woot!woot! we have a winner (or two)

the swiss alps are staggering in their beauty, jutting from valley to sky at startling angles. i'd only brought my 50mm as it was light and easy to wear twelve hours a day, but i couldn't begin to record the enormity of the alps, and the theme of the trip quickly became "if only i had a wide angle lens."



this is the top half of the view from the railway climbing to the jungfraujoch, the highest point in europe. double the height of the photo, and multiply the length by perhaps nine, and you will arrive at the tableau visible from our railcar.

yes, i know. if only i'd had a wide angle lens.

in any case, i'm home now, and catching up on sewing orders and photosessions and laundry and general puttering around the house. i mention all this to beg your patience--i will get to posting the trip photos, but it may take a few days.

lastly, we have two winners from last week's drawing: numbers 18 and 98.

assuming i can count (which, given the jetlag, might be presumptuous), the winner of the lucky necklace is jami oppold, and mopsy goes to skylarKD. congrats, girls! email me with your addys and i'll ship these lovelies out to you.


also: ten thousand bonus points to the hubby. not only were the kids intact upon my return, they were also happy and clean. the house was freshly scrubbed, mopped, and hoovered. he'd even vacuumed out my van.

danke, babe. you're all sorts of wonderful.

switzerland is the new miami

off to the land of the funiculars. it's where all the cool kids go on spring break.

in the meantime, i wanted to give K&L a sneak peek from their photoshoot yesterday (my first newborn session--isn't he beautiful?)



he was such a contented little guy, awake for most of the shoot, but completely happy to just recline and gaze at his mom and stick out his tongue and be all sorts of adorable. thanks, guys, for affording me this opportunity...and for making such cute kids!

ok, internet at large...behave yourselves in my absence. and don't forget to enter to win the lucky necklace or mopsy in the post down yonder. auf wiedersehen!

the fifty-cent tour

if you've arrived here via the ultimate blog party, benvenuto. in the interest of preventing Death By Boredom, i shall give you the abbreviated blog tour.

i'm nicole, aka nic, nicki, mom, or most popular: MOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM (followed by he's touching me!she breathed on me!i can't find my basketball shoes!). it's an amazingly common name, eh?



these here are my favoritest people, the progeny. they're a rowdy, happy crew. i love them so.



(my other favoritest person, the hubby, is camera shy. or something.)


i'm a crafter of handmade goodies. also a burgeoning photographer.

i adore:
1. waffles topped with strawberries and sweet cream
2. lyrical novels
3. stripey knee socks
4. fringe
5. british accents
6. anything smothered in chocolate, with this glaring exception
7. giving things away

which brings me to the part of this post where we give things away.

thing number one is a hand-stamped sterling teardrop pendant on a delicate sixteen-inch necklace with lucite floral accents. perfect for you, or the person whose birthday will sneak up on you next tuesday.







thing number two is mopsy, a bitty rabbit with a hand-cut note of affirmation. she's crafted from wool felt and the very last scraps of my amy butler ginger bliss fabric. i think i may enter to win this one myself.





in case you are afraid you'll miss out on mopsy, her brother flopsy is up for sale in my etsy shop.

to win thing one or thing two, please just say hi in the comment section below, and if you happen to have a good knock-knock joke, tack that on. (if not, no worries. just say hello.) i'm trying to teach my four-year-old actual jokes (as opposed to her made-up jokes, which inevitably feature the words potty, poop, and/or booty. it's just a stage, right?).

tell me in your comment which prize you'd prefer, and i'll pick two winners at random next weekend.

thanks for stopping by. party on.


* * *

my ubp wishlist includes:
kitchen aid artisan stand mixer from MomsWhoThink
pair of eleven collection shoes from Wishing Penny
handmade soap from Goat Milk Stuff
16, 19, 21, 22, USC26, USC11, INTL61, INTL41, 89, USC66, USC58, 41, USC15, 118, 52, 55, USC9, USC 56, 88, 91, USC59, USC67, 56, 130, 123, USC48

yay!

grab your party hats

...and hop on over to 5 minutes for mom to join the Ultimate Blog Party. they've got all kinds of nifty prizes lined up, including a kitchen aid artisan stand mixer in the color of your choice. or my choice. since i have serious plans to win that beautiful thing.

come on over for a jolly good time.

nothing but blue skies

i love the clean light after a storm.

going places

my girl has lean, narrow feet with those curly monkey toes.

i wonder where they'll take her.



and now, a feet poem (that is actually not so much about feet)

He Wishes For The Cloths Of Heaven {William Butler Yeats}
Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

he gets it from his father

we started off moody and intense




but then he caught that mischievous gleam in his eyes




and it was a rapid downward spiral from there on out.



(and yes, i did make him turn his tee inside out, which was a compromise between the screen printed right side and the button-down shirt i wanted him to wear. worked for me.)




in other news, it is now coldish only five out of every seven days, a sign that Perhaps It Shall Not Be Winter For The Rest of My Life. i'd almost abandoned hope.


and now, a few favorite quotes du jour. enjoy.

"The important thing is this: To be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become." {Charles Dubois}

"You have to trust your own muse. Even if she has a clubfoot and is subject to unpredictable seizures." {Glen Cook}

"If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?" {Albert Einstein}

ah yes, research. i knew there was a diplomatic term for what i've been up to.

the one who wears my genes

He Who Must Not Be Photographed begrudged me a few shots on saturday.






methinks i should sharpen my coercion techniques more often.

self-portrait challenge: headless.1

(belated self-portrait tuesday)



me in glasses with no make-up.




do join us: self-portrait challenge on flickr.

things one thinks about at 1:37 in the pm

1. i am so egocentric that even at age thirty-two i have difficulty wrapping my mind around the thought that there are people in the tail end of summer right now. half a globe of people, in fact. this unsettles me.

2. three weeks from now i shall be in switzerland; i need the crash course on yodeling so i can blend in with the locals.

3. i like cheese.

4. also bloomers, crocuses, and chunky knitted wrist-warmers.

5. this is elle telling me about ladybug wings. she's an animated one, that child.





6. i wish daylight saving time would go away.

in fact, with all the landofthefree/homeofthebrave hype we have going on in the states, i think we ought to be able to vote on this here bit of legislation.

poll by twiigs.com

*for those of you in countries that also experience the wonder of daylight saving, how 'bout we join forces and take this to the UN or something? because you know. i'm sure they'll stick this high up on their agenda. like right under Achieve World Peace.

the middle of the day

laundry: 4 loads completed, 3 to go
treadmill: 1 mile down, 4 to go
sewing: .75 projects done, 1.25 to go
photos: done
lunch: done
neatening of household clutter: done (and yet somehow never done)

there are still bills to be paid, papers to be sorted, emails to respond to. and in twenty minutes the boys shall pound through the front doorway with their heaps of homework and energy and retellings of recess capers and general school paraphernalia. we'll do math facts and spelling words and snacks and dinner. we'll fold laundry and play games and brush our teeth to the background cacaphony of a family of six.

but for just a minute, in the middle of this half-finished day, i breathe in the quiet. and i relish this moment where it couldn't be clearer how beautiful an ordinary life can be.