November 2, 2012 9:40 pm

Inspiring

Last month at work we were asked what we’d found inspiring recently. I came up with my answer immediately, because I had just gotten a Land of Nod catalog in the mail and they have such fantastic styling for their catalogs – I couldn’t stop thinking about all the neat projects I could make based on what I’d seen. I felt kind of silly answering that question with “a children/baby product catalog” but it was the truth!

THEN, after answering, I went back to my desk and looked up the website and apparently they have an online catalog that is somehow MILES BEYOND MY WILDEST DREAMS. It comes with craft tutorials! Blew my mind.

Last year, I ended up making a mitten garland based on one I’d seen in their catalog, and this year I’m thinking about making a garland similar to this Christmas tree one:

Tree Garland

I just love that it’s so bright! It says it’s made from felt but it’s so thin it almost looks like paper.

(I just realized I can’t remember if I ever posted a photo of my mitten garland. It looked like this:

mitten garland
mitten garland

…and now I’m wishing I had saved a picture of the LoN inspiration because it’s not on the website anymore.)

Christmas crafting makes me sort of giddy, I’ll admit. And yes, I know Thanksgiving hasn’t even happened yet – I am of the opinion that it’s rarely too early for Christmas cheer. And crafting.

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November 1, 2012 2:50 pm

Halloween 2012

I had a few ideas regarding what Wesley, Daniel and I should be for Halloween this year, but ultimately got shot down. (I still think Spike, Angel, and Buffy would have been amazing. You can’t convince me otherwise.)

We visited Portland the week before Halloween and had the opportunity to go to a Halloween party at a former co-worker’s house. Since we didn’t think to bring any costumes with us, we tried to think of costumes that would be relatively easy to throw together, and we came up with the main characters from Supernatural.

(Supernatural is my new TV obsession.)

Castiel is an angel, and wears a dark suit with a blue tie and a tan trenchcoat. Dean and Sam Winchester are brothers who hunt supernatural beings, and they normally wear jeans, boots, button-up shirts, and jackets.

We walked into Goodwill and immediately found an olive green military-style jacket and a tan trenchcoat. It was a sign! I picked up some basic black pants, a white button-up, a black button-up instead of a suit jacket because they were expensive and hot, and some cheap dress shoes. I found a blue tie at a different Goodwill a few days later. We also had a fake demon knife for Daniel and a plastic Colt for Wesley.

I also found some supplies to make Dean’s necklace for Daniel, since it was too late to purchase one. I don’t think I did too bad for 15 minutes of sculpting!

Dean's Necklace

Here’s a fuzzy, kind of blue-ish photo of us at the party:

Castiel, Sam, & Dean

Daniel and Wesley as Dean Winchester and Sam Winchester:

Dean and Sam Winchester

And me as Castiel:

Castiel

(I know my tie has polka-dots instead of being plain blue. I TRIED. Goodwill was not forthcoming.)
……

For actual Halloween, I wanted Wesley to be Draco Malfoy. His hair is practically the exact same color! I found him an inexpensive Slytherin tie, and we also got him a gray v-neck sweater vest (couldn’t find a full sweater in time), a Slytherin patch for his Hogwarts robe, and a dark mark temporary tattoo. We used a ton of hair gel to slick his hair back à la Year One Draco, and in the meantime I sewed his Hogwart’s robe in about thirty minutes right before we left to go trick-or-treating. Whew!

Hogwarts Uniform

I folded the material in half with the fold at the top (neckline/shoulders), and then cut upside-down L-shapes out of the sides to make the arms/cloak part and stitched those together. It was some kind of horrible polyester double-knit fabric, so it didn’t fray at all, and I just hacked off the bottom to hem it. Then I stitched on his Slytherin patch and it was ready to go!

I didn’t manage to make him a custom treat bag this year due to obvious time constraints, but I think something dark green with a silver snake on it would have been lovely. Instead, he carried a green reusable grocery bag. And yes, I did feel a little like I had failed him as a mother because of it. A non-matching, non-Halloween-themed treat bag?! Travesty! (Oh well. There’s always next year.)

He did a great job walking up to houses, knocking on the door, and then saying “tick-oh-treeeeet” when they opened the door. He was also really good about saying “thank you” and yelling “HAPPY HALLOWEEN” as we left. I was so proud!

Draco Malfoy

If we asked him to cast a spell, he would point his wand and say “ZOOM ZOOM!” which was super funny.

We got a lot of compliments on his outfit – Daniel and I dressed up as Harry and Luna, so a lot of people got a kick out of us as a family too. When we were visiting with Daniel’s dad and stepmom, Wesley was helping answer the door and a little girl with a cute hand-knitted Gryffindor scarf was like, “Are you a Slytherin?! I’m a Gryffindor!” I called back “I’m a Ravenclaw!” It was the best.

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September 26, 2012 10:03 pm

The opposite of escapee

BECAUSE TODDLERS ARE INSANE, as soon as Daniel returned home I have not had a single frustrating moment with regard to Wesley’s bedtime.

Okay, okay, so I didn’t love discovering him climbing onto the back of my head at 4:45am this morning, and I don’t love that he’s been getting up roughly two hours earlier than usual, but HE STAYS IN HIS BED when you put him there which is a big win in my book.

Daniel got home Sunday night and we put Wesley in his bed, and I fully expected the whole up-down-up-down three-ring-circus, and he just… stayed there. And then fell asleep. I was nearly mad that he didn’t get up because he was making me look like a total nutjob for having such a hard time this weekend.

I read this Free Pass post on Ask Moxie recently (the best parenting website ever, BTW) and it was just what I needed. Nearly every annoying thing kids do is merely a phase, but when you’re in the thick of it it’s difficult to envision things getting better. They always do, but if you feel you’ve done a poor job managing the situation it’s nice to be reminded that you can do better tomorrow.

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