Settling Into Summer

Hope you all had a wonderful Father's Day. I foisted power tools onto my poor husband. He doesn't have many, so I think it was ok. I think he enjoyed the rest of his day. I didn't nag him too much plus he got some pretty cool handmade gifts from the girls and some relaxation time too which is worth its weight in gold around this house.

Yesterday, we went down to the Detroit Riverfront for their River Days Festival. You may remember my post from last year. It's beautiful down there. We rode rides, played in the fountains & ate hot dogs and sno-cones. It was a perfect day. Here are some pics:









Tomorrow marks the beginning of week 3 for Q and V at a brand new daycare. Both had been to their previous in-home daycare since they were 3 months old. They are now at a center mainly because of a ton of little reasons, nothing major. At the last daycare, Q was the oldest kid by like 1.5 years, every Monday was a struggle, and towards the end, she was starting to act like a miserable teenager. Now she is in her element. I'm so happy for her.

V on the other hand-- the first two weeks were pretty rough. However, the turning point may have been Thursday when I received this note in her box (written by one of the daycare ladies, of course): "I made a new friend today. Michael held my hand at nap time until I fell asleep". Picture a little guy with light cocoa skin, huge brown eyes, and chestnut brown curls with a green plaid overall romper on with his cot pushed up to V's and holding her hand. That's Michael. I think he's a little younger than V. I don't know if he made the difference, but all I know is that on Friday, she wasn't so sad anymore.

♥

Have a good week, all!!! xo

AZ

So I got to get away for a nice 4-day excursion to see my girlfriend in Phoenix! What a lovely break from routine and from the horrrrrible weather we were having in Michigan. My hubby was so great, and my parents were around one of the days to assist, so that was nice of them. But to him, "piece of cake". He's a good one!!!!

Highlights of the trip (please note most of these things center around food):

• Ross: a pair of sassy Etienne Aigner shoes for $20?? Shut the front door!
  
• Sweet Tomatoes: I am sure people who have these restaurants take them for granted. Do you KNOW how hard it is to find a good salad bar in the Detroit area???? I could have stayed here all day.
  
• Ginger Lychee Mojitos and eel & avocado rolls at Sushi Roku = yumz.
• The Desert Botanical Gardens:

• The Crazies: Loves me some zombie-types AND Timothy Olyphant (who is now, consequentially, officially on my top 5 laminated card). A winning combination.

• Smeeks: been wanting to visit here ever since Nie Nie's post and even MORE after seeing her more recent post (featuring Heather's sweet birthday banner)!
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• QCumberz: got an awesome little strawberry creamer and these sweet arse AZ postcards:

• The Parlor Pizzeria: was an old beauty salon turned super cool pizza parlor! Even have the original chairs up at the bar. Our fave was the funghi (truffle oil & mushrooms) with added bacon!

• And finally, the best part, my FF:

Holiday Crafternoon

Come see Girl Land at the December Crafternoon for some last minute Xmas shoppin' action!

Still Here...

...and still summering! I apologize for the brief hiatus. Cross my heart I am trying to get back into the swing of posting on a regular basis. These pics were taken along the Detroit Riverfront at the Ren Cen Plaza last weekend. We had so much fun! That place is wonderful.

Oh, and pssssttttt...DUCF 2009 applications are now up! Trying to get my brain together to narrow down what I want to make so I can get my app in.

What is new with you all? In a nutshell, I have been signing Q up for ballet, planning a party at our house, planning some handmade gifts, eating lots of ice cream (bad, bad!), still Jazzercising, Wii'ing, estate saling, zoo'ing, having some fun with those two little girls of ours, and last but not least, figuring out how I'm going to handle my boss leaving for another City (he's been at our City for 28 years and my boss for 12 years!). Phew!

Can you believe summer's almost over?? I have to admit something-- we were watching The Office last week. It was an old ep where Michael goes to NYC, and he decides to go get a "New York slice" from his fave pizza place (Sbarro, ha!!!). He was all bundled up, and you could see his breath and MAN did that make me crave some cold weather. Am I sick or what???

Another reason I'm looking forward to cold weather-- it's been over TWO YEARS since I first mentioned my Lovely Bones fixation, and it appears that it's official release date will FINALLY be December. The trailer is amazing. I can't embed, but you can watch it on the official site. My brother is skeptical of the CGI heaven scenes (as am I), but even moreso is Mark Wahlberg's portrayal of Mr. Salmon. Maybe I will eat my words. I was just so excited about Ryan Gosling that it's hard for me to picture anyone else in the role. Have you read the book? Have you seen the trailer? I predict Stanley Tucci will be the best part of the film. He looks super creepilicious!

xo and more soon!

July So Far...

I can't believe it's already July 11. It's been a tad rough around here. V has had bouts of ear infections on and off since December. She had a doc appt yesterday, and spiked a fever of 101. She's on a 3rd (and final-- there are no other) type of antibiotic, and we have an appt with the ENT specialist on Monday. Poor baby-- she seems like she feels ok, but she's been SUUUUUPER clingy. And she's always been a great sleeper, but she woke up at 4am this morning and cried on and off until we got her up at 6:15. Suuuuuuuucks.

I am making an escape tonight to an all-girl's party, however. Eat my dust, Ryan. My friend, Jen, is having a New England clambake tonight. I made some wine glass "charms" with a nautical theme and inspired by Twig & Thistle's downloadable 4th tags.


We've also been eating our weight in...

Oh, something fun though...I got in under the wire as part of Denise's Twilight swap. Fun stuff! I'm kinda freaking though because we have to have our packages out by July 24, and I was thinking I'd have more time. Oh well. Will work out. I have a bid in on something from eBay, and if I get it, I'll be excited.

Hope everyone else is enjoying their weekend! It's mugglicious here in MI. Yikes.

Goings on in Girl Land

Stuff I'm liking as of late...

Jazzercise. I’ve been going at least 3 times per week and Sunday I went at 8:30 am (a real feat for me being the hater of early rising and exercising that I am). Are you sick of hearing about this yet? You don’t know how ecstatic I am to have found a form of exercise that I can not only endure but actually enjoy.

New Moon Trailer. Typically, huge muscles aren’t my thing, but WOW, Taylor. Just wow. Good thing the shirtless pics of Rob just came out because I might have been like, “Edward who?”.

MTV Movie Awards. Whatev, Eminem. Like you weren’t in on the Bruno thing. At first, I was unsure, but after watching it again, I am convinced. No such thing as bad publicity, right? It was a very Twilight night too which, of course, is always good. Rob in his disheveled glory and KStew in her awkward, award-dropping, finest. Other highlights were Andy Samberg’s naked opener and poor Leighton Meister who was accused of being a closet gas-passer. Good stuff.

MTV Shows

Up. Q had her first successful full-length, in-the-theater, movie-watching experience. Ryan took her to see Up, and she was only slightly antsy towards the end. My big girl.

Challenges. Work is having a weight loss challenge and Jazzercise is having an attendance challenge. I’m all over both. I had a dream I had Charlize Theron’s body last night. Ok, ok—a *bit* of a stretch, but an inspiration nonetheless. I’m feeling healthier and stronger every day. Weight loss has been consistent albeit slow, however, I can tell I’m feeling more tone for sure. Check my left sidebar for progress! I’m thinking I need to start documenting my measurements.


Glee. Have you seen this show??? Must watch it now!!! I’m in total and utter love. I’ve watched it three times now. Cutest thing ever. We’ve all had “Don’t Stop Believin’” stuck in our heads all weekend. Q keeps asking me to sing this line to her, “He took the midnight train going anywhere…” Bummed we have to wait until the fall to see more.

Alone Time. This weekend, Ryan is taking the girls to see my in-laws. And he told me I could stay home. It’s about 30 hours to myself (ahhh, heaven), but I’m planning my time wisely. I currently have a massage scheduled and flea marketing with Amy too. So far, so good!

Girl Land Summer Mix 2009. Starting my annual compilation! I can’t promise you there will be all high-quality songs (I can forewarn you that there will be a Britney tune), but hopefully I don’t lose the small amount of credibility I may have. A good mix, I say. Perhaps some new Camera Obscura, The Dirty Projectors, Bat for Lashes, etc. Shall be coming within the next couple weeks. Holding your breath, no?

Power the Librarian. My friend's son made this movie for a contest to win some money for my hometown library. That's his sister, Jessamy, in the film. And I THINK it may be Zac himself as the freaky Power dude. Leave a comment and tell the judges how deserving they would be of the prize money!!!

Are we glad Monday's over? Yes! Do we hate Tuesdays even MORE than Mondays? Yes! Boooo. xo

Ikea Love

I love my new Karlstad couch! The hubby-- not so happy with the quality of the hardware provided. Should be ok if nobody jumps on it (nice, eh?). :) Found this lovely little time waster-- find out what your line of Swedish furniture would be called! Here's mine:

Raqua REALLY Rawks!

EEEEEEKKKK! I received my package today from Miss Holly. Oh. My. Gawd. Take a gander (sorry for the blurry pics and the horrible lighting).

My Twilight handmade cards:

Q loved her way cute smock!

and also liked playing her "drum", a super cute tin of raspberry green tea:

A bib for Viv:

A handmade card (how adorable is this?):

And many more pics on my Flickr page!

I know I promised a DUCF sneak peek-- I'm a little bummed at how cluttered it all looks. I'm kind of getting tired of my table layout. I need to get a little innovative but don't know how. Ryan walked in and said, "Yeesh!" I think the glitter caught him off guard.

Winner for Contest #2!

....Isssssss my newest Facebook comrade, Amy of Early Bird Special!


She said,

"OMG! How cute is that loot?? I'm keeping my fingers crossed. <3"


The crossing of the fingers seemed to work. Well, that and showing me linky love for 2 extra chances. ;)


Thanks, all, for playing! In the next few days here, I will be listing lots of new vintage goodies. I hit a great antique store in Kalamazoo while I was there for my conference, and, of course, have buyer's remorse. I got some uber cute stuff. Here's a taste-- a graphic my friend, Katie, found for me in the store...not sure what I'm going to do with it yet, but I want to make something.



Also, I am OBSESSED...like totally OBSESSED with the Twilight books. I read Twilight in like 24 hours, and I'm 2/3 of the way through New Moon. I am so hating Jacob. WTF? And, like, how could she not see through Edward when he left??? So between my True Blood hang-up (PAM!), and my Twilight book fixation (thanks to Cristin and Kate and my bro too), I am officially a vampire addict. Ack. Can't wait for the movie to come out.


OSB Update: I weighed in after my conference, and I'm down another 1.2. Go me! It's only 6.4 lbs, but it's coming off slowly but surely. I did lots of walking. Which must of negated all the drinking (oy)-- at night...not during the day. I have a new favorite flavored martini, by the by. I'm thinking they are like 5 pts each. Gads.


Hawaiian Wedding Cake Martini-- I think it's just Stoli vanilla, Malibu Pineapple (I don't think it was juice because it wasn't super sweet, believe it or not), and cherry grenadine shaken with ice. If anyone has heard of this, let me know!

Sick of Pee

Ugh. The smell is permanently in my nose. Between my kid, and my two RETARDED cats, I can't get away from it. I shouldn't say that-- Q is doing great...just a few dribbles here and there. My cats on the other hand. They've decided they like to piss on the part of the plastic cat pan liner that sticks out. So disgusting. This is one of THE ONLY times I wish I were pregnant again. So I don't have to clean the fargin' litter boxes. Bleh!

How was your weekend? Ours flew by, and I was too lazy to take any pics. Saturday was chock full of fun. My loverly friend, Katie, and her 3 super cute kids came all the way from Kalamazoo, and we ordered in pizza and went to the zoo. She's a great mom-- I need lessons from her. And the girl is sickeningly gorgeous. And what makes her more so is that she doesn't know it.

[Hi Kate! I need pics if you have any!] Don't you love it when your real-life friends read your blog??? It cracks me up for some reason (Danielle...and Shelly...and Amy...Ginny...).

Anywho, after the zoo, my couz came over to make Pancake Puffs for Quinn. Have you seen this pan? They were good, but I was challenged in the flipping department.

Then we were off to a swim party hosted by yours truly! I work for a local municipality, and I won a family swim party at the city pool at an employee appreciation lunch last year. The weather and turnout was great (38 people in all!), and my kids were SOOOOOOOO exhausted at day's end. This post is short on pics, so here's a Polaroid emulsion I did from a slide from 1960 that was labeled, "Rosamund". Very pool party-esque.

One more week of freedom before back to work! Where did the summer go???

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!

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. :)

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!!!

Practice Trumpet Every Day (Repeat)

Q had a busy day yesterday! Ryan took her downtown Detroit to his work so he could meet some of his co-workers. Then they went to Belle Isle and had some fun.





In the afternoon she had a haircut (just a trim) and had her first public meltdown in Trade Secret at the mall. Hurrah! I knew it was coming, but I was in denial. I wanted to just get the h outta there, but I had a whole buttload of stuff on the counter ready to be cashed out. Sigh. I'm sure this is just a taste of what's to come. But overall, she's still a pretty good kid.

Have you seen these They Might Be Giants DVDs? We received the ABC one when Q was really young. That one is super catchy and very quirky. And not the least bit annoying which is a challenge when it comes to children's entertainment. We just bought the 123's one, and it's even MORE catchy than the first! Seriously, I cannot get this one song out of my head. I was even dreaming about it last night. Even if you don't have kids, it's way amusing. I'd say even more for adults, really!



Hope everyone's enjoying their weekends. xo

Loves Me Some Alchemy!

Gawd, as if I'm not a big enough Etsy addict, I could be on Alchemy alllll dayyyyy longgggg. I posted my first request today since Alchemy's long-awaited return. I've been looking for a few random things for Q's room-- the biggest of which was a wall clock. So I made up a request! It looked like this.

I accepted the bid of a super cool shop, Trixieandradar. How have I not stumbled upon their shop before???? Look at some of their wares!

Anywho, they are going to do a custom clock for me. Red/white polka dot background with woodland animals, stumps, mushrooms, moss, stuff like that. Doesn't that sound poifect?

Well, it's almost 3am, and I cannot sleep. I went to bed at 11, but tonight is the 4th night in a row that Q has decided to get up in the middle of the night. I can't fall back asleep to save my life!

In other fun news, Jessie is having a blog giveaway for her 250th post! You can enter here. Be on the lookout as I am nearing my 200th post as well...therefore, I foresee a Girl Land giveaway as well!

Ok, all, have a wonderful rest of the weekend. We've rented La Vie En Rose to watch tomorrow night-- gotsta love the Edith Piaf. Hopefully it will be better than In the Wild that we watched tonight. I knew I'd hate it, so I messed around on the computer and read my new Martha while Ryan watched. I can't believe the dude had such a cult following. He was a bit of a self-indulgent prick. But I enjoyed the ending immensely. That was mean, sorry.

Other highlights of the weekend will be seeing my parents, Jonah Hill on SNL and Ryan cooking up his annual corned beef and cabbage. Even though he's now a self-proclaimed pescetarian (that's a whole 'nother story).

Hellooooo 2008!

Our New Year's Day consisted of pajamas, a lovely snowfall, and some good eatin'! Breakfast strata, cinnamon streusel jam-filled muffins, and non-alcoholic mimosa (for me and Q anyway)...mmm. Couldn't think of a better way to round out the holiday. Hope yours was great too!

Schizo Girl is Happy Again

Look at my new stamp!!! Tee hee! I need a new inkpad, but I kinda like that they aren't perfect. If you need a custom stamp, Farrah is the girl! She was so easy to work with, and I had the made-to-order stamp in hand EIGHT DAYS after I placed the order. I may not sell anything Saturday (I had a dream that I only made $3.00), but at least I will have cute bags. Yay!

Garbage Sale

This is a term that my friend, Sue, affectionately uses—she LOVES garage and estate sales both. Funny what people are drawn to at such sales. Her obsession is table linens. I gravitate towards salt & pepper shakers, planters, aprons, embroidery, anything with animals or kids on them, children’s books, framed prints, etc. Speaking of, I just adore this “cow” picture recently scored by Nicole. Her picture looks like it’s from a catalog.

Anywho, Sue is only one of two of my real-life junking friends (the other being Dave), both co-workers. Sue and have now twice gone to sales at lunch. Today was quite the adventure! She hit this particular sale yesterday on her day off and loved it so much that she wanted to go back. So we drove about 20 minutes to the town, and um, drove around trying to find it for about another ½ hour. She was giving up and feeling sheepish (t’was no biggie for me—my lunch date had canceled) when her friend called and gave us some better directions. She still wasn’t sure, so we tracked down a postal worker she had talked to yesterday near the sale, and Miss P.O.’s mind was a steel trap—of course she remembered…114 West!

Anywho, lovely little sale. Much more estate than garage. TONS of aprons, vintage baby clothing, children’s books, Christmas kitsch, linens, furniture, etc. Most of the cloth items were torn or stained (I don’t do badly stained or ripped unless it’s basically free), and we didn’t have much time to dig, but I did get a few darling aprons (don't you love the windmill one?), a huge BAG of wooden figurine ornaments and a few more kitschy one, and one kid’s book with beautiful silhouettes on the front and back covers. I had in my hand the CUTEST mouse toothpick holder that could have been turned into a tiny pincushion, and I must have set it down because I don’t have it. Boo hoo! I had a sense of panic when I thought I may have put it in the ornament bag or under the aprons and walked off with it, but I didn’t. Although the Sarah Devil sitting on my left shoulder wishes that I had inadvertently stolen it. Mwaaaahaahaaahaaa.

Oh, here are some other small finds from Sue’s and my last estate sale together—some perfectly Girl Land fabric, for one! If this were wallpaper, I would use it to do up another room in Girl Land’s imaginary wee cottage in the woods. Also found were a retro 80s mirrored compact, some rabbit miniatures for dioramas, and some SUPER CUTE Swedish kids cocktail napkins. Oh, and I also got this milk glass pedestal bowl at a thrift store about a month ago. I'm thinking I will put some of this stuff in my shop. And here are some more pics on my Flickr page.

Another big flea on Sunday! Happy weekend all! xo