If you’re interested how we ever-so-randomly selected these ladies, watch this:

If you’re all sad and upset that you didn’t win, turn that frown upside down!  You can now purchase a Smitty Baby Bow Tie in our shop! 

Happy holidays, everybody!

I will have them in the SB shop shortly, but first, I want to give you a chance to win some for your favorite little pilgrim!

So, here’s the deal.  I’m giving away a PAIR of bow ties to three lucky winners!  All you have to do is leave a comment on this blog telling me which ones you would choose if you won.  I’ll be randomly selecting the winners on Friday.  Hopefully, I’ll be coming out of my turkey-induced stupor by that time.

Things to consider before entering
-if you are reconsidering because you don’t have a son, don’t worry about it.  Surely you know someone who would look dapper in one of these.
-if you are reconsidering leaving a comment because you are related to me, think again.  If I excluded family members I might possibly have no one to read my blog.  And that would be sad.
-if you are considering entering so you can win some for your small dog, please be mindful that they are clip-ons, and unless your little yapper is sporting a collared oxford…

Anyway, good luck!  You have till Friday at noon to enter! 

P.S. The world’s sweetest baby in the photo is not part of the giveaway.  Just clarifying.  Hands off.

1.  Wylder has taken up phrase, “no, not today” when he’s asked to do any particular task
2.  We celebrated Halloween Yo Gabba Gabba style
3.  We got an almost new car
4.  I have lost 17 pounds of baby weight. Hooray!!!
5.  Arlo officially has a five word vocabulary (Mama, Da-Da, Wylder, Uh-oh, and Foofa)
6.  Jbird climbed a 1200 foot wall in Utah
7.  Wylder played the claw for the very first time at Mazzios and won twice in a row
8.  I ran my first and more than likely last 5k
9.  Wylder ran his first race
10. Wylder lost his first race, but had a blast doing it

Okay, so maybe these life events have been predominantly not-so-major, and for that I’m thankful. 

As you can see, we’re all safe, healthy, and happy.  And for that I am also very thankful. 

Speaking of thankful, stay tuned, cause I have a Thanksgiving giveaway up my sleeve. 

At six months old, after he successfully snagged my whole cheeseburger off of my plate and attempted to chomp (or gum) away, I knew that he was ready.  Seriously.  He casually grabbed that sucker off of my plate like he was at his own cookout.  You should’ve seen it. 

In order to make my littlest Apricot the happiest boy in Custer County, I agreed to have a baby-food making party featuring one of my besties and baby food extraordinaire, Cylina. 

It all stemmed from this text I received from her.

If you know Cylina, you know that she’s the master at everything “babies.”  From rocking, snugging, singing, playing, to feeding the little chunks of love. 

She’s more or less a Baby Whisperer.  Well, that’s what I call her, anyway. 

So, the plans were made for the purée party.  The hefty menu for my hungry little monkey would include:

green beans
carrots
sweet potatoes
peas
peaches
apples
and a butternut squash (the one from the aforementioned text)

I tried to find the freshest of produce, but since it’s practically been the Dust Bowl Days around these parts, I had to resort to frozen green beans, peas, and peaches. 

We steamed. 

We roasted. 

We mushed the goody out of those veggies.

Cylina even brought her handy dandy (as seen on TV) Ninja Master Prep Pro to tell that squash who’s boss.  Just like it promised, it truly did instantly unleash our culinary power. 

Trust me, by the end of the day every member of the Leguminosae family was hiding behind their vines in fear.  It was intense. 

A full-on food frenzy. 

I caught Arlo boy swiping some of the green stuff before we actually got the trays cooled off enough to put in the freezer. 

He was in heaven, I tell ya.  You’d have thought I’d given him chocolate gravy.  He was lapping up those mushy peas like a Templeton at the county fair. 

Delish!

It only took a couple of hours in the freezer before I could bag up the frozen baby food cubes for him to enjoy for the next few weeks. 

Easy peasey lemon squeezey. 

Thanks, Cylina, for the gentle shove in the right direction to promote overall health and wellness to my Baby Apricot.  Also, thanks to my new friend, Sarah, for bringing her sweet babies and providing the stimulating conversation as we beat the life out of those veggies. 

Arlo says “thanks.”

He’s a better man for it.

It’s already been half a year since this? 

I can’t believe I survived almost thirty-three years without his chubby-fingered back pats. 

How did I cope without his stress-relieving squeezable squishy thighs?

How did the shoulders of my shirts survive the lack of moisture? 

Questions I will never know that answers to.

Seriously.

Sweet.

Stuff. 

You want him, don’t you? 

This year, I have a THREE year old. 

(We’re still working on it, okay.)

After quizzing him down on what kind of birthday he would like this year, and consistently hearing his sweet voice exclaim, “Mickey Mouse!” we naturally decided to go with a Rock n Roll theme. 

Okay, don’t beat me up about it, I’ve been suppressing the guilt for approximately fifteen days now.  And, by the way, you would’ve done the same thing had you stumbled across this party while cruising the world wide webs.  Too cute to pass up.  And, to be fair, he really does love music, dancing, singing, drumming, guitar strumming, etc.  He just needed a little shove in the right direction, claro? 

Since ol’ Jbird has his studio halfway set up and almost ready to go, I kindly asked him to work up a ditty for an invitation. The original idea was to record a songvitation, burn it to CDs, design an amazing cover, and mail it out to inform the friends of the special gathering.  And, yes, I just totally and spontaneously made up the word “songvitation.”  I typed it so confidently you thought it was already a thing, didn’t you?  (If you hear it again, you better give me a shout out.)

MRA…(just made that up, too…I think.  Stands for Moving Right Along),  since I’m Procrastination Peggy these days, I unfortunately didn’t have the time to design a magnificent cover or actually mail anything out.  We did, however, lay down a few tracks that we posted RIGHT HERE! 

But, if you don’t want to go to the link, you can hear it right here:

  Bdayfinal by mustemote

It’s quite possibly the sweetest voice I’ve ever heard…of course, I am the mama.  And, for that, I am glad we didn’t go with a Mickey Mouse theme.  (Just let me keep justifying…)

Don’t you wish you had an UH-mazing sister like I do that will drop everything and make a cake of this caliber moments before your son’s shindig?  She seriously impresses me every time. 

It took approximately three seconds for him to poke his little finger in that thing and rip the grille cloth.  Who could blame him?  It looked so real!  I mean, check out the details…

Don’t you wish you had another incredible sister that would cut and laminate party paraphernalia for her sweet, curly-headed nephew and his buddies? 

Or another fantastic sister that would sweat it out on your back rooftop spray painting a cardboard amp to add the finishing touch to the “stage” area?

Or a fabulous sister-in-law that would design and cut out a birthday crown for her nephew because moments before the party he asked for party hats and his mama had a temporary moment of panic?

The guests decorated guitars…

rocked the pants off of the other party guests…

having so much fun!

At this point in the party, Mickey Mouse himself would’ve given me a high five with his fat, white glove to admit that the Rock n Roll theme was the right decision.

And the birthday boy didn’t voice a single complaint.

I love you, Wylie P. Undie-pants.

They are unique, meaningful, and absolutely unforgettable.  I know that sounds strong, but that’s how I feel.  Take it or leave it.

I pretty much have made an unspoken declaration (is that possible?) that I will gift handcrafted goodies for Christmases and birthdays as much as possible from now on. 

Although I’ve attempted some more difficult projects in the past, I’m pretty much an instant gratification girl.  The faster the project, the happier I am. 

This jewelry was soooooo easy to make and gave me complete satisfaction in approximately five minutes.  You need is:

-fabric scraps
-ring backs, earring backs, or hair clips from your local craft store (Hobby Lobby for me)
-covered button kit
last but not least, my second best friend,...

-hot glue gun!

Just follow the instructions on covering a button on the back of the kit….so easy.  I pulled off the little loopy metal thing on the back of the button with some needle nose pliers so it would sit on the jewelry straight.  Then, hot glue that little guy onto your jewelry bases.  Amazing insta-gift, right?

This one took a few minutes longer because I made the fabric yo-yo first (once again, so easy).  Then, I glued it onto a fabric circle and added the button last.  And holy hot glue gun, you’re done!

So cute. 

Try it. 

You’ll like it. 

And so will your sisties. 

If you have any. 

If not, you can borrow mine temporarily.

Don’t get too attached, though.

Thanks for spreading the Smitty Baby spirit all over Seattle, Elliot!

Here we have the crusty, dusty, musty staircase as it was when we bought the building.  Makes me sneeze just looking at it. 

And here it is later after a little paint treatment. 

Since it’s the very first thing you see when you open our front door, we decided to make a pretty bold statement.  We went with Sherwin William’s Intense Teal on the walls. 

I’ve always been attracted to the look of patterned stairs, so I decided to explore the world of wallpaper.  There were several patterns I was torn between, but finally decided on a black with metallic spirals.

I ended up having to splice the pattern in three pieces per step in order to center and continue the pattern.  Since it was a pre-glued wallpaper, I first tried hanging it using the instructions that came with it. 

That didn’t work. 

So I bought wallpaper paste. 

That didn’t work. 

I’m pretty sure the surface wasn’t smooth enough for the wallpaper to stick.  It was very frustrating, to say the least.  (I would’ve taken photos of this process, but they would all be of a red-faced, frizzle-haired, sticky me that would totally discourage you from ever wanting you to tackle a project of this caliber.)

Let me just tell you, I was just about to pull out the staple gun when Jbird saved me from myself and brought home a plain ol’ can of spray adhesive.  I took a deep breath, looked in the mirror and gave myself a thumbs up, and got to spraying.

I won’t say that the spray adhesive is the best technique, considering that I’m still not sure of the long term effects it will have on our stairs.  In a few years, I could be renting a sandblaster to get the stuff off, but that was the risk I was willing to take at that time of our renovation. 

And, by golly, it worked!

The glassy finish is actually plexiglass, bought and precut from our local glass shop, and gently nailed to the rises by my wonderful husband. 

Jbird actually built new steps himself, inlaying another kind of wood that I’m sure took a lot more time and money than he’d care to tell me.  They are beautiful, though.  Don’t you think?

He also decided to make some of them into storage for shoes or whatever you don’t want to haul up all twenty-two of the steps.  That was mainly when he was going to go for the “no shoe” house rule.  (Unfortunately, after our friend took a slippery sock induced hiney ride down a few of those bad boys, we decided to nix that rule.  I’m pretty sure there wouldn’t be enough steps in this world to store all of my handsome hubby’s footwear anyway.)

I love the way this project turned out.  We get so many people asking about the “tile” on our stairs. 

I think we achieved the dramatic effect we were looking for.