Archive for July, 2012

I turned 32 last week. I’ve never been one of those folks who gets hot and bothered with getting older. I’ve looked 30 since jr high so it’s pretty satisfying for my looks to finally match my age. Unless I look 50 now – and if that’s the case, please don’t tell me. I had a bit of a reflection on my 29th birthday (and continued the story on my 30th) and I feel the same way. I’m happy and comfortable with the way my life has turned out. Maybe a little too comfortable.

My birthday was perfection. One of my favorite type of days – productive and playful. My hubby had to work, but got up while the house was sleeping, to make me chocolate chip waffles and left 10 love notes hidden around the house. I liked it. A lot. The children and I ate waffles in bed and chatted about my birthday. They were excited to help me find the notes and had no concept of my age. I asked them if they had unlimited resources, what would they would get me for my birthday. Eli said he would get me “an expensive LEGO set.” Shocker. Cora Jane said she would get me 100 stars. One hundred stars?? “Oh yes, Mommy! I would fly into space and capture you 100 stars.” That girl. She oozes awesome.

She thinks big.

The kids and I did loads of errands and I was able to do all sorts of prep for an epic pinterest party I threw last weekend. (I can’t wait to share about it!!! You will flip. Flip!) I treated myself to Golden Spoon for lunch and the kiddos to Jack in the Box mini pancakes. They love those mini circles of fluff and it’s only a buck for 8… or is it 6? Doesn’t matter. They’re good. We ate in the backyard under the shade tree. Sigh. The good life.

With full bellies, we were enjoying our time together in the sunshine. I love to use these moments to talk with my kids. Really talk with them, not “at” them or “to” them, “with” them. This moment we talked about birthday presents. We talked about getting a gift the birthday person would like, not something you like (ahem “expensive LEGO set” above). We talked about gifts that you don’t have to buy. Some people (like me) love the gift of a love note, a dinner out or something handmade from the heart, more than something that costs a lot of money. We talked about our favorite shows (I said Shaun the Sheep) and about the things the kids were learning in VBS (no matter what, you can trust God).

At some point Eli disappeared inside to play with LEGO bricks, while the rest of us were lounging. He came back outside a little later with a sheep he made from his imagination. A gift for me, for my birthday. He understood from our conversation that I probably didn’t want a LEGO set for my birthday, so he had asked me my favorite show so he could make me something from the heart. I liked it. A lot.

We took the big kids to VBS then my hubby took me to sushi dinner with the littlest littles. A perfect day. The kind of day that gives you some perspective.

I have a good life. Nope, a GREAT life. I’m comfortable. I could live like this forever. I could. But knowing what I know (what we all know) about the world out there, what should my life look like? We have full hearts, full bellies and a full home. But I want to think big. I’m trying to think big, like Cora Jane.

I’m switching things up at Eli’s Lids. (I still can’t tell you everything yet because I’m a jerk like that.)

This blog is a business blog but I’ve always been pretty personal. Now, I’m officially turning it into a personal blog.

So what’s going to change?

Nothing really. I’ll probably be more opinioned.

I’ll be launching an exclusively business blog soon. But since Eli’s Lids is such a huge part of our life, you’ll get all that here as well.

Happy Monday!

I have a little girl.

She dances to the beat of her own little drum.

A drum that’s orange, covered in rainbow sparkles with puppies, and flamingos jumping out.

She picks out her own clothes.

She’s scared to get her ears pierced.

She might really think she’s Rapunzel.

She likes what she likes.

From the depth of her pretty little brain she came up with a rainbow puppy party.

Here’s how it went…

We remembered to do a family picture before the party, in hopes of getting a good shot before the party sugar set in…

Um… that went well.

I made Cora Jane’s skirt out of Dollar Tree tee shirts. (It came out really cute and I hope to share how it’s done soon!)

Favors: All from Oriental Trading company. Rainbow stamps, tattoos and candy bundled up in rainbow bandanas. They added so much color outside. 

I cut each large bandana into 4 squares for the bundles. And I couldn’t believe Oriental Trading Company had rainbow colored “dog bones” (I think they are meant to be skeleton bones for Halloween) and bright paw print stamps. Total score. Double sided stamps and rainbow tattoos finished off the favors. Total cost was about $1.25!

Menu: Pizza, a rainbow of fruit and veggies, chips and every color of Gatorade.

Big Mama pizzas from our favorite, Rosa’s Pizza. Each pizza has 45 slices. The fruit was set out in rainbow order – red apples, watermelon, strawberries, sliced oranges, carrots, yellow tomatoes, yellow raspberries, bananas, snap peas, cucumbers, blueberries and purple grapes. (This was the first party we ran kinda low on the main dish. It was pretty rad to NOT have leftovers, but we should have gotten another smaller pizza to add to the bunch.)

Décor: Rainbow and puppies. (hehehehe)

I covered our unfinished counters with bright table clothes and used the leftover bandanas as runners. I used paper plates to camouflage the unfinished backsplash (pictured above with the fruit). We didn’t fool anyone, but it looked festive. I made a rainbow-puppy-paw-print fabric strip banner for behind the cake and my talented friend Jill created a rainbow puppy graphic for me to print, and I hung it up all over the place. We found some great rainbow flower windmill things at the Dollar Tree and placed them around the yard. But my favorite favorite favorite part were rainbow the colored lanterns we hung in our kick a$& tree. I LOVE THEM! I’ve kept them up and every time I look in my yard they make me smile. I think I’ll go look at them now… (sigh)… happy heart.

Cake: I love custom cakes but there is just something special (to me) about making my kiddo’s birthday cakes. That being said, when you can get a cake for $10 at Sam’s Club and 30 cupcakes for $13… I let “the club” do the baking and background frosting and I just spice it up a bit! (I do this for almost all our parties.) For Cora Jane’s cake I added a rainbow banner, a puppy candle (had to get a dozen at Oriental Trading and only used one, so if you want some just shoot me an email and I’ll bless you with some happy puppy mail!), the rainbow dog bones (from the favors), and rainbow sour belts. Each cupcake got a rainbow puppy, a rainbow, and dog bones of their own. It was cute.

Cora Jane loved it…

Then we beat the heck out of a rainbow. I’m not sure why, but I’m a huge fan of pinatas. I feel like a party without a pinata is just hanging out… I’m strange. 

Group shots are another of my party MUSTS…

Cora Jane wants a rainbow puppy room. Because, of course she does.

But that’s awesome because I can use the banner and extra bandanas as room décor. I also found this awesome rainbow fabric for curtains. She hated it. Oh wait… the opposite of that…

House stuff is slowly moving along now and I can’t wait to share pix!

Happy Day Friends!

Moving is a lot of work. Most everything is unpacked but there are quite a few things that don’t have places yet.

I just don’t have enough hours in the day. Can you feel me?

All my invisible work gets in the way.

What’s invisible work you ask?

It’s work that has to be done and takes a lot of time but no one notices… unless it doesn’t get done.

Let me explain. Laundry.

You start with a nice tidy room. You remove the laundry basket, wash, dry and fold (maybe even iron) the laundry, then tuck each clean item back into it’s home in the room. You have worked for about 3 hours and you end up right where you started – with a nice tidy room.

The same can be said for dishes, cooking a meal and paying the bills.

If you do all your invisible work, then the well oiled machine that is your life just keeps chugging along. If you don’t do your invisible work then you have 6 clean loads of laundry in your bedroom waiting to be folded (ahem), a sink piled high with dirty dishes (ahem), and your electricity goes out (thank God for bill pay on my smart phone or that wouldn’t get done either!).

So I guess what I’m saying is, I’m working so much on my invisible work, the “extra” things like hanging pictures on the wall or setting up my office aren’t getting done.

Flustering.

But that’s part of the job.

A job I chose.

A job that some women (and men) would kill for.

When I’m in the midst of my invisible work I kinda hate it. But after I’m done, I’m proud.

I don’t care if that sounds lame.

I’m proud when my house is clean… um… replace clean with tidy… um replace tidy with comfortable.

Yeah. I’m proud my house is comfortable.

This mom thing is work. A lot of work. A funny duality of difficulty and honor.

I GET to be a mom. Not everyone does and I’m thankful.

In fact, I love it.

Last week we had some hot summer rain. After putting the little kids down for naps, Eli and I had some precious alone time. We lounged in our backyard under our tree on our big picnic quilt talking. He’s five now so we can really talk about things. I asked him about his dreams. He told me he wanted to buy all the expensive lego sets. I listened. I wanted to know what was on his mind. He told me he is nervous about starting Kindergarten this September. I listened. I asked him if he had any neat plans I could help with. He wants to plant a garden. A garden in our yard for lots of fruits and vegetables. His plan is to put a sign in the garden that says ‘free food’ and if anyone is hungry or homeless they can have the food from our garden. Wow.

Being a mom means being a part of something big. Bigger than we can ever imagine. Maybe bigger than we’ll ever know.

Invisible work. What a small price to pay for the privilege of being, mom.

Now I’m going to fold some laundry.

Squeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!! (I’ve been doing a lot of squeeeeing lately haven’t I?)

Did you catch the KTLA 5 Morning news yesterday morning at 7:15am?

Neither did we.

We don’t have that channel.

Maybe we are a little Dugger-like when it comes to TV. Don’t get me wrong. We have a TV… just no antenna. So we don’t get any shows on it. We have Netflix streaming for $8 a month (I should do a post on it someday) and we can do DVDs AND I make my friend Kyla record Big Fat Gypsy Wedding for me. Then we have eating nights craft nights and watch the shows. That’s very un Duggar-like.

What-evs.

Here is the clip from the show… (Mom, We are at 2min & 10 seconds, after the commercial.)

I’m so honored we were picked to be on the show. There were other great products featured as well and you can see them all in this post.

How funny is it that the hosts wore our Fedorables for the second half of the segment? RAD!

I wish they would have mentioned how we donate to Surfers Healing and to great adoptive families! (like Henry’s family!)

But I guess it’s OK.

I’m going to use this post as a cliff notes version of the month I didn’t post…

Eli finished school Pre K and I wasn’t sad. It’s crazy to think we are about to start the Elementary school years with our kids. Time is a bandit. Stealth. Overnight the children grow like crazy in mind body and spirit. Then when you look at them and realize they have hit/passed another milestone you cry like a baby and eat 3-5 skinny cow wafer bars.

Oh, that’s just me…

Awkward.

We had a celebratory lunch at Rosa’s Pizza. If you live in North County you have to try it. Yummy.

They have mustaches in the quarter machines.

And the next day we moved.

Since moving day I’ve been doing move-y things. Like putting in contact paper, getting gifties from friends and killing backyard gophers.

I like my girls.

Tess is growing up. Lame.

Cora Jane is growing up. Lame. She also loves to wear her headbands like Axl Rose.

She is her own girl. Not lame.

My hubby and I had a date day at the beach together. Just us. No kids. So I read and slept and it was awesome. Awesome.

The hubs went body boarding and came in from the waves with a ring he made out of seaweed while waiting for a set.

Can someone travel back in time and tell my jr high self that all my dreams will come true.

Don’t mention the getting fat part though.

And I’m kinda switching things up a little. I’m separating my business and life on Instagram and Twitter. So be sure to follow my new accounts as well! (@elislids on both)

Happy Monday!

(YAY!)