playdate

drunken klutz crafting: pillowcase dress

Dusting off the crafty hat:

A pillowcase dress! Doesn't that sound fun for a little girl? Plus, people are paying beau-coup bucks for them on Ebay.

Why not? It sounds easy.

First, read this. Then get the template from here. Then realize you don't sew. Unh-uh. You don't. Well, hell. But wait! They make glue for this, don't they?? Resolve to make a nearly sew-less version.

Then find some pillowcases you can cut up and not feel badly about. Suggestion: do NOT take the ones off your bed. Your formerly oblivious-to-linens husband? Will notice. Damn his eyes.

last last minute ideas

It's December 23rd. Your egg nog is nogging, your cards are trekked off to the post office (or swept into a drawer *whistling* not that I'd know anything about that) the tree is shining, the presents are wrapped and ....oh, crap.

You've forgotten someone. Or maybe thought of someone you'd like to gift, like your mail person. Or that nice couple that just moved in down the hall.

But do you really have to brave the shops again? Or can you make something?

Ladies and Gentlemen, you can. Really. And in time for Christmas, too!

home wrecked christmas

It is at this point when everything I've worked on starts to look a little lop-sided and clownish.

I've planned to give out some home-made things this year. Well, I was. Until I woke up this morning and had a long hard look at exactly how many more days there are before Christmas, (because let's be honest - Christmas comes whether you're ready or not...) and calculated out how many free hours (answer: 3.5729) I have left, and figured I was going to have to either work in fast-forward or go out to the shops and join the throngs.

tiny baubles

Let's just get it out, shall we? In the wine....

Okay. All better?

One of my family's traditions at Christmas is that small Christmas trees appear in the kids bedrooms late at night while they sleep,magically decorated and all lit up. It's the work of the Christmas elves! (The real version, of course, is that B drags them down from the attic and he and I have furious fights in whispers over who left the strings of lights so horribly tangled and where in hell are the little ornaments meant for these trees, and then we (I) commando crawl into the bedrooms where my cherubic children sleep with their heads full of sugarplums and hunt for the plug and back out again, swearing that next year I'll remember the flashlight. 

she was framed

This all started when I painted the bathroom.

Well, once I chose the colour for the bathroom, it went okay. But I had to pussy-foot around and whine about my choice for awhile first, had to procrastinate and over-think it and then my mother announced she was coming and bam! It was Mango Madness, just like that.

(Mango Madness? Bears a huge resemblance to yellow chalk, by the way.)

But it started me thinking about the walls. About how I had nothing to put on them. And that started me gathering pictures and frames and driving holes in the walls and generally upsetting the husband....

And then I saw the window.

No, not the bathroom window, that was just foreshadowing. Bear with me.

Suddenly, there's been a shift

and Rosey no longer wants to cut paper or use the glue or sprinkle glitter on anything and everything. No modeling clay, no

Now, I get the rolled eyes. 'I do that at school.'

Now, she wants to cook. I don't mind the company in the kitchen, but I do miss my crazy glitter queen. But having kids is all about change (and don't I sound like an American coming up on the election now??) and so...

Things that make you go boo

Our Thanksgiving table was decorated with three toilet paper roll turkeys, a paper plate wreath and some handprint birds.

I’ve always been a sucker for kids’ crafts.

This last week, I’ve been trying to remember how to crochet. While I could probably lay my hands on the grimy potholder from ever so long ago, apparently things you learned thirty (eek!) years ago? Just don’t stay in the memory bank that long.

Side note to Dr. Phil: Yeah, that ‘muscle memory’ thing you kept pushing when I was pottying the kids? I think we just debunked that one.

Anyhoo, I now have a lot of snarled yarn and several hooks. What to do?

playing dress up

Halloween approaches.

Are you making a costume this year?

I’ve  suffered through long nights of taping and sewing and painting and hot-glue-burning-my-fingers and cursing (and drinking!) and hunting through the junk drawer at three a.m. because darn it, that doo dad would be perfect, and it’s around here somewhere….

on the walls

Last night I put pictures up on the walls. And I like it.

Why? You think I'm moving too fast? I've only lived here (cough) eight years.

I've never been good at putting up the finishing touches on a room. Paint I can do reasonably  well, but the homey touches and whatnots?

Oh so bad.

monkeying around

We don't have enough art in our house.  And while I know what I like, my husband has a hard time finding anything he wants to look at daily for the next few years. (Ahem. Excluding me.)

I was looking on-line at some posters, trying to hash out some idea of what to put in the livingroom, when B whirled, his eyes shining. 'I know! Let's put up some of your pictures!'

I lurvvvve my camera, but I am an amateur photographer at best.  I was skeptical. 'Really?'

And he nodded. Well, dayum. I wish he'd told me that several years ago!

Off we went to look at the trillions of photos I'm holding captive on my hard drive.

We found several we thought were nice - the kids, scenery, sky shots - but they lost their lustre and a lot of the energy they had once they were printed out.

It was time to spruce them up.