beach day

We're having a great time in California -- enjoying the nice (not too hot!) weather and playing with Gwenie and Darci. Today we went to Newport Beach (our old hang out!) to play in the sand and the water. Mason loved to dig in the sand with the beach toys .. but he also loved to chase the seagulls -- he ran up and down the beach forever trying to catch them (why?!).



He was a little wary of the water and getting near it without me close by.



But then he realized that the tide was pretty fun to play in and even dared to sit down while it rushed over his legs:



He loved watching the surfers and the family of dolphins that was swimming just offshore.



He was not too fond of being buried in the sand:



But it was all worth it when we stopped for In-n-Out on the way home. (Cheeseburger-no-tomato-with-onions-fries-large-Dr.-Pepper for me and a grilled cheese for him). So worth it. Nothing tastes better straight from the salty and sandy beach than a Double Double. Nothing.

fyi.

This is how you carry a wriggly 2 year old that weighs about 1/2 as much as you do.

made it.

Mason and I left on Thursday morning to drive down to Cedar City, Utah, to meet up with Darci and Brett where they were staying at her parents house. It was a great drive and we got there pretty quickly.

We spent the night in Cedar and then woke up early the next morning to make the drive home to Southern California. 6.5 hours later with plenty of fruit snacks, viewings of Backyardigans, and books read -- we made it.



Now we're just relaxing and both kids are napping and both Darc and I are sitting here on our laptops and watching the Angels game on TV and eating Chipoltle and it just feels like home again. Yay.

ecstatic.

We are so excited to be getting ready to go to California in 2 days. We miss living there so much. We've got plans for the beach, Disneyland, and Angel game AND celebrating Mason's 2nd birthday while we're there (it's August 25th).

Can't wait. I so need a vacation.

(Another picture from my great session with Michelle Coleman.)

another round up.

Even though life lately has been capes, capes, capes we have still had time to do a lot of fun things. We went to the bird aviary which was AWESOME ... although Marc was encouraging us not to go since he is terrified of birds (ha ha ha!) and trying to get Mason to be the same. I didn't get any pictures of the birds, but one of the cute kiddos:

We've also been to the farm, where Mason didn't want to get off the tractor:



and then also loved hanging out in the tree house with the girl that he just adores, Addy:



We went to our family reunion:



Notice Mason's hair is getting out. of. control. He keeps getting mistaken for a girl again. This happened a few months ago all the time also. What is it? Just the longer hair on a boy in general, people aren't used to seeing so they just automatically think girl? Is it the pink glittery skirts I make him wear? REALLY PEOPLE most days he's in a polo or a shirt with a baseball on it ... I mean I'm all for girls wearing polos and baseball shirts - but really, HE'S A BOY.

And it's been hot outside so we've been doing a lot of arting and crafting inside in the a/c:







We love the cool triangle crayons! They don't roll off the tables! So smart.

Tomorrow morning I take Marc to the airport early and then it will be almost 3 weeks until we see him again - since Mase and I head to California before he gets back, and then he doesn't join us in California for another week or so. It's going to be the longest that he's ever been away from me, let alone Mason. I feel bad for him because he's going to be all alone on a business trip in North Carolina and then all alone here at home.

I hate when our little family isn't together for any amount of time. I love the little threesome that we are together and it just doesn't feel right to have him not be with us. Plus the fact that means that I'm having to be the parent 24/7 and that gets frustrating and tiresome at times. Marc is such a good, involved Dad when he is here that I really miss him when he's gone. At least once we meet up in California again he doesn't have any more trips for work until October. Yay!

done.

I hate hype. Whether it is a new movie, product, book, restaurant, band, store -- I can't stand things that are so talked about, so advertised, so blogged about and written about and reviewed and built up that before they even come out (or are released, or out for buying, whatever) you feel like you already know so much about them. That you're almost required to like them, just because they're so hyped. And I hate even more people that like something JUST because it's the hot or popular or trendy thing at the time (see: most iPhone users!). Get your own opinions, people!

But ... one exception: The Twilight Series of Books (Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and now Breaking Dawn). I was a late comer to the series ... I read the first 3 books after Eclipse had been out awhile already. I couldn't stand that everyone was talking, recommending, gushing on and on about these books about vampires (what?!) and werewolves (huh?!) and that it was a young adult book, but a love story, but still really really good. Did NOT sound appealing to me.

Yeah, until I stayed up all night reading and read Twilight in about 8 hours, and then New Moon and Eclipse both over the next 2 days, finishing out the trilogy in a long 3 day weekend. I was hooked. So good.

So I was excited this weekend when Breaking Dawn (the 4th and final book) was being released. I wasn't going-to-the-midnight-release-party-excited, but stop-at-Target-at-9am-excited. Even though I knew I wouldn't be able to read until Saturday night due to a family reunion all day long that day. But I did read that night. And read, and read, and read. We had pizza for dinner Sunday night because I was reading. And reading. And finally I finished it, just a few minutes ago. And it was good.

You won't find any spoilers here, especially because I know some of my good friends are still waiting on their pre-ordered books to come from Amazon.com, but I'll just say that I'm overall happy with the way it ended. Not just how Breaking Dawn ended, but how she tied up the series as a whole. Surprised, a little thrown off, but happy. A little was predictable, and it was a little fairy-tail-ish, but really what else did we expect? Who else is reading it? Has finished it? Liked it? Hated it? Go check in at the most recent post at the Oh! It Is Only a Novel! book blog and then in a few days we'll post a review by Darci and I and discuss it more then (with spoilers!).

So now I'm a gusher and a recommend-er and a hype-er about the Twilight books. I talk about them to everyone. I share a knowing look to the other girl in the check-out line that has Breaking Dawn in her cart. I've gotten a lot of people hooked on the books, and I'm proud of it. And now I'm going to go read Breaking Dawn again, from page 1, because it was just that good, and I feel like I rushed through it the first time just dying to know how it ended.

check these out!

One of my favorite things about the Internet is all the awesome people that you meet. Through blogs, social networking like Twitter or Facebook, and sometimes just random connections you come across the most interesting, funny, kindhearted people ever! One of my most recent friends is Carrie -- she's got an awesome blog about her life in Stepford and also a cooking blog where she posts recipes for her yummy creations.

We've been commenting on each others blogs and twittering back and forth for a few months ... and we've got a few friends in common ... but as far as online friendships go it's still relatively new. So imagine how surprised I was when a package showed up for me from her and this was inside:

Are those not the most adorable cookies you've ever seen?! LOOK - it has my LOGO on it! I seriously teared up when I unwrapped them from their bubble wrap and saw the work and time she had put into them. And for what? Just because she wanted to say congratulations and good luck with my little business. Is that not just the kindest thing you've ever heard? She is such a generous, kind person.

I'm not the only one that thinks so, either, this week another one of our mutual friends, Susie, blogged about how much her friendship with Carrie means to her -- even though they've been friends for 5 years they've only met in person 5 times. That post by Susie reminded me of my own online friends and how much they mean to me - some that I've met in real life and some that I haven't (yet!).

I don't know what I'm going to do with the cookies yet. I don't want to eat them - they're too pretty. Mason hasn't spotted them yet otherwise his would be long gone. My dad gave me the idea to shellac them and then I could hang them up in my sewing room -- I wonder if that would actually work? That would be pretty fun! You can read Carrie's post about making my cookies on her cooking blog here.

We've got a crazy month of August planned -- Marc has to go to North Carolina for work for 7 days and then Mason and I leave for California 2 days before he gets home. Mase and I get to hang out with Darci and Gwenie and be in sunny California for 2 whole weeks! Then Marc will come down and meet up with us so we can do the family wedding stuff -- Marc's brother is getting married in Orange County at the end of August. Then at the beginning of September we'll all be back home and it will be fall almost! The rest of the summer is going to go so fast. Before we leave for California I have so much to do -- and less than 2 weeks to do it all. SO many capes to make and get sent out.

That reminds me -- if you haven't signed up for the RSS feed over at Plum Pear Apple you should go over there and do it now! I added a button in the top right corner that should make it pretty easy to subscribe via your RSS reader. That way you can make sure you don't miss any important announcements about the Superhero Capes. I've got some fun things planned for the upcoming holiday season and some new ideas for capes -- so keep an eye out for those. Also I'm only taking orders for capes through August 5th that will be done and sent before my vacation -- any orders received after August 5th won't be shipped until the beginning of September. So if you're thinking about ordering a cape and need it soon then you might want to think about ordering in the next few days. I feel terrible for this huge gap in production time but there is nothing I can do when I'm going to be out of town for over 2 weeks!

catch up.

So, yeah, this is kind of hard. Finding a balance between keeping up on this blog, my Plum Pear Apple blog, and my Oh It Is Only A Novel! blog. Oh, and sewing capes. Capes capes capes. I swear my husband and son are so sick of capes. I take my embroidery with me in the car, I'm cuttcing felt at the dinner table, I'm packaging up orders as I watch So You Think You Can Dance. Whenever we're driving somewhere and pass a fabric store I'm like "OOOHHH!! Let's stop!". The people at JoAnns and Michaels and Roberts and the Post Office are beginning to know me by name. It's just nuts.

I'm not complaining. I'm still overwhelmed that people would actually want to buy something that I make them. A lot of people. And people are so kind! I'm not good with taking compliments and praise -- I need a lot of encouragement.

But it's going good. I am so excited that I found something that I can do out of my house -- something that I'm confident in -- something that I am good at -- something that is freaking adorable if I do say so myself -- and I can make a little money off of. Believe me, I'm right now not rolling in the dough, I'm a teensy bit over breaking even but I'm happy with that.

I think I *am* going to be increasing my prices a tiny bit in the next month or two. I had been toying with that idea but I'm still nervous about what exact price point to set - go too high and people will think it's a rip off. I've already seen and heard comments from people like "yeah - they're cute, but I could do it for over half as cheap!" It's hard to read things like that because people have no idea how much time and care I put into each and every cape.

Oh well, you're going to have the naysayers in everything you do, I guess. And the compliments and encouragements are far outweighing the put downs at this point, and I guess that's really all I can hope for.

So, anyways, I promise I'll try to get back to regular posting about all the fun summer stuff we're doing, my garden, and the adorable pictures of Mason I know you all miss. ;)

In the mean time, go visit the awesome girls over at the new site MomDot.com. I found them a few weeks ago and they asked me if I would be interested in doing a giveaway of one of my capes. They are a new site that is focusing on featuring mommy blogs and mom-owned boutiques. I actually ended up becoming friends with the girls that run it and I help them out on their forums answering questions and doing some interviews. They've got some awesome things up so far -- and today is their official Grand Opening. They have over $4400.00 in prizes lined up for the grand opening that will run through the whole month of August. So if you didn't win in my cape giveaway at Plum Pear Apple, go over there to enter to win! Tell them I sent you!

What I Love: July

Swimming toddlers.

Homemade grilled pineapple and mango salsa.



Baby Angel games.



Boys that like baseball.



Watching fireworks.



Little Superheroes.



Homemade pizza at a dinner party.



Friends.



Our neighborhood.



Slides. (aka "whee!'s")



This boy, looking older everyday.



This view.



Spaghetti dinners.



Family.

not to us.

We were invited over to our friends house for dinner this evening. She asked me to bring a dessert - I'm making a strawberry trifle. I had everything all cut and prepared and ready to assemble when I realized I didn't have a great serving bowl. I wanted a glass one so you could see the pretty layers on the side, but all the glass bowls I had were either too big or too small.

I remembered a deep, dark section of my pantry where we had a few wedding gifts stored that we had never opened. I mean, the wrapping paper is off from when we got married 8 years ago, but technically the boxes have never been opened. Things like leaded crystal appetizer platters and a wooden salad bowl holder with a glass salad bowl. Wait! A glass salad bowl! I grabbed that box and the bowl looked to be the perfect size.

Marc was there in the kitchen with me and said "Hey! We're actually going to put a wedding gift to use!" as I was opening up the box (having to cut the tape) a silver-embossed wedding card fell out. "Ohh" I said "Look! There is even a card still stuck inside so we can see who to mentally thank for the perfect sized glass bowl".

Inside it read: "Congratulations Mary and Ryan! God bless you! Love, the Maybeys"

Marc said it best: "Awwwwwww snap! We've been re-gifted!"

And the funny thing is, we don't even know who Mary and Ryan are! But thanks to them we've got the perfect sized glass bowl for our perfect strawberry dessert!