Game On!

For the last few years Aaron has been playing softball on Monday nights with his buddies. Last year Monkey was old enough to toss the ball back and forth at Aaron (we hadn't quite mastered "catch" yet) and he was looking forward to the start of the season this year.

Peanut was asleep before gametime so I had to miss out on the first game of the year, but Monkey and Daddy got to have a guys night at the ballpark. Besides. I have a huge to-do list to finish!

Nine Days.

Till Handmade Parade and do you think I'm ready? Not so much. There are piles of fabric, thread, paper, buttons everywhere. I work well under pressure and the pressure is on. I have notebooks, picture frames, keepsake boxes, Mothers Day brooches, little lovelies dolls and so much more to finish. Not to mention make some homemade munchies and spiffy up the backyard...

In. Nine. Days.

Do I have a prayer?

Buh-Bye Red Meat

A few months ago we signed up for a CSA and have been enjoying weekly vegetable and bread deliveries ever since. We have tried lots of new veggies, or at least veggies we don't normally buy, like beets (which I like roasted with olive oil salt and pepper) leeks, and this weeks fava beans. We have made a commitment to healthy eating and though I proposed going vegetarian all the way (pretty much everything I cook is sans meat anyway) Aaron balked at the idea of no more chicken ever again. At the end of the day red meat got the voted off the island and chicken and fish get to stay. We rarely eat red meat to begin with, so this isn't really the sacrifice it might seem.

I love going through my recipe collection and planning our meals. I have big plans for the veggie box this week. Fava Bean and Spring Vegetable Soup, Collard Green Olive Pesto, Beets and Carmelized Onion with Feta are just a few of the recipes slated for this week.

The other night I made vegetable lasagna, adapted from my favorite Everyday Food lasagna recipe. It was probably the best lasagna I have made yet and was made using whatever veggies I had on hand. I am not one to follow recipes exactly (or directions, or patterns...) but this one I followed pretty well. I just added chopped up broccoli and some extra garlic cloves to my marinara sauce and used low fat or part skim cheeses.

It must have been pretty good because we had it for dinner Monday night and Aaron took the leftovers for lunch both yesterday and today.

PS see my fun new range?? I love it! SO easy to clean!!

Simplify

I am filled with a desire-no-need to simplify my life. To declutter, clean, streamline. I am realizing that our needs are few and we just have too much. I emptied out my closet, the kids closets and toy chests, and our bookshelves. Of course it all just gets transferred to the garage until I can make a massive trip to Goodwill or have a garage sale.

Hopefully soon I can have a garage sale to raise some much needed funds for my 3-Day walk. I got my first $150 this week, which is very exciting. Aside from the fact that I signed my life away to raise $2200, getting the first pledges makes the whole endeavor feel very "official".

Ahhh. The closets are calling. More purging is needed...

First Snow

Being the Californians that we are, we don't see snow unless we travel to the mountains. On Saturday we took and impromptu trip to Lake Tahoe and rode the Heavenly Gondola up to the top of the mountain. Monkey and Peanut were absolutely thrilled by this new thing called snow.

And being the Californians that we are, I had no gloves for my kiddos, so both were a bit shocked and not a little ticked off when their hands got cold (don't worry, we were only at the top of the summit about 10 minutes). Monkey thought it was worth it to be cold if that meant he got to bean mom and dad with snowballs.

On Sunday we went to a birthday party for Aaron's Dad and on the way home saw the most spectacular rainbows. There were double rainbows and at one point we were able to see a full rainbow, but I just couldn't capture it all with my camera.

crochet fortune cookies

Oh. My. I am going to make about 5,000 of these. Starting right now.

Wave Swinger (#10)

Wave Swinger (#10)
Originally uploaded by Christopher Chan.

I don't know why, but I really love this photo. I love the brightness and the fun of it with the looming stormy sky behind.

Normally this type of picture would be a bit dark for me, I am more of a happy-balloons-party kind of person, but I suppose all the CNN I have been watching got to me. I finally had to turn it off.

I can't understand what sort of pain and depression would lead someone to do such awful things. It has made me realise how blessed I am with my life and my little family, though.

He's Superfly

Check my boy out. Just too cool for school. He had his first dentist appointment today and he is just chill there in the dentists chair. The good thing about him is that when he is unsure about something he is really good and really quiet, which works out perfectly for doctors visits. Hoestly I think they won him over when they showed him the Blue's Clues toothbrush before they got started. If only that worked for me...

As a reward for being the chillest kid on the dentist block I took him and peanut to the zoo. At one point I looked up to see him climb onto this bench and recline back like this. Ahhhh king of the world. Must be nice to be so dang cool, huh?

In between all my parenting mumbo jumbo I have been crafting, I promise. I need to get ready for Handmade Parade, you know. Missy and I are super excited about it and have all sorts of fun things up our sleeves. Even though the one in May isn't even here yet, we have been brainstorming about the one we are doing in the fall. Good good stuff is on the horizon!

Maybe tomorrow I'll have some crafty pics for ya. You know. For my crafty blog here...

Joy of Parenting

There are days that I love having kidlets and days where I...well...don't. Yesterday was one of those days. It wasn't a particularly bad day, just an irritating day. At three years old Monkey Boy has achieved the omniscience of God-the kid thinks he knows everything.

"Who are you talking to, mom?"

"Daddy."

"No you not."

Kid, mom knows who she is talking on the phone with better than you do.

or

"Mom, where is sister?"

"She's taking a nap."

"No, she not."

or

"Mom, is the sun going to bed?" (It's 7:30 and the sun is going down)

"Yup"

"No it's not."

Ok, fine. Technically its not. Whatever, you're three.

Really, I don't know why I find this so irritating. Maybe because I am closer to a three year old in maturity than a 27 year old. I am constantly amazed at how quickly Aaron and I can get drawn into an argument with this pint sized know it all. Now I just ignore him past the "no it's not" but I am irritated nonetheless.

My irritation grew as we cleaned his room and I found several broken toys and ripped books among his stuff. There is really no greater crime against kid stuff than ripping up a book in my opinion, and Monkey knows this. I nursed the books that could be saved back to health and mourned the loss of the ones that had to be thrown out. After I did this I looked up to see my kid shoving matchbox cars through a little hole in the wall of his closet (it is on the huge list of things to fix around here).

Like I said joy of parenting.

(don't you love how much he hates being on my lap in that pic above? and notice he tatooed himself with a green marker)

Easter Recap

Obligatory Easter Finery pic for mommy-check

Easter Spoils-check

Pretty table-check

Egg hunt and prizes-check

More chocolate than we know what to do with-check

Grown men acting like children-check

Well, that covers our Easter, how was yours?

Easter Cheer

So the kitchen is almost done! Today Aaron and I will be putting on the drawers and doors to the caninents, tomorrow we will put in the countertops and sink and the new range is delivered and then we will be pretty much good to go! We'll still need to paint, maybe we will be able to do that tonight. There should be halfway decent "after" pics available next week.

For Easter we are still planning on having the family over and a few friends. We are going to BBQ (since you never know if stuff is going to go smoothly with the remodel...) and have "linner" (late lunch-early dinner, get it? haha). We are planning a big easter egg hunt including adults and kiddos. Hopefully the adults will be willing to play along...

Monkey boy has been shopping with me for candy and toys for their baskets and the eggs. We don't do the easter bunny 'round here and concentrate more on our religious beliefs, so the kids help with the planning and know that mom and dad hide the eggs. I actually like being able to share the planning and stuffing of the eggs with my boy. It is really sweet how he is getting into it. I will put things into his easter "totebag" (we are doing library bags instead of easter baskets to celebrate the new card) and suprise him with it. Peanut girl is still too little to have her own bag this year, so they will share for now. Next year, she can have her own. I'm pretty sure she won't mind ;)

These tissue paper birds nests will adorn our easter table and I am using these vintage sheets as tablecloths. I really loved the decorations available this year, everything was quite vintage looing and very charming. I spent way too much money on stuff this year!

Softie Swap Sign Ups End April 8!

If you still want to take part in the Softie Swap, now is the time to shoot me an email at lily_clairedesigns@yahoo.com and let me know you want to participate. All skill levels are welcome as are international swappers (please email me if you would prefer not to have an internation swapper, though). Here are the particulars again:

Email me with your name, address, blog, and email. (my email is lily_clairedesigns @ yahoo . com)

Do this by April 8.

Mail your swap by May 15 or let your partner know if you'll be late.

Softies should be handmade, but they can also be vintage. NO NEW STOREBOUGHT SOFTIES. No matter how cute or vintage looking they are.

You may use a pattern from someone else, but if you are able to do an original design that would be fab, too.

A softie can be a stuffed animal, cozy, soft tote bag, pillow, bean bags, toys, aminimiguri, pin cushions etc... See Softie Central for ideas. They have TONS!

All skill levels are welcome!

Oh, and did you guys notice that our little Missy is a WINNER!! She won in the Bunny/Bear Category! Way to go Missy!

(ps. thanks Missy for the icons!! Fell free to take either if you are participating)

Debris

Taking out the cabinets revealed years of contact paper and wallpaper left by kitchen users past. It was a little eerie seeing the remnants of their kitchens. I guess the next owners will think that way about us. While more work was being done I went to Home Depot to pick up the lino floor tiles. I had planned on getting black and whit checkerboard and came back with a funky-retro (in my world anyway) tile that I liked better. I hope it goes OK with the cabinets.

It is pretty nerve wracking to pick cabinet facings, light fixtures, tiles, paint when none of it is together and in the house yet. I am just picking the things I like and hoping (praying) that it will all go together. I sort of live by the rule, "If you like it, it will all fall into place" when it comes to home decorating. I think it works. No one tells me my house is ugly. Of course if someone did, I'm not exactly sure what I would do...

Anyway, Aaron is plugging away at the kitchen and we are optimistic that we will have it in working order by the weekend. Miracles can happen, right?