a gift for John

Our handmade gift for John this Christmas was a little love note. I used a sewing machine to make the lines on fabric for the "ruled paper", and Lio and Paloma used a disappearing fabric pen to write their messages to John. I embroidered over their handwriting, and the ink disappeared a short while later. I think it's the sweetest gift ever - a little bit of them captured in time.

playroom love - not as much

So, the excitement about changing the playroom space for Lio and Paloma was completely dashed one day before Christmas. When John was getting ready to install the hanging things from the ceiling, we realized that there was no possible way to safely install everything without doing some construction to the ceiling. If this was our "forever" house, we would go for it. But with wanting to move we just thought it was a bad idea.

We were stuck without any other ideas of what to give the kids from us, so at the last minute we did paint the puppet theater and did our best to make the space look different and fun.

Even if I'm the one who's most disappointed that we didn't get to do our original idea, the kids do seem excited about the changes! Paloma has been loving playing "cafe" in the space, and Lio loves that the curtains can close and he can have a totally private area in the alcove. I'm still in the process of making tons of pillows for the couch, and I think with the small touches there can still be a bit of playroom love, only not as much as originally planned.

playroom love

John and I have been planning to update the playroom for the kids for Christmas. We just really need it to be a place where it's bright and colorful, but most of all a fun place to be. IKEA has been the perfect spot to find those special things that will really transform the space for Lio and Paloma.

Just how cool is this hanging chair? I would love to sit and read a book in here! I think they will love it, too. Now we have to just find the perfect place to hang it so that it won't bang into walls.
An indoor climbing ladder? How great would that be as a kid?! Again, placement will be key.
And some hanging bars - I know, I know, again w/the placement!

We have a few alcove-y areas, so my favorite find was this great striped canvas, ON SALE!, for $2.99 a yard. I'm making ceiling to floor curtains to hang in front of the opening of an alcove - to create a stage, cafe, private nook area, etc.

And look how great this fabric is!

Not on sale, but just bought a bit to make some whimsical pillows for the couch in the playroom.

The only project that we had hoped to get done, but have just run out of time for, is refurbishing a big puppet theater. It's too much work to take on a few days before Christmas, but I think it would be a fun addition to the playroom.

I hope that with these changes the kids have some playroom love.

Photo Shoot '09

We were completely inspired by the crewcuts catalogue this year when planning the photo of the kids for our Christmas card. Last night and this morning the snow was falling and looked so beautiful on the trees, so John set up the props and we took the kids out to snap some pictures.

I love how they turned out.

Happy Holidays to you all!

making cookies

Paloma and I had a great day making cookies

for the Lanzador Christmas get together.

She pulls her chair up to the counter and she's there

every step of the way wanting to help.

She's really good at listening and watching, then trying it on her own.

And after awhile I was just the one putting the cookie trays in the oven.

They turned out delicious - not a single one was left

(even Paloma and Lio commented on how

they didn't even get one at the party!) -

and I think it was because they were made with so much love.

collecting

Oh my! Paloma loves collecting "Littlest Pet Shop", and it's one of the main (out of the very few) requests in her letter to Santa this year. So the question is, does Santa add to the already out of control collection?

traditions

L & P's Christmas Traditions:

*new pajamas from Santa, delivered Christmas Eve

(who doesn't love new and cozy pjs?)

*picking out a special ornament each year

(won't that be a great collection to pass down

when they have their own trees?)

*a special snow globe from Santa each year

(another great collection to pass down)

(*but his elf has yet to find any reasonably priced/cute ones this year!!!)

gingerbread houses!

We decorated our gingerbread houses on Sunday, and each year it's getting better and better. We used orange juice cartons cut down to Lio and Paloma's specifications, and I found a great recipe for the icing, which was super fluffy and dried perfectly. Graham crackers fit the dimensions of our houses, and bowls and bowls of candy were ready for decorating.

Lio and Paloma each had their own icing bag and their own houses, and were able to decide exactly which piece of candy went where. Lio was most interested in getting done so he could eat some of the candy, while Paloma was really meticulous and took her time! (The candy we used was soooooo stale - left over from last Christmas and even the Halloween before that, so they weren't even that interested in eating while creating! I promised some "fresh" treats when we finished.)

They did a really great job! They even made really cute snowmen out of marshmallows. I'm hoping to get some cute pictures of them with the finished houses for Christmas cards this year. We'll see how that goes!

Here's the icing recipe in case you need one. It truly is a great one!

Royal Icing for Gingerbread Houses:

1 lb. powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
3 egg whites (room temp.), unbeaten

Beat on low speed until all ingredients are well blended, then beat on high speed until light and fluffy.

wonderful news!

We just got the best news in the mail the other day!

And not only was the news wonderful, but the birth announcement was a hand carved print made by our friend, the new dad, Andy.

Andy and John were great friends in college - they took lots of printmaking classes together, had similar quirky interests, and were lots of fun to hang out with. Andy is actually from the same home town as me, but we never met until hanging out with John! John and Andy made the cross country road trip to move to San Francisco 18 (oh my gosh, has it been that long already?!) years ago. Andy ended up staying, and well, John came home for me.

John carved and printed his own congrats card for Andy, Kristina and sweet baby Noah.

We found this retro robot bank as a gift that is a perfect match with Andy's style. Hope they love it!

best book ever

Lio got 'The Boys' Doodle Book' a few days ago, and it's all he wants to do! It has great starter ideas that are partially drawn in, and then the little artist completes the rest. The 1st page he wanted to do had wooden shelves with different sizes of specimen jars, and he had to "sketch in some slimy specimens". So much fun, and so creative. I highly recommend it! There's a girl version, and also a 'Beautiful Doodles' for anyone.

tree farm

Last year when we went to the tree farm to get our Christmas tree, it was freezing cold and a blizzard, what you should really expect in December, and all I really remember is the kids being miserable and wanting to go home. We found the tree pretty fast, and got back in the car where it was warm.

This year we decided to take advantage of the warm and sunny weather this past weekend, and got our tree earlier than we ever have before. It was a perfect day, maybe even a little too warm, and the kids had fun playing 'Marco Polo' in the rows and rows of trees. They actually didn't want to leave when it was time to go home!

(The tree's up in the stand, but we're taking it slow on putting up the lights and ornaments. It's been pretty stress free, and I'm loving it.)