Two Things

I haven't done any crafting in the last week.  Nuts.  I managed to rearrange my craft room, but haven't yet plugged my machine back in.  I also made it to the store for some costume supplies.  Progress.

Anyway, here are two things that I saw while out on Sunday morning:

That's a polyester* crazy quilt as a table cloth at the Farmers' Market.  I love it.  That would be a great way to use up big chunks of my scrap pile.

And then there's this mural in downtown St. Paul:

It's so lovely in person.  I think they should do them on all buildings with a bunch of different colors.  

*Polyester...when I was in high school we had one of those little gray Macintosh computers in the library.  We used to play Where in the World is Carmen San Diego? (probably on those big floppy discs) and one of the villians from the game was Polly Esther Fabrique.  That's how I pronounce polyester fabric and it's how I see it spelled in my head.  

Boo!

I really need to get cracking on those Halloween costumes for the kids.  Crap.

Rejected

I have been eyeballing these wings for years and decided to make a set of my own.  Well, not mine, exactly, but Miss Z's.  Using those scrap rounds that I cut out a few weeks ago, I threw together an approximation of the original set of wings.

Unfortunately, I was only able to get them on her one time.  She refuses to wear them and I don't know why.  There are some minor fit issues -- I did not put a neck tie on it, because I worry that it'll be a strangulation hazard.  Instead I did some elastic arm loops.  

I put loops at the ends, too, where her hands are, but they are small loops.  I had intended for her to put her thumbs in them, but she wanted them on her wrists, so maybe they were just a tad too tight.  I don't know.

If I ever get her to wear them, I'll try to take a picture.   

Obsessed

I have a serious crush.

On my tree.

So gorgeous!

Dollhouse Update

Just some photos of the dollhouse renovation.  I have been picking away at the wall paper.  I don't have a lot of time to do this, so it usually takes place while waiting for the shower in the morning or the few minutes I have before my husband comes home with the kids from school.

Some of the paper has left some sticky residue on the walls.  I think I'll need some goo gone to get that junk off.  Peeling off those copper lines has been a pain in the ass.  

And I have no idea how I'm going to maneuver in this tight stairwell.  What a pain.

I love those real life photos of houses where the rises on stairs have been painted funky colors.  I may do that here, because I would never dare do that in my own house.  

I can't get this red check paper off.  It's such a pain.  I think they used superglue to adhere it.  Bah.

The floors are in pretty good shape.  I am debating whether or not to paint them or strip them and stain them a different color.  I just don't know.  I also like that they put miniature quarter round along the perimeter of each room.  What a nice touch!

 Besides prying off one big shingle, I have not yet tackled the roof.  And check out the corner of it below.  What wee beastie* did that?  Was the house attacked by a squirrel?  Or a mongoose?  How big is a mongoose anyway and how come I've never seen one at a zoo?  Do they even really exist?  Or maybe they are extinct like that extinct bird...what is it?  Not the Emu...the Dodo.  Bonkers.

*Too much Outlander--on Book Five now.

Another I Spy

That's right, folks, I'm working on my fifth eye spy quilt for another nephew.   Are you bored yet?  I have six strips made up, but not yet ironed.

And I have enough loose 5x5 squares to make up another strip.

And, thanks to a generous donation from my mother-in-law, I have some new novelty fabrics to cut up for the remainder of the quilt strips.

I have some backing fabric picked out, but need to go get some binding fabric.  I'm thinking green.

I Hate Potty Training

I've been immersed in potty training for nearly two weeks straight and I'm miserable.  I cried all weekend.  I was left alone to deal with it on Saturday for three hours, because my husband went to a CPR certification class and then I was left alone again on Sunday while he went to the doctor for a diagnosis of strep.  Blah.

Pretty much anything set me off this weekend.  Seriously.  My husband inadvertently washed a basket of clean clothes and I cried for like 10 minutes about that.  I cried for an hour after misinterpreting a text from my sister-in-law (sorry, Laura!).  Plus, I didn't have a chance to make up any pears or sweet potatoes for the baby and that made me super sad.  Poor thing.  This has been her second or third straight week of rice cereal.  I keep meaning to introduce a new food, but I've been so focused on whether or not Z's pants are wet that I haven't even had the energy to do anything but rice.  Hell, I'm not even sure she gets rice every day.  

But you know what, I'm not even sure she likes rice cereal.  I think she prefers her thumb.  I get about two or three spoonfuls in her and then she eats her thumb and turns away from me.  What a nut.   In other news, she has three new bibs.  They are not very noteworthy, though I rather like this one, which is backed with leftover towel material from those swim coverups:

I found a big chunk of that owl fabric in my scrap stash.  I can't, for the life of me, remember where it came from or what I originally made with it.  Why can't I remember?  Ugh.  Do you remember Quantum Leap and Sam's Swiss cheese memory?  I feel that babies have given me a permanent supply of holes in my memory.

In other news, Z only had one accident today at daycare and then she peed twice on the potty tonight.   Additionally, I did not cry today.

Rounds

I'm still working on my mission to rid myself of scraps.  Here are some half circles that will be used in an upcoming project for my kiddo (and possibly my sister's kids, if it works out).  I'm kind of excited.  While cutting these, I also cut out some rectangles for bookmarks.  I've lost count...is this the third or fourth current project that aims to reduce my scrap stash?  I've barely made a dent, I swear.  Ugh.

I'm So Dizzy

At the Children's Museum we happened upon one of their art demos.  It was a class on using a salad spinner with paint.  These were our first time efforts.  It was so nifty.  Our salad spinner never gets used anymore.  It's one of those kitchen things that we used to let Z play with when she was a little and, if she sees it when the cabinet is open, she'll still ask for us to take it out.  Anyway, I keep having crazy ideas about becoming a master art spinner.