Christmas Card Photos…

… and Rosemary didn't like it much.

I made her a cute headband…

and she was all like,
"Why does this thing have to fall in my eyes, huh?"

 And then she cried. And cried.

and I tried to pull the
"it's my birthday, baby, please cooperate" card

but that card doesn't work nearly as well on babies as it does on husbands.
Either that or she was thinking,
"Your birthday was actually two days ago MOM."

My birthday, by the way, was magical. Between Mom and Dad, Rosemary, Rynn, and Timmy… I got spoiled all the way around. I love birthdays. And now I'm twenty-five, which feels pretty amazingly old and a good age to be a mom of a three-month-old baby.

And believe it or not, we also managed to get one magical family photo for our Christmas cards.

And it wasn't this one.

Thankful.

 (Laughing at Grampa's silly songs.)

 (Snuggling on soft sheets with matching hooded heads.)

(Wearing pearls and chilling out in the middle of our Thanksgiving dinner table.)

(Making happy faces and loving funny Aunt Rynn.)

Our Thanksgiving was sweet
in so many ways.

(Best. Thanksgiving. Ever.)

Ordinary Moments.

In the dreamy in-betweens of life,

when we're humming with routines

and when unshaped happenings are sprinkled 

with quiet beauty

it's perfectly lovely to realize…

 

our new ordinary

is made of the most beautiful moments.

P.S. I was featured as a guest blogger on the Ruche blog this week! Check it out here:

http://shopruche.blogspot.com/2011/11/love-stories-most-beautiful-day.html

Four Generations.

 (Mom, Rosemary, Granny D, and me)

Four generations of girls.

My mom comes from a family of three sisters and no brothers.

I come from a family of two sisters and no brothers.

Girls are kind of our specialty.

And there's few things as sweet as Great-Grandma kisses.

The Book.

Meet Rosemary's best friend.

The Book.

It's an accordion style fabric book that has pretty, baby-friendly patterns on both sides. You can twist it and turn it and fold it a bunch of different ways. (My mom made this. She's aMAZing!)

We don't go anywhere without "The Book". The words, "Did you grab The Book?" are said multiple times a day by both Timmy and I. Rosemary is in love with this thing. 

Car rides, nap times, awake times, bed times – all times have been revolutionized by The Book. It's kind of uncanny how cries can be immediately transformed to smiles when she sees her favorite page of The Book. WE THREE LOVE THE BOOK. 

Our nights look something like this:
9:30 PM - Put Rosemary in her crib with The Book.
She falls asleep talking to it.
7:00 AM - Rosemary wakes up to eat.
7:30 AM - Put Rosemary back in her crib with The Book.
She plays for a while and falls asleep staring at her favorite page.
(Timmy and I sometimes get up at this point and accomplish
great things. But on mornings like today... we sleep in.)

9:30 AM - Wake up baby to feed her.

All this is made possible by The Book.

Familiar Magic.

Timmy swept me away on a surprise adventure to the Fireside theater to see "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" - one of my favorite musicals. The show was AMAZING.

Spending the day together 
- just the two of us - 
was like old, familiar magic.

Of course "Rosemary" was every other word on our lips and it was incredibly sweet to realize that dates with Timmy are even more magical with a darling baby girl to return home to.

Our Autumn Mantle.

 

Since being home, I've enjoyed having more time to spend creating. Rosemary and I have a lot of fun making things together. She chills on the table and keeps me company while I get busy with arts and crafts. (I can't wait until she is old enough to help.) Nothing beats painting pretty pictures while your baby girl kicks her legs and coos beside you.

My mantle has remained mostly the same since I married Timmy and prettied up his former bachelor pad. But now, hours spent nursing on our couch, staring at the mantle, gave me great plans to switch things up. And so, our Autumn Mantle was created.

1. Autumn Canvas Painting

 After designing Hattie's wedding invitations, I realized that the illustration I used for those would make a perfect fall canvas painting. Using a projector, I transferred the illustration onto a large canvas and used black tea bags to stain the white canvas a pretty, natural off-white color. The rest of the painting is done with acrylics. I used to paint all the time in college and then I met Timmy and got completely distracted by his pretty blue eyes and I haven't really done much painting since. All it took was another pair of baby blue eyes giving me the ability to stay home, and my love for painting has been renewed.

2. Chalkboard Canvas

I got the idea to do a chalkboard canvas here. I decided to change it up a bit and give the chalkboard a decorative border. The edges are painted a pretty sparkly gold, and it's quite fun to switch up the chalky writing.

 

3. Feathered Friends

Timmy bought me a cute owl that he named Morpheus. Morpheus and little bluebird are besties and they add a lot of cuteness to our autumn mantle. (And I think they will fit in quite nicely with any future season mantles, too.)

4. Stacked Gourds

Stacked gourds on candlestick holders make me smile. I got the inspiration for these here. These cuties are stacked and held together with a LOT of hot glue. (I didn't hot glue them at first, but then I had the unfortunate experience of having a gourd topple off and land directly on my toes. No fun.)

5. Yarn-Wrapped Vase

I have seen these yarn-wrapped vases all over the place on Pinterest, but don't really have a specific link that inspired me. To give my vase a more rustic feeling, I used natural jute. This project took way longer than I thought it would. Over an hour of wrapping and hot gluing and lots of burned fingers later… my pretty vase was done. I bought some pretty fake fall leaves to put in it. (I briefly considered bringing a real branch with real leaves inside but then I thought of bugs and spiders that might be living on real leaves and branches…)

 

 

Ta-da!

It's kind of funny that I posted this on the day we had our first winter snow. I guess I had better get started on our winter mantle…

Baby Projects.

Baby projects are so fun. They're small, so they're quick to complete, and I get a little giddy when I see Rose in some sweet treasure that I made her myself. Mom and I have been having a blast knitting and crocheting her lots of pretty accessories. My favorites are these tiny baby fingerless mittens:

Seriously. Too cute for words. She looks beyond adorable in them, and they really do keep her fingers warm. I wasn't sure if they would actually stay on her hands, but trust me – it's harder to get them OFF than it is to get them on. You can find the pattern for them here:

http://www.knitpicks.com/cfpatterns/pattern_display.cfm?ID=10544220 

The pattern also includes instructions for some cute cute legwarmers:

 And this Chubbie Wubbie legwarmer pattern makes some flashy rainbow legwarmers:

http://www.knitpicks.com/cfpatterns/pattern_display.cfm?ID=10800220

I call them "Rainbow Brite" legs.

I also knit her a cute bonnet to keep her head warm in the winter months. She looks so sweet in it, and for some reason she doesn't hate her bonnet nearly as much as she dislikes all other hats.

You can get the pattern here:

http://www.leisurearts.com/sweet-layettes-to-knit.html

And finally, the completely adorable cap featured in our two month photos. She really can't stand wearing it, which is a shame since she looks like a flower fairy. You can find the free crochet pattern here:
http://www.aestheticnest.com/2010/07/crochet-best-baby-cloche-and-tutorial.html

Yeah, I kind of spend my days playing with a darling baby girl and knitting sweet projects. I'm officially done with my "real" job now, so "stay at home mom" is my new title. I'm really, really liking this life of mine.

Raw Tacos.

So, the other night we tried a new recipe for "Raw Tacos". Walnuts and spices and oil combined to create "meat". Cashews and apple cider vinegar and lemon to make "sour cream".

I normally get really grossed out by vegans who try to replicate "normal" foods like meat and dairy products using plant based ingredients. Walnuts should not masquerade as taco meat. It seems so silly.

And yet.

This was really, really good. Timmy says it was better than "real" tacos. Mixed with fresh salsa, lettuce, baby spinach, and guacamole – oh, my taste buds were dancing! And, aside from tasting good, you have the additional benefit of this actually being good for you. Raw nuts, green lettuce, raw veggies – a plate full of happy, healthy, raw goodness.

I know this recipe sounds really, really weird. But if you gave it a try, you just might find that you like it…

Find the recipe here:
http://mynewroots.blogspot.com/2011/07/raw-taco-fiesta.html

A Conversation: About Little Hearts

Timmy: So I was just thinking… Rosemary has this itty bitty tiny version of a heart!

Me: Ooooh! That is so cute! A teeny little heart!

Timmy: Yeah, and a little liver!

Me: And a tiny stomach!

Both: OOOOOH! She is too cute!!!!

Timmy: Let's wake her up so we can play with her!

… you could say that we're smitten.