Fabric Feather Card

During Evie's naps and after her bedtime today, I was able to squeeze in time for making a couple more feather-themed things for this Fascination With Feathers Challenge at Moxie Fab World. At the expense of house chores. But that's okay, there's still tomorrow.

I should note that I did do one load of laundry that included both my clothes and the baby's clothes, even if the primary motivation for doing that laundry was so I could wash and dry the fabric I got earlier in the day for a project. AND. I watched the baby pretty much the whole day when she was awake because Greg is sick. It's both easier and harder at the same time because she is all over the place with her crawling and grabbing, yet she can play more independently than before.

I think I'll wait until daylight tomorrow to photograph (and post) the paper feather garland, but here's the fabric feather card. I remembered that the fabric I bought a year-and-a-half ago to practice sewing on were feather prints, so I cut out some feathers from fabric scraps for this card. I thought that this might make a nice non-traditional wedding card.



I also used, for the first time since I bought it last year, the Calico White Mister Huey and I like how it turned out!

Hello Hello Feather Card

In French class freshman year, we had an assignment to make masks for mardi gras. I bought a bag of feathers to go on my mask and although I used a few on the mask, the extra feathers have sat in my drawers until recently. I used a couple feathers in my packaging and now, I busted one out for this Fascination With Feathers Challenge at Moxie Fab World:



The rolled paper background was inspired by this:



While I was browsing through friends' pins on Pinterest, I came across this (and I wasn't even looking for feather stuff!), which looks like a neat way to make paper feathers:



If I have time this weekend, maybe I'll get a chance to make some paper feathers. I was thinking they'd look good on a garland.

Queen Creek Olive Mill

A couple/few years ago when Stephanie and Julio lived out in Queen Creek, they told us about Queen Creek Olive Mill, which we found to be a nice little place with fancy extra virgin and infused olive oils, as well as a little cafe. Before last weekend, it'd probably been at least a year (if not more) since we'd been there, as we had stocked up on good olive oil the last time we were there.

Last weekend, since we were already going to be in the area for the birthday party at Stephanie and Julio's house, we made a stop at the olive mill to replenish our supply and found the place - on a Saturday around lunch time in the middle of spring in Phoenix (i.e., nice weather) - to be crazy busy. More than we'd ever seen before. It also looked like they'd expanded their store and cafe since the last time we were there.

It was hard for us to enjoy it as much as before with how crowded it was, although I'm sure it's good business for the olive mill. Greg said he thought the charm was gone and didn't think he'd go back. I don't know if I'd go as far as not going back (even if they did stop serving bread to sample with the olive oil), but in any case, we picked up some roasted garlic and white truffle olive oils, as well as bacon olive oil. The bacon olive oil should be interesting to try . . .

Evie's Nine Month Photo

Evie's Eight Month Photo

Two-year-old Birthday Card

Especially now that we have Evie, I really dislike coming home and having to work. First of all, because I want home time to be spent with Evie. Second of all, after she goes to bed, I value my no-baby time. Tonight, I worked for an hour after I got home while Greg watched Evie, then after Evie went down to bed, I pretty much worked the rest of the night until it was time to get ready for bed. Sigh. I think I'll be tired tomorrow.

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Technically, this isn't an age-specific birthday card, but I made it (and while I was at it, a similar second card) for Gracie's 2nd birthday party. It was probably more for Stephanie's enjoyment since a two-year-old's attention span is pretty short.






Also, check out these sweet cupcakes Stephanie made for the party last weekend:


Stephanie's probably a better mommy than me in that I don't think Evie's going to get cupcakes like that unless Greg makes them, or we buy them. From Stephanie.

Baby Girl Layout

A layout of Evie's arrival.



I've been on an American Crafts kick as of late. The polka dot patterned paper base, the kraft patterned paper, the felt embellishments at the bottom, the little cut out girls' dresses - all American Crafts.

I scanned the hospital name card and her newborn footprints and had them printed as photos so that I wouldn't have to use the originals.

The journaling is straight from my blog post on Evie's arrival. Since it was a long story, I added a flap on my layout that had the photos on top and the story hidden below.

I struggled a bit with trying to figure out what to do with the title, and then it occurred to me that I had a stack of extra baby shower invites from when Stephanie did my baby shower, so I cut out the "Baby Girl" from her invite, painted them pink with acrylic paint, and used them as my title. Worked great!

Feetsies Layout

Last week, I saw a super runny nosed baby in the infant room snag Evie's pacifier and start to suck on it. The teacher washed off the pacifier, but lo and behold, Evie had an uber runny nose this past weekend. Lo and behold, I'm sick again. Just like in early February. Just like in late December. (Only December was worse).

Anyway, I finally set up my desktop studio and man, it does make a difference in the photography.

Here's a layout of Evie's newborn feetsies:


American Crafts woodgrain patterned paper as the base, with the circles cut out from another piece of American Crafts patterned paper and Thickers for the title and initials.

Look at those cute little feet!

Iowa Cafe

Greg and I like trying out little mom-and-pop and/or greasy spoon-type restaurants and after the better part of a year in Mesa, we finally went to try Iowa Cafe. It was good value - reasonably priced with decent-sized portions. The first time we went, Greg asked how big the pancakes were to decide if he wanted a stack of two or three, which the server showed him by making a circle with her hands, but when they came out, they were bigger than expected, which is always a pleasant surprise.

We went again tonight, and this time, I took pictures (because I dislike blog posts without pictures, if I can help it).

Pancakes and sausage:


Denver three-egg omelette with toast and homefries (the homefries are quite tasty):

Evie (maybe the picture wouldn't be all blurry if she sat still like the food):

No Hambly Washi Tape and More on Fun

Earlier in the week, I went to "Etc" (TSFKASE - the store formerly known as Scrapbooks, Etc), the store that I longed consider the best scrapbook store around, looking for some Hambly washi tape. They didn't have it. It was a tragedy, really. I even asked. Like a store person. Normally, I'm too timid to ask anybody anything. Instead, I ended up going with some Tim Holtz tissue tape. I went around the paper section in search of Hambly paper and overlays as well, since I remember seeing that there, but either I missed it or they don't carry Hambly anymore.

The girl behind the counter at the scrapbook store was listening to Some Nights (the new Fun CD) and I asked her if it was good (her answer: yes). We then had a brief conversation about The Format and also about when Fun was at Zia Records in Chandler not that long ago (she said her sister went and it was crowded). Earlier in the year, I briefly entertained the idea of trying to go to that. I quickly put the kibosh on that idea. So quick that it never even warranted mention to Greg. It was on a work night. Shudder the thought of going to bed late on a work night and be tired for work the next day. Annnnndddddd . . . I'm old.


Greg mentioned to me earlier in the week that We Are Young is doing really well on the Billboard charts. I was curious where it sat today - apparently number one! Good for them.

India Oven

For couple weeks, Greg and I had it on our list to try out this India Oven place off Gilbert and Southern, primarily because it had 4.5 stars and 88 reviews on Yelp. We definitely had high expectations after seeing the good the reviews. We've tried at least a handful of other Indian buffets around town (Indian Delhi Palace, Delhi Palace Cuisine of India, Royal Taj, Star of India, and India Gate) and some were better than others, but none of them were stand-out.

We went with another couple last weekend (no-kids date night) to try out India Oven and ended up liking it the best out of all the Indian buffets in town we've tried so far. They have buffet for dinner, which is uncommon because a lot of Indian places only have buffet during lunch. We were also impressed because they had mango lassi as part of the buffet, as well as tandoori chicken and kebab that they brought to your table (it was kind of like those sizzling dishes you get at a Chinese restaurant).

I wish I'd remembered to take some pictures of the food, but I wasn't even thinking about it between eating, talking, and at the beginning, stressing that we forgot to close the garage door to our house. (I eventually called the neighbor's house and their daughter ran over and closed it for us).

Next time, we'll go for lunch. I think lunch is a tad cheaper than dinner (not that dinner was expensive - Greg said it was about $26 with tip for the two of us) and more importantly, it gives us time the rest of the day to work off a big meal.

Evie at 9 Months

Evie turned 9 months at the end of February.

Hiking on South Mountain:

Sharing her pacifier with Greg:

Picture is a bit blurry, but look at that rug burn scab!

Reading a board book:


Greg being silly by climbing into the crib with Evie:

• A second tooth popped out at the beginning of February.
  
• She's started to move along the edges of furniture that she's using for support to stand up on.
  
• I barely rock her at all when I put her down to sleep. She mostly goes down with no or minimal fussing, rolls around in her crib for a bit to get comfortable, and then falls asleep.
  
• I ended up buying her a pair of black mary janes at Target. They are so cute! But then so are her feetsies . . . so then I'm torn on whether or not I should put them on her or let her go barefoot.
  
• At daycare, she tried to put another baby's pacifier in her mouth. The horrors! I stopped her from doing it while I was there, but Greg told me to stop being a helicopter parent and that it probably happens all the time when I'm not there. But the problem is that I saw it. If I don't see it, then I don't care.
  
• About halfway through the month, we saw that she's learned how to clap now!
  
• Sometimes she sees me from across the room, gets a big smile on her face, and then crawls with such purpose to me. Makes me laugh.
  
• We discovered towards the end of the month that she's getting her two top teeth in.
  
• She had an incident at daycare on the 24th where she fell off a bouncer that she was probably crawling all over and ended up with a carpet burn on her nose. It looked red the day of, but then scabbed over the next day.
  
• She's learned to play the keyboard on her walker with her face. Then she'll look at us after she does it to see if we think it's funny.

I don't know that these things necessarily happened in February, but I think at least since the new year:

• Sometimes Greg makes a whimpering noise and Evie will share whatever she has in her hand with Greg (pacifier, piece of food, toy). She's gotten better at handing it over once Greg starts making the whimpering noise, but sometimes still has trouble actually letting it go.
  
• When she drops something (toy, piece of food), she knows to look for it now, whether on the ground or on the tray of her high chair.
  
• She makes a conscious effort to shake things in her hand, such as a rattling toy.
  
• There's a toy that she likes, which rattles, and she found it under the bed. We fished it out from under the bed for her to play with it. While playing with it, Greg hid it from her briefly and when she didn't see it on the ground next to her, she started looking under the bed again.