Real Quick Like

I haven't forgotten about BlogLand today... just been keeping busy!  :)

Tonight Adam and I are watching Zombieland... we went out and saw this for our anniversary last fall, and it was hilarious.  Now it is out on DVD... yay!

Otherwise... good day with the girls.  Julia and Raven were both good little troopers today despite the rain and I managed to get my workout in this morning and do the laundry and ironing today... though I wonder if I shouldn't have taken a nap?  Ha!  Both girls took naps at the same time today... it was awesome!

So... that is all for tonight... off to watch the movie with my hub.

Good night!

erin

IKEA Fabric Bag

Over Christmas (which was late January for us), my sister-in-law, Claire, and I started discussing purses and bags and got on topic about how Claire was in need of a new one.  I was already perusing the etsy.com site, and ran across a purse made from an awesome IKEA fabric.  The purse on etsy.com was $42, but I knew I could make it a lot cheaper.

 

And, lo and behold, not five days after we discussed the purse, I would be driving through the Twin Cities, home of Minnesota's IKEA store.  Julia, Raven, and I dined at the IKEA cafeteria and then went on a hunt for the fabric.  I was delighted to find it and bought four yards... because I could.  :)  Ha!

The weekend before last, our Pella Area Quilt Guild held a retreat, and this was where I planned to make the purse.  I have experience in making bags and whatnot, but this time I chose to use a pattern, because I have zero confidence with zippers.  After a short time, I learned that I should have trusted my instincts and gone rogue.  But, I kept on with the pattern, and after a multitude of cursing, bang, and at one point, attacking a piece of fabric with scissors (no, literally attacking... it wasn't one of my finer moments), the purse was done.  It took a bit, but I was back to my jovial self a few hours later and was able to laugh about the experience for the rest of the weekend.

 

And, well... I think it turned out really great... so it was worth the effort that went into it.  And next time?  Well, next time I'm going to trust what I already know how to do.

erin

Future Career Possibility...?

I'll admit... on occasion... when Julia is playing with markers, I am off busy doing something else.  (GASP!)  Therefore it should be no surprise that she deemed the pad of paper "boring" and switched to drawing on her arms.  (WHOOPS!)

Good news... baby wipes takes Crayola washable marker right off, as long as it hasn't been dried on for too long.  Also, Crayola washable marker comes out of clothing fantastically.

What doesn't come out of clothes?  Dry erase marker.  Whoops again.

Julia sure seemed to enjoy drawing on herself that day... one has to wonder if she possibly has a future career as a tattoo artist?  :)

So Easy A 2 Year Old Can Do It

About a month ago we were hanging out at Peace Tree Brewery in Knoxville, IA, and Adam was entertaining Julia by showing pictures on his iPhone.  Julia was fascinated and within a few minutes, she was flipping through the pictures on her own.  Yup, an iPhone is so easy to use, a 2-year-old can use it.  :)

Pass the Pigs and Spin the Cat

Tonight we had dinner with friends in town.  :)  It was a scrumptious Hungarian Beef Stew Over Noodles followed up by Strawberry Cheesecake ice cream (yum!).  I also know through whom I am buying Girl Scout Cookies next year.   :)  Yay! 

After dinner we chatted and watched TV a bit and Adam played Pass the Piggs with the couple and their daughter.  (I enjoyed holding a sleeping baby.)  Julia managed to dig out much of the baby doll paraphernalia, but when she had enough of that, she finally got up courage to hang out with th cat... and SHE started playing Spin the Cat.  Adam managed to get one picture before the cat jumped off; the other picture is a staged shot but Julia is no puppet and wouldn't spin the cat just to have her picture taken.

We had a good night and are just home.  Adam is putting Julia to bed and I'm about to take Raven up for the night.

Have a good night!

Erin

I <3 IKEA

On occasion, we have the chance to visit and shop at IKEA, a wonderful 'home inspiration' store.  The closest one to us in the Twin Cities, and I was fortunate to pass through there on my way north last month to visit my nieces (at some point I will blog about that trip -- SO FUN!).

If you've never been to an IKEA... oh, boy... it's a good time!  :)  My mind buzzes and my heart sings as I walk through the store and soak up all of the possibilities.  We have a number if IKEA products and IKEA-inspired designs in our house.

This trip was specifically meant to pick up fabric (in light yellow) to make a purse for my sister-in-law (yet another blog post!).  However, both girls were being 'good' and I couldn't help but tool around bit.  While I was looking in the kitchen section, I found these great rails and pots.  So cheap and yet so cute!  I was wondering where I could put them and instantly I thought of the wall in our dining room just on the other side of our kitchen.  Ideas were spinning wildly out of control as I realized that would be just the right amount of sun to grow herbs in the pots and HOW AWESOME?!?!?, they would be right around the corner from the kitchen... fresh herbs AND decoration? 

Beauty and utility all rolled into one.  What could get better than that?

But, I am notoriously slow with completing projects.  (Because you know, I have nothing better to do with my time.  wink.)  So, I consider it success that today, only three and a half short weeks after returning home, my rails and pots are installed and are ready for herbs.  YAY!  I was 'good' too... I used the drill, level, and screwdriver to make sure I didn't mess up our already delicate plaster walls.  Success!

 

erin

Little Seeds

While Raven was taking her morning nap, Julia and I did some 'gardening'. 

My house plants were in bad need of having the dead stuff cut out and a good kitchen sink watering.  While they were draining in the sink, we decided to get out our little 'greenhouse' seed starter kit and plant some seeds. 

Julia was a great help with inserting the dirt plugs and she loved putting the seeds in the plug holes.  (I am pretty sure she ate a few seeds too, so I hope she doesn't have a pepper growing in her stomach anytime soon.  Ha!)

We planted ground cherries, pickling cucumbers, fancy tomatoes, two types of peppers, snap peas, and green beans.  My goal is to 'container garden' most of these items, so we only planted a few plugs of each type in the hopes that a few seedlings grow and take well to outdoors come late April/early May.

Normally I enjoy winter, but this one has been exceptionally 'long'... maybe it's because I couldn't wait to get outside and actually be able to go for walks with the stroller without being thwarted by ice... maybe it was the number of days we went without sun... maybe it's a renewed excitement about growing one's own plants... who knows.  I'm not a big gardener and typically don't enjoy it much at all, but this year I have an interest in it and plan to take it nice and slow with a few things. 

Such a fun little morning project with Julia, and I can't wait to show her the little plants in the front window as they grow.

erin

Near... Far...!

If you don't know this already -- Adam has a great Grover voice.  :)

We watched the Orange Bowl back in January with the Rozenbooms, friends of ours in Pella.  They had this great Grover puppet, and Julia gets a kick out of puppets.  Adam was able to make Grover "talk", and hilarity ensued.  I love the pictures; I can hear her laughing and giggling up a storm as Adam carries on in his Grover voice.  He even pulled out the "Neeeeaaarr.... Faaarrrrrr!" routine and that was cause for more laughter.

Funny enough, Friend Stacey (Not to be confused with a Quaker Friend -- don't know what I'm jesting about?  Click the link and learn something new today!) sent Julia a Grover doll for Christmas and of course Julia fell in love with it immediately.  However, she couldn't figure out why Mommy couldn't stick her hand up Grover's... uh... back.  Ha.  Fun times!

erin

Flash

About two months ago I finally started experimenting using my camera without flash... yes, I know, I am behind the times.  Even with a cheap camera, I know you can get okay pictures with good color and lighting and mood... if you try.  :)  So, I've been trying.  There have been a few cute ones here and there.  This morning I finally started digging through the over-400 pictures I downloaded a few weeks ago that go back to January 5th.  Those are the beginning of my flash-less pictures too.  So, these may be oldy and moldy but I hope you enjoy them anyway.  :)

This picture isn't the greatest technical shot, but I love getting on the floor in front of Raven and taking pictures of her.  Hard to believe she was even alive two months ago, let alone almost four months old... sheesh!  This picture was taken before the Packers lost their post-season game... taken the same day the Hawkeyes won the Orange Bowl... taken back when spring wasn't even a glimmer... the beginning of January.  She has changed so much! 

Off to get ready for the day... Day 2 of Working Out is already a distant memory (in that I have been home for 15 minutes already... ha!)... time to get rolling before the kids get up!  :)

erin

Lion or Lamb?

I think it's safe to say that March has come in like a Lamb, especially considering our weather conditions the last few weeks.  That doesn't bode well for the end of March, eh?

I'm thankful for the Lamb, though, and after a super busy February, I'm looking forward to starting the month off slow and right and engaging in priority #1 -- being a good wife and a good mother.  I found that in an effort to offset one change in February, my life went wildly off-balance and I am seeking to even out the scales again. 

One of those ways...?  I set my work calendar to be completely blocked out on Tuesdays and Thursdays from here to the end of eternity. (Or at least for the next year?  I can't remember which.)  Tuesdays and Thursdays ARE my days off... but it seemed like lately I was letting work spill into the crevices of those days.  This was that first week that those blockages are appearing and already I have people requesting me un-block for meeting purposes.  So far I've been able to politely reply, "No."

I am also going to do a Month of Blog Posts for March... I was doing so well at delivering pictures and stories late in 2009 and since then, in trying to keep my head above water, I have dropped off on posting.  It doesn't take much time to share a few pictures or a small story and I hope do to that at least once a day for you this month.

And, I'm setting a Month of Exercise or 31 Days of Exercise Challenge for myself this month as well.  It will be hard, I am sure, especially with the recent changes in my kids' sleeping habits.  Thank goodness I can count swimming with tonight as Exercise, because Raven most certainly had me awake from 12:00 - 2:00 am.  Bah.  (I am starting to think I best feed this child something other than formula if she is waking up and needing to eat again in the middle of the night.)

I hope this post finds you all well and I hope you all aren't sick of me in 4.5 weeks...!

erin