Crafting Envy

    I did manage to work myself out of my funk last weekend.
I think I may have even finished up a project in there.
   One of my husbands co-workers wife is pregnant so I made up a couple of blankets and this sweet little owl. She is a little lopsided but I don't think she minds too much.




     In other news my youngest sisters wedding is coming up next May and I have devised a plan of action. I'm going to make a fabulous dress from a Vogue pattern in a size... ah hem 12 and plan to fit in it by the wedding. Does that sound too optimistic? I'll feel awfully bad if I look like a sausage stuffed into a too small casing in the photos... Guess my sis will have to encourage me to lose weight ;) I have actually been to the gym once and worked out at home once this week. Baby steps and all that.


    I cannot wait for Fall weather! I'm soooo tired of unrelenting heat and humidity. I want to make pumpkin soup and spiced coffee and sit on the deck in a sweater and not be bitten by a million mosquitos. I want to plant my Fall mums and enjoy the color of the leaves. We're taking the kiddos pumpkin picking this year and I'm excited about it! Fall come quick and stay late!





   My sweetly rotten little Elleanore (or as we call her, Devilmore) is almost 1 year old! She's a tiny thing so far, only 14 1/4 pounds and 24 inches tall. I have an awful time finding clothes that fit her right. Pants in the right age are way too long, but tops in the same range are too short or too tight. This is okay when you're buying separates but as we get into cooler weather she'll need lots of warm suits for sleeping in and stuff and those are hopeless. I put socks on her today to see how she'd react and she FLIPPED out, went totally nuts until I took them off. She's started biting when nursing now too. She may be small but she's got 4 teeth fully in and another 2 on the way. She's eating lots of regular foods now and has learned how to drink out of a straw which makes it soo much easier.

   Anyhow, that's the news for now maybe I'll be back this weekend with more postage. Toodles!

   Well peeps, it's the weekend. Normally that would engender some sort of excitement or anticipation of good times but I just can't manage it right now. I'm feeling a bit blah about things.
    Teaching the alphabet to the boy child isn't going very well and I can't seem to get my projects on track. I haven't been to the gym in 6 weeks and it's been too hot to go for walks outside. Like I said, BLAH.
   Do any of you visit Etsy and then regret it? Not because you can't afford the wonderful things you see there or because there just isn't enough time in the day to browse all of the jewelry but because you immediately feel like it's futile for you to put anything up for sale there because inevitably, someone else has it listed and it's ten times better than anything you could do? Long winded and possibly grammatically disastrous question, I know.
   I don't know why I expect to be better than other people at the things I do. Does it come from being raised in the "Everybody is special" generation? Is it sheer ego? It's times like these that the name of my blog is very appropriate. I'm sure I'll work myself out of my funk, just wanted to share it around with you. Happy Weekend!

p.s. This picture makes me feel better, a little. The one on the left is my Husband and the one on the right is our best friend. And yes, they are wearing bras. It was my MIL's 50th B-day.....

   It was a busy few weeks around here. My sweet little boy was turning 4 and I decided to throw him a "fish" themed birthday party. Right away I got started on some games for the kiddo's to play.
There was the bean-fish toss



   There was a magnet fishing game with a kiddie pool and a sand dig with little plastic sea creatures to find, but no pictures of either :(

   There were two babies that wouldn't be getting a goody bag so I made crinkle whales for them instead. The really loud Sunchip bags work great for this.



  And then there was the candy table
(again, not many good pics)

We had

• Gummy Sharks
• Swedish Fish
• Gummy Worms
• Gummy Fish
• Gummy Slugs
• Sour Gummy Worms
• M&M equivalents
• Dum-Dum Suckers
• Salt-Water Taffy
• Pixie Stix
• Goldfish Crackers

Whew! There was a lot of candy. We had it at a park near our house so it was easy to clean it up and my house wasn't destroyed, thank goodness. The boy seems to be thrilled with his presents and we have an opportunity to donate many of his old well-loved ,i.e. destroyed, toys to the Goodwill. I'd say it was fairly successful.


   And in between all the birthday crafting that I did, I also managed to complete a dress for my mom, an appliqued shirt for me, modified uniforms for the husband, 3 pairs of earrings, binding on dinosaur blanket for the boy, tote bag for my Sister-in-law's birthday, a set of coasters for the house and I made time for my first Tattoo!





   Everyone who sees it says, "Of course! It suits you!"

  I think so too. I like it and once it's all healed I'll enjoy wearing my tank tops even more.

    Sorry this post is such a let down after me hyping it up and stuff. Note to self, take more photos.....

   I chopped my basil down to size finally. These things were going crazy. I did it about 3 days ago and they are already half grown back. Apparently herbs love me.



(Don't mind the horrible mess on the counter, I was in the middle of a project for my upcoming seasonal redesign)



  See, they're already growing back lush and green.



  And this is how they started life at the beginning of the summer. They grow up so fast (sniff)




   Tomatoes do not share the basil's admiration for me (can you believe the nerve of them!). Maybe it's because they know I don't really like to eat them much. I like to grow them and I would can them if they would grow but I'm not such a fan of eating them.



   Weird side note. We had a completely volunteer tomato plant pop up underneath the deck, through the gravel. I staked it and we're letting it grow to see if it will produce but I'm kind of baffled at how it got there at all.

   Now peppers, the peppers understand what kind of devotion to give their mistress. The skinny ones are Cayenne and the dark green ones are Serrano.







  They positively adore me! Good little peppers.

   The mint and lemon balm seem to have their own agenda. They grow like crazy but it's that scary kind of crazy, like that boy you met at church camp that keeps sending you weird farm animal candles in the mail and 14 page letters you can barely read and generally stalks you for 5 years (true story, his name was Ivan) kind of crazy.

  The lemon balm has completely taken over the back of the raised bed.




   The mint seems even more insidious to me. It's kind of hard to tell from this picture but that's a two foot tall plant box and the mint has sent a runner out the top.





  And the bottom....



  It's escaping! Ahhhhhhh! Save yourselves!

   The birthday party is done thank goodness. However, I didn't manage to get the photographs required for the the Big Birthday Post so that will have to wait until my mom gets back in town.
    Here is a gratuitous baby shot to tide you over. Be seein you soon.....real soon.....

Well hey there. There is a birthday of a certain little boy coming up at the end of the month,(we're celebrating on the 25th). Lots of plans in place for that and not a lot of time to complete them so I may be absent more than usual (shock!) But I should have some good pics and ideas after it settles out. See you around!

    Well, I promised I'd post the before and after photos so here you go....

Before:



After:




   I feel pretty good about it. It's much, much lighter now so that's nice for the summer. Any comments?