mamabear's musings

New Year, New House, New Name

2009-02-16T22:48:00.000-08:00

2009:

I really do exist. I've just been in hibernation. Babybear and I moved into our new "cave" and I've been busy settling in. So the crafting has been put on hold for the time being.

BUT- Here's what I've learned thus far about painting.

1. I really love Dutch Boy's DuraClean and Refresh- there's hardly any smell and it's designed to be better for the environment. (Available at Menard's.)

2. If you didn't buy enough paint and have to go back for more, don't take back the paint card, it's not enough- especially if it's not a color that was designed for the paint you purchased. Instead, take back the lid to the old can- it will specifically list exactly what was mixed to get the correct color. B/c there are usually three different ways to mix the same color- even with the same paint card.

*TRUST ME- I took back the paint card and we actually had the rest of the living room painted before we realized that they were different shades of the same color. :(

3. When painting wood paneling, use an oil-based primer to get the paint to "stick". Strange but true and then any latex paint will go right on.

4. You really shouldn't use your roller to paint in all kinds of directions...... it seems obvious.

5. To avoid that streaky look- If you're going to use a dark color, like a deep red, make sure to use a tinted primer FIRST and then paint- otherwise, your wall will show up with streaks of "white" and it won't matter how many coats you put on.

I also went back to my maiden name.... lots of change going on this year. :)

I'm going to attend skappingirl's personal planner class this weekend and I am so excited. So hopefully I will have something very cool to show you- soon and very soon.

The "cave" open house has been scheduled so I should have something more to share. Ciao!

HahaBear- I get it from my momma!

2008-12-11T01:11:00.000-08:00

HahaBear is my mom. Babybear couldn't pronounce Halmonee (which is the Korean word for Grandma) and so he called mymom Haha. It's stuck ever since. HahaBear is where I learned my crafty-ness. She introduced me to my first flour/salt dough ornaments, my cone/ball paper ornaments, knitting, and etc.

The other night. she made this adorable bells for Babybear. The bell ornament on the left was created by my now 21 year old brother when he was in elementary school and is one of our favorite Christmas ornaments. So HahaBear use this bell as a template to make this one. So adorable! (She's now made at least 4 others....)

It is finally finished!

2008-12-08T20:31:00.000-08:00

I finally finished his sweater. Babybear was so happy watching me make it.

(Mommy, that's for me? OH THANK YOU!)

He wanted to wear it right away and I told him that I was working on the "neck." (Ok, Mommy, Make my neck.)

And he was soooo happy to put it on.

PS. I have the soap. I'm waiting for my letter kit to arrive.

Testing?

2008-12-05T23:12:00.000-08:00

So Babybear was up at 3 a.m. b/c of his cold. He went back to bed and I surfed Martha Stewart.com and found these adorable heart-shaped soaps. I love Martha, but she uses such obscure items. But I found the metal alphabet AND number set with free shipping on www.overstock.com.... So I'll be making these soon and very soon.

My title is testing, b/c allegedly, I added this image to my blog. But we'll see.

**** my test failed. If I were working from a PC I think I know what I would need to do.....

Countdown to Christmas begins!

2008-11-30T21:36:00.000-08:00

Today is December 1 and so begins my countdown. So I figured I'd post some fun gift ideas?

For the camera lover: These camera are old skool and oh so very cute!

* * * * *

Babybearisms:

Babybear on Christmas

Babybear and I were chatting about his uncles AKA "Uh-Oh" 's who were in town for Thanksgiving. He wanted to know when they were coming back. I told him around Christmas.

So I asked Babybear: "Do you know what Christmas is."

Babybear: "Yup, Happy Birthday Jeh-jhus!"

Me: "Yes, you're so right, we will have cake for Baby Jesus."

(That's our tradition to have a cake for Baby Jesus. A little birthday party for him on Christmas.)

Babybear on going back to work....

I returned to work after the long Thanksgiving holiday. Babybear was used to me hanging out with him for the past couple of days and asked, "Mommy, where you going? Just stay with me a lil' bit. PLEASE?!" But I had a hard time going back to the office after hearing him repeat, "Just a lil' bit Mommy."... so I stayed and enjoyed the wooden sandwich and hot dog he made me in his frying pan.

* * * * *

DECEMBER 2

On my wishlist- KitchenAid Martha Stewart Mixer. Bear with me since I can't figure out how to post a photo of it on my blog. Oh well....

Phooey. This looks so boring without the ability to post the actual photo.

Tell me if any of you got some great Cyber Monday deals.

Babybearism:

Last night, we were playing catch right before bed. I had my cell phone with me like I usually do and had sent off a quick text to someone. Babybear had been waiting all evening (after dinner, his bath, and clean-up) to play catch.

He told me, "Mommy, put phone here...." and pointed to a distant chair.

I was really convicted..... All Babybear really wants is my time. Aw shucks. So, if you can, try not to get too wrapped up with your phone. I was getting caught up in the stuff that I had to do and I was reminded that what really matters is that time with the Baby.

Baby Shoes.... Part Deux

2008-11-30T18:58:00.000-08:00

Actually, these were the first pair of shoes I ever made. I finally put the finishing touches and these will be a gift for a friend. I'm going to wrap it together with a Razzberry and drop it off. I couldn't find any helicopter buttons, so I had to go with trucks.

I got a little sidetracked with the shoes and we started putting up the Christmas tree, so I guess I will eventually get finished with the sweater.

Choice, Mommy, Choice

2008-11-28T19:49:00.001-08:00

I faithfully read Babycenter and they advised that I can avoid Terrible Three tantrums by offering choices. Babybear does really well when I explain why he cannot do something or if I offer him a choice between two things.

I did not have to go to work today b/c of the Thanksgiving holiday. So we spent the day playing with a small ball which we would roll, catch, and shoot. We sat across from each other and took turns rolling the ball, throwing it, catching it, or shooting it into the laundry basket. I was working on giving Evan simple two-step instructions to follow.

He later found a bigger yellow ball and when it was his turn, he would say, "Choice, Mommy, Choice" and imply that I had to chose one ball. He generally had his mind set on one ball that he wanted me to choose. So if I chose the wrong ball, he would try to get me to choose the other ball. I had to chuckle b/c this was very similar to the choices I give him. The choices are somewhat unappealing so he's generally forced to do what I want him to do in the first place. But he feels empowered b/c he's making the "final" decision.

We also spent some time drawing. He drew a small oval for "Mommy's bed" and a huge oval for "my bed". Again, it shed some light into Babybear's inner workings since he has a crib-mattress size CAR bed and I have a queen size bed. LOL!

I had a fabulous day with him and am so glad we got this rare opportunity to just hang out and chill. Complete with eskimo kisses and homemade Babybear sandwiches, courtesy of Melissa and Doug's sandwich making set.

Sweater update- The sweater is in its final stages of completion. My mom is piecing it together as I have no patience to do so and then I have to make the collar..... Hopefully I'll have photos posted by Sunday. (I am about a month late though.... alas.) AND there's a huge boo-boo that I could not fix. I purled a row in the sweater that should have been knitted. (Does that make sense?) ARGH!

Happy Birthday Babybear!

2008-11-18T19:42:00.000-08:00

We celebrated this weekend at Elmo's Green Thumb w/ AuntieBear. This was before he had the blue snowcone.... I should have re-thought that one.

Love you my baby.

2008-10-31T22:17:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween!

Babybear was Tigger this year and he's at that age where it is oh so difficult to get him to pose anymore for photos. Thank goodness for digital cameras! You can take 60 photos to get that one money shot! (PS. Did you guys know that Canon is the only camera that has a color accent features, or so I'm told.)

I wonder how Babybear adjusts to being at Mamabear's and then Papabear's. But Babybear clarified this for me the other day. Babybear calmly told me that we were in my house; I explained to him that it was also his house. He disagreed and continued frowning. So I asked him, "Then where is your house?" Babybear: "Back there." and pointed to his "house". How appropriate that we got my Kodak moment while he was in his "house"!

Overdue

2008-10-29T19:18:00.000-07:00

Thank you Noelle's Umma for the beautiful hat! It came in the mail last Friday and I've been meaning to take some photos in the daytime, but it's a little hard since I'm at work.... I'll get better photos up soon. But it was a pleasant way to start the weekend! Look at the stitch! Incredible. I really need to learn how to crochet. This photo doesn't do the hat justice. It's absolutely adorable!

Update

2008-10-23T22:57:00.000-07:00

So, I'm having a bit of a time with the skull and cross bones. For as long as I've knit, I've never really switched between two colors of yarn and I'm not doing a really great job. Tonight was the SECOND time I worked on the sweater and was dissatisfied, so I completely undid the whole thing- so I'm just going to start all over again on the front. I wish I wasn't a perfectionist, but this is for Babybear.

I also had my poll worker training tonight which was much longer than anticipated. I decided to do my part- and will be working as a presiding judge at a precinct. Basically, I will be there from 5:30 a.m. -10:00 p.m. and will be in charge of making sure operations at my precinct are smooth...... I can't have my phone with me, but I can bring my knitting. :) Although I except that it will be rather busy on Election Day.

Wish us luck tomorrow- at least with the weather. Babybear and I are going to our zoo for their Halloween event. I took half a day off to join the ranks of other stay-at-home mom's who get to go to these events that are only scheduled during the average work-day. *sigh*. But tomorrow, I'll be one of them.

Beating the clock....

2008-10-20T18:27:00.000-07:00

Babybear is going to be Tigger for "Halloween", but I still feel like I have to beat the clock. I have been working on a sweater for Babybear using Bernat's Glow in the Dark yarn. A skull and crossbones sweater. Cute, right? Babybear's grandma, Ha-ha was less that thrilled. So have I have completed the back and one sleeve. Now I have to sit down and actually knit the front...... But I'm running out of time!

*Halmonee is the Korean word for Grandma, but Babybear couldn't pronounce the whole word, so he adopted "Ha-ha" instead.

5Ft 12 inches?

2008-10-14T21:09:00.000-07:00

I'm pleased to report that Baby Bear got his flu shot and I have new stats for you. He is 37 inches tall (3ft 1 inch!) and 31 pounds. According to Babycenter's height calculator, Baby Bear will be about 5ft 12 inches when he is 18 years old. But doesn't that just make him 6 ft tall?

Baby-bearism:

During our daily talk on the phone today, Baby asked, "Mommy, where are you?"

Mamabear: at Work?

Babybear: You making mohn-ee?

Mamabear: Yes and I'm helping people.

Babybear: So you making mohn-ee?

Mamabear: *sigh* Yes, but helping people too.

My proud moment- when I realized that he was learning his manners. I took my mom's Garmin on a recent road trip. The Garmin piped out our directions; I was pleased to hear an unprompted, "Thank you Shir" from my backseat driver. But I was later told that he didn't want to listen to any more of my song choices. "No song, Mommy. Off."

His birthday is next month and I have to figure out what I'm going to do for his birthday......

Baby Shoes!

2008-10-13T18:51:00.000-07:00

So now that my "Fatty Fats" (best friend's baby girl) received her care package, I can finally post the photos of the cloth shoes that I made for her! I promise that once Baby turns 1, I will change her nickname. It's a term of endearment.

I was inspired by homemade by jill If you have time, check out her blog- she made these fabulously cute brown striped shoes for her baby boy.

The pattern can be found at cloth shoe pattern.

So I did it....

2008-07-08T22:42:00.000-07:00

I went out and bought the fruit pattern- the pineapple just looked too fabulous and I really wanted to work on the apple this weekend. I'm very excited. Check out buggabugs store- if you check out her website, you will be able to get a free pattern! Check out the details here. The patterns are very straight-forward and I love it!

Maybe it's not another craft phase?

2008-07-07T23:03:00.000-07:00

So I tried out Ms. Felt Cuisine's pattern for strawberries and was surprised at how easy it was. I spent the most time trying to keep track of my thread that kept going missing. (I was sitting on the couch "watching" tv.) I ended up making 4! I can't wait to give them to Babybear. I attempted to take photos, but I couldn't get the lighting correct. I did make one alteration. Ms. Felt Cuisine used tan thread for the seeds, I went with the traditional black.

But now that I know that this isn't going to be a craft phase, I think I'm going to go ahead and contact various online companies about getting the wool felt so I can be all ready. I'm not sure I can wait for this book. I want to order this pattern by buggabugs on etsy, but don't want to if it's already in my book...... dilemmas. Maybe I'll just get one of them?

On a second note, I wanted to share a review about a new product. This company, flipclips, transfers your video clips into a flip book. It's ingenious. When you sign up, they give you a promo code that is equal to the price of a small flip book. I was a little skeptical b/c I wasn't sure how great the quality of the book would be because most of my digital clips were from my 5.0 mp camera.

They were well organized and I liked that they used USPS. I also received the book much faster than what they had originally estimated, which is always a pleasant surprise.

But the best part was that I was very impressed with the quality of the book. I chose a video of Babybear giving me his first flower on a playdate that I got to go to at the local apple orchard. It was the first time Babybear had ever given me a "flower" AKA dandelion and I was fortunate enough to have been recording it when he did it.

My sister got married last fall and there are some video clips that I plan to be converting into flip books for stocking stuffers this Christmas.

And so I wait....

2008-07-06T16:20:00.000-07:00

Freak of Nature got me checking out "felt foods" online and it made me think that this was something I could do.

So after some research, I placed my order for a Japanese Felt book- free shipping is always a plus, but since it's direct from Japan, it will be about 2 weeks until my new project arrives. It's all in Japanese, but it shouldn't be a problem based on reviews from other crafters.

Meanwhile, I found a felt food producer who also offers the following tutorial.

I am amazed at all the talented people out on the web, such as Miss Jill, and the kind ones who post tutorials and share their ideas.

I'm hoping to make a strawberry sometime this week.....

"Making" cookies

2008-07-04T22:11:00.000-07:00

To celebrate the Fourth and more importantly a lazy "no-work" day together, Babybear and I "made" cookies together. I had to laugh when Babybear woke up from his afternoon nap and I told him we were "making cookies".

When I was growing up, my mother's version of making cookies consisted of the real thing- peanut butter or chocolate chips, flour, sugar, and whole company of goodies. My mother whose second language is English worked full-time as a registered nurse, raised four children, and still had time to make any type of cookies we desired- peanut butter, sugar, banana, chocolate chip....

I respect the "Martha Stewart" in my mom and am proud to say that she passed that "gift" onto me. But while I can bake and cook, it may be a gift that has been for naught because my version of chocolate cookies were... well courtesy of Tollhouse. Babybear was able to break off 24 equally cut portions of chocolate cookie dough onto a cookie sheet and 16 minutes later was able to watch them cool and decorate with his "shakey-shakey's"

See last week, Babybear had found the sprinkles and walked around as I got ready for work, saying, " Coo-coo". Finally, I figured out that "coo-coo's" were cookies when he said, "Momma, no-go work. Stay here me! Shakey-shakey coo-coo's" Heartbreaking.

So, in the end, I swallowed my mommy-guilt about not making the cookies from "scratch", about not being able to stay home with Babybear everyday and all day, and for giving him Target brand red-dye sprinkles. Babybear could hardly contain his excitement when those cookies were laid out, waiting to be decorated. He actually stuffed them into his mouth faster than I could frost.... Babybear gleefully busted out all his red-dye "shakey-shakey's" onto the table, the floor, and eventually some of them got on the cookies.

My version still got us to where we needed to be- with frosting on our fingers and faces; there was lots of laughter as he dipped his fingers in the container of frosting and across his face and his shorts. We finished about one dozen frosted cookies later, but what about the rest? Well, the evidence is still somewhere on Babybear's face.

Kudos

2008-07-04T21:40:00.000-07:00

Kudos to a dear friend of mine- who I appreciate for being a freak- she does the research and I enjoy the fruits.

After a long overdue visit to Freak's abode, I realized that wooden kitchens are not just for little girls. My 2 and 1/2 year old son, Babybear, loved loved loved her daughter's kitchen. I guess I had always figured that little boys wouldn't care for kitchens. I was wrong. Freak of Nature also recommended wooden play food because Babybear still puts things in his mouth.

Thanks to her diligent research, I can now wake up to wooden cheese sandwiches crafted by Baby bear (Wake, Momma. Wake! I go kitchey.....) We purchased the toys at a local toy store- trying to support local shop owners and am waiting for the fruit kit to come in.....

*Note- the links are not to the local store we went to, but they seem to have a lot of great products. Their construction cutlery was recently featured in Parents magazine.

Mommy Calling Cards

2008-03-08T23:34:00.001-08:00

I've come across some pretty amazing blogs- And am blown away by the creativity. It's the "Martha Stewart's" of the world that put the rest of us to shame. I secretly long to be Martha Stewart, but find it to be so exhausting to try to be that creative soul. I find myself competing to be what? I'm not sure. I consider myself a scrapbooker but find it creatively exhausting to be a scrapbooker. Have you ever looked at the magazines? There's creativity galore and it has this ability to make me feel inadequate. *Ironically, I find myself using the magazines to scrap-lift ideas so I get these fabulous looking books, but aren't really of my own making?

I found a website for Mommy calling cards- you know for all those mom's who just give out their "business" cards. My card might read: Mamabear, mother of Babybear and then we list our contact info.

Even though I would love to have a mommy card, I'm not sure who I would give it to- well, I'm not sure that I could give it to someone who would appreciate it as much as I would. Most of the mom's I know would laugh and toss it to the corner...

mommycallingcards