Snow day. . . and another. . . and another. . .

So we had a snow day on Saturday. With rain and ice and no travel advised. So I worked on a few projects. . .


First, I had this elephant thermal laying around (do you see my elephant theme??) so I decided to make a jumper. The fabric was really really stretchy so it got a little baggy around the neck. Otherwise it was pretty easy (again-- no pattern), but I'm definitely not a professional seamstress :)


So I left the sewing machine and made a yummy batch of soft ginger cookies. They are the only cookies I make (once or twice a year) and yes, I do follow the recipe. I ate one. Sadie ate one. The others magically disappeared :) I guess they were good!

Then I went back to the sewing machine to see if I'd have better luck with a tutu. I didn't. First, it was too small (way too small) and Kaleif interpreted my trying to squeeze Sadie in the tutu as torture. So I ripped a few seams and she fit! Second, it just didn't fluff as a good tutu should. I don't know what I did, but she still had fun with it. Maybe next time I'll try it with directions :)

So for the "and another. . . and another. . ." School was cancelled today and is two hours late tomorrow due to blizzard conditions. No school means no daycare! But unlike Saturday, today was not productive. . . And now, at 7 pm, I'm still wearing my pajamas :)

The Ivy Twines

So my sisters, one of Bethany's good friends, and I are starting a review/giveaway blog. To be perfectly honest, I haven't done any work on it yet. . . Bethany has been very very busy, and we posted our first giveaway (beautiful jewelry) today! The focus is pretty feminine so far (sorry to my male readers. . . actually you probably don't exist) but is NOT limited mom and baby items. And who knows, maybe when we get going, we'll find some man stuff too! And men, we definitely have some nice gifts for your ladies :)


So please check out the blog at theivytwines.blogspot.com. Hope to see you there!

Beautiful quilts and lasting memories. . .

Just last weekend, I was enjoying myself at Ant Camp, a gathering of my mom, her six sisters, their families, their families' families and a few lucky friends. This year was the tenth anniversary of the event and more than sixty people were at the lodge during the weekend. Here's one of the group pictures. . . the best one of me (sorry everybody) which I now realize doesn't matter much because you probably can't even see any of the faces.

It was a wonderful weekend! Sadie and the other kids got a visit from Santa. . .

and Sadie rode in a box. She really had a lot of fun in that box, no matter what it looks like in this picture. I swear.

When the kiddies were asleep, the adults also had a grand time. I think we're all thankful that the cameras were put away by then! We told stories, we laughed, I recruited members for a band, we laughed, we played games, we laughed. . . well you get it. I think my cousin put it best when she said, "You can't choose your family, but I would!"

.

I started a quilt at camp. I spent about half the time with the seam ripper and almost threw the sewing machine out the window at least five times. When I realized how angry the quilt was making me and how much fun I was missing out on (I HATE missing the fun!), I gave up. Temporarily. Last night, I finished it! Now, I wouldn't call my quilt "beautiful", but it's done.

If you're wondering why my quilt pattern is so simple and boring, there are two reasons:

.

1. I am not very patient. Those complicated (and so pretty) quilts are just so overwhelming to me!

.

2. I hate following patterns and directions. So I created this pattern myself :)

.

I really can't wait for Ant Camp 2011. Just 51 more weeks!

Look out!

Boy, I had quite the scare at daycare today. I had to run to the kitchen to get our gourmet lunch of chicken nuggets and fries in the oven, leaving three oneish year olds and three twoish year olds to play by themselves for a mere two minutes. Just as I was closing the oven door, the screaming began. The cries the three babies followed. The two year old boy sounded seriously injured. I ran. Literally. I think I closed the oven door, though I'm not sure. I just needed to get back to that room as fast as I could. I don't even know what was going through my mind. . . then I saw him. Are you ok? I looked for blood. . . no blood. Missing limbs? Nope. He continued to scream for "MOMMY! AAAHHHH! MOMMY!" The babies stopped crying. He continued. What happened? What's wrong? I turned to another two year old who shrugged her shoulders. He continued screaming. And screaming. I looked for blood again. None. I turned to the other two year old, who just pointed. And I saw it. . .
.
The Roomba. My mom's fancy new robot vacuum cleaner, terrorizing young children who cross its path. So I turned it off and put it back on the base. He continued to cry for at least a few more minutes. I bet he'll keep his hands off that robot from now on. At least he won't touch the "on" button.

Something. . .

Wow! My sisters (minus one-- miss you Bethany!), my mom, and I went to the American English show at the Fargo Theatre tonight. They are an amazing Beatles tribute band and we had a blast!

In fact, I took about twenty videos on my cell phone during the concert and couldn't use most of them because of my obnoxiously loud singing. Which just didn't seem so obnoxious at the time, but is now really embarrassing. Notice the absence of singing in the following video :) I know you can't see the picture very well, but it's the music the matters. Now, I present to you, Doug (as George) playing the guitar solo in my very favorite Beatles song, Something.

The band was even nice enough to take a picture with us (The three sisters!) after the show. And they were especially kind to take a couple more pictures with us (Look! The sisters are back!) when I begged the others to go back inside because I wasn't happy with this one. I look like a short grandpa. Unfortunately, the pictures from the second photo shoot were accidentally deleted and my sisters refused to go back for a third try. I promise, I don't look like a short grandpa in person. Most of the time.

So I highly recommend checking out American English if they come to a town near you. Beatles fans are guaranteed to have a great time. I would definitely go again (Bethany, you're coming next time too!)

Ok, here's another clip from the show. There's nothing wrong with a little embarrassing singing among friends, right?? Honestly, I can hear my sisters' voices too-- I swear it's not just me being so loud :)

And now for room #2!

Our bedroom is finished! Actually, it's been finished for awhile, it has just taken me a couple weeks to take the pictures. So to start with, here are a few before pictures. . .

And here is the finished (almost) room! I was going for a 360 degree tour. . .

So I'm sure you can tell by the pictures that our bedroom is tiny. There is room to walk around the bed, but that's about it. You're probably wondering, then, why I would choose to put a couch in the single free corner of the room. Well, I bought it for a dollar at an auction. And I just love the color and character of it. And it didn't really fit anywhere else in the house. And my husband had to break the legs off to fit it up the stairs, drag it up the stairs by himself, and then rebuild the legs. So I thought he would kill me if I said, "I don't think it really fits in here after all. . ." Really, even though the room is small, it doesn't feel cramped or crowded.

.

The couch was the first killer deal. The second was the headboard that I made. For some reason, it looks kind of lumpy in the pictures. That's not really how it looks. Anyway, I've seen people make headboards on home improvement shows, so I decided to take a stab at it. Kaleif cut the plywood. I made the measurements-- I think they were something like "two inches less than four and a half feet by a little bit more than two feet." And somehow he figured that out :) So I took my piece of plywood, spread cluster stuffing over the top of it, then pulled the fabric tight and stapled it around the edges. I also made the buttons. . . out of a quarter, some stuffing, the headboard fabric, and super glue. The project was SUPER easy. I think it took me about a half-hour.

The third killer deal were the pictures that hang above the dollar couch. I took these pictures of the floors in Sadie's room before I painted them, bought $2 frames at Ikea, and cut the mats with my trusty mat-cutting kit!

So the room is small and pretty simple, but I LOVE it! Again, I'm missing the curtains. . . still looking :)

And the moldy food. . .

Last night, I decided to make grilled ham and swiss sandwiches and homemade cream of tomato soup for supper. I started the soup and opened the fridge to grab the cream. . . I could smell it before I even took it out. Sour. Very sour. So Kaleif ran to the store to get some cream and I started the sandwiches. I opened the ham. It was pale, almost skin colored (gross, I know). So I changed my plan: turkey and swiss. And I opened the turkey. Slimy. Ok. . . how about grilled cheese? I made a couple sandwiches and stuck them on the sandwich maker. And then I grabbed the bread for the third sandwich and discovered the mold. All over the bottom of the loaf. Hmmmm. . . . I threw the ones that were already done and thought for a minute. . . maybe I should just give up. This cooking thing isn't really working tonight. But I powered through. And we ended up with cream of tomato soup and cheese quesadillas instead :) Now you're probably wondering how a responsible twenty-six year old mother ends up with a fridge FULL of rotten food. . . I can explain. We've spent the last GLORIOUS week at my parents house enjoying some good family time. And even though we only live five blocks away, it was hard to even leave for an hour.

The girls looked for Santa. . .

and opened presents!

Sadie took her first step!

We got snowed in (almost two feet of snow!). . .

and then had a blast playing in it!

We spent some time warming up in the pool.

And we played!

This last picture is my niece Reese MacKenzie. Isn't she just gorgeous?!?!?!?

So that's it. The reason I had so much moldy food in my fridge and the reason my ham and swiss sandwich and tomato soup meal failed miserably. But it was so worth it. We had a blast! I already miss you, sisters!!