how inappropriate is this outfit for kroger?

that's the question i asked clint about 20 minutes ago, when i realized the thing i wanted most in the world was something for dessert from kroger (okay, really i'd like it not to be from kroger, but that's the closest & probably only thing open).

he looked up from painting my butcher block (did i tell you this is what he made me for mother's day???!) to say i looked fine, so off i went in my pj shorts & gown/shirt, & fleece (yes it's super, stinking hot here, but for some reason i have JUST NOW gotten my old body thermostat back from having a baby - i'm officially cold all the time like i used to be.)

yes, i looked ridiculous - from outfit to bangs gone wild, as i took a shower earlier & didn't get to straighten them yet! but i ask you - what else could i do? i was feeling the urge!!! and i would be feeling so left out in about 10 minutes when clint comes in & sits on the couch with the rest of the crumble i made last week! now i can happily join him :) (if he hurries up, that is - i can't wait too long to dig in!!!)

happy saturday night to you!

baby fav

so we try to do as many natural/organic stuff as we can with hud, but as we all know this can get quite expensive! that's why this is one of my fav baby things.

i think i'm going to start a new series called "baby favs" because i love getting real-life-tested ideas & thoughts for parenting/kids. if you aren't currently in that phase of life, this might be a little boring, or maybe you'll get an idea for a shower gift! do tell me if you have fav baby stuff, or good advice, or if you try something i suggest & like it! OR if you get inspired & write your own baby favs post!

so, back to the burt's bees. i love this baby bee bar soap! it's so much less expensive than buying organic/natural liquid soap, & it lasts for a long time. i think we're on about the 2nd month with ours, & i'm guessing it'll last for at least another month! great deal! we also use it on his head, though he has so little hair, i couldn't say how it would do for a kid w/ acutal hair! i think it would work.

and so finally a pic of hud in the bath, eating the soap holder! happy thursday!

semisweet perfection

darn nestle's chocolate! i love this stuff. i think i like semisweet better than milk chocolate - if we're just talking about munching type chocolate (as opposed to a chocolate dessert, or something); not quite so much sugar & also a very slight bitter bite. fab.

i guess i'm easy to please.

one thing about these little buggers, though. they don't mix well with sewing. i've been known to have to redo a project b/c i got just the teeniest bit of chocolate on it - ooops!

have you ever tried making regular sugar cookies & putting these in them? also fab. this is a trick we learned from the ever fabulous mrs. elliott. she also makes a really nice chocolate pecan pie. i'm sure nestle's semisweets are involved.

if you're thinking this post is really random, you're right. but i needed to post & this was what came out.

a few of my favs

one of the things that makes me the happiest is a bowl of pretty vegetables. i wish i could say these came from the farmers market. but ruth & i are venturing downtown to a veggie coop this week, so hopefully i'll have a bowl full of locally grown soon!

so what are we doing with these? the red onion is for our turkey burgs (have you tried ground turkey? it's really great - you can substitute if for almost any ground beef dish.) the lemons are for a leek-lemon stirfry - easy & yum! & the tomatoes, avocados, & lime are for clint's famous guac (okay, well he just came up with it a few weeks ago, but it's really good!).

i don't know if you can see in this pic, but the tomatoes are "heirloom" tomatoes. i've learned about these & tons about locally grown produce, etc. from a new book - "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by barbara kingsolver. it's a great one. i was really in need of a good read, & ran out to get it one day. that's a story in itself, really - my desparate run to sam's (i knew the book was there & i had a giftcard) in my pjs w/ hud juice perpetually on the left shoulder (hud juice is a daily mixture of drool, milk, sweet potatoes, dried raspberries - or whatever else he has had to eat!). i realized on the way there that my sweet child (whom i had just thrown in the car, in my last minute dash, wanting something to read during nap time) was actually in his pajama top & no bottoms! i was THAT mom - the one everyone was wondering about, as in - can't believe she lets her child out of the house like that & just look at her! anyway, i got that darn book & enjoyed the heck out of it while hud napped!

and i'm still enjoying it's great mix of story/narrative & informative facts. it's primarily a memoir of her family's attempt to spend a year eating only what they could farm themselves, or buy/trade from their neighbors & farmers market. so, obviously they ate what was in season, which made me realize i don't even know what veggie/fruit goes with what season! do you??! the idea is that if you eat locally, the food is fresher, you're supporting your local economy, & elliminating the need for all of the fuel it takes to move those california tomatoes all the way to maine so people can eat blts in march. make sense? anyway, it's a great read if you're looking for something.

and some of my other favorite things... i've meant to blog about this for awhile, hoping to rock some of your worlds...

now, i don't know about the body wash, but this lotion is THE BEST!!! i've been on the look out for a good lotion for years & have always come up dry (haha!)! but this one has not left me hanging. it smells nice & actually keeps your legs from getting scaley hours after your shave - nice! it seriously makes me happy.

hmmm, other fav things - m&ms, reeses... but you know that! one of my fav none chocolate deserts (which have to be good if i'm going to indulge in something nonchocolate!) is a blueberry peach crumble. i'm making it tonight, so i'll try & take a pic. it's YUM!

have any favs? (YOU BETTER COMMENT!!!!!!!)

wow - look! & idol

okay, so this is treehouse in brooklyn & if you look carefully & strain your eyes, you can see that the 2nd onesie in the left window is an alacrity creation!!!! yaaaaay! so fun! wish i were going up there to see it!!!

and in other news - idol! is everyone as shocked as we were?? archie is totally a cutie & is super talented, but we were so excited that cook won!!! i thought archie was cute from the beginning, but as his cheesy ballads wore on, i decided he'd be a great cutie for a teeny bopper to love (wholesome & sweet), but i wouldn't buy a cheesy album of his. and as far as cook - it took me awhile to get on the bandwagon. i really liked michael johns at first, & also i thought cook came across as kind of smug. did anyone else think that?
i think he just came across the wrong way b/c i don't think simon would say he was such a nice guy if he didn't mean it. & i LOVED the collective soul song! can't wait for his album to come out! but i hope it doesn't have that really ridiculous 2nd song from tuesday night - i don't know why they make them sing those dumb songs!

anyway, what will we do with ourselves this summer????

ps - it's totally embarrasing that i just wrote a long post about american idol. and i could have written much more!

another feature!

guess what?? my sailboat onesie was featured on another design website!!! yaaaaaay! i was so excited to wake up & get an email that the sailboat had been chosen for today's post! the site is called CUTEABLE. & is quite funky & cute!

i'm going to the post office today to mail a package to australia! how fun is that? an "etsy friend" from the uk ordered the red striped tree onesie & burp for her niece in australia. alacrity designs can now be found in 3 continents! we're taking over the world :) hahaha!!!

thanks for sharing in my excitement!!!

chocolate buttercream keeps on giving

i just found the left over frosting from hud's cupcakes. darn it. i was really trying to be good... :)

don't have a lot to say, & no cute pics! but i'm blogging anyway because it's been a week.

hud & i were in kerrville visiting my mom & grandmother this week. going to kerrville for me is always a little like stepping back in time. my family has gone to kerrville all the way back to when my mom was a child, so there are lots of memories there. i did have this funny "full circle moment" (i know, i'm showing my oprah roots!) in the local heb. mom, hud, & i were doing some shopping for the week, & suddenly a song by the judds came on over the loud speakers. now i don't mean "only love" by winona judd, i mean the good old, old songs from when naomi & winona sang together! the song was "why not me?". do you know it????
"why not me on a rainy day... why not me to love your cares away... why not me?"
my cousins, sister, & i used to belt that song out as we drove all around kerrville, usually looking for more floaties, sun block, gloves to protect our hands @ the rapids... we were always in either our red striped surburban, or my aunt's red striped suburban!!! and we sang all the judd's songs with all of the passion that our little 6, 7, or 10 year old hearts could hold!
anyway, it was a funny feeling to now be in heb with my little one & having the judds serenade us - i kind of still wanted to sing along.

time is such a strange thing. i read this quote the other day "The great thing about getting older is that you don't lose all the other ages you've been." (madeleine l'engle) i like that. i like to think that i'm still the blonde haired toddler, the nerdy 5th grader with huge red glasses, the sensitive high school freshman, the carefree college sophomore, the newly married & clueless 22 yr old, & the new mommy (also clueless!) - all right now. time is strange, life is strange, but it's also strangely beautiful.

well, that's all i have for right now.

what a deal!

who knew $40 would change my life?

the next time you see me, i'm going to be a total health nut. you may not even recognize me.

our neighbor had a yard sale on friday, & we got the coolest running stroller! we've wanted one for awhile, but the good ones are pretty expensive & we'd heard the cheaper ones aren't really worth it. so we've survived 12 long months with out one & really, i'm just sure that's why i still have a few sneaking pounds left!!!! it couldn't be all of those reeses or blizzards - no way! you see, i'm POSITIVE i'd be tan & totally toned if i had just had a jogging stroller... yeah, i'm sure of it.

anyway, now i have one, and i definitely have visions of walk after walk after run this summer - daily! i'm just sure we'll spend our days as a family hitting the trails & the pavement. i'll probably even take it to the pool everyday where i'll do laps with hudson on my back.

& we'll definitely want good nourishment for all of our aerobic activity, so i also see my self whiling away the summer evenings making the most nutritious fruits & veggies for my family! i doubt we'll even have dessert at all!

so gone are my reeses splurges (did you see that post?), folks! i'm just sure i've become a new woman!!!

my baby is one

bash & berries

we're getting ready for little harp's birthday. can you tell the theme?

today i spent a good deal of the day (well, the part that wasn't spent chasing mr. "naps are for the birds" around) desperately trying to organize our kitchen junk! i swear, when we lived in our itty bitty 1000 square foot house in dallas, we NEVER had such the junk ish that we have now. i seriously don't know what the deal is. i need realsimple to come & do that "organize me" deal that they do. have you seen that?

how in the name of everything good & holy does a kitchen desk end up looking like this...

well, i'm happy to report that i took those videos back to blockbuster, & i cleaned up the rest of the junk today! i should have taken an "after" photo.

and now for the "berries" part of this post. little harp's new LOVE is dried raspberries. seriously! they are very tart but he doesn't even make a face. now you must remember that our precious child has quite the aversion to most solid/table foods. we're having to take things very slowly in that department. he's a gag-er. and gagging often leads to puking... just to let you know that he rarely enjoys anything other than gerber puffs, which are made to dissolve in little toddler mouths.

so the other day when sandra asked to give hudson one of her dried raspberries, i thought - oh sure! i mean, she was the one holding him & everything, so if she wanted to risk the puke, then fine! and guess what? the little punkie ate the raspberry! and he's been eating them ever since. here are the pics to prove it.

NO WAY!!!! check out #4!

hud & i just got home from a jaunt over to the sebas for a little wagon walk (okay, & i drug the poor boy to kohls - but just for a minute!). i went to check my email & guess what i found????? an email from a sweet gal named julie (who i don't know) informing me that she chose my sailboat onesie to be featured on her design blog!!! cool, huh???? i'm so excited!

this is what she had to say about the design... "This onesie is simply darling! What a wonderful idea to use polka dotted fabric to create the sail on this boat. The Alacrity Designs Etsy shop is filled with unique items for baby. Check it out today!"

you can see for yourself by clicking here! oh, & while you're there, you might consider leaving a comment about how cute you think the polka dot onesie is :)!!!!!

boy does this make up for eating way too much chocolate yesterday!!!

happy tuesday to you all!

oops

yeah, major oops! the good news is i'm not the only one who emptied these wrappers. the bad news? we also each ate a mini bag of gummy bears earlier today @ target!!!

hey, it's monday...

matching ants

we went out to magnolia to celebrate tristen's birthday (10 days before little harp's!). it was beautiful & felt like a nice, quiet change from the city. the boys enjoyed chasing each other around & quasi-wrestling. tristen showed little h how to climb stairs, which really tired him out (see last picture of him on the way home!)

& that's h & tristen in matching shirts (new ant design). do you think they look alike?? sandra & i were stopped once & asked if they were twins! pretty cute :)

ice cream sunday, part two

yeah, we did it again. last sunday was just too good!!! we went to ben & jerry's for the second sunday in a row, & this time we drug the sebas with us!!! it was a fun date. yes, i got the peanut butter & chocolate again (seriously probably the worst one you could get fat gram wise) & yes, hudson hogged clint's cinna-bun cone again. it was great.

in between bites we discussed such adult things as american idol (we all think it's going to be a david-david show down), & what toys ruth recommends for 1 yr old birthdays (coming up SOON!). this may be becoming a harp family tradition soon...

*ps - you'll notice there are no pics of daddy harp this week. he said no pics because he's wearing the same thing as last week. haha! i was surprised i wasn't wearing the same thing, too! one thing we definitely picked up in europe was the unabashed ability to wear the same clothes frequently. well, i say "unabashed" - usually clint's unashamed, but maybe he just doesn't want it documented for the grandkids?! :)

my new town, thee i love (or at least don't hate)

as little h & i were driving around finishing our errands this afternoon, i realized one thing i like about our new town - all the nice landscaping. even our local sonic has really well maintained bushes, mini-trees & even bird of paradise flowers! i know this because one of our errands was for me to try one of those new java chillers from this sonic. i had caramel.

anyway, this noticing something that i like about our new town is good for me. you see, i wasn't exactly thrilled about moving here. this could possibly have to do with the fact that we had a newborn @ the time & had also just moved to a new house 4 months earlier. let's just say it was a little stressful. another disheartening factor was my lone memory of this new city. it was from about 20 yrs ago when my great uncle died. i didn't really know him, so the memory's not sad - i hardly remember the funeral. but what i do remember is driving to the funeral! the traffic was so horrific, & i had to go to the bathroom so badly! it blew this little east texas girl's mind that we couldn't just pull over to the nearest gas station. let's just say tyler didn't experience much traffic back then! anyway, this memory coupled with what i knew would be "bad hair" weather, didn't make me too thrilled about houston.

all that to say that this is a remarkable post! so i like the landscaping... & i really like our neighborhood. the big trees remind me of tyler & the street i grew up on - except they don't change color here in the fall, but i won't mention that, since this is a post about what i LIKE about this new place. let's see, where was i? oh, we love our church - it's been a tremendous blessing to us, & a true community, despite the commute. also, we have all of these great birds around here! seriously - it's weird. i saw a sign in a neighborhood close by that says it's a "bird sanctuary", & i don't know what that means, but maybe some of the birds are migrating over here, too, because we see tons of blue jays, cardinals, woodpeckers, mockingbirds, wrens, robins... okay, really i'm just naming bird species now - i don't really know what all of them are, but they're nice. i need clint's grandad's bird manual... oooo & clint's home! which means it's time for our family trip to the HEB! oh, & that's another thing i like about houston - our "vintage heb"!

happy thursday.