catch a fire: 2010

double trouble

whew.
i am so glad december is done.
what with crazy post office work schedules (read 12 hour work days), 2 birthdays shortly after christmas, not to mention christmas itself, it gets a little stressful.

and since the girls share their birthday, i tried extra hard to make sure it was special. for BOTH of them.
although, one of them won't even remember it.

we had a small tea-ish party and celebrated turning 3 and 1.

we had
tea sandwiches
adults: turkey and herb cream cheese
kids: peanut butter and banana
soda in lieu of tea
wanna be caramel popcorn
(the kind that uses the corn puff buttery cheeto things instead of popcorn)
cucumber slices
bite sized granola bars
crackers
and chocolate cake/cupcakes

(recipe and super cute ideas mercilessly lifted from sheena)

i made each of the girls their own mini cake.
and then a half dozen cupcakes and even more mini cupcakes.
i let the kids help frost them and they turned out SO cute.

i also came up with these party crowns, just for the birthday girls.
and bought the party hats for everyone else.
i intended to cover all the party hats with super cute paper and ribbon and stuff, but i totally ran out of time and had to bag it.
as well as the birthday banner i've been planning on making for the past 2 birthdays...
maybe i can get it done for the next one.
i thought i was doing really well with the birthday right after christmas preparations.
but alas, i was not. so, next year i'll hopefully do better.
blah blah blah. yadda yadda.
it was still great and the kids loved it.

and of course we used trick candles.. haha.. i love them.

and layla did the exact same thing jonas did with his first birthday.
taking the no hands approach to the cake.
it was hilarious.
i love that she's licking/biting it.
she barely even got her hands dirty.

OH! and those super cute miniature cake stands that i have the mini cakes on?
my mom gave them to me. i'm totally going to make some for myself. or maybe gifts.
links for tutorials here and here and here.

going organic

so for christmas this year i planned ahead.

and by ahead i mean like 2 months.
hah!
take that time.

i had mentioned to my dad that i wanted to build a kitchen. from this website.
i asked if he thought i could handle it. what with using tools and all.
so like 2 days later, he calls and tells me he has all this leftover wood and will make all the cuts for me.
i tell him, "oh, no big hurry." "thanks so much!" "but you dont really have to."

so 2 more days later he calls and says he has it all done.
and not just one piece. all THREE of them.
sink. stove. fridge.

so i picked up the wood when we went up for thanksgiving and the garage banishment began.
the kids were no longer allowed to play in the garage.
(ok. that sounds bad. it was only when we were working out. not all the time!)

** i take no credit for the creativity here. i'm really good at following other people's brilliance**

(i love that the steak has a raw and a cooked side)

(the red part is a rubber coaster. looks like the burner is hot. i love it.)

and after a bit of work (like 20 hours or so) wah-la! the kitchen is finished!

(i pulled the floss to make the corn pucker like kernals)

but what is that you say?
where did i get all of that amazing felt food?
i stayed up really late at night (mostly at the post office) and sewed most of it by hand.
i figured since i was going to be at work anyways, i might as well take advantage of my break time.
ok. and some of it i did while watching tv. but really. its super easy.
there are a million different patterns out there.
some for sale. but lots for free. and i mean lots.

and now that it's all done, i feel kind of lost. i dont have a purpose.
what am i going to stay up late at night to do now?
well. ok. honestly. there are like a bazillion things of felt food i could make.
i'm sure i can think of something.

(the cantaloupe rind is magnetic! sheer genius. and the bacon has wire to make it bendy.)

here it is in all it's glory! i figured the 70's color scheme would make it gender neutral.
and the kids absolutely LOVE it. and that makes all the late nights worth it.

merry merry

holy baloney

(i know that's not how you spell Bologna but it just doesnt look right when you are trying to rhyme. you know?)

december is so crazy.. i've been working like crazy and getting home at 4 am. in the morning! wowzers.. it's hard waking up at 730 after that, but hey. it's only til christmas. i know some gals who do it full time, year round... so i'll call myself lucky.

anywho. there probably wont be much posting around here til after then, but in the meantime, here's our christmas card.. and our well wishes for a merry christmas and an awesome new year.

it's so, so.

this is the necklace i made for mia. i just used some tulle-ish (i dont remember what it is) fabric i had laying around and cut out some bigger and smaller circles. then scalloped the edges, folded them in half and half again. then sewed them all together to a little piece of felt on the back.

i thought it looked really cute, but mia wont keep it on for more than 30 seconds.

oh well. i guess it could be a good Christmas gift!

shhh...

wanna know a secret?

i didnt think i wanted kids.
and then when i did want them.
i didnt want girls.

i wanted boys.
dirty little monkeys that dont have to look cute.
that wear beanies and skater shoes.
who rock mohawks and temporary tattoos.
and make fart noises and eat worms.

i was terrified of girls.
so much pink. and princess-ness. and drama.

but then i had a girl and i realized the awesomeness that it entails.
the adorable outfits. the squealing and giggles.
even the pink.

and because we had a boy first, there isnt an overabundance of pink or princess-ness at our house.
and my girls are fine with that.
they have just as much fun with Lightning McQueen and Superman.

but occasionaly i let myself go.

i've found that the girls, oddly enough, have WAY more clothes than the boy.
weird.

(and FYI. after i finished the blanket, mia looked at me and said very disappointed, "but mom, it's not pink!" i mean. honestly. how dare i.)

it's the boy scout motto

i knew it would happen.

one day.

it would be tragic. devastating. disastrous even.

it was inevitable.

(notice: the temple piece didnt break at the hinge, it broke off the FRAME!
wow.. thats some serious impact.)

two (almost three) year olds aren't the best with fragile items.
i know that..
and okay... skating on the tile floor in your socks SOUNDS like a lot of fun.
i mean, tom cruise did it in his underwear.
it HAS to be fun.

until someone gets an eye poked out.
which almost happened.

luckily, there was minimal damage. minor bleeding. a gouge and scrape.
no stitches. no sutures. no casts.

just a spongebob bandaid.
and some tylenol.
and a big hug from mom.

what does this have to do with the boy scout motto you say?
well, like 2 months ago, we decided to get (are you ready for this?)

a SECOND PAIR!!

genius. i know.

be prepared.
(sing it in the hearty voice like Scar from the lion king. you know you want to.)

anywho..
thats about the only thing we are prepared for because our food storage is woefully lacking..
but if push comes to shove we'll just steal food.
it's going to be anarchy anyway, right?

DONE!!!!!!!!

its done.. and i'm so glad!! (sigh)
it seems like whenever i have a project i'm doing, it hangs over my head until i get it finished.
now that the blanket is done its like a HUGE weight off my shoulders..

i used the Yo-Yo Mama vintage baby quilt pattern, but made it a twin size instead, which increased the difficulty by like a bazillion.
the squares are all 2.5 inches and you make a quilt sandwich and sew everything together.
all at once.
which is nice because it quilts it for you as you go, but sucks because you have to shove the entire blanket through your machine.

AND its hard to keep the squares straight and lined up..
(which mine aren't. dont look too close)

it ended up being a lot harder than i thought, but probably because i made it so big..

and to save moolah, instead of buying fabric by the yard for the top and bottom my mom suggested using a flat twin sheet instead.

these two hooligans are just so excited that its finally done they can't keep their hands off it.

now i can get all hung up on something else.

like, this necklace for mia... or this and this in preparation for a big christmas surprise...

and just because there are never any pictures of me.. jonas took this one the other day and amazingly enough, it actually turned out half decent!

except for my half crazy expression on my face. but thats not his fault.

mia's blanket

this is the blanket i've been working on FOREVER!! but i'm finally almost done..

bleh

i feel like i've been so lazy lately.. i have a bazillion projects i want to do and ZERO motivation to do them. paint this room. finish a quilt. paint some watercolors to hang up.. etc.

AND i totally need to be better at scrapbooking because i just realized that i dont have any recent pages of my kids.
like from this year!

so the other night i stayed up late and whipped out one for each kid.. not too shabby for my 12:30 brain. thats when inspiration strikes, right?

most everything came from my favorite designer, paislee press at Oscraps.com. her stuff is simple and clean and i love it.

carnies... big hands

ok. so this is going to sound weird. but i just finished watching the 2 hour season opener of Circus from PBS that i DVR'd.

and it was AWESOME!!

did anyone else watch it?
was anybody else fascinated?

maybe its the people watcher part of me.
or the freak show that dyed her hair blonde, blue, and pink in high school.
or the teeniest part of me that wishes i had run away and joined the circus.
(why didn't i grow up in a circus family? or have mad balancing, trapeze, or juggling skills?)

but honestly, i loved it.

so much that i got out of bed at 12:30 to blog about it. and i can't fall asleep because its all replaying in my mind.

weird.

it's super

jonas decided to be superman.
(because his hair can curl in the front like the man of steel's.)

naturally, mia had to be on the same team. her choice was wonder woman.
although, she did flip flop between that and ariel for a while...

and i kind of forgot about layla,
but luckily we had a killer frog costume from when jonas was a baby.
and we always need a villian terrorizing metropolis, right?

terrifying, eh?

(i made jonas and mia's costumes and personally? i think they turned out pretty good for not having a pattern..)

evolution of a spider

i came up with this brilliant idea all by myself. i know.
i'm amazing.
the first ever to have thought of it, right.

anywho.. it was pretty easy.
water balloons. paper mache paste. black paint. string. and pipe cleaner.

first. almost kill yourself trying to blow up water balloons.
i thought my ears were going to burst. seriously.

second. dip your newspaper in paste and wrap around the balloon.
be careful not to flick paste in your eye as you try to grab the balloon as its rolling off the table.
not that i would know.

third. dry.

fourth. paint.

fifth. (same as third) dry.

sixth. glue legs on.

seventh. scare your hubby with them by hanging it in the shower or closet.

my kids are really getting a kick out of them.
i'm going to paint a red hourglass on one of them and move it around the house for the kids to find.
i'm quite proud of them. if i do say so myself.

him.
this one? really?
like he couldn't make a cheesier face?
i''m just lucky he didnt give me the heat vision stare.
i'll show it, one of these days.

her #1.
a major goofball.
if i tell her, "don't you dare smile at me"
those ones are the best.

aliases include: ariel, dora, daphne, daisy, and wonder woman

her #2.
finally, FINALLY sitting up.
i've been working on it with her FOREVER!!
and when does she decide to do it?
oh.
at her dr. appointment.
little miss showoff.

gosh. i love my kids.

a little pillow talk...

so i saw these pillows over here and fell in love!

now that we've finished the family room in the basement i really need some color to pull it all together.

(who am i kidding. i need a lot more than just COLOR!)

i tweaked mine a bit though. more ruffles, closer together. contrasting stitches and background. but overall? i think it turned out pretty cute.

now, i've only got 4 other pillows with different styles and fabrics to make!

ps. isn't her blog just awesome? she's got great ideas and i have SO many projects lined up. now if i can only find the time.

labels

sometimes i just get a kick out of myself.

these are the labels for the handouts for my lesson on sunday..

guess what it's on?
i'm quite pleased with them.

and guess what the handouts are....

NO.. of course i'm not giving everyone a pie...

but. maybe.
just maybe... one of these!

thaaaaats right.. pie on a stick..
it's AWESOME!!!

really.
they taste SO GOOD!

peach filling. homemade crust.
mmmm.....

nothing but pure deliciousness.
go here for more instructions.

**edited** i rolled my pie crust reeeeeally thin to even out the pastry/filling ratio. i brushed them with a beaten egg before baking to make them all brown and blistery like. then baked them longer (about 18-20 min)... also, to avoid getting the pie filling from running all over the place, i filled a mini muffin tin with the filling and then froze it. so when i put the top crust on it, it wasn't nearly as messy. just an fyi.

brrrrr lake

so the big family vaca was at bear lake this year. and it was a TON of fun. if you count getting rained on and having to play in the coldest lake on the coldest day, fun.
just kidding. sort of.

but we did have a lot of fun. my brother brought a water ballon slingshot launcher thing and it was AWESOME!! you should've seen those things fly! holy moses. and if you caught one better hope you had some spare clothes.

these are from when i woke up super early and couldnt go back to bed. so i thought i'd walk down to the beach. i find it so funny that they drag the boats out into the water with tractors. i love the hick-ness of it. and my dad was in love with this one. he made me take like 30 pictures of it becuase it was the same exact one they had growing up..
and i heard ALL about how it worked, etc.

this was the treasure hunt we planned for the little kids. it was hilarious and they thought it was the best thing since sliced bread.

and here we are at the beach in our jackets becuase it was FREEZING!! well. 65 degrees, but still cold...

all in all, it was a good time!
thanks mom.

a toast

to:
summer
ice cream cones
letting watermelon juice drip down your chin
hot days and sleeping with the fan on
ice cream cones
swimming at the pool
getting a tan
outdoor birthday parties
spending time with family
fresh fruit and veggies
being able to work out outside
long days
gorgeous sunsets
staying up late for the demolition derby
and...
more ice cream!

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