Winter Tip #1
Put snow in your bath tub.

No, it's not an age old remedy for ring around the tub. If your daughter wants to play outside in the stuff, and you don't want to spend 10 minutes getting her dressed in snow clothes so you can help her take them back off 5 minutes later, it is a good solution. (Please note: this works for boys too.)

What would Christmas be without new, tacky, felt ornaments to stick on the tree? Well, it just wouldn't be special enough. So I made a whole entire 4 of these.

Instead of showing you the politically neutral halloween costumes I made for my kids, I'm going to tell you who I think you should vote for tomorrow...

Chuck Baldwin

If your in California you will have to write him in, as well as in a few other states.

Oh man! I can't believe I forgot to tell you it was November, a.k.a. NaNoWriMo! I'm not even going to try this year. If you think I'm a nincompoop because of that, I hope you write it like this NinComPoop.

Someone happened upon my blog after googling "my baby ate polystyrene beads." That really made my day, hope yours can be just as wonderful.

I bought some green yarn to tie the blanket for my son, (the one I won't let you see.) And I had a lot left over, I figured since I also had a crochet hook somewhere in the house, I would try my hand at crocheting. After watching a series of videos on Youtube, I started this hat...



Since I didn't have enough yarn to finish it, I had to get some more. And I didn't just get enough to finish it, I also got some brown stuff too, and made another hat for the wee little one.



Now I have some left over brown and purple yarn that I will have to crochet something else out of, and there probably isn't enough to finish something and I'll have to get some more, I'll probably be crocheting for the rest of my life now.

Also take note that I take back some of the bad things I've said in the past about crocheting and the people who espouse such an activity.

I haven't done too much since that baby of mine was born, but here is one thing I made. It's a bag to tote around items for that baby, and the older siblings as well. I hate carrying things around with me everywhere, but since I have to, this bag is nice to have. If you look really closely you will notice that the strap needs a bit more sewing to be complete. If that bothers you then don't look closely.

I also made a blanket for my sons bed, but I'm not too excited about it so I won't show it to you. I'm also making one for my daughters bed and I'll probably not show that to you also. Too bad for you.

It's her 3 week birthday, so I figured it was high time I showed off her mullet. She has dark hair right now, but you can expect it to turn blond like my other kids after a few more washings. My womb is like a cheap beauty salon where we give bad dye jobs and bad hair cuts. Her eyes are still dark and haven't turned their true color, I'm holding out hope that they will be brown. If they aren't that's okay, I won't toss her out with the bath water, I'll just add her to my collection of kids that don't resemble me in any way, shape, form, or color.



Here is a short version of the way she was born, I'll spare you some of the details.

I woke up to wimpy contractions around 4:30 a.m. they were about 10 minutes apart. After about 3 and a half hours I called the midwife and told her she could come, because it would take her about 45 minutes to get here, and I didn't want a repeat of my last labor when I had to call the midwife and tell her to get there now because I suddenly felt like pushing (luckily the last midwife was only across town and got there pretty fast.) Turns out this labor took a bit longer, we were eating lunch when my water broke, splash all over the floor! (I said I'd spare you some of the details, not all.) The midwife cleaned it up and then finished lunch. My contractions were getting to be truly painful and I decided I had enough and I wanted to go have the baby. So we went into the back bedroom and I had the baby at 1:30. It was a pretty mild labor, but don't get me wrong, there was plenty of pain and suffering...poor me. The baby weighed 8 pounds and was 21 inches long and she was a very proficient sneezer.

Now three weeks later I feel pretty good, I keep thinking of all the things I'd like to do outside in the yard, especially since the weather has turned cool, but then I remember I had a baby and I just don't need to be doing them. If anyone wants to plant some spinach for me, come on over.

I had a baby, but I don't feel like sitting in front of the computer to tell you all about it right now, so that is all I've got to say on the subject.

Bee-cause Someone ordered a bee dragon. I think You really wanted a dragon dressed up like a bee, pretending to do bee things, but I can't be trusted to follow instructions. If it's bee parts aren't anatomically correct, You may suggest changes, and if I'm in the mood to not cross anything off my important list then I might be willing to oblige You. On the other hand I might ignore You and draw an anatomically incorrect flower to go with it. Does You, or anyone else think it needs the other set of legs in the picture?

This one should look familiar. It's pretty much the same picture, but reworked because I got my new prisma-color pencils and I wanted to try them out. I almost get to cross off another item on the list, in order to do that I've got to get it mailed though. We'll see how long it takes me to do that.






I like how the dragon slime on this frame turned out looking a lot like intestines. Intestines are nice, I think.

So, I stuck some slimy dragon frames on Etsy because it was on my list of things to do before the baby is born. It was probably the least important thing on my list, but somehow it got done and hardly anything else has been crossed off. My list is growing each day instead of shrinking since it's too hot to do anything on the list and it's much easier to write more things on the list.

A little girl, the kind that is my neice, came to me this morning, wearing a very plain white shirt with yellow sleeves. She asked if I would draw a dragon on it with a pencil so her mom could trace it with a permanent marker. Hmmm, I was in the middle of contemplating the idea of straightening the bedskirts of my children's beds, which was work that required movement, and with my house already being about 85 degrees this was something I was easily persuaded away from. And of course it wasn't just going to be a sharpee drawing. I had some used old second hand fabric pens lying around that I personally had never used before and was happy to find that at least a few of them worked. So this little girl niece of mine got a shirt with a dragon, or more accurately a Buttdraggin' (cross between a butterfly and a dragon.)

Are you wondering what that large mass is at the bottom of the picture? It's my belly, I thought it was quite funny how obtrusively it made it's way into shot, so I left it for all to gawk at. Gawk away, and then gawk some more when you realize it's not even half of it.

For lack of anything else interesting... here is a dragon I drew during church in an attempt to keep from nagging my child constantly while he squirmed on the ground and crashed his toys together. The medium is Crayola on back of FamilySearch Comparison Chart.

Picture for the reunion auction... (5"x 7")



This is the picture I drew for the auction, and of course it was in a dragon snot frame. I can't remember how much it eventually went for. I think my Magic Uncle Ralph won the bidding via someone bidding as R. Huntzinger (which could have been half the males there.)

I had been working on a different painting and thought I might take it to the auction, but it was big and gaudy and just not becoming what I wanted, so I decided to do something more simple, and when Maryanne said she was going to have her dad bid on it I came up with this dragon reading to the girl. I almost wrote her name on it to insure that no one else would bid on it, but that would have been cheating, not that cheating is bad or anything, it would have just been too blatant.

Through the magic of my ill behaved scanner and printer Maryanne will still be able to have a copy of her very own, if and only if, she will e-mail me her address, and let me know if she wants it to come with a snot frame or not. Also she has to promise that she will come to the next reunion in person.

The past few weeks...

We built a "poor white trash" chicken coop. We still need to get a bucket of rusty nails to complete the look.





We got the garden mostly planted, plus a few trees and a hedge, just in time to go on a vacation and leave all the crucial watering up to my nephews and sister in law.



First we went to a family reunion north of Sacramento, CA. I wasn't feeling well so I didn't get pictures. Then we headed down to the Bay Area where I grew up and my in-laws still reside.



We hit Monterey to see the aquarium, and Fisherman's Wharf then, camping at Big Basin, where we heard plenty of racoons but didn't see any, and we also didn't see any banana slugs or wolverines.



We spent some time at the beach, the kids really liked this even though they were both terrified of the water.



We had a lot of fun, but my husband and I were feeling extreme claustrophobia in the bay area, and needed some space, so we headed home a day early. It's good to be home, eating normal food and not driving in the car burning up expensive gas.

Birthday Presents for Girls:


Barrettes seem to have become the standard present, coming from me, around here. So here are some that are going to kids in our neighborhood, who invited my son to their birthday parties. I think it's kinda funny how I'm making my son give them such girley things, but they are girls.

Here it is , spring, and I'm making a dress fit for Thanksgiving...



I had really meant to make a nice and sunny spring time dress. Somehow though, that brown paisley stuff jumped out at me and it matched the yellow, so it ended up a big part of the dress. What was I thinking? If only I had used the pink and yellow flowery fabric that I also had, then all would be well. Hopefully it will still fit her on July 24th and she can wear it to the 24th of July parade here in Utah where we celebrate Pioneer day.

Three posts in one day. This one is meant to upstage the gender post. Either my family likes me, or I did a really good job of complaining about how crummy my Nikon camera was. A bunch of them got together and bought me a birthday present. It's a camera, (in case you couldn't tell from the picture.) No, I didn't take a picture of the new camera with the new camera, silly...the battery is still charging.



I just wanted to say thanks. So, Thanks. (I'll thank you personally once I find out who all chipped in, right now I'm not sure.)

Not to upstage the baby gender announcement, but here is the red snot frame.

It seems as though we will be having a child of the female type. Oh, and if you didn't know, I'm pregnant. Any votes for the name Camilla? Can anyone come up with some really mean ways to make fun of that name?

Here is a dragon. I made a red moldy mucus frame for it that I'll show to you later.

The Conference Yield.



During Saturdays sessions I started this little doll for my daughters birthday. I did most of it by hand because I couldn't listen to conference and use the noisy sewing machine at the same time. When ever I put the doll down to rethread my needle my daughter would snatch it up and say "E-ya-ya, guy? Nooo, mama guy." (E-ya-ya is how she says her own name.) And then I would have to force her to give it back to me. She wants the doll now, we will see if she will want it once she can really have it on her birthday. It is meant to be played with in the castle I made for my son a while back. I think I'll make another doll and a bed and chair to fit in it.

For Sundays session I couldn't finish the doll because somewhere in my upbringing I learned that sewing on Sundays is strictly forbidden, and if you do, you will have to pick out the stitches with your nose. I don't know if I truly believe this, it might be one of those things I would group with the idea that womens ankles should never be seen. In some cases I'm sure the rule still sticks, but for the kind of mild sewing I do, I'm not so sure. Still I won't dare pick up a needle on a Sunday because I'd be wracked with guilt. So instead I doodled and sketched, I just have to have something to do with my hands or my listening ability is greatly diminished.

All in all the message that stuck with me the most from the whole thing was that I should be a better mother to my children. They will be with me for such a short period of time in their lives and I am creating the foundation that they will live by, so I should set them, and my duties as wife, above all else.

After some relentless begging here is a dragon for my sons room.



My husband has told him a bed time story that ends with a golden dragon that lives on a mountain top. So he got a golden dragon, and it's even on a mountain top.

I should have taken a "before" picture of the frame, it had a few problems...the corners didn't meet up right, and it had some tacky felt on it too, but most of all it was gold. I am anti gold when it comes to picture frames. The frame came from Kim, and when my son saw it he immediately began asking to put it up in his room. I kept telling him "Maybe some day..." in an effort to let him forget about it. Then I found out that he wanted a picture of a dragon for his room and he wanted dragon slime on it. This I could handle. He was very persistent in getting me to work on it, and kept asking me, "How many more minutes?"

Probably looks familiar...



I made another quilt just like this before, but I like the other one a lot more. The colors on this one aren't quite right. The fabric for the top looked more green in the stores lighting, turns out it's fairly yellow, with a slight nuclear waste tinge to it. Being juxtaposed with the black doesn't help it at all. The city has a bit of a balance issue too. Oh well, I finished it this morning. It has been sitting around with about half an hour of stitches left undone on it. I was looking for a totally unrelated object this morning and as I looked under the quilt, I forgot about the object and decided to finish the quilt instead. I am so easily distracted, sometimes it's not a bad thing.

No Easter Bunny, but there were baskets and candy and hidden eggs...


...and tears and boogers and wailings of all sorts...

Someone turned 2 years old, and this is what I gave her. Two flowery barrettes, and a card. Aren't I the nicest Aunt?

While I sit here and listen to Last of the Mohicans on Librivox, I've made a few more barrettes too. Maybe someday I'll post them in my etsy shop, but I'm not promising anything.

If you want to see me swoon...

...watch me read books such as this and this... Well I shouldn't say read, I just like to look at the pretty pictures. And eventually I start doodling and drawing. This is what came of my foray into the ornament books this time...




I might have had some purpose in mind when I started, but it eludes me now. I guess that just makes it a blog ornament.

I'll have you know, I painted the feather.


I also finished two little pictures of dragons. I wish I had painted the red one green, but I don't think I'll go back and change it. This means that I finished the whole wall... sort of. I'm waiting for Mike to come visit so that he can hang the frames straight, and I need to clean the mirror.

This dragon is standing on his head. It looked better as a sketch than a painting, he seams a bit off balance.




What I really want to do is paint my kitchen green. When we painted the house the first time I almost did, but I am a chicken when it comes to color, and I opted for neutral. The house is mostly beige colors with a few black accents and wood that is on the darker side. I'm thinking a green that is somewhere between a lime and an olive. All this thinking and wanting is for naught though, my husband is very much against the idea of painting the kitchen, he says it's about at the bottom of his priority list. I think I need to encourage him to take a trip for a couple of days.

Completed.


Remember the reading dragons with the alphabet, well here is it's companion picture. Numbers. Now my kids will be sure to be able to count to the number 16 as well as say their ABC's.



It has yet to be determined whether the man is taking, or giving the money to the short guys. What do you think? And as far as the short guys go, would they be considered dwarfs, elves, or children with big noses?



Oops, I'm not done! I didn't paint the feather in the guys hand.




Does the guy at the end remind you of my father at a ward Christmas party? Maybe, for a brief second.



Giving credit where credit is due: When I was trying to draw those short guys I had a difficult time. I couldn't get their stances and proportions right. So I turned to my Very First Dictionary a Magic Word of Words published by Macmillan publishing in 1983. These are the pictures I used a references, in fact they were partially traced, but altered much. Can you tell which one goes to which little guy?


Am I an evil plaigarizing fool, or can I get away with this because the picture is for my own personal use?

I love Alice because she hates hearts. I can't say I'm too fond of them either, but this one was a very pretty surprise.


I have had a few butternut squashes hanging around on my kitchen counter, from my dad's garden last summer. I see them almost every day around 5 when the kids are howling that they want dinner and my husband will be home from work in a few minutes, and I have nothing planned. By that time it is too late to cook winter squash because I need something fast to quell the ensuing mutiny.

Last Saturday the kitchen was newly cleaned, so I figured I should mess it up. I decided to cook up some butternut soup. I thought perhaps the squash would be getting old and dry by now on it's way to becoming a gourd. But as I split the first one open I was pleasantly greeted with an absolutely delicious smell. It smelled like a very sweet cantaloupe, and it's deep and bright orange color was like medicine for the winter dreary neurons in my head.

The heart shape was a bit ironic and made me laugh. Just a few days before my son had come to me and declared that he wanted to cancel Valentines day, and since I'm a scrooge at all holidays I heartily agreed. So we made signs that said, "Valentine's Day Canceled!" (my sons idea.) And then he said he was going out to yell it at the cars. I told him I didn't want him yelling at cars, so he agreed that he would just talk to them. After a few minutes of standing on the corner out in the cold he came in disapointed that no cars had come by. Later that day he got a package in the mail from his grandma with Valentine's presents, so he decided that it wouldn't be canceled after all.

I haven't been working on much lately because I feel like this painting by Picasso, in fact if this lady had a fatter nose and I had bangs, it would be the spitting image of me.


Yup, she's got the winter time blues , er I mean greens. I am ready for the snow to go away, or at least, the clouds to allow the sun to shine through. I spend my days looking at real estate in far off exotic locations (like exotic St. George, Utah) wishing I could move there. But I have to consign myself to the fact that we're not going anywhere. And as soon as spring starts showing up I'll be 100% content with life.

This next picture is a project I've been working on for about 5 years. It is the first quilt I ever started, and at the rate I'm going it will probably be the last I ever finish, hopefully that isn't true because I would like to finish it by the end of the winter. It doesn't help that I can't find my thimble. Someday when I finish it I'll show you the whole thing.


Little Rant: Did I mention that I hate my camera? Yes I have. And I'd like to say it again. I hate my Nikon Coolpix 5200. Out of the thousands of pictures I have taken of my children, only about 15 of them are usable.