monday musings

Bloggers are the nicest people around- I got some kind comments and emails after my whiney post yesterday. I almost feel like apologizing for whining- so many people out there have much worse problems than mine. That's why I rarely post 'bad stuff' here...not to say that my life doesn't have its ups and downs, but I try to keep looking at the upside even when I'm frustrated or out of sorts.

And just to be clear, I'm not going to get a nomination for SuperMom of the Year any time soon! There are plenty of days where I lose my temper and do my fair share of screeching at my small ones. There are days where I don't want to pull out more play-doh or paint and make another mess to clean up. There are days where I count the minutes till the afternoon naptime/quiet time, when I can have an hour of peace & no one is demanding anything of me. Days where I'm exhausted at 9am and wondering how the hell I'm going to make it to 6pm! Being a momma is hard hard hard work- 95% drudgery, 3% soul searing fear and 2% overwhelming joy.

I just try really hard to keep 'bad days' to a minimum & to make them few and far between. I try to remember how deep my blessings run and how lucky I really am. I live for that 2% of joy & hold onto it for dear life when it happens. And hopefully I'll raise some loving, confident and thoughtful human beings in the process.

Anyhew on to the crafting (which is why you're here, no?)-

Lots of good bloggy vibes were sent my way after my whine, which is probably why I was able to sit down and complete a sewing project yesterday afternoon:

It's a tote bag+pencil/sketchbook case for my newly-turned 3yr old niece, Little Red. The pencil case is based on the tute from One Red Robin. I had made the pencil case previously, but still had to complete the tote bag before the party.

Monkey Boy wasn't keen on taking a nap due to the time change so I slipped a DVD in and retreated to my room to do some super quick cutting and sewing. Here's the pencil case outside:

and inside:

I used Crayola Twisteables because they're easy for little ones to use without breaking. The sketchpad is 8x6.

The tote bag was just a simple patchwork- I only had about an hour to make it so it's not lined. Monkey Boy heard the sewing machine and came looking for me after about 20 minutes of watching the DVD. So I had a little helper- he 'pushed' the fabric through my sewing machine & pressed the button that raises the needle. Here he models the finished tote bag:

The straps were a little wonky due to Monkey Boy's 'help', but I think it still turned out ok. I put some cute little books into the bag along with the pencil case. Then we were off to the party, where we took lots of pictures, ate lots of sugary stuff and otherwise enjoyed ourselves.

I hope Little Red enjoys her tote bag and pencil case. Little Man saw the case and wanted one of his own made out of pirate fabric. So I guess I'll have to make another!

v-day crafting

::valentine card crafting::
day 43 of 365

Little Man's preschool class has their V-Day party tomorrow. We made a baker's dozen of these cards/cookie holders for him to hand out (original idea from Norththreads via Kiddley). Little Man stamped the cards & punched out the circles for the tags. I glued the tags & flower punch outs together. He stuffed the CD cases with candy hearts and we slid the cookies in (we had to put the cookies in small plastic bags because they were 'bleeding' grease thru the paper). The backs of the CD slipcases are stamped with his name and more hearts. Luckily we only had to make 13 of these.

And thanks everyone for the birthday wishes. Today was the Dearest's birthday and we went out to our fave sushi restaurant with his parents. Neither of us got a cake for our birthdays this year, so I am probably going to run out and get one tomorrow. Better late cake than no cake, I always say!

birth day

-Saturday night dinner with the Dearest, followed by a massage at the local chi-chi day spa (heavenly)

-not having to do the dishes AT ALL- for one whole day

-uninterrupted craft time so I could cut and arrange this:

-wearing my new Noro Silk Garden Light socks while knitting with good friends at LPK:

-smooches and tickles from Monkey Boy (who is finally feeling much better).

-"birthday gift flowers" picked by Little Man himself:

All in all, a nice way to spend a birthday!

how to cause and cure a migraine

Little Man is nearly five and somehow we have managed to prevent him from visiting Hell On Earth (aka Chuck E. Cheese). He's occasionally seen commercials about HOE/CEC, and now that he's in preschool some of his friends have told him about it. In the past few months he has asked several times if we could go to HOE/CEC for lunch so he can play games. I've always told him no, mostly because my one visit to HOE/CEC many years ago gave me an almost instant headache. I remember the place as being very dark, dingy, loud and dirty. So my motivation to go inside the local HOE/CEC was minimal.

But then we received a couple of birthday invites from some children in Little Man's preschool class. Both of them were for parties at HOE/CEC...one on Saturday (today) and one on Monday. Luckily my neighbor's daughter is in the same class so she was also invited, making it easy for us to swap watching the kids at the party. I took Little Man and Blondie to the party today, and my neighbor will take them on Monday.

I had braced myself for a repeat of my last HOE/CEC experience (this time including the fun of running after Monkey Boy, Little Man and Blondie). However, it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. The local HOE/CEC is actually very clean, well lit and has a huge bank of windows to let in lots of natural light. They had all kind of arcade games, including skee ball (remember that?):

And of course Monkey Boy loooooved the train/trolley (he probably spent 25 tokens just on this ride):

While Little Man greatly enjoyed this contraption:

All in all, the experience wasn't as bad I thought it was going to be. Unfortunately after about half an hour I started getting a nasty headache. By the time we left, I had a nice little souvenir: a migraine. ugh

Luckily the boys crashed when we got home and I was able to take a short nap. When the Dearest arrived home from his workout, we decided to head to our favorite Shabu Shabu restaurant for dinner so I wouldn't have to cook.

Shabu Shabu is a lot of fun: they give you a big plate of very thinly sliced meat, another big plate of raw veggies and a pot of hot water. You swish the veggies and meat around in the water to cook them, dip them in ponzu sauce and eat up.

day 27 of 365

The small men always love Shabu Shabu- even if they don't get to do any swishing themselves. Tonight Little Man was putting pieces of carrot on his chopsticks and "warming" them over the pot like he was roasting marshmallows.

Monkey Boy's favorite part of the meal is the 'ndoodless' or noodles. He's gotten pretty good at slurping them up:



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The Shabu Shabu was good enough to cure my migraine and I'm feeling ever so much better now. :) Off to bed, because tomorrow I'm doing a yarn crawl with the lovely Ms. Chelle. Maybe I'll even take some photos (ya think?).

doing, doing, done?

doing:

#5 of 365/photo a day

Tomorrow we are having a birthday party for two precious little ones: our Monkey Boy and his cousin, I. Monkey Boy will be celebrating his 2nd birthday; I. will be turning 1 year old. Because their birthdays are very close together, we decided to throw them a combined party.

Since MB is obsessed with trains and dinosaurs, that's our theme. The above image is the new cake pan I got from Williams Sonoma, along with a photo of what the cake will eventually look like (I hope!). Wish me luck!

doing:

Playing with my new moo cards. I lurrrve these cute little cards and can't wait to start handing them out to people. I was surprised at how nice and thick the cardstock is, as well as how great the images look on the cards. They are just gorgeous and this photo above doesn't do them justice.

My cards include some work photos, some yarny photos and some photos of the small men. I'm planning on using them as business cards & calling cards to hand out at playdates or whenever someone asks for my # or email addy. They are so cool that I made a little collage out of them for the front of our fridge. I had to use removable scrapbooking adhesive since our fridge is stainless steel and magnets don't stick. It's fun to catch a glimpse of some of my favorite things every time I open the door.

done:
upgrading to the 'new' blogger!
This is my first post with the upgraded blogger- hopefully all is going to continue working well. Let me know if you all have any problems. I'm going to start playing with the template again, so don't be surprised if things look different around here!

Now....off to get some sleep so I can wake up bright and early to decorate cakes, clean house, cook appetizers and get ready for the arrival of the guests tomorrow. G'night!