Tattoo Love/Hate Relationship

I love tattoos. Unfortunately I have one that I hate.  When I was in grade eleven I went with a good friend to a tattoo shop on our lunch hour and we chose a cheesy hand drawn sun off the wall (it looked like a 4 year old had drawn it with all squiggly lines and a happy face on it).  Yep, it took me 15 minutes to decide what I was going to have placed permanently on my lower back: brilliant.  

About ten years ago I had my sun covered up by someone at a great shop who had a good portfolio. I took a lot of time to decide on my final piece.  I chose to have my parents favourite flowers and the word family cover the sun.  You should be able to look at my back and spot a hollyhock and a violet... a friend asked me last week if I had the anatomy of a heart on my back and she was serious *sigh*  

In retrospect I think I should have asked to see more shots of her cover up work rather than relying on the artists original designs. My sun had loads of black lines so yes she had a tougher piece to work with BUT seriously, the anatomy of a heart?! 

Tattly is an awesome online shop that sells totally affordable temporary tattoos for grown ups and kids too!! Why didn't Tattly exist in 1996?!  Here are a few of my favourites from the shop... pop over and check out the other designs.  

 whale spout

red yarn

be happy

 I plan to treat myself to some Tattly 'ink' in the not too distant future. My son is always changing his tattoos so why shouldn't Mama sport some too?

I know I'm not the only one who has a tattoo they regret, do you have one you love or hate?

Ribbon Love

I promise I will start to post like I did in the old days: not just Rockstar and Bounce updates but crafty bits, kudos to other fabulous blogs, recipes and fabulous finds. I promise! I'm really going to try to post at least a couple times a week but I'm saying this while waiting for the newest member of our family to pop so we'll have to wait and see what this little nut is like before I make any number promises

I lurve ribbon . Here are some sweet finds from Etsy and of course some boy inspired designs because I live in Boyville. 

Babushakas- Russian ladies that remind me of my sister from another mister

Super Superhero design

Gnomes - who doesn't love gnomes?

Knights and Castles - my Rockstar would love this

Chevrons never get old

Balls balls and more balls: I live with a sports fanatic and his mini-me 
(plus another one who is just about to exit the oven)

Who doesn't love a Mom tattoo?

Rockets - a boys best friend

Buntings are still in, aren't they? I don't care: I like them whether they are cool or not. 

Gimme a Hug!

Anyone who knows me well knows how much I love children's books... I have a new favourite. 

This is the sweetest story about a cat named Jules who wants to hug the whole world and he travels across the globe hugging everything from a butterfly to a baobab tree.  The Rockstar often asks for this story to be read to him before bed while he's curled up in my lap drinking his "baba", he asks for it by wrapping his sweet little arms around himself and squeezing.  The illustrations are lovely and the words make my heart sing: The world is so big. And yet so small. It's time that we embrace it all."

Big hugs to Patrick McDonnell for putting this story on paper and a hug to my neighbour Anne for mentioning it to me before Valentine's day.  It was a perfect gift for our wee man and for me!

Lovin' Our 'My Monkey Moo' Winnings

You may remember me mentioning my streak of good luck a couple weeks ago. Well we received a package in the mail last week with the goods from the second giveaway I won and WOW! Lusso Baby (check out their blog for awesome daily giveaways) sent us a gorgeous stroller set from My Monkey Moo. I thought the set looked fantastic online but I've got to say I was really impressed when I opened the box and saw the quality of the pieces.
I finally got around to rounding up some photos of the Rockstar and his new goods. Here he is modeling the awesome stroller pad we received. I love the fact that there's now a cozy layer between him and the stroller. I was a bit worried that his lap belt clip thingos wouldn't fit through the holes in the pad (the clips are heavy duty on the Baby Jogger) but they fit just fine. My other concern was around folding the Jogger with the pad on (the fold strap is under the pad) but all I have to do is reach under and grab the strap, it doesn't get in the way at all.

The matching stroller blanket is awesome! It's large enough to wrap around the Rockstar but small enough to tuck in the basket under him when it isn't being used. I love the minky backing - super cozy! This blanket is basically a larger version of the baby blanket I made for my little man so of course I love it.

And finally the matching Monkey Bucket. Funny that I made a fabric bucket just a few weeks before winning this one. I didn't have handles on my original bucket but will on the next one I make. The Monkey Bucket is a good size and the perfect place to stash the million little balls, cubes and rattles we have scattered around the house.


A super huge thank you to the giveaway host Lusso Baby (a baby bits store located in North Vancouver) and to Christine in particular who went out of her way to switch the pattern of the set to suit my little man - the original winning set was in pink and brown which was a super cute but not ideal for my Rockstar and his green stroller.

Of course thank you to My Monkey Moo as well!! We LOVE the set and have used it daily since receiving it. Yippeeeeeeeeeee!

Lucky Me!

Lucky me!! I've been on a bit of a winning streak these last few weeks. Maybe I shouldn't say that out loud, I may have just jinxed myself. Then again I didn't technically say it, I wrote it which means I should be all good. I'm rambling.

Two weeks ago I had three lucky moments in a 24 hour period so I figured that was it, but then I won another great giveaway this week so it seems the streak is not over yet. Not that I'm greedy but who doesn't enjoy it when fantastic bits come their way??

The first three events started with a tiny woo hoo: I won a coffee. I was pretty excited about the free wake-up (see it doesn't take much) and then I received some amazing news! I am enrolling in a three week AQ (Additional Qualifications) course this summer to become "officially" qualified to teach children who are deafblind - this isn't the good news but I'm getting there. My college diploma and ten years experience as an intervenor certainly mean something but this course will be a great refresher, will be an opportunity to see what's new and exciting in the field, will ease me back into 'teaching' mode prior to my return to work in September (a somewhat tender topic for me right now), and of course it will look great on paper. POINT BEING: I've been planning to take this course and was waiting for registration to open when I received a phone call and a text message within minutes of each other from two of my friends/colleagues - oddly enough neither knew that the other was contacting me. Yep I'm finally getting to the point: here's the news, wait for it.... A fabulous advocacy group - I'm unsure whether or not I should name them at this point in time so I'll keep that info to myself - has offered to pay the tuition for those taking this particular AQ course this summer!! That's beyond generous and I couldn't be happier! See?! LUCKY. I'm still floating around thanks to this unbelievable news.

The third bit of luck came when I won a giveaway! I haven't entered any for quite some time and then Kristy from Manager to Mom started posting giveaway roundups and I found myself once again hunting for fabulous free goodies. The best part of giveaway hunting is finding new blogs, shops and goods worth knowing about. Everything Mom and Baby put a Tot Seat from Lil Mango up for grabs on their Facebook page and I won!! Yay for me!!

Of course the Rockstar landed in the seat just moments after we tore into the package today. The fabric seat cover was super easy to figure out and it held the wee man snugly: I had no worries of him falling out of the chair and he was super wiggly while modeling. He seemed quite comfy and didn't complain one bit about sitting in the big person chair.

You can see from this photo that my son is not only a Rockstar but also a genius. Notice the instruction manual in his hand? He was reading the instructions to Beary and me while I worked.

Thanks to Everything Mom and Baby and Lil Mango for this awesome prize and thanks also to Kristy for mentioning it on her Facebook page!! The Tot Seat has been tucked into our diaper bag and will put to good use.

Fab Pick

Tell me you didn't have to look twice to figure out that it's a laptop and not a ghetto blaster! A stellar decal by Beepart: love the old school style. This is definitely for the the older crowd; I was with our school board's audiologist at an assessment last Spring and he turned to me and said, "This will make you feel old: watch this." He pulled out a cassette tape deck (picture the old flat ones used in your elementary school) , set it in front of the 8 year old child we were working with and asked, "Do you know what this is?" She gave it a good look, pushed a couple buttons and looked up at us with a confused expression. Enough said. A student a few years ago had no clue what a record was but a cassette deck?! Oh boy.

Loads of cool designs can be found in this etsy shop and the fact that it's a Canadian company is a bonus.

Gigantic Decals

I'm always on the hunt for cool wall decals. We receive so many compliments on the huge tree in the Rockstar's nursery, it is a fantastic focal point. When he moves out of his room into his big boy room decals are definitely on the menu.

I found this shop e-glue and absolutely adore their collections!

I couldn't snag a photo but they sell individual decal creatures for the bathtub that are made especially for water so they can be placed in the bathtub without fear of peeling off. Fantastic idea! We have foam animals along the upper edge of our tub and the Rockstar loves staring at them but he can't reach them. It would be super cool to have a couple of these on the side of the tub where he can touch them.

The designs that initially caught my eye are the giga-kits. Superb gigantic decals that would look awesome in a child's room.

Don't be put off by the colours in the photos, you have your choice of primary and secondary colours - hop over to the e-glue site and see for yourself.

Mum Mum Mum Mum

image source and awesome shirt from Small Roar

Our little Rockstar started saying Mamamamamamamama awhile ago but now he's saying Mummmmm. I know he doesn't know what it means but hearing him yell it over and over again today made my heart smile. I love hearing the word from his sweet little lips - a good thing because I'm going to hear it a zillion times in my lifetime - even the whiney wail muuuuuuummmmm is music to my ears (no doubt the novelty of the whiney version will wear off one day).

I'm hoping Dadadadada is the next big thing around here; he has said it once or twice but hasn't gotten the hang of making the 'd' sound just yet. Mamama, Babababa, Muuuum, and ppppfllllbt (accompanied by bubbles and spit) are his favourite "words" these days. Mike and I swear he said "apple" last week. I asked Mike if he wanted an apple and the Rockstar blurted out "Ab-bul". We both heard it and had equally stunned looks on our faces. Yes that's right, our child's first word was APPLE at 7 months of age. Brilliant.

Ribbon Love

Cute ribbon is almost at par with fabulous buttons in my books. I killed some time a few nights ago ribbon hopping on etsy and here are some of my fav boyish finds:

shop for Knights

shop for Heroes

shop for Woodland creatures

shop for gators

shop for cars

shop for green polka dots

shop for blue polkadots

shop for sports balls

shop for Spaceships and Aliens

shop for Cars and Trucks

shop for Rockets

Fab Pick of A Couple Weeks Ago

These super sweet felted slippers are handmade in an artisan cooperate in Mongolia. They are far too cute for their own good and their cute factor would be off the charts if they were being modeled by the Rockstar (if I don't say so myself). I have added these to my ever growing baby bits wish list. Check out Satch and Sol - a lovely little shop where you can find a pile of lovely goods from fair trade artisan cooperatives they partner with.

Fab Pick of Far Too Long Agof

Look super stylish while snapping photos with a fabulous camera strap cover by *Shey*[B]. Of course there are a load of easy to follow tutorials online for you to follow if you want to make your own cover but the designs in the *Shey*[B] shop are uber cute and the price is right.

Fab Pick of Last Week

I don't do it on purpose but I seem to kill all things that don't make noise. Thankfully my son and the cat are noisy little creatures. Yep, I can admit it: I have a serious brown thumb. These super cute self watering plant pots by QUALY let you know when your plants need to be watered (the squirrel hides when it's time to refill) which means I might actually have a chance of keeping a houseplant alive!! Add this little pot to my Christmas list please and thank you. A big thanks to Made by Petchy for mentioning QUALY on her blog - so many cute products!

Fab Pick of Last Week (or the week before??)

Dicky Bird was featured over at Bloesem (a beautiful blog that makes me swoon on a daily basis) and I immediately fell in love with the sweet designs of these greeting cards. Simple yet sweet!

Fab Pick of Last Week

These futuristic looking AirPlant Pods by mudpuppy would look sweet hanging in just about any room. They're tiny pods so be sure to look at the dimensions before you order - I think they would be best hanging in groups OR sitting on shelves if you're displaying one on its lonesome.

Babushkuptastic

These cups are ADORABLE. I want them. Add Babushkups (even the name is cute) by Fred and Friends to the ever growing list of things I love and want and need (but don't really need at all).

Fab Pick of Last Week

I usually feature Indie/Etsy finds here but I am so in love with Bath & Body Works Coconut Vanille Tapuru body butter that I had to share! I've been a Body Shop cocoa butter girl up until a week ago when I ran out and replaced my supply with this freaking amazing cream by Bath & Body Works. Not only does it smell good enough to eat, it leaves my skin feeling silky smooth and a teeny tiny bit shimmery too. I apply it all over my expanding belly and the rest of my body in the morning and I still feel soft and smooth in the evening when I crawl into bed. I can't say enough about this fabulous cream: try it out and let me know what you think!

Gimme Gimme Gimme!!!

Ohhhhh I want, I want, I want, I WANT!! Thanks to decor8 for introducing me to a freaking fabulous UK shop called Cox & Cox.

I want all of the below, especially these:


Did you know I have a thing for office supplies. Sticky notes, paper clips, tape, pencil sharpeners: OH MY! This Mr. P Tape Dispenser is awesome and I want him.


And one other little bit from the site that I fell for: cookie cutters! Take note of the little cut out on the bottom of the butterfly: the perfect size to perch on the lip of a mug.


Pop over to Cox & Cox and check out all of the fab goods! Loads of great gift ideas.

Pillow Factory Alphabet Down Filled Pillow GROSGRAIN GIVEAWAY!!!!

I think this pillow would look perfect in the nursery! Fingers crossed.

Pillow Factory Alphabet Down Filled Pillow GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Yet another fabulous Grosgrain Giveaway!

We have a wedding at the end of May that I will have to buy a new dress for. Poor me! hehe
I can't wait to find a cute dress to show off the bump. This sweet little number might be the perfect fit, then again maybe I'm dreaming - we'll see how big the belly is by then. Either way I hope I win this Grosgrain giveaway! Click on this link to enter for your chance to win: Shabby Apple Shakespeare Garden Dress GIVEAWAY!!!!

Win a Baby Bungalow at Grosgrain

2 Speckled Frogs sells these little Baby Bungalow's which act as a little tent to keep your wee one hidden from the cat, the sun, the dirty digits of strangers who feel the need to touch your baby...

Grosgrain is offering one lucky reader the opportunity to win a Baby Bungalow of their own, enter by visiting this link: Baby Bungalow GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!