crafty news

pointy kitty is finished!! (she's a calico!) thanks, mom, for asking about her. i needed a little motivation to keep her alive. i finished her today after seeing her sitting, unfinished, on the shelf for the past two weeks. i've been putting it off because i hate hand-sewing. mostly because i'm no good at it. but i guess i need to keep practicing to get better, right? so pointy kitty looks better from far away. at least she's done. i've still been knitting along on adella's blanket and the cardigan. they are both pretty big projects (it takes almost 15 minutes to knit 1 row of the cardigan! so many little stitches...) and i'm thinking i need to start a small quick project or two for some immediate gratification. i haven't decided what yet. the blanket and cardigan are lookng great, but even knitting one row is a big committment at this point. i'm looking for more of a quick-fix.

so, we were going to go to the pool today... (adella got herself ready) but some things came up. and so, we ended up staying home. we took our pool snacks outside and had a picnic, which inevitably led to eating popsicles. it was a beautiful morning and we lazed around on the blanket for quite a while. later, we did some finger-painting, which inevitably led to... the only thing to do then was get into the pool and wash off. then came the bubbles... and more popsicles... and sitting around on the porch... after a while, stig came home and we grilled some burgers and fries and ate dinner. but not before tucking in the sticks.

we did have a very fun-filled day after all. we got a move on pretty early and ran a few errands - the bank (as far as adella knows, the bank is solely a window where they give out stickers) and the grocery store, and then home. once home, i mopped the floors and cleaned up a bit to get ready for our friend cathy's visit. right as i was finishing up, stig called and informed me that cathy wasn't coming today afterall. it will be next wednesday. so maybe i can keep the house clean for another week, you think? after that, adella and i headed over to the nature center to meet kim and elijah for some animal fun. here they are on the tractor: oh - and adella petted a snake!! what a brave girl she is. stig got off early from work and took adella for a little bike riding. with all the rain, we haven't had much time for practicing, but adella's getting pretty good at the bike. except that she keeps insisting to go uphill, instead of nice and easy downhill. she'll figure it out soon i guess.... there are a lot more things going on around here these days, but they will have to wait for another day, another post.

a quick QUICK update... i dropped adella at beth's for co-op, got coffee and muffins with amy, ran a few errands (drove in circles, due to my poor plotting ability), picked adella up and took her to amy's and hung out a bit before going downtown to jury duty. yes, as much as i crossed my fingers to be excused, i did have to report for the afternoon session. i showed up, watched an orientation video and was sworn in, and then waited... and waited... and waited.... after over 3 1/2 hours, the clerk came in and told us we could go home! our jury duty was completed! turns out the trial before ours ran into overtime and there wasn't time for ours to start, so they'll be starting again tomorrow with a brand new set of jurors. yippee! though i did practically nothing (read an entire elizabeth berg book, two magazines, and watched a woman performing her own root canal on 'ripley's believe it or not') i am utterly exhausted. adella did wonderfully, thank goodness. my main stress of the day was worrying that adella would have a hard time being shuffled about all day. but she did fine at co-op - she even asked to sit on the potty like her friends!!!!! - and she did great at henry's too. amy and kyle said they just kept feeding her and she was content. stig got off work early and brought her home, and we played with bubbles for quite a while on the porch when i got home. stig is out at a gig tonight and i'm pretty sure i'll be falling asleep before long. SO, tomorrow: a super-fun day planned. i don't know what yet, but the rain has stopped and i am dying to get some quality playtime with adella, so i'll go and rest up.

i'm feeling lazy, so i'll just do a quick recap of the past few days. #1: RAIN. rain. rain. and lots of it. it has been steadily raining since early this morning, and on and off for the past three days. the plants are loving it, but boy, is it making me feel lazy and stir-crazy. and speaking of stir-crazy,... #2: knitting group this morning at our house. adella and myself and four other two-year-olds and their mamas who are feeling as stir-crazy as we are. the kiddos found every toy and toy-like-thing in the entire house and displaced it all. i know, i know, they're TWO. and everyone helped clean up before they left, but geesh. #3: apple pie. you may remember the ice-maker fiasco, and our marvelous neighbor mark, who fixed it for us (yay!) after much frustration. well, besides paying him back the money that he spent buying new parts, i baked him a nice apple pie yesterday. we all had thoughts of maybe just eating it ourselves, but that would not be nice would it? i'll just have to make another one. soon. #4: adella's duck shirt. i'm going nuts over stencilling. every picture i see is a potential stencil, and every blank shirt in our hamper is just screaming for a stencilled design. i've been able to keep ahold of myself for the most part, but i do have some big plans for future projects. here's the latest: this was the best picture i could get, since when i asked her to hold up her arms so i could snap a picture of her shirt, this is what i got: #5: jury duty update: tomorrow is the day. i called the automated number to see if i was excused, and i am, BUT only for the morning. i am still on 'stand-by' for the afternoon session. i have to call back at 11:30 am and see if i am excused for good. i'm really really hoping to get out of it. the good news is, i have an unexpected three hours of freedom in the morning, since it is co-op day and i was planning on sitting in court all day. what will i do?? amy suggested coffee and muffins, and it does sound oh so tempting. i think i'll take her up on the bakery idea and then hit some thrift stores. #6: is there a sixth thing? surely we have done somthing else. on the other hand, we have been SUPER lazy lately. it's pretty sad, actually. even though it's raining, i should probably be taking adella for puddle-jumping walks or something - anything - to get out of the house and move. #7: adella has been talking so much better lately. and not only that, she really getting a sense of feelings and empathy. this morning i pinched my finger really hard and screamed, "ouch!" adella was in the kitchen, minding her own business, but she noticed and came over to me and said, "what happened, mommy?" "i pinched my finger and it hurts! i told her. "you want me to kiss it for you?" she asked? i told her yes, and she kissed my finger and asked, "is that better?" she is such a sweetie. if any of you readers have not been to visit in a while, i hate to tell you, but baby adella is gone. there is hardly any baby left anymore. adella is a little girl now. a sweet, sweet little girl. it makes me sad, but so proud too. i just can't believe it. i guess that about wraps it up. bye everyone.

when the rain comes...

it's a good day to stay inside, cuddle up on the couch to watch a movie with adella, and get some knitting done. i also have a few finished sewing projects to show: first, a little quilt i made for adella's dolls. it is by no means perfect (nor did i expect it to be) . but it was a fun and easy project, a great way to use up cute fabric scraps, and adella LOVES it! i plan to make her lots more... the more doll blankets, the better around our house. just ignore my finger sticking up there - i was trying to fold it over so show the backside. and another tote bag, lined with some cute floral print fabric and an almost finished kitty. you can see that she still has no eyes and a few pins still sticking out, but she'll be complete soon. i'm starting to really love dorky little stuffed toys. okay - time to go cuddle with my girl. oh, and thanks for the happy anniversary wishes! we had a great night out at dinner. i think we only talked about adella for half the time.

happy anniversary...

to me and stig! today is our 5th wedding anniversary. it has been a great day, and also a great 5 years. that's all for now - i'm tired! good night.

here's a picture of the stained glass window that adella made today: i did the cutting and adella did all of the coloring and sticking on by herself. isn't it lovely? i hung it on the sliding glass door from the kitchen to the screen porch, and i'm thinking soon we might need a few more for the rest of our windows! miss rosy cheeks - after playing outside all day peek-a-boo!

can you believe this?

this is what we've been doing this morning: i know it's blurry and out of focus, but can you believe this? where did my baby go? who is this big girl on a bike? not a trike, but a bike?? sorry i don't have any more pictures (yet) but once we got onto the street, i was too busy - simultaneously cheering, clapping, steering, having multiple heart attacks, and yelling, "pedal, pedal, pedal!" trust me, there will be more pictures of this soon.

it's been a busy day up here... we hosted co-op this morning, so instead of my usual three hours of 'me' time, me and amy were on duty watching 5 littles at our house. looking back, it seemed to go okay, but i may be sugar coating my memories a bit. at some point during the morning i said to amy, "well it's gone pretty good, don't you think?" and she looked at me like i had a third eye and said, "are we even at the same house?" there were more than several instances of toy-snatching and rude behavior, a few time-outs, and some rather sneaky tricks too. also, i swear that one of the kids (i'm not naming names) rolled their eyes at me when i asked her if she needed to go pee-pee! these kids are two - what have i got in store for me later on? i guess i'd better toughen up to the eye-rolling - i'm sure it gets much worse than that later on. so adella and i both were pretty wiped out after everyone left. adella layed down and went right to sleep on the floor of the livingroom... and since she woke up, she has been a super crank! the only thing that she says 'yes' to is popsicles (good thing i had some yogurt pops in the freezer), and the only thing she wants to do is watch Dora, which sadly, we don't have dvd's of. so, it's been a pretty whiny day around here. one good thing is that i think our ice-maker is finally working! you wouldn;t believe the amount of stress and frustration that ice-maker has caused the past few weeks. and not just for us. our wonderful next-door-neighbor has been coming over almost daily to tinker with it, take it out, put it back in, and finally he came over yesterday... with a brand new cyllanoid (i know that's not the right spelling) that he bought for us! how awesome is that? so now i regularly hear the crash of falling ice into the bin, and i think it's safe to say the ice-maker drama is over. i'm planning to make him a pie and send over the money for the part that he bought too. what a great neighbor. and what a long story about an ice-maker! you guys probably don't care about that, do you? oh well. that's all for now - i promise more pictures soon...

father's day

happy father's day to all the dads out there! hope you have had a great and relaxing day! we had a pretty great father's day. i worked of course, but stig and adella got to play all day. once i got home, we all got to celebrate together! adella presented stig with his gifts: stig tries on his paper necktie: adella tries it on too: and here's the shirt adella and i made for stig: then we all played out in the yard - adella and baby splashed in the pool, stig fired up the new (to us) grill, and i supervised and captured the moments on film. he really is a pretty rad dad.

where's adella? there she is! at the nature center! we went to see the animals this morning, which is always a favorite. it's a lot of fun and when the weather is nice, it's just a good place to get out and walk. i've already decided that when our membership expires in a month, we are definitely going to renew it! we've gotten SO much use out of that card - it is a great deal. so me and adella had a blast - saw some animals, slid down the 'otter slide' a dozen or so times, peeked in the barn, petted some goats, almost touched a snake (we weren't quite brave enough), spotted the peacock, checked out the butterfly exhibit to open soon, and then headed home. after some secret crafting, eating popsicles, chatting with the neighbors, and playing around the house, we went to the brew-n-view to see 'ice age 2: the meltdown' with amy, henry, and kyle. adella did great. she sat in my lap almost the whole time, and when not in my lap, she was right there close by. usually i watch her walk up and down the aisles, nodding to the concerned people who think i'm not watching my child, and sit on the edge of my seat in case i do have to jump up and stop her from escaping. today was great though. and the movie was cute too. adella's favorite was the little squirrel who chases the acorn to the ends of the earth throughout both movies. and now, the pictures: and a couple more in my new favorite vintage-y black-and-white:

my pretty little flowers...

(new haircut!)