Stacy, or as her 6th graders know her as "Miss Bartz" went on the Haiti trip with me and also made me bean dip and lasagna so we're now friends. She asked me if I could design her class's "cheetah team" shirts this year. You know me, I can't say no.
I assured her that her students would be the envy of the other koala, porpoise or kookabura teams in the other classes, simply because of their cool new shirts. ;)
Some kids have a favorite teddy bear or a favorite stuffed rabbit.
I had a stuffed gingerbread man. Gingie. And I loved him. In his later years I decided to put a pink dress on him and pretend he was a girl. Very Buzz Lightyear-Mrs Nesbit.
He was tragically left behind at a eastern Tennessee motel room in the summer of '91. I feel like I should poor a little hot cocoa out for my fallen homie.
Fast forward 17 years and here I am trying to think what to make for all the kids I know for Christmas. (if you're wondering why I'm thinking about this in July, click here) "It has to have good meaning, and yet still be cute and likeable...I'll make Gingie's!", I thought.
So I started cruising Flickr looking at other people's stuffed gingerbread men to get ideas and look what I found!!!
Not just one Gingie, but 4! (the largest one is the size I had)
It must have come from a pattern, because there is no way someone else just coincidentally appliquéd apples onto a gingerbread man!
You can see why I loved him , can't you? So cute.
I can't wait to make them and give them away. Even if they're not someone's teddy-bear, they make great pillows. ;)
UPDATE! I talked to Baby C's preschool today and they said she won't get kicked out for wearing a pull-up! Hooray! (I just have to come change her if she poops-- so no fiber for her!)
I hadn't checked my voicemail in so long, that I forgot my voicemail password.
I think that's amazing.
It's really forgotten and I'm going to have to reset it somehow....
Anyway- on with the show--
This past weekend was birthday weekend for Kevin. Last year we went to Oahu for his 30th, so anything after that seems anticlimactic. Since a couple of months back we had a baby shower for one of the chicks in our couples-small-group and all the wives had 4 hours together with no kids, I offered a man-party so we could return the favor. They went and played pool then came back and watched Cloverfield. It was nice not having to impress the guests. We should always have men over because all they require is pizza, beer and Doritos. Then Saturday he had family party at his parents. And then Sunday, his actual birthday, Baby C and I made him a watermelon-cake!
Honestly, he wasn't crazy about it, but I've wanted to make one ever since I saw my best friend's aunt screw one up back in 1988. 20 years I've waited to make it, and learn from that lady's mistakes. It was tasty [to me, and the kids]!
I found that extra green cream cheese icing in an piping bag is just asking to be squirted inside pitted cherries. And if you squint, it kind looks like a leaf coming out the top. Delish.
It was better I thought to just keep her shirt off. Easier to towel her off afterward.
glossy!
He was not privy to the cake making. 'Quietly slept through the whole thing. Here he is in the mommy-don't-move move.
I just found this photo that Holly took of me leading one of my little craft times in Haiti... That little boy on the left side was so painfully cute I couldn't keep my eyes off him. He was like Japanese-girl-stationery-cute. These were the nicest little kids I have ever met in my life! So quiet and good.
Yeah, I'll be printing this out big, and framing it!
Anyway, I've already gone through it (while having pearl tea at Verde) and bookmarked the designs I liked. I will say that about half of the designs do not allow for any bra at all which rules them out from the start. I mean honestly, no one over the age of 18 should do that. And even if you're under 18, please, spare us your tube top.
I have some really ugly t-shirts that need makeovers big time. I'll take photos when I finish one....
Yo, baby lovers. This week's helpin' can't compare to the cuteness of the new Everett girls but here we go anyway. Well, the first pics, I'm not going for "cute" so much as "whoa."
Okay, yeah I think that one's cute.
He's got molars, so he gets to brush his teeth. If the door is left open, he goes for the toothpaste and of course, the toilet paper...and anything else he can get his paws on.
Why go to the gym, when you have two 30 lb weights at home?
This is what I've been working on, up late these last two nights (and for the next two weeks I'm sure).
front/back cover page 1 and 2
page 7 and 8 page 15 and 16 page 21 and 22
These are samples of the rough drafts for our 24 page compassion booklet to let everyone know where their money is goes after they put it in the bucket at church.
Yes. Joanne and I are doing it together and we're bringing as many people on our more-love-less-spending ark as possible.
The bad news is some of you will be irritated with me. And still some more will be really irritated with me. Because I'm going to try my darndest not to buy anymore retail gifts. My goal is for every gift I give to have my heart in it and it's going to help someone.
The good news is I'm a trained artist and craft-skilled person, so your gifts should be pretty cool. If all I had was data entry skills, you'd probably have reason to be alarmed. And even while you might be irritated, some people will get clean water and other's will get some goats and chickens.
We're going to have advent conspiracy brainstorming/gift making sessions 2x a month. (And yes, anyone who wants to help make AIDS/HIV patient scarves, please come and help!)
I'm already thinking of all of the things I'm going to have to change. Wrapping will have to change, trips to Target will have to change, what supplies I buy will have to change.
Gifts for the kids will be hardest of all, but we made a dollhouse last year right? I mean that worked out, I guess. I'm going to try to keep on that vein. I mean, they love the boxes best of all, right? Maybe they'll get a mountain of cardboard boxes, haha.
I'm just going to have to take a deep breath and start thinking deeper...
Like I said, I'm a VBS counselor at Westgate this week.
I am SO not qualified for the job. Good thing they're not paying me, because the jr high girls that they gave me as helpers, are way more on top things than I am.
I've realized that nearly every other counselor is an elementary teacher on her summer break.
I should have totally been assigned snack duty. Filling dixie cups with golden grahams is way more my speed.
All of my friends that work at the church hide in their offices until camp is over at 1pm. Do they know something I don't?
Oh well, 3 more days of pretending to be responsible and handing out "wow-cows." ("Join the Herd?" I have to object to that phrase. I mean, don't Christians have enough social stigma about herd-mentality?! I hope it's lost on my 4th graders.)
Sorry, this is the latest Baby Tuesday in history (if you count the time we were out of the country n' all).
I have come up with yet another way to sneak green vegetables into breakfast!
Spinach-green-tea muffins a.k.a. Leaf Cakes! It's the Trader Joe's Matcha Green Tea baking mix, plus some green food coloring and some frozen spinach. I garnished with a little neon green homemade icing nubs, and grapefruit leaves and voila! no one's aware that they're eating spinach.
Especially this guy.
I don't want to give you the wrong impression of my domestic skills since I've returned, because the leafs cakes are above an beyond my norm for the last week. I've had a combo of jetlag and bad nutrition which has turned me into a ten toed sloth. Our family's food pyramid has looked something like this.
Baby C's red carpet smile. Note the red nails. She has such good taste.
GiGi took this photo before I left. That's the hat that I made and I intended on wearing, but ended up not. However, since it was an IKEA picnic bug shield before I put ribbon on it and made it into a hat, our hosts were thrilled to keep it and use it for it's real purpose. Because as you can imagine, in Haiti food bugs are a problem.
