Making cookies

Cookie was a very happy monster. He's been living here over two years and finally, he has some cookies of his own.

 

These felt cookies upped the monster's play value considerably. He's always been loved, but he's so much more agreeable when there are cookies for him to eat.
Enzo likes stuffing the cookies in his mouth the best.

 

Zizza prefers to help him chomp.
Nice Snow White tattoo huh? That thing has been firmly affixed to her arm for over a week, it's not even starting to peel. I don't think stick-on tattoos lasted that long when I was a kid.

 

Back to the topic at hand, it was only a matter of time before someone got curious. I'll bet that felt has a good mouth feel.

 

I think making those cookies was the best half hour I've spent all week.

The Party

This is one of the Halloween posts I warned you about. It's actually About Baby Girl's birthday party, but she had a Halloween party so, yeah.

I didn't realize October had slipped by so fast so, on the Sunday before her birthday when they called her to the front of the room and sang to her during primary I had a mini panic attack. In my head I had at least another week.
I asked her that night at bed time what she wanted her party to be like. She said she wanted a Halloween party with a pumpkin in a witch hat pinata, pin the tail on the black cat and a witch cake.
That was good news for me, nothing too involved. Even better news was her guest list, the only people she mentioned inviting were her cousins and Bestest. We went ahead and invited Bestest's whole family, just because.
The menu she requested was spaghetti, chicken nuggets, (this was a surprise, she hasn't historically been a fan of nuggets) carrots and apples.
In short, my child requested the simplest birthday party ever.
I set out to throw the pinata together the day before the party. I figured it would take maybe two hours, I could easily knock it out during nap time. The thing is, I decided it would look soooo much better if I made it with little tufts instead of flat paper (note to self, tell the story about kindergarten and the tissue paper tufts later in the month) This was probably the worst decision a time crunched, crafted-out mother could make. By the time I finished it I wished I could chop off my fingers. I like the way it turned out though.


Another problem with the tuft method? It doesn't lend extra strength to the pinata like flat tissue would have done. I wired the thing up and decided it would not be strong enough to support it's candy load. The wire would have ripped through the minute I lifted it. Solution? We went wireless and had the kids stand in a circle and toss it back and forth until it yielded it's booty. I thought that was actually a better method for little kids like mine who haven't yet mastered the art of wielding a stick.
The coolest thing about the pinata was how it had an after life as a mask. All the kids had a turn, so I have multitudes of photos of pumpkinheaded children but I like Baby Girls outfit the best so here she is.

There was chocolate, play dough, pez refills and popcorn balls inside. The Popcorn balls weren't much of a hit with anyone other than Tiny. He liked them though.

Baby Girl continued to revise her cake ideas up to the last minute. It went from a witch cake to a pumpkin cake to a cake with pumpkins on it. My favorite part about her changing her mind repeatedly was how the cake got easier with every change.
In the end she settled on a fudgy pumpkin patch with the words "Happy Oscar Lily Pumpkin patch." Man that cake was good.

Then she blew out the candles...

and all was well.

I am not a milliner and why I need a digital SLR

This is my first hat. I think it's very obvious that it's my first. If I were willing to show you the inside, it would me even more obvious.

I started out with 6 sections but that made it large enough to fit even my big fat head. Just as I was cursing myself for putting in the plaid accent "pipping" (it's not really pipping but I don't know what else to call it) which made it impossible for me to simply take it in at each seam, I figured out that I could remove a section even more simply.

The five section hat is just the right size for Tiny's tiny head but since the fabric has a bit of stretch and I wasn't all to careful sewing in the sweat band, it flares out a bit at the bottom. I thought about running a bit of elastic along the back so it would hug his head a little more but he kept it on pretty well as I was photographing him and I think that may be a result of the looseness. I might give this another try with the same fabrics someday when I'm not trying to do it all within the span of one nap.

I really don't like using a flash. It makes things look harsh in my, humble, not a photographer, opinion. A lot of the time I can get away with turning off the flash if my subject, and also my camera, are very still but with Tiny as my subject, that just doesn't happen.

I asked the Mr last night, "Can't I adjust the shutter speed on this thing some how?" No, no I can't that's part of what makes it a point and shoot camera. Oh well, some day I'll be able to adjust my shutter speed. For now I'll just have to make due with harsh flashy photos of moving subjects and often slightly out of focus photos of still subjects.

Snazzy Quilted Diaper Wallet

I bought fabric a year ago and planned to make this little idea of mine into a reality for myself but I never got around to it. My sister in law liked my idea and wanted to try it but, I couldn't tell her how it had worked out since I never followed though on it. Long story short, I repented my neglect of the project and made one for her.

There is a pocket for wipes,one for diaps, one for a tube of whatever bum-goo you may need, and one that will fit a pair of baby nail clippers or a spare paci.

It rolls once,

twice,

and it's closed!

I haven't put a closure on it yet, I'm thinking a magnetic snap would be ideal. It needs to be strong enough to hold the wallet closed wile its jumbled around in a purse or diaper bag and also easy to open with one hand. The magnetic snap idea is the only one I've come up with that I think will really work.
In other news, I have fallen in love with my walking foot on these past two projects. I got it with my machine 5 years ago but I'd never even opened the box. I thought it was exclusively for quilting so, since I don't do much of that, I didn't bother.
What is it exactly that I like about it? I couldn't tell you. I can't figure out what it is that makes sewing with it easier than with out it, but I know there's something and that's good enough for me.

Once there was a blankie

The blankie started out like any other, a quilt made for an expected baby girl. That baby girl was my sister in law. She used it but it was never a particular favorite. Then that baby girl got the shock of her life, a baby brother.
She was so appalled by the proceeding that when her daddy took her to pick out a present for the new baby she insisted upon buying him a dress, which he wore, occasionally, on laundry days.
After a while she became accustomed to the little havoc-wreaker, and somehow he came into possession of the blankie.
He was much more grateful for it than he had been for the dress. In fact, I think he would count it as one of the top ten best gifts he's ever been given.
He loved it like every blankie dreams of being loved. He wore it around the house as a loin cloth when no one else was home. He wrapped it around his fist as he fell asleep every night and, eventually he grew up.
Soon, he had a Baby Girl of his own. She got loads and piles of blankies as gifts when she was born and she used them for the first eight or nine months of her life. Then something awful happened. It got dead stinking hot outside.
The Baby Girl's house was air conditioned, but the summer nights were still rather warm to be spent snuggled under a thick fluffy blankie and every load and pile of the loads and piles of blankies she'd received were thick and fluffy.
Fortunately her pop had just the thing. Out came that beloved old rag (it really had seen better days) and for the Baby Girl it was love at first snuggle.
She had a little stuffed duckie that she had been rather fond of but the duck was chucked and the blankie reigned supreme.
The Pop and the Mama were a little concerned over their lovely daughter choosing for her love a quilt who's quilting was already unquilted in areas and who had patches so thread bare the holey state of it's batting could clearly be seen. Would the blankie last through the child's attachment to it? They worried.
Three years later the blankie looked like this.

The answer was no, the blankie hadn't out lasted the Baby Girl's attachment.

She loved is as much , or possibly more, than ever.

She especially liked to pinch it's fraying binding. Often she would hand a corner to one of her parent's and offer to let them have a pinch. She was a generous little mite.
Finally, it came to a point when the majority of the binding was hanging off, getting stuck on things and posing a strangulation hazard. Chunks of batting could be found strewn about the house where they fell as the Baby Girl drug the old, white (it had been yellow at the beginning) blankie behind her. Something had to be done, and the mama did it.
She cut an elephant out of a corner of the blankie where the original quilting remained. Then she pieced together enough of the other still-quilted portions to use as batting for the front of a pillow sham. The elephant with a tail of blankie binding for the Baby Girl's pinching pleasure, along with a few peanuts, for the elephant's nibbling pleasure, adorned the sham.

And the girl liked it! She gave it a snuggle.

She pinched the tail.

And that night she curled up with it and went right to sleep.

Introductions

This is Melanie.



This is Melanie's favorite outfit. It is the favorite because it's good for running around and getting dirty but since it's a dress, not pants, she can do all that and still look like a lady.




Melanie likes this dress because it is all dotty to match her face. Mel is very proud of her freckles, she just wishes she had some on her arms. Then she'd never get bored in school because if the teacher started talking about something dull she could just inch up her sleeve and play "connect the dots". Melanie once had a friend with just two freckles, she thought that was a waste of two perfectly good freckles because the only picture they could make when you connected them was a worm and just a worm gets kind of dull.
Melanie is helping my friend Mary to raise money for an insulin pump that will make her daughter's life much easier and not nearly so full of shots. If you'd like Melanie to come and stay at your house, email me uniquety@gmail.com
Mel is entirely hand made by me with soft cotton skin, warm wool stuffing, and mohair hair. She is 11 inches tall and ready to party, all for the bargain price of $65.00.
I took the advice from the comments yesterday and painted the freckles. I think that was definitely the best way to go. Thanks Amy and Melissa!
Did y'all notice I never whined about clothes this time? I'm pretty proud of myself about that. I made the clothes first this time. It was a little tricky making sure I ended up with a doll that fit them but it was worth it.
Usually I stand in front of the closet that holds my fabric stash with my eyes glassed over, moaning. It's very similar to the way I stand in front of the refrigerator trying to come up with something to cook for dinner when I'm not even hungry.
This time I walked right into the fabric closet, snatched up some fabric and had a finished project within the hour. No moaning, no glassy eyes, no teensy rejected halves of dresses littering the floor,it was awesome. The way making doll clothes should be.

Grown-ups have birthdays too

Last week as we were picking out wrapping paper for the Mr's birthday presents Baby Girl caught sight of the pinata's and it was decided, then and there, that her Pop must have one for his birthday. We didn't buy one though, we made one.
She picked pirate wrapping paper so we stuck with that theme and made a treasure chest pinata.


Baby Girl scrunched and strung the paper-wad beads nearly all on her own, I started her off and left her to it.
The Mr helped Tiny Boy have the first turn hitting it. They gave it one good smack inside the open lid, and since I'd planned for hits from the bottom, that pretty much did it. Baby Girl and her cousin each got in one dainty swipe (don't tell the cousin I called him dainty) and then the biggest cousin finished it off with a well-aimed blow.
Even considering the ease with which it gave up it's booty I'm quite pleased with my first pinata. I have a sneaking suspicion that there will be many many more in my future.

Haloween 2006

For the next week or two I'm going to be working on getting things organized around here. I'm pretty excited about my new system. If it all works out the way I've planned it, I should be able to access all of my supplies without stacking and unstacking piles of rubbermaid bins and jo-ann sacks.
Since this project likely won't be very interesting to blog about I'm going to post projects from back in the day before I ventured into blog land.

Today's feature is Baby Girl's Halloween costume from 2006. I planned on her being Mary, all dressed for school with our little Maltese as the lamb who would follow her there. I had the dress cut and ready to sew when I started a Tinkerbelle costume for a friend. I had so much fun with the Tink tutu I scrapped Mary and her little lamb and Baby Girl was a fairy too. The Mary dress turned out really cute though, I'll have to show it to you one of these days.

Now, without further ado, I present Baby Girl's cherry Blossom Fairy costume and the Tinkerbelle that started it all.




I took these to send to Tink's mama so she could start looking for tights and such. It's a good thing I took them too because she never sent me any photos of the whole ensemble together on the child it was meant for. I guess I can stop trying to give her a guilt trip about it here though since she doesn't have internet access (I know, how does she live?) I might call her in a minute and see if I can make her good a guilty over it though.


When the Mr got home that night he said "Is she wearing mascara?" "And eyeliner, blush, lipstick and golden shimmer powder" was my reply. What's Halloween for if not to plaster your two year old with make up?


The wings are paper mache. I sandwiched floral wire between the layers of paper to lend support and make them pose-able. My dear friend and former employer at the Bridal shop dyed the shoes to match. You bet your bippy we won the contest at the neighborhood party that year! There were none of the shenanigans we went through this past Halloween. Stupid transformer taking my prize! Yes, I am still bitter over that and I don't foresee the bitterness evaporating anytime soon.

Graduation crafts

Baby Girl had her Joy School graduation last evening. Never mind the fact that she'll be right back there next fall and likely the one after it since she is an October baby and so will not start kindergarten until she's nearly six.


This is our family flag. The flags went along with the unit on families. The children displayed their flags at graduation. We decided on the trampoline for our family image because we really like to jump together.
Once the trampoline was done we were all rather tired and lacking any further creativity so we left it at that. We would have liked to add a Latin phrase to make it a little more dignified but since none of us have studied Latin we couldn't manage it. I think the best suggestion of text for the project was "For the benefit of Mr. Kite" which would illustrate the Mr's love of the Beatles and my own love of random thoughts that make people wonder. But we left it blank.



The "Mortarboards" were my responsibility. I had quite a good time making them. I thought through a couple of things I could do to make them stay on the children's heads and generally complicate things but in the end I pretty much stuck to the instructions given in the manual. I did revise the method of sticking the flat part on the top though. The manual directed me to simply stick the 2 pieces together with elmer's. I have had enough experience with paper and glue to realize that never would have held, so I beefed it up a bit and all but one hat made it through the evening with no damage.
All in all the evening was a great success. Now Baby Girl keeps asking me when we are leaving for summer vacation. I've told her probably 50 times today that all summer vacation means is no more Joy School 'till fall so, basically, this is it but she keeps on wondering.

Really now!

I can't figure out what my problem is with doll clothes. I've been working all day and the only fruits I have to show for my labor are an abandoned ill shaped t-shirt, a some what less ill shaped dress that will at least be suitable for Baby Girl to adopt on behalf of her own dolls, and a bodice, fairly well constructed though it lends a somewhat linebackeresque air to the wee doll it is meant for.
I've held myself here, forging back to the machine whenever my mind wanders until I can bear it no longer. I promised Baby Girl the dollies would be ready for Bestest tomorrow, and so they shall, but for the moment I must give up.

I heart contest

We only got through about half the cookies at the cookie party last night so this afternoon I finished the job.

Here you see the fruits of my labor.
Most of the word cookies were inspired by a certain love song, this is where the contest comes in. The first person to guess what song inspired the cookies will win! Not these cookies because, well, they'd be stale and you wouldn't want them. I will send you some fresh lovely cookies to enjoy.
Hopefully, the husband will win and I won't have to bother with postage! But I am not going to give him any clues so it will all be fair. I am making a mental note right this minute to stop singing the song so as not to tip him off.
The names are not part of the contest, and there are 3 cookies with words having nothing to do the song in question.
If there's a word you can't decipher, I'd be glad to clarify for you, just leave me a comment with which cookie you need translated. I suppose I should have a time limit, the natural day to chose as the cut-off would be Valentines day but I'm going to throw in an extra day in honour of my wedding anniversary. So, the contest will endalong with the 6th year of my marriage on February the 15 2008.
Happy guessing!


Here are some closer photos for you.

Valentine

I've always adored Valentines day, even when I was single.
I think Valentines are about love, not romance. If you have a romantic love, then by all means, add in some romance but let's not forget all of the other love that is out there.


I adore to make paper valentine cards. Here are the ones I've made thus far this valentine season.
I made these for the little girls I teach on Sundays. The lesson was "Heavenly Father and Jesus Love me" What a perfect lesson for valentine week. Inside they say "Heavenly Father and Jesus Love _____" Sadly, not a single one of them was at church on Sunday so I'll have to deliver them.
I suppose there's a bug circulating through the 3 year-olds in the neighborhood.


Another of my favorite Valentine activities is decorating sugar cookies. We invite a different family join us every year.
Tonight is cookie night, I baked these up last evening after the children were abed.
That's the best time for sugar cookie baking.
I've hatched some other lovely plans for the week and I hope I can see them through to fruition. Wish me luck and long nap-times!

sunbeam tree

I made this in sunday school when I was three.

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.