retail therapy

What a lame blogger I've been. Part of it is that this has been the house of crud for the past week...and then some. Sophie is beyond grumpy from being sick and cooped up and is now a zombie. The other part is that I've been working in Santa's sweatshop. He doesn't pay me or give me any breaks to post. Somebody get Michael Moore on the phone.
I got to do some shopping over the weekend, here are some of my goodies:
The fabric is all for Christmas projects. The cute little owl napkin holder is for me. I have such a huge crush on owls right now. I love this jacket. And these shakers. Ooh, and I got a Dean Martin Christmas cd I'm gonna bust out tomorrow when we kick off our SUPER DUPER HOLIDAY EXTRAVAGANZA weekend. Please forgive the caps lock abuse. I really can't help being a geeky little Christmas elf. Dave is definitely not as into it as I am. Sometimes I worry that Sophie will inherit her daddy's cool as a cucumber-ness and they will both stare at me with bored expressions on their gorgeous faces as I bop around every year in my reindeer antlers singing along to Bing Crosby at the top of my lungs. But that's silly. All kids love Christmas. We've been reading Twas the Night Before Christmas and she loves it. "A-din, Mama" she says every time we finish.
Well, back to the sweatshop before Santa busts me.

sunshine in my house

I've been noticing a lot of yellow lately. Particularly golden tones like marigold. I used to think yellow was a horrendous color that reeked of shag carpet and velour jumpsuits. But it has been creeping slowly onto my good side the past few years. And it warmed me up today: ...on this quilt block
in my gnome book
and on my table.

inspired

Wow. What an awesome weekend.Stitch Austin started out not quite as fabulous as I imagined. There was some cute stuff, and I bought a couple things, but nothing took my breath away. Then the runway show started. It was amazing. These designers have got it going on in a big way. A lot of the fashions seemed to be from thrifted and reconstructed clothing and materials, and I absolutely love that. I wish I were more fearless about cutting into thrifted things. I really need to get on the reconstruction train instead of paying 9 bucks a yard for every piece of fabric I own. My favorites were the retro outfits from House of Dang and the Alice in Wonderland inspired goodies from Coco Couture. But seriously, all of it was fantastic beyond words. I had dreams of fabric and scissors and thread that night. In case you can't tell, those are refrigerator magnets and a Christmas ornament...then we did a little shopping and lunching the next day. I feel refreshed and happy to be back to my daily routine. Maybe it's just me, but Sophie seems to have mellowed out a bit too since we got back from Mamere's. (Thanks, Mom.)Oh and I got another built by Wendy pattern. MUST BUY MORE FABRIC NOW.

big girls do cry

Last weekend I made monkey bread. Dave has always talked about how his mom used to make it. And Amy's post about it made my mouth water. If I'm going to have dessert these days, it had better have some chocolate. So I got wacky and put chocolate glaze on it. And now my pants are tight. Oh well, it was worth it. Here is the recipe: 3 12 oz. packages biscuit dough




1 cup finely chopped nuts




3/4 cup sugar




3 Tablespoons cinnamon









Mix together sugar and cinnamon in medium bowl. Put nuts into another medium bowl. Pour 1/2 cup milk into a third bowl. Cut biscuits into quarters and dredge in milk, then nuts, then cinnamon sugar mixture. Place biscuit quarters into greased and floured Bundt pan. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 30 to 35 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes, then invert onto plate. Let cool completely and drizzle chocolate glaze over monkey bread.

Chocolate glaze

3/4 cup dark chocolate chips




1 1/2 cups powdered sugar




1 tablespoon butter




2 1/2 tablespoons milk




1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Combine all ingredients in saucepan over medium low heat and whisk until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth.




This weekend we turned Sophie's nursery into a big girl room. We got her a bed and bookshelf at Ikea.Now the whole family has room for new books. wheeee!

I have to gush about her quilt for a while. When I was sixteen, my Nana finished a quilt her sister had made the top of and gave it to me for Christmas. I had no idea what I had at the time. I am so not proud of this, but after it was on my bed for about a year, I ditched it for some cheesy purchased bedspread, probably from Wal-Mart. Ugh. Clueless. I finally got Dave to get it out of storage and it took my breath away. My dad has talked about how poor his aunt was, and I know these are all floursack and scrap fabrics from clothing. This is what a quilt is supposed to be about. This is what I shell out hundreds of dollars trying to duplicate. The picture doesn't even begin to do it justice. Can you tell I am in awe of this quilt? The rug, lamp, and hanging cubby-thing are also from Ikea. Sophie, by the way, adores it all. She enjoys throwing herself on the bed and laughing wildly. One thing I did not anticipate is that ever since she got her toddler bed, she is in full toddler mode. At the word "no" she cries these manipulative crocodile tears. She has also been spending more time clinging to my leg and pounding her fists on the floor. So I am going to mom's today for a little breather. I think I'll bring my knitting and maybe rent a chick flick. And this weekend is Stitch Austin with Val. I need some good old-fashioned best friend company right now like I need oxygen.

I had all these great intentions of posting about our Halloween, complete with lots of pictures. But alas, the blond in me(meaning some of that bleach has probably seeped into my scalp and got to my brain) won over and I forgot to put the &*%$#@^ memory card in my camera. so here is a link to mom's blog...SHE remembered her memory card, apparently.

http://forest4thetreez.blogspot.com/2007/10/all-hallows-eve-2.html

I will say that our church's fall festival was a smashing success. Although the craft table wasn't as big a hit as I had envisioned, the kids all seemed to have big fun. We had apple bobbing, pin-the-face-on-the-pumpkin, a cupcake walk, and even a firepit outside where you could make your own s'mores. I sewed Sophie's costume way back in August, and as for my faerie outfit, I made record time...I ran into the Fun Shop, told the owner I was in frantic I-need-costume-now mode, and was back out, full costume in hand, in less than 5 minutes. Once I got rid of the guilt for spending 50 bucks and not making my own costume, I was pretty happy with my Cyndi Lauperesque faerie getup.

Sophie is now sleeping in her big-girl bed. We are still transforming her room;the bookshelf isn't up yet, so I will post pics when it's finished. She has been so thrilled about the whole thing, and so have , in some ways. But it's like any milestone, which I'm sure every mother understands. Half of me is excited for her, and the other half is going, "Wait! Bring my teeny tiny baby back!" I miss my little peanut, who seems to have been replaced by this independent, sometimes stubborn little ball of energy. but she is growing into such a lovely little person, and I get to see her unique personality develop, and that really is a gift.