- Sleeping with a new baby next to me.

- That even though I cut A’s hair, it still looks messy.

- fresh produce to make tons of Yummy food.

-Warm Fruit Cobbler

- a stack of novels as high as my nightstand waiting to be read.

-brothers that love each other.

- a husband that understands.

-new white dining room chairs.

- that 30 mins when the house is quiet

- the 23.5 hours that the house is noisy.

- my vegetable garden.

- the fact that I know someday again I will have time to design, draw and create to my hearts content, but for now its my babies, and all the wonderful that they bring to my life.  Creativity doesn’t dissappear, youth does…

We live in Minnesota so on Sunday mornings when the floors are cold, you are still on your first cup of coffee you grab the nearest pair of socks, for your loved one with cold feet. This pair just ended up being thigh highs on him. I didn’t have a camera handy but I had my sketchbook. He even helped with the drawing – all the atmospheric scribbles are his. Hope every one had a good weekend!

Every day when hubby gets home there has been a new project to show him. They have ranged from Potato Print Fabric, to having all bills and bank info sorted back to the year 2o00 ( Yes he owes me dearly for that one.)  It is all in preperation for our new one in April. I can’t help it, babies are new and wonderful when you bring them back home. Sort of like on Christmas day how you want the house to be all clean so you can just focus on playing with your new toy.  I might as well enjoy the euphoria since I know Reality of having two kids in the house will sink in the next day, or god forbid the first day.  Anyways in quest of all projects crafty and organizational I found this one over at Bright and Blithe’s blog.

Oh so wonderful, makes me even more excited to have a fully finished and functional office in our basement.  Link Here.

My husband loves this time of the year, he goes out on walks just to see what houses put up lights that day, he plans the outdoor lights and decorations and more importantly will decorate the Christmas tree begining to end. I on the other hand am a little more passive in the Christmas spirit.  Today I finished up the stocking for my son that has taken more than a year to finish (on and off disheartening work) and it looks horrible (sobbing and weeping)  I finished his Christmas sweater with all it mis-stitches (did i just invent a new knitting term, I think I did) it has a lovely bit of homeliness to it that makes me think of Christmas’ past. I think of long sled rides behind my uncles 4-wheelers out in bare snow driffting fields.  Christmas caroling at the old folks homes and the pink popcorn balls my grandma Gert used to make. How do you duplicate that feeling you had when you were a kid? How did I see the world as a completely warm and loved filled places for at least one month every year? Now it all about what do I get them, will it be enough, how long do I have to ship this, how do I get it all done? How did I end up sounding like a cynical adult in the middle of Christmas lights?

Winter Comfort by hannahlaura featuring Forever21

I am one of those people who if the online store has a shopping cart where you can visually see everything together, I will be on that site all day long, getting the combo just right. But what about if the perfect shoes are at another site?

Along came polyvore… and I am in love.

So this picture doesn’t even do justice to the big lumpy lacy clumps of snow that are falling outside the window as I work at my makeshift daytime office on the dining room table. It feels like life is starting to fall into place a little again, the first trimester is done, I have a reasonably good balance between freelance design, my own design projects, schoolwork and crafting. Still I live for these moments when Aidan is sleeping, the house is clean so I can work, and my feet are warm .  I do have a home office I share with the DH unfortunatly my desk happens to be where I store all my stuff for my projects so I can quick run and get what I need during the day while watching Aidan. The dining room table makes a much better workspace, room to spread out, convience to check my emails with out closing a child gate after me, and lots of excuses to take story breaks.

My cousins had the best barbie house ever. It had everything from carpet, curtains in every window, to a kitchen sink, more impressive they made most of it. My cousin Ruth was closest in age to me so we always played with her Barbies. But her sister Liz had the Barbie that I coveted, Sweet Roses P.J.

She even smelt beautiful, and I blame that doll for my obsession with peonies. Because even though they said she smelt like roses, she really smelt like peonies on the last days of spring, and her dress looks just like it. I have put a personal plea with kingdom up above to have a dress like this waiting for me when I get there. I know that’s a morbid thought, but its the truth.

Is it possible to live on banana bread, pumpkin bread and my great grandma’s cobbler recipe? Must be because I am. The smell of cooking meat turns my stomach. Eggs frying in the morning, I have to open every window. You guessed it, we are pregnant. The little one will be making it’s appearance hopefully no later than the last week of April. As for now, bear the posts with no pictures, the ramblings and so on. We are doing our best in this house. Last time I got away with making popcorn for suppers during this period. No longer and option, sigh. But the plus side is, my day does have built in nap time which I never got before. So wish us luck!

Its hard when you run across what someone you compared yourself with in college. I just found one of the afore-mentioned’s blog, and feel a little like weeping. While I was busy getting married, buying a house and having a baby, it seems that she created a career and her talen. She now surpasses me in many ways. Its like a tiny bitter pill that just sits under your tongue not easily desolved. What am I making of my self other than a bedraggled, diaper changing hous-frau.  If this post is gone an hour from now you know my self pride ate me up until I just deleted this.

and you turn up with a gem like this, not a single scratch. Sometimes a record is so much better, especially when you are listening to Puff the Magic Dragon. It makes you think of beanbags and cordorouy pants. Really it is great, I would suggest this to all. (Just as a side note, on our record it is just a full bleed photo and the kids are in a different arrangement, with “Mary” coming first. The only image I could find was of the CD cover.)