Weekend and Coming Soon

Betsy's photo album sleeve is finished!


We are so enjoying Ian's t-ball season. Here are pictures of his game Saturday. He definitely had the biggest cheering section: one great-grandparent, two sets of grandparents, aunt and uncle, two cousins, and mom, dad and sissy, of course!

Homerun!

Dad as first base coach:

Crowd favorite:

Starting tomorrow, I'll feature the dads in my family -- one each day. Also this week . . . I'll be posting fun links and ideas for celebrating Father's Day and honoring the special dads in your life.

Capt{IAN} America Flies

Today you learned to swing all by yourself, without a push.
And you might as well have learned to fly.
No dinner, no stopping, all evening.
Fly, sweetheart. Fly.

Remember this post, when Spider Man went Captain America? It was the day Ian and I worked hard to transform his Spidey suit into Captain America. Well, guess what? My college roommate from back-in-the-day at U of A saw it on my blog and mailed Ian this hand-me-down Captain America suit her boys had outgrown.

picture design by Nathan -- isn't he the greatest?

And he's hardly removed it since Wednesday when it arrived. My son is in love. With Captain America. And now with my college roommate, too.

Ian to me: Your friend was pretty nice to send me this Captain America suit, wasn't she mama?
And then he said this bit of sweetness: We need to send her a princess costume to thank her."

Don't expect a princess costume anytime soon, Pam, but isn't he a gem?

For Betsy

Local favorite: F M Store for amazing deals on fabric and a huge selection of fringe, FRINGE, FRRIIINNNNGGGGE. Beaded, jeweled, tasseled, feathered, shabby, sleek -- they've got the fringe. Find F M Store at the corner of Fremont and Sunshine.

Ian, Lilly and I made a quick trip there today and, between the children dragging out every princess and superhero bolt of fabric imaginable (note to F M: please move character fabric off bottom shelf), I picked out these lovelies:

For what, you might ask? My super chic friend, Betsy, has asked me to make a fabric sleeve to house her wedding photo album. I got to work tonight and sketched out some plans on this torn out catalog page (recycle). No pattern for this one -- but I've got a plan!

I love my life. Really, I do. Nathan, Ian and Lilly, my wonderful parents, friends, Mac computer, etc., are mostly to credit for this. But, also . . . I try always to have some creative project going all the time. It keeps life fresh for me.

Hope you'll keep visiting my blog to see the finished product.

In the meantime . . . start something today. Keep life fresh.

Lilly's Birthday Party Invitation

2 Sketches 4 You contest submission--Kazan's sketch #28:

It's amazing what you can do with a Superman Underoos container.

I love to save empty plastic packages to make clamshell cards like this. Here, I made my front and back image, glued the finished piece to the bottom of the container, and placed several taffy pieces inside. Candies come in such beautiful colors. Making a clamshell card allows you to use them as part of your design, while giving your card recipient a little something extra special.

Make some doo-dad strip and glue it on to cover the ugly top of the container. I used a hot glue gun to adhere my sewn fabric to the plastic.

Add embellishments to the outside, too, for added dimension. It's way fun to paint on these -- if you mess up, it scratches right off with your fingernail! VERY forgiving.

I tore a page out of my Land of Nod catalog to use as the top of the backing. Loved the globe lanterns so much, and they were the perfect colors for my card. Catalog/magazine pages are fun to use in your designs.

After using rubbing alcohol, fingernail polish remover, and soap and water, I still couldn't get the sticky film to come up from where I'd torn off the price tag (Somehow, I don't think "Wal-Mart; Spiderman Underoos; $6.00" would have fit in with the rest of my theme). No biggie. I grabbed my paintbrush and painted over that entire section, let it dry, and then scratched out a heart with my fingernail. I'm happy with it. It's the inverse of the heart on the front.

The contest bug has bitten me again, and I'm entering this piece hoping to win some sweet pens from Sakura. I. Love. Pens. And I have precious few of them (I've been known to steal a Crayola marker or two from the kids' craft tub). Bring on the pens, Sakura!

Next time you buy a stapler, package of paper clips, set of action figures--you name it--save that clamshell container and get scrappin'!

Seriously?

Does this mean my sanitation worker doesn't like me?

I get home from Wal-Mart and have to drive over the curb and part-way into the grass to get around our trash dumpster -- right smack in the CENTER of our driveway.

Note the neighbors' dumpster, across the street, neatly returned to the side of their driveway.

Now, I wouldn't really blame him if he didn't like us. I mean, there are times our trash stu-uuhh-innkkksss! What, with Lilly's diapers and all, if I were him, I think I'd be TRYING to lose our business.

Speaking of Wal-Mart, it seems every time I go I hear a new, eloquent phrase spoken that's worth repeating.

Last week, it was this . . .
In the parking lot, a mother to her teenage son:
"Now you're soundin' like your daddy. He's always sayin', 'I drive better drunk than sober.'"

Today it was . . .
Somewhere in the refrigerated meats, a brother to his sister: "I aint in the ham! Why you be lookin' for me in the ham?"

And what does it mean when a good portion of your childrens' daily lunches can be purchased in what is categorized as the "Quick Snacks" frozen section of Wal-Mart (chicken nuggets, for example)?

Guilty as charged.

Sheesh. Funky trash, Wal-Mart, chicken nuggets. This is definitely my most PWT post to date.

Counting Quarters

One of the most effective things we've tried as parents has been to reward Ian for doing chores. When we started this, I bought a cute chore chart to proudly hang on the fridge, with each star representing a chore done and quarter earned. With my trusty chart, I was eager to begin molding him into the perfect, household law-abiding, star-earning child.

Forget it. Ian could have cared less if he earned a star on that thing.

Soooo . . . Nathan came up with plan B:

• Get jar.
• Ian places actual quarter in jar each time he completes a job (taking plate to sink/setting table/cleaning room at bedtime).

Ian came on board with this idea when he found something he really, really wanted, and we pulled out the ole', "You're gonna have to earn your quarters to get that." Sha-ZAMMM!

Tonight was toy store night. It's fun to help Ian count his quarters into groups of four, and it reinforces good money concepts, too. He's a jewel at the toy store -- has come to understand the limits of his minuscule income (the kid can't save worth a hoot--but what 4 year-old can?), and willingly gives God 10% in his offering envelope.

Too bad God doesn't take Chuck E. Cheese tickets and tokens. We'd be sooooo set!

Come back tomorrow to see a cutie patootie project I'm working on!

Sugar Daddy and Purple Popsicles

A picnic is twice the fun
when daddy comes . . .

Honeysuckle tasting:

A rare moment -- mama not behind the camera:

One of my all-time fav photos. Oh, the joy:

Everyone's "a-weep" (Lilly)

Now, a story. Several neighbor children and their mamas came to play in our backyard today. I brought out popsicles and there were four green and only one purple left. Purple popsicles are Ian's favorite, but another child wanted purple, too. I asked the two of them to pick a number b/w one and five to determine who would win the purple one. Ian won.

When the little girl became visibly upset, I could see Ian studying me, waiting to see what I'd do. But, the cool thing about Ian is, he didn't say a word. Her mama had already graciously offered to get pops from her house. So, I asked her mama if she would mind running across the street to grab a purple popsicle for her little girl, and she did, of course. By the way, this little girl is completely and totally precious/perfect and we love her!

Four hours later . . . I'm snuggling with Ian, getting him down for a nap.

Ian: Mama, know why I love you so much today?
Me: No. Why, sweets?
Ian: Because you gave me the purple popsicle.

The moral of the story is . . . sometimes your oldest, quietest, most compliant, never-complaining child needs to get the purple popsicle. Even if he is the host and a guest wants it. Sometimes, it's just Ian's turn, not Lilly's, not anyone else's. Period.

And sometimes all it takes is a purple popsicle to remind that child of your love.

So now we have a new phrase in our house. When we've had a wonderful day full of goodness, we say, "It was a Purple Popsicle Day, wasn't it?"

I hope you, too, have a Purple Popsicle Day!