Today, when they called out, I accepted their tempting offer to eat them. I still didn’t know what to do with them, so I asked The Internet to tell me what to do. The Internet said to eat them on toast with cream cheese or mustard. I opted for cream cheese.

Isadora, my most adventurous eater in the house, refused. (Don’t worry, I’ll try again.) I took a bite, and was pleasantly surprised by the flavor. Not too fishy! I asked The Internet to tell me more about sardines. The Internet said that sardines have hardly any mercury since they’re so low on the food chain. They’re also packed with Omega 3s and B12 vitamins. To top it off, one can (which is a single serving) offers 23 grams of protein. That’s 45% of your daily recommended allowance. Eat a can of sardines, and you’ll be sated for a long, long time.

I got bored with sardines on toast quickly, so I opted to make a salad. Behold: spinach, red quinoa, beets, avocado, sardines, goat cheese and a splash of lemon. Delish!

I need to find additional recipes for sardines. I’m about to dive into the intarwebs to look for some. See you in a couple of hours. In the meantime, add your favorite sardines recipes in the comments.

First up, these adorable outfits made from patterns found on the Internet. The kimono top pattern is from Habitual, and the yoga pants pattern came from Mani Mina. (I also just bought her kimono jacket and spring dresss patterns too).

This one is for Izzy:

This on is for Anneke:

The Black Apple is one of my favorite artists on Etsy. I’ve been following her career since Etsy was still in beta. I love her work. Mitch gave me one of her prints for Christmas this year and I love it. The Black Apple appeared on the Martha Stewart show showing the audience how to sew her signature dolls. She also gave the pattern away on Martha’s site.

Here are my renditions–the blond for Anneke and the brunette fir Izzy. I also made matching purses using a pattern that I designed.

Finally, I made no see tutus for the girls. These were super easy to make. Just measure out some elastic to fit the waist. Secure the ends an then tie strips of tulle all the way around.

I made everything with the supplies I already had on hand except for the tutus. I had to buy tulle and elastic, but that only cost about $5 each.

Here’s Izzy wearing everything at once.

Mitch bought me a super fancy flash for my camera. I’m able to bounce light around at will and I’m so surprised at how awesome my photos are coming out. No more harsh shadows screwing up my perfect shots.

Izzy is practicing dressing herself a lot these days. I leave a bunch of clothes for her in her bottom dresser drawer that she pulls out and attempts to put on. One day, we had our laundry bag packed and waiting in the foyer. Izzy was able to reaj through the gate and rifle through the bag. She pulled out a few things and got busy trying to put them on. She has one each of my and Mitch’s socks on her legs. She’s got a pair of my underwear hanging around her knees, and she grabbed another one of my really long socks and wrapped it around her neck like a scarf. She’s quite the fashion plate, dontcha think?

And finally, since there is still a kitties component to this blog, albeit not as robust as the kid part, here is a fabulous photo of Izzy’s feline boyfriend, Kirby. Isn’t he just the best?

Here’s the adorable Kirby

Murky with Still Life

I’ll try to do better about keeping Kid n Kitties up-to-date. In the meantime, here are some videos for you to enjoy…

It’s amazing to see her walk now. She’s so much more coordinated. I have some more recent video, but haven’t downloaded it of the camera yet.

I’ve been thinking of a way to sew some kind of protector for a while and I finally measured the crib and made some sketches this weekend. I used some fabric that I bought at Ikea and lined it with a cotton batting to provide an added layer of protection. I attached some snaps at the bottom to secure it on the crib. It’s easy to take of for laundering.

I also made a crib blanket that has matching fabric on one side and animals in the same colors on the other side.

It felt good to plan, design, and create the vision I had in my head and to see it executed as perfectly as I had hoped even though Murky occasionally thwarted the creative process.

On a side note, Izzy and I spent the afternoon in San Anselmo at a friend’s baby shower. Isn’t she simply adorable in her little garden party dress?

I wonder if Kirby really thought she wouldn’t spot him in here.

I don’t know why, but I am compelled to cover her with little foam sea creatures whenever she stands up in the bath.