grow baby grow

Spring is in full effect and we've been growing things around these parts.

Above the Little Miss' two bottom teeth poking through!

Hooray our beans are busting through!

And our peas are sprouting!

The Husbo and the baby are "playing" a game.... (?)

My Parent's backyard in full bloom, so pretty.

What are your plans for the weekend? We have a busy weekend ahead of us with the ladies of the family participating in The Pennsbury Township Yard sale on Saturday. We've been pricing stuff all week, it should be epic. The rest of the weekend will be spent outdoors playing tennis and eating in the garden!  

DIY Dog Bed

Goes to show Millie can make a dog bed out of anything!

Here she is curled up in the large stuffed Tiger, too funny.

(pics snapped with cellphone...)

Links and Such

Hey all, happy Thursday and happy Links and Such! How has your week been going? Mine has been pretty busy. The beets are finally planted and we are getting ready for a huge yard sale we are participating in on Sat. And then I've been hearing about something going on in England tomorrow...? ; ) I might be up at 4am to watch the wedding... we'll see!? This week's Links and Such is a collection of recent fun things I've been bookmarking this week! enjoy.

Above: Small Sleeping Spaces from Apartment Therapy- added to my folder for a cool kid's room.

MAKE tiny polaroid magnets
DIY painted bottles
Maxi skirt
Press Here- a cute children's book
Soaking Tubs
DIY bird wings
cook up- Rosemary and Blue Cheese Cookies
Broccoli and Feta Quiche Recipe

Handmade Shout Out: This and That, Some New Etsy Favs

This week's Handmade Shout Out are just some random recent etsy favorites! Enjoy.

Love this up-cycled plant marker by CambriRae

Three Lazy Owls, by iotaillustration

Cute b-day card by witandwhistle.

A beautiful robe, by ecofriendlybeauty

Darling pillow by skinnylaminx

Nesting: Teething Tips

With the arrival of two little sharp shark teeth on the bottom of the Little Miss' gums, I thought it would be fun to share what the husbo and I have learned when it comes to teething! You will need patience, sympathy, imagination and some chew toys. Below is a quick list of the toys that have worked for us! 

First off, no matter what toys you have, the most important thing is to have a variety of textures and shapes that will allow you to switch it up when the baby gets bored or when the baby is more active or becomes sleepy. Above: we (and the baby) love Vulli Sophie the Giraffe. Perfect for both active and sleepy moments, the toy provides a variety of chewing areas and surfaces like the legs, face, and ears!

Also by Vulli, a cute gift from my mother-in-law is the Chan Pie Gnon Pink! It's fun, squeaky, soft and chewy!

Another natural option and one that she loves for a harder texture, is LittleSaplingToys Squirrel teether! This toy has been a huge success for those moments when she really needs to gnaw on something, this one really holds her attention. However when she gets sleepier and her flappy baby arms become more erratic, it's best to switch to a softer toy since she has bopped her face with this one when tired, sad town.  I can't say enough about their teethers- the are my go-to baby gift!! 

A plush toy is also great to chew on and nice for those sleepier moments! My mom got us this knotted Dr. Seuss toy from whole foods by miYim simply organic toys. I made up a theme song for this little guy that perhaps I will share at a future time!

A darling hand-me-down from my niece and nephew is Sassy's Flutterby teether. It can be cooled in the fridge and she loves chewing on the textured wings!

The Manhattan Toy Winkel, another hand-me-down, it's perfect for little fingers to easily grab on to and the rings are fun for them to chew on. She LOVES this one.

One night, when the baby was working on her second bottom tooth and was VERY fussy, we had the idea to fill her mesh food feeder with crushed ice! It gave her a hard texture to chew on that also numbed her gums. Just strap on a bib and have an extra tea towel to soak up all the dripping ice. We also filled a bowl with extra crushed ice for fast and frequent refills. This was a god-send

As with most parenting tricks the best ones are born from moments of imagination and thinking outside of the box. For teething it seems like a change of scene, toy, song, or a new book can break the spell and help distract and entertain the baby.  What teething tips are your favorite?

Green Living: Automatic Ice Cube Makers, a hidden energy Vampire

It's that time of year, well at least in my neck of the woods, when ice is becoming a staple in every drink! But I recently read on GreenUpGrader about what a hidden drain Automatic Ice Makers can be on your energy bill (not to mention on the bigger picture of wasting electricity IE: coal). According to a new study by the California Energy Commission, freezers and refrigerators eat up at least one sixth of all the energy used in US homes and that Automatic Ice Cube Makers are to blame! The little guy demands up to 20% of the energy used by your refrigerator. More studies will be made before the DOE writes new energy standards for freezers, but in the meantime The GreenUpGrader suggests switching to the old fashion ice cube trays to save on your electric bill.  In addition, you can calculate your refrigerator's efficiency HERE. Just a little green living tidbit for yah!

Easter Pictures

Check out the Blossoming Cherry tree in my folk's backyard!

My niece Sophie in her Easter best.

The Little Miss with her colorful Aunt and Grandmother.

Her new sun hat a la "Tar-je"

And a little Easter-day Tennis!

I hope you had a lovely weekend! We've been enjoying all of the flowering trees that populate the Delaware and Chadds Ford area.  Our garden is still coming along with new additions everyday.  I'll post pictures once there is something actually sprouting up from the ground. And later today I will post my weekly "Green Living" blog post, so stay tuned!

Monday Inspiration: Show 'em what you Got!

I thought this was a fun way to start the week...

Slippers and Gardening

As I mentioned earlier this week the husbo and I have been busy prepping the raised bed for our summer crop! Hence why the blog took a little detour from my usual daily themes...  Here I am with pitchfork in hand, that was very essential for turning up the stagnate soil in our raised bed. We built our raised bed in 2006 at my folk's house from large found stones. Back in the day there was a long stone wall that ran through out my parent's neighborhood as part of a du Pont home. When a portion of the land was sold and the houses were built, the wall was taken down and the stones were buried. Thus in 2006 we dug up enough stones to make a raised bed that is roughly 3.5 feet wide by 24 ft long.

Our Raised Bed.  

A few years ago my parent's neighbor - with their permission : ) - planted rhubarb plants in the bed for my mom -the master pie maker- to make rhubarb pies with! Now that we are back in the area we are adding some new crops to the mix. In the black pots are three tomatoes and....

POOF here are our handmade pea and bean trellises! My mom thinks they look like garden sculptures, they are quite tall but in the past we under estimated our pea structures... so we made them super tall to not be caught off guard and there you have it! We still have to build one more trellis for another variety of peas.  We are also planting golden beets, three more tomato plants, and a ton of basil. We are sticking to the basics this year but something tells me we are going to have a ton of peas and beans!!

And of course a picture of the little miss. I couldn't resist, she's too funny.

Also this week I made good on last Friday's Weekend Blog post and I knit myself some slipper-socks form this lovely gray eco-wool! 

Well, originally they were suppose to be big enough to felt, but I screwed up the gauge or tension and poof I have socks instead. I still want to knit and felt myself some slippers, but in the meantime I'm enjoying these little socks. They are quite the perfect spring accessory for these random cold fronts. The pattern was very easy and fast to knit. 

I hope you all have a great Easter weekend!

GIVEAWAY on Mint Design Blog

Head over to MINT DESIGN blog and enter their giveaway to win Jill Bliss' New book on Drawing Nature! So lovely and seasonal.  Now I'm back outside to finishing mulching :) Good Luck!

Peas and Beans- A Garden Update

We've been busy in the garden the last few days. The weather today was amazing!! Here is one of the two handmade pea/ bean trellises we made today. We used twine and some sturdy sticks from the woods, fastened them together and planted purple beans beneath one and peas beneath the other. We also got a jump on our tomatoes and planted three in separate large pots. We ordered seeds yesterday- golden beets, more beans, and basil as we anticipating their arrival with tapping dirt stained fingers.  It's fun to chip away at the garden and work on it little by little while the baby sleeps... It sure was a lovely day and tomorrow we have mulching to do.

Gwyneth Paltrow Sets a Table for Easter on Remodelista Featuring ISIS Ceramics

Today on Remodelista Gwyneth Paltrow invites us into her London home to share how she set her table for Easter featuring English made products.

This lovely collection features beautiful plates and a vase by ISIS Ceramics aka my Aunt Deb's hand painted delftware! It's always so fun to spot her ceramics in English period piece films and miniseries. Just the other night we were watching Cranford and I spied an ISIS teacup. Having interned and worked for my Aunt over the years I can vouch that, even as an artist who has her MFA, taking a stab at painting my own pieces was a huge undertaking and inevitably they looked like a day spent at Color-Me-Mine! The detail and fluid brush strokes make these one-of-a-kind pieces a real treasure for the eye to explore, to appreciate the craftsmanship and to get lost in the playful scenes. My Aunt was recently state-side this last week and it's always fun to see what new commission project she is working on.   BUT back to the Remodelista feature.  I love the wooden eggs as place cards, what a cute idea. And I can almost smell those flowers!

The Rustic table with the creamy neutral linens provides a warm backdrop for the pastel flowers and dishes. And the yellow candles offer a fun pop of color. I love the height of the white candles as well, very eye catching.

And another shot of my Aunt's plate on Paltrow's table. Visit ISIS Ceramics website to see more of her work. And here's a look back  at my Aunt and Uncle's snowy English Farm , their summery English Garden, Decorating with an ISIS desk brick, and our ISIS Teapot . If I could visit them every year I would be one happy camper!

Green Living: The life of a Plastic Bag

ah yes the plastic bag

with the voice of Werner Herzog as the bag- perfect.

A Gilty purchase for the little Miss

Last week I had a credit on Gilt Groupe and I got this colorful romper for the Little Miss! It will be very cute for kicking it at the shore this summer. Since she is such a big baby I ordered the 12-18 month size and it came today and I can tell it will fit perfectly, especially over her cloth diapered bum. 

Use my invite to shop Gilt Groupe! 

Monday Inspiration: foliage

Spring is here and we had a lovely day on Sunday Prepping our vegetable beds and going on a LONG walk/hike! I carried the baby this time in our Ergo and lugging around that big baby was a good workout for sure. I am getting really excited for all that Spring has to offer and thus I thought a foliage themed gallery would be a lovely way to begin the week. Enjoy.

Above: Spring Obsession, photographic print, by sfgirlbybay 

an Old Toms Shoes design from 2007. Me thinks they should do more Florals!

Beautiful 

Weekly Flowers 

DIY your own paper flower, by sunnyandstumpy 

Poppy guitar strap 

Doormat 

Garden Tours, via MarthaStewart