Miniaturiffic!

Yesterday afternoon I ran into town and found these abso-adorable mini baking pans at Cost Plus Imports. I knew I had to bake some mini pumpkin bread loaves in these and give them away as gifts. So this morning I got to baking and BOYOHBOY they came out super duper cute! I was so excited that as soon as they were done cooling I ran to show the hubby. He smiled and said, "cool". But where oh where was the utter joy I expected him to have? Where was the happy dance? Oh bother.

I really hope my recipients like them. They were surely baked with love and plenty of smiles.

It's hard to tell how small these really are. I hope the candy cane gives some perspective.

A surprise a day keeps the blues away

We have a very cute Mickey Mouse Advent calendar that my mom bought the kids years ago. Every Christmas we pull it out and they are always excited to greet each day with putting up another ornament on the Mickey Mouse tree. It makes me so happy to see how happy they are each morning.

Well, this year, I saw so many cute advent calendar ideas out in blogosphere that I had to try one of them. And I'm so glad I did! Our newest, homemade surprise envelopes advent is a hit with my munchkins. The original idea can be found on Design Sponge. I love the simplicity.

Unfortunately, I didn't have any white open end envelopes and for some strange reason my printer printed the numbers brown instead of red. So, we adjusted just a wee bit. I did have some beige open end envelopes and they went quite lovely with the brown print. I also ended up using natural twine instead of the bakers twine. In the end, I really like the way it turned out and it's been fun to see the kids' faces light up each morning. Here is our didn't-have-all-the-materials-so-I-used-what-we-had-on-hand version:



I did buy some small wooden ornaments to put in the envelopes so they could decorate their "small" tree. I also put other fun "surprises" like:

candy
holiday jokes
coupon for night of christmas cookie baking
invitation for a moonlit night walk (flashlights okay too)
christmas music dance-a-thon
make a twig star night
... and other fun goodies.

It's not too late to make your own advent calendar if you don't have one or want to update your old one. Happy Holidays!

It's beginning to look a lot like HALLOWEEN

Halloween is just around the corner and the house is getting ready. Yay! Halloween decorations are some of my favorite decorations. It'd be nice if they could stay up year round.






And a special Birthday shout out to my beautiful sis. Happy Birthday, Teen!!

Dear Internet,

You provide so many lovely romps through different cyber shops. But, today, I am so completely frustrated. Why can't you provide real, live shopping? Why can't I buy and use these super precious pie molds right now, this minute? Oh, how you make me ache, Internet.

Frustratingly Yours,
Butterfly Chica

P.S. Here are some pics of my yearning. *Sniffle*












You can find the molds at Williams-Sonoma.

Hit Pause.

What I caught myself doing this morning:

*feeling sorry for myself
*wishing things could be different than what they were at the moment
*humphing and schlumping
*escaping into the "dark"
*feeling sorry for myself (Oh, i already mentioned that, didn't I?)


So, yeah, earlier this morning I was really letting the negative energy get to me. I then had to hit pause on my day. Who knew we could do that? That small moment of pause helped. I then played out the rest of the morning.


What I caught myself doing later this morning:

*forgiving myself
*letting the "sunshine" in

Knitting and Bread... is it Fall already?

Andie from She's a Rebel offered a wonderful KAL (knit-a-long)for a sweet and tiny Preemie Hat. The hats will go to The Preemie Project which delivers hats to the University of Iowa hospitals. It is my first experience knitting a hat for The Preemie Project and I look forward to knitting more for them in the future. The hat looks almost normal-sized in the picture, but in reality the hat would fit the size of a tiny doll. I love the little I-cord knob on the top. It makes me smile. It also makes me smile to know the hat will, hopefully, be worn soon by a new, lovely little person.

I used Knit Picks Shine Worsted in Grass on #6 needles.

And because I was knitting and feeling kind of "Fall"ish I decided to bake some Strawberry Bread. Oh yeah, I also decided on strawberry bread because I had an almost whole box of strawberries going bad. I have no idea why they ripened so fast. It must have been that one bad strawberry I found in the middle of the bunch. Errrggghhh. The recipe I used was this one found on Joy of Baking. I used plain yogurt and the bread turned out super moist. I also used some vanilla we picked up on our recent Mexican vacation. It made for a perfect taste. Yum!



So, if you are feeling a little "Fall"ish too, why not get out some knitting needles, knit a preemie hat for a good cause and then bake some most delicious strawberry bread. I do believe the world will be alright... at least for a day.

10

The hubby and I reached a milestone. We celebrated 10 years of marriage on August 29th. I'm just a little late on the posting.

I think he knows how much he means to me. I truly hope my actions and words convey that he is the only one for me. Happy Anniversary!

(A little homemade "love" CD also helps get my message across)



*the song list (just in case you were interested):
just you and me - zee avi
somewhere only we know - keane
honeycomb - jimmie rodgers
the luckiest - ben folds
if you find yourself caught in love - belle & sebastian
we're going to be friends - the white stripes
let's get out of this country - camera obscura
falling slowly - hansard and irglova
red sweater - the aquabats
annie's song - john denver
let's never stop falling in love - pink martini
feeling good - nina simone
best friends - frances england
unchained melody - righteous brothers
lend me your love - slackstring
when i'm sixty-four - the beatles
goodnight, my love - ella fitzgerald

I could be making better use of my time, but...

I could be cleaning, knitting, sewing, expanding my mind, "quieting" my soul. But, no, all of that can wait. Instead I'd rather be writing aimlessly on my blog. I have no real purpose for this post except to avoid the unavoidable... doing something constructive that will lead to me feeling less crabby later on today because oh-my-gosh-look-at-all-the-things-i-have-to-do-period-a-mother's-job-is-never-done.

So, if I know this post is leading to a possible activation of Super Crabby Mom powers why do I continue to write it? Well, I know I really don't want to clean right now and although knitting sounds inviting, I don't have any motivation. Sewing sounds fun, but I'm waiting for my oilcloth fabric to be delivered because I'm all about this Reusable Snack Bag project. Expanding my mind seems like a chore right now and hmmmm, now that I think about it, maybe writing is in actuality helping to "quiet" my soul. Go figure.

I wonder if some seemingly useless activities can really be beneficial. It sure would be neat-o if they did because trying to make yourself useful 24 hours is pretty tiring. Sometimes the instant gratification of doing "useless" things might be the best way to spend an afternoon. I mean, if it didn't you wouldn't be reading this blog (Hi, Hon! and Hi, Ann! ;) It's nice to know I have at least 2 readers out there and am not just rambling to myself). And if I wasn't spending a lot of time doing "useless' things, I would never have found these beautiful ceramic tea cups:

Just a little Sunday Sewing

I know it's not Sunday. It's Monday. But, yesterday, after church and a few tasks here and there I found some sewing time. What joy! And I can't tell you how happy I am with my new Kinder, Gentler Headbands. This idea for making fabric covers for plastic headbands rocks. I'm just grateful MMM Crafts was so awesome to share her pattern with us. I hope you find some time to sew up your own kinder, gentler headbands. You'll be so pleased you did!!

Mexico is calling me

It's been a week since we've been home. Vacation was so so good and so needed. We ventured to Playa Del Carmen, Quintana Roo, Mexico to pre-celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary. The official date comes at the end of this month on the 29th.

It was neat to venture back to the Yucatan. We actually honeymooned in Cancun 10 years ago and it was interesting to go back and re-visit with kids in tote. What a different experience. John and I haven't changed all that much. We were still adventurous vacationers and explored the Riviera Maya as much as possible with two kids. We did, however, stay away from the street cooks this time. They make the best darn tacos ever, but we wanted to keep our tummies and bums out of Montezuma's Revenge way.

I hope to get some pics up soon to share the beauty and splendor that is the Yucatan. In the meantime, I leave you with this beautiful image from our visit to Hacienda Tres Rios(this isn't where we stayed, but anyone who visits the Yucatan should stay here). We really want to get back there next year. The beach beds are the most amazing havens of peace. They fill you up with only the best beach nap dreams. Aaaaaaahhhhhh...