The Business. She's a Beast.

It's been two months since I last posted.  To the day.  Odd.
Somehow I have over 760 "fans".  And if I could send free bows to each one I totally would.

But, the business is why I haven't been blogging.  Or cleaning.  Or cooking much.  Or, really, much of anything.  It's pretty much grown into a huge, scary monster that I am afraid I can't handle anymore.  Busy is a blessing, don't get me wrong, and I certainly wouldn't complain.  But I feel an obligation to every single one of my customers to make the best product possible and ship it as soon as possible which is very stressful.

It sounds easy.  You're thinking it sounds easy.

It was easy when I first started and had, maybe, an order a week.  Now I'm looking at my order sheet of orders placed this week and last and wondering how I'm going to ship 16 orders as quickly as I'd like.  The truth is, I'm not.  And I have that disclaimer on my main business page - that it could take 2-3 weeks for in-stock orders to ship.  You'd think that would make me relax a little but it doesn't.  It makes me twitch.  Do you know how quickly 2 weeks flies by?

Christmas is 3 months away!

I digress.  Really.  Because I'm not complaining, I promise.  I could just use one or two of Santa's elves right about now.  He should stop being so selfish and gimme one.


On to other things.  Like my sweet, beautiful Amelia.  She's such a good girl and this age is SO fun.  I don't let my business completely overtake everything in my life, especially her.  We have a great time.  She's hilarious - I'm really enjoying 15 months old.


She can say a lot of things because she tries to mimic everything you say.  Today, she said a word and I didn't understand it (big surprise), so I said "What?" To which she responded "What?  Whaaat?  Whaaaaaat?"  I would be offended that she were mocking me if she weren't 15 months old and learning to speak.


She says "Thank you" ("Tchank Tcho") without prompting.

She says "I love you" ("Ya Ya") and gives kisses and hugs without prompting.

She says "All Done" ("Ahh Duh") as she signs it now.

Give her 100 toys and she will always go right for a baby doll and tote it around with her.

She laughs a lot, but she laughs the hardest at/for her cousin, Caleb.  They are GREAT friends.


The girl will eat any dried or fresh fruit you stick in front of her.  She may be a somewhat picky eater with some things, but fruit is not one of them.

"Default happy" is how my husband describes our baby, and he's right.  She just seems content and easy-going 95% of the time.  She gets that good naturedness from her daddy.  Not that everything is stars and rainbows all of the time - she has her moments.  But, we deal with the attitude and move on.

She will and does walk off with things.  No idea where the remote control for our Blu Ray player is.  She walked off with one of David's favorite pens - can't find it anywhere.  Half the time we can't find our lip balm or remotes for our bedroom lights.  It'd be frustrating if it weren't so funny.


She started walking in mid-August and hasn't slowed down since.  That was the same week we were down in Portland buying our '05 Honda Odyssey Touring.  Yes, a van.  And I LOVE IT.  Seriously, I think people who say they'll never own a van need to drive one around for a week and see how awesome it is.  Remote control doors and rear hatch?  Um, yes, please!  Seats that fold into the floor and hidden compartments in the floor for storage?  OKAY!  The list seriously goes on and on. 



You'll notice many of the photos are from this month. We drove down to Portland last weekend for an early trip to the Pumpkin Patch at Sauvie Island. We had a really great time but many of the festivities weren't out yet - too early. I should mention that my sister, Carrie, made the girls' t-shirts. Cute, right? She's making more to sell in my Millie's Bows comment game on October 1st. See my Facebook fan page for details.

And, just for fun, here's a photo of the newest member of the family!  Meet Benjamin!  My sister, Carrie, gave birth to him on July 28 of this year.  He's so squishy and loveable.  That's my dad holding him.


Happy Friday!

Talented friends & my baby girl is 7 months old!

Man, I have talented friends.  And nice friends. 

Beverley has been my twin's bff (sorry - just using the lingo that was used when they became friends) since middle school, and also a friend of mine.  She has a beautiful daughter named Lucy who recently turned one.  Bev offered to take some photos of her baby, my baby, and my sisters' babies all wearing some of the bows I've made.

She did a fantastic job.

Seriously, I feel like my bows don't live up to the photos taken of them!  Hey, at least they're perched on some seriously cute little heads.  And, the good news is that I'm getting better at my bow-making skills, which helps David to know when I'm buying out my supplier's entire stock of ribbon.

Did I mention I will soon have 1.5" crochet headbands in a variety of colors in stock?  I will.  I'm so excited.  Nylon headbands, too, in pink and in white.

There are so many cute photos, but I guess you'll have to go to my Etsy shop to see them.  Or become a Facebook fan.  I do want to show you this one of Kate, not only because she's adorable, but because she's sporting my new ladybug clippie. 

Okay, enough shamless plugging.

While I'm on the subject of talented friends, I have another friend who dyes and spins her own yarn and makes absolutely gorgeous items.  Her Etsy shop is called Neauveau Fiber Arts and Supplies.  She offers free shipping on everything!  Here's my favorite item in her store...a Snow Bunny handknit baby's hat.

My baby is 7 months old today (Wednesday).  7 months. I wrote about her milestones in my previous post so I guess there's no use in posting them again.  I'm so proud of her, though.  I can't get enough of her.  She still isn't feeling well which makes me sad.  But, except for the gurgly nose and cough you wouldn't know it - she's still happy and playful.  A bit clingy and hasn't been napping well but that's to be expected.

You know how I posted about our PC being in our bedroom?  My husband is currently snoozing away and I'm still up trying to get the pictures uploaded to Etsy ASAP.  I'm going to wait until tomorrow to load them onto Facebook.

Oh, one more thing.  I was in a rush to get out the door and to my sister's house last Saturday when Bev was going to meet us to take the photos that I didn't change Amelia out of her recently green bean stained shirt.  I thought the shirt she was wearing over it would cover it, but it turns out she didn't wear that shirt the whole time.  Thus, the trailer trash look.  Not my most shining motherhood moment.  Ah, well.  What's a baby without a stain on her shirt?

Dear Valerie,

I'm really happy for you that you lost all that weight on Jenny Craig.  Really, I am.  Forget that I weigh what you did when you were "fat".  My only saving grace is that you're 4" shorter than me, but even then I'd be in denial if I said I wouldn't love to lose 30 lbs.  Love.  It.  But, anyway, we're all real happy for you that you've kept the weight off for 3 years and that you are still eating the Jenny Craig food (yuck!), but can you please go be your perky, slimmer self somewhere else? 

Signed,
Resentful Fat Girl

I'm not really resentful.  And I really am proud of Valerie and her blue bikini - I'm just tired of looking at it.  I don't really make resolutions at the beginning of a new year, mostly because I'm constantly thinking to myself "I should do this" or "I'm going to commit myself to do that" and then I falter and, ultimately, fail.  Every time I try to watch what I eat, my milk supply seems to decline.  I couldn't tell you what my milk supply does when I exercise, but then what excuse would I have?  David has been kind enough to offer to exercise with me which I think will really help.  And, nice weather would help, too.  I am excited to get out and go for walks to the park with Amelia this spring/summer.

Speaking of lactation and weight loss.  Okay, not really speaking of weight loss.  But tell me this batter doesn't completely blow your mind.  I could live off of it.  Or die off of it - whichever.  But I'm prescribing myself cookies and it doesn't get much better than that.

I call them lactation cookies even though I didn't follow an "official" lactation cookies recipe. I just made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and added coconut like my mom used to do in her oatmeal cookies.  Little orbs of perfection.

Oatmeal and flax seed are supposed to aid in increasing milk supply and I put both in these cookies, so here's hoping.  Even if it doesn't help, they sure are fun to eat.  I only made two cookie sheets worth and put the rest in the freezer for a later time.  I love having cookie dough in the freezer.  I mean, obviously not more than I love having it in my mouth (hence, the Fat Valerie dilemma).

Amelia's congestion seems to have improved but she still struggles with it, especially at night.  Tonight, for no good reason at all, she woke up about an hour after going to bed, screaming.  She was pretty much inconsolable until I stuck my finger in her mouth and stuck a couple of Hyland's Teething Tablets under her tongue.  Nothing says reality like someone's finger jammed in your mouth.  I think she must have had a nightmare and then stayed in a daze for a while.  After the Hyland's incident she seemed fine if still not really congested (even more so now, after crying).  David's dad used to be a pharmacist in the Army and recommended Benadryl to help her breathe better and to help her sleep.  Since we already have the cool mist humidifier going at full blast in her room and that doesn't seem to be doing a whole lot of good, we decided to try it last night.  She slept for 5 hours straight, which is far longer than she's been sleeping with the cold (or without it, for that matter).  We tried to hold off giving any medication to her tonight but she was just miserable.  She fell asleep shortly after I put her down after the nightmare episode, but slept fitfully and would whine/fuss in her sleep before finally waking up.  That's when we gave her the Benadryl.  She played happily in her crib with a tag on her blanket (we have video monitors - thank you, Lord, for video monitors!) until finally turning over and zonking out.

One more note on the sleeping thing.  Last week on our first night of Ferberizing Amelia, she woke up at 1:15am which was too early.  She wouldn't be fed again until 3:30am, so I laid in bed and watched her on the 7" screen on my nightstand, cringing and hoping for only a few minutes of Angry Baby.  She barely woke up, reached for her pacifier which I had put beside her in the crib, put it in her mouth, and fell back to sleep.  Seriously.  I wanted to go into her room and wake her up just to give her a high five or kiss her chunky cheeks.  But that would defeat the purpose, so I just woke David up and told him about it instead.  He appreciated that.

It was out-of-control cute last night when David was playing with Amelia on our bad.  Tess, the dog, decided at that very moment that she needed to be pet.  She nustled up next to Amelia, turned on her back, and put her head in Amelia's lap.  I grabbed the camera just as Tess decided she was done being cute, so these aren't the best representation of the scene, but they're still cute.  P.S.  I know it's not in good form to not use a flash when shooting a very quick moving dog and baby, but when I use the flash Tess ends up looking like Demon Dog and I try to avoid that.  Amelia still absolutely loves Tess.  I have to send Tess out of the room when I feed Amelia, otherwise the child won't eat because she's too busy staring down the dog.  I'm still thinking Tess gets the most baby giggles.

Millie's Bows - NEWS

Now available:  You may opt for a thin piece of velcro to be applied to the inside of the alligator clip for no additional charge.  This is especially helpful for Moms who have babies with thin hair or very little hair to keep the bow in.

Also, new to the shop (both will be posted tomorrow 1/12)...

The Dainty Mini.  $4 for a set of 2.

Also, the Big Girl Bow.  Approximately 4 1/2 inches in length, perfect for post-toddler girls.  Soon will be available on a french clip.

Have a wonderful Tuesday!

My baby is sick

She is.  This is a whole new arena for me.  For 6 months she's had nary a sniffle but now, all of a sudden, she has horrible sinus congestion and today has been consistently running a 99.7° fever.

Have you ever nursed a baby who had sinus congestion?  Not fun.  Amelia would try to nurse then she'd choke because she couldn't breathe.  I mean, imagine your worst cold where you couldn't even blow your nose because nothing would come out yet you were so stuffed up that it hurt to blink.  Now imagine your food source being something you have to suck on at a 90° angle.  Talk about impossible.

I tried pumping and giving her a bottle in a more upright position but she would take maybe 2 small gulps and refuse it.  Again with the sucking thing.  She looked at me like "Seriously, Mom?  Are you trying to starve me?"  So, I took what I pumped and made a yummy green bean, oatmeal and milk pile of goodness for her.  She was slow at eating it but she ate it.  Then she took a nap and slept for 3 hours.

The pediatrician wanted to see her when I described her symptoms so I scooped her up right after her nap and took her in.  Just a cold.  Scooped her up and took her back home. 

She's just been cranky, tired, and miserable today.  She took 3 naps, none of them long, and I put her to bed at 6:50pm because of how tired she was acting.  I hope she starts feeling better, although truthfully David and I both aren't feeling 100% tonight, either. 

In other news, David spent a lot of time today entertaining the very grouchy Amelia so that I could create my shop on Etsy.  It's a lot more of a time-consuming process than I originally thought but it feels good to have it done!  David made me some bases with dowel rods sticking out so I can stack my ribbons on them.  Makes me feel a lot less cluttered. 

I spent some time the other day reading through posts I wrote right after Amelia was born.  I wrote about sleep then, too, only not as much.  You'd think lack of sleep would be more prominent in those first few months, but apparently I was too busy being grateful and stuff.  Also, I used to be kind of witty...I don't really know what hap-- wait, what was I saying?  Oh, yeah...I had a baby and my brains fell out.

Gotta go check on my baby.  And clean up my ribbon mess, or at least organize it.  Wish me luck and an early bedtime.