So, my "Monday Post" died on the vine. I returned to it a hundred times trying to get it all out. (Maybe tomorrow?) But Lola will not be put down. Teeth? I'm not sure. Gas from new foods? (mashed potatoes with garlic and sour cream = bad mommy) There is some evidence of that. But, what I really think is happening: She has reached an age where babies get a glimmer of independence and don't know how to react. There is a world to explore off Mommy's lap... is it safe? Lola just seems to need to be reassured by my presence CONSTANTLY. At night, she can't sleep without some physical contact. During the day she wants to be held or within arm's reach. So for now, I'm trying to honor that and love it... because next week it will change, next year she will be running, and within the next decade my lap won't be the preferred spot for naps.

But for today:

Confession time:

I totally called Normy in from school today because we were having so much fun playing.



Then, once they were good and distracted....
I snuck upstairs and ate one of these. Homemade cinnamon rolls: recipe curtesy of Grandma Sommer by way of Grandma Allen. Pure Bliss. A truly transcendental experience.

Well, I'm going back to play with my kids! (And knit a little.) ;-)
Happy Weekending, People! I recommend starting early.

This is what it looks like when you let the baby play with your yarn so that you can sew:



It feels presumptuous to call this room "my studio" as though I am some fancy artist. But, words are powerful, so that's what this place is. My Studio. A place that's mine to make and create and dream. (And to store all the stuff no one would want scattered about the rest of the house.). A place to keep little fingers out of my projects. A place to set stuff up and leave it out for as long as I need. It is an unbelievably decadent and luxurious use of a room. I am very grateful for it.

I know someday I might have to give this room up. Like if we have another girl child. Three girls in one bed room? It might be worth giving this up to avoid that. It's great that our family has room to grow in this house. Currently Normy and Georgia share a room and Lola sleeps with us, so there one bedroom that doesn't get used at all except for naps. Plus, we could finish the basement. The question is, do we want another child...

Well, I could go write more about boring stuff or I could go make a meal plan, clean the kitchen from lunch, and cobble together dinner. Tomorrow is market day, and I am procrastinating all food related duties right now. I'd rather be knitting. With three projects on the needles and that doll wig still on the hook, I'm itching to go play with fiber. Plus, I went to Hobby Lobby today and came home with new needles that need to be broken in. (Their yarn selection SUCKED though, and I have vowed never to return there for yarn even though it is the closest shop to my house.)

Happy Wednesday.
The End.

Because everyone wants to feel like they were heard. ("Fish! Mama FISH!!!)
Because it is important to do what you said you will. (I told him I'd make a fish next.)
Because I'm just like my mother. (I had to make one for Georgia too!)
Because I love how excited they get over the little things. (Like how Georgia strutted around in her apron, "Mama made this for me.")
Because it was EASY. (Thirty minutes, no pattern, whatever thread was on the machine)

Felt is really the easiest thing to work with in the whole world. I was inspired by Urban Craft who makes EVERYTHING out of felt. This took me less than a whole nap time. Which is great. Now, I have to go do the dishes.

You know what the best part is? I can't wait for them to get up from their naps now.

*A special thanks to Stely who sent the googley eyes in a package for the kids when Lola was born. The world is a better place to people like her and googley eyes. This I believe.

24 Hours Later...


Well, the fish were a huge hit... as expected. So far there have been several under water adventures. Both fish spent the night clutched tightly to Norm's chest. All and all i'd say it was a good return on investment...



However, I'm not sure how long they will last. The eyes had been pealed off within the first hour.
Oh well. Such is the existence of a much loved toy.

I have been blogging since the end of 2005… yet never in all that time have I maintained any sort of consistency with it. Now I have an informal pact with myself to write a little, share a little, here five days a week. I’ve only just started, but it feels really nice. What I find interesting is how things change or don’t change from week to week.
Here it is Monday morning and once again I want to reflect on what the weekend held. Back when Georgia was a baby and Smoochy was working 70-hour weeks the only thing I felt like blogging about was the weekends because the weekends were the only time that felt like living.  This past weekend Smoochy had to work outside of the home for most of Saturday and was hardly here when he was home Sunday. (He wasn't neglectful, just busy). The result was a weekend that felt much more like a couple of weekdays.

I posted earlier today. However, I've decided to shift my focus and so I've deleted the first post (Which mostly discussed my laundry. You didn't miss much.) and moved on to a short list of things I am grateful for today.

I've been trying to get all the puzzle pieces of my life to fit together just right. Like a juggler with too many plates in the air, something is bound to drop. Yesterday it was the blog. Today is heading in that same direction. So, I thought I'd pop in to tell the me in the future re-reading about the days back in 2011... YOU WERE FREAKING BUSY!!!

I thought I would have more to report... like an entirely redecorated bathroom. As it came to be, I couldn't even get the holes filled with spackle, much less paint on the walls or art work hung. Turns out redecorating is an awful lot like sewing. I was surprised when I first started sewing how much goes in to a project before needle ever touches fabric. There is the washing, ironing, cutting, pressing, and pinning (all of which can take hours or days) before you are actually ready to sit down at the machine and knock out a couple of seams. 




Painting for me, has been the same. Wall washing, towel bar removal, sanding! Yuck. It is slow going. I might have to revise my goals for our winter-remodel at this snails pace. Plus, there was a little waiting for supplies to materialize. I handed hubby a list on Saturday morning and didn't get a putty knife until 4:30 yesterday afternoon. (He had quite a few pans in the fire this long weekend.)


Anyway, while I had the chance I DID do a little sewing this weekend. I put Georgia's birthday doll on hold and whipped out a little apron for her. (There is fabric ironed to make Normy one as well.) It was the perfect weekend project that required no pattern, no measuring, and no thought really at all. Just hack, slap, and stitch. (This is exactly how I do most of my cooking as well.) I simply read a couple of tutorials on the good old Internet, and two days latter she's in the kitchen making bread with me in her new apron! 

I was stopped in the parking lot of Trader Joe's by a couple of self-proclaimed gypsies. The woman, bedecked in cyote-fur and turquoise, claimed to be clairvoyant. She gravitated to Lola and crossed the parking lot in order to look into Lola's old-souls eyes. She said. "This one is serious. She will do great things." She touched Lola's cheek. "This one sees right through people." Of course, the woman was right. But, you don't need special powers to see it. (Not that I am doubting the old witchy-woman. You wouldn't have either if you had met her.)

Lola is adored. She also has razor-sharp talons for finger nails. All who love her are marked with little scratches all-over their cheeks, noses, and necks. She grabs hold of you and pulls you to her. She calls to us in loud happy screams as though she is just trying to say: "We are here! We are all here together!" It's not a demanding look-at-me scream, but a burst of joy straight out of her little body. It is only when she is sad that she says consonant sounds and then it is: "Mamamamama!" But mostly, she giggles. Her eyes squint up into slits and her belly shakes. She is a buddha.

Lola is pulling herself up to stand. She can dismount from her sitting position and is really crawling. She wants to practice these skills all the time. She seems so very pleased with her new found mobility. She uses it to crawl after the people she loves most. She is a little wary of strangers. Only rewards the patient and the calm with smiles. She doesn't like to go to sleep before I do. In bed she likes to hold my hand or pet my cheek. I don't even mind that she won't sleep alone at night... (I can usually get her to sleep in her crib for an hour or two before she notices I'm not there.) I am simply flattered that she likes me so much. She is so easy and contended that her few requests are easy to comply with. She naps in a crib with no complaint during the day. It's just at night she wants to snuggle. If I am the first out of bed she finds her way over to Smoochy to snuggle with him.

These baby days of hers are passing me by. I just want to bury my nose in the nape of her neck all day long. Knowing this child is a gift.

Santa made these two little darlings for my girls this Christmas, and I am pretty excited about them. Some time mid-November I got it into my head that I was going to learn to make Waldorf dolls this winter and start with a few to give as Christmas gifts. Smoochy thought it was crazy of me to take on something like this at the busiest and most stressful time of the year... I assured him that it would be just fine, that I could do it, and that it was my best idea ever. OK, it might have added a little stress to the holiday, but the end result worked out just fine. I cranked out three dolls in six weeks, which I thought was stellar. (My niece was the recipient of the third.) Sure, the felt G and L were simply hot-glued on Christmas Eve, and the buntings themselves were sewed together in a last minuet sewing marathon only hours before the kids got up to discover the magic of Christmas... but whatever. I am so glad I made them.


And if the cost of wool batting wasn't so steep I would probably make an army of these beautiful dolls. I had a lot of help from a friend. One day, while visiting at her house I was telling her my grand-scheme to become a skilled doll maker, and she said. "OK, then you will need to watch this video, and take a look at this book, and I have all this fabric, and left-over wool..." I left that day loaded down with swag and ready to start my grand doll-making adventure. I had no idea she had made dolls before! I am so lucky to be surrounded by awesome women like her.


So, these days I think and scheme a lot about dolls. My imagination is still outpacing my skill level, but it is fun to practice. I made this head and this body only to discover that the two were not going to go together. The body cries out to be some sort of lithe fairy princess and the head is that of a chubby toddler... not so congruent. Luckily I am not out of fabric.


Also, lovely about dolls is wig making. My very talented sister-in-law has taken the time to teach me the basics of crochet and got me started on the particulars of wig-making. That little chubby toddler doll head is going to become Georgia's birthday gift complete with blond page-boy bob. And hopefully a body to go with it. ;-) What's nice, is that the wig making can happen on my couch surrounded by the chaos of my kids. I love crafts that can travel around the house as I do.


 It has only just begun. Surely, you will see more and more about all thing dolly here...