Butterfly Gardens

 On Monday, Miss C and I took a spur of the moment trip to the Natural History Museum. Despite it being spur of the moment I was pretty well prepared. I dressed us nice and warm, packed water and snacks, carried a nice sensible back pack, and I brought my camera along so I could take nice, blog worthy photos, of my kid staring in amazement at just how big dinosaurs really are. It was all really perfect, except I left my memory card in my computer at home. Other than that the trip was wonderful, and I got a lot of really fun phone pictures of the trip. Maybe not having the camera was ok, it gave me more of a chance to relax and just take it all in.

 

So, these photos are not from that trip. I promised Cordelia we could go back, so hopefully later I'll be able to share photos from the museum. However, this give me the opportunity to share photos from another adventure we went on. We had soo much fun, and I had been meaning to post the pictures but never got around to it. Now looking at them she looks positively tiny- kids grow way too fast don't you think?

  Back in April (give or take a month or so) we went to Brookside Gardens to see their yearly butterfly exhibit. We also went the year before, but Cordelia wasn't really old enough to really understand the magic, so this trip was much more fun. It only costs a couple of dollars to get in, so this will be on our yearly "to do" list for quite a while. 

Cordelia went dressed in her signature look of the time- I had to hide this tinker bell costume when she finally grew out of it. All the people thought she was soo funny because she had dressed like "a butterfly to see the butterflies"

    Try my best, I could not get her to look at me- but in all fairness I don't think I would look at me when there were butterflies to check out.

 

 

I really like the variety of butterflies Brookside has, however from our trip to The Natural History Museum (Where we also saw butterflies) I have determined that I really like moths- is that weird? For the record I don't like the boring plain moths that fly around your security light at night, I like the fancy ones they keep in museums- I guess I am a moth snob. . . The museum includes several variety of moths in their exhibit along with the butterflies. 

One last photo for you before I say good night. I hope you are all keeping warm during these crazy cold days!

Hello 2014, M is for Mushroom

So, I've been a little absent- winter is hard for me, and the last two months of 2013 kicked my butt. So now it's time to realign my focus- that's what January is for, right? I feel like I spent all of 2013 "finding myself" but you know what- really I always knew who I was-I'm just bad at making it work. I stink at goals and resolutions, I normally set too many- or I make them so huge I give up and loose hope in myself. This year I have one goal- I want to be more purposeful, more intentional. I want to teach myself to put the dirty plate in the dishwasher instead of in the sink- I want to teach myself to be aware of myself, be aware of my actions. I want to be more intentional about doing things that make me smile. 

I have great hope and great determination that I can, in fact, do this.

So to start the year off I decided I needed to make something fun! A blogger I just started following (and whom I'm obsessed with on Instagram) No Big Dill is doing a project called sew all 26- sewing for each letter of the alphabet. It's been a LOT of fun to watch, she picks super creative things, her style is amazing, and her pattern matching is a thing of  true beauty. This week was M and for some reason that just clicked in my brain and it became my mission to do an "M week project. 

I had the perfect mushroom fabric laying around, which I trimmed out with a bit of brown cotton and vintage lace. I'm going to have to tack the lace bow at the neck a little better because it's just not stiff enough to hold up to her jumping around! 

She enjoyed jumping around a lot during our little "Photo-shoot"

I let her pick the buttons and she decided that they had to be pink- and I think that it works because they match the light pink in some of the mushrooms. I would have preferred using the little pearl buttons I picked out-BUT I try to make it a point that if I give her an option, I actually listen to her and use what she picks! 

I'm pretty happy with it, and Cordelia giggled with happiness when she put it on (then she gave me a big hug and said "oh thank you mommy!" which made my heart melt). So here is to 2014 being an awesome year- with much more sewing!

A very special announcement!

I have some very exciting news to share!!! I have been moving forward with Robutton, and I just delivered my first batch of dresses to the cutest boutique in Kensington Maryland called Re*Enchanted! The shop owner is such a nice woman and the vibe she has created is just soo magical and I think a perfect fit for my designs. 

Be sure to check the boutique out- she has the greatest collection of items- many of which would be perfect to start to you rholiday shopping! 

Happy Veteran's Day

Yesterday Brendon, Cordelia and I took a trip out to Rock Hall. My Grandfather had invited us to a memorial service at the chapter of the American Legion he participates in. The memorial honors members of the chapter who had passed away that year. This year Granddad was standing in as the representative for his branch of the military. 

I have always respected the fact that both of my grandfathers served our country. However, there was something about the memorial service that really resonated with me, and really made me think about how much of an honor it is to have them as my grandfathers. I also want to take this time to say just how grateful I am to all of the men and women who have served, and who are serving our country.

I also feel really blessed that Cordelia is getting to know Granddad. Grandparents have always been an important part of my life and while it makes me sad that she couldn't meet all of them I love that she gets to spend time with some of them. Granddad is even still up to swinging her around and sitting on the ground with her. 

I think next week she and I are going to take a trip to visit my other grandfather who was laid to rest in Arlington cemetery about six years ago. 

Granddad was mostly just impressed that his uniform still fit- this was him wearing it when he was just 21. Have a happy veteran's day everyone! 

I am not a Domestic Goddess

I have discovered that I am not a domestic goddess, and I am ok with that. I sew well, but my house is kinda messy and my baking these days has been kinda 50/50, and that's ok. 

We decided to make an apple pie as a family since we had all of these wonderful fresh picked apples. I normally don't make pie, my sister makes beautiful pies- the kind of pies that belong on the cover of Martha Stewart, and she has been making pies since she was 10. So naturally I stay away from pie. 

Our pie was a team effort, and at times the process was a little stressful. Baking with a toddler is difficult and don't let blogger photos convince you otherwise. 

I was a little upset by how messy the crust was. 

and by the burnt crust (I put foil around the crust but when I went to rotate the pie, because our oven is a little uneven, it came loose). However, it's ok because it still tasted good, and we made it together. I am not a domestic goddess, and I am ok with that. 

Happy Halloween

Halloween is my favorite holiday. I love the costumes, the decorations, the candy. However, I enjoy Halloween even more having a kid to celebrate it with. Brendon and I aren't party goers so for many years we didn't have much to do on Halloween. I take great joy in planning Halloween costumes for my little family and I am taking full advantage of being able to pick what Cordelia is- I know it isn't much longer before she will want to decided for herself what she dresses up as. In fact I would be surprised if she doesn't pick next year- she has already told us she wants to be a pirate, which I can totally get behind. 

Cordelia was a bumblebee and I thought for a moment that she would refuse to wear her wings- which really surprised me because she has pink fairy wings she loves.

 My mother's church does an activity called Trunk or Treat. It's a lot of fun, it normally involves a pot luck, some fun activities, and then the church members decorate the trunks of their cars and the kids get to trick or treat in the parking lot. Cordelia went this year and had a lot of fun- and it was nice for me that she got more use out of her costume than just the one night of Halloween. 

They had a cupcake walk (participants walked around dots with numbers on them and when the music stopped a number was picked out of a hat, and the player on that number got a cupcake). Cordelia got really excited as soon as she saw the cupcakes but the game was a little confusing for her- the girl running the game noticed and called Miss C's name really fast.

This Halloween I learned that taking pictures of a toddler, hyped up on sugar, in low lighting, is incredibly difficult! 

On Halloween night Brendon and I complemented Cordelia's bee costume by dressing as a Bee Keeper and a Flower! I can't take credit for the idea- my brother suggested it after watching the price is right. Brendon's bee keeper outfit was pretty easy- just a disposable work suit, and we covered his straw hat with a drape. My flower costume turned out ok- but it was the last thing to get done and it didn't really match my vision.

Cordelia's costume was perfect. I was really proud of my idea to use lace as the black stripes and I love how well the yellow of her dress matched the yellow of her wings! Did you have a happy Halloween? Did you dress up and do anything fun?

Apple Picking

My sister Shauna is really wonderful at pretty much everything- in fact she is so awesome that as a younger sister I really have to try not to be annoyed by it. She sews, builds things, knits, crochets, cooks, reads super fast, is great at math- and she cans and preserves things. I posted before about our trip to pick strawberries, and previous to that we went for blueberries. On Tuesday we went to go pick apples and broccoli; this trip I think has been my favorite so far! 

Shauna, Cordelia and I brought my nephew Charles and my dear friend Patrick along with us for our adventure. We went to a different farm this time, which was further away than the one we normally go to, but the prices were better and I really dug the vibe. (We went to Larriland Farm and you can check them out here). I normally don't buy anything from the little stores attached to the orchards but at Larriland I picked up a bunch of stuff for dinner for the rest of the week. 

Larriland grows many of their apple varieties similar to the way grapes are grown so most of the apples are easy to reach. I think apple and broccoli picking is more enjoyable too because the weather was beautiful! We weren't sweating like crazy like we do during strawberry and blueberry seasons. I just love the fall weather- however Miss C seams to have allergy problems this time of year, she has been stuff nose and red eyed since this trip. 

Picking enough broccoli for everyone didn't take hardly any time at all because broccoli is gigantic! I had no idea it grew so big. We tried to grow broccoli in our garden but only got tiny little guys. 

  

I'm not going to lie, I'm kind of in love with fall and I can't wait to make a pie with all of my apples!