When:
June 18th, 2010

Where:
Chartreuse to take pictures of new arrivals & do blog post!

What:
Maxi Dress: Target
Sandals: BCBG
Bracelets: Various ??
Scarf: Vintage

Why:
I had to run into Chartreuse this morning and I debated wearing my bathing suit and cover-up since we're heading out to the beach later on.  I decided that no employer, no matter how well you know them, should ever see you in your bikini and cover-up unless you are at a company party.  Even then???
So I slipped on a comfy maxi dress and added a head scarf to amp up the hipster vibe.  Hopefully if I look somewhat hip they won't notice I'm just a mom with a camera that sometimes has to bring her children into said employers to take pictures, and have said children throw huge tantrums while taking pictures.

On second thought, I think I would have been better off wearing the bikini...better distraction than the screaming children.

And beware, this is the first what is surely to be many posts of me in maxi dresses this summer.
Oh and P.S. those are decorated sock puppets that my daughter is wearing on her foot and my son is wearing on his arm.

Guide to Crafting Sanity

First, thank you all so much for your comments on my post yesterday.  Your words of encouragement mean a lot, as always, and I just really appreciate the feeling of not being alone.
So while I may not be mom of the year, there is one thing I can do right, and that is set up some good crafting fun for my kids!  We're big crafters over here, doing crafts at least 4 times a week.  Crazy crafting fools if you will.

This is our craft closet.  Believe it or not, I know where {almost} everything is!

I've been collecting various crafting supplies for the last 3 years, and here is what I've acquired, and learned in the process.  Consider this a summer's guide to keeping the kids happy and occupied with crafting goodness!  Thanks Heather for the amazing summer guide you have provided us with all week long!

First, I am big on ORGANIZATION!  I kept finding myself getting so frustrated with having to reorganize our craft supplies every week because they were just being thrown back into bins by loving grandmas, well-meaning husbands and super fun babysitters.  So I set up a relatively easy system of putting big category items into big bins.  I have bins for:
         *Paint Supplies
         *Play-Doh
         *Miscellaneous Art Supplies

Within those bins I have sepeerated other supplies into labeled Ziploc bags

I have also separated holiday themed craft supplies into their own bags

This has saved my sanity!  Well at least my sanity as it relates to children's art supplies :)

Here's a looky into our painting bins

The contents of our paint bin are:

*washable and acrylic paints

*face paints (this can occupy a few hours)

*glitter

*liquid water colors (these are SO much more vibrant and easy to use than traditional water colors)

*Do A Dots

*fun and cheap paint easels that easily wash up (I think they cost 89 cents)

*package of plastic paint droppers that are fun to experiment with

 Our Miscellaneous bin holds items like:

*Mod Podge

*pipe cleaners

*Tattoos

*glue

*clothes pins (these are fun & easy to sprinkle with glue and then use to hold art work on a ribbon)

*blank notecards (best $9 I ever spent at Target!)

*glitter glue

*stickers (peeling stickers are so great for developing fine motor skills)

*stamp pads & stamps (I pick these up from dollar bins at Target and craft stores)

*cheap & easy craft items that are easy to decorate when I'm not feeling too creative (today we painted the mini bird houses and fans, both on sale at Joann's for $1)

Tattoos you ask?  These keep them entertained for easily an hour! 

The only down side is having to Photoshop tattoos out of a blog header picture (see above for PS'ed version)

One last thing is our drawing table.  I leave out markers, crayons, colored pencils, a few pairs of scissors, glue sticks and a big pad of paper.  I also have been printing out a lot of coloring sheets for free from the internet.  They seem to like these a lot more than actual coloring books, probably because they can pretty much print out whatever character, animal, or princess they like.  My friend Nicole prints out activity sheets for her boys which is an idea I'm going to have to steal soon.

I have found that by always having these items out on hand, the kids draw and color a lot more.

Lately we've also been getting a lot of use out of this learn to draw book I bought a few years back from an Usborne party.  Taylor has been practicing drawing her animals and Sydney has me draw them, and he colors them in.

So that's it!  Happy Crafting Everyone!
But first, please tell, do you have any cool art supplies or crafts we need to get our hands on?  I'm always looking for ideas!

I Am Me

I have been a mother for 5 years now
Birthed two children
I know that is small potatoes for some, you know those women with 4+ kids
But it is more than one, and that says something
For the first 2 years being a mother to an {almost} perfect child, I thought I had it all figured out
Easy-peasy being a mom to a sweet baby girl that sleeps, eats, develops right on course
I said some seriously stupid things in those first 2 years
Gave out sleeping & eating advice to countless moms that didn't even ask for it
I get red just thinking about how much of a know-it-all I was

And then comes #2
Talk about a swift kick in reality's a$$
Care for a piece of humble pie anyone?
Mothers that are lucky enough to be blessed with two angel babies, you don't know what I'm talking about
But those with one of each (easy/difficult) know just what I mean

So now for the last 3 years I have questioned myself over and over
Should I be doing this or that?
Should I be mothering this way or that?
Am I sweet enough, patient enough, devoted enough?
Do I cook them the right meals, do I let them watch too much TV, do I read to them enough?
Should I hang myself by a rope because I am the worst mother in the world because I have spanked my children?
Even though I swore up and down that I would NEVER do that!
Do I raise my voice too much?
Okay let's be real honest, do I yell too much?

And you know what, I'm done.
I AM SO DONE playing these stupid games
The self doubt, the comparisons to other mothers
Sometimes I feel like I've traded cattiness in the showroom for cattiness on the playground benches 

No, I am not my neighbor down the street that never loses her cool
That is sweet as pie
That makes it look so easy you could die

I am Me
And I am all my children need
I can cook, I can sew them pj's, I can take them all over the city and show them amazing things
I have provided 2 bookcases overflowing with good reads
I am sweet enough, I give them hugs and kisses until they beg me to stop
I'm a little rough around the edges
A little harsh sometimes
But they will always know where they stand with me
I will not always coddle them and instead tell them to suck it up
Because life's gonna throw some pretty heavy stuff their way and they better be prepared
I am Me, and you are You and that's just the way God created us

Now enough about Me
Today I will call, not text, another mother that needs to hear that she is wonderful, amazing really
Tell her that one day her daughter will be grateful for the sacrifices she is making for her right now
I will write a note, not an email, to tell a friend how extraordinary she is even though she thinks she is very ordinary

Please, will you do the same?
We all need to be lifted up sometimes in these roles we hold as women, mothers, wives, daughters, friends
Have a blessed day my friends

I Love Pregnant Women

I especially love a pregnant woman with some style and a knack for sewing.
Meet my friend Mary and her two baby boys in her belly.

Isn't she positively radiant? 

And knowing my love of big huge trees, I just had to have her pose next to this beauty in her front yard.

Mary and her family live in a fantastic historic district in Long Beach, on a jacaranda tree lined street.  The houses vary in size but they all have that classic, old feel to them that you just can't recreate.  

I always love visiting her home.

Mary and I met a couple of years ago through our mom's group and I liked her from the start.  She's got a sense of humor, she's witty, and she's patient beyond words.  But what really drew me to her was her love of shoes, and finding an alternative to the mom ballet flat.  There's nothing wrong with a little bonding over shoes right?  She is the one that introduced me to these funky flats. 

Need I say more? 

Besides having rad taste in shoes, the girl can sew, and she's one of those girls that can whip something up without a pattern.  When she told me she wanted to sew the twin's nursery bedding herself, I invited her along to visit one of my favorite fabric stores in Downtown LA.  Over two trips to downtown, and a lunch over the best pastrami sandwich I've ever had, she acquired the perfect blend of fabrics to put together a nursery with the right balance of sophistication, whimsy and sweetness to perfectly suit two baby boys.

Here is a picture tour:

 This is the main wall of the nursery.  

Her talented husband painted this wall twice, after the first shade of green came out a bit too avocado-ish.

Mary has the entire set completed for one baby, and still needs to finish the other set, but she has until August

The handmade mobile was a gift, but Mary changed out the ribbons to suit the room

This adorable decal can be found here

In between mothering a 5 year old son and studying for her Masters, 

Mary got a little bored and used her extra fabric to sew a diaper holder, valances and an accent pillow.  Love it! 

Just for fun I asked to take a peek at Mary's shoe collection and it did not disappoint.

These two beige pairs up above are my absolute favorites.  I can't even take it!

She tried to give me the pair pictures above but I convinced her to keep them, 

assuring her that one day she will be able to wear them again.

I hope you enjoyed this little picture tour. 
Thank you so much Mary for allowing me to come in and snap away.  

I had a great time and I wish you a safe and speedy delivery!

Now Mary says, "Get outta here and let me rest!"

Birthday Wishes and Blessings

Happy Monday Friends!

I woke up feeling great.

So many blessings and reasons to be happy.

It feels so good to feel light, especially after feeling a bit blue lately.

I was discussing with a good group of girlfriends what a strange time in life this seems to be for so many of us.

And with that comes shifts in friendships, interests, goals, places in life.

But this morning I am giving it up to God and trusting that He will guide me.

I put in a prayer request with my friend Rachel.

Did you know she takes prayer requests and posts them every Monday morning?

This way ladies all over the country can join forces and say a prayer for you.

How cool is that?

But what other reasons besides prayer do I have to be happy you ask?

For starters it's my husband's birthday.

In our house that means the obligatory birthday balloon bouquet.

Peet's coffee for 2

And daddy taking the time before his workday starts to play Zingo with the kids

p.s. I'm the only one in the entire Howe family that CANNOT do the taco tongue.  I feel extremely left out.

Happy Birthday Art.  

You are amazing, you know that.

I love you.

In other news.

I woke up to discover I had won a giveaway from Mel!

I seriously never win anything, so it was a little shocking.

I had to keep going back and checking on the link to make sure I read it right.

I am going to pick out these little cuties for Syd, and of course order these for Tay

This week Heather is hosting the Blogger's Guide to Summer

Some of my very favorite bloggers are guest blogging over there all week long, and 2 giveaways a day.  

Hop on over and say "Hi" to Heather.  

You'll be glad you did!

And to wrap up one of the longest Monday posts ever, 

I just want to say thanks to my first ever mommy group.

 5 years ago this summer, I met an amazing group of women in a little class called Baby Dance

They were my first group of "mommy friends"

It was the first time I realized the difference between girlfriends, and girlfriends with kids.

There is a difference, I'm convinced of it.

I love these girls so much.

It was a perfect match-up from the get-go.

We all love to eat and cook.

So what was once playdates every Friday morning at Jackie's house,

is now a once a month day out eating at a new restaurant, or coooking up a feast at one of our homes.

The picture above is from fondue/shabu-shabu night at Jackie's.

These girls can all seriously cook and have the BEST taste in food.

Yesterday we met up at PJ's Abbey in Old Town Orange.

We ate, we drank mimosa's, we laughed, we talked.

Jodi C (there are actually 2 Jodi's in our group, how random is that?) has named us Brunch Bitches.

What can I say, she is Italian and from Chicago, and I love her.

After feasting we went antiquing and shopping through Old Town Orange.

We came upon Blessings, the cutest little shop,

and I picked up this sweet guy

It was a weekend, and is a day to count my blessings.

They are surrounding me every day.

Sometimes I just have to open up my eyes and realize what's right in front of me.

What are you feeling blessed about today?