she loves that damn seahorse

Again, I swear I didn't pose her and this is what I peeked in to find...

Oh my, she's a funny kid.

well said.

I lurve Rachel Zoe and my love has grown ten fold since about twenty minutes ago. She was just interviewed on Nightline or something about mommyhood. If you don't know Rachel Zoe, she is a bad ass fashion stylist who was all work and zero play. Then she had a baby at 38 and life changed, in a beautiful way.

She was asked to talk about being a mom and I won't quote her, but it went something like: I never thought I could love someone so much. I mean I love my husband, but I look at my baby and tears fill my eyes.

Perfection.

From a woman who says things "it's bananas" or "that's major" in regards to the latest bag...this is pretty profound stuff.

And she said that she doesn't allow herself to walk with the baby while she's wearing six inch heals. Double love.

more bracelets

Sometimes when I start, I can't stop. The mess is already out, so what's the point of making just one bracelet? 

For this one, the beaded part is just two bracelets I had laying around, I've actually never even worn them. Then I just ripped off the bottom of one of Andy's shirts...yep, that's what you get when you leave town and I don't have white fabric...and then I sewed the flower on. Too easy.

And because sharing is caring, I thought I'd tell you all my secret headband trick.  I bought Emmie a plain white stretchy headband at Wizard of Kids, three bucks. It's a perfect soft stretchy material that I just can't seem to find at a craft store. 

Theeeen, where the two ends meet there is a piece of ribbon that wraps around A) to hide the seam and B) leaving just enough room to slide under a barrette. Yeah, I just put my little fabric flowers on a barrette so I can swap 'em out. And one day...maybe Emmie will have enough hair to wear just the barrette!

Oh and my next double secret move is to use old onesies for headband material. You know the super cute, fun colored ones...that are 96% perfectly stain free, but 4% stained with god knows what, yeah those ones.

The Projects: bracelet edition

Oh hey it's me, Crafty McCrafterson, and I'm back.

Okay I'm not so much Crafty McCrafterson...more like Copy Copywitz.

With Andy out of town, I thought I should try my hand at a little bracelet wizardry. Of course I found my inspiration at Pinterest. Big shocker.

I hit up Michaels over lunch and gathered my supplies.

So here it is!

 

Quite the mess for that little bracelet.

Man, this wrapping a bunch of fabric around and around and calling it a flower is pretty dang great. I'll skip my own tutorial and you can just visit the inspiration page like I did.

Wah.wah.

I'm a single mom. For the next 6 days. Wah.wah.

Andy is at work conference in Seattle and I'll be taking care of things on the home front. We talked about what all I was going to do this week and I said something like...I'm sure I won't clean the house, I'm sure I won't walk the dog, I'm sure I won't ever feed myself dinner*, and I doubt I'll get to work on time any day of the week**...but I will take care of our daughter.

So yeah, that about covers what I'll be doing!

Andy left at 3am this morning and Em slept in until a blissful 7am. If she sleeps on her back she wakes up at 6, if she flips she sleeps until 7.  I hate the tummy sleeping...but I sure do like the extra hour!

So far this morning we have made muffins, done laundry, taken a walk and gotten locked out of the house. Awesome.  Thankfully the weather is phenom this morning and I had left the patio door open. Oh and while we were walking around the house to get inside, Tucker rolled in mud.

It's only 9am

*Am I the only one that has completely forgotten how to feed myself without a husband around? I mean, I do a lot of the cooking, but refuse when he's not here. It will probably be cereal every night for dinner and sadly, I'm okay with that!

**Okay let's be honest, I don't get to work on time any day of the week, ever.

lovely little caterpiller

Emmie's first art project!

Every once in a while Emmie will come home from school with colored feet. It seems odd to me that they do art projects with infants, but whatever entertains them right?

And look at this adorable artwork! Green baby toes = one cute little bug.

Is it too soon to start framing her stuff? Will I have to buy a new house just to house her projects by the time she hits kindergarten...yeah probably.

6 months photos!

Yay! Finally the six month photo session is out on the Tiny Sprout Blog. Both times we have been there she has been super stoic and anti smiling...but they sure turn out amazing anyways!

And I spend how many weeks and how much money on photo outfits...and in the end our favorites are in a diaper cover or close ups of her sweet little face...such is life.

Wedding Weekend!

Friday morning I woke up to the loudest rumbling and the meanest looking clouds. Normally I would be a okay with an early morning storm, but not this day! This day was Lexi's wedding day...outside. I had a pit in my stomach hoping all was well at her lakeside ceremony site. And guess what...it all was! The clouds came but not a drop of rain that afternoon as Lexi and Alex said I do.

We headed back to town and picked up the little Miss for the reception.



This is the I'm gettng a new tooth and it feels funny face.

  



Yes Tuck, you will be in her shadow forever and always.

 And then it was off to the reception. Two funny things happened - that I will tell you about anyways.

So, you know Double Dream Hands Guy? I thought I saw him at the reception. Well not him, but someone trying to be him. This was a younger guy and he wasn't wearing this yellow polo, tucked in to khaki pants with tennis shoes combination to the wedding...so I thought FOR SURE there was going to be a flash mob or something. I was so convinced I basically had my whole table waiting for the show...and watching the YouTube video so they knew what was coming. Yeah, it was just his outfit.

Then I went to talk to Amy. Her friend immediately grabbed me by the waist and hugged me. Jeez, these kids sure are friendly these days I thought. Then she got a better look and realized I wasn't the person she thought I was. And then Amy informed me that the friend she thought I was, was TWENTY ONE. I mean I know it was well into cocktail hour that I was mistaken for a 21 year old...but I'll be hanging on to that one for a while.







tubby time

And if you thought you could live without a farmhouse sink...you should think again:

I was trying to be fancy and play with the photo colors a bit, but forgot to save the originals, hence the random tones.

More photos...

The lake Sallie cabin is a land of whiteness. Calm and inviting and the perfect backdrop for a little photo session.

um yes, emmie will have her own pillow....we just need to figure out how to copy this one.

Alicia's mom making some anti baby cleavage swimsuit modifications

Faviwhat?

Favicon.

Know what it is?

I bet you do, you just didn't know there was a name for it (kind of like the plastic piece at the end of your shoelace, that's an aglet. See you knew what it was, you just didn't realize some a-hole gave it a name and this a-hole remembered it).

You know how all the coolest internet sites have a little icon next their title that isn't just the lame old Internet Explorer E or orange Blogger B?

Yeah, that's apparently called a Favicon.

And now I have one.

Except I don't think anyone can see it but me, so I'm pissed.

That work to create this little bugger, all for naught (though I did learn the correct spelling in this phrase is "naught" as opposed to "not" so I've got that going for me).

So here, this is what it would look like for reals if I could get my shit together.

And maybe you can see it and I'm just overreacting, its been known to happen.

The lake!

After the 4th of July festivities, we headed out to the lake. Just like last year (minus Kris - sad face), Andy and I took some time off to enjoy what summer we actually have. This time, we packed a baby for the trip! Ok, she is a little person and we loaded up A LOT. I mean, we owned it, we packed it. And I feel like I didn't even over pack that much...unlike my own suitcase filled with clothes I was never going to wear but had to pack.

Off we went to lake Sallie to hang out with Alicia, Matt and the fam. It's so fun to get out of Fargo and enjoy the sun. And enjoy it we did. The weather was absolute perfection the entire time we were there. And the little miss was awesome the entire trip.  She napped, she ate, she played. We had to end some booze cruises early so she could sleep, but other than that, having a baby along was pretty easy. My only beef with the vaca was our baby monitor. The damn thing didn't get reception on the dock. I mean come on, don't these people know you want to tan and cocktail while your baby is sleeping without having to run in to check on her?

She liked the water though it was a bit cold. You'd never know by the smile on her face, but the shivers and goosebumps convinced us to take her out.

 

She gets a little confused when Andy wears a hat.

The kid had puffs and a bottle, we had seven layer dip and margaritas. Oh vacation, I miss you already.

The view from the boat. Because we had a go-check-on-baby-every-fifteen-minutes rotation, we just sat on the pontoon on the lift. It was pretty much the same thing as boating right? Gah-lorious day...everyday...followed by more gloriousness. Have I mentioned I'm missing vacation yet? 

Clarification: it's seems I have taken a liking to the booze over this vacation. Which I did, but either mom or dad was sober parent, so no need to judge y'all.

4th of July

Family fun at the Country Club for the 4th of July:

Olivia showing off her shoe with Grandpa.

Grandpa and Emmie

The fam, me a bit sunburned thinking I was being badass without SPF 30.

Dave, Liv and Kristy

Grandbabies!

We were home before the fireworks started of course. It was time to get Emmie back on her schedule. After the sickness and ear infection, bedtime just wasn't what it used to be. As much as I love rocking the babe to sleep, I just can't see doing it every night through high school, so someone needs to put herself to sleep.

Crying it out isn't super fun, but it has to be done. So after some loves and kisses, down she went. We popped in the paci and turned on her seahorse. I stepped out of the room and waited for the meltdown.

Well the meltdown didn't happen, but this did:

I swear I did not pose her, she just flipped to her tummy, wrapped her arm around the sea horse and went to bed. Ah, heaven! 

She even slept through the fireworks, this photo...and the sirens.

Yes, another tornado warning that sent us to the basement. I scooped up the babe who had so wonderfully put herself to sleep and tucked her under the stairs in her bouncy chair.  An hour later we moved her back to her crib and didn't see her again until the morning. Even through the A-hole neighbors shooting off fireworks until 1am.  I mean I know I'm getting old and all, but seriously.

I'm back!

Hello strangers!

It's been a while. I don't even know where to begin. That's the thing about blogging...it's the random, day to day stuff that I like to write about...and then being gone for a week, my brain melts down and I have nothing to write about.

In the past week there was the 4th of July, a visit from the in law - mother edition, a tornado warning that sent us packing to the basement again, a relaxing trip to the lake, a new Teen Mom and Big Brother, a visit from a forever friend and her cute as pie little man, and well...that's it I guess.

Now, I could just post the 73 photos from this week and call it good. But I'll take my time and rehash the week post by post. Get excited. Here is a preview, because there isn't much funnier than a baby in a life jacket that is pretty much bigger than she is.

The projects: part II

Next project. Modify the picture frame collage on the way downstairs.

Our upstairs is full of windows. Nice with the sunshine and natural light. Not so nice when I seriously have only two walls to hang photos. I have this super cute kid, I don't know if I've mentioned her or not, but I would really like to show off her photos...or show her off, whichever.

Here is the wall:

Black frames (because the basement has black furniture) and black and white photos. Simple.

So I decided I needed way  more frames. I bought a bunch of black frames and then changed my mind. Now I wanted white frames. Bring in the spray paint.

Painting from black to white...not fun.

Andy loves when I do projects. Because I always keep everything neat and tidy while working and I would never be so careless as to spraypaint the garage floor. ::sarcasm font::bold::

And then I had to figure out the frame configuration. So I made paper cut outs of each frame and got started. That was a mind trip all of its own. Then I printed off extra photos, did some rearranging and here we are:

Again, very happy with the results. Now I'll just be working on getting things level...probably for weeks to come. 

Now...what to do with that awkward space to the right of the frame collage? (That's a real question this time.)  Should I add some frames to that wall too? Leave it blank? Add a wordy phrase? Give me some ideas pretty please!




The before. Just a few frames one the way downstairs.

 

The after. Lots and lots of frames...taking up lots of the wall.