I couldn't help myself

I said I wouldn't decorate for Halloween until at least October 1st. my bad. Monday was just too perfect and I couldn't resist. It was cold & windy outside, cozy inside, James was home with us...it just sort of happened.

Does it make anyone else so happy to see their same old decorations year after year? I still have some mini pumpkins to get so I can put them on my big candlesticks like Holly taught me. And I want to spray paint a couple of things but know that A) I should not do it in the garage near all of our oak trim and B) should not breathe while doing it due to baby so might pass out. I think Patrick might be spray painting an owl this weekend. He will love that.

I did something VERY exciting last night. I actually LEFT THE HOUSE after 6pm. I know. I was pretty amazed with myself, too. Patrick & I met up and switched cars (including items in the cars, like children) so I could go do a little shopping. AFTER DARK. I went to Target, Goodwill, DSW and Barnes & Noble. I was sitting at B&N looking at a magazine and yawning, thinking it must be close to 10pm. I looked at my phone...8:30. HA! I packed it up and was home in bed by 9. baby steps.

I am going to go exercise now. My sister is doing the 30 Day Shred and I am doing a modified version* so to minimize the huffing and puffing. While she does crazy stuff like JUMPING JACKS, I simply march in place. Works for me and at least my muscles are still getting a workout.

xoxo

*that I refer to as the 30 day tiny rip

ruby's tuesday

happiness is...

going for a bike ride and collecting leaves with my girl

getting an unexpected hour to myself to read a magazine & have some coffee

seeing our kids with their grandpa

new carpet

a sweet husband

seeing James having so much fun with his friends at their soccer game after listening to him complain about going to said soccer game ALL afternoon

rain storms that held off long enough for an after soccer trip to the park

a son who offers to hold my hand so I'm not too scared on the dried up river bed

piling on the couch with our kids to watch Amazing Race while it pours outside

zucchini bread brought over from a neighbor

a quiet day at home with both of my kids (okay, not so quiet, but nothing we have to do...)

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James was up coughing a lot last night so I let him stay home today. He hadn't even considered that option so right now he thinks I'm the greatest mom ever. Not a bad spot to be in, if only for a while. I hope you all had good weekends and are enjoying your Monday so far, whatever it entails. (mine entails lots of dishes, but coffee & zucchini bread are waiting for me afterwards...) xoxo

he came, he saw, he kicked some carpet ass

Within 3.5 hours of my dad's arrival on Saturday, the carpet was done. Patrick & Mark helped in the beginning but the end was all Tom...doing what he did for years and years...doing what he does not miss. :) Thank you, Dad, we love it.

And I'm so thankful for Patrick's hard work all week, too. As usual with these types of things, it's taking longer than we thought, but he got a lot done and wants to keep at it now that we're this far. (I say "we" but all I did was feed him and offer my (always welcome) opinion. ;) Thank you, honey.

xoxo

have a happy friday...

First, here is my chestnut brown contribution for color week:

And a quick pillow cover I sewed up out of a beautiful wool shirt I thrifted: (thanks to Betz White for the simple but brilliant idea of using the shirt buttons as the closure for the slip cover)

And guess what I'm going to do today? Yup, a little fall baking for our weekend.

Oh, and finally, a thrifted vintage owl that I'm going to spray paint black: (check out these awesome Halloween ideas)

And finally, most importantly, everything went really well yesterday. This particular ultra sound is available to anyone who wants it, especially if you're over 35, but I chose not to get one with Ruby. This time I decided to, for many reasons, one of which was just to see the baby again! I am 38 so my risk of having a child with Downs Syndrome or another chromosomal problem is still fairly low (1 in 300? I think) but this time I just wanted some more information. They measure some fluid in the back of the baby's neck and anything under 3mm is considered normal...ours measured 1.2mm so that was good. They took some blood as well and we'll get those results in 7-10 days. I feel good I did it and am glad it's over. The best part was seeing our baby again who looked so different from even a week and a half ago. At one point, he or she gave us a great view of their profile and there it was...James & Ruby's little nose. Another one of those tiny little noses...what an amazing blessing to see it again.

James is really excited about having another sister or brother. He knows what this whole process is like and has already mentioned how I'll be so busy nursing for a while after the baby comes. Hopefully he'll help Ruby through that first transitional period. He stuck our new picture of the baby up on his cork board last night and gave my belly a kiss before bed. What a little buddy. He suggested, if it's a boy, we name it Grave Digger after a monster truck in one of his library books. What a grand idea! We could call him Digger for short.

xoxo

random bits

Today's color is not multi, I'm just not up to a photo hunt this morning. Maybe later?

Patrick is home this week working on finishing our lower level. My dad is coming this weekend to help him lay the carpeting. There is a lot to do but he's gotten a lot done and I couldn't be happier about it all. This weekend was supposed to be my sewing getaway, like last year, but I cancelled because my dad offered to come and help us. I will miss the weekend with my friends but I've wanted this downstairs finished since we moved in, and especially in the years since Ruby has arrived. Now with another little one on the way, I can't imagine better timing. My sister suggested a sound proof door at the top of the stairs. Brilliant. :)

With all the random stuff going on here this week, I haven't had much time to sew. I guess I got some stuff done last weekend but I am really wondering when I'm going to do all I want to do for the Craftacular. I think I need to sit down next week, when the house will be quiet again, and make myself up a work schedule. I also feel like if I at least make my booth fee back ($90) then I'll be happy. It's of course fun to make some cash but I really enjoy the whole process...planning, making, stockpiling, getting displays ready, the day of the show, being able to do it with my mother this year...so there is a lot in it for me to enjoy, and I plan to do so. If it kills me. (kidding!) :)

I have another ultra sound this afternoon which I am not really in the mood for. It will be fun to see that baby, of course, but it is a genetic counseling appointment, which I've never done before, so I'm a little nervous.

Up above is a hot pad I made out of 2 felted sweaters. I love these and plan on making, well, at least 2 more. :)

xoxo

goldenrod

today: goldenrod on one of my favorite old prints

more: here

burnt sienna

After I shot about 20 pictures of this particular scene, I continued to sit at the table and finish my coffee and donut. Ruby popped up over the half wall and it struck me that she is a little burnt sienna, herself.

I might be a little off on my coloring, here is the official Crayola page, but it works for me. Did you go look at the other participants yesterday? So many beautiful photos.

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Ruby was sick on Sunday, forcing me to miss James' first soccer game (sniff), but is feeling much better now. I am also thinking my energy is returning, bit by bit. Most importantly, the cooler weather yesterday & this morning is making me super happy. (as our buddy Kai-Lan would say.) xoxo

brick red

brick red, originally uploaded by stephaniekg.

I'm setting out to have a quiet week around here, a quiet week online.

It is, therefore, the perfect week to join Color Week sponsored by Meg at elsie marley. You can see all the other participants here. Today's color is Brick Red, from the Crayola box. I found my brick red out on the rhododendron bush.

xoxo

a different r&r

Here is a cute picture of Ruby & Rachel from when we were on vacation. I have a super cute pic of my mom in one of those hats but I'm going to need her permission before I post it. :)

One of my favorite things about our trip was seeing so much of my family every day. I miss all of them! sniffle.

(I am going to take the kids to Duluth for a long weekend in October and am really excited.)

I hope you all have a great weekend! xoxo

notes from the soccer mom

One thing I'm working on right now is sorting & cleaning this house. I've gone through most of the rooms & closets (most of them...) and have since moved on to the basement.


I used to be a full time ebay seller before I had James. I should actually say part time because the other part of the time was spent cruising around to all the thrift stores...that was the fun part! It is still hard for me to resist certain finds but a couple totes worth of them have been sitting in my basement for the last few years. Time to go, boys! I listed 5 items on ebay this week and am happy to see 3 of them have bids already. You can see them here, if you're curious. A lot of it is just going back to the thrift store and some of it will go in my etsy shop. My etsy shop that rarely sees a sale, but did have one yesterday! woot!


In other parts of my life, I made one of these gingerbread hand puppets this morning. I saw these on the Green Jello blog, they are from an upcoming book, and fell in love. And then I made one and kind of fell out of love but it was still a fun & simple project. Ruby likes it, so that counts for something, right?As I write this, I realize that these are awfully similar to Simon Chipotle. Do you remember Simon?

That may have been one of the stranger things I've done.

xoxo

p.s. I found out yesterday that I did get a spot at the Craftacular! (yay!) Time to kick it into gear! Here are some of the things I will be selling this year, if you're interested.

so flippin' cute

So James had his first ever soccer practice last night. It was a beautiful, chilly (yay!) evening and the kids had a lot of fun. I think the parents did, too. I liked meeting up at the end of the day and it was good to have Patrick there with us.

I got James his gear while he was at school yesterday and he was so excited about it. This morning he asked me if he could get new shin guards when he is a grown up because he thinks his current ones will be too small and he plans on playing for the rest of his life.

Oh, he also plans on asking his friends if they want to start a football team next.

xoxo

wednesday, I feel better just for spite*

James has a much simpler asthetic:

I found this 1949 Clue board (and some of the cards) at the Dig a while ago. I have it up on top of our entertainment center because I think it's really cool looking. James is, of course, now obsessed with all things CLUE and wants to play. How do you sweeten up a board game about murder? Colonel Mustard broke the Legos in the playroom with a lead pipe? I told him I'd find the rules online (because I forgot them...it's been many Clueless years for me) and make up some new cards.

And for my final exciting photo, here are some lids I finally got up on my fridge. For a while there, about 10 years ago, I collected cute old lids. It was a hard collection to add to and I've since gotten rid of most of them. These two have stayed because they're awesome. I mean, come on, Raggedy Ann Ol' Fash'n Corn Relish?? I loved that stuff! (ha!) The A&W cap is jumbo, see it compared to a regular bottle cap? (could you figure that out yourself? I'm sorry.)

***************

Ruby was up at 2am with a belly ache (gas) that kept her up for 30 minutes, me up for 120. Needless to say, I woke up crabby this morning. I am starting to feel better now, as a little time passes. Man, nothing like losing a chunck of REMs to screw up your mood. It is supposed to stay around the mid seventies today so that right there makes me really happy. I'm pretending that I didn't see that they changed tomorrow's forecast back to 79. (sigh.) Also making me happy? James has soccer practice tonight! Our friends started a small team and even though I was really late to sign up, he got to join. He'll get to see all his buddies from our playgroup that he doesn't see anymore because of school. Fun!

*Does anyone remember the song that my post title came from? Man, that old country music reminds me of my girlfriends and the bar. Good times back then. :)

xoxo

ruby's tuesday

(last night)

this morning:

S: Ruby, your pants are on backwards...when you bend over I can see your butt crack!
R: (worried) But I don't want my butt to crack!

confirmation

Thank God that we got our confirmation this afternoon...there's actually a tiny baby in there!

We got a picture but it's grainy and I'm too tired to scan it right now. It actually looks pretty similar to this.

Patrick and I saw our tiny little baby squirming all over...so amazing.

Thank you ALL for your thoughts and prayers. I felt & appreciated each one.

xoxoxo

my seester

sent me the cutest thank you card after the wedding. I love her. She also sent a tiny puppy rattle for the new baby...his or her first gift. xoxoxo

I have an ultrasound tomorrow afternoon at 2pm. I had a little spotting last weekend that freaked me out. I think if you've ever miscarried you understand what it's like to see that. Thankfully, I've seen nothing more since. I am hoping & praying that we see our tiny one tucked in there tomorrow afternoon. I've been taking my prenatals and avoiding alcohol but also haven't let myself fully embrace this idea...like I'm holding out a tiny part of me, trying to protect it. I don't think I want to get too attached until I have hard evidence, you know? As if my exhaustion, tender parts, heat sickness, shortness of breath, frequent peeing & thirst aren't enough. :)

I hope you're all having a good weekend. Patrick and I picked out & bought new carpet last night (woot!) for our lower level and had dinner at Pasqual's. yummy. Today is more cleaning, organizing and getting rid of stuff. As much as I love to buy the new (the new old), I also love to get rid of the old old. What are you up to?

xoxo

I love the mornings, still

It's been hard for me, this second week, to say goodbye to James in the morning. After school is kind of stressful (as late afternoons have always been) so it's hard to send him off when I know a good morning would lay before us but instead all we'll get is an icky afternoon together. He is tired when he gets home and not so much crabby but teetering on the edge of crabby and can fall over with the gentlest nudge from his sister. His sister who is very crabby because she is not getting any sort of normal nap in anymore. I almost thought about having him take the bus home so she could go down for her nap at 2. I just hate to put him on a bus for 40 minutes after a 7 hour day.

We like to play a board game after school but that was even a problem this week with all the battling. Yesterday they were both in their rooms within 20 minutes of us getting home. I am looking for suggestions here, if you have any. I'm thinking these things:

1. have him take the bus (but don't really want to do this)
2. do some other activity that they both can do (little people, play doh, painting) after we have a snack together
3. give Ruby her quiet time then and play a game with James (but she wants to see him toooooooooooo) (as she would say)
4. send him to after school care, Ruby to day care and be done with it (I am so kidding, don't look at me like that!)

One thing that has been nice is that the last 3 mornings James & I have been up before Ruby. I've gone in his room or he has come in mine and I love it. Just a little time to look at him (I love his tiny hands that are going to grow into the perfect man hands) (I have a thing for nice hands...Patrick's are perfect) and hear about whatever he built before bed the night before. (He unwinds with a little Lego building after we tuck him in.)

I think I will try number 2 today. (why did the seemingly best option have to be "number 2"? he.) Any experience or suggestions would be really appreciated.

Happy Friday to you. xoxo



OH! And one funny Ruby thing as I have been sooooo bad at writing these down lately. She played over at Brennan's house for a while yesterday after dinner and this was when she got home:

S: Did you and Brennan have fun, honey?
R: yeah.
S: What did you do?
R: We pretended we were dead.

nice.

craftastrophe

(It is clean now but looked like this for most of the week.)

(my bad.)

(thanks for all the good ideas last week, Zoe!)

(p.s. new header!)

(p.s.s. not too exciting so don't bother clicking over if that sort of thing bugs you.)

(p.s.s.s I subscribe to very few blogs now that make you click over for a full feed.)

(p.s.s.s.s. I understand that some people make money from advertising and really need those clicks but it makes life so much harder, you know?)

(p.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s I know, I'm such a baby.)

xoxo

crunch crunch crunch

crunch crunch crunch, originally uploaded by stephaniekg.

This right here is what I want. Not 80 degrees, okay?? I am full on ready for chilly days, sweatshirts, apple picking, pumpkins, jumping in leaves, crunching them, pumpkin muffins, pancakes (I did have some of these already, couldn't wait), lattes, etc. I feel bad for complaining about gorgeous weather but ENOUGH already. :)

I seriously need a new header for my blog. I am SO SICK of those stoopid peonies. (hehehehehehhehe)

xoxo

today,

I've got nothing. (except a very nice morning with my friends that I hadn't seen in a whole week or so and it felt like forever!)

Here's some stuff I bookmarked because it was cool:

Orange Glazed Citrus Muffins (milk & egg free)

Free Halloween embroidery patterns

some cool free fonts

This sounded like a good fall dinner (bookmarked since last year)

I would LOVE to make some of these for us. (mine might say..."if you get to me before 9pm" and "ha!")

This was a neat idea Holly did with her daughter.

I've linked to them before, but these cookies are so good.

I just thought these were adorable.

Alright, that's enough.

I just totally got MAD at my neighbor (but didn't show it to her). She gave Ruby a rice krispie bar without asking me first. First of all, the girl hasn't even eaten dinner yet. Second of all, it was her son that gave James the peanut butter ritz bitz 2 years ago. (no blame on that kid...James took it, but just to reference who they are) But they KNOW we have food allergies, they joked about "almost killing one of our kids" before (so NOT funny) and they have no idea what allergies Ruby has, if any. She doesn't, of course, but they didn't know that. PIST me off. She said, smiling, "I told her to ask you first." Whatever. Don't give kids food without asking their parents first yourself...especially 3 year olds. HOW IRRITATING.

My happy little mood has been squashed. (not really, but I am kind of worked up.) Time to go get these kids bathed and to bed so I can watch all the fun TV on tonight. xoxo

hi everyone...

happy tuesday!

Here are a few pictures from the weekend:

Ruby has been doing really well with the potty training stuff. Something seemed to click inside of her while we were on vacation and she's been very agreeable about the whole thing ever since. One of my favorite parts? Seeing her tiny little body running around in underpants all the time. Seriously. Little bodies are so darn cute. (I still think the same of James, too. I'm not the only one, am I?)

Here she is playing a "game" on Patrick's Iphone. It's the Koi pond game, not really a game at all, but she likes it.She recently learned the thumbs up technique, thanks to James.
Next she'll probably be doing the rock star poses that he seems to favor these days.
I got to spend a nice chunk of time at the bookstore yesterday afternoon and didn't even have to drive myself. Patrick dropped me off and took the kids to play somewhere else for about an hour and a half. It was really nice. I thought this book looked good:
so did this recipe: (easily adapted to dairy free)
Here is James trying to figure out how to smuggle his Bakugan into school in his sleeve.
A boy and his Bakugan. There's nothing sweeter.

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And finally, a funny store. Last fall I cut these bracelets from some of my felted sweater sleeves. I thought they were really cute but wondered if they were too simple or dumb to sell. I mean, really, how easy is this project? Very. I tucked them away and pulled them out to show my mom after we got back from Mass because they had stayed on my mind all along and I wanted to try them this year. I hadn't sewn the buttons on yet but showed them to her along with the buttons and she really liked them and said, "why not?" I value my mother's opinion (most of the time, mom, don't get all big headed on me) so decided to make some for the Craftacular.


About a week or two later Wendy told me she had received the latest issue of Family Fun magazine and there were lots of cute craft ideas she thought I'd like. She brought it to show me and my jaw almost hit the floor. There, on the cover, were my felted sweater sleeve bracelets.

AAAAARGHGHGHGHGH! If you are a crafter you know how much fun it is to come up with a "new" idea. Even a simple one like this, I was pretty happy about it. Having something different is really fun (like my wine sleeves from last year) and to be honest, a new & different idea is not easy to come by. Now, I totally know that someone probably has made these before. But in my little part of the world I hadn't seen them yet. (checking etsy & flickr is always a good test) So, that was a bummer. Not that I was going to get all famous or something but do you guys know what I mean? Darn you, Family Fun! :) Here is a link to the project if you want to try making these...they are really fun and come out adorable, if you ask me: bracelets Or, if you just don't have the time (wink, wink), I'll hopefully be selling some at the Craftacular in November. (or on Etsy if I don't get a spot at the Craftacular...I'll know on Sept. 15)

Enjoy your Tuesday! xoxo