i love instant film

Do you?

If you do, then you might just want to enter the giveaway for the polaroid camera in the above picture. To enter, leave me a comment with the following information:

1. What you are most looking forward to in the Spring.

2. Visit my sponsors and tell me your favorite item from one of them. You have lots to choose from... Downtown Girl Designs - SheyB - Warm Sugar - Lisa Leonard - Misha Lulu - HijKids - Orangepoppy.

Those overseas are also welcomed to join. The giveaway will end midnight PST on March 2 and I will announce the winner sometime the following morning. Good luck!

March is coming and if you are interested in becoming a Cakies sponsor, please email me for information.

*****

The winner of the polaroid camera is... Micayla!

Congratulations Micayla! Please email me with your address. And thank you everyone so much for entering it was fun to see all your favorites. I am so glad everyone is excited for Spring on my side of the world and for Autumn on the other side and I am especially glad that my sponsors are loved so, so much!

just one

I am working slowly to put things back in the shop. This little, or should I say big, dollhouse will probably be in the shop sometime Monday morning along with a few other things, though there will only be one dollhouse.

The windows are pockets to hide fun little treasures and little dolls, and the house is about 30'' tall. Here is a bit of proof of its size. It is almost as tall as True!

These dollhouses are fun to make, but do take a bit of work. I honestly get intimidated every time I make one. True keeps asking me for one like Brave's, but I have a different type of dollhouse I want to make her and this one will take a whole lot more time and planning. Maybe it will be a gift for her fourth birthday coming in April. Let's see if I get the courage to make it...

What are your plans for the weekend? We have a few in mind, but it depends a bit on Ben's work and the rain that is supposed to be here all day on Saturday, but don't forget to check back as I will have something good for you here tomorrow.

Happy Friday!

sisters

Me and my little sisters.

We love. We fight. We shop. We talk. And sometimes we even treat each other to a little something something...

Thanks to my middle sister, baby sister and I got a new toy, Mr. Fuji Instax Mini. Even my sisters love instant photography!

I love how now that we are getting older, my sisters and I are getting closer. They even have blogs too... one is a dinosaur called Reinnasaurus, and the other an elephant called Richellephant.

Here is a cute little sister story... When Rein was starting to get older, I would have my sisters come in my room and we would lock the door, blast some No Doubt and dance. I was trying to teach my sisters how to dance (not that I was the greatest), but my littlest sister, RJ, was too shy to dance in front of me and Rein. We would try and try to get her to dance with us, but she would refuse repeatedly. Fast forward to now, guess who is a dance major in college and wants to be a professional dancer? That's right the littlest sister, RJ. Guess me and Rein inspired her (*wink*)!

I hope these three sisters will love, fight, shop, talk, treat each other to a little something something, and even teach each other how to dance.

I must say, sisters are the best. Well, so are brothers, but we have only one and we love him just as much! Not sure if my girls will ever have a brother as I think Ben and I can only make girls.

a little love cake

This song inspired some baking. Thank you Piccolina Designs for sharing it.

Yestermorning, with the song happily playing on repeat, we set off to make our own love cakes in the form of blueberry muffins. I used Martha's recipe, but cut the amount of butter and sugar in half and substituted regular flour with whole wheat flour. It isn't as scrumptious as regular blueberry muffins, but I feel a whole lot better putting these love cakes into my body! Plus, my little girls were quite content with these love cakes.

I am ready to put the song on again and whip up something else. Betcha the song is going to put you in a baking mood too!

p.s. Sophie, would you please come play in Los Angeles sometime?

polaroid tuesday: week eight

I like pretty pictures. Don't you?

you are by far my favorite

I love looking at old pictures. It brings such a rush of memories. This particular one was at the airport on our way to our honeymoon. Don't we really look like we just got married? My heart flutters remembering these moments. When we were dating, I would always tell Ben, "You are my favorite thing!"

I just learned of the singer, Sophie Madeleine, and I love her music. I bought it right away! Makes me wish I could play the ukulele. This particular song of hers makes me smile and think of my Ben because after 3 years of dating, almost 5 years of marriage, with three kids later, he is still by far my favorite.

Have a happy weekend with your favorite!

give me some chocolate

Otherwise, I am gonna end up eating this baby cause she's so sweet!

She has some funny out takes here and here.

I really do want some chocolate, but since I started working out, I am trying to stay away from unnecessary calories. I had chocolate in my house and I would nibble at it, maybe nibble was the wrong word, maybe more like devour it, so I kicked the chocolate out and sent it home with my two sisters. Chocolate is the one thing that is hard for me to have in moderation. I don't think moderation and chocolate go together. Nope, definitely not.

I have spent the last two days finishing up a project and Brave and True have spent it watching tv. Oh boy! If you read my daily, you didn't see a tv time because we don't watch television. Though, these past two days they have and now they are asking me for YoGabbaGabba (did I even spell that right?). So this morning I will let them watch tv one last time just so I can clean up the horrendous mess that I made, but they will not see it again for a very, very long while.

Also, please forgive me if I have yet to reply to your email. I am behind, but now that I am done with my project I will get to those in the next couple of days! In addition, if you ask a question or something on a blog post, check that post as that is where I reply. Good news... I will have some goodies up in the shop very soon.

Hello Thursday! I hope you are a good day for everyone!

polaroid tuesday: week seven

These tulips are a lovely reminder of our Valentine's Day. Though, we just don't kiss on February 14th. We kiss everyday!

Wanna know what a normal day for me kinda looks like? Check out Design for Mankind as I am very honored to be featured as one of their dailies.

See my daily here, it involves a lot of diaper changes! Thanks Erin and Marisa!

he likes to kiss me

Little did I know, that my Friday post was a big part his love day surprise for me. I had no idea that he was gonna make it all about kisses, yet that is what I blogged about. We are definitely on the same page. So Sunday morning, as I was getting ready for church, True and Brave marched in holding a bunch of flowers from their Papi to me.

Tulips.

Then, Benny came in and handed me a box with a note...

In the box, was a dress that he picked out himself. It is now my favorite dress.

Soon after putting the dress on, Ben gave this note...

Which was followed by this note...

And of course a peck on the lips. I was finally starting to get the theme of the day. Then it clicked, tulips = two lips.

All day long, in all different places, I was given a note followed by the appropriate kiss, so there were kisses...

And more kisses...

And even more kisses...

Plus more kisses...

And more kisses...

There was just kisses galore...

I never knew there were so many different ways to kiss, but oh boy, I have opened my eyes to a whole new world of kissing.

I loved each and every kiss. Each and every single one was special and fun. Though, I do have my favorites. One of which is the fireworks, which you both kiss with pop rocks in your mouth and boy does it really feel and sound like fireworks. Amazing. Or the altoid, in which an altoid was transferred from his mouth to mine and it was such a fresh and minty kiss. Another fun kiss was the sip and trickle, that one made me tingle. I could go on and on about my favorites, but that would take all night as there were lots to choose from as there were 35 different kisses in all!

Here is a nice little list of all the kisses:

the fairytale

the spiderman

the altoid

the mini vac

the doggy

the wall

the cheek

the smacker

the Italian

the tiger

the tongue war

the neck

the forehead

the sailor

the soul

the letter

the butterfly

the around-the-world

the lip-o-suction

the peck

the sip and the trickle

the hummingbird

the chin

the chocolate

the virtual

the fireworks

the shoulder

the take my breath away

the lip

the nibble

the hand

the flutter

the whisper

the full monty

the spelling bee

the Eskimo

And here are just a few that we caught on one of my many cameras that we had with us yesterday.

the nibble

the mini vac.

the flutter.

the Eskimo

the sailor.

Kissing Ben has always been one of my most favorite pastimes, but now we get to take it to a whole other level. Tonight when he came home from work, I requested the around the world, and the around the world is what I got. He even told me that he saved a few kisses and that I will get them when I least expect it. I love my Benny a whole lot!

My goal: To have spent way more than 2 weeks of kissing Ben in my lifetime.

scenes from our love-ly day

First thing in the morning, with a gerbera daisy in hand, Ben went to each of his little girls and said, "Will you be my Valentine?" And each of them said, "Yes." Soul said yes in her own special way. After that, Brave and True kept bringing us random toys asking us to be their Valentine. It was real sweet.

The day was a lovely busy day as it was my first day back at church since giving birth, so it was Soul's first time at church. My valentine's request was that we all go to the flea market after church, so galavanting to the flea market is what we did.

We got home in the evening, got some sushi treats for all of us, but fed the girls first, then gave them their love day gifts and sent them off to bed. We wanted some quiet alone time to finish our celebrating, so with candlelight in our room, we spent together eating yummy sushi in bed. This is our new love day tradition. We don't want to brave the crowds and long waits to eat out. We liked being home.

Now, I am sure you are wondering what Ben did for me for Valentine's Day. Well, he definitely did something completely sweet and utterly romantic that it deserves its own post and it would take a bit longer to do, so I will have to share it later, probably this evening. Let's just say that I am one lucky girl and a whole lot of kissing was involved! Of course, I gave a Ben a few little somethings and one of them is this little story.

Hope your day was just as lovely!

better together

The love day gift that I made for Ben using my thumbprints. Can see the complete story here.

i like to kiss him

And he likes to make funny faces, but he likes to kiss me too.

This was us five years ago, a few months before we got married and I think we still do this same hug and kiss. I kiss and he makes a funny face as I do so, not cause he doesn't like to to kiss, but because he must always be silly, especially in front of a camera.

Be sure this weekend there will be lots of kisses, not just cause it is Valentine's Day, but because I pretty much like to kiss him all the time. He just has a kissable face! I thought so the first day I met him.

Thus, have a love-ly weekend! Cause of our big fight last week, I keep telling Ben that Valentine's Day better be good, so we will see. No pressure Benny...

only baby bellies are cute

Mine, um... not so much. I wasn't one of the lucky ones to escape pregnancy without a tattoo of fire all over my stomach. This tattoo was free and was a gift from my three girls, but I wouldn't have it any other way as I love my babies all too much (though sometimes they make me wanna pull my hair out). We all have those days, don't we?

Lately, I have been wanting one solid day to work in my studio and just make things. I have a list of items to try out, but not very much time to do so. I do what I can during True and Brave's afternoon nap, but it still isn't enough time. I have a few projects I need to work on and get out, but I am so intimidated to start. I mean, I have done it before, but I get this feeling every time I have to make another one of these. We'll see if I can crank it out today. Or maybe it is the fact that my workspace is so messy and unorganized that it is leaving me uninspired. I just hate this feeling, though after I am done with the piece, I know I will feel better. I can do it. I just have to start.

Anyone else feel this way about anything?

p.s. I announced the winner on the giveaway post.

sew in love

In December, it was Ben's birthday and for his little birthday gift I made him a compilation of sewn love letters that contain sayings that us girls frequently say to him. You can see the rest of the Sew In Love With You letters here.

Though, we did this for his birthday, it is a perfect idea for Valentine's Day for someone you are sew in love with. All I did was cut white muslin fabric into 8.5'' x 11'' (just like real paper) and sewed in the lines to make it look like real paper too. Lastly, I free motion machine-sewed on each little love message and voila! Love messages for someone lovely and in our case, my Benny is super lovely!