"I Want to Marry You, Mama"

My little guy proposed to me the other morning. As I was dashing out the door for another 14 - 15 hour work day. "I'm going to live with you forever, Mama." I think it was his way of saying he misses me since our "quality time" has been limited to those 20 minutes in the morning each week day. You can imagine what those look like "Honey, can you please put that toy down and get dressed for school?". Etc. We also manage a chat on the phone right before bed when we send kisses and hugs over the phone. Our hugs sound like this ... "ooooooooo aaaaaaaah". But that's it. Even weekends are full of work these days.

But there's an end in sight and this keeps me going. For the last 4 and half years, I've been lucky enough to be working on a GIANT project — an international event of Olympic proportions — hosted in my home town in under a month. And I'm so overwhelmed with excitement I could pee. That also keeps me going.

So this explains my lowest-post month ever. It seems that the number of posts I have is in direct proportion with the amount of time I spend with my boy. I look forward to getting back to normal in March. I have a million ideas of things I want to do, create, learn, try, and post about. I look forward to it.

But Friday night, I had a few minutes to myself as I was walking home and I starting thinking about the other moms at work who are going through the same challenges right now. And then all the moms out there working ridiculous hours. And to their children who learn how to cope with their moms living their dreams and making a living. And the dads who take up the slack and deal with the "single-parenthood" without complaint. And to family who step in and help out, with smiles and hugs. And to friends who understand why you haven't called to make brunch dates. And to great colleagues who listen to your sappy kid stories and distract you with laughter and fun. Love to you all out there.

Cranberry Garland

HOLIDAY TRADITION

Our tree is predominantly red, brown, white and silver and looks very dapper in strings of cranberries. Hubs, this year, had fun stringing some cranberries with Spud to add to our tree. Spud turns out to be a stringing machine and declared "I really love working with my hands".

The cranberry coloured button helped to start things off.



Hubs found this perfect needle amongst the sewing stuff we've inherited from grandmas and such. I'm sure there's a technical term for it but all I know is, it's large, thick, blunt, and therefore perfect for our little 5 year old's fingers. Perhaps it's a rug needle? Anyway, it rocks.



The fishing line worked really well too.


Looking good. Getting there.


Here it is in action.


We also have wooden ones we bought from IKEA years ago so we don't have to string all day.

Bird Feeder Wreaths Mobile

INDOOR WINTER ACTIVITIES

MATERIALS
· Bagels cut in half
· Peanut butter [or suet]
· Bird seed
· Spatula
· Ribbon
· Pie plate



First we tied ribbon around the bagel for hanging. Next, we spread the peanut butter on the cut side. Then we dipped the peanut butter side onto a layer of seeds.



We thought, given that we live a rainy city, it would be best to make them a bit of a roof too. And this turns the whole project into a mobile.



Finally we hung it outside Spud's bedroom window ... just waiting for the birds to find it now.

Paper Snowflakes

HOLIDAY TRADITIONS
Boy, things are gearing up at work so much lately; with working more and more 12-14 hour days it's getting harder and harder to find the time to hang out with my Spud. So, I took full advantage of the time I had with him this morning to do something Christmassy. We decided on continuing a little holiday tradition of ours ... hanging paper snowflakes from the top of his bedroom door. He likes to run through them. I'm also hoping they scare away Mr. Stick [his current, most-dreaded, resident monster].







HOW WE DID IT:
1. Started with a square piece of paper and folded it in half [tissue paper is easier to use for little hands but I didn't have any handy]


2. Folded it in half again


3. Then folded it in thirds, so ...


it looked like this.


4. Trimmed off the bottom tails


And then off we went ...

Robot Bag

Check out this crazy-cute bag that one of my uber talented customers, over at Wampeters come and come go made with the Robot Gear Garden Fabric.



Check out her blog. She links to where she found the bag pattern.

School Concert Costume Time

SUPER SIMPLE PENGUIN COSTUME
Spud was pretty hesitant to try it on at first. "OK, but don't laugh at me" he warned. Which was a bit alarming because I don't think we do a lot of that. When we got to the concert though and he saw all his other little penguin buddies running around he couldn't get the costume on fast enough. "Hurry, hurry!" he scolded.

One little girl must have thought it was pretty special also because she was chasing him around the stage trying to pick him up [she is much smaller than him] and give him a big hug. This went on for 10 minutes before the show started. I asked him about it after the concert "No, she's never done that before". We didn't anticipate the chick-magnet qualities of the costume at all. That was just a bonus, a guess.





MATERIALS
·My black hoodie with arms rolled way up
·Scrap piece of white faux fur for the tummy [which we will repurpose later]
·Yellow baseball cap for the beak [which we thankfully already had]
· One Styrofoam ball cut in half for the eyes [plus buttons and sundries]

That's it! I loosely tacked the fur onto the hoodie so it would be easy to take off later. Hubs carefully constructed the eyes and sewed them onto the hood ... he has way more patience than I do.

I Love Advent Calendar Season

I guess that's why we have two!



Well, it's day 6 on the advent calendar and that means that St. Nicholas paid a visit to our house last night and left a few treats in Spud's wee shoes that he left outside his bedroom door last night.



A book about bad dreams. Some chocolate. Stickers. Wind up toy. Cute erasers. A shark ring. And lego candy. You can build with it ... and then eat it! Spud held his hands up to the sky and said "Thank you St. Nicholas. Thank you!" with such passion. I think it helped blow off some of that waiting-for-the-big-day steam.

Wee Holiday Napkin

We decided to make some Christmas themed napkins from the Christmas fabric I designed some weeks back, for Spud's bento lunches. And here it is, in all its zigzag, rolled hemmed glory.

Wee Bento Napkin

We took a square of some of my Robot Fabric and made a little napkin for Spud's bento lunch. Maybe this will encourage him to stop using his school clothes as a napkin? Maybe?



This was our first project using our new "rolled hem" foot for the sewing machine. It makes tight little 1/4 inch hems pretty nicely.

Double Decker Bento

The top layer, on the left, is for snack time. Some of this is saved for lunch time as well [and any of the veg that is left after school gets reintroduced on the way home, when he's his most hungry and therefore most vulnerable. Sorry kid. Wink. But it works].
Clockwise:
Burger patty [leftover]
Butterfly cookie [fromt he freezer]
Cheese sticks
Mini orange
Celery half moons
Molded egg [I used a star shaped mold but the egg was too small so it looks more like a flower]
Carrots [protected by the bunny]

The main compartment simply boasts a turkey sandwich and some strawberries.