Thrifting Finds

Last week Hugo and I were busy with playdates and excursions in and out of our local thrift shops. We had fun! We've been painting walls and furniture for our new craft room. And yes, Hugo helped. He didn't help in quite the way I had in mind, but he helped... I am in desperate need of organizing my sewing, crafting, knitting, and church supplies. I also want the space to be inviting for Hugo and our Momma School. While walking around Goodwill this lamp hollered out to me, "Please take me home! Please, please, pretty please don't leave me here!" Cesar and I both like orange... I loved the handles... My new craft room is going to be the perfect place to welcome this lamp home!

I love this pink chair. The sun or my camera or maybe a combination of both washed out the pink color. The chair is very comfortable. I don't think it was hardly used at all while living in its previous home. The best part for me is that the arms are low, the perfect height for me to knit away comfortably for hours and hours!

Cesar helped me this past weekend in my new craft room. He wasn't sure where this little tea set should go (I'm not sure myself) so a temporary home this window sill became. I wanted to share it here because my Grandmother Marge Parker gave it to me for my birthday years ago. It was a gift my Great Grandfather Art gave to his wife Marion, or as we all called her, GG. I guess my second cousin Mary has the cups and saucers to match. I wonder if she has matching plates?

This tall cabinet was given to us by my parents. It has traveled from coast to coast with my family! My parents used it in our kitchen when I was little. A huge chopping board slides out from under the display area and is where my Mom rolled out all our sugar cookies - her countertop at the time was made up from many, many small tiles. Come to think of it, her current countertop is still tiled, they're only bigger. Interesting.

This hutch is going to be painted and will offer me much needed storage space in my craft room. Very exciting!

This photo wall is part of our upstairs hall and I love it. Just wanted to share. The frames are all different sizes and styles and are silver, gold and black in color. Pottery Barn would not approve! I've had some of these photos framed up since I left my parents home to travel off to school many moons ago.

This chest was just so lovely. Very clean and sweet smelling inside. A good spot for fabric storage maybe. It will end up being painted.

I have wanted a full length mirror for a long, long time. My days of standing on the edge of the bath tub are over! Hurray!

I can't wait to paint and reupholster these chairs. There were only three though, sad. They are very sturdy and in good condition and were only $5 a piece!

This photo is not recent. It happened back in April or so. Can you take a wild guess as to just whose slippered feet might have been running away from the paint spill??! I wanted to kill him. Hang him upside down by his ankles for a bit at least. I can't remember now if this was the last of the gray color for the kitchen walls or simply primer. I've tried to block it all from memory. Thank heavens the nasty carpet was there to catch it all.

I got this table because it matched the hutch above. I originally thought that finally, I'd have a place for my fancy dishes to live - in the hutch. I l-o-v-e dishes. I could be the next Grandma Marge! Anyway, I also bought this table because it seats 6 with a pop up leaf to then seat 8 comfortably. It's gonna get painted, I just have to decide on a color. I'm thinking dark. Not sure about black, but maybe.

So, I then found this china cabinet and well, it was all over for the hutch. My mind instantly placed the hutch up in my craft room. This giant thing has way more room plus beveled glass doors! When it is painted I plan to switch out the hardware to help update the piece. Does anyone know how much weight the shelves of a piece like this can hold? It makes me nervous stacking the plates and bowls up high and then simply walking away.

Exciting Hugo News!

I know, I know, I already posted today but... Hugo pooped in the toilet!

I thought this day was long away. I've heard all sorts of stories about boys and their not pooping for forever. Well, Hugo was in the tub enjoying his bath tonight. He'd been playing in the water for a good amount of time splashing, talking, dumping water everywhere. I was on the phone with my Mother-In-Law catching up on the family news. All of a sudden Hugo grabbed his bum and said something about pooping and I quickly said good-bye and tossed the phone to the side! Hugo was lifted onto the toilet, he made some slightly funny faces and then there it was in the bowl! His first poop - not caught by a diaper or exploded up his back or running/gushing down a leg! A real poop in the toilet bowl. Wow.

Cookie Snitching Fingers!

Hugo loves cookies. He doesn't call them cookies though. Hugo calls cookies "coo keys".

I put up a good fight to not let our Hugo know about the world of tasty baked goods and candy for quite some time. I figured that once he tasted a cookie that would be it. We'd be busy baking "coo keys" all the time.

When Hugo was around a year old, I had him strapped up in his highchair in the kitchen with me. I was craving some chocolate and decided to bake brownies. The thing I like the very, very most about brownies is licking the bowl clean. Hugo was still transitioning from nursing to people food at this point in time. I turned toward him with my brownie mix bowl in front of me and with very curious eyes, he watched me. I realized that he knew I was holding out on him. I looked down at my bowl and the wooden spoon smeared in chocolaty goodness and heaved a big sigh. I supposed I would have to share my chocolaty brownie goodness with him and handed over the wooden spoon. It didn't take long at all for him to lick that spoon clean. It had taken me even less time to lick my bowl clean! He dropped the spoon and pointed at my bowl and made all sorts of grunting sounds and noises. He wanted more of the brownie mix goodness. Well, there wasn't anymore to share cause I inhaled it wondering all the while if I might possibly have to share more than just the wooden spoon with him?! And that was when it hit me like a ton of bricks. From then on, or for the next at least 18 years or so, I was going to need to mix, lick and bake brownies in the dark of night. Long, long after Hugo went to bed cause I don't like to share my brownie mix lickin bowl!

These cookies are Cesar's favorite. He has nicknamed them the Everything Cookie. Cesar isn't big on sweets or deserts at all for that matter. He likes ice cream. Doesn't matter how freezing cold it might be outside - Cesar will eat ice cream. Trust me. He doesn't like brownie mix, thank heavens.

Here is my Everything Cookie recipe:

1 cup butter
1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons milk
vanilla extract, to your liking, I like a lot of vanilla
2 cups flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups quick-cooking oats
1 cup milk chocolate chips
1 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
1 cup raisins
1 cup coconut

Cream the butter, and both sugars until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, milk, and vanilla and beat until blended

Sift the flour, baking powder and soda, and salt together and add to the butter mixture. Stir just until blended. Stir in oats. Fold in chocolate, walnuts, raisins and coconut. Refrigerate the dough covered for at least 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350F. Shape dough into balls. Bake until the edges are slightly browned but the cookies are still white, 8 - 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on their cookie sheets for a few minutes. Remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Mailbox Fun

Hugo received a small, square package in the mail yesterday. Grandpa Wayne sent some puppy dogs our way. My Dad collects and sells the toys of his childhood on eBay. Once in awhile packages which he purchases include miniature dogs like these. I guess toy makers created sets of the Alamo, Pioneers, and all sorts of Cowboys and Indians for boys. To not miss out on the girl market, they came up with the idea of a pet shop. So the dogs in our small, square package once belonged to a little girl who may have pretended to wash and groom and I'm sure, love her pets. Maybe she wanted to be a veterinarian one day. Maybe she wanted to breed and show her favorite dogs. Maybe she snitched horses from her brothers Alamo set to torment him!

Closure & Potty Training

Okay, my life can return to normal now. My book devouring marathon is over. But I don't see why there can't be another and another in the series? Why does this book number 4 need to be the final story of Edward & Bella? Seems to me, they will always be facing some sort of impossible danger. Granted, many storylines were neatly wrapped up but I think that new avenues of possibilities were also opened. I did find out that a book, from Edward's point of view of Twilight, is in the works. That sounds heavenly - as long as there are no Jacob Chapters! Are you reading this Ms Stephanie??! No Jacob Chapters, please.

Hugo is beginning potty training. Very, very exciting here at our house. I don't know what I'm doing but what I am doing, or we're doing, seems to be working. Today Mr Hugo told me he had to go potty - "I potty!" He also wanted to take a shower. I settled for trying out the potty. Each time we change his diaper we then run to the bathroom and try out sitting on the potty. Surprisingly, he has actually "done it" three times by just sitting there. I was shocked. Today was different. Today Hugo said, "I potty!" while we were in the bathroom and I was hurrying to get pretty before a Relief Society picnic. I hadn't offered the suggestion to him. It was all his idea and he really did go!

What should the next step be in this potty training adventure of ours? I'm not sure I'm ready for a naked boy running about all day. I thought I was but... How does one go about this? Do you pack a picnic and hang outside in the yard all day? How often do I need to apply sunscreen to his white bum? What about gravel? Help!!!

Today's Favorites

My favorites of the day are all in pink. To begin with, our desert tonight was Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia Ice Cream. I'm rather odd and wish there were no chocolate chunks within this creamy ice cream desert. Simply more yummy cherries smashed and swirled in the pale pink cream!

Little girl bathing suits. Why oh why, are swim suits, shoes, slickers and wellies so sweet looking when they are so very little? If this suit were my size it would not nearly be as sweet on me as it is on this little girl. Why? Why, why, why?!!!

Cotton candy colored clouds. Yum!

Weeds. I'd love to claim this blushing pink, budding bloom as something precious from my perennial garden - but it's not. It is a weed. I happened across this pinky bloom on an edge of our property while walking with Mr Hugo an evening or so ago.

My last photo is not pink, although it is a favorite. It is green and sorta purple, or "purkle" as Hugo would call it. I just couldn't resist sharing.
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A little wierdness

Hello from me, Cesar, guest blogger. Usually you would find some heart warming family snaps and optimistic observations from my better half, but today I'll share a little about what makes me tick. And I like everything a little different, abstract and a tad twisted.

I work in the film business as a grip, a kind of technician. Grips do lighting, rigging and camera movement on film sets. Interesting work but a ton of hours which is why I look like this:



Below is a picture from work. It was taken with my iPhone and you can actually see me on the left taking it. On the right is a camera assistant (wearing a red hat) looking into the eyepiece. The picture is distorted because it was taken close up on a mirrored ball.

This next picture will make a lot more sense. That's Chris on the left holding those balls, Ed on the camera, getting focus marks and Mike on the right looking menacing. He pushes the dolly, which is the machine on the tracks. This whole circus act is to help the computer graphics people to insert some floating text later when they edit this part of the show.


The other day we were at the Brooklyn Navy Yards, a mostly abandoned ship yard on the East River. It must have been one of the busiest places in New York during the Second World War, now its mostly rotting buildings and empty drydocks. A very cool place full of interesting relics of another time. I found this manhole so bizarre I took a picture of it. I wonder what's down there?

Well that's it for now. Hope you enjoyed a little wierdness in this otherwise delightful blog. Sayonara...

Poppa Love

Hugo was very excited to see his Poppa today. This past week was the first week in which Hugo asked for his Poppa. He turns my phone on all the time so that he can see the photo I have as my screen saver of Cesar and himself. He'll point and say, "Poppa, Me!" I'm thinking of making him his very own little photo album with pictures of his Poppa, the dogs, Vovo, Grandma, cousins, friends and the pool. All his favorites. Maybe it could turn into an ABC book somehow or other?? I'll have to play around with the idea I guess.





Hugo loves, loves, loves to eat peanuts freshly cracked out of their shells with his Poppa. I'll only eat peanuts if they're honey roasted. I do like peanut butter. Cesar likes honey roasted peanuts. Cesar hates peanut butter. Can't even stand the smell of it. Hugo and I love to share a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch.



Every year these crazy giant mushrooms grow under the pines. Cesar thinks we should slice them thin and fry them up. Mushroom fries. Yum or Yuck? I'm leaning toward ... are these mushrooms even edible??? Silly husband.



We three made a dump run together. Cesar does all the work for us. Hugo and I hang in the truck and watch all the action through the windows. I'm always surprised at how busy the dump is. Always busy.

Not a lot is blooming in the garden but these flowers here. Every year I tell myself that I'm going to do some plant research to find out what blooms in August. Haven't done it tho.

Banana Bread! I love my banana bread. The delicious baked goodness of bananas, vanilla, coconut and pecans filled the house. I had a hard time waiting for the loaves to cool. I like my banana bread piping cool from the fridge!

Blue Skies

I was folding laundry this morning as Hugo played and chatted away next to me. He asked me, "What doing?" repeatedly. I answered that I was folding laundry, folding laundry, folding laundry - over and over. Finally I asked him what he was doing. Hugo answered, "Playing trucks!" Words are popping out of his mouth at such a quick rate now. He is a little mimicing parrot. Some days I feel like we've been magicly transported into a Max & Ruby cartoon and I'm Ruby and guess who is Max . . .


We are still working on colors with our Mr Hugo. Yellow sounds like "yeyo", green is "geen", purple comes out like "purkle", red is "wed", black sounds like "back". White, pink, blue and orange sound just as they should. He loves talking about colors. He brings his Eric Carle books to me often and says, "Book!" It is so nice having him climb up on my lap so as to share a good book together. It's a time for me to get in some much desired snuggles and kisses with my busy boy child.

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