Leona Lane

ONE YEAR OF LUCY

Month One: Sleepy and Sweet Month Two: Easy and Smiley Month Three: Awesome and Difficult Month Four: Stationary and Giggly Month Five: Cute and Wakeful Month Six: Fussy and Hungry Month Seven: Independent and Challenging. Month Eight: Curious and Active Month Nine: Perfect and Content Month Ten: Chatty and Playful Month Eleven: Silly and Fast 

Month Twelve: I love this baby girl to pieces. She is in fact, no longer a baby, since she's a year old! But she's not a toddler yet, because she's still not walking. She stands up really well, and all by herself! To her Dad's excitement, she is a great little squatter; up and down she goes without holding onto a thing. She's even taken a couple of first steps, but seems content to crawl everywhere since she's such an expert.

I feel that in the last month, Lucy has grown up so much. She is so aware of her surroundings, and starting to understand our words. When I read a book to her, she can point to the dog and the cat, and she LOVES to hear me say animal sounds. She has started to clap and wave good-bye and give hugs on demand. That's just the best. She's has grown into such a happy and sweet girl and we are so in love! On another note, she has started to exhibit a little attitude. She deliberately throws her eggs when she is finished with breakfast. At her birthday yesterday, she did a lot of fake crying when she couldn't hold a balloon.

I am a little nervous for this next year, but I'm excited too! There will probably be lots more food throwing and fake crying, but there will also be lots more hugs and kisses too. I am thrilled that Lucy will be walking and talking soon. Year Two will be an adventure!

NEED SUCCULENT ADVICE

Hey folks! Happy Friday! A rainy week here in Seattle is going to turn into a super nice weekend, or so I hear! I'm excited. We have been so busy at our place getting ready for Lucy's birthday party on Saturday. We turned one on Wednesday and we celebrated with a #1 banana pancake, a painted T-shirt and a pink bow. We will save the food and gifts for this Sunday! It has also been a sad week for us, because we had to say good bye to our cat Flash, who has been with us for 13 years! We will miss him so, so much.

So that brings me to my topic for today, which is actually more of a question. I need some advice for succulents! Matt bought me this beautiful grouping of succulents at our local grocery store in May. I've been keeping it outdoors on our patio during the summer and as it faces the South, the plants get a fair amount of light. I usually water the succulents about once a week, although sometimes I forget, so it's longer.

As you can see in this second photo, just taken last week, that several of the plants have really grown! Others, however, have passed away, such as the nice purple one in the middle. My concern is what to do next? I'm sure I will have to bring the pot inside for the winter, and I'm wondering if the lack of sun will affect them. I also don't think the group of plants is as pretty as it used to be, so I"m thinking of separating them into their own little pots.

So what do you think? Any advice for this poor girl with a brown thumb? I know that alot of our friends/readers are plant people so I was hoping to get some feedback!

EASY WASHI LABELS

This week I made a super easy craft, which was done in about five minutes! I was searching for a way to label Lucy's dresser, mostly for our nanny and grandma who need to find things easily. I wanted something easily removable that would not hurt the nice wood finish. Enter washi tape! (My answer for everything, let's be honest.) I use washi tape constantly to label Lucy's bottles or her tupperwares of food. At first, I thought I would just use strips of washi to label the dresser drawers, but then I decided on something more fancy. Even though this is the easiest craft ever, I thought I would write down a few instructions in case you would like to make labels just like this.

Materials: Wide washi tape
Label stamps
Stazon ink
Page protector or transparency
Sharpie pen

The first step is to unwind a few strips of washi tape onto the page protector. The slick surface will allow you to remove the tape, once the labels are finished. Next, stamp the label image onto the washi tape. Using a permanent ink, such as stazon, is really important! Then, finish your labels with some writing and cut them out! The only hard part is peeling off the washi tape from the page protector...it just takes a bit of patience.

THE PROS: This project is really quick and easy! The washi tape is super removable so it won't hurt the dresser. The labels look really cute! It would be easy to make new ones as Lucy grows and the drawers have new contents.

THE CONS: Peeling the washi tape off the page protector is really darn hard. I will admit it. Also, I am not convinced after doing this project that I would want these labels on forever. They are fun for now, but I imagine I will get tired of them after a few months (but again...they are removable.) :)

If you want to see more of our obsession about washi tape, check out this post and this post and this post.

LUCY'S EARLY BIRTHDAY

Since we were in Coeur d' Alene with my family, and Lucy's first birthday is less than two weeks away, we thought it was pretty important to have a little celebration! My mom bought her a cute gift, the "Pat the Bunny" book gift set, which I was my favorite book as a kid! Lucy was in love with the stuffed bunny. She has a very special attraction to stuffed animals. Lucy is not quite a year, so I did not let her eat her raspberry lemon cupcake (I am 28, so I endulged!). She did grab the swizzle stick which was in place of a candle, and loved to lick the frosting off of that! It was a really fun and special time with my close family, exactly what a first birthday should be.

That said, we are still having a party! It should be the weekend after her birthday and so far I have plans for tons of balloons (pink and yellow), party hats for the kids (very important), and a laid back BBQ in the park (as long as the weather is nice.) As for the details, I haven't quite worked that all out yet because I am a MAJOR procrastinator! This week I will be working on the invitations.

I thought I should mention today that you may not see much of Renae here on the blog because she is having a blast in Paris and on her way to Germany this week. We went to Europe together two years ago, and it's hard to believe that she's back there already. I've been following her adventures on Instagram and drooling over her Eiffel Tower photos. She will be back next week and in the meantime, I will be here by myself holding down the fort! (So you can expect to see a few Lucy photos...hope that's okay!)

ANNIVERSARY GETAWAY

Happy Friday! How is everyone loving the first week of September? Summer isn't over, folks. I hear that it will be 85 here in Coeur d' Alene this weekend, so I am way excited. We have been enjoying our fabulous vacation here, and I must admit that I have been VERY LAZY. I had the intention of getting 10,000 steps every single day logged on my fitbit, but instead I have only reached my goal on one day. But I went paddleboarding on Tuesday and my quads are BURNING, so at least I feel like I've exercised daily! To be honest I am loving the laziness. My bed is on the floor in the living room, and after Lucy wakes up she just crawls around on the floor around me (and on top of me) and this gives me a few extra minutes to lay down.

On Tuesday we celebrated our eighth anniversary by getting a hotel together for one night. It was our first time away from Lucy and I must admit that I was pretty wimpy about it. (She did amazing, of course.) We stayed at the Blackwell Hotel in downtown, a turn of the century mansion that has been converted to a contemporary hotel. The best parts were the free glass of wine, the king size comfy bed and the clawfoot soaker tub (my life goal is to get one of these!) The hot tub out back was pretty relaxing as well.

For dinner we walked down the street to Crafted. It's a newish restaurant that serves beer & wine and American food. We endulged in the chicken and waffle entre, which was big enough to share! (And we never, EVER share.) They have a system where you can order your drinks directly from an iPad at your table. I, for one, would rather look at a paper menu. After all, it is way faster to glance through drinks that are all on one page, rather than scroll through drink after drink on an iPad. Overall, we had an amazing time! I loved the live music and the deep fried oreos.

I'm glad we got away, and glad that our baby survived (and thrived.) I was so excited to see her the next day, that all we did was grab Chinese food for lunch and drive around the lake a bit before heading back to my mom's place. Then we spent the next hour photographing little Lucy stand up by herself. I am such a mom. I can't help it.

Thanks for listening to me ramble on and on! I hope you all have a fabulous weekend! I am SO not ready for this vacation to come to an end.