These were taken on my phone from our shoot at Modern Props for the fall/winter Misha Lulu lookbook? Some of these made it to my instagram (like this one), in case they look familiar. Modern Props is the biggest prop house in Southern California  and there were chairs of every kind (be still my chair loving heart!) and props that I totally recognized from Austin Powers, Superman movies, and Michael Jackson things. Besides chairs from all eras, there were tables, office furniture, space ship stuff and just lots and lots of random artifacts. It was this ginormous warehouse filled with amazing things!

The kids were busy being models and us moms were sitting around. It was so strange not doing anything. I got really tired just sitting there! Also, us moms sat around talking about our “mom guilt” and how even though we all stay home, at the end of the day we all still look back at the day and feel bad thinking we didn’t spend enough time with our kids. It’s cause we’re busy doing this and that for them, but we still feel we’re lacking. I think know matter what your situation is… working mom, working at home mom, stay home mom, we all get a bit of “mom guilt,” don’t we?!

We have this book which has a collection of favorite stories about a cat named Jenny Linsky. We love the stories of her adventures and the simple illustrations throughout. The stories inspired us to create a little cat bag inspired by our new cat friend (and her friends)!

A Cat Bag
A little bag inspired by the stories of Jenny Linsky.

Supplies:
Cat Bag Template (choose whichever cat head you’d like, since I gave you two options, or make both!)
Scissors
1/4 yard of black wool felt (or whatever color you’d like)
Small scraps of ivory wool felt
Sewing machine (or can do this by hand with embroidery floss and hand sewing needle, but a machine is always faster!)
Coordinating thread
1 yard of ribbon, cording, or yarn (for the bag strap)
Pins (optional)

Directions:
1. Using the cat bag template, cut out your wool fabric pieces: 1 head piece (cut on the fold), 2 eyes, 2 irises, and 6 whiskers (and a nose for one of the patterns).
2. Mark placement for the eye shape, irises, and whiskers (pin in place if you’d like). Sew on the eyes and irises on to the front of your bag.
3. Sew on the whiskers along the whisker line. They are thin, so you want to carefully and make sure it gets sewn on. They don’t have to be straight, quirky is always good!
4. Fold the bag in half, lining up all the fabric edges, and make sure the cat face is facing outward. Edge stitch the sides of the bag 1/4″ from the fabric edge.
5. Determine the right length of the strap for your child, then insert the ends of the strap about 1 1/2″ into the corner of the cat ears, pin in place, and edge stitch the bag strap on. Sewing about an 1 1/2″ of the ear corner will do to make sure the strap is attached securely and give plenty of room to open the bag to fill with little treasures.

If you have little ones who are cat lovers, I’m sure they’d definitely appreciate this project. Or you can enlarge the template, and make one for yourself, if you’re a cat lover! The pattern could also be enlarged to make a cute cat pillow. A cat pillow for Jenny Linsky might be next on our agenda.

I once had a cat named Tigger (um, can you tell I was a major Disney fan growing up). He was the cutest little fella. Unfortunately, he didn’t have a happy ending as the bigger cats of the neighborhood didn’t like him much, but I’ve definitely always been a cat lady. Now that I’m grown, I suddenly have allergies to things I never was allergic to, so I’m not so sure I’d do so well with one here. We have one neighborhood cat that keeps pooping in our garden beds. We don’t appreciate that much and while I like cats, I don’t like them pooping near my vegetables. The girls are vying for a dog, particularly a golden retriever, but we aren’t ready for that. Also, I’m allergic to (some) dogs too! Thus for now, we will keep our dreams of a pet and live through the stories in a book.

Rosemary White Bean Soup with Kale. Yes! Make this! It’s so good. I didn’t use the chard because we already had kale and I think it was absolutely delicious and nutritious. Don’t mind my pictures. My homemade croutons aren’t golden and my kale is a darker green because this is on day 2 after I boiled the soup again, but it’s really yummy. I made a giant pot for our dinner club and I’m glad we have leftovers!

Week of 3/10 – 3/14
Monday: Crunchy Turkey Burgers
Tuesday: Leftovers
Wednesday: Udon Stir Fry
Thursday: Leftovers
Friday: Sushi/pizza night

This is how I typically do my blog pictures of our dinner… I cook the meal, set one plate of food, put it on my white background, snap a quick picture, then it goes straight to the dinner table, and we all eat. Though in the fall and winter it gets challenging to do that because I lose the natural light at dinner time, so I hope that I have leftovers for lunch the next day. If I do, I make myself a plate, take a picture, and then eat it for lunch. If there aren’t any leftovers, then I can’t take a picture the next day to share it with you. This is one of the funny ways of how I fit blogging into my life, so I’m super excited that I’ll get more light for dinnertime to snap a quick picture! #bloggersareweird

I find lots of little notes likes this around the house from True and Brave. Sometimes it says, “Dear Mommy…” and it has an equally sweet message. Also, sometimes those notes that are “Dear Papi,” and say something like, “Mommy was yelling again today…” Oh, my sweet darlings! They test me in ways I never thought possible, but I love them so much!

This week’s learned, links, and thankfulness…

Glow’s in the all about mommy stage. Only I can change her diaper, only I can cuddle with her, only I can put her to bed, yada yada…

I love bold patterns on this dress, which led me to look through etsy, and I found this. Maybe I can sew something up for myself!

This cake is amazing!

How cute is this vintage, little girl, party dress?! I always love everything in Ms. Tips!

I’m thankful my girls are so forgiving. I can be a crazy mom one minute, come to my senses, and then ask them for forgiveness. Thankfully, they say, “Yes,” and they carry on like nothing ever happened. I know it’s hard, but it’s so good for kids to see their parents asking for forgiveness and admitting where they fall short.

Ben and a group of his guy friends from our church family is working on this love dare. It’s easy to get in a rut in marriage, so I love how they are trying to intentionally care for their wives.

On another marriage note, I read somewhere this week (can’t remember where) a couple was asked what their secret to a happy marriage was and the husband replied, “My goal is to make her happy.” The wife then replied, “My goal is to make him happy.” That’s so true! We tend to be selfish in most of our relationships, including marriage, it can sometimes be all about what we want and “He’s not doing this…” But if both parties focused on the other person rather than self gratification, how different things would be! I’ve been trying to remember this more this week and things that would make Ben happy.

I’m thankful for this space and that I can be honest and express my feelings in yesterday’s post. I really was so scared to press publish (knowing it could possibly cause more negativity) and didn’t want to just come off complaining because I really am thankful for so much. I wanted to continue bring some realness to this place (and the internets) and share a bit of what’s in my heart. To be clear, I don’t necessarily think that those who engage in the sarcasm and criticism are jealous or particularly angry people. I think just as much as blog reading is a fun, little, time-waster-passer timer for us, it probably is just a fun and engaging thing for them to indulge in that kind of… I don’t know what to call it, observational-very-opinionated banter? Just like I don’t appreciate their judgement on me without fully knowing me, I don’t think it’s fair to call them jealous or unhappy because then nothing really makes us all that different.

What I’ve learned and take away for myself is that I need to work on applying Ephesians 4:29: “No foul language is to come from your mouth, but only what is good for building up someone in need, so that it gives grace to those who hear.” Also, I’d love by example to teach my daughters Proverbs 31:25: “She opens her mouth with wisdom and loving instruction is on her tongue.” I know I can definitely work on that too! With those verses, thank you for your kind and wise words, it definitely encouraged me more than you know!

I loved Mandi’s post this week about the big elephant in the room regarding criticism and the internet. It’s so true. It’s something I had been wanting to write, but wasn’t sure how to address it, but it’s something that’s definitely influenced my blogging. It’s made me slightly afraid, it’s made me more of a people pleaser, and it’s made me struggle with what I would normally put out there.

I first came across GOMI a couple years ago. Some of the things they say over there are hilarious, and I get why they need this place to vent, but nevertheless, what was said in a forum about me, definitely cut. It’s no surprise to me to get ridiculed for our kid name choices (we aren’t oblivious to how unusual they are), and we were well aware of Soul Glo when we decided to name the child after Soul, Glow. And I know I have many blind spots about myself, we all do, and I have friends in real life who help me navigate those areas that need work. I’ve tried to think through the negative things said about me and examine if there’s any validity in it and if there’s something I need to change. I think there were possible truth in some things, but I think what hurt most was being said I was fake. I try as hard as possible to be as honest and candid. I have no problem sharing our messes or talking about me dropping f-bombs. I’m not a perfect mother and I’m always learning daily how to fight my natural inclination to be selfish. I want to always love serving my children, but sometimes I don’t, and just want to throw in the towel and crawl into bed until Ben gets home (yesterday was one of those days).

I’m not going to lie. There are some bloggers that make me scratch my head (maybe I’m one of those bloggers for you), and I’ve headed to GOMI to see if they make anyone else scratch their head too. I get it’s kind of a way to vent and see if your feeling are validated. After awhile though, the negativity got to me, and it didn’t make me feel great, and I’m not one to easily shrug these things off. As a blogger, I know I’m not going to please everyone, though I do struggle with wanting to, and I know not everyone’s going to like what I have to say. It really is such a battle of the heart for me, but for me, it’s better for me to not fill my self with it. I feel much better when I don’t indulge in reading the negative banter, even if it isn’t about me. Plus, kindness is magic, right?!

I have very much appreciated when readers have emailed me to voice their concern of how I might have come across in a certain post, or have kindly left a comment disagreeing (or questioning) something I do in the comments. It doesn’t feel great at first because criticism is always hard to swallow, but after rereading it and they way they said it , made me realize that they really just care. I’ve also received sarcastic comments, and those are especially hard because I don’t get the point (did they just want to put me down for fun?!) I’m well aware that this is just part of the nature of blogging, so I don’t expect it to go away, and if I didn’t like it and can’t take it, then I should just get off the internets.

So far though, I’m not going anywhere. I love blogging. I love the creative outlet. I like thinking of projects and things to share and it’s all things I would be doing anyway if I didn’t have a blog. We would still have our garden, I’d still be sewing, the girls and I would still be crafting, there would still be cooking, and our life would basically still be the same. I probably wouldn’t be taking step by step pictures, but there would definitely still be a lot of picture taking because I love capturing moments. Additionally, I have loved all the sharing that goes on, I love watching Rachel use her mad power tools skills, I love watching Katie’s bus to home transformation, and I love how Danni grows her business, or how Merilee keeps coming up with the cutest paper crafts! We all learn so much from each other and I’m thankful for that. Creative opportunities (can’t wait to share more about them!) have come my way that wouldn’t have happened had I not being blogging.

There’s so much good from it, and they definitely out weigh the bad, so I’m going to keep trekking on. I just wanted to share my thoughts on it because it has made me a little bit of afraid and I don’t want to be. I don’t want to be paralyzed by what others think of me and it’s something I continuously have to battle. Blogging tends to be a place where we want to garner the praise and affirmation of others, but with this platform, we will undoubtedly also draw the insults and critical eye of others too. I have to be able to take both.

Jessica at House Inhabit also made a good blog post of how mommy blogging has changed. I never knew exactly where I fit in because I started my blog when I started my etsy shop and wanted to jump into the community of crafters, so it was about crafts and vintage hunting, but somewhere it also became about my life with my kids, so I guess I’m a mommy blogger? After a few years,  opportunities came and I’ve been able to collaborate with bigger companies. I’m thankful for the opportunities. It’s not something Ben can quit his day job for, but nevertheless, I’m thankful. I say yes to some things, and I say no to some others. Yes, I am a blogger who does sponsored posts on occasion, but I try to keep it real. I know not everyone may agree with sponsored posts, but again, I can’t please everyone.

Even now, I’m nervous to press “publish.” I know some will just think this comes with the territory of blogging, so I need to suck it up, which is true, and others may empathize with my feelings. I do enjoy thinking of projects and recipes and sharing it, I really just love being able to do creative projects. I love that I do get to stay home and work on these projects for and with my girls, and I’m thankful that it some thing that I sometimes get paid for. In the end though, I really just try to enjoy God through all of it. I know it may not make sense to some of you (and might sound ridiculous), but it’s understanding how my trust in God plays a role in every aspect of my life. I’m not perfect at all, so all my imperfections just teaches me to depend on God more.

Well, the wood garden beds were taken apart to make room for some heavy duty corten steel beds. We’re having to do some switching around because some of our trees weren’t doing too good in the soil (gardening is all about live and learn I guess!), so we are raising them up to go into beds. We’ve had a specialist from Dave Wilson’s Nursery come out and he said that would be the best solution to get them thriving again. Some were doing good, but some were doing bad.

After much debate, and maybe disagreements, we decided to go with Cor-ten steel beds. Since we’re putting in trees in and wanted a container that will last a long, long, long time, this is what we opted for. After we took apart the wooden beds, we could already see a lot of deterioration on parts of the wood, so we knew going this route would be the best option for what we’re planning. We like the industrial metal look (as can be seen be the amount of metal furniture we have in our home and our use of steel I-beams in our backyard), and the rust that forms on Cor-ten steel serves as a protective coating around the core which, ironically, dramatically slows the rate of future corrosion. The other name of this type of steel is called weathering steel.

I wish we can say we DIY-ed this ourselves, but nope, we didn’t. Our neighbors who could clearly peep into our backyard from their second floor probably think we’re crazy for the different things we put in our yard. It looks just like big giant metal boxes now, but it will look so cool once we get everything in! At least I think (and hope) it will. I’ve pinned many corten steel garden beds in my garden board and I always love the look of it, so I’m sure I will love the look of it in our yard too.

You have to have a lot of patience when dealing with creating a garden because it’s not like all these plants and things happen instantaneously (though it would be nice if with a snap of my fingers to suddenly have what I envision in my head). There is so much planning, investing, and learning (and mistakes!) involved. I’ll continue to share updates on the garden and how the Cor-ten steel beds work for us!