number 100

Hello friends. I've missed you so.
I've not posted for a number of reasons. The first is the annoyance of slow internet and the fact that I have to connect through Husband's Blackberry, which I cannot do myself. Another is that this is my 100th post and I wanted something good to discuss.
So here area series of Holiday misfortunes I experienced this year. I hope you will find them entertaining.
So, remember the CD's I painted and gave to neighbors? Yeah, turns out they didn't burn so I delivered blank, decorative cd's.
I guess I could pretend I meant to do it, thinking my friends might like to have a fancy-like cd to burn for themselves. Yeah, that's better. That way, if someone doesn't like my taste in Christmas music ,"Wham" for example, they can still enjoy the gift. Yes that has a much better ring to it.
Here's unfortunate Holiday event number two.
My Mother-in-law received, a variety of spices and such from a friend who visited Bali.
Among them was a bag of 100% Coca powder. Fantastic gift, wouldn't you say?
One evening when no one was home but my own little family we invited Barefoot Cassandra and her mellow read-head to come and socialize. While the men-folk were off fetching dinner I went to the pantry to find what I needed to make hot chocolate. I caught sight of the fancy cocoa and and brought it out to show Barefoot, who is the type to appreciate such things.
We stood there discussing and musing over what the difference would be in, say, a batch of brownies, made with the 100% coca powder as opposed to plain old dutch process from the grocery store.
Then I noticed that Baby Girl had gotten hold of the bag while I was busy conversing and was squishing it a bit. At which point I saw the future, just like in "Next".
I thought to myself "I need to take that away before she pops the bag" and just as I reached for it, she gave it a big squeeze and coated herself, Cassandra, and the kitchen with a liberal dusting of gourmet cocoa. I should have quickly whipped up a batch of truffles to roll in the delicious stuff, I could pick off any crumbs that came off the floor along with the delicious! Instead, I stood there, gasping. I don't remember what I said but I said it quite a few times.
Of all the hundreds of ways for a small child to make a mess of a kitchen, mine had to chose the way that involved an ingredient I could not replace.
After I cleaned it up I called the Mother-in-law and confessed. She was shopping at Down Town Disney when I called. AfterI hung up the phone I started the gasping all over again. "Now I've ruined the Coca and her evening at Disney Land" I lamented.
Cas was kind enough to point out that while the news was certainly disappointing it was probably not so bad as to ruin her whole evening and eventually I recovered.
In case you were wondering. We licked some of the spilled powder off the kitchen and found that it didn't taste any different than any other cocoa powder we'd experienced. I think it smelled better though.
Well,that was only two holiday misfortunes which may not really count as a series but it's all I've got.
I suppose I could tell the tale of how I came within 30 minutes of procuring a Wii for Husband's Christmas gift but I'm all posted out at the moment so, You'll just have to imagine for yourself how that went if you're interested.

stockings

My dear friend Melis made these for me.
I dreamed them up two years ago while thinking about what kind of stockings I'd like to have for my family, but every year by the time I got around to thinking about them, it was too late to learn how to make them.
My knitting skills are very remidial indeed.
So, this year when I thought of them I called up Melis and she made them for me.
I couldn't be more thrilled. They are everything I imagined and more. I can't wait to stuff them full of goodies.

Out of body sewing

This is Baby Girl's flower girl dress. The Bride was generous enough to let me design it, my only guideline was color.
The dress was in my head just waiting, wanting to be made.
I didn't draft a pattern, didn't even draw out the pieces in dissapeaging ink, just picked up my scisors and started cutting. Each piece materialized as I worked. Baby Girl was in bed when I started. I'd been planning to start in the morning so I hadn't even taken measurements but it all fit very near perfectly. The alteration I had to make ( I took in about 1/4 inch at the corners of the neck line) I knew would be needed before I even put it on her. This, friends, is a miracle dress.
The hem is the whole story with this dress. Super simple bodice, fitted raglan sleves, no trim at the waist, then at the hem a 2 inch grow stripe and a pretty pointed lace petticoat just peeking out from under all of that velveteen.
The slip will be a dress of it's own come spring. I'll rig up a little sweater or jacket and it will have it's day in the sun.
I still have not worked out the button situation. I'd really like rheinstone or crystal. I think a little bling in contrast with the old timey vibe I'm putting out with the grow stripe and the lace will be just the thing to finish it off.
I'll let you know what I decide

More from Grandma

This Bunny was another cause for fight between my and my sister. Grandma got our favorite animals mixed up and sent me the bunny and her the kitty. OOPS! We were especially happy that year because there was a hershy's kiss inside. I think that's the only time she sent goodies of any kind with our ornaments.



I've had this one for the length of my memory. It has my initials on it. My sister Elizabeth and I had the same initials so we distinguished between ourr hearts by ribbon color. There was discussion about who had pink and who had red every year. This was discussion rather than fight because she is six years older than I am. I was more apt to fight with siblings closer to my own age.



Another star and another favorite. Stars are one of my favorite shapes. I love the siplicity of this, just buttons glued on a wooden star, but it's beautiful. The single red sequin in the center is the perfect touch of color.

elf swing

I've always thought this guy needed something to sit on, so this year he's swinging on my wooden beads.
This is another one from Grandma.

Holiday Traditions Exchange

This is one of the things Doreen , my swap partner sent.
I didn't think to take a picture of everything together before I put the ornaments on the tree, the cd in the player, the book on the bookshelf, etc. It was all wonderful and if I was at my own house I'd round it all up and photograph it for you now.
Just know that it was fabulous.
Thanks Doreen!

sunbeam tree

I made this in sunday school when I was three.

Seriously?

So, as I was strolling through the pacifier department as my local grocery store one day while I was still preggers, I noticed the NUK starlight pacifiers.
They were lovely! Such clean lines, the colors, though limited, were fantastic! Never had I seen a paci so sleek and stylish. I bought a two pack and sent one off to a friend, saving the other for my own tiny boy. Luckily enough, that was the variety of bink he favoured and aside from the soothie they gave us in the hospital the only kind he's ever used.
But now I can't find them.
I got around to looking online today and all I came up with was a product description which reminded me how much I do indeed love that pacifier, and this
$18.95 for a pack of binkis? Are you kidding me?
I guess I am not the only one who loves them.
I suppose it's just as well. It's time to start getting Tiny off the bink anyway, but in the mean time I get all antsey when any of the 3 we have are MIA.
We were down to one for a few days and it almost drove me to insanity. And that was before I googled and was still hopefully checking every time I went to the store.
In reality, Tiny boy would probably be fine with any NUK I gave him. It is me who is in love with the starlight so I guess if the 3 got lost before we were through with paci's in general, I could buy any ugly old nuk and be ok, but I wouldn't be happy about it.

Christmas yums; a recipe

Unwrap a bag of huggs or kisses


Place each one on top of a pretzel snap


Tuck the whole lot into a 250 degree oven for 3 minutes or untill melted through


Squash an m&m on the tops of them all and let cool until set.

Little gifts for little friends

Put on a happy face


Picking up bitsy pom poms


and making them stick


Snow Girl got some junk in her trunk.



Snow man kick line

My deadly sin?

Crafting to excess
I planned to sit down and write a photo laden post about it all but upon looking over my photos I've decided it's going to take a few photo laden posts to cover it. I think I'll just stick with my neighbor gifts for this one. I delivered them yesterday. It feels good to have done with it.


I've scorned paper crafts in the past. I love cut and paste art a la 4th grade but scrap booking/card making left me totally uninspired. This year though, I seem to have caught the bug. I don't think I'll ever get as into it as some people are and it will definitely never be my center stage craft but I had fun with the tags for my goodies.


I also got the notion that I'd like paint cd's so along with the yummies the neighbors got a hand painted copy of my favorite Christmas mix, Hallelujah Chorus, Frankie and Cyndi Lauper's Santa Clause is commin to town, Wham!'s Last Christmas I gev you my heart...you know, the classics.


This one is my favorite.

December afternoon

This one my mama made for Baby Girl last Christmas.




Tiny Boy is crawling with a wooden ball in his hand. On the wood floor it sounds like he's stumping about on a peg leg.
He lets go of the ball as he reaches to climb up next to the sofa or my leg. As the ball rolls away it catches his attention and calls him back.
After a while he is so exhausted of the game he lays his little head down on my foot and sighs.

Baby Girl is helping me wrap a gift. As she holds the paper still for me she sings "Pets gonna work? Team Work!" Nothing will convince her that "What's" is the first word of the song.
As I finish up the pile of curly ribbon on the gift she reminds me "but we don't tell!"

second thoughts

Tonight is my monthly bunko game. I went rummaging through the craft closet trying to come up with a gift to take because I so desperately did not want to go to the store.
I rummaged my way to this little bag I crocheted up in imitation of Bella Dia's Button Hole bag a few years ago. All that was left to do was to sew it together and add some kind of embellishment.
I did it, and now I'm afraid I don't want to give it away.
It would be fine if I knew the person who received it would love it, but what if they don't?
What if the person who ends up with it hates it?
What if it's Phyllis' oven mit?
It is a bit lumpy, and the ribbon is the best choice of what I had in the closet, though not what I would pick in an ideal situation, but I love it, and accordingly want it to be loved. Is that too much to ask?



Grandma was into these little faces one year. She has a family tree hanging on her wall with little faces of all our ancestors. This is me.

Enchanted

I chose this Ornament for this post because it is the most enchanted of all of them. What little girl in the 80's didn't love a unicorn? I don't know if the boy's got unicorns too or if Grandma made them something a little more manly.
We saw Enchanted yesterday. It filled all my expectations of fabulousness.
I think my favorite part was that Nancy wasn't just ditched. I hate when the old girlfriend is nice and they just ditch her. I also loved that she was Maureen and sang her tango to my self as we went home.
Baby Girl cried at 3 parts of the film. See if you can guess which parts made her cry and leave me a comment with your answer. At least one is pretty obvious. The first person to guess the least obvious answer wins a prize. T,he prize is yummy Christmas yummy stuff and maybe one of the pom-pom snowmen Baby Girl and I are making for her friends.
If you have not seen the film don't look at the comments unless you want to see spoilers. I am expecting participation from all of you who have seen the film. Except Husband because he was there for the crying so he already knows the answer and that would be cheating.

Grandma's outdone herself this time.

The acrylic star, etched with my name, took my breath away when I fist saw it.
I was five that year. Thrilled to add another ornament to my collection and such an ornament it was! How would Grandma ever top that beautiful star?
I'm not sure she ever did. She's made a lot of lovely, cute and creative things over the years but I don't think I've ever been as enthralled my any of them as I was by this one.

A pile of vomit and a shirtless mother

Tuesday morning found me bustling about getting ready for my joy school lesson. Finally at about 9:00, thirty minutes before the children were due to arrive, I decided it was high time I got myself and my child ready.
I deemed that not having the cups and napkins on the counter ready for snack time would be much less of a problem for me than not having hair done when kids started showing up, so I started in that direction. The need for a few minutes quality time with my flat iron was amplified my the fact that I'd gone to bed on wet hair the night before.
Baby Girl was lying in a heap at the bottom of the stairs where she'd been since I told her she could not have a Dora yogurt drink until she finished her cereal, which she was "too full to eat".
I decided to tackle her tresses first and called her to come up stairs. Her response was "I'm too tired to do that" So I walked down and hefted her up the stairs vowing with each step that she'd have a nap as soon as the other children left my home.
"I'm going to throw up" she said, as we were reaching the top of the stairs. This is not a statement to be taken lightly. I cupped my hand beneath her chin and began to run.
A step or two later life cereal began to spew forth.
That stuff just kept on coming!
She finally stopped, and I took her the rest of the way to the bathroom and began to dispose of my handful. "I'll just use my pitcher" she says as she begins to toss even more of her cookies into the bath pitcher.
I got my hands clean, removed my puked up shirt and got her in the bath. then, as I was debating whether to clean up the floor first or call the joy school parents and tell them not to come, the door bell rang.
Tiny Boy had been playing far away from the up-chuck... until now. There I stood, in my bra, hair standing on end, baby veering toward a puddle of disgust, and a guest at the door.
I was fortunate enough to have a basket of clean laundry close at hand. I scooped up the wee child and held him over one arm while I dug through the basket of what seemed to be nothing but childrenswear until I produced the one and only adult shirt in the lot which I donned, somehow, on my way down the stairs.
"I hope it's ok that we're early" says the mother at the door.

A discovery

Tiny Boy has had his bottom front teeth for five months now. More recently her grew his right top front tooth along with his left top vampire tooth. It makes for a lovely smile.
On Sunday last, he figured out what he could do with that tooth up there on top and ate his blue berries in the tiniest of bites.
Teeth are so much more useful when they line up.

The Salvation Army got me this time.

I hate the bell ringers. I hate them! I would be happy to give spare change to the Salvation Army if only they would not insist upon harassing me with bells every time I enter the grocery store throughout December.
I told myself that I would put money in if ever I saw a bucket without an immigrant violently ringing a bell at me as I passed.
Today at Wal*Mart it happened. The ringer was standing off to the side of the entrance talking on the phone, not ringing. So I got out some change for Baby Girl to put in the bucket. The man rang his bell in appreciation.
I think such a ring, a ring of gratitude is perfectly acceptable. It did not make me feel harassed or guilty about my unwillingness to donate. It delighted my child and made me grateful that for once in my life I arrived at the store while the ringer was on break.


My grandma made each of us an ornament every year. The strawberry ornament has always been a favorite of mine. It has been with me for many a Christmas. I think I got that one the year I was four.
It was prettier in it's prime. Now the felt leaves are worn down to green nubs and the berry it's self has perhaps been squished a time too many.
My sister and I were always confused as to which berry was who's and would fight over them until the rightful owner of each was decided. I don't recall what the difference was or even if the same one was the preffered every year, but squabble we did, until our mother got separate boxes for each of us to store our ornaments in.

shhhh!

We were sitting in the back at church today. Near by, a man was standing with his baby.
After some rocking and bouncing on the part of the father the baby went to sleep. "Shhh!" said Baby Girl. She kept saying it every time I looked at her. Sometimes she'd tap me just so I'd look over and she could shh me. This continued until the man haded the baby to his wife.
Toward the end of the meeting, the shhhing started up again. The man was still standing by the wall a little way off, but now he was holding a squirmy toddler who was not, and had no intention of sleeping.
I was a bit perplexed, but after a moment I noticed the gentleman sitting in the row in front of us was dozing.

I think he'd be glad to know the small 3 year old girl behind him was taking such great care to insure that her mother was respectful of his nap time.





Here's the tree, It's really not quite finished. I've never decided what I would like for a tree skirt so the ugly metal stand and the yoga mat I put under it to keep it from scratching the floor are contributing their beauty to the scene. I usually just put some presents under there quick like to hide that stuff. The Dog took to humping the gifts last year though, so I'm not too eager to put any within his reach.
I also don't have a star for the top. I might make one one of these days.










And of course this is the gold foil number I made in fifth grade, hung with a bit of blue string. My mother had a big spool of blue string. I grew up thinking blue was the normal color for string. Does string even come in other colors?

Welcome December

I put my tree up today and I had a fantastic idea.
Since I tend to do better at posting when I have some sort of theme going, and with holiday craziness filling my life I'm not likely to post like I'd like to without some sort of a motivational shove, why don't I spot light the different ornaments on my tree throughout December?
I couldn't think of a good reason why I shouldn't so I'm going to.
Don't you worry, If I have another child-pee incident or other topic of interest to discuss I will certainly put the ornamental posts aside in order to do so. I wouldn't want any one to miss out on any of the really important things I have to say because I was busy strolling along memory lane with a bit of card stock encased in peeling gold foil and a photo of myself at 10 years of age.
I suppose a good thing for this kick-off post would have been a photo of the tree in it's entirety, or at least the gold-foil ornament I mentioned, but I don't care to snap any photos at the moment. So use your imaginations, and I'll try to work up the energy to toss you a photo tomorrow...or sometime.