DIY costume

Step 1: Cut out poodle pattern

Step 2: Trace and cut out full pattern from first color felt

Step 3: Trace and cut out fur accents from second color felt

Step 4: Attach fur accents to poodle

(can use glue or cut from felt with sticky backing)

Step 5: Add collar with glitter paint or ribbon.

Step 6: Attach to skirt

(using glue or stitches)

Step 7: add some cascading ric-rac for a leash

Step 8: find a cutie pie to model for ya

can you tell she has her toenails painted?

well one whole foot and two toenails on the other...

patience wore off with three toenails to go :)

tub time

suctioning the whale's runny nose with one of the many

bulb syringes we took from the hospital when she was born

inspired by: milkmaid braids

Honestly, I didn't start with

an inspiration photo...

but when all was done,

it reminded me of

some sort of milkmaid braid.

credit

Bohemian twists on each side

went into a low bun.

The twists are easy...

you just add more hair in

each time you make a twist.

again with the atrosh self photos

At the end of the day it

was still fairing well

and B took some photos for me

Maybe not as great as the Hollywood braids above,

but it was much more fun than a regular pony.

pumpkin snuggles

Makayla loves her two little pumpkins

and everytime she sees them outside,

beside our front door,

she picks them up and brings them

back in.

She brought them in when we got

home on Friday evening,

put them on the kitchen floor

with her favorite blankie,

and snuggled up for a fake nap.

walkin' in momma's shoes

After a hard fall that caused bleeding toddler gums,

a scared momma...thinking said toddler would lose a tooth,

a short nap which ended in an inconsolable

still bleeding baby girl...we were both able

to calm down. A snuggle on the couch

with blankie and paci, a few bites of yogurt

and Daddy getting home surely helped.

So went last Sunday afternoon...ugh!

After she perked up, though, Makayla

literally went army crawling under my bed

to grab a pair of my old tennis shoes.

Not sure why they were there or

how she spied them, but they were

and she did...and she got them.

(sneakers, whatever, I call them all tennis shoes)

She kept trying to put them on her

feet and walk around,

and after the incident earlier that day

I thought it best just to help her

put the shoes on and hold her hands

while she walked back and forth

in the living room.

Let's relive the cuteness, shall we?

success, shoes on feet and she's up

(obviously up and on the move,

sorry for all the blur

from here on out)

on the move
trying to run off, while i'm trying to grab her

blurry and sad faced, but big girl in momma's shoes

the painting of pumpkins

Yay!

We did our pumpkin painting this weekend,

and it was a lot of fun.

I tried the tape and spray technique,

the draw with Sharpie,

and the sketch and paint type.

Makayla tested out the waters

of fingerpainting. She smeared

colors like a pro!

Makayla's painting play-by-play:

you may notice that her pumpkin was drawn on with Sharpie,

and then spray painted over...yeah. it was terrible, so it

got a coat of white and all was well and reusable

Success and a mess, good times had by all!

Here is a snapshot of all the finished pumpkins:

And if you know what "Fronkensteen"

is from (spelled like that for correct pronunciation)

give yourself 10 points in the game of life

and call yourself "Froderick" or "Eyegor."

inspired by: fancy half up

I learned this hair twisting/pinning trick from

Abby at myyellowsandbox blog

She has a great tutorial book!

Check her out!

Anyway, so I had curled

my hair again this day and it was a bit too

fluffy and unruly for my liking,

so I decided to pull some of it back,

and ended up with these pretty twists:

again with the the poorly taken self photo

It actually looks like a braid,
but it is just sections from each side
pulling to the back...left section twisted
over the right section and secured with a bobby pin.
Repeated three times.

You can see in Amy's photo above she used
much thinner sections of hair than I did.
I also pulled my bangs back
before I started, because they were
out of control curly and just looked like a
big spiral curl...problem solved.
What ya think? 

ipod baby

plotting to take over the world, one playlist at a time

scribble scrabble

{or}

repurposing a shoe box lid...

...into a coloring project.

The last time she colored
it ended up more on the tray then the paper,
so I thought maybe the sides of the shoebox
lid would help a bit.

It did and she scribbled,
but then became sidetracked
taking the crayons out of the
box and putting them back in.
Over and over and over...
so that is what we did...

hey, if the girl wants to clean up,

let her clean up!

inspired by: bridesmaid {kate}

We went to a great friend's wedding this past weekend.

She looked amazing...so beautiful, and all the decor was lovely

and the food was fantastic.

The bridesmaids looked chic and classy

in their bronze dupioni silk dresses and styled hair.

Everything was just fantastic, and we had

a fabulous time. Best wedding in a while, for sure.

One of the bridesmaids,
and also a friend of ours who is gorgeous,
had a cute up do

and it caught my eye.

She had her straight blonde hair

parted on the side and pulled into a low

bun, with a braid on each side of her

head that started about 1/3 of the way from her

crown and went into the bun.

It was so pretty and feminine,

but the thick braids were a fun twist.

{this is the best example, but without the braids starting so high up}

So the next afternoon I

decided to take that look and adapt it
into a casual one.

I started by curling my hair

and after playing with it a bit

I decided on

just clipping it half up.
Here's how it turned out:

Kind of hippie, right?

And pretty?

What ya think?

I'm contemplating this look

in the original bun version

for my [possible] bridesmaid

finale on December 17th.

If baby girl had

some longer wispies I

could do a sweet little halo braid

on her for Aunt Liz's wedding.

A sweet little strawberry blonde halo...

recipe: carrot zucchini muffins

Maintaining my quest for healthy things for Makayla (and us)

to eat, and trying to (sneakily) feed MM extra veggies

I tested out this Carrot Zucchini Muffin recipe

that I saw on All Things G&D.

They got rave reviews from the munchin-pie.

She seems to love them and gobbles them down.

I think they are decent and share B's sentiments that

they "definitely taste healthy."

No really, they are pretty good, and are definitely

a good way

to sneak in those extra oranges and greens.

I'm thinking they would be good,

warmed up with a swipe of butter and sprinkle of cinnamon.

Ingredients

1 egg

3/4 c. orange juice

1/2 c. applesauce

1/4 c. sugar

1 c. white flour

1 c. whole wheat flour

1 t. baking powder

1/2 t. baking soda

1/2 t. salt

1 t. cinnamon

1 c. shredded carrot

1 c. shredded zucchini

1/2 c. raisins

Directions

1. Beat egg in a large bowl.

2. Add orange juice, applesauce, and sugar. Beat well.

3. Sift together dry ingredients.

4. Stir dry ingredients into egg mixture. Mix until moist.

5. Gently fold in shredded carrots, shredded zucchini, and raisins.

6. Spoon into well greased muffin pan, about 2/3 full.

7. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

Makes 12 freezer-friendly muffins.

Notes:

1) I baked for about 18 minutes and

the muffins were quite done, so the full

20 minutes may not be needed.

2) I realized, once I started assembling

the ingredients, that the only applesauce

I had was one snack cup of strawberry applesauce.

B had already gone out to get the orange juice for me,

so I had to do a slight substitution there.

3) Next I realized I didn't have raisins but I

had a bag of mixed dried fruit pieces,

so I subbed those in as well.

4) Also, I don't have a box grater so I had to grate

the zucchini with a large micro-plane,

which was only slightly, what shall I say, laborious.

All for the cause...healthy snacks for the sweet 'ems.

shoe shopping

Though her shoe choices were questionable at best

(high heeled platforms coated in glitter with leopard print bottoms)

she is a fun little thing, for sure.

Untitled from Ellen Colberg on Vimeo.

We shopped.

She carried shoes around.

Danced to a little Beyonce.

And admired her beauty in the foot mirrors.

Love that girl!

inspired by: party bun

This hairstyle was inspired by Hairdresser on Fire's Party Bun.

I tried it first with all the hair pulled straight

back off my face, but I wasn't loving it.

I decided to add a small section of french braid,

to add some character and make it less harsh.

I redid the bun a few times and decided

that a bigger bun looked best

and some teasing/back combing was needed

to achieve that look.

Here is the result:

I think it turned out pretty well...

What say you?

And  a closer view

A bit like a ballerina about to go out on the town.

the good life of early toddlerhood

The weather could not have been more perfect this week.

Cool, but sunny and beautiful.

So, of course, we played outside when we got home each day.

Makayla is saying some words more clearly now

and the second we ask if she wants to go "outside"

she stops whatever she's doing and runs to the door

saying "side, side" and pointing.

I sat in the courtyard grass with her yesterday evening...

we just sat and hugged and talked.

She found these five little sticks

and probably spent ten minutes

putting them in one of my hands

and then the other.

Back and forth and back again.

What a great little moment.

Content as can be,

sitting together,

handing tiny twigs back and forth.
Oh, to always be content with such simple joys!

Then we came in and

she ate a yummy dinner:

Such a good eater
and such a cutie in her precious
yorkie dog jumper.

"Doggie" is about her favorite word

right now. One of her favorite

books is called Doggies

and everytime she picks

it up she turns to the same page

(Nine dogs howling on a moonlit night)

and she howls...aaaaoooooooh!

Smart girl!

We were watching boxer puppies

and other doggies on youtube

tonight. She pointed at every single

dog on every video and said "doggie."

I'm pretty sure she will be asking

for one of her own as soon as she

figures that one out.

I love the age Makayla is right now.

Sure the sass is starting to show more,

and there are a few tantrums with feet stomping,

but they are always short lived

and followed by a hug. She is so happy

and smiley and wants to be with mommy and daddy.

She just wants to sit on my lap and hug and talk and play.

I love it. I told Brandon today if babies

were born and then were 16 months the

next day I'd be fine to have another right now.

I think most people love the little tiny baby stage,

but I'm loving this young toddler stage...

even through the trying days and constant chasing.

I love my sweet girl more and more...
it is so fun to see her becoming her own person
with a shining and fun personality.
She makes early toddlerhood easy to love.

quote

"Inaction breeds doubt and fear.

Action breeds confidence and courage.

If you want to conquer fear,

do not sit home and think about it.

Go out and get busy."

         ~Dale Carnegie

pumpkin choc chip cookies

 

I have been testing the cooking waters

a bit more lately, though.

 I go through phases

where I love to try cooking new recipes

and then don't like it at all.

Probably because I never really learned

to cook and haven't taught myself,

so I try and just teach myself along and along.

I think the waivering is often based on how well

the last cooking attempt(s) went.

Not that I completely can't cook...

I can follow a recipe pretty well

if it is straight forward,

but I cannot create dinners out of random pantry

ingredients or tweak recipes and have them taste good,

which I guess is how I define someone that knows how to cook.

So I muddle along and try things I think will be easy

and tasty and most of the time they are, eh, so-so.

But every few weeks I'll find some different recipes

that appear promising and get the urge to try again.

So goes the learning process...

This week I made two batches of crockpot salsa chicken,

 homemade baked chicken nuggets,

homemade mac 'n cheese,

and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.

Yay for me, and yum!

I found this cookie recipe on Imperfect's

blog (see my sidebar) and tried

it out last night. It did make a huge batch

so I made a few and froze the rest of the dough.

It isn't overwhelming with pumpkin

flavor, but was good and spicy and fall-ish

to go with this cooler weather that has rolled in.

They are kind of a cake-y cookie,

soft/chewy/cakey...but I thought they were

pretty good. They got the negator from B because

he doesn't like pumpkin...but I guess that doesn't count.

In case you want a taste of fall

or like pumpkin pie and chocolate, 

straight from Imperfect and her taste tester (me):

1 can pumpkin

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 egg

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon milk

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 bag semisweet chocolate chips

Combine pumpkin, sugar, vegetable oil, and egg. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, and salt. Dissolve the baking soda with the milk and stir in. Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture and mix well.

Add vanilla and chocolate chips.

Drop by spoonful on greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees F

for approximately 12 minutes or until lightly brown and firm.

You can bake half and freeze half in log form for slice and bake cookies later in the Fall.



credit: allrecipes

{this isn't my photo but they look just like this, with more choc chips}

happy tuesday and happy tasting!