laeroport

All my ideas come from the blogosphere

Here are a few things I've made this week to help us celebrate this favorite of holidays.  All from the brilliant minds of the blogosphere.

Halloween Correspondence:

 
In playing along with Kelli & Finny's CRAFT:along for this month, I'm sending Halloween notes to the Great-grandparents.  Okay, they are computer-made, not entirely homemade, but let's not be sticklers. :)

For teachers:

That Cindy  has so many fantastic ideas.  I stole this idea directly from her.  I was hoping I could get two bats per sheet of construction paper, but they are just *that* much too big.  I only had four sheets of black, so Aidin's teachers will get orange bats.  That's called going with the flow.

And for Aidin's class party, which is a FALL party, not a HALLOWEEN party, despite the fact that they get to wear their costumes and parade around the school (don't get me started on the mixed messages that is sending):

Owl cupcakes.  Aren't they soooooo cute?  They would be cuter if I could take a decent photo in my kitchen at 10:30 at night.

So for us, today: class party.  Tomorrow: trick or treating.  Sunday: Diwali party.  And no football games.  I'm putting my party shoes on now and not taking them off until Monday!

Happy Halloween!

joy in the mailbox

Here are a few things that have arrived in the past few weeks.

I was ECSTATIC to win a Hillary Lang original in a giveaway on her blog.  Meet Christmas Bot, seen here terminating slugs on my tomatoes.

And early this week I received my custom berry bowl from Melissa. (Aunt Sherry, she lives in Memphis!)  ::sigh:: I LOVE it.  It has yet to see a berry, but it works well for turnips, snap peas and radishes, which we currently have in abundance.

 

And last, but definitely not least, some letters, which were forwarded to us from Kelli.  Way back in May of 2007, my Daisy Girl Scout troop packed goodie bags for children in Mozambique or South America.  These letters of thanks were sent through many hands from some of the recipients of our bags.  What a treasure!  Aidin is currently at summer camp with most of the girls from our Daisy troop, so she took the letters with her the other day and shared them at lunchtime. 

 

Aidin's first comment was "hey, I have stickers just like that!"  Uh, yeah, we sent them in the goodie bags. ;)  Further proof that the good you put out into the world eventually comes back to you.

Do good, Grasshopper.

Tomorrow, my first one local summer meal and a recipe.

happy monday

A few things making me happy today:

• Friday night's date with my husband.  Thanks for babysitting, Grandma and Grandpa!
• Good deeds returned. 

I made bread for my neighbors several weeks ago and when I went again later to take them some soup and more bread on one of those cold days we had recently, she gave me a viola.  Such sweet neighbors we have. :)



• Having a completely cleaned offkitchen table - we'll see how long that lasts! - and new placemats and napkins to make it springy (they are a perfect match for my favorite coffee cup, sent to my by Vallen).

        

• And a napkin ring Eliot might try to keep track of.

        

• A bit of luck and a bonus from Melissa in the mail.  I love these so very much.  I won the four leaf clover in a drawing on her blog and when I mentioned on flickr that I once worked for the head of the KU Botany department, who specialized in ferns, she sent along a fiddlehead as well.   Thank you, my friend!

         

• All of you laughing along with my last post.  That boy.  Ornery!  Thanks for commiserating.

What is giving you reason to smile today?

Mini-swap 3

Hello, my friends!  I am so excited that I can finally share with you our end of Mini-swap 3.  We had a great time gathering things to send to 5 1/2 year old Ella and 3 1/2 year old Mia and their mom, Kristy in Australia.  Instead of wrapping a pile of presents for each girl, we divided our packages according to topic and mailed them all back in the same box that they had mailed to us.

Wear: embroidered patch appliqued t-shirts.  Ella is horse crazy and Mia's favorite animal is the koala.  I was really pretty excited about how these turned out.  I used a coloring book picture for the horse embroidery and an image from the internet for the koalas.

Cook: aprons made from bandannas and ric-rak.  We included two of our favorite recipes.

Read: The Snowy Day is a favorite and seemed fitting after the winter we've had.  Meet Felicity is an American Girl book that features a horse.  The two sunflower book marks were made by Aidin and feature our state flower.

Draw & Color: Sketch books and coloring books.  Black Beauty, again, for the horse-lover, and The Wizard of Oz since we are from Kansas.

Create: craft supplies included fun foam door hangers (Eliot got to one before it was mailed!  Yikes!), wooden Easter crafts and a button/felt bracelet kit.

Explore:  We printed some information about our town and the Univeristy of Kansas off the internet and complied it into a booklet.  We also included some fun printables from the KU website.

Listen:  We sent a CD holder with some favorite tunes.

And for the Mama:  Kristy had requested I send her a copy of Matha's Good Things, as she couldn't get ahold of one Down Under.  I was happy to oblige, and also included a copy of Wondertime and two fat quarters.

This swap was great on all counts.  Thanks, Kristy, Ella & Mia for being so patient!  We had a great time swapping with you!  Aidin and Eliot are excited about having new friends half a world away.

Cheers!

Good stuff, people

Alright, without further ado, the fantastic mini-swap package we received from Kristy and her girls, Ella & Mia.

Wind sock for Eliot.  It arrived on the perfect windy day.

A friendly monster from the Softies book.  Eliot has named him Starry and will not go to bed without him.

A book of Australian animals, a crocodile making kit and a peg doll kit, also for Eliot.

And for the girl, A treasure bag and felt necklace.  The necklace went on immediately and has been worn almost continually since.

The treasure bag included a gel pen, two little note pads, a peg doll kit, the cutest froggy needle book, some beads and bells.  Aidin also received one of my all time favorite Australian books, Possum Magic.

Kristy didn't leave me out - she sent a lovely Australian magazine and a string bag that can't wait to go to farmer's market with me.  The fact that it has been snowing steadily here all morning makes farmer's market seem like a distant dream, but it opens in just over a month!

And here's a sneak peek at what we've been working on.  My "new" sewing machine is not cooperating so I had to break out old faithful.  I SWEAR, I'm mailing our end of the mini-swap off tomorrow!

And speaking of Good Stuff, this week has been all Dr. Seuss all of the time in honor of the great man's birthday last Sunday.  Today Aidin's class got to dress like a Dr. Seuss character.  She was pretty excited to haul out the blue wig.  And you should have seen the looks on her classmates faces when she walked into school.  Too much fun!

But by far, the best thing this week has been the arrival of our niece, Arya Rebecca to Tim's sister Paige and her husband, B.J.  We can't wait to go down over spring break and meet her in person!

What good stuff has come your way?   

I was hoping for a snow day

Yesterday saw our first snowfall of the season.  Great big giant flakes.  Beautiful.

The snow caused the postponement of Aidin's holiday program at school, and secretly, deep down in my little heart of hearts, I was wishing that today would be a snow day.  I had visions of spending the whole day alternating between sewing (while listening to Christmas music) and watching movies with the kids.  But no such luck.  The streets are clear and school and work (the paying job, that is) carry on as scheduled.

So the weekend will see me sewing.  I have GOT to finish up the set of four bags/pencil rolls that were an order.  And I need to make another bag and pencil roll set for Eliot's birthday party the next weekend.

I also need to work on this little tissue cover prototype.  I want to make about 15 of these for little gifts for my belly dance girls.  Aidin has snagged this one, so back to the cutting board.

TGIF, my friends! TGIF!  See you on Monday.

Finally Friday

It's Friday.  My napper helper is with me again today.  So far she's colored and read and filled in some stamps on her Magic Tree House passport. Tim will be home tonight and I have so many works in progress.

Can you make out the hula girl lightly drawn in that hoop?  She needs embroidered and sewn into a bag for a birthday party tomorrow at 10:30.  A party that will be outside at the lake where it should be about 98 degrees by noon.

Of course, this is not what I want to be working on, because these luscious things arrived today from Sew Mama Sew.  Man, they are fast.

And I've also got to get to work on a baby gift for my co-worker.  She's not due until September 1st, but to look at her, I don't know how she can last another day.  Especially in this heat.  Did I mention it is hot?  No? Well, it's hot.

Wait, what was I talking about?  Oh, yeah.  Making a baby gift for my co-worker.  They are doing the nursery in pink and brown, so cue the Denyse Schmidt fabric.  I'm thinkin' bib and taggie blanket.  We'll see how much time I have.

And I'll see some of you on Sunday.  REALLY looking forward to that!  I hope someone is brining something frozen and alcoholic.

Cheers!

God Save the Queen

Okay, first up!  Happy Birthday Mom!  I love you, oh so much!  Thank you for the million ways you have always inspired, encouraged and challenged me.  Can we have a mother/daughter day soon?  I really need one!

A while back Jen put out the call that she needed one more person for her 5 Senses swap.  I had toyed with the idea when she first mentioned it, but thought I really didn't need one more thing on my plate.  But then she needed one more person, and Jen has always been so supportive and kind and FUN, that I thought, OK, I'm in.

So Friday before we left on vacation I arrived home to find a box outside my front door, from none other than the Queen herself.

My hands were trembling as I picked it up and brought it into the house.

Oh, my god!  It was five senses.  I sent my partner 5 things.  One for each of the senses.

 

Geez!  Vallen sent MULTIPLE things for each of the senses, all in a coordinating orange/yellow/green color scheme and all accompanied by cute little notes, ribbons, tags and wrapped in tissue.

I should have photographed each piece as I unwrapped it.  Yeah.  That didn't happen.  I was ripping off that tissue paper so fast..... and it was the perfect thing to find at the end of a hectic, "finish all your work before vacation"  day.

The CD is on constant rotation.  The chocolate is GONE.  The tea cozy and the potholders are so soft and wonderful.  I LOVE the bird silhouette on them.  I had been looking for EXACTLY that coffee mug (you can see I drank my coffee out of it yesterday morning when I took the pictures - it has a spot on the front!).  The size, color and shape are PERFECT!  I'm wearing the earrings - did you know that my favorite color is green? (Um, was all the green in my blog a hint?)  And that I have about 12 lime through sea foam green shirts?  Seriously, I could wear a different green shirt every day for two weeks.  And, if that wasn't enough, I collect egg cups.  And my very favorite thing to keep my pins in are egg cups.

Thank you so much, Vallen, for spoiling me so.  And thank you Jen, for the opportunity to participate.  Jen sent me a bar of dark chocolate and a wonderful little memento as a thank you for participating.  Like participating wasn't thanks enough!  Yeah, that didn't get photographed either.  And more than once on vacation when I thought my kids were sleeping in the back seat they said "What are you eating?" as I tried to sneak bites of that chocolate bar.

Tomorrow - CRAFTING!

What a weekend...

We had a fun, relaxing, productive weekend.  Sit back and relax while I recount it for you.

Friday night:  Library and park.  I finally paid my $68 library fine.  Yes, that is an obscene amount.  But we're enjoying having our privileges re-instated.

Saturday morning: Farmer's market, a stop by Michelle's to see her and Capello, another trip to the park, downtown earth day celebration, church garage sale (Eliot scored 3 matchbox cars and a plastic "digger" sans bucket for 55c, Aidin got a pair of short overalls for 50c and I got 3 egg cups and a nesting man for $2.00.  But we didn't do nearly as well as someone I know.)

Saturday afternoon:  Returned home to a parcel on my doorstep.  Check out my button swap loot from Stephanie.  Beatrix Potter buttons, the sweetest little bird buttons, ladybug buttons, a blank sketch book and a kid mix CD that had been played at least 10 times already.  Thank you so much!

After opening the package:  lunch, napping, cutting, ironing, sewing.  The baby/big brother gift is finally done.  What?  You've never seen a sock monkey riding a triceratops?  It could happen! 

I have it on good authority that the big brother is crazy about dinosaurs.  So  much in fact, that this was his birthday gift.

Sunday:  Yard work for Tim, sewing for me.  Lots of tramping in and out for the wee ones.  It seems like I barely left the sewing machine (except to move to the ironing board), but these are the things I finished:

Slippers for Eliot

Again, I used Jojo's pattern and enlarged it 144% on the photocopier.  I made a suede, fleece, fleece sandwich for the sole.  They are a little bit wide, but Eliot doesn't seem to mind.  They will also fit Aidin (she has really small feet) and I think I'll narrow the sole a bit before I try it for her.  He loved them and wore them off and on all day Sunday - and he's already got food on them.   The train ribbon came from Les Bon Ribbon.

Smock top for Aidin.

I made this to use up a big chunk of my fat quarter that didn't seem to be getting any smaller.    Inspired by Alicia's smockish top, but I didn't read or follow the directions - purely winged it.  And then couldn't figure out how to do the straps with elastic on the back, so I used ribbon (also from Les Bon Ribbon) to make it a halter.  And can you tell by the look on her face how much she liked it?  She liked it so much she wore it to school today. That counts as success in my book.

Refashioned dress for Aidin

My mom made this dress for Aidin last spring after the microwaved easter dress incident (no, mom, I'm not going to let you live that down.)  This year, it is already way too short.  Did I mention that my daughter has grown 2 inches since Halloween?  So I had some tiny black and white polka dot that I used on Robot's head.  It was just the thing to add a longer border.  I trimmed it out with black twill tape.  *Love* the result.  I may got get some narrow black bias tape and do the arm and neck holes too.  Wouldn't that look cute?

And last, but certainly not least, a Rocket Patch for Eliot.

I've been feeling guilty ever since I snarked Kirsten's rocket patch for myself.  So using my Sublime Stitching rocket pattern as a guide, I made this little patch for the boy.  The green body of the rocket is fabric sent by Amy.  And the flame is the end of my fat quarter.  Okay, I still have a little piece left, but geez!  I'm done!  Thanks, Lera, for the Fat Quarter Challenge!  It WAS a challenge!

Oh, and I made Alicia's quiche.  With mushrooms on the grown up half.  Fantastic.  Aidin wouldn't eat it, but the rest of us loved it.

Alright, I'm sure you're sick of me by now.  I'm sick of typing.

Happy Monday!

 

Posting on the old, the end of an era and a correction

Happy Monday, good people of blogland!

Prepare yourself for the most random of posts.  Don't feel like being random?  Move on, then.  Move on.

First up - I don't know what I was doing when I posed that CD playlist, because I totally left out (Theme from) The Monkees and Abba Dabba Honeymoon which actually fall between Out in the Jungle and The Lion Sleeps Tonight.  And big thanks to my Aunt Sherry for Abba Dabba Honeymoon and The Lion Sleeps Tonight.  Love you, Aunt Sherry!

Okay, rewind back to Christmas.  I made some lovely wee wonderful robots for my nephews and finished them at the LAST POSSIBLE MINUTE (in true Lori Style) and didn't get a picture.  So here are the robots I made for Daniel (the red one with the clever D) and Nathan (blue and sporting an N). 

Daniel has decided he is too big for soft toys, so Nathan is loving on both on them.  I wanted to alter the shape a bit, so I tried to make the blue one with a round head vs. the trapezoid and a round antenna.  That didn't work so hot - I realized after it was all sewn that I couldn't turn it, so snip.  Of it came and in it's place is this strange origami bit of felt folding, which I am delighted to see is still attached.

And Friday, I realized in a panic, was the deadline for sending out my Vintage Button Swap to my partner.   And anyone who has read this blog for more than five minutes knows how lame I have been with swaps of late.  So I ran home at lunch and got it in the mail.  Here's a sneak peek.

The weekend was a lot of running and not a lot of crafting, although there was some progress on the monkeys.  And another bunny cake was made, this time to celebrate Easter with my family.

My sister-in-law's mother, Peggy, is doing so well after her double lung transplant.  I haven't reported on her in a while because there really hasn't been much to report.  She did have a bought with fluid retention, but that has mostly sorted itself out.  She has far fewer appointments at the transplant clinic and (fingers crossed) will be able to come home next month. 

And I spent Saturday morning at the Girl Scouts of Kaw Valley Council annual meeting marking the end of an era.  Girl Scouts across the country are undergoing massive change, moving from 300+ councils to around 100.  On July 1 of this year we will merge with the Kansas City and St. Joseph councils to become Girl Scouts of Northeast Kansas and Northwestern Missouri.  Thrilling name, eh?  I know that it is a good move for girls, with more services/opportunities available. 

I hope tomorrow I'll have some fat quarter challenge pictures to post.  What a useless co-host I've been!  Good intentions just don't always translate into action, do they?

Hope your weekend was good and you're not crying in your beer over how much you owe in taxes (the way we are - YIKES!)