A few things

Apologies for the lack of posting lately.  I have been occupied by several commitments, and by "commitments" I mean spending a whole morning making this:

 Cute little pink crab hiding out by the seaweed

The official title of this craft is "The seaweed, bumper whale, hammerhead shark, crab, and bubble aquarium by James."  I forgot to put "and crab" in the little sign, but thankfully J can't read that well yet so he didn't notice.  This is a super easy project, by the way.  Just cut a window from a shoebox lid, paint the box blue, affix plastic wrap inside the window, and cut out various elements of marine life to put inside the box "aquarium."  If you wanted to get fancy you could hang fish from the top of the box with string so they really look like they're floating, but we were in a hurry so J used tape.  James excelled at this project since, as he told me, "I am really good at drawing dinosaurs, sea creatures, families, trees, volcanoes, and flowers."  Sea creatures is on the list!

While working on this project, I also learned of a couple new animals: the "bumper whale" (so named because it bumps into other sea creatures, and for which purpose it is conveniently equipped with armor in the form of plates on its back and spikes on its nose), and the "snow dolphin" (which apparently looks like a regular dolphin but is made of snow and lives in a small hole in our backyard).

We had to come up with a craft project because the weather here has been icky and we haven't been outside much lately.  This morning we woke up to snow on the ground--exciting for J but not so much for Josh since he had to break out the snow shovel.

I haven't posted for the last couple days, but that doesn't mean I haven't been thinking and shopping and rearranging furniture.  Below, a few things that have been on my mind recently...

Newly discovered Annie's organic bunny fruit snacks are the best fruit snacks I've ever tasted!  I bought them on a whim on a road trip and we all love them.  They are really fresh and juicy tasting.  The only downside is the cost: if anyone knows where to buy these in bulk, let me know!

Also, I made this wild mushroom pastitsio for dinner last night.  It is good comfort food in case you want to take a casserole over to your favorite vegetarian!

I was down shopping in the East Village last weekend and loved this t-shirt:

Speaking of shopping downtown, I was thinking about doing a whole holiday shopping round-up / gift guide from local businesses.  I found so many cute things that I would like to get give this year!  :)

In non-local shopping, I picked up this dog bed at Kohl's for $2.50 (thanks to a $10 card I got in the mail...thank you for sending those every 4-6 weeks, Kohl's!).  By the way, all their Animal Planet pet accessories are 50% off right now.

And, lastly, in decorating news, here is a design I threw together for a cozy den/family room/mini library type of room:

I am not sure if a room like this is in the works for our house or not, but I am kind of hoping it is!

Hope you have a great day!