Hope you are enjoying your Father’s Day weekend!  Yesterday, we spent 5 hours at the pool with my dad.  Thank goodness for MAC Studio Fix liquid foundation, otherwise I’d have gone to church today with the worst sunburn lines on my face.  My forehead is roasted.  The area covered by my huge Jackie O sunglasses is white.  Then my cheeks and chin are a little red.  Really attractive!

Today we spent time with the rest of the family.  Steaks and burgers on the grill.  And for dessert?  Bakerella’s burger basket.  Cute, huh?

Cupcake bun, brownie patty and sugar cookie fries.  Daphne and her cousins loved them, after Daphne realized it was dessert, since she won’t eat bread or red meat.  Yeah.

Everyone had their own basket.

The fries were a bit of a pain, as was putting together the red and white baskets.  But it was worth it!

I even got a quick shot of Daddy and Daphne.  I’m waiting to get D’s hair cut before doing a real photoshoot.  She’s my mini-me in this pic.  Hilarious.

Happy Father’s Day!

Just a few snapshots from today:

I finished Daphne’s dress at the last minute. Like right before walking out the door! I’ll post more about the dress later, when I can do a full review on the pattern. Let’s just say I had a few issues.

Practicing her princess wave in her Easter gloves.

Still waving. Hello! Hello!

The gloves were a big hit. And cheap- $1 from Target. Here she is rocking the gloves right before we put her dress on. She loves this can can slip.

Checking the twirl factor.

Hope you had a wonderful Easter Sunday!

It’s almost time for my annual St. Patrick’s Day post.  An oldie, but a goodie. Yep, it’s Leprechaun in Mobile.

And the rap version:

I’m not sure what I find more humorous, the amateur sketch, or Mr. T in the rap. Happy St. Pats!

I like to think of myself as a fairly low maintenance Valentine. I hate fighting the crowds at restaurants on holidays, so no fancy dinner reservations necessary. I love flowers, but always tell my husband not to buy them on Valentine’s Day. They are usually overpriced and not in good condition anyway. Oh, and I’m not a big fan of roses. But as a girl who worked in corporate America for 11 years before Daphne, I’ll tell you there can be some pride and competition between women in the workplace for the best Valentine’s bouquet. Am I right?! Isn’t there always that one woman in the office who gets an arrangement so big that it takes up her entire desk. Then my “don’t buy me Valentine’s flowers” stance looks a little pathetic. Just me and maybe a few of the single ladies without flowers on our desks. But it didn’t bother me enough to have my husband buy them for me.

Valentine’s gifts are negotiable, depends on the year. The only part not negotiable? A card. I tell my husband he has to get me a card. Or make me a card. Or send me a frakking e-card. Something to signify “I thought of you today!” And you know what? Sometimes my husband still grumbles about getting me a card. Someone please tell him how easy he has it. My husband just thinks Valentine’s Day is a BS holiday and we shouldn’t play into the marketing machine. Really, just spend the $2.99 on a card. It won’t kill you.

(Cover your heart, Indy!)

But just because I’m a Valentine’s grump, doesn’t mean I don’t love hearing about other people’s plans. What do you have planned for this weekend?

Guess who didn’t take a single picture over Christmas? *Raises hand* How is it possible that I took hundreds of pics at the U2 concert in October, but failed to catch any pics of my darling girl opening her Christmas gifts? All I can say is that I was trying to be in the moment, and sometimes the camera gets in the way.

So after Christmas Eve service and dinner, we visited with my dad. Daphne got a soccer ball set, complete with goal, and lots of fun books and educational items. Christmas Day we did the usual stockings and presents thing with my mom and step-dad. Daphne was so overwhelmed. And she really didn’t have a crazy amount of gifts to open. At one point she stopped and didn’t want to open anything else. Then we had a pancake brunch and vegged out until our Christmas dinner guests arrived. Our friends, Jacob, Meghan and Torah came over to eat. Torah and Daphne are so funny together. They had a Kai-lan gift exchange. Torah got Daphne a bath toy Kai-lan, and Daphne got Torah a Kai-lan doll. What would Kai-lan say? Xie xie? See, I have the ability to block out most sounds so I really don’t pay attention to Daphne’s Nick Jr. shows.

Over the weekend, my brother moved his family from Missouri to Houston. Daphne just adores her cousins (2 girls, ages 5 and 3). You can just see it in her eyes that she thinks they are the coolest big girls ever. We are glad to be able to see them more often now.

Other than that, it’s been laundry, dishes, dishes, dishes. Pretty uneventful. Glad we didn’t have any bad weather to deal with.

I hope that you had a great Christmas!

Debating on Christmas? No, no, not debating with relatives or anything. Although, on Christmas Eve my husband and I were debating the health care bill while going to grab some lunch, and Daphne told us to be quiet. That little monkey! And I’ll let those of you who know us figure out who was for or against. Ha!

No, right now I’m debating on whether or not to take something to knock me out. It’s 2:38am and I just can’t seem to turn off my brain. Hate that. Especially with such a busy day ahead. I’ve felt less prepared this holiday season than any other Christmas I can remember.

I’ve been checking the weather reports for OK and MO. Wondering how my in-laws are faring. Hoping the winter storm won’t affect my brother’s family moving to TX this weekend. My brother has been here for a few months getting things ready for the big move, now that my niece’s first semester of kindergarten is over.

I’m excited to see Daphne’s reaction to Christmas morning present time. This will be the first year that she’s really understood what is going on. She’s already opened one of her gifts from me. A fire truck. She’s completely obsessed with fire trucks, so I thought, “What the heck!” My husband thought it was a weird gift for a two year old girl. Pfft.

I’m feeling like I should be up cleaning, or making a breakfast casserole. Too tired to do either, but not tired enough to sleep. Totally sucks. I need to remember to put the wine in the fridge for mimosas. Wishing I could have a few mimosas right now.

I got some new fabric the other day. 4 1/2 yds of Martha Negley prints and another really random abstract, almost Asian inspired floral. And I only spent $13. Martha Negley prints aren’t normally something I would pick out, but I do love how Matilda Jane uses them in their clothing lines. So, I’m thinking a knot dress, or peasant top, or twirl skirt for Miss Daphne will be in the works.

Speaking of Miss Daphne, all of a sudden her feet are huge. She looks like a puppy with huge paws. She’s just about grown out of her size 7 shoes and is ready for 8s.

Wishing Santa would bring me some Nicey Jane, Meadowsweet, Woodland Delight, Flora and Fauna. My fellow fabric nerds understand what I’m talking about.

Thinking about the craft workshop I’m going to lead on January 23rd at a women’s conference at church. If you are in the Houston area, come watch me make a complete fool of myself. I’ve never been much of a public speaker. I think I can, I think I can.

And last, but certainly not least… I’ve been thinking about some big plans for 2010. Trying to decide how to put my plans into action. But more on that later.

Merry Christmas everyone!! I hope your day is full of love and laughter.

Look, it’s Daphne and Santa. And no crying!

She was just in it for the candy.

Is anyone else completely stressed that Christmas is just around the corner? I have so many projects to finish. And what do I do instead? Oh, clean house, do laundry. Typical Jenny procrastinating. In my defense, I need some time without Daphne hanging on me to sew, and I need my husband’s help/input with a website we are building. So, after picking up and doing laundry, I made this yarn wreath while watching Daphne color.

Photo processed for that “straight out of a 60’s craft magazine” look, lol!

I never make anything for myself. And since I’d been drooling over several yarn wreaths on Etsy, I decided to look in my stash and see what I could come up with. Not as cute as the Etsy wreaths, and boy did it not photograph well. It’s all cute and sparkly in real life and the glittered leaves and flowers closely match the yarn colors. But considering I only had to buy a $4 styrofoam wreath base, I guess I’m happy with it.

Now to put Daphne down for a nap so I can get some real work done.

Only 12 more days.

While I was going through some old holiday photos, I came across this little gem. The redneck fireworks stand near our house in Birmingham always posted this message before Christmas:

Put the explosives above the fireplace? Yeah, that’s a good plan. Just put ‘em right next to the ammo, Jack Daniels, big belt buckles, and tools. God bless America and Merry Christmas :p

Way too many amazing things on Etsy lately. I need more money in my Paypal account. Ha!

Here are my recent faves:

What are you loving on Etsy, lately? Comment with a link.