Violaceous

30 Days of Happiness, Day 1: 2 Year Olds

I so love my 2 year old. Terrible once in a while, but mostly terrific. I'm finding 2 to be my favorite age yet. We've been having lots of fun with Lucy lately. It's easier (most of the time) to talk her into things, she understands more, she gets so excited about little things and has lots of enthusiasm! It's really fun to take her somewhere special, like out to dinner or to the park. I love her imagination. She's always singing, dancing, pretending and making things up. She has empathy for others, both people and animals (and toys and dolls). She's spirited and feisty. I wouldn't have her any other way! I love the way she talks, too. She sounds like a little adult sometimes, but other times she is just unintentionally hilarious in the way that her mind works. I love that girl.

Pictures from this morning. It was around 95 degrees today! She insisted on wearing that hat all morning.

Activities from yesterday evening

We were all hanging out in the backyard last night.

Lucy collected and cleaned rocks from around the yard.

Our new chickens had dust baths under the bushes and relaxed. This is Coco.

We have 3 hens! Coco, Bridget and one who is yet to be named. Any name ideas?

Dustin has been hard at work finishing the chicken coop. He finished the door yesterday and made some screened vents.

And I worked on an earflap hat for Lucy for this winter. Almost done!

Lucy at my Grandpa's Farm

We went to Salem over the weekend for the annual family reunion. Lucy had so much fun running around at my Grandpa's farm and meeting lots of new people! I love the farm so much, it's one of my favorite places. It's in the country with lots of acreage and he lives in a 100+ year old farmhouse. He has a big flock of chickens that Lucy loved to look at! We brought 3 hens home to live with us, but more on the ladies later.

Lucy and her dad having a serious conversation in front of the chicken run

The wildflowers were gorgeous! I pay for Queen Anne's Lace on the floral truck at work, I couldn't believe how many of them were growing all over the place! My grandpa says they're weeds. Aren't they pretty though?

Luce had fun smelling them. I love how her hair is the exact same color as the grass.

I wish I could explain how it feels for me to be there. It's a place where the sunlight and the smells of dust and plants instantly take me back to childhood. I'm happy to be able to share that with my daughter.

Playing

With my camera. From my backyard this evening:

Love this girl.

Candy Colors and Glitter

I've been down in the dumps lately - I don't think it's any one thing, just a bunch of things all stuck together. I've had a hard time pulling myself out of it. Today I was able to spend a good 4-5 hours in my craft room just messing around (thanks to my wonderful husband who kept Lucy occupied because he knew I needed time to myself) and it was so therapeutic! I didn't make any masterpieces, I just surrounded myself with candy colors and glitter and had fun.

Lucy has been so into dressing up lately that I thought it would be fun to make her a dress up corner. Yesterday we hung some hooks and a floor length mirror after I rearranged her room, and today I painted a "Lucy's Boutique" sign! I love how it turned out, and Lucy has been playing in there a lot.

Lucy's dress up corner
Sorry for the blurriness, I really need a new camera! It's just one of those things that has to wait for the time being.

Here's a close up of the sign:

It has a cute vintage paper doll dress!
I made her this one too:


If I keep on going this way, she's going to own every type of store there is!

I just discovered Diamond Dust! I'm probably one of the last people to find out about it, but I love it! It's crushed glass glitter that looks just like sugar. I've been using it on everything lately, and it's pretty inexpensive! I think I found an excuse to use it on everything I made today. I've also been playing with Paper Clay a lot too, I'm just getting the hang of it!

I feel a little better after my time in my craft room and Lucy's room looks cuter too.

Oh dang.

Someone got into the markers today at nursery school!

And it's not washing off.

Yes, it's even under her shirt, and on her eyelids. And toenails.

I think she had help.

Costumes

Lucy is at that age where she just loves to dress up. She'll be in her room quietly for a while and come out in the craziest outfits! I so love this phase.

From this morning - She calls those wings her "bees" and when she's wearing them she goes around saying "bzzz, bzzz".

From about an hour ago. Her shoes are on the wrong feet and she's wearing about 3 skirts! Also, her beret is on backwards.

Little beauty

Note chocolate covered face from eating fresh chocolate chip cookies after her nap!

I found one of the best things ever at the thrift store today!! Other shoppers were actually laughing at me for buying it. I don't blame them, but I bought it anyways! It seriously filled up my entire cart with ruffled fabric.

It's a vintage bright red square dancing petticoat! I can't even tell you how yards of fabric are in this thing. It is so full of ruffles!

I think it's gorgeous! I don't know what I'm going to do with it yet. Hang it up? Cut it up? I don't know! I am not going to wear it.

Lucy will though!

From the other night

Lucy was having me draw for her on the etch a sketch and I guess she liked this one too much to erase! I found it like this a couple days later.

Don't the 3 of us look cute?

Little Lady

My "baby" is turning into such a big girl! Look at her, playing dress up today. She picked this outfit out of her dress up box all by herself! My little brother brought this dress home for Lucy when he visited Vietnam last year.


Eeee! You should see her walk in these. She has it down pretty darn well, she hardly ever trips. And look how big they are! She walks in heels better than I do! She is just such a lady.

Sneaky

I snuck up on Lucy just now with the camera while she was quietly playing in her room - she was being so cute!

She was sitting Mommy, Daddy and the little girl at the table for dinner. "It's dinner time now", she said.

I absolutely love how, as she's getting older, her play is becoming more imaginative.

Cute!

Even cuter!

Sorry about the blurry pics, it's hard to be good at getting sneaky ones with a crummy camera. ;)

By the way, I'll be getting a new camera soon - any recommendations? Do you have a camera model that you love?