Blog Feed – Page 39 – making unbreakable

{big babble} 12 Funky and Fun Birthday Cakes

Addie’s birthday is on December 14th, which in theory doesn’t sound like Christmas at all. In reality December 14th is eleven days before Christmas. From Addie’s very first birthday I have made every effort to keep her birthday and Christmas completely separate. Before December 15th our Christmas tree is a “birthday tree” and houses only presents wrapped in non-holiday paper.

I have made her a cake every year and it is generally the centerpiece of the entire day. I had one very fancy birthday cake when I was little and I remember it very well. I have a treasured picture of me behind my teddy bear cake with a giant toothless grin on my 7th birthday. I keep a lot of things simple but birthday cakes? Not so much. I have made three princess cakes (complete with fondant skirts and Barbies sticking out of them) and this year is no different.

Continue reading on Babble…

Also on big babble…do you post embarrassing photos of your older kids?

worn hands, lovely gifts.

My dad has worked with wood my entire life. (Pretty much his entire life as well.)

His hands are rough and worn from various tools taking their toll on his hardworking fingers for the last 40 years.

I can still remember lying in his lap asking him about each cut, scar, smashed fingernail and bump on each of his hands.

Addie’s room holds a tiny little chair he made for me when I was little.

My clothes are housed in a dresser he made for me when I was Addie’s age.

Some of my most prized treasures are held in a cabinet he made me for my 12th birthday.

My Christmas tree has always been full of ornaments he learned to make in Germany while in the Army.

My laptop is sitting on an adjustable table he made me earlier this year.

He just had his first etsy shop sale and he’s pretty excited about it. I helped him out by taking photos that hopefully do his little (and big) treasures justice.

My dad makes stuff with his hands. He always has. He has a gift with wood and an attention to detail that has won him several awards and ribbons.

I don’t really expect you to get all caught up with the sentimentality I have with my daddy, but I do ask that you support handmade whenever and wherever you can. You’ll be buying from real people, people with daughters like me and granddaughters like Addie and Vivi.

Grandpas who have dreams of attending the master class in marquetry at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking right here in Indiana. It may cost a little more but it has a story and was made by someone in their garage turned wood shop off the back of their house. There’s a good chance it was produced to the music of the Moody Blues as well.

If you have an ornament tradition like we do, my daddy makes some pretty swell ones. Trucks, trains, planes and toboggans holding tiny little presents are all available for purchase in his little etsy shop as well as the laptop table and a lovely mission style mirror that uses mortise and tenon joints. Need something more specific? He can make it for you. Promise. Message him, he’s a super friendly guy.

He’s offering all of you a 20% discount on everything in his shop through next week…just use the code ‘MOOSH20’ at checkout.

You can go ahead and tell him I sent you, and that nobody makes popcorn better than him.

Buy stuff from people, not machines.

cats, pies and paws.

These cats have been around for almost a month now.

Percy walked in from day one and pretty much owned the place. He’s had a few struggles, first there were the worms, then he somehow got a huge laceration on his neck that got infected. He had to have an antibiotic shot, his neck shaved and when it still wasn’t better a week later he had to get a steroid shot. Today’s the first day it really seems better. Ironic that he was the full price cat with all his body parts intact and he’s the one giving us trouble.

Percy always looks annoyed. It’s part of his charm. He’ll amuse you until he’s done amusing you and he likes to hide under the couch (or anything else he can fit behind) and attack my feet as I walk past. He has a gift for completely disappearing despite two grown ups and a six year old looking for him for over thirty minutes and he spends a majority of his time in his Percy perch. Wink will sit in his perch on occassion and Percy will just stand to the side, staring down Wink with his highly unamused face.

Percy’s furballs were nipped later in life so he developed these thick jowls that make him a super handsome cat, everyone who knows cats agrees he’s a looker.

Wink likes to drape his mitts over things. Maybe they don’t fold up under him compact enough or maybe he knows how important his mitts are, having royal family down at the Hemingway house and all. Or it could just be that he knows his thumbs make some of your very nervous and he likes to see you squirm.

Wink sleeps by me most nights, curled up and purring against my back. He likes to be wherever the baby is during the day and will follow her from room to room until she goes to bed. He’s a bit of a beggar cat. When I cook he sits in the kitchen with this forlorn “Clearly I’ve had a very rough life as evidenced by my one eye so drop some of that pie my way sooner rather than later.”

If they ever made a Godfather movie starring cats? Wink would totally be Vito.

Life is totally better with these two creatures around, I think they like it here too, even though Vivi tries to pull them up by their whiskers and rolls on top of them regularly.

I’m such a cat lady.

{big babble} 10 Ways to Transform Your Kid’s Artwork into Keepsakes

Kids say the darndest things, but they draw the most awesome things. If I were to keep every little bit of artwork that passed through my front door I’d have to own approximately 189 refrigerators to display it all.

Find out about 10 shops that turn kid’s artwork into treasures…

Also on big babble…my kid sneaks out of bed at night to feed her bookish nature.

{baby babble} Baking With Babies. Today? Zebra Cake.

By now almost everyone is familiar with Pinterest. A site full of the most beautiful of whatever you happen to be looking for. I have a board for Vivi, a board for Addie and a board where I have ‘pinned’ things I have tried. My goal is to attempt at least one ‘pin’ a week. So far all but one have been a raging success. I’ve enlisted Addie’s help where I can and when she saw a striped cake? She was all for it. Yesterday we were having several guests over for dinner and I figured it would be the perfect time to try out the infamous Pinterest zebra cake.

Continue reading on babble…

Also on baby babble…ten things I already miss about my baby.

do me a favor.

I’m going to ask you to do something for me, and you’ll most likely do it because I am currently sitting in bed wearing footy penguin pajamas (available here) with my ridiculous glasses (see post here) and to top it all off (literally) I have one of Cody’s old socks balled up in my hair (tutorial here.) I feel you’ll be more inclined to do this little favor for me because I am obviously someone who does not take themselves too seriously.

I also put picnik costumes on my one eyed, extra toed cat whom I love more than toast, butter and fried chicken combined.

Clearly I am someone to be trusted.

Are you ready for the favor you’re going to do me?

Here goes.

Chill out.

That’s it.

There’s no need to be so uptight.

You have two ears and one mouth, which means you are supposed to listen twice as much as you speak. You also have two arms and only one right hook so that clearly means you are to hug people far more often than you are to punch them in the jaw. You’ve got two feet so you can walk away from trouble and even better?

You have all the potential in the world to be the bigger person without gaining a pound.

Be kind to each other.

That’s all I ask.

photo credit

hey you…with the happy face…what gives?

It’s no secret that I’ve been feeling tops lately.

When I try to narrow it down to just one or two things that are really doing it for me…I can’t. I think I’m just at a point where everything seems to be humming along at a manageable pace. Yet at the same time I am actively trying to keep *this* up more than I ever have. I have a reason to fight and I am fighting.

Hard.

Could it be just one thing? Sure. Could it be the perfect harmony of all the things I am doing? I guess so.

But I also feel as though I should add a disclaimer here.

I still have moments of struggle. Hard ones where I feel overwhelmed and beat. At one point I had to ask Cody to come home so I could dig out, I knew if I tried to do it all on my own I would have crashed and everything I have so well balanced right now would have shattered into unrecognizable pieces that couldn’t have been recovered easily.

I guess you could say that it’s not so much about being happy as it is about having a really strong rebound.

I use my SAD lamp every morning as soon as I wake up. Vivi lies next to me in bed for a half an hour as we soak up our daily artificial sunlight. I don’t think it really matters what kind you have, what matters is that you use it and use it everyday.

One of the things I do each day when I sit in front of my SAD lamp is read scriptures. Out loud. Not only does it give Vivi something to listen, it makes me really focus on them. I am capable of making a grocery list, a laundry list and tactical war plans in my head all while attempting to read something. I have really tried to pay attention to what the scriptures say…especially now that I’m hot and heavy into Isaiah. Dude is heavy. God is important to me and I have felt that by starting my day out with Him I’m better prepared for what may come. I would think reading anything uplifting would have the same effect for those who do not actively practice any particular religion.

I pray at least twice a day. Sometimes out loud, sometimes in my head, sometimes on my knees and sometimes curled up in the fetal position, what matters is that I do it.

I take an iron pill, vitamin C and fish pills every morning with my breakfast. A really good Omega 3-6-9 combo will supposedly have every good effect under the sun on you, including mental well being. Hooey or not, I take them and always have. Also? Eat breakfast. And lunch. And dinner. Being hungry doesn’t do anyone any good.

I keep busy. Obviously. This one is pretty self explanatory. But I have also learned how to say no.

I keep the bad stuff out. No bad TV shows, no bad books, no bad movies, no bad influences. It’s really hard to hate anything when you don’t let hate into your life.

I take my medication every night. I finally feel as though I am on the right one for me. I am capable of highs and lows, ups and downs but without any dramatic side effects or mood changes (well, every 28 days there’s some *minor* mood fluctuations.) I feel…dare I say it…normal.

Then of course there is the big kid, the baby, the cats and my husband. I love my home. I love everyone who lives here. I love hanging out with them. My home is a safe refuge for me where I can keep the bad out and for the most part only let good in. I think everyone needs a place where they feel safe.

Home is my safe place.

Hopefully this continues for a very long time.

While I am here…I’ll just be around, you know…smiling and stuff.

Cookies, Cats and Winning Babies

Hey guys, Vivi here. Remember when I was all “HEY SISTER! PAY ATTENTION TO MEEEE!” earlier? Well it turns out that the cats have a bit of an advantage on me in that they can walk themselves to the front door as soon as she gets home from school. I’m pretty wicked at rolling, but those cats are going to get me when it comes to speed every time. So I started to think “What do I have that those cats don’t? HOW CAN I WIN?”

Find out how Vivi won on Babble…

Also on baby babble…In the old days we looked at photos in books.

And finally, on big babble…20 photos and tips for parents a curly headed child.

{big babble} The Not So Secret History Behind 10 Classic Toys

There are some toys that just seem to stand the test of time. Toys that I played with as a little girl that are now popular with my little girl. Toys that my own parents played with and still have tucked away in a basement. Some of the most popular toys were complete accidents while others have a history that includes war and possible racism.

Continue reading on Babble…