Friday, January 9, 2009

GREAT GIFT: ZOOBIE PETS

Oh how I wish I learned about Zoobie Pets before Christmas. Luckily we have some birthdays coming up because these adorable little pets are too much to resist. What is a Zoobie Pet, you ask? 

It's a plushie...

 
a soft snuggly pillow... 


AND a blanket. Check it out!


Lucky for us, Vanessa over at I Never Grew Up is having a fantastic Zoobie Pet giveaway. Hurry over before it's too late! On second thought, take your time...I don't want too much competition. 




Wednesday, January 7, 2009

SNIPPETS OF MY LIFE

Life is still a bit crazy here, even with the kids back to school and the holidays behind us. Playing catch up after the holidays is proving to be as busy as preparing for the holidays themselves. But I do have high hopes of getting life under control by Friday. (How's that for a firm deadline?)

Until then, I thought I'd give you a few little snippets of my life this past week.

Pumpkin turned 10 on Monday. It really is unbelievable to me that a full decade has past since my first baby was born, and he still is just that, my baby. He of course hates for me to refer to him as such, but I correct myself and say he's my oldest baby and that seems to appease him. He was quite pleased with himself Monday night, having entered the double-digits and all, and went to bed with a smile on his face after a great day. About ten minutes after he was all tucked in, he came into my bedroom where I was doing a bit of organizing and handed me both his ipod and his Nintendo DS and said "Here mummy, take these from me, I don't want to be tempted." Meaning he didn't want to be tempted to play them when he was supposed to be sleeping. This having a ten year old may not be so bad after all. We'll see how long it lasts!


Petunia is very much a girly girl. She loves all things pretty and stylish and she really loves dolls. Specifically, American Girl dolls. She loves the books and the outfits, primping their hair, accessorizing - everything about them. Lucky for her, she has two aunties who are more than willing to indulge this love affair with all things American Girl. A day or two after Christmas, Petunia was playing with her newest American Girl doll and all of her accompanying accessories when I sat down next to her to take a peek at the new stuff. As I was fussing with the new doll, Petunia's face changed. She didn't quite look sad, but I couldn't identify the expression so I asked her what was up. At first she resisted answering, but then she said that she felt a little guilty for having so many American Girl dolls when some children don't have any. This, of course, prompted a discussion about how she is definitely very lucky for all the things that she has, but she doesn't need to feel guilty that the people who love her take great joy in buying her presents sometimes and as long as she doesn't expect or demand things, she has nothing to feel badly about. She was very happy to hear that she could play guilt-free, but she still had that look. I wondered if she would like to buy an American Girl doll for a little girl that was not lucky enough to afford one and her face immediately brightened. So, the plan is that she has 10 months to save $100 (not the exact amount, but I wanted her to be able to do the math on her own) and by November 1st she will have enough to buy a doll for a girl in need. We now have a decorated jar on our kitchen counter that already contains about $30. Seems that my girl is not only a saver, but also quite the fundraiser as well. We have told her that most of the money needs to be saved by her, but if family members want to make small donations, that is fine too. Fueled by this early success, she has now set her sights on buying dolls for two little girls!


As you may have guessed, the final snippet is about my little Peanut. A story that perfectly illustrates the personality of this spirited and silly little girl. 

After days of dragging on the inevitable de-Christmasing of the house, I finally finished packing everything up yesterday and was ready to put the big rubbermaid containers into storage. I'm sorry, did I say big containers? Because what I really meant was huge, ginormous, red and green containers filled to the brim with surprisingly heavy decorations. Add to the equation that I am only five feet tall and this is about to turn into an I Love Lucy episode. Lucky for Peanut, she was here to witness all of the fun. I dragged the first container over to the stairs with a plan to gently guide it down one stair at a time. Of course, with carpeted stairs, molded plastic and gravity, the physics of the situation were not in my favor and the container zoomed down the stairs dragging me along as I tried to avoid a crash landing and broken ornaments. Peanut shrieked with delight over the ride I had just taken and stood by waiting for the next show. Determined to finally be rid of these boxes (read: I refused to wait for my husband to get home to do this for me), I went back upstairs and started rolling the next box toward the stairs. Thrilled to see that I was going to provide an encore performance, Peanut began to chant: "Go Mama Go! Go Mama Go!" and continued her chant until the box was somewhat safely down the stairs and I came back up giggling and hugging her for cheering me on. Who knew motherhood came with it's own cheering section?

Monday, January 5, 2009

INSPIRATION



A new year is about hope. And inspiration. I dare you to watch this and not feel overcome with both. A great way to start off the new year, courtesy of PS 22 in Staten Island.

Hot, baby!

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

{here's to a pot-banging good time}

Monday, December 29, 2008

HOPE IT WAS MERRY!

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

CHRISTMAS HOUSE TOUR



In all of the Christmas card craziness, I finally have a moment to show you what I've been working on! In addition to the frenzy of Christmas Card orders that I have been diligently filling, I have also been doing some Christmas decorating! Not at my own house, although I better get busy on that before my family rebels against me, but on a house that was a part of the Christmas House Tour in our town this year. The Christmas House Tour is a fundraiser where a team of volunteers get together to transform five houses in town into a holiday fantasies come true. Tickets are then sold for people to view the beautiful homes.

I was asked to design the room of a little girl who lives in one of the homes on the tour. This family moved into the home recently, so I was really starting with just a bed and a desk and the little girl's desire for pink and green. Here is a little tour of the (nearly) completed room.

The photos were taken at night (very late, just after the room was almost completed. The bed was not yet fluffed, but I was waiting for the next morning for that last minute detail) so the lighting was terrible. But the tour was to start the next day, so I had to snap some shots while I had the chance.

Here is the view as you just walk into the room. What you cannot see is that there is a little entry into the room created with white cotton panels from Ikea that were trimmed and swooped back with yards and yards pink ribbon, framing the room as you enter and mimicking the swoop of the curtains that frame the bed.

The bed was formally a bunk bed that the girl shared with her sister, so I had to hide the pegs on the posts where the top bunk once sat. This was done prettily and easily with ribbon balls and streamers. 

Above the bed, we painted the girl's monogram and created a canopy of sorts with tissue paper flowers courtesy of Martha Stewart crafts and at the end of the bed, figure skates are hung for Santa to fill with gifts and candy.


Next to the bed is a handpainted table and chairs made extra special with a wreath of fresh pine hung from the ceiling and lit with small lights for some extra shimmer and fantasy. When the fresh greens dry out, I have a plan to embellish the wreath with something more permanent.

To fill the wall beside the table, vintage paper dolls and lacing cards downloaded from The Crafty Crow's other blog Belladia , were framed and hung in a grouping. (thank you crafty crow!)


The little girl who lives in this room is both an accomplished figure skater and hockey player, so we set up this desk as a vanity for her to get ready for skating events and display her most treasured medals and awards, complete with inspirational messages tucked into her mirror.


Here is another view of the vanity area. The chair was covered with leftover fabric from curtains and bedskirt.



Finally, the piece de resistance - the tree! Covered in ribbon and tulle and little paper cones embellished with ribbons and fresh greens, it's a little girl's Christmas fantasy!

At the top of the tree sits an outgrown skate monogrammed and embellished for a lovely little skating princess (and rough and tumble hockey player, of course)! Thank you so much K for allowing me to invade your life and your bedroom for the past couple of weeks. It was such a pleasure to create your winter wonderland. Enjoy!

Saturday, December 6, 2008

WHAT I'VE BEEN UP TO!


I know I've been MIA for many, many days now but I promise, I have a good excuse. No time for a complete post now, but this picture is a little hint of what I've been up to. More to come in the next day or two!