New Year!

We rung in the New Year with yummy black eyed peas and greens! So delicious.
I'm hoping those peas bring us good luck and a better year than last.
Also, I didn't let Don do laundry, it's bad luck.
Did I mention my husband does the laundry and the dishes?
I guess I have a lot to be thankful for, even if Teagan's underwear is often in my drawer (which I take as a compliment.)

Today I began my new year by painting over hard feelings.
Quite literally.

Last summer our kids playhouse plus many of their toys were spray painted while we were away. Not by vandalistic teenagers, but by our house sitter's 5 year old son and his friend.
Also two chickens were left out and killed by a cat.
I'm still a little depressed by it all and my kids never like to go in their playhouse. I think it's filled with sad feeling for us all.
It was a bad return home from an otherwise fabulous vacation.

So new year, new beginnings.
Starting with the playhouse!

I began painting it a cheery yellow today. I'm going to paint the trim white. Teagan got some cute owl wall stickers from Santa that will look darling in it too.
Here are a couple pictures of the spray painted things (there were a lot of expensive toys too, much of them I just threw out.)



Oops. I forgot to paint the door...


Anyway there's such a happy feeling inside now and it's going to be super cute when it's all done.
It feels so good to paint over the bad memories and start fresh!

Doomed I tell you!

My quirky father-in-law sent out and email today proving my long thought out theory.
That Anderson's are all loco, regardless of their age and gender.

Pictures taken in 2006:



Don's grandfather Donald and Teagan imitating:



Pictures taken in 2009:
(Same restaurant!)






I believe that we are helpless.
The nutty Anderson gene must be more dominant than my hippy Kolb gene.
But if Teagan grows up to be 98 and can still balance a tortilla chip on her lips I'll be pretty damn happy.

Undocumented elves anyone???

Are hiring elves that don't have the right papers illegal?
I need to know cause I need to get my sweatshop, um, I mean workshop flowing.

I feel a little guilty that I make things for other peoples kids, but never my own.
Of course that is not entirely true, but for the most part, yep.
Minus the retarded owl.
Oh wait, sorry, that is not very p.c.?
He is a "special-tarded" owl.

So here is my sweetshop, so far.

Felt cupcakes for niece in Australia (nice and light for shipping yo.)


Eggs, bacon and evil knife for niece with parents who understand my sick sense of humor.


Random bag for a classmate of Teagans...


Onsies made for friend and soon to be neighbor. :)


And special owl for daughter.
Notice that one wing is sewn upside-down... yeah I TOTALLY meant to do that!



See, he's just bustin' a move.

We have had a rough weekend.
Thursday night while I was a work the kids found a cat hiding underneath their playhouse.
Actually I guess Carmen found it, it had been hit by a car.
Don put him in the garage. He was incredibly loving and affectionate, and was jumping around the room wanting to be snuggled.
But he had a HUGE open wound on the side of him. I mean HUGE.
We debated what to do with him, and then a friend suggested her vet might be caring and give us help.
So we decided to pay for the visit to see what she had to say.
We had already look into all the shelters, they are all full.
I guess a sign of a bad economy is people dumping off pets left and right.
The Humane Society or Animal Shelter would put him to sleep.
We all kind of fell in love with him and made a family decision to try and help him.
We decided to pay for a visit to the vet, look for his owners ourselves.
When we brought him to the vet, we were told that first, "she" was an altered "he" (oops,)and secondly that he had been hit about 1-2 weeks ago.
His fur had all dried up and therefore it could not been sewn back.
He'd need several surgeries.
If he didn't get them the wound would always stay open and it would get infected.
We told her that we don't have the money to pay for anything like that (esp. since he's not our cat!)
The vet was nice and offer to take the cat for the weekend, clean out his wounds as much as possible, put him under and do a little stitch work at no cost, while we looked for his owners.
SO we have spent this whole weekend searching high and low for the owners of a cat!
Notices everywhere, craigslist, emails, newspapers, etc all weekend without any leads.
They kids were getting sad about not finding his owners.
Finally I put out a plea for any advice on what to do with this poor cat on craigslist.
And... late last night, someone offered to help him.
She wants us to take him to the vet she works with today.
She (or the organization she works with?) will pay for his surgery and then find him a home.
YAY!!! Teagan and Ari are so happy!!!
I was even happier.
Yay, to happy endings and second chances!!

I'm on a roll!

A rock n' roll that is!!
Hahaha, get it?!
Okay not so funny I know.
But sure nuf I am on a stuffed weird felt objects roll!

I know I'm a dork and I ain't got that witty blogger talk.


But what I do got is really cool felt 45's for my cutie-pie niece....


Also I am currently making a set of cupcakes for my other cutie pie niece (I am SO lucky!!!)

Procraftination

Okay so I've been in a funk for a while now.
I miss having friends and living in the EB where everybody knows my name.

But I did make two things today that I love, and I thought that I should share them.
A sweet little felt knife for my 5 month old niece, and a little cupcake purse for one of my daughter's friends.
Some might say "hey, send in the meds!"
But those who know and love me will appreciate the awkward/loveliness of this little duo.
I actually I kinda hate to separate them.



Okay.
So maybe I am truly starting to lose it a wee bit?

But, hey. At least my kids are growing up in a loving and nurturing environment.
And that is what really matters.
Right?

Pot n'tots

This summer has blessed me with two new babies!
OH, how I love them little babies, I do!
Plus I love the mamas. Holly and Stephanie and two of my fav peeps.

I got the pattern online on turning onsies into dresses.
http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/onesie_dress_2
These dresses are made from recycled onsies I bought at the the thrift shop and fabric I just had on hand from my recent fabric hording rampage.








Besides my sewing excursion, when I've been home this summer I've spent my creative outlet in the pot shop.
Sad to say that I have not been home enough this summer, plus had to miss two classes due to sickness and kiddos (Ari and mama need a little one on one time,) so I wasn't around much in pottery.
All I made this whole summer were two pieces. Sigh.
Oh well, there always next session, right?