good people

One silver lining of having a special needs kid, that I have talked about before, is that you get to meet some very cool people. People that will restore your faith in humanity. Sam was Layna’s developmental specialist. Basically, that meant that she helped us navigate the Early Intervention program that the state offers and she did super helpful stuff like scheduling appointments and getting us evaluations. And we got to hang out with her a few times a month for most of Layna’s life. We are very sad that she is moving soon (soon, like I have orders to have this baby ASAP so Sam can meet her) but happy for her new adventure in a much cooler city than Vegas.

When Sam came over for our first visit, I didn’t know what to expect but it wasn’t her. I guess I was figuring someone older, portly (in a comforting sort of a way) with orthopedic shoes maybe. Nope. Spiky high heels, tattoos that my kids still enjoy looking at, and maybe a piercing or two. At visits we talked about Layna and books and her kick boxing class and I remember thinking it was so cool that not only did she work with kids but that she was awesome with kids and she still maintained a very definite sense of self that did not conform to a stereotypical case worker. I am sure she may not have been every parent’s cup of tea, but she was mine and Miss Sam will be very much missed at our house.

 

Sam’s little girl turned one a few days ago and we went to her birthday party today. Hooray for another excuse to make a cute stuffed owl! Pretty much the owl was for Sam, but I figure that baby girl will be well trained on the finer points of owls and will come to love them as much as her mother. Besides she is the first grand baby on all sides and the only one coming for a while so she has everything a baby could ever want. Well…now she has everything.

crochet hooks and human nature

I didn’t think I’d missed crocheting. I did and it was therapeutic to make little little girl’s beanie for her Halloween costume. And I know that now you won’t pay attention until I show you pictures. No worries, I’d be wondering about what that much cuteness would look like too.

 

 

She wouldn’t smile unless her head was tipped back and these three pictures are from 57ish that I took. And one of them is an action shot I snapped right before she decided the frog eyes were just begging to be slobbered on. Gone are the days of my still baby model.

Her older siblings are both going to be tyrannosaurus’ from the show Dinosaur Train (much more on that later). And this meant that she could be a palaeobatrachus…a prehistoric frog. YES! I love everything about this idea. I found the pattern here and it was really easy. I think I get now why it felt good to crochet again. It might be the same reason why my dad re-builds army jeeps and why my friend loves to cook and bake. Or why my other friends are crafty. Many other people have had this conversation with much more eloquent words than I have, but here is what really hit me. As human beings we need to touch our world and affect our own reality in a physical way. It’s about creating and following a pattern or a plan and ending up with something that was worth it. Something beautiful. Something that wasn’t there before. Humans are tactile and sensual creatures, especially in this day and age. But like I said…not a new idea. Here’s what hit me: why don’t we allow kids to follow that same instinct? Why don’t we give them real tools to create real things that have real meaning? I think about what most kids are “allowed” to do, and after enough time given the same treatment I’d be pissed off and disenchanted too. We give them cheap knock-off imitations and don’t even let them use those how they want to. Adults set the rules and the parameters. Is it any wonder we have a rising generation that doesn’t seem engaged with their world and so they get buried in a mirage-like virtual world? What would happen if more kids were given both the tools and time to follow their own passion? sigh. [climbs off soap box] Anyways. Christmas might be a bit different at our house this year because of this little epiphany of mine.

Here are a few other projects that have catered to this basic human need I momentarily forgot about.

 

Naomi needed a car pillow for our car trip. I let her dive into my material bin and she pulled out “Barbie goes to India,” which is fine because what else would I have done with that? A few seams and strategically placed strips of velcro and she could nap in the car. Score one for everyone.

 

You can have a fine debate party without these. You can have perfectly lovely Fall even. But why waste such wonderful excuses? Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and Kale Artichoke dip (I didn’t have spinach).

 

This is one of the best salads. EVER. I am something of a connoisseur when it comes to salads and this is pretty much brilliance on a plate. You roast thick slices of sweet potato until they turn into a healthy verison of a roasted marshmellow. Then you top it (still warm) with a simple cold salad of chopped celery, craisens, feta and red onions that was tossed with olive oil, red wine vinegar and salt/pepper. Thats it. It has every taste experience you could want in an awesome balancing act for your mouth. Please try it. This kind of goodness should be enjoyed by everyone. And though I do make it year round, it tastes better in the fall.

Take that, Pintrest!

I don’t have anything against Pinterest. I just think that women everywhere are creative enough to solve their own problems projects and I take pride in knowing that these (albeit simple and non-fancy) came out of my own head. And perhaps my reluctance to jump on the Pinterest bandwagon is less snobbiness and more a foreboding that if I start I will not stop and 3 kids, 3 goats, 2 cats, and one Husband guy might not eat or have clean clothes (well not the goats and the cats) for the next…well…forever. Dang you crafty people and your pins!

This was going to be a lot more involved than just cutting them off at the rips, I promise. But then the Huckleberry Finn look started to grow on me. And lest you be concerned, this is the least of all the projects. It isn’t really even a project… I just like my handsome boy and how happy he was to have his pants back.

Take this. Add one onsie, exactely two seams, and a camera loving model and you get this:

 

(Please note the dainty, princess-like holding of the dress. Thank you.)

At the fabric store the kids were running their hands over the crazy soft blanket material. Garyn saw red and begged for a new blanket. It wasn’t until he found T-Rex’s saying “Raaaahhh!” that I gave in an made him a blanket. He is really easy to please and I had been making a lot of stuff for the girls and the house. It kind of was his turn. And it is his two favorite things in the whole world. So there you have it.

Last but not least (and not finished) is the rug I’m chrocheting for the kitchen. My mom made these years ago and I love how it looks and feels. It is all the colors in my kitchen and its nice to have a crochet project in which lots of progress can be made in very little time.

Seperate they are kind of weird fabric patterns (I do love the one on the right) but ripped up and crocheted with some solid colors and it looks like this:

 

Ok so I didn’t make this one. But I was the mastermind behind it. Kind of. I saw something like this on a website called Ana-white. I told Neil about it and we had an old pallet sitting in the yard. So salvage some wood, use cut up Ikea shelf planks for the bottom, throw on some nifty brass casters and…

a very cool aged looking crate on wheels to store bags of cat food and litter. Naomi can take care of feeding the cats easily (one of her jobs) and I don’t have ugly bags on my kitchen floor anymore. Hooray!

As a side note: I kind of think it’s funny that the two things most in fashion right now are super-ultra-modern-clean-and-new looking or aged-beatup-vintage-weathered-old fashioned. Not a whole lot in between. Well heres to old repurposed to new in order to look old!

for their princess…

Best Friends deserve capital letters for a lot of different reasons. One of the absolute most imporant reasons is because they give you an object for gifting. I decided that I love amigurumi but my kids have too many stuffed animals / little things lying around filling our play room, cute or not. Enter Best Friend and her princess. Her 3 sons put in a request for a priness a while ago and now one is coming in December. Every princess needs a pink and brown owl. Why? because she is a princess and has everything else, silly.

Thanks Best Friend (and Best Friend’s Husband) for letting me make your baby stuff.

it’s official!

October 1st has passed which means that I can justify decorating my house for Halloween. This in turn means that my house will be totally decorated for the next 3 months solid. This of course implies that the holidays are here, ushered in with my favorite season of all time. It’s official. And that all totally made sense in my head, sorry if it didn’t translate too well.

Here is my latest Halloween / amigurumi adventure. I really need non-breakable decorations and I saw the pattern for the cat on Lion Brand Yarn. Loved it and figured I could tweak it to get a ghost and a goblin. After looking around a few more seconds I found the pumpkin and the candy corn and my set was complete.

To display them, I painted some wooden clothes pins and just pinned them on a ribbon on our front room wall. Decorations and toys all at once. [big smile].

pink elephants on parade

So my husband taught me to crochet and I go in and out of being “hooked” on it. get it? hooked? whatever, you totally smiled. He is also the one who introduced me to the fascinating world of anime. Combine the two and you get amigurumi! yes the art of crocheting custsy little everythings, from fruit to hobbits to storm troopers to frogs. Not that I’ve been brave enough to try the storm troopers (yet). Here is my second attempt at a cute baby present. The first attempt hasn’t been given and I don’t want to spoil the suprise. This one though was a gift for my newest (and only) niece (on my side) Clara Jane Adelaide Jayne, who has finally decided to grace us with her presence. And what sweet presence she is too…yay for little baby girls!