1. Stella’s explosion of new words and the joy she finds in saying new ones. Her favorites right now…. George! (as in Curious George) Monkey! Hug! Moose! (since we saw one outside the window) Fruit! Daddy home! Amy! (her babysitter) Eyes, ears, mouth, nose, knee, feet (while pointing). Messy! Oops! Uh Oh! And the most common….”I POOP”!

2. A night out at the movies with good friends who even brought over a babysitter for us.

3. A new creative challenge coming up in the next few weeks.

4. Roman Holiday was on at exactly the right time last week. I heart old movies.

5. Several new dear friendships have come my way this month.  

6. The local grocery store just started stocking gelato. (It is a very small town)

7. I am getting to the bottom of my fabric pile, and it is forcing me to be more creative. I am ending up with surprisingly successful colour and pattern combinations as a result.

8. My moo.com business cards are so fun, and I love the reaction I get every time I give them out.

9. I am anticipating a very fun package in the mail.

10. My new baby nephew arrived safe and sound last week. Also, this little cutie is here safely.

(11. Hubs has learned to use the cappucino maker!)

 Play along if you like! Good luck with the rest of winter.

This nice little stack of fabric has so far turned into these:

…as well as a few other things. I was just starting to get back into a rhythym again after the holidays and then this past week I was down with the flu. Luckily Stella managed to not get it, so hopefully the rest of this week won’t be a total write-off.

Speaking of Stella…(nice segue I know), she has been having a serious word explosion lately. She has been talking a lot more for awhile, but she has definitely taken it to the next level. Today alone she said boot, shirt, bread, food, and sit. All new words for her. Her new thing lately is saying “yeS” with the “s” enunciated PERFECTLY. Will and I crack up at that, it makes her seem so old and proper. She used to say “yah” all the time, which I think we say more than yes, so it seems really odd that she says “yes” like that. She also says “puck” instead of “cup” which I pretty much stopped trying to correct because it is SO cute, and she seems to pronounce everything else normally. She is totally entranced by animals now, and loves to make the animal sounds, especially horses, dogs and cows. She makes a more accurate horse neigh than I do in fact. And that is probably enough about the babe….. don’t want to bore anyone. More crafty projects coming soon. Maybe even some tutorials if I can get my act together.

Peace, love and craft….

AQ

I have been using the iripple application on facebook (you can also click straight from the site) and it makes me feel a smidge better about the procrastinating that I am usually doing while on facebook.

I also came across www.freerice.com  and like facebook, it is a bit of time sucker but at least it is for a good cause and I always feel smarter after playing on there for awhile. I am sure there are more sites like this out there so if you know of any please share!

Most recently I heard about charity search engines which donate to charity with every search you make from their site. I found a few lists of the different options one here and one here.  There are lots of options, and it is such a simple thing that I do anyways it seems silly not to use them.

So….just a few things that might help out a little in the big picture. Happy Clicking!

Last minute Christmas coat. More Christmas photos here.

This would fit beautifully in my front yard as a studio/shop don’t you think?

January blahs around here but trying to make the best of it. Puttering in the studio, drinking tea and snuggling with Stella helps. I am still in major holiday mode and not very productive.

I’ll let you know when I am back in the game. …

(Just a little glimpse into what my evening of procrastinating involved)

 Tonight we were playing with Stella bit before she went to bed and she got a hold of these soft tree ornaments that I made a few weeks ago to give away at the markets. Will hung one on his ear and then after that she decided she wanted to wear them as earrings. Observe:

She normally freaks out whenever we have to do anything to her like wash her face, or do her hair but she stood perfectly still while Will hung those on her ears, and then when they fell off she would go back and hand them to him to put back on. We had a great laugh over that tonight. Much needed comic relief! Thanks for that Stella.

Stella outside (and with Daddy)

Stella reading.

Stella colouring. And sharing.  

Stella “sewing”.

A good time all around.

So awhile ago we taught her how to blow on her food when it was hot. Then a few weeks later, I told her that the stove was hot when she was trying to touch it. So, she started blowing at the oven door, and now whenever she gets near the stove she tries to blow on it! So funny.

We also taught her to make this face when we ask “Stella, where’s your funny face?”. And now, I just say “Stella?” and she gives me the face.

A few days ago, I was waiting for a friend in my car and Stella was in the back seat sleeping. She had been eating a muffin, and fell asleep with the muffin wrapper and some muffin in her hand. I was taking some photos of her sleeping, and then in her SLEEP, she totally started eating the muffin! She took a bite, chewed it, smiled a little, took another bite, and then put her hand back down and didn’t wake up at all! This is her just before the mid-nap snacking episode:

She didn’t even move her head while she was eating. Maybe she already knows how to mess with me and she was awake the whole time. I’m really in for it if that’s the case.

I have also been asking her “How big are you?” and she puts her arms up above her head, no big deal. Then today she grabbed a spoon off of the table, and I said something like “How did you get that Stella?” and she puts both her arms up above her head, and looked at me like she was saying “Hellooo! I’m so big, remember?”

Yes darling you are so big. So big, so soon. Sigh.