Johnny Pirate.

Is it really fair of me to say I made this? Um...no. It isn't. Mostly Mom made it. Eli helped.

All I truthfully can take credit for is the face. I embroidered the face. All by myself.

He's a gift for a wonderful little boy turning one tomorrow. I hope they will like each other.

an apology. and bad chili.

So I haven't posted here in over a month, but that doesn't mean I haven't been making things! I've just been lazy about posting. Turns out that every day is quite daily.

Yesterday I made chili, which wasn't exactly well received by the family. I caught Eliot scraping his out of his bowl and into the kitchen garbage can. I said, "Eliot, what exactly are you doing?" And he looked up at me and replied, "Trash. trash." Right. I get it. I can't cook. Next time Momma makes dinner it will taste suspiciously like Papa John's.

a few more rows of my scarf.

I took a knitting class last week and am attempting to make a scarf. It was going well until Elecia totally one-upped me (actually, more like three-upped me) by whipping out the most gorgeous little knitted baby hat in a single evening. The last picture here is how I feel about that.

cookies!

(And the picture of me is blurry on purpose, so that the spare tire I'm wearing around my middle will be camouflaged. No, I'm lying. Actually I forgot to take my camera off the macro focus setting.)

myself a little nostalgic.

Child me is perplexed by adult me's ability to ride in the backseat of a car with steamed up windows and NOT have the urge to write and draw designs with my finger.

(Those circles were made in the summer months, from the suction cups of Mog's sunshade hanging in the window.)

my bed.

and tonight I plan to lie in it. ;-)

a framed photo collage.

of my sister's lovely family full of boys.

a paper garland.

Mog came sauntering into the kitchen with some leftover paper strips that I had cut and left on the coffee table during last night's Christmas card making endeavors. And that was all the inspiration it took. Of course! Those leftover strips are perfect for making paper garland, the kind we always used to make as kids. Easy, peasy, and Eliot loved it. After wearing it draped around his neck for awhile, we hung it on the Christmas tree. It was totally fun to work on a simple little crafty project that Eliot could get involved in. I see many a paper garland in our future! :-)

a play-doh snail.

You can see him right here:
http://stop-drop-roll-rachel.blogspot.com/2008/12/tasty-tasty-play-doh.html

a paper snowflake.

From a vintage Christmas hymn book. With Stickles glitter on it for that added beautifimousness.

I am loving Stickles. I want to put it on everything. I want to eat it so that I can poop beautiful glitter. It IS non-toxic...

a fun series of screenshots from my webcam.

another fun discovery.

So I was cleaning out my desk drawer (I know, *gasp*, right?), and I found THESE!!!



Yeah, so these are pencils the school gave us in...what...third grade? fourth? fifth?

I remember we got them for several years in succession, and I always looked forward to receiving them, nerd that I was. I loved the pencils, with the indentation of my name in gold lettering, and I loved the red plastic sleeve they came in.

The "cool" thing to do was to trade pencils with your BFF's. And here you can see how that turned out for me. Apparently my only friends were my sisters, those unfortunate souls required by law to love me.

a gingerbread house.

Well, I helped Eliot make it anyway.

Last year Elecia made "gingerbread" houses for all the kids to decorate at Mom's on Christmas (or was it Thanksgiving?). Anyway, they're graham crackers pasted together with icing, then the grandkids get to decorate them with all kinds of candy using icing for glue.

They had so much fun that she decided to do it again this year. I didn't think Eliot was big enough to be interested, but sure enough, he carefully stuck rows of gumdrops to his roof, one by one.

Until he saw the M&M's, and then he started shoveling candy into his mouth and lost interest in the house. ;-)

a start on my December scrapbook album.

I made one of these in 2006, and it's been one of the few scrapbooks I have that we actually flip through fairly often. It's fun to look at the pictures and the journaling and remember what was going on in our lives then, both the exciting and the mundane.

I've also resolved to make this entire album with supplies I already have on hand. Nothing new! My scrapbook hobby has turned into a buying scrapbook supplies hobby, which is a situation I really want to remedy.

I bought this cool 12x12 page last year around the holidays with the numbers 1-25, so I'm cutting that up and using the numbers to mark my days.

I'll let you know how it turns out. :-)

a discovery.

And that is, I can actually carry a diaper bag, a toddler, a Moolatte from DQ, my car keys, and a cup of ice water and still open the door to the car dealership (which is a pull, I might add, not a push!) with no assistance.

And I discovered that I can also make a total fool of myself by taking my car to the service department to figure out why the "maintenance required" light is on. "Um, yeah, that is a reminder that you're due for an oil change, ma'am." Right-o. And here I thought it was going to be something dire and complicated, involving spark plugs or cylinders or whatnot. Next time I'll read the manual. Before I drag my diaper bag, my toddler, my Moolatte, my car keys, and my ice water, and my stupid self in through the door.

progress on what Eli likes to call my "stitchery."

I started my first embroidery project some time ago, and I work on it little by little whenever I feel like it. It's six quilt blocks, all the same pattern, with a lilac plant and a butterfly on each block.


Because it seems like it will take forever to finish, I'm really not rushed about it. I like that it's something that I can do to unwind. I used to hate crafty crap because I'm such a perfectionist that I never could do anything up to my own standards. So I'm really liking that I can sit back and just enjoy the process of this, without fretting over how it will turn out.

And even as I type this I'm thinking, "Wow. What happened to the old Rachel? I can't believe I just said I'm not worried about the results. I'm actually just enjoying the process."

Yep. Thank you, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, for making all this possible.

a concession.

Mog went from early Saturday morning to Sunday night with no nuk.
And then when it was time to go to bed, I gave him one.
It's all fun and games being a big boy at Grandma and Grandpa's house, and when Zayda's around at MaMa's, but when it comes to home, we're all just big babies again.
*sigh* ;-)

another update to Mom's etsy shop.

another deer sighting.

Mog and I saw six deer out in the field next to our house on the way home today. I'm loving seeing them around our house so often--it makes things feel peaceful. Well, so long as I don't smack any with my car, that is. Knock on wood.

a new home for my old things.

Yeah, so I missed a couple of days. I was moving. It was chaos. I probably won't be able to find my socks or my hairbrush for another few years at least.