I'm patting myself on the back right now.

I have several goals in life. 

One of them is to some day make it to yoga class on time so I don't have to stomp in with my snowy, squeaky boots like a fool while everyone is already quietly into their downward dogs. I try not to make eye contact with anyone so I can avoid the evil eyes that might be looking my way.

Another is to go to a Mumford and Sons concert with my sis. And get lost in the music and forget about the rest of life for the night. So hey. M to the Sons. Come back to Minneapolis puh-leeeaase.

Another is to find my camera so I can share something other than phone pictures. Because, obviously.

And another is to not have eaten a whole pan of brownies just two days after I made them.

That happened recently.



Anyway. Until last week the list also included finishing the curtains in my basement. But.....

...not anymore! Because TA-DA they are finished.



I am liking how they turned out. While most definitely imperfect, they are nice enough to look at and I must say that I am preeeeeettttty proud of myself. Would I do it again? Maybe. I think I saved plenty of money by buying the fabric and doing it myself...but was it worth the angst? The complaining? The many angry words with my sewing machine (although we became friends by the end)? The despair when the fabric pieces I so painstakingly cut out WEREN'T THE SAME SIZE AS EACH OTHER?



Yes, I'll probably do it again. Because I'm picky and stubborn like that.

(As the poor hubs looks down at the ground, shakes his head and sighs.)

 I'm not sure he has the energy to encourage me through any more sewing endeavors. 

6/52

We're recovering from another round of colds around here. Two colds in two months! How unfortunate for us. Besides coughing and producing more snot than I ever thought humanly possible (I've decided to change her name to Booger Bob) the little girl is growing fast. She is very close to sitting up on her own, rolls and scooches all over the place, laughs and smiles, grabs objects and immediately brings them to her mouth for a taste, talks all sorts of (absolutely delightful) gurgling gibberish, and thinks it's hilarious when Daddy buries our legs in the snow while he is shoveling. She will be starting on solid foods this week and OH MY GOSH is time moving fast. I can't believe we've already been parents for half a year. It's been amazing, difficult, at times hilarious, at yet other times very boogery, and one of the best things we've ever done.

And I cannot for the life of me keep up with the laundry.

5/52

I realize that I didn't post a Paisley picture last week for the 52 weeks project. 

So here it is! I'll post number 6 later this week.



I didn't have a problem finding photos of the baby girl that were taken last week since as a first time mom, I am admittedly taking constant pictures of my child.

In other news, I finally watched the latest episode of Downton Abbey. I had seen some of the scuffle around the internet so I knew that something horrible happened, but I managed not to read any spoilers and was wondering if it was going to be as bad as everyone made it out to be.

It was. Oh it absolutely was and I may never, NEVER recover.

The day Gepetto got her thunder back.

It's been a long time since I've posted anything about the kitties on this blog. I guess that when babies come along the pets' thunders get stolen.

Well today's the day Gepetto gets her thunder back. Here she is pretending to be a vampire.



Ya, we're scared too.

4/52

Baby girl is growing more and more interested in playing, touching, grabbing, exploring, and trying to eat whatever she can get her hands on.

So it makes sense that sometimes she becomes frustrated with her...VERY limited abilities. I can't say that I blame her - it must be tough being stuck in a pudgy, uncoordinated 5 month old body where no matter how much you try to grab hold of the jingle cow so that it can be investigated, all you can seem to do is keep pushing it further and further out of reach.

And then there's the shouting.

No, jingle cow!! Come back!!! COME BACK I SAY!!

Except it comes out as more of a loud, frustrated scream.

Don't worry, I pushed jingle cow back so that we could try again. 

Momma to the rescue!

Again, and again, and again.

Recent Work

I wanted to share part of some projects I've been working on the last few weeks. This is a mock-up of a first birthday invite. I drew the lion in Illustrator - not always my strongest program but I think I'm getting more comfortable with it.

Paisley is pretending to be a one-year old boy named Danny here. She's into acting and I try not to discourage her dreams.

Like what you see? If you would like some custom invites or other paper goods designed I'm your gal! You can reach me at liz(at)theskylarkstudio.com. Or check out our website here!

OR you could always check out my shop for unique, pre-made greeting cards and prints!