Taylor Tuesday/elizabethursday

It has gotten so much harder to come up with pictures of Taylor each week.  I am still adjusting to her being in school all day and we stay busy once she gets home.  So when Lizzie jumped on my back the other night it was a great opportunity for pictures of me with my girls.  It doesn’t take up long to start hamming it up for the camera and have fun.  So this week you get a combo of both girls(and a bonus of me) in the photos. 

Friday Fun Giveaway!

So I am still working on my resolutions for this year and one of them includes cleaning out my craft room. Boy has it gotten crazy in there! I usually have to move a few stacks of something to see my sewing machine and we won't even talk about the floor. Luckily my cleaning this week leads to something fun for you. I took advantage of the Pick Your Plum mystery boxes a couple times and love opening it up to find all kinds of surprises. One surprises was cute elastic. I never knew exactly what to do with it until I received a cute elastic pony tail holder in my Birch Box one month. Preschool is out for the girls and summertime around here means lots of days of ponytails for me to try and beat the heat.

There are way too many for me to keep so I want to share the fun with you. All you need to do is tell me your favorite quick hair style for the summer by Monday, June 3rd. I will randomly pick two names and let you know on Tuesday who our winner is.  I can't wait to hear your ideas!

Top 5 favs

Remember my love for lists?  Well I have a few things that I current love and would like to kiss the person who created some of them. 

1.  the Obol – When Chris showed me the picture of this I thought it was genius.  I love grainy cereals like Wheat Chex, Cheerios, Rice Crispies, and Honey Bunches of Oats but HATE soggy cereal.  And if you have kids then you know that as soon as you make a cup of coffee or pour milk in your cereal that it is evitable that the kids will need five different things.  Oh and the ability to put whipped cream in the top part and fresh strawberries in the bottom.  Just want to kiss this inventor!!!  My sweet husband saw how excited I was and did research to figure out what this bowl was and how to get it.  He even got it in purple.  Kissed him instead of the inventor.

2.  HEB has a marketing genius on their hands.  I was buying coffee and while putting it in my cart I noticed a whole wall of cookies right behind me.  I was doing so good trying to resist the Chips Ahoy and then I saw Dark Chocolate Almond Sandies.  They make a great replacement for lunch when you realize that you consumed 5 before you even had a chance to get out the stuff for that salad you were going to have.  So worth every single calorie.

3.  I am addicted to my Kindle and love how I can start a new book without running to the store.  Plus I now have more room on the shelves in my closet.  I really enjoy my books, but the costs can really start to add up.  I follow a few different Kindle lending sites but Book Gorilla will actually send you a daily list of free or discounted books in the genre(s) you like.  I now enjoy get to read a little more for free.  And since Chris got me a waterproof bag I can read my Kindle in the tub.  Win-win in my book.

4.  Ever since making our family rules sign I have been trying to use my Silhouette more.  I stumbled across Miss Kate Cuttables one day.  She has the cutest cuttable files and offers one free everyday.  Not just a simple shape but adorable ones that often fit the season or current holiday.  They are even downloadable into jpg files so you can use them for lots of stuff.  I bought some of her items to create Taylor’s birthday invitation(more posted about this in late April after her party) and to use for decorations.

5.  I saved the best for last.  My Beehouse teapot rocks.  I mean this thing makes me happy about brewing tea like the Keurig does for my coffee.  I mentioned here my love for loose tea, but I often want more than just a small cup.  I love my sister-in-law for solving my ‘I want to fill my large Tervis with iced strawberry tea but hate brewing multiple cups to achieve this goal’ problem and she told me about these teapots.  I love my Mom for getting me one for Christmas.  They are made in Japan and do an excellent job of allowing the tea to steep perfectly.  This is actually the exact one my mom got me and I have found that 22 oz works great for me and would allow me to make 2-3 cups in case of guests.  So come on over and have a cup of tea with me.  Maybe I’ll share some of my cookies with you too

2013 Goals

I know we are already 11 days into the new year, but I always like to make some kind of goals for myself each year.  Maybe if I post them on here I will actually follow through with a few.  I know most people do the normal lose weight, eat healthier, exercise more and so on.  I like these and will try a few but I think my personal goals this year are to complete some craft projects.

1.  Home Rules: I love the new trend of subway art home/family rules.  I know it would be easy to just order one from Very Jane or one of the other cute sites, but I want it to be more personal.  So I hope to make our own version.

2.  Sew my first quilt: I’ve always wanted a great picnic blanket and immediately fell in love with this fabric.  I bought all the fabric and it is starting to gather dust in my craft room.  Fabric this cute needs to be sewn and preferably in late winter/early spring so it is ready for movie nights in the park, spring soccer games, and maybe a trip to the beach.

3.  Make a digital book of Taylor and Lizzie’s artwork.  I know this isn’t technically sewing or crafting, but 2.5 years of preschool artwork is taking up some serious space under my craft room table.  I need to get a handle on this before Taylor starts elementary next year and the paperwork doubles.  Have you done this and had any success? 

4.  Paint our front door and add vinyl numbering to it.  Our door is just a boring blue, so I think a fun color would dress up our front porch.  Now to figure out what color!

5.  Purge from my craft room.  I know this might seem like madness, but I have accumulated too much over the past 10 years in this house and have too much stuff.  So this is my fair warning to my friends that you might get random texts of “Do you want any of this?” during 2013.  Lizzie will soon be needing a spot at the craft table and there’s barely room for me and Taylor. 

6.  Officially write up the two knitting patterns that I created.  This includes bribing friends with little bitty babies to let me use them for photos. 

Six sounds like a good stopping point and gives me at least 2 months to accomplish each goal.  If I can get all these done, then I will add to my list.  Who knows, maybe I’ll even finish more than one craft every four months and actually blog about it.  What are your goals for this year?  Any projects you want to finally complete?

December wrap-up

I was a bad blogger last week.  I indulged in lots of sweets, stayed in pjs all day, let the dishes pile up in the sink, and ate way too much take-out but I built lots of Duplo castles, dressed Minnie Mouse hundreds of times, ate lots of pretend cookies, colored after every meal(and then some), danced my butt off against a 4 year old and two year old on the Xbox, and snuggled up with my little people while watching movies.  Sometimes life is better when you step away from the camera and laptop and just enjoy.  So that’s what I do every so often and hope that my mind will tuck those captured moments away for later on when the kids are too big to want to cuddle anymore. 

But good news Mom(because she is always wanting to see more pics of the girls) I did take some pictures this month and here is a quick wrap-up.

1) Nothing says Merry Christmas like Mr. and Mrs. Santamingo; 2) Christmas list made; 3) Screaming and coloring, check; 4) dress up; 5) crazy poses for Mom; 6) wiggle car used as a scoot toy; 7) Singing in the Christmas preschool program(Taylor is on bottom row, 2nd from right); 8) crazy Elf(aka Snowflake) antics; 9) new color changing star on tree thanks to hubby; 10) more dress up and posing silly; 11)Ikea shopping; 12)Daddy snuggling; 13)sidewalk decorating; 14)new hat creating(I’ll post about this in January); 15)mailbox checking; 16)goodbye party for Elf; 17)car napping; 18) cross dressing Elf tea party; 19)Santa gifts; 20)left pile jumping; 21)fun with bracelets; 22)present opening; 23)new visitors for Baby Jesus; 24)bike riding; 25)spending time with cousins; 26)Elf vs transformers marshmellow war – they really shouldn’t mess with Mommy’s coffee; 27)best road trip kid

Hope your December was exciting too!

Friday Favorites

I've found a few things lately that make my life easier, were great finds, or things that I almost couldn't live without right now and thought I would share them. I have found some of my greats from others and hopefully you will find my list helpful too.

1. Chris introduced me to the Contigo stainless steel mugs about 9 months ago and they are great for my coffee. Does anyone else have a problem with brewing a cup of coffee but then it is luke warm or even cold by the time you get a sip? If you do, then you are problem the mom of little ones too. I love them because they do the best job at keeping your drinks hot or cold and don't sweat or leak. Believe me when I say they don't leak, because time and again I throw it in my purse as I'm running out the door. No free hands when you are trying to chase down a very busy toddler from running in the street. I'm a bit OCD, so Chris and I each have our own for coffee and then I have two for water. You can find then at Target for around $20, but even better is that Costco has a two pack for $15.99 right now. Trust me when I say you won't regret this purchase. Being able to enjoy hot coffee 2 hours after you brew it will be worth every penny.

2. I am a great lover of Amazon and being able to have everything from diapers to books to laundry detergent arriving on my doorstep in two days and not dragging two kids out to the store. So when they send me various emails about new books I usually glance over them, delete, and then move on with the craziness of our house. A few weeks ago, a list of great Halloween books caught my eye and I started shopping. Room on the Broom is the cutest book for kids and does a great job about reinforcing manners(aka please and thank you) without being obnoxious. Yes we have that Polite Princess book that wholly consists of reminding kids of polite manners and it is not this at all. Room on the Broom is a cute story and both my girls ask for it all the time now.  I was in Target yesterday and they also carry this book.

3. With two kids, going out to eat is not an great experience so I try to cook more. I've even started planning out dinners a month at a time and find it saves lots of stress and helps plan grocery shopping. I wish I was better at taking cute pictures and showing you great recipes from my kitchen, but most of the time I have Lizzie screaming at my feet while I'm trying to keep her from reaching in the oven and no one wants to see those pictures. Instead, I'm going to direct you to the best soup recipe that Annalee did a great job of taking pictures of. Chris has become a bit skeptical of my pinterest recipes since we've had a few flops but he is open to anything I say is from Annalee. He is constantly tells all his friends about meat cupcakes and how they are one of his favorite dinners. I get some weird questions from other wives wanting to know what "meat cupcakes" are and why their husbands are bugging them to get the recipe. If you haven't made them, do it. And then plan to make her potato soup too. Both easy dinners that now have a place in our dinner rotation. And no, our kids don't eat the dinners either, but that just means there is plenty of leftovers for us.

4. Scarves are one of my new favorite accessories. They are so great for Texas weather that can be cold in the morning and scorching hot in the afternoon. An easy way to pull together jeans and a simple t-shirt to make everyone think you put lots of thought into your outfit. Plus when was the last time you had to worry about a scarf not fitting(like your jeans from last fall that you swore fit when you put them away in the spring)??? My personal favorite style right now is the infinity scarf. It's the loop one that looks like a giant circle. Just loop it around your neck twice and pull the layers a bit to adjust to your liking, fluff and your done. It really is that simple. I have a turquoise one that I got at Sam Moon for less than $10. I am tempted to go back and get a few more colors. I am really into the look of navy and lime green right now, so I think I need a lime green one to go with some of my navy cardigans.

 

5. I had to bring snack for Taylor’s soccer game this week.  It is still weird to me that I truly am a soccer Mom(minus the minivan).  It was an evening game so I was trying to think of something that wouldn’t be too sugary since most kids wouldn’t eat dinner until after the game.  I ended up making Applesauce Raisin cookies(stay tuned for the recipe bc I actually took a few photos for you).  The problem was that the dough is crazy sticky and the idea of scooping the dough seemed like a big mess until I remembered my Mom giving me this great scoop for Christmas.  It was awesome and made for the perfect cookie size without ending up with dough all over my hands.  Lots of stores sell similar items, so you don’t necessarily need to buy Pampered Chef, but I promise this will be my new favorite kitchen tool with all the cookie baking coming up with the holidays. 

What are your favorite items or things that have made your life easier right now?

KAL: It’s Done!!!

I can’t believe I can say this but… my sweater is done!  I have been busy using all my free time(is there much of that with two kids?) to knit and try to get it done.  Here is a sneak peek picture of me wearing it.  I will take better pictures once I’ve blocked it.  For those of you non-knitters, this means I soak it and stretch it to the way it should really fit to kinda have the yarn ‘memory’ set.  It helps give the sweater some shape in areas that I might have knit tighter than others.  The sweater looks pretty good right now, but I have a few areas that I want to make look better. 

Overall I am super thrilled to have completed something at this level and proud of myself.  Now I think it will go back to smaller projects because part of me got tired of such a heavy piece and I like working with pieces that I can finish in less than a week.  Plus I do not like taking pictures of myself and would prefer my knitted pieces be on cute babies or kids.  Even after taking on such a large project for myself, I already have something new on my needles and I am working on tweeking a project that will be Christmas gifts for the girls.  I hope to also add some new items to my Etsy shop in October, so stay tuned for those soon.

First Day of Preschool

Both the girls started preschool this week.  This is Taylor’s last year of preschool and Lizzie’s first.  Lizzie would scream last year when we dropped Taylor off each day so I knew she was ready to go a few days herself.  And you can’t even begin to understand how excited I am to have a few hours to myself.  Don’t get me wrong, I love my girls and being able to stay home with them, but it is nice to run errands without dragging them in and out of the car.  They would much rather be playing outside or spending time with friends while I do all that stuff. 

Lizzie insisted on trying to wear her backpack, but barely made it out of the garage before she tipped over.

We can hear the high school band practicing from our front yard, so unfortunately Lizzie was a bit distracted by the music.

There were tears from Lizzie as I dropped her off in her classroom and Taylor was such a big help trying to get her to start playing and cheer up.  Such a sweet big sister!  Taylor was excited but quiet and stayed close by as I dropped her off. When I walked back by Lizzie’s room she was already done crying and playing with toys.  Her teachers said she did great, was very investigative(is this the nice way of saying ‘into everything’?) and gave lots of hugs.  I will have one day each week with just Lizzie and look forward to some one-on-one time with her.  Taylor is already talking about adventures that her and other kids are having and solving mysteries on the playground.  I love their imaginations at work!

 

While the girls were at school I celebrated the first day in my own way.

Hello grocery shopping in less than 30 minutes.

Hello no humongous racecar cart.

Hello no telling someone to ‘sit down’ every 30 seconds.

Hello watching Live with Kelly while unloading groceries.

Hello not trying to keep little hands out of the fridge/freezer/pantry while putting groceries away.

Hello not watching a single cartoon for 5 hours.

Hello lunch time without someone else needing something.

Hello my new lunchdate twice a week– my Kindle.

Hello stack of mail that finally got sorted without me getting distracted.

Hello many items completed on my to-do list.

Hello relaxed Mommy excited to pick two little girls up from preschool!

Camp Nana

A few weeks ago I took off to Fort Worth for Camp Nana.(aka Mommy doesn’t have to do laundry or cook all week and someone takes care of ME camp)  I should have been a good blogger and put all kinds of cute pictures from our week here and told you all about our trip.  But I’m a slacker.  I still haven’t posted pics of our kid free vacation from June and might get around to doing that in September and you will just have to pretend that is when we really went on our trip.  Good news is I did make a Shutterfly book of our week and you get to see our adventures in online book version.  Shutterfly and I didn’t always get along, but they had a way for me to scrapbook my photos when Taylor was born and we had TONS of pictures that needed a home besides my computer and blog.  Let’s just say Shutterfly has stepped up their game and you can make the book any way you want and add lots of cute embellishments now. 

Click here to view this photo book larger

Shutterfly allows you to customize your photo book just the way you want.

KAL: Chugging Along

Just in case some of my blogger friends and non-knitters were wondering, KAL stands for Knit ALong.  I know I can knit anything I want at any time I want, but this Summer Sweater KAL gave me boundaries for what type of project and a deadline to be done.  My knitting wish list is quite long and grew even longer when I started seeing all the other great projects people are working on for the KAL.  Taylor keeps asking if I’ve started on her knitting project yet and I keep telling her I’m working on the pattern.  It’s true, but two projects on needles is enough for me right now.  I love my two projects so much I know they will be put the back burner once Taylor knows that hers has been started.  Plus I am hoping she forgets about it and I can surprise the girls with the completed projects at Christmas.  Is anyone else already thinking about Christmas gifts yet?  I found several items on Target clearance and have them stashed away already.  Let’s just hope I don’t forget about them between now and then. 

Okay… back to knitting.  I’ve made some progress on my sweater.  Not enough for it to look like a sweater yet, but you can see my progress here and here.   I haven’t spent as much time knitting due to birthday festivities over the weekend and but I did get a couple of rounds done.  Only a few more before I start arm holes.  I’m a little nervous about the armholes and neck hole.  Cross your fingers that I get this right.  This yarn is too beautiful to screw this sweater up.

For some reason the pattern doesn’t want to photograph well for me.  I hope this close-up gives you a better idea of the open weave pattern across the body.

    

Also cross your fingers because I will need to wind another ball of yarn soon and I don’t think my winder is playing nice yet.

Birthday Fun Day

Yesterday was my birthday and I thought it would be fun to spend the day with one of my favorite little people.  My mother-in-law was super sweet and watched Lizzie so Taylor and I could hit the town, well Cedar Park at least.  When I went to drop Lizzie off I was surprised with a card from Taylor, her, and Lizzie that said we needed to go visit my favorite Brighton lady in the mall.  We had already planned to head that way, so off we went on a treasure hunt.

    

First stop was at the mall to give Princess Sparkles(Taylor’s Build-a-bear cat) a bath and get a new outfit. 

Next stop was at Brighton where Taylor went into the back with Vicki and came back out with flowers and a present.  My mother-in-law had taken her to the mall the day before and Taylor picked out all these charms for a bracelet for me.  A T for Taylor, E for Elizabeth, and a purple heart because purple is my favorite color.  I also love that when she found out that the heart said ‘BFF’ that she wanted that side to show because I’m her best friend.  Yes I started to cry because she was so sweet and so was my mother-in-law to come up with the idea.

 

Next it was time for lunch and we dined on some good pasta at Olive Garden.  Why do I love their bottomless salad so much, but feel weird when I’m the only one eating out of that huge bowl?  Yummy shrimp ravioli!

    

Props to the waiter who gave us extra mints with the bill and to my kid who didn’t like them and so I got to enjoy them all.  Calories don’t count on your birthday in my world.

 

Full with yummy pasta(and mints) we headed to the theater to see Ice Age 4.  When did they get to four versions of the movie?  Taylor is my popcorn lover and ate half of the bag of popcorn and would have eaten more if I let her.  We ignored that tidbit of info from the news that morning that said you shouldn’t put the artificial butter on your popcorn.

 

We still had some time left before Lizzie would be up from her nap, so I decided we needed a pedicure.  Taylor has only had the ‘Mommy paints them while you watch cartoons so you will sit still’ kind, so this was a huge treat for her.  I thought she was going to fall asleep in the massage chair and all the ladies in the salon thought she was too cute holding her nails out to dry.  I let Taylor pick the color and she choose purple in honor of my birthday. I love how cute her little hands look with the purple polish.

 

Chinese delivery for dinner while watching the Lorax was a good way to wrap the day with my other two favorite people.  Lizzie even walked around saying ‘Happy Day’ as her way to say Happy Birthday.  Then the last big decision of the day was which kind of bundlet to have for dessert.  Good thing these are the perfect sharing size and I could sample a bit of each.

  

For me birthdays have always been so much fun.  I feel like I’m at an age where the age part doesn’t bother me and I want to just have a fun day. It was the best day and I can’t wait to do it again next year.  I look forward to having both my girls with me next year and seeing what fun we can have together!  What fun things do you like to do for your birthday? 

Top ten

I love lists. I mean, I really love lists. You could look around my house and find two or three to-do lists, one on my iPhone, and one in my planner. Lists keep me from spending all my free time stalking looking at Facebook, pinning on Pinterest, or getting lost in my Kindle. I guess my kids like to eat sometimes or not get stuck on the sticky floors :) I'm always interested to see what other people love and you ladies rocked it last week with kid’s books.  My Amazon account thanks you! So to start my 32nd birthday off with a bit of Wendy flair, I combined my love for lists and my current favorite things for you. Here are the things that I just could not do without right now:

1. My steam mop - had a Shark, loved it, it broke, waited 4 weeks for Shark to replace it, then the replacement broke after three uses, Shark told me it would be another 4-6 weeks to replace it again, that's a long time without a mop and two kids so I bought a Bissell. Love my Bissell. I love the concept of a steam mop and yes it can get major sticky toddler messes off the floor. I am a barefoot kind of person and can tell when the floors get truly clean. Plus I can drag it upstairs to clean the bathrooms without having to take a bucket with me.

2. Loose tea from the Steeping Room - I had heard about this shop for years, but it is in the Domain and not really a place you can take my youngest without fear of having to buy too many things she broke. We went here a few weeks ago after our anniversary dinner. I love my tea, hot or cold, and this place is wonderful for tea lovers. They had so many loose teas to choose from and several flavors iced for you to try. I ended up buying Summer Strawberry, The Empress Cup, Hibiscus Breeze, and Berry Tisane(my current fav) and have a wish list for my next venture in.

3. Erin Condren Life Planner - this thing rocks! I bought it last summer after much debate over the price and quickly learned it is well worth the price. If I stick to using it, then my life tends to be a little less chaotic. My current planner goes until December and I'm already planning out my design for my 2013 planner because she just released new designs.

4. iBooks app for my iPad - I love to knit, but my paper patterns always end up a crumpled mess from little hands wanting to see them. I discovered that I can keep pdf files stored on my iPad in iBooks. This is a free app and makes it so nice to have everything in one place, especially when I'm buying yarn and need to remember quantities/type.

5. Invellop iPad cover - I live by my iPad. It goes with me all over the house and to work. I used the standard Apple iPad cover and Joy clear back cover for almost a year until little hands dropped my iPad and it cracked the corner of the back protective cover. My new cover is all one piece and has done a great job of keeping my iPad safe from little hands. Now I just got my new iPad sticker(from Erin Condren, see a pattern yet?) and love seeing these faces when I open my iPad. 

6. Dark chocolate kit kats - these aren't a new fav but a constant fav. You can't find them at every store, but I can always count on my nearby Walgreens to have them and we buy 10-12 at a time and straight to the freezer they go. Why frozen you ask? Try it and then you will thank me. Too bad I have to share with Chris.

7. Starburst fav reds - who was the wonderful person that came up with this idea??? I have always loved the tropical punch starburst but hated all the other tropical flavors, then add in cherry and strawberry but not make me have to give away the lemon and I'm in heaven. Lizzie has discovered my secret nightstand stash and now has a love for them too.

8. Ocean Minded flip flops - I was a Reef girl. Loved them and counted down the until it was warm enough to wear flip flops again. Ruby's in Southlake had a wall of them to pick from and it was heaven. Then my beloved pair did not weather the beach very well and I was off in search of another pair of flip flops. Enter Ocean Minded and their comfy leather soles, cheaper price tag, donation to help clean up the ocean, and ability to survive getting wet. Four years later they are still my favs but about time to replace, good thing they still make my favorite style.

9. Zoku - a Mother's Day gift from Chris and the kids. What better way to end these hot Texas days than with popsicles. We can make whatever flavor we want and have been experimenting with different juices and I even made my veggie hating Lizzie a few out of baby food. She thinks she is getting a yummy popsicle and I get to enjoy the fact that it includes good for her veggies. Even Taylor got mad that Lizzie got a carrot popsicle last time and wants me to make her one. Do you have any good recipes that we need to try out?

10. True Lime - as mentioned, I love my tea. You can often find me with a large cup of it somewhere nearby, unsweet with lime. Keeping fresh limes on hand was getting to be a hassle and not all restaurants have lime so I found this to keep in purse for such needs. Not a tea fan, it’s great in water too.

What are some of your favs right now?

Silly Saturday

You never know what the Lambert girls might do while bored one afternoon.  Sometimes we can be a bit silly :)

What do you make?

I love Etsy, Very Jane, Groop Dealz, Pick Your Plum, and all the cute crafty stuff that is showing up everywhere. My heart belongs in the craftroom making fun things for others all day long. Oh hours in the day, there just aren't enough of you!

I see cute ideas or items that make my life easier and decide to try and make them myself. Why on earth do I think that I have enough time to do all these projects is beyond me, but I love making and creating. I guess that's why I do it. It makes me so happy to sew, knit, crochet, or stamp something for a friend.

When Elizabeth was only a few weeks old I saw this amazing invention at the dr.'s office. It was a baby carrier cover that attached to the handles of your carrier. No more struggling to keep a blanket on top or dealing with a wet blanket that fell off in the rain. Baby stays dry, hidden from strangers hands(aka germ city), sleeps longer in their cozy world, and your carrier is super cute with all the fun fabric available out there. Why didn't I know about this when Taylor was a baby and where can I get one??? A quick search on Etsy turned into hours debating between which fabric was the cutest. Decisions, decisions. Ordered one, loved it, solved many problems. Fast forward to last fall when a sweet friend was getting ready to have her third child. I asked her if she had a carrier cover and if not, could I make her one? She was so excited and so I started out on my journey to sew my first cover. It went much better than expected and she was so happy to have the cover for when baby boy arrived. A few weeks later she informed me that the cover was the hit of the preschool for many pregnant Mommas. This left me with only one choice... fabric shopping to help out all my future customers. Why should I leave these Mommas without the greatness that these covers are? I love shopping for fabric and it helps that I'm not trying to figure out how the fabric is going to find a place in our home. Taylor only needs so many pillowcases and homemade dresses. So now I have my own Etsy shop so that I can have fun crafting and you can keep your sweet baby covered in style.

Wouldn't it be great if I left well enough alone and kept my craft selling at just those??? My husband probably thinks so.

Cue photographer friend who mentioned that she would love some knitted items when I told my playgroup that I wanted to knit but needed a project. Winter is a great time to knit since the husband and I spend lots of time catching up on movies that we missed because parents of two little ones don't make it to the theater often. It is sad that some were from 2008 and probably could be found in the $5 bin at Walmart. Thank you Netflix to keep 'oldies' for us :) Another search on Etsy landed me some adorable patterns and piles of beautiful yarn were turned into photography props for newborns/babies. While searching for patterns I also found cute leg warmers for my little dancer. Too bad she still won't wear them, but a friend's little dancer made good use of the next pair I knitted. All the mom's at her dance studio wanted some so after a few months I knitted a few up and listed them. I love making all these little items and can just imagine a little girl twirling in her leg warmers or a new mom snuggling her newborn in one of my cocoon pods for announcement photos.

I am a huge fan of buying something that has been handmade before going to a chain store. Some of my favorite jewelry pieces are handmade and I can spend hours on Etsy adding to my favorites list. So I want to know... what do you make? I know so many talented women(and men) and want to give them a chance to show off their hard work too. It can be your Etsy store, blog, website, Teachers Pay Teachers(because educating our little ones is hard work), or however else you show off your creativeness.

Friday Catch-up

Where did my week go?  I can’t believe in the blink of an eye(or coughing fit for me right now) that the week flashed by.  When planning this week I forgot to pencil in sick Momma and sick kiddo #1 with dance recital dress rehearsal, last week of preschool, end of year gifts for teachers, friend’s birthday party, redecorating Taylor’s room, and a long holiday weekend ahead.  I know my kids and husband enjoyed the break from my voice for a few days since it decided to take a vacation.  I  finally found a good reason to whisper ‘Don’t make me yell!’  For some reason this didn’t seem to slow me down.  Here are few things that I still managed to accomplish this week:

Homemade popsicles with my new Zoku. Mother’s Day presents that involve cold things for hot Texas weather ROCK!  My girls are finally entertaining each other.  I only had to follow behind to make sure Lizzie didn’t bop her head into the wall.  Lots of giggles, happy girls.

Big sister so sick that she feel asleep waiting for the doctor.  Strep is yucky.  One of your babies having to get a shot is yucky.  Go away germs!  Little sister managed to go through my entire purse and all of the cabinets in the room.  Can I send my husband to baby-proof one room that they will then put us in each time???  Let’s just not tell the doctor about a few new pen marks that we ‘co-or’ on his floor.  Ooopps!

I love toddler words for things.  They make so much sense.  Eyes = sunglasses in her world.  LOVE it!

The big one barely left the couch all day and wanted me to sit with her.  Good thing I had a few knitting projects and an Apple TV loaded with movies so I never had to get up.  Little sister took a nice long nap.  Guess destroying a doctor’s office will wear you out.

Pink lemonade = ‘me-cine’ in her world.  Not sure, but she still drinks it.  Tried hard to keep them apart to avoid germies spread, but little sister couldn’t help but love on big sister.

End of Year gift for sweet preschool teachers.  Inside is yummy Ghirardelli mint chocolates and a Starbucks gift card.  Chocolate and coffee = heaven in my world.  Thank you to the sweet women who loved on my baby all year!  Next is one of the projects for my Etsy shop I worked on while snuggling with a sick kid.  More to come on that soon.

Perfecting the french braid.  Not so great, but getting better.  She doesn’t care.  She thinks it’s rainbows and unicorns perfect.  I love that she loves without seeing flaws!

What happened around your house this week?