Testing...testing...

Is this thing on?

Yikes - it's been a long time. So what has happened since April? Well, about a billion things!!

Here's a summary: end of May - moved to Amber Park Apartments; mid-June - Nathan graduated from Western Oregon; some time during the summer - went backpacking twice with the Langfords, which was mostly awesome; beginning of August - bought a van; mid-September - drove to Idaho to see Mom and Dad's new house; end of September - Nathan started school at Oregon State to get his M.S. in Statistics; beginning of October - planned to move to Corvallis; end of October - reserved an apartment in Corvallis and will move there the beginning of December.

Well, that's all you needed to know, right? What's that you ask - the boys?? You want to know about THEM? Hmm...I suppose that makes sense!

Well, Henry has been taking his sweet little time every step of the way, and stubbornly waited until he was 18 months old to start walking, but he is loving it now - still hesitant and not walking very far - but he'll get there. He's also talking up a storm, which is so fun! Obviously there is more to update about...but that's a little teeny bit.

Joshua is busy being Joshua...he spends his days pretending - going through all his different personas - lately the most common are Mr. Chief, Mr. Fireman, The Cookie Man, Norman the Cowboy, and The Guy with the Screwdriver. He cracks me up. He's a very good sport with all the busy-ness since Nathan went back to school, though I know it's hard on him. He's not so sure about moving, but I think he'll like being in our new home where Mama won't have to WORK anymore...we are all excited about that. He's still stubbornly avoiding new foods, and starting to reject a lot of the usual foods he'd eat every day. And potty training is a battle...which is so frustrating. Once we move and I have more uninterrupted time during the day, it's going to be more drastic measure time. Just taking away the diapers except for nap time and bed time, and sitting on the toilet every half hour or so...and seeing what happens. I'm tired of changing his diapers, but he's perfectly happy with it. *sigh*

The playhouse has been put on hold since we moved here in May...so sad!! All I've done since we moved is cut out the patterns for some pears. That's IT!! My new goal is to have the playhouse completely done by their birthdays (March 30th/April 3rd). I think they will love it, and hopefully by then Henry won't want to rip the googly eyes off the little animals. But if he does, maybe I'll just change them to felt eyes.

One question for everyone - those name letters that I made...do you think anyone would be willing to pay for me to make them? Not necessarily you...but anyone? They really turned out great, and they were my first try. They're hand stitched - I still don't know how to use a sewing machine. They're about the size of the 9x12 sheets of felt that you can buy in a bunch of different colors, then stuffed, and with decorative ribbon loops for hanging. Joshy's are rainbow colors, while Henry's are light blue, purple, dark green, gray, and I think...a teal-ish color. The boys are sleeping and there's no way I'll go in their room to check on that!

Annnyway - life is busy and super stressful. When I'm "just" a stay-at-home mom (which I'm super excited about!!), I hope to post more pictures on facebook and my blog, to finish my playhouse, finish some scrapbooks (all I have right now is Joshua's first year), clean the apartment more than once every...hmm...maybe I shouldn't say, and learn to cook more creative things. Also, take the boys OUT places more - there are a ton of parks in Corvallis, and I'm sure there are other cool things to do, too!

Ok I really should go. The mess in our bedroom right now is quite terrible. I was trying to work on sorting out things to be packed/stored/tossed etc., so the boys were playing with whatever they could find, and Penelope's (for those of you who know Penelope, you'll understand why this is a big, though I promise not gruesome mess) tummy came apart completely...and everything inside came out. Wow, that sounds super gross. I promise it isn't.

I'm starving. Sorry no pictures or videos. Patience and they will come! Have a wonderful day and thanks for sticking with my blog even after all this time :c)

Mail bag

Oh, and I'm almost finished with my first playhouse project post-birthdays: A messenger mail bag. I'm excited!

Name letters

The name letters for Joshua and Henry turned out really well! I don't have a picture of Henry's letters on this computer yet, but here is Joshy with his letters on his 3rd birthday.

baskets and birthdays

Well, last night, I made a basket that will be sewed on to the playhouse. The boys will be able to put things in it, and there will be a secret slit in the back so that when they put fruits/vegetables/rodents into it, they will then magically be inside the playhouse. I used the same weaving idea from the corn on jill's playhouse, but this was my original idea.

Also, I went and bought the fabric to make the whole slipcover for the table. I decided not to do felt - it is a thinner, more breathable fabric, because I want to do some stuff on the inside, so I'll need to make it two layers of fabric, and two layers of felt would get too hot and stuffy. It is a light blue - I'm going to have a LOT of scraps left over from it. I had a 50% off one item, so I got 11 yards or so of this fabric, and I think it cost me like $60. It seems to be really good quality fabric - I hope it was a good choice. It'll be awhile before I get around to actually sewing stuff on there with the machine.

I also got some transparent thread because I decided that would work best for sewing all those many many things that already have stitches on them.

For the boys' birthdays, I'm going to make stuffed felt letters spelling their names to hang on their walls. I finished an O today. I wish it looked more perfect, but I think in combination with the other letters, it will look a lot better. Right now, one lonely O isn't looking like the greatest birthday present!

almost done!

As of about 12:30, I had finished fixing three oranges and two apples! Just one more apple to fix and I can get back to creating NEW things again!

Oh, and Joshua had a TON of fun pulling out almost all of the fluffy filler stuff from the pillow sized bag of it, and covering our dining room floor with it, sliding in it, throwing snowballs with it, rolling in it...it was so funny. And made a huge mess that was amazingly easy to clean up! Good times :c)

And I just heard from my mom that my grandma Norma fell and broke her hip. She could use any and all prayers.

::::
4:35 - finished the last apple!!!

finished fixing...

...the squirrel, as of 9:45pm. Took the velcro off the bird and the 6 fruits. I figured the squirrel would be hardest, so I did it first. I actually was able to stuff it a lot better than I stuffed it the first time. So that's a good thing. Onward I go.

::::
10:17 finished the bird.

::::
10:55 finished one lettuce leaf.

::::
11:10 finished second lettuce leaf.

Time to watch Lost.

::::
Stinking Lost. We're going to go crazy watching the final season - having to wait a week or more between episodes. Oh well. At least we'll get to watch the first several all at once...I'm not sure how many episodes are in the 6th season. Maybe we'll start watching near the end. We're still near the beginning of the 5th season. Nathan was pushing for us watching an episode starting at midnight, and then he fell asleep after like 15 minutes. I had to keep watching it...and now it's almost 1am. *sigh*

backtracking

So I realized after doing three apples, three oranges, two lettuce leaves, a frog, a squirrel, and a bird...that I should have used the other velcro side...the soft part, not the part that grabs on to everything. I guess at first I was thinking that if I used the catching part that i wouldn't have to put matching velcro on the playhouse. But it catches on everything...all the time. I've just been putting a square of felt over the velcro, but I realized that I should have just done it the other way. So after a lot of grumbling, I started the process.

Today, I clipped the stitches of the velcro on the frog, completely unstitched the frog, sewed on the softer velcro (which was amazingly easy, thank GOODNESS...the other velcro was absolutely awful), resewed it all, and restuffed it. It didn't take too long, but it would be nice if it wasn't necessary. Oh well.

One frog down, at least 8 more things to go...I may not mess with the lettuce leaves...or I might. I guess I might as well, while I'm fixing everything else. This was a pretty significant learn the hard way kind of thing - but I think I'm going to be a lot happier when I change them all, even though it's a ton more work.

something for the grass

I made this quite awhile ago, but I guess I never posted the picture!

it's always greener...

Made some grass today...didn't take very long. I cut out one side and then used the between parts for another line of grass. Two for one! Though I'm not sure which side is actually greener.


I'm trying to figure out what I can do with the small amount of felt I have left...and very excited for whatever felt from Deb is coming tomorrow morning with Nathan's mom! I've been feeling like I want to use up everything I have before buying more...cuz I need a ton more, but we'll see!

Oh, and here is a cute Henry.

If you're ever thinking...

...that making a soccer ball out of felt would be a fun thing to do...think of something else to do instead. It looks really good, but it took several hours. The soccer ball is going to sit by the front door of the playhouse, I think...or maybe go on the side with the river. I'm thinking now I might make a picnic table with some sort of something that I can make food (hot dogs or hamburgers or something) be removable...at Joshy's request. I shouldn't look at the other examples of playhouses online while he's looking! I do veto some of them, though...we can't ALSO fit a library and a princess castle and a train station on to this playhouse. But we could probably fit a picnic table and some hot dogs or something.

And I'm done with the day numbers now, and done with changing the times that I post...so if I'm posting for the first time at 1:00am, as I am right now (yikes!), it'll say that, instead of always saying 11:00pm even if it was posted later. Anyway...probably it wasn't necessary for me to clear all of that up. :c)

Day 28

The last day of the month! To accomplish all of my monthly goals, I need to write in Joshua's journal and Henry's journal today...sad that I haven't written in them all month! Once that is finished, I'll have completed everything for February - I got everything completed in January also. I'm proud of myself! This year is starting out well in terms of accomplishing goals - usually I'm already failing somewhat by this point :c)

I hope to work on more crafty stuff later today!

:::
Got those journals written in...I'd hoped to work on some craft stuff, but it's too late and I need to finally go to bed at a decent time for once. I hope to be asleep by 11:30 tonight.

Day 27

This was a very busy and fun day! No crafting, but I did go through and do a much needed organizing job of my little craft bin - getting rid of all the short extra pieces of thread and tiny felt scraps...gathering up all the loose needles and pins hiding in the bottom, putting the extra paper templates in the little bag with the rest of them, winding up all the long threads tangled up in my bag of spools of thread...fun stuff.

Oh, I also measured out the dimensions of the table and made scale drawings of them on graph paper so I can map out what stuff I already have, and know how big to make the other stuff! Almost forgot that I did that.

Day 26

I made 4 flat strawberries today, because I liked the little seeds on the third one that I stuffed so much and wanted to do more like it, but I will put them on the playhouse, not detachable.
I will have to take a break from the playhouse at some point before the boys' birthdays to make them the gift that I'm hoping will turn out really cool - I'll post pictures after I give it to them, so after April 3rd (Henry's b-day, and Joshy's is March 30th).

We are going to a "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?" activity for church tonight - that will be fun! Hopefully the boys will do well with getting taken care of at the church.

Oh and now Joshua is requesting that there be a kiwi vine in the garden, with kiwis on it!

:::
I finished a cloud...instead of doing the dishes. It's almost midnight...I think I'm going to do the dishes.
:::
I didn't do dishes...I looked up articles and checklists online about possible things we might find out after Henry's evaluations in the next couple of weeks...and continued to be worried about the possibilities I've been worried about. I want to be wrong, but my gut tells me I'm not. This is a much heavier topic than the fluffy little stuffed cloud sitting on the desk waiting to be photographed and added to the box of playhouse treasures...but it's a real thing in our lives. He has an appointment Wednesday (the 3rd) and then one the following Thursday (the 11th). I feel like I'm prepared to hear that something serious is going on...but I guess I won't know if I was truly prepared until the time comes. Hopefully he'll just jump back on track on his own, or we'll be able to help him get there without there being some underlying lifelong issue. But if there is, I know we have friends and family all around us who will be supportive and wonderful. He's such a happy guy, with a sense of humor - very social and interactive - good at figuring things out and playing, but he's got a ways to go to be where it seems like he should be verbally, for sure, and motor-wise as well. Maybe we won't get any definite answers in the next two weeks...but maybe we will.

I should have gone to bed long ago...there is too much information on the internet - so helpful and educational, but such an overload. And then when my mind is cluttered with stressful things, I go and read each blog that has been updated so that I can de-stress...and then it is 1am. Nathan will be getting up for basketball early tomorrow morning, and so will I...not for basketball. I hope it isn't a rough night otherwise.

Day 25

Soon I'm gonna have to decide which table this playhouse is going to go on. I had been thinking it would be the card table...but then I'm feeling like the card table is SOOO small...but the kitchen table would make for a very big playhouse. A lot of felt. But felt isn't that expensive...

Well I don't think we're going to buy another table any time soon, and unless someone jumps in and says they have a table we can have, I think I'll make it the dimensions of our kitchen table. What I want to start doing is measuring the size of things...because there are a lot of things that will be flat on the playhouse - not detachable, as many of the things I've made are (except for Buddy, the owl, and the mailbox).

Nathan's cousin Deb said that she has a bunch of felt I can use, and I'm really excited about that! No matter what color it is, I will definitely be able to use it!

Not sure if I'll get anything finished tonight...I'm not sure what is next on the agenda. We'll see. I just added a bunch of pictures and changed some from the first couple of days so they are more uniform (on the table). I like it that the table I've taken all the pictures on is the one that will be the playhouse (i think!).

::::
Ok, I just spent like half an hour looking for a template or drawing for a brontosaurus that I'd like to use for the playhouse...but I couldn't find one I was happy with. So I drew my own...I mean, I would have had to anyway, to be able to print it out the right size (bigger than a standard piece of printer paper), but mine is kind of a compilation of several. Hopefully I will have the right amount of felt!! Off I go to cutting, tracing, and more cutting!

::::
12:48am - finished my brontosaurus.

Day 24

I made three strawberries today! They're awesome. The third one (in the middle) especially.

The 4th season of Lost is starting out crrrrrazy!

Day 23

I finished the other two oranges today and made a "Dada" letter for the mailbox. Now there is one for Dada, one for Joshua, and one for Henry. I'll make one for me at some point, but one piece of felt made three letters. I have to figure out how I want to attach strawberries to the playhouse - then I might finish those up.
This is Joshua and Henry's first night sharing a room. They went to sleep very easily (Henry cried for 10 minutes or so and that was it), and are still sleeping (and it's really 12:20am...but I always make it say 11:00pm when I post after midnight).

We'll see how the rest of the night goes.

Day 22

Sewed velcro onto 3 oranges - finished one orange!

Day 21

Ok it is 11:15 Sunday night. I took an hour-ish nap today, and I want to see if I can finish something for the playhouse tonight. Starting at 11:15pm on anything isn't usually the best plan, but I'll give myself until midnight, 12:15 at the latest, and see if I can finish something. Or just work on something, cuz I miss it!

It is 12:23 - I finished the flowers I've been working on. I'm actually not really happy with how they turned out...I was trying to do something really creative and it didn't quite work how I pictured. Oh well. Goodnight.

Day 20

No crafting again. :c( I haven't lost interest in it...things just keep getting busy. I'll have some more time this week - I'm excited to finish up those flowers, and I have felt cut out for more letters, some oranges, and some strawberries...I just haven't made them cuz I haven't made decisions about velcro.

I haven't talked a lot about Henry - I have all sorts of fun Joshua stories that I tell on the blog, but this little Henry of ours is quite a little character, and deserves stories of his own!
He has got the greatest smile. His little top canine teeth came in before the middle ones, so his smile has a kind of baby vampire quality to it, so when he is laughing a lot, or when he flashes his new "cheese" face (for the camera), you can see his adorable little chompers.

He has definite favorites in what he likes to play with. His favorite things is the xylophone/piano that we have. He loves things that spin, like the spinny thing on the walker/car, or the beads on the twisty wire things. He loves to hold and munch on books and bang everything possible on the ground or the high chair tray.

He's becoming a little more ambitious, not being afraid to dive onto his tummy to get things, and rolling and pivoting places. We're going to talk with someone soon about helping him increase his mobility, but he is slowly increasing the movements he is comfortable with, which is good to see.

Henry is so adorable - his little hair sticks straight up in back, even being like two or more inches long...it's still sticking straight up most days. I call him tweety bird, and I'm sad on the days when it flattens down, cuz I think he probably won't ALWAYS have hair sticking up, and I'll miss it. Although, I wouldn't be surprised if he has an incredibly stubborn cowlick as he grows up. His hair is really curly in the back when it is wet, and a little curly when it's dry...so it's getting to the point where I kind of want to cut it, and yet I really don't.

He is great at roaring and purring and growling and spitting at us, and he's learning some sign language. He can sign "milk" and "more" really well, sometimes it seems like he does "eat" and if you ask him to clap (and he's in the right mood, of course) or wave, he will. He LOVES music, and he's enjoyed getting to come to nursery and watch all the toddlers and be there for music time. Now that Nathan isn't in nursery anymore, he'll get to enjoy hanging out in Sunday school and with the guys. I sing to him all the time. One of his very favorite songs is, "I found a million dollar baby...in the five and ten cent store." Grandma Rozen sang that song to him a LONG time ago...and I didn't know it, but had to learn it quick, cuz at times, it was the only thing that would calm him down.

He is finally sleeping every night, though he still wakes up more often than we'd prefer, and it isn't very consistent when he wakes up, but he sleeps. And he takes naps. Nearly every day, he takes two naps. Usually the opposite of Joshua's - at least in the morning. He'll go down for a nap sometime in the morning for an hour or so, then wake up about 45 minutes before Joshua goes down for his nap. He'll go down for another nap while Joshua is still sleeping, and generally wake up again before Joshua gets up. So I sometimes get a little break in there. His sleeping patterns have controlled our lives (it sometimes seems), for months and months and months...but now, other than the fact that he is in our bedroom (which I really wish wasn't the case), things aren't nearly so difficult at night or during the day in terms of his sleeping. He still cries before nearly every nap and nearly every night when he's put down, but it's more of a ritual or routine than him really being upset. Usually I have to go in once or twice to get him to stay down for his morning nap, but other than that, things go fairly smoothly.

He's very cuddly and his cheeks are nearly impossible not to kiss. Really. If you've ever held him, you know I speak truth.

We hope to get some answers about his development and what we can do to help him as he grows from being a cuddly happy baby to a cuddly happy toddler (or a stubborn wild toddler, perhaps!), and we'll give updates when we do get those answers.

Also, these boys do love each other...their relationship is still a little inconsistent, but Joshua sometimes expresses his feelings for his baby brother by bringing him toys or sharing with Henry when he really doesn't want to share. Tonight Joshua sat down on the floor with me and Henry, and Joshy was holding his "personal penguin." Henry grabbed for it and Joshua yanked it out of Henry's grasp. I told Henry that there are some things that Joshua doesn't need to share unless he wants to share them. Henry wasn't a big fan of that reasoning, but Joshua thought about it for awhile, and then held out his little penguin to Henry, who was distracted and missed his opportunity...but it was a sweet moment. Also, yesterday, Henry was in the crib in the bedroom trying to go down for his nap, and Joshua was sitting on the floor in the kitchen, playing with the magnets on the fridge. He looked up at me and said, "Mama, why is my baby crying?" It was again, such a sweet moment.

And finally - here are a few pictures of this dynamic duo!

This is the happy "cheese" face!

A little conspiring going on, it appears.

There's that vampire baby!

And my two cute little sweetie-pies.

I love them so much.

Day 19

We had a great time at the A.C. Gilbert House today. It is 7:11 - I am feeding Henry to put him to bed, then i need to do a mountain of dishes and then go grocery shopping. I got very little sleep last night, so i doubt i'll get much crafting done tonight. I'll post pictures if I do.

Day 18

Today I did a lot of work on another pair of flowers that I am choosing the most complicated way possible to make...hopefully they will look good when I'm done! Sorry no pictures yet.

Day 17

Ok, I resewed the patch on Nathan's scout uniform, so he can wear it to scouts tonight looking snazzy. I just didn't have the energy to fix it last night, but I'm glad it is centered now.

So far today, I have crossed off 7 things on my to-do lists, and I'm in process with several more. Also been working on laundry, organizing and cleaning up the living room, and a bunch of other work stuff that isn't on "the list" but needs to get done anyway. Joshua, Henry and I have all had lunch. Joshua is sleeping and Henry is just about ready to get down and hopefully go down for a nap.

So that's the update!

I need to post some pictures on facebook of these cute little boys of mine.

Hopefully I'll have some crafty things to post later!

Day 16

No crafting today, but I did spend several hours sewing the patches on to Nathan's new scouting shirt - he's the 11 yr-old scout leader now. I hated nearly every moment of that sewing experience. I broke a needle...but it didn't seem like it bent...but that my fingers snapped it in half. I used the half a needle to finish sewing the patch on...but it didn't have the sharp tip, so that was pretty challenging. I sure love felt.

I have a LOT of things on my to-do list for home/family/church stuff, so I asked Nathan to come up with a number of things from my list that I should challenge myself to do before we could watch Lost tonight. At first he said 10...but then I went back and looked at it again and saw that I could only logistically do 12 of them, so he brought the number down to 6. I did 1. Sewing on the patches took me at least 2 hours. I was so frustrated and exhausted by the end, that we agreed it was ok to watch it anyway.

Unfortunately, the most important patch that I sewed on there is not centered...it's kind of crooked, so at some point soon, I need to take the stitches out and re-sew it. It won't be nearly as difficult as doing all of them, though.

Nathan just went into the bedroom and Henry had a dirty diaper, so we changed him and he slept through it...he cried really hard when I laid him back in his crib, though. But I think he's done now. Nathan is on the couch...I'm not sure which of us will be the one to try to sneak in there first.

I love my boys. All three of them!

Day 15

Ok I'm getting a little tired of the day numbers at the top...but I think I'll stick with them anyway. I finished the owl - he looks GREAT. My kitchen table is so covered that I can't find room to take a picture of him, but I'll do it tomorrow and post the picture for all the world to see! Buddy was more work, but I think I'm most proud of this owl...even more than the corn...though the corn was also more work.

Day 14

Today was a very nice day - Valentine's day...and a good day at church, though I missed my sweetie. He and Henry stayed home cuz Nathan couldn't do much walking (neither could Henry, so they kept each other company). Then family came over and we had dinner and watched more Olympics.


Today I started working on the owl. I didn't like any of the owls on the other playhouses, so I found a different owl, and I'm going to use it.

Day 13

We'll see what I get done today. My poor hubby hurt his knee really bad at basketball this morning, so I'm going to take care of him. Joshy woke up before 5am this morning...so hopefully he won't have too rough of a day, too. Henry's fighting taking a nap - crying in his crib...but nothing's new there. *sigh*

Nope - no work on the playhouse done today.

Day twelve

Today I went to the fabric store and bought turquoise felt and white felt adhesive letters. I was then able to finish the mailbox that will be sewn on to the playhouse. The green part opens and I'll cut a hole in the playhouse, next to the front door, so they can open the door of the mailbox and put letters in! I think this was Jill's original idea from the playhouse I referenced in my first post about this project. http://homemadebyjill.blogspot.com/2009/10/felt-playhouse.html
We'll see if I get Buddy finished tonight. Off to put Henry to bed, play a game with Nathan, Tawnia, and Emily, and then watch the Olympics.

Well, Henry went to sleep, I lost miserably at Qwelf, and while we watched the Opening Ceremonies, I worked on Buddy. I was debating about whether or not I'd stuff him at all, or have him be detachable from the playhouse. I've decided he'll be sewed on and stay that way. I sewed a back on him, to hold all the small pieces together even better, but he's just got too tiny of a neck to be played with much at all. I hope Joshua likes him!




You can scroll down to compare the picture with the image I posted before. I don't want to re-post it next to it, cuz then the imperfections would be clearer. A LOT of work, but I'm happy with him, imperfections and all!

Day eleven

I worked on organizing all the scraps and pieces of felt today, but wasn't able to create anything. Hopefully tomorrow!

Day ten

Today I made some red flowers to match the yellowish flowers I made before. They're pretty cute. I also made the mailbox, except for the lettering on it. Buddy the dinosaur just sits there waiting and waiting for his turquoise detailing...

It was hard not working on it yesterday, especially since I wasn't feeling very well. I'm feeling somewhat better today, though, and having Tawnia come over was super helpful. Gotta love my sis.

We got some great news on the grad school front! Nathan got accepted to Portland State - we haven't gotten the letter yet - he called to see if all his application stuff was completed, and they told him he was accepted! I'm very excited that he's accepted, and nervous to figure out the financial part. I'm hoping he'll be able to choose between two (or all three!) of the schools, and that at one of them will work out money-wise. We should hear back from Oregon State and University of Washington by the end of the month, I expect. Once we make that decision, it will be nice to have some certainty for the coming year.

Well, it's 8:20...Henry is asleep, or at least quiet...and Joshua is talking and singing with his animals in bed, so there is still plenty of time for crafting. I'll update this and post pictures either later tonight or tomorrow morning, depending on what else I get done tonight.

Day nine

I am banned from working on the playhouse today - as a self-imposed punishment for staying up way too late last night. I've been avoiding that for the most part since I started this project, but last night I was working on it until after 1am. Not cool. So I'll work on it again tomorrow.

Well, at least I am getting a lot done today. I keep looking at all my craft stuff in the haphazard bags and boxes covering our kitchen table, and I want to work on it, but instead I'm doing laundry, making a bunch of calls, filing paperwork, sending emails, organizing our tax documents for the past 6 years...all sorts of productive boring stuff. Also, looking at craigslist apartment listing in the possible cities we might be moving to depending on where Nathan gets accepted to grad school. Let's just say, I hope we get some good grants and loans.

Day eight

While trying to go to sleep last night (and feeling awful...thank goodness it mostly went away by morning!), I was thinking about different ways to attach things to the playhouse without using velcro...I'm going to try experiment today with what I came up with. Joshua wants oranges and pears on the tree with the apples, and I'll make those velcro since the apples are, but I'm thinking of using a different method for some of the other things. I'm not sure quite how difficult it would be to redo the squirrel, frog, and bird...I'm not excited about trying...so maybe I can make something else with my new idea and then deal with changing those later. We'll see.

Well, I got the 4 Monday reports completed this morning, and a bit of other stuff, got Joshy his lunch and down for a nap, and now I'm hanging out with Henry (who of course just woke up from his nap). I'm working on doing "Buddy" (I posted a picture of him a few posts ago). I decided to just make him the size of a regular sheet of paper, since he is a little T-Rex anyway...but I'm having some major challenges making him. I've got the eyes and mouth figured out...and they look decent...but the claws are going to be a lot of work. Making teeny tiny pieces of stuff with felt is difficult because it all starts to rip apart. Hence, the teeth don't look quite the same. I think it was ambitious to expect them to, though.

I don't like posting partially finished things, but since I don't have any turquoise or light blue to make his diamonds and triangles, I might post him partially finished tonight. We'll see.

Nope - I got Buddy all the way done except for the turquoise shapes, but I don't want to post a picture until he's done. Didn't accomplish any other stuff...but while Buddy looks a bit different from the picture, I'm still proud of how it's going.

My Dad has a job interview on Wednesday and I really really hope he gets it. My mom's knee is hurt bad and I really really hope it is able to be treated and heal. My brother is going to Europe and I really really hope he has a great time there.

Ok, I thought I was done at 11:30 or whenever I posted that, but then I decided to go and do something else. Here are my first flowers. I wasn't happy with any of the flowers I saw with the other playhouses, but I really liked the idea of having them come out of the window box pockets (like on Jill's house). I used pipe cleaners inside the felt stems and thought they would be more sturdy if I bent the long pipe cleaner like this and put a flower on each end. They should fit more snugly in the window box pockets this way. I like how they turned out!

Day seven

Today has been a busy, good day. Enjoyed church, had a good dinner here with friends, watched a few minutes of the Super Bowl here and there, and now the boys are going to bed, and I can work on my two hobbies as of late - crafting this playhouse and watching Lost.

Tonight I finished making two letters for the mailbox (I can't make the mailbox yet because Joshua wants it to be made of dark blue felt and I don't have any yet - also I want to get some felt letters to spell MAIL on it). But anyway, here they are:



Also, I broke my last needle threader. Argggg.

Day six

Ok so Henry is down for a nap...though he isn't actually asleep, so I may need to go in there and check on him...and Nathan and Joshua are at the library. I ate breakfast and put a load of laundry in, so now I really really want to get some more stuff done for the playhouse. We'll be gone much of the day, and the boys' naps are always flip-flopped lately - rarely overlapping much at all. So this may be my best little chunk of time.

Two more apples today, and my apples are complete!

And yes, the bottom one has a little green and yellow worm coming out of it!

Day five

Another day with very little time for crafting, so my only accomplishment for the playhouse was to fix the apple stem from my first apple so that it looks less like a pumpkin stem, and will match the other apple stems I made, though they haven't been put into apples yet.

Joshua also decided that on the side of the playhouse with dinosaurs, he wants there to be Buddy from Dinosaur Train, so this is what I'll need to make:

Day four

A very busy day...so just one carrot completed! That completes my carrot trio.

Day three

Today I have been doing a lot of tracing and cutting, but no sewing yet.

Both the boys are down for their naps, so it's a good time to do some work on this, but I had to make myself get a bunch of the apartment work done first: make 6 phone calls, sort out our online accounting challenge, schedule a plumber to replace a garbage disposal, schedule the turnover vendors for an apartment coming available, make new flyers and brochures and put them outside, respond to and file various emails, and get a mailing for a resident ready to go. There is more that could be done, but nothing else that MUST be done for work today, so now I feel free to do some crafting.

Off I go...

:::BIG time lapse:::

As of 11:35pm, I had completed 3 lettuce leaves and a green frog. One of the lettuce leaves will be sewn to the playhouse, and the other two will velcro on, so Joshy and Henry can pick the lettuce. They are bright green on one side and dark green on the other, with some wax paper in between to make them a bit crackly. I'm sure it's been done before, but I was proud to think of it ("it" meaning the wax paper...not the lettuce - that was from Jill's playhouse) on my own tonight. The frog will also velcro to the playhouse. I like him a lot. When I did a Google image search for green frog, Joshua really wanted to use this frog umbrella picture, rather than what I chose for the frog template.
Sometimes I overrule his ideas. It's for the greater good - I hope he'll appreciate it later.

I have a bunch of stuff (two apples with stems and one carrot with greens) cut out and ready to be sewn together...I just despise sewing the velcro rectangles on things...I need a better thimble and to make sure I use a strong needle. I bent one yesterday. It took me until velcro piece number 5 to think to pin the velcro on before starting to sew. *sigh* These are the kinds of things I would think of...if I already knew anything about sewing. Oh well. So I didn't pin 4 of them...there are a LOT more to go.

Day two

Today I finished two more items...a second corn cob and a yellow bird to perch on the "My Garden" sign that Joshua requested for one side of the playhouse.

Oh...did I mention I don't have a sewing machine? I'm fairly certain that TWO corn cobs is plenty for this garden I'm creating.

Day one

Today I went and bought a bunch of 9x12" pieces of felt in various colors, polyester fiberfill, some green pipe cleaners, big and small "good" scissors, some velcro, and a good supply of googly eyes. I came home and proceeded to get to work. Here is a picture of my first creation - a carrot.

By the end of the night, I'd made much more than a carrot! Here are all of my creations.
The corn took about an hour...my favorite was the squirrel!

My new adventure

I saw these felt playhouses online...it's basically a slipcover made of felt that you put over a card table, and it becomes a playhouse. I am going to make one, and it is going to be amazing. I'm going to track my progress on here as I accomplish things! Of course there will be pictures.

The first place I saw this type of playhouse was here: http://homemadebyjill.blogspot.com/2009/10/felt-playhouse.html

Though Jill posted links to all sorts of other playhouses, none were as creative as hers. I'm using some of her templates and then venturing off on my own! Joshua has been very opinionated as we've looked at all the ones on Etsy.com and he has chosen what things he's interested in. It will be a lot of fun. And hours and hours of work.

2010 goals

This year, I set a LOT of goals, but they are all do-able. I set a bunch of monthly goals (10 things I'd like to do each month!), and then 11 one-time things. Then I also made three goals that I want to accomplish multiple times. All of which have boxes by them, so I can have the extreme satisfactoin of checking them off! I have crossed off 7 things already!

Some of my goals are more personal than others, but I'll share some of them. Some of the things I want to do each month are write in each of the boys journals, and write in my own journal. I want to go on a date at least once a month, do my magnetic meal calendar I made (and try to actually go by it!), and stay on track with the scripture reading I'm doing online. I have it set up to complete my goal in a year (which ends in like September or something), so I'm going to make sure that I stay on track with that, and record my percentage at the end of each month. I'm not good at reading every day, but I've decided that's ok. As long as I finish in a year, and am caught up by the end of the month, it's ok if I read 5 days worth at once (each day is 18 verses), or whatever. This is on readthescriptures.com and it works for me. Thanks Jen, for that great resource!!

Anyway, other goals include Henry's first year scrapbook and Joshua's second year scrapbook (I'd love to get his 3rd year one done also...but I'm trying to be realistic). I also want to try to go on 4 hikes, get Joshua potty-trained, create a Sunday activity bag for Joshua (with his name on it and "only Sunday" books, coloring stuff, a stuffed animal maybe, snacks, etc.), move away from these apartments, leave stuff in good shape for the next managers, and my first goal that I'm working away at...

I have a weekly to-do list that I have split up with work on one side and home/family/church (personal stuff) on the other. I write a new one each week, but include everything that I didn't do from the previous week with a line under it, and so on. The stuff on the work side always gets done - either that week, or within a couple weeks. The stuff on the other side sits and sits and sits and sits...and I want to change that. I have stuff on there from months ago, and it's not difficult stuff, I just haven't put it as a priority. So my general goal is to put it as a higher priority, but my specific short-term goal is to get everything done that was on my list at the end of 2009, by the end of January. That was 10 things. They'd been on there for months. Last week, I accomplished 6 of them. I have already accomplished one this week, so that's only 3 more (and one is to post on this blog!). And seriously, the other two aren't really very difficult, and will get done by the end of the week. So yeah - I'm excited about that. Maybe some week I'll be at the glorious place of having done everything from that week AND all the other weeks. Amazing!

It's possible, though last week I added, "put up pictures," which is a HUGE task. We want to go through all the frames on the walls and put updated pictures in them (we have barely any pictures of Henry up (2, to be specific), other than on a big collage poster I made in November). I'm also doing a new little organization system for some of the small toys we have - I'm coloring big colorful labels on clean ice cream buckets (we have about a billion of them), for baby toys, play food, etc. I need to do one for bath toys, and maybe another baby toys one, and then I can cross that off. It is possible that won't get done this week. And THEN I'll be adding some of the goals from my year to-do list on there...but I'll try to wait until it is realistic that I'll be doing them soon...rather than letting them sit there for months.

Anyway, I know people would rather see pictures than read journal-type posts, but I started this blog to be a journal, and it helps me write it.

I do, however, have a goal (though it isn't written down anywhere, so I don't have to feel guilty for not doing it) of posting a 2009 monthly thing...of some of the major things that happened each month. I've seen that on three friends' blogs now, and I like it! On this computer, I only have pictures from April-October, but Henry will be moving into Joshua's room soon, so we'll have access to the computer WITH the pictures on it at the only times that I have long stretches to do things like a blog post with pictures (at night when the boys are sleeping).

I've had a cold since before Christmas - Nathan gave me his, then he got over it briefly, then he got a different cold, which I didn't exactly get...cuz he had a bad cough that I never got, but this cold just keeps hanging on.

I made a sweet fort today, while Joshua was sleeping, and we're in the middle of playing in it, so I'm going to post this and get back to the fun!