A Really Late 4th Birthday Update

I feel like I've been on the go non-stop for the last few months. I barely have time for myself anymore. I still haven't found a new job for myself and I'm beginning to wonder how I managed to take care of our home and work all the same time for the last few years. How did I find the time? I can barely manage to get it all done now and I'm not working!

The Little Monster turned 4 in February. She requested a Ninja Turtles party. TMNT decor was few and far between in February and now, of course, it's all over the place. It's okay, we managed. I made some pretty awesome decor for her and she had a blast. In the end, that's all that really matters.

One of my favorite pieces from her birthday party was the birthday banner.

I designed the whole thing myself and it took FOREVER, but I really love the way it came out. I backed it up with some green streamers and balloons in the colors of the turtles (even though Leonardo is her absolute favorite). I listed the banner in my Etsy shop - you can get it personalized or instantly download it unpersonalized - and it's quickly becoming my new best seller. That's really exciting for me since I'm not working right now. I even expanded it and added a whole printable birthday kit. I'm still kind of glad that I made the banner myself. The party stuff now in stores features the new Nickelodeon turtles while mine features the originals.

So much better than the CGI ones, if you ask me. There's just something that irks me about the new ones and you can't find these in stores anywhere. I did manage to grab some napkins from the vintage section of Etsy though. 

I did use the CGI turtles on her pinata, but that's only because I used wrapping paper. I bought a Tinkerbell pinata, removed the cardboard pieces on the front and back and then used double-sided tape to reattach them to the pinata. Voila - instant pinata! I'm so glad I thought of this because she had been begging me for a pinata for a whole year.

You can kind of see it in the background of the top picture, but I made green ruffled streamers for our living room wall (and they may or may not still be up now :P). I got the idea from Dana over at Made!

A friend of mine whipped up some homemade TMNT cupcakes. They were a big hit and tasted amazing. We ordered some pizzas and I have a pizza baked ziti, too (what TMNT party wouldn't have pizza??).

All in all, it was a good party and M is so happy she isn't 3 anymore. She still asks me every day, "Mommy, I'm still 4, right?".

Hiring Your Kid a Tutor?

Growing up, I had a close friend whose family used to hire him and his sisters tutors all the time. I thought it was funny because we were only in kindergarten, first and second grade, but his parents would hire him tutors for classes we didn't even take in school yet. It was very weird to me that I couldn't hang out with him sometimes because of that.

When I got to college, I thought about getting myself a tutor for a couple of my more difficult classes. We used to get emails in our school inbox that would say things like "search now for the perfect tutor" or telling us to head over to the building on campus that had the student tutors. I even contemplated becoming a campus tutor at one point, but the pay wasn't great and the hours were practically 0. It wasn't worth it.

Now that I'm a mom and M isn't in school anymore, I contemplate hiring her a tutor just to make sure she's on top of all the stuff she's supposed to be learning before kindergarten. Then I think, why? She'll be headed off to kindergarten in about a year and a half. We go to the library a few times a month for "story time" and other "classes" (but mostly just to interact with the other kids). I also try to work on writing and phonics and money with her. Why hire a tutor now when I can do the same things myself?

Have you thought about hiring yourself or your kids a tutor? What decision did you come to?

Pre-Summer Fun { Wordless Wednesday }

I won't say spring because we skipped from 50 degrees to 90 in a matter of days. So we're in pre-summer!

 

She was too afraid to roll down the hill, so she ran instead. :)

Bidets are funny

Have you heard of a bidet? If you live in the US, Canada or Australia chances are you probably haven't. A bidet is a low basin used for rinsing yourself after using the restroom. If you click here, you'll also see it can be a sprayer instead of a basin. These are used instead of toilet paper and are supposedly very popular outside of the 3 countries I mentioned. But I spent 2 weeks touring in France a few years ago and didn't see a single one. So how popular are they really?

I do know that bidets are often a target for humor. I remember in the movie Get Him to the Greek, Aziz Ansari and Nick Kroll sing praises after using Jay Z & Beyonce's his and her bidets at a party.



Comedian Bill Dwyer has a whole skit about using a bidet.



Bidet humor isn't a recent development. The first time I ever heard of a bidet was in the 1986 movie, Crocodile Dundee. Bidet, Mate!



I don't know what it is about a bidet that makes it so funny. I guess because we don't have them here in the US? I know I've never seen one. Have you? Have you used one before? I think I'd give it a whirl if I ever came across one.

Computer Crashes + Data Backups

In our digital world, everything nowadays is being stored on computers. From pictures to music to videos. Everything. One of the worst feelings in the world for me was the day my computer crashed last year. I tried everything I could think of to bring it back up, but it was a no go. I lost hundreds of pictures of the little monster when she was born. Thankfully, I had uploaded most of them to Facebook, so I was able to re-save them, but I still lost the original, untouched copies (because who doesn't touch up their photos?).

Ever since that crash, I've been making sure to back up my pictures and anything important (patterns, documents, etc) on either and external hard drive or even in my email. I've been thinking about getting a larger external hard drive or other storage device that I can just plug in and copy stuff over to. I have 2 right now, but I'd rather have 1 bigger one. Maybe not something quite as big as Backblaze Storage, but that is pretty cool. I think if I ever start doing graphic design more seriously I may have to look into that kind of storage pod to keep my work on. I think I need to upgrade my way outdated desktop computer before getting a new storage device though.

What do you guys use to back up your data? Flash drives? External Hard drives? A good old floppy disk? Oh, the days of floppy disks. I had hundreds of those guys. haha.

Spring Subway Art { Freebie! }

I know it's been a long while since I've posted an update about my life. Life has been crazy and not in a good way. I haven't really been too up to talking about it lately, but I'm hoping to get a real post up sometime soon with some updates.

In the meantime, I've been trying to get back into graphic design more seriously. If you've been to my Etsy shop in the last month or so, you may have noticed a bunch of Ninja Turtle themed birthday printables listed. I originally designed those for M's 4th birthday party last month. People are loving them. So, keep an eye out and you may see some birthday packs popping up there more often.

A friend of mine asked me to design her a bunting that says Happy Easter and a Spring Subway Art for her home. You can find the Easter bunting here, but I thought I'd post up the Subway Art for you guys for free, just in case anyone wanted it. It's inspired by a piece she saw on Pinterest, but that we couldn't find available for download or purchase anywhere.

Download the pdf here!

If you guys use it, I'd love to know or see some photos of it in your home!

Going Back to School

When I was in school, one of my least favorite times of the year was exam time. All of the studying and stress that goes along with it. What if you study the wrong thing? What if you don't study enough? What about that 1 class you missed and couldn't get notes for? I think this is one of the biggest reasons why I decided against becoming a teacher. I didn't want to deal with all of the next step test prep work. I didn't want to take the GRE's. I was too afraid to fail and waste all of that money and I most definitely didn't want to hire a GRE prep tutor.

Instead, I stuck to what I knew. I studying French and German. I lucked out, too. There were no thesis' to write or dissertations. The biggest paper I wrote was for a French lit class I had. I wrote about a French novel I read about Marie Antoinette. I think it was, maybe, 5 pages long. That's it. That's the longest paper I ever had to write. There were no other final projects or anything of the sort.

Now, here I am, 5 years out of college, contemplating going back. Am I crazy? I still hate taking tests. I still hate physically going to class and I still hate homework. Why would I even want to go back? I guess I just want to see if I can actually make something of myself.

A Weight Loss Update

I realized I haven't done a weight loss update since last March. That's nearly a year ago. It's also around the time I had my miscarriage, so I guess that makes sense, in a way. I gained a lot of weight back before/during/after my miscarriage (it was early, I didn't even know I was pregnant, no worries), but I seem to be back on the right track again now.

I'm adjusting some of my start/end totals. I started "weighing in" around 220lbs originally, but my highest weight was 250+ (I didn't have a scale). I'm going to mark down 250, just so that I have it on the record.

HEAVIEST WEIGHT: 250

STARTING WEIGHT: 220
LAST WEIGH-IN WEIGHT (8/28): 210
CURRENT WEIGHT: 179.4
LOSS/GAIN: - 30.6
TOTAL LOSS TO DATE: - 70.6

MEASUREMENTS (arm pits, chest, waist, stomach, hips, butt, thigh)
STARTING: 36" - 42.5" - 31" - 38" - 40" - 44" - 24.5"
LAST (8/28): 37.5" - 41.5" - 31" - 40" - 43" - [  ] - 24"
CURRENT: 35" - 40" - 29.5" - 36" - 38" - 41" - 23"
LOSS: 2.5" -  1.5" - 1.5" - 4" - 5" - [  ] - 1" 
TOTAL LOSS TO DATE: 1" -  2.5" - 1.5" - 2" - 2" - 3" - 1.5"

 

GOAL BY APRIL 6: 170

GOAL BY JULY 1: 140

Obviously, I hit a high point again last year during my miscarriage. My stomach & hip measurements were the highest they had ever been. I've been on a steady decline for the last few months. I've been counting my calories, eating smaller portions and trying to be more active.

My sister is getting married at the beginning of April and I'd like to be down to 170 by then. That's about 10lbs in the next 6 weeks. I lost about 20lbs in the last 2 months alone, so I think that I can do it. I'd also like to hit 140 by June 1. That's 30lbs in 18 weeks. If I can get there sooner, though, I'd be ecstatic. Once I hit 140, I plan to switch from weight loss to toning.

"Bad" Kids & Unwanted Parenting Advice

Have you ever been the recipient of unwanted parenting advice? Of course you have. We all have. Usually, if it's from a stranger or acquaintance, you can just take it with a grain of salt and move on with your life, but what about when it's someone you know and are pretty close to?

Recently, we drove up north so that I could visit with a friend of mine from college while J & M went to visit with a family member. Apparently, M wasn't on her best behavior. There was some attitude and some hitting & kicking and she wound up in time out most of the 6 hours she was there... or so she tells me. Yes, hitting and kicking is wrong, but no one could tell me WHY she was doing these things. So I asked her.

Hey, what do you do while you were there?
 Nothing.... I sitted in timeout at the table.

That's it? 
No, sometimes I sitted on the couch.

Did you play?

I played Strawberry Shortcake toys, but some were lost.

Did anyone play with you?
 No... I played by myself.

Where was everyone else?

They were sitting at the table talking.

The whole time?
 Yes. 
So you did nothing the whole time you were there?

I eated dinner....

Did they talk to you?

They told me to sit in time out.

And that's it?

Yes.   

I asked her these questions repeatedly for an hour last night and the story was always the same. In 6 hours, she sat in time out, she played with a toy that was missing pieces and she ate dinner. That's it.

The family member sent me a long email a few days later telling me how bad my child is and how I need to learn how to discipline her properly.  They went so far as to say I need to use forms of corporal punishment, aside from spanking, for behavior modification. 1) I HATE corporal punishment, especially for behavior modification. I am very strongly opposed to it. and 2) I'm sorry, but if I were 3 years old and I had nothing to do but sit down on a couch watching a tv show that I really don't want to watch for 6 hours, I'd probably be "bad", too. Yes, hitting and kicking is wrong, but so is ignoring a child that you beg to have come to your house more often.

This particular family member drives down to our house once a year for M's birthday and every other time, we drive up there. So it winds up being mainly holidays since it's difficult to travel 2 hours with a young child. The family member begs us to come up more often, but every time we're there, she primarily talks to J and that's it. And now when I leave them there without me, apparently my daughter is neglected. We leave M with my sister fairly frequently and she has never had a problem with her being "bad". She has never had to put her in time out or discipline her. She has never given me a bad report. 

To make matters worse, this family member is now telling other uninvolved people how bad my child is. So answer me this, why would I bring her up more often just to be ignored and then labeled as bad when she tries to get attention? It's not hard to grab a sheet of paper and a pen and play tic-tac-toe or a deck of cards for go fish. Needless to say, I won't be letting M go up there without me for a long time.

Has anyone else been in this situation before? How did you handle it?

Pinecone Wreath { DIY }

In the fall, I had high hopes of creating a beautiful acorn wreath similar to this one from Dana at Made. Unfortunately, that never happened. I love the way the wreath looks with the long acorns and as hard as I looked, I just couldn't find any. I guess we only have the standard short acorns around here and I couldn't get it to look the way I wanted it to with those. So, I put away the foam wreaths I bought for another time. Last month, I fell in love with some beautiful pinecone wreaths I found on pinterest (find me here) and decided I could do that! The only problem? My wreath was relatively small - only about 9.5" in diameter. I decided to try anyway.

I lucked out this time. There are quite a few pine trees outside our apartment and in the parking lot. The ones behind us were only producing the large pinecones, but the ones out front had some small ones. Perfect!

After a bike ride, the little monster and I decided to bring some home. We piled them into her little princess carriage attached to her bike and made our way back. They wound up sitting on my dining room table for a few days before I got around to going through them, but I'm so glad I did. The wreath turned out beautifully. The red "berries" are small wooden beads that I wrapped in red fabric leftover from M's Christmas picture dress.

 You will need:

• foam wreath (mine was approximately 9.5" in diameter)
• brown spray paint (or brown fabric/yarn)
• appropriately sized pinecones for your wreath
• small/medium wooden beads
• red fabric
• hot glue

To start, spray paint or cover your wreath in brown yarn or fabric. I lucked out here. I found mine in the Target dollar section back in September or October and it was already brown. You could do other colors, but the brown will make the gaps between the pinecones less noticeable. If you spray paint it, make sure to let it dry completely.

Once your wreath is ready, start at the inside. I angled my pinecones up and to the right a little bit. After gluing the first pinecone to the wreath, make sure to glue the rest to the wreath and the pinecone(s) next to it. This will make them more secure and less likely to fall off.

When you've attached all of your pinecones to the inside of the ring, move to the outside. With my wreath flat on the table (or other work surface), I glued the pinecones flat in a circle around it. Gluing both to the wreath and gluing the ends to the pinecone in front of and behind it. I did not angle these at all.

Now it's time to work on the middle of the ring. You're going to lay your pinecones in alternating directions. I began with the head of my pinecone angling diagonal to the bottom right and then glued the next one angled up and to the left. I continued in this fashion all the way around. Since my wreath was kind of small, the small pinecones reached almost all the way across. You will have some gaps, this is okay. At this point, I even purposely left some "bead" sized gaps. To make sure all of the pinecones were secure, I glued it wherever they were touching another pinecone. Not the entire length, but definitely a few spots on each side.

To make the beads, I found that the easiest way was to wrap a piece of red fabric around it, cinch it at the bottom and tightly "tie" a thin piece of fabric to make sure it doesn't come unwrapped while you're gluing. Cut the leftover tail so that it properly fits in your gap. To glue it in, I stuck glue in the hole, stuck the "berry" in and then glued all around it to secure it to the surrounding pinecones.

Once you've got all of your pinecones and berries attached, you're done! I looped a piece of navy and cream chevron fabric around it and hung it on my wall. You can hang it on your wall or door any way you'd like.

If you make one of these, I'd love to see it!