Jason, Jessamie and Georgia Bean: January 2011

January 30, 2011

Washboard!

I can't even begin to imagine how the conversation would go between someone like me, who finds old washboards so "neat" looking for decorating, and someone who has actually used one to wash clothes...I'm pretty sure they would hate me. But I love the way old washboards look! And I found a great one yesterday for a STEAL! Plus Jason actually liked it, too! score

A Good Day

Yesterday was a great day. It was amazing weather, Georgia and I were happy, and mom (me) was very productive. Georgie and I went thrifting and then headed downtown just to walk. When we got home, it was just still way too nice to go inside, so we broke some rules and the normal schedule and I let her stay up and play outside with me just a little longer. We're crazy like that.

So I started working on my Bird and Branch pieces, when I looked up and discovered {for the 5,482,984 time} how adorable my little Bean looked, so...

January 27, 2011

9 months

Our sweet baby is 9 months now...and every bit a 9 month old! She is into everything, loves being active and laughs all the time. well, 'all the time' might be an exaggeration...she's continuing to get more teeth, already has 4! Jason calls them hippo teeth, and honestly, i can't disagree! hahaha, the cutest hippo teeth on the planet! She pulls up on anything possible...her toys, pant legs, coffee table, etc. She is getting super brave by letting go and trying to balance for as long as possible. And let me tell you, she is VERY pleased with herself when she stand there for a while. hahahaha, i could cry at how much this makes the 3 of us laugh! {note to self: must try to video}

We took some pictures during dinner on the day she hit 9 months, and sure enough, she hammed it up for us!

oh, and if you can't tell, the curls are coming in pretty good

pure l.o.v.e.

"See all four of my teeth?!"

January 19, 2011

Already?

Really? Is it already time for the Bean to be in a big girl car seat? Well, technically she could have been in one about 5 lbs ago...but her parents were kind-of first timers and had no idea. (rookies...)

So we took a little family trip down to Babies R Us and picked up this bad boy.

In theory, this thing should get her a long way (70 lbs), but we'll see. Her poor little shoulders were literally crammed into her old car seat, so we just knew it had to be time. So she is noticeably happier, and in return we are too. Just in time for a little 3 hour road trip...

January 15, 2011

F.Y.I.

I'm going to go ahead and say, I'm not even sure if this is worth blogging about. BUT if anybody has a secret love for trying to find amazing, but frozen Chinese food, join me! For some reason the Chinese restaurants in our town kind of sketch me out. But I think I would still try to find good frozen Chinese food either way. Yesterday, I had to go to Wal-mart, and in the midst of my super-market-sweep style shopping I snagged up a little Chinese box I've been dying to try.

Verdict:

Save your $2.50

a.k.a. not good. The 'Asian Style Sauce' tasted like some sad attempt at left over gravy (gravy does not = Asian) and there might have been 3 pieces of beef.

Be Ware!

Don't worry though, I haven't lost all faith. I already have my eye on another brand I want to try.

January 14, 2011

Follwer

This isn't really a post about anything to do with Georgia, Jason, me, we, or us. But I just wanted to let everybody know I'm still pursuing Bird & Branch Redesign!

I've actually opened up my own Etsy shop, too! I've got 3 more things ready to put on the blog and few things to add to my Etsy shop! So would you, pretty pretty please, head on over to

Bird & Branch Redesign

and click the "FOLLOW" button to the left of the page!

Also, if you have an Etsy account you can tag Bird & Branch as one of your 'Favorites'.

But you can always visit by clicking on My Adventure at the top of this page.

Have a great friday!

January 12, 2011

Big 'Ol Pile

...of SNOW!

Seriously, we had so much snow! I loved it, it was great! We probably got 6-7 inches, which for anywhere in the south is AMAZING! But our sweet little town doesn't usually get snow, so this was definitely a treat!

That's all...I was just excited about snow!

January 6, 2011

The "New" Paper Towels

A little over a month ago I decided to try something new. I decided our family was done using paper towels. Seriously.

Let me just insert a little babble right here. I am not an eco friendly, tree love'n, "save the planet" kind of girl, but I do think it's important that we all try to do a little bit to help out. That being said, if you ever hear me talk about "Going Green" on this blog, to me that means SAVING GREEN! So yes, this ended up being just another way for us to save money (and trash).

Ok, back to not using paper towels...

I honestly can't remember exactly how the idea dawned on me. But, Jason and I were at the dreaded Wal-mart one weekend stocking up on everything we were low on and when we got to the paper towel isle he about flipped when he saw the price of those things. I don't know about yall, but my husband is not a one-paper towel kind of guy. Not only that, but if it's a really messy job, go ahead and count on using half a roll if it's not a good brand! Also, we grill...a LOT. And for anybody that does also, you know that ONE napkin or ONE paper towel usually doesn't do it (especially when eating ribs).

So here's what we did. We scrapped the paper towels and bought ONE pack of 18 wash clothes for $4.00. $4.00! That is about half the price of a 6 pack of paper towels, and guess what with 18 wash clothes you don't run out! The minute one gets filthy we just throw it in the washing machine to be washed with the next load. We got ours at Wal-mart (mainstays).

Actually, the package looked like this, but the top picture is just prettier.

We also use these super cheap dish towels from Ikea when we have people over for a bbq. The event-planner-wanna-be in me likes to have a few things that do match. But these babies were only 49 CENTS each!

Tekla Dish Towel

I waited for about a month to put it on here, because I really wanted it to work before I suggested it to anyone. But this has seriously been a great way for us to cut out some spending. Yes, we've been made fun of a few times, but we haven't had any complaints! Jason and I do laugh at times, but we've still got one roll of paper towels left in the pantry that has been sitting there since mid-November. So, Yay for us!

January 4, 2011

Chicken?

The other night we were feeding Georgie some combination of chicken and vegetable that was WAY to soupy for her liking. Needless to say she was "all done" with it. We've tried to teach her that holding her hands up to the side and turning them means, "All done." I think she's got that down pat. The funny thing was when I asked her if she wanted to try a few more bites of "Chicken" she cracked up! ...who knew...

p.s. sorry it's sideways, but you get the idea

OH and tooth #4 sprouted out yesterday. YAY!

January 3, 2011

What's Up!

I've noticed I haven't done very many updates on how our little Bean is doing these days, but she's great!

She turned 8 months old on Christmas day!

She now has 3 teeth and the 4th is starting it's journey out too!

She's now 26 3/4 inches tall (we measure every Christmas at my parent's house, a tradition that my Grandpa did with my brother and me growing up.)

She l.o.v.e.s sitting and playing almost more than her Jenny Jump Up...can you tell?

She has learned to clap her hands very well.

She loves dancing and it's the cutest thing I've ever seen (isn't that what every mom thinks?)

I'm pretty sure she's going to be one of those kids that crawls for a week before she walks. When we do 'tummy time' lately, she get's so frustrated that she can't move forward that she either screams and moves backwards across the room or just lays her head down and does nothing. But I did find her almost under the ottoman the other day. I thought it was safe to go to the bathroom really quick! But she pulls up and stands for 3 to 5 minutes at a time!

And she's starting to get brave and I and I can see her let go with one hand, get her balance, and then let go with the other hand and stand on her own for about 5 seconds!!!

She is also loving solid foods and APPLE JUICE! She adores cheese...imagine that. I can definitely see her starting to make the tranistion to not wanting baby food that much anymore.

That's all I can think of for now, but she still just as sweet as ever!

oh and we're 98% sure the poor thing has her moma's curley hair!

Burp Cloths

So I stole another brilliant idea from Jones Design Company...the burp cloth!

Let's be honest with each other, you can only make burp cloths so cute; monogram, ribbon, etc.

But these are seriously adorable! So I tried my hand at one (my mom helped a tad since it's her sewing machine) and...

TA-DA!

All the good things about these burp cloths:

You can decide on the fabric you LOVE!

You don't have to use white backing if you don't want every little thing to show up.

You can make it as long or wide as you want.

You have one more reason to be ridiculously cute fabric!

(oh, wait...i think I already mentioned the fabric thing)

p.s. don't be surprised if you see Georgia's whole 1st birthday planned around this fabric!

Passing Notes

I love note cards. I always think about writing people notes, but my hands never seem to follow through. My love, Anna, is the best about writing people notes...

Anyway, I have started to really love personalized gifts. Let me rephrase that, I have started loving personalizing gifts myself! Some other Christmas gifts I made were these personalized note cards. I also did some that say "thanks" or "love". But there are so many different ways to make these and I just adore the way they turned out!

Cute Leftovers

If you got a painted pot from me this Christmas, don't feel slighted! I had to be thrifty, but I put lots of LOVE into it! I had these clay pots left over from our wedding...2 1/2 years ago! So I wanted to put them to good use!

Yay! Success (i think)! And I love that they look imperfect, too!

I'm Dreaming...

...of a White Christmas...

And we got one! I really couldn't believe it. My dad is usually spot on with what the weather is going to do and he fully predicted there would be snow, almost down to the minute. Yes, he's amazing like that. And sure enough...there it came!

So, the two kids...I mean Dad and Jason, had to go outside and build a snowman the second there was enough snow on the ground! Which is funny because you can still see some green in the background.

My sweet Daddy

And my sweet Hubs, making the best snowman in the world for his daughter! The cool thing is, this was Jason's first snowman, too. Charleston doesn't quite have the snow Habersham gets.

But we stayed warm inside

...then she started to stare daddy down while he made the snowman...

admiring their work

Now we could show Georgie the snow and her snowman!

Georgia cracks me up in this picture, she's so curious!

Warning: Christmas Morning

There are a LOT of pictures in this post...you can't say you weren't warned. I mean it's the Bean's first Christmas! We have to go overboard, right?!

If you read these posts in order, you know we went to my parent's beautiful home in good 'ol Habersham (my gosh, I love that place)! It was the most perfect Christmas I could have imagined! Not because of the gifts (although those were great), but I feel like I have a new found love for the birth of Jesus now that I have my own little bundle. {Enter emotional mommy talk here}

We started the morning with a beautiful Christmas tree...