Archive for April, 2008

I’ve running into a block, a writers block that is. As I’m typing this, between each sentence a few moments pass by. You see, I’m having a blogging dilemma. So much of what I share is so very personal. My thoughts, my hopes, my dreams are put out there in the public sphere. To be judged. To be evaluated. To be read. My kids are out there. In this public space.

Does anyone else feel this way and have this dilemma?

I have this quilt that I picked up at a garage sale that I’ve been carrying around with me throughout the house. I think about this quilt and the time spent on it. I hold it up really, really close and look at each stitch. The fabric selected and the color combinations used. It’s beautiful.

I wonder how old it is. Who made it? Who was it made for? And how on earth did this beautiful piece of work end up at a garage sale just tossed aside?

I think this a blog is a lot like a quilt. My blog is something that I’ve nurtured, taken care of and looked after for about a year now. Piece by piece, it has been assembled to represent our lives. I look back on posts and see my kids, my life. The rosemary scent of Makena when she plays outside. Keegan and his happy go lucky attitude. I wonder now, as the kids are getting older, if this is the space for sharing their lives.

This quilt of mine, that I’ve hand stitched might need a new outlet. You see, friends, I’m perplexed. Do I toss it aside to the vaults, to one day be unearthed by someone searching on Google for vintage life preservers, or do I continue on, changing the focus of my blog?

I’m just not sure if my time is well spent documenting the kids lives. While I feel like sometimes I am missing it because I’m too busy trying to capture it. Does that make any sense? Probably not. You see, it’s an internal tug of war. Give up the blog and find new outlets. Continue to blog and change the focus. I don’t know.

I would love some guidance here friends. Your comments always mean so much.

In my refrigerator. Snuggled right in between my Bonne Maman preserves and my Hell on the Red salsa sits not one, but two boxes of worms. They have been there for over a week now. And the worms are all still alive.

Yes, there are live worms in my fridge. Not that it would be any better if they were dead. There are squiggling dirt eating worms, cohabiting in my fridge alongside the yogurt, eggs and milk. This can’t be healthy.

Is this seriously my fridge?

We moved out here just around eight months ago. We abandoned the suburbs for the great outdoors. And the great outdoors it is. Worms and all.

What do we do with the worms you might ask? Why, we catch big fish of course. What’s the trade off for worms in the fridge? Miles taking both of the kids on a Sunday afternoon to the supermarket, just to give me a few moments of quiet. Then returning with orange flowers. Because Makena says that orange is my favorite color.

Then tucking the kids into bed. Reassuring them that there are no Monsters under the bed. Because Mama decided to show them the movie Monsters, Inc. Grilling fish out back, while enjoying a cold beer on the deck. Dinner with my orange flowers. And the quiet that follows, once again.

I was talking to a friend tonight about our babies and their percentiles. And it brought me back to this time last year, when we were in a state of panic because we found out that Keegan was in the third percentile. Not 1/3, but 3%. For those of you without kids, that’s little.

We spent an entire week trying to get him to take formula. Hour after hour. Day after day. Tears were shed. Prayers were said. “Please Keegan, eat something.” The desperate cries of a mother.

One year later, he is in the 95th percentile. That’s a big boy. He weighs as much as his three year old sister and he’s 20 months old. It’s all phases and stages. Once you perfect the one they are in, they move on to the next one.

After reflecting on yesterday’s post and feeling pulled outside with the kids I just have to let you know that they won! Out came the water sprinkler for the first time this year and it provided endless entertainment. Until I decided we were wasting too much water. Ah, the internal struggle of a parent. Then I let them play a little longer, vowing to take a shorter shower this morning to make up for it. That makes sense right? Ah, probably not but what the heck.

Since having children I have become more aware of our carbon footprint. You know, those marks we leave behind on the earth. Tread lightly is what I tell myself.

We have made some changes around here such as shopping with reusable bags, recycling, buying local, eating organic, buying old rather than new, etc. I do think the greatest thing we can do is to teach our children about the earth and how to nurture it. Instinctively, they enjoy playing outside and digging in the dirt. It’s the simple things with our children that make them the happiest.

I’ve been toying around with opening an ETSY shop for some time now. I’ve been kicking around the idea of what to sell. What is my craft? Earth day got me thinking about re. Those two little letters stuck in my head all day long yesterday until it hit me. I will open a chikaustin re store where all items are either recycled, repurposed or reused.

So during nap time I hurried upstairs and got to work. I’ve only got a few items listed but will be adding more today. I’m going to take custom orders for vintage pillowcase dresses. Most of what I have on there now are all vintage embroidered pillowcases. Very sweet. Just the thought that someone a very long time ago sat down and spent a good portion of her day creating this pillowcase for her family makes my heart melt.

I also made a storybook bird mobile featuring Where the Wild Things Are. I will also take custom orders for these as well. The mobiles are made using repurposed materials, recycled cardboard, an old children’s book and newspaper.

And of course, you all know my love for thrifting so I will list some items that I find while out and about. Right now there is a rockin’ 1970’s hand tooled vintage leather wallet.

The shop is small right now but I needed to start somewhere. I would love some feedback from you shoppers out there and even you ETSY shop owners. The shop will continue to evolve as needed. Thanks for checking it out and all of your comments!

It’s that time of year again when I find myself running from here to there. Trying to get it all done while feeling like I’m not getting much done. The weather is warming up really fast which makes me want to stay inside and turn on the air conditioning. The kids are pulling me outside for nature walks, bug catching and flower picking while I’m feeling pulled inside to creating. Something.

A couple of weeks ago I managed to make this clutch for Claudia. I had to put more of that patchwork fabric to use. I think I like it so much I need to make a couple more for gifts. I used a pattern from the Bend the Rules Sewing book and it came together very quickly. I’m still learning to read patterns and get hung up in a few places every time, but it’s getting better. Slow and steady wins the race.

We are home from our weekend girl’s trip and I feel refreshed, renewed and reinvigorated.

As promised, we spent time by the pool.

Then made our way to the beach.

I returned home to kids that had a fabulous time with their daddy. I think it was a great getaway for all of us! As I returned home yesterday, I found out that my in-laws were on their way for a visit and we were going to Ikea. I always need an excuse to go to Ikea! And of course, loaded my cart with all kinds of random things. Plastic ware, chip clips, a swing for the backyard, a new kitchen rug (above), hangers… the list goes on and on. Oh how I love Ikea.

And since we seem to be on a black and white kind of day, here’s the new piano bench. Adds a little rock-n-roll to our living space!

I’m heading West my friends, driving off into the sunset for a girls weekend away.

Miles will be holding down the fort with the kids for a three day weekend so I can get some much needed girl time. I still have a few loads of laundry to do and outfit selections, oh my. Should I wear this necklace with this skirt or these shoes with this shirt? Which handbag? Oh, it can all just be too much. And which color of flip flops should I take? Or should I just pack them all? They are light and compact. Always a dilemma with an Austinite. Never leave home without them.

I plan to do some sitting by the pool and ummm some sitting by the pool and then onto sitting by the pool. No floaties to inflate. No sippy cups to refill. No nap times to watch over. No laundry.  No dishes.  No strollers to push.  No bickering amongst toddlers.  No screaming.  No little hands to hold.  No babes to tuck in at night.  No bedtime stories.

I think I’m going to miss them. Sniff.

In my pre-kids, pre-stay at home, pre-craft and sew days I had heard of this place called Round Top. I think mostly I would read about it in the Southern Living magazine that was nicely displayed in my in-laws house. It seemed like a nice outing… if you were into that type of thing.

Well, let me tell you that these days I am totally into that type of thing. We were on our way to Houston, taking some back roads for the scenery and wildflowers when I remembered that it was Round Top weekend. Thanks fellow bloggers. Having never visited Round Top before I had no idea where it was. Somewhere between here and Houston is all that I knew. So out came my trusty map and I found it. It is one of the smallest specks on the Texas map and if you were to blink, you’d definitely miss it, but not twice a year. We decided that we had time to kill before we needed to be in Houston so we veered off of the highway and began following the traffic. And boy were we not disappointed.

One weekend in the Spring and one in the Fall the countryside comes alive with vendors pedaling their wares. You name it, you can find it at Round Top and the surrounding antique shows. The only regret we walked away with was that we didn’t have more time to spend.

If there’s something on your list, you can find it at Round Top. We got a few things that were on our list, plus a few more that we just had to have. Sorry, the bike wasn’t one of them.

Makena had her way with some of the vendors. She walked away with the vintage necklace that she’s wearing and also a fairy sun catcher. Such sweet people at Round Top. I found some great vintage embroidered pillowcases for some more dresses. Maybe an ETSY shop is in the future.

Miles has been looking for a vintage water ski to convert to a rack to hold life jackets, his cowboy hat and other random items. Of course we found one. I’ll be sure to share the picture of the completed rack once he gets it all done. Keegan is gratiously allowing us to store our goods in his stroller. As long as he has his popcorn. We also found a really, really old life preserver from a ship. Though, can I be really candid here and tell you that walking around with a water ski and a life preserver makes you look like you are opening a very 1980’s inspired seafood house. Note to self: must be careful with placement of nautical themed decor.

Probably the most humorous aspect to the entire weekend was pulling up to the hotel in Houston. We smelled like dirt and barbeque. Our car was loaded with snacks dumped everywhere and the most hodge podge assortment of stuff you could imagine. Just the water ski and life preserver popping out the back was funny enough.

Since we’re talking about vintage items, here is my toy for Anne’s toy week. It’s actually Makena’s collection of Matryoshka dolls that we’ve picked up here and there, all thrifted. The globe was found at a goodwill a while back and I just fell in love with the dog piggy bank. For a girl whose love and room is pink, pink and more pink I thought throwing in a bit of funky style is exactly what she needed.

Thanks to the Prednisone, I am up past midnight on the internet. I can not sleep. It seems like I’m the only one up this late, all emails have slowed to a halt and bloglines has run silent. Hmph.

What’s a woman to do at this hour? Let’s see, I could run downstairs and get a brownie. But then that would wake up both dogs and so far Oliver has been asleep for three whole hours. I don’t want to push my luck and rattle his cage. I could watch a show. Nah. I could read a book, but I don’t seem to have the attention span to stay on one topic very long. I could go clean our bathroom, but Miles might leave me citing insanity.

I was lying here thinking about tomorrow’s post, oh wait… tomorrow is today. My head is spinning, thanks Prednisone, with ideas. So much to share with you from weeks gone by. Time is slipping away and I haven’t told you about our trip to Houston. The reupholstering of the piano bench. The bluebonnets down at the lake. Two words: Round Top. The worms, yes worms, in my refrigerator. And Easter! I haven’t even told you about our Easter yet!!! What a horrible friend I have been. Well, let’s not regress let’s talk!

This week I am participating in Anne’s Toy Week. What fun! Boy, do we have toys coming out of our ears so I’ve got tons to share. I’ll try to spare you the normal toys. You know, the plastic noise making ones. Instead, I’ll focus on some of our favorites. The vintage ones, blocks, books and trains. And even some unusual ones as well.

Shall we kill two birds with one stone? I say we shall. We took a trip over a week ago to a friend’s wedding in Houston. I hadn’t seen this friend in 11 years but don’t let that fool you. I bawled like a baby when I saw her. It was the full on ugly cry. She’s just one of those friends that has always been so close to my heart and although the years have slipped by, and babies slipped out, we are still as close as we ever were.

So we decided to make a weekend out of our Houston trip. On the way to Houston, we took a detour to Round Top but you’ll have to wait to see/hear about that tomorrow. I know, I’m such a tease.

While in Houston, we visited the Nature and Science Museum. Keegan has this fascination with dinosaurs lately. He has this dinosaur book with big wiggly eyes. Something to do with ten dinosaurs jumping on a bed. You catch my drift. Anywho, we thought we should take the kids to show them the big guys live, well maybe not, and in person.

We’ve also being trying to explain to Makena how things are alive and dead. This mostly applies to flower picking but that doesn’t seem to deter her. I think next we need to focus on alive/dead with animate/inanimate objects. She seems to be getting caught up in the mindset that inanimate objects are dead. Like they were once alive. Well, maybe it’s the Prednisone speaking but she’s right on a certain level. Books, they were once alive right?!? You know, trees and such. Oh geez, it’s the drugs talking. I’ll move on.

We also took in a Leonardo DaVinci exhibit at the museum and it was stellar. They had taken his drawings and created scaled models of his inventions. Some were even hands on. Chasing a three year old around such an area can be daunting. “Mommy can I touch this one?” “Nooooooo.” Sorry I don’t have pictures to share of this section of the museum. My hands were tied.

After the museum we made our way to the park just outside to have a roll down the hill. In the distance I could hear music being played. As we got closer, we realized that a Japanese celebration festival was taking place. I knew that lunch, some play time and music listening was in order.

We sat by the water, listened to the drums, ate sushi and drank bubble tea and watched as throngs of people walked by carrying their own Japanese souvenirs. There were umbrellas (toy for toy week), inflatable swords and live goldfish in bags (yes, I’m serious) to be had. Now we opted out of the goldfish pet ownership program. I’m sure there would have been lengthy interviews. Followed by home visits that we surely wouldn’t pass because we didn’t have a fish bowl so we walked very quickly past the fish adoption booth.

All in all, it was a wonderful weekend. Good friends, good times, good food, good people.

Oh shoot, Oliver is awake. Time for a late night stroll by the moonlight while he does the deed. And it sounds like it’s time for a brownie. Thanks Oliver!

I had so many wonderful crafting/creating plans for this weekend but I was in a crappy mood all weekend long. So nothing got done. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but I just felt grumpy and lazy. I continued doing what I do… birthday parties, get togethers and the regular mommy routine. But, I just didn’t feel good, I wanted to take long naps. I wanted to not move. Can you hear the whine in my voice???

It couldn’t be?!?

I’m sick?!? Whose idea is this? I don’t have time to be sick.

Strep and a sinus infection to be exact. Bleck.

So the piles of laundry will have to wait. The dirty dishes will have to sit for another day. I’m going back to bed. Nighty night friends.

Oh, and the picture has nothing to do with me being sick other than it might resemble the mess all around my house. I took the picture two weeks ago at Round Top. I’ve been meaning to tell you about it and show you my pictures. I’ll show you this week as soon as this antibiotic and steroid kick in!