A letter to my girl

Dear Malayna,

Good morning! It's wonderful that you love the new alphabet print daddy and I hung in your room the other day. You really like reciting the alphabet over and over while pointing to the letters. You sound so excited! You've known your alphabet for a long time now, so I hardly take notice when you sing the alphabet song these days.

But, hey! Way to get my attention this morning! At 5:30 am. Reading the alphabet. In your loudest voice. Over and over. And over.

Are you too young to learn how to tell time? Since I make clocks it seems to make sense that you should be able to read them. Lesson one: Do not speak above a whisper before the big hand is on the twelve and the little hand is on the seven. That's 7:00. No, that's not unreasonable. Do you know that before you came along daddy and I would sleep until 10:00 sometimes?

It's now 8:30, which means we've been up for 3 hours already. Would taking an actual NAP today {including closing your eyes and not talking} be too much to ask?

Love,
Mommy

PS: Daddy and I were married 13 years ago today. Our ceremony started at 6:30 PM because WE'RE NOT MORNING PEOPLE.

Happy Mother's Day

{three generations}

I hope you had a wonderful Mother's Day! More photos here.

Inside and outside 264

{painting}

{Looking at a tiny caterpillar.}

{Don't you love the outfits four-year-olds choose?}

The weather was beautiful this week. We spent a lot of time in the yard and had our first {then second} barbecue of the season. Today is rainy and windy, but the weather is supposed to clear up for Mother's Day {at least the afternoon}. What are your Mother's Day plans?

Scoutie Girl giveaway

Head on over to Scoutie Girl and enter to win a collection of fabulous goodies worth $547! Jan explains the details here: Indie Goodness.

Good luck!

Home and Garden Festival

Yesterday's Home and Garden Festival was great and the weather was beautiful. I made lots of new wall squares, magnets and cards, all of which were well-received. One woman, who purchased three wall squares, told me my work was "happy." What a great compliment!

It was a long day - I left my house around 6:15 am and didn't get home until 7:00 pm. I didn't get to bed until after midnight the night before, so I was running on very little sleep. Luckily, I was busy enough at the show that I didn't even think about how tired I was.

I applied to this show at the last minute, but I'm happy I did. I will definitely do it again next year.

Thanks to everyone who came by to say hello! {And thank you, Rose, for helping me again. I hope you're not too exhausted today!}

Busy

{new magnet}

Hi all! I'm still here, just busy getting ready for my show on Sunday. This show is huge, so I'm getting a little nervous. Jimmy, Malayna and I went to this event last year, and it was super busy. My {very kind} friend Rose will be helping me with my booth - from setting up to selling to breaking down at the end of the day. It's a looooong day {set up starts at 6:30 am} and we'll be on our feet most of the time. We'll be busy selling out, right?!

If you live in the area, please stop by and say hello. It's a good event for kids - they have a pooch parade, moon bounces, sand art, and lots of other activities. Of course, there are lots of booths with stuff for your home and garden. Plants, too!

My booth will be on the 8300 block of Germantown Avenue, in front of Jenks School. Hope to see you there!

{PS: The raindate is May 18th. You can call the Business Association on Sunday morning to find out if the event is rescheduled. Their number is 215-247-6696.}

Cool clothing?

I have recently lost 10+ pounds {since November}. That's a good thing, right? It is, except for the fact that none of my clothing fits. Just about everything I have is too big, so it's hard to tell that I've lost anything! I end up wearing the same things again and again. Jimmy lost 40+ pounds, so his situation is even more extreme than mine. He has to cinch all his pants so they don't fall off. They look pretty silly. He's been able to buy a few pairs of pant here and there and even had his work pants taken in.

I lost the weight by been eating a little better and exercising. I hate exercising, so I'm pretty proud of myself for sticking it out for almost 6 months. This is going to sound really corny, but Jimmy and I work out together. We have a stationary bike, weights, weight bench, and heavy bags in the cellar. If it weren't for him pushing me to work out 5 days a week, I wouldn't have stuck with it. {Thanks, Jimmy!} There were many days that I would've rather been on the couch with a good book. Or watching bad TV.

Anyway, I need some cool clothing suggestions. I sometimes get cute tops from Forever 21, but their pants a slightly ridiculous. I'm a little too old to be shopping there! I need basics - like shorts, capris and tops that I can wear to work and to play.

Any suggestions?