Eco-Friendly Kids Sneaker

These are so cute! Too bad they don't come in smaller sizes.

Does anyone have any great shoe recommendations for new walkers (Penelope is not even crawling yet, but a girl can dream), that are similar to these, made out recycled, organic and hemp materials, etc?

Recyle, Reuse...Refashion II

This time I cut up an old Lilly Pulitzer skirt that doesn't fit me anymore. See a pattern here? I have held on to, way too many clothes, hoping that I would magically become skinny one day and fit into them again. But post childbirth, I am so impressed with my body for creating, growing, pushing out a baby and then making milk for it that I am finally at peace with how my body looks and can LET GO of these old clothes!

For this refashion, I had to rip out the zipper in the back and sew it back together, and then finished it with pinking shears. Then I cut out armholes, in the shape of an upside down J. The skirt was already fully lined, so I turned it inside out and placed the edges of the armholes right sides facing and sewed together.

Then I turned the top edge down of the front and back necklines and sewed a casing for the ribbon. And since it was a skirt in its past life the hem was already complete!

Ta Da! The one on the left, is another pillow case dress I made for Miss P. Here is a great tutorial for pillow case dresses.

Free Printable Invitation Templates

I am already planning Penelope's 1st birthday party and I came across this awesome site that offers free invitation templates to download. I was super excited to find this site and find this invitation. It is exactly what I was looking for and the designer even posted that anyone could email her if they needed a different color. I need one in hot pink, purple, orange and green. I am already so excited for her party!! Last month, Micheal's was having a half off sale on their gross grain ribbon and I got a crap ton in those four colors. I am bound and determined to have an affordable, but beautiful 1st Birthday for Penelope!

The Birth Wars

I love the first paragraph of this article:

"Mention that you are planning a home birth and it might be as if you had just brought up Sarah Palin or Palestine: brace for family feuds, public denunciations, and offhand remarks that imply you are selfish and stupid, your midwife is a quack, and your unborn child is a victim already in need of social services."

It resonated with me, because an all out family war practically started when we announced we were having a home birth. My aunt was the most un-supportive, she herself having two cesarean births for "big babies." Only after I birthed Penelope, all 9 pounds, 1 ounce of her, safely and WITHOUT tearing, did she say she may possibly rethink her stance on whether home birth is safe. The rest of our family came around while I was pregnant, partly because the numerous emails I sent them referencing all the studies that show that home birth is safe for healthy, low-risk pregnancies.

I also got lots of "wow, you are so BRAVE!" and I thought that was interesting too. I didn't feel that I had an extra amount of courage than the average woman. I didn't feel like I had special powers that others did not. This is another article I like, titled Home Birth: Brave Has Nothing To Do With It.

What your experience like if you planned a home birth?

Baby Yoga: In and Out

Yoga is a huge part of my life and I hope that it will be a part of Penelope's life as well. I started doing baby yoga with Penelope when she was just 4 weeks old.

This pose is called In and Out and is a great first yoga pose for babies. It helps them pass gas!

First, you place baby on their back, as you can see we are just on the floor, but you can use a yoga mat if you want.

Always ask your baby if they want to do yoga first. They understand way more than we give them credit for, and they will let us know if they are not in the mood.

Then you start by holding onto their legs, anywhere that feels comfortable to both of you. And then you bring their legs to their chest, like so and gently press into their stomach...the combination of the pressure and movement helps them pass gas.




















Then you extend their legs out like this. You say what you are doing as you are doing it. As you bring their legs in, say Iinnnnn! And as you bring their legs out, say Ouuuuuttt! You want to say in a sing-songy fun voice. Sooner than later, they will learn to associate the word you are saying with the movement, and thus you are also helping them with their language development!

Do In and Out several times, till your baby wants to do something else!

You can find this yoga pose and more in the awesome book by Helen Garabedian.

Our Edible Backyard

Well, it would be an edible back yard if we could figure out how to keep the birds from eating our strawberries, blueberries and plums. This is a picture of one of our 8 blueberry bushes. Almost ready!




















One of our plum trees. This was the first year we really had a good amount of plums, but we still haven't eaten one yet. The birds always get to them first.




















First of the ripe tomatoes! I remember the first home grown tomato I ever ate, a couple of years ago when I first started gardening, I called my Dad and said "It tastes NOTHING like the ones at the grocery store!" I couldn't believe how delicious they were.

These guys are coming along. Big thanks to Peter for actually getting these guys in the ground. He has pretty much taken over the Cornais Family Farm and these are now "his" tomatoes. I love him for that!

Oil Reaches Louisana Shores

Here's the article and pictures.

This makes my heart hurt. I have been putting my head in the sand all month regarding the oil spill. For some reason, now that I am mother, the wrongs of the world seem even more painful. Maybe I am just still hormonal and emotional. So to compensate, I have tried to create a little happy bubble for myself and not think of anything but the blessings in my life. But I forced myself to look at these pictures. Tallahassee has been my home for 10 years now and the Gulf has become a part of my roots. Penelope was born here and the Panhandle and Gulf are certainly a part of her story. I have to look. If I am not a part of the solution, I am a part of the problem.

To be honest, I am not even sure what to do about it. I firmly believe that the BP executives need to be held accountable with real prison time. In my opinion, they committed murder and need to be tried and convicted as if it were a street crime murder. But how does one go about making sure that happens?

The other thing that needs to be done, is reduce our consumption of oil. I already do a lot, much more than the average American, but there has got to be more that I can do. The first thing that comes to mind, maybe insignificant, but I want to stop using ziploc bags. I use them like they are going out of style, like candy. I use them for EVERYTHING. I told Peter the other day that I wanted to stop using them (and paper towels for that matter) and he said "Good God, woman, don't we do enough already??" No, we don't. Now that I can sew a bit better, I think am going to try and make these. And also start taking 5 extra seconds to use a glass container for food storage in the fridge.