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Every now and again, you just need to get out of the city, take off your pants (I guess that part mostly applies to Henry) and kick and splash in the local pond. Today was a win-win-win for all involved. Henry had plenty of room to run around without a care in the world (unlike all the other days when his burdens are very, very heavy.) Papa got to do a little of this:


And I, well, I got to do a little of this:

It felt so good to be back on the horses again. Just like riding a bicycle, as they say. Or a horse. Whatever. Okay, I don’t even know who that person is. The sad thing? I’m not even jealous of her mad horse skills. It’s those arms. I want those arms…and her legs. You may as well have both. I mean if you are going to get the arms, you probably should get the legs, too.

"Hey, Chris"

I yell from about 10 yards behind him.

"Keep your eye on Hen…."

At which point I see Chris  throw his fly rod into the air & dive into the lake. Henry. Well, his fish cookie dropped in and he fell in trying to get it. Cripes. He’s fine. He fell into this mossy area and I think all the green slimy stuff traumatized him more than anything else. It really creeped him out. The creepiest part for us was having our car smell like a mossy lake for the 1 hour drive home. Ironically the second I yelled to Chris to tell him to keep his eye on Henry, was when he fell in. I couldn’t even see him, didn’t even know he was at risk for falling in. I guess it’s not ironic, it was me yelling out the second I felt inspired to. We are feeling very, very lucky blessed (and a little stinky mossy) today.

Happy Thursday!
xoxo

It’s been pretty toasty around these parts, so I thought I’d share a great summertime salad recipe. I think there are a lot of versions of this salad out there, but here’s one we’ve been making for years. You only use one head of cabbage, but it makes a ton of salad.

Enjoy!

Asian Chicken Salad
1 head green cabbage (sliced thinly/shredded)
3 green onions, chopped
1 can mandarin oranges (you can use a small or large can, depending on how  much you want)
1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped
4 cooked chicken breasts, chopped
1 pkg Oriental Ramen Soup
1 pkg frozen peas, thawed
1/2 C slivered almonds (optional)

Dressing (add just before serving)
1/2 C Sugar
2/3 C Oil
6 Tbsp Rice Vinegar
1 packet Oriental Soup Seasoning

Directions:
Combine all items for salad & toss. Just before serving, wisk together ingredients for dressing. Toss together & serve.

If you want to save some of the salad for another day, don’t add all the dressing as the salad will get soggy (and you don’t want that!) Also, if you want to add some crunch to the salad, top with some of the ramen noodles.

It’s so lovely here, I don’t know why we don’t go more often. It was a  much needed day of toes snuggling under the sand, hair blowing in the wind, nothing to do but  sit and sip on frosty beverages. We were thoroughly entertained by this guy playing in the sand:


He had just been digging for sand crab’s with my sister, Vanessa. My brother has been staying with us this past week and it was so sad to see him go this morning. I’ve  always been the one that lived far away so it was nice to have my brother & sister around and be able to spend a day at the beach together. There was lot’s of this going on:

So much, they had to stop because their arms started to hurt : )

Lot’s of spinning around, giggles & being so dizzy that Henry just about face planted it into the sand. Twice.

At the end of day: A very happy and sandy boy which made for a very happy and equally sandy Mama & Papa and a very happy Auntie and not so sandy Uncle who wore his white crew socks* the entire day at the beach. And in the sand.

*It must be noted that at Matt’s previous trip to the beach his feet got so sunburned they practically fell off. Serious. You can’t blame the guy. Henry still loves you, Matt. White socks & all. We, well we are still debating.

Hi there! Hope everyone had a nice 4th and that the festivites continue through the weekend! We had a pretty low-key day but went to the Dodger game that night with some friends. 7 words: $35 All-you can-eat pavillion seats. We’d heard so much about them & finally decided to give them a try. But seriously how much ballgame food can one eat? Me: one dodger dog. My brother: 4 dog’s and enough diet coke that I couldn’t fall asleep until 3 a.m.! The best part of the night was being let onto Dodger field after the game was over to watch the fireworks. Very, very cool. My brother (the biggest Dodger fan I know) was wishing he’d brought a vile to scoop up some Dodger Dirt or grass at least, but then realized he was not willing to deface the beloved field. LOL. I have some hilarious footage of Henry from the game that I’ve spent about 2 days trying to get uploaded. The quality when I view it is crystal clear- as soon as I upload it to youtube or google video, the quality is terrible. AND it keeps loading up sideways. My brain hurts. But it’s so funny (not my brain- the footage) I’m not giving up yet! Look for it soon.

I’ve just put 3 aprons up in le shoppe. 2 adult aprons and 1 childrens. I will be making a very limited run of the apron pictured here (5 to be exact.) Depending on how they do, I’m thinking about maybe doing a limited edition apron every 2 weeks or so. We’ll see.

AND I was so thrilled to finally find some church clothes for my little Henry. I have specific idea’s in my mind of what I want and it’s been so hard to find. But alas, this and this should be arriving any day now. I’m so, so excited.  I am a sucker for seersucker! Do you know of any other sites that carry stuff like that? e-mail me if you do. Thanks!!

Happy weekend! Send me your positive video-uploading thoughts!!

xoxo

In honor of Emily’s sweet new arrival, we decided to make some Pavlova (or  Pad-loda as Henry calls it) on Sunday. I originally made this thinking it was an Australian dessert (in honor of Em, of course) but came to realize I was wrong. Oh so wrong. It originated in New Zealand, but nonetheless, it simply is the most perfect summertime dessert. It’s basically a meringue that you top with whipped cream & fresh fruit.  Instead of making one big meringue, I piped it out into smaller circles roughly 2"-3" so everyone could have their own special treat. Since we also had some heavenly lemon sherbet on hand, we decided to throw a scoop of that on, too. You can find the recipe here.
These two. They are so  sweet with eachother.  Always holding hands, always snuggling.  We were thrilled that Ivy could spend the weekend with us (Henry thinks jumping on the couch by himself is just no fun at all.) This picture was taken on Friday just before some very much anticipated pony & train rides at Griffith Park. Henry has always been a snuggler, and he’s so lucky to have a little friend who will snuggle with him: 

I walked in on them early  Saturday morning to find them snuggled on the couch. Ivy, your mama would be so proud! You are going to be such a sweet big sister to your new baby Yindi. These snuggles made me want to buy this print from Mandy who, by the way,  has just recently started a blog & opened up her Etsy shop. She is a British Illustrator and I’ve just completely fallen in love with all her wonderful illustrations. Her blog is wonderful and her shop, her shop is amazing. This one reminds me of my sweet Henry. It’s Mandy’s birthday so head on over & wish her a happy one!

I did manage to get some aprons sewn up for those who were asking, there is a limited ammount but I’ll try to post them in the next day or two.

You may have noticed that I’ve turned my comments off. I really like being able to respond to those of you who comment, and with it being summer and all, we are going to try to spend more time outside and less time at the computer. So for now, and probably for a month or two they’ll be turned off until things settle down a bit. Thanks for coming by, though. I hope you’ll continue to. It really does mean so much!

xoxo

Hi Friends! Sorry for the long delay, we decided to take a last minute steamboat trip down the Mississippi. Isn’t it gorgeous? Well, actually it’s the Mark Twain Steamboat at Disneyland. Henry & I popped in for a nice ride around the lake this afternoon after a morning of this:

I’ve been wanting to take Henry to a farm to pick some fruit/vegetables and so I started making some calls & doing research only to find out that we had completely missed cherry season. Where have I been?? Oh yeah, on a steamboat down the Mississippi.  The farms here are "all picked out." What a bummer.  I did find a farm down in Irvine that had some small strawberries that we could pick so we busted a move down there. Henry konked out about 15 minutes before we arrived ( it was a very long night for all involved), so I cleaned out the car and listened to Dr. Laura for 45 minutes until he woke up.
It was a cute little farm complete with a big wooden vegetable cut-outs of peapod’s & the like. We picked a handful of strawberries and snatched a few ears of organic corn. They say that starting in July-August we can get watermelon so we’ll be sure to plan ahead for that. All & all, a great little field trip today. I’ve started making a list of some fun Summertime things Henry & I can do together so we’ll have have something to look forward to in the next few months. Hope you are enjoying your summer, too!

xoxo

Today’s the big graduation, and we are so thrilled. My in-laws are in town and it’s bound to be a wonderful day.

I made this banner last night and couldn’t resist putting some in the shop, so  go to the Polka Dot Parlour to find out more!

Thanks for all the wonderful advice on the last post!  You guys are always such a big help.

Have  a lovely weekend!

xoxo

Hi Friends. Crazy sewing frenzy: check. Sheesh- what a crazy last few weeks (and for the record, can I just say that Henry is starting week 4 of waking up at 5 a.m.!!!) Cripes! I thought it was just a phase, and now- we’ll I fear it’s not going away. We are an exhausted bunch over here. Anyway- working on some really fun aprons for the shop and I’ve got some crazy other things up my sleeve. I can’t commit to when my next update will be- sometime in the next few weeks, so just hang tight.

On to some other things I’m hoping you can help me out with:

I think it just might be time. For about the last month or so, whenever Henry would have a wet or dirty diaper, he would immediately say "clean diaper", go into his closet and bring us clean one. I’m not sure what this all means, but we are going to give it a try. Does anyone have any brilliant idea’s on the subject? I should probably read something. There was a little brochure that came in the package, maybe I’ll read that. I don’t want to push him, if he’s not ready, but part of me thinks he might be. He sat on it as soon as I pulled it out of the box (fully clothed) and gave it another sit just before jumping into the bath. He seems pretty excited about having his very own.  My sister says she heard that Dr. Phil has some brilliant ideas on the subject?? (I’ve never seen an episode of the show- so I am in the dark here). Anyway- I’m sure you’ll all have lots of great advice.

Henry & I went up to UCLA today to pick up Chris’ cap & gown for the big graduation this weekend. An hour & 1/2 later, an expired parking meter and getting a little lost, they wouldn’t release it to  his wife because I didn’t have a hand-written note giving me permission?!?!?! Looks like we’ll be doing the whole thing again tomorrow. I digress. We saw this little guy. There’s this funny rumor around UCLA that if there was ever a massive disaster, that there are enough squirrels on campus to tide over the entire town (gross, I know) but completely true. Don’t worry little squirrel, I would never eat you.

Talk about a completely random post. Aprons, toilet training & eating not eating squirrels. Someone’s terribly sleep deprived.