Notebooks!

Here are the first two I made.

There are mistakes on each, but I'm still having lots of fun.

On this first one, I put holes on the wrong edge on the back. I didn't t think about how it would be turned around. I just used white paper for the pages.

And on this one, I glued my picture to the wrong side of the plastic I was recovering. Oops. I used an ad I got in the mail today, sturdied up with a plastic license plate I'd been saving for some crafty purpose, and an old paper bag cut up for pages.

And the corner rounder I bought on a whim is not great. Boo Fiskars. I rounded these myself with scissors, but I didn't do a great job.

Loving Care

I've been having fun with all of my old magazines.



This ad made me laugh.



You'll need to click on it to read it.



Better Homes and Gardens November 1974

Bookmarks

I saw this on CRAFT a couple of weeks ago and liked it.


Then, as I was getting some boxes ready to send out to the College Cousins, Matthew pointed out that the bunnies I bought were "Reester Bunnies". Wow. I wish I could take credit for noticing that, but I'm sure glad he did.


5 minutes later...



bookmarks!

Schedule

Pocky

Every week in the grocery store, in the asian aisle I see the bright red boxes of Pocky. Do you love the asian aisle? It's my favorite. I remember once Mom and I had to kill 20 minutes in the Grocery Store for some reason, and I suggested we just go to the asian aisle to look at stuff. She was sceptical, but we had a great time there. It's a nice memory.

Anyway, I always want to get some Pocky, but it's not the sort of thing that's on the list, and so I just look at it, and say that someday, for a treat, I'll try it. Poor Abby, I think she hears that EVERY WEEK.

So she put some in my Easter basket! What a sweet sister.

And--it was exactly what I thought it would be and delicious.

Chocolatey and crunchy and very fun to eat.

Try some!

(Oh my, there are lots of different kinds...)

Bind-It-All

I've been wanting a Bind-It-All for about a year now, and I got one for my Birthday! (Thanks Susan and Matthew!)
(pic from Binditall.com)


With it, I can make little notebooks, or journals, or books, or flashcards, or calendars, or basically anything that's bound.



I have to wait for my o-rings to get here so I can start, and I'm all fizzy with excitement waiting.



Since I can't get started yet, I've been looking at projects and things online. That doesn't help with the over-excited fizziness.



A lot of things are more frilly and scrap-booky than I want to do, but there are so many ideas, just the ideas alone make my heart race...

The Cottages

Last week I got in the mail a postcard addressed to "The parents of Elizabeth Lobmeyer" for student housing in Hattiesburg, at the University of Southern Mississippi.

It struck me that student housing in the south seems very different.

Among the amenities listed are "Front Porch Living" and "Free Tanning"

Read all about it here.

It does look lovely.

Baby fun

I'm really happy with this Baby Shower gift.

I was sitting on the floor going through ideas-I wanted this little blankie to be personal and perfect. Isn't it wonderful when your brain pops up with the perfect idea?

The parents of this long-awaited baby are two people I love love love. They have matching star tattoos. Now baby boy has a blankie that'll fit right in.

It's just a flannel blanket, nice and big and soft.

Here's a close up of one of the stars (I'll admit it, it's the best one)
Matthew thought it should have something on the edges, so I just zigzagged around the whole thing. I tried to zoom way in to show you, but it's still hard to see.

Then, because the baby bag that I had was really too huge for the present, I made a ball out of some old red jeans. It'll match their living room furniture. A little strange? Yes.

I may never...

Button Shirt Dress

I've been wanting to make a dress following this tutorial for years.

Monday we didn't have school, so I had the chance!

I started with this shirt-

And ended up with this dress!

It was fun, but took me kind of a long time. 3 hours probably, which seems like way too long. Hopefully the next one will be quicker. I have an adorable shirt I've been saving. It was hard not to use it first, but I'm glad I used another shirt to learn on.

Anna's got some crazy modeling poses.

Easter

We had a fun Easter weekend with Abby. On Saturday we went to the Eggstravaganza at BCC, where Anna had a great time with cousins.

Then we went back to our house and dyed eggs and baked and decorated cookies.

I took several arty pictures of eggs. It was fun for me.

On Sunday after Church and after finding our baskets at Abby and Poppa's house, we came out to our house for dinner. Easter is my favorite dinner. Delicious!And we used my pretty pink flowered plates, which made me happy.Poppa Ted and Anna read stories, which made both of them happy.

Cute Thank You Girl

Thanks for all of your birthday wishes!

31

For my birthday, Matthew and Anna took me to Traditions for lunch. Anna wore a crown.

Then that afternoon the two of us went to Goodwill and found her a desk! I got tired of waiting for Matthew, so I took it down out of the truck myself. I have no idea how I was able to do that.

These are the flowers from Matthew and the Ornamental Grass from Daniel and Sarah. Aren't they lovely?After church, we had a cookie with Dad and Abby.

We're really spreading it out this year, I get to celebrate at the farm this Sunday, and then with the fam for real when Susan's home the weekend after that.

Yay for Birthday Month!

Circular

Anna's in that question stage you hear so much about. I didn't realize that it would drive me crazy.

Matthew likes it, he says it's kind of like one giant test. ALL the time.

I'm glad she's curious about her world, but sometimes...I get tired. And EVERY question is preceded with "Mama?" and I have to respond before she'll continue. And if she loses her train of thought in the middle of the question, she'll start over with "Mama?" all over again.

Here's one that made me laugh.

Mama?
Yes, Anna?
What's a cyclops?
A monster with one eye.
Mama?
Yes, Anna?
What's a monster with one eye?
A cyclops!
Oh. (That's my favorite response. It means 30 seconds or so before the next question.)

Easter Story

A wonderful gift

Katrina took me to see Fernando Ortega last weekend for my birthday.

I haven't been able to figure out what to say about it.

It was a really wonderful gift.

I got to see him for a minute after the concert. Here's my picture. (We took two because he said he didn't have his good face on in this one, but in the second my eyes are closed. I can't figure out yet how to merge the two. Once I do, I'll come back and fix this. **I did it!**)

Best of all, I got to say thank you. It's just really not very often that you get the opportunity to do that. The most wonderful gift of all.

Birthday Girl

All Moved In...

This is Matthew's new office!

Doesn't it look like a much nicer place to work than his old office?


And now we get to organize! My favorite.

Trim!

The last step was trim.

And finally, in Home Depot, we got a little testy.

See, here's Matthew on the drive home. It wasn't too bad.

We stained and cut and I painted the doors...

Two happy kids, all done. Notice Matthew's sweating and I'm all bundled up.

I feel very proud of us.

Here's Anna spinning with delight!

And here's one of my favorite things-the tools all sorted and ready for the next project!

Carpet

Now that the painting was all done, it was time for carpet!

First we went to pick out a remnant. Anna was very patient.

We were very happy that the room was narrow enough that we didn't need to do any seams.

And that we could just glue down the tack strip and not have to drill into the concrete.

And that we could rent tools.

Carpet was a great step. Lots of worry-not much trouble at all!

Texture, Prime and Paint

Ready for the next installment?

We thought it would be a good idea to texture the walls a little bit, because we really didn't know how they were going to look with paint on them. So one morning while I was at school,

Anna sanded

and Matthew textured.

We figured it was a way to hedge our bets a little bit.

Then two coats of primer (stinky stuff!)

And finally paint!

We used Benjamin Moore #318 Little Angel. If you think it looks familiar-that's because I managed to choose the exact same color of yellow that I painted the bedroom last year, though they were a year apart, in different stores, from different companies (Behr Cheerful Hue 330B-4). I guess I like that color.

"That is not a good project"

Anna wandered in as I was starting my project and asked what I was doing. I explained that I was going to try to make bowls out of rope and fabric. She did not think it was a good idea.

I tried it anyway.

Here's the tutorial I used.

To make these you wrap strips of fabric about 1/2" wide around rope and then stitch it into a coil with a zigzag. Pretty easy, really.

I had some orange-ish rope in my stash from a period when I was crocheting with unorthodox materials. It's fun to crochet with rope-I made a little rug and a basket-but it's hard on your hands and I used up all of the fun colors that I found on clearance and was left with the not-so-fun. Perfect for covering up with fabric!

I also love it because it uses up the bits of fabric that are too small to use in anything else but that I still have trouble throwing away.

I have lots of ideas for expanding on this-trivets, platters, I haven't tried handles yet but I think there are some neat flower shape-y possibilities there.

After I was done with the first one I showed Anna and she was impressed. :)

Snow Day!

We lucky kids got a snow day last week and had a wonderful time together.

I had the chance to do lots of little things that I've been wanting to do for a long time. Like clean the refrigerator.

I really had a good time. Anna was at the sink washing dishes, we were listening to Peter, Paul, and Mary, singing loudly and chatting.

Every time I open the door I sigh with happiness. All gleaming and tidy. Ahhh...

I even had time to reorganize the magnets, a "job" which never makes it to the top of the list, but is awfully fun. We have a travel section, a photo section, a funny section, and an Anna section. And now I know I need more photos-see all those empty magnet frames?

Then I filled out the little phone number magnet thing I've had hanging on the fridge, though empty, for over a year.

It kind of makes me feel like a grown up.

Then Anna was happily listening to books on tape so I had time to work on a project! Details to come.

On Saturday afternoon Anna and her Poppa Marion and I built a couple of snowmen. It was beautiful, 40+ degrees, and the snow was perfect for fun.

Fernando!

I'm headed to Denver today for an amazing fantastic birthday treat.

Katrina is taking me to see Fernando Ortega!



The pictures are a little cheesy, but you can just play it to hear the music while you pop over to another window.

I'm awfully excited. He's been such an important part of my life these past few years.

Geography

It shouldn't be this hard.

Dad sent me this quiz. It took me a long time and I made a lot of mistakes. Who knew I knew so little?

Anyone fare better?

Time Waster

I found this on How about Orange, a pretty craft blog.

What a Lovely Name

is a fun few minutes. You can put in the adjectives you like, and it'll spit out a name for you. Anna and I thought we'd like to know a girl who was happy, curious, and quirky. Her name would be Nedda.

Anna also thought that Abby should have been a name choice for all of the adjectives.