If the end of the world is coming...

...at least we have a freezer full of breast milk. This is just the door. There is more in the shelves. Yay!

Gut plushies. Yes. Gut plushies.

Awesome alert! These I Heart Guts plushies made my day. It's a woman-started business, which is super cool, and their website is totally funny as well. Founder, Wendy Bryan, uses creativity and her interest in the "intersection between gross and cute" to make anatomically correct hearts and livers and lungs and thyroids and spleens and more!

I especially want to get a few for my nephew who likes to draw his germs. Snag these on Fab.com right now.

heart

gall bladder

spleen

liver

Do check out their blog as well.

Zulily Alert - Right Bank Babies

Ack! I love these little numbers from Right Bank Babies. Bright and fun and lovely -- perfect for special occasions or even every day.

On Zulily today!

Sunday afternoon project

I just got some felt from Etsy and have been meaning to make little slippers for Jo. Since she doesn't really wear shoes, slippers are a great alternative especially when we go for walks. Plus she needs something to match the Easter outfit I have yet to make.

I love this pattern from Martha Stewart. The template is here. I made a bunch of these slippers for my friends a few years ago and added little hearts in contrasting colors.Once you get the sizing down, it doesn't take long at all. I whipped up a little pair for Jo in about 20 minutes.

Here's what I did:

1. Enlarge the template to fit the slipper-wearer. I upped it 175% for Jo's feet. I also picked out a pretty teal and yellow from my felt stash. Yes, my scissors have my name on them.

2. Cut out your felt pieces. I like to use a contrasting color (yellow in this case) for the 1st layer of the sole and the decorative heart.

3. So you end up with four sole pieces, four upper pieces, and two little hearts.

4. Stitch the upper pieces together. Then add the heart or any other little shape you want. Really, you can add anything and put it wherever. Use your imagination.

5. Sew the upper pieces together at the heel.

6. Pin the two sole pieces together (one in each color -- contrasting color on the bottom) and then pin the upper to the sole. They will look like this. Kind of like little felt slipper bugs.

7. Stitch the upper to the sole in two steps. Start on one side of the center front seam and stitch to the center back. Do the same for the other half. I found this works easier than doing one seam around the entire slipper. Voila!

Conclusions (I sound like a scientist, right?):

• I used a very thin felt, but since these are baby slippers I think it's ok. My baby isn't walking yet. When I made slippers for adults I used a 3mm felt. You need the extra thickness for people who are up on their feet.
• My seams were too big. I sewed a 3/8" seam instead of 3/16" which is what Martha recommends. I think this is why the slippers were a little hard to get on Jo's feet. I mean she has big chubby feet, but these slippers should have fit. So, next time I'll make my seams smaller or I'll adjust the pattern.

 Jo loves them. She kept trying to put them in her mouth. Oh wait...that's what she does with everything.

Maybe I'll try these patterns next?
Stephanie's sewn felt slippers
More slippers from Martha

I've gotten felt from FilzFelt before and it's lovely! I've also had my eye on this felt from purl soho.

Inspired

Last night I went to my ladies-reading-ladies book club. It was awesome. I didn't read the book for this month (The Discovery of Witches), but I knew we were also talking about The Hunger Games and was hungry (hehehe) for some good conversation. It was a blast. Our host made a beautiful spread of food and drink (as always) and we talked and laughed and even read aloud from a few choice chapters.

I have to say that I haven't read much lately. Honestly, it has seemed like a chore. I'm in the middle of the third Game of Thrones book as well as Operating Instructions and would love to start Bossy Pants, but when I have free time there are so many things I need to do that reading seems to be at the bottom of my list.

That being said, last night renewed my interest in reading! I left the get-together inspired and ready to dig back into books, especially since the books we picked for the next book club meeting are so awesome!

Women Who Run With the Wolves -- which I've read, but it was years ago and deserves a re-read.

Some Girls: My Life in a Harem -- which will be interesting when paired with our first book.

I'm ordering these today!

Etsy Love

In the process of getting our Etsy store up and running, it's been fun to see what others are doing. I've certainly been building my favorites. Here are a  few:

My friend, Kirstin, hand appliques custom onesies, shirts, and other clothes at The Happy Hoot.

Corrabelle at The Mayberry Sparrow makes super adorable little rubber stamps like this one. His name is Rolf.

Honeycup has illustrations, cards, and prints that are perfect for kids and babies with just the right amount of quirk.

 micielomicielo sells onesies infused with pop culture like this one:

Support small business, people! In many cases Etsy shop owners are mamas or families - kind of like us!

Our own language

After being home with my mama for a week I realized that there are phrases that we use that no one else does -- family phrases -- like our own language.

Here are a few:

hunka meat 
noun
1. a big piece of meat like a roast.
2. a hunk of meat.
3. always served with potatoes.

suss
verb 
1. to play around with water, usually in the sink.
2. generally annoying: Quit sussing!

goog 
noun 
1. sweet creamer we put in coffee, coffee goog, hazelnut is my fave: Do we have any coffee goog?
2. a mix of cream and sugar if we don't have pre-made sweet creamy stuff.
adjective
1. googy coffee: coffee that has had goog added: I would like some googy coffee, please.
verb
1. to goog the coffee: Do you want me to goog up the coffee?

Mama, Sarri, Liv, Geir, Hannah, what else am I missing?

CAKE BALLS!!!

Today we made cake balls. I've documented our process for your viewing pleasure. You're welcome.

1. Make a cake -- I had help. We made two: one red velvet and one almond. You can use a cake mix or not. We didn't.

2. Lick the beaters/spatula/scraper. Bake the cake(s)...

 ...or pose.

 3. Let the cake(s) cool. You'll notice that the red velvet cake isn't red. We didn't add red food coloring. I also forgot something else, because it didn't quite rise correctly. We don't know what's missing. It sure tasted fine.

 4. Make frosting. We made a cream cheese frosting for the red velvet and an almond butter cream for the almond cake. The reinforcements helped.

 5. Crumble the cake and mix in the frosting. I think we added too much frosting to the almond cake. I'm guessing that 1 1/2 cups is just the right amount. Stir it up!

6. Make little balls.

7. Chill the balls. While you're chilling, melt some chocolate. We did both white and dark. Dip the balls in the chocolate. You can use sticks or toothpicks or shish kebob spikes or nothing at all. 

8. It's a good thing Mama had sprinkles in her cupboards otherwise these would have been really ugly cake balls. We added sprinkles before the chocolate hardened. They were still a little funny looking.
Ta-da!!!

9. Enjoy. Delish!

Mama-Camp Day 3

Today was busy too! I worked in the morning (can you see a theme here?), then my sister Sarri and her kids (Grace & Gabe) arrived, then we played and played and sewed and ate Chinese food.

We also did another photo shoot. It's not always fun to be a model.

Mama-Camp Day 2

We're having so much fun! I worked this morning and then we had company in the afternoon. Mama and I finished up the day by sewing.

Mama and Jo playing.

My mama's good friend, Julie and Jo. 

Connie and Julie and Jo. 

Uncle Geir loves holding Jo. 

I finished up this little lovely too!

Skipping Hippos

Who can resist baby ponchos? Skipping Hippos is on the mini social today. These ponchos are so darned cute, and Skipping Hippos is a mama-owned business. Hooray!

Baldy McGrindy

That's what Nick calls me. I'm still losing my hair.

Mama-Camp Day 1

I'm at my mama's house in Iowa this week! We had a great weekend in Chicago with visitors. It's amazing how quickly my family can make a mess. We just take over. Here's a lovely morning picture of my sister, Liv, and brother, Geir. I'm sure they'll love that I posted this.

Today has been great! I worked this morning and then Mama and I have been sewing this afternoon. Here's what our workspace currently looks like.

Jo is sleeping on the couch right now.

Post-Jo body

When I look back at pictures of myself before I was pregnant I think, "Wow, that's a hot bod!" I wish I thought that at the time. I wish I had been able to say, "I like my body just the way it is." Hindsight is 20/20 I guess.

I gained 50 pounds with Jo. I've lost part of that. I don't know how much -- I don't own a scale (it's better for everyone that way). Now that I'm somewhere in the middle it's so frustrating. I don't know how to dress this new body. It looks different in all of my clothes. Things wiggle that didn't wiggle before. I always seem to have the dreaded muffin-top. I don't want to buy clothes since my bod keeps changing. My nursing bras are close to not fitting anymore around my rib cage. Argh. At least it keeps changing.

I'm slowly, but surely getting back into my old clothes. I know that it look nine months to put the weight on and I shouldn't expect to lose it in less than nine months, yadda yadda yadda, but I just want my old body back. I know that's not going to happen.

My body will never be the same as it was before Jo. That old hot bod is gone. It could be bigger, it could be smaller, but it will never be the same. Come to think of it, no part of me will ever be the same as it was before Jo. And I'm totally ok with that, I guess -- although I still mourn for my old life/body at times. Having Jo in my life makes all of this change easier. I have to remind myself that she's totally worth it.

I am going to treat myself though and buy a new dress this weekend. Nick and I have a date night coming up!

Take me to your leader!

We have visitors coming! Hooray! My mama, sister, and brother are coming tonight until Sunday. Then we'll drive back with them to Iowa for a week. 

We are going to eat food and make things and laugh and cook and more!

Lions and tigers and bears...

Oh. My. God. These little animal prints by Sharon Montrose will melt even the coldest of hearts. I need them. Must resist buying them all! I think the bobcat is my favorite. Jo favors the monkey. Little Darlings are on sale at Fab.com.