Thanks. . .

Thanks, Mel's Diner San Francisco, for hosting the easiest Thanksgiving Dinner ever. Complete with old college buddies, full turkey dinner for the adults, chicken nuggets and hotdogs for the kids which came in those cool car boxes. . .
. . . pumpkin pie, something strange going on with that guy over my shoulder. . .
. . . and a lot of smiles.
Thanks, Ice-skating in Union Square for helping us work off some of those calories after dinner It was a lot more work for the parents than it was for the kids. . .
Thanks, Jenni and the Smiths (sounds like a band!), for letting me steal those from your blog! and for being good enough to tote your camera around even with an armload of new baby, stroller, and two big boys and all the stuff that goes with them. And thanks for ditching the fam to come spend Thanksgiving with us downtown. It was so fun to see you guys.

Thanks, Powell Line Cable Car for giving us a lift up and over the hill down to Ghiardelli Square and Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39. You gave us beautiful views and saved our feet a little bit.
Thanks, Pratts, for always being so photogenic. . . and more importantly for being really fun to travel with.


Thanks, Sea Lions of Pier 39 for teaching my daughter a new animal sound to make. . .
Thanks, Crown and Crumpet, for the perfect afternoon tea. . . for the tiara's and the wands, the little sandwiches, scones, and especially for not making a fuss when Lucy broke a teacup within the first five minutes.




Thanks, Exploratorium, for all the interactive experiments and displays that kept the girls entertained for hours and kept us out of the rain.



Thanks, Muir woods, for some fresh air and big trees and room to run around.

(Those tears are because we took her hiking stick away after she hit Wendy on the head with it.)

Thanks, Westin St. Fancis for being centrally located and for the cool Christmas displays. . .
. . . the 12 foot gingerbread castle and the huge Christmas Tree with cascading lights that was impossible for little hands not to touch. . .

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend in San Francisco. . . and I added a few things to my long list of things to be grateful for.

One more reason I wish I lived in New York

Modern Women of Sewing. . .

Next stop Salt Lake, ladies?

Tiny Drawings, Big Hits

That would be the headline if I were writing about Marc Johns for a magazine or artsy newspaper. . . or for my silly little blog, I guess.

His drawings make me giggle.
. . . and more than a little jealous that I didn't think of it first. . .

And I swear if I could I would buy everyone on my Christmas List one of his sticky note drawings. But they sell within minutes of being posted. . .


This is definitely the one I would buy for Hubby. . .

And I think I would absolutely die if I saw this in a restaurant bathroom. . .

Yes, I Photoshop. . .

Warning: This image has been photoshopped. Everyone was upset when a photoshopped Kelly Clarkson appeared on the cover of Self magazine, so I'll be completely honest upfront. . . I photoshop. I photoshop all the time. The day was beautiful, my butt is not. So I photoshop. I really should have just worn my spanx that day, but c'mon! I was out walking! and we stopped to play for a bit. . .

Besides the obvious corrections, I've also been playing with Pioneer Woman's actions. . . Here I used "soft & faded" from set 1.

But thanks, Analeis, I don't have near enough photos of Lucy and I together. I love this one, or, the one with the new butt at least!

baby, baby. . . quilt, quilt

This little white quilt with pink and orange is for Baby Layla. . . her family just moved back so we're neighbors again. They have two little boys that Lucy adores (and doesn't hit!) so we're glad to have them nearby.

Someone I WISH was nearby but isn't is my sister and her family. This quilt is for my new little nephew Cody. . . he's the fourth little boy in the fam and was almost named "Bear" so I used my little bear design as an applique to represent the little quartet of brothers.

While making this, I kept thinking of the old Hudson Baby wool blanket we had growing up, so beautiful and simple and striking. I think I'll be using this idea more and experimenting with different colors. With a big feild of white or cream, you could really throw any combo of colored stripes in there and it would look good!

little red riding hood

(The pic above shows Lucy holding up the costume parade at preschool while she stops to admire herself in the mirror. . .)

I used one of her little summer dresses for the pattern but added the pockets just for fun. I thought it needed something. . . I was having a little Project Runway moment.I followed these instructions for making her little cloak, but smaller of course. I found trim at a little shop here in Salt Lake called The Lace Place which specializes ribbons, bows and lace.

And for some inexplicable reason, when I went to photograph the dress this morning, there was birdseed in the pocket. Maybe our Little Red Riding Hood has actually been out in the woods. . .

I almost forgot to name this post. . .

Lucy's little pre-school went on a field trip to a pumpkin patch the other day. She was excited because, well, she's excitable. . . she knew where we were going had something to do with her buddy, Aidan, and pumpkins so she was sold. I was excited because, well, photo-op! So I had her all dudded up and cute and my entire camera bag in tow and we went to the pumpkin patch.

There were a million things to look at and do, so the kids were in heaven. The camera toting moms on the other hand, were frustrated and disappointed. We couldn't pin the kids down long enough even to auto focus. . . they kept moving into direct sunlight or chasing the cat or wandering into the motion-sensored cackling animatronics portion of the pumpkin patch instead of the haybale/morning shade/bumpy pumpkin backdrop we'd been dreaming of (I wasn't the only one who came prepared for the ideal photo shoot. I saw at least 4 other Canon Rebels. . .)

Here's the only good pic I got. . . It's Lucy and Aidan in a good moment. Haybale (check!), Morning Sun (check!), Bumpy Pumpkins (check!), freakin' cute smiles (check!), Teepee in the background (check. . . hey why is there a teepee at a pumpkin patch anyway? And even with a short depth of field, I can totally tell the rest of the stuff in the background is just the non-autumn seasonal stuff they had to cram behind the teepee to make room for all the pumpkins.) Oh, well.

So, I couldn't let this cute, fall outfit and me having the camera out of the house moment go to waste and we went down to Sugar House Park to do one of Lucy's favorite things in the world. Throw rocks in the river.

I got my ideal photo shoot afterall. . .

Yes, there is cherry sucker on her face in that one pic, evidence of the pumpkin patch. No, there was not even a possibility she was going to look at the camera, she was way to focused on the rocks and the river. And, Yes, that last one really is blurry but I like it so I included it anyway.