Halloween Napkins

Sometimes I get an itch. An itch to make something I haven't made before and I can't stop thinking about it until I make it. Other times I have something in the partially finished pile waiting for months if not longer to be completed. Today I couldn't sit still until we had Halloween napkins to go with our Halloween table cloth.

Last year when I made my sister's place mats, the thought of making napkins was a little intimidatoing to me but for some odd reason I felt very comfortable making the napkins today.

I knew that they were going to be smaller than our normal napkins, but I didn't mind. I had some fabric I bought last year to make another banner, but decided that we were in need of festive napkins more so than a banner.

So here they are, in all their glory. I cut the fabric 12"X12" and then sewed right sides together, turned inside out and finished with a simple stitch around the border. So simple I think I may make more one of these days...






For those of you curious- the napkin in the corner is for Mr. Man who still sits in his high chair between mama and dada. And yes, we use the back portion of the table for storage of cupcakes [that dada and Genny made when mama was working this past week] and a covered apple-raspberry pie I made a few days ago.

I Made Jam!

Oh the possibilities of the title of this post: I Be Jammin'... Jamtastic.... We Be Jammin'.... The ideas came to me in such overwhelming quantities, I decided to simplify it and just state the obvious.

So my question to you is this: What do you do when you and your kids have the flu and Dada's away sailing for the weekend? Well I made jam. The idea was just to go to the library and read about making jam, but as it turned out, the library doesn't open until 1pm on Sundays... And with a grocery store in the next lot, it was decided that I would wing it. Especially since I was on the phone with my mom and she said that everything I need is in the box of preservatives. So I made jam!




Nope. These kids are not enjoying my strawberry jam. Probably because I made it while they were eating lunch and it was too hot to taste. But today we had Sunflower seed butter and home made strawberry jam sandwiches for lunch. Mister Man loved it, and Genny had to be bribed [with chips] into taking bites. She even asked at one point, "Mama, can I have strawberries?" to which I replied, "Sweetheart, there are strawberries in your sandwich!!"

Fever, Fever, Go Away...

We are all sick here in the house. Well, except Dada. Which works out well because he is attending an Advanced Sailing class all this weekend.




Poor Genny had a 105.1 fever just after lunch today and Glenn's highest was 104 last night. It's very uncommon for Genny to take a nap, but it's no surprise that today she's sleeping on the floor in the living room.

On a different note, I've finally started working on her baby clothes quilt! I've chosen a chinese coin quilt pattern which was [of course] brought to my attention by Soulemama when she blogged about Harper's quilt. I'm very excited to start sewing, but need to have all the squares cut before I can decide how I want to lay out the squares. I will be sure to keep you all [all three of you...!] updated as it comes together!

Washing the Cars

There were several reasons we decided to wash our cars tonight after dinner, pushing the kids’ bedtimes back to a late 7:30pm:
1. Genny took a nap today. (Genny hasn’t taken naps for almost two years now, so on the odd day that she does snooze, we have to push her bedtime back to compensate)
2. It was 90.1 degrees while we were eating dinner. Pretty toasty.
3. The kids were cooped up inside all day (we had Spinal Defects Clinic down in San Diego which means we sit in an exam room for about four hours while various doctors make their way to us, going over the plan for Genny for the next year)
So after a post-dinner popsicle, we got out the bucket, soap, rags and threw the kids in swim suits.

Let’s just say I have great memories of washing cars with my dad and siblings but could never pinpoint any specific part. Today I did what every parent loves to do: I relived my childhood through my kids.

The pups got left over rib bones to chew on.

Genny mostly sit/lay in the water table.

Glenn was in his element washing cars! He loved pulling his rag our of the bucket, taking it over to the car and washing.

And a big shout out to hubby Thomas who did the majority of the washing! But that's what happens when mama need to get the camera to document such occasions, then also needs to tend to the babes and pups.

Broken Blender

My blender is broken. It's been broken for over a year now. All it needs is a new carafe, but the cost of shipping is the same as the cost of the carafe, so I've been putting it off.
But that leaves me without a blender. What does one do when she doesn't have a blender?



She uses the Baby Cook baby food blender that her sister gave her to make baby food. Yup. That's what she does.

Help From Some Little Helpers

Today I did something amazing. I finished my sister's conversion from velcro to snap! I'm writing this as if it deserves applause, because, well, it does. Not that converting velcro to snaps is hard, it's pretty easy once you do a few dozen. The reason this statement deserves applause is because I've had my sister's diapers for, oh, I'd say about a month now. Yup.

Now, to excuse my lack of speediness in returning her diapers, I must admit that I felt I was given an undetermined period of time to do them in. I had all intensions to finish them weeks ago, but when talking to her on the phone about it, she said that she really wasn't missing them and that I could take as long as I needed. So when I would get a custom sewing order (which is happening several times a week now) I would put her diapers on the back burner. On the nights I didn't have any sewing I needed to do, I would say to myself, "Well she said she didn't need them right away..."

But this morning as I was about to move Sully (my snap press) back into my bedroom where he lives, I realized I only had two diapers left of hers to do. And they only needed the front panel snaps put on. So with the help of my little ones, I finished her diapers. Wfew! Now I can send her that package which includes a very nice wet/dry bag in the oh-so-soft organic cotton. You can see an example of it here. I won't be taking any Sister of The Year awards, but I feel much better about having accomplished that task and checking it off my oh-so-long to do list.