Your room is messy

Today Guy was making a "town" in our family room.  I asked him to please take them downstairs to the playroom to play with them.  He then told me that there wasn't room down there because it was too messy.  So I told him that "Gunny Bag" was going to come and clean up down there if he didn't.  Aurora just got a dollhouse for her birthday a few days ago, and when she heard me say "gunny bag" she grabbed her dollhouse, and said, "I don't want this broken.  Can you help me carry this upstairs?"  So I asked her if she wanted it to go in her bedroom.  Guy took this as Aurora's way of saying that she didn't' want to clean it up, and if it was in her room it could be messy.

A few hours later I reminded Guy that "gunny bag" is coming, and if he doesn't want his toys to disappear he had better clean them up.  To which he responded, "I want to keep them in my room."  I told him he can only keep them in his room if he can keep them cleaned up.  Then I asked if his room was messy or clean.  "Messy" he said.  Then Aurora said, "my room is messy.  Your room is messy.  But there isn't anything on Daddy's side."

Guess I better clean my room too.

China colors

I have been awful about keeping up with my blog.  So many other things to do you know.  Anyway so hopefully I can put enough information in this post that it makes sense, but not so much that it all bogs down.

When Spike turned 1 his big present was a ball pit.  

The ball pit was put in our "rhino room"  (I will try to do a whole post about that later.)  Now this last week, Cinderella had a friend over, and they went to the rhino room to play, and I heard her friend ask if the balls were made in China.  Cinderella's response was "no, they are made of plastic."  Anyway I didn't hear anymore of that conversation.

Well last night I took Guy on a Mom date.  We went and bought shoes and then we went to Krispy Kreme and got doughnuts.  The doughnut he chose had sprinkles on it.  The sprinkles seemed to be an Easter theme, of blue, green and orange.  I asked Guy if he thought the sprinkles looked like Spring colors.  He said, "no, they look like China colors.  Don't you think they look like China colors?"  So I asked him what China colors were.  His reply was "yellow, blue, orange, and green."  I asked him where he learned that, and he said from Spike's balls, because they were made in China, so those colors are China colors.

Hot Wheels

This morning Guy lost some toys in the car, so I was looking for them, while hunting, I found a bunch of other toys that had been left in the car on other occasions.  One of these toys was a little match box car.  Guy picked the car up, and said, "Mom, the wheels are cold, but they are supposed to be hot wheels."

Crayon Rolls

There is a man I know by the name of John Colson.  John has had 2 different kidney transplants. The first one lasted about 7 years, and the second less than 2.  For the last 7 1/2 years he has been functioning  without a kidney, needing to do dialysis on a daily basis, just to function.  After having 2 transplants, getting a new one is tricky business, the likelihood of his body accepting the transplant is not very high.  However he is the father of 4 children, from 6- 16.  He's not ready to give up on life yet.   Thankfully his family has been able to locate a hospital that has the technology to  wipe out his immune system, and do the transplant.  The downside is that the said hospital is about 2 states away from where he lives.  To have the transplant he will have to travel there, and stay there for 3 months, not a costless venture.  In fact his family figures they will need between $20,000-$30,000 for the transplant and living costs, should he receive the call that he is next on the list, and they have a transplant for him.  This is in addition to what insurance will cover.

Due to this, some women that I know decided to do a string of fundraisers for the family to see if we can prolong John's life.  For the fundraiser, I had the inspiration to turn scrap fabric I have into something marketable.  Crayon Rolls.

I had someone ask me how to make them so that she could also make some to donate to the cause, and I decided to make the instructions into a blog post.

 For a roll that holds 8 standard size crayons, I cut a 7 1/4" square out of 2 fabrics and one out of interfacing.  I don't know if the interfacing is necessary, but it makes it stiffer and helps reinforce the stitching.   I have used both fusible and non-fusible interfacing, I prefer the fusible, but they both work.

I then put the 2 fabric squares right sides together, with the interfacing on the wrong side of one of the squares.

   I then put in a 1/2" seam, all the way around, except on the last side where I sew 2 3/4 down, leave a 2" gap then sew the last 2 3/4".  

Press. 

Trim the corners down to the stitching.  

Then using the 2" gap, turn the square right side out, making sure the corners get turned all the way.  

Press again.  Cut 4" of elastic.  I have used both 1/4" & 1/2", both work well, it is just the scraps I have on hand.  Fold the elastic in half and sew ends together using a zigzag stitch. 

 Tuck the raw end of the elastic into the top of the gap in your square,  you can baste it in place if you like, but I never do.  Next do an edge stitch around the whole.  I forgot to do it on this one, but it gives it a much more finished appearance.  

   I then fold up the bottom of the square 2" so that the bottom meets the elastic, and sew the edges in place.

  Then measure 3/4" over and draw a strait line on the folded over piece, then measure 3/4" from that line and draw another line.  Continue this process until you reach the other edge.  There should be 8 spaces between the lines.  

Place a seam on each of your lines, creating 8 little pockets. 

 All done.  You now should have a roll that will hold 8 standard size crayons.

The Tent Bag

Guest post from the hubs here. A couple of years back I ruined a tent bag while backpacking with the then 5-year-old Cinderella (don't ask... actually do, just not now, that's a subject for a different blog post). The material had already started to rip right by the drawstring, and it seemed that everytime I went camping it tore a little more. This time it had torn enough that when we were still about a mile away from the car, the tent started spilling out of the bag, which makes for quite an uncomfortable hike.

Fast forward to the present.

This time of year the cold weather always seems to inspire me to make plans for spring and summer - anybody that knows me knows that this means I start thinking, planning, and talking incessantly about at least one of the following three things: gardening, hiking, and camping. Right now it's a combination of the latter two since I'm planning a backpacking trip with my brothers, so I've been taking inventory on my gear.

Oh yeah... the tent bag.

(Picture me crestfallen)

It's a problem.

I asked Julie if she could fix it. She took one look at it and I knew by the look on her face that the outlook was grim. She told me that she didn't think it was fixable. Then she launched into all kinds of sewing jargon talking about what it would take to make a new one.

That was this morning.

This afternoon we bought the materials for about $15.

Tonight she made the bag.

Behold the new bag compared to the old one:


...and the new bag, stuffed with the tent:


That's right, who married an awesome seamstress? In our years together this is one of the most meaningful things she has done for me. If anybody wants to know the way to a man's heart, just find something that he's passionate about, and find some way to use your skills to support him in his passion. At least that worked for this man.

Oh, and we have enough material left over to make not one, but two smaller stuff sacks. Nice!

Guy's Glasses

Sorry I forgot to write about this.

Last spring, we found out that Guy needed glasses.  This wasn't a big surprise to us, because he would talk about not being able to see things.    We selected the style that curves around the ear, hoping that they would stay on that way, seeing as he is a very active little boy.  He got the glasses around July, and looks like a cute little Harry Potter.

Well, they might stay on more than they would, but they don't stay on, and I am terrible at remembering to have him put them on.  So he has them, and sometimes wears them.  But most of the time, he doesn't.

Year in Review

I had good intentions, but unfortunately they didn't happen.  Seeing as how I didn't blog a whole lot from last year, I thought I'd do a post with my favorite pictures, so that y'all could have an idea of what we have been up to.  If there are any pictures you would like to know the story behind, feel free to ask, and if I get a chance, I can do a post about it.

Well here goes.

January

February 

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December