Okay, ready?  Ready?????

Yea, I know, terrible look!  Addison absolutely love this!  This picture was taken after her first taste of pears – they must have been sour!  :)  Read on, for more info, and more pictures!

THE INSPIRATION

After feeding my seven month old and her grabbing the spoon and flinging the food all over the dining room – again – I had an lightning bulb moment.  There are times when she refuses to let me feed her with a spoon.  She is gaining her independence so quickly and wants to feed herself.  But when she grabs the spoon, the food flys all over the place, over me, her, the room, etc.  None of the food actually makes it in her mouth.  Frustrating!  She cries and gets so upset at this – she wants to be able to physically assist in the feeding process and she can’t yet!  What to do?

THE IDEA

What if there was something out there that would allow her to feed herself and actually get food into her mouth and NOT make a mess?  Really?  Not something to take the parent out of the picture, just to put the baby physically active in the feeding process?  She would be able to learn how to use a spoon, it wouldn’t be nearly as messy, frustration-free for her, she would learn hand-eye coordination, and more independence.  Now this isn’t meant for a use for all time.  This is meant as a learning tool while she is developing her hand-eye coordination.  The parent will always use a regular spoon, and as baby develops, eventually he/she will “graduate” to a regular spoon.  But for those in between months, when baby is learning and struggling, this tool would be a huge life saver!

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All I have on my Etsy page right now (that I just launched yesterday) are the vintage and repurposed items and 2 hair accessories.  But you can go check that out here:  www.etsy.com/shop/bigeyedbirddesigns

On my facebook page, I have everything that is completed.  The link to that is: http://www.facebook.com/bigeyedbirddesigns

I have a killer amount of things “in progress” so hopefully I can get a lot of really neat things up by the end of the week, on facebook and on etsy.  :)

So excited about all these fun things!  This is definitely what I love to do!  Creating new items, repurposing things from the past, reselling amazing vintage finds…these are a few of my favorite things.  :)

Let me know what you think!  And tell all your friends.  I need all the help to launch this new business as I can get!  And it’s called, Big Eyed Bird Designs.  :)  (explanation later, I promise).

Here are some photos of some of my favorites of items that I’ve posted for sale so far:

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Well, it needs some work.  I’ll probably attempt to sew another one next week.  But, it is reversible!  And I like the fabric.  I feel like we need to be belly dancing on a beach somewhere when I see it.  I don’t know why.  And may I say again that I HATE bias tape!  Probably not the best pattern to pick for my first attempt at something.  But it is held together and I’ve been inducted into the sewing world rather harshly.

Anyway, enough about my hatred of bias tape.  I actually think I will avoid it at all costs.  Ha, I immediately drew a pattern for another bib, with similar lines (think: this bib will hold this baby and she will not be able to tear it off her body) that was without bias tape – so we’ll have to see if it works and if I have any pattern drawing capabilities next week, or this week.  Whenever.

Oh, I said I was done ranting about it.  Let me continue.  My second project was a REVERSIBLE dress!  Notice a theme?  I LOVE reversible.  Twice as many uses out of a singular object?  I’m in!  Why don’t adult clothes come with the option of being reversible.  If only we could all dress like we were 4.  Why can’t we?  Maybe when I master sewing a straight line I’ll have to fix that problem.  I might look ridiculous, but I can cross “successfully make a reversible piece of adult clothing” off my bucket list.  Well not my bucket list.  My goal list.  My bucket list is another matter for another post.

So back to what I made: a reversible dress for my baby who is 7 months old.  It’s a little big.  But it’s beautiful.  Most likely it’ll fit her for a very long time because of the way it is made: now as a dress, later on as a shirt.  I’m estimating until she’s at least 2, maybe even a little older.  It’s way cute.  I might even have to make a pair of bloomers to go with it!

So this is the first pattern and the front of the dress (disregard the button holes, I need to fix those).  Then the next picture is the back of the dress.

Now it’s time for the reverse side!  This is pattern #2 and the front and back of the dress!

So what do you think?  It’s not perfection, but I think I did pretty darn well for my first attempt at sewing a piece of clothing.  Leaps and bounds better than the bib.  Once I “perfect” it, I’ll offer it for sale in my shop, along with a whole line of clothes, toys and dress up stuff.  Or at least that is the plan.  It’s always been my dream to be able to actually make my sketches.  So if I work hard enough, maybe I can make it happen!

Next week (well, this week, why do I still feel like it is the weekend?) I’m going to tackle making a dress for Peyton. I don’t want her to feel left out.  And I’m super stoked about it!  Yay!

Happy Labor Day!

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So the other day, the kids wanted to paint.  All of them.  We have this awesome wooden easel that we bought for Peyton for Christmas two years ago from One Step Ahead – similar to this one (http://www.onestepahead.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=537743&parentCategoryId=85185&categoryId=85231&subCategoryId=117610), but ours is all wood, with a dry erase board on one side, chalkboard on the other, two shelves of storage and a small tray to put your paint, chalk, etc. on.  I think it’s discontinued now.  Oh well, I’m glad we nabbed in when we did!

Well Peyton has a habit of leaving the tops off the paint unscrewed and I have a habit of letting her.  My new motto: Do As I Say, Not As I Do.  I think I wanted her paint to dry up.  Not to be mean, but to have an excuse to try a homemade version.  Well lucky us, it did.  So I went over to handy pinterest and looked at my ever growing roster of crafts on the ole to do list and tada!  How to make paint.  Yes!

When I read it though, I thought I was making actual paint, not finger paint, so I was a tad bit disappointed, but it worked well for our purposes.  I wish I would’ve taken pictures – but if you search “finger paint” on pinterest, you will come across this picture, which I think leads to a blog with more recipes!

So I gave each kid a bowl with all the ingredients which I let them scoop out and mix themselves (ingredients and instructions are on the picture) and I put it on the stove and let it get to the desired consistency.  And my massive collection of saved baby food jars came in handy.  Each recipe filled like 4 baby food jars and I did 3 colors (1 per recipe) so we ended up with 12 jars of finger paint!!

The kids loved it.  It’s all homemade, non-toxic, from kitchen cupboard ingredients.  They got messy.  Real messy.  I wish I had a picture!  They had it all over them, the table and a load of paper.  I think the consistency of it was the most fun for them.  It kind of comes out a little like gelatin, think “jello”, but a little less solid.  But it’s fun to mush around in your fingers and rub on the paper.  And the best part: it was free (minus a few kitchen ingredients) and it cleans up easily AND it was easy fun!

I will caution one thing though.  If you make a bunch like I did and don’t use it all at once, then store the extra in the fridge.  We left ours on the counter for a few weeks and I noticed a few jars had started to mold.  It makes sense but it hadn’t even crossed my mind before that.  It is made out of “food”.

Once Addison gets a little bigger, I’ll even let her participate in this craft.  It might taste bad, but it won’t harm her if she gets any in her mouth.  Ha!  And she can squish and splat until her little heart desires.  :)

I think I may have to whip up another batch…pictures next time, promise.  :)

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Updates:

1.  My hubby graduated from school with his Masters Degree in Teaching.  Yay!  But surprise, surprise, no teaching job was to be in our future.  So what to do?  Only what he does best and has done since he was 14.  Antiques.

2.  Antiques?  Yep.  My husbands parents and grandparents are all in the antique business.  He grew up in that world  and knows all about so many things…especially English Antiques.  Go him!  So he has officially joined his father’s business, they are now 50/50 partners, which is wonderful and scary all at the same time.  We’ve put what little money we had left into this (and my little venture) so we are praying that this is what God has had planned for us all along and that we are doing exactly what we need to do.  He’s in England right now on a buying trip and will return next week.  We’re excited about the future for us and for there business.

3.  I’ve been working on all aspects of “me”.  Not knowing what I wanted out of a career or even the ability to find a job, was really tough.  But we live in a small town and there was just not much out there.  Plus, I have 2 kids and a slew of health problems, so finding the right fit is almost impossible.  But, alas, the sky has opened up.  Taking care of my health is what I’ve been focusing on and though I haven’t noticed a reduction in pain, I have lost over 40 lbs.  Yay!  About 45 more to go and I’ll be down to a healthy weight.  I’m hoping the more I lose, the healthier I will be, the less my pain will be, and things can only go up from there.  On the job front, I decided to do the stuff that I love to do in my spare time, full time.  What is that?

4.  Introducing Big Eyed Bird Designs.  :)  It’s small and a work in progress.  It allows me to take care of my kiddos and work in my spare time, although I try to carve out some structured work hours each day.  It’s an eclectic mix of various crafts, sewing projects, children’s accessories (hair clips, etc.) and vintage and repurposed items.  Love!  I don’t know if it’ll be a success, but this is where my journey has led me and I know God has a plan for us all.  So I’m hoping I’ve finally found where I need to be.  And this is the stuff that I love to do and I am good at doing.  Wanna check it out?  www.facebook.com/BigEyedBirdDesigns

So this is me.  And this is what we’ve been working on the last several months.  The girls have gotten so big.  I’ve worked on me and my husband has worked on himself and figuring out our stuff.  Life is tough.  But we are meant to be and we love each and every moment together and as a family.  I’m going to start posting regularly again and it’ll be like it was.  Just a hodge podge of everything!  A little bit of me and a lot of what I love.  :)

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I hope everyone out there in the blogosphere has been doing well and I hope to join in on the conversations again soon!  And I’ll do some catch up posts to let you all know how everything has been going!  Looking forward to getting back on track!!  :)

It took me a while to remember that I wanted to be marine biologist for a while – probably due to the fact that I looked up to my Aunt who was a scuba diver and I wanted to make a career out of something to do with the ocean.  I loved being in the water and honestly, if my husband and I could move to, I don’t know, Honduras, and open up a scuba diving business to teach tourists, we would probably have our ultimate dream jobs.

I’ve been thinking of other things that I wanted to pursue as a child.  One thing I finally remembered was working for the travel channel.  That would be the ultimate dream job in my opinion.  As a kid, I remember staying home from school and watching Samantha Brown on travel channel and hoping that one day I could grow up and do something like that.  I’ve always wanted to travel.  I’ve always wanted to somehow make that a career.  Or at the very least, have a career that afforded me the ability to travel to my hearts content.

Another dream I never dared to dream was to become a writer.  I never thought I was “good” enough to pursue writing as my friends seemed to always have a better way with words than I did.  And it’s true, they still have a better way of verbalizing there opinions.  But I still love to write and thus, this blog was born.  It’s given me an outlet to write about serious things and silly things and it’s given me a chance to put my words down “on paper”.

So what happened to these dreams?  They just evaporated over time, I guess.  I grew up and started doing things I thought I was supposed to do instead of the things that I wanted to do.  I’m not sure how to get back to pursuing my “dreams”, but I want too.

I’m not sure what my new “dream jobs” are or how to begin pursuing my new versions of the dreams I mentioned above, but I have a lot of thinking and researching to do.  I have a family now so that is something that is a huge factor, but I want my children to look up to me and see passion and be proud.  I need to find my passion.  I need to find it for myself and my family.  So that is another goal that I have for 2012.  To truly find what it is that will make me happy to do with my life.

Do any of you have a dream job?  Are you working in your dream job now?  What was your dream job as a kid?

Ours isn’t as “pretty” as some of the other ones I’ve found out there, but I think my 3 year old did a pretty good job!  :)

Here is ours:

And I found some links via pinterest that led to some other “monster box” creations out there.  Take a look around.  Enjoy!

Ingredients:

1 Cup Flour

1 Cup Water

1/4 Cup Salt

2 Tsp Cream of Tartar

1 Tbsp Vegetable oil

Food Coloring (about 4 drops – however much you want to get the desired color)

Instructions:

Mix all the ingredients in a pot.  Put the pot on the stove and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it firms into a ball.  (Note = it took a while for it to do this.  I almost added some more flour and I’m glad I waited.  It formed into a ball after about 15 minutes of pretty continuous stirring).  As soon as it joins into one big glob, take it off the heat and dump out onto the counter (or wax paper or a cookie sheet – just whatever you have).  Wait for it to cool and then knead it a few times until it is nice and soft.  I started kneading it after about 5 minutes off the heat and it turned into a really soft, perfect play dough consistency.

See?  Perfect purple play dough!

Make sure to keep the play dough in an airtight container.  I’ve been using a freezer ziploc bag and it’s worked great.

Peyton has been playing with this play dough all weekend.  For Christmas, she received a “clay center with play-doh” kit and she has been making shapes and creating all sorts of fun stuff.  Seriously, hours and hours of fun!  Here is a link to the kit: http://www.cptoy.com/cgi-bin/pf.sh/2.0/product.htm?pf_id=CPX-555L.

If you have any questions, let me know.  This is really amazing play dough and my daughter can’t get enough play time with it.  It’s already lasted over a week and as long as you keep it in an airtight container so it doesn’t dry out, I’m sure it’ll last quite a while.

Happy playing!

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Dear Peyton,

I just dropped you off at school where you go part-time.  You love it there, though recently it’s been more of a struggle to get you out the door.  I think it probably has something to do with your baby sister being born.  You probably feel a little deprived for attention – especially one-on-one attention.  Since I’m breastfeeding your little sister, it’s hard to get any time alone with you, though I try to squeeze in as many snuggle and play one-on-one moments as possible while your sister is sleeping.  I promise you, it will get better.  Not only will we have wonderful family moments, when your sister is a little bigger, we will start being able to have one-on-one Mommy-Daughter moments again.  I’m working on planning an afternoon outing just the two of us for next week.  It will be a nice break from all the chaos our house has endured these past six weeks.

I want you to know that I love you more than anything – more than I thought I could ever love anyone or anything.  (Tears streaming as I type this).  You were born to me and your daddy at the exact right moment (although we thought we weren’t ready).  I was on birth control when I got pregnant with you – but it failed.  Word to the wise, when you are on prescription meds when you are an adult – be careful.  I had just had neck surgery and even though I was on birth control, will all the meds I had been taking, you were created.  With all the hell my body was going through at that time, it was a miracle you were created and born problem-free.  God has a plan for you as he does for us.  You are our miracle child and you were placed on this earth for a reason.  And we couldn’t have been happier when you were born.

Since you were born, you have been a blessing to all of those that you have come into contact with.  You have these big bright blue eyes and the most enchanting smile.  You have this uncanny ability to brighten up any room you walk into with your smile and laugh.  You turn strangers into friends instantly.  You have friends from baby to age 100.  You remember everyone you meet – names and faces.  There is a never a trip to the grocery store that you don’t encounter someone you know and we usually leave with you having made a new friend.  All the elderly people you meet – I’m positive that you have brightened there day and probably there week.  You make people just feel better by your presence.  And you are so concerned for people’s well being.  You hate it when people are hurt or sad.  When someone is hurt or crying, you feel there pain, and it effects you.  You talk to them and try your best to make them feel better.  You are so concerned for there well being.  You keep checking on them and there are times, where when someone older has been hurt, that you have asked me repeatedly to take you to “take care of them”.  There was an older lady at our church who fell and hurt her hip.  She had to have surgery.  When you found out, you told me that you had to go take care of her and she would get better.  You say the sweetest little prayers for those you love and know.  You ask God to take care of those you know and love and even those you don’t.  When someone is hurt, you always ask about them constantly until they are better.  And those rare times that you have caused someone pain (like when you scratched your baby sister’s face), you have been so saddened by your actions that you have apologized for weeks and it has brought tears to your eyes on several occasions.

We struggled developing a connection after you were born.  You and me.  Of course I loved you and you loved me.  But I worked all the time and your Grandmama took care of you during the day.  Then most evenings, your Nana and Papa took care of you.  I was out of the house the majority of the time for work – at one point, even working two jobs.  So, when it was just you and me, we struggled with what to do with our few hours together.  It broke my heart when I would come pick you up and you would cry because you wanted to stay with your grandparents.  It kept me at arms length for a while because I was afraid to “love you to much”.  Of course, I got over that, but it took me a while.

Honestly, losing my job, just before your 2nd birthday, was a huge blessing in our relationship.  I’ve sort of become a stay-at-home mom since then.  We have spent the majority of time with each other since then and our days are fun filled.  We play all day.  I don’t spoil you and I discipline you.  But I try to plan something memorable to do with each day it’s just us – crafts, a trip to the park, outside time, whatever it may be.  We have been closer that I ever thought we would be at this age.  Our relationship now is the epitome of what a mother-daughter relationship should be.  It’s more than I ever hoped for.  My heart is over-flowing with love for you.  And now that your sister has arrived, it hasn’t changed, if anything, it’s increased.  I’m so blessed to have this time with you at this age.  I don’t know how much longer I will be a sahm, but I want you to know that I’m truly enjoying and treasuring these moments with you.

You are your mother’s daughter and your father’s daughter.  You have some of my personality traits, but you have a LOT of your dad’s personality as well.  You are kind, gentle, open.  But you have a short-temper and get mad easily (thank you daddy).  ;)  But you love BIG and you have a huge heart.  You forgive quickly and have more love inside of you than anyone I’ve ever seen.  You have a lot of your dad’s talents.  I can already tell that you are musically inclined – you got that from your daddy.  He’s a very talented singer and plays guitar.  And although you are a girlie girl at times (like me), you love to play outside and get dirty, which are also traits you got from me.  I was girlie, but a tomboy at the same time and played numerous sports.  I also did a lot of theatre.  I have a feeling you have a combination of all of these talents and interests and I am excited to see you grow and see what interests of your own you develop.  You are unbelievably smart.  You have the vocabulary of a 5 year old and you’ve been talking in complete, complex sentences since you were 18 months old.  You understand adult conversations without needing a translation.  You understand farsi and can speak it  with your Papa (he is from Iran and I’m 1/2 Persian, so you are 1/4).  You used to know a lot of sign language, but I’ve kind of let that slide, so we are going to pick that back up again.  I love the fact that you are bi-lingual.  And you are learning some spanish at school which makes me incredibly happy.  You are brilliant.  I have high hopes for your future and I know you will do amazingly well with whatever you decide to do with your life one day.

I want you to know how much I love you and that I am so thankful and blessed to be your mother.  I will continue these letters in the future, but I wanted to start somewhere.  I hope one day you will understand how much love I have for you and how deep our connection is.  It’s hard to explain how our relationship has developed and changed since your birth.  But this is a start.  I love you my darling girl.

Love, Mommy

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