At The River Again

Toy For James

Made this for Jamesy last night after he spent the evening playing with a tag on a pillow...

Tutorial from Chez Beeper Bebe

We Will Wok You

Summer Weight Blankets

Danny likes to be covered up to his chin when he falls asleep and needed some sort of "summer weight" blanket to replace the extremely way too hot wool one he's been using.  I recently inherited a cotton gauze swaddling blanket which reminded me of this blanket tutorial and this fabric dyeing tutorial (from the same blog...  http://www.danamadeit.com/).  So I made some larger ones, one for each boy.  They picked their own colors, Danny picked...

Pink of course!  Matthew picked this light light blue...

And Joe picked "Royal Blue" mostly I think because it had the word "royal" in it.  Dyeing the cotton gauze was exciting and super simple.  I did all three colors in about an hour in my kitchen sink...

My usual "who gives a damn" technique...

Here's Danny trying his out for nap...

It works!

(See...  Right up to the chin.)

Now I can retire this guy for the season (several months late)...

In Which Chris Tries to Get a Nap on Father's Day

Boys:  Dad, pretend you're our patient.
Dad:  Okay, let's pretend I'm in a coma.
Boys:  NO!  Pretend you fell off a mountain and broke your arm.  I need a skepfascope!
Dad:  Okay, I fell off a mountain, and I have a broken arm and I am in a coma.
Boys:  fix fix fix. (*pokes fingers into Dad's arm*)  Okay, pretend I need to wear these special goggles (*Puts on snow boarding goggles*)
Dad:  You guys better go read up on comas before you start treatment.
Boys:  fix fix fix. (*more poking.*)
Dad:  Maybe you guys should order some tests and go wait for the results.
Boys:  Hey Dad, you're all fixed!  Dad...  Dad!

My Answer to the Vegan, Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Egg-Free, Nut-Free, Low-Sugar Birthday Snack for School

 

Home made cloud marshmallows and rainbow fruit kebabs...

I didn't have time to find a cloud cookie cutter so I just made this wonky one by ruining a flower cookie cutter with a pliers...

The kids recognized them as clouds, so I guess they turned out!

Spring Violin Recital

Birthday Gifts With Meaning.

If you've been with your spouse/partner ever since you started "liking" boys like I have, when birthdays and anniversaries roll around there's not much inspiration for gifts.  While there are definitely lots of things that I want and a never-ending list of supplies I covet, it's just not all that fun to tell your spouse, "get me these shoes."  Especially since the money all comes out of the same pot in this household and I might as well just buy them myself (which I did....  Happy Birthday to me!)

Here's a list of gifts that bring more meaning than something off of an amazon wishlist...  And bonus! They happen to be easy on the budget too!

1.  Do a project for your spouse/partner that they've been meaning to do but can't seem to get done...  For my birthday this year Chris is going to rabbit-proof the garden, a task that I haven't been able to find the time to do.

2.  Fix something that's been broken for a long time...  Two birthdays ago Chris reattached some dresser knobs that had fallen off and had been rattling around in the drawer for years.  I had gotten so used to them not being there that for months I was surprised to see them back in their proper place.

3.  Pick out some books from the library for your spouse...  I got this idea from my friend Vaara.

4.  Replace something that they already have but hate...  My friend Becky sent me a salad spinner one birthday even though I already had one because the one I had was shitty.  I swear at the new salad spinner a lot less than the old one, YAY!

5.  Give the time and space to get something done...  I would love to have a day of uninterrupted sewing.

6.  Get some JPEGs turned into photos...  I lay awake at night thinking about lost files and wishing we could go back to the days of film and shining light through negatives to get prints.  I once saw a billboard that said, "Mothers, don't let your children grow up to be JPEGs" that struck panic in my heart.  And yet, I STILL rarely get prints of my pictures.

So there.  Six things constitutes a list, right?  Add yours to the list if you like!

How I Lost Weight Eating Cake for Breakfast...

Just kidding...   About the weight loss...   But not about the cake for breakfast.

Mmmmmm.