Don't let them fool you!

Does anyone remember the t.v. show that used to be on sometime in the 90's called "When Animals Attack"? I remember watching that show and that might be part of the reason I'm terrified of coyotes (henchmen of evil I tell you) and I don't remember any episodes that involved rodents of any kind. I've gone my entire adult life, all 9 years of it, thinking those cute little critters wouldn't harm a fly.

Just look at them- awh. Did I ever mention I had a pet rat growing up named Tilly? No, well it's not something I'm proud of but the point I'm trying to make here is that I wish them no ill will. I will not run them over when they run in front of me, I brake for squirrel. When they run around on my roof at 5:30 in the morning I just kindly bang on the wall- just a tap to let them know I need my beauty rest, no air soft gun. I'm kind to all fur bearing beasts. Until Thursday...

Until this charged at me, in my CRAFT ROOM! He entered through my chimney, as evidenced by all soot everywhere. I swear I did not retouch this picture one bit. If I did I would have added a cute craft hutch, not a red eyed spawn of satan.

I'll tell the readers digest condensed version of the story since I get myself all worked up when I tell it at length, so if I've animated this with my flailing arms for you earlier in the week you can just laugh at me all over again.

I was sitting in my craft room/office catching up on some much needed email replies and feeding Kennedy when I hear a small crash coming from my kitchen. This happens at least 10 times a day with the girls tromping around upstairs so I didn't think anything of it until about 15 minutes goes by and I see a scurry in my office. I look down, by my bare feet mind you, and within one foot of my foot is a squirrel. A live outdoor squirrel inside and he's making noises at me. I do what any calm rational person would do and I scream a girly scream and fling myself back with my rolling office chair dropping to the ground and slamming my doors as fast as I can.

I have glass french doors that don't really stay shut so I grab my handy dandy rubber band and tie those suckers together. Now he's trapped in my craft room. Since I was online (dial-up) and my cell phone was in there I couldn't call for help without going in with the beast. I braved the unknown armed with my trusty pink butterfly net, grabbed the cell phone and disconnected from the internet. He saw me coming and charged me, fangs drawn and screaming. Okay, so the fang part I made up but he really did run towards me. Sheer terror sets in. Did you see the picture?

I somehow managed to get the doors shut again with him locked inside and he runs off towards my supplies. All I can do is helplessly watch as he grabs my scrapbook papers in his impossibly cute paws (?) and throws them on the floor "she loves me, she loves me not" style. NOOOOOoooo!!! The girls and I sat and watched him terrorize my stuff through the glass for about 3 hours. My craft room is in shambles. The ending of this story will make Cody look like a pansy who sacrifices his wife to save his own behind so I won't go there ;o). Needless to say I ended up opening the window, punching the screen Rambo style with my big biceps, and after a little prodding and more screaming (by all of us, including the squirrel) he jumped out. Squirrel be gone! If you've read this entirely let me know and there might be a goody in it for you... just maybe... he he... just comment and put the word "spawn" in there somehow and I'll know you know and you are in the drawing. Don't leave a comment that will give it away that I'm giving something away though... I want to see who's paying attention. Leave your name and email so I can get a hold of you in case you win. I'm so tricky!

I've spent the rest of the weekend disinfecting my entire house after finding sooty foot prints on my toaster, in my bathroom sink, on my end table by the couch, and other places. Yumm-o!

Have a fantastic weekend full of friends and family and devoid of squirrels ;o).

Basking in dual parenting

If you're wondering where I've been the last 5 days I haven't been crafting or sewing or anything of blog worthiness... I've been enjoying being married and having Cody around. For the last 2 weeks Cody was out of town and I was manning the kids all by myself. 5 kids to 1 mom. It was an interesting 12 days.

Day one was rough. Day two was tougher. By day three I wanted to scream and cry and blog about it but since I was going to be home alone for another 9 days I didn't think it would be wise to say "I'm home alone for xx amount of days... come get me creepy stalkers and robbers". I tried cleaning, I tried crafting, I even tried to exercise but it's just not possible with a baby attached to your hip. Not to mention I was exhausted from staying up all hours of the night so I didn't feel so alone and freaked out. My house is extremely creepy when you're all alone. I picked him up on Friday and I've never been happier! I'm not a creature that was meant to be alone for long. Yep, he's stuck with me forever ;o).

I hope to be in the swing of fun things soon but for today, and probably tomorrow, I'll be sitting here staring at his gorgeous mug and swooning...

I miss Friends

My little Joey-

I mean, what's not to like? Custard, good. Jam, good. Meat, good!

Cleaning bug

The spring cleaning bug must have bitten last night because for some weird reason I feel like purging everything. Not just a casual toss and organize, I feel like going through my entire house and getting rid of everything I'm tired of looking at and reorganizing those things I'm not quite ready to part with. For the kids this is never a good thing when mom decides to look under beds and clean out crannies. It should be a very rough week for our resident pack rat Ash, so I'll do her stuff while she's at school tomorrow ;o).

For my shop go-ers this is a great thing. You see I'm tired of looking at the same old stuff so last night I marked everything down, some things again, so I can fill it with new stuff (not just booties) as soon as I'm done with my house that is and start making things.

I'll keep marking them down every Saturday night for the next few weeks until a). they are gone or b). I give them away on my blog. Sound good? I hope so 'cause I don't want those puppies around anymore!

If I find any treasure troves I'll be sure to have a giveaway or two as well so stay tuned...

Crazy legs

I was going to take a break from sewing things to scrapbook but lately I haven't had time to do either. A life without crafting something is no life for me so I keep finding little projects to do that don't take much time to finish in a single stretch.

When I was little I always wanted a pair of chunky pink leg warmers. I'm not sure I ever got a pair but I know that as a future ballerina I really needed a pair. Since Paris never called me for my prima ballerina debut I'm reliving my dreams through my daughters.

Meet prima Ashlyn sporting her nock off baby legs- crazy legs! It took a lot of convincing to get her to go to school like that. I had to tell her things like "you look great!", "leg warmers are so cool", "Mary wants a pair", "they match your outfit", and the kicker "I'll give you candy when you come home". Judge me if you must- they look stinking adorable.

I bought a 2 pack of adult knee highs (Ashlyn wears a 6/7 and they fit great) and basically made them like this tutorial from Baubles and Bits. I didn't follow her tutorial, I just looked at the pictures and went but I'm pretty confident you'll get the same result as mine using her tutorial if you'd like to give them a whirl ;o).

Right now is a really great time to look for socks on clearance by the way...

A story about a boy.

9 years ago today I became a mom to one amazing boy! One amazing boy who looks like a mix of his mom and dad with his mom's exact personality. He's my little personality clone.

Being my first it was the worst delivery ever (until Kennedy). After an excruciating 3 hours of pushing they finally nabbed him with the forceps, that's why he had marks all over his noggin, weighing a hefty 9 lbs 3 oz. and 22 1/4" long. He made a big entrance and still likes to make sure everyone knows he's around.

We brought him home in Cody's coming home outfit. He was so big I never had the "He's so little I'm going to drop him " fear.

I wish he were this little again. Granted he was 4 months old and those were 12-18 months clothes but I'll take it!

He's always been a dirt magnet and has always loved going up in the woods with his dad, as long as I put a hat on to cover the curls I refused to cut off ;o). He was still a baby so long curls were cute and the hat was more because I'm a freak about ticks. The curls didn't last long after this picture. Jeremy was a bald bald kid and finally grew a little bit of hair at about a year so I was a bit protective of what little hair he finally grew. Cody picked me up from work one day with my 18 month old boy sheared bald like a sheep. He was a 1/4" away from being completely shiny bald. It was dark but I could see the street lamp shine on his smallish head and I cried like a baby right then and there! Cody hasn't touched a lock of his hair since...

First day of school. At five he wanted to be an entomologist and loved anything animals. He would beg and beg me to stay up to watch Nature. He still does.

My boy! As you can see I'm feeling a little sappy and emotional today but he's my only boy. Who knows if I'll have another and I know I'll never have another Jeremy. I love him so much and can't believe this is his last year in the single digits. Do you know how old that makes me feel? Being the oldest he is such a help to me and he truly loves his family. He eats us out of house and home already but that's just because the boy has 2 hollow legs and the energy of a gazelle. He's such a thoughtful guy and writes me love notes at least once a week, some young lady will be very very lucky to have him in about 20 years. That's if I'm ready to let him go by then!


Happy Birthday Jim!

Who's hungry?

I'm a terrible mother. I'm such a terrible mother, I starve my children. Kennedy is wasting away to practically nothing. The poor sweet child is on the brink of malnutrition. She's so ravenously hungry and desperate for any sort of morsel she can dig up, look at what she's resorted to...

Licking cotton. She's so starving she's even taken to chomping down taffeta with flocking. Poor girl. Cry for her will you?

She's so cute but so, so strange! She has this addiction to licking all things fabric with the occasional face thrown in. She just bends over, all innocent like, and acts as though she's going to cuddle with you then wham- you get licked when you least expect it. My pajama pants got attacked 3 separate times today and I got my cheek licked yesterday. It's not a cute little baby lick either, she drools like a faucet is attached to her face so you get thoroughly drenched. I don't get it, maybe I should invest in a salt lick for babies? Ashlyn was under the impression that Kennedy just wanted to sit next to her and look cute but Kennedy caught a glimpse of the crunchy skirt and had to have a taste. Weird little thing!

I finished her quilt and I love it so so so much! My first quilt that I'll actually admit to making. It's kind of a cheater quilt but it works for me. I don't follow patterns well, what can I say- I'm a rebel, so somehow my 40"x 40" quilt came out 44" x 44" but I like it bigger so I'm still awesome ;o). Best kit ever and I wish I would have bought more. I'm afraid to let Kennedy touch it now, she'll just eat the loose threads!

New Year, new projects.

I'm not much of a New Year goal maker type person but I do set a million goals all year long and one of the first goals I've made this year is to finish one of my 3 baby quilts I've started and haven't finished. It's so hard to finish something when you don't like the direction it's going! I'm going to do it though, right after I finish this little ditty I picked up after Christmas ;o).

This is the middle step of a quilt kit called Vintage Baby from Quilt Taffy. I figured I don't have very good luck trying to quilt on my own so why not make one from a kit where the hard part is done for you. No choosing the right fabrics, no picking the perfect pattern, NO calculating... it's perfect as is! So far I love everything about it. The pattern is non-quilter friendly, which is very important to me, and it's coming together so fast which is another strong point. I can't wait to finish it so I can try to make more that are twin sized for the girls. Heck, I might even give it a go for my bed. This baby is addicting!

I'm sort of getting burnt out with sewing ( I don't know why ;o) ?) so after a few commitments I've already made I think I'm taking a short break for a while and I'm going to scrapbook a bit. I really wanted to do a 365 day album for Kennedy's baby book but the kit I found for it just wasn't meshing with my style and is sort of anti-baby so I'm going to try to wing it on my own. I promise not to splatter my blog with daily 365 stuff though. I'll just splatter a little scrappy every couple of weeks, sound good?

Have a great weekend!