Dallas World Aquarium

A couple of weeks ago Conrad and I took a trip to the Dallas World Aquarium. It was a blast for both of us. He was so stoked about everything. It blew his mind. =) It's so much fun to see your kid so excited about something.

*drumroll

im proud to finally be able to say that i bought katcurling.com and am in the process of getting the site together. its a tiny but monumental step for me in getting where i need to be and want to be... but no matter what i do i still feel unfulfilled (creatively, emotionally, personally blah blah). all i can think of doing is just making things and creating and no matter what i do its not good enough and i have to keep doing more. its not very satisfying. i need to have more confidence in what i do. so this week ill be working myself to death and racking my brain trying to get a portfolio together.

anyhoo conrad and i are off for some fresh air and adventuring!

little drummer boy.

a few days ago nate bought us a drum set. im stoked. i played drums all through high school in our band.. yess.. i did haha. its very soothing to be playing again and nate is super excited about learning.



here's conrad rocking out.

baby birthdays & lovely people.

we had quite a busy weekend with our little family. Saturday we went out for a little bit of a late birthday dinner between nate and i. (my birthday was the first and this is the first time we've been alone lol!) Sunday was the adorable little Adalynn's first birthday! Now it's already decided that Conrad and she have a pre arranged marriage. She is just the cutest little girl in the world! I love her to death! I handmade a few hair clips and headbands for her birthday that turned out well for my first real whack at it.

Conrad cloud watching! It always makes me happy to see Conrad so social and making people laugh but at the same time being a little shy and playing by himself. I'm a proud momma.


A lot of old friends were at the party that have been very missed! It was so great to see everyone! Our friends Chase & Allie even brought me a late birthday present that i am in LOVE with.




AN OWL JOURNAL!
Could there be a better gift? Thanks Chase & Allie! I can't wait to feel this up with great memories, dreams and inspiration. I'm definitely thinking about starting a 21 before i'm 22 list like Elsie did and posted about. It's a lovely way to set goals! I find that I dont accomplish what I want if I dont make a mental list and have the gratification of seeing that goal crossed off the list. (Hence my dry erase board for daily chores etc).

well tata for now. hope everyone had a lovely weekend! yay for turkey coming soon!

kat ann

getting crafty & new treasures!

Halloween is close!!! and so is my 21st birthday! we've got big plans and my mind has been racing and imagining all week so far. ive got a ton of projects and things ive been working on that im excited to share. Like above, conrad and i decided to gather some sticks out of the yard and painted them halloween and fall colors! such an easy way to add some festivity to the house! we have nicknamed it the "Tim Burton Tree". I'm sure you could make a really easy simple wreath the same way! I also have a blog that I have been working on with my sister in law for her cake making business. she is fantastic and once it is up and running I can't wait to share it with you!

i managed to gather a few great little treasures over the past few weeks that id like to share as well. =)



conrads new bomber jacket! i scored this for $5!! its a bit big right now, but at least he can wear it forever. its adorable. his daddy had one just like it!




this camera! its an old minolta. shes a beauty. i cant wait to get some film and figure out how to get batteries for it.





meet lou 2. (the white one) a few years back my best friend hit the owl motherload at an antique store in dallas for my birthday. (isnt my best friend the best?). she gave me Lou 1. well this past weekend nate stumbled upon this little guy. We noticed it was signed Lou just like the first and HAD to buy it and figure out where they were from. this one had a business card on the back. apparently it was a little studio in Garland TX that made these in the 70's and you can still get custom orders done today! sweeetness. it was so exciting!

its almost the weekend! woo!
ta ta for now.

So it's been quite a while.

So it's been quite a while aye? I've been quite tied up with trying to find a new job and getting ready to move! It's amazing the ways that God works. Sometimes on the surface things may seem lost of all hope, but really underneath its a blessing in disguise. didn't you miss my lack of correct punctuation and ability to capitalize anything haha?

first things first, another new addition to the family: meet tiger lily. she's a feisty little thing. she and squid are best friends now. its adorable.




conrads birthday came and went and i was relieved to have it done with. it was a success and the heat wasnt too bad, the wind was a different story. it destroyed most of the table decorations and marshmallow pops melted all over the place, but it was a great turn out. =)




we're moving! very sudden and crazy but i'm excited! we'll be living with my parents for a couple of weeks til we can everything with the house we're wanting situated and i'm hoping that that goes smoothly because this new house means that I would have an office/studio and that conrad will have a big backyard and that nate will have a garage/man cave. so everyone wins! once all this is taken care of i'll hopefully be back to updating regularly.

in the meantime check out what ive been obsessing over: matt & kim. phenomenal happy day music. if im stressed i put them on the playlist and just dance in the living room when no one is watching.


Now I don't know if theyre a couple or not but they are two adorable people. =)

so ta ta. hopefully next time i'll be writing from my new office? feel free to donate to that cause haha. love you all.

kat ann

picnic!

a new favorite thing to do is picnic! I scored this awesome old picnic basket from my mother in law and got to break it in the first time a week and a half ago. i feel like dorothy from the wizard of oz when i carry this around... now if I only had a basket on my bike for it... hmm....

we had a great day snacking on fruit and crackers and cheese and conrad and i got to serve as jenn's photography class assignment haha. it was a nice cloudy, texas day not to mention. it was hardly even hot. As you can see, Conrad liked to take a bite of a strawberry and then put it back. lol

At this point in the picnic, Conrad and I were having a deep talk about the meaning of life.

photos all courtesy of the best friend jenn. thanks jenn!

busy momma.

More often then not I get down because I don't feel like I've accomplished much other than doing the dishes and keeping my kiddo fed, but this weekend I can honestly say I've been a busy bee. I finished a painting that I think I'm going to end up cutting out and placing on cardboard:



Completely carved a stamp for Conrad's birthday invitation. I accidentally got a linoleum block instead of a rubber one and that was fun. not. haha. but it was a fun experience and I'm excited to make more, but definitely going with rubber til I get better at it! I'll eventually post a tutorial once I know a bit more about it. It's so much fun printing! I can't wait to learn to screen print! *drool*

Speaking of "drool" and screen printing, THE DAINTY SQUID & DEADWORRY are doing an AWESOME giveaway! Deadworry's t shirts are absolutely amazing. I think my favorite is owlopus.


haha. What could be better than an owl and an octopus hybrid??? C'mon! Anyways tonight shall be full of lots of baking! I really love Kayla from Dainty Squid's method of using gel food coloring to spruce cakes and things up so I think I'm going to try that!



Plus I have my new dinosaur cookie cutters to test out! Expect tons of pictures! Hope everyone is having a safe awesome weekend! Take care!

Kat Ann

Conrad!

Isn't this lemonade stand just lovely? It just reeks of summer. =)


It's July first which means that I have a little over a month to start planning for Conrad's 2nd birthday. HOW FUN! Of course we are going with a dinosaur theme, that's a given. I've been searching around everywhere for some great decorating ideas and fun things for all the kiddos to do. FYI for anyone coming: it's going to be held Sunday August 8th Place & Time are undecided.


I really loves these colors and those cute bags!


Cute party favors!


I thought this fossil cookies idea was awesome!




I'd love for anyone to send me any cute decorating and party ideas. Anything from party favors and decorations to snacks!


AND NEXT YEAR WILL BE A ROBOT THEME! ALREADY DECIDED HAHA. =)

EDIT: I just realized that Glenrose Texas is a 2 hour drive from here. Glenrose has this awesome dinosaur park that I remember going to when I was a kid. Why haven't we gone there yet?! Summer trip I say! And we should definitely swing by the Dr. Pepper museum in Dublin on the way.

dirty laundry.

I ran out of dryer sheets today, and decided "Hey, I don't feel like buying dryer sheets ever again." I remembered an all DIY tutorial I saw ages ago in a magazine or somewhere where you take old fabric scraps or cloths and spray them with wrinkle release or soak them in liquid fabric softener. I grabbed an old baby wipes container and filled it 1/4 the way up with a 50/50 mixture of liquid fabric softener and water and a couple of sprays of wrinkle release. BAM! Worked like a charm! Best thing is you can just continue to reuse. When I get time I'm probably going to hem them or something to make them really cute. I'm happy I finally found another use for baby wipe containers!




Conrad's adorable suspenders I got him yesterday! It makes me smile. =)


and his cute GAP pj's I got for 50 cents :) the little pocket on the butt is what sold me.


And my little treasure: the floral suspenders. I'm in love.


AND NOW I'm going to go cuddle up with some tissues and try to fight this head cold with some netflix movies. =) ta ta guys

Kat ann

The Corner Thrift Store

I woke up to my mother leaving a message on my answering machine asking to keep Conrad for the night. (yay!) So I was excited for some "ME" time to explore and thrift and be lazy.

I fixed pancakes and gave the kiddo a bath and got him off to Nana and Pap's house. I started the morning off with NO CLEANING what so ever, and a lovely lovely movie called "Bright Star".


I've been on this binge of 19th & 18th century romance movies like Pride & Prejudice, The Duchess, Atonement etc.. So I added this to my Netflix instant queue since it was a romance about the poet John Keats. It was absolutely beautiful. I teared up a bit. It holds my stamp of approval for what its worth haha! I finally made myself shower and take a bike ride around town before coming home to meet up with the best friend.

We've been meaning to go to this place called "The Corner Thrift Store" forever but its always closed when we try. So we made it today and found all kinds of goodies. The best part is that nearly every item of clothing is $1. We spent a good 2 hours and both spent $14.08 a piece. I bought some cute pants with built in suspenders for Conrad, a few blouses, belts, scarves, corduroy shorts for the hubby and several other little things.

The best find of the day was definitely the russian nesting doll dress I found in the children's section. SO AWESOME. Luckily Jenn fits into some kids sizes haha. We hit up Goodwill after and scored some floral suspenders for myself and some more things for Conrad. Jenn and I later came to the agreement that we would trade off the awesome bag she found for the suspenders every so often haha.



We didn't get this awesome dog shirt because it didn't fit either one of us but it was photo worthy. I thought this little seat/desk was adorable. I'm hoping to talk my bearded man into getting it for me as a little work area.

We painted a few more things for the shop yesterday as well. =)

Hopefully that's the end of my excitement for the next few days.. I'm sunburned and exhausted mentally and physically. Thank goodness I get to sleep in a bit tomorrow. But I'm sure I'll still get up to savor my alone time. Yay for grandparents!