snow/sick days are sometimes the good ones

Look at me! Writing again after just a few days. It's all these fun snowy pictures that happened the other day, and I just had to show you. We had a snow/sick Tuesday this week and hooked up our old VCR (horrid eye sore that it is) so we could watch Lion King and Jungle Book and all those special warm feelings classics. As Paisley listened in awe to her first "AAAHHHSAVENYAA," Brian and I cried confused tears of happiness/sadness as Rafikki held up baby Simba, and we reveled in the strange sensation of showing her such a favorite childhood film while not being children anymore ourselves and ALL THE FEELINGS.

Ok I was the only one who cried those tears. Brian just looked at me, a startled look on his face.

And then Paisley only lasted about 3 more minutes into the movie before she went on to play with her opposites puzzle but ALL THAT ASIDE.

It was magical.

As the day went on and I looked at the piles of snow climbing outside our windows I thought to myself, "If I was a REALLY good mom I would take my daughter outside to play in what will likely be the last large snow fall of the year."

PLEASE GOD LET IT BE THE LAST BIG SNOW FALL OF THE YEAR.

So we ventured out into the snowy mounds even though I couldn't find my snow pants and Paisley had the time of her life while I watched and took pictures and the hubs shoveled the driveway, despite feeling sick. Brave, strong fellow that he is.

MY NAME IS PAISLEY AND I LOVE SNOW

is the caption for the last picture.

In case you were unsure.

52/52

Well look at this! We've made it to 52 weeks and now instead of a five month old who likes to drool and sit in her bumbo seat we have a 17 month old who likes to mix tea in her plastic tea set and read books while sitting in a storage bin.

In the first of these posts I wrote down a few questions, pondering what Paisley might be like by the end of this project. And now, a year later, I can answer myself!

The cheeks! Will they stay round and plump?
Yes, in fact they might even be rounder and plumper than before, the sheer weight of them pulling her lips down into a slight pout whenever she is being serious or concentrating on something.

Or will they shrink?
No.

When will she have teeth?
She got her first two at 8 1/2 months, and now she has ten pearly white chompers.

And when will she walk?
She was toddling around somewhat confidently on her one-year birthday!

And what will her hair look like a year from now?
Blondish, brownish, wispyish, mulletish, starting to grow into her eyes and she refuses to wear it swept aside in a beret so wondering if bangs are in her future? 

And will she still love to have her neck om nom nomed?
Yes, she does indeed still love that, thankfully. By the way, at what age does a child's neck turn from tiny, wrinkly, tender and almost completely hidden by their huge baby head into a regular, smooth, clearly visible human neck?

Maybe that's my question for this time next year. What will her neck look like?

I won't be doing a 52 week project again this year, but rest assured I will still be posting regular pics and updates of this sweetie because I probably just won't be able to help myself!

Labor Day Vacay

Here's a few photos from our little family vacation over Labor Day weekend! We go up to a resort with the extended family on my mom's side every year and all stay in a big cabin and play games and eat great food and walk to the beach and eat ice cream and overall have a most excellent time. The weather over Labor Day always seems to be a hit or miss (and often it's a miss) but this time it was warm and sunny and beautiful. Paisley got plenty of attention and also got plenty messy at the beach and at the playground. (Which was like a dustbowl? Of playground equipment and tonka trucks and very, very dusty children, Paisley being amongst the dustiest of them all!)Also, look! A little week old Paisley with her brand new parents who are slightly terrified and incredibly sleep deprived from 2012, and a big one year + one week old Paisley and her slightly seasoned parents who are still somewhat sleep deprived (but only because they stay up late watching Inception instead of going to bed) from 2013. How fun. Plus Brian's wearing the same pair of shorts in both these photos, which is important to note.If you thought this post was a thrilling ride, then feel free to check out my Labor Day weekend post from 2011. Pre-baby, and pre-tan shorts! YOLO!

Right now.

Currently I'm:

Wondering how my itunes made it's way to Elton John covers of Beatles songs.

Eating large amounts of lemon pudding from a large tupperware container.

Feeling excited about finding the EXACT mobile that I wanted for the baby's room nice and cheap at a garage sale this morning.

Getting ready to go teach violin lessons.

Looking at old 4th of July pictures. Here's the hubs and I last year, waiting for fireworks to start. We were downtown at the Stone Arch Bridge with some great friends.

This year we decided to skip the fireworks and go to the air conditioned movie theater instead.

In our defense it was very very hot here this week. For Minnesota, anyway.

My feet got so swollen I could barely get them in and out of my Chacos.

We saw Brave. It was fun. And funny. We (meaning me, hubs, my mom, my sis and her friend) had the whole theater to ourselves.

We enjoyed the opportunity to be very loud since we are by nature a very loud family.

Except the hubs. He's not so loud usually. He just shakes his head and says "SUPER!" when we do particularly loud or embarrassing things.

I know that he secretly loves it.

Maybe, I don't know.

How was your 4th? Anyone else decide to stay in and avoid the heat? Just us? :)

Summer Doodles

As I've mentioned before, I haven't been spending much time in my sketchbook lately. Part of it is just that there's other things taking precedence right now, but also because every time I sit down to sketch I end up making big elaborate drawings. That take a lot of time. So it's daunting because I don't always want it to be such a huge time commitment.

As I was lamenting my very serious and horrible sketchbook troubles to the ever so wise and understanding hubs, he was all like, "just doodle around, yo." Maybe he didn't say yo, that's not actually how he talks. BUT ANYWAY I took his advice and as we watched an episode of The Office together I doodled some little summer doodles.

Even though there was no purpose to them it was nice to be creating something.

My memory flings me back to freshman year in college when we had to complete a certain amount of "items" in our sketchbook per week. It was tough for me as I am QUITE the perfectionist (you can ask the poor hubs if you don't believe me) and as I mentioned before, my drawings usually take FOREVER. Add that to me being one of theeee most ridiculous procrastinators on the planet and you can guess that I was often up into the very wee hours of the morning the nights before my drawing classes. Working on what were simply supposed to be quick sketches in my sketchbook.

But in other news. College is over and so is drawing class. I'm not sure where I was going with that.

And so I'm off to a fun weekend with the hubs - it's the most special of weekends because it's our 5 year anniversary! I'm supposing that we can call this some type of a milestone. I'm comfortable with that. Fer sher.

Friday Ponderings

A few things have been eating at me today.

Such as.

Why is it that when that new band One Direction comes on the radio, I don't change the channel?
Even worse, why do I turn it UP? It seems to go against everything I stand for. Could it be the pregnancy hormones? Is it because I saw them perform on SNL and was hypnotized by their boy band dance moves? Do they bring me back to my junior high days of The Backstreet Boys and NSync?

I am perplexed by this turn of events and am now listening to Wolfmother to try and put things right.

Also. Why is it so hard to pick out cards at Target? Does anyone else have this problem? I don't even want to think about how long I stood with a blank stare on my face in the card section today, the whole time having to pee. I just want something funny or witty, but also simple. With good design. Is that too hard to ask, Target? Without having to crawl my way through stacks of annoying ones first?

Also. Why have I never worn turquoise and red together before today?

And finally. Why do my cats do hilarious things but then stop as soon as I take out the camera? Can cats really be camera shy? Is that a thing?

But. On a different note. Here's the hubs using Gepetto (who didn't run away from the camera this time) to practice for the baby that's coming our way. I think Gepetto likes the attention.

Awww. I can already tell that he's got this fatherhood thing down.

The one of Tuck.

I was digging around in my one of my old college sketchbooks and found this drawing of our old family dog, Tuck.

Not to date myself, but I would have drawn this is 2003. Or 2004, or something. Finding this sketch brought a smile to my face.

Oh, Tuck.

Tuck was our family dog since I was in 4th grade. A beautiful golden retriever who loved EVERYBODY. And that face. Velvety soft and adorable. A sweet, sweet (albeit stinky) pooch. COMPLETELY happy and satisfied if he could be near (read: laying or leaning ON) the ones that he loved. 

But....he was an idiot.

Oh Tuck, let me count the ways of your idiocy.

- Afraid of water.  Yes that's right, a golden retriever who was afraid of water.

- Could not catch anything for the life of him. Things simply bounced off his face.

- Walked to the window to growl every now and then at NOTHING, but wouldn't notice if someone actually came to the door. (And no he wasn't deaf. .....Except towards the end of his life. When he did in fact become deaf.)

- Peed when he got excited. On guests, when they came to visit. One time in someone's face. Try to figure that one out.

- Licked everything constantly. Things like the curtains. Or your jeans.

- Ran away EVERY SINGLE CHANCE HE GOT. Oh Tuck, how many times did we chase you around the neighborhood trying in vain to lure you into the car with treats? (Let it be known here that Tuck had no reason to run away. We were perfectly wonderful doggie owners, I'm just sure of it. He just, really liked running, I guess. Can I get a Forest Gump?)

- And he shed A LOT. Oh Tuck, that hair. That hair everywhere.

Ok, that last one didn't have anything to do with his level of intelligence. But I thought I should still mention it.

But Tuck was greatly loved by our fam, all the same. He passed away a few years ago now, at the ripe old age of 15. I remember as a teenager having to wake up at theeee most ungodly of hours in order to make it on time to school, and I would usually pass through the living room towards the laundry room to try and find something to wear. On the way I would see Tuck curled up on the couch and in my zombie-like state I would find myself lured to his warm body. AND more often than not I would end up laying down and using him as a pillow for ten minutes or so before working up the will power to continue my journey to the laundry room. Life is hard when you're a teenager.

This one's for you, Ol' Tuck. Because of you, I will probably never have another dog. Love ya.

New Shop Section! Plus my excellent costumes.

I am so SO happy to announce that I have FINALLY added a note card section to my shop. I've been wanting to do this since July so it's only taken me hmm let's see. 4 months?!? To get this done? But who's counting. Right? Obviously not me.

AND. I am working my little (big?) hiney off trying to get some holiday/winter themed cards/prints in the shop very soon. How soon? Dare I say... the end of the week?? Maybe now that I've publicly announced this deadline I may just pull it together enough to make it happen???


mmm????


More question marks??????


Anyway. Since today is in fact Halloween, I thought I should make this post at least a little bit Halloween-y. Unfortunately I don't really have a costume this year. I will be teaching violin lessons for part of the night and then coming home to hopefully catch some of the trick or treaters. (Who the hubs will be joyfully handing out candy to. Because he loves doing that. And I love him. It's a big circle of love around here.)


So since I have no costume to show you, I decided to show you some costumes of Halloween past.


2010: I was a cat. The hubs was a trucker. A dirty one. And my friend Mel was a flapper gal.

My bff Emily was a pretty bird.

And this is my favorite pic ever.

2009: My sister and I went to see BEN FOLDS! at ORCHESTRA HALL! Playing with the MINNESOTA ORCHESTRA! On HALLOWEEN! It was AWESOME! I don't really know that we are dressed as anything other than Ben Folds enthusiasts though.

I think this next picture is from....2007? or 2008. I don't know. The hubs and I didn't have anything to wear for a Halloween party so I had us put on a bunch of random stuff from our closet. I was like, "Let's be idiots! It will be hilarious!!" And the hubs was like, "Wait, what are we being?" And I was like, "Idiots! so funny!!" I'm telling you I'm a very creative soul.

2006: Aww, we were just freshly engaged in this pic. (You can see that we are really in the habit of putting a lot of thought into our costumes.)

2004: I think I shared this picture (and the story behind it) before here. But it's just a good one so I didn't want to leave it out.

Alright, I'm off to do productive things. Happy Halloween!

Crab Doodle

(Semi) Daily Animal Doodle
Full doodle list at bottom of post


I like to watch crabs scurry across the sand. And I like their eyeballs.


I also like to eat their legs at Red Lobster.

I spent some time in Mozambique while I was in college, and one day I was sitting on this beach. And if you sat very still and didn't move, and no one walked near you, you would start to see little eyeballs pop out of the sand and look around. One by one. Eyeball by eyeball. Little buried crabs peaking out to see if the coast was clear.


Then your nose would itch, and you'd have to move. And all the little eyeballs would go back under the sand.


So you'd have to sit very still again to wait for more eyeballs. I liked it.


October Doodles: Raven, Black Bear, Emperor Penguin, Roadrunner, Dalmatian, Crab
Want to see more doodles? Check out June's here, July's here, August's here, and September's here.