happy birthday

i woke to see heather’s post about maddies’ birthday when jilly came over to me & sighed, “she’s cute!”

indeed she is, my dear.

i remember the first time i saw her glorious face, i was struck dumb by her beauty.

and that beauty will remain forever.

in the hearts and minds of those who love and miss her, she will remain, for she is no longer here.

she’ll miss this birthday with her mama & daddy. she only had one with them and it was spectacular. full of cream puffs and love.

heather and mike love her with such fierceness, longing, and grace. i wish contented peace for them today while the celebrate such a beauty.

happy birthday, baby girl.

(click over to heather’s page to see pics of maddie. i couldn’t find one that i had permission to use.)

a random compendium of crap in my brain, plus and minus

-i’m not going to blogher10. i’m bummed, but can’t swing it with the trying to buy a new house and all. boo hoo.
-also, no vegas. same reason.
-i don’t get why people get all butt-hurt about stupid stuff
-people who choose to tell me things are all my fault when all i really want is support, not a lecture can #suckit
-the phrase “well, i don’t disagree with that”? i hate it.
-people who commit to a group project and drop the ball, let it roll away and get smashed by a freighter suck (no, not you.)
-my husband having to go to a holiday party in st. louis for work. um…hi. we live in phoenix now, dudes.
-i so hate when my son has night terrors, but know i can do nothing about it.
-but when he sleeps for 11.5 hours, it’s like heaven
-and when the lady-baby naps for 3 hours, well, you can slap my ass and call me george.
-when scout says, “what’s in the box?!?” like from the movie, seven ’cause i’ve been quoting it while the kids play in cardboard boxes? i die.
-i love the way jilly says /R/, which is the wrong way. she says mowk, dowk, powk (mark, dark, park) the slp will change it soon.
-embarrassing my daughters while dancing like a mad-woman is hilarious
-listening to “fire burning” and all 6 of us surrounding the baby and dancing like her is more fun than i’ve had in a long time
-i, apparently, need to dance more

new music monday, me again

i wrote this song for fun for the baby when she was fooling around & making a mess one day.

one take. i’ve got too much to get done to do it again. i will say, that i need to work on the chorus-y part. i’m not too keen on it just yet.

home sweet holycrapitcostshowmuch?

so, we’re in the market to buy a house here in phoenix. you’d think that would be easy enough, right? well, i hat to say it, but you’d be wrong.

we want to live in an area called arcadia. if you know phoenix, this is north east phoenix, just next to south western scottsdale. our girls go to school in the scottsdale school district and we like it. we want them to stay there, which really isn’t a problem because once they’re in, they’re in. (wink, wink. {i have no idea what that means.})

now, all over the valley, prices have been plummeting and we could find a really great and really inexpensive house if we wanted to commute, but we don’t want to commute. we’re not into it and we’ll be paying for it in a house instead of time and gas money. it’s a trade off, see? but not an easy one to swallow.

we sold a beautiful 2 story, 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom, walk-out basement house in st. louis for $270k-ish. if we wanted to buy that same house here, we’d pay $750k MINIMUM! it’s ridiculous, is what it is. we will not be buying a house for anywhere near $750k, so we have to decide if we want to wait it out and hope prices continue to drop or move to the suburbs.

i got nothing against the suburbs, i just don’t wanna live there.

woe is me.

there are worse problems to have, I KNOW, but i can still complain.

apology

i would like to publicly apologize for photobombing this beautiful picture of my sister-in-law with her now husband and his mom & sister.

i am sorry for the gaping-mouthed ridiculousness in the background.

please forgive me.

my dear john letter

dearest friend,

we’ve had a beautiful relationship. really, we have, but it’s time to go our separate ways. it’s not you, it’s me. well, that’s not entirely true. it’s not even remotely true. it’s you. there, i said it. i want to break up with you. it’s been long enough & our codependent relationship is doing me no good.

sure, i devoted my entire 8th grade science fair project to you. i painstakingly melted paraffin, dyed it & molded it in your honor. i spent many night researching your existence. i wanted to know more about you and when i was made fun of because i chose to study you, i held my head high because i was proud of all i had learned.

you never left my side in high school. popping up here and there. i took you to parties, dances, movies, camp. we had fun, no?

you’ve been there with me through 3 pregnancies. oh, man, were you there for me when i was pregnant with the girls. you were a constant companion, but i really didn’t need you hanging around anymore.

i cherish those memories. i truly do, but it’s time we parted. see, i’m an adult now and i don’t need you anymore. hell, i really never needed you, but there wasn’t much i could do about that, now was there? and i’ll remember you forever. the fact that i no longer have the porcelain skin of my childhood will remind me of our life together.

so please, zit-on-my-chin-that-keeps-coming-back-every-month-since-7th-grade, go away. i just can’t take it anymore. i don’t ever want to see you again. if you chose to never come back i’d be okay with that. we’ll always have the memories.

k?

hugs and kisses,

jenny

5 minutes

here’s an exercise in how much writing i can get done in 5 minutes:

i have already:
-eaten breakfast (leftover dutch baby pancake)
-had one cup of coffee
-one for a walk/run
-reorganized the 2 shoes bins in the garage
-cleaned up from the reorganization of shoe bins (that’s for you, daddyjay)
-put the baby down for a nap
-sat down to write

i still have to:
-take a shower
-clean the floors
-figure out how the baby locked my washing machine & get it unlocked so i can do laundry
-sew some quilt squares for my quilting bee
-sew some quilt squares for christmas presents
-feed the three of us who are at home
-make my bed
-empty the dishwasher
-go see pioneer woman at changing hands bookstore tonight with sarah

…times up. off to shower. not bad for someone who never took a typing class and has to hunt & peck.

update: i did almost everything on my list. just didn’t get to the bee block. good thing i have the whole month.

my third bee

i’ve up and joined my third quilting bee. i haven’t figured out the badge yet, but it’s over here. we even have someone joining us from new zealand. quite exciting.

i had enough fabric in my stash to get us started for october & i sent out a variety of different brightly colored fabrics to everyone else in order to make a quilt for the baby. the other 2 bees were for the three big kids, so i thought she should get one, too.

so far, i have 14 blocks (mine included) the rest are on their way. i’m really impressed and inspired with all of the creativity i’ve seen in these blocks.

an adorable bird on a box by karissa

i really freaked beth out with this one. she embroidered jamison’s first name, but saw that i blurred it and called her jamison. she thought she screwed up when i should have originally told them all that i didn’t use first names.

i love the addition of lace on this block. very sweet.

that’s a door! on a house! with a little lass inside! swoon! (no blog to link for kathy)

if you remember, jamison’s hebrew name is malcha, which means queen. megan made this crown for our queen. i really am quite touched with the sentiment in this one.

and holy-smokes! this looks like it’s own little mini quilt! fabulous! thanks, jessica!

and here’s one of mine. the multi-talented, incomparable cathy sent me the adorable bear piece when i won a tote in a giveaway she had last year, so i used it as the anchor & built around it. i don’t use a pattern, unless someone asks me to, so it’s just all smacked together. i really like how it turned out. the other one i made is just as cute, i just didn’t have it finished before i uploaded pictures.

this is going to be one fabulous quilt, don’t you think?

dress design for shabby apple dresses

i decided to try my hand at the dare to design is contest at shabby apple. i’ve actually been interested in designing this exact dress for myself for a while & whether i win or not, i’ll make it.

i regularly drool over the shabby apple dresses. they are cute, tasteful & reasonably priced. there are tons of styles, so anyone can find at least 1 (or12) dresses that they like.

my design:

the inspiration for this dress comes from an old olga nightgown of my mom’s that i have. it is still in great shape & i’ve been wearing it a lot lately (no, you will not see that picture.) to make sure that it’s wearable as a dress, i’ve had to modify the neckline a bit and removed some of the lace, but it stays true to the overall design of the ankle-length nightgown.

the sleeves are not fitted, but more of a truncated kimono sleeve that covers the shoulder. there is room without needing a camisole underneath. the 2 front panels are gathered at the top and bottom, just slightly to allow for room in the chest if someone is ample-chested, but it also looks good on those of you who, like me, lack in that department. there is also a slight gather at the top of the neck in the back to allow for room. the dress ends just below the knee, which is exactly where i like it. it stays on with a side zipper.

the fabrics are from a new line that i’m really excited about from anna maria horner called “little folks.” there are a few solids, including the cotton voile in water that would be perfect for the main fabric on the dress. the waist panel and shoulder panel (it goes across the back of the neck) also come from this line in the baby bouquet in dusk. i’ve also added a cream-colored lace panel at the chest and as an edge on the waist for a sweet touch.

i think it’s pretty cute.

oh, yea…

i forgot that yesterday was the mark of my blogging start. (i hate the term blogiversary, don’t ask me why.)

i started blogging as a means of community. i found blogs when i started sewing again & discovered a world of crafting i never knew existed. i created an online persona to talk with those on the other ends of the wires. i ended up writing as well, beginning with nablopomo 2007. i kept clicking and clicking and clicking and clicking and fell down the rabbit hole of the many great and varied blogs from design, to parenting, to sewing, to writing & more.

i guess the best part of all of this is that in the last 2 years i’ve made friends. some people still don’t get how i can be friends with people i’ve never met, but it works. i stay home with my kids & i have many people to call on to ask for advice, become inspired by, support & cry with.

not to mention the three quilting bees i’ve been involved in this last year. in the end (hopefully by christmas) i will have made 4 quilts with the help of 37 people i’d have never met otherwise.

i blog to make connections. simple as that. and my connections are varied. i read crafty blogs, sewing blogs, mommy blogs, daddy blogs, funny blogs, sad blogs, and even a-couple-of-people-i-already-knew blogs.

i hope to put flesh to the faces i see, someday. until then, i’ll just stick it out here at mommymae, but you can call me jenny.

my name is jenny, and i like you.