Christmas 2012

It's the Twelfth Day of Christmas, so I'm just fitting this in under the wire!  (We go to an Episcopal church now, so it's totally allowed.) 

We had Christmas!  Lucy is now 3.5, so she was way more into it this year than any time previous.  And she has chosen to believe in Santa Claus, even though we do absolutely nothing to encourage (or discourage) that.  She's also old enough to listen to and start to comprehend stories from the Jesus Storybook Bible, so we followed this plan for the duration of Advent.  Lucy also decided that the nativity set was just more toys for her to play with. (Should have seen that one coming!)

In the spirit of our spend-time-and-money-proportional-to-how-much-you-care philosophy, we spent all of 15 minutes taking our Christmas card photos (including getting Lucy dressed). 

Lucy was an angel in the Christmas Eve pageant.

We helped set up for the Norman Community Christmas Dinner.

Our own Christmas dinner consisted of roast chicken, green salad, soft pretzels, mashed potatoes, gravy, and champagne. 

Lucy got Scotch tape in her stocking. She was super excited!

I made Norman another shirt.

Norman bought me a book for those who are questioning.

Then on Saturday we had Christmas with Norman's parents and siblings. 

Lucy's uncle designed and created this bear blanket for her!  (It rolls up into a bear.)

Norman got some sonic screwdrivers.

And I got a dress form!  I still can't believe it!

And I made hot pizza dip, which I can now highly recommend!

Yeah, that pretty much covers it.  Oh, except for the part where the weatherpeople were predicting this big crazy snow storm for Christmas Day, and then it just iced and sleeted and then snowed a little.  But then a couple days later, they said we might get some flurries, and it snowed like 4 inches!  They were a little confused.  Merry Christmas!

Rapunzel Hair for Dress Up

Background: Several weeks ago, Lucy pulled a really long piece of toilet paper off the living room nose-blowing toilet paper roll (doesn't everyone have one of these?).  Then she was holding one end of the piece up to the back of her head and running around.  Upon questioning, it was revealed that she was pretending to be Rapunzel. (Tangled is a big deal in our house right now.)  I helped her by securing the toilet paper to her head with a hair tie, but of course it didn't last long.  She kept stepping on it and getting it caught places, and pretty soon all the pieces were too short to be any fun.

And then it occurred to me that with a few bucks worth of yarn and an hour of my time, she could have a Rapunzel braid that would actually stand up to the rigors of toddler dress up play.  So I bought one pound of yellow yarn and waited for Lucy to be asleep.

I'll show you how I did it (meh), and then I'll give you the link to the blog of a lady who totally did it up right.  (I did zero internet research before making Lucy's. Oops.)

 

I figured I'd want the hair to end up about 9 or 10 feet long.  It needed to be nice and crazy for dragging around and wrapping around things.  Fingertip to fingertip for me is about 5 feet, so I pulled a length of yarn two wingspans.  Then I held the 10-foot mark and pulled two more, and folded it in half at the 10-foot mark and cut the end.  So I had 20 feet of yarn, folded in half so that it was 10 feet doubled.

I did that first step a lot.  As I did each length I laid it across the coffee table.  I did this until I had what seemed like a thick enough bunch of hair.

Then (and this is where I really could have done this more efficiently) I found all the middle fold points of each length and looped each one over my finger so that I could hold them all together and get them to hang straight and unbunched.  That probably needs a photo, but I was alone at the time.

I cut a short length of yarn and stuck it through all the loops to tie it all together.  So I had a whole bunch of 20-foot lengths of yarn, tied together and folded in half in the middle.  I took this 10-foot bundle and tied it to one leg of my coffee table by the piece of yarn I had tied around the middle.  Then I separated it into three bunches, and tried again to get it all straight and even and not bunched up.

But I didn't try too hard.  Doesn't have to be perfect, y'all!

Then I just braided.  Of course with something this long you have to braid the top and unbraid the bottom as you go along.  It was some work!

Then I tied it really tight at the end with another piece of yarn, and trimmed it so the ends were all kind of even.  I also found a piece of blue ribbon in my craft room to tie around the bottom in a bow.

At this point I realized that I had no idea how I was going to attach it to Lucy's head.  (See?  I really should have asked the internet before I did this.)  I tried to attach it to my own head with bobby pins and that failed miserably.  Then I decided to thread a plain hair tie through the folded-in-half part at the top.  I looped it through itself and pulled it tight.  To put it in Lucy's hair, I use the hair tie to make a pony tail, and the yarn hair just kind of hangs down from there. 

 I left it on her rocking chair for her to discover the next morning. :-)

 All of her "I'm posing for a camera!" smiles look like this.

That's better.

To date she has not tripped or injured herself with it at all.  So there's that.

The lady who actually thought this through and knew what she was doing is here.  Definitely go take a look.

 Bonus frying pan shot!

Baby Bouquet!

I hosted a baby shower over the weekend. My church is indefatigable in its baby-and-bridal-shower-throwing. Every engaged lady and every pregnant woman (for every kid) gets a shower. It's pretty awesome, actually. This was my first time as the main hostess at one of these shindigs, although I've co-hosted before. Besides the contributions of my organizational and watermelon-bowl-making skills, I also made the hostess gift.

The first idea was for me to make our friend a diaper cake. But then we remembered that she uses cloth diapers, and making a diaper cake out of cloth diaper stuff would be really expensive. So I thought, well what if I make a diaper cake with clothing and washcloths and stuff instead of diapers? But then as I searched around the interwebs to see if people had done this before, I came across this lady's Etsy shop. Cuteness!! I knew I had to attempt this. Because not only was this the hostess gift, it was also supposed to double as a party decoration.

I'll be honest -- it was looking really bad for a really long time. I just kept rolling and stuffing and folding, and it just wasn't working. So I took a break and when I came back to it the next day, it went much better. And I think it turned out really well!

[Eh? Pretty good for an amateur.]

In case you're wondering, I rolled up some receiving blankets really tightly, tied them with ribbon, and put them standing up in the bottom of the pot. I stuck the sticks (dowel rods) in the blankets to get the sticks to stand up. But before I did that I wrapped the sticks in green tissue paper with Elmer's glue and let them dry. (I think the green "stems" make all the difference for the arrangement, actually.) I folded and rolled things (socks, onesies, washcloths, and pants) in various ways and pinned them together. Then I just stuck the sticks up the inside of them. I filled in the gaps in the bottom of the pot with some tissue paper, and voila!

Is There a Doctor in the House??

Why yes, yes there is!

Last Tuesday, the man of the house defended his dissertation, which, aside from some paperwork, makes him officially a Doctor of Philosophy in the area of Economics. Woohoo! It's been a semi-long 5 years. I'm so proud of him. He's worked hard, and he's the first in his extended family to hold any kind of advanced degree (as far as anyone can remember).

So of course this occasion called for crafting! I had a vague idea that I needed to make him a t-shirt (my go-to gift of choice for him) that had something to do with the current incarnation of the Doctor from Doctor Who. In my head, it had a bow tie, suspenders, and the words "Trust me, I'm a Doctor" on the front (all stenciled on).

Well then I went to Hobby Lobby to find a tan/khaki t-shirt (which is approximately the color of the 11th Doctor's shirt). They don't carry them! Frustration. So then I had to drive to WalMart. They didn't have any tan or khaki ones loose, so I settled for like a dark heather tan in a package with 3 other shirts. In my frustration and haste, I failed to notice that they all had pockets until I got home. That threw a major kink in the suspenders part of the plan. But I quickly recovered when I realized I could make do by stenciling a sonic screwdriver into the pocket! I also decided to move the lettering to the back.

But that necessitated another trip to Hobby Lobby to buy metallic fabric paint for the screwdriver, and it required me to somehow come up with a decent, tri-color sonic screwdriver stencil. And I'm really not artistic like that. I have no sense of perspective in 2-D. It's really bad. I eventually did the best I could by trying to keep it as simple as possible.

Photos!

[You can't really see the sonic screwdriver very well. That's just as well, really. But it does glow in the dark!]

[The back!]

Christmas: Presents

[Christmas Eve]

Time for the Christmas present wrap up! You already read about the rocking chair I fixed up for Lucy. Now time to see the rest of the goods!

Every year, Norman and I decided on a certain amount of money to spend on each other for Christmas presents. It's a relatively low amount (you can read some about why that is here). It's kind of like a fun challenge to see how awesome the presents can be for so little money. I will admit to having a distinct advantage here: I can make crafty things, and thereby save money. However, I would like to point out that I do not ever ask for alcoholic beverages (pricey!), so I really think it all evens out. :-)

We gave Lucy the rocking chair, a big ol' box of PlayDoh and accessories (a garage sale score!), I Spy board books.

[Rockin' out]

[We actually got some good tearing-off-the-wrapping-paper photos this year. Thanks, 20-month-old!]

[Her favorite part is the plastic knife that didn't come with the original set.]

I gave Norman a comic book he'd been wanting, some Irish cream (see? alcohol. pricey.), a giant flashlight (like on the X-Files! kinda.), and a stenciled t-shirt. An extremely obscure stenciled t-shirt.

[John Simm approves!]

[The shirt is based off this photo, from this episode of Doctor Who.]

And Norman (very impressively for the money, I might mention), got me some truffles made by my favorite truffle maker, the Dr Horrible DVD (so I can see "Commentary! The Musical"!), the Cake Wrecks calendar (which I was fully intending to spend my own money on after Christmas), and Doctor Who buttons and a knit TARDIS ornament!!!

[Love the framing here. No, really.]

[Terrifying Pertwee is Terrifying!]

I think the Doctor Who stuff is so special because, although I've been fully entrenched in Doctor Who fandom since May (has it really only been that long??) they're the first physical objects associated with the show that I own (and Norman, too!). It's about time, eh? (It was a really long 7 months...)

So there you have it! A fun, nerdy, thrifty pile of awesomeness.

Child Rocking Chair Seat Revamp

As I write this, it's Christmas Eve Eve. And as you read this, it is Christmas Eve (or later). So I haven't given this present to Lucy yet. It's still in the garage (which is where I revamped it, so excuse the horrible lighting in the following photos). But since Lucy is not a regular reader of my blog, I figured I was safe. :-)

I found this wooden child's rocking chair in the dumpster by our old apartment right before we moved to the house we are in now. So that was... a year and a half ago. It was really in quite good condition, especially for something that came out of a dumpster. It is solid wood, sturdy, and the only thing wrong with it (aside from some scratches) was that it had no seat. I think when I found it there were upholstery tacks and some faux-leather-type pieces around the edges. Upon closer inspection, it actually kinda looks like it was originally a wicker seat, which someone removed and installed the faux-leather seat. But anyway, it's small and adorable and old and sturdy.

I eventually decided to redo the seat with an assortment of old belts woven together. I hit up a thrift store bag sale and raided their belts. I bought about 8 that I thought had a reasonable chance of being leather. And I've had them for about a year. That's why I decided I'd give Lucy the rocking chair this Christmas -- so I would actually get it done.

On Tuesday I bought some upholstery tacks, and Wednesday evening I cranked the thing out in the exact length of time it took to listen to the Glee Christmas album. Exact. It was crazy.

I only had a vague idea of my plan, but as Norman and I were discussing last week, that usually works out for me. But that's probably because I have good instincts about what I can improvise and what I can't.

Enough talk. Photos.

[Before.]
[It looks kind of big here, but let me assure you, I cannot fit my hips between the armrests. It is for a child.]

[Pile of belts]


[Figuring out the weaving]


[Ta da!]

[Close-up of the seat]

It could definitely be more polished, but I think given the condition of the chair, it's just right.

Norman's Birthday

The 13th was my husband Norman's birthday. We keep birthdays fairly low-key around here, but I always like to make them at least a little special. A few presents, a homemade treat of some sort, a whole lot of "Oh, let me do that! It's your birthday!" and "You pick! It's your birthday!" I supposed I do it this way because that's what I want people to do for me on my birthday.

So, Norman's birthday:

It starts withthis book. It's a novel. About steampunk zombies. Steampunk zombies! It's like the author wrote it just for Norman. I read the review on this site. (Side note: Meg Wood is so great. You should subscribe to her movie-and-book-reviewing blog and check her Ex-Boyfriend of the Week site sometimes. Good stuff.)

[Remember Perler beads? Girl scouts? Summer camp? Awanas?]

Then I decided that Norman needed some Tetris magnets. Who doesn't, really? This meant I had to buy Perler beads. I haven't owned Perler beads for a very long time, but now I have... a lot. I need more nerdy/ironic projects to make with them. They're very good for pixelated things.

Lucy gave Norman the magnets. At least that's what the tag said.

I also made these cakes for breakfast. I really made them as a trial run for Lucy's birthday party next month. They turned out so fabulous. I was really quite shocked at how tasty, fluffy, and moist they were. Did you read the recipe? No grains, no processed sugar (just honey). Beans. Oh, and the frosting? It tastes like the inside of the tastiest chocolate truffles I've ever eaten. Canned frosting can suck it from now on.

So -- steampunk zombies, Tetris magnets, bean cake. Yep, that sounds like a pretty standard birthday around here.

Babby Toys

This Christmas was Babby Lucy's first Christmas. She is 8 months old. Because she is:

1.) 8 months old, and
2.) Her paternal grandparents' first grandchild and her maternal grandparents' first granddaughter,

we figured we (her parents) should go light on the Christmas presents.

[Those reasons are really just excuses. We plan to go light on the Christmas presents for our children every Christmas. We already go light on the Christmas presents for each other, our extended family, and our friends.]

Here's what Lucy received from her parents for Christmas:


One of those Tupperware shape ball thingies. It was a thrift store score, otherwise, trust me, I would have gone for the primary colors.


A wooden car from Etsy. I just figured she needed a car.


A hat like Jayne's from Firefly. This one is pretty special to me. I thought, "You know what would be awesome? A hat like Jayne's from Firefly, but for a baby!" I knew that various Etsy sellers sold adult versions of the hat. I then thought, "Who could I get to knit one of those for me?" As I was thinking over my knitter-friend options, I discovered that Meg Wood knits baby hats and sells them on Etsy!

[You don't know who Meg Wood is, do you? She runs this website. And this blog. I've been reading her site since high school. She's also on Facebook, which is how I found out about the baby hat knitting. I think. The other important thing about Meg Wood is that she loves Firefly. So this was pretty much the perfect fit.]

The hat is also pretty much a perfect fit. It's not too big, but there's definitely room for Lucy to grow. Awesome.

I was also going to make Lucy a cloth ball from this pattern, but I ran out of time. I'll probably still make her one or two one of these days.



[A Post Script Tangent: Santa Claus. The more I think about the concept of Santa Claus, the more I dislike it. We will not be telling Lucy there is a Santa Claus. Yeah, yeah, I know -- "But it's just fun to pretend!" That's true, but not when there are real things at stake. My biggest beef with Santa? Gifts turn into this thing that you deserve because you were good, and then they just magically appear. In reality, gifts are free to you -- you don't earn them And you aren't under any obligation to give them to others. They are about love and grace. And gifts come from people who love you and sacrificed time and/or money to give them to you, not from a magical elf with unlimited resources.] End rant.