One Hook Wonder

Short Cake

My niece's 3rd birthday is today, so this is what I whipped up as part of her gift:

Though it has the usual amount of screw-ups subtly contained within it, I think it turned out pretty nicely.  It's made out of flannel so it will be nice and cozy for her to curl up with.  Here's a close-up of the material:

She'll also be receiving a pair of Strawberry Shortcake pajama pants, but as it's 11:45pm the night before I'll see her, I'm pretty sure she'll be getting them in the mail next week. 

I've been a very boring person as of late.  Oh - except for my 4 day headache, which mercifully ended today.  If you ever want to see some fantastic spousal spats, just let a pregnant lady have a headache for 4 days.  She'll start a fight over anything. 

In other developments, the ugly bathroom has been painted.  Since The Mister now has my cold that caused the 4 day headache, I'm not expecting the border to go up real soon.  We've also bought the new sink top, which I *think* is down in the basement somewhere.  Ugly bathroom was put on hold for a bit while The Mister worked on Boba's new bedroom.  When we moved in the plan was to finish out a larger bedroom for Boba down in the basement, since we'd be short a room once we had another child.  Well, it's now almost 3 years and 1 and 1/2 new babies later....and the room is finally almost done.  The carpet guy comes next week, and the boys painted last weekend.  (we talked Boba out of black -  he settled on the darkest gray available)  The plan is for Boba to move in by the end of the month at the latest, and for Short Pants to move into Boba's old room.  Hopefully that will give him plenty of time to get acclimated before the baby arrives.  I have a feeling he'll still end up in our bed most nights, though.

I've been feeling really blah lately.  I'm disappointed that I still haven't gotten my second trimester energy surge, and I'm sick to death of being tired.  Bleck.  Even my blog is blah today. 

People Like Me

Firstly, a bit of sickly quilting.  I completed this square (don't ask me why) when I felt absolutely horrible from the mastitis.  Not a good idea.  Guess what?  If you normally sew somewhat crookedly when you're well, then you're bound to sew very crookedly when you're sick.  Luckily you can't really tell in the pictures - shoulda just kept my mouth shut.  (fingers quiet?)  Anyway, this is a rail fence pattern block I did for the center of our table.

And here it is again, just in case you didn't see it the first time:

Secondly, I came to a rather important realization today.  There are two types of people in the world - put together people, and scruffy people.  You can easily spot the put together people.  Their homes are always clean and tastefully decorated.  They are always dressed nicely, and their children are always neat.  They are organized, intelligent, and a fine example to us all.  I was at the home of a put together person today.  Her house was immaculate.  She told me that she hadn't been cleaning lately since her husband was out of town.  I really like this woman, but I hated her for just a moment there. 

I'm, sadly, a scruffy person.  I can sometimes manage to look like a put together person, but I can never get all the way there.  I either forget to reapply lipstick, am dressed nicely but haven't done my hair (or vice versa), or just don't own the right shoes.  Lately the only time I remember to get Boba a haircut is when I look at him and realize that his sideburns rival the late Elvis's.  Bean regularly dresses in clothes that don't match or weather-inappropriate outfits (sun dresses in December, for example - I finally had to hide all of her summer clothing).  My picture frames don't match, nor does my entertainment center and the wood on the bottom of the sofa. 

I got home today thinking, "Well, maybe if I tried hard enough I could become a put together person."  I was greeted at our sidewalk by a dead chipmunk courtesy of the cat.  Walking up onto the porch, I noticed the partially dismembered body of the scarecrow from Halloween.  Granted, next to the door hangs a sweet little Valentine's sign - proof that I tried, but again...the scarecrow...just couldn't get all the way there.  I lack follow through, I suppose.  Boba's room has needed a border for (oh, this is hard to admit) a YEAR now.  It took awhile to find the right one, but 4 rolls of the right one have been sitting in the closet for at least 5 months. I actually think our entire family has just stopped seeing the big white space on his walls in between the painted areas. 

So I was feeling pretty depressed and rather scruffy.  Until I remembered...this is a good one...

The Church of Chris

The Church of Chris is a church just outside of town that we pass quite often.  2 years ago, when we moved here, we had a good giggle over the sign, thinking it would be changed soon.  A few months went by, and we thought, "Well, maybe the church is closed, so that's why it hasn't been changed."  Nope - services every Sunday.  2 years later, and the congregation still hasn't managed to find the time to add a missing "t."  Do you get it?  They've just stopped seeing the missing "t."

If I ever get religion, you can bet your rear that I'm joining The Church of Chris.  It won't make me feel any less scruffy, but I'm betting there will be other ladies there with no lipstick on and messy houses.    Maybe we could start a support group.  Either that or wage war on put together people.  Hell, they aren't Quakers.

Bean's First Quilt Block

My daughter, or "The Bean" as she's known around here, completed her first sewing project ever tonight.  The project was actually for a Brownie sewing badge, and of course we finished it about an hour before the meeting, 'cause that's just how we do things.  Maybe we should work on that.

I had a hard time getting the fabric to run correctly on her mini sewing machine, so we broke out the big guns.  Bean sat on my lap and sewed with my machine and a minimum of pricked fingers.  Minimum meaning zero.  She was quite pleased with herself and has decided to let me help her turn her block into a quilt for one of her dolls.  Actually, she wanted to work on it more before bed, but as I'm having company tomorrow morning and dried up hot dogs from Short Pant's dinner are still strewn about the living room I persuaded her to wait. 

Hooray for Bean!

Better picture of the quilt

First Project of the New Year

My 14-month-old son LOVES dogs.  "Dog" was his first word (although it was pronounced "dough" for awhile) and by default every animal he doesn't recognize is a dog.  Hence, reindeer are dogs with antlers and horses are dogs that whinny.  Dog fabric is suprisingly hard to come by around here.  None was to be found at Hobby Lobby, and the only thing Hancock Fabrics had to offer was an orange cotton printed with dalmations.  Luckily, I didn't have to resort to that.  I found this flannel at Wal-Mart of all places and decided it would make the perfect quilt. 

This is only my second quilting project, and I'm quite pleased with it.  The first is a rather crooked affair that hangs on my daughter's bedroom wall.  I'm happy to say this is a good deal more straight, and stitching in the ditch helped me disguise the blocks that didn't line up so well.  Is there some secret I'm missing about lining up blocks?  Almost all of mine are a teensy bit off...grrr.

The quilt is meant to be a sleepy-time snuggle blanket for the baby.  I'd like him to get into a routine of snuggling with something at bedtime - besides my boobs - preferably something made by ME.  The sock monkey I made him a few months ago languishes in the corner of the crib, forgotten and unloved.  The only action it sees is an occasional tug on the ear and a toss on the floor.  Hopefully this quilt will be better received.