More downtown

A few more shots from our Chicago afternoon.

There are so many photo ops in Millennium Park. c.

Chomp

The last few days have been really hectic around here. Yesterday I got a call from a dear friend suggesting we meet for brunch downtown and I jumped at the offer. We had a great time eating, talking and playing.

After brunch we went to the Art Institute of Chicago. It was g's first visit. Auntie Linda came up with a great game.... fine the ballerina (Degas), find the lily pad (Monet), find the yellow bed (Van Gogh), it was so much fun.

Here are some picts of our day. c.

It was a mistake

The Crenshaws really wish they had never agreed to let that monkey Charles live with them.

Today we are making family portraits and telling stories about them. c.

Won't you join me?

Won't you join me for my favorite lunch?

Put a generous handful of green grapes in a bowl. Add a nice big dollop of plain Greek yogurt. Crumble Pecan halves over it and drizzle some honey on top. Mmmm. c.

Bloom

Someone is very excited to watch the flowers bloom and the leaves bud.

I made another necklace for myself which I've worn everyday. It's blueish-greeny color goes great with my usual jeans and t-shirt uniform. c.

New arrival

Some very good friends of ours will be welcoming a new puppy into their home. We are sending this card to welcome the little fella. Here are the directions for a simple origami dog card that's super easy to make. All you are going to need is glue, scissors, paper for the card and accent paper for the eyes & nose and ears & collar.

Fold one corner of the paper over and cut off the strip at the top
Turn the paper so that it's an upside down triangle and fold each corner down to form the ears
Round off the bottom of the chin
Draw or cut and glue paper eyes, nose, mouth, collar and ears
Add message under ears

Sunbeam

Hold'em

Some scenes from the weekend.

G. said to her granny, "If you see the Easter Bunny, hold onto him for me." c.

Little Miss Obsessed

We've got a new obsession around here, Mr. Men & Little Miss. Jack was kind enough to lend us his book. The Mr. Men series was not something I read as a child so it's new to both of us. We are really enjoying all the silly stories and fantastic illustrations! My favorite being this one. ;)

A year in the life of us

Dear g,

Today marks the one year anniversary of this blog. I really had no idea what I was doing when I started it. I also had no idea how much it would mean to me. This creative outlet has become so vital to my life now. It's a little snippet of our days and our projects. It reminds me to stop and appreciate all of the little moments.

I hope someday you find it interesting to look back on these last twelve months.

Love,
Mommy

Comfort breakfast

It's back to school day around here. We had a nice breakfast to fuel the noggin. Someone else really wanted it too. c.

Consider yourself obstructed

Last night we really enjoyed watching The Five Obstructions. A Danish documentary film by Lars von Trier (Breaking The Waves, Dancer in the Dark) about his filmmaker idol Jørgen Leth. Leth made a 12 minute film in 1967 called The Perfect Human. The Five Obstructions is a remake of The Perfect Human done five times with a difficult set of obstructions that Leth must follow. In the first obstruction Leth must remake the film in Cuba with no set and he can't use a shot that is longer than 1/2 a second long. The result is both funny and interesting and incredibly creative.

So you may have guessed this was coming. I'm going to obstruct my dear BFF blogging buddy Lindsay. I'm going to throw five writing obstructions at her because I think she is such a creative writer.

Lindsay, in the next five posts on Wit-Craft you have to follow five obstructions in no particular order:

1. A post that does not contain the letter "i"
2. A post that tells a story without using words
3. A post that is written as your 16-year-old self
4. A post that does not use humor
5. A post that is written as if you were your husband

Berry sweet

We took it pretty easy today. Or dog got her cast and cone collar off after two long hard weeks (for her more than us I'm sure). To celebrate the missing cone collar g. gave our dog a necklace. She seemed to like it and is still sporting the look.

g. and I spent some time at the Barnes & Nobel today, me with my coffee looking at cook books, her at the train table. Does anyone know how to remove the sugary sweet smell that I managed to get on the tip of my nose from reading and sniffing a Strawberry Shortcake scratch and sniff book? At first I thought it wasn't too bad, sort of like having my own private room freshener. But now it's making me feel sick and soap and water didn't seem to work. Help! c.

Wit-Craft Wednesday

The following is cross-posted on Wit-Craft, Craft: Pom Pom Peeps

I ask you - what is cuter than a baby chick? Not much comes to mind! Those little fluff balls of cottony adorableness, peeping their way into my heart. I was obsessed with having my own hatchery when I was little. The hatchery has an aquarium-type of effect on me. Sort of calming and sweet. You can have a look and see if it has the same effect on you too - right over here.

Today we took some really fluffy yarn I got at Target ages ago in the dollar section; and made these really easy pom pom peeps. Never made a pom pom before, you say? Well. It's just about as easy as it gets. I found a nicely illustrated step-by-step set of instructions here.

Here's what you'll need:
Yarn. 2 beads for eyes. Felt for the beak and the feet. And 2 cardboard donuts - one smaller than the other to make the pom poms.

All you do is make the pom poms first and then glue the head on to the body. Then you cut out a triangle for the beak and glue it to the face. Two more triangles can then be glued on for the feet. And finally some more glue is used on the beads to place the eyes. c.