{polka dots, stripes and florals}

Fabric is a huge source of inspiration for me. Partly because it satifies my constant craving for color. Partly because it means I get to be in the company of polka dots, gingham, ric rac, stripes and florals, all things I am crazy about.

I got to thinking how those very things relate could relate to Home Decor? Could I possibly use my favortie sewing notions to inspire the details and accents in my home? Well, here is a little of what I found. And I am really and truly inspired.

This collage of pretty things is from the English/Vintage/Cottage queen, Cath Kidston :

productivity and a favorite pair of jammies...

Now that Babykins is tucked all nice and snug into bed for the night, in the cutets pair of jammies you have ever seen, I am ready to create.

I'm feeling ambitious tonight, planning to stay up late to cut and paste. So that soon I will have new items to add to my Esty shop. I've got all manner of pretty paperie scraps and goodies out on the kitchen table, just waiting to be turned into some small work of art.

I am working on Mothers Day Cards right now,

and feeling quite productive indeed.

14 Months Today

...and she's officially walking.

My Dad sent me an email this afternoon that read:

" There she goes. Life will never be the same. But that's ok.

Love, Pops

Some of Her Favorite Things

Right Now:

Playing peek-a-boo. Which consists of her yelling out "boooh" when she hides her face only to very quickly peek back at us with a huge grin, often accompanied by squeals. She is so very proud of herself for being so tricky! And we of course laugh and laugh because we can't help ourselves.

The other big thing that she's into right now is the bellybutton game. You should really play it sometime! The object is to lift your shirt ( or even your "team-mates" shirt if you'd rather) or look down your( or your "team-mates") shirt. Once you've finally spotted the sought after b.b. (which we have shortened it to "bee-boo") , burst out into a giggle of glee and then proceed to tickle yourself or your "team-mate" with gusto.
You repeat this pattern over and over until you get distracted by something like, the cat for instance.

Words She is saying:

Hi there! (hii-der)
mom-mom-mom-mom-mom-mom
happy ( my favorite word that she says)
num-num
baaa
moo
tweet

boo (booh)
thank you ( we tell her,

" say please' so she says " tane-choo")
walk-walk
side (outside)
pretty ( my other favorite word that she says...

usually either in response to someone's earrings or a flower

we've stopped to smell)

one ( if you ask her " how old is baby")

that (dat) as she says it as a question and points at everything,

wanting to know what "that" is...

So aside from the occasional poop in the bath-tub,

refusal to nap or eat her peas,

emptying of the contents of

every bottom drawer in our house,

and throwing the kind of fit that is accompanied

by throwing oneself down on the floor,

much wailing and kicking of the feet...

being her mommy is pure bliss.

Snapshots from our little spring photo shoot...

On this Easter Sunday....

" Blue skies with white clouds on summer days.
A myriad of stars on clear moonlit nights.
Tulips and roses and violets and dandelions and daisies.
Bluebirds and laughter and sunshine and Easter.
See how He loves us! "

Alice Chapin

afternoon at the park...

The Swing

by Robert Louis Stevenson

How do you like to go up in a swing, Up in the air so blue?

Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing Ever a child can do!

Up in the air and over the wall, Till I can see so wide,

Rivers and trees and cattle and allOver the countryside --

Till I look down on the garden green, Down on the roof so brown --

Up in the air I go flying again, Up in the air and down!

A truly perfect day.

Back and front doors have been flung wide open. The sky is for-get-me not blue. We have brought the outdoors in and the indoors out by and turning our porch into a extra room. I have blocked off the stairs to ensure the safety of babykins and set up a studio of sorts for myself, complete with vintage tablecloth set on a small patio table, a chair snatch from the dining room table, a stack of fresh spring scrapbook papers, and plenty of toys to keep the baby happy as we come and go at our leisure.

At this moment Annabelle is excitedly watching her Daddy mow the lawn for the first time this spring, peeking through the space in the proch railing as I sit here admiring the patches of daffodils framing the big tree outside our bedroom window. My mom reminded me this morning that it's time to plant larkspur seeds so I think I will go dig out my seed box and do some planting, while Annabelle plays in the grass and make the most of what's left of this perfect spring day?

As someone once said "Real life is the the best fairytale of all."

More Spring in my step...

"The first day of spring is one thing, and the first spring day is another. The difference between them is sometimes as great as a month."

Fisherman's Luck , Henry Van Dyke (1899)

Yesterday Annabelle learned the meaning of soft...while we were playing with a branch off our pussy willow tree.

Then we counted 31 robins in our backyard. So now the small girl is "tweet-tweeting" all over the house. Which of course, makes me grin.

Also, here are a small bunch of crocuses that I found timidly peeking up at me.during a stroll around the yard.

The miniature daffodils I planted in pots last Nov. and then relegated to the darkest, coldest corner of the garage are just now unfurling their sunny yellow splendor.

It may be premature, with snow in the forecast for tonight but we will not let that keep us from at least pretending that we are already quite under the enchanting the spell of spring.

Signs of Spring

I must be in the mood for spring because today I:

1. Wore capris
2. Had a iced coconut latte
3. Let Annabelle crawl all over the front lawn
4. And planted sweet pea seeds

Now all we have to do is wait, and hope for the best.

So fun to be one!

How old is baby?

One!

Happy Birthday, to the nicest, dearest little girl we know.

What a joy you are Annabelle Lucy!

Where you'll find me today, Feb. 14, 2007

Under the weather. Very under the weather.

Our valentines and the big birthday party preperations have all been put on hold until my small daughterie is done being under the weather. We are in the middle of our 5th full day of dealing with a very naughty flu bug that has made itself quite at home in Annabelle's little tummy. Add a bunch of teeth that are trying to make an appearance and you have one very miserable baby and one very distraught Mommy.

We have been singing lots of songs and reading lots of books and rocking and cuddling...When she wants one of us to sing she'll crawl over to us and start, for lack of a better word, humming, "bye....bye...bye" to remind us it's time for a song. Rock-a-bye-baby is her current favorite. It's so sweet. She's a little song-bird and will often hum along...And singing seems to be a great comfort to her right now, so we've been doing a lot of it, as you can imagine.

On Friday, David felt so bad seeing his baby in such a sad and pitiful little state, that he brought a bouquet of red tulips home from work for her...It thrilled my heart of course that he would do such a thoughtful thing, but then he is always doing thoughtful things because he loves us, and because he is a wonderful, wonderful guy! He came down with it on Sat but is back to work today and feeling fine, thankfully. :( So far the sickie bugs haven't gotten to me. We'll see how long that keeps up.

I am hopeful that we'll soon be on our way back to healthy. But sooner rather than later, would be nice.

This :

“ Know you what it is to be a child? It is something very different from the man of today. It is to have spirit yet streaming from the waters of baptism; it is to believe in love; to believe in loveliness; to believe in belief; it is to be so little that the elves can reach to whisper in your ear; it is to turn pumpkins into coaches, and mice into horses, lowness into loftiness, and nothing into everything, for each child has a fairy godmother in its soul.”
-Shelley-

Has got me pondering this:

At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, " Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 18 : 1-4

The little face that brightens all my days...

A fresh Start...

It's been a while since I last hit the, " publish" button. I have missed it. And even though I feel like I am leaving a big gap by not having written since before Christmas, it's just a little too overwhelming to think of picking up where I left off, all those weeks ago. So instead of filling you in on the last month, I am going to start fresh, with something that doesn't take a lot of remembering, a random re-telling of the thoughts and joys that have been on my heart and mind., today.
Naturally, that means I am about to talk about my sweet little family. Especially, our dear little daughter, who is my constant wee companion. And a source of non-stop delight.

For starters, here is snippet from a comment I left for a friend of mine who has such a lovely, lovely little blog, telling her about the excitment stemming from Annabelle's morning nap, relating to to all the excitement stemming from her very own little girl's nap, which you can read about here.
" Funny you should mention Audrey's crib/snot escapades in today's post because not minutes before Reading what you had to say about that I went in to check on a very quiet Annabelle who had been napping for a unusually long time...only to find her much to my horror, happily peeling and eating pieces of the cork off the bulletin board I have up next to her crib. She was so pleased with herself...I had no idea she could reach it from her crib...needless to say the bulletin board is being hung far, far away from her little reach..."

Words that our isty-bitsy, teeny-tiny daughter has been saying:

dog-dog
bite ( as in a bite of food)
belly-button ( she said it to David and I the other night…clear as day, you should have seen our jaws drop in astonishment)
pity (pretty) She says it when she is playing with my earrings and I say, " yes those are Mommy’s Pretties, be gentle!")
peas (Please)
yay!
duck
quack
bath
button
eeeka-oo ( peek-a-boo)
shoe
sock
yuck ( often copy-catting one of us for telling her to spit out whatever she just put in her put in her mouth from off the floor!)

And the new Word of the day: ooon ( i.e. balloon) She saw a smiley faced helium balloon at Fred Meyer’s tonight and it gave her such a thrill…I think know what Daddy is going to be getting her for Valentines day...Also while shopping, David decided we were going to dump out the contents of our canvas shopping bag and replace them with our baby…he get’s these silly inklings in the store of all places…and boy was she ever happy all tucked in her little swinging pouch.

Some of her Favorite Things:
Strings
Tags
Buttons
And Junk Mail(finally someone around here who appriciates it)

She loves giving kisses…And of all the kinds of kisses there are in the world, aren't baby kisses are the best? She opens her mouth slightly, leans in and lightly rests her tiny lips on yours, for well, quite a while…And Until this last week she was holding out on kissing her Daddy ( we think it has something to do with his scratchy facial hair) but now it’s a all I can do to get a kiss in edge-wise…and let me tell her Daddy is beyond pleased.
It was so cute, the other night as we were about to drift off to sleep , out of nowhere David asked me if I would like an Annabelle-kiss…
“From you?” I said.
“mmm hmmm.“
“sure.”
…the imitation was so perfect it sent me into a fit of giggles.
‘shhhh…you’ll wake the baby.” He wispers, smiling.

She waves all the time…she even waves at “things.” When I bring her out of her room from a nap, she’ll wave at the piano or the stove, or just out the window at the kitty.
She throws her hands up in the air, over her head and grins proudly when we say…“how big is baby?” “Soooo big.” Her poppy taught her how to do this over Christmas. My mom used to do it with me when I was a baby…

Does twirling is count as a hobby? If not, it should be. We have spent the last few nights dancing around the kitchen…with Christmas money from my Dad, David and I picked out a under the cabinet CD player to go in the kitchen…We have been having more fun in our music-filled kitchen. And Annabelle loves twirling, it makes her giggle and that, makes me giggle.

And now I need to run. Baby is all tucked in for the night and David and I have a date planned. We are going to play a cut-throat game of Phase 10 on the living room floor,watching Loony Tunes and eating chocolate. After all, this is precisely what Friday nights are for!

Pretty in Pink

I wish I could tell you that I just got in from are pulling a rosy-cheeked, tightly bundled Annabelle across the yard in a little red sled, the snow falling softly like lace down around us.
Instead I'll tell you the truth, that I am watching out the window as sheets of wind-blown rain,
pelt the side of the house. Not exactly the sort of weather you wish for at Christmastime...

I wish I could tell you our Christmas Tree glows from floor to ceiling, with sparkles and twinkles. Thankfully our little Annabelle has enough Holiday sparkle and twinkle of her own, to make up for the lack of tree, trimmings and usual Christmas decor at our house. We decided this year for all intensive safety purposes that maybe it would be better not to have real live pine needles, bark and twigs and such kicking around the house. Especially since Annabelle at any given meal, would just as soon nibble on bark as cheerios.
I didn't think I could cut out the Christmas tradition tree cold-turkey, so David graciously agreed to a mini tree, well actually three. One for each of us. They are about 8" tall. They are real. And really very cute. So that, on top of the anticipation of the big and beautiful Christmas trees to be enjoyed at at both Poppy and Nana's and Papa and Mor-mors and everywhere else we go over Christmas, more than makes up for not having a big tree of our own this year.

It feels like Annabelle is growing faster than ever. Her arms and legs are getting so long and she's fast. She gets around the house like a flash of lightning.
She loves to clap, dance and sing Christmas Carols. Her favorite is Feliz Navidad. Seriously.
She absolutely goes nuts when that song comes on the radio or if we sing it to her.

This morning she said the word button! Twice. If babies had hobbies, hers would be buttons.
That, un-folding the laundry, emptying out drawers and quacking like a duck.
The other day she said grandpa to my dad over the phone...
he was so proud you could almost hear the "buttons" popping off his shirt.
But I have to say my current favorite word that she says happens to be saying is: Ma-Ma.
The other thing that we are trying to teach her and is how to blow kisses.

Her constant beaming face and contagious laughter fill our house and hearts with more magic than a dozen Christmases.

That being said, may your Christmas be filled with more JOY than you know what to do with.

Which one do I use for our Christmas Cards?