Christmas 2013

For Christmas this year, Greg took about 10 days off from work, and we enjoyed dedicating that time to doing special things together as a family, and quality time with friends.



As is our tradition, we made a special Christmas Eve dinner -- this time it was hamburgers for the children, and lobster for Greg and I, along with roasted potatoes, corn tossed in butter, fresh baguette, and our family's favorite green salad with apples and candied pecans (dressing it with Julia Child's vinegrette with shallots).  There was an incident where my oven door fell off and had to be propped up with a kitchen chair until the potatoes and bread were done baking, but NEVER FEAR!  Dinner turned out anyway.


Christmas morning I set out cinnamon rolls to rise (as always, put together the day before, chilled in the refrigerator overnight), and after eating a light breakfast, we opened our gifts to each other, then Skyped in family to open the rest of the gifts together.












Puffles --- googly-eyed stuffed creatures I made for the children

After gifts we had lunch of cinnamon rolls (ready at last!!), then the children went outside for a wild New Nerf Gun and Bow & Arrow War.  For dinner we had leftovers and some special cheeses/crackers/cured meats.  I love being able to eat something a little bit special and lovely on Christmas night that doesn't involve me standing in the kitchen all day!

At the end of the night, Greg and I sat in the dark with just the lit Christmas tree, and shared a few sips of a very special bottle of bourbon (which had taken him months to track down).


Two days of a beautiful Christmas.

Christmas Stockings

For years now, I've intended to make Christmas stockings for our family.  This meant that I also absolutely refused to buy any.  So we've simply been stocking-less.  About 3 years ago I bought 6 different flannels from Fabric.com, choosing prints that would miss-match but "go" together in a kind of quirky sort of way.  Of course, the moment I decided to pull the trigger on this project was this past year, Christmas Eve.  OF COURSE.

Inspired by this super-simple design (A Beautiful Mess), I traced out a pattern (using two 8-1/2 x 11 sheets of paper taped together), and in one afternoon.....




Cut out and ready to sew

After all of the stressing about finding the perfect mish-mash of fabric patterns, and worrying the project would be complicated (cuff?  no cuff? how big should a stocking be?  ohmygosh I can draw my own pattern??), it was a relief and a joy to see them done.



It was also pretty funny to see that, after all of the worries on making it "quirky enough" my children decided to tie them haphazardly to the railing with bits of yarn and stuffed them with anything small enough to fit in them.  Greg and I started laughing when we realized that it didn't really matter what I had done....the children would have Quirked It Right Up for me regardless of WHAT I had done!



Oh my.  I kind of LOVE these though!  I'm sure that at some point I'll make different ones, but right now, these are exactly crazy, wrong, and perfect.

Jonah's birthday party

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For Jonah's party this year, he decided to invite a few friends over to play "Star Wars" and eat blue cupcakes.  So we did!

Happy Birthday Jonah!

Dear Jonah,



On December 18th, you turned 5 years old.  I can remember so clearly: holding your tiny warm body for the first time, looking into your scrunched up face, and falling completely in love.  It has been such a privilege to watch you grow from baby to boy; you add spark and hilarity, cuddles and hugs, challenge and curiosity (SOOO many questions!!) -- our family wouldn't be the same without you.

I love you more than words can say.

Love always,
Mommy

(A complete photo set of all Jonah pics are here)

Happy New Year!!

Well.  I had certainly never intended on dropping this blog.  In fact, I adore blogging -- it's the perfect place to work through how I feel about things, experiment with photography, and share life moments with friends and family far and near.  The thing of it is....I've been incredibly distractible lately.  I'll go to the computer to start writing a blog, and half way through the post I will have bored myself so completely that I just give up and go do something else.  OR (even more often) I'll sit down with every intention to write, and instead find myself wondering WHAT IS UP with the Midnight Sun Scandal, or DEAR GOODNESS how many makeup tutorials are out there on how to make the perfect cat-eye?, HEY Ellen is so freaking funny I just can't stop watching her, hmm I wonder if I need to know how to do ALL OF THESE HAIRSTYLES,OMG I had no idea you could buy Lycra Spandex WHOLESALE! SHINY! SQUIRREL! yeah seriously.  It's a problem.  And then I feel like anytime I take a long leave of absence here on the blog I need to explain myself on where I've been......SNOORRREEEE AGGH I'M ALREADY BORING MYSELF OHMYGOSH.

So there we have it.  Maybe my New Year's Resolution is that I'm Going To Write At Least Twice A Week, but telling you that would be just like telling you the last thing I wished on a shooting star, or my birthday candles, or a lost eyelash, or my or my or my or my FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE SOMEONE STOP ME.

Anyway, at some point I'll catch up with Jonah's birthday and Christmas and a rocking New Year's Eve party we had, but for now, here we are taking down our tree...


(All of the ornaments get put back in specific boxes...Greg's method reminds me of decorating with my Aunt Maryann every Christmas)  :-)

And then of course the aftermath of being careful with those ornaments for OHMYGOSHSOLONG:


Somehow the end of Lavella's ponytail got stuck in Elijah's mouth, Andrew felt the deep need for a cuddle and then after that the whole thing went to hell in a handbasket.


Unsurprisingly.


Good times.

Happy new year!!

The lizard catching princess

This sweet girl.....


Her dirty little hands...


And her funny little smile...








My Lavella, I love you.

Independence 2-ply

Sometimes spinning is the very best sort of therapy.  If I'm not producing creatively, I often start to feel undone, but I can't always decide what to do...also, what to make if I just don't want to think, don't want to decide, am emotionally overwhelmed, overrun?

Mindless spinning, with an audio book, movie, tv show....perfect.

These singles are something I started working on sometime last year, but kept loosing interest.  Lately, I've been pulling out the wheel more often, and finally finished it up into my go-to comfort-spin: a bouncy sportweight 2-ply.

I don't have any project in mind for this, although a sweet little shrug for Lavella would probably be perfect for a Texas winter....



Creatively Dyed colorway "Independence"
Fiber: seawool
Sportweight 2-ply, 8 oz, 650 yards
Source The Loopy Ewe

Sewing Class

Two months ago, I decided to start a sewing class.  (Actually it was Piper's idea -- the 2nd girl from the far right.  She reeeeeeaaaallly wanted to learn to sew, and I thought.....well wouldn't it be more fun with a bunch of friends?)



I've been part of many grown-up crafting and knitting groups over the years, and it was fun to see the dynamics of these girls as they got to know each other and I watched them become a little community right in my kitchen.  By week two, they already had inside jokes, catch phrases, etc.  So cute!!





Lavella's embroidery -- I'm so proud of her!!

DIY necklace board/organizer

For a while now, I've needed a solution to making sense of my necklace and headband collection.  After considering many options, and putting the project off for many months....I realized I had been making it waaaay more difficult than it needed to be.





After painting the frame (2x) with flat white paint, I used a flat head screwdriver to tuck the edges of the fabric between the frame and corkboard.  Then I used a finishing nail and hammer to make small holes on the top and bottom, and finally screwed small cuphooks into the holes.

The row of large yellow pegs my headbands are hanging on are actually these giant pushpins I found at WalMart.  (P.S. I now have way more headbands on those pegs!)



(Sorry this finished picture sucks -- couldn't find my camera, and took this while on drugs after surgery with my phone, so.....damn, I'm a good photographer!)  ;-)

Super glad to finally have this done, and I love having all of my jewelry organized and ready to wear -- makes accessorizing so much easier, and this way I don't have any forgotten pieces stuffed into a box somewhere.  Yay!

Happy birthday Andrew!!

Dear Andrew,

Today you're 10 years old.



This seems absolutely surreal, and you must be sick of hearing me say this every single year, but.....10 years old?  Seriously?  How in the world could you be that old already!!!  (...and nearly as tall as me -- GOOD LORD!!)



When you were born, I was 23 years old.  It didn't seem all that young at the time -- felt like exactly the perfect time to have my first baby.  But now, at this moment, with you turning 10, I'm thinking DEAR GOODNESS.  Next time I blink, you'll be a teenager.  And such is life.



You, my friend, are so incredibly caring and generous -- I could not have possibly asked for a more amazing "oldest"; the way you take care of everyone, the way you navigate conflict, the way you choose to be responsible and thoughtful.



You are growing up to be the sort of guy that everyone wants to know; the kind of friend everyone wishes they had.  You are quirky, and nerdy, and funny as heck, and we like you so much!

I love you forever,
Mommy