Maya's First

Today my baby turned one.

If I could bottle her giggle, her smile, the way she blows kisses, the way she says "OOOHHHHH!!!", her excited hands when she sees a kitty, and the way she snuggles up and coos/laughs when she's tired I think I could start world peace.

She is the best. I lovelovelove her.

There's more Maya on mayainbloom.blogspot.com

Brighter Days

Oh what wonderful weather! Maya has been enjoying days in the park with Momma and Dadda, and Momma has on occasion been able to sneak away for walks along empty paths.

But I'm tired of taking "brown winter" pictures! Where are the greenies?? Where are the little peek a boo flowers and sprouty things? Perhaps I'll find some today and feel much better.

I love love love spring.
I love it so much I made a spring shelf. On it is my picture by Cori of my niece Nika, some bunnies, my little ACEO of "Pauline" (makes me think of the Neko Case song) by Annette which was my first purchase off of etsy. I love it. I've decided to buy something off of etsy every month from a different country. This month I'll be getting something from here and I'll show it off when it arrives!!

The whole shelf just makes me excited about spring and pretty girly things. I feel like now that I have a little girl, I have to represent by buying cute knick knacks of bunnies and things for her to adore when she's older ("Momma where's the dancing bunnies?"). I remember loving little treasures like that.



And Maya love love loves bath time.

Winter's Closing

Don't cha just love love love sunsets?


Today was a gorgeous beautiful March day. 65 degrees and sunny. Windy, but sunny. And instead of spending it outside at the park or on a trail with Maya I spent it sewing and baking for a baby shower. Thankfully, I finished everything in time and Hopefully Saturday (my next day off) will be just as beautiful, or maybe even half as beautiful, so that I can go take some photos and Maya and I can spend some time outside.

Hopefully I'll have more to blog about this weekend!

Love: Day 3 The Ice Is Slowly Melting

I LoveLoveLove "Love" By The Beatles.

George Harrison was friends with the guy that co founded The Cirque De Soleil, and wanted to work on some music for him..and from there we get George Martin and his son remixing the master tapes of, oh I don't know, maybe thirty? Beatles songs. And the result is "Love."


If only this year's tax stimulus covered expensive Vegas show tickets and airfare- then I could go see it instead of listening to it.

LoveLoveLove Day 2

I love these macro pictures that Kyle took last summer.

And I love sloppy open mouth Maya kisses. She gives kisses, that's just ahhh.

Fourteen Days of LoveLoveLove: Day 1

I love homemade pottery. Mostly mugs. I have this quirk that everytime I go to Stuff Etc. I can't leave unless I have found a mug or vase or something to that effect that someone made in a pottery class. I have three mugs and two vases. I bought two mugs on Saturday for fifty cents each (Yeah! 50% everything day!) and they are awesome.


I love all pottery, but there's something about knowing that someone went to a class, made this perfect mug with their hands and heart, glazed it themselves, and then X many years later I have it.

I want at least ten to put on a shelf. I just love em.

Cheap art that you can put your coffee in. That's first class.

Love It

Love, Love, Love THIS....

Bridges Between Here and the Next Place

In the past two days I've crossed over the Mississippi River and back again six times to attend a visitation and funeral of a dear friend's mother. Maya brought sad people happy smiles and many came up and said, "I've heard of this baby" and played with her bare toes because she refuses to wear socks.

(Maya loves Barack, and I often hold her little soft phone up and say, "Oh, look Maya, Barack is calling you.")

After the visitation we went to Harris Pizza because it's a Quad Cities "must" and because we were quite hungry. (And Maya needed some quite time, AKA a nap.)

Yesterday, funeral day, I drove back to the Quad Cities with Allan (Maya and her Daddy stayed home this time) and on the way to the burial we saw a black squirrel (I love love love them), and as we crossed the Mississippi into the national military cemetary we saw two bald eagles. What a beautiful send off.

Time, we don't have much of it. And someTIMES it takes a sudden death to help us remember how important family and friends are, and I sooo love Jo Momma. And I called her and told her so.

Staying on Track

I'm thinkin' maybe I'll try to stay away from giving books this year for Christmas. But it's so easy to do, and I get them so damn cheap!! It's probably getting old in my family and I think they all hate me, "Oh, thanks Clare for this stupid book I'll never read." It's hard to shop for some of them, and for others it's easy.

My solution, go handmade. I've got a great idea for Maisie...and that's it...but I'll keep thinking of them. I need my sewing machine to magically appear from where it's residing in Ames so that I can work on some of the crafty ideas I've got swirling in my head.

I ran today and it felt awesome, I would have spent longer than half an hour, but I had to go buy formula before work. I got into the zone and that's hard for me to do on a treadmill. I hate treadmills.


This is Number 24. It is an inspiration box for Cori Kindred in Portland. I send her old and broken books that we throw away at work so that she can incorporate them into her work and crafts, which I love because it keeps those books alive. In return she'll send me some of her found paper wonderfulnesses, so wonderful I just can't bring myself to use them. Or, she'll send me some of her photos, which I love love love. I sent her the prairie, some tea, a candle, and an old book. Because I follow her blog, I have discovered so many other blogs, each and everyone so inspiring.
HulaSeventy
abbytryagain
sacred lotus
and last, moxiee

Ahhh, Porland. Such passionate and creative people. Must be the fancy voodoo donuts.