My Longest Year

Grace

homemade Land of Nod (diy felt mitten garland)

When I saw these garlands on the Land of Nod website I knew I'd bumped into an easy craft that would turn out cute enough to actually use as decoration.  10 sheets of felt and a bag of tiny clothespins later...

I was actually prepared for the possibility that this particular Christmas project would be a bust.  Every Christmas season I wander the aisles at Michael's with ideas from 14 different Christmas magazines in hopes of finding fun things for the kids to do.  And somehow usually my ideas never make it out of the craft bin, or they wind up completely lost on the kids altogether.  This one was a winner in every category: Cheap. Fun. Easy-enough-for-a-three-year-old.  Entertaining-enough-to-hold-their-interest.  Pretty-enough-to-hang-up. The key ingredient, it turned out, was the Time To Do It.  I am so glad I took time off this season to hang with the kids...

It was (fittingly) a snow day on Sunday.  Daddy was on Guard duty out of town.  The kids were bored (and I'd already played outside for my quota of 30 minutes in the cold). 

And the activity lasted long enough for Daddy to join in when he got home:

Materials:

• 5-10 sheets of colorful felt from the craft store
• Mitten Template (from Martha Stewart)
• Scissors & Fabric glue (or school glue - you'll need to use a bit more of it than usual)
• Mini-clothespins (I found mine in the wooden shapes aisle at Michaels)
• Optional: fabric markers, bits of ribbon, self-adhesive felt shapes

How to:

1. Cut the mitten shape from cardstock and use as a template for the felt mittens.  Trace and cut from felt.
2. Embellish the mittens and let dry.
3. Hang with clothespins to a long stretch of ribbon - or for more permanent use (year after year) - sew the mittens to the ribbon.
4. You could just as easily do this with scrapbook paper or cardstock. and staple to a length of twine or ribbon.

 

Ashlyn's First Trip to the ER

We knew it would come some day.  I've joked about it for a couple of years now.  Thankfully, it didn't turn out to be a big deal.  She fell and her teeth made a huge gash in her bottom lip -I had no clue how bad it was or if it would require stitches...so off to the ER we went.

I had Evyn's camera in my purse from an earlier project today.  So you KNOW I totally whipped it out at a stop light, right? If you were a Facebook friend, you'd remember last year's EKG. But I digress...back to the bloody mess at hand.

Poor James.  I called him at work - at the time I couldn't even figure out where the gush of blood was coming from.  So he panicked a little and met me at the ER.

After the nurses cleaned her up we found a second boo-boo--this one on her chin.

Of course the final verdict was - no stitches.  Just go home.  And wait for the bill.

But not before stopping for the most expensive popsicle this year.

Yes, people were looking at me weird.  Who takes a dozen pictures of her kid at the emergency room?  Are you kidding?  As long as she's probably fine - AND sitting so pitifully in a wheelchair - ME:

"James, please stand there so I can test the lens."

Guess I should have known better...especially only 24 hours after the man Youtubed "Horatio Caine" impressions.

 And surely HE should have known better than to expect me to keep these images all to myself when there is a World Wide Web out there to enjoy them.