General

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Get Your Shop On: Shop Special

Hi y’all. Ready for the holidays? I ordered a few gifts last week and was patting myself on the back for being such an organized and early shopper when I remembered it was the end of November and that hardly qualifies as early. Oh well. Every year I have ambitions of the tree being up and fully trimmed and the house looking appropriately festive by very early December. And then I start pushing out my goal date by a day or a week or two weeks. It’ll get done, it just won’t be early this year either.

But, perhaps I can help you get your holiday shopping in order. My etsy shop is online and I’ve been stocking it with toddler skirts and some fun garlands. More fun stuff is in the works, too. And as a thank you for your support, please take advantage of a 10% discount for all ready-to-ship items. Enter code CHEER10 at checkout to receive the discount.

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Here’s to hoping your holiday planning is further along than mine! Cheers!

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Miscommunication

Lately it seems that my son has been drinking a lot less fluid during the day. This is partially a good thing, because for a while I thought we were going to have to keep a cow in the backyard to satiate his endless milk consumption, and I don’t really fancy myself much of a gentlewoman dairy farmer and, besides, the eau de parfum of fresh manure might not be a hit with the neighbors. But this new phase seems to have coincided with his inability to stay in his seat for an entire meal.

Nope, no can do. It’s all about popping up out of his seat every once and a while despite our repeated instruction that he stay seated. Sometimes his journeys from the table are driven by curiosity and general restlessness: he wants an up close view of what his baby sister is eating, he wants to feed her “all by myself”, he gives a matchbox car or two a quick spin, he helps himself to another napkin, he takes a lap around the first floor like an athlete on the sideline who needs to stay loose. Sometimes his absence at the table is borne of stubborn refusal –  a refusal to try something new, a refusal to eat because he’s “not hungry” although he is simultaneously requesting a completely dinner-inappropriate snack, a refusal to eat something he has eaten several times before and liked, a refusal to eat because he knows it drives us crazy when he so refuses, a refusal to eat because he’s three and that’s what you do when you’re three — you know, the kind of experiences that make parents so very willing to fork over cash to a sitter so they can occasionally have dinner without their children.

After that, just by clicking on the Start button you could find out the whole list of all purchase viagra no prescription the websites that you come across and are certified and have the authority to issue licenses that are recognized everywhere. The icks.org free levitra sample taste of the medicine is sweet like fruit flavors and you can easily find a renowned and expert Lyme disease doctor. To live a happy life it is important to buy cheap levitra icks.org preserve it for shipping from Brazil. Some medical order levitra conditions and medications can predispose to Diabetes. With all of the up and down, in and out of his seat caused by distractions real, imagined and manufactured, it seems like at the end of the meal his drink cup is often practically as full as when we sat down, and so we’ve been trying to make a point of encouraging him to finish his drink during meals. The other night as he was finishing up dinner with a graham cracker and a still mostly-full cup of milk, my husband gently nudged, “Graham crackers are really good with milk. You should have some milk with your cracker.” The suggestion was met with a curious stare. I offered my own assurances that milk and grahams are good together. “Yum, you should definitely have milk with your grahams.” (No doubt proffered up in that annoying overly enthusiastic and saccharine caregiver voice that every child eventually learns to distrust.) He looked back and forth at us, still a bit reluctant that we were telling the truth. We renewed our milk and cookies suggestion. Then with a somewhat timid look that seemed to indicate “okay, if you say so…”, he placed his graham cracker on his plate, picked up his milk and poured it on the cracker.

Perhaps we should have been a bit more precise with our suggestion.

Painted Pumpkins and Guilt-Free Moms
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Painted Pumpkins and Guilt-Free Moms

When I decided to leave office work and stay home with my children, I imagined we would do lots of crafts. Of course, in my perfect mom fantasy world, I imagined the crafts would all be linked to various themes I would establish depending on the season, month, holiday, etc. Go ahead, laugh. That is exactly what my friends did when I admitted to them this past August that I had failed at developing a summer curriculum for my pre-schooler that would include a “letter of the week” and corresponding crafts. It’s a good thing they laughed, and laughed, and laughed. I laughed, too, and it made me realize that sometimes I can be a bit ridiculous by setting the motherhood bar a bit too high for myself. Not to mention the fact that I have not historically been a craftsy-type person, so this summer curriculum idea must have been fostered by too much time on Pinterest looking at all the amazing things that real crafty folks pin and re-pin.

This is certainly a much larger topic than I can do justice to in a blog post, but it strikes me how difficult it is for many moms (myself included) to dial back the pressure they create for themselves to be, or at least compare themselves to, the “perfect mom”. Who is this perfect mom that we too often put on a pedestal? I mean, really, if I stop and honestly think about it, I don’t know any mom (or any person, for that matter) that has every aspect of her life in perfect order. But as much as I know that, it is still hard to resist the feeling that somehow you’re not doing enough or doing it well enough. You see the child at the park with perfect diction and a perfectly coiffed mother, and you start that dangerous internal monologue, “I let my son watch three episodes of [fill in the blank] yesterday, and he still mixes up his pronouns, and I’m not sure he brushed his teeth this morning, omg so he’ll probably never go to college, and I haven’t really showered, like the kind where you actually wash and condition your hair, in three days, and…..” Or someone innocently asks if your child has reached a certain developmental milestone and then you find yourself wondering if your child is early or late to develop and googling the heck out of the topic.

I realize, too, that the concern and the comparisons are borne out of the desire to provide the very best for your child. And, unfortunately, the fact that too often moms are tagged with responsibility for this category of “stuff” and likewise blamed if something does fall through the cracks. So a reminder to myself: the perfect mom is the one who loves her children and makes them feel loved and special. Sometimes crankiness and yelling finds its way into the mix; heck, we’re only human. But, letters/colors/themes of the week and corresponding crafts are not mandatory.

All of that being said… I suppose I can feel pretty smug today because WE ACTUALLY HAD CRAFT TIME TODAY! Oh yeah, who is looking like a perfect mom now? Kidding!!! I really can’t take much credit, other than making sure we had the appropriate supplies on hand, because the idea came directly from Ruffles And Stuff.

Are you familiar with Disney and her website Ruffles And Stuff? It’s a wonderfully fun and whimsical site that features her craftiness in a sincere, unassuming manner. She shares generously with great tutorials and pictures, too. When she recently posted this tutorial involving pumpkins, paint, glue, and glitter, I knew we were in for some fun.

And fun it was. My daughter went down for her afternoon nap (so thankful she still takes two naps a day!), and my three-year-old and I got down to business. Once the kitchen table was adequately covered in newspaper, sleeves were rolled up and smocks were donned, out came the paint and the pumpkins. I had made the mistake of telling him about our pumpkin painting plans earlier in the morning, so I’d been peppered with requests to paint for hours.

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This is an easy and fun project, and it pays big dividends with all the shine and glitter. We used acrylic paints that I picked up at Joann; a gold metallic and a coppery metallic paint. We also used (okay, so really, I selfishly hogged and used) glitter glue in gold. I never knew such a thing existed but have become quickly addicted. What an easy way to add some bling to crafts or anything. I’m sensing I may enter into a glitter overload phase soon – thankfully I bought only the small bottle.

We used mini pumpkins both because I was dealing with three-year-old hands and because I admit to loving their miniature cuteness. Every year I’m a sucker for the mini pumpkins, even though I know that on a pound for pound basis they are a complete rip-off! This project would completely work with larger pumpkins since they’d provide an even better and more versatile canvas. There is really an opportunity to get creative here.

I initially had high hopes of getting really fancy with our pumpkins, just like Disney made some polka-dot magic in her tutorial. But I quickly sensed that if I tried to direct my son too much, he was not going to play along. He was happy as a clam smearing the pumpkins with shiny paint. And I have to admit I like his pumpkins better, the way the natural orange peeks through the spots he missed and contrasts with the metallic sheen of the paint. Although, I do love the glittery bling on my pumpkins, too.  Even without special effects or intentional designs, the pumpkins look really special with a simple coat of metallic paint; it gives them an appropriate Halloween glow.

My son loved this project. He was so enthused and enthralled by it that I was wishing I had a dozen more pumpkins. We have a pumpkin-picking date with my parents in a few days, so perhaps he’ll get a second round with the paintbrush soon.

All for a Good Cause
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All for a Good Cause

I hinted in my last post that there has been a lot going on around here. Yes, indeed. Among other things, I’m sewing for the tatas. Say what??

Well, it started out that the amazing trainers at the gym where I work out have organized a fundraiser to support breast cancer research. Great cause, great people, great event. Local to New Haven? Looking for something to do this Saturday night? Check it out – Train For The Tatas.

And then it turned out they were encouraging local craftspeople and other business folks to sponsor booths at the event. Perhaps I got caught up in the moment, riding the wave of enthusiasm as the trainer chirped on about the event to the crowd at our early morning group conditioning class. I decided to spring for a booth to sell some of my creations. You know how you hear people describe someone’s enthusiasm as infectious? Well, this trainer is a morning person, and obviously quite motivational since she’s able to persuade me to voluntarily hand my body over for torture lift, jump and sweat at an hour when sleeping would be my strong preference. I am not a morning person by any stretch of the imagination. Certified night owl.  Apparently this is what happens when I’m allowed to make decisions in the early morning hours after sweating and lifting heavy stuff. Oh yeah, I feel empowered and take on new experiences. I suppose that’s not a bad thing at all!

I’m excited for the event but, I must admit, I’m also a whole lot of anxious. Yikes, putting one’s stuff on display is unnerving. I’ll just focus on the fun stuff for now.

Like tags.

And bags.

And more bags. I donated the clutch and tote bag as raffle items.


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I couldn’t resist playing up the pink in keeping with the breast cancer research theme of the event.

A polka dot surprise inside!

And a sneak peek at some of my wares. Flirty skirts!

Is that a bunny in your pocket?

Despite the anxiety running through me today, which will likely only build tomorrow, I am excited to be doing this. And I know tomorrow night will feel magical – there is nothing like being in a room full of women joining together to support a great cause. Maybe I’ll see you Saturday night?