Monster Park

Today I went to the printers to approve the final proof of my book. I was so happy when he said I could take it with me! The first 30 copies I will be selling at Art Shop, and then I suppose I will have a link to an etsy site to sell it from here. I am so excited! I never would have been able to do this with out the support of my loving husband! He was so helpful with the stroyboard and was such an inspiration.
I am cheesing. ha!

Kunefe

Our family had an amazing Thanksgiving. I really enjoyed cooking with my mother-in-law, it was really fun and not the least bit stressful or chaotic. (what a change in pace for Thanksgiving!) Of course I forgot to bring my camera so we were not able to to take any pictures. Bummer.

Yesterday we celebrated the Eid with my brother-in-law. I attempted to make him a traditional Palestinian dessert, Kunefe. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be, and it was so fun to make. I followed this video and recipe. I thought it tasted pretty good. Adly and Amri (Adly's brother) said it tasted a little different than what they were used to but they said it was still good. Success.
I mean really, anything with buttered phyllo dough and cheese covered with Mediterranean simple syrup and pistachios is going to be delicious.

TuTuTown

Last night I ventured out to south Philly to buy some fabric for making tutus. I found some amazing metallic fabric!
GOLD TUTUS!!!! hello!
The girls gave them the "these are so cool and spin out!" which I took as "good job, mom."
I am very excited to sew the silver and pink ones!
Another sewing success!

Generous People

There are two people in my life that really have been overly generous to me. Lana and my Gram.

When Lana was moving all her "stuff" from house to house to storage unit to truck, she was always giving me things that she couldn't take with her or she thought I would like.
Including the shoes that she "just had to have" that ended up not fitting her when they came, to a coffee table and everything in between. Anyway- I can't thank her for enough and her generosity, it overflows. Not to mention how much love she has shown my kids.

My Gram is always sending me things to help me with the kids. She bought me this AMAZING appliance, cookie making supplies, books, yummy treats, dish towels, Marry Poppins (which the girls are so in love with) and the list goes on and on. She is also so encouraging and makes sure I know that I am "doing a good job" at being a mom. That means more to me than anything- ever!

I hope that someday I will be able to show people generosity like this. If not with "stuff" just verbal affirmation. I have felt the opposite of generous lately- all I want is alone time, things "just for me" and a sense of being alone. Maybe because my life is so full of kids and noise.

Anyway, I just want to say thank you to everyone who has shown me support in the craziest part of my life, now. To everyone who has watched my kids, shared coffee with me, bought me a beer, sat in the backyard with me, made a meal for us and listened and supported me. Thank you.

Busy Sewing

I ran out of materials to sew tutus for Art Shop so I looked around my sewing room for something else to sew to sell. I had just enough batting to sew a small quilt. Thankfully the perfect fabrics jumped out at me and I was able to whip this little guy up today. I am so happy about how it turned out. Hopefully it will soon become someone's very special blankie.

And the Winner is...

Jillian! Way to go! Swing by Art Shop and pick one out.

Jillian Robinson said...
These are super cute and I want one of the striped ones! See you at Art shop!

Getting Jane High

Jesse was out with Ruke for the day brewing beer so I only had Jane and Penny. After their naps we made some chocolate chip cookies (the best ones I have made yet) and I let Jane chow down on the cookie dough. Of course she ate cookie before dinner so the sugar high during dinner was super intense and, well....AWESOME!

I secretly love getting the kids all wound up on sugar. It may not be the most responsible mom thing to do but we sure had fun!





(just a sigh from Penny- I think she though we were nuts)

New Sewing Room

I wanted to post some pictures of the new set up Jesse and I worked on this week. Now my sewing room/ guestroom is in the room at the top of the stairs (Jesse's old office.) I love it!



It is so nice having a window right behind the sewing machine- like having a window behind a kitchen sink.







There is a door that connects our bedroom and the sewing room that I wanted to cover so I could have more wall space. I cut open an old duvet cover (which was a lot more work than I thought it would be) and hung it the length and height of the wall. I think it turned out alright. It definitely gives the room a very soft feeling.




sexy bodice form

Atomic Warheads

So we are finally starting to get to the end of the Halloween candy which means all the weird candy is left. (laffy taffys, sugar daddy's, lemon heads, and atomic warheads) I took this unfortunate selection of candy as an excuse to get my kids to make funny faces and good videos. (umm- awesome)

Madeline's video is pretty straight forward- she doesn't like it.
Jane's video, wow. I love how she keeps smacking her lips. She is so funny! (or at least I think so.)

Look Alikes

I have been growing Jane's hair out...she has been looking a bit "grunge" lately. Cool. (And yes, Jane is wearing my jean jacket as pants)






My sister called this one out:

Wednesday

Wednesdays are the only "all day scheduled" day. My house gets a moppin', ruke goes to school, and at night our friends Justin and Rose come over to play Settlers. Jesse and I look forward to game night all week. This is seriously the only board game Jesse likes to play. I love playing board games but I never seem to play them because, well, Jesse hates them.

Jesse and I also said goodbye to our latest roommate Lana. So long Lana, you are loved and missed already!

We took Lana's leaving as an excuse to rearrange some furniture on the second floor. We moved the guest bedroom/sewing room to where Jesse's office was and his office all the way in the back. (pictures coming soon) It will be nice for him to be a little more secluded during his work day - he works from home - without interruption from the kids. And, it will be nice for me to be able to sew during the day and hear the kids. It works out nicely.

Random- I saw one of these in a Christmas magazine. Ummm- Awesome!!! I wish it weren't $400.

Minivan of Bikes

Last weekend we attempted and succeeded at hauling all of our children around on the bike. I think it gave Jesse some super dad powers. We rode to the bike shop to pick up my bike, then we all rode to church. It really was fun to be able to get the kids around on the bike. Kids might slow us down a bit, but they don't stop us from doing the things we love. (and hopefully they will love riding bikes as much as we do- they sure seem like they are having fun!)

It was a little scary to put Penny in the trailer, but we ended up putting her infant car seat in (with her helmet on) and it was perfect.

Giveaway!!!

Every November is always filled with an intense amount of sewing and crafting for ArtShop. This is the 5th year I am selling goods at this event and I am totally excited. (2nd year I am actually not pregnant! ha!)



The last couple days I have been making Boo-Boo Buddies. They are little freezy packs covered in a felt and ready to be put on a bumps and booboos.



I am going to attempt to have my first giveaway. Leave a comment to enter the drawing. Comments will close at midnight P.S.T. on Saturday, November 21st.
Be sure to have a link to lovermother on your blog or website, if you have one, to be eligible. Let me know what color Boo-Boo Buddy you like and I will be so happy to send it to you!

Cuppy Cakes

Yesterday we made some delicious chocolate cup cakes for our friend Jeremy down the block. He just had knee surgery and we wanted to cheer him up with some sweets. It was a delightful morning of baking and playing, even though we were bound by the rain.



Later on our friend Steven came by with Sage and Fern- which was so fun! Cupcake town. It was nice to see them and see Marni when she came to get them. I love living in the city, how close the people we love are to us is unbelievable. Jeremy and Jenna down the block, Marni and Tray around the corner, 1/2 my family on the same block as us, Leann and Gee a couple houses down, not to mention how most of our other friends live within a half mile radius of us.
I love living in the city!



These are just a couple pictures of the girls while they were waiting for lunch. They are truly beautiful!

Some Always Gets Hurt

The girls and I were rough-housing before bed last night to get their wiggles out. We sometimes play "No one can stop the swinging arm," which is a game that Jesse played with his dad when he was a kid. As I was playing the game last night I thought about how I was going to write about how it is the best arm work out. The premise of the game is: you lay down, swing your arm around and let the kiddos try to stop it. Power work out. I had Jesse take a little video of us playing and having the MOST FUN EVER until....

Silly Internet Videos

Thank you, thank you Dan for linking this website to twitter yesterday. I don't know if I am just not "cool with the internet" but most of these I definitely had not seen.
I am sorry if you have already seen these and they are "old" for you, but I can't get enough of some of these.



This sword video really tied into our breakfast conversation this morning. I will loosely try to translate.

Madeline: I wish I could see Jesus
Lois: Some day you will
Madeline: when?
Lois: Well, Jesus will either come back to our world or you will go see him in heaven when you die
Madeline: But, the bad guys who "got" Jesus will be there
Lois: the people who killed Jesus?
Madeline: Yeah, like the guys in "Bell" (beauty and the beast) who tried to get Beast.
Lois: I don't think they will be there
Madeline: They had swords! What do swords do?
Jesse: they were used a long time ago to hurt people

(there also was a big chunk of this conversation that Jesse was trying to explain predestination.)



The girls personal favorite:



Some other of my favorite ones, if you are bored and have nothing to do all day but watch dumb internet videos:







This one never gets old. Matt Gerig showed me this one 4 years ago- gets me every time.


This one is also from so long ago. Inspiring. I remember watching this video with Lindsey and Danielle until we new all the dance moves! Oh, memories.

Illustrating

Jesse and I wrote a children's book that I have been working on illustrating this week. Yes, it is about 3 little girls named Madeline, Jane and Penelope! I am really hoping that we will be able to get them printed for Art Shop this year. If not by Art Shop, keep them in mind for Christmas presents for your little nieces and nephews, sons and daughters, grandkids and friends.

I just wanted to share one of the pictures. I am very excited about how this is turning out.

Dylan

My girls have been really into Bob Dylan recently- totally fine with me! It all started when I put "Blowing in the Wind" on for Madeline and Jane on a very blustery fall day. Now, they know all the words and sing along.

A couple of weeks ago I was telling Jesse a story during dinner and I told him that I "didn't think twice" about doing something. (I forget the rest of what I was telling him.) Madeline chimed in "Hey mama, don't think twice, it's alright!" How cool is she- quoting Bob Dylan at 3 years old.

It also became clear that they had been listening (maybe a little too much) when Madeline and Jane started singing "Everyone must get stoned" while jumping on the couch. Umm- hysterical and awesome.
I am super sad I missed him play at Temple last night, but I am glad that Adam got to go see him.

When listening "Positively 4th S" I realized I don't think I could be friends with Dylan. I would be so scared that if he got mad at me he would write a super mean song about me. Not so good at reconciliation I am assuming.

Philadelphia Tweed Ride

Over the weekend my gracious and amazing mother in law and sister in law came down to watch Penny so we could attend the Philadelphia Tweed Ride. It was so much fun to dress up "olde timey" and ride our bikes around the city. Our new friend Dan made an amazing rack for the back of our Ute that is a seat for the 2 toddlers and an interchangeable basket that comes off so you can put a baby seat on. It is spectacular. Thanks Dan!!!


Our family minus Penny. And yes, Jane is asleep on the back of the bike.


Trust me, they both were very happy to be on the bike. This was taken right before Jane fell asleep.




Jesse and I found these old equestrian toddler hunting suits for the girls at a thrift store in South Philly. They were perfect!






Thanks for all the great pictures Veronika!

Cautious Again

Madeline and Jane love making music videos to "mamma's band." Their favorite song is definitely "Cautious Again." They know all the words and run in circles singing into their microphones- it is pretty sweet.

I love it that I have my family's support to be in a band. Thanks guys!

Fairweather Fan

I am not going to pretend that I am a super huge Philly fan, but I can't help but get wrapped up in the hype of the world series. It really is super exciting to learn the players and watch them pulverize NY. (lets just hope we win tonight!)

We were up at our friends house last Sunday, and the kids played some ball. It was a little bizarre watching Madeline play baseball in a little jersey and hat- but it was cute. Jane was surprisingly amazing at hitting the ball. I was so proud of her.

Rainbow Salad

My kids are very color oriented. Cups, balloons, clothes, salad- it all has to be colorful. So, I came up with this little recipe. They like to help make it and they like to eat it. (Even if they are picking out two or three of the colors, they are still picking out and eating veggies. Fine with me!)

Rainbow Salad

Red- tomatoes
Orange- carrots
Yellow- corn
Green- lettuce
Blue- gorgonzola cheese
Purple- purple cabbage

Obstacle Course

Jesse captured this morning play. (Yes, I was sleeping- he is awesome) It is pretty amazing how they come up with these ideas! I love how Jane just follows and does everything Ruke does.

Halloween!!!

Halloween was really fun this year. Madeline and Jane were both old enough to really get the concept of trick-or-treating. Our family outfits were definitely a hit! Madeline and Jane were salt and pepper, Jesse and I were ketchup and mustard, and Penny was relish. It was pretty amazing.







Carving pumpkins was also super fun. Each of the girls got to have jack-o-lanterns that expressed their personalities. I think they were spot on.





AND- did I mention the amount of candy the girls came home with?! We had to come home and unload after just trick-or-treating on our block! Umm- off the hook.