Category Archives: Catherine

Catherine’s First Haircut

We’ve been kind of lax when it comes to uploading pictures and content lately. Chalk it up to working overtime, chasing a very busy toddler and pregnancy exhaustion. What else can I say?

About a week and a half ago we finally took Catherine to get a haircut. I was really loving her wild, in her face, fly everywhere hair so I wasn’t too anxious to have it cut. But it had gotten to the point where it really did need to be reigned in a little. Here’s a nice “before” shot:

I’m pretty sure that I can cut her hair myself at home, but I thought that we’d take her to a professional the first time and watch what they did. So we went over to a local ‘kids only’ type hair cuttery. It was a zoo of kids and bright colors and candy! Yikes! Definitely a one time only experience for us. A stylish haircut in Franklin, TN at Scout’s Barbershop is the best choice.

The wait wasn’t too long and we were called back. An older gentleman named Thomas helped Catherine up into a pink chair and had the instant cure for her slightly scared reaction… lolly pops. Four, in fact. One to eat, one in her overalls pocket and one in each shoe. She was in heaven!

Thomas gave her a quick snip, snip and brought her hair up to just around her shoulders. A quick blow dry (with a little flip at the ends) and we were done. No harm, no foul. All in all the cut was pretty simple (and I think will be simple to duplicate) but it makes her look so much older to me! Here’s the end result:

You can check out all the pics by clicking here. Enjoy!

Our Weekend Getaway

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On Saturday, we dropped Catherine off with her Nonni and Grandpa, and headed down to Boston for a weekend excursion! 🙂 We drove in and parked at the Boston Common parking garage ($22 for the weekend, not bad) and walked in the chilly weather down to our hotel.

We stayed in the Marriott at Copley Place, thanks to a gift card we got from Ken and Dianne last Christmas.

From our room on the 21st floor, we had a terrific view of the southwest part of the city, including the South End

A good portion of our time was spent lounging in the hotel room, vegging out, watching TV, and relaxing.

We had lunch at b. good, a favorite stop of ours.

We had a *very* nice dinner at Stephanie’s, courtesy of a gift card I won at work last year. We brought our desserts back to the room and watched Wall-E on pay-per-view on the room’s huge TV.

We also enjoyed the nighttime views from our hotel room.

Did I mention the views from our hotel room?

Overall it was a very enjoyable weekend. Our main goal was just to veg out and enjoy good food, quiet rest, pleasant company, and comfortable accommodations. We were pretty pleased with the view from our hotel room, if you couldn’t tell. 🙂 If we stretched, we could see the Charles River on the far right of our window, and the Southeast Expressway on the far right. This will probably be the last chance we have to take a weekend away with just the two of us for quite some time, what with baby #2 due to arrive in eight weeks or so. It was definitely worth it.

You can see all of the photos from our Boston Weekend.

It sounds like Catherine had a good time while we were away, too, thanks to Nonni and Grandpa!

Christmas Photo Out-takes

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Just for fun this Christmas Eve…here are some of the photos we didn’t choose to send in our Christmas cards this year. I love them all, but at some point you have to choose!

C=2.5

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Today is Catherine’s half-birthday. I can’t believe our daughter is already two and a half years old!

I’m enjoying watching her grow and change every day. It’s amazing the things that she can do and say that she couldn’t do just a few weeks ago. Rebecca and I lie down in bed each night and discuss all of the wonderful things she’s done recently. We just can’t help it!

The other day, we were listening to WCRB while having dinner, and Debussy’s Clair de lune came on. Catherine stopped mid-bite, closed her eyes, cocked her head to the side, started swaying, and tinkling her fingers as though she was delicately playing along. Rebecca and I couldn’t help but crack up. It was hilarious and yet awesome!

Tambourine Surgery

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Catherine got a great little music set for her birthday. She loves making music and the instruments have been well loved and used over the last few months. Most of them have held up very well, the exception being the skin on the tambourine. I think she punched through it in the first week.

I made a couple attempts to repair the poor thing, mostly using clear packing tape. But, sadly, they were only stopgap measures and didn’t hold up. I brainstormed for a while and finally came up with a new solution.

First, I needed to remove the old skin. The glue holding it on was extremely good. I was really only able to remove the ‘loose’ portion. The bit around the edges would have to stay.

Next, I opened up a Tyvek mailing envelope from the USPS and cut a circle just larger than the diameter of the tambourine. A bead of Elmer’s glue on the top rim was used to affix the Tyvek. I put a couple books on top and left it to dry.

Once the top was dry I tacked down the edges. Got a little gluey and messy, but most good projects do!

Hopefully this new skin will be a bit more durable than the first, but probably won’t be worse. And if it gets broken again I know I can always repair it!

First Winter Preparation…

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Have you heard that the Old Farmers Almanac is predicting a particularly cold winter this year? OFA forecasts are prepared two years in advance, which leaves a lot of room for error. In our neck of the woods, however, winter can usually be counted on to be cold.

With the cost of heating the way it is, we’re already planning for the chilly weather. I finished up a little project this weekend to help keep Catherine toasty at night: flannel sheets! Flannel sheets are always a little nicer to climb into on frosty winter nights.

I’ve mentioned before that I like to find a second hand source for the things I need/want whenever possible. This project was no different, so I paid a visit to a new store in my grocery plaza- Savers. I’ve heard tell of Savers from friends in other parts of the country, but this is the first one around here. It is sort of a nicer, more organized Thrift Shop.

I quickly came across what I needed, a queen sized flannel sheet for the low, low price of $3.99. I snatched it up and ran it through the wash. Then, using this tutorial, and some too-wide (but all I had) elastic, I set to work. I was able to get on crib sized fitted sheet and an average sized pillowcase out of the one sheet. Had I planned better and wasn’t so set on reusing the manufacturer’s hems I might have been able to get a second sheet. Next time around I think I could make due with just a full sized sheet to start out with.

All told, the cutting and sewing probably took me 2 hours. The sheets fit her little bed perfectly and I can’t wait for her to snuggle in this winter.

Summer Dress: the Sequel

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The cute stripey dress I made last week (Yes, I think it is fabric from Ikea! Thanks, Kinda!) was really just a practice project for another dress that I’ve had in mind for some time now.

The story. (There’s always a story, isn’t there?) Way back in college…7 years ago… I bought a cute little skirt. I loved it and I wore it a lot and then all of a sudden I didn’t like it. I mean, I didn’t like it as a skirt anymore. I still loved the fabric and couldn’t bear to part with it.

From college, to my parents, to Beverly and finally to Danvers it traveled with no specific purpose in mind other than “someday I will use this fabric for something.” It survived massive rounds of purging and organizing and evaded many bags bound for the Salvation Army. “I will use this someday!” I continued to tell myself. The skirt’s saving grace was that it was small and light and easy to tuck into a box or drawer. By being so cute and being stealthy the skirt outlived all of its comrades.

With this dress as inspiration, I knew that my skirt was destined to become a summer dress for Catherine. Having already tested out my “trace the dress on the fabric, cut and sew” theory I went forward with confidence onto dress number two.

I was particularly careful with this dress, as I wanted to try and preserve the skirt’s original hem. I was successful and was also able to position the dress so that I could also make use of the original zipper right up the back! With this dress I only had to sew the side seams, finish the neck and arm holes and connect the shoulders. It really did work out quite nicely.

Homecoming Day

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Today marks two years since we were able to bring Catherine home from the hospital.

Here we are on June 10, 2006

and now, June 10, 2008

In celebration, I spent her naptime sewing her a new dress. She has this dress that I love and have been wanting to copy and make her more of. I came across a great piece of fabric at the Beverly Bootstraps Thrift Shop and knew it would be perfect. I traced the original dress onto the new fabric and an hour later Catherine had a new dress. And it only cost a mere 25Â¢ !

Here she is modeling her new frock!