The Music Box

A few months ago, there was a knock at my door.  I opened the door and it was our next door neighbor.  I've only seen him in passing and have only talked to him once, apologizing for my kids throwing their ball into his yard when we first moved in.  He was holding this hideous music box.  It is HUGE and has an angel, a unicorn, and a crystal ball on the top of it.  I don't know how all of them tie together, but whatever.  He said his girlfriend had bought it for his niece and for some reason I don't remember she never gave it to her.  He said he had seen that we had little girls and thought we might like it.  I imagine he and his girlfriend has a conversation similar to this:

"What are we going to do with this ugly thing I won't let you give my precious niece?"
"Why don't you see if the crazy lady next door wants to give it to her hellions?"
"Good idea.  Be back in a minute..."

I didn't want the thing, and figured it would be broken in 10 minutes, but I took it anyway.  I didn't want to seem ungrateful or anything.

I put it on a shelf in Isabelle and Zoe's room where they couldn't reach it and it's been there collecting dust ever since. 

Fast forward to today....

Zoe was on the couch watching her beloved Little Bear, I was crocheting, Bill was on the computer and Olivia and Izzy were playing in Izzy's room.  All of a sudden, the door opens and Olivia pops her head out and says, "Everything is fine in Isabelle's room, Mom."

Which ANY mother knows translates to:  "We just did something really bad, Mom, and we think if we tell you nothing is wrong that you'll believe nothing is wrong and not come see what we did."

I said, "Olivia, you saying everything is fine makes me want to come see what's going on in there."  They like to rearrange furniture (they're little Hercules, I tell you) and I figured they had the bed in the middle of the room or something.

Olivia turned to Izzy and said, "We should tell her the truth."

And I was off the couch immediately.

Olivia said they knocked that "thing" off the shelf but it was OK, it didn't break.  She promised.  They put it in the closet.  I didn't believe for a minute that anything they would hide in the closet would be "OK" after falling off the shelf, so I went to investigate.

They opened the closet and there was the hideous music box.  Intact.  No chips.  No broken wings.  The unicorn horn was a little wiggly.  I realized that it was mostly plastic (I seriously didn't pay enough attention to it before and had assumed it was ceramic or something - I don't even know what song it plays or if it even works).  I moved it up to the shelf in the closet.  It's apparently as indestructible as it is ugly.  I guess one day I'll pawn it off on someone else.  Or leave it in the closet when we move.  A housewarming gift for the new tenants.  =)

Just thinking

Rambling here...

I just bought the most gorgeous fabric online.  I saw it about a month ago and resisted buying it and finally decided if I still liked it after this long I needed to get it.  I haven't been sewing as much as I was, because of the crocheting, but I seem to be hooked on hats and my kids can only wear so many hats this winter.  And we're in Arkansas - it's just not that cold here.  Right now I'm mixing the two - I've crocheted the top of what will become a dress.  I hope it doesn't look really cheesy.  I guess I'm a bit of a crafty snob.  There is a fine line between things looking handmade vs homemade, and crocheted stuff can easily fall into the homemade category.  Especially clothing. 

I had planned on getting a booth at the flea market and trying to sell some of my stuff, but I can't seem to get motivated to make enough of anything to make it worth my while.  I just don't like doing the same thing over and over.  I like to experiment and try new things.  I like doing things for friends, but to be honest, I don't care so much about strangers.  So I might just work it that way - if people want something, they can ask and I'll make.  Plus, if I'm busy making a bizillion bandana dresses, I have no time to make things for my kids.  I don't want to get burned out and hate sewing or crocheting, and I see how trying to sell my stuff will get me there really fast.

I'm trying to read a book about parenting strong-willed children (I don't do well reading non-fiction, hence the "trying").  I'm just not sure how well the hubby is going to participate and that's going to make or break anything I try to do.  I think I need to talk to him about maybe getting some help with his anger, too, because he's been blowing up a lot lately and I am totally not down with that.  I feel like I'm in a house of chaos lately and it's making me crazy.  I just keep telling myself that once school starts, things will get better - and I really hope that will be the case.

A friend of mine called me today to invite us to come visit her around Christmas.  I'm pretty stoked about it.  We've been friends since high school.  We were pretty close until we had a misunderstanding and then lost touch for several years, and now we've reconnected.  She has a little girl a few months younger than Isabelle, named Isabella.  Mine is Izzy and hers is Ella =)  I think going to see them is definitely something we should do.  She was telling me all the stuff her town has going on that time of year and it sounds like we will definitely have a blast.

I really need to work on getting my head back into the things I need to do, instead of burying myself in books and yarn - we need to save up for a new computer and I need to get a better grip on the housework again, and of course, get back into working out and eating better.  That's all I'm going to say about that one.  This summer just has not gone the way I had hoped.  We had such a blast last summer, but, man, this one has been just miserable.  I remember hating summers as a kid because it was so boring and we never did anything, so it's really bothering me that this summer has been such a bust.  It's not over yet, so hopefully I can salvage it

Odd train of thought

I was sitting in the living room, listening to the half-wits down the road shooting off fireworks as my children try to sleep and I remembered the time I was sitting in the living room with my roommate and his girlfriend's cousin and he thought it would be hilarious to scare me by throwing a popper at the wall beside my head.

Only he didn't have very good aim. He hit me in the face instead.

That led me to think about walking to the store with him in the snow one winter, doing "one-leggers" into holes covered up by snow. One in particular where I ended up face down in the street. Lucky for me there isn't a lot of traffic when it snows around here.

Seems I have a lot of embarrassing moments with the guy.

Which of course led me to one of our favorite "Jennifer is a clumsy mess" memories - the Uhaul.

When my husband and I got married, he was shipped off to South Korea after about a month. I tried to stick it out in our apartment, but I talked myself into moving back in with my parents to save money. My friend agreed to help me move my stuff and I rented a Uhaul. I picked a great day to move - it started drizzling while we toted my junk down the stairs and into the big truck. So after a while, there was a sloppy mess inside the truck from our shoes. My friend was coming down the stairs and I was going to jump out of the back of the truck to make my next trip. Only I didn't quite manage that. Instead, I slid on the water, skidded and shot out of the back of the truck, landing flat on my back. I was incredibly lucky not to hit my head on the bumper, but I had the breath knocked out of me and of course I knew my friend saw the whole thing and I was mortified. I had that split second to decide what to do and had two options: cry to up my sympathy points, or laugh. Because even then I knew it had to have been an excellent show watching me shoot out of the back of the truck. So I laughed. My friend came running, to make sure I wasn't hurt (because he's a good guy like that) and once that was established, laughed with me.

Now I need to go remind him of the popper incident. It's his favorite. He'll be chuckling all evening over it.

Easter baskets for the girls

I've been a sewing maniac lately. I made the girls' Easter dresses last year, so this year I had decided to do the same. They took me a while - I used the same pattern for each and was quite sick of it by the third dress. =) I don't have pictures yet, because I want to take the girls out for spring pictures in them. But, while I was researching what I was going to do for the dresses, I ran across a picture of a cute little fabric basket that linked back to the tutorial for it. I fell in love with it and promised myself if I finished the dresses early, I would make baskets for the girls. I'm pretty sure that is what got me through the third dress. This time I worked on all three at once so I wouldn't get to the third one and be tired of looking at them.

So without further ado...


It is a little bigger than I thought it would be. I'm a horrible judge of measurement. The original design started off with 2" squares, and I made 4" squares. 3" squares would have been perfect, but these will work. I'll just add some extra tissue paper (I hate Easter grass). I decided against pastel Easter-y fabric, wanting to make something they could use and keep forever. And I changed the handle from the original design. My favorite part is the lining:


I love this fabric. I had bought some to bind a quilt (that still is just a quilt top...) and when I ran across it again looking for basket fabrics, I had to use it again. It reminded me of grass. Of course, I meant for the stripes to go up and down, but when I cut the fabric, I was so giddy that I had all three girls down for a nap at once, I forgot to pay attention to that. I bought way too much of all my fabric (again, that whole bad judge of measurement thing), so I have about a yard and some decent sized scraps left over that will most likely make their way into being a dress or something for the girls.

Now that I have the basic technique down, I may in the future make like a tote bag or something. They were fun to make and I wasn't sick to death of them by the end of it. Of course, I was anxious to move on to some other projects because I am a bit obsessed right now. It's probably a good thing Easter is next weekend so I didn't get too distracted by the dresses and other goodies I am wanting to make. =)

Oh no, they didn't!

I just recently finished reading the entire Ramona Quimby series to the girls. And I just have to say that it was mostly for me. They slept through at least half of it. I adore Ramona. Heck, I have 2 Ramonas. Zoe is just a Roberta right now, but I'm sure she'll turn into a Ramona.

So when I heard that they were making a movie, my first reaction was "Woo hoo!!" I don't know why. I hate movies based on books I love. They always, ALWAYS suck. There's no possible way for them to capture the true essence of a good book on film. It might be really good to those who have never read the book, but die-hard fans of the book are never satisfied by the movie version. I usually don't even watch the movies any more. And when I do, like when my friends dragged me to see Twilight, I spend the whole movie making fun of it. I mean, come on... Jasper really did look like he had a serious case of gas throughout the entire film.

And Ramona and Beezus will be no exception. I could post a link to the trailer, but I don't even think it's worth the trouble. In just a 60 second glance of clips of the movie, I can tell you - without a doubt - that it will not hold a candle to the books. I'm going to go so far as to say that it's just plain WRONG for it to even say "based on the series by Beverly Cleary."

Both Ramona and Beezus are too cute. Selena Gomez? Beezus is girl next door, sensible... not Disney-cute. And Ramona... well, I could probably find a quote in each book where Ramona marvels at being called cute because no one ever calls her cute. She's not cute. She's a mess. She's awkward. Not Toddlers and Tiaras cute with uncombed hair.

I recognized a few scenes in the trailer, even spotted some ways it's going to deviate that will be very irksome, but most of the trailer looked like the screenplay was just someone writing a movie with characters kind of like Ramona and Beezus, all Hollywooded up, with Ramona-esque antics. Bah. And the casting director OBVIOUSLY never read the books. OBVIOUSLY.

Oh well. I don't need a movie anyway. I live it every day with my Ramonas. My toothpaste-in-the-sink, wearing-pjs-under-the-clothes-to-school awesome kiddos. Hollywood can't possibly recreate something that amazing. You have to live it to get it.

Bitten

I have to say I have some really awesome friends. And some of them are super crafty. I never considered myself very crafty, and still don't - I think some of it is crap. But since I'm having a love affair with my sewing machine, I do fall into the category somewhat.

I have two friends and a sister who quilt. Well, I think I have 3 friends who do, but 2 that are avid quilters. My sister made each of the girls a quilt when they were born and Olivia has a twin size quilt in addition to that. They're gorgeous. I have seen many pictures lately of my other friends' quilting adventures and I really think I'm going to have to try this.

When I made the girls some skirts for Christmas, I ended up having to piece them together in a quilt-like fashion. And it was kind of fun. So I know I can piece together a quilt top, no problem. It's the part that comes after that that I'm not so sure about. I understand everything up to the actual quilting and then I'm lost. Is it something I can do on my machine? I know my sister used to go use a machine her friend owned that was especially for quilting (and made awesome curly designs) instead of using her own machine. If I tried hand quilting, would I actually finish it?

I am in the middle of my sock monkey project right now, so I have a little while before I can really look into this. But it's worth a try...

Reflections and Projections

I'm not sure what it is this year, but I don't feel that reflective as we end 2009. I have more the opinion of "let's get this over with and get to the New Year already!" It's not that I've had a BAD year, but I can't really say it's been a spectacular year. It definitely could have been better, and probably should have been better and maybe that's where my attitude comes from. 2008 was an awesome year. I honestly can't tell you why at the moment, but I do remember closing out the year feeling accomplished and satisfied. I just don't feel that way this year.

Of course, there were some downers, but you can't expect a year to go by without something. My aunt passed away and really brought the possibility of my own parents' deaths much closer to home than I would have liked. I didn't expect her death to hit me like it did. I still feel very sad for my cousins, and when I was looking through pictures of her oldest grandchild getting married over the summer, I swear to you I could feel her with me and hear her singing.

I felt very stressed out by the negativity around me in the world... people freaking out over politics, the economy, H1N1, etc. I can only imagine how crazy it would have made me if I actively followed the news.

My best friends have been gone all year. I just kind of feel like Adam in particular helps so much to ground me, and having gone through the year hardly seeing or speaking to him even has sucked.

But there were plenty of highlights throughout the year.

Our vacation to NY was amazing, Olivia started school, watching Zoe grow into her little personality without having the demands of a newborn to distract me, Bill has had the same job all year, we quit smoking...

Like I said, though, I am ready to get to 2010 and I am set that I will make the most of this year. I've had a few years where I didn't want to make resolutions... but I want to this year. I want to make goals and I want to achieve goals.

The last time I saw Adam, he said something to me. He might have just been saying it to be saying it, because that was his demeanor at the time, but I know Adam usually doesn't just shoot off at the mouth. He said (and this isn't word for word) "Don't let your self-doubt keep you from accomplishing your goals."

And oh, how I do.

So I have two themes this year: Control and Confidence

I want to be in control of our finances. We're discussing doing Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University and the Total Money Makeover system. It's scary to me. I was super pumped and excited at first and then the reality of the sacrifices involved sunk in and I'm scared to death. But that has a great deal to do with lack of confidence... I feel that there is no way I can make it work. I know I can if I just relax and do it though.

I want to be in control of my health. I've let my weight loss quest slide for about a month now, and I really need to focus again and make some serious and permanent changes throughout the year.

Throughout this past year, a thought that crosses my mind often has been "what's the worst that can happen if you fail?" I have been reluctant to do photography for people, and have mostly refused to let people pay me for it because I just haven't felt confident enough in myself. A girl at work wants me to give her a quote for a wedding for a friend of hers and my stomach just flips thinking about it. This is what I want, but it's terrifying to actually do it. There are so many photographers out there and sometimes I am just afraid I'm not that good.

But what's the worst that can happen if I try to make my name out there? I don't get anyone calling for my services? That's what I have now... what's the big deal? Could I fall on my face? Yeah. But it won't kill me, and as long as I'm alive, it's not a total loss.

I thought today maybe I should find a tiny toy football helmet to carry around to remind me that it won't kill me to take a couple of knocks.

So other than all that deep stuff, I want to be more creative with the sewing machine this year. I have plans to make sock monkeys for each of the girls (the Rockford Red Heel Socks are on their way), rag dolls for the girls, probably some dresses this summer...

I am truly excited about 2010 and want to make it an exciting and satisfying year. I sincerely hope that anyone reading this an exciting and satisfying year also and that you have the control and confidence to reach all your goals and then some!