the best part of my day

Staying home with the kids is such a mix of joy and frustration.  I love how Max just wants to snuggle when he first wakes up, I love how Lola talks to her stuffed bear, I love watching Max kiss Lola, I love how Lola belly laughs at Max, I love how Max does hockey poses in front of the mirror to make sure they are right.  Etc, etc.

That being said, there are a million moments in between where I want to scream.  So, even though I love them so much, sometimes the best part of my day is when I am able to get them to nap at the same time and sit down with a good cup of coffee, turn on Parenthood or Greys Anatomy, and work on the blog.  Ahhh....

a little embellishment

For my birthday I got a drawing tablet and it makes me so excited to think of all I can do with it.  Step one is just to get comfortable with it so I started by goofing around with some pictures.  

I even had to work on my handwriting!

Meow!

Ok, this one is a little freaky.

This is the start of something fun...I know it!

hand carved stamps

While working on our new party packs, it really made me realize how little I know about graphic design.  I could picture exactly how I wanted both the Hipster and Black & White party invitations to look like, but I just couldn't make it happen.  So, instead of creating the design in photoshop, I carved some stamps to use!

I found everything I needed from Blik, and it was easy, if not time consuming.  

Oh yeah...and painful when the carving tool slipped and gouged me a bunch of times...

lens love

My husband is a photographer.  I...am not.  I'd like to be.  So many times I have the perfect shot in my head, but I can't make it happen.  For the last couple months in particular I just wasn't happy with my product shots for this blog.  They weren't sharp, if you know what I mean.  I kept bugging John because I figured it was just that I don't know what I'm doing.  But he finally understood what I was asking and told me that we had the wrong lens.  I was using a wide angle lens to shoot all my close up product shots.  Not compatible apparently.  So we got a new lens and it is everything I always wanted!  I can focus on one thing and everything else will be blurry.  That is the secret that all these mommy bloggers don't tell you.  That is why you see the cute baby and not all the crap on the table and laundry on the couch!

Photography by John Firak, ha!

valentine party

I'd have to say brunch is my favorite meal.  One- I hardly ever have it, so it is a novelty.  Two- it gives me an excuse to have coffee from 6am until noon.  I know, that's so bad.  But it's so GOOD.  Especially because we always have fresh coffee.  I mean fresh- my husband roasts it at least once a week.  He has this roaster, and we order our coffee beans from there too.  Three- I can take the time to really cook breakfast food.  Because let's be honest, when I wake up at 5am, the best I can do is pop some bread in the toaster or microwave an oatmeal packet.

So for our lazy Sunday Valentine's celebration, we had brunch!  

I plugged in the record player and put on some Fats Domino "Blueberry Hill" to get the party started.  We've been on a real oldies kick.  They are awesome dance party songs!

I got some strawberry milk for a treat and filled my old fashioned milk bottles.  Max didn't like it and neither did I.  It is way too sweet.

I made little pom poms for the place cards and for each place setting, along with one of the Valentine messages I had included in Max and Lola's gifts.

We made heart chocolate chip pancakes.  John and I had the pancake debate we have every time we make pancakes- he likes huge thick pancakes and I like tiny silver dollar pancakes.  Does anyone else have this debate?

I'm making faces at my sweet girl.  I fed her beets since they are pink and festive.

She did not like them.

I got some Valentine window gels so Max could help me decorate.  He likes when we decorate for every season now.  He says, "These decorations are so beautiful Mama!".  He had a ton of fun with these gels.

I moved over my watercolor ombre garland and John got me some pretty flowers.

It was a really rainy, dreary day, but that didn't get us down.  Happy Valentine's Day!

valentine mail

We had a little Valentine's brunch this past weekend just us four since Thursday will be a little hectic.  John has to work and it's always more fun when we are all together.  I will post all the fun party details on Valentine's Day, but I wanted to show you Max & Lola's Valentine surprise early!

I saw these little mailboxes in the dollar section at Target and snatched them right up.  Max loves getting real mail so I thought I would sew some envelopes to put their Valentine messages in.

I cut out the small rectangles and sewed around all the edges.  I sewed little triangles of velcro so they can actually stay closed.  I cut out the little teeny squares and teeny hearts for the stamps and hand sewed them together.  Then embroidered their names/nicknames on each envelope.  Wow, that would have been easier if I had embroidered them BEFORE sewing them together...live and learn.

I cut their names out of some cute paper and mod podged them on the mailboxes.  Then printed out little messages, some generic like the heart candies, and some just for them.  "You're My Favorite Hockey Guy" for Max and "I Like Your Baby Breath" for Lola.  Ugh, don't you love baby breath?!

Max took each message out and said, "What this says?", "What this one says Mama?".  So cute.

Lola got in on the action, until I turned my back and she ate part of one of the paper messages...

Can't wait to show you our party pics, don't peek at everything in these pictures!!

flocked geo heart shirt

We are going to have a little family Valentines party and I want the kids to be festive.  I was thinking that I would paint a shirt for Max like I did here, but then it came to me...flocked geo heart!  

I am still in geo/triangle mode because of our party pack.  I cut out each teeny triangle from the flocked letters left over from this shirt.  Iron them on and tada!  

sand writing tray

I went to an open house at a montessori school near us to see if we can send Max there half days next year.  I think it's time for him to get out, make some friends, and learn some things that I'm not teaching.  While we were there I saw their sand writing and drawing tray and I thought, I can make that.  

Well, I didn't make the tray.  Our lacing cards came in a wood box without a lid, not very practical for storage, but I saved it just in case I thought of something to do with it.  Add a little cornmeal... Voila!  

Max loves to spell his name.  He generally refuses to spell anything else.  I love when he says "M-A-X spells Moo Moo!"

ombre watercolor heart garland

I love decorating the house for Valentine's Day.  It comes at a perfect time to cheer us up since we've taken down our Christmas decorations and it's super cold and dreary out.  A little pop of pink and red in the house really makes me smile.  Last year we went multicolored.  This year....ombre!

I painted four 8x11 sheets of paper with watercolors, some dark, some light.  I painted both sides since I knew the hearts would flip.  I traced hearts on the pages and cut them all out.  That part might have been more fun if I had a heart punch...

I sewed them together from dark to light, which was a little hard because the pink wasn't consistent on both sides of the heart, but it came out pretty close.