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2nd day makeup.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Lets be honest. How many times have you just skipped the makeup remover, and gone straight to bed with a mask of color on? I don't do it often. I'm usually really good about washing my face anytime I've painted my eyes or fluffed my cheeks with mineral powder. But sometimes, my pillow just sounds so much better than a cotton ball with oil free mascara clean up on it, ya know? And its the mornings after, when I sit up in bed and think "oh god, could my eyelashes be any heavier?", that I realize how sexy 2nd day makeup is. Not to mention 2nd day hair. Today... is not one of those days.

Oh, and a big fat kiss on the cheek to Miss kathysmash this morning, who so kindly surprised us with a flattering blog feature *SMOOCH*.

-Image provided by CoffinColor.

Monday suck-day, take 7!

Monday, September 29, 2008

My Monday was off to a suck-day start bright and early this morning, 5:30 to be exact, when I was rudely awoken by a very involved nightmare. I've been having these more and more lately (I blame my hormones for the intensity), but this one was much worse than any of the prior ones, and required Christopher to come upstairs and take time away from getting ready for work to sooth me back to sleep like a crying baby. Other than that, my throat burning heartburn has seemingly taken a break, and I managed to package up every single note-card-containing envelope for my stationery swap! So while Monday sucks, it could be worse.

That doesn't mean we're not having a giveaway though!! Today's suck-day giveaway is being sponsored by etsy user plumstars. Shes made y'all those fantastic autumn themed greetings. And as if I haven't been constantly reminding you, we all need to do a better job of keeping in touch with our pen pals, friends, and family. So this is perfect, right? This year I plan on sending out everyone Halloween cards, Baby shower invites, Thanksgiving cards, and Christmas cards. Sounds like a lot, I know. Well those will closely be followed up with baby announcements, and thank you's for both Christmas and baby related gifts. These would do me a great deal of help in all of that, haha. So if I were you, I'd jump on this folks! Want to know how to win?

The rules:
-Go visit plumstars etsy shop.
-Find your absolute most favorite item(s), don't be shy, heart them if you must.
-Come back here, and leave us a comment telling us which items were your favorite, and don't forget, at least one reason why Monday suck.
-If you're not a blogger, make sure to leave us your name and email, or some way to contact you in case you win.
-Contest ends Thursday morning, 11-ish.
-Let the suck-day festivities begin!!

So while you're all scrambling to win plumstars loot, I'm going to go seek out some other Monday morning giveaways, nibble on my husbands amazing pumpkin maple bars (He blogs on here every Saturday now. If you haven't read, you should!), sip my chocolate mint tea, and finish putting together my to do list.

I love you suck day'ers.

(If you would like to sponsor a Halloween suck-day giveaway, please email me, or send me a convo at my etsy shop. Thanks!)

*sigh*

Sunday, September 28, 2008


I love that my daughter actually does stop to smell the flowers. Even if they're just weeds.

Saturday mornings with Christopher.2. (pumpkin bar recipe)

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Back in the day, before gluten and soy intolerance's, I was Martha Betty Crocker Susie Stewart Homemaker. Every weekend the neighborhood would wake up to the smell of my freshly made-from-scratch coffee cakes. Christopher would come home from work to the scent of hot melty chocolate chip cookies, still cooling on the cookie tray. If it was someones birthday, our house would be full of pink fluffy cake, even if that someone lived 3,000 miles away. I never passed up an opportunity to turn on my oven. I practically slept wearing hot pads on my hands.


And then came Celiac Disease. And then lactose intolerance. Fructose intolerance. Corn intolerance. Potato, eggs, caffeine- AHHH! It all started piling up so fast, that I found myself wishing it was my head in that oven, not a loaf of bread. I went into a baking induced depression, and I never quite pulled myself out of it. Its been over a year now, and I'm still finding little ingredients here and there that cause my body to react in ways that you wouldn't wish upon your most awful enemy. My husband however, has been the light at the end of the tunnel. On most days anyways.

This is what we used to call "pumpkin season". Christopher's favorite time of year. Pumpkin bread, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin coffee creamer, all made with my wooden spoon and charm. But this year its been different. I'm grumpy in the kitchen now. And wouldn't you be? I don't know my way around anything more than a bag of carrots and a jar of curry powder. But, ya know, I was starting to miss pumpkin season too. No matter how bitter it had made me. So the other night I picked up the phone from work and dialed home. I confessed my pumpkin craving to my much too patient husband, and hung up with a smile on my face, knowing that him and Eleanore would spring into action and dive mouth first into a bowl of some kind of pumpkin batter.

And boy did he come through for me. Actually, maybe you'd like to hear his side of the story...
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"You have to try my famous enchiladas. They're amazing." That was my first attempt to impress Tia with my cooking. When she discovered my "famous" enchiladas were made with canned enchilada sauce and burnt chicken, she was obviously not impressed. So the next couple of years I happily savored the delicious dishes she would whip up. Shrimp pizza. Brownies. The absolutely perfect chocolate chip cookies (every time I would say "no, they're just perfect" and then Tia would find some way to tweak the recipe and make them even better). Winter soups. I was in heaven. I had found my soul mate. My role in the kitchen was mostly relegated to chopping vegetables, which always turned out to be too big, and had to be re chopped. Every once in a while I would cook, and less frequently, I would make something that was actually good. Lightning would strike and I would savor the meal, looking up at Tia every 2 minutes to make sure she liked it, until she got so frustrated with my culinary neediness the dish would lose it's flavor.

After baby came along, we got into a rut that many new parents probably find themselves in, gorging on ultra-bad convienence foods and way too much dining out. We didn't read labels. We revelled in the comfort foods of our impoverished childhoods: Hamburger Helper, macaroni and cheese (with hot dogs!), ramen noodles. Slowly we (and by we, I mean Tia, thank god) began to develop an interest in cooking, and definitely baking, again. About once a week I would bring a big plate of delicious cookies to my shop, only to have them gobbled up without a single word of praise for my wife's superior baking skills. Just as we began to develop a steady menu of dishes, a previously unknown (to us at least) autoimmune disease wrecked everything.

As Tia wrote above, it was Celiac Disease. No more cookies. No more brownies. Certainly no more processed boxed foods or eating out (a blessing in disguise). And as the list of foods that Tia couldn't eat grew steadily longer, until they practically dwarfed those foods that she could eat, cooking became a whole different beast. And although we made good progress on yummy recipes for main courses and dinners, the art of baking was forgotten.

When we finally gathered the courage to explore the world of gluten free baking, it was as though a challenge had been placed on my wife, one she gladly rose to fill. If you think making the perfect cookies is hard with white flour, try working without it. What is the perfect combination of rice, sorghum, tapioca, arrowroot, xanthan gum, and sugar to make the tastiest, most-closest to wheat cookie? Good luck answering that one.

As all this happened, I slowly began developing my cooking skills. I watched. I observed. I was told, over, and over, and over again, the same cooking lessons that were so obvious to Tia. I can't say it was easy on either of us. Unfortunately, so much of Tia's strength was zapped battling her food allergies and Endometriosis, that I ended up cooking a lot more. And now, with her being pregnant, the mere sound of cooking food is sometimes enough to make her sick for hours. I was the last survivor on the cooking island during the entire first trimester. Sometimes the food is really, really really good. Sometimes it's very very bad (I'll never forget the soup in which I dumped in 1/4 cup of black pepper and we all choked), but mostly it is just okay. Its edible.

The other day I did whip up something worthy of blogging about. I got a call from Tia while she was working, asking for something with pumpkin in it. So I sat down with my trusty Google, to find an appropriately allergen-free recipe to make for Tia. Fortunately the always-dependable Gluten Free Goddess came through, but the recipe needed serious modification to accommodate Tia. So here is what I came up with, a delicious fall dessert:

Pumpkin Bars With Maple Frosting:
-1 cup brown sugar
-3/4 cup rice flour
-1 cup sorghum flour
-1 teaspoon tapioca
-3/4 teaspoon salt
-2 teaspoons cinnamon
-2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
-2 teaspoons shortening
-1/3 cup oil
-1 can pumpkin
-2 teaspoons vanilla

Mix the dry and wet ingredients in separate bowls. Mix wet ingredients in slowly, adding rice milk or water to achieve a thick, but spoonable batter. Spoon into a baking dish and smooth the top with a spatula. Baking at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. When finished, put it into the freezer to cool.

Maple Frosting:
-4 teaspoons shortening
-1/4 cup brown sugar
-1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
-1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
-2 teaspoons vanilla
-2 teaspoons sugar
-2 teaspoons maple syrup (the real kind folks)
-3 teaspoons tapioca starch

Heat shortening in a small saucepan until melted. Add in brown sugar and stir well. Slowly add spice while stirring. Finish with the tapioca to thicken. Spread over the frozen pumpkin bars and allow to cool.

-"OVEN PERFECT for Cake", by turnofthecenturies, $3.00.
-"Cherries oven mitt", by HBIC, $10.00.

-"large indian spice kit", by purposedesign, $38.00.

Stationery swap?

Friday, September 26, 2008


Hey crafters and card makers! Ya know my recent post about pen pals? Well it helped me realize that most of the fun when it comes to sending snail mail, is in what you're sending, right? I've gotten a little bit bored with sending off my own handmade cards, and I need new things to write on and stick a stamp to. Would anyone be interested in doing a note card swap? Doesn't that sound like fun? If anyone wants to play swap-the-stationery, leave me a comment or convo me at my etsy shop. I hope this gets a lot of responses. I've really been itching to take a trip to my mailbox.

The ultimate win-day!

Thursday, September 25, 2008



See where I'm going with this? Does anybody else turn all 13 year old girl over Grey's Anatomy? Holy heck I'm excited. Nothing will stand in between me and Seattle Grace tonight. Nothing. Its going to be me, a bag of chocolate chips, a jar full of peanut butter, a spoon, and 2 hours of hot Mc Steamy Mc Dreamy brain washing hospital drama.
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And now to pick a winner for this weeks suck-day giveaway! Shannon Kay Ripp, say Bingo! I actually went to school with Shannon. We were in the Girl Scouts together even. Oh, and speaking of Girl Scouts. One time in the 4th grade we took a trip to the Pacific Science Center, in Seattle. Just another Greys Anatomy reference. I had to. Anyways, Shannon, lady, you won!! You're now the proud owner of a brand new sketchbook, so kindly offered up by the amazing and always amusing Amuse. To everyone that didn't win, thanks so much for playing. There is always next week, right? I can't remember for the life of me who our sponsor next week is, and my zombie escape plan that contains this vital information is all the way upstairs (seriously, would you make the effort to walk all the up there?). Wait, let me back track in convo's... Oh! Found it! Next week's suck-day giveaway will be sponsored by etsy user plumstars, so make sure you're here to win lots of paper goodies.
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Ps. I'm using ----'s, because blogger is being dumb, and not allowing me to space things out.
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(If you'd like to sponsor a suck-day giveaway, please email me here, or send me a convo in my etsy shop!)
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Lets pounce.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

OK, lets play a new game. If you're not an active etsy freak like the majority of us are, I'll take a quick second to explain what pounce is. Its a feature on etsy that shows you all of the most recently sold items, and the shops that they came from, and what else is available from that shop. Or, you can choose to pounce undiscovered items, which are things from shops that have yet to make their first sale. So, I'm going to pounce, and then try and come up with something to blog about based on what I find. Can you tell I didn't get much sleep? Yeah, you can thank the domestic dispute that went down across the street at midnight for that.

Yarn... Buttons... Black Apple... OH!! Here we go-

Anyone who really knows me, knows that I go out of my mind crazy for Stevie Nicks. Remember that scene in School of Rock, where Joan Cusack is drinking a beer and starts singing White Winged Dove? Yeah, that's totally me. One time I was driving from Portland, Oregon to Woodland, Washington for work, and the freeway emptied out, leaving only me and a tour bus. Driving right beside me, was Stevie Nicks. I think I held my breath the entire time. The bus got off at the amphitheater exit, and I may or may not have cried. I had bought my mom tickets to the concert that night, for her birthday. Do you think she took me? No. She took my dad. THANKS MOM.

What else can we find...

I used to be big on cherries. I still am. But as time goes on, I'm growing even fonder of apples. My kitchen has slowly transformed from a cherry theme, to a red apple theme. I've got cherries tattooed on both sides of my neck, but I think at some point, an apple will have to be added to my canvas. I was thinking of having a Snow White kind of art piece done, with the evil queen handing Snow White a baked apple pie, instead of an apple, since I'm intolerant to cooked apples. Ya know, fructose and all.

I don't have any kind of story to go with these, they're just really cute and I have to have them :)

PS. Don't forget to enter this weeks suck-day giveaway! The contest ends tomorrow morning.

-"Stevie Nicks - Recycled Vinyl Record Journal", by MockTheRock, $22.00.

-"snow white", by GUGAW, $30.00.

-"Stitched Zombie Kitty Mary Jane Shoes - Size 10", by emandsprout, $22.00.

Transformers 27348.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Last night I had a dream that I was the main character of Transformers 2. Only, in my dream, it wasn't a dream, it was real life. And just like in my last Transformers dream, the biggest plot obstacle, was how the Transformers were going to defeat the giant water robots that lived in the ocean. Also, I was a super smokin' hot Bettie Page impersonator, and lived in etsy user JessicaJane's rental house in California.

Just in case anyone was wanting to know how my sleep went, haha.

-"Silver Transformer Necklace", by johns907, $12.00.

Monday suck-day, take 6!!

Monday, September 22, 2008

So here's why my Monday sucks so far. I woke up 3 times in the middle of the night to pee. Three, times. Twice with leg/hip cramps, and once with baby-making cramps. And if a bad nights sleep wasn't enough, when I got up for good (to Eleanore calling for her Daddy, never Mommy), I was given the gift a Monday morning headache. The second I stood up out of bed, there it was, and here it will probably stay. Le suck. Lets do a giveaway, shall we?

Amuse to the rescue! My previously scheduled suck-day sponsor is MIA, which means I had to haul ass to the etsy forums and find a replacement before I had time to get distracted by anything else. I can't leave my suck-day'ers hanging! So there I am, with my pounding headache and my sleepy eyes, begging for someone to throw me a bone. But I got wayyy better than a bone! I got this Spark Sketchbook so kindly donated to all of YOU, by etsy user Amuse. Amuse's shop is full of shirts, postcards, ACEOs, and a bowl of fortune cookies? Oh wait, no, that's a postcard, hehe. So you want to know how to enter huh? Mondays suck...

New Rules: I've recently decided to tweak the rules a little bit. If you'd like to win that fabulous sketchbook (and who wouldn't?), here's what you've gotta do.

1. Go into Amuse's shop, the door is wide open and you're all welcome.
2. Browse until you've memorized the listing title of every item that you adore.
3. Come back here and leave us a comment telling us what you're favorite item was, AND (now here's the kicker) why you hate Mondays. Misery loves company.
4. If you do not have a blogger account, make sure that you leave a name and email address, or some way to contact you in case you win!
5. Contest closes Thursday morning at 11:00 am central time.

My favorite item? Probably this...
The Jellyfish Love shirt. But, not because I love Jellyfish. I'm actually really afraid of them. When I was a kid, 3 or 4 years old, I took a trip to the beach with my family. I remember large (or maybe I was just small) Jellyfish laying all over the beach. Somebody put me under the impression that if I got too close, they would jump up, chase me, and attack me. So to this day, I picture them sprouting large strong legs, and running me out of town.

Suck on!

Pen Pals <3

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Remember in the 4th grade when you could bring your dollar to school and sign up to have a pen pal? Or if you never did that, maybe you remember the sheet in the very back of Teen Bop magazine? Same kinda deal there. I was assigned a girl in... Maine? No, I made that up, I can't really remember where she was. I think we wrote back and forth to each other maybe 5 times total. That's actually probably an exaggeration. When you're in the 4th grade, what do you really have to write about anyways? I don't remember a single thing about her, or where she lived, or her name. I just know that I was greedy for snail mail. Is anyone else thinking about the movie Beaches and crying a little?

...Anyways, when I moved away from home in 2006 I started writing letters and sending little things to my friends back home. Not many people really wrote me back. That's the worst, isn't it? Well sometime in 2007, I got a new pen pal! A real one! The kind that actually writes me back! Some of you might know her as BeckyKayDesigns. Well I feel like I've become a bad pen pal. A slacker. Mostly because I know she reads my blog. Because I update this thing daily, I don't leave much room for interesting details in letters. What does that leave to write about? How can I put the spark back into our letter loving relationship?

I find myself jumping at the chance to send things out to other people. There is nothing like the feeling you get when you're sealing up a handmade envelope, am I right? I recently did a trade with hobocampcrafts. A set of my recipe cards, for the most amazing handmade plush apple keychain in the world. But that wasn't enough. I needed an excuse to send more. Next, thank you cards begin to go out left and right. Everyone needed a birthday card. You've got a sniffle? Well then you've got to have a get well soon card! And my most recent sending spree, was 2 hummus recipes tucked inside a personalized naked lady military greeting to Miss JessicaJane. I'm a letter-writing-sending-stuff-in-the-mail freak. So I ask again, how can I put the spark back into mine and Becky's letter loving relationship? I feel like I'm totally cheating on her with other envelopes.

-"Writers Block Postcards", by threedogparty, $5.00.

Saturday mornings with Christopher. 1.

Saturday, September 20, 2008

I'm what you would call a "heavy sleeper". My eyes are sealed shut as soon as my head hits the pillow (sometimes before). Usually I'm awakened either by a screaming alarm clock, or Tia yelling "Christopher!!!!", amplified x 10. I can sleep anywhere. The car, the couch, the dentist, in a kitchen chair, standing, walking, in space, on top of a volcano, well you get the picture. And unbeknownst to me, I gasp for breath like I'm dying and chomp my lips like Mr. Ed when I'm asleep, driving Tia absolutely insane (who, when it comes to sleep habits, is directly opposite of me. She sleeps like a Marine in a combat zone). So last night I slept on the floor.

Can I just hear it for the proud husbands of the pregnant, who crawl out of their comfy beds at 2am, lay their pillow down on the carpeted (or in some cases hardwood) floor, and settle their aching backs down to sleep without a complaint? I know I'm not the only one. We've actually got a queen sized inflatable mattress that was permanently installed in the bedroom for a month or so. That was almost as comfortable as the actual bed. But last night the air bed was in the new baby's empty room, and I was tired, so... the floor it was.

Well imagine my surprise, when I wake up to Tia not pulling her hair out and yelling my name in that particular way she does ("Chris-toe-pher!!") but a 2 year old saying "Daddy, Daddy!", which is probably the world's greatest alarm clock, besides maybe your wife's soft body pressed up against yours. So I jump to my feet and listen closely for signs of life down the hallway. Tia is thankfully, still fast asleep in her nest* (see explanation of said nest* below), so Eleanore and I go downstairs for some 2% milk, and some gluten free waffles topped with peanut butter and applesauce. I'm looking forward to a good weekend.

*The nest* is a combination of about 900 pillows my pregnant wife surrounds herself with to provide comfort for her growing aching... well, her aching everything. One pillows goes in front, underneath her heaving belly and bosom. One goes behind her, to support her sore back. One is cuddled between her arms and face (that used to be my spot until she realized my breath was stinky. You never notice bad breath until you live with a person.) And the final one, a full length body pillow is placed between her legs for some damn pregnant lady reason.

Multiple choice answers.

Friday, September 19, 2008

So based on the above picture, how do you think I spent my evening? A) Bird watching B) Making mixed media collages, or C) Nesting like a pregnant woman on crack? Right... C. It started while I was sitting outside reading my BUST magazine. Don't you just love BUST day? The greatest mail day of the bi-monthly. Nothing can go wrong with a brand new BUST magazine in hand. Nothing. That's a fact. So anyways, there I am sitting outside in the shade watching my whiny 2 year old daughter complain about how outside isn't fun enough for her, even though shes been begging to play outside all day. I'm reading my magazine, swatting flies off of me left and right, when I get inspired. Who doesn't get inspired when reading BUST? So I jumped up... OK, more like struggled to get up, and went into the garage to find some long lost craft supplies. What I found instead, was a dump. Christopher's garage = the NY city dump. Seriously. Frustrated and no longer happily motivated, I stomp into the house and realize its even worse in here. It wasn't until I was in the middle of frantically scrubbing the base of my blender and its cord, that I realized, "Oh... I'm nesting". I stopped what I was doing, glanced around at the freshly polished flour, sugar, coffee, and tea canisters, and kind of bit my lip in a guilty manner. Christopher comes through the door, probably frightened of me, and after I announce "...I'm nesting", he replies with "Ooooh. Well, that makes sense". But we all know what he was really thinking, haha.


100th post, Thursday win-day, and 89% something.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

It feels like just yesterday my fingers were hovering over the keyboard while my brain scrambled to figure out how to introduce myself. Can you believe that this is my 100th post? Wow, right? I can't imagine I've accomplished much by blogging, other than provided a few minutes of partial entertainment to anyone Google searching "Solar Babies", or "Bad purple hair". Does anyone else have Sitemeter? Do you ever see the crazy things that lead people to your blog? The worst one I've seen so far has been "Porn + orange lizard". Seriously. Well, whatever brings you here, I'm glad to have you as my reader <3>

We've got a giveaway to do!! Hey Valerie, you won! You won you won you won you won!!! You won a beautiful antique copper and Czech Fire-Polished crystal necklace. You chose JennyBunny's Sunshine earrings as your favorite, so that's what I've decided to flaunt today. Doesn't it feel great to win, haha. Thanks so much to everyone that participated in this weeks suck-day challenge. But an even bigger thanks to my latest etsy crush JennyBunny, for sponsoring this weeks festivities! Make sure and come back next week for another great suck-day giveaway with etsy user, saraprettyfun.

OK, so remember yesterdays blog post? Where I blabbed about how anxious I am to find out the sex of the baby? But how I also wanted to wait until the baby was born? Well. Today we went in for a routine prenatal appointment. Nothing fancy, just to listen to the heartbeat and announce to the world how much weight I've gained (ugh). After minutes upon minutes, the doctor just could not find a heartbeat. So he rushed me next door to the ultrasound machine (which would make that my 4th this pregnancy), and found that baby is still breech, and low low low. Well as hes checking things out, he pauses. Whats that? Wait... what is that?? Is... ohmygosh. Is it, a boy?! I stare at the screen with my mouth wide open, flies going in and out as they please, and finally the doctor says "Don't go out buying anything blue yet, but, I'd say that's 89% boy". So does that make the other 11% cute cuddly kitten? We'll find out in 5 weeks. Stay tuned :)


A possible change of heart.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Uh oh. Its getting to that point in my pregnancy, where I have to have my 10th meal in the middle of the night. I woke up around 4:30 for the usual reasons, but couldn't get back to sleep because of the burning and grumblings in my stomach. I waited as long as I could before nudging Christopher and saying in my cutest voice "rice checkies?", which I'm sure is the opposite of what he was hoping to hear. Being the good husband that he is, he went downstairs and got a bowl for me, and then sat up with me while I rambled on and on about wanting to find out the sex of the baby after all. We had been planning on waiting until that moment on the operating table when they hold the baby up over the blue curtain and announce "Its a _____!", but I really don't think I have the patience. Our next ultrasound is in about a month. Do you think I'll give in?

-"Felted Booties - Newborn Elf ", by valeriesgallery, $20.00.

Its a sad day.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Rest in peace my favorite non stick saucepan. I'm sorry that Christopher murdered you so brutally with the steel wool. I promise not to replace you too quickly. You will be missed.

Love, Tia

-"Goldie Pouch Seven", by littlecat, $12.00.

Monday suck-day, take 5!

Monday, September 15, 2008

Suck! Its Monday. Its too early in the morning to list all of the sucky happenings of the day, since they haven't happened yet- wait, scratch that, I've just burnt my mouth on my hot cereal. Suck number one has officially occurred. That's a sign for me to cut the jibber jabber and get right to the suck-day chase, the giveaway!

JennyBunny the great, has made a beautiful necklace, specifically for today. An antique copper and Czech Fire-Polished crystal necklace, 36 inches long with a drop of 2.5 inches. Sounds fancy doesn't it? Well folks, that fancy piece of gorgeousness is all yours. Picture yourself walking down the street, stopping to smell the flowers, when suddenly a complete stranger approaches you to compliment the the long sparkly necklace around your neck. Yeah... that could be you. Since this is suck-day number 5, I bet you know the rules by now. But in case you're new to the game (and welcome if you are!), here are...

the rules: Go to Bunny's website (you know you're hardcore when you have your own website), take your time looking, pick out your absolute favorite, and then come back here and post a comment telling us which piece of jewelry tickles your senses. Make sure you've left a a name and an email, or some way for me to get a hold of you, otherwise your entry won't be valid, and that sucks. We'll draw the winner on Thursday morning. Good luck with the suck!

Nothing compares to the fair.

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Last weekend as we were driving to the Zoo, we were pleasantly surprised to see that the fair was in town! "I wanna go!", Christopher and I said at the same time. I have a bazillion and three memories of going to the Clark County Fair back home in Washington. I went with my parents every summer for something like 15 years. I think there was one year when I went with friends instead, probably around 8th grade when I thought I was too cool for school. I remember standing way far back in the grand stands watching N*Sync (jealous much?). You know how they yell "jump jump", and its really meant for the people on ground level? Yeah, it would have been nice if someone would have told me that. That's how cool I was. Well its been years since I've been in any sort of carnival atmosphere, so last night we hit the ATM and then loaded into the car and headed off. Eleanore kept calling it the park. Anything with rides is a park.

While we were waiting for our friend Kristen (or, Kissten, if you speak toddler) to meet us there, we took Eleanore for a stroll through the cow barn. Do you know what that means? ...Cow shit, covering the wheels of the stroller. The same stroller that was later loaded back up into the car. Need I say more? This fair was much different than the ones I'm used to. And there was no kettle corn! What kind of imposter fair doesn't have kettle corn? Even though I'm allergic, I was really looking forward to letting Elie taste it for the first time. Instead, she got a .75 bowl of ice cream. No complaints from her, clearly. That was the hardest part. Going to the fair, and not being able to eat a single thing there.

(If anyone is interested in seeing an Amy Winehouse version of the above picture, please don't hesitate to click here)
BUT, the light at the end of my hungry tunnel, was the fresh squeezed lemonade. Lemons, water, and lots and lots of sugar. I didn't care what it was, as long as it was allll mine. Whats a fair without fair food? And there was a petting zoo! Which has nothing to do with fair food, but I couldn't think of a better transition. This morning when I woke up, I asked Elie if she remembered what animals she met, and she said "Sheeep!! BAAAH!", so even though she acted afraid of them at the time, she still seems very excited about touching a wet cow nose. When it came time for rides, I said no thank you and took a step back. Me and rides don't get along. But, Miss Elie Sue got to go down the Super Slide with her Daddy not once, but twice! I could hear her laughing from the second they launched. She loved it. And I loved watching. Or, more like I loved trying to get a good picture but failed, haha. By the time we left, my feet were swollen, my stomach was grumbling, the baby was kicking, and my clothes were soaked from a combination of sweat and humidity. But there is something about that walk back to the parking lot in the dark, with flashing neon colored lights behind you, that makes you wan to stay forever.

I got busy.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

This afternoon while Elie napped, I was a good pen pal, and got all caught up on my thank you's and hello's. And then I got down to business...


...making lots and lots of naked lady cards.

-"Hey pinup- mature blank note card", by HeyLady, $3.50.

Thursday win-day!

How is every ones week going? Tomorrow is Friday, so it can't be that bad, right? Unless you're in the path of that dirty hurricane, in which case you're probably dreading the weekend. From what we've heard so far, it looks like Ike will just brush up against us, dumping some heavy rains with a side of wind. What I am looking forward to this weekend though, is some homemade roasted red pepper hummus. "OOoh, Tia you must post the recipe!"... OK OK, I'll see what I can do. It depends on how great my pictures turn out, haha.

Good news, its win-day! This weeks giveaway was sponsored by one of my favorite etsy shops, spaceoddities. I really liked what was up for grabs this time around, a set of 3 revamped french text notecards. Those would come in really handy for me today, since I assigned today to be my personal pen pal day. I've got heaps of writing to accomplish while Miss Elie Sue goes down for her n-a-p (we don't say it, we spell it). So cross your fingers...

According to the random number generator, lucky entry number 12 is our big winner. wabisabinaturals? Is there a wabisabinaturals in the room? This is the part where wabisabinaturals jumps up and down yelling "BINGO!", while everyone else groans and slumps back down into their seat. Don't slouch, sit up straight, because next week our suck-day giveaway is going to be sponsored by the talented JennyBunny! You know you don't want to miss that.

Please. Come. Dive. In. Puddles. With meeee.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Yes, I'm turning into that mom. The mom that wraps her camera strap around her wrist, and loses all use of her right hand because shes too busy taking pictures. The mom that is constantly talking about the adorable things that her child is doing, even if nobody is listening. The mom that posts videos of her daughter "finding a dinglehopper" (seriously you should watch that, haha) in the etsy forums. The mom that lets her child do ridiculous things, that makes the other moms peek out of their windows and gossip about her behind her back. The mom that lets her daughter splash in fresh cold rain puddles until her clothes are soaked and the sun goes down. The mom that's not embarrassed to be an awesome mom.

Tickle shots.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

So remember how I had to get that gnarly shot in my "hip" a couple of days ago? And I pretended like it tickled for Elie's sake? Well ever since then, we've been telling her that soon it was going to be her turn for tickle shots. This morning I woke her up bright and early, got her dressed in pants and a sweater "just like Mommy!", and then Daddy came and picked us up and we drove through the flood waters down to the clinic on base for her 2 year old wellness appointment. She was a little reluctant to let the doctor look into her ears and mouth, so she sat in Daddy's lap and held onto blankie for reassurance. And then came the tickle shots. It probably goes without saying, that they did not tickle, and we're evil parents for tricking her into thinking that they would. The rest of my day will be spent nursing a cranky baby back to health, along with lots and lots of real tickles.

Monday suck-day, take 4!

Monday, September 8, 2008

My mornings are a little bit different these days. Rather than waking up sluggish and with a yawn, I wake up to kicks and punches from within my belly, and absolutely starving. Pregnancy starving is a whole different breed of starving than any other kind of starving I've ever felt. Ladies, if you've been there (been pregnant I mean), then you know exactly what I'm talking about. If you haven't... how can I better explain this to you? Um... Its kind of like, you've just done a 10 day fast and can't think of anything other than food, literally. Your brain just chants "food, food, food" over and over again, even if you've eaten just a few hours before. And it hits you all of a sudden, out of nowhere, even at 3am when you wake up to pee. One minute you could be going along your merry way, doing whatever it is that you're doing, and within seconds you need food, and you need it now! You have to drop everything to feed your hunger, or else. I'm not sure what the or else is, since I live in a house with a kitchen, but... I would hate to see the result of the or else.

Moving on. Is it Monday already? The weekend seemed to fly by. Maybe because of Christopher's gate guard duties, and our last minute trip to the zoo. I'm sad to see Sunday go. Because Monday sure is a suck-day isn't it? But today, to turn all that suck into a big bright ball of sunshine, we've got this fantastic set of 3 French Text Revamped notecards, so graciously provided to us by etsy user spaceoddities! That's right, its free!! I don't know about you, but it always feels really great after I've sat down with a cup of tea and gotten all caught up on my thank you's, happy birthday's, and just because's. Which reminds me, "letter to pen pal, asap". Soo, I bet you want to know how to win those cards don't you? The rules: Go and visit the spaceoddities shop, browse the more than 100 items listed, and come back here to leave us a comment on this post, telling us your name, email, and what your favorite item(s) is! The winner will be drawn on Thursday morning. So... Monday, this means war.

-"French Text Revamped- notecard set", by spaceoddities, $9.00.

-"Mermaid and Gnome Pocket Mirror", by spaceoddities, $6.00.

Pink and black glory.

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Very rarely do we find ourselves being featured in a treasury. I usually scan through them in search of funny titles, hoping to find new things to heart. So imagine my surprise when there was a shiny gold star! A big thanks to etsy user WoodNVisions for sending me a picture. And an even bigger thanks to JunkyardGypsy for featuring us in the first place.

The retirement of my peach cobbler.

It is unfortunate news that I have bid farewell to my seemingly never ending supply of peach cobbler. Not because my cravings have stopped, but because I've added yet another set of ingredients to my list of food intolerance's. Gums. Xanthan, vegetable, arabic. Any kind of gum. For most of you, that probably sounds like blah blah blah, but to me, I'm much too familiar with every single ingredient that I set into my mouth and swallow. I can tell when I'm having a reaction within minutes, and then the next 12-24 hours is a combination of bodily hell and determination to find out hell's cause. So until I come up with a new recipe for a quick and easy peach cobbler, my appetite for the dish has subsided.

-"Suger and Spice", by ahappyending, $20.00.