Life in Cleveland

February is for Finishing - Contest #2

2012-02-10T11:04:00.000-05:00

So this Feb is for Finishing is going great so far! I"m loving seeing all of the projects you guys have been finishing! Totally inspired by your work. Now if only I could get it together to finish something more substantial than some paper flowers.... Anyways I"m actually in Florida right now so I'm going to announce last Friday's winner on Monday when I get back.

On to this week's Awesome:

February is for Finishing Fabulous Prize Package #2: Cleveland Craft Coalition.

So this week's theme is the Cleveland Craft Coalition. I was inadvertently a part of one of their events once and think that what they are doing is just fantastic. So I reached out to a few of their members and they donated some truly fabulous prizes for this giveaway. And if you want to check out their wares in person they will be in Lakewood tomorrow for their Valentines Day Show.

First up is Enola's Enchanted Grove:

Liz donated a gift set of herbal soaps. They are handmade with a gentle base, botanical and essential oils, no dyes, no artificial coloring no 'fragrance' oils. They sound like a great way to pamper yourself!

Next is from Jenbuza Bags:

Her tagline is fun. funky. fabulous. And I think that about sums it up! I'm not sure what specifically she's donating just yet (will update after I pick up the prize) but I love both of her styles of bags... the up-cycled man's suit into bag is crazy cool.

Finally is the Bonsai Tree from fOUR fISH iNK:

This is a hand-pulled linoleum print, meaning that every part of the process: drawing, carving, inking and printing were all done by hand! I don't know much about that process but wow do I love the end result!

Here's the linky to enter (full list of rules and additional ways to enter are at the bottom of the post):

Happy Finishing!!!

Full Entry info and Contest Rules:

Every project that you finish in the month of February can be a new entry into one of these contests! It doesn't have to be knitting or sewing related. Anything creative that you started before February will count.

To enter post a picture of something you finished in February to the linky in this post. It doesn't have to be on a blog - flickr, facebook (hint you can find a link to share a gallery if you go to that gallery page), ravelry, will all work. If you leave the url portion of the linky blank it will give you an option to upload an image from your own computer. That's fine, too. You must also include an email address so that I know where to contact you if you win.

If you finish something made out of Destination Yarn you receive an additional entry per project.

To receive an additional entry per project: Link back to this site wherever you post your picture. (again blog, facebook, flickr, ravelry, wherever.)

To receive another entry per project: Tweet the project and a link back to this page. Include @Sourire11 so that I know that you tweeted it.

So for every project that you finish you can earn up to 4 entries into a contest!

The linky will be live until next Thursday at midnight when I will close it out and pick a winner. Then the next day I will post the contest for the next week with it's own linky.

Happy Finishing!!!

My kid's thoughts on Project Runway Plus a Story.

2012-02-09T15:54:00.000-05:00

Just a reminder that today is the last day to enter the first February is for Finishing contest! There's not too many people entered yet so your chances to win some fabulous prizes are pretty good!

So. I have NO choice in my daughter's clothing. Haven't for a long time. Every morning I tell her to go pick out what she wants to wear. And she goes to her room and lays out an outfit complete with underpants and socks just like a stylist would do. Sometimes she even adds accessories - sunglasses b/c it's pretty bright out. Or a neck-a-lace b/c it's very sparkly. And if I leave her to her own devices for long enough she'll head into her brother's room and do the same for him.

If I really get distracted by something this happens:

Dressing her kitty. I can't make this stuff up.

Anyways tomorrow we leave for our annual trip to Florida (don't worry I have my prize post for this week ready to go up tomorrow!). And my kid has been... hesitant. And by that I mean saying things like I'M NOT GOING TO GO. I finally got it out of her that she's afraid of the plane. Well then. Makes sense. So today I got out a giant bag of summer clothes that Michelle gave us hand-me-down. I told her that it was too cold out for them here but she could wear them in Florida. And that her Nonni would probably love to see her new clothes.

She then spent the morning doing this:

Running commentary: "It's warm in Florida so maybe you could wear this? Or maybe that looks better. That looks so good on you! It matches. Oh that's too many things. We have to try something different. That looks much better. I think you need a neck-a-lace. That's so cute!"

And she told me "I want to go to Florida NOW and maybe we could just leave so that I could wear My sparkly flamingo shirt."

I guess all she needs to get over a bit of anxiety about a new situation is some new clothes. Got it.

Anyways! On to what you're really here for. Her views on Project Runway:

I'm trying to decide if she has pants or a skirt. Ooooh she has a ball on her head.

Oh I like that because it has sparkly parts.

I don't see a shirt. Mommy, why she doesn't have a shirt on? Maybe her daddy didn't tell her that she has to wear a shirt.

What's that? Is that a cape? Why she wants to wear a cape? Oh it has pockets.

WOW. She has ALOT of chapstick on.

I can see her panties! It kindof looks like a Sleeping Beauty dress but she forgot the skirt part. Maybe she'll put it on later.

She looks pretty neat.

.... She had nothing to say about this look until it was shown side by side with the dress that inspired it. Then she said: Oooh I like that dress much better.

I don't like those shorts because them don't have flowers on. I have shorts with flowers on.

And her overall thoughts on this week's Runway: Why didn't they make any pretty dresses? They should make some more dresses. With lots of sparkles.

Agreed.

Valentine Flowers

2012-02-08T16:55:00.004-05:00

First of all let me say that I am loving your February is for Finishing submissions! I'm super excited that everyone is as into this as I am. And just a reminder - this week's contest closes tomorrow so get your projects in if you want to win those fabulous prizes!

So waaaay back in December the Girl and I made these awesome flowers from the Made Tutorial:

I loooved them. They were simple and cute and she had so much fun helping me make them:

she loves a good craft project:

So we hung them up as Christmas decorations.

or for the full perspective including a sleeping dog and a humidifier in the background b/c when I took these everyone in our house had a cold:

I especially liked the side view:

But! I didn't really like them as Christmas decor so much. Yeah they were the right colors... but... they seemed more like Valentines Day to me. I pictured them as a bunch of carnations. Perfect for V-day. So way back when I made a few plain red and white ones and bought a bunch of random napkins with the intention of filling our house with paper flowers:

And then Life happened. And I never got any further than that. But! It's February is for Finishing! So the other day my girl and I did this:

We didn't quite get a house full of flowers but oh do I love the finished bouquet:

Again the full shot - no dog this time b/c she was napping with the Girl in her room.

I especially like the polka dot and stripey flowers:

And the view from my spot on the couch makes me happy:

Yay for finishing something I started! And double yay for decorating that is seasonally appropriate and crazy cheap!

Superbowl Chili Dip

2012-02-05T22:19:00.000-05:00

So I didn't really have a dog in the Superbowl hunt this year. Unlike last year when as a Clevelander I had big opinions on the situation. This year? All I wanted was chili dip. And since it's the easiest recipe ever I thought I'd share it with you:

That's it. Done and fantastic. I used canned chili which while grosses me out at all other times is DELICIOUS in this. I used to use Skyline but now that I don't live in Cincinnati I feel no obligation to do that anymore.

In other news the dude said his first word kindof today:

It's sketchy since he's been saying BA for awhile... but not while holding out a ball. Anytime he saw the ball he said the word so I think it counts. We'll see if he repeats it tomorrow. But saying Ball on Superbowl Sunday is a pretty sweet first word story so I'm going with it.

Meanwhile my daughter LOVED the Madonna halftime show:

Spent the whole time prancing around on he tippy toes pretending to be wearing "tall shoes" while flailing her arms about trying to vogue:

I couldn't be prouder.

February is for Finishing - Contest #1

2012-02-03T16:21:00.000-05:00

Ok! So! Yay! We're doing this! February is for Finishing is just shaping up to be way more amazing than I ever planned it to be. Check out this week's Fabulous Prizes:

February is for Finishing Fabulous Prize Package Week #1: Knitting Notions.

First up is this adorable project bag:

Seriously cute. I can't even handle how much I love the colors.

From the fantabulous Lisa of the Etsy Site Sunshine Walks. Her store is full of notions bags and box bags every bit as cute as this one. She has a great sense of color and style and I'm thrilled she wanted to donate a prize!

The second part of this prize package is "something special" from Pam of Pretty Knitty Jewelry:

Just a small sample of the awesome that is Pretty Knitty Jewelry.

Her 100 row knitting counters are straight up genius. I've never seen another counter like this out there - you can keep track of 100 rows of knitting! Crazy that. And the charms at the end are hand sculpted -no paint, no molds. She's working to create something specific for this contest and I'm sure whatever it is will be fantastic.

Here's the linky to enter (full list of rules and additional ways to enter are at the bottom of the post):

Happy Finishing!!!

Full Entry info and Contest Rules:

Every project that you finish in the month of February can be a new entry into one of these contests! It doesn't have to be knitting or sewing related. Anything creative that you started before February will count.

To enter post a picture of something you finished in February to the linky in this post. It doesn't have to be on a blog - flickr, facebook (hint you can find a link to share a gallery if you go to that gallery page), ravelry, will all work. If you leave the url portion of the linky blank it will give you an option to upload an image from your own computer. That's fine, too. You must also include an email address so that I know where to contact you if you win.

If you finish something made out of Destination Yarn you receive an additional entry per project.

To receive an additional entry per project: Link back to this site wherever you post your picture. (again blog, facebook, flickr, ravelry, wherever.)

To receive another entry per project: Tweet the project and a link back to this page. Include @Sourire11 so that I know that you tweeted it.

So for every project that you finish you can earn up to 4 entries into a contest!

The linky will be live until next Thursday at midnight when I will close it out and pick a winner. Then the next day I will post the contest for the next week with it's own linky.

Happy Finishing!!!

February is for Finishing Kickoff

2012-02-01T21:42:00.000-05:00

It seems that quite a few of you actually want to play along with this February is for Finishing idea. Yay!!! So I decided to make a whole party out of it and have contests and prizes and linkys and all sorts of fun stuff. Yay for playing along! And check it out - we even have a button:

and a mascot:

Feel free to post wherever!

Here's how this is going to work:

Every Friday in February I'm going to have a linky party on this blog. You can enter once for each creative project you finish in February. It doesn't need to be knitting or sewing related - anything creative will do. As long as it's something that you started and worked on before Feb. All you will need to enter is a photograph of your finished project - you should be able to directly upload it here (for those of you without blogs/ravelry/flickr/facebook/whatever). I'm working with a few Etsy sites to get the prizes together and so far they are looking pretty awesome.

Btw - If anyone is interested in donating anything to the prizes please let me know! I'd love to have this be super filled with swag.

If you want to play along on twitter use the #FebisforFinishing hashtag and I'll be sure to find you.

I also might have a prize for the project finished that's been kicking around the longest. Stay tuned for details on that one.

This picture has nothing to do with anything but it cracks me up every time I look at it. Ears and hair match!

Yay for Finishing things in February! Ok... off to get something accomplished.

February is for Finishing

2012-01-31T11:51:00.000-05:00

So lately my knitting situation has looked like this:

Yeah I have alot of unfinished projects. Or UFO's as they are known in the knitting world. I'm pretty much buried in them. Check it out:

This would be 4 unfinished knitting projects that I was able to assemble for this photograph without getting up off of my spot on the couch. SHAME.

I'm surrounded by ziploc baggies filled with good intentions. I'm in this awful cycle where I start something super excited about it. Find time to work on it a few times. And then get derailed and am too tired/distracted/overwhelmed to even think about it. By the time I have a chance to go back to whatever it was I'm over it and on to the next shiny.

Pintrest does not help this problem.

And the worst part is that because I have so many unfinished things I just feel guilty about all of it. I feel guilty for starting something new b/c I really should finish something I already have going. Then I feel guilty for working on something I'm not enjoying because I have so little free time why am I spending it on something that's not completely awesome. And what ends up happening is that I just don't knit at all anymore. And that's just fucking awful.

So! I've declared February as Finishing month. I am going to get a handle on this. I am not going to start anything new. The month is only 29 days long so I should be able to handle it. Right?

February is for Finishing Rules:

1.) I will not start any new knitting or sewing projects for the entire month of February.

2.) I will only work on unfinished projects that I have already started. No cheating - it has to be something I've actually worked on. Not just thought about working on.

3.) There is no shame in frogging. If I don't like something I'm working on I can just frog it. I'm not sure why I feel bad about that. But I always do. So this month I won't. If I'm not interested I will rip with abandon and put the yarn back in my stash where it can find a new and happier purpose.

4.) There is no guilt in February. I will not feel bad about myself when I uncover projects that have been abandoned for embarassing amounts of time. Or ones that I forgot about completely. Or ones that only have one stupid little thing to do on them before they are done. I will only feel happy that I am finishing them not guilty that it took so long.

And I"m throwing in two very specific to me rules:

5.) I will not let the child distract me. She's as a bad as I am with the crafting ADD. I will not listen to her siren song when she says things like "I think maybe we could make this into a dress."

6.) Dye doesn't count. I have tons of really cool things coming up with Destination Yarn so I"m going to be dying like a madwoman for most of Feb. I'm allowed to be as ADD with that as I want to because usually my random let's see what happens colorways are the most fun:

That's it. If anyone out there wants to play along with me shout out in the comments. I may try to do some sortof contest or something depending on how ambitious I am. There might be yarn involved.

Yay February!

The Black Leeow Hat

2012-01-30T17:29:00.001-05:00

So my kid has a thing for black kitties:

Taking her Main Kitty for a twirl around the dance floor

So when she outgrew her Unfinished Hat (I never did block it) I knew I wanted to make her one of these:

Kitty Hat. Here on Ravelry.

I had big plans of getting it done for Christmas but of course that didn't happen. Instead she took it out for it's inaugural run during the crazy warm weather we had in early January:

We're at Rocky River Park in these pictures... one of my fav's in Cleveland. It's right on the lake which is as always awesome:

And the equipment is all accessible by stairs - great for a mom who is watching a little one and doesn't want to have to keep lifting a toddler up to the slides.

Although if daddy is there he is happy to help her learn to climb.

So the specifics on the hat... It's the Official Kittyville Hat pattern out of the Stitch 'n Bitch books. It's available free through Ravelry here. I ended up changing a bunch of things, though (of course I did):

I knit it from the top down following the directions for Thorpe (also a free pattern) because I didn't like the seam between the hat and the earflaps with the pattern as written. It's all about the details (see also: I need to get my OCD on somewhere). That way I could just knit the earflap stitches straight down from the body of the hat w/o any seam.

I also knit it over 82 stitches instead of the pattern's 84. I wanted it to be a bit smaller than the pattern but not so small that she'd grow out of it any time soon. The earflaps and Kitty Ears are the same as called for in the pattern, though.

I added a double crochet edge around the whole thing like the Thorpe pattern. And I did the ears in two colors. The pink is in stockinette instead of seed stitch b/c to me the insides of kitty ears are smooth not bumpy.

The yarn is Patons Classic Merino. And because my kid likes all things sparkley I added in some Patons Brilliance, too. I held the two yarns together but only knit with the brillance on every other row. So the sparkle is subtle but noticeable.

x

She LOVES this hat. And while it's a bit big on her still:

I know that just means she'll get more than one season's use out of it. Yay for handknits!

And how about some bonus pictures of Lake Erie from Rocky River Park. Love me some Lake Erie.

Cleveland Aquarium Visit

2012-01-23T23:52:00.000-05:00

So we took our family to the brand-spanking new Cleveland Aquarium:

It's located in the old Powerhouse in the flats. We actually had our wedding reception at Windows so I have a bit of an affection for this place:

And lived at the Bingham in the background. Funtimes.

The powerhouse is a really interesting building and I was excited to see it used in this way. It's been a million and a half things since they redid it as an entertainment complex but I think this is by far the coolest:

The exhibits were really well done. My kid especially liked the "Kitty Fish" (any fish with whiskers) in the Ohio Lakes and Rivers exhibit. And we watched the stingrays for a long, long, long, long time.

One of the neatest things about the aquarium is how they use the building.

Tanks are tucked in underneath brick arches:

Exhibits are arranged around long, vaulted passageways:

And they give you peeks at the iconic smokestacks:

Lobsters? In the smokestack? I don't quite get it but it looks cool so I'll run with it.

The interactive tank was impressive but also super crowded. I'm going to guess that will get better with time:

My kid: I touched alot of things. A spiny thing. And a bug thing. And... I didn't pet a shark.

But all of it was leading up to the grand finale. The shark tank:

It was HUGE. The sharks were HUGE. And had TEETH:

The shark tank (and all of the tanks, actually) was really, really cloudy. I'm told that it will get clearer with time but I'm glad we got to experience it while it was still murkey. Made the whole thing seem unreal and extra spooky:

My kid before bed that night: "I liked the sharks but I was a little afraid that they were going to eat my brother."

The last thing before exiting through the giftshop is the underwater tunnel:

It goes on for-ev-er. In a good way. And while everything was still murky so we couldn't see much we did have a school of stingrays swim directly over us:

How. Cool. Is. This?!

My biggest complaint* is that it wasn't what I was expecting based on my knowledge of the building. I wanted to see fishtanks set against sweeping views of the river and the flats. Like the logo depicts:

But that never happened. I also expected some ridiculous spaces in terms of vertical volume but that never happened either. Everything was pretty much one story, in the basement. They made the decision to use the old Rock Bottom Brewery as the snack shop and didn't claim any of those spaces for exhibits. I was picturing tanks where the old brew kettles were.

Why are there not giant tanks everywhere in here? It would have been so cool!

But I'll give them a pass considering that I know nothing at all about the requirements for aquariums. When I had an algae bloom in our sad little home setup the first thing they asked me was "is it near a window?" So I'm guessing that on this big of a scale natural light and heat need to be really carefully controlled. Probably not possible in a space with sweeping views of downtown.

Bummer.

Overall though it was a really cool place. We ended up buying a membership (it pays for itself in 2 trip) and I plan on taking the kids again soon.

I liked the fish.

*Not the stroller controversy. Seriously, people. Not everywhere can accommodate strollers. There are narrow hallways and big crowds. It is not an affront to families or anti-children. It is simple math. Although it would have been nice if they had a coat check. Or even the ability to run out to the car if necessary (they have a no-reentry policy). As it stands most of the parents there looked like pack-mules (kids in carriers! Diaper bags! Coats for everyone! We have to carry all of the things!).

Project Runway Recapped by a Toddler

2012-01-20T16:03:00.000-05:00

Ok so. This weeks installment of What My Toddler Thinks about Project Runway is admittedly much less fantastic than last week's amazing. She was out partying too late last night and is a bit cranky today. Plus I made the error of allowing her to see some of the sewing room portion of the show. Which meant she was no longer interested in watching dresses because she wanted to make one of her own.

This mainly involved cutting up pieces of yarn and then holding them up to her stuffed animals saying "What a pretty dress"

The second the show was over she begged me to go upstairs to my studio where she wanted to draw and then sew.

My sewing machine may be a toy but I can out design any of you people. Have you seen my squirrel-y dress?

Anyways! On to her commentary:

..... (She had nothing to say about this dress whatsoever.)

It's kindof a Malificent dress... kindof... I don't like this dress.

It has alot of lines.

Where's the rest of her dress?

That's pretty silly.

I don't like this dress.

Oh wow! Look at her Hat! (and then she went and put on a tutu) It looks like a hat!!!

That dress has some things on it. I like her crown. That's a beautiful crown!

It looks like a touchdown (football jersey). She has some boots on! She needs a coat and a hat on.

That's pretty awesome. It's so shiny! I like this dress.

She looks like big bird!

So the shiny dress was her clear favorite. And I'm just going to go ahead and say that her lackluster commentary was because of the lacluster dresses. Nothing was all that amazing this week. I actually did like Mila's dress as a dress but now that my daughter has called it a football jersey I can't see anything else. The fabric completely looks like football jersey fabric. Crazy that.

Making Friends.

2012-01-19T16:12:00.000-05:00

A blog about blogging! And facebook! What could be more intersting? And when I tweet the link to this I will have created a turducken of social media!

So I"m doing this thing via the Secret to Success is Support Girls called 31 Days to Build a Better Blog. I'm only on day 4 but so far it has inspired a few changes around here. Meaning... drumroll...

I actually, finally have an About Me page!

Crazy that. I also have added some fancy tabs at the top to try to organize my content like a grown up blogger would. They need some work. The blogroll especially needs some help. But it will get there.

Also fun an exciting and all of that....

Life in Cleveland now has a facebook page!

Not sure what I'll do with that yet. Probably just post updates there when I update here. In case you like to get your blog feed on that way. Please like me?

Speaking of begging people to like me... The day 3 challange was to find a blogging buddy. I'm a little fuzzy on what that means but I'm guessing it's someone who you can hang out with and watch crappy reality tv. Or you know... help promote each others blogs. One of the two. And then I realized that the latest post up on my blog - the first thing all of these new people who were assessing if they wanted to be friends with me or not would see - was a post about me making a drunken fool out of myself and then getting food poisoning.

Right. I win at social media.

Fortunately 3 bloggers wanted to play along with me. So in the spirit of being a good blog buddy here's a little bit about them:

First is Amanda over at Raising Miss Mommy. She blogs about raising a baby girl. Her latest post about a parenting bucket list really got me thinking.

Next is Billie over at The Unexpected Mother. She has two little boys and considering that she mentions Kaluha in her About Me paragraph I have a feeling we're going to be BFF's.

Finally is Kisha over at Untagged Seeds. This blogger freaked me out because SHE IS ME. No seriously. There are two of us. She was an architect, went on maternity leave, and then never went back, has a fiber-related Etsy site, was a charter member of APX at her school, and lives on a Great Lake in the rust belt. I read her profile outloud to my husband and he thought I was talking about me. Yeah.

So Yay for making new friends! And double Yay because tonight is Project Runway. I can't wait to see what my kid thinks of it!

She wants me to make her Madeline doll a fancy skirt. Seriously.

The last 48 hours.

2012-01-16T22:27:00.001-05:00

So. Wow. Where to begin. The last 48 hours have been insane. How 'bout I start at the beginning.

Sat morning we decided to take advantage of the snow and take our kids on a sledding adventure. I crowdsourced twitter for ideas on where to go and the overall recommendation was the Westlake Recreation Center. Done and Done:

I also found this awesome website for all of your Ohio sledding needs.

Superfuntimes sledding. But as things go we left the hill with both kids completely melting down and hungry. So we made the grave error of stopping at KFC for some quick 'n easy lunch.

Bad Idea. But I"ll get to that.

So we ate our lunch, laughed at how much our daughter went crazy over the popcorn chicken (clearly she is not very familiar with the ways of fast food. I intend to keep it that way), and went on with our day.

Later we dropped the kids off at my parents house for a night of fun with the grandparents. And I got to dust off (literally) my cocktail shaker and make myself one of these:

The Perfect Citron Cosmo.

Matt was feeling a little under the weather but I gave him the SERIOUSLYMANUPWENEVERGETOUTEVERAAAAH. Speech and away we went. Bad Idea #2 but I'll get to that one as well.

So we met up with some of our friends at the Church Bar - which, totally recommend if you're looking for a "mix" bar in Cleveland. Superfuntimes. Couple of thoughts: If you order a Citron Cosmo with the disclaimer "I know this is SO 2005 but..." you will make fast friend with the bartenders. Also watching Tebow get his ass handed to him was extra super fun at a "mix" bar.

Somewhere during the night Matt decided that he REALLY wasn't feeling well (DANGER, WARNING, DANGER) and left me to fend for myself / make lots and lots of new friends. And Oh did I have a ball. I got to find out what a "mix" bar was from the manager ("A bar where everyone feels welcome." "So, like, a bar." "Well more welcoming than that." "So one with alcohol?" I am a bit slow sometimes), challange the bartenders to their cosmo making skills earning myself a free one in the process, and compare iphones with a group of gay men (Grinder. DUDE.). Which resulted in many of these:

I consider it a monument to my self restraint that I only posted one random filmstrip of my new BFF's to facebook.

Eventually I made it home. The second I walked in the door it hit me. I remember at one point thinking 4 martinis in 5 hours does not equal worshiping the porcelain god drunk. It equals thinking you're fantastic drunk. And I am too fantastic to be this sick. Plus why is Matt puking in the other room? There's something wrong with this picutre.

I'll spare you all of the puking in stereo details of the next few hours but suffice it to say both of us ended up in the hospital with a serious case of food poisoning. And my poor parents got to relive what it's like to have a sick and puking toddler. Luckily the little dude was spared the horrors of the situation.

Which means 2 things:

It was the popcorn chicken.

And I will never, ever, EVER eat KFC ever again.

So yeah. That happened. Thankfully we're all on the mend now.

What a crazy weekend.

My 2.5 year old's thoughts on Project Runway

2012-01-13T11:30:00.000-05:00

So since our plans were cancelled I declared today a SNOW DAY. Meaning same rule bending as a sick day - lots of movies! picnics in the living room! All of the craft supplies out at the same time! Mommy in a tutu! It's crazy around here. Anways before I let my kid put in a movie I wanted to watch the last 15 min of Project Runway Allstars that I had fallen asleep for the night before. I figured she'd at least be partially into it since the challange was couture (or as described by one of the contestants "prom dresses turned up a notch") I explained the concept that they would pick their favorite dress and send the worst dress home.

She made me rewind and watch the runway 2 more times.

Don't let the monkey jammies fool you. This kid knows her couture.

I typed up her reactions to the gowns for your amusement:

Looks like a Sleeping Beauty Dress! Why she have a bib on? Is she eating some lunch? I don't like the polka dot bib.

Ooooh I like that one. Looks like the hair movie (Rapunzle). It's very sparkly. But she doesn't have long hair. No. That's my favorite dress.

I don't like a dress. What a pretty neck-a-lace! It's very sparkly. I have a sparkly neck-a-lace but not SO sparkly.

LOOK AT THOSE SHOES! Mommy, LOOK AT THEM. I need some shoes like that. They are very tall. I will be way up a sky!

(this designer kept referring to her dress as a Cinderella dress) That's not a Cinderella dress. It has too many colors for Cinderella. I like the purple and orange. Cinderella does not like purple and orange.

She looks like a birdy.

That dress has sparkly kitty fabric! It's fantastic.

She should go home because that dress looks like my tent.

(unsure of this one) Do you like this dress, Mommy? I like the arm tights.

I'm tired of this dress. (when I asked her to elaborate she explained) It looks like all of the dresses everywhere all the time.

The stepmothers ripped that dress apart! It's not very pretty because they ripped it all up.

It's a Malificent dress!!! They wouldn't send Malificent home. No. She has horns!

Her clear favorites were the Rapunzle dress and the Malificent dress. I can't say I disagree with her. And based on this commentary - and the fact that Miss Piggy is the guest judge next week - I see lots of mother/daughter viewings of Project Runway in our future. I love this kid.

Proof I love my Husband.

2012-01-08T17:46:00.002-05:00

So big Christmas wrapup post coming... along with some fun knitting stuff. But all of that got put on hold because today the Steelers are in the playoffs. Which meant that today the kids are wearing the new gear they got for Christmas. Which means that I had to try to take a picture of them in their adorable matching outfits. As I've mentioned before, my daughter does not usually wear matching outfits.

It went exactly as well as you would think it would:

My kids are crazy.

I"m glad I didn't fight the battle of the hair tie with my daughter. Crazy hair is the least of our problems here:

Although it's certainly not helping anything.

I did catch a couple of cute smiles.

And a few shots where neither of them looks deranged:

Nothing amazing but good enough to print for Matt's desk at work.

I am not in any of the photographs because I do not wear Steelers gear unless they are in the Super Bowl.

Go Browns! (and Steelers too, I guess)

Mall Santa. 2011.

2011-12-22T10:35:00.000-05:00

I'm borrowing my grandma's pictures for this post since I didn't have any hands free to bring my own camera:

So! Time for our annual trip to see the Mall Santa (here's 2009 and 2010). This year my grandma made them adorable matching red corduroy outfits to wear. So when I was telling my daughter what the plan was for the day I said something along the lines of "you'll put on your red dress from Nonni and we'll go to the mall to see her" Specifically not mentioning S-A-N-T-A. Considering her current line on him is "I DON'T WANT HIM IN MY HOUSE" it seemed prudent not to tell her she was going to have to ... gasp.. sit on his lap. Also when you break it down the santa myth is pretty damn terrifying. I haven't been pushing the issue.

(see also: he sees you when you're sleeping = NIGHTMARES)

Anyways!

All morning she was a holy terror. Fits and fights and all of the ugly that a 2.5 year old is capable of. She doesn't usually act that way. I guessed that she got wind of the whole Santa meet and greet and was having a complete freakout via acting out. So I sat her down for a little chat:

Me: What's up sweetie? Why are you acting like this?

Her: lip quivering

Me: It's ok honey you can tell mommy anything and we'll try to fix it.
Her: clearly trying not to cry but eyes filling up
Me: Sweetie it's alright. Whatever it is we can handle it.

Her: bursts into tears

I DON'T WANT TO MATCH MY BROTHER!!

Oh. Ok then. Matching outfits are HIGHLY UPSETTING and filled with much sadness, woe, and bad behavior. Clearly she must be a special little sparkly and fashion forward snowflake at all times. And here I was trying to force her to wear the same thing as someone else. Poor kid.

I let her pick out a dress to wear after that. No point torturing a kid with corduroy.

On to the mall!

She loved the train even if she was a bit unsure at first:

And loved riding the escalator over and over again with Pappa Nonni:

But when we got to Santa? "I DON'T' WANT TO SIT NEXT TO HIM. I DON'T WANT TOO. NO. PLEASE NO." My mom tried to talk her down and reason with her but I saw the look of terror in her eye, knew that there was no way it was going to happen without brute force, and just went for it:

That'll work.

I think she acutally had a really good time, though. Despite the whole S-A-N-T-A part. And the trip was beyond worth it for this:

Before his sister got involved he was actually pretty into it.

because of this:

My first Christmas, My son's first Christmas. You're not seeing double.

Perhaps next year she won't be as terrified... although flipping back through previous years she's never been down with this Santa thing. Or the matching outfits now that I think about it..

My Mom's Memory Card.

2011-12-21T21:56:00.002-05:00

I'm sorry, mom. I had to.

So. My mom does not have what she calls the photo gene. She takes terrible pictures and doesn't ever think to do it since my dad is a straight up photographs in jured shows photographer. Anywyas she accidentally left her camera at my house after visiting santa yesterday and I thought it would be super funny to download her card.

It also could end in disaster.

I figured/hoped that most of them would be of my children. But you really never know.

Here's what I found:

This pic is from November 2010. So we're to assume that she a.) hasn't downloaded her pictures and b.) hasn't taken enough pictures to fill a card in OVER A YEAR.

Then we have exactly seven pictures from my brother's wedding (Dec 31, 2010). All terrible and all for some reason cake related:

Then inexplicably several images of the gargoyles in her backyard.

Maybe she was trying to be arty?

Then some of my daughter doing a craft at her house. Including this awesome:

I will paint ALL OF THE THINGS.

Then two pictures that I can't believe I"m even posting:

Taken on March 18. Oh so pregnant and my daughter's leg was oh so broken. But we're at the zoo! Having fun! On the phone with a doctor's office! Sigh.

I don't... i can't... wow.

Then a few from her trip with my grandma. I posted the group to flickr b/c I know my mom will never share them (or even download them, I guess):

And then, finally, a few really fantastic shots of their new dog:

After that it was me using the camera so I won't include them in this. Nothing nearly as fun as the last time I downloaded a mystery memory card. But still pretty amusing.

Tomorrow? Actual Christmas related content! Yay!

Just a Pillowcase Dress... Except.

2011-12-07T21:05:00.001-05:00

So this is just a basic Pillowcase Dress:

There's a million billion tutorials for these online and at this point I don't even know which one I used. It's made out of corduroy so that's fancy, I guess. But overall just a pillowcase dress.

Except.

My almost-3 year old made it.

No, really. She picked out the fabric (Squirrel-ys!), was adamant that the straps be Black Leow (black like a kitty), and sat on my lap while we sewed every seam. She was careful not to get her hands too close to the needle as we fed the fabric in and was completely in awe when I showed her the finished product.

It's just a simple, basic, pillowcase dress. But I couldn't be prouder.

Hanging out with my cousin on Thanksgiving.

Three Stories - Wordful Wed

2011-11-30T15:37:00.001-05:00

So a couple of weeks ago I did a Wordless Wednesday (and looking at those pictures still makes me smile)... today I thought I'd try the opposite and do a Wordful Wednesday. A post with no pictures - very odd for me. And kindof hard for a visual person like myself to do... It's fun to experiment, and makes me think about the blog in a new way which is always good...Anyways! I give you:

Three parenting stories that were too long to fit into a tweet:

So Matt was home sick yesterday with the death cold that has our entire household at a standstill. With the prospect of bedtime looming I punted for dinner and made a Chipotle run. Of course my daughter wanted to come with me. I didn't want to bring her but couldn't explain why so threw her in the car anyways. This was the car ride home:

"I want my tia (tortilla)." "do you have my tia mommy?" "can I please have my tia?" "where's my tia." "Is my tia in the front seat?" "Can you give it to me?" "But I want to eat it NOW."

Oh. That's why.

But the Chipotle love isn't limited to the 2 year old. Her little brother? Whined between bites because we couldn't get the black beans into his facehole fast enough.

Honestly sometimes I think my kids are just my Id running free. I totally wanted to tear into my burrito in the car and eat it as fast as humanly possible.

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This conversation happened the other day:

"Take this book, Mommy, because it's for Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving is over. We past it."

"yup. Past it. It's Christmas time now."

"Not yet. Not Christmastime yet. Almost. I have to clean my room then we can put the Christmas tree. And I haveta ask Santa for the Frog Moonie Moonie, and a Beauty and the Beast Book, and some New Crayons, and I haveta say Please."

So she has that all figured out.

I ordered all of the items on her list that night.

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A guy cut me off and stole my parking space at the store the other day. I was IRATE. He waved. To which I showed great restraint considering I have two kids in the car and responded:

"Wave? Really?!!! Wave!!! Yeah I have a finger to wave at you, buddy."

"What finger, Mommy?"

Uh huh...

Cake Mix Hack - Pumpkin Cupcakes

2011-11-22T16:40:00.001-05:00

So. I suck at baking. Something about the precise measuring and mixing just doesn't work for me. Basically I'm TERRIBLE at following directions w/o trying to get all creative and change things up. Which doesn't really work when you're trying to make something as precise as... cookies. However I now have a kid who loves to bake. Enter the Cake Mix Hack:

Cake Mix Hack - screwing with and/or adding stuff too a box of cake mix to make it even more delicious. Also works with canned frosting.

And in honor of Thanksgiving this week I thought I'd share with you my latest hack.

Crazy Easy Pumpkin Cupcakes:

Ingredients:

1 box of yellow cake mix and things it calls for (usually 3 eggs and some oil)
1 - 15 oz can pumpkin
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 jar cream cheese frosting

Make the box cake mix just like it says in the directions except repace the water with the can of pumpkin. Add in the spices. Bake according to package directions.

Frost with cream cheese frosting.

Decorate with sprinkles (or have your kid do it for you):

Done! Easy, delicious, and perfect for Thanksgiving.

Wordless Wednesday - Leaves!

2011-11-16T15:18:00.001-05:00

Bleachable Moment.

2011-11-09T15:51:00.000-05:00

So when I read this writing prompt from Chlorox:

Spending time with friends and family can lead to fun and memorable moments, but also some very messy ones. Tell us about the messiest moments that you’ll always remember!

I immediately thought of all of the many pictures I have of my kid covered in paint:

Pics range from April 2010 - last month.

And all of the many times that I have let my love of art and my excitement that my daughter is so into drawing and painting get in the way of common sense. Like that time she drew on the dog:

Proof that it's a bad plan to leave a 19 month old alone with a box of markers. Or that we have the most tolerant dog ever.

Or that time we dyed Easter eggs in September:

Now she wants to dye them anytime we make hardboiled eggs. Kid likes color as much as her mom does.

You know. Cute stories. Not gross stores. But sill "messy" stories.

But then? My kid got sick. Real sick. Flu sick. The kind where you wash every set of sheets you own twice with in 24 hours sick.

And then I remembered what a true bleachable moment is.

Half asleep on a splashzone of towels. Spoiler Alert: the towels only kindof worked.

A bleachable moment is when you are in a fit of rage storming through your house clorox wiping everything in your path.

Because even though I had washed all the gross laundry, cleaned the toilet and the rest of the bathroom, scrubbed the rug & couch, washed the floor and aired out the house something STILL smelled like puke. I believe my tweet about sums it up:

i've scrubbed everything that i can - couch, floor, carpet, etc. but the living room still smells vaguely like puke. #burnitdown

She's feeling better now but the puking continues. No fever. No dehydration scares. Just random projectile vomit. The doctor's advice? Just wait it out. Awesome.

I did eventually find the source of the puke smell, though:

I don't even want to know why the dog smells like puke. No good can come of that investigation.

And yes, I totally used wipes to clean the dog.

I received information about Clorox’s Bleach It Away campaign and am sharing my messy moment for the chance to win prizes from The SITS Girls. To learn more about the messy moment program, check out www.BleachItAway.com. Sharing your story on the Clorox fan page gets you entered for the chance to win $25,000 and daily prizes, and you can grab a coupon for Clorox® Regular Bleach.

Baby's First Haircut

2011-11-07T10:00:00.000-05:00

Disclaimer: Some of these photos are a bit overedited and uneven. I recently discovered the CoffeeShop Blog's free actions for Photoshop Elements and I"m still getting the hang of them. They are a great add to my usual Pioneer Woman Actions, though!

So on Saturday our little man had his first haircut.

I could get all sentimental or be all sad but really? It was beyond time:

He passed the cute crazy baby hair sometime around Fourth of July when my brother commented that he looked like a hockey player. Since then his mullet has become as long and free as one you would see at Walmart. In 1990. Also he had this weird stick-y up part in the back that kindof made him look like a rooster:

I debated just chopping off the back myself but babies flail alot. So we took him to our local barber shop (the one at Kamms Corners. I can't find a website... or even a name but Matt's been going there for years) and let the professionals fix him up.

I don't usually go for the black and white but with the stripes and the barbershop thing I'm kindof digging it.

The end result? ADORABLE.

He looks so much older. Like a little boy and not just a baby. Although perhaps some of that is contextual:

I may only be 6 months old but I'm better at this football thing than half of the Browns.

Yay for haircuts!

Peter Pan & Tinker Belle Halloween.

2011-11-01T13:43:00.000-05:00

First of all to get this out of the way... did I try to make the Prudent Baby Tinkerbelle costume that everyone has been Pinning?

Yes.

Did my toddler completely and totally refuse to wear it? Of course. But at least I realized that it wasn't going to happen and bailed before I spent too much time finishing it.

Did she also refuse to wear the tutu without some tweaks? Obviously.

IT'S TOO FOOFY. TINKER BELLE DOESN'T HAVE WHITE. PLEASE TAKE THE WHITE OFFA THERE. PLEASE.

My toddler is the most picky client ever. But the end result?

Flipping adorable.

And honestly noone would be able to see the costume under her coat anyways.

Peter pan came out pretty adorable, too:

I used the tutorial from Make It and Love It with a few tweaks. I didn't have a feather or a buckle so I made those from felt. And the sword is a bit different than she describes. Hilarious, though. Totally made the costume especially since he brandished it so well:

Heh.

Trick or Treating was superfun times this year.

She was so, SO excited about the candy:

And I got a family pic with the kids in their costumes and our pumpkins:

And even a few with both kids together (holy logistics, batman!):

Although I think next year I will be alot more tempted to just buy a damn costume.

Oh and in case you were wondering what Matt and I were for our friend's Halloween this year....

People who were awesome in 1991.

Yes those are Hard Rock pins and fanny packs, Yes that is a hypercolor sweatshirt, and Yes that is Crystal Pepsi. Or a vodka tonic in a Pepsi bottle I relabeled. One of the two.

Happy Halloween!!!

A bag of Tulle and Wine.

2011-10-29T13:28:00.000-05:00

So I've seen the new sew tutu tutorials all over the interwebs before and I figured that it would be the perfect quick 'n dirty Tinker Belle costume.

And after the Maleficent debacle I needed quick 'n dirty.

So I showed up at my friend's house for Knit Night (a group of my girlfriends gets together once a month and "knits" aka drinks wine and eats pizza.) carrying a couple packages of elastic, my tulle stash, and a giant bottle of wine with no other plan then I NEED TO BE DONE WITH THIS OMFG PASSTHEWINE.

The result?

Jennifer got a new hat.

I think I need to roll with tulle and wine everywhere I go from now on.

Without turning this into too much of a tutorial - because seriously there are SO MANY of these out there. Google "new sew tutu" and you will be INNUNDATED. Here's what I did:

I cut the 1/2" elastic into a 21 inch length. I figured my daughter has about a 20" waist and I wanted some overlap. Then I safety pinned it into a circle. Probably sewing it would be better but whatevs.

Then I cut the tulle into 4" strips. Since cutting tulle makes the baby Jesus cry I cheated and rolled the tulle into tubes first. Then I cut those tubes into 4" pieces. It doesn't come out perfect but it is SO quick and easy. (hey there's a video for this already online! Check itout.)

Then I put my elastic around a stand-in toddler waist:

What. you use what you've got.

And looped the strips of tulle over the elastic in a slip knot (the same video shows this)

I kept going until the pizza got there and the result was pretty darn awesome:

I even had enough tulle leftover to make my friend's daughter her very own tutu:

Now I kindof want to make one in ever color of the rainbow. And one (or 7) for myself.

I'm not totally convinced it's going to work for Tinker belle, though... I have something else in mind for that. Yes.

My mommy is insane.

Maleficent for Halloween.

2011-10-27T15:02:00.000-05:00

I wrote this post last Friday but never finished it. I'm posting it now b/c it sets up the next few posts nicely.

So a few months ago Sleeping Beauty was on in the background while my toddler and I were looking at her photo album. This picture from last Halloween came up:

And so I asked her "what do you want to be for Halloween this year?"

She responded without missing a beat: MALIFICENT.

And so it began. From then on any time I asked her about Halloween she said definitively: MALIFICENT HALLWEEN. Later it expanded b/c when I asked her what her brother should be she told me BLACK BIRDIE. Because, of course. Maleficent sidekick is her black bird just like my daughter's sidekick is her brother.

Riding around the living room in a laundry basket is WAY more fun with a sibling.

I jumped on this costume idea like a fat kid on a doughnut.

Of course I decided to make these costumes because they don't exactly make Malificent in a 2T. Also I'm insane like that. So we went to the fabric store (still one of her favorite places to go) and she vetoed the fleece I picked out "NOT VERY SHINY." in favor of this:

Shiny fabric, over a month to make the costumes, and an idea that was both hilarious and awesome? Totally on top of this Halloween thing.

AND THEN.

I made this wonderful, lined, spectacular, shiny Maleficent coat:

And she refused to wear it. What the what? I didn't think too much about it and continued to make this awesome hat for her brother:

And we had so much fun putting it on him and getting him to crow like a bird.

Hilarity all around.

But she still wouldn't wear the coat. Finally I resorted to bribery and got her to put it on thinking once she was in it we'd be good to go:

I DON'T WANT TURN INTO A DRAGON!!! GET THIS OFFAA ME!!!

And then that night she had nightmares.

I AFRAID MALIFICENT DRAGON.

Awesome. I win at parenting.

Also: FUUUUUUUUCCCCKKKKK

And just to rub some salt in the would my son grew out of the birdie hat less than a week after I made it for him.

Now she's saying that she wants to be Peter Pan because HE A NEEAH (Neeah is how she says her name and what she calls all redheads.)

I never noticed Peter Pan had red hair before.

The baby she wants to be Tinker belle. Right. I think I convinced her to switch - her as tink and baby as pan but still...

I'm less than a week away from our first costume event, I have out of town guests coming this weekend and therefore no time to work on this, and I refuse to just go buy a costume because I'm way to far down this path to turn back.

I'm going over to my friend's house tonight with a bag of tulle and wine. Hopefully this will result in a Tinker belle costume and not just a hangover.

Sob.