Picture Frames

A few months ago I found a tute over in CraftGossip.com for twig picture frames.

It's bundles of twigs tied together with ribbon to make a square and organza ribbon to hold the picture in the middle. Totally not sturdy enough for my peeps.

So I McGyvered my own.

Dollar store picture frames, hot glue gun and refills, twigs and to be different, a bucket of freshly picked acorns!

Kae had a great time finding sticks and filling a bucket with acorns. I'm still debating clear spray paint over the acorns, they don't seem to want to stay.....

Knitting Ornaments

I got two packages of clear glass ornament balls from Pam.

Stuffed with mini skeins of yarn ranging from lace to worsted. I found worsted actually worked best.

The knitting needles are toothpicks topped with beads.

Hopefully I'll get to go to knitting next Wednesday to give them out /sigh

I hate my husbands car...

Tile Coasters

I made these little gems for my mom, MIL and FIL. I am debating getting more tiles and paper to make a set for my dad.

It's just a 4x4 bath tile with scrapbooking paper decoupaged to it (makes them water proof!) and little felt squares hot glued to the backs.

November Reading List

November
1-112 Mama Knows Breast - Andi Silverman (11/4)
2-113 Breastfeeding For Dummies (11/5)
3-114 The Complete Idiots Guide to Breastfeeding (11/8)
4-115 B&N Edition of Aesop’s Fables - (11/8)
5-116 Mason Dixon Knitting (11/23)

yup, that's right...5, and 3 of them were breastfeeding books. which my husband can't believe i read, because "why would there be entire books on the subject?!" yeah, he's hopeless.

my favorite of the month was Mama Knows Breast. it was funny and quirky, and didn't make me feel guilty about not being able to BF with Kaeley (i like that, a lot.....)

November was also NaNoWriMo. Which i participated in for the second year. it does eat my entire month, but Ross and Kae are surprisingly understanding. I was hoping the beast would participate with me this year, but he flaked out pretty early. I have until May or June to actually finish my book and seriously edit it, because i signed up for CreateSpace, which will give me a free proof copy and 5 free bound copies of my book for finishing, and also give me free access to be able to publish and market the books through Amazon.com. I'm not sure i'll actually publish the book for human consumption., but having a copy of a book i wrote on my bookshelf is something i'd be super proud of.

November was actually a pretty active blog month for me. Kae did a lot of random things that i wanted to share. =D

Black Bean Experiment

Tonight we experimented with black bean burritos. Thought I'd share the experiment and the changes I'll make next time.

Flour tortillas
One can black beans drained and rinsed
One can low sodium corn
1/3 cup diced yellow onion
1 tbs minced garlic

Cooked garlic and onions together. Added everything else and some chili powder, salt, black pepper.

Spooned into warm tortillas, topped with freshly shredded mild cheddar cheese. Roll up

Nom

They were ok, but needed....more

Next time I'll cook the filling with cheese, some kind of queso or cream cheese. And possibly add the cheese after cooking the beans/corn with a packet of taco seasoning.

I served with yellow rice. That I wouldn't change, we lurve yellow rice.

Either way the kid ate all her food. That's how I judge success!

Thanksgiving garland

Today kae made a garland out of fall colored construction paper and yarn. The plan is to take it to Grandma Debbie's for dinner thursday afternoon.

While we made it we used each leaf to talk about the things we're Thankful for, and we wrote them down.

Here is kae's list:

1) my friends
2) my family
3) food (go figure)
4) for electricity so I can read at night
5) butterflies because they help us get honey
6) squirrels because they are cute
7) for mom and dad because they help me learn and grow
8) Ms Bailes because she's a great teacher
9) books because they help me learn new things
10) love because it makes us happy

I love my kid /sniffle

I am thankful for my family and friends (who may as well be family) and my kid and soon to be kid. I have a lot in my life to be happy about and greatful for.

Though I don't always show it /sigh

Have a happy safe thanksgiving everyone

Pow Wow

Kaeley's class had a pow wow for Thanksgiving, this goes along with the totem animals they did last month.

First they took white pillowcase and the teacher dyed them with Rit dye. The girls had dresses and the boys had vests. (with fringe cut into the bottom!) they decorated the dressed with paint of traditional symbols and animals (kae's has a rainbow and lizards)

They also made hair pieces out of a strip of leather, a pony bead and a feather. We attached ours to a bobby pin to make it stay in.

Today they went from classroom to classroom doing different projects. A necklace made from food-dyed rotini noodles, a bracelet with plastic beads on faux leather cord, and face painting.

She tells me they also learned an Indian dance, got to plays drums and turtle rattles, and made a turkey out of candy they got to eat.

Sounds like my kind of party!!

Playdate and Wii

Yesterday Kae had a Playdate. We have some friends who ride her bus and live within walking distance that she hangs out with.

They decided to bust out the Wii and Just Dance 2 (which we have at home too) and have some 4-player action lol.

Veteran's Day

We met grandma Pam at the Jensen mall on V-day to have lunch and window shop.

Kae walked away with a spiffy new pair of totally awesome boots (I myself got maternity jeans hurray!)

But no Santa, he was the slacker of the day.

Turkey poachers!!

Kae had another project due today, this was a family project, I love those!!

(though sitting on the floor to help is killing me these days!)

Kae had to disguise Tom Turkey, to hide him from the butchers and turkey eaters on Thanksgiving...I personally can't wait to have Ol' Tom smoked with potatoes!

The little nutter decided Tom had to hide as the Easter Bunny, so Tom became Peter.

I got poster board and scrap booking paper, plus some ribbon and a couple cotton balls. We also used some glitter paint from my stash.

I forgot to grab a final picture, of mr turkey, so I'll have to post it later /sad

I-cord garland base

My friend Jess over at Storied Yarns wrote up a crochet garland base pattern a few weeks ago.

I thought it was a great idea! But I can't crochet (booo)! So I sat down and wrote up a knit I-cord garland base pattern.

Keep in mind I Did Not check Ravelry first to see if a pattern existed before doing this. So it's free for everyone who wants to use it 

Mine is going to have hot pink silk organza flowers sewn to it to make kaeley super happy. But you can hang whatever you want from it, a great idea is as a display "rope" for Christmas ornaments!

Here be the pattern:


Cast on 3 stitches

Knit in I-cord for 8-10 inches

Knit into front and back of each stitch

Split stitches, 3 on holder, next 3 stay on needle.

Continue in I-cord, doubling stitches and splitting onto holders every 8-12 inches as desired.

Bind off I-cord and pick up first set of 3 extra stitches, knit in I-cord for 1.5 to 2 inches and bind off

Repeat until all picked up stitches are "stems"

Weave in all ends (yeah I know it's a ton)

Attach garland hangies to suit :)

Halloween!

Kae went treating with our friends Maiya and Gabriel (and Auntie Gail!)

Not much candy, lots of decorated houses that wouldn't answer their doors or said they had no candy (it was 5:30 wtf?!)

But lots of fun wad had, and when the girls got tired we went home and watched The Nightmare Before Christmas!

My little whiz-kid

We cleared out an old HP laptop and gave it to the kidlette!

She's got two sites to work from, raz-kids which is a reading site her teacher signed up for. She picks a book and listens to it, then she reads it out loud, then she takes a quiz, and earns stars, which can be spent to decorate and upgrade her "raz rocket". She's saving up for the pink planet and the pink alien.

The other site is pbskids.org, she usually plays the wild kratts games and the word girl games, hurray for vocal building.

Today I signed her up for her very own email address through a kids site called zilladog.net. It's free and totally monitored, also I can set who she can email and who can email her. So far of her 5 "buddies" she's got her grandma's and mommy. Probably add grandpa kevan since he lives so far away and daddy.

She loves the freedom, and it's great practice, since her school pushes technology to the nth degree. (iPad library anyone?)

October Reading List

Zero.


That's Right..none

i'm such a slacker.

i did START a couple books.

Incarceron and Mommy Knows Breast.

Even the audiobook wasn't working for me this month. and now it's November 1st and i need to head over to the NaNoWriMo site and get myself ready to typity type type.

Woo! I'm Old!

Today I am 30.

Yay

You're only as old as you act...
So I'm not really 30. Sometimes I'm 4 and a half, and sometimes I'm 90.

But most of the time I'm about 20.

Mostly I'm just happy to be with my family 

Kaeley in Wonderland

On Friday, the kindergarten at marsh pointe will be doing a storybook parade (instead of a Halloween thing I guess).

Kae decided to do Alice from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, we of course only have a Disney version of the book for her.

Our friend Barbara gave us a an old Cinderella dress to be alice's blue dress, and I used a white pillow case deconstructed and re-sewn into an apron.

The apron toon me about an hour to cut and sew, with a trip to Joanns for more white thread (how the #^*#{ did I run out of white thread?!).

So now I don't have to worry about doing the apron on Thursday night!!!!

Wehadababyitsaboy

Yup


That's right


Ponyo is officially a boy


He's now Baby Bob until we have a name.

Bean and corn taquitos

Tonight I made a new recipe, I pretty much made it up as I went from what I had on hand.

1 can drained and rinsed sodium free black beans
1 can salt free sweet corn drained
Approx. 1 c mashed potatoes
1/4 cup medium salsa
15 or so corn tortillas
2 cups Mexican blend cheese
Sour cream for dipping

Mix all ingredients but sour cream and tortillas (drr) together in a bowl, you can mash the beans if you want, I left them whole.

Put a about 2 tablespoons in each tortilla and roll them up.

Place them on a greased baking sheet and cook for 8 minutes on each side at 400 degrees. (for the first 8 minutes keep covered with aluminum foil).

They were a huge hit. We had leftovers and kae wants one in her lunch tomorrow, hurray!

Scary squirrel

Today Kae sat down and worked on her next class project (for November). Each child got to pick an animal and create a piece of a totem pole using a gallon milk jug. (I adore this project, it allowed me to talk to kae about spirit animals and a part of me belief system!)

Kae picked.....the grey squirrel
Go figure

First she washed the jug and daddy cut a hole in the bottom so it will fit against the other kids jugs.

Then she painted the jug brown. After that dried she and daddy put silver/grey spots to shine through the second coat of brown.

After it dried she glued on enormous googly eyes!

We outlined the nose and mouth to be black and white, which she painted, and I drew lines to show the teeth, which are black.

The tail was harder, first we tried to glue a pipe cleaner to the handle and make a tube of fake fur to glue over it, didn't work, we ended up with a small strip of fur from the bottom of the jug to where the handle narrows, then I had to sew another small strip to the wrong side of that with the pipe cleaner in the pouch to make it bendy.

I think it's creepy, kae is super happy and can't wait to take it to school.

Total cost for great pagan oriented kids project $5.20 plus the gallon jug of milk.

Happiness for my child: oh yeah priceless.

September Reading List

1-105 Moon Called - Patricia Briggs (9/2) re-read
2-106 The Fire Lord’s Lover - Kathryne Kennedy (9/6)
3-107 Knits for Barbie Doll - Nicky Epstein (9/8)
4-108 501 Bento Box Lunches - Amorette Dye (9/16)
5-109 Guilty Pleasure - Laurel K Hamilton (9/25) audiobook
6-110 The Laughing Corpse - Laurel K Hamilton (9/30) Audiobook
7-111 Dyeing to Knit - Elaine Eskesen (9/30)

i had a few re-reads this month, the audiobooks are actually re-reads of books i own, but i've been having a horrible time sitting down to read. Audio books are a good solution, and i put overdrive on my computer so i can get the digital copies of the books directly.

I got Bloodlines by Richelle Mead but was only halfway through when i had to take it back, so i have it on hold again so i can finish it. i loved the Vampire Academy books, so i'm really happy there is a continuance for it. though, it's a bit predictable, i think i already have the end figured out. sad face.

on the knitting front...nope..almost nothing. a project for the vampire swap on rav. My poncho is tedious...i could finish it tonight if i actually WORK on it...yup. not happening, we haz girl scouts.

on that front i dropped out as being kae's daisy leader, the stress was doing bad things. Luckily someone else stepped up to be the troop leader. should be interesting. 

The Girl Scout Journey

Today we went and got kae's Daisy uniform, she has her first official meeting (for the 6 week series the council runs) and i wanted her to have the fun of wearing her smock!

We also got the Journey book "Daisy Garden" so i guess what's what our Troop will be working on first. Hopefully the Handbooks will be in soon, we pre-ordered it.

Kae's very excited, I'm already exhausted. And man the uniforms are spensive. but it's worth it for 2 years, and honestly, my mom still has my smock from 25 years ago when I was a Daisy. She says she's going to pull it out so the girls can see a "vintage" uniform...blah.

other than that we have a Bento update, today's lunch was a Deconstructed Sandwich (heart shaped bread peices, mickey mouse cheese and hard salami), a baby dill pickle and flower carrots.

Holy Bento Batman!

So kae got a new bento box, we picked the Leaflet Tight Bento with Bag it's the smaller of the two they offer on Amazon.com, but kae didn't want the huge one. Though we might get it for Daddy for Christmas!

She also got a set of heart cookie cutters, in my research I've discovered these can be used as rice molds, to cut sandwiches meat, fruit, etc. And Kae loves anything heart shaped! Along with these cutters we got some small, round, metal cutters in the shape of flowers, mostly for veggies and fruit, we used them with cheese and they're so CUTE! omg.

So today for lunch kae had, green grapes, which she got to wash and cut in half herself, cheddar and white cheddar cheese mickey heads that got cut into little flowers, she got to eat the ears. and Octo-dogs i put them on sticks like the traditional Asian preparation.

My kid is finally happy, she was showing her bento off to everyone in the house, and then at the bus stop this morning. I'm glad to see her happy, it just broke my heart that she was being bullied by the other kids because of her lunch.

So....

It's been a little while since i've blogged.

Lots going on, i just haven't sat down to type it all out. bad me, i know.

First off, i have my 16 week dr appointment this week for Baby Ponyo (WIP name). Kae is super excited she's going to be a big sister.

We also signed up for Girl Scouts, and tonight i got my packet-o-girls to (finally) start setting up my troop. Yes, i know I'm crazy to be a Troop leader with a baby on the way. Hopefully i'll have a super assistant leader and fantastic volunteers that will pick up my slack when i'm, you know, in labor.

Tonight i had the seminar for the Fall Fundraiser...when did girl scouts start selling nuts and candy? and magazines? really? ok...we'll go with that. For all my peeps who read this, we start selling October First. Cookies are in January. $$$$$$$$$$

I'll have a blog tomorrow about kae's new lunch Sensation with pictures. Tonight all you get is ponyo.

August Reading List

August
1-101 Acheron - Sherrilyn Kenyon (8/1) re-read
2-102 Nerd Do Well - Simon Pegg (8/9)
3-103 Retribution - Sherrilyn Kenyon (8/11)
4-104 Cry Wolf - Patricia Briggs (8/25) re-read



Yup...That's it. Two re-reads and two others. Nerd Do Well was my non-fic for the month.
I'm also reading a Medical Billing and Coding book and a fiction YA. but my reading mojo has take na backseat to knitting and school.

Plus i'm an absolute crazy and signed up to be a Daisy Troop Leader for girl scouts this year.
How I'm going to swing this with baby due in February is beyond me, but in the words of Tim Gunn, i will MAKE IT WORK!

First Day of Kindergarten

This morning was Kae's first "Staggered Start" day of Kindergarten, she was home yesterday and she'll be home tomorrow, School will actually start on Thursday.

(i'm casting on a pair of socks after i type this so i have a pocket project for the parent pick up line. I think i shall use my malabrigo sock..../drool)

Kae remembered where her classroom was, and where her seat was. she sat right down and even raised her hand to ask the teacher a question (and school hadn't even STARTED yet!) Then she waved us out of the classroom.

I'm proud of myself, i didn't cry this time. I'm 13 weeks pregnant and crazy hormonal and didn't cry this time ::big grin::

My mom reassured me that kae is just a very well adjusted child. I'm glad she loves school. she's got a lot more to go!