Have You Seen My Mojo?

Oh February, what have you done to me? I have almost completely lost my mojo. For everything. Sewing, quilting, knitting, crafting, photo-ing, blogging, thrifting, cooking. Ok, so I never had any cooking mojo. I'm just checking to see if anyone is paying attention. I have been in a SERIOUS winter slump. I even have some exciting stuff in my future. Like a cool friend (who will remain anonymous) who is scheming to help me figure out a way to get my butt to THIS. But I have still struggled getting my butt IN GEAR.

You know I actually had a couple days COMPLETELY to myself this weekend? My poor in-laws drove to pick up the kids in a snowstorm and then ended up with Ellie barfing in the night. I didn't get nearly as much done as I wanted and felt guilty all day yesterday knowing Mike's mom was taking care of a barfy girl. But a little time alone (even with guilt) will do wonders for mojo. AND, this morning I am starting to be able to SEE the rug under my dirty laundry for the first time in months, so there is a light at the end of my tunnel! Is that weird to be THAT uplifted by the thought of catching up on laundry? HA! Just in time for the boys to come home and barf all over their sheets tonight! Anyhoo. I am trying. That's all I can say and I am going to attempt to keep the very slow momentum going that I have poked along over the last couple weeks with. Here goes....

I made myself mittens! DUDE. I made mittens. Knitting mojo kickstart? Check. I am really psyched about this and am hoping by next year to try some on the double pointeds so I don't get the seam, but I'm still really happy. These are full of boo-boos, but the cool thing? They still keep my hands warm.

I went out this weekend and splurged on some smaller needles, so I could make the cuffs tighter and make some for the kids with the same pattern. And I am working out the kinks from the first time around as I had forgotten how to properly increase and that made for some bumpy spots in the blue pair. Don't look too close at the thumbs. Thanks to my in-laws, I have a gigantic stash of just plain ol' acrylic yarn from Paul's mom. Lot of yarn to practice with and lots of warm little hands in the future!

Friday night, I got a little girl-time mojo rejuvenation with my SIL, even if I didn't get to eat Thai food in a restaurant because we had just finished a crazy snowstorm. I made some awesome pizza (cooking mojo? Um, check?) We worked on a little wall art project for Milo's room (more later). Crafty mojo? Check. We watched High Society and stayed up late talking. And I got to spend some time with this little cutie face, which made me take some pictures. Not digging all of them so I'll say photo mojo? Check...ish. At least I got out the camera!

Then yesterday, I tried to get back to the sewing machine. Lately, I just get blocked and I don't want to go back in the sewing room by myself and I don't WANT to just get STARTED. I made myself finish up this little thing. And now am thinking kitchen table hot pad rather than doll blanket. I am happy with how it turned out and I finished up the quilting on the other one, but misjudged the amount left in a roll of binding and didn't feel like picking it out, so I set that one aside for now.

The biggest step I took was finished a section of this hexagon quilt top pieced by my paternal great-grandmother. The hex flower was already done, but needed to be attached and about 7 outer pieces of the yellow. I found a close enough match for the yellow and sewed them all on, but SERIOUSLY what a pain in the butt. I am thinking piecing a hex top myself is NOT in my near future. Then I soaked the whole thing for a bit and washed it gently. It's just draped on the drying rack now, waiting to be ironed before I do the rest. So, quilting mojo? Coming along..

Now I have to get groceries before the troops come home.

Shopping mojo? BLECH.

One More Reason Winter Is Not Fun For Me

I have been in a total winter funk lately. The sun is shining today so, even though it is FAH-REEZING, I feel a whole lot lighter. Our days here have been SO gray and SO cold and SO uninspiring for me and I just can't seem to kick start myself.

And then there's my dog. Oh, I love her to pieces. She's the best kid I have! ;-) But do not let her cutie-patootie face fool you; she is a vicious mitten killer.

EVERY time I send her out in the snow with the kids, one of them loses a mitten in the first 3 minutes and comes back in crying.

On the day these were taken, it was just Birdie and me and Gigi. Within ten minutes, she had stolen this pink mitten of Ellerie's, Ellerie's hat when I got the mitten away from her, My glove when I got Elle's hat away from her and one of Ellie's second pair of mittens when I got my glove back. And I was exhausted. There is literally no way to catch her. She's FAST!!!! You have to lure her or trick her in some way or wait for her to get bored of the keep-away.

She is a menace. A menace wearing a cute coat I made her, but a menace nonetheless. In fact, the floral corduroy is just a tad "granny" for this little rebel.

Next time, she gets hot pink flames and a "tatoo" that says mom!

An Art Nest GIveaway!

Wouldn't Ellerie look darling in this dress? The talented Susannah over at Art Nest has this up for grabs. Check out her shop while you're at it... super cute stuff. I have one of those pin rings and they are SO handy.

Then wish me luck :-)

Doing LEGO His Way

Tate has, pretty much from day 1, liked to do things his own way. He really does march to his own drum most of the time, banging it himself as loudly as possible. And, while I often find his resistance to being told what to do or how to do it rather frustrating, it does ring oddly familiar..... :-)

For a long time, Tate was really not very interested in LEGOs. Those were Calvin's thing. So, I was surprised before Christmas when he began listing all kinds of LEGO sets on his gift "wishlist." Well, it did sort of backfire. He got several sets and pretty much had Cal build them. He had very little interest in sitting and following the intricate instructions to build the set and really wanted to just get to the point of playing with the results.

Still, give Tate 5 minutes and a pile of legos and you might just get Mario, no directions necessary.

Yes, he's just 6 and yes his mama does sort of think he's a bit of a genius. If not a genius of academics, one of creativity and resourcefulness. You want LEGO Mario and they don't make him anymore? Well, you make one yourself...... silly!

I mean, that mustache does kinda rock, doesn't it?

Operation Purge My Stuff: Phase 2

Last weekend, Mike helped me tackle the sewing room. These pictures are sort of crummy. I have lost my photo-mojo lately. And I forgot to take "before pictures" but I think I've shown you how bad it can get....

In the end, I did throw a few things away and added quite a bit to the Donate pile. I also, thanks to my helpful husband, moved some things to basement storage rather than keeping them in this room (remember that cupboard that I cleared out when I brought stuff up to the bathroom?).

I know there is still stuff here that COULD go.

And, I'll confess that I did NOT go through every drawer and cupboard. At this juncture, I'm figuring if I have it stuffed inside something then I'm happy for now. I'm just frying the big fish this first time around. The top of that sewing cupboard (once my maternal grandmother's) is loaded with doodads, but they are all pretty important to me. Family things like the antique iron and glass candy dish and the wooden bowl that my dad made. Check out the photo of that happy little boy in the back. It's Mike! His grandmother took that photo.

But I found a "place for everything" for now, even when the room is in use. That feels pretty good. And that giant box of quilt batting in the corner is holding the spot for my washer and dryer someday. Ahem.

Speaking of the washer. Handy Husband fixed it, so I better get to it on making a molehill out of a laundry mountain. Nothing like having an exciting project lined up for the weekend ;-)

There are Things

There is almost nothing happening here, but cold temps, a lot of dog hair vacuuming (with my new-to-me vac from my folks which does appear to be doing a better job than my old one even if it is duct taped in one spot and isn't a Dyson. ahem.) and some generalized aimlessness involving putting together a glow-in-the-dark puzzle of a dragon that we've been working on for a year now. (By which I mean that we've had it for a year half put together and have just begun working on it again in a rather unproductive and addictive sort of way). We have also managed to break the shocks on our washing machine. Who knew they had shocks? Not I, for certain. But now I have a legitimate excuse for the gigantic pile of wash-needing-to-be-done in the basement. The sun is out today, in spite of the frigid temps, and I need to take full advantage of the energy it gives me and tackle the wreck that is my kitchen. Oh, how I DO hate dishes. I have rather been wasting time at this blog fussing over the look of it which I find satisfying if I am happy with the results and currently find HUGELY tedious because I don't like any of the limited pics I have been taking lately and am feeling creatively PLFFTH, if you know what I mean. If you're bored (because clearly there is nothing else to read on the internet other than what I have to say), I have begun three little blogs for the crazy stuff that comes out of my kids' mouths: Doodle Says, Pip Says, and Birdie Says. They shall be updated whenever I manage to and none of it will be as amusing as ACTUALLY hearing them say it (especially Birdie with her Lucille Ball expressions). So far Doodle has been less inspiring. I suppose that comes of his going on eightishness. I have missed all the really good stuff that comes out unedited from the younger set and now all the funny stuff is about farts. Still, I'm sure he'll have some gems from time to time. Hopefully, I can keep my fingers warm enough to type them out.