Monthly Archives: March 2011

Crafty Tuesday

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I’m in need of some honest opinions here.

I’m reusing a bunch of old t-shirts that were rescued from the Goodwill pile and I’m making little baby knit hats with them. The tees are perfect, all soft and cuddly sweet. But the pattern I’ve been using has cute little ribbons around the “ears” that, for the girls, are tied into cute little bows.

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I’m not entirely sure if it works for little caps that are intended for little boys. Remember it is all girls, all the time around here. So I sent a pic of it to my other Birdie and asked her – “too girly?” Yeah…I’m asking my cohort in crime who also has…ALL GIRLS (even one more than over here), ALL THE TIME.

So I’ll ask you guys instead. Any mommies of boys – would you put this on your little one? Should I ditch the ribbons?

Also…if you are a friend and/or neighbor and are around April 15th make sure to stop by for a some wine and apps and shop some crafty goodness. Spring birthdays, Easter, Mother’s Day…they are all coming up and we have fun stuff for all of your shopping needs! The boutique is sponsored by Two Birdies Workshop and we have several other talented ladies bringing their own crafty flair to the evening. So join us if you can!

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And if you are a crafter with some wares to sell, let’s talk! We still have a few tables open.

The word on the street.

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Sorry that I’ve been a bit absent but I’ve been off in a corner biting my tongue. I have been all-consumed with house happenings pretty much 24 hours a day for the past three weeks, and I didn’t trust myself to not talk about it since it has been ALL that has been on my mind. But I think it is safe to say we are indeed buying our house! Yes, it is true.

So here’s the backstory for those of you who maybe haven’t been on this long four-year journey with us. (Family and friends you can skip all of this, if ya want.) When we first moved back to California, 5 years ago it was at the height of the crazy real estate boom. We decided to rent until we could figure out what area to live in, where the good schools were, etc. – and we found a place to rent that we looooved! And then, the dog moved in. And we had to move out.

It was about that time that I met Ann, our real estate agent, and she started a hunt for a house for us. We saw so many houses but just couldn’t justify all that money for hardly nothing of a house. And then Ann suggested that maybe we would like to rent a house? She had friends moving out of a great house in a great neighborhood with…great schools. Perfect.

So we moved in, four years ago this week. I remember when we pulled up to look at the house, I told Ann that I wasn’t really fond of Spanish style homes. And then I walked into our house and said, “Huh. Well, I guess I do like Spanish style houses.” And we’ve been loving on our house ever since. We repeatedly told the property manager that when the landlord wanted to sell…we wanted to buy.  But the landlord’s plan was to move back here after he retired, so staying here was always kind of an elusive dream for us.

And then, very unexpectedly, our landlord passed away and we have kind of been in a bit of limbo for a few months. Meanwhile our amazing Ann has been tirelessly helping us for the past FOUR YEARS, and a few weeks ago she calls me and says that the trust is putting our house on the market.

After the shock wore off, and J. brought me down from the edge of hysteria, reality set in and we set to work determining if this house was truly in our cards or not. Ann let me drag her to every house for sale in our neighborhood so we could be certain that ours really was the “one.” And I did honestly go into each of the other homes with an open mind, but I knew in my heart, I know in my heart, that our house is the home for us. After all, this is really the only home that Em and Ad remember. And we have built an amazing network, community and circle of friends. We have put down roots, and for the first time in our almost 18 years together, I really feel like J. and I are finally somewhere we can stay and both be happy forever.

And now we have the added bonus of having a great house (the inspector said that it has very good bones that will be around for 300+ years) that now we can really pour our time and energy into. Oh, and it is going to need a whole bunch of both of these, let me tell you.

So we are not completely official yet, but we are in escrow and all is looking very good. Hopefully we will close in a few weeks, and you better believe we will have a little celebrating to do here at Chaos.

It is a pretty good excuse for being so very absent her on the old blog, don’t you think? Forgive me?

Crafty Tuesday

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The other Birdie and I actually got to play with our new baby last week and we had some wicked fun but…I forgot to take photos. Next week maybe we can unveil the beauty of our new love.

This week I decided I needed some new reusable lunch packs for the girls’ lunchboxes. I had picked up a couple of these handy little pouches last year at a craft show, but they were made of fabric on the outside and after a few washings to get rid of the peanut butter and jelly, the fabric looked like it kinda started to mildew. Ew. So I used some oilcloth and made some new ones.

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Saving the world three ziploc baggies at a time.

And that is all I have this week since we are still eyeball deep in other stuff that hopefully I can talk about soon. Very soon.

It.Is.Friday.

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This has been the longest week, ever. I am so relieved to finally be at Friday. The time change (yes, let me complain about it one more time – and then no more, I promise!) really reeked havoc on our mornings around here. It should not take two small girls an hour and ten minutes to eat, get dressed, brush teeth and hair, gather their school things and walk across the street. Yet we have been sprinting through traffic and up the sidewalk as the bell is ringing at least 4 of the last 5 days. Not a great way to start the day.

This morning I am feeling a little “off” still. I was trying to blame an icky tummy yesterday on maybe some bad eggsalad? But I think it is more likely just due to stress and nerves since it was still hanging around this morning at 5 when I woke up. Yes, 5 as in A.M.  I hate that, but sometimes it is just better to give in and get up for the day than lie in bed and think about all you should be doing instead of just…lying there in bed.

So I was up early and feeling “iffy.” The girls were not up early due to the time change (ok, really – that is the very last time!) and they were feeling lollygaggy (didn’t you know if you add a “Y” to a word it makes it a legitimate adjective? It’s true!) so we were scrambling yet again.

“Have you brushed your teeth?”
“Have you packed your homework?”
“Do you have your shoes?”

Ahhhh…a lot of  “no’s” complete with empty stares. Like this is the absolute first time we have ever had to get ready for school.

Finally get them deposited at school, after owing at least $1 to the Lent jar (gave up yelling at the girls for Lent. Ha!), and get home to start stripping the beds and picking up the house.

I start to throw some stuff on Em’s desk and just about come unglued when I realize that despite asking her continually for the past week to clean up her desk, I cannot even SEE the top of the desk! “Packrat” doesn’t begin to describe that girl!

I’m just about to storm out of her room in a fit, which really is kind of counter-productive if you think about it since I am home ALONE…nobody cares if I stomp around angrily, and then I see – tucked amongst the Pollys, scraps of paper, and old homework, this…

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Ooooh…this girl is good. And she knows how to use it.

Dipy Week #58 ~ Music

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The great thing about music is that there are so many different kinds and it is open to so many different interpretations. Kimberly’s interpretation is there on top, and mine is on bottom this week. We are hearing a lot of this piece in our house and this week in piano, the girls were introduced to the damper pedal. Oh…the excitement! The love for the piano has not dwindled in the house, which makes me so very happy – even if I do walk around singing little French songs in my head all day long.

Check out our other musical friends at

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Hosted by Megan and Hip Momma

Crafty Tuesday

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I was going to sneak on here and post and pretend like it has been up all day, but I think I have a few followers who check Chaos first thing in the morning and I’m afraid they would definitely call me on it.

So yes, Tuesday is nearly over, and I’m just now getting CT up for the week. I finally finished Addie’s little study quilt like Em’s.

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Hers is much…pinker, and cat-filled, but still just as snuggly. Plus now J. and I don’t have to fight over Em’s quilt each night on the sofa. The quilts go together very quickly – maybe I should just make a more subdued one to leave out on the sofa, make Daddy his own study quilt?

Most of all of the Two Birdies free time this week has been finishing up the pottery project we are doing for our school’s Silent Auction. Each class has a pottery piece and each kid at our school has a little spot for their artwork and name.

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So we have 15 pieces floating around, and we have sat with over 300 kids in the past few weeks working on getting them to make their “mark.” Now we are finishing the pieces so they can go to the kiln and be auctioned off to the highest bidder. Once they come back all finished and shiny, I’ll post more pics of them. (Excuse the hastily taken iphone photo.) I think it is back to the paintbrush in the meantime…

Looking for an hour I seemed to have misplaced.

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Anyone seen it? Actually I could use a few extra hours, but that measly little one hour we lost last night? Oooh it really, really hurts!

Each year that confounded Daylight Savings Time sneaks in, and for at least a good three days, manages to create total and complete chaos around here. This weekend is no exception. And to make things worse, my official clock-changer is out of town. So all day I’ve been walking around asking myself, “did I already change that clock? Is that one that changes automatically? Gah! What time is it??”

I am pleased to report that although it is only 8pm here, I have managed to wrangle the girls into bed and I’m fairly certain they are already asleep, too. We had a full, but fun, weekend which happily allowed for lots of good “play” time for the girls. Lately it has been a little high stress around here, and although I only let the girls do a few activities that they really want to do…I have been feeling the schedule-heavy days weighing on everyone a bit. So they got to spend a good 6 hours just “playing” yesterday while the Mommys frantically tried to finish the school pottery project.

When we were getting ready to go, the crew of kids invited the Moms back into one of the bedrooms where they had been playing…to attend the opening of their art gallery.

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They had hung all of their artwork they had created throughout the afternoon, around the bedroom on fishing line. It was most excellent. I was so happy to tuck them in last night knowing they had an incredible time without one minute of TV, computer time, or other electronic gadget. Just pure imagination and fun, gotta love that.

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And today they spent a few hours running around outside with our friend Charlie, playing Nerf dartguns. A complete novelty for my girls – but again, running outside, just being kids. That is the best antidote for busy weeks, I think.

I, on the other hand, didn’t get much “play” time. And although I still can’t really talk much about it yet, the short version is we are trying really hard NOT to move. We are trying to buy our house – the house that we have been renting for nearly 4 years. And if you know anything at all about California real estate, you can understand my constant tension headache. But, we are praying it will all work out. And while J. was traveling last week he got this in his fortune cookie…

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…if that isn’t a sign?

I am thankful we are at least in action mode, instead of “let’s just wait and see” mode. Because let me tell you, I do not do good in limbo situations. I gotta plan. I gotta know what is what. And right now I gotta go figure out some more numbers and try to get to bed early to find that elusive extra hour I am missing.

Dipy Week #57 ~ Upside Down

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After a brief break, we have joined back in with the Team-Up Thursday group in the Upside Down theme today. I’m feeling a little like our life is upside down right now, but it is kind of hard to photograph that. Instead I caught Em in a very common pose around here lately…with her nose in a book, not that I’m complaining! And Kimberly caught a couple of topsy-turvy bedfellows as well!

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Hosted by Megan and Hip Momma

Not even going to pretend…

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…that I have a thing to show for Crafty Tuesday today. My partner-in-craft-crime and I have found ourselves the owners of a new crafty toy and once we get it figured out there will be NO.END.TO.OUR.CRAFTINESS.

But in the meantime, the Two Birdies are trying desperately to get this school-wide ceramics project done in time for our school’s Silent Auction next month. I’ll snap a few photos today so you can see what I mean. It is a big project, people, I mean HUGE.

And on another note, I am in a quagmire of house-hunting stress with realtors and lovely mortgage fellows (really, they are quite lovely). It really isn’t much I can talk about right now. Just know that we are still here and hanging on. And I really, REALLY hope to finally have some time to, at the very least, dig out my sewing area so I can think about sewing something. Anything.

But as always, would love some crafty diversions to peruse while I’m trying to avoid doing everything else I need to do, so please leave us your creations.

Not-so Crafty Tuesday

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It is almost not-so Tuesday any more, actually.  And I am here without a crafty thing to show.

I did a lot of “must do’s” this week…helped with 20 gold vests for lovely gold bunnies dancing in their first ballet performance.  But alas, I didn’t get a photo of the bunnies in their costumes. I did, however, get this cute pic of the performers. Can you see the relief on their faces? They were fantastic.

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Besides ballet, ballet, ballet this weekend – I took the Brownies on an overnight. That really deserves a post all to its’ own – maybe when I get those photos downloaded, and have had a few more cups of coffee, I will bevrecuperated enough and ready to relive that experience.

I have been promising my mom that I would post some photos of our living room re-do that has been in progress for approximately three months now. It started when we stayed in the villa back in November and it was decided (a whole family decision, mind you) that we needed a larger, more “lounge-y” sofa.

So we began a very long search and found one similar in shape and size to the one we fell in love with on Catalina. And then I took the photo to a fantastic place in downtown LA that builds your sofa with your sizes, choice of fabrics – and the added bonus – quite cheaply!  So we got a new sofa. J. was adamant that it should be a very dark color, and I finally gave in on his sofa color choice, but told him that we would need a new rug because it would be far too dark in our already kind of dark room.

So once our sofa was installed, the hunt for the rug began. Three rugs later I think we have found one we all love to walk on and works in the room.

And then…(oh, of course there is always an “and then…”) we needed a new coffee table. After several ottoman and table try-outs, I think we have also found a table that works.

So here is where we are right now…

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Sofa = Room for all of us to lay completely down at the same time + a nice warm (dark!) color + a fabric the kitty doesn’t seem to “need” to sharpen her claws on (it is a low-pile, almost chenille-like fabric). Plus, it fills out our very large space that we have in the living room.

Rug = Yes, it is a cream color, but so far so good. And yes, it is indeed a “shag.” My mom incredulously asked me, “A shag? Like the ugly shag carpet you used to have in your bedroom?” Um…yes? It is so very nice on the feet, though.

Table = I love the round table, we have a lot of boxy, square shapes in the room, so a little circle is nice. The glass on the top is a bit of a pain, but it is worth it, I think.

One of the things I love is that the chaise opens up so we can enjoy the fireplace, too. And now I need to work on that photo project over the mantle. One thing always seems to lead to another…

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