Daphne decided she didn’t want to swing, so we just sat on the park bench with our juice box and talked.

Mom and I had a good time at the Nutcracker Market on Saturday. After 2 1/2 hours we had only made it through maybe 25% of the booths. I didn’t buy much, in fact I only spent $25 on a hat and 5 hair bows for Daphne. And then I spent another $20 on a mimosa (for brunch, I guess) and a baked potato and Diet Coke for lunch. $4 for a 20 oz. Diet Coke. Don’t you just hate how they screw you over on concessions?

The place was packed!!! And honestly I didn’t see much I was interested in, with the exception of this charm from Waxing Poetic.

I have all my mom’s old sealing wax and seals (from her high school days?), so these charms remind me of them. In case you didn’t know, I’m a necklace person. I pretty much wear necklaces all the time and the more unusual or interesting, the better. Maybe I’ll put this charm on my wish list for Valentine’s Day or something.

While I’m on the topic of my wish lists, I’ve added another item: a commissioned watercolor portrait from Sitting Pretty Studios. How awesome would it be to have a watercolor portrait of Daphne as a toddler? I’d LOVE it and it would be something I’d hold onto forever. Grosgrain is giving away a 9.5″x11.5″ custom portrait. Unfortunately, I never win anything. Ok, I take that back. Once at a women’s retreat they were giving away door prizes and I happened to be sitting near the front and had to draw the names. I drew my own name. Then I felt like a big cheater. Then the woman handing out the door prizes made a joke about it. I mean, like I orchestrated my own win or something. Please.

I’m sure you’ve heard about the latest Motrin ad (well, if you read any mommy blogs) since it’s all over the web. I think I’ve seen it on 8 different sites this evening. It’s a pretty snarky ad about babywearing:

First off, I am by no means an expert when it comes to babywearing. But I’m pretty sure if your carrier is giving you pain, you should find a babywearing group and try to get help. Maybe your fit isn’t good, size wrong, maybe a different carrier would be better for you, etc… Our Ergo carrier distributes all 20 lbs. of Daphne’s weight so well, I can barely tell I’m wearing her. But if I just hold her in my arms, or on my hip, she lasts about 5 minutes before my back starts to hurt. I only need a Motrin when I DON’T babywear. Motrin, don’t piss off the mommy bloggers.

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know I can only have one obsessive hobby at a time. For the last few months that’s been photography, but I have been tempted to dust off the sewing machine and get my crochet hooks and yarn out of storage. This weekend I plan on doing the one skein scarf from Stitch N Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker. Here’s a similar free pattern.

And I’m seriously thinking about making a few dresses for Daphne. I had an “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” moment a few weeks ago and decided I really like Daphne in Hanna Andersson playdresses and might even consider getting her some Matilda Jane. Things I thought were totally not my style. At. All. Anyway, not really serious about the Matilda Jane. I mean, I know they have great resale value, but I just can’t spend $50 on a dress for Daphne. But I’m pretty sure I could make something similar (with my own, slightly less crazy, fabric). I’ve been eyeing Sandi Henderson’s Portobello Pixie Claire Pattern.

But I have some stash busting work ahead of me before I can justify buying any more patterns/fabric. I have enough Ginger Blossom fabric for a Turning Twenty quilt, but when I realized how much it would be to have someone else machine quilt it, I gave up. Should I make myself a rag quilt instead? Like this one? Or one more like Daphne’s rag quilt that I made earlier this year? Another problem I have with big projects is I have a tendency to get sick of the patterns. Like after finishing Daphne’s rag quilt I never wanted to see another Amy Butler print ever again. I’m so fickle. And then I have other fabrics, like some Heather Ross Lightning Bugs and Other Mysteries, that I’m afraid to cut into. I can’t figure out what to do with them, like I’m waiting for this perfect project to come along. Then I go on Flickr or Craftster and look for ideas, get totally overwhelmed, then say “screw it!” and pick up my camera. Anyone have a problem getting started on a project?

What do you want for Christmas?

Are you sick of that question yet? I am. Quite honestly, the only thing I really want for Christmas is an amazing picture of Daphne that I could have printed as a gallery wrap. I have a few random things on my Amazon wish list and asked Chris for a camera bag, but really I had a hard time coming up with anything I wanted. So, family, if you are reading this, you don’t have to get me anything. Really. I don’t mind. Or you could make me something. I LOVE handmade things. Or get a family in a Third World country a goat through World Vision in my name. (Have you seen their gift catalog? For $70 you can buy a llama for a struggling family in Peru. Or a sewing machine, or a well. I think that’s so cool!! I want to buy someone a llama.)

It’s not that I’m feeling Grinchy this year. I’m very excited about Christmas! I can’t wait until Daphne opens up the doll I bought her. She’s going to freak out. I look forward to spending time with family and watching Daphne interact with everyone. I can’t wait to see her tearing through the wrapping paper and trying to take ornaments off the tree. Having a kid definitely brings back the magic of Christmas.

And I guess like a lot of other families, we will be cutting back on our Christmas spending this year. Daphne is getting a doll & stroller with a few accessories and maybe a small gift from Chris and that’s it. No need to go crazy when she’s this young and has so many other family members buying for her. Chris & I have talked about getting smaller, more meaningful gifts for each other. And I’m having a heck of a time figuring out what to get him for his birthday or Christmas. You’d think it wouldn’t be that hard, considering we’ve known each other for so long. But that just gives me more of a history to look back on and see how many of my “creative” gifts crashed and burned. Argh.

While I’m on the subject of Christmas shopping, my mom and I are headed to the Reliant Center tomorrow for the Houston Ballet’s annual Nutcracker Market. 4 days, 300 vendors, 65,000 attendees, boutique gifts, gourmet food. It’s going to be CRAZY! I’m not planning on buying much, maybe a special ornament for Daphne. I’m really just going along for the experience. And that should be a meaningful gift to Chris right there- the fact that I’m going with mom instead of dragging him around the Reliant Center with a bunch of crazy women. Hehehe.

Today I thought it would be cool to take a few pictures of Daphne on my great-great grandmother’s quilt. It’s nothing fancy, just a simple clothing scrap or feedsack quilt, but I thought it would be a nice pop of color in a photo. So I brought it outside, laid it on top of another blanket in the driveway so it wouldn’t get dirty, and sat Daphne down. As you can guess, my incredibly active girl sat for approximately 2 seconds (not even enough time for me to set the aperture and shutter speed on the camera) before darting off. She decided that playing peek-a-boo with the fence gate was more fun.

Here’s the quilt (it’s brighter in person):

And my peek-a-boo girl:

A few months ago I blogged about Spoonflower while it was still in beta. I love the idea of being able to design and print your own fabric. It’s open to the public now and you can check out the amazing designs created by users on their site, and on the Spoonflower fabric Flickr group.

I don’t think I have any real fabric designing talent, but I do like the idea of being able to print photographs on fabric, or maybe create a collage of your kid’s artwork and have it printed out (then maybe turn it into a quilt or something). And I adore this love letter quilt featured on the Spoonflower blog from The Small Object. What an amazing keepsake!!

I think I’ll have to put “dog bed” on Daphne’s Christmas list. The soft, cozy toddler chair and pink bean bag are not as tempting as Ginger’s bed.

Ginger just wants her to get out, and leave the toast.

- Did you know you can design your own Muppet at FAO Schwarz? The perfect gift for the Muppet lovers in your life. I’m not really in the market for a Muppet, but if it was a Franklin puppet (from Arrested Development) I’d be all over it. Then it could point out Chris’s cracker ass on a daily basis. Gosh I miss that show.

- Does anyone actually drink Tang? I guess someone does, otherwise they wouldn’t sell it. I buy a container once a year to make spiced tea mix (Tang, instant tea, lemonade mix, sugar, red hots), but I call it Hot Tang Tea… because I’m a dork.

- I finished the last book in the Twilight series. I admit to being on Team Jake until I got to Breaking Dawn. And I’m looking forward to the movie in a few weeks. I admit the actor they chose to play Jacob is totally not what I had in mind. I guess I was picturing someone more like a young Eric Schweig (he played Daniel Day Lewis’ ridiculously HOT brother, Uncas, in The Last of the Mohicans.)

- We finally cut off our Netflix subscription. We’d get movies and two months later they’d still be sitting in their envelopes, unwatched. The thrill is gone, I guess. There were a few documentaries I didn’t get to see, but that’s ok. One of them was Texas Ranch House. I’ve seen all the other BBC and PBS “House” series (Frontier House and 1900 House were my favorites). If you’ve never seen one, they basically drop a modern day family into an historically accurate setting and have them live in that time period for a few months. That would totally suck. And I can say that because I’m the type of person who complains when I accidentally get a frozen meal that takes 7 minutes to cook in the microwave. 7 whole minutes!!! And hanging something to dry instead of popping it in the dryer. Barbaric!! Don’t even get me started on frontier hygiene and modern medicine. Yeah, I won’t be signing up for that show.