Happy Friday everyone! I love the promise of a weekend, don’t you? With crafty projects to do (see below) and our friend Jay coming to stay, this promises to be a good one. Check out Jay’s amazing watercolor work here. I might rename his website “Talent to Spare” if only he would let me. This painting from his Block Island series features the bungalow where Neil and I spent our honeymoon.

Anyway, a piece of random trivia about the Sattin Household… we don’t get sick. Or at least, not often. We’re hearty stock, thank god, but every once in a while a little sniffle takes hold. Hence me sitting here with a box of tissues instead of my usual box of bon-bons. Ha! But really, to underscore just how healthy we tend to be, this same box of tissues was in our kitchen when we bought the house about a year and a half ago. It had already been opened and there’s currently about a third left. Take that, pesky viruses.

Now if I can manage to keep my head off my pillow for the rest of the day, I’m going to be tackling Dash’s birthday banner. I’ve been wanting to make something like this for a while. Kind of makes me feel like I’m back in school taking art classes. If only!

The concept is pretty basic. Cutting out circles of paper in two different sizes, gluing them together, and scalloping the edges of the larger, outer circle.

And you do that fourteen thirteen times. H-A-P-P-Y-B-I-R-T-H-D-A-Y.

And then you wish you had sprung for better scissors because, ouch. Did I buy the child-size version or something?

And then I began the letter transfer process. I bought these Martha Stewart letters at Michael’s and realized once I started that there’s only one “P” in the pack. Martha, what gives? Is that how you get people to buy your premade birthday banner? That’s really low.
So I have to go back to Michael’s to buy ANOTHER package of letters (Martha, you owe me) in order to finish this, but here’s a sneak preview. Note the not-so-straight-lines here. I had a hard time keeping the transfer still.

Next update will show all thirteen letters strung up. And then what? Hmm… I don’t know, it’s a pretty loose birthday theme around these parts. I’m pretty much just going with that aqua/red/white color combo. Which means I get to use my milkglass dishes to serve. Feel free to write in with some ideas. Keep in mind, I only have one week. And a baby who moves around lightening fast.

Have a great weekend!

Things I’ve learned so far this morning:

1. Cooking lamb makes a surprisingly greasy mess in the oven. This is fun to find out the following morning. Yum.

2. Don’t turn the oven to self-clean without first opening windows and/or running the overhead fan. Otherwise, you might be sitting on your couch in your pj’s, minding your own business, and suddenly think your house might be on fire.

3. Open windows on a day when the temperature is resting right around 20 degrees? Smart. Wicked smart.

Ok, to the person who found me searching for “baby danger,” I sincerely hope you did not find what you were looking for on my site.

The new mom takes a deep breath.

It snowed again! Yay. We took out our Christmas present to ourselves and hit the streets on new skis. The snow was perfect for it, powdery and light, and there wasn’t yet much sand or salt on the roads. It got us thinking how great it would be to be able to commute by ski during the winter. Not that either of us commutes. But still, what an option!

Got my hair cut today. I saw an old picture of me (circa 2003) from a friend’s wedding and had this moment where I realized, “Hey, I think this may have been my best hair ever.” I was blonder and much more single then. Funny that. So I had the same cut done with some long bangs added in for a touch of modernity. I like it! Maybe I’ll take a picture before I get a chance to butcher it with my hair styling “skills” later on. Lord knows it won’t look like this once I wash and style it.

I wanted to share some recently thrifting fun with you all. First, a strange item (for me anyway).

Anyone out there know what it is? The top opens to show a divided main compartment. If attached to the wall, I think it would make a great place to store incoming mail of the bill variety. You could just close the lid and forget all about it! I don’t know its exact origins, but I know at least the line of work it was in. It has something to do with old street lights. Anyone else know more details? Anyone work for Anthes? Anyone work with a foco flar in their day to day life? Anyone just enjoy saying “foco flar” like I do?

Ok, this one is a bit more straight forward. I thought it would be great for my new sewing table:

And the insides:

It should provide some inspiration for my crafting once I get that room together. Any day now….

At least I have good hair.

That’s what I think about when I sit down to think about Dash’s first birthday extravaganza. Red carpets, designer clothes, corporate sponsors, and of course, the swag….

Then I think, for someone who didn’t even realize Christmas was happening, is a birthday party even going to register? The answer is most likely no. Though he probably will wonder what all these people are doing in our house playing with his toys and distracting his parents from their true focus: indulging his every whim.

Ah, but it’s not about him, is it? Nah, it’s about me. It’s about us. It’s about planning a fun afternoon for friends and family and the anticipation of letting Dash have a tiny cupcake for the first time ever (question to experienced parents: just how bad are the sugar rushes?).

The planning has been fun so far. Treats and drinks for everyone, some simple decorations (which may not look so hot in our pinkish red dining room. mental note: time to paint that room.), and a quick gathering of extra chairs so people have a spot to plop on. On second thought, maybe just a few extra large pillows on the floor.

And speaking of planning, check out what’s happening in The Other Dash’s life. Such a cute idea (and an excellent way to stay away from annoying disney themed stuff) that I am totally going to steal next year. I’ll probably add cardboard box robot bodies for the adults to do a little Flight of the Conchords. Thanks Liz!

Anyway, I have a little under two weeks to make it happen. I’ll update you so you’ll feel like you’re actually planning the party with me. Won’t that be fun?

Tonya: Say, Internet… could you help me clear off this counter? I’d like to put all the drinks there for the party.

Internet:

Tonya: Hmm… ok. I just thought we were doing this together. Clean the bathroom?

Internet: (twiddles thumbs)

Tonya: Help eat cupcakes?

Internet: I thought you’d never ask.

I figured as much. But before we get to all of that, here’s a quick rundown of our weekend. We put up baby gates (take that you wandering baby, you!), we sold the crib (hello tiny bed for a tiny baby!), and we were blessed by an owl. I couldn’t get too close and my zoom only goes so far, but here’s our little outdoor friend:

And Dash spent some time in a toy store on Sunday looking for a new toy to replace a Christmas gift that we decided was a little too potentially lead-phalate-poisoning-friendly. I cannot stress enough how much he enjoyed it. Naturally, I did not bring the camera in, because well, then I would have had pictures of the event. Silly me.

This is what we brought home:

It took a few turns of us showing him how it worked before he tried it, and then he didn’t want to drop the ball in, he just wanted to bang it against the top. Then when he did let go, he wanted the ball back and kept reaching back in to find it. “Dash sweety, see it rolling down?” No. That ball was NOT the ball he just let go of, that was some other ball. Another turn and he figured it right out and is full-on loving this toy. And by full-on, I mean he has several times now tried to get on top of it, causing it to crash to the ground. Thanks Meme and Grandpa Bum. He really does love it. So much so that he passed out on the couch after much ball tower fun.

UPDATE apparently it’s called a Rollipop, though I prefer Ball Tower, Tower of Balls. Also, it seems we got quite a deal on it. My goodness, it’s a fun toy but I’m not sure it’s worth quite this much.