Ack! I really am still here...

So, yes, it has been an entire month since my last post. Again. That's terrible. But there will come a day, I just know it, in the not so distant future when I will actually learn to better balance my life. Without going into any detail, things have been ca-razy around these parts. Last week I think the only time Superman and I saw Pumpkin was to tuck her into bed at night. (That's even sadder than not posting on my blog.) But things are bound to get less crazy because I seriously don't think they can get any crazier. I AM NOT going to even attempt to catch anyone up, family or otherwise, on anything we've been doing the past several months. I AM NOT going to post Christmas pictures here, as it is now the end of February and obviously, even though I just went through our Christmas photos the other day, the rest of the world has moved on! I will, however, show you just a few photos of something we did with Pumpkin during our Christmas break. We are lucky to be able to share a Christmas break together with our daughter. We are also kind of lucky to have a nice sized hill in our backyard. We went sledding and our little Peanut quickly decided it was not for her.

She had no interest in it whatsoever. So Daddy went inside where it was warm. And Pumpkin and I made this:

We played and played and then we went inside where it was warm too. In the morning, seriously, I'm not even kidding, it was gone. The snow had melted away and she stood by our back patio window and said in her sad, little voice, "Momma, where it go? There's no snow! It awlllllll gone."

_

The really funny thing about this is that it is now February 27. Two more sleeps until March 1, and we have a huge overabundance of the fluffy white stuff. I am so done with this. Listen up Wisconsin, you didn't want the snow in December so now it's too late! Too bad! You can't have it now! So give it up!

Hello world? I'm still here...

Well hello. It's been a while. I'm still here. Alive and kicking. I've also been crafting and creating, even though I haven't been posting about anything. Sometimes I get caught up in the day to day hustle and by the time I collapse into bed at night to type in my journal I'm just too tired to do anything other than that. But here is something I completed recently.

I have a huge pile of t-shirts that Superman gave me. I stacked them neatly in my stash thinking that I would do something cool with them like make a quilt or a wall hanging for his classroom or something similar. That is until he told me that he really didn't want them and that there was no sentimental value he associated with the pile of old t's. (You know, they're the ones you buy for homecoming week, class competitions, prom, etc.) I CAN'T throw them out. Not now that I have a serger and it's so easy to sew knits. I pulled one of them out not too long ago and looked at it. It was a dark heathered gray knit with a green print on the front. I loved the gray, not the green print. So I cut it up the sides which left me with two largish pieces of knit fabric. I placed them one on top of the other and cut out a whole bunch of long trapezoid shapes. Like this:

(You'll have to pardon the poor quality pics...I took them with my phone.)

After I had them all cut out and pressed I serged them all together with the print side in so all that nice, unadulterated, heathered gray was visible and the green print was hidden. Pretty easy.

This left me with almost a full circle. I cut a wide piece of elastic to fit Pumpkin's waist and serged that to my almost full circle.

Then I serged the circle closed and hemmed Pumpkin's cute little circle skirt. It looks pretty good! I like it quite a bit!

And it meets all the requirements for Pumpkin. If it's going to be a skirt or dress it HAS to be comfortable above all else! She is not one for fru fru and frills of any kind really. Unless she's in the mood for dress up or it's a tu tu. All the fru fru and frills in her closet are really for me. Not her. Some day I'm sure she'll understand.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

We had Gramma D snap a few family pictures for us when I took pictures for my BIL's family which means we didn't get our Christmas cards done in time. Sigh. BUT, I guess that means they are New Year cards. So, to family, friends, and loved ones, wherever you are...Happy New Year!!! We love you! May you have hope and happiness in the coming year. May love and laughter fill your days.

Family Pictures

I went to visit my BIL's family this past weekend to take pictures for them...they wanted to give the photos as gifts this Christmas. For the Gramma's and Grampa mostly, but I think I'll be making some copies too! Little Miss M, the elder Little Miss M to be specific, wanted no part in it. None whatsoever. There was much coaxing, with puppets, and toys, and candy, and fun. Finally I decided to just keep snapping the pictures. Amid the myriad photos that were no goes...we found a few we could use. Here they are.

Deck the halls...fa la la la la la la la la

Superman and I decorated for the holidays the day after the day after Thanksgiving. (We couldn't do it the day after because that's my annual ALL DAY girls' day out with my sisters and mom. Smile.) We decided to make our decorations this year. We used my new Cricut, which I'm excited about, it's bigger than my old one, and cut out all kinds of stuff for the house. Nothing out-of-this-world spectacular but very cute nonetheless. Here are some ornaments for the tree. We made snowflakes, trees, candycanes, and balls. Pumpkin actually helped with these. Superman cut out a zillion little paper lights for me to make a garland. We used a silver paint pen to fill in the top of each light and strung them together. Nice. I also made gift tags. (Again, with Pumpkin's help, she loved pressing the buttons on the Cricut.) And I hung a banner (or bunting of sorts) across our big patio window that I made last year with the old Cricut.

My favorite addition this year, by far, would have to be the snowflakes that Superman cut out to hang from our ceiling. We hung them in strings to form a flowing "curtain" of snow between our kitchen and livingroom. I love them so much. And until last night they were really the only snowflakes flying around here at all.

*Just a note, I've linked up at tatertots and jello and creative little daisy

Another birthday

So, remember this cutie patootie? This is Mini. She's from here. She turned one today. Holey schmoley. One. Still throws me for a loop.


I wanted to make something really special for her, and I will, but she probably won't get it until Christmas. (And that's if I stay motivated. Oh well.) But I did get to make her SOMETHING for her party tomorrow, and I helped out my sister in the process. My sis wanted to make her a birthday outfit and the outfit she envisioned would have been oh so very cute. But alas, she grew short on time and has so much to do tonight to prepare for tomorrow, so I stepped in. This is what I came up with...in the half hour I was able to devote to sewing tonight. (It had to be quick.) I appliqued a "1" on a t-shirt and made a coordinating hair accessory for her to wear in her wild, little mane. I used the same fabric for the yo-yo on the hair clip as I did for the applique. I added some matching lace and a fabulous little yellow button, which I am almost certain will be my sister's favorite part of the whole ensemble as she is a huge fan of yellow. It had to have polka dots on it because that is the theme for her soiree. She will be the belle of her party.







Happy Birthday big girl!

My baby turned 3...

My baby isn't a baby anymore. Not even remotely. She is officially a little girl. We invited some cousins and other family members over for a Pinkalicious celebration last week. (sidenote: I still don't know whether to laugh with joy that she is doing all kinds of big girl things now like drinking from a cup, going potty, reading books all by herself, playing with daddy's ipad all by herself, getting dressed, brushing her teeth, etc., etc., or to shed tears of loss that she no longer lets me rock her to sleep, and wants to do EVERYTHING by HERSELF. Kids these days...they just grow up too fast.) Anyway, the party was fun. We let her help us decorate, pick out goodies for cousins, and set up for the party. Here are some highlights.

I cut the cupcakes out of scrapbook paper freehand and used double sided tape to stick them to the goodie bags. There were lots of fun things in those bags but might I recommend NOT distributing Flarp at any party where there are three year olds? It makes fabulous noises and is loads of fun for your three year old with lots of supervision but is SOOO hard to get out of carpet. I LOATHE it.


Here is the giant Pinkalicious cupcake that Kaia had been talking about for days. She couldn't wait to sink her teeth into it. We made it with one of those giant cupcake pans. The ones where you bake the top and bottom of the cupcake and then put it together. There is layer of pink, creamy goodness in the middle. AND, it's a strawberry cupcake. Completely Pinkalicious. There were smaller cupcakes for all the guests. (Not pink, but just as yummy.)


Other super fun highlights:




I appliqued a Pinkalicious "3" on a pink shirt for her to party in.



Sneaking cake to give to Mini. (It's like she's feeding a cute little puppy or something...Mini, you little beggar! I guess everyone likes a good Pinkalicious cupcake.)