oh shenandoah

Last year Naia was a wee sprite at 3 weeks old when we headed to the mountains for a little get away.

We couldn't resist a repeat trip this year too. And our pals from Puzzled joined us which made it all the sweeter! It was a time for exploring and hiking and romping and sleep overs and camp fires and board games and good meals and majestic views.

It's funny how our little family, nestled here on the Bay surrounded by great blue herons and crabs and water snakes and a forest of masts gets such a kick out of the mountains. It's truly a novelty for us and especially for Zach who was waxing poetic at every turn and taking in each detail, noting how very different it was from home.

(mama the mountain looks like it's on fire with colors!)

And what a difference from last year, my girl growing and curious and taking it all in. Even though Doug and I often look at each other and laugh when we realize how laden we are when we travel now, how many bags are packed, how much space is taken up in our wee Honda Civic with diapers and stuffed animals and extra changes of clothes and books and snacks -- oh so far from our 10 minute stuff a backpack grab the dog and go days of yore. This is what visiting new places is all about now. These little people. It's worth all the luggage,

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Please don't forget to enter the giveaway HERE -- and spread the word because the discount code is good the entire month of November!

drunken sailor pants

I followed a pattern. As in a sewing pattern with the sewing machine. Oh yes, there was swearing and drinking and seam ripping galore (by no fault of the pattern, just my brain). And thus if you were to really examine these little pants, they have a bit of what looks like a drunken sailor swagger to the stitching. So, just don't look that close, ok?

Because from a healthy distance they are pretty cute. And they fit for the most part. And my almost walking drunken sailor of a girl loves cruising around in these pants. So far two pairs.

But it's become addicting. So there will be more, especially in the Folksy Flannel which is warm and cozy and holds up so well to baby crawling action.

This was all part of a master plan actually. Back when I was pregnant with Naia I was looking all over for some receiving blankets. In a hormonal streak I remember not liking anything I saw. Too pink. Too cutesy. Too blah. So I decided instead to buy a few one yard cuts of really nice flannel and wrap her in those as a newborn, knowing that one day those same swaddles would become something cute to wear for my girl.

If you're curious, this is a sweet easy pattern from Made By Rae called the Big Butt Baby Pants. I tried originally making the Anna Maria Horner reversible baby pants from Handmade Beginnings, but honestly it was just too hard for a rookie. Just reading the steps made my eyes cross and my head spin. So I gave that book and those patterns to SuperJen and searched for an easier one, and the Made By Rae pattern gave me all of the cuteness with none of the dizzy feeling.

Don't forget to enter the Made By Alejandro leather sword & elephant giveaway!

GIVEAWAY - Made By Alejandro !!!!!

Just feast your eyes on these beauties. Alejandro Ortega makes swords from LEATHER that will knock your socks off!

Made By Alejandro is an Etsy shop that will make kids and adults drool. I am so glad I have been able to get to know Alejandro and want to share his work with you all. I asked him how he got started in working with leather.

Born and raised in the Bronx, NY, my introduction to leather began my junior year of college while taking a theater class. I stumbled upon a Punchinello mask, which comes from an Italian art form called Commedia d'el Arte. The original Commedia d'el Arte masks were made from leather and in studying Commedia I learned a lot about the the use of leather as a medium in art. In 2007 I traveled to Italy to take a Commedia Mask Making Course from Maestro Donato Sartori, and learned the difference between techniques taught in books and techniques actually used. I returned with a bigger desire than ever to pursue my love of working with leather.

So how did he start making swords, shields, and the like?

Last summer, How To Tame Your Dragon came out in the movie theaters. I had some time and materials on hand, so I decided to make my three children their own swords, shields, and sheaths so they could be real heroes like the kids in the movie. People saw their leather toys and began placing orders, as well as telling others about my creations. My clientele now ranges from children, to adults, to an online toy store, to a local natural toy store. I am now happily making swords, shields, and other things using a material I love that's been around since the caveman: leather.

I know Zach has used the heck out of his set. He loves the way the sheath is adjustable so you can wear it around your waist or across your chest. He adores the shield and the way it's made so strong it can take blows from big kids with wooden swords. And of course he covets that leather sword, I think he appreciates how special and  beautiful it is as much as he loves just swashbuckling it around night and day. 

What's that you say? You don't have any aspiring pirates, knights, ninjas, or vikings in your home? Fear not! Made By Alejandro also makes these adorable leather elephants.

A pair of leather elephant key chains are the first part of this giveaway. Since elephants are social creatures who mate for life, Alejandro decided it was important to keep these two together. Just leave a comment below for a chance to win. They would make a great gift and if you have a baby who likes to play with your keys this is a nice, safe way to keep their little hands busy (all of his dyes are water based and eco-friendly.)

But wait there's MORE! (I've always wanted to say that) Alejandro is very generously offering this leather sword and sheath set pictured below.

Again just leave a comment here telling us what you like in the shop to win. For an extra chance at either item, please head over to Made By Alejandro's Facebook page and LIKE, then come back here and leave another comment telling us you did. ALL entrants must leave an email address! Entries will be open until Friday night October 28 at 8pm eastern.

But wait there IS even more!! From now and through the entire month of November you can get 15% off your total order with Made By Alejandro by using the code "zachaboardnov2011". Perfect for the holidays! Spread the word!

Thank you so much Alejandro! 

And the winners are:  The pair of elephants goes to CHANI!!!
And the sword & sheath set goes to: MARY!!!


I will email each of you separately for shipping info. Congratulations and thank you to Made By Alejandro. 
Don't forget, the discount code above is still good for the entire month of November. So pass it around and place your holiday orders!

~this moment~

A Friday ritual. A single photo capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special moment. A moment I want to pause, savor, and remember. - via soulemama.

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You still have until tonight at 8pm eastern to enter in to the Manzanita Kids Giveaway! Don't miss it!

birthday recap

First I want to thank you all for the heartfelt birthday wishes! Naia is such a social butterfly and I know she would love to bat her eyelashes at each one of you and give you her chripy "Hi!"

As for celebrating, well second children (and subsequent ones I am sure) make you simmer down and ease up on many-a-parenting thing. For Zach's first birthday we had a shindig. I cooked, I decorated, I stressed. And of course what did he care, he was ONE! We decided we are not throwing birthday parties for numero dos until she is old enough to ask for one. And even then, they will remain small and casual like we try to do with Zach.

So with all that in mind we had a small afternoon cake affair inside on a pouring rain day. 

I finished the birthday crown!  (I battled with the $@#&*(# sewing machine until 2am one night and then gave up and hand sewed the whole thing.)

I attempted to create this for our "cake".  Well I am not a from-scratch cake making kinda gal. So I bought a cake mix. But I think my mistake was buying "healthy" cake mix from Whole Foods. You know, gluten free, wheat free, yadda yadda. So I mixed it all up, separated it into bowls, added the food coloring, all according to directions. But the cake didn't rise to fill the jars, so I got little psychedelic cake hockey pucks stuck in the bottom of the jars. We made up for it with a mound of homemade whipped cream on top and these beautiful edible butterflies. (I got them at Sugar Robot, check them out, they have great stuff!)

For Naia I made organic pumpkin muffins and topped it with the homemade whipped cream. She of course did not eat any of it, but did decide to stick her entire face in it... of course!

Zach took great pleasure in showing her what a gift was and how to open them. Funny how little ones have zero instinct for this ritual. 

Frankly, she could care less about the few little things we gave her as gifts. Her favorite part was the candle and the singing. Oh yes, more please. Clap clap clap!

One year old stats:

Favorite food: mama's milk

Favorite word: Hi! (to everybody and everything including wind) and Dada!

Favorite song: Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack

Favorite book: tie between Jamberry and I Am A Bunny

Favorite animal: dog 

Favorite play thing: big brother of course!

p.s. Don't forget to enter the fabulous GIVEAWAY for Manzanita Kids! Entries will be open through Friday.

GIVEAWAY - Manzanita Kids !!!!!

Oh how I love this shop! David and his family are so sweet and put so much love and thought into their line of toys. If you have not checked out Manzanita Kids on etsy, go go GO now! Go ahead. I'll wait.

See, I told you! Let me share what I love about their toys. They are natural, original, and the very definition of open ended. In other words - classic. Their latest offerings are high on my favorite list, like this Modular Vehicle. It's a plane, it's a truck, it's a sub -- it's just pure awesome!! You get all of the components and the wheel base and all you need is imagination.

And along the lines of open ended awesomeness check out these modular building sets. So many possibilities, I love it!

Aside from this classic building set they have themed ones too. Not surprising our crew totally covets the Atlantis set, check this out.

And the best part, they come apart and store flat and easy, which is super not just for a boat but for any parents trying to keep the clutter and mess to a minimum.

Of course Manzanita Kids also makes classic toys for wee ones that are developmentally appropriate and beautiful too. This Owl, Stars, Moon puzzle is a great example...

Or this fun stacking animal puzzle set.

All of the toys are designed and made by David and his wife Adrienne in their cottage in Seattle under the loving supervision of their 1 year old son and newborn daughter. And each one is finished
 with a homemade beeswax/ organic safflower oil mix for a lovely shine.

David is generously offering one reader a $35 gift certificate to Manzanita Kids. All you need to do to enter is click on over to the shop and leave a comment here telling what you like! For an extra entry please click over to their Facebook page and become a fan. It's a great way to be updated about their sales, giveaways, and new toys. This giveaway will be open until Friday at 8pm eastern and then I will post a winner here. PLEASE register with an email address or blog address so I can get in touch if you win :)

Also for this week you can shop Manzanita Kids and get 10% off by using the code BOATBABY -- perfect for holiday shopping!

Thank you Manzanita Kids!

COMMENTS CLOSED. THE WINNER IS... Mama Forestdweller!!! 
thank you everyone and thank you Manzanita Kids!

~this moment~ birthday sweetness

A Friday ritual. A single photo capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special moment. A moment I want to pause, savor, and remember. - via soulemama. 

one

My sweet baby girl is one. Oh my. I know writing an open letter to your babe is the thing to do these days, but I am going to keep my words to her just between she and I. She is amazing. Period. And I am so lucky to get to be with her every minute of every single day to soak up all that wonder and beauty.

I am so grateful to my tribe of friends and neighbors who share in the joy of seeing her grow each day. Without family around to dote on her, it's nice to have dockside aunties and uncles who take notice of her little milestones. New words, new expressions, new hairs on that crazy blonde head. But today we celebrate the big one, the Big One! Happy Birthday to my sweet, strong, funny Naia! I love you so.

boat show

This week was that time we anticipate all year long. Boat Show time is play time, meet & greet time, geek out time, savor the beautiful last gasps of lovely weather time, it's just a really fun time of year.

This year as with all boat show years past we got to hang out with all kinds of like minded sailors who made their way here from near and far for the show. Our RV traveling pals from Puzzled rolled into town and will be hanging with us all month long (hooray!). And the sweet and lovely Tig & Serena came down from Boston to take in some seminars at the show and visit with us. Their kids are so mellow and sweet and it was fun getting to meet part of our very small east coast posse of liveaboard families with little kids. And of course my pal Cidnie gets the Bold Mama award for jumping into her car with her 17 month old and driving out from Texas - just the two of them. Go Cid!

Kitty is scrumptious and Naia was completely fascinated by her and equally adored Cidnie, so much so she let her adorn her cherubic face with these awesome Jackie-O shades. Cid did a whirlwind tour of Annapolis but we loved having her in person for the short while we got to hang out and catch up.

Boat Show get togethers are fast and fun filled, but my real wish is to be sharing a slow sunset and a cold drink in a warm anchorage somewhere with these folks someday.

getting ready

I will catch up on all of the fun we've had this past week with the Boat Show and visitors from near and far, but first I need to recover from all that fun. We've been in work hard play hard mode over here!

The last few night though I have been burning the midnight oil making a few little gifts for my sweet girl who I can  not BELIEVE is going to be 1 in a few days!

The greatest thing about crafting things for 1 year olds is that you can do it in the day time too if you catch a moment because there's no need to hide it from them! Zach stayed so sweetly naive to gift making for such a long time (probably until about 5) I hope she's the same way for at least a few years.

I hand sewed the ball using left over 100% wool felt from the stash I got when she was born and I made that soft block. (It's the Summer Spark collection from A Child's Dream Come True).

And I bought a few extra sheets of wool felt in larger sizes to attempt my first try at a birthday crown. I bought Zach's crown on etsy, and it SEEMS like an easy enough project so I am going for it. I used this pattern from Juicy Bits and searched all over etsy and blogs for inspiration. So far it seems to be coming along easy enough, but I still haven't attempted the dolphin yet (all of my dolphin cut outs last night looks like ink blots) and I am worried about machine sewing it all together (that machine doesn't like me!) and getting the elastic band right. Wish me luck!

catching up (or ohnoit'soctoberalreadyahhhhhhhh!)

Sorry for the quiet weeks around here. I have been overloaded with work, tending to a baby who is not feeling great, and madly preparing for the Boat Show, out of town guests, Naia's 1st birthday (already!), and even looking ahead to our upcoming Halloween bash.

(Even our nature table is getting spooky!)

I did want to share a few odds and ends. First if you are GINNY and you left a comment on the Alford Designs giveaway, please drop me an email (check the contact tab above) so I can send you your prize. If I don't hear from Ginny by Friday I will go ahead and use random.org to pick a new winner. Ginny - I hope you're out there!

Next - please surf on over to Soul Flower to check out my latest review of their delicious Little Flowers dress. If only this dress came in mama sizes!

(Hey Zach what are you doing? - taking my bucket for a walk - oh, ok)

I also want to share a wonderful online magazine that sassy, thoughtful, and just plain fun. Modern Ink was kind enough to interview me and publish a piece I wrote about living aboard. If you click here and punch in page 193 you'll find me, but don't miss the 192 pages before that and those after. It's a gorgeous magazine and the ladies who put it together really work their tails off so give them a shout out and enjoy the read.
                                                            

I also still write just about every month for Spinsheet, our wonderful Chesapeake Bay sailing magazine. Mt latest article about planning to go south can be found here (search for pg 115 "Southbound: Listing To Port"). I am bad about keeping the sidebars of the blog updated with my latest writing assignments, but that's a good winter project.

I am also pleased once again to be a part of The Rhythm Of The Home and their delicious Fall Issue. Grab a cuppa tea and check it out, so much good stuff!

And of course my everyday gig that keeps me busy at the moment is writing for Run My Renovation. It's such a fun show with such a wonderful group of people putting it together (many of whom I used to travel with all the time pre-Zach when I was on the road producing). It's great fun to vote online deciding how the renovations go even if you don't get the show, be sure to click over and check it out.

Phew -- now I need some chocolate. I told ya I was busy :)

~this moment~

A Friday ritual. A single photo capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. - via soulemama.