Saludos de Peru!

Today we got a package!! My brother's girlfriend, Alba, is trekking across the world for the next 6 months. She just did a hike to Machu Picchu. She's blogging about her journey, which is so cool to see because I'm totally living vicariously through her!!

She sent us some loot!

Alpaca wool.

Hand dyed.

Hand made.

And hand carried from the Argoyo Quechua community through Machu Picchu to Cusco where they were air mailed to us! Awesome!

We love them!

Whirling Dervish?

Happy Monday!

Coming this week and next: we're tearing up the carpet on the stairs and upper floor of our house and putting down hardwood floors. I'm so excited for this to be done but as per usual I'm not thrilled that my house will be turned upside down in the process.

Space Party- Go for Launch!

This is my recipe for a Space Party:You need one astro-nut. Six cleverly named snacks: Celestial Snack Mix, App-ollos 13, Veggies from Venus, Big Dippers, Alpha Chees-auri & Planetary Pizza.
One spaceship blasting off.
One planet made from more that two hundred Dum-Dums
One extremely large shuttle shaped birthday cake. Made of four layers of cake and a batch and a half of Rice Krispy treats (to make the nose of the shuttle, which I molded into the shape after spraying my hands with Pam so the sticky warm marshmallow goodness wouldn't stick to me while I was trying to shape it).

One million shoes left at the door.

It's funny because every year I say to myself "Next year I'm going to have it at one of those party places." But every year I end up having it at the house. For a control freak like me I certainly have a thing for chaos... it was, and always is, a great time!

Making the Alphabet

I wanted to create a 'found' alphabet for the wall in the playroom. Here's how I did it:

I started this project in my head a long time ago (October) and I even made the letter O out of willow tree branches at that time. The letters J and H hung in Jack and Henry's rooms but when Jack's room became an Outer Space room and Henry's room became a Dinosaur room there was not space for their letters. So I held on to them thinking I might find a new home for them in this little project.

The idea for this originally came from that Pottery Barn alphabet bedroom. I'm not one to squee over Pottery Barn normally. They have cute things, no doubt, but I don't think they sell things that are so cute that they justify the price. The cutest things in the catalogue are designed by room stagers for the product photo shoots and they're usually the things that aren't for sale (except for that dinosaur pillow sham).

Anyway, I digress.

So the idea is from Pottery Barn (Kids). I started by going to my local craft stores and buying letters I liked. I tries to pick letters far apart in the alphabet (as you can see the layout of the letters was toyed with quite a bit) so I wasn't sure which letters would end up above or below others but if I liked a particular design I picked up a few hoping they'd look hap-hazard enough.

Hanging them on the wall was tricky. Not gonna lie. I decided that letter N should be the center and then measured and hung the other letters with mostly equal spacing. I made my husband help me with this part because sometimes I needed the letter held at the wall to eye-ball the spacing.

I used paper with the missing letters written on them and wrote a note on the bottom what the letter would be so for example: Letter C says- "C, painted buoy". Letters F, K, L, Q and T are vinyl and were ordered online. My mom got a buoy for me near her home at the beach, and the last by not least to arrive is the letter I, the magnifying glass.

In case you can't tell (because sometimes my photos are enlargeable and sometimes they're not): letters B, S, and Y are wooden letters that I glued buttons to the front of- I love how they turned out. Letter U is a horseshoe. And Letters N and R used to be a brassy/gold color but I didn't like how it went in the space so I coated them in silver paint.

I don't love that the letter L and T are the same and so close together so I might make the T out of two sticks of wood from the woods near my house. Also the spacing between the A, B and C is a little wider than I'd like so I'll probably scoot those in a bit. As with all good artistic endeavors they are never truly finished.

Happy 10 Month Birthday, Henry!

You are teaching me what it's like to have a cautious kid. You can stand without holding on to anything, but as soon as you realize what's going on you freak out and sit down. You cruise to the end of the couch and then scream with discontent that there's no where else to go (It might be time to walk, little buddy.) You have 6 teeth- two of which are new today!

You are a pretty mellow guy, which means you're never really pissed off but you're also not over-the-top excited- someone was bound to have Daddy's personality. Consequently, your laid-back-ness means you tolerate a lot of your brother's shenanigans, and that is a beautiful thing. You prefer food with lots of flavors like Indian, Chinese or Mexican to something as bland and prosaic as Cheerios. When I call you "Trouble Maker" your brother Jack always says "Heart Breaker."

Also, if you could get a grip on this napping for only 30 minutes thing that would be grrrrreat. Kthxbi.

The Power of Yoga

When I walk in through the doors to the studio I can actually feel the layers of the day, the chaos of my life peeling off like a snake shedding its skin. I haven't stepped onto the mat yet and I already feel the change. This is true every. single. time.

This is why I felt compelled to participate in Yoga Teacher Training. If class changes me each time in a profound way, where could I go? what would I see? what could I do if I participated in this 11 month long process?

So far my diningroom table has changed.
Note: Jack grabbed a little coloring/workbook we have laying around and insisted that he do his homework with me. Hilarious!

Also my schedule has changed. I'm making room for a daily yoga practice.

I also have food for thought:

The true self is found within. It is not necessary to search externally for that treasure.

With each new birth, each new life the universe expands to make space for the individual.

If I'm being completely honest

Things are not going so hot right now.

I'm really overwhelmed by the state of my life, I feel like there's too much to do and not enough time to do it in. Jack's birthday party is this weekend and I feel totally unprepared for it. My goodie bag count has been wrong twice now and I'm going to have to go to the store again. I don't know what I'm doing for his cake. My house is a complete wreck, there's stuff EVERYWHERE in all the wrong rooms in all the wrong places and I don't have time to clean it with the kids running around messing it up all the time.

Henry hasn't had a good nap in 7 days. He'll sleep for 20 minutes to 1 hour and THAT'S IT. FOR THE WHOLE DAY. The rest of the day he's so cranky (probably because he's sleep deprived that I have to hold him. He weighs 24 pounds! I don't want to hold him all day. You'd think he'd be so damn exhausted from not sleeping that he'd sleep through the night, but no. He'll gladly be awake from 3-4am (like last night).

I'm so stressed out I didn't go to yoga yesterday because I didn't want my bad energy to mess up everyone else there. I need a vacation from my life, but when I look on the calendar it appears that I can't hope for one anytime soon.

Oh, yeah, and yesterday? Henry bit my boob so hard there's a one inch long cut (with blood and everything) from him. Awesome.

I will now attempt to put Henry down for a nap (again). Wish us luck!