Her:

Fancy table with dainty snacks. Sipping tea & eating heart shaped sandwiches. Chit-chat. Good manners.

Him:

Swimming, sliding, dunking. Whooping, stomping, crazy nerf gun war, ganging up on daddy.

Her: Hello Kitty craft kits, Barbies, flowery headbands and necklaces.

Him: Nerf guns, flying helicopters, Nerf balls, more Nerf guns.

Her:

Pink cake, chocolate covered strawberries.

Him:

Baseball cake (again), ice cream with chocolate sauce.

Her: Little girls in dresses calmly painting tea cups, giggling, playing with dolls.

Him: Fart jokes, planning the cuss words they'll be able to say when they're 18, tackling, hording "ammo", taking prisoners.

Her:

Three gentle little breaths to blow out five pink and purple curly candles.

Him:

One giant wolfish puff to rapidly extinguish all nine crayon candles.

Me: Dog tired.

(Hope you're having a good Monday. We're laying low, watching it snow, making soup.)

Brian and little N have plans. There is a Daddy-Daughter Valentine's Ball to attend. There will be dancing and snacks and little girls in fancy dresses. When we explained it to her, I thought she might burst. Every morning she asks if it's the day of the dance. And then sometime later in the day she hollers, "NO! I will NOT _______!" (fill in the blank with any small request from us) and slams a door. Then we threaten to take the dance away. (Bad, bad parents.) But who are we kidding? You know she'll get to go.

I have sprung into action in my way- styling the outfit. It's a Christmas dress from her cousins. I think I'll change it up just a little- maybe a pink ribbon sash instead of the tulle, remove the flower from the dress, and perhaps make a flower for her hair or her wrist. I started hunting for fabric flower ideas found some great stuff:

• I LOVE everything in this store, including that adorable Emerson.

• These have a nice tailored feel. I think N might need a headband in navy blue. And then I need to make her a little natural linen sundress to wear it with, yes?

• I've been admiring one of these for myself for quite awhile. It could hide a hole in a little cashmere cardigan I have.

• Pretty.

And speaking of links, these two have nothing to do with any of that but make me smile:

• This photo. Ahhhhh. I may be responsible at least half of it's 1200+ views.

• OK. This one is cheesy, but SO funny. If you were into grunge at all (we were), watch this *song*. Ohmygod. Brian and I watch every once in awhile to cheer up the day.

Have a great weekend.

I disappeared there for a little while. Sorry about that. It's been busy, busy: murals, treats to school(s), friends, family, sick kids, birthday parties, yadda yadda yadda.

Today is the girl's birthday- her official entry into big-kid territory. She's five. I feel like a page has turned to a new chapter for us. SO corny, I know. But I've been feeling the sappiness of it all day. Five and nine. Big kids. And I'm their mom. It's a joy watching them grow and a great relief to be past toddler-hood, but enormously sad at the same time. I guess that's how it goes.

I just keep thinking "so far so good..."

But we've found a few things to distract us. There was a birthday. A certain young man here turned nine. And I can't even believe it.

And we've made a few things. N made a snow globe:

We followed these easy directions. She made the funny little snowmen out of Fimo and we used water not oil. She insisted on the pink glitter snow.

And I made a desert terrarium:

I don't think mushrooms grow in the desert, but the desert part was unplanned. Apparently it is nearly impossible to find live moss in Kansas in January.

Happy Monday Tuesday, everyone.

p.s.

Visit here.
Buy something here.
Donate here.
Please.

Have a great weekend.

20-10. Twenty ten? No, I prefer the long way. I wanted to set down a few things l'd like to do this year, personal wishes to fulfill (love that Rach). I'm not really a resolution maker, but I do love a good list, so here's where the twain shall meet.

I will try to...

Get involved with the arts again- go to the Nelson for lectures, attend openings, First Fridays, go to some more of these events, reconnect with artsy folks I use to know.

Find my film mojo. Oh, mojo... where are you???

Frequent estate sales in hopes of finding a dusty, forgotten old etching press that no one knows what to do with, buy it for a steal, give it some tlc and get going. (What? Yes it could. It could happen.)

Explore my city.

Take the cameras along.

For everything I buy at the thrift store, send something out of the house.

Wear more skirts.

Grow something. (other than tomatoes.)

Can something. (maybe tomatoes.)

Teach the girl to read. She is oh-so-close.

Help the boy learn to organize and be more responsible for himself.

Start to get a hold on my one big health issue- persistent migraine headaches.

Stay focused. Keep it simple.

Follow through. Finish old projects to free up space (physically and mentally) for new ones.

There. That's plenty.
Until soon.

I'm stir crazy.

It's our second snow day in a row. It's deadly cold out there. My car is in the shop (for something minor) but I doubt we want to brave the frigid temps anyway. I have been feeling that old February fatigue creeping in early, so I'm making a strong effort to stay positive. I should be working, but my office/studio is the coldest room in our old house. When we turn on the space heater and any one of the following: tv, the space heater downstairs, the other tv, the iron, etc., it trips a breaker. I'm getting a little behind on some work projects, but oh well.

To fight it off the funk today I have:
slept late
cuddled my little people
built an icicle sculpture
danced and sang with N
read a book

and now I do believe it is time. Time to bake a chocolate cake. Indeed.

Stay cozy.

First the p.j. quilts for my nieces in Texas. I explained these here. These two girls still get a big kick out of my handmades, so I will of course keep making for them as long as it tickles them so.
. . . . .

Next is N's mommy-made gift. This child loves to play restaurant, so I made her a little chef's hat, 4 little checkered dinner napkins, and 4 very empty laminated menus. She can write all the items on with a dry-erase marker and use them over and over. It all goes really well with her daddy-made kitchen and her purchased gift, a little wooden cash register. And just so you know, she likes to serve chicken and milk shakes.
. . . . .

Last is J's gift. Last year his gift was the tough one, but this year his was a breeze. He asked for warm jammies. I whipped up a pair of flannel pajama pants and bought a long sleeve thermal t-shirt (from Target) to go with them. Done!
. . . . .

I still have a little painting to finish for my dad, the poor thing. He's been begging for a painting of his beloved (deceased) rooster for over a year, and I promised him I'd do it. He's patient like that. : )

Good thing we have tons of left-overs to keep us well fed. I thought just for fun I'd share two of our holiday food successes this morning:

The Christmas tree appetizer. Spread ranch dip (or any kind you like) in the bottom of a tray and build a tree. My aunt and I did this when I was small, and N and I made this one for Christmas Eve.

Overnight French toast for Christmas morning. I usually make a sausage, egg and cheese casserole, but my small people voted for the French toast. I really like breakfast casseroles for days like this so I don't have to spend the entire morning in the kitchen. We fried some bacon and made a big pot of coffee, and we were set until it was time for the cheese ball, summer sausage, crackers and nuts at about 2 pm. (I think we ate Christmas dinner at about 3:30.)

Anyway, that's all I have today. Next week I'll share some of the handmade gifts I made.

Stay warm, friends. I foresee a sledding expedition in our future!

Happy Winter Solstice! Thank goodness we're on the upswing with good old sun.

I'm officially calling it winter vacation here at the blog now that both of my kids are home. It's time to relax and enjoy. I'll still post a few handmade gifts I'm finishing up over at flickr, and Heather and I will of course be posting at the Noticing Project until the end of the year.

No matter your persuasion, I hope these winter holidays are treating you well and you have plenty of time to eat, drink and be merry. Much love to you and yours.

Take good care,
Alicia

Tis true.

We missed (um er, forgot) our annual Saint Lucia Day dinner yesterday. We have been doing a terrible job keeping up with our advent calendar. I'm going to get serious tomorrow and fill the rest of the socks with little activities and stick. to. them. These children of mine get such a kick out of them.

Anyway, since we missed the dinner yesterday, tonight's treat was homemade pumpkin pie by candlelight. My little pumpkin pie connoisseur told me it was the best he's ever eaten. That boy knows how to win a girl's heart already.

So yesterday I had lots of things I should have been doing (gift making, laundry, shopping) but instead I just had to paint the dining room. I've been pondering colors for a month or so and finally went with Restoration Hardware silver sage. Once I got it up, I wasn't so sure, but it's growing on me. It's a little magic. In the morning it looks grey. Right now it's kind of greenish-blue. And last night it was a darker grey-blue.

Of course it makes me want to paint the little china cabinet, and the mirror, not to mention the kitchen walls...

p.s. Have a wonderful weekend!

Whatcha think? I finished the coat this weekend. It still feels a little old lady-ish, but I'm embracing it because I really like it. See the little wristlet purse? My mom gave it to me for my birthday. It's covered in felted wool balls. SO cute!

You really should have seen the set up to take this shot. It involved a very precarious swivel-stool-stacked-book tripod and a set of andirons as the stand in for me to focus the auto timer. I would have spent less time actually pulling out the real tripod, but that would have been too easy. And I really need one of those remote shutter thingies.

The windchill is brutal here today, so I think I'll wear this fancy new coat to go pickup the kids from school now. : )

Have a good Wednesday.

Well, I did it. Yesterday I cooked and cooked and cooked some more.

Sunday I looked over all your suggestions and did a few searches then made myself a game plan and a grocery list. Except for when I sat down and ate dinner with the family, I was on my feet in the kitchen from noon until 9:30 p.m. Yowser!

So here's what I made:

- a extra large batch of pizza/pasta sauce.
- baked pasta with chicken sausage- this is a big recipe- it will feed us 3 times.
- mac and cheese- this made two 9 x 9 pans full. We ate one for dinner last night.
- catalina cranberry chicken- I very loosely used that recipe. I made my own catalina dressing with grated onions, but I did buy a can of cranberry sauce. I eliminated the onion soup, so I added a little garlic salt and onion powder.
- turkey meatloaf- my own recipe. I just throw in whatever I have. I used a pound of ground turkey and a pound of turkey Italian sausage, onions, bread soaked in milk, an egg, ketchup, minced garlic, worchestireshire sauce...
- Irish beef hand pies- I cheated and bought ready-made pie crusts. I think it made enough for 2 meals. J is stoked about these.
- broccoli calzones- I am stoked about these.

What I wanted to prepare, but didn't have time:

- a batch of pesto from my rapidly wilting potted basil from the patio.
- bacon wrapped chicken- I think we'll just have this for dinner tonight. You know how I feel about the bacon.
- vegetable soup- my plan was to make a big pot for dinner and freeze the extra but it didn't happen.

What I think I'll still make this week:

- cinnamon bread- I am making this in the morning just because it looks soooo good.
- banana bread- one plain and one chocolate chip. I have some brown bananas to use up. I'll freeze both loaves.
- pumpkin bread- one to eat and one to freeze. I had three little pie pumpkins on the front porch for Fall and a squirrel took a nibble of one. I'm afraid if I don't cook it soon, it will rot.
- granola. We're just all out. People around here start squawking if I let that happen. ; )

So what did I learn? Well, this may not be the ideal way to go about this. I think the better way is to double the batch of whatever you're preparing and freeze the second half. BUT I actually had a great time (dorky, I know). What else? I think you could put just about anything in a hand pie. I really love the freezer-friendly section at Martha Stewart. And... I am a wimp. Standing on my feet all that time made me tired.

Now we have all these meals just waiting for us! Yum.

Oh, and thank you all SO much for your help, but I didn't put together a big list of resources for you, I'm sorry. I figure you're big kids. You can read the comments on your own. ; )