Serious Mom FAIL.

Saturday was supposed to be day two of our fun-filled Halloween weekend.

Only I screwed up.

Big Time.

One of Big Sister's classmate's was having a birthday party today at a bounce house gym. I seriously LOVE them. Probably almost as much as the girls do. Completely looking forward to it.

We left the house a little before 11:30 (our goal was 11:30. Score for us!!) because we still needed to buy a gift & have lunch. We ate at Chick-fil-A — I also LOVE that place. Can you get fast food that less processed and has such amazing service???? Then we ran to Target and Big picked out a gift. We got to the site of the party a few minutes before 1.

EARLY FOR ONCE!!!
I have to admit, I was feeling very proud of myself & oh-so-put-together.
I even remembered AND had the little waver form filled out already.

I told the lady at the desk we were there for the Avery birthday party.
She had no idea what I was talking about.

I pulled out my invitation.

The party was at 10 am.
NOT 1 pm.

OMG!!!!!!

For a moment, please put yourself in my shoes.
I was incredibly disappointed that we missed the party and incredibly disappointed in myself.
AND I had to explain to a 2 & 3 year old that the party at the bounce house that we'd been talking about for 3 weeks. . .well, we missed it.
And it was all my fault.
PLUS, we were AT the bounce house.
And we had to leave because they're booked with birthday parties on the weekends. So I couldn't even make it up to them and just go play.

I really don't think it gets much worse than that.

xoxo Lori Danelle

A movie worth writing about

So who knows what movie came out on DVD this week that I am COMPLETELY geeking out over?

That's right.
Disney's Beauty & the Beast.
We bought it for the girls.

Anyone really believe that?
I didn't think so.

We bought it for the girls so that I could have an excuse to watch it.

Somehow, I missed it the last time it was on DVD and only have a VHS version. . . and no VHS player.  So I've been anxiously awaiting it's return. . .along with all the others from that generation of Disney movies.

Somehow, I just don't think that part of me ever quite grew up. . . Nor do I want it to.  :)

Oh, and yes, the girls are enjoying it as well, although they do keep telling me to stop singing.

xoxo Lori Danelle

Guess who I finally met!

Just noticed this photo up on one of my favorite blogs, so I might as well share too!

Guess who I finally got to meet in person?

She lives in my home town.

Her house is just around the corner from the house I spent my first few years in (and used to be a daycare, complete with giant fish tanks that you could see through the wall of windows when you drove by).

She attends the church I grew up in and my parent's still attend.

And yet somehow it wasn't until this past Saturday that I actually met Meg from Whatever fame face-to-face!! A very shy Little Sister and I dropped off some vitamins for her to send to Africa — and then stayed to chat for a bit.  :)

If by some chance you have not yet been over to her blog yet, GO.
You can thank me later.   :)

And if you're stopping by from Meg's, WELCOME!!! I'm so glad you're here.

xoxo Lori Danelle

Whew!! I made it!

You have no idea how happy I am that it is October! While I'm not very excited about the cooler weather (I know, I'm probably the only one!) I am thrilled to have made it past last week.

I'm not sure why, but the last 2 months have been insane with everything culminating in the last week of September. So, while I still have a full to do list, it is to be done at a much more comfortable pace!!

I spent last week in Kansas at my parent's house in full wedding mode. My baby brother got married on Friday, so currently, these two are enjoying some warm weather down in Mexico.





I'm going to have to do some scavenging in order to get photos of the actual wedding to show you though. Can you believe this camera happy, blogging, sister-of-the-groom chica didn't take any pictures!?

Me either.
But it's true.

I was too busy getting things done or being in pictures to have time to take some of my own.
Plus, though my bridesmaid dress had pockets, they weren't quite large enough for my camera.

Oh well! I'll find some good ones of the wedding and day and some of my own from the week prior to share with you!! Just might take a little work on my part. . .  :)

xoxo Lori Danelle

Not so very good at this

This has been a crazy couple of weeks. However, that seems to be less and less of an oddity around here! I'm getting busy with paper cuttings. . .in fact, I shipped my very first two orders out to clients on Saturday!! It's really exciting, but unfortunately, I'm not doing a very good job of juggling everything! So very sorry for my absence from blogland. . .I'm hoping to get it together and find the balance in working all day at my job, being a Mom & wife, and then going back to work after the girls go to bed in my office with the paper cuttings.

Cross your fingers on that one! I could really use any positive thoughts you can spare. Some days it really seems like this is all going to happen, and it's going to happen a lot sooner than I ever dreamed. And then other days, it feels like it may take a few years after all, if it ever happens at all.

Exciting.
Stressful.
Anxious.
But mostly, I'm just thrilled to be able to create something for people that they truly love!.

xoxo Lori Danelle

After an hour in the make up chair

The last couple of days have been interesting! Once again, I have found myself involved in projects at work that just don't fit into a normal day at the office.


Myself & 3 of my co-workers were recruited as actors for a 2 day video and photography shoot for an upcoming product that my company is developing. So each morning I spend an hour (it probably wasn't quite that long, but I'm really not sure. Could have been!) in the make up chair as the very talented Susannah transformed me into this:

It was actually a lot of fun to have my hair done and get to look like real girl! ( I RARELY, if ever wear make up!!) When I came home, I had a hard time taking off the make up and jumping in the shower because I wasn't quite ready for it to end!

Today at work, though it was really nice to have smooth hair, I really just wished I had on some make up and felt pretty!! So this evening, I made a stop and picked up some supplies.
I now own hair spray.
I know.
I'm a girl. I'm supposed to have that.

And now I do.  Plus a few other things. :)
We'll see how I do.

However, chances are, you'll never see that girl up there again. :)
Oh well! It was nice while it lasted.

xoxo Lori Danelle

I can share now!

So you remember the other day when I said I would be standing on a 6' 5"-ish man's shoulders at work that day?

Well here's what I have to show for it. A little cheezy perhaps, but I think that was the point! :)
Enjoy!



xoxo Lori Danelle

Picking your kids up from daycare can be very dangerous

What an evening!!!!

I'm a bit embarrassed by this, but it's too crazy not to share.

One of the doors on my Jeep sticks. Sometimes REALLY bad. Like tonight.

I pushes so hard on it with my thumb to try and unstick it (even though I don't think that's where it sticks!) that a sort of rotated my thumb oddly and heard a sort of pop!! Immediately, it hurt really bad and was like, geez! I just jammed my thumb on a car door!!! So I was sort of dancing around, holding my thumb, trying to get the girls into their carseats without using that hand—not too successfully I might add—and I just kept getting dizzier and dizzier.

I knew I needed to A.) Take care of my girls, and B.) Drive them home, so I kept fighting really hard to keep it together. After all, it was only my thumb!!!

Only I didn't really succeed. And apparently even thumbs can cause your body to do some crazy stuff! After trying to get Little in her seat and only half way succeeding, I found myself sitting on the ground. That made me feel a little bit better so I stayed there. . .only I kept falling from the sitting position to laying down!!!

At this point everything is incredibly fuzzy.

I remember fighting against loosing consciousness(!!??!?!),  the girls started crying and screaming, I popped back up, told them I was OK, tried to finish buckling Little into her seat, and next thing I knew I was back on the ground ( I have a bruise across my bum, maybe I fell?) and here I'm not fully aware of what was going on, I just remember bobbing back and forth from laying down in the parking lot to sitting!! Very vaguely I remember the girls screaming. That's always good right? Girls screaming in the car. . .Mother laying beside it in the parking lot. Normal, run-of-the-mill after work day care pick up.

At that point I think I fully blacked out for a little bit. Another Mom saw me bobbing up and down and thought I was having a seizure! She came over asked if I was OK, and I think at this point I started to come back around again, I told her I was OK, I just needed to stay down for a little bit. She moved me to the sidewalk, her husband got the girls settled down, and then got me something to drink and a snack bar.

Finally, my head cleared, but I was still incredibly shaky. Like my hands were attached to a vibrator or something. She offered to drive me home, since her husband could follow her and I VERY reluctantly agreed. I felt OK, but since I had my girls, I went with the safe route and didn't chance it.

This is what my elbow looked like as a result of beating it on the pavement!


Nice. Now I can't move my thumb or my bend my elbow!

So we've decided that I sprained my thumb rather than jammed it, and now that the swelling has gone down, I have decent mobility. Still quite painful if I put any pressure on it.

But seriously! How crazy is this!?
The thing where there was an actual safety risk went fine. I stood on his shoulders, no one dropped me, all was well.
But opening my car door?? Generally a pretty safe act—THAT puts me on the ground and unconscious?????
Too bizarre!

Hope you have a great weekend! I'll be keeping ice on my thumb!

xoxo Lori Danelle

Plans for Friday

My day is going to include standing on a 6' 5"-ish man's shoulders for a project at work.

That sounds about like what you have planned, right?

xoxo Lori Danelle

(when there's something to show, I'll share more.)   :)

And now I'm on Ohdeedoh!!!!

Always fun to see things you worked really hard on pop up on your blog reader!!



Especially when it's on a site that I admire so much like Ohdeedoh! However, once again, be warned. This site is VERY addicting. Amazing, but addicting. So if you should be doing the dishes, playing with kids, or getting that business proposal done, you might want to check them out a bit later. . . ;)

xoxo Lori Danelle

I'm on Design*Sponge!!!!!

So freakin' excited!!! Little Sister's bed is famous!!!



I am a HUGE fan of Design*Sponge and find myself on their blog multiple times a day, so it is an absolute honor to be featured! If you're not familiar, head on over, but please expect to be there for awhile!! You've been warned!

Today's really turning out to be a pretty big day for me! :)

xoxo Lori Danelle

Jumble of Paper Beads

I've decided to delve back into my creative past and see what things I've made pre-blog era of my life that I can share with you. Not entirely sure what I'll come up with, but I do know the first thing I'll show you. Here's a peak:



It's been residing in my basement for the last couple of years, so I need to do a little, uh, clean up on it before I can show it to you with the full pride that I feel. :) Sadly, it's also a glimpse into my creative insanity.

Also, coming next week, (drum roll please!) I'll be sharing a tutorial for how I made my toddler pallet bed. Only seems fair that you should be able to make one for yourself! :)

Oh! Last night I had a very enjoyable girls night out! No idea the last time I did that was. My friend Jenny and I had dinner, browsed around Anthropologie dreaming over dresses that are way too impractical for a Mommy with littles :) and finding inspiration for new projects in their store dressings. Ended the evening with coffee, talking & lots of laughing. It was fun to have someone to talk to about blogging, creativity, children, and what has happened to our bodies post babies(?!?!!?)! (those of you without kids, I'm sorry, things happen that it's best just not to know about yet. there's a reason no one talks about it.)

I came unprepared & did not have a camera. Jenny however did, so you can see a glimpse into our evening over at her blog.

Hope everyone has an amazing weekend! I'll see you on Monday!

xoxo—Lori Danelle

What's on your heart?

My friend Jenny at Southern Institute for Domestic Arts & Crafts is hosting a Link-Up that sounds like too much fun to pass up! The idea is to share what's on your heart RIGHT NOW. Not yesterday, or even this morning, but what's going on right in that moment.

So here goes!!!

This is kind of funny, because it actually coincides with what Jenny wrote about!

I bite my nails. :(

I've been doing it for most of my life now. When I was 8 or 9 I played soccer and was one of our team's goalies. I remember hearing after the game from my Mom that the other parent's were worried about me and how I'd do & if it was stressing me out too much because my hands were in my mouth the entire time chewing on my nails!! (However, I would then proceed to not let in a single goal!! or very few anyway. :) )

Through the years I've tried to stop, honestly. When I was younger my Mom would paint my nails with that gross tasting stuff. My grandma has a standing offer that was made when I was about 10 for a manicure if I ever stop. In college I even think I really had stopped. . .until my baby brother ended up in the ICU burn center for 2 weeks with acid burns from a car accident, among other injuries. That was just too much for my poor nerves to handle sans nail-biting.

I hate that I bite my nails. I would LOVE to have nails that were worth painting, and didn't look like they do. But so far, I haven't succeeded in stopping. And is some ways had sort of come to terms that this is the way it was going to be & that perhaps some day I'd overcome it, but probably not.

And then Big Sister stared biting her nails.

So now I'm in panic mode. I will not let my precious, beautiful, *perfect ;) daughter have such a nasty habit because of me!!!!! So obviously, first order of business is to get myself to stop. Then her. I knew I needed to take drastic measures, so I've been going to sleep every night listening to this track that basically says " I will not bite my nails. I will not bite my nails" over and over again.

I've also purchased that yucky tasting nail polish again for moments when I unconsciously succumb as a bit of a reminder.

Plus, I've been talking to Charlie about it. Telling her that I'm trying to quit and that she needs to stop too. That it's really bad habit that I have. And playing on 3 year old vanity and telling her if she wants pretty nails/hands she can't bite them.

Last night I tried putting the yucky nail polish on her while I too did mine. She didn't go for it. I don't want to "make" her, but I might have to. Bleck!! And all because I bite my nails!!!

And just so you know, I am making progress! My nails were all my version of long :) until about 2 nights ago when I was majorly stressing and took it out on a couple of fingers. But we do have progress people!!

So if anyone has ideas of how to get Big to stop beyond the nail polish, I'm all ears!!!!

xoxo—Lori Danelle

Also, if you're just dropping in, make sure you check out the first bed I made Little Sister as well her newest pallet toddler bed, if you haven't already!!!

If you have a preschooler:

My friend Jenny over at Southern Institute for Domestic Arts & Crafts is hosting a special series called Preschoolers 101. Really good stuff so far, so if you have a little one, head on over!

Jenny is a Mom of 3. Her middle child just happens to have been born within a week of Big Sister and her youngest within 2 months from Little! Her oldest, and her only girl, is 7 and Big thinks she is the coolest. Needless to say, this lady has a little bit of experience on the topic. And it couldn't come at a better time! Nate & I have been scratching our heads a little on the best way to handle our emerging little independent person. So far, I'm not sure we're handling it so well. . .So join me, and lets head over and pick up a pointer or two!! Maybe I'll manage to get a perfectly well-behaved 3 year-old yet!!!! Or at least understand why she's acting the way she does!!

xoxo—Lori Danelle

You still with me???

Sometimes I'm surprised I still have readers! I have a bad habit of disappearing, don't I??



I promise that you're not missing out on anything when that happens. Typically, my respite from blogging is due to late nights of taking work home with me.

Not much to blog about there. . .




So thanks for sticking with me after having one of those weeks!!! :)




Nothing too exciting has happened since the madness, and to be honest, I'm still in it just a tad. Hopeful that tomorrow things will go back to normal — cross your fingers for me!

We did finally put air in the bouncy ball Big got for her birthday in March (eep!) and had some fun with that one evening.




We've taken to spending most evenings in our front yard this summer. I'm not sure why it is, but we have sooo many lightening bugs this year!! We love it!

I find them sort of magical. I know it's just a bug, and I have a pretty strong policy against bugs in general, but for some reason, I'm good with lightening bugs. It's probably because when we look out over our yard it shimmers like pixie dust and the little girl inside of me awakens and wants so badly to believe in fairies and magic.



June bugs and spiders just don't really do that for me. . . ;)

xoxo—Lori Danelle

Celebrating 6 Years (with lobster)!!

Sunday was my anniversary! It's crazy that it's been 6 years already and that it's ONLY been 6 years! Time just doesn't seem to measure things correctly!!

For our special day, Nate & I decided to play it low-key — and in the end, this may be our best anniversary yet!

Flipping through our favorite grilling cookbook earlier this week, I got it into my head that it would be fun to try and grill a lobster.

Now, I must tell you. The last time I had a whole lobster was almost 15 years ago while visiting family in Florida. I'm still teased about that meal when I'm with the people who were present then. I went through a phase where I had a really hard time with meat in general. It grossed me out. I wouldn't eat anything off of a bone, someone had to do that for me, and that was when I was eating meat again after a couple years of not. So to have this whole lobster on my plate in front of me that I would need to break open in order to eat — well, I was a bit squeamish with that. However, I'm told that the faces I made proved to be very entertaining for everyone else at the table. I'm just lucky video recording wasn't standard on all cell phones at the time!!

So, needless to say, though I now eat meat without issue, this was still going to prove quite interesting! I believe we were both more looking forward to the experience of cooking this meal more than we were the meal itself. . .although the 2 inch thick rib-eye steak Nate got to go with the lobster did make my heart skip a beat!

Apparently, not too many people buy live lobsters at the store. When we told the man manning the seafood department at the grocery store that we wanted to get a lobster, he responded, "OK. Let me figure out how to do that."

The box they gave us to take the lobster home in made me laugh. It reminded me of Build-A-Bear Workshop.





The red rubber bands around his claws? They indicated he was Canadian. Blue were for American lobsters. I'm sure it's important — but I haven't got a clue why.

To help with the festive spirit of the day: Papaya & Pineapple Margaritas and later, Mango Margaritas! Yummy.





Back to the lobster: :)



I'll save you the sight of the fatal blow. . .



We may have been a little caught up in the excitement. Being just a tad silly?





Please don't let the sight of the lobster cause you to overlook the amazing steak on the grill.





So Good! And that black bean salad was really good too! (That & the margaritas were my contribution to the meal!) It has grilled red & yellow bell peppers along with onion, jalapenos, & anaheim chilies, tossed with the black beans, cilantro, and a cumin & chili powder vinaigrette. Spicy and so tastey!!!

Nate enjoying:



And now for me.

You can't tell at first, but behind that large ear of corn is the lobster. The problem with only eating lobster once every 15 years is that we didn't have any of the proper "tools" to eat a lobster.

We made due:









And yes. That's a hammer beside me.

You do what you gotta do.
My Florida family would be so proud.

However, next time, we'll just get the tails. Less work. More meat.
But then again, where's the fun in that?

Results of cutting open the tags

As we came home from school today Little was quite distraught to find that she couldn't put her finger in the loop of the tag on her blanket. This was followed by much sobbing which, of course, made me second guess the act of cutting the tags open. But once I explained to/reminded her, a few times, that it was the blanket that had given her the "ouchy" on her finger and that I wanted to keep her safe, she switched to: " Blankie!! Aah No!!! Aah no!!" Over and over and over again!

So hopefully she gets it and it won't be like the time my Dad accidentally set my blanket on fire for her!!!

xoxo—Lori Danelle

To My Man:

HAPPY 30th BIRTHDAY!!!!

(source)

Thanks for joining me in this new decade! I was beginning to feel lonely & old!!!

New adventures await. . . ;)

Love you, today & always!!

xoxo—Lori

You should be proud of me

If you know me, you would know that I have a very difficult time deciding NOT to make something. I take a lot of pride in what I create, love the act of taking something on the verge of the junk pill and making it something you would never part with or a plain flat piece of fabric into your favorite new garment. And to be really honest, I LOVE people's reactions when they found out I made it. I hope I'm not alone on that and didn't just release some dirty little secret about myself! But perhaps I love the accolades a little too much.

Which is why you should be proud of me.

The Girls have a Spring Fling concert thing at school on Thursday. They're doing a 50's theme and asking the kids to dress up in the style of the musical Grease. Big Sis's class was specifically told to wear a poodle skirt if she had one—which she doesn't, but that was not a problem!!

I immediately had visions of the other moms oohing and aahing over how cute Big was in her little poodle skirt. I imagined them being a just a little bit jealous of the superiority of the poodle skirt that I made compared to the one their daughter was wearing. (Are my own insecurities showing?)

So Monday night I went to the store, bought my fabric & ric-rac (every poodle skirt needs a poodle on a ric-rac leash, right?) and was all set to sew the skirt up Tuesday night with Wednesday as a cushion if some went totally wrong. I was pleased with myself. I wasn't going to work myself into some crazy frantic stress-fest.

Then on Tuesday I picked Big up from school and while I was talking with her teacher mentioned something about going home to sew a poodle skirt. I was answered with a sort of blank stare and a stammering, "Oh, didn't you see that one of the other moms was going to provide them for all the girls?"

!!!!!!!!!!????

So I was faced with a choice. And for me, it was a tough one. (because I'm ridiculous. I know.) Make my beautiful skirt anyway and show up the other mom (at least that's how it was going to go in my head), or be very grateful for her generosity, an evening of being able to focus on things I wanted to do rather than the poodle skirt I had to make, and let this mom my in the limelight and receive all the accolades.

I'm sure for you it was a no-brainer: Put the fabric in your stash pile and never think about it again! Unfortunately, I'm not so sane. I had to wrestle with it.

But I'm happy to report, that I DID let go.
Sanity won out.
I chose not to wrap my self-worth up in that toddler sized poodle skirt.

Small victory. But still a victory. :)

Found out something fun!

This last week I've been spending a lot of time at Hatch Show Print as my company is working with them to make a poster to help raise funds for Nashville Flood victims. It's fun to be there because about 5 years ago, I actually got to work there as an intern and was able to be part of the designing and printing of the posters using the amazing art form of letterpress.

This time around however I found out something REALLY cool!!

I'm published!!!



I guess a couple of years ago one of the posters I did that was part of a special series we were commissioned to do was printed in the book New Vintage Type. This is Brad, who still works at Hatch and was one of the poster's creators as well. He is also the designer doing the new flood relief poster for us (with the most minuscule amount of my input). :)



My poster is the brown & red one on the right that says "Honky Talkin.'" (We were provided the text. . .)



And now I feel the need to explain the purpose of these posters just a bit, because that copy is quite cheesy. . .

They were a promo piece for a major paper company. We printed on different types of paper that they were highlighting and each poster then had copy that played on the paper. So thus the really crazy/strange copy.

Anyway, I'm published and that's really fun.

(At one point that poster was hanging up at the Nashville airport as well, but I didn't see it the last time I flew, but as I had my hands full with luggage and 2 kids, it really didn't seem like a good time to go looking for it. But if you happen to fly into Nashville & see it, let me know!!)

That's all. :)

xoxo—Lori

. . .seems like I should be able to get a free book or something. . .