Happy Earth Day!

Want to do something for the environment and look stylish doing it? Check out the just launched Gracen Designer reusable shopping bags. They're durable canvas, washable, collapsible...and eco-chic. I just may reduce the mountain of plastic baggage that continues to build in my kitchen. Good luck limiting your use of these to just groceries!

The latest in knitting...

is this set of toys for Baby Andrew.


A little rattle and ball. Both quick knits, luckily for me since it seems I have noooo time for this activity lately. The ball pattern is something free I found online - a simple pattern but I had to improvise to do the three colors since their instructions didn't make sense to me. I found the rattle pattern on ravelry...you can get it here. I thought I made the large size, but it doesn't seem as large as the one shown in the author's photo. Both ball and rattle were done in KnitPicks Shine. I personally adore the rattle, though if I don't have much time for knitting, I guess I don't have time to sit around shaking a rattle either.

Tot update

I've had so many blog entries in my head which I haven't had the chance to create and now they seem to be either forgotten or irreleveant. But I have a moment so I'll try to remember some content and do a Finn update at the very least. In list form, the latest changes in the tot's life:

- Just one nap a day. Every day. Finally.

- Boy that he is, he's totally into boobs and trucks. Boobs for the milk, all...the...time...and trucks everywhere we go. All of you mothers of girls will have to let me know if they have a crazy obsession with vehicles at 16mos.

- His first molar. That was fun. How many more do we have to go through?

- His first words. He had already covered Mama, Dada, and uh-oh (not in my Webster's but whatever). Now he has added tickle (usually said at least 3 times in succession), ball, and kaboom (as in our tower of blocks went kaboom or, just as often, Finn went kaboom)

- His first haircut. For whatever reason, I was hesitant to go ahead with this, but he was looking shaggy more often than not and so one day I just did it. I'll share some pics. He could actually use more of a trim already, because I was fearful of cutting away too much of my baby.

This is him just before the big event.


The cut was the day before Easter, so since I slacked on Easter blogging, here he is with the new do in his fancy pants on Easter Sunday.


And because I think he's stinkin' cute, some more photos for your enjoyment.



The darling outfit is actually parts of two outfits. The sailor suit was made by my mom for my older brother and has matching blue shorts. However, the suit was too small for him, so I pulled out these lovely white shorts that happen to match in style and function. These too large vintage shorts were my father's and I'm told there is a matching white jacket somewhere. Really, we're not so poor that we can't buy him new clothes (or in this case, clothes that really fit). I just have a fascination with putting him in my dad's vintage duds and lovely little things that my mom made years ago. (Plus, it helps validate the pack rat nature that I share with Mom.)



He's very interested in reading up on The Beatles.



And because I can, here is what he looked like last year at Easter in another outfit made by mom for my brother, sitting in the same chair as above.

The Guatemalan Irish Twins Session

Yep. And cute too. My last photo session was with Annie's boys who are about 8 months apart. So I had a two energetic toddlers on my hands, although each with his own unique personality. Oh, and a nice doggy, too. Seriously, these boys were a lot of fun (and I think they liked me too). Although, I did a little too much yelling with them and lost my voice for the next 24 hours. All part of the biz.