The Spritzer’s are here from New Jersey! Grandma and Pop-Pop are visiting us!

We’ve been busy eating yummy food, riding trains and carousels, going for walks, playing at the park, and reading lots of books. We’ll post more soon.

… and almost too good to be true!

I love it when my very favorite bloggers/artists host giveaways and I WIN! (Can you believe it?!)

Case in point:

Giveaway #1

Beautiful barn cards from Lori Joy Smith, an artist living on Prince Edward Island (being a longtime Lucy Maud Montgomery fan, imagine my joy at receiving a package from Charlottetown!). I’ve loved Lori’s work for years and have been following her blog since before she had her two daughters and was living with her husband in Vancouver. I adore these barn face cards (barns have feelings too!) that she sent me! Instead of using them for their intended purpose and mailing them off to friends, I’m planning on keeping at least a few to frame and hang in Miss Leyba’s room. (Warning: It will be a while as MISS LEYBA DOESN’T EVEN HAVE A ROOM OF HER OWN YET but I promise to post pictures when it happens!)

You can view all her barn face posts and more on her blog and purchase these cards in her shop. Head over there; she’s inspiring and delightful.

And did you read her note to me?! SWOON!

Giveaway #2

Brenda, artist and craftster extraordinaire, also known as the stealth Secret Agent Josephine, sent us a fun cocktail book that I can finally really explore now that I’m no longer breastfeeding (one week ago, today!) and a cd with famous regee artists singing Disney songs (Miss Leyba loves it). My favorite? Circle of Life by Matisyahu. (Oh, yes, the famous Orthodox Jewish Reggae artist! Hysterical!) Miss Leyba’s favorite part of the package? Bug’s artwork that wrapped our gifts! Miss Leyba cut it up, taped it back together, added stickers and played with it for days. (Thank you!)

You should know that this isn’t our first package from Brenda. She’s so awesome she lent us homemade banners to use at Miss Leyba’s first birthday party in 2009 (pictures of the banners at our house here and from two weeks earlier in her house for her daughter’s birthday party). She rocks!

Giveaway #3

Last but not least we won a hand screen printed Seasonal Summer Tote illustrated by Claudia Pearson via Brooklyn’s enormouschampion. I’ve been admiring Claudia Pearson’s artwork over the past few seasons. I love her seasonal dish cloths and have been meaning to order some (I still need to!). Ah, the delight in winning this bag! It’s beautiful. You can buy this bag and other prints, bags, towels, and coloring books at her etsy shop. Head on over!

Many thanks to Lori, Brenda and Claudia! Thank you for sending us such wonderful gifts and for having beautiful, inspirational blogs, all of which I so enjoy reading. I greatly admire you and what a thrill for me to have gotten mail from you.

Thank you!

(Not just statistically speaking) I am such a lucky girl.

Updated to add: Look who’s over at Claudia’s blog! Miss Leyba is a rock star.

Because I’m just not able to let go as quickly as I’d like.

If you’re my sister or not into public breastfeeding, I know you’ll want to skip this post. Close your browser NOW.

Below I give you Miss Leyba breastfeeding through the years, also known as THE POST WHERE YOU SEE MY BOOBS A LOT.

Remember, we live in California and I’m legally allowed to breastfeed ANYWHERE in the state.

So suck it.

I’m just feeding my child.

Read more »

She did it! Miss Leyba weaned herself.

After two years, six months, two weeks and three days, she forgot to ask for “milky” before bed and fell asleep on her own. The next day she didn’t ask at our usual afternoon snack time and there you go!

I feel really good that we waiting until the right time for her.

And that it took zero effort on our part. I am all about low maintenance parenting. ;)

Now I just need to get off this hormonal roller-coaster that comes from weaning. After all, I’ve been an endorphin junkie for the last two years, six months, two weeks and three days… but who’s counting?!

What to do on a quiet Friday?

Pack a picnic lunch, head out to a new beach with the kiddo in tow, and swing by the fish bank to pick up dinner on the way home. Truly delightful day!

A simple project, with ingredients straight from the pantry, for some toddler arts and crafts exploration.

You will need:
-cardboard, poster board or sturdy paper
-seeds, legumes or nuts (we used dried chickpeas, black beans, split peas and pumpkin seeds)
-craft glue
-popsicle sticks, optional (for moving around the glue and incorporating into the collage, if interested)

Spread the glue around on your paper, then drop beans, seeds, or nuts on the page however you like.

Encourage your toddler to stir, mix-up and sort the supplies! Evidently that was the best part.

Let the collage dry. Then hang it up or put it away to give later as a present.

As I talked about yesterday, we’ve endured a very cold summer and therefore had little to no harvest. Instead of ripping out our summer garden to start planting fall crops, we decided to expand our vegetable garden area to give our tomatoes, zucchini and strawberries more time to grow and ripen.

Who needs a front yard anyway?! (Above, our yard back in July.)

This weekend we planted purple potatoes, swiss chard and lettuce.

Miss Leyba was thrilled about the “topedoes” and less than thrilled about “the salad ” (i.e. anything leafy and green). She did help me place every single seedling in the ground though and has been very eager to check on the plants. (“Are the topedoes ready yet?” Sigh.)

It feels very much like a Victory Garden to me.