I've really been making an effort with my drawings this past months and was a featured vendor on Brickyard Buffalo, where I sold 40 custom house portraits in two days! They sold out much faster than I anticipated and I couldn't be more excited! My Etsy sales have also picked up from the exposure and they asked me back for next month! I love seeing photos of people's homes and hearing their favorites parts of the house, or this is the where we grew up and played in the yard. Each one is so different and I really love them all. I've worked my way through almost half of the portrait orders and these are some of my favorites.

You can see my shop on Etsy by clicking here: GallaDoodle

Photos from the Week

Not much news this week, just enjoying this taste of Michigan spring! The sun has been shining everyday and we have been playing outside every afternoon. Well, Fiona sits in her stroller, but CeCe is loving the extra frisbee time. I set Fi up off to the side like a queen's thrown watching the games. She claps and waves and it's so cute. One of her teachers at school said she waves through the window of the infant room when all the toddlers walk by. Hilarious!

Of course some festive pictures of her in her St Patrick's Day garb. I love this little bib my Aunt Kathy brought back from her trip to Ireland. Our little lucky charm :)

New Art in the Dining Room

YAY Fiona doesn't have pink eye anymore!! And her ear infection medicine is over!

And her cough doesn't sound as bad lately! YAY YAY YAY!!

In other news, I finally did something with this enormous canvas I've been toting around since college (maybe before). It used to be blue with black birds on a wire, but now it is a subtle and beautiful abstract I made by layering about a million coats of paint on and brushing until I was happy with it. I want to build a frame for it with scrap from the shed, but that will probably have to wait until spring, so for now it is going to live in the dining room. It always feels good to move things around the house!

Our Weekend

Fiona is crawling and pulling herself up everywhere these days. You wouldn't even know she had another ear infection! Poor girl can't get over this cold but nothing seems to slow her down.

We had a great weekend after I had a very difficult week at work. Fiona went to a Mom2Mom sale with the girls on Saturday and we bought lots of bunny themed books (for an Easter basket!) and of course clothes. This sale was crazy, people were packed in everywhere, everyone bumping into each other. Normally I don't like situations like that, but I did for discounted goods for ma girl! Pat's parents came for the afternoon and we went to a restaurant and Fiona just sat contently eating puffs the whole time and entertaining everybody with her wild arm gestures and baby bird babble.

Today we went to the state park again for a walk in the sunshine :)

I did another custom house portrait this week and I'm working on putting more drawings in my shop. I need some ideas for famous buildings to do!

And here is an adorable picture of our little sneaky helper. Look at those cheeks.

We've been trying more foods this month, solid bananas, solid sweet potatoes, pureed turkey and rice, pureed ham, and zucchini with broccoli. She really does not like the meats so far (doctor says it's the sodium), but girl cannot survive on puffs alone! She also likes to cross her feet when sitting on the floor, in her car seat, or in the high chair (a good time to trim those nails). I love those little piggies!

Spring Fever!

This 55 degree weather is giving us some serious spring fever. I am so excited for warm weather and sunshine and all the cute baby outfits! And now that Fiona will be spending more time upright and standing instead of rolling around on the floor, I feel like the outfits can get more fun! Patrick made the mistake of taking me to the Carter's at the outlet mall, and they have so many more cute things there than what I always see at Target. These are a few of my favorites from their website that I may snag up while they are on sale, but I love all the rompers and spring dresses ;)

romper // flamingo swimsuit // chambray dress

We went to our favorite Island Lake State Park last night for a long walk. I wanted to have Fiona facing outward in the big kid part of the stroller, but it was so windy we kept her covered up with the canopy. I need to make a summer bucket list of all the things we want to do. Fiona will be walking and running around I'm sure and I want to spend a lot of time outside encouraging her curiosity of nature. We just bought a bigger carseat (from Costco of course) and it's going to be bittersweet installing it!

Climbing and New Art in Fiona's Room

I've been wanting to add a drawing to Fiona's room that she can have for a long time, so I finally got around to putting together this little sketch with pen and marker. It fit perfectly in a frame I've had forever that never knew what to do with. Boom! I think I'll hang it above the twin bed.

We did a lot of shopping this weekend (why did we choose the coldest days of the year to go to the outlet mall? at night!?) and took our valentine out to dinner on Saturday. She sat in our laps and ate puffs. She can get them in her mouth herself now, but as Pat says, she is not super organized about her movements yet. It's funny when they fall in her sleeve and she looks around for them! I'm glad she likes those because lately she has not been wanting to finish her bottles and I'm worried about her calorie intake. I know she should be getting more nutrients from solid foods, but a lot of what we give her ends up with a diaper rash, so it has been discouraging trying to find the right thing. But, like everything else, trial and error is what we do!

Aaaaannnd we're going to need to put those baby gates up soon, but we have to decide what to do since the gates are all "pressure" fit, they push the banister out when they are in tight and we're afraid of causing a lot of damage in this old house. I'm sure Patrick will come up with something! She is obsessed with the stairs because obviously they are the perfect height for her little legs. She is now very good at pulling herself up on just about anything and has taken a few very wobbly (and very unorganized) steps to shuffle around the ottoman. We got her a push toy and I know she will be cruising in no time. Look out, CeCe!

Photos from the Week and Scrap Book Progression

Rounding out 8 months and ready for 9 months over here! Crawling all over the house and starting to pull herself up. We really need to get those safety gates up, she stood to the second step! Pat took her to the doctor for a check up and all looks good.

I still have a long way to go, but i had so much fun getting crafty with this scrap book. I wanted it to be a mixture between a photo album and a baby milestone book without being too scrap book-y. I bought some craft paper that was on clearance at Michael's (yay!). It Valentine's themed, which turned out to be perfect for all the love and x' sand o's in this book. I want to add more stories and funny moments as I remember them (so i don't forget them again) and I will be better at writing down dates as I go on now that I am more caught up.