Project-idle

2011-12-08T12:59:00.000-08:00

Deconstructed Tossed Salad

I should have taken a picture.

One day I came across this blog. http://thingsorganizedneatly.tumblr.com/

That night I made a salad for dinner, (Chicken ala taco seasoning, peppers, corn, lettuce, tomatoes, olives, carrots, kidney beans, crushed corn chips...), all tossed together. My daughter usually will pick the olives out and one or two other things that suit her fancy, and simply just won't eat much, and then sneak in and make herself a peanut butter & big mess sandwich later on. Well instead of just putting a pile of salad on her plate that night, I organized it, neatly. She ate it all. Now the other kids want theirs the same way.

2011-10-07T22:46:00.000-07:00

Because I can't handle the poop post being at the top of my neglected blog...

My daughters like to pretend to be animals. In particular, little yippy puppies. They crawl around on all fours and come up to me begging for attention and asking me to scratch them behind the ears. One day the yipping was too much for me and I declared it to be Platypus Day! That put a stop to the obnoxious noises because no-one could make the platypus noise. Since then, when they get a notion to pretend to be animals, they come to me and ask me what day it is. A few days ago it was Beaver Day. We watched beaver movies on youtube and learned all about beavers, then we built lodges out of pillows and blankets, also we had recently gone on a little hike where we discovered signs of beavers building a dam. My husband and I also made numerous jokes using the word dam, we are quite clever...

And to get to the point... Today we were at the grocery store and all of a sudden my son said "Look! Beaver eggs!" I looked and beheld...chicken eggs... I was busy trying to keep all 4 kids in sight and figure out which yoghurt really cost less... 10 for $4, or 10 for $6 (math is really hard when the kids are running wild in grocery store) My son exclaimed again "Beaver eggs!" This time I looked where he was pointing, up above the eggs high on the wall in huge letters it read "Beverages." The end.

2011-08-22T08:31:00.000-07:00

The following is an entry from my husbands journal written to my daughter:

It's your Birthday
Here at last
You're three years old
Boy that went fast

Off to the market
in the warm summer air
in hopes we can find
a gift for you there

So many things
From squashes to cherries
I buy you a bracelet
and a box of blueberries

We head on back home
to continue your day...
we plan on some fishing
and then we will play

It’s time for lunch
but you don’t want nothin’
cept for your box of blueberries
for crunchin and munchin

You’re there smiling
as you sit in your chair
eating the berries
you’re unwilling to share
with your parents both busy
only vaguely aware
little do we know
that we should beware
If only some ominous music
would have played in the air!

I am taken aback
and slightly appalled
to walk in and discover
you have eaten them all!

We’re skunked at the river
but we got a few bites
And a green spiky burr
in your hair stuck in tight

we head home again
where I get in a fight
seems mom’s freaking out
bout plans for tonight

“What’s going on??”
“Who’s going to come”
“I need communication”
“You’ve given me none”
By this time I’m about
ready to run

I have to come up
with something fast
I’ve been a bad husband
Must cover my … uh butt

Mom and I yell
at each other a while
Eliza tries mediation
with her 5 year old smile

Pretty soon we’re headed
with our little red boat
back to the lake
I sure hope it floats

I don’t know why
I thought this would be fun
within 5 minutes of launching
I have a wet bum

You demand your own paddle
with your signature sound
you sit there laughing
as we go round and round

Soon we’re back on the road
for two large pizza pies
While Mom’s at home working
on your birthday surprise

We go to Wal-Mart
You grab a big yellow ball
You kick it, grab it,
jump on it and fall
But when it comes time to buy it
you don’t want it at all.

I take you back home
with anticipation
of a glorious and happy
surprise celebration

I open the door
I let you walk in
They all yell “SURPRISE”
on your face there’s a grin

The kitchen is decked out
in bloons, many colors
your cousins are there
with your sisters and brother

Everyone eats
and then eat some more
when I go for some ice cream
I spill all the corn
some rolls down past the meat
and right out the door
Where the baby gobbles
it up off the floor

You open some presents
You get a nice dress
The guests head on home
The house is a mess

One final present
Your mom fills with fear
and within minutes your covered
in Henry’s root beer

It’s time for a bath
Can things get any worse?
Your mother’s holding back tears
and she’s ready to curse

But the badness continues
and you feel mom’s wrath
as you climb off of the toilet
and poop in the bath

After a long painful cleanup
you’re ready for bed
It’s been a bittersweet day
I’m feeling dead

I go to bed eager
for a night filled with rest
not expecting the next day
would be such a test

I dream about fighting
Gerard Depardieu
I awake to discover
that none of it’s true
I’m feeling relieved,
…..until I find you

From my bed I hear
you in the front of the house
your quiet but out there
just like a mouse

You’re there with wipes
scrubbing the floor
I see wipes to your left
to your right a few more

Confused I bend down
I unknowingly stoop
and to my unbridled horror
I discover it’s poop!

Its in puddles and piles
all over the ground
I stand up in shock
at the scene I have found

And what is that color
that unmistakable hue?
It dawns on me what happened
this poop is all BLUE!

I noticed you’re covered
from your head to your toes
your diaper is filled
though it’s already blown

You tried to clean it
you gave it your best
as you’ve battled alone
this unbelievable mess

It’s caked onto your legs
some of it’s dried
Instead of getting out of bed
I wish I had died

I know for a fact
this fecal miscarriage
will surely mean doom
for my eleven year marriage

To the bath with you child!
my poor little daughter
I can’t clean with wipes
I need some hot water!
I notice Mom’s woken up
I’m sure I’ll be slaughtered

I don’t think anyone
would think me a liar
to say this was worse
than an ox in the mire
If I don’t clean this up
I’m gunna be fired

So It’s off to Smith’s
to get me a steamer
so our contaminated floor
can be a bit cleaner

Mom gets you dressed
to head off to church
while I remain home to try
to get out of this lurch

In the end it seems
everything ended okay
We had the stains almost out
by the end of the day
And if someone asked what they are
We don’t have to say

To top it all off
While I watered our tree
I got to close to the beehive
And got stung, by a bee.

So happy birthday my daughter
This one sure wasn’t a bore,
Please forgive me for not
looking forward to four.

2011-07-29T12:25:00.000-07:00

A funny story.

You know in that movie Signs, how the kid leaves glasses of water all over the place? Well our kids do the same thing. They fill a cup of water up, drink a little and save the rest for later. Later, when they are thirsty they get another cup and do the same thing all over again. Thus our kitchen is booby trapped.

Well, today I was summoned to the kitchen by my crying baby, who I found crawling in a puddle of water. It was also all over her back and head and face. I figured she had pulled a cup of neglected water onto her head, as she has done this before. Laughingly and soothingly I picked her up, not worried about getting wet too, it's summer, it'll dry. She grabbed at my face with her wet hands and I wiped the drips out of her face with my shirt. As I did this I was looking around for the cup that had once contained the water, there was one on the table that was empty except for a drop or two proving that it had recently held water, but it was too high for the baby to reach... At the same time I observed my 2 (almost 3) year old walking down the hall trying to put on a new dress. "Mom, I peed." Ewwww. I proceeded directly to the bath.

Funny huh? Not the end of the story. There is a happy ending.

After the bath I tackled the cleaning of the floor. The 2 year old wanted to mop too so I gave her a turn and told her to clean up her pee. She happily took the mop and headed to another section of the kitchen. Much to my delight there was a puddle of pee over there! I was very happy to know that my baby had not been peed on and had not wiped it on my face! It had really been water all along.

And to settle the mystery as to where the water came from... I questioned my daughter a little more and found out that she had dumped a cup of water on her baby sister. Yup because that is just the kind of kid she is, the kind that will randomly dump water on someone to see what happens. I'm sure she was less than happy to see that it didn't cause the baby to melt into a sizzling pile of goo.

2011-07-20T16:07:00.000-07:00

My baby crawls funny.

And she stalks chickens.

Maybe I should ask her where the missing hen is.

Hmmm?

2011-07-08T14:40:00.000-07:00

Wherein the usefulness of my education comes to a head...

Many of you have probably been wondering if my 2.5 years of higher education was beneficial to me in my chosen vocation as a stay at home mom. I can now definitively tell you that it was. Through the process of designing and developing this bunny's potty I called directly upon the skills learned in my Design Theory class, Art 101, and one of my interior design studio classes. Granted, in school I would have stayed up till 4 in the morning to finish such a project as this. Real life has certainly improved my time-efficiency. This beauty took all of about 10 minutes to make!

Unfortunately, it's much easier to convince a stuffed rabbit to use a toilet than my toddler. (Is she still a toddler, she's almost 3?)

And for my mother, here is a shot of the back of my girls heads. It's also proof that I brushed their hair once.

2011-05-08T20:53:00.000-07:00

I want to do things and create things, but that would complicate life and there is no way I could complete anything right now. So I content myself with moving the furniture around every couple of weeks. I was moving a bookcase the other day and the kids all piled in.

What I really want to do is get rid of most of the furniture and paint all the rest black or white. I can't decide. What do you think? Black or white book shelves? And while I'm at it I think I'll cut my hair really short.

2011-03-06T18:30:00.000-08:00

I taught our art class this week and we learned about Antonio Canova. I should have had the kids all bring their own butter, but I didn't think about it until it was too late. Instead we used a non-drying clay that the kids couldn't take home because we will use later for another class... but we did take pictures! Well, some of the kids smashed theirs before we could take pictures, so here are some of their lions:

Doh! This picture is blurry and sideways

This one isn't a lion, it's a totem,

Good job everybody. Sorry, we didn't get a picture of all of them. I like how the older kids are seeing form as 3 dimensional, and getting much more realistic; and the younger kids are still completely happy that they get to make stuff, and are always so proud of what they do.

I didn't make one because I was holding this turkey-

2011-01-14T11:28:00.000-08:00

Per the request of my mother here are pictures of the baby.

And this last one is The Funny Funny trying to convince her that she wants to hold onto a doll...

2010-11-18T10:05:00.000-08:00

I made this "boppy"-ish pillow and I had this baby.

2010-09-29T14:23:00.000-07:00

I'm in the middle of removing the old and failing caulk from my bathtub, and so I thought it was really important to let you know, that if I ever have a lot of money, I will be refurnishing my home with items found here. Now, I can get back to work.

2010-08-17T10:48:00.001-07:00

This is what I entered into the Art Show at the Cache County Fair this year.

The smaller illustration is from previous material, just in color. The bigger one is for my mother who has complained that I have never made her anything. I expect her to display it permanently in a prominent location in her living room. It features a mother dragon with 8 obnoxious little baby dragons representing me and all my siblings. I'll let you decide which baby dragon is which one of us. (hint: one of my siblings is known for using her teeth on others.) It won 3rd place. My strategy for winning all the awards didn't work this time because many more people entered the same category, but I'm pretty happy to have won third with all the competition.

2010-04-05T11:50:00.000-07:00

Aren't these pretty? I found them in my very own yard. My very own birds-nest fungus. I'm such a lucky girl.

2010-01-14T11:10:00.000-08:00

Okay here is a link to the voting. There is no pressure to vote for me, I won't track you down and beat you up this time. And since it's hard to see, here it is in larger scale and broken up out of it's repeat.

Yes, part of this is something I made previously. As it was, I stayed up till 2 in the morning to do this and didn't have time to finish past a rough draft, I don't have time to come up with new material.

2010-01-11T08:44:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately I did not win the last Spoonflower contest. But I did get 265 votes. I would like to thank 265 people for voting for me. I won't mention any names, because I might miss a few and I don't want anybody to feel bad.

Also unfortunate, I entered another one of them. I'm sure this design hasn't a chance, it needs a lot of work, and I probably never should have pushed the submit button. When the voting begins I'll point you there and you can surrender the obligatory vote.

In the mean time, I'll be working on the next contest which involves crayons.

Thanks again.

2009-12-31T12:20:00.000-08:00

Spoonflowers latest contest category is "Mythical Beasts" So I was obliged to enter a dragon design.

It may seem a bit familiar since I used parts of something I had made previously.

If I hadn't run out of time I would have played around and done something more significant with the colors. Or at least, I would have tried. Color is my nemisis, so I really might have met my demise if I had had more time.

Whether you like it or not, please go vote for me here.

2009-12-09T22:32:00.001-08:00

When I grow up I am going to be a 3d animator. Right now in my youth I don't have time for it, but when I grow up and settle down that is what I will be.... Or maybe I'll be a bus driver, a very mean one.

I took a class this past term at our local tech-school, and I made this.

I know very corny and cliche, the whole dragon/falling apart castle thing. Please excuse it's incompleteness, I ran out of time. I ignored my household duties and children enough as it was.

2009-11-02T13:34:00.001-08:00

This is Halloween.

This young lady was the Infamous Generic Tinkerbell a.k.a. Stinkerbell. Unlike the real Tinkerbell, she is dressed modestly and warmly for the weather. The hat didn't quite make it through the evening and her wings were a bit lopsided, but she was perfectly delighted with her costume anyway. (Thanks for the help Grandma) She is already planning to be Snow White next year. I'm planning to ban Disney from my home.

This next kid didn't get a homemade costume, she is the poor neglected third child. She is acctually Eyore, but looks morel like the Easter Bunny with her basket. It took her all of about 1 house to figure out that if you can stand on the door step and and yell someone will give you candy. I think most people thought it was absurd that we were having such a small kid collecting candy, but I thought it absurd that some people would give her 3 or 4 pieces.

This next guy wanted to be b.o.b. from the movie Monsters Vs. Aliens. So he was. We had quite a fight over the way this costume would be made. He wanted to be completely covered so that he would "really look like b.o.b.", I knew this would pose a problem due to the fact that he requires oxygen to stay alive, and he can't see through fleece. I finally convinced him to allow me to leave a spot uncovered for his eyes and nose. By the end of the evening he had his whole head on the outside, but I think he "really looked like b.o.b." anyway. He made the eyeball all by himself.

See, they love halloween..

2009-10-01T20:54:00.001-07:00

First of all... This baby of mine is the cutest thing since sliced bread. She is mean, but cute. By the looks of her you would have no idea how many times she pulls her sisters hair a day, or how many times she hits me on the head with a block, or how razor sharp her teeth and talons are.

Second of all, thanks for voting for me on Spoonflower unfortunately you forgot to tell your Uncle to vote for me too, and I didn't get into the final round, therefore, I for sure won't be winning 5 yards of custom fabric...sigh... If you are interested in seeing the final round contestants and voting for one of them go right ahead... See if I care...sigh

Third, I just got a new nephew and I made him this blanket. Highly functional and blue, just a good old blanket, nothing fancy.

And lastly, but not leastly, I present to you my sisters Birthday present. This is exactly what she needs-mold and mildew for her hair (they are barrettes.) Happy Birthday! (Yes, I know, it's just what you were hoping for.)

2009-09-27T21:27:00.001-07:00

This is what I entered into the competition:

It's been bothering me, the horizontal flower stuck in there, they aren't right. Too dominearing, and they repeat in such an unpleasant way.

So I canned them, and came up with this instead:

I wish I had stuck with the vertical to begin with, too late now. But at least I will sleep better now, knowing that for my own happiness I fixed it. Except that I won't sleep too well, because the colors look acceptable on one of my monitors and like neon signs on the other. I have no idea how they look on yours. Plus I cut and pasted the little spoons from the other spoons and they are rather choppy, luckily you can't tell in low resolution, except that I just told you so you know anyway. Sigh...

If you haven't already, go vote for me...HERE. #48. Thanks.

2009-09-26T09:00:00.001-07:00

Making Frescoes With Children

I taught a little class to a bunch of my nieces and nephews about Michelangelo and we made frescoes. Can you tell which one I did?

Needed: plaster of paris, a mold for the plaster (we used styrofoam plates), water based paint, brushes

Do this: Mix up the plaster and pour into your mold, wait for it to set up to the point that your brush won't sink in, but not too dry, then start painting.

With the older kids we also used a detail from the Sistine Chapel and poked holes along all the prominent features. Then we pounced it with charcoal dust over our plaster, so that it went through the holes and left guidelines that we could then paint. (Sorry, I don't have pictures of the older kids paintings, maybe I'll get them later...maybe)

2009-09-24T20:15:00.000-07:00

It's time to stuff the ballot in my favor again!

There is this excellent little company called Spoonflower, they print fabric that you design yourself. They are still in beta mode, but seem to be making a name for themselves in the vast crafty empire. I am jealous that they thought up the idea before I could, but I am definitely not envious of the amount of work that goes into starting up a company like this. To give themselves even more stress and anguish they hold a design contest. I'm sure it's also their evil little plan to get some publicity too, as the contestants unwittingly tell their friends and kinfolk to go and vote on their website. Well I have fallen into their cunning little trap and now I am telling all three of my faithful blog readers to vote for my fabric design.

Click this to go to the blog post about the contest. Click this to go right to the voting.

I am number 48. Vote for number 48. You don't even have to take the time to look at all of them, I've made your decision for you. 48. Please don't start looking at them for the ones that are better than mine and voting for them instead of me. That would be so unfaithful of you. Except for that 19 and 45, I do happen to like those. Oh... But you don't, you only like mine. You are going to vote for me and tell all your friends about voting for me too. And while your at it, don't forget to tell me that I really captured the essence of the spoonflower and you think I am a great person.

Edit: I just wanted to make it clear that I'm not asking you to stuff the ballot in such as way that it would be cheating. Just vote once, please.

2009-08-23T10:02:00.000-07:00

This was a birthday present for my horn tootin' nephew.

2009-08-19T09:03:00.000-07:00

Dear me, I forgot to divulge the answer from my last "What is this?" post. It's the latest grossness that grows on a frame. You can see the little glob of glue that failed to hold this little fungi in place. Hot glue is crummy, crummy, crummy, but I knew that, and shouldn't have used it.

These little fungi are loosely based upon these... clickifyhere. So loosely in fact that I only knew about them after my sister Kim told me what they were, that's why she wasn't allowed to guess, I wasn't simply being mean. I'm sure I've seen them somewhere before, or some fungi like them somewhere in my life.

p.s. just found this... cup fungi... it matches much better.

2009-08-15T10:42:00.001-07:00

We went on a little camping trip.

This little girl had the most fun.

2009-08-07T09:06:00.000-07:00

Fair Winning Strategy...

When I entered my stuff into the fair I was thinking that my strategy needed some work. I was entering two pictures that would be competing against each other, thus making them less likely to win. Now I have a new strategy. I like to call it: Just Enter It, And You Will Win.

In the art show I won First, Second, and Best of Show. (Best of show was awarded by the judges, it wasn't a prize that the people get to vote for like I thought in the previous post, that would be Peoples Choice, and I don't think they're doing that this year.)

I don't mean to seem ungrateful for winning, but it seems as though I was the only one who entered anything into the category of "Pencil and Ink" in my age group so I was able to win all the awards for it.
Second...

First, and Best of Show...

In the Home Arts/Baby Items I also won first prize...so did almost every other quilt there. I am just happy I wasn't one of the 2 people that got the dreaded and shameful red ribbon of Second place.

Here it is in all it's First Place glory...

This picture pretty much sums up my sons happiness at the fair...can you tell he's happy?...okay, so happiness isn't the right word. He got Cloverbud ribbons on all of his. He's not old enough to for the frenzy and sweat of real competition, all the Cloverbuds got default ribbons. The whole time we were there he was only concerned about when we were going to get all this stuff back. He is pictured with his square clock in the background.

The dilemma now is that I have to decide if I should go to the State Fair... where the competition is a little more real...but just a little.

2009-08-05T10:32:00.000-07:00

What is that a picture of? Kim can't play.

I would like to announce the debut of my son and I in the Cache County Fair. My son is participating as a Clover Bud in 4-H and has a few projects in the 4-H building. I entered the dragon/helicopter/city scape quilt, it will be in the baby section of the Home Arts building sticking out like a sore thumb amidst all the cutesy wootsy pink and blue items. I also entered 2 illustrations in the art competition, I think you can go and vote for me for "Best of Show" which would entitle me to collect the sum total of $10 (that is only if I got enough votes,) and I would have the opportunity to compete in the glorious Utah State Fair! I'll post pictures later on, after the fair opens, Thursday.

2009-06-09T18:38:00.000-07:00

This is the best video I could come up with on my own, while battling children, please excuse the top of my head, just pretend it's not there.

2009-06-09T14:09:00.000-07:00

Before anyone dies of the suspense...

...another puppet.

Yesterday I decided to clean the library/homeschool room/office/art/sewing room and before I got more than a few things put away, I realized that if I finished this project, I could put all the supplies away and be done with it, so I got to work and I still haven't cleaned anything up yet.

2009-05-03T12:37:00.001-07:00

If you haven't visited my house and seen the big mess I've been keeping on my kitchen table, in hope that I can finish this project, then you can guess what this is a picture of. If you guess correctly I'll give you the first strawberry out of my garden this year, even if it's half eaten by sal bugs and earwigs.

2009-04-24T15:24:00.001-07:00

I tentatively declared Fridays around here Art Day. We shorten our other homeschooling studies to short and fun things, and then we do something artsy. I am longing for some creative time for myself and figured I could eek it in if my son was also doing his own creative things. Friday is also the day I try to clean things up around here a bit more than normal. This morning was our first trial run. We played a matching game for math where the cards had equations and answers to be matched together, and we did a little reading, then I suggested some chalk on wet paper drawings. My son immediately said, "No, I want to make a stuffed animal." Hmmf, I thought, I don't want to. But not wanting to stomp upon his creativity, I said okay. I had him sketch the animal he had in mind...

It's a dragon. He drew pattern pieces, and I cut it out of the fabric then sewed it. He got the jobs of stuffer and face painter. It was a project that required more of my involvement than his, which isn't what I have in mind for Art Day, but the kid is very pleased with it.

It turns out that the baby doesn't like Art Day, she cried most of the morning. My other daughter took the lack of attention to be her cue to use the potty, no less than 20 times, and then run around the house naked refusing to get dressed. I also haven't had the chance to get anything but the mornings mess cleaned up and it's time to think about dinner. Who says art is supposed to be fun?

2009-04-17T15:07:00.001-07:00

This is what went on a card for my Uncle Max because his birthday is coming up. We have always associated him with cows and sent him cow themed things on his birthday, probably because he is a rancher. I'll bet the cow thing is getting pretty old, but that's okay because he is getting old too. (I should have used that as a catchy phrase on the card. Oh well, too late.)

2009-03-15T15:32:00.000-07:00

I am a puppet.

2009-03-11T15:50:00.001-07:00

If you can guess what this is (or going to be), I'll mail you a dollar.

2009-02-25T12:21:00.001-08:00

Before:

When I sat the baby down on the box my son exclaimed "It's her first time on cardboard!" And so I had to take a picture, when she is 16 and her first date comes by to take her out, we won't let them leave until we've shown him all her pictures. "Here she is climbing Mt. Everest, here she is winning first prize in the science fair, here she is with her team at the World Hockey Championships, here she is with her blue ribbon pig at the state fair....oh and here is our favorite, her first time ever on cardboard!"

After:

It was our goal to completely waterproof this box with crayon drawings, but we ran out of steam, and I am tired of it taking up the entire living room, so I think we'll call it quits. We have had fun while it lasted. It all started out innocently with a few items you might find in a spaceship being drawn, such as computer screens, steering wheels, and buttons for Chinese food. We ended up with everything but the kitchen sink, but if you need the kitchen sink while you're in space we did draw a few crayons that you can use to draw yourself one.

2009-02-24T15:50:00.001-08:00

If you can't beat em', join em', or just take a picture.

This is a child who hasn't slept all day, it's nearly 5pm and she hasn't napped. We are both much more frazzled than she lets on in the picture. I figured I could take a picture of her screaming her head off and everyone could feel sorry for me and send their condolences my way, but as soon as I got the camera out she got happy. I kept pushing her away from me in the walker, but as soon as I did she would run towards me, laughing, with her eye on the camera supposing that I was going to let her have it to slobberify or something.

I guess you can't feel sorry for me because she is really cute, and that is all that matters, right?

Anyway, my last post was a bit premature, I still have a stack of thank you's that hasn't been handed out or mailed. It took me longer than I thought to simply put the sleeves on them. So save your eggs a little longer.

2009-02-13T07:28:00.001-08:00

When does the statute of limitations run out on sending thank you cards after your third child? I think it should be their 3rd birthday at least. It's almost been 6 months since this third-ie of mine was born and I'm just now getting thank you cards out. The picture above is about what they look like, and then stuck in a little black sleeve, rather than an envelope, because most of them I'm not sending in the mail.

It's probably rude to post this because I will inevitably forget someone, and some kind act that they did for me, and then they will feel sad that I didn't give them a card too. If you are that person, feel free to cry, and then throw eggs at my house. Or you can fill out an "Application to Warrant a Physical Thank You" and turn it in at least one week before the child's third birthday.

2009-02-07T15:48:00.001-08:00

We made bookmarks for my Dad for his birthday. His birthday was a while ago, but and we still haven't mailed them yet, I think I'm late enough that we need to make some valentines to stick in the envelope too. If we wait a few more weeks we could totally save on postage and put some St. Patrick's day doodles in there.

I love posting things that I draw with my childrens stuff because it makes me look really good. Actually I really like the one my son drew, the second one from the bottom, it is a picture of my dad in his garden. He's is very happy. And the plant all the way to the left is "very straight spinach." The flowery girly one is for grandma, so grandpa doesn't have to share. On the back of mine I wrote "You Are Here." Boy am I clever.

2009-02-06T10:45:00.000-08:00

Yes, you may pet it, it won't bite. In fact, it's quite dead.

"What could be cuter?" I ask. "What is it?" You want to know.

It's a little pile of adorable baby collars... ahhh how cute... er, maybe.

I've always found collars on baby clothes to be annoying embellishments. They look fine on the hangars, but in practicality they just get in the way. This newest child of mine is excessively drooly, which drips down her lovely double chin and soaks into her clothes, which rubs against her skin and contributes to her eczema issues. Collars just make things impossible, so they have been removed. I simply took out the seams, and sewed the pjamas back up with a hidden stitch.

Anyone in need of a spare collar size 3 months-6 months?

2009-01-10T08:30:00.000-08:00

Mostly I hide at home all day, but when I feel like I need a little attention I get all dressed up and hit the town. Okay, so hitting the town means going to the grocery store, getting dressed up means wearing my baby, and the attention I get is from little old ladies. It seems that the combination of the baby, snuggled ball-like, in the sling with the goofy hat makes for some great entertainment for all the other people who don't get out much.

The sling. Yup, I made that. It's just one piece of fabric sewn into a loop (with what I think is called a french seam) and both sides hemmed. The only tricks to it are curving the seamed end convexly, and getting it the right length. Fortunately, for me, my right length is just shy of the width of a 60" piece of fabric so it takes less than a yard. At $2 a yard, this is the cheapest most usefulest baby item ever.

2008-12-22T14:09:00.000-08:00

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.)

2008-12-11T08:00:00.000-08:00

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.

2008-11-03T12:49:00.000-08:00

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.

2008-11-02T20:19:00.001-08:00

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.

2008-10-29T08:14:00.001-07:00

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

2008-10-24T13:42:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-10-15T12:46:00.001-07:00

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.

2008-09-10T13:08:00.001-07:00

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.

2008-08-23T13:27:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-08-07T18:45:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-08-06T18:11:00.001-07:00

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.

2008-08-04T23:47:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-07-26T16:02:00.001-07:00

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.

2008-07-13T18:43:00.001-07:00

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.

2008-06-22T17:29:00.001-07:00

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.

2008-06-21T10:19:00.001-07:00

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.

2008-06-04T13:47:00.001-07:00

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.

2008-05-13T09:22:00.001-07:00

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.

2008-04-23T18:03:00.001-07:00

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.)

2008-04-23T15:44:00.001-07:00

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

2008-04-23T14:32:00.001-07:00

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?

2008-04-20T18:52:00.001-07:00

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

2008-04-08T09:51:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-04-01T16:29:00.001-07:00

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?"

2008-03-28T10:04:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-03-24T08:08:00.001-07:00

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

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

2008-03-18T15:02:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-03-08T15:53:00.001-08:00

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.

2008-03-01T09:56:00.000-08:00

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.

2008-02-22T15:45:00.000-08:00

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?

2008-02-19T07:29:00.001-08:00

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.

2008-01-21T09:23:00.001-08:00

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.

2007-12-27T10:32:00.000-08:00

So I found out what Christmas is all about for our family. It's pretty much just a big threat to get the children to clean up or be good.

"If you don't help clean up then I am going to cancel Christmas forever!"

Okay, I didn't ever go to that extreme, but I found myself using Christmas and presents as a bargaining chip to try to get him to stop fighting, crying, and to get him to clean up and do his chores. My son would always come back with something along the lines of, "If you don't want to give presents then that means you don't love Jesus." Oh this kid knows how to really push my buttons... In the mean time my little girl just ran around being good and truly earning all the presents she got. In the end I didn't throw out any presents, even though I really wanted to, and we had a good Christmas. Next year I hope I can abolish the Christmas Threat attitude and replace it with something more positive.

2007-12-11T12:37:00.001-08:00

My husband and I are trying to figure out what defines Christmas at our house. We of course want it to be centered around Christ, but as much as we emphasize Him, around here the kids are still mostly awed by the lights and decorations and the allure of gifts for themselves. The youngest of course doesn't have any clue about presents and she just likes to see how often she can get away with pulling something off the tree. We have decided that Santa Clause will not be a part of Christmas around here. My husband feels deeply that we should not lie to the kids. I don't care that much for Santa Clause so I support him on this. We have told our son that Santa is not real, but he insists that he is. He likes to play the "Is he real?" game. It goes like this. "Is Ron Paul real?" "Yes," I tell him. "Is Superman real?" "No," I tell him. "Is President Hinkley real?" "Yes," I tell him. "Is Santa Clause real?" "No," I tell him. "Yes, he is mom, because my cousin said so, and I saw him at the church." In addition to taking away Santa Clause from our children we have also banned "made in China" items from our gift giving, and since almost all toys are made in china these days, our kids won't be getting any toys for Christmas. And to top it off we also won't be having any candy. My husband and I both have stopped eating candy, I've only been doing it for a few months and I make a few exceptions, but my husband hasn't had candy in years. It isn't as bad as it sounds, the kids will get plenty of goodies and sugar, it just won't be "candy." We'll have granola bars, and fruit snacks, and dried fruit, and beef jerky, and nuts and goldfish crackers. I'm sure they will get plenty of candy from other people, and that is fine, they just won't get it from their parents. So after all this rambling I now come to the funny story that I was going to share...

On Friday night I told the kids that we had to clean the house before we went to get a Christmas tree, so we all worked together to get the house cleaned, by the next morning the house was a mess again, so we cleaned up again and while we cleaned my husband and I decided that we wanted to go to DI and see if we could get a decent fake tree. We jumped in the car and went on our way. We found a tree at DI and decided it would work, but lo and behold our son was heart broken, he wanted a real tree! My husband and I were feeling pretty bad that we were letting him down, especially with all our other tyrannical Christmas rules and he had worked so hard to help clean. So we gave in and went to the tree lot. There is tree lot in our area that sells $5 trees as well as larger more beautiful trees. The $5 trees are small and sparse, but they are actually quite adequate and top off at about 5 feet high. When we got to the lot there were only about 4 of these little trees left. We told our son to pick one. He reacted by throwing a big fit..."I want a normal tree, these aren't normal trees, these aren't normal!" He went on and on about how not "normal" they were and how unfair it was, but he couldn't explain to us what he meant by normal. We showed him a bunch of the other trees that were $20-$60 some of them he thought were normal, but we explained that they cost too much and so we had to choose from the small trees. He continued to throw his fit. My husband and I were feeling stupid for giving in in the first place and thinking that we were going to go back to get the fake tree, when all of a sudden the kid perks up and says "Here's one! This one is Normal!" It was one of the $5 trees that we had looked at first. So we all agreed that it was "Normal," and we bought it and went home.

Still after all this rambling what I really wanted to share was my item listed on Etsy.

2007-11-12T08:24:00.001-08:00

This was my Sunday activity...very uplifting, wouldn't you say? He's made out of felt and is a puppet. I tried a needle felting method, but I think if I'm going to do it this way again, I need to use unspun wool instead of felt sheets because of the hard edge that the felt sheets have, or maybe I just need to embellish more with unspun wool. I also need to improve on the mechanics, he's not too easy to make talk.

Would you want to discuss politics with this guy? What about if you were also an ugly puppet, then would you? Just wondering.

2007-11-05T08:24:00.000-08:00

It was late in the evening of November 3rd, just three measly days into NaNoWriMo when I came to the conclusion that I was done. No I hadn't completed my novel, I just wasn't going to work on it anymore. It wasn't because, I was falling behind, I was actually doing quite well with my word count. I simply came to the conclusion that there were other things I needed, and wanted, to be doing. I'm not the kind of person that can bust out 1700 words in no time at all. It takes me a good portion of the day, as the month wore on it might have gotten easier, but I won't be giving it a chance.

I do not want to be discouraging to other writers. Please don't give up, I implore you, keep going. Write! Write like the wind!

Now I suppose, I'll have to come up with some fancy stuff to show that I am doing something instead of writing. If only I could write and quilt at the same time.

2007-10-20T17:49:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to remind you all that you should be preparing for November. Get your art projects, craft projects, and other silly commitments finished up (or just to a point where you can put them aside for a month.) Yes, November is National Novel Writing Month, and yes, I do expect everyone to participate, no matter what. I will be writing my own novel of course, or at least starting one, as I have done in years past. I think the most I've ever written was 16 pages of nonsense. I always tend to give up after about a week because I just can't keep up my word count and life starts piling up. This year will be different, I'm sure, considering that my youngest is 18 months old and can practically take care of herself.

2007-10-03T11:15:00.001-07:00

These hats are great. I want one my size, in a more Pam friendly color and warmer material.

I thought I'd make my own simpler version, and so I did. It turned out too small for my little girl, so one of my smaller nieces with a smaller noggin will have to wear it, that is until she cries and pulls it off, or her mom takes it off for her because everyone laughs at her.

2007-10-02T13:18:00.000-07:00

Is the electrical circuit box hidden under picture number 1, 2, or 3? You will never guess, or maybe you will, but I'm not giving out any prizes, so it won't do you any good.

After a few weeks of arranging and re-arranging various frames around on the floor in front of this wall, and making a few trips to our local thrift shops to find the perfect sized frame, I have finally decided that this is how this wall will hang. I have yet to fill the 3 frames on the left with pictures, so they don't really count towards my new years resolution.

2007-09-23T22:42:00.001-07:00

I officially now have my very own ruffle.

I was working on painting some frames for my kitchen, to go along with the alphabet picture, and I needed another frame, but I couldn't go and get one because I didn't have a car to leave the house with. So, alas, I started another project. I thought it would take me an hour or two, and I could have the sewing machine put away before my husband got home, instead it took me all day and part of the next morning. I did a lot of picking out stitches, cutting more fabric than I really needed, and I pinned and re-pinned the darn thing numerous times, trying to get it's ruffle spread out equally.

At one point my son wanted to help by taking out the pins after I sewed over them, (normally I would take them out right before sewing over them, but I was sewing slowly, so we were not in much danger of gouging our eyes out with broken needles.) I sewed along, and he removed the pins. After sewing about 3 feet I realized that I had run out of bobbin thread, which meant that the whole time I hadn't actually been sewing at all. And since my son had steadfastly helped me by taking out each and every pin, I had to re-pin it and sew it again. What is the longest stitch that you thought you stitched, but really hadn't? (This is one of those blog competitions, post a comment including your answer and who ever stitched the longest non-stitch will win a prize!)

Now that the ruffle is finished I don't know that I like it all that much. It looks too countryish, like I should have some cow and daisy themed porcelain plates hanging on the wall next to them. I don't know what I expected, it is a ruffle after all.

2007-09-19T10:06:00.001-07:00

Someone was turning one and I wanted to give her a present for her birthday. I accompanied my mother and sister to Toys R Us where the shelves were stocked full of goods any child would be happy to have. But no, none of these items were to be my present for my cousins little girl. She would not be getting what she wanted from me. Instead I gave her some odd little felt barrettes that were made by my very own person, and in the good old U.S.A. She will have to grow a bit more hair in order to wear them.

I borrowed my brother's girlfriend's head to model, since her hair had the capacity to hold in a barrette, and she was the least likely person in the room to protest and run away. Thanks Kim for taking the pictures.

I had more felt left over, so I made some for my little girl, she won't leave them in her hair, instead she likes to take them out and suck on them. Ick, slimy felt. So I wear them instead.

2007-09-14T12:31:00.001-07:00

I am actually working on my new years resolution to put stuff on my walls. I have just finished something. It's not on the wall though, that will probably take me another month or two.

I often look back at my kindergarten days in Mrs. Davis's class and I remember fondly the alphabet on the wall in front of the room over the chalkboard. I could always look up there in case I forgot how to make a particular letter. Since my children will be home schooled I want to have the alphabet readily accessible for them to look at. But the large laminated brightly colored alphabet from my childhood isn't something I want hanging in a prominent place in my home. So I have made my own. In my last home I painted a border around my sons room with the whole alphabet, and of course dragons. It took me forever to paint and just as I finished it we sold the house and moved, and I had to leave it behind. When we move next I will be able to take this one with me.

"Yuck, what is that?" a young boy visiting my house asked me. He was referring to the gunk on the frame. I told him it is dehydrated slime. I love my ugly frames, I haven't found anyone else who agrees with me, especially not my husband. He doesn't understand why I would "ruin" a perfectly good frame.

Below are some blurry close ups. My camera stinks, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it.

The greatest news in all of this is that I can now clean off my kitchen table, and my husband can love me again, at least until I mess it up again.

2007-09-12T20:02:00.000-07:00

Where has needle felting been hiding all these years? I never knew it existed before, but it's out there and it's actually super trendy right now. Since I am totally a cool person and always follow the trends I figured I had no choice but to try my hand at it.

I went to Joanne's fabric and craft store, so that I might find felting needles. They don't sell just felting needles by themselves, but luckily I found a kit by Feltworks in the clearance section, that was made up of a purse (already made), roving (unspun wool), and two felting needles. It also had a pattern and some beads and instructions on how to follow the pattern. Since I do not follow instructions well, I gave the beads to a friend, and tossed the instructions and pattern away after a brief glance. In the instructions it warned me not to stick myself with the needles, I of course did the opposite; I haven't had my tetanus shot since 96, I hope I don't die.

Here is the end product, sorry for the fuzzy pictures.

Side one: Dragon with one leg, one wing, and no arms.

Side 2: Dragonflies, not anatomically correct.

I have also been having fun with hair clips and felt. When I get the pictures from my sister I'll share, these are also trendy, which once again makes me totally cool for making them.

2007-08-28T09:24:00.001-07:00

This quilt is done, and ready for spit up.

In hind sight, there are few things I'd have done different with this quilt. I probably wouldn't have used the printable fabric, because it's so stiff. And I would have used a better piece of fabric for the quilt top. If you can't tell, it is pink, but it is way too light and washed out, so it looks like an ugly white plus it wasn't the best quality of fabric, I realized this after I had already started and that was too late. It would have killed my momentum to stop and get a different cut of fabric.

Ever see a cute picture of adorable kids feet on a beautiful quilt...

This is my version.

I quilted the whole thing with an organic asymmetrical design and all the corners are different, this is one of them.

After I had quilted the whole thing, I decided that it needed something more, so I added all the pink and brown dots. My son asked what they were and I told him they were eggs, for strawberry eating dragons. He then pointed out that it looked like the dragon had a strawberry body. "Well," I said, "you are what you eat."

2007-08-18T09:13:00.001-07:00

Great Binding Tip

I saw this tip the other day on some random blog, just in time for me to use it as I am binding Julianna's quilt. I can't find the blog again, so I can't give credit to the great tipster, just let it be known that I am not so great as to come up with this idea on my own.

When you are binding a quilt by hand, instead of using pins to hold the binding in place, use your daughters cute little hair clips. This prevents the thread from catching on the head of the pin, and un-threading your needle or making knots and tangles.

Don't worry about your little girls hair being out of place while you are doing this, we all know that little girls won't leave those hair clips in for more than a few minutes anyway, might as well put them to good use.

2007-08-12T17:34:00.000-07:00

This Picture is Not Going to Hang on My Wall.

I've been wanting to get out the paints for a few weeks now, and finally today I did. I think I'll pack them up again for a few more months. Or maybe I'll force myself to paint everyday and learn something.

2007-08-09T21:55:00.001-07:00

My son has been coloring on this box for the past few days, and every once in a while the rest of us join in. He left it out in the sun and a bunch of the crayons melted on the bottom, he was afraid that he would get in trouble so he snook one of my dishtowels outside to try to clean it up himself, but it didn't work, so he came in screaming his head off all panicked about this tragedy. I of course couldn't care less about the crayons, but I was a bit sad about the towel. The little girls love being trapped inside it so they can't get into trouble and they can't escape the camera, my son on the other hand didn't want his picture taken.

2007-08-07T08:57:00.000-07:00

This post is for all of you out there who enjoy children's art: their uninhibited freedom of expression, pure design, their simple unadulterated technique, and reckless abandon of the house rules.

As I told you in the last post, we refer to this artistic child as "The Funny Funny." And funny she is. She doesn't wait to be entertained, she makes up her own fun, and loves to make her older brother laugh.

Well this is a direct quote from her older brother upon seeing what she had done to the wall...

I had just gone through the house and cleaned up all the stray pens, to prevent exactly just this from happening. I missed one. I am tempted to have my children grow up in a house with absolutely no writing utensils. That will show them!

2007-08-03T14:45:00.000-07:00

In cleaning out my closet, with the intent of getting rid of the clothes I don't wear, I came across four pink shirts. I decided I am done wearing pink shirts for now. Maybe I'll keep the one that Lesli gave me in case of any pink shirt emergencies, but the rest are done for. Please take note that I am not swearing off pink forever, I am not denouncing it, nor am I saying that I don't like pink.

Well, instead of giving these pink shirts to the DI, I decided I could quickly remake them into clothing for my little girl. Snip, snip, snip, a few seams, a little elastic, and now The Funny Funny (as we like to call her) has a new outfit.

2007-07-20T11:22:00.000-07:00

Whew...back in my own house again. Dan just got a new job up here, with benefits! I'm going to miss seeing my mom and dad everyday. And my dad is going to have to eat everything from his garden all himself. I haven't gotten much of anything done in the last many weeks, or at least not any of my own projects. I have kept the kids fed and alive and we have been having some fun. Most of my brothers and sisters have been around for the past few weeks for a reunion with my moms side of the family in Roosevelt. We also have done trips to the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point, This is The Place, and Mt Timpanogas cave (in 100 degree weather). We have also canoed, went skeet shooting, target shooting, there is a swimming trip planned for this afternoon and right now all the nieces and nephews are in the backyard shooting bows and arrows at straw bales. Good times.

One thing I have done is finished appliqueing the dragon and the strawberry for Danna's baby, now I just have to put the quilt together and quilt it that should take a few months, I'll keep you posted.

2007-06-07T17:58:00.000-07:00

Just messing around with the blog look some more, and I know it looks horrible. Some day I swear I'm going to learn html so I won't be held back by those boring old blogger templates, or someday blogger will make it even more dummy friendly.

To make up for it here's a dragon.

2007-06-01T13:46:00.000-07:00

So my blog has changed it's clothing. I know the white makes it look like it didn't quite put enough clothing back on. I'm just messing around with it. I'll probably change it a few more times in the coming weeks until I settle on something. It's almost as fun as having a Barbie fashion show...

Here is what I've really been up to:

That is the quilt I am working on for my sisters baby. What you see there in my dark and blurry photo is bits and pieces of a dragon and a strawberry that I printed out on fabric, and now I'm appliqueing it all together. This is my first foray into printing on fabric and I have to say that I'm not too happy with the pre-made fabric sheets. They are very stiff. I think I'll make my own next time with my own choice of fabric on wax paper (you iron the fabric onto the waxy side of the wax paper, so that it will go through the printer, then you peel it off.)

I also finished, sold, and shipped this basket.

And I drew this picture and made this frame and listed it on Etsy:

You might think I'm on a roll, but if you realize how long it's been since I last posted you will also realize that this isn't much to show for all that time. Oh well, I'll just keep trudging along.

2007-05-10T14:18:00.000-07:00

I haven't been able to get too much done lately, but I'm trying. I am almost finished with a custom basket that someone asked me for from Etsy. It is larger than the Easter baskets I had made previously, so it is has been a lot harder to get it to stand up presentably. I've also started a quilt for my sisters new daughter that is ready to arrive any minute now. I'm not in a hurry because it's summer and I don't think she'll be needing a quilt anytime soon. I've also put in some time trying to design a website for myself. My husband is now a computer programmer so I figured I should have my own website, but in reality, he is way too busy to make it for me, so don't expect it anytime soon. Here's some ideas I had for it...

So far I really only like the top one, the other two are too strong for me, maybe if I just toned down the colors... Which one do you vote for? In the end I'll probably come up with something like none of the above, so you can vote for that too.

Also Kim blogged about a little munchkin (who would be pouting, indignantly, right now if he knew I had called him a munchkin), and just happened to use a picture that showed a monster puppet (the one on the left) that I made for him for his birthday, back when I was going through my puppet making phase. That phase only lasted through 3 puppets, a monster, a dragon, and monkey. When I started on the monster I thought I'd make a cute little monster, that wouldn't get in the way, but as I made it, it got bigger and bigger and bigger until it was the size of a small child...oops. The monster on the left in the picture was made by his mother, it had a hole in it's belly with another smaller monster in it, in that monsters belly was yet another smaller monster. It was really awesome. The funny thing was that we both independently, not knowing what the other was doing, made him monsters for his birthday, and they were both blue and brown. I guess some things are just meant to be.

2007-04-27T14:24:00.000-07:00

I drew this dragon here in a canoe for my father while he was in the hospital for a few days. It wasn't supposed to have any correlation to his situation. I was just drawing a dragon, and my father likes canoes, I threw in the sharks just for good measure. If you really think about it , the dragon can just fly away, so he isn't in any danger (he even has two wings!)

And a picture by my son for Grandpa. If you look closely you can see the yellow pencil marks. My son calls them "invisible", if you can see them you must have superpowers or something. I didn't ask him what the rest of the picture was about, it should be self explanatory anyway. Can't you tell?

In any case my father is home and is doing well, as long as he doesn't cough or sneeze. I'm sure he doesn't want me blogging about him, so hopefully he doesn't read my blog.

2007-04-12T08:34:00.000-07:00

My son and I broke out the pastels yesterday, and this is what came of it, at least on my part. He drew two black waterfalls, subsequently making a very creative black mess all over his hands and the inside of one nostril.

I have a hard time drawing things with much dimension to them especially dragons, so although I only got one wing on there, I am proud of myself that I gave him two arms and his tail comes toward the front of the picture. Hooray for me, and down with anything that this guy has to say.

2007-04-01T14:37:00.000-07:00

Here is a sketch I did, of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemene, while I watched Conference. When I keep my hands busy I usually listen better. This time however my mind kept wandering to the fact that I would like to take some drawing classes, especially so I can learn to draw human figures. And when I finished and showed Dan he reaffirmed it by telling me I drew girly features. Maybe I can find a class down near my parents house...

2007-03-31T19:33:00.000-07:00

Due to circumstances, I will be spending a lot of time at my Mom and Dads house for the next while. This means that my ability to work on "projects" will be limited. So my postings may be few and far between...I mean fewer and farther between. We'll see. The good thing is that I will get to do more crosswords. Don't worry, I won't bore you with those details.

2007-03-14T21:27:00.000-07:00

I am not a bag toting kinda gal. I like to stick my wallet and keys in my pocket and run free without all the baggage. But I am also a mom, so I do need a bag every now and then because diapers and wipes don't fit in my pockets. I've been using the bag on the left for a long time. My mom made it for my son to take his crayons and paper, and a few small toys to church with him, but now I am the one who gets to carry this around, and it's really cramping my style. So I made a new bag. I don't think it's quite my thing either. I need something inconspicuous and much more bland, maybe I'll make this same pattern in a plain brown or black.

2007-03-12T15:24:00.000-07:00

It has been many years since I have sewn clothes. I can only recall one skirt that I have made since high school. I almost sewed my wedding dress, but decided I didn't really want to and ended up buying one from a display at a fabric store. For some reason, I have the clothes sewing itch right now. Maybe it's because I have a little baby girl, and I've been looking at other peoples blogs who make really cute little girl clothing, also spring-like weather is very inspiring. What ever the reason, every time I go into a fabric store I tend to find something that I want to make into an outfit for my baby.

This first outfit I made turned out too big, so she'll have to wait a few months to wear it. I made the pattern up myself, gauging it against clothes that fit her right now. I guess I was lenient with the sizing because I didn't want to make it too small. I tried to try it on her, but playing dress ups with an almost one year old isn't as easy as it sounds. After the first time I put it on her she had figured things out and knew that when I approached her it was time to squeal and laugh and run, she is so silly.

This is an up-close picture of the print on the fabric. I am a sucker for thistles. I grew up playing in them. I would recommend a yard of thistles, before a lawn with rose bushes, any day.

2007-03-10T08:52:00.001-08:00

Mirror, mirror, on the wall, you're stinkin heavy, please don't fall.

My big brother made this mirror for me a long long time ago, back when he worked for Ironies. It is super heavy, being made out of cement and glass. Unfortunately, he initially forgot to put the hook on the back. Fortunately, before the cement had hardened too much he remembered. Unfortunately, he didn't have the time to center it correctly. Thus it hangs a wee bit askew, okay, it is crazy crooked. One of these days I'll figure out a way to hold it straight, right now I'm just too much in shock over the 84 holes I had to try before I gave up finding a stud. I ended up using a special picture hanging device found at the hardware store that says I don't need a stud.

11 more to go.