a warning on the bathroom door

the good, the bad, and the beautiful

here are some notes from quinn. they were all so good, i couldn't limit it to just one. it has been really fun revisiting all of the children's artwork.

on the freezer door

for extra emphasis, this note was taped to the freezer/fridge door handle. i left it there for awhile because it made me laugh every time i had to open the fridge.

a note from fischer

we found this note next to fischer, asleep in the hallway

a late valentine

as we all know in parenting there are some good days, and some not so good. this little note from my daughter maia (6 years old) was left under my pillow last night, it made my whole day. she worked very hard and carefully on this whole valentine, making the bracelet, drawing and writing, and packaging it all together, with just a little-tying things together- help from her dad. it makes me want to do my best by my kids and try and live up to their expectations of me, especially on days when you just want to suck your thumb in the corner. many times i've found myself wondering who put me in charge, what do i know that qualifies me to be a parent? notes like this make it all worth it. i guess i am suceeding in some respects. so thank you maia for the vote of confidence every mother need every now and again. just in case you are not used to reading things spelled phonetically it reads: dear mom, you are the best mom ever. you should have an award and this award represents your happiness.

for some reason all of my children are note writers. When the want to express something they write it down and give it to you in the form of a letter. This goes for santa and the tooth fairy as well. every christmas and every lost tooth is a chance to correspond with these mysterious characters, and hopefully learn a little bit more about them. i'm going to dedicate this week to the letters of the children. every day i'll post one of my favorite letters we have found, borrowed or been left.

felt garland

this little garland is the felt fun project i've had in mind all of these weeks. it's finally finished, long after valentine's day. it took a lot longer than i had anticipated, lot's o' steps. but, i like the way it turned out.

razzle dazzle

yes, it's a bedazzler, and it's mine. oh the fun to be had with this little baby, what do i bedazzle first...

where's your shirt honey?

i made this skirt for a friend today. an elastic waist is always a hard thing on adult size items, which is why i have only been making up to about a 12 to 14 girls size. i guess i prefer a more taylored fit to my clothes, if i was petite i probably wouldn't care so much. but when you're "big boned" you have to worry about what kind of waist is in your skirt, but really, that's a whole other story...

ahhh, fresh powder

when you are a busy mom your powder days get fewer and further between. it's not that you don't still love skiing the fresh stuff, you just can't chase it like you used to. sometimes when all the stars line up- you get a lucky break. that break came for me yesterday when i went to work and somehow found myself without a lesson. (on a holiday this is almost unheard of) it had been snowing most of the night and was still snowing, finally. this season has been extremely sparce when it comes to powder days. the privledge of making some turns down that untracked slope covered in knee deep fresh powder became mine. the snow continued to fall and a cloud covered the mountain, but that only added a sneaky feeling to the moment, as i chose my favorite line and dissapeared down through the powder, making tracks next to the last set. i love that fabulous rush of adrenaline you feel when skiing fresh powder, it makes you feel giddy inside and sticks a goofy grin on your face.

happy birthday fischer

our little fischer turned 9 on sunday, we had his party, with all his peeps on saturday. we kind of blocked off the street in front of our house and had a bike rally/street party that went on all day, long after most of the young guests had been picked up. the weather held up perfectly, sunny and in the 50's. here is a picture of the cake i made for the party. the other picture is fischer jumping his daddy-o. my camera has really bad timing, it takes a few seconds after you have pushed the button to actually take the picture, but in this case, i somehow got the timing just right.

ski/snowboard kids

this is a great pictures of all the doodles, with their varying levels of excitement about getting their picture taken and just wanting or not wanting to get moving and quit standing around.

felt beads

i love the way these little babies turn out, although they are a little labor intensive to make. perhaps because i lost the instruction paper in the heap of papers that come through this house on a daily basis, so i had to go from memory on how to make them. anyway, watching a 90 minute movie last night i got 5 made. i have been very excited about the prospect of making felt beads, and what i can make with them. but, i'd better pick up the pace if i want to do anything last minute valentine-ish with them. they look so cute in this little bowl, it makes me wish i had a giant bowl of felt beads in all colors and sizes, just to put on the table...but at my pace that could take all year.

party games

last night we went to a super fun party at a friends house. lots of good food, new and old friends, and a table heaped with art supplies for making valentines. paper, rubber stamps, embossing stuff, and glitter are not usually my medium- which is probably what made it so fun. it was so enjoyable to just sit and chit-chat with everyone and get crazy making valentines. here are a few i made, and a felt heart i sewed the other day. i really appreciate the use of all your great supplies and ideas. it is sometimes such an effort to just get out all of the crafting supplies that i don't do it as often as i should, especially with the kids. our house needs an out of the way space where we can have everything just left out, neat and ready to go. we need a project room/studio. i guess someday we'll figure out a bigger house. but for now it was fabulous to enjoy the art supplies of others. i hope we didn't leave behind too much of a mess. thanks hailey and christopher

more felt fun

I found this on esty, i took a chance on this book about felt (the text is in japanese) and ordered it for the pictures. luckily it is mostly pictures and patterns which i can decipher, and very few words. it's got lots of fun little ideas, a candy shop with felt treats (the only kind i need around this house) vegetables and little people. there is a pattern for a hand puppet whose mouth opens like a muppet. i have been looking for puppets like these for a puppet theater i made my kids. they are hard to come by. i mean really, who wants to put on a puppet show if you can't make your puppets mouth move?

felt fetish

the other day i made this little felt book, you know, for needles and other pokey things. it turned out OK. i think i need to hit the edges with pinking shears to jazz it up a little more.

organizational skills

here are a few aprons I made for christmas presents, before i had my dressform for better picture taking.
it has taken me about a week to put together a batch of 30 purses. thankfully, they will be sewn by my seamstress helper. purses take me forever to design. i have to get everything out, all my fabric (and that's a lot), fringle-frangle (trim and detail stuff), handle hardware and fabric, and the list goes on...i'm ready to move onto the next project.
this month is turning out busier than i'd hoped for. i'm ending up doing household odds and ends all day, and not what i really want to do, like work on my felt project ideas, read the book group book (glass castle), eat treats and nap, or even just blog all day :) it's all good, i can't complain, but organization is the name of the game.
crew, my 2 1/2 year old just took himself to the bathroom, things are looking good.

photo booth

My very favorite feature of my new imac is by far- photo booth. Anyone who comes to our house is invited to sit in front of the computer and treated to a giggle by taking their own picture, with the built-in special effects. I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. It is good for-literally- at least an hour of good clean fun. Here are some of my favorite pictures of the kids.