Lit'l bit of sunshine.

Finally! I've been waiting so long to have the time to sew up some of those little [Oliver and S] outfits!


Are they ever cute!

Up till 2 am sewing... zero regrets!


This pattern is the Swingset tunic and skirt pattern. I used Fabric by one of my Favorite designers... [Heather Bailey]. Actually the pink dotties are from someone else but I can't remember who...


Can I just tell you... I am soooo in love with sun flare. I'm not saying I'm awesome at it... what I am saying is, I'm gonna keep at it in hopes of someday being awesome at it :)


I've been slow to reply to emails... and facebook I am trying to avoid all together. My apologies if I've been terrible to get a hold of lately. I just feel like somethings are possibly going by the way side... that perhaps shouldn't.

Like cleaning. We seem to have a fruit fly infestation and I can't find where the problem is coming from. I've thrown out all kinds of fruit, good and bad... take trash out constantly... still they pester.

Today I decided i was going to turn the vacuum hose on and just vacuum them up. I'm pretty good at getting them in mid-flight... once they're gone, off goes the vacuum... turn around... there they are again! They really like my bathroom and my kitchen sink. Oh and for some strange reason my abercrombie jeans. They love those!


And then there's all these things in my brain... decisions I have to make. Possibly life changing decisions... Can't get a focus on them... Can't think through anything.


I just loved this picture. It's like a triangle of cuteness. Tongues. hands. apples.

pretty great huh!


Oh and one other thing... that dress. The one i was going to do a giveaway on, i can't find it. Could it be my current non-cleaning status? I don't know how I lose a whole dress. I do still want to do the giveaway though so as soon as I locate it we'll get that going.


"Mom, can I have a peanut butter and sandwich?" sure baby anything for you...


love your XANADU

Fair warning.

Hehe...


if you're gonna cry during a photoshoot... I'm gonna capture it.

{that goes for everyone}


Local p h o t o g r a p h e r

in search of...


hip new shooting locations!


Any ideas {BIG or small} share share share.


Man alive was it hot today! The news people kept saying we were gonna hit 100...

Indeed believable.


And BTW... I thought I'd mention this one tid bit of dining info. Dos Gringos. Skip it.

Maybe thats not fair since we didn't really eat there but here's the thing...

Chad always suggest this place to eat... I always disagree. Upon further pestering of hubby that never chooses anything i say fine I'll give it a chance.

I must have been wearing my bad idea jeans.

1. We park... Chad steps in gum... (me: told ya so)

2. Upon entering Door closes so fast behind Chad it actually smacks him in the butt. (I'm laughing so hard reliving this in my brain it is making typing near impossible!)

3. Does not smell of food inside.

4. Looks like a miniture golfcourse inside. NOT the arcade area where you might eat food, but the actual golfcourse. Except not at your local miniture golfcoures... somewhere much further away like say mexico.

5. Smells of rusty nails inside.

The one perk is that no one greets you coming in so the staff doesn't actually see you till you're running as fast as you can out the door... oh and don't let the door hit you on your way out!



Oh and the one other perk (for me only) I get to give Chad "the look" for the rest of the day!!

So worth it!

Done.

Ah the sweet relief of being done. And what ever is, is.

Let me tell you about this cake. The cake of doom. Most troublesome cake ever. (Actaully Tawna's cake was nightmarish as well but only for a short period of time )

This cake takes the cake!

Did you hear the rumor that I bought a 10 pound bar of chocolate? That was actually real. See here's a picture.


I got this for the chocolate truffle filling I was making. Did I need 10 pounds?? Well, no. But if ever you have an excuse, any excuse will do... to buy 10 pounds of chocolate I say go for it. This was my logic...

I needed 12 oz. for the filling and probably about 12 more oz. for the chocolate covered strawberries I was making as a gift for the bride and groom.

10 pounds= $39.00
12 oz = $12.00
12 oz. x 2 = 24 oz. (1.5 pounds)
24 oz = $24.00

so 1.5 pounds for $24 of 10 pounds for $39.

10 pounds = smart choice!

Isn't it beautiful?

You know about Murphy's law right.. any thing that can go wrong will. Hahaha that was this cakes motto! It lived and died by it! See these lovely flowers Natalie picked and decorated our table with...


Lovely right? I agree. and a sweet gesture as well. But theres were all these little dots on the cake. I had to make these at least 24 hours in advance with royal icing so they could harden. Have you ever had candy dots? I used to like these as a kid...


These are similar to what I was making. Except mine were purdy because I hand painted them with "antique silk" luster dust. Oh how they shimmered and shone... till Chad accidentally knocked that lovely flower arrangement over spilling water all over them! They did not survive... nor would any royal icing decoration doused in water. It just disintegrates. Don't worry I had spares but the spares were my first attempt which for some reason they were all misshapen.

I didn't get mad. I just chalked it up to it figures

You want to see the cake don't you?

What's stopping you from scrolling down to see it??

Just wondering.

here
it
is
in
black
and
white
and
maybe
a
little
purple...



I know i know it's got problems...

How could it not? I did most of the decorating after I hadn't slept for 27 hours! That right there's more to this grueling story! Ok so per my last post I am sick. Nasty cold. Before I really got started Wednesday morning i got a call from a friend inviting me to a brithday dinner for another friend (happy birthday Katie!) She suggested I take some Emergen-C. I had a few things I needed to pick up at the grocery store before I got started so I picked some of this Emergen-C stuff up.

I chugged two of these... not at the same time.

In the wee hours of Thursday morn (12:30-ish) I freaked out. Like never before. I think it was triggered by the second tier down. First of all the fondant did NOT go on nicely, but then to make it worse I was embossing the diamond shape into the fondant and realized it was not lining up correctly. Which is bad because... A) you can't un-do embossing and B) it's very notcible when doing this particular pattern if your even slightly off, and C) I didn't have enough fondant to re-do it.

So i freaked out. not like regular freak out. Like I need to be put in a mental institution freak out. I kept having this feeling of impending doom. So this is how it went...

12:30- began to freak. (got the shakes real bad and it felt like the room temp was about 50 degrees!
1:00 AM - wrote chad a note.

1:05 AM-woke poor chad up told him about the note.
1:07 AM- Showed Chad the note.
1:08 AM- Showed Chad the cake.
1:10 AM- tried to go to bed.
1:11 AM-there's no way I can sleep. Lay there shaking wide awake. Zero tired. well I take that back, my body hurt... it was definitely tired... brain wide awake!
1:12-3:38 AM- lay there shivering and worried and strangely I had to get up to pee alot. I'm talking the liquids we're completely clear. Figured I was getting dehydrated because there couldn't possibly be any more liquid in my body.
3:39 AM- got up and got a powerade in hopes of not dehydrating myself. Continued to lie awake.
3:42 AM- contemplate scenarios in which I don't show up with a cake.
4:04 AM- Got on FB in hopes there was someone i could tell all my problems too. Score! Jed was on.
4:18 AM- emailed my mom for some pity.
4:19 AM -sobbed.
4:30 AM- glad to see rhonda logged outo FB. I petitioned for more pity.
4:44 AM- went to go work on the stupid cake.
4:45 AM- Chad got up for work. Came to the kitchen. Gave me a pep talk.
5:51 AM- emailed Lori for some more pity.
5:54 AM- watched the sunrise.

and somewhere in between all that I got the fondant on all the cakes... though it did not go well and all fondant was cracking at the top edge of the cakes. I don't know why.

As you can see from the note I couldn't find my fondant smoother... I had to use a case thing that held child's math things like rulers and protractors and what not's. So annoying.

Lori was nice enough to call me when she got my email... I asked her if she would come keep me company while I finished up the decorating...

kind sister obliged.

Talked lots of nonsense. She helped me realize that my diamonds were "handmade" and "whimsical" therefore crooked was okay. I half bought it. Well I had been up for 27 hours you know. It doesn't take much to confuse me at that point.

Kind hubby came home to help me out. He painted some dots for me.

10:30 AM-ish- cake done.

10:35 AM- look at box of emergen-C and notice that it says "energy booster" on it. Things start to dawn on me. can't sleep... got the shakes... lots and lots of pee...

10:38 AM- Say prayer that childern won't poke cake whilst sleeping.
10:39 AM- sleep.

I really loved how later that day when my parents came over to help me out with cake delivery and i explain about the shakes and panic attack, my dad questioning what could possibly be in the Emergen-C that could be a booster of energy decides to read the ingredients on the Emergen-C and find one that he says the effects are similar to crystal meth...

NICE!

I've never done well with uppers. I avoid caffeine like crazy.

And also i forgot to mention that wednesday night we had dinner at 7ish... and I did not eat again till the next evening around 5:30ish. I was pretty hungry.

so it is what it is...



BTW- I don't do cakes anymore. Call someone else!

You should have seen her, she really did look beautiful.

I lay in bed contemplating my day. Eyes closed, brain wide open. All too aware of the cake patiently waiting for me in the freezer.

I stumble out of bed. my head hurts, my nose hurts, my eyes hurt. This can't be happening...

There stands Natalie at my mirror brushing away at her silky smooth hair. That same hair that just two days ago was a frizzled mess. She looks beautiful, i think.

"Natty, you feel warm, why don't you stay home today", I offer.

That's when i see it.


Oh Neti! Am I ever glad to see you today!

and all of a sudden hope fills my day again.

Not to mention there's something about seeing grandma and grandpa that makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. It's no wonder I keep them where I can see them often.



I wonder what grandma's doing today.

i miss you guys...

i HEART vintage

One look at this kids knees and you will know for a fact that Lucy Emma Jane is...


She's totally working the shirt and soggy diaper look. It doesn't get more ghetto than that :)

Potty train you say? {BAH}





I am forever in love with vintage. It was really only a matter of time before I figured out how to get that vintage look into my photography. I just love it!

Megan... I hope you're not mad that I stole your awesome vintagy tab and modified it a little. It is just so adorable :)

BTW my amazing friends... if you haven't checked out shabby blogs yet you really should because there is tons of cute stuff on there! Notice my new background??

I leave you with this...


My little angel.

Happy Easter everyone.

Natty dear, I can C ur undies...

I don't have a whole lot to write about today. Maybe because I'm under alot of stress...


but here is some stuff I've been working on. Thought I'd share.





















all that work rounding the corners and blogger puts a black rectangle around it. *head shaking in disappointment*

NOTE: I was going to take this blogger bash comment off but instead I think I will just credit Jed with helping me get rid of it! Thanks Jed, you're neato.

flickr anyone?

Sometimes an impromptu trip to the park...


is just what you need.


Let me begin by saying that this hat is the very first thing Lu put on after her shower yesterday. So in other words the hat doesn't match her clothes...

her clothes match her hat :)


I have to tell you what happened though...

all because I just so happened to grab my camera on the way out the door for some kiddo leisure time...

A few days ago I joined flickr. I wanted to be a part of this group called "eye candy actions" headed up by one of my favorite photographers to stalk... Sheye Rosemeyer (Which I just noticed shes doing an eye candy giveaway so go enter!)

I posted this photo yesterday...


Then this morning I woke up way too early and checked my flickr... and to my utter surprise there were 2 comments on this photo and one was from Sheye herself! This is what they said...

lisa jordan photo says:
At first glance, l thought this was a bona fide Sheye. Gorgeous!


Sheye Rosemeyer says:
Wow, I totally agree. I thought it was one of mine too!!
(In a good way, I mean!.. Just that coloring I love..)
Gorgeous.
S x

Now you tell me how a girl can sleep after that!


Giddy is the word I'm gonna use to describe it!


By the way... I have absolutly zero friends on flickr so if you have a flickr and you'd like to be my flickr friend please add me. Im so lonesome on there.

Fool. Me.

Today was endless.

endless sewing.

Last week I made Kassidy a dress from Studio Tantrum's "Feliz dress" It's a German pattern and the instructions we're sketchy to say the least. I went to JoAnns for fabric because it takes ALOT of fabric and I was just so unsure if I was going to be able to pull it off.

Thank goodness I found a tutorial online.

Anyway Natalie was dying for one of these dresses, and well Easter is coming up so...

All day I sewed.

Well that and checked my email. What else am I gonna do while I rip seams and gather ruffles? (oh my gosh SO many ruffles)

And then Natalie came home from school. She wondered what jokes we could play on Kassidy or daddy.

And I brushed her off... I'm so busy sewing her a dress you know!



And so the jokes on me.

Because when I settle back into my comfy little tomato colored chair for the millionth email check something is different...

The mouse... it feels weird. Wrong.

And when I look at what I'm holding in my right hand I find that it is not my mouse, but a bar of soap.

And it makes me laugh. And I look back at Natalie, she smiles. And I smile back at her.

Very clever Natalie.