Gettin' Our Christmas Craft On

Okay, so it's not technically a craft. But I made red and green play dough via Ashley Ann's cameo at eighteen25. Pretty easy and the colors turned out great! Two batches made enough for eight small gifts (16 balls total) that turned out like this:

Missed Him By That Much

We primped and we preened and we made our way to Santa's house only to find the door locked. He was probably already on his way to the reindeer stables. Yes, we put off the visit until Christmas Eve. As in evening. Darkness falling. I had checked and double checked the times online. Monday through Friday until 9 PM. And it said the times were good through December 24th. Argh! Oh well, she still had fun...

A Conversation with Little Miss M

This snippet of conversation occurred last night on our way home from daycare. There is a new house being built nearby and we talk about its progress most days.

Me: Hey, I think they're going to paint the front door soon. What color do you think they'll paint it?

M: I don't know.

Me: I'm going to guess dark blue.

M: I pick red.

Me: Yeah, red is a popular color for doors.

M: We're just gonna have to ask them.

Me: Ask who what?

M: Ask them what color they're going to paint.

Me: Who are we going to ask?

M: Those humans.

Those humans? Are you kidding me? Where does she come up with this stuff?!

Hark, the Herald Angel Sings

...and I finally posted again!

A couple of weeks ago a small group of friends gathered in the fellowship hall of our church and worked on advent calendars for our all our little ones (whose ages range from 2 to 20 years!). The others assembled calendars out of mini muffin tins and they turned out adorable! I, of course, couldn't make up my mind about what I wanted to do and finally settled on these little gift boxes from the dollar store. The idea was to string them on some twine and have M untie one each day. Well, six days into December I finally got my Christmas spirit on and hung up my advent garland.

Mind you, my windows have been naked since I painted in October so in order to hang my garland up I also had to hang my curtains. Which is a chore I'd rather not do. It's just so tedious. I tried to pass it off onto Chris but he was about as excited as that prospect as he was when I tried to get him to paint for me. Which means I had to suck it up and do it myself. Which is also why it was left undone for a month and a half.

So...notice please the wonderfully white walls. And the curtains (overlooking, of course, their {ahem} ever-so-slightly rumpled state). And then the garland. Inside the boxes are candies, stickers, and an assortment of ornaments for decorating the tree in her room. It still looks prety plain so I may tie colorful ribbons in between the boxes. And as Christmas cards begin to arrive my plan is to clip them in the empty spots.

I also have another idea for displaying cards. But more on that later...

I'll Get You My Pretty...

Oh, Halloween, how I love you and all your spookiness!

This year Little Miss M was a witch. I bought the costume at a thrift store for $1 earlier in the year and the hat was another dollar. The dress has a cute collar and apron/skirt with glittery purple spiderwebs on it. I tried to convince her she should call herself the Spider Queen (one of her earlier alter egos) and wear a tiara instead of a witch's hat but she wasn't interested so a plain ol' witch she was.

Excuse me, the cutest plain ol' witch there ever was!

I didn't take a great pic of her face (did I learn nothing from my SnapShop with Ashley?!), but she had purple swirls kind of swooping out from the corners of her eyes and a big spider hanging out on her cheek.

I, too, enjoy dressing up for Halloween and I went to a costume party on Friday night. I went as Bianca from Lars and the Real Girl, a movie which you all should see if you haven't already. It stars Ryan Gosling and is just a cute, funny, quirky movie. If you haven't seen it, I won't spoil it for you. I'll let the following photos peak your interest.

Here's a shot of Bianca from the movie:And here's my rendition of her:

...And Your Little Kitty Too!

So Little Miss M turned the big FIVE this past Monday. We celebrated her birthday last Saturday Hello Kitty style (Leslie T., can I get a what?what?!). We invited four of her little girlfriends from church.

We played Pin the Bow on Hello Kitty...

decorated Hello Kitty outfits for felt kitties I had cut out... had a makeshift photo booth with a special Hello Kitty disposable camera that will add a border to the photos, attempted a Hello Kitty puzzle for approximately 48 seconds,

ate cake...

and opened gifts...

Whew!

And let me just say that the party planning process and the party itself are much more fun than the party preparation. I was a nervous wreck the 24 hours leading up to this little shindig. I could hardly sleep the night before and ended up in my kitchen at 3:00 AM and 5:30 AM cutting cute shapes out of meats and cheeses, thawing out cupcakes my mom had made for my birthday several months ago after my attempt at these cake pops from Bakerella turned out like this...

Turns out I didn't even have time to frost the cupcakes so I ran to the store and bought a small cake and had them slap the number 5 on it.

Speaking of 5, I made M a little shirt with a freezer paper stencil but I didn't get a cute shot of her in it. This is as close as I got. Yes, the "hair" in one form or another is never too far... On Monday, her actual birthday, my fam came up from T-town and we ordered pizza from Giorgio's who graciously arranged the pepperonis on one of the pizza in the shape of a 5. Little Miss M kept changing outfits throughout the evening and finally settled on this leotard. With a pull up on underneath. Quite the fashionista, eh?

I did have time to frost the aforementioned cupcakes (or "cuckakes" as M likes to say) for this celebration and even though I had removed the candle stick this tray had been glued to at the Hello Kitty party I thought it would be okay to just balance it on the candlestick. I was wrong. The lid of one of the pizza boxes flopped over on the tray and the cuckakes took a nosedive onto the bench behind the table. Argh.

This picture, my friends, pretty accurately depicts the whole party-planning experience from start to finish! At least I have a year to recuperate!

It Is Finished

Not well. But it is finished. Sorry, Valerie, no giftie for you this time. I did discover that I hate painting even more than I thought. Definitely NO FUN when you do it by yourself. I needed my mommy or Kara to be here to help out. I'm pooped out and my eyes are playing tricks on me...can't even tell much of a color difference even though I know it went from a weird green to white. Hmmm.

But this whole money motivation worked well (for me at least!). I need to channel this into other areas: weight loss, other home improvement projects, credit card debt reduction, etc.

Thanks for all the encouragement/motivation/friendly competition.

If I Were a Betting Girl...

Okay, we all know I'm a bit of {which is a bit of an understatement} a procrastinator. I had planned to paint the entire interior of my home the week I closed on the house. Then I was going to paint certain rooms last Christmas break. Then it was pushed to the summer. And now I've set a goal of painting my living room prior to Little Miss M's birthday party. On Saturday. Yes, a mere three days away. So I've been "planning" on painting tomorrow on the first day of fall break so that I can reward myself on Friday with shopping and whatnot in the big city. But I fear that I will, once again, put it off. So...as an extra incentive I'm going to wager against myself. Sort of.

Here's my proposal:

If I don't paint my living room by midnight tomorrow night (Friday morning, technically) then I will purchase a $25 gift card to the establishment of choice for the first person to respond to this post. Which will be sad if nobody posts until after tomorrow...

So good luck to you! But more luck to me! Either way, someone will get something by the end of the day tomorrow!

Rock {'n Roll} A Bye Baby

I keep telling myself that my sewing machine is not something I should be afraid of. Last week there was a baby shower at work and I had psyched myself up to sew some burp cloths but then chickened out in the end and bought my gifts. Well, a friend is expecting a baby boy next month so I finally bit the bullet and conquered my fear.

I had purchased a two-pack of metallic iron-on transfers that said "My Dad Rocks" (because his dad does) and "My Mom Rocks" (with a rocking chair). I found this cute longsleeved onesie at Wal-Mart and slapped the daddy transfer on it.

Now I had to figure out what to do with the mommy transfer. I decided to make a burp cloth and while I was waiting for the lady at Hancock's to cut the flannel (black and white houndstooth on one side, solid red on the other) out I had the bright idea to make it in the shape of a guitar. Not necessarily the most practical burp cloth design, but I though the concept would be cute. I drew out the shape on a sheet of newspaper and then cut out the flannel. I wasn't sure to do with the tuner knobby things so I sewed some ribbons near the top to simulate them. And added the transfer near the bottom. The finished result:

I topstitched a zigzag stitch but wasn't very adept at sewing it in a relatively straight line near the edge and therefore didn't quite get the opening at the bottom sewn shut so I had to deviate a little and add a second wonky topstitch (see below) to correct it. I'm hoping that that houndstooth is busy enough that you don't really notice how poorly it was sewn. But, all in all, not too terribly bad for my first go at it.

Blast from the Past

I was just going through all the pictures on my computer trying to weed some out because my laptop is a little sluggish these days. I ran across a bunch my mom took a few years back and this one is my favorite so far:

My mom was watching her on this particular evening and had put her down to sleep in her (my mom's) room. Apparently Miss M (she had just turned 2) got off their big bed and found one a little more to her liking. I wonder where their dog Mattie slept that night...

My New Favorite and Best

Every once in awhile I stumble across a great find at a thrift store or a garage sale: my vintage O'Keefe and Merritt stove, my round blue coffee table, the set of Calphalon cookware, my awesomely funky headboard, that great dresser I scored a few months back...and for awhile that thing becomes my favorite item in my home.

Well, this morning Little Miss M and I got up early, hit the donut shop, and headed out to the garage sales awaiting us in our thriving metropolis. The first one I hit was for a local pet rescue organization. I was browsing the tables and bookshelves and as I was about to pay for my measly little purchase I saw this chair:

It was near the cash table so I assumed that it was for the volunteers but I asked anyway. I was wrong! For $12.50 it could be mine, all mine. Although a bit on the office-y side, I loved its Danish modern lines and it was in great condition. There was a great debate about whether or not it's upholstered in leather or vinyl but I'm confident I'm right and that it is vinyl. Obviously (for those of you clever enough to notice the chair is in my living room and not a garage) I made the purchase. Fitting it into the car was an adventure, especially in light of the cracked window incident last summer (trying to cram a desk into my compact car). Neither my mother or stepfather would be proud of my knot tying abilities, but I prevailed and it found its way into my house.

And now I get to figure out how to rearrange my living room to make space for them.

Say what?! That's right...

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I bought two of them! Not too shabby for $25, eh?

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner

In Little Miss M's immortal words, "Whoopadie!" I feel like a lottery winner tonight!

I got home from work and made my way through my daily blog roll and when I saw this post from Ashley Ann I went ahead and e-mailed even though I was sure I was way too late.

But I wasn't! I'm the reason it's crossed out. Giddy up!

And now I get to join the ranks of my friends and fellow SnapShoppers Valerie and Robin both mentioned in this post of Ashley's. And cross #10 off this list. Yeehaw!

{Mobile} Home Sweet Home

My BFF Kristin's last post was about some Airstream food vendors she stumbled across on a recent weekend getaway. Which prompted me to post this fantastic image I came across just the other day. Communal trailer living at its finest...

Actually, it's a set design from some production in Amsterdam a few years ago but I think it's wonderful! My mom and stepdad have been on the hunt for some land to build on. How great would it be to do vintage trailer installation like this and have them serve as guest houses?! Just needs a couple of plastic flamingos. I could maybe convince my mom, but Dave would never go for it. Boys...sheesh! I don't know, maybe I'm just weird.

One Hot Betty

Last weekend Little Miss M and I were at "The Bweeto Place" aka Taco Bueno. I always get a refill on our way out and as I did I took notice of the little old lady placing her order. Our Taco Bueno asks for your name so I know her name was Betty. She looked exactly like a little old lady named Betty should look. I'm guessing she was in her eighties. A little on the short side. Short white hair definitely hit with the curling iron before she left the house. Silver glasses. Pink lipstick. Smaller purse hanging from the crook of her elbow. Plaid button up shirt and matching plaid walking shorts. Why is it that babies and senior citizens are the only ones who can pull off matching separates? Anyway...back to Betty, the consummate grandma. Yes, I realize that I was totally looking Betty up and down, head to toe. Creepers, I know.

So then I saw her socks. They were white. Taller than anklets, shorter than crew socks. With glittery, hot pink writing circling the top of them. "Hottie" they said! I don't know if she even knows what it means but I got the giggles. I totally wanted to whip out my phone and take a picture of her (or at least her socks) but I restrained myself. I just hope that when I'm older I'll be able to rock hottie socks!

(edit: and her shoes! How could I forget the Keds?! Khaki Keds!)

A Little M for Little Miss M

We have a new housemate. I was feeling a little homesick a couple of weeks ago and begged my mom to come visit. She said yes. On one condition...we take "The Pig." Enter Meemo. I guess that's how you spell it, like Nemo but with an M. But that spells memo so...Meemo it is.

This guinea pig has bebopped her way into our home and, dare I say it?, our hearts. My stepsister got Meemo when she was 13 and, in all honesty, it stunk up her room for a couple of years. At some point in time she (The Pig) went to live with my stepsister's brother but made her way back to my mom's house several months ago. Minus quite a bit of her fur. On her backside. If you look closely at the next picture you can see where she's "rogaining" it back.

So now she's starting to stink up our little house. Not as bad as I would have expected, but not quite a Tyler candle either.

All in all, it was well worth the visit with my mom. We ate and shopped and decorated to our hearts' content. We drove into the city to hit several thrift stores and happened upon the motherload. We drove into a parking lot and could barely find a spot and then when we got inside it was crazy packed and there were no carts left. I was ready to turn around when my mom discovered what the buzz was all about...they were having a back to school sale and everything was a dollar. That's right, $1!!! So we jumped right into all that craziness and had quite the pile of goodies by the time we left. I was looking for dance outfits for Little Miss M and came away with several leotards and tutus as well as a Halloween costume and several pieces for school. And a lamp for her room. My mom bought a bag full of Barbie clothes. She weeded through it for all the vintage Ken and Barbie outfits (looks somebody was inspired by Toy Story 3!) but then Little Miss M got all the rest!

We drove over to Pop's for lunch because my mom had never been and then we spent the evening decluttering my office/craft room and putting the almost final touches in M's room. I'll take some pictures in the very near future and share. The biggest hurdle left is wiring her colorful gypsy chandelier.

I've got another garage sale in the works this weekend and then methinks my house will return to its slightly less cluttered normalcy. And perhaps I will return to my slightly less scatter brained ways. And, if I so desire, I will be able to do a handstand against the wall that has been the dumping ground for all things destined for garage sale goodness.

Sleeping Like a Baby (or Joan Jett)

Well hello there, friends!

So, no better way to get back into the habit of blogging than a spotlight on Little Miss M. I just went into M's room to check on her after she'd fallen asleep and this is what I found...













...wait for it...

...I think it's worth the wait...












This kid never ceases to amaze me!

Bison, Go With Ka-Rip!

In just a few short weeks, incoming freshmen will migrate to Bison Hill for Welcome Week. This year marks 17 since I myself made the trek. I can't believe I'm that old. 17 years! Yikes! It's nearly half my life.

Anywho...yesterday morning I headed over to my friend Kara's house where five lovely ladies with ties to OBU gathered for a craft session. On the agenda: freshmen beanies! It's an OBU tradition for freshmen to wear them during Welcome Week. On average I'd say beanies are worn for about 30 minutes. Max. But every year somebody, somewhere, cranks out hundreds of these puppies for incoming students. And this year I helped!

I hadn't pulled my $14.14 sewing machine out of its box since sometime before I moved. I rediscovered that it came with its manual, a treat for those of you familiar with thrifted goods. And the manual came in handy since I was experiencing some tension issues. Even more handy than the manual was Christina who lent oodles of sewing expertise. After some fiddling with the machine I cranked 39 beanies out. Sans seam binding. I was the first one to leave so I don't know how many the rest finished.

But it sure did feel good to cross something else off my list and to know that I'm giving back a wee little bit. I wonder if one of my beanies will land on the head of someone who, 17 years in the future, will find herself whipping up a few of these babies for someone else.

Go-To Tee

Going through some photos from this summer I began to notice a pattern emerge...

Kristin's visit in July

My brother's visit in June

Valerie's birthday party in May

I almost always wear a black knit skirt with it. I'm fairly certain I wore said outfit this past weekend at the garage sale with Kara and at countless other undocumented events in the last couple of months. I wore it when took M to swim lessons one day at the beginning of the summer to find my coworker there (her daughter was in the earlier session) wearing a vintage Mickey tee and black knit skirt, too. How random is that?!

Overall, I'd say it was a $7 well-spent.

Somewhere Over The Rainbow

Earlier this month Little Miss M and I hopped in the car and headed to T-Town to celebrate my nephew's birthday. There was tons of rainfall around that time and, sure enough, drops began falling just about the time we got onto I-44. Not too much later we saw a big rainbow off in the distance. I pointed it out to Miss Priss and she oohed and aahed for a little while.

Like all rainbows, this one seemed super far away but then the road must have curved a little bit and out of nowhere, I saw the end of the rainbow! Right. In. Front. Of. Me. Can you see it?!

I mean, it ended right smack dab in the middle of the Interstate! I don't know, maybe this isn't as phenomenal as I think. Has anyone else seen something like this? All I know is that it was as close to a rainbow as I've ever been. And, in case you were wondering, there was no pot of gold on the road. Alas. And as much as I wanted to (and even tried to!), I wasn't able to actually drive through it. Hmpf!

The House That We Built

I have a confession to make. I played with Barbies for a very long time. Well beyond any of my friends. My favorite thing was to decorate their living spaces. I never had Barbie's Dreamhouse or Malibu house or even the RV but I found all sorts of places for her to live. More often than not she lived on my vanity table. The one with drawers on each side and the middle shelf that dropped down a bit. LOVED turning that piece of furniture into her New York loft. So you can imagine how delighted I was when I stumbled some homemade doll houses like these...

from Ohdeeoh

from Craftastica

In a recent round of thrifting, I picked up a bag full of Polly Pocket dolls (excuse me, Holly Pocket dolls according to Miss M). I thought that this little craft would be perfect for them. Because they're so small, we could work on a smaller scale. I decided to make two houses. One for M and one for me! I mean, er, for the dolls, of course. I chose to make the second style of house because it could easily be disassembled and stowed away.

First, I unfolded a box that originally housed a tower fan - tall and skinny - and cut four rectangles out. Two rectangles = four rooms = one house.

In the middle of each rectangle I cut a slit halfway up/down. This is where they slid together.

Then I cut out doors, doorways, and windows.

I spent the other day ripping out pages from old home decorating magazines and catalogs. Scrapbook paper works great too!

M and I grabbed our scissors and glue sticks and got our decorating on! M called herself a "builder" during this phase. "So that peoples could live there."

M brought the dolls out and we had a "reveal" for them!

M's house:

And mine:

I can't tell you how much fun we had doing this activity together! I have a feeling this is only the beginning...

Another New Toy

I've been so good lately. No excess spending. Not even shopping for entertainment! I know, I can hardly believe it myself. But yesterday I did happen to wander into Wall's to kill some time before picking the little one up from daycare. I started digging through bins, saw the word "Holga" on a box, and snapped this bright little puppy up:

It's from the "Holgawood" Collection - I think this color is the Sunset Boulevard one. Wall's got a shipment of Urban Outfitter's stuff awhile back and they have been sneaking out random bits of home items and accessories over the course of a couple of months. Originally $48 at UO, Wall's had it priced at $6.99. But that's not all, folks! It was 25% off that. So I got a cool new toy for the low, low price of just $5.25. Oh yeah!

I love all the Holga shots I see on people's blogs. So pretty, soft, blurry, ethereal. We should start a pool on how long it takes me to actually try the thing out. Yes, my "new" DSLR is still in its box...wah wah.

In other news, I went outside at 11 PM last night to take the trash out and ended up killing this fairly ginormous creature:

It was just off my porch, on its back and flailing its legs all about. At first I walked by it and said, "Man, that's a big spider," and then I went back inside. But I kept thinking about it and said to myself, "Man, I bet that thing's bigger than a quarter. I'm gonna go measure it," so I went back outside with a quarter and a camera in hand. And then I went back inside. But then I got to thinking again, "Its belly was so swollen and it was stuck on its back so maybe it's about to start spurting out hundreds of spider babies that will be small enough to scamper inside the house underneath the cracks in the door and then all those hundreds of spider babies will grow up to be bigger than a quarter. You know what you're gonna have to do, don't you? You're gonna have to kill it, Court." So I grabbed a pair of flip flops and headed outside again. But it was so big that I knew it was going to creep me out to feel it squish underneath me. So I grabbed Little Miss M's SpiderMan scooter and rolled over its fat little body three times.

Then I turned around and realized I had locked myself out of my house. At 11 PM. With a child sleeping peacefully inside. Awesome.