Friday, April 30, 2010

a new puppet friend


This puppet is named for another nephew of mine, Elliot.


Tessa is a little sad that he will be moving on, unlike Porter who ended up under the Christmas tree with a tag for her.


But I'm sure Elliot will be able to find a little friend who will love him as much as Tess loves Porter.

PS, he's much cuter in person. I promise.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Bonnie

l-r: me, my sister, my mama

On Monday we went to a taping of The Bonnie Hunt Show.
We made friends.
We ate hot dogs.
We sang Happy Birthday to Carol Burnett.
We ate birthday cake.
Trisha Yearwood made carrot cake.
We ate more cake.
I got a free t-shirt.
Some of the most fun I've ever had

Friday, April 23, 2010

a crocheted bunny

My second oldest brother took it upon himself to give all of his younger siblings nicknames that ended up following most of us into adulthood. I, myself, am the family's Baby Rabbit. It can be, and most often is, shortened. Rabbit, Rab and even Rabbi. That's me! As you can maybe imagine, rabbits have always had a special place in my heart, even though I didn't ever really like the part of being "set free". That involved my brother grabbing me and shouting "BE FREE, RABBIT!" while he carried me to the porch and proceeded to lock me out of the house. How many ten-year-olds do you know who can break into their own home? I knew.


For the recent sweater set I made, I also crocheted a little rabbit to go along for the ride. The colors just seemed to scream "Baby Rabbit" to me. And so a rabbit I made and sent as a surprise to the friend who ordered the set.


My mom likes to tell the story of a very young Marcia who approached her with a long face shortly before Easter and with tears in her eyes held her pony-tails straight up above her head and asked, "How can I be the Easter Bunny if I can't get my ears to stay up?"

Thursday, April 22, 2010

a contest

Occasionally I enter contests. I rarely win, but that's ok. I'm entering one at esbe chic to win a super cute reusable, reversible shopping bag. If I win, I may give it to my mama for Mothers Day. Or I may keep it for myself.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

painting, again.


Oh how I love to paint. Walls, not pictures. Thanks to my BFF Michelle for showing me that I do, indeed, possess the ability to choose paint and apply it to my walls, my house looks a little like a dumped out box of crayolas. It started with my living room and has progressed from there. The final room - my craft room. I'm still getting headaches, but I've decided to just start painting anyway. I prefer to brush anyhow and this way I can go at it a little at a time. I picked a yummy, pumpkin-y orange. I love it.

Here's what we have:
living room: mustard-y tan
kitchen: red
bathroom: greenish blue
office: green
stairs/hall: green & brown
big girls' room: peachy pink
little girls' room: sunny yellow (with a garden painted on the walls)
my room: brown & tan
my bathroom: white (how boring, huh? I may have to change that before too long but in my defense there is a white crayon)

Sunday, April 18, 2010

I plead the 5th

I am considering asking no, begging my sister's mother-in-law to adopt my husband and become my mother-in-law too. Because of her I acquired a lovely (to only me, apparently) set of salad spoons. Why nobody else likes them, I'll never know. And contrary to what she says, they were a gift. Oh wait ... she was the one who said they were a gift! That's all I can say about it for now and in fact, I may just invoke my 5th amendment rights.

I love them:

Thursday, April 15, 2010

In One Hour

In one hour, it will be Lucy's birthday.
I imagine we would have told her at lunch today to enjoy her last day of being five.
I imagine she'd be giddy with excitement, pigtails dancing as she skipped up Nanny's walk.
In one hour, my sister will face the 6th anniversary of her only daughter's birth.
It will be the 6th time she's done it without Lucy.
No candles will be blown out by our little girl.
No wishes made.
No "Heavy, heavy hangs over..."
There will be no Lucy.
It breaks my heart.
So much time has gone on since Lucy came and left.
So many babies born.
Cousins, brothers.
But still we miss her.
We'll always miss her.
Our Ladybug.

(Megan, June 2009)

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Arches

All of my life I've wanted to go to Arches National Park in Utah. Last Friday I finally made it. My dream is the Delicate Arch hike, but unfortunately I had neither my good shoes nor my inhailer. We had to take an easier hike. Next time, Delicate!

North and South Windows


My family sitting under the North Window


Looking up at the North Window from behind and below.


My daughter & husband walking towards Turret Arch


The six of us sitting under Turret Arch with North & South Windows in the background.

Friday, April 09, 2010

flower

When the Aprils of my childhood would roll around, the kids (mostly boys) in my school class would usually begin chanting:

Spring has sprung
The grass has risen
Two more months
Till we're out of prison!


I made this flower on a request and wonder why I never thought of them before. I love it and am nearly finished with a second, purple one. Yay flowers! Yay spring!

Tuesday, April 06, 2010

crocheting again

Yesterday I felt well enough to crochet again! Yay! So I made a shoulder bag. And! another use for remnants. My supply is getting low. I might need to go get some more.


My head still hurts some, but I think I'll survive.

Sunday, April 04, 2010

lil rabbit


This afternoon I made this little bunny for my mom out of flannel,
fluff, a couple buttons, some cotton yarn and a little bit of felt.

We had an enjoyable dinner with family.

Saturday, April 03, 2010

eggs

we colored eggs today in anticipation of a furry little friend coming to visit during the night.

happy easter!

Thursday, April 01, 2010

simple banner tutorial

I got the idea to make this from my clever and crafty sister. She had made one, but because I didn't take a picture of hers, I just had to sort of guess how to do it. Not too complicated though.

Because I'm all about what's easy, I cut fabric squares that were 8.5 inches (so I could just use a piece of printer paper for my pattern).

Simple enough. I cut my paper into a square, folded it in half and made the triangle edges meet in the middle. For the cut, I lined up the edge of the ruler with the pattern. (did you notice I didn't cut this piece of fabric into a square first? Oops)

And then I cut the other side. My original plan was to make 16 triangle wedges in four different patterns. But in the end I made 20 because I liked another pattern so much I couldn't leave it out.

I wanted the fronts and backs to be different, so I could have options in decorating. One side is more fun (my favorite), the other more formal. I lined the center of each triangle with white cotton, hoping to keep the opposite pattern from being seen through the others. Worked on some, but not all.

Because it is unnecessary to sew all three edges, I didn't. I left the short side undone. It will be in the binding anyway.

After I finished sewing the triangles, I joined them all together using 2 packages of double fold bias tape across the tops.

It really could not have been more simple. And what a great use for my remnants!

Oh now I remember, I wasn't going to post this until I could get to the craft store for more felt to cut out letters for such phrases as, "Happy birthday" "Congratulations" "Welcome" and "No belly rubbin'!" that can be attached using small pins. Oh well.

I want to have a party.