Paper Whimsies and Mini Albums

second project = surprise birthday present for a sweet little girl

staining poplar wood with acrylic then putting a lacquer finish

package of goodies

First Project = Fiona's album layout thus far


So... I've started a new project. It's something tangible and not so overwhelming. I'm quite motivated to see the end product. Instead of scrap booking an entire year and a half of Fiona's life (too, too many photos) I'm making a handmade mini album with my most favorite photographs. I'm calling it, A Year At A Glance. I'm only selecting one or two pictures to put on each page. At first, I wanted there to be twelve pages representing 12 months but I'm going to try and squeeze out 18. We'll see.

I'm absolutely in love with the paper, chipboard stickers, and stamps that I ordered from Two Peas In A Bucket. I'm just a sucker for cute paper and stickers. It reminds me of when my sister and I used to save up our pennies just to buy some stationery at the Sanrio store. It gives me that giddy feeling all over again.

I'll keep you posted on my progess.

Sugar Kisses

I absolutely love this stage in life, almost 18 months, innocent, curious, and growing. Fiona's talking up a storm. Her vocabulary amazes me everyday. For example, she said "wimming" as she pointed to her beta fish that lives in our clear cookie jar. She's just a super sponge at this very moment and I love it. She even recognizes President Obama every time he appears on t.v. Fiona points and says, "Obama!" My grandma gets a kick out of that. She loves politics.

But today, she was just full of surprises. While I was carrying her on my hip, she leaned over and gave me the biggest smooch ever. She said, "Muah!" as she kissed my lips. I love my silly girl. I just had to document this.

I love acrostic poems!

Favorite girl
Inspires my spirit
Old soul
Named after her aunt
Always on the go!

Ticklish little one
Enjoys chocolate like her mama
Sings a happy tune
Smiles at the world!

Fiona Speaks

Updated Vocabulary list...

Nion is lion
Noon is moon
Douds is clouds
Sky
Rain
Sun
Ephants is elephants
No!
Uh-oh!
Done
Bubbles

And for some reason, she's been saying these words quite frequently these days.

I Scream For Ice Cream!

This is her first time practically close to finishing a vanilla cone! I can see the sugar high already!

Mmmm good!

I'm concentrating on my ice cream. Thank you very much!

Her First Haircut!

We've been going back and forth about getting her haircut. Farley just didn't want to let go of the wispy strands of hair that reminded him that Fiona was still a baby. Our baby, that's growing up to be such a strong minded, independent little girl. A nice way of putting being stubborn at times. But we finally put an end to the straggly strands and turned it into a oh-so-stylish layered bob! It's so cute! The stylist at Pigtails and Crewcuts did an awesome job with the layers. It actually added a bit of volume to it. I really wanted her to get bangs but Fiona was already done! She wanted out of the airplane chair, no matter how cool it was.

15 months and growing

Fiona's vocabulary and phrase list so far...

• Mama is sometimes Mommy
• Papa is always Papa
• Grandma and Andpa
• Faitha, cousin Faith
• Saiah, cousin Isaiah
• Kias, their dog Zachias
• Help me
• Gimme
• Mi-Mi, means she wants breast milk (and I can't believe I'm still breastfeeding!)
• Me, Me, Me, means that it is Hers
• book
• Um-um, means I'm hungry
• Otch, means scratch
• Ouch!, refers to an injury or bump
• Wee! , refers to slides or swings
• Hi, spoken very loud and clear
• Bye, just the same
• I'm sure there's a few more that I've missed but her vocab just keeps on growing
• and lots of grunting and pointing and motioning

Fiona loves to dance to different genres of music, reads fiction and nonfiction books, eats chicken gyozas, says the word "apple" over and over, identifies a few animals like cat and dog, chicken and horse, duck and bird, enjoys sitting by grandpa's pond watching the koi fish, gets excited when she sees other kids, needs to warm up to strangers, and watches Yo Gabba Gabba and The Wonder Pets attentively.

Her eating habits are a bit challenging. She's quite finicky. I'm afraid we have to sneak vegetables when we can. And when we do, she spits it right out. That crazy girl!

Stayed tuned for more Fiona fun facts...