Bad Idea. Bad Idea Indeed.

Abby: "Mom! Can I balance?"

Me (from the other room, with no idea what she's really talking about, but certainly NOT considering this as a possibility.): "Yes Abby, you're a GREAT balancer!"

Note to self--"Be aware of entire situation before condoning."

At least she decided to get dressed...time to channel that energy toward Cheerios and pajama picking up...

Ooops, that was a long break, sorry! It's the end of February! I've got spring fever, golly, we even got up to 35 degrees over the weekend! Spring cleaning is in full swing--no closet safe, no toy exempt from the Salvation Army pile! It feels so good to get rid of "extra"--stuff just creeps in, no? It takes over before we've realized what happened--one February day you just wake up and realize you're spending your days picking up stuff you don't need or use, fighting piles of stuff to get to the few things you actually wear, and tripping over toys that don't get played with.

The kids were "playing dollhouse" this morning--I listened in as Grandpa Rob had a sleepover and Alex got in trouble for putting the babies in the car without their carseats. ("That's not safe, Doot doot.") Abby doesn't want to get dressed this morning, so she's still in jammies. I thought about pressing the issue, but we should all get a day in our jammies now and then, right?





Here's a little bit of what's been keeping me from Blogger...








It's a doll quilt. It belongs to a yet-to-be-made birthday present for Abs. Mr. Giraffe was kind enough to pose for the picture, since the real owner hasn't yet been created. I was tired of knitting at work, and felt like stitching a binding. I also got a handy little bias tape maker doo-dad that makes quick work of quilt binding and needed to try it out. I hope the quilt is big enough for the doll...I didn't check the size before I jumped in. Oh well--I'm totally up for making another if this one doesn't fit. I love the crinkly "old" look--instead of batting I used un-shrunk cotton flannel inside--I love the way it shrunk and scrunched up when I washed the whole thing!


Here is last night's project (kids were sleeping by 7:30, whoopie!!):





I thought about giving it the above straps, but ultimately decided on making it a wristlet insead:





I'm happy with it. Will make some for my spring Etsy shop update.

This is my valentine from my Valentine, isn't it beautiful? I don't know how he knew--I had been shopping for an orchid exactly like this one, only not as big, beautiful and expensive. He's just that good.








And that's our new dining table it's sitting on. And those are my new vases that were on clearance at Target. And that is my laptop. And a pile of fabric waiting to be made into purses for the Etsy shop. And that is an empty Cheerios bowl, peanut butter toast plate and milk glass Abby forgot to clean up from breakfast. I thought about clearing off the table for the pictures, but really, where's the honesty in that?

Dress: Take 2 and Banner: Take 34. Or 35.

Yeah, yeah, a new banner.

And the second version of this pattern for Abs. I have to say, I prefer the short sleeved version 100%. The long sleeves make it a little...potato sackish or something to me. But--just when I thought this pattern couldn't get any easier, using a little quilt binding to finish the bottom hem shortened the process again--woot! It smacks 2 birds with one stone--makes a cute little trim and cuts out the need to turn, press and stitch a hem! Any time we can cut out an ironing session is OK by me! Abby likes it anyway, which I guess is the important thing, but on out, I'll stick with the short sleeves.

This morning the trees are coated in sparkly frost--it was softly snowing, so peacefully. No one else was up yet, so I was able to enjoy a cup of tea in silence while admiring the trees in all their formal attire...

Woot!

Are we getting fancy-pants or what?! Bj gave me a little point in the right direction for some HTML instruction, so we get a fancy background now! I still can't quite get the size of the header right though, grr. It bugs me that something so simple is giving me so many issues. Anyway, loving the background! I'll have to diddle with the header some more when I get the time. Let me know if it's hard to read or anything!

When the Windchill is -35...

home feels pretty good. As dark and cold as it is, I treasure the deep winter days--the closeness, coziness, and togetherness--reading stories, baking, coloring, or each just doing our own activities side by side. Here's a few little snippets of our home this week...where we spent ALL of our time, just enjoying "hominess".

(What's more homey than fresh bread?)

Abby's culinary masterpiece, dubbed by its creator "The Freako Sandwich":

I spent a short afternoon on this little dress:

The lighting is terrible in these pics, but she's just so, so cute...

We're both thrilled with how it came out--I think you'll be seeing more of this pattern...

Alex started adding the S sound into his words...he has a darling little lisp that I can't get enough of--especially Mickey "Mouth" and we "fluth" the toilet. He'll probably outgrow it soon, but for now, I'm getting my kicks by having him repeat "flush" and "Mickey Mouse" 30 times a day.

Work has slowed for Bj, he's spending a lot of time home. It's wonderful to have him around, even though my "schedule" is shot to heck with his presence. There is still a crew installing gutters, but Bj and Jon are spending their time working on the administrative side of the business--we're both grateful for the first winter in a long time that's he's not had to work on the icy roofs and ladders. We all feel so blessed with IGS's relative success and are so grateful for God's goodness.

I'm being summoned by little people, so off I go...