Back to School!

Every year I can't help but get excited when stores start to put out their school supplise, smelling the crayons through the boxes an seeing shelves upon shelves of empty notebooks just makes me want to hop right onto a bus. However this year I have an even bigger reason to get excited, I'm starting back to school myself! Yep, that's right! come August 11'th I will be starting my first day at the University of Phoenix online for a bachelors in elementary education. I am so excited, but I'm even more nervous! It's been so long since I've even attempted a math equation much less written an essay...but here I go!

I've been working on making myself a nice and inviting little workspace, here's what I have so far...there are still a few things I want to pick up, like this vintage looking desk organizer I found at Ross, and a nicer lamp, but for now this will have to do. I made the bulletin board out of some discount fabric I bought a while back and vintage pearls off of a bracelet of mine that broke. I purchased the beautiful vintage velvet ribbon off of My Little Pink Studio, and I was absolutely shocked when the package came in with a return address from my hometown in Tennessee!!! what a small world. I just love it when things like that happen.




After looking at the post I realized that my ribbon is pretty uneven on my bulletin board...oops! oh well, better luck next time :)

Yesterday, Isabella was feeding her doll that Lovie made for her (we named her Evelyn) She would issue a bottle, hand Evelyn to me, then take her back, and feed her some more. It went on like that, back and forth for about five minutes until she finally tired of it and moved on to some other game. I began to inspect her doll and noticed she was showing some hard signs of wear and tear, her neck and sleeve are missing stitches and need to be repaired, not to mention the countless trips to town and hard bedtime lovin' has left her a little dirty and in need of a good washing. I went to retrieve my needle and thread and on my way up the stairs I couldn't help but think about the day that Isabella will be handing me a real baby-her baby.
I can imagine her much like myself, tired, frazzled and clueless, gratefully handing her bundle over to me so she can eat or catch a few winks of sleep only to take her back again with eager hands. I can still remember the feeling of proudly handing my new baby over to my mom for the first time, how can one put that into words? you can't. I remember bringing Isabella home from the hospital, the stress and drama the hormones and the meltdowns, what a day that was! in the weeks that followed my mom stayed with me just to make sure I could handle things on my own. It went much like my game of "dolls" with Isabella the other evening, me feeding the baby, handing her to my mom, then taking her right back again.

I feel like ever since I became a mother, my arms are permanently outstretched, whether it be to accept a precious bundle, a slobbery little kiss, a hug from my husband, or just a doll that has been loved until she busted. But you know what? I wouldn't have it any other way :)

Lazy Weekend

So far our weekend has been a normal and uneventful one. Full of playing and cooking, cleaning and more playing. With Tyler home on the weekends I have more time to loll about and peruse my favorite sites :) Here are a few items from my favorite stores that are on my "save-up list"

I've been drooling over this light-up globe all afternoon. I'm definitely buying it before the next deployment...how perfect for teaching Isabella where daddy is going!
You can find this treasure for yourself at HearthSong




I'm absolutely head over heels in love with this child sized roll-top desk. It's a shame they don't ship furniture to Hawaii...I guess I'll just have to wait until we move back the mainland. I found this at WillowTreeToys



This charming little tea set from Nova will be adorning my coffee table VERY soon! I can't wait to have tea parties with all of Isabella's dolls :)


I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend! I'm going to go buy a board now...can't wait to show you what I'm making with it!

Just havin' a ball

We've been super busy this week, working on projects, finishing up LONG overdue thank-you notes, getting birthday presents and other goody boxes ready to ship off to friends and family, trying out different playgroups, and going to doctors appointments. Not much to write about, but here are a few pictures for all the grands and aunties of what The Bella has been up to.

I almost forgot! I got three VERY exciting packages in the mail this week, can't wait to write all about them :)

Oh, and my husband just informed me that I have spelled the name of my blog wrong. Oops...maybe I'll get around to fixing that...maybe later.

Southern girls love ribs

An important thing for a bona fide Southern belle to remember is, manners and grace go out the window when enjoying a nice, meaty, barbecue rib. Lick your fingers, suck all the good stuff off the bone an enjoy yourself a rib girl! just save those wet naps in your purse for later :)

One thing this momma is determined to do is remind her girl where her roots are. Just because we're all the way over here on this Island doesn't mean I can't teach her the fundamentals of being a true Southern girl, it just makes me that much more determined. Cross your ankles, yes ma'am, yes sir, please and thank you, do your hair, wear your rouge, greet everyone with a cheerful "hi there!" and whenever people are rude to you, (and they will be) just smile and say "why, bless your heart!"

So far we have the "Hi" down pat, complete with a beautiful Southern accent. I'm homesick ya'll!

???????!!!!!!

Tyler and Isabella and I were getting ready to go out this afternoon when Tyler suddenly remembered that he had let Isabella play with the keys earlier this morning...oops. We looked EVERYWHERE. An hour into our search we resorted to plopping Isabella down on the floor and asking her where the keys were, well all that got us was a happy toddler walking around saying "yay!" We had looked in all of her favorite hiding places, between the couch cushions, in her toy drum, and behind the couch. We were pretty desperate. Finally, Tyler accidentally detonated her "Busy Ball Popper" ...this is where we found them.

A fairy tale

I've been working on this embroidery project for almost a week now, getting in a few stitches here and there during naps, and before bed time. I of course made her a blue-eyed red-headed fairy :) I have decided that I am doing Isabella's entire room in fairies, I have big dreams for two-toned walls in light pink and light green with a scalloped edge around the top. Also around the top of the wall I would love to stencil the words to a fairy tale...but we'll see how we do on the scalloped edges first. My color scheme was inspired by the beautiful quilt that Lovie made for Isabella whenever I was pregnant. I'll be sure to post a picture of that quilt soon. Anywho...I'm starting to get the ball rolling on this huge project and I want to make sure there are lots of things hand made by mommy in Princess Isabella's chambers :) Tomorrow, hopefully this little fairy will be adorning the front of a pillow I have plans to make. Her legs are uneven, and her wings are crooked...but I know someday when Isabella is packing up and heading for her dorm room, she'll cherish these types of things just like I did when I moved out of the house. *sniff sniff*

Oh yeah almost forgot! notice the ugly brown stain on the right side of my muslin? after slaving for days I headed to the ironing board for that oh-so-rewarding moment of ironing out all the wrinkles, well my husband's ancient and decrepit iron leaked it's juices ALL over my fairy! I'll be honest with you, expletives were popping into my brain like popcorn in a bowl, but ever the mommy, I kept them from escaping by singing a Broadway show tune. He's had that very same iron since we started dating...four years ago, and refuses to replace it. Why do men get so attached to the oldest and most inconvenient of household items?...it's so weird. I love you honey...but your iron has GOT to go :)

I've been sort of down in my cups here the last few days. It's growing increasingly harder to find friends it seems. I would love to find a nice, christian mom, who enjoys decorating, baking, crafting and thrifting...that doesn't seem like such a long shot to me...but apparently it is. It seems all of the girls in or around my age group are only interested in partying, and since the only parties I go to involve balloons, cake, favor bags and games, I'm having a hard time finding that "kindred spirit" I'm trying not to be impatient or get discouraged, I know good people are hard to find, and that's why I focus on the things that make me smile...see below. Now THERE'S a good gal-pal. She was "helping" me fold laundry yesterday, we came across her old hat at the bottom of the hamper. I am a very, very lucky momma indeed!

kind of in a funk...

First of all, I hate that I had to use my flash in these pictures...it makes the lighting look so garish...but if I don't use my flash my pictures turn out way too blurry...so try to look beyond the garish lighting.

I know I'm not the only one who wastes my time decorating Altoids tins...I've read way too many blogs to know better than that, but still, I tried not to feel foolish last night when I couldn't sleep but instead was spending hours making paper flowers and painting this little tin. I'm thinking about making another "Pink Corner" in my house somewhere...which is pretty funny considering that like, every corner of my house is pretty much pinkafied.

I'm growing out of my little hidey hole in the laundry room...my craft stuff is overflowing to the kitchen table...this is a problem. Military housing doesn't exactly provide craft rooms...but there's a sizeable storage closet up stairs...perfect for a desk, a sewing table and there's already shelving units, so I figure, cover one wall with my inspirations I'm pretty much set. I should probably do it while Tyler's gone...

So Tyler's gone again for the rest of the month, he gets to come home for a day or two here and there, but it's pretty much Isabella and me until August. *sigh* looks like I need to stock up on the ol Lean Cuisines. You can always tell which wives at the commissary are flying solo, they always have carts full of Lean Cuisines.

Well, my motherly duties call me!

Busy "B" and Gymboree!

I'm so excited that my sister, Brittainy has finally jumped on the blogwagon...er bandwagon...and has finally made herself a blog! you can check her out at The B Hive on my list of blogs I ogle.

In other news...Tyler and I took Isabella to her first Gymboree class today! Boys howdy was that an experience. We signed her up for the music class full of a bunch of other tots her age. Unfortunately for me, Tyler bent down to pick Isabella up and split his pants wide open as soon as we got there, displaying his cheerful, star spangled boxers to anyone who was lucky enough to glance in that direction. He had to run home real quick, leaving me to my own devices for a while. Piece of cake! I thought, no big deal...uhm...yeah. Not so much. Turns out, all of the other tots in the class were content to sit in their mom or dad's lap like they were supposed to, but of course mine was writhing in my arms and slithering to the floor, grunting, getting red in the face, kicking her legs and generally making a spectacle of herself. Oh dear. I decided to let her run around a bit, no harm in that, right? she did fine a for a little while, playing the instruments and and going from person to person to talk to them in her baby gibberish. Very cute, everyone was charmed, that is, until it escalated to grabbing other children's pacifiers, throwing maracas across the room, and trying to run off with one guy's sunglasses. At that point it was non-negotiable restraint and she was NOT happy about it. We were all in agreement , the teacher included, that she would do much better in the gym class where she would be free to run around and play with the other children without having to sit in one place for very long. We're going to try that one next week. Tyler will be gone so wish me luck.

I'm including a picture of one the projects I made for a friend. She's having a baby boy in August and I made her this canvas to hang in his little room. Her theme is retro blue and brown polka dots. It received rave reviews and I even got a couple of requests from other people to make one for their child's room too! Well, I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend!

The Case of the killer bedhead

Enough said.

A word a day

Isabella is at that age where she literally learns to say at least one new word every day. It's so amazing to me that I can work so hard to teach her a certain one, but it's the words she just picks up by listening to everyday speech that she ends up repeating over and over. Sometimes to my delight and sometimes to my embarrassment.

She recently began saying "sit" I'm not even going to go into the argument that took place between Tyler and myself over that one. We finally figured out she was actually saying "sit" when we were sitting down for supper one night and she pointed at her highchair and emphatically declared, "SIT SIT!!" It was like she was desperately trying to clue us in.

I was cleaning up the living room this morning, throwing shoes into a basket, when Isabella came toddling up to me holding one of Tyler's flip-flops. She held it out to me and said "shew? shew?" I had to crack up because her pronunciation of the word is more like when I take her shoes off and smell her feet, I always say "Shew-wee Bella!" Anyways...I just realized that now more than ever I need to start being super conscientious of everything, because there's two little eyes watching me, and these days she's a sponge soaking up every action, which she very effectively proved to Tyler and me the other evening when she started picking her nose right in front of us. Uhm...how do I teach her that you do that at home and not in public?

Ok, for all the grands and great-grands I'm including an updated list of ALL the words she says now, and as soon as the battery charger Tyler ordered for our video camera comes in, I'm going to include a video post, can't wait!

Cheese
Duck
Quack-Quack
Shoe
Sit
Hi!
Yes
No!
Bye-bye
Pool
Bird
Tweet tweet tweet
Book
Bubble
Peekaboo
Yum-yum-yum
Ball
Baby
Slide
Whee!
Yay!
Gross

and my personal favorite, "Tickle tickle tickle!"

Well, I think that just about does it!

A nice day

Today was just one of those all around wonderful days. Tyler was let out of work super early so that he could take me to the other side of the Island to get another ID made (I lost mine, he HAS to be present when my ID is issued) What we thought would be a day of tedious drudgery turned out to be one of the most pleasant and beautiful drives we have been on in a long time! After driving through miles and miles of lush green mountains and going through a few tunnels, the horizon lit up with bright aqua marine blue. Oh my goodness, I was absolutely sick that I did not have my camera with me! but who knew driving to a marine base would be so scenic? The mountains would just shoot up out of the ocean at random and you could tell by their shape that they had been formed thousands of years ago by dripping molten lava, once rocky and gray but now beautiful and lushly green. The contrast of clear blue ocean and bright green was absolutely breathtaking....so was the fact that we were driving along on a bridge perched precariously on the side of a Lava Mountain about 800 feet in the air. Oh my...

Anyways...aside from our beautiful drive and a pit stop for fresh, hot McDonalds French fries (YES!!) we went on a nice, long walk tonight and when we got home there was pretty much nothing to do but loll about. So Tyler gamed, and I crafted. Here's my outcome...now tell me, does anyone have any ideas for what I could use/do for my ugly rough edges along the outside of my collage? The center of the collage is the front of my baby shower card my sister Brittainy designed herself. I always loved this card. The scrap of sheet music is actually from a piece of sheet music I sang highschool. No, I never throw anything away.



You see the beaut. there in the orange polka dots? her daddy shopped and shopped online one night and ordered her that little ensemble from Hartstrings...he even sprung for the matching cover-up! My man sure knows how to shop! As soon as it came in the mail yesterday he dolled her up and they dashed to the pool. The dynamic duo left me at home to enjoy an hour or so to myself. He came home frazzled, wrapped up in a hot pink towel and toting our soggy and squirmy toddler who was repeating the word pool over and over again.

When Daddy comes home for lunch

Isabella is finally down for her nap this afternoon...this WOULD be the ideal time for me to get a lot done around the house...but instead I think I will just sit here a moment and give you a glimpse of what our afternoon looked like. Usually, Tyler rides his bike to work, but today he took the car, so Isabella and I were honored with the rare treat of having him home for lunch!

Isabella always gets very excited when her daddy comes home and is usually more well behaved for him than she is me, so goes the woes of motherhood. What is typically a food-throwing, sippie cup-chucking, leg kicking battle for me at lunch, is a nice, pleasant, all-smiles event for Tyler. Hmph!





The little stinker! all smiles in her high-chair!

After lunch it was play time. She loves putting her wooden zoo animals into her pink grocery cart. Thanks Auntie Kelsey!





She talks to one of her little wooden people...



Then she peeks over the baby gate to watch while Tyler and I clean up...




And then Daddy whisks her away to take her afternoon nap! Notice not even a backwards glance in my direction?



Well, I suppose I can't put my house work off any longer. Hope everyone is having a nice, calm, uneventful day. :)

Insomnia is expensive

What do I do at night when my husband is away and I simply cannot sleep? I shop for my princess of course! I found myself on the website for Willow Tree Toys tonight...I absolutely LOVE these toys. Not only do I not have to worry about them being made in china, because they are one hundred percent organic, but just look at how much imagination they encourage! as opposed to all those other toys out now that pretty much do everything but make your kid a latte. Growing up, my favorite past times were reading and playing outside. I remember my mom would give me old dishes she didn't use anymore and I would spend countless hours outside playing house with my dolls and making mud stew and mud pie and mud cookies...you name it, I made it!...out of mud. I can only hope I will pass down my love of mud to my little Belle.

So yes! I couldn't help myself, I love fake food sets! I ordered this wooden food groups set for Isabella and am extremely pleased with my purchase even though I know I got shamelessly taken advantage of when it came to shipping. $17 just because I live on an Island! geezy petes guys! we island children need toys too...



I was absolutely smitten with this little tin full of wooden chocolates...but I had visions of performing Heimlich Maneuvers and quickly clicked to the next page. It's still very charming and when she's old enough to know better I will absolutely be buying this!



I want this kitchen. She MUST have this kitchen. I am seriously contemplating a part-time job so that I can buy her this kitchen and the fridge that goes with it, and the wooden dishes...and the wooden accessories....and ALL the wooden food! ...oh my.



If you have children and you think you have will-power of steel go to this website...I bet you can't leave it without at LEAST buying the wooden lollipops? or perhaps you're more of a cloth pizza type of gal?
http://www.willowtreetoys.com/

Happy 4th Everybody!

We went to a big celebration on base, Isabella certainly had a wonderful time! she got to pet piggies, bunnies and goats at the petting zoo, then we rode the Merry Go Round, just look at her holding on so tight! she and Tyler rode a huge slide that looked like a shark's mouth, we ate LOTS of cotton candy and then finally, Isabella tried to steal everyone's Cokes while we watched a beautiful fireworks display. Isabella wasn't even scared! She kept looking up at the sky and saying "wow!" She started to get pretty tired towards the end, so she kicked back and relaxed on top of daddy :)










I hope everyone had a wonderful fourth of July!