mommo

You know it has been a long time...

when you have to email for your password.  It has been awhile.  Shortly after my last post the computer died a slow and agonizing death. That accounts for a few weeks while we figured that out. By then I was out of the habit and pretty busy so I just stopped blogging.  Well, all systems are up and running again so we will see how things go. 

First things first- you really should check out this story.  This wonderful woman Larissa is looking for people to sponsor her as she runs to collect money for women of the Congo.  Its a great effort. Her run is June 23 and she is looking for one donation a day to help her raise money that will all go towards sponsoring two Congolese women. I donated today and am rooting her on.

Summer is coming!! It is very nearly here! School is out on friday and I don't know who is more excited, me or the kids! The photo above is my sweet nephew getting to know the sea lions at the zoo. I love this photo- his bed head and his little hand on the glass. I love that kid. There will be many more days at the zoo soon! And here is a little something we found in the garden- a three legged frog.  We have a lot of these frogs in our yard and it always amazes me that noises that loud can come from a creature that small.  The whole three legged thing is odd.  Poor fella. There has been much yardwork and some projects going on so I will be back to tackle those soon.

Uh Oh

I found this taped to the kitchen counter the other day. My eight year old had a sign up sheet for his "Gambiling Club" which instructed us to "Come to my room in ten seckonts". Not really sure where this idea came from.  On the flip side of all that, here is a poem he wrote that I found particularly enjoyable:

McDonald's Food

McDonald's Food

as bad as

hot fire.

As unhealthy

as bad candy

Tastes as good

as 20 potstickers

McDonald's Food.

I will take this time to mention that the only McDonalds Food he gets is when he is with his exceptionally defiant Nana who would give him a candy coated tennis ball if he asked her for one (and if I asked her not to give him one!) and the Gambiling? Again, not sure.  But I love that poem.  How he shows the conflict of the desire for something bad though it tastes so good. I can appreciate those feelings. (hello Ritter dark chocolate covered marzipan...).

Thank you for all of the new room love! I still am really enjoying the color.  By now it is a little less clean (though not much which is nice) and the log cabin pillow has been stuffed into an open desk drawer to make a bed for her Panda.  I have to say that I think Benjamin Moore has the best paint colors around. I am thinking turquoise for our bedroom. Did anyone see the bedroom from Domino with the grass inspired walls and the white and black Hawaiian quilt? So gorgeous.

So I found this little gem over at Turkey Feathers - They are bringing Victoria Magazine back!! I am so excited. I have a few old issues still and really loved it back in the day.

And one more fun thing-the lovely African Kelli had a great post on a proiject she is doing right now. Check out this link for all the details.  In a nutshell, she is taking quart sized bags of goodies to Mazambique to be distributed to kids there. The kids and I went out on my little one's birthday and bought all kinds of things and put our bags together. She needs the bags by the 18th of May (I think) but that gives some time to get them together still. Better go snuggle my girl, she has another double ear infection!

new room

Ok, this is bound to be a long post because there was much that went into this big room change.  Its nice because it feels more appropriate for a five year old and ,though everything was done on a tight budget, we are so happy with the results. She helped pick out the paint and then I took it from there. I knew that a desk would be good and that I wanted to use a hoarded piece of Amy Butler fabric for the bulk of the fabric. So here is the before:

Blue walls (dirty blue walls!) and my Grandma's bed.  She has a habit of snuggling right up to the wood and it was getting cloudy spots so I knew I wanted to make some sort of slipcover for the bedframe.  There isn't a photo here, but she had the grossest off white sheer curtains that we had knotted at the bottom to shorten them. Not pretty. When we moved into this house there was so much to do that a lot of little things (and many big things )got put on hold. So here is the new bed with cover and a pillow I made:

The slipcover fabric was $1.12 per yard so that was a good deal. The appliqued butterfly is the Amny Butler fabric I had been hoarding. I love this print! Here is a detail: The canopy was a post Christmas bargain find at the Disney Store. She had been asking for something like that. At first I struggled with it's tackiness but when you turn out the lights at night and look up, its all sparkly with tiny glitter. And you know she loves it. Here is a photo of my first log cabin pillow that I put on her bed: That horse fabric in the center is one of my all time favorites. I made she and her cousin skirts out of that  (in pink and blue) last year for her cousin's birthday. And some of the other fabric is from her last year's birthday present. I love the whole log cabin idea when you can use little scraps of sentimental things. I can see how this is addicting! So onto the thrifted furniture finds. I found a desk at an estate sale for $20 and a chair at Salvation Army for $10. Check out this chair: It had such a cute shape, was sturdy and the right price. But it was gross! I pulled off four layers of fabric, (musty stinky fabric)a layer of batting, and a heap of straw from the seat. Then I took the plain wood and covered it with new batting and fabric and this is how it turned out: Wow! I was so happy with how the desk and chair turned out. They are the perfect size. The only thing was I had to track down the right size handle for the desk. It is old and the handles have different sized centers now. But I found them on ebay for $1.20 each, so not too bad. So here is the corner of the room all finished:I love the little butterflies hanging from the light. They were just some cheap o box of feather butterflies that I , you guessed it, put glitter on. Which takes me to my favorite thing- the bulletin board.  I found this frame for $4 at the Senior Center Rummage Sale. I almost passed it up (!) Its big and sturdy and in pretty good shape I painted it two colors (the light purple dry brushed over the blue to bring out the details), cut a piece of foamcore to fit and stuck self adhesive cork over that. Then I put my fabric on by stapling it to the back. Then I glued vintage millinery flowers to thumbtacks. I love how it turned out. Cheaply made and just cute. Can you believe I almost passed up that frame? Here is a detail:

Here is the wicker chair with the embroidery made into a pillow: More of that Amy Butler... And one more photo: That big sparkly M is from Joanns- painted and covered in glitter. I do love glitter. I have to say that I love this room but it makes me so aware that we could use the same attention on our room! But now I have to start gearing up to do her brothers in August. If you made it this far, thanks for checking it all out!

Five!!

Tomorrow my girl turns five! I can hardly believe it. I remember when my first child hit five- how significant it felt.  It still feels significant with her but the sting is off a bit with number two.  I want to slow the pace of the days so that I can soak them up even more.  We celebrated tonight with my family. My sister has a birthday a few days after hers so we celebrated them together tonight. This cake I made was from a pan set I bought at a garage sale for $1.50. I think it was money well spent as we all got a kick out of this edible princess.  We spent the last two days re-doing her room for her big birthday. I will post some photos later of all the fun things we did. It was a little money and a lot of elbow grease.  We are pretty wiped out!  Here is a little preview for the next post.

Geez

Spring always seems like such a busy busy time. I always think I will ease into spring , loolygagging the sunny sweet smelling days away but then the growth gets all out of control in the gardens and the house seems dusty and in need of a good clean, oh and then there is the spring baseball schedule to contend with and then here I am.  Plus, we have a big birthday coming up in a week and the promise of a room makeover for her fifth birthday is looming ever larger as the days tick on.  By makeover I mean new paint and some gussied up furniture to help her make the shift from toddler girl to a little too big for her britches girl.  I think that 5 must be the new 13 because the sassiness is laying thick around here.  I am not really all that well equipped to deal with the onslaught of five year old know it all-ness. My older boy is pretty straight forward and she has an energy that is at the same time wonderful and amazing and pretty $%^&$#@!! frustrating. Any thoughts from the Moms who might have a better idea than me as to how to approach this?  So in the midst of all this craziness, I have discovered something new and wonderful.  That there at the top is my first real embroidery.  It was so relaxing and nice to work on.  I find that it is replacing knitting as my evening activity of choice. There is no counting, just sitting and putting the needle in, pulling it out, putting it in, pulling it out. So relaxing. And fun to see your picture come together.  I have such a block when it comes to ripping out my knitting so I tend to feel a bit pressured but with embroidery, I can just let it happen without thinking too hard. This will be a pillow for the room makeover.  Here is another detail. I love how the little flowers turned out though the big one looks sort of off to me.

This pattern was graciously sent to me by Vicki from Turkey Feathers. You have to check out her website The Pattern Bee , which is a gold mine of fantastic embroidery patterns.  Thanks Vicki for the pattern and the inspiration!

Better feed the kids. Have a fun wednesday!

Sweet Chicks

I was going to title this post "Chick Love" but I was afraid of the googlers who would come and not appreciate these particular chicks.  I saw something similar to this chick above at a little boutique. It was a different color and slightly different- and $8, which is not in my budget.  So I appreciated it from afar and then left it there. A few days later I came upon these darling fuzzy chicks -without the crowns-at Michaels and they were 3 for $2.  So I brought them home and made them tiny hats and crowns with paper and my stash of glass glitter. This guy is for a sweet girl we know celebrating a birthday soon. Here is the whole crowd. Its funny because we have all been really taken with chicks lately. M picked out a box of fluffy pink chenille chicks at the same Michaels on another day and has been toting them all around town. We have had to backtrack a few times through stores when she unknowingly spills them out of her little basket.  I made her a little blanket for them and she put them to bed in this little doll bed.

There are only four left but she still really loves them. And this last little bit is a couple of baskets we made for a miniswap that was set up a bit late.  I made this same set up for another little friend last year. I got the baskets for a buck each at -you guessed it- Michaels, and the little chicks were purchased cheap (or should I say cheep)there too. The baskets were unfinished so I painted them,added the monogram and thats it. The little blankets I whipped out of scraps. Kids so love the little tiny cute things, don't they? I love this idea for easter. Cute, cheap and easy.

And here is a peek inside... I love their little black beady eyes. For such a small bit of fluff, these chicks seem to have such sweet little personalities to me.

Sweet and Simple

Sometimes I just want to get my craft on but I only have the tiniest little window.  And sometimes I want to make something cute and sweet but I don't want it to drag on too long or I need it in a hurry. Because of all that, I came up with this very (I think!) cute little bag. I was at Kmart and found the cutest Martha Stewart kitchen towels (these are not them) and I thought they really deserved to be more than something I would wipe crusty mushy crap on all day.  So they were the second part of the inspiration.  The bag above was made from a kitchen towel I bought and a piece of ribbon from the stash. It took no time at all and if you skip the embroidery, it will take even less time. So here are the directions:

1. The embroidery. I found the center of the top of the kitchen towel (the ruffle was already on the towel) and used my disapearing ink pen to write the name and then quickly embroidered it.

2. Pin it. The next thing I did was to make two equally spaced pleats and pinned them. At this point you also want to pin your straps in place. Be careful when you sew it that you remember the straps and don't just sew over them all wonky and then have to rip out and do over.  I only did that once but it was annoying.

3. You guessed it- sew it across the top.

Then flip it and do the same to the other end being mindful to match up the strap lengths so that they are equal.

4. After sewing the second end, put right sides together and sew up the side seams. I did two rows of stitching all around because this is intended for a child so I wanted it to be a bit more durable.

5. Turn and thats it! The towels tend to be a bit stiffer so they have nice body.  I think this would be so cute to do in lieu of easter baskets. Or for goodie bags at a kid's party.  For little sewers its a good easy and quickly gratifying little project.

Ahhhhhhhh

I can't tell you the last time I have had a morning to myself, by myself.  Usually I am working or at one of the kid's schools. So today a little window presented itself and I raced home so the two of us could be together- me and my sewing machine.  I made three little tiny blankets, a towel bag (all these will be shown later) and that little number up above.  If anyone is interested I can dig up the pattern number though I will say I had to tweak it because it was, evidently, designed for a child who was shaped like a huge bulky rectangle.  Or some super kid with tremendous lats and the pecs to match.  M picked out the fabric and I wasn't crazy about it at first but it turned out pretty cute. She wore it all day and when I asked her to take it off so I could fine tune a couple of things she said, "No. It's my favorite dress".  The rick rack on the bottom is from my vintage stash. Nice match.  Not bad for a two hour window. It just felt good to finish a project. To make something that I could hold up and say, "Hey! Look what I made!". Ahhhhhh.

So I am finding that the little souvenir plate/ butter plates, whatever they are that have so enchanted me, are not so easy to find. But look at what I did find on ebay. I am so in love with this color. I think the fact that they look like old fashined hard candy must have something to do with this love affair.

Don't you love the back? The little heart is too cute. Love my swirly orange plate.

Thrifting treasure

It has been a long cold winter, devoid of any really good saling finds. Until last weekend! We went to a sale with so many great things and the prices were pretty good too. Look at these plates- I researched this and I think they are pressed glass butter plates. They are about 3 1/2 inches across and completely charming! They were only $2 each and I think I want more! Here is a close up

And then I found these- I bought two of them- one for each kid. They are kid sized and in perfect shape.

I waited until the second day and they were half price so I got the two for $45 which was fine, though a little pricier than usual. I put one in a corner for my seven year old to have a reading corner and the other is getting cusions made and will be part of her five year old birthday room makeover. (details on that later). Dont you love them! So it was a good foray back into the saling season!

Photo dependent

I finally got the camera issues settled.  It seems so funny that I am so camera dependent but I love the images.  So this post is a bit overdue but atleast I have the photos! But before I go there, thank so much for the nice comments about the Hurricane and her surgery. She really is such a joy and I don't ever want to take her for granted. (Or my other one for that matter). Like last night at bedtime. Usually she loves me to sing "Close to you" (The Carpenters) and it knocks her right out. But last night she was in a seriously odd and giddy mood and ended up singing the whole song with me, her little fist in front of her mouth like she was holding a microphone. When we got to the part where you sing "Sprinkled moondust in your hair..." She sang out, "sprinkled poopdust in your hair..." And just disolved into humoungous peals of laughter- so very pleased with herself. Because every four year old knows that there is little funnier than poo. 

So onto the mail goodies! I am participating in a swap called "special swap" that Lynne has organized. It is a nice small swap with tried and true swappers so its always a good swap with nice people.  This is what I found when I opened the box!

How fun is that? Everything was wrapped beautifully. Its so nice to receive something so carefully put together. My swap partner was Amanda - you should go check out her blog and be sure to notice the very cute banner she has.  One thing in the box that I had no idea how great it would be to use was a set of pink measuring cups and spoons. I don't think I would have ever thought to buy a new set for myself even though I have to hunt for the crappy ones we had everytime I wanted one. I can't tell you how nice it has been to have a nice new complete set of new measuring cups and spoons. Sometimes its the simplest things! She also sent the "One Skein" book which I have wanted forever, some sugar sprinkles for the kids and I to use, sweets and this gorgeous yarn! I wanted to take the Malabrigo to bed with me! And then get a load of this-

She spun it! Its just sooo lovely! The colors are incredible. So thanks Amanda! What a great package!

It has been decidedly less exciting in my mailbox since.  But atleast it is sort of sunny when I go get the mail now. I am so relieved spring is on the way. The time change is fabulous- now I just have to get used to getting up so early. I have a nasty cold which doesn't help but it is worth it to be outside later in the evening.  Happy Wednesday to you all!