The dishtowel

I found this tutorial around Easter time and thought "I could do that."  So.  I did!  While up in Edmonton, we stopped in at Ikea and I found the two cutest dishtowels you could ever find!  It was a 2 pack for $5.99. 

I liked how they had fun patterns on them, without being too "kitchen".  In the tutorial, she had taken her two pack of dishtowels and put them together to make one skirt.  It was a bit fuller then what I did for Annika, but I thought that Annika is so skinny, a pencil skirt wouldn't be horrible.  So, I actually got two skirts out of this material.  The first skirt I made the length of the dishtowel, so it was quite long on Annika.







I like it long.  I like how the top circles peep out from the waistband, and the bottom has the full circles.  It is so fun!  Annika is not a fan.  As she told me when I was making the second skirt, "Mom, make this one two inches long.  Then I can run in it." 

Well, I made it a little longer than 2 inches, but it is definitely shorter!  Because this one was a shorter skirt, I wanted to do something fun on it, so I added a purple ruffle on the bottom.  I think it's my favorite.  The short skirt only had the circle pattern on one side of the dishtowel, so the back of that skirt is just white.  It's kinda nice that way!

Here you can see the difference in length of the skirts.  And, I nicely asked Annika if she would model them for us, but she said only if she could wear her mouse ears.  They really add to the ensemble I think!

Saturday Snapshot ~ 9 months

Can you believe this little guy is 9 months old already?  He started sitting up by himself this past week, and it's been so fun to see!  I know, the look on his face there is priceless! 

I was thinking the other day that this is a sad milestone for me.  It now marks the fact that he has spent as much time "out" as he spent in my stomach...and it only means that he's going to keep adding to that time.  Since there are going to be no more babies in our future, it's bittersweet for me.  I'm looking forward to the coming milestones, but I am definitely missing the ones I will never experience again!

On a related note, I took him to the health unit on Friday to weigh him and see how he's doing.  Drum roll please........the little chubber is 19 pounds, 11 ounces.  It's so nice to see him filling out and gaining weight.  He's getting so heavy, I get tired holding him!

Pay it Forward 2012 ~ Gift for Ruth

Boy, am I bad at follow through!  This is the first gift that I had finished for my pay it forward gifts....in February!  It's now May in case you haven't checked a calendar lately.  Good thing Ruth is such a patient friend...and she didn't know what I was making for her anyway, so she couldn't be missing what she didn't know she was getting!  

Originally I was only going to make Ruth one thing...but she's so fun to make things for, that I added three more things to the pile! 

Gift #1:  Crocheted tea cozy.  I think the pattern ends up being a smaller tea cozy...but I don't know how to read crochet patterns, and there's only so far YouTube can take you.  The lady I would have called for help and advice lives in Heaven now, so I ad libbed...and ended up with a REALLY BIG tea cozy.  Ruth's poor teapot...it looks like it's hiding!

I then made her girls pillowcase dresses (my new obsession).  Aren't they just the cutest?

No, the bottom two aren't twins, Sophia helped out by modelling Emma's dress.  This past weekend, one our way to Edmonton, we stopped in Red Deer so Annika could see her friends and I could see MY friend.

 It was so nice to see Ruth...and finally give her her present!

Saturday Snapshot ~ Last week in pictures

The kids and I left Clark last Friday for 6 days of hanging out with my best friend Chantal and her husband in Edmonton.  We had a blast wearing out the kids.  At the end of the week, I think Uncle Nate was pretty proud of being able to say that he went to 6 play places in 3 days...and crawled around in all of them! 

Saturday we went to Ikea. 
Sunday was church and lunch at Chantal's parents acreage.  I was never more aware of being a prairie girl then when we drove up to the house and I couldn't understand what I was seeing.  There was no flat expanse of acreage.  There were trees.  Everywhere.  Go figure that there are acreages like that!
Monday we headed to West Edmonton Mall to play at Galaxy Kids.  So much fun!
Tuesday we went swimming and TWO other play places. 
Wednesday we came home.  The kids slept from Olds to Suffield. 

And...I didn't take any pictures.

My fairy godparents

Annika has been watching The Fairly Odd-Parents on Netflix lately.  It's her new favorite show.  I think I've been watching it too much as well, because I've been dreaming about them! 

My fairy godparent and I (who incidentally looked a lot like my Mom, except she had long red hair) were invited to another fairy's house in Italy for a party and a pageant.  He picked out a dress for me to wear.  When it was delivered, it was hideous!  We walked into the house with the delivery guy to try it on and see what could be done about making it better.  While we were walking, the delivery guy started handing me all of these objects, the dress, some wipes, and then he started stuffing cotton balls into my mouth.  That part woke me up because it was actually the cat putting his paw into my mouth.  Why, I don't know.  He's never done that before.  I'm just glad he didn't use his claws.

Back to sleep and Mom (my real Mom, not the red haired fairy) and I are at Sears.  She's working, and I'm loitering.  She told me that somebody in the ladies department was leaving and her position would be open.  It was a part time position.  There was also a full time position available in the fundraising/social club department.  They also were in charge of walking around the floor and keeping up morale.  My mother told me to apply for those jobs, so I did. 

Then my two children (both boys) and I went on a playdate to somebody's house.  I didn't recognize the house.  They didn't have kids either, but there were three grandma's who were fighting over the boys.

And...before anyone asks, I didn't eat ANYTHING before bed last night!

Nena's car seat cover

So, I have this really cool car seat cover for Tyler.  It has birds on it.  That part isn't really the cool part.  I like that it drapes over the handle.  I've always thought that if I was a baby, I would feel claustrophobic if I had something close to my face like the traditional car seat cover.  So, I bought a different one for Tyler.  I 90% love it.  Two things I DON'T love about it.  1.  It's not long enough.  2.  The part by his head kept flapping in the wind and exposing his head to the elements.  Not cool.  I always thought I could make it better.  So, when my friend Joey mentioned that she really liked my car seat cover, I knew that I could make hers so that she would 100% love it.  I originally wasn't going to blog about her cover until I had given it to her, but I called today and left a message and she didn't return my call, so she gets to see it on here first.  Maybe that will give her incentive to call me!

Joey picked out the prettiest fabric.  I love it, it's so fun!  And, here's the finished project!

I made it longer than mine...and it's definitely pinker!

Here's what the other side looks like!  The following picture I'm quite tickled about.  I had decided originally that I was going to add a drawstring to the back to keep it from flying about.  However, my very smart creative friend Chantal suggested putting elastic on the back.  I added the fabric casing, and we had a eureka moment.  It turned out so well!  It was windy today, so I took a video of the cover NOT going anywhere.  It's a great watch! 

Hopefully Nena (and her mommy) will love it as much as I do. 

Dear Naked Woman,

I can't say it was really nice "meeting" you at the pool today.  I use the word meeting loosely, since I couldn't look you in the eye.  I have no clue what you look like.  If I were to meet you on the street, I probably wouldn't recognize you.  However, I was a little traumatized from the experience, and now that I've had time to think about it, there are some things I would like to say to you.

1. I don't think it should take anyone 10 minutes to put lotion on their body.  And if it does, maybe you should do it in an area that is NOT right in front of my three children who can stare at you.
2. It is quite possible to do your hair AFTER you get dressed.  Flipping your hair upside down and then right side up again makes things jiggle.  Although, since I was trying VERY hard not to look at you, I'm not quite sure of that.
3. Please don't stop in the middle of getting dressed to do something else.  Again, I have three children that stare.
4. Having a conversation with me probably isn't going to happen until you put a shirt on.  Even then, if you're going to start parenting my kids for me, I might not be very talkative.  And nicely insulting  complimenting me on how busy I am and outnumbered by my kids only makes me more turned off because you are nude while saying it.

There are change cubicles in the changing rooms for a reason.  Please utilize them.  I'm very glad that my kids had good manners and didn't comment on your lack of clothing.  Next time, maybe you could reciprocate and try not to be naked any longer than absolutely necessary.  Thank you.

Sincerely,
Kendra