01.01.10.

i don't really believe in New Year's Resolutions. i figure if something is worth doing, why do you have to wait for the beginning of a new year to start? and, if you slip up (which i inevitably will), why feel like a failure that you didn't keep your resolution? i like this quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in, forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day, you shall begin it well and serenely...”

with that in mind, i *have* made a list of schtuff. call them new year's resolutions if you will, but i prefer to think of them just as hopes i have for myself. i am blogging about them because women who make their resolutions public have a 10% greater chance of succeeding with them. so i guess i'm counting on all of you out there in blogger-land to hold me accountable!

okay, without further ado, here's my list.

1. drink more water on my non-workout days. i drink plenty of water on the days i work out, but the days i don't i am really bad about remembering to drink enough water. i figure that by filling up my water bottle first thing in the morning and keeping it handy throughout the day, maybe i will have more success with this.

2. go to bed earlier. say, no later than midnight. that may sound late to you still, but for someone who regularly stays up til 1 (sometimes 2!) it will be hard.

3. get up earlier. hopefully this goes hand-in-hand with #2. i think if i can start my day more leisurely and NOT have to hit the ground running because i chose to hit snooze 53 times that it will make for a kinder, gentler mommy.

4. speak softly to my children. ugh. this will be a hard one. sometimes they are so rotten and i feel that i MUST scream at the top of my lungs to get their attention. i am going to try *very hard* to talk more, and scream less.

5. try harder to keep up with austin's confirmation homework. it really only requires about 10 minutes or so each night, yet somehow i can never manage to sit down and do it with him. right before bed (when he is supposed to do it) seems to be a hard time for us....perhaps restructuring and doing it during dinner might work better.

6. volunteer. this is something that i've been wanting to do for awhile. i would like to volunteer for a soup kitchen somewhere a couple times a month. it's just finding WHERE and also the logistics of what to do with the little ones while i'm there.

so. there it is. my list. i think it is a good balance of self, family, and others. i tried to keep it short enough to be manageable and not overwhelming. i will head into the new year with the best of intentions....but if i misstep i will not be discouraged, for tomorrow is a brand new start.

merry christmas. and dancer and prancer.

first, merry christmas! it's officially been christmas for 19 minutes now! the stockings are hung (and filled!), turkeys outta the brine and resting in the fridge, santa's been here....and i'm ready to snuggle down for some visions of sugarplums. or something like that.


see?! santa's been here! and he didn't leave my kids lumps of coal, after all!

yesterday we went up to clear creek nursery. every year they have a couple of "santa's reindeer" there. this year was dancer and prancer's turn. they were SO stinkin' cute. i now want a pet reindeer for my backyard :) sam was leary of them at first, but by the time we left he was running up the the enclosure, climbing up on the hay, and hanging on the fence. he threw a fit when we had to *drag* him away.


have you ever seen a cuter, fuzzier face?! and the little tongue poking out! ahh, i am dying of cuteness overload!!


why, hullo there!


"clara" and "fritz" with the nutcrackers, inside the nursery


heeyy, this isn't really bambi....

hope you and yours have a wonderful, magical, terrific, RAWKIN' christmas!!

the "accessorize your mittens" scarf.

i saw this scarf from the *wonderfully* talented (and funny!) Vanessa over at V&Co. and knew i hadHADhad to make it. i love it. it is just so cute and sweet and RUFFLE-Y! it also reaffirms my theory that you can take the plainest thing and add ruffles and VOILA! it is instantly transformed into something a.dor.able. (i use the term "instantly" very loosely, as even though it was easy enough to make, the ruffles took me for.ev.er. after i was about three-quarters of the way done or so, i finally figured out the perfect method/tension to make my ruffles perfect....at least i'll know for next time. *sigh*) so check it out and then run over and check out her tutorial, it is available for a limited time only, and then she is only going to be selling the pattern in her store!

the longest night.

so tonight is the winter solstice....the longest night of the year....and not a good time to be homeless in the pacific northwest. not that anytime is...but this time of year especially, with the cold and the rain and the long nights, is especially hard on the homeless population of our area. it is an issue that has been weighing on my heart recently. partly due in fact to a book ("breakfast at sally's" by richard lemieux, if you haven't heard of it check it out, it's awesome!) and partly because it has been in the spotlight a lot recently at our church. i went to the "Longest Night" Homelessness Vigil tonight at first christian church of bremerton. it was an hour long service *outside* (brrr!) to recognize the hardships faced by the homeless in our area and to pay homage to the homeless who have passed away in the last year, often unrecognized. it was a beautiful, simple candlelit ceremony. it would have been perfect. except, about halfway through the service, some JACKASS (oops, i'm sorry, is that not the loving, christian thing to call him? okay, an extremely manners-challenged individual) came out on his porch from across the street and starts yelling.

"HEY! you church people over there! i know this car belongs to one of you! it's blocking my driveway, come move it now!"
2 seconds later: "i KNOW this car belongs to one of you church people over there! come get it NOW or i'm having it towed!"

ugh. for a minute everyone just kind of stood there dumbfounded, in awe of the lack of common decency this person was showing. just before this guy started screaming, the pastor had been speaking of remembering the homeless in our prayers. a minute after this guy goes off on his tirade, one of the parishioners said "and yet another person we need to pray for extra hard." that kind of broke the silence and everyone started giggling a little. the irony of the situation? the screamer did not even have to go anywhere. he didn't leave after making a woman go move her car. idiot.

it was still a beautiful and moving service though.

Y christmas party.

a few pics from our YMCA childwatch party tonight.....good food, great friends, and a visit from the big guy himself. i am quite sure that samuel was probably the most entertaining to watch with santa....a few kids cried when they sat on santa's lap, but samuel threw a full out kicking, screaming tantrum. i think he might have actually kneed santa in the face (sorry 'bout that, santa).


waiting to see santa.


sam already looks unsure about this whole thing.


i just wanted ONE picture of my kid crying on santa's lap....yeah, that's NOT gonna happen. LOL


candy canes and presents make everything better.


katie and santa.


sam did not like santa....but he LOVED his present. he loves puzzles, and the whole ride home he kept saying "my! my!" (mine, mine) and wanted to open his puzzle in the truck.

lost teeth and ghettofied gingerbread houses.

friday before school katie finally plucked out a loose tooth. it had been dangling by a string of flesh for several days (lovely visual i know) but she would not allow us to pull it out. at breakfast on friday she started crying as she was eating her cereal and said "mooom, it HURTS!" then she disappeared upstairs for awhile and when she came back downstairs she triumphantly showed me her tooth, in hand. she was very proud that she had pulled it out herself without crying.



the tooth fairy left her *three* dollars because everyone knows those front teeth are worth more. (at least that is what nathan says.)

on another note, katie and sam decorated gingerbread houses tonight....sort of. they were at a friend's house last night and they attempted to make gingerbread houses from one of the wilton box kits, with somewhat disastrous results. the icing was kind of runny and the houses didn't really set up right and they kept collapsing. we only got them put together and they didn't get to decorate them so i promised they could do some at home. being the cheapskate that i am, er, i mean, being as *thrifty* as i am, i couldn't justify BUYING a kit for $9 that would just end up getting thrown out. so last night after they went to bed i threw together a few houses with some graham crackers and some leftover wilton frosting i had, and they were ready to be decorated tonight.



frosting their graham cracker houses.


hard at work decorating.


decorating....


more decorating....


this is how sam looked much of the time. eating the decorations or licking frosting off his fingers.


he's very proud of his house.


so is she.



thanks for looking!

initial shirt and boutique bottoms set.

a set i made for my cousin's little girl kaitlin.....so if you happened to stumble upon this, jenni....STOP READING! or just read on and spoil the surprise LOL....





the bottoms were made using the boutique bottom pattern and made with "Zest" by donna wilder for the stonehill collection fabric. i bought the turtleneck and appliqued the "K" on the front using a coordinating stripe. the matching barrette is a yo-yo made from the stripe fabric hot-glued onto a barrette based loosely on this tutorial. i hope she loves it!!

car caddy.

so i sacrificed my house today and let samuel destroy it so i could get some uninterrupted crafting time. i've been wanting to make one of these and knew i'd seen the tutorial somewhere before but couldn't remember where....then it popped up on my blogger dashboard this morning and i knew it was a sign that i was supposed to make it today :) the tutorial is from the talented jill at "homemade by jill". i made this for my cousin's little boy, elijah...he just turned 6 and (hopefully) is still at the hot wheels stage. it's a super cute car caddy that holds 6 hot wheels and has a road to play on as well, and it folds up compactly to take your cars with you on the go. hope you likey!





ETA: i deviated a bit from jill's, as i had no black felt so i just used some black canvas for the road; and i wanted to use a car print fabric that i had vs. plain duck cloth, so i used some fusible interfacing to give it a little more weight. also i eliminated the piping since i had none, and used fabric for the closure instead of webbing since i didn't have any of that either. and instead of the car applique i chose to do an initial.

holiday magic anyone?

we had a nice family day today. we went down to point defiance to the camp 6 logging museum where they are running a santa train every weekend in december. i took austin and katie a few years ago with a bunch of girlfriends and their kids and it was a lot of fun. and one of the best parts? it's only a BUCK! we rode the train, which picks up santa, and then he walks around and visits everyone, poses for pics, gives out candy canes....he is a really great santa, looks AND personality-wise. the conductor told us that he is retired army and that he's been doing the santa train for the last 20 years now. another great part? no one cried this year! i thought for sure sam would start screaming bloody murder when he saw him, but santa was a smart guy and immediately gave sam a candy cane, which distracted him from the fact that santa was actually talking to him and sitting next to him. LOL afterwards you can go inside one of the little buildings there to warm up with some hot cocoa or spiced cider, since you just spent the last 45 minutes freezing your little tushie off on the open-air train. it was actually a beautiful day though, despite the cold....it was clear and sunshiney. i like the sunshine. a LOT. it makes me really happy. really.happy.

afterwards we went to lunch at the ram, one of our fave places to eat in tacoma. it is right on the water and so pretty, plus they are very family friendly. they didn't bat an eye when my kids were being obnoxious, not even when katie was rocking on the back two legs of her seat and fell over backwards. ugh. the waiter felt bad for us i think, he threw in some free ice cream for sam too when he brought katie's out. ha. then i forgot my to-go box and made nathan turn back around after we were a mile down the road. i WANTED the other half of my turkey havarti melt with avocado. i was sure they would have thrown it away already, but *luckily* the busser was JUST clearing our table when i came in, and the box was sitting there right where i left it. score!

then we came home and watched the Polar Express, which none of us had seen before. well, i think austin saw it once, but nobody else had. i really liked it. i cried at the end when he was ringing santa's bell....i am such a sap. right as the movie ended, nathan got up to let the dog out and noticed it was snowing. not a lot, but the snow that was coming down was big, fat flakes. it was so super pretty. and magical. and the perfect ending to our day.

some new crap i've made.

been awhile since i've posted....i've been saving up some home-crafted goodies to share with you :) i've had quite a lot of time on my hands since one of my besties moved to SC recently and one of my other besties has been spending a lot of time at her folks in timbuktu....so here we go!

appliqued t-giving day shirt



this was the result of my deciding at 10 o'clock the night before thanksgiving that sam NEEDED a special shirt to give thanks in. LOL so it's made from stuff that i had on hand....plain white shirt, fabric scraps, and some fusible interfacing. got the turkey halfway sewn on and realized it had shifted terribly and the turkey now looked like he was laying down. ripped that off and decided i needed some heat-n-bond....but i was not going to walmart at 11 at night for it so i improvised. i took 2 pieces of interfacing and sewed them together with the sticky ironing side out. then sandwiched it btwn the turkey and the shirt so said turkey would not shift anymore as i was stitchin' him onto the shirt. worked great, but took way too long. the next time i was in walmart i picked up some heat-n-bond for the next time i get a wild hair up my butt to do some late-night applique.


camera case
got a new canon powershot recently and my old case was too big for it. i really didn't want to go out and buy another boring black case, so i made one for it. now my baby has a new custom-made home just for her! and the best part? it's pink!




i used this tutorial to make it, and used a nice heavy home-decor weight fabric so it wouldn't be all flimsy. i lined it with felt, and attached velcro to close it. note to self: if you decide for some reason to make another one of these, sew the velcro on BEFORE you sew the case all together. trying to sew inside that little opening=NOT fun.

fabric notebook cover

i made this for katie's teacher for christmas. katie's lunchbox is made out of the same material (alexander henry's apples and pears, one of my all-time faves), and she has commented several times on how CUTE it is. the cover holds a steno notebook and a pen on the front. totally worth the $1.99 i paid for the pattern....i love it!

so there ya go. some of my recent projects....i've got a couple more in the works that i'll share with you when i'm done! as always, if you've read this far, thanks for looking :)

SUPER PROUD MOM BLOG ALERT!!

you've been warned...if you don't wanna hear me brag on and on about my kid, just stop reading now. :)

so today was austin's parent/teacher conference. he has never had a "bad" conference....but i wasn't prepared for how *good* this one would be! his teacher, mrs. sund, went on and on about how great austin is, how respectful, how helpful....(and then i double-checked to make sure she was still talking about MY son LOL) anyhoos, she said he is a great student (evidenced by his 3.6 GPA and his 100% homework award)and how she had all the kids write down who they wanted to sit by because she is rearranging the room and everyone kept naming the same 3 or 4 kids....of which austin was one of. she said this was one of the easiest conferences ever because she had nothing to say about austin really except GOOD JOB, and KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK! i was on CLOUD NINE when i left. my heart was totally overflowing with pride for this child who many days makes me wanna rip my hair out by the roots and run for the hills. i really need to ingrain this feeling in my memory so i can recall it on those days. hehe.

from fugly to functional :)

so i grew weary of searching through katie's mountains of hair pretties every day in an attempt to find that bow that i *know* she has that matches THIS OUTFIT but where oh where did IT GOOO?! her hair stuff needed a new home. i found this cute hairbow holder tutorial over at julie's blog (which, by the way, is also fabulous. she has the most touching but heart wrenching story of how her blog/etsy shop came to be, you should go check it out.) since i am WAY too cheap to shell out the $12.99 they want at joann's for a stretched canvas, i hit the goodwill and voila! found the perfect ugly picture to give new life to (for a mere $3.99!).



since it was painted black, i stapled some white flannel to it before i covered it with the cupcake fabric so it wouldn't show through. i had all the materials on hand (besides the canvas) so for $3.99 i turned said hideous picture into this:



i wish i had taken a pic before the bows were on so you could actually see how cute it turned out. but i spent waay too long organizing the bows on there, so you will just have to take my word for it :)

thanks for looking!

gift for a friend.

hopefully she won't see this before i give it to her :)

i bought a couple cute but rather plain christmas towels and used this tutorial to dress them up....i was so happy with the end result!.



then i made her some matching coasters from allsorts tutorial.



and while i was at a holiday craft fair last weekend, i found the perfect little "merry" ornament to finish it off! it is made by a wonderfully talented steel artist out of port orchard, whose name escapes me right now.



thanks for looking!

handmade holidays time again!!

i am *so* super excited for handmade holidays month again at "sew mama sew"! it's the third annual installment and i love looking forward every day to see what great ideas they have in store! go check it out! i feel some crafting coming on....

sam's super spectacular space-needle birthday.

my in-laws were in town for a visit this week, and they wanted to go to the space needle for lunch one day. it ended up being on sam's birthday.....making it probably one of the nicest (most expensive) birthday lunches he'll ever have LOL.....anyhoos, some pics from his b-day.

on the ferry over

eating his birthday pasta

they were even shaped like space needles LOL

present time!

i think he likes the plane you got him mel!


playing with his new fire station

and his "sock-monkey in a box"

sam's monster cake (after he stuck his finger in the "I")


make a wish.

this one's for you, heidi. LOL