Projects, on my shoulders... makes me happy...

A little tweak to the John Denver tune. I really love John Denver. My mom however, she luuuuuurvs him. Just saying.

Crafting! I volunteered to host the bow night at my house. I made some pretty blue flowers. I totally stole the idea from some sweet gal's Etsy shop. Sorry. But I wont spend even four dollars if I can make it myself. No, I'll spend fifteen and make it myself. Ha. When looking around further, I found that there were tons of the exact same flower on other sites as well, so I don't feel too bad. I suppose we are all stealing the idea from someone.

I cut out petals, burned the edges to make them curl and glued them together with a button in the middle. If you want to make something similar, you need to use a 100% synthetic fabric like polyester or nylon so the edges melt, not burn.

I made a few too many.

We had a lovely time tonight with a good turnout. It was so fun to hang out with other moms and moms to be. My cute neighbor Ann even watched Eleanor for most of it as she had to watch her two girls too. And Clayton had his super late night classes today.

Here is a shot of the bows I got in exchange. I made the ones in the row just to the left of the headband. Pretty good haul!Lest you think I have slowed down on the dolly girls, nope. Here are my two latest. Ballerina no-name and ballerina Kirsten. How cute are they?
Ann, my partner in doll-obsession, got the pointy toed clothespins to make these little dancer-footed ones. I also bought a small set of drill attachments so I could drill little holes for their arms to go through. It's getting intense. The ladies in the ward are now planning a doll night in November to feed our habit. I expect all my Christmas gifts will look like this. Do you think my dad will like one? More, as always, to come.
Poor little E is teething, so I don't foresee as much crafting in the near future. She wants to be held constantly. This coincides nicely with our trip to Utah. Four more days!

Dolls Post #2

Ok, so still life portraits are beyond me. I always seem to want to take pictures at night and my flash is ridiculous. That said, here are more of my "girls". These are Natalie and Autumn, two more of my nieces.

And here are Dorothy and the Wicked Witch of the West.

Not sure if she looks frightened enough.

This might be my favorite doll I've made so far.

I was hoping my fireplace looked sufficiently scary enough for the photo shoot. Was too tired to make a yellow brick road.

More to come! Seriously, I might need an intervention.

Who's With Me?

Maybe it's the rain, but I am feeling like the epitome of blah. No motivation, no energy. Just a huge desire to eat jelly beans and browse blogs. Only I'm almost out of blogs. (C'mon people! Write more!) It's almost noon and I am still in my pajamas. Not sweats, which we all know are ok to stay in all day. No. Actual pajamas, so I can't even answer the door if needed. Any ideas to get me out of this funk? Even projects aren't calling my name. The laundry really isn't calling my name. Ho hum. Here is a link to a funny web site where I found the above graph. Later.

Graph Jam

Dolls Post #1

So you have probably seen these little gals all over other blogs or on Etsy. I've been wanting to make them for about six months now, but finally got around to acquiring all the stuff to make them, and finding the time. Oh! Can I just tell you? I am obsessed. I have now made eight and have two more in the works and about seventy more in my head. Such a high reward-to-work ratio. Love them. I made the four below as my first friends. From left to right that is Abby, Lucy, Allie and me. (By the way, if your name was just called, you will soon be receiving a clothespin doll. Act surprised.) I've hooked my neighbor Ann into the business and am trying to recruit my two little neighbor girls into making some too. Sophie and Nora, let's make a date.

The photo shoot didn't turn out too well as it was dark, too much flash etc...

Look for Doll Post #2 real soon!

Tigger Time

Eleanor is so funny. She cracks us up all the time with her newest little antics and tricks. A week ago I got a bouncing Tigger toy at a Mom-to-Mom sale. (Which are awesome by the way!) Eleanor really likes it. But after a day or so with the doll, she started acting funny when ever it started it's routine. She would stop whatever she was doing, drop to her tummy and start kicking her legs and arms. It's hilarious to us. Here, see for yourself. And don't forget to vote on her Halloween costumes too. Thanks!

Bright Eyes

I don't think I can gush about my neighbors enough. We hit some sort of imaginary Craigslist jackpot in finding our apartment. As four families from our ward live on our block. We're not in Provo folks. That high of a concentration of ward members is insanely rare outside of Utah. And it has been such a blessing. These are some of the nicest people you could meet. The first Sunday here I knew I was home when we were invited over for brownies on the lawn. My type of people! We've really enjoyed getting to know them better the past few weeks. Our neighbor Lexie Phillips took a few pictures of Eleanor the other night when we were over and gave us these copies. I love them! Thanks Lexie!

Making the Beds When Your House is Burning

I think I've talked about this phenomena before. My overwhelming desire to do silly piddling things when something entirely else needs to be done. Right now there isn't anything too pressing. Just all those little things that would make our house look like a home, instead of a college dorm room that hasn't been fully unpacked. Like hanging up all our pictures, or finishing that blasted dresser so we have places to put our unmentionables. How about hanging up those curtains I bought the first week here to keep out the sun? I have a nice long list of all of these kinds of chores. Not terribly urgent, but life would be sweeter if they were done. But no. Not happening. Not yet anyways. Instead I have been on a week long, turbo-charged crafting kick. Woo Hoo!

First I did one of those t-shirt makeovers that are so popular on the blogs lately. This amazing woman does some of the cutest things to a t-shirt. Me? Eh. I bought two turquoise-blue boys shirts at the dollar store and did what I could. It turned out ok I suppose. I cut off the collar if the bigger shirt and used the smaller shirt to cut up into "petals". I sewed the petals around the new neckline to make it ruffly. Kinda. Then I made a few gathered strips and sewed them to the end of the sleeves. Like I said, it's ok, but not amazing.

Here is the original shirt and the petals being cut out.
You sew the petals in half to make them look like little flowers. Sort of. Forgive the embarrassing self-portrait here. It was late and I felt too dumb to ask Clayton to take my picture. But hopefully you get the idea. Not too bad for $2.

My next project, although poorly done, was immensely satisfying. I made a "new" liner for Eleanor's door-bouncer. I just traced a loose pattern from the jumper, cut it out and sewed the new fabric directly on top of the old one. Leaving the seams exposed. To take it apart and do it properly would have been such a pain, and not worth it at all. So I was pleased with how nice it looks considering the shortcuts I took.

Here is the original fabric. I remembered just in time to take a before shot. You can also see the before in the jumping videos I posted of Eleanor last week. Tres 1992!

You can kind of see the old pattern through the new fabric, but again. I couldn't be bothered enough to add another layer of lining or whatever. Lazy crafting.

The project I finished today is the most adorable and happy one yet. They turned out sooo well! But as it will be a present for a few people, I can't blog about it, or post pictures. Yet. I will in a week or so. So hold on to your hats.

Tomorrow I hopefully get to help a neighbor paint her entertainment center, and I hope to pick up some blue paint for Eleanor's room while we are in the paint department. Then I can do the next craft project which is a garland for her room. Oh I am all atwitter about that!

Oh, you ask, where is my daughter during all of this? Well, most of this is taking place late at night. Some during her naps and some with her on the floor next to me. Today she spent about 10 happy minutes fluffing and patting a big roll of tulle on the floor while I cut stuff out. I got up to put away scissors and throw away my scraps and came back to find her like this.

Totally entombed.

I love this girl. Which reminds me. For Halloween I couldn't think of anything terribly clever to make Eleanor. I debated between witch and ballerina. I finally bought a few things at the Goodwill to make her into a warm-up ballerina (no stiff tutu, more legwarmers and pink wrap sweaters) but still haven't decided for sure. Then today I thought how adorable a Dorothy from Wizard of Oz or Alice from Alice in Wonderland would be. Any thoughts? I am going to put up a poll to see what you all think. Feel free to write in any other genius suggestions in the comments sections. Or any boring suggestions. I am all for stealing other people's good ideas. Keep in mind that E is 6 months old and I want to have some hand in making it. I also like the idea of "family costumes". For example, dad's a Dr., mom's a nurse (or second Dr.), and baby is an accident victim. A few years ago our friends, the cute Hansen family, went as a football player, a cheerleader and little (tiny baby) Sophie was the football. Alright. Polls open!

Pretty Pretty Baby Girl

Each Sunday we try to wake up insanely early (For us that is, it's about 3-4 hours earlier than we usually wake.) to get ready for church at nine. For me it is impossible to focus the mental powers needed to find cute outfits that don't do one of two things. 1- Are so blousy that I look pregnant. Or 2- Are so tight that I look pregnant. I think it's time to lay off the frosting. Or not, I'm not bothered enough to try that. Luckily getting Eleanor dressed is a cinch. She has more beautiful clothes than any little girl I know of thanks to her darling cousin Allie.

Here are Allie and Eleanor together at the end of our summer in Utah.

Allie had and has one of the greatest wardrobes ever seen. It rivals Suri Cruise. She was the surprise baby to my brother and his wife, joyfully coming 14 years after her brother and sister. She was long awaited for, and as a result everyone showered her with love. And clothes. Add her 16 year old fashionista sister (now starting college!) into the mix and she was and is one well dressed little lady.

The second magical part of this story is that due to Allie's wardrobe, Eleanor has received some amazing hand-me-downs. Lots of them. And we are so grateful! I love getting her dressed up in her pretty dresses. Each Sunday I mean to take pictures of her all dolled up, but usually forget. Or Clayton gets her undone before I get to the camera. But last Sunday we remembered.

So here she is wearing a special dress of Allie's. I call it her prom dress as it has a netting pinafore sewn right in. Allie had her pictures taken in it when she was about the same age.

Baby makes mom look thinner, cause who is looking at mom in these shots?

And with dad!

If I had an office, this would be on my desk.

Seeing Eleanor in this dress all day made me really miss Allie. Luckily we get to see her in a few weeks when we visit Utah! Well, just me and Eleanor. Clayton has to stay in school.

Blinkity Blink

A week or so ago I was tapping my fingers on a cup we were holding and I noticed that Eleanor blinked at each tap. It was kind of funny. Here is a snippet of her blinking in the same way when I made sounds with a toy. Sadly, she was obviously in a bad mood. Did I pick her up and cuddle her? Yes, but not before I got this on tape.

Poor Eleanor. We are awful parents sometimes. Well, I am.

The Answer is Clear

Laughing

Here is a little snippet of Eleanor laughing. She loves to be startled or "scared". Sadly I sound like a dork doing so, but it's worth it to hear her funny little laugh. She only laughs for me if she's in a really good mood, so I had to post it. She'll laugh for anyone else most of the time though. Love her!

Jumpity Jump #2

Bouncity Bounce #1

Here is part one of two. I often have problems posting videos to blogspot. So this will be two posts instead of one. Wish I was more computer savvy. One file will work fine and then another from the same bunch will never upload. Does anyone else have this problem? Any tips? Quite a few google searches haven't helped. Anyhow.

We bought Eleanor a Johnny Jump-Up (or whatever they are called now) this past Saturday and it is already a favorite for her. She would stay in there all day if we let her. We wont of course.

Anything But That!

I really enjoyed this.

Lickity Lick

Photo Catch Up. Lots of it.

Eleanor continues to charm the socks off her parents day in and day out. We love her to bits and take way too many photos of her. ("As if!" you cry. I know, I know.) Subsequent children don't stand a chance as far as Kodak is concerned. (And as child 5 of 6, I understand the phenomenon.) So here are a few shots that don't necessarily tell a story, but they are too cute to hide in a computer.

A week or so before we moved, my mom, my grandmother, my niece Abby, Eleanor and I all went to 7-Peaks together. It was such a fun day. Eleanor loves the water. She also liked sitting with great-grandma in the shade watching all the people.

Bundled up with mom.

And not so happy a minute later. Such is the life of a baby.

Chillin' on the couch with dad. Need something to nibble on.

It didn't fall in her mouth either. She finds it and puts it in there herself. She is continually cracking us up. These are the silly kinds of things I don't know if you can "get" until you have kids. (Ugh, smug!) It's cute, sure, but... What I mean, is how hilarious we find the most trifling things that Eleanor does. We realize that this may not enchant the rest of the world the way it does us. This blog has unabashedly turned into a "baby blog" and I couldn't be happier.

I love Eleanor in her pajamas. This is a boy set from Target that has a robot on them, but I like them for her. Isn't she cute in orange?Her pout face.Her new smirk face.I know, I know. But I can't help myself.And here is little vampire baby. If I could get her to do this on cue, I would so dress her as Dracula for Halloween.

I vant to... ah, ah , ahhhh! etc, etc.....Our sweet friend Lucy sent Eleanor these adorable shoes. Mom had to get some pictures. Can't quite see the shoes enough...

That's better, but we need to see the baby...

Oh. Um, ok. If you want to do an Irish jig, I guess that's cool.
And last and least. Something that keeps mom happy and alert. I call it Heaven's Trail Mix. It's my very own recipe. I'm pretty sure Food Network will be calling me soon.
1 part Hot Tamales
1 Part Peanut-Butter M&M's
1 Part hand picked Jelly Belly's
Mix together.
The end.