drummond’s cook book. I just told Chris it was a spice cake. It turned out great and was real moist and sweet. I can not say enough about her cook book. Every recipe I try turns out fantastic. You can find the recipe HERE.

They started construction this month on our new house. It does not look like much right now. Looks like they have just put in the plumbing and electric pipes and have trenched it and braced it for pouring the foundation next. I am just happy to see they started.

We are looking forward to a few trips we have planned in July. The pasture is filling up with sun flowers and I can not wait for them to all start blooming.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-06-16T12:07:00.003-07:00

A Baker's Sunday

2010-06-13T07:22:00.005-07:00

I am starting the day with some homemade pumpkin scones. I love the pumpkin scones they have at Starbucks during the fall season. On occasion I will get to craving them when I am no where near a Starbucks. A few years ago I found the recipe online. I keep a stash of canned pumpkin puree in my cupboard all year round just in case. The scones are the perfect compliment to a cup of coffee in the morning.You can find the recipe HERE.

I recently purchased the cookbook Apples for Jam by Tessa Kiros using a gift card from Amazon. This cook book is amazing. For starters it is a big thick book with a ton of recipes over 200. I think it is thicker than my old school Betty Crocker cook book. It is also packed full of beautiful photography. I usually stick a post it note at the top of a page on a recipe I plan to try right away, and the first time going thru the book I had 17 pages marked and I was holding myself back. I have visions of baking and cooking with Chloe when she gets older and I am sure this cook book we will use together over and over again. I have even added 2 of the author's other cook books to my wish list.

There have been so many changes lately for Chloe. We recently switched her to these Munchkin 9 oz insulated straw cups. She took to them right away. I like that they are insulated it keeps the milk cold longer, which is nice when we are out and about and no where near a refrigerator. If we plan a long trip I will put an ice pack in with a couple of her cups filled with milk. These straw cups have a flip top that closes so nothing spills out while not in use. Chloe also has moved up a size in diapers. I can hardly believe that she started in the preemie size diapers and now is in Huggies size 4. She is not walking yet but so close. Not walking does not hinder her mobility and she is all over the place. To the cat and dogs amazement she is real fast. The pets have started to seek out new hiding places out of Chloe’s reach.

Have a great week and be sure to take a moment to enjoy the little things that make you smile and warm your heart.

My Creative Space....

2010-06-10T09:50:00.003-07:00

Lately I have been making yo-yo’s. This fabric was originally planned for a yo-yo baby mobile. Since I am just now getting to making them and Chloe is now a one year old the mobile might be a little too babyish for her. I am getting into making them and it is a great small craft, easy to pick up and set down while watching TV or running after a toddler. I think I will make a ton of them and possibly string them along to make a yo-yo garland to decorate Chloe’s room in the new house. I should have plenty of time to make lots of yo-yo’s since the house won’t be finished till the end of summer.

New Office Chair
Here is a photo of my Mother’s Day gift. I have wanted a new office chair for awhile now. My old one was pretty beat up and was on its last leg. I spotted this Skruvsta swivel chair from Ikea. I don’t live near an Ikea store and it is an in store purchase only, of course. I was lucky enough to have a best friend whom lives in Oregon and near a store that had some in stock. Talk about the best friend a girl could have she went to Ikea picked up the chair then went to UPS and shipped it to me. I fell in love with this chair because of its round soft curves. Looking around my office, the furniture and large pieces are all straight lines. This chair is the perfect roundness to add to the space. At any given time the cat or the kid is playing with this chair they both like it as much as I do. I plan to make some slip covers that I will be able to throw in the washer, this way I can keep it clean and also change it up depending on my mood or the season.

For more "My Creative Space Thursdays" head on over to kootoyoo and join in the fun .

Sunbonnet Sue

2010-06-02T13:37:00.004-07:00

We have our own Sunbonnet Sue living with us. For the last couple of days Chloe has insisted on wearing her hat around the house. I have taken to hiding it when she is distracted. As soon as she spots it she immediately wants to wear it. It is pretty sweet, but I have visions of her when she is a little older and insisting on wearing a tutu with purple striped stockings along with a feathered boa & sunglasses to school. She is definitely my kid.

I hope everyone in the states had a wonderful holiday weekend. We kept it low key around here gobbling down lots of watermelon. Chloe tried watermelon for the first time this weekend and she loves it. Eating watermelon is almost a right of passage to summer for me.

This is the summer of weddings in my family with a total of 3 so far. We are able to only go to one this summer. We plan to go to my sister-n-law, Stefanie’s wedding in Las Vegas this August. It seems like people don’t have long engagements like they use too, they just go and get married. Chris and I had a year and a half from the time we were engaged to the date we were married. It is nice to have that time to refer to one another as your fiancé, I mean when else are you going to say that. Also it gives you time to get a year subscription to the best wedding magazine. So you can ogle over all the photos and be excited in anticipation of your own special day. Anyway, while surfing the net trying to find inspirational photos to send to Stefanie in some of the colors she was contemplating on choosing for her wedding I came across this inspiration board above from Prima Donna Bride featuring a wedding in pale pink & apricot/orange. I would never think to put these two colors together, but I love them. Wouldn’t they be great colors for a summer quilt, you never know where you will find inspiration. Although Stefanie has not chosen her colors yet, I certainly have a new project idea to add to my list of things to make.

What's Up Wednesday?

2010-05-26T15:40:00.003-07:00

As you know we have put the house up for sale, so what we have been trying to figure out for the last month is where we are going to live. If I could live anywhere I would choose to live in The Shire. I would pick a lovely house inside a grassy hill and have hobbits for neighbors. Well as nice as that sounds it is not a possibility. We thought about renting a home for awhile but just did not find anything we liked plus the rental costs were just as high as buying a home. While driving around we stumbled upon a new neighborhood building site. We checked out their model home, and drove around to look at all the lot locations. Chris and I took the information and discussed the possibilities along with the pros & cons, and finally decided to build a new home. Once we made the decision and signed all the paperwork it has been nothing but pure excitement buzzing around. The neighborhood is close to our dental office so it will shave off about an hour of commuting for Chris, which will give him more family time in the evenings with us. They are projected to start building next month and won’t be finished till the end of summer. In a perfect world we will sell our house at the perfect time allowing us enough time to build our new one and move in right before closing on the sale of our old one. We will see how all that turns out. In the mean time I will keep you posted on the progress of our new home being built.

Spice Up Your Kitchen

I just wanted to mention that Noodlehead was having a 10 day crafty marathon with tons of tutorials from guest bloggers and herself on things to make for your kitchen. It started on the 17th of May. There are a couple things I plan to make and I am certain the kitchen curtains & the stay put kitchen towels will be first on my list.

Wandering on Wednesday

2010-05-19T11:09:00.004-07:00

Since the weather has been so nice I have been doing a lot of wandering around outside. I spotted this Momma bird and her nest made in the overhang in the front of the barn. Normally they fly away from their nests when I come near. She must be sitting on some eggs ready to hatch for her to stay there for me to take the photo. Walking around the barn I spotted at least 5 different nests. I know some people are irritated by the sound of birds chirping in the morning but not me. I love it.

There is a house across the street from our post office this time of year that showcases a ton of purple bearded irises. From what I can tell they look like the same species so she probably has divided them many times through the years. Who knows how many she will have in another ten to twenty years. Here are some more photos of them.

My neighbor whom is a wonderful character and at any given time spotting him he looks as if he stepped right out of a Clint Eastwood western, wearing full on cowboy hat, red handkerchief, chaps, and well worn boots. He recently put up this amazing windmill on his property.

I will leave you with my favorite tree on our property. It is way in the back behind the barn. It was pretty pathetic looking when we first moved here. A couple years ago I got up in the tree and cut loose any dead branches that I could get too. We had a very wet winter and I think it will benefit this year from all the moisture. If I was a kid I probably would be up in that tree now as high as I could climb and dreaming about fun filled summer days.

Friday Favorites

2010-05-14T13:45:00.003-07:00

One of my favorite things at the moment is the sunshine. I am Looking forward to all the long sunshiny days ahead.

My favorite tea at the moment is Orange Spice Black tea by Stash. It is a wonderful blend of Black tea with orange peel, cloves, and cinnamon.

Another favorite is Chloe’s Disney Princess’s ride on she got for her birthday. She is starting to get the hang of it. Here are some photos of her enjoying her pink ride.

Sweet Shot Tuesday

2010-05-11T10:36:00.000-07:00

Looking Back at My Mom

2010-05-08T06:38:00.004-07:00

Here is my Mom in the 70’s back when I was a kid. There are so many things I am grateful to her. Thanks Mom for always being yourself. Thanks for always being honest with me. Thanks for all the great summer vacations. Thanks for the designer jeans when having them meant everything. Thanks for the 10 speed bike. Thanks for never judging me and loving me no matter what. Here is to you Mom, have a wonderful day.

She was looking good even after having 2 kids.

This is my inspiration this summer, a bikini after baby.

I Love You, Mom.

Fill in the Blank Friday

2010-05-07T08:59:00.003-07:00

1. My favorite book growing up was:
I read a lot when I was a kid and I loved them all. The ones that are sticking out in my memory right now are The Donna Parker series & Little House on the Prairie books. When I was a little older I started reading V.C Andrew’s books starting with “The Flowers in the Attic”.

2. The funniest book I’ve ever read was:
“Bridget Jones’s Diary” by Helen Fielding

3. The one book that has truly changed my life is:
I think books in general have changed my life and all for the better. The book that comes to mind is “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan” by Lisa See

4. If you’re looking for a real “tear jerker” you should probably read:
I try not to read sad books. A good book about many hardships is “Mrs. Mike” by Benedict & Nancy Freedman

5. If I could meet any author living or dead I would want to meet:
John Steinbeck, I love the way he writes and I would probably love to listen to him talk.

6. The next book on my “to read” list is:
“Divisadero” by Michael Ondaatje
“Girl in Translation” by Jean Kwok

7. If I was snowed into a remote cabin in the woods and could only choose three books to bring with me I’d bring:
“Pride & Prejudice” by Jane Austin
“The Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck
The Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon

Visit from Grandpa

2010-05-06T12:33:00.003-07:00

My father, Chloe’s Grandpa came for a visit last weekend. He traveled with his wife and her parents from Florida to come see his granddaughter.

This is Chloe’s Grandma and her great grandparents on our front porch. They all enjoyed being out in the country and taking in all the nature around us.

They stopped by on their road trip to the Grand Canyon. They planned to spend a few days at the canyon seeing the sights.

We had a wonderful time visiting with them and catching up. Chloe loved spending time with her grandpa and was particularly fascinated with his mustache. Here are some more photos of the 2 of them playing around.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-05-05T13:07:00.002-07:00

Aloha Friday

2010-04-30T09:30:00.004-07:00

The question this week for Aloha Friday is:

If you could go on vacation right now, where would you go?
The first thing that came to mind was Key West, Florida. It was a stop on a cruise we went on in 2004. Chris and I were able to spend the day exploring Key West. It is a place that stayed with me and in the back of my mind it will always be a place I could see my self retiring and living out my days in a little cottage by the sea. My garden would spill over the entire yard with tropical flowers and I would ride my bike with the big basket in the front to go get the catch of the day and fresh produce. Kicking back with a cocktail and a piece of Key Lime Pie sounds like the good life to me. Here are some photos from Key West from that trip.

Disneyland 2010

2010-04-25T21:02:00.006-07:00

We had a bit of a rough start to our trip. We were all packed up and ready about 30 minutes earlier than we had to leave. So we headed out on our 2 hour car trip to the airport. Chloe is not a fan of her car seat. The time we left was close to her normal morning nap time so we thought we might get lucky and she would just fall asleep. No such luck. I sat in the back seat with her to try and entertain her and help her not to think about being strapped into the car seat. About 20 minutes into the ride to the airport Chloe started to get upset, and it got progressively worse as we went along. We finally made it to the airport.

Plane Ride
We just sat Chloe in the seat in-between us. I just strapped her in and put a blanket over her lap. Next time I think I will get one of those little pillow lap trays for her. I think it will make it easier for her to eat a snack and also play with something.
Chloe maybe got a total of 15 minutes of sleep on the plane. She was beyond tired and this did not help things. Thank goodness it was a direct flight. We arrived on time at LAX and caught the Disney Bus soon after retrieving our luggage, which consists of 4 suitcases, a stroller, large diaper bag and my purse. The bus ride was about 45 minutes to our hotel.

The hotel
We stayed at Disney’s Grand California Hotel. This is on Disney property and walking distance to both their parks and the downtown Disney area. We are members of the Disney vacation club, which is a time share thru Disney allowing us to stay at any of their resorts, otherwise there is no way we could afford to stay there. The room was a one bedroom with a kitchen and sitting area, the bonus is that we had a washer and dryer in the room. I think we used it almost every day. The room came with a pack-n-play for Chloe to sleep in. It also had a high chair which was great. We tried putting Chloe down for a much needed nap but she was not having it. So we decided to go ahead and head out to get some dinner. For dinner we ate at the Creole café. It was heavenly and the best part of our entire day. After dinner we called it quits and headed back to the hotel. Finally Chloe was exhausted enough to pass out in her new surroundings in the pack-n-play.

Crawling Around
The first day into the park we realized Chloe is at the stage were she wants to be crawling around and not confined to her stroller or held for long periods of time. We tried our best to periodically find spots for her to crawl around and pull her self up onto things. She is not walking yet but working hard on her mobility.
Back at the hotel there were a few areas we could take her to crawl around on the fresh cut grass she loved it. She is drawn to all the plants and flowers much like I am. Of course she would find the oldest crustiest leaves and stick them in her mouth. One time we had her in the stroller and were walking around Disneyland and one of the employees stopped us and said do you know your baby is chewing on a plant. We simultaneously said “Yes”. She was chewing on a pine needle. On a scale of good and bad things she could possibly had found and popped into her mouth the pine needle was ok as far as I was concerned and she was content to be in her stroller at the time so it actually was a good thing.

Feeding the Kid
I think Chloe was on a growth spurt the week we were on vacation. The kid was eating all day long every day. I think I was too, but that is the joy of vacationing right? I would just keep the tray on her stroller wiped clean and toss snacks in there for her to munch on thru out the day. She was able to try several of the kiddie meals available. She liked the Mickey waffles, mac-n-cheese, and also there was a meal that had rice bowl with chicken mixed in and a side of applesauce. She loves blueberry muffins so we would pick one up for her daily at the bakery. We also would give her tastes of the things we were eating like the pineapple dole whip, yummy.

Naps
Often we would try to walk around during her morning nap time and try to get her to fall asleep in her stroller. Once asleep we would walk to a quiet area to sit and watch people while giving Chloe some time to sleep. You would often see strollers with kids passed out in them, especially in the evening. My husband takes a nap when he can so in the afternoon both him and Chloe would head back to the room for a snooze. During this time I would either hang out on the balcony of the room catching up on some reading or I would go back into the park by myself. The last full day we were there I went back into the parks and rode some of the rides Chloe was not able to ride. I also wondered casually in and out of all the shops on Main Street. I had the best time and felt foot loose and fancy free.

The Rides
There are plenty of rides and areas for kids Chloe’s age at Disneyland. I think the busiest area is Fantasyland and it has all the kiddie rides. If you get a chance to do a magic morning, which allows you into the park an hour earlier, use that time to hit all the rides that normally have the long lines. We also took her on all the other regular rides like the Jungle Boat Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean, and the Haunted Mansion. One of my favorite shows is the Enchanted Tiki Room, Chloe enjoyed it too.

Character Breakfasts
Chloe’s favorite thing on our vacation was the 2 character breakfasts that we went to. A character breakfast is where you go and have your meal while characters wonder around the tables spending time and taking pictures with your family. The first one we went to was located at our hotel it was the Chip’n Dale Critter Breakfast at the Storytellers Café. This one had the characters that would normally be out in the woods like Chip, Dale, Brother Bear, Dakota, Terk & Baloo. The second one we went to was the Breakfast in the Park with Minnie & friends. This one is located inside Disneyland and had more variety of characters like Tiger, Minnie, Captain Hook, the Fairy Godmother, Geppetto, Rafiki, Eeyore & many more. Both places we did not have reservations and walked in and were sat right away. The first breakfast located at our hotel was more enjoyable and cheaper. Chloe loved all the individual attention she got from each of them. It was a lot of fun to watch her interact with them. Here are some of the photos from those 2 experiences.

The Wrap Up
Overall it was a wonderful get away and we have some great memories of the trip. Knowing what I know now and things I would change, first I would check the weather forecast and not assume that it would be sunny and warm. We packed a lot of cute summer outfits never to be worn due to the cooler temperatures. I probably would book the trip a few months later giving Chloe a little more time to start walking first. I would pack more than one change of clothes for Chloe in the carry on bag. I would not pack so many diapers, what was I thinking. I would say that traveling with Chloe at 4 months and also 9 months was way easier than traveling with her at 12 months. When she was younger she just went with the flow and what ever we wanted to do we did. This time we were definitely on Chloe time. It is a good thing she is such a cutie pie.

We Are Back

2010-04-24T19:58:00.003-07:00

This week that we have been home has been a blur. It is amazing how you can leave for a week and when you get back it seems like you will never catch up with your life. I am hoping to get a good post written in the next few days describing our trip to Disneyland with our 12 month old daughter Chloe. In the mean time here are some random shots taken on our vacation.

Heading to Disneyland

2010-04-11T20:27:00.001-07:00

We are heading to Disneyland for the week. I am looking forward to finding my happy place. I will be back in a week with some pictures and details.

Getting to Know YOU

2010-04-11T08:41:00.003-07:00

1. What color do you wear the most?
I tend to gravitate towards the warm side of the color wheel, with the red, pinks lilac, & oranges.

2. What would you rather have $10,000 or a dream vacation?
Dream Vacation – perhaps a long Mediterranean cruise.

3. Do you have a weird, quirky or unusual habit?
I prefer things to be balanced and in their place. I am most comfortable with an even number of objects or if there is a group of objects there should be a second group near by to balance the view. So thru out the day I am constantly putting things back in there place or moving objects to create balance.

4. I really need to start…….?
Cleaning out the closets.

5. What was the first blog you ever read?
When I first started reading blogs I was interested in the ones about knitting. So one of the first ones I followed regularly was Lolly Knitting Around.

6. Do you collect anything?
I like to save interestingly shaped glass jars or bottles. I also collect mugs from places we have vacationed. I have a pretty good size handbag collection.

7. How old were you when you had your first kiss?
It was around the 5th or 6th grade, I went to a girlfriend’s birthday party. It was an evening dance party. I was going with a boy at the time and he was at the party. They kept turning on and off the lights and that is when I had my first French kiss. It was also the first time I slow danced with a boy.

8. Do you text/twitter while driving?
Nope, I can barely drive with out that kind of distraction.

The Saturday Post

2010-04-10T19:13:00.004-07:00

So much stuff going on around here, I thought it was time for another Saturday Post to share all the current events and what not.

Bye Bye to the Bottle
A huge event around here is we said fair well to the bottle. Back when I was pregnant I read an article that had a photo of Tom Cruise & Katie’s baby girl and she was almost 2 and she was drinking from a bottle. The article basically said this was horrible and the kid should be off the bottle. Of course at the time I read it I had no experience with any thing bottle let alone know when a kid should be off the bottle. So I remember doing some research to educate myself a bit on the subject. It appeared that it was a big deal to get kids off the bottle and a good time is at one years old. So I made a plan. When Chloe was 6 months I introduced her to the sippy cup, just putting water in it. Once she got the hang of it, I started giving it to her with meals only putting water in it. She liked it. A couple weeks before she turned one, I dropped off a few sippy cups at her daycare and took back the bottles I had there for her. So on the days she went to daycare she only had the sippy cups during the day, but had the bottle in the morning with me and in the evening. Then about a week ago I scrubbed up all the bottles and put them away. I decided to just go cold turkey. Chloe got up that day and in her routine I changed her diaper then went into the living room where she would normally have a bottle first thing. I handed her the sippy cup with whole milk in it. She was not happy. That first day was tough and there were tears I definitely know it would have been much easier to just give in and give her a bottle. What I did was just keep giving her affection and offering her the sippy cup. She would eventually take the cup and each time it got easier and easier. The first day was the worst and each day after got better. Now she is in to a new routine with her sippy cup and just fine with it. I am over-joyed with not having to make up the bottles. It is so easy to just pour milk into the sippy cup.
From 6 months to 9 months we tried several different kinds of sippy cups to see which ones worked the best. The one that worked out for us is the Munchkin Mighty Grip. I have six of them and that gets me thru the day. She is able to hold onto them and even with just one hand. It does not leak which is a big plus because this thing is all over the place. I have not had one break and she is getting good at tossing it over the highchair. Next we will work on her drinking from a regular cup and also teaching her how to drink from a straw and working on her using a spoon.

Resolution Results
Photo of HABA children’s toy scale
I have completed my 3 month resolution to become more fit and loose weight. March seemed to go much better than February. Overall I lost a total of 15 pounds since the beginning of the year. I am very happy with the results. I am down one clothing size. I can put my wedding ring on & off with out having to goop on lotion first. I am going to continue on and see what happens by the end of the year. I have added exercise on the treadmill, so this should help me tone up a bit.

The Herd Moves North
Last year we were able to sell several of our alpacas. After the sales we were left with a total of 26 alpacas in our herd. Last Monday they were shipped up North to a large alpaca farm where they will be cared for and sold. Hopefully we will be able to find some good homes for them this year. It is so strange to look out my windows and not see them frolicking in the pasture. It is even stranger to not have the daily chores of feeding them and tending to their needs. I miss them but feel a relief of our progress. We are currently working on cleaning up the barn, shelters and pastures and preparing the property to be put on the market.

Everybody Loves Babies
It seems like there are a ton of movies out now that I want to see and just have not had the time to go. I recently read an advertisement for an up coming movie titled “Everybody Loves….. BABIES”. The documentary follows four babies around the world from birth to first steps.

The four kids are:
Ponijao from Opuwo, Namibia
Bayarjargal, from Mongolia
Mari from Tokyo, Japan
Hattie from San Francisco, CA

The movie opens mother’s day weekend. I hope it will be playing at our local theater. I am definitely going to try to catch it and show my support. If you would like to read up on it and watch a trailer go to their website HERE.

Fill in the Blank Friday

2010-04-09T19:31:00.003-07:00

1. Who would you want to play you in a movie of your life?
Isla Fisher – She tends to play quirky characters, and has a great laugh.

2. Did you ever go to summer camp?
Nope, I went to some lame retreat for a weekend but that is about it.

3. What sends you running and screaming in the other direction?
Centipedes & millipedes, they give me the heebie-jeebies.

4. What is something you do that drives your spouse nuts?
Well we have been together for over 17 years so pretty much everything I do drives him crazy and vice versa. I would say something high on his non tolerance scale would be my evening ritual of getting ready for bed. You know washing the face, then the face cream, putting on the jammies, slathering on the lotion, & fluffing the pillow.

5. What is currently your favorite song?
That is a tough question. There are so many favorites. I think currently my top album at the moment is by “No Doubt” titled the singles 1992-2003. Top song on the album would be “It’s My Life”. The song is a remake and is done just as good as the original. The album is a great one for working out too. It gets you moving.

Chloe's First Birthday

2010-04-01T16:07:00.005-07:00

Oh dear my little baby is a toddler now. I think I was more excited about her birthday than I have been about any birthday in a very long time. I will say that it went nothing like I had imagined it would. For all you Moms out there anticipating your own child’s first birthday my advice is to not make it too overwhelming for them and just relax and go with the flow. In the photo above Chloe is wearing a special dress I bought to take photos of her at 1 years old. I originally planned to take her to get professional photos done, but the scheduling was not working out and I could not get a good time. So I decided to just take photos myself. This worked out great because I only had a good 10 minutes of her sitting pretty in her dress before she was done with the whole thing.

Some Gifts

This special toy box was made by Chloe’s Aunt Stefanie’s boyfriend Rusty. Hopefully that makes since. Rusty has been a close friend of the family for many years and this was a wonderful surprise. I am sure this chest will be with Chloe for a very long time, and will be stuffed full with all her little treasures. It even has those child safety hinges, so it is safe for her to use all by herself.

These wonderful hand made outfits were made by Chloe’s Grandma Ce.

Here is some detail on the fabric she used, cute little frog print.

This little rocking chair was from both of Chloe’s Grandmas from Oregon. I love the colors and the wonderful animals depicted on the chair.

This is the Disney princess ride on that my husband and I got Chloe for her birthday. She sits right on it and moves forward and backwards all by herself. It has all kinds of buttons that make music and make the front princess’ move around or up and down. The seat lifts up for storage. There is also a musical keyboard that she can play while sitting on the seat. We are very pleased with the product and Chloe loves it.

The Birthday Cake
I used a flower shaped cake pan and made a strawberry cake. The cake did not rise as much as I thought it would, so I made a second cake in chocolate to make 2 layers. Since we had company I wanted to make sure we had enough for everyone. It turns out that the chocolate and strawberry layers tasted well together. I frosted the 2 layers with cream cheese frosting.
Then I used some of the cream cheese frosting and colored it pink to decorate with. I placed a baby Winnie the Pooh and Tigger cake topper in the center of the flower. Overall I was happy with the results and feel I can tackle a more challenging design next year.

I will leave you with some photos of Chloe enjoying her first birthday cake.

Sunshine Blog Award

2010-03-23T16:03:00.005-07:00

I can not believe my baby is going to be one years old on Thursday. The first photo above is of Chloe at 2 weeks old and the one on the right was taken last week. Amazing how much they grow in the first year. I am planning to make her a homemade birthday cake and decorate it myself. I bought a cake pan that is in the shape of a flower. I am going to make a strawberry cake with cream cheese frosting. I have one of those pastry bags and a handful of tips that have never been used. I am a little nervous about messing it up. I will share all the details and have photos next week once family leaves.

I received the Sunshine Award for my blog from Loco Ya Ya. Pretty cool award, thanks so much for thinking of me.

In order to recieve this award I must do the following and you the same if you choose too
1) Put the logo within my blog or on my post
2) Pass the award onto 12 fellow bloggers
3) Link the nominees within my post
4) Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog
5) Share the love and link to the person whom you received this award from.

Here are the 12 people I am passing this award on to. I chose 12 bloggers that I might not have mentioned before that all bring Sunshine to my life as I enjoy reading them. Here they are in alphabetical order.

1. Apple Juice and Milk
2. Bungalow Bee
3. Confessions from a Working Mom
4. Curious Bird
5. Daily Ramblings
6. Heart Felt
7. Hip Mountain Mama
8. Noodle Head
9. Silly Precious Piggies
10. Slugs on the Refrigerator
11. Tatertots & Jello
12. The Road to Here

Getting to Know YOU

2010-03-21T15:31:00.002-07:00

1. What year did you graduate high school?
1991, I think that is going to date me just a little.

2. What part of your body do you neglect the most?
Probably my backside, I got a glimpse of it, I was frightened.

3. Beach House or Lake House?
Beach House would be nice, maybe in the Florida Keys.

4. Mac or PC?
PC all the way.

5. Did you wear braces?
Nope I got lucky and my teeth were all straight.

6. If you could be one person for a day...Living or deceased...Who would you be?
Angelina Jolie, I would probably walk around naked all day, oh yea and possibly cuddle with Brad and tell him to shave his beard.

7. How many times have you moved in your life?
Too many times to count, I went to 13 different schools by the time I hit high school.

8. Would you rather cook or clean?
Cook, but if I had to clean I think I would do the laundry. There is something about taking a warm clean load of laundry out of the dryer that is so satisfying.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

2010-03-17T11:01:00.002-07:00

I was having the hardest time today trying to get a photo of Chloe in her hat that reads “The Leprechauns made me cute”. She is now at the age were she is not too keen on me putting a hat on her and trying to get a photo. This photo was the only one that turned out with her wearing the hat. Chris and I bought this hat for her at an Irish Pub last year. I wanted to wish every one a great holiday. We are having company stay with us next week to celebrate Chloe’s first birthday so I am busy cleaning and preparing. You never really know how dirty your house is until the few days before your MIL is about to visit. That is when you start to see the magnitude of the dirt that has piled up.

Getting to Know YOU

2010-03-14T09:59:00.003-07:00

Thought I would try out Getting to Know You – Sundays put on every week by MannLand5. Go on over if you want to join in.

1. What’s your favorite Easter candy?
My favorite candy is M&Ms, and they happen to come in Easter pastel colors this time of year. I did love the Cadbury eggs but the last couple of years I have had them I did not get too excited. Of course any solid chocolate bunny is very tasty. When we were kids the Easter bunny would leave fruit in our Easter basket. I think the bunny will be leaving a variety of stuff in Chloe’s basket this year.

2. Who do you think is cleaner..men or women?
In our house it would be women. Is it possible for him to not put the dirty dishes on the counter right above the dishwasher and actually put them inside? Right now I am currently cleaning up the house to put it up for sale and it seems that every time I clear an area I turn to find random stuff that he has placed there. I think it depends on the individual. Both men and women can be slobs.

3. Which do you prefer..wordy blog posts or ones with pictures?
I prefer Pictures. It has to have photos.

4. Where you popular in High school?
No not popular. By the time I hit high school I did not care that much for school. The popular crowd was the party crowd at our school. I also dated college guys when I was in high school so I tended to spend my spare time with them or at the beach. I was popular back in grade school. Looking back now I did not handle popularity very well and was mean to a lot of kids.

5. What is Your Bra Size?
Right at the moment it is a 38C. I am usually smaller but that is the added benefit of having a baby.

6. How many states have you lived in?
7 states: New York, California, Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, Oregon, & New Mexico

7. What is one blog you read every day?
My Open Roads

8. Peanut butter or Nutella?
Peanut butter would be my choice not a fan of the Nutella. I still eat PB&J sandwiches.

Top 3 Thursday

2010-03-12T09:47:00.005-07:00

I know I am a day late on this but that seems to be the norm around here lately.

What are your Top 3 favorite things about being a parent?
1) One of the best things for me about being a parent is how much love I have for my daughter. On any given moment I will look at her and feel my heart growing and just have to give her a big smoochy and a snuggle.

2) I have so much to look forward too with raising my daughter. There are so many things that will be a first time for her and I get to witness and feel it right along with her.

3) I now have a bigger purpose in life than just myself. I take pride in trying to be a good mother and I hope to raise a happy and healthy child.

Cosmo's Birthday

2010-03-09T14:42:00.003-07:00

It is Cosmo’s birthday. He is 7 yrs old. I picked him out of a very large litter of kittens at the pound seven years ago. He is the definition of Momma’s Boy. He is the apple of my eye and I would never part with him. When it feels like the end of the world or I am having a bad day, all I have to do is spend some time with him and it turns my outlook right around. He is always there for me when I need him. He is celebrating his birthday with a can of cat food and some catnip toys. Cosmo is the best and I hope for many more years spent together. Here are some photos of my boy Cosmo.

Elk Come to Meet the Ladies

2010-03-06T15:59:00.003-07:00

Earlier this week we had 2 Elk on the property checking out our lady alpacas. We will often have groups of elk and deer that will come foraging around the alpaca pastures. It was kind of surprising just to see these 2 all by themselves. They were clearly out for a bit of fun.

Here is a photo to give you some perspective of what was going on. The Elk are on the left and a bunch of our girls are under the tree to the right. It is almost like the tree is safety.

One by one a brave female alpaca would go check out the Elk.

It was very entertaining, almost like the other females were daring one another to go meet them.

I have been keeping busy, trying to use all my spare time working on some homemade presents for Chloe’s birthday on the 25th. Chloe’s grandmas are coming to stay with us that week to celebrate her first birthday. I am remembering how pregnant I was this time last year and so ready for her to be born. Well better get back to it. Hope you are having a wonderful weekend.

Monday Matinee

2010-03-01T07:05:00.000-07:00

Resolution End of Month

2010-02-28T09:40:00.004-07:00

I have completed the 2nd month of my resolution and have just one month left. Unfortunately I did not apply myself as much this month as I did the first. So in the end I have nothing to show for it. I went up and down with the same 2 pounds the entire month and ended exactly the same weight as I did at the end of January. I have several excuses, but of course that is all they are excuses. The one thing that did come out of February is that I started doing some exercises. I am currently at 20 girl push-ups a day. I am already noticing a difference in my arms. Which is fantastic and gives me incentive to keep it up. I guess the good thing is I did not gain any weight. So my goal is to get back on track for March.

Chocolate Milk
My Parenting the early year’s magazine mentioned a new study from Spain suggests that chocolate milk may have similar heart health benefits to red wine. It says that men and women who drank the stuff regularly were found to have higher levels of the good HDL cholesterol and less artery inflammation than those who didn’t. Well that is all I need to know to not feel guilty drinking chocolate milk or giving it to my child when she is old enough to have milk. I have always been a chocolate milk drinker and feel it is a good way to get your calcium.There is a great website on chocolate milk with lots of information HERE.

Ice Cream
I am keeping my eye out for the Laloos ice cream. It is made from goat’s milk and packs about half the fat of ice cream made from cow’s milk. Goat’s milk is lower in lactose, lower in fat and easier to digest than cow’s milk. The goats on the Laloos farm have 350 acres of rolling hills to romp and play and graze on. The ice cream comes in several flavors and they also have several flavors of frozen yogurt. To check out their product and see where you can find it go to their website HERE.

Change is in the Air
This month has been draining on me. I am longing for the sunnier days of Spring. I feel as though this Winter has taken a toll on my optimism. The good news is we are setting in motion some plans we decided on last year after Chloe was born. We have decided to put our house up for sale this Spring and move closer to town. Living out in the country with our pack of alpacas was a wonderful adventure but now that we have Chloe, the farm and being out in the middle of nothing just seems like too hard of a life. It is time for change and new adventures. We have big plans for many changes this year. Now if Winter would just go away so we could get started on them.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-02-24T10:23:00.003-07:00