Who Wood You Pick?

To celebrate a recent raise and bonus, Matthew bought himself a boat a Miata a scroll saw.  And then, "to learn how to use the new saw," he whipped up a few toys while Abigail was napping.

For me:

A sweet little bunny puzzle that fits in my palm.  See how the front paw also looks like a baby bunny?

And for himself:

A flying dragon.  The wings detach and fit together with the body like a puzzle piece.

 

But now the real question is, in bunny v dragon, who would you pick to win?  Because some of those rabbits are pretty fierce.

Happy Valentine's Day (A Day Late)

Valentine's Day dinner at our house, 2012. Pictured, left to right: Captain Pretty Man, Goofy-Goofy, Belle, and Big Blue.  Everyone was styled by the five-year-old except for Goofy-Goofy, who refused all dress-up clothing and only consented to be photographed with her beloved water in hand.

Things have been quiet on the blog lately because things have been decidedly not quiet at home.  More on that later, but first a few words from Betsy, shown here with the valentine that she made for herself and brought to school to put in her own bag:

"I made a valentine for myself because they have candy in them and I think I would be fussing if I didn't get my own.  And other kids would, too.  A lot of people would.  But I made one for myself because then I would be happy."

Of course she gave valentines and candy like this to the other kids, and was surprised and delighted to receive quite a few in return.

Love yourself and others, and be pleasantly surprised when you're loved back.  A formula for a pretty happy life.  Or she could expand that by about 200 pages and she's got a self-help book.

Painting

I think this was her first time.  Is it bad that I don't know?

Two minutes of painting, twenty minutes of washing out her brush, one happy toddler.  Of course as soon as I got her into dry clothes she was trying to open the paint again.  Because seventeen-month-olds do have opinions about what they want to do and when they want to do it!

Making Christmas, Part 2

Behold, more Christmas crafting fun!

Dolls that I made for the girls:

 

This was another of the projects I'd planned for years, and finally accomplished this Christmas.  I'm so happy with how they turned out, these little muslin dolls with embroidered faces.   They were actually pretty easy and only took a few after-bedtimes to make, patterning to finishing.

Making Christmas, Part I

We had a very crafty Christmas gifts this year, with much secret sewing in the dining room and routing on the porch.  There were some group efforts and some individual projects, all done with much care and love.  In fact, that I don't know who enjoyed these handmade gifts more, the givers or the receivers. 

Here is the finger labyrinth Matthew carved for me, modeled after the one that I've walked at Shrine Mont, which is based on the one at Chartres Cathedral:

A little bit of that Shrine Mont peace and quiet in my own home.  Perfect!

The mini-quilt I made for my mom, loosely based on a picture I took while backpacking in Shenandoah National Park:

Great Last-Minute Gifts

You still have plenty of time to give great gifts this Christmas.  And you don't need to spend a lot of money to do it.  Really!


Do a Dreaded Chore.   Choose something you kind of like to do, that they really hate to do.  Or choose something you both hate to do.  Either way, you are giving the gift of your help.

Clean out and wash the car.
Trim the rabbit's nails.
Back up the hard drive.
Repaint a room.  (Might want to ask about this one before you do it.)
Catch up on scrapbooking.  (Ask about this one, too)
Wash the cat box and change the litter.
Move something heavy.
Change all the sheets in the house and flip/rotate mattresses.
Wash, fold, iron, and put away all the laundry.
Split and stack firewood.
Clean the bathroom, including the tub/shower and washing the towels and bath mats.
Scan, label, and store old photos.  Give copies on CD or have photo books printed.
Do minor home repairs, like hanging pictures.
Pick up and store presents for their kid.  You don't have to purchase the presents--lots of places have in-store pickup if they order online--but transporting something bulky like a bicycle and hiding it in your garage would be mighty helpful this time of year.
Wrap all the presents they intend to give.  (Ask about this, too.)

These December Days

Christmas pageant tech is in full swing.  Sets are now fully painted and out of the living room.  If you see them at church, be sure to look for Betsy's gold glitter paint around the star.  "See, Mom, I told you we needed the glitter paint!" she reminds me, and she was right.  Four-year-olds do know about the glitter.

Pageant lighting and sound tech means it is now Club Pepper in the living room.  Matthew taught the girls about dimmers, and now the girls take turns as board op for our in-house disco.  And by take turns I mean fight.  We hear a lot of, "No, you go dance, I'm doing the lights!"

Some Christmas crafts are complete.  Teacher presents were finished and gifted this morning, the last day before winter break.  Other things are still in progress.  I have to stop myself from starting new projects at this point.  I still wonder what secret things Matthew is making with all that wood.

I love that Betsy initiated creating gifts as well.  As a person who'd rather spend time at home with needles, thread, fabric, and yarn than fighting traffic to park at the mall, I am glad.  And I'm proud to think that she might take after her parents in this way.

Cookies are being baked--and eaten--and baked again.  Abigail proclaims them "Yumyum!"  We're becoming skilled at adapting recipes to accommodate various food allergies.  I mean no, those cookies weren't quite right, we need to make more!

Abigail continues to bring in this year's crop of ornaments.  It looks like she'll have quite the haul.  Every day, if ornaments appear (or re-appear) on the branches that she can reach, she carefully plucks each one from the Christmas tree and places it in her little blue bucket.  She is quite helpful.  She also continues to assist St. Nicholas by leaving presents in our shoes.

In general, we're doing less running around to events and more making Christmas at home, and it's been good.  More peaceful.  We're having fires in the fireplace.  Singing along with carols on Pandora.  Listening to the whir of the mixer and the hum of the sewing machine.  Matthew and I may still be wondering if we'll finish everything in time, but it's a fun challenge.

And if you ask Betsy, she can always tell you exactly how many days are left until Christmas.

9. The Perfectly Decorated Home

Does your living room look like this?

If it does, I'm a little bit jealous, because my living room currently looks more like this:

7. Bad Teacher Gifts

Okay, I'm not a teacher.  But my mom taught preschool for nearly two decades, and I saw a lot of teacher gifts come into the house.  So I feel slightly qualified.  And there's nothing teachers appreciate more than the opinions of the slightly qualified, except maybe ornaments shaped like apples.

A.  The Gift Card

Pros: Like getting cash, in a range of denominations from "I threw in a few bucks on the group gift" to "thank you from the bottom of my wallet for giving me a break from this kid."  A way to let teacher choose something nice that teacher wouldn't buy for himself.  Easily regifted.

NaNoWriMo Time

'Tis the season!  I am indeed participating in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) again, so expect blog posts to be short and sweet this month.

In order to make the 50,000 word goal by the end of November, I'm aiming for 2,000 words/day.  This is a little more than I need to reach 50K by November 30, so I'll have a few non-noveling days built in.  This year I'm writing a book for Betsy, at her request.  On one hand, I always feel guilty taking time away from the family/chores/sleep to do fun things.  On the other hand, I want to set an example for Betsy, and to show her that her mother can indeed still do things not concerning the family/chores/sleep.  My hope is to use November to write the first draft, and to have a novel to begin reading to her on her birthday in February.

I'll try to update here with my word counts, just like I did on the old blog when I won NaNoWriMo in 2007.

Today's Word Count:
2,092 accomplished out of daily goal of 2,000

Total Word Count:
2,092 out of 50,000 (4%)

Wow, that 4% makes this seem so daunting.  I think last time I started tracking the percent a little later in the process.  I mean, yeay, 4% done!  Not bad, considering that I've had about four hours of sleep and accomplished this word count with a sick baby napping on my back while the older child is at preschool.

The First Stream of the Little Fishy in Maine

The First Stream of the Little Fishy in Maine

by Betsy (mostly) and Rebecca (a little)

Me and my mommy and daddy and sister were in a submarine. And me, Betsy. And we didn't see the fishy.

There was a big storm at our house in Maine because we were at the beach together.

That was fun, because me and my sissy had fun playing in the waves. Can't you imagine playing at that kind of thing?

The little fishy did not know what to do so I ran back home to the bathroom and got my bucket and got it full of water and then I quickly got the fishy because there was a big wave coming at it. I got it right in time. And I got its family and the baby. And then we got in our car and we went back home to put the fish in the fish tank.

I saw a stream, the first little stream that I have ever seen in my whole life. I got my dad's net and I filled the bucket with water and my dad helped me to get the lid off the fish tank. And then I [on back of page] got out the door quickly before it rained. I put the fishy in the first little stream.

I hope you enjoyed this book.

The End.

Super Easy Super Stripey Baby Blanket

As I was making these balls and baby blanket for a friend's little boy, I thought, "hey, I should write down the patterns." Because I'm bad about doing that.

I'll post the ball patterns later, but for now, here's the free baby blanket pattern. If you try it, please leave me a comment and let me know how it works up for you. I'm not new to crochet, but I am new to writing out patterns!

Super Easy Super Stripey Baby Blanket Pattern

You'll Need:

100% cotton 4-ply worsted weight yarn in a variety of colors
Size K or 10.5 (or 6.5 MM) crochet hook

My stitch gauge was 3 stitches (plus a smidge) per inch.

Instructions:

In first color, chain (ch) 119 loosely. If your initial chain is too tight, you'll end up with more of a trapezoid blanket than a rectangle. Which actually sounds kind of fun.

Starting in second chain from hook, work one single crochet (sc) in each ch. Ch one, turn.
Sc in ea sc across. Ch one, turn.

Repeat until you have 90 rows total.

Now here's the fun part. You can do anything you want, color-wise. You could make the entire blanket a solid color, you could do alternating stripes, or you could use a variety of colors and stripe widths, like I did. I'd used three different variegated yarns for the balls, so I used everything in that color palate for the blanket (including leftover bits of the variegated yarns). I'd crochet until I felt like I had too much of something, then add something else to balance it out, then throw it off kilter again, and balance it out again. It was actually a lot of fun to work this way, because I avoided the monotony of crocheting with any one color or pattern for too long, and I had to keep thinking about what I wanted to do next.

End with a slip stitch (sl st).

With border color, work around outer edge of blanket twice using one sc in ea sc of blanket edge, using two sc in one sc at corners to turn. Sl st and weave in ends.

Father's Day Crafting

Now that we won't give away any surprises, I present to you our first attempt at freezer paper stenciling. We're really late to that party, I know, but I can see why it's so popular now. We followed the directions in The Creative Family, and it was easy and super fun.

Betsy with stencils. She came up with the ideas of the images, I did the cutting and ironing, and she did the stenciling. The whole project, start to finish (except for drying time) was completed during one of Abigail's naps.

I mean, it took months. Months and months of meticulous and tedious painting, Matthew and Dad!

Daddy and daughter model their matching elephant shirts.

Ten Loves: (#8: Sewing Together)

In honor of the last ten days until (or somewhat soon after) graduation, ten things for which I am super thankful.

#1: Family
#2: Doodling
#3: The Farmers' Market
#4: Thursday Afternoon Playdates
#5: Graduation Bingo
#6: Party Preparation
#7: Discovering the Sweetness

#8: Sewing Together

I'm teaching my daughter to sew, just as my mother taught me, and her mother taught her. Betsy wanted to make a skirt for her bear Color-Color. It was a simple thing to construct, just a seam down the side and a casing for the elastic (we used the selvage for the bottom), the sort of garment I had made for my own dolls.

She concentrated very hard to make her stitches even, and to keep them in a row. She even learned to thread the needle herself.

Here Betsy is with Color-Color, who is proudly modeling her new skirt. For so many years, my creative artsy-craftsy time was limited to Betsy's bedtimes and naps. It is so much fun to begin to create things--together--with my big girl, and to continue the tradition of mother teaching daughter to sew.

Ten Loves (#2: Doodling)

For the last ten days until graduation, ten things for which I am super thankful.

#1: Family

#2: Doodling

There is something about being physically stuck somewhere boring that gives the mind permission to wander. Official Art Time can be intimidating, what with the nagging desire to Use Time Wisely and to Create Something Great. But doodling isn't supposed to be great art; it's just fun, a way to escape.

Some of my best creative ideas have had their roots in doodles scrawled during math class or staff meetings. I miss that time when I had no choice but to sit still for a while and draw. (In between Important Intellectual Discussions and lots of Learning, of course. Ahem.) I don't have that forced down time anymore, but I am trying to make time to doodle. And it is still great fun.

But I fear that dooding will soon be a lost art. I'm resisting getting an iPhone because I don't want to be tempted to spend more time online. Really, does the world need another status update of "Waiting to pick up the kids," or "Tuesday again!"? Next time you have a few minutes to spare, why not try a little doodling instead?

The Certificate of Big Sloppy Thanks

While cleaning up a series of large and particularly nasty messes I thought, "Wow! This is probably the biggest mess in the whole history of this home! I sure am working hard! Someone should give me an award."

I wiped my sweaty brow, leaned wearily but proudly on my mop, and waited to receive my award.

And waited.

And then I drew my own award. Here it is, just in time for Mother's Day. Feel free to print it out, fill it in, color it if you feel particularly zesty, and give it to a person to whom you'd like to say, "Thanks for cleaning up that time/all the time. You are great, and I appreciate you."


It's fun! Free! A great last-minute gift that looks like it took you WAY long to write out by hand!

Perfect for messy occasions such as:
illness
the morning after a party
raising children
the science fair
cooking
home repair/remodeling
insect invasion
AND MUCH MORE!

Teacher Appreciation Week

Do you know the difference between antlers and horns? I do, and I learned it just this week, from a great teacher. (The answer is at the end of this post.)

It's Teacher Appreciation Week, and of course the Pepper girls had to get crafty about it. We started to make flowers for Betsy's two main preschool teachers, but we couldn't forget her two other teachers, and then she wanted to give them to the school director and administrator and, well, we ended up making a whole garden's worth of flowers.

That's okay, it was a lot of fun. Raiding the button stash is always a good time.

And I think they turned out to be quite pretty.

Animals shed antlers, but they keep horns. Think deer vs bull. Thanks for the informative nature talk at Betsy's preschool, Mom!

Easter Shoes

A little something for baby's first Easter. I've had a hard time completing projects lately, so I'm especially thankful that I was able to finish these in time.

Random Photo of the Week

Ballerinas great and small.

Superhero Bunnies

Betsy has been making Easter cards, with a little help from me. Although the basic template is the same, I enjoy that each has evolved into its own little scene, complete with sequin eggs, artful belly button placement (look for one in the middle of a forehead), and occasional backstory.

The artist discusses her work below.


"This bunny has a basket in his paw, and his key for opening up the front doors to get in. Also, there's a spider. No no, not a spider. It's a sun. The writing at the top says Betsy."



For the one on the left: "One is happy and one's sad. Because they don't like their home. Well, one does and the other doesn't. This one [the smiling one] says 'You are the bestest.' The sad one is saying 'I want Mama.'"

For the one on the right: "It has seven eyes because it's a giant alien bunny and it can fly up in space and hide Easter eggs up there. For the aliens."


For the one on the left: "She's a girl. She has one colored ear because she's an alien. She's my favorite."

For the one on the right: "They're both happy and I like their homes. I love them. They were the bestest bunnies of all because they were superhero bunnies. They can hide the eggs really fast and then they zoom away."