Posts Tagged ‘InstaFriday’

My friend Drew B took a picture of one of her littles every day for a year and did this fun thing (now she is in the process of doing the same thing with her other little). I was in love with the idea but taking an Instagram picture of each kiddo everyday stressed me out… not to mention it would clog up my stream. I figured I could do one a week (of each kiddo). Totally doable and actually really fun. I thought I was keeping up really well, but when I went to put the pictures in this post, I only had 7 for each kiddo! I’m hoping to do the poster thing just like Drew.

52 Weeks of Eli…

52 Weeks of Cora Jane…

52 Weeks of Cyrus…

52 Weeks of Tessa…

One group picture which caught 4 birds with one shot:

So how fun is this going to be at the end of the year!?!?

And since I’m obsessed with Instagram, go ahead and follow me here or search @karanoellawson.

Recently and somewhat randomly, I have been hanging out with bloggy folks. Since I don’t really feel part of the the blog world, I’m mostly awkward and a total dork in these social situations. It’s pathetic. Anyway, I’ve met the sassy Hollywood Housewife and she did a thing where you record the events in your day in pictures. I joined in! I tried my best, but I have to be honest, the idea of taking pix of every moment kinda stressed me out. I’m always on the move and I don’t really keep my phone or a camera on me during the day. Quite a few times I would have loved to grab a picture but in leaving to get a camera the moment would have been over and me leaving the room could have caused a meltdown. (I’m also linking up to Life Rearranged’s InstaFriday.)

Here’s what I do in a day… try not to fall asleep…

Everyday before 7am I get the oldest three littles settled in front of Sesame Street with bananas. We go through about 2 bunches a week. That’s a hellofalot of bananas.

7:30am: I nurse this lil’ lady. She’s kinda a B until she has her milk. I’m hoping she’ll want to wean soon. (Please tell me I’m not the only one who hates nursing but does it for the ‘greater good’.)

8ish am: Morning playtime. Making paper airplanes and launching them. Paper airplanes are a mommy playtime goldmine. Guaranteed to occupy kiddos for at least an hour.

9am: I start getting the ball rolling for school. I always wear my PJs while driving to school (unless I’m doing errands afterward). I’m super trendy like that. I often walk but today I didn’t.

After drop off I usually do my morning chores, aka unloading the dishwasher and tidying the kitchen.

Then I have some playtime with the littles so I can ignore them later without feeling guilty. Today was all about my future groupie…

11ish am: I wash 2 lbs of strawberries and put on a long movie for the 3 littlest littles. We go through 2lbs of strawberries a day. That’s a hellofalot of strawberries.

That whole ignoring thing mentioned above is necessary for me to be able to run on the treadmill. But I don’t actually get to ignore my kiddos. Although I put on a long show and make sure they have plenty of snacks, I’m inevitably interrupted at least a dozen times – someone hit someone, someone has a stinky diaper, someone needs to be wiped, something spilled… Usually they end up in the garage, talking with me while I run. They especially like to make fun of me huffing and puffing or imitate my running in place. It’s humbling to say the least. Today my water bottle was knocked over by a little person and spilled all over the conveyer belt and I almost killed myself tripping over the empty bottle.

True story.

Are you jealous of my life yet?

After I’m showered, I clean more. It’s shocking how much I clean because my house is always pretty messy. I dusted. love this year’s minimalist mantel.

1pm: Pick up from school and parent/teacher conference. Eeeek. Eli is loved by his teacher and I love that. She sees his sweet gentle spirit and that makes my heart smile.

2:15pm: Drs Appointment for Cy’s strange non healing boo boo. Which I was completely sure was some sort of tumor inside his head that was so large it was popping out. I’m not joking. I was convinced. Anyway, it turns out it is a scab that he just keeps scraping off and it’s not healing because it’s a bit infected. Oral medicine, topical medicine and pancakes at Jack in the Box. (Note for my mom: It looks better already!) I may still  be a little convinced it’s some sort of strange thing.

Being a mom brings out all those over the top cray cray paranoid thoughts. (Tell me I’m not the only one!?!?)

4pm: I decided to paint the top of our wooden side table orange. It looks horrible. You know when you are doing a project and even while you are working on it, you know it’s going to turn out like crap. Yep. That’s this table. I have no idea what to with it now. Eli was not impressed that I used his school work to tape off the bottom of the table. But we are super green like that.

4:30pm: I was invited to OC Metro’s Hot 25 party. Which called for the super hot right now duck face. Which is the polar opposite of hot.

And then I had to decide what to wear. This totally sucks, because nothing fits. I am getting smaller but my closet is all over the place.

6pm ish: The event was neat! Delicious food (at the Island Hotel in Newport Beach) and I absolutely loved to hear about each of the honorees. I know Orange County has an interesting reputation in this great country of ours, but I truly love it here. From farmers to inventors to bloggers, you should check out the Hot List. (Proud to support the lovely Kristen Howerton as one of the honorees aka mom of some of our lovely Eli’s Lids models!)

9pm: My day came to a close with some snuggling on the couch with my sweetie. We watched a podcast about how to BBQ and the Soup.

So there’s my dayz in a nutshell. A little me time, a little work and a lot of family. And I’m just about to start it all again.

Have a great week friends!

Summer is over. Blarg.

It was busy. A good kind of busy. The kind of busy that means I don’t get to update here as much as I would like. But that’s part of the reason I officially made this a personal blog. Here is a summer recap… with a HUGE biz update at the very end!

We had our annual Back to School Feast last night and Eli started Kindergarten today. I didn’t cry but I sure did miss him. The feast was awesome and I’ll share details in another post soon.

We had the bestest time at Pageant of the Masters with our friends! (The crazy girl behind me is my friend Amber, check out her foodie web series at The Stomach Rules!) It was a great time without kiddos for a night. We were blessed with a night at the St Regis. Where they have butlers. Butlers who organize all the makeup thrown on the counter.

As you know, I’m embracing the Invisible Work that comes along with motherhood. This involves cleaning and moving furniture. My husband loves the furniture part, as seen on a screenshot of our texting.

Scenes of Summer…

My favorite summer pic…

A lil’ biz update…

• Thank you thank you thank you for all the support with Henry – buying Fedorables and by spreading the word about his fundraising! I’m excited to share, the Hill Family received almost $2,500 in the iPad raffle. I’d like to think our kick a&$ video made all the difference.
• We were featured on BabySteals. I love them. Thanks for all the kind words you put on their awesome FB page about us during the steal. It means a lot to me. REALLY. I love BabySteals so much I hope to do a lil’ secret surprise with them in January-ish.
• Speaking of secrets… I can’t reveal it all, but samples for our newest Lid are in route. (Squeeeeee) 
  Many colors. (Squeeeeee)
  And you get to vote on the two we decide to sell. Voting involved. (Do you like that idea or is it lame?) 
  Maybe a new site… It will be rad

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!

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!