Halloween Ideas

Benjamin was going to be a honey badger for Halloween but I decided that the costume would be difficult to create with any authenticity.

Picture source here. 

You’ve seen the honey badger video, right? It’s hilarious but also not safe for work due to uncouth language. 

So..pondering our costume options. 

A honey bee?

A pumpkin? 

How about an octopus?

A chicken? Oh my. We might have to do the chicken. Or in Ben’s case, a rooster. 

Or a lamb. Or Ben could be the rooster and Bailey could be the lamb. A wolf in sheep’s clothing!! Oh my god I crack myself up. 

This might be the only year that I get to pick the costume. After that, it’s probably going to be batman, Elmo, or, god-forbid, a teletubby. 

See the rest of the Halloween ideas here. 

Ben - 8 Months

In honor of his eight month birthday, the bambino produced a third tooth this morning - top left. 

 Suddenly his week-long cranky period is beginning to make some sense. 

 We’re all knackered - please sleep well tonight, dear baby. 

Want to see more weekly photos of our plucky little bambino?

Ben - Weekly Photos

SLR Camera Bag Tutorial

My SLR Camera bag is finished! So glad to be done with this project.

 As you can see, it’s a soft-sided over the shoulder bag - a fairly simple design. 

It was my first ‘big’ sewing project - definitely rough in a few places but still serviceable. 

I added a few bells and whistles, namely, a foam bottom, padded sides, lens dividers, and a zipper. 

Camera bag tutorial (with pattern links) - after the jump. 

The Book of Family

Every once in a while, Shutterfly, in their infinite and awesome wisdom, sends me a coupon for a free photo album. That’s how we got the original Book of Benjmain. I’d say it’s his most favorite book but at this stage they all taste equally delicious - maybe in the future he’ll actually like reading it. 

Regardless, I especially enjoy the creative process that is involved in compiling an album. This time I decided that a book detailing Benjamin’s family would be fun to make, especially as many of his family members are several thousand miles away in far northern latitudes. 

You might recall that we were going to do a family tree on the wall in Ben’s room. Then we decided to do it in the hall instead. But we’re still in the process of painting the hallway walls so the family tree project is on hold indefinitely. 

For this book, I simply pinched all the pictures that we were using for the hallway project and compiled them in a book:

It begins with our family:

photo: Alex J

 And with a family tree. Which, I’ll freely admit, it probably a little complex for a baby:

There aren’t many words, just lots of pictures and bright colors:

 Naturally, it wouldn’t be complete without the whole gang:

 The key is to let each member of the family choose their own picture, especially if their image is going to be displayed on the wall or preserved in a book that will [hopefully] be around for a while. 

 I like that Shutterfly allows creators to customize both the front and back covers as well. 

 Hey! There’s my great grandpa! 

Cheerio, 

Sonja

Rant and Raves

I have a terrible track record for these but I guess they’ll just have to be an intermittent blog feature.

Rants O’ the Week:

• To the two women with the pitbull at Carkeek Park last weekend who waltzed past the huge “No Dogs on Beach” signs and then were caught without any sort of bag when the dog defecated in the middle of the heavily-used beach trail. Two things: You make dog owners look really, really bad when you do that. Secondly, you must have also missed the signs that said: “The stream and beach are heavily contaminated due, in part, to bacteria from dog and cat fecal material”.  Throwing a wee pinch of sand over your dog’s mess in the middle of a busy, busy trail is not going to help that situation.  Granted, we’ve all been bad dog owners on occasion but this behavior seemed especially egregious. 

• To chickens that are nearing the end of their laying period. Pondering our options on this one. 

• Sanding plaster in an old house. What a dirty, dusty, messy, miserable process. 

Raves O’ the Week:

• Football tickets from an awesome relative.  

• Lovely fall weather. We’re in soup- and stew-making mode ‘round here. Getting ready to hunker down for the winter. 

• Babies that sleep 6 hours straight. This happens rarely in our humble abode but when it does… it’s pure bliss. 

The Two Bs

Benjamin has decided that Bailey is his new best buddy. The Beast isn’t so sure about this development and has been doing his best to make himself scarce when Benjamin is on the prowl. 

I haven’t had the heart  to tell the old dog that his task is going to be infinitely more difficult when the kiddo is fully ambulatory. 

Who Let the Dawgs Out?!

It may not look sunny in these pictures but believe me when I say that it was hot, hot! 

Good weather, awesome company, and a game o’ football. 

 We had both a purple hat and a husky shirt for the kiddo; he refused both, preferring instead his “Studmuffin” onsie. 

Also, getting him to keep on his baby earmuffs was a challenge. We fed him cheerios and that seemed to placate him for a while. 

Teeth

The pearly whites have been in evidence for a while but he is now quite skilled at biting various body parts: fingers, noses, and other delicate bits.

At this stage Benjamin reminds me of a little puppy with sharp little teeth and a penchant for chewing on everything.

SC Parrish Photography

My Dears,

Have I told you about my fantastically talented cousin Sarah? She has had her professional photography shop up and running for a while now and I glanced through her site the other day.

I am definitely related to this gal.  I mean, who else would love critters as much as I do?

Feast your eyes on these photos:

 I detest yellow jackets…but love this picture.

And without a doubt, my most favorite of them all!!!! Still laughing at this one:

 And, of course, she does fantastic pictures of people that are chock full of personality and pizazz. Such as this one:

 And this sweet shot.

Peeps, if you happen to reside in the lovely State o’ Virginia, be sure to check her out!

xxoo,

Sonja

All photographs were taken by and are the property of SC Parrish Photography. 

Ben - 33 Weeks

Oh Happy Baby.





 See the full album here:

Ben - Weekly Photos

Weekend Recap

My Lovelies, 

I hope you had a fantastic weekend. Chris and I left the bambino with the padres and went out for a relaxing dinner. It was so desperately needed. I’m nominating my parents for sainthood. 

We tore out all the plants in our front rockery. They were terribly overgrown and too large for the space. Basically the area got a serious buzz cut. It doesn’t look great but at least we now know what we’re working with. And now I have a good excuse to keep going to nurseries with my madre. 

Benjamin continues to work on his eating skills…but it pretty much still devoted to milk. The kid knows what he likes best. 

I’ve been perusing garage sales on the weekends for toys, books, and clothes for Benjamin. I’ve had moderate luck but have a feeling that the end of our sunny weather will also put the kibosh on the yard sales. 

 I was pretty thrilled by this eggplant hat, especially as it was $0.50. Ben was too. 

 For about 30 seconds. 

On Sunday we went for a woodsy stroll at the park. 

 We moseyed down to the beach and watched a sailing race for a few minutes. 

 Ben was enthralled by the forest….for a while. 

 I love this baby. 

 Even when he does his grumpy frowny face. 

Dorrance Family Scrolls - Anyone have the digital versions?

Update: Digital versions of the scrolls are now online and can be downloaded. Check out the website here. 

My Dears, 

In 1947, Mary Wynne Dorrance did a tremendous amount of research of my father’s family history, starting with the Dorrance arrival in the New World in 1719. The information is compiled in three scrolls (one for each Dorrance brother) that are roughly each about 20 feet long. We have two of them. 

If you were to google “Dorrance Scrolls”, my blog mysteriously appears near the top of the heap and I get 5-10 requests every year from various Dorrances undertaking genealogy research that would like to obtain copies. 

Unfortunately, one simply cannot run down to the nearest Kinkos and zip out a photo copy. Too long, too delicate, too faded [and probably too expensive]. I would love to be able to send these long lost Dorrance kin a digital version, however. 

So, this post is in the hopes that some lovely Dorrance soul finds this blog post, has a digital version, and would be willing to share it with me. In turn, I would happily send it off to any inquiring Dorrances that are trying to track down their ancestors.

I would be forever grateful to obtain a copy. Please email me at SweetSeattleLife@gmail.com if you have digital versions of the Dorrance scrolls!  

xxoo, 

Sonja

All Gussied Up

My Dears!

Look at these pictures that my sister-in-law Alex took of Benjamin and me at Greg and Katherine’s Wedding Reception in August. 

 I really, really like them. 

 Look how Benjamin’s outfit has morphed from his fancy get-up to his PJs, paired with his [now wrinkly] fancy shirt on top. 

Classy. 

 Oh sweet boy. 

Me? I’m just thrilled I could fit into my old pre-pregnancy dress! [I wish I could say the same for my jeans. Baby steps]

Recent Happenings

Today is the day, last year, that we found out that we were going to have a baby boy. My, that seems like ages and ages ago.

The bambino had his first swim lesson last night:

He did far better than either Chris or I expected, especially given that we’d had a rough nap-less afternoon.

He floated around, splashed, kicked, and even consented to play a game of ‘Wheels on the Bus’. Chris and I had fun trading him back and forth. All in all, not a bad evening.

We acquired a new backpack and have taken a few test jaunts around the neighborhood. It’s still a bit big for him so we’re sticking to shorter walks for the time being. It’s much better than our front-carrying pack; 21 pounds of baby hanging off your neck is HEAVY. Lots of stress to my lower back, too. The backpack, with it's wide waist belt, is much better.

The view is better from here, too.


We’ve been loving this warm weather. Last weekend we went down to the beach for a little splashing around.

Lake water is cold!

But the sand is fun to play around in, clearly.

After a change of diaper [made difficult due to the influx of sand] we went over to the dock for a few minutes in the sun. Bailey was pooped as he’d spent his time at the beach chasing waves.

A good day.

And lastly, a little video of our sweet boy.