January 2010 – Page 2

A Mouse House

70 Comments / January 14, 2010 February 22, 2011 / Family

Well Hello There! How was your week? Ours has been kind of slow. And very sad when you watch the news. Devastation like we see in Haiti makes all of our little chit-chat seem a little silly, doesn’t it? I never know what to say when there are disasters. I really can’t say what I feel any better than so many other bloggers, so, I’ll just point you in the direction of one of many ways to help .

In an attempt to lighten your day a bit, I’ll show you the cute little mouse house at MyDadLovesMeBestSister’s house.

As you may recall, they’ve just added an addition onto their house. In what used to be the old kitchen, MyDadLovesMeBestSister decided to put in a little mouse house in the wall near the floor. It’s like a fairy door, but doesn’t just open to the wall. There’s a mouse in there — with his pretty wall paper and fine furnishings.

My CrazyBIL put the light switch on the inside of the laundry chute above the mouse house. Pretty clever, huh?

There is still a little decorating to be done, but I think it’s adorable. And it makes a neat nightlight for when the lights are all out. I’d love to have something like this in our house – although, mine would have to be a fairy house. (Just for you Miss Dotty!)

Also, I was talking to TheSecondChild today — he’s moved back to Nashville (that’s Tennesee, not Indiana) where he’s frantically still looking for a job. We were joking about all the things he should be doing and he said “Maybe you should blog it.” So, there it is. I’m blogging it. Anyone know anyone who needs a Vanderbilt graduate who majored in Chemistry/Finance (he’s brilliant of course, ’cause I’m his mother) in Nashville TN? (‘Cause he’s just a wee bit stubborn and insists on staying there.)

Hey! Maybe I should have a blog contest! That’s it — the first one to find my kid a job will win…um…well, lots of crafty stuff, naturally — you know, fabric, books, a bunny pincushion — what else do you want??? Maybe it should be a Make Your Own Blog Contest to Find My Kid a Job!!!

Oh, and Good Luck — I hope you all win LOL!

XOXO,
Anna

A Black & White Birthday

51 Comments / January 10, 2010 February 22, 2011 / Family, Sewing

How can it be that another weekend has gone so fast? Did you all have a good one? It was a busy weekend here – but very relaxing. I managed to get in a bit of sewing and knitting which made it all the better!

Today is my youngest niece’s birthday. MyDadLovesMeBestSister had a family dinner for her tonight and she made a delicious Sweet and Sour Shrimp dish. I should have taken a picture! Anyway, YoungestNiece is 13 today. A Teenager! Can we please have a moment of silence for MyDadLovesMeBestSister and MyCrazyBIL? They have three teens in the house now. Yikes!

Oooommmmm.

Thank you. Although, I don’t think they really need it — their teens are cherubs. YoungestNiece’s Christmas present was to change over her bedroom from little girly pink to more sophisticated black and white, with blue. She has a cute pink pottery barn fabric basket holder, and in order for her to keep using it, I decided to make new baskets for her birthday.

I used the old baskets as a pattern and the fabric is from Michael Miller’s Plain Jane line. (Super Big Thanks to Brigette for finding this for me! And speaking of Brigette, she’s posted a few new recipes — one of which is a fabulous looking White Chocolate Bread Pudding — you might want to go check that out!) I stuck some labels in the little label holders, and of course I had to tease her.

Here is what they look like, hanging on the basket holder. The holder will be hung on the wall – for now, it’s just leaning against the wall.

And just because we saw the little cutie tonight, here’s a new pic of Teddy Rose. He’s growing like a weed, but still sleeping like a baby. Currently in the new birthday chair!

Ok – I’m off. My doofy self left my purse at the birthday house, so now I must brave the cold again and run to get it. Hope your week starts of right!

XOXO,
Anna

A Clean Start

65 Comments / January 7, 2010 February 22, 2011 / Sewing

Ha! Are you thinking this will be a post chock-full of my goals and dreams for 2010? Nosireee. I fell for that old blogging new year’s trick the first January I was posting. Most of those crafty goals for that new year are still undone. I’m perfectly happy to live vicariously through all of YOUR fun posts full of lists and new year’s resolutions. I did, however, do a one-word pick. As I’ve told some of you, my one word for 2010 is … chocolate. (I defy you to find a better word – it’s a healthy new habit!)

So, my clean start refers to a new ironing board cover. I luuuuuv fabric with words on it and this Authentic fabric is right up my alley.

When I saw that this fabric was available in home decorator weight, I knew it was a match made in heaven. The only way it could be better is if the black fabric with white letters would have been available in this weight. This white option will probably show the water stains a little more, but, oh well.

This was one of my quickest-ever projects – 30 minutes, start to finish. 4 easy-peasy steps: 1) smooth out the old cover on the top of the wrong side of the fabric, 2) cut the fabric an inch or so wider than the old cover, 3) fold the edges of the fabric around the edges of the old cover, and 4) sew a simple straight stitch along the edge of the fabric, being careful not to catch the drawstring in the stitching. (My ironing board took 1 1/2 yards of fabric and it’s enough to make two covers.) So much easier than sewing a casing and then threading the string through the casing! Do you like it as much as I do?

And loookieeee! We got more snow!

It snowed most of the day today. Isn’t it pretty? Good thing we don’t live in the gingerbread houses — we’d have to climb out of the second story windows!

Have a great weekend!
XOXO,
Anna

A Random New Year’s Start

49 Comments / January 4, 2010 February 22, 2011 / Chat, Knitting

Thank you so much for all the gingerbread love! You are all so kind! After SweetiePie read my post, she noted that I forgot to show you the inside of her house. She and TheFirstChild very carefully created two little workers folding up parachutes and placed them inside of their Jump School. I hadn’t even noticed them! So, here for SweetiePie (and you) is a picture of one of the little workers. Can you see him back there with the big parachute on the ground?

I’m so sad that the holidays are over — even sadder that I have to go back to work tomorrow. BooHoo. I spent most of the weekend cleaning up around here. The house is all nice and clean now — too bad I can’t have a few more days off to enjoy it. By the time I’m off work again, it will be messy again. {Sigh.} When I was cleaning up this weekend, I couldn’t quite bring myself to throw the gingerbread houses away, so I put them out in the snow on the patio table. Maybe one of the seven little squirrels that were chasing each other around the patio a week ago would like a sugar high. Or maybe not. In any case, it made me smile every time I looked out the window while I was cleaning.

Normally, about now, I’d show you all the homemade gifts I made this year. Only I didn’t really make any. On December 22nd, I read this post from Jessica and was inspired by those beanies. I saw them on A Friend to Knit With when they were originally posted, but seeing them on Jessica’s blog too, gave me an idea. I called up my oldest niece and suggested we have a knit night and make some for the girls in the family.

She came over that night, and we had a fun time knitting in front of the warm, cozy fire and watching old episodes of The Office. By the next day we had six hats all knit and packaged up to give to the ladies when we all went bowling. There really are six — four in the picture above, one on me behind the camera and one for MeMum who wasn’t with us. We had lots of fun looking dorky together! (And ahem. I like them much better hugging the head — some of us were a little worried about our bangs!)

I love this pattern and will definitely be making it again. It’s very comfy and knits up just as quickly as Leslie promised. Thanks for a great pattern Leslie!

And one other note: I’ve tried to change my header and background — the holiday look really should go, don’t you think? The new header is drab for winter, but I can’t get it to appear. (Maybe it’s a sign?) I was on the phone with tech support for too long and they’re blaming it on WordPress. (Gee, funny, I was able to change the clock back from red to blue….) I’m not buying it, but don’t really know what to do at this point. So, we may be enjoying peppermint for Easter.

XOXO,
Anna

Month: January 2010