Trouble

(Source)

Exhibit A:

Here's a tip: when your son is alone in his room and he's quiet for a little too long, you should probably go investigate. Chances are, he probably found the baby powder and decided to shake it all over his room. And his head. and the floor.

Check out the baby powder line on his head, I don't even know HOW he managed to do that. And if you look closely, you can see that it's even on his pacifier!

Oh this boy, he's the funniest little, dirt-covered noisy mess I know.

My big kid

I had some fun snapping a few shots of this little guy lately. Or should I say big guy? He's 17 months now...wow it's strange to even type that! He's in that bittersweet stage between baby and kid where the glimpses of his babyhood are becoming less and less and I see him becoming more of a "big kid."

His vocabulary is off the charts. The doctor said at this point, he should have a vocabulary around 4-6 words, but I can name off at least 20 words that he spouts off on a regular basis. He also prefers to run most places instead of toddling around like he used to.

But then I catch him playing with his toes like he used to when he was a baby and it makes me smile and think about those little glimpses of babyhood that I get each day. Like how he still mostly babbles, or how he thinks it's funny when I sing "itsy bitsy spider" to him and tickle his chunky legs.

And the cuddles....I hope he's always this cuddly! I'm lucky that both of my kids still enjoy cuddling with me. Sitting down on the couch and cuddling with them after dinner is one of my favorite things.

So Connor, take your time becoming a big kid. I don't mind waiting a little longer.

John the Baptist and moving out

I've been a little absent from blogging lately. We've had a lot going on at our house! The past few weeks have been dedicated to cleaning, organizing, fixing and packing, and I'm sure you're not interested in reading posts about how to dust effectively ;) If you didn't know, we live in Tennessee which is a good 12 hours away from any family. After being married for 4 years and then adding 2 kids to the mix, we've learned that we need our family. So, we're moving out! Or hoping to soon anyway. After lots of prayer and planning, we put our house up on the market yesterday with the hopes of moving to Pittsburgh to live near my husband's family. It's exciting and a bit sad to think that we will be leaving behind our very first house, the one that both of our kids have known and grown up in. But on the other hand, it's thrilling to think about how great it will be to live near family again and have that support we've been missing for the past 4 years.

So, if you or anyone you know is looking for a house in Memphis, I would be happy to show you the perfect house :) The market hasn't been very good over the past few years, but we're believing it will sell and sell quickly!

In other news, I forgot to share a funny story that happened recently. My daughter has this little childrens' picture Bible that she loves to carry around with her. It's been her favorite book for awhile, and I'll catch her sitting there looking at the pictures and telling herself stories. One day recently as I was sitting next to her, she points to a picture of John the Baptist (below right) and goes, "Look Mommy, that's Daddy!" I of course burst out laughing and started teasing Patrick about how it must be time for him to shave his beard. Then she points to the guy on the left, "That's you, Mommy!"

Apparently it's time for me to change my makeup regimen or something. Or maybe get a new haircut?

So how's that for a random post for you? Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Make it rain....marshmallows

Hi, my name is Connor McCaffrey and I'm addicted to marshmallows.

I blame my husband. Not for the mess, but for what caused the mess: the marshmallow addiction. I can't remember the first day that Patrick gave Connor a mini marshmallow, but from that day forward the boy has had a blood lust for them. He can be in a horrible mood and all he has to see is that bag of Jet-Puffed marshmallows, his drug of choice, and his little face lights up. It's cute really, but not when your floor is covered in marshmallows.

We have a pantry door that had the baby lock broken on it from 3 years of Haley's little fingers attempting to pry it open. Eventually the little plastic lock gave up on life, and we've never bothered to replace it. Enter Connor and his addiction.

Patrick and I recently had a particularly eventful evening with whiny children last week, and we had just sat down to our dinner while the kids played. We heard rustling by the pantry door and knew immediately that Connor had found the bag of marshmallows. Knowing that the bag had a clip on it, we decided to give ourselves another minute to chew until one of us would have to pry the bag out of his little fingers. One minute was all he needed.

As Patrick walked over to Connor, what he saw was a very pleased little boy in the midst of a mini marshmallow feast. Rather than waiting for us to give him a couple marshmallows, Connor had taken matters into his own hands and shaken the contents around the kitchen. If he could talk in full sentences, I imagine him yelling, "Make it rain!" while scattering the contents of the bag around the kitchen.

And unfortunately for Connor, the 5 second rule did not apply to these marshmallows. He had to go several days without his fix until we could buy a new bag. And that new bag now resides in the pantry on lock down.

Warm winter strolls

The weather has been unusually warm in Tennessee lately. That means more walks outside, which is something I absolutely love. My husband is not so happy with the lack of snow. He came from Pittsburgh, the land of freezing cold. Every time we visit PA in the winter, I have to remember to bring heavy layers and big jackets. Here in Tennessee though, it's pretty perfect for casual strolls outdoors with my kiddos.

It's a good thing it's been so warm too, I've been needing to peel myself off the couch where I've been glued to The Hunger Games series. Seriously amazing books. If you haven't read them yet, go out and buy them. And also find a comfy couch and plan on being there for quite awhile because you won't be able to tear yourself away. It took me about a week and a half to finish all three books and now that I'm done, I'm a little sad. I always feel like something is missing when I finish a good book.

I did finally get around to doing a couple of projects though, including putting together a couple of giveaway posts that I'm really excited about :) Make sure you check back soon, I can't wait to show you what I've been up to!

How about you, have you been having more of a summer than a winter lately?

Banned

If you follow my Facebook page, you know that I banned all computer games and crafting last Saturday so that we could have some quality family time together. My husband said he felt like he was grounded, but for me, it was really nice to unplug and spend time together for the whole day.

And also, I liked not having to battle for attention with Pat's Star Wars The Old Republic game.  

(I took a bunch of pictures with my iPhone throughout the day, so they're a little grainy :)

We rented Kung Fu Panda 2 and watched it with the kids. Connor was obviously thrilled. He fell asleep almost immediately.

This little girl loved having us to herself though. We went through 2 bags of popcorn before she lost interest and Pat and I were left to finish the movie by ourselves.

For dinner, we broke out our fondue pot and made beer cheese fondue using this recipe. We both love the Melting Pot, but we don't love the price so making the fondue ourselves was a LOT cheaper - and a lot more fun! Our fondue pot was a wedding gift, and it hasn't seen a lot of action in the past 3 1/2 years, so it was good to get some use out of it for once.

I justify eating all that cheese with the fact that we're dipping veggies and fruit into it. And bread - you can't forget that.

In case you're wondering, the recipe was really good! It tasted almost exactly like the Melting Pot's version (and according to the source, it was actually shared on television by representatives of the Melting Pot so it's supposedly the real deal.) It was so good, in fact, that we made it again this past week.

While the Melting Pot generally uses a cheap beer in their cheese fondue, we found using the right kind of beer makes a world of difference. Newcastle is my personal favorite. And as an added bonus, you get to drink the rest of what you don't use :)

So that was our computer and craft-free weekend. Nothing huge and exciting, but enjoyable nonetheless. If I didn't think Pat would hide my fabric stash somewhere, I might consider doing another ban this weekend :)

You guys are pretty stinkin' wonderful

I just wanted to take a minute and talk about how awesome you guys are. No, really!

I really started to get more into blogging this past February and man has it been an exciting journey. Some days, I'm tired or I question if people even want to read my ramblings at all, and then I get an awesome email in my inbox telling me that you were inspired by one of my projects or one of my goofy stories, and it encourages me to continue. While I've never met most of you in person (except of course my husband who started following my blog at the beginning because that's pretty much a requirement of being married to me I think), I've been amazed at how encouraging and uplifting the craft community is.

I don't have the best pictures or the best projects, I don't post every day, I'm terrible at staying up with all of the trends out there in blogland, I have an inbox full of 39 emails that I haven't responded to yet (yes, I counted, and I'm sorry if you're one of the 39!), and I have no sponsors offering awesome giveaways. Yet you guys still read my blog and send me sweet emails and comments.


So thank you for reading and supporting me, you guys rock! If I was a big, famous blogger, I would give you each a Silhouette or something equally as awesome. Unfortunately, all I can offer is a big ol' cyber hug. And for those of you who don't like to be touched, high five!


While I may never meet any of you in person, I really appreciate you. You make me want to continue blogging and sharing my life with you. Thanks for caring :)

And on a completely unrelated, somewhat random side note, I'm psyched to tell you that I'm going to be guest posting over at Tatertots and Jello tomorrow!! 

I keep pinching myself to see if I'm dreaming. Here's a little sneak peek at what I'm sharing:

Ooh, how very vague and unhelpful of me!

I got into the fall spirit with this project - fall is my favorite! (I channeled a little Elf there haha)

Anyway, I hope you'll come visit and check out my project and leave lots of sweet comments so I don't look like a complete loser or anything ;)

A Halloween confession

Halloween is 2 days away! I'm all about a holiday that gives me permission to eat a pound of candy without regret. This Halloween is especially exciting for me because I'm taking the kids trick-or-treating for the first time.

Since I was stuck in the hospital on bed rest last year while I was pregnant with Connor, I never got to take Haley trick-or-treating, instead I laid in bed and watched Man vs. Food and ate a whole bag of candy myself (I had a favorite nurse who kept me supplied - it's good to have connections.) This year though, it's on.

For Halloween this year, I made an iPhone costume for Connor, which turned out to be a ton of fun to make. Then, I had to figure out what to do with Haley. She's been obsessed with Rapunzel, so I considered making her a Rapunzel dress but the more I thought about it, the less excited I got. There are so many talented bloggers I've seen who made adorable Rapunzel dresses (here, here and here are just a few great ones) but it just looked like so much work.

After working all day, I come home and want to just lay on the couch, but there's dinner to make and kids to bathe and so really, I wasn't looking forward to sewing on tiny rick rack and puff sleeves. And I felt a little...guilty.

As a craft blogger, I feel pressure to make everything rather than buying stuff from a store. I feel the need to sew every costume, to blog about all my meals, and to make each and every birthday completely handmade complete with little tags and color coded food.

But you know what, who says I have to?

It's OK to buy stuff from stores, that's why there there! It's OK that I didn't make 1, nope not 1 Halloween decoration! It's OK that I didn't throw a Halloween party with themed food. And I'm completely OK with buying my daughter's costume from the Disney store (well actually my in-laws bought it for her, which I'm VERY OK with ;)

So here's Haley in her 100%-not-handmade-Rapunzel-costume. And it's even taken with my iPhone.

I told her, "If you smile I'll give you chocolate!" What a little ham :)

Tag team

Sometimes, I think my kids get together and coordinate efforts to keep my husband and I up all night. The minute you get one calmed down, the other one starts up. Their timing is just too perfect for it to be coincidence.

Last weekend when I participated in my first craft fair, my husband watched the kids all of Friday night and Saturday until 5:30. When I got home, both of us were utterly exhausted and looking forward to bedtime. The kids went down without a fight and instead of going to bed early I was glued to the TV watching Prison Diaries on TLC, which is one of those shows that I probably wouldn't have watched normally, but for some reason was extremely entertaining at 9:30pm.

10:00 rolled around and I went through my normal bedtime routine and finally fell into bed around 10:20. Right as I was drifting into a warm, peaceful sleep, my daughter woke up crying. To help us both get a good night's sleep, it's usually my husband's responsibility to handle my daughter if she wakes up and I handle my son. That night I took pity on my husband since I had to leave him with the kids for half the weekend, so I got up to console my daughter who, in a half-asleep daze, claimed she had to go to the bathroom.

I suppressed the urge to remind her that it was 10:30 at night and she was wearing a diaper.

After dragging her little half awake body to the toilet and back, I settled back into bed. As I started to drift off again, my sweet husband rolled over and informed me that he had an annoying song running through his head. As he rolled over and went back to sleep immediately, Annoying Song proceeded to play over and over again in my head for the next 20 minutes. Annoying Song eventually tapered off and I finally managed to lull myself back to sleep. And it was at that moment that my son tagged in.

After lots of rocking and singing, I managed to get my son down again and get about 7 hours of sleep myself. This may sound like a lot but for me, this is just enough to function but not enough to be quick on my feet. This meant that everyday tasks the following day took about twice as long as they usually do because of lack of brain function. Brushing my teeth became a 10 minute event and grocery shopping lasted 2 1/2 hours. In my defense, there were a lot of new holiday snacks in the snack aisle that needed close inspection.

Is it bad that I'm kind of looking forward to when they're both teenagers and sleep til noon?

Guess who's mobile?

Yup, this little guy here is finally crawling.

It took him about 9 1/2 months, but Connor is officially crawling EVERYwhere. He's been rocking back and forth for awhile now, but he finally got enough coordination to go for it. And I couldn't be happier. Most of the time, he sits and plays well but then gets bored and cries for us to carry him somewhere new. Now, he just goes places himself.

He's still a little tipsy, but that makes him even more adorable. Watching him crawl in these early stages is hilarious. He looks like a little bulldog when he's crawling at you with a concentrated look and short, quick steps.

Life is just more interesting when you can go places yourself.

And now that means Connor finds wires to chew on. And random pieces of stuff on the floor end up in his mouth. And books get torn up. I'm going to have to hide everything. Again.

But I can't be mad at this face, can I?

I've been busy

 *This giveaway is now closed*

Sorry I haven't posted a project yet this week, my craft room has been looking more and more like an assembly line lately. I've been cutting so much, I have a blister on one of my fingers from where the scissors rubbed it raw.

I've been doing LOTS of tracing, cutting, ironing, and sewing.

Just when I think I'm done, there's still more to do.

Can you guess what I'm up to?


There might be something in it for the first person who guesses right... :)

A feature and a reminder

Just popping in to say how excited I was to get an email from Summer over at Sumo's Sweet Stuff that she would be featuring my Tunic Dress in her Showcase Saturday today! I just love her blog, it really made my day to hear that she was featuring me.

And of course it made all the effort I put into trying to get Haley to pose for pictures worth it. That kid cannot be bought with anything. Chocolate, toys, nothing will make her stand still and smile for pictures. Out of the 25+ pictures I took, most of them were like this:

I guess 2-year-olds can't appreciate the time it takes for us mama's to sew a dress for them ;)

On another note, just a reminder that my Sail Away Dress Sew-Along begins Monday morning! Hope you'll join me.

Have a great weekend!

Reasons why my husband should never go on long business trips.

My husband has been on a business trip for the past 5 days. This means that I got a taste of single parenthood for 5 days. And I am not a fan.

For the past 5 days, I had to manage working full time, caring for the needs of 2 small children, and somehow still taking care of myself. Let's just say it's a good thing I froze some meals beforehand because otherwise I would be eating bowls of Cocoa Puffs for dinner every night. Hats off to you single moms and military wives out there, I already thought you were awesome for doing it on your own, but now you're all officially superhumans in my book.

So, how did these past 5 days go?

• On the second night my husband was gone, my daughter ate 1-3 rhinestones. I'm not sure exactly how many she ate. All I know is that there were at least 3 sticky spots left on one of her toys where rhinestones should be.
• My dinner Wednesday night was 1/2 of a roasted acorn squash. Because there's NO way I'm going to attempt to make an actual meal while I have a 2-year-old clinging to my leg repeating, "hold me? hold me? hold me?"
• I finally shaved my legs on Wednesday because they were really beginning to itch.
• My daughter ate a green crayon. Yeah, we're at THAT stage where my kid eats stuff. Note to her future teachers: hide the glue.
• Oh, she also managed to color on the TV screen some before eating said green crayon. (Don't worry honey, I used the screen cleaning spray and told Haley that her college fund could easily be converted into our Medeterranian Cruise Fund if she touched any of the technology again.)
• Tuesday night both Connor and Haley thought it would be fun to alternate who was awake every hour from 1:30am-5:30am. I think I had 6 cups of coffee the next morning.
• One night, I took both kids to the local fabric store to pick up materials for a project. Haley managed to stay pretty well-behaved. Connor on the other hand cried every time a stranger even looked at him. At least we know he won't be accepting candy from strange people anytime soon. On the other hand, this might also be a sign that he'll be living at home until he's 35.

Patrick came home last night, and I have never been so glad to see him. I'm sure my kids probably feel the same.

Getting to know you

Oh man, just when you thought you heard enough from me, Krista @ Thar She Sews! went and passed on the One Lovely Blog award to me. I'm on the road right now driving the 14 hours back to Tennessee, so I thought I'd take the time to tell you 7 random things about myself. I know, try to contain yourselves ;)

Well, forget about impressing you, I'll just tell you 7 things you probably never cared to know about me :)


1. I have a flat spot on my head. No, really. When I was born, I had craniosynostosis which is a big word that basically means a couple of the bones in my head were fused prematurely. I had to have surgery to separate the bones when I was 3 months old, so needless to say there aren't many pictures of me at that age because I"m sure I looked like a baby Frankenstein.

The surgery left me with the flat spot, which makes a great conversation piece when I go to get my hair cut.


2. In middle school, I was in a band. That is, if you call 3 teenage girlrs who don't play instruments and dress like the Spice Girls a band. Somewhere out there, there is a homemade CD with the song "Be Yourself" on it. Hopefully that "somewhere" is under a couch cushion.


3. I play guitar. I have a really awesome Taylor 314ce guitar that I used to play a TON. Unfortunately, I rarely have time to play anymore (and I also have really skinny fingers, which doesn't help when you're attempting to play a song) so I haven't picked it up in quite awhile. I've also written a few songs. None of them will ever reach the potential of "Be Yourself" though ;)


4. I am extremely clumsy. That might not be a secret actually, but it's an unfortunate fact. When I was a server in college, I once dropped a huge tray of drinks on a woman who was in the middle of a professional lunch meeting with a group of fashion experts. She had to empty pop out of her Stiletto. I repeated the same mistake the next day with a different group of people.


5. Yes, it's "pop" not "soda."


6. I still have my old diary from childhood where I wrote my deepest, darkest secrets. Like how mad I was at my brother when my grandparents sent 2 shirts for my brother and I and my brother picked the shirt I wanted.

I may have called him a weiner head in that entry. Oh, and my diary has Troll Dolls on it. Those were the days.


7. I was born without wisdom teeth. I don't know that happens, but I'm not going to ask questions if it means I get to avoid mouth surgery.

So those are my fun facts! Now you know something new about me, even if they are useless facts :)

If you haven't already, make sure you enter my giveaway! There are 3 possible ways to enter and the deadline is tomorrow at midnight, so go enter while you can! The winner will be chosen via random.org and announced on Monday.