K. got two hippos for Christmas last year, both little thick plastic figures. He loves them very much.
Last year K. was also nuts about the Wee Hairy Beasties song "Cyril the Karaoke Squirrel" (the album the song is off of, Animal Crackers, is very engaging and cute, but some of the songs are a little strange so we don't listen to it too much anymore). Cyril is, of course, a squirrel and his wife is a singing bee. I. had drawn K.'s name last year and gave him a stuffed squirrel, who is loved as much as the hippos.
And what does K. want this year? A bee ... a singing bee to be exact ... but it doesn't really have to sing by itself because K. can do the singing for it and PRETEND that the bee is singing (says K.). That's all he wants too, no long lists, nothing complicated, just a singing bee.
I so love this kid, my baby who still is ok with being a little kid and isn't quite ready to grow up.
Oh, I almost forgot (or blocked it from my mind), he cut his hair the other day. All by himself. In at least four places. Right at his scalp. Right on top of his head. I admit that I cried, which made his lip quiver, which created quite a need for a good snuggle, during which he fell asleep, and peed on my bed. And that's life at my house.
Remember in the 80's when spiked hair was in style ... just a bit on top of the head (what the heck were we thinking???). K.'s hair looks kind of like that ... it'll grow out sooner or later, right?
I've been busy sewing, and sewing some pretty cool stuff, but that's all I can say on that matter until December 26th.
updated to add: the photo above was taken before he cut his hair. I don't have any pictures of the hair (I debated taking one while it was on the floor but couldn't bring myself to do it) or the haircut, but I'll post one sooner or later.
Come all you bold fishermen listen to me
While I sing to you a song of the sea
CHORUS (after each verse)
Then blow ye winds westerly, westerly blow
We're bound to the southward, so steady we go
First comes the blue-fish a-wagging his tail,
He come up on the deck and yells all hands make sail
Next comes the eels with their nimble tails
They jumped up aloft and loosed all the sails
Next come the herrings with their little tails
The manned sheets and halyards and set all the sails
Next comes the porpoise with his short snout
He jumps on the bridge and yells ready about
Next comes the swordfish the scourge of the sea
The order he gives is Helm's a lee
Then comes the turbot as red as a beet
He shouts from the bridge stick out that foresheet
Having accomplished these wonderful feats
The blackfish sings out next to rise tacks and sheet
Next comes the whale the largest of all
Singing out from the bridge haul taut mainsail haul
Then comes the mackerel with his striped back
He flopped on the bridge and yelled board the main tack
Next comes the sprat the smallest of all
He sings out: haul well taut let go and haul
Then comes the catfish with his chuckle had
Out in the main chains for a heave of the lead
Next comes the flounder quite fresh from the ground
Crying damn your eyes chucklehead mind where you sound
Along came a dolphin flapping his tail
He yelled to the boatswain to reef the foresail
Along came the shark with his three rows of teeth
He flops on the foreyard and takes a snug reef
Up jumps the fisherman stalwart and grim
And with his big net he scooped them all in
This is what I did at the craft show last weekend. I'd already done the ironing on of the circles, so I just spent the afternoon handstitching the caterpillars (I think they're caterpillars ... I didn't feel like putting their feet on so maybe they are worms? No, I think they are caterpillars.).
The batiks are from a quilt I'm hoping to make soon for a special family member (not immediate family ... sorry girls!). The boyish blues and tans are mostly leftovers from this quilt, and the girly oranges and pinks are Heather Bailey Freshcut with a few other favorites thrown in.
They are all 6-12 months, some are long sleeved and some are short, there are about three of each fabric/color selection. The onesies are currently available at Ditto Kiddo, and will eventually be made available online too.
The peas in a pod are a special order. I'm not sure how I feel about this one yet. I like it, but it's not quite what I was hoping it'd be. I'm making a few more of these for the store, again they are 6-12 months, and will be in stock on Friday at Ditto Kiddo.
When I started on these I was not a fan of hand sewing or hand embroidering. It's growing on me, slowly perhaps, but growing.
Work was so busy today that I didn't have time to think about it too much. About 30 minutes after the store closed I called Jason to tell him I'd be home late because I still had customers and he was none too happy about it. Excuse me, I thought, don't we work around your schedule all the time ... and just once I'm going to be an hour or late and you're upset. What the heck? Wasn't I in a great mood!
I got home ... opened the door ... and smelled turkey. Yummy, cooking turkey. And all the fixings ... all of them. Jason and the kids surprised me by spending all day today cooking a Thanksgiving dinner so we could have a nice family holiday meal. They grocery shopped, found recipes, made the stuffing just right (must have apples, raisins, mushrooms, celery, and onion), set a beautiful table, and even invited a guest - Jason's cousin. And everything was wonderful ... so delicious.
And so tomorrow we eat light (so very light ... 'cause we didn't eat light tonight ... wait until tomorrow and you'll know exactly how I feel right now) and watch Footloose and the Macy's parade.
Happy Thanksgiving.
M. went from:
to:
After her initial haircut she looked at it and said it wasn't what she'd expected, wasn't like the picture she'd chosen. The gal asked her what was wrong and she said she wanted it shorter, so she got another few inches cut off. She loves it, absolutely loves it. I do too, it's just about perfect for her.
C. had beautiful long hair:
and cut enough to donate it to Locks of Love:
Nice blurry picture, huh? It's the only one I've taken of her since she got it cut. It's a very pretty cut, and exactly what she was looking for. It's still long enough for a ponytail, which is how she usually wears it at school, but so cute, light, and easy. She has said she'll get it even shorter next time.
Just a few images from our project today. The kids and I spent the afternoon at Ditto Kiddo starting on Christmas/holiday decorating. I love this window, but it's hard to show it in a photo (there are a few more photos here).
This afternoon we set out to find a couple tall skinny simple not pretty trees. Once we accomplished that we looked for ugly inexpensive big picture frames, which we didn't find. And twine ... the most worn looking available ... found that at the hardware store. And then tacky spray-on snow ... also at the hardware store. The kids kept looking at me like I was nuts and asking "what is this for again?".
The green trees are covered in spray-on snow (don't spray your sister in the eyes ... it burns, just ask C.), then sprinkled with white fake "snow", and then finished off with a bit of irridescent fake "snow" ... so basically I'm going to spend the next month cleaning itty bitty bits of confetti-like "snow" off the floors, because what child isn't going to stick his fingers in that concoction?
The frames are made from sticks the kids found outside and are bound with twine ... total cost less than $2 ... way cheaper than buying frames and making them look old and worn. I'm going to change the twine hanging the clothes up to fishing line, I think it needs to be invisible for the framed clothing to look right.
The goal was a more woodsy feeling snowy Christmas and I think we did it.
The next window is going to be pink/red/black/white. So far C. and I are going for simple elegance ... 3 standing mannequins and a few really big hanging ornaments. It'll be interesting to see what we end up with, it's seldom what we start out to do.
Oh yeah, the craft show. Friday, the first day, was good. It was slow customer-wise but I sold quite a bit to other vendors and their friends. I left feeling very good about things and ready to be crazy busy on Saturday. It wasn't. At all. I'm not sure what happened but the show itself never got the draw it needed to be successful. Most of the day there were no more than 8-10 shoppers ... and often less. Some of the vendors still did quite well, but I did not. I sold a few things, but nothing like I'd wanted.
Even though it wasn't quite what I'd hoped for I'm very happy about the whole thing. I left feeling confident about my products and eager to try another show. More than anything, it was fun. My mother helped out both days and we had a chance to talk without kids or spouses around ... and talk we did! The other vendors, and the show organizers, were wonderful, all so friendly. There was always a constant flow of chatter throughout the room as we all talked non-stop.
I'm not sure if I'll do this particular show again. One thing I decided is that I don't want to commit myself to a 2-day show without some idea of what to expect, mostly just because of the logistics of getting the kids taken care of and where they needed to be. So now I'm looking for other local shows ... I'm ready to do it again.
edited to add: I forgot to mention that I was moved from my table to 2 tables. It was wonderful to have the added 8' of space. I was able to put out all the handbags and lay out the quilts so it was easier to see them all (and I sold two of them!). Thank you Jackie!
I'm not pleased with the quilts, they are just piled on one end of the table. I don't have a quilt rack and I can't think of what else would work better to display them. Any ideas?
Thanks a million to Nikol for telling me my banner didn't have to have triangles. LOL I worked for a very, very long time trying to figure out what size to make the letters to get them just right on triangles ... and finally demanded that Nikol get down to Florida to help me, because she's a paper-crafter and I'm NOT. Her response: "well, do a different shape then.". Oh. Yeah. That made sense ... and within minutes I was on the path to a successful banner.
I didn't finish all the handbags I wanted to, have two quilts unfinished, and have a pile of half-complete onesies. That's life ... there's always next time.
The kids did most of the work setting up the table. I got some skeptical looks when I strolled in with four kids but the children were very good and worked hard, and for the most part stayed right by the table. It took less than an hour to unload the car, change a bunch of price tags, put together the banner, and set up the table ... it'd have taken a lot longer without my helpers!
More to come!
Well, of course, you must take a look. Hancock's of Paducah is a huge quilting and home dec. store, not affiliated with the Hancock's chain (here's the story), and really, how often do you stop in Paducah? You enter, and see this:
$4.98 a yard for anything, everything on this table. And on this table are fabrics like this:
and this:
and this:
And you know you've hit the quilting fabric jackpot. So you do a little shopping at that table ... and a little too much ... you never even look at the bolts and bolts of fabric filling the giant warehouse of a store like this:
No, no time for all those bolts. Instead you take your two shopping carts full of fabric and leave your girls at the cutting counter while you play games with your boys ... asking them to find all sorts of odd things in fabric (and they found them all, they had the entire store memorized in no time ... even where turkey and mouse fabrics are). And you wonder how it could be taking so long to just measure the fabric.
And then you get your carts to the register, along with all your handwritten tickets (no computers in the store, all done the old-fashioned way), and you almost faint when you hear the total because you now own this, which somehow ended up being a lot of pieces of fabric (and now you know why it took so long to measure):
Would that be so wrong?
Sigh ... the two girls and I were all shopping at the same time and trying to hurry to get back on the road. In my hurry I wasn't paying enough attention to what we'd selected. All the fabric is awesome, but there's way too much, and I even ended up with a few duplicates. I will definately need to sell off some of it, and I'll let you know when I post it either on eBay or etsy. I'm feeling pretty ill about the whole thing ... but do love the fabric.
Oh, Superhusband said I had to post about this experience or he would.
Yes n hey, its good to be back home again
-John Denver
We've arrived back home.
Our trip was bittersweet. My father had called last Monday to tell me he was flying up to Wisconsin because my grandmother was dying. The kids and I left in the car the next morning. That evening, Tuesday, my father called to tell me Grandma had passed away. While that's sad for us, she was 98 and not in good health. It was her time, and quite a blessing for her.
All of my cousins and siblings arrived for the funeral, and most of Grandma's great-grandchildren were there as well. It was so fun to see everyone and get reacquainted. Most we'd seen two summers ago, but some not for 20+ years. The event was truly organized around family, most of us stayed at the same motel, took over the hotel breakfast room during the day for chatting and playing games, and dined together. It couldn't have been better.
The service itself was a very traditional Episcopalian service. Lots of incense and song. Not modern by any means, but neither was my grandmother. I think it was exactly what she'd have wanted.
Sadly, while we were driving Wednesday Jason called to say his grandmother had passed away that morning. We hadn't known she wasn't doing well so it came as quite a sad surprise, but, like my grandmother, it was her time. It really sucked though that we couldn't be there for Jason.
The trip itself was great for me and the kids. It was so neat to get out of our little corner of the world and see fall/life elsewhere.
Some of the highlights of the road trip included:
Cotton plants in Georgia. On the way home we stopped along the interstate to take some ... it was just blowing everywhere and was laying all over the medians! And it really is like a cotton ball, I'm not sure what we expected but it's the neatest stuff. I still can't believe it grows on a plant the way it does. Nature is so amazing.
Mountains.
Farms.
Rolling hills where Grandpa Tom and Grandma Jenn live. We were lucky enough to visit them at their school on our way up, and have dinner with Grandma Jenn on our way home.
Fall leaves! Oh my gosh, we were amazed and awed by the colors. The reds were so intense, I'd have never believed those were real colors in nature if I hadn't seen it myself.
Frost. Again, we had to stop on the side of the interstate. But this, to Florida kids, was unique. They were so sure that it'd snow any minute after they felt the frost, but that wasn't in the forecast (in fact, it warmed up by the time we passed that way again).
Playing in fallen leaves, rolling in fallen leaves, sliding through fallen leaves, and exploring the woods and ravines where I grew up.
Seeing their breath.
Hotel rooms.
And things that defy explanation. On the parking ticket dispenser at Younkers. What the?
More to come ... like haircuts and Hancock's of Paducah.
Today it was about 83' out ... nice and cool in the morning and low 80's the rest of the day. I wore capri's and a sweater ... yes, I was perfectly happy in a sweater. Wisconsin ought to be interesting. We've packed all our jeans and sweaters ... it's actually kind of exciting that we'll get a chance to wear them, down here I'll put sweaters on the kids in the morning and take them off by lunchtime, and that's on really cold days.
We are expecting to be home in a week. The craft show I'm doing is next Thursday so if we get home Tuesday I still have a few evenings to get ready ... 'cause I'm not, not even close.
I think we'll still be able to see fall leaves? I hope so ... only C. has ever seen anything like that. If time permits we'll visit the Illinois grandparents and some cousins in Atlanta.
I've decided to postpone listing backpacks, etc. on Etsy until next week, but here's a little foreshadowing (we just saw Cast Away, I'm all about foreshadowing today).
I had every intention of making a handbag that was very different from the other bags I've made.
And then sometime yesterday I decided on a simple preppy bag using fabric with just two colors, specifically pink with white polka dots, accented with a pink bow. That, somehow, evolved into black and white with rick rack. Funny how the mind works.
The yo-yo decoration was added at the end. The bag needed a little something.
I used this trick to make the yo-yo circles. I can't even begin to tell you how much fun that was ... maybe it was because it was late at night, or the fact that my husband has banned tin foil from the refrigerator ... but I really think it was just knowing something so simple could create something so wonderfully easy. Try it ... you'll like it.
I used Timtex interfacing for the first time in this bag. I guess I didn't know what to expect. It's nice and it worked well, but the stuff is pricey and, for me, it didn't earn its keep. If anyone has any ideas on how to make it awesome I'd love to hear them. I have a few ideas up my sleeve for the future, but still, I'm not sure I "get" the stuff.
Also new to me was using magnetic snap closures. I bought the closures on eBay and they are good, but the inside metal piece is super flimsy and one side bent the first time I unsnapped a closure. I went to my husband, who had once been an engineering major (but was quick to inform me, in a very calm informative voice, that he's not an engineer ... there are times when he is very odd), and asked for his suggestions. His idea was to add a washer to it. So I did and it's a great solution ... it adds a lot of stability without adding much weight. Instead of closing the prongs by folding then over each other I butterflied them out over the washer ... viola.
The lining fabric I've had since I was in college ... and that was close to 500 years ago (maybe not quite that long ago). I'd meant to make a houndstooth skirt and jacket with it but never did. I actually still have the high-waisted, shoulder-padded pattern but I'm not sure it's quite "me" anymore.
Oh, the little details ... this bag measures about 11.5" tall, 12.5" wide, and 3" deep. I'm making a few more like this and they'll be an inch shorter. I'd meant to make it as a handbag, not shoulderbag, so the straps are longer than I'd have liked, but they are not crazy long so I'm happy with them.