Just state it

Last evening K1 makes up this game for me to play with him - we each take turns naming a state each, without repeating any that have been said earlier. We didn't get too far, so I thought why not write down the names of as many states as we can remember. We both started thinking and we managed to write down 33 states. Kept thinking hard but could not remember any more ..... then the hubby came home and I got him to start thinking.... we got to 48 and were stuck till this morning when he called from work ... last 2 on our list - West Virginia and Connecticut.

Recent artwork

Some recent artwork by the kiddos. All are by C2 except for the Titanic. C2 will miss out on her afternoon art & craft time when she starts day-care next week :-(.

Birthday planning

C2 is all excited about her birthday on the 26th next month. She's started planning her party - wants an 'Art' theme, has made a list with the 22 kids she wants to invite, and made this poster which she put up in our computer/craft room ... she wants hot dogs and cupcakes at her party, instead of the usual pizza and cake.....

I've now got to think of some games and activities centered around art to keep all these kids occupied.... planning to sew some art smocks (aprons ?) for all of them.... let's see how that goes.... Party planning always gets me excited :-) And speaking of parties - I submitted the Scooby Doo party plan we did for K1 to Birthday Party Ideas and got an email last week that it was a runner up for September - which makes us richer by $15 ! :-)

When the cat is away.....

....the mice get a lot of work done....

I had gone out with a friend last evening to watch the Hindi movie 'Om Shanti Om'... really enjoyed the movie, laughed and laughed, and coming back home, when we were driving into our cul-de-sac I saw the lights of a X'mas tree peeping from our front window. It was such a nice surprise - K1 had put up the tree by himself, as well as a wreath on our front door, and W had helped him and C2 put up the lights on the tree. The boys had been outside cleaning gutters when I left, and had even finished dinner by the time I came.... I think I need to get out of the house more often !

Here's how the tree looked last night - they were waiting for me to help them out with the decorations.... maybe we will get that done tonight....

Happy Thanksgiving

With no family around here, we will be celebrating with friends tommorrow. Happy Thanksgiving all !

A turkey drawn by C2 during religious education over the weekend. Mama - "How did you draw the turkey so nicely". C2 " I just thought it in my head and drew it".

And my creative speller K1 - drew this during the Church class on Sunday. At first I was wondering where the turkey's head and feet and feathers were..... and then I realized my "I can't wait to eat turkey" son had drawn a roast turkey.... :-)

Today was a day off school - so while I slept in, the kids woke up and were busy drawing and reading at the breakfast table .... here's another turkey drawn by C2 this morning....

Meet Jane Bunny

I don't think I've made any soft toys since I was 7 or 8 - when one winter my mum taught us kids how to make soft toys (a duck if I remember right) .....

Well I've been wanting to make a soft toy for a few weeks now - and finally C2 and I made Jane. C2 chose all the fabric and the eye, nose, shoe, collar colors..... while I did the sewing and stuffing....


C2 is so happy about her new friend - she's carrying her around the house the whole day and sleeping with her at night..... And I love the pattern booklet Jane was designed from....

What do

Grandparents, cousins, pets and bakers have in common ?







Nothing...... except that's how C2 starts her prayer every night (Each of us says a short prayer before we say the Our Father & Hail Mary together).

"Dear Jesus, Dear Mama Mary,
Please bless all the grandparents,
cousins, pets and bakers......"

She has grandparents, but no cousins (siblings reading this need to go forth and procreate...), no pets, and we do not know any bakers (excepting L ), so no idea why she always prays for these first .....

Coolmompicks

Got an email earlier this week from Cool Mom Picks that my girlie Skull hat had been picked to be included in their holiday guide. No idea how they found my hat - as Etsy is not the easiest to navigate.... A search of "crochet girls hat" just now brought up 71 pages of items ! Anyway, click on the logo below to see their gift guide. My hat is in the girlie section - the title for that section is "For your Rock 'n Roll Princess".

Skulls be gone...

Finished the Mahar order of skull hats mid-week and sent them off.

Our maple

This is the first year our Maple has shown its colors. Took the first 2 pics yesterday when the colors had suddenly shown up. (Took them through the patio door..... so ignore the reflection)


And then today most of the leaves have fallen....with the grass covered in a golden yellow blanket.... And the tree today....

Fall is for raking

We spent Sunday afternoon raking the leaves in the backyard.




Splash of color - some wild berries (?) peeking in from neighbor's yard.

The Marigold (?) the hubby planted while the kids and I were away on vacation in summer.

Gymnastics

It was Parent watch week at Gymnastics this week. C2 is in the "Advanced beginner" class for 4-6 year olds. She did not want me to come and watch them, since she said she cannot do cartwheels well, and she really wants to do them well but cannot. Out of all the kids in her class, only 1 kid could actualy do a cartwheel, so I wish she wasn't so upset about it....

My budding designer

Four year back C2 enjoyed playing with the scraps from the 'Master's' table - fabric scraps that is..... while I was sewing something for her or K1.

Nowadays she has free run of my bags of fabric scraps. Today she made her first garment - a vest for Pink Bunny - made with some pink flannel. She cut holes for the armholes and put it on Pink Bunny and then showed me. It even fit perfectly around Bunny.

While my budding designer was busy creating, I was working on another pillowcase for a gift....

Some sewing

C2 is invited to a classmate's birthday party tommorrow. I had this sleeping bag combo to gift (picked up a few of these at some outrageously cheapo 'Made in China' price at Target months back), and wanted to include something else with it.



I decided to make a pillowcase with her name on it. Rummaged through my fabric remnants, and found these :

Leftover from making this and another dress for C2 some 3 years back...

Since I don't have a printer at home, I couldn't enlarge any fonts to get a template - and didn't want to waste time trying to draw it myself.... So I bought this sewing pattern so that I could use the letters as the template for this pillowcase. Traced them onto 'Wonder Under'.

Figured out where to position it on the fabric

And here's the finished case - took about 2 hours from finding the fabric to finishing it.

My applique skills really need to improve - doesn't help that I applique only about once a year :-)

My worst letter and the best letter - the fabric was puckering up (as you can see on the left one) when I was trying to applique and I figured out that I needed some stabilizer below it - didn't have any at home - so I used some printer paper underneath while sewing...

When C2 came home from school she saw this and asked if I could make her one too....

A miracle

Every Christmas for the past 3 years, our realtor has sent us a Poinsettia plant. The first plant died due to a combination of 2 weeks of overzealous watering by the hubby, and then the weeklong drought when we went on our annual vacation to CA.

By the next X'mas I had taken over the watering of indoor plants (and pruning - but that is another post in itself). However a couple of months after X'mas, our new Poinsetta plant seemed to be meeting with the same fate as its cousin the year before - most of its leaves had withered and fallen. Spring came, and one morning while I was watering the plant - I couldn't contain my excitement - there were at least 10 baby leaves unfurling ! So its been 2 years, and my plant has grown and grown and still has new baby leaves forming....

Here's a couple....

and here's some more!

And this is why I think my plant has been growing so well. Every time it sheds leaves, instead of throwing them in the trash.....

I add it to the pot on top of the soil - something akin to a layer of mulch or compost, I guess.....

I think its time to repot this Poinsettia, since its looking too big for its pot. But we've only ever repotted a plant once - and it died within a month :-(. So I'm really scared of repotting this plant (.....I've grown kinda attached to it), but at the same time I'm worried it may die if I don't repot it ..... Any green thumbs want to come and help ?

Oh so retro

Preface : My mum is a packrat. She doesn't throw out anything because "you never know when it can come in handy". She had even kept the sweaters she knitted for us when we were small kids. And I remember us telling her when we were teenagers to throw them out (she had packed and taken them with us when we moved to Australia), and she said she was keeping them for her grandchildren to wear, and "how excited they will be to wear them". Of course we laughed it off - who would want to wear some dated sweaters ?


Back to the present : I had told K1 and C2 about these sweaters in the beginning of 2007, and since we were traveling to India to meet the grandparents over the summer, K1 said he wanted to bring those sweaters back with us. So we did.

When getting ready for bed tonight, K1 was feeling cold so wanted to wear a sweater / sweatshirt. I couldn't find any of his sweatshirts since I haven't finished unpacking all our winter things yet. So I pulled out one of these retro sweaters for him. He was so thrilled. Here's a pic I snapped of him in the bathroom after he had brushed his teeth.



C2 saw him after she came out of her bath and wanted one too. So she got to wear one as well. C2 with a big smile - "Oh cool - mine is so colorful !"

And here's a pic taken almost 30 years back during Holi (festival of colors ?) with our neighbors. Elder sis - M1 (bottom left) is wearing the same sweater C2 is wearing tonight :-)

So Mother - I didn't think the day would ever come when I would have to say this, but - "You were right. Your grandkids LOVE the sweaters". Now if only I had kept all the sweaters and clothes I had crocheted / sewed for K1 & C2, for my grandkids to enjoy :-(.

When tucked in bed, K1 asked - "Can I wear this sweater to school too ? Will it keep me warm?". Hmmmmmm......................