Adventures in Mama-Land

Elisheva loves penguins (so do I, I admit), and I have been wanting to use my newly-wicked crochet skills with this free penguin pattern . Here’s the original (named Howie the Holiday Penguin, because he comes with a festive December-ish cap you can crochet for him)… NOTE:  I DID NOT MAKE THIS ONE!!! (click the picture to get to the free pattern) NOTE:  I DID NOT MAKE THIS ONE!!! (click the picture to get to the free pattern) This is the one I made!         Somewhat pointy-headed and lopsided, with a VERY bulbous beak/nose… but still, I think, rather cute.  I propped him in the corner of the sofa, took his picture, then called Elisheva in to warn her “not to sit on the sofa.”  She asked why a few times, then peeked and pretty much screamed in adoration.  She appropriated him immediately and he’s been in her room with her other penguins ever since.  I warned her not to let anyone know of her weakness for penguins or people will buy her nothing but – as happened to my sister with

As y’all know, I have been teaching myself to crochet ( here and also here ). Back story:  so there was an obscure and quickly-cancelled TV show called Firefly that was, according to YM, wonderful… and featured a guy who wears a hat… that looks like this.   For Purim, he ordered a crocheted version of this hat on etsy , and when it arrived, I announced, “Hey, I could make something like that SO easily!”  (here he is with an unidentified sibling trying on a weird “hybrid” loom knitting-crochet hat I made for my sister Abigail’s birthday.   Anyway, needless to say, he already had THAT hat, but found another hat he liked in an alternative-ish (not really) online comic strip, Questionable Content .  In which there is a cute reference to a “worry hat.”   This has become a thing among the young and hip, and if you google “worry hat” ( here – let me do it for you!) you’ll see that it’s a very basic design which many have now copied (some better, some worse).  And I told YM that if h

Yes, and here's evidence:  a picture of the kids, actually playing in it. This is the "after" picture... I spent an hour or so this morning straightening it up.  I'd been dreading the task, but actually, it wasn't too terrible.  Many, many, "oh, that's where..." moments as we rediscovered old toys that had been "put away" in the basement. Did not find the box of regular-sized lego (where could it have gone???), but I did consolidate a bunch of "junior" lego that had been floating around the house.  As you can see, it is way more than two little kids need.  These pics were taken AFTER I spent a few minutes shaking the box, breaking linked bricks apart, and doing everything I could to make enough space in the box... the lid finally did snap on, barely, and it's bulging significantly.  Still, we have such COOL lego.  Not just regular pieces, but trains, cars, wagons, even a boat and a tricycle.     

Well, I had an inspiration on Thursday at Value Village when I found a pair of mint-condition Size 10 ballet shoes. I tried them on her this evening (I covered her head with a pair of jammie trousers and made her promise not to peek!!!) to make sure they fit, and they do... so her present is... a BALLET OUTFIT. We are hoping, well, I am kind of hoping, that despite my feeble first steps towards making her kangaroo costume (that's what she said she wanted to be), she will be so blown away by this BALLET OUTFIT that she will want to wear it for Purim also. Ted said there's a good chance of that, but maybe he was just saying that to be nice. He is very nice, and also the only regular reader of this blog, so I must keep him a little bit happy. So the costume / present comprises (ha ha ha - that is the correct use of "comprises", so no emailing me to complain!): ~ Ballet shoes ($2, Value Village) ~ Fancy glittery tulle dance skirt ($7.50 scrap of glittery tulle, WalMart,

Again, I know the zipper is wonky. Forgive me; I'm not perfect just yet. Oh... exciting! I have my birthday money from the parents and since the Sewing & Needlework Festival is smack-dab in the middle of Pesach this year, I decided I'm going to take the $$$ and go to the Canada Blooms garden show instead on Ted 's day off this Thursday (ok, no more links!) There is a workshop on "Vertical Vegetables" at 11:30 am - sounds like fun! I didn't want to go cuz I thought it would be mostly flowers, but now it seems like there might be something for everybody... except maybe crappola gardeners like me. Lucky you don't have to show credentials or photos of your past gardening successes to get in. Doubt my powdery-mildewed bee balm would pass muster. :-( OH, yes! The birthday money will more than cover cost of admission... leaving me with a certain cozy sum left over for just plain squandering !!!

Yay! I have at last mastered the art of the zippered lined pouch, a/k/a wetbag. Here's a small one - I made a pair and I'm giving one away to someone who's buying the stack of wipees underneath. (24 for $12 - bargain of the century, folks!) (makes a great new-baby gift!) Ignore how yinky the zipper is; I finally figured out how to sew it so the lining and the outer fabric are well away from the zipper so they don't get caught in the teeth. The lining here is Procare, a waterproof polyurethane-lined fabric. The pouch isn't truly waterproof because the procare lining is cut and stitched together at the sides and bottom. You couldn't fill it with water because it would just leak out, but I'm sure it'll do a fine job of holding some damp wipees for travelling purposes! Next up: a full-sized wetbag to hold icky diapers. Supper! Mommy-made Lasagna Mommy-made Garlic Bread Mommy-made Sweet potato oven fries Everything was amazing and I vowed to keep my

How cool is that??? A pre-mama ordered 48 wipees, so I made them up using some cast-off partly-shredded jammie pants that she didn't want anymore. The full pants made 16 wipees each, the two pairs of boxers (foreground, left) made 8 wipees. The other side is some yummy sage sherpa that seems to go with anything. There are also a bunch of teddy-bear wipes from a brand-new (I think) Value Village receiving blanket. Total cost: $0.99 for the receiving blanket, maybe $4 worth of sherpa. She's paying $24 - yes, they're $0.50 each, and make a wonderful baby present for cloth diapering parents. If they're for a gift, I use nicer, newer flannel. But still... 50 cents apiece for 6" squares of used-up jammies. That's almost more than Elvis's jammies would go for, or chunks of the Berlin wall. (do they still have those?) Looking at the pictures, these are definitely "seconds" in appearance... the stripes and plaids don't match up at all and man

...To look at pictures on Etsy as I sew and dream of the day my talent will grow in, like wisdom teeth?   Anyway.   Supper:   ~ Superstore supermarket roast chicken ~ Kellogg's Stovetop Stuffing ~ Roasty tinned potatoes (lots of oil & onion soup mix as our friend Modia suggested!  mmmm...) ~ Tinned french-style green beans   Wow!  A well-rounded meal, tons of starch, and only about 3 seconds of "cooking" (ok, dumping out tins into pots - does that count as cooking?) But today was our early day aka hell day, with Naomi's swimming and me swimming and Elisheva's "knitting" class (they've apparently given up on knitting; she's sewing yet another bag).  And all the snow and Ted getting home late because I had the car.   Anyway, it was nice to have an easy supper.  What did I do with all the time I saved?  You'll see... :-)))  :-P  

Two new bags, both from pillowcases in fabrics I loved. Still a bit clunky looking, but at least they go into the sack-pouch-thingy! The handles are better & thinner & scoopier on these, but I will definitly have to make them longer next time. Using pillowcases is probably too constraining... which is too bad. I really wanted to LOVE reusing them for fun & creative things. I do have one downstairs that I'm saving to make a t-shirt/skirt for Naomi... I guess that's fun & creative. Nighty!

Itchy fingers today (not literally - literally , my fingers are flaky and scaly, but not exactly itchy), so, inspired by Craftster as usual, I made a grocery tote bag. As you can see, I basically cut & sewed - no pressing, making this the exact opposite of the precise, neat sewing I did on the purse two weeks ago. Lessons learned: ~ At least one of these fabrics MUST be thinner! This bag is strong like ox but won't at all fit in the attached foldy-up-pocket that it is supposed to. And I don't like the bulk at the handles... strong is good, but one thin pretty layer and one thick functional layer would probably be strong enough . ~ Topstitch the gusset sides for a neater look (I may go downstairs and do this later); mine's too rounded at the edges. ~ Press it as I go along - if there's time... and if I haven't serged the thing with woolly nylon, which would melt. BUT... Look how much it holds! ~ Mustard ~ Family tub o' mayo ~ 2l milk ~ Bag o' pretzels

The sun forgot to come out today.  :-( But at least it's nice & warm!   And in plant news, the Coleus Count is now officially:  15!!! With 5 more on the kitchen windowsill... yay! Here are some old coleus pics...from about 3 weeks ago.   And a purse - did I mention I made a purse? And a dress for Naomi!   The order of the pictures always gets messed up when I email them to the blog... but still, you get the idea.  :-)   <3 J   SUPPERS:   Monday:  I made pasta - yummy President's Choice Casarecce (sp?) with blender onion-pepper-tomato tomato sauce Tuesday:  Cabbage rolls from the freezer - too peppery but still, yum.  Maybe noodles on the side.

OMG!!! There's even a Celebrity Meet n' Greet in the form of a Dora standie... :-))) I am so excited with these pictures it is completely unreal. They are a ray of sunshine on an otherwise shoe museum occupied day. I know that should have hyphens, but there you go. No hyphens. <3> Leaving Calgary airport... Buckle up, everybody! Can you say Product Placement Opportunity??? Our hero! Amazing view from our hotel! But who wants to sit around when you can... ...Play Twice Your Monkey ??? Ahh... the end of a long, wonderful day. We'll have to visit Vegas again someday, my dear.