Attack of the Killer Ladybugs!

we recently discovered an aphid infestation on our corn...grrrr...bryan read some farm blog that said they just cut the tops of the corn off and wash the bugs off and they are usually fine...but i noticed their growth seemed stunted and wondered if these little aphid boogers had anything to do with it...

then i saw them trying to attack some of our other plants and i got mad...

this is war aphids! you started it! i am calling in the big guys in red...watch out...

i ordered them on amazon...$13 for 1500 of them...oh what you can buy online!

they came from OH - ready to do business.

they are serious attack ladybugs of the killer variety. and they are NOT vegetarians!

this is the package they came in...bryson was absolutely beside himself with excitement that we got bugs in the mail...

i am hoping these little ladies stick around for a bit...they add some very pretty color to our garden...and they also kick some serious aphid butt!

brothers

these two are cracking me up lately. we had some friends over for dinner and the boys were in the back just chasing each other and wrestling and provided us free entertainment for the evening. bodie just adores his big brother and bryson loves to crack him up. yesterday forward rolls were doing the trick. i never really got along with my siblings, so i was not expecting this. and although i know baby #3 and age will change things, right now i am so content watching these two interact and love each other (most of the time :) )

here we are walking bryson to preschool yesterday. bodie wanted to be on his scooter too...he pretty much scooted the entire way...the entire way being about 2 blocks over and 1 block down.

bryson enjoyed preschool very much by the way...he said his favorite part was seeing the tadpoles and his least favorite part was having to kick the soccer ball softly (he wanted to kick it hard)

when i picked him up the teacher said, "he did good" but the good had an inflection that expressed to me, "i see i am gunna have to work with this one". bryson exclaimed to me on the way out, "I had NO time outs mom! NONE!!" wuuuu! success! i am relieved...i know they will figure him out and provide him the very set boundaries that he needs :)

Spicing up the kitchen...

i am cracking up right now with that title of this post...right after i wrote it, i recalled a certain bridal shower i had - a kitchen shower - and everyone was supposed to bring a kitchen utensil/item in a brown paper bag and we played a game where we had to guess what was inside the bag. well...one bag had us all stumped...turns out my auntie steffi put a scandalous teddy in a paper bag and giggled and said, "What? you can use that in the kitchen! heheeheheheheee" its even funnier if you know auntie steffi...

anyway...completely unrelated to this post...but i wanted to share, because lately i have been having a very uninspired time in the kitchen. i think its due to my longer working days (turns out summers are busy for pool companies) and less sleeping nights, and an overall lack of luster...but i have been looking for ways to make dinner more exciting, less dreadful, and less predictable. i am so tired of pastas and certain soups and tacos...anyone else with me? i need a challenge in the kitchen...so i was glad to come across some of these great food blogs:


Orangette - she is awesome - this is amazing and always wins at any breakfast potluck!

Cooking With My Kid - bryson loves to help in the kitchen...this is a perfect blog for his age right now - lots of kid friendly recipes

Smitten Kitchen - you probably have been here a million times or at least heard about it...love everything i have made from here...


Vegan Lunch Box - i am not vegan....but i love this mom's resourceful way of making nutritious food exciting for her kid.

Pioneer Woman - i made her yummy cinnamon rolls and a couple other things - everything has been awesome!

please, please share your favorites too! i need as much inspiration as i can get!

First Day of School...

well...pre-school...counts though, right? here is the big boy...sooooo excited...and can you believe that SCISSORS were waiting for him??? what??? this is his dream school! mama is feeling her heart strings pulled a bit, but not this boy...i told bryan on the way home that bryson is ready for college...he would be the kid to ask/plead/beg to go to boarding school...which i suppose is an easier situation than if he were NOT ready and did NOT want to go...but still...can't someone tell him he needs to at least pretend like he'll miss me?

Long Beach Patchwork Re-Cap

whew! i am tired! and jazzed...but tired...patchwork happened yesterday...thank you to everyone who came out and said hi! it means a lot to have your support...we didn't get a lot of pictures...i had asked Bryan, but he was busy chasing down 2 boys who happened to be running all over the place...not sure why because when i have them they always stay in a line right behind me with their hands clasped behind their backs...right? moving on...

so the coolest thing about doing shows for me is interacting with the people. there is so little of that "on-line" apart from a couple of emails possibly. but to see the kids and parents respond to the things we make is really neat and encouraging. it makes me want to do more shows because of it...but maybe after a nice resting period.

Linz made some darling bibs...i snagged a couple...3 actually...they are perfect because the tops of all of Bodie's shirts are destroyed...rendering a lot of them non-passer-down-a-ble...i have tried everything to get some of the stains out...it is the drool combined with food products and whatever else he finds to put in his mouth - all collecting on the tops of shirts...so this way he is much more fashionably dirty...

rashelle with her mama...giving bryan the stink eye for taking her picture...sorry rashelle - it was one of the only ones!









and linz wasnt quite ready for her close-up either...

this is me and my marketing/PR rep Liz of Lascaze PR...she is amazing and if you stopped by while she was around she probably put a zoodie on your child and convinced you they needed one...love her!

that was also a highlight for me was to see people's reactions to them...by far the parents seemed a lot more excited than the children, and i had a lot of people ask if i make adult sizes...but to see people interact with them was really neat and encouraging...because truthfully sometimes i think they are a little silly...but other times i think they are fabulous...so to get any type of encouragement is motivating!

i did do some shopping too! later i will post some links and pics of some of my favorite vendors...and there were a lot of good ones!

long beach patchwork tomorrow!

friendkidly will be at the long beach patchwork show tomorrow from 11-5 - stop by and say hi! this pic is from the last time we were there - november of 2008 in santa ana! i was really pregnant then too...

should be a nice gorgeous sunny day and over 100 vendors! see you there!

full plate

yesterday bordered on the ridiculous. every facet of my life that i have an obligation to or responsibility toward needed me yesterday. it made me realize how full my plate is at the moment. it made me realize my breaking point. but the good news is that there was no meltdown or breakdown this time (which is a HUGE thing considering i am a complete hormonal mess right now).

my best friend and i share this awful habit of finding ourselves bored and then committing to everyone and everything little by little until we realize that not only are we not bored, we are frazzled. we both (in college) knew this about ourselves since high school...and both would watch each other repeat this cycle again and again and again. now, even though we live states apart, we still call each other up whilst in frazzled mode and loudly complain, "i did it again!" WHY DO I KEEP DOING THIS? and then we laugh at each other...we metaphorically dump the plates and slowly end commitments...then get bored....yada yada yada.

i like the analogy of a full plate. i picture my friend and i going through this "help yourself" buffet of life and exclaiming at every delightfully seeming item "oooh! this looks good!" or "i could totally eat that and not get fat!" or "i bet since its cooked like this i WONT get heartburn this time". i like to consider myself more mature...much much wiser...and certainly a pickier eater...i should know better than to eat certain foods...but goodness...i love that mac n cheese.

we take our plates back to our table and begin to eat, but after a while, after those first bites of bliss and happiness, you soon find yourself stuffed and somewhat nauseous...there is not a stomach big enough to eat it all, so you take bird bites and try try try to finish it. sometimes you even make yourself ill in the process, but dern it if you are going to waste food!

i am getting a little lost in my analogy, but you get the point. i think my good news is that this time i was very aware that a third baby was coming and made sure my commitments would be somewhat complete by the end of my pregnancy...but i think i overestimated my energy levels all the same.

the truth of it is that i am sincerely energized by challenges and my life-long challenge will be balancing them. it is my nature to try to conquer new things and constantly set new goals...and i genuinely like that about myself, however, sometimes i need to give myself a vacation from...myself...and my expectations of myself. and allow myself to be a slacker...

Another Dino Color - Dino Zoodie in Black and Green

this one was for a recent sale that didn't fit...those tricky American Apparel sizes. i need to just code them all a size down...which would take a lot of work right now...they originally ordered a green and purple dino, which doesnt come in sizes bigger than 6...so she requested this black and green one.

i really like how it turned out. it was for her son's dino themed birthday party and she asked that the plates go all the way down the back...

not the best picture...not the most willing model...not the best fit, but i am thinking of making one in a smaller size to take some pics with.



what do we think about the plates going all the way down the back? too much? i was playing around with a dragon type of one that would have something down the back, but i haven't decided if it makes it too "costumey"? thoughts?

TMAFI: The Champ

my brother, Jake, won the TMAFI tournament this year. i think he deserved his own post. it may even become a bit sappy, who knows...but i am genuinely happy that he won (although i am getting kinda antsy to win again!) he pretends like he doesn't care...you would probably think he thought it any other day of fishing. he certainly doesn't participate in a lot of the trash talking that goes on around the campfire pertaining to who is going to school who in fishing.

the truth is that my brother is a good fisherman. i mean it...good. he has the simplest rig on his line too. just a sinker or small weight, maybe a bobber if he is going to fish from the top, usually a small size 10 hook and he'll throw a bit of powerbait, or salmon eggs or a chunk of a worm. and he usually always catches a fish. he has good instinct with the fish and i have learned to follow his lead a lot of the time. he has been fishing those Bishop Lakes since he was in High School, so i think it only fitting that a title go with his vast expertise :)

i have fished with him at many a different shore - lake or ocean. one of my favorite times fishing with him was in San Diego when our family stayed in a beach house and we took our rods out the front door and down some stairs. bryson was about 18 months and ran naked along a private beach while his kids played in the sand. we both caught some tiger sharks and for a good hour or two the kids made lakes and canals for the sharks to swim in before we let them go back in the ocean. he almost always lets them go too....

we never got along as kids. and by never i mean...never. constant constant fighting...but now...although he is still very much a big brother...very much so...he has become someone i enjoy being with...he is an amazing father and his passion for things continue to inspire me, because he is silent, but when you get him going about something he loves...you can't help but fall in love a bit too...except with the T-Rex...i will never care for the T-Rex...sorry (i couldnt even find a link or image to show you what that is...its a souped up off-road golf cart)

so congrats big brother! you can join us other lucky few in claiming the oh-so-coveted TMAFI Champ title!
(pic shows past TMAFI winners and the newest one!)

TMAFI: The best basketball game ever

so what do you do when you are in the sierras and game 7 of the NBA playoffs is happening and you happen to have a strong mix of very devoted Laker fans and very devoted Celtic fans in your camping party? well you find a mountain lodge that is willing to put a TV on their deck so your camping party can be together to watch history happen...thats what.

probably one of the most memorable basketball games ever. not just because the game itself was intense - low scoring, coming down to defense and free throws...not just because the finals came to a game 7 with the two most successful basketball franchises with seemingly the longest playoff history...but because we were in an amazing place with amazing people and the energy was so tense and wonderful you couldnt help but scream when your team just got possession!

i was nervous for our Celtics fans...i wouldnt have wanted to root against the lakers up there...and they were sure cocky those first 3 quarters...but then...4th quarter...they became very solemn...very inward...very cautious....but not us laker fans! we know our boys are 4th quarter boys! those last 3 minutes saw a lot of people pacing back and forth and at the end everyone was hugging and cheers-ing...good times!



here is me looking very relaxed...but dont let me fool you...i wanted to leave - it got too intense!  but i am glad i stuck it out...history happened people!

TMAFI: The Food

this is way beyond hot dogs people. every year it seems people get more and more creative with camping food. some of my favorites (since i had to keep moving and tasting everyone's creations) were Julia and Eric's cornbread, my sister's dutch oven chocolate chip cake, the ribs and tri tip my honey served up, the sandwiches jeff and solera were making...which i didnt taste, but looked amazing!

i took laziness to a whole new level this trip. i think because i didn't have the kids and it was just bryan and i - i turned my brain off while packing. i packed like no meals. i planned nothing beyond the one meal. and it was great. it was great also because i have no problem mooching food off of everyone else and when you are surrounded by people who love eating and preparing delicious food, then said mooch is in a good place.

i think its true too while camping - preparing and eating everything outdoors, it just tastes better - fresher - or maybe you put so much more effort into it that the outcome is always more satisfying...or maybe you are so beat after a long day of hiking and fishing that your appetite is more full...whatever the case, we had a good weekend of good eating!

First Sentence

i was so concerned about leaving Bodie...i hadn't left him overnight before...i think i said that already...but thats hard for a mama! i found out on the way home that in the morning on the last morning instead of calling for "mama" he was calling for "papa" which made me both very extremely relieved and extremely sad at the same time.

but today our little Bodie said his first sentence! our cat, BBQ was laying down on the chaise outside and Bodie was resting his head on him. Bryson came over and did the same and Bodie pushed him off and said, "No nigh-nigh on da kitty!" he is growing so big...i can't believe he is already 18 months! BTW check out his little bodybuilder baby body...this kid is no joke strong!

TMAFI: The Fishing

our trip was amazing...as usual...i almost cried on friday (sitting on the shore of a gorgeous lake with absolutely nothing to do but check my line) just so happy to be there and not have responsibility for anyone or anything. i had forgotten what that is like. its really the only time that bryan and i are truly on vacation since cell phones don't work up there.
(i will be posting on different parts of the trip during the week, since it was epic and all. this post is strictly on the fishing.)

this picture is of Bryan at Convict Lake - which is just 2 miles off the 395 between Mammoth and Bishop. this lake is a tarn and one of the most beautiful in my opinion. the water is this amazing blue and all the trout caught there that day had the same blue tint on the top. it was windy...wind seemed to be a bit of a problem for us this trip, but we did all right.

it wasn't my personal best fishing weekend. i got skunked on friday and only caught 1 on tournament day, but i can't complain. i was in one of the most beautiful places with some of my favorite people, so don't feel sorry for me.

see the pic of me with those two handsome fellas?...those are my cousins, blake and rusty...they backpacked for a couple days before meeting up with us on saturday. they hiked in and slept in their bags under the stars and cooked up ants and caught a deer in an animal trap they made (by accident...they let it go BTW) and made a spear and a spoon. they crack me up and i was so glad they made it to us safely...

tournament day - the tournament is held at Lake Sabrina - we fish from 7am-4pm - i think some people did great and some people did horribly...i did not do as well as other years...just one caught while trolling...and no one caught any tagged fish, but we had probably the best weather we ever had on the lake - it was mid 60s and little to no wind and blue sky and just an amazingly beautiful lake.

i am already feeling like i need to go back...i left too many fish in those lakes!

gone fishin'

c-ya folks! i am leaving early early tomorrow morning for one of my favorite places in this world. i will be leaving my babes (in very loving capable hands) and i do believe this is the first time i will be spending a night (try 3!) away from Bodie O...i am having a hard hard time with this...i dont know if it would be better to leave before he wakes or let him see me go? i think it may be too hard to have him see me go...i dont want that image in my mama brain all weekend...this is a babymoon for Bryan and i and much much much mucho needed...and i think sitting in front of a beautiful lake talking to fishies is exactly what i need right now!

Captain Napkinface

this was the result of an eye poke that younger brother gave to older brother sunday at approximately 5:00pm. we weren't sure if there was something stuck in the eye...if the eye was scratched...if it just hurt...but several wakings and bryson not being able to open his eye led us to an ophthalmologist yesterday afternoon. he found a scratched eye...put some sort of goo in there and this not so nifty eye patch. bryan took him to the doctor (because he had a golf lesson afterward that he refused to miss...he can still hit a ball with his good eye after all) and on the phone bryson told me, "i look like a pirate kinda, but not really". ooohhh...see what ya mean...so i fashioned him a felt eye patch...much better.

i realize this will not be the last incident of "brotherly love" in fact...we have suspected that Bodie, being the big puppy in a small room, will be at the giving end of many a trip to the doctor...but Bryson is having a hard time understanding that Bodie did not intend to do this. he kept asking me to poke Bodie in the eye back. i am kinda hard pressed to try to explain intent and when exactly one harbors ill intent...any suggestions? i tried to have my sister explain to Bryson that when she and my brother were little he broke her arm on accident and she wasn't mad at him...she forgave him because it was an accident...ummm....hardly less than successful of a discussion...i need kid terms and this is a big concept...

PS: we deemed him Captain Napkinface...but he prefers Captain No-Beard

My Swedish Phase

in preparation for Patchwork Long Beach...BTW...June 27th at the Marine Stadium...you going? you should! anyway...in preparation, i have been using up old fabrics and turning it into dresses and realized i have a major Swedish thing going on...i can not stay away from the blue and yellow...or that gingham...

in my defense, at $2/yard...its hard not to fall in love with gingham!

i almost gave up on this pattern because the last couple i made did not turn out right, but after recently seeing a couple of babes wearing the dress like this that i made for them still after a year and a half and one still wears it after 2 years i believe...well, it made me a believer. that plus they are super easy to make!

i am going to wait to post these to the shop until after the show...maybe even after august...because if this little babe #3 does happen to be a girl...she will be mostly swedish after all :)

Sushi Studio

sushi studio...or why i am a sushi snob and will not eat sushi anywhere else. its not like i know a lot about sushi either...not to brag or anything, but i have eaten REALLY expensive sushi at REALLY nice places, but i dont think anywhere else holds a candle to sushi studio. just preference really...preference for the freshest, bestest, most awesome sushi...but you know...a taste thing...so you may disagree if you like...you'd be wrong, but thats okay (as Professor Gundry would say...)

Saturday night bryan craved sushi so off we went...we would go a lot...when i am not "with child"...unborn fetus' are not supposed to eat sushi apparently. you may be thinking that Sushi isnt the best place to go for a pregnant woman and two squirrly children...but sushi studio is great in that they have a lot of delicious cooked fish rolls too. my favorite is the Spicy Girl - shrimp tempura, cream cheese, jalapeno wrapped in rice and topped with mango fried fish cracker stuff, roe and a sweet sauce...yummmmmm....and its great for impatient kids because when you sit at the sushi bar food comes FAST.

and when you have a super cool sushi chef, like one of our favorites Jonathan, they will make your child a mini shrimp roll...and because he thinks he is so cool to have his own roll he will eat the entire thing...on top of the edamame, miso soup. gyoza and shrimp tempura he ate! (which is amazing since this boy is a) the pickiest eater and b) not a big eater at all)

in case you want to go too - Sushi Studio - if you live in the LB area...and love sushi...you should!

29 weeks

i realized i have about zero pictures of my belly...so sad...this poor third baby is already getting left out of pictures! here is the belly at 29 weeks...taken by bryson wallace photography...he is still undetermined about my new hair...he told me this morning that i "kinda look like a boy...but not really" is that kinda a compliment?

Dino Zoodie in Brown and Orange

you see...when i was asking for help on color combos...i should have been more specific...AA only sells the basic colors in all their sizes...brown, black, navy, white and pink...oooohhhh...a pink dino...but i digress...i needed some other colors and i had done this one before for a friend and thought it turned out so cute, but now i have an excuse to make it and post it....so there you go - a way too lengthy explanation. and help is still wanted - keep letting me know what other colors (in the basic color sweatshirts and whatever color felt) you think would be cute!

available now in the shop - www.zoodies.com

The Target Shirt Re-Do

one day getting ready for church i noticed Bodie had a severe lack of collared shirts so next time i was at Target i picked up this green button down for him. 

it wasnt until i already put it on him that i realized it had this severely lame "aloha" on the back...i had already taken the tags off and Bodie had already claimed it his own with the power of drool, so i began looking for a cover-up....

enter Bryson's old star wars sheet i found whilst thrifting. now this shirt is supremely rad and one of my favorites. it took 5 minutes - no heat n' bond even...just sewed it right on there...

too bad Bodie does not even know how cool he is...good thing he has an older brother to school him on this...let the brainwashing fun begin!

Iron Chef 30th Bday

the reason we went up to santa barbara last weekend was for our dear friend Eric's 30th bday party. His Swedish Chef/Iron Chef Style 30th bday party actually. His amazingly event-planning/decorating talented wife Julia put together an amazing birthday that i am sure we all will remember for a long time to come.





the party was a competition as well. there were 4 courses (apps, salad, main and dessert) and 2 teams of 2 chefs each prepared a course. in case you are bad with math that is 16 cooks...8 different mini-tasters...all were amazing.

i think what is really kind of funny about my group of college friends is that we all sort of picked up on hobbies together...toward the end of college we decided that we would start fishing. some of us had literally never fished before, but that was the hobby of the moment, so most went with it.






after college it became cooking for a lot of them...not i...i found my own million other hobbies...i am only a practical chef...but thankfully i have a husband who loves to cook and good friends who love it also! in every team though, there was at least one pretty avid amateur chef...

anyway...back to the party...the courses each had a secret ingredient and a wine pairing and we were to practice before the big event. the secret ingredients were:
appetizer - andouille sausage
salad - melon
main course- oyster mushrooms
dessert - honey


the sad part is that not a lot of pictures were taken of the people...the food kinda took center stage.

julia made aprons for all the chefs and decorated the party Swede style...really the best way...blue and yellow are supremely beautiful together :)

thank you so much Julia for an amazing party - sorry we had to peace out before the votes were tallied...Bodie woke up toward the end (1:30am) and did not fall back asleep until 3:30, then thought it would be a great idea to wake up for good at 6:30...needless to say it was a rough night...but oh so worth it!