greetingarts

mass production

I really should be getting our taxes ready for the accountant (sorry, sorry so late!), but my baby's first (FIRST!) birthday is coming up fast, and I needed to get these out in the mail like yesterday.



For those of you who don't  know, cards were my specialty for a while, and are how I came up with the name greetingarts (greeting cards that are art), but these invitations really are just down and dirty, do-'em'-quick, simple yet effective, I think.  The theme of the party, after much internal deliberation (no one else really cared at all) is, of course, daisies.  Not that my Jess is much of a daisy person, well at least you can't tell if she is or not, yet, but I've always liked the daisy image for her.  Simple beauty.  Nothing fru-fru or frilly.  I've got grand ideas for cupcakes in mini terra cotta pots, white chocolate daisy lollipop favors, flower balloons.  Let's see what happens in two weeks, shall we?

Okay.  Now back to those taxes.  And Dad?  Just pretend you didn't read that.

Jaywalkers finished

The Jaywalkers were a total bust.  Yucko.  I tried so hard to make them match, but I don't know what was up with the yarn, they just didn't.  I know, they look like they do, but that's because I absolutely was not going to let them not match, so one is a few rows shorter in the foot than another.  And then I didn't have enough yarn to finish each sock, so I used what little bit I had cut off at the start to match the variegated pattern in each skien, and some that was left over from the previous pair, and fudged the toes.  Ah, well, they are for a present for someone with much smaller feet than mine, so I think they'll still fit okay.  And the toe part will probably be hidden in a pair of slippers, anyway.



The pattern was nice, however.  I had fun with it, and will probably try again in the future with some different yarn. 

happy birthday Mom

Hope you have a wonderful year.

   

We love you.

I want this hat

I can't remember who mentioned Garnet Hill on their blog the other day, but of course I had to click over and request a kids' catalog.  I got it the other day (speedy people!), and kind of casually glanced through it, until I got to almost the last page and saw this:


Ooooh, I like that!  And of course I thought, "I can do that, can't I?  I've got to try to do this!"  So...anyone have any ideas?  If you figure it out before I do, please let me know!

mail for Becca

We got our Mini Swap package the other day, and it sure was loaded with goodies.  Jack Baker, from Seattle, was Becca's swap partner, and he decorated the outside of the package on his own, with glittery yarn and markers.  The sparkly yarn was right up Becca's alley, and when she opened it, the sparkliness only got more intense.



I mean, can you help but smile when you see the unbridled joy on her face?  Looking at life through rainbow sparkly glitter glasses, does it get any better?  Oh, but yes, it does.



There was also a cape.  With glittery sparkles on the inside (how did you do that, Kim?), a butterfly shell button as a clasp, and a pink star on the back.  And, I swear, she was already dressed in the pink dress and and rainbow tights, before we even got the package.  But doesn't it all go so well together?



This was most of the other stuff in the package.  Everything got oohs, ahhs and squeals.  Even the pink bendy straw.  Really, she goes absolutely batty for everything and anything pink.  She eats off of pink plates, with a pink fork, drinks from a pink cup, you get the idea.  And every time, she says, "because pink is my favorite color."  I've started to feign surprise.  "Oh, really?  Pink?  Pink is your favorite color?  I had no idea!"  Anyway, I digress.

Thank you so much, Jack and Kim.  This was such a lot of fun, and Becca talks about her friend Jack all the time.  So, finally, I can show you what we sent, and reveal what the mystery photo was all about...



A robot pajama bag.  We filled it with drawings from Becca, some chocolate candy she made herself inside a gingerbread man cookie cutter (Jack and Becca both like to cook), Play-Doh, stickers, tatoos, and a kit to make two foam scarecrows.



We had a lot of fun, and look forward to the next one...

proud mommy

Rebecca won a drawing contest, and was presented with an award today during Club Noggin .  I'm so proud!  She was ecstatic and not just a little stunned, I think, by the look on her face in the photos.
 


Here she is getting the award



and receiving her prize, a $50 mall gift card!



The contest theme was "Keeping Your Heart Healthy," and what did she draw?  Fruit, of course.  I didn't prompt her at all, and she drew an apple, banana, blueberries and an orange/peach.  What I thought were carrots (upper left) and grapes (upper right) are not, I was told.  "They're just squiggles, mommy," she said.  "For decoration.  Because beautiful things make your heart healthy, too."

I love this kid.

stuffed animals vs. dolls

I tried, I really did.  I definitely need much more practice with attaching the hair on dolls' heads.  I gave up on the perle (pearl?  I never know...) cotton I had previously used, after spending 4 hours untangling it all, because it was just too thin and not the right length anyway.  So I found some leftover red chenille yarn, and used that. 



I'm not very happy with it, but Becca was bouncing up and down by my chair while I was tacking on the yarn, and before I could even contemplate taking it apart and redoing the 'do, she took it from me and promptly refused to give it back.  Oh well, if she's satisfied with it, I guess I should just let it go.  And maybe next time I'll follow Myra's lead and make more stuffed animals instead of dolls.  You know, 'cause they don't have any hair.

major typo...?

Finally!  A night when my husband didn't have a late night conference call, the kids were both bathed and asleep by 9:45, and I cheerfully put off tax preparations yet again.  After two weeks of sitting on top of the DVD player gathering dust, the latest Harry Potter was ready to be viewed.  But wait.  What the...?



Will someone who has seen this thing please tell me that this is just some huge, glaring typo?  4 hrs. 40 min., that just can't be.  I mean, four hours and forty minutes, people?  You've got to be kidding me, right?  I just don't have that amount of uninterrupted time in my life.  Not even when I sleep am I allowed that amount of uninterrupted time.  You'd think it would have been all over the news, that even I would have heard about it, if it was that long of a movie.  Someone, tell me that it's not true.

We put the disc away and watched a Daily Show rerun, followed by Steven Colbert and some Food Network.  Still an enjoyable evening, albeit punctuated by incredulous comments of "It really can't be four hours and forty minutes, can it?" by my husband.

Are we going to have to set aside like a whole week to view this thing as a five part miniseries?  Say it ain't so.

Mini Swap, Jaywalkers, and bald mermaids

What should I show today?



A glimpse of part of our Mini Swap package?  Yes, I know it's March 13.  Yes, I know bullet point #7 of Molly's guidelines for Mini Swap said to ship the package by February 25th.  What can I say?  I guess I glazed over when I read that part, but I wasn't the only one!  Ah, well.  The package will be going out tomorrow, and when I'm sure that Becca's swap partner has gotten it, I'll post pictures of the rest of what we sent.

So now that we've finished putting together the Mini Swap, but I can't show any more photos of that, maybe I'll show some of my projects in the works...



I had to see what all the fuss was about.  My first pair of Jaywalkers on the needles.  I've discovered I really like knitting both socks at the same time, it saves me from SSS (Single Sock Syndrome).  Well, okay, I don't actually knit them at the exact same time, I knit the ribbing of one, then the ribbing of the other, then 10 rows of pattern of the first, then 10 rows of pattern of the second, you get the idea.  But it sure beats making a whole sock, and then feeling all your satisfaction of completion dissipate because you realize - heck, I haven't really finished anything, what good is one sock?  I still have to make another one.  This way works for me.

Or do you want to see the softie I made my daughter the night before she had to have the second shot of a two part vaccine?  I knew there would be tears, I knew I'd need all the distraction help I could get.  And it totally worked.  We went to the pediatrician, were waiting in one of the little rooms, she was playing with the toys there, happily, blissfully unaware, when the nurse came in, laden with hypodermic and antiseptic.  She said, "Okay, I'm sorry, Rebecca, but it will be very fast."  And the transformation came over her face, as the realization set in.  It was the saddest thing to watch, made me feel like Evil Incarnate for bringing her there.  Crying, screaming, "I want to go home now," deluge of tears, mom and dad holding down swinging arms and legs.  Then it was over, except for the hysteria.  So I grabbed my ever-present mommy backpack, and pulled out the mermaid.  And the tears stopped.  "Oh, Mommy, thank you, thank you.  I love her."  Whew!  (It also helped that the nurse used a pink band-aid afterwards.) 

I'd started making the softie at around 9 the night before, and at about 1 in the morning, I realized I'd just have to tack on the hair as best I could and fix it later.  I knew it wouldn't last, but I just needed it to serve its purpose the next morning, and figured I could wheedle it away from her and do a better job on it later.  Since then, I got some wonderful help from Myra (thank you thank you thank you!) and  Hillary gave me some good advice, too.  With those two experts behind me, I hope the little mermaid won't be bald for long...



The hair was all raggedy and flopping around by that evening, and I performed surgery and removed the hair a few days later.  Now all I need is some time to do the reconstruction.  Preferably very soon, because Becca wants her doll back.

it's all about the hair

And when she isn't busy making turtle bread, she is busy playing hairdresser.  This is the result of a neglectful mom on the computer, an empty bowl of blueberries, and a baby who adores her big sister.

I didn't look up until "Look, Mommy!  I'm doing Jessie's hair!"  What you can't see from the picture are the beads of water all over Jessie's face, or the puddles on the floor.  Hmm.  I didn't know there was that much residual water left over after rinsing a handful of blueberries.