The Santa Hat

A couple of days before Christmas, my child started asking me for "a Santa hat." After a few conversations, I sussed out that this meant any hat with a pom-pom, bonus points if it's pointy in some way. She requested red, and was quite adamant. We went to the yarn store and I let her pick out what she wanted (although I did have to steer her away from the $46-a-skein stuff ). She chose the brightest red we could find - some Cascade 220. I didn't finish it until a couple days after Christmas, but I think it's what she wanted.

This pattern is the "Vintage Pixie Cap" by Hadley Fierlinger from Vintage Knits for Modern Babies.
My Ravelry details are here.

More blurry, grainy camera phone pictures, hooray! 

I got most of the way done with the front ribbing and realized that it was going to be all loose and floppy and that I should've used needles 1-2 sizes smaller to make the ribbing tighter. I don't know why I didn't think of it, because that's what I always do with hat ribbing. So it's kind of loose. Oh, well. It will fit her for a while, I guess. I did the strap in seed stitch and made the end pointy, and it fastens with these two wee little rabbit buttons that she picked out herself. Maybe someday I will remember to get a picture of the nice seed stitch strap with its rabbit buttons, but for now you'll just have to take my word for it.

I can say that the bright red is very nice at the playground because she's always easy to spot.

Improvised Reindeer

Since we introduced her to Rudolph, reindeer have been a big topic of discussion around here. She did this all on her own, and was quite pleased with it.

Happy Holidays, wherever you may be. 

Rocking Out With Rankin/Bass

It took me two full weeks to clean up the mess that resulted from our recent visit to my parents' house. This is pretty typical - any time we visit them or they visit us, it takes forever for the piles of stuff they dump off in our living room to filter through the house. I am trying to get rid of as much junk as possible, because even though we asked the grandparents to chip in on a family membership to the kids' science museum instead of more doodads and clothes my kid doesn't need, I am anticipating that quite a few pieces of useless plastic crap will find their way to our house anyway. It is always such a job to sort and box and drive and donate and haul and sell and toss.

Between that, the huge amounts of holiday knitting I've been tending to, and all the other holiday-related running around that needs done, I have not had much time for blogging lately. I've also been trying to spend more time with my kid and less time online, which is not always as easy as I'd like it to be.

We have been doing a lot of playing with her new dollhouse, snuggling under blankets on the couch, and watching Christmas movies. Our kid-friendly collection of holiday viewables was pretty lacking (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, while one of my favorite movies ever, and set during the holiday season, is not exactly appropriate viewing for a 3.5-year-old). My husband came to the rescue, sailing through the door one evening with this under his arm, and one or more of the discs have been in constant rotation ever since. We both fondly remember most of these from our childhood, and waiting impatiently every December for them to pop up on the TV schedule. Even though we've both seen them dozens of times, it's pretty fun to watch them again with Piper, who is seeing them all for the first time. And the second. And the fifth. We have watched Rudolph every night for a week. I'm getting a little tired of his oh-so-shiny-nose.

Fortunately, I have plenty of knitting to distract me. Did you notice how this is sitting on that still-unfinished Tomten?

In The Trees

Walk of Trees, downtown Plymouth, Mi.

Candy Corn

This was her Halloween costume, as per her very specific and repeated request. I was going to make her some sort of dress and knit a pointy white hat, but her grandma came to the rescue with this number she did (without a pattern and with only a guess at Piper's measurements).

She was thrilled with it, as all onlookers seemed to be. We took her out trick-or-treating in our neighborhood, which we usually try to avoid doing, but since this is Super-Bible-Land, a lot of neighborhoods made their kids trick-or-treat on Saturday instead of Sunday and after some confused driving around we decided to just tough it out on the home turf. Luckily I had bought a bag of emergency candy, so I didn't feel like a total heel for partaking and not handing any out. Of course, it took about six minutes (no, really) for the bag of chocolate bars to disappear because our street was chockablock full of teenagers not even bothering with costumes but bowling over littler kids in their race from house to house.

 We took Piper up and down half our block, a trip which lasted about  45 minutes and filled her little plastic pumpkin about a third of the way. It was more than enough candy for a 3-year-old, and she had a good time talking to the neighbors. It was a little surprising to see how many of them know us by sight and her by name. I also realized this is the only time all year we see a lot of these kids' parents.

I think she would've gone home happy after the first or second house, but the house on the end of the block had some wicked awesome decorating going on (it included a fog machine and music), so we sauntered down to check it out. She was pretty tired and ready to quit after that, and she begged me to carry her between the last few houses as we walked home.

The first thing she said when she woke up the next morning was "Can I have some candy?"

Zombie Dough Skull

During a couple of Piper's recent sick days, we turned to Play-Doh as a way to combat the boredom. I broke out the Halloween cookie cutters and made this (the cutaway skull was accidental, then I filled it with braaaaiiiins). I was quite pleased with myself, Piper was amused, and best of all, my husband was totally grossed out. He likes to watch slasher flicks, yet he could not handle me rearranging the zombie's brains.

"Oh my God, STOP TOUCHING IT."
"Whaat? His brains are crooked. I'm fixing them."
"Sure you are. That's so gross!"
"Are you saying I'm intentionally trying to gross you out by messing with my little zombie skull?"
"Yes, yes I am."
"Hmm. Well, I wasn't before, but now that you mention it..."

Love means never having to say "braaaaiiiins."

Some Stuff About and For Mother's Day

We don't celebrate Mothers' Day around here much, for a variety of reasons. It was never a huge deal to me in the first place, and this year it will be the anniversary of Chick's death, which isn't the happiest of associations. I have some ideological problems with its evolution from Julia Ward Howe's pleas for peace to the hyper-commercialized backhanded compliment of its current incarnation, with plenty of stops for misogyny and trivialization along the way. Aside: Did y'all see this episode of The Middle? I laughed so hard I thought I was going to require an oxygen tank.

Anyway.

Our finances are usually tight enough that my pathological aversion to spending money on myself kicks in and outlaws whatever gesture my husband proposes despite my ideological objections. If he presses, I always tell him that I don't need trinkets or slippers or candy; I'd much rather have a home project completed (like, uhh, the pile of framed pictures that have been sitting around NOT on the wall, for three months and counting) or an afternoon to work ALONE in the house.  Getting a pile of crap off the floor and up onto the shelves and walls where it belongs or having time to finish a whole paragraph is way more valuable to me than stuff.  Although if he wanted to bring me back a jumbo-size caramel latte, I wouldn't say no.

BUT.

If someone did ask me, "What do you want for Mother's Day?" and I were inclined to answer something other than "someone to do the mountain of laundry currently creating a fire hazard in the hallway," this would be my list.

1. Eames House Blocks from House Industries (found via Handmade Charlotte):  Look at these, would you?

So gorgeous. No, I would not let my daughter play with them. They are $150 per set (of 36; 20 for the house, 16 for the studio) and besides, they are MINE.

2. A screenprinting machine. After seeing Kathleen's awesome "What the FRAK" shirt in this post (that's a Battlestar Galactica reference, for those of you who are not as nerdy as me), I decided immediately that I must have one. Must. Have. One. So that I may fill our house with screen-printed items which pay tribute to all our favorite things (no, not Beets-Bears-Battlestar Galactica, but close). My first project would be making Piper a "Nugget" shirt (that's another BSG reference, my nerdiness knows no bounds).

3. This "Consomme Cap" from Anthropologie:

It's so cute. But $48 for something which I will wear a lot but will also get stuffed in my bag, sweated on profusely, and occasionally wind up on the floor of my closet...maybe I'll try making one someday.

4. Landscapers. Seriously. Our side-yard is entirely (no, REALLY) covered in dandelions so big I suspect our house may have been built on a nuclear waste dump. Our entire front yard is clover. I have spent many hot, cranky hours out there already, ripping and digging and pushing my weed-pulling tools to the limits of their strength, and it doesn't look any better. I just want someone to come fix it, because I am at a loss. Oh, and can they put up a privacy fence while they're out there? I am tired of kids stealing Piper's toys out of our yard and playing on our swings.

5. This "Necktie Tote," also from Anthropologie:

Mmmmmm. It comes in blue, too, and I can't quite decide which I like best:

Probably the green, I suppose. I already have a wicked awesome blue-and-yellow bag a friend bought me for Christmas one year (it was, um, also from Anthro. I think I have a leeetle problem).

6. A gift certificate to Sew, Mama, Sew! or Repro Depot or Crafty Planet so I can stock up on nice fabrics and those Oliver + S patterns I am itching to make for all the kids in my orbit.

7. Some Mama jewelry. Sure, it's a little hokey, but so what? If motherhood doesn't give me the right to indulge my shamelessly-sentimental side, what does? I like the Odette Alfaro stuff (giveaway here), Hipmom, Cinnamon Sticks, and Turtle Love Co.

8.Sheer Jersey Scarf by Zen Threads, gray/white stripe with bike print.  I make a little EEEEEEEEEE noise every time I see it:

9. One of the Gossamer Scarves from Uniform Natural - everyone raves about them, and I've made myself a couple of gauze scarves, but these seem so much nicer. I'd like to see what all the fuss is about.

10. Some TOMS shoes. I am curious, the shoes are cute, and they are, by all accounts, a terrific company.  I really like the Boaobab Sunset Linen Classics:

 But the Silver Glitters are also pretty sweet (gold, too). And I find the Vegan Wrap Boots fascinating.

So that's my imaginary list. Hope everyone's weekends - and Mother's Day - goes off without a hitch!

Egg Hunting

We took her to a Parks and Rec egg hunt the Saturday before Easter. She had a blast.

"Egg hunt" has been the new favorite game at our house ever since.

It works out pretty well for me, because all I have to do is sit on the sidewalk and throw empty plastic eggs into the front yard.

She giggles and chatters as she picks them all up and brings the full basket back to me so I can toss them out again.

We do this for hours.

Owning Things Is Expensive, and My Sister Loves KG

I know my usual wordiness has been somewhat absent from these parts lately (most of you are probably saying "thank goodness, because you talk type too much and we'd rather look at pictures anyway"). First I was busy cleaning and straightening and hiding the whips and chains getting ready for my mom + sister + sister's boyfriend to come visit.

Then, the day before their arrival, I learned a hard lesson about not eating dairy products found at the back of the fridge if you can't remember when you bought them. Turns out sour cream can go bad after all, and "I don't see any furry green spots so I think it'll be fine" is not a good way to judge freshness. However, two days of feeling sick to my stomach 24 hours a day, being unable to consume anything other than ginger ale and saltines with the salt scraped off did cure me of any lingering thoughts I might have about getting pregnant again any time soon. Not that we were planning on it, but sometimes it seems like I'm surrounded by babies and my mind wanders...ahem. Considering I only lost one measly pound for all my suffering, it felt pretty unfair.

Then my family was here and although I had a good time with them (except for the part where my sister and I almost got into a screaming match about Kate Gosselin), it was an exhausting 2.5 days of driving them around and cooking huge meals (while still feeling pretty queasy) and making sure everybody had enough blankets and I had my first knitting class in there too and Ryan had to work every day so it was all on me. One night while they were here, we also had to get up at 2:00 am and bail a friend out of jail. That was entertaining, let me tell you.

Oh, and then we decided to take my computer in to have it looked at, and $245 plus one argument with the tech people that had to go up the ladder all the way to their district managers, my computer works only marginally better than it did before (thanks to the anti-virus software eating up all my memory) but I am assured that it is virus-free (and, because of said argument, the work is guaranteed, at least for a little while). $367 dollars later, the front driver's-side wheel on our second car is no longer in danger of detaching itself and wheeling out into the stratosphere while the car is moving.

It's been an expensive week, and it's only Wednesday.

P.S. Happy St. Patrick's Day. 

Snapshots: Mid-February 2010

Last week I had an astonishing day of kitchen clumsiness that started with a case of the dropsies and ended with me accidentally dumping macaroni and cheese into a potted plant. No kidding.

It wasn't an entire pan of macaroni and cheese or anything, but still. A potted plant.

***
I am into the Olympics right now.  I sat raptly watching the opening ceremonies while my husband brought me snacks and told me the intensity of my joy made me "incredibly cute."  Piper woke up to go potty (oh, yeah, she wakes up and takes herself to the potty bathroom at night now, with little to no supervision) so we let her sit on the couch and watch for a while, until she got tired and asked to go back to bed. She was out cold before a lot of the really cool stuff (like the giant bear made of lights), but she was dancing right along with the First Nations dancers and making comments on all the flags during the Parade of the Nations. She was so delighted with the dancing and music, in fact, that I'm now hunting for video footage on YouTube and wishing this area had an annual pow-wow to take her to.  The town Ryan and I went to college in had a big one every year and I'd love to take Piper if one of our Michigan visits ever falls at the right time.

But back to the Olympics.  I've been watching a little of everything.  Ryan has been schlepping off to bed early, so I have the TV to myself for a couple hours each night, and I'll plop down with some knitting or the computer and a stack of paperwork and multi-task.  I find some of the interview bits hokey (Montage! We need a mon-tage!) and they seem to play "The Funeral" by Band of Horses under every piece, but I guess that's to be expected.

***
Text conversation with a friend on Sunday:
A: Ahh Valentine's Day.  The 15-year-old inside me gets her little hopes up every year.  And unfortunately gets disappointed almost every year.
Me: I am almost-ironically into the kitsch of it all now, mostly as an excuse to do silly craft projects with my kid. But I wouldn't say no to a hotel room, a hot tub, and champagne.
A: Exactly. It's hard to feel romantic in my dog-hair-covered bed, toys strewn all over the floor bedroom. Hmph.

I didn't "get my hopes up" this year.  I don't, about Valentine's Day, ever, really, because I don't like heart-shaped things and detest pink so it wasn't my holiday for a long time. Then I spent a number of years with someone whose birthday was February 14th and who hated chocolate in all its forms, so it wasn't like he was going to be going all-out on the day o' love. Ryan is a romantic but our budget is small and we are pretty easy to please - an awesome night for us is getting pizza delivered and watching as many DVD episodes of Mad Men as we can stay awake for. But this year I found myself making decorations, buying valentines to give to the kids in Piper's preschool class, creating a centerpiece for our table, and generally getting into the spirit of things.  A lot of holidays that sort of dropped off the radar are more fun with a kid, and I've started to remember all the silly things my mom used to do for Valentine's Day that we loved so much - heart-shaped pancakes, a small gift, class valentines, sewing us new outfits or putting out a dish of candies.  That kind of stuff is fun again, now that Piper is old enough to join in.

***
My Valentine's Day was vastly better than my mother's this year, from what I gathered.  She apparently worked on Sunday, and came home at 9:30 pm exhausted (she's a nurse) to find the first words out of my dad's mouth were not "How was your day?" or "Happy Valentine's Day!" but "You didn't bring home any food?" She replied that since he had been "sick" and lounging around the house all day, she should be asking that question of him. My dad, in true my-dad fashion, stopped at Costco the next day and bought a huge pork loin, an even bigger pork roast, and a ham.  "I brought you some food," he cheerfully as he set them in front of my mom. It's true; he basically bought her a giant pork roast for Valentine's Day.

***

Reading: Shocking True Story: The Rise and Fall of Confidential, "America's Most Scandalous Scandal Magazine"
Knitting: Another Milo for P, handwarmers for R, brown linen/cotton wrap for my mom, hat for a friend's little boy, hat for R (to match handwarmers).
Cooking: Well, I wish I was cooking these Cinnamon Bun Pancakes...maybe tomorrow.

All You Need Is Love

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone.

P.S. The hearts she is holding are these Martha Stewart crayon hearts. We made them together, and it was kinda fun, but for future reference, it is not a good project to do with a 2.5-year-old. She didn't have the dexterity to twist the crayons in the pencil sharpener, and I must've said "HOT IRON DON'T TOUCH NO NO HOT HOT DON'T TOUCH BE PATIENT NOT YET BACK UP NO NO NOOOOO!" about fifty times.

But she loved them when they were done ("It's a heart! We make a heart shape!"), enough that I put them up in the windows and she asked to have them back about an hour later. She carried them around for days, and also for future reference: melted crayon shavings are not meant to be loved on. Unless the edges of the hearts are sealed with tape, you will have wisps of crayon-crumble all over your house, in your car, in your bed, and melded to the interior of your vacuum canister.

P.P.S. "All You Need Is Love" is pretty much Piper's favorite song in the world right now. We watch Yellow Submarine every day (yeah, I do actually mean EVERY SINGLE DAY, I have the entire movie memorized now) and that's her favorite part. This song came on when were in the car, and she was clutching those hearts, and she started giggling, and...well, my heart just about burst.

Valentine's centerpiece

I got this dish from Ikea some time ago, and so far all it has done is collect dust and random household items. We already have an overflowing junk drawer, I did not want a junk stand to add to the mess. I cleaned it off, filled it with pink & red apples, and tried to make a very tiny one of these tissue poofs. Everything went fine until the part where you separate the layers to make it look all poofy, and then it all started to rip apart. I did the best I could, and tied it to the top of the stand to hid the less-than-poofy bald spot.


Apples seem to be a hit with the wee one lately, so I like having healthy snacks that she can grab any time AND a cute display that I don't have to worry about packing away in a couple of weeks.

P.S. - The white & red candle is also from Ikea; they were on sale for $1.49 and I can't say enough good things about it. I went back and got three more in different patterns. They burn clean, are cute without being too froofy, and smell like apple-cinnamon muffins. YUM.

Xmas 2008: The Thought Didn't Count For Much

I have been digging around in my own archives a bit lately and was surprised to discover a number of half-finished posts. I thought I'd work on finishing them up and share them with you, just for fun. This particular one tells the story of our Christmas last year, involving a well-meaning gift that totally missed the mark. Piper was about 18 months old, and this was our first Christmas with her that didn't involve hordes of family trying to get a piece of the baby action.



It looks like an idyllic Christmas scene, right? Stockings, presents, everything waiting for our eager little cherub come Christmas morn. Little did we know the terror that was about to ensue.

We told the grandparents not to get Piper anything for Christmas, because she already has enough crap to outfit a daycare. They asked if they could send small things, stuff she actually needs. I requested plain white socks, solid-color yoga pants, and board books. I got some of those, but of course it didn't stop there. My in-laws sent a multi-piece music ensemble that includes a drum, rattles of various sorts, a recorder and a kazoo; my mom sent some really awesome play food she crocheted herself. It's totally amazing - an entire hamburger assemblage: Bun, meat patty, lettuce, tomato, cheese, and onions; a hot dog with ketchup and mustard on it and its own accompanying bun; an apple, a pear, and corn in a husk. She even made sushi! I think we were more excited over the play food than Piper was.

We saved our gift for last, since we have been looking forward to giving it to her for months. She was so into Halloween this year, when we saw this Fisher-Price playset online, it seemed like the perfect gift. It has a doorbell sound and when you move the bat, a ghost pops up with an "Oooooo!" Since she runs around the house with a blanket on her head going "Scary ghost? Oooo!" we figured she would love it. I ordered it in November and it had been sitting in the closet for weeks, while we congratulated ourselves on being awesome parents.

Once she had opened evvvverything else (not least of all this monster shirt, which she insisted on wearing immediately, over her pajamas - which also had monsters on them), we brought the carefully-wrapped box out from its position behind our tiny tree. She opened it and was excited to play with the "ghoss" and "punkin" and "weetch." Everything seemed to be going well, so we decided to put the batteries in.
We showed her how to push the buttons and make all the noises - spooky music, kids saying "trick or treat!", a doorbell, and the ghost that said "oooooh!" She played with it and asked us to make the noises "More? More? Ghoss more?"
Then this happened.

She would cry, play with it, cry, play with it, and cry again. Finally, after another round of the pop-up ghost, she started to scream in earnest. We tried to get her to play with it sans batteries again, but it freaked her out so much we had to put it back in its box and stuff it under our bed, because she could not even look at the plain brown shipping box without sobbing. Our totally awesome present, the thing we were most excited to give her, was a total FAIL.

*Ed. Note: We left it in its box under the bed for many months. I tried a few times to get her interested in it again, but each time the mere appearance of the its plain square box was cause for shrieking. Eventually she realized that there were little figurines and a trike to play with, and then she warmed to it. I think it took a good solid six months before she would even let me take it out of the box. Now it lives - without batteries - on a shelf in the playroom. She plays with it, but it is by no means a cherished object. C'est la vie, I guess.

Another Belated Holiday Post: Gift Tags

I meant to post this on December 15: What to do if, say, you have gifts to wrap, and your 2.5-year-old wants to help, which, of course, is not much help at all?


Bust out the stamper set you were saving for her stocking, cut up some index cards, and let her make some gift tags. This will keep her busy and also stop you from frantically searching for the pack of gift tags you are absolutely sure is somewhere in your house but does not turn up even after you trashed three rooms looking for it.


She will have a good time. You will get gift tags with blobby, inky monster stamps on them, which delight your gift recipients (particularly those of the grandparent variety). You will get your presents wrapped without her "help."


Even your household pets can get involved.

Christmas Post, A Little Belated.

Here's a little of what our Christmas looked like:

A drum set eagerly awaiting use.

We got this silver tree a mere eight days before Christmas. Neither of us was a big fan of fake trees, but this one was just so glittery and space-age-looking we couldn't resist. We immediately dubbed it "THE CHRISTMAS TREE...OF THE FUTURE!" and are working on making a rocketship topper for next year.


Piper's ornament this year, chosen by her (last year was a dinosaur).

The glass ball ornaments originally belonged to my parents; they got them when I was just a baby. My mom wanted to throw them out one year and I said "What?! You're crazy!" I've been moving them back and forth across the country ever since.


We "Santa" watched Mad Men while putting together the drum set, filling stockings, and pulling packages out of hidey-holes around the house.


The (very quiet) drum set was a big hit, although I haven't seen the sticks since Dec. 26th and she keeps trying to sit on it.

Hope your holidays were merry and bright.

Why I Haven't Posted In Two Weeks

How NOT to Have a Happy Holiday.

It's not a good idea to go to the grocery store at 8:00 pm 2 days before Xmas with a 2.5-year-old.

It's an even worse idea to do this WITHOUT A LIST.

It's always a bad idea to go to the grocery store without a list, but it's so much worse to go into a store stuffed full! of holiday! cheer! and shoppers who have glazed eyes and flecks of foam coming out of their mouths, while dragging a 2-year-old (who, to her credit, was pretty patient with me) and oh did I mention we hadn't eaten dinner yet? ALL THIS WITHOUT A LIST. I spent $25, I have no idea what I bought, and I know I'm going to have to go back tomorrow. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Overheard in Our House

"Umm...hey, did you turn on those twinkling snowflake lights for her?"
"What? Oh, yeah, I did. Why?"
"Oh, good, the living room isn't on fire, then."

Although I suppose if it was, our house would at least be warm, because we are too miserly to turn up the heat. We walk around in thick socks and layers of sweaters and find excuses to bake things, but we will not turn up the heat. Our Northern pride will not allow it, even if our icy toes are begging us to.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing a very happy, safe, and food-filled Thanksgiving to my U.S. readers. And, for that matter, a very happy, safe, and food-filled Thursday to all my non-U.S. readers.

I will be eating my weight in pie. Hey, I earned it, since I spent all of yesterday baking. I made the following:

Orange-cranberry-oat scones
Apple Pie
Pecan Pie
Pear Pie With Asiago-Rosemary Crust

Plus these awesome little cookies that are like sugar-butter thumbprints with a candycane & cream cheese mixture dolloped into the center. I finally packed them into Tupperware and made my brother hide them in the garage because I ate so many. It's pretty cold out there, they'll keep. And I won't get a bellyache.

And tomorrow? The glory that is turkey quesadillas.

Halloween 2009: The Least-Blurry of the Batch

It is so HARD to take non-blurry photos of little kids! I really need a speedlight flash for my camera; the built-in pop-up flash did little but blind everyone around me.



As you can see, we made a valiant effort with the hat, but it didn't last.



Anyway, the little witch trick-or-treated like a seasoned pro. One trip around our friends' neighborhood netted more than enough candy for a two-year-old which is why I have, um, rescued her from having to eat all those Kit-Kats and Milky Ways. Now someone is going to have to rescue the button on my jeans from my ever-expanding candy gut.