This saturday was our community yard sale. Basically, everyone puts out their stuff if they feel like it and there’s a communal sharing of junk. It’s a GREAT time for the kids to take their money jars and go out scouting for a new toy or two. They both totally scored.

I saw this one, and if Jocelyn hadn’t wanted it, well, let’s just say it was coming home one way or another. SO CUTE!!

strawberry shortcake house

I love this, I love this, I LOVE THIS! I remember being super jealous of my best friend neighbor Heidi, who had just about every strawberry shortcake doll that was out at the time. I LOVE that they’ve started putting these dolls out again. Jocelyn has a Strawberry (with a scooter, and the kitty, Custard) and a Blueberry, both of whom have lost their clothes and whose hair is all tangley. Strawberry was MIA, but Blueberry has been having a fine, naked time in her new house. I must say, best $2 every spent!

Our $2 new acquisition did however, cost us more money than that, because by Sunday, I had decided we needed, nay MUST HAVE AT THIS MOMENT, more strawberry shortcake dolls in the house. I got a Crepes Suzette doll for Jocelyn, and a Lemon Meringue doll for me. I have just 2 things to say: These little gals certainly are pricey, at $8.99 each. Secondly, I love that they are actually GIRLS. Not women with inhuman measurements, not girls trying to look like women, not… (dare I say it? I probably shouldn’t say it, oh hell I’ll just say it) dolls who look more like WHORES dressed like they are trying to make a buck or two on a Saturday night. I am happy to spend some money on Strawberry Shortcake and try to direct any obsessions in the making in that direction rather than Princess Disney, Bratz, Barbie, or whatever other skanky ho doll comes around. (And yes, she has already barbies, disney princesses, and bratz, and I also had barbies galore.. they’re not banned in this household, I am just more than happy to point my innocent 4 year old in a more girl-like direction.)

Ethan also lucked out, I just am not as effervescent about his purchases, because they don’t hold childhood nostalgia for me. He picked up a pretty nifty helicopter, which has a hook on the bottom, and a cool propeller that spins, as well as a firetruck that does a variety of things that I can’t quite follow, despite his showing me time after time.

James came home with a borrowed Canon 70-200 f4 IS L lens (which for the non-photography knowledgeable, DROOOOOOOOL! We’re talking over a grand on this baby.) So, the kids and I set up a little photo shoot. I need to build a light box!

The lens was very nice, but I’m still quite happy with our lens, the Sigma 50-150 f2.8. No image stabilizer, but it’s a bit faster which should even out. I think the Canon is a hair nicer with the IS and the longer zoom then ours, but I feel no need to lament our choice. The Sigma was a little more than half the cost of the Canon, it’s a great lens, especially to our very amateur eyes!

This is old news now, but better late than never! Labor day weekend, with much trepidation all around, we took the training wheels off of Ethan’s bike. It looked like he wasn’t getting it, when all of a sudden, it clicked. He got it.

And I filmed it! Here is Ethan riding his bike sans training wheels. As you can see, he’s was still working on the whole braking aspect. (This video has no sound, do not adjust your set.)

The part where he came up and is talking and grinning, he’s basically saying, “Gee, I need to work on how to use the brakes! Brakes, Ethan, Brakes! Doy-eee!”

James and I met with Ethan’s teacher, and also one of a school counselor, and I feel a lot better. I think we are seeing a lot of improvement, and the day in question was just a tough day. He has gotten greens all week (since then) and yesterday he even went through the entire day w/out getting his panther taken away (yay!)

Jocelyn wasn’t feeling well yesterday morning. I took her temperature which was normal, and was coughing it up to a case of the grumpies, when she threw up. I was not in the room and I have a feeling it was more like a “spit up” situation than throw up, but I couldn’t in good conscious send her in after that, so she stayed home and I tried to work anyway.

Ethan was very grumpy at having to go to school when his sister got to stay home, so I promised I’d pick him up at school (instead of going to daycare afterward). Jocelyn and I brought their money jars, which had several weeks allowances socked away in them, and after we picked him up from school, we went to target – me, to forward my obsession with finding the perfect new dishes to buy, and them, to while away the time pointing to something that costs $80, and asking me, “Do I have enough money for that?” before settling on something they actually can afford.

I have NO IDEA why (ok maybe a little idea why), or even HOW Jocelyn spotted this, but she choose a fake hair extension. A bright PINK hair extension.

I had no idea how this fake hair is supposed to be applied, but I treated it like a very awkward pony tail elastic and muddled through anyway.

Ethan chose a light saber.

It does not have any batteries, and so doesn’t make any sounds, but that just means he gets to make the sounds himself.

He choose red, despite my pointing out that that’s the bad guys color, but he insisted (red being his favorite color).

Yes, these are taken still at Target, because Ethan had his toy open the SECOND the cashier rang it up and handed it to him, and Jocelyn insisted on getting her pink hair on.

And yes. I let her wear a tutu to target. I don’t usually allow dress up clothes outside the house, but for some reason I let her. Maybe because she’s getting to big to get away with this much longer.. might as well let her do it now while she can! (I’d like to go to Target in a tutu! Am I too big?)

After they picked out their toys, I made the mistake of walking them through the halloween section, where they decided to be NEW characters for halloween instead of the same characters as last year. DOH! Jocelyn decided she wants to be a witch (though this actually would be easy to do at home, and actually, I think I may have turned her towards COWGIRL, which I would love to make for her again) and Ethan wants to be Darth Vader. (“I already have the light sabre for it!”)

Of course, there was much moaning and groaning when I dragged them through housewares. The dishes were a bust. Although I really like this pattern, but I don’t like the shape of the dishes at all. Too traditional.

These are made by Corelle. I like a -lot- of the Corelle patterns, but finally ruled the brand out completely. No matter the pattern, the bowls only have a colored stripe around the rim. I want my bowls to look pretty too! So no Corelle.

These ones I liked too, but were on clearance and didn’t have everything available.

I especially like how I could buy them all separately, because we don’t use mugs, and invariably when we purches the 16 piece place settings for 4.. we have shelves of mugs we never use. And if we’re REALLY unlucky… saucers too. Blech.

All this culminated in a huge internet dish-hunt last night (interrupted by Jocelyn REPEATEDLY getting out of bed, long past her bedtime grrr) which if you’re curious, you can see on flickr. However, I just have to say that I LOVE THESE DISHES SO MUCH:

And look! No mugs! Sadly, they break all my rules of what my new dishes must entail (no melamine being the first rule, I’m sorry melamine, but we NEED to be able to microwave our dishes, and you don’t let us! At least, not w/out experiencing 3rd degree burns.[1. Melamine material heats up much faster than normal, so if you put something on a melamine plate and nuke it, your food may still be cold, but the plate will burn you when you go to pull it out! It’s too bad, because I love melamine.]), but if they ever show up in target stores, they may find their way home ANYWAY.)

Here is my #1 favorite right now, and they’re on sale, so I could get 12 place settings for cheap! However, since they’re on sale …. there are no serving dishes available in this pattern. Doh. So now I’m wondering if I should go with some other pattern that I can also get platters and serving bowls in? Our kitchen is always kind of woefully unequipped when it comes to serving dishes (even serving utensils) so I’m thinking yes, I should – especially when the “runners up” so to speak are also super awesome.

My #1 favorite: Mikasa Autumn Frost

Runner up: Mikasa Red Berries

I love the red berries, but I would prefer a squarish plate. This might be a deal breaker for me. This pattern however, has a CRAZY amount of serving dish choices, so I have to consider it:

Another runner up: Mikasa Wispy Floral

Isn’t it pretty?? I really do like this one a lot. Some serving dishes, but not many. This is probably my #2 choice after Autumn Frost.

I have found it amusing how my aesthetic runs from super simple, minimal design and clean lines (all these mikasa patterns for example) and the crazy psychodelic patterns with super saturated colors (the choices above from Target). I’m not going to think about what that says about me as a person. Something we don’t need to pick at, right?

I’m definitely not going to rush this, as even if these choices go away… well, there’s sure to be some more awesome patterns out soon.

– amy spent the night dreaming of dishes, and getting clawed by a kitty

Last week was the first week of actual public school elementary school for Ethan, and wow was I nervous. Probably way more nervous than he was. SO RELIEVED was I, when I picked him up and he nearly SHOUTED, “I HAD A GREAT DAY! I LOVE FIRST GRADE!!! I’M FINALLY A FIRST GRADER!!”

He seems to have done OK behavior-wise as well. The school has a color system of behavior – green if you’ve had a good day, white if you haven’t had a good day, purple if you’ve had an EXCELLENT day. In his classroom, they have laminated paper panthers on their desks, and if you’re misbehaving, you get the panther taken away, but if you shape up, then you get it back and can end the day on a green.

Last week he had greens all week, but on closer interrogations, we learned that he did have his panther taken away each day. We were happy with him turning it around though, since that can be a problem for him. Sometimes once he loses his cool, he can’t get that control back. It’s like he MUST act on every impulse he has.

He missed school on Friday, a decision James and I were pretty sketchy about, but we had a memorial service for James’ grandparents in upstate New York, and since we hardly EVER see James’ side of the family, we decided it was important enough for him to miss a day in his first week. (Last year, I think Ethan missed 3 days, TOTAL out of the entire school year, so it’s not like this isn’t going to be a habit.)

Well, today, Ethan had a pretty rough day. I guess I’m not surprised, it being the Monday after a 3 day weekend with most of it spent cooped up in the car. There was an assembly with the whole school, and he couldn’t control himself, after being reminded/told multiple times. We got a note from his teacher detailing what had happened, and even when James picked him and Jocelyn up at daycare, he had gotten into trouble there as well.

Ethan and Jocelyn had t-ball practice, and James let Ethan know EXACTLY what was expected of him, and what would happen if he did not meet those expectations (pay attention, no playing in the dirt, listen and obey, etc.) and I have to say, when I got to practice, Ethan was playing better than I’d ever seen him! He was watching when kids were up to bat, following the ball with his eyes, staying on top of things — he is usually kind of off in his own world, fidding around with the dirt/grass, clowning around, and not following what the action was. He had a few spots here and there, but overall, he did well.

I think there are a few factors going on in his behavior. I had detailed my thoughts on this before but I think there’s more to it. I’ve noticed that he doesn’t hang around the kids at the bus stop except for the neighbors he’s good friends with. There’s even another boy that is in his class that has tried to make friends with Ethan, but he hid behind me, or otherwise wouldn’t talk to him.

During the kindergarten year, he complained about the “work” they had to do in kindergarten, but was never totally resistant to it. But over the summer, when we had to do his summer reading assignment (read 5 books, draw a picture from each one, and write a sentence about what the picture is) he was COMPLETELY resistant. It was like pulling teeth to get this done. He didn’t mind the reading, he didn’t mind the drawing (although he complained plenty) it was the writing he didn’t want to do. You’d think we were asking him to gouge out his eyeballs with a shrimp fork, I swear. Once he finally would sit down and do it, he was fine.

In both of these cases, I think his self esteem is injured. About a year ago, he started playing with some of the older neighborhood boys. He is not shy, and he probably just jumped straight in w/out really knowing what they were playing or what the rules of their game were (it was something with water guns, I think) I was inside, just checking on him out the window now and then, when the he came storming in, saying they were mean and he wasn’t playing with them anymore. A minute later the doorbell rang and one of the boys was there to tattle on something Ethan had done. Ethan immediately totally lost his shit and started bawling — now remember, this was a kindergartener being tattled on by a 1st or 2nd grader.

I wish I could have redone that moment. I said soemthing to make the kid go away, and then tried to comfort/get the full story from Ethan. But he was inconsolable, only saying he would never play with those boys again. I let it go, thinking it would all be forgotten in a week or so, but I think that that incident is still with Ethan today. I think he is unsure of himself in terms of making new friends, and I think that something may have happened to make him think he is bad at writing, which makes him not want to try, not be excited about it.

What should I have done? Taken Ethan out and tried to get them to get past whatever it was Ethan had done to upset them. Showed Ethan how to approach someone else’s game with some respect, instead of jumping right in and changing the rules around. Helped the older kids to give him a bit of allowance, since he was younger than them. Helped them both talk to each other with friendliness. Not sure that would have worked, but I wish I had tried.

James and I are meeting with Ethan’s teacher tomorrow, and I would like to talk to one of the school’s counselor’s as well to see if they have any ideas. I’ve also ordered some kid books from Amazon on making friends.

Mostly, I am worried about Ethan’s self esteem and psyche. It’s hard not to harp on the bad behavior when you want so desperately for him to shape up but that is only going to damage his self esteem more. Obviously we’re not going to ignore it, either. We’re going to stick with our sticker chart and maybe start doing some more immediate rewards for good days (maybe a few pokemon cards) to emphasize the good behavior.

I said to James, “I’ve decided being a mommy is too hard. I’d like to have my heart back inside my body please. It’s getting pummeled out there.”

It is hard, but I was kidding of course. It’s worth it. It just sucks not quite knowing what to do to help your child be productive.

-amy

I have no idea why, but the first time I saw the Mercenaries 2 ad on TV, I was just so tickled. Guy taking names and kicking ass while this happy go lucky song with bouncy piano accompaniament narrates in the background. It’s a skippy happy joy joy song! Except it’s about blowing shit the hell up! Something about the juxtaposition of the music and the violence of the ad just kills me. I’m obsessing over it to the point of writing down all the lyrics downloading the song to my computer/ipod/iphone so I can play it over and over and watch/sing along to my heart’s content. The part that totally gets me? The high note that the male singer goes into falsetto to hit at the end of every verse. I just LOVE IT!

Am I crazy? You be the judge!

Here is the ad as it plays on the TV:

And here is a behind the scenes, “making of” video which uses the full version of the song:

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go see if I can plunk this piano accompaniament out on the piano.

-amy

Lyrics (transcribed by yours truly)(after the break):
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Well, that was a quick sewing goal accomplished! The bag went very quickly with only 1 place where I had to stop and scratch my head. (Not doing the patchwork = EASY bag!) I think it took maybe 4 hours to sew all together, including cutting out.

I was going to wait until I could take prettier pictures of it, but oh well. iPhone photos below! Once again, the pattern can be purchased here.

I used the material I had left over from Jocelyn’s sundress. I did buy a new walking foot for my machine, and I must say, I wish I had bought one of these things YEARS ago. Sewing machines have this jagged little thingee that comes up from the bottom and “feeds” the material through — called the feed dog. If you have several layers however, the feed dog only pushes the bottom through and the top layer can go through at a slower speed than the bottom layer causing some wonkiness. A walking foot feeds the top side of the material through so there’s no wonkiness. This will be VERY handy on the satin binding of the baby blankets I make from time to time!

The only real question I had was the bias tape binding for the top edging and handle. The pattern calls for 1″ double folded bias tape. First of all, the tape I was looking at didn’t come in 1″ wide, only 7/8″ wide. And second of all, it looked much too wide. But, I bought some anyway and took it home. When it came to the binding/handles/tape part though, I still wasn’t quite sure. I had some 1/2″ tape on hand so I used that, which looked VERY nice. When I was pinning it on for the handles, it struck me that it would make very flimsy handles/straps. So I ended up taking the 7/8″ bias tape and folding it over – this made for a VERY thick binding/straps (my machine complained a little) but the end result is very satisfactory – nice thick handles to hang on to.

I love this bag SO much. I think it would be especially cute to do a little hand quilting on it – outline a flower or two, maybe sew on a few beads. That’s the kind of time-consuming hand work that I am not good at finishing though, so I doubt it will happen.

I definitely think I’ll be making another one of these. Or two. Or three!

-amy

Jocelyn pooped in her bed in the night.

As you can imagine, there was quite a mess in the morning. Luckily, it stayed on the lower half of the bed (no poop-hair or face, thankfully).

I got her showered and bathed off, and her sheets soaking in the toilet (think crusty) and the rest of her stuff into the washer. The stench in her room was awful. Opened the window and turned on the fan. I hope it’s gone by the time we get home.

The smell in my nostrils still remains. I keep lifting my hands up to my face and inhaling just to make sure I don’t smell like poop. I don’t.

But the memory is still haunting me.

-amy

Not a quilt for a baby, but a quilt made out of baby clothes.

Although actually, it’s more like made out of toddler clothes.

Except no, it’s not just clothes, it’s her adorable DRESSES!

I should really call it Jocelyn’s Toddler Dress Quilt.

So, just to warn you guys, this is a sewing post. But there are also pictures, so you can just glaze over the SEWING words and look at the pictures – sure, they’re of quilts, but there’s also a blurry one of Jocelyn wielding a naked barbie doll, so don’t skip!

I’ve been stockpiling the sweet little summer sundresses as she grows out of them with the intention of making a quilt out of them for her some day. I first discussed this here. Now, we’re talking about a myriad of patterns and colors and even fabric weight (though I’m trying to keep it to just wovens, no knits) so when I do make this quilt it will be quite a task to meld it all together.

So, a few items have caught my fancy in the last month or so, and I wanted to make a note of them so that when that Quilt-Making Day DOES arrive, I’ll have some ideas to draw on.

This Denyse Schmidt “Single Girl” quilt looks adorable, but I don’t think it would showcase each fabric enough. I want to be able to look at each fabric and remember my little girl WEARING it.

If I was making the quilt today, I would have to go with a coin quilt. Here’s Hillary’s blogiversary quilt from Wee Wonderfuls that jump-started that idea. The white base color frames each fabric beautifully.

I wonder if I have enough dress fabric for this yet? I think I definitely will once she outgrows this summer’s clothes.

Which will be in about TWO MINUTES!

(All they can talk about every time I drop her off in her new classroom is, “She’s HOW old? Wow, she is TALL. Look how TALL. She looks like she’s FIVE, because she’s SO TALL, TALL, THE TALLNESS, I MUST COMMENT ONCE MORE ON THE TAAAAAALLL.” — I get it. She’s tall. We have spawned a tall amazonian girl-child. Shuddup already.)

I am all itchy to sew something. I sewed a sweet little sundress for Jocelyn which she has not allowed me to take a picture of (here’s one I got where she is RUNNING AWAY IN PROTEST, wielding a naked Barbie doll. “Don’t take my picture! I have a naked Barbie, and I’m NOT AFRAID TO USE IT!)

I SHIRRED! It was lovely fun, the shirring! When I finally got it to work! If you don’t know what shirring is, it’s sewing with elastic thread in the bobbin which makes the material get all stretchy and lovely – the top half of that dress = shirred. I got the motivation and know-how for it over at Portabello Pixie (the Shir Madness! Tutorial is down the side of her sidebar).

But that was months ago, and I want to sew something NEW! Something FOR ME!!

Look! It even says it’s FOR ME!!

I bought Alicia Paulson’s Tanglewood Bag pattern the instant she put it up for sale in her shop, but not the fabric kit, and have been hung up on fabric.

For ease of use, I thought, “I don’t HAVE to cut 48 2″ squares… I could just make the pattern with a solid fabric and not do the patchwork thing…” Which, let’s face it, is an EXCELLENT idea because I’m bound to mess something up and messing up on a 48 pieced 2″ squares will definitely make me cry, and so I could make the solid purse kind of my trial run before a “final” version, and also? I still have PLENTY of material left over from the blurry shirred dress up there — but even that sort of lazy talk didn’t motivate me into actually sitting down and doing it. I may pitch in the fickle towel and just MAKE IT ALREADY.

So this bag is my goal for the next week. Sewing. WOOOO!

-amy. lazy, fickle AMY.

Time to kick it up. I bought an iphone application called “iPoint” that will calculate and track weight watcher’s points.

I am up like 4 lbs since I went to the doctor last, which was sadly, not very long ago. I am due back in 4 weeks, so I don’t want to embarass myself.

I’m going to try to walk some stairs at my office each day at lunch time. Today before I got lunch in the cafe downstairs, I walked up to the roof. (I think that’s 4 floors? Not sure, but not more than that.) It was pretty easy, had to pause before the last set of stairs, and I was breathing hard, but I felt fine. Then I went down all the stairs and got some lunch and ate it in the cafe. Then came the shock, when after standing, I felt like my legs were all made of wobbly jello!

Time to lay off the breakfast buying. Yes, that’s right, I’ve been breaking my new years resolution (for quite some time now) and buying food on the way to/at work. Lunch is understandable, though I still try to bring my own in, but breakfast? There’s just no excuse! Time to cut that out.

I bought an awesome new water bottle – you really wouldn’t think a water bottle would make a difference in the water you drink, but it TOTALLY has. It is a Camelbak. I promptly removed the nipple that goes over the spout, and the straw thingee inside, but it doesn’t leak, my biggest complaint about my old water bottle (nalgene, if you must know).

Diet Coke – how I love you. You’re so cold, and delicious and mmmm. I LOOOVE you, Diet Coke! Let’s run away together! Really, it’s the diet coke that drives me to McDonald’s in the morning. Because I really want that diet coke. I love it. I love it. I looooove it. We’ll see. I make no promises on this one. I’m pretty bitchy without my caffeine. (Don’t listen to all that, Diet Coke. I would never leave you. I love you so!)

So there you go. Time to kick my (fat) ass into shape!

-amy