the boys and I went to the beach today. daddy is going to be working saturdays for the next several weeks so we're trying to keep busy. 

it wasn't really warm, but it was warm enough, and the surf was big and exciting.  the baby was very annoyed with me for keeping him from crawling headlong into the sea.

it's almost February! One month down, Christmas is around the corner! 

Here are a couple of shots from this week's photog. assignment that I liked pretty well. This is the first week I've had any success taking photos indoors without the flash. And it's been really fun being able to manipulate the brightness of a photo.

This is why I haven't finished the shirt yet - it had priority 1 status. Craig's co-worker had a baby several weeks ago and I needed to get this done! 

For the blanket I made a square-yard sized log cabin block in 3 1/2 inch strips with blue and orange batiks. (well, okay - really the blue dot is batik - the others are fakers)

I backed it with a super soft furry fabric from JoAnn Fabrics that Britney told me about, and edged it with satin ribbon. (this is one of those "sew it inside out and leave a space to turn it through, then sew up the hole" blankets. it's not quilted) 

the quilt, I did in the "trip around the world" pattern with some fun fabrics (pirate maps, constellations, music), and I sewed ric-rac into the binding for a little extra fun.

the parents are both canadian so I did this for the back:

and machine quilted it with my walking foot. 

phew! done!

Oh. My. Goodness.

Is it just me? It can't be just me. 

So, not walking yet. But he's thinkin' about it. He can clap, which he loves. He can find my nose (if you count him smacking me square in the face when ever I say "where's mommy's nose?" - which, maybe you don't),  and he's becoming pretty determined not to eat baby food any more. He wants the good stuff.
He tried this sippy cup for a good half hour today. Didn't get much out of it. Largely disgusted, he eventually tossed it aside and moved on to other pursuits. 

This Birmingham Sewist is always scouting the runways and searching the patterns for the new trends and cute projects.  I hop on her blog every month or so to get inspired by what she's made lately and to drool over what she's looking at making in the near future. Here are a couple of my recent favorites: (I'd like to say that I'm going to make them, but you all know better, don't you?)

The gray suit is V1169

The red dress is V1162
Now, I have sewn a couple of Vogue dresses. Each time, I wanted to toss the whole thing in the garbage halfway through and tear all of my hair out. It's always lined, and there's hand stitching to be done. But the end product always looks so good. 

I haven't finished the shirt yet. Give me a break. 

So. It looks like the new color for Spring is going to be green. Which, yay! So fresh and crisp and sharp! 

I should be finishing many projects this week - it's supposed to pour for just days and we're all very excited for the rain. 

We're trying hard to be healthy this year. I finally got on the wagon this week (after eating my weight in chocolate). Craig has already lost several pounds and we need to stop eating the candy and junk. This is going hand in hand with lowering our grocery budget *fingers crossed*. I find that I think about food mostly because I'm bored and not because I'm hungry.  So we'll see how I do.  It helps that my oldest son just announced that he wants to jog every day after school please. 

....oooohhkaayy.  One dose 0f motivation for me. 

This photography class is kicking my butt, by the way. But it feels good to make my brain stretch and work hard.  Maybe I'll manage some decent photos this week and put them up. 

I promise nothing. 

I got this shirt-dress at Ann Taylor Loft a couple of months ago. It was on sale, but it was not long enough for me to wear as a dress and too long for a shirt. Lucky me, the self-belt was missing so I got another discount and brought it home to fix up.

First, I cut off about 6 inches from the bottom. I would have cut more, but there are pockets, which I desperately wanted to keep intact. 

Then I cut that 6 inches of fabric into strips in order to make another self-belt for the top. 
and when I finish it tomorrow, I will post photos! :)

I started a 6 week online photography course yesterday (from this lady) and I had to go and get this book just so I could complete the first lesson: 

I'm excited to get going but after a good hour of reading I had to take a break. 

step one: apron
step 2: recipe

step 3: Yum. 
yes the cream cheese frosting is all messy on my pumpkin bars. Did you really think I would actually bother to let it cool first? No. 

Why Gambling is Bad:

oh, sorry. That picture has nothing to do with gambling at all. I just like it. It's been in my files for ever and sadly I cannot give credit where credit is due because I have no idea where I got it. But it's somebody's.  And it's awesome.

Back to Gambling.

While we were in Lake Arrowhead we had a lot of time on our hands and there was a foosball table upstairs. So on Saturday Craig asked if I wanted to play a few games with him and I agreed.  The first game was pretty close and we were getting a bit competitive. 

CRAIG: so, do you want to make this game more interesting?

ME: what did you have in mind?

CRAIG: if I win, you have to iron my shirts every time you do laundry for all of January.

ME: and if I win, I get a girls' night out every weekend?

CRAIG: done!

so, I ironed 9 shirts last night.... 

but did we stop there? No! We did not! After I lost that game, I went on to lose several more games, and bits of my freedom for the first half of 2010.  Some highlights:

I am not allowed to wake him when he is snoring for all of January. (I may have to move to the couch)

I have to get all magazines out of the house by the end of February, (dang it!), and he gets every saturday in Feb (but one, for Fletch's b-day) to do what he wants with.

I have to make lunch for him every day in March.

I have to make an investment plan for us in April (heaven help me, I am not looking forward to that one).

However, all is not lost! February sees my night-owl of a husband waking up with me at 6 every day to do Yoga. (hehe!!)  In March I get a girls' night every weekend; AND he has to complete 3 "honey-do" tasks every. single. day. 

oh yeah.

And in April? I won myself and my mom a quilting retreat. 

May - now this is the good one - In May..... he has to drive the boys to school every morning!

Is it worth it? Well, probably not. Most of those things he would happily let me do, or do for me, just because he is awesome and loving. (I said MOST, mind you).  

Was it fun? Playing for high stakes and moaning in agony when I lost? Heck yeah. 

New Year's weekend saw us taking our first family vacation that was not 1) to see someone in particular or 2) to do something in particular. We went up to Lake Arrowhead to Rest and Relax with the Thomsons and it was SO NICE!! So. Nice. 

Craig talked a lot about moving out of the city and up into the mountains while we were there...

The boys went sledding for the first time, even though there wasn't much snow left on the ground. There was a pretty good patch left over from an old sled run right down the hill from our "chalet". 

We watched tons of movies, and ate tons of junk food (we were all stocking up on junk since we are all determined to get healthier this year).

Van had fun discovering how to climb stairs, and exploring the cabin. The snow? He didn't like so much. 

Merry Christmas!

the boys got homemade capes (and lots of video games)

And Van got these blocks. Van?  Vander...?

of course, he'd rather chew on the flaslight.

We spent Christmas Eve at Olvera Street downtown, and ate at one of the oldest restaurants in Los Angeles.  The boys came home with little guitars, and got to see a great show at the restaurant. There were dancers, a marionette show, and a pinata.

It was very festive and colorful!

We did a Christmas scavenger hunt that Doug whipped up for the kids to do.  Alas, we arrived at the candy cart as they were locking up, so they could not try the cactus candy. Many little hearts were broken (until pinata time, that is).