now that’s what I call pampered!

I don’t usually buy a lot of bath products.  As a Mom of two small children, I just don’t have time to take a lot of baths, ya know?  But on the rare occasion that I do take a bath, I like to have something really nice.  It’s one of the few self-indulgent things I do.  I like to leave the bath feeling super pampered!

So I tried something new last night and I must share, incase any of you other Moms (or heck, Dads too) like to indulge in the occassional nice bath too.

This?  It’s a bottle of lavender heaven.  I’m not kidding, my favorite bubble bath ever.  It was perfect in every way.  More perfect than any LUSH product I ever tried, by far.  Coupled with some of this luxury soap (in lemon verbena) on a bath poof?  OMG.

I know I sound like a commercial.  I swear I don’t work for either of those companies, and I’m not getting paid for posting about them.  I just really really love them, and I tend to blab a lot about things I love.  (I also like to hear other people blab about things they love - it’s good to share!)

that “green” toy camera i mentioned?

We love it!  All the pieces and parts really move, it’s bigger than I expected and it even smells good!

I highly recommend it!

PS.  Took this with the Canon 35mm f/1.4 L.  I’m renting it just to try it on for size.  I really love it!  I’m thinking I’ll probably be upgrading to a full frame camera this spring or summer, so I’m not ready to buy.  I need to get the feel of full frame first.  But this is the 2nd L prime I’ve tried and fallen in love with.  Seriously thinking of trading in 2 of my 3 L zooms for L primes.

tgif!

Long time no post, eh?  I thought I’d brush the cobwebs off the blog and post a few random things while Kat eats her breakfast.

• I logged into WordPress today to see that it looks completely different!  I wanted to update the look of the blog, I think it’ll have to wait a couple of days while I click through and explore.
• floor update - it’s taken longer than we thought.  Jason cut his thumb on a coping saw and it slowed him down considerably.  We’re in the home stretch though, only the laundry room left!
• after the laundry room floor is done, we’re going to take a break (a forced break, actually - Jason has business out of town and then we have family coming into town for Kat’s birthday), but then we’ll move on to tiling the bathrooms.
• speaking of Kat’s birthday, because we took on the flooring projects, her bedroom won’t be done by her birthday.  I feel terribly guilty about that.
• I got Jag a little fish tank for his room; he’s loving it so far!  He picked out all the decor… red gravel, a skull for the fish to swim through/hide in and a few little plants.  He’s got a reddish purplish male betta and 3 rasboras in there now, and we’re thinking of maybe adding a couple of cory cats soon.  He’s been good about feeding them everyday without me asking.
• I’ve been feeling yucky for a long time now, and finally found out this week it’s vertigo.  Not fun.
• Kat’s had a verbal explosion lately.  She’s singing, counting to 10 and pretty much saying everything she needs or wants to say.  It’s funny to finally understand what’s going on in that little mind of hers - she’s quite a character!
• I’m in a photography slump, one of those where I don’t feel like taking pictures, and the few pictures that I do take, I’m really unhappy with.  I know this is pretty typical for all photographers (this isn’t the first time I’ve been through it), but it’s always so painful for me.  I’m ready to get back into the swing of things and feel good about my work again!  I’m thinking of updating my version of Photoshop and investing in Lightroom in hopes of a fresh start.
• I’m addicted to the Packrat application on Facebook.  I’m too embarrassed to say how much time I’ve wasted playing at night after the kids are in bed.
• I bought this as part of Kat’s birthday gift, and it is just sooooo cute.  Seriously.  I almost hope she doesn’t like it so I can keep it for myself.  (also, I bought it from that very site and the transaction was flawless)

That’s all I’ve got for now - it took me over an hour to type just that with all the interruptions.  More later!  (and email replies as well, I’m WEEKS behind - I’m so sorry!)

holga fun

I’ve had a couple of Holga cameras for years now, but I’ve never had anyplace locally to get the film developed.  I miss the toy camera look, so I picked myself up some Holganizer actions for Photoshop this week.  I know, I know… not the same thing.  I really do know.  But they’re fun and they keep me satisfied.  For now. 

I need to dig the ‘ole Lomo Supersampler out…

parents of little train fans

I don’t know if this is common knowledge or not, but it’s something we’ve just recently tried and I’m so tickled with how well it’s worked out, I’m going to post about it just incase there’s someone out there who hasn’t tried this yet.

We’ve always kind of despised all the Thomas train and Plan City sets.  I mean, they’re so cute.  And we went through the trouble of building our own wooden table to set it all up (darn nice, if I do say so myself, with a flipable table top hand-painted by moi).  But those tracks - argh, those tracks!  Always getting knocked over or bumping out of place.  Every few minutes it was, “Moooooooommy!  The tracks came apart!  The bridge fell over!  The road broke!”  It got to the point that either Jag would give up and move on to something else (usually playing with the trains or cars on the ottomans instead), or *I* would get fed up, box the entire sets up and put them back into the closet.

WELL, a friend of mine a while back suggested earthquake putty.  I bought a pack, but that was right around the time that we were getting our house in order to sell (long story - we almost moved to Austin, TX) so we had put the train table in storage and the putty got shoved into a cabinet.  Fast forward to this past weekend… Kat has recently discovered Thomas.  She loves playing with the “choo choos” so we thought we’d dust off the ‘ole table and dig up the putty.

Let me tell you something - that putty WORKS!  It’s awesome!  It’s strong enough to hold the tracks, roads and pieces down so that they aren’t bumped or knocked by little hands, but not so strong that the adults can’t pull the pieces up (NO damage to the table top!) and change the track around if we need to.  Seriously - it’s fantastic and it’s made the train sets and Plan City sets so much more fun.  We’ve had it set up since yesterday, the kids have been playing with it non-stop and there hasn’t been a single instance of track or road coming up or moving.

YIPPEE!

a few quick things

First, thanks so much to everyone for the chicken recipes and ideas!  I’m using a couple this week and a couple more next week!

Second, if you’re local to me - the semi-annual WeeRuns consignment sale is coming up next month!  Children’s spring and summer clothing, toys, equipment, furniture, maternity clothing, etc.  Check out the website for more info:  WeeRuns.com

And third, I picked up a cute little dino sandwich cutter at Walmart on Saturday for making Jag’s lunches.  And don’t you know, the next day I was looking through my newest Hearthsong catalog and saw the same one.  For more money!  Granted, you get two cutters for $7 at Hearthsong, but I got just the dino by itself for $2 and didn’t have to pay shipping.  (although I sometimes think the experience of shopping at Walmart is worth paying shipping elsewhere, hehe)  I used the cutter this morning and I love it, Jag loved his little dino sandwiches too!

Thatisall.  Hope you all had a great weekend and a great Monday so far!

monday

The start of the third and final week of fall break.  And believe it or not, we’re all happy, busy and my house is even clean!  I guess we finally found our groove!  *crossing fingers, knocking on wood and doing everything else I can think of to keep from jinxing myself by typing that*

We’ve got a warm start to this week, high today is supposed to be 89, but it should be appropriately cool later this week (low-to-mid 70s) so I’m excited to get outside with the kids; go for some walks, bike rides, maybe go to our favorite church yard pumpkin patch (that’s Wesley United Methodist on College, for those of you local to me - the BEST location for pumpkin pictures with the kids, and remember to take their pictures in the shade to avoid squinty eyes, Mom and Dad!).

Okay so on to some non-fall break news… I started my Christmas shopping this weekend.  I wanted to start sooner, like in August, but I didn’t start getting any good gift ideas until the last week or so.  I spent some time Friday night putting together my annual Christmas Shopping Workbook, in Excel, where I keep track of my ideas, where to buy, prices, what I’ve already bought, how much I’ve already spent, who the ideas and gifts are for and whether they are regular gifts or stocking stuffers.  It helps keep me straight so that I don’t forget all my best ideas and so that I don’t go overboard with how much I buy or how much I spend (easy for me to do, I’m not the frugal one in the family for those who couldn’t already tell).

My first official purchases were for the kids-  small stocking-stuff type things from Hearthsong.  Love that site, everything I bought from them last year was a hit!  I shopped the On Sale catagory and got some good prices, and made notes of lots of other things I want to come back to later.  Jag and I also looked through catalogs from Toys to Grow On and Young Explorers - they have nice selections as well, although I haven’t bought from them so I can’t vouche for quality or customer service yet.

Baby’s up and coffee cup is empty - more later!

i love these

I’ve been meaning to type up a little entry on things I love, just because I always like to hear about a good/fun/new product and likewise, like to share when I find a good one.  So these some of the most recent things I love:

• Mis-matched socks.  Sold in threes and coordinating.  The style name and number are embroidered onto the inside top of the socks so you can keep track of what you have and which socks belong to which sets.  They’re just so so cute.  I bought them for the whole family a while back, Jag has especially loved wearing them with his long pants this week in the cooler weather.
• Birthday cake jar candle.  Bought one of these at Stone Mountain in Atlanta a couple of weeks ago.  Heavenly!!  I was afraid to burn it too much because I thought I wouldn’t be able to get back for a long time to replace it, but then later noticed the manufacturer and website in small print on the back label.  Perfect!  I burn it everyday now and my house always smells like it’s someone’s birthday.  :-)  Can’t wait to try some of their other scents.
• Salt water taffy.  We have a Kilwin’s in downtown Wilmington.  I can’t resist going in when we’re down there and getting a treat.  Last weekend, Jag and I went in for ice cream (he had the Superman ice cream, I had the Key Lime Pie ice cream - so good!) and I picked up a bag of the salt water taffy while I was there.  YUM.  I have it sitting out in a candy dish on the breakfast bar, and I can’t help but have a piece every.single.time I walk by.  Can’t decide if my favorite flavor is the peach, or the cinnamon.
• Fuzzi Bunz.  I’ve switched to about 75% cloth diapers and I love it.  It’s so much easier than I ever thought it’d be, I regret not starting sooner.  At the suggestion of another Mom, I tried out the Fuzzi Bunz (admittedly, the only other “green” diaper I’ve tried are gDiapers so I’m definitely no expert - so take my opinion with a grain of salt) and I love them.  Easy to put on the baby, easy to wash, easy to assemble (just stick an insert into the back and you’re done!).  I wish they weren’t such an expensive startup investment, but I’ve heard rumors that they sell used for almost full price on ebay.  It’s almost like free diapering, AND I’m not filling landfills with as many disposables!  Can’t beat that!

That’s all I’ve got for now - I’ll post more as I find them.