USPS home pickup is my friend

This is like shipping 3/4 of what I thought we’d sell our month in San Diego in 1 night! The only thing left is a custom order of boo boo kitties (sorry Jane!), which I will finish during the car ride and drop it at a post office before leaving Oregon.

In the morning, the whole family pitched in and also did a blitz spring cleaning of the house. We needed the house cleared for temporary tenants who will also be caring for the kitties while we’re out. We walked out the door 1.5 later than scheduled, but with a HUGE sigh of relief.

Adventure mode: ON

Where The Wild Things Are Globe by ImagineNations

It looks like the original road trip plan won’t work out for Oregon stops, but we don’t mind. It’s just nice to finally get moving. Mikah started snoozing immediately after we left (he helped clean the house too, very tiring!), so it’s been a peaceful ride so far.

Good bye house, good bye kitties… We’ll see you again soon!

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Happy Saturday, love Mikah

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freebie! March calender download by Kitty Baby Love

Happy Leap year! Wait, is that something to celebrate? In any case, we decided to do a March calendar to celebrate. Best of all, there’s no charge- its our way of saying thanks! … and Happy Leap Year :]

click on the above image or on this link to download a PDF
You’ll need a free copy of adobe reader to open a pdf.

Don’t forget to leave a comment if you like it or need help!
We respond to demand, so your cheers for free calendar download means we’ll do it again :]

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Now in our ETSY shop, expires March 4th!

This is our first ever “sales” promotion! While we’ll have limited stock available while away, we want to make sure we can ship as much as we can while we’re still here… hence free shipping :]

This currently applies to US & Canadian friends. All other international sales will receive $5 off. Etsy won’t register international customers for this code, so please “convo” or email me if you are in this boat!

All orders of crayons will come with a free coloring page preview of our new book on weather. To kick off our trip to San Diego, we’ll be including our ‘SUNNY’ page, preview below:

freebie coloring page SUNNY

Let me know if you have any issues at mail (a) kittybabylove.com.

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Mikah's first scapbook page

It works in theory! This is Mikah’s first ever scrap book page. He took photos (we took some too), picked out a few, got some tape, and organized it on a page. I encouraged him to doodle on the page, but he refused.

Items gathered

• Blank notebook with hard covers- nice and large with thicker pages
• Washi tape
• Marking objects; to draw, write, and color with
• Poloroid camera; for photo snapshots that print right away!

Accessories for the road trip

• Sheet of baseball card protectors; to store items that won’t stick with tape or that have 2 sides to admire
• Sunprint paper; hello roadside art projects!
• Stickers!!!!

Washi Tape Organizer by 464Handmade

Well I thought the poloroid was a good idea at first. I officially handed down down to Mikah my old series 600 Poloroid camera ($5 find in SF Goodwill) along with a fresh pack of old film I had kept. We showed him how to use it and shot away on it, though half of them came out bad because the film had decayed. ‘No biggie’, we thought. Oh boy, were we wrong!

Kodak EK6 Instant Camera / Vintage Camera by sinkorswimtreasures

Poloroid films cost about $2+ per photo now- both online and at local shops! I’m sad because I wanted Mikah to be able to take his own photos at will, with the immediate gratification you get seeing a poloroid shoot out and slowly develop. But now I think we’ll just reserve the photos for major photo opportunities- in front of a town sign, etc.

We haven’t given up yet and will still look around for camera options. I saw that they have a new digital version of the poloroid- but somehow waiting for a little square object buzz for 60 seconds while slowly births a crisp print just doesn’t have the same pizazz as the vintage poloroids.

Thankfully i’ve run into the Impossible Project, which is a revamp of the poloroid films after they discontinued manufacturing. It’s still pricey for a toddler’s toy, but the best option for now.

Any other thoughts or camera suggestions welcomed!

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Keep Calm and Road Trip by KeepCalmAndStayGold

Things have stagnated a bit for us and the weather has been cold, rainy and grey. Quite frankly, it’s been depressing. The weather has also made it harder on grampa to visit us in Portland. There’s been some talk about moving to San Diego with him, but it just doesn’t feel right to do that right now. As a compromise, we all thought it might be nice to have a short term stay with grampa in San Diego instead.

Our preferred mode of travel: car!

I’m really excited about this since it will be not just our first family road trip, but my (and Mikah’s) first road trip EVER. I’ve already planned out major stopping points along our path approximately every 3-4 hours apart to help relieve events of ‘the wiggles’. I’m also putting together car/pitstop activities and looking into geocaching along the way.

As you can see from the map, we are opting for a scenic coastal drive

Pitstops so far include:

• Sea Lion Caves
• Brookings, OR (last stop to stock pile supplies before hitting sales tax again!)
• Redwoods Forest, CA
• San Francisco (Mikah’s birth place!)
• Cayucos/Morro Bay
• Las Angelas
• San Diego (Ben’s hometown)

We expect it to be a 3-4 day trip. I’ve made an itinerary but it’s very loose to keep things stress free and FUN. For the next week, you can look forward to diy ideas for kids car rides. After that i’ll have updates on our pitstop discoveries.

We’ll also be carry Kitty Eggs with us. We’ll have pitstops at our current retailers and perhaps meet new ones along the way. All in all, we expect to spend about 2-3 weeks in San Diego before hitching back to Portland all over again. It should be fun!

I want to hear from you… leave a comment below with a destination we should definitely see!

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Such as, “Bunny watching tv and wearing ear protection…..”

This is on our kitchen fridge right now <3

Doodle by daddy & baby

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Geometric Nesting Doll Matroyshka 'Little Neons' by Sketchinc, Becky Kemp

Dog Eye stockings by QooQoo Fashion

Kup Kup Land Scenery 65 by KupKup

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Baby doll dresses with pom pom trims? Yes please! I am loving Kimbra, more popularly known for her feature in Gotye’s Somebody That I Used to Know. Going through her songs makes me thing of a love child between Nina Simone and Bjork- very original and so flavorful. The most amazing part is that she’s only 21, so there’s a whole lifetime of music to look forward to.
She currently has a single out on iTunes with her full album set to be released in the US later this year. I can’t wait!

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This Valentine’s Day I want to share a story of love and loss. Courtney is a mommy of a baby who had a very severe form of EB (Epidermolysis Bullosa). Her baby’s name was Randal Michael Roth III, affectionately nicknamed Tripp. I had only found their story a few days before Tripp finally went back home to God, but it has made a huge impact in my life.
This Valentine’s Day marks the 1 month anniversary of Tripp’s passage back to God, and I just wanted to share their story with you.

A good place to start is Courtney’s Valentine’s Day post on her blog.

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