CAUTION! SPEED BUMPuS

Busy life…

shelley — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 15:40:35 +0000

In the past week we have sold our house, purchased a new one and totaled a truck. Busy week!

And now it’s time to start packing because we only have a month!

Crystal update

shelley — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 21:24:15 +0000

We’re supposed to be done with our crystals today but Megan’s having so much fun with them that I don’t want to finish! That being said, I’m very eager to see how they turned out!

Here’s what we’ve got so far.

We did lose one… Megan went in to check on them last night and there was blue dye all over her bookcase. That plastic cup must have sprung a leak!

Allison’s Bed

shelley — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 18:26:40 +0000

Megan’s new American Girl Doll Allison has been raking in the clothes and she now has a bed too! Gone are the days of sleeping on Megan’s felt board with a doll-sized bean bag as a pillow. She’s now got a mattress and two pillows!

I had decided that Allison needed a new place to keep her clothes since they were taking over her toy bins so I got to looking for a basket with a lid. When I failed at finding something like that for an affordable price, I stumbled upon this Rubbermaid soft-sided storage container.

I didn’t even know they made anything that wasn’t plastic! It was such a great price that we ordered one. Using the excellent directions over at From an Igloo, I was able to whip out a couple sheet sets for Allison that were a shade smaller than the dimensions of our storage container.

Now Allison has a bed and when we want to put it all away (say, to move in a few months), you can unzip it, put the mattress and doll inside and it’s all self contained!

Pretty brilliant, if I do say so myself. :)

Now, I’ll note that the fabric shrunk more than I expected it to so the Strawberry Shortcakes are not facing the right way. I really kicked myself for that but Megan loves it anyway so I’ll not dwell on the mistake too long. :) Allison does have a flannel set as well. It IS winter in Iowa, after all.

Megan grows some crystals

shelley — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 04:25:56 +0000

For Christmas Megan got a crystal growing kit from her aunt and uncle. She was SO excited but we’ve been too busy to grow the crystals. Today while Adam was helping Nick make his tow truck bird feeder, Megan and I made crystals.

After mixing everything up, we set the crystals in Megan’s room to grow. We can’t wait to see how they look in a couple days!

Nickism — (s)mashed potatoes

shelley — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 20:15:09 +0000

For years and years Nick has had a fascination with mashed potatoes and throwing them at the wall. He talks about it weekly. Today he finally acted on his urges. Halfway through our lunch, Adam and I both saw some potatoes on the wall. Once we contained our laughter I asked Nick if it was as fun as he thought it should be. He said it was a little but it didn’t make a good sound like he thought it should. It will be interesting to see if the obsession is over now.

Need your opinion

shelley — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 18:15:36 +0000

Here's the living room/dining room in question

Which picture over the piano? Wide?

Or tall?

Which combination in the dining area?

Nickisms

shelley — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 13:57:23 +0000

Nick’s been full of funny lately…

“When I was a dad, I poured orange juice on my cereal. It was bleeeeah”

“I like the song Aleez Mommydod because it has Mommy in it.” Nick, age 4

Megan’s been talking about what she might name her American Girl doll that she’s getting for Christmas. She has NO idea. I told her I had a suggestion. She got all excited and asked what it was. I said Adam. You can imagine how that went over. Later we’re picking Nick up from the b-day party he was at and she tells him about it. He deadpans “Adam is a terrible name for a doll. You should name her Shrek.”

American Girl sewing

shelley — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 16:26:03 +0000

When we were out in NJ for Thanksgiving, Adam’s parents said they’d like to get Megan an American Girl doll for Christmas. Megan’s beyond thrilled and the wheels in my head started turning, imagining all the things I could sew and knit for her. It’s been a busy two weeks and I’ve had a blast. Here’s what I’ve accomplished in my spare time.

These have now been finished but I haven't gotten around to taking a finished picture. Still a little nervous about the size. I hope they fit!

My fastest/easiest project

Pattern for sewn skirts is here. I love them and they’re super fast to make!

All of the sewn skirts are reversible

I'm hoping that trimming the shirt with pink thread will give it a chance in my pink girl's eyes.

This one didn't come together quite as I imagined, but I'm keeping it anyway. May have to find a different shirt because while the leaves match the shirt, I think it looks awful together.

I think this one is my favorite!

Sparkly skirt, plain shirt. I still hope to make some sort of shawl/wrap out of the same yarn to go with this.

Another one I don't love... but Meg will.

Still don't love it.

Sundress pattern is here. I have started knitting a green cape to go with this. I think it will be adorable!

I LOVE the Christmas dress!

I need a couple t-shirts to go with these pants. I just haven't made them yet.

Thanksgiving

shelley — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 13:20:14 +0000

We went to New Jersey for Thanksgiving this year. It’s something we’ve talked about for years and we were finally able to make it happen this year. What a blast we had! We drove all the way there (15.5 hours – the kids did great!) on Monday and came home again on Friday (14.5 hours – the kids did greater than great!). While there, we went into New York City and went to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. The kids had a front row seat for the whole thing and they loved it! The parade was an amazing thing to watch and I’m so glad we were able to make it there to see it.

Dear Santa…

shelley — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 13:15:05 +0000

Picture. Santa's in red, Nick's in purple. He thought Santa would like the red and black in the corners of his paper. I'm sure he's right.