Harrington House

Bottles in the Sun

I don't know why, but it makes me smile to see all those freshly boiled bottles lined and sitting by the window in the sun.  Yes, they are glass.  Yes, I have used them the whole time with Amelia.  And, YES, I love them!  Now, I'll admit...it was my love of all things old-fashioned that spurred my interest in using glass bottles way back when I was pregnant with Amelia.  Then, I started reading about chemicals in plastic.  So the decision, for me, was obvious.  Plus, these bottles are so easy to clean (and sterilize, if you wish).  I love those sparkly clean bottles!  I could use my Medela pump with these bottles, and Mike could feed Amelia while I was away at the hospital.  Most people are surprised to find we have yet to have one break.  (And we don't have a stitch of carpet in our house...all hardwoods or tile.)  The bottles I use are the Evenflo Classics.      

Big Girl

Now that Amelia is ONE year old, I wanted to share a few of the things she is doing.

She has been taking her time with talking.  She can say "Mama," "Daddy," "baby," Hi," "Bye."  She draws out the "hi" and "bye"...my sweet southern girl!  :o)  Oh, and "Mama" was her first word...naturally...  ;o)

If you ask her what a piggie says, she snorts.  If you ask her what a monster says, she growls.  I know, I know...what about the basics like, say, a dog, cat, or moo cow.  We're workin' on it...

If you ask her if she is sick, she coughs.  (She has done this for months and months.)  But you have to say it in one of those poor pitiful pearl voices.  And if you talk in that voice, even if you aren't asking her if she is sick, she coughs.  Oh my!

She will take about 3-5 steps by herself, then plop down.  Mike and I both walked at 9 months, so I was expecting her to just take off.  I'm not exactly pushing this one.  I've seen how fast she is crawling!  Amelia, honey, you can take your time walking (running)!

She knows what "no" means.  She has known this for several months.  She also knows when she is into something she isn't supposed to be.  Oh, and that child will watch me leave the room and make a bee line for whatever she isn't supposed to have.  Snnneeeaakkkky!

She loves to play (bang) on the piano.  I really hope she plays one day.  She is sooo receptive to music.  (Are all babies this way?  Probably.)  Anyway, when the theme from "The Office" comes on, she stops what she is doing, be it eating or playing, and she gets so excited and dances.  I wonder if she has seen someone else doing this?  Hmmm....

She is still happily nursing and co-sleeping.  However, she has self-weaned herself to where she is nursing just mostly in the morning and night-time.  As for bed-time, she goes to sleep in her crib and stays there till around 4 or so.  Then she comes to bed with me.

If you ask her "Where's Amelia?" she will bang on her chest in Tarzan fashion.  If you ask her about Mama and Daddy, she comes and "bangs" on us, too!

She has EIGHT teeth.  The two bottom front ones came around 4 months.  Then she sprouted six teeth in a whopping span of three days around 8 months.  Never bothered her a bit.  She has a mile-wide gap between the top two teeth...so adorable!

A few of her loves:  riding in the car, riding in her jogging stroller, playing peek-a-boo (for hours and hours, y'all), and antique shopping with Mama....and ohhh, bathtime, sweet bathtime!  And she pretty much will eat anything.  I have yet to find something she will not eat.

Amelia is such a good, sweet little girl.  We love her, love her, LOVE her!  She has been a blessing in more ways than one.  Thank you, Heavenly Father, for entrusting her to us, and please be with us as we continue to train her up in Your ways!

    

Um, Excuse Me...

What pray tell are you doing, Mr. Worm, to my would-be, should-be rosebuds??

You are apparently enjoying your feast...

Sweet Anticipation

Ooohhh, I'm getting excited! 

Amelia's 1st Birthday Party!

Although her birthday is actually tomorrow, we celebrated Amelia Kate's 1st birthday today.  Her grandparents (Mike's parents) were here for the weekend.  We had a lot of fun!

   

I made Amelia's cake...it was white cake with white icing, topped with strawberries and decorated with mint.  There's a white "1" candle in the center of the cake.

For her party, I decorated with some summery colors...green, white, yellow, and red.  I shopped through the house for things that would match that.  Luckily, I had several tablecloths with those colors.  I settled with these two, on top of a solid white one.  On the corner tail that was hanging over the front of the table, I looped it through a vintage white buckle I had.

This gorgeous bouquet of tulips came from my mother-in-law's garden.  They were perfect!

I decorated our chairs with some of my pillowcases with lace edges, tied up with ribbons.

This was my favorite part of the party...watching my Chickie Pie Pie dig into her 1st birthday cake!

She was dainty at first...

...but "dainty" didn't last long...

Behold...the damage...

One of Amelia's birthday gifts...a rockie horse from Aunt Kiki and Uncle Derrick!

 

Of course, a birthday isn't complete without this...

It was quickly followed with some birthday hugs and kisses, though...

What a happy, happy day!

She's my Cover Girl

Look!  Look!  Amelia's on the cover of Parenting Magazine!  hehe!  Now, go put your baby on the cover by visiting  covermaker.parenting.com .  But first look at this cutie...her cover really does look REAL, doesn't it?

Here are some more shots from the "photo shoot":

Dinner at the Old Mill

This evening, we went to one of our favorite local restaurants...The Old Mill Restaurant for a "bit of the old South" as the menu says.  So, of course, we love it.  It is so good!  It was built from the remnants of an old mill that burned.  The brick is amazing...can you tell?  Inside, you see the exposed original brick and the charred wood beams.  We always get the shrimp and grits starter, and I have to hold myself back from licking the plate.  Mike had ribs with the most perfect sauce I have ever, EVER tasted, and I had the Miss'ssippi catfish (fried, of course).  This was Amelia's first taste of fish.  She loved it!  I wanted to take a picture of our food, especially the piece of Mile-High Peanut Butter Pie, but it didn't last that long!

The weather was incredibly and surprisingly nice tonight!

   

A Little Note on Little Notes

I admit it.  I have never, ever been the best at correspondence, be it telephone, email, or handwritten mail.  In regard to the latter, I always struggled with procrastination and the dislike of my own handwriting.  After receiving gifts or after having stayed in a friend's home, I always had the best intentions of sending out a note of thanks.  But my procrastination would get the better of me, and I would either forget or embarrassingly send a really late note.  So I have been trying to change.  One way is that I now keep all my supplies for letter-writing in a basket (what else around here, right?).

Inside my basket, I keep an address book, a few kinds of cards, my good pen, sealing wax with a stamp, and postage stamps.  Having all of these supplies together has helped me immensely in getting my notes out almost immediately.  Having pretty stationery has also helped.  I invested in some pretty monogrammed stationery from Crane & Co. with a gold "B" and gold foil envelope liner.  These particular little monogrammed note cards can be found in just about any paper shop.

Another part that has helped me in my letter-writing is creating the wax seal.  Why?  It is entirely too much fun!!  I have Il Papiro wax and a "B" stamp.  (A note about sealing wax...just make sure you get some that is able to withstand today's postal equipment.) 

I keep my addresses in this leather book with my name on it.  I got it as a gift from a friend a long time ago.

I have really started to love sending out my handwritten notes.  I think if someone has given me a gift, let me stay in their home, or gone to some other measure for me, the least I can do is acknowledge it with a little note.  Plus, I know how much fun it is to get one in the mail!  Just look at this sweet little note I got from Ruthann at Warm Pie, Happy Home.  Doesn't she have the best handwriting? 

The little note I wrote up top was for my friend Nichole.  She brought me a huge sack filled with little girl dresses and clothes her two daughters had outgrown.  They are sooooo beautiful and in practically perfect condition.  That definitely deserves a handwritten note!  I am sure you will be seeing Amelia in these clothes in upcoming posts!

Now, go get yourself some sealing wax and pretty stationery and ... Happy letter writing! 

 

A Few New Finds

These are some of my most recent finds.  Some I collected on our trip to North Carolina, and some are from local shops. 

The little green fern on the left is one I rescued from a clearance bin.  Why do I feel compelled to bring them home?  Wouldn't it be better if I just paid a couple extra bucks more for the nice, healthy ones, instead of the pitiful, sickly ones?  Maybe it has something to do with me being a nurse.  (?)  Anyway, he's mine now.

After a couple years of looking, I finally found a base to an old oil lamp.  This one is really heavy.  I intended to make an electrical lamp out of it.  But now that it is here, I kinda think it might make a neat vase.  We'll see...

Would you just look at that mountain of enamelware.  Woohoo!  I collect black and white enamelware.  A couple of these pieces are actually blue and white, but the prices were too good to pass.  I have more enamel around the house.  Once I get these into place, I will take more pictures of them and the others.

On top of the enamel mountain is a little wicker lampshade.  It is going on a lamp for the front porch.  It may need repainted first.

In the middle of table is my new apron.  It is turqoise blue with black rings and red flowers, and it's a big one (not one of those wee little tee-tiny ones).  It is beautiful.  I love it.  I told myself "no more aprons."  I sure am glad I don't always listen to myself.

Also in the middle is a tall glass milk bottle.  It has one of those white glass cap lids that buckles on with the metal thingies (like some old jars have).  It has blue lettering that reads:  Le Bon Lait.  I think that translates into:  The Good Milk.  But that is me going on some back-in-the-day high school French classes, so if anyone out there knows what this really says, please let me know.  There is also some other French writing on it that I won't attempt to translate.  :o)

The two white things:  one is an old pillowcase with some lace trim, and the other is an old hand towel with a three-inch lace insert AND a three-letter monogram.  (!!)  The monogram?  It's "FCM."  Not my personal monogram, but very few monogrammed linens in my home are.  I love it!

On top of the hand towel is a lidded silver serving dish.  It is heavy and has beautiful handles and scrolling on top.  I polished some of it yesterday, and it's so pretty.  I paid $4.95 for it.  How can you pass that up, I want to know?

Now, last, but CERTAINLY not least, is my basket.  Not just another basket.  This one is a market basket from England...or so the tag said.  And I choose to believe that.

Some of my other recent finds are...

...another silver serving dish.  This one I hung in the dining room.  It has some etching along the edge so I left some tarnish on it.  I like my silver with a little tarnish.  It also has a monogram on it...a "W."  But I hung it upside down so that it looks like an "M" for Mike.  I don't think he believed me when I told him I bought this for him, though.

...some new shades for the dining room chandelier (sorry for the crummy picture)...

...some dishes and a platter hanging in the master bedroom.  I found them all on three different trips (different shops even!).  The dishes all match, but the platter is a different pattern, but matching in color...

...a pretty framed print for the master bedroom (another crummy picture, sorry!).

  More later!  Off to start dinner...

What's so funny??

The other day at Target, Amelia was just a-laughin' so loud!  It was one of those big belly laughs you could hear for miles and aisles!  Why was she laughing so hard?

Oh, that's why!  Daddy is hula-hoopin'!  Silly Daddy!