Random does it and high need children

 I went back to my hometown to pick up a bike for Leon from my brother and see a couple of my sisters.  I attended my brother's weekly breakfast with the guys and felt like a princess.  sort of.  Around 18-20 men around the makeshift huge table.  It was the waitress's birthday so someone brought cake.  And the guy sitting next to me was a grad of my college too so we compared lots of notes. He had graduated probably 15 years before me.

My baby sister got a Cricut recently and made me a gift while I was there!

It holds 40 oz and suits me to a T.

Aggie watching cat videos.

This machine bit the dust, locking up severely after the 4 rag quilts and 1.8 January birthday gifts. So I researched, cleaned it up, bought some sewing machine oil and it stitches like a dream again!  Whew!

Don't be fooled.  Her solo playing was short lived.  She's a high need girl.

Again, don't be fooled.  She may have been "reading" to herself but it only lasted around one minute until she needed me to read them ALL to her on repeat.  She empties her book box (around 40 board books) onto my lap and then climbs up settling in.

And doesn't this look delish?!!!  I think I've found something to make for St Patrick's Day besides all the other stuff that I've got planned.

Anyway, back to the regularly scheduled play list.

VBS, Barbies and more damage to my hands

 I usually have my laptop with me at Biolife and stream shows but today I forgot it in the car when I went in.  So all I had was my phone.  

I had noticed yesterday that my phone only had 21 GB left on it out of 128 GB.  Yikes!    This coming from a woman whose first computer only had a 10 MB hard drive...  I've gotten soft.

So I spent the hour going through videos and photos on my phone, cleaning out duplicates and just dumb stuff.  How many memes and funny things do I REALLY need?  I gained a gigabyte!  I should probably download them to my computer and external hard drive some day.  And I will! Just not yet.

I'll be taking off soon to go be my ex-dil's ride to her surgery.  I'll be spending the day in the hospital waiting room or cafeteria, working on my laptop.  Fun times!!!  I'm going to do the cafeteria I think.  More food.

Speaking of food, I need to quit eating it.  so much...  I really need to jump back on the dieting wagon and get rid of some of this weight I've been loathe to let go.  I'm trying!  But it's been VBS week here and every evening has been fast food before church.  I typically have errands to run beforehand so right after work, Leon and I head to town for those errands and a quick bite before VBS.  

This was our project from VBS last night.  

We tie-dyed flour tea towels and it was a rip roaring mess!  I hope the parents forgive me!  "wear the gloves!" *they pull them off* "don't touch your skin with your gloves!" *they touch their face and scratch their heads*  "don't touch your clothes!" *a pair of shorts, jeans and a white shirt were touched*  sigh...  And the ground will correct itself as the grass grows.

But the kids all had a great time, learned some lessons from the Bible and some new songs. It was a success!

Leon, his best friends and my towel are in the washer now and my hands still look I just colored Easter eggs.

I made pickles from the cukes in my garden yesterday early.  I used a new recipe that someone on a canning site mentioned and it appears to have worked out nicely, but I don't want to try them out for a couple weeks.  

As soon as I know if it's worked, I'll post the recipe here. *crossing fingers*

The local library is putting up a Barbie display. Guess who has Barbie stuff up the wazoo?!  ME!  My kids possessed the Barbie mansion, which I can't find a photo of in my phone or on the blog...  We own the Barbie airplane and little red convertible.  And the real, working Barbie jeep!  I'm not going to loan them the jeep, but I am the mansion, airplane and convertible.  I'll run the plane up before I leave town today.  She promised that no one would be playing with them, it's just for display.  :) yeah right.  These toys are very played with already so one more kid isn't going to hurt it, but it would be nice to have them last another generation of girls.  Maybe Agnes will be into them!

Well, I better get my ducks in a row before I leave for the day.  Have a glorious weekend!

Christmas Crafting with the Girls

 It was a good weekend!

I got to spend time on a DUO call with Maddy and Meri and we did some Christmas crafts!  When we were planning this, I'd sent the wrong Youtube video to the girls and Meri found a book that she could destroy to create the stars.  But by the time we actually got on the call, I had construction paper being cut into strips and had reviewed one of the videos that we'd done years ago when we'd done these last time.

The girls were convinced that I'd already spent an hour already making up a bunch because I acted like I knew what I was doing.  

When in fact I didn't...

I did the first one COMPLETELY wrong.

Instead of a Christmas star, it came out as a Christmas blob.  Still kind of pretty, but not what I was intending.

So since I'd already glued the yellow strips into the place, I quickly pulled that one apart and redid it the right way with the points pointing out rather than in.  

That did the trick.

Later on Sunday I tried it again with a pretty gift bag.  

While it DID need clothes pins to hold it together while it dried, it came out very nice!

I'm wanting to make several more of these to give to some shut in friends.

Here is the video if you want to try them for yourselves.

A neighbor is bringing over a tee shirt tonight of her dad's to make into a memory pillow.  I hope I do it justice!  Has anyone done that before?  I'm thinking I'm going to need some fusible interface on the back of the t-shirt fabric to make sure it doesn't stretch all out of place.  Suggestions?

Have a wonderful crafty week!

Chipping Away

Robb marched in a parade on Saturday morning!  I attend this every year with him and since I'm the only bagpipe groupie that shows up to this one, Robb was in charge of the cooler full of water to be served afterwards.  

The weather was perfect for a parade!  Unless of course, you're wearing nine yards of wool and have wool socks and cap on...  I think the band would have preferred a parade in 20 degree weather.

I would be skipping a parade in that kind of weather...

In other news...  I did a lot of sewing this weekend.  Meri has a knit dress that she'd bought that looks adorable on her!  So I used it as a pattern and mimicked it for another dress.  The knit I chose might have been too stretchy, but I just have a little more to do on it and it will be done.  Perhaps another entry for the fair.

And if you remember, I had sewn a white shirt to go along with that striped skirt I made last week and thought it needed SOMETHING as it was just so glaring white! I had envisioned a shirt covered in neat smallish letters with quotes from Pride and Prejudice or Psalms...  But after I bought the glue and practiced on a smallish scrap of fabric, decided to go a different route.

Yep - not very neat...  And I may have just wrecked the shirt...

My sisters and my theme song.

Here's my plan with it.  The blue gel glue is washable.  It's completely dry now.  I will be dying the entire shirt, then wash the heck out of it until the glue all comes out.  It's called resist dying.  Then the letters will be white.

At least that's my plan...

I'm in the process of testing the small fabric bit and it will be washed today.

This may or may not be in the fair...

This weekend, Meri told us that she had been given a large piece of carpet for her apartment that she's moving into in 8 days.  We're on a count down because in 8 days, we'll be able to move a LOT of stuff out of the garage, one dog will be gone and even the cat!  

AND I'll be crying because we'll also be down another daughter.

But anyway, Meri took the carpet to a friend's house and used a power hose on it to get it cleaned up.  In her words, "I got carpet juice all over me!"  

ewww... to THAT thought...

The carpet ended up with a few stubborn stains, but didn't look too bad.

She got a crazy idea to use a dye kit and dye flowers onto it.  "I'll have it done before dinner."

Really??

Yep.  She did!  It looks pretty awesome!  

She's a chip off the old block!

Planning Tomorrow's Nap and other Weekend Adventures

So Duke got to come into our living room one last time as a resident.  He'll be back as a visitor.

 Leon loved him up good and said good bye.

Meri and I took off as soon as she got home from work on Friday with Duke in the kennel in the van.  He rode the six hours really well.  We stopped half way through at a spooky rest area (it was getting dark) and each of us took turns walking him while the other ran into the restrooms.  

I gave Meri the keys and she was able to drive through the big city with the quirky turns without any problems.  It helps to be 11 pm and minimal traffic...  We hit TONS on the way back through.

We got to Maddy and Matthew's around 12:30 and they had stayed up to greet us.  We got the dog walked and settled down for the night.  Matthew has never had a dog before so they've both been excited for their new addition.  

The next morning, Matthew had to work, so Maddy, Meri and I went up town to the local farmer's market where the girls admired this dog.  

We love their farmer's market.  

It stretches for a LOT of blocks with entertainers here and there.  Got some authentic tacos and some crazy flavored, frozen fruit pops.  YUM!

Then hit up the Dollar Tree for iron wreath frames and Hobby Lobby for flowers to put on them.  Maddy was on a decorative mission and we were her partners in crafting.  We also went to Ross Dress for Less.  We love that place!  Meri got lots of clothes and even a cat dress...

We spent most of the afternoon making the wreaths.  Meri and I each made one large one, but Maddy had four to make.  Oh shoot.  I didn't get a pic of her trio of smaller ones...  They were adorable!  Then a larger one for her kitchen.  It's in the kitchen pic further down where they're making bagels.

I had asked Maddy if she wanted some of the plants from my landscaping before I'd left home and she said YES PLEASE!  Two of each!  I dug up three black eyed susans, several clumps of basil and a few tender shoots of lemon balm.  I was surprised to find the lemon balm!  I thought the basil had overgrown the whole herb garden!  Love that stuff.  It smells so good.  

So I got out her gardening tools and got to work on the side garden.  Digging out weeds and planting things.  The black eyed susans went out front of the house.  

While I did that, the kids all took Duke for a walk.  They went a LONG ways and on the way back, Duke was tired.  He stopped at each house sidewalk and looked up at each house.  "Is THIS it??!... pant pant"  darn.  Next house, stop, "How about THIS one?  Can I be done yet? pant pant pant." shoot.

By the time they got back to their own yard, he had saliva dripping from his mouth and he was dog tired.  He crashed as soon as they got inside and napped a good long time.

He excels at napping.

While they were gone a neighbor across the street had come over to chat with me.  He hadn't met the new owners yet and thought I was them.  He brought me a rose from his garden...  He also knew the previous owner and informed me that I was planting things on top of some tulips.  hmm  I hadn't seen any evidence of that and told him what I was planting.  He heard basil and lemon balm and actually scoffed at me!  "You can't eat THAT!"  and proceeded to go get me some tomato plants that he'd been gifted and a 5 gallon pail of mulch.  So Maddy has a couple tomato plants now too!

Then the kids got back and after he was introduced to everyone and chit chatted a bit more, he went home.  Maddy brought me something cold to drink and the girls dragged around chairs to sit in and helped me out.  It all got done and I hope the plants all survived the trip.  They looked pretty bedraggled.

I played a two player board game with the girls that afternoon.  What a fun game!  Klask.  We're going to have to invest in that one for home...

and Maddy and Matthew played with Duke a lot.  

Matthew was determined to get Duke to use the new dog bed they'd gotten for him, but Duke would rather just lay on the hard wood floors.  It's probably cooler...  

Matthew got him to "stay" but when we left him alone out of our sight, he went back to the floor.  They'll figure it out.

Maddy had burgers in mind for dinner so we all participated in the prep and made "juicy lucys"...  I'd never heard of them either, but you put a piece of cheese inside the hamburger before broiling.  Wow, was that good!  Also on the menu was grape salad, a favorite.

After supper was cleared away, they pulled out some board games and we had a great time playing Bears vs Babies and Exploding Kittens.  I'd never played the Bears one, but it was a riot!  And I'm terrible at it.  But I'll get better...  Meri has it at home too so we'll get some practice in.

We also walked a few blocks away to a wonderful little musically themed ice cream parlor and got their musical flavor of the day.  I don't remember the name of the one that we got, but Meri got the Elvis, which was a peanut butter ice cream.  Oh dear, that was good!  But I think she left the leftovers of it in Maddy's freezer...

After we got back to the house, Maddy wanted to make onion bagels for breakfast and a late night snack.  I sauteed the onions 

and the girls worked on the dough.

I'll post the recipe another day.  It was 10pm by the time the dough had risen enough to form the actual bagels and I was exhausted so I bowed out and went to bed.  They promised they'd wake me up for a fresh warm bagel, but they didn't!  Meri said she talked to me when she came to bed, but I don't remember that either, so maybe they DID offer me one...  Oh well.  We had them for breakfast and they were SO yummy.  Maddy had made bagels for a 4H fair project years ago and that knowledge has paid off!

On Sunday, after church, Meri and I headed for home, and I only took a wrong turn once!  Apparently we'd been talking and suddenly we're in a city with stop lights... I don't remember this from the way out.... Dig out the GPS quick!  We had to backtrack five miles.  Then Meri drove and we took a couple more wrong turns, but she's blaming my navigational skills of not repeating what the GPS says.  I'm blaming her for not listening to me or looking at the signs...  We got over it and enjoyed the rest of trip. Once we knew where we were...

We got back home JUST in time for a birthday party for Jen and Ryan.  Robb had knocked himself out cooking all the sides, making the cake and grilling.  The massive amount of dishes used just got done getting cleaned up this morning. 

Ryan and Jen's birthdays are just a couple days apart.  No photos were allowed, but I got one of the cake a split second after they blew it out together.

All in all, it was a good but bittersweet weekend.  Meri was pretty emotional at parts but is happy that Duke will be well taken care of.  

She's planning a friend's trip out there soon for a another weekend to see Duke again and of course Maddy and Matthew.  

They're well settled in their house by now and Maddy is having a great time with the decorating.  Owning is so much more fun than renting!  

Until you have to kill spiders or mow.

100 days of a play dough world

One hundred days of school.  Wowza.  I can't believe it's been that many already!  Actually it seems like it's been a lot more than that some days...

The elementary school celebrates in a big way on that day.  Leon made a necklace with 100 bits of Fruit Loops and he counted by tens for me so I'd know how many were on his.  

Then proceeded to show me that it's SO edible...

He also made a crown and showed me a one hundred dollar bill that he'd colored.  

"It's not real Grandma."

oh. shoot.

AND he brought home an owl he'd made!  Showing me all the intricate work he'd done to make the feathers.  sweet...  I showed him a few pieces that his aunts and dad had made over the years that I still had on the piano.  He'll get to make more pieces out of clay in the years to come.  

And back to the grind, molding my day like I think it should be.

How are you creating your day?

Regressing to my childhood habits

Now that the 2nd semester of school for Meri is in full swing, I've started thinking about her graduation party.  The date of said party is yet to be determined...  but I think I've got the decorating well in hand.

I've been on Pinterest.

She wants to do tons of bagels from Panera bread, so I'm thinking donut wall but with bagels? ;)  not.

But we are doing bagels.

She wants tons of wine gummies placed on tables in dishes made out of cut in half wine bottles. not.

and have everyone think she's a lush?  

Since then she's changed her mind on the wine gummies.  And for the record, they are amazing!

Also, since it's still a ways off, I can't really start stocking up on bagels yet, so I started in on the next best thing.

Decor!

I've collected almost 200 photos of her JUST in her high school years.  I'll work on getting them printed off and probably hung around creatively.  We'll see what we can come up with.

There are several yards of gorgeous black satin in my fabric stash, so I can make a few table runners out of that.  Maybe sprinkle red accents on it for effect.

I've ordered 80 yards of black and red tulle.  And I have a reason for it.  Remember these railings from Ryan and Maddy's graduations?  They have caused no shortage of headache and work.  I think I'll do what I always did when I cleaned my room as a kid.  Cover up the bad parts with a blanket or a bed. Only this time it will be all of it. with. tulle.  School colors of course!  I'm not a barbarian.

This was when they looked good.... 9 years ago for Ryan's graduation.  

We will do some work on the deck as soon as it's warm enough again, but not sure if we can get it back to how it was in 2009...  or 1998...

If you make the image of the idea of a railing fuzzy enough, no one will be quite certain what's underneath.

Just don't lean on the railings please.

WHAT is she DOing?!

What am I doing??!!!  Ask me in a private message and I may or may not tell you.

But I will for sure tell you in 6 months.

Ryan was home last night and pulled out his Catan board game and insisted that we all play with him, including Leon.  Leon got bored about a half hour in, but his only other option was to go to bed.  It was getting late.  So he stayed in the game and won...  

Ryan and Meri ganged up on me and it was all I could do even build a road.  cripes.  

my kids are rotten...  

I'd never played before and neither had Leon, but his dad was helping him out.  

NEXT time, I'm going to kick their bricks!

A Stinky House is a Happy House

So... I'm at the laundromat.  I've been here since 7:30am...  Maddy came up to keep me company and is doing her schoolwork while I do my work work, which is harder on this old laptop that has a broken screen and a keyboard that is not stable.  If anything is spelled wrong, I blame he kybord.

The new washer comes Saturday!!! yay!  But the smell of wet dirty clothes was getting to me.  Six loads later, I'll be drying them when I get home.  Yay for a dryer!  Praying that stays working.

Between the girls and myself, we have done a TON of crafts this week!  I started the decopage project last night and am not impressed.  I went back to the video and realized that I am NOT using tattoo paper...  Oops.  I'll pick some up on Sunday. somewhere...

So I improvised and did what every mother in the 70s did and burned the edges.  Because what says antinque like "burned"?  Well, that was $2.89 wasted.  AND a block of wood wasted...  

Oh well.  We'll put it toward the back.  AND it reeks.  So it's on the porch airing out.  I sprayed it with decoupage finishing spray.  yuck.  Probably a mistake too.

Maddy is using my old cake topper, which coincidentally was my parent's wedding cake topper!  She repainted it to match her colors more.

Before

After

sorry they're sideways.  Didn't want to reload them...  Turn you head please...

Just for the record, my mom, me and Maddy wore/will wear white.  This representation just means that it's a man and a woman. ;)

The place is a mess.  We're having my college nephew over for his birthday tonight.  Lunch will be busy.

But at least the place won't smell of moldy clothes!  Just stinky wood.

Giant Flowers

Monday night I attended a prom decorating meeting.  We made a bunch of these paper flowers for the grand march.  One of the ladies is going to use some gold spray paint and touch them up just a little.

Cool huh?  Like I said, this chick has Pinterest memorized...

It's pretty easy too!  Well, as long as your daughters are willing to give up a bunch of their bobby pins...  That's what we used instead of stapling.  I'll try and do one by next week and do a step by step tutorial.  The instructions are similar to this.

Feeling crafty...

Not a big enough fridge

So Leon and I went to the Dollar Tree last night and picked up some crafty things.

The one time use full body finger paints...

It's a Pokemon.

Well, there is still plenty of yellow left, but that's pretty much it.

It's a flower.

Can you tell who did what?

AND some bags to color.  The markers kind of suck, but we do have some real ones around somewhere...

One for Maddy and one for the boy.

Maddy got home last night for Fall break!!  Leon got her up early already today and within 15 minutes had made blown through the above crafts.

$2 well spent.

On the free side, a dear friend gave me about 6 boxes of tree bits.  Sweet, huh?!  I wonder what we can do with them...  I've been decorating the house with them just a little.  Leon found them hidden in my office the other day.

It's a forest.

"This one is an apple tree.  This one is a grape tree."

Can't wait until they become fruitful!  It sounds delicious...
Kind of like a fruit salad.

Made and Missed Opportunities

 Here is a bit of my sewing from last Saturday.  I know it's hard to make out just what this is...  BUT, this is the overblouse for the dress.  I intentionally left a large swath of fabric on the bottom that I will cut around and be able to gradually merge down onto the grecian skirt.  

I need to move the skirt up the satin bodice about a half inch too.  

But I've got a list of things to do and will get to it as time allows.  

As for the rest of the photos...  I picked up a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle costume last weekend and Leon loves it!  I didn't know why the brown strips of cloth were on each sleeve and assumed the turtles liked fringe.  Leon knew what to do with them though...  

Last night, Meri and I attempted to take Leon swimming at 7pm and unfortunately the swimming lessons have begun...  The pool closes to the public at 7.  There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth stemming from that so I took Meri home.  And Leon too.  

We dug out the water balloons and since they were the old fashioned kind 

and I didn't have the proper tools to make a hundred in a minute, I made them ten.

And after Leon threw the last one at me, 

I realized ten was exactly the right number.

Robb's Dopp kit got waxed and thrown in the dryer this morning.  It's going to be pretty slick!  I just need to attach the handle.  That Highschool Musical pillow case is toast though with wax bits inside now.  Probably a good thing.  The kids were with Robb when he saw that set of queen-sized sheets on sale for $5 and bought it for me for Mother's Day one year.  Ryan said that he wanted to live with me after the divorce.  BUT no divorce and the sheets were actually used!  All that's left of that set now are the pillow cases.  And NOT even those anymore!!!

And this is Leon's project that he did for Ryan for Father's Day this coming weekend.  I bought a cool framed photo at the Salvation Army for a pittance.  Took the print out and flipped it over.  Leon painted his masterpiece and after it was completely dried this morning, I put it back in the frame.  This photo was still when it was drying.  It looks so nice in the gold frame!  I'll show you after Sunday.  I wrote a small label on it so he'd know when, for what and by whom it was made.  Leon DID write his name on it also... Just not his age.

Anyway, that's what's going on around here...  My sister won't come for her visit until tomorrow afternoon instead so the house was clean for no good reason.

Sorry she'll have missed it...