Thursday, January 24, 2008

Felt Wallet

I was going to do this for Craft night, but I had time on my hands today so I whipped it up. The Princess chose the rabbit applique instead of iron on intials, then I had the buttons to match. So I stitched the sides, glued on the rabbit and did the button up. For some reason the gluestick stuck like a mofo, the materials must have just meshed well, I was rather shocked and thought I would have to sew it on.

I started Mr K's with these awesome shiny gold initials and he didn't want it! I was all like, FINE, my initals are KJ too, nyah nyah but didn't bother finishing it for myself lol.

And if anyone else is like me, I had a MILLION cards that The Princess could put in her "wallet" I have tons of used giftcards, business cards, she had a blast pretending with them.


Now That's Interesting...

So I like looking at my hits counter, its neat to see where the hits come from world-wise. I looked this afternoon, and saw one that was different, so I went to details. It ended up being the Victoria (Australia) Police network, and they had visited my post about the Violence Against Women.

I am really curious if my blog was tagged by a spider/bot whatever thingy, (see how technical I am) and sent to their attention because of those words......interesting..... Usually I can see that a google search for random things brought up my blog, then the person clicked on it, read my blog etc. This was a direct hit right to my blogpage.....weird.

Goes to show you tho why I don't use the kids real names or any pictures of them, or my address or personal information, you never know who is looking!

Oh, AHEM, and why I am a decent, law-abiding citizen ;)

Mushroom Prints

Yes, I have a lot of time to blog today. The kids are completely immersed in playing on the seats that we removed from the van (Wyatt borrowed it). We put them in the basement, and so far the kids have been to the moon, Mars (Venus was too hot, I was informed) and on a schoolbus for a field trip. Why didn't I think of that before? Just haul (painfully, I might add) the seats out, lug them downstairs, and voila, kids occupied for the entire day, and copious amounts of web surfing for me!

These were just damn cool and I have to try them this summer. Click on pic to see the webpage.


Slap My Hand...

...when this stores online shopping is a go....its like the "best of Etsy" in one store.... (click the pic)


I covet the amethyst necklace by Lynette-McCullough.....some of the jewelry on that site is just fantastic. I like her mermaid necklace too....way too awesome.

Mmm I would love to browse that store.....no granny dishcloths or slippers LOL! Not that there is anything wrong with those...

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Challenge Grant to End Violence against Women

UN Foundation to donate $1 for every signature to UNIFEM
online campaign

WASHINGTON DC / New York (January 22, 2008) - The United Nations Foundation announced today its support for the “Say NO to Violence against Women” campaign. The Foundation will donate $1 for each the first 100,000 signatures to the online campaign that is run by the UN Development Fund for Women, UNIFEM. The contributions will go to the UNIFEM-managed UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women.

“Recent UN research has demonstrated the shameful scope of violence against women around the world, where one in three women are subject to some form of coercion or abuse in their lifetimes,” said Timothy E. Wirth, President of the United Nations Foundation. “To turn the tide on violence, the international community must work together to stand up for the human rights of women and that’s what UNIFEM’s “Say NO” campaign does. It allows people everywhere to go on record and stand up for a world free of violence against women.”

“Thanks to this fantastic challenge grant, every signature will bolster our cause to make ending violence against women worldwide a top priority”, said UNIFEM Goodwill Ambassador Nicole Kidman who champions the campaign. What’s more, it will help provide critical resources for local initiatives that are supported through the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women – whether it is working to prevent human trafficking, assisting survivors of domestic violence or helping implement laws against rape.”

People can sign on to the campaign at www.sayNOtoviolence.org.

“The more people join, the stronger the message that there is an ever-growing movement of people who are demanding decisive action to put a stop to what is probably the most pervasive human rights violation”, added acting UNIFEM Executive Director Joanne Sandler. “This generous donation will provide an additional strong incentive for people to sign up to the campaign.”

The “Say No to Violence against Women” campaign was launched November 26, 2007. To date more than 18,000 people worldwide have signed the call that urges an end to violence against women and encourages support to the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women. This Trust Fund, managed by UNIFEM for the UN system, supports innovative initiatives by governments and non-governmental organizations to end violence against women. Since its establishment in 1996, it has helped fund some 250 initiatives in 120 countries.

"Each day, each hour, each minute, a woman in the world is a victim of violence," said Wirth. "Taking this simple step, signing on to the campaign, sends the message that enough is enough and the cycle of violence must stop now."

For more information about the campaign visit www.sayNOtoviolence.org or www.unfoundation.org.

##

About UNIFEM
UNIFEM is the women’s fund at the United Nations. It provides financial and technical assistance to innovative programmes and strategies to foster women’s empowerment and gender equality. Placing the advancement of women’s human rights at the centre of all of its efforts, UNIFEM focuses its activities on reducing feminized poverty; ending violence against women; reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS among women and girls; and achieving gender equality in democratic governance in times of peace as well as war. More information: www.unifem.org

About the United Nations Foundation
The UN Foundation was created in 1998 with entrepreneur and philanthropist Ted Turner’s historic $1 billion gift to support UN causes and activities. The UN Foundation builds and implements public-private partnerships to address the world’s most pressing problems and also works to broaden support for the UN through advocacy and public outreach. The UN Foundation is a public charity. For a complete listing of UN Foundation grants and programs or to learn more about the United Nations Foundation, visit www.unfoundation.org.

Press Contact
Katherine Miller
(o) 202.778.1622
(c) 202.247.7280
(e) kmiller@unfoundation.org

Nanette Braun
(o) 212-906-6829
(c) 917-6671696
(e) nanette.braun@unifem.org


They are only at about 20,000 right now, so send the info to those who you know would sign up!

Monday, January 21, 2008

Why Moms Don't Lose Weight

Due to the fact that I opened the dishwasher this morning, and blankly stared inside, only to realize that what I MEANT to do was to open the top of the coffee pot (at least the coffee pot is above it on the counter, hey, we all make mistakes) I am skipping my treadmill. I didn't, to my great relief, throw coffee grinds in and start the dishwasher, so I think I am fit enough to watch my children today. After downing some caffeine from lukewarm coffee, of course, the coffee pot is brewing (god, I hope that was the coffee pot) and I am waiting in great pain for it to be done. But I don't think my legs would cooperate with a morning run, and I think somehow the treadmill would end up on top of me, like those awful commericals with the forklift on top of the worker. Its not the kids I am worried about, Treehouse would take care of them all day,and they could scrounge food from the cupboards like the feral children they are, but that would just be really bad way to start my week.

But that lead my morning mind to thinking, in its haze, about how lack of sleep just undermines my health in so many ways. I've noticed it, in the fact that I can directly track my weight loss (and gains) with my amount of sleep. The Princess was sleeping almost through the night in September till about November, and that's when I was my most successful. Since then, no sleep, no motivation. When she doesn't sleep, its all I can do to dope myself with caffeine and try not to eat sugared food all day to get a fake energy boost. If you add in a day with a playdate, then there's just no chance of any exercise happening because it takes every minute amount of energy to get them dressed and out and be relatively in a good mood for them all day. And the mood part is a huge part of it, it takes a lot of damn energy out of you to be chipper and happy for your kids, and not cancel their playdates and suffer through them, when you are surviving on 4-5 hours of broken sleep. (And I will now edit and add that my friends and their playdate's don't suck.lol. )

There are articles out there on the topic of course, like this one and this one.

The first one annoyed me a bit, but I realized that it would be good if new moms could take the article from the viewpoint of NOT stressing about those "11 lbs" ( HA I wish) and just waiting until they started getting more sleep, instead of trying to lose it and being discouraged. It probably all ties in to nature, how we need that extra weight to breastfeed, and the lack of sleep keeps us sharp and on edge from predators or some related malarky.

We all know that healthy sleep habits = healthy life, but its pretty hard to implement when you can't control the fact that your kids may not let you sleep. And if there's anything I have learned, its that you can't fight your child's sleep habits. I have one sleeper, and one non sleeper.The Princess seems to be able to survive on 8 broken hours of rest, where Mr K, since about 14/15 months, sleeps a solid straight 12 hour night. I swear their personalities are a mitigating factor in this as well..

Or I could just be grasping at this because I am too freaking tired to even think about exercising, and its a nice handy excuse ;).

Coffee ready must drink.

Sunday, January 20, 2008

I Have A Hot Date...

...with my treadmill tomorrow morning. The Jambalaya and the cream puffs for dessert turned out waaaay too well. I let you know if I survive tomorrow if it was worth it or not.


Aaah sigh back to normal eating now for the week...and think of what to make next weekend.. Mike was so awesome entertaining the kids while I puttered around both days concocting and creating in the afternoons. Not like he didn't benefit from it with good food, but still, I really appreciated it. I feel relaxed and ready to tackle my week after such a nice weekend.

Until my blood sugar crashes tomorrow morning.