Favorites: Bella

I have been trying to do a new post each day.  Sometimes my life just isn't very exciting.  Well, most of the time it isn't. 

The heat has been taking a toll on me and I haven't really done much of anything.  Heck, that laundry that I blogged about the other day, the clean stuff is still sitting on the chair in the other room just waiting for me to give it some attention.  The girls are here today.  Might be something for them to do! :)

Not too long ago I got a new laptop for work.  My old one had seen better days and was around 5 years old.  It also weighed 1.5 million pounds.  Not that I moved it around much.  The battery didn't work so it had to be plugged in.

But, when I got the new laptop I moved pictures over from the old computer.  Of course I started looking through all the pictures and saw how cute the girls were.  I mean, they still are.  But, baby pictures...  They just kill me.

I think I have a handful of new readers so I thought I could share my favorite pictures of each of the girls. 

Since Bella is my first, I figured she could be first on here.

1 day old

6 months old

6 months old

10 months old

20 months

20 months

21 months

22 months

22 months

23 months

2 years 4 months

2 years 5 months

2 years 5 months

2 years 7 months

3 years 10 months

And there you have my favorite pictures of Bella.  It wasn't easy to pick through so many.  But, I couldn't put them all here.

boiling point

I'm sitting here at my desk.  It's 9:30 am and I am just dreading the thought of making it through another sweat filled day.

I don't have to do anything to start sweating.  I can be sitting still not moving a finger and my forehead feels like I just stepped out of the shower.

I can tell you I don't remember last summer being this bad.  Because the year before was worse and I remember comparing the two and thinking we got off lucky that year.

At night it is the worst.  The part of Mexico where we live has a daily range in temperature of about 40 degrees.  During the day we can get up in the 90's and at night it will be in the 50's.  You would think at night the house would feel good.  WRONG!  The house becomes an oven at night.  It has had all day to warm up.  So, while it is nice and cool outside, the house feels like a sauna.  Sleeping in a sauna is disgusting and difficult.

My problem is I don't know where the rain is!  From experience it should be here at any time.  Jorge told me the other day that people here (or at least what he has heard) think once it is a full moon the rain starts.  He said the moon was full last night.  I haven't looked to see if that is true.  All I really want is to stop seeing this:

And start seeing this:

Come NOW rain!

pizza for lunch

Now that the girls are old enough to do things on their own, I have fully taken advantage of it. 

I have started having them fold and put away all the clean clothes.  Their clothes are little, but there are a TON of them.

And, they are more than eager to help with making food.  Today I let them make their own pizza.

Starting with the dough.

Adding the pizza sauce.

Emily adding cheese.

Bella adding cheese.

They had fun and made their own lunch.  With a side of cut up mango, the meal was complete!

Side note:  These pictures were taken today.  Why the girls choose to wear long sleeve t-shirts and jeans when it is so hot, only they know why.  I just boil it down to them being crazy.

permanent guest

The lizard that I told you about the other day is STILL here.  I'm not sure why he won't leave. 

He moved from the top of the window and stayed right in the spot all day yesterday.

He is now under the folded up swimming pool on the back patio. 

Maybe he is friends with Colbie, our Chihuahua...

personality disorder

I admit it.  I easily get obsessed with things.  Anything.  Songs, projects, foods, movies.  The list can go on and on.

My friend and college roommate, Amy, can attest to my addiction to The Cranberries album No Need to Argue.  I played it on repeat who knows how many days/weeks/months in a row.  And I am listen to it right now just for kicks.  Poor Amy.

Ask Jorge how often I watch my Dawson's Creek DVDs.  Too many too count.  Even the girls know from seeing a screen on pause that it is Dawson's Creek.

Yes, I know.  I have issues.  But, the first step is admittance, right?  But, I really don't think I need help.

I am in the house a lot.  A LOT!  So, I get bored with looking at the same things over and over.  (Did I mention I am addicted to rearranging furniture?)  Over the past few years I have recovered the throw pillows on the couch at least 3 or 4 times.  It is an easy way to change the look.

When we went to Cantia the other day I bought some throw pillow inserts.  They were only $4!  I thought that was a heck of a bargain.  Let the obsession begin.

You know my post the other day shows a pillow I made.  That started it all.  I had a pillow that I wanted to recover AND these remaining pillow inserts.  I made a few new pillows.

The problem with me being obsessed is other things get pushed aside.  Like the laundry.

Clean clothes

dirty clothes

I have since put away the clean clothes and have started a load of the dirty clothes.

Today I am staying clear of the sewing machine.  I have to spend time actually working. 

And a side note.  I wanted to give a shout out to Leslie at Motherhood in Mexico for an easy recipe for what became my breakfast this morning. 

I love her site because I can find the ingredients!  Hooray for that!

peeping tom

Yesterday I went outside to go to the laundry room (which is outside of our bedroom) and noticed that someone was looking in my bedroom window at me.

I think it is time for some privacy shades.  I feel so exposed.

british flag pillow...for Heather

I was chatting with my very dear friend Heather on FB today.  We were talking about sewing pillows and buying pillows.  Very important stuff.  Heather showed me a few pillows she wanted, asking if I could possibly sew some for her.  Of course I will!

She pointed out this pillow that she wants but she says it is too pricey (I agree 100%).  I told her maybe she could piece it together, kind of like a quilt.  From her response I knew that wasn't something she was interested in doing.  I told her that if I got around to it I would attempt making it myself and if I got it right I would make her one when I got back to the States in a few months.

Well, after getting off the chat with her I decided to give it a whirl.  It wasn't too difficult.  The most difficult part was figuring out how big to cut each of the pieces and figuring how to cut all the pieces.

I think overall I did fairly well for the first try.  I did mark down all the dimensions of all the piece and instructions for round two, when I make it for her.

Just thought I would share the results and let Heather have a chance to tell me if she would like one.  Next time I would make the cross in the middle more narrow.  Other than that, I think it is OK as is.

Just so you know, the colors of the pillow are a dark pink and navy blue.  The color isn't showing very correctly in the pictures.

So, what do you think?

what a find!

Yesterday we set off to Aguascalientes on a mission.  Two missions actually, but only one interested me.  To look for a store and find out about another tattoo for Jorge.  Let's just not talk about the tattoo...

The store.  We go to Aguascalientes for most things I need that I can't find here in Jalos.  It isn't a bad drive, just an hour and a half.  Wish it were a bit closer, but it is probably a good thing it isn't.  It is easy to restrain from spending money when you live here, away from everything.

We saw a billboard a while back that was advertising a store called Cantia.  We had heard from a few others about the store but really didn't give it any thought.  During our last outing to "the city" we saw the billboard again and I told Jorge we should check it out.

I have to admit that most times (other than Costco) I have been disappointed when we go to stores here.  Either they still don't have any kind of selection and/or the quality of the items are horrible.  OR, they do have things that I haven't found anywhere else but the prices are so ridiculous that it just make me mad.

So, when we set off for Cantia I expected nothing and hoped for everything.  We got to the store, since it was a Friday there weren't many people there.  Bonus!  We walked through the doors and I am sure my face lit up.  It was so great!  It is pretty much a Mexican IKEA.  A little piece of heaven right there in Aguascalientes!

It wasn't as big as IKEA and didn't have as many products, but it has to be a sister store.  The design of the building, the layout of the store, the price tags, everything was identical to IKEA.  And we all know how awesome IKEA is.

Not only was it exciting that this store is within close proximity to me (I believe there is only this one in Mexico) but the prices are very affordable.  Oh my, I just am in love with the place!  When we left I told Jorge that I could spend the rest of the day in the store but I don't want to clean out the bank account.  Plus, we have a Honda Accord so we are limited in what we can fit in the car. 

I started to take pictures inside but Jorge pointed out that there was a sign when we first walked in that said no cameras. 

I bought a shelf that I intended on putting in the girls' room but it ended up out here by their craft table.  I'll get a second one for them later.

And the pink collapsible box that is on the second shelf.

And some nesting bowls.

And a really cute tote for the girls' stuffed animals...not that they will fit all their animals in there.

And this pitcher.  Do you see what is in the pitcher?  Yes, those are REAL lemons.  Found them at the Wal-Mart there.  My aunt and friend sent me some lemon peel that is jarred.  But, I am definitely going to find a few recipes that require lemon juice.  So EXCITED about this!

And, they had material at Cantia.  Cute material.  Remember, no cameras so no picture.  But, I did buy these two pieces of material.  They are upholstery material.  I think I will make a pillow cover with the green one.  The pink one I plan to make a headboard for the girls' bed.

I also bought a few other things.  A tart mould, a casserole dish, a pizza pan and place mats.  We will definitely be going back.  Soon!

my progress came to a halt

I told you about a project I was working on the other day.  I can't go any further with it right now.  It is the result of not having a wonderful fabric store nearby.

I am making myself a blanket.  We have more than enough blankets in our house.  We probably have too many.  But, all but one are heavy blankets.  The one that is light weight Jorge has claimed (we have our own blankets at night...we don't share well). 

All of you that live around here know that at night it cools off quite a bit.  So, while it is up in the 90's during the day, at night it gets down to the 50's.  During the middle of the night I just want a light cover to put on me.  Right now I use a fury blanket and it holds too much heat. 

I just got a bunch of fabric from the Newport/Johnson clan in a package from them.  THANK YOU!  Going through it I found so many fabrics to use on the blanket.  I found the pattern here. 

The lady that came up with the design refers to it as "easy".  Yeah, it is easy when all your fabric is pre-cut which mine wasn't!  After cutting out 168 pieces, which felt like 1.5 billion, and ironing 3.5 billion pieces and sewing them all together, I have the front of my blanket.

Here is where the problem comes in.  I have lots of fabric here.  But, most of it are small pieces, like a yard or less.  I don't have anything suitable for the back of the blanket.

So, I have to stop for now and find something for the back.  And the binding.  I am probably going to resort to buying online, shipping to my mom and having her send it here.  I have a few other things that I want to buy, so might as well add some fabric to the mix. 

If you are interested, I have found an online fabric store that ships here to Mexico and it is fairly inexpensive.  The Fat Quarter Shop

And if  you were wondering if I enjoying doing this sort of thing, the answer is NO!  I like fast projects that are at most 2 hours.