Makin' Projiks

Pinewood Derby

2012-01-31T06:27:00.000-08:00

Saturday morning I got an email from overnight prints* with a code for free stuff, so I decided to quickly take a new photo of the kids together.
This was the best one I could get in the 10 minutes I had to do it in.
This was the runner up.
Then we had to rush off to the pinewood derby!

Jack is a tiger cub this year and Dave has been (spending a ridiculous amount of time and money) working as the den leader.
Our car only placed 9th (so much for the "dad is an eagle scout advantage!").

But the other tigers voted Jack's car "the coolest car", so he was pretty happy with his little trophy.

Jack has been home sick from school for two days with the most dreadful cough. I have him quarantined, but holy moses I hope none of the rest of us get that.

Back tomorrow with my contribution to the heart to heart swap this year - the boxes really started rolling in yesterday!

*I love postcards from overnight prints. They never pay me to say this, but it is worth signing up for their emails. Every year I get free postcards which I use as thank you notes. Cheaper postage and who doesn't want to see cute kids in their mail box? It was definitely time for a new card, Look how little Sammi is in last year's card! .

My dad rocks

2012-01-30T07:30:00.000-08:00

A few years ago my dad moved about an hour north of here to a little town on the river. He lives in an awesome old house (built in the 1860's), and he recently bought the dry cleaner in town when they closed.

He plans on turning the building into a "man cave" for himself since there is no room for a garage at his house.

He let me come up there in the fall to see if there was anything I wanted to salvage out of the dry cleaner. I took a piece of fabric I used for Jack's birthday and an old laundry cart which is now Jack's hamper.

But when we were sitting outside the building I had the EPIPHANY of the century - the letters on top of the building!

Mine, all mine.

Dad thought I was nuts at first. That's okay, just ask him what he thinks of me painting all these "perfectly good brass" chandeliers.

And don't even get him started on the painted furniture.

He delivered the letters the other day.
They are AWESOME.

And big. 12 inches or more.

And heavy aluminum.
They used to spell CAMPBELL CLEANERS.
Now I am dreaming of what I want to spell. Any ideas?

And where to put them.

My dad rocks.

Even if he is a skeptic. :-)

Wait a minute Mr Milkman

2012-01-26T07:19:00.000-08:00

I finally broke down and signed up for milk delivery.

I have wanted to do it for a long time, but Jack is not a big milk drinker.

Sammi is.

And I was getting tired of driving up the highway every 3 days to buy milk for her.

So now the milk man brings it to me every Wednesday.
I put this fancy cooler on the porch...

and he fills with it glass bottles of milk.

I feel so retro or something.

:-)

*The milk itself is about twice the price of conventional milk, but is comparable to the price of organic. My kids do not like organic milk at all because it is ultra pasteurized. I like that Oberweis comes in glass not plastic (for so many reasons!) and their farmers are committed to being growth hormone free.

Notebook paper baby quilt

2012-01-23T07:22:00.001-08:00

Someone FABULOUS has had a beautiful baby girl and I finally finished a baby quilt for her.

Now, I have tried to take photos of this blasted thing 4 different times, and I suppose this is as good as it gets.
I saw the idea on pinterest - a quilt that looks like a piece of notebook paper.
And I knew I wanted to add their initials as "graffiti".
Then I fell in love with the perfect Denyse Schmidt fabric at Joann for the border.
It should have been an easy quilt.

Really.

But I tried to use my sewing machine quilting guide on my presser foot and all I ended up with were VERY crooked lines.

Which I had to rip out. Every last one of them.

Then I wised up and drew the lines on and did the sewing. MUCH better.

Except then I washed it before I put the binding on to make sure it looked okay without the lines drawn all over it. Which made the batting at the top edge completely rip apart. So I had to piece new batting in there. Dave suggested using white thread and just making more lines on that section, which works, but in the photos it sort of ruins the piece of paper effect. (Which is what you see in the photo above - a line of white stitching right above a line of blue. That's where the batting piecing had to begin.)

I also wish I had sewn on the holes before I put it together so you couldn't see them on the back.

Live and learn.

In other thrilling news - Cheeks has enough hair in her mullet for tiny pigtails.

I die.

A Walton quilt is finally MINE!

2012-01-22T09:08:00.000-08:00

It's winter.

It's cold.

And I am getting desperate for junk already. Oh PLEASE I need yard sales and flea markets.

This is how I know I am truly a *junkie* and not someone who does this as a *hobby*.

So, off I went in search of treasure.

Now, I might be the only person on earth who does this, but I watch television to see fabric. Dr Quinn, Little House, The Waltons - all fabric eye candy for me. I sit there and judge the quilts and the fabrics - "no way! Those colors are all wrong for the year this is supposed to be!" or "isn't that fabric on that bolt 36 inches wide? It shouldn't be 36 inches wide!"

I have noticed that on the Waltons a lot of the quilts are Fruit of the Loom quilts. Didn't know Fruit of the Loom made quilts? I have been eyeballing them for several years at the higher end antique shows, but they are always out of my price range. (I know they are made by Fruit of the Loom because they have labels).

Lately I am ADDICTED to the Waltons and it has reignited my quest for a Fruit of the Loom quilt.

And what came my way yesterday?

My very own Waltons quilt!
Man I love the calico prints on these things.

And it's in perfect condition too.

LOVE.
I also picked up a 1930's polka dot dress for a toddler sized Sammi (photo shoot here we come!);
this interesting vintage fabric (sadly it is something silky like rayon and I have no clue what to make with it, and there is a LOT of it);
another quilt - this one had these horrible patches on it. The patches were old and I know she was trying to save it, but I took them all off. It ruined the aesthetics.
It's a lovely wedding ring. With a big ugly stain. I think I will let it marinate a bit in the washer and see if I can get it out.
I love the purple polka dot.
There was also a BIG puffy vintage eiderdown...

with a rosy paisley print; The remnants of a baby rattle;
a pile of vintage hearts (I am thinking garland for valentine's Day);
A sweet (very tiny) rocking horse, destined for dolls;
And a what the hell was I thinking. A vintage baby scale with a wicker basket.
I just got rid of one these. Why did I buy another? Oh yea, because this one had a wicker basket.

LOL

Hurry up spring, this only wet my appetite even more!

*There seems to be no history on the internet on the fruit of the loom quilts.

Pinterest fail

2012-01-17T10:00:00.000-08:00

I pinned these pink cookies and thought I would give it a go for the milk and cookie party.

There were problems from the get go.

The directions are so, well, vague.

Beat until peaks form? How freaking long? What speed? Hi or low? 5 minutes or 20 minutes?

They sounded suspiciously like a meringue so I got out my trusty Joy of Cooking and was getting the very real notion that they were going to be a fail no matter what. The cookbook says you must have cream of tartar for the egg whites to work.
I made them anyway. They looked okay cooking.

And then they cooled.

And every single one developed a hole in them. Where it was obvious that the inside was filled with uncooked egg whites and the outside was fine.

Total.fail.

I think I am very quickly finding that pinterest is great EYE CANDY but not much else. Bad links, bad tutorials, bad recipes (more than one recipe from there has been a total fail).

Yikes.

P.S. I knew before I posted yesterday that some of you would be at the park on your phone. I stand by what I said. When there are 75 children at a park you need to be paying attention. My children (who are not at ALL agressive) should be able to play too without being trampled by more agressive kids (who granted are just being kids). And I shouldn't have to mind other people's children to keep my children from constantly being stomped to death. Do I think you need to *direct* their play? No. Do I think you need to help them be mindful of others? YES. I wouldn't turn my kids loose in the zoo and I won't do so at the playground.

P.P.S. If we are in our OWN backyard I read magazines or play on the iPod while the children play. It's quiet so I can hear them, we have a large, secure privacy fence and I still keep Sammi at least in my line of vision. Jack obviously has a lot more freedom, but he is seven.

P.P.P.S. Perhaps I am neurotic but any damn fool could have taken a child and it would have been a long time before those texting parents noticed. The playground is HUGE, the parking lot is far away and it was crowded.

P.P.P.P.S. This is an epidemic issue in my opinion. I see kids IN THE THRIFT STORE toy aisle miles away from their parents doing whatever they please. When I asked the cashier about it she said it happens every.single.day. I swear there is something happening here where people feel like their kids are every one else's problem but their own. They do not mind them in the store, at the pool, at the bus stop (where they tear up other people's property), at the park, etc.

I believe, VERY STRONGLY, that you must be PRESENT. Nothing on the internet is more important than your children.

Period.

Sammi, Parks and annoyances

2012-01-16T10:05:00.000-08:00

Sammi had new portraits taken last week.
I think *those places in the mall* get a bad rap.
Artsy photos are great.
But they are so darn expensive.
Besides, she is adorable! even in mall photos. :-)

It's 65 degrees again, so I took the kids to a new park.
I don't know how it is where you live, but around here "inclusive" playgrounds named after a specific child are all the rage.
My kids prefer to sit and cuddle apparently.

Or eat the food that other people have allowed their children to toss all around the super expensive playground.
(Which I do not understand. There are picnic tables. It's DANGEROUS to eat and run. Besides, aren't they playing and not eating? Frustrating when you have a baby who is like a stealth missile for half chewed gummy bears and pieces of cheese popcorn on the dirty ground.)

While I am complaining - if this is you, please stop that. You are at the playground! GET OFF YOUR PHONES FOR A MINUTE! I swear you will not die. (More than 50% of the parents there just sit and talk/text while their children do whatever.)

Whew. I feel better now. How about you?

Want to complain about those people throwing cigarette butts all over the playground?

Worse than food eaters and the texters.

A very pink party

2012-01-15T07:40:00.000-08:00

Picture overload time!

Blogger loads pictures in whatever order it wants right now, and I am way too lazy to reorganize 25 photos, so there is no logical order her. It's my party and I'll blog how I want to. :-)

Pink milk in doily wrapped bottles;
Pictures with everyone in front of the photo wall for the guest book;
Singing;
Naked cake eating;
New! toys! rock!;
Happy birthday message stenciled on doilies;
Vintage pink honeycomb on jadeite;
Luv you bunting in chalk;
Pink dottie paper straws;
Presents wrapped with love by a brother (and a silver baby rattle, thank you goodwill!);
Pink meringue;
Pink animal crackers;
Pink chocolate vanilla wafers;
Vintage honeycomb from the ceilings;
Pink tulle on the chairs;
A very pink cake (I hate making cakes, but it looked pretty at least) on more jadeite;
The cookie bar;
More pink animal crackers (these are deadly good);
Oreos with pink filling!;
Pink wafers (the kids favorite by far);
Balloons on the high chair;
Martha doily bunting on the doors;
The guest book (I had everyone write her a message next a blank page, I can paste the pictures I took of everyone holding Sammi next to their message for her forever box);
The cake topper (which I didn't dare put on that cake that took me forever);
Doilies on the cabinets.

Dave asked at one point if this was an exercise in death by doily. LOL

It means so much to me to have had people here to celebrate Sammi with me. She truly is my miracle baby and her birthday was about so much more than just turning one to me. A big huge thank you to everyone for coming.

*I really, really thought I was making an *easy* party. Not a lot of stuff to buy (I have pink everything already because I love pink), no activities to plan, etc. But smokes! every party is a LOT of darn work. :-)

No bakers twine?

2012-01-13T13:10:00.001-08:00

We are having pink cookies and pink milk at the pink doily party tomorrow.

I pinned a few ideas where they wrapped bottles with doilies and tied them on.

So I rounded up bottles (recycled snapple bottles) and ended up having to cut down big doilies because there are NO LITTLE DOILIES to be found at a reasonable price!

And then I realized I had nothing to tie them on with.

I tried a few things when I was digging around in the sewing room in desperation and found this stuff:
I think it's crochet thread? Thrift stores around here are always FILLED with the stuff. I must have bought this because it was pink.
It worked perfectly. (And a lot cheaper than baker's twine too.)
Now I have to tie doilies on an army of bottles. (I wanted frappucino bottles, but I couldn't find them. When Dave spotted the "S" on the snapple bottles he said it was meant to be.)
The hall tree is decked out for her birthday too.
Rebecca suggested putting pictures of Sammi on the tree, so I stuck some photos of her on doilies with double sided tape.
It's a cute idea. If I had thought of it sooner I would have had more photos printed so I could fill the tree.
Love this squishy face one.
Then I had the brilliant idea to put wrapped presents on the tree, so I dug around the playroom and scrounged up these blocks...

which Jack helped me wrap.

Cute.

Now I have to go freak out. My house is a wreck, the cake isn't done, and I have nothing ready for this shindig!

Hello first snow.

2012-01-12T06:57:00.000-08:00

It finally snowed. There is no school, even though we only have an inch or two of snow. Sammi had I spent 3 days sitting in the yard in 60 degree sunshine. Bizarre.

In anticipation of the "snow day" I was at the grocery store at midnight last night. (It's $10 Thursday and frankly I do not hate myself enough to try and take $10 off Thursday in the snow with both of my children.)

Exciting times. (You wouldn't believe the line at midnight on $10 off Thursday!)
Cheeks enjoyed her birthday cupcake on Tuesday. (Duncan Hines french vanilla super moist = YUMMMY. Get some.)
I started trying to round up party supplies yesterday. These pink utensils from Dollar Tree are the *perfect* shade of pink. And so pretty in that milk glass container. I think I would like to eat with them every single day.
I also put up some doily/eyelet lanterns on the mantle.
I needed something to help disguise the wires so I just started tying tulle around them. That tulle has been kicking around my sewing room since our very pink wedding 8 years ago.
And I hung up some little pink doll clothes on the ladder.

On tap today - decorating the pink feather tree for the birthday party.

And wrangling my two wild children. One of whom has just been sent to time out for throwing things in the living room. For the fourth day in a row.

Oy.

Hapde Burfday Baby

2012-01-10T05:49:00.000-08:00

My darling Samantha,

One year ago today you came into our lives. A beautiful, perfect, dark haired little girl that was the answer to my prayers.

There was heartache on our journey to that day. But there has been nothing but joy and wonder since.

You remind me every day that the things worth having are worth fighting for.
Birth day.
Hospital photo.

Month 1.
Month 2.
Month 3.
Month 4.
Month 5.
Month 6.
Month 7.
Month 8.

Month 9.

Month 10.

Month 11.

At one year you are:
*still the happiest baby ever. Everyone who sees you (stranger or not) remarks on your demeanor
*still a crappy sleeper, but we are getting there, I hope
*a voracious eater of everything, you are particularly fond of ice cream and will come crawling as fast as you can from anywhere in the house when you get wind of it coming out of the freezer
*in love with playing outside, you are happy to crawl off and just explore the sights and sounds and smells and tastes (to my chagrin) of everything
*adding new words - uh oh, shiny, dada, mama, cat, kitty and working on the sign for eat in addition to the sign for milk
*starting to stand for a few moments on your own
*funny! You snort because you know it makes us laugh
*in love with paper, you will cry if you don't get the shopping list or some coupons to play with
*starting to show that old sibling rivalry with Jack. There is much screeching if he touches your toys and you can't wait for him to leave for school every day so you can head straight to his room to get in trouble!
*finally starting to enjoy the bathtub, an interesting toy seems to help

And here we are. One year and many changes later. It's amazing how fast it has gone my sweet girl. I look forward to the coming year when I get to know the little person you are becoming even more.

Love you baby,
Mama

Bow tie garland

2012-01-09T07:25:00.000-08:00

I loved bow garland the minute I saw it on pinterest.
When we made the living room shelving Dave said we needed a bunting (!!) to go over the television in the middle section.

After thinking about it for oh, 12 seconds, I decided the bow ties would perfect.
I confess that I did not follow her directions. (I had some issues with what was supposed to be going on in steps 3 and 4.)

But they are easy to sort out, directions or not.

I actually want them hanging a bit higher, but I used 6 command strips trying to hang them too late at night and got frustrated and gave up. Ha.
In other news, tomorrow is Cheek's first birthday.

Whoa.

Sammi the Tsunami

2012-01-08T09:28:00.000-08:00

Last week it was HOT. Like wear shorts and play outside all day hot.
Sammi had blazing red cheeks in only her shirt sleeves.
And I sat in the sun and ripped out a million rows of stitches.
Today Sammi is playing Sammi Tsunami. There are messes all
over (yes, that is part of my rug she tore up)
this (yes, she tore down the curtains)
darn
house. And do you think anyone is making any moves towards cleaning it up?

I sure hope the maid arrives soon and it isn't me.

Lie to me, the birthday crown

2012-01-05T06:50:00.001-08:00

When Jack was turning 2 I made him a felt birthday crown. It was a spur of the moment sort of project, whipped up in an hour or two, and it has seen plenty of imaginative play action since then.

Of course that means Sammi had to have a crown of her own.

Except this time I had all these grand ideas about using beautiful fabrics and ruffles and flowers and on and on.
I spent like 8 hours making this silly crown.

And many, many more cursing my frustration with it. I could not get it *perfect*.

I needed Tim Gunn over my shoulder raising his eyebrows, brow furrowed with worry - "I can see where you want to go with this Sarah, but I am worried about how you will get there. Make it work."
And I had cut into a most precious piece of my favorite feedsack EVER to make it so the need for perfection was high.
Knowing how much Jack has used his put the pressure on even more - how many years am I going to spend looking at her playing with it?
I need you all to lie to me and say IT'S PERFECT! LOL

(It is rather big right now, but obviously I only want to make one of these things. It is the forever birthday crown and so there is room to grow.)

A tale of two bottles

2012-01-04T17:32:00.000-08:00

Getting Sammi to take a bottle has pretty much been a nightmare from day one.

People who have tried to give her a bottle or watched us try to give her a bottle have remarked on how insanely WIGGLY she is, how much she fights it.

I've mentioned she won't hold it, but she has to be distracted while drinking too. She must have something to play with, you can only be in her room in the dark, she has to be in a certain position etc.

At nearly 1 year I am still spending a good 3 hours a day battling a mere 16 ounces of formula into her belly.

A few days ago my girlfriend mentioned a semi-local dairy - Oberweiss. We used that exclusively for Jack, but since we moved it isn't as convenient anymore.

Sammi and I went to Joann this morning so we stopped at the dairy and bought her some whole milk.

Now. I am a rule follower. She isn't one yet. She should be drinking that blasted formula.

But I am tired of fighting this bottle battle.

Tonight I poured 7 ounces of cow milk into that bottle on the left. (The one on the right is what the bottles usually look like after 45 minutes of arguing about drinking milk.)

Within 15 minutes it was IN HER BELLY. With no fighting. No need to play with toys. No shoving it away. No spitting it out. She laid in my arms, guzzled the milk and went off to her to bed to go to sleep.

Praise the cows!

*Also, lest anyone think I am some sort of baby torturer, I have read the sleep books, I have done the check and console thing, I still hold her plenty! (I still wear her in the moby wrap too). I am old school about kids and sleep. I believe very strongly that sleep = growing brains. I believe that kids need routine and structure. (And let's be honest, *I* need routine and structure too.) I am just not "crunchy" enough to get up with her a bazillion times a night for the next 4 years. If she is sick or needs me, sure. But just for grins? Yea, no thanks. I could almost buy the pain thing, but poor Jack had very bad reflux that was untreated for 6 months and he was (and is) a very good sleeper. This "self soothing" is most definitely a personality difference. I think it might be time to introduce an attachment object, aka the "dandy" (in Jack's world)....

First Birthday Cake Topper

2012-01-03T14:14:00.000-08:00

We took Jack to the Magic House over Christmas break to see the Magic Tree House special exhibit.
He loves those books, but to my surprise he liked the rest of the Magic House better than the Jack and Annie stuff.

Go figure.
And
I finished another project for Sammi's birthday (which is now one week from today!). I pinned this and then just copied it.

I want the head shinier.

And in a different position.

But whatever. It took 4 stores to round up the parts (annoying) and forever to paint them (equally annoying).

All that's left to make is her birthday crown.

On that note, she is up and crying. Again. She is really, really, really a terrible, god awful, horrible sleeper. I had so much hope that fixing the ears would mean sleeping through the night, but nope.

Fixing the ears has also done NOTHING for our bottle drinking problems and I am reaching my maximum capacity of patience with both the not sleeping and the not drinking (anything - not milk, not formula, not water, not juice) from every vessel under the sun (bottles, cups, sippy cups of infinite varieties and straws). (And she will not NOT not hold her own bottle. No way in hell is she going to do that, no ma'am.)

I let her cry it out this afternoon, which I despise, but really, an infant should be sleeping. She cried for more than a damn hour and then barely slept 30 minutes.

I MUST toughen my skin a little I think. At almost one year she ought to be self soothing a little right?

Jack certainly did.

Heart to Heart 2012

2012-01-01T07:36:00.001-08:00

Valentine swappers! Swap emails have been sent. If you haven't received one and think you should, let me know please.

Happy swapping and creating!

To 2011

2011-12-31T18:27:00.000-08:00

To 2011-
You gave me Sammi.

I needed nothing else really.

(Well, aside from gymboree and baby legs to clothe her in.)

You made me a mother again and Dave a father again and Jack a brother.

A wonderful brother.

Everything else this year? It pales in comparison to the sweetness and joy of that baby. And of watching MY KIDS (plural!) as they grow.

I will love you forever for that gift.

Love,
me

To 2012 -
I like to choose a word for every year instead of a "resolution". I think this shall be the year of "embrace". Embracing our differences, embracing our faults, embracing our gifts.

Perhaps even embracing new challenges and new journeys.

Embracing the uncertainty of the world with grace.

Yeaup, that'll do.

Here's to you bright shiny new year.

Love,
me

Pottery Shelving, AT LAST!

2011-12-30T07:00:00.000-08:00

When we remodeled the house I DREAMED of a big wall of built in shelving for my pottery collection.

But like any good remodel we ran out of money.
With no place to store the pots I bought these two shelves at Target. (They didn't have white.)

I have never liked them.

They are dark, they are tiny. Did I mention dark?

And then Sammi got moving. So for nearly 5 months they have been sitting completely empty in the living room. She was into everything on them.
For Christmas/our anniversary, Dave built me some shelving.

Finally! Hurray.

They aren't built ins, but in the end I decided I didn't want that. (My dad was going to help him do that, but I thought my much loved tv dresser might look weird with a built in around it since it's old and chippy.)
It's kind of hard to believe, but this is the same amount of pottery. Actually a little less since I culled the herd yesterday.
Left side.
Right side.
I added in bits and pieces of things other than pottery - millinery flowers, my beaded wedding flowers, my wedding cake topper collection...
Old family photos...
Mirrors...
Needlework...
And a silver trophy among other things.
And now the bottom shelves hold toys for Sammi instead of sharp dangerous objects.

Thank you honey, it's lovely!

*We also had to hang up the giant television. I was terrified she was going to pull it over on herself.

Let's never do that again, okay?

2011-12-29T10:59:00.000-08:00

As I feared, Sammi started SCREAMING for milk at 2 35 am.

Almost 6 full hours before she was allowed to even have water again.

And I had stayed up until after 11 to feed her one last time.

At around 4 we put her in the swing and she went back to sleep.

Just in time to be woken up at 5 to go to the hospital (with parents who have now, literally, been up all night).

At the hospital everything was going splendidly* until their "15 minutes" became 25 minutes and then 35 minutes.

You might as well have put me in a straight jacket at that point. I asked be to taken to recovery to be with her, and I was ASSURED she would be right back any moment.

Uh huh.

So when I heard her screaming her little head off down the hall I rushed to her.

Only to meet MRS RUDE ASS who started demanding I go back in their room. Then she started hollering about checking my bracelet, even though every nurse in the hallway knew she was my baby (they had all been fawning over her all morning) and one even remarked that a mother knows her own baby's cry, even from a mile away when I was rushing to her.

No thanks, that's my baby and I will take her NOW DAMN IT.

(I think the hold up was that they were trying to get her to take a bottle. A strange bottle. Of cold apple juice. Had they bothered to get me as they promised I could have assured them that Sammi 1) will never take a bottle from a stranger 2) never uses anything but an Avent bottle, trust me I have tried, 3)Sammi drinks nothing cold and 4) Sammi wants nothing to do with juice or water.)

Then I had to be lectured on how there was NO WAY IN HADES SHE COULD HAVE MILK RIGHT NOW even though she was completely beside herself from anesthesia and starving to boot.

(And I knew there was NO WAY IN HADES WE WERE GOING HOME ANY TIME SOON if she didn't get milk, since she couldn't pass their "drink and don't puke for 30 minutes test" otherwise.)

So. 40 minutes of hysterical baby later, she finally drank some milk and passed out. (Honestly this part was H-A-R-D, no doubt about it. Sammi is an easily consoled baby. I am so not used to her crying like that. Jack? Yes. Sammi? NO WAY.)

And I was finally released from their hellish prison.

Now I would like to kindly ask the universe to PLEASE never, ever make me have to go through that again.

Can I cry now?

*Oh yea, their stupid hospital gown made her break out in a vicious rash after about 10 minutes or so. So she ended up going back in her own clothes.

** And did I mention that last night Jack had a rip roaring fit of his own? Which went on and on and on and I was already on edge. MAN! I am having a good time over here.

*** AND we still have 10 days of freaking antibiotics plus a week of antibiotic drops. The baby has been nuked to hell and back with those meds for 2 solid months now. I would like to be done with them now thanks.

Crepe Paper Streamer Birthday Wreath

2011-12-28T11:53:00.000-08:00

Sammi will be having a very "pinterest" party this year. I went through and pinned everything that caught my eye and I am busy making a bunch of them.

I pinned this first birthday wreath , and spent hours trying to track down the source with no luck. (Irritating!)

Since we are having a pink party I searched high and low for the perfect pink cupcake wrappers to make one with. After about 6 stores I gave up on the idea.

And then I had a little lightbulb moment - crepe paper streamers.
Cut them into squares.
Then do the crepe paper twist with a pencil and stick them on a cardboard number. (I used Aleene's craft glue.)
It turned out cute!

The perfect pink entrance to our pink party.

Where we will be eating milk and cookies. :-)

Now I have to go find something else to distract myself with. I am really upset about this surgery thing with Sam tomorrow. And to make it worse we have to be there at 5 45 am and she can't eat after midnight tonight.

And she doesn't sleep through the night! If she wakes up at 2 am for milk it's going to be a very long worrying night for me.

:-(

Conversations with Jack

2011-12-27T14:42:00.000-08:00

"Dave, I have some lunch ready for you."
"Mom, that was really sweet. You don't usually sound so sweet."
"Are you saying I usually sound like a mean old ogre Jack?"
Pause.
"No."
"Well, what do I usually sound like?"
Nothing.
I make an ogre voice.
"No, you are not an ogre you are my beloved mother."

Awwww.

Even Dave has noticed that Jack's behavior over Christmas break is markedly different.

Gone is the child who is screaming and rolling on the floor and being uncooperative and rigid and freaking out a lot. I haven't had to hear him cry once and there is has been no sobbing and "I need more recess."

I really, really wish I could figure out just where the hiccup in his giddyup is at at school.

I read an article yesterday about "middle childhood", age 7 to 10, and it mentioned that this is a child's greatest period of growth. They are no longer frustrated toddlers and are not yet mired in the hormonal turbulence of adolescence. Reportedly this is when they "learn what it means to be human."

Interesting food for thought.

I will be back tomorrow FREAKING out about Sam's surgery. Sigh.

Heart to Heart 2012

2011-12-26T10:42:00.000-08:00

The invitations are done for Sammi's first birthday (yes, that is her actual silhouette!), and you know what that means! Time to sign up for the 2012 Heart to Heart swap.

There are 14 spots open.

If you are selected you will make 14 Valentines, mail them to me and receive 14 different valentines in return.

THE ABSOLUTE, WRITTEN IN STONE DEADLINE IS FEB 1. THEY MUST BE AT MY HOUSE BY THEN OR YOU ARE OUT. (Sorry to shout, but I just don't have time for dawdling.)

Specific making and mailing guidelines will be emailed to participants on Jan 1. If you are wondering if you want to sign up the general making guidelines are no bigger than 5 x 7 and they can be made from any materials you'd like. Searching the blog for heart to heart will give you an idea of what previous swaps have included.

If there are more than 14 people signed up I will have a lottery for the spots. (Aka, throw your names in the hat and let the kids draw names.)

You may sign up by leaving a comment here (be specific in your comment, "I want to sign up for the swap" and leave an email address please) or you may email me directly - makinprojiks@gmail.com.

I already have a great idea for my contribution and I can't wait to see what you all make this year!

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T08:17:00.000-08:00

Just like that, two solid months of planning and plotting and shopping and scheming and making are over in a flash.

Santa is quite proud of herself this year. She consigned and couponed and rebated and clearanced and freebie shopped herself into quite the Christmas for the kids (and Dave too!). It took her a lot longer, and she had to try and buy one present every pay period, but it paid off in her checking account. Plus, she used the leftover rewards and gift cards from buying things like toilet paper to score herself a free vacuum. Yippee! (And Jack was able to get a lot more of the things on his list this year.)
We had our family Christmas yesterday. My brother and I agreed many years ago that kids shouldn't have to travel on Christmas. They should be able to stay home and enjoy their loot.
Sammi's outfit was CRAZY CUTE. Pink velvet ruffled romper over sparkly striped tutu leggings? YES PLEASE.
I TRIED to get the obligatory Christmas pajama photo, but there were TOYS that Sammi was far more interested in.
Jack is a pretty patient kid. He waited a full hour for us to get up so he could open presents. (Sammi was up until 10, then up again at 4 am. We are TIRED.)

When he was finished with presents he declared "this was a wonderful Christmas." (Santa is still patting herself on the back. Ahem.)
Sammi actually ripped the paper off one gift.
And enjoyed sitting in her pile and examining her loot.
Then she did what babies do - played with the boxes for a bit.
Herself the elf, aka me, enjoyed a package stuffed to the gills with baby legs. Me and baby legs? We go together like me and Gymboree. Or me and Robeez. When they hit 75% off this week I couldn't hit the buy button fast enough.
And there was a fun collection of vintage barrettes in my stocking too.

Oh sure, they are really for Sammi. But we all know that dressing her up is for ME~!

I hope you are all enjoying a wonderful Christmas at your house too!

Under the wire

2011-12-23T11:48:00.000-08:00

The sinks are scoured, the floors are vacuumed (not a single present is wrapped, mind you), and I managed to squeak in two more presents under the wire.

Aprons for my nieces.
Disney princesses for Maggie.

And powder puff girls for Cori.

And it only took me like 3 hours to make them, even if I did have top stitch 400 miles of apron strings.

(They are tied in the photos, making them look a little strange.)

Still making for Christmas

2011-12-22T07:16:00.000-08:00

I can't believe I am still trying to make things for Christmas!

Jack has been asking me to make some books for him. He loves making books right now. I did some googling and stumbled on this tutorial at the Small object that seemed doable. (Bonus point for the supplies being readily available on Amazon or in my sewing room already.)

They turned out super cute, even if I did have to use a little duct tape because my chip board was too thick to sew through.
I also added a label on the front for his titles.
Now he has a stack of "wimpy kid sized" books of his own for under the tree.

When I was in the basement doing some sorting I realized that once again we could not fit ANY THING in the vintage stockings we have been using for several years. They are cute, but SMALL.

A few weeks ago I fell in L-O-V-E with these vintage junky stockings . So I set out to make us a set.

Except I could NOT find any clip art that was similar to what she has made, and I was getting frustrated.
I had an idea that was either going to include 1) candy colored fabric or 2) each stocking in a different vintage print. But when I went to Joann this keepsake calico jumped in the cart and refused to get out. Even when I tried to swap it with more of the DS Quilts fabric I love.

And it is perfect. The color is awesome with the glass tiles on the fireplace and the design is snowflakey.
I thought I was "settling" on the silhouettes, but really I didn't settle at all. They are wonderful. This is Jack's stocking.
And Sammi's.
See how they work together? Him pulling her on the sled.
Santa for Dave.
And Mrs. Claus for me.
Kissing!

Totally worth the eight hours it took me yesterday to make them. (Sewing on those intricate designs was crazy slow.)

Now onto making some things for Cheek's first birthday!

P.S. I will be opening the heart to heart swap sign ups between Christmas and New Years. I will leave it open until New Year's Day. If there are more than 14 interested I will do a lottery drawing for the spots this year. If you want in, don't forget to check back in/add me to your reader/etc!

The glass ornaments

2011-12-21T06:44:00.000-08:00

This year I only put up trees and decorated the mantle.

And honestly? It's okay. I am not sure I miss the other stuff this year.

Perhaps I have just been too busy too notice.

The tree topper collection is back on the mantle again. I love this display so much.
And those little flea market wooden figures make it even sweeter.
The big vintage tree is in the kitchen, far away from curious little fingers.
I didn't fill it as full as I usually do. I was sick of hanging up ornaments and gave up.
There are still loads of really good ones on there.

My favorite this year is this silver beaded ornaments with the little pink bell.

Ya'll. Jack and I are sick. Sammi CANNOT GET SICK. She cannot have her surgery if she gets sick. There are about 2,000 other reasons I don't want to wait until the new year for that surgery. Please don't let her get sick.

I am off to sanitize everything we own and pray for mercy.

The national christmas tree

2011-12-20T06:54:00.000-08:00

The village is up in the foyer, with lights this year! Thanks to Dave for putting in the one outlet we should have put in when we remodeled.
I *almost* have too many houses for the space.
Maybe Dave can make another layer for my stand?
Hmmmm.
And the "National Christmas tree" Dave picked up off craigslist for me is up too. This thing is seriously huge. It takes up most of the office. And even though I put 1200! lights on it, it could use more.
It holds our "sentimental ornaments" - the ones the kids make, the ones Dave and I made as kids, and the random vintage ornaments I love but don't belong my glass tree.

Back tomorrow with the crown jewel, the glass tree.

P.S. I have a day with only ONE phone call on the agenda. For real? Besides needing a nap (I had to get up with Sam at 4 am again. Blargh, please let those tubes make her sleep again), I might actually make stuff! WOoooooooooooohoooooooo.

Just a note

2011-12-19T15:06:00.000-08:00

The ENT says tubes for Sammi, so depending on the surgery scheduler, either this Thurs or next Thurs we are hopefully (all your fingers are crossed, right?) going to fix her little problem once and for all.

And then we can stop nuking the baby. (5 antibiotics! for more than 6 weeks! Oy.)

Pink trees, parks and scrap piles

2011-12-19T10:43:00.000-08:00

I cleaned out my scrap bin today. It was taking over my sewing table and annoying me.

Digging in there was like opening a time capsule. A time line of "how I learned to sew". There were pieces from the bird purse , remnants of a flannel quilt, pieces of the patchwork lampshade and more.
The pink tree is the first tree I put up this year. I filled it with my collection of Martha Stewart ornies from KMart a few years back.
These wooden animals are my favorite! I desperately search for more of them on Ebay with no success.
Glass glitter stars, pink bottlebrush wreaths, velvet strawberries and more.

It's a fun tree. It was warm yesterday so we took the kids to the park. Sam is wearing her CUTE kitty hat courtesy of Rebecca. Thank you Rebecca!
They cut down a HUGE tree.
Kids have been carving their initials all over it.

And the grass was SHOCKINGLY green for late December.

With that we are off to the ENT. Wish us luck.

Making for Christmas

2011-12-18T09:15:00.000-08:00

For those of you wondering, Sam has an appt with the ENT on Monday. I had to call a lot of doctors to find one who would see her sooner than mid January, so hopefully this guy is going to fix her and soon.

In other news, I have been scrambling to make a few things.

Many moons ago I pinned several ideas for ornaments that Jack and I could make together. I like to have at least one ornament made by him every year and it seems his school this year is going to do NOTHING of the sort.

He chose these snowmen from Martha.

This morning we set about making them. (At first he was very excited "I haven't made a craft in a long time!". It quickly turned into chaos. Have you made anything with a seven year old boy lately? CHALLENGING.)

It was his idea to use the gathered ribbon as a skirt and make "a lady".
And I LOVE HER SO MUCH!
They are all pretty darn cute.
The present I ordered for my niece in October was cancelled by Target finally. So I had to scramble to find a new plan. I picked her up this Barbie vet dog thing secondhand and made a few extras to go with it.

A felt dog x-ray.
And some ribbon/velcro band-aids.
Yesterday we set about the yearly challenge of the gingerbread houses. (True confession - I hate these things. I even yelled out "I have an idea, let's pretend it's the 1970's and not do these stupid things".)
Jack still seems to enjoy it, even if I do wish I had NEVER, EVER started this "custom". Sigh.
I won't even tell you which one is mine. I might be "Crafty" but my gingerbread looks like shit*. LOL

(Dave's always looks pretty good though!)

*I have to cuss for Corey. He makes me do it. :P~~~

Give me strength

2011-12-16T07:16:00.000-08:00

I have been prepared to tell you about the busy box I made for Sam's crib for two days now.

I made one for Jack's crib with felt, which was cute, but not very long lasting with a toddler pulling on it.
So I made this one with some stiff interfacing and quilted it together. It's cute. And useful.

And then I was prepared to tell you that I took Jack to the nutcracker yesterday instead of sending him to school. They have been watching the nutcracker in music class with the sub (word on the elementary street is that a kid yelled BOO and gave Mrs. So and So a heart attack, LOL! kids) and he was quite interested.

So when the local ballet company put on a special show for schools and home schools yesterday, I told them we were home schoolers and off we went.

It was fun, and he liked it.

It helped that we ate lunch at our favorite Indian place afterwards too.

But then I came home to this. A sick cheeks and total chaos.

She has had a fever now for two days, our ped was out of the office yesterday, she didn't sleep more than 90 minutes at a time last night and me?

FREAKING OUT.

She has no other signs of a new virus - no congestion, no cough, no puke, and I can only imagine this ear problem has entered VERY BAD TERRITORY.

She doesn't seem to be responding the nuclear antibiotic (which we are on day 5 of) and all I do is go to the doctor.

For real.

And worse is that I know this ear crap is causing a bit of developmental backsliding. She was really cruising and now she will only crawl. I can only imagine her equilibrium is totally screwed up at this point.

So. We are off to the doctor.

Again.

And I need the Good Lord to give me enough strength to deal with this non stop insanity. I really need my cheeky monkey to be well again.

'Cause this is 9 kinds of foolishness right here.

All I want for Christmas

2011-12-14T14:56:00.001-08:00

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth*?Jack had a big day at school today.

He got to go to the second grade for math. (After much, much, much complaining my part).

He lost a tooth AND he actually told the teacher he lost a tooth and went to the nurse! For Jack this is nothing short of a miracle. (He would rather die than tell the people at school that he has a problem.)

I am SO proud of him.
He brought him this art last week and I love it. A photo doesn't really show how much glitter he put it on for snow and that the moon and the stars are metallic!

Best first grade art ever.
The owl is a close second though...
He has been asking for a desk (and a queen sized bed) in his room since this summer. After I spent forever searching for a desk that I liked, I finally had the brilliant idea to just put some legs on an old enamel table top I bought at a garage sale many years for $3.

(He needs a less babyish lamp, but I will have to thrift one and that takes a little while. Oh yea, and a desk chair that won't ruin my hardwood floors too.)

I think it turned out super cute.

*This is where I confess that I nearly cried when the first front tooth came out last week. It changed his speech, and his appearance, and suddenly there was no denying that he is not a baby anymore. I was a little bit shocked by my reaction actually.

**Sammi has also had a big day. That poor baby is MISERABLE. She has spent three days laying her head on us and asking to be held because of this ear drama. I took her to a chiropractor today to see about craniosacral therapy. It was an interesting visit. I purposefully withheld most information from them (I don't know, it seems like voodoo to me), but the doctor still immediately started asking if Sammi had any problems during her birth. She says she has a lot of tightness in one side of her neck and some swollen lymph nodes on her head(which Dave and I noticed a long time ago) that *might* very well indicate her neck is interfering her ears ability to function properly. (She did say there are a million other things that could also be going on, and it might not work at all.)

NOW, the interesting part of this is that Sammi did indeed have a bit of birth drama. She tried to descend sideways in the birth canal and there was suddenly a lot of rushing and pushing and many hands up in there trying to turn her so she could come out. It never occurred to me when she was smaller, but she DID have tightness in her neck that caused her to favor her right side. Which made her have that flat head problem.

I am pretty sure that something is interfering with her ability to walk (equilibrium? this unbalanced thing? who knows) because she has been cruising for a long time now but she is very, very hesitant to walk, even if you hold her hands.

So, I am going to take her to the chiro for a few weeks to see if it helps the ear before we go for surgery. This last antibiotic is CLEARLY not doing a damn thing either.

As long as they don't expect me to pay a gazillion dollars for it, that is.

Anyway, I know I have not answered a few questions here, but I am at the doctor. A lot. Every day. I will answer you, soon. :-)

Acorn toadstool ornaments

2011-12-13T06:07:00.001-08:00

If you are drinking the pinterest kool aid you know that I pinned these acorns this week.

And then I had Dave go carve out some acorns for me immediately so I could make ornaments.
I used a bit of real moss and some spun cotton German mushrooms instead of needle felted ones.
And I started with these plastic, sparkly acorns I plucked off a Goodwill garland at some point in the fall.
I even tied one on a gift for my BFF, which I think turned out SUPER cute with the big red dotty ribbon.

I have about 100 more acorns.

If I only I had about 100 more mushrooms...

Fa la la la

2011-12-12T10:21:00.000-08:00

Part of my motivation to get all the Christmas stuff done well in advance was to have time to craft. (Although that turned out to be a joke. I did have it all done well in advance but other stuff is seriously inhibiting my time to craft anyway.)

I made a big list of books to get from the library to browse, and Fa la la la Felt was one I checked out.

I LOVED everything that Cathy made for the book.

Yesterday I spent some time making the ornaments she made for the book.
The gray one is a gift for someone else, so I made it in the colors that Cathy suggests in the book.
This one is all for me, so I made her in pretty pastels.
And this one too.
They are SUPER cute and easy to make too. I plan on doing this one in pastels for us too.

Instead of doing french knot snowflakes I used a decorative stitch on my machine to make the snowflakes.

Now if only Joann actually carried some wool felt in pastels. Must resort to internet order I suppose.

Back tomorrow with another ornament I made.

P.S. Took Sammi to the ped again today. She still has ear infections, so we are onto the last antibiotic we can try to treat them "medically". (It was mega expensive too.) Back for recheck in two weeks, then referred for surgery. She also will have to have a blood draw for a RAST test to see if she is having an allergy issue. I am gutted about all of this torture to my poor baby. Even the ear checks are bad because she has weird ear wax which has to be scraped out so they can see the eardrums. This results in MUCH crying and takes forever. Ugh.

11 months

2011-12-11T13:43:00.000-08:00

My Darling Sammi,
Today you are 11 months old! (Well, yesterday really.)

This is our last monthly update before you turn 1.

Amazing.

Right now you:

*love to dance and sing
*shake your head no-no
*are saying up and hi (to everyone)
*are starting to sign for milk
*have a particular whine when Jack is aggravating you (or won't let you in his room)
*are a cheese connaseur - provolone no, gouda YES!
*have two little teeth
*love the sandbox (and yes, you eat the sand, nasty)
*love exploring the backyard, so many things to see
*are snorting (this is apparently hilarious)
*really way, way too wiggly to sit in a high chair
*back to sleeping through the night
*growing like a weed! Daddy and I measured you standing up yesterday - 29 inches! wowzer
*twirl your hair while drinking a bottle
*or pet the cat's ear, which is amusing as all get out to me
*have CrAzY hair, and I have no clue what to do about it, too short for barrettes, but shaggy
*love looking up
*starting to wave bye bye
*trying to say "shiny", which comes out as shhh--shhh
*hate to be penned in by baby gates unless we are right here with you
*momentarily standing independently
*crawling at lightening speed
*fascinated by buttons
*equally fascinated by crinkly things, your favorite, favorite, favorite thing right now is to sneak into the pantry and grab packets of fruit snacks, which you then clutch desperately hoping I won't take them away because you love their crinkly wrappers

*and INTO EVERYTHING. Must speed up my baby proofing. STAT.

Love you baby,
Mama

Finally Finished Friday - the Hankie Quilt

2011-12-09T13:03:00.000-08:00

It has taken me about 4 times as long as it should have, but I have finally finished the hankie quilt.
It is NOTHING like the one I was lusting after on pinterest and I am still not sure how I feel about that.

I ended up sewing the hankies to white fabric to reinforce them a bit. They are very thin and fragile.

And then I couldn't sew them together without some sashing because I felt like it was ending up way too wonky. They are all different sizes and they all have different edges etc.
Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd now that I am looking at it I see that I didn't bother to get all the hankies facing the same way! Argh.
I sewed a button in the middle of each square to "tie" the quilt instead of quilting it a lot.
It is really soft at least, and Sammi likes to pet it.

This is my favorite square.

A BIG BIG thank you to everyone that sent hankies so I could make it happen!

*I really thought it was going to take 24 hankies like the pinterest photo. Her quilt is CLEARLY crib sized and 24 hankies would have been HUGE. I have some left over and I think I am going to make Sammi a matching doll quilt.

Once I get over the drama of making this one, that is. LOL

Party Dress

2011-12-08T06:32:00.000-08:00

Sammi's first birthday party dress arrived in the mail yesterday.

Pretty pink silk.

But how can it be?

A first birthday so close already?

Oh Cheeks, it's starting to go a little too fast for mama.

Gulp.

Making a crib rail guard from an old quilt

2011-12-07T09:42:00.001-08:00

If I weren't trying to make a googleable title I would have called the post "how to slow down a shark." LOL

When I googled I saw a few different tutorials on making a crib rail guard. One used buttons (no good for Sammi the shark at all, choking hazard!) and one was similar to this idea.

Except Sammi has a patchwork theme in her room and I had some chunks of an old quilt I bought at the flea market that I thought were the perfect size for this.

Here is the piece I started with. Now, I feel compelled to say this (feel free to ignore me), but PLEASE DO NOT CUT UP GRANDMA'S QUILTS FOR THIS!

Someone had already ruined a quilt to make some kind of curtains (?) and the prints were so sweet I bought them anyway. (Generally I will NOT buy "repurposed quilt crafts*" as it only encourages people to cut up perfectly good quilts.)

Then I hemmed them so they were narrow and double thick.
My girlfriend mentioned that she saw something about a safe length for ties for babies that wouldn't be a strangulation hazard. She thought it was 4 inches. I could have googled that, but 4 inches is pretty short, so I felt pretty safe about it. (Any shorter and I wouldn't be able to tie them.) So, 4 inches pieces of bias tape it is.
Cut up 7 pairs for each side of the crib.
Sew them. I sewed over the ties 3 or 4 times. I do NOT want the shark to eat them.
Tie them on and voila! A cover for the edges that weren't manufactured with that plastic teething guard.

Sammi thought it was amusing.
I think it's pretty cute. But time will tell if she just shoves it aside to chew on that corner.
She did give it a chew to try it out already.

(They do make a sticky one you can buy to put it over it, but I am pretty sure it wouldn't last a week since it has to cover the very fat rounded corner of this crib.)

*This is obviously my own personal pet peeve. I don't think one hole makes a quilt a cutter. Or worn edges (people slept next to that edge!). Sometimes a quilt truly is unsalvageable and I can get behind that repurposing. But in general I think everyone is just a little too scissor happy. :-)

Today

2011-12-06T10:05:00.000-08:00

Today...

is our eighth wedding anniversary*. Happy Anniversary to the man who understands I am not "bossable" and loves me anyway. (I am clearly bitching about something in this photo, LOL)
it is snowing a little. I really wanted it to snow on our wedding day, but no luck.
there is a half frosted anniversary cake on the counter. When Jack realized it was our anniversary he said "mom, you should get yourself a cupcake for that. Hmm, maybe it's better to wait till Dave is home for the cupcakes though." So, I made a cake.
there is a wreath slung over my rocker on the porch. I was going to hang it up, but I decided I liked it just fine right there.

Sammi the Shark is eating her crib. Ingesting lacquered Chinese paint. Jack never once chewed on this crib.
I put a fabric band aid over it because I have no clue what to do about this. It's gross, it's horrible and it's probably poisoning her to death. Not to mention ruining my crib.

I am sure that one of you has experience with a shark baby and can offer some shark proofing insight though?
Sammi the shark is also not responding AT ALL to the zithromax. So she is complainy and whiny and in pain still.

(Have I mentioned she eats everything? Just after this photo she ate a big handful of the dirt in that pot she is happily digging in.)

And that's today at our house.

How about you?

*Jack quickly asked me "how long were you married before I was even a thought"? Then after some lightening calculations he answered "oh, three months before you were pregnant." It's a good thing he wasn't a baby under the wedding dress kid, or my secret would have been out already this morning! LOL

About Cheeks

2011-12-02T13:50:00.000-08:00

Well. This week doesn't get any less shitty as it goes on.

I did speak to the kids ped today and he said he thinks what I thought - that Sammi has a resistant bacterial infection and that she has had the same infection since around Jack's birthday. (And this is NOT a case of one infection after another, like that lady yesterday tried to insist.)

So. She is on zithromax for 5 days, with another ear recheck in 11 days.

If it is still there there is only one antibiotic left to try before we are rushed off to the ENT for tubes.

I say rushed because he mentioned what has been bugging me the most - that at this point her eardrum has been unable to function for more than a month and after 6 weeks we are looking at damage to the eardrum/hearing loss territory.

And of course, all of this is happening at a crucial point in her speech development.

Sigh.

To say that I am freaking out is an understatement.

I have a lot of personal baggage surrounding Jack's infancy when he was in pain non stop for 6 months (and the doctor we had then ignored me). It would definitely be better for all of us (ahem - my anxiety) if this would just go away already.

Anyway. There we are.

Let's all cross our fingers and hope that the z-pack is what kills that bacteria for good, okay?

If you need it, Craig will bring it

2011-12-01T08:14:00.000-08:00

WARNING: Curse filled ranting ahead.

After no less than 10 thrift stores (where seriously pathetic trees are priced at $35+), 3 weeks of browsing thousands of seriously over priced trees on Craigslist ($200 for your used tree with only 1/3 of the lights working? No thanks) and many, many retail store visits ($400! That's 4 months worth of electric in the winter), I found a tree.

And it is HUGE. When Dave came home with he said "I have the national Christmas tree in the truck, where do you want it?" And then he informed me that it would take TWO of us to carry it!

You see a 4 foot tall Jack in front of it here. We didn't even put in the last row of branches because it would have a wing span of more than 7 feet!

But it is awesome. And not janky. And it was $25. And made in the USA. And not pre-lit.

Score one for me.

Now I have to go buy at least 1,000 tiny twinkling lights for it.

But first I have other problems.

If you are on facebook you know that I have been moaning about Sam not sleeping and doing a lot of moaning herself right now. I have been up with her since 4 am for several nights and she is crying all day long.

Yesterday I spent TWO AND A HALF HOURS trying to get her to take a nap.

I know she is getting her second tooth, so I gave her a healthy dose of motrin.

Still no sleep.

And then I called "my other husband", aka best girlfriend, because my light bulb went off.

Sammi has been off the antibiotic since last Friday and I suddenly realized her ear problem was back. Again.

She has had an ear infection for 30 days now. 10 days of amoxicillin, 4 days off and it returned. 10 days of omnicef, 4 days off and it has returned.

Our regular ped is out of the office today so I (reluctantly) agreed to see the nurse practitioner.

It was obvious within 4.2 seconds that was a BAD BAD choice.

She starts off by snottily saying "her clothes look homemade." To which I replied "they aren't, they are from Target." (But so fucking what if they are?)

Then she looks in her ears and declares the ear infection and says she will call in Zithromax.

When I start to refuse and insist that this is NOT a new virus (no snot, no cough and Jack is okay) and say that we have a problem she replies, "well, does she sit in daycare?" To which I reply "NO SHE DOES NOT." (But again, so what if she does? Some mothers work.)

And then just as my fucking head is about to blow right off she says "well, wash her hands."

I took a deep breath, gathered our coats and (quietly) told the girl at the desk that I needed the DOCTOR to phone me ASAP.

Now. I will be the first person to admit I am rigid. I am like Jack. I like things to be "regular". I want to see the doctor I have been seeing with my children for nearly 7 years.

But holy shit on a stick lady. MY BABY IS STILL SICK AND SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH HER AND YOU ARE AN ASSHOLE.

You know, we used to laugh about how belligerent my grandpa was with people. He would argue with doctors/companies/stores to the end of the earth. As a kid it was embarrassing as all get out.

But I get it now.

They force you to be this way.

They force you to hang up and call back again and again until you get someone with a brain.

That doctor who told me that Samantha was going to be another miscarriage and I was going to need a hysterectomy?

He was the turning point.

He turned me into a freight train and I swear I am only gathering steam.

If you are the school district or the doctors office and you are in the way of what is right for my kids, look out.

Because I am totally DONE listening to assholes.

Thrifted and first words

2011-11-30T12:05:00.000-08:00

Even though all my pottery is safely stored in the basement right now away from Sammi the Shark, I couldn't resist these two tiny pots at the thrift.
A quilted McCoy.
And a mystery.

Samantha Dear is telling you about her "kitty cat" in this photo. Right now she says mama (or mom or my ma) and cat and kitty cat. And some version of "shhh shhh" which I think is because her father is trying to teach her "shiny".

She also is VERY into nodding her head no no no. Particularly when she is busy eating something she knows she shouldn't be eating. LOL

Still no progress on sign language though! I am still working diligently on milk, eat, more, and the sign for cat (even though she already knows that word). (It's interesting to see the difference in the kids. Jack was a very proficient signer by this point.)

At least she isn't saying "shit" yet, which was one of the first five words that Jack knew. LOL

From thrift store garland to new front door wreath

2011-11-29T09:53:00.000-08:00

Lately I have been admiring these rugs on pinterest that are made from felt balls.

There is something about their perfect round shape that appeals to me I suppose.
Yesterday when Sammi and I were attempting to thrift up a fake green Christmas tree* I spotted a bag full of this garland for $1.50. I snatched it right up because it reminded me so much of those felt balls. (These are actually thread covered balls, like those old satin ornaments, but not satin.)
Then I cut the garlands apart and set about hot gluing a million of them to a wreath.
Et voila! A new front door wreath.

It wasn't working out as I had planned, and I had serious fears of another craft fail.

But this?

This is no craft fail.

Adorable!

*We usually buy a live tree for our "family" ornaments on Christmas Eve. But since I have no tree in the windows for other people to see this year, I decided I would just put the green tree up here in the office window so it could be seen from the street. (Jack INSISTS that the white trees are not "real" and we MUST have a green one.) But I don't want to try and keep a live tree alive that long. Holy SMOKES fake green trees are 1) ugly (to me) 2) all prelit (aka pain in the rumpus) 3) EXPENSIVE. I have no clue what I am going to do about this problem. LOL

** The white tree is already up and done!

No foolin'

2011-11-28T13:50:00.000-08:00

I saw these tights on pinterest this morning and decided to whip some up for Sam before Jack gets off the bus.

I had a pair of socks I bought on clearance I was going to make baby legs from so I just used those.
She wasn't foolin' when she said these take 5 minutes - start to finish.

Sammi, aka the baby who never stops moving, is rockin' them old school style with a denim jumper.

Sweet! I love dressing a girl. So many options. :)

P.S. My sewing machine has a stretchy zig zag stitch, I used that instead of a regular zig zag. I have a serger, but in general I cannot be bothered to get it out and use it.

A craft disaster

2011-11-27T06:41:00.000-08:00

I had this great idea that Jack and I could turn pinecones into "porcelain" pinecones for my parents for Christmas by dipping them in plaster.

I am pretty sure I got this crazy idea when I saw some silk flowers dipped in plaster in a magazine.

They were lovely.

Pinecones dipped in plaster?

Lovely until they dry.
This one isn't so bad yet.
This one was the *very best* one in the bunch, but as you can see the plaster is pulling away from each "petal".
This is what it will look like in a few days.
We tried different kinds of pine cones - this one is delicate and papery - same result.
This one was the last one I dipped. For some reason by this point the plaster kept seizing, no matter how much water you added, and there was no way to make it thin.

The bonus of THAT disaster is that the plaster is so thick there is no way in hades it is going to chip off.

What I am left with is one hot mess, NOT a pile of Christmas pretties.

I am still trying to sort out a way to make this a viable plan, but it's entirely possible I should just give up!

Choo Choo

2011-11-26T13:13:00.000-08:00

(Blogger has gone loco and is putting all sorts of weird spacing in my posts!)
We took the kids to the big train show this morning.

Among other things, we saw this AMAZING Lego layout (It was a monorail, apparently discontinued in 1993, but all his own designs, not a kit).

And none of it was glued together.

That's brave!

It has reignited Jack's love of all things train and he is downstairs driving Dave insane pushing him to get our trains up and running in the blink of an eye.

No adventure is complete with a stop for mom, which yielded ornaments! This black one is huge.
These bells are fun, they have a glass ball inside of them that makes them ring.
A pile of standard pretties.
Fun indents.
A kitschy elf.
A cute printed putz house.

And a captive elf.

'Tis the season!

Gobble Gobble

2011-11-24T12:33:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving

From our little turkeys

to you and yours.

Helper Elf

2011-11-22T11:01:00.000-08:00

I am still on a mission to get as much of the Christmas stuff done in November as possible. So I decided yesterday was a good time to start putting up the tree. (It takes me more than a week to hand wire 500 vintage ornaments on it!)

But when I pulled out the tree I saw this. YUCK! The entire top half had turned khaki colored. (And I think this was my sort of pricey Martha Stewart tree I got when we got married.)

It is totally unsuitable now for my precious ornaments, so off to freecycle it went.

But first cheeks had to crawl in the bag and check things out. My little helper elf!

She is the most curious baby!

I spent today pushing 700 twinkling lights into submission.

And we are almost ready for lift off, a k a, ornament wiring time!

*I had to put the tree in the dining room this year, which is sort of a bummer. No movies by the Christmas tree and no twinkle can be seen from the street. But cheeks is way, way, way too curious for it to be in here.

Exceptional

2011-11-21T17:22:00.001-08:00

(Yes, the cheeky monkey is looking for trouble in the trash can!)

A local grocery store runs this crazy $10 off a $50 purchase on Thursdays occasionally.

It happened to fall on last Thursday, the Thursday before Thanksgiving.

Being the completely insane person I am, I took both the children there. We waited in the craziest lines I have ever seen at the supermarket.

As we were waiting the woman in front of me says, "How old is your baby"? I reply that she is 10 months. "How old is your older child?" Seven, I say.

And then out of her mouth comes something that made me want to go a little bit postal.

"Oh, she is one of THOSE."

Imagine my mouth hanging open here.

And then my brain working furiously to remind myself that Jack is standing right there.

So, loudly, and bluntly I said "SHE IS NOT ONE OF 'THOSE'".

That's the thing about infertility. You think everything is okay, and you are cruising along in life forgetting about much of it and then one day you are standing there buying some stuffing for your seven year old (who can only think about stuffing) and WHAMO! it smacks you right in the f*ing face.

And before you know you are in the middle of the supermarket - eye to eye with some broad you don't even know - and you want to tell her that she might be a lot of things that are yet to be determined, but what she most certainly is not is an accident.

That what she is a miracle.

That she is two of the hardest, most gut wrenching years of your life. That she is lost babies. And a lost twin. And standing up in your driveway hemorrhaging after going to get an ice cream with your kid. And trips to the ER. And fertility drugs. And many, many visits to doctors.

That she is the most loved little girl in our little world.

And my "older child?"

He is exceptional too, thank you very much.

He is, without a doubt in the world, one of the brightest little boys I have ever known. And I have to fight a lot for him too right now. I have to call the school every single day and argue that he is NOT going to sit in a desk day after day wasting away. He is not a test score. And I don't care if it is a challenge for all of us (because trust me, it's a challenge for me too, Jack is way smarter than I am).

But you know what? He is NOT one of "those" kids either. It's a different kind of "those," but if the shoe doesn't fit...

So, Dear Woman in the Shop N Save, you should consider yourself lucky that my older child was standing there.

But next time?

Keep your opinions on other's reproductive "habits" to yourself.

Because my kids are NOT one of "those."

An adventure

2011-11-20T15:05:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was one of the worst days with Jack we have had since he was three years old. He started having tantrums at about 11 am and he was still carrying on at 7 30, with the last one lasting from 4 30 to 7 30.

I will only say this - I was moments from taking him to the hospital, because something must be seriously wrong with a child for him to scream for 3 hours.

(And I don't know what the answer to our current issue is but I am pretty sure there is a big change on our horizon for Jack.)

Anyway, I was left feeling completely and utterly burned out, so off to grandma's house he went today.

We went to a global food market and our favorite Indian restaurant and then off to an Asian dollar store that I *just* learned about this week from my best girlfriend.

These photos are utter crap because it is nighttime and rainy, but you get the idea.

We popped into an estate sale in a very, very, very fancy neighborhood where I picked up a roll of foil wallpaper from 1979. I have seen a few wallpaper art type projects on pinterest and I think it might be fun for that, even if it is way more 1970 than anything else I ever buy.

The dollar store was loads of fun (but nothing is a dollar! LOL it's all $2). Rice ball molds;
Gingham bento/cupcake/whatever (will be crafty in my house) papers;
The cutest sponges ever;
No wait, maybe these are the cutest sponges ever;
Or are these the cutest sponges ever?;
A cloth "lunch sack";
A very cute notebook;
And another;
And even cute trash cans!;
A cute plastic box.

I love Japanese cute so very much. It totally made up for a bad, bad Saturday.

Now if only I could find a bookstore in town that sold the Japanese books and magazines I love. I tried asking around in "chinatown*", but no one there spoke english. When I asked the man in the dollar store he replied "oh, I get a new door soon!" Umm, great? LOL

*I had no idea we even had a chinatown until this week, but we do indeed.

You'll shoot your eye out

2011-11-17T14:00:00.000-08:00

Jack had early release from school today (that is all the rage around these parts, they are letting these kids out of school at least one day a month now for staff development), so I decided to take the kids to the "dead animal zoo", aka Bass Pro.

Directv made me do it. Did you know that right now they have an entire channel dedicated to the Santa stuff at Bass Pro? LOL

Anyway. Late one night I spotted said channel and when I saw that they had GUNS GUNS for the kids I knew Jack would love it.

You see, Jack is obsessed with guns. His favorite tv show? Top Shot. (Featuring the oh so hot Colby from Survivor fame. Ahem.)

Me? So NOT obsessed with guns. How did a pacifist like me get a gun loving child?

I am trying not to make a big deal of it. My dad is a hunter and card toting NRA man, so I am just going with it.

So off to the dead animal zoo we went.

And you know what? It was fun. Awesome for little boys actually. (And blissfully not crowded at 2 in the afternoon on a Thursday.)
There were trains to drive.

And slot cars to race. (I actually won once.) And RC cars too.
Bows and arrows to try out.
And Red Ryder BB guns to shoot. (Not really, it was an arcade game type thing. And actually Jack loved the bow and arrow a lot more than this.)
There were pretty babies to admire while they lounged in your lap watching the action.
And photo ops that seemed to be going okay...
until you are suddenly convinced that JACK IS GOING TO DROP THE BABY! (Which he wasn't).
And then the baby decides that there are plenty of interesting things she could be eating while we are just sitting here.

And it was all FREE.

I am totally not being paid to say this, but if you have little boys and a bass pro, you should really go shoot your eye out* for the holidays. :-)

But go on a week DAY. The elves** told me that place is insane at night.

* Everyone knows that movie, right?

**Peter the elf was awesome with Jack. He played with him while I was doing some baby juggling at a lot of the stations.

/Bass Pro should feel free to send me my paycheck now!

Parenting with a purpose

2011-11-16T10:21:00.001-08:00

When we had parent teacher conferences back in October I had a little lightbulb moment while talking with Jack's teacher. His gifted teacher has him fill out a personal inventory at the end of gifted days and I was surprised by some of the things he writes on those.

So I decided to try out an idea I saw on a blog not too long ago, a between you and me book with him.

I was really hoping that since Jack finds it very difficult to discuss his emotions that he might be more comfortable writing them down for me.
So far this is NOT what I would call a win. I write him little letters and that is pretty much the end of it.

He will write back if I request it, but not of his own volition. And even then he tends to just answer the question I have asked and that is the end of it.

I still think this is an idea worth exploring, but I am not sure of where to go with it next? He most certainly needs encouragement from me, and it is providing a very concrete method of delivering that. But I really still want to work on his expression of emotions...

Hmmmmm.

Parenting is certainly becoming a more purposeful exercise with him as he grows instead of those "fly by the seat of your pants and hope to live through another day" days of yore.

In other news, I bit the built and cut up the hankies. (Those of you who have been hanging out here awhile know that was H - A - R - D! for me)

And then I hit a brick wall.

I am still sorting out how exactly I am going to put this together into a quilt.

I am afraid of messing it up! LOL

Oh Santa baby.

2011-11-15T18:28:00.001-08:00

In my never ending quest to have as much of the Christmas "work" as possible done in November so I can use December to make gingerbread houses and watch snow fly and watch Christmas movies with the kids, I had Jack make his Santa list last week and I hauled the kids off to see Santa Claus. (I always go before turkey day, no waiting!)

So, we arrive at the mall promptly at opening time and there is no Santa Claus in sight.

We go to Hallmark where Jack picks out a very sweet first Christmas ornament from him to Sammi and go back to the Santa house.

Still no Santa.

We go to gymboree and buy Sammi another dress and go back to Santa.

Now there is Santa, and a line!

Wait in line for 30 minutes while they try to make the camera work and finally have our turn with Santa. Jack is too shy to speak (for the first year ever) and Samantha is looking at me like I have freaking lost my mind putting her on the lap of this very hairy strange man.
Spend another 10 minutes trying to get a decent photo, tell the girl this is FINE FINE FINE. (It really is fine. Perfection is not the object here.)
Pay my $30 (!!!) dollars and off we go to lunch with Dad.

So I sit down Sunday afternoon to blog about the ridiculousness of the Santa visit and I put the CD in the computer.

And it's blank.

@#%#$@!*$&!@ Where is the Santa photo? Call IT support, aka Dave, who informs me I have a blank CD.

Call the mall where the lady informs me that there is no telephone for Santa.

At this point I realize I am going to have to redress the children, haul them to the mall again and do this charade all over again. Except this time it is 80 degrees, Sammi's dress is dirty and Jack is in NO mood for this.

So I put Sammi in a summer dress (to see Santa Claus for gods sake) and go back to the mall and tell them my issue.

And we do it all over again.

Now Santa Claus, being a friendly old bloke, wants to know what Jack wants for Christmas.

Again.

And Jackson wants to know why in the hell Santa doesn't remember what he wants SINCE WE WERE JUST THERE TWO DAYS AGO.

So Jack refuses to answer, I get all flustered because holy hell my kid is being rude to Santa Claus of all people and I have already had to do this damn thing twice.

Sigh.

It's quite possible this has ruined the Santa gig for my very smart boy.

(I have explained that these dudes in the malls are just elves. Worker bees. Santa is magic and of course Santa knows what he wants and of course he will read the list.*)

So then. The cards are ordered. Santa has been visited. Presents have been purchased. Decorations are starting to go up. (I have no clue what to do with a tree. Sammi is into EVERYTHING.) New Christmas pj's are in the mail.

My plan is well under way.

Well, except for that part about the blank CD and it trying to ruin everything.

Oh Santa baby. More care next year, okay?

*We won't even go into how I had to phone the toy store dot com FOUR times to get a person who knows their rear end from a hole in the ground about non functioning coupon codes in pursuit of list fulfillment.

Or how I still have to take the children to the doctor every three days. It was Sammi's turn again this morning.

Shutterfly

2011-11-14T06:40:00.000-08:00

I don't usually use my blog to pimp out ANYTHING, but I do actually love shutterfly.

Remember when the kids and I took all those photos for Father's Day ? We turned them into a beautiful shutterfly photo book.

And the ones we took of our engagement photos ? Also turned into a shutterfly book. (Which you saw the kids enjoying together in last week's blog post.

I did a little comparison over the summer - there were a TON of offers for free photo books, and so I made several of them. Shutterfly's was hands down the best of the bunch.

And I am not being paid to say that.

So when I saw that they would give me free Christmas cards to blog about them, of course I said I would do it.

Remember the Christmas card photos?

This is the one I ended up choosing. I mean come on, it says believe underneath my kids with those hilarious looks on their faces! It was hard to choose though, because they do have a collage card, and I know a lot of you liked that idea. I think I need a few more to fill out the list, so I might choose that option too.

Next up on my shutterfly list is a photo book for my mom for Christmas.

You can see the card selection for yourself here:

holiday cards
Christmas cards
thank you cards

P.S. A frugal tip - sometimes there is a groupon type deal for Shutterfly, which is one I never pass up!

Happy Dance

2011-11-11T06:06:00.000-08:00

The kids and I are off on some busy adventures today, but I had to stop and share the most exciting news in my little world -

My felt book for Sammi was on OhDeeDoh yesterday!

Yipppeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!

(Here's where I start singing the Mary Tyler Moore Song "looks like we've made it after all".)

Happy Friday y'all. Back soon.

10 months

2011-11-10T06:55:00.000-08:00

Samantha Dear,
You are 10 months old today!
Today you are in love with the kitty on your dress. (I swear you look at the cats and say "cat" already.)
You are still in L O V E with shoes of all kinds. But not so keen on wearing shoes of your own.
You are pretty convinced that Jack is the coolest thing since sliced bread. And Daddy too. As soon as they come in the door you rush over to the gate to meet them and be picked up.
You are still the happiest baby I have ever seen.
You are back to sleeping through the night. We fed you every night at 10 30 for a few weeks and that seems to have reset your clock. At least for now.
You have a tooth! Hard to see, but finally! a little tooth in there.
You are standing up, cruising on everything and standing independently for a few seconds already too.

You have mastered mama, dada, baba.
You are starting to dance.
And clap.
And nod your head NO rather vigorously.
You are eating everything in sight, including bits of table food.
Your favorite food is baby yogurt. Mmmmmm.
You refuse to leave the headbands on already.
You have your first ear infection.
You do NOT love bottles, but have yet to master the sippy cup.
You like shiny things, especially when Daddy lets you touch the chandeliers.
You love the big buttons on my every day sweater.
You do not love being trapped by the baby gate, you want to explore!
You think lying on the top of the cats is FUNNY!
You still put every stinking thing on earth in your mouth.
You love to sit in the yard and crunch up leaves.
You already enjoy playing and digging in the sandbox on warm fall days.
You noticed everything that is up - the trees, the sky, the stars, the birds, even what is on the ceiling of the thrift store.
Your favorite toy is still the tupperware toy tail.
But in general you just plain like toys. Any toy will do.
You are curious about everything - when the wind was ratting the windows yesterday you would look at the window and then look at me with your big questioning eyes wondering what on earth was happening out there.

You are, plain and simple, the sweetest little girl.

Love you baby,
Mama

P.S. Two months until 1 year! Time is really cruising now sweet cheeks.

What I do right now

2011-11-08T09:24:00.000-08:00

You know what I do right now?

I take the children to the doctor.

A lot.

Like at least 4 times in the last 2 weeks.

I am so over it.

Everything else on my want to do list? Never gets done. Because I am visiting the doctor again. I see him more than my husband at this point!

I picked up a pair of shadowboxes at the flea market for a dollar last weekend. I took a before photo for you, but then it got deleted. They are from hobby lobby and they had pink polka dotted backgrounds with the letters L and I in them.

The shape instantly reminded me of these shadowboxes . I was not at all sure I could get them open, since hobby lobby didn't sell them as frames, but as "art".

After much encouragement with an exacto knife and a science spatula, I was in.

Then I had to decide what on earth to put in them. Every idea I had led to a *missing* item that was nowhere to be found. (I have clearly organized myself into chaos instead of organization in the sewing room.) Just when I was about to give up I spotted two prize rosettes on my bulletin board.
I smacked some scrapbook paper on to cover up where I ripped off the letters, glued in the rosettes with a Martha Stewart chipboard animal and up they went in the bathroom.
They are cute.

But someday I might find those missing items and put them in there instead.

What I really want to talk about is pinterest.

When I go back and look at my boards there I have pinned all sorts of white, white, white rooms. We just remodeled this house two years ago, and I had everything the way I wanted it. Why do I pin all this white stuff? When I was doing Sammi's room I tried like hell to make it white and beautiful and it just felt HORRIBLE in there. So I painted it a dark gray.

And yet, I still pin all things white.

I am left wondering if I should try a much whiter palette again or if I should just decide they are nice to look at but not to live with.

Hmmmmmmmm.

What do you think? Do you pin stuff you could actually live with? Or just dream about living with?

P.S. David says "pinterest is like crack." That's right, my HUSBAND is drinking the pinterest kool-aid.

An unexpected find

2011-11-07T11:19:00.000-08:00

I was *this* close to not going to the flea yesterday. The time change means the children are up VERY early and Dave and I had stayed up well past midnight trying to score a really good Christmas deal.

But when I went to open the window after feeding Sammi, I noticed it was really warm out.

So off I went.

I picked up two more of these huge industrial wire baskets, which I have been using to organize pantry stuff. (Anyone know what these things are from anyway?)
Then as I was on my way back to my car I stopped to say goodbye to one of the vendors I have been friendly with for many years and I noticed a bag full of Ezrgebirge figurine parts. After digging through to decide if they were salvageable or not, I had to negotiate FOREVER on the price.

I first saw these sometime last year and I spent some time searching for them then, so I know that on both ebay and the retail market they are CRAZY expensive little things.

Since these are rough, and needed a lot of glue, I got them for a little less than 2 dollars each. Still not bargain basement cheap.
And despite the previous poor repair jobs that have left them darkened with glue I love them so much. So much sweetness in such a little thing.

Right now they are living on the mantle while I decide what on earth I am going to put there with my science posters.
Actually, the whole house is in 10 shades of disarray because of one VERY busy baby. I am being forced to rearrange a lot of stuff to keep her out of trouble and it is slow going right now! LOL

The reason I do that thing I do

2011-11-05T14:11:00.001-07:00

I was up early this morning with Sammi browsing blogs while she played.

Then I spotted this post from Barbara . Let's just say that was the end of my lounge around the house morning. I mean look at that haul! I had to get dressed and get out there, there was junk waiting for me.

We went to four garage sales and completely struck out. As in - I haven't bought a single thing I might as well take the children home - struck out. On the way back to the highway I spotted a sign for a yard sale that hadn't been on my list. I circled back around to hit it.

It was a bunch of J U N K. Plastic tablecloths, plastic flower pots, etc. I was just about to leave because the woman was driving me nuts about my tee shirt*, when I spotted some rolled up canvas on a table in the back corner.

I looked long enough to know only that they were old science teaching materials.

Only one was priced. "Is that $10 each or for all?" I asked her. "Welll, I really wanted $10 each. But I would take $20 for them all. I think they came out of St Marys." "Yea, I am a biologist and those are way cool, let me drag my husband out of the van." LOL

SOLD!

Do not be fooled by my late afternoon sun photographs.
These are beautifully painted old plant diagrams.
This one is the fern.
Made in Germany maybe? I haven't googled this yet.
This one is mold.
I can't remember what this one was, and it is already safely tucked away from cats and children.

And this one is Spirogyra.

Honestly, I almost peed myself.

*This* is why I love junk and why I love looking for junk!

I am going to rotate them out over the fireplace mantel and enjoy every single second of them.

*I have an old Save Martha shirt that I LOVE. I have had it since 2003? 2004? before she went to jail. But it's comfortable and cozy and it's my bum around shirt. I suppose people have forgotten she went to jail already or something because EVERYONE wants to discuss the darn shirt. It's a shirt people, make it be whatever you want it to be, it's just a shirt. If you harass me about it I will leave your garage sale. LOL

Labor of love - Felt baby doll book

2011-11-04T09:44:00.000-07:00

A few months ago I noticed that Sammi's preferred toy at the moment was this vintage fabric book that has little objects on strings that you tuck into the different pages. There is an apple for the shopping cart and a bear for the bed and so on.

My wheels started churning and I decided to make her a felt book of her own.

It turned out bigger in size than I had first anticipated, each page is about 8 x 12 inches, but I am really in love with the end project. (When Jack saw it sitting out he said "hey mom, that's a really nice book.")

It took me more than a month to put all the different pieces together though, so quite the labor of love. (And sometimes I had to work up the courage to cut into my precious vintage fabrics!)

I started with the baby. It took me three tries to get her *just right*.
The cover has hexagon building blocks.
And baby hangs from a piece of silky vintage seam binding.
The wagon page is AWESOME. The colors are not as bright in the photo as they truly are. I made the wagon from pieces of vinyl.
I wanted the words for this page to look like sky writing. Baby rides in the shiny pink wagon.
The mama page.
Baby rides in the moby wrap. (This is where I started to feel clever, a moby wrap! Yes!)
The bath tub page, complete with our clawfoot tub.
And yo-yo bubbles. I wanted the words on this page to be in bubbles.
The yo-yo's are super, super tiny. (And a bugger to make.)
Baby takes a bath.
The goodnight page.
With the world's smallest hexagon quilt. The hexes are a little less than the size of a quarter. And yes, I hand sewed on the binding. I wanted the word sleep to look like it was being tucked into bed here.

Baby goes to bed.

And Love, the most important, and final page.

All that's left to do is decide whether to hold it back for her first birthday or not!

In my dream world

2011-11-03T05:50:00.000-07:00

In my dream world we have a photographer we pay to take these photos.

In my real world I have to run around making props, run around gathering props, run around dressing children, and then run around mending props. Then I get to sit in the grass (sweating to death) wiping a runny nose every 2.2 seconds, making goofy noises to try and elicit a smile, throwing leaves in the air, moving the children every two seconds to readjust said props/quilts/etc and wishing for my dream world!

These were HARD.

And this is the best of the bunch. Of 78 photos, *four* are passable.
Jack doesn't look super happy, but I think this might be the best one.
I think this is funny.
Meh.
Dave prefers this one.
If it were just Jack, this would have been my winner, hands down. And this took all of 1.5 seconds to take.

So, what say ye? A, B, C, D?

*Yes, Sammi IS holding an old tupperware toy tail in every photo. In fact, right now she is desperately clutching that tail. That tail goes everywhere we go. There is no letting go of the tail. I won't mention the fact that Jack thinks the tail is a horn and so he calls it "horny." Oh yes he does.

Also, her hair is at such an awkward stage. I feel like she has to have a bow to make it look decent, but Dave is not keen on the bows. If she were a boy I would be cutting it. It is making her 99th percentile, toddler sized head look even bigger. LOL

Well timed

2011-11-02T09:20:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I was browsing the internet while Dave and Jack undecorated the outside of the house, and I came across this post from Meg .

Obviously it couldn't have come a better time for me. She perfectly expressed every single thought that was in my head yesterday and I used that as a well timed sign that it was time to drop the must do's and do something else.

So I made beards for the kids Christmas photos. (I planned to try and take them today when it is going to be 75 degrees for the last time a while, or so says the weatherman. But Cheeks is sick again and I am not sure it's going to work.)
Then I thought I would take a photo of something I hung up in the bathroom and meant to show you weeks ago.

I thought perhaps it was a teensy bit insane to hang a faux painting (it's a print) above the tub when I asked Dave to do it. In the end I have decided I really quite like it there.
It was the bee that made me buy it at Goodwill. Do you see him there?

And since I was already feeling the Meg love, I made a treasure basket for Sammi with some stuff from around the house too.

She took out the big metal spoon and the squash and is ignoring the rest. (Do you suppose she will EVER get teeth? Nearly 10 months old and not a tooth in sight.)

Now I am off to work on a project that has been on my counter for at least two months.

Progress is slow, but it's happening.

Right after I change another diaper. Only 5 minutes after I put a clean one on her. Thanks cheeks. LOL

Burning out

2011-11-01T12:12:00.001-07:00

In the words of The Help "oh law" I am tired.
I am feeling incredibly burnt out right now.
On everything.
There is ZERO time for me.

All I seem to do is cook and clean and mind children and cook and clean and mind children. And every day I wake up and think "oh yes!" today I only have to do one thing and then I will have some time to do something fun.
But before I know it, it's 10 30 pm and I still making bottles and doing dishes and folding one more load of laundry.
Or taking down all of the Halloween stuff.
I am surprised by just how much more work a second child has added. It hasn't just doubled, it's more like quadrupled.
And of course, this house being twice as big as the last isn't helping either.
I am genuinely hoping to get Christmas card photos taken and buy a few last presents and then I can be done with this work work work work work all day long crap.
But I am sure that is just wishful thinking.
In the meantime, I will just have to go in the sewing room and pet all these pretty new vintage fabrics.

And dream of having a moment to actually do something with them.

Until then I have to go fish something out of the baby's mouth.

Again.

On Halloween

2011-10-31T05:23:00.000-07:00

On Halloween, the Great Pumpkin gave to me:
One surprise sandwich for Jack's lunch box;
And one wonderful raven costume (after many hours of hot gluing feathers).
Jack likes flapping his wings and reports that the feathers are warm and cozy.
I like the eyes.
But his smile when he saw it on himself in the mirror? Priceless.

Samantha thinks all of this is a little bit nuts!

(We took the kids to a trunk or treat yesterday and while I love and adore cheeks, it bums me out that only one person, a teenager, even commented on Jack's costume because they were all fixated on cheeks. My big kid deserves attention too people!)

All that's left to do is trick or treat and gorge ourselves on Halloween candy.

Happy Halloween to you!

On the seventh day of Halloween

2011-10-30T10:52:00.000-07:00

On the seventh day of Halloween, the Great Pumpkin gave to me:

One very rushed, last minute trip to the pumpkin patch as I realized the sky was turning black with rain and I still did not have decent photos of the kids yet.
There were tractor rides;
Big tire swings;
Cute poses;
Two kids actually looking in the same direction on the first shot;
Two times in a row;
Fun in the straw (Sammi LOVES leaves and straw);
Big tractor rides;
And corn to play in.

And one successful early morning trip to the flea (with no kids), complete with:
A very sweet tablecloth (that darn closet is overflowing again already);
A few more hankies for the hankie quilt (which I am starting as soon as this Halloween stuff is done);
A very sweet clothespin bag;
A fun handmade pumpkin;
A pile of honeycomb pumpkins;
And a gaggle of skeletons.

Oh yea, and 300 lbs of pears. Well, not quite, but it's a lot. A grocery sack full for $2. I am going to make pearsauce instead of applesauce for the kids.

With any luck we might make a trunk or treat even this afternoon so the kids can show off their cute costumes in the daylight.

Back tomorrow with the finale - the costumes. :-)

On the sixth day of Halloween

2011-10-30T10:31:00.000-07:00

I have to tell you that two weeks ago I did NOT think I was going to be able to get all this stuff done - making costumes, pumpkin patches, hay rides, huge birthday parties, but as of an hour ago I am DONE. (I won't mention that I am pretty close to done with Santa Claus too!)

Relief.

I have to break this up into two posts today because I just could not get to it yesterday.

On the sixth day of Halloween, the Great Pumpkin gave to me:
One afternoon spent carving pumpkins.
Jack said the pumpkin guts looked like a Halloween cave, complete with bats hanging down.
He is very proud of his ability to carve a pumpkin now, and he carved three of them!
Sammi is just plain cute in that hat.

Last night my dad had arranged for us to take a hayride in Amish country. (My dad and my brother have been working with the Amish near Bowling Green.) Wilbur drove us all over in his wagon and it was magical.
It was silent and chilly and beautiful. We sat in the middle of the cow pasture and watched the cows. We sat in the horse field and watched the horses chase the wagon.

We admired the reflection of the trees on the pasture pond which was as still as glass.

And we noticed that there were thousands of twinkly stars.

Sammi was mesmerized.

And I hope it becomes tradition.

On the fifth day of Halloween

2011-10-28T09:39:00.000-07:00

On the fifth day of Halloween, the Great Pumpkin gave to me:
Three super cute witch ornaments, made with Jack.
(It used to be so easy to make things with Jack.)

(Now there is an awful lot of complaining involved. But I am determined to carry on with tradition.)

Template here

On the fourth day of Halloween

2011-10-27T15:06:00.001-07:00

On the fourth day of Halloween, the Great Pumpkin gave to me:

One trip to the dentist with Jack (2 fillings and 4 sealants);

One trip to the eye doctor with Jack (nothing wrong with the eye that they can find, watch it for a month);
One handmade indian costume...
complete with sequins;
and one restyled $1 thrift store gymboree romper...

complete with a happy daisy.

And about 12 hours of hollering at Jackson. Who is driving me freaking insane. For reals.

The end.

LOL

On the third day of Halloween

2011-10-26T07:54:00.000-07:00

On the third day of Halloween, the Great Pumpkin gave to me:
One finally transformed garage sale painting...
vampire, anyone?
One AMAZING spelling test from Jack (he worked so hard to teach himself how to spell these words! His teacher gives him a separate spelling test from the rest of the class);
One pair of giggling ghosts in the big gold frame;
One tablecloth closet full of blow molds. This is the first time I have put them here and I really like them all grouped together.

AND I finished Jack's costume yesterday, yippeeee!

Off to change smoke detector batteries. Cheerio!

On the second day of Halloween

2011-10-25T09:51:00.000-07:00

On the second day of Halloween, the Great Pumpkin gave to me:
One beautiful baby in one large pumpkin.

Now, before everyone goes and thinks oh man! I can never get my kids to do stuff like this, there was some complaining on her part.
She did NOT want to smile because she really wanted to know what on god's green earth she was doing inside of this cold slimy pumpkin*.
But it was worth every minute of the crazy talking and encouraging I had to do.
I can't wait to see one of these in an 8 x 10 on the collage wall.
Also, when did she get so big?
I mean she is standing, independently in a giant pumpkin!
So thank you Great Pumpkin.

And pinterest, where I stole this idea from.

And my dad, who drove us ALL the way out in the country to a field and hiked around with 6 wild grandchildren while my SIL and I searched for the perfect big pumpkin to squeeze cheeks into.

*I had been watching the weather report waiting for the perfect day. It's 85 degrees today. I knew I had to jump on it NOW before the bottom drops out tomorrow. Also, I hollowed the pumpkin out a day in advance so it wouldn't be quite so slimy.

On the first day of Halloween

2011-10-24T07:31:00.000-07:00

Wow. It is taking me a long time this year to get to the great pumpkin series.

On the first day of Halloween, the Great Pumpkin gave to me:
One super duper fantastically cool old Halloween costume.
Incredible! (All handmade.)
One hanger and one doll blanket.
Four identical feedsacks all sewn together.
One Santa Claus hankie.
One sweet peach house...
that is part of a village.

Thank you Great Pumpkin. Even if I did have to go to the flea market IN THE DARK yesterday (which I never do*) to get them.

* I have a "relationship" with the flea market that is more than shopping. I know a lot of the vendors, they know the kids, etc. When one of them saw me there in the dark yesterday he exclaimed "WHAT THE HELL! Are you sleep walking?" LOL I decided since Sammi had me up at 5 am I might as well get moving. Despite being there in the dark I still did not buy a single ornament. I did, however, see them all in the cart of another woman. Bah humbug to that.

Cowboy party

2011-10-23T08:12:00.000-07:00

Well, three hours later and I still haven't finished this blog post. Oy.

Onto the cowboy party.

Cake table (complete with a wonderful vintage cowboy spread thanks to a certain anonymous blog reader).
Hay bales for sitting.
Horse shoe cakes 1 (I HATE baking, hate it, these were really a challenge for me)...
and 2.
My favorite vintage folding chairs.
A jail for jail tag.
A shooting range.
Pony rides. (I swear there is not a kid on earth who doesn't love this horse. And it's sturdy too, it was holding 3 and 4 of them at a time).
Panning for gold (we painted gravel gold).
The tatoo station.
Cowboy hats for everyone.
Needle (well, really sheriff badges) in a haystack.
Bean bag bean pot toss.
Roping.
And the photo station.

We also did pony express races (with hobby horses), a rattle snake stomp, and horseshoe tossing.

Well then. The baby never took her nap this morning (and she is COMPELTELY refusing bottles), I just burned the delicata squash (which was not so easy to prep and I am not happy about) and the boys have a boy scout function to get to.

Is it time for a vacation yet?

Right now

2011-10-22T18:02:00.001-07:00

Right now I would show you photos of the party, but -
I am a bit worried about Jack. When I took the kids to JC Penney for photos last week I noticed Jack's right eye looked weird in all the photos. Then today I noticed this photo from Thursday. See how that eye doesn't look right?

He is complaining a lot about light sensitivity too.
I am also dead exhausted. 16 wildebeests running ramping for 2.5 hours plus set up and break down AND caring for Sammi through it all has worn me out.
And then I went and ate WAY too much fast food WAY too fast for dinner. Blech.
To top it all off, I am frustrated with Jack. He went and had a rip roaring, rolling on the floor screaming tantrum right about here in the picture taking.

Before the party even started.

He was complaining like mad about being outside and now that I see the eye weirdness in some of these photos I wonder if something really is going on with that eye or if I should just give up now because my SEVEN YEAR OLD still has rolling on the floor tantrums.

I am struggling a lot with adjusting my expectations. As in, "I never expected to have a seven year old rolling on the floor and I cannot seem to stop it no matter what I do and it is starting to become very challenging for ME to remember that Jack has not magically changed over night". He is still a quirky challenging kid.

Oh yea, and parent teacher conferences? Blech. Struggling with that a bit too.

So then. Back soon. Pinky promise. With reasonable expectations.

I hope.

Hapde Burfday Baby

2011-10-19T08:31:00.001-07:00

My Dearest Jack,
Today you are seven. Seven! How did that happen?
It seems like just yesterday when we were waiting for you (forever) in that hospital room.
And then you were my most precious little cherub baby.
And my rambunctious toddler.
And a living terror. (Sorry, but it's true. Three was not kind.)

And then suddenly a bright little boy!
And a preschooler.
And a kindergartner.
And now a grade schooler.

Gone are the days when I would use your birthday to mark your milestones. This year you could walk and that year you could add and so on.

We are suddenly entering the days when I am starting to think about the things you WON'T want to do anymore soon. How much longer will you want to trick or treat? Or have big themed birthday parties? Or believe in magic?

For now I am happy those days are not here yet.

I do want to stop and tell you that you are an AMAZING brother to Sammi. Your love for her is boundless, and it's the most wonderful thing I have ever seen. I love that you want to have "10,000" more babies. And I hope that you remember that joy in the years to come when she is into your stuff or in your way or is a "baby" that is hindering your own fun.

Since we are not really marking milestones anymore I thought we would start a yearly interview.

Your answers at age 7:

Favorites:

cereal - honey nut o's
vegetable - carrots
drink - sierra mist (a forbidden treat!)
toy - lincoln logs (a surprising answer)
TV Show - spongebob (you like this b/c I have tried to forbid it for so long)
game - angry birds rio
book - dr seuss (I suppose you are never too old or too advanced in reading to enjoy those)
restaurant - house of india (my favorite too!)
holiday - Christmas or bday
animal - cat

If you could change your name, what would you choose? Samantha

What do you love about each person in our family? mom is nice, dad is cool, Sam is funny

Where would you like to go on vacation this year? Florida (I wish we could make that dream come true, but not this year)

What are some of your wishes for this year? to get lots of money (no surprise there, and I am pretty sure when you are grown up you will have money to spare)

What do you want to be when you grow up? scientist or author (No matter what you choose you are a TOTALLY amazing kid. And everyone who meets you thinks so too. You never fail to amaze everyone with your smart little brain.)

So. Hapde Burfday Baby.

Mama loves you.

Need fabric?

2011-10-18T10:49:00.001-07:00

Oops, I did it again.

I bought a big lot of vintage fabric because I wanted a few pieces and now I have a lot left over.

They are too nice to toss in the donation bag, so I posted them on my other blog .

They are CHEAP!

Just in case you need to feed your own fabric monster.

:-)

I have some tape

2011-10-18T06:01:00.000-07:00

We took the kids to the flea market on Sunday. It was beautifully warm and although I wasn't buying a lot of stuff, it was nice to still be out there.
I picked up this ornament, and since it was 25 cents and I had NO small change, she just gave it to me.
Then I spotted this pair of Robeez for 20 cents (!!!) and I wandered off to find someone to make change for me.
I spotted this quilt in a pile of new made in china quilts and inquired about the price. He started high - too high. I just shrugged and said "too high, it's too rough."

And then he started coming down.

And down.

And down.

And the longer I waited the lower he went. (I really wasn't trying to do that, I was just thinking about the quilt and trying to gauge my love for it, it's condition, and my ability to unfold it while wearing Sammi.)
He finally hit my magic number and now it's mine.

It's faded to a lovely pink...

but I think at one time it might have been red.

While all of this is going on Jack and Sammi are shrieking at each other. She has learned to mimic him, so he makes a noise and she makes it back.

They think its funny.

And honestly, this is an outside flea market and it's harmless (and cute in an annoying kind of way).

This lady (wearing a flea market staff shirt, btw) walks up to me and says, bold as day, "I can give you some duct tape to fix that problem."

(Insert a speechless me here.)

Well then.

I think she should use that tape on herself to fix her own problems. (sweet smile).

Okay, screaming baby calls. Happy Tuesday to you.

Pumpkin patch

2011-10-17T09:03:00.001-07:00

It's worth noting a few things here.
1)Whenever I do NOT have the children in their "outfits" the picture will turn out pretty awesome.
2) When the children ARE in their "outfits" they will moan and complain and be sick and I will just be frustrated with never getting the "right" picture.
3) Jackson is now so big he can no longer fit in the tunnel.
4) Getting a picture of both them together is like pulling teeth right now.

5) I have gone full on toddlers and tiaras CRAZY lady when it comes to Sammi's "outfits". I put the baby in a Halloween tutu for goodness sake!

Oh yea, she has learned how to stand up.

Shut.the.front.door.

And they are both sick.

Like rolling on the floor, moaning, lost the will to live sick.

Nothing like a busy week with two sick kids.

Yippppeeeee!

End of the Halloween Swap

2011-10-16T10:19:00.000-07:00

The last group of swap ornaments!
A super sweet little witch from Sara.

A bright and fun pumpkin banner from Courtney (which is obviously gracing our coat rack!).
Amazing eggs from Lee , I hope they arrived in one piece! (I saw that in Martha many years ago and just never got around to doing it. Now I am spared!)
Cute little birdhouses (crow houses perhaps? I have crows on the brain) from Shannon.
Meow! Kitty wreaths from Alexandra (welcome to the swap!).
I chose an owl from Desi , but there were other designs too!
Vampire bats from Jamie (I debated how to spell your name for awhile, but I would have to log out to check and time is creeping up on me, apologies if I chose the wrong way!). Mine lost an eye and a certain little someone has made off with it.

And a very quick photo of them all on the tree.

Better photos of the tree later next week.

This coming week holds parent teacher conferences, two days off school, Jack's birthday, doctor visits for both kids, two days with my dad, and one big cowboy party.

I am exhausted already!

It's baseball fever around St Louis right now

2011-10-14T08:04:00.000-07:00

Oh, thank you Hope! Your suggestion worked and I can add video of the kids.

Jack was singing this song this morning and it seemed like the most appropriate time to post it. (Apparently Fred Bird is coming to visit them at school soon. )

Go Cards!

(Never mind my sewing mess on the table there, I have felt like dog poo all week.)

More Halloween swap

2011-10-13T07:58:00.000-07:00

Time for more Halloween ornaments!
Lisa and I share a love of papercutting, but papercutting with felt? Awesome. (And hard? It seems like it would have been hard!)
Look how crafty Shanna got with paint! I can only paint solid colors on furniture. :-)
Rachel found a super cool use for the kind of fabric I always put in my give away pile. (Sammi is in love with his button eyes!) Perhaps I should rethink that plan...
Stephanie made super cute glittery bats. (Does anyone else remember "warm fuzzies" from grade school? He reminds me of a wonderful Halloween version of a warm fuzzy!)
Renee , well, Renee is super crafter extraordinaire. TEN of these houses? I bow to you.
And
Hope ! These birds were so fantastic. (Hope also writes fantastic children's books. Jack and I have been revisiting one her of her books recently and I am thinking that What do you do when a monster says boo would be fun for Halloween, but whoa nelly! @ the price tag!)

The ornaments are fun huh?

Last batch tomorrow!

Halloween Swap

2011-10-12T10:05:00.001-07:00

It is so gray today. We had wicked storms last night and I have been up all night with Jack. He is coughing a lot (again) so I took away his beloved "vent", aka very old hepa filter that needs new expensive filters. He has always slept with that on as his white noise and he freaked out over my taking it away. I suspect that the dirty filters might be aggravating an allergy. But then again, he probably just has another cold from school. Either way, he cried and cried over needing that noise. So I tried a different fan, but it wasn't very loud. And then it stormed and stormed and woke the whole house up at 4 am.

And that was after I spent the whole day yesterday washing curtains and rugs and dust ruffles. I am not nearly done with that job. Damn curtains. LOL

But! Halloween is creeping ever so close.

The time has come to start unveiling the ornaments from the swap or I will run out of time.
Mikey sent these wonderful cats with vintage chenille pumpkins on them. I am crazy over those pumpkins. He generously sent enough pumpkins for the second group to get a pumpkin too. Thank you Mikey!
Saucy sent these wonderful Edgar Allen Poe ornaments. That Saucy is always thinking outside of the box. I love them.
Kim always makes us something fabulously cute and this was no exception. That witch! Her little broom! Darling.
Michaele is a paper queen. I love her sparkly bats.
Shara sent these fantastic kitties. I wanted to hoard them all for myself. Being the swap hostess is hard I tell you.

Rebecca made us fantastic vixens. I had a hard time choosing which one to keep for myself.

Back with more wonderful ornaments tomorrow!

It never gets old

2011-10-11T05:39:00.000-07:00

It never gets old, this quilt buying thing.
Spotting one lying there, waiting for me.
Inquiring about the price, wondering if I can afford it, if it's worth the asking price, if it suits my style.
Bringing it home, washing it up, hanging it on the line*.

Placing it on the quilt rack in the living room, enjoying it until the next one arrives.

*Later cursing self for hanging it on the line because it is now misshapen in a straight line! Will have to wash it again and lay it flat to dry.
**Apparently I never get tired of photographing the children with them either.

9 Months!

2011-10-10T13:53:00.001-07:00

Samantha Dear,
Today you are 9 months old!
3/4 of the way through your first year already.
You are the happiest baby I have ever met.
Your smile never fails to cheer up everyone around us.

And we happen to think you super cute too.

You also:
*are on the move. Crawling everywhere, trying to stand up, going after things you want, and learning to come to mama.
*babbling like crazy. I swear I hear bye bye and hi in there.
*LOVE crunching up fall leaves in the yard and playing in the grass. And you are finally learning not to eat them!
*putting every thing on earth in your mouth still.
*learning to love food, all kinds of foods.
*quite efficient at pincer grasping.
*love going for rides in the stroller in the mornings, but still spending plenty of time riding in the moby wrap.
*in love with the kitties, you cannot understand why they won't let you pull out all their fur.
*very, very, very wiggly. Getting you dressed should qualify as an Olympic sport.
*still not in love with bottles. I will be so GLAD to be done with them soon.
*sleeping through the night ONLY if we go wake you up at 10 30 and give you an extra bottle then. Like magic it makes you sleep until 6 30 am.
*starting to recognize your name
*learning how to wave
AND
*the funniest watermelon I have ever seen!

Love you baby,
mama

Flea Market Sunday

2011-10-09T09:19:00.000-07:00

Ah, flea market sunday. I was *almost* too lazy to go this morning, but it's nearly mid October and I know that 2 months from now I will be moaning about how much I miss the flea.

Only one of these things actually came from the flea market, the rest are from garage sales.
FINALLY! A cheap saddle for the cowboy party.

It's a lovely saddle and I was starting to think we would never find one for less than $50. Dave bargained this one down to $16. SCORE!
And Old Kriss Kricket toy. He is missing his front wheels, but I think we might be able to make some new ones so the kids can pull him around.
Glass garland. The first strand this year I think.
Cardboard houses. Definitely the first ones this year.
A few pretty buttons.
And a HUGE box full of bias tape, ribbons, rick rack, etc. (And then I bought another big box full at the flea this morning for a $1. The new stuff at Joann is carpy poly blend stuff and is almost $4 a package. I never pass up good vintage notions if they are cheap.)

Pretty, isn't it?

Okay, time to go get my cowboy on. That party is only two weekends away and nothing is done.

Halloween Swap madness

2011-10-07T09:50:00.000-07:00

I made little witch hats for the Halloween swap.
20 fiddly little witch hats. (I made 20 so I could keep one of each ornament the swappers sent from each group. The other swappers made 10.)

And they are super cute.

Even if my damn cat keeps eating them and I have to keep repairing them.

And the Martha Stewart stickers won't stick.

Still, much love.
And I have just spent three exhausting long hours turning this...

into this.

Wait a minute Mr Postman!

On faith and fabric

2011-10-06T07:01:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago Jack asked me something about praying. I don't remember what it was for the life of me, but I know that he asked just a few days after I had discovered these secular prayers on pinterest.

The conversation prompted him to run around the house looking for all the places that I have little prayers hanging up, including one that hangs over his closet door.

I hadn't realized how much he had noticed those things in the house. We are not terribly religious, Dave probably has more faith than I do, but I do try and include faith in our lives.

It has been a sticky widget with Jack though. He HATES church (why? it's weird to me) and if you ask him about God he will generally tell you he is a non believer. (Which is interesting in itself. When things like death come up I tend to present both sides of the coin and leave him to think about it. He will choose biology over heaven every time.)

I have come to the conclusion that this has something to do with how he is hard wired. He certainly has my critical/scientific mind.

But back to those prayers. When I printed them off pinterest I decided we would start with a non secular prayer at meal times and bed time. I find that Jack is CONSTANTLY moaning about meals and helping around the house and this that and the other and I am starting think that a good healthy dose of faith might help.

I want him to be thankful we HAVE food to eat, not complain about it. I want him to count his blessings, not complain about the short comings.

I want him to be optimistic.

Period.

And I think the road to optimism might be found on the road to faith.

So we are saying our (secular) prayers and starting our days with the reminder to "have a happy smile and a happy heart."

It will be interesting to see if this has any effect on him at all. The biologist in me is still a skeptic. :-) (But right now I could use the same healthy dose of optimism, that's for sure!)
Speaking of optimism, I am still on the quest to find vintage fabric this year. It's all I can think about. Forget ornaments and quilts, it's fabric I want!

I managed to score about 3 yards of this gorgeous vintage grey print.
These are a few feedsack pieces I bought on Etsy as a little splurge.
Some pretty vintage scraps.
And newer fabric scraps, but in my beloved lavender.
I was drawn to the pattern on this piece.

When I got it home I discovered it was actually a feed (flour I think, because the fabric is very fine) sack! The stitching marks were still there.

A pleasant surprise for sure.

*Last night I had a GRAND MAGICAL PLAN on how to get Sam to sleep again. I was all set to implement said plan but Dave was at the scout meeting until 10 pm and Sam was up every 20 minutes between 7 and 10 crying her eyes out. I think teeth are on the way (finally!), so I didn't get to implement the GRAND MAGICAL PLAN, but never mind that, because she slept from 10 30 to 6 30.

I feel like a brand new woman.

Magic, I tell you.

Choose an ancestor

2011-10-05T09:59:00.000-07:00

I knew you guys would understand.

But I am still surprised at just how short tempered this up half the night business is making me. Jack and I started this day out crappy too because he was moaning about my turning the light on (except he wouldn't just say the light was the problem he was saying something about taking light bulbs?) and refusing to get up for school and I was irritated that he wouldn't get up when I was already putting away laundry at 7 am. I actually said, "I do NOT have time for your weirdness this morning." Which is both OY and LOL.

Jack was (and is, truth be told) a very "high needs" kid. But boy! did he sleep at night and nap during the day.

Sammi is the opposite. The easiest, happiest baby ever. She plays, she laughs, and nothing bothers her. But boy! crappy sleeper.

Hopefully this is a soon to pass bump in the road. I do not enjoy 3 am and 4 am and 5 am. Particularly if I have already seen midnight too.

We took ourselves to a yard sale that promised quilts and buttons and so forth this morning. Those things were nothing to write home about, but I picked up a stack of wonderful old photos.

Instant ancestors.

This one says MLH Kirkwood (that's a town close by) 1-14-89.
I love these little girls and their chickens!
And this little person on the tree is too sweet.
This one says "EARL 2 years 7 1/2 months and Marion 8 months" on the back. Now, I know that boys used to wear dresses* (and pink! did you all know that pink was really a color for little boys?). But whoa. I would have never guessed those pin curls were on a boy?

The dress here KILLS me. It must have taken forever to make.

I was hoping for another paper moon photo in the pile, but no such luck, and I looked at every one of them!

*My grandpa used to tell me about getting his first pair of "pants", aka pants that were not "short pants" or knickers. I *think* it was for high school graduation!

I find myself missing him a lot lately. I know that what he would say to me right now is (in his gruff old voice) "Ahhhhhhhh Sarah! You can't let that stuff bother you."

Also, I mentioned this on facebook once, but I swear to you I hear him plodding up and down the hall when I am here alone. He and my grandma used to fight like crazy over him going up and down the hallway all night long because he was a total night owl and she was not. Our house (their house) is a giant rambling ranch and man! is the kitchen far away from what was his bedroom (now our bedroom). He was 100% dedicated to staying here until he died, which I am still happy he was able to do, but I see now that it must have been hard to live here and be 86 years old and frail. The house is big and quiet and lonely and not easy for an elderly person to navigate.

Anyway. It's interesting how a house is both a living breathing thing and yet an empty shell at the same time.