Friday Feature: House Hunting

Today's Friday Feature has to do with houses. There are a few blogs to which I subscribe that have to do with houses and home decorating.

It should be noted that for the most part, I really just look at the pictures. I don't really read much of what they actually have to say. I just like to drool over the pictures while I sit here and covet. As such, I don't really have a whole lot to say about any of the sites. Sorry.

The first one I really started with was Hooked on Houses. Sometimes it's the outsides of houses, sometimes it's the insides. Sometimes it's celebrity houses, and the readers guess who's house it is, with the aid of three clues. The answer comes the next day. Sometimes it's a movie house, and we get to guess which movie. Sometimes they put up a series of room photos, and the readers guess which room doesn't belong in the same house as all the rest. Mostly it's just about looking at really nice homes. This was the first post I read on the site, and the home that got me "hooked on houses."
Hooked on Houses had a neat little feature that I enjoy -- movie houses. It's a fun little item every now and then.

Okay, next in line is a site I found through reading Hooked on Houses. It's called Lookiloos. Now, this site has several sections. The only one I look at is the "peek of the week." This is the picture (click link for post) that got me hooked there:

Next up is At Home Redesigns. As you can imagine from the name, they deal more with interiors. Decorating, layouts, before and afters, fla market finds (and conversions). Take a gander over there.

There is also The Lettered Cottage. Her blog header reads: The Lettered Cottage: A journey by a girl who loves all things "home." She's got flea market finds, DIY projects, decor, and design consultations.

The Shabby Nest is a blog I've mentioned in the past for crafty projects. I include her here as well because she shows a lot of her home on her blog, and it's great for inspiration (if you're looking for it).

Finally, take a look at This Young House. I've only been checking out TYH for a month or so, but it seems to cover a wide range of topics. The website is maintained by a husband and wife team. They cover home decor as well as home maintenance. Lots of good info over there.

Wishful Wednesday: Wet Air

Okay, so you're probably thinking, "Wet air? Does she mean 'wet hair'?" Nope. I want damp weather. Winter...meh. Whatever. Snow, cold, wind. Yeah, we've got it. I'm just sick and tired of my fingernails breaking every other day. My cuticles are awful. I've got hangnails up the wazoo. In order to prevent any and all of this, I'd have to be putting lotion on every five minutes, which obviously isn't realistic. So I want wet (or damp) air. The air is too dry, and I'm sick of it.

While I'm thinking of it, a manicure would be nice. And that makes me think a pedicure might be in order as well.

What do YOU wish for today?

Another update

Today was Julie's nine month well baby visit. It conveniently served as a follow up to last week's sick visit. Her doctor said that her ears look completely better. Her eye has really cleared up, too, and she's got her appetite and livelihood back. She's still got five or six days' worth of antibiotics to take, but the doctor thought she was well enough to receive a vaccine. Sounds pretty good to me!

Julie continues to be perfectly average in all of the benchmarkers. Benjamin-the-Statistician is still ecstatic about that. Julie now weighs 18 lbs, 3.5 oz, and is 28 inches long.

To see her growth progression from birth, click here.

Julie crawled this morning for the first time. She's been scooting for some time, and has also recently been pushing up and rocking on her knees a lot. She's also been pushing up on her toes, sticking her bottom in the air, which is just so funny to see. She seems to want to crawl, but her hangup has been that she hasn't yet figured out how to coordinate her hands with her knees. This morning she went about three knees' worth of "steps." We were very excited.

A couple of pictures for your enjoyment:

Julie scooted herself underneath the dining room chair that has her high chair strapped to it. She loves her mobility.
Julie in her "hard-core" (haha) outfit from Grumpa for Christmas (he bought everybody Harley Davidson stuff this year).

New hobby

Julie has a new hobby. Well, I guess it's not new, really. It's just intensified. Last June, she caught a sinus infection from yours truly. She held onto it for a week or more. Last month, she snagged the sniffles, but was generous enough to share with Daddy and Aunt Candice after only a day or two.

She has now brought home several strays: two ear infections, an eye infection, and another cold. She hasn't been sleeping well at nights (and for a couple nights in a row, would only sleep vertically on Ben's chest in a rocking chair), wasn't playing at all during the say for a day or two, and wasn't eating. She didn't even want to comfort eat by nursing.

We took her to the doctor on Thursday, got some antibiotics, and she's doing much better. She's not up to 100%, but at this moment, she is asleep in her own bed, without crusties on her eye, and with three meals in her tummy, not to mention her breastfeedings. She's still extra cranky when she's tired, but she's much closer to the happy girl we know.

This is Julie in the bath on Wednesday evening. If you didn't know, you definitely couldn't tell she's a little sickie.

Ugh

It's pothole season in Cleveland.

Important article

Yesterday's Dear Abby column was something I wanted to share with all my friends who are moms of young children. Mothers of Young Children Need 'Time Out' to Recharge.

For me, Ben always tried to encourage me (and even give me specific opportunities) to get out of the house every day. I get energized, and Julie is in a happier mood if we go out and do something. Plus, I tend to like to stay in my jammies if I don't have to get dressed, so if I go out to do something, then it means that I'll actually get dressed and make myself presentable every day, which also makes me feel better.

Anyway, if you are a "young mother" or a mother of "young children," please take a minute or two to go read this article.

Friday Feature: Scoopalicious

Today's installment of Friday Feature will be short and sweet (that'll be punny to you in a minute). Today I am highlighting Scoopalicious, a blog dedicated to the authors' love of ice cream. They try out new products, give you new recipes, recommend cookbooks, tell you about free promotions, and sometimes, they have contests for coupons for free ice cream. I won just such a contest yesterday! As a thankful gesture, I am sending readers their way.

Wishful Wednesday: Dryer Balls

Good morning, and welcome to the return of Wishful Wednesday!

In preparing for my Christmas vacation, I knew I was going to be gone for two and a half weeks, and that I was going to have easy access to a washing machine, so of course I only packed about a week's worth of clothes. I had to do a few loads of laundry at my mom's house. (Side note: I love her washer and dryer. Maybe it's just that I really don't like mine all that much.)

Now, I don't use fabric softener. It's expensive and it leaves a filmy coating on fabric. I prefer dryer sheets. However, my mom uses dryer balls.
She's used them for several years, actually, and I never really knew what they were or why, but I asked her about them this time around. Here's what she had to say about them:

• Dryer balls help your clothes dry faster (by lifting and separating the wet layers)
• They are anti-static, so they replace dryer sheets
• They help your dryer run more efficiently

She did say that although they are anti-static, she'll still use a dryer sheet when she's washing underwear or socks. I think the dryer balls are about $10 to start with, but they're definitely a money-saver in the end. So that's what I wish for today.

What do YOU wish for today?

Milestones, part II

I had started writing the previous post a couple of days ago, and just made a list of things to write about, to be expanded upon later. Apparently I forgot to expand on "animals." I just noticed that it's just sitting there...oops.

On our first trip to Indiana in October, and then again at Thanksgiving, Julie had her first exposure to a cat. My in-laws have "Tag," and Julie found herself looking for him whenever she heard a bell jingling (he's got one around his neck). Over our Christmas trip, she had some exposure to both cats and dogs. She was absolutely fascinated. She was very gentle when we "let" her (helped her and restrained her) pet the cats, and she was just tickled watching the dogs. It has caused us to contemplate getting a cat at some point. The only problem with that is that my mom and sister both have cat allergies, so that could put a damper on visits. But it's still on the back burner.

Milestones up the wazoo!

Well, we've finally made it home from our Christmas adventures (a few days ago), and I'm working on getting back to business. For me, this partly means back to blogging, of course. I'll start with a list of milestones and updates on Julie.

• Julie is a quick scooter now. She gets across the room before I know it. Gates have definitely got to go up at the stairs.
• In addition to scooting, she pushes up on her knees and rocks back and forth on them, working on balance, strength, and momentum. No actual crawling yet, though.
• Having learned to sit up on her own (finally), she's loving her new perspective and being able to play with things while not lying prostrate. I'm really excited about her sitting up because now I can take her into the store with me and sit her up in a shopping cart, or in a high chair at a restaurant.
  
• Julie is learning to make choices. Like between toys...this one or that.
• She is also learning cause and effect. When she drops something, we pick it up for her.
• She finally had a breakthrough while on vacation. Two, in fact. On December 28th (my anniversary), her first tooth popped through, and on Monday (this week), her second one pushed out. So now she has two lower front teeth.
• Julie has made associations and has begun reaching out to people. At the beginning of our trip, we visited with a lot of friends in Maine, and Julie was introduced to lots of new people who all wanted to hold her. She was fine with this, but combined with long days of travel, she started to develop a little bit of parental separation anxiety after a day or two. Combined with that came reaching out for me, for Ben, and after about a week at my parents' house, reaching out for my mom as well!
  
• Julie is learning to not avoid the camera so much. It used to be that if the flash was on, she'd stop smiling when the camera beeped and the light came on, so her pictures were more confused than smiley. Now she keeps smiling!
  
• I have taught Julie something. Much of what she has done up to this point in her life has been part of normal development, even though it's really exciting to me. However, this week she started signing the word "milk," which is something that Ben and I have taught her. Yay!
  
• While we were visiting with my family, Julie discovered a love for "bling." She loves shiny and/or sparkly things -- jewelry, mirrors, you name it.
  
• animals
• She's getting much better at letting us wipe her hands and face off when she's messy. She used to hate it and scream when we did it. She still doesn't like it much, but she's learned to deal with it.
• Having mastered the arts of sitting and scooting, Julie is doing a lot of standing now, in our laps. She's developing good leg muscle strength.
  
• My sister introduced Julie to the game "peek-a-boo" during Christmas vacation. We had previously played it with Jules by throwing a cloth over her head, and waiting for her to pull it off. She now enjoys playing it while we hide and peek around a corner, or while we cover our faces.
  
• Sleep. Ugh. Julie used to sleep anywhere from 10 to 13 hours at night. Then we went on vacation. There were two problems with this. (1) She hates the pack and play. (2) She got sick right at the beginning of our trip. When she's sick, she's clingy and Ben turns into a total softy. So she slept in the bed with us for several days while she was sick. By then she'd gotten used to it and wouldn't sleep for more than five hours in the pack and play. After Ben left to come home, it was only me, which got really tiring after a night or two (pardon the pun...it was intentional). We've been home for five nights now (I think), and two of them she has actually stayed asleep until 4:00am, so that's improving at least. However, somewhere along the way, Julie discovered that she has the ability to resist going to sleep. Nap time has now become exhausting for me. Literally. She refuses to go to sleep, and instead is just really really cranky. It's a new and rough situation for me, but I'll work through it. Eventually.
  

Friday Feature: Photography

I'm back! I haven't done a Friday Feature (or any kind of feature) since the beginning of November, and considering that most of you who participated in my poll in November said that you enjoy finding out about other sites I visit, I thought I ought to get back on that!

The first feature I ever did on this blog was photography related. I decided to revisit it. There are six photography blogs/websites I subscribe to in my Google Reader. I'll give a favorite sample here from each one.

Angie Penrose Photography
Angie is the sister of a friend of mine here in Cleveland. She seems to do a lot of kidlets in her photo shoots. She is based in Washington State.

Brittann Photography
Brittany was an acquaintance of mine about 10 years ago. As the story goes (as many stories go these days), we recently connected on Facebook and I found I loved looking at her photography. She does a lot of families. She is based in Denver, CO.

Crossmark Design Photography
This site I have no personal connection with whatsoever. I came across it one day and fell in love instantly. The photographer mostly does scenery, architecture, and other non-people related photos. they can be ordered as cards and more. He is based in Portland, OR (which is partly why I'm so taken with his work...much of it is very familiar to me).

Erica Kirby Photography
I was briefly acquainted with Erica over a few weekends during my singles years in Connecticut. We too have re-aquainted on Facebook, and these days I mostly enjoy her photography by reading her personal blog (she has a little baby girl, which, as we all know, is a great excuse to take pictures). She is based in Northwest Arkansas.

ETF Photography
Liz's photo blog was the first one I ever started looking at regularly. Liz is a photography that doesn't mind being in front of the camera from time to time. She has a wide range of subjects...weddings, engagements, families, children/babies, scenery, as well as "femininity". Having previously highlighted some of her people work, I think I'll go back through her archives and share a few of my favorite scenery-type shots of hers. She is based in Northern Utah.

Sarah Palfreyman Photography
Sarah is a recent acquaintance.. She is who took Julie's six month pictures. She has shot a lot of families in the ward here, and otherwise locally. I would definitely use her again. She is based in Cleveland, OH.