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

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.

We went on a little camping trip.

This little girl had the most fun.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.)

I am a puppet.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.