First project of 2012 and a mushy aside

I sewed for the first time using vinyl! It was a little tricky, but the old tape on the presser foot trick worked well (don't forget the back like I did). I followed the tutorial from Make It and Love It. It is really for Lego storage, but his cars were handy.

 I intended to have it ready for Christmas, but I spent my time sewing stockings for all of the adults in my family. The bag is a little roomier than I had imagined, so if you are considering making one, don't go too big! This one is made from a 9 inch circle (aka my stand mixer bowl). D took to it right away, so maybe he will be excited to clean? Not too likely.


My mushy aside. 


I was sitting at my desk absorbed in some task or another, and I hear D pitter patter in. I turned around and saw that he had decided to occupy a corner of my room. Guess he just wanted to be near me. <3

Mario Kart is way fun for kids and their moms too!

OK, OK I have a New Year's Resolution

I wasn't going to do any resolutions this year, but then I came across Perogies & Gyoza's awesome New Years Resolution Challenge.

I like challenges.

Her challenge is to read to her children everyday. As a librarian, I read to other people's children every day, but Daddy normally does bedtime and stories around here. I cannot think of something more rewarding that encouraging a child to enjoy literature. In my mind, it opens a world of opportunity because reading is at the center of all learning. So I snagged her button and joined the challenge! I hope you do too.

Isn't she lovely?

Isn't she wonderful?

(hint: the answer is YES)

Meet Priscilla, my new serger. She is a Brother 5234PRW. She was kind of a shock this Christmas. I had asked for a serger, but an entry-level one. My MIL shocked me with this one. Here she is with her little fabric catcher on. Though the manual tells me that "trim trap" is the right terminology.

And here she is with her fancy outfit (aka wide table assembly) on. 

It is love. At first I was afraid. She's quite fancy. But I watched the video twice (and some change) and threaded her correctly the first time. Daniel is also in love and is constantly asking if he can watch me sew. He even sat through the video with me and helped me out.

I have serged the ends of a ridiculous number of scraps and I have finally undertaken a project. I'll let you know how it turns out. 

The tough questions

Daniel's self portrait with a dash of Christmas mess

I guess 4 is when the tough questions hit? No one warned me about this. He seems to always ask me stuff when I can't bolt or distract him. 6 days before Christmas D and I were driving to the mall to peek at Santa (no lap sitting for this kid). As you can imagine traffic was horrendous and he pulls out the, "How are babies made?" bomb. I smoothed it over with my usual answer of "babies grow inside of mommies." Normally this works. This time? Not so much.

D: Yeah, Mom, but how do babies get in there?
Me: Er, daddies help put them in there.
D: (silence)
Me: (sigh of relief)
D: How do daddies do that?
Me: (fuck) Um, well mommies have eggs, kind of like a chicken, but really small and they keep them inside. And daddies have this stuff called sperm. They give it to the mommies and that makes a baby.
D: (looooooong silence) So I have sperm?
Me: Yes. One day you can be a daddy if you want.
D: Mommy, do you want a baby? I can share some of my sperm.
Me: (doing my best not to giggle) Oh thanks, baby, but I am married to Daddy, so he shares his sperm with me. When you find someone you love and you decide you want a baby, you can share it then, OK?
D: OK. Can we look at Legos at the mall?

And it was over. I survived. And now I need to warn the babysitter.

Just today we were driving home from the store and he asks me, "Is Daddy going to die?" He asks about death a lot. I think it's because we talk about his sister and he knows that she died. I admit, this is such a hard road for me to travel with him. Trey and I are atheists (though the term Secular Humanist is really what we prefer), and I have no comforting afterlife to tell him about because I don't believe in one. Telling him about life after death is akin to lying to him. I don't do that. As cheesy as it sounds, we tell him that when we die, our bodies go into the ground and we get to help plants grow. Plants help people and animals and then we cue Elton John...."The ciiiiiiircle of liiiiiife..."

So back to my story. D asked me if Daddy was going to die. I was totally squirming and caught between wanting to be totally honest and wanting to protect him. I chose honesty. I told him one day, probably in a really long time, Daddy would die.

And then he started crying.

And I felt like an asshole.

He was fairly inconsolable for a few minutes. By this time we had gotten home, so I pulled him into my lap and hugged him for a while. I tried to explain that Daddy would be around for a long time. He would be all grown up and have children of his own. He said that it wasn't fair and that it made him sad and he didn't like that Daddy would die. I agreed that it doesn't seem fair and it made me sad and I didn't like it either. He asked who would protect him. I explained that he would be old enough to protect himself. He would probably be even bigger than Daddy.

It sucks but that's all I had. I let him sit in my lap and feel sad, because it is sad. And though he isn't me, I'd rather deal with a shitty truth and come to terms with it than to be lied to. I've been on both ends of that and I would choose the truth every time.

He never questioned my mortality, so he either understands that it transfers to all living things, or I am still immortal in his 4-year-old eyes. I am good with that for now.

The year of the Lego

That's what I am calling this Birthday/Christmas. Trey and I decided Daniel was old enough to know the joy of Legos.

We both loved them growing up. Birthday was filled with Legos and then Christmas was filled with Legos.

 I am not sure who is enjoying them the most. I think it may be a three-way tie.

Santa was kind enough to put all of them together when he stopped by on Christmas.

(Pardon the Play Doh that is all over the table. That was a big hit as well.)

I have some fun projects in the works that will help me organize all of these little plastic blocks of fun. 

Just a story that I have to tell

I don't even know how to begin. I'm trying not to drag it out, but I think a certain amount of back story is needed.

We've had long standing issues with our neighbors. They are truly thoughtless people. They very frequently throw loud parties, they don't watch after their dogs or care when they are barking, they drive really fast down the street, and are just generally not someone you would want to live next door to. I won't even get into how they treat their children, but I'm sure you can imagine. We have called the police and their landlords on more occasions that I can recall. No one listened. Their landlord made excuse after excuse. She just didn't want to deal with it.

We spoke with them about their dog several times. They got her as a small puppy and pretty much left her in the backyard. She had no training, no socialization, all she knew was her little yard. To make matters worse she was really high energy. It was a bad situation. She grew very territorial and broke the fence between our yard and theirs and attempted to bite my husband. She broke our fence several more times before they installed an electric fence. Still, I didn't trust it and she made it impossible to enjoy our yard. She was a large dog (a boxer mix) and frequently tried to jump over our fence. When she wasn't doing that, she barked constantly. We stopped going in our backyard. It just made me too nervous.

We had been playing outside that morning in the front yard. We could hear her barking, but it wasn't quite as bad out there. Trey and I washed my car while Daniel was playing in the dirt by our front door. I ran inside to make us lunch and I remember hearing a growl, a bark, and then a scream. I was slow to act. I remember thinking that maybe one of our dogs got out. But why would they growl? I started walking towards the front door and Trey ran in with Daniel in his arms. That's when I saw the blood all over his face. Trey quickly explained that the dog next door got out and bit Daniel. I looked down and he was crying and had blood all over his face. I grabbed Daniel out of his arms and screamed something to the effect of, "Kill that fucking dog and call the police." It was like my nightmare was unfolding in front of me.

I sat in our entry and rocked Daniel and told him everything was ok, but I was shaking with rage. Trey told me the ambulance was on the way. That's when I made a really dumb mistake. I went back outside with Daniel in my arms. My only thought was to get him to the ambulance as soon as possible. I wasn't out there long when she came back. She came up to me snarling and growling and lunged towards my legs. I had one of those moments of perfect adrenaline-fueled clarity. I knew I couldn't turn around, or she could knock me down. I knew if I kicked her she could bite me and bring me down. I had read in my dog training book to not lean over dogs because it can intimidate them. That's what I decided to do. I couldn't run, so I chose to fight. So I leaned forward as far as I was able to, clutched Daniel as close to me as possible and screamed. Loudly. It surprised her and she backed off a little. When she came in again, I did the same thing. Over and over we did this. She tried to circle me, but I wouldn't let her. I faced her and screamed my head off while attempting to be as intimidating as possible. I have no idea if this was the right thing to do, but it worked. After what felt like an eternity, a car drove by and saw what was going on. He laid on the horn and jumped out to help, grabbing jumper cables and swinging wildly to get her away from us. He opened his door and motioned for me to get in. Trey had come out too. He had been getting his shoes on and had no idea we were outside. Several neighbors came out after hearing my screams with shovels and one with a pitchfork.

I don't remember too much after that. Just the police arriving and the EMTs looking over Daniel. They were all great. Someone came and told me they finally tracked her down while she was attempting to attack a boy walking his dog. Another neighbor trapped her in their garage.

That all happened last March. It still haunts me a little. Even writing this I got a surge of adrenaline. I'm not sure I have ever been so scared. It just could have gone so very wrong. The dog was since put down. I feel bad about that. I know it wasn't her fault what she turned out to be. Our city monitors dogs that they bring in and they determined that she could not be rehabilitated. Daniel's scar is inside his mouth. Her bottom tooth cut him on the right side of his mouth from his molar up through his lip. It could have been much worse. It also could have been prevented.

The day after it happened we went on what I call, The Great Dog Tour. First thing after we all woke up, we brought our dogs in to gauge his reaction. I lost it for the first time when he asked if our dog Dalton could come with us to protect us. Then we went to my best friends house to expose him to her two large dogs (lab and golden retriever), then to my parents' house to visit with their two Jack Russell Terriers. We talked a lot about good dogs and bad dogs. I really wanted to prevent a lifelong fear of dogs. He hasn't shown an ounce of fear, even when we met a Boxer that looked nearly identical to the one that bit him. We've talked about it when he wants to, but not brought it up, allowing him to deal with it as he wants to. Thankfully he doesn't remember it very well and asks me questions sometimes.

Dalton - Daniel's protector. Don't divulge that he is actually a giant coward.

Afterwards, our neighbors didn't change. They texted an apology the next day. I'm not kidding. I'm not sure if they are amoral, really stupid, or just apathetic. The parties continued, the loudness continued, just the barking stopped.

I don't want to end it there. There is supposed to be some moral, some nice ending, but there isn't. They are still assholes. Thankfully, they are assholes that moved out a month ago. It has been nice and so very quiet, but I know that they are in another place making someone else miserable and teaching their children that this is how adults behave. It makes me so sad.

This and that

I finally have some time to blog! Unfortunately, it is because I am home with D who has hand, foot, and mouth disease. Nasty stuff. He's very much on the mend, but seriously...a virus that gives you painful sores on the inside of your throat AND makes you vomit? Cruel. Everyone at his little home daycare broke out with it nearly simultaneously.

I've been spending non-grad school hours sewing, which is a major stress reliever for me. Check out some of my new projects.

 

I sold the second one yesterday and have a custom order for another based on the first one. I got the patterns from Little Lizard King. I own 5 of her patterns and I love them all.

Daniel turned 4 on the 28th. I'm having issues with 4. It sounds so old. I think it is so hard because there are four-year-olds at my school in the pre-k program. He won't start school until 2013 (you know, if the world hasn't ended), but it still seems old.

His grandparents got him karate lessons for his birthday. He looks so cute in his uniform and is loving the lessons. I'm less than in love with the place that we chose, but we are locked in for the next 5 months. We will be switching in the summer. He's been having lessons (3 times a week for 30 minutes) for less than a month and already 3 classes have been canceled. They also told him not to wash his karate belt because that's where all his karate knowledge and wisdom is stored. Please don't tell my impressionable child your silly magic stories. Any knowledge that he has gained is stored in his brain, not the belt that he chews on during the ride home from lessons.

(Hypocrite alert: Yes, we do Santa which is a silly magic story. Our hope is to foster some critical thinking. Dale McGowan has an excellent post on his blog about it.)

Family Christmas Tradition

We don't have a ton, but my favorite has to be our ornaments. Since the year Trey and I were married, picking out our annual ornament has been a big deal. Trey and I switch off each year (I get evens, he gets odds and we each get veto rights). Here's a little picture walk back through time.

2002: Our first Christmas as a married couple, awwwww.

2003: Trey chose the always romantic Shrek. I am not sure if I am the smelly ogre or the jackass. 

2004: I chose Santa and Rudolph. They are currently on my desk waiting for some Gorilla Glue. Poor dears.

2005: And the winner is.... This Thing! Trey has collected Hot Wheels since his childhood. This one is very fitting.

2006: I chose two dog ornaments for our two dogs. 

2007: Trey picks The Nightmare Before Christmas (we are fans).

2008: OK, I can't blame Trey here. This one was all me. If you don't know what this is, I am not telling. Just know that it is nerdy, and you should probably be rolling your eyes. 

2009: Mr. Plow, that's his name. That name again is Mr. Plow. 

2010: I chose this lovey-dovey little number from Target.

2011: Trey once again went the Tim Burton route. He's a predictable man. 

When our daughter was born in 2006, we carried on the tradition even though she wasn't with us. Picking out her ornament is one of the most bittersweet moments during our holiday season. 

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010 (Hope is her middle name)

2011

And of course the tradition is continued on with Daniel.

2007

2008

2009

2010: This is the first ornament he picked out by himself. It wasn't my first choice, but he wanted it!

2011

As an aside, we took some family pictures at Thanksgiving. He is Daniel holding Keiran's picture.

Elf on the Shelf

I've been excited about starting this tradition for Daniel since, oh.... about August. It isn't that I was excited to have something to "keep him in line" or something to hold over his head, I debated for a long time on whether we were even going to do the Santa thing so that's not really my style. I was excited to bring this little bit of magic and whimsy to his life.

We got the elf on Thursday and Daniel immediately decided that it was a she. I was really delighted to once again have another female in the house. And after discussing such fabulous names like "plate" "computer" and "sewing machine" (why, yes, these were things that were all in his line of sight, how did you guess?) he threw out the name Isabella. I grabbed onto it like the last TV on Black Friday and ran with it.

We talked about the elf and how she comes to visit boys and girls. I really wasn't prepared for how darn EXCITED he was going to be. There were even some tears when I told him that she flies to the North Pole at night (I don't want her to leave!). I quickly explained that she comes back, but he didn't really believe me until he saw her the next morning. Daniel is a kid that needs to know everything about everything so I have been answering questions non-stop about our elf.
A random sampling:
Can she see me at Sarah's house?
Can I go with her to the North Pole?
Why can't she talk? also: Why did Santa say she can't talk?
Can she hear me?
What does she want for Christmas?
Why can't I see her magic?

And so on, and so on, and so on.

It's cute.....really.

Being the epic slacker that I am, I forgot to take a picture the first morning as she dangled from the pot rack (I  smell a recreation). I did remember this morning though!

I'm not sure if she is more of a Black Ops or a Red Dead Redemption fan

Holiday time again!

It's the best time of the year!


It starts with one of my favorite holidays...Halloween, then goes into Thanksgiving,  D's birthday, Trey's birthday, and then Christmas! It also means that it is craft show season. I love this time of year, but I hardly have any time to work on anything else. So no blogging, no crafts, no time for much of anything except sewing things to sell and grad school. Next year perhaps. 


I did want to update on our Pinterest Project. I have completed 3 projects since the start of Zaira's and my project. Here are my next five:

I want to make the white one. Gorgeous, huh?

I think I squealed a little when I saw this one. I have been shopping for the perfect hoodie!

I'm going to start tackling this one today.

This one may be a stocking stuffer.

I found this one months ago. I need to get on it!