betsyboopsy

bubs

2012-01-19T13:10:00.000-08:00

my brother, rob, passed away last week. i ache for him. i wanted to repost this because everything i said then is still SO him. i sit here and try to think of what else to say and i am at a loss.

wobbie

bubba and hubba. hee hee! (rob's nickname is bubba-we don't really know why-it just fits him. maybe it's his huge lips...)

aforementioned brother and his cute wife, steph.

happy happy birthday to my big bwuvva robbie. today he is 31 (although you would never guess it by looking at him). as done previously in a post to my poppa, i'm going to list what i like about my big brother.

1-he laughs at himself and can take a joke/criticism (in our family, usually they're the same thing)
2-he's charming-any and everyone who meets him, loves him
3-man, has he dated but he married the absolute best girl around
4-he's good natured-he grew up with 4 sisters and learned how to be gracious and sensitive
5-he's stylish and can shop like a woman but still sometimes wears his church socks with plaid shorts
6-he has a t-shirt for breast cancer awareness that's pink and says "save the hoohahs"-it makes me laugh just thinking about it
7-he's had it rough but he's optimistic
8-he's well-read, articulate, and probably THE smartest person i know
9-he's a patient tutor and knows how to phrase things so they make sense
10-he's my only brother which makes him all that much more important

love you smelly. i'm glad you're my brother.

sunsettin'

2012-01-11T12:19:00.000-08:00

the renters who lived in our house before we moved in told us multiple times, over and over, how great the sunsets are in this neighborhood. and i just nodded and pretended to agree, never having noticed anything spectacular. but a couple of days ago, i saw what they meant. these pictures don't do it justice-it was pretty stunning.

the colors on our faces? that's not from any artificial light inside our house-that's all from the sunset.

gorge. wins and i sat and just looked.

chair reupholstery project

2012-01-10T12:55:00.000-08:00

the before.
so. this sad little chair's days were numbered. the fabric was getting nubby, faded, and had dirty spots that couldn't be cleaned. i've had this thing since i got my own room at, oh, age 12ish? and i think it's had the same fabric the entire time. needless to say, it was time for a change. and now that our computer room/den/whatever you call it is so much cuter (pictures to come), i realized how badly this baby needed a little brightening up. or total tearing apart-whichever works. i realized a while ago that the seat was loose which was what gave me the idea in the first place.

now, trust me, i don't know a thing about how to pull off a REAL upholstery project, like my sister does. but i had looked the chair over and i figured that one little cushion wouldn't be too hard.

so i went about taking it apart. i knew that if i took the cushion off and things were looking too complicated, i could bail and just buy a new chair at someplace consignment or ikea or somewhere.

once i got the cushion off though, i knew i could do it myself. the fabric had just been nailed onto the bottom of this wood board so i took a skinny, small flat-head screwdriver and pulled out the nails.

some were a little too rusty to salvage but the rest i saved to reuse once i needed to put my new fabric back on. i figured i'd save myself a lot of trouble and just use the same nails and same holes.

some of the nails didn't want to come out so i just left them in and cut the fabric as close to them as i could. getting the nails out was probably the hardest part because some of them were fairly stubborn. on one of them, i basically threw my whole weight into it, causing the nail to fly up and hit me on the cheek just below my eye. luckily it didn't jab me in the eye or break the skin! can you say eye surgery and/or tetanus shot? after that, i leaned away while wrenching the nails out.

goodbye worn-out, yucky, has-been fabric! hello snazzy, coral-y, orangey-red, new fabric!

next, i measured out an approximate amount of fabric using the wooden board as a guide. i just guessed at the amount because i knew as long as there was enough to cover it, it didn't have to be exact or cut prettily.

using the same nails and same holes, i nailed the new fabric on one side at a time. this was a bit of a challenge because i sort of suck at wrapping gifts and this was a lot like that- you know, the folding in at the corners and pulling the sides over tight to make a nice corner?...

...it didn't turn out perfectly but it looks good enough to make me happy. and anything is better than that horrible old fabric.

so here she is. SO much better right? the chair itself needs a new paint job but that's another project for another time. i wiped it down with clorox wipes and that shined it up nicely.

ahhhh...now i can walk in the room and not cringe every time i see the chair. yay for trying something new and another project completed.

handmade christmas gift

2011-12-29T12:25:00.000-08:00

my sibs and i exchange names for christmas (as i'm sure everyone else in the world does) and this year, i got one of my sisters who had just had a baby. i had seen this idea in restoration hardware and knew i could make it my own. i got a few different ideas of what i wanted the stork to look like from etsy and settled on one i liked. i sketched it out first (above)...

...got out all my supplies, cut a piece of paper to the same size as the canvas so when i drew on my design, it would be the same size it needed to be for when i transferred it to the canvas ...

...and then drew it out again onto a bigger piece of paper that i could cut out and use as a template for when i needed to trace it onto the canvas. i had fiddled with several different versions of the stork's body and wasn't entirely sure that this one would work because of the legs running through the text.

so i changed it so the stork was in flight and the legs weren't interfering with the words.

i traced my template onto the canvas and started painting. the word "walter" was printed from the computer but the other words were freehanded.

i typically mix my own paint on projects like this which allows me to get it to the exact color i want. but then it's impossible to match it again when i need to do a second coat. you can see in the last picture that the blue isn't even all the way through. but whatever. it took me a while to decide on a color for the stork's little sack.

i finally settled on gray for the sack and voila. done.

it was a fun project to get wrapped up in-and when i'm making something for someone else, it's always more fun because then i anticipate their reaction. i'll definitely try something similar to this again (but not exact because i want my sis to have the original).

our christmas

2011-12-28T12:20:00.000-08:00

hope your christmas was lovely. ours was relatively quiet and simple, which is how i like it. it was fun this year because wins is now old enough to start understanding/doing some traditions-like leaving out cookies and milk for santa claus. i didn't really do this growing up and j did, so it was pretty new for me, too. definitely a keeper.

w decided he wanted to leave them on the piano bench.

after having read "the night before christmas". also one of j's traditions we're adopting. not the most flattering photo, i know.

even when you know what's in most of the presents, christmas eve/morning is still exciting and mysterious and gives me that butterfly feeling in my stomach.

guess what w headed straight for first? his gigi loves this kid.

helping dad.

documentation that yes, i was there. with a pretty rocking gift.

cheeseball. santa brought him this but he maybe should have brought two...one for w and one for his dad. guess who's just as excited about it as w?

stockings.

getting the remote-control car out, which was screwed to the box (and when i say screwed to it, i mean for reals. with screws. really toys 'r' us? is that necessary?).

poppy got a few christmas gifts too.

santa left wins a little note. never knew santa's cursive was so good.

after the morning frenzy was over, we visited baby c and left her a wreath from us (the green one) and one from j's mom (the pink) which she made herself.

i know j looks nice and i don't. it's because we were heading to church afterwards but were going to stop at j's mom's house first and i didn't want to wear and wrinkle my skirt before we got to church.

our christmas was full of family. just the way i like it. while mostly sweet, there was some bitter too, without my little girl. i suppose the ache will eventually lessen and things will feel more normal without her-which is maybe odd to say because we didn't have her for that long, but every holiday feels like it's missing something. i don't know how else to explain it except to say that she truly is a member of our family and the proof is that somehow, it feels like we lost someone whom we had years with, rather than just days. maybe i'm not making any sense. but then maybe i'm not supposed to. the things swirling around in my head certainly don't. i guess what i'm saying is that i miss caroline. she's a part of me. my life goes on, which is good, but she's always there.

anyways, our christmas really was good. hope yours was too.

a bookmobile for wins

2011-12-23T12:34:00.000-08:00

i've had this on the list of projects for a while and i've had the supplies and everything ready to go but i hadn't made it yet because i wasn't exactly sure of the process. i got the idea from etsy and of course, they don't tell you how they make their products (because then you wouldn't buy them:)) so, once again, i had to wing it. yesterday i finally got up the guts to do it. above are the needed supplies-it's a pretty simple project, once you figure out how to do it.

you need: an old book you don't mind completely gutting (even though i had never read this and had no personal attachment to it, nor had ever even heard of it, the booklover in me still felt guilty and a little sad about pulling the stuffing out of it), an exacto knife, some form of glue (i used fabric glue and it worked great), and a picture as a guide of how to do it and what you want the end product to look like.

i started by using the knife to cut all the pages out of the binding-but make sure you leave the binding intact! you'll want to save those pages. i glued a small portion of the pages back into the cover for a base and then started folding pages into the center-i guessed about how many i wanted and then cut the rest off.

for those first center pages, you just glue the edges of the pages down into the binding. once you've got enough there, you'll tear out individual pages from the ones you have left and glue them into the funny bubble shapes and then glue those in between the pages that are already bubbled and glued together. is that making any sense?

the beginning stages.

slowly looking more the way i want it to...

...and even more until...

done! it took about 2 hours all together. i love the little helping hands in this picture (that REALLY wanted to squish the whole thing to his chest). i strung it with some red baker's twine and i'm planning on hanging it in a corner in winston's room. i want to make him a little reading nook, with a chair and a lamp, all cozy-like. we'll see if that happens but at least he'll have this hanging.

the inspiration.

luminaries and a memory tree

2011-12-21T12:32:00.000-08:00

over the weekend, wasatch lawn mortuary put luminaries all throughout their cemetery in memory of those who have passed away. going along with that, they had a tree in the mortuary where you could hang an ornament in memory of a loved one. i'm so glad we went-the luminaries were really lovely (and of course, my photos didn't turn out because they were taken at night) and it was peaceful to drive through, listening to quiet christmas music and thinking about my little one.

we went to mortuary next to hang up our caroline ornament. (above-wins hanging the ornament with a little help)

and here she is. i thought a little girl was the perfect thing to leave for caroline. i hope it made her happy. i bought two of the same ornament so that we could leave one and take the other home for our christmas tree. even doing that, i was still sort of sad to leave this one behind-it's like having to part with anything that has any sort of connection with her is like i'm losing her all over again.

the boys in front of the tree.

they were handing out cookies and hot chocolate-wins was all over that.

for some reason, i look like i have butt-chin in this picture. apparently, my mole was really noticeable that night. whatevs.

after we got home, we decided it was the perfect night to light our first real fire in our fireplace. yay! it was actually pretty fun and felt like we were sort of christening the house or something. we used a duraflame log from the grocery store and it wasn't the hugest fire which, of course, made jere think it was wussy and that we should have used "real wood". but i was perfectly content with our little fire.

i just think it made everything so cozy.

merry christmas, my little caroline.

seeing the lights

2011-12-20T15:06:00.000-08:00

as is custom for the mormons here in the motherland (which is by no means derogatory because i am one of them), we went to see the lights at el plaza del templo.

i really wish i knew how to take good pictures at night. they're always either dark (like the first picture) or creepy red eyed. part of the problem is that i have gigantor eyes which look even gianter in night-time pictures. but let's just say that most of the problem is my lack of knowledge in the photography department.

these next two turned out fairly well though. i don't think i've gone to see the lights since 2006, maybe? and now i remember why: no parking+freezing temperatures+i could be wearing every article of clothing in my closet and still be cold=not that fun. not the worst, but not the best either. oh well-it's still pretty and the luminaries (which i didn't even try to get a picture of, having seen how the others were turning out) were way cool. plus, it's a christmas tradition-check that one off the list till next year.

ok, ok. i guess the temple is sorta pretty:).

a stocking for wins

2011-12-19T12:25:00.000-08:00

i'm not crazy in love with the stockings i made for jere and me a few years ago so i decided that, instead of making another one like it for wins, i'd just do something totally different. i really liked working with felt for my tree skirt so i thought i'd try that out for w's stocking. i'd seen this image of a fox on a doormat from west elm (see actual doormat below) so i drew my own version of it for the stocking.

i traced it onto brown felt and messed around with where to put it on the green felt stocking i'd cut out.

i wanted to personalize it so i wrote out winston's name in cursive on cardstock, made it bubble lettering so i could cut it out, and then traced it onto red felt and cut it out. it was a little tricky sewing the lettering on-i could basically only do one stitch at a time on my machine but it took WAY less time than it would have doing it by hand.

again, i don't know why my pictures don't always load correctly. anyone know how to correct this problem AFTER it's already loaded to blogger? i could just delete it but then if i wanted to reload it, it would reload out of order. grr.
anywho, i fiddled with the set-up till i liked the way it looked and then...

...sewed it on! it's pretty simple and fairly small but wins doesn't need a whole boatload of stuff in there anyway. since i finished it, he's been carrying it around the house which makes me happy. i sewed on a red loop to hang it with but never took a picture of it after that. oops. i'll probably have to make another one when he turns 6 or so but for now, it works.

the inspiration. i wish i'd had more reddish-brown colored felt for the fox rather than just plain brown but i guess it'll have to do.

baby girl silhouette

2011-12-15T12:17:00.000-08:00

i've been meaning to make this forever but i hadn't gotten new ink cartridges for our computer, making it impossible to print the photos. so i finally did and made this yesterday during w's nap time. i love silhouettes-i think they're a beautiful and interesting alternative to photographs. plus, they're totally easy but don't necessarily look that way.

i always make a few options so i can see which i like best and looks the most like the person.

tracing it onto the black paper. you can also use black paint.

filling in her initials.

the finished product.

side by side with her brother.

i wish i had more than just photos and a silhouette. i miss my caroline.

and, without further ado...

2011-12-13T14:06:00.000-08:00

...the tree skirt!!! FINALLY. this is probably the longest project i've ever undertaken. and it only took just over a week, so that tells you something about my attention span. note to self: stick to short, relatively easy projects. part of the problem is that i almost never use any sort of pattern with my projects. i prefer to make up my own, which allows for freedom to change things around but makes it tricky when you get stuck: nothing to turn to when in need of troubleshooting. so, the above picture was the first lay-out, after having drawn out the ideas i wanted.

starting to cut out the felt. yikes, this took a while.

don't know why this won't load properly but i'm too lazy to fix it and too eager to get these pictures up. ok, so all the felt was cut out for this side, ready to be sewn together and then sewn onto the skirt.

and all sewn on! i had to sew the individual pieces together first and then sew them to the bigger piece of felt. the trees? yeah, they were hell, let me tell you. cutting out AND sewing on. but more the sewing on part because there was A LOT of backstitching (backsewing? i'm such a rookie) involved for all of those branches.

second side all sewn on. as you can see, by the time i got to this side, i stopped caring about documenting every step. i just wanted to get. it. done.

and TA DA!!! if i could make the font any bigger i would, because MAN! it's done! HU-freaking-ZZAH!!!

the back side.

the front side.

when you look closely, you can see what a novice sewer i am. the detail isn't perfect but it's good enough for me.

goodbye sad-sack little tree skirt that wrinkles way too easily, is falling apart, and doesn't velcro together anymore. hello bright new tree skirt that i made myself! yes, i'm gloating. but really. hours and hours of sacrificed naptimes, people! i believe that deserves a little gloatage.

and there she lies. for the little bit of the season that's left. hooray!

by the way, i totally stole this idea from the garnet hill catalog. see theirs below? i feel no shame about this. in fact, most of my good ideas come from other people and/or places. i read something on etsy once, in someone's profile, that said "a little plagiarism never hurt anyone". here, here! that person really knew what they were talking about. and they apparently knew me too. i saved myself $168 smackers on this baby. all because my mother showed it to me and told me she thought i could do it myself. thanks, mama. i did.

the tree

2011-12-05T16:18:00.000-08:00

the search. i wish i could say we went to someplace cool to get our tree, someplace where you hike through inches-high snow, with your hardy dog at your side wearing a hand-knit sweater, carrying your hot chocolate in a red plaid mug, singing christmas carols as you peruse the field-grown beauties that smell of pine and sage and all those smells that trees grown in real nature smell like. but we didn't. we got it at smith's marketplace. but you couldn't tell that from the picture, could you? maybe you could. and maybe i've been looking at the jcrew christmas catalog too much. anywho, we now have our tree. yay!

j was worried that since we don't have a rack on this car, that there'd be issues tying the tree on. but the trusty employees at the tree lot made short work of our nonexistent problem. plus, let's be honest-i'm not the kind of girl who uses any equipment that requires the use of one of those racks anyway.

when wins was taking his nap today, the elves came and decorated the tree. but they left him some ornaments to hang.

i do realize that the star is a little crooked at the top. ok, it's a lot crooked. but i think it gives it a certain amount of charm, don't you? maybe a little dr. seussian? just go with it.

i feel like our christmas decorations are 90% complete now (i'm making a tree skirt which will replace the somewhat haggard and too-small one that is currently occupying our floor space).

happy start of the holidays!

rosette wreath

2011-11-29T13:05:00.000-08:00

a friend of mine made a bunch of these last year as gifts and for some reason, it didn't kick in until sometime in october that, hey, i could make one too. this puppy took a little more time than i thought it would but still, super easy. the wreath is an 18 inch, standard grapevine wreath, but any size would be cute.

getting a little closer...there were a lot of those little felt triangles in the upper right corner floating around the house for a while.

the detail.

and BAM! the finished product. and yes, i need to get rid of the pumpkins and raven mat. a little at a time, eh?

i'm thinking i'll probably add some green on it somewhere-some sort of viney thing? it needs a little more oomph to make it look christmas-y. i bought a smaller wreath and some white felt today that i'm thinking i'll make to hang in january. gotta have something to brighten things up during the january doldrums, right?

i've got lots and LOTS of projects lined up/in the works that i'll post as they get finished. IF they get finished might be a better way to phrase it, i guess. but i'm excited to show them to you!

thanksgiving present

2011-11-25T15:44:00.000-08:00

yesterday was a bit of a whirlwind. but it was nice to have thanksgiving with family, which we haven't been able to do for the last 3 years. we visited caroline in the morning (took her some pumpkins), amidst the leaves and chilly wind.

these deer were so sweet-nuzzling and cleaning each other's faces.

the thanksgiving table at my mom's house. she has such an eye for detail, eh?

my cousin joshie and sister-in-law, steph.

the kids table.

the traditional, grandma skola fruit slush. served before the meal.

baby solomon and his adoring mother.

me and mares.

pop pop.

i did make pies but i forgot to take pictures. they weren't really anything too spectacular.

all in all, it was a nice, mostly relaxing day. i have lots to be thankful for.

thanksgivings past

2011-11-25T12:31:00.000-08:00

i was just reminiscing about thanksgivings we've already had. there were some good ones. my pies didn't look quite this good this year-i had a little too much crust and not enough filling-they looked a little like a really tall headboard and a really shallow bed. oh well-they still tasted good.

last year, at j's turkey bowl.

our second thanksgiving in abq. it was nice and quiet. w was still pretty little and spent most of dinner asleep in his car seat.

an end and a beginning

2011-11-23T12:51:00.000-08:00

remember these?

from my little craft/home decor/d-i-y book?

well, it's done. full. not a single page left. it feels like the end of an era. i know it's a relatively small thing but it makes me happy. the old book is full of things and ideas i saw and loved and made and attempted. and the new one is empty. clean sheets of white paper. there's something about a blank book that just speaks to me for some reason. i hoard them, thinking of the things i will fill them with, the ideas i'll have, the drawings i'll make. i already have magazine tears waiting to be glued into the new book. hurrah for endless possibilities, right? even if you don't get to all of them, there is the dream of them and that's enough for me.

jack frost

2011-11-17T13:31:00.000-08:00

i love watching wins watching the snow fall. the wonder on his face makes me happy.

i guess i'll have a whole lot of watching to do, once winter actually kicks in.

cuteness

2011-11-16T12:35:00.000-08:00

lucy, wins, lizzie. two of his clegg cousins. um, can someone say adorable?

and can someone please convince this man that he looks good in this hat? he thinks he looks dumb. course, he would need to change his shirt. but the wings? it's like his hair is made for a hat like this.

random side note

2011-11-15T19:36:00.001-08:00

warning: this is a judgemental and somewhat graphic post. sorry if it offends.

i was at the u hospital earlier tonight and i saw a pregnant woman smoking. now, i'm not the kind of person to approach a total stranger and rant in their face. i'm too non-confrontational, which basically means i'm a wuss. but i really, REALLY wanted to this time.
what i was thinking in my head was, "if you're too moronic not to want your baby, i'll take it! there are millions of women in this world waiting, hoping, praying to have babies (myself included), and here you are, spitting in their faces!! i'm sorry that you rubbed up against some dude and got pregnant but that's not my problem. what is my problem is that you are endangering the life of the child you carry. grow up, stop smoking, and use a condom."

the end.

over the weekend...

2011-11-14T12:56:00.000-08:00

the view you see when you leave caroline's grave. i adore her cemetery. it's lush and green and the trees hang over the drives and it's quiet. a bonus for jere is that it's across the street from rice-eccles stadium. he likes to think that it makes her happy to hear the games. mmhmm...

also, dear wander in and out of the headstones. they're beautiful and sweet-it makes me happy to think that caroline gets to be around them.

...we visited caroline. this is her headstone. i'm really happy about the way it turned out. i think it's sweet without being cheesy or fluffy. it's funny because when we went to pick it out, i was planning on doing something completely plain, no designs or pictures or anything. but it was jere who said it needed something to show that she is a girl-he picked out the bow. you'd never have guessed, would you? and it totally makes the whole thing. so glad i have him around, talking sense in my ear when i need it. (i picked the font so i did contribute a little.) the coloring page was something winston got that morning at breakfast that he colored and wanted to leave with caroline. the leaf is from him too.

there was a HUGE leaf pile right by caroline so we taught wins how to jump in the leaves. i threw myself in first, thinking he'd want to do it after he saw how fun it was. jere threw him after me and he hated it. too many leaves and pokey things in his hair, i think. anyway, he loved romping in the leaves.

sometimes, i can't get enough of this kid.

2011-11-10T12:39:00.000-08:00

caroline was born three months ago yesterday. happy birthday, my little bean. miss you.

snow day

2011-11-10T12:18:00.000-08:00

a week or so ago, wins had his first real snow day as a utah citizen. the cold doesn't appear to bother this kid, which blows my mind because i hate it so much. i may have suggested something to him that i know i'm going to regret: eating snow. he's already an ice junkie-he shoves his hand straight into any glass that contains ice, whether it's his glass or not-so i thought that, of course, he'd like snow. it's softer, you can wear gloves when you handle it, and it's more fun to play with. i didn't realize until after what the ramifications would be. now, everywhere we go, even if the snow is crusty and hard, he wants to stop and have a handful. i have a feeling it's going to be a long winter...

it looks like he's spitting it out but really, he's shoveling it in.

hope it's warm where you live.

home

2011-11-09T12:10:00.000-08:00

hello. welcome to my home. i've been wanting to share pictures of my home for a while now, just because i think it gives you an idea of what i'm like. i love seeing other peoples houses because i think it really gives you a feel for them and their taste-it adds to what you already know of them from their personality. so let's take a quick walking tour of the front room of our little abode(because if i did all the rooms, this post would get long and boring-maybe another time...).

front view. if the plants look overgrown, it's because they were. apparently the people living here before were renters and didn't touch the yard, other than to mow it. this is not a judgement because neither did we. but i do plan on making "the garden" look manageable come springtime.

front porch. this was taken before halloween, hence the decor. there is now a turkey on the door and the skeleton is gone.

living room. i LOVE these bookshelves. they were one of the biggest sellers for me when we walked through the house. they're not built-ins but they are screwed to the walls. does that make sense? from ikea. it's been so fun to fill these shelves with all of our little bits and bites-things that i knew i saved for a reason.

hooray for finally having a piano! i've been choir accompanist in 3 different wards and until now, never had my own piano to practice on. i always had to go to my ward building a few nights a week to rehearse. this has sentimental value too because it's one of two pianos that i spent many wee hours of the morning practicing on.

so there you have it. this room is my favorite in the whole house. things just seemed to click when i was putting it together. sometime i'll show you the rest (maybe when the other rooms are a little more finished and to my liking).

but as for now, c'mon in. have a hot chocolate. sit a while.

happy halloween, un poquito tarde

2011-11-08T12:50:00.000-08:00

i know it's late, but again, wanted to post it. at jeremy's sister's little halloween shindig.

with cousin lizzie, punk rocker extraordinaire.

lizzie, wins, lucy.

the two monkeys.

making monkey noises.

categorizing his candy after the tricks and the treats (which lasted about 15 minutes because we were behind a "big kid" dressed in a football uniform that made him scream-maybe that says something about his future in sports? no problem with me.).

showing me his loot.
wins had a rough halloween. we spent the day shuttling back and forth and forcing wins to trick-or-treat and then put him to bed late. hopefully, he had fun but probably in all reality, he doesn't remember a thing. oh well.

an october outing

2011-11-08T12:35:00.000-08:00

taking a potty break.

so, once again these photos are from a while back. but i wanted to share them. we went to wheeler farm with my sister and her kids sometime in october-the boys weren't that interested in the animals (meaning they were a bit scared of them) but they did like watching the geese in the pond.

i think this little one looks coquettish, like it's trying to bat it's eyelashes at us.

the cousins.

finn and wins, sometimes referred to as "finnston" (but usually just by my dad because he mixes them up so much).

i love w's face in this. it's one of his new things-he points to a group of something, regardless of how many things there are and says "do!" (two). cute little stink.

projects of late

2011-11-07T13:33:00.000-08:00

sometimes i think caroline inspires or pushes or helps (or all three) me to do things. maybe it's just me projecting her in and onto everything i do, but i like the idea that she's here with me. it feels like that with these last few projects. before she was born, i had been wanting to make this potato print painting (idea found on Oh Happy Day) for her room. i'd like to make an original piece of art for each of my children and this one was going to be hers. but then, after her birth and death, i wasn't sure what i thought about doing it. i left it alone for a bit and after some thought, realized i wanted to do it more than ever. so i did. super simple but i think it turned out really sweet. and it reminds me of her, which makes me happy.

next: i found this turkey silhouette at tjmaxx (of course i did;)) and loved the turkey itself but not what it said in the background.

if you can't read that, it says "gobble till you wobble". tacky, right? this holiday has been taken over by gluttony enough already, don't you think? so i decided to change it to be to my liking.

and ta-da! the picture quality's not great-the colors are much brighter than this-but i like how it turned out.

and finally, the piece de resistance: kitchen curtains! i know in all reality, making curtains is not that big a deal. especially for those of you who can sew like nobody's business. but it's my first major piece of sewing. i didn't have a pattern so i made it up as i went along, which was terrifying but so satisfying when it worked. i LOVE the fabric and i'm happy that it didn't turn out to be a total disaster. basically, i guess i'm just giving myself a verbal pat on the back, but isn't that what blogging is all about?

anywho, i have more projects lined up so when they're finished, i'll give you a peep. happy crafting!

fall

2011-11-04T13:21:00.000-07:00

fall is probably my favorite time of year. in albuquerque, there wasn't really a changing of the seasons, no vibrant colors or crisp breezes. don't get me wrong-the weather was SO nice because it stayed warm until like mid-november. i know i'm going to D I E being back in Utah this winter. but it has been really nice seeing the leaves change color and smelling that fall-y smell, you know?

taking a walk up millcreek canyon.

w's favorite part was throwing rocks in the river. such a boy.

love these boys.

different but the same

2011-11-03T12:26:00.000-07:00

it's interesting having gone through this thing, this loss. you'd think that it would change your core, your make-up, your you-ness. and in so many ways, it has. but really, i'm still me. hopefully, i'm a better, more empathetic and compassionate, less selfish me. but i still love the same things, still want the same things. i say this because i want my blog to still be about the expression of whatever. does that make sense? i have loved being able to post thoughts as soon as i have them, however random and/or silly. i have loved sharing pictures of crafts or family or things i like and want. i plan to still post those things. but mixed in with those, there may be occasional sad days or days when i just need to vent or days when i need to post pictures of caroline, maybe without saying anything at all.

but really, i'm still me. hi.

the way things are

2011-11-02T11:12:00.000-07:00

wow. i'm not sure where to start. i guess it'd be good to address the elephant in the room first.
so, if you know me or have been following my blog, you know that i was pregnant with a baby girl who had skeletal dysplasia and that up until my 8th month or so, things were looking fairly good. cue our move to utah, living with first my family and then jeremy's family and then my family again. after about as much prep as was possible, caroline elizabeth clegg was born on august 9th at 3:50 a.m., weighing 6 pounds, 9 oz. we had every indication, prior to her birth, that, despite obvious problems, she would live and be ok. after she was born, that turned out not to be so. she had complications with her skeletal dysplasia that were unable to be diagnosed via ultrasound and so, once the doctors actually saw her, they realized she wouldn't make it more than a few hours (she proved them wrong). i'm not going to go into the whole story because 1-it would be pages and pages of posts and 2-i don't really want to. but what it comes down to is that we got around 36 hours with our little lady, she was beautiful and tiny, and life is a bit different these days. more real, maybe? i'm not going to pretend and say that i'm totally ok with the way things happened. i'm not. i would say that, typically, the order of emotions going through my head and heart are, first: anger, second: weepiness, third: joy in the perfection of my little one and in my crazy two year old, and fourth: utter confusion at the way my life is going. hopefully, this order will change through the course of the next year or so. but i will say that thank goodness i got to have caroline for as long as i did, thank goodness for her sweet example of righteousness, thank goodness for a two year old who keeps me busy and unable to wallow all the time, thank goodness for a husband who is strong and steady and confident, thank goodness that i have family so close, and thank goodness for dear friends who listen and weep and laugh with us.

i don't know what else to say really. life moves forward. and so will i.

2011-11-01T18:54:00.001-07:00

so. i'm back. and feeling a little rusty. there's a lot to say and show you but for now, i just wanted to say hi. it feels good to be back.

tuesday loving

2011-06-28T08:00:00.000-07:00

i could watch this video over and over. love my sweet baby james.

holga pics

2011-06-21T07:47:00.000-07:00

my brother-in-law, jon, took these pics of wins when i was in slc recently. i believe he took them on his holga and i'm sort of in love with them. finally! someone to take pictures of the family besides me! and someone who actually knows what they're doing.

there's just something about these. maybe it's the dark colors? they just sort of have this mysteriousness to them.

love this. would love it even more if wins didn't have his finger in his mouth.

this one cracks me up. he totally captured what cousin time is like, most of the time. wins blubbering about something, finn looking confused, mama and her belly in the corner attempting to make peace and failing. such a perfect little vignette of what life is really like.

thanks jonfan! i love them.

so long, subaru

2011-06-20T07:38:00.000-07:00

our one and only picture of the sube.

last week was crazy. we had an ultrasound appointment on wednesday (where my perinatologist told me i needed to start going in twice a week for testing-perfect timing) and on the way home, our car started making a horrible, dry grinding noise. plus, it had a funky smell. i immediately pulled off the road into an applebee's parking lot, realized there was a midas across the street and pulled into it. j came and met me and we talked to the main mechanic who told us, in much more complicated terms of course, that something had happened with some sort of belt which in turn had screwed up the motor. it would cost around $6,000 to fix, which is what we bought the car for, so we were in something of a pickle. the car never ran that great and there were always minor issues so we decided it was best to just get a new car (new being a relative term-new to us is more like it-we've never bought a NEW new car). j spent the rest of the week looking online and asking around and checking and cross checking and then we spent most of the day on saturday looking and finally settled on a white 2008 highlander. cue sigh of relief. it's probably just the fact that we have never owned a particularly nice car, but the thing runs like a dream. and the a/c works in the front AND the back, so my kid doesn't toast! and the driver's side window rolls down! and the cd player works! and it's not a stick shift! the list could go on. while we hadn't planned on having to make this kind of investment while we're also looking to buy a home, it feels pretty nice to have it.

so without much sadness, i say farewell to our piece-of-junk, gold/tan, 2000 subaru legacy with the motor that never ran like a legacy and couldn't make it up hills and that cost us more than it was worth. rest in peace. i guess.

home, for now

2011-06-20T07:23:00.000-07:00

j singing with his sibs at his little sister's wedding.

i got back last week from my crazy trip to utah. i haven't gotten around to announcing via blog yet so here it is: we are moving back to slc! we'd been looking into it for a little while, filling out the appropriate paperwork with jere's work, and everything was approved a few weeks ago. we wouldn't have even thought of trying it if it weren't for baby girl's problems. now, we'll have family around and we'll be by some really great hospitals. we're sad to be leaving abq-we've had a sweet, simple life here and so many fabulous friends. but we feel like this is the best thing for our family. so, that's a really long-winded way of saying that my trip to slc was crazy because i was meeting with doctors, looking at houses, and trying to figure out where we'll be for the first few months there. phew. real life is hard work.

winston's favorite place to be was gigi's backyard.

hanging out with auntie maremi in her car.

cousin playtime.

being silly with mom and gigi.

this little one loves dressing up.

i wish i had some pictures with winston's other cousins-totally my fault. i didn't think to take any when they were all together. he does have other cousins besides finnigan and they are all very cute.

anywho, as far as moving goes, i'll most likely go somewhere towards the beginning of july (we're thinking the 5th?) and j will come at the end of july. things will be a bit crazy from here on out but i'll try to still post a bit.

a craft before parting

2011-06-01T09:58:00.000-07:00

i'm headed out of town today for a few weeks but i wanted to share what a friend and i made yesterday. baby girl headbands! aren't they sweet? they're SUPER easy to make. these have been all over etsy lately and i've always thought it would be no problem to whip some up. just pick out felt in the color you choose, cut in the shapes you want, glue together with a glue gun, measure some baby elastic to the desired length (we had a model present so it was easier to guess), glue felt to top of elastic and then glue an extra piece of felt onto the underside of the elastic to secure the whole thing together. and voila! stylish and colorful accessories for the babe in your life. have fun!

p.s. the best how-to i've found for the rosettes is here.

memorial day

2011-06-01T09:52:00.000-07:00

the boys were unintentionally patriotic.

we had a nice, fairly mellow memorial day. we went swimming in the morning at our pool with a friend and her little girl, took long naps, went to a local burger joint and then headed to the zoo. we got there pretty late in the day which ended up being really nice-i think we missed most of the crowds and it was breezy and cool.

the lion ended up being our favorite-it was just sleeping on a rock when we first walked past but once we were a little ways away, we heard it roaring, so we rushed back. i don't know that i've ever heard an actual real lion roar before and it was something to see and hear. shockingly, w wasn't scared.

and of course, the elephant. cue w's spitting noise that is his version of the sound they make.

batter up

2011-05-27T07:09:00.000-07:00

i kid you not, this picture was totally unposed. i mean, we were telling him to get ready but didn't tell him how to hold the bat or bend his knees or anything.

our little dude seems to have a bit of natural athletic ability and guess who's SO super stoked about it? give you one guess. anywho, we were talking about it last night and jere asked if i'd uploaded this picture yet. i said i hadn't and he said to make sure that i mention that wins' stance is really similar to that of albert pujols (currently, basically the best hitter in MLB-seen in the picture below). wins bends his knees, gets low, and holds the bat sort of high, all similar to A.P. also, all untaught by us. the boy really has just figured this all out by himself (and by watching baseball on tv with his poppa). it's pretty cute actually-whatever sport is being watched, wins has to run to the closet and pull out the equivalent sporting gear. and he sort of practices-swings the bat, makes a swishing noise, puts the ball in his mitt and throws it out...and so on with whichever sport applies. lucky for his daddy (or maybe it's because of this) that he apparently resembles j's favorite. go figure. once again, boys are funny.

shinah

2011-05-25T08:02:00.000-07:00

wins got his first black eye last week. he fell on one of his toys and this popped up within like 3 seconds. no joke. he screamed, of course, but hasn't really noticed it since. jeremy, being the guy that he is, thinks it makes him look tough. boys are weird.

on the aquarium day.

a trip to the aquarium and botanical gardens

2011-05-24T06:46:00.000-07:00

on saturday, we wanted to get out of the house so we took a little morning trip to the aquarium and botanical gardens (they're in the same place). one of the first tanks we saw was the sting rays and little one wasn't so sure about how he felt about them. this one got a little friendly and tried to jump out of the tank and i must say, even i wasn't too comfortable with that. i might have done a tiny little scream and jumped back a bit. maybe.

we have a fearful child. that's all there is to it. it took w a while before he wanted to get any closer to the big tank than this...

...but of course, being with daddy helped quell some of his fears and he decided it was cool enough to venture forward.

smelling the trees at the gardens. of course, smelling requires actual inhaling, rather than just noisily blowing out through your nose, so i don't know how much he actually smelled. but you get the picture. and the air was so heavy with the scent ( in a good way) that i'm sure it got in there anyway.

i might have to take more trips out to the gardens. i'd never been there before and it smelled SO good and was so beautiful and fairly peaceful, even on a saturday when there were probably a lot of people there-it made me want to go back and take my sketchbook or some paints and just sit somewhere.

cute kid+handsome husband+pretty place=a lovely morning.

making me happy

2011-05-20T07:21:00.000-07:00

my friend theresa took these pictures of w while he was at their house last week. and they just make me really happy so i thought i'd share. that's all. happy weekend!

try a little tenderness lovefest

2011-05-19T14:03:00.000-07:00

otis redding's "try a little tenderness" a la duckie from pretty in pink. best scene in the movie (mostly because molly ringwald isn't talking).

value="http://www.hulu.com/embed/xULuk_aROo8cWE3iGOWLbw">

go to minute 18:16 to see mercedes singing the same song on this week's "glee". um, holy crap.

the song is fabulous. enjoy!

love letter

2011-05-18T07:26:00.000-07:00

dear mariani yogurt covered raisins,

i love you. you are the perfect balance of creamy yogurt yumminess combined with tart raisin chewiness. i will be a beloved fan for the rest of my life. i wish you cost less but i'm willing to pay a few extra dollars for you, just to sate my craving for a sweet snack. plus, you make me feel like i'm eating something healthy (whether i actually am or not).

your devoted believer,
me

p.s. would you ever consider making a yogurt covered raisin, sans raisin? just asking.

26 weeks

2011-05-18T06:59:00.000-07:00

i LOVE that little top picture. when jere and i saw this the other day, we both thought she looks exactly like wins. it looks like she's wearing a monocle in the picture-it's the cord floating around by her face and she also has her hand up there. i'm loving these 3D ultrasounds-they give you so much more to see. you can actually tell what she looks like, instead of just seeing freaky alien-looking pictures.

this is what she looks like on the inside...

and on the outside.

things were a little crazed at our ultrasound on monday so we didn't get to hear too much info about her but what the doc did say is that she looks fairly good. he said her growth has improved-she hasn't caught up to where she needs to be by any means (that will probably never happen) but she's doing a little better, growthwise, than she was at the last ultrasound. also, the cysts on her brain have gone away. we knew from the beginning that this would probably eventually happen but it's really good to hear that it actually did.

it made such a big difference feeling positive after the ultrasound. usually, i go home and cry and feel overwhelmed. but monday was a good day. the doctor we saw was different than normal and, not that we don't like our other doc, but this one was helpful and informative and didn't just spout medical terminology at us.

cue sigh of relief (at least until our next ultrasound)...

eat your heart out, pinterest

2011-05-17T07:15:00.000-07:00

all i can say is, i've been doing this for YEARS. somewhere, buried in a closet, i have one that i started in elementary school (like 2nd grade i think?). don't get me wrong though-i love pinterest. totally interesting and time-sucking and inspiring. i just happened to have been doing the same thing in notebooks for a long time. i love seeing other people's books like mine-seeing what they think pretty or interesting or stylish enough to document permanently. i think it's a beautiful expression of creativity.

these first 6 are from my "idea" notebook-things i want to remember once we get a house, crafts i think i could try, ways to organize...

this is the cover of my journal.

journal excerpt.

these last 5 are from my fashion notebook. pretty self-explanatory i suppose but it's where i put pictures of clothes and people whom i think to be stylish and classic.

do you have a creativity notebook(s)?

new art

2011-05-16T07:28:00.000-07:00

remember me talking about the paul ferney cake prints? they were on sale a little while ago and i got three, thinking i would display them all together. i finally found a simple gold frame that will work with the color scheme of all three-i just have to wait for two more frames to come in stock at hobby lobby and i'll be good to go, although i don't think they'll all fit in this space in the kitchen. so far, i'm loving this one by itself. it brightens up the kitchen. i'll probably get a mat for it-it looks a little unfinished just by itself.

or should i just cut it to 5x7 and not have any white around it? i'm not totally sure but i'm loving how it looks anyway. when you put new things up, do you stare at them in satisfaction every time you walk past? i totally do.

happy week!

out at the playground and party animal

2011-05-14T08:53:00.000-07:00

kicking it at the playground. joe cool loves his shades.

at a friend's birthday party. surprisingly, he kept the hat on. never know what this little one's going to do.

the end.

fingerpainting

2011-05-12T07:16:00.000-07:00

yesterday was cold and wet and we were going a little stir crazy in the afternoon. so wins and i decided to bust out the fingerpaints.
this might be picture overload but i just couldn't get enough of these. w loved doing this (i'm hoping he has my love of all things art) and it was fun to just let him let loose.

i kept trying to get a picture of his hands and all he wanted to do was smudge his finger all over the lens. classic. this kid's a bit camera obsessed (not with having his picture taken but with wanting to play with it).

i know this one's a little blurry but i love it because he looks so focused.

silly boy.

finally showing me his hands.

all done. note the paint in the hair on the right, on the nose/cheek, and you can't really see it too well, but on his elbows. i immediately stuck him in the tub where i also discovered paint in his ear canal. this boy does it up right.

his palette. i must say, i sort of loved watching w paint. it made me remember why i love doing it. i might have to get my own paints out...

hedgehog

2011-05-04T08:55:00.000-07:00

i hope my friend doesn't mind me posting pictures of this. i sent it to her as a baby gift. i've had this idea for her for a long time and couldn't quite figure out how to put it together, with the right fabrics and getting the actual hedgehog right. i finally figured it out and i'm happy with the way it turned out. the stitching on the spines was a little tricky-so many ups and downs and ins and outs.

but i think it ended up being one of my cuter fabric animals. i hope she thinks so too.

a visit from a sister and a daytrip to santa fe

2011-05-03T10:27:00.000-07:00

my lovely sister, beka, came into town over the weekend. unfortunately, her visit was super short (thursday till sunday) but we packed in as much as we could in that little amount of time. we went out to nob hill, went to a fabulous royal wedding party, and took a day trip to santa fe. wins loved having her here-someone new to pay attention to him!- and jere and i loved it too. we miss her already-it seems too quiet around the house. we love you, sister. come back soon, please?

above, taken at breakfast in santa fe-j was teasing wins and for some reason, he thinks that's REALLY funny

sisters

isn't santa fe lovely? should have taken more pictures.

a little something

2011-04-27T16:49:00.000-07:00

i was in marshall's the other day (of course i was-where else would i be?) and i saw a little sign that said this: " every moment, no matter how dire it may seem, has something to offer us.

every. single. moment." a bit cheesy, i know, but it spoke to me. i didn't buy it or anything because it was of course cheesy to look at. but i liked it. just thought i'd share. maybe it'll help you with something hard in your life.

easter morn

2011-04-25T15:05:00.000-07:00

the hunt begins...

...checking everywhere (this kid is thorough-looked under his crib)...

...heading out to check the living room...

...and finally, fruition! found it.

showing us his spoils.

the classic blue-whopper-egg mouth.

our easter was lovely. hope yours was too.

making me happy

2011-04-22T14:19:00.000-07:00

wins "helping" with making cookies.

my somewhat pathetic little easter tree (there are 8 eggs now). not the most professional but i'm still pleased with the way it turned out.

my new little wall in my closet. got both those frames at target and i'm loving the combo and the pictures inside them. and isn't that hat divine? my sister gave it to me for my birthday.

this boy loves to look at himself in the mirror.

our little easter bunny. we went to jere's work party yesterday and ALAS, i forgot my camera. w really really took to the whole egg hunting thing-so much so, that he absolutely did not want to stop. i wanted a picture in his bunny ears so we did a little photo shoot at home. silly boy.

recent ultrasound

2011-04-22T14:05:00.000-07:00

the little lady's profile. she looks a little simian in the bottom one, with that top lip jutting way out (she's my kid so i can say what i want). but i love the top picture-that little nose is to die for.

we had an ultrasound on wednesday and things are looking mostly the same. her limbs are still teensy, with her legs even falling a little farther behind. her head/brain are growing well (and are at normal size-we might have a big noggin on our hands), which is good and very important and her torso looks pretty good too. one thing we learned which we didn't know before is that she has a curve in her spine-they couldn't see it at the last ultrasound because she was on her other side-she flipped over halfway through this one. this will probably affect her mobility (ability to walk), especially when you consider her bowed legs as well. this was a sad thing to learn obviously-we had hoped for a tiny but walking little munchkin-but to be honest, i wasn't that surprised. for some reason, since learning about her condition(s), i've been thinking that she probably wouldn't walk. anyway, that about sums it up. we still don't know a lot about what's going on-and probably won't for a while- but i'm getting bigger which i figure is a good thing. and i can feel occasional gentle pokes at my belly, so she's moving, however slightly. that's all for now. we'll let you know when we know.

vegas

2011-04-20T07:14:00.000-07:00

so, jere and i got back from our vegas trip on saturday (for those who are wondering, we decided sort of last minute to toddle off to sin city because we figured with our little lady coming and her issues and whatnot, that it's going to be a LONG time before we can go anywhere without kiddos so we better take advantage of it) and things have been kind of crazy since we stepped off the plane.

above: playing the organ with grandpa. wins loves it-it's like a giant, noisy toy that he can pound the heck out of and not really hurt.

pops in his element. i love watching my dad play.

entering the strip.

ny, ny section.

we never did make it into the paris which i'm a little bummed about.

watching the fountains in front of the bellagio. i always think of ocean's eleven when i watch these.

sweet little niecie. jere and i stayed with his sister our first night in town and saw them a few times later that week. we have great family.

the view looking up from the pool. the weather mostly cooperated and was sunny and warm, all except for one day when the wind was so bad that stacks of pool chairs were being blown into the pool. and yes, we were out at the pool that day. the lifeguard finally booted us out because of a "wind advisory". we were determined to be out in the sun as much as possible.

in the surprisingly beautiful gardens inside the wynn, waiting to go into our cirque show.

in the wynn.

in the theater after le reve (the cirque show we went to).

inside the mall at the venetian.

the venetian again. there were "street" performers who came and did a little show. mostly opera stuff with a little carnival feel, hence the jester balancing the random square thingie on his nose.

loved these little portholes (i'm sure there's a real name for these but heck if i know it).

just HAD to get this picture. next to his idol.

on the drive back from vegas, we stopped in st. george for the wedding of a girl that jere baptized on his mission. lovely temple.

and that about wraps it up. we're glad to be back, although it was pretty glorious to have almost a whole week completely to ourselves (my mom had wins while we were in vegas). we have our next ultrasound today and we're hoping to hear some good news so we'll keep you updated!

the slide

2011-04-08T07:53:00.000-07:00

i want to go down but i'm still not sure...

...maybe if i stand up and sit back down a couple of times, it'll make it easier...(this kid desperately needs a haircut)

...ok, those big kids just did it so i can too...

...ta-da! (wish that woman weren't ruining the picture)

and i'll do it again a few more times, just because i can.

and yes, those are his jammies he's wearing. he's had a cough for the last few days and i wanted him to stay bundled and cozy.

rant

2011-04-05T10:36:00.000-07:00

let me just preface this by saying that i'm not in a bad mood. this is just something that has been bugging me for a while.

at the smith's where i shop, there's a parking spot right by the store that has a little sign, similar in size and shape, to a handicap sign, that says "mom to be parking" and there's a little picture of a stork. let me note, however, that it is NOT a handicap sign. when i was pregnant with wins, i used this spot all the time-it's so convenient! and so nice. this time around, i am yet to be able to use it and here's why: people who are most definitely NOT moms-to-be, i.e. men, have been using it. this makes me want to scream at them. the last time i went shopping, i drove past that spot and there was a guy leaned up against the side of his car, smoking. are you kidding me? i feel like people like this are spitting in my face. now, granted, this guy did have a handicap pass hanging from his rearview so it made it a little more acceptable-he walked with a cane. but STILL. i wanted to walk by and say, "sir, if i parked in your parking spot, as in a handicap spot, i would get a big fat fine and possibly have my car towed. plus, i just wouldn't do it so that someone who really needed it could use it. all i ask is that you leave this spot vacant so i can cart my heavy body a few less feet to the store." of course, i'm too chicken to ever say something like this. and today, there was someone just sitting in the passenger side of the car parked there, which to me means that whoever is inside just used it to make a quick run into the store, not considering that a pregnant woman might actually want and need to use it. grrr. sorry. that's all.

on my way...

2011-04-01T07:42:00.000-07:00

...to getting big. i'm already having trouble seeing my toes. so long cute skinny clothes, hello awkward in-between clothes that are either too big or too small. time to bust out the bella band so my pants stay up (because i'm too big to zip them so i have to leave them all the way undone, hence the bella band). sigh. don't you just love the beer-gut phase?

finished

2011-04-01T07:40:00.000-07:00

so here's the finished product. i decided it really needed to be covered on the inside too and i think it looks SO much better.

i'm really pleased with the way it turned out.

bring on the next project!

audrey

2011-04-01T07:32:00.000-07:00

my lovely mother just sent me this book. i don't know if i've mentioned it before but i adore audrey hepburn. not only was she beautiful and stylish in a way that completely revolutionized fashion forever, but she was a genuinely good and loving person. this is a sweet little book and the illustrations are to die for-they make me wish SO BAD that i could draw like that. you can probably get it at just about any bookstore but apparently, anthropologie carries it too.

recovering a jewelry drawer

2011-03-30T07:37:00.000-07:00

the before picture.
i've been needing something for a while to store my jewelry in and found this little guy at marshall's last week. i didn't love the fabric (paisley doesn't really do it for me) so i thought it'd be totally easy to recover it in fabric i liked. not as easy as i thought but not too bad.

before i glued the new fabric on-i measured the height and length and cut to fit...

...then used a glue gun to secure it all in place (wrapped up, present style).

i snipped a tiny bit in all the places where the fabric met the shelf so that it would fold down and glue in properly. unfortunately, i didn't measure quite right so the fabric doesn't reach all the way down in the box but i'm thinking i'll just cut a little more and cover the inside. and then this bad boy is going in my newly reorganized closest so as to minimize the clutter in my life (and, being a bit of a pack rat, there is a fair amount).

for gigi

2011-03-30T07:33:00.000-07:00

thanks for the presents gige. w loves them (this was not prompted). he busted out the puzzle as soon as he saw it, wanted to read both books and sat on the stool while working on the puzzle (i took a picture of that but it came out fuzzy). you spoil us. we love you to bits.

some good news

2011-03-30T07:17:00.001-07:00

flowers from lovely friends.

so, first of all, i want to say thank you to everyone who's been so great to us this last few weeks. we feel like we're being lifted up and held by all of you.
we got the second half of our test results back from the amnio and everything came back normal: they didn't find anything wrong. yay! this doesn't mean that there still can't be some major issues with her later on. if it's a severe form of dwarfism, she could have some serious neurological problems. but since we won't really be able to figure out her exact form of dwarfism either until much further into my pregnancy or until birth, we're happy with the results. i think we've decided to still be cautiously optimistic (our genetic counselor's words). our next ultrasound is on the 20th of april and that will tell us a bit more about what's going on with her (whether her limbs are growing, whether her lungs are developing properly). we feel good, thanks largely to YOU. so thank you, from the 4 of us.

sesame street, bohemian style

2011-03-23T17:21:00.000-07:00

i know i always post videos from sesame street. but seriously. this is just too good. i think my favorite part is beaker singing part of the "mamma mia" thing.

p.s. i don't just sit around watching these by myself. i watch them with the child to make him happy. they just happen to make me happy too.

go here to see the version not cut off by my sidebar.

baby

2011-03-22T07:16:00.000-07:00

love this last shot-teeny little foot.

so. in case you can't tell from the title of this post, or these pictures, i'm pregnant! we found out in january but haven't wanted to tell anyone until i was past my first trimester (i'm now 17 weeks so we're a little later than we thought). we're very excited about this unexpected little one. but here's the deal: there are some pretty major problems. without going into too much crazy detail, the baby's arms and legs are 4 weeks behind what they should be, there are cysts on the brain, a spot on the heart, and too much urine in the kidneys. we've had 2 ultrasounds, met with a perinatologist and a genetic counselor, i've had an amniocentesis (a shot into my uterus to draw out some amniotic fluid in order to test the baby for down's syndrome, trisomy 13 and trisomy 18). all of this within less than a week. things have been really up and down, as i'm sure you can imagine. what it comes down to is this: the baby most likely has some form of skeletal dysplasia, which is basically dwarfism, and there is a high chance that it also has some kind of chromosomal disorder. we got the first set of tests back from the amnio and it came up negative for down's syndrome and those other things i mentioned. which to us is really positive. we also found out that we're having a girl! i was pretty excited about that-i just wanted to know that i could have one, you know? i really wanted a girl, to dress up and do girl things with. so anyway, that's the latest. we're feeling pretty good right now and it's interesting to be in this situation-you'd think you'd totally just lose it (and there have been a few moments like that) but for the most part, you have to just keep going the way you were. especially since we know very little. but we really want this little lady in our lives. so, if you get a sec, i'd love it if you sent a thought or a prayer our way. thanks.

monogram painting

2011-03-16T07:46:00.000-07:00

i made this a while ago for a friend and i hope she doesn't mind if i post pictures of it. i've been wanting to do this for a while and i'm not sure why. do you ever sort of dream an idea? i find that sometimes, right before i drift off to sleep, i get creative epiphanies. weird, eh? but i sort of love when it happens because either that night or the next morning, i run to a sketchbook and scribble the idea down, excited about the prospect of bringing it to fruition. anyway, with this one, it was specific to this friend-the colors, the stripes, the monogram. so it was really fun making it a reality.

i taped stripes on with painters tape so i could make each stripe pretty even. i printed off a few different font ideas and when i found the one i liked, i freehanded the right letters onto some cardstock (mostly, because i couldn't get the letters big enough, otherwise i probably would have just traced them) and then taped them onto the canvas so they wouldn't move around and then traced them on.

once the gray stripes were dry, i taped over them to do the yellow stripes.

painting the letters was the hardest part because of the small detail but with a little paintbrush, it wasn't so bad. and at the last minute, i decided to add the little heart-i like the little pop of color it adds. it was tricky getting the same shade of gray all through it (and you can tell that i didn't really get it) but hopefully, it's close enough to not look totally out of sync. i loved doing this-bring on the next epiphany...

zoo day

2011-03-14T08:00:00.000-07:00

with the weather being so beautiful, we headed out to the rio grande zoo on saturday with a friend that jeremy works with and his wife. wins was oddly fascinated by the flamingos.

we couldn't seem to get a good family shot-we all look a little goofy and this is the best one.

we got lucky because a lot of the animals were out and about so w got to see a lot of them in action. unfortunately, he was terrified of a fair amount of the bigger animals so we had to hurry through a lot of the cooler exhibits. maybe next time...

and...done.

2011-03-11T13:41:00.000-08:00

so, i decided on the lemony thing on navy stripes. i didn't really take any BEFORE before pictures-just starting after i had everything cut out.

taken last night, which explains the poor lighting. but i knew i would finish it then and i wanted a picture of the cover before it was finished.

all done! i think it turned out pretty well-i didn't have a pattern and was just making things up along the way so it's definitely not perfect. but i'm happy enough with it to put it out on the couch-and i know it totally doesn't match, but would anything match that couch? i'm holding out till we get a house and real couch and just hoping it works with what we end up getting then.

i don't know how to do zippers yet so i just sewed the bottom closed with teeny tiny stitches-is that what you do typically with no zipper? i really am a novice so i honestly don't know about these things. hopefully, i don't get sick of this because, without a zipper, there's no replacing the cover. but yay for my first real sewing project! and here's to many more...

an afternoon in the sun

2011-03-10T07:37:00.000-08:00

the weather was nice enough yesterday to head out to the playground that's on the grounds of our apartment.

wins spent his time collecting rocks (like mother, like son), going down the slide, and kicking his ball around.

he's finally big enough to get up the steps by himself but he didn't really want to go down the slide alone. so mama went with him. i think we ended up being outside for almost 2 hours. i can't wait for spring to really get here!

working on something

2011-03-10T07:27:00.000-08:00

i've been wanting to just make something lately, so i started sketching the other day. i got some inspiration from this blog and decided i wanted to make a pillow. i have some really great stripey fabric from ikea but am having trouble deciding which fruit/stripes/color combo i like the best.

i'm leaning towards this peach...

...but i do like the idea of the pomegranate and/or the lemony thing.

and i saw a pillow at the teej the other day that looked similar to the one on the right (that i didn't buy and now am kicking myself). what do you think?

making me happy

2011-03-08T10:32:00.000-08:00

this is an actual house that national geographic floated, using weather balloons. 300ish, i think. they're doing crazy things like this for a series called "how hard can it be?". i'm loving this photo.

p.s. how cool would it be to be the guy in the window? terrifying, but amazing.

my hair is bugging me.

2011-03-03T07:11:00.000-08:00

see that hair? that's what it looks like in the morning. pretty hot.

i had no idea growing out my hair would be such a pain. it's getting long in weird uneven places (like to the right of the nape of my neck) but i guess since it wasn't even lengths all around to begin with, i should've seen that coming. how in the world do you ladies with short hair do it? i suppose i need to get a trim to even things out but i don't love the idea of getting a cut because i feel like that defeats the point of growing it out, you know?

can you see how all over the place it is? it's not totally straight but not really wavy either.

and this side is what bugs me the most, besides the tail (see below). the back part of my left side has a TOTAL cowlick which, when it was long, i didn't even really notice but now, it poofs. up the wazoo. i wake up in the morning looking like a toadstool (see above). i kid you not. it takes straightening or water/combing or just plain giving up and wearing a hat to tame it.

and the final annoyance: the tail. i look like a kid i went to elementary school with who had one of those braided rat tails in the back. you know the ones. real classy. i'm sorry to whine so much. but this has all made me realize that no matter how sick i get of my hair in the future, i'll never cut it above my shoulders again. blech.

cake prints

2011-02-28T15:14:00.000-08:00

paul ferney's cake prints are on sale! so many lovelies to choose from. go here to see the selection.

recuperating

2011-02-24T07:22:00.000-08:00

w missed his playgroup on tuesday which made both of us very sad.

finally, after several days of a high fever, it looks like wins is slowly doing a little better. yesterday was pretty miserable-poppy chewed our binky thermometer to bits on tuesday so we didn't have a way to take w's temperature, he woke up at 5:45 a.m., wouldn't take a nap longer than a half hour (even after 3 tries throughout the day), and the half hour he did sleep was when poppy decided to take that entire half hour to go poop. so needless to say, i got very little done. but, knock on wood, today seems to be going smoother. w's forehead is still fairly warm but he's cheerful and playing and not quite as needy/whiny.

segueing to other thoughts, does anyone know of any cute craft ideas that are relatively easy? i'm itching to make something and am plum out of ideas.

cookies

2011-02-16T07:14:00.000-08:00

i know v-day is over so there's really no reason for posting these pictures. but hey, since when does there have to be a reason for anything? i do want to say though, that i'm a virgin sugar cookie maker-i've always been a little scared of them for some reason, maybe because they take forever and i don't have any of the tools for decorating them-but i was pretty pleased with the way they turned out, except that i don't really like the way they taste. i'll have to try a new recipe the next time. but now that i know i can do it, it opens up a whole world of cookie possibilities-clovers for st. patrick's day, flags on the fourth of july, pumpkins and frankensteins on halloween, trees and presents for christmas...ok, maybe i'm getting a little ahead of myself. but it's fun to think about.

from us to you

2011-02-14T07:19:00.000-08:00

happy valentine's day, from the house with the little green door (and the valentine's wreath-which, by the way, was easy to make but not as easy as i thought-it took forever to wrap that dang yarn all the way around the wreath). j and i are going out this coming weekend because we had things going on this past one, plus we didn't want to deal with all the crowds that would have been out. so we're delaying the v-day pleasure, which is just fine with me. hope you have a lovely love day.

valentines

2011-02-11T07:42:00.000-08:00

i love valentine's day. i really really love it. i love making valentines, i love getting valentine's treats, i love pink everywhere, i love fancy dinners, i love the whole feeling of the holiday. it's a day where you get to tell everyone you love, that you love them. what could be better than that? the process of making my valentines always takes a few weeks-to come up with the idea, to think it through and make sure it's going to work, to start cutting out materials or collecting them, and then to start putting everything together. this year was a little easier because i did almost all of them the same (which is a change from my usual routine-i usually make each valentine to fit each individual person-much more personal but much more labor intensive). i went with a pennant theme because i've seen pennants on lots of fun different crafts this year and wanted to try them out on something simple like paper. voila! i think they turned out fairly well-not too complicated but each is unique. i just cut triangles out of different fabrics, glued them to white paper and sewed across to make the banner line. my first project with my sewing machine actually-it's probably a good teller of what most of my future sewing projects will be-simple. i know v-day isn't for a few days but i hope you enjoy your v-day weekend-eat lots of yummy heart shaped things and do something nice with the one (or ones) you love.

silly boy

2011-02-09T07:45:00.000-08:00

w's new favorite thing is hiding under or around the kitchen table and in corners. sometimes, don't you just wonder what goes through a kid's mind?

thoughts on a classic

2011-02-04T07:30:00.000-08:00

so. i just read this for the first time (i know, shame on me for taking this long). and to be honest, i didn't love it. i loved persuasion and pride and prejudice but for some reason, not this one. maybe it's because i've seen the emma thompson movie so many times and was comparing the two in my head. but i just felt like elinor really was sort of a drag. it's one thing to be sensible, but c'mon-the girl needed to let loose a little. and marianne is sort of a drama queen, only focused on herself, making everyone else suffer during the whole willoughby fiasco. of course, neither of them is out of their teens in the book which makes both of those things make a bit more sense-i feel like most of my negative traits were heightened during my teens (not that all teens are that way). and it took me forever to get through it-so much minutiae of detail that sort of wasn't necessary. maybe i didn't give it enough of a chance but i wasn't loving jane this time around.

i wasn't kidding.

2011-02-04T07:21:00.000-08:00

yep. that's frost on the INSIDE of the window. this happened all around our apartment. i was cold already but this made me think i was justified in turning the heat up past 70.

yesterday morning around 9. almost our entire pool is frozen over. what the crap?

more frost on the inside. luckily, it's supposed to start warming up today but needless to say, i haven't been enjoying this cold front. hope it's warm where you are.

ricky gervais

2011-02-03T12:51:00.000-08:00

wins and i have been watching sesame street videos on youtube and found this one today. i laughed all the way through it.

i never thought watching w eat would make me so happy.

2011-02-03T07:18:00.000-08:00

finally, f i n a l l y, my little one is starting to eat a little bit again. for probably about 4-6 months, he's been picking at everything we've given him, turning up his nose at anything that looked suspect to him. it seems like he's finally turned a small corner and is starting to eat things he used to (like a sandwich). it's amazing how stressful it is when your kid won't eat. it's funny because jere was reading out of dr. spock the other day and apparently, letting your child know that you are stressed out about his eating habits only makes him want to eat less. the more you pretend like it's not a big deal, the more likely he'll be to eat. i don't think it's that simple. but whatever made him start to improve, i don't care. i just hope it stays that way. maybe you could knock on some wood for me.

cold. coldcoldcold.

2011-02-02T15:09:00.000-08:00

right now, it's 6 degrees outside but weather.com says it feels like -13. i don't know that i ever thought i would be saying this but i'm hating the weather in abq right now. i took pop out to go to the bathroom earlier today and i don't think i've ever seen her poop so fast. seriously, it's freezing. our little doggy doesn't do so well in the cold so we have to resort to humiliating her with this getup. hey, it's what i feel like wearing. plus, a scarf and gloves and a hat. indoors. i'm a wimp.

jazz

2011-02-01T10:35:00.000-08:00

so, i have something to admit. i'm a bit of a jazz geek. i grew up listening to all kinds of jazz music and sometimes i get nostalgic for all the old good stuff. these guys are called "the manhattan transfer" and i love them. the first video is just music (from their brazilian album) and the second is just funny (besides being a great song). i've never actually seen them and when i typed in their name on youtube, i found a wealth of awesomely hilarious videos. but really, their music is so great. it just makes me happy listening to them-it makes me think of cuddling up in the library with my dad, who insisted on dragging us in there anytime he got new music he wanted to share. he has some kind of fancy speakers and would crank the music up as loud as my mom would allow and we would all dance around the room or just sit and talk. thanks daddio.

oh, and if you are interested in jazz music at all, you must check out laurel masse's album, "alone together". i tried to find it on youtube but no luck. it's FABULOUS. her voice is insane (especially on the title track-like 4 different harmonies going on and they're all her).

"ladies, brad, the final rose tonight..."

2011-01-31T14:03:00.000-08:00

as if anyone needed reminding.

is it horrible that i sort of love this show? i'm not a total groupie-quite often, i forget about it but somehow, it seems that every time monday rolls around, i remember that it's on and then have something to look forward to all day. even husband watches it with me, although he'd never admit to it...here's to some good old fashioned (and fairly harmless) tv trash. happy bacheloring!

cookie monster

2011-01-27T09:03:00.000-08:00

apparently, w has learned that his chances for getting a cookie are few and far between so he's learned to hide while he eats them (not to mention that he shovels it down his throat as fast as humanly possible).

future computer whiz

2011-01-26T09:22:00.001-08:00

w insists on "helping" me at the computer some mornings so i finally just set up a word processor page for him so he can type to his hearts content. silly little guy.

the january yucks

2011-01-21T07:50:00.000-08:00

sorry for the lapse in blogging of late. i've been a little under the weather lately and just can't seem to motivate myself to do it. how was your labor day weekend? ours was, unfortunately, a bit hectic. we still got to hang out together which was nice. we went out to breakfast monday morning and then to the park later in the day.

yep. he's dunking a football. our basketball was flat and didn't make it to the park.

do you get the january doldrums? i just want it to be spring already. i don't want to be cold anymore or deal with getting sick-i want sunshine and green grass and days outside where i don't have to be bundled. it'll come i suppose but i sure wish it would come a little faster...

i'd do it all again

2011-01-14T15:48:00.000-08:00

this song is so beautiful. the middle part where she's sort of dancing in the street made me cry, just a little bit. i'm pretty sure the history behind this is about her husband-he died recently, i think from drugs (not sure if it was an OD or what) and you can hear how much of the emotion she felt about that in the song. i love the idea of it-how hard it is to get out of bed and do the same thing you always do after a loss of someone so important in your life-but that you CAN do it and that there are moments of beauty and brilliance despite what has happened. and the fact that she would do it all again, even though the aftermath hurt like nothing else-i just love it. plus, her voice is SO creamysmooth. perfection. if you've never heard her music, please. check her out. she's so worth it.

the commission project

2011-01-13T08:35:00.000-08:00

oh, how badly i want to do this. i love paul ferney's work and right now, you can sign up to have him do a painting based on a photo you give him. it's a little pricey ($240-ok, it's a lot pricey) but nevertheless, i've been wracking my brain, trying to come up with a reason to justify spending that much. as i'm sure you already know, i have a bit of an obsession with original art. i want it all over my walls (and as soon as we get a house, that will be a little more plausible since our apartment only allows room for a few things).

an example of one he's done.

it would be a little hard to narrow down which picture i'd want to use but i could figure it out. maybe this one...

...or this one...

...i like this one too.

in all (monetary) odds, i won't do it. but it's nice to dream, right?

the phizz-wizzing collection

2011-01-11T08:32:00.000-08:00

received these for christmas and i can't wait to churn through them. i thought i had read most of mr. dahl's books but there are 4 in this compilation that i haven't read and i can't remember the last time i read charlie and the chocolate factory. so i've got to get going. i think the bfg or the witches is my favorite so maybe i'll save those for last...

got no time to dilly dally

2011-01-11T08:28:00.000-08:00

dear shabby apple,

will you please hurry up and send back the right size in this dress so that i can wear it? i know you got the dress i mailed you because i used delivery confirmation. so there will be no pulling-one-over on me, thank you very much.

sincerely,
betsy

i cut my hair.

2011-01-07T08:27:00.000-08:00

yup. it's gone. all of it. i officially have no hair. and a fuzzy neck, which is THE weirdest feeling. i chopped it off on the first day in utah. i still don't really know what i think about it. i've never had hair this short and as a result, am clueless about how to style it, what products to use, how to straighten it...you get the idea. it hasn't been too too bad because i just get out of the shower and let the chips fall where they may. i suppose i ought to figure it out but it's most likely that i'll just continue being lazy and let it grow out without ever having figured out how to do it. whatev. i don't regret cutting it though, because i was never doing it when it was long and when i did bother to wear it down, w took pleasure in yanking the crap out of it. so again, my attitude about this is whatev.

p.s. sorry about the poor picture quality. i took them, in the car. not the best idea, i suppose.

p.p.s. this is what i wanted my hair to look like. no stacking in the back, no a-line, fairly long. it didn't really end up this way. maybe it's because i'm not sienna miller. oh well.

jiggety-jig

2011-01-06T08:17:00.000-08:00

*long post coming.
we're back from our holiday trip to utah. it was full of hustle and bustle and family and shopping and eating. we were sad to leave but we're glad to be back.

above photo: my parents house at christmas is divine. cozy, warm and smelling delicious.

finn and wins got in some good organ time.

i believe that my mother is the best cook around. she gives these out to friends at christmas.

a visit to the sweet tooth fairy.

daddy reading "twas the night before christmas" (on christmas eve, of course).

presents!

at my parents house.

l-r: beka, dave, finn, bob, gaylyn.

my brother-in-law, jon. he was excited about his gift.

being silly with grandpa's earphone thingies he wears when he does heavy-duty yard work.

christmas night. j's family does a little program and we sang "when joseph went to bethlehem". i was mary, jere was a donkey and guess who was joseph? we thought he'd lose it and scream but he smiled and charmed everyone when we got on "stage".

shopping with bek.

shoveling. duh.

watching the snow fall.

w's first real adventure in the snow. we didn't have boots or gloves for him so it didn't last too long but he seemed to really like it.

playing around at grandma's.

story time.

the boys LOVED these empty boxes. they pushed each other around, had races, and giggled their heads off.

the beagles.

that about wraps it up for our trip. i'm going to try to get back into the swing of things and blog regularly again. happy new year!

bidding you a fond farewell

2010-12-21T07:52:00.000-08:00

no, this is NOT albuquerque. definitely not. these are pictures i took several winters ago from the window of our apartment in salt lake. this is what i'm heading off to! isn't it beautiful? i must admit though, that after the first snowfall, i was always sort of done with the snow and the mush and the ice and yucky driving. so the weather here in abq is perfect for me. but i am excited to go live in a winter wonderland for a while. so i won't be posting for a few weeks. i wanted to wish everyone a very merry christmas! soak up your loved ones and enjoy the love of the season.

love,
me

making me happy

2010-12-20T08:46:00.000-08:00

our little christmas tree.

the tin mexican stars jeremy bought me for my birthday.

this beautiful and delicious cookie from flying star (a new mexico staple).

this picture of my nephew at my mom's house with one of our dogs, blossom (she has a cone on). this makes me so excited to go home and snuggle with everyone.

this picture that a friend sent me, of the snowflakes and paper doll chains that i made for her and her girls, hanging up at her house.

don't you love the holidays?

what we did over the weekend

2010-12-20T08:43:00.000-08:00

watched daddy plunger the kitchen sink. it gets backed up if you put anything bigger than a potato peel in it. the joys of apartment living. hope your weekend was a little more exciting.

possibly the coolest pairing EVER

2010-12-17T08:59:00.000-08:00

little drummer boy has never been a favorite of mine. but seriously. david bowie and bing crosby??? it's just so COOL. how did they even think of putting them together? i can't get over it.

(video stolen from my friend andrea's blog)

p.s. anyone know why it keeps loading my videos with a chunk on the side cut out?

be careful what you wish for...

2010-12-17T08:23:00.000-08:00

it really is snowing in this picture-for some reason, it wouldn't show, maybe because the flurries were so tiny.

it was really foggy and misty for a while...

cue the cymbals. it snowed! of course, it didn't really stick around. it's snowing a wee bit this morning too and it will most likely be gone by tonight, but it's still nice. makes me feel festive. it's funny to see the reaction to this amount of snow here in abq-most companies text their employees, telling them to come in an hour or so late to work so no one gets in an accident on the way there. when it snows a bit more than this, most places get work canceled for the day. we love it (obviously) but we also think it's a bit hilarious, considering the snow we were used to in utah (and the fact that work was NEVER canceled, even after FEET of snow). i'm not complaining-i'll take an extra day together as a family any time.

a little project

2010-12-17T08:20:00.000-08:00

i'm working on something at the moment, and i can't share the pictures of it yet because it's a christmas gift for someone, but i loved how these scraps looked. i thought the colors and textures were so beautiful together. random, i know.

a dark morning

2010-12-16T08:50:00.000-08:00

apparently, albuquerque is confused about what kind of precipitation is supposed to be falling at this time of year. snow, please. no more of this rain silliness. i do like how dark it made our morning though-i kept the blinds closed and we turned on the christmas lights. i know i already posted a picture similar to this but i think wins is just so cute with the tree. he points to the same four ornaments, insisting that i tell him what they are (and if they make a sound-pig, oink, cat, meow, etc.). he giggles at the noises every time-it never gets old. hope you had a nice morning too.