Conversations From The Back Seat

In the car, as we left lunch today.  The temp gauge read 112.

Bug: "Mommy, why is my hair wet?"
Me: "That would be sweat."
Bug: "That's the wrong kind of water!"

Just How Washable is a Washable Crayon?

We're going to find out.  Soon.  Because I walked into my kitchen and found this today.

Boo is my artist.  She also hit the fridge and the kitchen wall with that purple crayon.  I think Bug half expected me to totally blow my top but, well, they're washable.  So...eh.  I told them to have at it and we could clean it up when they were done.

(To her credit, Boo isn't even two yet and the first thing she did when I commented on her having written on the cabinet was go grab a sponge and try to wipe it off.  Sweet girl.)

The finished project, after the introduction of new colors and giddiness that Mom was letting them draw on the cabinetry.

Bug says that's the cats fighting (which, thankfully, they don't really do) on the right-most door.

Pay It Forward

Here's something new. :)  I caught just a little bit of a Pay It Forward blog movement a few days ago and was kind of intruiged.  Didn't go looking for the details at the time, but they kind of landed in my lap tonight, thanks to CraftyRie (via facebook), who pointed to Cas at Sew It Seams, who heard about it from Sally at ::virtu::, who got it from Rie at CraftyRie.  (Still with me?)

So, that seemed like a good sign to maybe jump in. :)

The rules:  (This is a copy and paste, so I make sure to get it right.)


So here's what happens:


I will make a handmade gift for the first 3 interested people who comment on this post.

• I have 365 days to do it in…
• What it will be and when it will arrive is a total surprise!

The catch is that you must participate as well:

• you must have a blog
• and before you leave your comment here, write up a pay it forward post on your blog to keep the fun going. Just cut and paste this one if you like, which I did! 

So...comment. :)  Link me to your blog post and I'll start plotting to make you something that you'll hopefully find cool or useful or fun.  And I can't wait to see what people get to making for who signs up with them.

And...go!

New Look

Thought it might be time to change things up, visually, just a little bit.  Like it?

Dirt Day

Yesterday evening, the kids had some solo play time in the yard.  Mom's been cleaning out her house and brought some stuff over to our house, so we were rearranging and trying to get some computer work done and and and... I went out once and they were digging happily in the dirt.  I went out a little while later and found this.

Chinchilla Girl and Dirt Boy

 

 

Yup...dirt bath

And so very happy about it!

 

And this is what happens when Mommy says "Smile!"

I don't at all mind the dirt...but they absolutely went straight into the bath. ;)

Outside Play

We've been having some fun outside this week, despite the heat.

And, look!  Sunflowers!  I wish the tomatoes were doing as well. ;)

Universal Craft Blog

While not strictly a craft blog, I do tend to think of things as being kind of craft-ish around here, so I've linked up with the Universal Craft Blog list.

At the moment, there are over 600 crafty blogs on the list.  That is a LOT of craftiness!  The blogs that I've visited have been really neat, so I'm excited to keep checking them out...and hope that anyone who finds us on the list will be glad that they did. :)

First Sunflowers

Yesterday, the kids and I went out and discovered that Bug's sunflower had bloomed.  It's not very tall, but is quite pretty.  And it looks like there are seven other blooms getting ready!  Seven!

It was also pretty exciting to see that the tomato plant is still alive and has bloomed.  Again.  It's not getting enough water, or is getting too much sun - I'm not really certain which - and keeps blooming and wilting without actually producing any tomatoes.  A little disappointing, but at this point I'm really just kind of thrilled that it's love at all.  If it bears fruit, that will be a huge bonus.

Really, our outside time yesterday was all kinds of exciting.  I finally remembered to buy birdseed, and Bug and Boo were all kinds of excited to fill up the feeder and sprinkle as much seed on the ground as we'd let them. 

My sister moved into a cool new house awhile back and had set aside some stuff at her old house that she thought we might be able to use.  And since my step-dad came back from Texas with a trailer, we were able to haul over a new refrigerator (Mom's old one, since my step-dad brought a newer one from their place in Texas for their house), some shelves that have already gone up in the studio and more for the garage, a spinning composter and an ancient lawnmower.  You know, the kind with no motor.

For the first time in my life, I mowed my own lawn.  And it was exhilarating.  I'm not naive enough to think that I'm always going to have fun with that, especially as it continues to get hotter and hotter here in the desert, but I certainly felt accomplished yesterday.

Then we got the composter set in place.  Bug and I pulled out some of the mulch that was left in it for a project we have planned, then dumped our first big bowl of compostable stuff inside.  Bug is so excited about it that he's decided that it's his job to spin the composter.  He even walked away from Phinias & Ferb this afternoon to go spin it when he saw me carry a bowl of scraps outside.

Add to things that Richard has been cooking with fire and we've been living in suburban pseduo-homesteader heaven for the past few days. :)

Things That Caught My Eye (Whale Edition)

I can't speak for any of these companies or crafters as a customer, but there are some really nifty things out there in blogland that have caught my eye...

These whale twins by Fog and Swell just look AMAZING.  I can't even imagine the time and effort that went into them!  You can read more about these guys on her blog and see more of her amazing work in her Etsy shop.  I find myself lusting after her Orca stuffies.  Bug has always kind of had a soft spot for Orcas, and our nightly lullabies all center around sea creatures, so I'd imagine that both Bug and Boo would find comfort in it.  Nevermind that it it's just gorgeous.

To continue with the sea creature theme, I absolutely adore this felt whale pillow by PuNk rAwK pUrL.  It looks so cuddly and happy!  I've been doing a lot of work on pillows lately, but don't often get to work with felt (nor is it likely that I will anytime in the foreseeable future).  He'd fit into our bedroom pillow pile quite nicely! This little guy and his friends in different colorways (and different animals!) are available in her shop.  She has some great stuff on her blog, too.

And, while I didn't initally intend to focus on whales, here's one more that caught my eye recently...

This pair of organic whale pillows by Cecil & Clyde make me quite happy.  I think it's the smiles. ;)  I'm quite drawn to the bright, happy colors in the piping (a really nice touch!), and I love that they're really quite large.  Seems like they're perfectly sized for some serious snuggling.  There are other animals available in the Cecil & Clyde Etsy shop (I'm really drawn to the elephants), too.

Featured at Simply Cherise

Somehow, I forgot to post about it here the first time that frog loves monkey was featured in on a blog.  Hrm...not sure how I managed to do that.  (It's here, at The Sweetest Memory.)

Exciting news though - it's happened again!

I'm the featured artist over at Simply Cherise.  Very flattering. :)  Go take a peek if you'd like to hear a bit more about what I do why I do.

Pre-Easter Playdate

The kids and I got to go have a bit of fun just before Easter.  Even though we've been here in Arizona for nearly two years already (how did that happen?!), given everything that's happened during that time, there hasn't seemed to be a lot of time for us to get out and meet people.  But we do have friends, and for that I'm very grateful.  :)  And, that we *all* seem to have made friends in the same family, well...that's just awesome. :)

So we got to go play with our friends.

It was a really nice, relaxing day.  The boys, both four, alternately had great fun with each other and then seemed to delight in shouting at each other.  The girls, both hovering on either side of a-year-and-a-half, mostly still play near each other, but have taken notice of each other.  There were moments that I wondered if they weren't developing little crushes on each others brothers.  And I always enjoy hanging out and talking with Kendall.  She's awesome.

The kids dyed a few eggs, though I didn't manage to get any pictures of it.

Boo got to wear her first tutu, and I think she fell in love.  She liked it so much that Kendall sent her home with it.

Boo and Luca.

Much fun was had. :)

(And, Kendall has a shop!  Find her at www.hennyandev.etsy.com, www.facebook.com/hennyandev or www.hennyandev.blogspot.com.  She does CUTE stuff.)

Easter, Part I

I know it's not Easter yet, but we've already done our big family celebration.  My sister's ex-husband has their kids for the weekend, so we did the big family thing last night.

I have to admit, I'm a little surprised (and quite pleased!) that their Easter baskets are still around.  This was the third year we've used these baskets, and they're just made of felt.  I'd hoped they'd last for a few years, but I'm kind of surprised that they've survived three years, three moves and some pretty rough handling in the playroom.  Considering that I think I paid $1.50 for them, I'd say we've gotten our money out of them.

I'm not sure why but, this year, Bug and Boo were both a little obsessed with wearing their Easter baskets as hats.

 

 

Bug had a lot of fun dying eggs with his cousins.  Boo was still a little young to take part (in my opinion), but she also didn't seem terribly interested in it.  She played outside for awhile, then just kind of orbited the table as the bigger kids finished up the eggs.

Bug dyed ALL of his eggs green.  It's his favorite color.

Then it was time to hide the eggs!

I'm a little embarrassed to say that we hid eleven dozen eggs.  Yep...eleven dozen.  In my sister's backyard, which is about the size of a postage stamp.  (And we ended up leaving another 18 eggs in the fridge.  I can't even imagine where we'd have put them!)  Luckily, we were hiding eggs for little kids, so putting them in plain sight was totally acceptable.

 

I was particularly proud of this balancing act.

 

 

Eventually, we just took to tossing them onto the lawn...

 Being the youngest, Boo got first crack at the yard.  We gave her a head start of about 30 seconds or so, so she could figure out what was going on before the big kids plowed her down in their quest for eggs.  She picked up on it pretty quickly and did really well on her own, though she did have parental help in reaching some of the eggs she found but could get to on her own.

 

And the hunt is on!

Afterwards, the kids sat down and counted out their loot.  Mom gave them each a quarter for each real egg they found, and all of the plastic eggs had some change inside them.  Considering the number of eggs out there, they all banked even though most of the eggs only have a few cents inside them.

Not sure how I didn't get a picture of Bug with his eggs, too...

And then they attempted to eat ALL of the real eggs.  Before dinner.

We'll do something low key on Easter, but they really seemed to enjoy the big deal. ;)

Oh, Hello! - and A Farmer's Market ;)

Oh, look!  I still have a blog!

I'd apologize for not having updated in...forever...but, well, we've been living our lives. ;)

And I've got a few pictures to prove it.

Last week, we headed out to the big farmer's market.  As much as I talked about markets last year and the year before, it's actually the first time we've headed out this season.  There's just been too  much other stuff going on!

Bug is four now, and decided that HE was going to push Boo (almost two!) in her stroller.  She doesn't ride in it often, so she was pretty tickled by the whole thing.  He even pushed her around - with some minimal steering assistance - for  about ten minutes before he gave up on it.

We saw some really great stuff.  Flowers and veggies and some super yummy prepared foods.

The kids loved the veggies.

Boo watching the live band while we ordered lunch.

We got the BEST hot dogs ever from these guys...

Seriously.  SO good.

All of the hot dogs are named after actual dogs, which was cool.  I got the Igby - blue cheese, cole slaw and bbq sauce.  Sounds maybe a little strange, but I've craved another ever since.

After lunch, we picked up some super yummy, all natural popsicles.

Bug got chocolate raspberry.

I got prickly pear and passionfruit, but Boo snagged it immediately.  She did allow me a small taste.  Quite yummy.

And, yes, she finished the WHOLE thing.

Market and McDonalds

Perhaps not two things I'd normally put in the same sentence, but that's how our day worked out. :)

This morning was not-a-million-degrees, so we decided to head out to the farmer's market.  I called Mom to see if she wanted to come along and she said my nephew had a school holiday, so they both joined us.  We loaded the boys into the wagon (maybe not necessary, but they loved it), and Boo into the stroller (which we hardly ever use, so she was thrilled) and headed out.



It was awesome.  I've really missed going to the farmer's market regularly.

And I brought home some pretty, pretty veggies.



(In addition to what's pictured, we also brought home corn, sweet potatoes and a bunch of pretty little apples.  And Mom picked up something called a lemon cucumber...which is a cucumber that looks surprisingly like a lemon.  Go figure.)

We hung out at the park for a bit.  The boys exploring and finding treasures in the dirt.



(Bug with an eraser shaped like a cat.)

Boo ran around trying to keep up, and beelining towards the mud.



So I ended up holding her a lot.  She was not pleased.



(This is the first picture of Boo where I think she looks like me at all.)

Then it started getting hot and we were hungry, so Mom suggested we move the party to McDonald's - a rare treat!  This is the first time we've been since Boo has been even kind of mobile and she jumped out there like an old pro.

(I was right there ready to catch her the whole time.  Honest.)







She ended up making it up to the fourth step before it got too steep.  My nephew was so amazing with her.  He cheered her on the whole time she was trying to climb, and helped her down when she thought she was stuck.  Very sweet.

Bug didn't stop moving once. ;)



(Haha.  While tagging this post, I realized that ALL of the veggies were already listed.  Guess we have some solid favorites.)