Dealing cards the Arabella way

5 of my Favorite Pinterest Pinners

Probably the main reason that this blog is so neglected is the huge time suck that is Pinterest.

 Here are a selected 5 pinners that consistently keep me from productivity with gratuitously beautiful pins:

 1. Natalie Bowman - http://pinterest.com/missbeaux

Natalie's color palettes are feminine and gorgeous.

Pin is here

2. Haley Wertz - http://pinterest.com/yelah250/

Haley's interior design pins

I thought I hated ALL purple until I saw these bookshelves - now I'm obsessed with this shade.  Pin is here

3. Chris Norman - http://pinterest.com/stormincndc/

Chris has the most gorgeous special event / holiday boards, hands down. Definitely check out her easter board for inspiration / inferiority inducing ideas.

Yes - I'm already married, no - I'm not planning a wedding. But this cake spoke to me - especially having just seen the Oz movie last week. Pin is here

4. Dawne Pace - http://pinterest.com/dawnep/

I cannot sew, but once I learn (and I'm GOING to learn!) I will be working my way through the awesome patterns and techniques that Dawne pins, and making gorgeous homemade dolls for Arabella like this:

Gorgeous doll - pattern by Gingermelon on Etsy - pin is here

5. Emma Lamb - http://pinterest.com/emmalamb/ 

Emma is a textile artist from the UK - I love her color coded inspiration boards. Here's one from the Tangerine to Russet board:

Orange velvet is one of my most favorite things ever. Pin is here. 

I limited this list of 5 to lifestyle/entertaining pinners, but I plan to keep posting lists of 5 in other categories - Parenting, Organization, Food, Clothes, et cetera.

Are there any pinners you love? Please let me know in comments!

First day of Minimalist Parenting Camp!

"If you understand yourself, you can belong to you." - Arabella (02/28/2013)


I thought this wise-beyond-her-years Arabella quote above is a great lead-in to my latest project:

The Minimalist Parent camp, that is (Thank you so much to local blogger Nichole Beaudry of In These Small Moments for alerting me to this great opportunity!).

From the website:
Through a series of 14 daily tasks, you'll make real progress in the areas many of us find challenging: managing your time, handling clutter (in your home, schedule, and mind), simplifying mealtime, and making room for self-care.

And when you complete your task, you get a badge, just like in Girl Scouts (I was a sucker for Girl Scout badges). 

And it's free - what's not to love?

Today I had my first task - make of list of things I want MORE of and things I want LESS of. The things could be anything: 

1. In the MORE column, list things that enrich your life and the things you'd like more of.Feelings, objects, experiences...anything goes. List even the far-fetched and impossible-seeming stuff. Try not to censor yourself (this list is for your eyes only).
2. In the LESS column, list the things, assumptions and situations you'd like less of. Things that are complicating your life, reliably dragging it down, or are plain un-fun. No guilt or judgment allowed.

Followed by this great advice: Resist the urge to let “shoulds” sneak onto your list. What’s right for others isn’t necessarily right for you or your family. Keep your list somewhere readily accessible so you can refer to it as opportunities and obligations come up. You may begin to notice that your More and Less List helps guide your decision-making.

So I spent a good 20 minutes this morning making my more/less list: 




I want MORE: 

And less:

And here's my sweet badge:

If you'd like to join camp, here's the link: http://www.minimalistparenting.com/mincamp/

What would be on your More/Less list?

Arabella Story - All's well that ends well

             I don't have any extra available focus/concentration 

             to write a decent blog post myself, but I can retype this  

             lovely story Arabella created in preschool today 

              (her preschool in Roseville, CA by the way - just throwing that out there since this is a Roseville mom blog and I'm trying to organically get Google to 

              pick up on that fact):

Once upon a time there was a princess named Cinderella and a princess named Snow White, and a princess named Bambi. 

And dragons were flying and going "pht, pht, pht." 

And then princesses went into a castle. 

And then they saw something big, dark and scary. 

And it was just their pet cat. 

The end. 

The author on her porch - possibly contemplating future creative literary endeavors.

My husband baited me the other night...

..with his reply when I asked him if I could mention the fact that he enjoys watching Bunheads with me on the blog. 

He said:

"Sure - no one reads your blog anyway."  


Burn. 


So now that I have the biggest one day audience I've ever had due to generous tweeter @vjack (from the Atheist Revolution page on Twitter), who picked up the link from my friend Katie's blog at http://athmorality.blogspot.com 

I am putting it out there. 

We also watch Project Runway together.  

And those are two of the biggest reasons I love you honey. 

Valentine's Day kid's picks for Etsy

And now for something completely different from my last post. 

It's a shameless attempt to get the peeps on my most popular Pinterest board (Arabella's Dream Wardrobe) to come check out my blog.

I've made 2 collages of my most favorite Valentine's Day kids clothes and accessories available on Etsy - here's the first one (mostly modern less-traditional colors).

1. Itzi and Bitzi 2. Sparkkids Clothes 3. mfandj 4. TheAfricanLlama 5. SweetandSilly3 6. kakabaka 7. Itzi and Bitzi 8. TheStripedSwallow 9. Giddy Up and Grow 10. 3lp Couture

And the second one (mostly traditional less modern):

1. Sunflower Seed Stitch 2. Giddy Up and Grow 3. pdstudiosstore 4. The Modish Life 5. ArtsyCraftsy 6. shopantsypants 7. Birdy Boots

I used PicMonkey's collage feature which was painless and intuitive to use. Almost immediately after I made these, I saw this tutorial from A Creative Cookie showing how to use Photoshop to make the item collages with a white background like all the cool blogger kids do - next time. 

In case you're wondering, I won't be ordering a Valentine's outfit for Arabella this year due to our budget, and also I'm hoping to get her to wear the cute pink dress that I couldn't get her to wear on Christmas.

This one:

If you know me In Real Life, this dress is a 4t - so please call dibs in the comments if you want this hand-me-down when Arabella outgrows it.

I'm coming out of the closet....

As many of you who are my Facebook friends already know, inspired by an article by a mommy blogger on CNN today (her blog is here if you are interested) , I came out of the closet.

Not that closet - I'm still straight and happily married (most of the time) to Keith.

The religion closet - I am an atheist.

Which makes me pretty lonely in mommy-blogger land AND in real life here in Roseville where it seems everyone attends a megachurch except us.  Seems like every other mom / DIY blogger in my age group has Jesus listed in her About Me section, and I'm asked which church we attend rather than if we attend church.  

I'm not wanting to be confrontational, just honest. And it feels like I'm misleading people if I don't admit that I don't consider myself a Christian, as this is usually just assumed as the default.

I've been speaking up consistently lately when I disagree with someone's opinion (politics/Obama, nursing in public, you know - the lighter topics) - not to be argumentative but because silence implies agreement.

I hate arguing (turns my stomach and clouds out my ability to focus on anything else) and don't think I will or even want to change anyone else's mind, but I do want to quietly point out that "everyone" actually doesn't think that by stating my own belief and backing it up with the reasons why.

Not to be a contrarian, but to put it out there that there are others in the world that don't think exactly the same way. Kind of like how travel is supposed to be broadening, I'm trying to give others the travelling experience on Facebook.

I realize this is polarizing, but:

Although I'm 33 and therefore in the right age group for it, I don't as a rule go around quoting Kurt Cobain.
However, this quote rules.

I don't begrudge others their religion or right to broadcast it.
I just don't want to present myself as something other than what I am, and my lack of religion is a big part of me.

I don't plan to make it a major theme of this blog, but it's one piece of who I am.


I was inspired by the awesomely positive reaction I got on Facebook today when I "came out".

I expected it from my handful of atheist / questioning friends and family, but I was MOST moved by how supportive my religious family and friends and respectful of my right to think differently.

I'm so relieved to know that my family and friends that know me in real life are much more open-minded than the average CNN reader, who reported the original editorial article as "inappropriate".  The topic was a woman who doesn't believe in God, and how & why she parents her children morally anyway - it was in the editorial section of the website. How this is "inappropriate" is beyond me.

Freedom of religion and speech are supposedly two of the United States' most cherished ideals.

I love my daughter with all my heart, and am committed to raising her as a moral person - which to me means one that functions in society keeping others' needs in mind and her impact on others.

I just don't personally believe that this moral compass comes from God, but that we have evolved as social creatures to whose ability to survive and thrive as humans depends on "moral" behavior.

She's only 3, but so far is a considerate, happy, kind child that shows no ill effects from lack of religion.

She is kind because Mom and Dad are kind to her.
She has manners because Mom and Dad always say please and thank you to her and around her.
She doesn't physically hurt others as she can imagine how it would feel herself.

She does have her developmentally appropriate moments of anger and difficulty controlling herself, which is when her father or I step in and help her control herself.

But no threat of punishment or promise of reward is made. The Golden Rule still works without the external belief system, at least for our family.

Two great parenting sites that I wholeheartedly love (if you'll take an atheist's word for it) although they are geared primarily towards Christian parents:

http://www.gentlechristianmothers.com/

http://realchilddevelopment.com/ (Leslie is the REAL DEAL - she's a Christian missionary in Costa Rica with 4 children and blogs about child development and her experiences in the field in her spare time) I have infinite respect for her work directly with children.


I'm closing with a quote from this post by a man who I consider one of the great philosophers of our time:

"The first follower transformed the lone nut into a leader... What a powerful thing we become when we are able to move beyond our self-consciousness, our sense of shame, and leap into something new, even if, this time, it's only because we feel hidden in the larger group. Maybe next time, we'll be the first follower.

 (Teacher Tom of course)



So CNN mom blogger TXBlue08 (who is smarter than me in not having her whole name broadcast on her blog)(although I'm relying on the miniscule readership of this blog to protect me from huge volumes of wrath) - thank you for leading the way by putting yourself out there. I'm glad I mustered up the courage to follow and speak my truth.

Excited (and a little apprehensive) to read your comments.

Shocking News!

Don't you love sensationalized titles that force you to click to satisfy your curiosity and then disappoint with something mundane? Yeah, me too.



Anyway, I was at least slightly shocked to find that when I googled "grilled cheese trampoline" there are 12 pages of results before this blog comes up. Which sucks considering that I made the quote on the front page 

"Arabella says "If we were little people, we will jump on grilled cheese sandwiches like they were trampolines" 

our official blog description (since I couldn't figure out then how else to make the quote show up on Blogger, although now I know there's a widget for that. so maybe it's good we aren't boxing ourselves in as the grilled cheese trampoline people, as we are so much more than that, and I'm going to rotate the grilled cheese thing with a few more catchphrases as Arabella creates them)  But at least I learned something and that is: 

There are a LOT of people that eat grilled cheese before/after jumping on trampolines, and then they go and write about it on the internet.



Another shocker: I saw this article on Problogger.net entitled 15 Bloggers to watch in 2013, and I'm not on the list. Apparently having a erratic posting schedule, haphazard formatting, and a narrow topic of interest does NOT put you in front of the Problogger editors (probably also not a plus to start sentences with "Which sucks because...", especially when you know it's wrong but are too lazy to write otherwise). Who knew?  But I still recommend reading the article although I was overlooked as there are some blogs on there I never heard of before, but look really interesting. 

Three that really stood out to me that I'll be following:

1. http://hairromance.com - a step-by-step  hairstyle blog 

2. http://yesandyes.org - A super fun blog about lots of random stuff. Plus, blogger Sarah Von Bargen is 33 years old like me so she's automatically got supercool cred with me.

3. http://www.alexbeadonphotography.com/blog/ - a photographer's blog with gorgeous photos and Photoshop tutorials that even I can understand. 

I asked Arabella for something "shocking" she knows to round out this post. Her's her contribution:

"Marching is so hard that you even fall down when you skate, and then you march, march, march on the ground. Twiggy told me that." 

So enough with the sensationalism already; I need to leave this where it's at now, as the bed I'm sitting on just became Arabella's Chinese restaurant and I need to pick "dinner, food or dinner."

Five things for Friday - January Crafts and Inspiration

Here's what's up:

1. I'm going to make some paper tassels today with all the tissue paper I have sitting around in the craft closet. Will try to wrangle Arabella into helping me but she'll most likely have her own plan involving very small pieces of tissue paper.

Tutorial from Pizzazerie.com

If I don't have any photos of the finished project posted by Monday, please harangue me about it. I am serious about no crafting procrastination in 2013!!! 

2. 

This is my extra-credit project (meaning if I have paper and/or time left over and I'm feeling it I may make these)

3. No, I am not making this - I just love it and am really inspired by it for a potential blog look for the future. This is by Eric Marinovich, a super awesome designer in San Francisco. I may need to save my pennies for him to make me a blog header someday (although right now I'm too afraid to even inquire how many pennies something like that would cost)

4. Found this on Pinterest, thought it was beautiful and inspirational: 

5. Saw this pic on Pinterest (came from someone's Tumblr which wasn't the original source, so I don't have a credit for it but please let me know if you know who's it is.

Anyway, I would gladly take this room as a studio apartment and conduct all life/work duties from the bathtub. (But I'd probably paint some of the wood in rainbow colors)

My word of 2013 is......

disencumber

Apparently, the thing this year is to have a theme word (or so I've noticed on Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, Fast Company's website, etc.) 

So that's mine up above in the big bold print - disencumber. Meaning: to unburden, free from debt or encumbrances (not anything to do with cucumbers)

I am one thousand percent focused about this one.  

I've actually been on a pretty good roll with this in December and just need to maintain the momentum - stuff is leaving our home to go to Goodwill or friends that will love and use it more than us at a fast clip, and nearly every empty food container and product package has been converted into a makeshift drawer organizer somewhere in the house.

This year is going to be more about shedding the old than adding on more new.  Extricating myself from excess weight, debt, email overload, clutter, etc.  

I want this year to be all about simplification, ease and lightness.  Freeing space on my emotional and physical hard drive, gaining momentum towards a lifestyle that I can sustain on a daily basis.  

The amount of maintenance required to keep up with our current possessions and email volume is ridiculous and could be spent baking a cake, writing a blog post, or felting soap (I don't know how to felt soap - I just love the idea of it - although I hate the sound of wet felt rubbing together so it's actually probably not for me). 

In the not-so-frivolous department, the extra time, money and energy I'll have from paring down can be spent helping family and friends with unexpected expenses, skating with my daughter, and pursuing a Master's in Child Development.  The stuff that really makes me happy. 

This is kind of turning a corner from the "Life to the fullest" tagline you see on the header, and that is completely intentional. This year I want a year less full, with room left over to breathe and enjoy it.  To put it another way, I want to:

s

Stop me if you've seen this one before

I'm not going to be confused with a monk anytime soon - my version of minimalism is still going to be most people's maximilism. But systems are being put in place so that my family can spend our time doing more important and fulfilling things than look for my cellphone for the umpteenth time. 

In the vein of our easy breezy theme, here is a simple and inexpensive style tip for the New Year from Arabella:

A soda bottle cap makes a lovely and stylish cap for your Calico Critters creature.  And if you drink Diet Coke at even 10% of the rate Arabella's mom does, there will never be a shortage of hats in your home.

December in a nutshell (or more accurately, like a handful of photos and words)

Hello everybody (handful of family and friends that read this, plus dozens of spambots)

 This blog is still alive - I've just been neglectful in posting over the holidays and in flux while deciding if/when to move the blog to Wordpress as well as getting the new blog design installed. I'm planning to blog up a storm in January though - here's to hoping life doesn't get in the way.

We had a great Christmas and are looking forward to the new year.  So here is the month of December condensed into a single post.



Here's Arabella with one of her most prized presents - her rocking horsie from Grandma Susan. As of publication date, this horse is named Blueberry, but it has already changed about 3 times (first name was Fontanya) and may already have changed by the time you're reading this. Arabella's feeding him (her?) the everlasting plastic carrot that came with him, and also enjoys combing his mane.

Here's Arabella's haul from Mom and Dad, and Santa. Daddy kept adding things to the cart so blame him for the overkill. Guess Who has been quite popular, although Arabella needs a little help still to keep it straight in her head. Then we went to my Grandma's house and doubled the pile - Arabella will have plenty to keep her busy until next birthday in October.

Arabella being snowed upon on Dovewood Court - the over the top Christmas light cul-de-sac in Orangevale.

With Santa at the Folsom Zoo - pretty self-explanatory.

On the 21st, we went to a super fun end-of-the-world party with this awesome Mayan gingerbread house. On top is the Rice Krispy snowman to be sacrificed. Although very anticlimatic that the world did not end on the 21st as planned, at least the gingerbread was very, very good.
Arabella also got to play Ms. Pacman at this party and seems to be a natural with the joystick.  Her preferred invective upon losing at the game was "Poopyhead"                                                                  

Baking Christmas cookies with cousin Jessie and Aunt Donna. 

Arabella blending in with a gingerbread family (also on Dovewood Court)

Reading a story with Grandpa Bob while Great-Grandma Barbara looks on.

Taking a photo of Daddy with THE Christmas Tree on her own camera.

Gingerbread house made by Grandma Susan and Arabella - Mom gets credit for buying the kit and guilting Grandma Susan into making it though.














How was your December / Christmas / Festivus / Hannukah / etc.? We'd love to know!

Help me choose - design choice for Arabella's room!

1.

2.

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4.

 

5.

6.

Sorry for taking the pics at an angle - I used Arabella's bed for the flat space. Any opinions/advice would be mucho appreciated. Thank you!

New Polyvore - What I would wear to AltSummit

I was inspired by a post on AltSummit's blog today about the perfect dress for a blogger meet-up or meeting sponsors.

AltSummit is "the premier business conference for pioneering bloggers and rookie bloggers alike." There's one in January in Salt Lake City and one in August in NYC (those lucky bloggers got a surprise visit from Martha Stewart!) But that doesn't begin to describe how cool it is so here's some pictures:

By Sara Urquhart. Photography of Alt NYC, Rooftop party.

 Tickets are sold out already for the next AltSummit in January 2013, but someday I am going to AltSummit. 

For now, I'm going to make a "What I would wear to AltSummit" Polyvore dream board at least once a week. Here's the first one. 

What I would wear to AltSummit - Oct. 2nd 2012 by arabellajane

Lace formal dress / Ribbed tight / Platform high heels / Satchel bag / Jewelry


Ok, I'm ready for you to go all Joan Rivers on me -  especially you Anonymous Mary!  I think it's a cute colorful mixed match to get noticed but it's definitely not neutral. Let me know what you think in the comments (as always). 


REVISION: I just found the most adorable dress ever on Nordstrom for Arabella, plus I noticed that there were some kids in the Alt Summit photos. So forget that purse - Arabella in this adorable yellow dress is my new accessory.  The blog is about her after all. (I was able to update my Polyvore on the Polyvore site with this dress in place of the purse but not on the blog - don't know why)

The cutest Arabella dress I ever saw - from Nordstrom.

What's on my mind today - Random musings

Dinosaur Train - does anyone else (or anyone else's kids) watch this PBS kids show?

This is probably the most controversial opinion I've ever blogged, but I'm saying it:

I can't stand Dinosaur Train

 

The thought behind this show's creation must have been: "What are two things that kids like? Dinosaurs and trains! They never coexisted in history, but so what?" and they just randomly threw them together.  Almost as ridiculous as a group of adorable little ponies frolicking in a wedding castle - because little girls like ponies, weddings AND castles. 

Yes, I know that almost all kids' shows are misleading (animals don't actually talk, etc.) but this one just seems particularly egregious.  I think what irritates me most is that it mixes in a real paleontologist giving dinosaur facts with the ridiculous mixing of the dinosaurs from different time periods (that in reality would be eating each other or at least acting aggressively), plus the dinosaurs building and running a train.  

The thing that drove me over the edge to post about this (aside from needing to write a new blog post and being out of ideas) was that today the dinosaurs were examining a chart of the alphabet - that was just a bridge too far for this mom.  

p.s. My daughter (and husband) love this show - I do think that Buddy (the main character - you know, the baby T Rex that was adopted by a Pteranodon family) is adorable, and the theme song is catchy in a earworm, can't stop thinking about it sort of way.  But I reserve the right to whine to my husband about all the ridiculousness everytime we watch it.  

Does Dinosaur Train drive you crazy too, or do you love it, or have you never heard of it? Or is there another show that your kids love that drives you up a wall? 

Let me know in the comments!  

Arabella's First Camping Trip!

Last weekend was Arabella's first camping trip!  We attended ArtBeast's Festival of Little Houses in Coloma - this was their 2nd year throwing this awesome event to raise money for Tubman House. Direct from their website:

Waking the Village is a nonprofit organization directing Tubman House, a free, 18 month transitional living program for Sacramento's homeless, parenting youth. At Tubman House, youth experience dynamic coursework, community support, counseling and healthy living so that they leave prepared to be leaders in their own lives and the lives of their communities.

I can't adequately describe the awesomeness of the experience in words, so I'm mostly going to illustrate with photos.  I definitely recommend anyone with children (even if you don't have children - just know there will be lots of them running around) to sign up for this event next year as soon as registration opens. They sold out this year and are considering how to expand the event next year without ruining it - my hope is that they add additional weekends.

The Itinerary

Arabella stomping in the American River (which was freezing cold! but felt good with the hot weather for a few minutes before my legs went numb)

Pinata making was a craft station hosted by Sol Collective. Arabella was inspired by her kids' apron with a bumblebee on it to make a bumblebee design - concept and execution is entirely by Arabella except Mom cut the strips and fringe and monitored glue usage. 

Beautiful bird pinata on display at the pinata-making station. If you're interested in learning to make a beautiful pinata like this, I was advised that Sol Collective is teaching the pinata and papier-mache techniques  to anyone that wants to learn at their studio this week as they are prepping for huge Day of the Dead / Dio De las Muertas celebrations throughout October in Old Sac (schedule of events is here)

 Snow Cones were available the whole weekend for $1 - made with homemade Strawberry or Watermelon Syrup. I took a slurp - it tasted great. In spite of the snowcone, Arabella still had a diva moment at dinner on Saturday when she was informed that there were no Shirley Temples to be had on the campground (Shirley Temple is Arabella's signature drink) It was worse than Ramona with no Pinot Grigio (and if you don't get that reference you should be proud of yourself for not succumbing to trash TV / if you do get that reference - message me! I love to have someone to converse my guilty pleasures with)

Moon lanterns and artwork drying along the river.

We purchased this gnome family on Saturday - $2 each was a steal!. The purple one is the baby, red one is the mommy and gray one is the daddy, of course.

More wading in the river - this time with 

water shoes on. Water is so clear and lovely up there.

Entrance to the Fairy Woods

Our fairy  gnome house. Arabella wanted it round so it resembles a nest. The mother and father gnome are watching their pinecone TV and the baby gnome is in it's nutshell cradle. Arabella is quality testing the gnome's food (wild berries)

A neighboring fairy house.

First nature sighting - little frog on the bathroom mirror.

Second animal sightings- goose and ducks right outside our campsite.

First morning at camp - Arabella and Shay checking out the river while still in pajamas. Keith snapped this photo while Shay's mom and I were yoga-ing in our pajamas (no photos of that will be posted!)

These cardboard things were a big hit with all the kids - some were made into teepees by stringing them on a hoop on the top, and the kids had fun running through them. 

This one reminds me of a dinosaur skeleton. The kids also took a bunch and made lincoln log style cabins, and dismantled some into flat pieces to slide down this hill.

Our little gnome family - we made these on Sunday at camp but was out of power so I took this pic at home on our coffee table. Arabella made the one in the middle - she picked the hair, robe and thread colors and cut the hair - she wanted it short! Arabella named her Rockidah. The one on the right is mine and Keith made the one on the left. We didn't name ours but we are open to suggestions. After I took this pic I left them posed like this for about an hour on the table but they really started to creep me out (looked like they were coming for me) and I moved them to Arabella's room.

In conclusion, here's my best piece of camping advice: DO NOT BUY A TENT THAT SLEEPS EXACTLY THE # OF PEOPLE YOU HAVE - YOU MAY BE OK TO SLEEP IN THAT TENT BUT GETTING DRESSED, ETC. WILL BE IMPOSSIBLE TO DO COMFORTABLY.  AND BRING A GOOD CAMERA TO CAPTURE ALL THE MEMORIES FOR POSTERITY.