Be A Good Mom

Here is a picture of the quilt Aunt Shel and I made for Mamaw’s 50th birthday.

I must admit that eventhough I was playing around with quilting, I never would have thought to do it if it was not for Aunt Shel.  She is good at these, I think she said this was her 3rd one.  Here’s how we did it:

Selected appropriate number of pictures, made them black and white, cropped them close and printed to special fabric paper (bought at Jo-Ann Fabrics)

Cut picture fabric and blocks to size

Had each family member sign their name on a piece of paper, which we traced onto the green blocks and embroidered by hand.  BAGD did most of the “50s”.

Sewed blocks and rails per quilt book instructions

Ta-Da.

We were pretty proud of ourselves because we finished on schedule.  Our schedule had a built in emergency buffer, but we didn’t even have to use it.  We finished with no problems.  The finished quilt is crib sized, which was perfect.  It was not too large of a project and very manageable for quilting.  I sewed the quilt top and I am still not perfect with my corners.  So, just like the Hawkeye Quilt, we could not stitch in the ditch.  So, instead, we traced a heart on each of the “50″ squares and quilted that.  It worked well, sort of like the quilted “I” in my Hawkeye Quilt.

Apparently there is this video game phenomenon called “Guitar Hero?”  I am just learning about it, but apparently its big.  And once you get good at Guitar Hero, the next logical step is to form your own “Rock Band,” which is another video game.  Last weekend, Uncle Ray brought his gear out and we played it at Mamaw’s.

Aunt Shel on vocals, BAGD on bass, Uncle Ray on guitar and Ian on drums.  The game shows the colors (notes) you are supposed to play on each instrument and you are judged on accuracy.

They did allright.  I was most impressed with Ian.  He rocks out.  He scored great every time.  Aunt Shel resorted to a few “lalala la la la lalala la” moments.  Uncle Ray actually plays the guitar, so we expected him to do well, which he did.  BAGD, by the way, is the quintessential bass player.  He just stands there, slightly rocking back and forth, eyes straight ahead, concentrating on his groove.

Due to the experience of this game, and Geetle and Pookie’s burning desire to play Ian’s drums….we are close to buying a Wii.  We’ll see which happens first…us deciding we are willing to spend the money, or us actually being able to find one.

I was feeling a little bad about Pookie’s art habit. Not really, since I think his art is a huge part of his life and brings out some of his best characteristics. But, each day as I sift through his dozens and dozens of pages, I was curious what it meant for the environment. Especially after an art day like today:

According to this website, An average tree would make 188 reams or 94,000 pieces of office paper. So, at his current rate of 15-20 pages per day, Pookie is using 4% of a ream a day. Which is .0212% of a tree a day. He is 5 years old. If his art habit continues at this rate, which we hope it does, until he is 40, he will use 255,500 sheets or 2.71 trees.

That’s fine with me. I call these 3 for him. Dibs.

There is a new show on the History channel about logging; Ax Men. I was a big fan of their show “Ice Road Truckers” so I would probably enjoy this one too. But, when I first read about it, I wondered if it would cause some bad publicity. We all know where paper comes from, but no one likes to think about all the fallen trees and naked forests. I will try to catch the series and see if they address that issue. In the meantime, I understand what the conservationists are saying, but I also understand that we all need paper. I think what Pookie draws on is recycled; if not, I will make sure our next ream is. But, in the end, I will let him draw on as many sheets as he wants. Drawing and writing are a huge part of his day. I would rather take away all his other toys.

Prisons.

She told me she is drawing prisons.

With a comically-large green pencil, she is drawing prisons.

On impulse, before I knew BAGD bought me a kick-ass sewing machine for Valentines Day, I picked up a book called First-Time Quiltmaking. It was on clearance and I thought I might hack around a bit with quilting. I had made this baby quilt from a kit I bought at Jo-Ann Fabrics.

I was pretty happy with it, but it was a kit and I wanted to make a “real” one someday. So, I bought the book. Then I went to Hancock Fabrics with Geetle to get fabric for my new dining room curtains (Mamaw makes them for me…thanks Mamaw!). While we were there, Geetle talked me into a yard of Ronald McDonald fabric for her, a yard of Iowa Hawkeyes fabric for BAGD and a yard of Little Einsteins for Pookie. I was supposed to make pillow cases, she said. Those are very easy, so I agreed. Well, then I got my Valentine’s present and I decided to jump into quilting. With BAGD’s yard of Hawkeye fabric and a little bit more, I made this:

Where the blocks line up, my corners are not perfectly straight, so rather than doing a “stitch in the ditch” I used a cardboard template to draw an “I” in the center of each yellow block and quilted those. It was hard, especially the binding. But I did it all by myself and I am happy. Its only about 3×3 so its a good size for Giggles. This is called a Double Patch pattern.

Next is the pirate quilt, it will be a single patch quilt with a border, lesson 4 in the book. My last one will be a 3 Rail Quilt. They’re all baby sized. I hope Giggles wants that many quilts. She barely wears the 23 hats I knitted her.

This woman found a way to combine 2 of your favorite things, crocheting and jellied cranberry sauce.  Check out her other crocheted fruits and cupcakes, very cute.  If you start now, you could crochet a 1st birthday cake for Giggles, I’m just saying.

We went to the zoo today.  It was one of our first day trips as a 5-some.  We did really well.  I wore Giggles for most of the day, so she could get a decent nap in.  She always falls right asleep in the sling.  Peeking out like she does, she got alot of “what a cute baby” from passing strangers.

We have that awesome boogie board on our stroller, so the big kids took turns riding.   They even helped push.

It also came in handy when Pookie ran out of steam.

We saw lots of animals and had a really successful trip.  Pookie has a particular affinity for the Zoo Tram and we worried that if we did not ride it right away, he would get upset and not be able to shake it all day.  (That boy can hold a grudge.)  Yet, if we ride the Tram too early, then he wants to ride it again.  The trick is finding just the right time of the day, before he gets too worked up about it and just late enough so that he will not want to ride it again and again before we leave.  We found that sweet spot and had a great time.  We have a membership to the zoo, which is very nice.  Then we don’t feel like we have to see everything each time we go.  Geetle wanted to see the monkeys.  Pookie wanted to see the walruses (he means seals, but he settled for penguins)

BAGD helped Geetle practice her Zoophonics.  Here she is doing Kao Kangaroo.

Since we are members of the zoo, and we packed our lunch and the Zoo Tram is free in the winter.  This day of fun cost us $6.50 and some gas.  The $6.50 was for the giant pretzel and bottle of water BAGD bought the kids on the way out, because they were so good today.

Finally, at bed time tonite, when we asked Pookie what he saw at the zoo today, he said “camel eating a tree.”  He’s right, he did see that.  Good thing BAGD took a picture of it, or you would not believe him.

Hello, I have a crafting problem.
When I get started on a craft, I end up making MANY of the same thing. I made flannel pajama pants for Pookie and Geetle last winter….about 8 pairs a piece. When I was pregnant, I started knitting hats. Dozens and dozens of hats. Here are Geetle and Giggles modeling just two of my collection.

I have moved on. Now I am into Rag Quilts. I started with one made from a kit I bought on eBay. It turned out pretty well but I was not happy with the batting. So, here is the second one I made, no batting.

I already have 2 more cut out and flannel for another…for a total of 5 rag quilts. Who needs that many rag quilts?! Well, who needed 23 knitted hats. Somehow you find the room. And I figure, these hobbies keep me off the streets.

By the way, if you are looking for an easy craft, might I suggest that you purchase a Provocraft Knifty Knitter Round Loom? I made all my hats on these looms; the kit includes 4 different sizes. I could crank out a baby hat in a few hours in front of the TV. Now that I am on to the Rag Quilts, let me just tell you that they are just as easy! They are made from flannel, which naturally frays in the washing machine. You just cut the squares, sew together with the wrong sides together (all seams on same side of quilt) in rows. Sew the rows together. Cut snips in the seam allowances, about 1/4 inch apart, wash and enjoy. There is a much better description here.

Both these crafts are easy, I promise. Otherwise, how do you think I manage to make dozens of them?

Sometimes I am the worst mother. I try, but I just don’t get why certain things are fun for the kids. I think I am in tune with what they like and I try to make up games for us. We play with their toys together. I do have an imagination. But sometimes, I look at a toy and think “what fun is this? You can’t do anything with this.” When I was Christmas shopping I had to really stop myself from over-analyzing the toys I was buying. I would look at a toy and think “this is boring, the kids won’t like this.” But they always prove me wrong. They will play for hours with a tin pail. First its a pail. Then its a helmet for space travel. Then its a drum. Then its a place to collect tickets from everyone who walks through the hallway. Finally, its a place to stuff other toys, seeing just how many will fit. God forbid I try to throw away an empty paper towel roll. Its a telescope, its a horn, its attached to an imaginary rope which is pulling them across the room.

Even when I think I get it, sometimes I don’t. Stuffed Animals, for example. I know what they are good for. You can put them in your bed. You can pretend they are real animals or pets. You can even put doll clothes on them. That’s it.

Or apparently, you can bury yourself in them and play “hibernation” just like Vincent in “Over the Hedge”.

I did not see that one coming. I am glad my kids have such good imaginations, since I don’t. If I hang around them long enough, maybe I will learn a few things.

Recipe

Equal parts White flour and Salt
Paint
Squeeze Bottles
Sturdy paper or cardboard

Mix flour and salt. Add enough paint to make a paste. Put in squeeze bottles. Paint! The flour makes the combination puffy and 3D. The salt gives it a shiny iridescent quality when dry.

Geetle liked the idea of this craft project. I told her we would pretend we were painting with ketchup and mustard. Unfortunately, as a 4 year old, her squeeze power is not that strong. So, I had to make the paint and flour/salt combination runny enough to easily squeeze out of the bottle. That sort of ruined the effect. But, she enjoyed the process.

I would recommend saving this project for older kids (6-8) so that they have enough hand power to squeeze a thick paste through the bottles. You can also cut the bottle tips wider.