DIY Anthropolgie Head Band

I saw this yesterday at the mall and decided to try to make my own.
With some pipe cleaners an old T-shirt and one of Baby G's headbands I made this. I made three rosettes in varying sizes instead of two and the color is a little flashy but I like it over all.
I also experimented with false eyelashes today- now I feel just like Barbara Eden in I Dream of Genie :)

I am a soft hearted FOOL

Yesterday was an interesting day. I have had a sore throat so we have been having a lot of soup for dinner. Two nights ago we had an awesome minestrone (allrecipes) with cheese ravioli thrown in and last night I had decided to make some carrot ginger soup. This decision was largely based on the fact that I had a ton of fresh ginger. Anyway I read the reviews on the recipe and decided to only put in 1/2 of the ginger since people said it was strong. So after peeling and dicing a ton of veggies I sampled my pureed soup it and it was GROSS! The ginger about knocked me over. So I added more stock, more milk, more cinnamon and finally some sugar and it was still inedible. Stinkin' ginger. So instead we got some fast food, and watched The Blind Side on my bed. The kids were so good and Grace has been having the hardest time going to bed in her room (I think she gets scared)that I let her stay with me to fall asleep. That was where I was a big fool. So after a few hours of playing with mommy's hair and trying to sleep right on mommy, she passes out. Of course at this point John decides he is hungry and wakes up with a scream. John also decided he wanted to snack all night. He would drink two ounces then wake up an hour later a hungry mad beast. This went from 2 AM to 6 AM. Of course when John finally decides to sleep Grace is ready for breakfast. I fear the children are trying to break me with sleep deprivation. I also fear it is working because I made a nice batch of monster cookies for our breakfast!

Let the hunt begin

As I've mentioned before my little brother is getting married in August and his wedding color is going to be light green (I'm thinking they may use light yellow as an accent since a green bouquet may be tricky to pull off). So this means I have three months to find a completely fabulous outfit for the occasion. (I may also be pulling for yellow because Baby G has the cutest yellow dress.)
Here is my first option
Image this skirt with a be-ruffled white cami and a white cardigan with elbow sleeves. I would throw on a skinny yellow belt and wear some black high heels. The upside to this outfit is that my upper arms would be fully covered, a good thing for everyone concerned.
Ok, option two
I realize this looks super casual in the pic but its a little fancy with its silky top and it was super super flattering. I'd wear dangling earrings and a bling-y bracelet and nude peep toe heels with little flowers on the toes. Downside my arms would be visible :[
Option three
I'd have to figure out some sort of jacket/cardigan option and this could be a little too fancy for a summer afternoon wedding. This is my preliminary search so if you see any great light green outfits let me know. Light green is a little more difficult to find then you may think and I'm not sure about the level of fancy I need. I'll have a better idea once I see what me mother is wearing. She had a miracle shopping moment and walked into a store and found exactly what she wanted! My mother in law is coming to watch Grace on Friday so John and I are going to hit the stores then, he is totally excited.

Yum-yum-yummitty-yum!

This morning I ground wheat, for the very first time in my life. Yay for food storage skills! Anyway, with my freshly ground wheat flour I made my friend Jessica's delicious oatmeal brown sugar pancakes with candy syrup. And since these are soooo tasty (I firmly believe everyone should eat them) here is the recipe.
1/2 c plus 2 T quick oats
1/2 c whole wheat flour
1/2 c all purpose flour
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1/3 c packed brown sugar
1 egg
2 T veg. oil
1 c buttermilk (I just add a T of lemon juice to skim milk)

In a small bowl, combine all dry ingredients. Mix. In a different bowl combine all the wet ingredients. Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients until just moistened. Cook on griddle. When small bubbles surface through your batter flip those flapjacks over.
Admire the golden brown color and place on a plate.
Dowse in super healthy candy syrup and try not to lick the plate when you are done :)

Buttermilk (Candy) Syrup
1/2 c butter
1 c sugar
1/2 c buttermilk
1/4 t baking soda
1 t vanilla

In a saucepan, melt butter over med-low heat. Whisk in sugar, buttermilk, and baking soda. Barely bring to a boil (it will have a nice foam layer on top), then remove from heat and add vanilla. Serve warm over pancakes.

(I refrigerate left over syrup in a covered container in the fridge and just heat it up when it is needed.)

Query

What do you think of this necklace? too wild for a mother of two? is it wearable? would it make the perfect Mother's day gift? (hint hint neil-y-poo)

I may need it. Well, I'll have to go try it on to make sure it doesn't give me an undesirable hobbit neck but I have wanted to jump on the statement necklace band wagon for a while now. I seem to be in a wild fashion mood lately that I'm not all together sure should be trusted. I don't know what it is about spring but I tend to go wild with my wardrobe. I wore these to church today and got a myriad of comments, which makes me wonder if they were a little too jezebel-ish. But they are insanely comfortable for 4 inch heels. I have also wanted to experiment more with scarves. Not the chunky knit ones but the light I am so chic types. I'm just not sure I can pull it off without look grandmotherly. hmmm I'm just not sure.

Congratulations!!!!

My little brother got engaged last weekend. Here is the happy couple.
I'm going out to Chicago next month to help my mom plan things and I can't wait for the cake sampling to begin!

Fun in the Sun and a WINNER

Grace's cough has returned. It could possibly be my fault. I let her do this,
and this
for two hours. Whoooops! Look how cute her swim suit is though
Anyway, on to our winner. I asked G to pick a winner and this was her reaction.
So Neil had to do the honors
And the winner is........ THE EMILY! Your new baby girl is in luck. Please email me your address and I will get working on your doll.

Sierra if you are interested in ordering dolls the lady who created the pattern has a website here http://www.theblackapple.typepad.com/, you can email her from the site. Since it is a free pattern I can't make them to sell, sorry. Everybody have a great day!

Remorse

Last night, in the car, on the way home
Grace- "Mommy I am soooo mad at Daddy."
Then, almost immediately Grace turned to look at Neil and said in a super repentant voice, "Sorry Daddy."
It is fun to see her start experimenting with different emotions and expressing herself. Whenever a kid is crying she, without fail, must find me and tell me that so and so is "sad". Usually it is " oh no- baby sad." Today she tried to convince me that she would take her nap on the floor in the living room next to John. She even got her own blanket out and cuddled up next to him. Then I started talking to my mom on the phone and she escaped into my bathroom and climbed into the tub with two of my lip glosses. She decorated her face, her body, the tub, and all the tiles. Little stinker.

Introducing my new look

Here I am post mystic tan. Neil claims he sees no difference but I like to think I look gently toasted now. I must admit I was expecting a slightly more dramatic outcome and my whitey white legs look about the same but this is better then looking like Tara Reed after her horrible spray tan job. During the procedure I panicked as the spray tan clogged my air passages and breathing became more difficult. I must admit I wasn't so panicked about passing out but about having my naked post baby body dragged out by the little receptionist who had probably never seen a stretch mark in her life. utter humiliation. Luckily the spraying ceased after a few seconds and all concerned were saved and the world can go on spinning in its normal pattern.

WARNING

If you see this box in the grocery store turn and run as fast as you can!
I almost never buy boxed foods but I was craving some delicious fried rice and thought this might fit the bill.... boy was I wrong! It was slimy and weird and the peas in it were enough to make me cower in fright.
Poor little John has an ear infection and I was trapped at Kroger until his prescription was filled and that is how I fell victim to the La Choke, oh, I mean La Choy debacle of 2010. I want my $4.99 back!
Oh and tomorrow I am mystic tanning. Neil bought me a spa gift card a while back and I have finally started cashing it in. I enjoyed the hydro massage last Wednesday and next week I am trying a facial and some sort of box machine that makes you sweat and you burn 600-800 calories (I may have to do my weekly weigh in right after:). I'm a pretty pasty white girl so we shall see how this mystic turns out. Either I will be a bronzed goddess or a streaky orange doofus. Cross your fingers for the goddess.

Deep Water

I had a sad night last night. All the things that were weighing on me seemed to pile on top of each other until I felt like a huge anvil was weighing down my chest. And then I cried, and cried, and cried. And when I was done I felt a little better and fell asleep. About two years ago my dad was diagnosed with cancer, multiple myloma. He went through radiation and things looked good but a few months ago doctors found some new tumors. Now he is in the middle of chemotherapy and will be doing stem cell therapy next month. Everything was so unexpected. Growing up my dad was never never sick. I don't think he ever used any of his sick days from work. He was so invincible and now he has to go through all this physical pain. His outlook is always bright but my heart is breaking for him. It is so hard to see people you love so much suffer. I feel helpless. While I was thinking about everything that has been going on I read this from the blog A Good Grief,

"C.S. Lewis put it well when he gave us the analogy of remodeling the human soul and a living house: ' Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently, He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of--throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace.'"

This passage was so comforting. I have always known that our experiences give us important knowledge and insight but it is more difficult to keep in mind when you are in the middle of an ocean of waves beyond your control. So I read those words and took heart. I'm not sure how to end this post. I just wanted to let out some of the feelings I've been bottling up and I hope those words from C.S. Lewis can help someone else out their too.

And the winner is......... Plus a Give Away

ME!!!!!!!!

And this is what I won!

From this fabulous blog http://starterhometodreamhome.blogspot.com/
And in honor of my good luck I am going to do a give away of my own and since I have like 5 readers your odds are really good at winning!
The lucky winner will receive a handmade black apple doll (made to your specifications, eye color and hair color). Here is a picture of dolls I have made before.
and the winner will also receive a little girl purse that will match the doll which will look similar to this.

To enter leave a comment about what you would want your doll to look like and to enter a 2nd time become a follower of this blog. If you are little girl-less keep in mind these make great gifts and are real crowd pleasers at baby showers. Enter before next Wednesday, good luck to all!

Fashion Shoot

I got together with some friends and we recycled our husband's old shirts into little girl dresses using Dana's tutorial on MADE. This morning I tried to have a photo shoot with Grace but she was not cooperating.
First she wouldn't look at me
Then she wouldn't back up
Next she kept making a weird vampire mouth
Finally, this one is ok but I wish she would stand up straight
Oh wait stop
Come back

She is such a diva.

Close Call

I was hanging pictures and naviely took a step backward. Look what I stepped on!
Miraculously I didn't even get a scratch. Anyways- I gave the kids a bath before nap time and then read them a story together on g's bed- it was a hit with both kids. They are turning out to be cute little buddies. Please excuse Grace's wet do and the fact that G stole the baby's pacifier, I'm sure she would be embarrassed to know I am posting the evidence.

Way too much fun!

Grace has had the best day today. I'm afraid I might have spoiled her in one fell swoop. First we went to a wild and crazy Easter egg hunt. Apparently it was so wild a neighbor called park security! The security guy claimed they check out the parks all the time but I have been to the park a million times and never seen the security truck. My mother in law said a neighbor was covertly watching us from his pool. He must have been disappointed when the kids had already cleaned up the park before the authorities arrived. Well now I can say Grace and John have had their first run in with the law. Here is a photo of the little rowdies.

As you can see Baby John had a really wild time.
Here is Grandma Larson with the kids.


Sadly Grace fell while running and she got a goose egg at the hunt.
After that Janet and I took the kids to the outdoor mall and Grace got completely soaked at the fountain.
And the afternoon ended as any great afternoon in America must, with french fries.
PS: I just realized if you enlarge the picture of G eating a cookie there is a kid picking his nose in the background. Consider yourself warned!