Twisted, Sister!

Fridays I never have kids and have planning time to write notes, work on lesson plans, prepare portfolios, and so forth.  I am able to have a more flexible work schedule.  So many Fridays Glen and I make plans to go to lunch together.

This past Friday was one of those days.  I picked him up and we happened to be listening to Science Friday on NPR (National Public Radio.)  Science Friday is usually fun to listen to because the topics vary so much and are pretty interesting and the host is upbeat and jovial.  This week the  topic was (well I can't tell you the whole thing because my mind wandered after the introductory part--you'll see why.)  The guy said that skin cells are able to turn themselves into beating heart cells when a huge recipe of scientific soup is added.  But first the skin cells have to be turned into stem cells and then they can be made into heart cells.  I am sure that all of this has profound scientific ramifications and will be really amazing for our coronary health in the future.  But the guy said, " If there was a way for the skin cells to skip the stem cell step then..."  After that I began concocting skin cells tongue twisters.  Glen joined in and silliness ensued.  Here is the best one:  "She seriously sears her skin cells by the shiny sea shore."  Please try to say this 5 times fast.  Impossible!!!  I laugh!!!  I tickle myself!!!

This also reminds me of a story a friend told about being roped in, at the last minute, to play and sing for/with a group of 4th-6th grade boys at RA Camp (Royal Ambassadors--pre AWANA missions group  for boys in Southern Baptist Churches.)  My friend thought it would be so fun to sing a tongue twister song with the boys, so she did.  They were laughing and singing a long at the top of their voices.  When she finished the song they yelled to do it again. My friend, thinking she was a big hit with this group she was not so sure about, enthusiastically went in for the second round.  When she finished they yelled for a third go round.  She began to start again and then saw the flailing arms of her husband.  He was jumping up and down in the back of the auditorium and trying to sign for her to stop.  She did and excused herself from the stage.  The song she had played for the boys was "Peter Piper Picked a peck of pickled peppers."  The boys had apparently been singing "PICKLED (something an 11 year old boy would think of that rhymes with peppers)" while laughing wildly and pointing to the front of their pants.  She was mortified but it sure was a funny story. 
 
I leave you with a parting twist:  How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?  "dang woodchucks!!"

 PS  Oh my!! I went and saw The King's Speech---must say it is solidly in my top 5 EVER!  In the movie they said a tongue twister that I now love "I have a sieve of sifted thistles because I am a thistle sifter."

That made me think of the one Glen is always trying to get me to say and I really CANNOT:  "A skunk sat on a stump.  The skunk thunk the stump stunk.  The stump thunk the skunk stunk.  Which one stunk, the stump or the skunk?"  Boy I even had a hard time spelling (much less saying) that one.  Want more?  Who knew there were so many?

$2 Clock Made Vintage and New

Here is the newest installment of craftiness for the bedroom.  I had a $2 clock that I intended to do something fabulous with for Lylah's baby nursery.  I had seen a very cute clock by Land of Nod and wanted to try something like it, but then it flopped and I tried something else and I hated that too.  And so it sat in a wasteland of unfinished projects and scrawled on a "to do" list.  Skip ahead nearly 4 years and I have revamped it and LOVE it.

You may or may not recall that I have been asked by several older ladies if I wanted to go through their crafts stash/sewing stuff and take what I wanted because they were cleaning house and choosing not to craft anymore.  I, of course, jumped on the idea and MY craft stash is now crazy awesome with vintage trims, buttons, and general crafty goodness.  My total favorites are the tiny plastic deer from Glen's grandma.

Anywho, from one of my treasure hunts I recovered about 6 or 8 pieced and never finished quilt blocks.  I top stitched one of them and embroidered numbers around the edges.  I then affixed it to the clock face and glued the tips to the outside rim of the clock face.  I put the hands back on, made sure it worked, and popped the cover back on the top (with no small effort-these things are not really made to come apart.)  I love the look.  Sweet and vintage and Grandmother's Kitchen looking.  Perfect!!!

Here are a few shots of the clock.  They are as good as I could get.  I think I REALLY need to fix up a light box to get better shots---or read my camera manual.  The first is the recipient peering at her clock (she had to be in one.)

Oh the fun!!!  I will have more tomorrow or maybe Monday depending on how it all goes.  I am elbows deep in a floor mat play area for the doll house.   Listening to audio books while I work now.  LOVE it!!

Oh Mommy, There's a Graden On My Mirror

I have finished another element of Lylah's room.  I have had a brass mirror in her room, hung at her level, since she was about 12 months old.  I have always wanted to do something else with the frame and had something completely different in mind for the finished product.  But last week I changed my mind and was able to whip out the mirror in a few hours.

Before:  A nice Beveled Mirror ( uh...quite dirty too) with a dated brass frame.  From Grammy Jones' de-stashing efforts a few years back.

Lylah peeking at herself in the Garden Mirror. To the mirror I added a topper made of left over mat board and covered the brass frame and the topper with a velveteen-ish material. I then made two different sized mushrooms out of felt and attached them with a few blades of felt grass.  I then made flowers out of a million buttons in varied sizes and colors backing them with felt (or not) and topping them with sequins (or not).  I attached everything (including many felt leaves) with hot glue.  And Ta Da!

She wanted to make sure I got her new-from-Grammy-Blazer- Strawberry- Shortcake- Purse in the shot.  You can also see the little felt mushrooms at the bottom.

I thought I better add this picture although it does not show much new of the mirror.  It is a typical and silly face I see all the time from Lylah.  Her fake smile.  See our wedding photos for the originator (Daddy) of the fake smile.

Here is a close up of the button flowers.  It was very fun to make and I only burnt myself 300 times.  I listened to Peter Pan on CD read by Jim Dale.  He is outstanding and he does great voices.  I recommend Peter Pan to any reader.  Oh the whimsy and fun and a rollicking good tale to boot!

Well there you have it.  One  forest themed/ garden themed mirror redo.  I have more to show tomorrow too.  I'm on a roll!

Snow Rangers and a Polar Bear Bath

So today was the 4th snow day in a row.  I technically could have gone to work today, but classes were canceled and I chose to stay home with Crazy Cakes instead.  We wasted no time getting started with our day.  Bright and early we were up AND DRESSED in real clothes.   I was working on the attic craft space and Lylah was writing a story.  I wrote down her dictation and apparently the world is full f carnage today.  One piece of a story was quite tragic yet told in a very mater of fact way as follows:  "Well the baby kitten was yelling and she said, 'help! help! I am stuck inside a Loin's mouth!'  Then her Grandma came and helped her out of the lion.  Then they cooked her up in a soup.  Why?  Well, because had been inside the lion's mouth and she had already been chewed...."  There several stories involving coyotes on top of "pyramints" and how jump on you when you look up just like the Woozles in Winnie the Pooh.  And they went on and on. She has been very interested in stories and learning to read and writing her own books and drawing the pictures.  It was so cute and a fun look into her thought processes and development.
After out writing and un-cleaning we got bundled up, gathered snow man supplies and trekked out into the 14 inches of snow to make a snow Lylah.  But it has been very windy and the snow was no good for snow building.  So she made a quick SNOW RANGER and then we changed the plans.

What a cute snow ranger!

I gathered up three giant tubs of snow to turn our bathtub into a sensory table.  I had intended to bring in tubs of snow and let her play with it in the dining room, but Aunt Lori told me that a friend had brought it in and put it in the tub.  I find that idea brilliant!  It just melts away and the mess is gone.  Genius!
So she squirted blue water into the snow and learned how to such water into a medicine dropper and built snow castles.  She even got in in her snow bibs that Grandma Jones gave her.  She had lots of fun, but decided that she better stop and help me make snow Ice Cream.  So we did.

This is the crazy face I get most every time I pull out the camera.

One last look at our snow castle.  Lylah says it looks like the one at Disney world and oh how she would love to see it for real.

Snow ice Cream:
Pile of snow in a bowl
dollop of Sweetened Condensed Milk
Stir and enjoy---I think it tastes a lot like home made ice cream.  Icy and rich.

These pictures are in order of how they happened.  The last one of her with a cold face was not posed (although it looks like I told her to do it).  She had just eaten too much too fast and frozen her little teeth or mouth.  She also told me how I was the best mommy in the world and I got several kisses.  Maybe this is like me needing to hug people when I find a splendid antique or button.

Well that's our snow day!

He Loves Me Hoop

I have been loving the embroidery hoop designs I have been making lately.  I have seen some on the blogs, but not just like mine.  I would link you to some that are awesome...but I tend to look a lot and not remember where they came from unless they are from a fave spot.  I should get better about that and the post would be reeally cool.  But you only get my stuff today.

I found this cast off bolt of fabric at "WalMark's" a few months ago for cheap and  loved the look of it.  It has a wood grain look and is so very fun.  You know I love all things woodsy and forest-ish and this fabric fit right in (except for the fact that it is obviously not a natural fiber and is quite slick and synthetic.)  So the feel and type of the fabric is "meeeh, not so much.."  But the look is right, so I overlooked the feel.

I intended to make the hoop as a gift for Glen for Christmas and make it look like our initials were carved in a tree.  I am sure I still will at some point.  But this one turned into a hoop to celebrate how much we are loved by our God.  It has come to my heart like a ton of bricks how much I am loved by Jesus- maybe as a direct result of deep sadness and human tragedy and the loss of our third baby girl.  It is amazing how God is so good and comforts us so much when we are so broken.  I have learned that I am in God's care and how all things are filtered through his grace and mercy for our good and his glory.  I paraphrased that last from our Sunday School teacher (and small group leader) who put the thoughts better than I could and spoke the thoughts of my heart.   So the love note for Glen turned into a love note from Jesus instead and I really love the way it turned out.

 

I am not so sure the picture does the hoop justice.  I used a branch and acorns from one of our favorite trees around the corner and traced the leaf to make felt leaves.  The verses are from

Romans 8:37-39
we are more than victorious     through Him who loved us.
  For I am persuaded that neither death nor life,
    nor angels nor rulers, 
    nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
  nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing
    will have the power to separate us
    from the love of God  that is in Christ Jesus our Lord!

 Nothing can separate us from God's love.  There are so many other verses I could have selected for the same "He Loves Me" theme, but I liked this one at the time.   I am sure I will add more to the collection.  I love the idea of the wood carved sentiment.  I feel like I could get started on another one tonight.  But I have a Lylah's Room project to finish.  So I will get that done so I can show you her room completed.

Maybe one more sneak peek.

This is her little table and chairs with Lylah and Friend place mats and a real vase with fake flowers.  I debated doing some sort of mod podge on the table top but I think I am going to go with a "less is more" approach.  Curiosity peeked?  Maybe not, but this was such a big deal for me I feel like I cannot show it until it is all the way done.  And it's not done yet.  So hang tight.

The Bunny Hoop

Well it has been a while again and I have a very good reason.  I have been as busy as a bee or a beaver (whichever you prefer).  We have completed a MAJOR renovation in Lylah's room and I have also done several crafty projects related to that.  Oh, yeah, and we have all been sick with colds followed by the flu followed by another cold (followed by an ear infection for Lylah).  So,needless to say, we have been a little out of commission.

But enough of the sob story....I am currently off work for the 3rd day in a row for snow and ice.  A 3 day paid vacation on the heels of a big room redo makes me happy.  We never lost power and we had plenty of groceries and time for art and decorating.  Lylah has been quite the artist.  She has been painting and drawing all day.  Her pictures are getting recognizable and pretty well done (if I do say so myself).  I think she got the artist gene YIPPEE!

I thought I would show you a sneak peek of the bedroom but mostly a little bunny hoop.

Here is the bunny hoop.  The bunny cross stitch has been in the family since the 80's.  I have always Loved it and my mom lovingly gave it to me several months ago.  I intended it to be in Mae's room along with a couple of other things, but I revamped it and made it over for Lylah's room instead.  I adore it even more now.  For me it has so much history.  I bought the buttons I used for the flowers after Anna passed away and have been intending to use them for a remembrance for her.  The bunnies I intended for Mae's room.  So the two of them together seems appropriate.  The cross stitch was in a lovely 80's DUSTY ROSE frame and mat.  So I took it out and put it into the trendy hoop.  I then added the button flowers and I completely adore the whole thing.  I mean I ADORE it.  it might be my favorite thing I have ever revamped/made.  Family history, personal history and a lovely addition to Lylah's new big girl room...love it !!

OK now for the sneak peek...

Lylah in her big girl bed.

Lylah standing by her book rails.   More to come soon.