That's What Little Girls Are Made Of

The last few weeks have been riddled with noise around here. I can't seem to escape it. This is how I know boys and girls are very different. As of this very moment, I'm in a self induced quiet time in a feeble attempt to escape from the incessant chatter of my daughter. While Mckenzie has had plenty of moments where he talked our ears off, he is generally a quiet fellow. He is thoughtful when speaking and doesn't always offer up more information than necessary. Don't get me wrong, he can blather on needlessly also, but Kalea, wow! She is a phenomenon. Her internal switch that tells her to talk, sing, or make noise is stuck in the 'on' position. Now she's always been a talker, freely conversing about her day or yours, questions small and great. But these past few weeks have taken in to a new level. I could maybe get to a count of 5 between bursts of 'communication' from her. And it's not enough that she just talks and tells us things, it's that she asks us questions that are so bizarre, that we have no way to answer. I wish I could think of an example but I do believe that I've erased them from my memory, or perhaps they are just constantly being replaced by new questions at an alarming rate. I try to answer even when all I really feel like saying is "I don't know, and frankly, I don't care, stop talking!!". I made a good effort today to play the quiet game. You all know what that is. She lost. Within 4 seconds. She told me she didn't like the quiet game and that I should stop talking about it because I was talking too much. Then she proceeded to pepper me with thoughts and questions from the mind of a 4 year old. *sigh*. But what you may have noticed from the last sentence is that her talking is not enough to satisfy her. What truly makes her happy is when we communicate only in short, simple matter of fact ways that don't consume too much of her talking time. Last night for example we were driving with my sister, Kalea asked for the music to be turned on. When it didn't happen immediately she requested again. My sister shared with her the virtue of being patient. Kalea promptly informed her that she was saying too much stuff. How rude. So what is the quota for daily words? For men it's 12,500 but for women it's 25,000. Already today I think we're just shy of that and it's only 10:30 am. Lord have mercy. Is this what men feel like when we talk? I need to ask Mike for some coping mechanisms. However I'm not sure if Mike's ideas will work practically for me. Perhaps earplugs. Do you have any ideas for me? Any pearls of wisdom? It's very fortunate that her sweet, cute, adorable little self more than makes up for this non-stop chatter we are experiencing lately. Her voice is super cute and I admit it is very nice to be able to have conversations with her, to gather information about her day, her feelings, her ideas, her dreams. It's nice that she is so open. It's nice to see her bubbly personality, her vivacious spirit. It's humorous when Mike and I sit back and observe her ramblings to no one in particular. I suppose I should enjoy all of this now, because before I know it, she'll be locked up in her room blasting her music screaming only 'I hate you, you've ruined my life!@!@" Ahhhhh... little girls. Sugar and spice and everything nice that's what little girls are made of. RIGHT?!

HALLOWEEN

Well, that was fast wasn't it? Only a matter of a few hours and here I am again. Last night was just too cold to continue on so I packed up and went to bed. I'm so happy that it didn't end up raining last night like we kept hearing that it might do. But the temperature dipped into some pretty brisk temperatures and the house was no exception. When I finally went to bed, I got in bed fully clothed from head to toe, the fleece sheets and an extra quilt were not even a good match for our cold house so I had to use a heating pad to warm myself up. Now you may be asking yourself 'why didn't she just turn up the heat?'. Well, I just kept thinking that I was going to bed soon so there was no point to turning it up. We usually turn the heat down a bit before bed. I can only imagine how dreadful and wretched Fall and Winter are for the homeless. How do they survive? It's beyond me.

But I said I would give a little update on the children's book so I'm here to deliver the simple details. I have been talking a bit with a publishing company getting some information and trying to wade through the sea of that info without losing my mind. It can all feel a bit daunting. But the lady I was speaking with was very helpful and everything sounded good, well, almost everything. The company I was speaking to was ready to go ahead as I guess they're a publish on demand kind of deal. So that was good, I'd be able to get published no problem, I wouldn't have to submit and hope that someone liked it. But, there were a couple of downsides. One, they were America and I prefer Canadian. Two, I realllllly didn't like the way the books finally looked. The illustrations were not at all my style. It's true, people really do judge a book by it's cover. So I declined to work with that company. I felt like I was on a bit of a deadline to make a decision since they had a 50% off deal till Oct 31st. But I finally found the Canadian Publishing company I was trying to find and I love the way their books are done. However, I'm not sure that they are looking for books like the 2 I have completed. Plus they are a submit and wait company. But that's ok, I'm feeling less like I need to be in a rush. I can take my time. Maybe I can try my had at some illustrations (daunting), or get Mike to try some. I'd really like it to be ALL mine. So that's that. I'm on pause again. But I'm good with that. Peaceful. I read over my stories again and I like them, realllly like them and am happy with them. Not sure if others will feel the same, but to me they're special because they're about my connection with my kids.

So what are the books about? Well, without telling you the stories, they are short children's books. They're maybe somewhere around 10 pages? Short and probably most suitable for toddlers and preschool age kids. Both stories are just conversations between a momma and her kids. They're about trying to speak the simple yet profound love language of kids.

One day, eventually, I'll share them with you. And I'll hope you like them and that they remind you of those special conversations you've had with your wee ones.

The Almost, But Not Quite Post

I spent the evening reading over old posts I have written and it was really nice to go back down memory lane. Re-reading funny things the kids said or did, reminding myself of little stories, big events... just fun. I really enjoyed it. Whether anyone else gets as much enjoyment is up for debate, but I hope it's somewhat entertaining enough to call you back again for another peek. I was thinking about what I could post next and I was thinking about a little update on my children's book. BUT...... my hand has a kink and suddenly it's not 9pm, it's midnight, 12:03 to be precise, and I'm bitterly cold and unable to think or type without wearing out the backspace key. SO.... I'll try to do a little update in the next day or two.
Hope you all had a nice Halloween, next stop, Christmas!!!!

I am slowly making progress on the quilt I started a bit ago. I finally have to top part done, well, mostly done. I still have to add a couple of strips around the edge, but other than that the bulk of it is done. Next, the part that has a hard time holding my interest, the binding it and quilting it. It may be a while yet before this project is complete. But so far I'm happy with it, mainly because it's made from all of my favorite fabrics from the past couple of years that I've used with my dolly n' boo business. But for now, I'm off to the sewing table to work on a few Christmas crafts. Is it strange that I can hardly wait until the first possible moment that I can decorate for Christmas? It's not even Halloween yet. I'll try to contain myself at least until the end of November. Until next time, enjoy the rest of your weekend, see you soon!

Scenes from my day at Granville Island today. Enjoy your Autumn.

This Fall is the season of projects it seems. I've got all these ideas and I'm feeling very productive. I've recently done 2 major cleans of the house (something which does not fall under that category of 'things I love to do and do often'). I'm feeling so calm and more inspired and productive because of it. While doing this I've realized what I couldn't figure out before, which is that my love language is "acts of service". Throwing that in here seems a bit random but it all makes sense to me even though I don't have the energy to explain right now. Regardless, it is nice to know and very helpful.

Aside from the clean house, or at least clean upstairs, I have begun this quilt that is pictured above. I'm finally doing something with all my dolly n' boo scraps. And I have piles of scraps. I have barely even touched them and still I'll have lots to make a good sized quilt. I'm loving it already just because of all the fabrics that I love being in one work of art. Although, the term work of art may be overstating it to others, but to me, if I can pull this off even remotely it will be a giant success. We'll see....

I am also getting geared up and excited about planning another amazing race around Vancouver. They are sooo much fun to plan and I hear they're fun to run also. There is something about working so hard and long at something that is nice for me. I really enjoy it.

I am also about to embark on an art project for the dining room. Not sure what it will be but something that involves a giant square canvas. Something bright and funky I'm sure.

And I also want to work on illustrating 2 little children's books that I wrote this summer. I'm not sure if you can call them books though unless they're published which they're not since I have no clue what, where, who and how to go about that. If you know, let me know because I would actually like to pursue that. I'm also feeling inspired by Kalea in particular about another book due to her inquisitive little mind. The illustration part will be the serious challenge for me since I'm not really artistic in that way. I can fake it a bit, but it's defiantly not my strongest area. Plus all my ideas are not accurately revealed which leads to disappointment on my part. Hopefully though I can come up with something that I am happy with.

Overall I'm really liking this Fall season, I've got lots of Dolly n' Boo stock so I can relax and do some things that are for me and are just fun and frivolous. I am feeding my soul with lots of inspiration of the many many creative people around me, with colors, music, ideas... I also got to go away with just Mike last weekend to Victoria for the Baby Fair I was exhibiting at (very nice) We haven't been away and alone since I was pregnant with Kalea. It was kind of a belated Anniversary weekend for us. Although we couldn't spend the days together we were able to enjoy the evenings in gorgeous Victoria. I really wish we could have spent more time there and actually taken in some shops. I'm taking time to go to Granville Island this week with my amazing friend and like I said before, I'm organizing my life and filling it with beautiful things. *sigh*. Doesn't hurt that Mr. Sun was not too deeply wounded by my recent Dear John letter and has decided that we really can be just friends. But I have one more project for right now - bed. So goodnight, sleep tight.