Movers and Shakers

Hey y'all, it's been a while I know! But, in my defense, I have good excuses. We finally sold our house and made it through the closing. We have moved into an apartment until our new house is ready...whenever that may be. Moving was chaotic, to say the least, and I never, ever want to move like that again! Because our byuers were very fickle and iffy all the way to the end, we never knew if the closing would get through, so I was totally disorganized in packing.

Are you moving? I found this blog, Steps to Organization, which has some helpful moving checklists. The blog's author, Wendy Cross, is a professional organizer, and aside from moving, she has some pretty cool organizing tips! Check out her moving checklist 1 and moving checklist 2 if you are preparing to take this journey. I must warn you though, realistically, you WON'T get totally organized, but at least you can smooth out a lot of the wrinkles!

So now we are back to apartment living, and I must confess, it's not that bad. Of course, it's smaller, and we have a LOT of stuff in storage, but I like it! I like having the option to just call maintenance to come fix something rather than figure out how to fix it myself so that we don't have to pay someone $200 for some little thing. Of course, when we move into our new house, I am going to brush up on some home maintenance skills.

A lot has happened in the past few months! Both Fazal and Zahra had their birthdays, so I am now a proud Mama of a 4 year old and a 2 year old. Stay tuned for a lot of updates in the next few weeks and some oh-so-adorable pics :) Here is one that I love!

My Etsy shop, Treasure Box Jewelry, is still up but with all the wackiness going on, I have taken a little break from things. I have a lot of items that need listing, so I will be doing that also in the coming days. Of course, being on a temporary hiatus still doesn't stop me from buying endless amounts of glorious beads and findings! Since we are in the midst of fall, I love the the La Terre Necklace from my shop reflects the burst of color that comes with the season!

La Terre Necklace by Treasure Box Jewelry

And now a parting treat for you! One of my best cyber-friends, Lisa of Jeweled Ambrosia, has branched out into fabulous hair accessories! They are all so amazing, but this one is my favorite!

Vintage Rhinestone, Rosette and Sequin Headband by Jeweled Ambrosia

So adieu for now and have a blessed day!

Cape May in Pictures

I have a lot of wonderful pictures from our recent trip down to Cape May. I thought I would do a two-part series on it, just so that I could get everything in. This post features the pictures that I took. This pic features the Emlen Physick Estate, a gorgeous Victorian mansion. Ironically, there was a craft show going on there...which we missed!

This is the old 5 & 10 store in the downtown Cape May area...things cost a little more these days!

Zahra splashing in the fountain in downtown Cape May. When I pulled her away, she immediately let me know that she was not appreciative of my interruption.

Carpenter's Square Mall that had even more cute little boutique stores. To the left, under the teal green tent is Gecko's, the Southwest cuisine restaurant that we had dinner at one night. They had a delicious tomato and basil salad and tiny cornbread muffins with jalapneno jelly. It was divine!

I took this picture on our foray into Wildwood and the boardwalk there. They have a amusement park there, Morey's Piers, and Fazal had the time of his life riding the rides. This was of the balloon ride and I love that I got it just as one of the balloon cars (or whatever they're called!) eclipsed the sun.

Fazal riding the cars at the pier! He rode this ride twice, since he wanted the racecar the second time around.

The beach at sunset. Both kids loved playing there in the sand, though it was starting to get chilly. Still the weather was beautiful!

Congress Hall, a lovely hotel in downtown Cape May. Very Victorian and elegant, I hope we stay there on our next trip!

Another lovely Victorian house, this time functioning as a bed and breakfast. The architecture was so stunning, I think I may have gone overboard with the pictures!

So that is a tiny piece of of our trip. I still want to mention the shops that I really liked, but I'll leave that for another post!

I Am A Snowcone....

Yes, it's true. I am continuing with my rant about snow and winter and all things cold. I used to like the cold. I used to like the snow. Really, I did. I did not hate it as I do now. However, after moving up North, (note the capitalization, since for me it may as well be the North Pole), my tolerance has dropped like the wind chill. I could have the heat on, wearing socks and a sweater and still be shivering under my blanket....yeah, even with the blanket, I'm cold. So basically all winter long I stay cold and shivery like some old lady with brittle bones.

However, I still do love the appearance of snow. It looks so pretty falling and everything looks all soft and cozy. These pictures are from our sunroom, where it just looked fantastic and brilliant. It makes me want to curl up in my fluffy robe with hot tea and a great book. Fazal was begging to go out and play. I wasn't too keen on that idea so I told him to wait until his dad came home. I remember we used to go out and play whenever it snowed. In Oklahoma, the winters are cold, but it never seemed to snow a lot. But maybe that's because I am thinking about those winters from a kid's perspective, where the general rule is that it can never snow enough. I never seemed to feel cold then....

Ok, enough about the me and the cold and all that boringness. Here are my latest earrings on Etsy. I got inspired by those beautiful "Water Lilies" paintings by Claude Monet. So of course, I named them the Water Lilies Beaded Dangle Earrings.

Water Lilies by Claude Monet

Also, I have been trying to market and promote my jewelry to local salons and such. A lot of them already carry jewelry, but I did have a couple of appointments with salon owners last week. I found a salon in the mall that would like to consign some of my jewelry! I am pretty excited about that! Now I just need to get down to business and start making stuff!

A Cop Story

This past Friday, I was on my way to a friend's house for a committee lunch. This committee is not for planning something; it's more or less a way to get out of the house for a while and also a way to save some money. The idea is that all the people in this committee put up $100 every month and then whoever ends up getting that money (via a drawing or whatever), hold a luncheon at her house. So if there are 10 women in the committee, they get together once a month for 10 months until every woman had had a turn. At the end of that time, each woman will have essentially saved up $1000.

So anyways, that's where I was going on Friday. I had never been to this friend's house, but I trusted Mapquest would get me there. Well, not quite. I got to the end and I realized that my directions did not tell me which way to turn after taking my last exit. So I turned right and kept going. I soon realized that I was probably going the wrong way but I wanted to make sure. So I called her. I had turned right at a light onto a dead end street and I was turning around while I was on the phone, when lo and behold, I see that a policeman sitting in his car had seen me on the phone while behind the wheel. So he pulls up next to me and rolls down his window. By this time, I had hung up with my friend, (while she was still talking, I might add!), and waited for what this cop would say to me. So he's like, "That's $105." And I'm like, "Excuse me?" He repeated it, adding that that was the amount of the ticket for being on the phone while driving. My bewildered mind thought that he was asking for the money right now. I quickly apologized and told him the truth, that I was lost and I was getting directions. Looking back, I am so GLAD and LUCKY that I didn't pull out my wallet; he might have thought that I was trying to bribe him or something!

Anyways, before we got any further, he glanced in the backseat where the kids were and proceeded to tell me what was wrong with the way they were in their car seats! On Zahra's seat, I had left the car seat carrier bar up and Fazal's shoulder straps were not posititoned correctly. He made me get out and fix that and then he got out of his car and started looking at how the seats were installed. By this time, I was over an hour late for the lunch, but I didn't care. All I cared was cooperating with this cop so that I wouldn't get a ticket! Anyways, he ended up taking both seats out and reinstalling them correctly, telling me horror stories about children being in car accidents while sitting in car seats that were not properly installed. He ended up being really nice and gave me credit for having the child safety lock on the car doors.


Here are some guidelines that he gave me:

-In an infant car seat that doubles as a carrier, the bar should always be down (I think I knew that but I didn't follow through with it; I'll spare you the details of what MIGHT happen if left up)
-There should be a fist's width of space between the passenger seat and the car seat
-The shoulder straps for an infant should come from below the baby's shoulder
-If you use the LATCH system to secure the seat's, put all your weight on the seat while installing the seat and pulling the belt
-For a front-facing car seat, the shoulder straps should come from above the child's shoulders and the front clip should be at chest level
-The car seat should not move more than an inch around any which way


Whew!! I think that was all. He was nice enough to ask me if I had the time so that he could install them right. Well, of COURSE, for my children's safety, I have all the time in the WORLD!
These two are my everything!



I was more than happy to get out of the car and take time to listen to him and have hims install the seats right. I really think that
having a car seat installed correctly is very

complicated. Not all parents, even the very
careful ones, take the time to make sure that the seats are installed correctly. No parents wants to think about the "what-ifs"


But as parents, we must be prepared to take every step possible to safeguard our kids. I know that hospitals will not release you and your new baby unless you have a car seat. But I am not sure how many make sure that the seat is installed right. Just like car inspections are required by law, perhaps child seats should have the same kind of law. You should be required by law to have your car seat checked, because I am sure that in a lot of car accidents, the extent of injuries and even fatalities could have been prevented by proper installation.

In the end, the officer was extremely nice (he introduced himself but I forgot his name!) He didn't give me a ticket and helped me with the directions. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise. He made sure that those seats were really secure and tight. He may have saved their lives. At least, now I have learned my lesson to be even more diligent in these types of things and be more careful. My little munchkins deserve that...and so do yours!

Paci War Won!

So Fazal has finally stopped taking his pacifier. It only took a trip back home to my parents' house in Tulsa for him to stop. My mom, somehow, magically, convinced him that he is now a big boy and that he doesn't need it. It took a few days, but he finally went the whole night without it. I was afraid that once we got back to NJ, he would want it but though he mentioned it a few times, he never actually came out and asked for it. Here he is, a big boy on his aunt's laptop!






Now, on to potty training!

The Paci Wars

Oh my goodness gracious! Well, here I am again...at least it hasn't been quite a year yet since my last post. I think I may be getting better at this. Well, no matter. I write this for myself and, in my defense, it is hard to find the time to sit and blog while I have these 2 running around. So anyways, all is good at our house. Fazal and Zahra and I have settled into a comfortable routine that definately has its moments of utter chaos. The latest is getting Fazal, who turned 3 this past August, to give up his beloved pacifier. He calls it his "patha"...don't ask me where he got that name, I have no clue! I know I am going about it the wrong way. Let me tell you, it's been a struggle and it's still going on! My father-in-law is a dentist so he is always worried about Fazal and his need to, at the very least, go to sleep with his patha. But his doctor was lways like well, as long as he gives it up by the time he is 3, it should be fine. Well, he's 3 and it is most definately NOT fine!

I started to wean him off a few months ago. I didn't want to start right after Zahra was born for the obvious reasons. So we talked to him about him being a big boy and only needing it for sleeping time, not during the day. He seemed to understand that pretty well and was actually really good about it. Then came a few days where he wanted it again during the day and I would always distract him. One day, I came home after running errands. Nasir was with the kids and it had been a particularly long day and what do I come home to? Fazal is running around with his patha in his mouth! Back to square one, so to speak. I glared at Nasir, knowing that he gave in, and proceeded to gather up all the pathas and took them into the kitchen and cut off the fronts. I showed them to Fazal and told him that they were broken and he couldn't use them anymore. Well, of course, he started to bawl. Of course, I realized what I did was horrible! He loves his patha and he didn't want to see them broken! So I began the whole "big boy" speech thing again and supporting and encouraging and only giving it to him when he went to sleep. He was okay for a couple of weeks, and again, he has started to ask for it again. But this time, the demands are accompanied by lovely temper tantrums involving screaming and flailing about. Even now, as I am am typing away he's at my shoulder, begging me for his patha fix! What's a mother to do? But I am resolved to be strong and get him through it, because I have realized that this is about him, not me. He has spent his whole life thus far with his beloved patha. Of course he needs time and patience on my part to get used to a life without it.

But that doesn't make it any less annoying!

Queen of Procrastination

OK well I am officially the Queen of Procrastination....all bow to the Queen! I have neglected my blog so bad that they are sending Social Services out to my house. It's just that being a new mother is so much more time-consuming that I thought and in the words of my husband: "You only have ONE right now!" Ummm, I think I can count. But seriously, it is crazy. Everytime I get a routine down, something happens that changes it. Fazal is either cutting a new tooth or he doesn't want to sleep at night. It's always something. So you could say that I am only procratinating only when it comes to me because Fazal is doing great! Recently, I signed on to Facebook and MySpace and then I remembered this poor blog of mine. And everytime I get somewhat decent at HTML, I stop blogging and then I forget what I have learned and I have to start all over again! But I am going to do justice here and give my very first blog it due attention. And then hopefully, someone else will get my crown.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

I was sitting here with Fazal looking for the nursey rhyme "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" to play for him because he loves it whenever me or his Baba sing it for him. Well I found this amazing version of it on a website, totally jazzed up and VERY different from the original version. The guy who mixed it up is Anton Fosh, a 17 year old musician from Scotland who is studying music. He uses the original lyrics that were written by Jane Taylor way back in 1806. I thought this was such a great adaptation. Hope you enjoy!!

Initiation into BabyLand!

Hi everyone!! Well my last update was around the time when my baby was due. He was born on August 27th and he is already 6 months old!! We named him Fazal, which means God's blessing. So far everything has been so wonderful with him and we have a great routine set. I can't take all the credit for that; I think he was just born that was because he sleeps and wakes at the same times every day.....AND he sleeps through the night **gasp**!!! But seriously, I got really lucky with him and I think I see him as more precious because I had to suffer losing 2 pregnancies before finally having him. He is at a great stage right now, just starting to sit up and roll all around but he still needs me...but that will probably change in a few more months as we go to crawling and then walking. He has started solid foods now, actually for a couple of months now, and now he wants to feed himself. He of course lacks the motor skills to do so, but that sure doesn't stop him from trying!!!! All in all, it truly is a life-changing experience (excuse the sap here), and I can't even begin to imagine my life without this 15 pound love of my life!! Right now he is sleeping, so I thought I should probably get some things around the house, but my blog has been seriously neglected, so I figured I'd take a few minutes to give it some much needed TLC. Stya tuned for some more updates coming soon.....and I promise this time, it will be soon as in a couple of days, not a few months!! Ciao!