You know what today is? Of course you do. IT’S THE LAST DAY OF NABLOPOMO!!! You know what I’ll be doing tomorrow? Of course you do!!! I’LL NOT BE POSTING! Woooo Hoooo. So give yourself a break and don’t click over here tomorrow. Don’t even worry about missing anything because I will be baby-sitting and therefore out of wifi existence anyway. Phew. It’s been a long month.

It really is true that if you can do something for more than 21 days it becomes a habit. Every night now, as I put Baby Bug down and am so tempted to let myself slide into slumber beside her, I’ll have that nagging feeling telling me:
“NO! You can’t sleep! You have to blog!” But then I’ll smile and remember that it’s December now and nobody cares. Like Chatty Housewife commented, “NO MO PO MO!”

Today was a good day.

First of all it rained which was kind of a novelty. Baby Bug actually got to use her rain boots for their intended purpose. Too bad they are too big and she actually walked right out of them a few times and got her socks sopping wet. It was fun punching around in a few puddles. Then I got bored and forced her to play in the living room while I commenced Operation Gift Tag and sent out a zillion orders!

Not really a zillion but enough to make me wonder what I got myself into. I love having a little shop. I just never remember how much work it is making things. I had to make sure I finished cleaning up the big mess before Toby woke up or I think he would disown me. It is his pet peeve when I make giant messes doing my “arts and crafts”. But what can I say. I’ve always been this way. At least I’m good at cleaning up.

Guess what else happened today? The alphabet cards were printed and THEN I took them to a bindery shop and they chopped all the corners round for me for FREEEEEEE! I know! I can barely believe my luck myself. It certainly didn’t seem real when it was happening.

I had to drive way into Santa Ana to find this place—which to an Orange County Housewife is the equivalent to driving into the deepest jungles of the Congo. Everything was different. The streets weren’t smooth and wide. I thought for sure I was going to get carjacked. But finally my trek paid off and I pulled up outside a giant warehouse deep in an industrial park.

Before I could even get Baby Bug out of her car seat, a nice man ran out of the warehouse and offered to help me carry in my box of letter cards. It wasn’t even a very big box but it was heavy and I did have a wiggly kid on my hip. I was very thankful for the help. I walked up to an outdoor counter and stood under one of those outdoor heaters. So nice. I love those heaters. It’s like they knew I was coming and made it cozy for me and Bug.

Like a dork, I stumbled around for my words. I’d never been to a bindery before and I had no idea what to expect. Did I need an account? A resale license? Should I have brought my business checkbook? I finally spit out that I needed my alphabet cards corners rounded. The guy at the counter asked me what size I wanted my corners to be. I shrugged and said, “I don’t know, whatever is standard.” I guess I said something right because he ripped up my order form and hustled me off to a waiting room while he cut my cards for FREE! How cool is that?

The guys in the warehouse also spent a good amount of time paying attention to Baby Bug so maybe we got the job free on account of her good looks, I don’t know. But I’m not going to complain.

So there you have it. The official update on the cards is this: They are printed and they have rounded corners! Woooo Hooo! I expect to get a prototype of the muslin bags tomorrow. I will take pictures of the cards and bag and post them on Etsy on Monday! From there my sister-in-law will sew the bags and ship them to me and I will be filling orders as quickly as I can.

We might just make the Christmas deadline after all!

I spent a lot of time on the road today. I’ve been driving around desperately seeking the world’s most perfect envelope to send out the gift tags. I want something tough, yet small and cheap. So far, nothing exists that doesn’t push my shipping costs up over a dollar. And we can’t have that now since I’ve already set the price and a bunch of you have taken advantage of my generous low prices. (I try.)

Ideally, I’d have something made out of tyvek that is the size of an A2 envelope. But now that I’ve researched tyvek, I’m convinced it is evil. Apparently, it’s the plastic that will never ever break down until the end of time. I don’t really want to give you that kind of gift that keeps on giving.

Maybe I could make my own Frankenstein envelopes. That would be really cool but would also require a lot of time and right now I need to get those tags out pronto for all of you celebrating hanukkah! I’m probably just going to end up with a regular paper envelope reinforced with packing tape. Don’t worry though, I’ll decorate it with a pretty label. I stand by my graphic designer honor badge and refuse to send out ugly mail. (Not counting all those years I designed junk mail of course.)

So anyway, a road story. Baby Bug and I have been listening to a Wiggle’s cd lately, thanks to her Auntie CC. Toby hates the catchy tunes that get stuck in your head for months but Baby Bug and I love them. There is one song on cd called “Where is Thumbkin”. I can’t find a Wiggles link right now but here is a you tube link that will give you the idea of the song.

Baby Bug and I were singing away, doing all the motions (yes, while I was driving expertly) and then we came to “Tall One”. You know, the middle finger? So I’m singing away and we stop at a stop light and there I am wiggling my middle fingers at everyone stopped across the intersection. Immediately, I realized that people were watching me and I looked like I was flipping them the bird in a I’m-super-happy-and-on-crack sort of way. I guess that’s better than road rage but I’m sure everyone who saw me thought I was either a mom or completely whacko.

Speaking of Whacko… this struck-over-the-head-with-reality feeling reminds me of the time I was strollering down Pacific Coast Highway describing to my mom on my cell phone how Toby thinks eating puffed up cranberries in baked goods can sometimes seem like popping bug abdomens in your mouth.

I’m so tacky like that. Blabbing away, completely ignorant to all the people around me. Well, right when I got to the part about squishing and squirting, my cell phone connection cut off and there I was standing at a cross walk talking to the air. And THEN I noticed there were other people around me, also waiting for the crosswalk light to change, who were staring at me and hanging onto every word. Ugh. I need a lobotomy.

WHICH REMINDS ME OF ANOTHER THING! I addressed a Christmas card to an old friend (who has seriously been married like five years or something) with her maiden name and THEN I signed it “Toby and Brenda and Brenda”. Sorry Baby Bug. Mommy is officially losing it. Ga-dunka dunk dah. I’ll be here all week.

That is all the stupidity material I have for today but if you enjoyed that, stay tuned. I’m sure there is way more where it came from.

Production of the letters has begun. I printed my first test print yesterday. They just need a few tweaks and they’ll be good. I hired my super crafty sister-in-law to sew some really nice muslin bags for them. Because packaging is everything, right? I can’t wait to see the whole prototype put together.

The one thing I can’t decide is if should I hand-punch every single corner to be rounded? Round corners look really really nice but do I have time to sit around punching punching punching? Maybe I do. I’m always jealous of you folks who can sit and knit or crochet while you watch a movie. Maybe I can watch a movie and punch.

I hope to list them on etsy by next week! In the meantime, check out my gift tags.

Today was a ton better.

There’s something to be said for routine. Today was laundry day and even though I hate doing laundry, it is comforting to have something go as you plan it. Even if it is just laundry.

Thank you everybody for your cheering-up comments. You definitely helped.

If this were a mom-o-meter fuel gauge, my feet would be on E for empty. I should have composed the shot in such a way that my feet were tilted to the right but I wasn’t thinking of the “E for empty” when I shot this. It was morning and I was chipper and ready for the day.

Sadly, today kicked my butt.

I want to blame it on Baby Bug because she has been particularly challenging today. Let’s see, could it be any of the following?

1. yelling whenever I am talking
2. not eating the healthy food that is put before her
3. throwing the healthy food on the floor
4. the hour-and-a-half battle over what time is “nap time”
5. the endless whining and hanging on the pantry door asking for “trick or treats”
6. the very rough rough-housing that landed me with a thick lip
7. the sudden aversion to having her hair washed

… or all of the above?

I have a feeling it isn’t her. She’s just being a nearly-two-year-old. She reminds me of a kitten. You know how kittens look so cute and you just want to cuddle them up to your face but they are all full of claws and teeth and you end up getting your hand chewed up and covered with scratches? That’s Baby Bug these days. Just too much energy for her little cute body. And definitely too much energy for this tired old hag of a mom.

I think normally I’m pretty good at handling this sort of stuff. I’ve babysat plenty of kids who are way more rambunctious than she is. I think today I’m just sort of running low on fuel in general. I don’t know why or how long I’ll feel like this.

It could be the let down from several days of jam-packed fun. It could be I’m feeling fat and ugly from eating apple pie every day. (Why won’t someone else in this house eat the pie!!!) It could be that I’m sick of taking pictures of my shoes every day. It could be that I’m just bummed that I can’t make my alphabet cards at a price point that I think will make everyone happy. I don’t know. I think I just need to post a downer post. I’ll feel better soon.

I always do.

Woot! The Alphabet is done. I still have to do lowercase versions and I still need to get them printed. But at least I did what I said I would do before Christmas. Next step: making them available.

I hope to have some mini cards available in my etsy shop in the next two weeks (crossing fingers). I don’t think I’ll finish the lowercase before the end of the year but I’ll keep trying. I have a feeling this will be a project that keeps on going for years to come. I’ve already dreamed up different color themes as well as possibly an adult version. We’ll see, right? Who knows what could come of this.

And with that I give you W for whale!

X for X-ray!

And…. (drum roll) Y for Yak!

Yakity Yak!

Get your letters here while they are free! Soon they will be gone!

We made Christmas cards today. You’re thinking, “How proactive SAJ is…” but you would be wrong. Usually I put things off to the last minute because I work better under a little bit of stress. But in the case of these Christmas cards, we started them early because I wanted something fun to do with Baby Bug.

I’m not sure I would recommend this project for all mothers of nearly-two-year-olds. You can definitely do it but it did involve a lot of clean-up throughout the whole process. Of course I didn’t plan very well so I was carving the potato stamps while Baby Bug was awake and scrambling up on a chair so she could climb on the counter and try to grab the knife and “cut like mommy.” I definitely don’t recommend doing that.

My initial idea was to use a head of cabbage, cut in half, to stamp. I had this vision of a highly detailed red tree on cream colored paper… not unlike the coral designs that have been showing up on so many pillows these days. That idea failed miserably. I’m sure it would work but not with washable kid paint. The paint was too thick and it just glomped on the paper like a soggy wet dog nose. It was fun to play with but not very tree-like at all.

The only vegetable that really worked was the baby bok choy. Chopped near the base, it made a very pretty rose. Not a tree… but still nice. I love bok choy. Not only is it tasty but it makes a pretty stamp! I know you all think it tastes like some kind of green cardboard or kale or something but you would be wrong. It’s like lettuce but with a hint of spice. Chop it up and put in your next stir fry and you will thank me for how healthy you feel.

But we weren’t talking about dinner; we were talking about a Christmas card project! We were talking about a messy project. I finally gave up on the vegetables and decided to use the potatoes I had left over from Thanksgiving and make good old-fashioned potato stamps. I know everyone has done this and it’s so not original BUT cut me some slack because I am doing an art project with a nearly-two-year-old!

A nearly-two-year-old who likes to make big messes! She didn’t want to stamp. She wanted to paint. She painted the cards, she painted the table, she painted the potato stamp (the side you need to hold when you are stamping, of course). She painted some brussels sprouts and some rocks and even the pumpkins I still have left over from halloween but just don’t the heart to throw out. She even painted her feet! Give that girl a paint brush and she will paint the town red, literally.

I was bellyaching to Toby about how messy she is and how I don’t know why I do these things (this was after she threw the star potato stamp off the balcony and gouged a hole in the snowman stamp with her fingernail), and he chuckled and said, “Admit it. You love this. You’ve been waiting your whole life to make messes like this.”

I had to admit he was right. I do love this sort of thing. The hours in the day flew by while we were in the thick of it. I’ve been doing these sorts of projects for years with borrowed kids—kids I babysit, nieces, kids that people brought to work and then sent to my office so they could get some work done… It’s about time I finally got to do this sort of thing with my own kid.

I can’t wait to send them out and brag about her.

If you noticed this post was not riddled with as many errors as usual, it is because Bethany Actually edited it for me.

It was kind of nice to have a nothing-to-do-all-day sort of day today. I like to have at least one outing planned a day to break up the monotony that is our house as a daycare center but after the last few whirlwind weeks, I was thankful for some couch time.

I did take Baby But out for two walks, all bundled up. That was sort of fun. It hardly ever gets cold here, so wearing a coat and a jacket (if you call a heavy cable knit sweater a coat) is kind of a novelty. We poked around our neighborhood hoping to find a book case in the trash* but of course there wasn’t one. Nobody ever throws out a book case. I guess I’m going to have to break down and actually buy one.

I did happen to stop into a dog store that just opened near by and asked them if they would like to buy my last few paintings. They said no. I should be insulted but I’m not, thankfully. She told me she’d buy some if they were pink or had leopard print on them. I declined. I’m just not into dogs anymore.

And that was pretty much my day. Kind of a yawner. But yawns are good. Especially when you are a toddler and you conk out and go to bed a whole hour earlier than your usual bedtime.

*Yes, I admit it. I’m a trash digger. But have you heard? There’s a depression coming. Time to save your pennies!

So I cooked thanksgiving dinner today and I am one tired mother something-something. It was great though. As I was editing all the photos I uploaded onto flickr, I was overwhelmed with how wonderful everything turned out and how lucky I am to have a mom who will slave away in the kitchen with me from morning until night. Of course there were lots of other relatives helping helping helping but my mom really did make it happen. If she weren’t here I think I would have ordered a pizza and run for the hills.

I’m not the world’s worst cook but I just don’t love it. I love cleaning better. I would rather wash five countertops filled with dishes and sigh that big happy sigh of relief that they are done than cook a great big thanksgiving dinner and know that I made a table full of people happy. I don’t know why. I’m just weird that way. I just really really like that feeling that everything is clean and orderly.

So you can imagine that the thought of a kitchen over-flowing with dishes and half-unwrapped ingredients and chopped-up vegetables and trash bags and pots bubbling over and things dripping on the floor and children running in and out… could run me a little ragged. I’m not type A but I like things in “my office” (the kitchen) to be just so. And “just so” would be how the kitchen is when NO COOKING is going on. That’s how I like the kitchen. Clean and tidy.

Heh. Happy Thanksgiving to you too.

Do you know what I do when I feel a little insecure about something? I call my mom. When I used to do wedding flowers my mom was my right-hand man. We’ve worked so hard on so many projects together that she’s used to my constant running worry-wart commentary. She just rolls her eyes when I freak out about something and reminds me of the zillions of other times we’ve pulled off the impossible.

This year I carted her out a day early and we braved the crazy madhouse grocery store together. Did you guys go shopping on Wednesday? It was a AWFUL!!! I seriously felt like my cart was a bumper car at the carnival. All we needed was some loud Calypso music and maybe a wild wig or two and we’d be ready for the circus or the funny farm or something. It was downright scary. I’m usually very orderly in my shopping, always starting in the produce section and working my way east but this time it was all I could do to scramble here and there and make my way down my list. We forgot a million things but what can you do? It was either that or throw down some WWF wrestling moves.

The best part of getting Thanksgiving dinner ready was fulfilling our family tradition with Baby Bug for the first time. In our family it is a time honored tradition that the youngest family member stuff the first handful of stuffing into the turkey. I don’t how this started (maybe Grandma can fill us in?) but I do remember it with all my many cousins. I don’t remember doing it myself but I may have. I was probably too little to remember. Who knows. It’s just something fun we do and I was not one bit disappointed with Baby Bug’s glee to do her part.

It was all a blast. The relatives arrived early and the cousins shrieked with glee. Baby Bug and her cousin Super Chic are two peas in a pod. They are BFF for sure. I love to watch them play together.

The Dads took the kids to the beach and even though I was sad to miss out on that fun, it really helped with getting things done in the kitchen. It’s amazing how hard it is to cook or get anything done when you have a toddler who wants to help and/or be held at the same time.

Thankfully Toby’s brother (Uncle George) took a ton of great photos so I got to live that moment vicariously. I love that we are starting traditions like this in our family. It’s a very strange role that I’m now playing as the mom and person who is in charge of organizing these sorts of events but I’m thankful for it too. I know it’s a lot of responsibility but I’m up for it. There is nothing better than realizing these moments are the memories your kids will always look back on. Just like I look back on all the many thanksgivings I spent with my family.

At the end of the day, the food was good and everybody was happy. I really couldn’t ask for anything more. Well besides a cup of coffee and a big fat slice of apple pie.

I would definitely do this again.

***update***
Grandma does have the origin of this tradition! Check out her blog and leave her a comment if you think of it. She loves comments. (Doesn’t everyone?)

Here we go. It’s “Thanksgiving at the Beach” time! Not that I know how to cook a turkey or anything but we will be having dinner at my house with all the fixings thanks to some slave labor help from my mom.

Cheers! I hope we are all fat and happy at the end of the day!