Random thoughts

Today was a day of many adventures.

• The world's cutest and teeny-tiniest ever little girl marched up to me in the hallway at school today, her blond ponytail bouncing, and said, "I wanna have a playdate with Sofie!" How freaking adorable is that. Her mom, who showed up a few minutes later, said she had been talking about Sofie all weekend. So I guess that "making friends" thing is going pretty well. And hey, props to the little munchkin for a) recognizing me when Sofie was down the hall in class and b) not being afraid to speak her mind. Cutie patootey.
  
  
• Sofie was thrilled to discover that you sometimes you get to eat hamburgers in the car. In. The. CAR! I kid you not. We were rushing from preschool pickup to meet some friends for Santa pics on the other side of town, so I picked up a mini burger for her on my way to school and she looked like it was already Christmas morning when she found out she got to eat it in her carseat. Really Mom? And then she snarfed it and passed out in a blissful food half-coma for the next twenty minutes.
  
  
• Making things even more wonderful, we were early to the Santa meetup, so we were wandering around and discovered something straight out of Sofie's most dearly-held fantasies -- an actual, full-size bus, completely full of CATS. Live cats. It was a special Humane Society vehicle with little cat compartments with windows all over one wall showing a bunch of kitties they were hoping would be adopted.
  
  Now first off, Sofie has suspected for months now that there are all sorts of transportation devices (cars, planes, locomotives) that are driven by and entirely populated by cats, and I could just see her little mind whirring as this was confirmed. I knew it! And they told me cats can't drive!
  
  And second, props to the Humane Society, because how smart is that, to park the Great Kitteh Bus right next to where all the little kids are going to be waiting in line with their parents to see Santa? I bet they'll be hearing a lot of "Please mom? Pleeeeeeeeeeze?" over the next few weeks. More power to them.
  
  Luckily S. didn't quite realize that she could potentially have begged to take one of them home, so we escaped with just a visit.
  
  
  
  
• She and her buddy Molly did an awesome job with Santa this year - for the first time, they weren't afraid or even really cowed. Sofie went right up, plopped herself down on his lap, and shared that she wants a cat and some candy. She even smiled! I was so proud. See pic below...
  
  
• To the crazy man who honked and then idled at the next red light and stared at me after I moved my car three inches over towards your lane to avoid hitting someone waiting for a light in the other direction and taking up about a foot of my lane -- go suck it. There, I said it. I was nowhere near you, I wasn't swerving wildly, and the stink eye was really unnecessary. Jerk.
  
  
• And yes, I was looking at my phone at the red light, and I could just see your little brain whirring and saying "Ah, so you swerved because you were texting!" Uh, no. I put it down when I'm driving. So what if I check mail at red lights? Doesn't everyone?
  
  
• Ok, perhaps not.
  
  
• Results of the big Black Friday weekend sale at Bellflower Textiles? Not bad! I sold 23 items between Friday and Monday night. Woo hoo! Still lots and lots in stock and shipping deadlines are still a couple weeks away, so if you're Christmas shopping, cmon over and have a look!
  

Ok, so here's the Santa pic. Is she not adorable?

Thankful

Thinking, as are many of us, of the things I'm thankful for this year.

I'm so thankful for my family, my wonderful husband who always loves me and my sweet little pixie of a daughter. They are the magic in my life, the fun, the constant happiness, the reason I get out of bed in the morning. I love you both more than I can find words for.

I'm so, so thankful that my Dad is here, that he lives across the street, that he's not alone in Ohio without Mom, and that we've been able to be together as much as we have in this very difficult (in some ways) year. Grief without you would have been much, much harder. I love you, Dad.

I'm so thankful that Mom got to be here for some of Sofie's life, and that she lived nearby for the last few years, and that I got to be with her so much in the final days of her life. I'm thankful she didn't suffer very much compared to what could have been waiting for her if her Alzheimers had progressed to the final stages. I'm thankful to the wonderful people who helped take care of her in the last four months of her life, and that we were there at the end.

I'm thankful for my sister Dana and Kevin and the kids, and for my husband's family. We've seen everyone in the immediate family at least once this year, most of them more than that, which is awesome.

I'm so thankful that my Aunt Marilyn and Uncle George came out in July, and for my cousin Ann and Sarah's visit - it meant so much to me to reconnect with family this year.

I'm so thankful for my wonderful friends, and for the way my closest friends just drew in around me after Mom passed away and sheltered me with their love and support. I never felt alone in that time and I'll never, ever forget it. Thank you Jenn, Kate, Kate, Dianne, Michelle, Robin, Erica, Jacki, and everyone else who brought meals and asked how I was and spent time and listened.


I'm so thankful for the amazing little kids we know, Sofie's good friends. It's been three years since we met most of them, and watching them grow along with her has been an amazing experience! We love you Jack, Hazel, Molly, Leo, Daniel, Maggie, and newcomers Luke, Wilca, and Henry. So glad to know you all!


I'm thankful that Sofie is growing up and adjusting to her first excursions out into the great big world without Mommy at her side - preschool is going well, she's gaining so much knowledge and confidence and new skills every day. Being your mommy is the most amazing thing I've ever experienced.

I could go on -- house, garden, tomatoes, warmth, food, growing business, cats (definitely cats!) etc -- but honestly, it's people this year who have made such a difference in my life and who I treasure more than ever. So this is my list.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving crazy (and a weasel)

In the midst of a whirlwind of Thanksgiving preparation -- that is, getting ready for my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE HOLIDAY EVER -- I had occasion to pull out all the serving dishes I think we're going to need, including the much-beloved gravy weasel. Which I wanted to share.


Isn't he handsome?

Yes, he's probably a squirrel, but he was christened the gravy weasel five or six years ago and will forever be known as such. He's been a great favorite of all who have shared our table over the years, so I thought I'd take his portrait.

Here he is again... Don't you wish you had a rodent to serve your gravy from?


I also had a crazy Martha Stewart moment where I decided to carve holes in the top of two leftover mini-pumpkins from Halloween so I could put candles in them, as a centerpiece.


I wish I'd had orange ones instead of white, but I'm still pretty happy with how it turned out - and they'll look nice on my dark red tablecloth.

Sofie helped.


I made four dishes today -- a spinach gruyere puff, green beans with tarragon, the stuffing, and the cranberry satsuma sauce, and had lots of fun doing it. Tomorrow we pick up the turkeys and gravy from the bbq joint down the street, make potatoes and rolls, and just heat the rest up. Easy peasy. Mmmmmm.

A friend is someone who brings you to the art table

Dropped Sofie off at school this morning and sat through story time with her, like I always do. Her little buddy O. plopped down right next to, also just like always. They're pretty much attached at the hip right now, and we're all pleased with that because he's just the nicest kid ever.

O. (seen at right in a blurry pic I took with my phone) started school about six months before she did and is kind of on the quiet side, and he seems to have found a kindred spirit in Sofie, because he took her under his wing shortly after she started. The teacher says he started his campaign to get to be buddies with Sofie just by sitting next to her all the time. Now it's moved on to sitting under tables together, holding hands all through the day, and generally playing all day long.

So anyways, this morning, I got up to leave after storytime and was sorting through the contents of her art folder in the hall when I happened to glance in and notice that the rest of the class had gotten busy on the day's art project, but Sofie was standing by herself in the story area looking really confused and out of sorts. I hung out for a few minutes just to see what was going to happen next - would one of the teachers notice and come help her get involved? Should I go back in for a few and help her figure out what came next?

My ruminations were cut short by the fact that little O. noticed her, came over and took her by the hand, and led her over to the art table.

Sweetest. Thing. Ever.

I love watching Sofie's burgeoning relationships with her peers. It's hard to tell exactly what kind of kid she's going to be, but I do feel like she's showing signs of being a really nice kid who makes friends pretty easily. I've noticed at some school functions that there are always a couple of kids who try very hard to sit next to her - O., of course, but a couple of other kids too. Usually the younger and the quieter kids... they seem to be drawn to her. She's definitely not the loudest kid there or the most confident, but I think she makes the other kids feel comfortable. The big boys who like to hit (her class unfortunately has a few of these) don't seem to mess with her and the younger girls and boys all seem to enjoy her. Just makes me happy!

Christmas monsters

Just wanted to share a few works from other artists on etsy - started poking around Christmas ornaments tonight and found all these great little Christmas monsters. For those of you who like your tree to be just a LEETLE bit weird.



Top to bottom, featuring the work of these fine artists:
Diane Koss
Lilley's Handmade Lovelies
HappyHearts
Spidercamp
MintConspiracy
AngDavidson
SWStitchery

Sofie and Phoenix Do A Puzzle

Sofie and Phoenix are getting to be such good friends. He loves to be around her, lets her pet and kiss him, and sometimes even sleeps in her tent with her. It's so sweet. My dearest wish is that he lives a few more years so she can really remember him as her first pet... he's 17 now and I think there's a good chance he might live until she's five. I really hope so.

Here they are this morning working on a puzzle together...

Recent crafty creations from Bellflower Textiles

Just wanted to share a few of my more recent creations - all available on Bellflower Textiles with plenty of time left for Christmas delivery!

This is one of my most recent makeup brush rolls - I just love this bold colored stripe! I have many other styles of these available, but they're proving very popular and hard to keep in stock. This week I'm sending out a large order to a shop in England that is going to be stocking them! How exciting!


And a new tooth pillow in cheery blue and yellow - with a tiny polka dot ribbon for hanging on a bedpost or doorknob...



Have a bunch of nieces and nephews to buy for? I'm now offering a custom made set of five crayon rolls, you choose the fabrics or styles - or you can just tell me how many boys and how many girls and I'll choose the fabrics for you! These ship really quick, and forty crayons are included!


This is one of my most recent coffee sleeve gift sets, and I think I've sold about six of them to date, making them my most popular coffee sleeve design ever. I think a recent rainy day inspired me. We have a lot of those here.


I also keep almost selling out of my zip pouches - they're so much fun to make! Here's one I listed yesterday:


The deluxe version of the pouches are heavily padded and interfaced, so you can use them as little clutch purses as well! I'm working on a stack of these for my own Christmas gift giving - they're just right for stocking stuffers, I think.

Thanks so much for looking!

What IS she doing in there?

SofieTutter hasn't napped now for about eight or nine months - traumatic at first for all involved but we've long since adjusted and it's now just a dim memory. Instead, she spends an hour or so in her room each afternoon having "quiet time", in which she plays raucous games with her stuffed animals, rips things out of her dresser drawers, etc.

Just lately, though, she's been mixing things up in her continued quest to always have us a little off balance.

Instead of avoiding quiet time with all her strength, she's REQUESTING it. And then insisting that we leave her alone in there instead of keeping her company for a little while in the rocking chair.

What IS she doing in there that she doesn't want us to see?

Yesterday she looked up at me at about 9:30 a.m. and said, "It's time for quiet time." I tried to talk her out of it a few times but she insisted, so I went along with it and took her in her room, where she promptly kicked me out and had about 90 minutes of quiet play.

Today on the way home from preschool and lunch with Grandpa, she said to me, "When we get home, NO GAMES, just quiet time."

Harumph.

I mean, it's fine! But what three year old insists that we have NO FUN AT ALL when we get home?

I am perplexed. Although also sort of enjoying this. Just worried that there's another shoe somewhere waiting to fall.

Cracking me up

Check out this Roman Coliseum playset for cats, from Inquisitive on Etsy.


Complete with two little catnip-stuffed gladiators and background scenes of carnage-in-the-making:


Brilliant. :)

New design

As you may have noticed, my blog has had a makeover! The lovely and talented Danielle at Design Girl offered me a redesign in exchange for some store credit, and I'm just thrilled with the results! If you're reading me on a newsreader, take a peek over at the real thing for some awesome graphics and new color & fonts.

Thank you Danielle!

Pixies Paramount Show

Last night we got a babysitter and went out to see the Pixies at the Paramount. Brett went to school with the guitarist, who graciously gave us four free tickets so we were also able to bring Kate and Nate, good friends of ours who are the ultimate diehard Pixie fans...

We had dinner at Machiavelli's in Capital Hill (yum!) and then walked down to the show, where we were surprised to see that they actually do take the seats out of the Paramount on occasion. I haven't been to a stand-up show in a really long time, and while my feet were definitely hurting by the end of the night, I have to admit it was really fun to stand up and jump around and dance. And what an awesome show!

The most fun part was that we had two passes to go backstage afterwards. We sent the menfolk up to meet the band and ask if they could bring their wives up too, so for a while Kate and I were all alone in the empty Paramount theater, just leaning on the fence blocking off the doorway to the band's dressing room and joking with the guards there about groupies and whether we were going to cause any trouble - but the security guys came back down after a few minutes and brought us up too. It was a pretty mellow scene - just a handful of folks hanging out. We said hello and thanks for the tickets, Brett and Joey talked for a few minutes, took the obligatory pictures, and off we went. But still, it was fun. I've never seen backstage of a show before!

Here's a pic of Brett with Joey:


What a classy guy. :) He was clearly tired and wired and ready to get going but he was utterly gracious and kind to the four of us with our dorky camera.

As Brett said on facebook, one of the most fun little moments of the whole evening was when the security guy saw us out the back stage door, to the clear disappointment of a horde of fans who were hanging out there waiting for the band. Instead they got ... us. Heh.

I'll chalk this up to one of the many adventures I'd never have had if I had not married Brett. Thanks honey!

Stuff on My Cat

Caught Miss Tutter (who has now, btw, changed her name to "Little Cat A" from Dr. Seuss) earlier today quietly piling piece after piece of her scrap fabric on the calmest of our cats, who was tolerantly putting up with it. Although she's staring out the cat door almost longingly, don't you think?

I should probably submit it to Stuff On My Cat.

A little quilt I made last week

It's been a while since I've posted anything quilting-related, so I thought I'd do a quick show and tell of a sweet little playmat I made a couple weeks ago for my sister-in-law Marilyn, who was soon attending a baby shower and needed some goodies:



Simple, but I just thought it was so cute. The blue doggie fabric is a flannel, and I matched it up with a great red and white batik with polka dots, and then got the idea to applique some big wool letters on it spelling out "WOOF." And then it just screamed for a doggie bone.

It's a little hard to see the detail, but I freehand quilted it all over with big loopy loops, which seemed to match the happy feel of the quilt, and then outline quilted the letters.


And finally I made a couple things to go along with it, because how cute would that be? I like everything in sets.