Eleni

I took a quiz

when I should have been working tonight, and guess what?

Take the quiz at http://montessorimom.com

Weekend sewing in a crafternoon

I love a good craft book, and I have to admit that I've come across quite a few lately, which makes my heart beat faster and these long days of rain go by a bit quicker.  I think I mentioned that I picked up this book recently and quite honestly I can. not. put. it. down. Mostly every page is dog eared and marked with a "to do," I've made shopping lists and am really excited about most every project that I have picked out. 

A few minutes spent digging around Michael's drawers for some summer-like pants led me to start on the first project from her book, the huck finn pants.

 

 

The beige pants in the first two pics are made out of fabric that I got here. And the second pair I made is this fabric, but like an idiot I bleached mine when I washed it before sewing them up.  Doofus.  So the blue is kind of non-existent.  I made a third pair out of this funky terrycloth that definitely was on sale when I bought it!.  I just have to finish the waistband and I'll be done.  Just so you know, I did not follow the pattern properly on either I do not want to have an adjustable waistband and buttons and all that, it's too much for me right now, the kid just needed some funky pants, and funky pants he received. 

oh and here's a pic of what really goes on, so that  you don't get the impression that any of this - sewing, photos, and posting is easy.

The big brown blur at the bottom of the photo, yeah, that's the older one hurling himself off of the ottoman in the room, "look mama a big "mang" (bang for those of you who don't speak two-year-old). 

11 out of the past 14 days

It has been raining here in New England, yup, good times.  Last year was the same deal, oh lawdie what to do?  Bust out the crafty items to keep the lil ones busy! 

 

Rain + Rain + Cranky Kids with too much energy = Fingerpainting, in the house, in the kitchen!

We actually have tried fingerpainting before, but it didn't go over too well he kind of freaked out about it feeling all slimy on his hands, but I figured why not try it again? Big hit I tell ya, big hit! 

 

Such a big hit it became a bit of a whole-body experience.

 

I just let him go to town, and his little footprints did actually come off of the floor.

piknik

If you are reading this blog, then I assume that you are like me, or at least interested in some of the same things that I am, and love taking photos.  Maybe even more than taking photos, I love editing my photos.  But if you are like me you neither have the time nor the energy nor the expertise to use a full-blown version of photoshop, or even it's scaled-down version of elements.  So, you can imagine how stoked I was when I came across piknik.  You can do all those fancy things in your browser with just a few clicks here and there, man I am freaking addicted!  Check it out

Before:

 

after:

  

before

 

after:

 

I think it's pretty cool, but hey that's just me, and those are my kids, so I guess I would think its cool!  The coolest thing is that I did all that editing in a few minutes, for FREE! check it out!

Busting the burnout

Mommy sewing burnout that is.  I guess it comes with the territory when you decide that your "hobby" will become your "job."  So during a rather rare event of two little boys sleeping in the afternoon at exactly the same time, I took advantage and cut some fabric - FOR MYSELF!  Just typing "for myself"  makes me smile.  So far, here's what I've got

  

It's a little Anna meets Amy bag in the works for one bag- making mama who has been using the similac bag from the hospital, and as if that is not ironic enough, I am a strictly nursing mama! 

Anyway, I also treated myself to some eye candy in the form of a sewing bookweekend sewing by heather ross, sweet mother of sewing, I am IN LOVE with this book, IN LOVE, first it's a sewing book, then it's got recipes and music reccomedations as well, whew  I can't wait to sew up a few of the flea market skirts for the summer,  simple, easly wrap around skirt with a tank, and wrap arounds are so great because they disguise all the extra mommy love!  Ah summer, looking forward to it big time. 

On Mama's Day

 

Eating ~ albeit fattening, but oh so good french toast. 

 

Taking a break during naptime~ and trying so desperately to join in on the addiction  that's got so many of my friends all keyed up.  But mostly just soaking in the sun.

 

Wondering ~ what I did with myself before these two.

Hope your day was wonderful, peaceful and didn't involve any calls to poison control.

Happy Easter

This post is not late (for once) !!  Our Easter will be celebrated this coming Sunday.  Wishing you all a great weekend

Long Blog Posts

Seriously?  Who has the time?  How do these women do it? 

I can't even shave both of my legs in the shower at 11pm, when they are BOTH sleeping.  Seriously...

Thanks for reading & letting me vent 

sheesh

In an attempt

First, thanks to everyone for the "hang in there's..." etc, your comments do get read and certainly do mean a lot to me.  :)

So, I've attempted to busy up our days with some "constructive" activities. As much as I love playing bulldozers, choo choos and "people" (fisher price little people) I did a little research on-line, and found this book and was itching to try something out.

So, the other day I decided we should do this activity that involved painting with water.  In my head I thought..."sweet, not a whole lot of mess to clean up, I mean it's water ....."  Ok, so the activity goes like this, you take construction paper and crayons and color the red piece of construction paper with a red crayon then paint over the crayon with water and the crayon lines are supposed to "pop" out of the page.

 weeeeeeeeeeeeell, we did that and it wasn't working, in fact the red crayon was running all over the place, so  I try blue, then green, nothing, no pop, no wow,  just a big, wet, runny mess, to make matters worse, I reach for these and um yeah, the are made out of soy, why I thought they would hold up I don't know, really you could eat them.  Then the light bulb went on and I realized that the crayolas were freaking WASHABLE!  DUH! 

The funniest part of all this debacle is that Chris didn't even care, about the project, the crayons or anything, all he was interested in was, of course, the water! 

 

Can't wait to see what the weekend drums up!  It's supposed to be in the 50's I feel a birdhouse coming, inspired by none other than this here, Although the ground may still be frozen so driving a dowel down into the dirt may be a challenge, definitely will be interesting!

Colic!?

According to Wikipedia, the definition of colic is a condition in which an otherwise healthy baby cries or screams frequently and for extended periods without any discernible reason. Yeah, I think I have one. only mine is two years old. 

We are knee deep in the throwes of being two years old here in our little household, oh and did I mention the 6 month old that adds to the mix.  ***Caution tirade coming*** We have been trapped in this house since November, and we just received a fresh new 15 inches of  powder here on our front door step, it's around13 degrees, and he keeps asking to go outside and play in the  "No".  Kinda sucks, kinda at my wits end, kinda want to get the hell outta dodge, and we just got back from vacation!  

Get out and socialize you say, well everyone is sick, not in my household, but everyone we know, and considering that we just got through a rough month of illnesses, I'm not in such a hurry to bring him around other kids or to an indoor play structure, also known as a  germ-infested gerbil crawl through thingy, sorry ain't happenin.

So I wait paitently every day for signs of spring, as I read through that book up there which I picked up from the library a few weeks back looking for a cheap thrill and a way to kill two hours with the boys.  So far it's just ok, nothing earth shattering just confirming that everything we are going through is "normal" we will see if it gives some good solid advice on how to handle these situations, we shall see.

Speaking of books, I got half- way through Friday NIght Knitting Club, it's pretty good I must say, makes me want to knit and move to NYC, but we will have to wait until next year when I go on vacation again for me to finish reading it!  HA!

Alright peeps, I am outta here!