The return of the flea

It's been around 50 degrees the past two weekends, so we have made a return to the flea market.

I actually love the flea market this time of year. There are just a handful of vendors, very little crowds and cheap prices. Much better than the usual summer insanity.
This weekend I picked up these old baby beads. ("Those aren't clean enough for the baby," the lady told me. No really, I was going to feed her lead paint!) They are hanging in Sammi's room as "decor" not toys, no worries.

And a super cheap pile of stinky tablecloths.

Last weekend's find was super fantastic, but until I have more than 10 seconds to myself it isn't ready to make it's debut.

And on that note, the baby is screaming, Jack wants to do science projects and I just want to finish the sewing project I have strewn about the living room.

Hurry up spring. For real. :-)

How to torture yourself, take 1?

I have a really good coupon for postcards. And since I love to use postcards as thank you notes I thought it would be cute to make one of the kids together.

I knew it would be hard.

Here is the best of the lot.

Care to vote for a fav?
A (both looking at me!)
B
C
D (two smiles!)

E

From inspiration to reality

Before we moved into the new house I took a photo of this chalkboard armoire in a flea market style book:
I thought it would fun in a kids room or something.

Then at the last flea we went to in 2010, I bought this beat up old pantry cabinet. (After much discussion between Dave and I. He never moans about anything I buy, but he said not to buy this as it was too much of a wreck to fix.)

Shortly before Sammi arrived we rearranged our office and I found we needed more storage for Jack's papers and art supplies. I remembered the beat up pantry cabinet in the garage and it worked perfectly in the space for holding that stuff.

I decided to add chalkboard paint to the inserts because someone had tried to touch up the original paint there and it was NOT a good match, so it had bright white streaks. When I bought it I imagined I would wallpaper those inserts.

It's not *exactly* like my inspiration photo, but it works for me!

*I will show you my big thrift store score and the rest of that room as soon as I can track down some before shots around here.

**I do have curtains in there, I moved them to try and get more light. We had a weird ice storm thing this morning that was NOT forecasted.

Gotcha

I bought some Christmas onesies after Christmas that were cheaper than I can buy used clothes for Sammi at Goodwill. I figured they would be easy to make over and make useful for a few months.

Perhaps in my sleep deprived state I failed to realize HOW FREAKING BIG those pooh bears were. It was ridiculously challenging to make appliques that would actually cover them, and as you will see, I still had issues.
Feedsack flowers worked pretty well here.
The nesting doll (my favorite) works okay, but there are too many layers of fusible interfacing, making her stiff.
And while I LOVE the toadstool, you can still see Tigger through the stem. I've considered putting another stem on to see if it will cover it up, but who has time for that?
I am still working to capture that elusive smile...
oh! I got one!

And I got a photo of the kimono top I made on her finally. In between wiggles.

Sammi turned 6 weeks old yesterday.

At 6 weeks you are:
Kind of crazy needy right now. Hold me hold me hold me hold me hold me hold me hold me hold me. I am pretty sure we are holding you 23.5 hours a day.
Exclusively breastfed. I am super proud of that since there have been many days when I thought I could not go on another moment.
Fascinated by your brother. You will watch him do anything.
Trying to roll over already!
Tracking things with your eyes.
Long! It's hard to find sleeves long enough.
The most beautiful, wonderful baby we now.

Six weeks! Onward and upward baby girl.

I want to cut this up

I saw this pottery barn kids bumper at the thrift and considered buying it. But I don't need another (useless for safety reasons) bumper and it was pricey.

And then I realized it was 75% off.

And I am crazy about it.
But it doesn't work in Sammi's room and what I am crazy about are these:
totally awesome,

super cute appliques.

I want to cut it up and use the appliques/fabric for other projects.

But how can I cut it up? It is really, really nice.

What to do?

The view from here

I spend a crazy amount of time in this chair right now. Poor Sammi is hungry but the tummy troubles keeping her from getting full enough to be happy for more than 5 minutes. Yesterday I decided we should take a few photos of the view from here.
Chubby cheeks.
Tiny toes.
Elusive smiles.
Brotherly love.

It's not a bad place to be stuck after all.

Notable

Things to note:
Jack has chosen a heart to heart winner, who has been notified via email, thank you for entering!

A few times Jack has asked if we could have another brother or sister. Two days ago at dinner he "ordered" twins. Sure, Jack, I will pop on down to the Walgreens and pick us up another pair of babies! LOL (I am delighted that he has adjusted as well to Sammi as he has. He is having some difficulty with bedtime, but otherwise he is generally concerned and interested in her and not at all upset at the ridiculous amount of time he has to spend entertaining himself for the moment. It does bother him a *bit* more when it's Daddy spending a lot of time with her though.)

Sometime this winter Jack announced that there were now blue bears available from the teacher at kindergarten. (They use a green bear/red bear behavior system.) Since I never saw one of these mythical blue bears I just forgot about it. He mentioned on a few occasions that he REALLY wanted a blue bear, but I still never saw one.

Now he has managed to earn three of them in the last month. (Maybe it took him that long to figure out what the kids were doing to earn them? That's my guess. He is an observer.) The interesting part to me is what he chooses from the treasure box as his rewards. First he chose a wind up train. Second he chose a lightsaber pen. For the last one he chose a necklace made of shells.

I wonder what kind of other things are lurking in that box?

Sammi is back on the reflux* train. We started her on Zantac at week two when she wasn't gaining weight and it made an amazing difference in her crying/sleeping/etc. About 5 days ago she started doing what I call complaining and doing it a LOT. It has ramped up every single day since then and I have scarcely been able to set her down for a single moment in three days now. We went back to the ped this morning and after weighing her (a whopping 10 lbs 7 oz), he adjusted her meds up.

Fingers crossed that this will bring the happy, smiley baby back.


A BEAUTIFUL little present arrived yesterday in the midst of the complaining baby drama from Barbara. It made the day much brighter. Thank you Barbara.

* We played reflux roulette with Jack for many years. He happened to have a very severe case of it and needed those meds until he was almost three years old. I am not surprised to find ourselves there again, but I do hope it doesn't get as bad as it did with Jack. By 8 weeks I was in the middle of a nasty situation that lasted until he was 6 months old. Man, that was a long period of my life.

My loves

Valentine's day is really about the loves of my life - the kids and my husband*. (Who will be missing from the photos here because I don't have a decent photo of him handy).

Speaking of photos, let's try and take one of both of the kids, okay?
How's that mom? Not bad, but your sister is looking at the light.
Ummm, mom, she is starting to get VERY wiggly here.
Mom, hurry!

At least Jack looks sweet. Sammi was WAY more interested in food than photos.
Jack made pirate valentines for his classmates. (From Mer Mag, google will get you a link, I am one handed here.)
I made Dave a new papercut. (From http://papercutting.blogspot.com I think)
And Dave helped me make a button book for Jack. (I saw a photo of one on CRAFT I think.)
It's glued in between two buttons, the second one is facing the back here.

And Jack wrote me a valentine in the snow yesterday.

Awwww.

Happy valentine's day!

* Who changes diapers and makes bottles and gets up at 4 am when I cannot get up one.more.time and puts Jack to bed 14 times, mostly without complaint. :-)

Heart to heart finale, a gift for you

Okay, time for the last of the valentines!
Desi sent us these doily hearts.
Rachel made us these awesome necklaces (wearing mine today!).
Michaele sent us these cute little bitty banners (my photos do not do it justice, but the baby is crying and I am out of time here!).

And Shannon made us these post it note pads, which are stamped with cute little sayings on the inside.

BUT, I didn't want to open this one to show you that part because...
We have a box of valentines to give away to one of YOU!

All you have to do is a leave a comment on this post and I will have Jack pick a winner on Tuesday. You will get one of every valentine you have seen from the heart to heart swappers this year.

And a big thank you to our swappers for agreeing to donate their extra valentine so you have a box of fun too.

A request

I will be back with something more exciting in a day or so. The last few days have been a little rough. Sammi is having tummy troubles, I am sleep deprived and crazily hormonal and still trying to finish valentines. Oy.

I do have a question though. I could swear someone had emailed/left a comment at some point saying they had a shabby chic hydrangea shower curtain they were willing to part with. I would love to get my hands on one more for our clawfoot tub and I am willing to make a trade if anyone does have one they want to part with.

Thank you much (in advance)!

Heart to Heart, part three

More valentines on tap today!
Mikey sent us these beautiful angel wings. (Mikey happens to be our very first male swapper too. Welcome Mikey!)
Katie sent us these fun book pages pockets.
And Shara sent us this little surprise...
a tiny shadowbox!

Shara, who has been swapping with the heart to heart swap since the very first swap, also sent...

a coordinating onesie for Sammi. Look at that cute little deer.

As for me, I have spent the morning digging maternity clothes out of my drawers and my closet.

Good riddance to you. I like my regular pants, thankyouverymuch. Ha.

I think I have the last of the valentines ready to go for tomorrow. And then I REALLY need to finish making those valentines for David. Where do the days go?

Heart to heart part two

I am so tired. I want to lie on the couch and have a good, solid three hour nap. This up all night business would be okay except that I have to shuttle Jack back and forth to kindergarten every day, at 8 30 and 12 30, making my time for a nap incredibly short since Miss Samantha starts winding herself up around 1 30 every afternoon.

And I have mentioned that we are entering that part of the year when I AM SO OVER WINTER? I need a warm day. I need a flea market. I need a long walk. I need the sun. Hurry up spring.

Anyway, on to the Valentines.
Sara sent a variety of sweet knit (or maybe they are crochet? I don't know the difference sadly.) hearts.
Colleen sent these super fun elephants.

And Kim sent these vintage inspired yummy chocolate boxes. (My chocolates promptly went in my belly.)

I told you the Valentines were good this year!

Now if I could just find a minute to finish the one I am working on for Dave. Oy.

Heart to heart 2011

If you want to be surprised with your Valentine box, LOOK AWAY NOW!

A teensy bit of business first - I changed my comment settings to make it as easy as possible to leave a comment. Gone is the word verification. At least for now. I have tried that in the past and found myself deleting a lot of spam, but it's worth trying again. Second, a few of you have asked about Sammi's weight. Last week at her weigh in she was FINALLY gaining weight, and a LOT of it. She gained 11 ounces in seven days making her a whopping 9 lbs 2 ounces. So no more weigh ins! Woohoo to that.

Word on the street (aka facebook, lol) is that the heart to heart boxes are arriving fast and furiously. So I suppose it's time to start showing you the Valentines from this year!

Once we are all done with the Valentine show and tell there will be a special give away for one of my Makin' Projiks readers. :-)
Courtney made us these sweet fabric hearts.
Jane repurposed these tart tins to make photo holders.
Tiff made us these fun squirrels.

And my contribution this year were love birds, made with vintage nut cups and lace and millinery flowers and the birds that Jack and I put on one of our summer trees last year. I REALLY love how they turned out after trying out many other love bird ideas.

Back tomorrow with more Valentines!