sweet, sweet sunshine

I ran 8 miles under this blue, cloudless, cheerful sky. And OM frolicked. And Woody cut the grass. 

Glorious, glorious, glorious.

miracle of miracles

It finally happened: OM drank the green monster smoothie! Both of them! Today! 

I almost started shouting I was so excited! 

I've been drinking these beauties for about a month now, everyday, and I always urge them to try them and I always get a big, fat NAPES. But today, as Maya put in the hand-fulls of spinach, tore up the banana, squirted in the flax oil, poured in the soy milk (left over from the scrumptious vegan cupcakes) she looked on approvingly and I could tell her little mind was open. Owen had told me repeatedly he would try it if Maya would, so as he watched his little sister slurp up the green goodness he hurriedly reached for a straw (I'm in a house with a bunch of sickies...more on that in a sec.) and slurped himself some too. And they both said, 'mmmm'. Seriously, the things that make me happy. I'm still beaming.

And! I put out a plea this week to the mamas I know asking for help regarding waterproof mattress pads and I received oodles of great advice and one dear friend sent me this one (plea went out Monday & it arrived today) b/c she had bought an extra. What a friend!

This is her, the one in blue, holding Maya:) Her name is Heather (she lives in Massachusetts) and that is her daughter Sofiah far left. We met in the Peace Corps and I am so grateful our lives crossed paths...♥ her:)... and the other lovely PC amigas there, such amazing women :)

I also got this in the mail this week: the lanyard I ordered from etsy.

The outside package was so sweet (and in Japanese) and the inside was just as sweet. She sent a very kind note too. I have had the nicest experiences ever ordering things off of etsy, do try it.

Yesterday I went to a fabric shop I've been wanting to get to called Cool Cottons to buy the fabric for the dress I'm making. OMG, what a beautiful little place. And so very organized. And the best part was the woman that owns it had a dad in the Navy like me and lived in Key West like me (and San Diego) and so we quickly became besties and I plan on spending more time (and money:) there. 

So, I'm hoping Sunday night this pile of fabric turns into that smocked dress. Wish me luck. (They had amazing fabrics that I loved more than this one but I went for the deeply discounted one since this will be my first attempt at this garment).

And I wasn't the only one that got cool stuff in the mail. Maya got this sweet little outfit from her Grandma Ginger & G'pa Bart. The purple headband too. :)

Her shirt says I believe in fairies:)

She was telling me here that she wants to take the penguin to the doctor today. We're going because Owen may have an ear infection. Last week we went to urgent care once, the pediatrician three times, three different pharmacies and were diagnosed with things like balanitis, phimosis (and therefore referred to a pediatric urologist for O) and conjunctivitis and blah, blah, blah. Parenthood is not for the weak. Now O has pink eye...so it goes.

O's drawings from today: these are blasters hitting the earth, he explained.

more blasters and O's new outfit too.

Hope everyone's weather is as amazing as ours here in the pacific NW...

Happy Valentine's Day.

We made red velvet cupcakes today. In fact, we made vegan red velvet cupcakes from a fantastic recipe out of this book.

I also couldn't resist the black and pink bottle of sparkling wine @ TJ's and so we made our (okay, my) new favorite beverage: pomegranate juice spritzer.

I also couldn't resist the pink tulips @ TJ's.

O & his c'cake.

we also made a cozy fire

Oh, and my next two sewing projects are going to be for me:) 

sewing item #1: a new ID lanyard to replace this hideous one. I actually ordered one from etsy but I'm also going to use her tutorial and make more. (And then maybe move on to beautifying my work cube with some of these super cute ideas.)

I'm also going to make this adorable dress:

from this tutorial. I can already sense the barrage of curse words that will be pouring out of my mouth as I attempt elastic thread but I'm excited for the final product (& I'll make sure Woody takes OM out for some play 60 when I start:). 

conversations from the backseat

(a conversation I heard while driving recently):

maya: when I get big I'm going to drive a car like you mommy.

owen: and when I get big I'm going to drive a truck like daddy.

maya: and when star (our dog) gets big she's going to drive a car like mommy.

owen: no maya. first of all, star already is big. and, star has paws not fingers so she can't drive.

maya: oh.

owen: hey maya, did you know that bats can see @ night?

these are some photos from OM @ school this week. owen's class...

and maya's class...

maya showing me her hermit crabs...

she told me one climbed up that stick in the back. ♥♥♥

spreadin' the love

woo hoo!      heart time! 

i ♥ hearts.

and so we made these (from what we saw here and here).

[sometimes i think my use of ♥'s is excessive but then I read this and smiled and am @ peace with my affinity for little hearts.]

we filled these with pink m&m's (i really wanted to find some pink candy corns but Oregon doesn't seem to have any.)

there are so many cute valentine's day crafts out there. pick one. it's fun.

and more sewing:

the letter 'g' on a black tee:

a season ski pass holder for my brother. first time using elastic, velcro and vinyl. learned lots of things about my sewing machine and what it does and doesn't like to do. (tutorial here.)

to emphasize the clearness of the vinyl, i had to use a photo of OM since I didn't have a spare Swiss Alps seasonal ski pass lying around...

then i made another one for another skier in the family. my favorite male model was on-hand to assist:

i'm trying to finish up a skirt for a friend in the Corps tomorrow. i'll photograph it. i picked the wrong friend to sew a skirt for since she's not here to measure it on. she's super tiny and so far it's way too big for me....yeesh! so, so, so many learning experiences with this sewing gig.

but, i ♥ it.