Watch-It Wednesday: Backyardigans.

Caleigh has cursed me. Whenever I have a down moment, this is the song going through my head:

It's the introduction to her very-favorite show...and unfortunately for me, the song is incredibly catchy when you've heard it multiple times. Which I have. I've heard this little ditty five, ten, maybe twenty times - so it's pretty much stuck in my brain. Naturally, this means I have to share the love around so you all can be "backyard friends", too!

Happy Wednesday! If it's nice outside where you are (read: you don't have an inch of snow and 30mph winds), go play in your back yard! :)

A Typical Day of Caleigh

After cleaning off my bed of not just my music, books, and scarves but also Caleigh's giant monkey, puppet monkey, etc, I thought it fitting to do a post on what a day with my li'l cousin is like. However, I soon realized that this was nigh-impossible, as the day is made up of so many precious, different moments, it would take forever to tell them all. Thus, I am jotting down just a few. :) Goodness gracious, this girl makes me laugh! Caleigh-Bug and I have been pretty much inseparable since I got here, and I am so enjoying every minute with her! This morning she got up and requested that I fix her hair in the same chair I fix Hannah's in with "a LOT of hair-dos," which in Caleigh-speak means "hair clips." So we did! Here's the end result:

After lunch, we were off to the Bug's gymnastics class. Since we arrived a bit early, she got out of her car seat and came back to sit by me (buckled in like a big girl, of course) as we waited. Before leaving home, I had wanted to get as many pictures as possible of and with these girls, but this was rendered rather impossible when, a week before I came, my camera died. *moment of silence* Fortunately, Papa brought his, and since he and Grandma hardly use it any more now that they have their o-so-cool iPhones (can you believe that? My grandparents have iPhones), I am able to keep it by me always. All that to say, naturally, the first thing we did was snap a couple pictures. Caleigh always votes to do a goofy one. No surprises there.


blurry, but real :p



Then it was time for more serious things, like having Caleigh show and explain to me everything in her purse...

Yeah, we have snow on the ground and a howling, biting wind, and the Caleigh-Bug is hot. Go figure. :)

After shopping and getting home, Caleigh was left in front of a tv show (more on that later) while I went to practice my violin. That didn't last long. Soon, she was in my room, on my bed, playing with my little teaching helpers (Cocoa & friends), bouncy balls, and other random things to be found in my case; there she stayed for nearly an hour, happy as anything. (No pictures of that, since I was...you know...actually doing something).

Dinner came and went, and Caleigh was again on my bed, being amused by pictures on my blog. Once she saw the Three Little Pigs video, though, she was hooked. Patiently, she waited while I finished up a couple things, ("patiently" meaning, "wiggling around, playing with things on my bed, and begging to take a few more pictures") and finally, after getting ready for bed, we snuggled up on the couch and sat giggling up a storm over 3 or 4 Disney "Three Little Pigs" clips until bedtime. As I turned on her CD and called one last goodnight, she called out to me "I love you, cousin Sarah!"

I'm lovin' this time spent with my Caleigh-Bug. :)

Make-It Monday: Pancakes!

My "for-reals" project I'm working on isn't finished yet (and I just don't feel like taking a picture of it in progress), so I'm posting something faaar cuter. Isn't my wee cousin Caleigh mixing up pancakes yesterday morning an adorable "Make it Monday" pic? She is such a helper in the kitchen!

Hope you all had a lovely day!

"T" for Texas...Or Maybe Just For Lack of a Better Title

Greetings from the freezing planes of Texas! :) Yes, I really am in Texas right now. No, it really isn't the sunny, hot climate of which you are thinking. The weather is cold-cold-cold, and VERY windy, as you can see in the picture about. You know that black thing running across and "ruining" the picture? That's the camera handle-wrist-thingy, getting blown in front of the lens!

I'm here staying with the people in the pic...Grandma, Grandpa, and cousins Hannah and Caleigh! While Aunt Robin and Uncle Steve are off on an awesome vacation, I got to come play with these dear girls (the cousins that is...). It has been a full two years since I've seen them, and we are having so much fun together! Hannah-Bell is an always-smiling, make-everyone-around-her-happy, 8-year-old living with Rhett syndrome. Caleigh-Bug (or "Caleigh-Mon'ter", depending on her mood) is a 3-year-old bundle of energy, following me around, donning all my jewelry, clomping in my shoes, and helping me with any and EVERY task I turn to.

Hannah and me - her hair stayed put better in the wind than mine did!

Caleigh-Bug, showing her pretty nails and impersonating Mr. T
with all my necklaces!

Arriving Wednesday afternoon, I had a day and a half to spend with the whole family (which was good, bad, and wonderful: I worked out twice with my aunt at the gym, and was completely schooled by her = embarrassing! = bad (hehehe), got a manicure with same aunt = incredibly relaxing = good, and got to go watch a Beth Moore Bible study on Revelation = very cool (especially having just completed her Daniel study) = wonderful :), before the early-morning departure of my aunt and uncle on Friday. Since then, it's been breakfast, play with Hannah, play with Caleigh, lunch, play with Caleigh, play with Hannah, dinner, play with Hannah, play with Caleigh. Aye, it's a tough life I'm leading right now, don't you think? You will even more so when I tell you that, after dropping the girls off at school yesterday, Grandma had an errand to run. Papa obligingly took us to Dillards (the southern version of Nordstroms, but with better sales) to get socks. So, of course, Grandma and I tried on shoes. Isn't that what you do when you need to buy socks?

We found all sorts of wonderful on-sale shoes, including a grand selection of what Papa termed "happy shoes", such as those pictured above. They certainly made us laugh and smile - pink and sparkles, how can you go wrong?

 --Excuse me? No! I don't need to buy new socks. What do you mean mine don't match? I assure you, they do, one of my dear friends has a pair just like it! Don't worry, mama - I was wearing my boots. Nobody saw my killer sense of style except for those in the shoe aisle!

In the end, we left the store with a few pairs of socks for Grandma, and a new pair of shoes for the two of us! Though not necessarily an amazingly descriptive shot of our purchases, here they are being tried on!

And here's the Caleigh-Bug who slipped into my new shoes the moment she returned home and saw them!

I afraid this post has absolutely no potential to be anything besides random. And maybe a little loopy...but it's late, so I can't even tell for sure. What do you expect of someone who spends her day crafting "cookiemanders" (beaded salamanders, thus retitled because of a 3-year-old's confusion between crafts and cookies - I mean, they're similar, right??), watching "Strawberry Shortcake", and re-organizing an entire closet in search of a purple baby-doll slipper? Maybe this whole post should have been in list format, since you would be scandalized to know how long it has taken me to sit here and formulate complete sentences.

Ok, ignore everything above. I think I'll start over.

Things That Make Me Smile:
- Flying
- Hannah
- Caleigh
- Grandparents
- Hearing Caleigh ask Grandma where her "new cousin Sarah is" in the morning
- Hannah's laugh
- Hannah's smile
- Making cookies with Caleigh...and having her dump half the flour on the floor
- Making enchiladas with Caleigh...and having her drop all the "innards" of an enchilada on the floor
- Sweeping with Caleigh...and having her empty the dustpan contents back onto the floor by putting it away BEFORE dumping it in the trash
- Having Hannah pause during her walk to look me straight in the eyes...and just feeling all the love that little girl has
- Seeing "coincidental" themes in almost everything...blog posts, emails, Scripture, and sermons - do you ever just laugh and think "God's trying to tell me something"?
- orange juice
- bed

Oh, bed. There's an idea. Maybe sleep will clear the mind? Not that you can count on anything, but it's worth a shot... I promise am pretty sure hope more flowing, coherent posts will follow soon - and if worst come to worst, I could always just have Caleigh write something. What am I saying? I really do need sleep...

Sweater Makeover! :)

Hello, everyone! Today I'm linking up with Kirsteen's Make-it Monday!



A few weeks ago, I received this lovely-colored sweater from a friend:

Now, I realize that there are a variety of arm sizes in the world, but the size of the cuff made it nigh-impossible for any of the girls in our family to fit the sleeve onto the upper arm. A true dilemma, since the sleeves were a bit shorter that 3/4 length!

So I cut off the binding, re-hemmed the sleeves...


(Yes, most people would have tried to choose a thread that matched...but I like pink!)

 Added lace to the sleeves and bottom edge, and made some lacy flowers!

Ta-dah! (Unfortunately, this is the only pic I have for you, as my camera battery just died. :)

That, my friends, is what I worked on this week. Thus ends my first experimentation with cutting up + sewing store-bought clothes! :D

Happy Monday!