Carnival -- Let's DANCE!

Happy Mardi Gras! All those years of living down south and we didn't come away with any keeper beads. Not that any of them are worth keeping, unless you can inspect each necklace at arm's length and recall, "I got that one by lifting my shirt/skirt," and I can honestly say that I've never had the pleasure of doing that.

So what's a Yankee with a brief stint in the Deep South to do on a holiday such as this? Besides wear some purple, gold, and green, find some Boilt Crawfish to suck on! At Safeway today, I reached for a styrafoam tray of 8 boiled crawfish priced at $4, and scoffed. On Friday afternoons when the Seafood Market sign would flash "Hot Crawfish," Paul & I used to stop off and pick up a grocery bag full of them, along with a sixer of something easy to guzzle. Safeway probably doesn't use Zatarain's anyway.

In lieu of celebrating in traditional carnival-like fashion, I instead decided to learn the Slumdog Millionaire dance. I have NO business dancing; not even faux hip-hop or Bollywood. Nonetheless, the dance is coming along quite nicely. Inside I am bursting for Paul to ask for a demonstration...

Doing Civic Duty

Did I forget to mention my shopping trip last Sunday? It was the figurative icing, intentional or not, far as V-Day goes in our house. Nicely situated in the Pearl are a multitude of women's fitness apparel shops, so I shopped for "work" clothes, and made a little stop at Anthro for those cute bowls I've been admiring for the past couple years. All under 3 hours -- a new long in our house. I was the only shopper at Lucy, and was treated very nicely. Also took care of opening an exercise professional account there and at Lululemon. SO excited to use my discounts!

And I guess we're the bargain hunters, not the hunker downers. A new mattress and vehicle are both on the horizon. AND we need a better way to keep baby's food. Right now we serve in half-cup ramekins and other porcelin 'pinch' bowls, and store them in the fridge covered with saran wrap, or in our smallest tupperware boxes (two tablespoons of mashed whatever in a 2-cup box just takes up space). We're looking at the BabyCubes and these Tellfresh Boxes. Anyone remember what you used?

Here's one more image, just because it's too cute to skip!

I Heart Three Day Weekends

presents, originally uploaded by apkoski.

Paul got Prez Day off, so Sunday felt like Saturday and so on. It was nice.
We had a fun Valentine's Day, making cookies at a friend's house and later having a yummy dinner with an AWESOME dessert.

I have been wanting ice cream cake since the last time I had it. That was almost 6 months ago.

A cool surprise came Fedex today. Adelaide got a handmade music box from her Great Grandparents! It plays Teddy Bear's Picnic when you lift the lid. It's beautiful, Great Grandpa! (There was only a little crying after the end of the vide0.)

This afternoon Adelaide & I walked down to Woodstock to our local children's shop today and picked up a plain white muslin swaddling blanket. I've been asked to embellish it for display, with the idea that other people might want to buy their own white swaddling blanket and try it too. Any ideas on embellishments?

Practicing

She's on the verge of mobility, folks. We are gate shopping soon.


-A

One Person's Shot Glass...

Is another's water glass.


Bottom's up!
Thanks Aunt Marci!

Oh Sweet Weekend!

The last week has been more or less routine, with a cold and some extra work; a new Etsy project and ideas about making birthday cards. Starting this week, we have an average of just over one family birthday per week until April.
Paul has been advancing through the Travis Fingerpicking book. Both us girls are enjoying that.

We went out and did our duty for the nation this weekend, consumerizing and such. Our plywood mantel finally looks pathetic enough to consider replacing, after we found a great big mirror to install above it. A shiny white set of service for 8 was unwrapped, washed and placed in the cupboard Saturday. I am so psyched about our new Demitasse set!
And I even managed to finish a Valentine special for posting.
-A