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I just want to document this event before I forget. Today was Sienna’s 2.5 year wellness check up at the doctor’s this morning (8:15!). My dad usually comes with me mainly for support as I tend to hate going to the doctor’s with Sienna by myself. She is usually fine in the waiting room but once we head into the exam room, she usually starts getting scared and begins to cry a bit. Never mind once the doctor comes in! She used to not be as dramatic at the other doctor’s office and I always thought it was because the rooms were decorated for kids. These rooms are not. They are like stark hospital rooms, very medical and no kid’s decorations at all. So it surprised me immensely that Sienna DID NOT CRY AT ALL!! Even when the doctor gave her 2 shots. She even said she loved the doctor. Wow! And that was before he offered her lollipops! She did cry when they took blood from her in the other room but they did it really fast so it was over in a snap of a finger!

My baby is growing up! Sniff.

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Yesterday was our first class at the Little Gym for the Fall/Winter semester. Sienna always enjoys running around and swinging and jumping. And she did just that during this class. Unfortunately the class did not tire her out as I had hoped and I feel like naptime is going to start to fade away soon. She had a less than 2 hour nap! Perhaps it is just a fluke! Anyway, I can’t believe that I did not get a chance to post about the show week from the Little Gym Spring semester back in June. Thought I would post about it now. Show week is the last class of the semester and all parents and grandparents and any other family members are invited to come and the kids show off what they learned the previous 19 weeks. Both my parents came. Let this also serve as a reminder to myself to not let my mother come to the Winter semester show week. She was a royal pain in the butt. She kept hovering over Sienna and did not want her to do the majority of the activites (the rolling for example) meanwhile she had been doing it the whole semester. Grrr. Downright annoying! Anyway, here are some photos and a video of the event!

Under the parachute

Swinging

Jumping with Grandpa

Grandma always close by

Attempting a group photo!

Little Gym Show Week from Lisa on Vimeo.

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For those that don’t know, I was quite an avid rubber stamper in the early 90’s while I was in college. I had a huge collection of stamps and pads and cardstock. I was always stamping cards or sending mail art making something with stamps. I even attended a few stamp conventions in CA and OH! I didn’t stamp as much once I started working and getting more involved with graphic design on the computer. Then eventually fell out of it and sold a huge part of my collection (not all of it!). I got back into it again once I was home and pregnant and looking for some mail to fill my days. And then of course, once Sienna came and was more active and demanding of my time (like in the last year), I didn’t stamp as much. Then I came across this Stampin’ Up meetup group in Bay Ridge run by Heather. Woohoo! My old ‘hood! I signed up and attended the first meetup on the 16th to do some cards. We did 3 designs and made 5 cards of each. It was fun to start stamping again and actually setting aside time to do it. Since the class was at 10:30, Yves was kind enough to take Sienna to the playground in the area. I thought I would have been down by noon but I was just getting started! I told Yves to take Sienna home and I would find my own way. Here is what I did that day!

A kid friendly card

A feminine card

And the masculine. This design was easy to alter and change up whereas the other 2 were pretty straight forward.

And look at this storage unit she has!!!! DROOL!

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I read a lot of blogs (thank goodness for google reader!) and of course, I read a lot of craft blogs. In doing so, I come across lots of contests and giveaways. I don’t really enter that much unless it is something I am really, really into (I feel if you enter a contest just to win something free, it just ruins your chances for that future contest in which you really want to win). Most of the time, I don’t end up winning but guess what?! Yes! I won!! As I mentioned, I recently got into felt and making stuffies and appliques (soon) and came across the felt-o-rama blog and of course added it to my google reader. I entered their contest and I was so surprised and happy to find out I won!! It was a stash of their eco-felt and it came today!! Wow!! It was a big box!!! (Thank you April of felt-o-rama!)
I was actually expecting the shorter, smaller box. Woohoo!! What a score! See all the yummy felt goodness inside? Did I say WOW?

And here are some of the fake food I’ve made so far for Sienna. Some cookies, a petit four (although I think it’s too big to be called that) and the cake with the whipped topping that I didn’t quite put on top (my first one). Yves was asking for some fruits and veggies for her and used a pear pattern in my Tasty Crochet book for that instead of using felt. It’s pretty huge in comparison! I also made a bagel half but Sienna was playing with it this morning and we left it in the car!

Ok, so I do have to practice some more before my pieces will look as nice as this artist’s! Amazing!

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Sienna at her first movie probably picking her nose. ha!

So I wanted to write about this before I forget! I took Sienna to her first movie at the end of July. They offer free movies at the theatre by our house during the summer on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 10 am. I thought it was perfect to escape the heat and humidity. We went to see the Curious George movie and it took all my strength to keep it a surprise for Sienna. She loves CG. The theatre was packed (not surprising) and it was a pretty pleasant experience given the fact that I haven’t gone to the movies in ages mostly because people suck at the movies (they talk too much or kick your chair or just make too much eating noise). Sienna really enjoyed herself! I was looking forward to free movies all summer!

The following week was Mr. Bean’s Holiday. I like Mr. Bean. I thought maybe Sienna would too but wasn’t sure. She was super cranky that day so opted not to go as I didn’t want to deal with her in case she didn’t like the movie. The week after that was Wallace & Gromit. I know she isn’t familiar with these characters but thought she would like them. I was a little surprised that the theatre wasn’t packed at all. More empty seats than full ones. Hmmm. Once the movie started and the credits rolled, I thought ‘uh oh!’ It was the Curse of the Were-Rabbit (although I’m not sure now if they do have other movies). I looked over at Sienna but she didn’t seem scared. Whew. Maybe I am overreacting. About 30-40 minutes into the movie, I really had to use the bathroom. I asked Sienna to go to the bathroom with me and she willingly went. Once outside the theatre, as we are walking toward the bathroom, I hear gasping and look down to see Sienna starting to cry! I asked her what was the matter and she mumbled something about the man and the dog and nenna wanna go to the car! The man and the dog meaning Wallace & Gromit. I tried to calm her down and in the meantime figure out what to do while I went to the bathroom. Should I continue with the movie to show her that it ended happily? Or do I risk giving her nightmares later that night? I opted to leave because I did not want to have to deal with nightmares! As I was walking out, another mom was coming out of that theatre with her 2 kids. Apparently the scene right after we left was the one where they show the giant were-rabbit. The mom told me her daughter (who is 3!) screamed out “I wanna go HOME!” Her other daughter was just 18 months so didn’t really know what was going on. Good thing we left when we did!

So the following week was Clifford. I figured that was safe! A big red dog! Friendly and nice! Nothing scary about that, right? Well, I have come to realize that Sienna is still a tad too young for movies. She was taking everything in the movie way too seriously! There was a small sad part, she was crying. There was a part where a cow was walking a tightrope and looking like she would fall, she was yelling ‘cow gonna fall! cow gonna fall!’ All excited. We made it to the end of the movie but not without more drama in between. She cried afterwards because she wanted to see it again.On the way home, all she kept saying was ‘big red dog’, want,’big red dog.’ Sigh…she has a few Clifford books handed down from Eli and Maia and has now started asking for them on a regular basis. She even picked out a Clifford book at the library all by herself! And didn’t want to let it go. Huh. I’m exhausted! 😉

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Just this week Sienna has gotten into having tea parties (thanks to Yves, isn’t that funny?) Here are some recent photos from one the other morning.

As you can see, she is seriously lacking in some tea party food. The 2 cupcakes with the sprinkles on the right came from the tenants who gave Sienna their daughter’s old play house with oven, sink and washer. The cupcake with the strawberry on top was from a swap and the cake behind it I just made from a softies kit from Chronicle Books. I just got into felt and had ordered a bunch of felt last week. After this tea party phenomenon started, I ordered a bunch of felt food patterns off Etsy from Gulf Coast Cottage. I made a petit four for her last night and plan to make a bunch more things!

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Etsy labs has a free craft night every Monday night at their location in downtown Brooklyn. I don’t go as much as I want to go. They are moving to a new location in Dumbo so for the month of August their craft night was being held at the Museum of Art and Design on Thursdays. I’ve gone to 2 so far. Their first one was crochet jewelry. I made these crochet earrings I dubbed fat and skinny:

This was before I put the earring wires on. I also made a boutineare but I haven’t taken a photo of it. The place was mad crowded and I met a couple of very nice girls while there. I was really excited about going to the next week. It was T-shirt reconstruction and it was being held by Megan Nicolay of Generation-T fame! Woohoo! I have her book and am ashamed to say that I never got around to cutting up any shirts. I had every intention to but you know how it goes. She totally rocks! She was very friendly, funny and articulate and did the demo very well. If I was an uber craft geek, I would have had my photo taken with her! She has a 2nd book out (which I might have to get!) and she demo’d 2 shirts from that book. The first one I did.

Megan demo-ing

This design

Before (front)

After (back)

And I wore it the next day!

I probably won’t be going to the 3rd one. They haven’t announced what it was going to be plus I am already going out twice this week and I feel bad to leave Yves a 3rd night. Hopefully the last one will be good too.

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Although we said we would go to the beach more often because of it’s close proximity, time certainly flies and we didn’t find ourselves there again until a little over a month after our first visit! We went 2 weekends ago on the 8th and we would have gone this past weekend if it weren’t for other commitments. We really had a great time, more so than the first! Sienna wasn’t as obsessed with going in the water every 5 minutes and she actually played quite awhile in the sand. Her and Yves even took a walk along the beach. It’s such perfect timing as we get there by 9:30 and leave by 11:30 when most of the people are coming in. We get a spot right by the entrance so it’s easy in and easy out! This time we picked a different spot and found the showers. That was a lot better!

I was intrigued by this tiny little mussel!

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Here’s an update on the last few things I’ve sewn. I think this should make me up to date on most of my crafts!

This bag is from the Sew What! Bags book. After already made a smaller messenger bag type, I took some liberties with this one but not too many! I knew I wanted to make the strap wider and longer (I ended up making it too long and had to fold it onto itself to shorten it) and added an elastic strap to the bag to hold in magazines (which I ended up cutting off since it was useless!) Because of it’s size (it’s pretty big), it’s a little flimsy and I wish I knew that so I could have used a heavier interfacing for the base of the bag. I think if I can figure out how to add a zipper to the top, I should be ok with it.

Next up is a pencil/marker roll I made for Sienna. I wanted to have this for travel. There are lots of tutorials on the internet but I liked this one because it has a place for a pad. I messed up on the closure of it because the instructions aren’t as detailed as I like but I fixed it ok. I really like this Snoopy fabric.
I really liked the pattern so I made another one for a swap and added a cover to it so the markers wouldn’t fall out.

Then I saw this blog tutorial and thought it was a great idea because it holds a coloring book too. Even though she includes a ton of photos, I did get a little confused and wondered how a standard sized coloring book was going to fit in the slot (it didn’t!) I found a small pad to put in but was perturbed that I didn’t follow my instinct about it. I’m not crazy about the raw edges showing but live and learn!

I made this little pouch for a July birthday swap. My partner loves Mickey Mouse (as well as the color purple) and found this stencil online and printed it out on fabric paper and outlined it with fabric paint.

This pouch was for a Share Your Favorite Craft swap. I have lots of favorite crafts but figured since I’ve been making so many pouches lately, I’d make one for this swap. My partner likes her monogram so I did a reverse applique on this pouch. The first time I’ve done this and I think it’s cute! (She also likes purple!)

This one is also for a swap, Reversable Purse pattern from martha stewart’s site. My partner likes pink and orange.

(I realize now that I should have just reversed the bag to show the other fabric! My brain wasn’t functioning the day I took photos of this!)

And lastly! A project on the to do list! Sienna got this Old Navy dress as a hand me down from either Maia or Eli. I wanted to applique an S on there. I finally did it and used cupcake fabric that I got from a swap. First I did a zig zag stitch around the letter (not very well!) and then a straight stitch for all the missed spots (not that well either!) It’s hard sewing around so many curves!

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On the 11th of this month I turned 40. I can’t believe it. I don’t think I really mind turning 40 probably because I don’t look 40 (fingers crossed!). Time just seems to be going so fast. And I always feel like I still have so much I want to do and see and make. It was hard to decide what to do for my big day since it landed on a Saturday. Yves organized a birthday BBQ for me but we had that the following weekend. I decided I wanted to get a pork sandwich for lunch from Porchetta. It’s a little tiny place in the East Village that my friend Brenda told me about. We had tried to go there one night before a mixer but it only has 6 seats and it was raining. I managed to get a couple of bites from a sandwich she brought to another mixer. It was delicious. I wanted a whole one for myself. I actually forgot about the place until a couple of weeks ago when I saw a post on one of the foodie blogs I read who had recently gone there. Then I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Then I figured it was a good place to go while Sienna was home with my parents. And that was that.

It was really good although I did find the skin a bit on the chewy side. I like my pork skin crispy.

Potatoes with burnt ends

PORK!

Yves enjoyed the sandwich but he didn’t think it was worth the price. I might have to agree with him on that. We went back home to have cake that my parents bought for me. They buy me a cake every year and this year I managed to talk them out of going to the chinese bakery. (Not that I dislike chinese bakery cake but they order from one every year) I managed to convince them to go to Jean Danet Bakery (after an attempt to get them to go to Ivy Bakery failed-they thought $35 for a cake was too much which I would usually agree with them but come on, this is my 40th! Anyway, I digress…)

The cake was a chocolate cake with strawberries and chocolate pudding. They were very generous with the strawberries! The cake was delicious! So good that I forgot to take a photo of a slice.

Yves got me a mega stand mixer, the Cuisinart 5.5 quart in brushed steel, for my birthday. It’s fabulous! Sienna bought me an orange case for my Ipod touch! Thanks guys!

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