For Nana

i love when parents are invited in to watch the ballet class. my ballerina.

So...

So here's what you missed on Adventures in Rhode Island—

• Sadie turned 4 and is doing great. She likes princesses now (sigh), bugs and animals (yay), and waking up at the ass crack of dawn each day (boo).

• She always likes to make sure she keeps parenting a challenge for me, she doesn't want me to get bored with mundane things like cooperation and flexibility. So, she has decided she still won't poop on the potty and gives me reasons in an off-handed 4 year old way like, "I won't poop on the potty because poop is brown and brown is not my favorite color." Smacks myself in head.

• I got rid of the diaper genie. I wanted to take a sledge hammer to it, but amazingly, someone is buying that damn thing.

• We are moving. Again. Just upstairs. But still. It's moving. Again.

• I can only only guess at this of course, but I think moving is like labor. You went through it once and it was hell. Then time passes and you forget the pain. You go through it again. And then you remember said pain.

• We are moving to a place the size of a hobbit hole. We must purge a lot of things. We had a tag sale. We did pretty good. Still have a lot of shit. Salvation army is making out great.

• Sold some stuff on Craigslist and then my email got hacked somehow through Craigslist and sent everyone I know spam. Fantastic. But at least it was generic spam and not "spice up your sex life" and "penis enlargement" spams like what happened when my Mom got hacked. My Mom's reaction to that was totally worth her account being compromised.

• We are now getting desperate and just putting out stuff on the lawn with a "free" sign on it. People are vultures and of course they take it.

• My friends are starting to hate me because I try to dump all the stuff that won't fit into the new place on them. "Do you like vampire books?" "Great! Here are 17 of them. You have to take them all. Enjoy!"

•  I know. I really need to change my winter blog theme.

So..... that's what you missed on Adventures in Rhode Island.

De-Cluttering

I guess it's clear blogging is not on my New Years Resolution list! It's been awhile! So, today I just finished a project to help de-clutter Sadie's room. Little by little, I'm planning on getting her room more organized and this Hanging Laundry Bag really helped. She used to have a stand alone hamper on her floor, but it took up a lot of space. I saw this project in the sewing book my Mom gave me for my birthday, One Yard Wonders, and thought it would be fun to do and also, functional. The book is awesome, for any of you sewers out there. 101 projects to do, all with just one yard of fabric! So Mom, here is the first project I made out the book! It was fun and felt good to figure out things I've never done before. Double bias tape THIS! Snaps? No problem! Looking forward to the next Joann's trip to pick out new fabric!

The month of december was dedicated to working on my Christmas sewing project- making superhero capes and masks for Sadie, her cousins, and her friends! These are four of them, the other two I made I finished very late at night, the night before traveling to give them to my nephews, so the last thing I was thinking of was photographing them! But here are some pictures of Sadie and Luke playing with their capes. So funny!

Anyways, hoping to make it back to the blogging world more often now!

Ho Ho Ho

A day late, but a 3 year old doesn't know that! I decided to try my sewing skills out on a homemade advent calendar, and boy, was it good practice! Please do not enlarge this photo and look at any of the stitches! I seriously almost FedEx'd my mom all the ornaments to sew for me because mine were laughable in the beginning. Even John, the most loving and supportive person in existence, could not suppress his smirk when I showed him my earliest ornaments I made. But..... I finished it and Sadie loves it! The ornament are pockets and inside are treats like mini candy canes, chocolates, hello kitty hair clips, jingle bell bracelets, etc. I thought it would be a good visual for her to know when Santa was coming and a good number game. Our cats have already tried to use it as a scratching post, and if those hairy beasts destroy this labor of love, we're taking a trip back to the Potter League (animal shelter for those who don't live here!)! Just kidding... kind of.... ;)

Take-Out At Home

I definitely have a pattern on this blog. Blog a lot, then start slacking and once I do that, I conk out on the blog completely. Then it just seems like a lot of work to write all that I had intended to write and I just end up goofing around on facebook or something. So I'll just write a quick post today to get back in the writing swing of things. A couple of weeks ago I stumbled upon a crockpot Orange Chicken recipe. The recipe was actually called crispy orange chicken but honestly, I have no idea how you manage to get a crock pot recipe to turn out crispy. Anyways, I love orange chicken and it usually is what I order when we get chinese food. It's just so damn good. And happy to say, this version turned out delicious. I have made a couple other orange chicken recipes and they all turned out bland and not worth putting in the "to keep" pile. But this one was different. It almost tasted like take out (just like the recipe said!) and was perfect served over rice and a side of broccoli. Cooker beware though- it burns easily! I cooked it on high for 3 hours and I burned the outside edges, so if you do try it, keep an eye on it. Check out the link, it's worth a cook!

Pumpkin Season

Pumpkin Pie Bites.

It's that time of year again... the most wonderful time of the year...... it's pumpkin time! This recipe I have had in the back of my mind since last fall. I read it on Bakerella's blog (you know her, the now famous cake ball creator) and have really been wanting to make it. I mean, really... pumpkin pie, in mini form??? It's right up this redhead's alley. You make them with pre-made pie dough and mini muffin pans, completely easy. And they are adorable and delish! It's not so much pumpkin pie filling as it is pumpkin cheesecake filling, and these little guys would be perfect with a dollop of fresh whipped cream....mmmm..... Might be taking them to a Halloween party coming up. Here is Sadie helping out. Ok, actually, I gave her some pie scraps to play with so I could finish up the recipe...

And we have finally decided on a Halloween costume- Thomas The Train! When asked what she wanted to be, Thomas was the winner, and here is the day it came in the mail. Pretty cute! She loves it and her bff Skylar is going to be the same thing.... Twin Thomas The Trains!

Wordless Wednesday: Tiny Dancer