Smells Like Puke

My house smells like puke!

Last night as we were putting the munchkin to bed, she climbed on my lap, held her hands over her mouth and said, "Mommy, I pook." I thought she just needed to burp, so I told her to go ahead, and that it was okay. The next thing I knew I was covered in vomit. I cleaned both of us up, only to be puked on again, and then again. After that we got wise and took her to the bathroom to puke in the loo.

She was so tired the poor thing that she fell asleep almost immediately when we put her down, but woke up a few hours later to throw up a little more. That is pretty much how my night went. She threw up 8 times over the course of the night. Eventually at around 5am, she asked for a glass of water. I held it for her thinking I would just let her sip it slowly, but as I held it to her lips, she grabbed the glass and chugged the water like a crazed woman. The child was so dehydrated it broke my heart. Alas, that too was spewed a few minutes later (into my lap). And for the next two hours she whimpered and sobbed about wanting water, juice, powerade, whatever she could think of. Eventually at about 7am, I gave her a few sips of pedialyte. When she held that down for 30 min , I gave her a little more, 10 min later I gave her a little more until eventually she had had enough. Finally at about 9:30am we both collapsed into bed for a well deserved rest.

Why am I telling you this? Because my house still smells like puke.

Trick or Treat

This year the munchkin was a butterfly. We've actually had her costume for a month. We went to the shops to get Mack a pair of pants and she came running up the isle with the butterfly costume in her had demanding we put it on her. Mack did, and when we tried to take it off her, she threw such a stinking tantrum that we just ended up buying it and she wore it out of the shop. She did look incredibly adorable though, so we didn't mind too much, and at least she picked a warm costume.

We first took her to the army base, where they were having a trunk or treat. When she realized that people were just kind of handing her candy for her to put in her kitty bag, she got so excited. She had this huge grin on her face and kept saying, "Mommy, I gotted de candy!" Then she started getting picky and told people she only wanted chocolate. Unfortunately it started to pour at the base, so we packed her up and drove to Mack's parents place about 20min away, hoping the weather would be a bit better so we could do some proper trick or treating with her. The weather was much better when we arrived, but we took a little too long waiting for her cousin to put his costume on, and so by the time we walked out the door, the rain had caught up with us. We persisted however, and Taz loved being out in the rain, jumping in puddles and playing in the gutters, and of course saying, "Trick or Treat" and getting candy.

Making her Pretty-er

My friend Emily called me a few weeks ago and asked me to do some make-up for her. She was getting some preggie pictures taken before her big day. I was so excited to whip out the brushes again, and I always get excited when I know the "canvas" I'll be working on is already attractive. I used silvers, grays and pinks to match her wardrobe choices. Here are a couple of the final shots, and heres the link to her photographer Every Little Moment Photography. Thanks for letting me share these Em.

Potty Success

We are officially potty trained!! Yay! Its taken a couple of weeks, but we're finally at the point where I can say that we are done!

Taz took to the potty pretty well. I started noticing that if I left her diaper off after bath time etc, she would get anxious if she needed to pee. So, we whipped out the potty one night and she had a successful wee wee in it. The next day she had a successful #1 and #2. Excitement abounded. I decided to start leaving her diaper off during the day, and made sure that her potty was in the room with us. After a few days she would just use the potty by herself, without any reminding etc. It was great, she would use it and then let me know she was done and I needed to empty it. We would put a diaper on if we were going out somewhere, but then after a while she would cry and run away from us if we tried to put a diaper on, saying, "I wee wee in potty." So, we took a few exploratory walks outside where she didn't wear a diaper, and if she showed signs of needing to go, we just ran home quickly, but we still put a diaper on her if we were going out in the car.

Yesterday she decided she was done with the potty and it was time for her to start using the toilet. She got her steppy stool, placed it by the toilet and climbed on by herself. She did her business, wiped and then flushed. Proudest moment of my life so far. So, last night we decided to take a diaperless car drive. We took her to a really cool park about a 30 min drive from our house. I packed the potty in the car and off we went. She played at the park for about 10 min, then showed signs of needing to go. We opened the trunk and she peed in her potty, played a bit more, and then peed again (on cue) when we were ready to leave. Dry bum the whole way there and the whole way home! Woohoo!!!!

I've only had one accident with her, and that was when I tried to get her to wear a little pair of knickers. She considered it a diaper and so wet herself. So, I just leave the knickers off for now and as she shows more bladder control and she understands a bit more, will slowly introduce them to her again.

I am so glad she potty trained before winter. YAY!!! No more diapers for the Tazling!

Sugar and Spice...

Looks like we're continuing the tradition of pink in the family. I had my ultrasound last night, and its another little girl. No names picked out yet. I figured I should give Mack more than one option this time. I am leaning heavily towards Bianca (Bee-ann-ca, not Bee-un-ca) though. And no, I don't want comments on that, its my child not yours and I don't care what you think about the name. :)

At least we'll already have a pink pig hat when it comes time for her to start asserting her own fashion sense this time.

Accessorize

A pig hat is the new must of the season.

African American

Its official, I became an American citizen on the September 1st. Now I am no longer a legal alien, but an African American. Yay!

Anyway, it was an interesting experience. There were 205 people from 64 different countries at the naturalization ceremony. We all had to sit separated from our families to take the oath, and would you believe that the only other South African there ended up sitting right behind me. And, I knew him growing up in Cape Town, Quintin Atkinson. Small world eh? We had a good chat waiting for the ceremony to start.

I have to admit that I became quite emotional during the oath (but I blame that on pregnancy hormones), and it was really hard to give up all loyalty and patriotism to South Africa (the words caught in my throat just a little), but at least I get to keep my SA citizenship and become a citizen of my new home, so its the best of both worlds for me.

I completely forgot to take a camera, but my amazing and dear friend Jen and her family came to the ceremony and she had her camera so at least the moment was documented - Thanks hon.

Just sitting and waiting for things to begin.

All done, and waiting for my citizenship certificate.

That ones mine.

And its official.

Thats Jen, her husband Josh, and their little boy, and the other three you should recognize.

Tiny Tots Dance

I enrolled the Tazling in a dance class and today was her first lesson. We dressed her suitably in a leotard and tights, which she was just thrilled about. I have to admit that I was a little skeptical about how she would do in the class, but she was too stinking adorable for words. Let me tell you, uncoordinated two year olds are about the funniest thing to watch in a dance class. I spent the whole 45 min laughing my head off. The parents aren't allowed in the classroom, but there is a two way mirror that we can watch through.

There are three little girls in Taz's class so far, and the teacher is absolutely amazing with them. First they got to put on their tap shoes, which delighted Taz. She loved the noise they made on the wood floor. Then they got to change their shoes to ballet shoes to do a little ballet and jazz. Taz generally followed the teachers lead, but at one point was just enjoying the music a bit too much and started doing a little freestyle by twirling and twirling and then lying on the floor on her stomach with her chin on her hands and kicking her legs. Too bad, the other two thought what Taz was doing was more fun, so started to follow her lead instead of the teachers. But, where I laughed the hardest was where Taz kept trying to see herself in the mirror, but the teacher was directly in front of her, so she kept leaning to the side to try and see herself around the teacher. It just cracked me up so much.

I would have taken a few more pictures of the munchkin, but she just wouldn't pose, so these are the best I could get. Hopefully I'll get some better ones next week.

Family Photies

Mack's dear mom starts chemotherapy on wednesday for leomyosarcoma. Its a very rare sort of cancer and we were all fairly panicked when she was diagnosed, but fortunately they caught it very early and her prognosis gives us hope. She has been incredibly positive since her diagnosis and has been a source of strength to her whole family while they have been dealing with a reality that no one ever wants to face. Being a naturally whiny type of person, I tend to feel sorry for myself pretty quickly, but Linda's strength has not only surprised me, but endeared her to me in a way that I never really expected. She has also made me more pragmatic about my own health problems I'm dealing with at the moment. Although the hormones are still keeping me pretty darn crazy most of the time.

Anyway, I decided I wanted to take some family pics before the chemo and here they are:

The whole family

The Parents

The Christensens

The Ashleys - Mack's sister just younger than him.

The Gillis' - Mack's second youngest sister

Jenna - the baby sis.

The 4 Siblings

And last but not least, Mack's adorable mother.

M.I.A

I know I've been gone for longer than ever before, but I have a really good excuse, promise.

First - the big news - I'm pregnant with our second child - YAY!!! Except, that this little bundle of joy is making me sicker than I ever thought possible. They call it morning sickness, and I'm sure that there are some lucky women out there who only experience the nausea in the mornings. I however have been sick and vomiting 24/7. Everytime I walk past the bathroom, Taz runs after me and asks, "Mommy pook?" Yes thats how bad its been. I have pretty much spent the last 2 months lying on the couch trying not to hurl. Now Taz walks around the house going, "I pook." and then makes gagging noises - so darling and cute isn't she?

My inability to function on any normal level is the reason I just gave up on having any sort of life other than feeling sorry for myself. I am now into my second trimester however and am slowly starting to feel a little more human.

Unfortunately the bigger the baby gets, the more pressure it puts on the fracture in my back and so even though my head and stomach have stopped swimming, the pain in my back an legs is now taking its toll on me. I'm so independent that the inability to do anything for myself is making me crabbier by the day. Poor Mack is having to put up with a lot. Good thing he's already gone through his "torture training" for the military, so we know he can handle it. At least I'm not starving him too.

So thats the news. Hopefully I'll be better at life in general from here on out.

Bring on Feb and the new addition to the family!

Happy 2nd Birthday!!!!

My little girl is 2 and so stinking adorable. We had a low key 2nd birthday for her with cake and lunch with the grandparents. And, because she is a little too obsessed with bugs, and the movie A Bugs Life, I decided to make her a butterfly cake. She loved, loved, loved her cake and kept staring at it with the hugest, cutest smile on her face. When I finally brought it down to her level, she kept kissing it on the little candy nose. Eventually I realized that every time she kissed the nose, she sucked on it, and eventually wore the candy coating right off. It was too precious for words. Oh, and she even kept a clip in her hair for most of the morning - something she has refused to do since.

Anyway, after making Mack's aquarium cake, I became a little obsessed about what I could do with sugar glass - seriously there are so many possibilities. I decided to incorporate it into the wings of the butterfly. I made three different shades of the glass, then smashed it up a bit and "glued" the pieces together in the shape of butterfly wings, using white chocolate. I wished I had a bigger piping nozzle so the chocolate was a little smoother, but hey, considering it was my first time doing something like this - I'm still impressed with myself. I then made the body of the butterfly out of cake, and balanced each of the wings on little battery operated candle lights, so that the wings glowed. You can't really see that part too well in the pictures, but it was pretty effective.

Happy Birthday my little Munchkin!!!!!!

Souties Logo

My father has opened a little store in North Salt Lake City, where he sells British and South African speciality foods. Soon he will be adding home made traditional meat pies to his menu. I've been doing some design work for him, and this is what I did for his logo.

We have Pigtails

The Munchkins Room

I promised my friend Jen that I'd give her a tour of my house, so here goes. I'm starting with the munchkins room cause I'm going to be changing things around soon and wanted some before shots.

Here it is: I painted her walls a light yellowy green. Its such a light room - I love it!

(This is the view looking from her bed to her closet.)

(Her shelves have an assortment of gifts given to her: The elephant on the top shelf was the first thing I bought after I found out I was pregnant. I bought it at Mr. Price home store in South Africa. The African doll next to the elephant was a gift from my Aunt, and the lamb - affectionately known as Lambie (afrikaans pr. lummie) was a gift from another Aunt. Paddington was given to her by her cousin Ethan. He used to have it in his room, but outgrew it. The wire beaded sheep came from Uncle Jeremy (moo), and the Miss Dela doll doing the black power sign was from her Ouma.)

(She doesn't like the dark, so I turned this martini shaker penguin into a nighlight for her by drilling holes in the back. The fairy is mine. I have a little thing for cool looking fairies and absolutely love this one - its on loan. The little pot plant - minus the plant - was part of a flower arrangement given to me by Mack's parents after Taz's delivery. It matched the room so perfectly - now I just have to put another plant in it.)

(This is the view from her bedroom door. We bought two Moroccan lamps for her room, one stands on the window sill, the other we use as an additional nightlight. Don't mind the cord. I'm working on making that look neater etc. The red curtains are actually just fleece blankets I bought at Ikea for $3.50. They had cute scalloped edges with little holes for detailing, and so I threaded the curtain rod through the holes and voila, adorable curtains on the cheap.)

(This is a picture I made for her using an old canvas I had lying around, some poster paper and modge podge. The leaves are felt, the bugs are 3d with little wire feelers etc, and the red flowers have petals that can move in a breeze. As a baby she spent hours staring at it, and she still loves to look at it before she falls asleep. Sorry about the glare, I needed the curtains open for light.)

(This is what her bed looks like for now. The comforter is a bit heavy for her, so I'm making her a duvet cover that will compliment her room, but be more comfortable for her to sleep under. I'll post any changes I make.)

And there you have it.

Fabric Found

This is the fabric I picked for Taz's duvet quilt. My friend Jen offered to help me find fabric in the UK, but alas I was far too impatient to take her up on her fabulous offer and dashed off to the nearest fabric store I could find.


There are two more colours that I want in the mix, a lighter green and an orange, but couldn't find the right colour in either of them. So, I've decided to paint those squares. I haven't had the chance to paint them yet, but as soon as I do, I'll snap a pic and share how they turned out.

I'm off to my sewing machine.....wish me luck!

My 15 Minutes...

If I had known my aquarium cake would become an internet hit, I would have taken the time to neaten it up and make it really cool. Anyway, I'm enjoying that others out there are appreciating my domestic endeavours.

My friend Nicole blogged about the cake on her blog A little Sussy, from there I was mentioned by Design Mom, and sidebarred in Crafterhours.

Thanks ladies for making me feel special and giving me my 15 minutes.

Photo Booth

We went to a wedding reception yesterday evening, and they had a photo booth. Guess who abused the novelty?

A Duvet for the Munchkin

I'm working on changing the Munchkins room around at the moment. She will be two in less than a month and so we're (dreading) taking on the challenge of transitioning her from her cot (crib) to a normal bed.

I want a really cute duvet cover for her, but alas the peoples of the USA have not yet cottoned on to the delights of the duvet quite as much as the rest of the world and its not that easy finding covers. I have an Ikea close by, but they just don't have what I'm looking for.

So, being a person that hates things to not go my way, I've decided to make her a duvet cover. Yes, its true. But, not just any duvet cover. I want it to look like a quilt. Not a froofy, smells like moth balls and looks like it belongs in an old age home, kind of quilted duvet cover, but something along the lines of this:


So now I'm on the look out for cute fabric. Wish me luck!

Happy Birthday Mack!!

Today is my darlings birthday, and as I've mentioned in previous posts he's a little obsessed with saltwater aquariums at the moment. For his birthday I registered him for dive classes so he can get scuba certified, and then made him this cake:




UPDATE:  I never imagined the response I would get to this post.  I am sincerely flattered.  I had so much fun making this cake, and at the time I thought it looked a bit ghetto, but my husband loved it. I didn't take step by step pictures unfortunately, but I'll put a more comprehensive step by step to my process on here for those who want to try and make a similar (or much better) Aquarium cake.

1.  I used a simple box cake to make the "cake" part of the cake and baked it in a 13 X 9 pan.  I used store bought frosting too.  Sorry, I'm just not cool enough to do that part from scratch.

2.  The part I was really interested in was making the sugar glass.   I used this basic recipe.  Don't despair if your first attempt at making sugar glass fails.  I ended up making 4 batches before I got the thickness and size right.  The trick with the sugar glass is to make sure you use a thermometer to get it to the right temp or it won't set properly.  Also, use an incredibly flat surface to set it on, otherwise the glass will be warped and the sides won't fit together.

3.  Once the molten glass was ready ( I used 2 drops of neon blue food colouring to get the right colour), I poured it into a teflon coated cookie sheet, that I had sprayed liberally with non-stick spray.  The non stick spray can discolour the glass, so be warned.  If I were to do it now, I'd probably just use crisco or coconut oil to grease my surface.  You want the glass to be at least a 1/4 inch or about 7mm thick.  It is extremely fragile, so you want it to be able to be thick enough to stand on its side.  If you're worried about the thickness make it a little thicker, that was my rule of thumb.

4.  I used a BBQ lighter over the top of the glass to bring the bubbles to the surface.  Skim the flame lightly over the surface of the molten glass and the bubbles will rise to the surface and pop. Then let the glass set completely.  Meaning, it should be completely cold to the touch before you try to remove it from the cookie sheet otherwise it will warp.

5.  To get the smaller sides of the aquarium to fit, I measured the side of the cake, including a little extra width for the thickness of the other two sides of glass I wanted it to rest against.  I folded a piece of foil over multiple times to create a barrier, wedged it in the cookie sheet and essentially just made myself a smaller cookie sheet with it.  Another way to get smaller sides is to just use a smaller cookie sheet and cut your cake to size.

6. I frosted the sheet cake before putting the glass together. Placing the sides around the cake was a beast, and I needed help to hold them in place.  I frosted the edges of the glass and kind of just stuck them together.  I loosely tied a piece of thread around the top and bottom of the glass to hold it together while the frosting hardened.

7.  Once I had my sides in place, I added the decorations.  I used 4 mini Twix bars stacked on top of one another to make the treasure chest, green Twizzlers for the plants.  Without some reinforcement, the Twizzlers will fall over.  I had some florist wire at home that I threaded through the center of the Twizzlers and then bent the wire to create the shape of the plants.  For the pebbles I used Almond Joy bites because they are my husband's favourites.  I then tied thread through some Swedish Fish at different lengths and tied them onto a piece of overhead projector transparency.  I simply suspended the transparency over the glass to create the effect of the fish swimming.

8.  My glass panels didn't come together perfectly.  I had a little bit of a gap at the top.  To fix that problem I found a piece of black construction paper which I folded and then taped around the top of the glass to create the black rim of the aquarium.  Then, I frosted Twizzlers around the bottom of the aquarium to hide a few other flaws.  And, voila, one aquarium cake.

One warning:  Depending on the humidity of the area you live in, the sugar glass will warp or sag if you leave it over night.  So, I suggest leaving your glass panels on a flat surface and only assembling everything an hour or two before you want to display your cake.

Good Luck!!! My favourite part of this cake was smashing the sides over a friends head once the cake had been eaten!! Such FUN!!!      

 ( I completely admit that I didn't make the cake entirely on my own. I needed Mack's help getting the glass sides up. Also, after I broke the first couple of sugar glass panels, Mack made some more for me because I was completely fed up. Thanks Honey for helping with your own birthday cake.)