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My Extended Weekend: Very Little Sleep and a Movie

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This past week has been pretty stressful. My husband was on call in addition to his regular work schedule. So we weren’t really able to go out, and there was the possibility he would have to go in at any minute. He luckily wasn’t called in at all during the week, but he was called in non stop the entire weekend. Middle of the night, early in the morning, seriously non stop. We were all on edge, and lacking sleep. I already wasn’t feeling like myself lately, so this just added to it…

One good thing that came out of it all was since he worked so much during the weekend, he was able to take off yesterday. We used the day to actually do some fun stuff! We went out to eat, did a teeny bit of thrifting (I found a Disneyland cookie jar and CT found loads of books), some “window shopping” and we saw a movie!! Everything was nice, but that movie was great!!

We don’t really have a way of going to the movies often, timing is just never right. If we want to go, it has to be a kids movie that all three of us want to see. It pretty much has to be cartoon and can’t be scary. We learned our lesson about scary when we saw Brave, I still haven’t seen the second half (though I did buy the dvd this past week, so I’ll know what happens soon) Anyway, we decided to check out Wreck it Ralph.

CT has been asking to go see this movie for months now! It’s been hard explaining that movies come out at different times, sometimes in theaters, sometimes on DVD. She’s starting to catch on. We didn’t tell her we were seeing Wreck it Ralph until we bought the tickets, just in case. She was excited once we got in. We all were, ha. Truthfully we’ve all been looking forward to seeing this movie, and I’m so glad we did.

It was seriously one of the best Disney movies I’ve seen in a long time. The characters were all done so well, and the story kept your attention the entire time. They were able to make you feel something for the bad guy, the main character Ralph. You wanted him to be the hero! CT loved Venelope the best, of course. She was adorable!! I won’t get into the full story line here, because I really feel that anyone reading this should see this movie! It has a nice retro feel, it has loads of video game references from different decades, it has a little love story and a hero’s quest! Perfect! I loved it so much I MAY try and convince the family to go see it again. Maybe when it’s at the $2 theatre.

Now it’s Tuesday and my week is about to get crazy. We are headed to my uncles for thanksgiving on Thursday, and I said I’d make a pie and some macarons. Then we are hosting our own Thanksgiving for my husband’s side of the family on Saturday, which involves a lot of cleaning, prepping, baby proofing and baking too. I’m also hoping to get some antique shopping in on Friday during a huge sale at one of our favorite shops. It will be my only plan for Black Friday. Hopefully.

I hope everyone else is having a calmer week than me, and a great time with family!!

(the above two photos were courtesy of disney.com)

 

My Weekend: Crafty Bastards Recap

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This weekend was pretty awesome! I was exhausted, but was happy to be out and about.

Saturday was Crafty Bastards. It is an Arts and Crafts Fair held in Washington DC. It’s pretty close to home and is almost always super busy, which is why I love the show so much.

Normally my husband or sister would help me at the show, but this year that just wasn’t in the cards. Instead, luckily, my friend Molly was able to help me! No offense to my husband or sister, but Molly was the absolute best helper I’ve ever had! Thank you! It made the show a bit calmer for me to have her there. Though the start of the show was of course hectic. I’m apparently not that great at giving directions (especially when im distracted by talking), so we missed a few exits and arrived late for set up. By the time we were done getting ready, shoppers were walking around, so the only picture I was able to get of my booth was the above one (it was my view of the booth all day). There were so many people I just couldn’t get a picture in any other direction. I need to get better with documenting things again. The show was great. It was in a new location, so I was a bit worried at first, but once the aisles filled up I felt fine. I sold a bunch of my new pieces, and I was able to see which pieces people liked more than others. That’s always useful. I was also able to see a bunch of old friends from the area and from other shows.

I was so tired from the week leading up to the show that I didn’t get up and shop as much as I usually do. I only gave myself the last 20 minutes to shop, so I was pretty much speed shopping! Ha. I did get a few neat things…

Above you can see the few items I got…

- The set of prints are by Berkley Illustration. They have loads of prints and it was really hard narrowing it down to two. If I had had more time I may have even purchased more. I just thought the Cowboy T-Rex print would complement are eclectic style the best , and the Hedgehog print is actually for someone else.

- The light aqua colored coyote skull is by Skullery. It’s actually a hand cast plastic replica. I talked to the artist for a minute or two, and found out that it is made out of the same material as my jewelry. How cool is that?!? I love odd things like this, but I only like replicas or faux versions. I just can’t bring myself to bring a real skull in the house, so these are perfect! I want more!!

- The large plush mushroom is by My Paper Crane. Heidi’s booth was actually right next to mine, and I saw this mushroom the second we started setting up. I love pretty much all the stuff she makes, but I am always drawn to the larger pieces. Larger pieces can be displayed on couches or on the ground. Perfect for someone running out of shelf space, like me. This particular piece is on the couch since CT thinks it’s hers. I tried to buy her something at the show, but they were sold out of her size, so since she’s careful with things I let her have the mushroom… for now.

This was the smallest, and quickest, shopping spree I’ve ever done at a show. I did collect a bunch of business cards from booths I really liked. So I may still get a few more items.

Crafty Bastards really was great this year, I really enjoyed it and I hope to do it again next year!!

Oh and Sunday I started holiday shopping, with a quick stop at an antique mall. It wasn’t AS exciting as Saturday, but I did find some neat things. I’ll share them tomorrow!

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My Weekend: Two Parties In Two Days

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This weekend was crazy, awesome and exhausting all at the time! Two Parties in Two Days!

Saturday was Heidi’s September crafternoon. I seriously look forward to these every month. I’ve said it before, but there’s no harm in saying it again, all the girls (and guy) who come to these crafternoons are so nice!

The food as always was really good! Heidi was super sweet again and made a gluten free lasagna that was awesome! I miss pasta. I was able to bring home some leftovers too and am totally having some for lunch later. She also made salad and a cake that looked soo pretty! I can tell you the icing was really good, and I assume the cake was even better!

The craft this time around was felted acorns! I’ve always wanted to make felted beads, and this is pretty much the same thing. You can see step by step instructions on Amanda’s and Heidi’s blogs. It was a lot of fun and super easy! Katie C. provided piles of acorn caps, so we were able to make a bunch. I made all the ones pictured above. I plan on keeping them all in a mason jar in the library. I may also see if Katie has any leftover because I kinda want to make more!! (hint hint)

I can’t wait until next months crafternoon, it’s Halloween themed, and I love Halloween!!

Sunday was another fun day for us. Katie H.’s kids had an ice cream themed birthday party that CT was invited to. It was her first non family birthday party. She LOVED it!

It was a two stop party, with the first stop being at one of the local frozen yogurt places. The kind were you pick out your ice cream and topping all yourself. CT had an interesting concoction of vanilla, cookies & cream and strawberry shortcake with a bunch of strawberries, mango boba and sprinkles on top. I had pumpkin spice and cheesecake which was really good together (and were both few gluten free ones).

The second stop was in downtown Frederick at Baker Park. It was great because the kids were able to go crazy after having all that sugar at the fro-yo place! Good idea guys!! CT met some new kids and I met some new parents, it was really nice! CT really did have loads of fun, she’s still talking about it all today and will probably keep talking about it until the next time we see some kids.

Even though I’m super exhausted right now, I’m glad we did everything we did this weekend! Next weekend looks like its adding up to be just as awesome.

A big THANK YOU to everyone who made these past two days so nice, you guys are all awesome!!!!!

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My Weekend: Way Busier Than Anticipated

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My original plan this weekend was to finish a few projects at home and MAYBE work on CT’s quilt. MAYBE. Of course that didn’t happen, plans are made to be broken right?

Well as it seems lately, we’ve become quite popular, haha. Or everyone is sick of their other friends and family and we are their last resort. I’m cool with either option!

We ended up spending Saturday with family here and there, mostly my Father in law. CT got to enjoy one of those indoor bouncy castle places. She is a very energetic child, so these places are AMAZING! She lets out a bunch of energy and gets to see loads of kids, nice ones and mean ones. It’s a pretty even mix and she doesn’t care either way.

We had Mexican food for lunch, which for me was awesome! Ever since I found out gluten makes me sick we haven’t really been enjoying our favorite foods. It was just easier to make things at home, or get a hamburger sans bun while out. I finally just gave in and got something different I knew I could eat. We were also treated to some frozen yogurt, another favorite of the entire family. Oh and the place kinda close by (Tutti Frutti) has soy, gluten free fro-yo! Again, awesome for me and my lactose issues!!

Sunday we tried the whole calm day thing again, that didn’t last long at all, actually it didn’t last past 9am.

Target had a whole new line of goods come out Sunday as part of their “The Shops at Target” series. I usually end up missing all the neat things that come out because people normally ransack the stores the first day. I didn’t want to miss out this time, especially since Curiosity Shoppe was one of the featured sellers. They use to stock Art School Dropout goods before I went on “maternity leave” and cut back on wholesale, so I thought it was super duper neat to see their name in a huge store!! Anyway, our Target wasn’t done stocking by 9am and I was determined to get something.

I had posted online that I was going to try out one of the other stores in our area. Katie, who lives close by, said that her family was headed the same way for the same reason. We enjoy their company and they suggested walking around a bit and having lunch afterwards, so of course we said yes. CT gets along really well with her little ones, and is STILL talking about them right now!

I ended up only picking up a few small pieces from the Curiosity Shoppe line, I used restraint. I really wanted more. I also really want a few pieces from the Patch NYC line, but I’ve already blown my budget, oh well.

We parted ways with Katie and her family after lunch and thought our day was done. We were wrong AGAIN! While CT and my husband were taking naps I got a message from Molly saying her and her husband were in the area and would we like to get dinner? I was hesitant at first because of how exhausted everyone might be, but I really like seeing Molly so in the end we went. I’m glad we did too! We had Mexican again (I haven’t had it in months so of course I’m going to want it more than one night in a row, duh) Of course we enjoyed the company and stayed WAY too long! It’s nice talking to adults, especially ones who have the same taste as you in most areas. I think it was almost 9pm when we got home. A bit late for us, but worth it.

So as you can see from my very long post, I DID NOT have a calm weekend of sitting around and quilting. But you know what? I enjoyed myself way more than I would have with our original plan. I’m very thankful for all the invites and new friends. A HUGE Thank You to everyone who helped contribute to our awesome weekend!!

(oh and as for the photo in this post, It’s not as random as it seems. I took it during our drive back from Target Sunday, isn’t it pretty? That’s right down the street from us! I’m still surprised at how pretty it is living out in the country, you don’t get these views in the city)

My Weekend: A Trip to the National Aquarium

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This past Saturday we headed down to Baltimore (with a detour past Columbia to pick up my little brother) to visit the National Aquarium. We use to go every so often when we lived in the city, before CT showed up. I’ve been talking about how much I wanted to go back for awhile.

We chose a horribly hot day to visit. The walk from the parking garage to the aquarium alone was ridiculous. Then once we got to the ticket line we saw that there was a TWO AND A HALF HOUR WAIT! ugh. We ended up walking around some shops in the Inner Harbor to kill time. After an hour and a half we decided to just sit and wait, CT was already looking tired and the fun stuff was still to come. It was too hot so we ended up upgrading our regular tickets to a year long membership so we could get in right away. It made our trip more expensive than we had planned, but now we can go back during the cooler months.

The first thing we ended up doing was the dolphin show. It was in a cool arena with seats! We needed the rest. Since it was a Saturday, the dolphin show was shorter than usual. We didn’t get to see them do all the cool jumps and such. CT still enjoyed it and is still talking about those dolphins!! She even picked out a stuffed dolphin in the gift shop that she now sleeps with every night.

After the show we headed out into the main part of the aquarium. Oh my was it crazy, there was so many people that CT couldn’t walk without getting trampled over. She had to be carried, pretty much the entire time!! I have been to the Aquarium dozens and dozens of times my entire life and I have never seen it this crazy! I guess as locals my family knew when the best time to go was? When you live outside the city for a certain amount of time, you forget how crazy it can get in the summer. We learned our lesson. There are many awesome exhibits at the national Aquarium, some of the best in the country, and within two hours we got to see FOUR!!

The four we saw were as awesome as I remembered. The jellyfish exhibit was beautiful! I had seen the same exhibit when I visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium in 2008, but it was still neat to see it locally. Plus CT got to see real jellyfish! We have been talking about jellyfish a lot lately.

The sting ray tank was super cool and had a bunch of divers interacting with them. There was also a huge turtle swimming around, CT really liked him (her?).

There is also the entire top floor which is supposed to mimic a rain forest, we saw another turtle and a bunch of birds. That was always my favorite part of every aquarium trip.

The last exhibit was the dark shark tank that you walk down huge ramps to see. CT did not like the sharks, she said they were too scary. That was also about the time that we noticed just how tired she was.

We figured we have a year membership now, so if we missed anything cool, that we could just come back in a couple of months and see it with less people around. Maybe even try a day during the week when the crowd is just a bunch of kids on field trips, not frustrated/tired parents and screaming babies. The funniest and kinda saddest part though, if you ask CT what she saw at the aquarium her first response is “lots of people”, then she says dolphins and turtles.

After the aquarium we decided to drive around since we hadn’t been back to the city in awhile. We drove by the space (just to see what the outside looks like now) and we drove past the first place I lived on my own in Hampden. We also stopped by Atomic Books and Double Dutch (I bought some toys).

It was nice seeing it all, but it reminded me just how much I love living in the country! Baltimore will always have a place in my heart, the city gave me a lot of what I have now, but that doesn’t mean I want to ever live there again. I’m a lot less anxious these days, and I think thats why, haha. (just to be clear, everyone feels different about where is right to live, I’m not bashing city living, it’s just not for my family)

I know I complained a bunch about this trip, but CT didn’t know just how miserable the whole thing was. She loved it all and she really wants to go back. We definitively learned our lesson though, and will plan the rest of our weekend family outings for the fall. The heat and crowds are just too much in the Summer. I still want to visit Port Discovery, the Catoctin Wildlife Preserve and Zoo and then of course visit my absolute favorite place, The National Zoo!! So we’ll head to all those come October, or later.

I know I’ve asked this before and got a few awesome responses, but does anyone else have suggestions for places to take a toddler that are super fun?

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My Weekend: Headaches, Crafts & Family

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This past weekend was one of those weekends where you want an extra day “off” just so you can recover. I work from home, I’m home all the time, but that doesn’t mean that weekends aren’t as special to me. Weekends mean that there is TWO sets of eyes watching CT, which is really nice. Weekends also mean lots of errand running and spending time with the people we really like.

This past weekend was no exception. We were supposed to spend Saturday morning at the MVA, trying to get me a drivers license (fun fact: I don’t drive!). Those plans changed the night before because I didn’t have all the information needed and I wasn’t really feeling too great. You really need to feel your best to deal with the MVA. So instead I spent most of Saturday dealing with one of the worst migraines I’ve had in a long time!

I didn’t spend my ENTIRE day in bed! around 4 we headed up to Heidi’s monthly Crafternoon. My migraine had subsided slightly, but I still felt out of sorts. This months project was carving stamps that we then used to decorate some reusable tote bags. (the only photo I took was the one above, sorry its an Instagram photo, I just wasn’t feeling like myself) I somehow finished my stamp with only a little cut on my finger. I thought about it on the way home and I have no idea how I didn’t cut my entire finger off!! Who carves with sharp knives when feeling tired? Apparently I do!!

I loved seeing everyone as usual. I also got to enjoy three awesome gluten free deserts that were made because some of the girls knew I couldn’t have any. How sweet is that!?!? The girls who come to these crafternoons are seriously some of the nicest people I’ve ever met. It’s awesome! Thank you Heidi!!

We had to leave a little early because first off, it was close to CT’s bedtime and we were an hour away from home plus we had family coming Sunday and we needed to tidy up a bit (aka clean for the first time in two weeks). Instead when we got home we got sucked into watching the new Nerdist specials on BBC America. I totally recommend them!!

We woke up way to early Sunday and “tidied up”. My sister in law and brother in law, along with their three kids came up to visit for the a bit. It was awesome!! CT was so excited to see her cousins and I was happy to have family over. Our weekends get so crazy that sometimes we don’t get to see the people we want to see, so days like this are nice. We had a little barbecue, I got to play with my little baby nephews and CT had the best day ever! (in her words).

The family left early in the afternoon so we tried to spend the rest of the day relaxing, we kinda succeeded, as much as you can with a toddler I guess…

I think I caught a cold somewhere along the way and seriously did NOT want to get out of bed this morning. Their building a house next door, and we had painters fixing our bay window at 6:30, so sleeping in wasn’t really an option! Maybe tomorrow?

I’m thinking next weekend we MAY try and go to the aquarium, it all depends on how exhausted we are by Friday night!!

I’m sorta, kinda, in the DC and Baltimore area. Both cities are pretty close. Do any of you have suggestions for neat, indoor, things we could do with a toddler on the weekends? Something all of us could enjoy? I’m waiting until Fall to visit all the outdoor places, So I guess I could take suggestions for those too.