market dress

i took these photos under duress. not my own personal duress, but the duress of my children. they wanted absolutely no parts of dressing up and brushing hair and taking pictures on this particular day.

i made them do it anyway. i pleaded and cajoled and handed out lollipops.

that night they both came down with fevers, and gigi ended up with the flu for the next week.

that’s Spectacular Parenting, for the win.

all the photos looked like garbage.

that’s paybacks, or just desserts, or whatever.

:/

that stupid emoticon does not sufficiently represent the face i’m making as i explain all this, but you get the gist, right?

it’s like this:

(that’s a gift, from me to you)

anyway…initially i rejected all the pics and figured i’d reshoot later. here we are 3 weeks later and i lack the desire or initiative to go through the entire process again. my sparse posting of late is the effect of busy weeks full of, well, busy-ness leaving me with a total lack of desire to blog—or truthfully, do anything not absolutely necessary. the upcoming week is looking to be just as crazy as i temporarily become the mother of eight, versus my normal five. (!) i’m so out of the rhythm that i even considered a vlog, just so i didn’t have to type. but i’m unshowered (another thing i don’t feel like doing), and i can’t remember the last time i brushed my teeth, so i’ll spare you that.

so you get unworthy market dress pictures, attitude crazy soon-to-be-very-sick eyes and all.

i’ve been holding on to this fabric for a while. it was an impulse buy, irresistable with it’s cute little animals heading to market. the muted colors are soft and pretty.

i bought plain seafoam green cotton for the base and made a simple dress—full skirted with some pintucks on the bottom.

i do love me some pintucks.

grey and white buttons adorn the apron top and the two big pockets on the skirt.

the back—which i apparently completely neglected to photograph—closes with a button placket. i didn’t extend it quite far enough down, so it’s a bit of a squeeze getting it on. oops. ;)

together i think the dress is cute, but maybe lacking a little something? i’m not sure. i do like the non-traditional color, and the little faux apron effect is cute.

another thing to note: why yes, she is standing on our new dining room table. the face for that statement is different than the one above. it’s more a cheese grin, thusly:

:D

also known as the “don’t be mad husband, look at what a good backdrop it makes!” face.

linking up here:

also: carmen sandiego.

you know those times when you like…i don’t know, go on vacation or have a baby or something, and you don’t drive for a week or two? and then you get back behind the wheel of a car and you’re all whoa how do i start this thing? i turn the big wheel and push the pedals to go?

that’s the best analogy i can come up with for what’s happening here. i’m sitting in front of my computer to write a blog post and i’m all
c://
READY
10: write “hello googiemomma readers!”
20: goto 10
RUN

(that’s BASIC for all you youngsters. what we rocked on our commodore 64’s WHATWHAT back in the day when computers were large and in charge!)
(p.s. you have died of dysentery)

anyway i’m still here and still planning on blogging. it’s been a whopper of a winter so far—flu (ugh) hit us. twice now elliot has gotten sick with a fever for one day and passed it on to gigi, who then ran a wicked high fever for 5 days straight. we’re starting to think it might be a conspiracy—sibling rivalry by way of biological warfare. the stomach flu (double ugh) hit us. harrison was quarantined in his room for 4 days straight (i didn’t need a repeat of Puke Fest ‘12).

the doctor visit where they said yup, she has the flu. have a nice day. thanks for that.

throw in some random fevers, sniffles and coughs, a trip to ohio to visit family (not quite as epic as this one, but yes there was an excessive amount of bodily fluids involved on the drive there and i’ll leave it at that)(unless you follow me on instagram and then you know the story) (okay, elliot puked. and puked. and puked. it was as awesome as it sounds.) so yeah, i know i’m not alone on all that.

covered in towels we stopped to buy, and finally sleeping.

i’m also still actively gym-ing. i don’t lose weight easily—i struggle and fight for every.single.ounce. if i breath in too hard near a bakery i’ll gain back all i’ve lost for the week.
but i’m determined, and i’m seeing results, so i refuse to give up.

and i’ve actually been doing quite a few projects that i can’t share at the moment for one reason or another. (gifts for people not-yet-given, upcoming series, really lousy photos i need to redo, etc…)

my hands are in everything right now.

i’m easily distracted and require a change of pace and/or scenery often. (SQUIRREL!) i rush through things, multitasking like a BOSS...at least that’s how i see it. my husband wouldn’t have the same view, i believe. and it occurred to me this morning as i poured my coffee with one hand and AT THE SAME TIME poured my creamer in with the other hand (really. who does that?) that i need
TO.

s t o p .

well, actually it’s something i’ve been brooding over for a few weeks now. i’ve seen a lot of bloggers pick their Word of the Year. and i won’t go so far as that, but i was (haha, here comes the irony…wait for it…) thinking about it and what my word would be be as i did 4.6 million other things the other day and it occurred to me:

f o c u s .

there it is, summed up in that one word.

stop, breath, focus.

BE.
be intent on what i’m doing—whether that be time with children, time with husband, making dinner, writing a blog post, exercising, sewing, reading—don’t let a hundred other things crowd into my brain and thoughts and actions. set down the phone, walk away from the google and just…focus.

as a matter of fact, in the time i’ve written this blog post i’ve also half quilted a blanket, played a battle round on the voice app with gigi (starships were meant to flyyyyy hands up, and touch the skyyyyyy), talked to my mom on the phone, and thought about dinner.

focus, shannon. f o c u s .

so there it is. one big excuse of a post. but hang on tight, i’ll be back.

and i’ll be better than ever. ;)

ava

what i planned on posting today was photos of elliot’s little golden books dress. i ironed it and fixed her hair and took about 2 dozen completely unusable photos.

stupid overcast not-bright-enough-for-indoor-pictures weather.

i ignored the inner voice telling me that it wasn’t happening and pressed on stubbornly, even to the point of sitting down here to edit the pics and write up the post after everyone had gone to sleep.

stupid stubborn-not-caring-that-i-know-the-pics-are-blurry person.

i’ve been having trouble getting back into the swing of blogging. i think it’s still the whole exercise & diet vs. everything else thing.

so when i realized my pics were a bust, i scrolled through my photo album looking for a magical unblogged project to appear.

spoiler alert: it didn’t.

stupid not-appearing-magically-perfectly-shot-and-styled-project-photos.

also, i may be in a bit of a funk. just sayin’.

so instead i give you a couple shots i took of ava a few weeks ago.

the sun was just right, and she was the closest kid. i forced her to stand still for a couple of minutes, despite the fact that she absolutely HATES getting her picture taken.

i have to beg her for a smile, this one. she’s got two sides: silly and ‘eh, whatev”. i almost wrote “serious” instead, but it’s not that she’s serious. far from. at her last parent-teacher conference i sat down and the teacher said to me “oh ava. i always say about ava if this was the 60’s she’d be my hippie flower child. nothing bothers ava. ever. and nothing concerns her. ever.”

and she’s absolutely right. 95% of the time the kid is unflappable and even tempered. 4% super silly and 1%…well, i’ll leave that one percent to the imagination. ;)