Fire Fighter Princess & a Little Candy Corn too...it's tutu making time!

My sweet Logan (she is 3) is pretty funny.  I have enjoyed her Halloween costume ideas over the past month or so...here are a few:

Road

Wall

Road that turns into a Trunk

Ballerina

Princess

Couch

Fire Fighter

She finally settled on being a Fire Fighter.  So easy!  I was feeling lucky.  Then, she switched it up (after I had the hat, realized she had a yellow raincoat and cutie striped leggings that would be perfect for a little fire fighter) and decided it was back to Princess...quick thinking on my part and I excitedly said, 'ohhhh, you can be a Fire Fighter Princess, how cool is that!?!'.  She was on board. 

I decided the 'Princess' element would be a red tutu (since I had supplies on hand), which is the cutest and simplest craft EVER...

All you need is ribbon, tulle and a good pair of scissors.

I always buy spools of tulle after holiday sales (black & orange after Halloween, red, chartreuse & hot pink after Christmas) and keep it on hand, because who knows what occasion might be on the horizon that is screaming for a tutu.  I usually use a thicker ribbon, but I had this on hand.  My hands are overflowing with new house, new baby and toddler, so I was not about to make a trip for thick ribbon. 

 My point, any ribbon will do!

Cut a piece of ribbon long enough for the circumference of the intended waist, with ribbon tails hanging on each end, that will tie in a bow to secure the tutu on the person.  Cut strips of tulle (I cut 10 inch pieces) that will fold in half and attach to the ribbon (the 10 inch sections were not measured, just eyeballed.  No big deal if they are off a bit from piece to piece).

tie knots in the ribbon so you keep the tails that will tie up the tutu, tulle free.

Start at one knot and fold the tulle in half and feed the none folded ends of tulle through the loop. 

Keep repeating, until you reach the other knot!

A few ties in, many to go...

Done.  Easy Peasy!

 Logan had a Halloween parade and party at preschool

The fire fighter took a 10er at the party, but the tutu princess held down the fort and lollipop!

It warmed up for trick-or-treating on main street, so I put shorts under the tutu for the night. 

Sweet little candy corn Benny is such a trooper!  So in love my kids.

(oh and yes, his little candy corn bunter is simply 3 sections of fleece stitched together!)

I hope this tutu tutorial was easy to follow (I often confuse myself, so shout out if not!)

xoxo. 

The Sessions

The fantastic film we saw at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, The Surrogate was released in theaters last week with the new name, The Sessions. 

John Hawkes, William H. Macy and Helen Hunt. 

The starts of The Sessions.

Read part 2 of my Sundance 2012 journey to refresh your memory about this amaze-balls film.  While you are at it, you might as well read part 1 of the journey as well...because we (girls, sans our law abiding husbands) are ridic-on-a-stick that time of year (just asking for a haul away to the pokey, if  you catch my drift!)

Check out the film, and then report back.  I still predict the film and lead actors will be nominated this upcoming awards season!! 

A Room with a View

We just finished up our first week of sleeps at our new home in Golden.  It has been a whirlwind of a week (I do not recommend, if possible, moving with little ones...yikes!).  I am so excited to be here, and start nesting (and project planning for a new kitchen) and feeling out our little life as Golden residents (so far, so good).  I can't though forget the fun we had as urbanites living the last 4.5 months in downtown Denver.  We definitely took advantage of the scene (you know, walking to the children's museum...all that ragey downtown living you do with little ones!) and did lots of walking on the 16th Street Mall, took many a visits to Little Man Ice Cream (and the park across the street that we aptly named, 'ice cream park') and even got the chance to walk over and take in a ball game at Coors field (we could see the stadium from the windows of our condo). In spite of living 11 stories above the mass transit tracks (I will not miss that), I felt blessed every single time I looked out our windows at the Denver skyline (and Zac had 4.5 months of walking to and from work...not too shabby!).

The view from the living room of our 'summer housing', many thanks

to the company Zac took a job with for putting us up (and extending

our time there until we found our home) - So blessed.

It is hard to tell in the skyline picture, but Union Station is in the

foreground, and I loved sitting and looking out the window at night

when the sign was illuminated. 

Thankfully where our house is perched in Golden, we have many great views.  Zac saw bighorn sheep up the mountain off the front side of our house, when he was looking out Ben's bedroom (oh, Ben is the new addition...how quickly I forget that I am still the world's worst blogger, and that hasn't been written about).

The view from our kitchen, off the back side of our house...I am in love! 

I am really going to work my way back into blogging...for reals.  So, until next time...

What goes better with a hospital gown than a cutie new bag?

Well, I have been sitting in the hospital since Friday, and am starting to go stir crazy!!!  They admitted me because they were worried about my lungs and inflammation I have in my ribs (oh the joys of pregnancy and how it messes with our bodies!) and now, like last time, I have preeclampsia...so I will be staying put in the hospital until this little baby boy shows his face to the world.  They are working to push me to 37 weeks, which is now just a few days away.  I don't know if they will reevaluate the situation then, or just elect that he will officially join our family?  It's just crazy.  I have never felt so sick, but this evening they finally got the majority of my pain under control with a new medication and I feel like a solid 500 bucks...not quite a million bucks, but way better than the sewer penny I have felt like the last several days. 

After work, dinner and some good quality time with Logan, Zac heads to the hospital to spend a few hours with me.  We are so blessed and thankful that my mother-in-law was able to pack her bags, head to the airport and get to Denver within hours of us calling.  So blessed.  My sweet Logan is in such good hands with grammy, and she thinks that I am at the dentist.  Sweet girl.  I am not ready for her to see me, as she is doing so well with grammy and daddy, and I don't want her to be scared about all the tubes and machines I am hooked up to.  So, for now, in her little mind I am at the dentist and I am sure she is thinking I will bring her home a sucker.  I must back track and tell you why she thinks I am getting my teeth cleaned:  one of her favorite books is The Berenstain Bears Visit the Dentist and one of her favorite parts of the story is the 'spit sucker' the dentist uses to clean out brother bear's mouth.  So, in her little mind the sucker she receives every time she comes with me to the baby doctor is actually a 'spit sucker' (she actually asks my doctor for a spit sucker, after each appointment...God love her!) so she clearly thinks the baby doctor is synonymous with the dentist (she has been to the dentist, so I just go with it to keep her somewhat excited about doctor/dentist appointments...well, at least the treat she receives, of course!)

I have been searching for a great black bag for well over a year.  Today, I dedicated a chunk of my time to the continued search for the elusive bag.  I am forced to spend most of my day in bed hooked up to machines...so why not kill a little black bag bird with the bed rest stone? 

So, I think I found my bag...I won't truly know until I hold it, pop it over my shoulder, yada yada...so I made sure that shipping is covered both directions, should I decide to return...so worth it, no loss if I am not in love with it in person!  Yay!

Isn't this just fantastic?  I loooove that it is a 2 way bag...I die over cross body bags, they are my absolute favorite, but...

I am equally excited about the 'o medicine bag look of it with the little handle.  So cute, right.  I will be able to stuff loads of things in it (what I aspire to do as a mom of 2...). 

In my search I accidentally stumbled upon a cutie green bag on sale (you know I am a sucker for a sale...) and again, there is no pressure, free returns if I don't love it when I see it (green is hard to go off of on the Internet...it looks adorbsy, but who knows the reality of the color until I see it).  The brand of both bags is one of my favorites.  The leather is uber soft and the floral fabric lining is just to die for on the cuteness scale. I loooove the strap.  A bit of a thicker strap on one end...so cute! 

So I end day four in the hospital in pretty good spirits.  Although I just endured something that I think no one should ever experience, omg.  I wish I could share the story of my evening, but that would just be too much to share publicly...my poor girlfriends (and Dr. Joey) were told and they died with me...thank you cutie bags for helping me end my night on a very positive and super cute note!  

Now, if only I could make sure that Zac doesn't receive the email alert for this posting...kind of my bad for forcing him to sign up, huh!!! 



Elvis Pancakes...OMG

Everyone should be so lucky to know a pregnant lady like me (so says me).  I have crazy dreams every night, but two mornings ago I woke up nearly embarrassed to share one dream with the hubs.  I dreamed about Elvis.  Not the cute, young Elvis...but the older, chubby hunk-o-chunk of burning love...wait, it gets better.  I was his cook!!!  The dream continued on that I made him his favorite sandwich...pancake style. 

 OMG, I better have this baby soon, I am for sure turning into a truck driver!!!  I have nothing against truck drivers, I just fancy them to be crazy eaters too, since they hit up truck stops galore...ya know?!?

What you need:

Pancake Mix (do what you like, but I love me some Krusteaz, just add water)

I used 2 cups of the pancake mix to 1 & 1/3 cups water (mix as directed)

1 banana, cut length ways then across into bits

5 strips of well cooked (crunchy) bacon, crumbled

Peanut Butter Syrup Topping:

2 T. butter

1/2 cup pure maple syrup

1/4 cup natural peanut butter

(heat in microwave safe glass bowl for ~45 seconds) 

ladle batter into a pan well heated, over medium heat.

Top the batter with pieces of bacon and banana.

Wowza, yum!!!  Just wait for the delish topping! 

The heated butter, maple syrup and peanut butter (as

stated at top) thickens a bit and becomes the consistency

of scrumptious caramel.  I just decided this would be

equally delish on apple slices. 

Beautiful stack of Elvis Cakes.  Topped with peanut

butter syrup and garnished with a few chunks of banana

and bacon.  Just because. 

Yum!  Dare you not to lick the plate!

Fabrics Galore...

I saw these burp cloths on Etsy and was immediately obsessed, until I saw the asking price of $31 for a set of 4.  I do love me some chevron fabric, but I am also blessed with a mother-in-law who knows her way around a sewing machine.  All I have to do is send her a picture, or draw up an idea and she knocks it out.  How do you ever repay someone for being so generous with such a talent?

So, I googled 'chevron fabric' and found the holy grail of chevron fabrics at fabric.com.  I googled 'fabric.com coupon' and found one that saved 10% on my order, and even received free S/H...score!.

I gave my mother-in-law a quick ring to make sure this was okay.  She was game for the project, so I had the cutest stack of fabric shipped to her!  She is so sweet, she was measuring out fabric for another project I had in mind for Logan and baby (and I cannot wait for it to be completed so I can share with you all!!!  Just you wait, it is adorable!) 

Here are a few things she has whipped up for me off of ideas I had or have seen in magazines:

The curtains in Logan's old room.  I drew up what I wanted, picked

out the fabric and she whipped them up! 

My favorite old 'log cabin' quilt (to the right) that was beyond

the condition for practical use.  My mother-in-law and I  used the

old beauty  as our guide for picking new fabrics that had that same

vintage feel, to create a quilt for Logan's 'big girl bed' (to the left), that

will certainly be with her for a very long time.  Soon enough we will be

in our new house and I will share pictures of her bed, all dolled up.

This is one of the first sewing projects we worked on together.

She is a very patient instructor!  I had the idea for a pillow

for the rocking chair in Logan's room.  I decided I loved the lavender

chenille fabric so much I wanted to use it on the reverse for the

pillow cover, then the flower is stitched chenille side up. 

Another sewing lesson.  I saw a similar bird and owl

 at a store, but didn't love the fabrics.  So I picked

out my favorites, drew up patterns on newspaper and created

these cuties with my fearless instructor.

We always get out the sewing machine when the in-laws are visiting...I just need to be more confident in making stitches when she isn't visiting (soon, that must happen!!!).  Here are the cutie fabrics I just had sent off to Minnesota for her to whip up a couple cozy blankets and burp cloths for baby boy.

Just like I saw on Etsy, right?

I ordered extra of the gray chevron fabric for a

cozy blanket.

For a snuggly blanket. 

Burp cloth copycat...go ahead and call me that!

One more on the copycat train.

Too cute not to have something whipped up in this fabric!

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: Structures

I have many a cool cats in my life, and I am about to show you some kick ass structures

whipped up by two of them.

First of all let me tell you a bit about my brother, Tate.  He is an artist.  He teaches art at a college in southern Arizona.  He lives in a converted jailhouse that he bought when he moved to Bisbee and also owns loads of land down in southern Arizona.  Always one with a flair for thinking outside of the box, he started drafting ideas to build a structure on a bit of his land.  I have a hard time not thinking of the Pauly Shore classic (ahem, right) Bio-Dome when I think of a desert structure, but as Jem would say, 'this is truly, truly, truly outrageous'! 

A mock-up of the desert structure in clay.

Hollow shell.

Construction on the interior. I adore the use of glass blocks.

Roof angles for rain flow and collection.

Construction and another look at the roof angles.

Stop it, right!  The lines and shape are crazy amazing.

The area surrounding the door is recycled bottles.

I am beyond obsessed with that feature of the structure.

Local restaurants saved their recycling for Tate to utilize as

functional art.

This is what inspired me to write up this blog.  The

use of the bottles as art, light reflection.  Crazy innovative!

Close up: glass bottle bottoms

 (and a little Mother Mary, probably for good measure).

I hope you all enjoyed the little virtual 'walk through' and a glimpse inside the head of my brother, who is beyond words talented in what he creates.  I will report back upon completion.

***

The next structure I am currently obsessed with is a green house that has more meaning than just a garden growing shed.  The GREEN is also in the structure itself, as it is constructed completely of recycled windows and doors that Kurt (a chef I used to work with in Oregon) acquired for free off of craigslist. 

Free booty off of craigslist.  I would love to get my hands on

some of these windows and pop mirrors in them!!!

I only have one picture of the completed structure,

but it is totally drool worthy!!

So there you have it folks, literally think outside the box and who knows what you might come up with on your little plot of land.  I feel so inspired, can't wait to get my hands on our new home...

2 months and 1 day to go!