Score at the Second Hand Store!

Actually, I didn't find what I was hoping to find, which was some magical thing to help me organize my sewing/crafting projects.  I'm not sure what exactly I wanted, but they didn't have anything that excited me in that area.

What I did find was some cute fabric.  I hesitated to buy it, since it was a bunch of fabrics put together in a plastic sack and taped up tight.  Kind of a mystery fabric grab bag.  You can see what fabrics are on the outside, but you have no idea how much is there and what lies beneath.  5 dollars for a fabric grab bag seemed kind of high, but I liked the fabric I could see and I have a few skirts in mind for my girls, so I grabbed it.  I'm so glad I did!  Inside the bag was five coordinating prints with plenty of fabric to work with.  There are also two flannel pieces, not my favorite colors or pattern, but I'm sure I can find something fun to do with them.

Now I just have to go buy some more white thread.  I think it's a sin for a sewing lady like me to run out of white thread, but sure enough, halfway through a fun skirt for the little one, the spool ran dry and I can't find any more in the house.  That doesn't mean it's not here, just that I can't find it, which is why I went to the second hand store in the first place.  Must find a way to store projects and supplies so I can find them when I need them.  I did find bright blue and hot pink spools of thread...

Beware the Ides of ...February?

I don't know what's going on, but I have had really bad luck these past few weeks.  Add to that, a very severe case of "mommy brain" and you have a recipe for (near) disasters.

First the bad luck:

My crock-pot cracked.  No, that is not a new way of describing a crazy person (although I do think I'm a few cards short of a full deck...) my crock really is cracked.  You can barely see it from the bottom, which is why I didn't see it and why I was baffled at the pool of water coming out from under the slow cooker while it cooked plain baked potatoes.  I'm not sure what to do with the darn thing.  Maybe Walmart will take it back... there's bound to be some kind of recall, right?

Then, the chair that I used to sit in to type at this very computer decided to try to kill me.  It looks perfectly normal, but lean a little too far in any direction and it will buck you out on your head.  The kids love it.  I now sit on it's twin and wait for it to hate me too.

Nothin' but her goggles on...

My thumb and two fingers on my right hand have split open in very painful ways and for no good reason.  Why is it that when you have a crack under your fingernail, you manage to bump or catch that fingernail on everything?  I suppose it doesn't help that I am washing my hands very often.  Have I mentioned that we are in full potty training mode?  Not by my choice, the little monster has decided to go through life in the nude.  When given the option of either wearing a diaper or using the potty, she chose the potty and has done a remarkably great job.  However, that leaves me to clean it out and wash my hands a few hundred times a day, leading to more cracking and whining.

We finally got some snow!  That's not a bad thing, but it just happened to come at the exact time that I had to drive my little wrestler across town. (wrestling started again, oh joy)  I discovered just how bald the tires on the car really are.  I felt like I was on skis.  You know, slide sideways to stop...  Fortunately, I did grow up in Wyoming, on cheap, second-hand tires, so I can manage.  The kids sure gave an interesting commentary from the back seat.

Oh, and my husband recorded some video of my kids trying to ice skate with the camera, but my computer has decided that it is too old and feeble to process anything like that and rather than just skip on over the offending videos, it refuses to let me have any photos at all, so I don't even have a photo to share with you, other than the child, au natural.

Now, the mommy brain:

While doing the routine task of throwing a diaper away, (she will wear them when we have to leave the house.) I threw it in the toilet instead.  Too much potty cleaning, I suppose...

I mentioned that wrestling has started again.  I do this because my son loves it.  I personally like the sport of wrestling as well, but keeping my little monster under control at wrestling practice has become way too much for me.  I found myself dreading practice and then leaving completely exhausted from the exercise of chasing her down every time she made a break for it.  She of course does not go down quietly, so we disrupt the entire practice with shrieks and a mad dash through the boys.  I decided that she and I will not be staying at practice anymore.  Yesterday, after dropping the boy off and making sure the dancing girl could stay and play with some other unfortunate sisters of wrestlers, the little one and I left.  We crossed the street and I attempted to un-lock the car.  Only the key wouldn't go in.  At this point I'm trying to remember if there is a separate key to unlock the doors. (I don't lock the doors all that much... I'm too trusting that way)  I tried the passenger side... no luck, (picture woman with squirming 2 year old in one arm) and I was about to call my husband to tell him to leave work and bring me his keys, when I look in the back seat and notice.... no car seat.  And there's a fold down arm-rest.  We don't have one of those in our car...  Look about 15 feet to my right, and there's my car.  I laughed really loud and then looked around to see if someone saw this whole production, but I don't think anyone did.

Which leads me to my next act of stupidity, although I should have seen this one coming.  Every time I go to a fabric store with a child, I leave with either the wrong stuff, or far too much (or little) of the right stuff.  Anyway, today the monster and I went to a fabric store.  I like to look through the remnant rack to get some inspiration.  I did find a few little scraps that I wanted to add to a skirt that is in the works for the dancing girl.  (Her skirts are getting way too short.)  I have to put them on the very bottom part of the cart, balanced carefully, because the baby will tear them to bits, making check-out difficult.  Anyway, I notice a sign saying that patterns are on sale for only $.99.  So I took the opportunity to pick up a few that I've been eye-balling, but could never bring myself to buy. (I mean, how can I spend $15 on a costume pattern?)  At this point, the monster escaped and scattered birthday cards on the floor, so I wrapped things up.   Checked out quickly, (a little too quickly as it turns out) and went to pick up the other kids so our evening ritual can begin... That means complaining about wanting a snack and fighting over who gets to stay up a little later.

It wasn't until later that I really looked at one of the patterns I bought, one for me, and realized that I bought it in teenage-girl size.  Oh, well, I thought.  At least I didn't attempt to buy any fabric.  And then I remembered the two scraps balanced on the bottom of the cart.  At least I didn't shoplift them.  I left the cart inside the store.  Maybe when I get back there tomorrow to exchange this pattern, they'll be there waiting for me, on the bottom of the cart that pulls to the right. 

Hopefully, March goes better for me.

Where did January go?

...and where have I been?

I've been here, doing the things I always do, but for some reason there seems to be fewer hours in the day, or at least less time during the afternoon nap.  I just can't fit as much into that time slot as I used to.  We have been furiously filling out financial aide forms, scholarship applications and tax information. (My husband is a full time student)  We finally signed up the Dancing Queen for a dance class like we've been promising to do for at least a year, and that sends us hustling down the road each Thursday.  I'm also a cub scout leader, oh joy.  One hour a week with some wild and funny boys keeps life interesting.

We seemed to spend January shuttling our kids to and from birthday parties.  What's with everyone being born in January?  We took advantage of those parties to take the other, not invited, child out on a "date" with Mom or Dad.

We just had a February birthday.  My "baby" is now 2 and I suppose now she has an excuse for her monstrous behavior.  We celebrated by letting her run around naked and trash the house, her two favorite things.

This is the PG version.  There's usually more skin.

Okay, she does that everyday, so it wasn't that special.  We will be doing the whole cake and ice cream song and dance this weekend when we go to Grandma's.  I did make her some leg warmers to keep her somewhat warm while she goes through this phase of needing to be naked.

Still need to fix the gray socks to make them leg warmers.

Her birthday hits at a perfect time, as far as my crazy creating whims go.  During the month of January, I discovered this blog, and was inspired to make some stuff.  Lucky for me, I just happen to have a couple of little girls that like to play with kitchen stuff.

Beets!

Bananas!

The carrots took forever!

Eggs over easy...

A few varieties of cheeses.

The radishes aren't finished yet.

I think everyday for a week or two, my husband would come home to find me in the middle of some other felt food project.  I find it makes me happy to create something fun and quick like this.

What have you been up to?

After a lovely little cold and some house cleaning, I finally feel like I'm myself again.  For some reason, I feel the need to catch up on some past stuff before I can move on to the new year and future plans.  I forgot a few things that I made for Christmas.  The pictures were still on my camera until this morning.  My siblings and I have a gift giving rotation.  Last year, I tried to finish a quilt that one of my sisters had started.  The top is finished, but I haven't finished quilting it yet.  Maybe by the time the rotation goes around to me having her again?

This year I took another go at finishing an unfinished project for another sister.  Several years ago, she had started working on a wool saddle blanket, like this one.  I knew she had stowed it away in her attic, so sometime in October, I snuck into her house and swiped it.  Sort of.  Actually, I broke a shelf while trying to hoist myself into her unfinished attic access door.  It took some stealthy gluing and sweater rearranging to cover my tracks as well as a more flexible and tall husband to finally get up there and hand down the project.

I also made her some sheep potholders from old sweaters.  I originally planned on making a pillow, like some of these, but I just didn't have it in me.

I found a picture of the ninja suit, which was an even bigger hit than I expected.  Too bad we left the pants at Granny's house.

And here's the football cake that he requested.  The kid didn't pick a theme, unless it was just "BOY".  He wanted a dress-up party with a football cake at a bouncy house place.  So that's what we did.

We've been enjoying this July January weather.  Yes, that is my husband wearing a t-shirt outside in January.  We actually got outside to do the fall clean-up that didn't happen in the fall because winter was here then.

My husband and I celebrated our 8th anniversary.  "Celebrated" gives the impression that we did something special.  We cleaned the bedroom.  It really needed it since that was the dumping place for all Christmas projects and supplies.  He also brought me some flowers and a sweet card, once again proving that we have completely switched places on the card giving spectrum.  I guess "special" is all relative.  He also called me into the office and surprised me by playing 'our song' and dancing with me right there.  That was special to me.

I have a few other things on my mind too, such as trying to figure out why the salt is sabotaging my baking.  Is it possible for salt to be saltier than it should be?  Everything is coming out too salty, no matter how much I cut the salt back.  Maybe I have a little kitchen elf "helping" me...

I'm also needing to go through my pantry and figure out what I need more of, and how much has been used, but I'll probably never get around to that, so don't hold your breath.

Hello 2012!

Wow, the last few months flew by!  I entered my Christmas preparation hibernation sometime in November and I feel like I'm just barely coming out of it.  It seems like once I get a few ideas of things to make, I just can't stop.  Here's a few snatches of what kept me busy for the past two months:

I decided that we really needed Thanksgiving napkins when I found a yard of clearance fabric.  One yard of fabric makes a lot of napkins.  Napkins take longer to make than you would think.  I'll finish the rest next year on Thanksgiving Eve.

Also in the fabric clearance was this cute scrap.  Since my 5 year old girl has grown out of her old apron, I couldn't help making a new one.

Hand puppets are a lot harder to make without a pattern than  you would think, but I had a lot of fun with these.  The old king is my favorite, although I made his outfit too small to fit my hand into.

Since the little one pretends to ride anything she can while yelling Yee-Haw, I thought she could use a stick horse.  I adapted several horses that I found online to achieve this particular breed of old levi and cast off sweater.  Unfortunately, I think it's too heavy for her.  I'll have to make a smaller version for her birthday.

I had to make another one of these for the little one, since I was lazy last year and never did it.  Coincidentally, her stocking matches her horse.

There's a few more things that I don't have pictures for, like the puppet theater and the ninja costume that we put together out of cast off clothing.  I must have been too tired to take pictures of them.  And suddenly, it's a new year and I'm still recovering from the old one.  Hopefully, I'll get all this holiday stuff put away and get my head facing the right direction soon.

Happy New Year!

I survived the princess party

It's over, and I'm alive.  Okay, actually, there were almost as many parents there as children, so my stress level was very low.  My dear husband hauled bags and baskets of food and gifts and then cooked up lunch, a mother helped me round kids up when we needed some structured fun, and another mother took my camera and snapped pictures for me, since she knew that the birthday mother has her hands full everywhere else.  That's the great thing about other mothers... they know.

Ever see a princess on a tire swing?

We decorated crowns with jewel stickers, markers and glitter glue, which takes forever to dry and magically ends up on everyone's arms and hands.  Next time I'll stick with the stickers.  (Ha! next time... I'm so funny)  We blew bubbles and played a few games.  We ate lunch and then we opened presents.  Do we leave that at the end to build up suspense?  I found myself having to explain often during the day that it wasn't time for presents yet and I couldn't really answer why.  She survived anyway and was soon in that present opening zone that makes their eyes glaze over and they start tossing presents already opened out of the way to make way for presents not yet opened. 

After the cupcakes, and party favors were passed out, I snatched the birthday girl (which is what she made her brother call her all day) and made her pose for a few pictures.  I had to commandeer this bridge from a few kids to get this one.  Unfortunately, while they were happy to loan me the bridge, they seemed to not be able to stay out of the camera lens.   Guess I have some cropping to do.

Oh, I made that ribbon crown the night before.  I thought it would be a quick project, but it took me a while.  Here she is showing the ribbons in back.  I think it tops off the ensemble nicely.  I guess my late night was worth it.

We had the dress sitting out on a chair for her to find when she woke up this morning.  It's not often that she is speechless, but we achieved it this morning.  The dress is too big and would fall off of her shoulders, but it was nothing a few safety pins couldn't fix.  I'm just glad it wasn't too small!

So now I heave a big sigh and listen to the noise makers that my husband insisted on buying.  That is, until they get "lost"...  Happy Birthday, Birthday Girl!

Now go to sleep!

Fair's fair...

Since I created a bright pink princess dress for my soon to be 5 year old, I figured my son could use a little costume love too.  Plus, we needed a "knight" to deliver the party invitations to make things authentic and proper.  The knight outfit was much easier to make.  I didn't even need a pattern!

He got to choose the insignia on the front.  I was hoping he'd pick the simple cross, but he picked the lion instead.  I was afraid I would have to bribe him to actually wear this outfit, what with him being so mature these days, but  I was wrong.  He puts it on every morning and we have to make him take it off to go someplace.  He likes it so much, he actually hung it up!  He doesn't hang anything up.  It could be that he gets to carry his play sword when he wears it, but whatever.  He will be doing his part to make the birthday fun for his sister.

And speaking of the sister... ever since the knight costume has been finished, she has been begging me to make her a queen dress.  I keep putting her off, telling her I'll look into it and maybe try.  I have such a hard time waiting until the actual day when I'm excited about a gift and I know that they will love it.  Almost there.  Soon she will be poofing around in a pink "queen" dress.

We're just finishing our party preparations.  Gifts are wrapped, food is in the fridge, party favors are ready.  Unfortunately, the cupcakes are not yet made.  I had planned to get them done during nap time, but nap time ended very early.  It might be a long night!

I will be a very happy momma as soon as all this birthday stuff is over.  Then I will be back to my normal schedule, whatever "normal" is.

Cold morning

Woowee!  It's a bit chilly out there this morning!  Snow/ice last night and warnings of a hard frost tonight.  My kiddos suddenly have the urge to set up a stand on the sidewalk.  A water stand with the leftover water bottles that we bought for a camping trip.  They were thwarted in their attempts yesterday by mean old mom reminding them that school was more of a priority than selling water bottles for 6 dollars.  So, first thing this morning, they were out sitting on their camp chairs, with the cooler of water.  Who cares that it's barely above freezing and nobody is out?  Surely there should be a line of customers waiting to pay for cold water on a cold day.  They did drop the price to 3 dollars.  Maybe I am a mean mom...  Sure has been peaceful this morning...

I have been wandering around outside at various times of the day.  My landlady probably thinks I'm going nuts.  Walk out onto the patio, look around, nod my head, mutter something to myself, wander back into the house... repeat in an hour or two...

I'm not crazy though.  Since she gave me the go ahead to do whatever I want in the planters surrounding the patio, I've been trying to figure out the best strategy to use them.  The patio does get some sun, but it's also shady a lot of the day, so I'm trying to figure out where the sun shines the most throughout the day, and where it hardly shines at all.  Here's a picture of what I'm working with.

The planters are about a foot across and about 40 feet total in length.  The side on the right seems to get the most sun and the far left never gets any.  The majority gets sun from 10 till late afternoon, but I just don't know if I'll be able to grow anything besides lettuce here.  Guess I'll never know till I try.  I'm seriously considering cutting a few branches off of that pine tree to let in more light, but I don't know that the landlady will be that flexible.  I still need to put together my 4x4 foot garden bed.  She said I can do more... hmmm.  Hopefully I can get things together this weekend.

In other news, today is the last day of wrestling practice for my little man.  Thank goodness.  I know he loves it, but I'm done.  I'm ready to have my Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings back. 

In a stroke of genius, or so I thought, I remembered to throw our aprons into the wash with the kitchen towels and cloth napkins.  It seemed like a good idea at the time.  They were very dirty.  Here's what I pulled out of the dryer.

That is four aprons hopelessly tangled.  Yup, I'm a genius.  Such a genius that I was able to get them back apart in (not so) record time.  But as I worked with the knots, I decided to show you our family wall of aprons.  I made all but mine.

Last Christmas, I made aprons for my two kiddos and one for my husband to grill in.  They were a big hit with everyone.  The kids feel official when they help me make cookies.  Mine is a plain red, not very cute, stolen from my mom's house, apron.  I've been planning on making myself one for a long time, but lack of inspiration (or a pattern) has kept me from acting.  Maybe if I had a cutesy apron, I would remember to wear it and save a few of my shirts from my crazy cooking style.  Maybe.