the other day i took ellie by a park next to walmart on our way home. i felt she deserved it for being such a sport. we hit it again on our way home yesterday, but this time daddy was with us. it's a lot like the discovery park in pleasant grove - unique, creative, made of wood. they have little baby swings and ellie liked sitting by the butterfly garden and watching the bugs. she was adorable, as usual. 

we decided that next time we need to take judge to the dog park on the other side called "wiggly field." ahar, har, har.

 (sorry, i haven't figured out if i can turn the video. and, of course, she stopped doing what she was doing when i started filming, but i think i got a few seconds of daddy's tummy drum.)

dress design {for shabby apple dresses}.

preface: this post does not involve any adorable baby pictures and does involve me trying to win something kinda cool. just so that's out of the way. 

when i was little, my sisters and i had this stencil for designing clothes. you traced three mannequin silhouettes on your paper and then designed clothes for them. i think i spent an entire summer (at least) sketching and dreaming and designing. at one point i wanted to have my own clothing line more than anything else. so when i heard about this design contest, i couldn't help myself. at first i wasn't going to post them online because i feel so late in the game, but really, why not?

shabby apple is a site i drool over often, especially their maternity line (no, not expecting). if you haven't seen the dresses you should take a look but i'm warning you, you may like what you see too much. this is my favorite maternity dress.  

so here goes

my dress design(s) for shabby apple dresses:

(click the words shabby apple dresses for a link to the page, if you haven't already.)

they're for the spring season, so i felt like there was a sort of easter parade/cotillion thing going on with my brain. add that to all the seasons of mad men we have watched in the last month, you get ... these. 

the first is a pale pink chiffon-like on top with a couple of fabric flowers on the shoulder, made from that same material. the bottom would be a cotton with thin stripes of pinks, reds, and very light yellows.

i think the collar on this one is my favorite. i'm thinking a heavy cotton, so it lays right. big buttons down one side. i'm liking robin's egg blue for the color, but i think it would work well as a dress with a couple of color options - so i think a pale pink and an ivory would look good, too.

strangely enough, i got the inspiration* for the colors on this last one from something else i made. it would be a sort of shirt-dress look with a high collar and buttons all the way down. the fabric would be like a pinstripe shirt, light blue (can you even see that i tried to color that?). a big red flower on the shoulder would make it perfect, especially with some red lipstick/accessories. 

 so there you have it, my bit of fun for the day. if you gave it a look, thanks. :)

*the inspiration: a magazine collage cover for my recipe binder.

baby beagle.

i almost forgot about these pictures because the battery died as i was trying to load them on the computer and then things just got crazy - but enough of my excuses. 

we found a great costume at sam's club the other day (so we spend a lot of time there. so what?!). unfortunately they only had the size that is just bigger than ellie's, so we passed. the hood fell over her face and she kept eating the zipper and crying.

but wouldn't it be so funny if ellie was judge for halloween? 

splish, splash!

somebody finally figured out the best part of bathtime - 

splash, splash, splash!!

(check out the water in the tub - some serious waves.)

hey, good lookin'.

here's what i've got cookin':

my love affair with pumpkin began last year and now that he's in town again, i'm ready to get hot and heavy. made my perfect pumpkin cookies tuesday and husband brought home pumpkin shakes from mcdonalds (they're no shamrock, but they're still shakes). yum. yum. yum.

it is finally cooling off (we were stuck in the 90s up until last weekend) and the leaves in the yard are starting to change. ellie has an adorable new hoodie and we're ready.

oh, and i'm definitely sharing the pumpkin love with my little descendant.

i gave her a couple of pieces without chocolate chips.

however, she did try her first chocolate chip cookie yesterday.  a sweet little girl at playgroup decided to "share with baby" and when i turned around ellie had a chocolate coated face and two fists full of melty goodness. she scarfed up as much as she could before i wiped it all off (at least a half dozen wipes worth). it was possibly the best playgroup yet.

another attempt at crafty-ness.

not craftiness. i'm not trying to be sneaky and devious.
i'm trying to make cool stuff appear using my own two hands. crafty.

here is my inspiration:

(check out all the beautiful aprons at anthropologie.)


and here is my finished product:

the picture quality is bad. we haven't had good light around here lately.

i wish i had the gorgeous fabrics and supplies that anthropologie has. also, a serger would be nice.
for now, i give this one a "not too shabby."

daddy's little grease monkey.

last saturday, daddy changed the pipes on his bike.
ellie helped.

every day, daddy says
"our baby is so neat!" or cool. or beautiful. or cute. or amazing.

she really did like sitting on the motorcycle.
the sun was just in her eyes so bad.