Christmas 2011 ~ Recap and Highlights

(I also posted this at We Shall Sew, in case you go there, too)

Well, it's Tuesday now, the 27th, and we finally ate Christmas dinner tonight. :)  There is no real reason for the delay, except that I kept sleeping through my put-the-turkey-in-the-oven-NOW window.  How was I supposed to prepare a turkey and get it in the oven smack dab in the middle of my nap time?

And I sure needed my nap on Christmas day.

Dave and I were up until after 3am Christmas morning, and we were tuckered out! It was totally worth it, though.

TOTALLY!!

As referenced in my last post, we made a puppet theater for the girls. Other than the curtains and the re-build upstairs, it was done in plenty of time. But the curtains took me a while since I took my sweet time. And the re-build took a while since Dave had to hand screw everything in so as not to wake the girls up with the drill.

See, we went from having only a little tree, and no presents, in the loft area when the girls went to bed Saturday night, to having a large puppet theater and a mass of Christmas gifts in the loft area when they woke up.

That kind of transformation takes time, people. It takes time.

Every morning, Mookie has this tradition, if you will, of stumbling into our bedroom around 7:30 for a bit of a snuggle and to play games or read while we all wake up. So we weren't really worried that she would see anything out of the ordinary before we were ready for her to see it.  And Sprout has this tradition, if you will, of sleeping till about 8:30, so we were all set in that regard.  Once Sprout woke up, we all went downstairs for some breakfast...and to build the hype a bit. Since Mookie hadn't seen any presents under the tree, she didn't really expect anything out of the ordinary, but we kept talking about this BIG surprise, and how excited we were, and how excited she would be, and how much fun we were going to have, etc.

So about 9:30, I went upstairs first to set up the video camera and to hide in the puppet theater to take pictures, and then Dave brought the girls up.

Here's the before (you can see the puppet theater on the left):

Mookie was so startled by the transformation! You can see the surprise, and fear?, in her face.

She was actually so scared that she got down on the floor and started to crawl! Poor girl!

But when she figured out that it was a puppet theater and that it was all good, she jumped up and RAN for the "puppet feetar" as she calls it. :)

I love that photo! I love that face!! :)

"Look, Mama! I can do my very own puppet shows!"

Then she came around back, grabbed the few puppets we had (many more showed up soon!), and commensed to wowwing us with her mad puppetry skillz.

There were quite a few puppet shows that day...and every day since. :)

Not one to be left out, Sprout was trying to get in on the puppet show action. (LOVE the hair!)

Here's the whole family before we opened any of the presents. The loft was a WRECK by the time we were all done. Still is...

Dave gave me a pair of Christmas socks (among other things...like an Accuquilt Go! Cutter) (Score!!) and Sprout desperately wanted to wear them. How can you say no to that cute face?

Here she is with them on. These are certainly easier for her to wear than my regular slippers!

This is such a goofy shot of my goofy girl. I love it.

We got Sprout a little kitchen tools set, and both girls really loved it. Occupied them for quite a while, actually.

I found these little fairy wings at Target on clearance, and thought Sprout might like them. Well. Little did I know! She immediately said "Ningabow! Ningabow!!" (For Tinkerbell), and held out her arms. I said "Do you want to put these on? And she said "Yup" And I said "Okay." And she said "K."  I just adore this age!!

Her Tinkerbell wings stay on pretty much every moment she knows they're there. We sneak them off every now and then, but when she sees them, she wants them on again.



I love that she's wearing fairy wings and trying to build something with her Mega Blocks. Every fairy is an engineer, my love. :)

Here's Dave with his fairy baby.

Poor girl. She was just poopin' out, there! We'd only been going for about an hour and a half at this point...

She found her second wind, though, and got to playing again.

So, that's it! We took our sweet time, and very leisurely opened all of our presents. It took us about 3 hours, really, but there weren't THAT many presents. We just took. our. time. We read stories. We had puppet shows. We snacked on candy. We played with new toys. We stayed in our jammies all day.

And then we used our new sandwich press to make fancy triangle sandwiches, and then had a nice, well-deserved nap.

Which explains why I slept right through my put-the-turkey-in-the-oven-NOW window, and we didn't eat our Christmas Turkey until 2 days later. It was good, though. :)

Potty Training {Days Beyond}

So, I gave up potty training Mookie. I just couldn't take the feelings of failure and abuse and torture and bribery anymore.

I still asked if she wanted to go, and would sit her on the potty, but I didn't set a timer, and I didn't stress about it. We even pulled out a few hidden diapers for nap and bed times.

I can't remember now, but somewhere in that week, she started to really pee on the potty. A couple of times she told me she needed a diaper, so we high-tailed it to the potty and she peed in it. (Hallelujah!) She didn't have any accidents during the awake times, and grew really proud of herself.  Part of it could be that I figured out her "currency". Her bribe. The thing that makes her little heart skip a beat.

Play-doh.

Sadly, I hate the stuff. Friends should not buy friends' kids play-doh! Ugh.  Mookie? Loves the stuff. Wants to take it to bed with her at night. Wakes up asking to "play" Play-doh. Wants to take it to the restaurant when we go out to eat.

Somewhere along the potty-training line, she learned that she would get a new pot of Play-doh every time she peed in the potty, or woke up dry, or some such milestone. Knowing that, she was considerably more motivated to pee or hold it, or do the "potty dance." :)

In the big picture, the 47 pots of Play-doh aren't very expensive, and she spends SO MUCH TIME playing. And she really loves it.  She's forever dreaming up something new to make with it, or showing off her latest creation, or "making dinner" with it...the possibilities are endless with that kid.

We don't have many tools for the Play-doh, though. That would be too much, I think. I have a one-color limit (can not STAND when the colors get mixed. Bah!!), and most of the tools allow you (or encourage you) to mix colors. Not happenin', folks.  We do have a few things, though, and I've augmented her tools with a few cookie cutters, some plastic knives, and a small rolling pin. She's happy as a clam, and doesn't ask for more than one color, thankfully.

Anyway, back to the potty training. So, we had about a week of normal, around-the-house pottying, and then we went away on vacation. She was a STAR!! She peed on a big potty at the Dallas airport, at the Newark airport, in Central Park in New York City, Penn Station in NYC, at the Crayola Factory in New Jersey...

...riddle me this, though, folks...the Crayola Factory didn't have toddler-sized potties. Why? They must have a million toddlers and small children coming through in a year, why not have toddler-sized potties?? Good thing for me, she was comfortable using the big ones if I held her.

Now, a few weeks after I started this journey, she's peeing on the potty all the time during the day (I try to take her about every 60-90 minutes just to be safe, and she lets me know if she needs to go in between). She wears a pull-up at nap and bed time or if we're out of the house, and "big girl pants" during the time we're at home.  She still isn't pooping in the potty, but thankfully she has only pooped in the pull-ups. I'm kinda ooked out by the idea of poop in her big girl pants. :o)  I know it will happen, but I'm glad it hasn't happened yet!

She's still got a pile of "prizes" that she could have gotten (and still can), but she seems perfectly content with the Play-doh she already has, and isn't interested in those books/puzzles/games/candy/bubbles/movies on the counter.  However...there is a big Play-doh kit that will sit there until we are fully potty trained. And she knows it.  She's motivated, and I think that was the key to success.

So, that's our story right now. Peeing on the potty isn't a big deal. Pooping is our next hurdle. :)

Potty Training {Day 2}

(I am keeping track of Mookie's potty training here because I know if I don't, I'll be clueless when it comes time to train Sprout. Which I will do MUCH earlier.)

Mookie spent the day yesterday asleep or whining or just generally not being herself. So, we are trying this again! It's critical to do this now because Dave has a few days off and he can take care of Sprout.

9:00 - came upstairs to The Training Area. Prayed. Went over the rules and expectations. Practiced.

9:40 - really got started. Started the (10 min) timer and started playing with Play-Doh. (Mookie is downright addicted to the stuff.). 10 minutes dry, 5 on the potty with no success. Drinking juice.

9:55 - second 10 minute bell rang with no misses. No success in the (5 min) potty. Setting the timer for 15 minutes and playing more Play-Doh.

10:25 - 15 minutes, no misses. 5 on the potty, no success. I even have the water trickling in the bathtub.

10:45 - same as before. 15/5. This time she pulled her underwear down and sat on the potty by herself. I gave her a small chocolate bar. We need to drink more water!

10:50 - role-reversal time... Mookie wanted to be the teacher. I have now had more "success" than she has. :-)

11:05 - set timer for 20 minutes, Mookie is doing well "trapped" in the playroom with me. We have read books, played with fabric, and done some workbook pages. 5 more minutes with no success. I'm also painting her fingers and toes while she's seated.

11:30 - (the timing is not exact, but it's close). I'm getting bored. I expected her to pee at least once in 3 hours! The timer is at 20, and I told her that when she pees in the potty, I'll give her a new, big, pot of Play-Doh. We'll see if that helps.

12:00 - this time, just for fun, we practiced wiping. We didn't need it. (sigh). Setting the timer for another 20. Maybe I should shorten the time. I don't know. (Still no new Play-Doh.)

12:31 - melt down. She wants to go downstairs. I'm not letting her. Today is about tinkling on the potty. Another 5+ on the potty with no luck. I'm praising her for practicing sitting on the potty.

1:00 - same ol' same old. I've even upped the bribes. It's lunch, then nap time.

2:00 - going down for her nap dry since before 9:00 this morning. Didn't eat much lunch.

3:45 - Mookie woke up crying and then got sick multiple times. Poor kid.

We're done. I'm done. I'm not sure if we'll try again tomorrow, but I'm thinking not. Since she's not exhibiting any signs of WHY she is sick, I can't really tell until she pukes. and I don't want to push her any more.

Potty Training {Day 1}

= Fail.

I was ALL kinds of prepared. I read the books, I prayed, I separated the bribes toys into small, medium, large. I prayed some more. I hid the few size 4 diapers that are left in the house. I prayed yet some more. I prepped the bathroom and the playroom. Dave was lined up to be Parent #1 to Sprout all day so I could devote my time to Mookie all day.

What I didn't expect was that cry at 2:45 in the morning. That "Mommy! I getted sick in my bed!" cry. I scooped her lump of a self up, and we crawled into the guest bed, where we slept off and on until about 10:00 in the morning.

Poor Mookie-licious is sick. Just not herself. She doesn't have a fever, doesn't exhibit regular signs of sickness, but she's just not herself. She only threw up one more time during the day, but it doesn't make any sense. Poor kid.

We'll try again tomorrow.

(I am keeping track of Mookie's potty training here because I know if I don't, I'll be clueless when it comes time to train Sprout. Which I will do MUCH earlier.)

Modern Day Quilting

My hexie quilt for Japan is featured today over at Modern Day Quilts!!!

Heather does a really great job of finding fun, inspirational, innovative, modern quilts and posts them every day. I am super jazzed that she thinks my hexie quilt is fit for her feature! If you don't already follow her, you should. Every day brings new, and ever more beautiful, quilts.

(Her post just links to my sewing blog, but go there and show her some love, too.) :o)

We Let The Wine Do The Painting

Last month, my best friend, Angela, told me about a new (to me) place in Denver called Canvas and Cocktails. They provide all the art supplies, a "goal" painting, and an instructor to guide you through creating your goal painting. Well, and there's a bar in the back in case anyone needs additional assistance with their painting. As Angela and I were trying to figure out when we could go, I had to discuss the dates with Dave. This is pretty much how our conversation went:

Me: "So Ang wants to go to this place in Denver called Canvas and Cocktails. There's a teacher who teaches you how to paint a certain picture and everyone in the room paints the same one. We're trying to figure out when we can go. What are your plans for May 1st?"

Him: "Is it like that guy on PBS that says things like 'this is a happy tree.' or is it different?"

Me: "Ummm, I don't know about happy trees, but there is a teacher."

Him: "Hmmm...that sounds pretty cool. We should do that sometime for a date night."

Me, cocking my head to the side: "What?"

Him: "Yeah, you know I love art. It won't look half as good as yours, but I think it might be fun!"

Me, cocking my head to the other side: "What??"

Him: "Well, I know I haven't had a paint brush in my hand since approximately 1981, but I would really like to do it. We should go together on a date!"

Me, cocking my head back to the other side: "Who ARE you?"

Him: "No, really. It'll be fun. What's the website. I want to see what painting I might want to paint."

Me, cocking my head back again: "No, really. Who ARE you??"

After the shock wore off, we were sitting at our respective computers looking at the different paintings they offer and trying to decide when we could go. He really liked the "guitar trio" painting. 3 guitars, primary colors, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.  I tried and tried to convince him to pick another painting, but he was pretty adamant about the guitar trio.  I was not too keen on having two (somewhat) identical paintings in the house, but figured I could at least paint over it if I hated it, right?! :o)

When I called to make the reservation, the girl was all excited, and informed me that the phones had been going crazy since they had just announced that Guitar Trio was going to be the first ever "Guys' Night" where the men would paint for free!  To which I said "Sweet! Sign me up! I'll happily paint a trio of guitars if it's free!" :o)

When we got there Saturday night, the room was pretty crowded, and only got more crowded. Too crowded, but it was fun, so that's okay.  After we paid, they took us to a couple of open stools, gave us our brushes and a piece of cardboard and showed us where to get the aprons and the paints. Then Dave went to the bar and bought himself a nice, chilled bottle of "painter's aid," if ya know what I mean. :o) Brittany, the owner, then introduced herself and proceeded to give us our basic painting instructions. It was really a great way to begin painting, I think. I've dabbled in painting for decades quite a while, now, so it wasn't new to me, but for Dave, who admits he hasn't painted in nearly 30 years, this was really great. She would say "take a scoop of yellow, and two scoops of white and mix them together." She went over brush sizes, paint combinations, light hand vs heavy hand. Good stuff. And she took us through the painting step by step. Again, cool for me, GREAT for Dave and the 34 other men in the room that haven't painted since elementary school! :o)

And as we went, she played some really rockin' tunes in the background. I don't recall any AC/DC, but there was plenty of man-friendly music that she played. I suspect the playlist is different on a night when most of the painters are women. :o)

Dave followed her instructions to the letter, but I chose a different set of colors to use. I chose to go ahead and paint the guitars, though, because Mookie LOVES guitars and she LOVES to play her guitar and she LOVES to play guitar with her papa. So I picked some girly colors for her. Brittany talked us through each and every layer, every highlight, every shadow, every nuance. The way we created the painting step-by-step really made us all feel very successful, I think.

One highlight of the evening was when Brittany called Roger up to the front and made up some excuse to get him up there. As he was up there, he said something sweet about his girlfriend, Kimberly, and asked her to join him up at the front. As she walked up there, he got down on one knee and proposed to her. Right there in Canvas and Cocktails. So sweet. I'm thinking she didn't really care how her painting came out after that. :o)

It took about 3 hours to get through our paintings and everything (there were a few breaks, too), but I'm sure it would have taken me longer to paint a trio of guitars at home. They took pictures, which is good, because I forgot my camera. If you look HERE, it's a picture of Dave and me on their Facebook site. You can't see our paintings, though.

I did take a few pictures with my phone, though. Here's a picture of Dave and me with our new creations. You can see the instructor's painting in the background.  Dave is actually pretty proud of himself -- as he should be! He did great!  (But there wasn't much "creative license" with him...we pretty much had to have anatomically correct guitars.)



And here are the paintings in the light of day. Still not too shabby, eh?



When I told Mookie that I made the painting for her, she said "Really? For me?" and began to clap like crazy. And every 15 minutes throughout the rest of the day she would say, "That's Papa's, this is mine." I love that she's so excited about a painting I made for her.  Since Dave is officially hooked on painting, and I had fun going along and enabling his inner artiste to emerge, I think we'll be doing a LOT more painting in the future. We've already got a plan for painting this Friday night. We're not going to C&C, though, we'll just paint at home. But if they turn out good, I'll be showing them to you next Sunday.

And, no. Angela and I haven't yet worked out the dates when we'll get to go and paint flowers and listen to girly music and chat chat chat the night away.

It Was NOTHING Like Today...

You know those scenes in movies where it looks like someone is standing on a ladder dumping huge scraps of paper to make it look like it's "snowing"? That's what it looks like outside my window today. Big, puffy, heavy, wet, white snowflakes are flitting about.

And it's cold. Not 70 below zero like it was last week, though. :o)

10 short days ago, it was balmy and rather tropical here, so I took the girls to the park for a picnic. It was Sprout's first, and she did FAHbulously. She sat on the blanket and played and watched people and ate her Gerber puffs like a champ. Mookie wanted to play rather than eat (which is nothing new.), so I made her sit and eat half of her lunch before she could go play. :o) I love the park. I miss having a park at the end of the street where we could go every. single. day if we wanted  to.

I took quite a few pictures of the picnic, but I'm only going to show you 2, but I think you'll see that we had fun.

Wook at doze smoochy cheeks.

Mookie was bouncing.

It's important to remember that the sun does shine around here, and there are days when we can venture to the park. Now that it's February, it'll probably be a few weeks till we can do it again, but at least I have pictures to remind me that those days will come again.

I hope you have a great week!

Welcome To Our 'Ool

So, um, issssHOTTTTTTTT up in soCal.

I know some of you are enjoying autumn, enjoying the crisp change in weather, enjoying the cooler nights. Not I. Oh, not I.

Back in July and August when it was hot everywhere but here, my neighbors were complaining about the cold. I was not. Not only was I not uncomfortable, but I knew our inferno was coming. And oh, has it ever. In spades and buckets and dumptrucks.

Right now, at 3:18 pm, it is approximately 104 degrees Fahrenheit outside. And there is NO breeze. None.  And inside? It's 89. (edited to add that it got up to 95 in Mookie's bedroom later on in the afternoon).

We don't have central air conditioning in our house, nor do we have a window unit. Most of the time, we don't need it! But when the winds shift, and Mother Nature decides to have mercy on the rest of the nation at our expense, we get our comeuppance. And we are instantly shellacked with sweat. It's like living inside an oven.

This afternoon I thought of putting Mookie in a cooler bath just to help her cool down, but then I thought "Why should she have all the fun?" So I inflated our little pool, and filled it up. With nice, cold hose water. In the garage. A bit unorthadox in the inflatable pool realm, but the garage was much cooler than outside! And much shadier.

And it was goooooood.  I invited Kelly and her girls down, and I think it's safe to say that we were all cooler when it was over. Mookie dumping buckets full of cold water on our legs might have had something to do with that, but it sure was a welcome shocker! :o)

Tomorrow the high is only supposed to be 87...but I'm keeping our "indoor pool" up just in case we need an afternoon cool-off.

It Ain't What It Used To Be



We went to the county fair. Sprout conked out. Look how pretty my fingernails are! I guess I need a haircut, though, huh? Looks like I've got a tree growing out of my head!

No, in all seriousness, folks. It wasn't the county fair of my youth. Of course, I didn't grow up in Los Angeles county, either, but there just weren't enough goats and pigs and cows and smelly farm animals. Like, for real. At the fair, you're supposed to be able to smell the animals, NOT the food vendors!!  It was just too commercialized. There were 2 gigantic shopping plaza buildings, in addition to all the vendors in their tents!  I didn't see a single quilt or jar of pickles or half-eaten apple pie with a blue ribbon on it anywhere. I'm sure they were there... somewhere...but they were obscured by all the overt attempts to take our money in exchange for a good memory. It was absolutely a wonderful experience to have had, but it's not something I would have season tickets for.

With that said, though, Mookie rode a pony, and she did REALLY well (until the very end). And I hope you'll forgive for showing you all of these, but I think they're funny, in a sick-mama kind of way...

CHEESE

Okay, I'm over it.

Mommy come get me?

I must be seeing things. I'm still on this dang pony!

Wait a second. Who are YOU??

Mama? Mama come get me?

Maaaammmaaa. Why you stay over there?

And she petted some goats.

(she looks thrilled, no?)

And she threw up on herself before the pink elephant ride got started, so I don't have a picture of that. :o)

And she sobbed and sobbed all through the carosel ride.

(clearly traumatized by her earlier pony ride)

(So Dave found a little teacup to ride in. She wasn't having any of that.)

I'm thinking she'll have great memories of this day!! :o) I'm sure she'll forget the fact that she didn't nap and we left the fairgrounds approximately 3 hours after  her normal bed time.  Can you say overtired?!  Poor kid.

In other news, I got to try a Pink's chili cheese dog without the horribly long line at their LA restaurant. It's nothing to write home about. Grandma makes better chili, and they put (I cringe at typing this) processed "cheese" on it. Glad I had one. One is enough.

And in ENTIRELY other news, the doggie went home on Friday evening. His owner found a sign and called, and I knew as I was driving down his street that we were near his home because he got all whiney and animated. :o) The owner was very happy, and promised to get tags and a microchip this weekend. Maybe tomorrow I'll tell you how I knew it was his rightful owner... :o)

For 100 Babies

A few weeks ago, I had a conversation with my friend, Katy, about how to bind a blanket. See, she had a friend who was turning 30, and her friend asked that instead of giving her gifts, she wanted everyone to make a blanket for Project Linus, which gives blankets to babies that need them. Her friend wanted 30 blankets for her birthday. Awesome idea, isn't it? I mentioned to her that I help some ladies from my church make little quilts for a couple of local NICU units, and explained how we make them. We finished our conversation, and went about our way.

Over the course of the past few weeks, though, the notion of giving blankets instead of presents has been stirring in my brain (which has vast amounts of open space right now). I've given blankets to Brady's Smile before, and meet monthly at church to make 45 blankets for the local babies, so it's nothing new to me, really, but I really feel like I need to do something more. Also, I know of quite a few littles having birthdays over the next few weeks, and they all have PLENTY of toys. Pah-Len-Ty.

So rather than give them a gift and add to their toy stash, I've come up with a plan. My plan is to personally donate 100 baby blankets over the course of the next year. I'm not going to include the ones I make at church because that would be cheating. :o)  If I did that, I would meet my goal in just a few months! And I want it to mean something more to me. I need it to be a real challenge. (And it's not like I don't have enough crafting challenges on my dining room table already!)

And I'm going to start my clock ticking from August 8th. My sweet friend, Megan, has an adorable little boy who turned 2 on August 8th, and I'm going to be sending a blanket in Peabody's name to either Brady's Smile or Project Linus. And my next door neighbor's two sons are having a birthday party tomorrow. I'm going to give each of them a small gift, and give their mom a note saying that I'll be donating a blanket for each of them.

I'm not going to do anything complicated...believe you me, I've got complicated and over-committed coming out my eardrums right now! For now, I'm just going to make fleece bow-tie blankets like I made for Sprout.  And I'm going to figure out a way to keep track of how many I've donated right here on my blog. Somehow. Any ideas?

Anyone want to play along? After these birthdays, there's Christmas. And Valentine's Day. And Easter. And Mother's Day and Father's Day and July 4th. :o)  I know I can donate 100. Can you?

The Story of Felt

When I was 5, we lived across the street from the library. I could go across the street to the library any time I wanted...until I got in trouble, that is, and Mom said I couldn't go to the library for 2.whole. days. Man, was she rough with the punishments. But seriously, I thought I was the luckiest kid in town.

Fast forward 33 years, and while we don't live across the street, Mookie, Sprout and I have been spending more time at the library lately. One day, we even took Dave! And rather than me having to tether Mookie to a post while I frantically chose 17 books (sometimes grabbing multiple copies of the same book), this time we got to explore the Young Readers section a little more.

Over by the big window, Mookie found a basket of shapes made of felt, and a little boy randomly sticking them to the wall. Not wanting to be left out, Mookie started sticking some up, too. Upon closer inspection, I realized the wall was covered in felt, and I had a few schoolroom flashbacks. :-)

I remembered my 1st grade teacher, Mrs. George, with a black felt board and shapes that helped her tell the story of Hansel and Gretel and me thinking it was some kind of teacher-magic. Then I remembered being 25 and trying every trick in the book to teach DNA Replication to my inner-city hooligans, and finally striking gold when I cut the As and Ts and Cs and Gs out of felt so the students were able to manipulate the pieces and they GOT it!! If felt had a Facebook page back in 1997, I woulda been a fan.

Back to reality, I noticed that Mookie was enthralled, so I took the time to go chat with Linda the librarian. I asked her how they made all the shapes, and she explained how they cut them on their Ellison die-cutting machine (you put a piece of paper on each side of the felt before you cut it with the die). "That's brilliant!" I said while trying to figure out how to get access to an Ellison machine so I could cut some shapes of my own...I knew of some open wall space that would be perfect to convert into a felt wall for Mookie. Linda must have seen the wheels turning in my brain because she offered to cut as many shapes (or letters) I wanted if I would simply provide the felt. Is it wrong to jump up and down and whisper-squeal and hug the librarian you've only just met? :-) Well, if so, I was all wrong in that moment! A week, or so, later I took a conservative number of felt pieces back to her (I didn't want to look too greedy or desperate, you know), and patiently waited for her call.

She called me Tuesday and said the shapes were ready for me to pick up. Yay!! I also noticed that Joann's has their 72" felt on sale for $2.99 a yard. It was all coming together perfectly!!

So this morning we went and Mookie picked out the felt, we stopped by the library, and came home just in time to put them all away. It was naptime. I know, mean mommy, but if we started, we'd never want to stop.

Immediately after she woke up, this was the scene:

I didn't even stop to brush the bed-head out of her hair.

Now if you'll excuse me, I think I'm going over to Facebook to become a fan of felt.

Maybe I Should Just Teach Her To Lick The Spatula

I tried something new today.

Something wild and a little bit crazy.

I offered Mookie some peanut butter with her apples.

I know, I went way out on a limb there, didn't I? :o)

I know I'm very fortunate to have a total fruit lover for a child. I don't often have to tell her to eat her apple/cantelope/berries/pear/etc.

Until today. Mookie LOVED the "dip-dip" with her apples. In fact, after a few bites, she just skipped eating the apple altogether, and licked the peanut butter off the apple wedge directly.

look at those curls :o)

I'm not sure my couch was the best place to take this adventure...

just give me the spatula, Mommy!

yucky fingers, Mommy! 

(yucky everything, Baby!)

oh, the concentration...

dip-dip, lick, dip-dip, lick, more?

In the end, I am confident that most of the peanut butter got into her tummy (YAY!!), and a good bit got on her face and hands, and only a teeny smidge or two got onto the couch. 

Pretty successful snack-time, if you ask me!

The Blocks That Are Building ME!

I got about the business of cutting out the printouts of my fabric last night. I'm kinda glad I did it this way because I'm so paranoid of cutting the actual fabric wrong!  And so many of the patterns I'm looking at give me painfully LITTLE guidance!!

And I NEED GUIDANCE!!

Explicit instructions. How much, how long, which side, which direction. Explicit.

So, going off the grid, here, with this quilt for Angela? I'm not sure if I'm up for the challenge!

But, armed with my engineering quad-ruled paper, ruler, pencil, scans and paper cutter, I set about to figure out how to make the quilt blocks.

Oh, and I used a few of Mookie's crayons, too. Mostly because they were handy, and I was lazy. And they worked to give me the visual I needed. I wish I could become a fan of Crayola Washable Crayons on Facebook.  I ♥ them.

After much drawing and erasing and drawing, and then cutting, here is the final product:

Block A on the left, and Block B on the right.

Again, these are just paper samples of what I will be doing (hopefully? maybe? possibly? unless I am convinced to do something else?) for Angela's baby's quilt.

I want the large orange dot to be a recurring fabric in each of the quilt blocks, so I plan to alternate between blocks A and B on the actual quilt. I have a variety of oranges for the center of A/outer ring of B, and a variety of blacks for the middle ring of A/center of B. I added (by painting) black sashing around each block because I kinda felt it needed it.

And, much as I would like to just cut the strips at 2 1/2" and run with it, I know I'm going to have to fussy cut at least the fish fabric so they are all swimming in the same direction!  I'm not sure, yet, whether or not the large dots not all going in the same direction bothers me.

Seriously. I think my Perfectionist Badge is getting in the way! And, Lord knows I can't take it off for fear of being excommunicated from the Absolutely Straight Society. Of which I am a long-standing member, thankyouverymuch.

Oooh, ooh. I just had an idea! I'll be right back...

Okay, here's what I've got:  a 12 block "quilt" and a 15 block "quilt". Forgive the ickiness of it all, and just "visualize" with me. :o)

What do you think? Which do you prefer? 12 or 15?

There will obviously be some variety in the blocks, since I'll be using different fabrics for each block, this is just a mock-up.  And the actual pieces in the blocks will be somewhat asymmetrical and "wonky."

Another option for me to do later is to applique (whasachusayyyy??) circles over top of the blocks, (hopefully) randomly.  But I guess that is a decision I can make when (a) I am finished, and (b) if I have time!!

Because I am fully aware that the making of the quilt top is going to be QUICK compared to the actual quilting of the thing! Eep!! 

Or do I scrap it all and make a rag quilt out of the fabrics? Wouldn't that just be easier, doggone it?

Please, pretty please, weigh in. I need the support of my bloggie world. Mookie doesn't seem to care much...