walla walla peanut butter sandwich!

2 weeks early- after being induced, Nan labored all day, and now...

Baby Van is here!

Born August 6th around 8 p.m.

6 lbs, 7 oz

Photo from daddy, about 1 hour old. And he looks just like Mike.

Loo-loo and Van.

Look at all that hair- not even a day old, and already he has a mohawk!

Me and Van.

Yes, Loo-loo took this photo.

Big yawn!

We had planned her baby shower for Saturday, but since he came early, we had to postpone it.

As soon as she feels up to it, we will have it- and hopefully Van's quilt will be finished and back from the quilters!

I am so so so excited to be a part of this little one's life!

Thank you, Nan and Mike for sharing your little family with us!

your cat is staring at me

Being the oldest kid in the family, I have always been overprotective of my siblings. Sometimes it's helpful, but a lot of the time, it's not. I got in the middle of an almost fistfight between my brother and some thug in Jr. High, therefore embarrassing the crap out of him. I have since tried to back off, but to this day I am still too protective of my brother's heart.

It's Loo-loo that I am the most protective of.

Last week, my mom got a call from a neighbor. She was teaching a lesson in "differences" to some kids, and wondered if Loo-loo would like to speak to the kids about her Down Syndrome, and also if my mom would like to speak about it. (there is nothing wrong with having DS, it's just one of those kind of obvious chromosomal abnormalities.)

(clears throat) Yeah. If you are so ignorant that you don't know that your neighbor does not have down syndrome, you shouldn't be teaching children about "differences". Tact goes a long way. Google can be your friend.

The woman proceeded to tell my mom that it would be a month long stretch of lessons, and that for another one, she wanted to ask the only african american kids in the neighborhood to speak as well. About why they are so different from the white kids.

Also, if you are a blatant racist, you shouldn't be teaching children anything.

Last Saturday, I spent the day at my mom's making jam. So while I was pitting, chopping and stirring, I talked to Loo-loo about being different.

Me: "Do you think you are different than me?"

Her: "No. Well, I have different shirt on. And pants. And socks. And....."

Me: "I have brown hair, and you have blonde hair."

Her: "I have blue eyes, you have brown."

And so on. And on. It became very obvious that Loo-loo does not see herself as different than anyone else. She also does not see anyone else differently. Which is amazing to me.

I judge people all the time. I can't help it. I try to be objective, nice, understanding, etc... But what I see on the surface affects how I respond.

(drumroll please) And here is a very ugly truth about me- I walk into Walmart and see fat, hairy, poor, gross, skanky and stupid idiots that don't deserve my attention. Loo-loo walks into Walmart and sees the job of her dreams, to be the door greeter. To get to say "Hello" and "Have a nice day!" to all of her new friends. If I could just be a little bit like my sister, I would be a much better person. I know that I am not better than anyone, I don't know why I always act like it.

I have never seen my sister as "less". I have read and heard parents of handicapped children say things like "She'll never go to college. She'll never walk down the aisle. He'll never drive a car. He'll never fall in love." (but I do understand that being the parent of a handicapped child is a much different and more difficult role than that as a sibling.)

Who says they never will? Do those things even matter? Yeah, Loo-loo might never get married, and she will definitely never drive a car. But her ability to see every human being as equal? Never judging, laughing at, envying. How amazing is that? Superpower anyone? Even if all I did was focused on the inherent good in people, that everyone deserves to be treated equally, I would still make judgements.

Loo-loo is always happy. Always. She has moments of sadness, anger, fright, but they are just moments. Even though I have a wonderful life, I sometimes struggle to be happy. (pretty sure everyone "normal" to some extent does.)

So to me, Loo-loo's gifts far outweigh her "differences".

In closing, there are some uptight, ignorant people in this world that get huffy when their neighbors cat stares at them from across their yards. Then there are some that can love every living thing on earth, for exactly who they are, and do it with a grin and a giggle.

I'll take door number 2 please.

(my mom's neighbor growing up used to call to tell them to make their cat stop staring at her.)

not a hippie

You know how everyone is going "green" these days? Well. So am I. Kinda.

I read a lot of blogs. Most are inspiring, some are foolish, and some are just strange. Don't even ask me how I find them, I have no idea. But lately, I have found some hippie blogs. Hippies that dig on Jesus. (I highly doubt they consider themselves hippies though) It's a strange combo for me, growing up in Utah, where hippie always means worshipping Gaia, smoking weed, wearing patchouli (shudder), speaking r e a l l y s l o w l y and generally having a low i.q. (the pot I guess)

None of the Utah hippies I have ever met were Christians. Well, maybe at heart they were, but they would never admit it. Let alone proudly proclaim I Heart Jesus. Also, I would like to note that growing up in city so submerged in Mormons, I have no idea what other Christians are like. Bubble, if you will. (I am not complaining, or trying to insult anybody. I am just owning up to my religious ignorance.)

I digress.

And back to trendy green-ness. I have been feeling it too. Ever since I quit my job, I have tried to fully embrace the job of Housewife. Cleaning your house everyday, dinner on the table every night. It's been a slow process. I found some awesome daily cleaning tips on Martha, where she states that simplifying your cleaning routine starts with getting rid of "a cleaner for every job" All-purpose really does mean just that. And you can make your own cleaners with baking soda and or vinegar. I don't know about you, but I freaking hate the smell of vinegar. I like my bright blue toilet cleaner thankyouverymuch. One step at a time.

You know, "back in the day" I was vegan. A big part of the vegan lifestyle was being green. Because animal friendly products are naturally green. I ordered my shampoo, toothpaste, soap, ice-cream, cleaners, etc. all through a "green" Costco like warehouse. I even made my own chap stick. Once Wild Oats (now Whole Foods) came to Utah, we could all buy our stuff from them, at prices twice as high.

Today, I recycle as much as I can. With the amount of Dr. Pepper I drink, I kinda have to. And I know I am a total hypocrite on some stuff, but one step at a time, right? One thing that really bothers me is laundry detergent. Such high water content, water = heavy, meaning high shipping costs for no good reason. So I buy Sun brand. It's a local company, and it's animal friendly. Recently I have seen the Method brand at Target. They have this new one that is ultra concentrated, it takes like one squirt per load. Nice! But the price? No freaking way! It's like 5 times the price of Sun. What to do, what to do.

So, since finding this one blog, where she makes her own like everything- I wanna try it all too. Because what I remember of being vegan, the giving up the usual grocery store brands wasn't hard, because the natural stuff actually worked better. If it works better, I am there. So as soon as I run out of my huge jug of detergent, I am gonna try it. And then blog about it.

Until then, I just had to try the natural deodorant. I have a love/hate relationship with deodorant. It's a long, stupid, and boring story. So, on to the natural goodness...

I have been using it for a week now, so I feel confidant to say- it works! Eureka!

(photo)

It's a coconut oil base, with baking soda and arrowroot powder (think cornstarch but better) I threw a few tablespoons of cocoa butter in the mix, just for fun. No, really it was for my lame sensitive skin. And to firm it up a bit, since it was the consistency of an icing glaze after mixing it up. I cheated and used my hand mixer, it was wonderful and a lot faster than doing it by hand. I stuck it in the fridge for about an hour to firm it up, and now it sits in it's cute little jar in the bathroom. If you decide to make some, and want to use cocoa butter too, just remember to grate it, as it is a lot harder at room temp than the coconut oil.

Yesterday I mixed one drop of pomegranate perfume oil in a bit of the deodorant, just to see what would happen. It's nice. No irritation, light pleasant scent. It's been blazing hot this week too! Great week to test this out. I am not a heavy sweater, so I don't mind sweating, I just mind the stink. My mom and I even went and picked apricots earlier, and I was pretty sweaty up in that tree. Yes, I climbed a tree today. But that is a story for another day.

I will keep you posted, in case it stops working, or turns my armpits brown. (I read in a comment that baking soda stains your skin brown. But after googling it, I found that using baking soda in your pits is actually a cure for dark spots caused by commercial deodorant. Huh.)

One other thing I found on her site was Soap Nuts. They are berries from a tree in India. You can boil them and concentrate their natural "soap" and use it everywhere in the house. A completely sustainable, no frills, no packaging (to try and recycle), all purpose cleaner. No chemicals, dyes, perfumes, animal testing, blah, blah, on and on, wonderful.

That grows on trees.

Crazy, right? I dunno if I quite buy it though. (says the American girl blogging from her Macbook whilst sitting in a huge puffy armchair with the air conditioning at full blast) Does it really work??? Maybe the idea will grow on me...

But for now, I have my coconut deodorant, and my Mrs. Meyers hand soap, gleefully diluted with water and cleverly topped off in my Dial foaming hand soap pumps. Victory!

Seriously, grows on trees. I like it.

8/8/10 UPDATE: (on homemade deodorant) it's waaay too hot in our house for the deodorant to stay solid. (coconut oil melts at 76F.) So I poured it into an ice cube tray, and now I keep the blocks in the fridge. It's easier to apply, and refreshingly cool. It's still working overtime- I only have to apply it every other day! I never thought I would say that!

loo-loo tuesday

In her apron, ready to bake!

Sewing Tuesday has officially moved to sewing every other day that isn't Tuesday. Why? Cause every Tuesday I have/will be picking Loo-loo up from her program, and on to fun and fabulous activities together.

Although I have been a horrible blogger lately, I have still been taking Loo-loo to fun places. The week before last we went to the Aquarium. She loved the penguins, and she was sooo good, even with all the screaming kids, that I got her a cute little stuffed penguin for her already too big stuffed animal collection.

Last week, we went to Ikea and got some new pots for the funeral plants that were dying in that stupid but pretty metal container they came in. Loo-loo got herself some lucky bamboo. She had never been to Ikea before, and all the way there she kept asking what I would buy for her.

"Ikea have Pop tarts?" No.

"Ikea have new swimsuit?" No.

"Ikea have bodywash?" Yes, but no I won't buy it for you because it smells really weird.

I finally had to tell her that Ikea is a huge store full of really cool, or really strange stuff. That explanation seemed to help.

Today, we were supposed to go see Despicable Me, but she changed her mind. She decided that she wanted to bake cookies and "rent" movies on Netflix "watch it now" instead. We watched some Fraggle Rock, and then we put our aprons on!

We made these wonderful S'mores Cookies....

Baked in a muffin top pan, I love huge cookies!

It was really fun for Loo-loo to fill the tops of the cookies with the different toppings- I am excited to make cookie day a regular event!

Mmmm!

The recipe for these Giant S'mores Chocolate Chip Cookies is from my new favorite cooking blog- Picky Palate.

Loo-loo insisted that we take warm cookies over to the neighbors house so she could say hello to their little 2 year old girl. I think showing up at their doorstep in our aprons with giant cookies was a little uh, overwhelming? She was literally speechless.

Oh, and go see Inception. It was amazing! I think I may have a little crush on Joseph Gordon-Levitt. He is a man that looks hot in a suit. And I may have a tiny bad guy crush on Cillian Murphy- I don't think he is cute, but I like him as a bad guy. Something about his facial structure and mannerisms is so creepy, evil, whatever. I know he wasn't really evil in this movie, but still. Since I first saw him in Red Eye, I can't see him as any other character. And I love Ellen Page, of course.

Just go see it.

And make some cookies. They were delicious!

new new new!

I am so excited about this...

Ever since I made the Super Secret Project, I have wanted to make more projects like it, but on a much smaller scale. Here we go! I can't paint, I can't draw but I can sew!

What do you think?

P.S. Matilda found a new bed to snuggle in while I sew...

"Oh look Mom! I found your new quilt. I had to shove my squishy body in this cubby, but I love it!"

my other brain

It's been so quiet on this blog lately.

I sit down at the end of each day, click "new post" and watch the cursor blink.

"Could I really not have anything to say?" I ask myself in disbelief. I guess I really don't. It's not that nothing has been going on, it totally has- lots of adventures. I just haven't felt like writing about it.

But.

I just have to tell you that today I made the most amazing thing ever. I have been wanting to make something like this for over a year, but every time I spend time doing it, it just comes out all wrong. You know, not exactly what I had pictured in this goofy brain of mine.

But today, well- tonight, I did it! I pulled out all of the pieces, and the puzzle finally made sense! I will take photos tomorrow and hopefully post them on Monday. I would try to get it posted tomorrow as well, but Danny and I have a whole day full of date like things planned.

And speaking of brains- Loo-loo cracked me up the other day. (background info: when Loo-loo says something astoundingly funny or witty, and you ask her "how did you know that?!?" She says with a little laugh "Oh! Just my brain.")

On Tuesday we went out to Ikea to buy some pots and stuff, and on the way home in the car she was trying to tell me something, but couldn't quite recall the correct words. She was saying "Um, well. Hu. Um. Hmmmm. Hmmm." And so I was throwing the usual words that escape her mind at her, and I was not helping. "Diabetic! Texting! Despicable! Pregnant!"

"Is it a hard word to say, or did you just forget?" I asked.

Loo-loo replied "No, it's just in my other brain."

"Oh! Your other brain? I think I have one of those too."

Like the very first time she ever played Guitar Hero, she was on the drums, my mom was playing bass, and Hazel was playing lead guitar. Loo-loo got herself all situated, placed both drumsticks in the air, and said "One, two, three HIT IT!"

(hysterical laughter)

Hazel then asked my mom, "Where does she get this stuff?!?"

"Oh." tee-hee "My brain."

BTW, you should hear her say Despicable. "We go see Spicdicatable Me on Tuesday?"

hootie who?

I am such a night owl.

I get kinda tired at like 11:30, then zam! Wide awake, and ready to conquer the world. It's quite lame really- because now that I am 30, I just can't deal the day after staying up late conquering the world. I say it's lame cause I used to be just fine- staying up into the wee hours of the morning painting or sewing or whatever- get up at 8 a.m. to go to work or wherever. No problem. But now? No way. Tomorrow I will be wasted. Whiny and tired, like a 2 year old who missed their nap.

My husband is softly snoring in the bedroom, Matilda is curled up on her chair, and Kobe is in my lap/on my right arm purring and drooling away. It's hard to type with a cat on your arm, especially when it breaks your heart to wake her up by jostling her tiny sweet head to reach the shift key. So what's my problem? Just go to bed already!

I am awake, I am alive...

With ideas of future projects, solutions to problems that have been haunting me- I don't want to go to bed! I gotta write this shit down!

Maybe if I used Oxyclean in my Spot Bot, it would get out that huge Dr. Pepper stain right in front of my feet.

Maybe if I had sewn that quilt top together in columns instead of rows, it would have been easier to line it all up.

Do you think Matilda would go on walks with me? Or would she be too frightened to keep following me and I would have to carry her clawing heavy ass back home?

I want to alter some patterns, and make my tiny elephant into a huge elephant, and my kitty pillow into some tiny kitty rattles. Seriously! Like right NOW!

Do you think that if I made some cute ruffly throw pillows for the next boutique that people would like/buy them?

Yeah, those are some of them. Crap. It's past 2 a.m. I gotta go to bed, regardless of my awake-ness. Damn getting older, I hear it just gets worse from here on out...

(just the not being able to stay up past your bedtime without any consequences part. I hear the best in life is yet to come!)

catching up!

So much has been going on lately, but I have not had any time to blog about it all!

I shot a wedding reception, (no I am not a photographer, it was last minute and super laid back) my baby sister turned 20, my house has turned into a factory, I had a fun party where I sold some of my Rag-a-muffin stuff, and my face has been breaking out like I am in Jr. High again.

Okay, try to keep up. My dad's cousin's daughter whom is a little younger than me married her boyfriend of 7 years the Friday before last. Does that make her my third cousin, my second cousin once removed, or my third cousin once removed? Confusing stuff, I can't and probably won't ever understand it all. Anyway. Here are a few of my favorite shots:

Chrystal & her dog Poker.

Uncle Ray & Aunt Cathy playing with the bubbles.

She caught the bouquet- it better be awhile before she gets hitched.

Chrystal & Britton dancing.

Maloree turned 20. Yikes, is all I have to say. (to my parents) Your baby is 20?? Awwww. Since the wedding just happened to be on her birthday, we had a little dinner party for her on Sunday, July 4th.

(she has to combine the 4th of July with her birthday, but I have to celebrate Christmas and my birthday- I think she gets the better deal)

My mom made an amazing dinner, we had Raspberry Swirl Cupcakes and cheesecake (Costco) for dessert. (I would have made her a cheesecake, since it's sorta my thing, but she decided that's what she wanted the night before.)

My beautiful blond sister.

The huge flamingo, Cory, and Mal opening her Apron.

So cute! And she loved it! Now all I need to do is teach her the ways of the kitchen...

Candle time!

Okay, this one is classic Mal.

Stevie brought over a watermelon for the party that we didn't end up eating. So Mal, being the silly goof that she is, stuck it up her shirt. I told them to look serious for the photo, but they just couldn't- it was too funny.

The week before last my sewing room was an apron factory, I made 8 new ones for the shop. Then, last week my sewing room was a kitty pillow/pincushion factory. So I have been working!

This week I am desperately trying to finish the baby quilt that I am making for Nan & Mike. I was having all kinds of math issues, but I got it all figured out, and sewn together. But it's not lining up! Argh! I need help from my mom- and I have a very limited time to finish it- I still need to get it machine quilted, and sew the binding on, before her shower that I am throwing for her soon...she is due in 5 weeks! Holy crap!

This week's to do list:

finish and get quilt to quilter(s)

re-pot the funeral plants I have not yet killed

fix the drawer that I broke 2 weeks ago

get Matilda a haircut

take loo-loo to see Despicable Me!

give myself a much needed pedicure

mop the floor (hate mopping!)

not spend any money on fabric

finish making a new ironing board cover

go and get my freaking bangs trimmed

As for how the Open House went...

It was so much fun! I met lots of new and fabulous people, and made some money too! We will be having another one next month at my parents house, if you missed out!

Oh, and some of the proceeds from the party will go towards this. For my 14 year old face. Seriously, if you saw me today you would totally call me pizza face. I am humiliated, (huh- just like in Jr. High!) and don't want to go out in public. Blech!

open house for fabulous stuff!

(just a few items that I have been creating this week- just for this event!)

Come and check us out at the...

Open House For Fabulous Stuff!

Saturday, July 10th (tomorrow)

11-2 (or so)

2855 W. Gillbert Dr. (12700 S)

Riverton, UT

Tons of new stuff, a massage therapist, glitter toes, beads, and of course- Vanilla Bean Cupcakes!

hello?

iRetrophone found on Etsy.

I kinda really like this. I kinda really want it.

We don't have a home phone, wouldn't it be awesome to have an extra line to use as your home phone? I know that it is completely ridiculous and a huge waste of cash, but still.

So cool.