'09 los angeles blog social

'Twas a lovely Thursday evening of merrily making my way to L.A. to pick up Helen, then moseying our way down to the super duper cool Abbot Kinney Road of Venice Beach. We meandered a bit in the ultra hip area, but our final destination was Urbanic Paper, the place where a wonderful group of bloggers were to meet. 

We were greeted with the most loveliest of places filled with flowers, goodies, and happy delights galore. It was a blogger's dream, maybe anyone's dream, but definitely a blogger's dream. The food was catered by Lemonade, the cupcakes from Vanilla Bake Shop and all was very yummy.

A funny thing that happens when you get a bunch of bloggers together is that everyone busts out their cameras and takes pictures of everything! But the place just looked to too darn cute, who wouldn't take pictures of everything?!!

The place was hustling and bustling with around 30 people chattering and laughing. There were all sorts of bloggers there from wedding bloggers to design bloggers to craft bloggers to photography bloggers, just a big wonderful mix. I got to meet so many other bloggers who are for sure now new friends. This little (but kinda big) online community is really so amazing. We all nerded out and talked blog, design, craft, and cooking together. It was loads of fun! Thank you so much to Oh, hello friend, Parcel Post, and 100 Layer Cake for hosting this wonderful event.

Then, I came home (really late) and the party continued as I opened up my bag of goodies and told my Ben of all the fun I had. I love goodies, especially cause it was comprised of things from super talented people!

There are so many of you that I wish I could get together with too. Seriously. Wouldn't that be fun to nerd about crafting and blogging together?!! What can I say all this stuff is just so exciting! I am a blog nerd that way. 

Now it's off to do some crafting for the weekend. We have a special family day planned tomorrow to celebrate Brave's birthday, so I have a lot to do. I wish you all a wonderful weekend!!! Anyone else have any big plans?

p.s. If anyone is in the L.A. area, our church is having a community picnic this Sunday at Shatto Recreation Center in Los Angeles at around noon. Nothing special going on, but just wanted to have a big picnic at the park. We will have a food stash galore, so come for fun and just to hang out. I will just be there eating and chatting away. Maybe I can meet more of you! If interested, just send me an email. 

my new baby wish list

This is my third time around, and especially since I am having another girl, I don't really need much else for this new little one (except lots of diapers). I happily pass down clothes and all other baby gear that I acquired when I first had True. I pretty much saved everything and I was a no-nonsense baby registry person that I didn't even mess with those unnecessary things like a wipe warmer. The baby's bum is fine with regular 'ole baby wipes. We are just practical people that way. So now that this is our third time, not much else is needed. Though, I do have my little likes and wants. It's not a long list and it is a wish list nonetheless, so it is still fun to share and just wish. Maybe the list will tug at the grandparents' or aunties and uncle's hearts, plus the baby is going to be born right around Christmas, so who knows right?!! 

1. this vintage baby blanket

made by Rachel at Red Velvet Art

2. this wooden rattle

from little alouette

3. this Russian girl bell toy

from three potato four shop

4. this baby play blanket (in red poppies or pink peonies)

from pomme-nyc

5. this flocks of bird mobile

from anthropologie

There is one more thing that I really wish for, but it is a bit pricey, but oh so worth it, so I won't even put it here. Though, I know Rachel has a lovely pink one, but I just want white. This one is on a "dreaming" wish list. There is a big difference between that and a regular wish list. I am sure you all have your own "dreaming" wish list, don't you?

Ah! Ah! Wish lists are fun. I can hardly wait to meet this new little one and see her personality, they really do show it right from the start. Well, I shall continue on my day. My sister is here watching the girls so that I could take care of things, I was out doing errands all morning. I thank God for my baby seester and middle seester, who gives me the best free hair cuts (it pays to have a sister who's a stylist). Then, this afternoon I am headed out to Venice Beach with Helen for a blogger get-together hosted by some wonderful people. We are so excited! I can't wait to meet other people whose blogs I so much adore. Thus, today is busy, busy. 

Have fun dreaming up some wish list and don't forget to let me know what you are wishing for...

fresh supplies

Ah! Such a good feeling. We were long overdue for an art supply replenishment. We are fully loaded and happy with all our new little goodies. Our colored pencil supply that goes along with our family sketchbook is also nicely stocked up. I still want to get some tempera paints and a few other goodies, but I think my most recent purchases will suffice for this bit.

What do we have? Well, we got some new markers and colored pencils from the wonderful German company Stabilo. Then, we got some small-big colored pencils, crayon rocks, and  watercolor crayons from this lovely store (all fantastic eco-friendly stuff). It all looks so pretty in their special little spots. The first night we had them, True wanted to see them before she went to sleep. She said, "Mommy, I want to see my art stuff in my art cabinet." It was a melt-your-heart moment. All looks lovely, just lovely.

We have been doing a lot of doodling with them and things get messy real fast. These little girls like to take everything out of the art cabinet to use. It is a grand mess after all the coloring and doodling is done. Happy crafty messes are the best messes to have.

I am in full force of creating. I have about 10 necklaces to put in the shop. I plan on making at least 5 bags using vintage tablecloths, and a whole surplus of things that I hope I will have time for. I have been bitten by the crafting bug bad and it is about time, since this baby in my belly has kept a lot of new crafting at bay. I am pretty happy dappy in crafty land of late. 

How about you... are you crafting up anything new? Let's all be in happy, dappy, crafty land together!

polaroid tuesday: week thirty

Sunday afternoon at the beach. 

I really wish I went to the beach more often. 

all is quiet

The girls are still sleeping. I guess they were worn out from our full day yesterday, part of which was spent at the beach under the warm California sun. I wish I could still be sleeping, it feels so nice to sleep, but my body is accustom to waking at around 6-7 in the morning. Plus, there is a plethora of things to do, so if I were still in bed, I probably wouldn't be sleeping, but stressing about all the things that need to get done. Thus, I am awake and enjoying some banana cupcakes, which just came out fresh from the oven this morning. 

Today's agenda is ready as I have some friends coming over for lunch and have my list of things to do in the afternoon. Next week is my Brave's 2nd birthday, so there is another list of things to ready for her special celebration, which will probably be a date with just Mommy and Papi (True will be at Grammie's house). 

Well, here is to the start of a good week and cupcakes are always the best way to start, right? 

What did you eat this morning to start off your week? Maybe it was a bit healthier than my choice...

boxed and ready

I am on a cooking thing this week and the latest thing was red velvet cupcakes. Tomorrow will be spent using my 5 bunches of super ripe bananas to make anything banana that you can imagine! Please keep the banana tips coming. As for today, I am going to hand off these cupcakes to some special friends, one of which is the super savvy brain of Oh, hello friend.

Of course, the outside has to be as enticing as the inside (at least, I hope the cupcakes are enticing).

Then, I must not forget to allow me and my baby to indulge in at least one, okay maybe two cupcakes, to get the day started.

Happy weekend all! Anyone have any special plans? Besides baking tomorrow, I will be doing house stuff and then on Sunday after gathering with our church family, we are headed to the beach! 

See you Monday!

fresh basil & tomatoes

We love this gardening thing. Two raised beds are jam full with wonderful things growing. Every night, we spend a bit of time outside watering the beds and my plants as the girls play. Summer nights in California are just wonderful. 

Now, we cheated as some plants already had the starts of what would be glorious pickings, so we had some tomatoes perfectly ready to be picked. I love tomatoes! We also picked some basil and we already had fresh mozzarella waiting. We drizzled some olive oil and indulged. 

The girls really loved it. We let True try the mozzarella, despite her being allergic to dairy (she breaks out in little hives), but she loved it. We had to stop her once the red dots appeared on her face. Actually, both girls loved the tomatoes too, though I am not sure they were so fond of the basil. The basil had a bit bitter flavor. We need to find other varieties to plant that may have a much more appetizing flavor. Any suggestions?

As I look at the pictures, I am starting to crave it. I tell you, it's a dangerous thing to have a pregnant woman looking at food pictures. You never know what I may have to send my husband to the store for next!

We also have a bunch of bananas, not from our garden, but a lot that I bought for church last Sunday. But the car wouldn't start, so I couldn't go, and now I have tons of super ripe bananas. Anyone know any good banana nut bread, cupcake, muffin recipes? I need something to do with all these bananas!

attempt one and attempt two

Scrappin' wedding wednesday stuff until one of my bestest friend gets engaged and we all go into full fledge wedding planning. Then, we will be talking wedding stuff a lot. I must say I am so excited. I know (and she knows) its coming. She isn't suppose to know, but she does, cause her boyfriend is really excited and loves her so much that he can't contain a secret (I hope John isn't reading this). If he is... John hurry up and propose already!

Anyways, so I did get to do some sewing before we left for vacation. I needed a dress cause I am running out of clothes with the burgeoning bump. I know this will sound crazy, but wearing skirts or pants make me nauseous. Super queasy. I will put one on the for the day thinking I won't feel it, then I do, and I end up changing. Thus, I needed to make a dress. Now, I have loved the mociun tie front dress for a long time, but my pocket book doesnt (neither would Ben's pocketbook), so I decided to try and make it. It can't be that hard, right? So I sketched out my plan. Mind you, I am not a pro seamstress. I just learn from trial and error and make things to only fit my body. I finally worked on it and let's just say that my first attempt was big bust.

The dress was way too ginormous for me, even with a big bump, and the pattern was too much, the cotton too heavy. It was just all wrong. It made me look like I was wearing Joseph's technicolor coat! Maybe, one day I will figure a way to make it workable. I am thinking if I get a coordinating solid fabric to make the skirt, it might work. I don't know. When I get the courage to attack this piece again, I will. 

Thus, quite unhappy with my first attempt. I attempted to do another. I was very determined. This time I used a much lighter weight cotton, a bit more tamed pattern, and actually created my own pattern first before just cutting on the fabric. This time it turned out much better.

Ben loved the dress as it hugged the right places for him and it was loose in the right places for me. He was happy and so was I, and that is always a good thing. The dress was worn to galavant all over New Orleans (and the day we found out we were having another girl). I never took a picture straight on, but this will do and another picture here (maybe, you could see more in our four-niversary set). 

I really love the cut of the dress and not only it is good for pregos like me (Rachel, you have got to try it!), but it will work perfectly for after when breast feeding. You just untie the top and "voila!" baby is happy. I asked Ben how many dresses in this style would be too many to make, he said just make two. So I will set out to make another, cause really this dress is too grand. I would love the real mociun, but I can't afford it and this suits perfectly.

Of course it would happen that after my first badly messed up try and this second one, I found a graceful lady who also adores the mociun tie front dress and made her own pattern of it and shared it on her blog (only if I found this first). This time around, I will attempt to follow her instructions and see if makes it a little easier, but having already made one will also make the process a bit more cinchy (I hope). 

Now, to find the time to make another... 

polaroid tuesday: week twenty-nine

I had a simple craving: oatmeal, blueberries, and huckleberry honey. 

Yum.

I finally was able to scan my last two weeks of Polaroid Tuesdays, see them here and here. I will put up my New Orleans polaroids soon.

p.s. Thank you for all the happy new baby girl love! I am really, really happy too! I can't wait to meet her, see her, hug her, kiss her and share her with all of you!!!

the results are in

These sweet, vintage, baby maryjanes that I got awhile back, but have never fit Brave or True, will now have some sweet baby feet to cover. That's right. These special baby shoes are now saved for our new little baby girl.

We are ecstatic and overjoyed at the thought of having three little girls running and giggling about in our home. I guess God doesn't think I am quite ready for a boy and frankly, I don't think I am either. We are in love with Brave and True, and we are already so in love with the newest little girl growing inside me.

Happy times. I am so in love.

back home and busy

Vacations are always busy, especially when little kids are involved, but it was fun and now we are home. Ben and I had such a good time in New Orleans and you could see our pictures here. I liked calling our time our Four-niversary, cause we celebrated our fourth year of being covenanted together. We had an extraordinary time and thank you for all those who helped in guiding us in what to eat and do whilst trekking through the vibrant city.

The girls had a grand time with their Grandmama and Auntia Suzi while we were gone. Their days were filled swimming outside and at the nearby pool. There were lots of funny stories about them waiting for us when we got back to San Antonio. One thing I will not miss was the excruciating heat from San Antonio and New Orleans. I mean 100 degrees at 9 at night is just crazy, I am so thankful that the evenings in southern California go back to 70-80 degrees. I am a just plain wimpy when it comes to hot weather, I am a cold weather person.

So I am getting back to reality slowly. Ben is still on vacation so we have been working in the back yard and finally, surely but slowly, filling our garden. There have already been numerous trips to the nearby nurseries and we are busy little bees. True loves getting dirty, but Brave, not so much, maybe in time. We haven't the tiniest clue what we are doing, but we are reading books and articles. Ben has had some fruits and veggies he has been growing in pots for a few months now and they are starting to bear some fruit. They look so good. Heirloom tomatoes are just yummy.

Over a year ago is when Ben first started this project and it just completed a couple weeks ago. One bed is already full of tomatoes of all varieties and tonight we will be working on another bed (I think it will be full of peppers). One bed is for me to put some seeds for flowers that can be cut and taken inside and another is for more vegetables. Anyone have any suggestions of what to plant in my bed for some pretty flowers? I am really new at this gardening stuff, so I haven't the slightest clue. I need help and I can't wait for their Grandmama to come visit as she has the greenest thumb around. She is a genius in the garden.

I have everything that I want in my head, now I just need to figure out how to do it. We have bought things for one little corner and we just have to plant it. So far I have: bougainvilleas, roses, lantanas, rosemary, and lavender to plant in one little corner of the yard (there still is so much more yard to go). I will share this little portion when we are done. I just want this overgrown, messy, colorful look. Does that even make sense? I want it to look just full and lovely, a sort of organized chaos.

This gardening thing is so intimidating that we don't know where to start, but I guess it will be trial and error. We are reading what we can, but really, I guess just doing is the way to learn. I really hope I have a green thumb. Nevertheless, Ben and I are pretty excited and we are so overjoyed to have found another hobby that we love doing together. We really are a nerded out couple as we love to do everything together from flea marketing, watching sports, painting, and now gardening. Being together and doing anything together is just the greatest.

Even the girls are outfitted with their own gardening stuff as we found them vintage wheelbarrows from the last time we went to the flea market. Thus, every evening we (minus Brave cause she likes to play on the concrete) spend some time getting dirty in the garden.

I better go, as I have to get dinner ready before we head back to do some gardening. By the way, anyone know any good gardening blogs? I am sure you all have a nice list to share!

Soon, I will share some polaroids of our trip and update my last two Polaroid Tuesdays that I haven't been able to do. Tomorrow will also be the last day of Ben's vacation so we are making it a special day of just the two of us together (thanks to my baby seester for her babysitting services).

What's on the agenda? Visiting the L.A. Gift Show, some antique shops, maybe catch a movie, grab some yummy food from this place to bring back the New Orleans memories, and the grand culmination of it all... we are finding out if babyCakies #3 is a girl or a boy. Eek!!! We are excited! We can hardly wait for the name game to begin. I can't wait to share the verdict with you all first thing Monday morning (who knows?!! maybe sooner)... I promise.

Happy Thursday (evening) and probably the rest of the week!!! It is nice to be back...

p.s. I will get to my mound of emails first thing Monday morning (at least I hope). So if I owe you a reply, know that I am super, super behind.

polaroid tuesday: week twenty-eight

One day, they will love the fact that we took this picture.

Being touristy in San Antonio at the Alamo.

on our way

This was us 4 years ago on our honeymoon in Fiji. Now, here we are 4 years later and gonna steal away some alone time in New Orleans for our anniversary.

We leave bright and early in the morning, and without the girls. It will just be me and my Benny and I welcome the long drive, the time alone, and the just being together. I love being with him. I thank God for the 4 wonderful years He has blessed us with thus far. It really is sweeter as time goes on and so much more in love. We will be gone for a few days, it will go fast, and we will miss the girls very much, but time like this is definitely needed. I love my Benny.

I didn't forget about my polaroid to share for the day, but I don't know how to use my MIL's scanner, so that will have to wait until we get back. I guess I am gonna miss Wedding Wednesday too (I am just bad at this one that I might as well scratch that idea). Also, I was entered in a top tutorial contest over at Luv in the Mommyhood, so go over and vote for me! What do I win? I have no clue, but always fun nevertheless. 

Anyhow... have a good rest of the week and I will be back again soon (with regular posting)!!!

polaroid tuesday: week twenty-seven

Seeing Grandmama's garden made us excited to come home and start ours...

I love tomatoes. 

a little late

I did a little disappearing act last week. It was just a crazy, crazy week. Lots of things going on with the house, planning a visit to Texas to see family, then plotting something to do for our anniversary. It was just crazy, then factor in selling a car, well, it was utter chaos. But God is good and proved how in control He is even when things seem so frustrating. 

So here we are now, in San Antonio and having fun, though the heat here takes a little getting used to. Can you believe that it is still about 100 degrees at 9 o'clock at night?!! Yeah. I know. Just crazy! We will be here for the week, kind of, but Ben and I have plans to make our way to New Orleans for our anniversary, but it seems our plans are so fluid that those may change too. Maybe, we won't be up for the drive, we go back and forth. Nevertheless, one thing we know for sure is that this week will fly by so fast and back to life and back to reality it will be for us.

I know Father's Day was a couple weeks ago, but I kept forgetting to share the little thing us girls concocted. It all came together at the end as I was so stuck on what to do. My plan was to make a pop-up book inspired by Lisa Hannigan's Lille video, which I learned about from Danni, but the idea intimidated me. Well, let's just say I got the courage and my Benny loved it. It did take a little time as I guessed my way at making a pop-up book. I hadn't made one of these since the third grade. Along with the theme of the book, we did a little sea themed day and gave him his present at the beach. I sang and showed him the book at the same time. I must say singing at the beach makes me nervous. I was hoping no one could hear. I don't think they could. Then, I ended up having to re-enact the whole performance for my family once we joined them for dinner, which my sister was able to snap a few shots.

Here are the lyrics that went along with the story:

(It followed Lisa Hannigan's pattern)

We went to sea for a day
For his kids wanted to play
In the sunshine and the sand
Holding tightly to his hand
Them he loved, endlessly
Happy are they, and so is he

He goes to work every morning
They stay home, but him their missing
Longing to be in his arms
Enchanted by all his charms
Him they love durably
Love alive and wild, it feels so free

Out at sea in the daytime
All together basking in the sunshine
Laughing together is happy noise
With our Papi he fills us with so much joy
That we love undeniably
All together watching God's great sea

We want to stay until the evening
And enjoy the sunset we love the feeling
And being together we are one
Under the magnificence of the Son
Through this life endlessly
You are our love, yes, it is only thee...

The most important thing was that Benny loved it and the girls really did help make it (a little), they had a hand in some coloring, so this was a team effort. Though, when it came time to perform they kinda bailed on me. I guess they are still a little little. We will have plenty of more chances, Lord willing. If you want to see the rest of the pop-up book, just take a looky here. 

Have a good week everyone! I have a feeling my posting will be quite light as I will be galavanting around San Antonio and somewhere else (maybe New Orleans) later this week.