happy birthday paul!

sorry...it's a few days late. paul turned 29 on friday and i was crazy busy getting ready to go out of town to visit paul's parents and paul's sister kenna who flew in from new mexico with her new baby, madeleine. it was fun to see them! i always plan on taking pictures for events like these but - and i'm sure i'm not alone - i always forget or get lazy about it or take one or two but they're really crappy quality...

anyways, happy birthday husband! you're friggin awesome! you work so hard to support our little family and you make me laugh every day and you go to plays with me and you keep your sideburns just because i like 'em and you clean the bathroom for me and you make really good mac and cheese and i love you!

(i made him pose for this picture.)

new jellabee items!

i know this is what you've all been waiting for...new items in my jellabee etsy shop! hooraaaaaay.

i've been having way too much fun with my new ribbonwork book - i wanna put ribbon roses on everything! here's my latest creations - embellished keepsake/jewelry containers. i got all the containers at my local thrift store (thoroughly scrubbed, let me assure you) and i had such a fun time fussing over each one until i was satisfied. (click on the pics if you wanna see the details up close).





but wait there's more! here's some new clips and headbands that i've been working on and have listed in my jellabee shop as well. (i told you i wanna put ribbon roses on everything...)



LOVE this one.




this one's not a rose...but i think it's one of my favorites. it took me FOREVER - all those tiny stitches and beads.

i'm getting some pretty wicked calluses on my fingertips from all this sewing.

(you can see more pics and prices for these items HERE)

the story of the picnic in the park

once upon a time paul and i were pondering that we haven't really gone out to enjoy the summer evenings as much as we should. probably because i trap myself like a hermit in my craft cave every night. so we decided to have a picnic!!! hooray!!! it really was nice sitting outside and enjoying the warm evening by the little lake and penny loved it for sure.

yay for eating outside! penny enjoyed noshing on her rubber aligator.

then some nosey geese came over to investigate. they were HUGE.

penny eyed the feathery intruders warily, afraid they might steal her plastic bag.

but don't worry, paul threw his sandel at them and scared them away. (he didn't actually hit one).

then we sat miss penny on the grass for the first time to see how she'd react. you can't really tell here but she luuuved it! she kept laughing every time the grass tickled her legs.

from then on the larsen family vowed to appreciate the rest of the evenings this summer as much as possible. the end.

new burp cloths!

i know, this is probably the most exciting news you've heard today or, dare i say, in the past week. please stop bouncing with excitement in your seat.

i love love love chenille and i love chenille burp cloths even more. pretty convincing sell, huh?

i just added 19 new burp cloths to my jellabee jr shop (if you hadn't noticed, i kept my headbands in jellabee and moved my kiddie hair clips to a new etsy shop - jellabee jr) and i can't wait to make more!

here's some of my favorite patterns:






and of course, the fancy "shipping example":


my etsy shops are officially an addiction and i plan to branch out and add more stuff than just hair accessories to both shops. i found this ribbonwork book, well, paul found it and predicted that i would love it, AND I DO LOVE IT. it teaches you these techniques from the 1920's on how to make ribbon roses and other flowers and leaves and it's my new obsession (sorry paul). i'll have to post some pics showcasing my ribbonwork skillzzz. you'll probably look forward to that day more than christmas.

(p.s. word to the wise, if you've got the bucks to buy a $300 light box to achieve those white, diffused light, catalogue-ish pictures, then more power to you. OR, you can buy a 50 cent piece of white posterboard and take outside during the daytime in the shade. they look EXACTLY the same.)

11 months!

i love you, my little hand.

too cool for school.


* finally sitting on her own! (as you can see) i know, i know, your baby did it at 6 months.
* sprouted her second tooth, on the bottom right next to her first one.
* loves books. i know she’s not actually reading them (or is she…) but she loves to stare at the pictures and turn the pages.
* still likes to snuggle. i can hold her in my arms and she doesn’t squirm away or anything. i LOVE this.
* almost 20 pounds (big girl car seat, here we come!)
* still a magnificent sleeper/napper.
* getting louder. she loves to yell at the tv (the rare times that i have it on of course…) especially if there’s singing. we were watching some opera special on pbs and this lady came on and started singing softly and penny goes “ah dah.” then the lady gets louder and penny goes “AH DAH.” then the singer hits this high-pitched long trill and penny starts freaking out and going “AH DAH DAH AHH DAHH DAHH!” it was pretty funny.
* her mom is really glad this monthly update commitment is almost over. next month post she’ll be a year! crazy!

(by the way, this is my 100th post. ah DAH!)

4 years old! (our marriage, that is)

4 (out of the many) reasons i love paul:

1. it feels like we've known each other forever. even when we were just friends and not dating yet, there was something so familiar about him that i always felt so comfortable and happy around him.

2. he's so kind and sincere to others. it doesn't matter if it's the first time or the twentieth time he's met you, he'll always remember your name and make you feel included in the conversation or whatever. or someone will be rambling on in a long, boring story and he'll just patiently listen and ask them questions. and whenever we go grocery shopping he always chats with the cashier purely because he thinks they're probably bored and would appreciate the conversation.

3. everyone likes him. he's gets along with everybody and tells funny little stories that make the old folks chuckle. he's so unassuming and never cares about being in the spotlight.

4. he's such a good dad to penny. she has a sweet temperament just like him and she just wriggles with joy every day when he comes home from work. some of my favorite times are just us three sitting on the couch and laughing at the little funny things that penny does. one of the things that always makes penny laugh is when paul throws her (gently) in the air and catches her - she LOVES it.

thanks for making the past four years the happiest of my life, paul!! i love you!

have you ever done this?

have you ever done multiple loads of laundry and then not put it away for 3 days? well, it looks something like this: i tend to do this alot...i start the laundry and then i take forever to put it away once it's clean. and then when i want to wear something it's most likely in the pile of clean clothes rather than my closet. paul HATES when i do this, understandably of course. he just doesn't understand that while i don't mind starting the loads, i HATE folding and hanging and putting them away (this coming from the man who organizes his t-shirts in rainbow order and then gets mad when i put a blue shirt in the red section). ugh, there's just so many other interesting things to do! like crafting...nothing makes paul madder (and by mad i mean a slight frown and a furrowed brow of disappointment) then when he comes home from work and i haven't got dinner made, the house is messy, and i'm sitting there in my pajamas working on some kind of time-wasting craft. (although, the other day paul came home from work and i had his favorite dinner ready: breakfast for dinner, mixed berry pancakes and eggs. yay me.)

i heard somewhere that clean people are boring people. i do like to be clean, but sometimes i just don't have the patience for it and if all i do is clean and i don't do something creative i might just slightly combust. i do clean when it's important, when it really matters - like before people come over or it's stuff that needs to be cleaned often, like the toilet or the dishes. and i do agree that a clean house makes you feel better when you look around but it's a constant, daily, annoying task to keep things looking perfect when you have zero storage, a baby and all of their baby crap, and about 12 tupperwares of craft supplies and you know no one's coming over that day and it's like BLAH who cares!

but don't worry - because i know you were really worried - i finally put away the laundry today.

oh, and i burned some rice. for pete's sake, who burns rice???
well, apparently it's very easy. all i wanted was to reheat my lemongrass chicken soup from our favorite thai place and make a little rice to go with it. i followed the microwave instructions exactly and i ended up making a burnt rice cake (it was seriously hard as stone) and ruined a perfectly good plastic ikea bowl and made our apartment have that icky burny smell. you dumb rice! who do you think you are?!