Please pass me a stiff drink - Rubiy

So, every trite cliche about having children is true.  As a matter of fact they are SO true as to be humbling.  I really was just in labor with my firstborn.  I was just cradling her as a newborn.  I just watched her take her first steps.

Well, apparently the passage of time has a wicked sense of humor and, on Thursday my baby starts FIRST GRADE!  And, as if that weren't enough, she has TWO loose teeth.  One of which will probably fall out in the next couple of days and the other one won't be far behind.  The adult teeth have already pushed up through the gums behind them.

I'm not sure I can handle this.  So, obviously, I channeled my angst into shopping (I bought tooth tins in which to keep her baby teeth - it's not weird Sara and Erin, everyone does this,) and I made her a pillow to hold her teeth for the tooth fairy.

We're moving on Friday (the day after she starts FIRST GRADE!!) and she's very worried that the Tooth Fairy - with whom we've made a deal, she will leave cash AND the tooth, because my daughter was appalled that the Tooth Fairy would just take it - won't be able to find our new house.  We asked her if she thought Santa would be able to find our new house, which of course doubled her stress level. Sigh....

So, I told her that I'd tell the mailman to let BOTH the Tooth Fairy AND Santa know that we'd moved, and ask him to show them where out new house is.  Which, of course, was the most logical solution to the problem.

I'm not sure how much more time I can spend averting not only my own, but a six year old's existential crises.  Now for that drink...

p.s. Yep, still a terrible photographer.  It's a wool felt pillow with a pocket for a mouth, metal buttons for eyes, and missing a tooth of it's own.  Oh, and it's hot fuschia with an electric purple back.  It's kinda awesome.  

Could use advice

I have 13 of these tulips that I hand appliqued.  They are from a pattern to make a quilt, the problem is I don't have enough of the background fabric.  So, do I try to match the background the fabric or get something different for the other blocks?  What do you think?

Okay, so I made this "frames" to break up a big space of wall.  It is the same wood we used for a border and looks better than the picture.  I can see that I need to do some rearranging and straightening.  Overall quite easy, just used a miter box, glue and clamps.  I guess I don't have much to say; I must not be much of a blogger!

Princess Turkey Luau

While heavily drinking at a happy hour last week, three lovely ladies had the idea to throw a surprise party for our friends Jeff and Xavier. Both had birthdays in July, so this Saturday seemed random enough. And the most devious part of our evil, genius plot is that each guy thinks it's a surprise party for the other guy and have been enlisted to help. Mwahahahaha...

Being both drunk and thrifty, we decided to have a luau, using the leftover decorations from my birthday party back in March. Later in the week, I find out Xavier is getting Jeff a Disney Princess cake, while Jeff is decorating Xavier's cake to look like turkey sticks! (For those fortunate enough not to know, turkey sticks are this sad culinary creation that Xavier makes for his crazy strength training diet - GO PROTEIN!) Thus, this surprise party has morphed into the Princess Turkey Luau. 

So, where are the crafts, you say? Well, we clearly needed a banner so that when then boys walk in, they immediately realize it's a surprise for BOTH of them! TA-DA!

This is the first Princess Turkey banner, complete with kindergarten style hand turkeys and Disney Princesses from a coloring book. I must admit I had help coloring the Princesses... turns out all you need is a bottle of wine and some cheese, and you can convince grown ups that coloring is the coolest thing ever! Each picture also has glitter detail - snazzy! Thanks for modeling, Ariel...

And since it's 1000 degrees in Texas right now, clearly people will want to hang out outside, so we needed a second banner. Indeed, I am nothing if not thorough. BFF here = Bros/Frienemies Forever (which is a pretty perfect way to describe their strange bromance)

So there you have it - my first "craft". I think that is counts... I had glue and glitter everywhere and sliced open two fingers so that's pretty hardcore. I also think it fits nicely in the category of SURPRISE! Hence, "craft"! The party should be a blast, especially if we can pull of our grand deception. Either way, I make a mean pineapple punch! What lucky boys...

It's not just a bad picture.

This really just doesn't look that appetizing. But, I'm filing it under "holidays" because in theory that's about the time it should be ready.  I've been wanting make this green walnut liquor for a few years but never got around to finding a source for the green walnuts.

It's called Nocino and it's either French or Italian and it's supposedly tasty and wonderful. There's a bunch of green walnuts, a bottle of vodka, sugar, lemon zest, and some spices.

Ideally, it would have been made with younger walnuts but this is what I happened to find on the street outside an amazing breakfast place in Portland last week.


My brother helped me gather the nuts then actually quartered them for me because he was completely convinced I was going to slice the hell out of my fingers. I protested that I could probably handle it but, didn't protest too hard because I'd seen multiple posts (I got the idea from a food blog) about wearing gloves because the nuts stained your hands.... better him than me.

Right now it just looks like dark mess. The directions say to let it sit for at least two months, then strain it, then let it sit some more. It's supposed to get really dark with all sorts of complicated flavors. I figure it's worth a shot.

It's Not a Sock!!! - Rubiy

Aren't you proud?  You know you are.  I crocheted this for my son, who, like all boys between the ages of 4 and 10, is obsessed with Angry Birds.  I'm hoping, in the end, to crochet him a red bird, a bomb bird, a yellow bird, and maybe a blue bird.  I have all the yarn, now it's just a matter of wanting to crochet around in a circle forever.

It's made out of dishcloth cotton from JoAnn's and filled with the cheapest stuffing they had, which turned out to be the awesomest stuffing they had.  The nose holes are two different sizes of safety eyes.  Safety eyes are now one of my new passions.   So fun.  

He loves his bad piggie.  Make a mama happy.    

We're going to call this one "Animal love."  Mostly because I'm not knitting any dog sweaters this summer.  

The Near Past, and the Very Near Past - Rubiy

Something I forgot to add to my last sock post was that I'm classifying it under "It needed buying."  I stayed up late to stalk the shop update to get that skein of yarn.  I have no idea why.  I like it quite a bit, but it's not really something I'd stalk an update for.  But something just drew me to it.  I was thinking about my neighbor's husband and picked up the skein, which had been wound and ready for months.  I just cast on without thinking much about it and started knitting a sock.  The entire pair almost knit themselves.   I have absolutely not a doubt in my mind that they were meant for him from the beginning.

Now these socks, I'm filing under "Worry," because I knit them for my mom while she was in the hospital.  E'erbody going to the hospital up in herre.  They need to cut it out.  I am not made of sock yarn!  (except I probably have enough sock yarn to send everyone I know to the hospital at least once...)  She had a handknit pair from last year that she wore when she went it, these were just to assuage my worry until she came home.

She was in quite a bit of pain the first few days, so the hospital staff gave her some morphine to help her relax and spend less time doubled over and whimpering.  Nice folks.  She called me after it kicked in (several times, heh) and kept trying to convince me that the hospital beds in the ER were REALLY REALLY comfortable!  I think they stopped the morphine by day 3 because she stopped mentioning the extreme comfort of her surroundings.  

The important part is that she's now at home, safe and sound and MUCH better.  See?  You go in to the hospital with hand knit socks, you come out better.  Socks work in mysterious ways.  They also keep your feet warm, which is apparently a necessity even with morphine.  

I promise that my next post will contain something other than socks.  I make no guarantees as to the post after that.  

xo,

Rubiy