Flower Power

After every baby, I develop a new obsession.


This time it involves making flowers out of fabric.


I made these:

It all started when my dear friend JaNeal came over for a play date and taught me how to make a super cute headband made out of fabric. We love that my Chan, and her Sonny love to play together, which gives us the perfect excuse to "play" too. :)  


Here it is.

Then, after much complementation over it, I taught my sister in law Anne how to make them, and we had so much fun one afternoon a couple weeks ago.


And can I just say that I love this picture with all my heart.

I made a fourth of July one for Hallie too, but hers accidentally ended up with only one flower.

See, I never considered myself crafty with anything having to do with fabric, especially when it comes to making flowers of all things.  But as I kept making them, they just kept getting prettier and prettier, and I got giddier and giddier with each completed one!


Sooooooo, here are some close-ups of some of my creations:
(And the blurred creations in the background are partly mine too!)


Here's a flat pancake one that is super easy to make:

I Love the added dirt in this one. He really wanted to hold up a flower too. (keeping it real :/ )

So then I used the multitasking DNA of which I am made up, to go online where I began to drool over some of the most darling flowers I've ever seen.....all while nursing my sweet baby ;)


And then during some very rare and precious "alone" time while parts of my family were either gone or napping, I found myself at my kitchen table with a big piece of red "not-quite" satin (?) left over from my wedding, and I put one of my drooled-over online tutorials to practice.


And voila!

I plucked a black button out of the sea of buttons I have sitting in a pretty little container on my dresser where I toss all the included extras that have come with every "button-clad" shirt I own.


And I'm happy to say that this flower cost me absolutely nothing to make.  Not even quality time with my family! (this time:/)


Then I glued it onto a stretchy little headband and put it on the cutest baby I could find.

And I think it's safe to say that she makes it.

Isn't she getting big?


I'm just having fun, and thought I'd share it.  I have this tutorial securely pinned in my pintrest if you want to try it out.


All of these flowers are super easy to make, it just takes a little practice, but I'm confident that if I can make them, anybody really can.  And it's not like there's any one way to have them turn out.  Just like snowflakes, no two flowers are exactly the same, and imperfections only add interest and character.  

And I'm not by any means comparing my handiwork to that of deity, but the fact that there is some visual resemblance, makes me want to jump to my feet and dance like nobody's watching! ;)

"What did we have for dinner last Thursday?"

This question changed my life.


It was about a month or so before Rachel was born, and I had just crouched down in front of our armoire entertainment center so I could cram my kids' books into the two doors at the bottom.  I was tired, uncomfortable, swollen, and it had just dawned on me that it was dinner time, and I had no idea what to feed my family.


Elon was sitting over in the armchair and I asked him what we should have for dinner.  The conversation from that point on gets a little hazy, but somewhere in our brainstorm for dinner ideas, he asked me what we had for dinner last Thursday.


As I delved into the recesses of my brain to dig up last Thursday, I found nothing.   I couldn't remember a single thing we did, let alone what we had for dinner.  But the only thing I knew for sure that had happened on that day was that I had been miserable. I only knew this because every single day for the past two week stretch or so, I had been living in a bank of gloomy days, all laced together like a strand of dirty pearls.  I had stressed tirelessly over the mundane tasks of each day, just trying to get through them one slow heavy foot after the other. Dinner had been a repetitive trial of each day at around the same time when I was reminded by the clock that it was time to make it and I hadn't planned a darn thing.


In that very moment, crouched in my kids' books, I realized something that was going to liberate my poor unfortunate soul forever.  If Thursday truly was gone, then so were all the gloomy days prior to it, and this day too would soon vanish into thin air in a few days. Half of me was horrified as I pictured my kids' sweet faces, not believing that these days with them as young little people could possibly take a flying leap from my memory so fast.  The other half of me had found a one way ticket to the kind of peace and serenity that would make true joy possible each and every normal day.


It doesn't matter.


The messes.


The never ending piles of laundry.


The unprepared-for dinners.


Dinner would have gotten done that Thursday whether I was happy about it or not.  The only thing I could have changed was my attitude.


So why not be happy then?


I REPEAT....WHY NOT BE HAPPY THEN?!


Wow.


I'm so glad the planets aligned at just the right mili-second for my brain to make that kind of connection.


But all kidding aside, I felt higher than a kite.  I felt like I had just found the key to my jail cell door and was ready to open that door over the threshold of a brand new outlook on life. 


And it happened. 


I was Loosey - Goosey. 


I deflected all stress that would have normally snowballed into a depressing mass around my "aura". I felt like I was in the arms of complete health as I looked at  toys that were strewn across my living room floor because they could only mean one thing; that I had children in my midst.  I exited the bathroom and found that those very children had stripped the couch of every pillow (and cushion) it possessed and were jumping all over them in a couch-pillow frenzy.  Instead of turning into my usual "Doberman Pincher", my heart filled with joy to see their joy.  They were having a BLAST, and I went and grabbed my camera.


The pillows got picked up.


So did the toys on the floor.


Dinner was thought up, then made.


It was a xerox copy of pretty much all the normal days in the past year prior to this one, save one colossal adjustment - my attitude.


I attained the vehicle to "being of good cheer". I received the "how" embedded in that "Ah-ha" moment.  And that's hard to find.


I think it found me.  And believe me, I was asking for help.


It came.


Rachel was born and I got to enjoy every second of every minute surrounding her entrance into our family.


I found that I sincerely and more fully enjoyed the company of not just those in my immediate family but those extended as well.  Love is a wonderful thing to feel.


I'm recording this in my blog because I need to keep it fresh.  It's been four months now and this new-found "vehicle's" headlights are starting to dim. Changing human behavior is one of the absolute hardest things to do.

But just by typing it out, I already feel a renewal. 

There is so much joy to be had.  Have it.

Gee wiz am I ever glad Elon asked me what we had for dinner last Thursday.


  






  


  

Stop and smell...

the Lilacs.

I mean reeeeally take a wiff.


Because life is short.


Let little kids chase you...as you run backwards with your camera.

Hold onto a tree real tight. (maybe not a little baby one:/)

Hold your family even tighter.

Just smile.

And be happy.

Make that your #1 priority this summer.

Chan Man

Somebody is the apple of his mommy's eye.

And along with being an "apple", he's also a clown...


99.9% of the time.


Like how he's always trying to eat baby Rachel.

Or making himself a human mural.

He absolutely LOVES to dress up.  In fact I don't think a day goes by where he doesn't have a little something extra on.

I love to see what concoction he'll come up with every day.


He turns anything into what he wants it to be.  Like that red oven mitt up there is his baseball glove.


And this pink "hat" is one of Hallie's doggy beds.

This backward bonnet is his "helmet", and the fake flowers turned upside down were  his "sword" of the day.

He loves suits, and was overjoyed when Elon came home from The Burlington Coat Factory with this gem:

I think it's safe to say he's got the "look."


I just love this kid so much it hurts...he makes me smile every single day. :)

Spit Shine...

Check these out:

They're mine.

And they're what I've been stomping around in for a while now because they just so happen to be the most comfortable shoes ever.

The only hard part about owning them, is looking at them each and every time I put them on.

They're ugly as sin.

In fact these pictures don't even do their ugliness justice. 

But I could never throw them away because they are real leather and one little date with tan shoe polish would do the trick right?

RIGHT!

Just look at my shiny little favs now!

All I had to do was go on a wild goose chase for tan shoe polish which forced me to order the stuff off amazon.com, watch a youtube video on how to shine your shoes since I'd never done it before, and then do it!

Oh and you have to buff them out with a horsehair shoe brush to get them all shiny.  

I loved seeing these puppies transform.

  

In fact I got a little a carried away with the fun of using the horsehair shoe brush, I polished and "brushed" a total of three times.

The only problem I have now is watching where I'm going. ;)

Trip to Utah

Rachel and I went on a little plane ride when she was 26 days old.


And I was about as nervous as she looks in this picture.

I didn't know how she would do on the plane with "ear pressure", crying, and anything else that could make for a long trip with a baby.

I was also scared about the fact that I would be doing this alone because when it comes to navigating, I'm a "follower".  So the thought of getting dropped off at the curb of the the Delta terminal and relying on nobody else but me to get to all of the places I needed to go in the big huge Boston airport was a bit scary.

But, it turned out easy peasy.

And when I got to my gate, I sat next to a super friendly couple with a seven month old baby.  They were so nice and complimentary of the baby, it was almost like I knew them, they were just so warm and easy to talk to.  

In fact, once I boarded the plane and was watching the other people board, I was amazed at just how friendly everybody was.  And not just to me, but to each other.  I was surrounded by some of the most charismatic, kind and outgoing personalities I've ever seen, and in such a confined space! 

Then I quickly learned that I was on a plane full of Boston Marathon runners and their family and friend cheerleaders.  They were heading home after the big (and hot) run.  

I've never seen so much under armor in my life.

Yup, even that nice young couple with the baby.

So two things were seemingly confirmed to me:

1.  Westerners really are more open and friendly than us New Englanders.  (Sad, but we do have a reputation of being "closed" and reclusive people.)

2.  Endorphins really do make you happy.  Seriously, this was an unusually happy/friendly bunch.  So the whole exercise-produces-endorphins fact was totally validated as far as I'm concerned.  

I think I would have felt a little intimidated by all these power house athletes, but the fact that just three and half weeks earlier I pushed an entire human being out of my body made me feel comfortably among them.

But regardless, I was so grateful to be flying a mile off the ground with so many great personalities from all different walks (or runs) of life ;)

And to boot, I sat next to a mom and her 20 year old daughter, who were cheerleaders for their husband and dad marathon runner.  Could this possibly be more ideal?  They had no problem with me nursing right next to them, or holding the baby so I could get up when I needed to, and I was so thankful for that!

So why was I flying with such a young baby 3.5 weeks postpartum? 

Well, not to sound cliche or anything, but it was all because two people fell in love :)

Yup, my dad went ahead and fell in love with this fabulous woman, Bertha, whom we all love, and I was so grateful to meet.

I was happy my dad got to meet his newest granddaughter too. (and doesn't he look great!)

My sister planned my trip for me which was so nice and made everything so easy.  (Thanks Kim!)

I had so much fun with she and her family.

Check out my beautiful nieces, Mirium and Liesl:

And I loved seeing my brother Michael.

He loved Rachel too.

I was also psyched to see my brother Josh and sister in law Tausha:

I got to see my aunt Julie, who has lost 36 pounds since the last time I saw her!  Doesn't she look great?

I also got to see my uncle Reese, which is always so fun!

I love Rachel's little face looking up at him.

My sister in law Elizabeth (Rachel's middle namesake) stole me away to take me to lunch and hang out for a bit, and it was so much fun!

Her twins (Simeon and Ciel) came too, and I loved seeing them.

Then came time for the wedding!

And it was a beautiful ceremony.

They looked so happy.

And I got to see two of my great lifelong friends, Kaycee and Lindsey.  I seriously wished I could have stayed out there longer to see more of them.

I also got to see my grandma Jerree, who I love so much.

It was such a great trip.  Short but oh so sweet.

The flight home I sat next to another very nice and accommodating mother/daughter combo, which if you ask me was an obvious blessing and a half!

Because seriously, what are the chances of that happening twice?

And Rachel did awesome.  

No crying.

No painful ears.

Just 5.5 hours of snuggle time with my precious newborn.