last minute, as usual,

for the last post of 2008.

a quickie, as i have a raging ear infection, along with eme and cate (lily + wade both escaped this part of the sickness). we are on the mend and hope to be feeling better for the first day of 2009!

as visions of sugarplums danced in their heads

may you have sweet dreams and the loveliest of times this holiday.







(peek-a-boo eme! i always forget that blogger crops off the right side of pictures. to see the whole picture, click on it to go to flickr)


and may god (or whoever, whatever you believe in) bless everyone you love,

and peace on earth,

and peace on your home.

(slightly adapted from the prayer the girls say each night)

i'll be seeing you in 2009.

xxx

overheard

lily and eme, singing:
"good tidings we bring to you and to Ken,
good tidings of christmas and a happy new deer.
we wish you're a piggy pudding,
we wish you're a piggy pudding,
now bring it right here."

the best $40 i have ever spent

really.
the absolute best.
and i've spent some $40's in my life. i know that i'm late to the game with the moby wrap , and i'm really not sure why. i think that maybe it had to do with the fact that 6 yards of fabric can be pretty intimidating. i don't know if i have ever bought 6 continuous yards of fabric in my life (and i've bought some fabric in my life). but, one of the moms at mother's day out had her 5(?) month old in one on a fieldtrip, and it looked so very comfortable for both babe and momma. and she told me that i could get one here, in town. so, i finally got one yesterday, and i am in love! i've owned and used 3 different carriers before this with lily and eme, and i always thought that i loved my ring sling the best. but this, oh, this!!! it is by far the most perfect for everyday baby-wearing. and i say this after only having used it for 2 days, but really, i adore it! in fact, i raved about it so much that my cousin, claire (sophie's mom), decided not to wait any longer and got one at target last night.
this afternoon, cate was so happy in it that she slept for almost 3 hours(!) as we did things around the house...took groceries out of the car, fixed snacks, did laundry, played, finally set up our nativity (must take a photo of that!), walked to get the mail (lily dressed as a native princess ballerina and eme as an lsu cheerleader with dorothy shoes and pug as toto), fixed another snack, scrubbed toilets (for real), and did some more laundry. awesome. and can i tell you that my lower back did not hurt at all? no kidding. this thing is perfect.

so with all that done, we were able to get some fudge made for miss cindy + miss theresa(both seriously adored by eme!) and miss beth (who lily thinks hung the moon) and the rest of the lovely ladies at m.d.o. of course, we made it right before supper, so there wasn't much supper eaten, especially by em. cate (with a little help from poppa) sat on the counter watching. and this was the finished product:

this is truly the easiest fudge-y candy ever, albeit a bit too sweet, i think. of course, the girls had no such reservations. so, here's basically all you need to know (and i forgot where i actually got this from, sorry): melt a bag of morsels, stir in a can of icing, mix in whatever. we did green + red candied cherries. pour it onto parchment paper (set into a large baking dish). sprinkle crushed up peppermint candy canes on top, and then stick it in the fridge to set up. cut it up, package it into cute boxes (found at walmart, no less), and it's good to go. you can use whatever flavors of morsels and icing and mix-ins...try as many variations as you like, but give most of it away...it really is sweet.

so, since all of this got done before midnight, i finally had time to pick a winner for the bag (and write this post which has taken a LONG time).

and because i still don't know how to take a screenshot, i actually took a screen shot, with the camera. it's terrible, i know. i need to google how to do this before i do another giveaway. anyway, here it is...

and the winner is...mommymae! i was tempted to take a photo on the comment page, too, but didn't. instead, i just copied and pasted:
mommymae said...
aren't you sweet!my house looks like yours sounds! maybe someday i'll show the chaos as well.i like the cookies we eat at christmas. i usually have chocolate chip cookies year-round, since daddyjay makes the best ever.
December 15, 2008 8:02 PM

so, mommymae, email me your address. you may just have another present to put under the tree? oh, and will you write a song about me? see how i just rhymed there? pitiful, i know. but really, this lady can play the guitar. and sing. and write songs. so cool.

hmmm, i wonder if daddyjay has a secret recipe? do tell, pretty please. chocolate chip cookies are always my go-to cookie, and i've been told that i do make some mighty delicious cookies (recipe on the back of the butter-flavored crisco package). wade used to bring them to work, but i haven't sent any in quite some time. i think people were hoarding them. or stealing them. and someone was fired. or something like that. well, maybe not the one about someone being fired, although, it would make a good story. they really are good cookies.

thank you all so much for sharing the treats that you love the most. maybe i shouldn't have asked for that though because now i want to gobble up something sweet (and a little salty, too)! and peppermint tootsie roll pops? well, i never! oh my goodness, lily and eme would think that it was the best day ever!!

and just to be clear, i didn't count isabel's comment as she has a scarf (from the original giveaway) soon to be arriving on her doorstep, and i didn't count molly's first comment since she came right back and added another comment about her favorite yummy thing and included a link to angry chicken's nutella post. if you haven't been to molly's blog yet, please go and read this post. when i read it, i felt as though she had pulled all of those thoughts out of my head and rearranged them into a much more eloquent post than i could ever write. seriously...her words ring so true. and on that note, farewell for a few days.

yummy

a cup of hot chocolate. with marshmallows.

or if you're lily + eme, it's a cup of marshmallows with a smidge of hot chocolate.

because really, if a few marshmallows are good, aren't 17 better?

sweetness...

or, how a picture can portray such quiet perfection while in all actuality, chaos is reigning.

this is the inherent beauty of a well-chosen photograph, i think. and i as the photographer, and blogger, mainly choose to show you these.

but, to dispell any romantic notions about the life that i must lead, this is what was going on in the background: lily getting on and off of the counter, costumes strewn across the kitchen floor, the remains of the other breakfast dishes in the sink, the dishwasher still open and partly emptied, eme spilling hot chocolate onto the white napkin right after i had taken the picture, eme and lily "annoyanating" the heck out of each other while i cleaned up the hot chocolate spill, the majority of the contents of the bag of marshmallows dumped onto the counter, cate (happily!) sitting in her seat with the music and vibrating thingie turned on, christmas decorations all over the place (because really, isn't it more fun to play with them then to just look at them? of course it is, silly!), and the beaver lodge (all of the pillows from the sofa, love seat, and chair) under construction in the living room.

with that said, i do love my life. but some times, some things can be annoyanating. and also absolutely wonderful, at the same time. hmm, i feel like we just shared a chat (albeit one-sided) over a virtual cup of coffee (or marshmallow-y hot chocolate, if you prefer). thanks. i think that i need to get out more. ha. here's to a lovely, interesting, and even at times slightly annoying day...because when the day is done, it really is all good, isn't it? i think so.

oh, and one more thing...the winners from give-away day have chosen their prizes. liz, the frolic scarf, isabel, the beauty scarf, and tanaya, the wish scarf. and each lovely lady was able to get exactly what she wanted...yippee!

and i have a surprise. did you notice that there are 4 pictures here? well, you barely could, thanks to how blogger cuts off the right side of pictures. but trust me, there's a 4th picture (click on it to see it in flickr) and only 3 winners. well, i've decided to give away the denim bag (with the appliqued red bird) from that original post! so, leave a comment on this post, telling me what your favorite yummy thing is right now. i'll pick a winner on wednesday. your odds are pretty good, i think. no 416 comments on this one!

no more snow, and temperatures in the 70's

the weather in south louisiana...you really couldn't make this stuff up. i took this picture thursday, december 11 when we had 3-4 inches of snow.

and this picture is from today, monday, december 15, a mere 4 days later...it's in the mid-70's right now.

crazy, isn't it? i think that somewhere in between would be rather nice. at least it would feel like december. if i didn't have the pictures to prove it, i would wonder (like lily and eme did) if it was all just a dream. cate probably won't believe us when we tell her that it snowed when she was almost 2 months old, so i'm happy that we will have a ton of photos to show her. i'm sure that she will be thrilled to know that we subjected her to a photo shoot with her sisters when it was windy and 30ish degrees outside. blogger seems to cut off the right hand side of pictures, so you may want to click on the picture to see it full size on flickr.

did you notice eme starting to break down on the second row? good times.

this was my favorite picture, so this is the one that will be going out with our christmas cards this year. i can't ever seem to get all three looking at the camera at the same time, but that's okay.

seems as though my time's up for now. cate is waking, and eme is telling me, "lily is annoyanating me!" oh, yes, annoy-a-nating is so annoying. i'll be back later on to let you know what liz, isabel, and tanaya picked as their prizes. until then, try not to be annoyanating to the ones you love. xxx

snow day, part 2

lily and eme SNOW
Originally uploaded by cathygaubert

we took cate out shortly after this so that i could attempt to get a christmas-card-worthy photo of the 3 of them...more (like 47 more) photos later. i promise not to show you all 47 photos, taken less than a second apart, on this blog. now my family, on the other hand, have been subjected to all of the photos. hi, family!
to see this fullscreen, click on the lower right corner of the video (and then hit esc on your keyboard when it's done). try to ignore the sound of the wind. xxx

oh my goodness...we have SNOW!

this morning around 6:30, lily, eme, cate, and i were all snuggled up in a warm, cozy bed...sleeping. wade had just gotten up to get ready for work. by 6:35, everyone but cate was staring wide-eyed at SNOW falling outside!!! yes, snow! in south louisiana!! and lots of snow...that wasn't melting as soon as it hit the ground. in fact, it was actually piling up...great googly-moogly!



of course, the girls wanted to run outside.

but, hello, we live in south louisiana.

coats? hats? gloves? boots? um, sure. not.

so, we improvised. they actually do have nice, heavy wool coats that mimi insisted on buying last year (great sale, and this is the second year to wear them, plus, eme and cate both get double-use, being the younger sisters). thank you, mimi + pops! so the coats went on over the jammies, feet were shoved into rain boots (thanks suggie!) and hats were pulled onto heads and over ears. gloves, not so much. "where are the gloves, where are the gloves?" as lily + eme are dancing around barely able to contain themselves. who knows where the gloves are? so, no gloves.

alrighty then, no gloves it is.

well, here we go...



out...into the snow...snow?...yes, snow...in south louisiana...oh my goodness.










we made a little family of snow people

momma, eme, poppa, cate, and lily (click on the picture to see our whole family)

this is what they looked like after about 20 minutes...poppa snow has a hat! (once again, click the pic to see the whole fam on flickr)

and now home, to strip off all of the snow-dampened clothes, warm up, and have some hot chocolate.

we'll be back later with snow day, part 2.

the post in which the winners are revealed...

the look on eme's face truly tells the story.

really, you guys, i can scarcely believe that so many people (from all over the world) came by almost a week ago to leave a comment on the giveaway post. each time i walked by the c0mputer that day, i would see my inbox flooded with emails...unbelieveable. when i reached 116 comments, i was amazed. watching the number continue to climb until it reached 412 really did leave me at a loss for words.

so simply put, thank you.

thank you for coming by to see what i was giving away.

thank you for coming back to see what i've been up to (those of you who had been here before and those of you who were here for the first time via sew mama sew).

thank you for taking the time to leave a comment (really, who doesn't love a giveaway?) and

thank you for all of the lovely compliments!

seriously, whenever you're having a time of it, go ahead and have a giveaway...the boost to your ego will be overwhelming!!!

finally on december 5 at just before midnight, i did the random number thingie with all 412 comments (there were a few that didn't make the cut off time, sorry). someone really needs to tell me how to get a "picture" of the results to post to the blog for the next time i do this.

so, the moment you have all been waiting for...the winners are (with the first one chosen getting first choice, and then on down to the second and third:

lovely little lovelies #216 who said, "wow, your things are so lovely. i'm kind of sad i haven't seen your blog before! i have a lot of catching up to do, that's for sure." on December 3, 2008 5:26 PM

isabel f. #248 who said, "Hi Cathy!!I love ......anything you want to give me :DDDbig hug Isabel" on December 3, 2008 7:04 PM

tanaya #49, who said, "you always make the bestes prizes!!! on December 3, 2008 11:59 AM

congratulations!!!! how cool is it that out of all of those comments, two of the winners (tanaya and isabel) are people whose work i really admire! tanaya is one of the amazing swap mama's for doll quilt swaps on flickr (the doll quilt that was sent to me was a casuality of gustav, i think, as it has never arrived...boo, hiss to hurricanes) and has a wonderful way with fabric, and isabel creates the most amazing pillows and cushions (and lucky for us, translates her blog to english, too!). i didn't know liz before this, but when i discovered that she enjoys "turning candy canes into spears", i was quite happy to have found her (and look forward to knowing more about her)!

ladies, i will email you shortly, but if you see this first, feel free to email me with your three favorite items. if we're lucky, everyone will come away with her first choice.

thanks again, to all of you. i have a ton of links to follow now, and i promise to get around to all of you (and i'll leave a comment, too) although it might not be until sometime in 2009, and that will be here before i know it.

one more thing...after the ladies have chosen their prizes, i will be offering what remains along with some more of the gingerbread clan (the first batch was gobbled up). if i have the time, i will do it through etsy, and if not, i'll just do it right here. i'll have more details later on this week on that.

all 416 (even if you last 4 didn't make it in time) of you really, really are appreciated. i truly do thank you. xxx

today's the day...

UPDATE: as of 12:30 p.m., december 4, i'll be away from the computer. my morning didn't go as planned...in other words, i still haven't finished packing us up to go back to mimi +pops' for the weekend! it's a busy one as we have cate's christening on sunday (and i'm trying to line up time to finish up three quilts for christmas...wish me luck on that front!). the goal is to all be ready + in the car for 1 p.m. what this means for you is that you still have time to enter! i'll close comments later on tonight, pick the winners, and then announce it here sometime tommorrow. or saturday. we'll see how it goes! until then, i leave you...in suspense...

UPDATE to the UPDATE! it's 7:40 a.m. on friday morning, december 5, and i've turned on comment moderation because i can't figure out how to turn off the comments on this post. as of right now, there are 412 comments. all of you are entered into the drawing for the gifts. i'll need some time to go through ALL of those comments before i put the numbers into the generator, so you'll have to wait a bit longer! see you...

for a give-away, and you get to pick your prize! now, how about that? first up is this denim bag that i embellished with some vintage trim and wool felted sweaters.


detail on corner of bag (vintage cotton lace, felted sweater, and tiny embroidered heart)


denim bag (store-bought...the strap is really long, so you can wear it across your chest and have it hang at your hip) with red bird wool applique + wool dots
i lined the inside with a red + blue vintage-reproduction fabric and added a wool pocket.



and here are the scarves. two are backed with a really soft off-white fleece. the patchwork fronts are a mixture of amy butler, heather ross, and heather bailey fabrics, linen, + recycled wool. i embroidered "frolic" on one and "beauty" on the other. the third one is backed in super-soft lime chenille with that sweet heather ross gnome fabric, some polka dots and flowers, and recycled linen. i stitched on a wool felt redcap mushroom and "wish". all 3 are about 50ish inches long.


"beauty"


"frolic"


"wish"

to all of you who are returning, welcome back, and to those of you who are new, hello! thanks so very much to all of the lovelies at sew mama sew who brought us all together today. when i get a chance, i plan to go through their whole list (and it's quite long!). thank you, too, all of you who are giving away something today...what a wonderful community this is, and i am so happy to be a part of it!

now, for the details...leave a comment on this post, and tomorrow morning (sometime after i have gotten back home from dropping the girls at m.d.o.) i will count up the comments and plug the numbers into the number-generator thingie and have 2 (or maybe 3?) winners. be sure to have your email address available in your profile (or leave it in your comment) so that i can get in touch with you sometime tomorrow afternoon.
i will be able to get to the p.o. on friday (alone!) and mail out packages. oh, and remember, you get to pick your prize!

have fun entering the other give-aways, and good luck!

see you soon...

holy smokes, people! are you kidding me??? i'm just getting back to check and see if i had any(!) comments, and i find that there are 116 comments!!!! seriously. 116. i think this is what happens when you are the third one down on the giveaway blog list at sew mama sew! wow!!!! and here i was thinking that the chances of those of you commenting would be pretty good...that was when i thought that maybe i would have 20ish comments! well, even more good luck to you then. remember, comments are open until around noon tomorrow morning. i can't wait to see how many there are. and now i have a TON of links to check out!

see you tomorrow...

how is it that november has already come and gone? we shared a wonderfully long thanksgiving weekend with family, and now we are back home. trying to get settled again (our first holiday with 3 children!), put away the fall decorations, and take out the christmas things...a bit much. which leads me to...

cate is now almost 7 weeks old, and the last few weeks have been nothing like the first 4. and by that i mean that cate is really reminding me of how lily was...and by that i mean that she wants to be held. all. the. time. which really is something that i love, snuggling with such a sweet, cuddly, little babe; however, i do not have a maid, 2 (make that 3) nannies, a laundress, and a chef, so this poses somewhat of a problem when things must be done. yea. we all know how that is. moving on.

so, how cool is this?

http://www.sewmamasew.com/media/blog/giveaway.jpg (i wanted it to show the picture here, but you only see the link...sorry, my time is limited )

yes, i know that i have no "extra" time, but this was such a cool bandwagon that i just had to jump on. if you come back tomorrow, i'll have pictures of my contribution(s) to the giveaway. oh, and i will send internationally, if necessary...there is no geographical discrimination here.

here's the deal...
to enter the giveaway, you'll need to tell me why you stop by this blog. fishing for compliments, yes. will i be swayed to pick you? maybe. would that be fair? no, of course not! and we must play fair, mustn't we? so, i'll use the number generator thingie to pick the winner(s). sound good to you? i hope so. really, you can tell me anything that you want, i'll still add you. promise.

the gingerbread guys from a few posts back now have some friends. did you know that you can do a lot of hand-sewing with a sleeping baby on your lap? true. some of you have inquired about them (sorry that i haven't gotten back to you all yet). 5 are for an ornament swap, 3 are being added to the packages for my first giveaway. and no, you didn't read that incorrectly, i still have yet to send out the first giveaway prizes (i'm such a loser sometimes!). those are going out this week (oh, you are so patient, erin, maya, and catherine!) along with the winner(s) from this 3rd giveaway. the second giveaway prize was very well-received in london, i might add (hi, kristy, and thanks, cc!). i thought that i would put the rest (i'm not sure how many that is...5? 8?)on etsy. if you want one, let me know. i think that they will be $10 each, and i'll take care of the mailing cost if you are here in the u.s. if they are all snapped up here, i won't even bother with etsy (that whole time issue that i have, you know?) size-wise, they are 9-ish inches tall, from toe to pointy hat.

time's up for now...lily, eme, cate, and i will see you tomorrow!



one more thing...just to be clear, the comments left on tomorrow's post, december 3, will be the ones entered into the giveaway.