Engineer Cap

As promised, I finished Ethan's hat today. It was a challenging project for me because there were a number of fiddly parts to it. But it's done now, and I love how it looks! Of course there are a number of imperfections, but I'm proud of it all the same. I used this tutorial to make it.

 Ethan, say "happy!"

The unfortunate thing is that Ethan seemed to like the hat so much more while I was making it than now that it's done. I think he doesn't care for the brim. Or maybe it's because I told him not to touch it too many times while it had pins in it.

Later in the day I worked on some other Halloween prep. Ethan woke up from his nap while I was doing a little painting, and of course he was very interested. So I let him do a little painting with water, and then I added some food coloring to make it even more fun. He thoroughly enjoyed it. :)

He was a little reluctant to let me take off his shirt since it was a little chilly, so I turned on the heater for him. This is him telling me it feels nice.

 Hard at work

 Having fun!

It feels so good to be creating a bit again. It's been too long! And it's nice to feel more prepared for Halloween too. :)

 

Our Blustery Day

Today was (and still is) a very blustery day indeed. I didn't even go outside because Terral offered to take care of the chickens so I wouldn't have to see the carnage that was Chris cutting up his deer. (We let him hang it in our garage since it's cooler up here.)  I thought today would be a good day to work on Ethan's costume since the weather wasn't conducive to painting, and I ended up just doing inside chores all day.

Terral met with a guy today who teaches MovNat, which is something he's been interested in for a while. He spent quite a while in the park having fun and learning some new things. Heather has become interested in it too, so she came to watch, but ended up talking quite a bit to the instructor's wife. Terral says I would have enjoyed talking with her, but alas, I had opted for costume work instead.

Speaking of which, I did get a good amount done on it. Ethan is going to be a train engineer for Halloween, and today I worked on his cap. I'm really excited with the way it's turning out! Tomorrow I'll try it on him and finish putting it together.

Today was the first day I've used my new craft table. It was given to me by a friend recently. It's really nice for laying things out and cutting. :) And if I need to, I can pull out another leaf and make it nearly twice as long.

And just for cutness/random's sake, here's a picture of Ethan from a walk we took the other day. His toy tractors are pretty much extensions of his arms these days. And it isn't infrequent that he has to have his tractor, wrecking ball, and backhoe all together (and he does know the names of them all). You can't tell right away, but he is carrying all three in this picture.

In other Ethan news, I've been meaning to write for a while a couple of things about the way he is currently. He definitely knows his mind and will tell you "no" if he doesn't want something, but most of the time he will answer any question with "yeah!" in a variety of inflections. It's pretty amazing how he will match his affirmative answer to the occasion. 

He is also rather particular sometimes about things being just so. He'll straighten the rug, close doors, put toys away on his own (when it strikes his fancy), and is usually very eager to help me clean things up. Apparently Terral was the same way when he was little.

Пельмени

I've been trying to have more variety at meal times lately, and tonight I finally cooked something I've been wanting for a long time: пельмени (pelmeni). I ate these meat-filled pastries quite a bit on my mission, but I actually never had any that were homemade. 

Terral had some on his mission too, but he didn't have the fond memories of them I did. Luckily, they were a hit with everyone tonight! Ethan ate better than he has in quite a while. And honestly, you'd never know I made them with venison hamburger.

I was a little worried about them turning out because the dough did not work the way the recipe said it should. I think it's partially because I used whole wheat flour. But it all worked out in the end! I admit I was rather proud of the end result.

Craving: Satisfied!

Super Fox

Remember the cape I mentioned a few days ago? Well, I finally got a picture today.

The main reason I was so happy about this cape is that it's a double revamp. Last year a friend of mine gave me a bag of clothes she was getting rid of, and I took a couple sweatshirts that I thought would be useful for projects. I ended up using the lighter colored one for the belly on Terral's Baloo costume.

I just safety pinned it on there, so it was easy to remove. But I didn't want to throw it away, so it ended up kicking around for months. Then last week (?) as I was looking at it wondering if I should keep it or not, I had the brilliant idea of making a cape for Ethan out of it. He likes dressing up in things, and for a while there he loved to wear the green cape I made for primary whenever he saw it. (I can't find a picture of it! grrr) But it was very awkward because it was so big, so eventually I put it away where he wouldn't see it.

It was pretty simple to make the change. I just cut a hole out near the top for his head to go through and then I used some scrap material from a t-shirt to make the letter for the back. If I did it again, I would leave a little more room between the hole and the top since it's getting a bit stretched out, and I would place the letter a little higher. But all in all, I'm pleased with the outcome. Yay for no waste and having super powers! ;)

Projects and Accessories

Since the possibility of moving is in the near future, I have found renewed motivation to finish some little projects that have been on my to-do list for too long. I attempted three and successfully completed two today.

First, I made a cover for the foam roller I made for Terral's Father's Day present. I guess you can't really see it too well in this picture, but you can tell that's it's fun to play with. ;)

The second completed project was changing some knee-holed jeans of mine into shorts. I'm incredibly satisfied with the imperfect results. It will be nice to have another pair of shorts to wear!

The last couple pictures don't have anything to do with projects. Ethan's all into accessorizing these days. He found some "new" shoes under his crib and immediately asked me to put them on. (BTW, his version of the word is sounding more and more like shoe and less like Jew. His vocabulary has taken some major leaps lately!) Then he saw daddy's backpack and wanted to put it on. I let him wear it for a minute, but it is of course very impractical. Then I remember a recently-acquired quiet book that is in the shape of a backpack. It was a tight fit, but he didn't seem to mind. He walked around with that "I'm wearing something cool" look. And then he saw daddy's hat and wanted to add it to his outfit. Who am I to deny the King of Cute?

Why We Make Stuff

This post is being written by Terral. Mary is busy with Ethan right now (fireworks and such worked him up). She may or may not have already fallen asleep with him.  :) I'm pretty tired myself so this post will probably not make much sense!

I have always liked to make things. What kinds of things? I don't really care. It started as things that I wanted but couldn't afford. I once tried to make waterproof snowboard pants out of an old pair of nylon warm-up pants. I melted wax in a pot and then rubbed the melted wax into the fabric. I'm sure you can guess that it didn't work so well but it was worth a try right? Oh well I was young and couldn't afford decent apparel for snowboarding. Anyway my compulsion for making things has only grown. I look at something and immediately I wonder to myself, "how is that made? I wonder if I could make something like that? How does it really work. Is there something else that can create the same function that I can rig? I think that after being married to me Mary has caught the bug. She is getting really good at making homemade health and beauty products!

Recently we were asked why we made our own toothpaste. We don't always use homemade toothpaste but we have been experimenting with it. We had a hard time actually saying why we did. It may have saved us a tiny bit of money but that wasn't the big issue. Mary says there are some kind of health benefits but we really can't remember what they are. Our first attempts really didn't taste good at all. Don't get me wrong, they do a good job and leave a good clean feel but it does take some work to get it right. We just couldn't come up with any quantitative reason why we did it!
(**edit from Mary: Although I couldn't remember all the reasons specifically, I made it because I wanted to avoid things in commercial toothpaste like flouride, which may help strengthen teeth, but it does not do the same for your body.)

Well when it comes down to it, we do it because we can. It's fun. It's interesting! For some reason there is a thrill that one gets from making something that is normally considered to be something that the average person can't make. It is impossible to explain the feeling to someone who has not experienced it. If you have eaten fresh food from your own garden then that is a similar feeling. The knowledge and skills are empowering. We live in a world where everything we do is usually justified by "the bottom line" If it saves us time, money, or effort then we do it. Very rarely do we do things just for the heck of it!
(**edit from Mary: I definitely agree with what Terral has said, but I also have a lot of motivation from saving money, being independent, and a sense of accomplishment. Oh, and for the record, I have always enjoyed making things, but my interests have certainly expanded since we got married.)

For anyone who may think that it is a waste of time to make something that can easily be purchased at the store I have an example. In high school Chaco sandals became popular. I was in with the outdoorsy crowd and many of my friends had them. I wanted a pair so badly but alas, I couldn't afford them.(They are not cheap!) We went river rafting for a sr. trip so I decided to make a pair of sandals out of some webbing that I found in the basement. I don't remember exactly how I made them but I made the sole by weaving the webbing together. They didn't offer much protection but I didn't care. My friends thought they were pretty funny! They lasted about half a day until they fell off in the river and drifted away.

Fast forward about ten years and I finally got my Chacos. I had been wearing them and loving them. Unfortunately I had stopped wearing them in the desert because the sand was making the straps break. I started thinking about all the things that I would change if I could. One day I just decided that I needed a replacement. I wanted something light and flexible. After a long search with no results I finally decided to just make my own. I played with foam, duct tape and climbing webbing to make prototypes. I looked online and found some sandals called "huaraches" which is really just Spanish for sandal but refers to the running sandals that the Tarahumara indians use for running several hundred miles at a time. They were cool but not what I wanted. A few small businesses were making handmade versions of them although they looked very primitive and like something a Roman soldier would wear. I was inspired by the simple design so I kept making until I finally got the sandals that I really wanted.

One thing led to another and now I own a sandal company. It is small but growing steadily. I have three part-time workers and we are currently making about 40 pairs per week. That is my full-time job. It would be my full-and-a-half-time job if there were such a thing! I don't mean to be boastful but rather to prove the point. You never know what things may grow from just making something. Back in the year 2000 when I made my first pair (or should I say attempt) of sandals I would NOT have guessed that I would end up making sandals for a living.

Ok, the rant is over now! If you're still reading then I'm impressed.

Mail Sorter

Well, today I was productive again. It helped that I got up sooner. But it didn't help that the universe was conspiring against Ethan's nap time. When I finally gave up on getting him back to sleep, we were both able to have fun while I worked on the tasks I wanted to.

Speaking of productivity, I mentioned on Monday that I did a little sewing project. And I do mean little.
I made a mail sorter for Unshoes, so we can keep all the business mail separate from our personal stuff and make sure tracings and bills don't get overlooked. I've wanted to make one for our personal mail for a while, but the business needed one more urgently.

I looked around the online for quite a while before I found something that I thought would suit. I took my cue from this post. I only have those felt squares that you can buy at a craft store, so I was a little limited size wise. I suppose I could have sewn some together, but I was trying to keep it simple. Well, it ended up not being as simple as I'd hoped. You see, the top piece of felt was just a little bigger than the bottom. And since it was going to be a tight fit, I decided to use the extra rather than trim it off. So I had to do a lot of exact measuring and pinning to try to get everything distributed evenly, all while taking breaks for the kidlet. If I'd had extra room to work with, I would have just eyeballed it, and it probably would have taken about ten minutes. Instead, I worked on it for, oh, about an hour. The end result is a little wonky, but it works.

CC Salve

Yesterday Ethan developed quite the diaper rash, and it reminded me that I never posted about our Christmas gifts. I just reread that sentence and realized that may like quite a stretch, but hang with me for a moment and it will make sense.

One of the gifts I made Terral was a Calendula-Comfrey Salve. He liked it, but truth be told, he was more excited by the home made deodorant. ;) He has used it a few times since, but it turns out that little boys learning to walk, run, climb, and explore get quite a few more "owies" than their dads who teach and make sandals. So even though the salve is still Terral's, it kind of became Ethan's too. Especially once we found out how good it works on diaper rash.

When I was researching cloth diapers, most of the websites made it sound like diaper rash was practically nonexistent with cloth diaper users. Although it hasn't been a real frequent occurrence, Ethan has definitely not escaped this babyhood experience. But the care instructions for our diapers forbid the use of creams, so we had to find another way. We used cornstarch as a preventative measure when he was younger. When he did get a rash, we usually applied silver gel. That helped prevent the rash from getting worse, but it didn't speed up the healing process much.  The thing that seemed to aid healing the most was baking soda in his bath water. That usually cleared it up pretty well.

Some time after Christmas, Ethan got another rash and I tried the salve I had made. It cleared up so quickly! I was definitely impressed and vowed to make another bottle to keep in the nursery. Only I haven't done that yet, so we're still using Terral's. :) He's very generous with it. It helps that a little goes a long way.

Which brings me back to the beginning of this post. As I said, Ethan got a rash yesterday, and he somehow pooped in his diaper twice after that without us catching it quickly. The result was one sore little man. A baking soda bath and a couple salve applications later, and not a sign of red lingers.

It feels so good to know that I can make something like that to help my family. I'm continually amazed by the gifts God has given us, and the wisdom He used in making them.

PS The above recipe made enough to fill 2 baby food jars. I gave the other one to my dad. And just in case you were wondering, I took these pictures today, so you can kind of see how little we've used the past few months—in spite of frequent use.

Three Accomplishments

7:30 came way too early this morning. Daylight Saving Time was so not my friend as I dragged myself out of bed. I didn't sleep great last night. I woke up sometime after 4 and had a hard time getting back to sleep, which is doubly unfortunate because Ethan slept AWESOME last night!

I try not to talk about our sleep issues too much. 1) I don't want to complain. Things have gotten much better, and as I improve my own sleep patterns I'm getting a better amount of sleep. 2) Sleep is one of those mommy-judging issues, as much as we may not want it to be. 3) I've read a ton of information, gotten a fair amount of advice, and tried several techniques, but sleeping through the night continually eludes us. We have had improvement though, as I said before, and that is nothing to sneeze at. 4)  I know some would disagree with the way we do things, and of course I don't want to get into disagreements. I'm still not 100% sure what I really believe is "best" for kids as far as sleep goes, but really, I think each child is just so different, and you have to rely on your instincts as a mother/parent and simply do your best.

First off, for you to realize just how monumental this was, you must know that although Ethan has technically slept through the night a number of times (meaning at least 5 hours in a row), I think he has done what most people think of as sleeping through the night maybe once before—and yes, he is 14 months old. There are a number of possible reasons for this (teething is definitely a culprit from time to time), but that really doesn't have much to do with what I really want to tell you, so I won't go into speculation.

Normally, I nurse Ethan to sleep and put him in his crib. He wakes up at least once, and will often finish the night with us in bed. Last night, I nursed him as usual, but he didn't go to sleep. He was just awake. So I put him in his crib. And he started crying right away. I stayed nearby, stroked his head, and talked to him. He continued crying. I could tell he felt a little abandoned even though I was right there, so I lowered the side of the crib. He leaned up against the side, I put my arm around him and sang to him, and he calmed right down. And that is how he fell asleep. So I propped some pillows around him and covered him with a blanket. And he didn't wake up once. It was absolutely amazing.

Ethan's other big accomplishment today was—skip this paragraph if you don't want to read about potty training—pooping in the toilet. But wait, you say, didn't he already do that? Well, yes, but the other times we caught it part-way through, so there was still poop in the diaper. This time he did it all in the toilet! And there was much rejoicing. :) He thought he was pretty hot stuff. I thought so too.

Ethan wasn't the only one accomplishing things today, though. I did something I've been wanting to do for a long time. I made cheese! Oh, how I love cheese! And after it was done, we used it to make delicious mediterranean pizzas on Terral's homemade pita bread. It was lovely.

And you are too. Lovely, I mean. Thanks for reading. And commenting occasionally. I appreciate the time you take to reach out.

Freak Outs and Cookies

Today was a very windy day. I felt like the wind sucked away all my mind power and motivation. It was not my best mommy day. Add to that last night's beast of a post that just would. not. work. . . and I didn't get a whole lot done today. So forgive me if I don't bother with pictures today. (I did finally get the post done this afternoon, though.)

On Sunday, I signed up to bring a meal to a family that just added a little babe to their numbers. Yesterday, one of the compassionate service leaders called and asked if I could do it today, and she paired me up with another lady. Part of me was glad for the pairing because that should just make it easier, right? But another part of me was stressed out by it. I was kind of paralyzed by the teaming up, as odd as that might sound. I have this quirk about me that sometimes everyday things that most people just take in stride just kind of freak me out. The first times I went grocery shopping and bought gas by myself were really rather ridiculous, and yes, I felt like crying. If I'm being totally honest, I just may have actually done so. Phone calls are occasionally the same way, but that didn't start until my mission.

Well, this wasn't nearly that bad, but it still was difficult for me. I was supposed to call the other lady to coordinate. Somehow I felt like it would be so much easier if she called me. What difference that would make to the conversation, I don't know. It's not a logical thing. I know her, so that made the idea of it a little bit easier, but even so, there was this part in my chest that just felt stuck. I guess I felt like I had to have a plan in place, or something. I don't know. It seems like such a silly thing, but it was so hard for me to actually pick up the phone and call because I didn't know what to say.

Well, when I finally did, (at about 2, so only 3-4 hours before we were to have the dinner ready) it was just fine. No big deal. Of course. She dropped off her part at my house a little early since her daughter had a soccer game, and then I took it over to the family.

I ended up making a quinoa tabbouleh and oatmeal spice cookies. Quinoa and oats are both purported to help in breastmilk production. After I had Ethan, I just wanted to eat light meals for a while. That makes it easier when your body is done with the food, if you know what I mean. And snacks became kind of a necessity. You just need more calories when you are nursing. I found this recipe, and it quickly became a favorite at our house. Well, the cookies I made based on it did anyway. I tweaked the recipe, since I'm not a fan of some of the ingredients. Here's my version:

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups rolled oats

Optional goodies:nutmeg, ginger, flax seeds, chia seeds, slivered almonds, any another nut

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Cream together the butter, brown sugar, white sugar, eggs, and vanilla until smooth. Mix in baking soda, spices, and salt. Slowly add flour. Stir in the oats and whatever "goodies" you have on hand. Make dough into one inch balls and place on ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake 10 to 12 minutes until light and golden. Do not overbake. Let them cool for 2 minutes before removing from cookie sheets to cool completely. Store in airtight container. 

Choose the Right

We didn't sleep very well last night (Ethan kept crying in his sleep), and what with us being sleepy-heads and the blizzard-like conditions we woke up to, we were late to church. . . again. I found out during primary that I had missed a rather important announcement in Sacrament Meeting. We have a new primary presidency! For now I'm just supposed to continue business as usual, but it will be interesting to see if/what changes they make.  I'm a little bit sad because I felt like things were starting to really work well with the old presidency, but I'm excited for the change too.

Anyway, I've obviously got primary on the brain, so I thought I'd share what we did for Singing Time today.

I've been hanging on to the peek-a-boo game I made for Ethan's birthday party. The theme for primary this year is Choose The Right, and I just knew I could implement it in some sort of activity. On Saturday, I finally figured it out.

We are learning the hymn Choose the Right this month, and I decided to work on the third verse this week. After we did our Article of Faith song and I introduced the wiggle worm jar that I just made, I brought out my cardboard contraption. I had the kids put on their listening ears (they just cup their ears), and I sang the first phrase for them, and then we all sang it together.

Choose the right! There is peace in righteous doing.

Then I picked someone to come up and open up the first two trap doors and we all decided together which choice would bring peace. The first picture shows some kids cheating, and the second one is supposed to be a boy studying.

Choose the right! There's safety for the soul.

The kids were pretty quick to decide that eating a carrot was much safer than smoking a cigarette. 

Choose the right in all labors you're pursuing; Let God and heaven be your goal.

With this one we talked about how money in itself isn't bad, but if we are talking about what you want most in life—your ultimate goals—heaven should be at the top of the list.

After each choice was made, we closed the bad choices and were left with this to remind us as we reviewed the verse. (They learned the chorus last week.)

And here's a picture of the whole thing just in case you wanted to see it.

For the pictures, I just found free clip art online, zoomed in on it till it was the size I wanted, held a blank piece of paper up to the screen, and traced it with a pencil. Then I went over them all with a sharpie. That way I didn't use any expensive printer ink and I didn't have to worry about sizing the clip art or making sure it didn't go all pixelated on me.

The kids had fun with it, and I did too. It wasn't difficult to make at all, but it did take some time, so I wish I knew of someone nearby who would want to use it. Seems a shame to just throw it away. At least the cardboard was used multiple times!

Inherited

Today was a pretty good day.  I was a little slow getting going, but I feel okay about that because I still got a decent number of things done.  Like visiting teaching.  On the last day of the month.  Oops.

Ethan and I went for a walk (to do said visiting), and I couldn't believe how warm it was! Did not feel like January.  Although, to be fair, it is February tomorrow.  But still.  I'm a little nervous about how warm it's been because trees and bushes are starting to bud already, and they'll probably freeze.  Of course, this happened last year too, and things seemed to be okay.

Anyway. . .what else did I do today? Hmm. I cleaned the kitchen, which included an impromptu reorganizing of an area that's been driving me crazy.  Does anyone else have those sudden compulsions where you just have to de-clutter and organize, and no it cannot wait thank-you-very-much? I had one last week, too, with Terral's desk drawer. I love opening that drawer now.

I also sewed a little taggy pillow for a little girl who's been under the weather.

Did a bit of laundry, played with my boy, did some shopping, and cooked a fancier-than-normal meal with my hubby. We had Terral's brother and his fiance over for dinner tonight.  We've been meaning to get together for quite a while, so I'm glad it finally worked out.  After dinner we played Qwirkle, which was pretty fun.  I love it when I find a game Terral likes. McKade and Maycie like it too, which is awesome.

Ethan loved having company over, and amazingly he played with Dominos almost the whole time we were playing our game.  He would take them out and put them back in again, making sure none were sticking up funny.  Then, whenever he managed to put the lid on the tin box he would look around expectantly for praise.  Terral said he gets his impulse to organize from me. I wonder. . .who does he get his expectation of praise from? ;) Just kidding, just kidding.

Homemade Toothpaste

I thought I'd do a follow-up post about making your own toothpaste for those of you who might be interested.

As I was looking at various recipes, I ran across this page, which weighs the pros and cons of making your own toothpaste.  The pros are you save money and avoid bad stuff. The cons are you have to research and spend a little time and effort.  I thought that was kind of funny.  It really wasn't difficult at all, although the some of the ingredients are not what most people would have on hand.  I didn't have them on hand until just recently, but I love having them because you can use them for so many things!

Although honey does have sugars in it, which is listed as a reason to not use it in the above link, I decided to add it to my toothpaste not only for the sweetening factor, but also because honey is antibacterial.  This page has a whole list of uses for honey, one of which is diluting it in water and using it as a mouthwash.  Since the honey (and consequently the sugar) doesn't stay on your teeth, I don't imagine it could cause tooth decay.  But I'm not an expert or anything, so take the advice of the first link and do your own research. ;) Other sweeteners I've seen used are stevia and xylitol.

Here is a kind of homemade toothpaste buffet.  It lists options for the basic ingredients of most homemade toothpastes, including several essential oils.  This way you could flavor it any way you (or your kids!) would like.  You should note that not all essential oils are created equal, and for internal use you should make sure the EO is therapeutic grade.

The essential oils are not just for flavoring, this article talks about some of the EO's in the above link (plus lavendar) and how their antibacterial properties aid in preventing dental problems.

So there have it. A few resources for the interested and adventurous.  Let me know if you decide to try it!  Cuz that would be fun. Then we could, like, swap toothbrushing stories and stuff.  Um, yeah.  I'm going to bed now. G'night!


PS Apparently I only had one link in my last post.  I fixed it, so now both recipes are there.

Who Are You, and What Have You Done with Yourself?

That's the question I felt like asking myself a few times today.  It was kind of surreal.  I didn't get up particularly early, but by 2:30 I was pretty much done with all of my "have-to's" of the day.  Dishes done. Laundry caught up.  Bathroom clean.  Living room and bedrooms picked up. Weird.  So I cleaned some windows.  Then I took Ethan on a walk and dropped by a friend's house where we spent a couple hours just because we could.

When we got back, Ethan was acting ornery and tired, so I put him down for a late nap and started making toothpaste.  I've been wanting to try it for a while, and this was the perfect opportunity since our tube had just run out.

I combined elements from these two recipes and went for it. I used baking soda, coconut oil, tea tree oil, and raw honey.  The honey didn't mix in very well, which is maybe why the baking soda taste ended up being rather prominent.  I'll see if I can figure out how to fix that.  In the mean time it seems to work better than the commercial stuff, and I shouldn't have any problems with spoilage since I used honey as the sweetener.

Speaking of teeth, two more just popped out in Ethan's mouth.  That brings the total up to six—two on the bottom and four up top. Crazy kid just keeps growing!

The Blue Coat

When I was still in high school, my mom bought me a coat (I think it was a Christmas present?) with the idea that I could someday use it on my mission, but when I got my call to Russia, I decided I would need a warmer coat and it was left behind.

After I got home, I pretty much only wore it over a dress to concerts or on an occasional Sunday, which means I didn't wear it very much.  I tinkered with the idea of shortening it so I could wear it more frequently, but I was intimidated by the thought of actually doing it, and it just never seemed urgent, so I just left it the way it was.

This winter I decided that I was tired of having only a brown coat to wear (I lent my black coat that I bought in Russia to someone a couple years ago and they lost it *grr!*), so in November, I determined to forge ahead with the blue coat.

I apologize that the quality of the first photos is so bad.  It was a quick-take-a-picture-before-I-cut-it-up kind of thing.  Terral snapped the "after" pics during Ethan's one year old shoot.  He caught me unawares. So just in case you were wondering, no, I wasn't wearing half my collar up on purpose.

Anyway, there you have it!  I certainly didn't do a perfect job of it, but I'm really pleased with the way it turned out over all.  I wear it all the time now, and makes me feel a lot cuter than the brown coat ever did.  Yes, I do believe this one will be filed under Success.

O Christmas Tree

I was really excited about our Christmas tree this year. It started when Ethan was playing with an empty baby food jar. I realized that those things are fairly indestructible. Suddenly I was looking at the jar in a new way. With the label gone, it was really quite pretty. I decided to make some ornaments. I didn't have enough time to make all of my ideas, but I was happy with the way the ones I did make turned out.

I hope you like the pictures Terral took for me. I asked him to take them during the day because I love the way the sun looks through the glass. Also, we have LED lights, and the blue just kind of throws everything off. I need to get some white lights.

For the jar ornaments, I spray painted the lids, and then used jute twine and hot glue to decorate the jars. Next year I'd like to gather mini pine cones to put in some of the jars, and maybe do something with glitter or shredded sheet music. But this year I kept it pretty minimal.

I really like the snowflake ornaments. I made some extra for gifts to friends, and I filled them with candies.

I really like the look of this one with the red and white striped candy. I actually didn't hang any like this on the tree, but I had several of them on the piano.

For the bell garland, I got some copied sheet music and aged it with tea. Then I used a bell punch I got at a thrift store for $2 and punched out a bunch of bells, making sure to utilize the notes well. Then I sewed them all together on my sewing machine. I really like the way it looks, but it was kind of time consuming, and is rather fragile. Not the best thing with a babe around. On the up side, it cost next to nothing, and I can always make more.

My mom gave me these violin ornaments several years ago.  I only have three of them, but maybe someday I'll get some more. I love taking them out of the box every year and thinking of my mom, my years studying music, and all the times my family has supported me in that. Music means so much to me. There's a reason why Christmas Carols abound. What better medium could we have for praising our God?

Crochet Cable Ear Warmer

Like a lot of my crafts, this was inspired by the need for a gift. I wanted to make an ear warmer a little different than the ones I regularly do, and this is what I came up with. I was pretty excited to learn how to crochet a cable stitch. :)

So what do you think?  Is this something you would wear?  It could be any color, of course.

Birthday Critters

It was our turn to be in charge of my family's reunion this year, which ended up being way more stressful than I thought it would be.  There were of course several reasons for this, but one was that because of family and business matters I ended up cramming a big project into less than two weeks.  I was up into the wee hours of the morning every night.  But this was something I had had in mind for a long time, and it was really important to me, so I pushed on. In the end I was really glad I did.

I told the kids that we were going to celebrate all their birthdays. (We kind of tend to mostly celebrate the June birthdays because there are a lot of them.) My "speech" didn't come out very pretty—I blame it on sleep deprivation—but I got the point across and we began the fun.

I put the gifts in a giant pull pinata wrapped as a present.  Instead of taking turns whacking at the pinata, the kids took turns trying to find the string that would open the secret trap door.  The odds are much more even this way, but the suspense is still there. p.s. I got the idea here.

 

 

And suddenly it was open! Little critters fell out and the mad rush began.  Then the kids realized that there was a name tag attached to each one.  I had asked my sisters to find out what all the kids' favorite animal was so I could crochet a toy for everyone, so I wanted to make sure the animals found their proper homes

 And here I am with all my nieces and nephews.  And Diane. ;)

 It was so fun to see them enjoying their presents!

 And now for a closer look at the presents themselves.

 

 

Do you have a favorite?