It's A Wonderful Life

Thursday, February 24, 2011

A little inspiration

In the past I have had a bit of a problem obsessing over the kids clothes, especially when a new season is approaching. While I've learned to curb the need to buy whatever I wanted for them, I still want to dress them the way I want to. So for this up coming Spring and Summer I have decided to make the majority of Donnelly's clothes. The boys are easy and inexpensive to shop for and lets face it - they will ruin whatever they wear. They're boys. Its a fact.

But sweet little D is a different story. I can't remember the last time I was able to get her into a pair of jeans. She'll put them on for Papa but never for me. She must always wear a dress or something that resembles a dress and leggings. To be honest I love this independence in her. I love her in dresses. She is my sweet Angelina Ballerina, literally dancing wherever she goes, with her pinkie in the air and a song on her lips.

Gearing up for this task, I've found a bit of inspiration...

These three are all from Kayce Hughes / Pears + Bears. How cute is the neckline on that red dress!

I just love the wrap dress!

And I already have the perfect fabric for a dress like this. So cute!

This little set was on my watch list on ebay. I loved it, saved a picture of it to my computer, watched it and forgot to bid... that's pretty typical. But I think it would be pretty easy to replicate. I have the perfect fabric just waiting for it!

And because Donnelly and I are both American girl doll lovers and I just go gaga for a good vintage design, I think we'll have to make something like Kit's dress. Too stinkin' cute!

To help get me started on my ~~overwhelming~~ little task, I ordered this book!

Carefree Clothes for Girls: 20 Patterns for Outdoor Frocks, Playdate Dresses, and More

To help get me started on my overwhelming little tast, I ordered this book. I'm really excited to get started!

With a few vintage patterns, my handy pattern book and some really beautiful inspiration, Miss D should have a rather fabulous wardrobe some spring.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

My Funny Valentine

A few days before Valentine's Day, I saw a commercial that stuck with me. I can't recall what was being pitched or sold but the point of the add struck me as a little off in this age of "me" and "you". Here's the gist:

Valentine's Day is not to celebrate me.

It is not a day to celebrate you.

Valentine's Day is a day to celebrate "us"

No matter what "us" may be.

Now Erik and I have celebrate fourteen Valentine's Days together. And sad as it may be, many of those were celebrated after we dropped our children off with one Grandma or the other. This year, with this idea on my mind, Erik and I decided to celebrate "us". For us, "us" is our entire family. I am not Emily without my husband AND my children. Erik is not Erik without his family. We are in some way defined by our loves. So this year we celebrated our family and the love of that defines it.

A very Valentine's Day breakfast for my very funny Valentine's.

Monday, February 7, 2011

Music feeds my soul!

Music is so often a tool that God uses to reach me. Be it my obsession with KLOVE or my youngest singing about "Bebe Jeesis" in the backseat of the car, the simple act of a raised voice to my savior is so powerful in reaching my heart. I can't tell you how often I will be singing along with a song, a song I may have sung to a hundred times before and suddenly the words become my prayer. Suddenly I am overcome with the pure love of my Jesus and my heart aches for more of Him.

Tonight, while listening to the same mix of music I always listen to, I was overcome by lyrics I've heard countless times before. But this time they became a prayer that poured from me and in turn I was filled with passion for what HE has a passion for.

Heal my heart and make it clean

Open up my eyes to the things unseen

Show me how to love like you have loved me

Break my heart from what breaks yours

Everything I am for your kingdoms cause

As I go from nothing to

Eternity

Hosanna Hosanna Hosanna in the highest

He is SO faithful, we are SO blessed!

Sunday, January 16, 2011

"11 Step Program For Prospective Parents" by Ginger

This evening (ok night, it's 11:45!) My dad and I caught Extreme Couponing on TLC. Dude. That's really all I can say. DUDE. We watched a woman pay $2.65 for over $660 worth of groceries! DUDE! Anyhoo I got all excited and started perusing the web, trying to find myself $600 worth of deals (which I didn't find). But I did find this gem. Prepare to wet your pants! Seriously! I have small children, my sisters have small children, I volunteer at a school filled with small children. If you have (or would someday like to have) small children read this. But beware! You may wet your pants...

11 Step Program For Prospective Parents
By Ginger over at Attention Deal Shoppers

You have to have a license to drive a car but nothing before you have a child. I wanted to share this with all of you moms, grannies, aunts and prospective moms. This is some funny stuff so please, don’t eat or drink while reading. Fair warning!

Lesson 1

1. Go to the grocery store.

2. Arrange to have your salary paid directly to their head office.

3. Go home.

4. Pick up the paper.

5. Read it for the last time.

Lesson 2

Before you finally go ahead and have children, find a couple who already are parents and berate them about their…

1. Methods of discipline.

2. Lack of patience.

3. Appallingly low tolerance levels.

4. Allowing their children to run wild.

5. Suggest ways in which they might improve their child’s breastfeeding, sleep habits, toilet training, table manners, and overall behavior.

Enjoy it because it will be the last time in your life you will have all the answers.

Lesson 3

A really good way to discover how the nights might feel…

1. Get home from work and immediately begin walking around the living room from 5PM to 10PM carrying a wet bag weighing approximately 8-12 pounds, with a radio turned to static (or some other obnoxious sound) playing loudly. (Eat cold food with one hand for dinner)

2. At 10PM, put the bag gently down, set the alarm for midnight, and go to sleep.

3. Get up at 12 and walk around the living room again, with the bag, until 1AM.

4. Set the alarm for 3AM.

5. As you can’t get back to sleep, get up at 2AM and make a drink and watch an infomercial.

6. Go to bed at 2:45AM.

7. Get up at 3AM when the alarm goes off.

8. Sing songs quietly in the dark until 4AM.

9. Get up. Make breakfast. Get ready for work and go to work (work hard and be productive)

Repeat steps 1-9 each night. Keep this up for 3-5 years. Look cheerful and together.

Lesson 4

Can you stand the mess children make? T o find out…

1. Smear peanut butter onto the sofa and jam onto the curtains.

2. Hide a piece of raw chicken behind the stereo and leave it there all summer.

3. Stick your fingers in the flower bed.

4. Then rub them on the clean walls.

5. Take your favorite book, photo album, etc. Wreck it.

6. Spill milk on your new pillows. Cover the stains with crayons. How does that look?

Lesson 5

Dressing small children is not as easy as it seems.

1. Buy an octopus and a small bag made out of loose mesh.

2. Attempt to put the octopus into the bag so that none of the arms hang out.

Time allowed for this – all morning.

Lesson 6

Forget the BMW and buy a mini-van. And don’t think that you can leave it out in the driveway spotless and shining. Family cars don’t look like that.

1. Buy a chocolate ice cream cone and put it in the glove compartment.

Leave it there.

2. Get a dime. Stick it in the CD player.

3. Take a family size package of chocolate cookies. Mash them into the back seat. Sprinkle cheerios all over the floor, then smash them with your foot.

4. Run a garden rake along both sides of the car.

Lesson 7

Go to the local grocery store. Take with you the closest thing you can find to a pre-school child. (A full-grown goat is an excellent choice). If you intend to have more than one child, then definitely take more than one goat. Buy your week’s groceries without letting the goats out of your sight. Pay for everything the goat eats or destroys. Until you can easily accomplish this, do not even contemplate having children.

Lesson 8

1. Hollow out a melon.

2. Make a small hole in the side.

3. Suspend it from the ceiling and swing it from side to side.

4. Now get a bowl of soggy Cheerios and attempt to spoon them into the swaying melon by pretending to be an airplane.

5. Continue until half the Cheerios are gone.

6. Tip half into your lap. The other half, just throw up in the air.

You are now ready to feed a nine- month-old baby.

Lesson 9

Learn the names of every character from Sesame Street , Barney, Disney, the Teletubbies, and Pokemon. Watch nothing else on TV but PBS, the Disney channel or Noggin for at least five years. (I know, you’re thinking What’s ‘Noggin’?) Exactly the point.

Lesson 10

Make a recording of Fran Drescher saying ‘mommy’ repeatedly. (Important: no more than a four second delay between each ‘mommy’; occasional crescendo to the level of a supersonic jet is required). Play this tape in your car everywhere you go for the next four years. You are now ready to take a long trip with a toddler.

Lesson 11

Start talking to an adult of your choice. Have someone else continually tug on your skirt hem, shirt- sleeve, or elbow while playing the ‘mommy’ tape made from Lesson 10 above. You are now ready to have a conversation with an adult while there is a child in the room.
This is all very tongue in cheek; anyone who is parent will say ‘it’s all worth it!’ Share it with your friends, both those who do and don’t have kids. I guarantee they’ll get a chuckle out of it. Remember, a sense of humor is one of the most important things you’ll need when you become a parent!
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