turning old into new

Today we took all the old broken crayons and made them into new shiny stars for little one's birthday goodie bags. Also, we made a new soft friend from an old work shirt today. We call him the Purple Pirate. We topped it off with a trip to the ice cream store. Not bad for a Sunday afternoon.
Let me leave you with my very favorite Etsy shop. Sarah Jane rocks.

a robin, a clydesdale, and an embroidery hoop

Every day at 1:40pm, a little fat robin comes to the window in our playroom. I named him Christopher. I'm still trying to take his picture, but he is very quick! Spring is cool.

Wednesday, my new friend and I went to lunch with little one, which turned into a walk, which turned into hanging out in the backyard, drinking iced tea and watching little one pick dandylions. It was just such a blast to hang out with someone so smart and funny and well...genuine. I am so glad I met her.

We tried more kid art too. Little one did her first emboidery project on burlap ala The Creative Family. Soule Mama does it again. I wasn't sure how it was going to go, but after showing little one how it works, she sewed away happily for like 45 minutes! I embroidered a few napkins while she sewed. At one point, I looked over at her with her little hoop then down at my own hoop, and thought, Wow. This is really cool. She keeps asking to play "sewing" again. How can I refuse?


Oh, and one more for the Random What-A-Cool-Town-I-Live-In File. Yesterday, realizing we were low on milk, little one and I trekked to the grocery store (where I got to use my new eco-bag for the first time.) Anyway, as we are walking up, we see a group of people clustering around something...It was a huge Clydesdale! Enormous feathery legs and all! His name was Rudy. Not something we expected to see, for sure! Now little one is wondering why all the other barnyard animals don't come visit the grocery store. (I don't want to explain that they are shrink wrapped inside, just yet.) She loved seeing the horse and is talking now about riding one -- but not one as big as Rudy. Maybe one the size of our 20 lb dog.

Please pass the bread.

Today, little one and I went to our local grocery store to pick up all of their day-old bakery products for FoodLink in our area. It was our first time doing this, so really, I had no idea what to expect. We picked up three shopping carts full of products -- loaves of bread, buns, muffins, cheesecakes, pies...the list goes on and on. It was staggering how much was there. Had we not picked it up, it would have been thrown in the dumpster. I just assumend that since there was so much, they had been saving it for us for a few days. Not so. They throw away this much food every day. Every day? I couldn't believe it. Since we have been on a bread baking kick lately, we know just how much work we were talking about here. What a waste of effort. Then there is the still more important side. People are hungry. There was all this food that can help and we got to make that food availible to the people who needed it. I left there feeling like I really made a small difference today. A perfect lesson in life for little one.

In that same spirit of making a small difference, I just finished my first eco-bag. I used an idea from this book for the decorations.

The picture doesn't really show the snazzy yellow stitching around and through the shapes, but it really makes the bag, so I thought I'd mention it to you. (The green beads behind the bag are little one's addition to the picture. She wanted more color.) I'm pretty proud and will definitely carry it with me to stores. I think that I'm going to make another one that I can just wad up and cram in my car for all the kid fallout that seems to collect there. Maybe oil-cloth, so that I can just wipe off the gross that is inevitable. All in all, not bad for a friday, don't you agree?

Lulu's Bedtime Story as read by little one

Miss Muffin sat on a stool with cereal. A spider came down. She fell down. The spider ate the cereal.

fin.

What a Day!

Today was one of those fabulous days full of happy moments that make you sigh and say all is right with the world. The little one and I went to story time at the library. After several fun songs, stories, dances with friends, mosaic fish glue projects and a somewhat cranky puppet show with disgruntled puppets, we headed off to an impromptu lunch with our friends. With bellies full of crab soup and grilled cheese, we all tromped off to the park and ran around like crazy people (kids and moms!) for a while. Little one looked up at me, smiled and said, "I need a nap." Me too, kid. So we wondered off home and now instead of napping, I'm typing, and little one is on chorus 57 of the "I'm Naked" song. (Today it is just a song -- I checked. Yesterday it was a statement of fact.) I love today.




Wait! Two more thoughts before you go... I am so excited to find that Mom in Madison teaches us how to make our own butter! We are SO trying that after nap time. And second...(insert fanfare here) my copy of The Creative Family shipped today! Did I mention that I love today?

I am here

Nothing like the prospect of fun things in the mail to get me motivated. I was looking on the web today at some fabulous swaps and the common theme among them is that you have to have a blog so that your fellow swappers can get to know you a bit better. Well ok! Count me in. I guess it's fitting that my first post ever is on April Fool's Day. Hmmm...where to start? Maybe a photo?

A little sheep I made for my little one's birthday last year.

So, I have been listening to Brenda Dayne's "Cast On" podcast and one of her recent podcasts was about starting as you mean to go on. That resonated with me, so I'm trying to do that here. I'll update at least 2 times a week and will add at least one picture a week. That's the plan. Wish me luck.