Monday’s Maven

Name: Becca Dulgarian from Blue Cricket Design

Kids: Three crazy girls call me mama! Cricket is 6, Blue is 4 and Charlie is 10 months old!

Location: I’m a California Beach girl transplant who now calls Utah home!

One Word that Describes You: Open! I’m pretty much an open book! What you see is what you get! I’m honest and real and not easily embarrassed! Ask me a question and you’ll get a non Sugar coated answer!

What makes you smile? You tube videos, Fabric, paper, scoring an incredible bargain and my girls finding my hidden Lingerie stash and playing dress up with it!! (Note to self…” Find a better hiding spot!”)

What is one of your dreams you hope to accomplish soon? My biggest goal right now it grow and develop my Blue Cricket Brand! It’s an exciting time with lots keeping me busy and to see some of my ideas and projects come to life is going to be so exciting!

What has been one of your favorite moments as a mother? This is easy! I’m one of those crazy women you hear about and can’t stand! I LOVE giving birth! Drug Free! Labor and delivery is my all time most favorite thing to do and to only get to do it a handful of times in your life makes each time incredibly special to me! I’m a hypno birthing mom who cherishes the moment when all my concentration and hard work is rewarded with a new tiny miracle who is so fresh and new that you can hardly stand it!! It’s those first few moments together as mother and child that I consider the absolute greatest moments in my life. I hope to be able to do it at least once more!

What is your guilty pleasure? Reality TV, Mint Oreos, and soaking in a tub with no interruptions! If I could do all three at the same time I think I’d be convinced that life couldn’t get better!

What do you love most about you? I love that I’m becoming more self aware of what my real blessings are. Family, Health, a home, wonderful friends and the support that sustains me and allows me to keep it all balanced.

Favorite Holiday: Halloween! I’m a huge huge fan! I can think back to my childhood and always find reasons why I loved this holiday! I love the colors, the slightly gross factor to it and the dressing up! And it’s so much fun to be a mom and share my excitement with my kids!

Who is your hero? Stay at Home Moms in general are my heroes! I call it like I see it and I know how hard it can be to be at home doing what we do!

Your advice to other Moms: Never forget that we are constantly creating memories that our children will remember so live the way you want to be remembered. Our children will remember the good and the bad so do more to increase the good by dancing in the kitchen, baking more cookies and spending more time together! Ask yourself what kind of memories you want your kids to have of you and do something to create them!

Isn’t she just perfect? I am so glad I found Becca’s blog AND she lives here in Utah, I can’t wait to meet her. I have been busy reading all of her past posts, such a fun gal! Thanks Becca! -Vanessa

There are no pictures, cause I am beat.

Cameron is NOT potty trained, we are not working on it anymore. Her peeing on me during story time which led to loosing my oldest daughter, who was terrified, in the library was just horrifying. -DEALBREAKER- Then she let a loose #2 go while I was reading her a story. -DEALBREAKER-

We all are showing the first signs of a sickness about to explode in our house, some of us have fevers, sore throats or spilling our cookies. Tomorrow it shall be fun. Charlie and Lola will be playing all day long and I will be locking us all in one of our great rooms–I just know it.

It was almost 50 degrees today, 50! Until we all started feeling sick we spent the day outside, it was fantastic. Until Cameron decided to jump face first into the huge mud pile in the corner of our yard. I took a picture in case one day I find it funny, I don’t yet. It took me forever to scrub off our huge driveway and then she took a nice stroll around the driveway till I could catch her.

See? I’m beat.

P.S. I miss all my nieces, please come visit Aunt Vanessa when she is feeling better.

P.P.S. I miss all my brother and sisters too, good I still have my baby brother around (who is on his FIRST FIRST DATE RIGHT NOW!!) lets go to the movies this week JB.

I posted this back in January, but wanted to do a “repeat” since it is now 8 days till V-Day!

Every day, we have been picking a heart from the tree and do something nice for the person whose name is on the heart.   It could be a plate of cookies or just a quick email or a note in the mail.

Supplies:

Any sort of tree

Heart Foam Stickers

White Ribbon

Red Heart Garland

Directions:

1. Decorate your tree with your choice of Valentine’s Day garland.

2. Cut ribbon to your desired length.

3. Attach the white string to the backside of the sticker heart.

4. Writes names of those you love on the backside of each heart.

5. Hang your hearts onto your tree.

6. After you have completed something nice for the person, find a matching sticker heart and “close” the heart by placing the sticker sides together.

7. Sit back and realize how lucky you are to have so many people who love you and feel good that you have made each of them smile for the past 30 days.

These “Be Mine Valentine Bracelets” are AMAZING (in my humble opinion)! How clever is this?  You could even tie one of these around a lollipop to bulk it up as a school Valentine’s Day Gift. The “Be Mine” messages are IN the bracelet, which is just made of a small piece of ribbon and itty bitty pieces of velcro.

Supplies:

Label Maker OR Pens

Ribbon

Sticky Velcro Pieces

Scissors

Directions:

1. Measure the ribbon around the wrist and add a couple of inches for folding and cut.

2. Fold one end down and attach a little piece of sticky velcro, please notice in the picture which way I am folding down the ribbon.

3. Fold the other end down and attach a little piece of sticky velcro.  Please notice in the picture which way I am folding down the ribbon.

4. You can either write with a pen or attach a label to the inside with your “Valentine Message.”

5. See how it attaches? Brilliant!

6. Give it a good kiss!

7. Don’t forget to make a bunch for your friends!

No not THAT kind of drink.  THESE tropical-pretend-like-there-is-sunshine-spice-up-your-day-drinks.

Why do I find myself making these kind of drinks in the middle of the winter more than in the hot summer?

Darn Winter Blues.

You should make some too.  Here are my favorite recipes for fun drinks.

Coconut/Pineapple/Apricot Goodness

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of ice
• 1can of Coco Lopez
• 1 can of Pineapple Juice
• 1 can of Apricot Nectar

Directions:

1. Combine it all (you might have to do it in two batches) and DRINK!

Lava Flows

{Photo by Eric Hamilton}

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups of Dole Pineapple Juice
• 2 cans of Coco Lopez drink mix
• 2 cups of fresh strawberries
• 1 tray of ice

Directions:

1. Blend all ingredients in a blender until smooth and serve!

Mint Pomegranate Lemonade

{Photo by Gliuoo}

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of fresh lemonade
• 1/4 cup of pomegranate juice
• Fresh sprig of Mint
• Berries or Citrus to garnish (if desired)

Directions:

1.Combine lemonade and pomegranate juice in tall glass over ice. Garnish with mint sprig and fresh berries or citrus.

A few weeks ago we started rearranging all the rooms in our house and Baby Girl’s room has been sitting…well, like this…for quite a while:

Embarassing. Ok, well I am redoing it and using the song, “Three Little Birds” by Bob Marley as the theme. JUST YOU WAIT, it is going to be amazing. I am doing quite a few projects WITH the girls to redo her room.  The one we did today took just an hour.

Project #1 Special “Cubbies” for Special Things

Supplies:

6 “Cubby” Boxes or Shadow Boxes (3 for each side of the bed to go on the wall)

Scotch Tape

Cardboard Box

Fabric Scraps

Hammer and Nails

Directions:

1. Cut your carboard pieces to match the backs of your “cubby boxes”

2. Cut your scrap fabric to be about an inch larger around than the cardboard piece. Iron out the fabric and you can simply fold the edges over and fasten with scotch tape!

3. Arrange the fabric covered cardboard on your wall at just the right height for whoever will be using it. In this room, we are using 3 each on both sides of her big girl bed.

4. Hammer in the fabric covered cardboard to the wall (after lining up the nail holes in the “cubby” box also). But only put the nail halfway into the wall.

5. Hang up the “shadow” boxes or “cubby” boxes onto the wall.

6. Let your little one add in her “special Items

This was so simple and fun! They will go on both sides of her (not here yet) big girl bed! Next on my list is redoing this toy box that will go at the end of her bed.  This is where her “fairy houses” reside.

There has been a change in our schedule here in my home that has me scrambling to get things done and keep sane. I am in the “in between” phase, where I am trying my hardest to get everything done but really need to sit down and once again come up with a new “Time Management” plan.

Isn’t it when your life seems the craziest that you need a Little Thing to make you stop, breathe and smile?

My baby girl (what? she is still in a crib.  I can call her that) and I have a fun 10pm routine that makes me just glow inside and out every night. Up until a couple of months ago I had to be very “secret spy” like to check on her one last time at 10pm. If she woke up, that was it.  She was not consolable and would need to be calmed back down. She even had this tricky maneuver where she would ask for a hug and then use my body to crawl out of her crib into my arms. Tricky gal.

Now I can say hi to her.  Sometimes she wakes up and sometimes she does not, but she is happy to just stay in bed.  Like her older sister, she’ll whisper back to me, “I love you too Mama,” even while asleep.  For the past couple of weeks, though, she has been doing something that I am pretty sure should be awarded as “the cutest thing ever.”

After she says “I love you,” I make a kiss noise before I leave.  While still asleep, she makes these kiss noises back to me.  She does it over and over so I leave her door open just a touch to listen to her series of air kisses to me. And sometimes that little girl is so darn cute, she gets scooped up to come hang out with Momma and Poppi in their bed.

I know.  What a lucky Mama am I?

Monday’s Maven

Full Name: Sarah Mae

blog:

Location: Comfy Chair, PA

kids:

The princess - age 4
The bud - age 2
The spunkster - age 1

One Word that Describes You: Inquisitive

What makes you smile? The funny things my kiddos say (my four year old especially!).

What is one of your dreams you hope to accomplish soon? I don’t know about soon, but raising my children with intention - doing the best I can now so that I few regrets later.  It is very hard!

One of Your favorite motherhood moments?

I love the moments after just giving birth and being able to hold and snuggle and nurse that precious newborn baby.  Oh, be still my heart!

What is your guilty pleasure? Twitter…while drinking lot’s of coffee.

What do you love most about you? My ability to clean the house in under 30 minutes when I know my husband will be home from work. 

Favorite food? My favorite food is Italian - love me some pasta and bread!

Who is your hero? All of the moms who choose to stay home and raise up their children.  Also, those who adopt (rescue) children - LOVE YOU!

Your advice to other mothers: Smile big every time your children wake up from a nap - never make them feel like they are burdens.

Isn’t Sarah Mae just adorable? I really loved getting to know her and her insightful answers, thanks for being my Monday Maven!