Did I Say Restraint and No More Consumer Posts?

OK and I might have bought these two beauties:

But who the heck can blame me at $3 a piece and $2.25 shipping. She has all earrings for $3 today, not sure what they normally are, but not much, and the quality looks great.

Again, on etsy http://www.beadediris.etsy.com/

Ugh. Garnet Hill Sale

I looooove Garnet Hill. Their stuff is top of the line and beautiful (ask me about their signature flannel sheets). They have these really wonderful sales which make you want to rush in an purchase purchase purchase. I'm doing some heavy duty resisting here today. But I thought I would share with you the great things I FANTASY bought today:

Lambswool/angora/nylon sweater

(I like the peacock color better but couldn't copy that picture for some reason)

Originally $128 Sale $19

Organic cotton hoodie original $60, sale $19

Skate-theme toddler tshirt
Original $28 Sale $4

I'm a master of restraint I tell you. Except for yesterday, when I bought some gorgeous yarn like this:

from http://www.yarntopiatreasures.com/ It's OK though b/c they are having a 10% off on their already super reasonable prices this month.

OK, next post I'm going to shoot for something not so consumer oriented. Perhaps I'll get some pictures of the progress I've made on my pants and some appliques I'm knitting up that just may end up adorning those pants.

Happy day to you!

Hippity Hop, Hippity Hop Easter's On It's Way! Beautiful Silk-Dyed Eggs

Never cared much for Easter. It was fun and all, but I always had this lingering anxious feeling about it. I think due to the Easter Egg Hunt. Too many other kids, too much comptetition to find the money egg,. We pretty much wanted each other to just disappear off the face of the earth so we had no more competition, yet we were all dressed up like little angels and expected to act accordingly. It didn't make sense I guess. I think I only did the dressing up thing once or twice, but it made an impression. Anyway, I'm digressing from my main point, which is holy cow look at these GORGEOUS eggs!

They are silk-dyed with scraps of thrift store silk! You can buy a kit from this lovely shop on etsy: http://www.thejunebride.etsy.com/ Or you can find your own scraps, as the wonderful shop keeper notes, she even generously provided these Martha Stewart directions that inspired the etsy listing: http://www.marthastewart.com/article/silk-tie-easter-eggs

Me and Willie had a great time last year, dying eggs with vegetable dyes we made ourselves, so I think this year we'll try this out. Its gonna be much less messy. Since we have some fantastic thrift stores in our area, I'm planning to find our own silk. It's a gamble though, b/c if I don't these etsy kits may have sold out. She has them up for a fabulous price of $10.50 and free shipping in the U.S. so I'm torn. But I love a good thrift store trip, so I'm going for it.

I think I'm totally into Easter as a grown up person.

Photo Editing with Picnik

A few posts ago I put up a picture of my first Earthbound Baby shirt and mentioned how I was not happy with the quality of the photo.

Well, a quick internet search turned up http://www.picnik.com/ a free photo editing website. You don't even have to register!

I don't know if it's quite as powerful as photoshop or anything, but it's easy to use and I think it made a huge improvement in my picture.

I'll have to do some reading up on my camera and its various settings because I still feel the shirt color isn't conveyed properly, but all in all I'm pretty impressed with the before and after, what do you think?

BEFORE
AFTER

Several days later now, and I'm looking at this and thinking "nah, it still stinks". So I dont' think picnik.com has what I need. Next step when I get some time will be to try out Bing. It's a free download that apparently has most of the capabilities of photoshop. I keep you posted!

The Wonderful World of Food!!!

I had settled in at work last night for a long, long evening. The night before we left at 11pm, so I figured it would be the same or worse last night. At 5:30pm we got the most pleasant surprise of all - we got sent home!!! This just doesn't happen during a session, so I was floating on air when I got home with even a tiny bit of twilight left.

When I walked in the house, this was the scene that awaited me:

Rowdy and Willie doing dishes, Boonie nukking away in the exersaucer.

It just doesn't get much more heartwarming than this, folks!!! Sigh.

The best part is that it was Boone's 6 month and one day birthday, which means....drumroll please....

SOLID FOODS!!!!

We didn't do it on his 6 month birthday as I was at work and this was NOT going to go down without Mama in attendance.

We are doing baby led weaning (http://baby-led.rhgdsrv.co.uk/), which basically means no purees, no nothing involving FEEDING baby. Baby feeds himself. I'm really excited about it and can already see how this is going to be a wonderful experience. We just put small samples of whatever we are eating onto his plate and he goes to town. Stick shapes are best, so he can grasp in his fist and chew on the end that sticks out. However, anything is fair game (minus some obvious choking hazards like grapes).

For his first meal, Boone enjoyed a healthy hunk of Elk steak, spinach, corn, and wild rice:

He enjoyed the heck out of the Elk Steak especially.

The rest he mostly smeared around and wore. But what a great way to get that tactile experience and develop his hand eye coordination. I am super stoked on baby led weaning so far. It was a blast watching him.

Big brother got in the game, hamming it up for the camera, but Boone was pretty focused on the task at hand.

My pumping days aren't over, as he will continue to get most of his nutrition from breast milk. He still pretty much ejects anything solid that gets past his lips, so we have a while til he starts consuming. Right now it's just a getting to know food stage. Sigh my boy's growing up.

Budgets and Signs of Spring

Bigwigs are here today.

Lotsa bigwigs.

Our governor called the legislature into a special session to deal with our 800 gazillion dollar budget shortfall.

We are all waiting to see

how our children will be taught.

Our streets policed,

and our fires fought...

In cheerier news...

GREEN GRASS!

And baby...um....DAFFODILS! Maybe...

Uh oh, oh dear....

Somebody got dressed in the dark this morning.
**giggles and runs off to hide feet under desk.**

Snug Organics, the Etsy Shop That Rocked My Morning

Oh, my, lord. I need I want I CRAVE these jammies for my boys. Made by Snug Organics http://www.snugorganics.etsy.com/ They are perfect in every way.

Actually, this shop is perfect in every way. Simple. They only sell these jammies.
Organic.
The colors!!!! They're all that lovely natural color but with punches of color on the cuffs.
The shop name just says it all - snug. And how!
Oh, it hurts!!!!

So far I've resisted hitting the "place order" button on these $48 gems. But I'm close. I almost did it but diverted and bought a bag of their scrap cotton instead. Maybe that will tide me over til sanity kicks in. I don't know though. If I'm stuck here at work til the middle of the night again, my trigger finger gets itchy and things happen!