Happy Inauguration!

Whatever your feelings about the outcome of the recent election, I'm sure we can all agree that our new president and our nation could use our prayers and best wishes over the next four years. Here's to Hope!

Photo Montage

So, I've been tagged. Granted, Kristie put out the challenge 3 or 4 months ago, and, also granted, I don't really believe in playing tag (OK, it's more like I'm agnostic towards online games of tag), but it looked like fun and so I did it. Here is the challenge:

The rules of the game:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker. (http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/mosaic.php) Then upload or copy the completed mosiac to your blog.
d. If you're reading this, you may consider yourself tagged (but only if you think it would be fun).

The Questions:
1. What is your first name? Margaret
2. What is your favorite food? Raspberries
3. What high school did you go to? Kahuku (and, yes, I was in the marching band!)
4. What is your favorite color? Blue
5. Who is your celebrity crush? George Clooney
6. Favorite drink? Right now it's hot mint tea
7. Dream vacation? Today, I'm thinking London
8. Favorite dessert? Chocolate!
9. What you want to be when you grow up? Happy (I wish I knew what profession I wanted to be when I grew up)
10. What do you love most in life? My Family
11. One Word to describe you. Friendly
12. Your Flickr name (or other online name) Markie!



Photo credits:
1. Margaret "Wyld Meg" Ogg, Feral Child of Lochloorach, 2. Drop a Raspberry, 3. Kahuku, 4. Blue ice cave at the Jostedalsbreen glacier, 5. George Clooney, 6. Green mint tea, 7. The Day of the Storm in London Covent Garden..., 8. Put Chocolate Pudding on the Top Shelf !!, 9. don't worry be happy new year, 10. My family portrait, 11. "you've got a friend", 12. Markie Blitz Super Hero 2

What's in a name?

I don't really regret changing my name when I got married, but I have been missing my maiden name lately. My (nuclear and extended) family is really cool and I like having that visible connection to them. Of course, if I could, I'd share a name with all of my mom's side of the family too - you can see how that would get very messy, very fast. And, of course, there's the feminist side of me that says, "Why should I be the one to give up half of my identity just because I'm a woman?"

My old name was hard to spell, constantly butchered in pronunciation, and is way too close to a swear word, but it was ME. My new name (OK, not really new since we've been married for more than 11 years, but you know what I mean) is common, easy to spell, easy to say, and it actually has become me. But, I wish there was a non-clunky way to have both. Hyphenating is not for me (my signature is already 17 letters long!), and I like that we all have a common name for our family. I think the Chinese way is my favorite. In Chinese I would be 'Markie Oldname' but we would be the 'Newname' family and I would be 'Mrs. Newname'. Who's with me on adopting the Chinese way?

The bed's too small

The first year and a half of our marriage, Erik and I had a full-sized bed. It worked, but, as mattress stores love to point out, if there are two people on a full-sized bed, each one has less total acreage than a crib mattress. It can start to feel a little cramped. On the other hand, while it's great fun to stay in a hotel, the King-sized bed just feels lonely. So, we're generally pretty happy with our Queen-sized bed. It's not too big, not too small, not too hard, not too soft - even Goldilocks would approve. It's even big enough for the occasional visit from our sweet 3-year old. Until last night, that is. Go-go's best friend Becca is staying with us for a week while her mom is in Utah. Last night, Becca had a bad dream, so we brought her into bed with us to snuggle. About a half-hour later, Go-go came in to snuggle too. With his usual snuggle-spot occupied, Go-go improvised throughout the night - using my shins, stomach, feet, or hip as a pillow; lying perpendicularly across our ankles; snuggling around my head like a cat; and just lying in his regular spot despite the fact that Becca was already there underneath him. Despite all of this, the kids seemed to get plenty of sleep. The adults? Not so much. I think that we're going to be in big trouble when Mui-mui gets big enough to climb out of her bed and into ours.

One more wreath

OK, I know, you're all sick of advent wreaths, but I promised to post a picture of Ruth's fabulous wreath when I got one, so here it is (her second wreath isn't quite done yet).

O Christmas Tree

We bundled everyone up, drove out to the tree farm, grabbed a big saw, and headed out towards the fields of trees to conquer and drag home the Christmas of our dreams. But, we only got as far as the gate before Go-go cried, "I'm so cold! I don't want a Christmas tree! I'm too cold!" We decided that the pre-cut trees in the barn would be more than good enough.




Then it was time to decorate the tree (and ourselves) and play in pajamas.

More advent calendar wreath

A few people have asked for more specifics on the watchmaker tin advent wreaths. I'm a little hesitant to provide instructions because that's not the kind of crafter I am (I wouldn't say I'm a crafter at all). The fun for me is making it up as I go along. If I saw the list of everything I did, I would have said, "That takes way too long and is way too Martha Stewart - I'll just go buy something at Target." But, I know that there are all sorts ways to craft - so I'll let y'all know what Ruth and I did and you can take it from there.

First are the watchmaker tins. We bought them from a wholesale supplier (Darice), but you can get the 2-inch size at Michael's or JoAnne's (in the wedding department), or you can get a variety of sizes online here. They just have pop off lids, so they're easy for kids to open (maybe too easy). A variety of sizes looks nice. We used 2-inch and 1 1/2 inch tins (we ordered some 3-inch tins as well, but they were out of stock). It's hard to find candy that can fit in the 1 1/2 inch tins, so we actually skipped the candy part at my house and just did Christmas activities.

The base is a flat wreath form we found at Michael's and then spray painted. You could also use a standard foam wreath form wrapped in ribbon, but it would be a very different look and the tins would all face slightly different directions (which could be a good thing).

Next, you just play with your tins and doo-dads until you have a look you like. Then hot-glue everything in place. For a sturdier wreath that will last season after season, you could also screw the tins down to the wreath form (be sure to use tiny screws). Inside the lids, we used scrapbook paper stamped with the numbers. I think it might look better with numbers cut out of contrasting papers. One problem I had was adhering the paper to the lids. I used spray adhesive, but it left a residue that made the lids look sticky and yucky. You could tape the paper into the lids or use a tiny bit of glue just around the inside rim.

On the red and green wreath, the star doo-dad is an ornament we found at Joanne's and spray painted silver. The curly-cues are just some decorations we found at Walmart and bent around until the look was right. I fell in love with the white berry sprays at Michael's and then chose ribbon that looked good with it for the silver/blue wreath. Just look for Christmas stuff that makes you happy and go from there. The fun is in the designing and creating.

Advent Calendar Wreaths

We have been loving December and our Christmas Advent activities. Go-go can't wait for Daddy to get home so that he can go "open the paper". I promised I would post pictures and I am finally making good on my word. Ruth and I were inspired by the wonderful tins on this wreath, but wanted to put our own spin on it. We each made two wreaths (I will try to get pictures of Ruth's too - they are incredibly cute [update - here's a picture of one of Ruth's wreaths]). Here are mine (we're currently using the red and green one):






(more info on how we made the wreaths here)

Lucie's wedding

Erik's sister, Lucie, got married the week before Thanksgiving, so we got to spend the holiday in California (mmm, warm California). The wedding was beautiful, Dan is a great guy, and we had a fabulous time.

Mui-mui looked gorgeous in a dress that Grandma Virginia made for her:




And Go-go was so handsome in his fancy clothes:


Of course, sliding in the mud at the reception can improve even the fanciest of suits:





Despite the mud and mess, we had a great time doing the wedding thing and visiting with grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Later in the week, we went to the Exploratorium in San Francisco with Aunt Aimee and cousin Brett:





And Thanksgiving dinner was delicious! (but I don't have any pictures - you'll just have to imagine it)

While I'm posting cute pictures of my kids, here are two more taken after we got back home: