pan-tate

Alex, following the footsteps of his Uncle Brent, has a new found love for pancakes.
He had them for breakfast and lunch today.
And then again at about 9:00 pm.

He was awake playing with MaNa (grandma) and all of the sudden requested pancakes. He was very insistent.
And he ate all of his dinner earlier.

So we said, "why not?"

So Alex ended his day with a belly full of pancakes that his awesome grandma made for him.


In other news of the day, Jon and I put together one of our three 500 piece puzzles that we got today from the dollar store.
And I got to eat at Carl's Jr.
SO GOOD!

And Christmas was good. More on that later.

The pink/black quilt is in my etsy store!

It turned out really cute.
I had one final bump that had to be solved with free motion quilting (which is yet to be done), but other than that- it is done!

I am in love with the pattern and the ragging on it. And the colors. I love this quilt.
Hopefully someone will love it enough to buy it!

So go click on the little button over there for my store and check it out in it's finished state!

Sick and Tired

Want to ask Jon how the trip went?

"It was HELL."

Oh, well that's nice.


See the title for the explanation.

since I'm up and who knows when I will next be blogging

I took this from Sherri's blog.
and ya... i may still find something to blog about between now and when we leave on Thursday, but I'm hoping to be busy doing stuff and not wasting my time in my black hole of the internet. :)

4 Favorite TV Shows:
4. The Office
3. Grey's Anatomy
2. Private Practice
1. Samantha Who?

4 Things I did yesterday: (I'm assuming I did these things yesterday seeing as how I wrote this post over a week ago and set it to post while I'm living an Internet-free life on a beach.)
4. Danced like I haven't danced since my single days
3. Packed
2. Cuddled with Alex
1. Ate cookies with Alex

4 Things I'm looking forward to:
4. UTAH
3. Christmas goodies
2. Seeing Alex on Christmas
1. Other people who WANT TO and WILL get up with Alex when he wakes up at 7:30 in the morning! (thus, I am also looking forward to sleeping in with Jon)


4 Favorite restaurants:
4. Paradise Bakery
3. Rudy's
2. Winger's
1. That awesome smoothie place we went to last week!
and Carl's Jr.

4 Foods I hate:
4. Green Bean Casserole.
3. Lentils.
2. Fish.
1. Onions... well just fresh onion and onion rings/cooked large onions. I like chopped cooked onions.

4 things I want to learn:
4. to quilt
3. how to knit
2. skateboard tricks
1. more photoshop stuff

4 Things I'm obsessed with:
4. listening to loud music and singing along whenever possible
3. Jon and Alex
2. the internet
1. craftiness

4 Things you may not have known about me:
4. I like r&b music. I wish I could find a station that played more of it without the hard rap.
3. I don't like to be cold.
2. I can skateboard. As in ride on it only. No tricks.
1. I'm too ambitious for my own good.

4 Words that crack me up:
4. Ridiculous (especially Alex saying it)
3. Damn
2. Moisture (thanks to Jon)
1. Penetration when used in sports

okay?

Whenever Alex chokes/bonks/coughs etc. I ask him if he's okay.
He's now taken that role upon himself and when he does one of the above he'll say, "okay?". I then have to ask if he's okay and then he says "uh huh!"

It makes me laugh every time.

Dance Party

This is one of Alex and I's favorite after nap activities.

And the boy has a love for the r&b like his mama (he always has actually- that's always what got him moving when he was younger). That and Taylor Swift (which is probably just because it's at the top of my playlist).
I did get him jamming to some All American Rejects today though.

We also enjoy dancing to Jack Johnson (Alex's number one requests are Bubbly Toes and "Monkey Song" aka Upside Down.) and the classic from his naked bum dancing days... Keith Urban.

Perhaps I'll enlighten you all with a number from Alex and myself. I can't decide if waiting for my voice to come back would be a good thing or not. At least with not having a voice I have an excuse to sound horrible when I sing a long.

So remember those Oreo Truffles?

from this post?
Umm...
SO GOOD!!!

Mom and Tawna... we will DEFINITELY have to make some of these while I am there because I gave some of the ones I made away. And I could eat at least 20 in a day.

Right here

Alex had a bit of a rough night last night. We had to go in several times. I think he has bad dreams or something because he totally talks and cries in his sleep.
Anyway, we heard him crying and saying, "no thank you" and were laughing about what he could be dreaming about. Seriously, how cool would it be to be able to see what your kids dream (and think as well)?
I went in and he patted his crib mattress next to him and said, "mama lay right here". Awww... I thought it was so cute that he wanted me to get in his crib and lay with him.

I just took him out and we sat in his chair for a minute before he cried and wanted to go back in his crib. Random.

Favorite Christmas Song

In our house, we love "O Holy Night".

Specifically, when Celine Dion sings it. I am always beyond excited to put in my Celine Dion Christmas CD and crank this one up. It is always the first Christmas CD that is listened to.

Even if you don't like Celine Dion, this is a powerful song. The last part of it is incredible! Forever thanks to Zak who got me this CD for Christmas years and years ago when I asked him to.




and now off to listen to more artists singing O Holy Night!

My work in progress

This is what I've been working on since Wednesday.

Cute eh? Yes. But you're not the one cutting all of those lovely seams on it. (the top little bit is done, the bottom is not).

This thing has taken me so freaking long. I've had to put it down multiple times and take a breather for a few months.

On Wednesday I got all of the borders sewn on. And the next day I started clipping the seams to rag it. Fast forward to Friday night and I have 2 of my 5 rows of blocks done. 2 of 5!!! Holy freak.
My scissors are pretty okay. They're doing the work. They're baby stepping. And thankfully my scissors have a spring in them! I still have a near blister anyway.

Still, it is pretty much adorable and I can't wait to get it done!

Funny thing- I have enough fabric to make a second one like this for myself should I one day have a female child (because it's so freaking cute) AND I got some adorable fabric to make Alex a big flannel rag quilt, but after snipping all of these damn seams, I'm reconsidering. If I didn't love the end result so much, I'd just scrap those projects. But the rag quilts are just so dang cute!

Pictures of the finished product to be posted soon hopefully! I think I'm going to bribe Jon to help me do some cutting.

Lovin' this!

I was watching Eli Stone online today and they had the beginning of this song in the show and it was AMAZING. I had to turn it way up loud and listen to it 3-4 times I liked it so much.

There's just something about powerful singers and the orchestra in the background. I love pretty much any song like that. (please let me know if you know of any great ones).

Anyway, turn it up and enjoy!

Save handmade children's products

I haven't blogged about this, but need to. My little Etsy shop over there ---->---->
is filled with children's products.
Essentially, this law would make a $4000 per toy test MANDATORY. If I use a different fabric, that item would have to be tested.
It's easy for big manufacturers to do this as they just have to get 1 toy in the batch tested and then go from there.
This is flat out a law that would promote big business and not small, local, handmade sellers.

Even some larger companies (but not the big name ones) that make an effort to sell only organic and natural toys have said that if this law goes into place, they will be forced out of business.

We all want toys and kids products to be safe, but I feel this law goes too far in doing so.

Here is the article from this site:

Help Save Handmade Toys in the USA from the CPSIA

The issue:
In 2007, large toy manufacturers who outsource their production to China and other developing countries violated the public's trust. They were selling toys with dangerously high lead content, toys with unsafe small part, toys with improperly secured and easily swallowed small magnets, and toys made from chemicals that made kids sick. Almost every problem toy in 2007 was made in China.

The United States Congress rightly recognized that the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) lacked the authority and staffing to prevent dangerous toys from being imported into the US. So, they passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) in August, 2008. Among other things, the CPSIA bans lead and phthalates in toys, mandates third-party testing and certification for all toys and requires toy makers to permanently label each toy with a date and batch number.

All of these changes will be fairly easy for large, multinational toy manufacturers to comply with. Large manufacturers who make thousands of units of each toy have very little incremental cost to pay for testing and update their molds to include batch labels.

For small American, Canadian, and European toymakers, however, the costs of mandatory testing will likely drive them out of business.

• A toymaker, for example, who makes wooden cars in his garage in Maine to supplement his income cannot afford the $4,000 fee per toy that testing labs are charging to assure compliance with the CPSIA.
• A work at home mom in Minnesota who makes dolls to sell at craft fairs must choose either to violate the law or cease operations.
• A small toy retailer in Vermont who imports wooden toys from Europe, which has long had stringent toy safety standards, must now pay for testing on every toy they import.
• And even the handful of larger toy makers who still employ workers in the United States face increased costs to comply with the CPSIA, even though American-made toys had nothing to do with the toy safety problems of 2007.

The CPSIA simply forgot to exclude the class of toys that have earned and kept the public's trust: Toys made in the US, Canada, and Europe. The result, unless the law is modified, is that handmade toys will no longer be legal in the US.

If this law had been applied to the food industry, every farmers market in the country would be forced to close while Kraft and Dole prospered.

How You can Help:
Please write to your United States Congress Person and Senator to request changes in the CPSIA to save handmade toys. Use our sample letter or write your own. You can find your Congress Person here and Senator here.

swimming

Alex was playing with his cars today and was laying on his tummy. He then randomly started scooting around on his belly and saying, "swimming!". Don't ask me where he learned that, but it was pretty funny.
Here is a little clip of what I could catch of it.


Swimming from Jon M on Vimeo.

Take a nap?

I guess our routine must be working because Alex realizes when it's nap time and asks to go to sleep by saying, "take a nap?"
I thought it was so cute tonight when we finished eating a later dinner and got done cleaning up it was 7:15, which I was unaware of. Alex grabbed his blankie and told me, "take a nap?". I looked over at the clock to find that it was indeed time to go to bed.

Whoever thought I, of all late staying up people, would have a 2 year old that tells me when to put him to bed? He must have inherited my love of sleeping.
But not sleeping in. Boo.

yup, he's mine

Pictures of licking off the rubber spatula when I made banana creme pie. YUM!

yes, he made this face all on his own. What a funny kid!

teho-foe mickey (careful mickey)

At the store today Alex and I ran into a "plush" Mickey Mouse bath pal dressed in a swimming suit and snorkel mask and tube. Alex has a slight Mickey Mouse obsession, so we picked him up and took him with us.
For the rest of the time we were in the store, Alex had the best time having Mickey "swim" along the edges of the shopping cart (which of course I couldn't hold on to the part you usually push on because I was in the way of Mickey's swimming).
Alex was very good at telling Mickey to be careful. It made me smile.


That reminds me of how I often tell Alex (usually when I have him entertain himself with being a monkey jumping on mama's bed when mama wants to stay in bed for a little while), "be careful monkey boy" and he usually repeats it back "teho-foe monkey boiee". Very funny.

Ahh! I need videos of these things because I just love them. I just love so many of the little things he does and says right now!

Mr. Copycat

I live with a little copy cat.
Not only does he say things that I say (like when I call other drivers ridiculous or say crap), he also likes to do things his daddy does.

He has taken to drying himself off with the towel like Daddy does after he takes a bath or shower.
If he could, he would try to shave (I think he'll be getting the fake shaving kit for Christmas).
He types and uses the touchpad (with 1 finger even!) alternately when Mama steps away from her laptop.

And this morning, he got Daddy's empty contact case off of the counter and put in his "contacts".
It was so funny to watch him take his little 2 year old finger and put it near his eye like he was putting contacts in.

The unfortunate thing about headphones at naptime

One of my new favorite things to do is plug headphones in and listen to my playlist REALLY loud during nap time. LOVE it.
One bad thing.
I can't sing as loud as I want.
And it's really fun to sing with headphones in because you have to sing loud to hear yourself.

Oh well... guess the loud singing will have to wait until Alex is awake. He's quite the little singer himself. :)


Imagination what? from Jon M on Vimeo.

goodbye pumpkin pie

*sniff*sniff*

I just ate the last piece of pumpkin pie. And I want more. Do people make pumpkin pies for Christmas? They should!

Something I LOVE

I, being an amateur in photoshop, discovered long ago the beauty of actions.
Actions are pre-recorded sets of actions that are automatically applied to a photo, that you can then tweak to fit your particular picture. It's kind of like a macro in a word document.

While I wish I just knew what things to do to pictures to beef them up, sadly, I do not. And it would take a LOT of time to learn. And a lot of time to experiment. THUS, my LOVE of actions.

Yesterday I found some wonderful actions from the marvelous Rita, which she has posted on her blog/site. Here they are, the CoffeeShop free actions for photoshop CS and Elements.

And since you're dying to see what they can do, here is my family's picture before and after that I'm working on for the family calendar. This took all of about 5 minutes and gave me fabulous results. It helped things that it was a good picture to begin with and was taken outdoors with some fabulous color to punch up.
I used the vivid action and a combo of the bright and vivid layers were visible at different opacities.

BEFORE

AFTER

Fabulous huh? It certainly makes my photo editing life easier! No worries Mom- it will take me all of an hour to get these pics edited and ready to go into the template (which I'm hoping we get a power supply for our external drive soon so I can go and find the calendar template I have... *hint* jon *hint*)