there are some things i should not attempt to do myself....

waxing my eyebrows is one of them.

i've had it done enough times i thought i could do it. no. bad idea. liz you really should have been firmer with me. although..... i have never been able to raise one eyebrow up. now, for the next couple of weeks, i will just look up and to the left.... like i'm looking at something very intriguing.... something mysterious..... you know, over there.


this is gross i know, but it is just sad how it is all mapped out. why i didn't stop after the first clump accidentally came off, we will never know. it was also interesting trying to get the oil onto my eyelashes onto which i dripped lots of hot wax.


extra! extra!! read all about it! my mommy is a weirdo!!!
on a much better note.... look who loves his new newsboy cap.

praise or punish?

hmmm..... not what i want to see when i finally go to eat my breakfast..... although the table was cleared, how bout the sink next time? :)

PRAISE

lookie lookie..... what do we have here??? anthro's new coffee table book.... they always copy my ideas....

PRAISE

nice shoes little S.....

when i said get your shoes on, she did do it....
PRAISE

on a family trip to kartchner caverns.... a mention of the early closure on the website or answering machine would have been nice.... but the taped up notice did convey the message. just would have been nice to have a head's up before loading all the kids up and driving 3.5 hours to get there.....

at least we got quite a performance out of it....
PUNISH!!!

this cutie got her hair chopped again....
PRAISE

oooohhhh..... what should we do with this????
to be decided.....

ireland 2010

our trip to ireland was amazing. all of my siblings and their significant others went to celebrate my dad's 60th birthday. the babies did great. (except for baby r's aversion to all the fresh cream i was stuffing in my face.) it was so beautiful and we had many fun adventures.....

this took some getting used to... especially on their teeny tiny streets. what you see here is a small freeway.
we stayed in a small town called dingle.

this is the view from our front door....
we took a tour of the dingle harbor. baby C was stylin'. baby R was sleeping.

the highlight was when fungi swam along side our boat for about 10 min. so exciting!! i was too busy screaming to take any pics. good thing my sissy was making all those dolphin calls.
this was one of my favorite days. my step mom and aunt watched the babies and the "big kids" got to have some fun adult time. we all piled into our small euro car and went for a little drive. we saw a big mountain with a ruin on top. we decided to climb it. the ruin was very small and anticlimactic, but the journey was the memorable part.

a lonely boat in the dingle harbor...

my boys......

this guy celebrated his 60th birthday....
happy birthday dad!!!!!

we had a lovely picnic on blasket island. it was pretty much the most amazing thing.... until baby R started to scream. it was a stressful 20 min.
these guys kept popping their heads out of the water to check out what everyone was doing.
hiking around the storybook island....
the journey to the island was an adventure in itself. we took a boat close to the island (nattie didn't do too well on that one)....
then we put on lifejackets and got onto a raft-like boat that took us to the island. the seals were right next to us. scary.

the boat ride back was so rocky and almost made me sick. good thing baby r slept right thru it.
inch beach. one of the most beautiful places i have ever been. we drove right up to the water.


more inch beach...
driving along the coast...
baby R loves being daddy's mini-me.


this was an adventure as well.....

we found out about an old ship graveyard, so the girls decided to have their own field trip. we got into our car (scary) they trusted me to drive (double scary) and we drove right down along a dark, muddy, it was pouring rain by the way, one-way road that led right to the beach. we took pictures because we made it... didn't know how we were going to get back out tho....
when we turned the corner.. there they were. it was so creepy. the wind was so strong, it was foggy and pouring rain. it felt like we were in a scary movie.


we were sinking into the ground...


chester copperpot.........

we loved all the phrases people would say:

* no bother

* cutlery (silverware)

* stirrers (spoons)

* petrol and filling station

* guarda (police)

we were sad for our vacation to come to an end, but we were ready to get back. we missed the girls so much. baby R was amazing for most of the ride home. we had a layover in philly for a few hours. we took a taxi into the city and saw the liberty bell, independence hall and even hiked over to the italian market for some cheesesteaks. not as good as you might think wit out wiz... but still delightful.

ultra professional sewing tutorial

how to sew an adorable dress for your child......

disclaimer.... i do love to sew, and even tho i had the best teacher (thx grammie) i don't always follow the rules. although nobody ever went to jail for using too many pins, i don't want to take my chances.

1. go to a cheap place (like SAS fabrics) and get some cool material. i found this grey material for $1.74 for the whole piece.

i like to use a paper grocery bag to sketch out my pattern.

yep.... just eyeball it. maybe hold it up to your child if you want to get some idea of what size to make.
baby R likes trader joe's bags the best...
cut out strips for ruffles on the front.
i prefer to use sharpies... and the same scissors i use in the kitchen. ( i am ultra professional)
2. lay it all out.
3. i made the skirt first. i wanted it to have a modern, raw look, so i did a zig zag across the top of the skirt.
then i did a loose stitch about an inch below the zigzag and gathered it.
4. skirt is done. now move on to the strips. do 1 loose stitch down the middle of each strip. gather.
5. pin the strips down on the front of the dress. stitch down the middle, attaching them to the front of dress.

sew top front and back together.
6. my neckline was WAY too big, so i gathered around the neckline and then added elastic all the way around.
7. then i attached the skirt to the top of dress. i attached mine from the outside (seam showing)
8. the dress was WAY too long, so i laid it out and cut off several inches.

and then....
9. voila!!! you are done.

did you get that awesome dress at j crew???

NO!! you made it :)

10. yeah!!!
it is super soft t-shirt material, so child is happy. i think it will wash well too. the edges will probably curl up, adding even more dimension.

11. i also made a matching headband with some of the scrap material and elastic. but the child disappeared... so no more pictures.