To my Tommy-Tom-Tom

Tommy-Tom-Tom, you were missed today. You have been missed every day since you left, but today I choose to write about it. Our son is growing. He has been working on sitting on his own, and today he achieved it for several minutes at a time. Such a small accomplishment throughout the duration of life, yet currently, in our small Ground Hog Day world, it was a big day. This little man of ours that I lovingly call Mister Man is such a delight. Yes, there are times when I sigh and wonder how I can continue doing whatever it is I was doing but now with a baby on my hip. And often there are times when I wish he would sleep, but when I look into his eyes, he lights up. His smile is broad and full. There is no mistaking his joy even when he is tired or cranky. No matter what mood he is in, I can usually get him to smile back at me.

So let's take a moment to revel in his great accomplishment today. He can sit!

*As I write this I say a little prayer, "Please sleep baby Glenn, I'm so tired..."

Vacuum Cleaner Chronicles

My niece Aaralynne is obsessed with vacuums. I don't know why, and it was pretty unbelievable when I first heard that she had to know where the vacuum cleaner was and had to check on it several times a day. Then when my mom told me that she TiVo'd vacuum infomercials for Aaralynne to watch, I wasn't surprised anymore.

I started marinating a gift idea in my head for Aaralynne: a book about vacuum cleaners. I wanted to make it like a scrap book, something with pictures of vacuums and a little blurb on the same page. I wasn't sure what I would write, or if there would be a storyline. Then I read Amanda Blake-Soule's book The Creative Family and in it she makes a cloth book for her daughter. After seeing the concept of the book, I realized that I could make Aaralynne's book a cloth book. Then the creative juices really started flowing and I came up with a storyline of using my vacuum cleaner as the main character with the idea that he was a little boy. I decided that the first book should be about 'Little Vacuum Cleaner' and a day in his life. So here is the book, page by page. I would like to make more with this same theme, but we'll see what I have time for before Christmas.

Dada Doll

Since my last post I've been quite busy. At first (after Thomas deployed) I didn't get any crafting done because I was overwhelmed by caring for the kids full time with almost no help. And the help I've received has been every Sunday for an hour while I'm at church, then every Wednesday night I take Glenn and leave Genny in the care of Kate, my bestie and next door neighbor for a few hours of Growth Group (a bible-study type meeting for Military Wives). Then, once I went for a massage. Which means that I was gone from the babes for about two hours total. So, all in all, since Thomas has deployed (almost five weeks ago) I've been away from both kids for a grand total of five hours. I've been away from Genny with just Glenn for a total of six hours. But, it's just like being a single mom, as long as the single mom isn't going to school or working. I am, however, super thankful for my meetup groups in that I'm getting adult interactions as well as good Genny play out of the meetups. Not to mention Kate, who has been a Godsend.

Did I mention that Genny has gone down to about two naps a week and Glenn goes to bed at about 9pm, wakes up at 6am and nurses about twice between the hours of midnight and 5am? Needless to say, I've been a bit tired and haven't had the ability to get much done outside of cleaning. But the past week or so I've been putting a program on for Genny and Glenn during Genny's nap time (when she doesn't fall asleep) and crafting. I've made two name towels, two hats for Glenn and now a Dada Doll for Genny. I also finished my niece's Vacuum Cleaner Chronicles. I'll do a blog on each of these items listed soon, so I won't go into any detail about them now.

Back to the Dada Doll. I had heard that you could order a Daddy Doll from a website for your child when your spouse deployed. It would be essentially a stuffed animal using a picture of the service member. So after I started work on the Vacuum Cleaner Chronicles, I realized that I could make the Daddy Doll myself. So I did!



This paper is great- you buy it at your fabric store and all you need is your color printer! It feeds through like a regular piece of paper, printing the picture and then you peel the paper backing off which leaves you with a piece of fabric with your picture printed on it.

This Dada Doll is a little smaller than I wanted, but Genny just about went crazy asking for it as I was finishing it. Once she realized that Thomas's picture was on the doll, she kept saying, "I hold it, Dada Doll!" Now I just need to watch it to make sure that Gus doesn't think it's one of the dog toys I make him...




This is Genny putting Dada Doll in the swing with her babies.

I used camo for the back- I had Thomas pick me up a camo shirt when he went to the thrift store to buy more pants to take with him to Afghanistan.

This would be a great project for any stuffed animal you would want to make a loved one- maybe a picture of a pet or an animal from the zoo that he/she likes. It's pretty cheap and you can customize the back using a fabric that you choose.

Happy crafting everyone!

Mending Pile

My husband leaves soon for Afghanistan, and when I was cleaning our room this morning, I noticed a mending pile he left for me... So this will be my next sewing project for the next few days. Good thing I went ahead and bought cream colored thread or else I would have to make a trip to the fabric store...

Genny playing the harmonica, still not dressed for the day... (at 11am)

Baby Glenn just as happy as a clam on the psudo-made bed (I'm washing the bed linnens today)

A Twist on Fajitas

Genny didn't want to smile for her picture

Glenn did!


Since the birth of Baby Glenn, I've chosen easy dinners to make, and even easier lunches. One of my favorites that I use a few times a week is to grill meat for dinner and use left over meat for fajitas the next day. As stated prior, Genny will eat most forms of grilled cheese, so taking a tortilla and throwing on some cheese, meat and spinach has become a regular lunch around here.

Last night I made grilled steaks, risotto, peas and we had watermelon also. I decided to try the steak with risotto fajita style and see how that tasted. It was pretty good! So here is my left overs fajitas recipe.

Tortillas
Left over meat
Left over rice (or risotto in my case!)
Baby spinach
Cheese

I take two tortillas and layer them as so:
Cheese, rice, meat
Microwave for about a minute
Add spinach

Enjoy!

Pita Grilled Cheese

Humus Quartet, thank you Trader Joes!

Well, my Etsy.com crinkle cloth has caused some upset from the Taggies corporation. They apparently sent a cessation e-mail to Etsy about my posting and Etsy took it down. I went on the Taggies website and saw nothing in the form of a crinkle cloth nor burp bib. But I'm just lowly Kari Alford, crafter and SAHM. There is probably nothing that I can do to keep their fear at bay. After all, if I sold that one burp bib and crinkle cloth set, it would rob them of thier million dollar empire. *sigh*

Onto more important and exciting things!

My former best friend Brandon posted a request on facebook that left me thinking... He asked for recipes that were easy yet tasty. Since I fancy myself a fairly good cook, (after years of practice) I decided that I should publish some of my recipes. Today I made a new dish for lunch. I had purchased some pita bread with the intent of using left over chicken (chopped) along with spinach and some cheese to make tasty pita sandwiches for lunch. Having used all the chicken, I got creative. I know that Genny will eat any version of a grilled cheese, so I usually end up resorting to a quesedilla or regular grilled cheese for lunch. Not wanting to waste the pita bread, I made Pita Grilled Cheese. Recipe as follows:

Pita Bread
Cheese
Spinach
Humus
Frying pan
PAM

Turn the burner on Medium and place the frying pan on. Spray PAM in pan.
Spread Humus on one or both insides of the pita pocket. Add spinach.
Add cheese.
Place in frying pan, let cheese soften, then flip (about 2 minutes each side)
DONE!

There you go, Brandon. One easy recipe down, many to follow!

Baby Paper!

Lately I've been obsessed with sewing. (I'm a bit obsessed with treats too, as I recently bought a package of mini-packs of sixlets and boy are we working our way to the bottom of the bag!) I see something, and say, I can make that. The only problem is that my house is suffering. But oh, what fun it is to make something and say, I could have paid $XX.XX for this, but I made it, so it was close to nothing!

For Genny's first Christmas, my sister sent one of the best gifts. It was baby paper, a pink square that crinkled. So simple! Genny LOVED it. Now that Skyla comes over, she loves it too. I let Glenn play with it, but he's more interested in putting it in his mouth than the fact that it crinkles. But even still, I feel a bit guilty giving him such a pink toy to play with. I don't mind it at home, but I probably won't be taking it out with us, due to the fact that he's a boy and it's pink.

I read the first Amanda Blake-Soule book, and in it there was a project in which you make a baby toy. She suggested putting something crinkly in it, or a bell, or beans. After reading that project, I remembered the baby paper my sister sent me and thought, I can make that! So, like many other project ideas I have, it sat in the 'to create' folder in my brain until the opportunity arose.

In come the sixlets... The little mini-packs are the perfect size and the perfect plastic for adding to two pieces of fabric sewn together to make baby paper. Since I had some left over flannel from the burp-bib fabric, I decided to make Glenn and his friend Dillon each a piece of baby paper. I added ribbon loops to each side for itchy gums as well as giving it the ability to be attached to a play mat or rings.