Under Construction

Scrapped

So this is turning into the snapshots and scrapbooking blog. Sorry about that. My New Year's Resolution was to catch up on scrapbooking (a lofty goal). I am way behind but I decided to just start over and do Biscuit's kindergarten year.

My approach was "scrapbooking without supplies" so I used just stuff from kindergarten (old homework, art etc) plus a ream of white cardstock, a 3 ring binder, a tape roller thing, a black pen and a box of crayons. Oh, plus a few page protectors I had lying around. It's not going to win any awards but I did the entire thing over the course of about 4 days and Biscuit loves it. So I'd consider that a success.

Here's my favorite page (because I LOVE that photo for some reason) and the use of kindergarten lined paper. Sorry about the glare on all these shots.

A few other spreads.

Lots of pages have lift up elements to incorporate more photos along with memorabilia.

The last page is one Biscuit wrote about kindergarten memories.

A week in the life a month ahead of schedule

Ali, the "Week in the Life" lady, is running the project at the end of July but the end of June works better for us.

So I find myself taking ~100 photos a day to document a week in our life.

The scrapbook I did in 2010 (Mother's Day week) is one of my favorite things to look back on.

All the random tidbits of a random week and the people we saw and things we did.

The things we ate :)

It's fun to just document a moment in time.

I imagine a shelf of several years and using these books to remember all the silly stuff--did we still own the green truck in 2011 (yes). Were the walls of the living room still yellow (yes). How long was my hair? etc etc.

So we're two days and a lot of photos in.

I encourage everyone to play along with Ali's project this summer!

Sum, sum, summertime (and iced coffee)

Baby was officially nervous about his first dip in the pool on his 4 week birthday. It may have been a touch cold. He didn't scream, just some nervous fussing so we took him right out. But he sure looked cute thanks to the swim outfit from my sister!

There's lots of pool time these days--in fact I'm supposed to be off to a meet right now but Oscar is still sleeping and I'm loathe to wake him until the last instant. As long as Biscuit doesn't swim the relay I've got until race 20 (girls 6 and under freestyle) at 9ish before she takes to the water. Then we wait around until backstroke (race 32) and call it a day. Swim team is way easier with a little kid--no all day meets.

Anyway, I sat down not to post about swimming but about beverages. My new, go to summer beverage. Starbucks iced coffee with milk and without the pricetag.

Directions:

Have husband make a full pot of coffee before you wake up.

Drink one mug of hot coffee.

Feed baby.

Get out of bed. (or read for a while then get out of bed)

Put some leftover coffee in a cup in the fridge.

Wait a while till you get sleepy and hot in the midafternoon.

Fill leftover plastic soda cup from 7-11 or McDonalds with ice.

Fill halfway with coffee (actually less than halfway because the ice takes up space but remember that you don't want baby up all night so don't go too heavy on the caffeine. Or maybe I should be drinking decaf here)

Fill cup nearly to the top with lowfat milk.

Add a splash of half and half (so it's extra good).

If you like it sweet (and I do--takes the edge off the old coffee taste)

Put 2/3 cup water in a glass liquid measuring cup and microwave 2.5 minutes until very hot

Stir in 2/3 cup sugar until it's clear.

Add a few tablespoons to your coffee and store the rest of your simple syrup in the fridge in a jar

Enjoy!

Fun with rejects

Thanks to Amy for the link to this photobooth option at Big Huge Labs.

Bouquets, Books and Stripes

I have rediscovered the faux-moby as a place Oscar likes so I can type two handed. So, here goes, a three part post before he wakes up or my parents show up. (I need your advice in part 2b).

Bouquets

Inspired by Emily I went into my yard (which does not have a cutting garden per se but does have, you know, plants) and picked a few bouquets.

Princess Roses (bought this plant for Biscuit at the start of her Princess phase--it has lived and bloomed despite disease and ZERO attention)

Oregano gone to flower and yarrow for the kitchen. It seems oregano can be practically invasive around here but it's so tasty and pretty I'm not bothered. Less pokey than the invasive blackberries.

The first sunflower(s)

And my bouquet picking assistant. He actually wasn't all that helpful :)

Books:

Biscuit is going to kill me for this but it made me laugh because it's exactly how I was when I was little.

:: edited, I put in the photo and took it out--too embarrassing. But I'll tell you about it anyway. She was reading while sitting on the toilet ;) ::

Here's a different, funny, reading photo. In a box.

Recently Biscuit started reading Little House in the Big Woods. A book I was 95% sure she wouldn't get through and 98% sure she wouldn't comprehend due to vocabulary.

::Oops, baby woke up. Down an arm. end punctuation::

so recent conversation:

biscuit: do you know how to make butter?

me: yes. do you?

b: yes. first you kill the baby cow with a gun...

m: huh? oh, do they kill the baby so they can use all the milk from the mom?

b: no, they need the stomach

m: huh?

b: for the rennet. they use a long gun. the kind for animals, not for people

m: yes, a rifle. and i think you are telling me how to make cheese, not butter

b: ok, cheese. i will read to you how to make it.

so she did. and i learned rennet comes from a calf stomach. and now she is reading Little House on the Prarie.

More Books

I'm pretty sure I should be preview reading Little House on the Prarie (something about Indians? I don't recall) but I don't feel like it.

So, I need book ideas. I love to see what other folks are reading and get ideas so here goes. Based on what I've got on GoodReads I apparently like memoir/essays. Got any more suggestions in that genre?

::Several hours have gone by. parents have come and gone and I have two arms free again. Iced coffee in hand I return to my task::

Here's what I've read recently according to my GoodReads list.

• Anne Lamott: Traveling Mercies and Operating Instructions
• Sarah Vowell: The Partly Cloudy Patriot and Assassination Vacation (really liked Assassination Vacation)
• Ruth Reichl: Garlic and Sapphires (really liked all of her memoirs, read the others last year)
• Michael Connelly: Chasing the Dime and The Brass Verdict (these were from my father-in-law and after two attempts I don't think a huge Connelly fan. I gave my father-in-law Assassination Vacation and he'll read anything but I'm not sure he'll like it despite reading a lot of history books)
• Mike Birbiglia: Sleepwalk with Me (he's funny on This American Life but the book didn't do it for me)
• Emma Donoghue: Room (liked it but creepy)
• JK Rowling: re-read of the entire Harry Potter series (seriously. so. good. I had forgotten a lot of the details so a re-read was perfect)
• Banana Yosimoto: Kitchen (weird but an interesting look at Japanese culture. if you read it, it's TWO stories. there will never be a connection between the two so don't be looking/disappointed)
• Ellen Raskin: The Westing Game (didn't like it as much as I wanted to. It's no Enders Game)

Now I'm reading

• Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman which I found randomly on my bookshelf and realized 1. it's memoir and 2. I really liked her other book The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. One essay in and it seems pretty good.

Books I could not complete due to sad baby/kid parts and postpartum hormones

• Pamela Schoenewaldt: When We Were Strangers. It's not even that sad but there was a single scene about a little girl who's family dies and I had to return it to the library.
• Something else I've already forgotten.

So, any non sad memiors, biographies, autobiographies or other good books?

Finally, Stripes:

Is three stripe patterns too many?

My mom tries to choose clothes for Oscar and she has asked several times, "you like stripes, right?" Apparently so.

Manly

Oscar may be wrapped in the occasional pink blanket and be wearing his big sister's outgrown infant pajamas but really, he's very manly.

His diaper pail:

Yes, that is a Home Depot bucket. Good deal. Works great.

He also has a very manly mobile. Inspired by this one from Sew Liberated but all boy (For the Boy Craftsman no less). (I don't have the "G" book in this series but I sincerely hope it includes a chapter "For the Girl Craftswoman").

The shapes were cut out of this book and sewn together.

Biscuit's quilt

Last Monday Biscuit asked if she could learn to sew and make a quilt. Um, yes! Later she told me that when she woke up that morning (and we were still in bed) she was waiting in her bed and looking at her ruffle quilt and thinking about it and wondering how it was made and how the quilt in our bed was made and she remembered that I made the quilts so she wanted to learn. Super cool.

She tried to design a quilt of circles and scraps and I steered her toward a simple strip quilt and showed her this post by Amanda to give her a sense of what a five year old can accomplish. Excited she went to choose fabrics. Not what I might have chosen but I let her do what she wanted.

She said the quilt is for Oscar and I gently asked if she thought Oscar would like the colors she chose. She said she did choose "girl" colors but that's okay because Oscar doesn't have a favorite color yet and he might like these colors. And she chose the helicopter fabric since he's a boy. (Oh, and Oscar is never getting this quilt. After it was done she decided to keep it and has slept with it ever since.)

She really did do nearly everything. She tore the strips (not quite ready for a rotary cutter!) and ironed everything flat. Then she arranged everything and I pinned strips while she sewed them all together herself!

After the top was assembled we ironed it and I used spray basting glue to baste the back, batting and top. And she machine quilted it herself with a "wavy line" pattern. All I did was the unsewing (and resewing) when things went wrong.

I thought this was a funny shot of her "taking a break" while sewing the binding.

And here's the result!

And here is the photo she was dying to take after seeing Ada's kitten under the quilt she made. We don't have a kitten on hand--just a baby.

Fathers' Day

Biscuit and I tried to do a sibling photo shoot for Fathers' Day. I see what you parents of two kids are talking about when complaining how hard it is to get a photo with both looking decent. Parents of three or more? Forget about it.

My faves:

Fortunately I printed a bunch of options. Turns out Mr. H had different faves:

And this was more the reality

Happy Fathers' Day, Mr. H. Thanks for spending part of it doing this:

And lots of it working on this

We love you.

Feet on the wall

I've had this white plaque blank on the wall since, apparently, 2008. I knew the right thing would come along and the other day it struck me. Big sister, little brother footprints,

The footprints are far from perfect but I like the size comparison. Too bad I did it upside down and have to put on a new hanger before hanging.

Fussy baby is finallly asleep. On my arm. It's hard to type one handed.

Announcing

Apparently I've had Oscar's baby announcements planned since 2007 when I saw this. So when he arrived, deciding what to do was easy. Get Biscuit to cooperate and copy Amy!

Done and done.

From left to right we have Mommy, Biscuit, Daddy and Oscar. A few notes: Daddy is eating a peanut butter sandwich and thus, not holding the stroller which, as you can see, is rolling down the hill. Oops. Lucky Baby Oscar has lots of toys in his stroller :) No idea why Daddy is footless and floating....

I used Biscuit's pencil drawing and scanned it. Turned the pencil lines black with my (very) limited photoshop skills and then added the background colors also in Photoshop Elements.

Just like Amy I printed these at Overnight Prints. With the slower shipping option you can't beat the quality for the price. Rounded corners only $1 more!

In a world of so much electronic communication I do love getting real stuff in the mail. These have already been received by friends and family so for those who I only keep in touch with via the internets I'm posting it as well.