Lining Up

On a rainy day in April (weird in the SoCal) a visit to my fairy blogmother inspired me to start writing again.

Missing: one magic wand.

Despite the (relatively) cold weather, I decided to haul my two month old son off to a bookstore in downtown Pasadena to wait in a long line to meet a woman I've already met and get a book I had already bought signed (when she's already signed books for me).  Totally worth it.

The line was long and daunting and after about an hour it had moved about four feet.  Just as we were starting to revisit our decision expose a newborn to the elements for some sharpie signatures and a 90 second conversation with a perfect stranger (although in my heart we will always be besties), we noticed the bookstore manager (owner? don't know) walk along the line and release a group of people to the front of the line.  Intrigued, we listened as the people in front of us inquired if their twin girls (adorable) were young enough.  The managowner asked how old they were and the couple said they were seven months.  As she replied "No, we're not taking them that old yet" I jumped in and asked how young they needed to me.  She said "How young is he?" and when I said eight weeks, presto chango, we got bumped to the front of the line too.  Suddenly dragging my infant along didn't seem like such a bad idea.

The little guy also helped serve as a valuable conversation piece with Ree herself.  Last time we met I was just pure, unadulterated awkwardness.  I think I mentioned how we had a baby early in our marriage like Ree and Ladd, and however awkward that sounds, it was approximately 87% more awkward in person.  She was fun and said "oh right, I always say why beat around the bush about these things?" and we laughed but oh boy.  Awk. Ward.  This time we had a lovely chat about how after having perfectly normal deliveries with our first children, we both had boys who were five weeks early and scared us and spent time in the NICU.  That is a bonding experience, so the conversation flowed nicely.

Sammy thinks we all look related.

And the best part?  I won a bet with the hubs.  That almost never happens!

He was sure; nay, positive that Pioneer Woman and Marlboro Man had chickens.  Something about the opening credits of her cooking show.  Now, I had read this and was well aware that she did not have chickens, and so the bet was laid.  If I won: frozen banana date.  If he won: I don't remember.  Right before we walked away I asked her to help settle a bet with my husband.  The result?

Victory in our time!

The Great Christmas Card Decision of 2011

I have been in Christmas card planning mode for ages, just not for us.  We send out an obscene number of cards during the holidays at work, and this year the task of designing those cards fell to me.  It was actually a nice diversion in the midst of a very busy season.  We ended up going with Tinyprints.com, partially because my aunt had just used them to send out some very cute Thanksgiving invitations, and partially because their prices and selection were the best I found.

Our work cards.  We decided not to use this family's photo, though, cute as they are.

So now it's time (some might say past time, but I've never been super on top of it when it comes to sending out Christmas cards) to pick ours.  I just can't decide which ones to pick!!  Some options:

Pretty and swirly but sort of subdued

Peppy and bright and almost Seussian

Sort of soft and snowy.  Maybe too snowy for a California Christmas card.  False advertising.

There are so many more too... and then comes the picture decision.  We didn't actually have pictures taken this year, so I have to choose from candids, almost none of which include all three of us!  Why, oh why, are we so terrible at posing for pictures at important family events??  Thankfully we have some cute ones from J's birthday and my birthday that will probably suffice.

Anyone have any awesome Christmas card tips and/or ways to actually get family pictures with everyone in the frame occasionally?  I could really use both!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  I can't believe it's already almost here!  Yay for a four day weekend!

{pretty, happy, funny, real} ~ Birthday Fun

We've had lots of happy, funny and real with plenty of pretty thrown in lately.  October ends with my birthday and Juliana's birthday so we've been go-go-going the past few weeks.

{happy}

For my birthday we went to a pumpkin patch that had hayrides and a real working farm and a maize maze and pumpkin chucker and a hay pyramid (I didn't know this was a thing).  We had a blast!  We ended up with one of my favorite family shots we've taken in a while:

So happy!!  They're hard to see, but note her pigtails.  They stick straight up... hilarious.

{funny}

Once we brought our pumpkins home (note: we didn't buy that giant one above... that thing was just monstrous) J decided they were for eating.  Just the stems, though.

{real}

I posted yesterday about her Halloween costume and she looked SO cute in it, but it took lots of prep.  She has a whole team:

Cuteness like this takes time.

Go check out Like Mother, Like Daughter for more {p,h,f,r}!

Halloween 2011, Pinterest-Style

Since Monday was my Jellybean's first "real" Halloween (the first one in which I was no longer recovering from childbirth, that is), I felt compelled to make her a costume.  Now, I don't sew.  At all.  It's kind of sad.  I wish I did sew, though!  I have TONS of pins on Pinterest with sewing projects just sitting there, taunting me with their cuteness.  So I had to find something that was very light on the sewing, otherwise my "making" the costume would have consisted of me asking my mom to make it for me.

In my search I found so many incredibly cute ideas:

via Pinterest

I thought this was beyond darling, but would require all kinds of sewing machine time.  Not to mention skill.

Then there was this:

via Pinterest

Oh my gosh I almost died at the cuteness. Plus it links through to a real tutorial.  Alas, though, it not only required sewing skills but some sort of plasticized belt action that was way out of my skill set.

And this is clearly awesome, but there's no way my kid is going to be willing to sit in a bucket all night.  Too big:

via Pinterest (Seriously if you're not on Pinterest I don't even know where you get your ideas.  You are awesome.)

But this.  When I saw this I knew:

Via Pinterest via Ashley Ann Photography

It has all the qualifications: 1) It's ADORABLE 2) It's completely awesome 3) It's very, very light on the sewing. Plus it has the added bonus of being a superhero costume, which meant the hubs was TOTALLY on board.

I wasn't sure how I was going to pull off the shirt, as hers was a retro printed one from Old Navy, but I figured maybe an iron on or something would do it.  

So I set out, an intrepid explorer on my lunch break and braved the Walmarts.  There I found the perfect shade of tulle, the white felt and the red felt (for the stars on the cuffs and crown) and, randomly, the last 12 month plain red t-shirt in the store.  I didn't find any suitable gold fabric, though, so that had to wait for a trip to JoAnn's.  

(I took no pictures of the progress, sadly)

The tutu was no problem.  I watched this tutorial and that was it.  Two hours one evening and done. It took me a little longer to sew in the white stars, but I just did that little by little.  I then decided on puffy painting the logo onto her t-shirt and then added lots of gold glitter, which worked great. 

The last hurdle was the actual sewing.  I ended up running down to the last minute and had to figure out how to hand sew the thing at work on my lunchbreak.  So keep that in mind!  It came out fairly well, but not exactly like the inspiration.  And the cuffs had to be sacrificed.  Just no time at all.  Oh well, she looked cute anyway!  Behold, the finished product, with some leggings added for warmth:

Aren't I cute, flying in my invisible plane?

The pink diaper sticking out really adds the effect.

She had a great time and looked adorable... all we could ask for really!  Happy November everyone!

To see tons of other actualized Pinterest ideas, check out Young House Love today!

Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real - (Mostly) Cellphone Pictures Addition (My camera is broken)

My sweet girl is just so pretty (totally unbiased opinion).  I mean, come on:

I cannot believe this critter turned 11 months this week.  She was JUST BORN!

This is her "looking at daddy" face.  She is smitten (she takes after her mommy in this way).

I am still loving my new office. Look at this view!  So happy.

My old office had a window into a sad hallway.  Definite improvement.
Also, note the Disneyland book in the basket.  That is my "waiting area" book that I hand to people when I need them to wait a sec for me.  It has awesome fun facts in it such as "The vegetation that lines the moat around Sleeping Beauty's castle primarily consists of junipers because it is one of the few types of foliage that swans will not eat" and "Tom Sawyer's Island was officially annexed and recognized by the Missouri State Legislature in 1956."  Now you know.

Both funny and real:

I now have to fold pretty much everything at least twice, as "helping mommy" is her favorite game.  

Quasi-review: Pride and Prejudice at South Coast Repertory

Tuesday night my mom and I headed down to South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa and saw a play I've been looking forward to seeing for ages: Pride and Prejudice.  I am calling this a "quasi-review" because, let's be honest, I have very, very little objectivity when it comes to Jane Austen.  I love her.  I also love anything that falls into the British-period-romantic category.  I cannot help myself.

With that in mind, let's begin.

The show is a period-correct, faithful adaptation of the book with one caveat: there is a brief "contemporary" opening in which a teenage girl is given a copy of the novel and then takes part in the action of the play as an observer and a reactor.  This, to me, was the single most distracting aspect of the entire play.  At one point she jumped into the carriage with Elizabeth and the Gardiners as they were heading to Pemberley.  Ack.  The actress playing the role, Claire Kaplan, brought as much as she could to it, but ultimately it was just incredibly annoying.

Here you can see how incongruous the "observer" character looked onstage.  Eek.

I enjoyed pretty much everything else about the play, though: the acting was good; great in some cases.  Mrs. Bennet, played by stage veteran Jane Carr, was perfect in the part, as was Randy Oglesby as Mr. Bennet and most of the other principle actors.  Mr. Collins was an absolute highlight as well.  Scott Drummond was perfectly awful as the socially awkward vicar and clearly delighted in every bit of it.

To me, the best part of seeing Pride and Prejudice live was the energy of the audience.  On a Tuesday night the show was just packed with Austen die-hards (as evidenced by some particularly nerdy bathroom-line conversation: "I agree that the '95 is vastly preferable to the '05 but have you seen the Olivier??  Oh you must, you must!"), and everyone in the room was clearly waiting for their favorite lines and scenes.  As each favorite was delivered ("An unhappy alternative is before you, Elizabeth...") the room tensed with anticipation and howled with laughter.  It was truly an Austen geek-fest, and that is what made it such fun.

Pride and Prejudice is onstage at South Coast Repertory through October 9th.

To Autumn

I am so ready! Ready for the crisp air, the decorations at Disneyland, the birthdays and holidays we have coming up. I LOVE fall. It is my very favorite season. I recently found this on Pinterest:

via Pinterest

And it reminded me again of how much I love everything about this season. I want to go back to school again (and Hogwarts, but that's a totally different post)!

So in honor of my favorite season, one of my favorite poems:

To Autumn

SEASON of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reap’d furrow sound asleep,
Drows’d with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,—
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

--John Keats