Boy Crazy

I'm hoping that my two girls do not inherit my boy craziness. From the time I can remember, I have been. Luckily, my husband just rolls his eyes. He thinks I'm perpetually stuck in high school. So today is a fluffy post, but I thought I'd share some of my favorite Hollywood eye candy.

That would be Cillian, Adam, JT, Josh, and Ryan. *sigh* *swoon*

Yes, I'm 32 years old (almost 33!). What's your point? :)

For Henri

Ok, since the gift was received, I will show you pictures. The squirrel pattern is one of Andrea's from Bad Bird. I guess I'm not such a horrible embroiderer after all. God bless the backstitch. Turns out much better for me than anything else. Pretty foolproof. I like this little guy.

And the banner is from Sublime Stitching. I almost forgot that I had the book! Jeez, for almost a year now and I'm just now cracking it open.

So I was "inspired" (ahem) by Danielle's wonderful baby gift and thought I'd modify it a bit and give it a whirl. I like the pockets on this organizer because you could actually use it as a diaper stacker if you wanted to. They are pretty wide and deep.

Naomi said his room will most likely be yellows and greens with a forest theme. I was happy to find these buttons because they looked like cross sections of a tree. I wish I'd had some appropriate vintage buttons to use, but I didn't.

Anyway, I was pretty happy with how it turned out. I had to give her a disclaimer about a couple little flaws, but that's the charm of handmade, right?

Eight Pounds of Mashed Potatoes

Ryan had a craving for mashed potatoes. I told him to buy about 6. I figured they'd be the small ones, but they were gi-normous. He made a vat. Quinn ate so much when they were making them that I doubt she'll ever eat them again. Gross.

I have been evaluating Girl Land products, and I think I'm slacking. When I first started making stuff, it was all scary cute things. Now I've drifted into this Japanese fabric arena (covered addy books and photo albums and wanting to make more hair thingies). I think I need to start making some more dioramas. Those are something different. And I am digging this embroidery stuff, so maybe I shall do more of that. I really liked my tooth fairy pillows-- I created the pattern myself, not like it is very complex. I just wish I had a sewing machine and that I could SEW.

Anywho, here is the Japanese fabric I just got in the mail. I was going to make a fabric topped pincushion for this planter (I extracted the flowers and weird light thingy), but It looked stupid. So back to the drawing board. The robot fabric is for a boy version of this photo album. May as well make the stuff now that I have it.

The Mother of All Estate Sales

Vivi and I hit it today. I stuck her in the sling and off we went. It was sooooo great!!!! Now the hard part is deciding what I shall keep, WHERE I'm going to put the stuff, and what to sell. You can see all of my finds on my flickr page, but here are my fave items:

My absolute fave. You know how I love my dioramas! I shall not part with this, of course.

These linen-paged books are great. The insides are all cut up though, so I'll be keeping these too.

They had FOUR of these babies. I will keep one for Quinn, and the others are going in my shop!

The woman was a teacher, so she had a HUGE box of these decorative cut-outs. These were some of the best.

This was in a bag chock full of half finished embroidery projects and floss. Cree-heepy cool! Going in my shop for sure.

This one was in amongst the tools and such. I couldn't just leave it there! Pretty good condition except for a couple spots on the front cover. Probably gravy stains (ewgh).

And what school lunch would be complete without liver & onions!!! Happy weekend, lovies. xo

More Little Red...

I bought some kid's records for Quinn and received them yesterday from eBay. Some of my faves like Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day, The Little House, and 3 Little Pigs were included. Plus, this darling (love the cover art):

Oh, and to show you my love of LRRH must have originated from when I was a kid, here's a pic of my at Halloween circa 1979 (I was 4) with my bro, "Robin":

Now on to some serious dance business. Do any of you watch So You Think You Can Dance? I, along with my cousin, am a fanatic. It has been great this season. I have watched the show from Season 1. My faves have been Ryan from Season 1, Donyelle from Season 2, and Lacey from Season 3. This season, my fave so far and BY far is JOSHUA. He is so darn cute and humble and talented. I really really hope he keeps it up. Watch this number from Week 1. It gave me chills!

I do not care for, on the other hand, Jessica, Will (what's all the fuss about??), Susie, or Marquis. And I love that Wikipedia has a whole grid matrix of who is in bottom three, who is eliminated, the songs, the choreographers, etc. Verry comprehensive (they should hire me to do this, ha!).

Should also tell you that I'm feeling very satisfied in the techy department. All of a sudden, I couldn't receive or send mail via Outlook Express. Googled the error code and found a post that someone blamed the problem on Norton Antivirus software. So I uninstalled it. Still didn't work. Then I found another post where someone mentioned an extra step, that you have to install a Norton uninstall tool (weird). So I did that too-- it now works! Downloaded AVG antivirus freeware instead of the damn Norton. Poop on them. I shoulda been an IT geek!

A-Ha! & Another Obsession

Alli was so kind to remind me that I had seen the cute rice pack with preppy whale fabric on her blog!!!! Isn't it adorable???

So yes, another obsession. Add vinyl wall decals to the list. In addition to Quinn's nifty tree, I purchased three more from Elephannie. I've had these Magic Jelly plates for like a year, but I couldn't figure out how to hang them. Finally, I just got those sticky hanger that you pull to release, but they looked too plain and bare, so I custom ordered these "antique" frames in a smaller 5x7 size. They are now up in my craft room!

The third one is in our bedroom...

Celebrity Sighting & Weird Cake

Ryan called me this morning to tell me that they were filming a movie downtown Royal Oak. So I threw Vivi in her sling with a camera, threw on my tennies and walked downtown. It is a Lifetime movie called Prayers for Bobby starring Sigourney Weaver. It's a true story about a woman who became a huge gay rights activist after her son committed suicide because of her religious intolerance of him.


Two other kids from a movie Ryan and I liked, Mean Creek, star in it as well. But I didn't get to see either of them. I was actually pulling for Carly Schroeder to get the role of Susie in Lovely Bones.


So I got there, and they were filming a parade scene. My friend's husband owns a business right along the parade route, so the three of us hung out and watched for awhile. It was fun! And we finally got to see Sigourney too. Here she is in a navy blue shirt in the background.



The whole scene was super cheesy, like all the people in the light blue shirts were showing her, "Look! All these people came out to support gay rights!", and her face was like, "This is amazing!" Totally Lifetime for ya. But it was fun nonetheless. Something nifty on an otherwise boring Tuesday afternoon.

Here are some more stills. Note the super huge balloon arch...


...that blew away when it got super windy.




My parents, aunt & uncle came for a visit today on their way down to the Fox to see Alison Kraus and Robert Plant in concert. I realized I didn't have any cookies or ANYTHING, so I whipped up this Weight Watchers cake. Except I didn't have canned pears on hand, so I used fruit cocktail. Weird, right? Oh well. It was pretty good. Not very sweet. It will be good for breakfast tomorrow with coffee.

Weight Watchers Sweet Pear Bread (2 pts per serving)

Ingredients
1 sprays cooking spray
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole-grain wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp table salt
1 large egg(s), beaten
1/4 cup canola oil
7 Tbsp dark brown sugar
15 oz unsweetened canned pears, drained and sliced (packed in water) OR FRUIT COCKTAIL!
1/2 cup diet cola

Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat a 9-inch square pan with cooking spray. Combine flours, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in a medium bowl. Combine egg, oil and brown sugar in a large bowl. Finely chop pears and add to egg mixture. Stir in soda. Stir flour mixture into egg mixture just enough to wet batter; do not beat. Spread batter into prepared pan and bake for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Slice into 16 pieces and serve warm.

And I cut these Annabelle hydrangeas and lavender from the garden this morning too.

It's Pop, Dammit!

Ryan and I have been confusing our daughter. Not like we even let her drink it, but he calls it soda, I call it pop. Let's see what everyone else calls it:


And I thought my dad was the only one who would say something like, "Let's go get a Coke." And he was raised in Michigan! Hmmmmmm. Yes, this is what I do all day with my time. I can't put much more effort into it. My brain is dead.

Stamps & Paranoia

I've been trying to unload some of my unused baby stuff and maternity stuff on eBay thus necessitating several trips to the post office. I'm a weirdo in that I like to buy cute stamps. In fact, I will buy several books at a time and use them appropriately-- flower stamps on mail to my mom, Disney or storybook stamps to kids, flag stamps on my bills, etc. And if the envelope is colored, I like my stamp to match. Yes, I'm that weird. It bothered me that I had to use the Forever stamp (bell) on Vivian's birth announcements which were pink and green. This would have been cuter:

And look at these nifty ones coming out next week:

Weight Watchers is going ok. I had a little hiccup at Father's Day brunch Sunday which led to me stopping counting points for the day. Not good. I'm back on track today though. Take a look at my 5.5 point lunch: 1 cup strawberries, 7 Wheatables, and caprese salad (2 oz. buffalo mozzarella, grape tomatoes, basil, and cabernet sauvignon vinegar).

I'm sure many of you out there conjured up some craftlicious gifts for the dads in your lives. My favorite was a microwaveable rice pack with cute preppy whale fabric, but now I can't remember where I saw it!

Ryan and I are weird in that we pretty much buy whatever we want for ourselves. I was having a hard time coming up with something, so I made some dorky coupons with clipart on the computer. When I kept thinking of what he'd want most, all I could think is that the guy would probably give his left arm to be able to sleep in one morning (I get up all night with V and he wakes up with Q at usually 6:30) or go to the movie of his choice by himself one afternoon or evening without feeling guilty. So he can redeem the coupons for these very things.

Lastly, our next door neighbor (the one with the crappy shed) has some shady looking guys painting his garage and house. One of them came over this afternoon and asked Ryan to borrow $50. WTF???!!!! It really creeped me out especially since I am home all day long by myself, and what if he's mad Ryan said no? I'm a bit paranoid. Don't even ask me about the fear I had of someone kidnapping me and cutting my baby out when I was pregnant with Q and V...I told you. Weird.

Happy Dad's Day!

To all those daddies out there who keep a smile plastered on their weary faces; to those who try to hide their worries and to those who are a little too obsessed with the Angel Pad being on; to those who hog their grandbabies and to those who think their own babies look like Art Buchwald. We salute you! And we love you. Xoxo.

Girl Land's 2008 Summer Soundtrack

As a folow up to last year's summer playlist, I have compiled a new one for 2008. It's published to Apple iTunes here. It took me mustering up all my willpower not to name it "Boner Jams '08".

You will have to excuse the inclusion of the Pussycat Dolls and Jesse McCartney, but damn if I can't get those two songs out of my head! I tried to compensate for the crap by adding a little Weezer and Rilo Kiley.

1. American Boy - Estelle feat Kanye West: Lurves me some Kanye. This is my fave song of the bunch.

2. Mercy - Duffy: I actually saw her perform this on Ellen, and I liked the live version better.

3. When I Grow Up - PCD: These chicks are so dirty looking. But this song is really catchy. I am like a 12 year old boy-- I like the part where they say they want to have boobies. Heh.

4. Pork & Beans - Weezer: How can you go wrong with Weezer? The video has this stupid YouTube vid in it of the dramatic prairie dog, so that's a bonus. Is that a band member's face superimposed on it in the video????

5. Magic - Robin Thicke: I really liked his song from last year, Lost Without You. This one's good too.

6. The Moneymaker - Rilo Kiley: This song is older than the rest. It's a nice chillaxing song (did I just say that?).

7. Anti Matter - N.E.R.D.: Not as good as She Wants to Move, but still good. From their new CD.

8. If I Never See Your Face Again - Maroon 5 feat Rihanna: I love this song, but I only downloaded it because, have you SEEN the video??? Dang! Steamy. But you all know how much I love my Adam Levine anyway.

9. Leavin' - Jesse McCartney: This kid's a d-bag. I still remember him from his All My Children days. But I love that little beeping in the background. Addictive.

10. Back in Your Head - Tegan & Sara: This one's a little older too, but Q totally digs it. She knows it's by Tegan & Sara.

11. It's Amazing - Jem: Nothing can beat her song, They. This one's pretty good though and mellow.

12. 4 Minutes - Madonna feat Justin: You know how I feel about my JT. And any other 50 something running around in her undies would look stupid, but Madonna looks dang good, I must say...

13. Cobrastyle - Robyn: I don't press people button. Nuff said.

Enjoy!

WIP

Ok, so I'm getting a little better. I said a little, folks! Here is something I am now almost finished with. This is just one small piece of it. I like how it turned out! It's for a special little man making his debut in the next couple months here...can't show you the whole thing because his mommy is a reader. :)


And I did most of it with a Vivi Monster in a sling in front of me too. I can't complain though. The kid slept 8 straight hours last night. Yeeeeee Haw.

Hope everyone has some fun stuff planned for the weekend. We have some Netflix movies to watch (Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, Jungle Book for Q, and Fantastic Four Rise of the Silver Surfer), are going to the farmer's market tomorrow, and Sunday are meeting the in-laws for Father's Day brunch. TTFN!

Today = D-Day

In which the "D" stands for DIET. That's right-- no more excuses. Today, Vivian is 6 weeks old, and after my OB appt, I received the official green light for exercising (due to my C). I am pretty motivated. We're not having any more kids, so I think in my brain I know it's time to get back to my fighting weight.

I have like 40 lbs to lose. But it does give me hope that I was the lowest weight of my adult life 3 years ago right before I got pregnant with Quinn.

Anywho, long story long, I know what to do-- it's just maintaining the gumption to do it. Wish me luck! Any diet tips or healthy recipes or inspirations would be much needed and appreciated!!!!!

As a last hurrah, I did indulge last night. This stuff is made locally, and it is liquid gold, friends. Anybody out of state ever see it or taste it? Over vanilla ice cream with some pecans, it's sinful.


One more thing-- bummed out that I pretty much missed out on my peonies blooming. They bloomed and died like in 4 days! All that was left when I went to cut some yesterday were these which are starting to look decrepit. Dang-o!

Oh the Horror

You may know of my love of the horror genre. I am a nut over all things creepy & scary. My favorite movie of all time is 28 Days Later (followed verrrrry closely by A Patch of Blue with Sidney Poitier and To Kill a Mockingbird).

So in addition to my brother's Fangoria magazines, there is one particularly cheesy video from 1986 to which I can attribute my infatuation. Scared the bejesus out of me at the time-- mainly the part where they find the bodies. Now it scares me for a whole set of different reasons (eesh, the 80s are scary in their own right). Anyone remember this one-hit wonder?



A couple more things are making me giddy. NBC's new show on Thursday nights called Fear Itself. Each week is a mini movie from different horror directors/writers. I must say, it was pretty good.

Also, I think I mentioned I watched Season 1 of Dexter which was on CBS. Well, I couldn't wait for Season 2 to be released on DVD in August, so I downloaded all the episodes on Amazon Unbox and watched all 12 in like 3-1/2 days. SOOOOOOOO GOOOOOOD. Pam, you were right! It was great.

Oh, also Ryan bought me The Orphanage for Mother's Day. Niiiiice, right?

Can't wait to see M. Night's new one too. Not so much horror, but creepy nonetheless.

Worst Embroiderer Ever

I have been meaning to complete this Gnome Embroidery that Andrea offered on her site for for awhile now. I think he will look splended nestled in amongst the Black Apple prints on her bedroom wall.


I was going to get a transfer pencil from Joann's, but just ended up using a quilt pen that I had laying around. I stuck my fabric on top of the image on my light table and traced it.

I do like the linen-y fabric I used so that the white showed up. The gnome has light blue around him (looks white). I did the whole thing split stitch and it just looks super messy. It also ended up as an abbreviated version because I got lazy AND then rationalized by thinking I didn't want to use any bigger of a hoop than my work hoop on Q's wall. I have to get a wooden one from Joann's and paint it black. Can you get painted hoops anywhere? I want a black one but I don't want plastic. Also, I googled this, but it doesn't look like it exists-- can you embroiderers tell me if there is a paper for ink jet printers that you can print the design on then iron it on to your fabric? It HAS to be out there somewhere, right?

I pulled out my Sublime Stitching book FINALLY and had forgotten how much I loved the backstitch. I should have done that for the whole thing. Oh well. I did the "Q" with it, and of course, that looks best. Now I know for next time. Not very Gnome-tastic, but Q said, "Oohhhhhh, it's byoo-i-full, thank you, Mommy," so that's all that matters to me.

I don't know what's gotten into me, but I also baked up a storm yesterday! Not so good for my diet, but I felt pretty accomplished even though I just made simple stuff. Banana bread from 4 funky bananas I'd been collecting, and Ryan came home with 3 containers of strawberries yesterday, so I made shortcake to go with. Just the Bisquick box recipe, but man it was good!


Q and Ryan are at the zoo, V is napping, and I need to shower. Adios, amigos!

Fun Time Wasters!

This is what I'm doing when I SHOULD be sleeping, but it's so fun!

First is this Flickr thingy I've seen on several people's blogs. This is what you do. Play along!

The Questions

1. What is your first name? Sarah
2. What is your favorite food? Pizza
3. What high school did you go to? Marshall
4. What is your favorite color? Aqua
5. Who is your celebrity crush? Josh Holloway
6. Favorite drink? Sangria
7. Dream vacation? France
8. Favorite dessert? Birthday Cake
9. What you want to be when you grow up? Married (ha)
10. What do you love most in life? my family
11. One word to describe you. Boisterous!
12. Your flickr name. Girl Land

The Concept

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker).


I love how this turned out! You can click on the pic to get credits.

Lastly, Cristin tagged me to list 5 weird foods I eat. I eat SO MUCH, where to start?

1. Buttered popcorn Jelly Bellys. Dig that sweet and salty.

2. In the summer only, my mom and I eat toast with a little light mayo, tomato, and a few slices of sharp cheddar. Is that weird to you? My dad wretches. We call it our "summer sandwich".

3. Cottage cheese with peaches or mandarin oranges. Maybe not weird? Kinda old school.

4. Well, this is a drink-- Diet Pepsi with lemonade mixed. My usual! Kinda like an Arnie Palmer with pop instead.

5. This one grosses Ryan right out (what doesn't?). Monte Cristo sandwich which is turkey, ham, and cheese on bread all deep fried and sprinkled with powdered sugar served with a side of raspberry preserves. I just can't understand why I'm overweight. I would get this when we went to Bennigan's. We probably haven't been there in like 7 years as it also grosses Ryan out.

Ok, so with the weird food things, I'm tagging Heather, Julie, Alli, Catherine, and Naomi! Just if you have time, girls-- or rather if you'd rather waste some time like me instead of doing stuff you should be doing. :)

When It Rains, It Pours

In a good way, this time! Look at MORE gifties that sweet Naomi sent! I knew I was getting some Cram Cream goodies from Naomi's bloggy contest, but there were MORE treats inside! A hedgehog/mushroom onesie for V (from one of my faves, Maya Elise Boutique), some Glitter Workshop barrettes/bobbies for Quinn, gnomey hedgie postcards for ME and some yum orange choco soap too! Also, the Cram Cream key cover and cup. Quinn absconded with the cup and soap, so it's missing from the photo, but you can see the cup here! Topped off by a darling vintage baby card. I love it. Thank you sooooo much for everything, Naomi! What a sweetheart.

Ryan took this grainy photo of me and Vivi yesterday, and I liked it. Not very flattering, but captured my mood entirely-- exhausted but happy. Dig my sausage fingers. I'm retaining water STILL! Still can't wear my wedding ring.

One last thing-- I finally sold a set of Wee Berry Push Pins. I've had these guys for like a year with none sold at shows or in my shop. The Etsy pic is fuzzy, and I'm too lazy to retake. Anywho, packed them up and mailed them with a few vintage paper coasters. From my mother's kitchen drawer no less! They've totally been in there since the late 70s, early 80s, so I finally asked for them. I so love them!

Waiting for Q to wake up from her nap. We went to the swim club this morning, and it was CLOSED. Poor kid. Apparently, they don't open till 3 before school is let out. So we're going to try again at 3 sans Vivi. It's just too hot out there! Can you believe 88 degrees so far? I'm such a wuss.

Here's hoping for a cooler weekend! Have a happy one!

Hey There Little Red Riding Hood

I am conscious that I gravitate towards things like Japanese fabrics, cutesie or anthropomorphic animals, vintage salt & pepper shakers, mushrooms/squirrels/deer/rabbits (as you all know), but I can now say Little Red Riding Hood is an official obsession as well.

My craft room has a few things:

But look at these lovelies!!!! They are all Etsy sellers and some are the proprietors of some of my fave blogs as well (Heather, Jenn, Susie!). So L-R, top to bottom:

1. Sew Serious' LRRH Zipper Pouch

2. Robot Candy's LRRH Coaster

3. Mayberry Sparrow's Li'l Red Hand Carved Rubber Stamp (ack, I just found her shop; love EVERYTHING)

4. Luca Bella Designs' LRRH Pacifier Clip

5. Fern's Closet's LRRH Set for Blythe

6. Zombie Factory's Trapped Little Red Pendant

7. Yummy Pancake's Little Red Riding Hood and Wolf Cubicle Critter Plushies

8. Susie Can Stitch's Red Riding Hood Hair Clip and last but certainly not least

9. Heather Hales Designs' LRRH Embroidered Blanket

And I just listed this to get in on the big bad action as well.

Where has this week gone? I must say that being on maternity leave really makes the days all mush together. Tomorrow, weather permitting, the girls and I are going to meet my friend (my babysitter's mom) at the pool. Ugh. Me in a bathing suit? I did take V to Kohl's on Tuesday, and after trying on several skirtinis (yes, that's a real term), I ventured to try this baby on. I must say that the pic does not give it justice. It's pretty darn flattering. Sucks my baby dough right in! xoox all...

These Barack!

Ok, sorry, had to make use of Barack as a verb. Did I tell you that my husband loathes the words "party" and "rock" as verbs??? He also can't stand it when people high five. But I digress...I thought these earrings from DIY or Die's shop were funny.

Won't say much more other than I am so excited about November and the possibility for change. Peace out!

Gifties!

Hadddddd to show you what the sweetheart Kat made for Baby V!!!!!!!!!! Can't you just DIE? It's the perfect size and you love the Girl Land signature colors, no?

It's so amazing how lovely and wonderful and generous my friends in this blogosphere of ours are. Here's a little peek at the Q donning the beautiful outfit lovingly created by Jessie that I previously mentioned.

The paper is Snow and Graham (my ab fave) and covered a super cute bird-themed gift from my bro, SIL, and niece. Of course, I neglected to take pics of the outfits which were sooooo adorable. Mental note to take pic and share. You will die when you see one of the outfits from Petit Bateau.

Thank you, everyone!!!