My First Giveaway.

Come one, come all, come win the most fabulous of fantastical cookware items EVER! :) Okay, so I might be exaggerating a teeny, tiny bit, but I really do LOVE these fabulous items Cookware.com has so graciously donated to moi, to giveaway to you, the reader. :) Can you say, 'yay'?

Again, this site is connected to several others that offer everything from kids beds to sweet wine racks to bar stools and, my favorite, globes. That's right. I said it. I have a thing for globes. Not just any globe, mind you, but the kind you might find in a Beauty and the Beast Library kind of globe. You know, the kind of regal library with books that span floor to ceiling, and you need a ladder on a rolling track to navigate through the room and read the special dewy decimal system?! sigh. THAT is the kind of globe I want. Moving on...

The giveaway includes the three items above in the depicted color (Caribbean Blue). It's such a happy color. I must say, while I do not have the items in Caribbean Blue, I do have them in Flame and use them ALL THE TIME. That is, I did use my small spatula all the time, until Homer ate it. Which is another post entirely. The 9 x 13 dish is fabulous for Ham Loaf, Roasting veggies and Carrot Puff Casseroles for church events. Mine cleans quickly and looks unused after being tested for three years. And, trust me, it has been used. The small spatula is just the right size for scraping gooey pie filling out of a can and into a pan or spreading a mix in tight corners. The spoon spatula. Oh. The spoon spatula. I cannot tell you the love affair I have with this item. It's a rubber scraper and serving spoon in one. GENIUS I tell you. BUT, the best and most fantastical part of these spatulas - the scraper part pulls off the wooden handle for cleaning. This means, the silicone heads can be dropped in the dishwasher on hi-temp wash whilst you hand wash the wooden handle. After the dishwasher is done the two can be re-united in sanitized blissdom. Sigh, and all will be right with the world again. :)


Okay. So. Enough about my creepy love for all things Le Creuset.


The giveaway rules:


1. Leave a comment answering this question: If you could re-paint/decorate your kitchen what would the color be?? (I'm secretly gathering ideas for my dated mauve-counter-topped kitchen...)


2. Leave your email or a way to contact you in the comment as well.


3. If you want another entry, become a fan of emily's eye photography on facebook, then leave me a comment again so I know.


4. If you want another entry, write a blog post linking to this giveaway post, then leave me a comment again so I know.


5. If you want a fourth entry, become a follower of my blog and, wait for it...leave me a comment again so I know. :)


6. The giveaway is open starting now until April 8th at midnight. I will select the winner using random.org and make the announcement promptly (or not so promptly if you know me) the morning of April 9th.


7. If you've stuck with me this long - you are awesome. :)


If you have ANY QUESTIONS, or found a BIG HOLE in my giveaway guidelines, PLEASE TELL ME. I am a giveaway virgin, and don't really know what I'm doing! :)


P to the S - email me at lettersmoving@gmail.com


The end.

Book Worm and Tube Watcher

So apparently Nells Bells is too good for Momma and her silly voices during book reading. Apparently at the age of 14 months one becomes capable of pulling books into one's crib and doesn't want Momma in the morning, just some privacy. Apparently, crying will ensue if Momma disturbs said happy morning reading time. So, here I am, posting to you all about this phenomenon instead of cuddling with my dear Sesame. Because she doesn't want me. Doesn't even want me to read to her. She can do it on her own. Apparently. :)

In other news: I'm gearing up for the aforementioned giveaway!! :) SO EXCITED! :) The website doing the promotional offers numerous items and sites to choose from. They carry kids beds, bar stools, and my favorite, COOKWARE!!!

Which is why I am giving away the best of cookware items. :)

A 12" x 9" Le Creuset Casserole dish in Caribbean blue. The LOVELY dish also comes with my two favorite rubber spatulas/scrapers in the matching Caribbean blue. Love. My next post will be a review of these items (which I already own and ADORE!) and details on the giveaway.

But until then - here are some photos of the REAL reason ya'll tune in. :)

Sesame discovered the beauty of TV. And standing too close. Jesopete. What kind of Momma let's her 14 month old watch TV at a distance of 1.2 inches!? Someone should do something about that. :)

This is her newly acquired "Mom you're in my way look." I also received it this morning from the crib as I attempted to pick her up.

"No, really Mom. Stop. You're cramping my style. I'm trying to discern whether Discovering Sonya is going to find the vowel 'o' or 'a' and I can't think with you this close to me. Go away."

We also broke out the frozen Go-gurt. LOVED. She didn't do too bad eating it alone. Homer tried to help. I shooed him away. He found some old crackers on the floor that were just as good.

This went so well I thought to myself: "Self, she could totally feed herself yogurt at dinner!!"

Wrong. it was EVERYWHERE. When will I learn!? She did clean out the container though!

She even put a green bean in the container for a snack later. yum. Vanilla green bean. MMMMM.

Chalk and Star Trek

Again - unedited - :( no time.

So the past couple of days Momma has foregone laundry (after recovering from illness and fulfilling other obligations...post to come...) and cooking to play outside. Um. Hello?! Have you see it out there??? SUN SHINE!

So Nells Bells and I broke out the best of spring time gear - SIDEWALK CHALK! Of course (as seen above) I didn't fully think through the implications for our play clothes. :) Let's just say she was colorful by the time we surrendered our chalk and hobbled back indoors.

Oh look Daddy's home! YAY! He can play with us too!

Show Daddy how to grab the chalk Nellianne!

Now here is where we see why my daughter will have an internal complex. A war within her forever.

Ahem.

Husband's drawings:

Momma's Drawing:

And if that's not enough husband instructed little Miss. on the radius, diameter and area of a circle. Look - he even wrote out the QTPi equation. (whatever that means!)

So you see our sunshine chalk and star trek genes have collided to create Sesame. Poor Girl. She's going to show up with kindergarten spouting Einstein's theory of relativity in iambic pentameter.

Da Zoo.

(Note: no edited photos...just clustered...And...this is my first "automatic" post! yay!)

So. I don't have too much time to write - hence why I just dumped a boat load of photos into this post! :)

The next three are not, in fact, an awkward, eccentric wave, but Nells blowing kisses! FINALLY! :)

What's up there??? Is it a bird? It's hard to tell in the photos who made the face first - Mom or Nellianne. :)

Honking Yia Yia's nose! :)

Happy with the elephants!

This is my I'm done at the zoo face. This photo was supposed to go at the end. But, CLEARLY, I misplaced it! :)

See - I DO exist! :)

And now we know where Sesame's face come from...

...her Daddy. Not. :)

P.S. I was approached about doing a giveaway - would you rather see kids items, kitchen items or home decor items??? :) Let me know!

The Zoo...

We went to the zoo yesterday!!! First time. So fun. :) Nells ADORED the animals! There will be a full post coming soon - but it's Wednesday and we're eating at a friend's house tonight! :) Off to play in the 74 degree weather with Nellianne until Daddy gets home! :) Here's a photo to prove that I DO exist! :)

The Neighbor Kids...

WARNING: Long rambly post filled with too many photos which are not edited. The end.

So yesterday was a FABULOUS 60 something here in the good ole Midwest. Our day started like this:

Bath Time. What can I say, she was stinky! :) In an adorable, cute way of course. :)

Then we went for a walk. When we got back I heard this little voice yell "Hey!" It was the neighbor girl. Samantha. She walked over and informed me that she had a wagon too (which I could see because she was pulling it) and that hers was green not red (again...in plain sight) and that hers had a door and she liked ours and she wanted to play. But not if the big, mean, scary dog was in the yard. (She was referring to Homer. Who is not scary. Or mean. Big, yes. Mean, no.)

First she tickled Nells with her "tickle stick."

Then we went for a ride in the "cool wagon" as Sam claimed.

Then Nellie watched in slight fear as Sam parked her wagon atop the large snow pile outside our house. She might have been thinking "Dear Mom, please don't let that girl take me up there."

Um, hello cute midget with the slightly red, slightly blonde curly Einstein hair. Would you wear these adorable red sunglasses? Only Nells could pull off the red polka-dot glasses with a jail striped onesie.

Sam then proclaimed it was time for a concert. She was really emotive. I think she played Schubert on only 5 keys. Five keys that mooed, tweeted, barked, meowed and quacked. Now THAT is skill.

Nellianne watched from afar. It was her only chance to try and hide the ball from the big kid. Run away Sesame - RUN AWAY!

Drat. She didn't make it. The music just drew her in.

How can I NOT post this one?!

This is neighbor boy Max. He seemed excited to play - and then he saw two girls playing a confused zoo keyboard outside and ran. I don't blame him. Especially since one of those girls went inside, promptly removed her pants and danced about the house like a ballerina.

I'm not saying which one though. You'll have to guess. :)

Cues You Have a Toddler...

Lunch bags become purses.

Brain development occurs. Example: Today I said, "Nellianne, it's night night time. Let's get ready for a nap." She walked across the room, flipped open the flap on her num-num pocket, pulled out a num, popped it in her mouth, snatched her blankie, walked back over to me and collapsed in my lap. I think she's entered the realm of comprehension.

Vocal performance. Today Nellianne woke up sounding like a 13 year old boy. She has made deep, growly "I am Batman" sounds and high pitched Aria trills. I think she just realized she has a vocal range.

Refined hearing. She heard the birds tweeting during breakfast and kept pointing out the window. Then she'd hunch over, make her silly little excited face and put one finger in front of her mouth - indicating "shhh." She totally digs the singing birds of spring time! :)