MamAnomolie

Since I took another break with the blog, I was looking back at some of my previous posts and found that I had one saved as a draft. It was titled "Making Stuff to Pass the Time," and was written on March 27, 2010, two days before Sophie was born. It ends rather abruptly. I'm sure I had intended on getting back to it later that day or the next, but my contractions began later that night. When I returned to the blog, I never returned to the post...until now. Here is what I had written back then.

"So, I'm now one day past my due date. I have been trying to keep myself busy in order to not get anxious or impatient. A book that I recently got has been great in helping me to do that - Simple Sewing for Baby by Lotta Jansdotter. It's great! I like to sew, but I'm not too great at it and require very detailed instructions. Jansdotter provides them, and the book is full of really cute projects. So, baby girl now has a tag blanket and a giraffe rattle..."

That time seems so long ago. I remember going to the fabric store several times the week before Sophie was born, waiting for people to ask me when I was due so I could excitedly tell them. Besides the tag blanket and giraffe rattle, I also made a travel diaper changing pad and matching pouches. What's funny is that one of Sophie's favorite books is Lotta Jansdotter's "Simple Sewing for Baby." It has lots of photos of babies as well as drawings of balloons and dogs. She'll sit and "read" it longer than any other book she has!

I must admit, this year I have not been nearly as crafty in my gift-giving as in holidays past. I am happy to say that I have been working on knitting a scarf for a certain someone. Of course, the scarf is not quite done yet, and I can tell it's been quite some time since I've picked up my knitting since my finger is sore. My knitter's callus had disappeared and I'm now working on building it back up.

While I do love being crafty, patience is not one of my virtues, which comes back to bite me in my efforts to be crafty. I know how to knit, but after several failed attempts at hats, I mainly stick to simple scarves made of fun yarn. I know how to sew, but I'm definitely limited in my skills in that department as well. I once made a purse that was so horrible my husband suggested turning it into an art installation piece called "I hate sewing." It can be joined by my too big hat that I unsuccessfully tried felting into a bowl that I'll call "I hate knitting" as well as my melted and blackened mini-blinds that I'll call "I hate candlemaking."

I tried to teach myself to crochet recently and ended up feeling quite the failure. I need to take some classes. I need to find more people to help me. But most of all, I think I need more patience. I hear that patience helps in child-rearing, too, so I better start working on that now!

For today, I'm just happy that I'm creating at least one homemade goody for the holidays. Merry Christmas everyone!

I could not be more proud of my oldest niece, Zoey! Over Thanksgiving, she and my dad spent hours down in the basement working on Zoey's "make your own menorah contest" entry. Zoey and her grandpa decided that they weren't going to make just any menorah, they were going to make one using only scrap materials. And look at the beautiful result!

Zoey learned how to use all of the tools that were used to create her menorah and kept track of all of them. She got to try out a hand drill, push drill, screwdriver, brace and bits, and a hand saw.

She also kept track of all of the reclaimed materials that were used to build and decorate her creation. Ingredients included the following:
- Zoey's Great Grandpa's office chair
- Spring from G.J.B. (Grandpa's Junk Box)
- Plastic crystal underlay
- Rainbow electrical wire
- Plastic ice crystals
- Stones
- Feathers
- Metal brackets
- Computer parts
- Nuts
- Bolts
- Shells

Even the decorative items were not purchased for this project. My dad does a lot of photography, and these items had already been purchased and used for some of his photography endeavors.

The best part is what Zoey wrote for her project description. "This menorah was made with only recycled items. Nothing was purchased and nothing electrical was used to make it. I used all of the tools with my Grandpa in Virginia and had a blast!!"

See, recycling, reusing and being green just runs in my family. Oh, and she won second place in her contest! You're first place by far in my book, kiddo! Congratulations Zoey on an awesome, artistic and green job well done!