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!]

Addendum: Children's Entertainment Center of Virtues

I wrote a post a while back about movies and TV shows that are not necessarily aimed at kids, but that have great lessons to teach. I waxed on about Ratatouille, 50 First Dates, Accepted, and Hairspray. But even as I did so, I knew I was leaving one out -- I just couldn't think of what it was. It has since come to me: That Thing You Do.

Now bear with me, because this is going to get a little weird. I really like That Thing You Do. It makes me all fuzzy happy on the inside. For those who do not know, it's about some friends in a small town in the early 1960s who form a band, get really big really fast, and then (spoiler alert!) decline just as fast -- one-hit wonders. The movie follows them from just before they start playing local shows, through getting signed to a major record label, on through the personal struggles that eventually spell their demise.

There are four members of the band, plus a girlfriend. Jimmy, the serious one who writes all the songs; Lenny, the goof-off comic relief; The Bass Player, who doesn't have a name, but is set to join the Army in a matter of months; and Guy, the drummer and protagonist of the movie. And Faye, Jimmy's girlfriend (played by Liv Tyler).

They got Guy to join the band after their first drummer broke his arm right before their first gig. Guy works at his dad's appliance store (not his first choice...), and he loves jazz. After his upbeat drumming at a Battle of the Bands competition turns Jimmy's ballad into a fun dance number, the guys are off and running -- radio play, a 45 single, a national tour -- all led by their manager Mr. White (Tom Hanks, who also wrote and directed). Mr. White has seen it all, and the guys' should have noticed the first big red flag -- Mr. White was not particularly concerned that The Bass Player was leaving for the Army in a few months.

The rest of the movie is mostly just fun -- there's a lot of music that Hanks and others wrote that could have come straight from the era. You get to experience all the excitement of new-found fame with the guys. But there are tensions. Jimmy is a jerk, and Lenny's a smart ass, and you can see the cracks starting to form. They finally make it to LA at the end of the tour, and Guy gets to meet his jazz idol, Del Paxton, at a local bar. The look on his face, the way he falls all over himself -- it's beautiful to me. You can tell (in this scene and throughout the movie) that Guy loves music. Really loves it. It flows through him and he's just a lucky conduit. This in contrast to Jimmy, who feels the need to control, to be in charge of the music, to have it done just the way he wants it, because he's "the talent". Guy is just along for the ride.

In the end, the band breaks up before it can even release a full-length album. The Bass Player leaves for the Army, Lenny runs off to Vegas with a groupie, and Jimmy quits over how many songs he gets to contribute to the album (after losing Faye due to extreme jerkiness). Only Guy is left. He sits alone in the studio, drumming for the love of it. Del Paxton shows up and asks if he can jam. Guy's dreams are complete when he and Faye get together at the end. (Of course! It is a romantic comedy, after all.)

So what lesson is there here to learn? I've been thinking about this for a long time. (Since I watched the movie the first time? When I was... 14?) And this is what I think Tom Hanks meant, although I think he might not put it in these terms: If you love something, and you hold it with an open hand, you will be happy, and you will make others happy. If you love something stingily, hold it in a closed fist, need to control it, and make it an idol, you will lose everything and you will only be miserable and make others miserable along with you. Jimmy needs to be the star, the leader, to call the shots; Guy takes things as they come, grateful for every unexpected joy that comes along.

Moving is...

Oh, there are so many words. Moving is... annoying, hard, exciting, expensive, liberating, time-consuming, crazy-making.

For those who missed the news, my husband got a teaching job in far northern California for this next school year. That is a long way away. So, we're purging. Not only do I not want to have to pay more to move all this junk, and take the time to pack all of it, but we'll probably be in a smaller house out there. So even though we're more than 2 months away from the move, I've already started purging and packing up boxes. (There's a toddler. Everything takes longer than it should.)

It turns out there was at least one easy way to get rid of 13 pounds of my stuff:


Take all the t-shirts I've been saving to make a t-shirt quilt out of, and cut them down into quilt squares:


Yep. Anyone need 13 pounds of t-shirt scraps?

Easter, Our Way

I almost feel silly putting this up. I'm sure everyone is over Easter by now, but we had some fun this last Saturday before I came down deathly ill (don't worry, I'm better now), so I wanted to share.

I haven't really "done Easter" since I started college. I do Lent pretty regularly, but I just don't throw a big bash for Easter. I think this is because while I find the whole Easter Bunny, crappy chocolate, chick tchotchke thing horrible and ridiculous, I find the attempt to cheesily re-Christian-ize the holiday just as ridiculous. "Resurrection eggs"? Really? Also, our church is not at all liturgical -- we don't do anything special for Easter. I kinda wish we did, but we don't.

This leaves me with a few options: become Catholic or Orthodox, or just pick and choose whatever festivities sound good and I feel up for in any particular year.

Well, this year I picked an egg hunt, because I thought it would be fun for Lucy.

It was!

I bought some plastic eggs at the dollar store and filled them with number and letter magnets, stickers, those little pills that dissolve in water and leave you with an animal-shaped sponge, apple slices, walnuts, and "bars". These all thrilled Lucy to no end, so don't think you have to put candy in your Easter eggs. You don't. In fact here is a bunch of suggestions for things other than candy to put in eggs.


The animal sponge pills were a huge letdown. Either I'm remembering them wrong from when I was a kid, or these dollar store ones were particularly crappy.

[She was very impatient waiting for me to hide them.]

[I "hid" them at 24-month-old level.]

[She didn't even find them all before she wanted to sit down and open them. She had plenty, I guess.]

[We finished opening the rest inside, as it was pretty chilly and a tad sprinkly.]

Happy Birthday, Lucy!

How is it possible that you started out like this...

and moved on to this...


and now look like this...


and that someday, if God wills, I'll be putting up photos of you driving cars and getting married?

Happy 2nd Birthday, Lucy!

We make a great team.

Lucy's 2nd Birthday Party

Lucy's 2nd birthday party happened. How have I already thrown 2 of these things? Despite my creeping nostalgia, a lovely time was had by all! The weather shaped up perfectly, despite it having been crazy windy the day before.

[Random present- opening photo]

We had it in the front yard. Partly because there's an insane dog next door, partly because the front yard is easier than the back yard to get to from inside of our house, and partly because we reject modern suburbanity and believe that you should not hide your life away to yourself in your back yard.


We set up the sit n' spin (which was more like a stand n' spin on this particular day) and some sidewalk chalk on the driveway, and we also had a bowling alley! More like just one lane, but still! It was awesome and it worked out perfectly. I bought the blow-up bowling pins at a garage sale, and we set up some garden fencing to keep everything contained. (Lucy loves to watch us play bowling on the Wii.)

[Bowling!]

(You can click on the photos to see them larger.)

[Sidewalk chalking]

We had fruit, veggies and sour cream, and herbal sweet tea, much like last year. But this year we had strawberry shortcake! I made this recipe, so the shortcake was grain- and dairy-free. It was amazingly spongy -- I highly recommend it. I tossed some cut strawberries with honey the night before, and whipped the cream during the party. So. tasty.

[Om nom nom!]

We also had plenty of bottles of bubble solution! The (not crazy) wind carried them nicely.

[Norman took this photo and the next one. I love them! He's got the eye, I think.]

[See? Fun!]

I couldn't have asked for a more pleasant party. It was fun (for kids and adults alike), laid-back, tasty, and had perfect weather. What more could you ask for?

[Hello!]

This Year's Babby Birthday Invitations

Lucy turns 2 in about a week and a half! Her party is early, though, to avoid Easter problems. Last year, the birthday theme (if you can even call it that) was polka dots. This year it is "outside". So I made these invitations!

[The chaos of the craft room mid-project]

[Pieces ready for assembly]

[Ta da!]

[The inside]

This was all using stuff I had. I used a "2" cookie cutter as a stencil for the twos. I always have plenty of colored card stock on hand. The cloud paper I just picked up at the thrift store a month or two ago. And the grass is the plastic grass they put in packaged sushi! I knew I had been saving it for a reason! :-)

Norman said they look like Pixar. Not really what I was going for, but I'll definitely take it!

Party pics should be up on Tuesday, assuming I remember to take any!

This Week in Thrifting Scores (and a question about ethnic slurs...)

I go to thrift stores on Thursdays. Not every Thursday. Probably 2 out of 3 Thursdays on average. I don't always buy something, but I usually do. (This might be part of the reason that the hypothetical prospect of living in a basement-less, garage-less 2-bedroom apartment is freaking me out a little...)

This week we checked out the new Goodwill store in Norman. It's at E 12th and Alameda, across from the Mazzio's, in there. I just spotted it on Monday, so I have no idea how long it's been there, or if they closed the other one in town, although I know they closed the one in Moore.

It's nice! It's pretty big, lots of space, and things are pretty well organized. The books are organized by genre, and the fiction is organized alphabetically by author's last name! This is practically unheard of in thrift-store-dom.

I picked up all of the following for a little over $10.

[Adorable footie pajamas. Not flame-retardant! Woohoo!]

[A Scrabble game (missing 7 tiles) and a Clue game (missing all the little metal pieces! Gypped!!). But the Clue game has this cool 1979 board.]

[A tie for Norman -- oddly cool.]

[A tie for crafting -- Fox hunt!!]

[Three books -- one of which I had been looking for, and two which I didn't know I had been looking for. I'll leave you to sort out which is which.]


This now means that my "to read" pile looks like this:
[Ridunkulous. "Buried Alive", indeed!]

Side question: is the use of the verb "to gyp" (as in to rip someone off, to give someone less than what they expected or paid for) offensive? I know it originally referred to Gypsies, but I don't think of it that way. Does it strike you as an ethnic slur?

International Woman's Day: Inspirations

Today is International Woman's Day! It's a holiday celebrated worldwide to honor women and the contributions they make to society. As far as I can tell, it's largely unheard of in the US. I had never heard of it until it was mentioned in my second-year Russian class in college. But I like the idea.

I readily admit to not being so good with women. On the whole, I am much more comfortable relating to and interacting with men. I'm guessing this is because I only have brothers, and my mom only had brothers. What's a girl to do?

But today I wanted to mention some women who I think are doing (or did do) an amazing job at their lives and who inspire me. (This list is in no way comprehensive. These are just the ladies who popped into my head when I decided to write this post.)

Dorothy Breininger

Dorothy is one of the producers and organizers on the TV show Hoarders. While all of the organizers and psychologist who work with the hoarders on the show are awesome (Matt Paxton is another of my favorites), Dorothy is the awesomest. Every time I watch her work with someone, I'm inspired to be a better person. She is unfailingly kind and empathetic. While the audience looks into these people's lives and sees filth and insanity, Dorothy looks in and sees despair and shame. Whatever disgust she may feel at having to shovel human feces out of a bathroom is covered by her compassion for the person who is so broken that they've come to a place in their life where putting their feces on the bathroom floor is okay, and further that they're so desperate to change that they are allowing a stranger to see it. She always thinks of the person she's there to help and never of herself.

My sister-in-law Dotty

Dotty is always kind to me (even when I'm a provocative jerk). She is a peacemaker. She helps people see the middle ground and love each other more. She is working on a challenging and time-consuming college degree while also taking care of her ailing mother, a task she was thrown into without any warning and without any training. And she still finds time to come visit me and Lucy. Go read her blog, so when she's a famous author you can say you knew her when.

Auntie Leila Lawler

Auntie Leila (as we readers are to call her) writes the bulk of the posts over at Like Mother, Like Daughter. She raised 8 (I think?) children -- well, almost, her youngest is in high school -- and she has some of the most practical child-rearing and housekeeping advice I've ever heard. She's quite straightforward without ever sounding mean. After 8 kids, there's no room in her life for extremism or dogma -- she's balanced but firm. Her blog will tell you how to plan a menu, clean your kitchen, clean your house, clean yourself when there's no time for that, organize your laundry, etc, etc. Go check her out.

Abigail, from the Bible

Oh, Abigail. I like her a lot. Her story is in I Samuel 25. The short version of the story is that she's married to this jerk, Nabal, who insults David when he's on the run from Saul, even though David was respectful to and protective of Nabal and his property. David gets really mad and shows up with his guys ready to murder Nabal and everyone associated with him. Abigail then breaks pretty much every conventional, pseudo-Christian rule about what "good wives" are supposed to do: she runs out to meet David with a whole bunch of food without telling Nabal, tells David not to bother because her husband is a fool, and pretty much prophesies to David, telling him that what he's planning to do is wrong. Whoa. Then later when she tells Nabal what happens, he keels over dead. Oh, and then she marries David. I want to be that kind of woman. (Not the kind that marries David, but... yeah.)

Honorable mentions (i.e., I'm tired of typing so they don't get their own write-ups): Helen Keller, the mom in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, all the protagonist women in Hairspray, and of course, what I aspire to, the archetype described in Proverbs 31.

OK, now I want to hear about yours. Who are your favorite women who are awesome?