Archive for 2012

Sometimes I’m lucky enough to go to new places in Orange County. (FUN!!)

Everyday I deal with a lot of poop. Not the theoretical ‘this sure was a poopy day’ more like, ‘if I have to change one more poopy diaper I’m going to scream’.  (POOP)

###

I was invited to Bel Bambini to see the launch of their designer clothing section. Super cute clothes by all sorts of designers. The store has really great mock baby room set-ups and is a great place to get some inspiration for a new little one’s nursery (fun). As we are unloading the car Tess had a huge blow out (poop). With almost all the wipes and a new outfit the crisis was averted.

We head on into the beautiful store and Cora is lounging in one of rockers, as she moves her feet I notice she left some mud on the foot rest. Upon closer inspection, I discover this isn’t mud.

Yep. Dog poop.

But remember the blow-out from minutes before? The one where we are down to the last wipes. Two to be exact.

Blarg.

My Hubby takes Cora Jane for clean-up with one wipe and a jazillion paper towels (and dry heaves).

I’m standing off to the side of the soiled chair, trying to make eye contact with any store employee while digging in my diaper bag for napkins, hand sanitizer and the LAST wipe. And a lady from around the display looks at Cora Jane leave and freaks out over audacity of ‘these people’ to leave the mess. I walk the two steps to her to say that I’m doing my best to get everything cleaned up. She tells me she is the designer of the chair. The designer!!! And I’m thinking my daughter just got dog poop (except I wasn’t thinking poop) all over this chair and of course the designer is here. Said designer calms down after discovering I didn’t abandon the mess. And tells me she designed the chair to be cleaned up with wipes. Sure enough it cleaned up great!

We got to explore the new section of the store and my kiddos got to play with their blog friends. I use the term ‘play’ loosely because this is what they were doing…

One of the booths in the store was a company called Box of Play. Loved them! You know how your kiddos play with an empty box for hours? Well Box of Play has large environmentally friendly stickers for the boxes to make them into something. i.e. an egg carton into a piano or macaroni and cheese box into a camera. I think this is a great idea!

Bel Bambini featured my gift giving guide for 1-year-old boys on their site. See..

The only thing missing? An Eli’s Lid of course!

This week I was invited to see the new Whole Foods Market in Laguna Niguel. Wow that store is beautiful!

(Below is a pic of the wall made of old carpet… felt like particle board and me in front of some tile placed vertically subway style. Super modern and clean looking!)

I was tempted to ask all those construction workers to bee-bop on over to our new place and get some work done. Cuz I’m just about to go crazy with all the projeccts. Crazy. CRAZY.

I’m pretty stoked about the new store though. Not because we are super healthy or super Green. Because they are going to have free cooking classes. FREE!! (FUN!) One they mentioned was cooking in bulk. I need that. I hate strongly dislike cooking. I’m hoping to get a bunch of friends together for a few of the classes. Any locals interested? If we have enough peeps, maybe they can hold one just for us? (I haven’t asked or anything but ya never know.)

The kids were unexpectedly with me, but they did great OK and had a lot of fun. Plus I caught this picture in front of the store and it makes me giggle. We had to leave a little early though because someone had a full diaper (poop).

If you are a local (or have a Whole Foods near you), be sure to fan them on FB to hear about all the events specific to your store! Click here for Laguna Niguel FB page.

Remember how we bought a house?

(Squeeeeeeeee!)

And that it needed A LOT of work.

We’ve been working.

Every night till the wee hours of the morning. So I’ll share a bit of progress… (but more details will be coming when I have more to share!)

The stairs were yucky. Now they are beautiful.

See that horrible colored banister?

It’s been stained into lovely.

By me.

We are doing the tile diagonal.

Cuz we’re crazy like dat.

And I spill paint.

Cuz I’m crazy like dat. (Not really – I’m listening to a book on tape and in another world)

We’ve been eating a lot of fast food and my weight loss as halted. Does it bother anyone else that one place has a sourdough sandwich, jalapeno poppers, fries and teriyaki bowls? I was sick later. Luckily I haven’t gained but I’m really looking forward to being in my future house eating my bad cooking again.

We were lucky enough to borrow a paint gun from our friends and I’m in the process of repainting all the cabinets. It’s a LONG process. There have been tears and pleas with my husband to just use the credit cart and hire it out. But I should be done next week. YAY!!

This is the face of a girl who thought she would get the cabinets done in a weekend. Then the reality hit and I’m going on week three. THREE!!!

I know I’m complaining, but we really are mostly smiles. Especially when I look at my camera roll and see the pictures my littles are taking on my phone while I’m distracted with drawers. The pictures give me perspective. This is a wild/busy/stressful time for my hubby and I but we are creating a home for our children.

Our home.

And they are making memories of their own.

In a few years (which will be here in the blink of an eye) I may hear them talking about how Mom (Because I’ll be Mom not Mommy by then. Boo.) sprayed herself in the face with the paint gun (yes, that happened) and how Dad carried a toilet down the stairs and… who knows what treasures they are adding to their precious lil’ memory banks.

While my nights are spent at the “new house” my days are still filled with kiddos AND Eli’s Lids. Part of the awesomeness of being the mom in a mom & pop shop means I can work on my biz at home while my eats-extremely-slow daughter finishes her lunch… in her bikini.

I’ve been bagging up our three new colors and we’ll be coming out with them next-ish week.

A few things will be changing around here. But not too much, so don’t worry. And of course in a couple of months we’ll be launching something new.

But I can’t tell.

I’m mean like that.

Happy Friday Friends!!

So thankful for you.

REALLY!

My friend Chris has a moving Mothers Day tradition and I asked if I could share it with you today. If you’ve lost a mom, are a mom or have friends who are moms (that should cover everybody) then consider trying it too!

m-day project (re)explained

Well, I will try and explain it anyway. This is about the fifth time I have tried to compose this post. Where to begin?

My Mom died almost thirteen years ago (June 1999). The last thing I ever sent her was a Mother’s Day card. The last thing she sent me was a postcard with my sister’s address and a request to send my sister money for an air conditioner.

One of the things that happens in the grief process is that you get to ‘celebrate’ (I use that term loosely as not much celebrating usually goes on in the first year) each of the holidays without the person. I still remember secretly sitting around on Thanksgiving thinking my Mom would call. I knew it was a crazy thought, but grief does things to your mind.

I thought I was doing better, and then Mother’s Day 2000 rolled around. It hit really hard that my Mom was gone, even though the more rational part of myself knew that had she been live, we probably would not have been together to celebrate. Here I should note that my Mother was an alcoholic with bipolar disorder. To say that our relationship was complex, would be an understatement. The anger part of my grief was coming at me at waves, so watching other mom/daughter relationships was very very hard. I would either get very angry or be brought to tears. It occurred even when I noticed complete strangers that I just happened upon in my day-to-day life. Fun times.

Nine years ago I decided that I needed to redirect these feelings. I needed to find a way to celebrate the moms in my life in an effort to lessen the pain and burden I was feeling. I had a few friends who had had children and I also had a teacher who was also a nun who was like a grandmother figure. And so I went and bought and sent Mother’s Day cards to them. I think I sent five. But I felt like I was doing something good and I felt better as a result.

The next year I continued this effort, but made my own postcards from photos I had taken. The list grew from five to thirty.

The following year I lost my teacher/nun friend. I just couldn’t bring myself to do it and so skipped a year.

In 2006 it seemed like more people I knew than not were becoming Moms, and so I decided it was time to bring back the project. Further inspiration came from the editor of Mommy Wars, Leslie Morgan Steiner. In her afterword she says that positive role models for American mothers in the 21st century are as hard to find as “swim diapers at Target in August”. She also asks when was the last time you told another woman she was a good mother. I ended up sending out cards to over 50 women around the globe.

This year I will reach 100 cards (last year I only sent 91). I was also very conflicted this year, as I am trying to come to terms with motherhood. I wasn’t sure what I would write about, and I had no idea what I would use for the photos. Instead, I remembered that my Mom’s last gift to me was a stuffed bear named Stanley. He sleeps on my pillow most of the time. I also happened to have a great shot of him taken at a hotel in Monterey, California, which was also one of my mother’s favorite places.

In this year’s card, I wrote about how Stanley reminds me that treasures often turn up in unexpected places, and that we are never prepared for lasts. I also think this may be the first year that most of the postcards arrive in time for Mother’s Day.

This year I was one of the lucky moms to receive a postcard from Chris. I was (am) honored to to be a part of the tradition and it truly did brighten my day to get a handwritten note. Now to bring out the stationary and write a few Mother’s Day notes…

Thank you Chris for letting me share this post!!

Cy cracks us up.

He is an odd mixture of Pig Pen from the Peanuts, Maggie from the Simpsons, Dennis the Menace and Popeye.

Messy, always with a binky in his mouth, causing mischief and tough.

He was the ugliest baby ever.

Ev-ah!!!

What, you don’t believe me??

Then I challenge you to an ugly baby contest.

Ready?

GO…

I win. It’s like the real life Benjamin Button. I can say that now because he is a-dorable!!

Each of my children are my favorite in their own way. But Cy is my fave favorite. (Yeah, I said it!) His naughty smile cuts me to the core.

Don’t the Fedorables fit his style? He insists on wearing his almost everyday! And he does other silly things like, crack his head open without breaking stride. Here he is saying “cheese” after hitting a corner, then all cleaned up, then walking into the ER with Daddy, and finally with his sweet stitched head

He didn’t even bat an eyelash during the whole stitching process.

What a Lil’ Bruiser.

Cy’s head is all healed up and he has white trash faux hawk topping him off (under his Lid of course) and I think it fits his personality perfectly!

Get your own unique cut with this Cool Cuts 4 Kids coupon for $5 off!

Are you on Pinterest yet? If you haven’t heard about Pinterest, here’s what it is… (my explanation)

Pinterest is hard to describe… mmmmmmm… it’s a way to organize all the fun stuff you see online. Let’s say you find a great idea for a birthday party, but the party is three months away. So you make a mental note to remember that idea. You could print it on paper (remember that stuff?) but you know you won’t find it again, and who needs more paperwork (MOM!!!)? Three months of school, laundry, work, life, love, smiles, cries and burnt dinners (oh, that last one is just me) go by and the party comes and goes. It’s great, of course, but the next day you are on the Internet and you stumble across the idea again and you’re like. “Cr%$!!!! That would have been awesome!!”

Pinterest is an online “pin board” for you to put the links you find. So if you find that perfect rainbow cupcake you can click it, and virtually put it on your Birthday Party Pin board. The link goes there along with a picture and you can put a note next to your pin. Like, “try this with felt” or “the perfect gift for mom” or… you get the idea. People have boards for each of their children, sewing, wedding planning, places they want to visit, meal plans, funny sites… the list goes on and on and on and on and on…

The problem with Pinterest is it’s easy to spend all your time “pinning” and never actually doing.

Have a Pinterest Party.

Problem solved!!!!

Any excuse to get together with friends and eat is awesome.

Right!?!?!

My first experience with a Pinterest party was just before Christmas. The hosts picked three projects from their pin boards – things they thought could be finished in one evening and asked everyone to bring $20, their glue gun and a treat to eat (from their pin boards, of course). I brought my $20, forgot my glue gun and I don’t even have a recipe pin board because cooking just isn’t my thang… I brought bruschetta from Sam’s Club and they let me stay anyway.

How fun is that!

So fun!

Later I was hanging with some friends after the Queen Bee Market and tossed out the idea. We’ve been faithful to our Pinning Party every 6 weeks-ish.

The first party was in January so we did a Valentine’s Day fabric banner, heart pom pom necklace…

…and we made this Life is Beauty-Full sign (tutorial coming soon!) and that little frame to the left was the craft fail of the evening but I think I salvaged mine to displayable status.

Side Note: The fabric banner is one of my all time favorite crafts ever. Sooooooo easy. I’ve made one for every holiday since. Make one for spring. Now.

I wasn’t able to go to the next party because it was on our anniversary weekend (I was bummed) but you better believe I paid my $20 and got all the craft supplies I need for the projects. I can’t wait to get them finished and share them. Check out this post and this post all about the party to see the crafties.

Last weekend we got our craft on again with this lil’ beauty and the flowers on this ‘L’ (I yarned the L at the first Pinterest party I attended). Plus a few more I need to finish or take better pix. (I’ll share someday!)

Here is how we organize our Pin Parties.

Step 1 – Send out an evite. We’ve met on weekday evenings after kiddos are in bed and on weekends.

Step 2 – Choose the Pins. Try to pick things you can get done in one night and if they can’t be finished in one evening make sure you can send the needed supplies home with each guest. i.e. if the craft requires some crazy gadget only you have, be sure that craft is finished at the party, if it just requires hot glue then it’s OK to send it home.

Step 3 – Buy supplies. After you have a final head count you can get all the stuff you need. The nice thing about doing group crafts is buying in bulk. And you can get something new or pricey because it comes in packs of 24. Divided among the group = cheap.

Step 4 – Hang, chat, eat, craft. Repeat.

It’s always good (for non cookers like me) if you have a few people in the group who are blessed in the kitchen. Once again I forgot to bring food… so thankful they are understanding. This time everything was delish but my most favorite were the carrot cake cookies and these peanut butter chocolate things. And the most fun treat was smores’ in a jar – pudding, crushed graham crackers, tiny marshmallows toasted with a torch. Awesome.

Our little core group of Pinners include Jaime, Aimee, Bev, Andrea and Kyla. But at each party the host sets the parameters about inviting friends. I’m hoping to host in our house (Squeeee, we have a house!) after we move in. Don’t you think the best way to get things done around the house is to host something? Anything.

Happy Pinning and Partying.